Arizona republican., 1910-07-21
BUILT 38O MILE
 ROAD IN HOUR
Ten Thousand Iowa Farmers Turn
 Out With Teams for Great Job.

The greatest piece of road building the world ever witnessed was pulled off in Iowa last week when, in the short space of one single hour. line of road 3SO miles in length and stretching entirely across the state of Iowa Was put in the most perfect condition of any road west of the Mississippi river. Weeks and months work, but not pick nor shovel was used until the designated second was ticked off. Then, as if by magic. 1O,- 900 workmen swarmed out onto the roadway and when they ceased work sixty minutes later, Iowa had one of the finest long distance roads in the entire west
 And not the least interesting thing in connection with the tremendous piece of work is the fact that not d man of the entire 10000 engaged on the work received one cent of wages Good will and patriotism alone is re- Sponsiblc for the splendid showing
 Last winter the Iowa roads became so fearfully bad that traffic was prac- tically killed and farmers were com pelled simply to remain in their homes. Finally the matter became a political question and both parties got behind the movement. Governor Car roll called d good roads" meeting at Des Moincs early last March, and out of this meeting was evolved the plan of q river -to-river" road, stretching from Council Bluffs oh the Missouri river to Davenport on the Mississippi. distance of 3SO miles straight across the state from east to west.
 Make the river -to-river road as near perfect as is possible to make just common dirt" was the sense of the good roads convention
 Instead of appointing new commit tees. to handle. the work, the regular republican and democratic committees in each county through which the road would pass were appealed to. The chairmen of the committees of each party were asked to get in the game and work for the road Every body agreed to do so and soon rivalry was created between repub- licans and democrats, each to see which party would have the most workmen lon the job" when the time for work arrived.
 Last Saturday was selected as the day and from 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock the hour of work
 Every farmer along the way was personally seen by the committees and practically every man agreed to give theN one hour that was asked for. Farmers were asked to bring their blows. scrapers and road drags and an organization equal to those employed in professional railroad building was worked out
 In the weeks preceding the work all bridges and culverts along the road were repaired and put in first class order that no delay might come to the road builders when .QnceY the, latT ter started working.
 The result of, the organization was shown last Saturday. Shortly be- fore o'clock in the morning farmers began getting out in the road Hun dreds and thousands of blows, picks, shovels. r sprapers, road. .drags. grad ing machines and other Implements were brought along Every farmer DipuSht HIS ttdiu Wlln Ilin- super intends and overseers had been ap- pointed in readiness when, promptly at 9 o'clock the order was issued to fall to-
 And ten thousand determined men fell to-" For an hour they contin- ued. working with might and main. At 10 o'clock the job was finished and the farmers went back to their fields, leaving Iowa the possessor of the finest piece of long distance road .way,in the west.-Council Bluffs Let ter.