NEW JERSEY 863 



Trenton; and in 1912 by Atlantic City, Deal, Long Branch, Longport, Nutley, Ridgefield 

 Park and VVildwood. It was rejected in 1911 by Bayonne, Cape May, East Rutherford, 

 Garfield, Hoboken, Irvington, Jersey City, Metuchen, New Brunswick, Orange, Paterson, 

 Rahway and Salem; and in 1912 by Elizabeth, Emerson, Glen Rock, Ventnor City and 

 Westwood. 



In 1912 the legislature granted a pension of $1,200 a year to the widow of any former 

 governor, and $10,000 for a monument in the National Cemetery at Arlington to Gen. Philip 

 Kearny, whose remains were removed in 1911 from Trinity Churchyard in New York. 



Finance. In 1912 a commission was appointed to investigate assessments for taxes and 

 the Department of Accounts was reorganised. An inventory and appraisal of railroad and 

 canal property was begun in 1910 and completed in 1912. The balance in the treasury on 

 November i, 1911, was $3,309,781 and a year later, $5,270,672; the receipts during the year, 

 $9,657,366, and the disbursements, 7,696,475. The state has no bonded debt. 



Education. In 191 1 as the result of a two years' investigation of the public school system 

 by the board of education working with the legislature several important school laws were 

 passed. A new board of education of 8 members with an 8 year term, was organised and 

 took office on June 30, 1911. The board is non-partisan, and besides having the powers of 

 the previous board, is to appoint an inspector of buildings and district inspector of accounts, 

 and to prescribe a uniform system of book-keeping for school accounts. The office of state 

 superintendent of education was abolished and the governor appointed in 191 1 as commission- 

 er of education (to hold office for five years, and to receive a salary of $10,000 a year) Calvin 

 Noyes Kendall, superintendent of schools of New Haven (1895-1900) and of Indianapolis 

 (1900-11). The commissioner appoints four assistant commissioners, one to supervise ele- 

 mentary schools, one secondary schools, one industrial education including agriculture, and 

 one to hear controversies and disputes in regard to school laws, subject to appeal to the state 

 board of education; and appoints also county superintendents of schools, who have a 3 year 

 term. In 1911 the time of the distribution of school funds was set for the September follow- 

 ing the receipt of taxes, so there might not be a delay such as there had been in the distribution 

 of the funds. 1 A law of 1912 specifies the manner in which the funds are to be apportioned 

 by county superintendents. The commissioner of charities and corrections is required to 

 prepare standard plans for school houses of the different sizes, and on request to inspect any 

 school building. After 35 years' service (of which 20 years must be with the board by which 

 the teacher is retired), any teacher in the public schools of the state may be retired upon half 

 pay. Special classes are to be organised in public schools for blind and deaf children who 

 cannot be received in institutions for the blind or deaf. 



The centennial of the Princeton Theological Seminary was celebrated on the 5th and 6th 

 of May 1912. On January II, 1912, John Grier Hibben (b. 1861), professor of logic, was 

 elected president of Princeton University; he was inaugurated on May II. George Brinton 

 McClellan, formerly mayor of New York City, was appointed professor of economic history. 

 Of the population ip years of age and over 5.6% were illiterate in 1910; 5.9 in 1900. 



For the year ending June 30, 1912 the total enrollment in public schools was 459,189; the 

 average daily attendance, 348,238; and the length of the average school year, 9 months 2 days. 

 Receipts were $26,436,005 and expenditures $21,840,574. 



Charitable and Penal Institutions. In 1911 cities of the first class were authorised to main- 

 tain detention homes for juveniles. A law was passed requiring the appointment of female 

 guards in county jails and penitentiaries. Prison contract labour was prohibited: the prison 

 contracts arc not annulled, but prisoners must be employed in manufacturing supplies for 

 public institutions and offices; this law was slightly amended in 1912, so that prisoners may 

 be employed on roads and children in state homes may be indentured. A prison labour com- 

 mission was created, and in December 1912 the first experiments were made in working con- 

 victs on roads. A house of detention for convicts or criminal insane on the grounds of the 

 State Hospital at Trenton was begun late in 1912. Indigents with incurable diseases, such 

 as locomotor ataxia, paralysis and chronic rheumatism, are to receive from the state not more 

 than $365 a year. A new poor law code was enacted in 191 1 and amended in 1912, and a new 

 law was passed in 1912 for the government of a state reformatory for women at Clinton (to 

 be opened soon). Physicians are required to report to the township assessor cases of epilepsy 

 and mental deficiency. In 1911 $100,000 was appropriated for buildings of the New Jersey 

 State Village for Epileptics at Skillman 5 of which were nearly completed in November 

 1912. There is question as to the constitutionality of a law of 1911 requiring (upon recom- 

 mendation of an expert board) the sterilising of feeble minded, epileptics, and criminal insane 

 in state institutions. Counties of the first class were authorised in 1912 to establish parental 

 schools and juvenile courts, and these courts are to hear cases affecting the domestic relation. 

 The state is to give $200 a year to any blind person who wishes to take a course in a higher 

 educational institution (not for the blind) in the state. A commission on old age insurance 

 and pensions was created in 1911 but made no report in 1912. The system of pensions for 

 state employees was extended to employees of penal institutions and reformatories. 



History. With Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) as governor was elected a Republican 

 1 See John P. Murray H New Jersey School Conditions" Educational Review, Nov. 1912. 



