474 



MISSOURI. 



countries and doing business in Missouri to pay 

 a tax of 2 per cent, on their gross premiums. 

 The companies are given credit for the local 

 taxes on premiums, if they are imposed, and it 

 is made the duty of the Superintendent of Insur- 

 ance to collect the remainder and pay it into the 

 State treasury. The insurance companies think 

 the tax a great burden, and show that in many 

 instances foreign companies doing business in 

 Missouri pay more in losses than they receive in 

 premiums. In three years $260,657.84 was paid 

 into the General Revenue fund of the State from 

 this source. 



Agriculture. The Legislature of 1891 re- 

 vised the law creating the State Board of Agri- 

 culture, so as to provide that the board should 

 consist of one member from each Congressional 

 district, in addition to the three ex-officio mem- 

 bers. The General Assembly appropriated $5,200 

 for the expenses of the board, $10,500 for hold- 

 ing farmers' institutes, and $8,500 for publish- 

 ing reports. The board has taken great interest 

 in the improvement of country roads ; has held 

 one State road congress; and is now making 

 roads the subject of discussion at their meet- 

 ings. 



The World's Fair. The General Assembly 

 passed an act creating a State Board of World's 

 Fair Commissioners, and appropriating $150,000 

 for the preparation of a State exhibit and the 

 erection of a building on the exposition grounds ; 

 of this, $40,000 was set aside by the commission 

 for the erection of a State building, which is con- 

 structed of Missouri material, from the design of 

 a Missouri architect. 



Charities. The General Assembly appropri- 

 ated $591,200 for eleemosynary institutions for 

 1891 and 1892. The law provides that each in- 

 stitution shall have five managers, which shall 

 meet once each month, and shall be given an an- 

 nual salary of $100 each, in addition to their 

 traveling expenses. The Penitentiary is under 

 control of a board of inspectors, composed of 

 the Treasurer, Auditor, and Attorney-General, 

 who receive for that service a yearly salary of 

 $250 each. 



The State has three lunatic asylums. The ap- 

 propriations for 1891-92 were $369,400. At the 

 State School for the Blind there are 114 pupils 

 in attendance. The most expensive charity 

 maintained by the State is the School for the 

 Deaf and Dumb. The last General Assembly 

 appropriated $118,701.70 for the years 1891-'92". 

 The attendance in January, 1893, was 285. The 

 Industrial Home for Girls has 33 inmates, and 

 $7,500 was appropriated by the last General As- 

 sembly for the support of the institution. 



Insurance Department. This department 

 has not only been self-sustaining, but a source of 

 revenue to the State. During the four years of 

 1889 to 1892 inclusive, its net earnings amounted 

 to $43,788.40. The amount remaining to the 

 credit of the fund on Jan. 1, 1893, was $17,- 

 894.99. 



Costs in Criminal Cases. The largest item 

 of expenditure by the Stace government for sev- 

 eral years past has been for costs in criminal 

 cases, and these are growing, although the num- 

 ber of convicts in the Penitentiary shows no ap- 

 preciable increase. The appropriation by the 

 thirty-sixth General Assembly for this object 



was $585,000. It has all been drawn, and there 

 is a deficit of about $35,000. 



Biweekly Payment Law. The thirty-sixth 

 General Assembly amended the biweekly pay- 

 ment law so as to require all operators of mines 

 to pay their employees at least once in every 

 fifteen days, and to pay them the full amount of 

 their earnings to date of payment. 



Political. The Republicans met in State 

 convention at Jefferson City on April 28, and 

 nominated the following ticket : For Governor, 

 William Warner; Lieutenant-Governor, Rudolph 

 Mueller; Secretary of State, H. T. Alkire; Au- 

 ditor, John M. Weeks ; Treasurer, F. J. Wilson ; 

 Attorney-General, David Murphy; Railroad Com- 

 missioner, W. S. Hathaway ; Judges of the Su- 

 preme Court, W. S. Shirk, Chas. .Nagel, W. W. 

 Edwards. 



The platform congratulated the people of the 

 State upon their material prosperity shown by 

 the Auditor's report, and upon a reduction of 

 taxation for State purposes from 20 cents to 15 

 cents on the $100 valuation. The Democratic 

 party was condemned as being at the old game 

 of trying to hoodwink the voters of the State in 

 claiming credit for a reduction of taxation, 

 when such reduction was only made in compli- 

 ance with the plain requirements of the Consti- 

 tution of the State. 



We denounce the Democratic Legislature of Mis- 

 souri for its gerrymander of the Congressional dis- 

 tricts of this State so as to disfranchise 236,000 Ee- 

 publican voters, and the infamous gerrymander of 

 the judicial circuits of the State, thereby identifying 

 the iudiciary with party politics. 



We are in favor of a fair ballot and a fair count, 

 condemning in unmeasured terms that feature of tlie 

 present election laws of the State of Missouri wlu-rdiy 

 the recorders of voters are empowered to appoint 

 not only the judges and clerks of election for the 

 Democratic party, but for the Republican party also. 



In order to maintain the purity of elections, imme- 

 diate steps should be taken before the next State and 

 national elections take place, to purge the registration 

 books now in use of trie hundreds and thousands of 

 names of dead men and nonresident voters that are 

 carried thereon purposely year after year. 



That our State Legislature be requested to take 

 such action in reference to this matter as will make 

 it possible for the voters of the State of Missouri, irre- 

 spective of party, to keep inviolate the most sacred 

 right they have. 



The Democratic State Convention met in May, 

 at Sedalia, for the selection of delegates to the 

 national convention. The delegates were in- 

 structed to vote for Mr. Cleveland. In July the 

 Democrats again met in convention for the nom- 

 ination of State officers, and the following was 

 the ticket chosen : Governor, William J. Stone ; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, John B. O'Meara: Secre- 

 tary of State, A. A. Lesueur; State Auditor, 

 Jas. M. Seibert; Treasurer, Lon V. Stephens; 

 Attorney-General, R. F. Walker; Railway Com- 

 missioner, James Cowgill. The platform in- 

 cluded the following: 



We congratulate the people of Missouri on the prog- 

 ress of the State, on its increase of wealth, and on 

 the wisdom of its Democratic Constitution, through 

 the operation of which, with the Democratic party con- 

 tinuously in administration n the State since its'adop- 

 tioiij liberty, life, and property have been protected, 

 the increased demand for sclioqls and eleemosynary 

 institutions complied with, while at the same time the 



