Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-05-11

tribution and the benefits employees
would receive from the insurance in
the association they signed away their
right to sue the company in case they
were injured, and signed away the
were killed The employees had no
option but to join and lose their right
to sue, or lose their jobs. AS result
they all joined The Temple amend
ment provided that such right to sue
could not be signed away in any man.
ner.
Trewin's False Claim.
Mr.. TreWin has sent circulars all
over the Fifth district arguing that he
voted for the Temple amendment in
1898 which he did but he neglects to
state the defeat of the amendment in
the spring of 1897 when the notorious
Ed Hunters railroad passes and le
bying with MIR. TreWn's own cunr G
work on the floor Of the senate n
such a scande as to stir the
state in revolt. The democratic 3
convention in June, 1897, resol = As
follows:
I'VE demand that the statut 3 op-
Grafton in Iowa for more than ner-
alton, holding railroad corpc 81 rs to
a strict accountability for ne 3 mt in
jury to their employees, shaS De re-
stored, by proper amendment, to its
original scope and intent. We hold that
the clause of said law, which provides
that mo contract which restricts such
liability shall be legal and binding, rs
eminently fair and just; that contracts
in contravention of the spirit of this
provision are against public policy and
should be void; and we demand that
the protection to life and limb, embod-
led in this provision, shall be fully re-
stored. in order that corporations en-
gagged in the operation of railways
shall not be allowed by insurance con-
tracts or otherwise to escape liability
for their acts of negligence, or shift
this just responsibility upon the shoul-
ders Of their employees. We hold that
any other rule is an inducement to neg
ligence and sets premium on wrong
doing"
This forced the republican state con-
vention in August, 1897, to resolve for
the Temple amendment as follows:
I'VE believe in the Justice Of those
laws heretofore enacted by republican
legislatures securing to employees Of
railways the rights to indemnity for
personal injuries resulting from negli-
gence. and we favor such legislation as
may be found necessary to perfect such
right and prevent its impairment or
notification In letter or spirit
Then In .ne session of 1898, when
public sentiment had forced the prop
osition into both party platforms, Mr..
Trewin voted for it, and so did almost
every other member of the legisla-
ture
During the hearing before the SEN
ate committee of the first session, Mr..
E. w. Drake, q "Q' employe of Chari-
ton, testified that the 20" employees
were not only compelled to join the
relief association and release the road
from liability, but were even forced in-<
to manipulated mass meetings, where
resolutions were passed by railroad
agents opposing the Temple amend
ment.
1t was during the debate when
Garst, now candidate for governor,
and one other senator had introduced
a minority report from the committee
which was trying to defeat the amend
ment that Trewin led the debate for
the railroads and against the amend
ment, while Tom Healy, of Ft. Dodge,
led in the argument against the rail-
road crowd. Healy. in reply to Trew
in, made this prophecy:
Young as am, and altho am not
the seventh son of a seventh son, and
therefore not gifted with prophecy, I
say to you that you will live to see a
legislature within four years sit in
these halls that will say, and will en-
act it's declaration into law, that you
cannot evade the law of 1852, and do
by indirection what the wisdom of the
law makers then said you could not d,
directly"
1t was Tom Healy who had led the
fight for the board of control, and it
was the same Jim Trewin who had led
the machines opposition to that great
reform.