Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-26
PLEASES THE GUARDSMEN
Passage of Disk Bill Will Enable Them to
Secure Modern Equipment,
ONE REGIMENT is TO GO TO FORT RILEY
Part of Buildings of Coal Company
Burn-New Engineering Hall at
Iowa state College is
Now Ready.
From a stan correspondent


DES MONIES. Jan. 25.-(Special. 1.-The
passage Of the Dick bill in congress for the
reorganization Of the State guards and
placing the militia organization in closer
touch with the regular army, is something
which has been long desired by the guards
men of Iowa. Adjutant General Byers OF
the Iowa state militia has been in Wash
ington some time working to secure the
final passage of the bill. He secured the
support Of the entire Iowa delegation and
was present when the president signed the
bill. General Byers wrote back that the
ordnance department is ready to fulfill its
part OF the work under the bill and to sup
ply the regular army guns for the Iowa
guard at once. Accordingly Governor Cum
Minis at ONCE issued a requisition on the
secretary of war for rms and ammunition
for the four regiments OF the Iowa National
Guard. He ordered 1900 Of the magazine
rifles, of the Krag-Jorgensen pattern. with
bayonets and other things, and 100, 900 cart
ridges. AS soon as these are received the
old ~Springfelds in use by the four regt-
ments will be sent back to Washington
and every company in Iowa will have tho
modern guns. Arrangements will soon be
made for sending one regiment to camp
with the regulars next summer at Fort
Riley, Kansas. There will be considerable
rivalry among the guardsmen as to who
shall go to this camp. 1t is believed in
Iowa that the new law will greatly increase
the interest in the guard among the mem
bers.
Delegates to Road Convention.
Governor Cummins has named delegates
to the international road convention called
for Detroit, where there is to be general
discussion of plans for the betterment Of
American highways. The following are the
delegates named: Milton Remley, Iowa
City; Henry Wallace, Des Moines; Allan
Dawson, Des Moines; Herman Granner,
Hubbard; w. H. Stafford, Blairsburg;
Thomas Adams, Lenox; D. w. Norris, jr,
Marshalltown; AL Power, Bloomfield; Ed
Kunz, Wesley; Judge E. H. Thayer, Clin-
ton; George W. Ball, Fairfield; E. D. Chas-
sell, LeMars; II. e. Stanberry, Mason City;
w. G. Bows, Cedar Rapids; George r.
Estabrook. Marshalltown; Harry z. Hull,
Williamsburg.
Fire at a Coal Mine.
A part of the building at the Des Moines
Coal company's mine at Marquisville, a
short distance out of Des Moines, were
burned last night. The fire started with
an explosion in the weigh house, which i'm
mediately threw everyone out and spread
to all the buildings. The elevator and
blacksmith shop we're burned, but the en-
CINE house and the valuable machinery
were saved. A hundred tons Of coal were
burned. The loss was about SIC, 900, fully
insured. The entire output Of the mine
goes regularly to the Chicago q. North
western railroad The works will be re-
built in about three weeks and in the
meantime $50 miners will be without work,
Engineering Hall is Ready.
The new engineering hall of the Iowa
State college, which has been in process Of
construction for the last two years, has
just been completed and will be thrown
open for the use OF the students in all the
engineering departments Monday morning
The cost of the building, including fur.
nishings, is $215, 900. the furniture costing
$50, OOO. The value Of the engineering
equipment is $50, 1000. The building is 2oS
feet long and 100 feet wide, four stories and
basement.
Trouble Over Land Title.
The committee in charge Of securing the
site for the new Des Moines postofice il
having much grief. The land titles arc
found to be imperfect and the government
will insist on all the titles being in strict
accordance with law. In one case an un
satisfied mortgage was found running bach
to the early days of the state and there
is no direct way Of having this remedied
1t has not been the custom here to record
all papers relating to land titles, as con
templated by law, and this deficiency will
have 20 be corrected by getting at thu
court files and completing the records he.
fore the government will accept the land
This will cause some delay in getting the