Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-03-13
ROAD FACTIONS
GET TOGETHER
HOLD CONFERENCE IN HOPE OF
FORMULATING HARMONY PRO-
GRAM OF LEGISLATION.
G
SEEK TO ELIMINATE
ISSUE FROM POLITICS
Bills May Be Agreed to Give Counties
n Optional Powers in Saying What
Kind of.Road Improvements Will Be
Seiected-Bord Issue Authorization
/, May yNotase Pushed at. This Session.
,ecial to Times Repu biican.

Des Moines. Marcha13. - With the
Pitt Johnston road bill defeated and
the state highway commission sus-
tanned in one Of the hardest fights In
recent legislative history a meeting of
representatives of both of the former
factions was held last night in an en-
deavor to get together on a future
road program. There is hope that some
kind of a harmony program on road
matters can be worked out for the re-
mainder of the session and that the
road question may be eliminated as a
political issue in the future.
Governor Harding is anxious for
harmony to prevail as much as poss1-
BILE as to road matters and is now
using his influence to that end. 1t is
well known that he stayed out of the
Johnston road fight as long as he
felt he could consistently and then got
in at the finish in favor of tho bill.
Now that the bill has been defeated
the governor hopes to avoid factionai
strife on road matters as much as
possible in the future.
Now that it has been determined
that some central authority, such as
the state highway commission, is
needed in road matters, it Is believed
that the opposition to the commission
will disappear. - "' i~s
Optional Law Possible.
There are two POINTS. however, which
all parties interested in road legisla-
tion wish to settle. These are the is
suing of bonds and the. matter Of
paved roads. % I'D.
No one in the present Hegislat ure so
far as has been discovered is in favor
of paved roads. y The most advanced
opinions along this line as privately
expressed about the legislative halls
seem to be that all that could be fair
ly asked for is that a community be
given the right to vote on what kind f
roads it shall have and how it shall
Pay for them. 1t is not likely that
legislation of this kind will be asked
for of the present assembly. however.
AS to bonds, it is apparent from the
testimony of the Legislators as given
out in debate on road questions that
the present law which gives supervis=
ors authority to issue warrants in ad-
vance of funds to take care of emer-
gency work has been abused by some
supervisors and counties have been
run needlessly in debt thru this abuse.
Bills are pending lin both houses to
correct this abuse and at the same
time make it. possible for counties to
ne emergency needs by some
way Of anticipating funds.
In other words the issuing of bonds
for road Improvement, even on auth
orization by the vote of the people,
may not be pushed at this time by the
most ardent advocates of road prog
ress.
Compromise Possible.
There are two measures that both
factions may try to get together on
One is the Foster road patrol bill,
passed by the senate, and the other IS
the necessary legislation on the part
Of the present legislature to secure
federal aid for road building. 1t is be-
lieved now that the factions will get
together on these two bills. both rec
ognized as progressive in character.
If these two bills can be gotten thru
it is possible that the road question,
as political issue. will cease to be a
years rolls around.
Senator Balkema, of Sioux county,
chairman Of the senate committee on
highways, has a bill already drawn
which meets the provisions of the
government as to federal aid. He has
submitted it to the government Off
Gals and just day or so ago he re-
ceived it back with the federal o. X.
so that he can now assure the legis-
lators It will meet the government re-
quirements for federal aid. Leaders of
the Elwood road crowd in the house
said yesterday that they were ready
to support the Balkema bill on this
question.
The Foster road patrol bill does not
appear to have opposition. 1t is con-
coded to be an economy measure. 1t
went thru the senate with only one
vote against it. Lieutenant Governor
Moore and Senator Caswell character
lied it as the best road legislation
which had come up before the present
assembly. Senator Foster said he re-
ceived over 1000 letters in praise of
1t and that they had been voluntar-
lily. sent in. No particular faction was
back of this bill.
1t Is apparent that Governor Har-
ding does not want any more fac
tionalism on road matters or any other
questions than can possibly be avoided
and that he, will therefore from this
time on cndeavor to harmonic such
factions as much as possible. 1t was
with this end in view that the meet
ing of road leaders was held last night
and it is being predicted that the road
factions will get together and the road
question will eventually cease to be
a bone of contention in politics