696 



RHODE ISLAND. 



of 2,724,887, every road reporting a decrease ex- 

 cept the Narragansett Pier Railroad. The av- 

 erage number of persons employed was 2,087, a 

 decrease of 247. The receipts were $33,990,067 ; 

 total expenditures, $30,350.702.08 ; net earnings, 

 $3,630,307.09. a decrease cf $1,715,853.28. There 

 are 8 electric roads in the State with 123 miles of 

 track. Their capital stock is $3,239,500; their 

 property and assets is reported as $6,482,772.82, 

 increase $1,576,923.76. Their indebtedness is 

 $2,641,931.90; receipts, $1,470,324.43; expendi- 

 tures, $1,285.499.23; net earnings, $184,824.50, 

 decrease $26,374.31. They carried 29,540,425 

 passengers, an increase of 1,759,603. 



Labor. The factory inspectors appointed on 

 June 15 promptly bega'n their work and visited 

 281 establishments employing 50,964 adults over 

 sixteen years of age and 4,900 children under that 

 age. These figures include all the cotton, woolen, 

 and worsted mills and nearly all other manufac- 

 turing establishments, besides many mercantile 

 houses. Special attention was given to the em- 

 ployment of minors, the location and protection 

 of machinery and gearing, safety of elevators, 

 lighting, ventilating, sanitary condition, and the 

 provision of seats. The law provides that no 

 child under twelve years of age shall be employed, 

 and that employers shall keep a register of every 

 person employed under the age of sixteen. The 

 inspectors find that while the employers are will- 

 ing to conform to this provision they have to rely 

 upon the statements of parents or guardians as 

 to the ages of children. Unfortunately such 

 statements, prompted by a desire to increase the 

 family earnings, are often incorrect. It was to 

 provide against such evasion that chapter 649 of 

 the Public Laws with its requirements regard- 

 ing school certificates and the appointment and 

 duties of truant officers was enacted. This law 

 seems to have no existence for many towns. In 

 general, the factory inspectors find the employ- 

 ers desirous of complying with the new law. 



Political. The Prohibitionists met in con- 

 vention in Providence on Feb. 22 and passed 

 resolutions as follow : 



They declared the principle of the party to be a 

 continued fight against the liquor nuisance. They 

 declared for the emancipation of women and advo- 

 cated woman suffrage. The doings of the Demo- 

 cratic and Kepublican parties were styled "a ludi- 

 crous and disgusting exhibition of peanut politics." 

 The opinions of the Dnited States Supreme Court in 

 declaring that the State courts were responsible for 

 the existence of the liquor traffic were indorsed. 

 They demanded that the tariff question be placed in 

 the hands of thoroughly reliable business men, and 

 that all tariff legislation be given an opportunity to 

 be tried. 



The following State ticket was then nomi- 

 nated : For Governor, Henry B. Metcalf; Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor, Allen A. Fowler : Secretary of 

 State, Dr. Benjamin Greene; Attorney-General, 

 James A. Williams; and General Treasurer, B. 

 D. Helm. 



The Republican State Convention was held jn 

 Providence on March 15, and it named the fol- 

 lowing ticket : Governor, D. Russell Brown ; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Edward R. Allen ; Secre- 

 tary of State, Charles P. Bennett ; Attorney- 

 General, Edward C. Dubois : and General Treas- 

 urer, Samuel Clark. A platform was adopted 

 containing the following clauses : 



In the light of recent events and surrounded by 

 existing conditions, we emphatically reassert that it 

 is the first duty of the Federal Government to pro- 

 tect the rights and promote the interests of the 

 American people. 



To this end the protection system must be pre- 

 served. It has created and stimulated our diversified 

 industries ; it has opened the broadest avenues to 

 labor and capital : it has made America the leading 

 nation of the world in mining, in agriculture, and in 

 manufacturing ; it has placed the American laborer 

 far above the wage earners of any other country ; and 

 it has achieved for us a success in material devel- 

 opment the most illustrious of modern or ancient 

 times. 



We call attention to the attitude of the Democratic 

 majority in Congress on the questions of finance and 

 sound currency, and to their self-confessed inability 

 to legislate intelligently upon them. Unable to com- 

 prehend the aims of honest bimetallism, the Demo- 

 cratic policy is seeking to increase the number of dol- 

 lars, regardless of their value. 



The Democratic State Convention was held 

 in Providence on March 20, when the following 

 ticket was nominated : For Governor, David S. 

 Barker, Jr. ; Lieutenant-Governor, Dalton E. 

 Young ; Secretary of State, John J . Heffernan ; 

 Attorney-General, Clarence A. Aldrich ; and 

 General Treasurer, John G. Perry. A platform 

 deprecating the unwise legislation of the Re- 

 publican party in its tariff and coinage laws, 

 demanding free raw materials for manufactures, 

 and after commending the action of the Demo- 

 cratic Legislature, it accepted the following 

 paragraph : 



The important issues which the people of Ehode 

 Island have to settle in the pending political contest 

 are these : % 



Shall a millionaire New Yorker with only a par- 

 tial residence in our summer capital be permitted to 

 make open and unblushing purchase of the United 

 States senatorship in combination with an ambitious 

 man who, having once been elected Governor of 

 the State, has perpetuated himself in office for a year 

 beyond the time for which he was chosen by lawless 

 defiance of the Constitution and laws, and who now 

 seeks a further lease of power by means of such com- 

 bination ? 



We therefore demand that after an election lias 

 been held adequate machinery shall be provided for 

 the counting of the votes cast, and that the Constitu- 

 tion shall be so revised that no one man or set of men 

 shall be able to prevent this plain duty. 



The People's party named as their candidates 

 for State officers the following: Governor, 

 Henry A. Burlingame; Lieutenant-Governor, 

 Charles H. Sawyer: Secretary of State, James 

 B. Allen ; Attorney-General, Benjamin Greene ; 

 and Treasurer, Randall A. Kennison. 



The Socialist-Labor party, with the exception 

 of a candidate for Attorney-General, named the 

 following ticket : Governor, Charles G. Baylor ; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, James Jefferson ; Secre- 

 tary of State, Patrick Mulligan ; General Tr 

 urer, John Lanin. 



The election was held on April 4, when, in 

 addition to State officers, a new General As- 

 sembly was chosen. The result was a complete 

 Republican victory. The candidate for Gov- 

 ernor, Mr. Brown, received a plurality of 6,255, 

 and his vote was the largest ever cast for 

 any executive officer in Rhode Island. Never- 

 theless he ran behind every other candidate but 

 one on his ticket, Dubois, for Attorney-General, 

 being the only Republican to get a smaller vote. 



