MASSACHUSETTS. 



57 



them, or returning the offenders to the insti- 

 tutions where the/ had once been, etc. 



The number of children in the State schools 

 was 126 loas October 1, 1878, than at the cor- 

 responding date in 1809 ; and the number of 

 offenders therein was 253 less in 1878 than in 

 1869. The expenses of the State on account 

 of its minor wards, for the years since this 

 Agency began its work, are as follows: 1869, 

 $191,400.26; 1870, $189,853.73; 1871, $171,- 

 284.40; 1872, $146,684.92; 1873, $137,733.64; 

 1874, $133,013.28; 1875, 142,448.52; 1876, 

 $137,607.06; 1877, $134,234.18; 1878, $154,- 

 789.43. The number of minor wards in the 

 State in families subject to the visitation and 

 care of the Agency exceeded the number in 

 the Reform, Industrial, and Primary Schools 

 by 128 ; and the number of visits made to them 

 during the year 1878 was 1,738, and the per 

 cent, of them found doing well was 85. There 

 were 1,874 to be visited during the same year, 

 and there remained 1,029 to be visited in 233 

 towns in 1879. In summarizing the work of 

 the year 1878 it appears that 2,222 complaints 

 against juvenile offenders before the courts 

 wore looked after ; 458 investigations made 

 upon applications for children, for the release 

 of them from institutions or from places and 

 for special causes. The work of finding places 

 for children was carried on. The Agency had 

 to do with more than 4,000 different children 

 in a year, and with as many other persons in 

 some way related to them. 



A further consolidation was made by the 

 Legislature in uniting the Harbor and Land 

 Commissions. The office of the Inspector- 

 General was consolidated with that of the 

 Adjutant-General, and the Surgeon-General's 

 bureau was abolished. A Prison Commission 

 of nine persons, two of whom should be wo- 

 men, was established, and vested with all the 

 rights hitherto exercised by the numerous 

 boards connected with the State penal institu- 

 tions. 



An article in amendment of the State Con- 

 stitution was adopted, providing that the Legis- 

 lature shall assemble biennially on the first 

 "Wednesday of January, and State officers and 

 members of the Legislature shall hold office 

 two years, the same person to be eligible for 

 the office of Treasurer and Receiver-General 

 for six years successively and no more. The 

 first election shall be on the Tuesday next after 

 the first Monday of November, 1880, and the 

 first session of the Legislature shall commence 

 on the first Wednesday of January, 1881. To 

 become of force, it is necessary that this res- 

 olution shall be adopted also by the Legislature 

 which assembled in January, 1880, and then 

 submitted to the people and approved by them. 



A bill was presented to extend to public 

 charitable and reformatory institutions the pro- 

 visions of an act of 1875, which provides that 

 no inmate of any prison, jail, or house of cor- 

 rection shall be denied the free exercise of his 

 religious belief and liberty of worshiping God ac- 



cording to the dictates of his conscience, within 

 the place where such inmate may be kept or 

 confined ; and it shall be the duty of the offi- 

 cers and boards of officers having the manage- 

 ment and direction of any such institutions to 

 make such rules and regulations as may be 

 necessary to carry out the intent and provisions 

 of this act. Nothing contained in the law shall 

 bo so construed as to impair the discipline of 

 any prison so far as may be needful for the 

 good government and safe custody of its in- 

 mates. It was objected to the bill in the Sen- 

 ate, that it proposed to give to hundreds of 

 young children the right to decide what reli- 

 gious ministration they should have at a time 

 when they were at too tender a period of life 

 to so determine; and further, that the com- 

 mittee reporting the bill had not heard a single 

 superintendent or trustee of one of these insti- 

 tutions on the subject. In reply to this objec- 

 tion, one of the members of the committee 

 said that " the committee had not summoned 

 witnesses for the reason that the proposition 

 seemed to be so fair and just as not to require 

 outside evidence. He approved the bill because 

 of the great right to religious liberty, because 

 he believed in giving religious instruction to 

 the young, and because the poor children of 

 the State, the juvenile offenders, should have 

 the same right as that enjoyed by thieves, burg- 

 lars, and murderers. He showed that there 

 were a great many Catholic children or chil- 

 dren of Catholic parents, in the State institu- 

 tions, and declared that they could not be made 

 good Protestants, though they might be made 

 bad Catholics. He denied that children were 

 incapable of judging for themselves, pointing to 

 those innocents who, in ages past, had given 

 their lives for their faith, even though they might 

 not have been entirely familiar with its tenets." 

 An amendment providing that the law should 

 not apply to children under fourteen years of 

 age was rejected. A proviso that " nothing in 

 this act shall be so construed as to prevent the 

 assembling of all the inmates of any State or 

 other public charitable institution in the chapel 

 thereof for general religious instruction, in- 

 cluding the reading of the Bible, as the board 

 having charge of the institution may deem wise 

 and expedient," was adopted. The bill was 

 ordered to be engrossed in the House, by a 

 vote of yeas 80, nays 45 ; it passed, and became 

 a law. 



The subject of taxation was extensively dis- 

 cussed, and the State tax was reduced to half a 

 million dollars. The actual reduction, how- 

 ever, exceeded $300,000. The poll-tax due to 

 the State and county of one dollar each, which 

 must be paid before an elector can cast his vote 

 at any election, was modified by an act pro- 

 viding that " assessors shall in each year assess 

 upon the polls the State and county tax au- 

 thorized or required by law; provided, how- 

 ever, that in case either of said taxes shall ex- 

 ceed in amount the sum of one dollar upon each 

 poll, the excess above said amount shall then 



