Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-04-30
BEFORE OUR EYES.

lueS MONIES reg lSteT anu bSducA.J
An interesting item of news comes
from Ottumwa in this mornings Reg
lister and Leader:
Next Saturday morning seven
passenger touring car will make its
first trip between the little town of
Fremont, sixteen miles northwest OF
here, and Ottumwa, The fare will be
80 cents per passenger"
So far as The Evening Tribune is
informed this is the first invasion OF
the interurban field by the motor
bus, but we may confidently predict
that it will not be the last.
For nothing is surer than that, as
roads become passable in all seasons,
there will be a steady automobile
traffic between all the trading stations
in the state.
The preset venture out of Ottum-
wa is evidently a passenger PROPOSE
ton solely. But within the season
we shall hear OF package delivery
over the line, and probably OF truck
ing. In the end the Ottumwa dis
tributing houses will all have their
own trucks running to the nearby
towns and delivering goods at the mer-
chants back door.
II will be wholly practicable for
wholesale houses to send out their own
trucks for distances of fifty miles over
hard roads.
Means of transportation are being
reyolutionized before our eyes, revolu-
tfOnized as much as they were when
the steam road took the place of the
, stage road.
Within nve years travel and
freighting will be wholly different
proposition than they are today. and
the shift in capital employed will be
attended with serious complications.
Already street railway stocks are
down. The shift will not stop with
street railway stocks.
OUR AUTOMOBILE EXPENSE.
[Des Moines Tribune.]
It is estimated that the automobile
numbers will run this year to 100000.
! At an average cost of $1,000, which
should not be much too high, this
means $3.50, 100000 invested in automo-
biles, now in active use.
Just how much the state may have
spent in the past five years nobody can
tell But $150,O00,0 900 in active this year
machines is not a small item for Iowa.
| II we estimate upkeep, wear and tear,
and cost of operation at $50 a month.
which Is not high, as the average owner
can testify, Iowa Is now spending ST.
100000 a month. At $25 month the
state is spending $3,750,O00.
If anybody had said ten years ago that
the people would ever tax themselves
| in the millions Of dollars a month for
anything under the sun he would have
been laughed at.
And yet here we are spending on
automobile upkeep, gasoline and tires
nearly as much every month as the
state collects in state tax for the whole
year.
| Poor Richard, in his speech at the
auction, told them that of course the
taxes levied by the government were
high, but they were taxed twice as
much by their ignorance, three times
as much by their pride and four times
as much by their folly.
Poor Richard did not, of course. have
| in mind the automobile, for there was
no such thing in his day. and then the
automobile can not be classed with any
of the things that minister merely to
ignorance nor folly nor even pride.
But II I. we'll to get our balance once
in awhile and put proper estimate on
what we tax ourselves for. and what we
pay for the state.
For the automobile can not be al
lowed to absorb everything.
BILLY SUNDAYS BACKsLIDERS.
| ICedar Rapids Republican,
Some one has been kind enough t.
send us information on the Sunday
backsliders in Philadelphia. It seems
that the devil has been taking a cen.
sus Of the Sunday converts he has beer
able to reclaim and they are quite mum
erous. 1t must be admitted. The Phila
delphia item to which our attention ha!
been called makes the following ale
| cations:
| or the ss,4es trail hitters" VIII,
signed cards conversion
about 1900, 1t has been found, cav
4 fictitious names or addresses. or wer
repeaters, who became converts" earl.
in the campaign and went at least ono
y more before it ended, after going bacl
4 to their old habits. q e. = X
w. Only about 30 per cent of those VIII