NEBRASKA. 



473 



Railroads. A case was brought before the courts 

 to test the validity of the law passed by the Nebras- 

 kan Legislature in 1893, prescribing maximum 

 freight rates. The act applies specifically to freight 

 whose transit begins and ends in the State, and 

 there was no effort in its enactment to control inter- 

 state freight. It affected all the railroads in the 

 State, and the railroad companies filed a bill in the 

 Nebraska circuit courts, after the law was enacted, 

 to secure an order restraining the State officials 

 from putting the law into force. The law was at- 

 tacked on the ground of its constitutionality. It 

 was charged that inasmuch as the act applied only 

 to State freights it was chargeable with a discrimi- 

 nation against them, and therefore antagonistic to 

 the spirit of the fourteenth amendment to the Con- 

 stitution. The companies contended that the maxi- 

 mum rate fixed was unreasonable and ruinous to 

 the roads. It was also asserted that the act inter- 

 fered with interstate commerce. The decision in 

 the circuit court was delivered by Justice Brewer, 

 of the Supreme Court, who held against the validity 

 of the law. His opinion was based largely upon 

 the charge of unreasonableness. He made a com- 

 putation showing that the reduction amounted on 

 an average to 29 per cent., which he held was too 

 great a change. 



The opinion of the United States Supreme Court, 

 handed down by Justice Haiian in March, upheld 

 the decision of the circuit court. He added that if 

 railroad business should so improve that the rates 

 fixed by the act of 1893 would afford a reasonable 

 compensation the State might then apply for a dis- 

 charge of the injunction. The opinion declared 

 that a corporation is a person within the meaning 

 of that term as used in the fourteenth amendment. 

 In a decision rendered July 25 in the district 

 2ourt at Lincoln, the State Board of Transportation 

 was deprived " of much of the power conferred 

 upon it by the last Legislature. The Attorney- 

 General and the members of the board, acting under 

 . the law giving them jurisdiction over telephone and 

 express companies, proceeded to enforce reductions 

 in rates, in violation of a restraining order. Judge 

 Cornish purged them of contempt, but assessed 

 costs against them, and issued strict orders to make 

 no further efforts in this direction." 



The assessed valuation of the roads for 1898 was 

 $26,108,936.80 ; the mileage, 5,542.47. 



Insurance. The report for 1897 shows that joint- 

 stock fire insurance companies, not of the State, 

 wrote $87,915,160 in risks, received $1,221,879 in 

 premiums, paid losses $395,999. State joint-stock 

 companies wrote $10,620,427 in risks, received $158,- 

 865, and paid $43.094. State mutual companies 

 wrote $2,554,763 in risks, received $75,271, and paid 

 ' $3,051. City and village mutual companies paid 

 [ losses $7,555, and had in force $3,374,931. Nebras- 

 ka farmers' mutual companies wrote risks, $16,244,- 

 083 ; paid $58,051 ; and had in force $48,282.413. 



Life insurance companies had in force at the close 

 of 1897 19,218 policies, amounting to $37,642,379, 

 paid losses $387,857, and received $1,149,079. Two 

 I Companies reported industrial business, $1,250,717 

 I in force, and $10,155 paid. Premium life associa- 

 tions of the State had paid $6,614, and had in force 

 $1.313,500. Assessment life associations had paid 

 1158,789, and had in force $20,433,157. 



Industries and Products. A comparative 



statement of the surplus products of the State for 



. 1891 and 1897, made by the Deputy Labor Commis- 



1 sioner, S. J. Kent, shows that the product of corn 



increased from 24,295,500 bushels to 76,346,362; 



wheat, from 9,821,000 to 18,040,915; oats, from 11,- 



1)28,000 to 14,494,697 ; rye, from 803,500 to 2,879,- 



612; barley, from 438,000 to 499.067; the number 



of hogs from 1,431,540 to 1,953,752 ; of cattle, from 





380,100 to 657,942 ; of sheep, from 195.680 to 1,007,- 

 980 ; of horses and mules, from 18,940 to 13,240. 



At a meeting of the State Dairymen's Association 

 in November the president said that Nebraska had 

 made greater progress in dairying during the year 

 than any other State. He favored the creation of 

 the office of dairy commissioner, in order that laws 

 protecting dairy interests may be enforced. 



The business of the stock yards at West Lincoln 

 shows a great advance in recent years. The in- 

 crease in 1898 over 1897 is reported as 87 per cent, 

 in sheep, 23 per cent, in hogs, 4 per cent, in cattle, 

 and 172 per cent, in horses and mules. The actual 

 number of animals handled was 6.145 horses and 

 mules, 60,340 cattle. 74,411 hogs^and 202,897 sheep. 

 The figures of the Lincoln Packing Company also 

 show rapid development of business. In 1898 the 

 company bought and converted into meat products 

 65,513 hogs, for which $634,507.14 was paid, or an 

 average of $9.68$ per head. 



The Trans-Mississippi Exposition. This 

 closed the last day of October, after having had a 

 total attendance of 2,600.000. The stockholders 

 receive dollar for dollar, and it is estimated that 

 from $75,000 to $100,000 will remain in the hands 

 of the treasurer after all liabilities are paid. 



The total amount of stock subscriptions collected 

 and paid into the treasury on Oct. 28 was $291,- 

 909.04 ; the total donations collected on that date 

 was $163,070.20 ; the total earnings of the corpora- 

 tion to that date was $1,306,384.94 ; making a grand 

 total of cash receipts from all sources of $1,761,- 

 364.18. 



Court Decisions. The law providing for the 

 appointment of a fire and police commission for 

 metropolitan cities was declared unconstitutional 

 and void in January. The applicants for a writ of 

 mandamus contended that the law passed by the 

 Legislature delegating to the Governor authority to 

 name officers for the city of Omaha was at variance 

 with the Constitution of the State and was a usur- 

 pation of the principle of the right of self-govern- 

 ment. In passing upon the case, Judge Scott sus- 

 tained this position and went even further. He 

 holds that if the Legislature could pass a law dele- 

 gating to the governor the power to appoint 

 members of the fire and police commission it could 

 also delegate authority to the State executive to 

 name the mayor and other municipal officers. 



A dispatch from Lincoln, Dec. 8, says : " The 

 decision of the district court at Omaha in declar- 

 ing the bondsmen of ex-Treasurer Joseph S. Bartley 

 not liable for his shortage was reversed in an opin- 

 ion rendered this evening by the Supreme Court. 

 The decision is important and unexpected. The 

 amount directly involved is $201,000, which sum 

 Bartley took from a State depository bank, and for 

 which he was convicted of embezzlement and sen- 

 tenced to the Penitentiary. Indirectly to-night's 

 decision affects Bartley's whole shortage of nearly 

 $700,000, which it now seems probable his bonds- 

 men must pay." 



The State Supreme Court declared in September 

 that the Mayor of Omaha was ineligible, because, 

 by a technical irregularity in his accounts as dis- 

 trict-court clerk, he was a defaulter at the time of 

 his election. 



An act of 1869, turning forfeitures, fines, etc., 

 into the school fund was declared partly void, on 

 the ground that unclaimed costs and witness fees 

 are not public money and it is unconstitutional to 

 deprive those for whose benefit they are paid of the 

 title to them. 



The act of 1897 creating municipal courts in 

 metropolitan cities was declared by the State Su- 

 preme Court to be in violation of that section 

 of the Constitution which provides that laws re- 



