682 



RHODE ISLAND. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



95 pupils at the Agricultural School at Kingston 

 during the last school year. 



Charities. On Jan. 1, 1892, there were 541 

 persons confined at the State Insane Asylum, of 

 whom 252 were men and 289 were women. On 

 Dec. 31 of the same year the number had in- 

 creased to 563, of whom 268 were men and 295 

 women. At the State Home and School there 

 was an average of 115 children during the year. 

 A new institution, known as the State Institute 

 for the Deaf, was opened at Providence on Jan. 

 2, and now has about 40 pupils. The cost of the 

 land and buildings was $50,000. The property 

 consists of a mansion house and a dormitory, 

 capable of accommodating about 60 pupils. The 

 Soldiers' Home at Bristol, opened in May, 1891, 

 contained, on Dec. 31, of this year 105 inmates. 



Banks. From reports made to the State Au- 

 ditor on Nov. 17, 1892, it appears that the de- 

 posits in institutions of savings on that date 

 amounted to $69,906,992.57, a gain of $3,630,- 

 835.13 for the year; the number of depositors 

 was 142,492, an increase of 5,844 for the year. 

 The deposits in trust companies (participation 

 account) on Nov. 17, 1892, amounted to $7,732,- 

 856.62. The number of depositors was 4,503, or 

 an increase of 741 for the year. 



Fisheries. The taking of scallops from Nar- 

 ragansett Bay has become an important indus- 

 try. Three seasons ago it was estimated that 

 200,000 bushels of this shell fish were taken from 

 the waters of the bay. In the following season 

 the yield was very small, but during the sea- 

 son of 1892 it probably amounted to 125,000 

 bushels. 



Political. On March 2 a State Convention 

 of the Democratic party met at Providence, and 

 nominated William T. C. Wardwell for Governor, 

 Charles B. Gorman for Lieutenant-Governor, 

 John J. Heffernan for Secretary of State, Thomas 

 Spencer for General Treasurer, and Ziba 0. Slo- 

 cum for Attorney-General. The platform adopt- 

 ed demands free wool, iron, coal, and lumber; 

 protests against the free coinage of silver; de- 

 mands honest money, whether gold, silver, or 

 paper; denounces the General Assembly for 

 passing acts interfering with the internal affairs 

 of Newport, Lincoln, and Scituate; scores the 

 Republican party for endeavoring to legislate so 

 as to close the polls at five o'clock, to the injury 

 of the workingmen ; calls for plurality elections ; 

 and instructs the State delegation to vote for the 

 nomination of ex-President Cleveland. 



On March 15 a Republican State Convention 

 at Providence nominated D. Russell Brown for 

 Governor, Melville Bull for Lieutenant-Governor, 

 George H. Utter for Secretary of State, Samuel 

 Clark for General Treasurer, and Robert W. 

 Burbank for Attorney-General. The platform 

 contains the following : 



Resolved, That the adoption of the proposition which 

 has the support of a controlling majority of the Demo- 

 cratic party to open the mints of the United States to 

 the free coinage of silver would, in the absence of an 

 international agreement for the monetary restoration 

 of silver, result in a disastrous derangement of our cur- 

 rency ; unsettle and destroy business confidence ; in- 

 sidiously but surely depreciate the value of the .earn- 

 ings and savings of labor, and unjustly diminish the 

 purchasing power of money paid by a grateful Gov- 

 ernment to its pensioners. 



That we heartily approve the policy inaugurated by 



the enactment of the reciprocity section of the tariff 

 act of 1890. 



That the maintenance of the tariff system for the 

 protection of American labor is the cardinal principle 

 of the Eepublican party. The comfort and prosperity 

 of the great mass of tJie people of the United States 

 are directly dependent upon the continuance of the 

 present high level of wages in all American indus- 

 tries, and this result can only be obtained by levying 

 such protective duties upon competing articles'im- 

 ported from foreign countries as shall give to Ameri- 

 can workmen an equal chance to secure American 

 markets. 



The People's party placed in the field a ticket 

 headed by Franklin E. Burton for Governor, 

 and the Prohibitionists supported the following 

 nominees : For Governor, Alexander Gilbert ; for 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Samuel 0. Tabor ; for Sec- 

 retary of State, Lewis E. Remington ; for Gen- 

 eral Treasurer, William S. Brownell ; and for 

 Attorney-General, Thomas H. Peabody. At the 

 April election the Republican candidates for 

 Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Secretary 

 of State each received a majority of all the votes 

 cast, and were elected by the people. There was 

 no election for General Treasurer or Attorney- 

 General, and the choice for these offices fell upon 

 the General Assembly, which on May 31 elected 

 the Republican candidates. The vote for Gov- 

 ernor was: Brown, 27,461: Wardwell, 25,433; 

 Gilbert, 1,598; Burton, 187. Members of the 

 General Assembly were voted for at this elec- 

 tion, but several by-elections were necessary be- 

 fore the full membership was determined. There 

 were chosen to the Senate 28 Republicans and 9 

 Democrats ; and to the House, 43 Republicans 

 and 29 Democrats. 



At the national election in November, Repub- 

 lican presidential electors were chosen by the 

 following vote : Republican, 26,972 ; Democratic, 

 24,335; Prohibitionist, 1,654 ; People's party. 228. 

 There was no choice by the people for Congress- 

 man in either of the congressional districts, no 

 candidate having a majority of the votes. Two 

 constitutional amendments were submitted to 

 the people at the same time one, in favor of bi- 

 ennial elections, receiving 18,749 affirmative and 

 13,907 negative votes, and being rejected ; the 

 other, authorizing the General Assembly to pass 

 a general corporation law, receiving 17,959 af- 

 firmative and 10,632 negative votes, and being 

 adopted. A three fifths vote in favor of an 

 amendment is necessary for its adoption. On 

 the question whether bonds to the amount of 

 $1,500,000 should be issued for building a new 

 State House, the vote was 20,997 in favor of such 

 issue, and 12,205 against it. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The Vat- 

 ican medal for 1892 bears the head of Leo XIII 

 and " Fifteenth Year of Pontificate " on one side, 

 the reverse being descriptive of his encyclical 

 on labor. The design appropriately emphasizes 

 the attitude of the papacy on the social ques- 

 tions. The messages from the Vatican during 

 the year, especially to the bishops of Italy, 

 France, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, and 

 America, have all been in keeping with the 

 popular character thus indicated. Conciliatory 

 policies were adopted toward the governments 

 of Russia and France, the negotiations for the 

 restoration of Catholic rights in Germany and 

 Poland being continued, and' the opposition to 



