56 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



abutting property 10 per cent of the cost of the permanent highway. 

 Let the burden be distributed over a long period — ^thirty, forty or tirty 

 years. 



To secure this end, legislation is our only recourse. About 

 twenty-five counties have so far been organized. Our State Association 

 is pushing the further organization as fast as possible. Already we are 

 a, power, and should be doubly .strong before the next general assembly 

 meets. 



Let every one of us return to our homes determined to co-operate 

 in this grand work of organization, and good roads for Iowa will be an 

 accomplished fact sooner than most of us have dared to hope. 



A ]\Iember : Is it not a fact that the principal difference in 

 this new road movement, as compared with the old proposition, 

 lies in the fact of contribution; that everybody should con- 

 tribute, or that the Government should aid? 



Mr. Lyons : Yes. I think you may look up history all you 

 please, and you will find that no nation anywhere under the sun, 

 and no State, has ever builded the kind of highways we are 

 talking- about, except through the aid of public funds. It would 

 bankrupt you, gentlemen, to build these roads in front of your 

 houses. We do that in the city, but we have only fifty or one 

 hundred feet to pay for. 



The fact is, these roads contribute not only to your personal 

 benefit, but if the citizens of Des Moines today, and if the mem- 

 bers of the Commercial Exchange of this city, could only realize 

 what it means to the commercial interests of this State, this hall 

 would not have held the business men of Des Moines who would 

 have been out here tonight. 



I have personally attended county con^'entions in about twenty- 

 iive counties of the State of Iowa. Wq have enrolled about one 

 thousand members since April in this organization, and, of 

 course, the work has been done largely by m}'self. Senator Har- 

 per, our president, has a large force and is doing a good work. 



The President : We will now listen to an address by Sen- 

 ator J. T. Brooks, of Keokuk county. 



