Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-12-20
pleasure park. on Turkey river; eight

secret societies, etc.
Now Cresco is a fair sample OF the
Iowa county seat town. The reason
Cresco is the text is that a newspaper
man at Cresco got out a very c~reditable
resume of his city's advantages and
that it happened to be at hand when
this article was begun. Other county
seats in Iowa can show as much. What
they lack in one thing they make up in
others.
Now these are the towns and this is
the state which some shrewd politicians
with a purpose of their own are at
tempting to discredit because she fail
ed to keep her younger citizens from
going afield seeking new homes on
cheap land as they had been taught by
their fathers. Will some n point out
where Iowa, town and country. has
lone aught but go forward steadily,
speedily and sufficiently: What has
the city over Crescoo What country
has the best of the Iowa c~ountrysides:
Considered as an agricultural state as
Iowa must be considered hos who in
the United Stateso
1t isn't SO long ago that men whose
children are in the first grades can't re-
member it that few Of the co%nveniences
and necessities scheduled by Cresco
were to be had in Iowa, or outside for
that matter. Electric light is compare
lively a recent invention: it is a short
walk back to board sidewalks and
shorter to mud streets instead Of paw
ed ones: modern homes with heat and
water are of the latest modernity in the
smaller towns as in the country; sew
erage leading TO a septic tank never
towns twenty-five years ago: the tele-
phone was a city c%ontraption and the
mail route unheard of. But we were
gaining population every day. We were
the mecca OF the cheaper land pilgrim.
The young banker with his capital
mainly in his training was coming to
the state: the lad from the law school
seeking the new town to grow up
with the ountry and build one OF those
modern homes. and demand better
things for himself and his own. The
covered wagons We're thick along the
roads. The sons and grandsons of the
women who drove the team and the
men who came behind with the cattle
shipped their goods last year in a box
car and rode to their destinations on
the plush seats of passenger cars. And
afar. out in what we felt to be the
jumping off places. the COW country,
the plains these are settling in
co~nveniences with an Iowa county seat
without blushing.
The fact is that Iowa is up abreast
the march Of progress. She is in the
van in all that counts up with her op-
p%ortunities. She needs factories and
Dad The time has come in the evo-
luton of the state when she realizes
that n these will come as other
things nave come by effort wisely d.
rected. by desire and of necessity.
There is nothing the matter with Iowa.
neither in business or intellectual de-
%velopnlenr nor in moral growth. Lis
ten to none who seek to discredit or
SANDER the state for their own pur-
poses. Look about you when any man
commits perjury of Iowa. Is any
thing wrong with business? With
the schools? With farming? Is Iowa
falling behind because she has not
fastened to replace every immigrant Of
whatever age with an immigrant
whether desirable or undesirable?
n proof Of the pudding is Of the
simplest process; when m assert hat
Iowa has gone backward take time to
chew the string. Ask for specifications.
Make him show where.