Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-07-12
cossoN FOR HARD ROADS.

| Attorney General Cosson in reply tc
the Waterloo Courier defines his posi-
{, ton as TO hard surfaced road i'm
provement in Iowa His letter is as
| follows:
To the Editor: In Your editorial
| of Monday. July 5, you say that The
Courier and Reporter would welcome
a declaration from the candidates on
the question of good roads, which it
regards as the pressing issue of the
day. 1t would like to see advocated the
construction OF a great system of state
highways thru some state aid plan,
such as is already in vogue in Hi
nos'
l think You must have overlooked
that part of my platform. l considered
it, as l SO stated, to be the most i'm
portant business proposition l have
declared unequivocally for some form
of hard surfaced roads; for the TAX
ing of options on the rock quarries
and the use of prisoners on the roads.
l wrote into the law at the last gem
eral assembly that provision that in
dustries could be established at or in
connection with any of the institu-
tions under the control Of the board Of
control" l had this very thing in mind
at the time. have conferred with the
highway commission and they tell me
where there is, splenddsrock material.
If the exact place should be given to
the public. some one might purchase
the ground before the state could get
option on it.
1 felt that to go into further detail
as to the kind and character of hard
surfaced roads and the method Of
,,1,l doh "a
on details but let me assure you that
| if / am successful in being nominated
and elected, l shall put forth as much
effort as 1 ever put in any enterprise
since I have been in public office in
seeing that the necessary laws are up
on the statute books to give Iowa good
roads equal to the sister states.
Since l am the only candidate who
has declared unequivocally for, at
least some form Of hard surfaced
roads" l thought it was a little sur
prising that none Of the papers had
anything to say about II. l am not
putting this out merely as campaign
issue, but I am an intense believer in
good roads. I own a farm In Dickin-
son county. A few years ago l tiled it.
I had partly finished the job when bad
weather came on and in order to get
the remaining tile on the place paid
four prices; that is to say, paid four
times what it would have cost me il
the roads had been good. and this
extra cost would have paid my proper
ton of road tax equal to SlO,0O0,09
tax for the entire state.
Last year l made a trip to Mount
Ayr; was rained in: had to leave the
car in the garage 1t was a week be-
fore the roads were fit to have the car
returned: paid man for driving it
back to Des Moines; was out the hotel
expense of myself and family; had a
similar experience at Colfax, the two
together costing me s2S That alone
was about sixteen times my share Of
the capital extension tax.
This experience is not peculiar to
people living in town, but / believe
every farmer who owns an automobile
every year is put to enough direct cost,
saying nothing of the failure to get his
crops to market at the most advant-
ageous time, to pay his proportion OF
very large tax but it has already
been pointed out that the roads can be
hard surfaced with little or no addi-
tional tax if the amount is properly
| distributed.
I am keeping in constant touch with
| the highway commission and assure
you that my statement on the ques-
| ton of good roads is not mere talk,
but that l am intensely in earnest. ]
| do not believe at this early stage a
candidate should go into the question
of details. Yours very truly, George
Cosson. Des Moines, July Z.