538 



MISSOURI. 



The retiring State Treasurer, Colonel Gates, 

 had deposited on his behalf, by his sureties, in 

 the St. Louis Bank of Commerce, a sum suffi- 

 cient to cover the amount of the State funds 

 remaining in default, owing to the failure of 

 the banks in which they had been deposited. 

 This amount, which was $184,970, being $183,- 

 522 due to the Treasury from the insolvent 

 Mastin Bank, of Kansas City, with accrued in- 

 terest, was made payable to the State contin- 

 gently, the condition being the enactment of 

 laws to enable Treasurer Gates to proceed 

 against the bankrupt institution, one of these 

 being a bill to give the State a prior claim to 

 the assets of insolvent debtors. When Gates 

 entered upon his term of office, the moneys of 

 the Treasury were deposited in the Missouri 

 State National Bank, of St. Louis, and the 

 banking-house of Mastin & Co., of Kansas 

 City. The new Constitution contained a pro- 

 vision for a different method of placing the 

 State deposits. It was considered that an en- 

 actment of the Legislature was requisite to en- 

 able the Treasurer to conform to this regu- 

 lation. He deposited the funds with the State 

 National Bank, from which no security was 

 required, and with the Bank of St. Joseph. 

 The following year, the Legislature having 

 passed no law for the purpose, he advertised, 

 on his own responsibility, for bids for the State 

 deposits. Before satisfactory offers were ob- 

 tained, the State National Bank suspended, 

 June 19, 1877, with a large amount of State 

 funds in its keeping. The Mastin Bank, which 

 aided the Treasurer in maintaining the credit of 

 the State at this juncture, was made the State 

 depository; but on September 30, 1878, it also 

 failed, with $506,187 belonging to the State in 

 its hands. The total amount of Treasury funds 

 which were rendered unavailable by the two 

 failures was some $1,010,000. The moneys of 

 the Treasury were subsequently placed in the 

 Bank of Commerce, of St. Louis. Notwith- 

 standing the embarrassments of the position, 

 the Treasurer succeeded in meeting punctually 

 all the obligations of the Treasury, leaving the 

 finances of the State in admirable condition at 

 the expiration of his term of office. With the 

 exception of the balance stated above, the 

 funds which were held by the bankrupt insti- 

 tutions were repaid out of successive divi- 

 dends. The deposits had been made, as Gov- 

 ernor Phelps declared in his message, without 

 consulting the Attorney-General or the Gov- 

 ernor as to the adequacy of the security, and 

 entirely upon the responsibility of the Treas- 

 urer. 



The assessment of property for taxation pur- 

 poses for 1880 is about $584,000,000, or some 

 $30,000,000 more than the valuation of 1878. 

 This valuation is much below the actual value 

 of the property of the State. There is a de- 

 cided upward movement in the prices of farm- 

 ing lands, and a large increase each year in the 

 aggregate value of railroad property. Personal 

 property is returned as less than one third 



of the total taxable wealth. In the 

 ment for 1878 the amount of "money, notes, 

 and bonds " returned footed up only $43,817,- 

 000. The Auditor states that many persons 

 ship bonds and notes out of the State to es- 

 cape taxation, and that others convert such tax- 

 able property into Government bonds and legal 

 tenders, and then change them back again after 

 making their returns. 



From the Auditor's report for the two years 

 it appears that the number of convicts being 

 received at the Penitentiary is on the decrease. 

 The number received, according to the war- 

 den's certificates for each of the last six years, 

 was as follows : In 1875, 746; in 1876,628; in 

 1877, 595; in 1878, 570; in 1879, 532; and 

 in 1880, 466. The cost to the State Treasury 

 of criminal prosecutions is usually estimated 

 at $200,000 to $225,000 a year, and the Legis- 

 lature of 1879 appropriated for this purpose 

 $491,000 for the years 1879 and 1880. But of 

 this sum there was expended only $376,578, 

 leaving the large balance of $114,466 unex- 

 pended. The sum expended for the preceding 

 two years was $511,547, so that the reduction 

 was $134,969. This reduction, the Auditor 

 says, " is largely attributable to the revival of 

 all business industries and commercial pur- 

 suits, which gave employment to thousan 

 who, from the necessities of the extreme 

 times, had become reckless and vicious froi 

 enforced idleness, and sought a livelihood b] 

 unlawfully preying on society and property.' 

 The costs of criminal prosecution in 1880 were 

 $126,697, against $208,836 in 1879. The de- 

 lays which formerly occurred in the adminis- 

 tration of the criminal laws in a large portion 

 of the State, now no longer happen, as stated 

 by Governor Phelps in his message. 



The number of convicts in the Penitentiary 

 on the 31st of December was 1,218, a decrease 

 of 62 from the preceding year, and the institu- 

 tion shows an excess of earnings over expenses 

 for the last two years of $32,901. During 

 this period the expenses of the Penitentiary 

 amounted to $178,715, the earnings being $211,- 

 617. 



The number of children of school age, five 

 to twenty-one years, in 1880 was 723,484, 

 of whom 681,995 were white and 41,480 col- 

 ored. The total school population in 1877 was 

 only 676,153. The number attending school 

 was 482,989, of whom 460,090 were white 

 and 22,896 colored. The number of schools 

 taught was 8,641, of which 8,149 were white 

 and 492 colored. The value of all the pub- 

 lic-school property in the State was $7,- 

 353,401, and the number of schoolhouses 

 8,270. The number of teachers employed was 

 11,659. The wages paid to teachers during 

 the year amounted to $2,118,637, and the total 

 sum expended for schools to $3,151,178. The 

 several funds in the State devoted to free edu- 

 cation are the State school fund, $2,903,457 ; 

 State seminary fund, $122,000; county school 

 funds, $2,392,723 ; township school funds, $1,- 



