The House met pursuant to adjournment, Speaker Bowen in the chair. Prayer was offered by the Hon. Geo. H. Van Houten, of Taylor county. On request of Mr. Letts, leave of absence was granted Mr. Sokol until next Tuesday. Miss Jennie Bryce appeared and was sworn in as assistant postmistress. Edward Burke appeared and was sworn in as cloak room janitor. William Bailey appeared and was sworn in as House janitor. Larkin Crawford appeared and was sworn in as Chief Clerk,s page. Norman Robinson appeared and was sworn in as page. Mr. Warren offered the following concurrent resolution and moved its adoption: Resolved, By the House, the Senate concurring: That the Secretary of State be requested to furnish each member of the Twenty-eighth General Assembly with one copy of the code of Iowa. Mr. Theophilus moved to amend by adding "and a copy of the session laws of the Twenty-seventh General Assembly. The amendment was adopted. The concurrent resolution as amended was adopted. The Journal of January 8th was read, corrected and approved. Mr. Hinkle, for the committee appointed to inform the Senate that the House was duly organized and ready to receive communications, reported that the duty had been performed. William H. Fleming, the Governor's private secretary, appeared and submitted the Governor's annual message. Mr. Prentiss moved that the message be received and printed in the Journal. Carried. GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. To the Senate and House of Representatives of Iowa: In obedience to constitutional requirement, I have the pleasure of submitting to your honorable body the following statements concerning the condition of the state, together with some recommendations for legislative consideration. Never in our history has labor found more ready employment or more liberal remuneration; never has agriculture generally been more prosperous or yielded better returns; never has business been more universally active or reasonable profits for invested capital more secure; and never were the finances. of the state in a more satisfactory condition than at the present hour. At the beginning of the last fiscal term, there were unpaid warrants outstanding to the amount of $447,500.73. At the same time there was cash in the treasury $36,672.96, leaving the net indebtedness of the state $410,827.77. Of the outstanding warrants, the sum of $363,834.84 was drawing interest, the accrued amount of which at that time increased this indebtedness by an unascertained sum. Moreover, there remained of special appropriations made by the Twenty-sixth and former General Assemblies the following amount, against which warrants had not yet been drawn: $308,437.61. There was, therefore, to be paid out of the revenues of the then succeeding term $719,265.38, besides the interest on the outstanding warrants, in addition to the ordinary expenses of the biennial period and the extraordinary expenditures that the Twentyseventh General Assembly might authorize. It is gratifying to know that the judicious provisions made by the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh General Assemblies, for the increase of public revenues on the one hand, and the reduction of expenditures on the other, enabled the state to meet all its obligations, past and current, and to accumulate in the treasury, at the end of the fiscal term under review, a surplus of $414,294.02 over and above all outstanding warrants,, The receipts of general revenues during the fis- The treasury balance July 1, 1897, was. Total revenues for the term.. Against this sum warrants were drawn during the term..........$4,196, 494.93 Deduct all outstanding warrants at $5,079,403.29 . $5,116,076.25 30,708.35 $4,165,786.58 447,500.73 57,786.57 445,002.37 $5,116,076.25 At the close of business on December 30, 1899, the treasury The treasury is thus in better condition than it was two years ago by $1,008,580.50. The surplus of $537,259.97, shown above, is subject to reduction by the special appropriations of past general assemblies, yet undrawn amounting to less than $100,000. The auditor of state estimates the receipts for the current term at $4,564,200; and the expenditures, without any special appropriations made by the Twenty-eighth General Assembly, at $3,577,423; giving a surplus of receipts for the current term of $986,777. Adding to this sum the balance of $220,000 cash in the treasury at the end of the fiscal term in excess of outstanding demands and undrawn appropriations, gives fully $1,200,000, which this general assembly can safely appropriate for special purposes. The above estimate assumes that the annual levy will be continued at the present rate. I believe, however, this can be reduced to at most two and one-half mills for general revenue, and three-tenths of a mill special levy for purposes of higher education, making an aggregate of two and eight-tenths mills as against an even three mills at present. In view of the constantly increasing expenses of the state, incident to a rapidly growing population, and ever-multiplying number of wards of the state, coupled with a noticeable reduction in the aggregate assessments, the rate suggested is quite low-very considerably lower than in most states of the Union. Iowa is exceedingly fortunate in her banking interests. She has more banks than any other state in the Union, and the condition of these institutions is very encouraging. At the date of the reports of incorporated banks nearest the first of October, 1897, the bank deposits of Iowa were as follows: State and savings banks. .$ 50,491,525.61 27,502,301.25 25,000,000.00 .$102,993,826.86 At the date of their last reports, the deposits were as fol Of the more than $110,000,000 held by national, state, and private banks, investigation convinced me that certainly over. one-half is owned by farmers; and the $51,000,000 on deposit |