520 



NEBRASKA. 



ings Hospital for the Incurable Insane. The 

 estimates of expenses deemed necessary by State 

 officers and heads of State institutions, not in- 

 cluding new building*, amounted to $2,613,23o. 

 A deficiency of $180,785 was included. 



Other enactments were: 



Providing that receivers in insolvency cases 

 may be paid by salary, percentage, or fixed sum, 

 according to the discretion of the court. 



Providing that railroad companies may not 

 permit trainmen to work more than eighteen 

 consecutive hours without eight hours for rest. 



Forbidding street railway companies to carry 

 municipal oHiccrs five: docs not apply to firemen 

 and policemen. 



Locating the State fair permanently at Lincoln, 

 and appropriating for buildings. 



Requiring pawnbrokers to be licensed and to 

 keep records of pledged goods and descriptions 

 of persons pledging. 



Regulating the control of building and loan 

 associations. 



An appropriation of $17.840 was made to pay 

 chicory bounty claims. The bounty law was 

 passed' by the Legislature of 1895, but no specific 

 appropriation was made. The Legislature of 

 1S97 declined to make an appropriation, but the 

 Legislature of 1809 appropriated money to pay 

 the chicory bounty, but failed to make provision 

 for the bounty on beet sugar. 



A committee was appointed by the Senate to 

 investigate certain charges relative to alleged ir- 

 regularities in the recount of ballots on a consti- 

 tutional amendment relating to increasing the 

 number of judges of the Supreme Court, as well 

 as other matters in connection with the official 

 conduct of certain State officers. The Governor 

 vetoed a bill appropriating $2,000 for expenses of 

 the investigation, but the investigation took 

 place after the adjournment of the Legislature, 

 and the report was finished July 27 and for- 

 warded to the Governor, who declined to receive 

 it. on the ground that the investigation was not 

 proj>erly authorized, the committee without 

 standing, and that he did not wish to encumber 

 his office with documents that are not public. 

 The report declares " that the charges of fraud 

 in connection with the recount on the constitu- 

 tional amendments have been sustained by the 

 most conclusive evidence, as well as by the ap- 

 pearance of the ballots themselves. It finds that 

 ex-Gov. Holcomb has misappropriated at least 

 $773 of the amount drawn bv h\pi on ac- 

 count of house rent during his terms of office, 

 and recommends that the Attorney-General be 

 instructed to take the necessary steps to recover 

 the amount. The committee also comments with 

 some severity on the action of the State officials 

 in refusing to aid its members in their investi- 

 gations. 



Court Decisions. The Board of Transporta- 

 tion was created by an act of 1887, and in 1897 

 its powers were extended so as to apply to tele- 

 phone, telegraph, and express companies. The 

 Pacific Express Company applied for an injunc- 

 tion to restrain the board from proceeding in 

 the matter of a complaint against certain express 

 rates, taking the ground that the act of 1897 

 was invalid because, while it was amendatory 

 of the act of 1887, that act was not mentioned 

 in the later act. The Supreme Court decided 

 against the company and declared the law not 

 unconstitutional. 



In a suit in which the State sought to re- 

 cover $5,622.56, collected as fees by ex-Oil In- 

 spector Hilton and his deputies for the inspection 

 of gasoline, the Supreme Court gave judgment 



in favor of the State. The defense was that the 

 law did not require the inspection of gasoline, 

 and therefore the State was not entitled to the 

 fees. The court held that the law did not con- 

 template the inspection of gasoline. 



In an opinion given at the close of the year 

 the Supreme Court held that the State can re- 

 cover from insurance companies the fees paid to 

 Eugene Moore and retained by him when he left 

 the office of auditor of public accounts. The 

 decision came in the form of a reversal in the case 

 of the State against the Home Insurance Com- 

 pany of New York, in which suit the State 

 sought to recover $272 from that company. The 

 decision is construed to mean that the State will 

 be able to recover from insurance companies the 

 full amount of Eugene Moore's shortage, amount- 

 ing to over $23,000. Nearly the entire shortage 

 comprised fees paid by insurance companies. The 

 court holds that the Constitution prohibited the 

 insurance companies from paying fees to the audi- 

 tor. 



Political. A State election was held this year 

 for a justice of the Supreme Court and two re- 

 gents of the university. 



Three conventions were held in Omaha, Aug. 

 22, and all united upon one ticket. The Populists- 

 nominated ex-Gov. Silas A. Holcomb for the Su- 

 preme Court, and the nomination w T as accepted 

 by the Silver Republicans and by the Democrats,, 

 though not without some opposition on the part 

 of the Democratic convention, where ex-Senator 

 William V. Allen was the choice of many dele- 

 gates. The candidates for regents were J. L. 

 Teeters and Edson Rich. -The platform of the 

 Democratic convention opens as follows : " We r 

 the Democrats of the State of Nebraska, in con- 

 vention assembled, indorse and emphasize each 

 and every plank of the national platform adopted 

 at Chicago in 1896." Then follows a specific 

 declaration in favor of the free coinage of silver 

 at the ratio of 16 to 1, and this: " Our confidence 

 in the principles set forth in that platform has 

 been increased, as these principles have been vin- 

 dicated by events. The gold standard is less 

 defensible now than it was in 1896." 



The Populist platform contains a deliverance 

 upon the question of the war in the Philippines, 

 protesting that if the Cubans " are and of right 

 ought to be free, the same can be said of the 

 Filipinos, and this nation would suffer no hu- 

 miliation in acknowledging adherence to the doc- 

 trine that governments derive their just powers- 

 from the consent of the governed." 



The platform of the Silver Republicans is much 

 the same. 



The Republican convention met in Omaha, 

 Sept. 21. M. B. Reese was made the candidate 

 for the Supreme Court judgeship, and E. G. Mc- 

 Gilton and Dr. William B. Ely were nominated 

 for regents of the university. The resolutions 

 approved the policy of the administration, de- 

 clared for the gold standard, and denounced " the 

 attempt now desperately being mad% to again 

 array labor and capital in hostile camps. The 

 Republican party now, as always, opposes trusts 

 and combinations having for their purpose the 

 stifling of competition and arbitrarily control- 

 ling production or fixing prices, but we also rec- 

 ognize that legitimate business interests, fairly 

 capitalized and honestly managed, have built up 

 our industries at home, given the largest employ- 

 ment to labor at the highest wage, and have en- 

 abled us to successfully compete with foreign 

 countries in the markets of the world. Such 

 industries must not be struck down by legislation 

 aimed at dishonestly organized institutions which 



