IOWA. 



617 





State. In 1878 it was ordered by the Governor 

 to bo held in October. (See u Annual Gyclo- 

 pdia" for 1878, page 458.) It was claimed 

 that this election was invalid, and another was 

 held in November. At this second election 

 the Republicans refused to run any candidates, 

 relying upon the October election. The Demo- 

 crat ic candidates were accordingly voted for 

 without opposition, and at the commencement 

 of the Congressional session they appeared and 

 claimed their seats. The subject was referred 

 to the Committee on Elections, which became 

 divided and presented three reports. Eleven 

 members of the Committee Messrs. Manning 

 of Mississippi, Armfield of North Carolina, 

 Beltzhoovor of Pennsylvania, Sawyer of Mis- 

 souri, Phister of Kentucky, Keifer of Ohio, 

 Camp of New York, Calkins of Indiana, Field 

 of Massachusetts, Overton of Pennsylvania, and 

 Weaver of Iowa agreed that the law having 

 been construed by the State authorities to re- 

 quire the holding of the Congressional election 

 in October, that election should be considered 

 legal, and the present incumbents Messrs. 

 Sapp and Carpenter, from the Eighth and Ninth 

 Districts respectively retained in their seats. 

 Representative Springer of Illinois, Chairman 

 of the Committee, in an elaborate and extend- 

 ed opinion, took the ground that, as the State 

 laws of Iowa did not prescribe places for hold- 

 ing elections in November, and as Congress 

 has prescribed that to be the legal month, and 

 that elections held at any other time " shall be 

 void," hence neither of the Iowa elections was 

 held according to law, and should both be de- 

 clared illegal. Representative Calkins of Indi- 

 ana contended that the Iowa election held in 

 November was the legal election, that the Oc- 

 tober election was contrary to the require- 

 ments of law, and that the contestants who 

 were elected in November were entitled to 

 their seats in the House. These several views 

 were submitted to the House of Representa- 

 tives, which permitted Messrs. Sapp and Car- 

 penter to retain their seats. 



The receipts and expenditures of the State 

 for the biennial period, embracing general rev- 

 enue, temporary school fund, swamp-land in- 

 demnity fund, agricultural college endowment, 

 and miscellaneous in gross from these sources, 

 amounted to $2,260,360.61, which, with the 

 balance of $73,737.39 on hand September 30, 

 1877, makes a total of $2,834,098. The dis- 

 bursements for all purposes for the biennial 

 period have been $2,259,910.63, leaving bal- 

 ance in the hands of the State Treasurer of 

 $74,187.37. Of the balance on hand, $2,226.- 

 65 belongs ft> the permanent school fund, $217.- 

 85 to the coupon fund, and the remainder, 

 $71,742 87, is in interest-bearing bonds, being 

 trust funds held by the State for the benefit of 

 the Agricultural College. The amount of war- 

 rants outstanding on September 30, 1877, was 

 $267,776.81, and on September 80, 1879, only 

 $96,993.54, being a decrease of $170,782.77. 

 Since the close of the fiscal term, the amount 



of outstanding warrants has increased until, on 

 January 5, 1880, it reached $130,361.42. Two 

 years ago, at the same date, it was $340,826.- 

 56; decrease in the two years, $210,465.14. 

 The State funds in the hands of the respective 

 county treasurers of the State on September 

 80, 1879, amounted to $116,817.09, more than 

 sufficient, when paid in, to meet the outstand- 

 ing warrants at that date. 



The debt of the State is $545,485.19. Of 

 this amount, $245,485.19 is due to the perma- 

 nent school fund, part of it being made irre- 

 deemable by article seven, section three, of the 

 Constitution. The remaining debt, $800,000, 

 was created under the acts of the special war 

 session of the Eighth General Assembly in 

 1861, for purposes of war and defense. This 

 debt matures July 1, 1881. 



The number of persons between the ages of 

 five and twenty-one in the State by the last 

 returns is placed at 577,353 ; the number en- 

 rolled is 431,317 ; and the number attending 

 school is 264,702, showing that a large per- 

 centage does not attend school. Of this per- 

 centage a small number should be deducted 

 for attendance in private schools. The finan- 

 cial part of the school system is in some disor- 

 der. It appears that there are 4,279 treasurers 

 of school districts in the State, who have in 

 their hands the sum of $2, (572,304.49. These 

 treasurers received as compensation during the 

 past year the sum of $48,834, and are delin- 

 quent to the school fund for the year 1879 in 

 the sum of $45.652.49 ; and the startling fact 

 is shown that the deficiencies and defalcations 

 of this class of officers from 1878 to 1879, in- 

 clusive, aggregate the enormous sum of $491,- 

 518.51. Of this large amount of money in the 

 hands of school treasurers, $1,770,218 belongs 

 to the teachers' fund. 



The receipts of the State University from all 

 sources for general and specific purposes, up to 

 June 15, 1879, have been $125,126.36, of which 

 there has been expended $121,511.58, leaving 

 balance in the hands of the treasurer of the 

 University of $3,614.78. The University is in 

 a flourishing condition. The collegiate and pro- 

 fessional departments have already increased to 

 a degree that about compensates for the loss of 

 students occasioned by abolishing the prepara- 

 tory classes. 



The number of pupils in the Normal School 

 is large and constantly increasing. The re- 

 ceipts of the institution were $14,626, and the 

 expenditures $14,458. 



The Agricultural College of the State is 

 quite flourishing, and rapidly outgrowing its 

 accommodations. The departments of botanj 

 and zoology are steadily advancing. A cream- 

 ery is under construction to supply the college 

 boarding-hall with butter. The coarse in do- 

 mestic economy has been considerably en- 

 larged. This College is said to be the only 

 institution in the West which endeavors prac- 

 tically to teach the household arts. A small 

 kitchen was opened two years ago, wherein 



