History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 41

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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Early in February there was a sharp contest for a few hours over the bill which gave the court power to enter judgment in certain cases regardless of the verdict of the jury. Several members claimed that this was an attempt to trans- gress the right of trial by jury. Another stir occurred over the bill concerning cement contracts. The judiciary committee had reported adversely on the ground that in their belief it was unconstitutional. It was declared, however, by good lawyers that the bill would stand any test in the courts, and accordingly it was placed on the calendar. The negotiable instrument law was considered in com- mittee of the whole House.

In the Senate there was a close contest over the bill to prohibit false and fraudulent advertising. This resulted in the appointment of a committee of three to recast the bill. There was likewise in the Senate considerable discussion over the resolution memorializing the. Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate

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coal rates from the Wyoming coal fields to South Dakota. In the Senate three new agricultural bills were introduced at this time, one appropriating $25,000 annually for farmers' institutes, another authorizing counties to make tax levies for demonstration farms and another providing a cattle feeding experi- ment station in Butte County. Three new constitutional amendments were pre- sented in one day, as follows: One providing for a state board of control to have general charge of all state institutions in place of the three boards now operating; one calling on an outside judge to sit on the supreme bench in case judges were interested parties, and another asking for the expenditure of half of the state school money collected by lease in the district in which it was collected.

In an investigation made early in 1913 by Prof. R. F. Kerr, of Brookings, it was learned that since statehood twenty-eight amendments to the constitution had been submitted to the voters, of which several were repetitions, especially in regard to prohibition, suffrage, and raising the salary of the attorney general, thus leaving the total number of different subjects seventeen. Of these, two were defeated, one was resubmitted and eleven were rejected on the first vote. Eleven laws had been referred and of these five were voted down. Three laws were started on their way through the initiative, only one of which was accepted by the people, being that of the new primary law of 1912. Out of the eleven laws referred six were sustained by the vote of the people and five were rejected. The headlight laws was first rejected, but at the next election was adopted. The same fate befell the state dispensary constitutional amendment. Later, with reverse action the people adopted it at the first vote, but with no attempt on the part of the Legislature to pass an act putting it into effect. When submit- ted the second time it was voted down by a large majority. Before 1900, when the amendments were submitted on a general ballot, the average vote on such amendments was 53 per cent of the total. The highest vote ever received on any one amendment was on the capital removal resolution on which over 90 per cent of the voters expressed themselves. On moral questions after 1900 the average per cent was from 86 to 87. On railway questions the vote was from 83 to 89 per cent. For increasing the salary of the attorney general the vote ranged from 76 per cent on the first vote to 80 per cent on the later votes.

At the legislative session of 1913 among other measures considered were the following: To strike the circle from the head of the ticket and thus compel voters to express their individual preference down the entire line of the ticket ; providing a penalty for giving or receiving anything of value for signing a ref- erendum petition for the purpose of enacting a law or stopping the effect of legislation ; an appropriation to send a number of old soldier participants to Gettysburg battlefield reunion in 1914; the names of 115 of such soldiers were mentioned at this time; requiring the appropriation committees of both Houses to report the general appropriation bills not later than the forty-fifth day of the session through the general bill. For the first time in the history of the state, an equal suffrage resolution passed the Senate without a fight, there being only two votes recorded against it. The Legislature considered a bill for the repeal of the compiled laws of 1903 and the session laws of 1903-1I inclusive in order to begin all over again at this session with legislation for the state, on the the- ory that by such action many enactments which were of little or no value would be eliminated and the state could work under a complete code of laws newly

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framed with all the non-essentials stricken out and all the valuable measures retained. Another bill repealed the state wolf bounty provisions and placed all bounty rewards in the hands of the county alone. Several maintained that this would place too heavy a burden on the western counties and should be shared by other counties, because all parts of the states suffered more or less from the attacks of wolves on live stock. Another bill provided for a four-year term for legislative members, the question to be submitted to the voters at the next gen- eral election.

In 1913 the state railroad commissioners and the Black Hills Horticultural Society assembled at Spearfish to devise means whereby the apple growers- in the western part of the state could ship their fruit to market in the eastern part of the state without loss and at a profit. It came out at this meeting that 31,000 boxes of apples were grown in and around Spearfish in 1912, many boxes of which rotted because the freight rate was prohibitive. Mr. Peters of that region . paid $210 on each of three cars of apples shipped from Spearfish to Pierre. This was higher rates than carloads of apples could be laid down in Pierre from New York or the Pacific Coast. These rates were prohibitive to the growing of fruit in the Spearfish region. The railroad commissioners and the fruit grow- ers of the Black Hills region asked the Legislature for suitable laws to remedy this condition of affairs.

At this session Sunday base ball and Sunday moving picture shows received due consideration. Base ball enthusiasts for a number of years had demanded a change in the law so that ball could be played on Sunday, and now moving picture people demanded similar changes. A resolution to investigate state print- ing costs and the charges of excessive bills therefor early passed. The law as it stood required the governor to report to the state auditor within ten days after the Ist of October of each year the names of any state officer or board which had not filed an official copy of his or their report in the hands of the governor, and it then became the duty of the state auditor to refuse to issue any warrant for the payment of salaries or expenses of such office or department until such reports should be filed. The state government thus far had not attempted to carry out the law. At this session the commissioners of the larger counties of the state asked for a change in the law in regard to compensation of boards of commissioners in counties of certain geological size or of certain population which would require a large share of the time of the officials to conduct prop- erly. Other bills introduced were the following: Counties to construct and townships to maintain highways; granting volunteer fire companies I-cent rate to tournaments ; giving laborers lien on threshing rigs for wages; fixing compen- sation for transportation of school children; a general uniform negotiable in- strument act; providing methods of laying out railways; fixing compensation of officers in cities under commission form; fixing jurisdiction of county courts in relation to dependent children; fixing terms of attendance at the state school for the blind; adding restrictions to the state anti-gambling act; preventing any- one from drawing two salaries from the state at the same time; providing for private farm crossings over railway tracks; providing penalty for selling glan- dered horses ; establishing a state humane bureau and defining its power; fixing fees of witnesses in circuit court the same as jurors ; providing for the abandon-

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ment of drainage districts; submitting a constitutional amendment . for four-year legislative terms; an equal suffrage amendment.

For some time at this session the state printing proposition engrossed the attention of the Senate. The resolution provided for a committee of sixty-three from each house to investigate the charges made against the department. Amend- ments and substitutes were offered, but finally the resolution was changed so as to allow the presiding officer to appoint the committee. Thus amended, the reso- lution carried. Other bills and resolutions introduced early in the Senate were as follows: Fixing the duties of the state food and drug commissioner; amend- ing the age of consent law; allowing proof in court of previous character; limit- ing appeals to cases in which the amount involved was not more than $50; re- quiring all fees from any source paid to state officers and boards to be paid into the state treasury ; repealing the codes and starting with a new set of laws; appropriating $3,000 for farmers' institute work; requiring warehouse men to file bonds; providing regulations for county mutual insurance companies; pro- viding manner of submission of the liquor license question; memorial to the Interior Department asking for modification of leasing plan for Indian lands; providing for the creation of irrigated districts by constitutional amendments and allowing them to use their credit for construction work; memorial to Con- gress asking for presidential primary elections.

At the legislative session of 1913, nearly 1,000 bills were introduced, of which not quite four hundred were passed and became laws. The Iroquois Chief of March, 1913, said in this connection: "The people were not demand- ing a single new law and not over a dozen new measures were needed, yet the Legislature put 400 new laws on the books and some of the members thought there was a crying demand for 1,000. Legislation of this character is worse than useless and it is silly. Very little thought or study is given to the proposed laws and in many cases a measure that passes by a big majority one day will be reconsidered and defeated the next day by as large a majority as it was carried. What kind of laws can be expected from a body of 150 men who have 1,000 bills to consider in sixty days. The system is wrong. One plan that would help matters would be to cut down the membership of the Legislature to one-half, raise the salary to $600 for a term and take off the time limit, allowing the mem- bers to stay in session until their work was thoroughly performed. The results of this plan, if adopted, would be much more satisfactory than the present risk of undigested laws."

There was a more or less extensive feeling over the state in 1915 that the present method of passing laws by the election of a Legislature under existing conditions was a farce and a travesty upon good government. The body was too large to begin with, was too unwieldy, was immersed in politics and con- tained too many incompetents. They passed laws that nobody wanted and failed to pass laws that the state imperatively demanded. To secure the passage of needed laws required a body of men who could confer together and reason un- selfishly and logically upon the subject before them and then act solely for the public good. Under the existing system, it was declared, there were too many speeches, too many gangs for this and that, too much filibustering, too many empty words, and too much valuable time wasted. It was believed by many that some way should be devised to secure a more effective body of lawmakers.

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It was contended that the Legislature did not believe that people were compe- tent to decide what they wanted. Numerous papers throughout the state at this time pointed out the defects of the existing legislative system. Attention was called to the filibustering, delay and corruption in the Legislatures of Iowa, Kan- sas and other states. The same condition was declared to exist in South Dakota. The Deadwood Times declared that twenty-five men could do the state's law making much better and in shorter time than did the present membership. That paper said: "No one seriously disputes this, yet nobody with power to act has taken the lead in this important reform. It is simply applying the commision form of government to states, and that would do for the state what it has done for the cities. When we get it through our heads that democracy can prove its claims to superiority as a system of government as it has its superiority as a principle of government, only by being efficient and accurately registering the public will, then we can talk of political schemes of multiplied offices as exem- plifying popular government over the transom." Commenting upon this article the Daily Capital Journal of Pierre said: "The Times is right in stating that we need only one body, but that body ought to be a commission which would be in session all the time with authority to revise and enact legislation. There would not be near the trouble in law making, neither would there be near the number of mistakes made in creating laws under such conditions. Create a commission and give the people the power to recall, and the legislation will be more effective and likewise more reasonable."

The Legislature of 1915 was well satisfied with what they had accomplished, but much fault was found throughout the state over many useless bills and much wasted time upon extraneous and unnecessary matters. Bills were not passed purely upon their merits, but for various other reasons, among which were favoritism, log rolling, political pull, corruption, etc. Much fault was . found with the fact that the emergency clause of the constitution was called in operation, not because there was an emergency, but because, by using it, as was alleged, laws which might be objectionable could be put into immediate operations. The Legislature had power to determine whether an emergency existed. This was provided by the constitution. In a case before the Supreme Court, counsel argued that what might be deemed an emergency was purely a legislative question and it was for the Legislature to determine what circum- stances, conditions or facts constituted an emergency. This position was sus- tained by Justice Corson who said: "It seems to have been universally held under constitutions containing an emergency clause and providing that laws con- taining such a clause shall take effect as therein directed, that the action of the Legislature in inserting such a clause is conclusive upon the courts." This emergency clause was put in operation on the new primary law in 1915. As a matter of fact hundreds of laws passed by former Legislatures, after the Su- preme Court decision of 1901 above referred to, with the emergency clause attached, did not need such a clause and did not embrace such an emergency. There was much difference of opinion over the state concerning the judgment of the Legislature in deciding whether a real emergency existed or whether the clause should be attached for ulterior purposes. At the 1911 session there were enacted 265 laws, of which 129, or 35 per cent, were classed as emergency meas- ures. At the 1913 session there were enacted 371 laws, of which 105, or 35 per Vol. III-19

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cent, carried the emergency clause. At the session of 1915 there was a strong sentiment against the attachment of the emergency clause unless a real emer- gency and not a theoretical one could be shown to exist.

The Legislature of 1915 considered 745 bills and joint resolutions, and among many others enacted the following into laws: Legalizing a cottonwood experi- ment farm in Haakin County ; levied a sewer tax for the state university ; appro- priated $55,000 for a new building at Madison Normal; made an appropriation for maintaining the free library commission ; appropriated $65,000 for an addi- tion to the main building of the Aberdeen Normal; appropriated $74,606 for legislative expenses ; appropriated $20,000 for the improvement of the capitol ground at Pierre ; made liberal appropriations for various repairs and improve- ments at all of the state institutions; appropriated $50 to cover the expenses of burying each old soldier; appropriating $2,000 for the artesian well at the Springfield Normal; appropriated varying amounts for glandered horses killed by the state veterinarian; appropriating $1,000 for a reference library for the attorney general; appropriating $22,000 for the extension of the wall of the penitentiary farm; appropriating $2,000 for the live stock cottonwood substa- tion; prescribed the steps in taking tax deeds; required protested taxes to be paid before action ; providing that the general assessment act should be prepared by the tax commission; concerning the cancellation of tax sale certificates after the statute has run against them; extending the powers of tax commission; re- quiring the amount of the state tax to be specified on each tax receipt ; giving the attorney general $100 a month expenses, concerning the care and prudence in driving an automobile; an initiative bank guaranty bill; administration bank guaranty bill; relating to the records of stock banks; transferring the custody of the capital from secretary of state to the governor; concerning taxes of capital building lands; leasing of school lands for agricultural purposes ; for state wide prohibition ; permitting the Legislature to fix the compensation of public officers ; for equal suffrage ; permitting religious corporations to hold meetings anywhere in the state; a uniform blue sky law; procedure for organizing building and loan associations ; fixing grounds for habeas corpus proceedings; fixing terms of court in the Eleventh Circuit ; placing of trial of civil action ; terms of court in the Sixth Circuit; supplying justices with books on justice practice ; expenses of circuit judgments ; terms of court in the Seventh Judicial Circuit; same in the Fifth and Ninth circuits ; procedure on appeal ; transcribing records in coun- ties divided by popular vote; qualifications of county officers; methods of fix- ing salaries of county officers ; procedure for organization of counties; letting contracts by counties ; creating commissioner districts in new counties ; attach- ing Washabaugh to Jackson for judicial purposes; attaching Haakon and Jackson counties to the Twenty-fifth Senatorial District; requiring commis- sioner districts to be created on equal population basis; limiting traveling expenses of county superintendents to $300; defining general powers of county commissioners ; providing compulsory deposit of county funds; author- izing the establishment of courthouse building funds; providing deputy county supervisors ; fixing $600 as the minimum salary for state's attorneys; for the transportation of school children; relating to the education of Indian children ; how to divide school districts; compulsory education sixteen weeks' attendance each year; condemnation of school sites; concerning school taxes of territory

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not organized for school purposes; consolidation of school districts; procedure to purchase school lands for schoolhouse sites; making first certificates good for high school teachers; concerning renewals, validation and revocation of teachers' certificates; relating to the return of election poll books; procedure of direct election of United States senators; restoring circle of official ballot ; elec- tions in commission governed cities ; school bond elections; return of publicity pamphlet money unexpended to candidates; establishment of election precincts ; methods of submitting laws; measures and constitutional amendments ; appoint- ment of clerks of election ; amendment to Richards primary law; nonpartisan judicial election; reviving Crawford primary election with registration fea- ture; providing that food and drug commissioner should inspect restorations ; loitering on fair grounds a misdemeanor ; providing five assistant game wardens ; fish screens in irrigation districts ; general protection for game fish ; permitting game warden to offer rewards for violations; prohibiting hunting on state game preserve; protecting non-navigable streams; prohibiting the practice of hyp- notism; regulating the sale of wood alcohol, naphtha, etc .; authorizing the board of health to return fees in certain cases; regulating mausoleums ; prohibiting the sale of narcotic drugs; regulating the sale of commercial feeding; laying out county highways along state lands; repealing the right to plant timber along highways; repealing the Richards information bureau law; permitting county mutual insurance companies to insure urban property ; extension of corporate existence of county mutuals ; investment of the funds of mutual life insurance companies ; farmers elevator and creamery companies to form mutual companies ; uniform marriage licenses ; the 1909 miner's lien law reinstated ; fixing salaries of city officers in different classes; divorced mothers eligible to mother's pen- sion ; town treasurer to receive 2 per cent of moneys for handling same; five- eighths of residence free holders necessary to increase incorporated town assess- ments; third class cities may abolish municipal court ; defining municipal street improvements ; city to provide courthouse site; municipalities to levy tax for musical concerts ; municipalities to keep sinking funds invested to operate elec- tric light plants and to buy and sell electric current ; capital punishment abolished ; horse traders and gypsies made vagrants; newspaper libel only for actual dam- age in libel action ; penalty for grand larceny reduced to five years in the peni- tentiary or one year in the county jail; shirt factory labor abolished; wife deser- tion made a felony ; third degree forgery defined ; anti-cigarette laws for minors ; procedure for removal from office for malfeasance; general stores permitted to handle common poisons; estates of indigents liable for their support ; five year limit for payment of land purchased in probate; estates to be settled by deposit- ing in escrow claims of absent creditors; executor must elect between compen- sation provided by law and by will; grain and cattle scales supervised by rail- way commission; railroad commissioners to investigate on their own initiative : townships to drag roads ; automobile license fee of $3 to be used for county roads; holder of legal title to school land to receive school land patent; second lessee must pay 95 per cent of value of improvements on school lands; counties to receive 5 per cent of school fund for handling same; fire marshal, food and drug commissioner and state veterinarian must attend the state fair; three years' residence in the state condition precedent for admission to the Soldiers' Home ; inheritance tax code ; county auditors' salaries ; general assessment lid law ; speedy

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hearing to be had for admission to the Custer Tuberculosis Sanitarium; county subject to 3 per cent per month penalty for, delinquency in delivering fees for tuberculosis patients ; salary superintendent of the department of history $2,000; private persons may require railroads to put on track scales by paying for same ; warehouse receipts to be redeemed at terminal elevator; structures along track must be sufficient distance apart to prevent fire hazard; warehouses must give minimum $2,000 penal bond; Congress memorialized to develop navigable streams ; mortgage not good on non-existent property.

An important measure considered at the legislative session of 1915 was whether to hold a constitutional convention or not. A joint resolution introduced by Senator Whittemore called for the holding of such convention. It was duly considered by the Legislature, but was defeated in the end. Many people through- out the state believed that South Dakota was entitled to a new constitution, but many hesitated to go to the expense because they believed the state could get along pretty well until finances were in still better condition. Furthermore, the inass of the people were afraid that the new constitution might be much worse than the old one. All admitted that a constitutional convention would correct many wrongs and annihilate many laws which were of no practical use.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 41

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