own language, from those nations of Europe which sent upward of 2,000 immigrants to the United States during the past fiscal year, is as follows: Average United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Scandinavia. 6.4 8.2 27.9 28.1 39.4 50.9 3.6 39.9 23.2 Percentage of white native and foreign criminals, paupers, and juvenile offenders Percentage of white native and foreign-born criminals, paupers, and juvenile offen, ders, by pare: tage, 1890. The Massachusetts prison reports show the following criminals per thousand by nationalities: Germany, 3.6; Scandinavia, 5.1; Scotland, 5.8; France, 6.1; Ireland, 7.1; England, 7.2; Russia, 7.9; Austria, 10.4; Hungary, 15.4; Poland, 16; Italy, 18.2; native, 2.7; foreign, 5.4. In illiteracy the percentages were: Scandinavia, less than 2; Germans, less than 3; English, 5; Scotch, 6; Irish, 7; Greeks, 26; Russians, 41; Austro-Hungarians, 45; Italians, 55; Portuguese, 78. On December 13, 14, and 15, 1895, 1,000 arriving immigrants were examined at New York. Their nationalities and destinations are shown by the following table: FOREIGNERS IN OUR MILITARY INSTITUTIONS. According to a report of the Secretary of the Navy, May, 11, 1896, made in response to a Senate resolution, there were in the American Navy at that time 4,400 foreign born out of a total of 9,533 enlisted blue jackets, and 861 of the 2,017 marines were also from outside of the United States. The following figures showing the number of foreign-born soldiers who served in the Union army during the war, are taken front the second edition of J. S. Rosengarten's work on "The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States:" Ad valorem and Specific Defined. Ad valorem duty is a specified per cent levied upon the value of the goods imported. For example, the duty on a certain class of silk is 50 per cent of their foreign value. Specific duty is a specified sum of money to be paid on cach pound, yard, or ton. For example, wheat pays 25 cents per bushel regardless of its market value. Sometimes both duties are combined, as in the case of Wilton carpets, where a specific duty of 60 cents per square yard, and an ad valorem duty of 40 per cent on their value was charged. AMOUNT OF IMPORT DUTIES, COLLECTED PER CAPITA OF POPULATION FROM 1791 TO 1897. If each person in the United States during the several years from 1791 to the close of the year 1897 had paid their proportionate share of the import duty it would have ranged, as shown in the following table, from 52 cents, the lowest in 1814, to $5.23, the highest in 1872. The average duty per capita for 103 years was $2.35, while the average duty of the McKinley law was $3. KANSAS. "What is the Matter with Kansas?" A recent issue of Harper's Weekly tells what is the matter with Kansas. It says: "How many people in the East know that Kansas, in the production of salt, is surpassed by only two States in the Union-New York and Michigan? How many persons in the East know that what are said to be the most extensive zinc and lead mines in the world are in Kansas? How many persons in the East know that Kansas has produced as much as $4,000,000 of coal in one year, and that she has an unlimited supply of the product? In the East we are prone to call Kansas a "one-crop State," and that crop, until last year, was supposed to be corn. Wheat became king in 1897; but whether corn or wheat rules in Kansas, the prevalent idea has been that Kansas, however, diversified were her crops, was an agricultural State almost exclusively. The fact that her mining is worth from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000 a year is most astonishing to the visitor. Down in the southeastern corner of the Commonwealth, where most of the coal and lead and zinc mines are situated, the smoke of furnaces clouds the air as it does along the rivers in Pennsylvania, and the click of the miner's pick reverberates through the corridors of the coal tunnels as it does in a score of other States. In the southern central part of the State the steam from the salt manufactories arises in plants that cover many acres, and produce a quality of salt that is not surpassed anywhere. This wealth of coal and salt has been of great influence in the agricultural development of the State. It has increased the mileage of railroads, and it has saved the packing industry thousands upon thousands of dollars in freight rates upon salt from the East." KANSAS AND THE NEW BONDS. TOPEKA, June 14.-Kansas will take a large amount of the new Government bonds soon to be issued. Bank Commissioner Breidenthal says that all of the surplus cash in the State will be converted into the bonds. "Kansas bankers have more money than they can use under the law," said he, "and they will be only too glad to invest the surplus in bonds that draw interest." Under the law banks can only loan four times the amount of their capital. Many banks in Kansas have from ten to twenty times as much deposits as capital. For this reason a large amount of money must necessarily stand idle. The new Government bonds give the bankers an opportunity to put this idle money to some use. "Then there are thousands of farmers in Kansas who would rather have Government bonds than cash in bank. They will subscribe liberally towards the war issue of bonds. These same farmers are just patriotic enough to have taken the bonds even if they had drawn no interest. While only bonds of small denomination will find a ready market here, I venture to say that Kansas will lead all other agricultural States in the amount subscribed in proportion to population." LABOR LAWS OF UNITED STATES. Who Enacted Them? This great revolution, by which labor was exalted and the country freed from the curse of slavery, was accomplished by the Republican party against the fiercest opposition possible by the combined forces of the Democrats and their allies. THE COOLEY TRADE PROHIBITED. This law was passed February 19, 1862; amended February 9, 1869; and further amended March 3, 1875. President Grant, in his message of December 7, 1874, laid before Congress a recommendation for the enforcement of the law. The legislation on these several acts was accomplished by the Republicans in 1862, in the Thirty-seventh Congress, and in 1869, in the Fortieth Congress. PEONAGE ABOLISHED. This act was passed in Thirty-ninth Congress, when both Houses were Republican by a large majority, March 2, 1867. INSPECTION OF STEAM VESSELS. Passed during the Fortieth Congress, when the Republicans were in power in both Houses. PROTECTION OF SEAMEN. Passed during the Forty-second Congress, when both Houses were under control of the Republicans. It was amended during the Forty-third Congress, when the Republicans were in control of both Houses. INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE OF FOREIGNERS ABROGATED. Passed during the Forty-third Congress, when both Houses were under the control of the Republicans. ALIEN CONTRACT LABOR. Contract-labor law passed the House March 9, 1886. All the votes against the bill were Democratic. |