UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (WISCONSIN.) 



from 1,238,681 acres; 61,971,552 bushels of oats, of 

 the value of $14,253,457, from 1,93(5,011 acres; and 

 13,166,599 bushels of wheat, of the value of $8,- 

 426,623, from 849,458 acres. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature made 

 more laws than any of its predecessors. Nearly 

 600 bills were passed. A tax of 1 per cent, was 

 imposed on legacies and inheritances devolved to 

 children, parents, husbands, wives, brothers, sis- 

 ters, or sons- or daughters-in-law, and 5 per cent. 

 on all others, except gifts or bequests to charitable 

 institutions. The age of compulsory school at- 

 tendance was extended to fourteen years, from 

 the former limit of thirteen years. One of the 

 regents of the State University shall be a woman. 

 Periodicals and books devoted to police news and 

 stories of crime are prohibited. If the proposition 

 is ratified by the people at the election of Novem- 

 ber. 1902, the State Superintendent of Schools will 

 be an elective officer. It was made criminal for 

 a telegraph operator or a messenger to divulge 

 the contents of private messages or to neglect to 

 deliver them. A homestead can be claimed 

 against creditors in a house and a farm of 40 

 acres or a town lot of acre, not to exceed $5,000 

 in value. A divorced person can not marry again 

 within a year of the decree of divorce. Towns 

 are empowered to impose a road tax of \ mill to 

 2 mills, and counties to maintain schools of 

 agriculture and domestic economy. Physicians 

 must be graduates of a medical college having a 

 course of four terms, and must submit to a medi- 

 cal examination before being entitled to practise, 

 and in addition to the schools of medicine already 

 recognized, the practise of osteopathy is legal- 

 ized a measure which the regular physicians re- 

 sisted vigorously. Pharmacists to obtain a license 

 must be graduates of a school of pharmacy and 

 have two years' experience in dispensing medi- 

 cines, or, if not graduates, must have ten years' 

 experience in a drug-store. A bill was passed to 

 license architects. Bicycle side-paths may be con- 

 structed in any county, but in deference to the 

 objections of farmers the town board can forbid 

 their construction in any particular township. 

 Any person who shall advise the commission of 

 murder is punishable with one to three years' im- 

 prisonment when no attempt is made to commit 

 the crime. An employee of a lumberman or a 

 builder who does not get his wages when they are 

 due can demand a promissory note. An act was 

 passed to allow a widow the household furniture, 

 wearing apparel, ornaments, and other family 

 effects and also $200 worth of personal property, 

 irrespective of any waiver on her part or any pro- 

 vision for her in the husband's will. In an action 

 brought by the State against a public officer for 

 official misconduct, no person is excused from tes- 

 tifying on the ground that his evidence will in- 

 criminate himself, but his evidence can not be 

 used against him except in an action for perjury. 

 Breaking into a warehouse, shop, office, vessel, or 

 railroad-car with felonious intent is made a 

 felony. Any person desiring to alter his name can 

 do so by filing with the county register of deeds 

 the name he is known by, with his address, birth- 

 place, and age, the reason for making the change, 

 and the new name that he adopts. It is made a 

 misdemeanor to mutilate horses by docking. To 

 print advertisements or place any device on the 

 United States flag is a misdemeanor. Cities are 

 authorized to build or purchase light plants, as 

 well as waterworks, and give bonds therefor, 

 bearing not more than 5 per cent, interest, the 

 majority of the electors having previously given 

 their approval by ballot. To make or sell filled 

 cheese or imitation butter is constituted a mis- 



demeanor, though it is lawful to manufacture un- 

 colored oleomargarin. For the protection of in- 

 sect-destroying wild birds it was made unlawful 

 for any person to kill any except game-birds, or 

 to have them in his possession, living or dead, or 

 their skins, plumage, nests, or eggs, the English 

 sparrow, the crow, hawks, and owls being ex- 

 cepted. A person who has been adjudged insane 

 Can demand a reexamination, or a friend, relative, 

 or guardian can demand it for him. Persons riding 

 on street-cars who annoy passengers by boister- 

 ous conduct or foul or profane language are pun- 

 ishable as misdemeanants. To counterfeit a rail- 

 road ticket or pass is made a crime. No child 

 under fourteen years of age can be employed in a 

 factory or mine, nor, except during school vaca- 

 tion, in a mercantile establishment, or in mes- 

 senger service or the like. The elements of agri- 

 culture are to be taught in district schools, and 

 manual training and household economy in 

 graded schools. When an insolvent debtor makes 

 a voluntary assignment, the assignee must repre- 

 sent the creditors and protect them against 

 fraudulent transfers, otherwise he is held liable. 

 The use of coloring-matter or of chemical pre- 

 servatives or antiseptics in sausages is prohibited. 

 Foreign corporations to do business in Wisconsin 

 must file their articles of incorporation and pay 

 a license fee of $1 for every $1,000 worth of capital 

 stock represented by their property and business 

 in Wisconsin. Free employment offices are cre- 

 ated in all cities of 30,000 inhabitants or more. 

 A law making it bribery to give a railroad pass 

 to any member of a political committee, any 

 official, or any candidate for office, or for such 

 person to receive one, will be submitted to the 

 vote of the people in November, 1902. The sale 

 of a stock of merchandise in bulk, or in any way 

 except in the regular course of trade, shall be 

 presumed to be fraudulent unless the seller or the 

 buyer notifies the creditors beforehand. New 

 powers are given to the fish and game wardens; 

 also to the inspectors of noxious weeds, who can 

 compel owners to clear such weeds from their 

 lands. 



A commission appointed to study the revision 

 of taxation recommended an increase in the taxa- 

 tion of railroads, on the principle that they should 

 pay on their property in the State a rate equal to 

 that assessed on other property, real and per- 

 sonal. The Tax Commissioners have elaborated a 

 plan for equalization of taxes, whereby corpora- 

 tions would have to bear the same relative burden 

 that is imposed on private property, which will be 

 laid before the next Legislature. This was one 

 of the changes advocated by the immediate ad- 

 herents of the Governor. The Legislature, how- 

 ever, rejected the bill to increase railroad taxes 

 $600,000. 



The conflict between the Governor and his sup- 

 porters and the majority of the Legislature be- 

 came exceedingly bitter when the primary-election 

 bill came up. The Republican party had pledged 

 itself, in its last convention, as the Democratic 

 party had done two years earlier, to th'6 principle 

 of the nomination of all candidates by the direct 

 vote of the people at a primary election, in lieu 

 of nominations by delegates through the machin- 

 ery of caucuses and conventions. A group of 

 men were believed to control the commonwealth 

 by the selection of pliable nominees for State offi- 

 cers and members of the Legislature, which the 

 conventions afterward ratified. The agitation for 

 primary elections, where citizens can select the 

 candidates of their party from among those who 

 shall have been called out by the written request 

 of a given percentage of the vote cast at the pre- 



