02 6 WASHINGTON 



tion for death is $4,000, to a widow or a dependent widower, 20 a month; for each dependent 

 child, not more than three in number, $5 a month, but 10 a month if dependent children are 

 left without either parent. For total disability the compensation is $20 a month (825 to a 

 married employee with 5 extra for each dependent child under 16, the maximum being $35 

 a month); these sums are discounted 10% if the injury resulted from the removal of safe-guards 

 by the injured person or with his consent. The administration of the act rests with an industrial 

 insurance department, created by it, but appeal may be made to the courts. Employers must 

 pay to the state a percentage (not to be deducted from the workmen 'spay) of the annual payroll. 

 This varies from 0.15 % in the manufacture of cordage, jewelry, etc., to 0.1% in powder works. 

 Employers who elect insurance pay 90% of the minimum compulsory rate. The act carried 

 an appropriation of 150,000 for the fund. Women, except in canneries, are not to work more 

 than 8 hours a day, and the same law (held constitutional by the state supreme court, March 26, 

 1912) requires employers to provide seats for women. For the investigation of the bubonic 

 plague in Asia, 5,000 was appropriated. Two laws were passed regulating the sale of milk 

 and cream. It was made a gross misdemeanour to allow in a concert saloon, a dance house, 

 pool or billiard hall, a place of assignation or a place where opium or any other narcotic drug 

 is used, any person under 21, or to give or sell to a minor intoxicating liquor or tobacco, and 

 any minor having either in his possession is guilty of a misdemeanour. On September 3, 1912 

 the state supreme court (State vs. Feilen) held that the law of 1909 for the sterilisation (by 

 order of the sentencing court) of habitual criminals, rapists, etc., was not unconstitutional, 

 since it did not provide for a cruel and unusual punishment. 



Pend Oreille county (county-seat, Newport) was created in 1911 from the eastern part of 

 Stevens county. A law was passed validating provisions for recall in charters of cities of the 

 first class. Cities between 2,500 and 20,000 may adopt the commission form of government 

 at a special election called by a petition of 25 % of the qualified electors. The following 

 cities have adopted the commission government: Centralia, November 20, 1911, in effect 

 January 8, 1912; Chehalis, 1911; Everett, April 16, 1912 (1,986 to 1,928 votes), in effect July 

 I, 1912; Hoquiam, June 5, 1911, in effect August 14, 1911; North Yakima, July 17, 1911, in 

 effect September 18, 191 1 ; Spokane, 1 December 1910, in effect March 14, 191 1 ; Tacoma, Octo- 

 ber 16, 1909, in force May 1910; and Walla Walla, July 10, 191 1, in effect September II, 1911. 

 Olympia rejected a commission charter on December 5, 1911 by 807 to 734 votes, and Van- 

 couver by 958 to 447 votes. A constitutional amendment, defeated in November 1912 by 

 83,138 to 67,717, would have removed the prohibition against county officers (except treas- 

 urer) holding office for more than two terms. The city of Everett voted in November 1912 

 to establish the single tax system. In Seattle a charter amendment for the single tax and 

 one for the creation of a department of charities and corrections were defeated on March 5, 

 1912. In Tacoma in 1912 an ordinance created a social service board to investigate places 

 of public amusement and to study moral and social conditions of such places, "especialy 

 where young people are concerned." 



Finance. All operating property of street railways is to be taxed as personal property 

 although only the rolling stock of other railways is thus taxed. In the same way standing 

 timber and fishing locations are to be assessed and taxed as personal property. The legisla- 

 ture of 1911 passed an elaborate insurance code of 140 pages. 



In the treasury there was a balance of $1,245,841 on October I, 1910 and 2.446,247 on 

 September 30, 1912. The receipts for the two years were $16,911,514 and the expenditures 

 $15,711,108. The state debt in 1912 was: bridge bonds, 125,000; normal school bonds, 

 206,024; and capitol building fund warrants outstanding, 920,000. The levy for state 

 purposes for 1912 was 5^ mills. 



Education. In 1911 a new law was passed for the certification of teachers and the county 

 superintendent was authorised to register no certificate unless he was satisfied of the good 

 moral character of the teacher. In March 1911 the University of Washington received a 

 gift of 30,000, styled the Gatzert Foundation, for a bureau of child welfare. Whitman Col- 

 lege, at Walla Walla, in 1912 completed an endowment fund of 100,000. 



For the year ending June 30, 1912 the school population was 283,141; total enrollment, 

 224,410; average daily attendance, 170,041 ; length of the average school year, 155 days. The 

 total revenue for schools was 13,671,349, and expenditures 11,156,404. 



In 1910 of the population 10 years of age and over only 2 % was illiterate (in 1900, 3.1 %) ; 

 only Oregon of the Pacific states, and only Iowa and Nebraska elsewhere in the United States, 

 have a lower rate of illiteracy. 



Penal and Charitable Institutions. In counties of 30,000 or more a judge of the superior 

 court was authorised in 1911 to hold a juvenile court session and keep a separate juvenile 

 record. The state board of control is to fix a price for the jute sacks manufactured in the 

 penitentiary, which are to be sold directly to farms, oyster men and wool growers in the 

 state and only at the discretion of the board upon the open market. For pensions for veterans 

 of the Indian wars of 1855 and 1856 5,000 was appropriated. The Northern Hospital for 

 the Insane at Sedro-Woolley, Skagit county, was opened on April I, 1911. 



1 A system of preferential voting was adopted. On November 5, 1912, amendments to 

 the charter, changing from a commission government, were defeated by 15,225 to 9,448. 



