Nor can the Executive Council - which is composed ex officio of the Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of State, and Treasurer of State-be regarded as in any real sense the head of the State administration or as a real factor in the coördination of the State government of Iowa. Although its ex officio members are all constitutional officers, the Council itself is a creation of the General Assembly. Its power to remove certain officials for causes stated in the law does not give it any real power of administrative direction; and its duties relative to the auditing and allowing of certain accounts are not in the nature of budget control. The State budget is not only voted by the General Assembly but it is also made up by the committees of that body.

THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

By the Constitution of 1857 the judicial power is "vested in a Supreme Court, District Courts, and such other courts, inferior to the Supreme Court, as the General Assembly may from time to time establish." Under the authority thus granted, the General Assembly has made it possible for cities of four thousand inhabitants (not being county seats) to establish superior courts which when so established supersede the police or mayor's court and have concurrent jurisdiction with the district court in all civil matters, except in probate matters and actions for divorce, alimony, and separate maintenance.

As originally organized under the provisions of the Constitution the Supreme Court consisted of three judges, but the General Assembly was authorized to increase the number after 1860. Up to date four additional judges have been provided for, so that the Supreme Court

now consists of seven members. The district court originally consisted of one judge, and the State was divided into eleven judicial districts. Since 1860 under constitutional authority the number of judicial districts has been increased to twenty-one and the number of judges to fiftynine. In all cases the judges are chosen by popular election. Moreover, the Thirty-fifth General Assembly provided for the nomination and election of judges on a non-partisan ballot; but the Governor by that legislation was not authorized to recommend candidates to the people.

There has been considerable agitation among the members of the bar of the State for reforms in judicial procedure; but the appointment of judges, the recall of judges, and the recall of judicial decisions have not thus far been seriously demanded by any very large number of people. The absence of agitation on these subjects is partly due to the uniformly high character of the bench.

SUMMARY

Thus it appears that since the adoption of the Constitution of 1857 there has been little constitutional change in the structure of State government in Iowa; for at no time has a total revision of the Constitution been effected or favored by the people. The demands for expansion have been met chiefly through a statutory elaboration of the executive branch by the creation of new administrative offices, boards, commissions, bureaus, and departments. Nor has there been thus far any considerable demand in Iowa for the reorganization of the State government.

V

PROPOSED REORGANIZATION OF STATE

GOVERNMENT IN IOWA

APART from the agitation of such questions as the regulation of primary elections, equal suffrage, the initiative and referendum, and the debates on the establishment of the Board of Control of State Institutions in 1898 and the creation of the State Board of Education in 1909, there has been little or no discussion of the problem of the reorganization of State government in Iowa until very recently. Indeed, a lively interest in the problems of reorganization seems first to have found expression in the Thirty-fifth General Assembly which, besides endorsing the short ballot principle by providing for the appointment of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court Reporter, authorized the Joint Committee on Retrenchment and Reform to employ "expert accountants and efficiency engineers" and to "institute such changes in the administration of public affairs as will promote the efficiency and economical administration of the affairs of the State in its various departments.''36

It was in accordance with the legislation of March 17, 1913, that the firm of Quail, Parker & Co. was engaged to assist the Joint Committee on Retrenchment and Reform and under the direction and supervision of that committee "to examine and report upon the existing procedures incident to the transaction of the business of the

State in the various offices and departments located at the seat of government in the City of Des Moines; and to make recommendations with a view to the betterment thereof."37 The sum of $10,000 was appropriated to meet the expenses of the proposed investigations. On September 13, 1913, the work of the "expert accountants and efficiency engineers" was terminated under instructions from the Committee, and their final report is submitted under date of December 21, 1913.38

From the final report - which fills 241 pages of closely typewritten matter-it appears that the Efficiency Engineers, after making preliminary examinations of all the offices and departments located at the State capital, proceeded with detailed investigations of the office of Governor, the office of the Auditor of State, the office of the Treasurer of State, the office of the Secretary of State, the office of the Executive Council, the office of the Board of Control, the office of the Board of Education, the office of the Custodian of Public Buildings, and the office of the Dairy and Food Commissioner. A report on the Department of Agriculture was presented on March 25, 1913, and a preliminary report on the heating plant was presented on May 21, 1913. Other detailed investigations were curtailed owing to the lack of sufficient funds.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE EFFICIENCY ENGINEERS

Besides suggesting more modern methods and recommending numerous economies in the work of the several offices and departments - especially in the executive branch of the government - the Efficiency Engineers make some far-reaching recommendations relative to "the reorganization of the executive functions" of State government. And they direct attention to the fact that the adoption of what they call their "basic plan of re