MICHIGAN. 



377 



in all localities, amounting to $70,000,000. The 

 question of the constitutionality of the law, the 

 court said, must be regarded as settled by the 

 decision of the Tax Commissioners against the 

 Board of Assessors of Grand Rapids. 



The total primary school money paid the coun- 

 ties in the year was $1,531,636.35. Of the 83 coun- 

 ties, 50 received more in school money than they 

 paid in State taxes. 



Militia. The organized militia force is 2,905, 

 and the number of men available for military duty, 

 but unorganized, 260,000. 



Education. The building for the Northern 

 Normal School, at Marquette, was finished in the 

 summer. It stands on a bluff facing Lake Su- 

 perior. A dormitory has been provided, where 

 100 students can be lodged and 150 accommodated 

 in the dining hall, at an expense for room and 

 board of about $3.75 a week. About 1,500 books 



have been bought 

 for beginning the 

 library, and a gift 

 of $5,000, in five 

 yearly install- 

 ments, has been re- 

 ceived for the art 

 department. The 

 year began with 

 an enrollment of 

 45, which increased 

 to 90, 3 of whom 

 were graduated. A 

 summer session of 

 six weeks is held. 



The enrollment 

 for the year at the 

 Agricultural Col- 

 lege was 627, a 

 gain of 99 over the 

 year next preced- 

 ing. For the first 

 time in the history 



the institution, the students in the mechanical 

 aurse outnumber those in the agricultural course 

 -232 mechanicals to 217 agricultural. There 

 were 111 students in the women's course and 71 

 in the special short courses. 



A new dormitory for the woman students was 

 dedicated Oct. 25. A dairy building is to be 

 dedicated in February, 1901. Prizes have been 

 offered by friends of the college for competitions 

 in stock judging, military drill, and notes on orna- 

 mental trees and shrubs. A valuable collection of 

 fungi secured in the vicinity of the school by a 

 former professor, G. H. Hicks, has been bought 

 for the college. An offer was received in Novem- 

 ber, and taken under advisement, from Ashland 

 College, at Grant, to put that college, with its 

 land and equipment, under the control of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, to be used as a branch ex- 

 periment station for the benefit of that portion of 

 the State. Ashland College was founded about 

 twenty years ago as a Scandinavian sectarian 

 school, but was reorganized in the spring of 1900. 



At the thirteenth commencement of the College 

 of Mines, Aug. 30, the degree of engineer of mines 

 was conferred upon 22 young men, and that of 

 bachelor of science upon 16. 



A new course has been instituted at the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, called the 

 commercial, designed to fit the student to handle 

 Ilie larger commercial and municipal questions 

 that are coming up for settlement. 



Charities and Corrections. The report of the 

 Asylum for the Insane, at Kalama/oo, shows the 

 number in June, 1899, to have been 1,308, and 

 the expenses $214,856. 



The School for the Blind had 113 pupils in 

 September. An association of the alumni has 

 been formed, which will endeavor to secure from 

 the State an industrial school for the blind; it 

 has also a bureau for securing employment for 

 the blind. 



There are 282 inmates at the Home for the 

 Feeble-minded and Epileptic, and 684 applications 

 are on file. 



The School for the Deaf and Dumb, at Flint, 

 had an attendance of 431 the past year. 



There were 615 boys at the Industrial School 

 in October; the buildings are designed to accom- 

 modate 500. About an equal number of boys are 

 out on parole. 



The prison at Marquette, at the close of the 

 fiscal year, had 205 convicts; the average cost of 

 maintenance is 35.06 cents a day. 



The Board of Corrections and Charities, in its 

 biennial report, suggests an amendment to the 

 Constitution, permitting the enactment of a law 

 for indeterminate sentences. 



A very large number of pardons, paroles, and 

 commutations of sentence were granted by Gov. 

 Pingree, especially in the closing weeks of his ad- 

 ministration. A list of those in December, 1900, 

 gives about 44 pardons, 49 paroles, and 22 commu- 

 tations. Nineteen who received them were serving 

 life sentences. 



Railroads. The report of the Railroad Com- 

 missioner shows that 81 companies reported in the 

 year, 52 being regularly operated lines, and the 

 others leased or proprietary lines or lines not in 

 operation. The total main line mileage in the 

 State is 7,928.80, an increase of 122.90 miles over 

 the previous year. The total mileage, including 

 sidings and spurs, is 10,497.07 miles. 



In 1899 793 persons were killed or injured by 

 railroad accidents, an increase of 197 over those in 

 the previous year. Of the killed, 2 were passen- 

 gers, 54 employees, and 138 were reported as 

 " others." More than half of the increase of killed 

 and injured were trespassers upon railroad prop- 

 erty or trains. 



The total tax levied on railroads this year, based 

 on the earnings of 1899, was $1,240,845.27, an 

 increase of $153,228.38 or 16.69 per cent, over the 

 last year's levy, the increase being due to the in- 

 crease of earnings. The tax of but one company 

 shows a decrease from last year. The earnings, 

 in the State, to Dec. 1, were $35,889,644.63. an 

 increase of $3,109,967.55 over the same period of 

 the previous year. 



The Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad, which 

 was built some years ago as an outlet for the 

 Marquette iron range to Lake Superior, was sold 

 this year for $110,000, the purchasers' object being 

 only to secure the rails. The cost of the road, 

 including a fine wharf at Huron Bay, was 

 $1,180,000. Before i f was completed the situation 

 in the iron region began to change. Although 

 the road was made ready for business, no train 

 ever ran over the line and not a pound of freight 

 was ever transported. 



Building and Loan Associations. The re- 

 port on these associations by the Secretary of 

 State, published in November, shows that 66 were 

 doing business, 1 having been incorporated and 4 

 having closed up their affairs during the year. 

 No foreign associations are authorized to do busi- 

 ness in the State. The following totals are given: 

 Assets, $10,118,876.01; receipts for the year, 

 $6,417,118.53; liabilities, $10,118,876.01; disburse- 

 ments, $6,280,982.90; number of shares issued in 

 the year, 68,760 ; number of shares matured, 9.743 ; 

 number withdrawn and otherwise eliminated, 62,- 

 757 ; number of shares in force at the close of the 





