KANSAS. 



321 



Kansas Infantry. Medals -for the members of this 

 regiment have been made from captured Spanish 

 cannon. 



In honor of Company K a memorial gateway 

 has been erected at Forest Park, Ottawa, by the 

 citizens of Franklin County. 



Calvin P. Titus, of Wichita, a musician of the 

 Fourteenth United States Infantry, was the first 

 to scale the walls of Pekin in the assault of the 

 allied forces upon the city in August. 



Railroads. The Auditor, as secretary of the 

 State Board of Kailroad Assessors, reports the 

 total assessments of railroad, telegraph, and tele- 

 phone properties for 1900 as reaching $59,320,032, 

 an increase over 1899 of $279,975. 



The present railroad mileage of Kansas is about 

 one third that of Germany, almost half that of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, slightly less than that 

 of Spain, and nearly the same as that of Italy. 

 Only 5 of the 105 counties, and only 7 county 

 seats, are without railroad communications. 



In April the Kansas Midland Railway, from 

 Wichita to Ellsworth, 106 miles, was sold to the 

 St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company. . 



Insurance. The mutual insurance companies 

 reported no large profits for 1899, while two report 

 a loss. 



The amount collected by the Superintendent of 

 Insurance for the Firemen's Relief fund, as re- 

 turned in May, was $20,140.81. 



A form of insurance new in Kansas, which has 

 worked successfully in other States, has been in- 

 troduced by the organization of the Farmers' Mu- 

 tual Hail Association, at Topeka. 



Products. According to the final report of the 

 secretary of the State Board of Agriculture for 

 1900, the value of the year's crops and products, 

 exclusive of live stock, was $187,796,406. The 

 value of live stock was $143,457,753. This makes 

 a grand total of $331,254,159, a net increase over 



1899 of $28,348,780.40, or 9.35 per cent. The 

 acreage of winter wheat sown in 1900 exceeded by 

 7 per cent, that sown in 1899. The corn crop of 



1900 was 90,000,000 bushels short, but the winter 

 wheat crop, 76,595,443 bushels, was the greatest 

 ever grown in Kansas, exceeding that of 1899 by 

 33,779,972 bushels, and having a home value of 

 $41,624,096. Of corn, the yield was 134,523,677 

 bushels, valued at $39,581,835. Oats yielded 31,169,- 

 9S2 bushels, with a value of $6,626,443. Notwith- 

 standing the $13,948,741 shortage in the value of 

 the corn crop, the total value of the year's winter 

 and spring wheat, corn, and oats combined was 

 $88,182,423, an increase over 1899 of $7,293,801, or 

 9 per cent. Other noteworthy productions of the 

 year were: Flax, 1,693,238 bushels, value $2,201,- 

 209.40; Irish and sweet potatoes, 7,573,962 bushels, 

 value $2,872,454.46; barley, 3,319,333 bushels, value 

 $972,358.29; dairy products, value $7,459,693.46; 

 poultry and eggs sold, value $5,060,332; animals 

 slaughtered or sold for slaughter, value $54,321,888; 

 horticultural and garden products and wine, value 

 $1,364,927.75. The combined value of sorghum, 

 Kafir corn, milo maize, and Jerusalem corn for 

 forage was $8,647,507. Sorghum for sirup, 

 1,622.963 gallons, was valued at $551,807.42. Sev- 

 eral first prizes were awarded at the Paris Expo- 

 sition for Kansas fruit exhibits. 



Legal Decisions. In an opinion handed down 

 May 7 by the Supreme Court, the law creating 

 the Court of Visitation, enacted by the Legislature 

 at the special session of 1898-'99, was declared 

 to be unconstitutional and void. 



The decision of the court in the Harper County 

 tax case, rendered in June, affects about half the 

 counties in the State and insures about $100,000 

 increase in the State's general revenue fund. The 

 VOL. XL. 21 A 



court's decision is that Harper County and all 

 counties are liable to the State for uncollected 

 State taxes. 



The Supreme Court, in reversing the decision of 

 a lower court, declares that " improvements placed 

 upon real estate by a railroad company necessary 

 to the operation of the road are to be regarded 

 as trade fixtures and not accessories of the land 

 to which they are attached." 



Another decision of the court is that chapter 

 167, Laws of 1897, an act to require railroad com- 

 panies to furnish free transportation to shippers 

 of stock, is unconstitutional and void under the 

 fourteenth amendment of the Federal Constitution. 



The Supreme Court of the United States, in 

 January, in a case involving the constitutionality 

 of the Kansas law authorizing cities to extend 

 their borders so as to include some lands and not 

 others, rendered a decision upholding that law. 



A suit of long standing for possession of Leaven- 

 worth island, in Missouri river, has been decided 

 by a special judge in the circuit court in favor 

 of David Atchison, of Leavenworth. This island, 

 subject to changes of area and outline by the 

 action of the river, now contains about 1,000 acres, 

 and is believed to have valuable coal deposits. 



A decision rendered by the Federal Court in May 

 will, if sustained, permit liquor houses outside of 

 the State to sell liquor through their representa- 

 tives to parties in Kansas, on the ground that such 

 action is allowed by the interstate commerce law. 

 The Attorney-General filed notice of an appeal to 

 the Supreme Court of the United States. 



Lawlessness. At Fort Scott, Jan. 20, a mob 

 hanged two men who had been convicted of mur- 

 dering a farmer in Bates County, Missouri. A third 

 man, convicted of the same crime, was saved from 

 the hands of the mob by the determined stand 

 of the sheriff and his deputies, aided by some of 

 the less violent among the lynchers. The imme- 

 diate cause of the lynching was a murderous as- 

 sault by the prisoners upon a deputy sheriff in 

 an attempt to escape. 



A desperate battle took place at Goodland, Aug. 

 10, between a sheriff and his posse, re-enforced 

 during the struggle by a large party of armed 

 citizens, and two train robbers from Colorado. 

 Two citizens of Goodland were seriously wounded, 

 one of the outlaws was shot to death, and the 

 other was burned in a house where he had taken 

 cover, which was fired by his pursuers. 



Labor. From answers to questions sent to 

 laboring men in nearly every county, the Bureau 

 of Labor and Industry has compiled statistics of 

 comparison between organized and unorganized 

 day laborers. From these it appears that the 

 working day of the organized laborer averages 

 8.6 hours; of the unorganized, 10.4. Average rate 

 of wages per hour indicated organized, 16.7 cents; 

 unorganized, 13 cents. Average total wage for 

 1899 organized, $293.03; unorganized, $293.19. 

 Average annual cost of living organized, $326; 

 unorganized, $307.14. 



At the second annual convention of the State 

 Society of Labor and Industry, in February, 35 

 resolutions were adopted calling for as many kinds 

 of special legislation. A legislative committee was 

 appointed. The resolution asking for the passage 

 of an arbitration law declared emphatically against 

 strikes. 



Disagreements between the Big-Four coal min- 

 ing companies and their employees were settled in 

 June through the friendly counsel of the Governor 

 and the Commissioner of Labor. 



An interesting feature of the report of the State 

 Labor Commissioner deals with statistics gathered 

 by him, from which it appears that the home 





