A New Governor & New Laws for a Young State

Addressing all those needs with a tight budget and no tax revenue from coal or oil

Five years had passed since 1890, when the American frontier had been declared closed and Wyoming became a State. Cattlemen and sheepmen were fighting over the increasingly crowded open range, settlers continued to move into the stockmen's turf, and growing numbers of wolves found the herds easier pickings than the fleet elk and antelope. Overgrazing threatened to destroy the nutritious grasses of the range itself. With intelligent guidance and irrigation, large areas could be turned by settlers into productive farms, and these land issues were addressed by the administration of Governor William A. Richards and the first steps taken to solve them. But there were many other concerns. In his first Message to the Third State Legislature, Richards made numerous recommendations: some became laws, some did not, and others were the of the solons themselves.

Eleven Territorial Legislative Assemblies had convened since 1869, but the legislature of 1895 was only Wyoming's third as a state. A lot had to be done to establish or complete key institutions and attract badly needed population. The first state legislature, which adjourned in January 1891, had passed 102 bills and 19 "memorials" to Congress or resolutions in its two-month session, and it had elected two senators, Joseph M. Carey and Francis E. Warren. The second state legislature was consumed by the contest over Warren's senate seat, adjourning with no senator chosen and only 33 bills and four resolutions or memorials passed.
During the first few years of statehood it became evident that many of those laws should be revised and new ones added. After a desultory start that was criticized by the press, the 1895 legislature chalked up a total of 126 bills and 15 resolutions/memorials. Here are a few highlights from the discussion that follows.

Long on needs, short of money:

Some of those measures would require funding, yet the state budget would have to be cut because the depression had sharply reduced revenue from the inadequate tax base. How could Wyoming run the government, provide basic services, and also establish the charitable and cultural institutions required by this State that was still largely on the frontier? Budget woes pointed up the need for new sources of revenue and for reform of the existing system: some citizens liable for property taxes were not paying their share, and other sources of revenue, such as corporation filing fees or a tax on coal output, were not bringing in what they could. Richards urged certain changes, and some were made during and after his administration, but Wyoming's tax system was still ripe for thorough reform a decade after he left office. To bring about fair and uniform taxation across the state, and reduce evasion, the legislature voted in 1909 to create the office of State Tax Commissioner. Entrusted with the job was a former governor, William A. Richards.

Hope from minerals:

Coal was the only mineral mined in any quantity in 1895 Wyoming, but others such as trona and precious metals showed great promise. Given the staggering underground wealth of Colorado and other western states, Wyoming expected that another gold rush was just around the corner. Tantalizing discoveries at old South Pass goldfields, along with reports that the legendary Lost Cabin mine had been found, fired new hopes during Richards's administration, including his own.

Whose land is it?

As small stockmen began leasing state lands in order to have their own spreads, Richards, State Engineer Elwood Mead, and other state officials including the legislature tried to get the federal government to part with some of the fifty million acres it owned in Wyoming-three-quarters of the state's entire territory-for leasing. This would take time. So would cutting the livestock industry's losses to wolves: the bounty system wasn't working despite frequent tinkering with the rewards.

Promoting irrigation:

The federal government, based in the East, clung to rosy visions of farm homesteads, even though most of the West was too dry for anything but stock grazing. Since few crops could be grown without irrigation, Senator Joseph M. Carey had sponsored an act that would grant any arid state a million acres of government land if it would cause that land to be irrigated. Richards, quoting [IDENTIFY] State Engineer Elwood Mead at length, urged the legislature to accept the donation. The controversy over the Carey Act that played out during the electoral campaign of 1894 continued into the Third Legislature, but the fight ended with Wyoming becoming the first state to accept the million acres.

The promise shown by the initial Carey Act projects, along with furor over the forest reserves and the increasing problems on the range, led to Richards, Mead, and others renewing their efforts to have the federal government cede all its remaining millions of unclaimed acres to the states. Many opposed cession, but those in favor were convinced that state management of all that land would hasten western development. The legislatures passed "memorials" to Congress urging cession, and other forms of petition and protest would emerge as Richards's term wore on.

Washington would continue to resist granting federal lands to the states except in dribs and drabs, but the Wyoming legislature adopted other measures recommended by Governor Richards, including laws establishing -

a veterans' home · the state historical society · a state general library · free textbooks
in schools, and the embryos of the state museum and Hot Springs State Park.
A new game law was passed to help conserve the dwindling numbers of game animals.
That led to the troubles with the Bannocks, which Richards defused.
The crisis led to a Supreme Court decision over the question of treaty rights
vs. state laws, questions still in dispute today.

This legislature also took the final step in creating one of the most effective and
enduring state delegations ever to serve in Congress.

Other highlights of Richards's administration were the Spanish-American War, the pardon of Butch Cassidy, and expositions to help publicize the wonders of Wyoming.

First up, though, is the work of the Legislatures.

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Once the inaugural festivities had faded away, the governor and legislature got down to business the day after the inauguration-but not until noon, giving members time to clear their heads and the janitors time to clear the trampled flowers and other remnants of the revelry out of the senate and house chambers.

There was no sleeping in at the Richards household. The governor, a surveyor and rancher, believed in early rising, so the family was rousted out of bed on this winter morning to don their finery again for a visit to a photographer.1 Richards had work to do anyway: finishing the message to the legislature that he was due to deliver the next day.

The address about the state of the State was supposed to have been presented by the outgoing governor, John E. Osborne. But Osborne said he had nothing to report, according to Richards's daughter Alice. This important task fell instead to the new man on the job. Richards had been somewhat at sea as a candidate, but he firmly grasped the helm of the ship of state, rising to this challenge with a thorough review of finances and so many other crucial matters. Most of his recommendations were based on the reports of state officials, but some apparently were his own ideas.*
*Osborne also did not make his correspondence available to his successor, resulting in some important bills not being introduced in time.2  Osborne was reported to have stayed in town for the legislature, but if he attended the session, it wasn't reported in available newspapers.
A synopsis of the message, and the ceremony attending its delivery on January 9, 1895, dominated page one of The Cheyenne Daily Leader the next day. (The Cheyenne Daily Sun had much less, perhaps by agreement.) On hand were not only the state senators and representatives but also the state officers and the chaplains and clerks of both houses. Governor Richards was waiting outside, undoubtedly with some nervousness. It was moved and seconded that two senators and two representatives be appointed "to notify the governor that the legislature was prepared to hear any communication he might make."

While they were solemnly discharging that duty, House Speaker Jay L. Torrey walked to the rear of the chamber and escorted Mrs. Richards to a seat on the platform that had been built for officials and other guests. The Leader noted,

Governor Richards was received with customary honors. Without delay he began reading his message, which occupied about one and a half hours.* (FN got lost somewhere)
What would have been a tedious and wearisome affair was made a positive pleasureby the governor's direct business-like statements of facts, rendering every section as clearly cut as a cameo. [It was] a bulky document but full of meat. The governor has developed a direct, practical way of taking up things that strongly commends itself and the suggestions which he makes will have much to do in shaping legislation. In the lines along which legislation will probably proceed there are few men in the state who have had proper experience. The governor will therefore be in a position to render valuable service to the state.

No criticism of his message could be found in the few Democratic newspapers of which copies still exist, nor in items from those papers reprinted in kindred publications-an indirect compliment? The Newcastle Democrat went so far as to praise it.1

Gov. Richards has kindly sent us a copy of his message to the legislature. It shows care in its preparation and if the legislature has followed his advice they have done very well.
The legislature did follow his advice on numerous bills, but the Democrat then decided none of them were worth mentioning.

Avoiding another 1893
Richards concluded his first message to the legislature by reminding it of its most .important task, the election of two U. S. Senators.

Owing to the failure of the Second State Legislature to elect a successor to Senator Francis E. Warren, Wyoming has been represented by but one Senator since March 4th, 1893. It will be your duty to fill the existing vacancy and also to elect a successor to Senator Joseph M. Carey, whose term expires March 4th, 1895. Balloting for the election of both Senators must begin on Tuesday, January 22nd. As the election of Senators often interferes very grievously with the other business of the Legislature, it is hoped that you may perform that duty without unnecessary delay.

Actually, they had already performed that duty, but Richards may not have seen any need to revise his message. The Republicans had caucused on the previous day-the first day of the legislature-and within half an hour had unanimously chosen Warren and Clarence D. Clark of Evanston.2 With few contenders still standing,*
*Unlike the large field of contenders in 1893, there were only four candidates still in the race, and two of them did not stand much of a chance. One of them was Joseph M. Carey, who had alienated himself from the rest of his party, leaving Warren a virtual shoo-in as Laramie County's senator. (It had become axiomatic that Cheyenne should no longer claim both Senate seats.) Once John C. Davis of Carbon County and Jay L. Torrey of Fremont County dropped out, Judge Melville C. Brown of Albany County was Clark's only remaining rival as the senator from outside Cheyenne, and Albany's only hope for a senator. With Republicans outnumbering Democrats 48-7, the caucus effectively decided who would be elected come January 22. Carey's attempts to "break down the effects of the caucus" came to naught.3 (For more about other candidates and why Carey was not renominated, see the January 8, 1895, Leader, on wyomingnewspapers.org)

there was little chance that the debacle of 1893 might be repeated, but the Republicans decided to caucus on the first day of the legislature anyway. "They realized that so long as the senatorial question hung fire they would be hampered in the transaction of their real duties," observed the Leader, "so they took the matter up at once in a direct and business like way and disposed of it for good."1 Was the caucus the brainchild of Willis Van Devanter, chairman of the Republican State Committee, who was on hand that day? If not, he would surely have pushed it.

Once the caucus was over, "Clark received first intelligence from Judge Van Devanter,*
  *Called Judge for his having served briefly as chief justice of the territorial supreme court, in 1889.
who phoned him from the Capitol as soon as the news of the caucus' action was learned outside the house chamber, where it was held," reported the Leader. Had he been puffing a cigar and pacing back and forth outside the door like an expectant father, which in a way he was? This particular blessed event-the return of Warren to the Senate-was the object of the campaign that Van Devanter had begun engineering about nine months earlier. Now he could celebrate with the victor and other well-wishers at the Senator-elect's nearby office,2 and the legislature could focus on law making.

"Warren and Clark will make a first-class senatorial team," declared the Leader. Its highly regarded editor, John F. Carroll, foresaw that their complementary abilities would benefit Wyoming. Congressman Frank W. Mondell would complete the triumvirate that would become one of the most effective delegations ever to work in Washington. Sometimes called the "Warren machine," it would serve the state until 1916, when Clark was defeated by Governor John B. Kendrick in Wyoming's first direct election of a Senator.** **The 1895 legislature passed a memorial to Congress urging direct election of U.S. Senators, but that had to wait until a constitutional amendment was passed, in 1913.

(Carey campaigned for Kendrick.) In 1896, Mondell lost his seat to former governor Osborne but won it back in 1898. "Our Frankie," as he came to be known, served as congressman until 1922, when he decided to run for the U. S. Senate. He lost-to Kendrick. Only then did this seasoned legislator study law and gain admission to the Bar. As for Francis E. Warren, nothing but death could part him from the Senate, and that would not come to pass until 1929.3

​

Running a state without tax revenue from coal mining
The other pressing issues before the legislature were long on complications, and the required funds would be in short supply because Wyoming's tax base had been reduced 8% by the depression that began in 1893. Since the State Constitution limited spending to revenues on hand-no deficits allowed-Governor Richards had no choice but to call for the reduction of expenses in all departments and the reform of the tax system.4

These were the days before the national and state governments began raising revenues through the taxes we are all too familiar with, such as income taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, and "surcharges." Wyoming in 1895 had to rely on property taxes and taxes voted for special purposes, and the rates of the special taxes were limited by the State Constitution.
(then a linked section)

Hands off taxing coal output
Today, when about half of state revenues come from minerals, it's hard to imagine a time when companies mining coal and other minerals paid no taxes on the treasure they extracted from state lands. The issue was not brought up in the new governor's 1895 message, but in 1897 Richards cited the article in the State Constitution requiring such taxes. "The provisions of this section of the Constitution not having been legislated upon[,] your attention is called to it as a means by which revenue may be increased."

Surprisingly, most press opinion supporting such taxation came from coal-mining counties, with papers from both parties advocating the idea. In the county seat of Carbon County, which had been named for the coal mining that was still an important local industry, The Rawlins Republican wrote,2

The annual output of the coal mines of this state exceeds two million tons-it was 2,163,187 tons in 1896. If a tax of a cent a ton was imposed it would bring a revenue of over $20,000 a year to the state from the coal mines alone besides a small revenue that would be derived from other mines of the state.

A tax of one cent per ton sounded like a pittance when the price of lump coal delivered to Wyoming consumers in towns along the Union Pacific Rail Road averaged about $5 per ton.3 Simple multiplication turns those 2.163 million tons into $10.8 million dollars. There was already a lot of resentment in the popular mind over the unfair labor practices and exorbitant shipping rates of the U.P. as the state's largest and most powerful corporation. Why shouldn't it be taxed on the output of its subsidiary, which owned the largest coal mines in the state?
Contrary to popular assumption, however, the profits of the Union Pacific Coal Company were modest: just 23.2 cents per ton per share in 1896.1 One cent per ton would skim about 5% off that profit at a time when the parent company was facing bankruptcy.

The report showed four years of steady decline in both mine output and company profit. Bond payments alone consumed about 75% of gross revenue. If the newspapers had any inkling of this public information, they didn't fly to the defense of the U.P. Support for taxing coal output also appeared in Rawlins's Democratic organ, the Carbon County Journal, and was quoted in a long editorial in The Wyoming Tribune (a Republican daily in Cheyenne) that was picked up by Democratic weeklies in the state's northern coal districts and perhaps other papers. The Tribune asserted that a tax of five cents a ton on coal would support state institutions, perhaps not realizing (or not caring) that five cents represented a fifth of the company's stated profit. The Newcastle Democrat2 reprinted the Tribune piece and in the next issue pointed out, "A tax of only five cents per ton on the coal output of the state of Wyoming would amount to $150,000."3
(then a linked section:?_)

Fortunately for Wyoming, revenue soon began flowing in from a source outside the turbid waters of taxation. Leasing of state lands for stock grazing had become a growing means of support for certain state institutions, and it was valuable in other ways enumerated by Mead, whose report Richards quoted at length in his 1897 message to the legislature.

In the right use of the grazing lands is to be found the solution of our most important agricultural problems. If the State could control these lands and lease them to farmers and stockmen in comparatively small tracts at a low rental, it would prevent the destruction of the native grasses now taking place, reduce taxes, provide ample revenue for county and state government, increase the profits of farmers, put an end to range conflicts, which now threaten the peace and prosperity of many communities, and place the stock interests of this State on a sound and enduring basis. The present open range does none of these things, and so long as continued renders the accomplishment of many of them impossible.

Leasing was so successful that the state soon ran out of the acres it had been granted when it joined the Union. For this and other reasons Richards and Mead stepped up the campaign to get the federal government to turn over its remaining public lands to the states. Among other benefits, leasing might then contribute a half-million dollars a year to state institutions. More about the efforts of Richards and Mead is in the [AN UPCOMING] chapter devoted to saving the stock industry, and more about leasing as a source of revenue for the support of state institutions appears later in this one.

Great hopes for the Carey Act
Wyoming and other arid states could receive a large land grant from the government, but it could not be used for stock grazing. Under the terms of an 1894 act sponsored Senator Carey, a million acres would be donated to any arid state that would cause the land to be irrigated, occupied, and cultivated by actual settlers on 160-acre tracts.4 Thousands of productive farms could expand Wyoming's industries beyond the main ones-stock raising and coal mining-and augment its population with solid citizens. But accepting the donation was the most controversial issue of Wyoming's 1895 legislature.

Despite the precautions written into the new law, many Democrats and Populists felt the federal government should control the distribution of these lands to ensure they went to bona-fide settlers. Opponents feared that if control were turned over to the state, the million acres would be fraudulently grabbed up by the wealthy and powerful who dominated state politics, and the little guy would end up as a tenant farmer.

In his message, Richards strongly urged acceptance in a long statement based on the observations and recommendations of Mead. The state's land laws were holding up its agricultural growth. "[N]ot less than one million dollars per year are sent out of Wyoming never to return, in payment for farm products that should be grown at home." There is a "vast wealth of land and water lying idle, side by side, awaiting only the magic touch of labor and capital, intelligently combined, to be coined into wealth What we need is more farmers."

After considerable wrangling the measure was passed, and Wyoming became the first state to accept the Carey Act donation. (In October, Colorado became the second.) In Wyoming, two ambitious irrigation projects were approved for the Big Horn Basin in 1895 amid much fanfare and optimism, among them one backed by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. (The fate of these and other Carey Act projects is discussed in its own FORTHCOMING chapter.)

LOTS more; how much to keep on this page?