FLORIDA 793 



state chemist, and the previous offices of pure food and drug inspector and commercial 

 stock feed inspector were abolished. The work of inspection is put under the chemical 

 division of the state agricultural department. 



Heavy penalties are imposed for the sale of intoxicating liquors in any prohibition county 

 or precinct. In any county, on a petition by 25% of the qualified voters, a special election 

 must be held to decide whether or not liquor shall be sold in the county. A bill closing 

 saloons between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M., one prohibiting the use of screens, tables or chairs in 

 saloons, and one forbidding soliciting orders for intoxicating liquor in "dry" territory were 

 vetoed by the governor, separately, and again together in a general revenue bill. In 1912, 

 II counties in the state were '-licence" territory. 



The board of railroad commissioners has power to regulate telephone business and tele- 

 graph rates; and only with its permission may railways or canal companies be consolidated 

 or lease or purchase other common carriers. Many game laws were passed, mostly for 

 separate counties and localities, and many of them forbidding the taking of food fish except 

 by hook and line. 



"A large part of the legislation of the year was local. Ten new towns were incorporated, 

 Pass-a-Grille, in Hillsborough county, with a commission government and a provision for the 

 recall. of officials; and a new charter providing a commission form of government was 

 granted to Green Gove Springs. The charters of Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Tampa 

 (to which East Tampa was annexed) were amended. A new county, Pinellas, was created 

 from Hillsborough county, with Clearwater as its county-seat. In 1912 Tampa adopted a 

 commission charter with provision for advisory voting. 



Finance. The tax levy for igirand 1912 was set at 2 mills for current expenses and for 

 interest on the bonded debt, and I mill for a school tax, but the governor was authorised 

 to reduce these rates. If the assessment of the state and other sources of revenue permitted, 

 the trustees of the internal improvement fund and the state board of education are required 

 to retain a three-fourths interest in phosphates, petroleum or other minerals found in any 

 lands sold by them. Building and loan associations were permitted to increase their capital 

 stock to $2,000,000, and a law was passed for the incorporation of trust and security com- 

 panies. A constitutional amendment was adopted in November 1912 (16,348 to 4,014) 

 empowering the legislature to provide for special tax districts and to issue bonds for free 

 public schools therein. There was in the .state treasury, January I, 1912, a balance of 

 858,440. Receipts for the year 1912 were $3,023,698 and expenditures, $2,870,603, leaving 

 a balance on December 31, 1912 of $1,011,535. 



Education. For the year ending June 30, 1912 the school population was 225,000, the 

 enrollment 157,161, the average daily attendance 110,364. and the length of the average 

 school year 5! months. The revenue for schools was $2,359,679 and the expenditures were 

 $2,327,395. The board of commissioners of state institutions was made in 1911 a state 

 school-book commission to adopt uniform text-books throughout the state there had 

 already been uniformity in each county for about ten years. School-books are to be furnished 

 free to any child under 15 whose parents are on the roll of the county poor or are indigent, or 

 are dead. The trustees of the Peabody Fund gave : $4O,ooo to the University of Florida for 

 a school of education; the new department was opened in the autumn of 1910 and a new 

 building was begun. The principal appropriations for higher education were for the Uni- 

 versity of Florida, $177,000; for the State College for Women, $136,500; for the School for 

 the Deaf and Blind, $82,500; and for the Agricultural and Mechanical College (1887) for 

 Negroes, $30,000. The first Friday in November is to be celebrated in the public schools each 

 year as Mothers' Day. 



The percentage of illiteracy in the population 10 years of age and over in 1910 was 13.8 

 (21.9 in 1900). Of whites it was 5.5 (8.9 in 1900); of negroes, 25.5 (38.4 in 1900). 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. The legislature of 1911 appropriated $50,000 for the 

 purchase of a state prison farm, about 17,000 acres were purchased but no buildings were 

 erected in 1912 and authorised the state board of health to establish a hospital for the 

 treatment of indigent children or to send them to established hospitals; the latter course 

 was still being pursued in 1912. The board of commissioners of state institutions was for- 

 bidden to lease or release convict labour before July I, 1913; the present lease expires on 

 December 31, 1913. County judges are required to act as judges of juvenile courts, and 

 keep a separate juvenile record, and the governor is to appoint a probation officer in each 

 county for dependent and delinquent children. Newspapers are forbidden to print the 

 name of a woman criminally assaulted, and 5 years' imprisonment or a fine of $1,000 or both 

 is made the maximum penalty for enticing girls for immoral purposes. 



History. Two primary elections (May 9 and June 7, 1910) were necessary to secure 

 a majority vote for a United States senator to succeed James Piper Taliaferro (b. 1847), 

 whose term expired in 1911, but Napoleon B. Broward (1857-1910; governor in 1905- 

 09), who defeated Senator Taliaferro in the second primary, died before he took office. 

 There was no majority for any one of the four candidates at the primary of January 10, 

 1911, but on January 31 Nathan Philemon Bryan (b. 1872) was chosen at the Demo- 



