500 



MICllK.AX. 



went; granting special privileges to individ- 

 uals or corporations ; declaring any named 

 person of ago; extending time tor roll. 

 of taxes, or relieving assessors or collectors 

 from performance of duty ; punishing crimes 

 or misdemeanors ; adopting by any person of 

 another as his child or heir; vacating or alter- 

 ing roads, streets, etc., alley or public ground, 

 or building or repairing bridges, or draining 

 swamps ; exempting property from taxation. 

 All these subjects to be provided for by gener- 

 al law. 2. Forbidding expenditures for schools 

 under private or denominational control. 3. In- 

 creasing the judges of the Supreme Court to 

 five, andgivingthem power to establish a code 

 of civil procedure. 4. Leaving the amount of 

 salaries of executive nnd judicial officers to be 

 fixed by the Legislature. 5. Forbidding mu- 

 nicipal "corporations to give aid by money or 

 credit to railroads, or any person, private cor- 

 poration, or association (which, however, the 

 courts hold cannot be done under the present 

 constitntion). 6. Requiring cities and villages 

 to be incorporated only under general laws. 

 7. Forbidding the State to aid, by gift, or 

 pledge of its credit, any person or corporation, 

 or to subscribe, or to be interested in, the 

 stock of any corporation, or to assume the in- 

 debtedness of any municipality. 8. Providing 

 for an annual tax of two hundred dollars on 

 every person engaged in the sale of intoxicat- 

 ing drinks, and forbidding the sale to juniors, 

 persons under guardianship, insane and idiotic 

 persons, paupers, and common drunkards. The 

 proposed instrument is to be submitted for ap- 

 proval to a special session of the Legislature, 

 and if approved, must then bo referred to tho 

 people for adoption. The Legislature also 

 passed an act for the appointment of a Hoard 

 of Fish Commissioners, to establish a State 

 fish-breeding establishment for tho artificial 

 propagation and cultivation of white-fish, and 

 such other fish as they may select, and to su- 

 pervise generally tho fishing interest. Gov- 

 ernor Bagley, with George Clark and George 

 H. Jerome, constitute the board. The Legisla- 

 ture also provided for a commissioner of rail- 

 roads, to whom every railroad corporation do- 

 ing business in the State is required to make a 

 full and detailed report of all its stock, stock- 

 holders, assets, liabilities, value of road, roll- 

 ing-stock, buildings and fixtures, miles run, 

 tons of freight moved, earnings for carriage 

 of freight and passengers, expenses, cost of 

 repairs and improvements, buildings, fixtures, 

 etc., tariff of freights and passenger-fares, ar- 

 rangements with express and transportation 

 companies, running arrangements, etc. The 

 commissioner is to examine the condition and 

 management of roads, may inspect hool 

 papers, require tnnafc bridges and structures 

 to ho made safe, and stop the running of trains 

 over the same if it is not done. Railroad c.,m- 

 panies are required to transport over their 

 roads the cars and merchandise of other com- 

 panies, and the commissioner may fix the com- 



pensation where it cannot be a-.'reed upon; 

 and various other powers of railroad polie 

 conferred upon him. and penalties pmvi.U 

 failure to observe his directions. Stepli> 

 Cobb was appointed commissioner under thi- 

 act. Another important act of legislation 

 an amendment to the act of 1*71, makin. 

 venders of intoxicating drinks rc-|>n-i 

 the families of persons to whom liquors are 

 sold by them. The amendment provides that 

 ''any owner or occupant of any house. <! 

 ing, shed, or tenement, in which spirituous .] 

 intoxicating liquors are sold or bought, given 

 away, or obtained for money, or otherwi- 

 means of any wheel, drawer, or any other de- 

 vice, for the purpose of evading the provisions 

 of this act, shall be deemed the unlawful seller 

 of said liquors, and shall be held responsible. 

 and subject to all the liabilities, penalties, and 

 provisions of this act ; provided, in ease the 

 owner is not the occupant of uny such build- 

 ing, he shall be entitled to twenty days' no- 

 tice in writing of the existence of such wheel, 

 drawer, or other device, for dealing out liquors, 

 after which notice he shall he liable to all the 

 fines and penalties of a liquor-dealer, under the 

 act of which this is amendatory." females 

 were also made subject to imprisonment, it' 

 found guilty of violation of tho prohibitory 

 liquor-law. A State Board of Health w:i- 

 provided for, consisting of Homer (>. Hitch- 

 cock, ZenasE. Bliss, Robert (.'. Kedzie, Charles 

 II. Brigham, Henry F.Lyshe, and. John S. (iood- 

 man, with Henry B. Baber, as secretary. Tho 

 secretary is made Superintendent of Vital Sta- 

 tistics, und is to collect statistics, and make 

 and publish an annual report of births, mar- 

 riages, and deaths. The corner-stone of tho 

 new State Capital was laid with imposing cer- 

 emonies, October 2, 1ST2, when au address 

 was delivered by Hon. William A. Howard. 

 Work progressed rapidly upon the building to 

 the close of the year, and it is to bo completed 

 December, 1, 1877. 



The salt manufactured during the year 

 v::t.:; Hi barrels, equivalent t,o4,H.fl,7:!'> bushels, 

 an increase of more than 500,00(i bushels over 

 tho preceding year. The production of the 

 copper-mines on Lake Superior for tho year. 

 was 18,514 tons; an increase of 3,848 tons 

 over the preceding year, and being more than 

 was ever before produced in a year. The in- 

 dications of prosperous business continued to 

 the close of the season. Tho iron shipped from 

 the Lake Superior region was as follow?: 

 From Marquette, ore, 520,204 tons; pif. 

 !>'.T : from Escanaba, ore, 47!',712 ; pi;r. '.1.2-4* ; 

 from L'Anse, ore, 60,899: total ore, l.or,i;.77. r > 

 tons; pi ir. . - !."i.24ri tons. The first report of 

 the OomralulOIUT of Railroads only covers the 

 year ending December 31, 1872, but as the 

 office was established during 1*73. and the 

 facts reported do not appear in an official f.-rm 

 elsewhere, they are given here. There were 

 then thirty railroad corporations operating 

 2,976 miles of main line and branches within 



