646 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



county tax assessed last year amounted to $19,- 

 935,994.04, against $18,851,798.73 the previous 

 year. The money at interest, including mort- 

 gages, judgments, bonds, notes, stocks, etc., is 

 shown by the returns to have been $616,043,452 

 in 1894, an increase over the previous year of 

 $s.:;79,044. 



The assessment returns the past two years 

 show that tin* acreage of the timber land of the 

 State is steadily growing less, while at the same 

 time there is a corresponding increase in the 

 acreage of the cleared land. In 1894 there were 

 15,081.061 acres of cleared land, an increase of 

 204.197 over 1893. 



The value of the real estate exempt from 

 taxation increased from $239,243,753 in 1893 to 

 $245.368.752 in 1894, and the value of real es- 

 tate taxable from $2,351,190,037 in 1893 to $2,- 

 389,252,748 in 1894. 



The State-tax conference has been at work 

 for three years to formulate a plan for the more 

 equitable distribution of State taxation. 



An opinion was given in March, by Judge 

 Simonton, in a case involving the right of the 

 State to tax the capital stock of corporations 

 owning shares in other companies. The Lehigh 

 Valley Coal and Navigation Company contended 

 that its capital stock was not taxable, because 

 the tax on the capital stock of other corpora- 

 tions had been paid, and that to impose upon 

 them the burden would be double taxation. 

 The court held that there is nothing illegal or 

 urgent in taxing the same person twice with 

 respect to different taxable subjects, and that 

 t his is constantly done. Thus corporations have 

 been taxed on their capital stock, gross receipts, 

 and net income at the same time. Numerous 

 decisions are cited to show that there is a marked 

 difference between "capital stock" and "shares 

 of stock," and the statement is made by the 

 judge that for more than fifty years shares of 

 stock and capital stock have been recognized 

 and dealt with by the Legislature and the courts 

 as different subjects of taxation, apart from the 

 question whether the levy of both might or 

 might not in some sense be construed as double 

 taxation. 



State Institutions. The State Board of 

 Charities, after inspection of the various chari- 

 table and penal institutions, decided to recom- 

 mend to the Legislature an appropriation of 

 $500,000 for the erection of a chronic insane 

 hospital, $300,000 for a hospital for the treat- 

 ment of epileptics, and $200,000 for an institu- 

 tion for the criminal insane. The 5 State in- 

 sane hospitals are overcrowded, and the new in- 

 stitution at Wernersville is inadequate for the 

 chronic insane. The number of patients in thfe 

 State Insane Hospital increased about 500 during 

 the year. This is nearly twice as large as the 

 increase last year. The number that should be 

 taken out of 1 lie State lunatic hospitalsand placed 

 into other institutions is estimated at 800. There 

 arc about 400 epileptics in the State lunatic hos- 

 pitals, and 250 in the various county almshouses. 

 The board has decided to recommend an appro- 

 priation of $30.000 for the erection of a hospital 

 at Hyde Park, Lacka wanna County, and $200.- 

 000 for improvements at the Harrisburg Insane 

 Hospital. 



The number in the last-named institution at 



the opening of the year was 788, of whom 405 

 were women ; 80 had been removed the previous 

 year to county almshouses. 



A bitter struggle followed the selection of 

 Scotland as the site for the new soldiers' orphans' 

 school (see " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1893, 

 page 610), but the outcome of the contest was 

 the confirmation of that selection. 



Both the Eastern and Western Penitentiaries 

 seem to be overcrowded, having nearly twice as 

 many inmates as they were originally intended 

 to hold, and their capacity will have to be in- 

 creased unless the Legislature resorts to the 

 remedy suggested in the bill presented by the 

 board of charities providing for the incarceration 

 of an increased number of prisoners in the 

 county jails, and providing means for their em- 

 ployment. . The Eastern Penitentiary has about 

 1,300 inmates. 



The State reformatories at Morganza and 

 Huntingdon are also overcrowded. 



Military. The report of the Adjutant General 

 for 1894 shows that the number of enrolled men 

 in the State subject to military duty is 800,324. 

 The aggregate strength of the Guard on Sept. 30 

 was 8,934. 



The twenty-eighth annual encampment of the 

 Grand Army of the Republic was held at Pitts- 

 burg, Sept. 12 and 13. Resolutions were adopted 

 one requesting departments and posts to assist 

 poor soldiers' orphans desirous of securing a high- 

 school education, and another calling the atten- 

 tion of State departments and posts to the char- 

 acter of certain schoolbooks used in some of the 

 public schools of the country, and citing a report 

 of the department of Pennsylvania setting forth 

 that many text-books used in schools are works 

 of Southern sympathizers and contain erroneous 

 misstatements relating to the civil war. A 

 third resolution directed the incoming com- 

 mander in chief to endeavor to secure the rein- 

 statement of such comrades as may have been 

 unjustly discharged from Government service, 

 and also to protect such veterans as still remain 

 in office. 



Railroads. The annual returns of the steam 

 railways operating in Pennsylvania show a very 

 material decrease in their revenues from freight 

 traffic during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1894. 

 The reports of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 pany, the Pittsburg. Cincinnati, Chicago and St. 

 Louis, the New York, Lake Erie and Western, 

 and the Lake Shore and Michigan, the 4 largest 

 railway corporations operating in. the State, in- 

 dicate a decrease of 14,198 in the number of em- 

 ployees over the previous year, and a falling off 

 of $10,788,375.87 in wages paid. It is also shown 

 by the reports of these 4 companies that they car- 

 ried 18,676,600 tons less of freight during the past 

 fiscal year than in the previous year. 



The annual statement of the Philadelphia and 

 Reading Railroad Company for the fiscal year 

 ending Nov. 30. 1894, shows: Gross receipts from 

 traffic, $20.344,775; gross expenses. $11,278,989: 

 leaving earnings from traffic. $9.065,786. To 

 this is added $505,632 profit from other sources, 

 thus showing gross earnings $9,571,418. From 

 this the following deductions are made : Rentals, 

 $2,888,365 ; interest account, $5,078,778 ; profit 

 and loss, $182.299 ; taxes, $304,196 ; terminal 

 trackage, $467,945 : equipment payments, $1,241,- 



