Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-03-07

lure. And it was a funny thing to listen
to one of these farmers who owns S'5
IAN acre land kicking on such an assess
ment forgetting that last year he was
one of the most eloquent of those who
demanded that the railroads did not pay
their share of their taxes. They
should be assessed higher" And these
owners of high priced lard seem to for
set that if all land in Iowa is assessed
at the new values the result will be the
levy can be made less. Unless our state
Officials steal the money raised by tax
alton it will all be used for mutual
benefit. and 1T makes no difference in
high and the levy low. or vice versa.
Still it makes Il difference whose OK
is gored."
There is considerable discussion just
now over the relative merits of the
primary or convention system. One bad
feature of the primary system seems to
! be forgotten, and that - under the pri-
mary system it frequently happens that
an incapable and unworthy man gets
| the office simply because of his sue
cess as q canVasser. The writer has in
mind an election of man as county
treasurer who was compelled by the
board of supervisors to hire another
man to do the work his knowledge of
Arithmetic and his handwriting being
Sc lamentably bad that they would not
/ allow him to work on the books. He
was nominated and elected because of
his thorough canvass Of the county,
ladded to the fact that he was a good
fellow and an old soldier. Under a con-
INention system this man could not have
been nominated.
Again under a primary system 1t is
almost an impossibility to divide tn
offices according to the location of the
residence of the candidates. In one
county where the primary system is in
vogue one town had fiv- candidates for
sheriff. this in the western part of the
county The eastern part of the coun-
~ had political sense enough to sup
port one candidate for sheriff and nomi-
mated and elected him, altho they al
iready had a supervisor and an auditor
and a recorder from the eastern half of
the county. 1t goes without saying that
the primary system is especially bad
when selecting SUPERVISORS, in other
words, it is bad to elect supervisors on
the good fellow plan. More than half
of the trouble with defaUlting Treasure
ers has come to the taxpayers because
they elected some man for the office of
supervisor who was incapable of de-
tecting any crooked work on the part of
such county treasurers. On the other
hand, the county convention system is
bad--very bad-when "the ring puts
up for office a poor candidate, which is
equivalent to electing him in many
counties in Iowa. But isn't this a re-
Election on the ring rather than on the
convention system?
Out of the car windows on Feb. 26,
1903. the writer saw a man in the fields
husking corn. Talking with another
farmer about it, who knew the husker.
the Looker-On was told that the be-
lated corn gatherer had sat around
home or gone to town all winter long,
letting his corn stay in the field, and
now in the dead of winter he was
obliged to husk some every day to keep
his hogs and cattle alive"
Between Hampton and Belmond, on
the Iowa Central, there stands in the
field just where it WIS last used in
November, d threshing machine outfit
and engine that cost the owner $1,000
last fall 1t rains and il SHOWS and the
sun shines on that investment of $4,000,
but whose business is it If the owner
wants to encourage the manufacture
~, I,;, oh nj