Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-03-16
L00keY-On In lo1va


L00keY-On In Io,pa
Special to Times Republican.
Emmetsburg, March 16.-H present
plans are carried out, the lake adjoin-
Ing this town win In the near future
be one OF the beauty spots OF Iowa.
Last year dredging was carried on 10
the extent of q depth Of twelve feet OF
water which insures a large increase IN
the number of game fish. Heretofore
so shallow was the lake that fish were
frozen or smothered when thick Ice
covered the lake. Several hundred dol
lars from the state will be the nucleus
A large fund, some claim $6O,OOO
raised by subscription, is to be spent
in macadamized driveway around the
south part OF the lake, in planting or
shade trees, shrubbery, ETC., and in
other ways to make this lake right IN
town." "a thing Of beauty and JOY
forever Still there's few practical
citizens who see in all this, waste OF
money. Such men If in the majority
would drain the lake and raise corn to
sell in war times at IS cents bushel.
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Iowa may be "agin'' good roads prop
ositions, but 1t is as far ahead of other
states in the way of big school houses
as it is behind In the matter of good
roads. Retired farmers moving to town
join with other public spirited citizens
in voting big taxes on themselves for a
big school house. and then oppose a
good roads system, which makes pos
sible a consolidated high school, If the
roads were made passable to haul the
children in wagons from the nearby
country districts. Perhaps a fairer way
of stating the above would be to say.
many active and retired farmers object
to present plans and expense OF max
ing good roads. The average farm
owner, has for a number Of years
known that more or less graft has
been going on in the way Of bridge
building, but the present laws concern
ing the services of county engineers
and contract system suit him no bet
ter
Speaking Of school houses Sioux City
has a high school covering an entire
block. At present a continuous session
is held till $3.50 D. N. each day, with
short recess at noon. This involved
the bringing of lunches, which re-
suited in the school board opening a
cafeteria in the building. 1t is now in
full operation and not only does it give
the high school scholars substantial
lunch, at cents a portion, but there
is a small profit each term for the
school board. Capable help is employed
to buy and prepare The food, and
about 200 scholars have recess at one
time. After this crowd have been to
the cafeteria and helped themselves,
paying for cold meat sandwiches, pie.
cake, etc, only 5 cents and getting
enough for a square meal. another
crowd has a recess and 'cafeterize.'
Some days 1000 to 1900 hungry high
school scholars fill up. There's one
bad feature to all this. Some OF these
high school scholars dare to say, that
apple pie is better than they get at
home" and what do you think OF
this?" They actually have dances IN
this high school. Regular dancing
parties open to all. But the line Is
drawn on the tango and other latest
new dances. Only the two step and
waltz is permitted by the school board
committee on dancing. We are funny
people in the management of our pub
lie schools. One school board election
in Iowa was a red hot one, the issue
being the reading Of the bible without
comment. In another place the school
board refused to hire young lady
graduate OF Cedar Falls because she
was Roman Catholic. In another
place, the school superintendent al
lowed a lecturer on religious ques-
zion to address the high school chill
dren and there was something doing
the next day. And any they are hav-
ing dancing parties in the high school
at Sioux City. Send for Billy Sunday.
OF course the people own the streets.
Sure. we only allow the electric street
cars to lay rails and run the cars on
our" streets. And we compel them 10
keep them well paved and in good con-
dition. And when the big snow storm
come we compel them to keep the cars
running and clean off the snow. But 1t
doesn't look just like square deal
for the "jitney" to take adv antage OF
the only passable part of the street to
jump in ahead of The street car and
take away their trade. In Sioux CITY
after the big snow storm ten days ago
the only traffic on the resident streets
was on the street car lines, that is Tor
several hours when the snow was SIX
teen inches deep on a level, this De
fore the walks were cleaned and the
car lines were opened. But the oitneSs
didn't mind 1t little bit. They just
stuck to the car lines which the Dig
corporations kept open. Is II square
deal? OF course the jitnev mas the
same rights to use the street as the
taxi, the hack, the bus line and dray
teams And the public welcomed the
jitney. wants it, uses it, and pays tor
1t. But somehow It don't seem
square deal for the car line to sweep
the snow off the track so the oitney
can get the nickels.