charter cities, "to regulate and license plumbers: to create a board of examiners to determine the qualifications thereof: to prescribe rules and regulations for the installation of plumbing work and materials: to provide for the inspection of such work, materials and manner of installation: to compel the removal of plumbing installed in violation of the manner prescribed". For violations of the law a maximum penalty of one hundred dollars fine or thirty days imprisonment may be imposed.701

A sanitary measure was passed in 1909 which added to the law forbidding dead animals to be thrown into streams, ponds, wells, or cisterns,702 the provision that night-soil and garbage, as well as dead animals, should not be thrown in such places nor upon any adjoining land which is subject to overflow.703

The Twenty-ninth General Assembly decreed that all manufacturing establishments, workshops, and hotels in which five or more persons are employed should be equipped with a sufficient number of water closets, properly screened and ventilated and kept clean. In 1911 the proportion of one such water closet to every twenty employees was established and manufacturies were required to provide washing facilities and dressing-rooms for employees."

704

705

In the law of the Thirty-third General Assembly regulating the operation and maintenance of hotels and lodging-houses provision is made for their proper drainage and plumbing according to sanitary principles. If the city has a sewerage system such buildings must be connected with it, and if not, ap

proved cesspools and privies must be provided. All hotels must be kept clean and free from effluvia, gas, or offensive odors.706

At the same session the Railroad Commissioners were authorized to require additions or changes in the equipment of railroad rolling stock and station houses "for the health and convenience of the public",707 but not until 1913 were sanitary closets required to be maintained at railway stations. They are subject to inspection by the hotel inspector. A maximum fine of one hundred dollars may be imposed on any company which fails to comply with the law.708

PUBLIC NUISANCES

The first reference to nuisances in the legislation of Iowa since 1897 was made by the Twenty-seventh General Assembly, when the adulteration of linseed oil was declared to be a public nuisance subject to injunction.709 The construction of any ditch, drain, or water course so as to prevent the surface and overflow waters of adjacent lands from entering it was made a nuisance in 1904.710 A detailed act prescribing the method of enjoining and abating houses of lewdness, assignation, and prostitution, which are held to be nuisances, was placed upon the statute books by the Thirty-third General Assembly."11 In 1911 a maximum jail sentence of one year was established as an alternative penalty to the $1000 fine for being convicted of maintaining a nuisance.712

711

The emission of dense smoke in cities having a population exceeding 65,000 inhabitants was de

clared to be a nuisance by the Thirty-fourth General Assembly, and such cities were given power to abate such a nuisance by fine or imprisonment or by action in the district court, and to regulate smoke inspection and prevention.713 The next General Assembly, however, caused this law to apply to cities, including those under commission government, having a population of 30,000 inhabitants and to cities under special charters with a population of 16,000."14

As has already been observed, cities had no power under the Code of 1897 in regard to nuisances, except to abate them. This situation was remedied by the Thirty-fifth General Assembly. Now, in addition to "any right of abatement of any public or private nuisance, they shall have the right to prohibit the same by ordinance and to punish by fine or imprisonment for the violation thereof.'' 715

XVI

LEGISLATION PERTAINING TO PUBLIC

SAFETY

FIRE PROTECTION

Two acts were passed by the Thirty-fifth General Assembly affecting the powers of cities and towns in regard to fire protection. One authorized all cities. and towns in Iowa to adopt a building code, "providing for the districting of such cities into one or more districts, establishing reasonable rules and regulations for the erection, reconstruction and inspection of buildings of all kinds within their limits and for a fee for such inspection and providing penalties for violation".16 The other law gave all cities and towns the power to require by ordinance that the buildings within the fire limits be constructed "in whole or in part" of fire-proof materials, and such municipalities may now remove structures erected contrary to such ordinances at the cost of the owner." The Twenty-eighth General Assembly established a fine of from ten to fifty dollars for the use of gasoline, benzine, naphtha, or other dangerous fluids in dye works, pantoriums, or cleaning works located in a residence or lodging-house."

718

But it was not until 1902 that the State undertook to control fire protection through the regulation of

the construction of buildings. In that year a law was passed dividing structures to which the act applied into six classes.719 Hotels or lodging-houses three or more stories in height, and tenements or boarding houses three or more stories in height occupied by one or more families, or an aggregate of twenty persons or more, were to have one ladder fire escape of steel or iron construction for every 2500 superficial feet of area or fractional part thereof covered by the building. The ladder was to be provided with platforms of the same material at each story and within easy access from two or more windows of each story above the first and was to extend from above the roof to within five feet of the ground. If such buildings were occupied by more than twenty persons it was required that the means of escape be a steel or iron outside stairway of similar construction.

Buildings used as opera houses, theaters, or public halls, with a seating capacity exceeding three hundred, and public school buildings and seminary and college buildings more than two stories in height, were to have at least one outside stairway the latter class of buildings being required to have one stairway to every 2500 superficial feet of area or fraction thereof covered, and as many more such stairways and exits as the mayor or chief of the fire department saw fit to require. Hospitals and asylums of three or more stories in height were obliged to have one outside stairway for every 2500 superficial feet of area or fractional part covered by the