OKK< 



625 



The Ashland Normal School graduated 23 in the 

 regular course and 7 in special com - 



The class at Drain Normal School numbered 1C. 



The Agricultural College, at Corvallis. had an en- 

 rollment of :)!i7. r< aching the limit of its capacity. 

 The total amount received during the year, includ- 

 ing the amount on hand July 1. I*'.'"*, was $4i>.!i s 4.42. 

 The estimated funds available for the ensuing year 

 amount to $45.5n<i. 



The enrollment at the State University, at Eugene. 

 for the year ending June is. \vas On:;. ,.,f which 190 

 men and 143 women were in the school of letters. 

 3 men and 3 women in the school of law. and 65 

 men and 19 women in the school of medicine. 



The degree of bachelor of arts was conferred on 

 iidents. of bachelor of laws on 41, doctor of 

 medicine on 22. 



The receipts for the year, including balances of 



'.'.250. and the balance left wa 

 955. The land fund amounts to s!i!i.;;:n;. 



Willamette University had '2 graduates in the 

 course of liberal arts. 6 in the law department. 4 in 

 the school of expression, and IS in the preparatory 

 department. 



The attendance at the Chantanqna Assembly at 

 Gladstone Park at the opening in July was esti- 

 mated at 3.5110. 



State Institutions. The maintenance of State 

 institutions absorbs a large proportion of the State 

 income. The appropriations on account of penal 

 and eleemosynary institutions two years ago. ex- 

 clusive of appropriations for homes throughout the 

 State, were $631.94i.i.S7. This means an annual ex- 

 penditure of $315.073.43. 



The Solders' Home, at Roseburg. has been im- 

 proved by the addition of a new building for a hos- 

 pital. 



There were 365 prisoners in the Penitentiary, at 

 Salem, in December. It has 27 officers and em- 

 ploy 



The Reform School, at Salem, had 126 inmates in 

 April. 



The Supreme Court handed down its third opinion 

 in the branch asylum case, Nov. 9 (see " Annual 

 Cyclopaedia" for !>'. -1). It affirmed the 



judgment of the lower court in restraining the State 

 Treasurer from honoring the $25,000 warrant issued 

 in payment of a site purchased for the location of 

 the proposed asylum building in eastern Oregon. 

 The decision says: "The expenditure of public 

 money at a place prohibited by the Constitution is 

 a misapplication thereof, for the simple and very 

 satisfactory reason that it is against the declared 

 will of the people, and the location of a public in- 

 stitution, within the meaning of the term as used 

 in the Constitution, is not in any sense a legislative 

 question, but has been determined by the people 

 themselves." 



The present asylum at Salem is crowded. Its in- 

 mates include, besides the insane, inebriates, mor- 

 phine patients, idiots and feeble-minded, and those 

 overtaken by poverty and physical debility. The 

 number in the asylum in November was 1,108, and 

 the population is constantly increasing. The month- 

 ly per capita expense w,-is $ 



Militia. The persons liable to military duty in 

 the State numbered 57.928 in 1895. In answer to a 

 telegram in January, asking the strength of the 

 Oregon National Guard, and how soon the militia 

 forces could be mobilized, the Governor said that 

 about 1.600 men. including tsvo batteries, could be 

 rendezvoused in Portland within forty-eight hours. 



The expense to the State of ordering out the mi- 

 litia to suppress the disturbance caused by striking 

 fishermen on the Columbia, was about $8~000. The 

 strikers themselves aided materially in minimizing 

 the expense by supplying fish; it is reported that 

 VOL. xxxvi. 40 A 



the soldiers had all the salmon they wished fum! 

 as a voluntary contribution. 



The troops were called to Roscburg in June 

 to prevent the threatened lynching of a prisoner 

 charged with murder. 



Railroads. Tin- report of the Railroad Com- 

 mission says that not a road in the State has paid 

 a dividend to a stockholder in four years, or been 

 able to pay the agreed rate of interest on its bonds. 

 During that time four of the roads have been in 

 the hands of receivers, namely, the Northern Pacific, 

 the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, the 

 Washington and Columbia River, and the Oregon 

 Pacific, now the Oregon Central and Eastern. Of 

 these, the first two have recently been sold under 

 the hammer, the result of foreclosure suits, and re- 

 organized, and are now being operated by the 

 owners instead of under the direction of the courts. 

 The Washington and Columbia River succeeded in 

 getting out of the hands of a receiver after short 

 experience. The Oregon Pacific was sold at sher- 

 iff's sale in December. 1894, reorganized as the 

 Oregon Central and Eastern, and .is now being 

 operated by the purchasers. The properties of the 

 Oregon and California are operated by the Southern 

 Pacific Company, under a thirty-four-year lease from 

 1893. Its interest under taxes amount to about $1.- 

 000,000 a year, but its earnings, over and above 

 operating expenses, were i - tOO.OOO in 1*95. 



and less than $300.000 in 1 - 



The aggregate earnings of all the railroads within 

 the State amount to about $5.000.000 annually. Of 

 this sum. about $4.000,000 is returned to the people 

 for labor, material, taxes, etc.. leaving generally less 

 than $1, 000.000 to pay interest on an invested cap- 

 ital of $70,000,000. 



On Aug. 18. 1896. the Oregon Railway and Navi- 

 gation Company was reorganized, with E. McNeill, 

 formerly receiver, as president and manager, under 

 the name of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation 

 Company. The reorganization was effected by fore- 

 closure of the collateral trust mortgage, the conver- 

 sion of back interest waived, and 50 per cent, of the 

 principal on the collateral trust mortgage waived 

 into preferred stock, and the reduction of the 5- 

 per-cent. mortgage bonds to 4 per cents. 



Telegraphs and Telephones. In 1895 there 

 were 2.207'35 miles of telegraph and telephone lines 

 -ed in Oregon. The aggregate valuation, as 

 equalized by the State board. w ;i - $150.374. 



The Cascade Looks. This great work was fin- 

 ished and formally opened Nov. 5. The canal and 

 locks are intended to enable boats to pass the cas- 

 cades of the Columbia. The first obstruction to 

 navigation in that river, the Cascades, includes a 

 reach of about 4 miles, where the river rushes 

 through a narrow gorge in the Cascade mountains 

 at a point 150 miles from the mouth. The fall be- 

 tween the upper Cascades and the lower Cascades 

 is about 45 feet at high water, and 36 feet at low 

 water. A canal, 3,000 feet long and 70 feet wide, 

 has been cut across a low projecting spur around 

 which the river is forced at the entrance to the 

 gorge, with 3 locks. The upper gates are claimed 

 by engineers to be the largest lock gates in the world. 

 All the gates are operated by hydraulic machinery, 

 the water coming from a spring on the mountain 

 side. The work was begun eighteen years ago. The 

 canal opens the river to The Dalles. 50 miles above. 

 There is another obstruction, which it is proposed 

 to overcome by a boat railway. The cost of the 

 locks and canal to the Government was over $2.- 

 500.000. 



Other Water- Ways. Congress made appropria- 

 tions for Oregon waters as follow: Boat railway at 

 The Dalles. $100.000. and authorizing contract for 

 $2,064,000 ; Coquille river. $20,000; upper Coquille. 



