MASSACHUSETTS 



3686 



MASSACHUSETTS 



boot and shoe industry; the paper mills of 

 Holyoke are famous the world over for the fine 

 quality of writing paper and book paper which 

 they produce; and Waltham has one of the 

 largest watch factories in the world. In fact, 

 cities which are not manufacturing centers are 

 almost unknown in Massachusetts, and many of 

 the smaller towns owe their existence to their 

 industries. 



Transportation and Commerce. Massachu- 

 setts was a pioneer in railway-building, the very 

 first track ever laid in the United States having 

 been one for the so-called Quincy Railroad, over 

 which granite was carried for the Bunker Hill 

 Monument. The first steam railroad in the 

 state, however was not begun until eight years 

 later, in 1835. The great industrial develop- 

 ment of the state has made necessary good 

 transportation facilities, and to-day only New 

 Jersey has a larger mileage per 100 square miles 

 of territory. Boston is the chief railroad center, 

 and most of the lines converge there, connect- 

 ing practically all of the cities of the state more 

 or less directly with the capital and industrial 

 center. Electric railways have increased rap- 

 idly, and at present their total mileage, over 

 3,000, is about fifty per cent greater than that 

 of the steam railroads. The highway commis- 

 sion of the state is very active, and roads are 

 for the most part excellently kept up. The 

 annual appropriations make prevision for the 

 planting of roadside trees. 



The commerce, which is very extensive, cen- 

 ters in Boston, second only to New York in im- 

 portance among Atlantic seaports. One of the 

 first things the early settlers did, when towns 

 began to spring up along the shore, was to es- 

 tablish a coastwise trade, and this grew and ex- 

 panded until to-day Boston has direct steam- 

 ship connection not only with other United 

 States ports, but with the leading ports of Eu- 

 rope as well. Much that is sent out from the 

 state is goods received for foreign shipment 

 from other parts of the country, but large 

 quantities of manufactured goods and fish are 

 shipped, as well. The imports, which consist 

 largely of such raw materials as wool, cotton, 

 jute, leather and cereals, surpass the exports. 



The Cape Cod Canal, opened on July 29, 

 1914, brings Boston into closer touch with the 

 ports south of Cape Cod ; for it not only short- 

 ens the distance by seventy miles, but makes 

 the voyage far less dangerous. See CAPE COD 

 CANAL. 



Education. Massachusetts has the proud 

 distinction of having established the first free 



school and the first college in the Western hemi- 

 sphere. Interest in education has never lagged 

 since those early days, and to-day the school 

 system ranks among the very best in the world. 

 If the state did not have such a large foreign- 

 born population its illiteracy percentage would 

 be the lowest in the United States, for of the 

 native-born inhabitants ten years of age and 

 over, only four-tenths of one per cent cannot 

 read and write. Counting in the foreign-born 

 population, the total illiteracy percentage is 5.2. 



At the head of the system is a board of edu- 

 cation, and not only Massachusetts, but every 

 other state in the Union as well owes much to 

 Horace Mann, the very first secretary the board 

 ever had (see MANN, HORACE). Taxation pro- 

 vides for most of the expenses, but needy towns 

 which cannot thus support their schools receive 

 aid from the interest on the state school fund. 

 Each town which has a certain amount of taxa- 

 ble property must employ a skilled superin- 

 tendent, and smaller towns must belong to 

 superintendency unions, which receive help 

 from the state in the payment of the superin- 

 tendent's salary. Towns which have at least 

 500 families must maintain a public high school, 

 and there are at present in the state 270 of 

 these secondary institutions, with an average of 

 ten teachers to each. There are also . night 

 schools in large number, continuation schools 

 for children who must work, and ten state nor- 

 mal schools, but there is no. state university. 

 Massachusetts has, however, an unusual num- 

 ber of such higher institutions of first rank, 

 chief among them being Harvard University, 

 the oldest college in the United States ; Amherst 

 College, Boston University, Williams College, 

 Tufts College, Clark University, Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, the College of the 

 Holy Cross and Boston College. Especially for 

 women are Radcliffe College, closely allied with 

 Harvard; Mount Holyoke College, Wellesley 

 College, Smith College and Simmons College. 

 In addition there are many academies and tech- 

 nical and professional schools. 



Religion. Until the middle of the nineteenth 

 century, Massachusetts had a comparatively 

 small proportion of Roman Catholics, but the 

 Irish and the French Canadians who flocked to 

 the state changed the religious condition, so 

 now the Roman Catholics far outnumber all the 

 Protestant denominations combined. Only two 

 states in the Union have a larger proportion of 

 Catholics to population. Of the Protestant 

 sects, all of which are well represented, the 

 strongest are the Congregationalists, and this 



