KENTUCKY. 



355 



" I, therefore, recommend that the Legislature con- 

 fer upon the Board of Railroad Commissioners full 

 judicial power to try, hear, and determine all ques- 

 tions as to the reasonableness and unreasonableness 

 of every charge made by a railroad company for 

 services rendered wholly within this State in the 

 transportation of property ; that they be authorized 

 to try, determine, and enter judgment declaring 

 what are at the time of rendering their decision 

 reasonable charges for the transportation of prop- 

 erty between different points over each and all of 

 the railroad lines in this State ; and also what are 

 reasonable charges for switching, demurrage, and all 

 other charges imposed by them from the time of 

 the reception of each and every kind and class of 

 freight to its delivery to the consignee ; and that 

 they be authorized either at stated times or on the 

 complaint of any person, corporation, or munici- 

 pality to hear, try, and determine any complaint 

 made against the reasonableness of any charges 

 then being collected for any service, and that they 

 also be given power in like manner to establish 

 full and complete classifications of freight to be 

 used in the determination of all questions affected 

 thereby ; that the Legislature declare that the rates 

 and charges so determined by them to be reason- 

 able shall be the rate to be thereafter charged by 

 the railroad companies, and the only rate which 

 they shall be authorized to demand or receive until 

 such time as the board upon a like hearing shall de- 

 termine that the existing rate is unreasonable, and 

 that another and different rate is the reasonable 

 and proper one for the service." 



Other recommendations in the message were the 

 passing of a law to limit the amount of mortgage in- 

 debtedness that may be placed upon a railroad, and an 

 appropriation to reimburse all corporations, counties, 

 and individuals that contributed to the fund for 

 making a State exhibit at the Omaha Exposition. 

 The session was not finished at the close of the year. 



KENTUCKY, a Southern State, admitted to the 

 Union June 1, 1792 ; area, 44,400 square miles. The 

 population, according to each decennial census since 

 admission, was 220.955 in 1800; 406,511 in 1810; 

 564,135 in 1820; 687,917 in 1830: 779,828 in 1840; 

 982,405 in 1850; 1,155.684 in 1860; 1,321,011 in 

 1870; 1,648,690 in 1880; and 1,858.635 in 1890. 

 C'apital, Frankfort. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, William 0. Brad- 

 ley ; Lieutenant Governor, W. J. Worthington ; 

 Secretary of State, Charles Finley ; Treasurer, G. 

 W. Long ; Auditor, Samuel H. Stone ; Superintend- 

 ent of Public Instruction, W. J. Davidson ; Attor- 

 ney-General, W. S. Taylor; Adjutant General, D. 

 R. Collier ; Commissioner of Agriculture, Lucas 

 Moore all Republicans ; Librarian, Mrs. PI G. 

 Cromwell, succeeded in June by Miss Pauline Har- 

 din ; Mine Inspector. George W. Stone ; Election 

 Commissioners, William T. Ellis, W. S. Pryor, 

 Charles B. Poyntz ; Prison Commissioners, Henry 

 George and Messrs. Fennell and Richardson ; State 

 Inspector, C. W. Lester ; Chief Justice of the Court 

 of Appeals. Joseph H. Lewis, Democrat; Associate 

 Justices, James A. Hazelrigg, Thomas II. Paynter. 

 and J. D. White, Democrats, and B. L. D. Guffy, 

 George Du Relle, and A. Rollins Burnam, Repub- 

 licans : Clerk, Samuel J. Shackelford, Democrat. 



Finances. The following statement , showing the 

 condition of the State treasury May 31, was given 

 out by the Auditor, June 4 : 



Sinking fund balance April 30, $565,751.37; re- 

 ceipts in May, $6,298.38; total, $572,049.75: ex- 

 penditures, $20,265.53. 



School fund balance deficit April 30, $10,859.92 ; 

 receipts in May, $21,091.33; on hand, $10,231.41 ; 

 expenditures, $554.34, 



General expenditure fund balance deficit April 

 30, $427,201.33; receipts in May, $79,323.03; total, 

 $347,878.30; expenditures, $145,187.78; balance in 

 treasury May 31, 1898, $08,395.21. 



Education. A new building was dedicated at 

 the State College at Lexington, Jan. 21. It is for 

 the department of natural science. A bill was be- 

 fore the Legislature in February to change the 

 name of the institution to Kentucky University, 

 but it was opposed by members of the Christian 

 Church, which has a denominational college at Lex- 

 ington of that name, and a substitute bill was there- 

 fore passed, changing the name to State University. 



Prisons. There were 1,295 convicts at the State 

 Penitentiary at Frankfort, March 17. A new meth- 

 od of discipline was adopted this year. Three kinds 

 of clothing were provided for prisoners a plaid 

 black-and-white for newcomers, to be worn while 

 they are on probation ; then the well-behaved are 

 put into plain gray suits, and the incorrigible into 

 the usual striped garments. The Sinking Fund 

 Commissioners, who had control of the prisons un- 

 der the old law, put the woman's department in 

 charge of women as guards in February. The pris- 

 ons passed under control of the new Board of Prison 

 Commissioners, Aug. 1. 



Military. The organized militia force of the 

 State was reported in March as 1,371 men, and the 

 number unorganized but available for military duty 

 as 361,137. The State's quota for the war was 4,000 

 men. 



Railroads. The State has a total railway mile- 

 age of 3,042, with an increase of 31 miles in 1897. 

 One fourth of the counties are without railway fa- 

 cilities. 



Insurance. In September the Franklin County 

 grand jury returned a joint indictment against 74 

 foreign fire insurance companies doing business in 

 the State. The indictment charged conspiracy to 

 control the price of fire insurance and to prevent 

 competition. It included all companies in the in- 

 surance combination known as the Kentucky and 

 Tennessee Board of Insurance Underwriters. 



Under a statute which provides that a man is le- 

 gally dead after he has been missing for seven years, 

 during which time nothing has been heard from 

 him, suit was brought against insurance companies 

 by the heirs of I. W. Tate (who was Treasurer of the 

 State and ran away eleven years ago, leaving a defi- 

 cit of about $80.000) to recover the amount of in- 

 surance upon his life. The companies defended 

 the case until January, when the attorneys for the 

 Connecticut Mutual Life appeared in court and paid 

 over $4,100 on the $5,000 policy which Tate carried 

 in their company, indicating that the companies 

 had agreed to give up the suits. 



Banks. The Comptroller of the Currency gave 

 out in October an abstract of reports of the condi- 

 tion of the 69 national banks in Kentucky, Sept. 20, 

 exclusive of Louisville. It shows that the total re- 

 sources were $30,871,740, the loans and discounts 

 amounting to $16.810,083, and the reserve to $4,457,- 

 651, of which the gold held was $837,305. The 

 deposits aggregated $14,794,157 and the average re- 

 serve held was 31 per cent. The average reserve 

 Feb. 18 was 36.71 per cent. The Comptroller in 

 June declared a dividend of 5 per cent, in favor of 

 the creditors of the First National Bank of Newport, 

 which failed in 1897. 



The banks have been settling accounts for back 

 city taxes under the decision of the Court of Appeals 

 which made them liable for city and county taxes, 

 and gave them back taxes illegally paid to the 

 State. 



Products. The mine-inspector's report, ren- 

 dered in February, said : " The year was one of unu- 

 sual disturbances, but the output of coal was greater 



