522 



NEW YORK. 



ard P. Bland as candidate for President; con- 

 demning Thomas B. Catron, Delegate to Con- 

 gress, " for the reason that by his actions as such 

 Delegate he has held up the people of this Territory 

 to the scorn and ridicule of the nation, and espe- 

 cially do we denounce him for his failure to do more 

 as Delegate from the Territory than to provide sine- 

 cures for his own family " ; denouncing the Terri- 

 torial Republican party because in convention it 

 had made no declaration "on the silver question 

 and other vital issues before the people " ; and 

 declaring in favor of personal liberty and religious 

 freedom and denouncing the A. P. A. The follow- 

 ing was the coinage resolution : " We are in favor 

 of the free and unlimited coinage of silver and 

 gold, independent of the action of foreign nations, 

 at a ratio of 16 to 1." 



On Sept. 29 a second Democratic convention was 

 held at Santa Fe, when Harvey B. Fergusson was 

 nominated for Delegate to Congress, and a platform 

 was adopted which approved " every sentence of 

 the Chicago platform and declared " we believe it 

 to be the best expression of Democratic faith ever 

 emanating from an assembly of Democrats." 



The Populists held their Territorial convention 

 at Las Vegas on Sept. 23, and nominated L. Brad- 

 ford Prince as their Delegate to Congress, selecting 

 him " not as a Populist, but as a silver Republican." 

 On Oct. 6, as Mr. Prince had not severed his con- 

 nection with his own party, his nomination was re- 

 scinded, and the Democratic candidate for Delegate 

 was put in nomination by the Populists. 



The Gold-standard Democrats met in convention 

 in Albuquerque on Oct. 19, and nominated W. E. 

 Dame for Delegate to Congress. 



At the November election the Democratic candi- 

 date for delegate was elected. The vote was : Fer- 

 gusson, 18,947 ; Catron, 17.017; Dame, 66. The Ter- 

 ritorial Legislature is tied between Republicans and 

 Democrats in each branch. 



NEW YORK, a Middle State, one of the original 

 thirteen, ratified the Constitution July 26, 1788; 

 area, 49,170 square miles. The population, accord- 

 ing to each decennial census, was 340,120 in 1790; 

 589,051 in 1800; 959,049 in 1810; 1.372,111 in 

 1820 ; 1,918,608 in 1830 ; 2,428,921 in 1840 ; 3,097,- 

 394 in 1850 ; 3,880,735 in 1860 ; 4,382,759 in 1870 ; 

 5,082,871 in 1880; and 5,997,853 in 1890. Accord- 

 ing to a State census taken in 1892, the population 

 was 6,513,344. Capital, Albany. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, Levi P. Morton, 

 Republican ; Lieutenant Governor, Charles T. Sax- 

 ton ; Secretary of State, John Palmer; Comptroller, 

 James A. Roberts ; Treasurer, Addison B. Colvin ; 

 Attorney-General, Theodore E. Hancock ; State 

 Engineer and Surveyor, Campbell W. Adams ; Su- 



Eerintendent of Public Instruction, Charles R. 

 kinner ; Superintendent of Insurance, James F. 

 Pierce ; Superintendent of Banking Department, 

 Charles M. Preston, who was succeeded on Jan. 24, 

 by Frederick D. Kilburn ; Superintendent of the 

 State Prisons, Austin Lathrop ; Superintendent of 

 Public Works, George W. Aldridge ; Commissioner 

 of Labor Statistics, Thomas J. Dowling, who was 

 succeeded on March 30 by John T. McDonough ; 

 Railroad Commissioners, Samuel A. Beardsley, who 

 was succeeded on Dec. 29 by Ashley W. Cole, Al- 

 fred C. Chapin, and Michael Rickard. On Dec. 17 

 Frank M. Baker was appointed to the vacancy 

 caused by the death of Mr. Rickard ; Chief Judge 

 of the Court of Appeals, Charles Andrews; Asso- 

 ciate Judges, Albert Haight. John C. Gray, Irving 

 G. Vann, Edward T. Bartlett, Denis O'Brien, and 

 Celora E. Martin. 



Finances. The balance in the treasury Oct. 1, 

 1896, was $4,930,046, compared with $1,411,085 on 



Sept. 30, 1895. The receipts were $30,029.386. Of 

 this there was received on account of State tax for 

 all purposes $15,534,126, and from all other sources 

 $14,495.260. The latter amount was made up of 

 the following : Corporation taxes, $2,183.854 : or- 

 ganizations (new corporation) tax, $563,951 ; in- 

 heritance, $1,796,652 ; excise tax, $3,564,014. The 

 rest is canal improvement, loan, and tax and mis- 

 cellaneous receipts, amounting to $6,446, 786. On 

 Jan. 1, 1896, there was in the treasury $664,551, and 

 on Jan. 1, 1897, $2,377,565. The difference is more 

 than made up by the receipts from the liquor tax. 

 The increase of business during the past ten years 

 is indicated by the fact that in 1886-'87 11,824 

 checks were paid, and in 1895-'96 the number had 

 increased to 20,894. 



The State tax rate is 2'69 mills, compared with 

 3-24 mills last year. This tax will raise $961,116 

 for general purposes ; $4,062,903 for free schools ; 

 $218,435 for new work on the canals; $567,932 for 

 the canal debt : $1,135,865 for the maintenance of 

 the canals ; $436,871 for extraordinary expenses of 

 the canals ; and $4,368,712 for the State care of the 

 insane ; making a total of $11,751,837. There is es- 

 timated this year $3,000,000 in receipts from the 

 new liquor tax law. Without any receipts from 

 this source, the tax rate for 1896 would have been 

 nine hundredths of a mill greater than in 1895. 

 The increase of appropriations of 1896 over 1895, 

 which amounts to about $700,000, is due largely to 

 an item of about $120,000 for academies under the 

 Horton law of 1895, interest and sinking fund on 

 canal debt of about $570,000, $350,000 under the 

 Raines law appropriation, and $400,000 increase of 

 the Capitol appropriation. The total appropria- 

 tions other than the ones mentioned are less than 

 last year. 



Wealth of the State. The State assessors dur- 

 ing the year were Martin Heermance, Rollin L. Jen- 

 kins, and Edward L. Adams, each of whom receives 

 a salary of $2,500. The total amount of property 

 in the State in 1895, as returned by the local assess- 

 ors, was $4,368,712,903. It was divided as follows: 

 Real estate, $3,908,853,377 ; personal property, 

 $541,621,122. Amount of assessed value of real 

 estate taken from some counties and added to 

 others by the equalization table of 1896, $145,339,- 

 831; equalized value of real estate, 1896, $3,908,- 

 853.377 ; total equalized value of real and personal 

 property in the State, 1896, $4,368,712,903. 



Legislative Session. The regular session of 

 the Legislature began on Jan. 3, 1896, and con- 

 tinued until April 30. As elected, the Senate con- 

 sisted of 35 Republicans, 14 Democrats, and 1 Inde- 

 pendent Republican ; and the Assembly consisted 

 of 103 Republicans and 47 Democrats. Timothy 

 E. Ellsworth was chosen President pro tern, of the 

 Senate, and Hamilton Fish, Speaker of the Assem- 

 bly. During the session 1,708 bills were introduced 

 into the Assembly and 1,283 into the Senate. Of 

 these, 1,003 became laws, against 1,045 last year. 

 Of the 775 thirty-day bills left for the considera- 

 tion of the Governor at the close of the Legislature. 

 576 were signed by him. The Governor did not use 

 his veto power once during the session, but when 

 he found an objectionable bill he induced its recall 

 by concurrent resolution. 



Two important measures met with energetic op- 

 position at every stage, but finally became laws. 

 The first, known as " the Raines bill," was entitled 

 "An Act in relation to the traffic in liquors, and for 

 the taxation and regulation of the same, and to pro- 

 vide for local option." It was essentially a high- 

 license measure and required that two thirds of the 

 receipts from the tax go to the municipality in 

 which the saloon is located, and one third to the 

 State, thus creating a new source of revenue. It is 



