IOWA. 



417 



stockholder of tho companies may bring a civil 

 Mill to compel tin- oilieers to mako tho report. 

 As a matter of fact, only four of the companies 

 actually made any report for tho year 1873, 

 ami th< tv was no basis for tho required classi- 

 fication, so that tho now law was virtually 

 without effect during this year. With regard 

 to the general requirements of the law, Hugh 

 Kiddle, superintendent of the Chicago & Rock 

 Naii'l liailroad, wrote thus to Governor Car- 

 penter : " While this company denies the jus- 

 tico and constitutionality of the railroad act, it 

 i-i disposed to subject it to tho tost of actual 

 experiment before assailing it in the courts. 

 Schedules have been arranged in conformity 

 with its provisions for the transportation of 

 persons and property between points in tho 

 of Iowa. The officers of the company, 

 however, are trustees charged with the man- 

 agement of the property of its stockholders in 

 such manner as to secure the revenue neces- 

 sary for the payment of its operating expenses, 

 a reasonable dividend upon the stock and in- 

 terest upon its bonds. While engaging in tho 

 experiment of operating upon that portion 

 of the road in Iowa, in accordance with the 

 schedules named in the act, it is their duty to 

 so adjust rates applicable to inter-State com- 

 merce as to secure from the entire business of 

 the company a reserve to which it is entitled. 

 /Inflexible schedules have uniformly been found 

 I impracticable, and we say frankly that we do 

 I not believe that the operation of this road in 

 r conformity with this one will accord with the 

 I principles that govern commerce, or that the 

 result will be satisfactory to either the owners 

 of tho railway or to the people of the State. 

 It is hoped, however, that some practicable 

 good will result from submitting the act to the 

 test of actual experience. It may contribute 

 something toward either confirming or dispel- 

 ling the new theories in regard to transporta- 

 tion, and bringing about a better understand- 

 ing of the principles which should govern tho 

 relations existing between the owners of road 

 property and the public. If an actual experi- 

 ment shall demonstrate that the continual ob- 

 servance of these schedules will not result in 

 total or partial confiscation, it may not be 

 necessary to raise any question as to the valid- 

 ity of the act. Such observances must involve 

 the permanent surrender of the revenues to 

 which the company is entitled from the opera- 

 tion of its lines. A different policy will be 

 adopted, with the view of securing such rev- 

 enue, and any attempt to enforce the act as 

 a valid law will bo resisted in the proper tri- 

 bunals." 



The appropriation made by the General As- 

 sembly amounted to $723,170.87 the prin- 

 cipal items being $82,500 for the pay of mem- 

 bers, $84,000 for interest on the State debt, 

 $125,000 for 'the new Capitol, $93,000 for tho 

 Hospital for the Insane at Independence, $50,- 

 000 for the relief of sufferers by the grasshop- 

 per famine in the northwestern part of the 

 VOL. xrv. 27 A 



State, $46,000 for tho State University, $28,- 

 500 for the Agricultural College, $42,000 fur 

 the College for the Blind, $25,000 for the Re- 

 form School, $24,593.'JH for the Penitentiary at 

 Anamosa, $15,000 for the Institution for the 

 Deaf and Dumb, $8,700 for the Hospital for 

 the Insane at Mount Pleasant, and $7,300 for 

 the Fort Madison Penitentiary. 



There was an investigation ordered and car- 

 ried on during the session, by a special com- 

 mittee, into certain charges of irregularity in 

 the management of the Agricultural College, 

 but it failed to establish any thing. Among the 

 joint resolutions adopted was one requesting 

 the Senators and Representatives of the State 

 in Congress " to use- their influence to amend 

 the Constitution so as to elect United States 

 Senators by a vote of the people ; " one re- 

 qesting the Senators and Representatives in 

 Congress " to submit to the several State 

 Legislatures, for their ratification, an amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States, 

 providing "that no Congress shall increase 

 the compensation of its members ; " one ask- 

 ing members of Congress to pass a law to 

 prevent the granting of any more lands to cor- 

 porations or railroad companies ; and one me- 

 morializing Congress for an increase of cur- 

 rency. 



The first State Convention of the year was 

 held at Des Moines on the 20th of January by 

 the State Temperance Association. It made 

 no political nominations, but adopted a series 

 of resolutions, among them the following : 



8. That we regard drunkenness as a dangerous 

 form of crime ; and that the venders of alcoholic 

 beverages, and the owners of premises occupied by 

 them, should be held to be legally accessory to and 

 responsible for the injury and crime committed by 

 inebriates. 



4. That the only wise and efficient legislative pol- 

 icy in dealing with the traffic in alcoholic liquors for 

 drinking purposes, is its absolute suppression; we 

 therefore urge the friends of temperance throughout 

 the State to endeavor to secure the absolute prohibi- 

 tion of the manufacture and sale of all intoxicating 

 liquors as beverages ; and we respectfully ask the 

 General Assembly now in session to instruct our 

 Senators and request our Representatives in Con- 

 gress to favor the application of such prohibition to 

 the District of Columbia and the Territories. 



5. That we also ask our General Assembly to in- 

 struct our Senators and request our Representatives 

 in Congress to favor the passage of a law prohibiting 

 henceforth the importation of all alcoholic beverages 

 from foreign countries. 



6. That we further ask our General Assembly to 

 instruct our Senators and request our Representa- 

 tives in Congress to urge that provision be made for 

 the appointment of a commission of inquiry concern- 

 ing tno traffic in intoxicating liqours as a beverage, 

 whose duty it shall be to investigate on the legislative, 

 criminal, scientific, economical, and other aspects of 

 the same as related to the public welfare. 



7. That we favor such a modification of our pres- 

 ent prohibitory law as will provide for allowing at 

 least one-half of the fines imposed for violation there- 

 of to bo paid to the prosecuting witness. 



13. That the owner of the property where a liquor 

 nuisance is maintained, ana agents for the rental 

 of the property of non-resident owners where such 

 nuisances are maintained, should be made criminally 



