HOMESTEAD 



2824 



HONDURAS 



Home Rule for cities was first adopted in a 

 number of the Western states, and has gradu- 

 ally worked its way east to the Atlantic coast. 

 The leaders in the Home Rule movement were 

 California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Colo- 

 rado, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Minne- 

 sota. Ohio and Michigan are among the Cen- 

 tral states which have Home Rule for cities, 

 and New York was one of the first of the 

 Eastern states to adopt it, although not com- 

 pletely. W.F.Z. 



Consult Gladstone's Special Aspects of the 

 Irish Question; Conlan's On the Threshold of 

 Home Rule; Monypenny's Two Irish Nations. 



HOMESTEAD, home' sted, PA., a borough 

 in Allegheny County, in the southwestern part 

 of the state, eight miles south of Pittsburgh, 

 of which it is a suburb. It is on the Monon- 

 gahela River and on the Pennsylvania and the 

 Pittsburgh & Lake Erie railroads and on inter- 

 urban electric lines. The area is little more 

 than one-half square mile. In 1910 the popu- 

 lation was 18,713; in 1916 it was 22,466, by 

 Federal estimate. A large proportion is for- 

 eign bora. 



The immense steel plant at Homestead, one 

 of the largest in the United States, has 7,000 

 employees and produces structural steel and 

 nickel-steel armor plate. The borough was 

 settled in 1871 and incorporated in 1880. It 

 has a Federal building, a Carnegie Library, a 

 public hospital and a public park. 



HOMESTEAD LAWS, in the United States 

 and Canada, include measures of the national 

 government to give farms, or homesteads, to 

 settlers, and statutes of state and provincial 

 governments protecting the settlers after their 

 entry upon the homesteads. 



To obtain a free farm from the United States 

 government it is necessary to live upon a 

 quarter-section (160 acres) of the public lands 

 for three years, cultivating a certain amount 

 of ground each year. In some regions where 

 irrigation is impossible, a half-section may be 

 occupied. Any man' over twenty-one years of 

 age who is or intends to become a citizen of 

 the United States, or any person, man or 

 woman, who is the head of a family, may be- 

 come a homesteader and receive a patent, or 

 title, to the public land he selects. The only 

 expense is a small fee. A soldier who has 

 seen war service may count his time of service 

 as part of the required time of residence on a 

 homestead. 



In Canada a homesteader must reside upon 

 his quarter-section during six months of each 



of three years and break at least thirty acres, 

 of which at least twenty must be cultivated. 

 If there is not this amount of arable land in 

 the quarter-section, the ownership of live stock 

 may be substituted for cultivation. In certain 

 districts an additional quarter-section may be 

 obtained by preemption; three dollars an acre 

 must be paid for this latter land and fifty acres 

 of it, or a further fifty acres of the homestead, 

 must be cultivated. In some districts home- 

 steads may be purchased. Any man who has 

 reached the age of eighteen years and is a 

 British subject, or intends to become one, or 

 any person the sole head of a family, may 

 acquire a homestead or preemption. Veterans 

 of the South African War were granted two 

 adjoining quarter-sections of land if they set- 

 tled upon and cultivated them. For additional 

 information and a diagram of the division of 

 land into quarter-sections, see LANDS, PUBLIC. 



State and provincial legislation regarding 

 homesteads is usually in the nature of pro- 

 tection of the homesteader against those to 

 whom he owes money. C.H.H. 



Consult Thompson's Homesteads and Exemp- 

 tions; Waples' Treatise on Homesteads and Ex- 

 emptions. 



HOME WORK AND SCHOOL CREDITS. 



See SCHOOL, subtitle School Credits for Home 

 Work. 



HOMICIDE, hom'iside, a word derived from 

 the Latin homo, meaning man, and cedere, 

 meaning to kill, is the killing of one person 

 by another. One of the chief concerns of all 

 systems of law has been the nature of the 

 responsibility of a slayer to the state and to 

 the family of the person slain. Homicide in- 

 cludes accidental and justifiable killing, as 

 well as murder committed wilfully. Excusable, 

 or justifiable, homicide is that which takes 

 place under circumstances of accident or neces- 

 sity; in either case it cannot be said that the 

 act was intentional, but was committed in 

 self-defense or in the protection of one's family 

 or property. Excusable homicide is not pun- 

 ishable at law, if committed without any fault 

 or intention on the part of the slayer. Homi- 

 cide is justifiable when committed under such 

 circumstances of duty as prevention of mur- 

 der, or other atrocious crime, or to prevent 

 the escape of a criminal. All other homicides 

 are punishable as manslaughter or murder, 

 with penalties of the severest nature. See 

 MURDER; MANSLAUGHTER. 



HONDURAS, hondoo'ras, the third largest 

 of the Central American republics, but the 



