The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-02-06
A lfGISLATURE LETTER
Des Moines. Feb. Q, 1919.

lab. Before people at home get in
to the notion of circulating petitions
to the legislature for this, that OF
the other thing, let us urge upo1
sonal letters, giving their views II
friendly conference with their mem
Petitions to the General Assembly
have been coming in thick and fas
during the past week. TWenty-one
different petitions were sent up te
the secretary's desk in the senate or
house. Among those in the senate
we're: Six petitions relative to the
proposed better housing law; foul
relatives to improved roads and
highways; tour for increasing the
pay of county Supervisors. one fol
the protection Of game; and one rel
atiVe to profiteering by public utill
ties. On Tuesday SO many petitions
came to the senate members that il
taken to the desk one by one and
presented to the secretary in the
usual way it would have re,
quired an hour of time, instead
of doing this a senator sug-
gathered up by a page and dellveredd
in a bunch-and there they are and
forgotten.
In the senate a petition is present
, ed by the member receiving the same
addressing the president and stat
ing that he has petition on this or
that subject. 1t is then delivered to
a page and left at the secretary's
desk. But when numerous petitions
are to be filed, the member usually
rises, and motions to- the page, hands
the petition to him and in the
Journal of the Senate the next morn
ing you read that Senator So-and-So
presented a petition from his county
relative to the road, schools, salar-
the Journal boils this down to a re-
port that "Sayers of Iowa county, a
petition. Referred to committee on
roads and highways" And so on
for half an hours reading perhaps,
while the petitions themselves get
no further considerat ton, and result
in about as much Influence. No
again.
And yet every member of the
house and senate likes to hear from
his constituents and learn their
views. He often writes scores OF
letters to them to ask their views on
they have signed petitions.
The personal letter to a member
of the legislature means that the
writer is earnest and sincere enough
in what he says to take the time to
write it, to furnish the paper and
stamps and mail it. The petition is
known to be usually. a request by
anybody or everybody he meets TO-
put their names down on a piece Of
paper the contents of which they
know very little about. Petitions
come in that are laughable, many of
them illegible, and all of them a
waste of the time and material in
volved.
Provoking Resolutions.
About as useless as petitions to
the members attach to resolution"
offered in both house and senate en-
dorsing this or that, or directing
congress to do. something. Several
times in the past week have mem
bers soaked" such propositions,
and one was the resolution endorS-
ing the league Of nations. Present
lington at time when the members
were evidently in an ugly mood,
when something else had gone
wrong, or when too much of the
same stuff was appearing, and also
not liking the perspicacity of the
author of the resolution, this me-
mortal to congress to put across what
President Wilson and all our peace
ENJOYS are in Europe to promote,
met with disaster, tangled up in the
first barb-wire, fell into the front
trenches, gassed and gone. Like
wise one endorsing the improve
ment of the st. Lawrence-Welland
took oratory and time to do the
useless job.
Printers Accused OF Delay.
Members of both house and SEN
ate were more than peeved Mon
day when they found the printed
copies Of most Of the bills offered
had not yet reach,d their desks so
as to enable them to study these
bills and allow the committees to act
were ready to report bills out for
passage, but the printed bits were
not yet available after days Of
elapsed time The senate faced a
like situation and adopted a resolu-
ton calling for information concern
ing the delay. The chairmen OF
the printing committees of both
houses were ordered to investigate
and report on the matter, and they
went to the plant of the Homestead
Company for the facts. 1t is stated
now that Bob" Henderson, the
man who was official state printer
under the law, and who was often
ACCuSou ny TIE i1OueStedu VI loU-
berry OF the state, OF sharp practices,
ETC., has been secured by the Home
stead to take charge of this import
ant state printing job for the SEES
sion al handsome salary. and thus
the work may go along better in the
future.
There is a growing sentiment in
favor of the state esta blishing its
own printing plant and doing its
own WoTk, ana such law may be
presented and passed.
Fixing the Primary Laws.
A general assault on the primary
election laws was begun Thursday
when three bills by Senator Kimball
were reported out of the elections
committee. One was to cut off the
names of presidential electors from
the ballot, and to permit the print
ing of the presidential candidates
names at the head of the tickets,
and another to make the nomina-
tons of all state candidates below
that of acknowledgement at the
state conventions of the parties.
Another bill is designed to place
the circle back on the ballot. 1t
seems to be the general sentiment
that such bills may pass and be-