GENERAL FEATURES OF THESE INSTITUTIONS.

The cost of maintaining indigent patients at the asylums is charged to the counties from which they are sent, for the first two years, after which it is a charge upon the State. There was disbursed from the State treasury on this account during the fiscal year of 1882 the sum of $159,098. Patients, when able to pay, are charged for care at a rate annually determined by the trustees of all the asylums at a joint meeting; that rate for 1882 was $3.92 per week. Since 1875 the direct appropriations for support of the asylums have been but small, the current expenses being chiefly met by fees paid by individuals, by counties, and by the State, as already explained.

Any detailed description of these institutions is uncalled for in this work. It is sufficient to say that both are under first-class medical and business management, and have the adva tage of the most improved modern appliances adapted by the best of professional skill and expert knowledge.

PROVISION FOR A THIRD ASYLUM.

The crowded condition of the Pontiac and Kalamazoo institutions led the Legislature at the session of 1881 to pass an act authorizing the building of a third asylum, for which an appropriation of $400,000 was made, $50,000 to be raised by tax in 1881, $150,000 in 1882, and $200,000 in 1883. This institution has been located at Traverse City, among the northern counties of the State, at the head of Grand Traverse bay, and its construction will be commenced this year.

PENAL INSTITUTIONS.

THE STATE PRISON AND HOUSE OF CORRECTION.

Two penal institutions are owned by the State-the State Prison at Jackson, and the House of Correction and Reformatory at Ionia, the former having on Sept. 30, 1882, 636 inmates, and the latter 529. The earnings of the Prison have for some years been in excess of its expenses, so that no appropriations for its maintenance have been required. The House of Correction is still young, and its labor is not yet fully systematized, but in 1883 its current earnings exceeded its expenses, and it may now be regarded as also self-supporting. The industries of these institutions are managed under the contract system, the labor of their inmates being let to outside manufacturing establishments. The House of Correction is essentially reformatory in its management, and to it the less hardened class of criminals are sent. Much attention is also given to reformatory agencies in the Prison; the discipline there is not harsh, a reduction of the period of confinement can be earned by good behavior, the convicts are provided with suitable reading matter and with religious instruction, and provision has recently been made for a school of three hours' duration on each weekday evening. The boards of control of both are appointed by the Governor.

THE DETROIT HOUSE OF CORRECTION.

This is not a State înstitution, but is still a first-class penitentiary with a national reputation for enlightened and successful management. It was built and is controlled by the city of Detroit, but is subject to periodic inspection by the State authorities. It receives persons convicted of crimes not punishable by imprisonment at Ionia or Jackson, chiefly from the city of Detroit but also from many of the counties of Michigan. It also has contracts for the receiving of United States prisoners, and of con

victs from the newer States and territories which have no suitable. prisons. Its inmates thus range from those whose term of confinement is sixty days to those who are serving out life sentences. This institution in 1882 contributed $10,000 to the treasury of Detroit from the profits of its business, its chief industry being the manufacture of chairs. Much attention is given to the moral training of its inmates, and it may be said of the entire prison system of Michigan that it aims not merely to punish crime, but to make criminals better.

THE STATE BOARD OF CORRECTIONS AND CHARITIES.

This body, which consists of the Governor and four members appointed by him, was organized in 1871, and is charged with the general oversight of all the penal, reformatory, and benevolent institutions supported by the State. In connection with its work the Governor is also empowered to appoint an agent in each county, whose duty it is to look after all children who may be put out to places by either of the Reform Schools or by the State Public School, and also when children are arrested for vagrancy or petty crimes, if not incorrigible, to find places for them without the disgrace of a trial and sentence. The Board holds a common relation to the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, the School for the Blind, the State Public School, the Reform Schools, the Asylums, the Prisons, and the county alms-houses, and its reports have been the source of many valuable suggestions and the moving cause in some important reforms.

THE COUNTY POOR-HOUSES.

In this connnecti on the fact should be mentioned that more than fifty of the counties of the State maintain poor-houses for the reception and care of their paupers. These institutions, as a rule, have farms connected with them and are creditably managed.

PRIVATE CHARITIES.

All the principal towns of Michigan contain valuable private charities, supported by individual benevolence. They contribute materially to the care of the destitute and the relief of the afflicted.

GENERAL SUMMARY.

The cost of the public buildings of Michigan occupied by its various institutions and of its capitol, including the purchase of sites, construction, the making of permanent improvements, and current expenses, amounted on September 30, 1882, to $11,279,281. Including in the sum spent upon “Educational Institutions" the $5,853,693 paid up to that date from the State treasury for the support of the primary schools, the aggregate expenditures of Michigan for these purposes since its admission to the Union are given in this table:

Educational Institutions, including those of a Reformatory character

Penal Institutions.

Benevolent Institutions

Capitol buildings and offices...

Total.....

$11,947,602 51

1,450,730 86

2,130,710 81

1,603,931 45

$17,132,975 63

The institutions of Michigan are without exception well adapted to their purposes, thoroughly equipped and ably officered. Those of them which possess an educational or benevolent character must be reckoned among the important attractions which Michigan offers to settlers. All of them but the Reform School for Girls, the School

for the Blind, and the third Asylum, which are not yet completed, have been wholly paid for, and none of them owe one cent of debt. Those who hereafter become citizens of Michigan will enjoy their benefits without being called upon to share in the expense of their construction.

FINANCE AND TAXATION.

The State of Michigan is practically free from debt. While there are still outstanding $298,000 of its bonds bearing seven per cent interest and not due until May 1st, 1890, and $12,149.97 in bonds, etc., which are past due and now draw no interest but have not yet been presented for payment by their holders, the sinking fund of the treasury which consists of $298,000 of U. S. 4 per cent Registered Bonds, contains the means for the payment of every dollar of this indebtedness. Moreover, not only is the State able and willing to meet and cancel all its existing obligations, but it has repeatedly sought to purchase its bonds at a large advance upon their face value; these efforts have failed only because private owners have preferred to hold rather than sell, even at a premium, securities of such undoubted merit. Michigan only awaits the consent of its creditors to extinguish its entire State debt. For the payment thereof, both principal and interest, ample provision has been made, and it has thus already ceased to be a charge upon the tax-payers.

THE STATE'S CREDIT.

The credit of Michigan is of the first order. Its securities command large premiums in the investment markets of the world, in London and Amsterdam (where a considerable amount is held by capitalists who refuse to part with them), as well as in New York and Boston. Within three years the State itself has unsuccessfully offered for its outstanding bonds bearing six or seven per cent interest, an advance of from eighteen to twenty per cent upon their par value. No American community possesses a better financial reputation.

THE TRUST FUNDS.

The Trust Funds of the State are not a debt proper. They are composed of the sums realized by the treasury from the sale of the lands granted for educational purposes. The proceeds of these sales have been expended by the State as received, and their amounts have been placed to the credit of five different funds, whose inviolability is guaranteed in the constitution, and upon which the State will, as trustee of the institutions to which the grants were made, pay interest annually at a fixed rate for all time to come. On September 30, 1882, the amounts to the credit of these funds, not including the sums still due from the purchasers of the lands, were as follows: The Trust Funds.

For the regular payment of the interest upon these funds the constitution of the State makes ample provision by declaring that all the "specific State taxes, except

those received from the mining companies of the upper peninsula [an exception of slight importance], shall be applied in paying the interest upon the primary school, university, and educational funds and the principal and interest of the State debt in the order herein recited * *" These specific taxes are levied by the State upon certain classes of corporations, and in the fiscal year of 1881 came from the following

This sum was over $400,000 in excess of the amount required in that year to pay the interest on the Trust Funds and to provide for the principal and interest of the bonded debt. With the constant natural increase in the number of corporations paying specific taxes and the present extinguishment of the State debt, the proportion of this excess is reasonably certain to increase rather than diminish, notwithstanding the fact that the steady sale of lands granted for educational purposes will continue to add to the principal of the Trust Funds for many years to come.

THE STATE CANNOT CONTRACT DEBT EXCEPT FOR WAR PURPOSES.

Again, Michigan is not only free from debt by virtue of the facts (1) that its sinking fund, already realized, is sufficient to pay every outstanding bond, and (2) that it has made ample provision for the payment with the specific taxes of the interest on. all obligations not matured and of the annuities for which it is liable in the form of interest on the Trust Funds, but it cannot involve itself in debt in the future except in case of war. Its existing indebtedness was incurred in internal improvements in its early days and in the extraordinary expenditures made necessary by the civil war of 1861-5. By its present constitution it is absolutely prohibited from again engaging in schemes of internal improvement and from running into debt in any manner except to obtain small temporary loans to meet deficits in revenue or to provide the means for "repelling invasion, repelling insurrection, or defending the State in time of war.'

CONSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS AGAINST A STATE DEBT.

"

The sections of that instrument bearing upon that subject are as follows (article 14): SECTION 3. The State may contract debts to meet deficits in revenue. Such debts shall not in the aggregate, at any one time, exceed $50,000. The moneys so raised shall be applied to the purposes for which they were obtained, or to the payment of the debts so contracted.

SECTION 4. The State may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the State in time of war. The money arising from the contracting of such debts shall be applied to the purposes for which it was raised; or to repay such debts.

SECTION 6. The credit of the State shall not be granted to or in aid of any person, association, or corporation.