MICHIGAN". 



559 



Commissioner of Railroads. This commission 

 was established in 1873. The following fig- 

 ures indicate the growth of this interest, 

 which has kept pace with the increase of 

 population and wealth in other branches of 

 industry : 



It will be seen that the business and prop- 

 erty of the railroads of the State have more 

 than doubled in twelve years, but, with this 

 increase in miles of road, property, and busi- 

 ness, there has been no increase in the force 

 provided for the commission. 



Valuation for Taxation. The following is the 

 assessed valuation of property, by counties, in 

 1886, as agreed upon by the State Board of 

 Equalization : 



COUNTIES. 



Oscoda 



Otsego,.,. 



Ottawa 



Pre^que Isle 



Eoscoimnon . . . , 



Saginaw.. 



Sanilac 



Bchoolcraft 



Shiawassee 



Valuation. 



$1.000,000 

 2,000,000 



18,000.000 

 1,250,000 

 1,500,000 



33,000,000 

 T.500,000 

 8,000,000 



15,000,000 



COUNTIES. 



St. Clair 



St. Joseph... 



Tuscola 



Van Buren . . 

 Washtenaw. . 



Wayne 



Wekford . . . 



Valuation. 



$16,500,000 



18,000,000 



10,000,000 



14,000,000 



80,000,000 



150,000,000 



8,250,000 



Total $945,450,000 



Political. The Republican State Convention 

 met at Grand Rapids on August 25, and nomi- 

 nated the following ticket: For Governor, 

 Cyrus G. Luce; Lieutenant-Governor, James 

 H. Macdonald ; Secretary of State, Gilbert R. 

 Osmun ; State Treasurer, George L. Maltz ; 

 Auditor General, Henry H. Aplin ; Attorney- 

 General, Moses Taggart ; Commissioner of the 

 State Land-Office, Roscoe D. Dix ; Superin- 

 tendent of Public Instruction, Joseph S. Esta- 

 brook ; Member of State Board of Education, 

 Samuel S. Babcock. The following platform 

 was adopted : 



We favor a tariff upon the imported products of 

 low-priced foreign labor, fairly and justly distributed, 

 so as to protect the interests of American wage-work- 

 ers without adding to their burdenSj and we point to 

 the history of Republican legislation as exhibiting 

 such wise revisions of the tariff laws from time to 

 time as have secured these valuable results for the 

 country and the people. The party whose quick 

 sense of its duty to the people is responsible for 

 those achievements can be depended upon to make 

 such future revisions of the laws as shall be found to 

 be most advantageous to the real interests of Ameri- 

 can industry, and conspicuous among the changes we 

 now deem salutary is the restoration of the tariff of 

 1867 on wool. The record of the Democratic party 

 shows its utter incapacity to deal with this subject. 



The money of the Constitution is gold and silver 

 coin, and the paper representative of money, includ- 

 ing gold and silver certificates, and treasury and bank- 

 notes, should always be convertible into coin of equal 

 denomination at the will of the holder. We produce 

 both gold and silver largely in our own country, and 

 therefore these metals, so far as is consistent with 

 sound principles of finance, should be utilized as 

 money. 



We regard with favor the intelligent organization 

 of labor for such worthy purposes as mutual educa- 

 tion and for the protection of their inteiusts in all 

 things relating to their welfare, and to the industrial 

 welfare of the country, and we favor the enactment 

 of State and national laws providing for the settle- 

 ment of controversies between employers and em- 

 ployes by methods of voluntary arbitration, or by 

 the establishment of courts of conciliation to avoid 

 the waste, loss, and ill-feeling resulting from strikes 

 and lockouts, and the usual burden and expense of 

 litigation. We are opposed to the importation of 

 Chinese labor into this country, or of any other for- 

 eign laborers under the contract system. We favor 

 any plan for the relief of free labor from the compe- 

 tition of convict-labor which does not impose upon 

 free labor a greater expense of supporting convicts 

 in idleness or useless labor, and we favor the adop- 

 tion of laws providing for the protection of workers 

 in our mines and other hazardous callings, for the 

 regulation of the labor of children, and for such other 

 measures as will sustain and improve the material and 

 social welfare of our industrial population. We are 

 earnestly opposed to the doctrine of the so-called 

 Anarchists, and we believe in the utmost protection 

 to each and every individual in the enjoyment of the 

 fruits of all his personal efforts to earn an honest 

 livelihood. 



We believe that when any considerable portion of 

 the State desires to express itself by vote upon a 



