392 



INDIANA. 



173, to 9,647, of the value of $11,817,954. The 

 school-fund has grown from $7,193,705 in 

 1862 to $9,065,254; but the increase in the 

 school population has been relatively greater, 

 the number of children of school age being 

 703,558 in 1880, against 528,583 in 1862. There 

 were 1,090 males and 957 females between the 

 ages of ten and twenty-one reported unable to 

 read or write. There were 359 new school- 

 houses erected in 1880. During the year end- 

 ing August 31st, the schools were in session 

 on an average 136 days. The number of teach- 

 ers employed was 13,578. The daily attend- 

 ance during the year was 321,659. The num- 

 ber of scholars enrolled was 511,283: 265,- 

 872 white males, 237,395 white females, and 

 8,016 colored. The expenditures for tuition 

 amounted to $3,006,432 ; for special purposes, 

 $1,485,418 ; total expenses for the year, $4,- 

 491,850. Of the total number of teachers, 7,731 

 were white males, 5,732 white females, and 15 

 colored. The colored schools numbered 104, 

 graded schools 339, township graded schools 

 53. The pay of the male teachers in the town- 

 ships varies from $1.35 to $2.29 a day ; of the 

 female teachers, from 93 cents to $2.23; in 

 the towns male teachers receive from $1.76 to 

 $5.33, and female teachers from 75 cents to 

 $2.33 ; in cities male teachers receive from 

 $2 to $7.50, and female teachers from $1.65 to 

 $5 a day. The township libraries contain in 

 the aggregate 241,824 books. 



The Normal School was attended by 578 

 scholars during the year, the average enroll- 

 ment having been 283 per term, 22 more than 

 in the preceding year, and 280 having entered 

 for the first time ; 2,665 have attended since 

 the school was established. The annual enroll- 

 ment ten years ago was 135. The students 

 come mostly from the industrial classes, and 

 teach afterward in the common country schools. 

 The object of the school is to give instruction 

 in the art of teaching. The State sets apart 

 annually a portion of the school revenue for its 

 support as a means of making the common 

 school system more effective, and supplying 

 trained teachers to meet the constant demand, 

 as one fourth of the teachers annually abandon 

 the profession. The school expended $13, 927.96 

 for tuition, and $3,551.75 on account of the in- 

 cidental fund. 



The expenses of the Indiana University for 

 two years are reported as $27,951 for 1879, 

 and $24,856 for 1880. The Purdue University 

 was established with the Government land- 

 grant for agricultural and mechanical education. 

 It has received large donations from John Pur- 

 due, a portion of which funds have been diverted 

 from the purpose of the trust and applied to 

 current expenses, and must therefore be made 

 good by the State. The University is reported 

 to be on a sound financial basis, and is actively 

 fulfilling its educational objects. The endow- 

 ment fund amounts to $340,000, yielding five 

 per cent. An annual appropriation of equal 

 amount, $17,000, is asked for from the State. 



The grants and donations are valued at $573,- 

 000 altogether. The number of students is 203. 

 The Constitution of the State was adopted 

 nearly thirty years ago. In view of the changed 

 conditions of the commonwealth and the many 

 important new provisions, repeals of obsolete 

 ones, and amendments which are demanded, 

 the Governor recommended, in his message, the 

 calling of a constitutional convention for the 

 revision of the organic law, to consist of fifty 

 members chosen from the Senatorial districts. 

 In case the Legislature does not deem it advis- 

 able to call a convention, the Governor recom- 

 mends the revision of the amendments which 

 were submitted to the people in the April elec- 

 tion of 1880, and which were decided to have 

 been defeated. He also recommends a further 

 amendment to the Constitution making the te- 

 nure of all State officers four years, and making 

 the incumbents ineligible for two consecutive 

 terms, the elections to be held between the 

 Presidential elections, in order to separate State 

 from national politics. At present the terms 

 of the Secretary of State, Auditor, and Treas- 

 urer are two years, while the Governor, the 

 Lieutenant-Governor, and the Clerk and Ke- 

 porter of the Supreme Court serve four years. 

 Governor Porter, in his inaugural address, ex- 

 pressed disapproval of Governor Gray's sugges- 

 tion of a constitutional convention in the fol- 

 lowing words : 



I do not believe that there is a necessity for such a 

 convention, and the people would not, in my judg- 

 ment, so soon after they nave emerged from the finan- 

 cial crisis which has crippled their means of support, 

 patiently incur the needless but great expense incident 

 to its assemblage. The present Constitution contains 

 an admirable provision for its own amendment without 

 the assembling of a convention. If two successive 

 Legislatures shall recommend a particular amendment, 

 it shall then be submitted to the people. This avoids 

 two extremes : the one, of not allowing the Constitution 

 to respond by amendment, with reasonable prompt- 

 nessj to the deliberate will of the people ; the other, of 

 hastily placing in the Constitution improvident provis- 

 ions which it would be difficult to withdraw. By the 

 simple means provided in the Constitution itself, ample 

 facilities are furnished for amending that instrument 

 as such amendments may, from time to time, be deemed 

 necessary. 



The provisions of the present Constitution arc, in the 

 main, wise and satisfactory to the people ; they have 

 generally undergone interpretation by the courts, and 

 their construction is fixed and determined. If anew 

 Constitution shall be framed,we shall again be launched 

 upon a sea of doubt, and be compelled to incur the ex- 

 pense and inconvenience which, in practice, will be 

 found to be great, of having the meaning of its princi- 

 pal provisions settled by judicial construction. 



At every general election for many years, sums of 

 money, vastly greater than has ever been suspected by 

 the people, have been expended to prevent invasions 

 of the ballot-box by persons not authorized to vote, 

 which need not have been expended but for the clause 

 in our Constitution that will not allow safeguards 

 against fraud to be established which our own experi- 

 ence lias shown to be necessary, and the legislation of 

 other States has provided with respect to those States. 



Bad laws seldom inflict merelv a single evil. Where 

 the facilities for fraud are so considerable, the members 

 of each party think that their opponents will perpetrate 

 them, and the next step is too apt to be to lay schemes 

 by which wrong may be met by kiudred wrong. The 



