CONNECTICUT 7 8 7 



period the enumerated school population increased less than one-fourth. Of the towns 129 

 provide (39 do not) free text books. The work of consolidation of small schools is going on. 

 In Connecticut as in no other state except New York there was an increase of illiteracy 

 in 1900-1910, from 5-9% to 6% of the population ib years of age and more. This rate was 

 the highest in New England, excepting that of Rhode Island. Morton F. Plant gave $1,000,- 

 ooo in June 1911 for the Connecticut College for Women. A site has been secured in New 

 London, but late in 1912 building had not begun. With the autumn term of 1912 W'esleyan 

 University (Middletown) ceased to be co-educational and received men only; in June it 

 completed an endowment fund of $1,000,000. In October 1912 J. Pierpont Morgan gave 

 money for a new library and administration building at Trinity College, Hartford. To 

 Yale University M. C. D. Borden left $250,000 in 1912 and the McPhersoh fund for indigent 

 students will amount to $400,000, or more. 



Charitable and Penal- Institutions. In 1911 the legislature: created (over the governor's 

 veto) an annual pension of $30 to veterans of the Civil War, their widows, their widowed 

 mothers, etc; but the act was declared unconstitutional in April 1912 by the state supreme 

 court. An act of 191 1 provides for the transfer from the state prison to the newly completed 

 reformatory at Cheshire (subject to the approval of the directors of these institutions) of 

 male prisoners under 25 sentenced to less than 5 years. Contracts for convict labour may not 

 be made for longer than 4 years. This law does not apply to inmates of county institutions 

 in farm, domestic and casual service. A prisoner in the state prison sentenced for attempt 

 to murder by assault or attempt to poison may be paroled after two years. 



History. On January 4, 1911, Simeon Eben Baldwin (b. 1840), professor of constitu- 

 tional and private international law in Yale University since 1872, and chief justice of the 

 state supreme court of errors, was inaugurated governor, the first Democrat to hold 

 the office since 1895. He had a Republican legislature (majority of 7 in senate, -df 60 in 

 house), which blocked some of his proposed legislation; and the senate refused to 

 ratify the governor's nominee for state highway commissioner, although the Republican 

 incumbent of that office had been much criticised. On January 17, 1911 the legislature 

 elected a Republican, George Payne McLean (b. 1857; governor 1901-03), United 

 States senator to succeed Morgan Gardner Bulkley (b. 1838), also a Republican. 

 Local opposition to the " boss " rule in the Republican party of Alberto Roraback 

 contributed to the growth of a Progressive party, which was led in the gubernatorial 

 campaign of 1912 by Herbert Knox Smith (b. 1869), who resigned his post as federal 

 commissioner of corporations to join the third party and received 31,020 votes to 67,531 

 for judge John P. Studley, Republican, and 78,264 for Baldwin.' With Baldwin the 

 entire Democratic state ticket was elected, including 5 congressmen (all from districts; 

 formerly 4 districts and i at large). Ebenezer J. Hill (b. 1845), Republican representa- 

 tive since 1895 and one of the " Old Guard," was defeated. The Democrats secured a 

 majority of 7 (21 to 14) in the senate; in the Assembly there are 130 Republicans, 120 

 Democrats, 6 Progressives and 2 Progressive Republicans. But the Republican major- 

 ity on the joint ballot is comparatively unimportant, as no United States senator had to 

 be elected in 1913. The Democratic presidential electors received 74,614 votes; the 

 Republican, 68,099; the Progressive, 34,143; and the Socialists 10,078, as compared 

 with 5,113 in 1908 and 12,179 in 1910 (for Robert Hunter, as governor). In the spring 

 of 1912 .Socialists got control of the borough government of Naugatuck; in 1911 they 

 cast a large vote in Bridgeport, where they elected one alderman. 



A short strike of Italian weavers in Middletown, led by representatives of the 

 Industrial Workers of the World, began on June 5, 1912 and was accompanied by so 

 much disorder that the militia was called out. 



The Federal district court at Hartford on October n, 1912, handed down a verdict 

 of $80,000 and costs in favour of D. E. Loewe & Co., hatters of Danbury, against the 

 United Hatters' Union of North America for boycott (see E. B. iv, 353). 



A city plan for New Haven, submitted by Cass Gilbert and F. L. Olmsted, has not 

 been acted upon, but in 1912 the city was planning approaches to a new railway station, 

 and the commission made its fifth annual report. In XVallingford a private bureau of 

 municipal research was established in February 19 IT. 



During the year 1912, 6 towns formerly " no-licence " voted for the sale of intoxicat- 

 ing liquor, making 81 licence and 87 no-licence towns in the state. 



In Waterbury on the night of April 22, 1912, about a dozen fires were set by .an incen- 



