602 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



was done for the first time during the year 

 1878, with the certainty that the books, pa- 

 pers, and accounts of the railroad corporations 

 are to be as open to public scrutiny as those of 

 the State or any city government. 



The business of the Hoosac Tunnel may be 

 considered as having really commenced in 1876. 

 The amount of it and the rapidity of its in- 

 crease are shown by the following statement: 



In 1878 the State received $41,000 as a 

 small contribution toward the interest account. 



During the last year the " constant-circuit rail 

 system " was tested on the Fitchburg road. It 

 differs from any other system by using the rails 

 instead of wire for conducting the electric cur- 

 rent. The signals have been found to be reliable 

 and to do the work expected of them. The 

 track is divided into sections of a mile, more or 

 less, according to curves and other contingen- 

 cies. At one end of the section is placed a bat- 

 tery consisting of one cell, and one pole at- 

 tached to either rail, and at the other end is 

 placed the magnet, one electrode attached to 

 each rail. Thus a constant metallic circuit is 

 established through the rails and magnet. At 

 either end of the section is the standard bearing 

 the signal, which is connected with the circuit. 

 When a train or pair of wheels enters upon the 

 circuit, the wheels and axle instantly short-cir- 

 cuit the current, the magnet is demagnetized, 

 and on leaving its armature the signal is me- 

 chanically thrown to danger, where it remains 

 as long as the wheels are on the section. 

 "When they pass off, the signal goes back to 

 safety. Thus it will be seen that the rear of a 

 train on a road equipped with the signals will 

 always be safely guarded. It has been found 

 by actual experience that the rails are vastly 

 superior as conductors to any surrounding 

 media, and that the electricity will adhere to 

 them in preference to passing off to earth, even 

 during heavy rain and snow. 



The course of instruction in Harvard Col- 

 lege has been so far modified in favor of fe- 

 male education, that women who can stand 

 the examinations can be entitled to a course of 

 study under the faculty for the full term of 

 four years, apart from the times and classes of 

 the men. 



An important change was made in the pub- 

 lic schools of Boston. This consisted in an en- 

 tire separation of the primary and grammar 

 schools, and the former are made entirely in- 

 dependent of the principals of the districts as 

 regards instruction. The superintendent stated 

 that "he had repeatedly found scholars in the 

 upper classes of the primary schools who be- 

 longed in the lower classes, and the reason for 



this was that the upper classes of the primary 

 schools were depleted to fill grammar classes, 

 and to fill the classes thus depleted it was ne- 

 cessary to fill them up with pupils from the 

 lower classes. It was in this system of promo- 

 tion that he found the greatest cause of dis- 

 content between the primary and grammar 

 schools. From every point of view this sys- 

 tem was an abuse of every sound educational 

 principle, and so precipitated the instruction of 

 the younger pupils as to drag them through 

 it half breathless and wholly unprepared to 

 meet it." 



For the details of the State institutions see 

 the volume of last year. 



The National Labor party held a State Con- 

 vention in Boston on September 12th. Horace 

 Binney Sargent was chosen President. The 

 nominations for State officers resulted as fol- 

 lows : For Governor, Benjamin F. Butler ; for 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Albert C. Woodworth; 

 for Secretary of State, Michael T. Donohoe ; 

 for Treasurer, George Dutton ; for Auditor, 

 Davis J. King; for Attorney-General, Horace 

 B. Sargent. The following resolutions were 

 adopted: 



Whereas, This government was intended to be a 

 government of the people by the people and for the 

 people, of whom 95 per cent, are interested in enter- 

 prise and labor : and, 



Whereas, It has, by insidious, usurping, and cor- 

 ruptly selfish legislation, been perverted to be a gov- 

 ernment of the money power by the money power and 

 for the money power, which has so manipulated tho 

 currency and repudiated printed contracts as to enrich 

 5 per cent, of the people by the robbery of 95 per cent.: 



Resolved, That stability in prices can only be secured 

 by maintaining a uniform relation between the volume 

 and the uses of money, and this can be secured only 

 by a full legal-tender paper money, issued by the Gov- 

 ernment ; a volume tliat shall not decrease while tho 

 population is increasing, and thus acquire an increased 

 purchasing power over labor. 



Resolved, That legal-tender greenbacks should bo 

 substituted for the national-bank notes in circulation, 

 as the issue of money is an essential function of na- 

 tional sovereignty and not a part of legitimate banking. 



Resolved, That we favor the immediate use of the 

 coin in the Treasury for the reduction of the bonded 

 debt. 



Resolved, That the soldier and sailor should receive 

 a dollar as good as the bondholder ; and if, in defiance 

 of the contract, honesty, equity, and national honor 

 require the payment of 100 cents in gold for 40 cents 

 loaned, it is alike demanded by honesty, equity, and 

 honor that the same measure be meted to those who 

 shed their blood in the cause of their country's salva- 

 tion and received a depreciated money. 



Resolved, That the truth of the Greenback philoso- 

 phy has been grandly vindicated by the adoption of 

 two Greenback measures, viz. : The stoppage of con- 

 traction in 1878, thus arresting the further shrinkage 

 of values, and raising of the greenback to par by receiv - 

 ing it at the Custom-House measures which, if adopt- 

 ed in season, might have averted six years of unex- 

 ampled distress, and the opposition to which by the 

 money power is the greatest impediment to returning 

 prosperity to-day. 



Resolved, That a graduated and progressive tax on 

 incomes exceeding $1,000, from every source, with_a 

 total exemption of small homesteads, is right, and in 

 accordance with the constitutional rule that taxes 

 should be " equal and proportional" ; that the ability 

 to bear should govern, rather than a rule of uniform 



