406 



KANSAS. 



The law creating the Board of Railroad Com- 

 missioners was repealed. 



The Australian ballot law was so amended that 

 only one local ticket may be placed on the official 

 ballot under one party appellation. 



It was provided that hereafter the office of 

 superintendent of insurance shall be elective, to 

 be filled at the general election of 1900, and each 

 second year thereafter. 



Other acts of the special session were: 



To tax foreign insurance companies 4 per cent. 

 on Kansas premiums, and American companies 

 not organized under the Kansas laws 2 per cent, 

 on Kansas premiums. 



To create a State society of labor and industry, 

 with a secretary who shall perform the duties now 

 devolving upon the Labor Commissioner. 



To create a State association of miners, with a 

 secretary who shall perform the duties now de- 

 volving upon the Mine Inspector. 



To perpetuate the State Schoolbook Commis- 

 sion. 



To determine ties in elections in cities of the 

 second class, to be decided by lot in the council, 

 except in cases of ties in elections of councilmen. 



To provide for the organizations of associa- 

 tions for. the purpose of insuring growing crops 

 against damage and destruction from hail. 



To require that 500 members shall be necessary 

 to secure a charter for a grand lodge of any fra- 

 ternal beneficiary society, and to place all such 

 societies under the control of the State Super- 

 intendent of Insurance. 



At the regular session the Republicans were in 

 a majority in the House, 93 to 32, and the fusion- 

 ists in the Senate, 28 to 12. M. A. Householder 

 was President pro tern, of the Senate. S. J. Os- 

 burn was Speaker of the House and F. M. Benefiel 

 Speaker pro tern. 



Gov. Stanley was inaugurated Jan. 9. In his 

 first message to the Legislature he made the fol- 

 lowing recommendations: Establishment of an 

 additional insane asylum; abolition of the Board 

 of Pardons and the offices of State accountant 

 and forestry and labor commissioners; establish- 

 ment of plants for the employment of convict 

 labor; more liberal appropriations for the De- 

 partment of Agriculture; payment of costs of 

 mine inspection by mine operators; provision for 

 road improvement; raising of assessments in 

 order to secure the larger revenue demanded by 

 the growing interests of the State; education of 

 neglected children; State aid to industrial schools 

 for negro youth; uniform courses of study in 

 schools; the placing of building and loan associ- 

 ations under the control of the Bank Depart- 

 ment, and of all orders and societies doing in- 

 surance business under the Insurance Depart- 

 ment; honest enforcement of the prohibition law. 

 A constitutional amendment will be submitted 

 to vote of the people in 1900. It provides that 

 the Supreme Court, which now consists of 3 jus- 

 tices, shall consist of 7. The term of office is to 

 be six years, and the justices are to be elected by 

 the people, except that at the first the Governor 

 is to appoint enough to make up the number to 7. 

 The antitrust law was strengthened by the 

 prohibition of combination among certain speci- 

 fied interests. Those mentioned in the law who 

 are forbidden to combine to control prices are 

 live-stock men, hay dealers, seed and grain deal- 

 ers, warehouse men, and railroads. While the 

 meaning of one section is rather vague, attorneys 

 are of the opinion that it even prohibits the 

 dockage of hogs at the stock yards. The penalty 

 for violation of this provision is a fine of $100 

 to $1,000. The second provision of the law prac- 



tically declares the stock exchange a trust, and 

 legislates against it. The penalty in this case 

 is a fine of $1,000 to $5,000. The third section 

 prohibits any agreement, expressed or implied, by 

 which it is stipulated that grain, seeds, or hay 

 shall not be shipped by the producer or local 

 buyer unless accompanied with warehouse re- 

 ceipts, or that the same shall in any manner be 

 under the control of any warehouse men or agent 

 as a condition precedent to the marketing of 

 said grain. The penalty is the same as that 

 prescribed in the second section. Provision is 

 also made for the enforcement of the law by in- 

 junction proceedings. It is made the duty of 

 the Attorney-General to institute both criminal 

 and injunction proceedings against a violator of 

 the act when complaint is made to him by an 

 aggrieved shipper. If any person, company, or 

 corporation can show that its business has been 

 injured by reason of anything declared unlawful 

 or in restraint of trade in this act he shall have a 

 right of action against the person, company, or 

 corporation causing such damage to the amount 

 of three times the original damage. 



A committee appointed to visit the Minnesota 

 Penitentiary and examine into the manufacture 

 of binding twine by convict labor, with a view 

 to ascertaining the advisability of establishing 

 such an industry in the Kansas Penitentiary, re- 

 ported in favor of the plan, and accordingly pro- 

 vision was made for the establishment of a hard- 

 fiber-twine plant, and $150,000 was appropriated 

 for a revolving fund to be used in the purchase 

 of raw material and for marketing the product, 

 and to receive the proceeds of sale. It was also 

 provided that a plant should be established at 

 the Penitentiary for making bricks for the use 

 of the State. The coal mined by convicts is to 

 be limited in amount to the needs of State insti- 

 tutions. Convict labor may be used for repair- 

 ing and macadamizing roads. 



Several measures were enacted in the interest 

 of education. Provision was made for the dis- 

 organization of depopulated school districts and 

 the consolidation of their territory with that of 

 adjacent districts. 



A county superintendent must be a holder of 

 a State certificate, or of a first- or second-grade 

 county certificate, or a graduate of an accredited 

 college or normal school, and must have had at 

 least eighteen months' actual experience in teach- 

 ing- 

 Boards of education in cities of the first or sec- 

 ond class may employ persons holding normal- 

 school diplomas to teach in the schools of said 

 cities without examination by the examining com- 

 mittee of said boards. 



Another act provides for the issuing of three 

 years' State certificates to graduates of the School 

 of Arts of the State University, including the 

 course required for the teacher's diploma, or the 

 arts course of any other university or college 

 incorporated under the laws of this State whose 

 course of study shall be approved by the State 

 Board of Education, and which shall maintain 

 the same or equivalent requirements for admis- 

 sion to the freshman class as the University of 

 Kansas, and requiring and maintaining a regular 

 four years' course thereafter for graduation, and 

 which shall maintain a pedagogical department 

 equal to the course for the teacher's diploma at 

 the State University. A life certificate i<* issued 

 to the holder of such certificate provided he shall 

 have taught two years out of the three. 



The uniform text-book law was extended so as 

 to take in books on more subjects than before. 

 Cities of the first class may levy a tax of 8 to 12 



