Manchester Democrat., 1921-03-30

case unfinished. When afternoon
convening time came, however, the.
were satisfied their fight was lost
and at this time Senator Price O
Monroe county offered an amendmen
to the Mead bill, striking out the par
of it that did away with the highwa,
commission, and inserting a line tha
would remove the commission head
quarters from Ames to Des Moines
Friends OF the present highway law
then took up the battle, led by Sena.
tor Stoddard OF Woodbury. county. He
presented facts and figures to prove
the immense value Of the commission
and verifying the cost and accomplish.
ments. He told of the necessity ol
employment of skilled engineers as
had been done, and declared that all
counties had been saved mint OF
money by way of protection against
grating contractors and others who
have in the past tried to manipulate
things with boards of supervisors. The
importance of a statewide plan OF
road construction, and definite speci-
fications for bridge work to meet the
requirements of the United States
government and thus get the millions
of dollars offered by the government
for assistance to such road work were
shown. The danger that If the bill
were passed the state would lose its
share of the millions thus offered by
the government was shown. In gen.
eral, the highway commission had a
good defense, supported by Senator
Whitmore Of Ottumwa and others.
Final Vote was Decisive
While the vote to remove the high
way commission from Ames to Des
Moines was a tie, the vote on the
Mead bill itself to do away with the
highway commission entirely was %
to 1S against the bill. On this vote
only Senators Brookhart, Browne
Buser, Cessna, Campbell, Darting,
Ethel, Fulton, Greenell, Hartman,
johnson, Mcintosh, Mead, Nelson,
Pitt, Price, Thurston and Tuck voted
for the Mead bill. All other senators
voted against it.
Everybody concerned feels easier
now that the highway matter has been
decided. The Iowa Homestead evil
IDENTIFY was most concerned in favor
Of the Mead bill and had Mo or three
reporters present with shorthand
reporter also there to get the speech
es. Some say the bill was drafted in
the Homestead office and sponsored
by that organization; that as a re-
suit there will be Homestead can
didate for governor rising to menace
the political horizon later, and Pitt
will be his name. But some people
from Harrison county predicted that
they would have something to say
about that in the newt primary, for
they have some wonderful results in
good road work down there and de-
clare that Pitt does not represent
their sentiment on this road ques-
tion.
A Real Blue Sky Law s
When the House passed the Weaver
blue sky law on Wednesday by a
unanimous vote, lot of kid-gloved
promoters and smooth statesmen be-
gan facing hard winter without a
job. One of the biggest bills Of this
session, covering fifty-five printed
pages, this Weaver bill defines what
stock companies and corporations are,
what officers are, what statesmen are,
what securities are. what company
is, what agent is, and all that.
Then every salesman or dealer in
securities must take out license, and
said license "is permissive only and
the secretary of state does not rec
ommend and assume no responsible
ity for any securities offered by any
dealer" The secretary Of state may
revoke any license on finding that
there is any bad flavor connected
with either company or security.
Agents must also be bonded in the
sum of $4,000 to protect the state
and individuals against fraud or dam
age. The fees for such license to
sell or peddle stock or securities runs
into real money. For an application
for a dealers license $500, for a Ii
cense, $4,000. For an agents IL
cense, $500, and various other fees
for applications, issuing of certificates,
ETC., apply to all promotion or organi-
zation propositions. --
It is said the net result OF this law
and it will become a law, because
few members care to try to oppose
twill be to curb new organizations
or corporations, and to make present
franchises very valuable. Some think
it will work against the best interests
of the state so far as organization of
new industries is concerned, but
others say the people OF the state
have paid enough for fraudulent
stock and swindles and need to be
protected from their own ignorance
and others duplicity.
Governor Appoints a Man
John B. Butler of Fort Dodge be-
comes a member of the state board OF
control on the first of July. That i'm
portant matter was finally decided in
favor of the senate last Wednesday
when Gov. Kendall sent up the name
of Mr.. Butler for the board of con-
troll vacancy to be filled by a Demo-
crat. He had named two different
women for the board, but the Senate
refused to confirm these appointments.
They accepted the first man named by
Gov. Kendall-and maybe peace and
harmony prevails.
Matters In General