OREGON. 



C99 



Finances. The State is practically free from 

 debt, there being only $2,335.85 in bonds and 

 warrants outstanding, on which interest has long 

 since ceased, and which are payable on presenta- 

 tion at the State treasury. 



The report of the Treasurer for the two years 

 ending Jan. 11, 1891, is as follows : Balance in all 

 funds on Jan. 11, 1889, $243,378.39 ; total receipts 

 for the biennial period, $2,299,239.38 ; total dis- 

 bursements for the same period, $2,309,373.48; 

 balance in all funds Jan. 11, 1891, $233,144.29. 



The total assessed valuation of property for 

 1890 was $101,593,341, an increase of nearly'$16,- 

 000,000 in two years. The State tax rate for 

 general purposes was 5ff mills, for the univer- 

 sity -f mill, and for the militia mill, making a 

 total of 6 mills. 



County Debts. The total debt of Oregon 

 counties is $782,015, an increase of $570,248 in 

 ten years. Of this sum all except $15,000 is a 

 floating debt. One third of the counties have no 

 debt. 



Education. For the year ending June 30, 

 1889, there were 273 students enrolled at the 

 State University. Of these, 185 were m the col- 

 legiate department, 25 in the school of law, 18 in 

 the school of medicine, and 45 in the school of 

 music. The cost of maintaining the institution 

 was $20,926.61. For the succeeding year, ending 

 June 30, 1890, the enrollment increased to 292, 

 and the cost of maintenance to $21,052.42. 

 There were 182 students in the collegiate depart- 

 ment, 33 in the school of law, 19 in the school of 

 medicine, and 80 in the school of music. At the 

 State Normal School, at Monmouth, there were 

 216 pupils during the school year ending in 1890. 

 A new building, erected at a cost of about $26,000, 

 was dedicated in May, the money being raised by 

 local subscription. 



Insane Asylum. The number of patients at 

 the State Insane Asylum on Jan. 1, 1889, was 

 526, of whom 358 were male and 168 female. 

 During the two years following 444 persons were 

 admitted and 342 discharged, leaving 628 persons 

 under treatment on Dec. 31, 1890, of whom 444 

 were male and 184 female. The cost of main- 

 taining the institution for the biennial period was 

 $171,097. 



Prisons. During the two years ending Dec. 

 31, 1890, there were 603 persons confined in the 

 State Prison, of whom 324 remained at the close 

 of the period. Of this number, 227 were em- 

 ployed in the foundry under contract, 10 were in- 

 capacitated for labor, and the remainder were 

 employed in the shoe and tailor shops, kitchen, 

 laundry, field, and garden. The running ex- 

 penses of the institution for the two years 

 amounted to $72,283.26. During that period the 

 foundry company paid into the State treasury for 

 convict labor $41,179.41, and there was received 

 from other labor of prisoners and from the United 

 States for board the sum of $5,360.82, thereby 

 reducing to the extent of these payments the cost 

 of the institution to the State. 



The trust confided to the Board of Education 

 by the act of the last Legislature in the expend- 

 iture of $30,000 for the purchase of a reform- 

 school farm and the erection of a building has 

 been executed. A farm of over 380 acres, on 

 which is valuable water power, has been secured, 

 and an attractive building has been erected. 



In order to secure the erection of such building 

 a deficit of about $16,000 was necessarily in- 

 curred. 



Militia. The State militia consists of three 

 regiments of infantry, one battery of light artil- 

 lery, and two troops of cavalry, numbering 1,702 

 officers and men. The expenditure for its sup- 

 port during the year amounted to $17,684.30. 



The act passed by the Legislature of 1889 au- 

 thorizing county courts, whenever they deem it 

 proper, to build armories in cities of over 5,000 

 inhabitants has been declared unconstitutional 

 by the courts, because the act was not defined by 

 its title. 



Banks. On Oct. 2, 1890, there were 37 na- 

 tional banks in the State, with total resources 

 amounting to $17,558,322.15, an increase of 6 

 banks and $3,050,384.45 in resources in one 

 year. 



Mining*. The production of precious metals 

 in the State during 1890 is reported by Wells, 

 Fargo & Co. to be $1,036,000, of which $965,000 

 was the value of the gold product and $71,000 

 of the silver product. 



River Improvements. The Governor, in 

 his message to the Legislature of 1891, says on 

 this subject : 



The Board of United States Engineers designated 

 for the purpose of suggesting improvements at the 

 Dalles of the Columbia have estimated the cost of a 

 portage railroad between The Dalles and Celilo, on 

 Columbia river, which, it says, would be adequate for 

 the present commerce of the river, and which could 

 be built in one year at $431,500. It has also esti- 

 mated the full cost of a boat railway at $3,575,356. 

 The breakwater at the mouth of the Columbia has 

 effected a marvelous change, and the expenditure of a 

 quarter of a million of dollars in breakwaters along the 

 lower Columbia, where its width now permits shoal- 

 ing, would give a good and sufficient channel for large 

 ships from Portland to the sea. 



Political. On April 16 a State convention 

 of the Union party (which was formed on Sept. 

 14, 1889, by a fusion of Prohibitionists, Green- 

 backers, Labor men, and other persons dissatis- 

 fied with the two leading parties) met at Oregon 

 City and nominated the following candidates for 

 State officers: For Secretary of State, Nathan 

 Pierce ; for Treasurer. E. F. Walker : for Super- 

 intendent of Public Instruction, T. C. Jory ; for 

 State Printer, J. A. Power ; for Member of Con- 

 gress, J. A. Bruce. The nomination of a candi- 

 date for Governor and for justice of the Su- 

 preme Court was referred to the State executive 

 committee, the members of which were chosen 

 by the convention. The following is a portion 

 of the platform : 



The Government should provide for such arbitra- 

 tion as will prevent strikes and other injurious meth- 

 ods of settling labor disputes. 



A graduated income tax is the most equitable sys- 

 tem of taxation, placing the burden of Government on 

 those who can best afford to pay, instead of laying it 

 on the fanners and producers, and exemptmgmillion- 

 'aires, bondholders, and corporations. 



We denounce the non-taxable bond as a criminal 

 device by which, with or without the guilty conniv- 

 ance of assessors, the wealth of the unscrupulous es- 

 capes taxation. We therefore demand that the ^fur- 

 ther issue of non-taxable bonds, whether State or 

 municipal, be prohibited by law ; and that the as- 

 sessment law of the State be so modified as to forbid de- 

 ductions for such, indebtedness as is not taxable witn- 



