Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-01-24
GBy Ora williams.1l

, ne some material advantage ilhaying
the special election for meber of
congress In the Second confessional
uistrlct at this time. 1t will (rye to
!ndlcate very closely what are t)be the
issues OF the coming state-wid\ cam
pa!sn IN Iowa for state and fedAal Of
noes. This will not be so much " the
formal platforms or pronouncdnents
or the candidates, as BY whaA the
speakers actually discuss and wha\ the |
people talk about. |
| while there was no contest on Sr !
congressman two years ago in the dA-
trict the vote on other officials shows
1t to be an overwhelmingly democratic
district. The vote of the district was\
1or Taft. S,213; Wilson, 1921: Chafin,
o'6; Debs. $3.50; Roosevelt. 1880. But
on governor it was quite different:
Clarke, 12,057; Dunn, 1874; Stevens.
$3.50. 1t is plain that the democrats
nave at least half the votes of the dis
Ir afe.
crease a}nnnounced that the democrats
nrova, 70 tba. very hard fight to in
administration. fa TO mus give ap,
be an earnest, tho pro- .ne naeio i.;,,
aggressive republican CAM. -.
stands to reason that probably yer,
light vote will be pom. All will de-
pend on what the farmers ia the resi-
dents of the small towns think shout
the situation in the state and nation. Z.
! is going to be hard to center the fight
on any one or any few issues. The
| general disposition Of the people to-
| ward the policies advocated by the two
parties will likely have most to do with
the result. Anyway there is to be
some satisfaction in having a sort of
try out of the political feeling prior to
the coming primary election.
The last quarterly number of Equity,
DR.. Charles f. Taylor's journal of poll
| teal progress in philadelphia, contains
| Senator Cummins' bill for presidential
| nomination by the primary system,
which is declared 10 be at present the
most ambitious and complete PROPOSE
ton that we have for consideration
The bill is criticized for leaving it too
easy for candidate to get on the bal
lot so that a multiplicity of candidates
is possible. and under this a nomina-
ton might be made with a rather small
minority of the votes cast. But Equity
also hints that possibly there is no way
" dN Olu Ills Al any SSAiS1!C Aot uAA w.
nomina tons, unless the system Of
preferential voting is adopted. with
each voted giving a first, second and
third preference. The bill is also criti-
cized mildly because of too early a date
for the primary, the second Monday in
July The suggestion is for q Septem
Der date as best suited, and as still
leaving a sufficiently long presidential
M nv
tor Cummins was introduced in the
present congress last April but is the
same as the one he introduced in the
previous congress, which started the
move in that direction.
A statement in the papers the other
day in connection with the career OF
the late Josiah A. Harvey. who died
at Perry, reveals how easy it is to
forget recent history. Mr.. Harvey was
the author OF the constitutional amend +,
ment for prohibition which was adopted
in Iowa in June. 1882, by over 10000
majority He was not only the author
Of the amendment, as member OF the
house from Polk county. in 1878. but he
managed the campaign for the drys and
for many years was head Of the organi-
zat,on which sought to maintain the
amendment and to secure legislation Of
like character. In fact he fairly de-
voted his life to prohibition. But the |
statement was that this amendment
is Still in force and the nu!ct law al
fords only a way to get around It, But |
this was the amendment that went |
down to its death under judicial tech |
nicallties. 1t was the victim OF mis- |
placed comma. And 1t was with ref- |
erence to this case that the people OF |
the state exercised their right of recall |
on the judiciary with swift precision. |
retiring at once the judge who wrote |
the opinion and later retiring all who |
had agreed TO it. But the amendment
is dead.
The experience Of Joe Wall and
others of the county examining bureau
in the Emmett county case is declared
to be typical. Mr.. Wall states that
they did not find the slightest evidence
that any official is intending to do
others than what he believed to be
right no suggestion of corruption or
evil; but in great many ways it was
found things were being done wrong
and there was great waste and
Inc who're lTOuOle SetHleu
to be that, as in many other counties,
the county business had fallen into
rats, and one official followed another
doing things wrong just because
precedent had been set some time. The
treasurer had employed help
but which has since been
MAJ de legal. The county auditor was
paid extra for work actually done bus
the law forbids such employment. The
officials had failed to have
printed some things that ought to have
been printed, as for instance. a COM
plete list of claims allowed; but on the
other hand some of the charges for
printing We're exorbitant. The net re-
suit is that henceforth The leaks are
to be stopped, business is to conforms
to law, and the county will get
a great deal more for it's money. AL
thanks to the county accounting sys-
tenn which was one Of the reforms of
the last legislature that has been ad-
vertsed as burden on the taxpayers
with no return. In this case, as in
so many others, real reform is hard to
accomplish unless an outsider comes in
and commands a change. The county
accounting and examining system in
vogue is worth vast sums to the tax
payers Of lowe.