WISCONSIN. 



ous permanent trust funds of the State and dis- 

 tributed among them in the following propor- 

 STJBttS fund ' ^ 568 >TOO; Normal School 



fin *-*! C&RUPC^Ark. TT, * ?- * 



* u a i 

 tarn! o * 



ricultural College fund, 

 $2,250,400. 



Population. The following table shows the 

 by counties, as deter- 



855 



ras $592,800.710. ,,f wh: 



pro|,,.rty w *];- 



ii.l oi 



of |-r 



In 



wr^^Kur'Jri'Sr?! 1 



^^^Ks^f?:^^^^i staraaia*^ 11 ?' 



population of the State 



with the population for 1880- 



* Decrease. 



Assessments. The assessed valuation of 

 property in the State, as equalized in 1890 by 



The rate of ,v 



tion for the year was 15-4 cents. 

 County J)ebt8.-For 1890 the total deb. of 



nf 4SiS^2 fl ^ U ? tie8 was LOSl.JWi;. a 

 of $610.998 in ten years. All of this total < 

 cept $66,078, is a bonded debt. One U 

 the counties have no debt 



Education. The report of public schools for 

 the year ending in 1890 is as follows: S-h,,,,| 

 population between four and twenty years 

 766 ; between seven and fourteen years, 294,900; 

 S$S / cl ? ildren enrolled in public schools, 

 doO ,342; teachers employed inal.- 

 9,649 : average monthly wages outside of the laree 

 cities-male teachers $43.50, female teachers 

 $29 ; number of school-houses, 6,470. Including 

 the cost of maintaining the normal schools. tin- 

 State University, and other expenses, the total 

 cost of maintaining all public institutions of 

 learning in the State was $4,258,40: !.r,i. 



Early in the year the State Supreme Court de- 

 cided that the Bible could not be lawfully read 

 in the public schools, and in November tin- 

 people by their ballots decided that the Bennett 

 law of 1889, compelling attendance upon the pub- 

 lic schools and requiring instruction therein to 

 be given in the English language, should be 

 erased from the statute book. The decision of t he 

 Supreme Court was rendered on March 19 in (In- 

 case of 'Weiss vs. the Edgerton School Bonn I. 

 and contained the following : 



Some of the most valuable instruction a person can 

 receive may be derived from reading alone, without any 

 comment or exposition of the question ; therefor, 

 question seems to narrow down to this: la the mul- 

 ing of the Bible in the schools, not merely 

 passages therefrom, but the whole of it, sectarian in- 

 struction of the pupils in view of the facto already 

 mentioned that the Bible contains numerous doctrinal 

 passages, upon some of which the peculiar creed .t 

 almost every religious sect is based, and that such pas- 

 sages may reasonably be understood to inculcate tl e 

 doctrines predicated* 'upon them. An affirmative an- 

 swer to the question seems unavoidable. Any pupil 

 of ordinary intelligence who listens to the moil 

 doctrinal portions of the Bible will be more or lei in- 

 structed thereby in the doctrines of the divinitv <>\' 

 Jesus Christ, the eternal punishment of the wicked, 

 the authority of the priesthood, the binding force of 

 the efficacy of the sacraments, and many other con- 

 flicting sectarian doctrines. 



The Bennett law was first attacked by th> Lu- 

 therans and Catholics, who saw in it 1111 attempt 

 to destroy parochial schools. Their complaints 

 were taken up by the Democratic party, which 

 made the repeal of the law one of its platform 

 principles, and the merits of the question tl;. 

 upon became linked with considerations of party 

 policy. The law was the leading topic of di>cu-- 

 sion in the canvass, and educational ai 

 tarian questions were considered by the people 

 throughout the State as never before. 11- 

 suit of the controversy was a defeat for the sup- 

 porters of the law 



