Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-08-29
OUR IOWA ROADS.

Thomas H. Macdonald, state high
way commissioner, has written one
of the best articles on Iowa roads
that has yet come under the observa-
ton of the Freeman-Tribune. Mr..
Macdonald recognizes the fact that
Iowa has done a lot for her roads
and declares that this state has the
best roads in the country during GER
tain times of the year. There is moth
ing equalling the dirt road in dry
time and the problem now is ia
make the dirt roads good in bad
weather time. Mr.. MacDonald's ar
ticle is worth a careful reading by
everybody interested in roads. 1t is
as follows:
Tourists in Iowa will have the best
road conditions during the fall
months this year that have ever ex-
listed in the state. BY the end of the
season, there will be not less than
| $14, 100000 spent on the construc-
ton and maintenance of roads and
bridges. The expenditure of this
huge sum cannot fail to work won
derful improvement on the Iowa
highways.
| No state in the Union has been so
much praised or so much damned for
her roads. The fact of the matter
| is that Iowa has the best dirt roads
and the best cared for dirt roads of
any of the states. The soil, great
for corn and easily tilable, is also
easily shaped into well graded, we'll
crowned and perfectly smooth roads
on which it is delight to drive an
Automobile. The very quality which
makes the Iowa soils so amenable
for road purposes, also tends to their
lquick destruction. The tourist bowl
| ing along, delighted with the smooth
easy going, is caught in summer
|rainstorm. Inside of ten or fifteen
minutes, he is skidding and sliding
Il all over the road in dangerous
fashion. In half an hour, his condi-
tion is beyond the chain stage. He
is lucky if he makes a town and es-
capes being tied up at some farm
house. If the rain stops in an hour
or so, and the sun shines and a
breeze starts up, he may be on his
way in, anywhere from an hour or
two to half day. If the rain con-
tinues for few hours, he may be
tied up anywhere from a day to two
weeks. OF course he damnS the
roads, and while tied up in some farm
house or small town hotel, writes the
Automobile journals and the newspa-
pers that Iowa's roads are the worst
ever. But few hours after he gets
started on his way again with the
sun shining, the road drags busy, he
sweeps along again over the smooth
est, easiest riding roads in the world.
He loses his crouch, forgets his
troubles. He waves his hand to the
road dragger and ends his journey
across Iowa, by swearing that they
are the most delightful roads for
touring of any state in the Union.
Meanwhile, both of these extreme
views of Iowa roads are absolutely
true. When they are good, they are
the most delightful on earth. When
they are bad, they are the most i'm
passable on earth. Some years they
are good most of the time; other
years, they are bad most of the time,
as for instance in 1915, and the
spring of 1916. But to give them
their dues, Iowa roads are usually
good, for the simple reason that Iowa
roads are good weather roads and
Iowa weather is mostly good.
Iowa is. making fair start in bad
weather roads as well. There is the
Dubuque-Dyersville post road on the
Hawkeye Highway across Dubuque
county, twenty-five miles of the best
type of gravel road construction.
There are experimental stretches of
the same type of construction in
Calhoun, Webster, Polk, Greene,
Dickinson and other counties. Buena
Vista, Clay, Tama, Hardin, Marshall
and Cerro Gordo counties are all en-
gagged on projects for getting their
entire county road systems to per-
manent grade where there will be no
more tearing up and rebuilding. Sew