9 i4 TEXAS 



the cemetery at Acton, Hood county. Children under 15 are not to work in factories using 

 dangerous machinery, in distilleries or in breweries or in any business that may be morally or 

 physically dangerous; the fine for violation is $50 to $200, and each day of employment 

 constitutes a separate offence. The office of inspector of safety appliances in factories was 

 created. Railway brakes are to be inspected by competent persons. The office of dairy 

 and food commissioner was created by an act which forbids the adulteration of food, and a 

 new sanitary code was passed with rules for quarantine and for the report of vital statistics. 

 A law in regard to the examination of nurses was amended and an act regulating the practice 

 of medicine forbids "soliciting or drumming patients or patronage." The sale or gift of 

 spirituous liquors is forbidden in all disorderly houses. Pandering is made a felony, punish- 

 able by five years in the penitentiary, and it is no defence that any part of the act was done 

 outside the state; marriage is no bar to the testimony of an injured woman. 



The office of public service commissioner in Houston was created in 191 1. In 1912 Bishop 

 (only 6 opposing votes), Franklin, Frankston, Willis and McKinney (Nov. 5) adopted the 

 commission form of government. In Dallas in 1911 a suit was brought against the constitu- 

 tionality of the recall provision in the city charter after the recall of the board of education, 

 but the recall was upheld by the courts. 



Finance. The "called" session of 1911 was summoned largely for appropriations. 

 Although the cash balance in the treasury on July 31, 1910 was $1,360,909, the balance for 

 the same date in 1911 was only $32,975. The tax rate had been reduced in previous years 

 because of the presence in the treasury of fines paid by corporations for violation of the anti- 

 trust law and, when these no longer came in, there was a deficiency. The law about state's 

 depositories was amended. In the treasury there was a balance of $647,467 on September 

 I, 1911 and of $793,417 on August 31, 1912, when the state debt was $3,977,500, largely a 

 permanent school fund (see E. B. xxvi, 692d). The receipts for the fiscal year were $18,119,- 

 072, and the expenditures, $15,973,122. 



The election of a single-tax advocate, J. J. Pastoriza, as tax-commissioner of Houston, re- 

 sulted in a full-value assessment on land and in a cut in the tax-rate from $1.70 to $1.30. 



Education. The law in regard to teacher's certification was amended in 1911. Common 

 school districts may establish high schools; and, if a department of agriculture is established 

 in a high school, the state duplicates the outlay therefor for any amount between $500 and 

 $1,500. A state normal school board of regents was created for the state normal schools for 

 whites, and a text book board was created by a law providing for uniform text books. 



The most important recent event in the field of higher education was the opening in the 

 autumn of 1912 in Houston of the Rice Institute of Liberal and Technical Learning, founded 

 by the will of William Marsh Rice (d. 1900). x Mr. Rice had established a foundation, 

 incorporated in 1891, and had given it an interest-bearing note of $200,000 at that time. 

 The foundation became his residuary legatee and the estate, valued at about $10,000,000, 

 was to be used one-half for endowment and one-half for equipment. Dr. Edgar Odell Lovett, 

 then professor of astronomy in Princeton University, was chosen president in 1908. On a 

 site of 300 acres, 3 miles from the centre of the city of Houston, were erected in 1910-12 an 

 administration building (50 ft. x 300 ft.; Byzantine in style), a residence hall for men (Vene- 

 tian; brick and stucco) and scientific and technical laboratories with a fine campanile. The 

 Institute sets no "upper limit to its educational endeavour" and makes its "lower limit no 

 lower than the standard entrance requirements of the more conservative universities of the 

 country." Graduate and undergraduate work for both sexes will be carried on by a faculty 

 of science and faculty of letters. There is no charge for tuition and rooms and board are 

 furnished at cost. The Institute was dedicated and opened on the loth of October 1912. 



For the school year 1910-1 1 the school population (7 to 17 years of age) was 968,269, the 

 enrollment 847,004, the average daily attendance, 546,481 and the length of the average 

 school year 135 days. Receipts were $18,072,126 and expenditures $14,516,992. On 

 September I, 1912 the school population was 1,017,133. 



The rate of illiteracy decreased nearly one-third in the decade 1900-10; in 1900 14.5% of 

 the population 10 years old and over was illiterate, and in 1910 only 9.9%. In the negro 

 population there was a proportional decrease; in 1900 the rate was 38.2, in 1910 only 24.6. 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. In 1911 the board of prison commissioners (created 

 1910) was authorised to issue paroles for good conduct, and a law was passed for suspended 

 sentence in first offence, where the punishment is less than 5 years. Two state tuberculosis 

 colonies were established under the supervision of an anti-tuberculosis commission, for which 

 the law appropriated $100,000. Among the appropriations were: for the pension depart - 



1 Rice, an eccentric millionaire, died in New York September 23, 1900. In February 1901 

 his valet, Charles F. Jones, confessed that he poisoned Rice under instructions of Albert T. 

 Patrick, a lawyer who was a beneficiary of a supposed will of Rice, which experts testified was 

 a forgery. Patrick was tried for murder and was convicted (first degree) in March 1902 and 

 sentenced to death in April 1902. A new trial was denied in June 1905 and in December of 

 that year he was re-sentenced. In 1906 a new appeal was taken and in December sentence 

 was commuted to imprisonment for life. On November 27, 1912 Patrick was pardoned by 

 Governor Dix of New York. 



