Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-03-25
INCREASE IN PAY ABOUT OFFSET
ny CUTTING OFF OF GER
TAIN FEES
DIG KICK TO COME
FROM COUNTY CLERKS
Have Been Getting From $500 to $1,000
Per Year From Probate Business
Proposed Bill Fixing Sheriffs' Salar-
les Also to Start Trouble-lesisa-
tive News.
special to Times- Republican.

Special to Times Repupllcan.
Des Moines, March 25.-There is go
ing to be a good deal of stir among
county officials when they find out
what the legislature is about to do on
the salary question.
According to Joe wall, chief clerk OF
the county accounting department, who
has been freely consulted about the
bill, the changes made will just about
balance off in the matter Of raises ana
reductions. 1t was explained to the
senate. that the committee took the
clerk of courts office as 4 basis. An
effort was made to get these salaries
graded SO they will amount for the en-
tire state to just about what the
clerks are not getting. A fiat salary
was TO be provided in every case, ana
the fees to be cut off. The increase in
salaries. would about offset the cutting
off of fees and extras. But of course
it involved making some reductions
and some increases, as there was lack
of uniformity between the counties.
The. big kick is going to come from
the county clerks who have been get
ting in under the guise of being made
referees in probate" by appointment
of court, and have been getting from
$500 to 81. 600 a year on the side. This
will be cut off. 1t will also hit those
who have been able to get large fees
for naturalization work. The federal
courts have held the clerks could keep
these fees and the state policy is to
regard them as appertaining to the Of
fee. If the sheriffs bill is finally passed
there is going to be big kick from
If he oh ~
juggling with the deputyships and
making an addition to salary in that
way.
The general plan adopted is for
graded salary list which can not be
touched by the boards Of supervisors
nor the courts, and then to fix deputy
salaries at not over $40 in the counties
under $4,000, and above that size
deputy pay at half that of the chief
on a rigid rule.
Members Of the senate who have
worked on this measure believe that
in the long run it will be found econ
omy for the taxpayers of the state and
be far more satisfactory in every way.
The committee on retrenchment and
reform will recommend bill that will
secure a still larger sum from the
automobile plate business the next year
and thereafter. It will be a way to
compel auto owners to pay up. At
present the collection of the auto tax
is about the most lax Of all the col
lections. because what is everybody's
business is nobody's business. The bill
will provide a contingent fee for some
body to collect where the auto owners
neglect to make report. 1t may also
include a publicity proposition, that
of advertising the car owner as I'M
able to pay his taxes on his car. That'll
fetch 'em. The bill will ALSO save the
state $4,000 in the next two years by
making one plate and number do for
three years.
The Jones bill just introduced places
large powers in the board Of control
for the details regarding the use of
convicts on public work in the state.
The board may fix the pay Of such
men, provided that no pay shall be
fixed higher than the ordinary pay for
such labor and the board shall pay
the expenses of the camps out of this
income. 1t also provides that where
men are out of the prison walls as
TRUSTEES and make good in this outside
work, every month they are thus out
shall be treated a month plus ten days
in applying it on their sentence: or
in other words, there shall be an ad-
ditional good time" allowance for this
labor. The bill approves and puts into
law the already accomplished fact of
abolition Of contract labor at the
prisons to date from March i Of next
year.
A bill which has been under con-
sideration for some time in the senate
30 revise the law as to the allowance
to be made for a delinquent tax COL
lector, went down with a crash yes
terday when it was so amended as to
make it worthless and Senator Kim
ball, the author, moved to lay it on
the table. Senators We're very much
afraid Of the bill.
The anti polygamy resolution passed
the house with good vote and comes up
in the senate soon. 1t is said there are
enough votes to pass it easily there.
A similar resolution was defeated in
the senate because 1t called for ma
tional convention to revise the con-