210
CONNECTICUT
biennially by a plurality vote, and meets at Hartford. There are 24 Senators and 255 members of the Lower House, making 279 in all: 87 towns have 2 members of the House each, and 81 have 1 each. This difference in membership is of historic origin, depending on the establishment of the town, except that every town which the decennial census shows to have 5000 inhabitants is entitled to 2 members. With the shifting of population, many old towns with two members each are now smaller than younger towns, allowed only one each. The result has been a demand from the larger towns for more representation. On the other hand, it has been contended that the town is the political unit under the Connecticut scheme of government, that one body is designed to be popular and the other representative, and that the two Houses of the National Congress, agreed upon in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 under the “ Connecticut Compromise,” illustrate the same scheme with the titles reversed. Several constitutional amendments have accordingly been proposed, including one for the plurality election of State officers. To elect these a clear majority of the votes cast was, in 1901, still required. Otherwise the General Assembly selects one from the two highest candidates for each position. Woman suffrage is permitted in school matters, but very few women vote. Local option prevails as to liquor-selling, and in 1899 there were 79 licence and 89 no-licence towns. The executive officers of the State, chosen biennially, are governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, treasurer, comptroller. There is also an attorney-general, elected once in four years. This office was established in 1898. State supervision is very general; 21 State boards and commissions having offices in the State House. In 1883 a State board of pardons was established; up to that time pardons had been granted by the General Assembly. Finance.—The fended debt in 1901 was $2,131,100, of which $495,000 was at 3^ per cent, and $1,636,300 at 3 per cent. From this should be deducted the cash in hand, usually from $500,000 to $750,000. Except for the military commutation tax of $2 per caput on male citizens between 21 and 45 years of age, the revenue of the State since 1890 has been collected by indirect taxation and almost entirely from corporations. The receipts for the year ending September 30, 1899, were $2,749,273, which, however, included the income of various funds. The direct tax laid upon the towns was suspended in 1891. A rapid increase followed in State expenditures, from $1,757,512 in 1891 to $2,550,080 in 1897—an increase of 50 per cent., while the income increased only about 30 per cent. In 1898 and 1899, however, the income exceeded the receipts by ample margins. While there is no direct State tax, citizens are taxed locally by the county, the town, the city, or the borough, and the school district. Many of the tax laws are antiquated, and the need of general revision has long been urged. Roads.—In 1895 a “good roads movement” began, under which in the first six years the State expended about $700,000, contingent upon contributions of about $500,000 from town and county treasuries. When the work began the highway commission reported 5558 miles of main roads and 8530 of side roads in the State—total, 14,088 miles. About 250 miles were improved between 1895 and 1901. Railways.—There are 1013-35 miles of steam railway. Of these all but the New London Northern, from New London to Brattleboro, Vt. (56'1 miles in Connecticut); the Central New England, from Hartford to the Hudson (67'25 miles in Connecticut); and the South Manchester, from South Manchester to Manchester (2’25 miles), are included in the system of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company, which controls 2047'19 miles, of which 887‘75 are in Connecticut. It controls all the rail routes between New York and Boston, and the entire Old Colony system in Massachusetts, and also practically all the steamboat lines on Long Island Sound. Between New Haven and New Rochelle, N.Y., where the line divides, the company has four tracks. The company has an authorized capital of $100,000,000, of which in 1899 about $55,000,000 had been issued. It had then 8654 stockholders, of whom 2620, holding $16,036,500 of the stock, were residents of Connecticut. The majority of its board of directors must be citizens of Connecticut. It reported 28,211 employees in 1899. In that year the railways of the State carried 50,269,468 passengers and 15,891,642 tons of freight. Efforts have been made for several years to abolish grade
crossings of rail and waggon roads, but in 1899 there still remained 988 of these death-traps. Other Means of Communication.—The first successful trolley road was established in Connecticut in 1885. In 1899 there were 31 companies working 462'92 miles of trolley, not counting sidings, and these roads carried that year 59,084,702 passengers. Their capital stock aggregated $12,715,948, and their bonded debt $10,608,800. They had 2465 employees. During 1899 the trolley roads injured 324 persons, and the steam roads 327. The trolley has brought wide outlying rural districts into close touch with the cities, and has connected centres of population, so as to make them practically one community. The store, the church, the theatre, and the farm have all received a new impulse from the movement. Besides the trolley, a “third rail ” electric system is being developed in Connecticut. The New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railway, at a power-house at Berlin, produces electricity, which is carried on a central rail between the rails of the road bed of one of its regular tracks. The power is taken up by a shoe that travels along the third or middle rail, and heavy cars on the solid road bed can make very fast time. The third rail operates between New Britain and Berlin, 3 miles, and between Hartford and Bristol, through New Britain, 17 miles. Electric lighting is very general, and in many instances water-power is utilized for this purpose. Manufactures.—The great demand for copper wire and for other parts of electric outfit has given an immense impetus to the copper and brass mills, which are the largest consumers of copper in the world, and are situated chiefly in the Naugatuck Valley in Waterbury, Torrington, and Ansonia. The State holds a leading place in the production of silk, woollen, and cotton goods, fire-arms and ammunition, edge tools, hardware, needles, bicycles, motorcarriages, rubber goods, thread, sewing machines, clocks, hats, silverware, knit goods, &c. Connecticut maintains its reputation for inventions, and for the skill of its mechanics. In 1900 the number of manufacturing establishments in the State (excluding 977 having a product of less than $500 each, but including 4630 classified as hand-trades) was 9128, with a total capital (including land, buildings, machinery, &c., but not capital stock) of $314,696,736. There were 9981 salaried employees receiving salaries amounting to $12,286,050 ; an average number of 176,694 wage-earners, receiving total wages of $82,767,725 ; and 9381 proprietors and firm members. The cost of materials (including mill supplies, freight, fuel, &c.) was $185,641,219. The added values of the products in the different establishments amounted to $352,824,106. If from this gross value be deducted, in order to avoid duplication, the value ($144,809,525) of materials purchased in a partly manufactured form—-where the finished product of one industry is used later as the raw material for another—the total net value of the products is found to be $208,014,581. The most important industries and the value of their products were : textile manufactures, $49,265,752 ; brass manufactures (including rolled brass and copper), $48,526,868 ; foundry and machine shops products, $18,991,079 ; hardware, $16,301,198 ; plated and britannia ware, $9,538,397. Banks.—There were, in 1899, 88 mutual savings banks, with deposits of $174,135,195 belonging to 393,137 depositors. Of these depositors 341,362 had each less than $1000 on deposit, whose total deposits amounted to $68,420,853. These banks do much to encourage thrift. They pay as a rule 4 per cent, interest on the deposits. In June 1900 there were 81 national banks in the State ; capital, $20,747,070 ; surplus and undivided profits, about $11,000,000; deposits, $42,700,000. There were also 8 State banks ; capital, $2,240,000 ; surplus, &c., $864,000 ; deposits, $6,726,563; and thirteen trust companies; capital, $1,317,800 ; surplus, $880,000, deposits, $7,420,608. The total deposits of all the banking interests were thus $230,982,366. Insurance.—The 8 stock fire insurance companies had in 1900 $10,250,000 of capital, $13,895,791 of net surplus, and $41,956,826 of assets, and insured about $2,700,000,000 of property. Besides these were 17 mutual companies with $2,000,000 of assets and $111,500,000 of risks. The fire losses paid by Connecticut companies in 1899 were $12,417,000. In life insurance, 6 companies with assets of $156,972,000, including $15,656,721 of surplus, were in 1900 insuring 356,661 persons for a total of $507,245,300. The assets of the fire and life companies of the State together exceed $200,000,000. It was in Connecticut that accident insurance was first undertaken in the United States. The deposits of the banks and the assets of the life and fire insurance companies aggregate nearly $475,000,000. Education.—Almost every town grew up around a church, and every town has also its school. Education has been an object of concern from the founding of the colony, and the State ranks among the first in this respect. Yale University, at New Haven, founded in 1701, has a total of 2542 students and a faculty of 271. Trinity College at Hartford, founded in 1823, reported for 1900, 137 students and 24 instructors. Wesleyan University at Middletown, founded in 1829, had 339 students and a faculty of 26. Common school education is compulsory between the ages of
