Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-28
TAX Bill IS KILLED
Railway Assessment Measure
Killed in the House by
Vote OF 81 to 81.
Committee Report Against the
Bill Was Adopted..The
Merger Veto.
Governor Cummins' Action Meets
With the Approval OF the
People.
Special to Times-Republican.

DeS MOfneS, Marcn lo.-1 He way
and means committee of the house
voted against the railway assessment
bill. There is no doubt that the vote
against it was much stronger than II
would have been a week ago. The COM
mittee took it up promptly and on the
vote to report out for indefinite post
ponement the following was recorded
Yeas-Temple, Clarke, Graft. Sokol
Wright, Head, Hilsinger, Sweet, Will
son of Buena Vista, Buchanan, Stuck
slayer English, Garden. Cummings
Freeman, Greene, McClurkin-17.
Nays-Hughes, Cowles, Larrabee,
Walden, Willett, Whiting-S.
Absent-Barkley, Kendall, Gilchrist,
Dodds, Hufschmidt.
In view of this decisive vote in the
committee, 1t is hardly expected that a
minority report will be brought out to
get the bill on the floor of the house,
tho many members are still contem-
plating this action.
The finish of the railway assessment
bill was reached this morning In the
house when the committee re-
port against the bill was
adopted by 81 to 81. Cowles
made an effort to have date set for
consideration of the bill, but he was
voted down and the report adopted,
which kills the BILL
Walters, of Tama, introduced reso-
luton in the house providing that the
state board of health shall act as a
commission to make an investigation of
sewerage disposal in Iowa and the laws
relating thereto and report to the next
general assembly. all expenses of such
Investigation to be borne by the state.
The house concurred in the senate
amendment to the highway bill by 81
Ito Is. A bill was passed to relieve the
state insurance companies of taxation
on outside business, and bill to ex-
empt from taxation land declared to be
forestry reservations.
r The senate debated at length the
resolution to adjourn, but refused to
change the date from the 9th to the 9Th
of April, and the resolution awaits fur
ther action. Hubbard introduced a
resolution for a sitting committee in
the senate to be named at once by the
president. The senate refused to recede
from its amendments on the bill to au-
thorize the construction of interurban
railways.
MI <o lit Of fnr voncfnnnaH
consideration of the Cummins veto
message on the Molsberry bill until
Tuesday afternoon by a vote of 2S to
lis,
The veto of the Molsberry bill dis
nosed of that measure for the time be-
ing. After the veto message had been
read there was general concurrence in
the opinion that Governor Cummins
had raised himself immensely In the
estimation of the people by his action
The veto message is strong and to the
point. If the governor is right as to his
conclusions on the bill then it is hard
to go against his logic. That is the way
the members are talking about the
measure. Then there is no doubt in the
intensely in earnest in the matter and
that he is honest and sincere in his OPP
position to that kind Of legislation. OF
course there were those who ascribed
revenge to him and declared at once
that he was getting back at the Bur-
lington because of the past political
fights, but only few We're so unfair as
to harbor such thought. One OF the
most prominent railroad attorneys in
the city stated to the writer that Gov
ernor Cummins' message Is right and is
lunanswerable, and that is all there is to
lit.
The Sweeley telephone bill which was
finally passed on favorably by the COM
mittee on municipal corporations af-
fects only cities, but If passed 1T will es-
tablish an important precedent in the
matter of giving cities power to regu-
late telephone rates. 1t provides as fol-
lows: ANY city having population OF
33, 600, as shown by the last preceding
national or state census, shall have
power to require any individual, associ-
alton or private corporation, operating
within the city Telephone exchange,
subject to reasonable rules and regula-
tions, to furnish any applicant therefor
telephones and telephone service, and
to regulate and fix reasonable maxi
mum rates for telephones and service
so furnished; but nothing herein con-
tained shall authorize any city to
change the rates fixed by any existing
franchise heretofore granted by such
city to person, associat ton or corpor-
alton, owning or operating such ex-
change or the plant or system to which
the same belongs"
That portion of the tax ferret bill
which was intended to shut out the out
siders from engaging in tax ferreting
was disposed of by a trick. When the
bill was up for consideration yesterday
an effort was made to strike out that
section which required that the tax fer
ret must have been a resident of the
county for eighteen months. The mo-
ton was lost. Immediately thereafter
Fields moved to change the word
County" to state" in the section, and
this was done with only a handful of
persons voting for It, But 1t had the
same effect, practically. as If the whole
section had been eliminated, for 1t was
intended to conf1ne the tax ferrets to
one county each. The bill was passed
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