Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-04-15

Senate file No. sS, by Balkema.
which has been kicked about In the
house for more than . month ~ re-
suit OF the fight on road legislation.
was finally passed by the house yes
terday. It gives boards Of supervisors
power to purchase or condemn private
land for roads to avoid expensive
bridges. grades or dangerous railroad
crossings.
Other bills passed by the house
yesterday afternoon appropriate $16.-
900 for the Iowa library commission;
give tho Eighth judicial district an adj
ditional Judge at 4 salary Of $500 a
year; permit city councils to appoint
i've, seven or nine members on board
of library trustees: give savings banks
right to loan on second mortgages. the
same as state banks.
The senate yesterday refused to re-
consider the vote by which the bill
raising the age Of consent in Iowa was
killed on Tuesday. The house had
passed the measure.
When the bill failed a motion was
filed to reconsider. Many Of those
who voted against it declared that they
would aid in revivtng the bill, so that
1t might be made less drastic. When
the vote was taken, however, 1t STOOD
10 for reconsideration and Fl against.
The measure provided for raising
the age of consent from Is to 10 years.
For young men under 81 years OF age,
a year in Jail was fixed as the mini
mum penalty for violation of the pro-
posed law Men over p years were
made subject to life Imprisonment Tor
violation Of the law.
Many of those who voted against
the bill declared they favored raising
the age of consent to 16 years. They
wanted less severe punishmnt provid-
ed. they said.
The bill had the backing OF the w.
C. T. U. of Iowa. Mrs Anna Edworthy,
representing that organization, was &C
tive in urging the adoption of the
mea sure.
1t will be observed that not very
much is being said just now about the
time of adjournment. The fact is that
both of the houses of the legislature
are getting down to hard work and
trying to finish up so as to be able to
adjourn as soon as possible, but no
body is willing to decide right now
finally.
The record now is that the two
houses have finally passed about 200
bills, nearly equally divided between
house and senate bills. But there are
at least 800 bills that have passed one
house of the other and have not been
approved by the second house. Not
two dozen Of these have been disposed
of in any way by the receiving house.
An illustration Of how some things
are not done right, even in body
which is trying to make a record for
perfection, came to light yesterday
when members received their morocco
covered copies of the book Of rules and
official directory Of the senate for this
session. If the printed rules OF the
senate are worth anything at all they
should be in the hands Of the members
by the second or third week Of the ses-
sion. But the rules were not reported
and adopted until just a short time
ago.
It Is generally conceded that as to
the educational institution appropria-
ton bills the committees have done
great work and probably have accom-
plished results far better than might
have been anticipated. The bills which
passed the senate will likely be ac-
copied in the house. This fixes the
annual support at a sum somewhat
larger than at present for each Of the
institutions provides steady and con-