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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (CALIFORNIA.) 



Lieutenant-Governor, Jacob H. Neff; Secretary of 

 State, Charles F. Curry ; Comptroller, Edward P. 

 Colgan; Treasurer, Truman Reeves; Attorr|y- 

 General, Tirey L. Ford; Surveyor-General, Mailin 

 J. Wright; Superintendent of* Public Instruction, 

 Thomas J. Kirk; Superintendent of State Print- 

 ing-Office, Alfred J. Johnston; Adjutant-General, 

 W. H. Seaman; Insurance Commissioner, E. 

 Myron Wolf; Commissioner of Labor, F. V. Mey- 

 ers; Railroad Commissioners, E. 11. Edson, C. S. 

 Laumeister, N. Blackstock; Board of Equaliza- 

 tion, Alexander Brown, R. H. Beamer, Thomas 

 O. Toland, Lewis H. Brown; Commissioners of the 

 Supreme Court, Wheaton A. Gray, James A. 

 Cooper, N. P. Chipman, George H. Smith, and 

 John Haynes; Building and Loan Commissioner, 

 Frank H. Gould: Bank Commissioners, John 

 Markley, A. W. Barrett, B. D. Murphy; Chief 

 Justice "of the Supreme Court, William H. Beatty ; 

 Associate Justices, T. B. McFarland, C. H. Ga- 

 routte, R, C. Harrison, Walter Van Dyke, F. W. 

 Henshaw, Jackson Temple (who died Dec. 25) ; 

 Clerk, George W. Root. 



The State officers hold office four years and 

 are elected in November of the even-numbered 

 years between presidential elections. The Legis- 

 lature meets biennially in January of odd-num- 

 bered years, and the session is limited to sixty 

 days. 



Valuations. The assessed valuations of prop- 

 erty in the State, as given in the Comptroller's of- 

 ficial report for this year, amount to $1,290,7 50,465, 

 made up as follow: Value of real estate, $690,- 

 974,783; improvements, $284,226,533; personal 

 property, $200,164,171; money and solvent credits, 

 $50,572,275; railroads, $64,812,603. The rate of 

 State taxation is .382 cents on each $100 of val- 

 uation. 



The original assessed value of mortgages is 

 $145,521,044 and the assessed value of university 

 and other State mortgages is $1,424,513. The to- 

 tal indebtedness of the counties of the State is 

 $3,175,942.75, of which $3,088,900 is funded and 

 $87,042.75 is transient or floating debt. 



The aggregate valuation shows a gain of $49,- 

 044,662 over the preceding year and $18,081,339 

 of this increase is represented in the enhanced 

 value of real estate and new improvements. The 

 next greatest gain is in the assessed value of rail- 

 roads, which is $15,691,118 greater than for 1901. 

 Money and solvent credits show an increase of 

 $4,614,278, and mortgages are $3,820,020 less in 

 amount than for the previous year. The indebt- 

 edness of the counties was reduced $157,290.25 

 during the year, while the total funded debts of 

 the counties was decreased by $135.500. Of the 57 

 counties in the State, 16 are free of debt, 11 have 

 debts under $20,000 and only 11 owe in excess 

 of $100,000. The largest single county debt is 

 $410,355, owed by Sacramento County, and the 

 smallest is $2,000, owed by Del Norte, and the 

 same amount is owing by Ventura. The total 

 outstanding debt of San Francisco city and county 

 is only $250,000. Although the outstanding finan- 

 cial obligations of the counties show substantial 

 reductions, there has been no backwardness in 

 public improvements. 



Education. The State has two great universi- 

 ties, the Leland Stanford Junior University, at 

 Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, the wealthiest 

 institution of learning on the continent, and the 

 University of California, a State institution, at 

 Berkeley, Alameda County. This year the mag- 

 nificent memorial chapel at the Stanford Univer- 

 sity was completed, at an expense of over $300,- 

 000. It is of yellow sandstone, to match the other 

 college buildings in the great quadrangle, and is 



considered one of the most ornate pieces of archi- 

 tecture, as well as one of the handsomest houses 

 of worship, on the Pacific coast. It is presided 

 over by the Rev. Richard Heber Newton, for- 

 merly of New York city, and the regular Sunday 

 and weekly services are undenominational. The 

 attendance at the university was more than 1,600 

 during the year, and about twice that number 

 have been in attendance at the University of Cal- 

 ifornia at Berkeley. Among the other institutions 

 may be mentioned California College (Baptist), at 

 Highland Park, Oakland; University of the Pa- 

 cific (Methodist), at San Jose; Mills Seminary, at 

 Seminary Park, Alameda County; Wilmerding 

 School and the Cogswell Polytechnic School, 

 both at San Francisco; Santa Clara College, at 

 Santa Clara. The elegant country mansion of 

 the late James C. Flood, with extensive grounds 

 and conservatories, at Menlo Park, San Mateo 

 County; the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, in 

 San Francisco; the recently completed affiliated 

 colleges near Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 

 and the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, 

 near San Jos6, are all part of the property of and 

 under control of the University of California. 



Mining. Although mining was less prominent 

 in the industrial activities of the State during the 

 last decade, the annual output of precious metals 

 and minerals is still very large. In 1902 the pro- 

 duction of gold amounted to $17,124,941, and since 

 the discovery of the metal at Sutter's Mill in 

 January, 1848, the State has contributed more 

 than $1,500,000,000 to the golden wealth of the 

 world. For value of output, California stands 

 second among the States of the Union. The com- 

 mercial value of silver mined in 1902 is stated at 

 $480,793. Much activity in prospecting for cop- 

 per is in evidence in Siskiyou, Trinity, Fresno, 

 Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, San Bernardino, 

 and other counties. A discovery of a large and 

 rich body of copper ore was recently reported from 

 the neighborhood of the Almaden quicksilver-mine 

 in Santa Clara County, and although the devel- 

 opment now in progress has not yet been advanced 

 to fully determine the value of the deposit, it is 

 known to be very extensive and of a high grade. 

 The copper-producing era in California began to 

 assume large proportions in 1897 when the output 

 was 13,638,626 pounds, valued at $1,540,666. Xo 

 satisfactory estimates can be found at the present 

 writing of the volume and value of the copper 

 production of 1902, for the reason that the opera- 

 tions of the chief producer, the Mountain Copper 

 Company, in Shasta County, have been twice dis- 

 turbed during the year, once by fire and lately by 

 labor troubles. The output of the Bullyhill mines 

 has been large and has made its mark in helping 

 to swell the production of the year, which those 

 best informed assert to be fully $'7,000.000 in value. 

 California is the only State that produces asphalt. 

 and the output for 1902 is 26.000 tons, valued at 

 $338,000. There are about 50 varieties of metals 

 and minerals in the State of commercial value, all 

 of which are being profitably worked. 



Fuel Oil. Crude oil is coming rapidly to the 

 front as a leading product of the State, and it is 

 now being utilized for steam generation in every 

 section where transportation facilities permit it* 

 being laid down profitably. The record for 1902 

 shows unprecedented progress. The number of 

 producing wells is 2,152, and the production for 

 the year was 13.692.514 barrels. Owing to lack of 

 transportation facilities, 424 producing wells were 

 capped and not being pumped at the close of the 

 year. The depth of producing wells ranges from 

 200 feet at Summerland to 2.540 feet at Fuller- 

 ton. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company has 



