704 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (LOUISIANA.) 



prisoner's attorneys filed an affidavit setting forth 

 that the court was partizan, that the presiding 

 judge was a candidate for the United States Sen- 

 ate and deeply prejudiced against the accused 

 personally, as well as politically, etc. Judge 

 Cantrill refused to vacate the bench. The objec- 

 tions to him were probably based in part, at least, 

 on instructions given by him, Sept. 9, to the 

 grand jury at Frankfort. The jury was made 

 up entirely of Democrats, and the defense asked 

 that the entire jury be disqualified because it was 

 composed exclusively of political enemies of the 

 accused, but the judge overruled the motion, and 

 the trial proceeded. It concluded Oct. 26 with 

 the conviction of Powers, and he was again sen- 

 tenced to imprisonment for life. A motion for a 

 new trial was overruled, and the case will be 

 appealed. 



In April Capt. Garnett Ripley was tried on a 

 charge of complicity in the assassination. Evi- 

 dence was introduced to show that he had said 

 that Gov. Taylor had told him before the shoot- 

 ing to bring a company to the Capitol, and that 

 Goebel would be killed, or something to that 

 effect. Ripley was acquitted. 



In November Gov. Durbin, of Indiana, denied 

 the requisition of Gov. Beckham for the return 

 to Kentucky of ex-Gov. Taylor and ex-Secretary 

 of State Finley, as Gov. Mount had done the year 

 before. In his reply he said the trials that had 

 taken place had shown that the two men whose 

 surrender was demanded would not receive a fair 

 trial. (See under INDIANA, in this volume.) 

 Gov. Beckham replied, charging that Gov. Durbin 

 was acting in pursuance of an agreement made 

 before his election. 



Lawlessness. An alleged " Kuklux gang" 

 was captured in Letcher County and put on trial 

 in September for several crimes murder, high- 

 way robbery, and attempts to wreck trains. 



.This Kuklux gang, it is alleged, is composed of 

 the Reynolds and Wright families, and has been 

 operating in Letcher and Bell Counties several 

 years. The last crime with which they are 

 charged is that of murdering a woman named 

 Wilson in Letcher County. The trial was trans- 

 ferred to Pineville from Whitesburg, the county- 

 seat of Letcher County, on application of the de- 

 fendants' counsel, made on account of the intense 

 feeling against the accused in that county. There 

 were 13 to be tried. They were engaged in a 

 bloody fight in April with a sheriff's posse at 

 Boonesfork, when several were killed and others 

 were taken. 



A riot at Corbin, Jan. 16, resulted in the deaths 

 of two or three persons, the wounding of others, 

 and the destruction of a building by dynamite. 



Lynchings were reported this year at Paris, 

 Wickliffe, Shelbyville, and Hodgenville. All the 

 victims were negroes. In the case of 3 hanged 

 at Wickliffe in September, for what crime is not 

 stated, the lynchers were negroes. Carter, hanged 

 in February at Paris, was charged with assault 

 upon a woman; Esters, hanged in October at 

 Hodgenville, was charged with having forced a 

 boy fifteen years old to commit a crime. Fields 

 and Garnett, hanged at Shelbyville Oct. 2, were 

 accused of having stoned a man to death Sept. 21. 



The toll-gate raids have been renewed. In June 

 a mob attacked a tollhouse 5 miles from Dan- 

 ville, soaked it with oil, and burned it to the 

 ground. 



Unconstitutional Act. The so-called McCain 

 law was pronounced unconstitutional in Decem- 

 ber, but an appeal will probably be taken. Under 

 the law the warehouses were subject to fine for 

 charging shippers $1.50 a barrel and 1 per cent. 



commission for selling, the law fixing the rate of 

 charge at $2 and no percentage commission. Sev- 

 eral hundred suits had been filed against the 

 warehousemen, which would have practically 

 forced them out of business had the law been 

 found constitutional. 



Penalties ranging from $25 to $100 per hogs- 

 head are prescribed against all warehouses that 

 do not include the weight of the sample in the 

 selling weight of the hogshead. 



On Aug. 11, 1900, the warehouses instituted 

 an action in equity against the various plaintiff's 

 in the common-law actions, and obtained a tem- 

 porary injunction against them, requiring them 

 to prosecute their actions in this suit upon the 

 ground that all the said actions involved the 

 same questions, and alleging that the statute in 

 question, upon which the actions were based, is 

 contrary to the Constitutions of Kentucky and 

 the United States, for the reason that, as it relates 

 only to tobacco warehouses, it is special legislation 

 and does not give them the equal protection to 

 which they are entitled, and for the further reason 

 that the fees fixed by the statute are so unreason- 

 ably small that they can not continue their busi- 

 ness, and it is taking their property without due 

 process of law and without compensation. 



The court held that so much of the law as 

 attempts to regulate or affect the compensation 

 of tobacco warehousemen must be held to be un- 

 constitutional because they are unreasonable and 

 deprive the warehousemen of the profits of their 

 established business, and the temporary injunc- 

 tion heretofore granted must be made perpetual. 



Political. Elections were held Nov. 5 for 

 members of the Legislature. The official count of 

 the vote shows that the Democrats will have a 

 majority of 60 on joint ballot in the General As- 

 sembly, as follow: House of Representatives, 

 Democrats 73, Republicans 27; Senate, Demo- 

 crats 26, Republicans 12. This Legislature will 

 have the choosing of a successor to United States 

 Senator Deboe. 



At a primary election in Caney, Morgan Coun- 

 ty, in March, a dispute arose over the question 

 of the right of certain persons to cast their bal- 

 lots. Nearly every man at the polling-place was 

 armed; and as the quarrel progressed, weapons 

 were drawn. The first shot was the signal for a 

 general fight; and when the smoke cleared away 

 10 wounded men were lying on the ground. 



Three men in Bourbon County were held by the 

 United States commissioner to answer charges of 

 conspiracy to hinder negroes from voting at the 

 November election. 



A decision was given Nov. 20 by the Court of 

 Appeals in the case of one of the offices in dispute 

 at the time of the Taylor-Goebel contest. The 

 office was that of Attorney-General, and was held 

 by Robert C. Breckinridge against the Republican 

 claimant, C. J. Pratt. The decision of the Re- 

 publican majority of the court was in favor of 

 Pratt, the 3 Democratic judges dissenting. The 

 contests for the other minor offices were taken 

 to the Court of Appeals, in 1900, and Were decided 

 by a political division in favor of the Democratic 

 contestants, that party being then in the majority. 



LOUISIANA, a Southern State, admitted to 

 the Union April 30, 1812; area, 48,720 square 

 miles. The population, according to each decen- 

 nial census since admission, was 152,923 in 1820; 

 215,739 in 1830; 352,411 in 1840; 517,726 in 1850; 

 708,002 in 1860; 726,915 in 1870; 939,946 in 1880; 

 1,118,587 in 1890; and 1,381,625 in 1900. Capital, 

 Baton Rouge. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers in 1901: Governor, William W. Heard; 



