Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-09-28
Express Companies Claim to
State of Iowa That They Are
Private Partnerships
SUITS ASSUME
INTEREST
Action Of Attorney General Attracting
Attention of Lawyers-corporations
Fastening to File Papers and Com
ply With Laws - Other important
Capital News.
t,necial to Times REPUBLICAN.

fjpecial to Times REPUBLICAN.
Des Moines. Sept. 2s.-The American
Express Company, the United states
Express Company and the Adams Ex-
press Company are not corporations
They are private partnerships, accord
ing to their claims to the state OF Iowa.
Just what Attorney General Byers Will
do in this instance is not known but
it is suspected and intimated that in
spfte of the protestations of these three
alleged partnerships and their express
sions of adherence at being called cor
porations he will treat them the same
as any other corporation and Will in
sist that they pay to the state of Iowa
500 day for failure to file with the
secretary of state certified copies of
their articles Of Incorporation.
OF some of these concerns it is
known that Iowa persons own stock in
them, and if company has stock it Is
a corporation. Furthermore If 1t does
a corporation business 1t is q corpora
ton, whether 1t pretends to be q part
nership arrangement or not. THESE
concerns call their stock interests and
claim to have SO many hundreds OF
thousand dollars capital interests" II
they are partnerships then all the pri-
vate property of each of the partners
is liable for the debts of the entire
partnership and furthermore, II they
are partnerships then any person hold
ing one interest" can go into the Of
fee OF the company and proceed to as
sist in managing 1t.
It is suspicioned that each Of these
partnerships has president, secre-
tary and board Of directors and II so
1t is a corporation whether it thinks 50
or not At least 1t will have to file with
the state Of Iowa.
The suits being started by Attorney
General Byers to force the corporations
TO have some respect for the laws Of
Iowa are developing much interest The
corporations have become 50 in the
habit Of paying no attention to the
laws Of Iowa in the years past that
the corporation laws are almost dead
lCLLclS dIlu lAC lSs5iolhlulC lAco SOAS VI
wasted It's time in passing them The
law principally ignored is this one re-
quiring all corporations organized in
other states and doing business in
Iowa to file with the secretary of state
a certified copy Of their articles of
Incorporation.
The theory on which the state pro-
ceeds is that these corporations claim
in this state police protection for their
property If they have any, and at all
times for their servants and in many
cases have no property on which they
pay taxes. Furthermore it is
claimed as right to the citizens
of the state of Iowa that there should
be filed in the state information con-
cerning such corporation for the bene-
fit Of the people of the state. There
should be filed information giving the
officers and directors and the purposes
for which the corporation is organized
and the amount of capital stock and
such information. The Iowa law re-
quires this and provides that the COM
pany must submit to action being
brought against it in the state courts
and that service of notice Of suit on
any Of its agents shall be service on
the company. 1t is this law that the
corporations in such large numbers
have been ignoring.
A large number of corporations are
now endeavoring to make the filing
and thus escape prosecution. 1t is un-
derstood that in some instances Attor-
ney General Byers will permit this
without bringing suit. For instance
where corporation not public service
corporation gets a contract to do
some work in Iowa and does the work
without complying with the law there
may be nothing more done than to in
sist that they file now. There are cor
porations that only incidentally now
and then do any business here and
have not known of the Iowa law.
But where public service corpora
ton is doing business in the state ev-
cry day with property which it wants
the state to protect and which is
charging the public for it's services,
tsome times with the public having
nothing to say about how much they
shall be charged, the attorney general
their fee and Furthermore pay the fine
for VlOlaLlOn OIL Tie law III LIE past.
There is absolutely no way to detect
if the milk man takes some of the
cream out of the milk except to catch
him in the act. But if he is caught
in the act and it can be proven in
court, there is punishment awaiting
him. If a milk man waters his milk, a
specific gravity test will disclose it.
The state law requires that there shall
be three per cent of butter fat in un-
SKINNED milk. Milk from some cows
frequently contains as much as per
cent. The law requires that it shall be
sold as it comes from the cow. 1t is
Illegal to keep out the strippings But
if a milk man takes out two per cent
and leaves in three there is no test
.Lnt ,,riI diSclnae his trick. The Bah.