Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-04-08
Possible That Failure Of House
and Senate to Get Together
Means No Legislation
WOULD BUILD UP Big MACHINE
Measure as Originally Agreed to
Would Enable All the Doctors and
Lawyers in State to Hold Railway
Passes-onIy important Question to
Be Disposed Of. ....
speclal to mes-Republtcan.

Des Moines, April S.--Just few
more days of the session and the end
will be reached, 1t has been made
evident the past few days that when
an excited and exasperated member
last week painted dark picture OF
how the people of the state and es-
pecially the so-called business inter-
ests of Iowa are nightly praying for
adjournment of the legislature. what he
said was true at least as to some of
the Interests" which are concerned in
legislation. From their viewpoint the
general assembly is doing too much. 1t
has already made record which will
compel the printer to publish the
Journal in book at least 30 per cent
larger than ever before. Then the num-
Der OF bills was very large and the
session law book will be larger chan
ever before. In short, the legislature
has done a great many things that are
regarded by those affected as entire
ly unnecessary.
Just now the one thing uppermost
is the anti-pass bill. There are sew
eral elements considering this bill,
namely.
Those who do not want any bill and
who would take great delight in a Sit
uation which would force legislative
adjournment without any action on the
measure.
Those who want very drastic bill
of u-hn axr1ttHn
all lawyers and ali doctors and all
others who might be in fact mere po-
litical agents for the railroads during
the next campaign.
Those who favor a bill and would
very much like to exclude these class
es and who realize that to leave open a
door is a dangerous thing, but who
realize that all legislation is result
of compromise and that it is better to
take what you can get than to not take
anything.
These latter have thus far been in
control There is no secret that the
bill as originally prepared was largely
the work of Speaker Kendall and he
has been active for it, but he has fav-
orsd the compromise, not as a good
thing but as about the only thing pos
sible. The senate committee on rail-
roads prepared most acceptable sub
stitute or amendment but the senate
on the floor refused to accept this.
Then an informal agreement was made
to give the bill little more strength
and this was at the suggestion of
house members, but they refused toI
accept what they themselves had writ
ten Finally conference committee
took 1t in charge and went back prac-
tically to the plan as outlined by the
senate committee on railroads.
On Saturday the house refused to
accept this and forced another confer !!
ence. A new committee will undertake to |
effect an agreement. Just what will be
the outcome is hard to determine, hut !
in view of the many varied opinions
and the conflict of desires it is entire !
ly possible that no hill will be passed,
but that the present law, which has
had only a years trial, be left UNI
changed for another two years.
This is the only. general bill that is
left to be considered and necessarily
all interest has been centered on the
bill. The conference committee cannot
possibly handle the bill today and
clean the matter all up
One of the house members in ex-
planning the clause relating to the at
torneys declared that it meant an
opening for nipety-nine attorneys for |
each and every one of the railroads in |
the state and that this would be used
as means of building up political
machine for corruption. Conservative
members take the view that this is
going too far with the assumption as
to what would be done. There is no
doubt, however, that the situation is
quite serious on this bill
Holmes of Kossuth, Meredith of
Cass, Marston of Cerro Gordo and
Stillman of Greene in their speeches to
the house swung the tide to refusal
to accept the conference report. Moore
of Linn, Grier of Poweshiek and 9TH
ers counseled accepting the senate
amendments, but they admitted that
the bill then would not be as they
wished it, but that the house should
recede for fear no bill would be adopted
this session. AS a result the house
voted 81 to So against accepting the
conference committee report and a new
conference committee committee was
Lee and Hacker.
Grer of Poweshiek has labored
faithfully for perfect bill. His only
reason for accepting the compromise
Is that because of the lateness
of the session if the bill is not passed
as compromised with the senate it |
will be killed and he believes the bill
in it's present form is better than the |
old law. Furthermore it will be easier !
to amend the law next session than
to pass an entirely new one.
The Hughes bill passed last session |
prohibited legislators, state officers and
others from riding on passes, but ex-
cepted any such who were in the serv-
ice of the railroads. The Grier bill
this session prohibits every one from
riding on passes and excerpts only the |
officers of the roads and employees who |
devote all their time to the roads and
a few charitable cases. Saunders and
some others in the senate offered and
got thru an amendment providing that
each railroad can have one attorney
and one doctor in each county Of the
state to whom pass is given. This
viii make 1913 political agents of every
road scattered over the state and
where a county has two county seats
a road can have two attorneys and
two doctors. These with the doctors