Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1913-01-09
MOVE YOUR FARM IN
How the Feat Which Our Fore
Fathers Deemed Impossible, Is
Being Done in the State of Iowa.

Being Done in the State of Iowa.
That Iowa is entering new era
in road-building is evident to every
person who is in touch with the
trend of events.
Opinions may differ as to the
causes that have brought it about;
but the greatest of them all seems
to be that Farmers throughout the
state are awakening to their vital
need Of smooth, durable roads from
their farms to markat points. So
long as the demands came from
tourists and townspeople who wish
ed speedways merely for their own
pleasure, the ear of the taxpaying
public was deaf. \
Farmres in the past have chosen
to put up with poor roads,-and
this is why roads have remained
poor. 1t has been expensive, Of
course, for money has been poured
l AA1AS WesSOA 1AIO G4AO luuu AOpSS Ill
our highways in bygone years, and
Like water it seems only to make
the mud holes. But the worst OF
it is not only that the farmres have
had to pay the taxes for this work,
but that they have had to pay
another tax much larger. For they
4 1cf foir
every trip to town and in market
ing every crop they have ever rails
ed in the past by cause of bad
roads that ought really to have
been good.
The big fact about good; road is
that it moves every farm adjoining
lit nearer to market. If we take
the year through, the average time
required to make the necessary trip
over good, properly constructed
road five miles long is no greater
than the time required to make
the same trips over a poor road
three or four miles long. And it
Il ANNAOWo SASoAty ILACC d ldEm 1--we
miles from town, but on a smooth,
durable road, is really as near to
market as the farm that is on a
/ poor road but only three or four
miles out. Our fathers thought that
farms coula not be moved; but
farms oculd not be moved; but
in the light of modern KNOWLEDGE
We can see that in one sense at
| least, they were mistaken. A real
ly good road moves every farm on
/ it or near it closer to market, and
increase its value accordingly
all of which is good sound doc
trine, and becoming clearer with
every passing day.
Farmers in Page, Fremont, Ring
gold and a number of 5trer Iowa
counties have banded themselves
together for the purpose of build
ing and maintaining really good To-
4 cal roads; and what is more, some
OF tha very best roads to be
found in the entire state are those
which have been constructed in
this way. They have usually Of
1 ganized for the purpose of improv-
ing certain road used by all men,
bers of the association; and then
have cooperated willingly and with
out thought of pay in doing the
work that was to be done. Their
road-building has been placed on
scientific asis ana as re-
suit they hav' got what a sold
century of defamation and oratory
would not get; namely, Good roads.
And moreover. they think enough
Of them TO take care of them.
The iarme,s who have done tn.s
are about tie only ones to date
in the stat" o: Iowa that have been
privileged 10 enjoy roads of the
kind that make land worth more
money and life more pleasant. 1t
ought to be done everywhere of
course, since otherwise it will be
left for another generation to
enjoy what this one is;sdreamins'
about, 80 ,,