ARKANSAS. 



ter of trouble being Huntington, Sebastian Coun- 

 ty. The importation of negroes from Kentucky 

 to take the place of strikers threatened to bring 

 on a race war, and the Governor issued an order 

 to the sheriff to prevent the imported laborers 

 from debarking; but he afterward modified the 

 order so as to allow " orderly, respectable w r hite 

 laborers " to come in, and promised them pro- 

 tection. More negroes and others were brought 

 in, and a State court issued an injunction re- 

 straining companies from importing miners and 

 railroad companies from bringing them in from 

 other States; but the injunction was dissolved 

 by the Federal court for the western district of 

 AYkansas. There was a riot at Huntington, May 

 15, in which one man was killed and another 

 wounded in an attack on a mine and some miners' 

 boarding houses. A number of miners were sen- 

 tenced in July to imprisonment for five to ten 

 months for violating the injunction of the court 

 restraining strikers from interfering with the op- 

 eration of the coal mines and from intimidating 

 the men at work. It was estimated that the 

 strike had caused a loss of at least $1,250,000. 



The report of the Mine Inspector for 1898 says 

 the question of child labor still continues a prob- 

 lem, parents being found willing to swear to 

 anything in order to keep their children at work. 

 Lawlessness. At Hot Springs, March 16, a 

 political feud ended in a street riot, in which five 

 men lost their lives. 



A so-called race war took place in March in 

 Little River County, in the extreme southwestern 

 part of the State. It was believed that 23 ne- 

 groes were in a plot to begin a race war, and 

 mobs of white men turned out to hunt them 

 down. The dispatch said : " The exact number of 

 negroes who have been summarily dealt with, or 

 those who may yet fall into the hands of the 

 mob before order is restored, may never be known. 

 Seven bodies have been found, and other victims 

 are being hunted, and will meet the same fate 

 when run to earth. The work of dispatching the 

 first two or three was easy, but the news soon 

 spread among the negroes, who, instead of mak- 

 ing the resistance and offering the battle that 

 they had threatened, became panic-stricken, and 

 began getting out of the community as quickly as 

 possible. Two whose names were on the list of 

 conspirators got a good start of the men who 

 were detailed to look after them, and succeeded 

 in reaching the Texas State line before being 

 captured. However, they did not escape. They 

 were overtaken, out of breath and exhausted, 

 and were swung up without ceremony." 



A so-called vigilance committee in August noti- 

 fied the colored residents of Paragould, Greene 

 County, that they must leave the town. Many 

 of them applied to the mayor, who declined to 

 promise them protection. They left in large num- 

 bers, and the houses of those remaining were 

 stoned. The citizens held a mass meeting, and 

 deplored the action of the mob. They called upon 

 the authorities to afford protection to all resi- 

 dents without regard to color. 



De Queen. The town of De Queen, on the 

 Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad, 50 

 miles north of Texarkana, was almost totally 

 burned up in the night of Oct. 1. Fifty-four busi- 

 ness houses, including banks and hotels, were 

 destroyed. The town was incorporated July 5, 

 1897, and has grown very rapidly since the com- 

 pletion of the railroad. About 10,000 bales of 

 cotton are handled there each year. 



Legislative Session. The General Assembly 

 convened Jan. 10 and adjourned April 19, after 

 the longest session in the history of the State. 



M. J. Manning was President of the Senate, and 

 A. F. Vandeventer was Speaker of the House. 



The most important act of the session was the 

 antitrust law. It provides that any person or 

 corporation which shall be a party to any pool 

 or agreement to fix prices or premiums shall be 

 deemed guilty of conspiracy to defraud, and be 

 liable to a fine of $200 to $5,000 for each violation 

 of the law, and that every day such corpora- 

 tion or person shall continue to do so shall be 

 regarded as a separate offense. As interpreted by 

 the Attorney-General, it excluded from transact- 

 ing business in the State not only corporations 

 and companies combining to fix rates in Arkan- 

 sas, but all such as were members of any such 

 associations in combination to fix or limit prices 

 anywhere. As soon as the bill was signed all 

 foreign fire insurance companies authorized to do 

 business in the State, of which there were 63, 

 withdrew, and policies were obtainable only in 

 the two or three mutual companies organized and 

 incorporated under the State laws. 



The business men of Little Rock held a meet- 

 ing, and appealed to the Legislature to modify 

 one of the provisions of the law, that they might 

 be able to insure their property in legitimate in- 

 surance companies. One of the houses laid the 

 appeal on the table; the other indefinitely post- 

 poned it. A member of the Legislature, Hon. J. 

 E. Wood, told the business men, in an address, 

 that " they were to blame for the passage of the 

 bill, for not taking more interest in politics and 

 electing men to the Legislature who were more 

 closely in touch with the business interests of 

 the State." For this declaration he was censured 

 by the House, but afterward a resolution was 

 adopted expunging the censure from the record. 

 Cases to test the validity of the law were brought 

 in the circuit court, and decision was given that 

 the law could not apply to companies in combina- 

 tions in other States if they had not entered into 

 any agreement to control rates in Arkansas. 

 This decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court. 

 Four other acts affecting insurance companies- 

 were passed. One requires every corporation for 

 whatever business organized to file with the 

 Secretary of State a copy of its charter and a cer- 

 tificate of appointment of an agent for service; 

 another is an amendment of the valued-policy 

 law, applying to real property only, and making 

 the amount upon which premium is collected a 

 liquidated demand in case of loss; another pro- 

 vides that in suit upon policy issued on personal 

 .property proof of substantial compliance with 

 the terms of the policy by the insured is sufficient 

 to recover; the last applies to fraternal orders, 

 and requires such associations to file a copy of 

 their constitution and by-laws and a statement 

 of their condition with the Auditor of State on 

 March 1 of each year, and pay a fee of $10. 



An act was passed establishing a railroad com- 

 mission. Its title is : " An Act to provide for the 

 regulation of railroad freight and passenger tar- 

 iffs in this State, to prevent unjust discrimina- 

 tions and extortions in the rates charged for the^ 

 transportation of passengers and freight," and to 

 prohibit railroad companies, corporations, and 

 lessees in this State from charging other than just 

 and reasonable rates and to punish the same, and 

 prescribe a mode of procedure and rules of evi- 

 dence in relation thereto; and to appoint com- 

 missioners and to prescribe rules for their gov' 

 ern/nent and define their powers and duties in 

 relation to the same." 



The Governor was authorized to appoint the 

 three commissioners, to serve until the next gen- 

 eral election, by and with the advice and consent 



