MINNESOTA 8 4 i 



non-partisan primary ballots, the two having the highest votes at the primary to be the 

 nominees; for a method of rotation on primary ballots; and for second choice voting at prima- 

 ries. In 1912 a new corrupt practices act was passed. Permitted expenses are specified by 

 classes and the maximum expenditures for each office. Political advertisements must be 

 headed "paid advertisements" with a statement of the amount paid and by whom. Any 

 candidate or member of a political committee having a financial interest in any newspaper 

 must file with the county auditor a statement of the amount of his interest. Campaign 

 literature must bear the name of its author. Treating electors and wagering on elections are 

 forbidden. All campaigning disoursements must be reported each calendar month. A board 

 was appointed to promote uniformity of legislation in the different states, especially laws on 

 marriage and divorce, insolvency, the form of notarial certificates, the descent of property, 

 acknowledgment of deeds, and the execution and probate of wills. 



The legislature created the Fort Ridgely State Park (about 80 acres; opened 1911) in 

 Nicollet county, and required the superintendent of public instruction to proclaim between 

 October .1st and May 1st a day (Minnesota Day) on which special exercises should be held 

 in public schools. The county of Pennington (county-seat, Thief River Falls) was created 

 from the N. W. part of Red Lake county by executive proclamation on November 23, 1910. 



A new child labour law of 1912 forbids the employment of children under 14 at any time 

 in factory, mill, workshop, mine or building construction or engineering, work, or during school 

 hours in any employment. Children under 16 may not be employed more than 8 hours a day 

 or 48 hours a week nor between 7 P.M. and 7 A.M.; nor in certain specified dangerous occupa- 

 tions. Theatrical exhibitions are excepted by the law, on the written consent of mayor or 

 village president. In messenger service no boy under 18 may be employed between 9: P.M. 

 and 5 A.M., nor any girl under 21 at any time. A report on workmen's compensation was 

 published in 1912 by the state bureau of labour. 



., The railroad and warehouse commission was instructed to make rules for joint rates be- 

 tween common carriers. Railways must keep accounts showing revenue per mile. Five 

 cents is the minimum rate for carrying a passenger from one station to another. The state 

 rate law setting 2 cents as the maximum per mile was held invalid (April 21, 1911) by a 

 circuit court as unfair to interstate transportation at higher rates; the case was carried to 

 the Federal Supreme Court, which had handed down no decision by March 1913. 



The state and not the Federal census is to govern the classification of cities. Cities of the 

 first class under a home rule charter may establish a purchasing department. One city may 

 join another to form a public corporation for the development of water power. By a law of 

 1912 Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth were required to have non-partisan primaries for 

 municipal offices. Cities over 50,000 may issue 4,K % bonds for 600,000 for land and 

 buildings for public libraries. Cities'of this size have a fire marshal, and the laws for fire protec- 

 tion in hotels, inns, .etc., and to prevent fires started by locomotive sparks, are made much 

 stricter. Railway crossings must be protected and inspected by the railroad and warehouse 

 commission, and tracks at crossings must not be at different levels. In cities of 50,000 or 

 more the mayor is to appoint a city chemist, and cities of this class with home rule charters 

 may regulate the sale of liquor in hotels. It was made a gross misdemeanour to entice a minor 

 into a saloon, and was declared illegal to sell liquor to. a student in a state school, to an 

 intoxicated person, to an Indian, to an habitual drunkard, or to a spendthrift for one year 

 after a notice by any person annoyed by such a sale; and the selling or giving away of malt 

 liquors, even if they are not intoxicating, was forbidden except in licensed places. Any one 

 selling intoxicating liquors is liable to action for damage done by an intoxicated person to 

 whom he^has sold such liquor. No intoxicated person is allowed to enter a railway train; 

 the drinking of intoxicating liquors on trains is forbidden, and a conductor on any train in the 

 state may seize intoxicating liquor, but must give a receipt redeemable within 10 days. A 

 department of weights and measures under the supervision of the railroad and warehouse 

 commission was established. A standard of pure milk was set. County boards are au- 

 thorised to appropriate money to prevent the spread of tuberculosis. 



Finance. The inheritance tax law was amended in 1911. The tax levy for the general 

 revenue fund for 1912 and 1913 is to be 1.9 mills or less, and $2,200,000 was the amount to 

 be raised in 1912. A law of 191! requiring railways to pay a tax of 4% on gross earnings 

 derived from all sources was repealed in 1912 by an act (in effect 1913) making the rate 5 %; 1 

 and the tax commission was bidden to report to the 1913 session on the property of railways 

 and to have it assessed and taxed (including back taxes). In its third annual report, in 

 preparation in December 1912, the tax commission proposes sweeping reforms in the direction 

 of more equitable levying of taxes. An annual tax of 3 mills on each dollar of the fair cash 

 value of moneys and credits was levied; no offset is allowed for debts, and the tax does not 

 apply to money or credits of an incorporated bank situated in the state. On August I, 1911, 

 the balance in the treasury was $3,568,491 and on July 31, 1912, it was $2,992,728. The 

 receipts for the fiscal year were $15,805,302 and the expenditures, $16,321,065. There is 

 no state debt. Trust funds, invested and drawing interest, amounted to $27,210,768. 



] This tax was put in the constitution by an amendment adopted November 1912 (184,612 

 votes to 41,130). 



