50 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



gravel, you can advocate burnt clay and put that on top and sprinkle 

 with oil. 



I want to speak of one other feature. Why is it that our railroads 

 are spending millions of dollars annually to shorten their lines? They 

 are doing it for the purpose of controlling trade. I want to say to you, 

 gentlemen, that in my judgment it will not be long until the territory 

 between here and Burlington and between here and Council Bluffs will 

 be suburban property. We are not going to have such large farms, 

 because the increase in population will demand tnat they should be 

 smaller. The price will be of such a character that you will let loose 

 of your own land. I have been interested in the proposition that is 

 going to bring those changes about — the electric appliances on our elec- 

 tric lines. I see the New York Central Railroad has adopted for fifty 

 miles around New^ York electrical appliances of four thousand five hun- 

 dred horse-power on cars. The force of such a car will draw a five- 

 liundred-ton train sixty miles an hour. 



I want to say another thing — you may think I am visionary — within 

 a reasonable time all of your great railroads will be operated by elec- 

 tricity. Within five or ten years you will not see a fire engine going 

 through the streets; there will be applicances placed in each block 

 M'hich can be put in operation by the tap of the hand. 



I have only given these illustrations to show you what is com- 

 ing as soon as you get electric lines established. It will not be unusual 

 at all for your electric lines in and contiguous to Des Moines to go at 

 the rate of one hundred and fifty miles an hour. People are not going 

 to live in cities then; they will have their homes out of the city on two 

 or three acres of ground. 



Now, I have tried to present two or three propositions — I don't 

 know how many — ^to you gentlemen. I hope you will go to your homes 

 and that you will come down to your legislature and bear on them for 

 a State Aid Plan in road building. 



Governor Packard: What is the cost of making- a clay 

 road ? 



Mfe. Moore : From three hundred and fifty to five hundred 

 dollars a mile for the clay burnt. I want to say again, that I 

 congratulate ]\Ir. Hamilton. I was very much and deeply in- 

 terested in that speech he made. I want to give Mr. Ham- 

 ilton the credit for passing the Pennsylvania road law ; for get- 

 ting the six and a half million dollars. He stuck to the conven- 

 tions year in and year out, and that, more than any other in- 

 fluence combined was the cause of the passage of that law. 



Do not pass this over. There is too much attached to it; two 

 much education; too much of everything that pertains to the 

 welfare of vour State. Do not find fault because vou do not 



