On motion of Senator Haskell House File No. 148, a bill for an act to amend, revise, and codify chapter twenty (20) of title twelve (12) of the compiled code of Iowa, relating to changing names of villages, with report of committee recommending amendment and passage, was taken up, considered, and the report of the committee adopted. The following committee amendment was adopted: Amend by inserting the word "published" after the word "circulation" in line 2, section 7 thereof. The bill was read for information. Senator Haskell moved that the reading just had be considered the third reading, which motion prevailed. On the question "Shall the bill pass?" the vote was: The bill having received a constitutional majority was declared to have passed the Senate and the title was agreed to. Senator Brookhart moved that the House be requested to return House File No. 10, which motion prevailed. COMMITTEE FROM THE HOUSE A committee from the House appeared and announced that the House was ready to receive the Senate in joint session. The Senate proceeded to the House under direction of the sergeant-at-arms. JOINT CONVENTION As per concurrent resolution duly adopted, the joint convention was called to order, Lieutenant-governor John Hammill, President of the Senate, presiding. The President announced a quorum present and the joint convention duly organized. HARDING MEMORIAL SERVICES The following program was carried out: Solo "Lead Kindly Light”. Address. Address... Announcements.. .Fannie Wilkins Ryan . Senator Ray P. Scott of Marshall county . Representative E. A. Grimwood of Jones county Solo "Nearer My God to Thee". .C. D. Hellen, state chairman, Clark of Linn moved that the remarks of Mr. Scott and Mr. Grimwood be printed in the Journal. Motion prevailed. REMARKS OF HONORABLE RAY P. SCOTT Under proclamation of the president of the United States, and thereafter under proclamation of the governor of the state, the week commencing December ninth has been set aside as memorial week to President Harding, and in conformity thereto, we are asked to pause in our deliberations for a brief time this morning to pay tribute to the life and works of the late president. The president was born at Blooming Grove, Ohio, November 2, 1865, of poor, humble, but none the less worthy parentage. He was ushered into a world that was just catching its breath after a bitter war, and exactly fifty-five years later was elected president at a time when his country was staggering under the burdens of another conflict. We are sometimes prone to believe that a boy who attains such a destiny should have some kind of a halo about his head; that he was born into the world, not as an ordinary boy, but with some variety of foreordination or predestination, which has necessarily marked him as different from the boys of his time. Such was not the case with Warren Harding, for the legends of his community bring us the accurate information that he was a boy like the rest; that he could chew tobacco and spit as far and as accurately as any other boy of the crowd. He attended the village school, and, like the other boys of his town, had chores to do before school, and was required to help with the farm work during vacations. His father was a village physician, but practiced his profession in a very hardy neighborhood. He had not acquired the more modern methods of extracting fees from the sick and unfortunate, and could not, therefore, provide his family with anything but the bare necessities of life. After he entered college he had to stop from time to time to earn money to continue. He became a printer's devil and displayed a strong inclination toward newspaper work. With little or no money, but influential friends, he purchased one of the Marion papers. His path was anything but rosy in his new undertaking, and the ensuing years were full of difficulties. He was compelled to ask his advertisers to pay in advance so he could meet his creditors, but, with the assistance of his good wife, whom he married against her father's wishes, he transformed the paper into a powerful daily. He posted conspicuously in all the offices and composing rooms the following rules: 1. There are two sides to every question; get them both. 2. Be truthful; get the facts. 3. Be decent. 4. Be fair. 5. Bring out the good. 6. Treat religious subjects with respect. 7. Permit no indecent words to get into print. 8. Write or print no suggestive story. He followed this last rule with this paragraph: "I want this paper to go into every home in this state, and I do not want it to be responsible for the lost innocence of any child for which I would be held accountable." His newspaper work enabled him to make many friends who learned to admire his honesty and sincerity, and, in addition, he had attracted the attention of the Republican leaders by his fine ability as an orator, and became acquainted with such men as McKinley and Foraker. He was then twice elected to the state senate of Ohio, and four years later was elected lieutenant-governor. He then declined the renomination as lieutenantgovernor, and returned to his newspaper, and four years later became a candidate for governor but was defeated. Four years later he was elected United States senator where, by the force of his personality, he continued to widen the circle of his friendships, although he never sought public attention. His nomination to the presidency in Chicago in 1920 is familiar to all. Mr. Harding was intensely human, and remarked to newspaper reporters just after the nomination that he felt like he had been holding a pair of eights and had drawn a full house. In his campaign he refused to hit below the belt, and when his political friends tried to persuade him to denounce Woodrow Wilson for extravagance during the war he said, "I won't resort to that kind of business; we had to win the war and didn't have time to economize. I don't want to win an election by that kind of a fight." Soon after he became president he gave a postmastership to an old friend down in Virginia who had come upon misfortune, and when the local citizens and politicians protested he remarked, "What is the good of being president if you can't take care of a needy friend?" His first year in the presidential chair started under heavy handicaps. Industry was crushed, unemployment was growing; international rela tions were hopelessly involved. By the end of the first year he had brought an end to the state of war with Germany and Austria; immigration was restricted by congressional enactment; a budget system was established, and a veterans' bureau coordinating under one head all the activiti looking to the welfare of the former service men. At the conference on the limitation of armaments, he pointed the nations to the way of peace, and invited them to sit at thé council table at Washington. Representatives of nine powers entered into an agreement for limiting the number of capital ships, and he induced them to enter a series of treaties designed to prevent trouble in the far east. His sincerity and frankness pointed them to a peace based on justice and righteousness, and the Washington conference on the limitation of armaments was one of the monumental accomplishments of his tenure in office. Another great achievement was the refunding of the national debt, which worked a substantial reduction from the burdens of the taxpayer. These works were a small part of the vision for service which he had set out to accomplish, and when the news was flashed across the country, on the night of August second last, that the silver cord had broken, men were brought to the sudden realization of the part he had played in restoring peace and good will among men, and millions of his countrymen stood with bowed heads and paid silent tribute on that last journey across the continent, to one whom they had learned not only to trust, but to love. Mr. Harding was thoroughly democratic, and it is very significant that he was referred to familiarly by his first name during his tenure of office. He was too big to be petty and too humble before the greatness of his responsibilities to his countrymen to indulge in political by-plays, nor did he bow to the dictates of his party for like reasons. He stood first and foremost for his own country and then for mankind, and in his last speeches (against the advice of his closest political associates) he advocated our participation in the permanent court of international justice, and said: "I do not know that such a court will be unfailing in the avoidance of war, but I know it is a step in the right direction and will prove an advance toward international peace for which the conflictive conscience of mankind is calling." When he was criticised by members of the senate as to his proposals for the creative machinery of the court he said: "I am more interested in adherence to such a tribunal in the best form attainable than I am concerned about the triumph of presidential insistence." The president was deeply religious and practiced his religion every day of his life. His favorite song was "Lead Kindly Light," and its words fittingly describe his character, always straightforward, taking but one step at a time with no idea that Eutopia could be obtained on earth. His life was the emulation of the admonition spoken two thousand years ago, "Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." There are those among us who will not agree with some of his creed, and cannot see the wisdom of certain of his acts, but his bitterest enemies politically, for he had none personally, deeply mourn the loss of a man whom honesty, simple faith, and Godlike devotion to a cause have made a king among men. As a conspicuous example of what can be accomplished by a boy of lowly birth who struggles for the attainments of high purposes, his name has joined that galaxy of spirits: Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. His life and attainments will give courage to boys and girls to fight or those accomplishments for which President Harding fought, and his tomb will be a shrine for American homes. Of a truth, Warren G. Harding walked with kings and was a peer among them, yet he did not lose the common touch, and in the well-chosen words of President Coolidge: "We mourn him today and shall mourn him as long as remembrance holds before us the picture of his patient forbearance and Christian tolerance. We may well hope that his example to his own countrymen and to the world may help to bring a spirit of charity and true fraternity whereby shall be lighted the lamp of understanding to show our feet into the path of peace on earth, good will to men. We may well consider by what means we shall show our appreciation and by what method we can best enshrine his memory." REMARKS OF HONORABLE E. A. GRIMWOOD For a gathering of this character there are two entirely adequate reasons. First, that those who are possessed of an almost unbearable sorrow by reason of a personal loss may be assured that, in accordance with the genius of our government, that loss has become a common loss and in the sharing of that loss assert that kinship which gives this republic one reason for existence. And that there are those who would demonstrate that this is in fact as well as name a Christian nation, for, while we as a people have what Oliver Wendell Holmes called our accursed AngloSaxon repression which would hide those sentiments most worthy of expression and permit the world to search diligently if it would discover those well springs of action from which we derive the greatest satisfaction, yet there is in us an appreciation of Christian character which will not be denied when occasion really demands it. Your presence here this morning I take as such expression. Again, ample warrant may be found for this gathering in the opportunity here offered to review this life and its achievements, that we may draw therefrom some lessons that may be of value in directing our own efforts. This was a man with heart, head, hand, like one of A still strong man in a blatant land; Whatever they call him, what care I? Aristocrat, autocrat, democrat, one who is brave and dare not lie. For be it known that Warran G. Harding was no superman. If he excelled in aught it was in having an amazing common sense and none |