Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-04-01
so CHANGES SENATE BILL THAT
ITS. DEFEAT IS MADE
CERTAIN. ID
SENATE WILL NOT ACCEPT
it in PRESENT SHAPE
Miller Proposes Law Permitting Cities
to Maintain Public Playhouses-Blow
Aimed at Theatrical Trust-Bounty
on Crows to Become Law-LesisIa-
tive Gossip.
Special to Times Republican

DeS VI ONES, April Line mousse tooA
first opportunity to emasculate the bill
for a public utilities commission to
make sure that it will never get as far
as the governor. In fact, in the view
of some Of the members, it went farther
than necessary in butchering the SEN
ate bill preparatory to funeral. 1t
first made the commission elective,
which would at once lose +, most of its
support in the senate on conference;
then took out the mutual telephones
and absolved the municipalities and did
various other things to the bill, all OF
which put it in such shape that the
senate would never for a moment con-
slider accepting it as fnality. The
house will spend some more time on
the bill
Charles w. Miller has before the
house a bill to authorize the people of
Iowa cities, on vote of themselves, 70
erect and maintain municipal play
houses. and Mr.. Miller believes it is
going to be taking thing when fully
understood. Il believe there is de-
mand and a very earnest demand ne
said. for such piayhouses, and this mas
already found expression tho perhaps
unconsciousfy, in the wonderful crowds
that attend our chautauquas. ana the
fact that almost every town and village
that counts itself as worth living in is
a patron of the lyceWm bureaus that
provide clean and wholesome courses
of entertainment at reasonable prices
Since the theaters '4bssfue SIS has fallen
into the hands of trust. which has
taken over oil the leading shows as
well as the leading show people, the
residents OF the smaller cities rarely
have tine opportunity of seeing play
withou. jeurneying to city that is on
one Of the trusts circuits. There Will
be objection to this measure because
it is said the influence of the theater
as a whole IS bad upon public morals.
1t is said the community theaters.would
not be popular owing to the fact that
some churches discountenance entirely
theater going. That is true. but would
not this ban be removed as TO theater
the moral standard of which was
guarded in the same manner as is the
moral standard Of our public libraries?
I believe it would be and quickly. Even
with the feeling among people not CIV
en- to prudishness that the theater OF
today is degrading the last general
assembly of the Methodist church was
almost evenly DIVIDED on the question
of lifting the ban on the theater. This
is not an Experiment. Not by any
means. Since the first peoples theater
was founded in Berlin in 1895 and IT'S
success assured during the first year
of it's operation, hundreds Of smaller
cities of Europe have established sim
liar institutions, and my Information is
they are uniformly successful. realize
that the drama Is almost without COM
parison as an influence for good or evil
on our national life, and it is therefore
my opinion that the fact of It's being In
the hands of grasping money eager
trust should be matter of greatest
concern to the people. Neither oratory
nor literature can appeal to the senses
as the drama does, for the drama car
ries it's impressions thru both the eyes
and the ears, appealing with telling
force 10 the eensibilities that may be
callous alike to the written or the spok-
en- word Should an institution of such
power continue at the mercy Of a
trusto The oral answer is No, and in
that we'll join in lusty chorus. But
the real answer is the establishment OF
the community theater.
One more hearing was given on the
bill for a commission to establish a
workmen's compensation and employ
ers' liability system for Iowa. The
senate committee listened to repre-
sentatives of manufacturers, jobbers,
contractors and other large employers
of labor in opposition to the plan as
proposed in the bill. Among those who
spoke were H. E. Stipp, Des Moines;
George McClain, Dubuque; Waiter
| Balluff. Davenport: E. j. Waller, SIOUX
City: Henry Letters, Cedar Rapids; r
f. Egan Burlington, and George
, Wrightman, Des Moines. This Is the
| first discussion of the bill had Tor a
long time The committee has had the
matter before it from the first day OF
the session without action. There are
several alternative bills presented, pu'
the one thar will most likely be debated
before the senate if any. Is the commls-
sion bill, but it does not seem at al
probable it can be passed.
|
An apparently unimportant oil
which passed the senate YESTERDAY
among others was one by kimoail te
change the method OF providing 1ol