Illinois Highway Improvement Association: ten leading questions and their authoritative answers

              Issued by Illinois Highway Improvement Association
William G. Edens, President   Chicago
Ten Leading Questions
and their
Authoritative Answers
Concerning the $60,000,000.00 ISSUE OF STATE BONDS to Build a State-wide System of Permanent Roads

ALLIED PRINTING TRADES UNION LABEL COUNCIL CHICAGO 229

Ten Reasons for Voting for the Bonds

Prepared by A. R. Hall, Attorney for Illinois Highway Improvement Association




Illinois Highway Improvement Association
OFFICERS 1917-1918

President
William G. Edens, 125 West Monroe St., Chicago



Vice Presidents


Richard J. Finnegan
Chicago


John A. Logan
Elgin


C. A. Kiler
Champaign


W. F. Crosley
Cairo


Arthur R. Hall
Danville





Treasurer


Thomas Sudduth
Springfield





Secretary and General Counsel
Robert W. Dunn, 10 South La Salle St., Chicago



Executive Committee

Wm. G. Edens, Chicago
Samuel E. Bradt, DeKalb
Hon. Richard R. Meents, Ashkum
J. W. Kirkton, Gridley
Hon. Homer J. Tice, Greenview
Henry Paulman, Chicago
Richard J. Finnegan, Chicago
Mrs. Frank O. Lowden, Springfield
Mrs. Richard J. Oglesby Elkhart
Mrs. Charles C. Craig Galesburg
Mrs. Jacob Baur Chicago



Honorary Vice Presidents


Ex-Governor Edward F. Dunne
Chicago


Dr. Edmund J. James
Urbana-Champaign


Lafayette Funk
Bloomington


Joseph Fulkerson
Jerseyville


James P. Wilson,
Polo


A. D. Gash,
Chicago





Directors

W. E. Hull, Peoria
L. H. Bissell, Effingham
Eugene Funk, Bloomington
E. W. Hilker, Granite City
Fred W. Jencks, Elgin
Henry Paulman, Chicago
E. D. Landwehr, Shermerville
Dr. W. E. Taylor, Moline
O. M. Jones, Danville
C. H. Way, East St. Louis
Col. E. A. Smith, Morrison
W. P. Graham, Rochelle
F. W. Cushing, Highland Park
H. G. Wright, DeKalb
August Geweke, Des Plaines



Vote the Bonds Now





Read Carefully and Help Pull Illinois Out of the Mud
Ten Leading Questions and Their Authoritative Answers

1.
Where are the roads to be built?
All over the State of Illinois, and in such a way as to form a network which will connect the principal cities, villages and intervening communities.  The State has prepared a map which shows the approximate location of each road.

2.
What kind of roads are to be built?
The roads must be built under State inspection with durable hard-surfaced roadways, not less than ten nor more than eighteen feet wide, which will remain in GOOD CONDITION, with low reasonable maintenance cost, until all of the road bonds have matured.  All standard types or kinds of hard roads will be used.  For each road the type selected will be the one best suited to the traffic the road will carry and to the use and cost of local materials which may be available.  In most places there will be room for a dirt road on each side of the paved roadway.  If one of these roads has already been properly paved by a County or by County and State, jointly, the State will pay back to that County the actual cost to it of the road accepted and used by the State.  The money refunded must be used by the County for permanent road building purposes.

3.
How will the roads be paid for?
By the automobile owners of the State alone, and this without imposing license fees as high as in many of the States.  Sixty million dollars of 3½%, 20-year, serial bonds have been authorized by the road bond Law and these bonds will be entirely paid for out of the Automobile License Fees.  To meet the requirements of our Constitution and to make the provisions for the payment of the bonds irrepealable, a direct tax is nominally provided for in this road bond Law, but the Law also expressly provides that the money from automobile license fees shall first be used to pay for the bonds and interest and that no such direct tax shall ever be collected when there is sufficient money in this Automobile License Fund to make such payments.

4.
Will there be sufficient money in this Automobile License Fund to make these road bond payments?
Yes. The Secretary of State licensed more than 340,000 automobiles last year.  Fees from this number of cars, together with the fees from dealers, chauffeurs and motorcycles, will be sufficient, without counting on any increase in the number of cars, to pay the entire cost of these bonds and all interest.  A very conservative estimated increase for the next seven years, in the number of machines used, would bring up the annual income from automobiles to $6,000,000.00,
Build the Roads After the War
a sum nearly twice as large as that required for all of these road bond payments.

5.
When will the roads be built?
The road bond Law requires the State to cause the bonds to be issued and the roads to be constructed at the earliest possible time consistent with good business management and the best interest and advantage of the people of the State.  This Law also provides that reasonable efforts shall be made to complete the entire system within five years after the first construction contracts are awarded.  The Department of Public Works and Buildings will start the surveys and the preparation of the plans immediately after the approval of the bond issue by the people in order that the work may be commenced as soon as the war closes.

6.
Why should every taxpayer vote for these road bonds?
Because every person in the State will be benefited either by direct or by indirect use of the roads.  Moreover, the entire cost of the roads will be paid, not by the general taxpayer, but by the automobile owners, who are more than willing that the State license fees which they pay shall be used for this State-wide system of permanent roads which will mean to automobile owners: greatly decreased wear on tires; a saving of oil and gasoline; smaller depreciation in cars; longer and better use of the big investment in machines; much saving of time; safer traveling; and the avoidance of all delays from mud and storm.

7.
Why and when must the vote on the bonds be taken?
Our Constitution requires that such a question must be submitted to a vote of the people, and the road bond Law provides that this vote shall be taken at the general election on November 5th, 1918, and receive a majority of all votes cast at that election for members of the General Assembly.

8.
If the people approve the road bond Law next November, must the bonds be issued and the roads be built immediately after the vote?
No. The bonds are to be issued only in payment for road building work actually done and this work need not be started at once.  The Governor of the State controls the issuing of the bonds and the beginning of the work.  Governor Lowden has stated unequivocally that he will not permit the sale of the bonds nor the commencement of the work until after the war, when business conditions will be better and when thousands of men will be needing and hunting work.

9.
If the war is still going on next November, should I vote for these bonds?
Yes, by all means.  Such a vote will enable the State to start immediately on the construction of
No Bonds Sold Until After the War
the bond roads when the war ends, furnish employment for our returning soldiers and give us the best system of permanent roads in America.  If the people do not approve the bonds next November, it will probably be many years before we shall have another such an opportunity to secure good roads for Illinois.  Governor Lowden expressed the thought of every serious minded citizen when he said: I would consider it a calamity if this bond issue should fail to receive the approval of the voters next November.

10.
What will the voting of these road bonds and the building of these roads do for the people of our State?
It will give the people, without a cent of increase in their taxes, an unparalleled hard road system which can be used every day in the year and which will be entirely paid for out of automobile license fees.  Laboring men will receive millions of dollars for road building work.  The better roads will help the farmer, the laborer, the business man, and the housewife.  Such a good road system will lower the cost of living, help our schools, improve social conditions, add to the attractiveness of both farm and city life, increase land values, lead to enlarged business activities, and wonderfully promote the general prosperity of our State.




SPECIMEN BALLOT
(Road Improvement Ballot)
Shall an Act of the General Assembly of Illinois, entitled, An Act in relation to the construction by the State of Illinois of a State-wide system of durable hard-surfaced roads upon public highways of the State and the provision of means for the payment of the cost thereof by an issue of bonds of the State of Illinois, which, in substance, provides for construction by the State, acting through its Department of Public Works and Buildings, subject to the Governor's approval, of a State-wide system of hard roads on routes described; for control and mainte nance, and for conditional compensation for roads already paved; gives such department full power to execute Act; authorizes State to contract a debt for such purpose and to issue $60,000,000.00 of serial bonds, bearing interest annually at not to exceed 4%; appropriates said sum to said department; levies a tax sufficient to pay said interest annually, as it shall accrue, and to pay off said bonds within 20 years from issuance, but provides that such payments may be made from other sources of revenue and requires moneys in the Motor Vehicle Law Road Fund to be first used for such payments and such direct tax to be omitted in any year in which sufficient money from other sources of revenue has been appropriated to meet such payments for such year; provides for publication and for submission to the people; makes the provisions for payment of such interest and bonds irrepealable; and pledges faith of State to the making of such payments; go into full force and effect?



YES
X


NO






No Bonds Sold Until After the War





Figure


Build Roads When the War is Over