LOUISIANA. 



401 



act making it the duty of the State assessors 

 to make a diligent canvass of their parishes, and 

 to write the name, age, sex, residence in ward, 

 and color of every child in the parish between 

 six and eighteen years. This has been done, and 

 we have now the total number of children an 

 correctly as, we believe, it can be ascertained. 

 The school boards of the parishes have paid the 

 assessors for their work at the rate of 4 cents 

 per child listed, and the correctness of the lists 

 has been sworn to by the assessors, and examined 

 and all finally approved by the State Board of 

 Education. In 1897 the number of children re- 

 ported was 434,750; in 1898, 445,509. The pres- 

 ent enumeration gives 402,250, and upon this last 

 number the present apportionment is made, and 

 a^ apportionments for the next four years will 

 be based, unless the General Assembly shall 

 change the law of 1898. The amounts of ap- 

 portionments of the school fund in 1898 were: 

 March, $151,963; June, $54,343.63; September, 

 $30,432.50; total, $236,739.13. In 1899: February 

 $178,203.60; May, $80,191.62; September, $34,- 

 191.25; total, $292,586.47." 



The State University and Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College opened in the autumn with 

 about 300 students, the largest attendance it has 

 ever shown at the beginning of the year. 



Railroads. A table showing the number of 

 miles of track laid in each State credits Louisiana 

 with 158. 



The State Railroad Commission, which was pro- 

 vided for by the new Constitution, organized, and 

 in March published a set of rules and regula- 

 tions governing the transportation of passengers 

 and freight, the erection and location of depots, 

 and the posting of tariffs. Rules were also estab- 

 lished for governing telegraph and telephone com- 

 panies. 



Cotton. The cotton acreage of the State this 

 year is given as 1,179,000 acres. The report of 

 Secretary Hester in September gave the consump- 

 tion of Louisiana mills at 18,025 bales. An esti- 

 mate of the crop placed it at 507,400 bales. 



Pensions. The State Pension Board closed its 

 session March 17, after approving 317 claims, 

 making a total of 1,024 claims so far approved. 

 A special dispatch says the payment of these pen- 

 sions is becoming a problem, and it seems almost 

 certain that next year the rates adopted some 

 months ago will be reduced in order to make 

 the money go round. There seems to be no end 

 to the applications, more than 25 having been 

 received during the session of the board, which, 

 under the rules, will lie over until its next meet- 

 ing. The president of the board said: "No 

 higher duty can devolve upon the Confederates, 

 singly or in camps, than that of seeing to it that 

 skulkers, deserters, and those not coming under 

 the intent and requisites of the law shall not 

 obtain a pension, and not deprive deserving ones 

 of the small allowance the State is able to ac- 

 cord them. Already the appropriation is ex- 

 hausted, and the board is appalled at the steady 

 inflow of applications. Devoting to its labors the 

 most painstaking and conscientious scrutiny, it 

 has felt compelled in the face of the sworn facts 

 presented so far in 2,050 applications to grant 

 1,024 pensions. That there are undeserving ones 

 among these is very probable. It is incumbent 

 not alone on all good soldiers, but also on all 

 good citizens, to see that the State's money is 

 applied only as intended by the law, which says 

 of the pensioner : ' He shall have remained true 

 to the Confederate States until the surrender,' 

 and ' he shall be in indigent circumstances and 

 unable to earn a livelihood by his own labor.' " 



Prevention of Crevasses.- The Atchafalaya 

 and Lafourclie levee boards held a joint meeting 

 in May to decide upon a line of action for the 

 protection of the Lafourche country from high 

 water. The levee boards have made strenuous 

 efforts to protect Bayou Lafourche. Since April, 

 1890, they have built 7,250,000 cubic yards of 

 levees at an expenditure of $1,010,000, averaging 

 in a period of nine years $112,000 per annum. 

 The bulk of this money has been spent in 1 1n- 

 last three or four years. In spite of all this, re- 

 sults are negative. Crevasses occur on the lower 

 bayou as the result of a flood wave even when 

 there is no flood on the Mississippi river. Ex- 

 cessive flood heights are reached at Raceland and 

 Lockport, and all of the lower bayou, when the 

 water is still some 5 feet below the top notch 

 at Donaldsonville, the head of the bayou. A 

 moderate high water on the river causes a flood 

 below on the bayou, which breaks the levees built 

 at the above-mentioned great expenditure. The 

 plan recommended in 1886 by Major Heuer, of 

 the United States Engineer Corps, and adopted 

 by Congress, consists of a system of locks at 

 Donaldsonville, supplemented by a dredging of 

 Bayou Lafourche, so as to render navigation sure. 

 Congress, although adopting this plan, only gave 

 money sufficient to carry on the dredging. It was 

 decided at the meeting to ask Congress at the 

 next session to appropriate money sufficient to 

 carry out the plan of placing locks at Donaldson- 

 ville; and the boards pledged themselves to devote 

 to this work, in co-operation with Congress, the 

 sums that would otherwise be required, in the 

 absence of the locks, to put the levees in con- 

 dition. 



Water Ways Convention. The Louisiana 

 Water Ways Association was formed at a meet- 

 ing held in New Orleans on Dec. 18. More than 

 100 persons were in attendance. M. J. Sanders 

 was elected president, S. F. Lewis secretary, and 

 T. J. Woodward treasurer. The following reso- 

 lutions were adopted: 



" Whereas, Numerous points in Louisiana that 

 in former years were open to navigation have 

 ceased to be accessible to steamers and other 

 craft, owing to the obstructions which have been 

 permitted to accumulate in many streams; and 

 whereas, the restoration of these streams to navi- 

 gation would open cheap public ways of trans- 

 portation for the products of the farm and the 

 plantation and for the wares of commerce; and 

 whereas, the value, desirability, and productions 

 of lands bordering upon the now obstructed 

 streams would be increased to an incalculable 

 extent were these streams reopened for free navi- 

 gation; and whereas, the streams of this State 

 offer unrivaled advantages which it is an offense 

 against natural laws to neglect; and whereas, 

 the method which has been pursued by the Na- 

 tional Government of dispersing small appropria- 

 tions among these streams, which appropriations 

 are largely absorbed by the way expenses of the 

 dredge and snag boats employed to remove ob- 

 structions; and whereas, the work of reopening 

 these streams should be prosecuted upon business 

 principles; be it 



" Resolved, That the Congress of the United 

 States be and is hereby petitioned to inquire into 

 the expediency of purchasing an adequate fleet 

 of dredge boats, snag boats, and boats equipped 

 to construct locks and dams, the same to be 

 under the direction of Government engineers and 

 officers of the army or navy; further, that for 

 the operation of such fleet adequate appropria- 

 tions should be made, so that once the work of 

 restoring a stream to free navigation is com- 



