Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-11-16
ATTORNEY ron EXECUTIVE
COUNCIL SEEKS 70 HAVE i
PIERCE CASE souELcHEp.
CLAIM 70 SET UP THAT
STATE CAN NOT De SUED
Point Raised That Tax ca.s 10 Brought
Against Executive Council and
Therefore Against Commonwealth
Ruling Of Court Probably Will Die.
poss Of Matter.
special to 1rmes-Repubncan.

Special to Times-Republican.
Des iMoines, Nov. 16.-Iiarry +
Sampson. special counsel to the attor-
ney general, on behalf OF the officials
OF the state and the state executive
council today filed in district court
the demurrer of the state to the ap-
peal Of the attorneys for Frank Pierce.
secretary OF the League of Iowa Num-
cipalities. in regard to the demand Tor
a reassess,nent OF the property of the
state.
| In the demurrer filed today. the point
is raised. which will probably dispose
of the suit, hat while the case is nomi-
nally against the governor of the state
and his associates on the council, 1t
is in fact q suit against the council as
an official body. hence is a suit against
the state itself. The state can not be
| sued except by consent of the legisla-
ture.
Unless 1t is admitted that the suit
is in fact one directed against these
men for doing their official duty then,
so 1t is claimed, h action should be
| one OF a different character and not an
injunction process.
That which 1t is sought to have the
| district court to do is to direct that
the council shall reopen the whole
| question Of assessment Of certain prop
erty n make the assessment over
again and also do over again h work
OF equalizing assessments as between
the counties and different classes OF
| property. This would involve doing all
! the work over again and II done II
would mean that in the office Of every
| county auditor all the tax books would
have to be made over again.
AS foreshadowed in these dispatches
a few days following the death Of Car
roll Wright. James L. Parrish has been
officially named to succeed Mr.. Wright
as general attorney for the Rock Is
land for Iowa. The selection is one
! anticipated from the first since he had
| been designated to .nke over the work
temporarily during the illness OF Mr..
| Wright and he has been virtually drill
ed Into the work under Mr.. Wright.
Mr.. Parrish il q clean. able and high
| minded young lawyer. who has devot-
ed himself unselfshly to his law prac-
tice, and he has never dabbled in poll
tics in the least.
No other changes are anticipated,
! save that the work for South Dakota
will be handled from the st. Paul office
rather than from here.
A hard blow to the Industry of max
ing a living by being a private de
tective" was given by the supreme
court in affirming the case In which
one c. p. Browning, of this city. was
convicted OF making threats to extort
money. The accusation was that
i Browning and two other private de-
tectiyes,' all of whom had been largely
supported by the anti-saloon league
arranged a deal by which they raided
a questionable resort, in which one OF
them had gone to fix things. and then
they sought the payment of money to
prevent incarceration in prison. 1t
was pleaded by the detective that the
arrest was proper and an offense had
been committed, but the court says
that this does not make any difference
at all. The court recommended the
case to the parole board for investiga-
ton. however. owing to the notorious
fly bad character Of all parties con-
cerned.
The state railroad commission had
before 1t today the new Iowa law au-
| thorizing the establishing Of switch
ling zones at manufacturing centers'
The law was put thru the legislature
by the untiring zeal of Senator Robert
Hunter. Of Sioux City. but owing to
the fact that amendments were MADE
In the house some parts Of the law are
vague and the commission is in doubt
as to the extent Of its authority. TIL
case comes up on application OF the
shippers of Des Moine to have the
switching zone OF Des Moines defined
inI.k aaAloa