STATE OF IOWA 
 1917 
 
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 BIENNIAL MESSAGE 
 
 OF. 
 
 GEORGE W. CLARKE 
 
 GOVERNOR OF IOWA 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Thirty-Seventh General Assembly In Joint Session 
 
 DBS MOINES, JANUARY 9, 1917. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 THE STATE OF IOWA 
 DEI MOINES 
 
STATE OF IOWA 
 1917 
 
 ^^ersity of lujim imm 
 
 ■'AY 30 lil7 
 
 BIENNIAL MESSAGE 
 
 OF 
 
 GEORGE W. CLARKE 
 
 GOVERNOR OF IOWA 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Thirty-Seventh General Assembly In Joint Session 
 
 DES MOINES, JANUARY 9, 1917. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE STATE OF IOWA 
 DES MOINES 
 

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GOVERNOR’S BIENNIAL MESSAGE 
 
 George W. Clarke 
 
 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Thirty- 
 Seventh General Assembly: 
 
 It would not be possible for me to more fully comply with the 
 constitutional mandate laid upon me to communicate to you ^^The 
 condition of the State” than to refer you to the exhaustive reports 
 of all of the departments and commissions of the State government. 
 These and the budget, submitted this year for the first time, con- 
 tain absolutely everything that will throw any light on the question 
 and they will illuminate it for every candid, investigating mind. 
 
 The financial situation for the next biennium so far as it can 
 be reasonably estimated can be succinctly stated as follows: 
 
 The taxable value of all property subject to general levies for 
 State and county purposes for the year 1916 was $957,759,442.00. 
 The amount of moneys and credits returned was $303,504,592.00. 
 The State received approximately one-thirteenth of the tax levied on 
 this sum. It may be assumed that for the next two years the 
 situation will not be materially changed. According to an opinion 
 expressed by the State Auditor and State Treasury Department 
 there will be little, if any, balance in the general fund on July 1, 
 1917, the beginning of the next appropriation period. 
 
 The estimated receipts of the general revenue for the two years 
 beginning July 1, 1917, and ending June 30, 1919, are $13,721,- 
 400.00. 
 
 The estimated expenditures for the period beginning July 1, 1917, 
 and ending June 30, 1919, are $12,803,660.00. 
 
 Excess of receipts over expenditures, $917,740.00. 
 
 This balance will, of course, be understood as remaining after 
 estimated expenditures for the next biennium are paid. Good 
 business requires that a large portion of this sum remain in the 
 treasury as a working balance. You should provide such a condi- 
 tion as would not permit the exhaustion of the treasury at any time. 
 If you provide for any additional expenditures above the balance 
 above stated, after leaving a reasonable treasury balance, you will, 
 of course, have to provide for additional revenue. You should also 
 make your appropriations available at such times as the treasury 
 
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 is in receipt of funds and not create demands that may be made 
 upon it at any time of the year. I suggest that you consult the 
 treasurer and auditor about this matter as it is very important. 
 
 THE BUDGET. 
 
 The statute provides that for the purpose of preparing a budget 
 the departments and commissions must submit statements by the 
 15th of November. This does not give time enough for a careful 
 study and preparation of a budget. A day should be fixed much 
 earlier. Besides, it is almost impossible for the Governor to work out 
 satisfactory statements and estimates. In other states this whole 
 matter is submitted to experts for preparation and submission to the 
 Governor. I suggest that you amend the law by .creating a budget 
 committee to be composed, perhaps, of the chief clerk in the reve- 
 nue department in the Auditor’s office, the State Accountant and 
 the Secretary of the Executive Council and that the budget be re- 
 quired to be printed and submitted to the Governor for his examin- 
 ation and study by December first prior to the meeting of the 
 General Assembly. This year, because of the delay of reports, it 
 could not be had prior to five days before the opening of the session, 
 and therefore careful consideration has been impossible. I desire 
 here to acknowledge the great assistance of Mr. W. H. Williams, 
 Chief Clerk in the revenue department in the Auditor’s office, Mr. 
 Frank H. Paul, State Accountant and Mr. Ora Williams, Document 
 Editor. To these officials is due the real credit for the preparation 
 of the budget. 
 
 There has been abstracted for your easy reference and study and 
 printed as a part of the budget a brief statement of increases or 
 changes in appropriations asked for in the different departments. 
 You will observe that there is quite a general request for increases 
 of salaries. The greatest trouble about the salary question is the 
 inequalities that exist. Of two persons holding equally responsible 
 l')Ositions and rendering practically equivalent service there may be 
 considerable difference in compensation. This may be due in some 
 measure to the practice of allowing department heads in some cases 
 to fix the compensation. I do not regard this as sound policy. It in- 
 vites to favoritism. It may be due, to some extent, also, to legislative 
 carelessness. Some salaries are fixed by law, some by joint resolution. 
 In some cases they are paid out of a general appropriation to a de- 
 partment, in others out of the general fund. I recommend as to 
 salaries that you endeavor to equalize them upon some sort of equit- 
 
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 able, classified basis, that the salaries be fixed and that they be 
 paid out of the general fund. In this readjustment you can deter- 
 mine as well as I as to whether the general level paid should be 
 raised and, as to that, therefore, I make no recommendation, except 
 that I think you should take into consideration the cost of living, 
 especially as applied to those who have families to support. 
 
 You will find some continuing annual appropriations are asked 
 for. I very much doubt the wisdom of such appropriations, except, 
 possibly, in undertakings of great magnitude which necessarily ■ 
 would extend over a number of years. As a general proposition I 
 hardly think such appropriations are consistent with the budgetary 
 system that has been adopted. It eontemplates that the General 
 Assembly shall provide for the next biennial period and no more. 
 Besides, no one can foresee what contingencies and necessities may 
 arise — conditions which may command large expenditures of funds 
 which large continuing annual appropriations may handicap. It 
 laay be laid down a,s a general truth, also, that such an appropria- 
 tion will almost certainly be spent. It invites to extravagence. My 
 recommendation is that you provide for the years which are yours 
 and leave to your successors the duty of providing for theirs when 
 they confront, face to face, all the conditions that may then exist. 
 
 Some of you may be astounded at the amount of money asked. 
 It is nothing unusual at all. It is quite likely that each department 
 and institution views everything from its standpoint alone and not 
 in its relation to the needs and welfare of the State as a whole. 
 You will not, therefore, be expected, except, possibly in rare in- 
 stances, to grant any such sums as are asked for. You should, first 
 of all, be careful to provide sufficiently for maintaining all of the 
 State institutions and departments at their present standards of 
 efficiency, and to continue and perfect undertakings already en- 
 tered upon. After that you should proceed with great care. Al- 
 ways new buildings and extensions are asked for at State insti- 
 tutions. The askings, as a rule, cover the extreme of the desirable. 
 As individuals, many things appeal to us as very desirable, indeed, 
 but conditions, sane living, freedom from excesses, forbid indul- 
 gence. It is for you to say in considering these things what the 
 policy- of the State under the present abnormal business conditions 
 siiall be. You should, in my judgment, cut down these requests by 
 very large amounts, using care, however, that the pruning knife is 
 not used in the wrong place. 
 
6 - 
 
 Tlie budget, with the abstract of requests for appropriations, 
 increases and changes, so that you are advised at once of exact con- 
 ditions, ought to enable the appropriations committees to proceed 
 immediately with their work and ought to enable you to do un- 
 usually efficient and discriminating work. There can be no excuse 
 now for delay until the end of the session. 
 
 PARDONS AND PAROLES. 
 
 It is the mandate of the constitution that I shall report to you 
 every case of reprieve, commutation and pardon granted, with 
 the reasons therefor and also all remission of fines and forfeitures. 
 It is hardly practicable to make report in full herein so I content 
 myself with setting out the substance of a separately printed re- 
 port in full which will appear on your desks. 
 
 Upon the question of granting a pardon I have referred eight 
 cases to the Board of Parole for investigation and recommenda- 
 tion. Two of these cases have not yet been reported upon, one 
 was withdrawn by the applicant himself from consideration by 
 the Board, one died while his case was under investigation, in two 
 cases the Board recommended commutation of sentence to fifty 
 years, and in one ease recommendod suspension of sentence and 
 in one recommended a pardon. All these recommendations by the 
 Board were granted. 
 
 Prior to 1915 I referred two applications for pardons to the 
 Board which were not reported upon during my first term of of- 
 fice, but later they reported adversely to granting either of them. 
 I nevertheless granted both. 
 
 I also granted a pardon in one indeterminate sentence case 
 on recommendation of the Board and also in one county jail case 
 upon recommendation of the trial judge and the county attorney. 
 
 I have granted thirty-five suspensions upon recommendation of 
 the Board, one upon recommendation of the trial judge and one 
 hundred and seventeen from county jails. 
 
 I have restored to citizenship forty-six paroled men and, upon 
 recommendation of the Board, two hundred and eighty. There 
 have been eight revocations, thirty-two commutations and eigh- 
 teen remissions of fines and forfeitures. 
 
 THE OFFICE OF BEE INSPECTOR. 
 
 The state inspector of bees informed me a year ago that it was 
 his judgment that the work of the office should be reorganized 
 and placed under the directon of the State College. In his last 
 
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 annual report he outlines his reasons which seem entirely suffi- 
 cient. I suggest, therefore, that his recommendations be adopted. 
 
 Two years ago I isubmitted to the legislature that the beekeep- 
 ers of the state felt that their bees should be taxed. They ask 
 consideration from the state and are willing, as I understand it, 
 to reciprocate by having the exemption removed and assessors 
 directed to list their bees for taxation, thus adding a million dol- 
 lars to the assessed valuation of property, 
 
 CONSOLIDATION. 
 
 There are in several departments some overlapping of work and 
 duplication of reports made. This appears, for instance in the 
 department of Industrial Commissioner and Commissioner of 
 Labor, notably with reference to accidental injuries and perhaps 
 in other particulars. In several states these departments are ad- 
 liiinistered under one department head. I suggest the advisability 
 of an examination of the laws of those states for the purpose of 
 determining whether a change could be made in our methods 
 which would promote efficiency or reduce expenditures. 
 
 The inspectors under the Food and Dairy Department make 
 inspection of hotels for some purposes. It would seem that while 
 they were at it, their inspection might just as well be for all pur- 
 poses of inspection required by the law, or, vice versa, the regular 
 hotel inspectors might inspect for all purposes. I hardly see any 
 reason for two corps of inspectors. 
 
 Under the county accounting department the examiners visit 
 every county in the state. It is their duty to check up the ac- 
 counts between the county and city treasurers. No reason is per- 
 ceived why at the same time (and it would take very little addi- 
 tional time) they should not check up the cities which are under 
 the examination of the State Municipal Department. It is not dis- 
 coverable that there is any excuse for such a condition. I recom- 
 mend that you carefully examine into all these matters in the in- 
 terest of efficiency and economy, 
 
 TUBERCULOSIS. 
 
 I take this opportunity to commend the campaign which the 
 State Board of Control has carried on against tuberculosis. That 
 great progress has been made is shown not only by the general 
 knowledge which our people have in its prevention, but the de- 
 crease of the mortality and incidence of this disease. However, 
 
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 there is one aspect of this campaign to which I desire to direct 
 particular attention. That of bovine tuberculosis. The tubercu- 
 losis cow is responsible for an appreciable amount of tuberculosis, 
 especally among chldren. It is manifest, therefore, that repres- 
 sive measures should be established to control, not only the ani- 
 mal herself, but milk and milk products as well. And if the tu- 
 berculosis dairy cow, as a source of infection to human beings, 
 were alone considered, it would be sufficient cause for drastic 
 legslative action, but beyond this there is a point of interest of 
 vast economic consequence. 
 
 Tuberculosis is a serious threat to the live stock and packing 
 interests of our state. It imposes a heavy tax upon these indus- 
 tries. The following statistics submitted from some of the abat- 
 toirs operating in Iowa, are illuminating : 
 
 (Exhibit ‘‘A.’’)- Total hogs killed in a six months period, 
 182,049 ; the live weight was 39,693,840 lbs. Cost $3,930,512.72. 
 The average price paid per hundred pounds was $9.90. Of the 
 total number killed, 1.87 per cent were condemned on account of 
 tuberculosis, as unfit for food. The live weight of the condemned 
 animals was 707,485 pounds. The loss of $51,291.93, or 13 cents 
 per hundred live weight killed. 
 
 (Exhibit ''B.”) 161,334 Iowa hogs killed in the period of one 
 
 year, of which 25.4 per cent were sent to the retaining rooms, and 
 2.12 per cent were condemned as unfit for food on account of tu- 
 berculosis. This imposed a tax of 32.2 cents per hog, or a loss of 
 13.32 cents per cwt. 
 
 The report of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Federal 
 government, discloses a most disquieting situation. For the year 
 ending June 30, 1916, a total of 285,605 cattle were slaughtered 
 by Iowa plants where federal meat inspection is maintained. Of 
 the 285,605 killed, 11,099 carcasses were retained on account of 
 tuberculosis. Of this number 1,584 carcasses were condemned as 
 unfit for food on account of tuberculosis. In other words, tuber- 
 culosis imposed a toll of about 1 per cent of the total number of 
 cattle slaughtered in Iowa. For the same period, the report shows 
 a total of 2,843,794 swine slaughtered. Of this number, 426,678 
 were retained on account of tuberculosis. Of the 426,678 retained, 
 8,973', or 2.1 per cent, were condemned as unfit for food on ac- 
 count of tuberculosis. 
 
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 There were, Janary 1, 1916, 9,069,000 swine in Iowa. It is ap- 
 parent that not one-fourth of Iowa hogs slaughtered are packed 
 by Iowa industries. The surplus hogs are shipped largely to Chi- 
 cago, Sioux City, Omaha, St. Louis and eastern markets, and pos- 
 sibly it may be only a question of time when the entire packing 
 business of the nation will discriminate against the Iowa hog. Al- 
 ready tuberculosis is imposing a tax of 13 cents per hundred 
 pounds on Iowa hogs, over $2,000,000.00 annually. 
 
 January 1, 1916, there were 4,128,000 head of cattle in Iowa, of 
 which number 1,391,000 were milk cows. The federal reports 
 show that eight-tenths of one per cent of all the beef cattle 
 slaughtered in Iowa, were condemned on account of tuberculosis, 
 as unfit for food, but no one imagines the extent of this disease 
 to be that low in dairy and breeding cattle. 
 
 It is also demonstrated that the prevalence of tuberculosis in 
 the dairy districts is vastly greater than in other sections of the 
 state. Tuberculosis cattle transmit the disease to the swine. If 
 the control of tuberculosis in dairy and breeding cattle is estab- 
 lished by the state the problem may be considered to be in pro- 
 cess of solution. The stock and dairy interests of our state are of 
 great importance, and the approach to this question involves not 
 only the bovine itself, but dairy products as well. It is not wise 
 for an intelligent people to tolerate so great a financial drain, or 
 to subject her people to the imminent perils of the tuberculosis 
 cow. 
 
 I recommend that legislation he devised by which to control 
 this increasingly serious situation in our state. Three main points 
 may be suggestive. The testing with tuberculin of all dairy and 
 pure bred cattle, partial compensation to owners of all condemned 
 animals, and the ownership by the state of all animals so con- 
 demned. I am informed that the Federal government will divide 
 the responsibility with the state of Iowa, and will co-operate in 
 any progress devised to eradicate tuberculosis. 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS HERETOFORE MADE. 
 
 Some recommendations I have heretofore made I desire to re- 
 peat. I repeat them because I thoroughly believe they should be 
 adopted. Of nothing whatever am I more thoroughly convinced 
 than that from whatever standpoint it may be viewed the house 
 of represenatives and the senate of this State ought each to be 
 
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 reduced in numbers one-half. I doubt very much if there could be 
 found anywhere any argument in support of such numbers in - 
 State legislative bodies by anyone of commanding ability or by a 
 recognized student of State governments. I sincerely hope you will 
 not carelessly pass this suggestion by but that you will give it most 
 sincere consideration. Rising above all considerations of self, of 
 political preferment, come to the question as if it were an original 
 one in Iowa government. Let it be provided in a proposed amend- 
 ment to the constitution, in a proper form, that it shall be in force 
 and effect at a time far enough in the future to disturb no one 
 now in office. 
 
 I have heretofore recommended that the office of Railroad Com- 
 missioner should be appointive. I am more and more convinced of 
 it 
 
 I have urged before that there ought to be created the office 
 of business manager of the affairs of the county. I hardly think 
 that anyone could give a good reason why this should not be done. 
 Thousands of dollars could be saved to the people. His salary 
 would be as nothing compared to his value. A budgetary system 
 could be worked out by him and the business of the county put upon 
 a business basis. Now nobody gives any real attention or any really 
 sincere expenditure of time to county affairs. No genuinely business 
 institution would tolerate such a condition of affairs one day. 
 
 As to court procedure: I say again in my judgment the law 
 ought to provide for majority verdicts in civil cases. 
 
 The time for taking appeals ought to be reduced. What reason 
 can be given for hanging up a civil or criminal case for six months 
 in which to appeal? 
 
 Interminable latitude in the examination of jurors for the trial 
 of a cause should not be permitted. Taking days, sometimes weeks 
 in selecting a jury is ridiculously absurd. The court should be 
 given control of this matter. 
 
 On appeal, prejudice should not be presumed and there should 
 be no reversal unless the court could say the jury was probably 
 misled by the error of the court. 
 
 If a witness in a criminal case declines to become a witness in 
 his own behalf and explain the facts tending to establish his guilt, 
 counsel should be privileged to comment on that fact to the jury 
 and the law forbidding it should be repealed. 
 
 I believe the grand jury should be abolished, the law providing, 
 however, that in exceptional cases of great public interest and con- 
 
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 cern the District Court should be authorized to conveue a ^rand 
 jury to make investigation. 
 
 Two years ago I urged the necessity of establishing a medical 
 department in the State Library and gave what then seemed to me 
 cogent reasons for so doing. I repeat the recommendation and sin- 
 cerely hope you will not fail to favorably consider a matter of 
 such great importance. 
 
 Twice before, for the most part, I have made these recommenda- 
 tions and I respectfully refer you to what was then said in sup- 
 port of them. 
 
 IOWA INSURANCE RATING LAW. 
 
 This law was enacted by the Thirty-sixth General Assembly. 
 During the first year of its existence it was subjected to much ad- 
 verse criticism. Much of this has subsided, or at least, is quiescent. 
 However, criticism is still lodged against it and its repeal has been 
 suggested. When the natural eonservatism of the human mind and 
 the advantages gained by some, under old methods, are considered 
 this is not surprising. All progress has ever met and ever will meet 
 with such opposition. The importance of this matter to the people 
 of the State, it seems to me, justifies a brief consideration here. 
 
 I desire to call your most careful attention to the holding of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States in the case of The German Alli- 
 ance Insurance Company vs. Superintendent of Insurance of the 
 State of Kansas, 233 U. S. 389, because of the elearness and con- 
 clusiveness of the discussion by which it determines that the business 
 of insurance is affected with a public interest and that its contracts 
 and rates may be subjected to governmental regulation in the in- 
 terest of the public welfare. It is put upon exaetly the same ground 
 that the regulation of railway, water, light, gas, electricity and pub- 
 lic warehouse rates is put, viz : that a business which is of public con- 
 cern may be regulated in the interest of the public. In enacting the 
 insurance law, then, the legislature, within its province, determined 
 that it was for the common good and the court held that it violated 
 no constitutional provision. 
 
 Not only has the law this support in principle but it had almost 
 nationwide consideration of the most careful kind by experts in 
 insurance matters chosen from the supervising officials of ten of the 
 great States of the Union, from New York to Idaho, by the National 
 Convention of Insurance Commissioners from the Insurance De- 
 partments of all the States. This committee, so chosen, held meet- 
 ings in different parts of the country for more than a year at which 
 
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 there were heard representatives of insurance companies and per- 
 sons engaged in rate-making. ^‘The economic basis of fire insur- 
 ance rates, the methods of making rates and the relation between 
 rate-making and other problems of fire insurance,” were carefully 
 and exhaustively studied. The recommendations of this committee 
 to the convention after such prolonged study may certainly be said 
 not to contain anything not reasonably mature and sound and not 
 in accord with their honest convictions. It certainly represented 
 what in its judgment was necessary to protect the insuring public 
 and its recommendations are embodied in the Iowa law. The In- 
 surance Commission of Ontario, Canada, refers in its report to this 
 convention as ^‘the most important non-legislating association in 
 tlie United States so far as insurance matters are .concerned, ” and 
 says '^much more than ordinary importance should be attached to 
 tiieir findings,” and further says as to the Iowa law that it is be- 
 lieved ‘4t presents a measure more nearly akin to the interests and 
 requirements of the Province than any other” the commissioner 
 has seen. Mr. Herman L. Ekern, former Insurance Commissioner 
 of Wisconsin, and an eminent authority, in an address a few months 
 ago said, ‘‘The Iowa law probably reflects most closely the public 
 sentiment of the United States on the regulation of fire insurance 
 rates. Not only did this State follow the recommendations sub- 
 stantially of the convention referred to but so also did Minnesota, 
 Missouri, Oklahoma and Kentucky and, in part, Michigan and Penn- 
 sylvania” and Kansas has a like law. The law, therefore, rests 
 upon a sound legal principle, it represents the careful, mature 
 judgment of the most competent men upon the subject under con- 
 sideration to be found and it has had the legislative approval of 
 eight states. It would seem to rest as to its general features and 
 purposes upon an unshakable foundation. Besides, the State of 
 Iowa should never relinquish the principle of rate regulation of a 
 business affected by a public use as it would do in part by a repeal 
 of this law. 
 
 Not only has it all these things to commend it but actual expe- 
 rience also should comend it to every unprejudiced mind. Prior to 
 its enactment rates were merely something to be juggled with by 
 agents, rested upon no scientific basis, embodied no principle of 
 uniformity or equity, some paying more and some less than war- 
 ranted by the risk. They were simply subjects of dickering between 
 the agent and the insured. The premiums paid on insurance con- 
 stitute the fund out of which the enormous fire losses of the country 
 
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 are paid. The people must liave insuranee but no one should con- 
 tril)ute more or loss to said fund than his risk would warrant so far 
 as it is reasonably possible to determine. This law provides for 
 rate-making bureaus paid by the companies who, after surveys 
 made and the application of years of observation and experience, 
 establish in the first instance, rates in conformity with the hazard. 
 Classification of risks are made. These are based on such consider- 
 ations, among others, as kind of building, condition, location, oc- 
 cupancy, and fire fighting facilities available. To illustrate: A 
 town without water protection falls in a higher class rate than one 
 well supplied. Like hazard, like risk. Hence the law contemplates 
 uniformity, equity. There can be no discrimination any more. Just 
 as there can be no discrimination in freight rates or passenger 
 fares any more. Besides, this law tends to reduce fire loss. It stim- 
 ulates better, safer building, correction of fire danger, better fa- 
 cilities for suppressing fire because these things reduce the hazard 
 and the rate. The law is flexible as between the companies and bu- 
 reaus and permits variation from bureau rates and thus compe- 
 tition, but there can be no variation except on notice and the whole, 
 bureaus and companies, are under the direct supervision of the 
 Insurance Commissioner. Any person may carry a complaint to 
 him and may appeal from him to the district court. In the begin- 
 ning of the operation of this law some predicted that millions of dol- 
 lars more would be taken from the people in premiums. This is 
 only the reception that forward-moving, constructive legislation 
 always receives. The fact is, as shown by the records, that the av- 
 erage rate paid in 1915 was lower than ever before in the history 
 of the State. It is simply the old cjnestion of regulating in the in- 
 terest of the whole people, business which is of public concern and 
 which question it had been thought was settled in Iowa. Certainly 
 the public welfare requires that the law in all its essential features 
 and purposes be retained. 
 
 NEW COMPANIES. 
 
 A very proper subject for your consideration in connection with 
 insurance is the matter of the regulation and control, so far as can 
 be done, of new companies prior to the time they receive their 
 license and enter upon an actual insurance business. I do not know 
 of any ground for criticism of any company in the promotion stage 
 in Iowa, but in some other States methods have obtained which 
 occasioned the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchasers 
 of promotion stock. The organization of new companies are on every 
 
— 14 — 
 
 liand throughout the country. Capital stock may be sold at two or 
 three for one and such portion of the surplus as may be desired by 
 tlie promoters appropriated for promotion expenses such as payment 
 of salaries, commissions for sales of stock, rents, equipment, supplies, 
 anything. Sometimes the whole scheme has seemed to be organized 
 for the purpose of fleecing the public. ‘ ‘ The Western Underwriter, ’ ’ 
 published in Chicago, in a recent article discussing this question said 
 “the time has arrived when a law should be enacted giving the 
 State Insurance Department regulation over companies in process 
 of promotion” and that such -a law should be “one of the earliest 
 to be passed at the next session of the legislature.” An Insurance 
 efournal published at Atlanta, Georgia, was at about the same time 
 suggesting the same thing. In this State from the time when the 
 articles of incorporation are filed to the time when license to begin 
 tmsiness is granted, the State has no jurisdiction over the company. 
 If it never gets to the point of writing insurance the stockholder 
 has no protection. The insurance laws of this State, in my judg- 
 ment, are to be very highly commended, except in this omission to 
 place the new company under the jurisdiction of the Insurance De- 
 j)artment immediately upon the approval of its articles of incor- 
 poration. The law should limit the percentage to be paid on com- 
 missions, salaries, etc. It should require that the subscription con- 
 tract specifically define the proportion which may be used for ex- 
 penses. It should require that copies of all contracts, advertisements, 
 iiterature and other papers be filed with the Commissioner and 
 that the promotion of the company in general be under his super- 
 vision. This would be some protection to the public while other- 
 wise there is practically none against any one w^ho might conceive 
 the idea of promoting an insurance company. I recommend that 
 the law be so amended. No honest, high-minded organizer' and 
 promoter of a company could or would criticise such a provision 
 but rather would commend it as placing insurance upon a high 
 plane and establishing it in the confidence of the people. 
 
 THE STATE FIRE MARSHAL. 
 
 There is an overlapping, or, at least to some extent, a similarity 
 of wmrk done and results attained in the office of the Fire Marshal 
 and the Department of Insurance. In the matter of fire preven- 
 tion they are closely related. The rating law is a very potent fac- 
 tor for reducing fire hazards because through its operation the in- 
 spection of rated risks in cases of complaint is necessary and be- 
 cause its natural tendency and purpose is to eliminate dangers 
 
—15 
 
 from fire and prompt the installation of equipment to prevent fire 
 loss. An inspector, understanding the rating system, could at the 
 same time suggest improvements in the way of reducing both the fire 
 hazard and insurance rates. This service would enlarge that now 
 done from the office of the Fire Marshal and at no greater ex- 
 pense. In fact, it seems to me that the duties of the Fire Marshal 
 naturally belong to the Department of the Insurance Commissioner 
 and should be administered by it. In some States this is done. 
 (\msiderable money is expended in the way of prosecutions con- 
 nected with suspicious fires and a question may be raised as to 
 whether it is justified by results. The real value to the people 
 comes through the work of inspection and fire prevention and the 
 reduction of the cost of insurance must depend upon the reduction 
 of the amount of fire waste. I believe it would be to the advantage 
 of both departments and to the State if they were consolidated and 
 I so recommend. The ferreting out of arson cases could and should 
 be a part of the duties of the State Agents. 
 
 THE BOARD OF PAROLE. 
 
 The law makes it the duty of the Board of Parole to render such 
 assistance as may be necessary to the success of the parole sys- 
 tem in procuring employment for paroled prisoners. A large part 
 of the success of the system has been due to the patient, earnest 
 work of the Board in this particular. A sympathetic oversight 
 and constant interest is maintained in the man, resulting in great 
 helpfulness to him as long as he is under parole. He is sustained 
 by the consciousness that the state is interested in his welfare. 
 
 During 1916 the Board granted 385 paroles from prison and 27 
 on the recommendaton of judges and county attorneys. All these 
 men were furnished employment and, so long as under parole, 
 have the care, helpfulness and advice of the Board. 
 
 I recommend that the law be amended so that it will require 
 that all paroles granted by judges be to the Board of Parole. Then 
 the paroled man will immediately come under its supervision, a 
 spirit of helpfulness and personal interest will immediately sur- 
 round him. If, however, he is paroled to some individual, charged 
 with no particular duty toward him, it is often the case that he 
 drifts, little is known of him and little encouragement extended. 
 The work of the Board is so organized that it is ever in communi- 
 cation with him and that to help. For this reason I make this 
 recommendation. 
 
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 THE GOOD ROADS QUESTION. 
 
 The public highway question has been an urgent one for fifteen 
 years, or more. Every session of the legislature has dealt with it 
 to some extent. The law has grown better all the time and there 
 has been constant improvement in the roads, very rapid in the 
 last four or five years. The question will doubtless receive con- 
 sideration by you. I see no reason why it should not be ap- 
 proached in the unanimous desire to find and do the best thing 
 for the progress and good name of the state. Why should such a 
 question involve bitter feeling? It is unthinkable that any one 
 could be found who does not hold good roads to be very desirable 
 and essential to the economic interests of the state. It is simply 
 a question of methods. All appreciating the inestimable value of 
 a result, shall it fail of attainment because of an unseemly con- 
 tention about ways and means? Especially should anything of 
 tliis kind occur when nobody anywhere is proposing to lay an 
 additional burden to the extent of one dollar upon anybody? 
 Should anything of this kind occur when the law already fully 
 provides means for financing all that is desired and hoped for in 
 good roads? Should there be any such result when the applica- 
 tion of business methods to the expenditure of funds would save 
 their dissipation and secure them for permanent enjoyment? 
 Should there be any such result when it seems clear that in those 
 communities of the state where the people have gone ahead and 
 built roads, surfaced with gravel after approved plans, that lands 
 have advanced more rapidly in value, and especially where the 
 consolidated school has been added, than in other parts of the 
 state where there has been opposition or refusal to advance? 
 Should a contention about ways and means result in failure to go 
 forward in the face of the testimony of four hundred farmers in 
 letters to the Better Roads Commission of the increased value of 
 land and other advantages where such roads as are proposed in 
 Iowa have been built? Could there really be left anything to con- 
 tend about when the roads themselves demonstrate the wonderful 
 improvement under the Highway Commission, when 15,000 per- 
 manent bridges and culverts speak with eternal voice in approval 
 of methdos, when an annual saving to the people of $4,000,000 is 
 realized by the Commission and when only by the retention of it 
 can the more than two million dollars be secured from the govern- 
 ment and when the Avisdom and efficiency of the laAv is appealing 
 
— 17 — 
 
 to other states as a model? “Wherefore, seeing- that we are com- 
 passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses what manner of 
 Iversons ought we to be?” Have not all movements of mankind to- 
 ward betterment been opposed? Has not all progress cost some- 
 thing? Is it not the settled conviction of all men that it has been 
 worth infinitely more than it cost ? 
 
 Nobody, so far as I know, has ever at any time advocated a 
 bonded State indebtedness of any amount to raise money for road 
 construction. What has been suggested is that any county should 
 be allowed, at its option, to anticipate its highway revenues, al- 
 ready provided for, by issuing serial bonds running over a brief 
 period of years and using the money thus secured in a compre- 
 hensive and economical sort of way in road construction. This it 
 could thus do and the economy of it would more than cover the 
 interest outlay on the money. This would be doing business in a 
 large way and realizing upon it at once and not in a “gim- 
 Iciy” way with corresponding results. This would be spending 
 your* money and having something for it at once. This is the 
 way the business of the world has ever been done by men of 
 energy and foresight and success. It is the way that every 
 county represented here today has built bridges, court houses 
 and school houses. It is the way cities have been built. It is 
 the way the great business of this city, and every other on 
 earth, has been established and developed. But for this prin- 
 ciple and method the great railway systems of this country 
 would not have been possible. But for it, many times, a railway 
 could not increase or renew its engines and cars. But for it the 
 great liners would not be plowing the ocean. But for the invoca- 
 tion of this principle of credit the whole Mississippi Valley and 
 the Great West would be a slightly developed land and the life we 
 enjoy impossible. The fact is that the whole vast domain west 
 of the Great River and east of it as well is pledged and has been, 
 since a people endowed with unshakable courage came into it, to 
 the building of a great nation now and enjoying it now in its 
 beneficence and power rather than wait the slow progress of the 
 ox and be chained everlastingly to the life and methods of the 
 prairies and the woods a century ago. The whole thing as it is 
 today is based upon an anticipation of revenues. 
 
 A vast majority of the farmers of Iowa, I venture to say, ac- 
 quired their farms, in whole, or in part, by an anticipation of rev- 
 
- 18 - 
 
 enues from them. They paid part down, mortgaged, or bonded, 
 them, in anticipation of what they could be made to produce, and 
 went to work and from the revenues paid off the mortgages and 
 in the meantime owned and enjoyed them for five or ten years, the 
 length of the mortgages. Is there anything alarming in all this? 
 Is there anybody anywhere that has not been benefited or who has 
 not profited by the anticipation of revenues by the great business en- 
 terprises of the country? Of course good business judgment and 
 foresight are always to be exercised in anticipating future possi- 
 bilities but here are the road revenues. Their income is certain. 
 No elment of chance can intervene. Why fear to apply the prin- 
 ciple here, applied everywhere else? Why not authorize town- 
 ships and counties that, desire to do so to proceed in this way? 
 If there is nothing compulsory about it what can be the objection? 
 The highway question is of the greatest importance to the State. 
 It is the opening of a new era in the development of this country. 
 I pray you do not allow any retrogression. Think out carefully 
 and dispassionately whatever you do. 
 
 I commend to your careful consideration both the report of the 
 Better Roads Commission and the separate and additional sug- 
 gestions of Mr. James C. Davis of that commission. These will 
 reach your desks. These gentlemen, at my request, cheerfully 
 served on this commission wholly in the interest of the public wel- 
 fare and entirely at their own expense. I want in this public way 
 to convey to them my personal appreciation and thanks and I am 
 sure, also, that of disinterested, unselfish citizenship everywhere. 
 In view of their work I need do nothing more than refer to the 
 Federal Aid Act. 
 
 The Congress passed an act to provide aid by the United States 
 in the construction of roads. Under this act I have been notified 
 by the Department of Agriculture that there has been appor- 
 tioned to this state for 1917, the sum of $146,175.60' and that it is 
 stimated that during the next four years the apportionment will 
 be as follows : For 1918, $292,351.20 ; 1919, $438,526.80 ; 1920, 
 $584,702.40; and for 1921, $730,878.00, or a total in five years of 
 $2,192,634.00. 
 
 The act provides, however, that no money apportioned under 
 it shall be expended in any state until its legislature assents to its 
 provisions, except that until the final adjournment of the first 
 regular session of the legislature held after its passage the assent 
 
— 19 — 
 
 of the governor shall be sufficient. On August 12th last I filed 
 with the Department of Agriculture formal assent to the provi- 
 sions of the act. The question, therefore, as to whether this state 
 will avail itself of these provisions is for you to determine before 
 adjournment. If assent by formal act is given by you it must be 
 understood that the state will make available sufficient funds to 
 match the federal appor^tionment in its co-operation with the De- 
 partment of Agriculture in the constructon of any roads agreed 
 upon between that Department and the State Highway Depart- 
 ment. It is, as I suppose, entirely immaterial from what source 
 the state pledges these funds in advance — whether from direct 
 appropriations or from tax levies already provided for or from 
 funds derived from automobile licenses. There was expended in 
 the state in 1915 for road and bridge construction purposes ap- 
 proximately $13,525,364.00. A small portoin of this would meet 
 all the requirements of the Federal Act. Assuming that the auto- 
 mobile licenses for 1917 and from year to year will aggl'legate 
 $2,000,000.00 the Federal apportionment could be secured by 
 pledging a portion of this fund, and, in this way, it seems to me, 
 you should meet the government requirement. 
 
 Mr. James C. Davis in his discussion already herein referred to 
 has made such a clear and complete analysis of the duties of the 
 state in oijder to avail itself of the provisions of the Act of Con- 
 gress that, with his permission, I embody the same herein and 
 make it a part of my urgent recommendation that you enact 
 such legislaton as may be necessary to that end. 
 
 He says : 
 
 First — Accept the provisions of the act by legislative enact- 
 ment. 
 
 Second — Have a State Highway Commission or State Highway 
 Department. 
 
 Third — Have a definite, comprehensive and practicable plan of 
 road improvement covering a five-year period. 
 
 Fourth — Such plan as the state may adopt must be submitted 
 for the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture. 
 
 Fifth — There must be an agreement between the Secretary of 
 Agriculture and the State Highway Commission as to the charac- 
 ter! of the proposed road construction. 
 
 Sixth — the work must be done, as provided by the state laws, 
 under the supervision of the State Highway Commission. 
 
- 20 - 
 
 Seventh — The state must adopt a reasonable plan for the main- 
 tenance of roads receiving Federal aid. 
 
 THE CAPITOL GROUNDS. 
 
 The Executive Council in developing the grounds ordered purchas- 
 ed by the Thirty-fifth General Assembly has proceeded in all respects 
 as directed to do by the law and not otherwise. The law itself sub- 
 mitted a plan and, so far as the work has proceeded, ’it has followed 
 that plan. The wisdom of the law is revealed in many particu- 
 lars but in none more than that the development of the grounds 
 was not to be left to haphazard, or diversified notions of succeed- 
 ing legislatures but to the genius of a world-renowned landscape 
 architect. When the whole is completed and the years have given 
 the growth of grass and flowers and shrubs and trees, interspersed 
 by walks and drives, the far-vision of that legislature, doing a 
 work for all the centuries, will be approved by larger and larger 
 numbers even as it is now. Interference in any respect with the 
 plan is, it seems to me, to mar it. It rests in the mind of the archi- 
 tect as a whole. Each thing in the plan has relation to the whole. 
 Should the untrained, the unskilled take, for instance, the sculp- 
 tor’s work, out of his hands to give it better expression, or should 
 the artist surrender his picture, nearing completion, to the painter 
 of houses to bring out the fine lineaments of the face and put the 
 light in the eyes? Among men and women who have given their 
 lives to the study of landscape art and the relation of buildings to 
 each other and to monuments and of monuments to each other, and 
 who have visited these grounds or examined the plans there is no 
 difference of opinion, all concurring that the plans are artistically 
 correct. 
 
 The law was wise in providing funds through a sufficient number 
 of years to perfect the work as planned. It is sincerely to be hoped 
 that no diversion will be ordered until the work is some further 
 years advanced if ever at all. The tax levy ordered per annum is 
 not burdensome, not exceeding four and one-fourth cents per thou- 
 sand dollars of assesed valuation. May not Iowa become famous for 
 having made one spot out of her millions of acres supremely at- 
 tractive and beautiful and that at the seat of her government, sur- 
 rounding splendid buildings, to come in the near and also in distant 
 years, themselves a part of the satisfying whole ? The appeal, gen- 
 tlemen, is to you and those who shall succeed you. The voice is of 
 the present; it is the cry, also, of the future. 
 
- 21 - 
 
 A NEW BUrLDTNa AT THE CAPTTAIv. 
 
 A new building on the eapitol orounds for the State’s business is 
 an imperative necessity. Other buildings may have been needed 
 heretofore at other places and may be now for State purposes but 
 never at any time could there have been a more compelling ne- 
 cessity than exists here at this moment. Every effort has been made 
 by the Executive Council to house the business of the State and it 
 Lms succeeded in only the most unsatisfactory and inconvenient 
 way. It simply cannot be done any longer. It could not have been 
 done as it is if the State, in extending the grounds, had not bought 
 some buildings, once residences, that could be used. They are 
 not adapted to the uses to which they are put. The Capitol build- 
 ing proper is crowded beyond its capacity. Use for storage pur- 
 poses is practically everywhere and confusion reigns. The Execu- 
 tive Council has partitioned, made doorways, gone out into the ro- 
 tunda and disfigured it, as you have observed, until the limit has 
 been reached, indeed, far exceeded. Some of the buildings outside 
 sre old, unsuitable, and constantly in danger from fire. For in- 
 stance, the building occupied by the Dairy and Food Commissioner 
 is an old dilapidated flat. The State Architect, reporting upon its 
 condition, says it may justly be called a ^'fire-trap.” The two old 
 hot air furnaces are a ‘‘source of danger.” “The plastering is 
 old and much of it is ready to fall at any time if the building or 
 floors are suddenly jarred, as when packages are moved or dropped. ’ ’ 
 “The outer walls are badly cracked in all fronts” and “the 
 structure, as a whole, is in bad condition. ’ ’ And yet the equipment 
 and fixtures used in the building are conservatively valued at 
 SI 5,000.00. Much the same could be said of the buildings north of 
 the Capitol occupied by the State. 
 
 The great law and reference library in this building, .hardly 
 surpassed anywhere, worth half a million dollars, is, in the upper 
 galleries, disintegrating in the extremely dry heat that necessar- 
 ily prevails under such conditons. It is almost criminal reckless- 
 ness to continue such a situation. 
 
 Nobody calls in question the great need, but something of a 
 controversy has arisen as to whether the new building should be 
 known as an “Office Building” or a “Judiciary Building or Tem- 
 ple of Justice.” Into this discussion I shall not enter. I shall only 
 say that this General Assembly wdll greatly fail of its duty if it 
 does not provide for a new building here, or the commencement 
 of one at the earliest possible day. 
 
— 22 — 
 
 THE DIRECT PRIMARY. 
 
 The nomination of candidates for public office in this State by 
 a primary election has been in vogue for a period of ten jmars — 
 a long enough time to give its efficiency and adaptability to the 
 purposes designed by its advocates a reasonable test. Results 
 from the beginning have not been entirely satisfactory. Changes 
 from time to time have been made in the hope of making it an ap- 
 proved instrument of popular government. No improvement has 
 been perceived. It seems to have been continually losing ground 
 in the minds of thoughtful men sincerely interested in good gov- 
 ernment. To test the public mind of the state on the subject I 
 some weeks ago sent out quite a large number of letters to men 
 of all parties and former factions asking whether they were sat- 
 isfied with the law, not simply in theory, but in its practical appli- 
 cation, and if not, why, and whether' they would recommend a 
 change, and if so in what particulars. Almost all responded and 
 not one said he was entirely satisfied. All but two or three ex- 
 pressed thorough dissatisfaction and disappontment. Nearly all 
 recommended very radical changes, many denounced it as subver- 
 sive of representative government and favored its repeal. Many 
 of those who were its staunchest advocates in the beginning and 
 who were in considerable measure responsible for its enactment 
 were as severe in their criticism of results as many of those who 
 never regarded it with favor. 
 
 A wave of popular discontent, which swept over the country 
 something like a decade ago and had a very substantial founda- 
 tion, occasioned much legislation in many States based upon the 
 thought that the people should participate m^ore directly in mat- 
 'i IS of government, going to the extent in some states of enact- 
 ing provisions which might practically abdicate the functions of 
 the legislature. This was thought to be demanded by the exi- 
 gency of the time and entirely justifiable in a democracy. This 
 whole matter opens a very interesting field for study and discus- 
 sion which, of course, cannot be entered upon here, inviting as it 
 is. It must suffice to say that ours is not a pure democracy. We 
 have a democratic republic. James Madison, referring to this 
 question in the Federalist, said: ‘‘Such democracies have ever' 
 
 been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been 
 found incompatible with personal security or the rights of prop- 
 erty ; and have in general been as short in their lives, as they have 
 
— 23 . 
 
 
 been violent in their deaths.” Further he said: “By a rexjublic 
 I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes 
 place. The two great points of difference between a democracy 
 and a republic are, first, the delegation of the government, in the 
 latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest ; secondly, 
 the greater number of citizens and greater sphere of country over 
 which the latter may be extended.” I suppose, however, a re- 
 public might extend over any extent of territory. But a pure 
 democracy is clearly incompatible with such a vast extent of 
 country as the United States. To my mind it is just as clearly 
 impossible of ultimate success in a continued high order of gov- 
 ernment in a state such as Iowa, with a population of 2,358,066 
 people, containing more than 684,000 entitled to vote. It was 
 clearly possible in New England colonial town meetings. It is 
 still successful in such ventures. Switzerland is often referred 
 to, but Iowa is three and a half times as large as Switzerland. 
 Besides, Switzerland is divided into twenty-five cantons, each sov- 
 ereign and each but little larger than one Iowa county. In the 
 canton of Zurich, next to the largest in population in the confed- 
 eration and probably the most intelligent, in ninety-two succes- 
 sive instances of measures submitted by referendum to the people 
 only 77%, on an average, of the total vote was cast and of this 
 20% was invalid or blanks, leaving only 57% valid votes cast and 
 23% per cent of the voters not voting at all. Of the votes cast 
 one-fourth of them were cast by persons who either felt they were 
 not well enough informed to vote, or, in general, they were lack- 
 ing in intelligence, and 23% had not interest enough to vote at 
 all. Therefore, the issues in these cases were determined by a 
 majorty of the 50% voting or, doubtless, by a small minority of 
 the voters of the canton. This was the result in a unit of govern- 
 ment but little larger than an Iowa county. This manifests the 
 want of interest and intelligent grasp of the questions involved 
 by reason of failure and even impossibility of the people inform- 
 ing themselves. This may easily result in government by a mi- 
 norit}^ This is the result in the best and longest tried democracy 
 and this ever has been and ever will be the result. It is simply 
 impossible to ultimate otherwise. I cannot but reach the conclu- 
 sion that those who see in our primary laws a tendency toward 
 the destruction of the representative principle upon which this 
 government was built are right. They lead away from the moor- 
 
- 24 — 
 
 ings cast by the fathers and, in this, we may well pause. It was 
 Lord Chatham, one of the most profound statesmen in English 
 history, who said of them, ‘‘For solidity of reason, force of saga- 
 city and wisdom of conclusion under a complication of difficult 
 circumstances no nation or body of men can stand in preference,” 
 and that estimate for morfe than one hundred and twenty-five 
 years of our experience as a democratic republic, has stood un- 
 challenged as the judgment of all the earth. They were the rep- 
 resentatives of the people laying the foundations of a republic in 
 a new world. They were ordaining a constitution that was to for- 
 ever protect the people against themselves, that was to be the 
 fortress of protection for the minority. As representatives they 
 said, “We the people of the United States * * * do ordain 
 
 and establish this constitution.” But if it had gone, on a refer- 
 endum, to the people we know now and they knew then that it 
 never would have been adopted and we never should have had 
 that great instrument. 
 
 As to the further practical operation of the primary laws it may 
 be said that nobody is responsible for results. Nobody nominates 
 candidates for public office. They select themselves. The ques- 
 tion of fitness is not discussed and passed upon by anybody. They 
 arc found in the field. Multiplied thousands of voters know noth- 
 ing about their qualifications and do not and cannot take the time 
 to investigate. If they could, to whom could they go? To every- 
 body only. And everybody is nobody. The voter simply ratifies 
 the candidate’s selection of himself. He has nothing to do with 
 selecting the agents of his government. The most intelligent 
 voter does not know how to mark his ballot below the head of 
 the ticket. It is manifest that it would be better if candidates 
 were selected by representatives chosen by the people in small 
 units of government. Then there could be some canvass as to fit- 
 ness. Then responsibility could be located. Then the people 
 Avould indeed select their candidates. That would be democratic. 
 It is not democratic where the voter expresses no opinion as to 
 nearly the whole of the ticket he casts. He makes no selection. He 
 votes blindly. He simply makes a thrust in the dark. Why insist 
 that he wait until he is twenty-one years of age before he does this? 
 He could do it as well at fourteen. Or why insist that the voter 
 be a male? A sixteen-year-old girl could make a stab at the field 
 V. ith just as much certainty of impaling the best man. That it is 
 
— 25 — . 
 
 mostly a chance, a lottery, was humiliatingly admitted when the 
 legislature ordered a rotation of the names on the ballot. That it 
 could be nothing else Wias conclusively demonstrated when no bet- 
 ter results followed. There could not possibly be a greater delu- 
 sion than that a repeal of the primary laws would deprive the peo- 
 ple of their power of direct participation in their government. The 
 fact is that the primary prevents that very thing. The people can- 
 not proceed with the greatest efficiency, precision and intelligence 
 by multitudes. All experience establishes with unshakable certainty 
 this fact, not only in government but in business and every other 
 department of life where large issues are involved. This principle 
 is recognized land acted upon everywhere else but in government 
 where it ought to obtain with greatest force. 
 
 When this new plan and departure from the original plan and 
 structure of our government is carefully thought out, it seems to 
 me, if I am not thinking crookedly, that it does not afford security 
 against misgovernment ; that its tendency is not beneficent ; that it 
 is constantly toward mediocrity; that it will grow more ineffi- 
 cient and unsatisfactory with the passing years ; that self-govern- 
 ment, genuine, orderly, capable government by the people, will be 
 lost amidst the shoutings and confusion of the multitude about an 
 array of self-selected, self-imposed candidates. The thought of the 
 office seeking the man, an ideal once cherished, has already per- 
 ished and is held in contemptuous derision. Discussion and delib- 
 eration as to party policy and candidates are not possible at the 
 polls — not possible where the electors number hundreds of thou- 
 sands. The people may in fact be left without any potential voice 
 in the destiny of their country or themselves. There may be no- 
 body on board capable of navigating the ship especially in the vio- 
 lence of a storm. In a great emergency — and we cannot conclude 
 it will never arise — could there be any certainty, under the pri- 
 mary system, that a great, strong, forceful man, lost in his de- 
 votion to his country, its inspiring traditions and his belief in its 
 great destiny could be chosen? The primary tends to exclude the 
 best, most unselfish and capable men. The rule is that they will not 
 undergo the methods which seem necessary to success: The mean- 
 
 ingless circulation of petitions, the harassing and long-drawn out 
 primary campaign within the party, tending to disrupt and weaken 
 the party, a great evil where government must proceed by parties, 
 the enormous and disgraceful expenditure of money, all tending to 
 corrupt public morals, lower and contaminate the political and pub- 
 
— 26 - 
 
 lic ideals of youth — all this with reference to the questions that 
 must touch every citizen, really the most momentous questions with 
 which he has to do. Then must follow the campaign for the general 
 election with all of the convulsions and disappointment and bit 
 terness of the primars' campaign carried over into it. The tendency 
 of it all is to develop the demagogue, lower to debasement the tone 
 of our political life, deprive the country of great leadership, inspired 
 0]dy by a desire for the common good, for a commonwealth that 
 shall be an example and attract the admiration of the whole coun- 
 try — a leadership that is not based upon and which would scorn to 
 appeal to the prejudices and want of vision of men, but which is 
 on fire, with the great things of life which develop great citizenship 
 and build states upon enduring foundations. Let this be called 
 Ideal. It is the hope of America. In our siiiug contentment and 
 great prosperity we dislike to. be disturbed. But yonder is the dis- 
 tant day. Yonder is the gneat population of hundreds of millions. 
 There lie the great questions of the future. We have had nothing 
 like them yet. It is not too early to cry back to the people, back to 
 them in their strong represenative capacity where they can speak 
 in their potent, discriminative, really democratic, selective, elective 
 force, a thing which they do not and cannot now do. 
 
 Any system will have its imperfections and can be abused and has 
 always been, because men are imperfect, selfish, ambitious. But 
 calm, constructive thinking — the thought and foresight that has 
 moved the world along in all the ways that have marked its advance- 
 ment — in the ways that have developed beneficent governments has 
 not been the thought of the multitude or the product of the multi- 
 tudinous mind. 
 
 The tendency of our present system is to groAv worse. Such has 
 been the result. A new movement having the approval of great 
 numbers brings with it a pride in its success which seems to start 
 it well, but its inherent weakness is sure to develop. Hence it has 
 come about that in more States than one, dead men have been voted 
 for as candidates. In other instances men of notorious weakness in 
 character and mind have polled thousands of votes for important 
 State offices, putting the public ser^fice in actual peril — indeed there 
 is a constant peril. Besides, it has been demonstrated that the less 
 intelligent voters, those whose personal prejudices are most easily 
 aroused, vote with the greatest unanimity. Thus an analysis of a pri- 
 mary vote in Michigan reveals the fact that “in the seven counties 
 containing the most foreign-born and illiterate voters the republi- 
 
— 27 — 
 
 v'an vote has been far above the percentage for the State, in the last 
 three primaries exceeding the party membership ; while in the seven 
 counties containing the least such vote the percentage has been con- 
 siderably below that for the state. In Detroit the vote in the four 
 wards conceded to be the ‘‘worst’’ has always been markedly heav- 
 ier than in the best wards and in 1914 the republican vote in the 
 worst wards was over twice the party membership. The voting is 
 (juantatively best where the electorate appears to be qualitatively 
 worst. ’ ’ I think this would be found to be generally true under the 
 I)rimary system. 
 
 So far as the presidential preference primary law is concerned it 
 has been rightly called a farce. It has already demonstrated that the 
 people can and will actually trifle with the great question of selecting 
 a president of the United States, voting in great numbers for men 
 having absolutely no qualifications, natural or acquired, for the 
 great office, and not claiming to have, and men of whom no candid, 
 thoughtful citizen, anxious for his country’s welfare, would ever 
 think. This experience strikingly betrays the weakness and danger 
 of the direct primary system. 
 
 The non-partisan judiciary law, as it stands, has also demon- 
 strated its utter futility to effect its purpose. It has moved the 
 judiciary into politics. It invites into a political game that has not 
 one thing to commend it, but everything to condemn it. It starts the 
 candidate for the office of judge out as a suppliant. He must appeal 
 to people whom he may soon fiave before him as litigants and who 
 have extended the helpful influence. If he rises into the region 
 where the recollection of favors do not abide, those before him may 
 be on a lower level where the memory is ever alert and suggestive. 
 So far as it is humanly possible the judge should be placed beyond 
 every suggestion or suspicion of bias. If he were nominated by a 
 (convention he would be very much farther, although not altogether, 
 removed from this; but selecting himself as a candidate and ap- 
 pealing to the people, he is subjected to every sort of obligation and 
 entanglement in the primary. The field is open for every mediocre 
 to become a candidate. It invites to the arts of the demagogue to 
 gain a judgeship. It may easily lead eventually to the loss of fit- 
 ness, ability and courage on the bench. 
 
 It has been said of this matter by a great lawyer of nation-wide 
 renown: “Those ripest in wisdom are not willing to engage in a 
 campaign where the arts of the demagogue and the use of money 
 are such potential factors ; and we must make up our minds that 
 
— 28 - 
 
 unless we withdraw our judicial nominations from these strenuous 
 j)rimaries, our judges, in time, will be our most skillful politicians 
 rather than our most learned lawyers.” This law ought to be re- 
 l)ealed. The presidential preference law should be repealed. The 
 office of judge should be appointive. It is so in every country on 
 earth but Switzerland and the United States and is so in eight of 
 our states. 
 
 While there may be and have been abuses under every system the 
 (/pportunity and temptation ought to be made as difficult as pos- 
 sible. The trouble with the old caucus system which naturally 
 aroused public indignation was, that it Avas not born of the law, 
 was subjected to no regulation. Capable of being a sound basis for 
 popular gOA^ernment it was, nevertheless, often made the instru- 
 ment of unrestrained, self-interested, self-seeking, shrewdly design- 
 ing men to compass selfish purposes and sometimes defeat the popu- 
 lar will. It was at the basis, yet was the weakest point in the aaTioIc 
 party structure and nioA^ement. From it the people in disgust fied 
 to the method I haA^e been describing with which the public is now 
 just as much disgusted. Is it not possible to cleAuse a method of 
 party procedure and government that Avill realize the distinctive 
 purposes and genius of our form of goA^emment ? It has not been 
 done yet in its best sense. This is the Cjuestion for this legislature. 
 Once a belicA^er in the direct primary, experience and reflection 
 have forced me to the conclusions already expressed. My interest in 
 the progress and future good gOA^ermnent of this commoiiAvealth 
 forces me to recommend its repeal. Xot an attempt to patch it up, 
 for that would be unsatisfactory, but a start on a new basis. 
 
 I should like to see Iowa assume leadership back to true, popular, 
 representative gOA^ernment. This legislature should proAude a law 
 for a primary in the toAvnship or precinct where all the Alters can 
 haA’e a direct Amte, at which all candidates for township or precinct 
 offices could be nominated and, if deemed best, county officers. At 
 this primary election delegates to the county conA^ntion and alter- 
 nates should be elected and their election properly certified to the 
 county conA^ention. For this primary the law should fix a day for 
 all parties, uniform throughout the state, strictly regulated as to 
 notice, time of opening and closing, method of selecting judges and 
 clerks, the right to participate, providing, perhaps, that ten days 
 ])efore, the voter should declare his party affiliation and that having 
 once Amted at a primary and thus fixed his party affiliation he could 
 not A’ote in any other, unless thirty days prior he had filed a declara- 
 
— 29 — 
 
 lion, under oath, of change of party affiliation ; and providing also 
 that no name of a candidate of one party could be written, printed 
 or pasted upon the ballot of another under penalty of rejection of 
 the ballot; and providing -also the ratio of representation in the 
 selection of delegates to the county convention, fixing the date of 
 such convention and its time of meeting, uniform throughout the 
 State, to nominate county officers, if not nominated at the township 
 and precinct primary, and to nominate State representatives and to 
 select delegates and alternates to senatorial, judicial and congres- 
 sional conventions, fixing a uniform time throughout the state for 
 holding them and selecting delegates and (alternates to the state 
 convention and fixing the time for holding it and declaring the 
 ratio of representation to all these conventions. The delegates to 
 all these conventions should be properly certified and be required 
 to attend and no proxies should be permitted. In the case of ab- 
 sence or inability of a delegate to attend, an alternate to take his 
 place, the law fixing the order in which alternates would be per- 
 mitted to take the place of regular delegates, and no other persons 
 should have any voice or vote in any convention. The law should 
 also provide that these delegates and alternates should be regarded 
 as officers, their tenure being from the time of their election until 
 the next election of delegates so that in the event of need, any con- 
 vention could be re-assembled on notice and another campaign and 
 expense avoided. Under this kind of legalized procedure it is hard 
 to see how there could be any of the old time manipulations, sharp 
 practices and packing of caucuses and conventions and, in my judg- 
 ment, it should be worked out and the principle and purpose de- 
 veloped as your combined wisdom may dictate. The legislative 
 branch ' of the government should be made as strong as possible 
 because its power is lalmost unlimited and I believe its candidates 
 should be carefully selected by delegate conventions. 
 
 Another consideration, slight, however, in comparison with the 
 reasons already given why the laws referred to should be repealed 
 is the cost of the elections in Iowa. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Since the adjournment of the last General Assembly the death 
 of several of the most noted men in the history of the State has 
 occurred. Each one of them was ripe in years and in long, val- 
 uable service to the commonwealth and the whole country as well. 
 As a token of respect on the part of the State and as an expression 
 
30 
 
 of the people’s appreciation of their worth, example and service, 
 I speak of them on this, an Occasion of the people. 
 
 Major General Grenville M. Dodge died at Council Bluffs on 
 the 3rd day of January, 1916. He was one of the most distinguish- 
 ed men in Iowa history. Not only in Iowa, but throughout the 
 nation, he was distinguished as a great civil engineer and rail- 
 way builder; as a commanding figure in the business world; as 
 a leader of armies in the war for the Union ; as a friend and coun- 
 selor of many of the most noted public men in the country for half 
 a century; ,as the sympathetic and wise adviser of all who might 
 appeal to him ; as devoted to his country and as having an ever- 
 increasing love for Iowa — a life distinguished as consecrated to 
 the highest ideals of American citizenship. 
 
 It is in the minds and hearts of the people of Council Bluffs to 
 cause to be erected in that city which he called ‘^Home” and 
 where so many of the years of his life were passed, a monument 
 in commemoration of his life and public service. Because his name 
 was a familiar one throughout the whole country it has been sug- 
 ed by the people of his home city, and I deem it a high privilege to 
 recommend and urge, that this General Assembly provide promptly 
 for the appointment of a commission to serve without expense to 
 the State in the matter of providing for and erecting said monu- 
 ment. Because he was essentially and all his life a public character 
 this purpose of the citizenship of Council Bluffs should have this 
 public recognition and endorsement of the people of Iowa. 
 
 Hon. William Peters Hepburn died at Clarinda, Iowa, February 
 7th, 1916. He was a pioneer in the State. Sixty years ago he was 
 county attorney of Marshall County and fifty-nine years ago was 
 clerk of the House in the Seventh General Assembly. For three 
 years he was district attorney for the 11th Judicial District, re- 
 signing that position to enter the Civil War. He distinguished 
 himself as a soldier, being promoted from time to time until he 
 was placed in command of the Second Brigade, Cavalry Division 
 of the Sixteenth Army Corps, serving until the close of the war. 
 After 1880 he served the people many years in congress from the 
 Eighth Iowa District. His public service was a notable one and 
 he will pass into Iowa history as a man of forceful character, 
 strong in his convictions, a lawyer of ability, a splendid soldier, 
 xa great debater, devoted to his country. 
 
— 31 — 
 
 . Rev. Henry Wallace, died in the City of Des Moines, February 
 22nd, 1916. He was a scholar, teacher, preiacher, editor, author, 
 ])ublisher, farmer, a friend of man interested in all benevolent 
 enterprises, a helper of the world. The influence of Henry Wallace 
 was greater even than that of very many very influential men. 
 His work was equally and eminently successful in very many 
 fields of activity. He was one of Iowa’s most useful men and 
 leaves a memory cherished by her entire citizenship. 
 
 Hon. Charles Clinton Nourse, died at his winter home in Sierra 
 Madre., California, on the 31st day of December, 1916, at the age 
 of eighty-seven years. Judge Nourse came to Iowa sixty-five 
 years ago and during nearly all of thiat time was prominently 
 connected with the legal, politieal and general develop- 
 ment of the State. He was prosecuting attorney in his district in 
 1852, was Chief Clerk of the Iowa House of Representatives sixty- 
 two years ago and Secretary of the Senate two years later, and 
 fifty-four years ago was Attorney-General of the State and a 
 little later a judge of the District Court. He was long an active 
 practitioner of the law in central Iowa with his home in Des 
 Moines. His distinction was as eminent lawyer, politician in the 
 best sense, orator and excellent high-minded citizen. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Now I come to the conclusion of my term of service in a public 
 capacity for the people of Iowa. It has been a measureably long 
 one in different positions. 
 
 I have made mistakes. They are as apparent to me as they are 
 to the people. But on the whole the people are generous and kind. 
 I have had what is no doubt the usual experience. I have known 
 the pleasurable feeling and encouragement that sympathy and ap- 
 probation bring and I have known, also, the severity of disappro- 
 bation and I have felt the keen, rapier thrusts of bitter criticism. I 
 beg to say that these last were soon out of my mind and I have 
 nothing today in my heart but gratitude to all of the people and 
 an inspiring hope for the increasing growth of the greatness of the 
 State and the constant improvement of her moral and political life 
 and ideals. Men come and go and so, officially, the record is closed 
 and with every good wish and hope it is mine to say. Good-bye.