The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-02-13
LEGISLATURE LETTER
Des Moines, February s, 1919.

Des Moines, February s, 1919.
many people in the state to know
that Code revision is coming. Law
yers, school men, boards of super
visors and county officers generally
will welcome the news. Attempts
sions of the General Assembly by a
few members to get a bill started
through that would provide for
real revision of the Code Of Iowa,
but at each attempt the disagree
ment over details as to how it should
be done and by whom, killed the
proposition. Now we can, say for
certainty that either the ;l house or
both, will construct committee
bill, and when such bill has their
o. k. it will be reported to the two
houses and will get through the long
line of entanglements and work Will
get started. Our prediction is that
the bill will provide that a commit,
tee of about FIVE good book and t ta
will have charge of the work, and
that their pay will be merely nomin-
al, with expenses, Of course. This
committee on Code revision will per-
form a service to the state that Will
stand to their credit for a generation
or more, and they will feel amply
paid for their services in the appre-
citation of the public.
1t will take an extra session OF the
General Assembly to go over the
work of the Code revision commit
tee, probably a year or eighteen
months from this time, and put the
jurat of the law making body on
each and every act written by, the
committee in the new book of laws.
rctc hn
ion now is that it will be worth it to
the people to have their laws codified
so that both lawyers and laymen can
figure out head or tail to the various
legal problems that are continually
coming up. This is especially true
of the school laws of the state,
which, scattered throughout the Code
and Supplemental Codes and session
laws as they are. battle the most up
to-date attorneys and make impos-
sible any guarantee Of correct appli-
cation or Interpretation of the stat
utes that govern and direct the
thousands of teachers, boards and
officers who are charged with duties
in connection with out great school
system.
Destroy Your Harberry Plants.
The second bill of this session, to
pass both houses and become a law
was Representative NeWton's bill to
eradicate the barberry bush and
thus do away with the rust in wheat.
The Cass county representative got
his bill in the house at the same
time similar bill was offered in the
senate, but Chairman Anderson OF
the house agricultural committee got
action quicker than the senate com
mittee did and within six days the
bill was passed. Rust, it has been
proved by scientists and demonstrate
ed by entomologists, is a plant di-
sease that is carried from wheat to
the barberry bush, where it winters.
From the barberry bush it goes back
to the wheat alive and vigorous to
consume the crop. 1t cannot 90 from
wheat crop to wheat crop, but must
be renewed by this system of fertll-
ization or rotation from the bush to
the wheat and back, year after
year.
Salary raises are in the very air.
Bills for acts to raise salaries OF THIS
and that. official are as spontaneous
as smoke cloud sitting through the
streets of Des Moines. Public offic-
ials and their helpers who have ex-
listed through the war times on one
loaf of sugar a day or kept down to
sixteen dollar hats instead of spend
ing twenty-five dollars for them, sud
denly see that if prices are not going
to drop they must go to the public
till for more money and not be BASH
full about it, If prices do drop and
times change for the easier, they
will still have their jobs and salaries.
To Stop Auto Thieves.
In general everybody Will applaud
the author of a bill that will reall'
protect car owners from thieves and
Representative Neff of Pottawatta-
mic county is trying to get the ap-
plause on bill introduced the past
week to make liable to a Jail SEN
tence any person convicted of buying
an automobile where the engine or
license number has been tempered
with All sales of cars will have to
be filed with the secretary of state;
who can in this way trace the rec
ord of car. Simple enough. Make
the buyer liable instead of the sell
Ter of a stolen car and they will be
less of legal tender in future trans
actions and booze excursions.
A dozen important bills affecting |
the school laws are in course of
preparation and in committees at
this time, and some of them will be
reported out for passage shortly. |
Others will incubate several weeks, |
perhaps, before they break forth
and then they will mark an epoch in |
the history of this state.
Comment regarding the notorious |
Ida county rape case and the pardon |
granted by Governor Harding to |
young Rathbun, who was convicted |
of the heinouS crime in that county /