The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1917-02-21
DES MONIES, Feb. 17-Members of

DES MONIES, Feb. 17-Members o
the legislature who are in close touch
with the situation aver that all hope
of a short session has departed. Bills
in the house are climbing up TOWARD
the 400 marke and many important
measures are in the hands of commit
tees. Investigating committees ga
lore have been appointed and some
friction has thereby been engendered
A committee on retrenchment and re-
form, composed OF members of both
houses and Of members Of both poIit-
ical parties is charged with numerous
and far reaching powers. The crea-
tion of investigating committees to
take up work that belongs to retrench'
ment and reform has been taken as a
lack Of confidence in the committee
charged with the responsibility of in
yestigating such matters and finally
at the suggestion of Representative
Klinker of Craw ford, who spoke Of the
mania for special committees as some
| thing of joke, the house smothered
several attempts to further burden
| the session. The special committee
that was to investigate the high price
of coal and to which was committed
the duty also of ascertaining the
cause and remedy for a scarcity of
cars, has had no funds placed at its
disposal to carry on the work and
nothing particular has been done.
Many large measures are awaiting
action hut nothing of consequence
will be accomplished until the new
highway bill is out of the way. 1t
will probably take several days to get
vote on that measure. The house
is practically tie on the proposition
as far as the republican members are
concerned and the fourteen democrats
In the house hold the balance of pow
er. Public meetings are being held in
counties thus represented in an effort
to get sufficient pressure to bear to
cause opposition to the Pitt-JOhnston
bill. 1t has been decreed that the
general assembly take a recess on
February Gath for ten days, reconven-
ing on Tuesday, March 9Th. A rule
was established February 18th that af
ter that date no member will be per-
| mitted to introduce more than two
bills without the unanimous consent
of the house. g.
President Wilson ssnds Thanks.
Speaker Pitt received q telegram
from President Wilson In arpres stati Inn
Of the resolutions Of confidence passed
recently by the house. His message
was as follows: a~ "
"Will you not accept for yourself
and the members of the house of the
Thirty-seventh general assembly OF
the state of Iowa, this expression OF
my warmest thanks for ther generous
pledge of support? l deeply appreci-
ate the confidence and the appreciation
of your colleagues and yourself and
am heartened by your friendly assur-
ances. Cordially yours,
Change Demanded in Ancient Blue
Laws.
An organization with headquarters
in Des Moines has been organized
which has for it's object a concerted
action in the enforcement of the Sun
day laws. Rev. Wickhan, late of Ok
lahoma, is at the head of the organ
ization which is state wide. Gov
ernor Harding stated in his inaugural
address that if there were unpopular
laws left upon the'statute books when
the legislature adjourned the general
assembly and not the officials should
be blamed for the unpopularity Of their
enforcement. Representative Grift1n
of Sioux City has introduced bill to
amend the Sunday laws by outlining
what shall be permissible under lib
eral construction of the enactments
which will prevent an infraction of the
law. His bill makes the following in
terpretation:
"The provisions of this section shall
not be held to prohibit the r,iainte-
nance ana operation Of railroads,
st: eet and i1terurbaI railways, tele-
phone and telegraph service, heating
and lighting plants, waterworks and
other public service, livery stables, un-
dertaking establishments, automobile
garages and service stations, hotels.
eating houses and drug stores; nor the
sale and delivery Of milk and ice; nor
the publishing, sale and delivery OF
| newspapers; nor the sale of period
icals; nor the giving OF concerts OF
music and the opening of public H.
braries and museums. Nor shall the
! provisions of this section be held to
prohibit the maintenance and opera
| tiOn of bakeries, confectionery stores,
! fruit stores, cigar stores, bath houses,
amusement parks, baseball games, the.
aters and moving picture shows. but
towns and cities having a population
of less than 10000 shall have the pow
er by ordinance to prohibit the same
on Sunday and provide penalties for
| violations thereof" .
| State Finances in Bad Shape.
! Governor Harding read a second
| message to the joint meeting of both
houses and this time he devoted at
tention to financial report from the
| state treasurer This report shows
that there was cash on hand Jan. l,
| 1917, in the amount of $116,247, and
that the revenues available up to June
30 1917. including this cash, will be
$4 4,239,447. 1t also shows that there
| has already been appropriated by for
mer legislatures, subject to warrant,
for the same six months period, the
sum of $5,724,95S. This will leave a
deficit June 80, 1917, of $1,4S6,511. The
governor suggests that there are three
avenues open for rehabilitating the
depleted treasury. One is by reduc.
ing the expenses we are already un-
l - y