222 



CONNECTICUT. 



alcoholic liquor traffic ; to authorize the people of 

 Oklahoma to form a constitution and State govern- 

 ment : to grant per diem service pensions to honor- 

 ably discharged officers and soldiers of the war of the 

 rebellion ; to prevent the purchase of or speculat- 

 ing in claims against the Government by United 

 States officers; to amend the copyright law; to 

 regulate mail matter of the fourth class; to in- 

 crease the circulation of national banks ; to amend 

 and revise the patent laws ; to protect the wages 

 of seamen ; to protect free labor from convict com- 

 petition ; to prevent forest fires on the public dp- 

 main ; to provide for the election of a Delegate in 

 Congress from Alaska, and bills to provide for the 

 admission as States of Arizona and New Mexico. 



CONNECTICUT, a New England State, one of 

 the original thirteen ; ratified the national Consti- 

 tution Jan. 9, 1788; area, 4,900 square miles. The 

 population, according to each decennial census, was 

 237,946 in 1790; 251,002 in 1800; 261,942 in 1810; 

 275,148 in 1820 ; 297,675 in 1830 ; 309.978 in 1840 ; 

 370,792 in 1850; 460,147 in 1860; 537,454 in 1870; 

 622,700 in 1880; and 746,258 in 1890. Capital, 

 Hartford. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, 0. Vincent 

 Coffin, Republican ; Lieutenant Governor, Lorrin 

 A. Cooke ; Secretary of State, William C. Mowry ; 

 Treasurer, George W. Hodge; Comptroller, Ben- 

 jamin P. Mead ; Adjutant General, Charles P. Gra- 

 ham ; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors, 

 Charles B. Andrews; Associate Justices, David 

 Torrance, Augustus H. Fenn, Simeon E. Baldwin, 

 and William Hamersley ; Clerk, C. W. Johnson. 



Finances. The receipts of the State treasury 

 for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1896. were as 

 follow : Military commutation tax, $147,016.60 ; tax 

 on mutual insurance companies, $273,049.09 ; tax 

 on railroads, $862,439.25 ; tax on nonresident stock, 

 $102,640.87; tax on savings banks, $340,404.81; 

 avails of courts and forfeited bonds, $20,573.05 ; 

 national aid to soldiefs' homes, $33,972.86; Com- 

 missioner of Insurance, $68,334.79 ; collateral in- 

 heritance tax, $135,836.50; tax on investments, 

 $48,576.77; interest on deposits, $24,474.31 ; tax on 

 telegraph and telephone companies, $10,533.91 ; tax 

 on express companies, $9,722 50 : sundry taxes and 

 receipts, $34,700.10 ; miscellaneous, $5,543.86 ; total 

 yearly receipts, $2,117,819.27. The funded debt of 

 the State, Sept. 30, 1896, less cash in the treasury to 

 credit of civil-list funds, was $2,949,466.15. 



Banks. According to the last published report 

 of the United States Comptroller of the Currency, 

 Connecticut had, on Sept. 28, 1895, 82 national 

 banks, with a combined capital of $22,391,070, and 

 total resources amounting to $77.912,968.69. The 

 last report of the Bank Commissioners, Oct. 1, 1895, 

 shows that in the 8 State banks the deposits dur- 

 ing the year increased $597,282, and the undivided 

 profits $37,238, a gain of $26,507. In the savings 

 banks the number of accounts opened during the 

 year was 53,534; the number of accounts closed, 

 41,318 ; the amount deposited (including interest 

 credited), $33,829,196; the amount withdrawn, 

 $26,973,732 ; the income of the year was $7,488,492, 

 of which $5,451,233 was paid to depositors for in- 

 terest; the number of depositors on Oct. 1 was 

 346,758, and the total of deposits $143,159,123. The 

 total of assets was increased during the year $6,- 

 507,780, and the surplus $367,568. The 9 trust 

 com panics have an aggregate capital of $1,135,000, 

 and their surplus and undivided profits have in- 

 creased $22.237, and their deposits $839.275. The 

 Commissioners report the banks of the State gen- 

 erally in a healthy condition, and recommend 

 a number of changes in the banking laws of the 

 State. 



Insurance. The receipts of the' Connecticut in- 

 surance department for the fiscal year ending Sept. 

 30,' 1896. amounted to $67,870.70, which amount 

 was paid to the State Treasurer. The expenditures 

 during the year were $33,781.12, an increase, com- 

 pared" with 1895. of $7,594.94. The surplus was $34,- 

 089.58. The General Assembly of 1895 passed an act 

 placing secret or fraternal insurance societies under 

 the supervision of the Insurance Commissioner. 

 The act went into effect Aug. 1, 1895, and during 

 that year two of these societies received permits to 

 transact business in Connecticut. During the first 

 six months of 1896, 26 additional societies received 

 such permits. 



Railroads. The forty-third annual report of the 

 Railroad Commissioners, covering the operations of 

 the steam railroad companies for the year ending 

 June 30, 1895, and of the street railway companies 

 for the year ending Sept. 30, 1895, submitted to the 

 Governor in January, 1896, gives the total miles of 

 single track, excluding sidings and trackage rights, 

 as 3,059*17. The capital stock of companies report- 

 ing was $90,008,363.38; funded debt, $44,261,372.76; 

 current liabilities, $13,087,867.41 ; gross earnings, 

 $35,206,110.71 ; operating expenses, being 68*43 per 

 cent, of the gross earnings, $24,091,893.56 ; net earn- 

 ings, $11,114,217.15; dividends paid, $4,743.256; 

 taxes paid to the State, $731.070.15; total of taxes 

 paid, $1,807,710.35. During the year the New 

 York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company 

 acquired control of the New England Railroad. 

 The casualties were many more than during the 

 preceding year. 



The last General Assembly passed an act requir- 

 ing street railway companies to make annual returns 

 to the Railroad Commissioners. From these re- 

 turns it appears that the number of companies or- 

 ganized and reporting is 25, representing 299*55 

 miles of single track, or 317*22 miles including sid- 

 ings. The capital stock is $8,604,240; bonded 

 indebtedness, $7,966,000; floating indebtedness, 

 $1,123,457.79; total, $17,723,697.79. The gross 

 earnings were $2,232,201.37; operating expenses, 

 constituting 68*24 per cent, of the gross earnings, 

 $1,523,191.13 ; net earnings applicable to interest, 

 taxes, and dividends, $708,860.24; interest paid, 

 $278,136.26; taxes paid, $76.522.34; dividends, 

 $168.630. All but one of the street railway lines 

 are operated by electricity, and that one is now 

 being electrically equipped. An act of the last 

 Legislature provided that no electric, cable, or horse 

 railroad should thereafter be constructed at grade 

 across a steam railroad, nor a steam road across an 

 electric, cable, or horse railroad. 



In November, 1895, the State Board of Equaliza- 

 tion fixed the valuation of the various steam rail- 

 roads, for State taxation, at $74.510,704.45, and the 

 valuation of street railways at $2,747,300. 



Education. The enumeration in 1895 of chil- 

 dren of school age gave their number as 174,529, 

 an increase over the preceding year of 3,940. For 

 each such child the several towns are entitled to 

 collect from the State $2.25 ; $1.50 to be paid 

 from the civil list and 75 cents from the school 

 fund. The civil-list dividend in 1896 amounted to 

 $261,793.50, and the school-fund dividend to $130,- 

 896.75, a total of $392,690.25. 



At the Connecticut School for Boys, on Oct. 1, 

 there were 409 inmates. The superintendent says : 

 " It is asserted on good authority, by well-founded 

 facts, that 75 per cent, of the boys who leave the 

 school are reformed." 



State Prison. The latest report covers the year 

 ending Sept, 30, 1895. On that date there were 395 

 prisoners ; during the year 186 had been received and 

 172 discharged, the average nnmber for the year 

 being 403, an increase over 1894 of more than 50. 



