Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1915-09-23
Second, an oiled dirt road.
Third, a graveled road.

Second, an oiled dirt road.
Third, graveled road.
Fourth, an oiled gravel road.
Fifth, a gravel road mixed with
| an asphaltam product
Sixth, light and comparatively
| inexpensive concrete road
Seventh, a substantial brick road
on heavy concrete base, design
ed for heavy traffic in or near
the cities.
Eighth, concrete road with al
| heavy base suitable for heavy traf-
fic in the vicinity of cities.
Only the seventh and eigth kinds
of roads here enumerated are ex-
| pensive, and it is not the thought
of the State Highway Commission
nor of Others who advocate surfaced
roads, that such pavements can be
introduced and built generally
throughout the state of Iowa. Only
the demagogue is figuring on their
| wholesale Introduction, and they do
1T simply to brighten the farmers
and get up stampede, hoping to
ride into office in the confusion.
In the second place, it is assum-
ed that somebody somewhere is try
lng to ram bond issue down the
lhroats of the farmers. There may
be differences of opinion as to the
advisability of surfacing roads.
but so far as we know none of the
coad enthusiasts advocate a bond
issue unless the same be voted
by the electors of the community
chat will have the bonds to pay.
Governor Clark stands for refer
ring the matter to the people. Gen
oral Cosson, who is a gubernatorial
aspirant, has announced that he
likewise stands for the referen-
dunn and no bond issue except upon
the express vote of the people,
and Senator Joe Allen, who is
candidate for governor, voted in
the last session of the legislature
for law empowering the people
to vote bonds if they choose so
to do, for highway and bridge i'm
provement. w. w. Marsh, who is
an enthusiast for surfaced roads
and most likely to be the Democra-
tic nominee for governor, likewise
stands for the referendum on is
suing road and bridge bonds.
We know of no one, road enthus-
last OR otherwise, that desires a
law requiring the surfacing of any
road in any community until the
people of that community vote for
the improvement. The only law
that has been advocated is one per-
hitting people to spend their own
money as they please. At the pre-
sent time we have a law authoriz-
ing the people upon vote to bond
for school houses. They may vote
bonds to build court houses; they
may vote to establish or disestab-
fish county high school; they may
vote to remove a county seat,
otherwise directly legislate for
themselves on many questions Are
these privileges abused? Can not
the people be trusted?
Here in Guthrie county we have
a lot of gravel. The county engi-
neer says we have plenty of good
gravel to surface our roads. 70 be
sure, there is not much gravel in
the western part of the county,
but the engineer suggests that by
using a steam shovel to load large
dump wagons and then pull them
to their destination with a tractor
that will haul fifteen to twenty of
them at trip, that gravel can
be put almost anywhere in Guth-
RE county quite cheaply. Moreover,
the State Highway Commission
has a tentative arrangement, we
are informed whereby gravel for
road purposes will be delivered
by the railroad companies to almos
any railroad station in Iowa for
so cents yard. On this basis, it
will not cost to exceed $500 to
$500 per mile to gravel Guthrie
county roads, and is easily within
Il our reach.