IOWA. 



377 



raphy by Montgomery Schuyler in the " Forum " 

 for November, 1894, a study of his life by the 

 author of this article published in the catalogue 

 of the Inness exhibition in 1884, and an account 

 of personal characteristics by Mr. Sheldon, pub- 

 lished in the "Century " f or 'February, 1895. 



IOWA, a Western State, admitted to the 

 Union Dec. 28, 1846 ; area, 56,025 square miles. 

 The population was 192,214 in 1850 ; in 1890 it 

 was 1,911,896. Capital. Des Moines. 



government. The State officers during the 

 year were : Governor, Frank D. Jackson, Repub- 

 lican ; Lieutenant-Governor, Warren S. Dun- 

 gan ; Railroad Commissioners, John W. Luke, 

 George W. Perkins, Peter A. Dey ; Superintend- 

 ent of Public Instruction, Henry Sabin ; Secre- 

 tary of State, William M. McFarland ; Auditor, 

 C. G. McCarthy; Attorney-General, John Y. 

 Stone ; Treasurer, Byron A. Beeson : Commis- 

 sioner of Labor Statistics, W. E. O'Bleness ; Chief 

 Justice of the Supreme Court, Gifford S. Robin- 

 son ; Associate Justices, James H. Rothrock, 

 Charles T. Granger, Josiah Given, L. G. Kinne. 

 The Legislature having passed a bill making the 

 number of justices 6, and providing for the ap- 

 pointment of one to hold office until election, 

 H. E. Deemer was appointed by the Governor. 



Finances. The Governor's message gave the 

 following report of the finances for the biennial 

 period : The State entered the last biennial 

 period without any State debt except that due 

 on the school fund. The receipts of the treasury 

 during that period were as follow : From coun- 

 ties, $2,829,087.74; from insurance companies, 

 $224,302.56; from fees of State officers, $85,- 

 517.85 ; from telephone and telegraph compa- 

 nies, $40,404.94 ; from fees of the oil inspector, 

 $10,228.67; from miscellaneous sources, $105,- 

 973.82 ; from direct tax refunded by the General 

 Government, $384,274.80 : transfer 'from tempo- 

 rary school fund, $26,361 , total, $3,706,151.38. 

 The disbursements during the same period were 

 as follow : State Auditor's warrants redeemed, 

 $3,546,731 ; permanent school fund bonds paid, 

 $234,498 ; total, $3,781,229. 



There was a cash balance on hand at the close 

 of the last biennial period of $412,981.45. At 

 that time there were outstanding warrants there- 

 tofore drawn upon the treasury amounting in the 

 aggregate to $21,281.28. The surplus for which 

 no warrants had been drawn was $391,700.17. 



The total of special appropriations made by 

 the last General Assembly aggregated $742,'- 

 737.40. 



The twenty-fourth General Assembly dis- 

 posed of the sum received from the General Gov- 

 ernment as a refund of the direct tax, by provid- 

 ing that sufficient thereof to reimburse the 

 school fund for the amount due from the State 

 should be so applied to that purpose, and the re- 

 mainder to the construction of a soldiers' and 

 sailors' monument to commemorate Iowa sol- 

 diers and sailors in the civil war. 



The Columbian Commission has settled its 

 affairs and turned back into the treasury $3,- 

 600 of the $125.000 that was appropriated to 

 fair purposes by the Legislature. 



Valuations. The assessment reports show a 

 falling off in the valuations during the year of 

 over $9.000,000. The Legislature fixed the sum 

 to be raised from the assessment of 1894 at $1,- 



350,000, and provided that the Executive Coun- 

 cil should fix the rate of the levy necessary to 

 produce that amount after the counties had re- 

 ported their assessed valuation. The levy was 

 accordingly fixed at 2| mills, leaving a margin 

 over the amount required of $28,215. In addition 

 to this, the valuation of telegraph and telephone 

 lines fixed by the Executive Council is as fol- 

 lows: Telegraph companies, $496,984: telephone 

 companies, $703,000; total, $1,199,984. These 

 are assessed at 3 per cent. 



Education. The record of attendance at the 

 State University in September was as follows : 

 Students in the pharmacy department, 55 ; 

 homoeopathic, 56 ; dental, 106 ; law, 141 ; medi- 

 cal, 169 ; collegiate, 377 ; total, 904, which is an 

 increase over last year of the same day of 131. 



Lawsuits in which Des Moines College has 

 been engaged have been settled, the college se- 

 curing absolutely and in fee simple the title to 

 its present campus, and the other party to the 

 suits, the Homestead and Trust Company, re- 

 ceiving titles to other properties that have been 

 in litigation. 



A committee appointed three years ago by the 

 Teachers' Association to prepare a scheme of 

 classification for the higher institution of learn- 

 ing in the State, made a report in which only 

 3 of these institutions were recognized as colleges 

 in the best sense of the word, though several 

 others would be entitled to the name according 

 to the tests proposed, which were : First, 6 

 chairs ; second, three years' actual preparation ; 

 third, sufficient instructors to create a college 

 atmosphere ; fourth, library and apparatus. 



This report aroused considerable opposition, 

 and it was charged that it was made in the inter- 

 est of the 3 larger colleges. 



The Agricultural College at Ames had over 

 600 students during the year. Five professors 

 in the college were asked for their resignations 

 by the trustees in August, on the ground that 

 the college was being materially injured by con- 

 stant dissensions in the faculty in regard to the 

 tests carried on at the college. Contracts were 

 awarded for the erection of 2 new buildings an 

 experimental barn, to cost $4,000, and a dormi- 

 tory for the girl students, to cost $50,000. 



State Institutions. In the 2 insane asylums 

 that were completed at Independence and Mount 

 Pleasant there were at the end of the biennial 

 period 2,252 patients. The average support 

 fund is $13.50 a month. Adding to this inter- 

 est at 6 per cent, on the total appropriations 

 made to the asylums exclusive of the support 

 fund, the average cost reaches $19.33 a month. 



A bill was passed to establish a new insane 

 hospital in the northwestern part of the State, 

 and $12,000 was appropriated for the purchase of 

 a site at Cherokee. 



About 400 boys are confined in the Industrial 

 School at Eldora, and are maintained at $8 a 

 month from the support fund. The school for 

 girls, at Mitchellviile, has an average of 150 in- 

 mates, and the support fund averages $9 a 

 month for each. 



The Orphans' Home contained 413 inmates. 

 The support fund allowed is $10 a month for 

 each inmate. The total amount expended for 

 its construction, repairs, and improvements to 

 the end of the last biennial period was $299,139. 



