MISSOURI. 



519 



Of the balance on hand, January 1st, $45,- 

 715 belongs to the State revenue fund ; $340,- 

 168 to the State interest fund ; $93,623 to the 

 sinking-fund; $100,898 to the State school 

 moneys; $20,498 to the State school fund; 

 $18,733 to the insurance department fund. 

 The total cost of criminal trials during the 

 year was $180,237, of which $27,840 was 

 for conveying 540 convicts to the penitentiary. 

 The total cost of assessing and collecting the 

 revenue was $195,419. 



The Auditor makes no recommendation of 

 measures for meeting the $811,000 of State 

 bonds falling due in 1874, but says the subject 

 will be treated in the report of the fund com- 

 missioners. 



In addition to defraying the cost of the 

 government and supporting the charitable in- 

 stitutions of the State, there has been paid 

 during the year $599,000 of the State debt. 



A very large sum of money is annually col- 

 lected by taxation for educational purposes 

 in Missouri, which affords the means for ob- 

 taining a good common-school education to all 

 the children in the Commonwealth. The 

 amount raised by taxation and otherwise dur- 

 ing the year forthe common schools comprised: 

 State funds apportioned, $351,879.17; county 

 funds, revenue, $175,224.59; township funds, 

 revenue, $185,512.95 ; amount of local tax re- 

 ported, $1,379,158.88, making the revenues of 

 the year aggregate $2,091,775.59. There were 

 7,700 organized schools in the State, and the 

 average attendance of pupils was 230,000. The 

 public school-houses in the State have a ca- 

 pacity for 300,000 pupils, or 70,000 more than 

 the average attendance daring the year. The 

 cost was a little over nine dollars for each pu- 

 pil attending school. 



An important experiment was made during 

 the year in the management of the peniten- 

 tiary, which renders that institution for the 

 first time in many years self-sustaining. In 

 1872 the penitentiary cost the State $202,412, 

 or$718.93 per day over and above its income. 

 " It is claimed by some," says the Governor, 

 " that a large amount of work was done for the 

 State by the prisoners during the year, for which 

 nothing was paid, but my opinion is that the 

 amounts received by the officers of the prison 

 from the lease of the labor of the convicts dur- 

 ing the year, and for which no account was 

 ri-mlcrcd, so far as 1 can find, more than equal 

 all the work done for the State." 



The experiment alluded to was made in May, 

 when, in compliance with an net passed for 

 that purpose by the Legislature in March pre- 

 ceding, the State-prison was leased for ten 

 years to parties who agreed to take charge of 

 the prison and prisoners, clothe, feed, and 

 guard the latter at their own expense, and to 

 hold the State harmless on account of all ex- 

 penses connected with the institution ; also to 

 pay the State an annual consideration of $1,000. 

 The lessees, in turn, are to have the use and 

 control of the convicts. On the 1st of Janu- 



ary, 1874, the number of convicts was 874, of 

 whom 27 were females. 



The total length of railroads in the State is 

 2,857 miles, valued for taxation at $24,231,330. 

 The aid granted by the State for building- these 

 roads amounts to $16,762,904, and by counties 

 and cities $28,576,000, making the total aid by 

 State, cities, and counties, $45,338,904, or $21,- 

 107,574 over the estimated value of the roads 

 for taxable purposes, including all rolling- 

 stock, etc. The views of the Governor relative 

 to the railroads are too important to be over- 

 looked. Disclaiming all intent of doing the 

 railroad companies injustice, he thinks that all 

 unjust discrimination against non-competing 

 points ought to be stopped, and a fair and 

 reasonable table of rates established, a proper 

 regard for the protection of human life re- 

 quired, and strict police regulations for the 

 government of every railroad in the State pro- 

 vided and enforced through the instrumental- 

 ity of a well-selected judiciary and a Board of 

 Railroad Commissioners ; but the true remedy 

 and the only effective one, so far as the regula- 

 tion of transportation is concerned, must be 

 provided by an act of Congress. While State 

 legislation may be so formed as to afford very 

 considerable protection against improper ex- 

 actions by railroad corporations, the trial of 

 such legislation in Massachusetts, and several 

 other States, has demonstrated its impotency 

 and the utter impossibility of adequate pro- 

 tection by it to the great producing interests of 

 the country. Under the power delegated by 

 the Constitution to regulate commerce between 

 the States, Congress may, most unquestionably, 

 establish a uniform, just, and fair rate of trans- 

 portation by railroads throughout the United 

 States. This no State Legislature can do. He 

 therefore advises the Legislature to instruct 

 the Senators and request the Representatives in 

 Congress to urge the passage of a law for the 

 purposes suggested. 



An annual review of the industrial resources 

 of Missouri shows a wonderful increase in the 

 manufacture of iron in the State, an industry 

 for which Missouri possesses peculiar advan- 

 tages. According to the census of 1870, there 

 were in the State 15 blast-furnaces, employing 

 a capital of $1,914,000, and yielding a product 

 of $586,293. In 1873 there were reported 12 

 establishments with 18 furnaces, having a 

 capital of $5,783,000, employing 2,421 hands, 

 paying $1,089,300 wages, and yielding 100,- 

 000 tons of pig-iron, valued at $4,500,000, and 

 120,000 tons of rails, valued at $1,008.000, mak- 

 ing a total product for the year of $5,508,000 

 Thus in three years the capital employed in 

 iron and rail making has been trebled, the 

 number of hands more than doubled, and the 

 product increased more than fourfold. 



The present State government consists of 

 the following officers : Governor, Silas Wood- 

 son, Democrat; Lieutenant-Governor, Charles 

 P. Johnson, Liberal ; Secretary of State, Eu- 

 gene F. Weigel, Liberal ; Treasurer, Henry 



