238 



DELAWARE. 



its pledges. The efficient and orderly adminis- 

 tration of the American army officers and the 

 great improvements that they wrought in the 

 sanitation of cities, the organization of the post 

 office, police, justice, public schools, etc., recon- 

 ciled many Cubans to the idea of the perpetua- 

 tion of American rule, while the endeavors of 

 the military governors to make use of native ad- 

 ministrative talent wherever it could be found 

 made the greater number who looked forward to 

 independence content to wait for the gradual de- 

 velopment of the Cuban republic. The process 

 of economical reconstruction and the influx of out- 

 side capital gave the Government a good revenue 

 from customs duties. The sanitary improvement 

 of Havana by Gen. Ludlow and of Santiago by 

 (Jen. Wood kept the yellow fever in check to an 

 extent never before known in Cuba, and gave 

 promise that the scourge would be banished as 

 it had been from the Southern ports of the United 

 States. Americans who sought public employ- 

 ment in Cuba were in nearly all instances dis- 

 appointed. The post office was reorganized on 



American lines by E. G. Rathbone, yet of the 

 employees 570 were Cubans and only 130 Ameri- 

 cans. The agitators who wished to provoke a 

 rising against the Americans were actuated 

 mainly by personal ambition. They uttered their 

 incendiary ideas in meetings and* in the press 

 without being checked by the authorities, who 

 were convinced of the peaceful and law-abiding 

 character of the Cuban people and of the impos- 

 sibility of stirring them up to insurrection against 

 the provisional government so long as the means 

 of providing for their families were opened to 

 them. Cubans everywhere were eager to learn 

 English, recognizing that Cuba under any gov- 

 ernment will be economically dependent on the 

 United States. 



The military character of the government was 

 gendered as inconspicuous as possible under Gen. 

 Brooke, and a further advance in the direction 

 of normal civil administration was made in the 

 autumn, when that officer retired and was suc- 

 ceeded as Governor General by Gen. Leonard 

 Wood. 



DELAWARE, a Middle Atlantic State, one 

 of the original thirteen, ratified the Constitution 

 Dec. 7, 1787; area, 2,120 square miles. The popu- 

 lation, according to each decennial census, was 

 50,090 in 1790; 64,273 in 1800; 72,674 in 1810; 

 72,749 in 1820; 76,748 in 1830; 78,085 in 1840; 

 91.532 in 1850; 112.216 in 1860; 125,015 in 1870; 

 140,608 in 1880; and 168,493 in 1890. Capital, 

 Dover. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, Ebe W. Tun- 

 nell; Secretary of State, James H. Hughes; Treas- 

 urer, L. Heisler Ball; Auditor, John A. Lingo; 

 Attorney-General, Robert C. White; Adjutant 

 General, Garrett J. Hart; Insurance Commis- 

 sioner, Edward Fowler; Agricultural Inspector, 

 E. H. Bancroft; Chancellor, John R. Nicholson; 

 Chief Justice, Charles B. Lore; Associate Jus- 

 tices, Ignatius C. Grubb, W. C. Spruance, James 

 Pennewill, and William H. Boyce; Clerk, W. S. 

 Hutaon. All are Democrats except Messrs. Ball 

 and Lingo and Justices Spruance and Pennewill, 

 who are Republicans. 



Finances. The disbursements for 1898 ex- 

 ceeded the receipts by $47,110.10, while for the 

 year next preceding the receipts exceeded the 

 disbursements by $28,910.80. The discrepancy of 

 1898 was due to three unusual causes of expendi- 

 ture the Constitutional Convention and the spe- 

 cial session of the Legislature, which together 

 cost over $62,000, and the expense of fitting out 

 the militia for service in the Spanish war. 



The total indebtedness, Jan. 1, was $819,750. 

 The assets of the State in investments amounted 

 to $1,024,452; there was $49,254 in cash in the 

 treasury, showing a large excess of assets. 



Within a few years improvements and addi- 

 tions to the Statehouse, the State Hospital, the 

 armory, and the State Library have been made, 

 amounting in all to $144,967. 



The estimates of the Treasurer for 1899 were: 

 Receipts in the general fund, $338,319, and ex- 

 penditures $304,230; income of the school fund 

 from investments, $31,105, and from appropria- 

 tion from general fund, $100,000; expenditures 

 of school fund, $131.105, of which $12,000 is for 

 free text-books; receipts of the sinking fund from 

 the oyster revenue, $4,500, and expenditures 

 $4,310. 



Education. The State Board of Education 

 made a report to the Legislature on its work for 

 the seven months of 1898 in which it had been 

 in existence. It was found that there were no 

 reliable statistics on many points concerning the 

 schools, and a series of blanks were sent out to 

 gather such knowledge. Steps have been taken 

 for more thorough examination of teachers and 

 for the introduction of better text-books. The 

 report says : " It is a fact that in the great ma- 

 jority of the school districts three fourths of the 

 annual expense is directly borne by the State 

 through the school dividend. In many instances 

 the district only expends $25 a year of the amount 

 raised by taxation. Under these conditions it 

 is but just that the State should see that its 

 money is expended for the best interests of its 

 wards, the children in our free schools. That it 

 is not so expended is apparent from the report 

 of the superintendent of schools for Sussex Coun- 

 ty. When it is realized that so many of the 

 districts in one county alone are utterly unmind- 

 ful of the most elementary principles governing 

 the good health of the children, the absolute 

 necessity of a better knowledge of school condi- 

 tions must be manifest. In yet other instances 

 the overcrowded condition of some of the school- 

 rooms would seem to indicate that the State does 

 not afford, in fact, to all the children an oppor- 

 tunity to gain a common-school education. The 

 board calls attention to the facts set forth 

 in the reports of the county school commissioners 

 for Sussex County concerning a peculiar tribe or 

 race of our citizens, known as Indians or Moors, 

 located in Indian River Hundred. Under the con- 

 ditions detailed by them, it would seem but wise 

 that the commission for that county should be 

 authorized to lay out a school district or dis- 

 tricts for this race or tribe, and that the gen- 

 eral school law should be made applicable to 

 such districts when so laid out." The action 

 here suggested was taken by the Legislature. 



Delaware College had in March a membership 

 of 90. In June there were 2 graduates in the 

 classical course, 7 in the Latin, 2 in the mechan- 

 ical engineering, and 1 each in the civil and elec- 

 trical engineering courses. 



The one hundredth anniversary of the Forwood 

 Public School in Brandywine Hundred was cele- 



