Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-08-28
ROAD PATRIOTISM.

1t is easier to talk ABOUT good roaus
than TO lend a hand in making them
The road problem would soon be solved
if there We're patriots" OF the kinds
we have just read about in an ex-
change. A doctor was driving out in
the country and discovered had mud
hole. He drove his car to one side and
! cut across to a home and borrow cd a
spade. He pottered around there I'M
til he had that hole filled up with clay,
but he didn't quit then. He waited
until several cars came along and
| crossed it. and when they cut into the
new dirt the doctor again filed up the
| depression. He kept at it until that
mud hole didn't bother people any
more. Then he returned the spa de,
got in his car and drove on, That's
what we call a road patr!ot.-Story
! City Herald.
| Some plain spoken and impulsive
persons might blurt out their impress
sion that the doctor was more fool
than patriot On consideration they
would probably conclude that Doc had
suffered from that and similar mud
holes until he was simply desperate
that form of mania resulting from
worry and physical or mental torture.
Docs act was a sort of traumatic pat
riolism like pneumonia following bed
burns or wound. kind of delir!unl,
don't you know, induced by great men
tai anguish For there wasn't a lick of
or -r;o in; II
The doctors time was worth money
if he had any practice worth while.
fIe might have relieved a couple of
persons Of their vermiform appendices
and a couple OF hundred dollars apiece
while he was monkeying around with
that spade He gets $50 for the first
mile he drives and so cents a mile after
that. and trip past half dozen coun-
try patients would have hired dozen
men with spades each of whom have
been worth a half dozen of Doc az dig
ging and filing. Each to his busin ess,
the road maker TO his, the doctor TO
his pills, and the cobbler TO his last.
1t was simply temporary alteration
of Docs. That is if the story were
true. The chances are that he never
did it. The average doctor has more
sense and less inclination toward hard
manual labor.
But at that Doc was doing
what the supervisors have done
and desire to continue to do-stand
at mud hole with a spade and fill it
over and over every time a vehicle
goes thru or half inch Of rain tails.
There is just as much hard sense and
business management in the supervis-
ors' plan as there would be in a pa
triotic' addition to the code Of medical
ethics which would insist that the
practitioner carry a spade and mend
every mudhole every day, every time
he goes on the road. Include, please,
| in this comic picture Of patriotism"
| the supervisors who constituted the
majority that passed those resolutions
at the late meeting Of their state as
ISOLATION. If it is possible to find a
| farmer with a section Of land who is
tending 300 acres of corn alone with a
single shovel pillow Of the vintage Of
| 1910, include him, too. Also. If that
doctor actually exists outside the
| imagination of some space fighter take
| away his automobile and give him a
horse and pair of saddle bags, a
pound OF calomel and lobelia and a
turnkey.
There's vital difference between an
intelligent patriot demanding good
roads as one of the business necessi-
ties and general conveniences OF his
age and maniac with a spade or
those county supervisors who would
have fitted better into the year 1925
than into this day Of 1915 A. d.