NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
On-Line Library

     The constitution of 1875 provided for eight executive officers and the board of university regents. Section 26 of Article V of that constitution expressly forbade the creation of any other executive offices. In process of time new functions of government were assumed and the prohibition of the constitution was evaded by the creation of various boards and commissions having for their nominal head one or more of the constitutional state officers while the real work was done by deputies. In 1915 a bill was passed for an efficiency survey of state offices, appropriating $4,000 for such survey. The bill was vetoed by Governor John H. Morehead on the ground that the state board of control, the legislative reference bureau and the state accountant could do the work without an appropriation. In 1918 a plank in the republican state platform pledged the party to the enactment of a civil administrative code. The party was successful at the election and the legislature of 1919, after a very fierce and prolonged contest in which party lines were considerably broken, enacted the existing administrative code. A referendum petition against this act was circulated but owing to failure to comply with certain legal requirements the referendum failed to secure a place upon the official ballot and the code went into effect in July, 1919. The code law was also one of the issues in the election of 1920.

     Again in 1922 the code was a political issue, but a divided legislature failed to make any material amendment to the law. As the law now stands, the code eliminated eleven boards and commissions and ten other subdivisions of departments. It created the following six administrative departments: Finance, Agriculture, Trade and Commerce, Labor, Public Works and Public Welfare. These departments are administered by secretaries appointed by the Governor with the consent of the House and Senate. Each of these secretaries receives an annual salary of $5,000. The six departments are subdivided, the heads of each having various designations.

     The following pages give an account of the code departments as they now exist in the law, together with a history of each activity as it existed prior to the enactment of the administrative code.

	Salary
Secretary--H. J. McLaughlin	$5,000
BUREAUS
Foods, Drugs, and Oils -- Chief	O. V. McCracken

Sanitary Foods, Drugs, Oils, Gasoline, Cold Storage, Dairy, Cream Stations,       Hotels and Restaurants, Potato Inspection and Grading
Animal Industry -- Chief	Dr. C. H. Hays
Health of, Animals, Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication, Hog Cholera
Prevention, Scabies, Anthrax and Other Diseases.
Agricultural Statistics -- State and Federal Statistician	A. E. Anderson
Annual Agricultural Statistics, Monthly Crop Reports
Laboratory -- Chief Chemist     Checking Misbranded Foods, Chemical Analysis of Foods,       Gasoline and Oil Testing, Drugs and Paints	L. J. Kramer
Weights and Measures -- General Inspector	L. H. Shrimpton
Testing All Scales, Gasoline, and Oil Pumps and Measures
Seed Testing -- Seed Analyst	Elva Norris
Nebraska Weeds, Testing and Inspecting Seeds
Warehouse Division--Deputy Commissioner	H. A. Nelson

     1. To encourage and promote agriculture, horticulture, live stock, dairying, cheese making, poultry, bee keeping, forestry, fishing, and all other allied industries;
     2. To promote methods of conducting these industries with a view to increasing production and to facilitate distributon (sic) thereof at the least cost;
     3. To collect and publish statistics relating to crop production, marketing and farm economics, the production and marketing of all agricultural products so far as such statistical information may be of value to agricultural and allied interests of the state; to co-operate with the federal government in the matter of collecting such statistical information;

     4. To encourage the planting of trees and shrubs and the improvement of farm homes generally;
     5. To produce and manufacture biological products to be distributed to live stock producers at the actual cost thereof;
     6. To inquire into causes of contagious, infectious and -communicable diseases among domestic animals, and the means for the prevention and cure of the same,
     7. To see that live stock and stock yards, and other like places where live stock is confined, housed or fed, are properly cared for;
     8. To execute and enforce all laws relating to the inspection of foods, drugs, dairy products, oils, commission merchants, cider and vinegar; oleomargarine and butterine, sanitation of premises used or manufacturing and. preparation of foods, cold storage warehouses, paints, seeds, commercial feeding stuffs, live stock remedies, hotels and inns, weights and measures and commercial fertilizers, and from time to time promulgate such rules and regulations and adopt such standards as are necessary and proper to enforce the provisions of he several laws governing the activities of the departments.
     9. To license, inspect and regulate grain warehouses.

DAIRIES, FOODS, DRUGS, AND OILS

HISTORY

     The legislature of 1899 created the food, drug and dairy commission. The governor was food commissioner, with power to appoint a deputy. This law was replaced by a more inclusive act in 1907.

     The office of oil inspector was created by the legislature of 1887. The inspector and deputies were appointed by the governor. he legislature of 1909 repealed the existing law and designated the governor as oil inspector with power to appoint a deputy. This office was supported by fees collected. The legislature of 1913 consolidated the pure food and oil inspection business of the state in one office, of which the governor was commissioner, with power to appoint a deputy, a state chemist, food inspectors and other employees.

     The legislature of 1911 created a hotel commission with the governor as commissioner. The legislature of 1917 abolished this commission and transferred all its functions to the food commission. The law requires the annual inspection and registration of all hotels, rooming houses, apartment houses, and restaurants in the state, and the enforcement of suitable rules and regulations.

ACTIVITIES

     Inspects food distributing establishments, drugs, oils, hotels, dairies, dairy manufacturing establishments, enforces the laws concerning all the subjects under its supervision, and makes chemical and physical analysis of food, drugs, oils, paints, feeds, fertilizers, liquors, live stock remedies.

ANIMAL INDUSTRY

HISTORY

     A live stock sanitary board was created by an act approved March 5, 1885, which act provided for alive stock sanitary commission of three members, and a state veterinary surgeon, all appointed by the governor. The legislature of 1887 made slight amendments to this. original act. The legislature of 1901 repealed existing legislation and made the governor the state veterinarian, with power to appoint a deputy for the actual work of the office. The legislature of 1913 repealed this law and created a live. stock sanitary board of five members appointed by the governor, who continued to be state, veterinarian, and appointed a deputy upon nomination of the live stock sanitary board.

      The legislature of 1919 repealed the laws of 1913 as pertaining to the establishment of the live stock sanitary board, and by an act approved April 19, 1919, created the civil administrative code. Under this plan of government a department of agriculture was provided and vested with the. duties and power of protecting the health of live stock in Nebraska, of determining and employing the most practical means of prevention and eradication of contagious and infectious diseases, of quarantining when necessary, and of regulating the arrival

into, and departure from, and movement within the state of animals infected or exposed to infection or contagion. The department for the purpose of fulfilling these duties has provided the bureau of animal industry as a division of the department and placed in charge of said bureau a chief veterinarian.

ACTIVITIES

     The bureau of animal industry is in charge of the regulations governing the admission of live stock into Nebraska and the proper handling of live stock within the state where infectious and contagious diseases occur. Cooperation with the United States bureau of animal industry is carried forward on special projects for the purpose of eradicating certain diseases among domestic animals, which during the year 1926 is restricted almost entirely to the eradication of tuberculosis and to the eradication of scabies among cattle. A limited attention has been given to the control of hog cholera and other swine diseases.

DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS

HISTORY

     Crop reporting was one of the early activities of the Nebraska state board of agriculture after its organization in 1859. The publication of county crop records in the annual reports began in 1870. In 1897 the legislature passed a law requiring the assessors to collect agricultural statistics, the work to be performed by the bureau of labor. The work was transferred to the Nebraska state board of agriculture in 1913, and to the Nebraska department of agriculture in 1919. Cooperation with the Federal department of agriculture began in 1918.

ACTIVITIES

     Duties of the division of agricultural statistics are as follows: Monthly report of crop production and special reports from time to time; monthly reports on condition of ranges' and cattle; annual report of all agricultural statistics by counties; annual report of live stock; reports of cattle and sheep in feed lots; compilation of the annual census of agriculture secured through the assessors; collecting and maintaining all records of agricultural statistics, not only for Nebraska but for other states, and for countries of the world; dissemination of all available crop and livestock reports to the press and to all who request statistical data on agriculture; and to keep informed on the agricultural situation throughout the state by field investigation and correspondence.

PUBLICATIONS

      Annual report.
 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

	Salary
Secretary--Ernest M. Pollard *	$5,000

BUREAUS AND DIVISIONS

Division of compensation and investigation.

John Larson, Omaha J. H. Jefferis, Lincoln

DUTIES AND POWERS

     1. To foster, promote and develop the welfare of wage earners;
     2. To improve working conditions;
     3. To advance opportunities for profitable employment;
     4. To collect, collate, assort, systematize, and report statistical details relating to all departments of labor, especially in relation to commercial, industrial, social, economic and educational conditions, and to the permanent prosperity of the manufacturing and productive industries;
     5. To acquire and diffuse useful information on subjects connected with labor in the most general and comprehensive sense of the word;
     6. To acquire and diffuse among the people useful information concerning the means of promoting the material, social, intellectual and moral prosperity of laboring men and women;
     7. To acquire and diffuse information as to the conditions of employment and such other facts as may be deemed of value to the industrial interests of the state;
     8. To acquire and diffuse information in relation to the prevention of accidents, occupational disease and other related subjects;
     9. To administer and enforce the workmen's compensation laws or employers' liability acts of the state, and for that purpose the secretary of the department of labor shall be the deputy commissioner of labor and the compensation commissioner, and the duty is imposed upon him, as such, of executing all of the provisions of Article VIII, Chapter 35, Revised Statutes of Nebraska for the year 1913, and all acts amendatory thereof.
    10. To adopt codes relating to safety appliances.

     The legislature of 1887 created this bureau. The governor was made the commissioner, to comply with the requirements of the Nebraska constitution forbidding the creation of more executive offices. The duties of the office were performed by a deputy commissioner and other employes. The legislature of 1917 created the office of deputy compensation commissioner, and the civil administrative code of 1919 imposed the duties of the compensation commissioner on the secretary of labor.

---

     * The secretary of the department of labor is also secretary of the department of public welfare.

     Biennial report.

	Salary
Secretary, Clarence G. Bliss	$5,000

     Bureau of Banking--E. F. Kimmerly.
     Bureau of Insurance--John R. Dumont.
     Bureau of Securities--Jesse V. Craig.
     Division of Fire Prevention--John C. Trouton.
     Bureau of Hail Insurance.

     1. The governor, through the agency of the secretary of trade and commerce is vested with the power to regulate, supervise, and have general control over trade and commerce of the state.

     The department of trade and commerce shall collect, collate, assort, systematize and report statistical details of the manufacturing industries and commerce of the state and shall acquire information and report upon the general conditions, so far as production is concerned, of the leading industries of the state.

     The duties of the following boards and commissions of the old administrative system have been taken over by the- department of trade, and commerce.

     Early banking in the state was carried- on under the general incorporation laws of the state. The instability of these early institutions finally led to the general banking act which was approved March 29 1889. This act provided for the filing of bank reports with the auditor, and the examination of banks under the direction of the auditor. The auditor, treasurer and attorney general or any two of them appointed a suitable person to do the necessary clerical work in the auditor's office, and also the necessary bank examiners. An act approved April 8, 1895, created the state banking board, of which the auditor, treasurer and attorney general were the members, with power to appoint a secretary and- a clerk, and bank examiners. The banking law was revised by an act approved March 25, 1909. This provided that the auditor, attorney general and the governor, as ex-officio chairman should constitute the board. The civil administrative code imposed the duties of the banking board on the bureau of banking.

DUTIES AND POWERS

     This bureau has general control of banks and banking under the laws of this state.

     The bureau is required to

     1. Inspect and secure reports from all banks organized under state laws, and to enforce all the banking laws.
     2. Have control of building and loan associations.
     3. Have control of trust companies.
     4. Have control of co-operative credit associations and installment investment companies.

PUBLICATIONS

     Biennial report.
     Annual building and loan report.

BUREAU OF INSURANCE

HISTORY

     An act approved February 15, 1864, required insurance companies to be certified I by the territorial auditor, and to report to him. The act approved February 25, 1873, extended the duties of the auditor with reference to inspection and investigation of insurance companies, and required him to have the assent of the attorney general before issuing the original certificate to a company. An act approved March 31, 1899, repealed the existing law, and created a bureau of insurance with the governor as insurance commissioner and, a deputy commissioner for the actual work. This law was declared unconstitutional (59 Neb. 417-435) on the ground that it violated sections 1 and 4, article IX, of the constitution relative to taxation. It was held that the invalid sections. constituted an inducement to the legislature to enact the other sections of the law, and so rendered the whole invalid. In 1903 the auditor was empowered to appoint an insurance deputy. The legislature of 1913 repealed the existing law and enacted a complete insurance code. It provided that the governor, auditor and attorney general should. constitute the state insurance board, and appoint a secretary to be known as insurance commissioner. The legislature of 1917 created the state hail insurance department. The civil administrative code conferred the duties of the insurance board on the bureau of insurance.

     1. The bureau shall see that all laws respecting insurance companies. are faithfully executed.
     2. Upon necessary evidence, certificates to insurance companies may be issued or revoked.
     3. Shall examine each domestic company at least once in three years.
     4. May examine foreign companies.
     5. Must secure annual reports from insurance companies.
     6. Shall keep deposited securities.
     7. Maintain the state hail insurance department.

     Secretary is the chairman of the bank guarantee fund commission.

     Biennial report.

     The fire commission was created by the legislature of 1909. The governor was the fire commissioner, and appointed two deputies, one of whom was required to live in Lincoln and manage the office. The functions of the office are now carried on by the division of fire prevention. Insurance companies pay sufficient inspection fees to maintain the division.

     The division of fire prevention
     1. Shall have general charge of the inspection of buildings, and premises, and the investigation of fires occurring in the state. 2. May cause origin of fires to be investigated. 3. May order dilapidated buildings to be destroyed. 4. Must prepare a book of instruction in fire dangers.

     Annual report. Monthly bulletins. Book of instruction for schools.

     The earliest legislative 'provision for the supervision of the sale of stocks, bonds and securities was made in 1913. The enforcement of the law was entrusted to the railway commission. The administrative code law of 1919 transferred this function to the department of trade and commerce. The administration of the "blue sky law" is now the duty of the bureau of securities.

	Salary
Secretary-Ernest M. Pollard.*
BUREAUS AND DIVISIONS
Bureau of Health	Dr. P. H. Bartholomew
Division of Venereal Diseases
Division of Vital Statistics	Esther L. Stern
Division of Child Hygiene	Bertha Riesland
Division of Laboratories	L. O. Vose
Scottsbluff Branch Laboratory	Paul J. Lewis
Division of Sanitation.
Division of Contagious Diseases.
Bureau of Child Welfare	Lillian J. Johnson
Bureau of Examining Boards	Mrs. Clark Perkins
Director of Nursing Education	Carol Martin
Field Investigator	Leslie F. Johnson