State Legislation in 1897.

THE following summary of the more important legislation effected by State Legislatures in 1897 is compiled from the address of President James M. Woolworth, before the American Bar Association in August, 1897:

Trusts. In many States acts were passed for the suppression of combinations to regulate and limit trade, labor, and production. Some of them have been supplementary to former ones; others repeal former acts and are more stringent; and in others the subject has received attention for the first time. In almost all respects, the legislation is like that adopted in other States in former years. It will be quite enough to state its general character. The word trust" is taken as descriptive of any combination, not only of capital and skill, but also of acts; a vague expression, intended, I suppose, to contain within the circumscription of the word "trust" everything that may be done by two or more persons in almost all employments. The Kansas act enumerated the purposes to further which trusts shall not be formed, thus:

First. To create or carry out restrictions in trade or commerce or aids to commerce, or to carry out restrictions in the full and free pursuit of any business authorized or permitted by the laws of this State; second, to increase or reduce the price of merchandise, produce, or commodities, or to control the cost or rates of insurance; third, to prevent competition in the manufacture, making, transportation, sale, or purchase of merchandise, produce, or commodities, or to prevent competition in aids of commerce; fourth, to fix any standard or figure, whereby its price to the public shall be, in any manner, controlled or established, any article or commodity of merchandise, produce, or commerce intended for sale, use, or consumption in this State: fifth, to make or enter into, or execute or carry out. any contract, obligation, or agreement of any kind or description by which they shall bind or have to bind themselves not to sell, manufacture, dispose of, or transport any artic.. or commodity or article of trade, use, merchandise, commerce, or consumption below a common standard figure, or by which they shall agree in any manner to keep the price of such article, commodity, or transportation at a fixed or graded figure, or by which they shall in any manner establish or settle the price of any article or commodity or transportation between them or themselves and others to preclude a free and unrestricted competition among themselves or others in transportation, sale, or manufacture of any such article or commodity, or by which they shall agree to pool, combine, or unite any interest they may havein connection with the manufacture, sale, or transportation of any such article or commodity, that its price may in any manner be affected.

It is not meant that the acts of other States follow in terms this particular enumeration of the purposes of the obnoxious trusts:" but all in more or less general terms cover the same subjects. These acts are all highly penal. Most of them banish foreign corporations from the State, and forfeit the charters of domestic corporations which are guilty of the offence; and they declare anything in any wise in furtherance of the purposes of a trust a misdemeanor punishable by fine and imprisonment. Generally, the enforcement of the law is not only committed to the prosecuting officer of the county, but isimposed upon the Attorney-General of the State. The acts are drawn with more than usual care and particularity, with the view, by precise and comprehensive provisions, of reaching every party in any way implicated in the offence created by them. In some, labor organizations are excepted from the provisions of the acts; in others, agricultural products while in the hands of the producer or raiser. Actions for damages are also given to any person injured by any "trust'' against any person operating the same.

The following States have, during the past year, passed acts of the character above described: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi. Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

In several States acts of like character have been passed to prevent combinations of insurance companies.

Stock Yards.-In Kansas and Nebraska acts were passed declaring stock yards doing a certain volume of business, of which there is but one in each State, public markets; reducing the charge here tofore made by the companies operating such yards about 25 per cent; and imposing severe penalties for exacting more than the statutory rates. They are. perhaps, local; and, as such, not strictly within the class of legislation which the President of the Association is, by its constitution, required to make mention of, but questions of the most extensive and important interest are raised by them One is whether stock yards are, like the elevators in Munn's Case (94 U. S., 113), Budd's Case (143 U.S., 517), and Brass Case (153 U. S., 391), engaged in a public employment, in such wise that their property is affected by a public interest: and whether, by reason of the fact that shipments of stock to the yards, being very largely from Western to Eastern States, on through bills of lading, and stopping for rest and feed, and in many cases sold there, the business of the companies is interstate and within the commerce clause of the Constitution.

Mutual Benefit Associations.-Arizona, Indiana, Missouri, Maine, and Tennessee passed acts for the incorporation of societies formed and carried on for the sole benefit of their members or their beneficiaries, who belong to the Orders of Masons, Knights of Pythias, and like organizations The object of these societies is to make provision, in case of death, sickness, or physical disability of unfortunate members, for the payment to them of sums from funds derived from assessments or dues collected from members. They are required to make and file with the proper officer of the State reports setting forth their operations and the condition of their affairs during the preceding year, in forms prescribed by a State officer; and any association neglecting or refusing to make such report, or failing to comp.y with the provisions of the act in any respect, is liable to an injunction, upon the application of the Attorney-General, restraining it from carrying on the business. The acts contain inhibitions against soliciting agents, and against contracts of a member giving a vested right in his interest in the association, and exemptions from seizure on legal process the money, benefit, charity, relief, or aid already paid or to be paid by the member. The associations are required to appoint a person upon whom process may be served, which shall be sufficient service upon the association.

Greek Letter Societies.-South Carolina requires the governing boards of all institutions of higher learning in that State, supported in whole or in part by public funds, to forbid and disallow in every respect secret Greek letter fraternities and all organizations of a similar nature, not including literary societies in such institutions.

Aliens.-Illinois, Missouri, Idaho, New York, and Pennsylvania passed acts relating to the competency of aliens to hold and take title to lands In Illinois, an alfen, 21 years old or upward at the time of acquiring title to lands in that State, may hold the same for six years from and after the time of acquiring such title. If, at the time of acquiring title to lands, the alien be under 21

years, he may hold the same for six years from the time when he arrives at that age. If, at the expiration of the times named, the lands are not conveyed to a bona fide purchaser for value, or the alien has not become a citizen of the United States, an information is to be filed for the sale of the lands. The proceeds of the sale go to the State Treasurer for the benefit of the State.

Missouri passed an act permitting aliens to take mortgages upon lands to secure the payment of a loan of money; and, in case of foreclosure and sale, to purchase and take the title to the mortgaged premises and hold the same five years, within which time they must be sold to a bona fide purchaser for value under penalty of escheat to the State.

The New York act provides that the citizen of a State or nation which confers similar privileges on citizens of the United States may take, acquire, hold, and convey lands in the same manner and with like effect as a citizen of the United States; reserving, however, the rights of escheat when proceedings therefor have been instituted before the passage of the act.

Idaho passed an act declaring it unlawful for any county government, or municipal or State corporation to employ an alien who, prior to the time of such employment, has neglected or refused to become naturalized or to declare his intention to become a citizen of the United States. If an alien has been innocently employed by any county government or municipal or private corporation, the oficer thereof, upon notice that such employs is an alien, shall forthwith discharge him.

Protection of Children.-Acts were passed by the Legislatures of New Jersey, South Dakota, Alabama, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin regulating the adoption of children. Jurisdiction of the inquiry is vested in some cases in the Probate Court or courts of like jurisdiction, and, in others, in courts of general jurisdiction. The proceeding is by petition of the party proposing to adopt the child, who must produce the child's consent if of 12, 14, or 16 years of age or over, and that of the parents of the child, if legitimate, or of its mother if illegitimate, or of institutions, guardians, or other persons to whom the care of such children in certain circumstances is committed The consent is not required of parents of vicious character or who have abandoned the child. A married man cannot adopt a child without the consent of his wife, nor a married woman without that of her husband. If the court making the inquiry is satisfied that the interests of the child will be promoted by the adoption, an order is to be made declaring that the child shall thenceforward be regarded and treated in all respects as the child of the petitioner, and thereupon he may take the family name of the person adopting him; and the two shall sustain the legal relation of parent and child, with all the rights and subject to all the duties of that relation.

California passed an act relating to blindness of infants, which provides for the care of such infant by a legally qualified practitioner of medicine of the city or town or district in which the parents of the infant reside, and imposes a penalty for neglect.

Connecticut passed an act providing that every person who shall torture, torment, cruelly or unlawfully punish or wilfully or negligently deprive any person of necessary food, clothing, or shelter, or who, having the control and custody of any child under the age of 16 years, maltreats such child, shall be fined or imprisoned or both; and right of search is committed to any prosecuting officer, grand juror, or officer of the Connecticut Humane Society for the purpose of ascertaining whether any such offence has been committed.

Rhode Island passed an act requiring that any person not an overseer of the poor, manager of a State or other charitable institution, shall obtain a license from the Board of State Charities before he shall receive, board or keep for hire, gain, or reward any infants under the age of 2 years, not related by blood or marriage to or legally adopted by or legally committed by order of any court to such person. Licenses are to be issued, upon application, and approved by the Board of Health of the city or town in which the licensee proposes to receive, board, and keep such infants.

New Hampshire passed an act providing that no minor between 3 and 15 years of age shall be supported in any county almshouse for more than sixty days, unless the consent of the Board of Charities has been obtained; but children under serious physical disability or mental incapacity for education or under sentence for crime are excepted from the operations of the act. It is also made the duty of the officers of the poor and of county commissioners to find permanent homes for orphan minors, and make contracts for their adoption and support.

Pennsylvania passed an act providing that illegitimate children shall take and be known by the name of their mother; they and their issue, mother and grandmother, shall have capacity to take or inherit from each other as next of kin,

The effect of the adoption of a minor child is defined by an act of New York, relieving the parents from all parental duties toward and all responsibility for the adopted child, and divesting their rights over him and his property by descent or succession. A parent procuring a divorce or a surviving parent having lawful custody of a child and remarrying, an unmarried adult becoming a foster parent, and marrying, shall not be relieved of his or her parental duties or be deprived of his or her rights ever said child or his property by descent or succession, but the child's right of inheritance or succession from his natural parents remains unaffected by such adoption, and extends to the heirs and next of kin of the minor; but the passing and limitation over of real and personal property dependent upon the provisions of any instrument, on the foster parent dying without heirs, the minor is not to be deemed the child of the foster parent so as to defeat the rights of the remainder man.

Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin passed acts forbidding the sale or gift to any minor of cigarettes or substitutes therefor; Nevada forbids the keepers of saloons or gambling-houses to sell liquor to minors or to permit a minor to engage in any game or to lounge in such resorts; and North Carolina makes it unlawful after notice from the parent or guardian for the keeper of a barroom, billiard room, or bowling alley to allow minors to enter or remain therein.

Illinois imposed upon employers in any mercantile institution, store, office, laundry, factory, etc., where minors are employed, the duty to keep a register of the name, age, and place of residence of every child under the age of 16 years so employed, and declares it unlawful for such employer to permit any child over 14 and under 16 years of age to work in such establishment, until the parent or guardian of the child shall furnish an affidavit giving his name, age, date, and place of birth, or to emply such person in service where life is in danger, health likely to be injured, or morals depraved, and also providing that no person under 16 years of age shall work more than 10 hours a day.

Indiana also passed an act providing that no person under 16 and no woman under 18 years of age employed in any manufacturing establishment shall work more than 60 hours in one week or 10 hours a day, and no child under 15 years shall operate any elevator running at a speed of over 200 feet a minute.

North Carolina forbade the employment of boys under 12 years of age in mines in which more than ten hands are employed.

Alabama made 16 and North Dakota 18 years the age of consent, and Pennsylvania provided for transportation of children to school under certain circumstances.

Employes.-Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Washington, North Carolina, and South Dakota passed acts for the protection of miners, some directed against one danger and some against others. Most of them provide for the appointment of inspectors

of mines and define their powers and duties, for ventilation and ways of escape, safety lamps and safety cars, limiting the number of persons at any one time in a car, and other securities against accident. Some require a mine boss, fire boss, and hoisting engineer to be examined before an inspector and obtain a certificate of his competency. Illinois requires that wages be paid in lawful money of the United States, ar d New Mexico forbids payment by check calling for anything but money. Oklahoma and Connecticut provide that an employer who shall blacklist an employé with intent to prevent him from procuring other employment shall, upon conviction, be severely fined. Kansas, Washington, and Wisconsin forbid bringing into the State persons to act as police, Massachusetts, Kansas, and New Jersey require that the platforms of street cars shall be inclosed from November to March, both months inclusive, for the protection of the motormen from the weather.

Idaho, Indiana, and Alabama passed acts for the investigation and arbitration of disputes between employers of labor and their employés. The act of Indiana is a fair specimen of them all. It provides for a labor commission composed of two electors, each of whom shall have been not less than ten years of his life one an employé and the other an employer of labor for wages, in some department of industry in which it is usual to employ a number of persons under single direction and control. Neither of the commissioners shall be less than 40 years old, nor hold any county or city office in Indiana during his term; and they shall not be members of the same political party. A preliminary offer to adjust differences shall be made by the commissioners in the first instance, whenever they have credible information of any strike, lockout, boycott, or other laborcomplication affecting the labor or employment of fifty or more persons. Their duty is to offer their services as mediators between the parties, failing in which they shall endeavor to induce the parties to submit their differences to arbitration. The Board of Arbitration shall be made up of the commissioners and the Judge of the Circuit Court of the county in which the business in relation to which the controversy arises shall have been carried on. By consent of the parties, two others may be joined in the Board; one to be named by the employer and the other by the employés. The act contemplates an agreement between the parties to enter into the arbitration, and requires that it be in writing, and state the issue to be submitted and decided, and be si ned by the employer or his representative then and theretofore in control or management of the business in relation to which the controversy shall have arisen, and by not less than two-thirds of the employés concerned in the controversy in their own person, or by their representative. The Board shall sit with open or closed dirt, as it shall direct. The Judge shall preside with power to issue subpoenas for witnesses, to administer oaths and affirmations, enforce order, direct and control the examination. If five members sit as such Board, three shall have power to make an award; if less than five sit, two may make an award. The award shall be in writing, and delivered with the agreement to the clerk of the court, and one copy delivered to the employer, and another to the first signer of the agreement on the part of the employés. If any party to such agreement does not comply with the award, the Court or Judge in vacation shall grant a rule against him, to show cause in five days why the award has not been obeyed. Upon return of the rule, the Court if in session, or the Judge in vacation, shall hear and determine the questions presented, and make such order or orders as shall give effect to the award, and delinquents shall be deemed guilty of contempt of court and punished accordingly. Voluntary submissions are also provided for. The Judge of the Court is strictly required to give his first attention to such controversies. If the parties to such controversy do not amicably adjust their differences, nor agree to submit the same to arbitration, the Commission is directed to proceed at once to investigate the facts attending the disagreement, and in the prosecution of such investigation it has power to issue subpoenas, and each member has power to administer oaths and affirmations. In case of disobedience of any subpoena, or refusal of any witne s to testify, the Circuit Court of the County, or the Judge in vacation, shall, upon the application of the Commission, grant a rule against the disobedient person, to show cause forthwith why he shall not obey the subpoena, or testify as required, or be adjudged guilty of contempt. Upon the completion of the investigation the Commission is required to report the facts disclosed affecting the merits of the controversy, to the Governor, who, if there be no good reason to the contrary, is required to give the report out for publication. Acts of a similar character have heretofore been passed in other States; their force and validity have not been brought into judicial judgment. Public opinion being strongly in favor of the arbitration of labor troubles, each party must feel the great pressure in the direction of submission to any fair and reasonable award.

Missouri and Texas dealt with the fellow servants' rule. In the former State, a railroad company was made responsible for damages sustained by one agent or servant, by reason of the negligence of another; and persons in the service of such companies, with authority of superintendent, control, or command over others in their employ, or with the duty of inspection or other duty owing by master to servants, are declared to be vice-principals of such companies, and not fellow servants with such emp oyés. Fellow servants are employés in a common service, working together at the same time and place to a common purpose of the same grade, one not having superintendence or control over the other. Contracts limiting the liability of a company for the injury or death of agents or servants under the provisions of the act are declared void,

In South Carolina laborers who quit work without performing the service for which they have been prepaid, and contractors who fall to pay for materials or labor in erecting buildings are liable to punishment. Laborers are given a lien in the nature of a mechanics' lien, prior to all mortgages on all the property, franchises, and earnings of companies.

Kansas and Pennsylvania made it unlawful to attempt to coerce employés by threatening to discharge them, because connected with labor organizations; while Michigan provided for the incorporation of such organizations.

Montana, Tennessee, Idaho, and Pennsylvania forbade the wearing of a button, badge, or other insignia of a labor organization by any person not a member thereof, and payment of wages in cash or by check calling for money only is required in Kansas, while Oklahoma and Washington forbid counterfeiting workingmen's label

North and

Railroads.-Railroads have received the usual attention from the Legislatures. South Dakota and Washington passed acts limiting passenger and freight charges. The companies in the Dakotas have, upon bills filed in the Federal Courts, obtained injunctions against officers charged with the enforcement of the acts, on the principal ground that the statutory rates do not yield fair compensation for their services.

Tennessee and Florida have undertaken to reach the same end by the contrivance of a commission. The acts passed to that end are much the same as those heretofore passed in other States. They provide for a commission, whose members are guarded against the influence of the railroads, by excluding from their members employés of the roads and owners of railroad stocks, bonds, or other such property, and by forbidding their acceptance of any favors or gratuities in any way from them. They are authorized to supervise and fix the rates, correct abuses, and prevent discrimination and extortion. They have power to subpoena witnesses and compel their testimony. They declare unlawful special rates, extortion, overcharges, preferences, and discrimination; defining extortion and

discrimination substantially as they are defined in the Interstate Commerce law. The commission is required to investigate interstate rates, to request the companies to reduce them, if found to be excessive, and to notify the Interstate Commerce Commission if proper corrections are not made. The provisions of the act are enforced by penalties, and the several courts are vested with jurisdiction to hear and determine actions arising under it. In South Carolina also violations of the Interstate Commerce act are made penal.

The police power was called into exercise in a great variety of ways, in behalf of both the companies and the public. In Alabama, passenger trains must stop at stations nearest the county courthouse, and depots must be established at all towns of one thousand inhabitants; in Arkansas, employés are authorized to do all things necessary to protect passengers from fraud, imposition, and annoyance; in Michigan, the Railroad Commissioners may order the roads to erect and maintain automatic bell signals at crossings not guarded by flagmen; in South Carolina, the Commissioners may require the roads to erect at Junctional points union or other depots; in Kansas, railroads must furnish free transportation to shippers, and in North Carolina the roads are required to handle baggage and freight with care. In Arizona and Utah, provision is made for the incorporation of companies for the purpose of purchasing the property of roads sold under judicial proceedings; and in Arizona, Missouri, and New Mexico, companies in those States are authorized to extend their lines into other States and Territories; while in Maine a company operating the road of another company may hold shares in it, and in South Carolina owners of abandoned railroads are required to resume their operation within a limited time under penalty of forfeiture of their franchises.

Inn-Keepers.-The rights of inn-keepers were guarded by acts of the Legislatures of Connecticut, Indiana, and Michigan, by liens on the baggage of guests; and of Indiana and Wisconsin by penalties for obtaining accommodations with intent to defraud. In Massachusetts lodging-house keepers also have a lien on lodgers' baggage, while in Minnesota and California a penalty is denounced against innkeepers for excluding from accommodations in their inns or hotels any person on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Electricity. The progress of science and invention has left its impress upon the laws in an interesting way. Connecticut, Montana, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Washington made it penal to steal electric currents from wires of parties authorized to manufacture, use, or sell electricity for light, heat,

or power.

Bicycles.-Bicycles come in for a share of attention. Arkansas, California, Michigan, New Jersey, and South Carolina provided for their carriage as baggage, and special penalties were provided for the theft of them in Massachusetts and Connecticut, in which latter State wilful injury of cycle paths is punishable by fine, and speed is regulated; while Illinois forbade long-continued and brutal bicycle racing.

Inspection of Oils.-Alabama, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming passed acts for the inspection of illuminating oils.

Adulteration of Foods.-A great many acts were passed making it highly penal to adulterate foods, as candies and confects, by the mixture of terra alba, barytes, talc, and other mineral substances and by poisonous color or flavor or other ingredients deleterious or detrimental to health (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Wyoming); ale and beer by deleterious substances and buckwheat, flour, coffee, molasses by glucose mixture (Connecticut); and jellies, spices, flax seed and linseed oil, vinegar, and spirits of turpentine (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Utah), and products of the dairy and imitations of them were especially guarded in many States, by the appointment of inspectors with competent power (Alabama, Connecticut. Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin). Pennsylvania prohibited the manufacture or sale of adulterated drugs, and Connecticut of ales and fermented liquors.

Peddlers.-Peddlers, hawkers, and itinerant venders of goods were required to take out licenses in Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wisconsin; and in Alabama and South Carolina, when they offer for sale medicines, drugs, and articles of like character. In Maine and Georgia, traveling salesmen taking orders merely are exempted from the operation of such acts.

Irrigation. The subject of irrigation of arid lands has become a separate topic of the law. At first, and for a long time, the right to water and its appropriation was regulated by customs of the community; but it was not long before they were defined by statute. Now, rights to water when flowing through not only private but public lands are defined and regulated by statutes of the States a considerable part of whose territory is arid, the provisions of which are minute and elaborate. During the year Alabama, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Kansas dealt with the subject, some in amendatory and some in original acts. This legislation is interesting in other parts than those directly affected by it, because rules of property have been modified in some important particulars to meet new and urgent conditions. The statute of Oklahoma is a pretty fair sample of these statutes. Two classes of water are dealt with; one the ordinary flow or underflow of running streams, and the other storm and rain waters stored in dams, lakes, or reservoirs, both of which are declared to be the property of the public, to be acquired by appropriation for the uses and purposes and in the manner stated in the act. Running water in a stream may be diverted from its natural channel for the purposes of irrigation, mining, milling, water-works for cities and towns, and stock raising; not, however, to the prejudice of the riparian owner without his consent, except after condemnation. As between different appropriators, the first In time is the first in right.

In some other States, however, appropriators are upon an equal footing. Parties constructing any ditch, canal, reservoir, dam, or lake, and taking water from any natural stream, dam, lake, or storage reservoir, must, within a limited time, file in the proper public office and cause to be recorded therein a sworn statement showing the number of acres to be irrigated, the name of the ditch or canal, the point at which the headgate is situated, the size of the ditch or canal in width an 1 depth, and its carrying capacity in cubic feet per second of time, the name of the stream from which the water is taken, the time when the work was commenced, the name of the owner or owners, together with a map showing the route; and when the water is taken from a reservoir, dam, or lake, the statement must also show the locality thereof, the name or numbers of the public surveys upon which it is located, its capacity, acreage, and surface fect of land to be covered, the limits of the lake, reservoir, or dam, and the area of the water-shed from which the storm or rain water will be collected. Any party may acquire the right to appropriate for irrigation purposes the unappropriated water of the ordinary flow or underflow of every running stream, and the storm or rain water of every river, canon, ravine, depression, or water-shed by filing a sworn statement of much the same character. The claimant must, within ninety days from the filing of the statement, begin the actual construction of the proposed ditch, canal, dam, lake, or reservoir, and prosecute the work diligently and continuously to completion. It is unlawful for any party to appropriate or divert any such water, with certain exceptions in favor of the owner of lands abutting on a running stream and whose land

is within the area of the water-shed. Water not used or contracted for use may be appropriated by others. Corporations formed for the purposes mentioned in the act may make contracts for the sale of common water rights, and have the same secured by lien on the land served and upon crops raised on such lands. The rights of parties to be served by water furnished by such corporations are particularly defined. These corporations have the right of way over the lands of the State and public highways, and the use of timber, rock, and gravel thereon for construction purposes, and may obtain the right of way over private land by contract or by the exercise of the power of eminent domain. Interference with irrigation construction and damages to any canal, reservoir, dam, etc., are severely punished.

Montana passed an act amendatory of a former act, very minutely regulating the reclamation and disposition of arid lands granted to the State by the Federal Government. The fund from which the expenses of the work are to be defrayed is raised by the sale of irrigation bonds issued by State commissioners, the principal and interest of which are to be met by the sale of reclaimed lands and annual charges thereon. The act limits the amount to be raised and expended in 1897 to $500,000, and thereafter to $1,000,000 per annum. The sale of reclaimed lands is carefully regulated in respect of price for which and parties to whom the same may be made.

Agriculture.-In Maine and Michigan acts were passed authorizing the State Board of Agriculture to hold Farmers' Institutes in each county; in South Dakota for experimenting with droughtresisting forage plants suitable to the dry range regions of the middle part of that State; in Alabama for the education of the colored race in agriculture; and in Michigan, New Mexico, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming encouraging the manufacture of beet sugar.

Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Idaho, New Jersey, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wyoming passed a great variety of acts for the suppression of contagious diseases among domestic animals and the extermination of wild animals and noxious insects.

Education.-The subject of education received the usual attention. Provision was made for uniform series of text books in Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Utah compel the attendance at school of children between certain immature years for an annual period, some of twelve and others of twenty weeks in a year. The statute of Illinois is a fair sample of the others. It provides that every person having control of any child between the ages of 7 and 14 years shall annually cause such child to attend at least sixteen weeks, twelve of which shall be consecutive, some public or private school; except when he has been or is being otherwise instructed for a like period in the elementary branches of education by a person or persons competent to give such instructfon, or his physical or mental condition renders his attendance impracticable or inexpedient or he is excused for sufficient reason by a competent court of record. The act provides for the appointment of truant officers whose duty itshall be to report to the proper authority all violations of the act, and complain of and prosecute all persons guilty thereof. They are required to arrest any child of school-going age who habitually haunts public places, and has no lawful occupation, and any truant child, and place him in charge of the teacher of a school which he is entitled to attend; which school may be designated to the officer by the parent, guardian, or person having control of such child. Fines are imposed upon persons neglecting their duty and for wifful misstatement of the child's age or the time it has attended school,

Parental schools or homes were provided in Utah and Indiana. In Utah, any child between 8 and 14 years of age found to be an habitual truant or wandering about the streets and public places of cities, without lawful employment, shall be committed to the parental school for an indeterminate period not beyond the age of 14 years. So, also, children under 16 years of vicious parents, or by reason of orphanage growing up without salutary parental control and education, or In circumstances encouraging them to lead idle and desolate lives, may also be committed to such institutions. In either of the cases mentioned, under proper circumstances, the child may be discharged. In Indiana, the age of a child liable to be committed to such parental home shall not exceed 12 years. The courts of general jurisdiction in each State have power to enforce the provisions of the

act.

An act of Rhode Island gave to the proper authority of the city of Providence power to establish a public school teachers' retirement fund. This fund is raised from several sources. One is money received from donations, legacies, gifts, bequests, or otherwise for or on account of said fund. On and after October 1, 1897, the School Committee is required to reserve and turn over to the fund one per cent of the salaries paid to teachers who shall, prior to that date, elect to come under the provisions of the act, and one per cent of the salaries paid to all teachers appointed after that date; such assessment not to exceed one per cent of $1,200 per annum. Interest or income derived from the above moneys also goes into the fund. Teachers entitled to payment out of the fund are those who have annually contributed thereto for at least five years, and have taught in the public schools, if a man not less than thirty-five years, and if a woman not less than thirty years. A retiring teacher receives one-half of his salary at the time of retirement, but not more than $600 in any one year. Teachers who have taught continuously in the public schools not less than ten years and who, for not less than five years, have annually contributed to said fund, and without their fault have become mentally or physically incapacitated for further service, may be retired and become a beneficiary of the fund on the same terms as those who have completed the service of twenty years, but the annuity shall cease with the incapacity.

In California an act was passed, amendatory to a former act, creating and administering a public school teachers' annuity and retirement fund in the several cities and counties of the State.

Provision was made for manual training in Illinois and for physical education in Wisconsin. In Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Kentucky, and Utah, provision was made in carefully framed statutes for the election of school officers, inder one name and another, and for the management and care of public education with special provisions for teachers' institutes and examinations. In Texas an act was passed appropriating land for the establishment of a colored university. Alabama provided for industrial schools for white girls.

The Liquor Traffic.-Many States have passed acts relating to the liquor traffic. It may be said of them generally that they Indicate a disposition toward increasing stringency, and in the direction of high license. South Dakota passed an act covering the whole subject with very great thoroughness.

Militia-Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, Illinois, Connecticut, Alabama, and Wyom Ing reorganized the National Guard by elaborate acts, Nothing in these acts calls for particular attention, except the provisions of the act of Illinois, providing for a naval force of that State, the organization, system of discipline, and exercise of which is to conform, as nearly as may be, to that of the navy of the United States.

Taxation. California, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, and Pennsylvania passed acts imposing a tax upon inheritances and legacies, They provide that the court having jurisdiction of the