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without guarantees, and $83,038,348 on provincial lines.

The telegraphs have a length of 20,415 miles. The post office forwarded 142,436,240 internal and 22,906,267 international letters and packets in 1895. There was earned a net revenue of $3,595,125. Politics and Legislation.-Financial questions continued in 1897 to occupy the attention of Argentine legislative bodies. The Senate in January adopted a scheme for the issue of $10,000,000 of new cedulas for the purpose of advancing loans for the promotion of agriculture. The municipality of Buenos Ayres was authorized to raise a loan of $5,000,000.

Gold in the beginning of February rose to a premium of 201, when the Government took steps to check the rise. German holders of Argentine obligations negotiated a settlement with the Government. The United States minister protested against a discriminating overcharge made by the River Plate Telegraph Company, an English corporation, in connection with the Western and Brazilian Telegraph Company, also English, on American messages; whereupon the Argentine Government compelled the company to take messages at the published rates under threat of closing their office. The railroad companies, which have hitherto collected the prices of telegraph messages in gold, were ordered in June to transmit messages over their telegraph lines at the same currency rates as prevail over the national lines. A new system of docks, including two dry docks, was inaugurated with public ceremony on June 24 in Buenos Ayres. These docks have been ten years in progress, and cost $35,000,000.

The Argentine minister at Santiago entered into fresh negotiations with the Chilian Government for the determination of the boundary line over the Andes. The chief difficulty lay in the disputed surveys at Puna Atama and through Patagonia. In case of final disagreement the line will be fixed, according to treaty, by the arbitration of the Queen of England. Criticisms in official quarters on the administration of the army led the Minister of War and the chief of the general staff in February to offer their resignations, which, after a public vindication, they were induced to recall. In May, unemployed laborers committed riotous acts in San Luis provinces, and were disarmed by Federal troops.

The Argentine Congress began the session of 1897 on May 7. In his message President Uriburu dwelt on the proposed modifications in the United States tariff, and threatened retaliation against the high duties placed on the leading products of the Argentine Republic, but he hoped the interests of the two countries would render extreme measures of retaliation unnecessary. In consequence of the duties imposed by the United States Government on hides, wool, and other Argentine products, a bill was framed in October embodying a retaliatory tariff, affecting particularly petroleum, white-pine and spruce lumber, and agricultural implements and machinery. On the subject of the debt the President said in his message that the Government would give effect to the law for promoting full payment of its external obligations, and would meet the extraordinary expenditure for armaments without resorting to new issues or loans. Attention was called to the necessity of commencing the redemption of the paper money and forming a cash reserve.

Locusts caused a failure of the wheat crop. The exports of this cereal for the first three months of 1897 were little more than a fifth of the quantity shipped during the corresponding months in 1896. In some provinces the harvest was so poor that the Government distributed seed wheat to colonists.

Congress was asked to appropriate $1,000,000 for the purpose of destroying the swarms of locusts. The English Government bought a large number of horses for its cavalry in the Argentine Republic, and shipped many of them to South Africa. The Minister of Finance had a plan for consolidating the provincial debts, which he thought could be settled for $80,000,000 in gold, but his colleagues disapproved of assuming so heavy a burden. The National Government made an arrangement to assume the external debt of the province of Buenos Ayres, giving the provincial creditors $34,000,000 in 4-per-cent. gold bonds. The provincial government agreed to pay the sums required for the service of the bonds to the National Government from the proceeds of the ordinary revenue. The receipts of the port of La Plata were pledged as a guarantee. The English creditors hesitated to accept the settlement offered, but the Minister of Finance informed them that the province could not pay more. Congress was asked to establish a tobacco monopoly, the proceeds to be applied toward paying the foreign debt. There was a deficit of $70,000,000, of which $50,000,000 was brought down from former years, and $20,000,000 was the shortage of 1897. These floating liabilities, consisting of guarantees and other obligations at home and abroad, caused great difficulty in the preparation of the budget, and the Government sought to discover a way of covering the deficit by a financial operation. The tobacco monopoly was expected to yield a revenue of $12,000,000. The National party, which controls a majority of the voters, held its convention on July 10, with Dr. Pelligrini in the chair, and nominated Gen. Roca for President without opposition. Dr. Quirno Costa was named as the candidate for VicePresident. He resigned his portfolio as Minister of the Interior on July 14 on account of the nomination, and Dr. Bermejo at the same time resigned his as Minister of Justice in order to oppose the election of Gen. Roca as President. There is a strong disposition on the part of the provinces to assert their power over the capital, in which a very large proportion of the total wealth of the country is concentrated, and Gen. Roca is a champion of this sentiment. The platform of the country party, besides putting to the fore the provincial economic interests, favors the introduction of foreign capital, greater stability of the currency, and more attention to credit abroad. The budget for 1898 proposed economies that Congress would not accept, and new taxes and monopolies of tobacco and alcohol that were exceedingly unpopular.

ARIZONA, a Territory of the United States, organized Feb. 14, 1863; area, 113,020 square miles. The population, according to each decennial census, was 9,658 in 1870; 40,440 in 1880; 59,620 in 1890; and estimated at 101,000 in 1897. Capital, Phenix.

Government.-The following were the Territorial officers during the year: Governor, Myron H. McCord, appointed in May to succeed Benjamin J. Franklin; Secretary, Charles H. Akers, appointed in May to succeed C. M. Bruce; Treasurer, F. E. Farish; Auditor, C. P. Leitch; Adjutant General, Edward Schwartz; Attorney-General, J. W. Wilson; Superintendent of Instruction, T. E. Dalton; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Albert C. Baker; Associate Justices, John J. Hawkins, Owen T. Rouse, and James D. Bethune; Clerk, Joseph L. Alexander-all Democrats.

Finances. The bonded debt of Arizona is $739,100; the floating debt, $237,115; the actual debt, exclusive of interest on outstanding warrants, $948,947. There were funded into Territorial bonds for account of Pima County, $210,240.05; Mohave County. $105,363.29: Yuma County, $88,791.11; Maricopa County, $267,636.43; Pinal County, $136,138.08;

Yavapai County, $52,163.78; Apache County, $43,439.86; Coconino County, $159,000.99; Graham County, $147,364.70; Gila County, $44,781.66; making liabilities for counties, $1,254,959.95. On account of municipalities-city of Prescott, $90,167.24; Tucson, $16,000; Tombstone, $12,812.68; total, $119,979.62. The total liability on account of counties and municipalities is $1,374,899.57. The Auditor's report showed the total expenses of Territorial government to be $341,705, a reduction of $3,600 over the previous year.

Valuations. The following figures show the present valuation of taxable property, as reported by the Territorial Board of Equalization: Land, $5,593,577.10; improvements, $1,393,285.78; town and city lots, $3,513,069; improvements on same, $3,289,880.05; horses, $754.542; mules, $31,476; asses, $3,180.50; cattle, $3,413,001.20; sheep, $461,785; goats, $12,629; swine, $29,160; railroads, $5,333,082.25; all other property, $4,212,514.52; total, $28,047,176.40—over $500,000 increase on the preceding year. The Governor said in his message to the Legislature that he considered the report of the Board of Equalization as representing only about one third the actual property value of the Territory, and recommended that corporations be compelled to make proper returns; also that a more exact and equitable system of taxation be adopted.

A report of valuations in the capital county of the Territory showed: Lands, 259,847 acres, value $3,128,351, value of improvements $300,515, total value $3,428,866; town and city lots, value $2,354,227, improvements $1,117,910, total $3,472,137; horses, 3,970 head, $80,966; mules, 198 head, $3,683; asses, 15 head, $110; cattle, 18,528 head, $177,943; sheep, 49,713 head, $74,701; goats, 257 head, $310; swine, 8,002 head, $12,178; all other property, $1,186,181; railroads, 94:59 miles, $463,940.17. Total value of all property in Maricopa County, $8,901,015.17.

Education. The school census showed 16,936 children of school age for 1896, an increase of 1,027 over the previous year. Seventy-six per cent. of these were enrolled in the public schools. The number of school districts in the Territory is 223, and there are 293 grammar and primary schools. Average teachers' salaries are $72.90 per month for males, and $66.26 for females. Total school expenditures for the year were $214,450.88. In May the citizens of Phoenix voted $30,000 of bonds for additional school facilities. The sum of $33.264 has been expended on the reform-school building, not yet finished.

Territorial Prison.-The superintendent reported that up to January, 1897, 233 prisoners had been received and 184 discharged. The gross expenses of 1896 amounted to $33,731.82, and the gross receipts to $3,989.82, leaving a net per diem cost of $92.20, and a net per capita per diem cost of $476-a reduction on the net per diem cost of $15.17, and of the net per capita per diem cost of $152. The total value of the prison property is estimated at $148,909. The prison has a library of over 2,000 volumes. The library is maintained by charging visitors to the prison a fee of 25 cents.

Irrigation. The effort to secure water by artesian wells in some of the valleys of the Territory is proving highly successful. About 20 flowing wells have been developed between Fairbank and Benson, in the San Pedro valley. The last well bored gave water at a depth of 140 feet, and a large volume has been flowing steadily.

Agriculture. It has been suggested that Arizona ought to be a good region for the raising of cotton, and the "Phoenix Herald" has the following to say on the subject: "Cotton-growing is not unknown in the Salt River valley. In 1883 most

successful crops of cotton were grown in this valley, and a huge bale of it, 400 pounds, was on exhibition at the New Orleans Exposition, and it was pronounced by experts to be of the finest, the fiber being equal to the famed sea island cotton. This bale was part of a crop of ten acres which yielded not only a splendid fiber but an enormous crop. The principal trouble with the business was that, owing to the cost of labor here and railroad tariffs, cotton-growers could not compete with States farther east that had water transportation and cheap and abundant labor; and that is principally the difficulty that remains to-day to prevent the growing of cotton in central Arizona. There is no question as to the facility with which it can be raised, the fine, long fiber it will produce, or the great quantity it will produce per acre."

The experiment station of the Territory was supplied with German sugar-beet seed for distribution, and all residents were duly notified that seed might be secured upon request. Tobacco has been grown in considerable quantities along the Rillito, in Pima County, and experiments are being made with it in other sections. Australian salt-bush has been grown upon the experiment station grounds at Tucson without water for over two years. The location of the plants is upon the mesa north of the city, where it is exceedingly dry. This is held to indicate that this forage plant is valuable for arid regions. The station at Tucson has distributed seed gratis throughout the Territory for the purpose of having the plant thoroughly tested. The director of the Tucson Experiment Station announced that he had received offers from foreign capitalists to enter into contracts for ramie fiber in the rough at from $40 to $50 a ton, and stated that from results obtained in experimenting with ramie it might be grown with ease in the Territory and ought to prove a paying crop. The date industry is receiving much attention, and experiments have proved successful beyond question.

Distilling. Distilling is carried on in Arizona at only 2 places-Mesa, Maricopa County, and Pima, Graham County. At the former is a grape distillery and at the latter one fruit and one grain distillery. Distilling in Maricopa is carried on mainly for the purpose of supplying brandy for the fortification of sweet wines, the county having produced 13,000 gallons of such wine in 1896. Except brandy used for this purpose only 37 gallons were reported. Brandy used in the making of wine is by law exempt from the 90-cent tax.

Mining.-Arizona is reported as rapidly coming to the front as a great copper-producing region. With the completion of the Gila, Globe and Northern road to Globe the fourth great copper camp of the Territory will be opened and operated. Those already in operation-Bisbee, Clifton, and United Verde-are said to be immense producers, though none is being worked to its full capacity. At Lee's Ferry gold and silver are found associated with copper, the former showing good values. White Hills camp, in Mohave County, is reported to have yielded about $2,000,000 in gold and silver ores since its discovery, in 1892.

The

ARKANSAS, a Southern State, admitted to the Union June 15, 1836; area, 53.850 square miles. The population, according to each decennial census since admission, was 97,574 in 1840; 209,897 in 1850; 435,450 in 1860; 484,471 in 1870; 802,525 in 1880; and 1,128,179 in 1890. By estimates based on the school census of 1895 it was 1,248,056 in that year. Capital, Little Rock.

Government.-The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Daniel W. Jones; Secretary of State, Alexander C. Hull; Treasurer, Ransom Gulley; Auditor, Clay Sloan; Attorney

General, E. B. Kinsworthy; Superintendent of Education, Junius Jordan; State Land Commissioner, J. F. Ritchie; Commissioner of Agriculture, W. G. Vincenheller; Adjutant General, A. B. Grace; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Henry G. Bunn; Associate Justices, S. P. Hughes, C. D. Wood, B. B. Battle, J. E. Riddick. All are Democrats.

Finances.-The Treasurer's latest biennial report comes down to Oct. 1, 1896. Following is the Summary: Cash in treasury Sept. 30, 1894, $424,685.75 receipts to Jan. 17, 1895, inclusive (expiration of former Treasurer's term of office), $40,679.24; payments, $189,713.11; balance in treasury Jan. 18, 1895, $275,651.88; receipts from that time to Sept. 30, 1896, $1,946,779.90; payments, $1,664,490.35; balance in the treasury Oct. 1, 1896, $557,941.47.

In the case of the State against S. H. Buchanan, former Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the State Insane Asylum, and his bondsmen, it is found that he gave no valid bond for his fifth term and part of the sixth, the time of the greater part of the shortage; so that judgment was rendered against him alone for $11,617.48, the sureties being found responsible for only the remaining shortage of $1,712.12, which was incurred during the fourth term. The appropriation made by the Legislature for pensions to Confederate veterans enabled the board to pay 96 per cent. of the claims it had allowed.

Valuations.-The compilation of assessments shows the following values: Real estate-whole number of acres of land taxed, 21,738,267; total value of land, $72,080,139; total value of city or town lots, $30,679.058; total value of railroad tracks, etc., assessed by State board as real estate, $14,402,053; total value of real estate, $117,161,250. Persons and personal property-persons liable to pay a poll tax, 261,402; value of railroad property assessed by State board as rolling stock, $6,409,562; total value of personal property, $58,236,182; total value of real and personal property, $175,397,432. The assessed valuation of personal property for 1895 was $54,652,706; realty, $119,106,058.

The Land Commissioner reported that $100,000 had been paid into the treasury from his office during the biennial period. About 800,000 acres of State lands are still left for disposal.

Education. The school enumeration for 1895-'96 was 456,736, of whom 124,957 were colored. The total enrollment in the public schools was 296,575, and that in private and denominational schools 4,699. The whole number of teachers in public schools was 6,673. The value of school property amounts to $1,929,206.40. The receipts were $1,675,991.13, and the expenditures $1,232,986.08.

Of the county normal schools the Superintendent says: "The Peabody appropriation has been spent in supplementing the appropriation by the Legis

lature for the establishment of the normal in each of the 75 counties of the State. In half of the counties the attendance was so encouraging that the sessions were extended five and six weeks. The result shows that we had 5,225 white teachers enrolled in the State, 5,148 were in attendance at the normals, and there are three counties to hold their normals in September and October. By Peabody aid I have increased the number of colored normals from 26 in 1896 to 33 in 1897, and there is a threemonths' normal for the colored teachers of eastern Arkansas yet to be held.

The report of the State University shows the receipts for two years to have been $201.976.39, and the expenditures $168,765.07. The twenty-fifth graduating class in June numbered 14. The medical department graduated 25 in April.

Charities.-The appropriation for the Asylum for the Insane for the two years ending April 1, 1899, was $184,400, which included $8,000 for re

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pairs. The average number of patients is about 500. The report of an investigating committee of the Legislature was in general favorable, but said: In regard to the mortality of said institution for the past two years, we find the death rate to be about 11 per cent. per annum, and from the average death rate from similar institutions in other States we find from expert testimony that it should not exceed 7 or 8 per cent. The cost of maintenance per capita in 1896 was about $6.62 a month. In the School for the Blind the average was $12.37 per annum for traveling expenses, and $58.51 per pupil while in school. The total enrollment was 172, and the actual attendance 145.

The Children's Home Society has placed about 165 children in homes during the two years of its existence.

The Penitentiary.-The value of the buildings, grounds, and camps is given at $181,336.33. Of the 700 convicts, about 250 are under twenty years of age. The share-crop system of working the inmates has proved profitable, and a farm is to be bought by the State.

Insurance.-The Auditor's report gives the figures below for 1895-'96: The fire insurance companies have written risks in this term for $66,704,316; collected premiums amounting to $1,412,760; paid losses amounting to $808,266. The life insurance companies have written in risks $21,730,288; received premiums, $1,597,809; paid losses of $529,620. They have paid taxes and fees amounting to $38,173.94, an increase of $9,426.09 over the preceding two years.

Railways. Steps have been taken toward the construction of a road to be made by convict labor and owned by the State, as provided for by the Legislature, running from the capital to the Missouri line; and others are proposed.

By a decision of the Supreme Court a railroad company was held not to be responsible as a common carrier for baggage which was burned at a station at 1 A. M. after having been left there two hours after the passenger's arrival; and he could recover damages only by showing such negligence as would make the company liable as a warehouseman.

Coal and Cotton.-The State produced in 1896 coal to the amount of 494,000 tons, and in 1897 the cotton crop was given at 700,000 bales.

Discoveries of Pearls.-Great excitement has been caused by the reported finding of fine pearls in great numbers in the Saline, St. Francis, Ouachita, and White rivers and other streams.

Lawlessness. Two deputy marshals were killed, and others of their party were wounded, when on a raid to stop illicit distilling in the mountains of Pope County in August. The same month a white man was killed and another brutally beaten at a negro picnic near Kendall Mills; as a result, two negroes were lynched and another was shot, in an affray growing out of the affair.

Damage by Flood.-Great loss and suffering were caused in the spring by the heavy floods. The lowlands in eastern Arkansas were covered with water, houses were swept away, many animals were drowned, and some human lives were lost. Relief was sent from various sources, and the Legislature appointed a committee to investigate, and passed a law extending the time for payment of taxes.

Court Decisions.-The Wells Fargo Express Company brought suit against a county collector, attacking the validity of an act by which the company was taxed, on the ground that the rule of assessment laid down in the act was unfair. Among other things, the act provides that the board in assessing the taxable property of such a corporation shall ascertain the value of the entire capital stock of such company, and shall therefore fix the sum

at which the property of any such express company shall be assessed in this State, by taking the same proportion of the aggregate value of the capital stock of such company as the number of miles of railway within this State over which it carries on its business bears to the aggregate number of miles of railway within as well as without the State over which such company does business. The company contended that this was unjust, because, while it carries on its business in this State exclusively on railways, in other States it carries it on over water ways as well, and has realty in other States, but none in this and claims the value of its capital stock is based in part upon such realty and its business over water ways. The decision upheld the validity of the law.

By another Supreme Court decision it was declared that railroad companies are liable for the killing of dogs by trains through negligence.

In a case turning upon the liability of a corporation for negotiable paper issued by one of its officers, the decision held the corporation responsible.

Legislative Session.-The thirty-first biennial session of the Legislature began Jan. 13 and ended March 11.

W. L. Moose was elected president of the Senate, and J. C. Tappan Speaker of the House.

The total number of bills introduced in both branches was 558, of which 247 were in the Senate and 311 in the House. Of these 55 were passed.

Bills were introduced providing for a railroad commission, and much time was spent on them in debate, with the result only that a concurrent resolution was adopted proposing a constitutional amendment to be submitted to popular vote, authorizing the creation of a permanent railroad commission. Another constitutional amendment to be submitted authorizes the levy of a road tax not to exceed three mills.

An antitrust bill was passed, declaring all combinations made with a view to lessen, or tending to lessen, free competition, or to reduce or control prices, to be unlawful and void; and making the penalty the loss of charters for corporations, and for any person convicted of engaging in such business a fine of not less than $500, or more than $2,000, and imprisonment in the Penitentiary not less than one or more than ten years, or in the judgment of the court by either such fines or such imprisonment; the provisions of the act are not to apply to agricultural products or live stock while in the possession of the producer or raiser. It is further provided that any one injured or damaged by such a combination "may sue for and recover in any court of competent jurisdiction in this State of any person or persons or corporations operating such trusts or combination to the full consideration or sum paid by him or them for any goods, wares, merchandise, or articles, the sale of which is controlled by such combination or trust.”

Another act provides that "hereafter it shall be unlawful for any keeper of a saloon or wholesale liquor dealer in Arkansas to keep, exhibit, use or suffer to be used in his saloon or place of business, or in any adjoining house subject to his direction or control, any musical instrument of any kind whatever, for the purpose of performing upon or having the same performed upon; neither shall he permit any fencing, sparring, boxing, wrestling, or other exhibition or contest of dexterity or strength; that it shall be unlawful for such persons to permit to be used in and about his saloon by any other person, to use or run in connection with such saloon in any manner or form whatever, any billiard table, pool table, or other table commonly used for gaming, bowling, tenpin alley, or any cards, dice, or other devices commonly used for gaming or playing

any game of chance. The penalty for violation of the law is a fine of from $25 to $100, forfeiture of license, and prohibition of renewed license for three years.

A quarantine law against Missouri horses and mules went into effect Feb. 6. It is like the Missouri law against Arkansas cattle, and is a retaliatory measure. Power is given by the act to the Commissioner of Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture to extend or limit the operation of the act according as, in his judgment, the agricultural interests of the State require.

Other acts passed were:

For the construction of good roads.

To prevent disorderly conduct on legalized primary election days.

To protect conductors and other railroad employees: providing that any one who shall falsely report the men to their superior officers shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined not less than $100 nor more than $500, and be imprisoned in jail for six months.

To require railroads to carry bicycles as baggage. To allow disabled and indigent ex-Confederate soldiers $75 annually, whether they have families

or not.

To amend the legalized primary election law. Appropriating $20,000 for county normal schools. To tax barrel whisky houses in cities. Allowing farmers to organize mutual fire insurance companies.

For the protection of railway passengers against imposition, fraud, and annoyance, providing a penalty of $25 to $50 for each offense.

Hon. James K. Jones was re-elected to the United States Senate. J. R. Sovereign was the candidate of the Populists, and Powell Clayton of the Republicans. The vote stood: Jones, 114; Sovereign, 9; Clayton, 3.

One incident of the session was the rejection of a resolution, offered Jan. 20, to restore a portrait of Washington to its former place over the Speaker's stand in the Hall of Representatives, from which it was taken six years ago to give place to a portrait of Jefferson Davis, and to place the latter on the left in the space now occupied by Washington's. Another was an excitement caused in the House, March 6, by the offering of a resolution to displace the portrait of Davis temporarily, and to substitute for it that of William J. Bryan during the latter's visit to Little Rock. There were loud cries of "No!" "Never!" "We'll never take Jeff Davis down!" and the like, and a motion to table the resolution prevailed without debate.

An important matter that came before the Legislature was that of the settlement of the debt of the State to the National Government. The origin and status of the claim are explained by Gov. Clarke as follows:

"For more than twenty years there has existed a troublesome and complicated dispute between the United States and the State of Arkansas, growing out of the ownership by the former of certain coupon bonds of the latter, and against which the latter asserted the right to offset an unliquidated claim for a failure upon the part of the former to patent to her a large quantity of land to which she became entitled under the act of Congress of Sept. 3, 1850, known as the swamp land grant, and various other acts. Under authority of acts of the General Assembly of 1889, and of the act of Congress of Aug. 4, 1894, the Governor, acting for the State of Arkansas, and the Secretaries of the Treasury and of the Interior, acting for the General Government, proceeded to consider these matters of difference, and on Feb. 23, 1895, concluded a settlement by which a balance of $160,572 was, as

a final result, found to be due to the United States by the State of Arkansas.

"A bill to ratify the settlement was introduced into the Senate and House shortly after the agreement was signed, but consideration could not be obtained at the pending short session. At the regular session following bills for the same purpose were again promptly introduced. About this time Congress was flooded with anonymous circulars attacking the good name of the State and assailing in detail the fairness of the settlement so far as the interest of the United States was concerned. The leading newspapers of the country were also filled with a carefully prepared alleged exposé of a deliberate scheme upon the part of the State of Arkansas to rob the Smithsonian Institution of part of the funds provided by its founder to maintain it. After full debate, the Senate, by a large majority, passed the bill. After it reached the House it was, in the regular course, referred to the Committee on Public Lands. There the representatives of the Iron Mountain Railroad Company appeared to resist its passage. Their real purpose was, by exerting a pressure against the accomplishment of a thing very greatly desired by every interest of the State, to compel her, as the price of the forbearance of the lobby, to convey to the Iron Mountain Railroad Company and other railway companies title to 273,000 acres of land granted to the State by the swamp land grant of 1850. A majority of the committee recommended favorable action on the bill by the House only on condition that an amendment be adopted to the purport that the confirmation should not be effective unless the State should, within one year, release to the railway companies or their assigns all title or claim to the said 273,000 acres of land."

The compromise plan of settlement, including the amendments which, it is charged above, were obtained by the influence of the railroad, was agreed to by both houses of the Legislature, although Gov. Jones had given notice that he would veto the resolution if it were passed. The General Assembly adjourned without having passed any appropriation bills except those for payment of the legislative expenses, and for the county normal schools. The Senate rejected a resolution passed by the House extending the session to April 14. This made it necessary for the Governor to call an extraordinary session, which he did, naming April 26 as the date of opening.

The special session ended June 16. Fifty-one acts and three concurrent resolutions were passed. Among these were appropriations for expenses of the State government and for State institutions, and provisions for improvements of the levees. In view of the damage to property by drought and flood, the time for payment of taxes was extended, and the time for redemption of property forfeited for nonpayment was also extended one year. A joint committee was appointed to investigate the condition of sufferers by drought and flood. A -mill tax was provided for the payment of the interest on State bonds held by the permanent school fund.

Another attempt to secure a railroad commission was defeated. Three important acts concerning railroads were passed. One grants 500,000 acres of swamp lands to the Springfield, Little Rock and Gulf Company, on condition that it build 500 miles of road. The route is to be from Springfield, Mo., across Arkansas by way of Dardanelle and Little Rock, to Alexandria, La., and eventually to the Gulf. By another act, 40.000 acres of State lands are granted in aid of railroad construction westward from the Mississippi by way of Hamburg to Texarkana. The third measure is for the construc

tion of State railroad and telegraph lines by convict labor. A State board is increased, which is to outline routes for roads and advertise for offers of money and other property. Whenever the sum of $100,000 or its equivalent is subscribed for any one of the roads projected, the board may begin the construction, employing convicts. Other measures were: Concerning insolvency.

Providing for the purchase of a State convict farm.

Providing for improvement of public roads. Appropriating $55,000 for Confederate pensions. Allowing State convicts to work on roads adjacent to convict camps.

Authorizing improvement district boards of cities and incorporated towns to mortgage waterworks and electric-light plants to secure payment of money borrowed, etc.

Amending the fish law.

Regulating the sale of native wine, and providing for a vote on the wine question in the counties. To provide for payment of interest on the public debt.

ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. American. The forty-sixth meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was held in Detroit, Mich., during Aug. 9-14, 1897. The officers were: President, Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, Newport, R. I. Vice-presidents of the sections: A, Wooster W. Beman, Ann Arbor, Mich.; B, Carl Barus, Providence, R. I.;

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C, William P. Mason, Troy, N. Y.; D, John Galbraith, Toronto, Canada; E, Edward W. Claypole, Akron, Ohio; F, Leland O. Howard, Washington city; G, George F. Atkinson, Ithaca, N. Y.; H, W J McGee, Washington city; I, Richard T. Colburn, Elizabeth, N. J. Permanent secretary, Frederick W. Putnam, Cambridge, Mass. (office, Salem, Mass.). General secretary, Asaph Hall, Jr., Ann Arbor, Mich. Secretary of the council, David S. Kellicott, Columbus, Ohio. Secretaries of the sections: A, James McMahon, Ithaca, N. Y.: B, Frederick Bedell, Ithaca, N. Y.: C, Paul C. Freer, Ann Arbor, Mich.; D, John J. Flather, Lafayette, Ind.; E, C. H.Smyth, Jr., Clinton, N. Y.; F, Charles C. Nutting. Iowa City, Iowa: G. Frederick C. Newcombe, Ann Arbor, Mich.; H, Anita Newcomb McGee, Wash

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