History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 48

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 48

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The resubmission bill was introduced by Mr. Fowler, of Lawrence county, on the first day of the session and its passage was confidently looked for by its friends. All of the important legislation of the session was made contingent upon it, as far as it was in the power of the re- submissionists to do so. The committee on tem- perance, having charge of the bill, made a ma- jority report favoring the bill and a minority re- port unfavorable to it on February Ist and on the next day Mr. Fowler moved that the major- ity report be adopted. Mr. Ashley, of Clark, moved that the minority report be substituted for the majority and so substituted to be adopted, and

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the substitute prevailed by a vote of forty-three to thirty-nine and so the first attempt at resub- mission failed.

Immediately the resubmissionists gathered themselves for a new attack, and on the 6th of February introduced a new bill so amending the prohibition clause of the constitution as to allow local option and the sale of the monopoly to sell liquors in any community voting in favor of the sale, somewhat after the Swedish plan. It was ex- pected to secure the support of Stuverud, of Cod- ington, Patten, of Beadle, and Douglas, of Miner, for this bill, who had voted against straight re- submission. The bill came on for passage on the 28th. The prohibitionists had given up all hope of defeating the passage except by a filibuster which would crowd it over the term. There- fore, when it came up on the morning of the 28th, four days before the session would end, the opponents of the measure, under the lead of Mr. Hooper, of Spink county, with grim deter- mination to do or die, began the fight which they did not suppose would end until midnight of the 3d of March. By motions to adjourn, to table, appeals from the chair and interminable roll calls the day was worn out until late in the evening, when the resubmissionists, becoming desperate, Speaker Lawson permitted an heroic amendment of the rules, which permitted the bill to come up upon its merits. In all the tiresome test votes of the day the resubmissionists had had ample strength to handle the proposition. Forty-three votes were necessary to pass the bill and fifty were voting with them. Finally the crucial vote came and the resubmissionists were exulting and the prohibitionists were in the depth of despair. The situation was most tense and public senti- ment throughout the state was aroused as it seldom has been. The roll call proceeded and from the first it was apparent that resubmission was not holding the strength which had helped it through the filibuster. When half through it was manifest that Patten and Stuverud were es- sential if the bill passed. Patten was called and voted aye, but Stuverud shouted "no" and the vote was tied. An emissary of the resubmision- ists rushed to Stuverud's seat and was laboring

with him to change his vote, when Patten stag- gered to his feet looking like a corpse, but with determination in his face. If the fate of South Dakota had depended upon his action greater in- terest could not have been manifested. Mem- bers and lobbyists half rose from their seats and craned their necks toward the man from Beadle, while it seemed that every one stopped breath- ing: "I change my vote to no," he said. Re- submission had failed in its second attempt. From the standpoint of 1903, it is hard to under- stand the deep seated feeling and interest mani- fested by both parties in this fight, which two years later. was allowed to go through by default.

Governor Mellette delivered his final message to this legislature and surrendered the office to Governor Charles H. Sheldon. This was the conclusion of Governor Mellette's public life in the state and thereafter he was hardly a factor in public affairs. South Dakota never had a more sincere, more able or more self-sacrificing serv- ant.

The legislature was organized by the election of James M. Lawson as speaker. Mr. Lawson was chosen upon an understanding that a ma- jority of the temperance committee should be fa- vorable to resubmission, but without other pledges. After the adjournment of the first ses- sion, at which he was chosen, Mr. Lawson re- tired to his room and was not again seen until he appeared at the opening of the session the fol- lowing day, when, to the consternation of the lobby and of "the organization," he announced his committees. He had consulted with no one and of course had not received advice from any one. Aside from the resubmission matter, the chief interest of the campaign centered around the passage of an appropriation for a state exhibit at the Columbian World's Fair at Chicago. An- ticipating the action of the legislature, a com- pany of citizens had been organized and funds had been raised and a building constructed at Chicago and a considerable exhibit prepared. A very loosely drawn bill had been prepared, car- rying sixty thousand dollars. Speaker Lawson determined that this fund should be thoroughly safeguarded before the bill should pass. In the

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progress of events some hostility between the speaker and Governor Sheldon arose, and the speaker found himself in the minority, but still with sufficient support to prevent the passage of the bill, which would require a two-thirds vote. A very strained situation arose, in which there was a determined movement to unseat the speaker, which was only prevented by the latter's acute power of action, which fairly intimidated enough of his enemies to prevent drastic action against him.

The World's Fair bill finally passed with all of the safeguards for its expenditure which the speaker proposed. It carried sixty thousand dol- lars, ten thousand of which was devoted to the women's exhibit, and the state was very credit- ably represented in the exposition.

In June the great national panic fell upon the country and was severely felt by the Dakotans, who were just beginning to recover from the troubles incident to the reaction from the boom and the poor crops of 1889 and 1890. Banks everywhere went down and values shriveled up

like corn blades in a fierce draught. Many enter- prises which were in a way to do much for state development were swallowed up and in spite of a very good crop the people of South Dakota felt that the hand of every man was against them and great dispondency followed. About the only progress made during the season was the completion of the Great Northern from Sioux Falls to Yankton. Judges Bennett, Cor- son and Kellam were re-elected to the supreme court that fall. On the last day of the year Judge John E. Bennett died very suddenly, leav- ing a vacancy, which was filled by Governor Shel- don by the appointment of Howard G. Fuller, of Faulkton, then judge of the sixth circuit. Governor Sheldon also appointed Loren G. Gaffey, of Pierre, to succeed Judge Fuller as cir- cuit judge. .

President Cleveland conferred a most dis- tinguished honor upon South Dakota by the ap- pointment of Judge Bartlett Tripp to be ambas- sador to the court of Austria, a position he held with great credit for four years.

CHAPTER LXVI

ANOTHER YEAR OF DISASTER.

As if 1889 and 1890 had not been sufficient to try the souls of the strongest Dakotans, and sort out and drive away every man who did not possess the courage of a Christian martyr, 1894 presented to the people of the young state the poorest average crop yet produced. No locality was favored above another, but everywhere but little more than the return of seed was secured. Nevertheless there was no real destitution. Every section produced something, and the pre- vious experiences had taught the people not to place the sole dependence upon wheat. The live stock interest had been expanded, dairying was in vogne and the ever reliable hen contributed largely to keeping the wolf from the door. Out of these awful experiences of the early 'nineties came the wisdom and the methods which in ten years has made South Dakota one of the most reliable producers among the states and the first in production in proportion to effort expended. The revolution in methods dates from 1894. Then the agriculturist became convinced that methods however well adapted to Ohio or New York, were not the best for South Dakota, and he was not long in evolving the lines of opera- tion, the kinds of crop, the method of preparing the soil and planting the seed, which the condi- tions peculiar to South Dakota demanded. Since 1894 South Dakota farms have produced regu- larly and abundantly without one approach to failure.

During this period a distressing factional

trouble in the faculty of the Agricultural College at Brookings well nigh disrupted the school and became an issue in state politics. Even yet it is difficult to place the blame. It seemed to grow out of conflicting ambitions of otherwise good men, but who allowed themselves to forget the interests of the college in the personal rivalries. This bad condition was intensified by the dual board system provided by the constitution. That is, the board of regents held general jurisdiction. while the local board of trustees had special jurisdiction, and there was a constant conflict of authority and a working at cross purposes. The bad conditions continued until the abolition of the local boards by a constitutional amendment.

The movement for the free coinage of silver which swept the west found many advocates in South Dakota, under the leadership of Senator Pettigrew. At this time the movement was re- ceiving its first great popular attention and the sentiment of the people of all parties seemed to favor it. The Republican state convention met in Yankton August 20th and the position upon this topic was of first interest. A compromise platform was adopted declaring for the free coin- age of the American product. Charles H. Shel- don was renominated for governor and Robert J. Gamble and John A. Pickler were selected as candidates for congress.

The Populist convention met at Mitchell and nominated Isaac Howe for governor and the Democrats selected James A. Ward. Three con-

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stitutional amendments had been proposed by the previous legislature : Permitting county super- intendents to serve more than two successive terms; for equal suffrage, and limiting the homestead exemption. Each was defeated, equal suffrage by 22,682 to 17,010. The Repub- lican ticket prevailed by 40,401 to 26,598, Mr. Ward receiving but 8.756 votes.

It should, in this connection, be noted that during all of this time of agricultural depression the gold mines of the Black Hills were turning out their golden harvest with uninterrupted reg- ularity and annually increasing value. The vast number of men employed there were receiving the same high wages which have always pre- vailed in the Hills and have determined the wage rate in all of the mining states. Never has the

advantage to the state of the mining interests been so apparent as at this juncture.

The financial depression of the previous year was if anything augmented throughout 1894 and, together with the crop failure, utterly precluded anything in the form of public enterprise, build- ing or other development. Conditions told per- ceptibly upon the state educational institutions, reducing the attendance. It was a time when in all of its activities and prospects South Dakota had struck the low water mark.

There is a sublimity and pathos in the cour- age with which the pioneer struck out for better and higher things at this time, when discour- agement lay heavy upon the land. They demonstrated that all things wait upon him who sticks.

CHAPTER LXVII

THE TAYLOR DEFALCATION.

The troubles of South Dakota were not yet over. William Walter Taylor, state treasurer, was a man who had from his first residence in the state secured and held the absolute confidence of all of the people. He came to Redfield and engaged in the banking business in the early 'eighties. His father was a wealthy banker at LaFayette, Indiana. All of his personal and business relations were of the highest character. He exhibited sound and conservative judgment in all matters of business, was public spirited and popular. He was first nominated for state treasurer at the Mitchell convention of the Re- publicans in 1890, elected that fall and renom- inated at Madison in 1892 and re-elected. In the fall of 1894 his successor, Kirk G. Phillips, was elected and upon the second Tuesday of January, 1895, Taylor was to surrender the of- fice and account for the funds. It was known that he had suffered some losses from the bank failures during the panic, but that he had ample funds to meet every demand upon him never was suggested to any mind, except to a few of his bondsmen, to whom he had communicated the fact that he was short and they were making up the amount to enable him to settle. The shock then which came to the people on the 8th of Jan- uary, 1895, when it was announced that Taylor was three hundred and sixty-seven thousand dol- lars in default, and that he was a fugitive from justice, can scarcely be realized. The legisla- ture was just assembling and Governor Sheldon,

voicing the universal appreciation of Taylor, had included a paragraph in his message paying him the highest praise for the masterly manner in which he had administered the treasury during the years of adversity.

Examination of the situation revealed the fact that Taylor had, through bank failures, met with legitimate losses aggregating about one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars. In the previous November he had apprised Governor Mellette and John T. McChesney of the situationt and they, together with Taylor, were engaged in making every effort to secure this sum of money to enable him to settle honestly. The entire amount of cash required was being provided and as the sequel showed was actually provided by Taylor's father, McChesney and Mellette. While engaged in securing this money Taylor fell in with the law firm of Tenney & Wells, of Chi- cago, and upon learning the situation advised Taylor that a compromise could be readily ar- ranged with the state by which the money avail- able would settle demands and relieve both him- self and his bondsmen. Without consulting with any of his friends, Taylor placed himself in their hands. They had him withdraw all of the state money and place it in their hands and to make to a member of their firm deeds of all the property he possessed and then to drop out of sight while they arranged the compromise, for they argued. with the state treasury absolutely empty, the state would be compelled to make terms and

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accept what it could get. Taylor disappeared on the 2d of January, though his defalcation and elopement was not known until the 8th. The Chicago lawyers had quite misapprehended the temper and character of the people of South Da- kota. While they would have probably been very willing to have forgiven Taylor for honest losses, they were a unit in the declaration that no stress of circumstances would induce them to compromise with a criminal. A legislative inves- tigation was at once instituted, which brought "out all of the facts surrounding the case. The banks of Deadwood advanced seventy-five thou- sand dollars to bridge the emergency and the legislature promptly authorized the issuance of funding warrants to raise revenue, the legality of such action being determined by an ex-parte decision of the supreme court. A large reward was offered for the apprehension of Taylor and Attorney General Crawford moved with great energy to secure possession of the property which Taylor had deeded away at the time of his de- parture. Every suggestion of compromise was scouted and action was begun against the bonds- men to recover the amount of the money lost.

Taylor had escaped to South America and for several months moved about in the effort to avoid detection, but learning that compromise was not to be considered came back and delivered himself up to justice. In the escapade he had frittered away in attorneys' fees, personal ex- penses and in other ways not revealed, an ad- ditional hundred thousand dollars, so that he had only one hundred thousand remaining to pay into the treasury. This he did and also made over to the state all of his property. He was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary, but owing to a defect in the statute under which he was sen- tenced, the supreme court reduced the sentence to two years, which time he served and has not since resided in the state. Nothing in the an- nals of crime is more inexcusable than the flight of Taylor. He had no criminal instincts. He was in a position to settle with the state in full, retain his financial credit and his good name,

and but for the bad advice to which he listened might today have been a self respecting and hon- orable citizen.

The legislative session of 1895, which opened with the news of Taylor's default, was largely occupied with straightening out the snarl in which the state finances had been involved. Among the moneys taken by Taylor were about one hundred thousand of school money, for which the legislature issued bonds to supply the loss, thus keeping the school fund intact.

A determined attempt was made to amend the divorce law, which was bringing scandal upon the state, but it failed. The school for the blind was located at Gary by this session, and the school for feeble minded at Redfield.

The legislature was very largely Republican and Senator Richard F. Pettigrew was re- elected by the unanimous Republican vote.

The prohibition clause of the constitution was resubmitted almost without opposition at the very beginning of the session.

By this time the rotary cream separator had been perfected and a great agitation for dairying resulted in the building of very many separator creameries, which in turn contributed very largely to the prosperity of the state.

The mailed hand of the financial depression still lay heavy upon the people and there was ab- solutely no general progress except in creamery building. A census taken June Ist showed but three hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, an increase of but fifteen hundred in five years.

The crops of this year were excellent, but the price, beaten down by the panic, was so small that very little cash could be realized from it. Few new debts, however, were made and the people were more hopeful than a year earlier.

On May 25th Governor Arthur C. Mellette died from Bright's disease of several years' standing. He was one of the noblest and ablest men who had been called into public life in South Dakota. All of his effort was devoted to the up- building of the commonwealth. As the first ex- ecutive he had given great labor to the establish- ment of the practices of the executive office upon

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lines which would be followed as safe precedents. He was the principle bondsman for W. W. Tay- lor, and when the default was known he prompt- ly paid over to the state all of his property. He was the soul of honor, generous and self sacri- ficing, a profound scholar, whose attainments covered a broad field of study and reflection. He held some bold opinions in relation to electrical

and magnetic science, and believed it posible to harness the earth's magnetic currents and make them the servants of men for motive power of the first magnitude. He was a native of Indiana and was fifty-two years of age at his death. At his request he was buried at Watertown, his ashes being those of the first of Dakota's gov- crnors to be committed to the soil of the state.

CHAPTER LXVIII

THE PETTIGREW SILVER FIGHT.

Immediately after the re-election of Senator Pettigrew, during the legislative session of 1895. a tacit understanding was reached by Republican leaders that he did not longer represent Repub- lican sentiment in the state. This feeling was made manifest by reason of the reception ac- corded a telegram sent by the Senator to the legislature, which was construed as a command to pass a free silver resolution then pending. Though but a few days previous this legisla- ture had almost unanimously re-elected Mr. Pet- tigrew. it at once became manifest that his inter- ference in the matter of the resolution was strongly resented, and the fate of the resolution was sealed. It was the unexpressed, but never- theless well understood, sentiment of such lead- ers as Alfred B. Kittredge, William B. Sterling and many others that Mr. Pettigrew's political usefulness was over.

In this legislature of 1895 the Iowa railway maximum rate law was introduced by Mr. Wheeler, of Minnehaha county, at the instance of the Sioux Falls Jobbers' Association, but the legislature declined to pass it. During the hard times and as an incident of the Farmers' Alliance movement a good deal of opposition to railways had grown up and at the close of this session its failure to act was the subject of a great deal of criticism bordering upon indignation. Before the session closed an active anti-Pettigrew propaganda was on foot. It was agreed to make William B. Sterling a candidate for United States senator against James H. Kyle and about him

build up an organization which should wrest Republican dominance from Mr. Pettigrew.

Despite this anti-Pettigrew movement the sentiment for free coinage of silver continued to grow. The Sioux Falls Press, the chief Repub- lican newspaper, and many others of the more influential ones were enthusiastically supporting the dogma and out of all the publications in the state but four had the temerity to oppose it. Against this apparently impregnable dogma, the friends of Sterling resolved to make their fight. and in a quiet way the word went out to the party leaders in every county, but in the midsum- mer of 1895 this movement was thrown into confusion by the removal from the state of Mr. Sterling to accept a very lucrative position in the employ of the Northwestern Railway Company. Without a senatorial candidate the opposition of free coinage went quietly on and soon centered itself about the candidacy of William Mckinley for president. To Mr. McKinley Senator Petti- grew was violently opposed, and as the time for holding the state convention to elect delegates to the St. Louis convention, in the spring of 1896, approached the campaign in South Dakota became spectacular. Minnehaha county was the seat of war and Senator Pettigrew came on from Washington to personally conduct the fight. To the surprise of the opposition, he made, not free silver, but the maximum rate bill the issue. The battle was intensely exciting and resulted in a de- cided victory for Mr. Pettigrew. When the state convention met at Huron, however, it was at

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once apparent that the Senator was in the mi- nority. Pettigrew, rather than silver, had been the issue ; nevertheless it was by this time un- derstood that the national convention would adopt a gold platform and it was the determina- tion of the Dakota Republican managers, op- posed to Senator Pettigrew, to keep in accord with national Republican sentiment. A caucus of the opponents of Mr. Pettigrew was held and a large majority of the delegates were repre- sented. Senator Pettigrew desired to go to St. Louis as a delegate, and it was quite in the hands of his political enemies to defeat that ambition. A peculiar situation, however, was presented. Senator Pettigrew had made his campaign for the maximum rate law and if he was now turned down his friends would construe it as a repudia- tion of the railway legislation by the Republic- ans. The entire situation was canvassed and it was resolved to let the Senator go as a delegate, but that first he was to be required to pledge himself to the convention to sup- port the nomination of Mr. Mckinley, for whom the delegates were instructed, and also to accept the platform adopted by the national convention, whatever that might be. This programme was carried out. When the con- vention was ready to elect delegates a motion prevailed that each candidate should be required to stand and pledge himself to obey the instruc- tions of the convention and abide by the national platform. One delegate was apportioned to each judicial district. Levi B. French was presented as the candidate from the first district and he arose and in strong and unequivocal language gave the pledge required. Mr. Pettigrew was the choice of the second district and he took the floor and in a few remarks reviewed the situa- tion, saying that it was well known that he had not agreed with all of the views expressed by the majority of the convention, but that the will of the Republican party in South Dakota was law to him. This was accepted by the convention in good faith as a pledge to abide by the instruc. tions and he was at once elected a delegate by a large majority. Each of the other delegates in ttírn gave, unequivocally, the desired pledge.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 48

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998