338 



IDAHO. 



total receipts during the six months ending 

 Jan. 1, $180,184.97. 



On Sept. 23, 1892, the. State Auditor, in re- 

 sponse to an appeal, published the following 

 in regard to the condition of the State finances : 

 Total fixed appropriations available State offi- 

 ces, institutions, and departments $88,460.22. 

 Appropriations for conveying prisoners from 

 county jail to Penitentiary exhausted on July 

 7, 1892 ; those for conveying the insane nearly 

 gone. The land department appropriation of 

 $10,000 had been exhausted, and only $72.83 

 had been thus far presented for audit in ex- 

 cess of appropriation. The amount of claims 

 allowed by the State board then filed (not in- 

 cluding riot claims), which under the statute 

 must be certified, was $2,849.12. The claims 

 growing out of the Shoshone County riots 

 amounted to $8,467.26; of that amount $2,- 

 461.75 would be reduced by percentage ; the 

 expenses of the regular army being paid by the 

 United States, and the greater part of the ex- 

 penses chargeable to the State for the subsist- 

 ence of the State troops having been filed and 

 covered by the amount given, $8,467.26. The 

 State troops are entitled to the same pay while 

 in active service as the regular army, but in 

 many cases there artf appreciable offsets for 

 clothing 'and other articles. The total may 

 reach $5.000. No railway's claims for transpor- 

 tation of troops have been presented, but the 

 amount that may have to be paid on this ac- 

 count can not be very large. 



Irrigation. The reclaiming of arid lands by 

 irrigation has been a subject of absorbing inter- 

 est. Various bills relating to the arid-land 

 question have been proposed, and some have 

 been introduced in Congress. Some idea of the 

 extent and uses of irrigation in the State may be 

 obtained from the following statistics : During 

 the year ending May 31, 1890, there were 4,323 

 irrigated farms in the State, out of a total of 

 6,654. The total area upon which crops were 

 raised by irrigation was 217,005 acres. The 

 average size of irrigated farms was 50 acres. 

 The average first cost of water right was $4.74 

 an acre, and the average cost of preparing the 

 land $10.56 an acre. The average value of ir- 

 rigated land at the time the census was taken 

 was $45.50 an acre. The average value of crops 

 for 1889 was $12.93 an acre, and the average 

 annual cost of maintaining ditches, etc., was 

 80 cents an acre. Irrigation companies, repre- 

 senting large capitals, have been organized in 

 various parts of the State. An exhibit of an ir- 

 rigating process has been planned for the 

 World's Fair. 



Agricultural. The agricultural educational 

 appropriation made by the General Govern- 

 ment for Idaho amounted to $33,000. Of this 

 sum $15,000 was devoted to the use of the 

 State University at Moscow, and $18,000 to 

 experimental stations in other parts of the 

 State. 



Appropriations. The sum of $20,000 was 

 voted by Congress to the improvement of Snake 

 river. For public-land surveys for the year 

 1892-'93, $40,000 was appropriated, an excess of 

 $5,000 over the amount appropriated the year 

 before. The Boise City public building received 

 $100,000. 



Suffrage. State Attorney-General Roberts 

 returned the following opinion to the State 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction : " Wom- 

 en possessing the constitutional and statutory 

 qualifications can vote at all school elections ; 

 but to vote upon the proposition as to whether 

 a special tax shall be levied, women must 

 possess, with male suffragists, the additional 

 qualification of being ' an actual resident free- 

 holder or head of a family.'" 



Taxation. In answer to various questions 

 submitted on the subject, the Attorney-General 

 returned the following opinion : " That a license 

 for revenue only is a tax, and that no fees 

 or commissions can be allowed county officers 

 for their services in the collection of the same, 

 except in the case of sheriffs, to a limited ex- 

 tent." 



The World's Fair. Idaho will spend $100,- 

 000 for its World's Fair exhibit. Of this 

 amount $20,000 has already been appropriated 

 by the State, and it is expected that the next 

 Legislature will make up the remainder. In 

 addition to the State appropriations, individual 

 representatives of the greatest industries will 

 devote large sums to the display of their inter- 

 ests. In its exhibit at the World's Fair Idaho 

 will pay special attention to the mining in- 

 dustry. The State has contributed $175,000,- 

 000 of money in gold and silver to increase the 

 wealth and enrich the commerce of the land. 

 It produces half the lead product of the United 

 States. In consideration of these facts, a special 

 effort will be made to have a mining exhibit 

 commensurate with the importance of the State 

 as a mineral producer. 



The State's building will be somewhat rustic 

 in appearance, costing $15,000. Here will ap- 

 pear all the more valuable building materials to 

 be found in the State, including marble, brick, 

 and stone. The women of Idaho will assume 

 the responsibility of having it suitably decorated." 



The Coeur d'Algne Riots. These originated 

 in an attempt of the Mine-Owners' Association 

 to establish a new rate of payment at the Gem 

 and Union mines, discriminating between skilled 

 and unskilled labor as represented by the reg- 

 ular miners and trammers or surface men. 

 The association maintained that theirs was the 

 only camp where such a distinction was not 

 made, and that there was no reason why the 

 Coeur de Alene mines should be the exception to 

 the rule. The mine owners did not propose to 

 cut the wages of the regular miners. On the 

 contrary, they announced their willingness to 

 enter into an obligation to maintain the scale 

 of prices ; but the enforcing by the union of 

 miners' wages for trammers they considered an 

 injustice. They offered, under the new sched- 

 ule, $3.50 a day for miners ; $3 a day for tram- 

 mers, with an increase in the number of work- 

 ing hours for the latter. These terms the Miners' 

 Union, through its Central Committee, refused, 

 and this decision led to the shutting down of the 

 works at the Gem and Union mines on Jan. 5, 

 1892. 



The next event of importance, and the one 

 that brought the matter for the first time into 

 the courts, occurred on April 29, 1892, when four 

 men attempted to work in the Union mine near 

 Burke. They were forcibly- ejected from the 



