Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-03-13
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PAR
DoNs REJECTS PLEAS OF
NOTED CRIMINALS
NO FREEDOM FOR HALEY,
THE LITERARY GENIUS
Robbard, Van TasseI, Jones and Adams
Must Stay in Prison - Wide Differ
enee Of Opinion as to Merits Of Two
Public Service Commission Bills -
An Expensive Luxury.

Special to Times-Republcan
| Des Moines, March 13.-The senate
committee on pardons late Friday aft
ernoon voted against granting Glenn
ency to nine of those who have sub
mitted their cases to the general as
sembly. These are Hugh Robbard and
L. w Haley of Dubuque county; Will
liam Adams, of Marshall; Thomas G.
Robinson, Of Howard; w. e. Alexan-
der. of Polk; w. NJ. H. Jones, of Hen
nv: Albert ParnitzSa, OF Van Buren,;
Thomas Watson. of Mills; and L. r.
Van Tassel, of Chickasaw. This leaves
two to be considered - C. H. Wood
ward, Of Decatur, and John Penny. OF
Emmett. In the case of Woodward
there are some remarkable circun-
stances which may bring the matter to
the attention of the members on the
floor. The other case has not been
presented.
Recent legislative events have dis
closed that there are but two very dis
tinct schools Of thought relative to the
regulation Of public service corpora
lions dn the cities and towns of Iowa
and those OF statewide character. 1t
was found in the senate discussion OF
the Van Law bill to give cities the
right of inquiry before acting In mat
tiers of regulation, that practically all
those who oppose making it possible
to regulate city franchises are favor
able to the White-Grier plan OF hav-
ing the state take over, thru COM
mission, all the powers now vested in
the municipalities. 1t also showed that
as between the White-Grier bill and
the Smith Lee bill there is wide Diff
ference Senator White explains his
position in regard to his bill as fol-
lows:
"The state should undertake to regu-
late all those public service corpora
tions that are not now regulated or
that may not be kept in regulation,
but the fact is that these franchises
for water, gas, ETC., In our cities are
under the control Of the municipalities
and are now regulated. No state COM
mission can take over control of these
without taking the authority away
from the people most directly inter-
ested. AS far as we ought to go now
is to give to a state commission the
to regulate where the mu-
can not very we'll do so, as
in the case Of telephones, telegraphs
and interurbans. When we have done
that we have provided that all corpor-
ations shall be subject to regulation"
$50
In the hearing which was given on |
the two bills in the house committee on |
railroads 1t was brought out the other |
day that the plan of having one state !.
commission undertake the regulation
and control Of all local public utilities
has proved a very expensive luxury in
New York. In response to an inquiry
It was brought out that the first year
If its operation the upstate commits
sion cost s2S5,000. OF course dt was
stated that Iowa ought not to cost so
much, but the figures were given to
Indicate how expensive it is to handle
franchise matters from a central point.
rhe commission referred to. which has
charge of business only outside of
New York City, has about $50 en-
,loyes and clerks on the pay roll. The
,lan of having the Iowa commission
AXE over only such matters as can not
,e handled locally would be compare
lively cheap.