Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-03-09

tiiS pouNS GiS llISll uh1iu III III
stallments which enables each land
owner to spread his tax out thin over
a period Of years and actually have
his reclaimed land to use while he is
paying for its drainage.
! Down in Missouri. in Arkansas back
| in Ohio and in many other states this
very same improvement district plan
i used for building graveled and
paved roads. The war department is
asking that the Lincoln highway be
made ready for ten ton truck travel at
once, but we can't do it in Iowa be-
cause we have no fair and equitable
way in which to raise the money. 1t
would be manifestly unfair to tax
lands on the northern border Of the
county the same as lands abutting the
Lincoln highway and even the city
! of Ma rshalltown ought to pay part OF
the cost of paving a national trunk
line highway which passes thru it. If
a road district could be formed taking
lin Marshalltown and all territory
served by such a road. an engineer
would survey the road and prepare his
estimate of its cost. A jury would
IdppOI liOll lNt tdA Jul dNli '1NSci"'hS ~
the benefits and some of that tax
would fall on city property. more of it
would come from land abutting than
from land farther back and the pro
rata share of county road funds actu-
ally collected from property within
such a district would be applied upon
the district project, even donations
would be solicited. The county board
would then order the road graveled or
paved and county bonds would be sold
70 raise the cash for the contractor
The bonds would be paid off from
Ilevies collected from the district COW
ering a period of ten years for gray
eled road or twenty years for paved
rad and everybody would have the
road to use while it was being paid for.
The Marshalltown Club can do no
more useful thing than to devote rs
to war activities. The
next best effort would be to induce
muniton contractors to come here. We
Rave a packing house. pottery fac
tory and a buggy factory all standing
lie and ready to run upon weeks
notice. Combined, they could employ
a thousand men and give our city
boom such as is being experienced by
other cities turnout the eastern states.
Davenport and Cedar Ra pids are keep
ing men stationed at Washington TO
grab munition contracts for their
cities The government IS actually re-
calling contracts from localities thai
are congested in the eastern states and
will relet them to the west where more
labor is available.
The Y. W. G. A. is struggling in the
usual woman's way Of trying to make
something out of nothing, and is sue
ceeding narvelously, but when it is
realized that there are 1000 wage
working girls in this city besides young
girls in the homes who do not have
to work for wages it ouch. to come
home to some Of our wealthy women
that here is the grandest opportunity
in the world TO make themselves i'm
mortal Why shouldn't the young
women Of this city have lust as good
a community house as the ho~s and
young men? 1t is no time to build it
during the war. but it is good time
10 think about it. Mon can build
7. M. c. A. because they can levy
community assessment and go on
several hundred strong and collect i
from men. but women can't do that
thing If they waste the price OF
box Of cigars on personal vanity a
Easter time It precipitates tragedy
in the home. Grinnell College now has
half a million dollars entrusted to it
by elderly people who are to receive 8
per cent interest upon their funds from
the college until death. then their trust
funds are to become the property of
the college There are wealthy women
enough in this town to build a Y. w.
C. A. with annuity funds on which
they could have their income so long
as they live but which would go to a
grand work for women forever after
these wealthy women had been sepa-
rated from their fortunes by death.
So long as these wealthy women live
the men of the town could be solicited
to dig up annual support enough to
pay the interest upon such annuity
funds. The way to start Y. w. c. A.
building, to include perhaps the Wom-
ems Club and a hostess house, is to
start it. Look at what one lone Ger
man preacher did who thought that
there should be two hospitals where
one had seemed enough before.
1t costs the county $7o,746 to build
bridges this year that would have cost
500, 1872 last year and it cost more last
year than it would have cost the year
before. This is the argument for a
minimum Of public improvement work
until after the war.
! 4
When we all gazed thru our tears
and emotion at the picture Of that fine
young lad from Vienna township who
gave up his life in the trenches in
France that our farms might not have
to pay tribute to the kaiser, that our
cities might not be invaded by the
Huns or our women violated, a rush Of
hot blood came to the temples at re-
membrance Of some disloyal remarks
that our neighbors have uttered and
then it subsidized in righteous shame at
the thought Of how little we have been
doing ourselves to help win the war,
how little we have given, how little
we have loaned to the government to
support that boy hero who died for US
and how little we have sacrificed for
this war. Our haggling over meatless
and wheatless meals and our kicking
about the price Of hogs, our complaint
about our wages or our profits and our