Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-08-27
MAYOR AND COUNTY ATTORNEY
FOUND TO HAVE BEEN EN-
PLoYMe CONVICT LABOR.
MEN OPPOSING STATE PLAN IN
COURT APPEAR INCONSISTENT
Judge Hamilton Ha. cass Under Ad-
visemsnt in Which State Seeks to
Have Set Aside City Ordinance
state to Bring Suit Against Benton
County officials.
Special to rimes-Republican.

either all q mistake that the people OF
Fort Madison are unanimously dead set
against use Of convict labor or else
the sharp criticism OF the city has
made itself felt; for when the case In
volving the validity Of the Fort Madi-
son city ordinances was argued the
other day it developed that the mayor
of the city had only few days ago
called on the warden for some labor
which he used and the city solicitor.
who had to defend the boycott ordin-
ances had been making use Of convict
labor. So even among those who are
officially trying to prevent the state
from adopting any modern method Of
dealing with the man who is down and
needs help, there is not great personal,
i'll feeling manifest. n.fss
Assistant Attorney General John
Fletcher went to Fort Madison and ar
gued to sustain the attack on the val
idity Of the ordinances forbidding any
convict being in the city outside the
prison walls. The ordinance was de-
Tended by Joe Fraley, city attorney.
The state, supporting the habeas COR
pus for the warden, takes the position
that the ordinance is opposed to the
state law and is unconstitutional, that
the city has no right to undertake to
regulate the details of prison manage
ment, that it Is an effort to make a
crime Of that which is Of itself an in
nocent act and that the whole thing is
contrary TO public policy.
Judge Hamilton has the case under
advisement. In the meantime Warden
Sanders Is going right ahead as a state
official doing all that any man can to
conduct the prison in the manner to get
the most good out of it for society as a
whole.
The state executive council is pre-
pairing to bring suit in Benton county
to compel the county officials to put
upon their books the assessment Of the
various telephone lines in the county
and to collect the taxes from the com
panies that have been escaping taxa
ton.
The suit will be a mandamus suit to
cover the assessment for FIVE years
back.
1t will be recalled that the council
only recently discovered that it has
been the custom in that county to-
merely mark of the telephones as ex-
empt and not to put the assessment as
sMxedEhy. the STATE against the several
Companies. It is supposed this was
done on a theory that the telephone
lines are a part of the real estate on
which located and therefore that the
state law providing for this assessment
is void and should never have been
passed.
The aggregate Of taxes involved for
the FIVE years will amount to good
many dollars.
When the throngs Of visitors begin
passing thru the gates of the Iowa state
fair tomorrow morning, the first thing
that will attract the attention of, ev-
eryone is the one new big building Of
the year-the womens and children's
building.
This is something concerning which
Iowa people have good cause to boast.
There is not another of its kind any
where in the world. 1t is the first
building for a state fair or exposition,
of size commensurate with the subject
devoted to the purposes its name would
Indicate; and literally 1t is the most
attractive and most interesting build
ing of the whole state fair group.
Properly 1t was given q commanding
position. almost at the very spot Sc
lected by the original planners of the
fair grounds as the center of all activ-
ity. Because of the generous appropri-
alton by the state legislature and adj
mnistration it has been made the
completest building OF all. The cost
for the building alone was about $751;
OO0 with an added $1,000 put into fur
nishings.
While it is called the womens and
children's building it will be, as mat
ter OF fact, center from which will
!, radiate very large part of that which
IS recognized as the educational por-
ton of the exposition. 1t will be a
great deal more than its name would
indicate.
There is q fine auditorium in the
building that will seat a fine large
crowd of people, with neat pla torn
or stage for lectures and demonstra
TONS 1t is comfortably seated. 1t will
take the place Of numerous makeshifts
used for meetings and be substitute
for many of the tent meeting places.
1t will be in this auditorium that
there will be held the lectures and
demonstrations and discussions which
have come to be such valuable part
of the fair for Iowa people. Here will
be the domestic science lectures by a
corps of trained workers. Here will
be the better Iowa schools program
where a boost will be given for Iowa
educational work. Here will be the
child welfare lectures. The Iowa state
college lectures and all sorts OF spec
ial lectures on matters of interest to
Iowa men as well as Iowa women. 1t
will be here that will be held all of
the meetings in connection with the
baby health contest.
There will be the art exhibit in this
building: also the model school room,
the manual training work, domestic
science and the day nursery. There are
OF course, rest rooms in abundance for
the ladies and the children.
There is to be held in the women's
and children's building tomorrow--F'ri-
day--an opening program or dedication
OF the building, with addresses by
prominent persons interested in its
general purposes.
There is no doubt whatever that this
new building Is destined to play very
large part in the development of the
basic ideas of a state fair, that OF be-
coming one of the great educational
units Of the state, and that in future