USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 46
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810
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
as the Mckinley bill ; the doctrine of reciprocity in trade with other nations ; and the use of both gold and silver by international agreement, or under such restrictions as would maintain the parity of the money coined of the two metals; these being the leading issues before the people.
The Democratic National Convention followed next, at Chicago, June 2 Ist, with the nominations of Grover Cleveland, of New York, for President, and Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, for Vice-President. . The resolutions adopted condemned the Federal election law enacted under Republican rule ; the policy of extreme protection under the Mckinley law, but favor- ing a tariff for revenue only ; the Republican policy of reciprocity ; declared opposition to trusts and combinations of capital as against the interests of the people; for the coinage of both gold and silver without discrimination, the dollar unit to be the same value by law, or under international agree- ment; and for the repeal of the ten per cent. tax on State bank issues.
The National Convention of the People's party, now a formidable minority factor in the politics of the country, assembled at Omaha July 2d, and nominated James B. Weaver, of Iowa, for President, and James G. Field, of Virginia, for Vice-President, their standard bearers for the cam- paign. The convention declared the nation to be on the verge of ruin, moral, political, and material; that corruption dominated the ballot-box, the Legislature, the Congress, and touched the ermine; that homes were covered with mortgages, and labor impoverished ; that imported pauper labor beat down the wages of honest workingmen; that the fruits of the toil of the millions are stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few ; that govern- mental injustice was breeding the two great classes-tramps and millionaires. A declaration of principles set forth the belief that the government should own all the railroads, and control them under civil service regulations ; that a national currency of gold, silver, and paper, equal to fifty dollars per capita in volume, should be issued, and, as needed, distributed among the people on some equitable basis, not to exceed a tax of two per cent. per annum. and to be a legal tender for all debts; that a graduated income tax be im- posed, in order that capital be made to bear a part of the burdens of gov- ernment; and that postal savings banks be established for the accommoda- tion of the people.
The Prohibition party, at Cincinnati June 29th, nominated for President, John Bidwell, of California, and for Vice-President, James B. Cranfill, of Texas, and proceeded to make the usual declarations of principles in regard to the traffic and use of alcoholic liquors.
The auguries were inauspicious for the party long in power, and whom the people were inclined to hold responsible, with little questioning, for the prostration in business and the depression in values which already pervaded the country. They did not pause to consider the fact that the country was already in the trough of reaction from a period of excessive inflations of property values and of wild speculations, which had run its varied and
811
THE " BOOM " IN EASTERN KENTUCKY.
errant courses from 1883 to 1891. This system of "booming " properties, urban and rural, was extended to every part of the United States, by pro- fessional experts, during these seven or eight years; and, unfortunately, Kentucky was enticed or dragooned into her full measure of the folly. Middlesborough, Pineville, Beattyville, Grand Rivers, and many other points were chosen and laid out as sites for future centers of mining, man- ufacturing, and other industries. These all had undoubtedly natural advan- tages of great value, and are yet destined to contribute in no small measure to the wealth and development of the State. But under the stimulations of exaggerated reports and estimates, a frenzy of speculation seized the public mind and led thousands and tens of thousands to invest their all in visionary hopes of becoming suddenly rich. At the high-tide of these excite- ments, lots eligibly located sold for as much per front foot as in old and estab- lished cities, and more in many instances than the ground cost per acre but a year or two before. At these fictitious values these inflated properties were unloaded upon the confiding and misguided people at five, ten, and twenty times their real value, until vast amounts of their capital, earned in years of saving, were absorbed into the hands of a few favored ones called Pro- moters, or dissipated among the crowd of adventurers. Large purchasers of lands for their mineral, timber, and other values shared the same fate.
The results of such widespread inflation and speculation in properties at fictitious values might have been anticipated, if the people had reasoned with their usual intelligence and foresight. The experiences of 1838-42, of 1857-60, and of 1873-79, were object-lessons from the pages of history to warn and instruct. To the end of 1892, there appeared no unusual financial or commercial convulsions to seriously interrupt the currents of trade. On the other hand, there were reported for the year, through the accredited agencies, but 10, 270 failures in business in the United States, the smallest number since 1882, except for the year 1887. The collapse in speculation and in the values of property had brought impoverishment to many and serious embarrassment to multitudes more ; but there was a dis- position on the part of the creditor classes to be indulgent to debtors, in the vain hope of an early return of enhanced values and better trade. The causes, unfortunately, were too deep-seated for the realization of such a hope. A period of severe liquidation must inexorably follow that of law- less and desperate speculation. Such is the logic of events, and such the experience of history. Well would it be if in the future people would be warned by the records of the past ; immeasurable sufferings and the im- poverishment of multitudes would be avoided throughout the country, while vast amounts of capital squandered would find sure and profitable investment in legitimate enterprises, to become a boon to the individual and to the Commonwealth.
There appeared in the meantime ominous forebodings along the horizon of politics. The year was made a notable one for serious discontent and
812
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
outbreaks among operatives in mills, factories, mines, and other labor departments. A formidable strike of five thousand five hundred working- men, at the Carnegie mills, at Homestead, Pennsylvania, brought on a bloody collision with three hundred armed Pinkerton detectives; the riot- ing was only suppressed by the governor of the State calling out the State troops to the number of some thousands. Other troubles of magnitude fol- lowed, in the near vicinity and at a distance. The next disturbance of magnitude was the "Switchmen's Strike " at Buffalo, New York, in which thousands of cars were destroyed or disabled, and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise in transit burned by the rioters. This out- break was quelled only after calling out eight thousand of the State Guard. These protests from the labor element, who were feeling the pressure of reduced wages, and of limited or uncertain employment, came nearer home in the troubles that broke out in the mining districts of Tracy City and Coal Creek, Tennessee, and in other disturbances which were directly or in- directly felt in Kentucky.
The condition of the agricultural classes was emphasized in the body of resolutions put forth by the convention of the People's party. made up mainly from the rural districts. These resolutions declared " the two old parties to be struggling for power and plunder, trying to drown the out- cries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver, and the oppressions of the usurer, may all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and children on the altar of mammon ; to destroy the multitude in order corruptly to swell the funds of the millionaires."
The enormous increase of government expenditures, and the contin- ued aggregations of gains in the hands of capitalists; the operations of the laws exempting property from its share of taxation and putting the burdens on the people ; the growing impoverishment among the masses by the lowering of the prices of the products of labor, on the one hand, and the drastic processes of depletion by overwrought taxation and subsidiz- ing in the interest of favored classes, under cover of unjust laws, it was alleged, justified the assertion that " the nation was brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin."
It was under the arraignment of such a public sentiment, fevered and distressed by combined misfortunes and wrongs, that the presidential elec- tion was held in November, 1892; it was not strange that the party longest and last in power should have suffered the sacrifice of expiation upon the altar of public censure. The total popular vote cast was 12, 154, 542, of which 5,556,533 were for Cleveland, 5, 175,577 for Harrison, 1, 122,045 for Weaver, 279, 191 for Bidwell, and 21, 196 scattering. Of the total 444 electoral votes, 277 were cast for Cleveland, 145 for Harrison, and 22 for Weaver.
813
THE LONGEST LEGISLATIVE SESSION.
In this election the popular vote of Kentucky was 340, 844, against 344, Soo cast for Cleveland and Harrison four years previous. Of these, 175,461 were for Cleveland, 135,441 for Harrison, 23, 500 for Weaver, and 6,442 for Bidwell. For this, the centennial year of the birth of our Com- monwealth, there were elected to represent Kentucky in the Fifty-third Congress, beginning March 4, 1893, from the First district, Wm. J. Stone ; Second, Wm. T. Ellis; Third, Isaac H. Goodnight ; Fourth, A. B. Montgom- ery ; Fifth, A. G. Caruth ; Sixth, Albert S. Berry ; Seventh, W. C. P. Breck- inridge ; Eighth, James B. McCreary ; Ninth, T. H. Paynter ; Tenth, M. J. Lisle ; Eleventh, Silas Adams, all of the Democratic party, except Adams. J. C. S. Blackburn and Wm. Lindsay were members of the United States Senate at the same date; John G. Carlisle having resigned his seat in that body to assume the office of secretary of the treasury in Mr. Cleveland's cabinet, Mr. Lindsay was elected to the vacancy. For the first time since the accession of President Lincoln, in 1861, a period of thirty-two years, the Democratic party came into control of both the executive and legisla- tive departments of the Federal government, and for the first time was responsible for the legislative and administrative policy.
The first Legislature following the adoption of the constitution met December 30, 1891, and adjourned August 16, 1892, to meet again Novem- ber 15th after. The governor felt it imperative, on account of serious doubts of the constitutionality of some of the bills passed and left for him to sign, that the body should at once convene again ; he called the mem- bers to reconvene August 25th, to revise and extend the work done. With the exception of an interval from December 3, 1892, to January 2, 1893, embracing the Christmas holidays, the session was continued until a sine die adjournment July 3, 1893, eighteen months and four days from the first assembling-the longest session in the history of the State.
The additional reforms introduced under legislation into the system of State, county and district taxation have almost entirely removed the old abuses which had grown to enormous proportions under assumed rights of exemption, and under exceptional rights of limited or special taxation. In alignment with the letter and the spirit of the constitution, the properties of all banking, insurance, telegraph, and other corporations are placed on the same footing with the property of individuals for assessment for rev- enue purposes. In addition, all corporations enjoying valuable franchises are made subject to additional taxation on what is called their franchise, the rate of taxation being governed by the value of the property as shown by the net earnings. In this way, street railway, electric light, water, gas, telephone, and other companies earning profits by franchises granted by municipalities make some return to the public for the special favors bestowed.
The visible effects of these revenue reforms are manifest. The board of equalization, commissioned to adjust the varied assessment returns from the counties to a uniform rate, had fixed seventy per cent. of the actual
814
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
cash value as the standard for all, hitherto, but advanced the standard to eighty per cent. in 1893. The result was that the total assessed value of property in the Commonwealth, for taxation in 1892, was $552,764, 538, and in 1893, $596,799,076, an increase in one year of $44,034,538. It is apparent that, but for this ten per cent. increase of rate, the total of prop- erty assessed for taxation in 1893 would have fallen below that of 1892. This is readily accounted for by the shrinkage in the values of properties of all kind, caused by the terrible monetary and commercial depression which spread disorder and ruin over the entire country.
The constitution clearly revoked all lottery charters hitherto granted by statutory enactment. The previous Legislature had repealed all such acts of charter, and other acts granting lottery franchises; but such acts of repeal were contested by the companies on the ground of vested rights. To more successfully enforce the laws and the provisions of the constitu- tion, a bill was passed, and approved January 30, 1892, directing the attorney-general "to institute and prosecute such legal proceedings as may be necessary to suppress or revoke all lotteries or lottery franchises operated in the Commonwealth."
So offensive to the ideas of right and humanity had become the growing custom elsewhere, to hire and introduce Pinkerton or other detectives, or other armed forces from neighboring States, for the suppression of strikes and outbreaks on the part of discontented laboring men, that a law was enacted making it a misdemeanor, with punishment by heavy fine and other penalties, for any person to employ or to import such armed forces within the State limits.
A resolution instructing our senators and representatives in Congress to favor and support a measure to secure an amendment to the Constitu- tion of the United States, empowering the people, by popular vote in the several States, to elect their senators in Congress, was passed by a good majority ; also a resolution for a commission to assist in locating the position of the Kentucky troops, of both armies, at the battles of Chicka- mauga and Missionary Ridge.
On May 24, 1892, an act was approved compelling all railroad com- panies in this State to provide separate coaches or cars for white and col- ored passengers ; but providing that no discrimination in quality, conven- ience or accommodations in the coaches or partitions set apart for white and colored passengers should be made. The discontinuance of the old custom of providing first and second class cars, with discriminating rates of fare, was largely responsible for this. It brought the rowdy and lawless element into immediate contact with the civil and orderly in the railroad coaches, and subjected the latter to repeated scenes of drunken and dis- orderly violence.
With a view to the final settlement of the question of the permanent location of the Capitol of the State, the Legislature sitting in 1892 passed
815
CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE STATE CLASSIFIED.
a joint resolution creating a committee to solicit and receive propositions for the site of the Capitol, with terms and advantages offered. Louisville, Lexington, Danville and Bowling Green entered their respective claims as eligible sites, and the report was laid before the legislative body, which met in 1894. In the bill offered, the name of Louisville was inserted to fill the blank on the final vote disposing of the question. It was voted down by a decisive majority, and by the terms of the constitution Frankfort was left without a rival for the coveted prize. There is now no apology or rea- son for further delay on the part of the General Assembly next in session making provision for the completion or building of a State Capitol edifice, on a scale creditable to the intelligence of the people of the Commonwealth, and ample for its uses for centuries to come. A tax of ten cents on the one hundred dollars of property for two years would furnish over one million dollars for the purpose. The condition of our State building for a generation past is a standing reproach to the intelligence and taste of our citizens.
On July 12, 1893, a bill was approved, and became a law, prohibiting foreign companies, associations, and corporations from owning or controlling any railway, or part of a railway, in the State of Kentucky, until they have become corporations, citizens, and residents of this State.
Among the important acis passed by the long session of the Legislature of 1892, was one classifying the cities and towns of the State into six grades. Of cities of the first class there is but one, Louisville. Lexington, Coving- ton, and Newport make up those of the second class; Paducah, Owensboro, Henderson, Frankfort, and Bowling Green, those of the third class. There are separate chartered provisions under the general law, requirements of the constitution, for each class only, while under the former regime each city or town had its own separate charter. This will tend to simplify and improve the administration of municipal government within the Common- wealth for the future.
After years of agitation the General Assembly, in 1893, enacted a just and liberal law defining anew the property rights of husband and wife. The inequalities of the old law were removed, the woman, after marriage, re- taining the same rights of ownership and control of the property which came by her that the husband does with his own, which are almost absolute. The same rule applies to property which may come into possession after and during marriage. On the death of either husband or wife, the laws of inheritance apply in the one case as in the other.
As anticipated, the unwise action of the Legislature which preceded the Constitutional Convention in reducing the State tax rate produced its natural results. The unusual expenses incurred by the sittings of the con- vention and the long legislative session, which continued from the 3oth day of December, 1891, to July 3, 1893, with intermissions of a few days, caused a depletion of the treasury. The auditor reported a deficit of
816
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
$79,891. 77 on May 17th, and estimated that it would reach $200, 000 by the close of the fiscal year. . The treasurer suspended payment of claims against the State on June 30th, that funds might accumulate sufficient to meet the demands of the school fund, which would be $700,000, October Ist. Really, at this date, while there was $218,000 in the treasury to the credit of this fund, the general expenditure fund had overdrawn its account the sum of $300,000, with no resources for recuperation until the revenues from taxation were paid in the fall. These facts, however, do not imply that the State of Kentucky is in a bad condition financially. The credit of no Commonwealth is better abroad. The slight embarrassments are but superficial and transient, and have been readily met and provided for by the able management of the present State treasurer. The bonded debt of Kentucky is little more than nominal, excepting some two millions or more due the school fund, on which it is desirable that the State only pay the interest yearly.
In February, 1890, Henry S. Hale, a practical banker of Graves county, was appointed State treasurer. Up to that period the surplus of State funds had been deposited in certain banks at Frankfort, and the use of the same permitted without any charge for interest. The sum at the time amounted to $400,000. Treasurer Hale's banking experience led him to believe that an appreciable saving to the State could be made from this source. A bill was then pending in the Legislature to constitute two of the banks at Frankfort the sole depositories of these funds, with the pro- vision that " no charge be made by said banks for the services thus rendered." The measure was arrested in its passage. Though the treasurer and his bondsmen were responsible for any loss.of public funds, Mr. Hale effected arrangements with these and other banks to pay an average rate of two and three-quarter per cent. interest on all State funds deposited with them ; but agreeing for the State to pay interest on any deficit in case the treasury should need to borrow at any time, such deficits recurring now yearly, from the action of the Legislature reducing the ad valorem taxation. From July 1, 1890, to September 30, 1893, interest was thus paid on an average of $360,000 of surplus State funds, producing a gross addition to the reve- nue of $28,939, while but $2, 047 was paid to the banks for money borrowed on deficits.
The receipts and disbursements of the treasury annually amount to more than $4,000,000, about one-half of which comes from ad valorem tax- ation on real and personal property assessed; the remainder comes from banks, railroads, and other corporations, license tax, trustees of jury fund, and other minor sources. Over $2,000, 000 of this is paid out for the pub- lic schools, $500,000 for the support of the asylums, charitable institutions, and pauper idiots, leaving less than $1,500,000 for general expenses. It was a cause of congratulation to the people of the Commonwealth, that the finances were managed with rare skill and success during the critical era
817
INCREASE OF APPELLATE JUDGES.
of the panic, from July I to October 1, 1893. Several hundred thousands of dollars remained in the banks drawing interest and giving relief to the country.
The constitution provided for an increase of the number of judges constituting the Court of Appeals from four to seven. In conformity with this, the Legislature, by enactment, divided the State into seven districts, from each one of which a judge should be elected by the people of the same, at times designated, to serve for allotted terms or for regular terms of eight years. A vacancy on the bench was created by the death of Judge Caswell Bennett, August 9, 1894, before the law became operative. Isaac M. Quigley, of Paducah, was appointed to this vacancy by the gov- ernor, to serve until a successor was elected and qualified. John R. Grace, of Trigg county, was elected from the First judicial district in November, 1894. At the same period B. L. D. Guffy, of Butler county, was elected from the Second district; Sterling B. Toney from the Fourth, and Thomas H. Paynter from the Sixth. Of the former members of the court, Judges Wm. S. Pryor, Joseph H. Lewis and James H. Hazelrigg hold over until the close of their terms under the old law. A contest hav- ing been made in the Fourth district, composed of Jefferson county, over the vote cast, on the part of St. John Boyle, the Republican opponent of Judge Toney, the latter withdrew from the contention, and the revising board of State officials declared a vacancy to exist. George B. Eastin, of Louisville, was then appointed by the governor to serve until another shall be duly elected. On this organization of the Appellate Court of seven members, the provisional Superior Court no longer exists, as the constitu- tional court is able to meet all demands.
Toward the close of the long session of the Legislature, in 1893, after much unnecessary contention and delay a revised and amended bill, mod- eling the common school system for its future operation, became a law. On the whole, the measure was an improvement on previous laws on the same subject; yet, in the chaos of amendments and discussions, some changes were made that it would have been well to have left out. The most serious defect of legislation in the interests of the common schools of Kentucky consists in the failure to provide, by supplementary local tax- ation, to extend the annual session of the school to a minimum term of not less than seven months. The only simple and practical method of doing this, under the civil divisions of the territory of our State, is to adopt the county as the unit of taxation for revenues to supplement the State school fund. We have no township divisions as in many other States ; and our arbitrary single school districts are often too small and weak to constitute an effective unit for the processes of taxation. In our more fertile counties a local tax of ten or fifteen cents on the one hundred dollars would give the revenue needed to secure seven to nine months free schools in every dis- trict. In the other counties, twenty to thirty cents on the one hundred
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