Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-05-31
Local Comment

The participation Of school children
in the Decoration Day program REEVES
an old and respected custom, one that
should not be neglected in the celebra-
tons of any Of our patriotic days. Inc
! procession Friday suggests an annual
| demonstration of the kind in the inter-
est of the schools If all of the chill
dren Of all the grades above the prl-
mary grades Of all of the schools anu
(, the teachers could join in a march TO
an annual picnic or to the field day the
effect upon the average citizen ana
! taxpayer who must support the schools
| would be worth all the effort. A fete
of this kind would lead to prizes ana
spirited contests between the grades
and between the schools to excel in the
! marching and in professional display.
New school buildings, athletic parks.
science halls, increased salaries and all
1.-The essentials would be far better I'M
derstood after nearly 5000 future citi-
! zens had passed along Main street in
military review
! The plating of an addition and the
the sale of lots is always d decided
public Improvement to any town. En-
panSion of the residence district Will
create the demand for expansion in the
business district and there never was
a time when this city was more in
need of additional residential territory
than at the present We need new
houses and more houses in this town
so badly that people who would come
here TO live are actually kept away
for the lack of d house in which to live,
and labor is scarce, awful scarce. More
/ workers are needed but they must
! have homes in which to live. 1t is to
be hoped that the purchasers OF the
lots in Hill Crest will be able to put up
houses, in fact it is time the business
men of this town doubled the assets OF
the local savings and loan association
so as to provide funds for new houses.
/ AS an illustra ton of what it means
to town TO have the real estate bust
ness booming may be cited the one in
stance of a gentleman from Grundy
county who drove to the lot sale in an
auto and purchased three lots in a
| group and this morning added five
more to the bunch for the purpose Of
| building his permanent home in Mar
shaltown. Local builders will get sew
eral thousand dollars worth of busi-
ness out of his Improvements and
I! Marshalltown will have added re-
spected family permanently to its pop
! ula ton. The real estate experts hand
| ling this sale insist that they con-
| fdently believe Marshalltown will dou-
BILE its population in ten years. The
street railway people say that they
! look for an unprecedented growth in
this city and they are putting in all
their improvements big enough and
large enough for a city of 10000 peo-
| pie.
! The Northern Baptist church at its
annual convention in Detroit has gone
on record in favor Of a distinctly for
ward policy in its religious work,
policy which is to be commended both
inside and outside Of the church socie-
! ty. In addition to formal recognition
| of the human welfare reforms OF the
day such as the child labor problem,
minimum wage for women, old age
jpensions, and others, the convention
iresolved that each church society
| should adopt at home a constructive
! program Of social service and should
seek to enlist its members directly in
some form of practical social service.
That is in the nature of applied chris
tia nity which is fast coming into vogue
nowadays and will vitalize the church
with a new life in harmony with the
| constructive spirit of an essentially
practical age. Already a form Of social
service has offered itself to Marshall
/ town in the new hospital project and
! the y. NJ. c. A and both have the
united endorsement of the churches as
societies. Now let the effort to enlist
its members directly in some form of
practical social service go forward.
! The doing of something practical will
be the actual living of the life which
has been protested to be the ideal.
AS it was last year the Linn town
ship authorities are doing nothing to-
ward dragging the Marietta road. For
three miles where Messrs. Woodard
and Timmons use their drags this
road is as smooth as the track a the
fair grounds but the men who keep up
| this kind of road for the travelling
jpublic living beyond them are COM
PEELED to bump over a perfectly miser-
liable stretch OF road in order to visit
Marshalltown. We have law enough
10 cover the subject for the law pro-
ivides that trustees shall levy the drag
cling tax and shall have the roads
dragged All we need is enforcement
II will be one of the most evident
transformations of them all when the
county takes over this Marietta road
and drags it. We viii then need only
10 look at the East Main street road to
! see how Linn township takes care OF
! her roads.
Ed Monoilon, who drags his road ana
! then travels to town over roads tnat
are not dragged. believes that we VIII
never get our roads dragged Until
some one is employed to do the work
who does not have farming to do, and
i That is a conviction fast being forceo
upon us all When the county board
assumes charge of the many Travelled
roads il is TO be hoped that all drag
slng stations will be made one DAYS
work long for man and four horses anu
then it will be worth while to hitch UP
for dragging Job. Whenever 1t is
necessary to employ farmers at least
nalf a days work should be provided
for it butchers up a forenoon to DO
even an hours work on the roads and
the pay for an hour is too small to
compensate one for the loss OF the fuli
half day in the field.
Much of the difficulty in securing
men tn do the dragging this spring IS