624 



MINNESOTA. 



last provision, " to fix and designate the sev- 

 eral grades of wheat to be in force each year," 

 it has been suggested, is clearly beyond the 

 legitimate scope of legislative power. If the 

 Board should attempt so to do, it would still 

 find that wheat would continue to be bought 

 and sold by the market grades, and any edicts 

 establishing arbitrary grades different from 

 those of the general markets of the world 

 would be a dead letter from the necessity of 

 the case. But it is entirely within the compe- 

 tency of legislation to create an authority to 

 prescribe the methods by which wheat shall be 

 measured and weighed. The author of the act 

 devised a contrivance attached to the two-quart 

 tester for filling it, which, it was said, obviated 

 all the objections to that instrument of mea- 

 surement or weighing, by securing absolute uni- 

 formity in the pressure of the wheat ; and that 

 the contrivance was so simple a one that it ex- 

 pedites instead of retarding the process of in- 

 spection. 



The Farmers' Board of Trade above men- 

 tioned was created by another act. This made 

 it the duty of the judge of each judicial district 

 within the State to appoint one of the most 

 able farmers residing therein, who should be 

 well versed in the theory and practice of agri- 

 culture, and who was not an incumbent of any 

 public office of the State, and who was not 

 a stockholder, officer, trustee, assignee, or em- 

 ployee of any banking, moneyed, or savings in- 

 stitution or corporation created under the laws 

 thereof, and one that was not directly or indi- 

 rectly connected with any association which 

 has for its object the buying and selling of 

 produce. The persons so appointed constitute 

 the members of the Board of Trade for two 

 and four years. It is made their duty to assume 

 and exercise a constant supervision over the 

 agricultural interests of the State, and to make a 

 report to the Legislature presenting such facts, 

 statistics, and suggestions as in their judgment 

 may be necessary to induce legislation for the 

 protection and welfare of the entire agricul- 

 tural interest. 



The sum of $7,500 was appropriated to aid 

 the owners of drive-wells to test the validity 

 of the patents under which a royalty is- claimed. 

 The owners of these wells, against whom the 

 claim of infringement is made, number about 

 thirty thousand in the State. 



Another act authorizes the Governor to ap- 

 point a commission of three doctors ta visit 

 the insane asylums at least once in every six 

 months, and report upon their sanitary condi- 

 tion and general management, the condition 

 and treatment of the patients, and in detail the 

 results of their observations, with recommen- 

 dations upon the same. If they find any pa- 

 tients that are not insane, the commission is 

 authorized to remove them to the counties from 

 which they came. All idiotic and feeble-mind- 

 ed are to be transferred to the Deaf and Dumb 

 Asylum, after which, in case they can not be 

 benefited, they are to be returned to their par- 



ents, or to the county commissioners of their 

 respective counties. 



Nineteen towns, cities, and villages, and nine- 

 teen counties were authorized to issue bonds 

 for various purposes. An amendment of the 

 Constitution was also adopted, which proposed 

 to prohibit the Legislature from authorizing 

 any county, township, or city to issue bonds 

 for the construction of railroads to any amount 

 that shall exceed five per cent, of its taxable 

 property. 



A State tax was ordered to be levied, not to 

 exceed a mill and five tenths. 



Persons found guilty of body-snatching were 

 made subject to a penalty of four years in the 

 State Prison. 



The subject of temperance received some no- 

 tice. A bill to prohibit the sale of intoxicating 

 liquor to be used as a beverage was presented 

 in the House, accompanied by twenty petitions 

 having 10,000 signatures. It failed to pass the 

 House by a vote of 22 yeas to V4 nays. The 

 following amendment to the State Constitu- 

 tion was also presented in the Senate without 

 avail : 



SECTION 81. The Legislature shall never authorize 

 or license the sale of any kind of intoxicating liquor as 

 a beverage, nor authorize or license houses of prostitu- 

 tion, nor gambling of any kind, nor any lottery or the 

 sale of lottery tickets ; and all persons are prohibited 

 from manufacturing, selling, giving, furnishing, hav- 

 ing, or in any manner dealing in spirituous, vinous, 

 malt, fermented, mixed, drugged, or intoxicating Ho- 

 nors of any kino, to be used for other than medicinal, 

 mechanical, chemical, and scientific purposes, and for 

 use in the arts. The Legislature shall have power by 

 law to license and control the manufacture and sale of 

 such pure liquors for medicinal, mechanical, chemical, 

 and scientific purposes, and for use in the arts, but not 

 otherwise, and shall have power to enact laws for the 

 punishment of persons engaged in any illicit traffic in 

 such liquors, and for the confiscation, sale, or destruc- 

 tion of contraband liquors, and the vessels and build- 

 ings connected therewith. 



Some favor was shown to a bill for woman's 

 suffrage in the Senate ; and a bill to devote the 

 internal improvement lands to the settlement 

 of the old railroad bonds was received and laid 

 on the table. In the Senate a resolution to 

 print the Governor's message in the German, 

 Norwegian, Swedish, French, and Bohemian 

 languages was passed. A bill was also report- 

 ed by the Committee on Retrenchment and 

 Keform to reduce the salaries of the State offi- 

 cers and their clerks about twenty-five per cent. 

 It received some attention in Committee of the 

 "Whole, but it transpired upon discussion that 

 most of the salaries are low enough for capable 

 men ; and, as the capacity of the officials was 

 not questioned, retrenchment among them was 

 suspended. The Senate, however, passed a bill 

 for reducing the mileage of members at future 

 sessions of the Legislature to five cents a mile. 



The session was closed about March 12th. 

 Very few general and important laws were 

 passed, although nearly six hundred bills were 

 presented to the Governor for his approval. 



A report was presented to the Legislature 

 by the Public Examiner, who was created by 



