On March 1, 1917, Governor Keith Neville, and the Supreme Court of Nebraska, consisting of Chief Justice Morrissey, Associate Justices Cornish, Dean, Hamer, Letton, Rose, and Sedgwick, assembled in joint convention with the legislature, and officially observed the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Nebraska to statehood.
   Beginning with a great historical parade, reviewed by President Wilson, at Omaha, in September, 1916, and continuing with suitable exercises in each county of the state, the semi-centennial program continued until June, 1917, closing with a comprehensive historical pageant at Lincoln and an address by Colonel Roosevelt.
   But the judicial history of Nebraska reaches back to the territorial days. On May 30, 1854, President Pierce signed the Nebraska-Kansas bill, which concluded the ten-year struggle led by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois to form the territory of Nebraska. Shortly thereafter the first territorial court was formed. The first chief justice, Fenner Ferguson of Albion, Michigan, reached Nebraska on October 11, 1854, and his associates, James Bradley and Edward R. Harden, came within the next few weeks. In the thirteen years of its existence the Nebraska territorial court had four chief justices, Fenner Ferguson, Augustus Hall, William Pitt Kellogg, and William Kellogg. Besides Justices Bradley and Harden, heretofore mentioned, there were six other associate justices: Justices Joseph Miller, William F. Lockwood, Joseph E. Streeter, Samuel W. Black, who resigned in 1859 to become territorial governor of Nebraska; Elmer S. Dundy, who later became United States district judge for Nebraska; and Honorable Eleazer Wakeley, the "Nestor of the Nebraska bar," who was still practicing law in Omaha at ninety years of age, when he died in 1912.
   The first state constitution, adopted in 1866 provided for a supreme court to consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, elected for six-year terms. They were required to hold one term of court annually at the seat of government, and the state was divided into three judicial districts. In addition to the duty of hearing cases on appeal, rendering decisions, and preparing opinions in the Supreme Court, each justice acted as trial judge in the district court, which was the court of general law and equity jurisdiction. During the nine years this system prevailed the state had only the Union Pacific main line and a few other short lines of railroad, touching but a few counties out of the territory now comprising ninety-three counties. It is recorded that some of the judges were required to travel ten thousand miles in a year going to and from their trial courts, most of which had to be done by stage coach, by buckboard, or on horseback.
   In 1875, when the present constitution of the state was adopted, it was provided that "the judicial power of this state shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts, county courts, justices of the peace, police magistrates, and in such other courts inferior to the district courts as may be created by law for cities and incorporated towns." It was also provided that the Supreme Court should consist of three members, and the judge having the shortest term to serve, not holding his office by appointment or election to fill vacancy, should serve as chief justice, By this system of rotation, which continued until 1908, the first fourteen justices of the Nebraska Supreme Court served from one to four times as chief justice of the state.
   In 1908, the court was increased by constitutional amendment to seven members, consisting of a chief justice and six associate justices. Provision was also made for the separate election of a chief justice. The court now stands at the head of a judicial system which has grown until there are eighteen judicial districts with thirty-two trial judges, and the state has a network of county (probate), municipal, and justice courts.
   In the fifty years of its existence, the Nebraska State Supreme Court has had but

twenty-four members. Seven of these are serving at the present time. Six ex-justices of the court are still living, and all actively practicing law in Nebraska (except one now serving on board of control of state institutions), two in Lincoln, one in Omaha, and one each in Seward and Columbus, and the eleven deceased justices were all residents of Nebraska at the time of their death, and, as yet, but one judge has permanently removed to some other state after his term of service as a member of Nebraska's Supreme Court.
   Although Nebraska has never yet elevated one of her native sons to her high bench, five of her judges were first admitted to the prac-

ANDREW M. MORRISSEY

Chief justice

tice in the courts of Nebraska, several others practiced less than one year in some other state before locating in Nebraska, and only three of the twenty-four judges were past thirty years of age when they came to this state.
   Not only have the members of the court been essentially Nebraskan in their legal careers, but every member except one was born in the United States, and he came to Nebraska in boyhood. New York was the native state of Nebraska's first three judges, Lake, Mason, and Crounse; her justice of longest service, Maxwell, and her present chief justice, Morrissey. Illinois was the birthplace of six:

Justices Norval, Reese, Sedgwick, Sullivan, Root, and Aldrich. From Pennsylvania hailed Judges Gantt, Post, Rose, and Hollenbeck; and from Ohio, Judges Harrison, Barnes, and Hamer. Indiana furnished justices Cobb and Holcomb; Wisconsin, Judge Fawcett; Iowa, Judge Cornish; and Missouri, Judge Dean; while Judge Letton first saw the light among the heathered hills of Scotland.
   In 1866, Judges George B. Lake, Lorenzo Crounse, and William A. Little were elected to form the first state court. Judge Little died before he could qualify for the office, and Honorable Oliver P. Mason was appointed the third member of the first court. Judge Mason became the first chief justice and served six years. In 1873, Judges Mason and Crounse were succeeded by Daniel Gantt as chief justice and Samuel Maxwell as associate justice.
   The first five judges, Lake, Crounse, Mason, Gantt, and Maxwell, had all served as members of the territorial legislature, and all except Gantt as members of from one to three constitutional conventions. So it may well be said of this group of five founders of Nebraska's jurisprudence, that they assisted in all parts of the task of laying the foundation of the state, both enacting and administering its laws, forming its constitutions and shaping its policy.
   Chief Justice Mason settled at Nebraska City in 1855, and had a long active career in the state until his death in 1891. His marked power and individuality are stamped upon the early opinions of this court. He prepared the first important opinion handed down by the Nebraska court, in Bradshaw v. Omaha, 1 Neb., 16, which declared unconstitutional an act of the legislature extending the city limits of Omaha to include property not reasonably urban property, and authorizing the city to tax such land in aid of a railroad. His keen perception and vigorous expression were disclosed in his dissenting opinion in People ex rel. Tennant v. Parker, 3 Neb., 409, 19 Am. Rep., 634. His associates, Judges Crounse and Lake, each wrote an opinion holding that a proclamation by the executive convening a special session of the legislature might be revoked by a second proclamation. During the absence of the secretary of state, who was acting governor in the place of the regularly elected governor, who had been impeached, the president of the senate issued such a proclamation. Upon his return to the state, the secretary of state revoked the first proclamation.
   Judge Crounse was only thirty-two years of age when he was placed upon the first Supreme Court of Nebraska. In the thirty-six years intervening between his retirement from the bench and his death, he served four years in Congress, as assistant secretary of the treasury under President Harrison, and as governor of the state in 1892-1893. His opinion in Brittle v. People, 2 Neb., 198, stands as a monument to his work as a jurist. This opinion stated with clearness the history of the formation and adoption of the constitution of 1866, and the condition imposed upon Nebraska by Congress to secure admission, that there should be no denial of the elective franchise, or of any other right, to any persons by reason of race or color, excepting Indians not taxed.
   Born during the administration of John Quincy Adams, and dying eighty-four years later during President Taft's administration, Judge Lake filled out fifty-four years of that long, busy career in Nebraska. He left Ohio after five years of practice, and came to this state two years after its formation as a territory. Ten years later he was chosen as a member of the first state court, and was reëlected at each recurring election until he had served sixteen years, and he then declined further service. A lineal descendant of Roger Williams, he showed an indomitable spirit of independence and perseverance that became such lineage. In his opinion in Pleuler v. State, 11 Neb., 547, 10 N. W., 481, upholding the constitutionality of the Slocumb liquor taw, he showed keen perception of the rights, powers, and duties of the several departments of the government, recognizing the line of demarcation between each, and confirming them by judicial decision. His opinion in the Pleuler case clearly defined the rules of law upon which Nebraska based her strict regulation of

the liquor traffic for thirty-six years, or until the adoption of the prohibition amendment in 1916.
   Judge Gantt came to Nebraska from Pennsylvania in 1857; practicing law and holding office in territorial days, he served the last three years of his life as chief justice of the state. He was succeeded in 1878 by General Amasa Cobb, who remained on the court for fourteen years. Born in 1923, a native of Indiana, General Cobb served with distinction in the Mexican War, and commanded two different Wisconsin regiments in the Civil War. He also served Wisconsin in its state Senate, and in the national Congress before coming to Nebraska in 1870.
   Judge Samuel Maxwell became a member of the court in 1872, and so remained for twenty-two years, serving longer than any other member in the court's history, being chief justice four times. Judge Maxwell came to Nebraska in 1855, returned to Michigan for a legal education, and upon admission in 1859 came back to Nebraska and entered the practice. After his retirement from the bench he served in Congress. In addition to the arduous duties as a member of the court, Judge Maxwell was the author of Nebraska Digest of 1877; Maxwell's Justice Practice; Code Pleading; Criminal Procedure, and Pleading and Practice. All of these works still stand out as Nebraska's standard works and guides on procedure, practice, and forms in their respective lines. Judge Maxwell contributed to Nebraska's jurisprudence not only the longest term of service, but his wonderful dispatch of business, his ability to grasp the controling (sic) question at issue and to discern the real merits of the controversy, assured an administration of justice in application of sound legal principles for the many years he served on the bench.
   Supreme judges were elected in Nebraska on partisan tickets until 1914. Nineteen of the twenty-four members of this court have been affiliated with the Republican party, and the only two Democrats elected to this position prior to 1914, Judges Holcomb and Sullivan, were swept in on the crest of the Democratic-Populist fusion waves of 1898 and 1900.
   In 1884, Judge Lake was succeeded by Judge Manoah B. Reese of Wahoo, who served six years, and in 1908 was returned to the supreme bench, serving for seven years as the first chief justice after the abolishment of the rotation system. Judge Reese had been a member of the constitutional convention of 1875 and one of the early district attorneys of the state. After his retirement from the bench he practised (sic) law in Lincoln until his death on September 29, 1917. Judge Reese was followed on the court in 1896 by Judge T. L. Norval of Seward, whose successor was Judge Samuel H. Sedgwick of York, who is now serving a third term on the court. Judge Cobb was succeeded in 1892 by Judge A. M. Post of Columbus, who was followed in 1898 by another member of the Columbus bar, Judge John J. Sullivan, who has, since his retirement, twice declined appointment to vacancies on the court. Judge John B. Barnes of Norfolk came to the court in 1904 and served for thirteen years.
   Judge Maxwell left his place on the bench in 1894 and was succeeded by Judge T. 0. C. Harrison of Grand Island, who was in turn succeeded in 1900 by former Governor Silas A. Holcomb of Broken Bow, and he was succeeded in 1906 by Judge Charles B. Letton of Fairbury, who still remains a member of the court.
   In 1908, when the court was enlarged by constitutional amendment to seven members, the four new places were taken by Judges William B. Rose of Lincoln, who is a member of the present court; James R. Dean of Broken Bow, who returned to the supreme bench in January, 1917; Jesse L. Root of Plattsmouth, who was succeeded in 1912 by Francis G. Harmer of Kearney, who served until his death in July, 1918; and Jacob Fawcett of Omaha, who retired from the bench in 1917. Judge Albert J. Cornish of Lincoln came to the court in January, 1917. Chief Justice Reese was succeeded in 1915 by Judge Conrad Hollenbeck of Fremont, who was the first member of the court elected on the non-partisan ballot. He died ten days after taking the oath of office. The present chief justice, Andrew M. Morrissey of Lincoln, was appointed

by the governor as his successor, and was elected to succeed himself in 1916, making the second chief justice to be elected as a "nonpartisan." At the same election, three associate justices were elected in the same way. Ex-Governor Chester H. Aldrich was elected in November, 1918, and took office in December to complete Judge Harmer's term.
   At three periods in the history of Nebraska, a supreme court commission has been provided to hear argument and dispose of certain classes of cases. The present commission, formed in 1915, consists of Chairman William C. Parriott of Auburn, Grant G. Martin, formerly of Fremont, and Fred 0. McGirr of Beatrice. Five of the twenty-two members of the two preceding commissions afterwards became supreme judges, and among the other seventeen were Honorable Frank Irvine, now of the New York Public Utilities Commission; Dr. Roscoe Pound, dean of Harvard law college; Judge C. S. Lobinger of the United States Court for China; and Judge W. G.

CHARLES B. LETTON & WILLIAM B. ROSE

Associate Justices

Hastings, dean of Nebraska University law college.
   The court has at its command the second largest state library in the country, affording access to all of the adjudicated cases of courts of last resort, commissions, and various tribunals throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and practically every foreign nation. In her procedure, Nebraska is one of the group of "Code" states which follow the general rules of construction and liberal forms of pleading advanced by New York, though the codes of Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa have had a marked influence on Nebraska jurisprudence.
   The first case filed in the State Supreme Court of Nebraska, on September 6, 1867, Roush v. Verges, was later dismissed. The first case reported, 1 Neb., 3, was Mattis v. Robinson, filed in the territorial court as No. 154, and tried before territorial Judge Lockwood. It was argued by J. M. Woolworth and A. J. Poppleton of Omaha, who became

two of Nebraska's most eminent lawyers. Judge Crounse delivered the opinion, dealing with the right of a tenant to deny the relation and assail the landlord's title. The first criminal case reported, 1 Neb., 11, 93 Am. Dec., 325, was People v. Loughridge, relating to the bringing into this state by a thief of property stolen in another state.
   Nebraska is recognized as one of the leading states in agriculture. The sandhill region of central Nebraska has developed into a great stock-raising "range." But Nebraska has the largest creamery in the country; its largest city, Omaha, ranks first in butter and dairy business and third as a stockyard and meat packing center; western Nebraska has several large sugar-beet factories; potash fields now threaten to out rival the wealth-producing oil wells that skirt the western border of the state, and all of the larger cities and towns of the state have numerous factories. So the Nebraska court gives attention to not only the same general line of cases as other agricultural states, but in some degree meets with such problems of litigation as come to the courts of large manufacturing and industrial states. Futhermore (sic) the wide diversity of climatic and soil conditions between the rich "Missouri Valley" and high arid altitude of the western "Panhandle" of the state causes Nebraska jurisprudence to present the unusual result of the same state court considering many drainage cases on one hand, and formu-

FRANCIS G. HAMER & JAMES R. DEAN

Associate justices

lating a line of irrigation law on the other hand.
   Nebraska has kept in the vanguard of the procession of progressive legislation of the past decade. This state ten years ago adopted the anti-pass laws and other strict regulatory matters relating to railroads and public utilities in general. In Chollette v. Omaha & R. Valley R. Co., 26 Neb., 159, 41 N. W., 1106, 4 Am. Neg. Cas., 835, 4 L. R. A., 135, it was held that a railroad could not escape duties imposed by law or liability for its acts, by selling the stock, or transferring the ownership or management of the road to another railroad or corporation. In Chicago, R. I. & P.

R. Co. v. Zernecke, 59 Neb., 689, 82 N. W., 26, 7 Am. Neg. Rep., 447, 55 L. W. A., 610, a statute was sustained which made carriers insurers of the safety of their passengers as they were of baggage and freight, and created a presumption that the accident was caused by the negligence of the carrier or by its wrongful act, neglect, or default. In that case proof was excluded that the injury had occured (sic) to the passenger in a wreck caused by a third person. The court sustained the anti-pass law of 1907, in State v. Mon P. R. Co., 87 Neb., 29, 126 N. W., 859, 31 L. R. A. (N. S.), 657, and prevented not only free fares but special contracts furnishing transportation in exchange for newspaper advertising and special services. A common carrier of live stock is prevented from relieving itself of liability for negligence by special contracts with the shipper. Jeffries v. Chicago, B. & 0. R. Co., 88 Neb., 268, 129 N. W., 273. in State ex rel. Webster v. Nebraska Teleph. Co., 17 Neb., 126, 52 Am. Rep., 404, 22 N. W., 237, it was held that a telephone company is a public servant, and

ALBERT J. CORNISH & SAMUEL H. SEDGWICK

can be mandamused (sic) to supply the public without discrimination. A statute fixing maximum charges by telegraph companies was long preceded by a decision in Western U. Telegr. Co. v. State, 86 Neb., 17, 124 N. W., 937, holding that telegraph companies are subject to acts relating to the prevention of abuses, extortions, and unjust discriminations by common carriers. An act fixing maximum rates for express companies was upheld in State v. Adams Exp. Co., 85 Neb., 25, 122 N. W., 691, 42 L. R. A. (N. S.), 396.
   Nebraska has the direct primary law, initiative and referendum, state guaranty of bank deposits, employers' liability and workmen's compensation, "blue sky" and warehouse regulatory legislation, regulation of employment agencies and bureaus, nine-hour workday for women, child labor, and an unexcelled group of laws relating to food, drug, oil, hotel, and fire inspection. In the case of Re Arrigo, 98 Neb., 134, 152 N. W., 319, L. R. A., 1917A, 1116, the court held it within the police power of the state to forbid as "'misbranding" the

inclosure of gifts, premiums, and prizes in food packages. This prevents the insertion of toys, tickets, dishes, pictures, and advertising matter in crackerjack, coffees, oatmeal, and other food articles. The Nebraska court recently affirmed a large judgment for damages resulting from a violation of the state antitrust law, through a combination and conspiracy of coal dealers to drive another dealer out of business. Marsh-Burke Co. v. Yost, 98 Neb., 523, 153 N. W., 573. Agricultural and live stock interests in Nebraska are, safe-guarded with a pure-seed law which is unexcelled in any state, and a law creating an administrative live-stock sanitary board, and strict quarantine and serum laws. The court sustained the validity of the law creating such a board and designating its powers in Iams v. Mellor, 93 Neb., 438, 140 N. W., 784.
   The common law was applied to the rights of riparian owners in Meng v. Coffee, 67 Neb., 500, 108 Am. St. Rep., 697, 93 N. W., 713, 60 L. R. A., 910, and in Crawford Co. v. Hathaway (Crawford Co. v. Hall), 67 Neb., 325, 108 Am. St. Rep., 647, 93 N. W., 781, 60 L. R. A., 889, decided on the same day as Meng v. Coffee. It was said: "The two doctrines of water rights, one the right of a riparian proprietor, and the other the right of appropriation and application to a beneficial use by a nonriparian owner, may exist in the state at the same time, and both do exist concurrently in this state." The rapid development of irrigation is bringing on a line of decisions, which began back with Com. Power Co. v. State Board, 94 Neb., 613, 143 N. W., 937, and Enterprise Irrig. Dist. v. Tri-State Land Co., 92 Neb., 121, 138 N. W., 171.
   In 1916 the Nebraska court upheld the validity of a statute restricting the rate of interest to be charged by money lenders and loan sharks. Althaus v. State, 99 Neb., 465, 156 N. W., 1038.
   In insurance matters, the valued policy law was held good in Lancashire Ins. Co. v. Bush, 60 Neb., 116, 82 N. W., 313, and recovery in case of total loss restricted to the value of the property named in the insurance contract; and in McElroy v. Metropolitan L. Ins. Co., 84 Neb., 866, 122 N. W., 27, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.), 968, note, where parties to an insurance contract are in different jurisdictions, the place where the last necessary act is done is held to be the situs of the contract.
   Since Pleuler v. State, 11 Neb., 547, 10 N. W., 481, regulating the license of liquor sales, the Nebraska court has passed upon many cases involving suits upon the bonds of liquor dealers. In Luther v. State, 83 Neb., 455, 120 N. W., 125, 20 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1146 note, 15 R. C. L., 246, it was held that the statute prohibited the sale of malt liquors without a license, whether intoxicating or not.
   Two of the most interesting decisions made by this court in criminal cases are Brott v. State, 70 Neb., 395, 97 N. W., 593, 63 L. R. A., 789, wherein the conduct and behavior of bloodhounds was held not to be admissible as evidence to prove the scent of the accused and that of the perpetrator of the crime to be identical; and Schultz v. State, 89 Neb., 34, 130 N. W., 972, Ann. Cas., 1912C, 495, 33 L. R. A. (N. S.), 403, wherein defendant was found guilty of manslaughter for killing a person while running an automobile at an unlawful rate of speed. The most celebrated criminal case in the early history of Nebraska was Olive v. State, 11 Neb., 17 N. W., 444, a murder case growing out of the long struggle between the cattle ranchmen and the early homesteaders. Among the counsel in the case were Chief Justice Mason, ex-Congressman Neville, father of the state's governor 1917-1919, and the late Justice Hamer. One of the interesting cases in the political history of the state was State ex rel. Thayer v. Boyd, 31 Neb., 682, 48 N. W., 739, 51 N. W., 602 (143 U. S., 135, 36 L. ed. 103, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep., 375), in which the right of Governor Boyd to that office was contested by his predecessor, Governor Thayer, because Boyd's citizenship was questioned. Governor Boyd was ousted from office and later restored on the final decision of the case by the Supreme Court of the United States.
   An early interpretation by this court of a strict regulatory law was in Halter v. State, 74 Neb., 757, 121 Am. St. Rep., 754, 105 N. W.,

298, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1079 (affirmed in 205 U. S., 34, 51 L. ed. 696, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep., 419, 10 Ann. Cas., 525), wherein the court sustained an act prohibiting the use of the national flag for advertising purposes. In that case the flag was desecrated by making it part of a trade mark placed upon beer bottles.
   The reported decisions of the Nebraska Supreme Court cover 101 volumes of Nebraska reports. On September 20, 1917, the number of cases filed in this court had reached 20,333, a volume of business approximately equal to many older and more populous states, such as Minnesota, Kansas, Louisiana. The number of volumes of decisions published in Nebraska exceeds that of many of the older states, and more than six hundred decisions of this court have passed the critical censorship of L. R. A.'s editorial staff, and by publication of citation in that series been placed at the immediate command of the bar of the whole country and sister nations.