Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-04-01
Those Legislative Investigations.

The Sioux City Journal, the fairest
and one Of the ablest paper in the state,
speaks as follows concerning the numer-
Gus Investigations in progress inlthe leg
islature:
1t passes understanding that the Iowa
legislature should have failed to under
stand that it is not it's business TO con
Germ itself with investigation of every
charge and insinuation made by news
papers and everybody else. The legisla-
ture was called in extraordinary session
for the purpose of completing the codi-
fication of the statutes of the state,
work that was left incomplete at the ad-
journment of the regular session last year
Yet a vast amount of valuable time has
been worse than wasted by all manner of
Investigations and legislative inquiries
into almosteve conceivable work and
Granny of the structure Of the state gov
eminent. The legislature has so forgot
itself as to feel called upon to go serious
ly and deliberately into official investiga-
ton of every allegation and charge and
insinuation which personal malice might
start, partisan interest or factional
grudge invent. One trumped up charge
has produced and stimulated others I'M
til the legislature has seemed to be
tloundering in Serbonian bog OF i'll
repute. 1t has gone chasing after every
rabbit track, fresh or stale, and it has
caught mighty little game. The chief
sufferer is the political party controlling
the Legislature. But shall not the truth
be made known? Certainly, at the
proper time and in the proper manner.
But the trouble is that these confused
and multitudinous charge create not a
true but false impression. The net
result OF them all is to create upon the
mind of the general public the impress
sion that everything about the state
government is wrong, rotten, corrupt, ex-
travagant. That is what the average
observer is apt at the first impulse to
collect from such an outbreak OF charges
and Investigations, and that is exactly
the falsehood and not the truth Of
the matter. 1t is not true that
the state of Iowa is corruptly or extrav-
agantly managed. It is not true that it
is more corruptly or extravagantly man
aged today than it has been throughout
the past. 1t is not true that it is more
corruptly or extravagantly managed than
verse is the very truth. No state in the
union is more economically. more hon
estly or more efficiently governed than
Iowa, nor was the government OF Iowa
more efficiently administered, in general,
than 1t is today in all its departments.
This is the real situation, as every candid
and competent observer, no matter what
his partisan predictions may be, will
freely acknowledge. But the prevailing
storm of charges and Investigations tend
to create the contrary IMPRESSION. This
is the evil of it. Doubtless instances
and items can be specified in which
there is needless expense Let this be
freely acknowledged. But there is abso-
lutely nothing new in this. 1t is always
80 in Iowa and in every other state, no
matter how well governed, and it always
will be so. It is 30 in every county seat
in every state in the union and it always
will be 80. There is no more reason for
an epidemic OF charges now than last
year or than ever other year in the his
tory of the state. But the existence of
perfect din Of accusations and charges
will lead many to think that it is not so.
The real difference is in the cutlery, not
in the provocation. The Legislature
ought to have been prudent enough to
have appreciated this fact at the outset.
Republican leaders ought to have looked
to it more closely. They have by default
in this behalf permitted the truth to be
clouded, or to have suspicion cast upon
it. They cannot too soon put period to
this sort of thing.
One Iowa school board has fifty nine