812 



TENNESSEE. 



with a view to using the " central office " sys- 

 tem with his instrument in small cities. It 

 works on the principle of carrying all the lines 

 to a common ring, and then tightening only 

 the two that are to be put in communication, 

 leaving the others loose. It has not yet beeu 

 put into practical use. 



TENNESSEE. State Government. The following 

 were the State officers during the year: Gov- 

 ernor, William B. Bate, Democrat ; Secretary 

 of State, John Allison; Treasurer and Insur- 

 ance Commissioner, J. W. Thomas; Comp- 

 troller, P. P. Pickard ; Attorney-General, B. 

 J. Lea; Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 T. H. Paine; Commissioner of Agriculture, 

 Statistics, and Mines, A. J. McWhirter; Pveg- 

 ister of Lands, W. S. Winbourn. Supreme 

 Court: Chief -Justice, James W. Deaderick; 

 Associate Justices, William F. Cooper, Thomas 

 J. Freeman, Peter Turner, and J. B. Cooke. 



The receipts for the two years ending Dec. 

 19, 1886, from all sources, aggregate $3,228,- 

 768.36, including $645,214.83; cash balance on 

 hand, Dec. 20, 1884. The disbursements dur- 

 ing the same time aggregate $3,291,300.98. 

 The disbursements exceed those of the previ- 

 ous two years by $1,590,161.87, or at the rate 

 of $795,080.93 a year. The additional ex- 

 penses for the past two years are due to the 

 payment of interest on the State debt, amount- 

 ing to $1,041,461 ; the cancellation of Tennes- 

 see money amounting to $586,000, and the 

 large appropriations for hospitals for the insane 

 in East and West Tennessee, and for schools 

 for the deaf and dumb and blind, legislative 

 expenses of the extraordinary session, Capitol 

 repairs, etc. 



About five sixths of the bonds liable to be 

 funded under the act of 1883 have been fund- 

 ed, with all back interest thereon. The Fund- 

 ing Board found at this time (July 1, 1883), 

 according to the books in the Comptroller's 

 office, a bonded indebtedness of the State of 

 $27,786,066.39. Of these bonds, since the last 

 official report made to the Legislature (in 1885), 

 this board has received and converted for the 

 holders and their agents $14,312,400, under 

 the terms of the act (March 15, 1883), into 

 new funded or u settlement " bonds, and previ- 

 ously, between July 1, 1883 (when the law took 

 effect), and January, 1885 (when the report 

 was made), received and funded in like man- 

 ner $8,063,000, making the total thus funded 

 $22,375,400, payable in thirty years, and bear- 

 ing interest at the rate of 6, 5, and 3 per cent. 



There is still, according to the books in the 

 Comptroller's office, a balance of $5,728,000, 

 without interest, of bonded indebtedness to be 

 accounted for. 



The tabulated statement of the Comptrol- 

 ler's report of the character and valuation of 

 property for a series of years shows that the 

 aggregate assessed valuations for the past six 

 years (excluding railroad and telegraph prop- 

 erty) were as follow: In 1881, $221,929,813; 

 in 1882, $222,637,873; in 1883, $226,844,184; 



in 1885, $226,749,308; and in 1886, $224,909,- 

 179. The total taxable property in the State 

 is assessed at the aggregate of $256,708,856 95, 

 showing an increased value in the past four 

 years of $7,054,883.83. 



Penitentiary. There were on the prison rolls 

 on Dec. 1, 1886, the names of 1,216 convicts, 

 distributed as follow : Main prison at Nashville, 

 561; Tracy City, 313; Inman,196; Coal Creek, 

 146. The greatest number of prisoners in the 

 Penitentiary at any one time was in 1883, 

 when the total reached 1,427. This number 

 had decreased to 1,323 on Dec. 1, 1884. Those 

 now in confinement are therefore 211 less than 

 in 1883, and 107 less than on Dec. 1, 1884. 



Hospitals for the Insane. The Tennessee Hos- 

 pital for the Insane shows by report for the 

 biennial term ending Dec. 19, 1886, the whole 

 number of patients to have been 694, which 

 was 64 more than in any former term. In 

 March, 99 patients were transferred to the East 

 Tennessee Hospital for the Insane at Knox- 

 ville. This institution had in all 206 patients, 

 with a daily average of 152. The West Ten- 

 nessee Asylum, has been located near Bolivar, 

 Hardeman County. 



Public Schools. The following summaries 

 show the general condition of the schools, and 

 the receipts and expenditures of public funds 

 for school purposes, for the year ending June 

 30, 1886: Scholastic population between the 

 ages of six and twenty-one years white male, 

 240,869; white female, 224,131; total white, 

 465,000; colored male, 79,861; colored fe- 

 male, 78,589; total colored, 158,450; grand 

 total, 623,450. This shows an increase over 

 the preceding year of 16,889. 



Number of teachers employed white male, 

 3,863; white female, 1,823 ; 'colored male, 1,- 

 098 ; colored female, 528 ; total, 7,307. Aver- 

 age daily attendance white, 215,865 ; colored, 

 62,411 ; total, 278.276 ; increase over last year, 

 85,873. Estimated value of school-houses, $1,- 

 636,649 ; estimated value of school apparatus, 

 $57,331 ; value of school-houses erected dur- 

 ing the year, $103,789. 



Political. The Republican State Convention 

 met in Nashville on June 16, and nominated 

 for Governor, Alfred A. Taylor, of Washington 

 County. The following are the chief points of 

 the platform adopted: 



That we charge upon the Democratic party all the 

 financial and industrial troubles now oppressing our 

 people. That party has shown itself the enemy of the 

 laboring-man and the friend of ignorance and pauper- 

 ism ; that party's rise to power has cast a dark shadow 

 over the homes of the people, in which shadow strikes, 

 riots, and destruction of life and property have impov- 

 erished labor, paralyzed capital, and alarmed patriots ; 

 and but for the certainty that with the present Admin- 

 istration the Democratic party will be turned out of 

 power for another long term of years, the stagnation 

 of business, the sufferings of the poor, the hoarding of 

 capital, and the dearth of employment for labor would 

 be so greatly increased as to threaten the very founda- 

 tions of government. 



That the Democratic policy of stationing small ar- 

 mies of convicts all over the State to make war on free 

 labor is as great a crime against our skilled laboring- 



