IOWA. 



309 



The 132 fire insurance companies mentioned may 

 be classified as follow: Iowa joint stock com- 

 panies, 9; Iowa mutual companies, 8; non-Iowa 

 joint stock companies, 81 ; non-Iowa mutual com- 

 panies, 1 ; United States branches foreign com- 

 panies, 33. 



Education. In his message to the Legislature 

 in January, 1900, Gov. Shaw says: "A system 

 which results in the graduation of 1,839 young 

 ladies from the high schools of Iowa the current 

 year, and only 954 young gentlemen, is weak at 

 a vital point. Our girls should be educated, but 

 that does not imply that our boys should not be; 

 and a policy that retires the latter from school 

 at fourteen or fifteen years of age needs amend- 

 ment. So long as a majority of the teachers in 

 town and city schools are women and girls, so long 

 will a majority of the graduates be of the same sex. 

 " In several counties of the State the experiment 

 :ias been tried of maintaining a central township 

 graded school, to and from which the pupils are 

 conveyed in carriages, at public expense. Wher- 

 ever this plan has been adopted the results have 

 been most satisfactory. The enrollment has been 

 thereby invariably increased, and the attendance 

 has been more regular; better teachers have been 

 employed, with correspondingly improved scholar- 

 ship, and in addition the expenses have been very 

 considerably reduced. 



" Of normal schools," he says, " Iowa possesses 

 one such institution under State control and man- 

 agement. This has facilities to reasonably accom- 

 modate 600 pupils. During the last year the 

 attendance has averaged over 1,000." 



The Legislature provided for one new normal 

 jllege, and made the following appropriations: 

 >tate University, $110,000; State Agricultural Col- 

 ege, $167,000; State Normal School, $164,800; 

 total, $441,800. 



The Memorial Military College of the Sons of 

 Veterans is to be built at Mason City, and $2,- 

 ""3,000 have been raised for it. Mason City gave 

 site and $100,000. It is to be a memorial to 

 sldiers and sailors, and is to be supported by 

 endowments. 



Charities and Correction. For the year ended 

 July 1, 1900, the 14 institutions under the manage- 

 ment of the State Board of Control cost the people 

 sf the State $1,146,733.41. Gov. Shaw, in his mes- 

 age to the Legislature, said : " The twenty-seventh 

 Jeneral Assembly made provision for a board of 

 Mitrol, which for nearly two years has had the 

 lanagement of all our State institutions, except- 

 i those purely educational. The policy thus 

 inaugurated has resulted in a very considerable 

 iving to the State, and in addition the service at 

 nost of the institutions, I am persuaded, has been 

 inproved. The several institutions under the con- 

 trol of the board have in the aggregate 4,189 acres 

 if land, valued at $300,849. The buildings thereon 

 tre valued at $7,482,735, and the personal property 

 it $597,134.77, making a total of $8,380,718.77. 

 Tliere were being cared for at these institutions, 

 June 30, 1899, 6,980 persons. There was expended 

 luring the period for the support of inmates, 

 2,114,619.75; for improvement to buildings and 

 rounds, $452,653.80." 



The Legislature made the following appropria- 

 tions for State institutions: Cherokee, $360,000; 

 'larinda, $23,300 ; Mount Pleasant, $75,600 ; Inde- 

 ?ndence, $19,300; Fort Madison, $14,400; Ana- 

 losa, $58,241; Eldora, $37,400; Mitchellville, $21,- 

 T50; Vinton, $6,500; Council Bluffs, $6,000; Glen- 

 ivood, $64,534; Davenport, $44,600; Marshalltown, 

 18,000; total, $764,175. 



Products. The fall report upon agriculture 

 Allowed that the year had yielded the most valu- 



able crop of staple cereals ever grown in the State. 

 The corn estimate was 353,365,000 bushels, capable 

 of giving $50 to every person in the State. The 

 State Fair was the largest and most successful 

 ever held. The State has $7,022 worth of Angora 

 goats. 



Six hundred farmers tried an experiment in co- 

 operative farming at Rockwell. They say: " Our 

 people were not students of co-operative philoso- 

 phy. We have barred from all our proceedings 

 as co-operatives religion, politics, and racial differ- 

 ences. As co-operatives we are only farmers as- 

 suming the part of business men, and we find that 

 we can be as successful as business men as those 

 who are only that and not farmers. Where we 

 were once opposed we are now supported. One of 

 the cardinal doctrines of the association is that the 

 middleman is always an instrument of injustice 

 for the buyer as well as the seller, and the main 

 idea in their organization was to get rid of the 

 middleman." 



Legislative Session. The Legislature con- 

 vened on Jan. 8. The following are the more 

 important of the 200 bills that were passed: 



For assessment and taxation of telephone and 

 telegraph companies, applying to these companies 

 the system now in force for assessment and taxa- 

 tion of railroad property. 



A special tax levy of one tenth of a mill, not 

 exceeding $55,000 a year for five years, for the 

 State University for building. 



Levy of a tax of one tenth of a mill, not to 

 exceed $55,000 a year for five years, for the State 

 Agricultural College for building. 



Exempting beet-sugar plants from taxation for 

 ten years. 



Requiring the Executive Council to fix a levy 

 that will raise $1,400,000 next year and $1,500,000 

 for the next year. 



Changing the use of blasphemous and obscene 

 language from an indictable felony to a misde- 

 meanor. 



To prohibit gambling in cities. 



Making train robbery or attempted train rob- 

 bery punishable by life imprisonment or any term 

 from ten years up. 



Prohibiting the operation of plants that use 

 gasoline for cleaning in tenements. 



Prohibiting the soliciting of liquor orders by 

 traveling salesmen. 



Making it a misdemeanor to desecrate or deface 

 the United States flag in any way, as by an adver- 

 tisement. 



Requiring the retention of 5 to 15 cents per 

 pupil in township and rural school districts, to be 

 expended in buying a library. This establishes 

 the rural school library in Iowa. 



Creating a library commission to promote the 

 establishment and efficiency of free public libraries. 



Authorizing the State library trustees to extend 

 the traveling library department. 



Authorizing all cities and towns to levy taxes 

 for library purposes. 



Establishing a reformatory for women at Ana- 

 mosa. The bill appropriates $2.500. 



Placing the county asylums and private asylums 

 under the supervision of the State Board of 

 Control. 



Providing for compensation of members of the 

 National Guard for drilling, fixing the pay at 10 

 cents an hour, not to exceed 20 cents a week. 



Appropriating $50.000 for Iowa monuments at 

 the battlefield of Shiloh. 



Placing the county and private insane asylums 

 of the State under 'the charge of the Board of 

 Control. 



Reorganizing the National Guard, placing it on 



