Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1909-03-12

6 county option bill; an anti-treating
act and act absolutely prohibiting the
Manufacture or sale Of cigarettes
Within III" state, and, as before men
toned, prohibiting drinking or gam,
bling on passenger trains.
Agriculture.
South La!lota is distinctly an agri.
cultural STATE and naturally the farm
CTS come IN for good share of atten-
ton. Among the acts in their inter
est is one to prevent the adnlteration
Of milk, cream and dairy products;
providing Il bounty to be paid by the
county commissioners fer planting for
est trees; repeating the nursery
agents act which required agents OF
foreign nurseries to procure certif
cate from the state and to put up q
bond for the protection of their Gus
toners. The supreme court knocked
out the bo,d and the agents were Us
ing The certificates to impose upon the
public by thus showing state author
ity: prohibiting bringing diseased
sheep into the state; regulating the
inspection of horses for shipment
prey iding tor the inspection of bees :;
simple procedure for securing parti
ton fences, d procedure for securing
right OF way TO isolated tracts; a gen.
eral drainage law; a general irriga
ton law, accepting the provisions OF
the Carey land and irrigation act and
requiring reimbursement to exhibit
certificates of weighing and inspection
of all grain shipped.
Education.
This was an off wear in educational
legislation, For fifty years Dakota
has passed an education code at one
session of the legislature. tinkering Il
up at The next and at the following
session passed a new code. This was
a tinkerlng year and the result was
acts permitting high school boards to
charge eighth grade graduates from
| country schools q higher tuition than
the 81 Per month which the home dis
trict is compelled to pay; exemptins
the state superintendent from the ne
| ccssity of rendering legal opinions
| fixing the date for the general schoo
election on the third Tuesday in
June: requiring school boards to EN-
ploy certain teachers on a petition Of
q majority Of the patrons: requiring
vocal music to be taught in al
schools; requiring county superintend
ents to hold first grade or higher Ger
titicates; allowing school houses te
be Used for public meetings; provid
ing that townships In the new coun
ties may organize themselves into
school districts and, finally, refusing
to accept the gift from the Unitet
States government of the gift of the
Chamberlain Indian school.
Counties and County Affairs.
An effort was made to subdiyide tn,
Indian reservations into counties o
proper size before the coming of the
settlers with view to avoid the com
plicatfons that county making always
involves in settled region. The ef
fort WINS not wholly successful, but
several new counties were made. Al
thst portion of the Standing Rock In
| dian reservation In South Dakota, EN-
bracing about eighty townships, was
created as Corson county. The Chey
enne River reservation was moi
touched. All Of the counties west OF
Trip. on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge
agencies, were rebounded and Meyer
county and the fragment of Presho ly
ing north of it were constructed into
Todd and Mellette counties and I.u
genbiel was changed to Bennett coun
ty. Bills were passed fixing the sal
aries of states attorneys on popula
tion basis; OF county judges on popu
lation basis; Of auditors on valuation
basis: amending the sheriffs' fee bill;
pertaining to the fees Of county treas
urers aud increasing the per diem OF
county commissioners to 81 per day
! Election Laws.
The operation of the primary cleo
ton law In its first test in a cam
paign developed some defects in it
Some OF these defects were pointed
out by the supreme court in the test
cases brought, portions OF the law
being held unconstitutional and other
portions being found to be unduly ex
| PSAoAN0- htS iC6 iSiuIAA ChACdfOl GU
to remedy the difficulties by a com,
/ plete revision of the act. Another act
provides for the immediate semi-offi
i cial returns of each election, to avoid
the long delays to which we have
been subjected in this state. Another
provides that amendments and refer
endum laws shall be printed clear
across the ballot in a way to avoid
confusion at the polls: another pro
i yides that in arranging party tickets
on ballots It shall be done In the or.
der Of the strength OF the parties at
the last election, and, finally, it Is
provided that county commissioners
shall be elected from districts instead
Of at large. i
Highways and Bridges. Z,
The senate was favorable to good
roads. the house opposed. The good
roads bill passed by the house was
limited in its operation to counties not
! organized into civil townships. The
| senate amended IL. extending its oner.