Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-12-25
IOWA PRESS COMMENT.

| An Easy Way-If the habit of shoot
ing important witnesses, as that habit
has been introduced at Des Moines,
should become prevalent in Iowa, Tie
judicial proceedings in the state will
be greatly implified.-Ceda Rapids
Gazette.
TheoJudge Usually is eht.-Judge
Eichelberger, at Ottumwa, has decided
that husband and wife cannot be
partners in mercantile business
| and maintain separate interests un-
| der the law This is said to be the
first time the question of the legality
of partnership between husband and
wife was ever raised in this state
IsOskaloosa Herald.
Waiting To Be Hung.-There are
now in the Kansas peni-
Tertiary forty convicts who have been
sentenced to death, some of whom
have been waiting for years for the
date of their execution to be fixed.
The Kansas law is peculiar like many
other things in Kansas. After the
court has found man guilty and he
has been sentenced to death, it re-
| mains Tor the governor to issue war
rant of execution. He can be as long
time as he chooses in making out
such a warrant, and there is nothing
in the law compelling him to ever is
sue it. Some years ago a governor
decided that he would not issue any
death warrants and SO those who we're
! in the penitentiary under sentence of
hanging remained there awaiting the
action of his successor, who in like
manner declined to issue the warrants
and thus a precedent has been estab-
I 1ished which has been followed ever
since, the number of these prisoners
increasing until there are now batch
of forty waiting to be hung whenever
the governor shall see fit.
Governor Stanley does not feel like
taking the responsibility of breaking
the presidents and at the same time
breaking the necks of forty men yet
he is not satisfied to have the number
of candidates for the moose steadily
increasing. If one is to be hung then
all should be and their execution
would be somewhat like massacre.
Kansas has evidently made a great
mistake in thus allowing it's hangings
to accumulate until it has more than
1T knows what to do with The legis-
lature is to elappealed to for Keller
and it is proposed that either capital
| punishment be done away with or that
4 the law shall be so changed as to
throw upon the courts and give the
sheriffs the responsibility of executing
/ the death sentence without waiting for
the governor to- act. In the meantime
the forty men are clinging to the hope
| that Kansas will in some way avoid
the wholesale hanging of this accumu-
lation of years and that their lives
may be spared because of the strength
which comes from numbers.-Council
/ Bluffs Nonpareil.
A Peculiar Stand.-County Auditor
Belknap of Adams county has refus.
| ed absolutely to give certificates of
! election to the men who were elected
in that county at the recent election.
He states that he is acting under the
| direction of Chairman Kirkpatrick OF
| the board of supervisors. So far as
known this is the only instance in the
state where county auditor has
| refused to issue certificates of cleo
ton. @
Chairman Kirkpatrick is occupying an
anomalous position inasmuch as the
. board of supervisors canyassed the
returns and he signed the statement
that the men were elected whom he
now holds should not have certificates
of election. The officers elect will
take the matter into court at once and
! will see if mandamus proceedings
will not induce the auditor to change
his mind They will not wait for de
cisions from other counties. Corning
Union Republican.
i For Good Roads.-The board of
supervisors of Wapello county, at its
last meeting adopted the following
praiseworthy resolution: "That the
county bridges and the. approaches
thereto, and all road work under the
/ board of supervisors will be put in
first class condition and will be SO
/ maintained, and that the board will
exercise its influence with the road
district supervisors to see that all
roads are properly worked and kept
in good travelling condition at all sea,
sons of the year. That is a deter.
4 mination that should be formed, ex-
pressed and adhered to by every
4 boaEd of supervisors in the state. The