centre in the United States. Mountain streams furnish important
water-power, and the typical factory of Vermont has long been
a sawmill run by a water-wheel. The value of sawmill products
in 1905 was $5,888,441, and of planing-mill products $3,080,117.
Closely connected with the manufacture of lumber is the making of
paper and wood pulp, centralized at Bellows Falls, with water-power
on the Connecticut river and with the raw materials near;
the product was valued in 1905 at $3,831,448. Dairy industries
have rapidly increased in value: in 1905 the value of butter and
cheese was $6,416,434, more than any other single industry under
the census classification. If a less arbitrary classification be followed
the principal manufacturing industries would be stone manufacture
and textiles. The first marble quarry was opened in Dorset in 1785
and a second at Middlebury in 1805; and the first granite was
quarried in 1812. Barre is the centre of the granite business, and
the region about Rutland, especially Proctor, is the principal seat of
the marble industry. The product of stone manufactures in 1905
was $9,570,436. Vermont was almost the last of the New England
states to develop textile manufactures, though the manufacture of
woollen goods was begun in 1824. The greatest development was
between 1900 and 1905; the total value of textiles in the former
year was $5,407,217 (woollen goods, $2,572,646; hosiery and knit
goods, $1,834,685; cotton goods, $999,886) and in the latter was
$7,773,612 (woollen goods, $4,698,405; hosiery and knit goods,
$1,988,685; and cotton goods, $1,086,522). Other important
manufactures are: flour and grist mill products, foundry and machine-shop
products, furniture, patent medicines and compounds,
roofing materials, and scales and balances, manufactured especially
at St Johnsbury.
Transportation and Commerce.—Railway transportation is supplied to Vermont by parallel lines crossing diagonally every part of the state at about equal intervals and running in general in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and by lines running N. and S. respectively along the eastern and western borders of the state. The railway map of the state thus has roughly the appearance of a gridiron. The principal railways are: the lines operated by the Boston & Maine system, extending along the eastern border from Brattleboro through Bellows Falls, and St Johnsbury to the Canada boundary (Vermont Valley, Sullivan County, and Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers railways), with a line, the St Johnsbury & Lake Champlain railway, extending across the northern part of the state from Lunenburg to Maguam Bay; the Central Vermont railway (Grand Trunk system) which crosses the state diagonally from S.E. to N.W., connecting Burlington, Montpelier and St Albans and affording connexion to the north with Montreal and to the south over trackage shared with the Boston & Maine, with the New London Northern which is leased by this road, and the Rutland railway (New York Central system) extending along the western edge of the state and connecting Rutland with Burlington to the north and with Bellows Falls and Bennington to the south. These railways provide outlets for through freight and passenger traffic southward to Boston and New York, and to the north to St Johns and Montreal.
The southern part of the state was early opened to railways, the Sullivan County railway (operated by the Boston & Maine) having been opened in 1849; and in 1850 the state had 290 m. of railway; in 1870, 614 m.; in 1890, 991.42 m.; and on the 1st of January 1909, 1093.43 m. Water communication is afforded by Lake Champlain to the south, for seven months of the year, by way of the Champlain canal, via Whitehall, New York, to Troy and the Hudson river and the Atlantic coast, and to the north by way of the Richelieu river and the Chambly canal to the St Lawrence. The commerce of the lake consists principally of coal, wood pulp and building material, besides general merchandise. The only river with traffic of commercial importance is Otter Creek, flowing northwards into the southern part of Lake Champlain and having a navigable length of 8 m. to Vergennes, with a depth to this point of 8 ft. at low water. The commerce on Lake Champlain is carried on chiefly through Burlington, the port of entry for the Vermont customs district. The tonnage of the commerce of this port amounted, according to the reports of the United States army engineers, to 107,421 tons in 1904 and to 249,174 tons in 1908, of which in the latter year nearly 80% was lumber.
Population.—The population of Vermont in 1890 was 332,422; in 1900, 343,641; and in 1910, 355,956.[1] Of the total population in 1900, 298,077 were native whites, 44,747 were foreign-born, 826 were negroes and 39 were Chinese. Of the inhabitants born in the United States, 19,974 were natives of New York, 9675 were natives of New Hampshire and 9111 were natives of Massachusetts. Of the foreign-born, 14,924 were French Canadians, 10,616 were English Canadians and 7453 were Irish. Of the total population, 117,344 were of foreign parentage (i.e. either one or both parents were foreign-born) and 27,226 were of French Canadian and 20,228 of Irish parentage, both on the father’s and on the mother’s side. Of 147,223 communicants of all churches in 1906, the largest number, 82,272, were Roman Catholics, 22,109 were Congregationalists, 17,471 Methodist Episcopalians, 8450 Baptists, 1501 Free Baptists and 5278 Protestant Episcopalians. The principal cities are Burlington, Rutland, Barre, Montpelier (the capital) and St Albans.
Administration.—Vermont has been governed under the constitution of 1777, that of 1786 and that of 1793, with twenty-eight amendments, of which the first was adopted in 1828, the second to thirteenth in 1836, the fourteenth to twenty-third in 1850, the twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth in 1870, and the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth in 1883. The administrative officers of the state are a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a secretary of state, a state treasurer, and an auditor of accounts, elected by popular vote, and an inspector of finance, a commissioner of taxes, a superintendent of education, a fish and game commissioner, three railroad commissioners, and various boards and commissions, of whom some are elected by the General Assembly and some are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. All elections and appointments are biennial. The governor has limited powers of appointment and pardon and a veto power which may be overridden by a majority vote in each house.
The legislative department consists of a senate of 30 members, apportioned among the counties according to population, but with the proviso that each county must have at least one senator, and a House of Representatives of 245 members, one from each township. Since 1870 elections and legislative sessions have been biennial. The powers of the two houses are equal except that revenue measures must originate in the House of Representatives.
The judiciary is composed of a supreme court of seven members, a court of chancery, a county court in each county, a probate court in each probate district, and justices of the peace. The judges of the supreme court are elected biennially by the General Assembly, and all the other judicial officers are elected by the people. Sessions of the supreme court are held in each county once a year in addition to the general session which meets at some central place selected by the judges. The court of chancery is held by the judges of the supreme court, the county by a supreme court judge with the aid of two associates elected by the people of the county.
For the administration of local affairs the state is divided into 14 counties and 245 townships. There is no special board of commissioners or supervisors as in most of the other states, the county authority being the assistant judges of the county court. The assistant judges, the sheriff and the state’s attorney are elected annually by popular vote. The county treasurer is elected by the assistant judges. The more important township officials are a moderator, a board of selectmen, a clerk, a treasurer and a superintendent of schools. Any community containing thirty or more houses may, with the approval of the selectmen of the town, receive a separate village organization. Their officials are a clerk, five trustees, a collector of taxes and a treasurer.
All citizens of the United States residing in Vermont are citizens of the state. The right of suffrage is confined by the constitution to adult male citizens who have resided in the state for one year. Women have the right to vote in all elections relating to schools and school officers in cities, towns and graded school districts, and also the right to be elected to any local school position or to the office of township clerk. The original method of revising the constitution was adopted from Pennsylvania (see History), and it was retained long after Pennsylvania had abandoned it. Thirteen censors chosen septennially were empowered to suggest amendments and to call a convention to pass upon them. The censors, being elected on a general ticket, were always more progressive than the convention, which was chosen on the principle of equal township representation. In spite of the repeated recommendations of the censors, the convention refused to abolish the collegiate executive and the unicameral legislative system until 1836. Propositions to establish the judiciary on a more permanent tenure were also voted down in 1814, 1822, 1857 and 1870, and the state still elects its judges for two years’ terms. On its own suggestion, the council of censors was abolished in 1870 and the present method of amending the constitution was adopted. Every tenth year, beginning in 1880, the Senate is authorized to propose amendments, which proposals, if concurred in by the majority of the members of the House of Representatives, are published in the principal newspapers of the state. If they are again approved by a majority of each house in the next General Assembly, they are submitted finally to a direct popular vote, a majority of the votes cast being decisive.
Miscellaneous Laws.—A married woman may hold her separate property, carry on business, sue and be sued the same as if she
- ↑ According to previous censuses, the population was as follows: (1790) 85,425; (1800) 154,465; (1810) 217,895; (1820) 235,981; (1830) 280,652; (1840) 291,948; (1850) 314,120; (1860) 315,098; (1870) 330,551; (1880) 332,286. The increase between 1850 and 1900 was remarkably small.
