Congress. Year. 41st 1868 House. 41st 1870 House. 42d 1872 House. 45th 1877 House. 21st 1830 House. war, attacked the generalship of McClellan, and opposed Spaulding's legal-tender act. After the war he took an active part in the legislation connected with the reconstruction of the Southern States, was opposed to President Johnson's policy, and helped to pass the Civil 35th 1857 House. Rights Bill over his veto. In the Senate he was a member of the Judiciary Committee from the first, was connected with nearly all the leading committees, and chairman of those on commerce and revision of the laws. During the administration of President Grant, Mr. 1882 House. Conkling had much to do with shaping the policy of the Government toward the Southern States. He was a zealous supporter of the 46th 1880 House. President, and soon became the recognized leader of that section of the party which favored his renomination. In the National Republican Convention of 1876 Mr. Conkling was the candidate favored for the nomination by the majority of the New York delegation, and received ninety-three votes; but, in consequence of the opposition of the minority under the leadership of George William Curtis, the New York ballot was transferred to Mr. Hayes. In the proceedings growing out of the disputed election that followed, Mr. Conkling took a leading part. He was a member of the committee that framed the Electoral-Commission 40th 1867 House. CONKLING, ROSCOE, an American statesman, born in Albany, N. Y., Oct. 30, 1829; died in New York city, April 18, 1888. His father, Alfred (1789-1874), was a member of Congress from 1821 to 1823, judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York from 1825 to 1852, and minister to Mexico from 1852 to 1853. After receiving an academic education, Roscoe studied law under his father, and in 1846 entered the office of Spencer & Kernan in Utica. In 1850, on the resignation of the District Attorney of Oneida County, he was appointed by the Governor for the remainder of the term. In the same year he was admitted to the bar, and in 1858 elected Mayor of Utica. At the end of his term there was a tie between the two candidates for election, in consequence of which Mr. Conkling continued in the office another term. He was elected to Congress in 1858 as a Republican, and re-elected in 1860. He was again a candidate in 1862, but was defeated by Francis Kernan; but in 1864 he was once more opposed to Mr. Kernan, and was elected. He was returned for Congress a fourth time in 1866, but did not take his seat for that term, having been chosen United States Senator in January, 1867, an office which he held continuously till 1881. His term of service in the two houses, therefore, covered the most critical period in the recent history of this country -the exciting years just before and during the civil war, and the reconstruction period immediately following. His first work in the House was as a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia, of which he afterward became chairman. He was also a member of the Committee of Ways and Means and of the special Reconstruction Committee of Fifteen. His first important speech was in favor of the fourteenth amendment to the national Constitution. He early took an assured position in the House, made many vigorous speeches, and showed the qualifications for leadership that appeared so prominently in his later career. He was an active supporter of the policy of Lincoln's administration in the conduct of the bill, and advocated it in an able speech in the Senate, taking the ground that the question of the commission's jurisdiction should be left to that body itself. His absence from the Senate when the vote was taken on the Louisiana decision of the commission, was caused by his absence from the city. In 1880 Senator Conkling strongly advocated the election of Gen. Grant for a third term. About this time the division of the Republican party into two factions, popularly called "Stalwarts" and "Halfbreeds," became more marked, and their opposition more pronounced. Mr. Conkling and Mr. Blaine were recognized as the leaders of the factions. The personal enmity between them is said to have dated from a bitter controversy over a bill introduced into Congress by Mr. Conkling in 1866 providing for the reorganization of the army of the United States and looking to the abolition of the ProvostMarshal Bureau. The Half-breeds triumphed in the nominating convention of 1880, and Mr. Garfield was elected. When he took his seat in March, 1881, Mr. Conkling and his colleague, Thomas C. Platt, claimed the right to control the Federal appointments in their State. When the President appointed William H. Robertson, an opponent of Mr. Conkling, to the collectorship of the port of New York, the latter opposed his confirmation, asserting that he should have been consulted in the matter, in accordance with pledges made to him by the President. Mr. Garfield then withdrew all other nominations to New York offices, leaving that for the collectorship to be acted upon separately. Not being able to defeat the confirmation, Mr. Conkling and Mr. Platt resigned from the Senate and returned home in order to appeal to the people of New York, through the State Legislature, to vindicate them and rebuke the President by their prompt re-election. After a long and exciting contest, the matter was decided against them by the election as Senators of Warner Miller and Elbridge G. Latham. The latter received 61 votes to 28 for Mr. Conkling. Mr. Conkling sent the following letter to his supporters: The heroic constancy of the Spartan band which so long stood for principle and truth has my deepest gratitude and admiration. Borne down by forbidden and abhorrent forces and agencies which never before had sway in the Republican party, the memory of their courage and manhood will long live in the highest honor. The near future will vindicate their wisdom and crown them with approval. Please ask them all for me to receive my most grateful acknowledg ments. ROSCOE CONKLING. commission. He appeared for the Commercial Telegraph Company in its suit against the New York Stock Exchange and the Gold and Stock Ticker Company; was connected with the suit brought by the Bankers and Merchants' Telegraph Company against the Western Union, and was engaged in the Stewart will contest. In 1885 he spent three months in Europe. In the great storm of March 12, 1888, in New York (known as "the blizzard"), he walked from his Wall Street office to his club, near Twentythird Street, and from the effects of this exposure, added to those of a cold contracted at a hearing in the Stewart will case, he never recovered, the disease taking the form of an abscess at the base of the brain. Mr. Conkling received the degree of LL. D. from Madison University in 1877. His wife, a sister of Horatio Seymour, and his only child, a daughter, survived him. CONNECTICUT. State Government.—The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Phineas C. Lounsbury, Republican; Lieutenant-Governor, James L. Howard; Secretary of State, Leverett M. Hubbard ; Treasurer, Alexander Warner; Comptroller, Thomas Clark Secretary of the State Board of Education, Charles D. Hine; Insurance Commissioner, Orsamus R. Fyler; Railroad Commissioners, George M. Woodruff, W. H. Haywood, William O. Seymour; Chief - Justice of the Supreme Court, John D. Park; Associate Justices, Elisha Carpenter, Dwight W. Pardee, Dwight Loomis, and Sidney B. Beardsley. Finances. The balance in the State treasury on July 1, 1886, was $230,442.48. During the biennial period since that date the total receipts, including $1,034,803.08 from a sale of new State bonds authorized by the Refunding act of 1887 were $4,958,973.06, and the expenditures, including $1,030,000 paid for bords redeemed, $4,437,716.51, leaving a balance on June 30, 1888, of $751,699.03. Some of the items of expenditure are given in the following table: ITEMS. Sessions of the General As- State Normal School. Returning to private life, Mr. Conkling resumed the practice of law, settling in New York city. In 1882 President Arthur sent his name to the Senate for a place on the bench of the United States Supreme Court, in place of Ward Hunt, but Mr. Conkling declined. During his residence in New York he was engaged in many important cases, and the fortune of $200,000 that he left at his death was accumulated during those six years. In 1885-'86 he was counsel of the State Senate Investigating State prison... Committee appointed for the purpose of examining into the alleged fraud and bribery in the grant of the Broadway horse-railroad franchise by the Board of Aldermen in 1884. After the taking of testimony, which lasted about three months, Mr. Conkling and Clarence A. Seward made an argument, which resulted in the repeal of the Broadway Railroad charter. Mr. Conkling appeared for the Central Pacific Railway in several suits, and he wrote an opinion for this road in answer to the charges contained in the report of an investigating State Reform School. The largest sources of revenue for 1887 were from State tax collected by the towns, $698,355.22; from tax on insurance companies, $230,074.87; from savings-banks. $211,393.72; from railroads, $567,571.99; military commutation taxes, $103,045. For 1888 the receipts were $437,157.23 from the State tax; $231,775.63 from insurance companies; $223,985.70 from savings-banks; $641,724.79 from railroads; and $109,055.40 from the military commutation taxes. A reduction of the State tax rate from 2 to 1 mills caused the decreased revenue from the State tax in the latter year. The funded debt of the State on the first day of July, 1886, was $4,271,200. In accordance with the Refunding act of 1887, the 5per-cent. bonds of 1877, amounting to $1,030,000, were redeemed during that year and $1,000,000 of bonds bearing 34 per cent. interest were issued. The debt, thus reduced by $30,000 and by $600 of other bonds redeemed, stood as follows on June 30, 1888: Issue of 1865, unredeemed Issue of March 19, 1882, payable in 1908.. Total.... 1887 the largest class (62) in its history of thirty- Under the child-labor law of 1886, forbid$600 ding the employment of children under thirteen 500,000 years of age in factories, etc., a total of 1,173 1,000,000 children had been discharged by employers up 1,740,000 1,000,000 to September, 1887, but no perceptible increase of school attendance resulted therefrom. By $4,240,600 an act of 1887, the authorities charged with enforcing the law were also given power to place in school any children found by them unlawfully employed. Later in 1888 the Treasurer, exercising his power to redeem at any time the issue of 1887, called in $500,000 of that loan, paying for it out of the large surplus in the treasury. The telegraph companies in the State refused during the year to pay the full tax assessed on their gross earnings in the State, and there is a controversy as to the constitutionality of the gross-earnings law except when applied to business of the companies done wholly within the State. The companies claim that the tax is a regulation of interstate commerce when imposed upon their revenue derived from messages coming in or going out of the State. The Western Union Company has paid for 1888 a tax of $715.14. If a tax is due on the total receipts it would amount to $3,389.48. No legal measures to collect the balance claimed by the State bave been taken. Education. The amount of the school fund held by the State for the benefit of the common schools, on June 30, was $2,019,572.40. From the income of this, the sum of $116,119 was distributed in 1888 for the support of schools. This was about 75 cents for each child, the number of school-children enumerated in 1888 being 154,532. The income distributed in 1887 was $114,945, and the number of children of school age 153,260. For the school year 1886-'87 the following statistics are compiled: Public-school districts, 1,424; number of public schools, 1,628; number of schoolhouses, 1,655; average length of school year, in days, 180-18; graded schools, 361; evening schools, 26; estimated value of school property. $5,739,895.01; number of pupils enrolled, 125,794; number of pupils in private schools, 15,953; number of children in no school, 20,821; average wages of male teachers per month, $68.82; average wages of female teachers per month, $38.50. The total amount raised from all sources for support of the public schools in 1886-'87 was $1,793,369.19, and the expenditures were $1,768,371.06. The State Normal School at New Britain is in a flourishing condition, having graduated in Insurance. Four new life-insurance companies were licensed in 1887 to do business in the State, and two ceased to exist. The six standard Connecticut companies increased their assets during the year by $2,769,263 and their liabilities, except capital, by $2,236,160. Four life associations conducted on the assessment plan had insurance of $63,402,500 in force Dec. 31. 1887, of which $13,160,250 was written during the year. They paid losses of $657,593. The single accident company, the Travelers', received $2,102,258 in premiums and paid $943,760 for losses. Of the 113 companies engaged in fire insurance, ten stock and sixteen mutual companies are Connecticut corporations. The assets of these stock companies increased from $26,317.436 in 1886 to $26,989,632 in 1887, and the liabilities, including capital, scrip, and special funds from $18,574,374 to $19,621,398. The Connecticut stock companies now have a surplus of $18,318,324 as regards policy-holders and the mutual companies, $1,103,520. Banks. The number of savings-banks in the State at the beginning of the year was eightyfive, having assets valued at $107,896,912, and a surplus of $3,514,772. The deposits had increased during the year preceding by $4,765,113.87, making a total amount of $102,189,934.72. The number of depositors had increased 11,527, showing that the increase of deposits is not due to an accumulation of interest credited to depositors' accounts, There were also eight State banks with assets of $4,563,914.74, total surplus, $512,109.92; and eight trust and loan companies with assets of $4,430,445.08, surplus, $295,414.81. The number of national banks in the State at the beginning of the year was eighty-three, having an aggregate capital of $24,505,410. The surplus fund of these banks amounts to $6,908,034.74, and they hold as undivided profits $1,937,197.33. Their outstanding circulation, in common with all of the country, has suffered a reduction of several millions, the amount now being $8,698,693. They hold as individual deposits $24,478,665.09, and their total liabilities reach the sum of $70,295,835.20. There have been but two failures among the national banks of the State, the first of which, the First National of Bethel, paid in full. The latest is the failure of the Stafford National, of Stafford Springs. Since the origination of the national banking system, ninety-six banks have been organized in Connecticut, but thirteen have ceased to exist. During the year two national banks, representing a capital of $102,450, were closed, and two, representing a capital of $200,000, were organized. The circulation of the closed banks outstanding amounts to $50,169; and the circulation issued to the new beginners is $45,000. Railroads. In 1887, the railroad mileage of the State was increased by the construction of 11.6 miles of new road by the Meriden and Waterbury Company, making the total mileage in January of this year 1,159 miles. Upon the subject of abolishing grade-crossings, the Railroad Commissioners report that, during 1887, 41 petitions involving 70 crossings were presented to the board, all of them from the Consolidated Railroad. Over 60 hearings were given on these petitions, and orders made for the abrogation of 32 crossings on terms favorable to the respective towns interested. Thirty-seven petitions were pending at the end of the year, but the danger of a wholesale removal of gradecrossings, feared at one time during that year, has been averted by the conservative course of the board. Militia.—The last report of the Adjutant-Gen eral shows the total strength of the militia, according to the last muster, to be 2,513 officers and men. The number of men in the State iable to military duty is 82,591. Charities. At the State Hospital for the Insane there were, on June 30, 568 male and 724 female patients; a total of 1,292. This is an increase of 146 patients in two years, Between June 30 and the end of the year there was an unusually large number of admissions, bringing the total nearly up to 1,400, the limit to the capacity of the hospital. The trustees report the institution to be in a highly satisfactory condition; they oppose any further additions to the buildings, as there are already as many patients as can be satisfactorily managed at one institution. The Putnam Statue.-By a vote of the State Legislature in 1886, a commission was created and the sum of $10,000 appropriated for the purpose of erecting a suitable monument to Gen. Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary fame, who was a native of the State. Pursuant to this act, an equestrian statue was erected over the remains of Gen. Putnam at Brooklyn, a small town in Windham County, and on June 14 of this year, the unveiling and presentation ceremonies took place. Governor Lounsbury, in behalf of the State, accepted the memorial from the commissioners, a commemorative address was made by Henry C. Robinson, of Hartford, and other appropriate exercises were held. The State thus rescues from neglect the resting place of one of its distinguished sons. Political. The Prohibition State Convention, held at Hartford on August 1, placed in nomination the following ticket: For Governor, Hiram Camp; Lieutenant-Governor, Nathan Babcock; Secretary of State, Theodore I. Pease; Treasurer, George W. Kies; Comptroller, Edward Manchester. The usual declarations in favor of prohibition were adopted, together with the following: That the Sabbath should be preserved and defended as a civil institution without oppressing any who religiously observe the same on any other day of the week. That a uniform system of laws concerning marriage and divorce and social purity should be adopted. That the immigration of paupers and convicts should be prohibited. provided for by the adoption of the so-called AusThat the purity and freedom of suffrage should be tralian system of voting by secret ballot, and that only citizens of the United States should be allowed to vote in any State. The combinations of foreign syndicates or native sary products or to monopolize great tracts of land capitalists to control the production and sale of necesshould be forbidden. On August 14 the Republicans met in conlowing candidates without a contest: For Govvention at Hartford, and nominated the folernor, Morgan G. Bulkeley; Lieutenant-Governor, Samuel E. Merwin; Secretary of State, R. Jay Walsh; Treasurer, E. S. Henry; Comptroller, John B. Wright. The platform, omitting some unimportant features, is as follows: We approve the declaration of principles contained in the platform of the Republican party, adopted at Chicago. We are hostile to the theories of free trade and to the Democratic idea of a "tariff for revenue only." We believe that the unexampled prosperity of this country and the elevated condition of our people are due chiefly to the policy of protection which has been adopted and continued by the Republican party, and we therefore favor such tariff laws as will in the future protect American labor and industries against the ruinous competition of the underpaid labor of foreign countries. In this State the Republican party has put in operation the existing law restraining the sale of intoxicating liquors. That law recognizes our ancient theories of local self-government and places it in the power of every town to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liqlaw and pledge ourselves to such additional legislauors within its limits. We favor the principles of that tion as may from time to time be found necessary to suppress the evils of intemperance. We favor such legislation as will provide for the frage and an honest counting of ballots throughout compulsory secrecy of the ballot, and secure free sufthe country. We recognize the services and sacrifices of the veteran soldiers and sailors of the republic and favor liberal pension legislation in their behalf. The nominees of the Democratic State Convention held in New Haven on September 4, were: for Governor, Luzon B. Morris; Lieu tenant-Governor, John S. Kirkham; Secretary of State, Henry A. Bishop; Treasurer, J. Griftin Martin; Comptroller, Nicholas Staub. The platform approves the national ticket and platform, the tariff-reform message of the President, the Mills Bill, and the fisheries treaty, as well as the administration of President Cleveland in general. Upon State questions it says: The Democratic party again renews its demand for that privilege to which every voter is entitled, the secret ballot. Freemen will not readily accept the recent promise of the party that has in the Legislature repeatedly set aside their hopes, and defeated this important measure of protection against intimidation. We emphatically protest against the policy of extending to partisan boards, for party purposes, the authority to issue and control liquor-licenses. These boards, in justice to the people, should be non-partisan-not, as now, mere political machines used for the success of the Republican party. Too frequently the test of an applicant's fitness for license is measured by the benefit to be derived by the party which controls the boards. A fair choice of the voters of Connecticut expressed through the ballot-boxes, in the election of State officers, should be respected in Connecticut as it is in thirtyfour States of this Union. Our Constitution should be reformed and admit of an election of Governor and other State officers by a plurality of votes, as presidential electors are chosen in every State, so that a candidate lacking more than 9,000 votes of a majority, and more than 1,800 votes of the number received by his opponent, may not be treated as duly elected, and inaugurated. There was also a Labor ticket in the field, headed by A. F. Andrews. At the November election Morris (Democrat), received 75,074 votes for Governor; Bulkeley (Republican), 73,659; Camp (Prohibition), 4,631; and Andrews (Labor), 273 votes. Although the Democratic ticket received a plurality of 11,415 votes, it did not obtain a majority over all, which is necessary under the State Constitution for an election. The decision is therefore thrown upon the next Legislature, whose members were chosen at the same November election. This legislature will consist of 17 Republicans and 7 Democrats in the Senate, and 152 Republicans and 96 Democrats in the House, with 1 Independent. The Republican ticket will therefore be chosen. The vote for President was as follows: Harrison, 74,584; Cleveland, 74,920; Fisk, 4,234; Labor ticket, 240. The Congressional delegation stands 3 Republicans to one Democrat, against 3 Democrats and one Republican in the last Congress. CO-OPERATION. Each country has its special form of co-operative effort. In Germany it is the credit-unions, sometimes called the peoples' banks. These societies numbered 1,910 in 1883, and, in connection with nearly as many more co-operative societies of various kinds, had 1,200,000 members, with $50,000,000 share capital and $122,500,000 borrowed capital, and did a yearly business of $500,000,000. The credit unions resemble joint-stock companies, having among others the important additional features that the stock may be paid for in small regular payments, that every stockVOL. XXVIII.-16 A holder is liable for the entire debts of the bank as in a simple partnership, and that the money gathered from the stock and from funds borrowed by the unions is loaned to their members at 6 to 10 per cent. interest. This not only encourages saving, but enables a poor but bright mechanic to obtain at reasonable interest money with which to begin business. These credit-unions, which were founded by Dr. Schulze, of Delitzsch, Saxony, in 1850, have also grown to large proportions in Austria, 1,129 such unions, or 745 per cent. of all the co-operative societies of that country in 1881 being of this nature. In France, although many distributive societies are reported, and in Paris over seventy workingmen's co-operative societies are engaged in production, mostly on a small scale, the greatest success has been in profit-sharing, wherein the proprietors of a large manufactory, shop, railroad, or insurance company, market prices, a percentage of the net profits. give their employés, in addition to wages at Only a few of those that have tried it have abandoned the plan, which arouses the work→ man's zeal and increases his efficiency in such a degree as to restore to the managers, it is believed, a full equivalent for the dividend. Of the 98 firms in Europe, since grown to 104, which in 1883 thus shared profits with their help, 49 were in France, 18 in Germany, 12 in Switzerland, and 8 in England. Twenty-three had begun prior to 1870, and 33 more prior to 1880. In England the greatest success has been in distributive co-operation or store-keeping on the so-called Rochdale plan, to be briefly described below, which was brought to public notice by the Rochdale pioneers in 1844. At the end of 1887 there were in England and Scotland 1,348 such retail co-operative stores, with 858,237 members, £8,461,888 share capital, £968,175 loan capital, sales in 1887 of £22,343,651, and a net profit of £2,940,337. There were also 15 supply associations, selling at little above cost, with 63,841 members, £642,360 share and loan capital, and a trade of £2,754,264. There were also an English and a Scotch wholesale society, with a share and loan capital of £1,120,874 and sales of £7,274,494 to the retail societies. The 1,432 co-operative societies of all kinds in Great Britain reported at the last Co-operative Congress in 1888 had a membership in 1887 of 945,619, a share capital of £10,012,048, sales of £34,189,715, and profits of £3,193,178. The growth has been steady for a long time. To the surprise of all, 721 of 1,255 societies in Great Britain reporting in 1887 gave credit. At the twentieth annual Co-operative Congress in England in 1888, 67 productive societies were also reported, with 22,480 members, £651,369 shares, and £207,718 loan capital, a business of £1,574,145, and net profits of £59,500. There are no returns of the methods of dividing profits, but this defect will be reme |