THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 219 



For the building of earth roads the Poweshiek county plan of build- 

 ing roads under county management has by the practical success of its 

 four years operation demonstrated that the county should undertake the 

 building and maintenance of the main traveled county roads, the more 

 local roads being left to the care of the township. 



For the building of the more permanent types, beginning with the 

 least expensive of these, the gravel read, the state should pay a por- 

 tion of the cost and provide engineering aid and supervision. When 

 the hrit appropriation for road building is made, an appropriation should 

 also be made for road maintenance so that Iowa may not need to repeat 

 the experience that other states have suffered in having high class 

 roads rapidly deteriorate through lack of any money for their repair. 

 Such a plan would require in each county a capable county superintend- 

 ent of roads who should be an experienced engineer, and would require 

 his co-operation with the highway commission with its powers extended 

 and with considerable larger appropriations. It has been urged as, an 

 objection to the county engineer that the cost would be too great. In 

 my judgment, it is only necessary, to point to Clinton county to show 

 that an engineer could have been maintained for a period of ten years 

 at $2,000 per year at a cost not greater than the amount which admittedly 

 wou'd have been lost to that county had not conditions been discovered, 

 and for this one county in which recovery has been made of money for 

 which value had not been received there are many others where such 

 conditions will never be brought to light. Such conditions are conclu- 

 sive evidence of the desirability and economy of capable engineering 

 supervision. 



There is one other field in which the state should take an advanced 

 stand, that one being purely an educational one. We are now about to 

 spend larger sums than ever before upon road improvement especially 

 upon permanent road improvement and the state should build as many 

 demonstration roads as possible. In my judgment no more favorable lo- 

 cation for some of these roads could be found than the state fair grounds. 

 By building on these grounds stretches of different types of permanent 

 roads, the state would overcome a serious condition which now exists 

 there, especially during hot, dry weather, and would afford an object les- 

 son to thousands of interested citizens from every part of the state. For 

 building these roads, the highway commission would gladly furnish 

 engineering supervision and most of the machinery necessary. We have 

 already taken up the matter with some of the cement companies who 

 have pledged themselves to aid liberally in the construction of concrete 

 roads. Other material companies will be glad to donate or furnish at a 

 low cost the particular type of road material manufactured by them. 

 Thus at a very comparative low cost the state would increase the value 

 of its own property, improve the fair grounds to a remarkable extent, 

 and enable the state fair to carry out in a broad degree its function as 

 an educational institution to the people of the state. So far as the com- 

 mission is concerned we will co-operate heartily in an effort along this 

 line, to the end that before the next state fair is held there will be val- 

 uable object lessons in permanent road building on these grounds. 



