Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1916 — FOR HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT. [ARTICLE]

FOR HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT.

Luke W. Duffey, who will be a member of the house of representatives from Marion county in the coming legislature, has received from the federal highway bureau at Washington a draft of a bill for the creation of a state highway department in Indiana. The measure is prepared along lines that meet the ideas of the federal bureau, and which would, if enacted, enable the state of Indiana to participate in the distribution of the $75,000,000 appropriation made by the congress last summer to aid the various states in highway improvement. The money is available only to states that maintain a state highway department, and Indiana is* one of the three states in the union that ha® no such department. Whether Duffey will introduce the bill in the form in which jt was prepared by the federal highway bureau he has not yet determined, but whatever bill is introduced by him, «he says, will be designed along lines that will be satisfactory to the government. Duffey has been, one of the leading advocates of highway legislation in this state. He has accepted invitations to deliver addresses on the subject of highway legislation at the meeting of the Madison County Motor club at Anderson next Thursday night, at the meeting of the Indiana Sand and Gravel Producers association at the Claypool hotel next Friday evening, at the meeting of the T. P. A. in Indianapolis Thursday and at the meeting of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce at Columbus December 29. The bill which was sent from Washington would create a state highway board, which would be non-political. One member would be the head of the school of civil engineering at Purdue university, and the two others would be appointed by the governor, one from each of the majority political parties In the state. Members of the board would receive SSOO a y ef >- -n* o T n»nses. The board would elect one of Its members chairman and would appoint a state highway engineer, who would be the

active executive ofllcer of the state highway department. His salary would be fixed by the board. The state highway board and the state highway engineer would constitute the state highway department. The engineer would have power to appoint and fix the compensation of all assistant engineers, clerks and other help, subject to the approval of the board.

The state highway engineer would have power to call on county road officials for information concerning roads and bridges. Local road officials would be authorized to consult with the engineer in regard to any road proposition, thus rendering the services of the engineer available to them in planning and directing their work. In order to obtain state aid in the improvement of a road the board of county commissioners would make application to the state board, and it w’ould be up to the state engineer to decide whether the application should be granted. The state highway board also could begin highway improvement projects where the county commissioners fail or refuse to do so.

Work costing less than $2,000 could be done either with or without contract, but all work costing over $2,000 would have to be done by contract, unless no satisfactory bid could be obtained. Rights of way for roads would be provided by the counties free of cost to the state.

The cost of road construction would be borne 50 per cent by the state and 50 per cent by the county, except where the work is done without the county money. The cost of maintenance would also be divided fifty-fifty between the state and the county, but all maintenance would be done by the state highway department or contracted for with the county commissioners, and all would be under the supervision of the highway engineer. If any county refused to do the maintenance work the state board would have power to do the work and charge it against the county. A state highway fund would be created by the levy of a tax of onefourth of one mill on each dollar of taxable property, w'hich would yield approximately $490,000, and from the net proceeds of motor vehicle license fees, amounting to about $550,000 annually. The state board would have authority to work state or county prisoners on the roads when satisfactory arrangements can be made.

County highway superintendents would be appointed by the state highway board and each county highway superintendent would be required to pass an examnlation to prove his fitness for the place. The federal appropriation extends over a period of five years, and the bill would bind the state to a fiveyear program of road improvement that would comply with the federal law.

When we remember that they are killing off men in Europe at the rate of over 6,000 a day we are inclined to the belief that thia country is a pretty safe place after all.