Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-19
special to rimes-Republican.

| f.Wnat we Want is q pTlLldly law
| that will meet the demands of the
time" said Senator Wilson. Il have no
! bill and will have none. But I know
that the people desire US to frame up
a bill that will put into their hands the
right Of making nominations for office
/ am not anxious to make record OF
crowding 1t thru, for feel that what
| ever else we do we must adopt the
very best possible system. What this
| is we can best determine by open and
| free discussion. / want the committee
to deliberate. and desire that it shall
call before it those who are best In
formed on the subject, and then act
accordingly.
8 Two bills are already before the SEN
ate. and one Of these was also present.
ed in the house. The Crossley bill,
which is most likely to form the foun-
dalton for the bill that will finally be
adopted, is statewide primary bill.
with plurality nominations and pre-
serving the convention idea. Senator
Crossley has greatly modified his views
since first he went to work on the sub
iect. but he is more than ever in dead
earnest In regard to a primary system
for the state. He believes. however,
that the convention system must be
preserved in some way. His Dill pro-
vides for county conventions with del
egates elected at the primary. and II
there be district or state conventions
the delegates must be selected from
| the body OF those elected at the pri-
maries to the county conventions. This
is safeguard which, he feels to be
necessary The conventions will adopt
the platform and maintain the party
Organization. They will also canvass
and announce the results of the pri-
mary election. Crossley avoids pos
sible constitutional question by rec
ognizing as a political party any orr
ganization maintaining a county, dis
trict or state political organization.
The bill introduced by Senator Pc
terson has many of the features Of the
primary system, but the conventions
are less important. The boards of su-
pervisors canvass and announce the
results Of the primary election in coun-
ties, which was feature of the first
Crossley bill. The Peterson bill re-
tains the idea Of recognizing as q party
| only such organizations as cast more
than per cent of the entire vote. The
conventions in the Peterson bill are
provided for by having the township
committeeman In the several counties
select men to. attend county conven-
tons as delegates, and these county
conventions may select it any way
they see At the delegates to the state
convention. There are other yaria-
tons between the two bills each one
having some features of merit, and
each one having features that may not
meet the approval Of the majority,
1t is expected that a number of 9TH
I er bills Of similar character will be in
troduced, and next week the commit
tee on elections of each house will be-
gin hearings on the same. Soon after
the first recess bill will be ready for
the action of one house or the other.
So far as can now be ascertained,
there is general disposition on the part
of the leading members of the. legisla-
ture to enter upon this important work
unbiased. Nearly every member is
ready to act in some way upon a pri-
mary bill.
Representative Teter, OF Marion
county, has made quite a study of how
30 proceed to legally remove some of
the weak spots in our system of cleo
tons. He had in at the last session a
bill much after the English system of
requiring publicity in campaign meth
DDS. He has now introduced bill,
which has many fine features, to limit
the expenses of candidates and COM
mittees in campaign work. A limit of
500 is placed on the campaign expen-
ditures of candidate for office if he
appeals to less than 5000 voters, with
a sliding scale for q larger censtitu-
ency-$f50 for each 100 voters addi-
tional up to $4,000, and 81 for each adj
ditional 100 voters. OF course there is
provision for proving up on the ex
.penditures and having the facts made
public in some way. Mr.. Teter believes
that In time We must come to some
such method as this in limiting cam
paign expenses. else the offices will fin
|aally all be given over to the rich men.
The various measures for a 2-cent
fare appear to be conflicting in some
respects and their authors have prob
ably not well considered all the points.
The Cottrell bill. offered by the DEM
ocratie member from Plymouth coun-
ty, makes no recognition OF classes OF
railroads but treats them all alike. The
fare In Iowa must be not more than