enlisted men of the Guard are giving attention to the instruc tions in the annual encampments. The aggregate attendance at the four encampments was 2,015 out of a total number composing the guard of 2,498. The annual encampments have shown a marked improvement in discipline and in all attainments necessary to a well organized military force ready in a few hours to be mobilized for any active service that may be required.

THE CHATTANOOGA BATTLE FIELDS.

Nearly all the states that were represented in the battles fought near Chattanooga have erected monuments to designate the positions occupied by their regiments in the sanguinary conflicts of those fearful months. I am advised that provision has been made for the rearing of between 150 and 200 such monuments. Iowa was not, it is true, represented in the struggle at Chickamauga, but in the later fight on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain many Iowa regiments were engaged. While about $400,000 has been appropriated by other states for monuments on these historic grounds, Iowa has done nothing of the kind. It does look as if Iowa ought to move in the same direction. Her part in the noble record of the Army of the Tennessee would seem to demand that when the position of the various organizations constituting that army are to be indicated on one of its great battle fields the places where the brave regiments of Iowa fought should not remain unmarked.

THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.

When the soldiers' monument was almost completed the general assembly abolished the commission which had nearly finished that elegant memorial, and the same was turned over to the executive council. That body has caused the contracts which had been entered into by the commission to be completed, and the monument is now finished in accordance with the designs. There yet remains of the amount appropriated $3,747.25.

TENNESSEE CENTENNIAL.

The authorities of the state of Tennessee invited the people of Iowa to assist in the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the admission of that commonwealth into the union in 1796. Owing to the large demand upon the public funds that it was thought ought in some manner be provided for, the

general assembly did not see the way clear to make any appropriation for our participation in the celebration. Nevertheless, I appointed a number of gentlemen to act as a commission with Fulton S. White, of Des Moines, at its head. The commission made no little effort to secure a creditable representation from Iowa at the exposition, which was held at Nashville during the year 1897. Being without means, other than what they themselves supplied, to do the work expected their work was necessarily crippled. Nevertheless, the members of the commission deserve the thanks of the state for the showing they succeeded in making.

INDIA RELIEF.

Early in the year 1897, I made an appeal to the people asking for contributions of corn for India's starving people, and appointed on a commission for that purpose Hoyt Sherman, Edwin H. Conger, George L. Godfrey, Joseph D. McGarraugh, Rev. Leon A. Harvey and William L. Carpenter. Assurances had been received of free transportation of unlimited amounts of grain on the various Pacific roads to San Francisco, whence the contributions were to be taken to India in a vessel furnished by the national government. The response to the appeal was generous, and large quantities of grain were taken to St. Joseph, Mo., for drying, preparatory to the long journey. The transportation on the railroads to that point was freely furnished on the various lines, a liberality that was found to make heavy exactions on some of those lines. Either the assurances of free transportation to the Pacific were not well founded, or the lines refused to make good such assurances; and only a limited quantity of the generous offerings went that way. The consequence was that the commission had to sell most of the corn, which was done, and the proceeds remitted through the relief organization at New York to India. The members of the commission labored with zeal and fidelity to forward the work intrusted to them. This is particularly true of Major Sherman, the chairman, who gave most of his time to the work for several weeks, and to whose energy and perseverance the success of the benevolent enterprise is largely to be attributed.

THE NEW CODE.

A few defects (very few in view of the magnitude of the work) have been met with in the new code, which require action by the general assembly. In another part of this paper I have

.

called attention to one in the provision that aims to levy a special tax on corporations increasing their capital.

I may mention some others that have been brought to my attention. Chapter 11 of Title XII provides for the appointment of a number of inspectors of the products of petroleum, not more than fourteen in all, who are to take office on the first day of July in each even-numbered year, thus doing away with the office of state oil inspector, with his deputies. No provi. sion is made for the interval between the taking effect of the new code and the incoming of the new officers. The law does, however, provide for continuing the inspection and provides penalties for the sale of oil which has not been inspected. I asked the attorney-general for an opinion as to the proper course to be pursued under the circumstances. That officer replied, expressing the opinion that the state oil inspector was authorized to hold until his successors under the new law are prepared to take office. Accordingly, the inspection has gone on with the former officers. It would be well, in my judgment, for the general assembly to pass a curative act in reference to the oil inspection.

A similar act will probably also be needed to legalize the doings of the boards of the institutions, the number of the members whereof is diminished by the new law. These are the Soldiers' Home, the College for the Blind, and the Industrial Home for the Blind. In respect of the board of the last named institution further legislation will be needed in order to bring about a reduction in the number of trustees from six to three. The membership of the other boards will be reduced to the proper number, without further action, on the first day of the coming May.

Chapter 7 of Title II, provides for the executive council, defines its duties, and authorizes it to make sundry expendi tures in the performance of those duties, but it makes direct provision for paying only for advertising for sealed proposals for supplies. The supplies themselves are to be paid for, and all other expenditures met, out of any appropriation made for that purpose by the general assembly. But no appropriation was made to be used after the new code took effect. In consequence, there has been no money to pay for the supplies procured biennially, in accordance with custom, for the use of the general assembly and the departments of the state government, including paper for the public printing. The supplies were

obtained, however, while the contractors are unpaid. The pay also of the secretary of the executive council and the assistar ce in his office is also unprovided for. The amount of indebtedness thus incurred is about $25,000. An appropriation should be promptly made for the payment of this indebtedness as well as for meeting the constantly recurring expenditures authorized by the chapter cited.

Certain permanent appropriations to state institutions that were undrawn October 1st are deemed to have been repealed by the new code. The effect has been to deprive one institution at least the College of Agriculture-of moneys with which to meet expenditures already made, to be paid for out of funds which the authorities of the college, knowing the condition of the treasury, were in the habit of drawing only when they were absolutely needed. An appropriation of about $10,000 will be required to meet deficiencies in this respect.

The new code, while requiring various kinds of written instruments to be acknowledged, fails to give authority to any officer to take such acknowledgment except when made to conveyances. Acknowledgments to articles of incorporation, however, have been made before the officers entitled to take acknowledgments of any kind, and these articles have been accepted by the secretary of state under the advice of the attorney-general, a course that, in my judgment, seemed unavoidable. When the needed amendment is made to the law in this respect, it will be necessary also that the acknowledgments thus taken. without authority be legalized.

ELECTION LAWS.

The election laws of the state are, I believe, giving good satisfaction, except possibly as to the amendment adopted last session, practically forbidding the use of both the circle and the square by the voter in indicating his preference. I believe that the former rule was preferable and would recommend its. restoration, with provision for better enabling the elector to designate his choice when more than one person is to be elected to the same office, as in case of judges of the district court or in that of justices of the peace. What is known as the "Australian ballot" system of voting is not intended in any manner to restrict the freedom of the voter. On the contrary, it contemplates enlarging that freedom to the utmost limit by guarding, as it should be guarded, the secrecy of the ballot. What

ever may be done to insure the utmost freedom of expression of the will of the elector, without in any manner impairing the secrecy of that expression, should, in my judgment, find its proper place on the statute books.

There is an expense connected with the registration law that it would seem might be obviated. I refer to the requirement that registers of election shall be in attendance on the day of election somewhere convenient to the voting place for the purpose of registering those entitled to registration on that day. This, it would seem, could be attended to by the judges of election, and thus the expense be saved of the additional officers and the room that may be hired for their occupancy. I am advised that very few at most apply for registration on election day. There could therefore be little if any inconvenience cccasioned by the change.

There is a widespread desire, especially among people living in the cities, that there be enacted a law for the regulation of primary elections. Many states have adopted enactments of the kind, and I believe no state has abandoned the effort after such enactment. The Kentucky law on the subject has attracted much attention, and seems to be generally considered the best yet enacted by any of the states. It provides that each elector may, when registering his name as such, also enter his "party affiliation;" having done which, and not otherwise, he is entitled to participate in the primary elections of his party.

THE MULCT TAX.

The prohibitory law of the state as modified by the act of 1894, if not entirely popular, is at least generally acquiesced in by the people as perhaps the one which, while not satisfactory to either of the opposing views on the subject, seems to meet with least ostensible opposition in its enforcement. One modification ought in my judgment to be made, in respect to druggists selling intoxicants. I recommend that a taxof the character of the mulct levy be laid on all drug stores where liquor is sold in quantities or otherwise than in pharmaceutical preparations. The amount of the tax it would be well, in my judg ment, to fix at about half that exacted of the place where drinking is allowed on the premises.

REWARDS.

66

The statutes authorize the governor to offer a reward for the arrest and delivery to the proper authorities" of any per