Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-10-16
GIL BERT ISSUES
BIENNIAL, REPORT
STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GEN
ERAL PROBABLY MOST COM
PLETE EYER PUBLISHED.
CLASS!FIES ALL OPINIONS.
Many Important Cases Decided During
Past Two Years and a Number
Are Still Pending.
FIVE LAWYERS IN DEPARTMENT.

MADISON, Wis. Oct Ill Special
That the work Of the attorney sener
ais office has nearly doubled in the past
two years is indicated from the report
OF Attorney General Frank l.. Gilbert,
the advance sheets Of which were re
ceived from the state printer today. The
volume will be ready for distribution in
about ten days. 1t contains all of the
opinions of the department which have
been rendered i'll the past two years. Il
Is departure from the reports of the
department i'll the past in that all of
the opinions have been classified undc~
different heads, so that it is easy to
find if an opinion has been rendered on
any given subject.
Opinions Classified.
The volume shows that opinions have
been rendered under the following elias
sifed heads:
Appropriations and expenditures; banks,
banking and trust companies: board of con
troll; civil service; corporations; criminal
law: education; election: fish and game;
insurance; Intoxicating liquors; labor: ped
dlerS; police powers and public hepith;
public officers; railroads: taxation, and Tn
YerSity Of Wisconsin.
Compared with past reports of the de
Fartment the volume is the largest ever
issued for a biennial period. In 1902
during the incumbency of +. II. Hicks of
Oshkosh, the volume contained 30
pages; the first volume issued under l..
NJ. Sturdevant Of NeiIlsvillc in 1904 con
tanned 5lS pages and the one issue in
1906 contained S2S pages The volume
issued today covering the past two years.
which includes the last six months of
Sturdevants term, contains 1O4G pages.
Many Important Cases.
Nine railroad penalty cases have been
handled and decided during the past two
years by the department; for mandamus
actions; two for writ of habcas corpus
and eleven miscellaneous cases Among
the more important Of these were The
PabSt inheritance case; the tenement law
case; the Observation-Disclosures case and
the action which resulted i'll the SUI
preme court sustaining the validity of the
railroad commission act.
Five cases involving the collection Of
over Sl,0OO,OOO i'll license fees from the
railroads are still pending as are sixteen
miscellaneous cases. Among the latter
are actions involving the validity of the
life insurance laws passed at the recent
session of the Legislature, the Duke
case, which is brought to compel the
board OF regents to reinstate Il student;
the Western Union Telegraph case,
brought by the company to recover Sl2,-
coo taxes paid the state on an alleged
over valuation of its property and Il ST.
Paul railroad case from GAINESVILLE, in
vOlving the order of the railroad rate
commission ordering reciprocal sidetrack
facilities at the school for the blind.
Report Is Complete.
Thirty-nine criminal cases have been
argued before the supreme court and
disposed of during the past two years
and fifteen are still pending before the
supreme court in which the attorney
general must appear and one is sched-
uled before the United States supreme
court. Within the past two years this
department has passed upon 80 loans
from the trust funds of the state. which
must be thoroughly investigated in each
particular case before the loan can be
made. Over 400 matters involving the
question of Inheritance taxes have been
handled by the department. Probably
over 100 applications for acquisitions
have also been passed upon by the de-
partment at the request Of the governor
during the same time. It is difficult to
give an estimate Of the number of of
fetal opinions given, but it IS about
200C, If the size of the reports can be
taken as any criterion the report issued
Is the most complete issued by any state
during the past two years, with the ex-
cept'On of Pennsylvania, where hun
dreds of opinions We're given in the in
vestiCation of the capitol building fraud
at Philadelphia.
Connected with the department are
five lawyers: Frank L. Gilbert, attor-
ney general Russell Jackson, deputy at
torney general; A. G. Titus of Superior,
first assistant; Frank I. Tucker of
Neillsville, second assistant, and J. L.
MesSerSchmidt, third assistant.