Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 128, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1911 — What Will the Auto Damage Be to Jasper County Roads? [ARTICLE]

What Will the Auto Damage Be to Jasper County Roads?

f \ ' Probably not less than 600 automobiles have passed through Rensselaer within the past week. That figures three hundred each way and is not an extravagant estimate. They were largely big high power cars and they hit up the roads at from 30 to 60 miles an hour. They leave a stream of dust behind them when it is dry and they splash the mud when it is wet. They are hard, on the roads. Walter Porter, who knows something about roads, has been out over the roads since the machines began to pass through and he says that it is conservative to say that the machines which have passed through Rensselaer to and from Indianapolis have done damage of $2,000 and there is no law to prevent the machines from using the roads. They are public highways and there is no system of tolling those who use the roads. The people who owfi the machines pick the best roads just as any of us would do if we were traveling by auto and they are not very thoughtful about the results. They are good fellows, out for a good time and they go the limit and don’t care much for things generally and especially for the roads that , they are at no expense in building or maintaining. - : There should be an auto road tax and the state legislature should lose no time when it meets again to provide protection to the roads or a tax for their maintainance. Many of the cars have passed through Rensselaer and it is probable that more than two-thirds of them have been expensive cars, costing from $2,000 to $6,000. A tax of $25 per year on each of these for road purposes would be small and it would not nearly repair the damage that each one Will do in a year’s time.

.Milroy Park must have attention. It Is growing up in weeds and high grass. The council should make some provision for the care of the park. The city marshal and teamster are doing some good work and there is more needed to be done than they can look after. The weeds along vacant lots are growing-rapidly and notice should be served on owners that they must be cut. Rensselaer probably never looked better than it does this spring but it is time nOw to let people know that they must look after their property. Cockleburs and other noxious weeds are growing ran idly. They should be cut. Where a person occupies property alongside unimproved property they can with little exertion keep the worst of the weeds cut and they will benefit the public health if they will do it.