.8r 4 KANSAS 



Finance. The 1909 laws governing the bank depositors' guaranty fund, and building 

 loan associations were amended in 1911; and a new assessment and taxation law was passed. 

 On July I, 191 1 the balance in the treasury was $1,423,238, and on June 30, 1912, 81,289,209; 

 and the receipts for. the fiscal year were 7,758,070 and the expenditures 7,892,099. The 

 only bonded indebtedness in 1912 was $370,000 held by the permanent school fund. 



Education. In 1911, 7 months was made the minimum term for rural schools and 8 for 

 schools in cities of the first and second class; and a complete re-organisation of the rural 

 schools was planned. In 1911 $70,000 was appropriated for 1912 and 75,000 for 1913 to 

 carry out the work planned in 1909 for normal school courses in high schools. A state 

 school of mines was opened in the autumn of 1912 at Weir City. In October 1912 the General 

 Education Board gave 125,000 to Baker University at Baldwin. 



For the school year ending June 30, 1912, the school population was 510,273; the enroll- 

 ment, 395,064; the average daily attendance, 298,128; and the length of the average school 

 year, 170 days. The total revenue was $12,956,894 and the total expenditures $11,158.256. 



In 1910 2.2% (in 1900, 2.9%) of the population 10 years and over was illiterate.. 



Charitable and Penal Institutions.' A board of penal institutions (three members) replaced 

 the directors of the penitentiary and the managers of the Kansas industrial reformatory on 

 July I, 1911. The legislature established an asylum to be used for the dangerous insane 

 in the penitentiary, and provided for a western state insane asylum; Larned was chosen a.s 

 its site in 1912. The penitentiary was authorised to buy coal rights adjacent to the peni- 

 tentiary mine, in which 300 to 400 convicts worked in 1912. Convicts were employed in 

 building roads. It was made unlawful for convicts to work for private citizens. Newton 

 has been chosen as the site for a state tuberculosis hospital (authorised 1911). 



History. The control of the state by the Republican party, radical though the party 

 was with Walter R. Stubbs, governor, and Joseph Little Bristow (b. 1861), United States 

 senator, among its leaders, appeared to be weakening in 1911 and 1912; in Fort Scott 

 (April 5, 1911) 3 councilmen (of 5 elected; 3 of 5 elected in 1910 were Socialists) and the 

 city attorney were Socialists, and a Socialist mayor was chosen in Girard, Crawford 

 county; two Republican members of the Federal House of Representatives died in 

 office and a Democrat was chosen to succeed each, by a majority in each case greater 

 than 1,000 votes in a light poll in a district usually strongly Republican. Stubbs was 

 one of the seven governors who voiced the popular call to Roosevelt to contest the 

 presidency. In May 1912 the Republican state convention instructed the four delegates 

 at-large for Roosevelt; and the primaries of August 6th resulted in the choice of electors 

 pledged to Roosevelt on the regular Republican ticket. Stubbs defeated Charles 

 Curtis (b. 1860) for a re-nomination for United States senator (losing on the popular 

 vote for the whole state by 1,200 but carrying a majority of the legislative districts) 

 William H. Thompson receiving the Democratic nomination for senator in the same 

 way, carrying more legislative districts than Hugh P. Farrelly but receiving 1,900 less 

 votes in the state; and Arthur Capper (b. 1865; proprietor and editor Topeka Capital 

 since 1892) received the Republican and George M. Hodges the Democratic nomination 

 for governor. No state " Progressive " ticket was nominated. The names of the 

 National Progressive electors could not appear in the Republican column under a 

 decision (Sept. iqth) of the secretary of state, 1 so these were put, alone, in a column 

 headed " Independent." Possibly this circumstance, which made it necessary for 

 " Progressives " to split the ticket if they wished to vote for Roosevelt electors, worked 

 against the National Progressive ticket. The state was carried for Wilson with 143,670 

 votes to 120,123 f r Roosevelt, 74,844 for Taft, and 26,807 for Debs (12,420 in 1008). 

 Crawford county was carried by the Socialists who gave Debs a plurality and elected 

 several county officers, a state senator and two state representatives. Hodges was 

 elected governor, receiving 167,437 votes to 167,408 for Capper and 24,767 for Kleihage 

 (Socialist). The other state officers were elected by a larger margin; but Thompson 

 (Dem.) defeated Stubbs (Rep.) for United States senator by about 21,000 votes, 5 

 Democrats (2 in 62nd Congress in 1912) were elected and 3 Republicans including 

 D. R. Anthony and Victor Murdock--to the Federal House of Representatives, and 



1 The state Supreme Court, and the Federal Courts, first the District Court, then the 

 Circuit Court of Appeals (Sept. i6th) had held that they had no jurisdiction and dismissed 

 a bill asking for an injunction to keep Roosevelt electors off the Republican ballot, practi- 

 cally a victory for the Progressives, who did not take advantage of it. 



