History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 36

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146

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The Legislature in 1901 during its sixty days session passed 188 laws and 21 joint resolutions. Many were merely amendments to the statutes. The most important measures which become laws were as follows: Creating a food and dairy commission ; providing for a revision of the laws; establishing a law de- partment at the State University with Thomas Sterling as dean; creating a department of history and placing its management in the hands of the State

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Historical Society; providing for circulating libraries in the country school dis- tricts ; a scavenger tax bill designed to dispose of real estate upon which owners had defaulted in payment of tax; appropriations for the biennial period ending June 30, 1903, of $1,396,791.32 or half of that sum for each of two years. This amount included the sums intended for the educational and charitable institu- tions to the amount of $237,320 and for the state government expenses and the support of the charitable and penal institutions.

The amendments to the constitution voted at the general election in 1902 were as follows: (1) In relation to the change in location of county seats; (2) to increase the limit of county, township and municipal district indebtedness to 5 per cent; (3) to reduce the rate of interest on school fund loans from 6 to 5 per cent.

At the legislative session of January, 1903, the state capital removal question was of great importance from the very start. Even before the members assem- bled the fight commenced. Mitchell, Huron and Redfield contested earnestly to see which could oppose Pierre. As soon as Mr. Brown of Aberdeen was elected speaker, it was admitted that the capital removal advocates had a majority in the House. At the same time the re-submission sentiment was strong in the House and promised to pass that body. Another important question was whether the state should be represented at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis. Another was whether a binding twine factory should be established at the peni- tentiary. Still other measures were-how to increase the revenue of the state; to change all incorporations with annual fees; to change the free range law west of the Missouri River; completion of the new state code by the commission ap- pointed two years before; concerning the school funds. The Government was asked whether the school lands and funds should be sold or leased and what should be done with the funds in either case. By March 5th the school fund amounted to about five million dollars, of which about one-half million dollars was idle in the treasury. It could not be loaned under the existing constitutional restrictions, the rate of interest being too high. Under the system there were large tracts of school land which could not be leased. The question was how to manage both the cash balance and the idle land to the best advantage of the schools. The Senate proposed an amendment to the constitution to give greater power to the school authorities so that $5,000 of school money could be loaned to a single individual; but that such loan should not exceed one-third of the cash valuation of the land on which the loan was made, and that the rates should not be less than five per cent on school funds thus loaned. . The Senate favored that money should be loaned on state bonds, county bonds, school bonds, and similar evidences of indebtedness in South Dakota. The plan of the Senate was to withdraw one-half of the land from sale and to sell the remainder for cash.

At the legislative session of 1903 Senator Williamson was elected president pro tem of the Senate. Troop B of the state militia escorted Governor Herreid from the Locke Hotel to the State House where all the state officers were sworn in by Chief Justice Corson. The Senate members were sworn in by Judge Haney and the House members by Judge Fuller. A joint caucus of the republicans called to select a candidate for the United States Senate was presided over by Mr. Lawson, of Aberdeen. Senator Kittredge, as described elsewhere herein, received the nomination for both the short and the long term. John Bowler

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received the democratic vote. This Legislature consisted of 120 republicans and twelve democrats. One of the interesting measures considered by this Legisla- ture was that relating to fire insurance. The bills required companies doing business in the state to pay the full value of the policy, and the measure thus becaine called "The valued policy act." It provided further that no two or more companies should enter into a compact for fixing rates. Another measure that roused both Houses was the step of a combine in the Legislature to appropriate $100,000 for the establishment and maintenance of four additional normal schools in the state. The Mitchell Republican declared this was a gigantic robbery, and that newspapers in towns where other state institutions were located were induced to keep silent for fear of having their own institutes removed or interfered with.

The House at this session was controlled by a combination formed for the declared and specific purpose of carrying into effect certain measures which included large appropriations from the treasury. The St. Louis fair appropria- tion bill was at first postponed in order that the combine could have further time for its manipulation. The Valued Policy Bill likewise was postponed until the combine could study its features and mature their methods of attack. The com- bine becanie certain that they could control insurance legislation and therefore favored that the measure should be postponed. This organization was in excellent working condition by February 1Ith, with Messrs. Bromley and Longstaff among the most active and prominent leaders. It became called the "Third House," owing to the large number of lobbies which at all times sought the favor and sup- port of the combine members.

Among the carly measures considered was that of changing the sessions of the Circuit Court of Charles Mix County from' Wheeler to Geddes. The question of code revision was taken up and both Houses were addressed by Judge Tripp who explained much in detail what had thus far been done by the code commis- sion of which he was a member. They had compiled the laws, made them read homogeneously, cut out much matter relating to the territory, rewritten several absurd provisions in accordance with the recent decisions of the courts, left out a few vicious laws, and made one change in the justice code, to-wit: Allowing parties who in good faith made an attempt to appeal from the justice courts and failed, to furnish a sufficient bond and be granted the right by the Circuit Court. Other early bills introduced were as follows: Valued policy of insurance to be contested; to amend the liquor laws so there could be county option as well as town, township and city option. It was explained that this bill meant that a county might prohibit the sale of liquor under a license throughout the county, but could not force a license system upon any town, township or city if such should vote to the contrary.

For the first time in the history of South Dakota Legislature, the old English parlimentary practice concerning engrossing and enrolling bills was dispensed with at this session in order to hasten action on the code bills. The custom of printed engrossment and enrollment bills had been in practice in South Dakota at all ses- sions of the Legislature since 1893. An early bill provided for an appropriation of $50,000 so that the state could be properly represented at the Louisiana Pur- chase Exposition. Strange to say there was sharp opposition to this bill from the start. Another was for the inspection of illuminating gas. One, a resolution concerning the disposal of endowment lands, was designed to withdraw them from

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sale; another fixed the salary that should be paid county school superintendents. One bill provided that all counties that were supporting insane patients should convert the money into a maintenance fund for the maintenance of the State Insane Hospitals. Other bill's were-providing for fence viewers ; providing that Circuit Courts could be held locally in a county besides at the county seat ; pro- viding that special prosecuting attorneys could be appointed if necessary ; appro- priating the balance of the public lands, consisting of about 20,000 acres, for the support of the insane asylum; providing that graduates of the law department of colleges should be admitted to practice without an examination; appropriating lands for the national sanitarium ; providing for the adoption of the revised codes ; providing for the investment of the permanent school fund; excluding certain tracts of land from the corporate limits of cities ; inspection of horses snipped out of the state; how the capital stock of banks should be assessed; removing the permanent capital from Pierre to Mitchell; establishing and vacating lands for public highways ; appropriating $50,000 to pay premiums at the state fair ; extend- ing the lives of bank corporations; authorizing a survey of state lands by the Government of the United States; declaring the waters of the artesian basin public property ; designating depositories for civil township funds.

Among the bills considered later were the following: Ceding lands in Fall River County for a national sanitarium; limitations of judgments; relating to instructions to juries ; a barber license law ; encouragement of county fairs ; how to invest the permanent school fund; fixing terms of court in the Fourth Judicial District ; $2,500 to be used in mounting birds for the State Historical Society ; fixing the wages of county assessors at $5 per day each; a public morals bill; $50,000 for an armory at the state university ; elevated platforms at railway stations ; prohibiting football playing; for a state sheep inspector; for the estab- lishment of a bell signal system in the mines; to abolish days of grace; fixing maximum telegraph rates; $30,000 for the improvement of the Springfield Normal School Building ; licensing peddlers ; locating the state fair grounds per- manently at Huron ; $40,000 for buildings at the state fair to be expended under a commission of five; $65,000 for buildings at the Agricultural College at Brook- ings ; $60,000 for the maintenance fund of the Agricultural College; for uniform assessment of live stock; fixing certain boundary lines between South Dakota and Nebraska; naming the anemone as the state flower and accepting as the state motto the words "I Lead;" attaching territory to independent school districts and detaching the same; assessment and taxation of the product and proceeds of the mines ; creating a library commission ; allowing cities of less than 2,000 to elect aldermen and school boards ; allowing mutual insurance companies to extend their membership to adjoining counties ; a memorial to Congress to ratify the Rosebud Treaty so that Gregory County could be opened to settlement ; numerous deficiency measures; making larceny of live stock grand larceny; prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors; granting certain ferry licenses; fixing the salary of commis- sions of the Soldiers' Home at $3 per day; regulating the practice of veterinary medicine; $135,000 for new buildings and repairs at the insane asylum; with- drawing school and public lands from sale and providing for their long lease; fixing the pay of the members of the board of agriculture at $3 a day; a law regulating auctioneers ; to establish an experiment station at the school of mines ; providing that cities which employed city superintendents of schools should not

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be taxed for county superintendents; the qualifications necessary to secure teach- ers' certificates ; promoting agriculture and the holding of county fairs ; how to appeal from justice courts; qualifications of town officers; protection of large game; city assessments of special improvements ; a' classified assessment of live stock; providing that the penitentiary should furnish stone for the state capitol; to fix the state treasurer's bond at $1,000,000; asking for the repeal of tariff on lumber; how to collect delinquent personal property tax; to fix the pay of road commissioners at $2 per day ; placing all mutual insurance companies under the control of the insurance commission; for the inspection of sheep about to be driven into the state; for a board of medical examiners to be appointed by the governor; for the establishment and management of township teachers' institutes ; fixing the duties of the state board of agriculture; making county treasurers custodians of the funds being raised for starving Finlanders; appropriating $24,000 for the Spearfish Normal School Building; appropriating money for the construction of cottages at the Soldiers' Home; concerning the bonding of school district debts; appropriating $50,000 for an armory at Huron; making Sabbath breaking a misdemeanor; authorizing the incorporation of electric street railway and power companies; limiting street car franchises to twenty years; empowering county commissioners to appropriate money for the expenses of county fairs ; concerning the redemption of foreclosure of mining claims ; pen- alties for giving away or selling liquor to minors or drunkards; providing for the admission to practice medicine ; protection to quail; to place county insane funds directly in the hands of the asylum authorities; regulating the order of employ- ment in mines ; $50,000 appropriation for a twine plant at the penitentiary ; pro- viding that school levies should be in specific amounts ; to prevent public officers from securing profits on public supplies; to increase the limitation of the state bonded debt beyond $500,000; to provide militia encampment grounds at Lake Kampeska; for the incorporation of telegraph companies ; providing how to draw juries in counties that had not been organized into townships; how to raise a gauge and standard of fees for obtaining articles of incorporation. The existing law was $10 for each set of articles, but this was found to be too expensive because the cost was often greater than $10. The object was to shut out all fraudulent concerns. Giving the board of equalization greater power in making assessments of mining property ; making several important improvements in the insane fund laws; providing for the establishment of township high schools by the vote of the townships; compulsory education of Indians who had received allotments and become citizens; how to invest school funds; providing for a board of fence viewers; providing for a state board of medical examiners consisting of seven members divided among the three leading schools of medicine as follows: four Allopaths; two Homeopaths, and one Eclectic and providing for examinations before being admitted to practice; giving county courts sole power was lodged in the Circuit Courts except in counties having 20,000 population or more; a bill legalizing defective acknowledgment of instruments affecting real property. This was mainly copied from the law of California. Fixing the salaries of the mem- bers of the board of regents; a uniform sewerage law of the state; several bills changing the liquor laws; the valued policy bill; the latter two were bitterly and savagely discussed in both Houses of the Legislature; many severe personalities were indulged in and personal encounters were often narrowly averted. A bill

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for the examination of persons desiring to practice medicine; authorizing the department of public instruction to issue teachers' certificates of the second grade; $70,000 appropriation for the National Guard; the general appropriation bill.

These were a few of the many bills before both Houses. The newspapers of the state early in March congratulated the Legislature on overcoming the power- ful influences of the insurance lobby that had worked energetically at Pierre dur- ing the entire session. The valued policy bill passed the House, went quickly to the Senate and passed that body by a vote of 25 to 15, and was promptly signed by Governor Herreid. Immediately thereafter the insurance lobby through its many newspaper supporters throughout the state denounced in severe terms the course of both the governor and the Legislature. The valued policy proposition embraced the following points: That the insurance companies which had placed a valuation on a piece of property while it was in existence and had written a given amount of indemnity on it, should not be permitted after the property had been destroyed and the premiums had been collected on the policy valuation, to urge or assume that the valuation was placed too high. This bill assumed that the company should and must fix a fair valuation in advance and not collect excessive premium and then endeavor to cut down the indemnity. This bill occasioned the severest fight probably at any session of the Legislature, owing to the large insurance lobby and to the intense effort they made to defeat the bill. Toward the last of the session both houses worked through committees during the forenoons and evenings. No more bills could be introduced in the House, but up to this time there was no such prohibition in the Senate. Late in the session a banking act was introduced. Other measures considered late were providing that school districts sending their graduates to high schools should pay the tuition ; providing that the state board of equalization could assess state property as high as $100,000,000 ; considering all features of the wolf bounty measure. When the bill providing for a state flower was before the Legislature many amusing inci- dents occurred. One member insisted that the sunflower should be the state flower. Another wanted the wild rose. Several ludicrous suggestions were offered, but in the end the anemone, pasque flower, the anemone patens, was finally accepted.

About the middle of February Christian Science for the first time was for- mally recognized by the Legislature. At this time the Anti-free Range Bill was defeated. Early in March the question of taxing mining stock came up and received at every session violent opposition from the Black Hills members. The bill taxing mining stock was finally defeated. An appropriation of $2,500 for the improvement of Wind Cave Park was passed.

At the legislative session of 1903, 297 bills were introduced in the House and 233 in the Senate. In 1901 282 bills were introduced in the House and 235 in the Senate. In 1903, 244 bills passed both houses and became laws while in 1901 only 209 bills passed and became laws. Among the more important measures in 1903 were the following: Two amendments to the constitution to be voted on, namely : Removal of the capital and important changes in the management of the school fund; the Carroll Bill which raised the aggregate assessment to $100,000,000; this bill gave the state board authority to correct fraud and inadequate assess- ment ; also, at its discretion, to levy an additional two mill deficiency tax provided by the constitution ; an amendment to the Louisiana Purchase Fair Appropriation

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Bill, instructing the state commission to act in conjunction with the Black Hills Mining Men's Association in making up the South Dakota display. The appro- priation for this fair was $35,000. The anti-football bill was killed in the Senate early in March, and the anti-rebate insurance bill was vetoed by Governor Herreid.

Among the important bills which were prominent near the close of the session was the following: Providing a 2 mill deficiency levy owing to the extra ex- penses for the state institutions and to the warmth of the battle over the state capital site. By the Ist of March over one hundred bills had been signed by the governor and were laws. There were fully as many more yet to consider. It was provided that the session laws of this term should be printed apart from the revised code. One of the most important measures which became a law was the one creating a board of medical examiners. This occasioned a revolution in the state medical rank, especially in the requirements necessary to practice. Huron secured the state fair and Watertown the National Guard encampment. The State Board of Equalization was authorized to raise the total assessment to $100,- 000,000, but no higher. The salaries of county judges and circuit judges were raised. The Ninth Judicial Circuit was created.

Notwithstanding the hilarity and exuberance at the close of the session this Legislature was a business one throughout and one of the ablest that had thus far assembled in the state. Less than the average number of bills was introduced and greater than the average number became laws. The Legislature did great work despite the excitement at all times over the insurance and the capital contest problems. It was one of the most expensive sessions ever held in the state. For the first time it was called the $2,000,000 appropriation session. The actual amount of the appropriations was about one million nine hundred thousand dol- lars. The session was liberal and fair, broad and progressive, met the expecta- tions and hopes of the state institutions and the people who loved to see the state advance and passed into history as one of the most useful ever held in South Dakota.

At this time it was figured that the revenue for two years would be $1,160,000. In spite of this the legislative appropriations amounted, as above stated, to nearly two million dollars. It was necessary therefore to meet the deficiency, which was done by the 2 mill emergency levy. Nearly all the requests for appropriations were approved by the citizens generally for the first time in the history of the state. Particularly the needs of the educational institutions, though large, were not objected to when the Legislature met the wishes of the people. Of course it was realized that the 2 mill deficiency levy was merely a temporary expedient, and that some permanent means to make the annual revenue meet the annual expend- itures should be provided or overcome. However this Legislature shirked the responsibility of engrafting upon the statutes any law making a decided tax change or authorizing an election for a constitutional amendment that would effect the desired tax change. The Legislature, as all others had done, simply left the matter for a subsequent session to consider and settle. The Legislature passed sev- eral important bills restricting and controlling corporations. South Dakota was now added to the list of over twenty states that required insurance companies to pay the full value of policies. Of course the capital removal bill which passed at this session was an extremely important measure and stirred up the Legisla-

SCENE ON BAD RIVER NEAR FORT PIERRE

MAIN STREET WEST, FORT PIERRE

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ture and the state even more than the insurance measure did. The session made sweeping changes in the qualification of teachers and the nature of teachers' cer- tificates. Immediately after the passage of the laws, State Superintendent G. W. Nash sent out a special circular concerning the changes.

At the legislative session of January, 1905, there was no friction and very little ill will. The committees were soon selected and began action promptly. J. L. Browne was chosen speaker. One of the first bills introduced provided for the parole of prisoners at the penitentiary. At the commencement of the session there was a vigorous debate on the 640-acre memorial resolution to be sent to Congress. Many believed that the memorial was calculated to hurt the state. In fact, sev- eral members of the Legislature declared in open session that the adoption of the resolution would hurt South Dakota more than the Taylor defalcation, and would put the state back twenty-five years. At this time there was a bill in the United States Senate, introduced by Kittredge, providing for an appropriation of $52,500 for the construction of dams at Lake Poinsett and Lake Kampeska. This bill was finally defeated in spite of the vigorous support given it by the South Dakota delegation. A bill to memorialize Congress to protect the farmers from the devas- tation of overflows on the Missouri River was another measure considered at this session.

On February 8th Mr. Carroll introduced the primary election bill in the House. At once this measure received the full consideration of the Legislature. The twine plant bill for the penitentiary was likewise well considered and finally be- came a law. It provided for an appropriation of $70,000 to be met by a tax levy, all to be voted by the tax payers. Early in March the House voted for the abolishment of the normal school at Springfield. The Deadwood water condemna- tion bill was defeated in spite of the desperate fight made in its support by the Black Hills members. In spite of much opposition the Springfield Normal School secured its appropriation early in March. At this time the State Live Stock Com- mission was duly appointed by Governor Elrod. For the second time the travel- ing library project was killed at this session. The resolution to make the taking of a pass by a public official a felony was killed. The Legislature successfully cleared up the perplexing problem of the Sioux Falls waterworks system. The lobbies of this session were comparatively small and weak, although several im- portant measures were before both houses for consideration.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 36

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146