IOWA. 



Prohibition. The Governor says in his mes- 

 sage : " Much progress has been made in the 

 enforcement of the prohibitory law. Not 

 only has public sentiment much improved in 

 relation to it, but judicial officers are more 

 disposed to secure its enforcement. Many 

 judges give strong testimony in its favor, 

 showing that, where it has been well executed, 

 there has been a marked reduction in criminal 

 offenses, and also in court expenses. During 

 the last year, and particularly during its latter 

 half, there has been a decided falling off in the 

 penitentiary convicts, and a very large number 

 of county jails have been empty, some of them 

 for the first time in years. There has been a 

 marked improvement in the condition of our 

 poorer people. While there is very little diffi- 

 culty now in enforcing the law in the rural 

 districts and in a very large majority of the 

 counties, there are still a few portions of the 

 State, particularly some of the larger cities, 

 where the law is not enforced. This, however, 

 does not include all such cities, for in Des 

 Moines, Sioux City, and Cedar Rapids, the 

 prohibitory law is now, and has been for the 

 past year, well enforced." On the other hand, 

 it is claimed by some Republicans that in the 

 large cities the law is openly violated and its 

 operation nullified, while the closing of the 

 saloons has decreased the revenues and the 

 wealth of these communities. These Republi- 

 cans refuse to support their State ticket in the 

 election of this year. 



An important decision was rendered this 

 year by the State Supreme Court in the case 

 of Pearson vs the International Distillery, rela- 

 tive to the right of persons to manufacture 

 liquors in the State, provided that they were 

 not sold within its limits. The defendant held 

 a license to manufacture and sell liquors for 

 mechanical, medicinal, and sacramental pur- 

 poses, and claimed also the right to export 

 from the State any liquors so manufactured 

 and sell them outside the State for any pur- 

 pose whatever. The court denied this right, 

 and ordered the distillery closed, as being a 

 public nuisance under the law. Two judges 

 out of five dissented, claiming that, in the ab- 

 sence of an express statute forbidding the ex- 

 port of liquors manufactured legally in the 

 State, the right of export still existed. 



Political. A convention of the Union Labor 

 party, to select candidates for the various State 

 offices, was held on June 8, and resulted in the 

 nomination of the following ticket : For Gov- 

 ernor, M. J. Cain ; for Lieutenant-Governor, 

 J. R. Sovereign ; for Justice of the Supreme 

 Court, M. II. Jones ; for Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, Eugene Hanan. These can- 

 didates were adopted by the Greenback party. 

 The following is a part of the Labor platform : 



We demand the abolition of the Iowa Railroad Com- 

 mission, and the enactment of laws limiting the maxi- 

 mum freight charges and reducing the passenger rates 

 to two cents a mile on all first-class roads. 



We demand the prompt payment of the State debt, 

 and the reduction of the legal rate of interest. 



"We denounce the policy which permits large tracts 

 of land to be held unused by individuals or corpora- 

 tions, and insist that foreigners shall not be permitted 

 to acquire title to real estate in Iowa. 



We demand that mortgage-owners shall be com- 

 pelled to pay taxes upon their mortgages where re- 

 corded, and that mortgagors be released to that extent. 



We arraign the monopolists who controlled the last 

 Legislature for their unscrupulous truculency to cor- 

 porate interests and their base betrayal of platform 

 pledges. 



The Republican Convention was held on Aug- 

 ust 24, and renominated Governor Larrabee and 

 Lieutenant-Governor Hull. Its choice for Jus- 

 tice of the Supreme Court was G. S. Robinson, 

 and for Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 Henry Sabin. The platform denounces South- 

 ern frauds upon the ballot, favors protection 

 and civil service reform, arraigns the national 

 administration, and speaks as follows upon 

 State issues : 



We are opposed to criminal and vicious immigration 

 of all kinds to threaten the public welfare and disturb 

 the social peace, and to all pauper immigration and 

 convict or coolie labor ; or to the contract of prison la- 

 bor by the State, to bring unfair competition to Amer- 

 ican workingmen. We favor such legislation in the 

 State as will protect miners and all other laborers 

 in their full rights, as to compensation, protection of 

 life, hours of labor, and freedom of trade. All public 

 lands should be held, and all unearned land-grants 

 reclaimed, for actual settlers. Non-resident aliens 

 should not be allowed to acquire titles to land in this 

 country. 



The theory of public regulation and control of rail- 

 ways and other corporations, first enacted into law in 

 this State, and by the State carried up to the approval 

 of the Supreme Court of the United btates, we main- 

 tain with increasing favor. We approve the princi- 

 ples of the interstate commerce law, and favor such 

 amendments thereto as will make it still more pro- 

 tective of the interests of the people, and such State 

 legislation as will apply its principles to this State. 

 We further ask that the next Legislature shall abolish 

 the free pass in all its forms, and that it shall, after 

 thorough and unsparing investigation, so revise and 

 amend the laws forming the railroad code of the State 

 as will secure to the people all possible protection from 

 corporation monopoly and extortion, as will increase 

 the efficiency and the usefulness of the Railway Com- 

 mission, ana as will secure all fair and possible reduc- 

 tion in freights and fares, believing that the first-class 

 roads of the State can afford to reduce passenger fares 

 to two cents a mile. We are opposed to all unjust 

 discriminations between persons and places, and also 

 to any railroad policy or legislation which will tend 

 to injure our agricultural, industrial, or commercial 

 interests, or that will aid in building up outside cities 

 and interests at the expense of the cities and towns of 

 our own State. We are also opposed to granting any 

 form of exclusive rights by which any corporation 

 will be protected from legitimate and honorable com- 

 petition, and established as a monopoly regardless of 

 public interests. We favor such legislation as will 

 relieve the people of the State from the extortion of 

 the school-book monopoly. 



Iowa has no compromise to hold with the saloon. 

 We declare in favor of the faithful and vigorous en- 

 forcement in all parts of the State of the prohibitory 

 law. The pharmacy law and county permit law should 

 be so amended as to prevent the drug-store or whole- 

 sale liquor-store from becoming in any manner the 

 substitute or successor of the saloon. 



We approve of the State administration of publio 

 affairs in Iowa, and especially commend Gov. Larra- 

 bee for his courageous defense of the people from the 

 extortion of railway monopolies, and for his protest 



