Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-01-03
:LoCAL COMMENT

The appointment Of Elk Mayor Jones
to membership on the board of super
visors will give general satisfaction
| thruOut the county. With almost a 20
| per cent increase In tax moneys to be
handled the. next year there never was
| q time when more care should be ex-
pended to see that the public obtains
a dollars worth of value for every dol
lar expended and Jones has somewhat
of record in this line Of work. Even
| the present city administration can APP
preciate that fact now. Jones is one
of those stalwart characters whom
everybody trusts and respects whether
they like him or not.
And speaking of the taxes nobody is
! worried very much about the increase.
Every body knows that when land was
Sc per acre fifty years age and most
| taxpayers were poor we were paying
infinitely more taxes in proportion to
our ability to pay than we are now.
Tax moneys. II expended rightly. are
public investments rather than pub
lie expense. The main thing is to see
that they are actually Invested wise
ly and not wasted carelessly.
The now Franklin school IL a case In
point. Everybody is pleased with It
and It Is going to serve everybody who
cares to live within it's district. The
old Rogers school, Of which our citi-
! zens are now complaining. has been
doing service for more than thirty
years and could do business for thirty
years more with moderate alterations.
but no Individual and few societies OF
| individuals could ever provide the chill
dren Of half a century with such equip
! ment as the new franklin school at
fords. 1t Is possible only by public
| investment and 1t Is a question whether
taxes can ever become too high so
long as the money goes back to the
people in such values as this school
| building; values beyond the reach OF
private enterprise. So long as our
! public officials can show that the tax
payer is getting more back in return
for his tax money than he could il he
were to invest 1t single handed just so.
long will taxes be paid without serious
protest. Once let foolish public ex-
penditure waste public funds and all
public investments will be discouraged
until people can forget their loss.
AdTSllallCOWN, Tie XOdTSIldlllOWH
Club and Marshalltown merchants in
general can profit from the comment
of the business men Of Union as ex-
pressed by several In conversation at
the club gathering Thursday evening.
ut used to be-" said the spokesman,
that when went to Marshalltown
Ben Morgan was the only man on Main
street who seemed glad to see me, and
Goo. l~,Sk f1,n
to go to Marshalltown unless I went
in and had Ben make me feel good by
telling me how glad he was to see me
but now It's different. Your town has
changed. Everybody down there seems
to be glad to see us now and I like to
go to Marshalltown." That's right"
agreed another. I'VE heard that Con-
zales and Madew were going to be In
your town few weeks ago and a
bunch Of us went down there. When
we got there we found that the meet
ing was being held by a Searchlight
Club. which we feared made it ex-
elusive, but we telephoned down and
what do you think? They not only
wanted us to come down but they had
supper ready and were bound to have
us down to supper. I tell you it made
us feel as tho the Marshalltown bunch
were good fellows to know" you
bet" said another. You fellows are
different breed Of cattle down in Mar
shalltown from what you used to be-"
The Y. NJ c. A. boys minstrel was
a huge success and everybody wanted
1t to be. 1t was clean fun and lots Of
1t. Any man would rather have his boy
Ol,f late at niEffta workinr at a " NJ
c. A. minstrel than loafing almlessly
down town or even going to the pic
ture shows and professional Ministries.
IN the new building the new gym will
have stage and dressing rooms fully
equipped for private theatricals and
there will be barrels Of fun for the
boys, young and old.
The Davenport Times presents the
same idea as was voiced in these coll
umns week ago when It urges that
It's city extend the navements to the
city limits on the main roads leading
into town so AZ to connect with the
well kept county roads. Merchants
who believe in keeping a path shoveied
clean Of snow to the front door of their
stores should see that their city exc
tends the glad hand OF welcome to all
those who must come into town by
wagon road. There Is no reason why
tho Lincoln Highway type OF pavement
OF concrete fifteen feet wide In the CEN
ter with gravel ON each side should not
be used on these main roads in the
suburbs. The cost would be reduced to
so small a figure that even agricultural
land within tho city could be assessed