Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-02-04
HARDING AFRAID To
CALL LEGISLATURE
TREWiN SAYS GOVERNOR Is
PLAYING POLITICS WITH
CODE COMMISSION.
ALLEGES HE WANTS TO
BAR WOMEN FROM POLLS
Trewin Declares Attitude Of chiei
Executive Has 20 Do With Petty
Polities-Hardins Goes Back or
His Promises--Says He Fears the
Asssmblymen viii Play Politics.

Cedar Rapids. Feb. 4.-Implylng
that Governor w. l.. Harding is using
the code commission TO play politics
and that his political aspirations are
/ responsible for his refusal to call a
special session of the general assem-
! bly,, James II. Trewin OF this city,
chairman OF the code commission, has
issued a lengthy statement. He de-
clares that IL the governor is fearful
| that IL he calls the Legislature to act
on the revised code and the 250 bills
ready for that body. they might grant
primary suffrage 10 women. Mr., Ire
fears further departmental lnvestiCa-
tions by the legislature.
/ Mr.. Trewin further asserts that the
! governor is fearful OF granting pri-
mary suffrage to women. because ii
might mean added votes for Attorney
General Havner, a candidate for gov
crnOr.
/ The statement as issued by Mr.
I Trcwin reads in part as follows:
THE governor says that he believ-
es that the members Of the Iegisla-
ture would like to read the commits
sion's report before being called to act
/ on il. His attention is called 70 the
| fact that the legislature required in
I the act that the report be filed on or
( before Jan. and requested the gov
ernor 70 call the general assembly
. no 70 hn Inv
/ ing the month of January. AS a mat
| ter Of fact the governor and members
/ of the legislature and many others
| have been furnished with a large
number Of bills for examination, and
I he or7snybody else can see and exam
/ Inc al! of them at any time by calling
at the office Of the commission IN the
capitol.
A Matter For the Assembly.
The governor says he would nike
to read the commissions report,
| implying that It might not be de-
srable to call the general assembly
to consider it Only recently did he
take any particular interest in it.
| While practically all Of the state
| officers and members Of commits
sions and many lawyers and Judges
and other citizens have offered VAL
! liable suggestions to the code COM
mission, pointing out defects in the
| law and proposing remedies, the
commission has not been favored
with any such from the governor,
tho personally requested Of him
more than once. His first apparent
real interest in the report of the code
commission was in his effort to kill
it and thus saddle the responsibility
of not calling an extra session on the
commission. 1t seems now that he
wants time to censor 1t before II Is
considered by the general assem- bly,.
But the general assembly required
the report to be made to 1t and not
Tire governor, and did not confer on
him any power of censorship over
the report"
Some Supposed Reasons.
ct have heard several reasons ad-
vanced why the governor is not like
~ to call an extra session.
Among these are!
THAT the governor did not want
to permit the general assembly tc
authorize women TO vote at the
primaries for fear 1t might benefit
Attorney General Havner in his can.
dldacy for the governorship.
That the governor did not want
any investigation Of the Office o.
the secretary Of the executive coun-
Gil.
The governor told me that NJ
did not want to call tho general as
sembly together unless he had ar
understanding with the members
J that they would not play politics
and engage in Investigations or &c
anything except to consider the code
commissions report.
IT do not know II the governor
will call a special session. II he ha'
regard for his word and the public
interests he will call the session