Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-06

ton as that which was contemplated.
Salary changing has not taken up
much time this session. Yesterday
the senate wrestled with proposal
to increase the salary of the state sup
erintendent to $4,000 year. Some of
the men who the day before had com
planned because of the increase of ex-
pense especially in the department of
the attorney general, advocated the
increase, but the bill was lost. The
legislature has already increased the
pay of the adjutant general to the same
figure as that of state official Bills
to increase the pay of railroad commits
sioners have been presented but not
considered very much. A bill is pend
ing to increase the pay of legislators
to $1,000 for the session, but this will
not likely reach vote.
Legislature Notes.
The bill to give the board of parole
authority to investigate the applica-
tions for clemency on the part OF
lifers, instead of burdening the legis-
lature with this duty, passed the SEN
ate, but as usual, there bobbed up the
somewhat amusing argument that it
was DeIISt W hcS) IL III tlS Adioo VI
the legislators SO as to make sure
that no man ever sent to prison for
life has any chance of getting out.
This, of course presupposes that all
courts are Immaculate and that they
person in prison out to remain there
as long as he lives. But the senate
did not harken to this argument The
committees have just found that in
the case of Decatur county convict
the courts erred to the extent of CIV
ing a life sentence to a man very prob
ably innocent of the crime.
Brother Rankin will remain on the
payroll at least two years more. The
legislature very generously refused to
legislate the irrepressible ''moulder
orator" out Of a job. His bill was
somewhat mutilated in the house but
still left with some semblance of
being in fact state marshal bill, and
then consigned to the waste basket
marked sc to 80. This will make it
necessary to keep up the agitation
right along. An Iowa legislature with
out Rankin would be Hamlet with the
ghost very fat.
Early in the session the railroads
were utterly helpless in the senate
and they permitted the senate to send
over to the house goodly number of
bills they feared. Owing to a change
of front on the part of small but
compact group of Democrats the sit
uation has suddenly changed and
now the senate is completely in the
grasp of the lobby. This fact was for
a second time this week shown yes
terday in the disposal of the Swift bill
to penalize railroads for resorting to
lawsuits exclusively for delay, An eff
fort was made to amend the bill so
that nothing would be left of it, and
this failing, the bill was given two
less than the required majority for pas
sage.
The house has passed bills for the
appropriations for the historical de-
partment. These bills make the state
| librarian superintendent of the his,
torical department, position now
/ held by Prof. Shambaugh, raise the
salary of the curator from S1,400 to
81 800, AXE the archives department
away from the four state officers and
! places it under the supreme court, and
gives a total of $1,000 year for sal
airy and expenses of legislative ref
erence department The state execu-
| tive council is relieved of the duty of
auditing the accounts of this depart
ment There will be some difficulty
getting the bills through the senate in
this form.