templation of building roads for the eri^hfe 

 State money collected by taxation "from 'all" over "the state 

 should be used only to build state roads and state roads 

 should mean roads that conserve the highest and best in- 

 terests of the entire state as a unit. 



"The Elwell roads furnish the example of the state, county, 

 township and individual co-operating in the building of high- 

 ways. We are opposed to the idea of building roads, radiat- 

 ing from each little village as a hub, like the spokes on the 

 wagon wheel, realizing that no matter how rapidly that wheel 

 might revolve every felly would hold its relative position to 

 the hub. That is, such a system of roads affords only one 

 market for all the farmers tributary to that village, and offers 

 no opportunity for communities to become acquainted with 

 each other. 



Work Ready to be Started. 



"Everyone of the highways mentioned at the beginning 

 of this report have sections of their road almost ready to 

 begin work upon. The Duluth-St. Vincent has the most im- 

 portant sections because the most expensive to build, namely, 

 those portions through St. Louis and Itasca counties, as far 

 forward as could be expected in the little more than a month 

 in which we have had to work, since the adjournment of the 

 legislature. The section through Itasca is completed up to 

 the report of the appraisers on which notice for final hear- 

 ing will be immediately made. I may say here, as an evidence 

 of what the highway commission can do under the Elwell 

 law and what it intends to do, and what may be accom- 

 plished by using this statute that this road through Itasca 

 county will cost $116,680.09, or within a few dollars of this 

 sum as the estimate. 



"The road costing this sum will be perfectly drained, grad- 

 ed to about a 3 per cent grade, and topped sixteen feet wide 

 with gravel or crushed rock, well rolled in with heavy rollers 

 and built under the direction of experienced engineers and 

 the constant supervision of inspectors. 



17 



