ALABAMA. 



warden or other person employed by the State. 

 After the termination of existing contracts no 

 State or county convict shall be employed in 

 any mine. The State convicts shall then be em- 

 ployed in diversified industries, and among 

 other things shall manufacture articles com- 

 monly needed at the Penitentiary and other 

 State institutions. The managers of such insti- 

 tutions shall not purchase any article when it 

 can be obtained from the State Penitentiary. 

 For the purpose of carrying out this act, the 

 Board of Managers is authorized to acquire land 

 and erect buildings, as the present Penitentiary 

 buildings are inadequate. The net income of 

 the Penitentiary for the year ending Sept. 30, 

 1892, and for five years next ensuing, is appro- 

 priated for this and other purposes of the act. 

 Schools shall be established for the convicts, at 

 which attendance shall be compulsory. County 

 convicts may be worked on county roads, and 

 shall be under control of the Board of Managers. 



The Governor was authorized to enter upon 

 negotiations for the consolidation and adjust- 

 ment of the bonded State debt, on the basis of 4 

 per cent, interest, and was empowered, if he 

 should find such a course practicable, to issue 

 new 4-per-cent. bonds to an amount not exceed- 

 ing the State debt, and to exchange them at par 

 for the outstanding bonds. 



Provision was made for selling at auction, 

 at the county courthouse of each County, the 

 State lands known as swamp and overflowed 

 and indemnity swamp lands. The sale is to be- 

 gin on the first Monday of December, 1893, and 

 continue till all such lands are sold or offered 

 for sale ; but none are to be sold at less than 25 

 cents an acre. 



In order to secure sufficient revenue for cur- 

 rent expenses, the tax rate for 1893 and 1894 

 was increased to 5 mills ; but the Governor was 

 authorized to suspend the collection of a part of 

 such tax in either year, if the condition of the 

 State treasury should warrant. 



An industrial school for white girls was estab- 

 lished, and the sum of $5,000 in the year 1895, 

 and $10,000 in the year 1896, was appropriated 

 for its use. For each of the years 1893 and 1894 

 the sum of $11,500 was appropriated for en- 

 campments of the State militia. A license tax 

 was imposed on the capital stock of corpora- 

 tions, and a privilege tax upon express com- 

 panies, graduated according to the length of 

 their lines in the State. Insurance companies 

 of every kind were required to pay a tax equal 

 to 1 per cent, of their gross premiums from busi- 

 ness in the State, after deducting return pre- 

 miums on canceled policies and losses actually 

 paid. Telephone companies were taxed 1 per 

 cent, on their gross receipts. 



A law was passed permitting a contest in the 

 case of elections for members of the General As- 

 sembly, for chancellor, for judge of the circuit 

 court, and for certain minor officers, but in no 

 other cases. An amendment to the State Con- 

 stitution was proposed, authorizing the General 

 Assembly to confer upon trustees of school dis- 

 tricts the power to levy a special school tax of 

 not more than one fourth of 1 per cent, on the 

 assessed valuation of the district, and to apply 

 the money collected thereunder from the white 

 taxpayers exclusively for the benefit of chil- 



dren of the white race, and the money collected 

 from colored taxpayers exclusively to the edu- 

 cation of colored children. For the years 1893 

 and 1894 the sum of $350,000 was appropriated 

 annually for public schools. 

 Other acts of the session were as follow : 



To prevent the perpetration of fraud by directors 

 and managing officers of corporations. 



To regulate the taking of oysters from the public 

 reefs in the State. 



To compel the determination of claims to real es- 

 tate, and to quiet title to the same. 



Establishing the first Monday of September in each 

 year as a holiday, to be known' as Labor Day. 



To punish officers and agents of banks and bank- 

 ing institutions who receive deposits knowing that 

 such banks and banking institutions are insolvent. 



To provide for more competent men in the trans- 

 portation service on railroads in the State. 



Requiring sleeping-car companies to pay a privilege 

 tax of not less than $500 and not more than $1,000. 



To regulate the business of building and loan as- 

 sociations. 



To encourage the building and operating of cotton 

 and woolen factories in the State. 



To relieve married women from the disabilities of 

 minority. 



Authorizing commissioners' courts and county 

 boards of revenue to aid indigent Confederate sol- 

 diers. 



To subject shares or interests in the stock of pri- 

 vate corporations to levy and sale for the payment of 

 taxes. 



A bill providing for a convention to revise the 

 State Constitution was defeated in the House. 



Education. For the school year ending in 

 1892, the number of children of school age in 

 the State was 550,522, of whom 309,628 were of 

 the white race and 240,894 of the colored race. 

 To aid them the State appropriated $350,000 

 out of its general taxes, and in addition thereto 

 the interest on the sixteenth section fund, the 

 United States surplus revenue fund, and the 

 amount of poll taxes, making a total expenditure 

 during the year of $627,911.66. 



The State Superintendent reports that the 

 number of schools during the past two years has 

 been greater than ever, with a better attendance, 

 and that the people are supplementing the pub- 

 lic appropriations with their private means to a 

 degree not heretofore known. 



The Alabama Institute for the Deaf, the 

 Academy for the Blind, and the School for 

 Negro Deaf Mute and Blind, maintained by the 

 State, in Talladega, are not intended as asylums 

 or homes, but are really parts of the public- 

 school system of the State. The property of the 

 State at this place is estimated at $125.000. In 

 November, 1892, the number of pupils was as 

 follows: White deaf mutes, 82; white blind pu- 

 pils, 54; colored deaf mutes, 14; colored blind 

 pupils, 13 ; total, 163. 



The State pays for the maintenance of these 

 schools on the per capita plan, $217.53 per pupil 

 for the deaf and $230 per pupil for the blind. 



Convicts. On Aug. 31, 1892, there were 

 2,098 prisoners under confinement in the State, 

 of whom 1,183 were State convicts and 915 

 county convicts. The greater part of these were 

 employed in coal mines, but by the provisions 

 of the law passed this year by the General As- 

 sembly the early removal of all convicts from 

 such employment is contemplated. For the 



