Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1921-02-09
GETTING SOMEWHERE
But VERY SLOWLY
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WORKING ON
BIG PROPOSITIONS AND PASS
ING BUT SMALL ONES.
HECKLING HIGHWAY COMMIssIOt
Soldiers Bonus Bills Now Appear
Calling For Bond For
s22,OOOyOOO
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
Des Moines, February z, 1921.
1t may be the thought of great
many people that there is little of i'm
portance doing In the General As
sembly at this time. But there is a
great deal of Importance doing as
much as there should be in well con-
sidered legislation at any time. II
we were to recite in order and detail
all that is done n would fill many
columns Of space.
Now there are about las bills in
troduced in the Senate and some 130
in the House, with several of them
passed in both houses and ready for
publication on signature OF the gov
ernor. But up to this time it is the
new legislation proposed that is to be
considered, remembering that the fact
of its proposal is a long way from
it's final enactment.
Automobile regulations continue to
appear. Senator Schaffter Of Wright
county has a couple Of bills in that
line. One OF them proposes to es-
tablish danger zones at railway
crossings and mark the approach
thereto with danger signs in the way
of posts and signboards set at certain
distances from such crossings. An
other one calculates on reducing acci-
dents and collisions with trains at
crossings by construction of devices
for this purpose, including a hump or
raise in the roadway at a point 100
feet from each crossing, SO that the
automobile will have to slow down to
ten miles per hour or be thrown up,
Senator Frailey Of Fort Madison
has discovered that Lee county has.
now outgrown Wapello county and ID
therefore entitled under the consti-.
tuition to a second representative in
the House, while Wapello county will
lose one Of the two she now has. The
basis of representatives in the house
lis one representative for each coun-
ty and one additional representative
in the nine counties Of the state hav-
ing the largest population. Under the
late census Lee wins.
Would Bride Insurance Rates
Another very important. bill by
Senator Frailey seeks to give the
state of Iowa. some control of insur-
ance rates. When the old insurance
law was repealed four years ago it
took the bride off the insurance rates
in this state and ever since has al.
lowed the companies to adopt ratings
without interference by the state or.
any other regulation than private
greed may dictate or expediency pro-
pose. The complaint is made that
mere college boys have been sent in
to towns everywhere to inspect the
fire risks, make report on same and
these reports made to a rating bu-
reau operated from Chicago or some
other port. The rating bureau has
then declared what rate for insur-
ance shall be effective for all COM
panies doing business in such towns.
1t is also or will be charged very en-
,phatically that some Of the large ci-
ties and heavy factory and other risks
have been favored in the rate making
at the expense of the smaller towns
and the country risks; yea, even into
the millions. Senator Frailey's bill
will try to enact the law nearly as
proposed four and two years ago re-
quiring insurance companies to adopt
an insurance rating bureau, providing
for the organization, operation and
supervision Of such rating bureaus
and the supervision Of such rating
bureaus by the state commissioner
of insurance; providing for state in
spection and survey Of insurance risks
specifically rated, and directing the
state insurance commissioned to APP
point inspectors to check and inspect
up surveys and risks, and prohibiting
discrimination in Viking and collect
ing insurance rates; forbidding re-
bates of premiums paid, and other
wise safeguarding the rights and eQui-
ties of the many thousands OF small
er insurance risks in this state.
Appearance of certain interests in
the halls of legislation, and surround
ing vantage points has already been
noted since the offering of this bill.
Possibly the people out over the state
will sleep on their rights at this time
and let them kill the bill as they were
able to do two years ago. Or will
the aforesaid peope get busy with
the mails and demand protection on
a matter that amounts to far more
to them than any additional tax levy
in this state can possibly amount to-?
Working On Code Revision
A plan has finally been adopted to
get the work of Code revision under
way as rapidly as possible. The SEN
ate and House have each been divid-
ed into eight committees or more,
these committees assigned to certain
parts of the code revision work and
acting independently to get the COM
parisons of the new compiled code
made with the old Code, with the later
code supplements and session laws
so as to preclude any slips or addi-
tions not authorized by regular legis-
lation. Some of these committees