Western Kansas world., 1893-07-22
STATE AFFAIRS
And Capital City News Of State
interest.
Farm HANDS.


Labor Commissioner Todd has sent
letter of inquiry to several hundred
farm hands in every part of the state
asking them to give figures showing the
wages received by employees of the farm.
In his letter he says:
''The last legislature made an appro-
priation to be used by this bureau in
collecting and publishing farm statistics.
In accordance with that law / have pre-
pared the following list Of questions, to
which desire answers as correct or ap-
proximately correct as possible, in re-
gard to the condition of farm labor, and
as the best scource of information is
from the person who performs the work,
I should like to have you fill out the
following blank, exercising your best
judgment in answering the questions
upon which you have no accurate infor-
nation. I desire not your indi-
vidual record, but conditions generally
in your vicinity. Please answer on or
before August l, if possible"
The questions which the commissioner
sends out are as follows:
Average price paid for men per month,
with board?
Average price paid for men per day
in harvesting and thrashing?
Average price paid for men per day
for other labor?
Average price paid per week for fe-
male help, with board?
Average price of board and lodging
per day?
What per cent of farmers employ men
by the month?
For how many months in a year do
they hire on an average?
How many hours does farm hand
work on an average, when hired by the
day?
How many hours per day does farm
hand work on an average, when hired
by the month?
Percentage of farm hands that are
married?
Per cent of month farm hands over
21 years old.
The board of railroad assessors COM
pleted the work of assessing the proper
ty of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
railway; the aggregate valuation being
$40, ,727, ,718.O5. Last year the valuation
was $16,462, ,3O9.98. The figures given
are on 1851 miles of railroad, and do
not include the Frisco, and the Manhat-
tan, Alma & Burlingame.
The supreme court has decided that
a Judge cannot pass sentence on pris-
oner and then suspend the operation of
the sentence till some future time.
This case is of special interest because
of it's connection with trials for drunk
enness in police and local courts. W.
81. Strickler, of Ford county, petitioned
the supreme court for release from jail on
writ of habeas corpus, on the grounds
that his imprisonment was illegal.
Strickler had been convicted and fined
for drunkenness, but the judge suspend
ed the operation of his sentence pend
ing good behavior He afterwards was ar
rested and lodged in Jail, but not until
after the time of the expiration of his
Jail sentence, counting from the date OF
the sentence being pronounced. Justice
Allen in deciding the case says: 'In
passing sentence on person convicted
of an ofense the court has no power to
provide that the Imprisonment of the
defendant shall begin at some future
indefinite time depending on the hap
pening of contingency, and an arrest
under such conviction made after the ex-
piration of the time of Imprisonment
named in the sentence is Illegal"
The state superintendent of insurance
heard the petition of E. H. and E.
r. Norwood, of Larned, to have
revoked the charters of eleven fire insur-
ance companies, because in case of loss
with the Norwoods the companies trans
ferred the cases from the district to the
federal courts. In these eleven cases
$37, 500 is involved, and for some reason
the settlement has been delayed for sew
eral years and the matter taken to the
federal courts. It is claimed by the
Norwoods that this action on the part OF
the companies was taken merely for the
sake of delay. Since the ruling of su-
perintendent Snider that cases cannot be
transferred to the federal courts for the
purpose of delay, the Norwoods think
that their claims should be paid or the
charters revoked. These cases were
transferred to the federal courts before
Superintendent Snider's ruling. A de-
cision was rendered that there is no evi-
dence that the action of the companies
.. e.. 4l,o of IoIor