Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-04-09
ACTIVITIES OF THE
STATE Legislature.
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al bankers business. The bill as
passed was amended to make the law
expire January first, 1921, and at that
time it can be re-enacted by the next
legislature if it is deemed a good
law to have.
A rather heated controversy was
staged in the senate Thursday over
the new motor vehicle bill, drawn by
Senator Kimball and presented as a
Ways and Means Committee bill The
Motor Vehicles committee had been
working day and night and Sundays
also on a bill regulating the operation
and taxation of motor vehicles in
this state. and the feeling arose as to
which bill should be passed. Senator
Kimball was accused of playing lone
hand in drafting his bill, while sub
committee had worked on the other
bill. The Kimball bill came out first
and was presented to the senate in a
speech nearly two hours long by the
author. A motion was then made to
substitute the other bill, and finally
this was amended to send both bills
to strictly neutral committee-the
judiciary committee of lawyers-and
have them take the good points of
both bills and present them for adop-
ton. This motion prevailed and if
any new motor vehicle law gets
through this session it will be this
joint committee bill, to be presented
next Tuesday-and if none is passed
the people of Iowa will have just
cause to impeach every member of
the legislature, for the present laws
are obsolete and unavoidable and un-
enforced.
The new bill will provide that all
auto licenses will be secured at the
office of the county treasurer, where
the fees will be paid, and the county's
share Of the money retained, the bal,
ance being sent to the state treasurer.
It seems that nearly all members favor
this plan. The new law will doubt
less also raise the auto license fees
notwithstanding them in fact. All
money so raised will 60 to the i'm
provement of the roads under the new
road law that will be adopted, and be
lsed with the federal aid money for
paving and crawling the main road
systems.
Secretary Allen Resigns.
Iowa got rid of one secretary OF
state and accepted a new one in less
han twenty-four hours time this week.
of State w. S. Allen re-
;igned Wednesday afternoon, the SEN
tie accepted the resignation in less
han fifteen minutes and on Thursday
morning Governor Harding had APP
pointed W. G. Ramsay, chief clerk of
he house, to fill the vacancy and Mr..
ramsay accepted. The new secretary
will take the office July 1st. Thus
here are ways of choosing new OFFICE
IT'S and getting rid of old ones with
nut the aid or consent of any politi-
al convention or primary Allen is
low serving on his fourth term as
secretary of state, having overthrown
LII republican precedent in this state
asst year by standing as candidate
Or fourth term-and winning out in
he primaries in spite of the opposi-
ion of most all the party leaders. But |
lis utter incompetence and failure to
manage the affairs of the /
'ffice was developed by the investiga-
ions by the committee on depart
mental affairs and on their advice he
to save dragging into public
,aze some Of the inner workings of
he secretary's office and methods.
Allen is to be pitied; it is
lot charged by anyone that he is per-
,onally dishonest or that he has In
beaten the state out of
anything, but it is said that his In
and lack of management
lave cost the state $500 day for the
vast two years-and that is the state |
nent of one who helped in the inves-
igation.
Now another investigation is in
progress in the fish and game depart
nent, it is said, without charges pre-
erred or expectation Of discovering |
lnything bad in the management OF
he department, but for the purpose
4 recommending changes in the law
md different methods of licensing |
md applying the money to the states
program. |