OREGON. 



633 



Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William P. 

 Lord ; Associate Justices, Robert S. Bean and 

 Frank A. Moore. Chief-Justice Lord retired 

 from the bench in July. Robert S. Bean is now 

 Chief Justice, and C. E. Wolverton is the second 

 Associate Justice. 



Finances. The Assembly of 1893 made ap- 

 propriations to the amount of $2,274,036, of 

 which $1,749,223 has been expended. 



The State expenditures for the years 1893-'94 

 aggregated $1,820,278.57. In the biennial period 

 next preceding they were $1,242,227.43. The 

 balance of taxes due the State is $242,598. 



The total amount of the common-school fund, 

 Jan. 1, 1893, was $2,418,636.71. On Jan. 1, 1895, 

 it was $2,450,521.19. The interest distributed 

 from the fund in 1893 was $168,903, amounting 

 to a per capita of $140; in 1894 it was $107,- 

 693.82 ; per capita, $87. 



The Agricultural College fund, Jan. 1, 1895, 

 was $129,752.12; interest on which for the two 

 years was $16,751.79. The State University 

 fund was $105,345.80; interest, $12,673.61. The 

 amount loaned from the school fund has di- 

 minished during the last two biennial periods. 

 In 1889-'90 it was $911,243; in 1891-'92 it was 

 $711,160; and in 1893-'94, only $536,239. 



The total gross valuation of assessable prop- 

 erty in 1894 was $155,830,045. In 1893 it was 

 $179,088,770. 



Militia. From 1885 to 1892 the National 

 Guard was supported on an appropriation of 

 of a mill tax. In 1888 this amounted to about 

 $18,000 ; in 1889, to $23,000 ; in 1890 to about $26,- 

 000 ; in 1891 to $30,000 ; and in 1892 to $31,000. 

 The Legislature of 1893 dispensed with the - 

 mill tax, and limited the appropriation for sup- 

 port to $30,000, granting $20,000 each of the 

 years 1893 and 1894 for clothing and equip- 

 ment. The Guard consists of about 1,400 men, 

 with 175 officers. 



Education. The State paid for support of 

 the Normal Schools,, in 1893-'94, the sum of 

 $51,382.76; for the State University, $77,839 ; 

 and for. the Agricultural College, $44,889. A 

 class of 17 was graduated at the last-named in- 

 stitution in June. 



The Willamette Valley Chautauqua Associa- 

 tion formed a permanent organization at Oregon 

 City in October. They will build an auditorium 

 at Gladstone Park. 



A suit for the possession of Philomath Col- 

 lege, near Corvallis, between the so-called lib- 

 eral and radical wings of the Church of the 

 United Brethren has been settled in favor of the 

 liberals. The division in the Church was caused 

 by the proposition to expunge from the consti- 

 tution a clause prohibiting members from be- 

 longing to any secret society, the liberals being 

 in favor of expunging the clause. The suit was 

 regarded as a test case to determine the owner- 

 ship of all the property of this Church in the 

 State. Similar suits in other States have had 

 dissimilar results. In Pennsylvania and Iowa 

 the supreme courts have upheld the liberals, and 

 in Michigan the radicals have triumphed. 



The question of the constitutionality of the 

 law of 1893 making women eligible for educa- 

 tional offices has been brought up by a suit 

 contesting the election of a woman as school 

 superintendent of Union County ; she was nomi- 



nated by the Populists, and the Republican 

 candidate brought an action to restrain her 

 from assuming the office. The Attorney-Gen- 

 eral gave as his opinion that the law is in con- 

 flict with the State Constitution, which stipu- 

 lates that no person shall be elected or appointed 

 to any county office who is not an elector of the 

 county. A few years ago a woman was elected 

 county school superintendent in Umatilla Coun- 

 ty, and served her full term. 



At the Multnomah County election of 1886 

 Mrs. Alice C. Gove was elected county school 

 superintendent, and served until September of 

 that year, when the question of her eligibility 

 was brought up. She tendered her resignation, 

 and her husband was appointed by the county 

 court to fill the vacancy. 



State Institutions! Improvements to the 

 amount of $304,164.33 were made upon the pub- 

 lic institutions during 1893-'94. 



At the time of the October report the Insane 

 Asylum had 965 patients, of whom 312 were 

 women. The officers and employees numbered 

 103. The average daily expense per capita was 

 30 cents. The expenditures for the two years 

 amounted to $238,965, besides $91,360 for im- 

 provements. 



A new site has been taken for the Blind Insti- 

 tute. About $25,000 was expended on the school 

 during the biennial period, of which a little over 

 half was for current expenses. 



Expenditures for other State institutions for 

 the two years were as follow : Mute School, 

 $19,885, besides $32,947 for improvement; Or- 

 phans' Home, $34,500 ; Soldiers' Home, $38,668. 

 The biennial report of the Superintendent of 

 the Penitentiary gives the following items : The 

 number of prisoners, Dec. 31, 1894, was 359, an 

 increase of 26 during the last quarter of the 

 year; amount of appropriation for current ex- 

 penses for the two years, $91,700 ; total expendi- 

 tures, $76,178. A foundry plant has been put 

 in at a cost of $40,000. 



There were 79 boys at the Reform School in 

 March. The school owns 600 acres ; $122,115.83 

 was expended on it during the two years. 



Railroads. The report of the Railroad Com- 

 missioners shows a great falling off in the in- 

 come of the roads. In 1891 the total freight and 

 passenger earnings were nearly $7,000,000. In 

 1894 (counting the year as ending June 30) they 

 were less than $3,500,000. 



The board has secured reductions of railway 

 tariffs on certain kinds of freight, amounting for 

 two years on the Oregon Railroad and Naviga- 

 tion to over $46,000 on wheat. On the Southern 

 Pacific the reductions are confined to grain, 

 flour, feed, and mill stuffs. Thus for 50 miles 

 the old rate was 9 cents, and the present rate is 

 7 cents. For 100 miles the old rate was 13 

 cents, and the present rate is 9 cents ; while from 

 Ashland to Portland the old rate was 25 cents, 

 and the present one is 20 cents. 



The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Com- 

 pany's property was placed in the hands of a re- 

 ceiver in June on foreclosure of a mortgage. 

 There are 2 mortgages on the property, on which 

 there were outstanding at the beginning of the 

 year bonds to the amount of $17,476,000. The 

 company chartered in 1879, operated 1,065 miles 

 of railway and 952 miles of water lines. 



