358 



IOWA. 



popularly spoken of as the " innocent-purchs 

 bill, became the subject of warm debate and 



laser 

 and fre- 

 quent amendments, but was finally passed by the 

 Senate. This bill was vetoed by the Governor. 

 Among the bills passed were the following : 



Forbidding discrimination in regard to color by 

 restaurant keepers. 



Imposing taxes on corporate franchises and shares 

 of stock. 



Exempting passengers getting on or off a car or 

 train from criminal liability under the act making it 

 a peace offense for any person not an employee to get 

 off or on a moving tram. 



Authorizing corporations and persons engaged in 

 the slaughtering and packing business to issue certifi- 

 cates and warehouse receipts on their own products 

 while in their custody and control. 



Making appropriations for the World's Columbian 

 Exposition. 



Giving local boards of health power to quarantine. 



Providing for the collection and tabulation of sta- 

 tistics of crops and live stock. 



Authorizing the use of the Australian ballot. 



Appropriating $250 000 for the soldiers 1 monument. 



Political. The State Temperance Alliance 

 met at Des Moines on March 3. In the resolu- 

 tions adopted it was determined that the senti- 

 ment of Iowa was as strongly for prohibition as 

 ever, and that the election of a Democratic Gov- 

 ernor was not justly attributable to prohibition, 

 but to the fact that undue importance was given 

 to other issues during the canvass ; that while 

 the Democratic party made prohibition the chief 

 issue, the Republicans too often virtually ignored 

 it. It was also 



Resolved, That any government which, for a con- 

 sideration, licenses a business that debauches all who 

 engage in it and produces poverty, insanity, and 

 crime everywhere, not only surrenders its God-ap- 

 pointed place as the protector of the innocent and 

 helpless, out becomes a bribed partner of the criminal 

 classes. 



A third resolution was to the effect that, while 

 the convention fully appreciated the fidelity of 

 the Republican members of the Legislature, and 

 expected no backward step, the passage of the 

 Gatch bill or any bill giving legal sanction to 

 the outlawed saloon would be conclusive evidence 

 that the Republican party of Iowa could no 

 longer be looked to for " the protection of our 

 homes from the blighting curse of the rum 

 traffic." In the event of such legislation " we 

 instruct the officers of the Alliance to issue a 

 call for a meeting of all the friends of prohibi- 

 tion, to the end that organized action may be 

 taken that shall stand for the home as against 

 the saloon, for law as against lawlessness." 



Much discussion followed, and an amendment 

 of the objectionable third clause in the resolu- 

 tions was suggested, to read as follows : " Legal 

 sanction to the outlawed saloon will be evidence 

 that we can no longer look to the two leading 

 parties for the protection of the home from the 

 blighting curse of the saloon, and in such event 

 we recommend that the Alliance call a conven- 

 tion of the friends of prohibition to decide upon 

 a course of future action." 



In the resolutions finally adopted it was agreed 

 that the question of prohibition in Iowa was 

 paramount to any political issues now at stake. 

 and that hereafter no suffrage or influence would 

 be given to individuals or organizations not true 



to prohibition. The proposition to raise money 

 by the licensed sale of intoxicating liquors at the 

 Columbian Exposition was denounced, as well as 

 the Sunday opening of such exposition. 



The Republican State Committee met at Des 

 Moines on March 17 to select four delegates to 

 the national convention at Minneapolis. Reso- 

 lutions of confidence in the principles of the 

 Republican party and in the administration of 

 President Harrison were passed. It was also 

 resolved that at the national convention an 

 appeal should be made to the party to disregard 

 all local differences in order to accomplish the 

 following objects : The maintenance of protec- 

 tion ; the full establishment of reciprocity "as a 

 policy of government which is one of the great 

 achievements of Republican statesmanship"; 

 the elevation and prosperity of labor; the main- 

 tenance of a sound currency, " every dollar of 

 which shall be the equal of every other dollar " ; 

 and equal legal rights for all citizens, black or 

 white. 



On June 30, the Republicans again met in 

 convention at Des Moines, and the following 

 nominations were made : For Secretary of State, 

 W. M. McFarland ; Treasurer, Byron A. Beeson ; 

 Attorney-General, John Y. Stone; Auditor, C. 

 G. McCarthy : Railroad Commissioner, George 

 W. Perkins. A resolution in favor of improving 

 the highways was adopted, and a platform in 

 which "special pride" was expressed in the 

 tariff issue, the silver problem, the temperance 

 question, and the demands made for an un- 

 trammeled ballot by the platform of the Re- 

 publican National Convention. The attitude of 

 the Democratic party toward the national tax on 

 the issue of State banks was denounced. 



The Democratic Convention met at Council 

 Bluffs on May 11, for the selection of delegates 

 at large to the national convention. By a 

 unanimous vote the 26 delegates were instruct- 

 ed to vote as a unit for Gov. Horace Boies, 

 and to use every effort in their power to se- 

 cure his nomination for the presidency. Mr. 

 Cleveland's name was omitted, without protest, 

 from the official declaration of Democratic faith. 



In the platform adopted the party's faith in 

 the principle of all men being born free and 

 equal was declared to mean more than equal 

 rights to all men, and an exposition of the prin- 

 ciple was made in this manner : 



It means the right of every man to put into his own 

 mouth the bread he e_arns with his own hands, and 

 all of it, without having it tolled or taxed for the 

 private benefit of any of his fellow-men. We de- 

 nounce all such tolling and taxation as it exists to-day 

 under the so-called protective tariff system. We de- 

 clare a citizen is best protected who is insured in the 

 absolute control and disposition of his own wages 

 and substance, and that he is most certainly robbed 

 when deprived of this disposition and control, and 

 when others exercise it for him, not for his benefit, 

 but for their own selfish objects and ends. All limi- 

 tations upon the liberty of the citizen not required in 

 the earnest of good morals and good government 

 are odious and tyrannical. We hold it to oe self-evi- 

 dent that the limits imposed by a law which compels 

 one citizen to his certain loss to trade with designated 

 classes of citizens for the certain gain of such classes, 

 is of this odious and tyrannical character. And we 

 assert our confidence that a free people can not be 

 permanently deluded into supporting such legislation 

 upon the pretense that they are thus being protected, 



