8 9 8 PENNSYLVANIA 



An elaborate code for bituminous coal mining was passed. Boys under 14 and all women 

 and girls are forbidden to work in such mines. Boys under 16 may not work unless an em- 

 ployment certificate is filed and boys under 1 8 may not load coal unless they are working with 

 an older workman. Inside buildings in all coal mines must be of incombustible materials. 

 A commission was appointed to codify the anthracite mining laws, and a commission was 

 created on industrial accidents; its report with an elective compensation bill will be acted 

 upon by the 1913 legislature. Hoisting engineers in mines are not to work more than 8 hours 

 a day. Tanneries were omitted from the list of places in which boys under 1 8 were forbidden 

 to work. If the father of a minor does not contribute to his support for six months, the 

 mother has a right to his services. Blackmailing was made a misdemeanour, and also the 

 soliciting or receiving by an employer or foreman of a price for giving employment. 



Finance. The governors of Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland were invited to a con- 

 ference on taxing oil, gas and bituminous coal, but nothing was done by these states. The 

 tax commission of 1909 reported in 1911 and was continued for another two years. County 

 sinking fund commissions were created in each county. The insurance laws were thoroughly 

 revised by an act creating an insurance department, the commissioner of which is appointed 

 by the governor. A uniform stock transfer law was passed and directors of banks and of 

 banking concerns were required to take oath of office to administer diligently and honestly. 

 By a law of 1911 estates passing to legally adopted children are not subject to a collateral 

 inheritance tax. There was in the treasury on December I, 1911, 812,923,370. The receipts 

 for the fiscal year ending November 30, 1912, were 32,374,890, and the expenditures 35,516,- 

 410, leaving a balance of 9,781,850. The state debt was 651,160, and a sinking fund had 

 a surplus of 126,351 over the amount of this debt. 



Education. In 19113 school code, drafted by a commission appointed in 1907 and amend- 

 ed by the legislature, was passed. It does away with independent districts under special 

 laws and classifies districts by population, each class haying uniform laws; "independent 

 districts" in the future will be districts not co-extensive with other governmental units, and 

 will be controlled by laws for the class to which they belong. A state board of education is 

 created, but it has no very great power, and the superintendent of public instruction is still id 

 control. The state school fund and its income are to be managed by the board of education 

 its principal function. The state is gradually to take over the 13 "state" normal schools 

 which formerly received state recognition and aid, but were local or stock company schools. 

 There will be a larger degree of state control over other teachers' training schools. The new 

 code makes definite provision for industrial education, and authorises the superintendent to 

 appoint an expert assistant in this branch, one in agricultural education and one in drawing. 

 It provides for a medical inspection of pupils. In cities of the first class members of the 

 board of education are appointed by judges of the court of common pleas; but boards of school 

 visitors for each ward are elected by popular vote. In all other districts directors are elected. 

 The school fund is distributed one-half on the basis of the number of paid teachers and the 

 other half on the basis of the school population in the district. The board of directors of 

 any district may establish a retirement fund for teachers. The minimum salary for any public 

 school teacher is raised from 40 to 45, and after two years of successful teaching from $50 

 to 55. The legislature appropriated for the two years 1912-13, $15,000,000 for the support 

 of public schools and normal schools, and 260,000 for the normal schools. 



For the school year ending June 5, 1911 the enrollment in the public schools was 1,286,273; 

 the average daily attendance, 1,028,290; and the length of the average school year, 8.52 

 months. The total expenditures for school purposes were 42,137,647. 



In 1910 of the population 10 years of age and over 5.9 % (6.1 in 1900) was illiterate. 



The Polish National Alliance College at Cambridge Springs was opened on October 26, 

 1912 with an address by President Taft; it had 335 students registered and a faculty- of 10 

 (7 Poles). On June 5, 1911, Eugene A. Noble (b. 1865), then president of Goucher College, 

 Baltimore, was elected president of Dickinson College, Carlisle; he took office September i, 

 1912. The year 1912 was marked by a reorganisation of the faculty and administration of 

 the University of Pennsylvania. Late in the year work was begun on graduate school 

 buildings for the University. Bryn Mawr College in 1911 received a bequest of 8750,000 

 from Miss Carola Woerishoeffer (1885-191 1) 1 of the class of 1907. The death in 1912 of the 

 widow of R. N. Carson of Philadelphia releases his bequest of 6,000,000 for a college for 

 fatherless girls at Langhorne. On August 28, 1912, the new Allegheny Observatory was 

 dedicated in Riverview Park, Pittsburg. On April 24, 1912, Allegheny College, Mcadville, 

 completed an endowment fund of $500,000. 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. The state hospital for the criminal insane at Fairview 

 was practically completed in 1912, and the homoeopathic state hospital for the insane, at 

 Allcntown, is now in use. The 1911 legislature authorised the release of first offence con- 

 victs on probation, and the establishment of psychopathic wards, with the permission of the 



1 She was a wealthy New Yorker who unostentatiously did much for factory workers in 

 New York and was an investigator of the state bureau of immigration at the time of her pre- 

 mature death in an accident. See the Life (Bryn Mawr, 1912) by her college classmates 

 with introduction by Ida Tarbell; and C. M. Syford in New England Magazine, October 1912. 



