Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1914-01-16
Il Charles City View Of CTeSCo Push.

h Charles City View Of CEesco Push.
The Charles City Western will ex-
tend it's line in the very near future
mort easter1y to a connection with
Vthe Great Western Just as it
:agreed to do. 1t will do more than
Hhat,, for yesterday the Charles City
western through it's manager made
"a liberal agreement with the unit
sed representative men Of Elma and
with the Commercial club of Ores
'co, 200 strong, to extend the Charles
City Western northeasterly through
tElma on the Great Western across
Howard county and to Cresco, and
the people of Howard county will
vote tax of per cent on the
assessed (taxable) value Of the real
estate benefited by the building of
the Charles City Western railway to
Cresco. ~
We know this is so, for yester-
day we Joined MT. Ernsberger, the
manager of the Charles City West
ern, Ed Waterbury and A. L.
Dodd in an overland trip through
Elma and to Cresco. The roads
were fine, the going was good all
the way and nowhere did We See
the slightest sign of a knocker Or
hidden hammer. After a month Of
railroading in Floyd county it GER
tainly felt good to breathe the air OF
Howard county and mix with the
alert, progressive men of Elna and
the progressive up to the minute
Monumental club of Cresco.
Just because Ed N. insisted on
Seeing the sights of Alta. Vista with
its lone, yet not lonesome bar, our
second stop was at Elma, where we
met SO Of the men Of that thriving
berg. Included were men fror" AL
the banks, all the mercantile houses,
preachers and farmers. The tax
and the railroad proposition was ex-
planned to them. The squareness
the fairness and the benfits to them
and to their community appealed to
all, and as one man they responded,
''we can and we will"
An auto load Of Elma boosters,
two bankers, retired farmer and a
business man, piloted US across
Howard county to Cresco, and it is
not amiss to say that we saw some
Of the best farming lands, some of
the most prosperous farmers, farms,
and farm homes we have ever seen.
It looked as though more farmers
owned their homes, also that the
landlords Showed greater interest in
'the comforts and welfare of the
to no TO IN
Floyd county.
At seven O'Clock We met the men
rof Cresco, members of the CONNER
cial club every one of them, and a
more progressive, aggressive bunch
we have never met before There
were no bankers, no lawyers, no
manufacturers, no capitalists, no !
merchants holding back on the
They were all straining
at the tugs and pulling together in
way that spells success for every |
undertaking. To these men also the
proposition and the tax
proposition was fully explained. To +
them this tentative proposition was
made: IF Howard county will vote
a 5 per cent tax on the assessed |
value (taxable) of +he real estate
across Howard county
within the limits Prescribed by law
to aid the Charles City Western
the Charles City Western will OPP
crate an electric railway through
across Howard county to
Cresco.' Again unanimously every
man present said 1--WE can and we
will
There we're many pleasing fea-
lures about this conference with the
Cresco Commercial club. One of
these was the careful scrutiny of the
proposition by some of the con-
sentative men present 1t was not
that they thought the Charles City
Western was asking too much but
rather too little for the benefits it
would get. In addition to the .
per cent tax they rather expected
'ahd were looking for the asking of
a.. free right of way and possibly
the subscription of $100,000.00
worth of the company's common or
preferred stock. These were the
things they wanted to know about
and it developed that ours was the
third railway proposition that had
been up before them in recent years.
They also told us that it was the
tairest and best because of the
positive assurance of the completion
of the road, because of the smaller
support asked for and be-
cause of the greater benefits de-
rived through cross country connec-
tions with the Great Western, Mil
waui1ee, the Illinois Central, the
R ock Island and Northwestern rail-
way systems.
Things are looking better and
6righter every day for the Charles
City Western, for Charles City, for
Floyd county, for Elma. for Cresco
and for Howard county. Just
watch northeastern Iowa grow, and
If you gamble a bit, bet that How
ard county will vote four to one for
tho railway tax
ALLEN o. RUSTE.
Charles CITY Daily Press.