francs, of which 5,450,550 francs were for the support of the penal colony of Cayenne. This was started in 1885, and is composed of habitual criminals and convicts sentenced for more than eight years. The tract between the Araguary and the Oyapuk rivers, containing rich gold fields discovered in recent years, was in dispute between Brazil and France, which claimed that the river Vincent Pinzon, defined as the boundary in the original treaty, was identical with the Araguary. In the beginning France laid claim to the whole region between the Amazon, the Rio Branco, and the Atlantic Ocean. After negotiations lasting fourteen years, during which various arrangements were made that failed to receive the ratification of one party or the other, a treaty was made in 1897 leaving the whole dispute to be arbitrated by the President of the Swiss Confederation, who rendered his decision on Dec. 1, 1900. The award gives to Brazil 147,000 square miles of the disputed territory and only 3,000 square miles to France, consisting of a strip north of the Tumuc Humac mountains. The boundary follows the Thalweg of the Oyapuk river from its mouth up to its source and from there to the boundary of Dutch Guiana, the water parting in the Tumuc Humac range. Political Events.-The session of the Chambers began on Jan. 9. Paul Déroulède, André Buffet, M. Guérin, and Comte de Lur-Saluces, the chiefs of the Nationalist, Anti-Semite, and royalist plotters of revolt, having been banished and the lesser ones acquitted, the Government proposed to efface all traces of the discord and bitterness engendered by the Dreyfus affair by a general amnesty. This was not acceptable to Emile Zola nor to ex-Col. Picquart, the champions of Dreyfus, who were still under indictment, nor would it stop the suit for slander brought by Mme. Henry against Joseph Reinach, and similar actions. In the triennial elections for the renewal of one third of the Senate the Nationalist candidates were not successful except in the old strongholds of Clerical and royalist opinion. Gen. Mercier was elected in one of these, the department of the Loire Inférieure. His success was due to a newspaper in which a religious association, the Assumptionist Fathers, assailed the Government with extravagant abuse. The Government suppressed this confraternity by judicial process as an unauthorized association. The Paris newspaper published by these ecclesiastical politicians, who were in receipt of enormous pecuniary contributions for the support of their agitation against the existing form of government, was called La Croix, and its daily circulation was 250,000, while its articles were reprinted in 50 provincial sheets published for that purpose by the same society. The recru descence of clerical agitation for the overthrow of the republic provoked the Republicans to fresh anti-clerical legislation. The Government brought in an educational bill requiring three years of preliminary study in a state school as a condition of appointment to any public office or of admittance to any one of the special schools of the state. The bill was intended to extinguish the remaining Catholic higher schools, and another measure was proposed forbidding religious organizations to establish primary or secondary schools. The supporters of these measures justified them by asserting that Catholic schools encouraged and propagated a reactionary spirit hostile to the republic. Many of the clergy attacked the Government bitterly in consequence of the condemnation of the Assumptionist Fathers. Archbishop Gouthe-Soulard, of the diocese of Aix, assailed the Premier in terms which it was impossible to ignore, and yet it was inexpedient to apply the too rigorous remedy of the penal code, which punishes offenses of this sort with banishment. The occasion suggested to M. Waldeck-Rousseau an amendment to the code, substituting the milder and more practicable penalty of imprisonment for terms ranging from three months to two years for criticism of Government measures introduced into pastoral letters, and for criticism of acts of the supreme authority contained in a speech or sermon or published in the press the term of from two weeks to six months. The minister took the familiar ground that ecclesiastics who are functionaries and stipendiaries of the state are bound to observe an attitude of respect toward the Government. Cardinal Richard, Archbishop of Paris, published letters in La Croix condemning the suppression of the Assumptionists. The Government, out of regard for his great age. took no action in his case, but suspended the stipends of other bishops who joined in the attacks, refraining, however, from the application of the press law, which the bishops sought to provoke the ministry to put in force and which would be more incontestably legal than the suspension of stipends, though the latter course has the sanetion of precedents going back for a long period. M. Méline failed in an attempt to upset the Cabinet based on its Radical measures against Clericalism and the presence of a Socialist, M. Millerand. The fickle Parisian populace, which of late years has given Socialist majorities, now turned against the Government containing a representative of the Socialists, which the departments had indorsed in the senatorial elections and which held together its majority in the Chamber. In the municipal elections, which took place in May, Paris elected 32 Nationalists and 8 Monarchists to the municipal council. Algiers elected Anti-Semites. Most of the French municipalities elected Republicans, and the ministers asserted that they were generally in harmony with the Government, and a large proportion of the Opposition majority in the Paris council were Repub licans, though opposed to the Government. The Chamber by 286 votes to 237 approved the ministerial declaration of a continued policy of Republican reforms and defense of the secular state. The universal exposition necessitated politica! quiet and a truce to party rancor. The ministerial programme, besides the education bill, included a bill on associations, an income tax, and a revision of the death duties. M. Waldeck-Rousseau proposed a new libel law. The Socialist party was generally hostile to the presence of a Socialist in a bourgeois ministry, and its general committee drew up a protest against the action of the Socialist Deputies when these supported the Cabinet against an interpellation of the Nationalists reflecting on the violent repression of strikers at Châlons. On May 29 Gen. Gallifet, who was in poor health, resigned his portfolio as Minister of War, and Gen. André was appointed to succeed him. His retirement was not due to differences with his colleagues, but to the attacks of the Nationalists, who charged the ministers with trying to reopen the Dreyfus case, and who were joined by M. Méline and his section of the Republicans, while M. Bourgeois with his band of Radicals came to the rescue of the ministry with a motion expressing confidence in the Government and in the devotion of the army to the republic. Gen. André's entrance into the Cabinet was followed by the resignation of the commander in chief of the army, Gen. Jamont, who protested against changing the chief of the general staff. Gen. Brugère succeeded him as generalissimo and Gen. Pendezec was appointed head of the general staff. The difficulty arose from the opposition of Gen. Delanne, the head of the staff, who was removed, to Gen. André's act in changing some of the heads of bureaus. The amnesty bill of the Government was violently opposed by the Dreyfusards as well as by the Anti-Semites. It proposed to extinguish all pending prosecutions, including the impeachment of Gen. Mercier, ex-Minister of War, but not to restore Dreyfus to his civil rights. The vote on the bill was postponed till the winter session. The navy bill and projects for colonial defense compelled the Government to devise ways and means for increasing the revenue. Not even the Nationalists would raise a cry against increased taxation for such purposes. A credit of 61,000,000 francs was voted for gunboats and other means of colonial defense, and the organization of a colonial army was approved. The parties applauded with one mind the operations in the Sahara and the course of M. Pichon, the French minister at Pekin, in the Chinese difficulty. The requirements of the Government were 58,000,000 francs more than in the last budget, 20,000,000 francs of this being for coast defense. An increased yield of the existing taxes was expected to amount to 35,000,000 francs, and the readjusted death duties and new taxes were counted on to produce the remainder. A reduction of the national debt to the extent of 37,000,000 francs accruing from the repayment of war loans was a feature of the budget of M. Caillaux. The naval programme involved the expenditure of between 150,000,000 and 200,000,000 francs a year, including the cost of coast defenses. The abolition of the octroi duties by the towns is a fiscal reform that has been contemplated for a long time. This tax on articles of consumption collected at the gates of the large towns produces about 330,000,000 francs a year throughout France. It is a tax unsuited to modern methods of living, costly to collect, inconvenient, and obstructive to trade, causing a loss to the community much greater than the net receipts of the towns from this source. The first large town to do away with it is Dijon. The Chamber agreed to the proposal of the municipality to supersede the duty by increasing the taxes on houses, wine shops, horses and carriages, and dogs. The Chamber agreed to a bill exempting school-teachers from their annual period of drill in the reserves, and resolved that all reservists be released from this service for the year in order to facilitate visits to the exhibition, but did not carry the resolution into effect because the authorities insisted that a special law would be necessary. The new direct taxes proposed in the budget were carried through by a great majority. The income tax act is expected to double the amount hitherto paid by the average citizen. Foreigners residing in France are taxed equally with Frenchmen. The amount of income received by the individual is roughly computed by multiplying by 5 or 6 the amount that he pays for rent, and on this income he pays a tax of 4 per cent. The session was closed on July 10. The Chambers met again on Nov. 6. A deficit instead of the contemplated surplus for the year was the forecast of the Budget Committee. The legislation proposed by the Premier included the remodeling of the duties on strong drink in connection with the prospective reduction at the beginning of 1901 of the octroi duties on hygienic beverages, such as wine and cider; a bill on associations, by which the Government hoped to put an end to an increasing peril and prevent the creation of an influence that no state could tolerate; the creation of workmen's pensions, and measures on the education of state officials, courts-martial, trade unions, and the income tax. With regard to strikes, the bill of 1892 provided for optional arbitration, compulsory arbitration having been objected to as an infringement of the right to strike and also as an unwarranted extension of the powers of the state, even though the enforced arrangement should be more reasonable than one that the masters and men might make among themselves. The results of the law of 1892 had been considerable, and recent prolonged strikes had been settled by arbitration, though not by justices of the peace, the official arbitrators. The Government did not consider the state entitled to dictate to individuals how they should regulate their factories or settle their disputes, but it was desirable that the free working of arrangements between employers and employed should lead to something better than the present situation; to this end it was proposed to introduce a clause into labor contracts which would make arbitration obligatory upon the parties after they had freely entered into such contracts. A bill was introduced into the Senate by M. Piot imposing a tax on unmarried men and women above thirty years of age and on couples married for five years and having no offspring, while rewarding families of more than 4 children out of an annual credit of 20,000,000 francs. The religious associations, which the Government decided to place under stricter regulations because by ingenious evasion of the existing law or owing to its lax administration they had reached a position in which a serious peril to the state was discerned, hold in mortmain property valued at 1,000,000,000 francs and personal property estimated at a higher figure. This great wealth has been employed for political as well as for religious purposes, and the political aims followed by the religious orders are subversive of the republican state. M. WaldeckRousseau declared that the religious orders, dispersed but not suppressed, have covered France with their operations, usurping the functions of the secular clergy, acquiring control of the seminaries, and defying the authority of the bishops. The bill on education, supplementing the measure dealing with religious associations, requires those who wish to enter the civil service or the army to receive their education in the secular state institutions, since under present conditions half the youth of France are educated in such a way as to become practical strangers to the other half, and in clerical institutions become involved with ideas fundamentally hostile to the republic. A debate on its general policy resulted in a majority for the Government of 330 to 238, a greater one than it commanded in the previous session. The bill on strikes, presented by M. Millerand, provides that in every factory employing 50 or more men a printed notice shall state whether or not arbitration is one of the conditions of employment. All state contracts will require it to be. If it is a condition in private employment, the men are to elect delegates, who will submit any complaints or demands to the employer, and, failing an agreement, both sides may nominate arbitrators. In case the employer refuses to do so, the men may resolve to strike by secret ballot, but the majority must comprise at least one third of the persons employed, and there must also be a weekly vote to decide on the continuance of the strike or its cessation. A previous measure decreed in September provided for the creation of labor councils composed equally of employers and workmen nominated by their trade unions or syndicates. These bodies will inform the Government of the conditions of labor, influence the relations between labor and capital, and appoint conciliators or arbitrators in the case of strikes. The amnesty bill was passed without the inclusion of M. Déroulède and his fellow-exiles or of the Assumptionist monks. FRIENDS. Friends in America.-Besides the regular sessions of the yearly meetings, conferences of American Friends to consider special questions were held in Philadelphia in 1829 and in Baltimore in 1849. The first general conference of the yearly meetings was held in Richmond, Ind., in 1887, and was attended by delegates from London and Dublin yearly meetings, and from all the yearly meetings on the American continent except that of Philadelphia, which was unofficially represented. It was afterward decided to hold similar conferences of the American yearly meetings once in five years. Such conferences have been held at Indianapolis, Ind., in 1892 and 1897. At the conference of 1897 it was felt that a closer union of the yearly meetings and a uniform discipline would be desirable. A committee was appointed in furtherance of this purpose, which prepared a draft of a constitution and discipline and published them in May, 1900, for the information and consideration of the yearly meetings. No change was proposed in the new constitution in the organization or principles of government of the society, or in methods of transacting business. The democratic principle was sought to be maintained by continuing the chief legislative, judicial, and executive authority in the yearly and monthly meetings, in the proceedings of which every member has a right to participate. The brief article on belief was intended as a general statement, and was thought to be all that was now necessary, since the Richmond declaration" had been so recently prepared and had met with general acceptance. The preparative meeting was discontinued, its business being referred to the monthly meeting. The five years' meeting, adopting the idea of the quinquennial conference into the Quaker system, was designed to be a practical working body, without legislative authority. In it the smaller yearly meetings were given a larger representation than in actual proportion to their numerical strength. The article on belief declares that "the vital principle of the Christian faith is the truth that man's salvation and higher life are personal matters between the individual soul and God. Salvation is deliverance from sin and the possession of the spiritual life. This comes through a personal faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour, who, through his love and sacrifice, draws us to him. Conviction for sin is awakened by the operation of the Holy Spirit causing the soul to feel its need of reconciliation with God. When Christ is seen as the only hope of salvation, and a man yields to him, he is brought into newness of life, and realizes that his sonship to God has become an actual reality. This transformation is wrought without the necessary agency of any human priest or ordinance or ceremony whatever. A changed nature and life bear witness to this new relation to him. "The whole spiritual life grows out of the soul's relation to God and its co-operation with him, not from any outward or traditional observance. Christ himself baptizes the surrendered soul with the Holy Spirit, enduing it with power, bestowing gifts for service. This is an efficient baptism, a direct incoming of divine power for the transformation and control of the whole man. Christ himself is the spiritual bread which nourishes the soul, and he thus enters into and becomes a part of the being of those who partake of him. This participation of Christ and apprehension of him become the goal of life for the Christian. Those who thus enter into oneness with him become also joined in living union with each other as members of one body. Both worship and Christian fellowship spring out of this immediate relation of believing souls with their Lord. "The Holy Scriptures were given by inspiration of God and are the divinely authorized record of the doctrines which Christians are bound to accept, and of the moral principles which are to regulate their lives and actions. In them, as interpreted and unfolded by the Holy Spirit, is an ever fresh and unfailing source of spiritual truth for the proper guidance of life and practice. The doctrines of the apostolic days are held by the Friends as essentials of Christianity. The Fatherhood of God, the Deity and humanity of the Son, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the atonement through Jesus Christ by which men are reeonciled to God, the resurrection, the high priesthood of Christ, and the individual priesthood of believers, are most precious truths to be held, not as traditional dogmas, but as vital, life-giving realities. The sinful condition of man and his proneness to yield to temptation, the world's absolute need of a Saviour, and the cleansing from sin in forgiveness and sanctification through the blood of Jesus Christ, are unceasing incentives to all who believe to become laborers together with God in extending his kingdom. By this high calling the Friends are pledged to the proclamation of the truth wherever the Spirit leads, both in home and in foreign fields. "The indwelling Spirit guides and controls the surrendered life, and the Christian's constant and supreme business is obedience to him. But, while the importance of individual guidance and obedience is thus emphasized, this fact gives no ground for license; the sanctified conclusions of the Church are above the judgment of a single individual. "The Friends find no scriptural evidence or authority for any form or degree of sacerdotalism in the Christian Church, or for the establishment of any ordinance or ceremonial rite for perpetual observance. The teachings of Jesus Christ concerning the spiritual nature of religion, the impossibility of promoting the spiritual life by the cere monial application of material things, the fact that faith in Jesus Christ himself is all-sufficient, the purpose of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and his presence in the believer's heart, virtually destroy every ceremonial system and point the soul to the only satisfying source of spiritual life and power. "With faith in the wisdom of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and believing that it is his purpose to make his Church on earth a power for righteousness and truth, the Friends labor for the alleviation of human suffering; for the intellectual, moral, and spiritual elevation of mankind; and for purified and exalted citizenship. The Friends believe war to be incompatible with Christianity, and seek to promote peaceful methods for the settlement of all differences betwen nations and between men. "It is an essential part of the faith that a man should be in truth what he professes in word, and the underlying principle of life and action for individuals, and also for society, is transformation through the power of God and implicit obedience to his revealed will. "For more explicit and extended statements of belief, reference is made to those officially put forth at various times, especially to the letter of George Fox to the Governor of Barbadoes in 1671, and to the Declaration of Faith, issued by the Richmond Conference of 1887." The constitution is to become operative upon those adopting it when it shall have been approved and adopted by seven yearly meetings. The missionaries of the American Friends are supported by yearly meetings or by associations severally interested in the care of one or more districts. Sixty missionaries are thus sustained in stations at Ramleh, Syria, Nanking (China), Tokio (Japan), Newgong (Bundelcund, India), Jamaica, Victoria, Matamoras, Metahuala, Cedral, and Estación de Catorce, Mexico; Douglas, Kotzebue, and Kake Island, Alaska. The American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions at its meeting in February, 1900, made arrangements for securing an incorporation under the laws of the State of Indiana, and completed its organization for work in the field. At the same time it decided to open a mission in Cuba, and appointed an agent or superintendent to go out as early as possible and start the work. The Friends' African Industrial Mission was organized early in the year to found an industrial mission settlement on the eastern shore of the Victoria Nyanza. It contemplates obtaining by lease from the British Government and purchase from the natives a tract of land on the high and therefore healthy plateau, where the most profitable crops of the region may be cultivated and other industries pursued for the products of which good markets are not far distant; and it is the purpose of the mission to become self-supporting as soon as possible. The several hundred native workmen needed to do the manual labor of the settlement will be required to live on the station, where they will be withdrawn from heathen surroundings and kept continuously under Christian influence. Boys in school will be taught various handicrafts, such as blacksmithing, carpenter's work, and shoemaking, and the girls household duties. Daily gospel services will be one of the features of the life of the settlement. The board controlling the mission is to be composed of two Friends from each yearly meeting. Several yearly meetings have already engaged heartily in the work, and a large number of qualified workers have applied for service without any appeal having been made. British Friends.-The summary of numbers for the year 1899 supplied to the London Yearly Meeting shows a membership in Great Britain of 17,153, being an increase of 121 on the number reported in the previous year; these were comprised in 376 congregations, 4 more than in 1898. Other numbers were 8,000 habitual attenders at the con gregational meetings, 380 persons admitted to the society during the year on convincement," and 145 retired, 145 births, and 256 deaths. The disparity in the number of births and of deaths is explained partly by reference to the relatively large number of persons who join the society in mature life, causing additions to the death rate not balanced by corresponding additions to the birth rate, and partly by failure to enter the names of children of mixed marriages or marriages between Friends and non-Friends. A chief subject of discussion at the meeting on ministry and oversight of the London Yearly Meeting in May was the eldership. The meeting had in 1898 adopted a minute on worship and ministry in which what were regarded as the true conditions of living worship and of enlightened and effective ministry were set forth. Now it discussed and adopted a minute to be sent down to the monthly meetings, pointing out the nature of the duties involved in eldership and the qualifications which should be regarded in appointing persons to that office. In the Yearly Meeting at Large a committee was appointed to prepare a statement of the real position of the society in regard to war, and an appeal was directed to be made to the Government asking that, in deciding upon a settlement of the conflict in South Africa, the Christian sentiment of the country and the desire for justice and magnanimity should have due weight. The minute prepared by this committee and adopted by the meeting took the following form: This meeting has felt profound sorrow on account of the war in South Africa, with its mournful sacrifice of brave lives, its many stricken and darkened homes, and its manifold sequel of misery and bitterness. It can not but also grieve over the discredit brought upon the religion of Jesus Christ by warfare between those who name his name and seek him as their Saviour and example. It respectfully appeals to the Government of these realms to do all that can be done to allay mistrust and to remove misunderstandings, which ever inflame and embitter strife, and are among the most fruitful causes of war and of its continuance. It earnestly desires and prays for the establishment of an early and durable peace in South Africa, which shall enable all elements of the population, including the native races, to grow together side by side under free institutions, and shall rest not upon the Government of the sword or the humiliation of the vanquished, but upon the lasting foundations of justice and good will." The subject of "birthright membership was brought up in a minute from the Bedfordshire quarterly meeting, in which it was pointed out that the principle of "hereditary_religion" is contrary to the teaching of the New Testament; that there should be a sharp distinction between the natural birth and spiritual birth; that only about 40 per cent. of the membership of the society is through birthright, and that it is not fair to those who come into it by request to maintain two kinds of membership. The minute proposed, therefore, that children should henceforth be enrolled as associates, with all the privileges now enjoyed by birthright members, except that they should not be members of meetings for business until they apply for full membership. Arguments were urged in the yearly meeting against the change proposed, that heredity was of great value in religious associations; that there was danger that the inducements offered by other churches and social attractions would draw away many of the young people if their close, organic connection with the society was broken during these early formative years; and that the proposed new plan might result in introducing "tests" for membership-that is, that young people would be received only after a careful examination of their faith. The fact was emphasized that the very condition of entering the kingdom of heaven, as laid down by Christ, is to "become as little children," and that the apostle Paul clearly regarded children as a real part of the Church. One of the principal points urged in favor of the change was that the true Quaker is, alone, the person who has experienced the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. The contemplated new discipline of American Friends provides that the children of members be enrolled as associate members. They are thus recognized, not because their birthright can of itself make them members of the body of Christ, for they can only become such by experiencing the new birth by the Holy Spirit, but because of the promises in the Holy Scriptures to believers and their households, and the conviction that true Christians will so make 66 their children the objects of living prayer, and will so instruct them in the Gospel and go with them to the throne of grace, that they will surrender their hearts to God in their youth, and early take a natural and living interest in the Church as they do in the family. Persons thus enrolled as associate members shall be enrolled as active members of the Church when they shall have made a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, and shall have accepted the doctrines of the Gospel as held by the Friends. If the member does not make such GEORGIA, a Southern State, one of the original thirteen, ratified the Constitution Jan. 2, 1788; area, 59,475 square miles. The population, according to each decennial census, was 82.548 in 1790; 162,686 in 1800; 252,433 in 1810; 340,985 in 1820; 516,823 in 1830; 691,392 in 1840; 906,185 in 1850; 1,057,286 in 1860; 1,184,109 in 1870; 1,542,180 in 1880; 1,837,353 in 1890; and 2,216,331 in 1900. Capital, Atlanta. Government. The following were the State officers in 1900: Governor, Allen D. Candler; Secretary of State, Philip Cook; Treasurer, W. J. Speer; Comptroller, William A. Wright; Attorney-General, Joseph M. Terrell; State School Commissioner, G. R. Glenn; Adjutant General, J. M. Kell; Commissioner of Agriculture, O. B. Stevens; Geologist, W. S. Yeates; Chemist, J. M. McCandless; Librarian, James E. Brown; Railroad Commissioners, L. N. Trammell, S. R. Atkinson, T. C. Crenshaw; Prison Commissioners, J. S. Turner, C. A. Evans, T. Eason; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Thomas J. Simmons; Associate Justices, Samuel Lumpkin, Henry T. Lewis, Andrew J. Cobb, William A. Little, and William H. Fish; Clerk, Z. D. Harrison-all Democrats. Finances. The Treasurer's report for the year ending Sept. 30, 1900, contains these items: Balance in the treasury, Oct. 1, 1899, $438.776.66; received after that date, $3,542,069.69; making a total of $3,980,846.35. The disbursements for the same period, Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 1900, were $3,564,700.05; leaving a balance in the treasury, Oct. 1, of $416,146.30. This balance was composed of advances on civic establishment coupons paid, etc., amounting to $38,217.01, and $377,929.29 belonging to the reserved fund. The gain in values in 1900 over 1899, including every form of property, was $18,788,333. Of this amount $3,489,206 is in the railroads of the State and $15,299,127 is in county property. The taxable property was valued at $436,000,000. Appropriations. The appropriations for the year were: Special appropriations, $9,794.41; State University, 1900, $8.000; State Normal School1899, $4,000; 1900, $12.000; trustees Sanitorium1899, $1,197.90; 1900, $642.16; trustees State University, $545.86; temporary loan, $100.000; widows' pensions-1899, $420; 1900, $213,300; Western and Atlantic Railroad change bills, $3; total, $3,564,700.05. Education. The Superintendent of Education says, in his report for 1900: "All the States in the Union except a small group of Southern States now have a nine months' absolutely free term for all the children of school age. Georgia has only a five months' term. Massachusetts spends $39.10 every year for each child enrolled, Rhode Island spends $36.26, New York $34.55, while Georgia spends $6.31. As a matter of fact, Georgia spends G profession when he reaches matured years, his name may be dropped from the list of members at the discretion of the monthly meeting. When but one parent is a member, the children may be enrolled as associate members upon the request of that parent and the consent of the other." Other minutes of quarterly meetings were presented adverse to any modification of the rules. After discussion, a minute was drawn in the yearly meeting stating that it was not prepared at present to make any change. on her country children each year less than $4 for each child enrolled. Georgia provides for each child of school age $2.16, while Massachusetts provides $22.16, Rhode Island $14.62, New York $16.95. Nearly all the Middle and Western States spend ten times as much per child of school age as Georgia spends. The teachers in these systems receive three and four times as much salary as our teachers receive. . . . If you have taken the trouble to ascertain the present value of the courthouse and jail in your county and the present value of all the schoolhouses in your county, you have learned, perhaps, that your courthouse and jail have cost the county three or four times as much as all the schoolhouses in the county have cost. . . . The tables in this report will show that the average pay of the country school-teacher in Georgia for the last school year was $128 per ... annum. "In 1898, the date of the last school census, the school population was 660,870. This report shows an enrollment for the school year 1899 of 423,467, with a total average attendance of only 253,193. This enrollment and attendance show a percentage of increase over former years, and yet less than 40 per cent. of our children of school age attended school for the entire school term. "Fulton County [Atlanta is in this county] is spending this year on her prisoners $82,050.45. In the county's budget there is not a dollar for schools. The State gives the county $13,747.71. The average number of prisoners in Fulton County is supposed to be about 2,000. The school children of the county by the last census number 6,850. Here are 6,850 children at school at a cost of $13,747.71, and 2,000 prisoners in prisons or in the chain gang at a cost of $82,050.45." Mr. E. C. Branson, president of the State Normal School, says in an article on Education and Crime: "One sixth of our whites and nearly seven tenths of the negroes are illiterate, according to the census of 1890; and we find that 44 per cent. of our penitentiary convicts were committed for crimes of passion and violence, while 35 per cent. were committed for burglary alone. Georgia is near the bottom in the column of illiteracy, only four States having a lower rate, and person and property are exposed accordingly. "Taking the illiteracy returns for Georgia in 1893 and the figures in our penitentiary report nearest that date, we find that an illiterate negro population of 27 per cent. furnished 54 per cent. of the negro convicts; while a literate negro population of 73 per cent. furnished 46 per cent. of the negro convicts. Thus the illiterate.negro population of the State averaged 3 convicts per 1,000, while the literate negro population of the State averaged 1.” The school fund for 1900 was $1,440,642. |