USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 28
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ELEVENTH LEGISLATURE
Governor Carey took the oath of office on January 2, 1911, and the eleventh session of the State Legislature was convened at Cheyenne on the roth. Jacob M. Schwoob, of Bighorn County, was elected president of the Senate, and L. R. Davis, of Crook County, was chosen speaker of the House. In his message, Governor Carey devoted considerable attention to the subjects of the initiative and referendum and the recall of public officials.
"The initiative and referendum," said he, "are being considered and adopted in many of the states, and I believe they will be generally tried. I earnestly ask you to consider the matter. Representative government is not destroyed, but the Legislature is able to secure the expressed will of the people."
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On the subject of the recall he said: "The recall of an elected officer who disobeys the will of the people and who proves untrue to his trust, though adopted in several of the states, has only been resorted to in one or two instances. The power to exercise this power seems to have deterred even the unprincipled from violating their pledges. It simply means that the people reserve to themselves the right that the employer has to dismiss an unfaithful and dishonest servant."
Section 2 of the second part of Article 3 of the state constitution provides that : "The Legislature shall provide by law for an enumeration of the inhabi- tants of the state in the year 1895, and every tenth year thereafter, and at the session next following such enumeration, and also at the session next following an enumeration made by the authority of the United States, shall revise and adjust the apportionment for senators and representatives, on a basis of such enumeration according to ratios fixed by law."
In accordance with this section, it became the duty of the Legislature of 1911 to readjust the apportionment. In referring to the matter the governor said: "The census reports for Wyoming have been, so far as population is concerned, fully determined in the case of each county. It is to be regretted that these appor- tionments are not always followed by the best of feeling in all the counties, as the claim is usually made that the ratios are fixed so as to give some counties an undue power in the Legislature, through the manipulation of the fractions that occur by the use of arbitrary divisions."
On February 18. 1911, Governor Carey approved an apportionment act which provided that : "Each organized county in the State of Wyoming shall constitute a separate senatorial and representative district, and until otherwise provided by law, each organized county as aforesaid shall have representation in the Wyo- ming State Legislature as follows:"
Counties
Senators Representatives
Albany
2
4
Bighorn
2
3
Carbon
2
4
Converse
I
3
Crook
1 I
3
Fremont
2
4
Johnson
2
Laramie
5
IO
Natrona
I
2
Park
I
2
Sheridan
3
7
Sweetwater
2
4
Uinta
3
I
2
Weston
-
Totals
27
57
Among the acts passed during the session was one submitting to the people an amendment to Section 1, Article 3 of the constitution, so that it should
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read as follows: "Section 1. The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a Senate and House of Representatives, which shall be designated 'The Legis- lature of the State of Wyoming, but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and amendments to the constitution and to enact or reject the same at the polls, and also reserve the power at their option to approve or reject at the polls any act of the Legislature."
The proposed amendment also provided that the first power (the initiative) could be called into use when 25 per cent of the legal voters of the state, by petition, asked that any certain measure be enacted into law, such petition to be filed with the secretary of state at least four months before a general election. The second power (the referendum) could be ordered against any act of the Legislature (except those relating to appropriations) after it had become a law, when 25 per cent of the legal voters petitioned for its submission and filed the petition with the secretary of state ninety days before the election.
Seven new counties were created at this session, to-wit: Campbell. Goshen, Hot Springs, Lincoln, Niobrara, Platte and Washakie, and an act supplementary to those creating the above counties provided for defraying the expenses of their organization.
On February 11, 1911, the governor affixed his signature to an act of fifty- three sections known as the "Direct Primary Law." Section i of the act provides that: "From and after the passage of this act, the candidates of political parties for all offices which under the law are filled by the direct vote of the people of this state at the general election in November : candidates for the office of senator in the Congress of the United States, shall be elected at the primary elections at the times and in the manner hereinafter provided."
A political party is defined by the act as an organization "which at the last preceding general election cast for its candidate for representative in Congress at least 10 per cent of the total vote cast at said election," and the time fixed for holding the primary election is the first Tuesday after the third Monday in August. The act further provides that state conventions for the nomination of candidates for presidential electors shall be held on the second Monday in May in the years when a President and Vice President of the United States are to be elected.
A "Corrupt Practices Act" was approved by the governor on February 17, 1911. Under the provisions of this act the campaign expenses of candidates for office are limited to 20 per cent of one year's salary or compensation for the primary election, and a like amount for the general election. Every candidate is required to render to the county clerk, within twenty days after each primary or general election, an itemized statement of the expenses incurred by him during the campaign, with a list of things of value promised by himself or others to secure his nomination or election.
County chairmen of central committees are also required to file an itemized statement of contributions and expenses with the county clerk; district and state chairmen with the secretary of state. The act prohibits any campaign committee from receiving contributions from corporations, and candidates are not permitted to hire the services of any voter. Anyone violating any of the provisions of the act, or failing to perform the duties required thereby, is subject to a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail for a period
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not exceeding one year, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.
Two state institutions were established by the Legislature of 1911, viz .: The Wyoming Industrial Institute and the Wyoming School for Defectives. By the act creating the former it was provided that the institute should be located by vote at the general election in November, 1912. At the election the Town of Worland received the largest vote and the institute was located there. The school for defectives was located by the Legislature at Lander, "for the treatment and education of epileptics and feeble-minded persons." The 10,000 acres of land granted to the state by the act of July 10, 1890, for the poor farm in Fremont County, with all its rental and income, was transferred to the school for defectives, and the following appropriations for the institution were made: $10,500 for equipping and furnishing ; $20,000 for support and maintenance, and $10,000 for providing water and sewer connections.
BATTLESHIP WYOMING
An appropriation of $7.500, "or so much thereof as may be necessary," was made by the Legislature of 1911 to purchase a silver set, or other suitable token, for the Battleship Wyoming. This vessel was launched in May, 1911, and was christened by Miss Dorothy Knight, daughter of the late Jesse Knight, one of the justices of the Wyoming Supreme Court.
The silver service of over sixty pieces was designed by the Buechner Jewelry Company of Cheyenne and was manufactured by the Gorham Company of New York. Upon one side of the great punch bowl was the figure of Sacajawea, the Snake Indian woman who acted as guide to Lewis and Clark in 1804, and who is said to be buried on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming, and on the other side a white woman dressed in civilized costume. In the main platter was a representation of the state capitol building at Cheyenne. Each piece in the set was bordered by the flower of the blue gentian, the whole making an artistic gift of the state to one of the greatest battleships in the United States navy.
WESTERN GOVERNORS' SPECIAL
Early in the fall of 1911, ex-Governor James H. Brady, of Idaho, conceived the idea of running a special train from the states of the Northwest to the eastern part of the country, to exhibit the products and advertise the resources of those states for the purpose of encouraging immigration. He enlisted the cooperation of Louis Hill, president, and James Hill, chairman of the executive committee, of the Great Northern Railroad Company, which bore the greater part of the expense of the undertaking. These gentlemen foresaw that if the advertising of the Northwest resulted in bringing immigrants to those states, the shipment of products would naturally increase correspondingly and the cost of the "West- ern Governors' Special," as the train was called, would be bread cast upon the waters to be returned after many days.
The following states were represented, chiefly by the governors: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Minnesota. Each state was furnished space for a display of its
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products and resources. Wyoming occupied about half of one of the cars and her display, collected mainly through the efforts of the board of immigration, pre- sented an interesting and creditable exhibit of the possibilities of the state. The material furnished by the several states was sent to St. Paul, Minn., the starting point of the "special." At 10 P. M., November 27, 1911, the train of eleven cars, consisting of new steel parlor cars, exhibition cars and baggage cars, left St. Paul and arrived in Chicago the next morning. From that point the trip included the states of Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. In his message to the Legis- lature in 1913, Governor Carey said :
"The exhibition cars were thrown open to the crowds at every place where there was a stop. The representatives of the states included in the train were most hospitably received everywhere. The people all along the route showed their anxiety to know of the Northwest. At each of the many towns and cities visited, speeches and addresses were made telling of the resources of the North- west."
At Kalamazoo, Mich., the public schools were closed while the train was in the city and hundreds of school children, accompanied by their teachers, passed through the cars. At Harrisburg, Pa., where the arrival of the train had been well advertised, 10,000 people, many of them farmers, saw the display. As they passed through the cars frequent remarks were overheard, such as: "Why, I thought the West was nothing but a desert," "I certainly am going to see that country," etc., showing the interest of the visitors to be more than mere curiosity.
The train arrived at St. Paul on December 16, 1911, having been "on the road" for nineteen days, during which time nine states, and a large number of cities and educational institutions were visited. Just before the arrival at St. Paul those on board effected a permanent organization including the states of California, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Utah. James H. Brady was elected president and Reilly Atkinson, secretary.
CAMPAIGN OF 1912
Under the direct primary act of February 1I, 1911, the first political conven- tions in the state to nominate presidential electors, etc., were held on May 13, 1912, in Cheyenne. Bryant B. Brooks was chosen chairman of the republican convention, which nominated for electors William B. Sleeper, of Bighorn County ; John Higgins, of Converse ; and Andrew Olson, of Carbon. Frank W. Mondell was renominated for representative in Congress, and Cyrus Beard for justice of the Supreme Court. As the national convention had not yet been held, the following delegates and alternates were elected : Francis E. Warren, Clarence D. Clark, Frank W. Mondell, Patrick Sullivan, W. H. Huntley and W. L. Walls, delegates ; C. M. Ebey, John Morton, C. E. Carpenter, J. D. Woodruff, J. A. Gill and John Barry alternates.
C. L. Rigdon was elected chairman of the democratic convention. Jolin C. Thompson, of Laramie County ; Peter Kinney, of Weston ; and Albert L. Brook, of Johnson, were chosen as the presidential electors, though Mr. Brook was succeeded on the ticket by Thomas M. Hyde. Thomas P. Fahey was nominated
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for representative in Congress, and Gibson Clark for justice of the Supreme Court. Delegates to the national convention-A. N. Hasenkamp, James E. Mayes, Roy Montgomery, John D. Clark, B. F. Perkins and P. J. Quealy. Alternates- George T. Beck, William Reid, R. B. Hackney, J. L. Jordan, T. S. Taliaferro and C. L. Decker.
The socialists nominated Otto Humberger, Paul J. Paulsen and John Snaja, Jr., for presidential electors; Antony Carlson for representative in Congress ; and H. V. S. Groesbeck, for justice of the Supreme Court.
On June 18, 1912, the republican national convention assembled in Chicago. The leading candidates for the Presidency were William H. Taft, who was then President and a candidate for a second term, and former President Theodore Roosevelt. The latter's friends charged the Taft managers with unfair methods in seating delegates, etc., and 344 of the 1,078 delegates refused to participate in the nomination. Only one ballot was taken, President Taft receiving the nomination by a vote of 540 to 107 for Roosevelt, with sixty votes scattering and six delegates absent. Vice President James S. Sherman was also renominated, but his death occurred before the election, and the vacancy on the ticket was filled by the selection of Nicholas M. Butler, of New York.
The democratic national convention met in Baltimore, Md., June 25, 1912, and remained in session until the 2d of July. Woodrow Wilson, of New Jersey, was nominated for President on the forty-sixth ballot, and Thomas R. Marshall, of Indiana, was nominated for Vice President.
The ill feeling engendered by the republican national convention resulted in the formation of the progressive party, which held a convention in Chicago on August 5-7, 1912. Theodore Roosevelt was nominated for President and Hiram WV. Johnson, of California, for Vice President. In Wyoming the presidential electors on the progressive ticket were: Thomas Blyth, Helen B. Grant and Robert R. Selway. Charles E. Winter was nominated for representative in Congress, and E. R. Shipp for justice of the Supreme Court.
On November 5, 1912, occurred the election. The democratic presidential electors carried the state, the vote being as follows: Democratic, 15.310; repub- lican, 14,560; progressive, 9,132; socialist, 2,760. The republican candidates for Congress and justice of the Supreme Court were elected.
TWELFTH LEGISLATURE
In organizing the twelfth Legislature, which was convened at Cheyenne on Tuesday, January 14, 1913, Birney H. Sage, of Laramie County, was elected president of the Senate, and Martin L. Pratt, of Park County, speaker of the House. In his message Governor Carey expressed his regret that the consti- tutional amendment providing for the initiative and referendum failed to receive a majority of the votes cast at the recent preceding election, and on the subject of taxation he recommended the creation of a state tax commission "consisting of at least three persons who should devote their entire time and attention to the questions of taxation and revenue in the state, in the counties, in the cities and in the school districts. The powers of this tax commission should be advisory, directory, and if necessary, compulsory."
He announced that the tax levy for the establishment of the Wyoming Indus-
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
trial Institute at Worland had resulted in a fund of about one hundred and thirty- five thousand dollars during the years 1911 and 1912; suggested a change in the laws relating to practice in the courts, to avoid delay ; commended the Kansas "Blue Sky Law," and referred to the operations of the Penn-Wyoming Oil Company. through which millions of dollars had been obtained from credulous people with- out giving anything in return.
THE STATE FAIR
For several years prior to 1913 the state fair had been held annually at Douglas. In his message to the Legislature in 1913, Governor Carey said: "The ground upon which the fair buildings stands belongs to the Chicago & North- western Railroad Company and is probably worth fifteen thousand dollars. The company leased the land to the state at a nominal rental at the time the state fair was inaugurated and the state has improvements thereon to the value of about twenty thousand dollars. The time has arrived when the matter of the state owning the land should be seriously considered.
"The Fair Association and the governor have had the matter up with the proper authorities of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and they have offered to give the lands to the state if the state will agree to make $50,000 worth of improve- ments thereon, the land to revert to the railroad company whenever the state ceases to use it for fair purposes."
Appropriations for the benefit of the state fair were made during the session as follows: $22,000 for premiums and expenses of the fair for the years 1913 and 1914: $20,000 for the erection of permanent buildings and general improve- ments : $7.245, or so much thereof as might be necessary for paying off the indebt- edness of the State Fair Commission of 1912.
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS
Two constitutional amendments were submitted to the people by the twelfth Legislature-one authorizing the Legislature to provide by law a fund for the compensation of injured employees in extra hazardous occupations, or for the benefit of their families in the event of death by accident, and the other to provide for a special tax on live stock, the proceeds to be used for the destruction of predatory animals.
An appropriation of $10,000, or so much thereof as might be necessary, was made to pay Wyoming's share of the cost of an interstate bridge over the south fork of the Snake River on the Idaho-Wyoming line.
Another act provided for the establishment of an experimental farm in the County of Sweetwater, to consist of not less than 160 nor more than 320 acres, at an altitude not exceeding 6,300 feet, to "demonstrate the adaptability of the soil and climatic conditions for producing different classes of grain, grasses, vege- tables, fruit and shade trees, etc., at such an altitude."
What might be termed a "pure food law" was passed at this session. It pro- vided for the inspection and sanitation of all places where food products are manufactured, stored, collected or sold, such as canning factories, cheese factories, slaughter houses, hotels, restaurants, etc. The state dairy and food commissioner and his deputies were authorized to make inspections as often as they deemed
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
necessary. Employees in such places were required to wear clean clothing, and penalties were provided for adulterating milk, selling or offering for sale diseased meats, feeding offal to animals intended for food, etc. An appropriation of $3.500 was made to carry out the provisions of the act. For the first violation of any of the provisions of the law the penalty was a fine of from ten to fifty dollars, and for each subsequent offense a fine of from fifty to one hundred dollars, to which might be added imprisonment in the county jail for thirty days, at the discretion of the court.
Other acts of this session were those requiring coal mining companies to install and keep in working order a system of party line telephones in each mine ; creating the fifth and sixth judicial districts; making it the duty of the county commissioners in each county to provide an office for the county superintendent of schools; extending the right of eminent domain to pipe line companies : ordering cities and towns incorporated under special charters to surrender the same and reincorporate under the general law; creating the Oregon Trail Com- mission and appropriating $2,500 for marking the trail; and to license and register automobiles.
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1914
In 1914 a full state ticket was to be elected and the first nominations were made under the direct primary law of February 11, 1911. The republicans nominated Hilliard S. Ridgely for governor ; Birney H. Sage, secretary of state ; Robert B. Forsyth, auditor of state; Herman B. Gates, treasurer of state; Edith K. O. Clark, superintendent of public instruction; Richard H. Scott, justice of the Supreme Court ; and Frank W. Mondell, representative in Congress.
The democratic candidates nominated by the primary were as follows: John B. Kendrick, for governor; Frank L. Houx, secretary of state; Campbell H. Mc Whinnie, auditor of state; Fred L. Thompson, treasurer of state; Iva T. Irish, superintendent of public instruction ; Charles E. Blydenburgh, justice of the Supreme Court ; Douglas A. Preston, representative in Congress.
In the primary the progressives voted for John B. Kendrick for governor, and the remainder of the progressive ticket was as follows: E. C. Raymond, secretary of state : Mortimer N. Grant, auditor of state; F. S. Knittle, treasurer of state; Minnie Williams, superintendent of public instruction ; Fred H. Blume, representative in Congress. No nomination was made by this party for justice of the Supreme Court. Mortimer N. Grant withdrew and the vacancy on the ticket was filled by Thomas Blyth, who had been one of the progressive candidates for presidential elector in 1912.
The socialists nominated their candidates by a state convention, to wit: Paul J. Paulsen, for governor ; William Hill, for secretary of state; John A. Green, for auditor of state; William W. Paterson, for treasurer of state; Robert Hanna, for superintendent of public instruction; E. D. MacDougall, for justice of the Supreme Court ; and Antony Carlson, for representative in Congress.
John B. Kendrick received 23,387 votes at the general election on November 3. 1914, to 19,174 cast for Ridgely, the republican candidate, and 1,816 for Paulsen, socialist. Frank L. Houx was reelected secretary of state by a plurality of 170, and the republican candidates for all the other offices were elected.
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
KENDRICK'S ADMINISTRATION
John B. Kendrick, who was elected governor of Wyoming in 1914. was born in Cherokee County, Texas, September 6, 1857. He grew to manhood on a ranch, receiving his education in the common schools. In March, 1879, he became a cowboy on the "Texas Trail." and that season trailed cattle from the Gulf coast to the Running Water in Wyoming, a distance of fifteen hundred miles. In August, 1879, he located in Wyoming as foreman on the ranch of his father-in- law, Charles W. Wulfjen, where he remained until 1883, when he established the Ula ranch. He became foreman and part owner of the Lance Creek Cattle Company in 1885. Two years later he accepted the position of range manager for the Converse Cattle Company and in 1897 succeeded to the business. About that time he became interested in the development of the Sheridan County coal mines. From 1900 to 1902 he was president of the First National Bank of Sheridan and was also extensively interested in real estate operations. In 1910 he was elected to the state senate; was the democratic candidate for United States Senator in 1912; was elected governor in 1914, and in 1916 was elected United States Senator, defeating Clarence D. Clark, for the term beginning on March 4, 1917.
THIRTEENTH LEGISLATURE
Governor Kendrick took the oath of office on January 4, 1915, and the thirteenth State Legislature was convened on the 12th. Edward W. Stone, of Laramie County, was elected president of the Senate and James M. Graham, of Fremont County, was chosen speaker of the House. Governor Kendrick's message at the opening of the session dealt with the usual topics relating to the financial con- dition and general progress of the state. Governor Carey, in his message of 1913, had urged the construction of new wings to the capitol building. This matter was taken up at some length by Governor Kendrick, who indorsed the utterances of Governor Carey of two years before: He also recommended the establishment of more experimental farms and announced the completion of the Institute buildings at Worland.
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