Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-03-24

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| BREAKS RECORDS
Number Of Bills Considered
Nearly Nine Hundred.
| AXE USED ON MANY MEASURES
Senate Fixes Day Of Adjournment for
April and House May concur-pi-
rect Vote on Senators Turned Down.
Drastic Anti.Liquor Bills.
Des Moines. March 23.-The present
session of the Iowa legislature has
broken several records. One of them
Is that the members have had before
them for consideration nearly 900
bills. more than any legislature of re-
cent years has had to contend with
Another is that on the floor and in
committee meetings more bills have
been killed than any session for years
can boast of killing. And to cap the
climax. 1t appears now that the pres
ent assembly will hold shorter SEES.
l Sinn than halI s,,
tofore. A motion to bring the assem-.
bly, to close on April 1, one week
from next Thursday. has been adopted
by the senate, and members of the
house say 1t will pass that body somc
day this week. Should this resolution
be adopted it will make session o!
only ninety days duration. shorter by
ten days than the average time o.
legislative assemblies in the state.
The usual date for adjournment has
been somewhere between April and
April IL.
During the two weeks that remain
of the session practically all of the APP
preparation bills will have to be acted
upon, and as they carry more than u
million dollars and many Of them are
important in provisions much time
will be taken up with them.
Consolidation Bill.
The record Governor Carroll intends
to leave as showing his influence with
the Legislators will be the probable
adoption of a bill to consolidate sew.
eral departments of the state govern
ment under one head. The bill which
the governor is advocating and which
Is now before the assembly consoli.
dates the following boards under one
commission: Board of health, board
of medical examiners. commission. of
pharmacy, board of veterinary exam
liners, and the state sanitarium for
tuberculosis. The new commission
named in the bill, which has the name
of Senator Hammill back of 1t, is to
consist of three members, not more
than two to be of the same political
party. They are to be named by the
governor and approved by the senate.
The term of Office shall be for six
years. with salary of $4,000 year
for each member and they are to EN-
ploy secretary at a salary of $4,000 "a
year. They are also empowered to
employ a competent pharmacist and
a competent veterinary surgeon at
salaries not to exceed $1,000 a year
The incentive to his attempt at con
solidation has been said by Governor
Carroll to be the evil found in the
per diem system which now is opera.
tive for all these boards and commits.
sions. 1t is charged that the members
have been putting in bills for prac-
tically every day in the year when
they have not given all their time to
the state.
Thursday afternoon the committee
on constitutional amendments in the
senate, which has the prohibitory re-
submission under consideration, will
hold an open hearing for the oppo
nents of the resolution. This follows
a hearing granted the friends of the
measure and will be followed by the
decision of the committee. 1t is ex.
pected this decision will be for indet
mite postponement. Even if the pres,
ent legislature does not submit rhe
question to the voters, it will still
have made record of passing more
bills for curtailing and controlling the
liquor traffic in Iowa than have been
passed by all the assemblies of the
state since the time of the days OF
statewide prohibition in the late sos.
Anti.Liquor Bills Passed.
So far more than dozen regulatory
measures have been introduced and
of these every one which has had its
inning on the floor of the two houses
has gone along swimmingly to be en-.
acted into law. To be sure some OF
these measures are more fierce against
the liquor interests in the title than
they will be in practice, but others are
of nature that will mean the straight
and narrow path for saloon keepers
and liquor dealers, or else all kinds
of trouble. The Cosson bills, which
are fathered by Senator Cossop OF
Guthrie, but which really originated in
the Office of Attorney General Byers,
are of kind which mean more strict
enforcement Of the liquor laws The
Hammill bills. by the senator from
Hancock county, are Of the same char
acter and will make the drug store
permit holder trifie more careful as
to the manner in which he deals out
the original packages of "Old Crow
and other hilarity breeding concoc.
tons, Other bills are like the mild
doses administered to the patient by
the homeopathic physician, as com.
pared with the allopathic prescriptions
of the more strenuous healers. Prac.
tically all of the liquor regulation laws
to be enacted by the present assembly
are now on their way to the desk OF
Governor Carroll for his signature.
and review of the work done by the
assembly along this line will be inter-
esting.
i One Of the Cosson bills gives the at.
torney general right to go into any
county of the state and take charge