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 heads one or more of the constitutional state officers while the real work was done by deputies. In 1918 a plank in the republican 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 an 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 was also one of the issues in succeeding state elections.

      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 was passed, 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. In 1929 the department of finance was abolished and its duties given to the state tax commissioner. It was also provided that the secretary of labor should be ex-officio secretary of public welfare. These departments were administered by secretaries appointed by the governor with the consent of the House and Senate. In 1931 Governor Bryan decided to operate the activities of the departments of agriculture, labor and public welfare without the appointment of secretaries.

      The legislature of 1933 complied with the recommendations of Governor Bryan and rearranged the administrative agencies into the following six departments: Agriculture and Inspection, Labor, Health, Roads and Irrigation, Banking, and Insurance. The salaries and wages of all employees of these departments are fixed by the governor, with a maximum specified by law for the heads of each of the six departments.

      The amendments of 1933 did not change the duties of the several agencies materially. The child welfare bureau was detached from what had been the public welfare department and given independent status directly under the governor. Other changes consisted chiefly in rearranging and renaming the departments.

      The duties of the former department of finance continue to be performed by the tax commissioner.

      The following pages gives 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.

     1. To encourage and promote agriculture, horticulture, live stock, dairying, cheese making, poultry, bee keeping, and all other allied industries.
     2. To collect and publish statistics relating to crop production, marketing and farm economics; to co-operate with the federal government in the matter of collecting such statistical information.
     3. To encourage the planting of trees and shrubs and the improvement of farm homes generally.
     4. To inquire into causes of contagious, infectious and communicable disease among domestic animals, and the means for the prevention and cure of the same.
     5. To see that live stock and stock yards, and other like places where live stock is confined, housed or fed, are properly cared for.
     6. 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 for 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 the several laws governing the activities of the department.
     7. To collect the gasoline tax.
     8. To enforce the port of entry law on gasoline coming into the state.

     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. The 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 required 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.

     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.

      A live stock sanitary board was created by an act approved March 5, 1885. This act provided for a live stock sanitary commission of three members, and a state veterinary surgeon, all appointed by the governor. 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 stuck 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.

      The bureau of animal industry has charge of the supervision of the regulation of movement of livestock interstate into Nebraska, and the handling of domestic animals within the state where infectious, contagious and otherwise transmissible diseases occur. The bureau is cooperative with the United States bureau of animal industry under certain specific projects having for their object the suppression and eradication of certain specific diseases affecting livestock.

      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.

      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.

     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 information as to the conditions of employment and such other facts as may be deemed of value to the industrial interests of the state.
     7. To acquire and diffuse information in relation to the prevention of accidents, occupational disease and other related subjects.
     8. To establish and maintain free employment bureaus in cooperation with the federal government.
     9. 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 employees. 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 legislature of 1933 changed the title of the chief deputy to "Commissioner," The legislature of 1935 set up a workmen's compensation court and transferred the administration of the workmen's compensation laws to this court.

     The legislature of 1935 established a state free employment service in cooperation with the employment service of the federal government. This service is under the direction of the commissioner of labor.

Biennial report.

     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 in the department of trade and commerce. The legislature of 1933 set up the department of banking as a separate agency.

     The department has general control of banks and banking and the power to make such rules and establish such regulations for the government of banks under its supervision as may in its judgment seem wise and expedient; provided, that no such rules and regulations shall in any way conflict with the provisions of law.

     The department has charge of and foil supervisoin (sic) over examination of banks and enforcement of statutory compliance by banks in their business functions.

     An act approved February 15, 1864, required insurance companies to be certified 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. The legislature of 1933 changed the name to "Department of Insurance."

2. Upon necessary evidence, may issue or revoke certificates to insurance companies.

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. Shall maintain the state hail insurance department.

8. Regulate the issue and sale of securities (blue sky).

     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 the duty of the department of insurance.

     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 state fire marshal in the department of insurance. Insurance companies pay sufficient inspection fees to maintain the activity.

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.

     The original hoard of health law was enacted in 1891. In 1903 the law was amended and a state health inspector provided. The governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction composed the board. The active work of the hoard was directed by a board of four secretaries, appointed by the governor, and a health inspector, subject to their instructions in the actual execution of the laws and who devoted his entire time to the work.

      The legislature of 1917 passed a law reorganizing the health department, and putting the active work in charge of a staff appointed by the governing board. In addition, the governor appointed an advisory board of four physicians whose principal duty was to conduct the examinations for licenses to practice medicine. The functions of the health department were conferred upon the department of public welfare by the civil administrative code of 1919. The legislature of 1933 created the department of health.

      1. The department of health shall have general supervision and control over matters relating to public health and sanitation; and shall provide for examinations; and enforce the provisions of the laws; and have supervision over all matters of quarantine and quarantine regulations.
      2. The department of health shall have the right at all times to inspect the equipment and methods of teaching in all medical colleges and medical schools of the state, and shall have the power to refuse examination to the graduates of any school which, on proper notice and hearing, shall be adjudged not a medical college or medical school in good standing as defined by the laws of this state.

      From time to time the legislature has provided for the licensing of practitioners in the several professions. Prior to 1927 there were ten of these groups, each of which had a separate practice act. These groups were chiropractic, chiropody, dentistry, embalming, medicine and surgery, nursing, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine and surgery. Immediately preceding the legislature of 1927 the secretary of the department of public welfare prepared a codification of these ten practice acts. By this codification the ten groups are all regulated by one act. Provisions relating to each group exclusively were compiled in a division in that act relating to that particular group. This became a law at the legislative session of 1927.

      The bureau of examining boards is supported entirely by the fees paid by those licensed. These fees have come almost entirely from renewals paid by the several licensees. Four of the groups, prior to 1927, did not pay renewals and consequently were not contributing their part toward the support of the bureau. The uniform licensure law, which is the name of the codification just referred to, corrects this and requires all licensees to pay renewals. The number of active practitioners in the several professions on July 1, 1936, is as follows:

     The legislature of 1927 also passed the basic science law. This requires that before an applicant can be examined in any of the healing arts he must secure a certificate of ability from the basic science board. This certificate relates to chiropractic, osteopathy, and medicine and surgery and covers the six subjects as follows: anatomy, physiology, chemistry, bacteriology, pathology and hygiene.

      The legislature of 1927 also passed the barber act, which licenses the barbers of the state. This act bcame (sic) effective January 1, 1928, and requires that all practicing barbers after that date mutt hold certificates of registration issued by the director of the department of health.

      The legislature of 1929 passed an amendment to the barber act, requiring all those who cut hair in beauty shops to hold haircutter's licenses issued by the department of health. An act requiring the registration of all practicing cosmetologists went into effect January 1, 1930. The legislature of 1931 required all funeral directors and undertakers to register. On July 1, 1936, the following licenses and permits had been issued:

      The legislature of 1935 eliminated the nursing profession from the uniform licensure act and set up a bureau of education and registration of nurses.

      The boards of examiners are appointed by the department of health and the term is for three years except in dentistry and the basic sciences, the members of these boards serving for five years. However, the appointment of members of the barber hoard is made by the governor. The boards of examiners conduct the examinations in their respective professions. The personnel of the several boards of examiners July 1, 1936, is as follows:

     The department of roads and irrigation exercises the powers and performs the duties formerly discharged by the state board of irrigation, highways and drainage.

      The state engineer 15 appointed by the governor and has direct supervision of all of the state's building or construction work, authority and responsibility for the inspection of which is not vested in any other department, and superintends the construction and maintenance of highways, bridges and other public improvements for which any money is appropriated by the state and of all irrigation and drainage activities of the state.

      The licensing of motor vehicles now devolves upon the department of roads and irrigation.

Rules adopted by the department.

Biennial report.

Irrigation laws.

      The duties of the following boards and commissions of the old administrative system have been taken over by the department of roads and irrigation.

      This bureau was created by statute in 1895. The governor, attorney general and commissioner of public lands and buildings composed the board. The active, executive work of the board was conducted by a state engineer and his assistants. All its duties are now discharged by the deparment (sic) of roads and irrigation.

The bureau is required to-

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