Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-03-25
HOW ABOUT THIS?


We have had and are having one OF
our Iowa periods Of bad roads.
Ben Robinson lives on 40O-acre
farm six miles north of Marshalltown
1t is very fine farm, the result OF
an investment it would probably rep
resent somewhere between $4,000
and 100000. A couple of months ago
this farm was fifteen minutes from
the center of Marshalltown. That is
an established fact, for two persons
drove out to that farm on shooting
expedition in precisely that time. If
it had been physician speeding to
save a life he could have done it In
ten minutes or even less. How far
Robinson's farm is under present con
ditions from Main and Center streets
by automobile Is problematical. No
body with machine would have the
nerve to try. But 1t Is good two
hours by hog wagon.
Carey Arney lives about II miles
from Marshalltown on a big farm
When the road is good he isn't over
twenty-five minutes from the court
house. In emergency Of life and death
that could be cut to fifteen minutes
for that road is a forty mile an hour
road when 1t is good and necessity
sits at the steering wheel. Today 1t Is
strong two hours by buggy, it Is ma
rooned SO far as the machines ! are
concerned, and it Ia about four hours
by hog wagon.
These are only instances. The,
multiply on every road out of Mar
| Ao1 ~ a
that is as true of every town in Iowa
die of the state.
Wouldn't it pay the farm and the
farmer and the town and the towns
| man to establish the shorter time def
nitely? Isn't good road all the year
| round quite as necessary as the tele
phone and the mail route which have
cut the distance between market re
ports and the farm by days and have
shortened the miles between neigh
bors into speaking distance? WHY
should time be wasted? 1t Is worth
money in Iowa and raising in value
every day Let alone the comfort ano
pleasant convenience and genera
satisfaction of permanent highway
are we not wasting enough time this
spring to pay for a permanent roat
across Marshall county?
Figure it out Then say what you
want to do about it,
That Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt
Chicago Inter Ocean. Everybody
knows the gentleness of former Pres1
dent Tafts soul. We know his court
Illness and manliness and how averse
he is to giving any one offense or pain
We also know his devotion to the
game of golf. Therefore, some ~
evitable reflections obtrude themselves
when we learn that he has requested
that a portrait of former President
Roosevelt, now Hanging in the white
house, but Mr.. Taft's personal prop
erty, be sent to his hotel at New
Haven.
What will Mr. Taft do with it? VIII
he regard it as sheer art? Does he
| want it as memento Of former friend
ship?
No; none of these suggestions fill
the bill, and the conclusion is I'M
avoidable that he needs it in his golf
The average golfer, when he has
topped his drive persfstently, OF
fooled his approaches, or been gener
ally off his game. is too apt to "take
| it out Of his caddie." Not so with Mr.
Taft. He isn't built that way. And
anyway, he has the dignity Of an ex
president to maintain.
But in the sanctity of his own room
after a bad day on the links and witt
that portrait Of Theodore Roosevelt
handy-why-!