LOUISIANA. 



number of illiterate voters has grown from 

 102,932 in 1880 to 112,411 in 1886; the num- 

 ber that can write has fallen from 113,895 to 

 105,426 in the same time. Over 80 per cent, of 

 these illiterates belong to the colored popula- 

 tion. The State University is declining from 

 lack of financial support. In order to meet 

 expenses, the chair of Ancient Languages was 

 abolished in 1885, and the salaries of the other 

 instructors reduced. The fund available for 

 annual expenses is only about $24.500, of 

 which $10,000 is the annual appropriation of 

 the Legislature. Since 1883 the attendance 

 has diminished from 200 to 69 at the session of 

 this year. 



Decisions. The State Supreme Court was 

 called upon during the year to decide on the 

 constitutionality of a number of important 

 laws of the last General Assembly. The Sun- 

 day law, closing all places of business, except 

 certain specified classes, from midnight Satur- 

 day till midnight Sunday, was declared to be 

 valid, and an act organizing the northeastern 

 river parishes into the Fifth Levee District, 

 and giving commissioners of the district pow- 

 er to levy a 5-mill tax for levee purposes, was 

 also sustained. Another decision denies that 

 prescription can run against city or State taxes 

 legally assessed. The act of 1884, known us 

 the " iron-clad " act, relating to tax-titles, was 

 likewise upheld. This act provided that the 

 property the State had acquired from tax-sales, 

 its title to which was not considered complete, 

 should be advertised and sold, and that the 

 deed made in conformity with those sales 

 should be conclusive evidence that no defect 

 existed in the procedure by which the State ac- 

 quired the property. The act applied to prop- 

 erty incumbered with taxes prior to the Con- 

 stitution of 1879, a large amount of which had 

 been bid in by the State. It was contended 

 that this method of curing defects was virtu- 

 ally a taking of property without due process 

 of law, and, therefore, unconstitutional, an 

 opinion that did not prevail. The Sunday law 

 came up for consideration by the court a sec- 

 ond time during the year, on the question 

 whether it applied to the public markets of 

 New Orleans and other cities. Among the in- 

 dustries excepted from the operation of the act 

 are enumerated " newspaper-offices, printing- 

 offices, book-stores, drug-stores, apothecary 

 shops, public and private markets, bakeries, 

 dairies, livery-stables, railroads," etc., and it 

 was contended that under this exception any 

 business whatever could be conducted in a 

 public market on Sunday even if forbidden 

 elsewhere. The court, however, decided that 

 the law was intended to confer no special 

 privileges upon any one locality, as that of a 

 public market, and that a grocery stand, or 

 any business not appertaining to an ordinary 

 private market, could not be maintained within 

 the limits of a public market, if forbidden out- 

 side of such market. 



The ten-hour law, applying to women and 



children under eighteen years of age, went into 

 operation at the beginning of the year. Its 

 immediate effect was to cause a reduction of 

 wages among the employes of the various mills 

 and manufactories of the State. 



Railroads. Sixty-five miles of new road were 

 constructed during the year upon four differ- 

 ent lines. The development of the northern 

 part of the State has been heretofore retarded 

 by insufficient railroad facilities; but plans 

 perfected during the year insure considerable 

 railroad construction in that region in the near 

 future. 



Sugar. The folio wing resolutions, adopted at 

 a meeting of the Louisiana Sugar-Planters 

 Association during the year, represent the po- 

 sition of the State leaders in this industry on 

 the question of protection. , 



Whereas, the sugar-planters of Louisiana believe 

 that the sugar industry of Louisiana in particular, and 

 of the United States in general, is entitled to protec- 

 tion against the lower forms ot labor engaged in the 

 industry elsewhere, and also that all other industries, 

 employing free American laborers, are entitled to like 

 protection ; 



fiesolved, That we do not propose to be sacrificed 

 to meet any political emergency, and, while holding 

 fast to the tenets of our political'faith, shall seek such 

 alliances as may insure us justice. 



Resolved, That the internal revenue system of the 

 country, a product of the civil war, and no longer 

 necessary, and contrary to the genius of our free in- 

 stitutions, is the principal cause of surplus revenue, 

 and should be abolished. 



Cotton. The cotton-crop of the State fur 

 1887 is estimated at 464,802 bales, produced 

 from a total acreage of 1,025,000 acres. 



Levees. Through the aid of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment in its work of improving the naviga- 

 tion of the Mississippi river, Louisiana is in a 

 position to look forward to a complete protec- 

 tion against overflow within the next few 

 years. According to the reports of the State 

 Board of Engineers, the expenditures for le- 

 vee purposes by the State for the two years 

 ending April 20, 1884, were $756,470. During 

 that time the allotments by the Mississippi 

 River Commission were $750,000 for closing 

 the gaps in the levees between the mouth of 

 Eed river and Cypress Creek, the Tensas 

 Basin, and $110,000 for closing gaps in 

 Pointe Conp6e parish. During the two years 

 following, the expenditures by the State were 

 $717,493, and the Federal Government ex- 

 pended $262,869.70 on similar work in the 

 State. A further allotment was made of $321,- 

 000 in July for levees in Louisiana by the River 

 Commission, and $400,000 was also allotted out 

 of the unexpended balances prior to that time. 

 Political. At the close of the year a lively 

 political contest, which began in August, was 

 still in progress between Governor McEnery 

 and Ex-Governor Francis T. Nichols, to secure 

 the gubernatorial nomination from the Demo- 

 cratic State Convention in January, 1888. A 

 large number of delegates were chosen during 

 December, the majority of whom were claimed 

 to be adherents of Gen. Nichols. 



