PENNSYLVANIA. 



619 



centage of this tax for 1897 has not been paid, and 

 the receipts are almost $500,000 below the estimate. 

 Second, there should have been deducted from the 

 estimate the sura of $369,371.50, which sum is trans- 

 ferred annually to the sinking fund." 



The capital stock cases have been decided, and 

 the report says that sufficient time has not elapsed 

 to estimate the effect of the ruling on the decision. 

 The accounting officers have placed this item at 

 $4,000,000, which is about $700,000 more than was 

 eceived from this source during the last year. 

 The operation of the act of Assembly, providing 

 for the payment of interest by banks in which the 

 inds of the State are deposited, has proved quite 

 itisfactory. The interest received by the State 

 for the six . months ending Nov. 1, 1898, amounted 

 $45,838.09. Of this sum $14,016.16 was paid 

 ito the sinking fund, and $31,821.93 into the gen- 

 eral fund. The sinking fund is increasing. 

 The payments during the last year exceeded the 

 eceipts by more than $1,000,000, and the balance 

 available for the payment of appropriations is $1,- 

 27,194.23 less on Nov. 30, 1898, than it was on the 

 ime date the year previous. The balance avail- 

 ible for the payment of appropriations on Nov. 30, 

 1898, was $2,929,617.10, and the obligations due on 

 the same date amounted to about $5,500,000. 

 The public debt, according to the report, amounts 

 $6,815,150, none of which is payable until 1912. 

 The assets of the sinking fund to meet the debt are 

 ^5,789,317.09, leaving a net debt of $1,025,981.91. 



From the report of the Superintendent of Public 

 Printing, Thomas M. Jones, it appears that the 

 n'inting forms a very large item of State expense. 

 The bill of the present printer, Mr. Ray, for the 

 year ending June 30 was $67,056.89. but Mr. Busch, 

 the former printer, had work ordered before his con- 

 ract ended, which he delivered this year, amounting 

 $173,373.28. Among the bills held up is one of 

 57,862 for printing a book by Mr. Warren, former 

 State Zoologist, containing many costly colored 

 prints of birds. It seems that for many years ex- 

 pensive pamphlets have been turned out by the 

 State printer on the written order of minor offi- 

 cials, and the bills have been approved by the Su- 

 perintendent of Printing and paid by the Auditor 

 General without question. Instances are given of 

 a highly illustrated report of the Fish Commission, 

 which cost $26,000, and a report of the State Board 

 of Health republishing the entire proceedings of the 

 National Sanitary Commission. 



In regard to the methods employed in the con- 

 duct of the State treasury, Gov. Hastings says in 

 his message : 



" The operation of the act providing for the pay- 

 ment of interest by banks in which the State funds 

 are deposited shows that the interest paid into the 

 sinking fund for the six months ending Nov. 1, 1898, 

 amounted to $14,016.16, and into the general fund 

 from the same source $31,821.93. While this in- 

 terest law is an improvement, and indicates the 

 enormous sums which the State might have received 

 during past years, yet, in my judgment, it does not 

 correct the evil which it was intended to correct. 

 The management of the State treasury has, for 

 lany years, been the subject of public criticism. 

 Vhile "it may be true the State has lost no moneys 

 leposited in "the various banks throughout the Com- 

 monwealth, it can not be questioned that in the past 

 the public funds have been used for political pur- 

 poses by depositing them in favorite banks, where 

 such deposits were expected to yield returns in the 

 shape of political influence. This system can not be 

 defended. It should not be in the power of any 

 man to say what banks shall handle the millions 

 of dollars that are annually paid into the State 

 treasury. It would be far better for the State to 



receive no interest upon deposits, rather than to 

 suffer a system to continue which can be used for 

 political purposes, and it is submitted that the evil 

 will never be corrected until the State keeps its own 

 money in its own vaults, as do many of the States, 

 and is done by the United States." 



Education. The following items are taken from 

 the report of the Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction : Number of school districts in the State, 

 2,490 ; number of schools, 27,347 ; number of 

 graded schools, 16,842 ; number of superintendent*, 

 140; number of male teachers, 9,348; number of 

 female teachers, 18,732 ; average salaries of male 

 teachers per month, $42.69 : average salaries of fe- 

 male teachers per month, $38.45; average length 

 of school term in months, 7.97 ; whole number of 

 pupils, 1,143,100; average number of pupils in 

 daily attendance, 864,626; cost of schoolhouses 

 purchasing, building, renting, etc. $3,484,028.61 ; 

 teachers' wages, $10,332,759.97 ; cost of school text- 

 books, $699,246.18; cost of school supplies other 

 than text-books, including maps, globes, etc.. $433,- 

 106.68; fuel, contingencies, fees of collectors, and 

 other expenses, $4.695,259.87; total expenditures, 

 $19,644,401.31 ; State appropriation for the school 

 year, $5,500,000, 



The State appropriation this year was on a new 

 basis established by the last Legislature. Hereto- 

 fore the millions granted to the schools have been 

 distributed on the basis of the taxables. Under 

 the new act of Assembly the money will be dis- 

 tributed one third on the number of schools, one 

 third on the number of children between the ages 

 of six and sixteen, and one third on the taxables. 

 The provisions of the new law, which sets apart 

 one third on the basis of the school children be- 

 tween the ages of six and sixteen, will be favorable, 

 it is thought, to the populous centers and draw 

 from the sparsely settled districts. 



An official statement from the University of 

 Pennsylvania says it is the purpose to establish a 

 separate college for women, modeled on either Rad- 

 cliffe or Barnard. 



The Carlisle Indian School, at the close of its eigh- 

 teenth year, had 762 pupils, of whom 337 were girls. 

 The Insane. The Governor's message says: 

 " The State hospitals contained at the close of 1897 

 over 1,500 patients in excess of their capacity, and 240 

 more than during the previous year. The annual 

 increase in the number of indigent insane in all the 

 institutions in the State is about 550. A large 

 proportion of the overcrowding element in the State 

 hospitals belongs to the class of quiet, chronic in- 

 sane, which might be suitably provided for in 

 county institutions at a greatly reduced cost. The 

 present average per capita cost for maintenance in 

 the State hospitals ranges but little less than the 

 $3.75 fixed by law. There are about 200 insane 

 convicts in the State institutions, of whom 125 are 

 in the State hospitals, to whom they were commit- 

 ted, by orders of court, generally from the peniten- 

 tiaries and county jails. There' are now 35 in the 

 penitentiaries and jails and the remainder in cer- 

 tain county almshouses, having departments in 

 which insane patients are received and treated." 



Military. The Adjutant General's report in 

 March showed 878,394 men subject to military duty 

 and a National Guard of 689 commissioned officers 

 and 8,066 men. 



Under the first call of the Secretary of War, in 

 April, the quota of the State was 10 regiments of 

 infantry and 4 batteries of artillery. Under the 

 second call, in June, 18 separate companies of in- 

 fantry were to be raised and added to organizations 

 already in service. 



Industries and Products. The ninth annual 

 report of the factory inspector's department for the 



