Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-01-09
Recommendations
Submitted by Chief
Executive in Fdre,UeN
pecial 10 mes-Republican.


Des Moines, Jan. 9.-Governor George
w. Clarke read his message to the SEN
ate and house of representatives or
the Thirty seventh General Assembly at
a Joint meeting of the two bodies in the
house chamber at .: 80 today. He
touched upon practically all of the pun-
lie questions on which there Is now
more or less of debate and recommend
ed a number of important changes in
state government.
The governor. after a full discussion
of the direct primary law. tn" press
dental preference primary and the
non partisan Judiciary law IN a force
full manner recommended that each NJ
these laws be repealed. He discussed
the road question at some length, de-
claring there has been wonderful l!n-
provement under the state highway
commission pointing Out that l5'""
permanent bridges and culverts speak
with an eternal voice in approval "f
methods and raised the question as I"
what there could ne 10 contend about
when the commission had saved 'hr
people s400O,00 per year and r@ly by
its retention can the more than tAo
million dollars be secured from tin.
government for road Improvement
Endorses insurance Law.
. The governor also gave 4 strong en-
dorsment o. the present fire insurance
rating law saving that the records show
1.-The average rate paid in 1919 was low
err than ever before III the history e: til"
state In the way o. ,nSuranc" legs
Iat.On he recommended amending The
present law so that the state would
have Jurisdiction oyer insurance com
panes in the period between the i'm"
they file their articles ot !urorporatt5E
and take ont license.
AS 10 state expenditures the govern
or reviewed in a general wa} The bud
gets presented by the state departments
in which their requests for the coming
biennial period are set out,
some Of YOU may be astounded 1T
the amount Of money asked" SAID the
governor 1T is nothing unusual at all.
i IS quite likely that each departm on [
and institution views everything from
its standpoint as whole You WI
not. therefore. he expected. except. pos
sibly, in rare Instances. TO grant such
summs as are asked for
The governor called attention % the
fact that there is quite a general re-
quest for increases in salaries saying
that the greatest trouble about the sal
ary question : the inequalities that
exist
Il recommend as to salaries that YOU Il
endeavor to equalize them upon som"
sort Of equitable classified basis. thai
the salaries be fixed and that they he
paid out of the general fund" said the
governor. In this readjustment You
can determine as we'll a. ! AZ to wheth-
er the general level paid should 3e
raised and as TO that therefore l make
10 recommendation except that l think
YOU should take into consideration tn"
cost OF living, especially as applied 70
those who have families TO support
After pointing out that some continue
ing annual appropriations are asked
for, the governor said, Il doubt very
much the wisdom Of such an appropria-
ton, except, possibly, in undertakings
of great magnitude which necessarily
would extend over a number Of years.
. The governor recommended the con-
splidation OF the office Of state fire
marshal with that Of the state insur-
ance department. He declared that in
his judgment the duties Of the fire
marshal naturally belong to the de-
partment o. the insurance commits
sioner and should be administered hvI
IL After calling attention to the fact
that in several states the departments
OF industrial commissioner and COM
missioner Of LABOR are administered un-
der one department head he suggested
that the laws Of those states be ex-
arnined to determine + change could
be made in methods in this state
which would prumUt" efficiency or re-
dnce expenditures
He suggested that IN. work o. hote!
inspection he concentrated under one
department and that county examin-
ers also make municipal examina-
lions.