The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-03-20
A LEGISLATURE LETTER
Des Moines, March 16, 1919.

Des Moines, March 16, 1919.
Some weeks in both houses and
senate important propositions come
up and are acted upon one after an
other and rapidly, while at other
times it -seems impossible to get &C. :
past week has been one OF the active
weeks, when things have been done
that amount to Importance.
1t is useless to try in small space
to give an adequate idea of all the
measures acted upon, therefore we
will take up those that seemingly
excite most interest and have most
wide effect.
Road Bill Reported Out.
At last the new road bill is ready
and reported out for passage. The
Subcommittee of the house and
senate have been working night and
day for long time in its preparation
and now that they have unloaded
this great task feel relieved and
ready to take up other things they
are anxious to accomplish. II ever
faithful work on measure It is the
Joint subcommittee having this road
bill in hand, under the direction OF
Senator Balkema of Sioux county as
chairman of the senate committee
and Representative Santee OF the
house committee. 1t is something OF
a thankless task to stay away from
everything else of interest three or
four nights a week and work till
midnight on a measure that presents
So MANY hard problems as, this road
bill presents Whether the bill is
passed in it's present form or not, the
state owes thanks to the men who
have undertaken this unitarian
task.
The new road bill contains Sc
printed pages of the size used in, the
bill books of both houses and covers
the subject of modern roads as 1t re-
lates to this state very completely
as outlined in former legislative
letter, 1t repeats most OF the Ola Ola
one, providing that hereafter the
highways of the state shall be divid,,
ed into a primary and secondhand
road system, the primary. system to
be the main travelled and interCounty
roads that it is designed shall first
be paved with the aid Of the state
funds and the assessments to be
made along the line of the roads
road system viii be the remaining
roads in each county under the super
vision of the boards OF supervisors,
and these to be improved. by, using
the regular ROAD IdAeo Will Ih0 w
ject of finallv paving the same and
adding them to the primary road
system. Bond issues for the pri-
mary road system are provided for
only iii case the people OF a county
vote on the question hrst and DECIDE
themselves to issue bonds for paving
and permanent roads:
der IS headings, and enough copies
have been printed so that on request
they may be sent to organizations or
interested anywhere IN
the state. ;.
The new road bill does not deal in
any way with the AUTOMOBILE or auto
license proposition. That subject
comes in the form of a separate bill.
English Only in Schools.
The bill of Representative Dean OF
Osceola county requiring that Eng,
lsh only be used. in the pubic ana
private schools Of Iowa for elemen-
tary instruction passed the house
Wednesday noon by vote of 50 to
40, after being amended to permit
the use OF foreign language for re-
ligious worship or instruction. The
bill as passed reads as follows:
t'That, the medium OF instruction
of, the schools, public and private,
within the state of Iowa shall be the
English language, and the use OF any
language other than English in secu-
lar subjects in said schools is hereby
prohibited: provided however,, that
nothing herein shall prohibit the
teaching and studying Of foreign
regular school course in any such
school in all courses above the eighth
grade. =
Non-Partis:s,. Judiciary Gone.
When the house voted so to II, in
favor of the bill of Larson OF Mont
gomery county to repeal the non-par-
tisan Judiciary law Tuesday, 1T was
seen that the tide had changed
enough to possibly put 1t over in the
senate. also The bill was called up
as a special order OF business "eu-
nesday noon, when another Of the
most inter esting fights and debates
of the. session was staged in the
senate. The house members had a.
fine field day over this bill, refusing
all amendments excepting one that
provides for holding a separate state
convention for the nomination OF SUI
preme court judges within two weeks
after the regular party state conven-
lions, delegates for which judicial
are to be named at the
same time and the same place as
delegates to the regular state conven-
lions. In the senate, Price, VINO nad
a bill meant to repeal the nom
partisan judiciary law, worked hard
to substitute the house bill as pass
ed for his own bill, and it went across
by exactly a majority-26 votes. for
to % against, with two members
absent
The vote to repeal the non
partisan judicial law ends fight
that has gone through three sessions
now. Four years ago the attempt
to repeal failed Two years ago the
feat was ACCOMPLISHED by tying the
judiciary repeal bill as a tail on an
other election law-and then Gov
ernor Harding vetoed the bill as
passed. Friends of the repeal propO-
sition say now that they have no
doubt the governor will sign this bill
and that the selection of judges will
thus go back to the convention sys-
TEN, which there is no doubt most
of the lawyers of the state favor.
Rainbow Boys to 20 East.
Senator Rule got resolution
Tuesday providing. for the
appropriation of $50, or so much
thereof as may be necessary, to pay
tho aynonSes Of all Iowa members of