754 



WASHINGTON. 



Populist candidate, 9. On the third day of the 

 balloting in joint convention, there being few 

 changes from the first ballot, a rule was adopted 

 that thereafter but two ballots should be taken 

 each day. The Allen and Turner members, with 

 some few exceptions, voted to the end as they 

 did on the first ballot. Allen's highest vote was 

 52 and Turner's 28. The last ballot, the hun- 

 dred and first, stood as follows: Allen 50, Turner 

 24, Griggs 8, Shaw 15, Van Patten 9. After the 

 adjournment of the Legislature Gov. McGraw 

 appointed John B. Allen as United States Sena- 

 tor to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration 

 of Allen's term and the failure to elect his suc- 

 cessor. Mr. Allen presented his credentials to 

 the Senate, but he was refused a seat, the ground 

 being taken that the Governor of a State has no 

 authority to appoint in the case of a vacancy 

 occurring in the senatorial representation of such 

 State while its Legislature is in session which 

 such Legislature fails to fill. 



State Capitol. The Legislature authorized 

 the erection of a State capitol, limiting the cost 

 to one million dollars, and making an appropria- 

 tion therefor of $500,000 out of a capitol build- 

 ing fund. This fund is to derive its revenue 

 from sales of lands granted to the State by the 

 United States for public buildings at the State 

 capital, amounting to 132,000 acres. Provision 

 has been made for the sale of these lands at 

 public auction in tracts of 160 acres, not more 

 than 10,000 acres to be disposed of at any one 

 sale. But little progress was made during the 

 year toward construction. A commission was 

 appointed to carry out the purposes of the build- 

 ing act ; this board called for the submission 

 of plans by architects, and received 187 in re- 

 sponse, but at the close of the year a selection 

 had not been made. 



Education. During 1893 the State appor- 

 tioned among the various school districts $104,- 

 169, which sum was. mainly derived from interest 

 on the permanent school fund and interest on 

 deferred payments for the common-school lands 

 that have been sold by the State. The perma- 

 nent school fund on Dec. 31 amounted to $630,- 

 276.46, of which $508,000 was invested in county 

 and school-district bonds. In November the 

 Supreme Court decided that school-district bonds 

 were municipal bonds within the meaning of the 

 provision of the Constitution regulating the 

 management of the permanent school fund, and 

 that therefore the moneys of that fund might be 

 invested in such school bonds. The last biennial 

 report of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion presented the following statistics : Number 

 of districts, 1,720; schoolhouses, 1,515; graded 

 schools, 180; children of school age, 106,130; 

 pupils enrolled, 78,819 ; average monthly salary 

 paid male teachers, $52.29; average monthly 

 salary paid female teachers, $42.16. 



Charities. The number of patients in the 

 Western Washington Hospital for the insane on 

 Dec. 31, 1893, was 430, a net increase of 67 since 

 Sept. 30, 1892. The attendance at the School for 

 Defective Youth on Dec. 31, 1893, was 100, 50 be- 

 ing deaf and dumb, 10 blind, and 40 feeble- 

 minded. 



State Lands. According to a report of the 

 Commissioner of Public Lands, the lands selected 

 by the State under the grants contained in the 



act of Congress providing for the admission of 

 the State into the Union amounted on Dec. 31, 

 1893, to 432,124-15 acres. Of these selections, the 

 United States district land offices had accepted 

 applications for 341,358-74 acres, and the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior had approved entries of 27,- 

 463-32 acres. The grants aggregate 622,000 acres. 

 In a case involving the right of the Seattle and 

 Montana Railway Company to extend its road 

 across State property at Seattle, the Supreme 

 Court decided that a railway corporation had no 

 authority to condemn a right of way across tide 

 lands owned by the State. 



Harbor Improvements. Under the stimu- 

 lating influence of an act passed by the last Legis- 

 lature, relating to the excavation of water ways, 

 plans have been projected for improvement of 

 Puget Sound harbors on a large scale. The at t 

 provides for the reclamation of tide lands by the 

 excavation of water ways through them, and the 

 raising of the lands bordering on such water ways 

 bv placing on them the excavated dirt. The 

 Commissioner of Public Lands is empowered to 

 make contracts for such improvements, the cost 

 thereof to be a first lien upon the land reclaimed. 

 Those who expect to engiige in this work are 

 planning to provide large fresh-water basins for 

 ocean vessels at Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia, 

 that at the first-named city to be secured by the 

 construction of a canal connecting the sound 

 with Lake Washington, while it is proposed to 

 build at Tacoma a broad embankment that will 

 dam the waters of the Puyallup at the point 

 where that river flows into the sound. For 

 Olympia an enterprise similar to the one sug- 

 gested for Tacoma is proposed for holding the 

 waters of Des Chutes river. The cost of these 

 three projects is estimated by their promoters at 

 $10,000,000, but it is claimed that the enhanced 

 value of the tide lands affected will be much 

 more than the expense of making the improve- 

 ments. 



Railroads. Railroad construction in the State 

 in 1893 was limited to the completion of the Great 

 Northern transcontinental line and of the North- 

 ern Pacific branch from Chehalis to South Bend, 

 the extension of the Spokane and Northern to 

 the Canadian border, and the construction by the 

 Castle Rock Coal Company of a branch 6 miles 

 long to connect its coal mines with the Northern 

 Pacific Railroad. The total increase of mileage 

 was 41-9. The Great Northern company fin- 

 ished track laying on its line to the coast early in 

 January, but (he road was not opened to through 

 passenger business until June. The completion 

 of this line was very gratifying to the people of 

 the State, as it was expected to cause a reduction 

 of transcontinental freight rates, and when it was 

 formally opened to traffic Seattle recognized the 

 event by a celebration, of which a coal palace was 

 a conspicuous feature. The total number of miles 

 of railroad in the State is 2,824. 



Minerals. Several discoveries were made 

 during the year in the mining districts of gold, 

 silver, lead, copper, and zinc ores, but the work 

 of development was not pushed vigorously. There 

 was some activity in the Cle Elum, Peshastin, 

 and Swank camps, and in the Okanogan coun- 

 try a few new stamp mills and a concentrator 

 were put- in. The greatest amount of develop- 

 ment work thus far carried on in any of the min- 



