CHAPTER IX
AT the Republican State Convention held at Des Moines on the 26th of August, 1885, William Larrabee of Fayette County was nominated for Governor, and J. A. T. Hull for Lieutenant-Governor; J. M. Beck for Supreme Judge; and J. W. Akers for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Democrats and Greenbackers supported a fusion ticket consisting of the following candidates: Governor, Charles E. Whiting of Monana County; Lieutenant-Governor, E. H. Gillette; Judge of Supreme Court, C. F. Brennan; Superintendent of Public Instruction, F. W. Moore.
The Prohibition ticket consisted of the following candidates: Governor, J. Mickelwait; Lieutenant-Governor, W. M. Steere; Supreme Judge, Jacob Rogers; Superintendent of Public Instruction, W. M. Taft.
The result of the election was the choice of the Republican candidates by an average plurality of about 7,000.
The General Assembly convened at Des Moines on the 11th of January, 1886. The House was organized by the election of Albert Head, Speaker; Lieutenant-Governor Hull presided over the Senate. The Governor-elect, William Larrabee, was inaugurated on the 14th of January and delivered an address to the General Assembly.
Among the most important acts of the Twenty-first General Assembly were:
An act for the more effectual suppression of the liquor traffic; an act for the appointment of mine inspectors and defining their duties; an act to provide for tribunals of voluntary arbitration to adjust industrial disputes; an act reducing the number of grand jurors to five or seven; an act providing for the establishment and maintenance of a Soldiers’ Home: an act providing for the election of county attorneys; an act abolishing Circuit Courts and providing additional district judges.
