Government.—The constitution is that adopted at Wyandotte on the 29th of July 1859 and ratified by the people on the 4th of October 1859; it came into operation on the 29th of January 1861, and was amended in 1861, 1864, 1867, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1880, 1888, 1900, 1902, 1904 and 1906. An amendment may be proposed by either branch of the legislature, and, if approved by two-thirds of the members elected to each house as well as by a majority of the electors voting on it at a general election, it is adopted. A constitutional convention to revise or amend the constitution may be called in the same manner. Universal manhood suffrage is the rule, but women may vote in school and municipal elections, Kansas being the first state to grant women municipal suffrage as well as the right to hold municipal offices (1887). General elections to state, county and township offices are biennial, in even-numbered years, and take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The state executive officers are a governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney-general and superintendent of public instruction, all elected for a term of two years. The governor appoints, with the approval of the Senate, a board of public works and some other administrative boards, and he may veto any bill from the legislature, which cannot thereafter become a law unless again approved by two-thirds of the members elected to each house.
The legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, meets in regular session at Topeka, the capital, on the second Tuesday of January in odd-numbered years. The membership of the senate is limited to 40, and that of the house of representatives to 125. Senators are elected for four years and representatives for two years. In regular sessions not exceeding fifty days and in special sessions not exceeding thirty days the members of both houses are paid three dollars a day besides an allowance for travelling expenses, but they receive no compensation for the extra time of longer sessions. In 1908 a direct primary law was passed applicable to all nominations except for presidential electors, school district officers and officers in cities of less than 5000 inhabitants; like public elections the primaries are made a public charge; nomination is by petition signed by a certain percentage (for state office, at least 1%; for district office, at least 2%; for sub-district or county office, at least 3%) of the party vote; the direct nominating system applies to the candidates for the United States Senate, the nominee chosen by the direct primaries of each party being the nominee of the party.
The judicial power is vested in one supreme court, thirty-eight district courts, one probate court for each county, and two or more justices of the peace for each township. All justices are elected: those of the supreme court, seven in number, for six years, two or three every two years; those of the district courts for four years; and those of the probate courts and the justices of the peace for two years. The more important affairs of each county are managed by a board of commissioners, who are elected by districts for four years, but each county elects also a clerk, a treasurer, a probate judge, a register of deeds, a sheriff, a coroner, an attorney, a clerk of the district court, and a surveyor, and the district court for the county appoints a county auditor. The township officers, all elected for two years, are a trustee, a clerk, a treasurer, two or more justices of the peace, two constables and one road overseer for each road district. Cities are governed under a general law, but by this law they are divided into three classes according to size, and the government is different for each class. Those having a population of more than 15,000 constitute the first class, those having a population of more than 2000 but not more than 15,000 constitute the second class, and those having a population not exceeding 2000 constitute the third class. Municipal elections are far removed from those of the state, being held in odd-numbered years in April. In cities of the first class the state law requires the election of a mayor, city clerk, city treasurer, police judge and councilmen; in those of the second class it requires the election of a mayor, police judge, city treasurer, councilmen, board of education, justices of the peace and constables; and in those of the third class it requires the election of a mayor, police judge and councilmen. Several other offices provided for in each class are filled by the appointment of the mayor.
The principal grounds for a divorce in Kansas are adultery, extreme cruelty, habitual drunkenness, abandonment for one year, gross neglect of duty, and imprisonment in the penitentiary as a felon subsequent to marriage, but the applicant for a divorce must have resided in the state the entire year preceding the presentment of the petition. A married woman has the same rights to her property after marriage as before marriage, except that she is not permitted to bequeath away from her husband more than one-half of it without his written consent, and no will made by the husband can affect the right of the wife, if she survive him, to one-half of the property of which he died seized. Whenever a husband dies intestate, leaving a farm or a house and lot in a town or city which was the residence of the family at his death, his widow, widow and children, or children alone if there be no widow, may hold the same as a homestead to the extent of 160 acres if it be a farm, or one acre if it be a town or city lot. A homestead of this size is exempt from levy for the debts of the intestate except in case of an incumbrance given by consent of both husband and wife, or of obligations for purchase money, or of liens for making improvements, and the homestead of a family cannot be alienated without the joint consent of husband and wife. The homestead status ceases, however, whenever the widow marries again or when all the children arrive at the age of majority. An eight-hour labour law was passed in 1891 and was upheld by the state supreme court. In 1909 a law was passed for state regulation of fire insurance rates (except in the case of farmers’ mutuals insuring farm property only) and forbidding local discrimination of rates within the state. In the same year a law was passed requiring that any corporation acting as a common carrier in the state must receive the permission of the state board of railway commissioners for the issue of stocks, bonds or other evidences of indebtedness.
The manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors except for medical, scientific and mechanical purposes were prohibited by a constitutional amendment adopted in 1880. The Murray liquor law of 1881, providing for the enforcement of the amendment, was declared constitutional by the state supreme court in 1883. At many sessions of the legislature its enemies vainly attempted its repeal. It was more seriously threatened in 1890 by the “Original Package Decision,” of the United States Supreme Court, the decision, namely, that the state law could not apply to liquor introduced into Kansas from another state and sold from the original package, such inter-state commerce being within the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress. That body thereupon gave Kansas the power needed, and its action was upheld by the Federal Supreme Court. The enforcement of the law has varied, however, enormously according to the locality. In 1906–1907 a fresh crusade to enforce the law was begun by the attorney-general, who brought ouster suits against the mayors of Wichita, Junction City, Pittsburg and Leavenworth for not enforcing the law and for replacing it with the “fine” system, which was merely an irregular licence. In 1907 the attorney-general’s office turned its attention to outside brewing companies doing business in the state and secured injunctions against such breweries doing business in the state and the appointment of receivers of their property. The provision of the law permitting the sale of whisky for medicinal, scientific or mechanical purposes was repealed by a law of 1909 prohibiting the sale, manufacture or barter of spirituous, malt, vinous or any other intoxicating liquors within the state. The severity of this law was ascribed to efforts of the liquor interests to render it objectionable.
The constitution forbids the contraction of a state debt exceeding $1,000,000. The actual debt on the 30th of June 1908 was $605,000, which was a permanent school fund. Taxation is on the general-property system. The entire system has been—as in other states where it prevails—extremely irregular and arbitrary as regards local assessments, and very imperfect; and the figures of total valuation (in 1880 $160,570,761, in 1890 $347,717,218, in 1906 $408,329,749, and in 1908, when it was supposed to be the actual valuation of all taxable property, $2,453,691,859), though significant of taxation methods, are not significant of the general condition or progress of the state.
Education.—Of higher educational institutions, the state supports the university of Kansas at Lawrence (1866), an agricultural college at Manhattan (1863; aided by the United States government); a normal school at Emporia (1865), a western branch of the same at Hays (1902); a manual training normal school (1903) at Pittsburg, western university (Quindaro) for negroes and the Topeka industrial and educational institute (1896, reorganized on the plan of Tuskegee institute in 1900) also for negroes. The university of Kansas was organized in 1864 and opened in 1866. Its engineering department was established in 1870, its normal department in 1876 (abolished 1885), its department of music in 1877, its department of law in 1878, and the department of pharmacy in 1885; in 1891 the preparatory department was abolished and the university was reorganized with “schools” in place of the former “departments.” In 1899 a school of medicine was established, in connexion with which the Eleanor Taylor Bell memorial hospital was erected in 1905. In 1907–1908 the university had a faculty of 211, an enrolment of 2063 (1361 men and 702 women); the university library contained 60,000 volumes and 37,000 pamphlets. An efficient compulsory education law was passed in 1903. Kansas ranks very high among the states in its small percentage of illiteracy (inability to write)—in 1900 only 2.9% of persons at least ten years of age; the figures for native whites, foreign whites and negroes being respectively 1.3, 8.5, 22.3. In addition to the state schools, various flourishing private or denominational institutions are maintained. The largest
