Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-08-01
NEED SERVICES
Of An EXPERT
To Compile In Brief Best lnfor-
nation From Annual Re-
ports of State Officials
YEAR OF BIENNIAL REPORTS
Work on Them Comprises the Chief
Activity About the State House Just
at Present-some Talk Of Only Pub
fishing the Official Register Every
Two Years-capital News.
Special to Times-Republican.

Des Moines, Aug. This is the year
OF bi-ennial reports and the few tina.
have appeared thus far are nothing
compared to the ones that are YET to
come. They are giving the printers
u great deal of work and are keeping
the clerks and deputies about the state
house busy. Work on bi-ennial re-
ports is the chief activity about the
state house jast at this time. The ex-
ecutive council will next publish the
reports on the assessments of various
kinds Of property and the report on
the expenditures of the various state
offices will be the next to follow. The
auditors report on the taxation Of land
and the reports Of the county auditors
on the assessment Of land will start
soon, the first copy being expected this
week The report of the state treasur-
er Is now in the hands Of the binder
and will be out soon. The boaEds Of
control is getting out one OF the most
important reports, and the work on 1t
is now being done by Professor Frank
Herriott, of Drake University. With
the elections Of the state only once
every two years instead Of every year,
tha necessity for publishing the Off
cial register every year will not be so
apparent and there is some talk Of
publishing ir.every two years as the.
state officials will be unchanged and
many other facts contained in the book
will be the same. II citizen OF the
state is to keep perfectly informed on
the transactions Of the state he would
have to read all the reports of the
state officials. The reports for one
bi-ennial period alone would lie enough
to make good big shelf full and woul
be more than any citizen would read
for great part is tables OF figures. It
is being talked now by the state Off
cials that the suggestion Of Professor
w. r. Patterson that the state secure
the services of an expert to compile
each year in form that the people
can understand the best information
from the reports of state officials, is
a good one Since the official register
will likely be published but every two
years the suggestion is made that such
information be compiled and published
with the official register.
Another case has been appealed to
the supreme court in which test Of
whether or not it is fraud to induce
people to invest in Beaumont, Texas.
oil we'll propositions This is appeal
ed from Sac county and Is the case Of
C. j. Hinkley against the Sac Oil and
Pipe Line Company, in which he Sc
cured In the lower court judgment
for the money heI paid for his stock
and the costs of the suit. He alleged
that the oil well proposition was of no
account and that the men who induc-
ed him to invest knew that the well
would never produce what they claim
ed for 1t.
Fenton Whitman of Page county has
appealed to the supreme court the case
in which he was convicted of the mur-
der near Clarinda of Charles Middaugh.
Oct 16. 1904, the two men and a lot OF
others were drinking heavily and dur
ing the evening got into a quarrel IN
which after they had retired to the
outskirts of the village Whitman stab
bed Middaugh with a pen knife and
caused his death. The death OF Md
daugh almost before doctor could
reach the scene sobered all the crowd
and Whitman at once gave himself up
and admitted that he had stabbed Mid
daugh with his knife 1t seems from
some of the evidence that Middaugh
struck the first blow and the defense
is relying on this fact and the drunk
en- condition of the crowd generally to
get Whitman free.