Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-03-02
A PLAGUE UPON
1H!|[ LEGISLATORS
Wage Exemption Bill Again to
the Front and Bothering
Law Makers
LABOR ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSE
Merchants, Associations as Vigorously
Insist Upon Changes in Laws to
Better Protect Themselves Against
tho "Poor Pay ciass-atrons Arsu-
ments From Both Sides Of tho Cues
tion-corn to be Greater King.
cial to Times Republican.

postponed the first time it was intro
duced in the Iowa legislature a good
many years ago, but which has turned
many years ago. but which has re-
turned with increasing persistency to
plague every succeeding Legislature,
is to be settled (agaih) soon by the
Thirty second general assembly. 1t
is the intention of the friends of the
bill to have 1t acted upon by the house
first and then send itsover to the SEN
ate. ~
AT each session petitions from the
labor unions and working classes gem
orally asking for thu defeat of the
measure and from the merchant classes
asking for the, passage Of the bill de-
LUCE the pigeon-holes Of the desks Of
the secretary OF. the senate and chief
clerk Of the house. They are rarely
IL ever read by the committees to which
they are referred but nevertheless
these petitions show the two sides OF
the question that continues to yex the
Legislature.
1t should be said that the present
laws exempt from garnishment for
debt laborers wages for ninety days.
That Is under the Iowa law a working
man must have ninety days pay due
before it can be touched In garnishee
proceedings. Since not one workman
in five years ever has that much pay
back and due, the exemption law Is to
all practical purposes an absolute ex-
emption.
Merchants, especially the state sroc-:
ers' association, argues this Is pioneer
legislation of the crudest kind and that
every state adjoining Iowa has modi-
fed Its laws and that every other class
of business has recourse thru the law
to collect it's outstanding accounts ex-
cept the grocer and merchant. The
workingmen's organizations claim that
only make matters worse and do in
Justice to large class of honest men
for the benefit of small class.
The position of the working class
es for whose benefit the wage exemp-
ton laws are on the. statute books
briefly expressed Is that the grocer and
other merchants unable to collect debts
by means Of garnishing a working
mans wages will be careful OF whom
he trusts. That this hardness to ex-
tend credit forces the working classes
to be more thrifty and ito pay cash and
hence the grocer, the laboring man and
the state generally is benefited by the
operation of the wage exemption law.
And that with any modification Of the
law credit would be more readily ex-
tended, working classes when credit Is
easily had, would run debts only to
have their wages garnished, and that
with his wages garnished the work
ing man would quit his employment
for another position and. his wages
there being garnished he would soon
become shiftless. They argue at best
that garnishee proceedings are an ex-
pensive means of collecting accounts.
Here is the position of the merchants
as shown by one of their petitions in
favor .of the bill which allows the
debtor 80 per cent exemption: Your
petitioners believe that this bill should
be enacted into law for the reason that
LIT will do away with the distinction be-
twemh debtors which has existed in
this state for many years, and which
should be abolished; that all the states
surrounding lowe have long ago abol-
ished, in whole or in part, the total
exemption Of wages from liability for
debt, that the present Iowa law is a
relic of early days and crude legisla-
ton; that every man should be made
liable for his debts, and that the pro-
posed bill now pending, which leaves 80
per cent of the earner's wages exempt,
certainly affords the wage Garner all
the protection that should be asked for
That every other class of business in
the state Of Iowa is protected in some
way except the mercantile business;
the landlord has his lien for rent, the
material man and the laboring man
have their mechanics liens, but the
merchant who furnishes goods which
are used for the support of the famf-
lies, is left entirely without any rec
ON pense If the debt Is not paid"
The bill will come before the house
some time soon after the recovering
and there is no indication but that it
will meet its usual fate.
-
Corn in q greater sense than ever
before Is to be crowned king in Iowa
at the Iowa state fair and exposition
this year. Where heretofore the direc-
tors of the department of agriculture
have offered $500 in premiums on corn
they are this year offering nearly $1,000
in premiums, but this difference even
does not measure the difference in inn
portance that il to be given to corn at
the state fair. Hereafter corn will be
one of the biggest exhibits and what
will amount to school of instruction
in corn judging will be conducted in
connection with the exhibit.
With the increase in the amount Of
the premiums there Is also an increase
in the number of premiums offered.
Where formerly there were four or five
premiums there are now an even doz-
en- premiums. The state is to be divided
into three districts as heretofore, the
northern, central and southern. In the
central district this year for the best
ten ears of yellow corn the first pre-
MUM is to be $40 and the others in
order are SIS. SIS, $40, IS, 81, Sc, "a, SO.
81, 50, 81. The premiums for white
are not quite so numerous. This year
there Is no recognition of the large and
small varieties Of either kind but there