NEBRASKA 



4106 



NEBRASKA 



Transportation. There are good facilities for 

 railroad transportation in the eastern and more 

 thickly settled part of the state, but the west- 

 ern section has only one line extending from 

 north to south. Three important railroads, the 

 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Union Pacific 

 and Chicago & North Western, cross the state 

 from east to west. Other important lines are 

 the Missouri Pacific; Chicago, Rock Island & 

 Pacific; Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis & 



Omaha ; Saint Joseph and Grand Island. There 

 are over 6,200 miles of steam road and 230 

 miles of electric railway in the state. All rail- 

 roads are controlled by the state railway com- 

 mission. Only three-tenths per cent of the pub- 

 lic roads are improved. The Missouri River, 

 extending 500 miles along the eastern border, is 

 not navigable in this part of its course, and is 

 practically of no commercial importance except 

 at Omaha and Sioux City. 



Government and History 



Nebraska has had two constitutions, adopted 

 in 1867 and 1875. Amendments may be pro- 

 posed in either house of the legislature or by 

 the people, but to become effective must be 

 adopted by three-fifths of the members of each 

 house and a majority of voters. Every male 

 citizen twenty-one years of age and all those of 

 foreign birth who have declared their intention 

 of becoming citizens, thirty days preceding the 

 election, are entitled to vote if they have been 

 residents of the state six months immediately 

 preceding elections. A preference may be ex- 

 pressed in the vote for President, Vice-President 

 and United States Senators. 



The legislative body consists of a senate and 

 house of representatives, elected biennially. The 

 senate consists of thirty-three members, and 

 their number is never to exceed that limit; the 

 house of representatives, in which there are now 

 100 members, has also reached its maximum 

 strength. The initiative and referendum are in 

 full force. 



The executive authority is vested in a gov- 

 ernor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, 

 treasurer, attorney-general, superintendent of 

 public instruction and commissioners of public 

 lands and buildings, all of whom are elected for 

 terms of two years. The treasurer is not eligi- 

 ble to three successive terms. Since 1915 it has 

 been the governor's duty to present a budget 

 of the revenues and expenditures for the ensu- 

 ing biennial period. 



The judicial department comprises the su- 

 preme court, six district courts, county courts, 

 justices of the peace, police magistrates and 

 such inferior courts as are created by law. 



When the voters in a county approve, the 

 county may organize townships. No new county 

 may be created having an area of less than 400 

 square miles, and no county may be reduced to 

 less than that area. Cities of 500 to 100,000 

 inhabitants may frame their own governments. 

 The sale of intoxicating liquor is prohibited in 



all sections of the state, in accordance with a 

 referendum vote taken in November, 1916. 

 Previous to this there were stringent regulations 

 which required early closing of saloons in cities. 

 In 1920 the women of Nebraska for the first 

 time will vote for electors of the President and 

 Vice-President of the United States, in accord- 

 ance with a law passed in 1916. 



Territorial Government. There are stories 

 that Coronado, in his search for the famous 

 seven cities of Cibola, reached the southern 

 boundary of the present state of Nebraska, and 

 that Marquette passed the mouth of the Platte 

 River in 1673, but the first known settlement 

 was not founded until 1807, when a fur-trading 

 post was established at Bellevue. The territory 

 had been included in the Louisiana Purchase 

 and had been visited by Lewis and Clark in 

 1804. Pierre and Auguste Chouteau, fur traders 

 from Saint Louis, explored the Platte in 1807. 

 In 1819, Stephen Long followed the Platte 

 across the state, and his discouraging descrip- 

 tion of the semiarid plains of the western part 

 of the present state gave rise to the myth of 

 the Great American Desert. 



After the founding of Bellevue, trading posts 

 were established at Nebraska City and Omaha 

 by the American Fur Company. When Mis- 

 souri was made a state in 1821, Nebraska, which 

 had been a part of Missouri Territory, was left 

 practically without a government. In 1834 it 

 was divided into three parts, one being included 

 in Arkansas Territory, another part joined to 

 the Territory of Michigan and a third part be- 

 ing placed under the jurisdiction of Missouri. 

 The Territory was reserved as "Indian Coun- 

 try," and though settlement by whites was for- 

 bidden, some of the thousands of gold seekers 

 crossing this territory on their way to Califor- 

 nia remained in Nebraska. The civilized In- 

 dian residents during 1851-1853 unsuccessfully 

 petitioned Congress to organize a territory, and 

 in 1853 the residents formed a provisional gov 





