In the light of this showing I most earnestly recommend that the mulct law be permitted to remain upon our statute books and that it be given a fair and impartial trial.

PUBLIC WAREHOUSES

There is much discussion throughout our state of the advantages which would be gained to the people of Iowa by the passage of a public warehouse law similar to laws now in operation in Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska and other

states.

The absence of storage facilities entails a heavy annual loss to the people of Iowa. I refer this important question for earnest consideration to the end that legislation be enacted which will give the relief desired.

to you

INTER-STATE CONVENTIONS

During the biennial period there have been twenty-eight commissions appointed to meet in conference similar commissions of other states.

The following are a few of the most important:

National Conference of Charities and Corrections, Nashville, Tenn.; National Prison Congress, St. Paul, Minn.; Farmers' National Congress, Parkersburg, W. Va.; TransMississippi Congress, St. Louis, Mo.; Annual Convention of International Deep Waterways Association, Cleveland, Ohio; Western States Conference, Topeka, Kan.; Western Waterways Convention, Vicksburg, Miss.; Exposition of Industries and Fine Arts, City of Mexico, and to locate and mark position of Iowa regiments in the battle of Shiloh.

A large number of those appointed have attended these meetings and have borne the full burden of expense, as well as the donation of several days of valuable time. Public spiritedness is as essential to the good standing and influence of a state as it is to the standing and influence of a good citizen. I do not believe the state of Iowa receives the full benefit it should from its representatives in interstate conventions under the present plan of "honorary commissioners." No state in the union is more deeply interested in the movement for deep waterways than the great producing state of Iowa, and yet the delegates attending these conventions go more in an honorary than in a representative capacity. They pay their own expenses, stop at different hotels, are unorganized and consequently lacking in force and influence, which under other circumstances they would have. They meet the delegations of other

states who are organized-with their expenses paid by the state they represent-a compact representative commission. whose influence and power is felt both on the floor of the convention and among its members. The state of Iowa should do its share as a public spirited state in the direction of making inter-state conventions a success, and further, it should see to it that its own representatives are placed in a position to receive such recognition and exert such influence as the importance of our state demands. A man may be intelligent, moral, upright, thrifty and prosperous, and yet so economical and lacking in public spiritedness that he is void of influence with his fellow men. A state can drift into the same condition in relation to sister states. I recommend a more liberal policy on the part of the state of Iowa in matters pertaining to inter-state meetings and conventions. Commissions appointed to attend these meetings should be made the state's representatives. The matter should be left to the discretion of the governor or executive council to determine what inter-state meetings are of sufficient importance for the state of Iowa to send representatives and then authority should be given to the council to audit and pay the actual expenses of commissioners in attending these meetings.

IOWA AND NATIONAL MILITARY PARKS

The Twenty-fifth General Assembly provided for the appointment of a commission to locate and mark the positions of Iowa troops at the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. This commission has done its work faithfully and its report is submitted for your consideration.

I

most earnestly approve the recommendation for an appropriation of $25,000 for the erection of appropriate monuments to mark the position of the Iowa regiments which took part in these great battles, as a just recognition of the valor of Iowa's soldiers.

On March 11, 1895, I appointed a commission to attend the reunion of the Shiloh Battlefield Association at Pittsburg Landing, Tenn. In an official report made by this commission the following statements were set forth:

"Changes in the roads which traversed the nearly 3,000 acres over which the battle raged, the almost complete demolition of all the old buildings and the new ones erected, many of them on other locations, and still other changes which space forbids enumerating in a report which must necessarily be brief, all united in making the task of locating the positions held, so difficult, that it was impossible, during the two days alloted to us, to visit that portion of the battlefield where the Sixth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth regiments were engaged.

"Owing to these facts and the work that will soon be commenced under the direction of the national park commissioners, which will result in still further changes, thus rendering the task of locating the positions held by our regiments even more difficult than now, we respectfully recommend and urge that you appoint at an early day a commission of one or more members of each of the eleven regiments engaged in the battle, whose duty it shall be to visit, as soon as possible, the battlefield and complete the work begun by us."

With this report and recommendation before me and

ment.

knowing that the finger of time is fast removing the old landmarks of this memorable field, and that each year makes the task of identifying the position of Iowa regiments more difficult, I complied with the foregoing request and appointed a commission consisting of one from each of the eleven Iowa regiments which took part in this engage. Their report is before you; their work, I believe, has been faithfully and conscientiously done; the expense has been borne by the individual members of this commission and I believe it is but just that the state should reimburse them, and I recommend that an appropriation be made therefor. It will devolve upon you to take such action as will show the appreciation of Iowa for the brave men who upheld the honor of our state and the integrity of the union on this great battlefield of Shiloh.

Nearly every northern state, as well as the general government, is now erecting permanent memorials in our great national military parks to mark the positions held by the union arms. Iowa, like her sons who helped make those scenes historic, should take an advanced position in this movement and provide at once for the erection of appropri ate monuments, which shall most fittingly do honor to her

brave.

In this connection I would also suggest that the state of Iowa take action in the direction of having the battlefield of Vicksburg made a national park, that the scene of this most important campaign, in which 70 per cent of Iowa's enlisted men took part, may be properly preserved and commemorated.