Free press., 1905-05-06

Into Refinery Scheme.-T A. Nc
Neal. the governors private secre-
tary, has gone into an independent re-
firery scheme with an oil and gas
company of Humboldt of which he
IS a member. At a meeting of the
company it was decided TO issue
$4,000 of treasury stock to build
refinery of two 3OO-barrel stills
Woodman Building Burns.-Fire de-
stroyed the Woodman building at
Wamego. McKelney's general store
on the first floor burned. An enter
tainment was in progress in the hall
when the fire broke out. The people
left the building in an orderly man
ner, and nobody was hurt. The
building cost $4,000. The township
had an interest in it. The origin of
the fire is not known
Complaint of Lumber Rate.-Carr
Taylor, attorney for the railroad
board, is getting ready 10 bring a
complaint before the interstate com
merce commission against the ium-
ber rates charged in Kansas. He
claims they are excessive. He has
been making some figures recently,
and says he finds that the railroads
get about $95,00O,000 a year out of
Kansas in freight charges of all
kinds.
Will Claim Immunity. = The Pull
man Company has not yet filed an
swer to the complaint of exorbitant
rates lodged against it by R. S. Jones
before the railroad board. The COM
pany, it is understood, will contend
Nthat the railroad commissioners have
no control over it, as the title of the
railroad law says nothing about sleep
ing car companies, and therefore the
law, insofar as it relates to sleeping
car companies, is invalid.
Bonds in School Fund. = The state
| treasurer's books show that the four
school funds combined have bonds
aggregatng $S,367,97O OF this
amount $7,537, ,724.66 is in the per-
manent school fund; $146,S09.17 is
in the University fund; $212,365 is in
the normal fund and $477,071.50 is in
/ the agricultural fund. The perman-
! ent fund contains $29O,996.36 in de-
| linquent bonds and 39,S54.51 in de-
linquent coupons and interest. The at
! torney general has put his chief clerk,
| John Dawson, TO work trying to col
! lect or compromise the delinquent
bonds and coupons.
Inspection Mandatory. = State Oil
| Inspector Hussey has notified the
| II
! town, Ia, that it cannot sell oil in
Kansas unless it is inspected by a
Kansas inspector. The company is
developing a trade in Northern Kan
sas. Its oil is inspected by the Iowa
department, and it wants the Kansas
department to take the Iowa inspec
ton. But HuSSey declines to do so
. The Kansas department doesn't in
| spect any oil that goes out of Kan
sas, . said he. 1t only inspects oil
that consumed in the state. If the
Iowa concern wants to get out of pay
ing two fees it must get Iowa to droE
the inspection of oil that comes into
Kansas and let us inspect it. -
Taxes to be Returned.-At Ottawa
District Judge Smart made a decision
ordering the return to property own
ers of $17 7,275.94, paid into the county
treasury of g tax ferret assess
ments. The total payment on these
supplemental assessments, which were
taken from the county mortgage rec
ord, amounted to $27,143.6S. Judge
Smart holds that $9,S67.69- rightfull!
belongs to the county. The practice
of assessing real estate and persona
property other than money and Sc
curity at 20 per cent and less of it!
value, and assessing money and Sc
curities at so per cent of their value
was raised as an issue in the litiga
tion, and Judge Smart ruled that al
property must be taxed on the sam,
basis He accordingly computed tn,
tax on the property in question at 2
per cent of it's actual value, and de
MED the right of the county clerk t
correct assessments prior to 1902.
Getting Divorce Statistics. Th'
government census bureau is prepaI
ing to gather complete statistics in re
gard to divorces in this country
Special agents will be sent TO ever.
county in every state and territory il
the Union to get a list of the di
vorces granted, the causes and all in
formation OF that sort The divorc
laws of the various states are also t
} be compared. When the work is com
pleted it will show what class of pee
pie figure the most in divorce suits
what percentage of divorced peopl
. have children and lot of other il
; formation that will make good read
ing.
Work Will Be Thorough. - Judg
; Clark, Judge Benson and s. T. Howe
the advisory board named to invest
r gate suspected state house records
/ arc in session with Governor Hocf
I They refuse to state what depart
I6ent will be overhauled but they dc
clare that the work will be begun a
once and be thorough and far-reacf
: ing. 1t is generally understood i
5 Topeka that the state treasurer
Office will be the first on the pro
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