8 42 MINNESOTA 



Education. The legislature of 1911 passed a compulsory education law which was called 

 by the Federal commissioner of education the most comprehensive one enacted in the year. 

 It requires a complete school census, makes poverty no excuse for non-attendance, allows 

 children to be excused from attendance if their bodily or mental condition necessitates it, or 

 if they have finished the work of the eighth grade; and, except in cities of the first and second 

 class, permits children over 14 to be excused between April 1st and November 1st, if their help 

 is needed "in any permitted occupation in or about the home." The state director of school 

 hygiene in 1912 introduced a "health grading outline" for all school children. Instead of 

 10 high schools, 30 may now receive 2,500 a year for courses in agriculture, home economics 

 and manual training, for which the state appropriated 105,000 a year. A bonus of $1,000 

 is given to each of 50 high schools with any one of the three special courses mentioned. An 

 association for retirement fund pensions for teachers may be formed in cities of IO,ooo inhab- 

 itants or more the limit was formerly 50,000 or more. A new law regulates prices of text 

 books, and on the vote of the district or of the school board books may be supplied free of 

 sold at cost. An educational and professional qualification for county superintendents was 

 adopted by constitutional amendment (167,983 votes to 36,584) in November 1912. 



On April I, 1911, Cyrus Northrup, president of the University of Minnesota, was succeed- 

 ed by George Edgar Vincent (b. 1864), who had been dean of the faculties of arts, literature 

 and science in the University of Chicago, and president of the Chautauqua Institution since 

 1907. The schools of medicine and engineering occupied new buildings, and a chemistry 

 building was constructed. There is a "university extension" movement on Chautauqua 

 lines. In the law school the "case system" has been introduced. 



In 1910, of the population 10 years and over, 3% was illiterate (4.1% in 1900). The 

 total school enrollment in 1911-12 was 445,995, the school revenue about $20,000,000 and 

 the expenditures about 17,000,000. 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. A law of 1911 provides for the indeterminate sentence 

 of prisoners convicted of any crime except treason and murder, and for a state board of 

 parole. Life imprisonment was made the punishment for murder in the first degree. A new 

 act was passed for the government of the hospital farm for inebriates, finished late in 1912. 



History. At the beginning of IQII the governor, Adolph Olson Eberhart (b. 1870; 

 elected lieutenant-governor, 1907; succeeded on the death of Governor John A. Johnson 

 September 1909; re-elected, 1910), all the state officers, and a large majority of the state 

 legislature were Republicans. Moses Edwin Clapp (b. 1851), United States senator 

 since 1901, was re-elected January 17, 1911. In 1912 before the actual opening of the 

 presidential campaign Eberhart was one of the governors who urged Roosevelt's 

 candidacy, but when the Republican National Convention, in which the state's delegates 

 were instructed to vote for Roosevelt, nominated Taft, Eberhart refused to leave the 

 party. He was re-nominated 1 (Sept. 17, 1912) by the Republicans, who it must be 

 remembered were at least partially radical in their sympathies, and who re-nominated 

 Knute Nelson (b. 1843; representative in Congress 1883-89; governor 1893-95; United 

 States senator since 1895) for the Senate. The Progressives nominated P. V. Collins 

 for governor and no other candidates save secretary of state and one railroad and ware- 

 house commissioner no candidate for Congress. Eberhart was re-elected, with the 

 entire Republican ticket, getting 129,688 votes to 99,659 for his Democratic opponent, 

 Peter M. Ringdal, and 33,455 for Collins. The congressional delegation (ip, including 

 i at-large; formerly only 9) will consist of 9 Republicans and (from' the 2nd district) i 

 Democrat. Senator Nelson's re-election by the legislature (Jan. 21, 1913) was insured 

 by a Republican legislature and by a primary vote of 173,074 for Nelson to 102,69.1 for 

 Daniel W. Lawler, Democrat. The first returns, corning from the cities, pointed to 

 a plurality for Woodrow Wilson, but when the rural districts were heard from, it was 

 found that the state was carried for Roosevelt; by 125,856 votes to 106,426 for Wilson, 

 and 64,334 for Taft, and 27,505 for Debs, 2 who had 14,527 in 1908. 



Duluth (May 7, 1912) adopted by 5,331 voles to 1,296 a charter amendment for 

 initiation of legislation (the charter already provided for initiation of amendments to the 

 charter), for referendum and for recall. Immediately thereafter the municipal council 

 adopted a resolution for the purchase of a lighting plant, to which it had been opposed. 

 There was a street-car strike in Duluth from September 9 to November 7, 1912, when it 



1 At the state's first state-wide primary in which the second choice on the ballots caused 

 much confusion to voters and to canvassers. 



One Socialist, from Two Harbors, was elected to the lower house of the legislature*; .,j 



