218 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



sum is raised by township and county taxes. Any attempt by the state 

 to direct the expenditure of this money at once meets with the most 

 violent opposition from those in control of these funds at present. This 

 opposition comes partly from the time honored objection that such 

 control destroys and does not accord with democratic principles of 

 government, but it comes more because these objections are fostered 

 by those whose own interests would suffer from a careful system of 

 expenditure of this money. 



So far as the bridges are concerned, the state can conscientiously 

 prescribe the kind and strength of bridges that must be built by the 

 counties and insist upon state authority passing upon the plans and 

 construction of these bridges regardless of whether the revenue comes 

 from state or local funds. This policy can be justified from the stand- 

 point of public safety and public convenience. The startling disclosures 

 in Polk county of the unbusinesslike methods of spending bridge money 

 running up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the yet more 

 recent recovery by the state and county authorities, of $20,000, 

 which Clinton county had actually paid out for bridge work not re- 

 ceived, are facts which cry aloud to the state to make adequate provi- 

 sion for proper regulation of bridge construction. 



In my judgment after having investigated personally the situation from 

 both Polk and Clinton counties, as well as in a number of other counties, 

 where conditions practically as bad have existed, the officials and con- 

 tractors concerned are not so much to blame as the system, or rather the 

 lack of system, which the state has prescribed. It seems to me a lasting 

 shame to the fair name of Iowa that about two and one half millions of 

 dollars are spent for bridge construction annually without a single law 

 to guarantee to the tax payer adequate return for his money or to the 

 traveler adequate safety in passing over the structures built. The 

 strongest influence brought to bear two years ago on road legislation was 

 by and through the bridge lobby. It remains to be seen if such a per- 

 formance can be safely repeated this year. So far as roads are concerned 

 the state may through the principle of state aid treat the problem from 

 the educational standpoint and also conserve the principles of local gov- 

 ernment. The Wisconsin plan, adopted in 1911, by which a policy of state 

 aid has been extended to the local communities under which the county, 

 township and state co-operate in paying the cost, with general supervision 

 by the state highway commission, administered in a liberal and fair 

 minded way, is meeting with an extremely favorable reception there 

 and a plan similar to this would doubtless work well in this state. 



There is this obstacle, however, to be overcome in Iowa, the compara- 

 tive meager distribution of road material. Road material of a suitable 

 nature is not widely distributed in this state and construction will be 

 limited largely to one of three classes of road; first, earth roads; sec- 

 ond, gravel roads; and third, concrete or brick roads. It is not neces- 

 sary to dwell upon the details involved. Generally speaking, macadamized 

 roads will never become widely useful in our state. Thus the avail- 

 ability of material will determine that for the present at least one of the 

 three types above mentioned must be used. 



