Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-03-05
and the bill was made a special order

knocked out when the bill comes up for
passage, for the representatives of the
state associations are opposed to it on
the grounds that it will have a tendency
TO cause other states to require Iowa as
sociations to put up ali equal amount if
they go into other states to do business.
State associations are to be inspected by
the auditor and must make reports to
him each year. Their officers are also
required to give heavy bonds. In regard
to local associations, the bill is very
lenient. 1t simply requires that they
must make reports to the auditor once a
year and be subject to inspection on Pc
tition of 10 of their shareholders The
officers of local associations, who are
charged with the care of the funds, are
to give bonds. to be approved by the di-
rectors and by the clerk of the district
court.
Work on the New Code.
The committees who are at work on
the new code have not been able as yet
to reach an agreement in regard to the
basis of assessment Of property for taxa
ton. A few nights ago the committees
of the two houses ON ways and means
held joint session in the room of the
Judiciary committee and listened to adj
! dresses by Judge Hubbard and Colonel
Catch on this subject. Judge Hubbard
took the strongest kind of grounds
against assessment of real estate at its
actual cash valuation. AS a reason for
his position, he asserted that in case all
property was to be assessed at cash val
uation it is easy to find the land and
it would be compelled to be assessed at
its value, but personal property and
moneys and credits would escape in q
large degree, as they do now The re-
suit would be that the farmer and the
owner of land would have to pay the
bulk OF the taxes, while the man whose
property was in notes and mortgages
and in money would escape, even as he
does now, only more so. adopt such
measure, gentlemen" he said earnest
ly. land l tell you that you will hear
'hark from the tombs' from the farmers
when you want to come back here
again"
Colonel Catch argued that the proper
basis Of assessment was the actual cash
valuation, and he insisted that measures
should be devised to prevent property of
any sort from escaping the proper share
of the burdens of the government
Progress ON code revision is exceed
ingly slow and the talk of the necessity
OF an extra session is heard in the CORR
doris every day. Resolutions have been
filed in each house providing for final
adjournment early in April, and still
the code has not been got anywhere
near completion. OF course the resolu-
tions for adjournment filed at this time
are merely formality, but they serve
to show that the members are beginning
to think that it is approaching spring
and that the time for doing spring work
will soon be upon them.
The code committees are adopting
few of the changes suggested by the
commission, and i'll the majority Of the
cases where radical departures are made
by the revisers, the committees are re-
turning to the code of 1873.
Repairs at Fort Madison.
The committee of the assembly and
the executive council who went to Fort
Madison to look after the repairs re-
quested by Warden Jones, have held a
meeting and recommended that the sum
of SOL 900 be appropriated, of which
$50, 600 shall be for the new steel cells,
So, 600 for raising the roof of the cell
house and $4,000 for enlarging the
yard so that the prisoners may have an
opportunity to take exercise. 1t is prob
able that the bill for this appropriation
will pass without much opposition.
\ bill which Senat Bell introduced
in the senate provides for Il curfew bell
law. 1t is champiOned by Colonel
HOgeland and is the measure that he has
been trying to get the legislatures of
nearly all of the states interested in.
Friday afternoon the senate COM
mittee on code revision voted to recon-
mend that the age Of consent bill which
had been referred to them be aban-
doned, and that bill be passed simply
amending the present law by raising
the age of consent to 10 years. The
house committee has reported a bill
raising the age to 16 years, but it is
thought the bill as reported by the sem
ate committee will pass both bodies.
Against Woman Suffrage.
Last Friday the house killed the bill
by Representative Funk providing for a
constitutional amendment granting suf-
frage to women, by a vote Of 40 yeas, A
nays. The bill only lacked two votes Of
a majority, but that was as good as a
dozen, unless a reconsideration might
serve to scare up the two needed votes
An attorney has been here for sew
eral days trying to secure the pardon of
the noted outlaw, Polk Wells, who is
serving life sentence in the peniten-
tiary at Fort Madison. Wells was sent
up for robbing bank at Riverton, and
in the contest with Sheriff Farrell
which resulted in the capture of the
outlaw, Farrell was wounded and Wells
was filed with shot. He was taken to
Fort Madison while he was still sick
from the result of his wounds, and
while in the hospital he and two other
prisoners made their escape by poison
ing guard and binding and gagging
another guard who came to the relief
of the first one. The guard who was
poisoned died and the three who were
captured after they had gone only few
miles were tried for murder, and Wells
who, the others claimed, was the ring
leader, was sentenced to life
term. 1t is now claimed that he
is just ON the brink of the grave
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