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to make money and speculate in the lives of others. Forty-two companies reported to this department their business for the year 1880.

From these reports it appears that the companies named had a total income from applications, assessments, and miscellaneous sources, amounting to $1,353,988.74, which was all expended excepting the sum of $3,218.74. The sum of $906,867.67, or 67 per cent of the entire income, was used in the payment of death-claims or returned to members; the sum of $96,698.64, or 7 per cent of the income, was paid to officers; the sum of $242,889.93, or 18 per cent of the income, was paid to agents; and the sum of $104,313.76, or 74 per cent, was paid for general expenses. Thus it appears that in the aggregate more than 32 per cent of the money collected by these companies was absorbed by the expenses of management.

About 40 per cent of the entire business of the companies was done by the United Brethren Mutual Aid Society of Lebanon, whose experience shows more favorable results than the aggregated experience of the other companies. Deducting the business of the United Brethren, the remaining companies received from applications, assessments, and other sources, $812,014.57, of which sum $430,596.24. or 53 per cent, was expended in death-claims or returned to members; $73,142.10, or 9 per cent, was paid to officers; $196,287.04, or 24 per cent, to agents; and 10 per cent to miscellaneous expenses: showing an expenditure of 43 per cent of the entire income in management. Twenty-three companies organized in 1880, or at the close of 1879, received $265,125 in premiums and assessments. Of this sum 70 per cent, or $186,796, went to officers, agents, expenses, and 25 per cent, or $66,886, to pay death-losses or return premiums, leaving a balance of less than 5 per cent, or $11,443, unexpended. Included in the above number are twelve companies that collected $48,673, spent $38,520, and did not pay a dollar for deathlosses.

The Western Pennsylvania Hospital is composed of two departments, the medical and surgical in Pittsburg, and that for the insane at Dixmont, eight miles distant. The number of patients at Dixmont, September 30, 1879, was 609; during the year ending September 30, 1880, 238 were admitted, making the total number under treatment during that period 847. Of these, 249 were discharged or died, leaving in the institution at the end of the year 598 patients. On the 30th of September, 1879, there were 105 patients in the medical and surgical department; 795 have been since admitted, making the number 900 under treatment during the year. Of these, 784 were discharged or died, leaving in the hospital on September 30, 1880, 116 patients.

The report of the trustees of the Hospital for the Insane at Danville, for the year end

ing September 30, 1880, shows the following: The number of patients in the hospital at the beginning of the year was 253 males and 191 females; total, 444. The admissions during the year were 113 males and 59 females; total, 172, making the whole number under treatment, for the period covered by the report, 366 males and 250 females; total, 616. The discharges were 143 males and 89 females; total, 232. Of these, 17 males and 18 females were considered restored, 56 improved, 106 stationary, and 35 died. The number remaining at the end of the year was 384, of whom 223 were males and 161 females, or 60 less than at the beginning. This diminution is the result of the transfer to the Norristown Hospital, near the end of August, of all the Philadelphia patients (92) at that time in the hospital which were supported at public expense. The receipts of the hospital from all sources, including $10,000 from the State Treasury, were $89,273.86, and the expenditures $89,339.43, making the average weekly cost per patient, $3.82. This includes everything—salaries, repairs, and insurance.

There were, in 1880, 7,037 graded schools in the State, an increase of 232 during the year. It is a remarkable fact that while the increase in the number of pupils was only 1,570, the increase in the average attendance was 13,955. The whole number of pupils on the rolls was 937,310, and the average attendance 601,627, or 77 per cent. The average length of the school term remains about the same, seven months. The average cost of tuition for each pupil per month is only seventy-five cents, which shows a very economical administration of the school system. The expenditures of all kinds during the year, exclusive of orphan and normal schools, amounted to $7,482,577.75. The school property of the State was valued at $25,467,097. The total indebtedness of all the school districts in the State, cities included, was only $2,648,495.84, and there remained in the school board treasuries, at the end of the year, $1,425,213.16.

The report of the Superintendent of Soldiers' Orphans' Schools, for the year ending May 31, 1881, shows that there were under the supervision of the department 2,602 children. Besides these, there were in scattered homes and receiving "out-door relief" twenty-eight others. The increase over the preceding year was twenty-two. The whole amount expended by the State for the support of these schools has been $7,252,695. The Legislature of 1878 provided that no more children should be admitted into these schools after the 1st of June, 1882, and that they should be finally closed on the 1st of June, 1885.

According to the census of 1880, the total net debt of the State, both local and of the State proper, is $114,073,342. The following table shows it in detail, the word "local" being used to comprise county, township, city, borough, and school-district debts:

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The counties having the largest net debt

are:

Allegheny.

Berks..

Chester.

Crawford.. Dauphin...

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954,821

Lancaster..

761,925 Lehigh.

1,472,259 Schuylkill.

$1,044,896

1,194,589 1,185,116

978,897 745,578 These figures represent the sum of the debts owed by all the corporate divisions of the counties with the county debt proper. The net county debt proper of Allegheny County is $4,839,254; of Berks, $180,000; Chester, $418,020; Crawford, 290,000; Dauphin, $283,278; Delaware, $473,200; Erie, $9,114; Lancaster, $368,972; Lehigh, $73,349; and Schuylkill, $254,900.

The following counties have no debt as counties: Adams, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Fulton, Green, Lycoming, Northampton, Snyder, Susquehanna, Union, Washington, Westmoreland, and Wyoming.

The total township debt of the State is $389,051, of which $293,568 is floating. There are twenty-nine cities in the State, each having over 7,500 population. Their net debt and its per capita are shown in the following table:

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Erie. Lancaster. Wilkesbarre...

25,759 Easton.. 23,339 Shenandoah..

In the production of iron and steel in blastfurnaces, rolling-mills, steel-works, forges, and bloomeries, Pennsylvania takes the first rank. The capital invested in these industries in the United States in 1880 amounted to $230,971,884, of which Pennsylvania furnished 46 per cent. The total product was 7,265,140 tons, of which Pennsylvania produced 3,616,668, or nearly 50 per cent.

The following counties are the principal centers of production of iron and steel: Allegheny, 848,146 tons; Lehigh, 324,875; Northampton, 322,882; Cambria, 260,140; Dauphin, 223,676; Berks, 213,580; Mercer, 182,881; Montgomery, 168,628; Lackawanna, 151,273.

Of 3,781,021 tons of pig-iron and direct castings produced in 1880, in twenty-two States, Pennsylvania made 1,930,314 tons, or 51 per cent. Of 2,353,248 tons of rolled iron of all kinds produced in twenty-nine States and Territories in 1880, Pennsylvania made 46 per cent. The total production of rails for 1880 was 1,217,497 tons. Of the total production of rails, Pennsylvania made 47 per cent.

Of steel ingots, the total production in 1880 was 985,208 tons. Of this, Pennsylvania made 56 per cent. Of the production of Bessemer steel rails, Pennsylvania made 55 per cent.

The total product of iron-ore in the United States in 1880 was 8,022,398 tons, of which Pennsylvania produced more than any other State, viz., 2,173,415 tons, or 27.09 per cent. The principal ore-producing counties are: Lehigh, 321,322 tons; Lebanon, 285,629; Berks, 252,940; Blair, 154,914; Northampton, 104,788. The State produced, in 1880, 28,640,819 tons of anthracite, being the entire product of the country except 6,176 tons. It also produces more bituminous coal than any other State, viz., 18,425,163 tons in 1880, out of a total of 42,420,581 tons for the United States. Of barley, it produced 438,100 bushels; buckwheat, 3,593,326; corn, 45,821,531; oats, 33,841,439; rye, 3,683,621; wheat, 19,462,405.

The Republican State Convention met at Harrisburg on the 8th of September, and nominated General Silas M. Baily, of Fayette County, for State Treasurer. The platform adopted contained the following among other resolutions:

Resolved, That the Republican party of Pennsylvania is in most hearty accord with the Administration of President Garfield, and, while uniting in the prayers of all good people for his speedy recovery, pledges continued fealty and most active support in prompt and courageous correction of all governmental abuses. As Republicans, we are in favor of any proper, well-considered reform, either in government, suggestions to any or all of these ends, and only ask nation, State, municipality or county, and we court that in their advocacy well-established safeguards

shall not be hastily supplemented by experiments. The Administration of President Garfield has set the right example in this direction, and, while firmly adhering to the principles and better practices of the great party which called it into existence, it yet insists upon faithfulness and honesty in every branch of the public service. The bullet of the assassin should not interrupt this work. It should be pursued while its author lives, and beyond his life, if through increasing misfortune it should be taken away.

Resolved, That the Republican party has ever been progressive and reformatory, and while realizing that nothing in government is wholly right, we desire to be always brave to seek every avenue of approach to the right, to the end that all our people may enjoy ever the increasing blessings of good government.

Resolved, That in any revision of our tariff legislation which may be made, care shall be taken to discriminate in favor of our own industries, and thereby promote the causes which are rapidly making America the controlling power in the finances as it already is the established leader in political thought.

The Democratic State Convention convened at Williamsport on the 28th of September, and nominated Orange Noble, of Erie. The platform adopted contained the following among

other resolutions:

Resolved, That we, the Democratic party of Penn

sylvania, in convention assembled declare:

1. For the preservation of the Constitution of the United States, home rule, freedom of elections, for resistance to revolutionary changes tending to consolidation or empire; against the election of any person to the presidency a third time, and against the presence of troops at the polls; against the appropriation of public money for any purpose but the support of Government, and against class legislation which despoils labor to build up monopoly.

2. That the Democratic party, as of old, favors a constitutional currency of gold and silver in all forms, and coalition with repudiators merits the condemnation of honest people. The refusal of a Republican

Administration to accede to the Democratic demand for a further reduction in the rate of interest on the

national debt subjects the Government to a needless expense of millions of dollars annually.

7. That no monopoly or exclusive right in the forces of nature, in grants of eminent domain, in the diffusion of information among the people by telegraph and associations for furnishing dispatches to the press, or the grant of privileges affecting the daily business of the citizen, can or ought rightfully to exist under our form of government. These are at all times to be subject to such legislative regulation and control as the rights and interests of the people demand. That the delegated power of Congress to regulate commerce among the States and the reserved power of the States to regulate the same within their borders should be forthwith exercised to prevent unjust discrimination by common carriers against individuals and localities, and all the provisions of the Constitution of Pennsylvania relative to the exercise and abuse of the corporate franchise and the duties of common carriers to the public should be enforced without delay by appropriate legislation. That all governmental power should be used in restraint of monopolies and not in aid of them, and simple and speedy remedies should be provided by legislative enactment by which any citizen injured in his business may, in State and Federal courts, by due process of law, have quick, certain, and adequate redress for corporate wrongs; that vested rights must be protected and respected, and great corporations warring between themselves to the injury of the public interests and their own shareholders must be regulated and controlled by wise and effective laws; that franchises, the property of the people, shall be granted and exercised solely for the public benefit, and subject to immediate and absolute forfeiture by due process of law when used

for oppression or extortion, or when otherwise abused. No corporation should be above the people or the law. We thus reaffirm the ancient doctrines of the Democratic party and most cordially invite our fellowcitizens, of whatever party, to join with us in carrying out the principles and policy we hereby announce, and to the advocacy of which we pledge ourselves until the right shall prevail.

The Greenback State Convention was held at Pottsville on the 15th of June. R. W. Jackson, of Mercer County, was nominated. The platform which was adopted by this convention denounces the aggregation of real estate by corporations, when not in actual use; the agents of money, commerce, and transportation; and claims that the transmission of intelligence should be made subservient to the Constitution, and that the yoters should demand the necessary statutes to keep these agents under the control of the people; denounces monopolies; censures the Legislature for its failure to pass the anti-freight discrimination bill; demands protection to American labor and produce; denounces national banks for their attempt to coerce Congress by withdrawal of their circulation; indignantly denies the charge of the subsidized press that the Greenback-Labor party favors an unlimited issue of currency, and declares that only such volume of currency as business requires shall be issued; denounces the national-bank system as legalized robbery; and indorses Weaver aud Chambers.

After the Republican State Convention, Charles S. Wolfe announced himself as an independent candidate for State Treasurer, and appealed for support to those Republicans who were dissatisfied with the party management. The election resulted in the choice of General Baily by a plurality of 6,824. The vote was as follows: Baily, 265,295; Noble, 258,471; Wolfe, 49,984; Jackson, 14,976; Wilson (Prohibition), 4,507; scattering, 168.

After the election the supporters of Mr. Wolfe, organized as the Citizens' Republican Association, announced their determination to continue their efforts, and issued an address which sets forth their objects thus: "It is the purpose of the Citizens' Republican Association of Pennsylvania to labor for the maintenance of the following principles, and the attainment of the following objects: The purification and preservation of the Republican party; the overthrow of bossism; the right of a fairly chosen and unfettered majority to nominate; the reform of the civil service; the elevation of the intellectual and moral standard of our officials-national, State, and municipal; and a ceaseless warfare against the spoils systemthat fruitful parent of the numberless political evils which menace the perpetuation of our republican form of government, and which led to the cowardly assassination of the Chief Magistrate of our nation."

Following is the population of Pennsylvania by counties, as finally returned by the census of 1880, and as reported in 1870:

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PERSIA, a country of Asia. Reigning sovereign, the Shah Nasr-ed-Din, born April 24, 1831; succeeded his father, Shah Mohammed, in September, 1848. The heir-apparent to the throne, Muzaffer-ed-Din, was born in 1854, and has two sons.

The area of Persia is about 1,647,700 square kilometres, or 637,000 square miles. The population is estimated at about 7,653,606, of whom 1,963,800 are inhabitants of cities, 3,780,000 belong to the rural population, and 1,909,800 are nomads. The population is divided, according to the religion, as follows: 6,860,600 Shiites, 700,000 Sunnites and other Mohammedan sects, 8,000 Parsees, 19,000 Jews, 43.000 Armenians, and 23,000 Nestorians and Chaldeans. In 1876 the revenue was estimated at 34,720,000 francs in money and 6,360,000 francs in grain, making a total of 41,080,000 francs, of which 31,000,000 francs are direct taxes and 5,000,000 francs customs. The expenditure amounted to 40,000,000 francs. The first regular postal service was opened in January, 1877. In 1879 the number of post-offices was thirty-five; of letters sent, 423,608; of postal-cards, 2,400; of printed matter, etc., 6,430 pieces.

The Kurdish troubles in the north of Persia seem to have been connected with the Russian advance in Central Asia and Armenia. The followers of the Sheik Abdullah, who proved more than a match for the Persian soldiers, were armed with Martini rifles, such as were captured from the Turks in the late war at Kars and Ardahan. The scene of the invasion was the great province of Azerbaijan, a portion of which projects in the form of a wedge between the Russian Trans-Caucasian dominion and Turkish Kurdistan, reaching nearly to Mount Ararat. The defeat of the Persian troops by the Kurds, who captured a number of cannon in the engagement, made the Kurdish invasion a serious matter for Per

* In 1878, from part of Luzerne.

+ For other statistics, see “ Annual Cyclopædia" for 1880.

sia. The Sheik Abdullah was aiming at the creation of an independent Kurdistan, and, it was stated, offered the sovereignty to Abbas Mirza, the brother of the Shah. This prince was the son of a Kurdish mother, and had lived some time in banishment. The Persians had more than they could do to keep out the Kurds, who make admirable infantry, and, armed with breech-loaders, in that mountainous country were a dangerous foe. But the more efficient Turkish troops were quickly brought into the field, and deprived the Russians of the opportunity, if one were sought, of occupying that desirable province, on the pretext of bringing assistance to the Shah. The defense on the part of the Persians also was much more efficient after the appointment of Ala-ed-Dauleh to the command of the troops. By July peace reigned in nearly the entire province. Austrian officers were employed to instruct and lead the troops, and considerable quantities of improved arms were brought from Austria.

The Shah some years ago announced to the powers that he had appointed as his successor to the throne his second son, Muzaffer-edDin, who is Governor of Tabreez, to the exclusion of his eldest son, Massud Mirza, the Ziles-Sultan ("Shadow of the Shah"), who is Governor of Ispahan. This act was in accordance with the Persian custom of making the son of the mother of highest birth the heir, as the Shah's second wife was a princess, while the first was of lower rank. The Zil-es-Sultan has administered the central provinces of Persia for several years, and by his extortions acquired great wealth. A large loan which he made to his father recently was given on the condition that he should receive larger powers than before. He is the more resolute of the two princes, and the enlargement of his authority which he obtained is intended probably to enable him the better to dispute his brother's title to the throne upon the demise of the present Shah. A conflict between the brothers

would take the form of a civil war between the north and the south of Persia. If Russia took the part of the northern claimant, Great Britain might be impelled to take sides with the other, and Persia be divided into two kingdoms dominated by the two great rival powers. The governorship of Kermanshah was conferred upon Massud Mirza in addition to his other offices, making him the ruler of more than half Persia.

Six great schemes for railroads in Persia have been proposed. The British scheme of an international railway from Scutari to India does not seem as near accomplishment as it did a few years ago. This route would lead through Bagdad, Ispahan, Yezd, and Bunder Abbas, and thence along the coast of Kurrachee. The English have proposed also to merely connect India with Persia, and Russia and Turkey have each planned to extend their railway systems into Persia. The Persians have projected a railroad net-work of their own, with international connections under their own control. In all of these projects the strategic and political aspect is of not less importance than the commercial, and the two can not be disconnected in railroad enterprise in the East. Four of the projected routes were to enter Persia from the west, and two from the east. The British operations in Afghanistan led to the discussion of a new route from India, which would have some advantages over the one along the coast of the Persian Gulf from Kurrachee. From the same port, at the mouth of the Indus, it would pass through the Candahar-Herat depression and reach Ispahan by the route north of the plateau of Iran via Meshed. The Afghanistan section of this railroad was begun during the British invasion of Afghanistan, and the line was completed to Sibi, half-way to Candahar. The Turks have a line built from Scutari to Ismeed, and under construction to Angora; while they are preparing to extend it to Sinope and Samsoon on the Black Sea. The British or anti-Russian scheme of an intercontinental railroad would have this line extended to Bagdad, and connected with a road from India. The extension of the Austrian railroads to Salonica, and the connection of Vienna and Pesth with Constantinople by rail, would join this trans-Asian line to all the capitals of Europe by means of a ferry across the Bosporus. The strategic necessities connected with the defense of India, which constitute the main argument in favor of the Euphrates Valley scheme with the British, are now fully met by the Suez Canal. The Russians are more active and sagacious than either the British or the Turks in their efforts to obtain railroad connection with Persia, which is the key to both commercial and political supremacy. The road from St. Petersburg into the Caucasus, which has been built some time as far as Vladikavkas, is advancing to Erivan, and a concession was obtained from the Persian Government to extend it to the

prosperous town of Tabreez; but the latter concession--which would bring the Russians close to the Caspian port of Reshd, or Enzellee, and the prime provinces of Ghilan and Mazanderan, and within striking distance of the Persian capital, Teheran, and would place Herat within reach-was canceled at the instance of the Disraeli Government. A scheme for a Persian railway from Tabreez, through Reshd, Teheran, and Ispahan, to Bushire on the Persian Gulf, was proposed by Baron Reuter, but encountered the opposition of both the English and the Russian Governments.

The Russians and the British are already rivals in Persia. The latter are attracted by the valuable trade of the country, and by the consideration that the overland routes to India lead through Persia. The English political thinkers who have not lulled themselves into a restful security, which even the blunt acknowledgment that Russia will meet British opposition in Europe with diversions on the side of India does not disturb, are now more than ever eager for the establishment of British control in Persia. Since the attempt to guard the road to India by way of Herat and Candahar, the only practical military route, ended in a fiasco, the voluntary submission or forcible subjection of Persia to a British protectorate seems the only safeguard against such diversions and their consequences. If the Russians obtain the ascendency in Persia, they can establish themselves in Herat and march at any time into India; whereas, if the British obtain the military control of Persia, they would possess a line of impregnable natural fortresses which command the Russian routes all the way from the Caspian.

The English have a preponderant interest in the commerce of Persia, and would soon acquire the political control which follows upon mercantile supremacy if they were not opposed by the more astute, vigilant, and aggressive political policy of Russia. When Russian and British influences are brought into contact and antagonism in Oriental courts and nations, the former seem destined always to prevail. The Russian policy, if less truthful and square, is oftentimes more humane, generous, and substantially just, and is guided by a perfect knowledge of the mind and character of the Oriental peoples, which centuries of contact can not give to the English. Persia is divided between English and Russian counsels, but the geographical position of Russia, as well as her active spirit of encroachment, and the intellectual affinity between Russians and Orientals, give to her a decided advantage in the contest. The Russian railroads already extend into the Persian dominions. Russia has acquired Ashurada, the most commanding Persian port on the Caspian, and has obtained the complete maritime supremacy on that sea. The military domination and commercial primacy which Russia now possesses in the northern provinces, which are the richest part of Persia, the abode of the

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