Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/797

OHIO 737 Illinois alone. The sheep-growing counties are supplied with the best breeds of sheep, and the wool of south-eastern Ohio has long been famous for unusual strength of fibre. The annual production of wool exceeds 20,000,000 lb, Ohio holding the first rank in this respect among the States of the Union. In the origination of agricultural 7iiachinery Ohio has taken a leading part, and in the present manufacture it easily holds the first rank, the value of the annual product exceeding $15,500,000, or one-fourth of the entire product of the United States. The average yield of wheat in the State has been doubled within the last ten years through the use of artificial fertilizers and improved methods of cultivation. An efficient system of crop reports is carried on by a State board of agriculture, and thorough control of the artificial manures sold in the State is maintained by constantly repeated chemical analyses. A State meteorological bureau also renders special service to the agricultural interest. Manufactures, Towns and Cities. The manufactured products of the State, according to the census of 1880, have more than twice the value of the farm products, reaching an aggregate of nearly $350,000,000. As a necessary result of the recent development of mining and manufacturing in Ohio, its cities and villages are gaining rapidly in population and wealth. Cincinnati, the largest city of the State and the eighth in the Union, had a popu lation of 255,139 by the census of 1880. The same census credits it with about 30 per cent, of the manufactures of the State, but the reports of its chamber of commerce give it a much greater total than the census tables. Cleve land, the second city of Ohio and the eleventh of the United States, had 160,146 inhabitants, Columbus, the State capital, 51,647, and Toledo 50,137. Dayton (38,678) and Springfield (20,730) in south-western Ohio, Youngs- town (15,435), Akron (16,512), and Canton (12,258) in the north-eastern quarter of the State, and Zanesville (18,113) in the central district are all thriving and ener getic cities. Government and Administration. All legislative power is vested in a general assembly consisting of a senate and house of representa tives. Senators and representatives are elected biennially. The executive department consists of a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a secretary of state, a treasurer, and an attorney-general, all elected for a term of tvo years, with an auditor, elected for four years. The supreme executive power is vested in the governor, who is com- mander-in-chief of the militia, and may grant reprieves and paruons. The lieutenant-governor is president of the senate. There is also elected triennially a State commissioner of common schools. For the control and superintendence of all public works a board of public works is created, consisting of three members, each elected for three years. There are appointed by the governor, by and with the consent of the senate, a commissioner of railroads and telegraphs for two years, a superintendent of insurance for three years, an inspector of mines for four years, a commissioner of statistics of labour for two years ; also a supervisor of public printing, a State librarian, an inspector of leaf tobacco, and a State inspector of oils for two years each, and three commissioners of fisheries for three years each. To investigate the whole system of public charities and the correctional and penal institutions of the State, eight per sons, four from each of the leading political parties, are appointed by the governor for four years each to constitute a board of State charities. The judicial power is vested in a supreme court, district courts, common pleas courts, probate courts, and justices of the peace; and the legislature may create courts inferior to the supreme court in one or more counties. The supreme court consists of five judges, elected for five years each. There are nine common pleas districts with three judges each, holding office for five years ; each district is divided into three parts, with one judge (and more if the legisla ture so provide) for each part. The district court is composed of the judges of the common pleas district together with one of the supreme court judges, any three forming a quorum. The original jurisdiction of the district court is concurrent with that of the supreme court ; each county has a probate court for probate and testamentary matters. Townships are supplied with justices of the peace. All judges and justices are elected by the people. Clerks of the courts are elected by the people also. The State is divided into two United States districts, a northern and a southern. Each district is divided into an eastern and western division. All elec tions are by ballot, and every sane male citizen, twenty-one years old and a resident of the State for one year next preceding elec tion, may vote. Education is provided for by taxation and funds arising from the sale of public lands. The insane, blind, and deaf and dumb are supported by the State. A sinking fund, sufficient for discharging annually the interest of the public debt and not less than $100,000 of the principal thereof, is provided from the proceeds of the public works, sale of canal, school, and ministerial lands, and taxation. The State at present is represented in the Congress of the United States by two senators and twenty-one representatives. The legislature of the State is empowered to lay off new or change existing counties. The electors in each county elect three commissioners, for three years each, who constitute the county board. They have the care of the county property, fix the taxes, regulate roads, and provide for idiots, lunatics, and paupers. The other officers are three infirmary directors, an auditor, a secretary of the commissioners, a recorder, a surveyor, a clerk of the court of common pleas, who is also clerk of the district court, each elected for three years ; also a treasurer, a sheriff, a coroner, and a prosecuting attorney, each elected for two years. In a county that has in it a city of over 180,000 population there is a board of control, consisting of five members, each elected for three years, which has a final action and jurisdiction in all matters involving expenditure of money. Each county must contain at least 400 square miles of territory. Counties are subdivided into townships, the power to do which resides in the county commissioners. Each township must contain at least 22 square miles, and be at least one election precinct. The officers are three trustees, a clerk, a treasurer, such constables as the trustees may designate, and an assessor, elected annually. The trustees oversee elections, provide for the repairing of roads, make regulations preventing the spread of diseases, provide for cemeteries and libraries if the voters deter mine to have them, and afford relief to the poor. Education. The Continental Congress in 1785, in an ordinance for the survey of the lands north-west of the Ohio, reserved lot number 16 in every township, equivalent to one-thirty-sixth of the township, for the support of public schools. These provisions did not apply to the Virginia military and Connecticut reserves, equal in area to about one-fourth of the entire State, nor to the United States military reservation, embracing nearly 4000 square miles. The convention that framed the State constitution in 1802 requested and obtained of Congress a concession of one-thirty-sixth of the lands in the Virginia and United States military reservations, and a like proportion for education in the Connecticut reserve, a portion of the latter, however, being set apart in the United States military reservation, the remainder from the public lands in the north western part of the State (1834). Prior to 1827 the only revenues obtained from such lands were of the nature of rents, and were wholly inadequate. In the year named a law was passed providing for the sale of the school lands, other laws also being enacted for the establishment of a fund for the support of common schools. The result of the sales is somewhat disappointing, since the en tire proceeds realized up to 15th November 1882 amount to but $3,686,511-56. This is known as the common school irreducible fund. The State early undertook to supplement the revenue thus acquired by a general tax ; the present law provides for a tax of one mill on the dollar. Opportunity for special levies was given as early as 1821 to district officers. At present the law authorizes every board of education to determine the amount of tax to be levied as a contingent fund for all school expenses, not exceeding seven mills on the dollar. As early as 1827 the legislature adopted the policy of making offenders against the laws contribute to the support of the schools by appropriating fines .collected to the school funds. This policy still continues. The receipts for school purposes in 1882 exceed $12,000,000 : State tax (1 mill) $1,580,263 51 Interest on irreducible fund, 1881 229,69271 From rents and interest due for sale of lands 20,739" Balance on hand, 1881 3,472,577-04 From interest and rent of lands, 1882 250,431-94 Local taxes, 1882 6,168,036-89 Sale of bonds, 1882 510,646 Sl Of 1,081,321 young persons of school age 751,101 are enrolled and 483,232 are in daily attendance. The school sessions average 31 weeks in the year, and 24,135 teachers are employed; the illiterates above ten years of age form only 4 per cent, of the total population. The total expenses for the common schools in 1882 were $8,820,914 -95. Higher education was not neglected by the first settlers of the State. In the Ohio Company s purchase two entire townships were granted, upon which the Ohio university was established. In the Symmes s purchase a township of land was granted, which when located served as the foundation for the Miami university. There are now 62 such institutions for learning in the State, em ploying 457 teachers, having 11,314 students, receiving $411,309 and expending $405,573, with a property valued at $6,203,691. XVII. 93