cers might clearly understand that they would have the support of the Executive Department of the State in all their efforts to enforce prohibition.

That the various officers of the State, upon whom devolves this duty, have accomplished a great deal in the enforcement. of the law, is everywhere conceded. It is, nevertheless, necessary to the highest success of prohibition that there should be in every community a strong temperance sentiment demanding a vigorous enforcement of the law and sustaining the officers in their efforts to secure it. When the sentiment against the liquor traffic is as universal and emphatic as against other forms of crime, the violations of the prohibitory law will be no more numerous than those of other penal enactments. That prohibition has accomplished a vast work for temperance in this State no candid man will deny. The liquor traffic is no longer respectable. It is under the ban of popular condemnation. Those who engage in it are criminals in the sight of the law. The open dram shop with its flaunting signs and alluring windows, is no longer a feature in our State. The rumseller is forced into dark corners. He has been obliged, like other criminals, to resort to concealment and stealth, where, before the advent of prohibition, he pursued his traffic with openness and ostentation. The whole traffic has been forever relegated to the furtive ways of crime. It is not easy to estimate fully the great temperance work which this change has wrought in Maine. But there still remains much to be done in so educating public sentiment that it shall everywhere insist upon the faithful enforcement of the laws. Maine stands, by the emphatic declaration of her citizens, in the very van of temperance states. In keeping her there, the friends of prohibition must spare no effort or shrink from no responsibility.

BALLOT REFORM.

I am firmly convinced that the time has come for Maine to adopt the Australian system of voting. Two years ago this method of balloting was largely viewed in the light of a doubtful innovation. Many members of the Legislature felt that the results which had followed its adoption by a few states of the Union were too meagre to furnish a proper basis for action in this State, especially as they were achieved

under the temporary disadvantages naturally attendant upon the introduction of a new law effecting such important changes.

The

There is no longer reason for this conservatism. Australian system of voting has safely passed its experimental era in this country. Its wisdom has been clearly established. To-day it is the law in more than one-third of the states in the Union, and there is reason to believe that the time is not far distant when its adoption will become general.

It is the sacred duty of popular government to maintain, in every possible way, the purity of the ballot. The nearer our elections come to fairly registering the personal convictions of each individual voter, the closer will they conform to the true spirit of our institutions. It is the concurrent testimony of those states which have made a trial of it, that the Australian ballot system comes nearer securing this desirable result than any other yet devised. There is no reason to doubt that, under its wholesome operation, intimidation and bribery will be practically unable to influence elections, and voters will be freed from unpleasant espionage at the polls. Another benefit that will accrue from the adoption of this system of voting, will be found in the powerful incentive given political parties to nominate honest and capable candidates. The subject is one that calls for careful thought, and I commend it to your earnest consideration.

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

Our system of public instruction includes three separate and yet related groups of schools: viz, -the Common Schools, the Free High Schools and the Normal Schools. For the support of these three groups during the last year, there have been expended the following sums:

Financially considered, therefore, this system is among the most important interests of the State. Considered with regard to the purposes which it is set to subserve the training of intelligent, virtuous, order-loving and law-abiding citizens,

it is one of the paramount interests of the State. Such a system may rightly demand our most careful, constant and intelligent consideration.

While the statistics and statements of the report of the State Superintendent of Common Schools show the Free High and Normal Schools to be in a most prosperous and satisfactory condition, they do not show as much for the more important Common Schools. These latter, the support of which is compulsory by law in every town in the State, and attendance upon which is also compulsory, should be so organized and managed as to give every child in every town equal privileges; to impose equal burdens for their maintenance; to be in the highest practicable degree efficient for the ends for which they were established; and to be least wasteful of public moneys. It is claimed by the Superintendent that the system, prevailing in nearly three-fourths of our towns, is defective in all these particulars, and he recommends that, to remedy these defects, a law be enacted abolishing the school districts and giving the entire management of the schools to committees. consisting of three or more members according to size of town. I bespeak for these important matters your most considerate action.

ENLARGEMENT OF STATE HOUSE.

The report of the Commission on enlargement of the State House will soon be laid before you. The extension is constructed throughout according to the most approved methods of fire-proof architecture. It is important that an appropriation to properly furnish it be made at an early day. I am of the opinion that a sufficient sum of money should also be appropriated to make the old State House fire-proof, and put it into condition to properly correspond with the new extension. I commend the subject to your favorable consideration.

During the year that has just drawn to a close, Hon. Lewis Barker, a member of the Commission, has passed away. No man took a deeper interest and pride in its work than he. To his sound judgment and practical grasp of affairs is due, in no small degree, whatever measure of success has attended its efforts. Mr. Barker served his State in many honorable positions and always with conspicuous faithfulness and ability. His memory will be tenderly cherished.

THE STATE LIBRARY.

Now that the State Library will soon be moved to its more convenient quarters in the new extension, I believe that the time has come to unlock, and render immediately available, all its vast treasures of information, by the adoption of the card system of cataloguing used in most of the larger libraries of the country. I am convinced that by the adoption of this system the practical utility of the Library would be enhanced fifty per cent. In an address sent out by the Association of State Librarians, an organization formed at St. Louis in May, 1889, the functions of a state library were thus succinctly stated: "A state library should not only be a complete reference library for all branches of the government, executive, judicial and legislative, and the repository of all materials for local history and biography, but it should also contain and furnish abundant facilities for using all desirable books of information relating to special industries and pursuits of the state, or calculated to lead to the introduction of industries and pursuits suited to it, but hitherto neglected. In short, it should be fitted to serve all interests of the state by infusing into their conduct the highest intelligence and skill."

With the card system of cataloguing, a library conducted upon these lines may be made of great value to the State. The introduction of this system into a library containing 40,000 volumes, will, necessarily, involve a vast amount of work and considerable additional expense, but, once established, more cards can be placed in the alphabetical cabinets, as new books are added to the library, and thus the catalogue be, at all times, a complete index of its contents. I recommend that an additional appropriation be made for the temporary employment of extra help, specially skilled and experienced in this method of cataloguing, and for the purchase of such cabinets and other material as may be necessary to its adoption.

THE STATE MILITIA.

A gratifying advance has been made during the past few years in the character and efficiency of the State Militia. Both officers and men have worked with commendable zeal for the improvement of the service. At the annual muster

in July last, the State was honored by a visit from Hon. Redfield Proctor, Secretary of War. A drenching rain storm, which was in progress during his stay at the camp, prevented him from reviewing the troops. He expressed himself as much pleased with the ground and its arrangement.

The money appropriated by the last Legislature for procuring a permanent muster ground, was expended in the purchase of the field used by the State for encampment purposes during the late war, and known as "Camp Keyes." It would be difficult, indeed, to find a place more admirably adapted to this purpose. The field contains something over sixtythree acres. It is an almost level stretch of table-land, situated upon a high elevation and commanding an excellent view of the surrounding country. Its soil is light and dry, with fine natural drainage. The sanitary conditions are all that could be desired. It was thought best to provide this field with such permanent buildings as would be required at each muster. Accordingly, a store house, four headquarters buildings, twenty-three cook houses, two commissary buildings and four horse stables were constructed there in a tasty and substantial manner. The expense of these buildings, together with the cost of improvements upon the land, amounted to $8,762.60 and was taken from the military appropriation. These permanent improvements will result in a large annual saving of expense to the State.

Maine is one of the very few states in the Union whose Adjutant General is elected by the Legislature. I am convinced that this is wrong and contrary to the best military usage. There appears to be no sufficient reason why the Governor of the State should not be permitted to select his own chief of staff through whom all his orders, as Commander-in-Chief, must be given official utterance. I recommend that the Legislature submit to the people of the State, at the next election, an amendment to the Constitution authorizing the filling of the Adjutant General's office by executive appointment.

PENSIONS.

Two years ago I recommended that the request of the Grand Army Posts of Maine for an increase in the State pension fund, should be granted. For the years 1887 and 1888, the sum of $70,000 was devoted to the worthy work of