9o8 SOUTH DAKOTA 



to prepare a schedule of express rates " which shall not exceed seventy (70) per cent 

 of the lowest rates in force on the ist of January 1909." Fire insurance companies 

 whkh fail to pay losses within 60 days are liable to 10% added to the amount of loss. 



The name of the food and dairy department was changed to food and drug department. 

 All foods which are found to be adulterated and misbranded are to be advertised in official 

 newspapers and a new law gives a wider definition of the term "misbranded." Children un- 

 der 18 may not frequent pool or billiard rooms. The anti-treat law of 1909 was repealed 

 and all saloons 1 were required to close at 9 P.M. On December 2, 1912 the U. S. Supreme 

 Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws providing penalties for the sale of goods at a 

 lower price in one part of the state than in another to suppress competition. 



Cities of the first class may levy a tax for advertising their advantages. Laws in regard 

 to commission government and especially the method of recall of officers and the method of 

 initiative were amended. Lead adopted the commission plan in 1911 and Madison and 

 Watertown (March 23; in effect May i) in 1912. From the western part of Armstrong 

 county the county of Ziebach was created. 



Finance. In 1911 there were created a state board of finance consisting of the governor, 

 treasurer, secretary of state, state auditor and public examiner, with authority to designate 

 and control depositories of state funds, and a banking department under the management of 

 the public examiner who is ex-officio superintendent of banks. The governor was authorised 

 to appoint for a two year term an executive accountant to examine the accounts of all state 

 officers, departments, institutions, etc. 



On July I, 1911 there was a balance in the treasury of $421,156. Receipts for the en- 

 suing fiscal year were 83,779,652 and expenditures $3,208,519, leaving a balance, June 30, 

 1912, of $992,289. There is no funded debt; on June 30, 1912 there were outstanding $500.- 

 ooo in revenue warrants (partly offset by $441,118 cash in general fund), $345,348 due 

 (general fund) on'capitol building debt and $59,631 of capitol building warrants outstanding, 

 making a net (unfunded) indebtedness of $463,861. 



Education. A new school code was submitted to the legislature in 1911, but was rejected. 

 The legislature required a school district to pay to parents or guardians of pupils living 2\4 

 miles or more from the nearest school house a certain sum for each day of actual attendance, 

 unless transportation was furnished by the school district. The amount varies from loc 

 for 2^2 to 3 miles to 45c for 5 or 6 miles. Of the population IO years of age and over 92.9 % 

 (5 in 1900) was illiterate. 



For the year 1911-12 the school population was 172,074; the enrollment in public schools, 

 145,364; the average daily attendance, 86,792; the average school year, 7.4 months; revenue, 

 $6,079,345; an d expenditures, $4,984,327. 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. In 1911 the governor's power of parole was enlarged 

 and a law was passed providing for indeterminate sentence and parole, at the discretion of the 

 court, of first offenders. County commissioners in counties of 15,000 inhabitants or more 

 may establish county hospitals. 



History. In 1911-12 the state was controlled by the Republicans, with 34 (out of 

 45) senators and 99 (out of 104) representatives in the state legislature and all executive 

 and administrative officers. Robert Scadden Vessey (b. 1858), Republican, who had 

 been a member of the state senate in 1905 and 1907, and had there introduced and helped 

 to pass much progressive legislation (corporation, banking and railway laws, publi- 

 cation of campaign expenses, etc.), was governor for the two terms, 1909-13, but was 

 not renominated in 1912. The Republicans nominated Vessey's associate, the lieu- 

 tenant-governor, Frank M. Byrne, who received 57,299 votes to 53,724 for Edwin 

 S. Johnson (Dem.), 3,578 for Samuel Lovett (Socialist) and 3,486 for O. W. Butterfield 

 (Prohibition). Instead of two congressmen-at-large as under the previous apportion- 

 ment, South Dakota has in the 63rd Congress three representatives (Republicans) 

 chosen by districts. In the primary (June 4, 1912), Roosevelt received 38,106 votes 

 to 19,060 for La Follette and 10,944 f r Taft; and Robert Jackson Gamble (b. 1851; 

 representative in Congress 1895-97 a d 1899-1901, and since then U.S. senator) was 

 defeated as Republican nominee for United States senator by Thomas Sterling (b. 

 1851), a lawyer of Vermillion and in 1901-11 dean of the College of Law, University 

 of South Dakota. Sterling was chosen (January 22, 1913) by the new legislature 

 (125 Republicans and 24 Democrats on joint ballot), over Richard Franklin Pettigrew 

 (b. 1848), the Democratic choice, senator from South Dakota in 1889-1901, who was 

 first a Republican and then (1896) a follower of Bryan, and was a leader in the Senate 



1 At elections on April 16, 1912 the majority of towns and cities (including Sioux Falls) 

 voting on liquor licences voted for licence. 



