INDIANA. 



335 



of the compulsory law by truant officers. The 

 superintendent shows that, while the direct benefits 

 of the law have been made apparent in the number 

 brought into school by the truant officers, the in- 

 direct results of the law are quite as worthy of 

 mention. In many instances children attended 

 school who have never done so before, because they 

 knew this year there was a law which would compel 

 them to attend. Of the total number who "were 

 compelled to attend school by the truant officers 

 1,339 attended private schools. 



The number of schoolhouses in the State in 1897 

 was 10,053, an increase of 753 over 1898. 



The apportionment to schools in January was 

 $960,033.62, and that in July $1,064,472.45. In No- 

 vember the superintendent forwarded $738.50 to 

 Washington as part of the amount collected in the 

 public schools of the State for the Lafayette monu- 

 ment fund. Several of the larger cities had not 

 reported. 



Changes have been made in the United States 

 school history used in i,he State in accordance with 

 suggestions made by a committee of the Grand 

 Army. 



The standard of admission to the State Normal 

 School has been raised, so that only those who are 

 graduates of colleges or commissioned high schools 

 or who hold a three years' license to teach in the 

 common schools may attend. This does away with 

 entrance examinations. It is also decided to make 

 a certain amount of work in the gymnasium com- 

 pulsory. There were 113 graduates at the twenty- 

 seventh annual commencement of the school in 

 June. The summer school will hereafter be free, 

 and the work done in the six weeks during which it 

 is held will be credited on the regular course. 



The State University had an attendance this year 

 of 1,049, of whom 124 were graduated. 



Rose Polytechnic Institute graduated in June 18 

 students in electrical engineering, 4 in civil engi- 

 neering, and 1 in chemistry. 



Purdue University, which sent out its first gradu- 

 ate in 1887, the only one of that year, graduated in 

 1898 a class of 57. It has had 4,425 students, more 

 than 80 per cent, of whom are engaged in industrial 

 pursuits, for which the technical training of the 

 university has fitted them. An unusual number of 

 young women entered the freshman class in Septem- 

 ber. The experiment station connected with the 

 university has given much attention to experiments 

 with beet sugar, with the result of showing that 

 much of the land in the State is adapted to its cul- 

 tivation. 



The senior class at Wabash College numbered 20, 

 that at De Pauw University more than 60, and that 

 at Earlham College 36. At the twenty-eighth com- 

 mencement of the Indiana Medical College in April, 

 79 were graduated. 



Charities and Corrections. The condition of 

 many of the county almshouses is repoi'ted to be 

 very bad, especially in the southern part of the 

 State. " The houses usually are old buildings, sel- 

 dom repaired, and some of them are not fit for 

 human habitation. The State Board of Charities 

 has been bending its efforts for years to have these 

 conditions remedied. The State Board of Health 

 has succeeded in doing a great deal of good by 

 forcing changes in county poorhouses which would 

 bring about better sanitary conditions." 



The record for 1898 shows that there are 4,300 

 insane persons in the State, a ratio of 1 to 675. On 



3pt. 30, of the 4,300 insane, 3,300 were in the hos- 

 sitals. During the year 322 were refused admit- 



ince to the hospitals on account of lack of room, 

 24 were placed in the county asylums, and 38 were 

 in county jails. 



The report of the School for the Feeble-Minded 



at Fort Wayne shows the number of inmates, Nov. 

 1, to have been 570, about half of whom were girls. 

 There are on file at this time 153 suspended appli- 

 cations for admittance which can not be acted upon 

 because of the crowded condition of the school. 

 Fully 15 per cent, of the inmates are now entirely 

 self-sustaining, while about one half of the others 

 are engaged in useful work. During the year the 

 industry of brick making was established in the 

 school, and over 250,000 bricks were produced. This 

 brick was all used in the institution, the principal 

 improvement being the construction of 280 feet of 

 tunnels for steam piping. 



A report of the Board of Charities on the State 

 Prison states that the present appropriation of 

 $90,000, instead of $100,000, as before, is not ade- 

 quate to the needs of the institution. Improve- 

 ments have been made in the building, especially in 

 the sanitary arrangements. 



The first biennial report of the management of 

 the Indiana Reformatory at Jeffersonville shows 

 that there are but 536 cells in the institution, while 

 the daily average population for the year ending 

 Oct. 31, 1898, was 909, an increase over the preceding 

 year of 98. The report speaks favorably of the 

 parole law, and shows that 162 men have been re- 

 leased under its provisions. Men in the reformatory 

 are required to earn their own living. The net cost 

 to the State in 1897 was about $25,000. The cost 

 per capita was $113.30. A school for the convicts 

 is held twice a week. About 200 of them are un- 

 able to read and write. 



The annual report of the Reform School for Girls 

 and Women gives the number of girls, Oct. 31, as 

 206, and of women 43. The expenditures for the 

 year were $40,499.01, and the net maintenance cost 

 to the State was $21,572.94. There have been 1,125 

 girls and 614 women received in the institution 

 since it was established in 1873. The girls are 

 crowded into quarters intended for only 60. 



At the Reform School for Boys, at Plain field, a 

 new building was completed in March at a cqst to 

 the State of $4,000, which was the price of mate- 

 rials. The boys made and laid the bricks and did 

 all the other work, even to the steam fitting. 



Militia. A new State militia is to be organized, 

 for whose equipment $35,000 was available Jan. 1, 

 1899. 



Labor Interests. The State has had a Board of 

 Labor Commissioners since June 17. 1897. Their 

 first report covers the period from that date to Nov. 

 1, 1898. During this time the commission " has in- 

 vestigated and reported on 39 strikes and lockouts. 

 Of this number failure to adjust differences oc- 

 curred in 7 instances, and in 2 of these the con- 

 testants on one side were nonresidents of the State, 

 over whom, consequently, the commission could 

 have no jurisdiction. In 4 instances the com- 

 mission simply investigated and reported the con- 

 ditions of settlement made between the parties of 

 their own volition. In 28 contests satisfactory agree- 

 ments were reached through the mediation of the 

 commission, and in 19 of these settlements the 

 workmen secured either advance in wages or other 

 improved conditions." The number of strikers in 

 the whole 39 cases was 13,815, and the number of 

 days lost 539,264. " The commission was also in- 

 strumental in having 2 boycotts declared off, and in 

 5 instances prevented strikes by timely negotiations." 



The report says the most formidable obstacles to 

 settlements have usually come, not from the em- 

 ployer or the employed, but from intermeddling 

 third persons politicians and labor agitators. It 

 says also : " No propositions involving settlements 

 of labor controversies present as great obstacles as 

 those in which trusts are parties to agreements. In 

 every encounter with labor, the workingmen, how- 



