680 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



the Jefferson Medical College, the State Agri- 

 cultural College, and the expenses and claims 

 for the riots of 1877, amounting altogether to 

 $1,025,000. This deficit also is estimated upon 

 the gross amounts appropriated, and considera- 

 ble sums will be covered back into the Trea- 

 sury. Thus the appropriations to pay for sup- 

 pressing the riots of 1877 were $710,000, and 

 the amount paid, with almost all claims settled 

 and paid, is $584,811.63; so that it is safe to 

 assume that $100,000 of this appropriation will 

 not be required. 



In 1877 the revenue from the tax on corpo- 

 ration stocks was $2,086,776, and in 1878 $1,- 

 364,256.83. The tax on gross receipts increased 

 from $74,405 in 1877 to $547,638 in 1878 un- 

 der the new law. This shows a loss of a quar- 

 ter of a million dollars in the annual revenues 

 from the change. The revenue from the tax 

 on insurance companies has fallen from $500,- 

 887 in 1877 to $221,240 in 1878. The revenue 

 from the tax on bank stocks has fallen from 

 $393,363 to $251,190, a loss of nearly $150,- 

 000 from this source in 1878. In 1877 the tax 

 on collateral inheritances was $378,028, and 

 in 1878 $283,886, a loss of nearly $100,000. 

 Tavern licenses paid into the Treasury $381,- 

 130 in 1877, and $327,721 in 1878. These are 

 the chief sources to which is due the decline 

 in the revenues. 



The total number of banks in the State re- 

 porting in 1873 was 117, with $23,400,000 on 

 deposit. Of these seventy-seven were repre- 

 sented as savings banks and trust companies, 

 with $16,790,000 of deposits. Since that year 

 the official records show the failure or suspen- 

 sion of thirty-one institutions, whose deposits 

 aggregated $8,200,000. Eighteen of these sus- 

 pended banks were so-called savings banks, 

 with deposits amounting to $6,650,000. About 

 68 per cent., or $4,500,000, of the deposits of. 

 the eighteen broken savings banks was invest- 

 ed in discounts upon ordinary business paper. 



For the details relating to public schools 

 reference is made to the ' k Annual Cyclopaedia " 

 for 1877. The improvements in 1878 were very 

 favorable. On the change of the system of 

 education to a course that is practical and tech- 

 nical, the views of Governor Hartranft are 

 similar to those of Governor McClellan of New 

 Jersey. The Governor thus addresses the Leg- 

 islature : 



. Oirthe subject of industrial and technical train- 

 ing, 1 wish only to call your attention to its relation 

 to the larger labor question. As the frontiers of 

 civilization recede, the difficulty of transferring the 

 aurplus population of our labor centers is yearly in- 

 creasing. Our mining and manufacturing districts 

 ire consequently crowded with capital and labor, 

 the present diversities of industry can not 

 >rb. 1 he natural spread of population tends in 

 e to restore the equilibrium, but the period 

 f growth is probably reached, when it is neces- 

 ' TM ?u em P lo y raen t for an increasing popula- 

 othmg, it seems to me, will so much extend 

 ; sphere of activity as a system of industrial edu- 

 nch a system would be costly, and the 

 return to the State, in the extension and elevation 



of its industries, and the diffusion of greater com- 

 fort and content ^among the people, can not be accu- 

 rately measured in dollars and cents. That the ma- 

 terial gain in the increase of the value of manufac- 

 tures, and the decrease in the cost of maintaining 

 order, would balance the original outlay, and the 

 annual appropriations necessary to establish and 

 support the system, is probably' too much to assert 

 or expect. But when we consider that in the last 

 eight years the State has expended $832,905.30 over 

 and above the ordinary militia expenses in the sup- 

 pression of riots, which are not to be considered as 

 the results of an unusually lawless disposition, but 

 rather as the desperate struggles of ignorant men to 

 cut the Gordian knot of a difficulty that only the ut- 

 most skill and patience will ever enable society to 

 untie, it will be acknowledged that the gairf in that 

 one item alone would go a considerable way toward 

 the support of the system. Confining the problem 

 to Pennsylvania, it does not seem possible to adopt 

 any quicker or better measure than to increase the 

 value and variety of production, and improve the 

 bread- winning powers of the laborer ; in other words, 

 to diffuse the technical and artistic knowledge which 

 increases the rapidity; and beauty, and thereby de- 

 creases the cost and widens the market of the manu- 

 factured article, and to foster the intelligent coopera- 

 tion of laborers among themselves and with capital, 

 BO as to utilize to the best advantage the class wages. 

 For there is a skill in living quite as important as a 

 skill in earning, and probably there is nothing the 

 American people are more in need of learning. Such 

 appears to me to be the paramount, reason for a sys- 

 tem of industrial and technical training. 



The subject of municipal indebtedness has 

 attracted the attention of several State Legis- 

 latures, under the conviction that the bank- 

 ruptcy of the largest cities is only a question 

 of time, and that the system must be defec- 

 tive which is attended by such consequences. 

 In 1875 and 1876 the subject of municipal re- 

 form was generally agitated. This had a ten- 

 dency to check the reckless extravagance of 

 preceding years, yet the financial condition of 

 the larger cities has scarcely improved since. 

 In May, 1876, an act passed the Pennsylvania 

 Legislature to appoint a Commission on Mu- 

 nicipal Reform. Its report was made at the 

 subsequent session of the Legislature, but no 

 action has been taken upon it. The Commis- 

 sion reported a well-digested code founded 

 upon the only principles upon which a perma- 

 nent reform in municipal government may be 

 expected. These principles, as set forth by 

 the Commission, may be briefly stated as fol- 

 lows : 1. Increased powers of appointment 

 and removal and supervision by the Mayor 

 over the executive departments, and the com- 

 plete separation of the executive and legisla- 

 tive functions. 2. The necessity of providing 

 for an annual tax rate to cover all annual ap- 

 propriations, and the prohibition of any ex- 

 penditure for any purpose over the amounts 

 specifically appropriated. 3. The absolute de- 

 nial or limitation of the power to create debts. 



In the State of New York a commission was 

 appointed in 1875 to devise a plan for the gov- 

 ernment of cities, whose conclusions were sub- 

 stantially the same as those above mentioned, 

 and may be thus stated: 1. A chief executive 

 officer, clothed with the authority of general 



