8 9 4 OREGON 



ly repealing all parts of the one adopted in 1910 except the provision in regard to the poll tax. 

 All three were opposed by W. S, U 'Ren, and the first and second were defeated by fairly close 

 votes, but the third was adopted by 63,881 votes to 47,150. An initiated act exempting 

 from taxation debts, stock .(except bank stock) and bonds was defeated (66,540 to 42,491 

 votes); and so were a revision of the inheritance tax (by 63,839 to 38,609 votes), a single tax 

 measure (82,015 to 31,534 votes) and an amendment providing for an income tax (52,948 to 

 52,702). But household furniture and goods actually in use were exempted from tax. A 

 new banking code, was passed in 1911 the governor, secretary of state and state treasurer, 

 making up the state banking board, which is to appoint a superintendent of banks. Each 

 bank must report at least five times a year to him; and directors of incorporated state banks 

 must appoint each year a committee of stockholders (not officers) to examine the affairs of 

 the banks at least once every six months. A "blue sky" law like that of Kansas, supervising 

 and licensing the sale of stocks and bonds, was defeated by popular vote in November 1912. 

 A popular vote of 82,981 to 21,738 approved a constitutional amendment making stockholders 

 in banking corporations liable for the par value of stock held. 



On September 30, 1910 the balance in the treasury was $424,913 and on September 30, 

 1912 the balance was $933,736; the receipts for the two years were $8,307,182 and the 

 expenditures, $7,738,359. There is no state debt. 



Education. A new compulsory education law of 191 1 made 9 to 15 years the limit instead 

 of 8 to 14. A county educational board was established in every county having more than 

 60 school districts. The county school tax was increased from $7.00 to $8.00 for every child 

 between 4 and 20 at the preceding school census. Evening schools are to be provided in first 

 class districts. New laws were passed for the formation of union high schools, for the certifica- 

 tion of teachers, for a retirement fund association in districts with 10,000 children of school 

 age, and for the government of the University of Oregon. Large appropriations were made 

 for the State Agricultural College and its experiment station $273,500 in a single act, and 

 $70,000 annually for the State Agricultural College. For the University of Oregon $175,- 

 ooo was appropriated for a library and museum, and $328,259 for an administration build- 

 ing, additional land, equipment etc.; but these two acts were held up by a referendum to the 

 people who voted against them in November 1912 (79,376 to 27,310 and 78,985 to 29,437 

 respectively), when they also defeated (57,279 votes to 48,701) an act, proposed by initia- 

 tive, levying a ^, mill tax for university and agricultural college and creating a single board 

 of regents for the two. A bill appropriating $50,000 for a dormitory at the Monmouth 

 Normal School was held up by a referendum petition, but a majority of the names on this 

 petition were false signatures, and the appropriation was not voted upon by the people. 



In Portland in September 1911 was opened Reed College (non-sectarian; co-educational), 

 on a foundation, "The Reed Institute," endowed by a bequesf in 1904 of Mrs. Simeon G. 

 Reed in accordance with the wishes of her husband, who died in 1895. In the autumn of 1912, 

 the first buildings were opened on the permanent campus (86 acres), beautifully situated on 

 the E. side of the Willamette river. The work and plans of the college have aroused much 

 interest because the endowment is large (between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000), because the 

 college is working up from no previous educational institution, and because the new faculty 

 is composed so largely of young men. The president is William Trufant Foster (b. 1879), 

 a Harvard graduate (1901), for a time professor at Bowdoin, and in 1910 lecturer on educa- 

 tional administration at Columbia University. Several other members of the faculty were 

 in their thirties or younger. The choice of many who have taught in secondary schools is 

 indicative of an intention to correlate college and preparatory work. The Reed Extension 

 Courses were opened in December 1911, one course on the East Side and the other in the 

 West Side of Portland. The college will admit no conditioned or special students and its 

 entrance requirements do not rigidly prescribe subjects to be offered; it undertakes to pay- 

 its teachers fair salaries, to keep the ratio of students to instructors low (in 1912-13, 10 to l) 

 and to make a comparatively high expenditure per college student (about $410 a year). 



For the school year 1912 the school population was 189,425; total enrollment in public 

 schools, 130,268; average daily attendance, 112,057; length of the average school year, 143^ 

 days; total revenue, $8,643,701, and total expenditures, $6,638,225". 



In 1910 the percentage of illiteracy of the population 10 years of age and over was 1.89 

 (3.3 in 1900), ranking Oregon next to the lowest (Iowa, 1.7%) among the states. 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. In 1911 the legislature created a parole board to in- 

 vestigate the cases of indeterminate sentence, but the governor alone has the power of parole. 

 The name of the State Reform School was changed to the State Training School. An appro- 

 priation of $200,000 was made for the Eastern Oregon State Hospital, which was begun in June 

 1910 and opened in December 1912. The building of the Oregon School for Deaf Mutes was 

 transferred to the Sanitorium for the treatment of tuberculosis (1910) in 1911. Two acts 

 proposed by initiative petition and adopted November 1912 abolish contract prison labour of 

 state, and of county, city or town convicts, and authorise their employment on public works 

 and highways (73,800 to 37,492 votes and 71,367 to 37,731 respectively). A measure abolish- 

 ing capital punishment was referred to the people and defeated in November 1912 (64,578 

 to 41,951). An "honour" system by which convicts are pledged to observe certain rules and 

 are not constantly policed and kept in confinement has been successfully introduced, largely 



