MINNESOTA 



3832 



MINNESOTA 



the greatest port on the Great Lakes, rated by 

 tonnage, and is one of the chief ports of the 

 country; Two Harbors also has rapidly-growing 

 shipping interests. 



Save in the northern part of the state, where 

 large regions are very thinly settled, railway 

 facilities are good, and Minneapolis and Saint 



Paul, taken together, constitute the chief rail- 

 road center of the Northern Mississippi Valley. 

 The aggregate mileage within the state is 

 slightly more than 9,000, the Great Northern, 

 the Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul, the 

 Northern Pacific and the Chicago & North 

 Western possessing the largest part of that total. 



Social and Political Conditions 



Education. Like most of the other central 

 states, Minnesota has taken a deep interest in 

 education, and its system is in many ways par- 

 ticularly effective. The percentage of illiteracy 

 is low, only three per cent of the people being 

 unable to read and write; and were it not for 

 the large proportion of rapidly-arriving foreign- 

 born inhabitants the number would be far less, 

 there being less than one-half of one per cent 

 of the native-born whites who cannot read and 

 write. The amount spent each year on educa- 

 tion amounted in 1914 to $19,396,782. The per- 

 manent school fund, over $24,000,000, is the 

 largest in the country and is steadily growing 

 because of the tax on iron tonnage. 



Minnesota's compulsory education law has 

 features which distinguish it from the laws of 

 most other states, for the upper age limit is not 

 fourteen years of age, as is usual, but eighteen. 

 At the head of the school system is a state 

 superintendent of education; under him are 

 county superintendents. There is also a state 

 high school board which appoints school inspec- 

 tors. To encourage high schools in giving in- 

 dustrial courses, the state makes generous an- 

 nual grants to such as teach agriculture, manual 

 training, home training and like practical sub- 

 jects, and there are also special vocation schools. 

 Special aid is also provided for normal and busi- 

 ness training. There are five normal schools, at 

 Winona, Mankato, Saint Cloud, Moorhead and 

 Duluth, and they are well attended, for there 

 is a state law which forbids any teacher to en- 

 ter upon the profession without special normal 

 training. 



Highest of the institutions of learning is the 

 University of Minnesota, at Minneapolis, one 

 of the foremost universities of the country, and 

 the largest in point of student enrolment. Other 

 important institutions, most of them denomi- 

 national, are Hamline University at Saint Paul, 

 Gustavus Adolphus College at Saint Peter, Saint 

 Olaf College and Carleton College at North- 

 field, Macalester College at Saint Paul, Saint 

 John's University at Collegeville, and Saint 

 Thomas College at Saint Paul. The last two, 



both Roman Catholic schools, admit no women. 

 Several schools and colleges of a denomina- 

 tional character, for women only, are located in 

 various parts of the state, and there are also a 

 number of theological seminaries. 



Religion. Owing to the large proportion of 

 Scandinavians and Germans in the population, 

 the Lutheran Church is especially strong, no 

 other Protestant denomination having one-fifth 

 as many members. The Roman Catholics, how- 

 ever, are even more numerous than the Luther- 

 ans, comprising more than two-fifths of the 

 total church membership. Of the other sects 

 the strongest are the Methodists, Presbyterians, 

 Baptists and Congregationalists, in the order 

 named. 



Charities and Punishments. All the charit- 

 able and penal institutions have been, since 

 1901, under the supervision of a state board of 

 control, which consists of three salaried mem- 

 bers appointed by the governor every six years. 

 The charitable institutions under the charge of 

 this board include five hospitals for the insane, 

 at Anoka, Hastings, Rochester, Fergus Falls and 

 Saint Peter ; the state public school for depend- 

 ent and neglected children, at Owatonna; a 

 tuberculosis sanatorium, at Walker; a hospital 

 for crippled and deformed children, at Saint 

 Paul, and schools for the blind, the deaf and 

 the feeble-minded, all at Faribault. In 1912 

 there was established near Willmar a state hos- 

 pital farm, where inebriates and drug victims 

 are helped to free themselves from their habits. 



In its penal institutions Minnesota has intro- 

 duced some of the most advanced ideas. There 

 is a state board of parole, and the indetermi- 

 nate sentence is in operation for all crimes ex- 

 cept murder and treason. Since 1911 capital 

 punishment for murder has been forbidden by 

 law, life imprisonment being substituted. The 

 penal institutions include the penitentiary at 

 Stillwater, housed in a modern building com- 

 pleted in 1914; a reformatory at Saint Cloud; 

 an industrial school for boys at Red Wing and 

 a home school for girls at Sauk Center. Until 

 1896 the convicts in the state prison were leased 



