516 



KENTUCKY. 



KNIGHTS OF LABOR. 



sually largemurnber of comfortable and com- 

 modious school-houses has been erected, the 

 per capita increased from $1.40 to $1.65, the 

 course of study enlarged, and a higher stand- 

 ard required of teachers. The school census, 

 white and colored, with corresponding appor- 

 tionment out of the school fund for the pay- 

 ment of teachers for the years ending June 30, 

 1885, and June 30, 1886, are as follows: 



Pu 



fhite.. 

 Colored 



>,1885 



Total. 



514,167 

 9T,889 



612^06 



Apportioned to white children, per capita $1.55 $196,958 85 

 Colored, per capita $1.55 151,65045 



Total $948,609 



Total. 



fi23,923 



Apportioned to white children, $1.65 per capita $865,052 10 

 Colored, $1.65 per capita 164,429 10 



Total $1,029,481 20 



" It may be a matter of very just pride to 

 the citizen of Kentucky," says the Governor, 

 4 ' to be able to refer to the fact that the per 

 capita above shown is much larger than that 

 apportioned from the treasury of any other 

 State in the Union for the support of common 

 schools, with but three exceptions ; yet it must 

 be apparent to all that $1.65 per annum to the 

 pupil is by no means adequate to sustain any- 

 thing like a competent system of education 

 anywhere in this country." 



The State College is entirely free from debt, 

 and its material appliances for facilitating in- 

 struction constantly increasing. Large addi- 

 tions have been made to the chemical labora- 

 tories, the basis of a good botanical museum 

 has been laid, and the cabinet of geological 

 and mineralogical specimens is steadily grow- 

 ing. An Experimental Agricultural Station 

 has been established. The staff of instruction 

 in the Normal School has been doubled. The 

 matriculation for the year will reach nearly 

 300, with class-room accommodations for a 

 much greater number, and a corps of J.6 pro- 

 fessors and instructors. 



Charities. The whole number of the several 

 defective classes accommodated in State insti- 

 tutions during the year, and the amounts drawn 

 for each, were as follow: 



In addition to this sum there was paid dur- 

 ing the year : 



For pauper idiots $62,069 63 



for lunatics in counties 9,318 15 



For conveying lunatics to asylums 8,890 92 



Total $80,298~70 



Making the total amount expended on ac- 

 count of public charities, $377,231.37. 



There is need of further accommodations in 

 the lunatic asylums. The Governor recom- 

 mends the establishment of a State Board of 

 Charities. 



Railroads. There has been an increase in 

 the railway-track mileage within the State in 

 the past two years of 191 miles, with four new 

 and important lines in process of construc- 

 tion. The Railroad Commissioners estimate the 

 value of railroad property in the State for the 

 past year at $32,026,155, yielding a revenue to 

 the treasury of $168,137.32. For the current 

 year the value is placed at $38,646,344; mile- 

 age, 1,904. The litigation between the Com- 

 monwealth and certain railroad companies, in- 

 volving the validity of the act authorizing the 

 assessment of railroad property by the Board 

 of Commissioners, which has been pending for 

 several years, has been determined by the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States in favor of 

 the constitutionality of the law. 



Coal-mining. While there were but six coal- 

 mines in operation in the State in 1870, with 

 a total output of 169,120 tons; in 1884 there 

 were over seventy, with a product from those 

 under the supervision of the inspector alone 

 of 1,550,000 tons, furnishing employment to 

 nearly 4,500 persons, at wages aggregating an- 

 nually $1,500,000. The Governor remarks: 



I alluded in mv former message to the discovery, 

 then recently made by the Geological Survey, of a re- 

 markable deposit of coking coal in that region. Si 

 that time its area has been traced to an extent of fifty 

 by twenty miles, over portions of Pike, Letcher. Har- 

 lan, Leslie, Floyd, Breathitt, Knott, and Perry Coun- 

 ties, and its quality ascertained, by actual test, 

 superior to that from which the famous coke ot Con- 

 nellsville, Pa., is made. 



KNIGHTS OF LABOR, an order established in 

 Philadelphia in 1869, by Uriah S. Stevens, s 

 clothing-cutter, as the beginning of a nationaJ 

 association for the protection of working-peo- 

 ple and the development of educated labor 

 In 1871 this first society, largely composed o: 

 clothing - cutters, was regularly organized t 

 Local Assembly No. 1. A ritual was adopted 

 and the society was called the Noble Order < 

 the Knights of Labor. All its workings, ai 

 even its name, were to be kept by membe 

 an absolute secret, under penalty of dismis 

 necessary public reference being made by tl 

 use of five asterisks or stars, until 1881, wn< 

 the name was made public. From this orgam 

 zation the order increased among the v 

 men in Philadelphia, until nearly all 

 were represented. It was soon establw 

 Pittsburg with a strong membership an 

 the coal and iron workers. In 1878, in c< 

 vention, a General Assembly of North Am( 

 ca was formed, with the supreme office ot ( 

 eral Master Workman. The present orgai 



