FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 51 



State, and it is probably not unwise to have it taught and learned scien- 

 tifically, and for that reason the Mining School has been created. Many 

 of us would think that this is a tax that we could dispense with, but it 

 is established, and we have to meet it. 



THE PRIMARY SCnOOL FUND. 



Now the state government goes a little further, and we are indebted 

 to the framers of our constitution — people who came here when the State 

 was a wilderness, for the support that our common schools are receiving. 

 The general government provided that Section 16 of every township 

 should be sold and devoted to schools. The framers of our constitution 

 went further and said that when the State debt was paid, all specific 

 taxes should go to and become a part of the primary school fund of the 

 State. You haven't had any State debt for fifteen years, so this all goes 

 to make up your school expenses. Take it in an ordinary place, and you 

 may say it is as broad as it is long; what you get in school money you pay 

 back in taxes, but in some places it is different. One county for years 

 got three dollars back in primary school money for every two dollars paid 

 the State in taxes. It was in a county where there were comparatively 

 small valuations; but for this it would have been impossible to have 

 maintained the schools in that county as they were and are maintained. 



The next two items are our State prisons and insane asylums. It does 

 not make much difference what the management is — except the contract 

 management of the prisons — about the expense of these institutions. 

 The care of your insane costs you ordinarily now one-half million each 

 year, and this is for the State patients alone. Then there are patients 

 who have not been in the asylum more than two years, the expense being 

 paid by the county. Those people who are able to pay for the support 

 of their friends do so, the rate being fixed at |3.45 per week. But this is 

 not a question of appropriation, because whenever the board make up 

 their bills for the month, they send them to the Auditor General, County 

 Treasurer and individual at the same rate per week. The prisoners 

 you can't turn out, and it is not always possible to employ 

 them profitably. At the Jackson prison sometimes the receipts 

 are equal to the running expenses. This has never been the 

 case with the institution at Ionia, and it may reasonably be 

 questioned whether in the near future it will be. It is a reformatory for 

 one thing. There are short term prisoners and young men. I am not 

 aware of any similar institution which has been made to pay, but they 

 are coming nearer it this year. I have questioned the necessity of the 

 prison at Marquette, for the expense of taking care of your prisoners 

 there is relatively larger than in this peninsula. The prison is there, 

 however. We have these institutions and no one can question the neces- 

 sity of maintaining them. It costs about |750,000 a year to maintain 

 them, and the educational institutions have in round numbers |400,000 

 more, per year. 



