VIRGINIA 923 



Finance. Many small changes were made in the tax laws notably in regard to the taxa- 

 tion of bank stockholders; of mineral lands and forests; of the rolling stock of railroad corpora- 

 tions, which is to be assessed in the counties, cities and towns and districts through which 

 the railroad operates and not at the principal offices of the corporation; of railways and 

 canals based on gross transportation receipts and property; of domestic corporations and of 

 incomes in excess of $2,oooa year. New statutes were passed regulating accident and insurance 

 policies; policies against injury and disease; insurance companies, trust companies, guarantee 

 and fidelity companies, etc., and state banks. 



The balance in the treasury on September 30,1911 was $266,315, and on October I, 1912 

 $135,038. During this fiscal year receipts were $7,052,190 and disbursements, 87,183,467. 



Education. In 1912 the legislature amended the law of 1910 in regard to instruction in 

 agriculture, domestic arts and science and manual training in public, high schools; and the. 

 use of agricultural high schools for demonstration work is allowed. The law for retirement 

 of teachers on pay was amended especially by rules for temporary retirement. 



In 1910 of the population 10 years of age and over 15.2% was illiterate (22.9 in 1900): 

 of whites, 8.1% (n.i in 1900); of negroes, 30 (44.6 in 1900). 



For the school year 1911-12 the school population was 616,168; the enrollment. 409,397; 

 the average daily attendance, 263,291 ; length of the average school year, 6| months; revenue 

 for schools and expenditure, $5,628,208. 



The University of Virginia received in 1912 a gift of $125,000 from the Phelps Stokes 

 Fund for a permanent fellowship to study the negro. 



Charitable and Penal Institutions. The act of 1910 for the control of infant offenders by 

 probationary officers was amended in 1912, and the state board of charities and corrections 

 was required to inspect and supervise agencies or persons placing children in family homes 

 throughout the state. The secretary of the same board was authorised to investigate the 

 condition of the weak minded (not insane or epileptic) and the possibility of surgical aid for 

 indigent crippled. The Virginia colony for the feeble-minded was established on a farm of 

 the Virginia state epileptic colony. A new code was adopted for pensions to Confederate 

 veterans. A county levy of one mill for the Confederate pension fund was authorised, and 

 the legislature appropriated $3,000 for Confederate veterans suffering from cancer and there- 

 fore not in the soldiers home, and $2,500 for needy Confederate women not on the pension 

 roll. Firemen in cities of- 100,000 inhabitants or more may be pensioned. Several laws 

 were passed for working convicts on public roads and for the manufacture by convict labour 

 of ground lime-stonfe and oyster shells for use on public roads. 



History. The state administration and the legislature in 1911-12 were, as usual, 

 Democratic. The legislature had only 5 Independents or Republicans in a senate 

 of 40 and 10 in a house of 100. The Democratic primaries, September 7, 1911, re- 

 elected for 1913-19 Thomas Staples Martin (b. 1847), United States senator since 

 1895 and affiliated with the conservative wing of the party, and chose for the term 

 1911-17 Claude Augustus Swanson (b. 1862; representative in Congress, 1893-1905; 

 governor 1906-10), who had been appointed, August i, 1910, to fill out the unexpired 

 term (1910-11) of John Warwick Daniel (1842-1910; representative in Congress, 1885- 

 87; senator since 1887), who died just after his re-election for 1911-17. In the Novem- 

 ber 1912 elections the state was easily carried by Woodrow Wilson (a native of Staun- 

 ton), who received 90,332 votes to 23,288 for Taft, 21,777 f r Roosevelt, 820 for Debs, 

 who had only 255 votes in 1908, and 709 for Chafin. Of the 10 representatives in the 

 63rd Congress, 9 will be Democrats and i a Republican (from the 9th district) the 

 same division as in the 62nd Congress. There was no gubernatorial election: the 

 term of William Hodges Mann (b. 1843) is 1910-14 (February i). There was no 

 election to the state legislature in 1912. 



In the attempt to induce West Virginia to pay her part of the debt of Virginia as 

 it was when West Virginia was separated from that state, nothing was actually ac- 

 complished. The U.S. Supreme Court (220 U.S. i, March 6, 1911) recommended a 

 division of the debt, 76.5% to Virginia, 23.5% to West Virginia, fjased on a master's 

 estimate of the value of real and personal property (excluding slaves) in the two parts 

 of the state at the time of the creation of West Virginia; and on October 30, 1911 the 

 court refused to determine questions left open in March. On April 20, 1911 the 

 Virginia debt commission asked the governor of West Virginia to arrange a conference. 

 He had already (April 18) called an extra session but had not included in his call any 

 mention of the debt, so that the extra session could not act and nothing could be done 

 until the regular session of January 1913. When Virginia urged haste, the legislature 



