Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-01-12


redeemer liveth-that he is best
guarded against giving what he has in
trust. to satisfy a sense Of obligation
who is obliged to unknown thousands
| If you shall feel as I do, that the
preservation of this principle is vital
am sure you will, no more than
hear with patience, pleas for saving
money by abp1ishing the machinery by
which it is given play.
! No saving of money which involves
curtailing the liberty and power of the
individual citizen is an economy.
Road Improvement
| A statement that one favors "good
roads" is no contribution to political
thought and no guide to solving the
problem of how best and most econ
omically to get them. We all want
the best roads We can pay for. We
all want every dollar of our money to
produce a dollars worth Of perman-
ent betterment in road conditions
In the recent campaign which has
resulted in our occupying our respec'
tive station in the public service, one
issue was dominant, and the voice OF
/
tone That issue was whether the
state or any of its governmental d.
Visions should enter into any long
time Indebtedness, under any guise,
for extensive work in experimental
road building. The verdict OF the
lectorate was Enthusiastically against
any such course, and for making our
road improvements out of funds pre-
viously raised by normal taxation, and
in such manner and to such extent as
should be determined by those who
must furnish the money to pay for
them.
To the extent that I have power in
my office, it shall be employed in all
legitimate ways to enforce this pro-
gram for which I believe the people
have spoken-and l hope for your CO
operation.
Congress had appropriated moneys
from the federal treasury. to be used,
under certain conditions, by states
and smaller governmental divisions
for the improvement of highways, and
these funds may be secured by the
states, or its agencies, when they
shall have raised for themselves GER
tain and other sums, to be applied
upon the same work. This Is called
federal aid" In my opinion it is
form of lottery for the extraction OF
money from the pockets of the people,
under conditions only temporary pain
less. It it a sedative, administered
to the taxpayer, under the influence
of which he pays for the prize out of
his own pocket.
To the extent that permitting our
public agencies to participate in the
distribution of these funds is an en-
couragement to further activities OF
this sort by the federal government,
or by the state, accepting such aid is
a dangerous expedient, while not
availing ourselves of it involves the
patent injustice of contributing to
fund from which we get no benefit.
Our choice therefore lies between two
evils, and I trust to your wisdom to
choose course in this respect which
will not lend announcement to this
wasteful form of appropriation and ex-
penditure, while securing to ourselves
some crumbs from the feast we have
been forced to spread.
Law Enforcement
An executive officer has no proper
concern with possible reaction occa-
stoned bv honest and uniform enforce
ment of law. To say that to enforce
law may lead to its repeal is but to
say that we live in republic and that
the citizen is sovereign.
You will be responsible for the ex-
istence of every statute which shall be
fully so as if you had enacted it
originally.
If have any skill to read the public
mind, it seems to me that men and
women in every walk of life feel heav-
ilv the burden of our too many laws.
and that there is practical unanimity
against the tendency which has filled
our statute books with hastily drawn
and hale digested measures Of every
sort. There is feeling that govern
mental activities touch the individual
almost daily, in innumerable petty
ways. without having produced any
substantial betterment in living condi-
tons, or in standards of conduct.
What the people of this state want
is fewer laws. plainly written, easily
understood and well enforced. They
expect you to reduce the number of
laws; expect you to put them in such
shape as that the average man may
read as he runs. and periodically obey.
This is task too large for single
session. l therefore recommend that
a body be provided by this legislature.
to report to the succeeding one, in har-
mony with this thought, their findings
for action.
When our laws shall be reduced to
readable limits. they will be under
stood, and respected, and, so, easily
enforced.
Economy
In the same way. and evidenced in
the same way, is demand for reduc-
ton of public expenditures. and for
economies in the expenditure Of such
funds as shall be necessarily expended
They expect you TO reduce the nun,
Der of persons employed in govern
mental activity, wherever possible, and
to reduce, or at least to not increase.
the present burden of taxation.
Legislation during the past few
years has resulted in an enlargement