DAKOTA. 



261 



following lines : From Watertown to Huron, 

 73 miles, on the Duluth. Watertown and Pa- 

 cific Railway; from Willmar. Minn., to Sioux 

 Falls, 23 miles, on the Duluth and Willmar 

 Railway; from Cherokee, Iowa, to Sioux 

 Falls, 16 miles, on the Illinois Central Rail- 

 way; and 15 miles on the St. Paul, Minneapo- 

 lis and Manitoba Railway, making a total of 

 4,333 miles. Activity in railroad construction 

 was not so marked as in the year immediately 

 preceding. 



igrienltnre. Farming is the chief industry 

 of the Territory, and the growing of wheat has 

 been the leading occupation. Wheat is grown 

 at a minimum cost, which varies from 24 cents 

 a bushel on the bonanza farms of the Red River 

 valley (where the large area tilled and the em- 

 ployment of special machinery result in more 

 than the usual economy) to 36 cents a bushel, 

 the average cost on farms of ordinary size. 



The following statistics for 1887 show the 

 production and acreage of wheat and other 

 cereals for that season (one county excepted) : 



Indians. There has been no serious disturb- 

 ances at the various Indian agencies during 

 the year, and the Indians were reported to be 

 making progress in farming in nearly every 

 The Sisseton agency reported" about 

 1,500 Indians, the Cheyenne River agency 

 2,925, the Crow Creek and Lower Brul6 about 

 2,500, the Pine Ridge 5,609, the Standing 

 Rock 4,385, the Rosebud 7,404, and the Yank- 

 ton 1,837. Two other agencies, the Fort Ber- 

 thold and Devil's Lake, have about 4,000. 



An act of Congress was passed in May de- 

 signed to meet the wishes of Dakota citizens 

 for diminishing the size of the great Sioux res- 

 ervation and opening the region to settlers. 

 By the terms of the act, about half of the res- 

 ervation, or over 10,000,000 acres, was to be 

 purchased by the Government at fifty cents 

 an acre, and the remaining portion was to be 

 divided into five distinct reservations. A com- 

 mission was created to secure the assent of the 

 Indians to this proposal, and the President ap- 

 pointed R. H. Pratt, Judge Wright, and Will- 

 iam Cleveland, as such commissioners. Dur- 

 ing August, September, and October, confer- 

 ences were held by these commissioners with 

 the various Sioux tribes at the agencies ; but 

 it was found impossible to secure the assent 

 of three fourths of the whole tribe, which, by 

 the terms of the act, was necessary to make it 

 operative. In fact, very few of the Indians 

 assented to its provision, the great majority 

 demanding $1.25 an acre for their land. Some 

 of the Sioux chiefs went to Washington, and 



there held conferences with the Secretary of 

 the Interior, but no agreement was reached. 



Local Option. The constitutionality of the 

 local-option law of 1887 was passed upon by 

 the Territorial Supreme Court in February, and 

 its validity as a police regulation was su?tained. 

 The court says that, as the States under their 

 Constitutions are considered to have power to 

 pass such laws, so " the organic act of the Terri- 

 tory is so far a constitution in character, and 

 the temporary government thereby created is 

 so far sovereign that it has the power to enact 

 any and all laws in the nature of police regu- 

 lations not in conflict with the statutes and Con- 

 stitution of the United States ; that police 

 regulations are necessarily local, and could 

 not well be exercised by Congress over all its 

 outlying territory ; that it intended to, and must 

 necessarily have placed somewhere outside of 

 Congress, but subject to its ultimate control, 

 the power of regulating the affairs of munici- 

 pal concern." 



Another act of the same year, authorizing 

 township bonds in payment for the construc- 

 tion of public artesian wells, was declared in- 

 valid, by the same court, later in the year. 



Taxation of Railroads. The Governor says, in 

 his annual report: "In 1879 the Legislature 

 passed an act providing for the taxing of rail- 

 roads under the gross-earnings system. I quote 

 the following from section 24 : The percent- 

 age of gross earnings hereinbefore specified to 

 be paid shall be in lieu of all other taxation 

 of the road-bed, etc., used in or incident to the 

 operation of such railroad. All property of 

 railroads not above enumerated, subject to 

 taxation, shall be treated in all respects, in 

 regard to assessment, equalization, and taxa- 

 tion, the same as similar property belonging to 

 individuals, whether said lands are received 

 from the General Government or from other 

 sources.' In 1883 the Legislature passed another 

 act providing for the collection of taxes on 

 railroad property. The following is a part of 

 section 1 of said chapter : ' In lieu of any and 

 all other taxes upon any railroads, except rail- 

 roads operated by horse - power, within this 

 Territory, or upon the equipment, appurte- 

 nances, or appendages thereof, or upon any 

 other property situated in this Territory be- 

 longing to the corporation owning or operat- 

 ing such railroads, or upon the capital stock 

 or business transaction of such railroad compa- 

 ny, there shall hereafter be paid into the treas- 

 ury of this Territory a percentage of all the 

 gross earnings of the corporation,' etc. As the 

 law stood prior to 1883, it is plain that the 

 Legislature intended to exempt from the ordi- 

 nary and usual method of taxation only such 

 property as was actually used in or necessarily 

 incident to the operation of the roads. Whether 

 said chapter goes further and exempts more 

 property than is used in and incident to the 

 operation of the roads, is a disputed question 

 between the officers of the Territory and the 

 railroad companies. In 1880 the officers of 



