CALIFORNIA 779 



amendment (1911) to the law in regard to non-resident taxation taxes anything left by the 

 will of a resident of the state or by the will of a non-resident bequeathing property within 

 the state or on a transfer without valuable consideration and makes the tax a lien on the 

 property. There is a scale for the nearness of kin to the legatee; under $25,000 the rate is 

 I % for those nearest of kin and 5% for those more remote; for sums between $100,000 and 

 $500,000 the corresponding rates are 5% and 25%. In 1912 the controller published the 

 first annual report of the finances of municipalities and counties in the state, authorised by 

 a law of April 21, 1911. An initiated amendment for local taxation was defeated in Novem- 

 ber 1912 by 243,959 to 169,321; but one changing the system of depositing public funds was 

 adopted, 307,199 to 128,411. 



iThe cash in the state treasury July I, 1910, was $7,201,220. The receipts for the fiscal 

 year ending June, 1911, were $18,843,854 and for the year ending June 30,1912, $27,395,144. 

 The expenditures for these years were respectively $18,591,471 and $24,945,213, leaving a 

 balance on hand June 30, 1912, of $9,903,534. 



Education. A new_ compulsory education law of 1911 sets the age for school attendance 

 from 8 to 15, but there are many exceptions. In accordance with a constitutional amend- 

 ment of 1910, the fund for the University of California is to be increased by 7 % a year from 

 1911 until 1915. In November 1912 the people approved (343,443 to 171,486) an amend- 

 ment to the constitution giving -free text-books to pupils in day and evening schools. A 

 state normal school at Fresno was opened for instruction in September 1911. One high 

 school in every first class city must teach French, Italian, Spanish and German and such a 

 school is to be called a "cosmopolitan school." Athletics and military drill may be included 

 in the high school curriculum and high school cadet companies may be organised with target 

 practice under the supervision of an officer of the National Guard. 



For the school year ending in the summer of 1912 the total enrollment was 423,824; the 

 average daily attendance, 323,657, and the length of the average school year, 172 days. 

 The total school revenue (excluding that of the University of California) was $32,265,791 

 and the expenditures $24,534,266. 



Illiteracy in the population IO years old and over was 3.7 % in 1910 against 4.8 % in 1900. 



The University of California in 1912 received a gift of $100,000 for the endowment of 

 scholarships for men. Late in the same year Prof. Merriam of the University began the 

 excavation of remarkably preserved skeletons of prehistoric animals mixed in tar pools on 

 Rancho La Brea, near Los Angeles. In April 1912 the University Medical school was 

 re-organised in three departments: gynecology and obstetrics, medicine, and surgery. 



Charitable and Penal Institutions. The state board of charities and corrections received 

 new powers in 1911, and a state reformatory for first offenders between 1 6 and 30 was estab- 

 lished; it is to be erected near Yountville, Napa county. Inebriates and those with drug 

 habits may be committed to a state hospital for the insane. The juvenile court law was 

 twice amended, in minor details, in 1911. On November 6, 1911, the Federal Supreme 

 Court (Finley v. California) held that there was no unconstitutional discrimination in a law 

 making death the penalty for assault with intent to kill on the part of a convict serving a 

 life term. In 1912 an effort was made to propose by initiative a constitutional amend- 

 ment abolishing capital punishment. 



History. Hiram W. Johnson (b. 1866) was elected in November 1910 governor 

 for the term 1911-15 by 177,1191 votes to 154,835 for Bell (Democrat.), 47,819 tor Wilson 

 (Socialist) and 5,807 for Meads (Prohibitionist). This was the result of a campaign in 

 which Johnson toured the state in an automobile, attacking "special interests" and partic- 

 ularly the Southern Pacific Railroad, whose counsel (and vice-president since March 

 1910), William F. Herrin (b. 1854), he accused of having an undue and improper in- 

 fluence upon legislation and nominations for state office. Johnson's nomination and 

 election gave the Lincoln-Roosevelt League and the progressives generally control of 

 the Republican partisan machinery. 



The Eshelman-Stetson law (see above) had for its object the lessening of the power 

 of the Southern Pacific; the amendment for municipal home rule, resulting in the adop- 

 tion of several free-holder charters with commission government, put the cities of the 

 state on a better government basis than those of any other state; and Colonel Roosevelt 

 said that Governor Johnson and the legislature put through " the most comprehensive 

 program of constructive legislation ever enacted at a single session of any American 

 legislature." An attempt was made to " side-track " the governor by electing him 

 United States senator, but the choice fell (Jan. n) on John Downey Works (b. 1847), 

 one of Johnson's aides in the campaign, justice of the state supreme court in 1888-91, 

 an authority on water rights and a prominent Christian Scientist. In the election of 

 delegates to the National Convention the state law stipulated that the vote for district 



