IOWA. 



ITALY. 



Court, H. F. Johns; Attorney-General, Samuel 

 Holmes; Clerk Supreme Court, bertha J. Bowers; 

 Reporter Supreme Court, Benjamin Radcliffe ; Rail- 

 road Commissioner (full term), H. M. Diehl; Kail- 

 road Commissioner (to fill vacancy), A. M. Johnson. 



The National Democrats put out no ticket; but 

 tin- chairman and national committeeman for Iowa 

 advised the party to vote and work for the Repub- 

 lican congressional candidates, in the interest of 

 sound money. 



The Republican convention met at Dubuque, 

 Sept. 1. The platform declared for the gold stand- 

 ard, reciprocity, and protection, and favored "the 

 upbuilding of the American merchant marine, the 



sp ly construction of the Nicaragua!! Canal, the 



securing of naval and coaling stations, and the pro- 

 tection <>f American rights in every quarter of the 

 world with an adequate navy"; and said, further : 



"That the Republican party under whose policies 

 and administration prosperity has been restored, and 

 a foreign war successfully conducted, has earned 

 the right to be further intrusted with the task of 

 solving the territorial, colonial, and commercial 

 problem* that have resulted from the war. 



"That it is due to the same cause of humanity 

 and civilization for which the war with Spain was 

 fought, that no people who have in consequence 

 thereof been freed from oppression shall, with the 

 consent or through the indifference of the United 

 States, be returned to such oppression or permitted 

 to lapse into barbarism." 



The soldiers and sailors were commended, and 

 the administration of Gov. Shaw was approved ; 

 but State matters were not touched upon further. 

 The ticket follows : For Secretary of State, George 

 L. Dobson ; Treasurer of State, John Herriott ; Au- 

 ditor of State, Frank F. Merriam ; Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, Milton Remley; Railroad Commissioner (full 

 term), Welcome Howry ; Railroad Commissioner 

 (short term), David J. Palmer ; Clerk of the Supreme 

 Court, C. T. Jones; Judge of the Supreme Court, 

 Horace E. Deemer ; Reporter of the Supreme Court, 

 Ben I. Salinger. 



Conventions were held Sept. 7 by the Democrats, 

 silver Republicans, and one wing of the People's 

 party, at Marshalltown. They united upon a ticket 

 with a platform emphasizing their devotion to the 

 policy of free coinage. It said : " We impeach the 

 Republican party of criminal insincerity in declar- 

 ing for bimetallism in its national platforms of 1888 

 and 1892 and for international bimetallism in 1896, 

 and now in its latest State platform unequivocally 

 committing itself to the gold standard. And we 

 denounce as being dangerous to the public welfare 

 its proposal for legislation involving the conversion 

 of the 500,000,000 silver dollars and the $346,000,- 

 000 of greenbacks, first into exclusive gold obliga- 

 tions and next into an interest-bearing bonded debt, 

 and filling the vacuum created by the obliteration 

 .f the nearly $1,000,000,000 of legal-tender money 

 with non-legal-tender bank notes." 



Following were the nominations: For Secretary 

 of State. Claude Porter; Auditor, E. II. Gillette. 

 Treasurer, Nils Anderson ; Attorney-General, J. M. 

 Parsons; Judge of the Supreme Court, W. A. Spur- 

 rier; Clerk of the Supreme Court, E. R. Perkins; 

 Reporter of the Supreme Court, W. A. Ferren ; 

 Railroad Commissioners, (full term) Anthony Han- 

 son, (short term) H. E. Wills. 



The candidates of the Socialist-Labor party were : 

 For Secretary of State, A. C. Swan holm; Auditor, 

 Claude Bronner; Treasurer, Augustus Westphal; 

 Attorney-General, M. J. Kremer ; Judge of the Su- 

 preme Court, John Wellendorf; Clerk, Augustus 

 Lelonech; Reporter, Charles Schernickau; Rail- 

 road Commissioners, (full term) Peter Lohse, (short 

 term), C. Hostrup. 



The Republican candidates were elected by plu- 

 ralities averaging about 65,000. Following w'as the 

 vote for Secretary of State : G. L. Dobson, Repub- 

 lican, 236,524 ; Claude Porter, Democratic, 173,000; 

 Malcolm Smith, Prohibition, 7,559 ; li. M. Daniels, 

 Peoples', 3,372 ; A. C. Swanholm, Labor, 1,081 ; Dob- 

 son's plurality, 63,524. All the eleven districts 

 elected Republican representatives in Congress. 



The constitutional amendment was defeated, as 

 stated under " Legislative Session " in this article. 



ITALY, a kingdom in southern Europe. The 

 throne is hereditary in the line of Savoy by male 

 descent in the order of primogeniture. The reign- 

 ing King is Umberto I, born March 14, 1844, the 

 eldest son of Vittorio Eramanuele II of Sardinia, 

 the first King of United Italy. The heir apparent 

 is Vittorio Emmanuele, Prince of Naples, born Nov. 

 11, 1869. The legislative power is vested in a Par- 

 liament consisting of a Senate of 372 members, 

 nominated for services in public employment or 

 eminence in science, literature, or other pursuit 

 tending to the benefit of the nation, and a Chamber 

 of Deputies containing 508 members, 1 to 57,000 of 

 population, elected, according to the electoral law 

 of March 28, 1895, by the ballots of all adult male 

 citizens who can read and write or who pay a mini- 

 mum amount of direct taxes. The number of reg- 

 istered electors in 1896 was 2,120,909, of whom 

 1,241,486 voted in the election of March, 1897. 



The Council of Ministers constituted on Dec. 14, 

 1897, was composed as follows: President of the 

 Council and Minister of the Interior, Marchese An- 

 tonio Starabba di Rudini ; Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, Marchese Emilio Visconti-Venosta; Min- 

 ister of the Treasury, Prof. Luigi Luzzatti ; Min- 

 ister of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Signor 

 Zanardelli ; Minister of Finance, Ascanio Branca ; 

 Minister of War, Gen. di San Marzano ; Minister of 

 Marine, Benedetto Brin; Minister of Commerce, 

 Industry, and Agriculture, Signor Cocco-Ortu ; 

 Minister of Public Instruction, Signor Gallo ; Min- 

 ister of Public Works, Signor Pavoncelli ; Minister 

 of Posts and Telegraphs, Emilio Sineo. 



Area and Population. The area of the king- ' 

 dom is 110,623 square miles. The population was 

 computed to be 31.479,217 on Dec. 31, 1897. The 

 number of marriages in 1897 was 229,041 ; of births, 

 1,148,980 ; of deaths, 742,734 ; excess of births, 406,- 

 246. The number of permanent emigrants in .1897 

 was 165,429, and of temporary emigrants 134,426; 

 total, 299,855. The Italian immigration into the 

 United States was reported to be 59,431 ; into the 

 Argentine Republic. 44,678 ; into Uruguay, 3,651. 

 The population of Naples on Dec. 31, 1897, was 

 estimated to be 536,073; of Rome, ' 487,066 ; of 

 Milan. 470,558; of Turin, 351,855; of Palermo, 

 287,972 ; of Genoa, 228,862 ; of Florence, 209,540 ; 

 of Venice, 155,899 ; of Bologna, 153,206 ; of Mes- 

 sina, 152,648. 



Finances. The receipts of the treasury for the 

 year ending June 30, 1897, were 1,745,497",676 lire, 

 and the expenditures were 1,745,370,744 lire, leaving 

 a surplus of 126,932 lire. For the year ending June 

 30, 1898, the ordinary receipts were estimated at 

 1,661,456,980 lire, and the extraordinary receipts at 

 35,334.375 lire, making a total of 1,696,791,855 lire. 

 The ordinary expenditures were estimated at 1,573,- 

 235,729 lire, and the extraordinary at 113,557,680 

 lire ; total, 1,686,793,409 lire. The revenue from 

 railroads and other state property was set down as 

 93,869,647 lire; direct taxation," 481,499,000 lire, 

 comprising 286,249,000 lire from income tax, 106,- 

 750,000 lire from the land tax, and 88,500,000 lire 

 from the building tax ; 216,125,000 lire from taxes 

 on transactions, including 67,900,000 lire from 

 stamps, 58,000,000 lire from registration, 19,800,000 

 lire from railroad receipts, 11,400,000 lire from com- 



