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department of labour and industry was established in 1911 to take the place of the office 

 of factory inspection and of the bureau of industrial labour statistics; at its head is a 

 commissioner. Exemptions for debt no longer include bills for necessaries, but $10 a 

 week is exempt from execution. The law of 1909 making ten hours a working day for 

 women and children in factories is amended so that it does not apply to the manufactur- 

 ing of perishable products. Packers of food in tin or glass must pay annually, for a per- 

 mit, $100 to go toward the cost of a monthly inspection of food packed. The penalty 

 for false marking of a container of food is $500. A stricter law was passed against the 

 adulteration of milk or cream. The laws for the sale of seeds, commercial feeding stuffs, 

 fertilisers, drugs, foods, and insecticides were revised and codified. The state forest 

 commissioner is to maintain fire patrol along railways, which must pay the expense. 



The legislature of 1911 passed many private and special laws in regard to fishing and 

 trapping, and prescribed closed seasons for scallops, mink, sable, fisher, otter, muskrat and 

 eider ducks; the closed term for caribou was extended to 1917 and for wood ducks to 1915. 

 Game commissioners were authorised to declare un open season for beaver upon a written 

 complaint that beavers were doing serious damage. Towns may grant licences for the pro- 

 tection of clams and no clams may be taken in the licensed territory. 



A charter giving a commission government to Gardiner, adopted by the city September 

 n, 1911, was the first in Maine. The voters of Waterville defeated, October 2, 1911, a 

 charter providing for commission government, referendum, initiative and recall. Bangor 

 adopted plans submitted by an expert for rebuilding the part burnt on April 30, 1911 (with 

 a loss amounting to $3,500,000), widening the streets and grouping public buildings. 



. Finance. In 1909-11 the net debt increased 1,151,502, an amount greater than the 

 previous total. Governor Plaisted urged the strictest economy, inasmuch as only 300,000 

 a year could be raised by temporary loan. This amount was borrowed in 1911 and 1912. 

 The governor pointed out that in 1911 and 1912 it would be necessary to raise 1,000,000 

 more than the amount of actual current expenditures. The appropriation bill for 1911 car- 

 ried 4,044,140 (1,497,500 for school and mill fund tax due to townships). The net debt in 

 January 1913 was $1,249,664. Cash on hand January I, 1912 in the treasury was 502,202. 

 The receipts for the year were 5,321,711 and the expenditures $5,366,785, leaving a balance 

 of cash on hand January I, 1913 of $457,128. 



The inheritance tax law of 1905 and 1909 was slightly amended in 1911; and previous 

 laws for the taxation of express companies, steam railways, insurance companies, and tele- 

 graph and telephone companies were revised. Foreign corporations must pay a fee of 10 

 before doing business and the same annually, and their officers are liable jointly and 

 separately. Banks and trust companies with savings departments must set apart assets 

 equal to the aggregate savings deposits, not liable for debts until all deposits are paid. 



Education. A law of 1911 introduced manual training into all normal schools, and 

 provided state aid for manual training in towns. The Washington state normal school 

 at Machias, established by law in 1909, was opened in 1911. The percentage of illiteracy 

 in 1910 among the population 10 years of age and over was 4.1 (5.1 in 1900). 



For the year ending June 30, 1912 the school population was 214,348; enrollment, 

 1 39<957'< average daily attendance, 107,768; length of the average school year, 163 days in 

 primary and 173 in high schools; receipts, 3,509,269 and expenditures, 3,151,917. 



In 1912 a new gymnasium for Bowdoin College was completed and occupied. 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. In 1911 a board of trustees (five men and one woman) 

 of juvenile institutions was created to manage the state school for boys and the industrial 

 school for girls (formerly under separate management), and a board of seven hospital trustees, 

 one a woman, to manage all state institutions for the insane and the feeble-minded. The 

 wife, or the guardian of the children, of any prisoner convicted of desertion and employed 

 at hard labour is to receive from the state 50 cents a day for the convict's labour. 



History. Frederick William Plaisted (b. 1865; mayor of Augusta in 1906-10) was 

 elected (1910) the first Democratic governor since 1882, when his father held that office. 

 He and the Democratic legislature were pledged to resubmit to the -people the question 

 of prohibition. The legislature repealed the Sturgis enforcement law of 1905, under 

 which a state commission enforced the prohibition clause; abolished the state agency 

 for the sale of liquor; and (March 23rd) submitted a constitutional amendment provid- 

 ing for local option and repealing the clause (adopted 1884) prohibiting the sale of 

 intoxicating liquors. The amendment was defeated (Sept. 1 1, 1911) by 60,853 to 60,095 

 votes. It was first reported adopted, through a clerical error. Every city, Calais 

 excepted, voted for the amendment. At the same election the Davies direct primary 

 law (for all state and county officers and United States senators) was adopted (65,800 



