The Oskaloosa herald., 1903-01-29
GOOD ROADS FOR IOWA
Being Agitated By Loyal Citizens
and Legislators.

Washington, ID. c., Jan. 24.-If Iowa
does not have some good roads within
the next two years it win not be the
fault Of some of its loyal residents.
The next road law will go into effect
this spring. Under this law the old
system of allowing a man to work out
his poll tax is to be abolished. This
tax will now have to be paid in money
and this money will be expended for
road improvement by the three town
ship trustees. A. f. Dawson, Senator
Allison's secretary, recently secured
from Secretly Wilson, OF the agricul-
tural department, a large number of
special bulletins on road improvement
and construction. Many valuable ex-
periments have been made in his work
under the direction of the agricultural
department and the results OF these
experiments have been published to-
gether with illustrations, making
works of inestimable value to the per-
son who has any road building to do.
From the auditors of the state Mr..
Dawson secured the name of every
township trustee in the state. AS there
are about 1000 townships in Iowa this
would make a list of about six thou
sand names. To each n was sent
these bulletins on road making. They
are the most valuable documents that
the trustees could have at this time
and will no doubt be appreciated and
made use of. AS this work does not
actually begin until spring, the trus-
tees will have plenty of time to study
up on the question as presented in the
agricultural department publications.
Through Mr.. Dawson's f~aithfulness
and energy Iowa is peculiarly favored.
No other state in the union will be so
well equipped to improve its roads
and the result will surely be evident
in Iowa within the next year.
a
y Congressman Haugcn says that the
good roads movement may expect no
help from the government this year at
least. Mr.. Haugen is a member OF
the agricultural committee to which
the Browneu good roads bill was re-
ferred and he says that the measure
Will NV D0 1GpOI bSu' IL INCL AZ LlGo
not even been discussed by the ON
mittee as yet and probably will not be
this session. All congress is doing for
good,roads at present is to appropriate
about $4,000 each year for the main
tenance of a good roads commission,
whose work cannot be far reaching TO
say the least.
Both Iowa senators and the entire
congressional delegation are constant
ly receiving letters from constituent
urging that the routes Of certain rural
free delivery carriers be changed. OF
course most of these petitions are for
the purpose of bringing the routes
past the homes of the writer's, who are.
probably at present left out Of the
circle. These requests are always re-
ferred to the p~ostofftce department,
and in nearly every instance it is
found that the request would neeessi-
tate a lengtheHing of the route past
the limit set by the rules of the de-
partment. This rule limits all routes
to a maximum length Of about thirty
miles. The petitions are always care
fully Investigated, but nine out Of ten
are denied for the reason given in the
foregoing.
Congressman Lacey evinced a little
vein Of sentiment the other day, dur
ing the otherwise embarrassing debate
over the army appropriation bill. He
called attention TO the not generally
known fact that the flag staff over
Fort Sumpter had recently been
struck by lightning and demolished.
The consequence was that the United
States flag was not flying over the his
toric spot. Mr.. Lacey declared that
the flag should float here by all means
and insisted on an appropriation for
a new staff. There are few men at
Washington who are ore indefatig-
able or versatile than Mr.. Lacey, and
the things that he does not discover
and dig into ase hardly worth consid-
ering.