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TEN YEARS 
 
 OF 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 BY 
 
 RAYMOND L. BRIDGMAN. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers. 
 
 1888. 
 

 
 Copyright, 1888. 
 By Raymond L. Bridgman. 
 
 ) 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 I.— THE COMMONWEALTH, 5 
 
 II.— CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES, .... 9 
 
 III.— PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 10 
 
 Voting — School Suffrage for Women— Police — The 
 Judiciary — Business Matters — Forests and Ponds 
 — Commissions — The Civil Service — Race Dis- 
 tinctions — Towns — Defective Classes. 
 
 IV.— RELIGIOUS ADVANCE, 41 
 
 Congregational Churches— Roman Catholic Churches 
 — Instruction in Jails — Sunday Law. 
 
 V.— PUBLIC MORALS, 45 
 
 Betting and Gaming — Lotteries — Illustrations of 
 Crime — Opium — Children at Public Shows — 
 Gambling Dens— Divorces. 
 
 VL— EDUCATION, 50 
 
 The Poor Towns — Private Schools — School Dis- 
 tricts — Evening Schools — Physical Exercises — 
 Free Text-books — Industrial Training — Teachers' 
 Tenure — Truancy — Clark University — Illiterate 
 Minors — Libraries and Reading Rooms. 
 
 VIL— SOCIETY, 57 
 
 Gifts to Wives— Divorce— Abandoned Children- 
 Tramps. 
 
 3 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 VHL— LIFE AND HEALTH, 60 
 
 Food Adulteration — Water — Vinegar — Travelers — 
 Fires — Contagious Diseases — Self-injury — Chil- 
 dren in Shows — Cremation. 
 
 IX.— LABOR LEGISLATION, 72 
 
 Factory Laws — Weekly Payments — Arbitration — 
 Employers' Liability — Frogs and Switches — Wo- 
 men and Minors — Special Stock — Convict Labor 
 — Labor Day — Voting — Peoples' Homes. 
 
 X.— BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, 88 
 
 State Bonds — Savings Banks — Co-operative Banks — 
 Railroads — Insurance — Loan and Trust Com- 
 panies — Electricity — Gas — Insolvency— Agricul- 
 ture— Limited Partnerships— Payments by Instal- 
 ments — Checks. 
 
 XL— TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION, .... 109 
 
 Sixth class License — Liquor Transportation — Civil 
 Damage Law— Punishment for Drunkenness— 
 The Screen Law— Abuttor's Objection— School- 
 house Law— Sureties— Sales at Night— Election 
 Tj) a y S _Sales Forbidden to Certain Persons— Tem- 
 perance Text-books— Habitual Drunkards— Pig- 
 eon-holing Appealed Cases— Cigarettes— Liquor 
 Clubs— Riots— Common Nuisance— Forfeiture of 
 License— Prima Facie Law— Druggists and Apoth- 
 ecaries — Patent Ballot Boxes. 
 
 XII.— THE SUM OF IT ALL, 120 
 
TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 The truth that the state has not advanced beyond 
 its laws, and that its progress is to be seen in those 
 laws makes the study of them — and of the intelligence, 
 conscience and will of the state as seen in them — most 
 helpful in understanding the state's progress. To him 
 who has the vision to see through the laws, they are 
 more thrilling than fiction, for they touch the lives of 
 those who " stand out and take the thunder and light- 
 ning" of life's poverty and calamities as well as of 
 those who seek by the laws new means of protecting 
 themselves in the acquirement of wealth. 
 
 Every general law is an attempt to deduce from 
 what has happened (sometimes in only a few instances) 
 rules to govern what may happen again. The state's 
 foresight is the result of looking backward. It locks 
 the stable door after the horse has been stolen, but 
 because so many other horses are left. Back of the 
 laws are the suffering anc] loss on which they rest, 
 material or moral. In every line of the liquor laws 
 
6 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 has gone the costliest human experience, and into the 
 structure of the new employers' liability act went the 
 tale of much injustice added to injury, and even such 
 horrors as that of the brakeman, knocked from his 
 place at night in an icy cut among the Berkshire hills, 
 who was "picked up in baskets." Tragedy at every 
 point is behind the laws. They come close home to 
 the people, and in a large sense there is nothing that 
 can illustrate the progress of recent years like the laws 
 enacted during that time. 
 
 The life of Massachusetts for these years is not only 
 a concern to those who have shared it, but also to 
 those who are to shape its future, for they can act 
 intelligently only as they are familiar with its past. 
 That life will be of interest, either by example or by 
 warning, as the operations of its laws will show, to 
 those other parts of the Union which will in time have 
 her density and variety of population and her complex- 
 ity of industries. 
 
 These years show that the state does not believe 
 that it is governed too much, but rather that the state, 
 like an intelligent person, does all that it can to pro- 
 mote the perfect development of every part of its 
 organism. Hence, at every point where it sees that 
 some of its members are encroaching upon others more 
 than is for the good of the whole, there it interferes to 
 establish justice and to promote prosperity. The state 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH. 7 
 
 is continually extending its sphere of action and shows 
 no sign of a change in its policy. 
 
 In the state is more than is in any individual person. 
 In it is the will, the choice of right or wrong, and the 
 recognition of its obligation to make that choice. In 
 it is the prosperity or misfortune of eacn* individual 
 part, for as the state follows the course which gives to 
 each part full freedom to develop all of good there is 
 in it and represses every tendency of its individual 
 parts to injure each other, so will it attain its own 
 highest possibility and the highest possibility of each 
 of its individuals. In the state is the common sense 
 of all its parts united. Its intelligence is the sum of 
 the experience of its past, as comprehended and set 
 in the form of the present by its several parts. Its 
 will is the will of a majority of its parts, or the will of 
 the few impressed by their strength of self-assertion 
 upon the majority. Its laws are the expression of its 
 common sense, put into the form of its will, and show 
 both what it has had the intelligence to perceive and 
 the will to resolve to do. 
 
 Beyond the will of the state the community has not 
 progressed, whatever may be true of individual parts. 
 Beyond the laws of the state the community knows 
 nothing in that sphere where knowledge is to be car- 
 ried out in action. Up to the height of its laws, then, 
 has the community ascended and no higher. 
 
8 TEN YEAKS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 But the state has its weakness. Unworthy methods 
 are combined with worthy. Its laws are made by a 
 clash of interests or by a combination of good and 
 selfish forces. Hidden influences shape the making of 
 laws. The state is sometimes deceived by those who 
 wish to secure its powerful protection for their schemes 
 of money-making or political advancement. It is cred- 
 ulous when its confidence has not been betrayed. It is 
 incredulous of merit, when once it has been deceived. 
 It is slow to enact justice. It lives from age to age, 
 with the consciousness that its existence is eternal. It 
 is never in a hurry. It has no fortune to make, no 
 goal to reach within a given time. 
 
 In the following pages the chief lines of develop- 
 ment within ten years are indicated. During those 
 years it has been the privilege of the writer to be fam- 
 iliar with the legislation of the Commonwealth in the 
 process of formation and enactment, and he writes of 
 those things only which came under his personal notice. 
 No attempt is made to trace the lines which are com- 
 paratively of small importance, but only to show the 
 most salient features in the development of the charac- 
 ter of this person, the Commonweath of Massachusetts. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. 
 
 Only two constitutional amendments have been 
 adopted within the ten years. One, adopted in 1881, 
 provides that citizens of the state, honorably discharged 
 from the army or the navy of the United States 
 after service in time of war, shall not be disqualified 
 from voting if they are paupers. It marks no develop- 
 ment of the state, but is an expression of gratitude to 
 the defenders of the Union, a gratitude which had 
 already been liberally shown. The other, adopted in 
 1885, empowers the legislature to establish voting pre- 
 cincts in towns. Its object was to save travel and to 
 make voting more general. It has no significance as a 
 constitutional development. 
 
 It remains, then, the truth that the foundations of 
 the state were laid so broad and so deep that they 
 have given scope for all the growth of late years with- 
 out requiring a change. The constitution has been 
 preserved, too, it should be noticed, from any other 
 function than a general statement of the principles by 
 which the statutes are to be enacted. The distinction 
 between constitution and statute has not been obliter- 
 ated, and the less the former is changed the sharper 
 will be the discrimination between the two. 
 
10 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Voting — School Suffrage for Women — Police — The Judi- 
 ciary — Business Matters — Forests and Ponds — Commis- 
 sions — The Civil Service — Race Distinctions — Towns — 
 Defective Classes. 
 
 During the ten years the state has done much to 
 secure an honest expression of the will of the voters 
 at the polls, for no less than twenty separate statutes 
 have been enacted for that end. By the latest, added 
 care is to be taken in the registration of voters by 
 recording the christian name, initial and surname, by 
 giving full opportunity for registration, and by exam- 
 ination as to qualifications (1878, chapter 251), so that 
 every one entitled to vote may be easily identified and 
 that no one else may vote. The registrars of voters 
 in the towns and cities (1884, c. 298) are to be the 
 town or city clerk and " three able and discreet per- 
 sons, qualified voters," who shall hold no other office 
 or position under the local government. They " shall 
 equally represent the two political parties which cast 
 the largest number of votes in the Commonwealth at 
 the annual election next preceding their appointment, 
 and not more than two of them shall be of the same 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 11 
 
 political party." Any voter may make affidavit that 
 he believes the registration of any person to be illegal, 
 and such step shall be sufficient to require the regis- 
 trars to re-examine the case. If the registration is 
 illegal, the name is to be stricken from the list. A 
 false answer to the registrars is punishable by a fine 
 of thirty dollars. No voter can be registered without 
 the concurrence of three of the four registrars. The 
 assessors of taxes in each city, by July 15 each year, 
 must have street lists of the voting precincts prepared 
 to "show the names of all persons resident in each 
 dwelling and assessed for poll taxes." 
 
 No name can be added to the lists of voters after 
 posting, unless the applicant proves his claim in person 
 before the registrars. 
 
 In 1884 (c. 298) was made a full revision of the law 
 for registration, in which detailed provision was made 
 to prevent fraud, by publicity, by careful examination 
 of applicants, and by giving the registrars authority to 
 preserve order at their sessions. Care is taken to give 
 every voter his rights, but to allow no one else to vote. 
 On petition of at least ten qualified voters, a super- 
 visor from each of the two leading political parties may 
 be appointed by the governor to attend all sessions of 
 the board of registrars, and they are given the right to 
 take action for the purity of the voting lists. Any 
 registrar refusing or wilfully neglecting to require an 
 
12 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 applicant for registration to read and write before 
 registration may be fined five hundred dollars or im- 
 prisoned in jail one year ; and any registrar who wil- 
 fully prevents or seeks to prevent the registration of 
 a legal voter, or who registers a person not a legal 
 voter, or is guilty of any other fraud, shall be fined not 
 over three hundred dollars. Any person falsely pro- 
 curing his registration, or falsely representing himself, 
 or assisting in such act, may be punished for each 
 offence by three hundred dollars' fine and one year's 
 imprisonment. In 1887 (c. 432) provision was made 
 for removing one registrar, if necessary in order to 
 maintain the balance between the parties. 
 
 In 1884 (c. 299) the election law was again revised, 
 and detailed restrictions were enacted for both cities 
 and towns, in order to secure an honest vote. A new 
 feature of the law is that for a self-registering ballot 
 box. The boxes register and cancel every ballot which 
 is cast, and their use is under state supervision by a 
 board appointed for the purpose. 
 
 In the early part of the ten years, as had been the 
 custom previously, ballots were of any form, color and 
 marking which pleased the political parties respec- 
 tively, and some tickets with conspicuous markings 
 were used, so that it was perfectly easy to tell what 
 ticket a man voted. Much complaint was made of 
 this in the years when " bulldozing " was charged upon 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 13 
 
 republican manufacturers and upon the managers of 
 
 that party, which was at the time when Gen. Butler 
 
 was vigorously but unsuccessfully campaigning for 
 
 the governorship, and a law was enacted in 1880 
 
 (c. 92) to provide for uniform ballots. With slight 
 
 changes it was re-enacted in 1884 (c. 299), and stands 
 
 as follows : 
 
 "Sect. 27. No person shall print any ballot for use at any 
 election for the choice of any national, state, district, county, or 
 municipal officers, or shall distribute at any such election any 
 printed ballot unless such ballots are of plain white paper, in 
 weight not less than that of ordinary printing paper, and are not 
 more than five nor less than four and a half inches in width, and 
 not more than thirteen and a half nor less than twelve inches in 
 length, and unless the same are printed with black ink on one 
 side of the paper only, and contain no printing, engraving, device 
 or mark of any kind upon the back thereof. The names of can- 
 didates shall be printed at right angles with the length of the 
 ballot, in capital letters not less than one eighth nor more than 
 one quarter of an inch in height : provided, however, that any 
 ballot containing the names of less than four candidates may be 
 not more and shall be not less than six inches in length. The 
 name of any person appearing upon any ballot as a candidate for 
 any office shall not be repeated thereon with respect to the same 
 office. Nothing herein contained shall authorize the refusal to 
 receive or count any ballot for any want of conformity with the 
 requirements of this section." 
 
 The penalty for violating this section may be one 
 hundred dollars' fine and a year's imprisonment. The 
 penalty for illegal voting, by the same chapter, may 
 be three hundred dollars' fine or a year's imprison- 
 ment, and for altering or stealing ballots after they 
 
14 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 have been cast may be five hundred dollars' fine or 
 three years' imprisonment. 
 
 The growing temper of the people to insist upon 
 good order at elections is shown in the following, 
 (1881, c. 273) : 
 
 "During any town, ward, or precinct meeting, or any meeting 
 held for the election of national, state, county, city or town 
 officers, no person shall smoke or have in his possession any 
 lighted pipe, cigarette or cigar in any town hall, ward room, pre- 
 cinct room, or other voting place where any such meeting shall 
 be held ; and no person shall carry into any of such places of 
 meeting or keep therein any intoxicating liquor. 1 ' 
 
 Violation of the law makes the offender liable to 
 twenty dollars' fine, and to be removed by force and 
 kept in confinement until the meeting is adjourned. 
 
 In order to prevent the counterfeiting of ballots, of 
 which annoying instances formed the occasion of the 
 law, it was enacted (1885, c. 248) that 
 
 "The president, secretary and treasurer, or any two of such 
 officers, of any political committee may place or cause to be 
 placed upon the face of any ballot prepared by them for use at 
 any election a printed certificate signed with their names import- 
 ing that such ballot is the regular and genuine ballot of the polit- 
 ical party for the use of which it is prepared," 
 
 and may file it for public inspection with the city or 
 town clerk seven days before election, with notice of 
 its intended use. 
 
 For further accuracy in the votes for state officers, 
 congressmen, state senators and the chief county of- 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 15 
 
 ficers, a law was passed in 1882 (c. 28) authorizing 
 the governor and council to order new copies of the 
 records ; and, for the sake of publicity, it was also 
 enacted that the returns of the votes shall be published 
 in every daily paper in the state and in at least one 
 paper in every county where there is not a daily. 
 
 Chapter 74 of the same year requires the check list 
 in cities to be kept as long as the ballots are kept, and 
 chapter 260, 1882, forbids the counting of detached 
 " stickers " as ballots. 
 
 Candidates liable to be affected by re-counts of votes 
 are to be notified (1883, c. 42) of the time and place 
 of the re-count. 
 
 In 1885 was passed a law (c. 271) to enable a closer 
 watch to be kept over floating voters in hotels and 
 boarding houses who might or might not be legal. 
 Keepers of such places, as well as the masters and 
 mistresses of dwellings, are required to give full and 
 true information of the names of all persons residing 
 therein liable to a poll tax, under heavy penalties. 
 
 In the same year was enacted a law (c. 345) which 
 was stubbornly fought for by the democratic party for 
 several years in order to make it more convenient for 
 them to naturalize their voters. It extends the juris- 
 diction over naturalization cases to all courts with a 
 seal and clerk and with common-law jurisdiction, pro- 
 vided that the applicants are within the jurisdiction of 
 
16 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 the several courts, or (1886, c. 203) if not in the juris- 
 diction of a police, district or municipal court, the 
 person may go to the court nearest to the town in 
 which he resides. The law was well guarded to pre- 
 vent fraud, and its leading idea was to make it easier 
 for poor men to get their naturalization papers. A 
 section of the law prevented naturalized persons from 
 being registered within thirty days of naturalization, 
 but this was declared unconstitutional by the supreme 
 court and was repealed in 1887 (c. 329). 
 
 Primary declarations of aliens to become citizens of 
 the United States may be filed (1886, c. 45) in the 
 supreme judicial court and in the superior court at 
 any time. 
 
 Re-counts of votes at elections held in towns are 
 permitted (1886, c. 262) if statements representing 
 error are filed with the town clerk within six days of 
 election. The examination must be within eight days. 
 
 Defacing lists of voters is punishable (1887, c. 147) 
 by fifty dollars' fine or six months' imprisonment. 
 
 To carry out the constitutional amendment for pre- 
 cinct voting in towns, a law of 1886 (c. 264) allows 
 the selectmen to divide the town into precincts within 
 sixty days after it has been so voted by the citizens. 
 
 Long agitation of woman suffrage in various forms, 
 during which the proposition for general suffrage for 
 women made no perceptible progress, resulted, in 1879, 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 17 
 
 in the passage of a law (c. 223) giving women the right 
 to vote for school committees. Its chief section was 
 as follows, the words in brackets having been inserted 
 in 1881 (c. 191) : 
 
 "Every woman who is a citizen of this Commonwealth, of 
 twenty-one years of age and upwards, and has the educational 
 qualifications required by the twentieth article of the amendments 
 to the constitution, excepting paupers and persons under guar- 
 dianship, who shall have resided within this Commonwealth one 
 year and within the city or town in which she claims the right to 
 vote six months next preceding any meeting of citizens either in 
 wards or in general meeting for municipal purposes, and who 
 shall have paid by herself, or her parent, or guardian [or trustee] , 
 a state, county, [city or town] tax which within two years next 
 preceding such meeting has been assessed upon her [or her trus- 
 tees] in any city or town, shall have a right to vote, at such town 
 or city meeting, for members of school committees." 
 
 The registration laws for men were made applicable 
 to women, but the list of women voters is to be kept 
 separate. Details as to registration are further pre- 
 scribed by the laws of 1881 (c. 191) and of 1886 
 (c. 68). 
 
 These are the chief acts to reveal the development 
 of the state as regards voting and the precautions to 
 secure an honest vote and to check all dishonesty. 
 
 Police Laws. 
 
 In the police administration of the state changes 
 have occurred worth noting. In 1878 (c. 242), the 
 
 9 
 
18 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 44 state detective " force was reorganized, to have from 
 twenty-five to thirty members. In 1879 (c. 305) it 
 was abolished and the " district police " established, to 
 consist of not over two officers in each district attor- 
 ney's district, or sixteen in all. Their duties were 
 these : 
 
 "Said district police shall have and exercise, not only within 
 the district for which each member thereof shall be especially 
 appointed, but also throughout the Commonwealth, all the com- 
 mon law and statutory powers of constables, except the service of 
 civil process, and also all the statutory powers of police officers 
 or watchmen, and may be transferred from one district to another ; 
 and the governor may at any time command the services of said 
 district police in suppressing riots and in preserving the peace." 
 
 In 1885 (c. 131) the governor was authorized to 
 appoint four additional district police officers in the 
 districts he deemed best. In 1887 (c. 256) the force 
 was increased to twenty-two men. These police officers 
 have also been made inspectors of factories and public 
 buildings, as appears in the chapter on labor, and in 
 discharge of that function they have found their chief 
 employment. 
 
 In mentioning the police regulations of the state, 
 notice should be taken of the city of Boston, for a radi- 
 cal departure in the state's policy has been made in 
 respect to the government of the city. In 1878 (c. 244) 
 was passed a law to authorize the mayor of Boston to 
 appoint, " subject to the approval of the city council, 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 19 
 
 three able and discreet persons to constitute a board of 
 police commissioners in said city." This board was 
 given great powers over the Boston police and was 
 charged with the general administration of police 
 duties. But constantly increasing dissatisfaction on 
 the part of the people of the state with the government 
 of Boston, especially with the manner of enforcing the 
 liquor license law, led to a radical change in the police 
 management. By a law of 1885 (c. 323), the famous 
 " metropolitan police " act, it was enacted that : 
 
 " The governor of the Commonwealth with the advice and con- 
 sent of the council shall appoint from the two principal political 
 parties three citizens of Boston who shall have been residents 
 therein two years immediately preceding the date of their appoint- 
 ment, who shall constitute a board of police for said city, and who 
 shall be sworn before entering upon the duties of their office." 
 
 Full provision was made for the control of the police 
 by the new commission. The city thus lost control of 
 its own police, though it pays for them and also for the 
 three commissioners. The bill was not enacted till 
 after the most violent legislative struggle in the ten 
 years now under review. For three days there was 
 the most determined opposition, led by Boston demo- 
 crats. Filibustering of all sorts was resorted to and 
 everything done to gain time. The majority of the 
 legislature, which was determined to pass the bill, 
 gave the minority full benefit of parliamentary rules. 
 Obstructive tactics were employed to the full amid 
 
20 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 constant excitement. The strain on the speaker, Mr. 
 Brackett, was severe, but he maintained remarkable 
 courtesy and firmness. The bill was in charge of Mr. 
 Charles Carleton Coffin of Boston. Finally, on the 
 third day, the majority, thinking that they had rights as 
 well as the minority, held a conference during the recess 
 between the forenoon and afternoon sessions. A course 
 of action was decided upon, involving the suspension 
 of the rules under which the filibustering had occurred, 
 and it was adhered to rigidly in open session in the 
 afternoon. The bill was forced through the house 
 amid the protests of its opponents that the right of 
 local self-government was being shamefully trampled 
 under foot by the republican majority. The excite- 
 ment at the culmination of the scene was intense and 
 it was with the utmost difficulty that order could be 
 preserved. As soon as the minority saw that their 
 cause was lost, they formed in procession, headed by 
 Mr. Randall of Boston, and marched across the floor in 
 front of the speaker's chair, out of the house. They 
 held a meeting immediately in an adjoining committee 
 room and passed resolutions denouncing the bill and 
 the mode of its passage. Since then the metropolitan 
 police commission has been in power in Boston. 
 
 To aid in enforcing order in towns, the employment 
 of the police of cities was made possible (1880, c. 82). 
 
 For the maintenance of order on steamboats, munic- 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 21 
 
 ipal authorities may appoint (1880, c. 85) persons in 
 the employment of steamboat companies as police 
 officers. 
 
 The Judiciary. 
 
 Within the ten years marked changes have occurred 
 in the judicial system of the state, to the general end 
 of a more speedy attainment of justice. They have 
 been such as would be natural with the growth of 
 population and with the inadequacy of a smaller scale 
 to a larger community. " Original and concurrent 
 jurisdiction with the supreme judicial court in all mat- 
 ters in which relief or discovery in equity is sought, 
 with all the powers and authorities incident to such 
 jurisdiction," has been given to the superior court 
 (1883, c. 223). 
 
 In 1885 (c. 322) the jurisdiction of district and 
 police courts was enlarged to include " all crimes under 
 the degree of felony, except conspiracies and libels and 
 cases where a prosecution by indictment or information 
 is required by law," and in 1887 (c. 293) the jurisdic- 
 tion of municipal, police and district courts in certain 
 criminal cases was further enlarged to be concurrent 
 with that of the superior court. 
 
 For years an annual contest occurred in the legis- 
 lature over the transfer of divorce cases from the 
 supreme judicial to the superior court. Pressure of 
 
22 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 work upon the supreme court was the reason for the 
 change. The sanctity of the marriage relation, mak- 
 ing every divorce case worthy the attention of the 
 highest court, was the reason against it. But in 1887 
 (c. 332) it was enacted without opposition that 
 
 " The superior court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction 
 of all causes of divorce and nullity or validity of marriage, and 
 in such proceedings shall have all powers as to alimony, the cus- 
 tody of children or otherwise which the supreme judicial court has 
 heretofore had and exercised." 
 
 The superior court was enlarged the same year 
 (c. 31) from ten associate justices to eleven and by 
 chapter 420, 1887, any justice of the superior court, 
 after ten years' consecutive service, and being seventy 
 years of age, may resign and receive half pay for the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 A change in court practice is to be noticed by the 
 law of 1882 (c. 134), allowing a person arrested on 
 criminal process to deposit money to the amount of his 
 bail instead of furnishing sureties. 
 
 To prevent the defeat of justice through local pre- 
 judice, cases may be transferred from one county to 
 another by the following law of 1887 (c. 347) : 
 
 " In all actions and proceedings hereafter pending in the su- 
 preme judicial or superior court, whenever it shall be made to 
 appear to the satisfaction of any justice of the court, in which 
 such action or proceeding is pending, that by reason of local 
 prejudice or other cause the parties to such action or proceeding, 
 or either of them, cannot have an impartial trial in the county 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 23 
 
 where the same was commenced and is pending, the court may 
 on application of either party thereto, order such action or pro- 
 ceeding to be removed for trial to such other county as shall be 
 deemed most fair and equitable for the parties thereto." 
 
 An important departure was made in 1887 (c. 435) 
 in the law for punishing criminals by the "habitual 
 criminals " act : 
 
 " Whoever has been twice convicted of crime, sentenced and 
 committed to prison, in this or any other state, or once in this and 
 once at least in any other state, for terms of not less than three 
 years each, shall, upon conviction of a felony committed in this 
 state after the passage of this act, be deemed to be an habitual 
 criminal, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state 
 prison for twenty-five years." 
 
 This law is clearly due to the growing feeling of the 
 people that there is a class of criminals who are incor- 
 rigible, and that the safest policy is to confine them 
 where they cannot commit further crime. 
 
 Financial Matters. 
 
 We come now to that feature of public administra- 
 tion which is of a financial nature, regarding the busi- 
 ness of the state as that of a person, or regarding its 
 financial policy toward its citizens. In 1879 was the 
 period of retrenchment, when many salaries were cut 
 down materially. The state saw that many opportuni- 
 ties for petty errors against it existed, and by chapter 
 293 of that year the accounts of county officers were 
 
24 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 put under the supervision of the savings bank commis- 
 sioners as an auditing board. The commissioners were 
 required to compile the material parts of the annual 
 reports of these officers and to present them to the leg- 
 islature. They were also required to examine in detail 
 the books of every county treasurer at least once a 
 year without previous notice to him, and might order 
 such changes of method as they saw fit. By act of 
 1887 (c. 438) a special " controller " was provided for, 
 to be appointed by the governor, to audit accounts of 
 county officers, officers of inferior courts and trial 
 justices. 
 
 One of the most important acts of the ten years in 
 the financial policy of the state was that of 1881 
 (c. 304) relieving mortgaged real estate from double 
 taxation, once in the name of the mortgagor and once 
 in the name of the mortgagee. This measure was 
 stubbornly opposed for several years immediately be- 
 fore its final success in 1881. Immediately afterward, 
 in 1882 and in 1883, efforts were made strenuously for 
 its repeal, but they had small comparative support and 
 then ceased. The member who was the most con- 
 spicuous advocate of this measure, not disheartened by 
 defeat and sharing its success, was Mr. Hastings of 
 Worcester. The bill was his specialty and his effort 
 was a material factor in the result. 
 
 The course of the state in its relation to the debts of 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 25 
 
 cities is noticeable. It has seemed best to put the cities 
 under the restriction of law, so that they may not run 
 too much into debt. The purpose has been to prevent 
 a reckless city government from going too far in its 
 public expense. In 1885 (c. 178) it was enacted that 
 the taxes in Boston, exclusive of the state tax, and of 
 the sums required to be raised on account of the city 
 debt, should not be in any year over nine dollars on a 
 thousand on the average assessment for the previous 
 five years. The debt of Boston was not to be over two 
 and a half per cent, of the above valuation till Janu- 
 ary 1, 1887, and not over two per cent, after that. In 
 the same year (c. 312) the taxes in other cities, exclu- 
 sive of state and county tax and sums to be raised on 
 account of the city debt (except in Worcester, Lynn, 
 Gloucester and Brockton to January 1, 1889), were 
 limited to twelve dollars on a thousand and the limit 
 of debt fixed at two and a half per cent. 
 
 An enactment for the good of the farming popula- 
 tion was the law for the establishment of the agricul- 
 tural experiment station in 1883 (c. 212) to conduct 
 experiments to learn — 
 
 "First, The causes, prevention and remedies of the diseases of 
 domestic animals, plants and trees; Second, The history and 
 habits of insects destructive to vegetation, and the means of abat- 
 ing them ; Third, The manufacture and composition of both for- 
 eign and domestic fertilizers, their several values and their 
 adaptability to different crops and soils ; Fourth, The values, under 
 
26 TEN YEABS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 all conditions, as food for all farm animals, for various purposes, 
 of the several forage, grain and root crops ; Fifth, The compara- 
 tive value of green and dry forage, and the cost of producing and 
 preserving it in the best condition; Sixth, The adulteration of 
 any article of food intended for the use of men or animals ; and 
 in any other subjects which may be deemed advantageous to the 
 agriculture and horticulture of the Commonwealth. ,, 
 
 An annual report is required (1883, c. 105) of the 
 amount of money spent and of the results of the ex- 
 periments and five thousand dollars a year in quarterly 
 instalments, (1885, c. 327) is to be paid for the support 
 of the station. The board of control has been incor- 
 porated (1887, c. 31) and the corporation is in charge 
 of the property. Another financial venture of the state 
 in agriculture was offering a bounty of one dollar a 
 ton (1883, c. 189) for sugar beets or sorghum cane to 
 be used in this state in the manufacture of sugar. No 
 bounty has ever been claimed. 
 
 A development in municipal finance authorized by 
 the legislature (1884, c. 129) is that cities, for debts 
 already permitted by law, may issue notes, bonds or 
 scrip and sell them publicly or privately at not less 
 than par for the payment of their debts. 
 
 The state proposes to exercise a closer supervision 
 than hitherto over its manufactures and by a law of 
 1886 (c. 174) the Bureau of Statistics of Labor must 
 send to every manufacturing establishment a schedule 
 of inquiries as to " (1) Name of the individual, firm or 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 27 
 
 corporation. (2) Kind of goods manufactured or busi- 
 ness done. (3) Number of partners or stockholders. 
 (4) Capital invested. (5) Principal stock or raw ma- 
 terial used, and total value thereof. (6) Gross quan- 
 tity and value of articles manufactured. (7) Average 
 number of persons employed, distinguishing as to sex, 
 and whether adults or children. (8) Smallest number 
 of persons employed, and the month in which such 
 number was employed. (9) Largest number of persons 
 employed, and the month in which such number was 
 employed. (10) Total wages, not including salaries 
 of managers, paid during the year, distinguishing as to 
 sex, adults and children. (11) Proportion that the 
 business of the year bore to the greatest capacity for 
 production of the establishment. (12) Number of 
 weeks in operation during the year, partial time being 
 reduced to full time." These statistics are to be given 
 under condition of privacy, and are to be tabulated 
 and presented in an annual report to the legislature. 
 
 The state has seen fit to extend its care over the 
 forests (1886, c. 296) more than ever before and pro- 
 poses to punish by fine up to two hundred and fifty 
 dollars any one who wilfully or without reasonable 
 care sets fire to another's woodland. Forest firewards 
 are to be appointed by the selectmen in all the towns 
 of the state and they may suppress forest fires at public 
 expense. 
 
28 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 The state is disposed to re-assert its control over its 
 great ponds (1886, c. 248) and is also changing its 
 relative position regarding the use of water for domes- 
 tic or for manufacturing purposes. This appeared in 
 the famous Fall River case (1886, c. 353) where the 
 city was granted the right, against the strenuous ef- 
 forts of the manufacturers, to take water from North 
 Watuppa pond for domestic uses without payment. 
 The bill was passed through both branches by large 
 majorities over the veto of Gov. Robinson, and the late 
 Mr. Bartlett of Fairhaven made the law argument 
 which decided the success of the bill. 
 
 The state is becoming more careful of its birds and 
 game, and legislates more and more strictly for their 
 protection (1886, c. 276). 
 
 Commissions. 
 
 No change has been made by the state in its policy 
 of intrusting the enforcement of certain lines of action 
 to boards or commissions, but the number of such 
 bodies has markedly increased. In 1879 (c. 263) was 
 created the board of harbor and land commissioners. 
 In the same year was established (as a reorganization) 
 the state board of health, lunacy and charity, which 
 continued until 1886, when (c. 101) the health de- 
 partment was made a separate board. In 1879, also 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 29 
 
 (c. 294), was created the present board of prison com- 
 missioners. In 1885 (c. 813) was created the board 
 of registration in pharmacy and (c. 314) the board of 
 gas commissioners. In 1887 (c. 137) was created the 
 board of registration in dentistry. Each of these last 
 three boards reveals the state entering upon a domain 
 where it had not exercised power before, marking a 
 new departure in its relations to its citizens. In the 
 case of each commission, it was held that the good of 
 the public, its protection from incompetent pharma- 
 cists, from the expense of supporting rival gas com- 
 panies, and from incompetent dentists, required the 
 interposition of the authority of the state. In 1887 
 (c. 382) the gas commissioners were made a board of 
 gas and electric light commissioner^, with large powers 
 over gas and electric light companies. 
 
 The Civil Service. 
 
 In the record relating to public administration a 
 high place should be given to the act (1884, c. 320) 
 to improve the civil service of the state and of the 
 cities. Nothing like it had been enacted before, and 
 it was the direct result of the agitation for a civil 
 service law for the nation. Its object was twofold: 
 to improve the civil service, as stated in its title, and 
 also to strike at a system which was corrupting to the 
 
30 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 politics of the state and of its cities. A joint special 
 committee was appointed on the subject, of which Mr. 
 Thayer of Berkshire was chairman on the part of the 
 senate and Mr. Burdett of Hingham on the part of 
 the house, and each of these members had a prominent 
 share in shaping the bill and in carrying it through to 
 enactment. The chief features of the law are these : 
 
 " Sect. 3. No person habitually using intoxicating beverages 
 to excess, shall be appointed to, or retained in any office, appoint- 
 ment or employment to which the provisions of this act are ap- 
 plicable; nor shall any vendor of intoxicating liquor be so 
 appointed or retained. 
 
 " Sect. 4. No person shall be appointed to or employed in any 
 office to which the provisions of this act are applicable within one 
 year after his conviction of any offence against the laws of this 
 Commonwealth; and if any person holding such an appointment 
 or in any such employment shall be convicted of the violation of 
 any such law, he shall be immediately discharged from such 
 appointment or employment. 
 
 "Sect. 5. No recommendation of any person who shall apply 
 for office or place under the provisions of this act, which may be 
 given by any senator, member of the house of representatives, 
 alderman or councilman, except as to the character or residence 
 of the applicant, shall be received or considered by any person 
 concerned in making any appointment under this act. 
 
 "Sect. 6. No councillor, senator, representative, alderman or 
 councilman, or any officer or employee of either of said bodies, 
 and no executive or judicial officer of the state, and no clerk or 
 employee of any department or branch of the government of the 
 state, and no executive officer, clerk or employee of any depart- 
 ment of any city government shall personally, directly or indirectly, 
 solicit or receive, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or 
 receiving, any assessment, subscription or contribution for any 
 political purpose whatever; but this shall not be construed to 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 31 
 
 forbid such persons to be members of political organizations or 
 committees. 
 
 "Sect. 7. No person shall, in any room or building occupied 
 for the discharge of official duties by any officer or employee of 
 the state or any city thereof, solicit in any manner whatever, or 
 receive any contribution of money or any other thing of value for 
 any political purpose whatever. 
 
 " Sect. 8. No officer or employee of the state, or any city 
 thereof, shall discharge, or promote, or degrade, or in any man- 
 ner change the official rank or compensation of any other officer 
 or employee, or promise or threaten to do so, for giving or with- 
 holding or neglecting to make any contribution of money or other 
 valuable thing for any political purpose. 
 
 " Sect. 9. No officer, clerk or other person in the service of the 
 state or any city thereof shall, directly or indirectly, give or hand 
 over to any other officer, clerk or person in said service, or to any 
 councillor, senator, member of the house of representatives, alder- 
 man, councilman, or commissioner, any money or other valuable 
 thing on account of or to be applied to the promotion of any 
 political object whatever. 
 
 "Sect. 10. No person in the service of the state or any city 
 thereof, shall use his official authority or influence either to coerce 
 the political action of any person or body or to interfere with any 
 election. 
 
 " Sect. 11. No person in the public service shall for that rea- 
 son be under any obligation to contribute to any political fund, or 
 to render any political service, and shall not be removed or other- 
 wise prejudiced for refusing to do so. 
 
 "Sect. 12. No person while holding any public office or in 
 nomination for. or while seeking a nomination or appointment for 
 any office, shall corruptly use, or promise to use, either directly 
 or indirectly, any official authority or influence (whether then 
 possessed or merely anticipated), in the way of conferring upon 
 any person, or in order to secure or aid any person in securing 
 any office or public employment, or any nomination, confirmation, 
 promotion or increase of salary, upon the consideration or condi- 
 tion that the vote or political influence or action of the last named 
 
32 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 person, or any other, shall be given or used in behalf of any 
 candidate, officer or party, or upon any other corrupt condition or 
 consideration. 
 
 "Sect. 13. No city in the Commonwealth shall pay any bill 
 incurred by any official or officials thereof for wines, liquors or 
 cigars ; nor shall any city pay any bill for refreshments furnished 
 to any official of said city where the amount for any one day shall 
 exceed one dollar for each member of the government of said city 
 who certifies over his own signature to the correctness of the bill." 
 
 Other regulations were made in much detail for carry- 
 ing out the spirit of the law, and the commissioners 
 appointed under it report that it is in successful opera- 
 tion. Honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the 
 United States service in the war of the Rebellion are 
 exempt (1887, c. 437) from passing the civil service 
 examinations. 
 
 The Military, Claims, Race Distinctions, Towns, 
 Memorial Day, Parks. 
 
 Regarding the military arm of the government, 
 almost no advance has been made in the public admin- 
 istration. The militia law has been codified and im- 
 proved (1887, c. 411) ; the efficiency of the militia 
 under it has increased, but there has been nothing to 
 be called a new development. 
 
 The state has recognized its obligation as a person 
 to provide a method of passing upon claims against it, 
 and the superior court has been given jurisdiction of 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 33 
 
 them (1879, c. 255, and 1887, c. 246) whether at law 
 or in equity. 
 
 The state is not only just to its citizens, regardless 
 of color and race, but it is determined that distinctions 
 on such grounds shall not be made by its citizens 
 toward each other (1885, c. 316) : 
 
 "Whoever makes any distinction, discrimination or restriction 
 on account of color or race, or except for good cause in respect 
 to the admission of any person to, or his treatment in, any theatre, 
 skating rink or other public place of amusement, whether such 
 theatre, skating rink or place be licensed or not, and whether it 
 be required to be licensed or not, or public conveyance, public 
 meeting or inn, whether licensed or not licensed, shall be pun- 
 ished by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars." 
 
 This law grew out of discrimination against a person 
 of color at a skating rink in Boston by the proprietor 
 of the place. 
 
 It continues to be the policy of the state to promote 
 the incorporation of towns, as best adapted to advance 
 its own strength and to increase the prosperity of its 
 citizens. Within the ten years it has incorporated the 
 towns of North Adams (1878), Cottage City (1880), 
 Wellesley (1881), Millis (1885), Hopedale (1886), and 
 North Attleboro' (1887). It has also made cities of 
 the towns of Brockton (1881), Maiden (1881), North- 
 ampton (1883) and Waltham (1884). 
 
 As a token of honor to its sons in the Union army 
 and navy, the state has made May 30 a legal holiday 
 (1881, c. 71), to be known as Memorial Day. 
 3 
 
34 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 The fostering care of the state for what makes for 
 health and comfort and beauty is seen in its author- 
 izing the establishment of corporations to have charge 
 of public improvements of streets and parks, with 
 power to beautify and to protect them from injury 
 (1885, c. 157), such corporations to be the trustees of 
 the towns which vote to give their streets and parks 
 into their charge. 
 
 The Insane. 
 
 In that department of public administration which 
 relates to its insane citizens, the state has made 
 great changes, within the ten years, to prevent the 
 commitment of sane persons by persons who may 
 desire to be rid of them (1879, c. 195), to exercise 
 great caution in the commitment of the insane (1880, 
 c. 250, and 1886, c. 319), to provide for the care of 
 the insane (1886, c. 319), to place them in private 
 families (1885, c. 385), to allow cities with over fifty 
 thousand people to erect asylums for the care of the 
 chronic insane (1884, c. 234), and to establish places 
 of committal (1887, c. 346). In 1884 (c. 322) a homoe- 
 opathic hospital for the insane was established at 
 Westboro. 
 
public administration. 35 
 
 Juvenile Offenders and Neglected Children. 
 
 The state has shown added care for its juvenile 
 offenders and for its indigent and neglected children. 
 By act of 1879 (c. 64) juvenile offenders in Boston 
 may have their punishment remitted and be placed on 
 probation. Pauper children over four years of age 
 must not be kept in almshouses (1879, c. 103), but 
 must be put in some respectable family or in some 
 asylum, unless idiotic or otherwise defective, until 
 they can be cared for in some other way. They must 
 be visited at least once in three months, and must be 
 carefully treated. Foundlings and deserted children 
 under three years (1882, c. 181), who are state pau- 
 pers, are to be put in a proper family or other suitable 
 place, under the constant supervision of state medical 
 officers. 
 
 No child under twelve years (1882, c. 127) can be 
 committed to a jail or house of correction, house of 
 industry, or the state workhouse, in default of bail for 
 non-payment of fine or costs, or for punishment of any 
 offence not punishable by imprisonment for life. The 
 state board of lunacy and charity is to have the care 
 of such children, awaiting examination or trial, unable 
 to furnish bail. 
 
 State paupers, between three and sixteen years, may 
 be committed by the state board to the state primary 
 
36 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 school (1882, c. 181), and orphans or children of 
 drunken or vicious parents, under fourteen years, 
 growing up in vice, may be put under charge of the 
 state board until they are twenty-one, or for a less 
 time. 
 
 Every city and every town with over five thousand 
 people shall (1878, c. 217) make provision for the 
 care and education of its neglected children who may 
 otherwise grow up " without salutary parental control 
 or education, or in circumstances exposing them to 
 lead idle and dissolute lives." 
 
 Abandonment by a parent of a child less than two 
 years of age is punishable (1882, c. 270) by two years' 
 imprisonment, or, if death is the result of the abandon- 
 ment, by five years'. Persons who receive for board a 
 child under one year of age which they have reason 
 to believe to be illegitimate, are required to notify the 
 overseers of the poor, and the parents of the child are 
 required to give true statements concerning it to the 
 authorities. Imprisonment for a year, or one hundred 
 dollars' fine, is the penalty for violating the law. 
 Whoever unreasonably neglects to support his minor 
 child may be punished by twenty dollars' fine or six 
 months' imprisonment. 
 
 Reformatory Policy. 
 In dealing with the criminal classes the state has 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 37 
 
 made a new departure in several respects. In 1878 
 (c. 198) provision was made for an official to attend 
 the Suffolk criminal courts "to investigate the cases 
 of persons charged with or convicted of crimes and 
 misdemeanors, and to recommend to such courts the 
 placing on probation of such persons as may reason- 
 ably be expected to be reformed without punishment." 
 Means were provided for placing such persons on pro- 
 bation. In 1880 (c. 129) the law was extended to the 
 whole state, with ample safeguards for the system, so 
 that justice might be done and the person be returned 
 if the conditions of his release were broken. The 
 same year (c. 151) provision was made for releasing 
 women from county prisons to be employed in do- 
 mestic service, under contract by the prison commis- 
 sioners, for the term of their imprisonment, any woman 
 leaving such service to be returned and punished by 
 added imprisonment. Violation of a permit to be at 
 liberty voids the permit (1884, c. 152). 
 
 To encourage good conduct, in 1880 (c. 218) a 
 revised schedule was adopted for the reduction of 
 terms of imprisonment, if the conduct was exemplary, 
 in which the reduction promised was most liberal. 
 This was somewhat modified in 1881 (c. 141). By 
 act of 1881 (c. 90) women may be liberated from the 
 woman's reformatory prison when it appears to the 
 prison commissioners that they have reformed; but 
 
38 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 consent of the court, in case of serious crimes, must 
 first be obtained, and if the conditions of release are 
 violated, the woman must serve her original term. 
 To insure a sufficient term for the exercise of reform- 
 atory effort, no convict shall be sentenced (1880, 
 c. 114) to the Sherborn woman's prison for less than 
 one year. 
 
 The reformatory policy in regard to men, either 
 young or not hardened offenders, was put in force by 
 the state in 1884 (c. 255). The Concord state prison 
 was taken for a reformatory, and the older and more 
 hardened criminals were sent back to the old state 
 prison at Charlestown. A new system was adopted 
 in regard to the treatment and imprisonment of those 
 who were deemed subjects for reform, and the system 
 of sentences arranged with much detail. One of the 
 officers is an instructor, who "shall devote his whole 
 time to the instruction of the prisoners and the pro- 
 motion of their moral and religious well-being." The 
 system of conditional release is employed, and the 
 prisoners are carefully classified for purposes of re- 
 form. The sentence of imprisonment is based on the 
 following (1886, c. 323) : 
 
 " When a convict is sentenced to the Massachusetts reforma- 
 tory, the court or trial justice imposing the sentence shall not fix 
 or limit the duration thereof, unless the term of said sentence 
 shall be more than five years, but said convict shall merely be 
 sentenced to the Massachusetts reformatory." 
 
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 39 
 
 The state, in these ten years, has tended to become 
 more humane toward its prisoners. A lock letter-box 
 for communication by the prisoners with the principal 
 officer, or any director or trustee, is to be provided in 
 each penal or reformatory institution (1878, c. 276). 
 Punishment by the gag in any penal or charitable 
 institution is forbidden (1879, c. 181), under fifty 
 dollars' penalty. This grew out of a sensational case 
 of the use of the gag, and made much stir at the time. 
 Keepers of jails and houses of correction may spend 
 annually (1881, c. 125) one hundred dollars for books 
 and papers for their prisoners. They may also spend 
 (1881, c. 126) as much as ten dollars to help any one 
 prisoner when he is discharged from their custody, 
 either giving him the cash outright or its equivalent 
 in board, clothing, transportation or tools. A woman 
 agent may be employed (1881, c. 179) to help dis- 
 charged women convicts to obtain employment and 
 to give them such pecuniary aid as is deemed advis- 
 able. Women charged with crime, whose cases are 
 disposed of without sentence (1886, c. 177), may have 
 a payment for their benefit made to the Temporary 
 Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners. The law 
 for one hour each evening for instruction in reading 
 and writing, for inmates of the state prison, has been 
 enlarged (1886, c. 197) so that "certain schools for 
 instruction of the prisoners " may be maintained. 
 
40 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 The law in regard to serving cumulative sentences 
 has been made clearer (1884, c. 265) : 
 
 11 A person upon whom two or more sentences to imprisonment 
 have been imposed may be fully committed upon all such sentences 
 at one and the same time, and such sentences shall be served in 
 the order named in the mittimuses upon which such person is 
 committed. " 
 
 For the protection of women under arrest, and that 
 they may have the care of one of their own sex, a law 
 has been enacted (1887, c. 234) for the appointment 
 of police matrons in cities with over thirty thousand 
 people, and for a house of detention for women in 
 Boston. Says the law: "A police matron shall have 
 the entire care and charge of all women held under 
 arrest in the station to which she is attached." 
 
RELIGIOUS ADVANCE. 41 
 
 RELIGIOUS ADVANCE. 
 
 Congregational Churches— Roman Catholic Churches — 
 Instruction in Jails — Sunday Law. 
 
 Almost no development in religious matters, as 
 related to the laws, is found in the ten years from 
 1878 to 1887. So large has been the opportunity 
 already granted that the pressure of religious wants 
 against legal religious possibilities has scarcely been 
 felt. The most notable change is that which concerns 
 the growth of the Orthodox Congregational churches. 
 The historic organization has been twofold — the church 
 and the parish. But latterly has been developed the 
 policy of abolishing the parish entirely and of making 
 the church, the sole organization. At first this policy 
 was introduced by the incorporation of churches sep- 
 arately by special enactment. Thus there were in- 
 corporated the Broadway Congregational Church in 
 Somerville (1883, c. 269), the Highland Congregational 
 in Lowell (1884, c. 202), the Orthodox Congregational 
 in Ashby (1885, c. 177), the Union Congregational in 
 Wrentham (1886, c. 56), the Central Congregational 
 in Chelmsford (1886, c. 249), and the First Congrega- 
 
42 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 tional in Ayer (1887, c. 359). Near the end of the 
 session, in 1887 (c. 404), came the general law, whose 
 first sentence is: "Any chnrch now existing or that 
 may be hereafter organized in this Commonwealth, 
 may be incorporated according to the provisions of 
 this act." This provides a nniform method for the 
 incorporation of churches, and marks a radical depart- 
 ure in church history. Church members only can be 
 members of the corporation, and the historic parish is 
 wiped out in every church so incorporated. 
 
 A general law for the formation of religious societies 
 (1880, c. 21) provides the method by which ten or 
 more persons, male or female, in the state, may become 
 a corporation, with the powers and duties of religious 
 societies previously recognized. A method for the 
 incorporation of Roman Catholic churches has also 
 been provided (1879, c. 108), by which any such 
 church may be incorporated. The archbishop or bishop 
 of the diocese, the vicar general of the diocese and 
 the pastor of the church, respectively, or a majority of 
 them, and two laymen, members of the church, may 
 be incorporated as members of the church, with the 
 powers usual in such cases. 
 
 The law giving religious freedom to prisoners in 
 jails and houses of correction has been extended to 
 inmates of public charitable and reformatory institu- 
 tions (1879, c. 158), but the inmates of all public 
 
RELIGIOUS ADVANCE. 43 
 
 institutions may be required to assemble in the chapel 
 for such "general religious instruction, including the 
 reading of the Bible, as the board having charge of 
 the institution may deem wise and expedient." 
 
 "All religious societies shall be exempt from obtaining a 
 license required by the laws of this Commonwealth for public 
 entertainments, provided said entertainments are for a religious 
 or charitable purpose 11 (1880, c. 188). 
 
 The law for an annual election sermon before each 
 new state government has been repealed (1884, c. 60). 
 
 Churches and religious societies may appoint not 
 over five trustees, who may be incorporated and hold 
 funds in trust (1884, c. 60). 
 
 In 1887 was made a thorough revision of the Sun- 
 day law, showing how far the sentiment of the state 
 had changed as regards Sunday observance. The 
 whole affair grew out of the labor agitation of the 
 times. Certain barbers objected to shaving on Sunday, 
 and had recourse to the old Sunday law, which had 
 fallen into gradual disuse, to enforce their position. 
 The law was clear, and there was no course for the 
 courts but to convict upon the evidence presented. 
 Upon the announcement of the decision of the supreme 
 court, to which the test case had been appealed, the 
 police commissioners of Boston ordered the old law to 
 be enforced in regard to barber shops, sales of Sunday 
 newspapers by news-dealers, and other similar matters. 
 
44 TEX YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Thus the matter at once became of vital interest to 
 the whole community, and the revision of the Sunday 
 code by the legislature was made the subject of much 
 agitation. Finally an agreement was reached, and the 
 things formerly prohibited, but now permitted, appear 
 chiefly in this list (188T, c. 391) : 
 
 — "but nothing in this section shall be held to prohibit the manu- 
 facture and distribution of steam, gas or electricity for illumin- 
 ating purposes, heat or motive power, nor the distribution of 
 water for fire or domestic purposes, nor the use of the telegraph 
 or the telephone, nor the retail sale of drugs and medicines, nor 
 articles ordered by the prescription of a physician, nor mechani- 
 cal appliances used by physicians or surgeons, nor the letting of 
 horses and. carriages, nor the letting of yachts and boats, nor the 
 running of steam ferryboats on established routes, of street rail- 
 way cars, nor the preparation, printing and publishing of news- 
 papers, nor the sale and delivery of newspapers, nor the retail 
 sale and delivery of milk, nor the transportation of milk, nor the 
 making of butter and cheese, nor the keeping open of public 
 bath houses, nor the making or selling by bakers or their em- 
 ployees of bread or other food usually dealt in by them before 
 ten of the clock in the morning and between the hours of four of 
 the clock and half-past six of the clock in the evening." 
 
 The prohibition of unlicensed games, sports, plays 
 or public diversions upon Saturday evenings is also 
 removed, as is the prohibition of Sunday travel. The 
 railroad commissioners are authorized to allow the 
 running of such steamboat lines and of such railroad 
 trains on Sunday as, " in the opinion of the board, the 
 public necessity and convenience may require, having 
 regard to the due observance of the day." 
 
PUBLIC MOBALS. 45 
 
 PUBLIC MORALS. 
 
 Betting and Gaming — Lotteries — Illustrations of Crime 
 — Opium — Children at Public Shows — Gambling Dens — 
 Divorces. 
 
 In no degree have the laws for the punishment of 
 offences against good morals been relaxed, but the 
 record of the ten years shows that the state is ever vig- 
 ilant to suppress what it believes tends to the injury of 
 its citizens. In 1878 (c. 165) the registering of bets 
 and wagers and the buying and selling of pools " upon 
 the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed or en- 
 durance of man, beast, bird or machine ; or upon the 
 result of any game or competition ; or upon the result 
 of any political nomination, appointment or election," 
 or being in any way concerned with such practices, even 
 as owner or lessee of the property where they occurred, 
 were made punishable by a fine up to two thousand 
 dollars, or by a year's imprisonment, or both fine and 
 imprisonment. 
 
 Pigeon shooting for amusement or as a test of skill 
 in marksmanship, not including wild game, is punish- 
 able (1879, c. 187) by fifty dollars' fine and thirty days' 
 
46 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 imprisonment, one or both. Each of these two laws 
 was the result of occurrences which aroused public in- 
 dignation at the time, in consequence of their moral 
 corruption or their brutality. 
 
 In the interest of public morals any court of record 
 may exclude minors from the court room (1881, c. 274) 
 when the court thinks that the testimony may injure 
 the morals of the young, when the young persons are 
 not needed as witnesses or as parties. 
 
 The state says that her travellers shall not be an- 
 noyed by indecent language or behavior and makes 
 any offender in that respect punishable by thirty days' 
 imprisonment or fifty dollars' fine (1883, c. 102). 
 
 Persons present at games or sports in common gam- 
 ing houses, whether or not they were playing, may be 
 punished by fifty dollars' fine (1883, c. 120). The 
 mere fact of presence making them liable to punish- 
 ment is the restriction added last by the state. The 
 fixtures, furniture and personal property used in gam- 
 ing are all to be forfeited (1885, c. 66) upon conviction 
 of the persons using them. 
 
 The state, believing that any form of lottery, even 
 gift enterprises, is bad for the morals of the people, has 
 decreed (1884, c. 277) that— 
 
 "No person shall sell, exchange or dispose of any property, 
 or offer or attempt to do so upon any representation, advertise- 
 ment, notice or inducement that anything other than what is 
 
PUBLIC MORALS. 47 
 
 specifically stated to be the subject of the sale or exchange, is, 
 or is to be delivered or received, or in any way connected with, 
 or a part of the transaction. 11 
 
 The multiplication of cheap papers with illustrations 
 of violence and crime, and the profuse display of such 
 papers in shop windows, led the state, in 1885 (c. 305), 
 by a stringent enactment, to prohibit the circulation of 
 such papers among minors, saying: 
 
 "Whoever sells, lends, gives away, or has in his possession 
 with intent to sell or distribute, or otherwise offers for loan, gift, 
 sale or distribution to any minor child any book, pamphlet, maga- 
 zine, newspaper or other printed paper devoted to the publica- 
 tion or principally made up of criminal news, police reports, 
 or accounts of criminal deeds, or pictures and stories of lust or 
 crime, 11 
 
 or otherwise puts such publications in the sight or pos- 
 session of a minor child, shall be punished by fine of 
 from one hundred to one thousand dollars, or imprison- 
 ment not over two years. 
 
 " No deformed person who is a minor or insane, and no person 
 who has an appearance of deformity produced by artificial means, 
 shall be exhibited for hire 11 (1884, c. 99). 
 
 Certain highly colored reports in the winter of 1885, 
 
 regarding the frequenting of Chinese "opium joints" 
 
 by white people, and stories of excessive debauchery by 
 
 means of opium led to the enactment of the following 
 
 (c.73): 
 
 "Any person who opens or maintains, to be resorted to by 
 other persons, any place where opium or any of its preparations 
 is sold or given away to be smoked at such place, and any person 
 
48 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 who at such place sells or gives away any opium or any of its 
 preparations to be there smoked or otherwise used, and any per- 
 son who visits or resorts to any such place for the purpose of 
 smoking opium or any of its preparations, shall be punished by 
 a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in 
 the house of correction not exceeding six months, or by both such 
 line and imprisonment." 
 
 In the legislature of 1887, after representations by 
 some of the Boston members of the house of the low 
 character of some places of public amusement in the 
 city and of the immoral purposes to which, they were 
 made accessory, even by very young persons, it w^as for- 
 bidden (c. 446) to take any child under thirteen years 
 to any licensed public show or place of amusement, 
 unless accompanied by some one over twenty-one, 
 under one hundred dollars' penalty^. But the law does 
 not apply to shows or amusements occurring before 
 sunset. 
 
 In the same year, a particularly horrible murder in a 
 gambling den on Avery street, Boston, where the house 
 was "barred against the police, led to the law (c. 448) 
 that when any officer, empowered to serve criminal 
 process, finds that access to any place, which he has 
 reasonable cause to believe is resorted to for unlawful 
 gaming, is barred by any obstruction other than what 
 is usual in ordinary places of business, he shall notify r 
 the building inspector, or other proper officer, and the 
 obstruction must be removed at the expense of the 
 person in control of the building. 
 
PUBLIC MORALS. 49 
 
 One law has been passed (1880, c. 38), which some 
 people will doubtless regard as a step backward. It 
 repeals so much of an old law (1818, c. 171) as for- 
 bade smoking in the streets of Boston. 
 
 The state defends marriage by punishing those who 
 would make divorce easy. In 1882 (c. 194) a law 
 was passed for complete statistics of divorces to be re- 
 turned to the secretary of state by clerks of courts an- 
 nually. In 1886 (c. 342), knowingly procuring or 
 assisting to procure any fraudulent divorce was made 
 punishable by two hundred dollars' fine, or six months' 
 imprisonment, and in 1887 (c. 320) the same penal- 
 ties were enacted for any one who "writes, prints or 
 publishes, or solicits another to write, print or pub- 
 lish, any notice, circular or advertisement soliciting 
 employment in the business of procuring divorces, or 
 offering inducements for the purpose of procuring such 
 employment." 
 4 
 
50 TEN YEABS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The Poor Towns— Private Schools— School Districts — 
 Evening Schools — Physical Exercises — Free Text Books 
 — Industrial Training — Teachers' Tenure — Truancy 
 — Clark University — Illiterate Minors — Libraries and 
 Readlng Rooms. 
 
 During the ten years ended with the legislature of 
 1887, Massachusetts has made but little change in her 
 educational system. Previous laws have been carried 
 out and new legislation has been unsuccessfully at- 
 tempted for the better education of the children of the 
 sparsely inhabited country districts. A readjustment 
 of the distribution of the school fund has been the 
 means proposed for such aid, and an elaborate plan has 
 been presented by the secretary of the state board of 
 education, Mr. John W. Dickinson, who has given 
 much study to the problem, but it has not yet been 
 adopted. Partial relief is afforded to the poorer towns 
 by the latest law (1884, c 22) for distributing one 
 half of the annual income of the school fund, as follows : 
 
 " Eveiy town complying with all laws in force relating to the 
 distribution of said income, and whose valuation of real and per- 
 sonal estate, as shown by the last returns thereof, does not exceed 
 
EDUCATION. 51 
 
 one half million dollars, shall annually receive three hundred 
 dollars ; every such town whose valuation is more than one half 
 million dollars, and does not exceed one million dollars, shall 
 receive two hundred dollars ; every such town whose valuation 
 is more than one million and does not exceed three million dol- 
 lars, shall receive one hundred and fifty dollars. The remainder 
 of said half shall be distributed to all the cities and towns whose 
 valuation does not exceed ten million dollars, in proportion to 
 the number of persons between five and fifteen years of age 
 belonging to each." 
 
 Of late there has been popular interest over the 
 growth of Roman Catholic parochial schools, which, as 
 such, are not recognized by law, but are included in the 
 general class of "private schools." In 1878 (c. 171) it 
 was enacted that — 
 
 " School committees shall approve private schools in their 
 respective localities only when satisfactory evidence is afforded 
 them that the teaching in such schools corresponds in thorough- 
 ness and efficiency to the teaching in the public schools, and 
 that the progress made by the pupils in studies required by law 
 is equal to the progress made during the same time in the public 
 schools ; and such teaching shall be in the English language." 
 
 The old school district system, with its sentimental 
 but unfortunate association with the historic "little red 
 school-house," was the subject of this enactment in 
 1882 (c. 219): "The school district system in this 
 Commonwealth is hereby abolished," the act to take 
 effect January 1, 1883. Towns had previously (1873) 
 been empowered to abolish school districts and many 
 had done so, for it was the experience of many educa- 
 
52 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 tors that the district system caused evils which were 
 lightened or removed by town management. 
 
 For the better efficiency of the school system, the 
 state enacted (1879, c. 21) that any one in control of 
 a child between eight and fourteen years of age who 
 withheld information sought by a school committee or 
 its agents should be punishable by a fine of twenty dol- 
 lars or thirty days' imprisonment. 
 
 For the benefit of those anxious for an education who 
 cannot attend day schools, the state enacted (1883, 
 c. 174) that — 
 
 " Every town and city having ten thousand or more inhabitants 
 shall establish and maintain, in addition to the schools required 
 by laAV to be maintained therein, evening schools for the instruc- 
 tion of persons over twelve years of age in orthography, reading, 
 writing, geography, arithmetic, drawing, the history of the United 
 States, and good behavior. Such other branches of learning may 
 be tauffht in such schools as the school committee of the town 
 shall deem expedient." 
 
 The school committee has supervision of such schools. 
 In 1886 (c. 236) the system was extended so that 
 every city of fifty thousand people and over must, upon 
 petition of at least fifty residents over fourteen years of 
 age, desiring and competent to pursue high school 
 studies, and so certifying, maintain an evening high 
 school. 
 
 For the better physical development of the pupils, 
 exercises are permitted (1881, c. 193) which may — 
 
EDUCATION. 53 
 
 " — at the discretion of the committee, include calisthenic, gym- 
 nastic and military drill, provided that no special instructors shall 
 be employed to teach gymnastics, calisthenics, or military drill, 
 except by a two thirds vote of the committee present and voting 
 thereon." 
 
 After long agitation and excited debate in the legis- 
 lature, and without success at first, the law for free text- 
 books (1884, c. 103) was enacted. Its purpose was 
 that poor children might be on an equality with the 
 well-to-do and that instruction might not be hindered 
 for lack of books. Its essential words are these : 
 
 " The school committee of every city and town shall purchase, 
 at the expense of such city or town, text-books and other school 
 supplies used in the public schools ; and said text-books and sup- 
 plies shall be loaned to the pupils of said public schools free of 
 charge, subject to such rules and regulations as to care and cus- 
 tody as the school committee may prescribe." 
 
 The next year a law was passed (c. 161) by which 
 school committees are allowed to provide, at the public 
 expense, such apparatus, books of reference and other 
 means of illustration for the schools as they may deem 
 necessary. 
 
 The tendency of the times toward industrial training 
 in the public schools appears in the law of 1884 (c. 69) 
 for instruction in the elementary use of hand tools. 
 This instruction shall be given " in all the public schools 
 in which the school committee may deem it expedient," 
 the tools to be free of cost, the same as the text-books. 
 
 The agitation for a more secure tenure of office for 
 
51 TEX YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 public school teachers resulted in the permissive law 
 of 1886 (c. 313): 
 
 " The school committee of any city or town may elect any duly 
 qualified person to serve as a teacher in the public schools of 
 such city or town during the pleasure of such committee : pro- 
 vided, such person has served as a teacher in the" public schools 
 of such city or town for a period of not less than one year." 
 
 The laws against truancy have been strengthened 
 by one (1885, c. 71) to punish, by fine of from twenty 
 to fifty dollars, any one who, after notice from a truant 
 officer to refrain, entices in any manner any child to 
 truancy. 
 
 A notable educational event of the decade has been 
 the incorporation of Clark University in Worcester 
 (1887, c. 133), upon a plan equal in scope to Harvard 
 University. Its incorporators and purposes are thus 
 stated in the act, the first corporator mentioned being 
 the one who gives the university its name and a liberal 
 endowment of over a million dollars : 
 
 "Jonas G. Clark, Stephen Salisbury, Charles Devens, George 
 F. Hoar, William W. Rice, Joseph Sargent, John D. Washburn, 
 Frank P. Goulding and George Swan, all of the city of Worcester 
 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and their successors, are 
 hereby made a corporation by the name of the Trustees of Clark 
 University; to be located in said Worcester, for the purposes of 
 establishing and maintaining in said city of Worcester an institu- 
 tion for the promotion of education, and investigation in science, 
 literature and art, to be called Clark University." 
 
 Under the head of education, too, would come the 
 
EDUCATION. 55 
 
 law of 1880 (c. Ill), authorizing towns to establish 
 and maintain public reading rooms, and that of 1885 
 (c. 225), to protect persons using public libraries and 
 reading rooms from wilful disturbance, under penalty 
 of thirty days' imprisonment or fifty dollars' fine upon 
 the offender. 
 
 To prevent the working of children to the neglect of 
 their education, it was enacted (1878, c. 257) that in 
 every manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile estab- 
 lishment in the state, a certificate shall be kept of the 
 age and place of birth of every minor child there 
 employed under sixteen years, which certificate, if the 
 minor is under fourteen years, shall state the amount 
 of his school attendance in the year next preceding 
 such employment. The same act provided that, after 
 May 1, 1880, 
 
 " — no child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in 
 any manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment, while 
 the public schools in the city or town where such child lives are 
 in session, unless such child can read and write.' 1 
 
 Violation of the law is punishable by fine of from 
 twenty to fifty dollars, for the use of the public schools. 
 In 1883 (c. 224) the prohibition of the employment of 
 children received this addition : " and no child under 
 twelve years of age shall be so employed during the 
 hours in which the public schools are in session in 
 the city or town in which he resides;" and in 1885 
 
56 TEN YEARS OF ^MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 (c. 222) it was made to read : " at any time during the 
 days," instead of " during the hours." 
 
 In order to check the spread of illiteracy, especially 
 among the French Canadians who come to the state 
 and desire to put their children at work in the factories 
 or elsewhere while yet of school age, a law has been 
 enacted (1887, c. 433) to punish by fine of from twenty 
 to fifty dollars, 
 
 "Every owner, superintendent or overseer of any manufactur- 
 ing, mechanical or mercantile establishment who employs, or 
 permits to be employed therein, a minor under fourteen years 
 of age who cannot read and write in the English language, 
 except during the vacation of the public schools in the city or 
 town where such minor lives, and every parent or guardian who 
 permits such employment." 
 
 The employment of a minor of fourteen or over, who 
 cannot read or write English, and who has been for 
 one year a continuous resident of a place with public 
 evening schools, and is not a regular attendant on such 
 schools, is punishable by a fine of from fifty to one 
 hundred dollars. Suspension of the law, when neces- 
 sary to prevent hardship, is permitted to the school 
 committee. 
 
SOCIETY. 57 
 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 Gifts to Wives — Divorce — Abandoned Children — 
 Tramps. 
 
 But few laws have been enacted by the state to 
 affect the relations of her citizens to each other as 
 members of society. Some changes relating to women 
 are to be noted. They may practice as attorneys at 
 law (1882, c. 139). As such they may be appointed 
 (1883, c. 252) to administer oaths, to take depositions, 
 and to take acknowledgments of deeds. They may 
 also serve as overseers of the poor (1886, c. 150). 
 Gifts to them from their husbands are to be their sep- 
 arate property, by the following law of 1879 (c. 133) : 
 
 "The wearing apparel and articles of personal ornament of a 
 married woman and articles necessary for her personal use, ac- 
 quired by gift from her husband, not exceeding two thousand 
 dollars in value, shall be and remain her sole and separate prop- 
 erty: provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be 
 construed to authorize suits between husband and wife or to make 
 valid any gift or transfer by a husband in fraud of his creditors." 
 
 Divorced persons have been the subject of the fol- 
 lowing (1881, c. 234): 
 
58 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 " The party against whom a divorce has been or may hereafter 
 be granted shall not marry within two years from the time of the 
 entry of the final decree of divorce ; at the expiration of said two 
 years said party may marry without petition to the court." 
 
 Abandoned or abused children, under fourteen years, 
 without a legally appointed guardian, " entirely aban- 
 doned, or treated with gross and habitual cruelty, by 
 the parent or other person having the care or custody 
 of such minor," or illegally deprived of liberty, may 
 be put, by the probate court of the county (1879, 
 c. 179), under the care of the Massachusetts Society 
 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children as guardian. 
 Parents or guardians of a child under fourteen years, 
 unable to support it, may give the custody of the child 
 to the same society. Any child under five years, 
 found abandoned, may be put in the custody of the 
 society for thirty days. 
 
 It was not until 1880, after the turn in the tide of 
 destitution and suffering following the paper money 
 era and the collapse of 1873, that the state passed a law 
 (c. 257) to protect the people from tramps. Tramps 
 were to be put into a house of correction, or the 
 Bridgewater workhouse, for from six months to two 
 years. 
 
 " All persons who rove about from place to place, begging, or 
 living without labor or visible means of support, shall be held to 
 be tramps within the meaning of this act. Any act of begging or 
 
SOCIETY. 59 
 
 vagrancy by any person having no known residence within this 
 Commonwealth, shall be prima facie evidence that the person 
 committing the same is a tramp within the meaning of this act." 
 
 The act did not apply to any woman or minor under 
 seventeen years, nor to any blind person, nor to any 
 one asking charity in his own city or town. Tramps 
 could be arrested without warrant, and copies of the 
 act were to be posted in at least six conspicuous places 
 in each city and town. Tramps who committed other 
 offences, such as were common at the time (entry of 
 premises, injury of property, threats of violence and 
 carrying of dangerous weapons), were punishable by 
 imprisonment for from one to two years. 
 
 Charitable and like associations were given more 
 power by act of 1882 (c. 195), by which regular pay- 
 ments to members, or to persons dependent upon them, 
 might be made for not over six months at one time. 
 
60 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 LIFE AND HEALTH. 
 
 Food Adulteration — Water — Vinegar — Travellers — Fires 
 — Contagious Diseases — Self - Injury — Children in 
 Shows— Cremation. 
 
 We come now to the field in which the state exer- 
 cises care over the lives and health of its citizens, and 
 we find a large body of legislation in the last ten years. 
 The state undertakes to see that the people shall not 
 use adulterated food or drugs, that they shall be safe 
 while travelling, that they shall not live in unhealthy 
 houses, nor be exposed to contagious diseases, nor be 
 burned in fires, nor blown up by explosives, nor have 
 a fairly preventable opportunity to injure themselves. 
 Laws for all these purposes are found in this depart- 
 ment, and, in one view, the pharmacy and dentistry 
 laws above mentioned belong here also. 
 
 We notice first the precautions against adulterated 
 food and drugs. Such laws are not new, and the new 
 of the last ten years are additions, showing the progress 
 which has been made in protecting the public health. 
 By act of 1878 (c. 76) the penalty for adulteration (a 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 61 
 
 year's imprisonment or three hundred dollars' fine) 
 was extended to the person furnishing the adulterating 
 article, in addition to the person actually making the 
 adulteration. The chief recent enactment to prevent 
 the adulteration of food and drugs was in 1882 (c. 263) 
 and it was thorough-going. All drugs must be up to 
 the standard of the United States Pharmacopoeia ; food 
 must not suffer from the presence of inferior material, 
 nor from the absence of valuable portions, nor be an 
 imitation of another article, nor have any diseased or 
 rotten vegetable matter, nor be coated to appear of 
 more than its real value, nor contain any poisonous in- 
 gredient. The enforcement of the law was put into 
 the hands of the state board of health, lunacy and 
 charity, and it was given three thousand dollars a year 
 for analyzing samples of food and drugs. The bill 
 was bitterly and persistently opposed before enactment, 
 and strenuous attempts were made to minimize the 
 supposed injury from adulterations. The next year 
 (1883, c. 263) the appropriation was raised to five 
 thousand dollars and two thousand of it was required 
 to be spent to enforce the laws against the adulteration 
 of milk. In 1884 (c. 289) the sum was raised to ten 
 thousand dollars and six thousand of it required to be 
 spent to prevent the adulteration of milk and milk 
 products. These last two laws indicate the sharp 
 struggle there has been in Massachusetts to preserve 
 
62 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 the purity of milk. By act of 1886 (c. 171) "drug" 
 iu the law of 1882 includes all medicines, antiseptics, 
 disinfectants and cosmetics, and u food" includes "con- 
 fectionery, condiments and all articles used for food or 
 drink by man." 
 
 The competition of western lard, alleged to be in- 
 ferior, and less nutritious and healthful, led to the 
 enactment (1887, c. 449) of the law that any lard 
 with any ingredient but the pure fat of swine must 
 be plainly labelled " compound lard." 
 
 The sharpest contest over any food adulteration has 
 been made over adulterated milk and into that contest 
 have entered both commercial and sanitary forces. 
 The milk adulterators have exerted themselves in 
 every possible way to break down the standard of 
 thirteen per cent, of solids. The milk producers and 
 wholesalers have generally insisted upon the high 
 standard. The opposition has for the most part come 
 from retailers of Boston and vicinity. A strong incen- 
 tive to enforce the law for pure milk has been the large 
 number of infant lives which have been sacrificed in 
 Boston alone to adulterated milk. Then, again, the 
 " oleo " men have protested against any law which shall 
 enable the consumer to distinguish readily between 
 genuine butter and "oleo" at the table. These two 
 matters are still subjects of keen controversy. 
 
 In 1878 (c. 106) was enacted a strict law against 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 63 
 
 butter not the product of milk exclusively, and the sale 
 or preparation of a manufactured compound product, 
 unless plainly marked "oleomargarine," was made pun- 
 ishable by one hundred dollars' fine. A long bill to 
 regulate the inspection and sale of milk was enacted 
 in 1880 (c. 209), giving officers powers of inspection 
 and seizure and imposing heavy fines. In 1881 (c. 292) 
 was enacted a stringent law to prevent deception in 
 sales of butter and cheese, requiring the words "oleo- 
 margarine" or "imitation cheese" to be plainly put 
 on each package. This law also provided heavy pen- 
 alties. In 1884 (c. 310) the previous laws were 
 made more stringent, as experience had shown to be 
 necessary to checkmate the adulterators. Again in 
 1885 (c. 352) the law for the protection of good milk 
 and butter was revised and strengthened, still in the 
 interest of the public health and honest products. But 
 this was not enough and in 1886 (c. 317) was enacted 
 a further law to regulate the sale of imitation butter 
 and another (c. 318) to increase the powers of milk 
 inspectors and to make the punishment of adulteration 
 more certain and severe. During these latter years 
 the state board of health had been most active and 
 efficient in prosecuting dealers in adulterated milk. 
 The butter law is so enforced that customers of re- 
 tailers may know when they buy "oleo," but at the 
 session of 1887, a bill to color the article so that such 
 
64 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 persons as the patrons of boarcling-houses would know 
 when they were eating it was successfully resisted. 
 
 The state also has care for the purity of its water 
 supplies. In 1878 (c. 183) an elaborate bill was passed 
 to prevent the discharge of any sewage or drainage 
 where it could run into any stream or pond used as a 
 source of water supply. General supervision of all 
 streams and ponds of the state used as sources of water 
 supply, except the Merrimack, Connecticut and Con- 
 cord rivers, was given to the state board of health. By 
 a law of 1879 (c. 270) water boards, commissioners 
 and companies are required to make full triennial re- 
 turns to the state board of health of the character, ex- 
 tent and amount of their water supply, its use (by how 
 many families and their averaga consumption), sewage, 
 method of distribution, and many other details to the 
 end that the state may have full information concerning 
 its water supply. These facts are to be reported to the 
 legislature. Bathing in a pond used for water supply 
 is forbidden (1884, c. 172) under ten dollars' fine. 
 By act of 1886 (c. 274) the state board of health is 
 given "the general oversight and care of all inland 
 waters" and it must recommend legislation for the 
 preservation of the public health and for the purity 
 of all the inland waters of the state. The board is 
 also empowered (1886, c. 287) to prevent the sale of 
 impure ice. 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 65 
 
 Vinegar has also been the subject of legislation for 
 purity (1880, c. 113), and selling as cider vinegar that 
 which is not so is punishable by fine of from fifty to 
 one hundred dollars, and the use of lead, copper, sul- 
 phuric acid or other injurious ingredient is punishable 
 by not less than one hundred dollars' fine. By the laws 
 of 1881 and of 1885 (cs. 307 and 150) the proportions 
 of acetic acid and vinegar solids are regulated and 
 other stringent restrictions are added. 
 
 Massachusetts is as careful of her people when travel- 
 ling as when at their homes, and has legislated lately 
 for their protection on the rail. In 1881 (c. 194) was 
 passed a law, after several years of agitation, especially 
 by Dr. B. Joy Jeffries of Boston, forbidding railroad 
 companies to employ any person in a position requiring 
 him to distinguish form and color signals, unless he has 
 been examined within two years and has a certificate 
 that he has not color-blindness or other defective sight. 
 By act of 1883 (c. 125) the two years' provision was 
 removed. In 1882, after one of the terrible warnings 
 which are so familiar from the wreck of passenger 
 trains and the great loss of human life by crushing and 
 burning, the legislature required every railroad corpo- 
 ration to 
 
 " — equip each car of eveiy passenger train, owned or regularly 
 used by it, including mail and baggage cars, with two sets of 
 tools, consisting of an axe, a sledge-hammer, a crowbar, hand- 
 saw and pail. All such tools and appliances shall be maintained 
 
 5 
 
bb TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 in good condition for use in case of accident, and shall be kept 
 one set upon the inside and one upon the outside of each such 
 car." 
 
 Tampering with these tools is punishable by one 
 hundred dollars' fine or three months' imprisonment, 
 or both. But the frightful wreck at Bussey bridge, 
 within the limits of Boston, in March, 1887, produced 
 more radical legislation. One law (c. 334) compels 
 every railroad corporation to have its bridges examined 
 once in two years by a competent engineer, whose 
 reports must be sent to the railroad commissioners. 
 Another (c. 362) abolishes the "deadly car stove." 
 
 " No passenger, mail or baggage car on any railroad in this 
 Commonwealth shall be heated by any method of heating or by 
 any furnace or heater unless such method or the use of such fur- 
 nace or heater shall first have been approved in writing by 
 the board of railroad commissioners : provided, however, that in 
 no event shall a common stove be allowed in any such car ; and 
 provided, also, that any railroad corporation may with the per- 
 mission of said board make such experiments in heating their 
 passenger cars as said board may deem proper." 
 
 The testing of locomotive boilers is under the charge 
 of the railroad commissioners (1882, c. 73) and the use 
 of an untested boiler is punishable by a fine of twenty 
 dollars per day. 
 
 The railroad commissioners may order a railroad 
 corporation to establish gates and a flagman at any 
 grade crossing they see fit (1883, c. 117). Blockades 
 of grade crossings by railroad cars, to the incon- 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 67 
 
 venience and danger of the pnblic, are pnt under the 
 jurisdiction of the railroad commissioners (1885, 
 c. 110). 
 
 By law of 1881 (c. 199) the penalty upon a railroad 
 corporation for negligence by which the life of a pass- 
 enger, or other person not an employee, is lost, is from 
 five hundred to five thousand dollars ; but the law does 
 not apply to persons walking upon the track contrary 
 to the rules of the corporation. The same law applies 
 to steamboat and stage-coach companies, but the loss 
 of life from defective highways or bridges of a county 
 or town does not carry but one thousand dollars' pen- 
 alty. The above chapter provides the means of recov- 
 ering damages for loss of life or for injury. A law 
 of 1880 (c. 110) makes a special crime of throwing 
 missiles at cars and at passengers in steam or horse 
 cars, or interfering with persons in charge of such 
 cars. 
 
 Street railway corporations are made liable (1886, 
 c. 140) for the death of a passenger, or any person 
 not an employee, to the extent of not less than five 
 hundred nor more than five thousand dollars. 
 
 The state also protects its people against explosives 
 and combustibles. A law of 1881 (c. 137) forbids 
 explosive or inflammable compounds to be so placed 
 in manufactories as to obstruct or render hazardous 
 egress from them. No petroleum or its product can 
 
68 TEX YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 be kept for retail (1885, c. 122) unless approved by 
 an official inspector. The mixing and sale of naphtha 
 and fuel oils is made (1885, c. 98) the subject of care- 
 ful regulations, under heavy penalties. Warned by 
 the loss of life in hotel fires, an enactment was made, 
 in 1883 (c. 251), that 
 
 "Every keeper of a hotel, boarding or lodging house contain- 
 ing one hundred or more rooms, and being four or more stories 
 high, shall have therein at least two competent watchmen, each 
 properly assigned, and each on duty between the hours of nine 
 o'clock in the afternoon and six o'clock in the forenoon. And 
 every keeper of a hotel, boarding or lodging house containing 
 fifty or more, but less than one hundred rooms, and being three 
 stories high, shall have between said hours at least one compe- 
 tent watchman on duty therein." 
 
 A red light is to stand at the head and foot of each 
 flight of stairs. Alarms or gongs are to be conven- 
 iently placed. Posted notices as to these matters are 
 to be conspicuous. School buildings over three stories 
 high, and manufacturing establishments of that height, 
 are to be well supplied with fire-escapes, which must 
 be kept in good order. Improved automatic appli- 
 ances may also be used (1884, c. 223). Tenement 
 and lodging houses, three or more stories high, must 
 be provided (1882, c. 266) with sufficient fire-escapes, 
 to be approved by the inspector of factories and public 
 buildings. 
 
 The state's regard for life and health extends to 
 buildings, both their mechanical construction (1878, 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 69 
 
 c. 47) and their sanitary arrangements (1885, c. 374 
 and 382 for Boston) in full detail. Elevators are to 
 be provided with safety apparatus (1882, c. 208), and 
 must be placarded and stopped when unsafe (1883, 
 c. 173). Wooden flues or air ducts are forbidden 
 (1885, c. 326) in certain cases. 
 
 Contagious diseases have received the continued 
 care of the state. Local boards of health, notified of 
 a case of small-pox, must notify the state board within 
 twenty-four hours (1883, c. 138). If a householder 
 knows that a person in his family has a contagious 
 disease dangerous to public health, he must (1884, 
 c. 98) notify the local board of health or selectmen at 
 once, and on the death or recovery of the person must 
 disinfect the room and articles, under one hundred 
 dollars' penalty. Physicians, under penalty of from 
 fifty to two hundred dollars, must notify the author- 
 ities of dangerous contagious diseases in their practice. 
 
 " The school committees shall not allow any pupil to attend the 
 public schools while any member of the household to which such 
 pupil belongs is sick of small-pox, diphtheria, or scarlet fever, or 
 during a period of two weeks after the death, recovery or removal 
 of such sick person ; and any pupil coming from such household 
 shall be required to present to the teacher of the school the pupil 
 desires to attend, a certificate, from the attending physician or 
 board of health, of the facts necessary to entitle him to admission 
 in accordance with the above regulation 11 (1885, c. 198). 
 
 Protection against self-injury is another care of the 
 state; hence the laws to regulate the sale of toy 
 
70 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 pistols and other dangerous articles (1882, c. 272), to 
 prohibit the sale of fire-arms and other dangerous 
 weapons to minors (1884, c. 76), and to regulate the 
 sale and use of poisons (1887, c. 38). The first was 
 caused by repeated fatal accidents to children from 
 playing with toy pistols, and the last was the outcome 
 of frequent instances of suicide by the use of " rough 
 on rats." 
 
 Delicate nerves have received the compassion of the 
 state, and a law of 1879 (c. 284) requires the use of 
 a muffler or other appliance to deaden the noise from 
 operating vacuum brakes or from "a pop or other 
 safety valve," under penalty of from one hundred to 
 three hundred dollars for every locomotive, and a fur- 
 ther fine of five dollars a day. The railroad com- 
 missioners are empowered (1885, c. 334) to forbid or 
 regulate the use of locomotive whistles at grade 
 crossings. 
 
 A few years ago a strong public feeling was aroused 
 against the employment of children on the theatrical 
 stage, the objection having to do both with morals 
 and physical health, and a law was passed (1880, 
 c. 88) that 
 
 " No license shall be granted for any theatrical exhibition or 
 public show in which children under the age of fifteen years and 
 belonging to the public schools are employed or allowed to take 
 part as performers on the stage in any capacity, or where in the 
 opinion of the board authorized to grant licenses such children 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 71 
 
 are employed in such a manner as to corrupt their morals or im- 
 pair their physical health." 
 
 After the life has departed, the state does not give 
 up its care. Burial is not permitted till the facts of 
 the death are recorded (1878, c. 174) according to the 
 latest ideas. Cremation is permitted (1885, c. 265) 
 by the law for the formation of corporations for that 
 purpose, but 
 
 " No body of a deceased person shall be cremated within forty- 
 eight hours after decease, unless death was occasioned by conta- 
 gious or infectious disease; and no body shall be received or 
 cremated by said corporation until its officers have received the 
 certificate or burial permit required by law before burial, together 
 with a certificate from the medical examiner of the district within 
 which the death occurred, that he has viewed the body and made 
 personal inquiry into the cause and manner of death, and is of 
 opinion that no further examination nor judicial inquiry concern- 
 ing the same is necessary." 
 
72 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 Factory Laws — Weekly Payments — Arbitration — Employ- 
 ers' Liability — Frogs and Switches— Women and Minors 
 — Special Stock — Convict Labor — Labor Day — Voting 
 — Peoples' Homes. 
 
 Within the decade legislation in the interest of 
 employees of large corporations, or labor legislation, so 
 called, has been unusually prominent. Especially true 
 is this of the sessions of 1886 and 1887, when the 
 "labor scare" among politicians prevailed, following 
 the rapid growth of the Knights of Labor. More labor 
 laws were passed in those two years than in the other 
 eight. Material progress was then made in laws to 
 protect the lives, health and property of employees and 
 to settle their difficulties with their employers. 
 
 But in the early years of the ten some laws of this 
 class were passed. The most important relate to man- 
 ufacturing establishments chiefly. The law of 1874 
 that no minors under eighteen years and no women 
 should be employed in manufacturing establishments 
 over ten hours a day was amended in 1880 (c. 194) by 
 requiring a conspicuous notice of the hours such help 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 73 
 
 must work on each day of the week to be posted in 
 every room where they are employed. A law of 1886 
 (c. 90) requires the notice to include the time of begin- 
 ning and stopping work, the time to be allowed for 
 stopping and starting machinery and the time taken 
 for dinner. 
 
 To guard the employees of manufacturing establish- 
 ments and workshops from fire, it was provided by act 
 of 1880 (c. 197) that every room in such places, where 
 five or more operatives are employed above the second 
 story, shall have more than one egress, either inside or 
 outside, and as near as practicable at opposite ends of 
 the room. A later act (1884, c. 52) says that "no out- 
 side or inside doors of any building, wherein operatives 
 are employed, shall be so locked, bolted or otherwise 
 fastened during the hours of labor as to prevent free 
 egress." 
 
 To illustrate how labor laws are sometimes enacted, 
 the following is worth notice: In 1882 certain em- 
 ployees in Plymouth felt aggrieved that their early 
 morning bell, or "rousing bell," was no longer rung. 
 Petitions for such ringing were circulated in their own 
 and other factories and the result was a law (1883, 
 c. 84) allowing employers to give notice to their em- 
 ployees by bells, whistles and gongs, subject to the 
 regulation of the local authorities — much to the dis- 
 comfiture of the individual who, in the first place, had 
 
74 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 the rousing bell discontinued so as not to disturb his 
 morning nap. 
 
 In 1886, under the impulse of accidents to operatives 
 from being caught in machinery and being badly lacer- 
 ated or killed before the machinery could be stopped, 
 it was enacted (c. 173) that — 
 
 " In every manufacturing establishment where the machinery 
 used is propelled by steam, communication shall be provided 
 between each room where such machinery is placed and the room 
 where the engineer is stationed, by means of sj>eaking tubes, 
 electric bells or such other means as shall be satisfactory to the 
 inspectors of factories : provided, that in the opinion of the in- 
 spectors such communication is necessary." 
 
 In the line of result from the same cause was the 
 act (1886, c. 260) requiring all manufacturers (persons 
 or corporations) to send to the chief of the district 
 police a written notice of an accident to an employee 
 resulting in death or injury sufficient to cause four 
 days' absence from work. The record of such accidents 
 is to be presented in the annual report of the chief. 
 
 In 1887 especial attention was given to the privileges 
 and rights of factory operatives and the legislative 
 leader in this respect was Mr. Quincy of Quincy. 
 Most of the important bills were drawn by his own 
 hand and were advocated more by him than by any 
 other member. Detailed provision is made by chap- 
 ter 103 for the proper sanitary condition of factories 
 and workshops, under one hundred dollars' penalty, and 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 75 
 
 such condition is made part of the care of the factory 
 inspectors, while the enforcement of the law rests with 
 the local board of health. A subsequent chapter 
 (c. 173) provides for the proper ventilation of factories 
 and workshops so as to remove all injurious "gases, 
 vapors, dust or other impurities," under penalty of one 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 The evil of hurried and irregular meal hours was the 
 object of chapter 215 (1887) and it enacts that u all 
 children, young persons and women, five or more in 
 number, employed in the same factory, shall be allowed 
 their meal time or meal times at the same time." Ex- 
 ceptions are allowed for persons beginning work at 
 different times, 
 
 " — but no such children, young persons or women shall be em- 
 ployed during the regular meal hour in tending the machines, or 
 doing the work of any other children, young persons or women 
 in addition to their own, 1 ' and 
 
 "No child, young person or woman shall be employed in a 
 factory or workshop, in which five or more children, young per- 
 sons and women are employed, for more than six hours at one 
 time without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal, 1 ' 
 
 with certain exceptions in harmony with the spirit of 
 the act. This act does not apply to iron works, glass 
 works, paper mills, letter-press printing establishments, 
 print works, bleaching works or dyeing works. The 
 chief of the district police may at his discretion, where 
 it is proved to be necessary, with the approval of the 
 
76 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 governor, issue a certificate of exemption from the law. 
 The penalty of violating the law is from fifty to one 
 hundred dollars. The owner is not to be held respon- 
 sible (1887, c. 330) for work in violation of the law, 
 and without the knowlege of the employer, by any 
 minor under eighteen or by any woman. 
 
 The powers of factory inspectors have been en- 
 larged (1887, c. 218) to include all the new duties 
 imposed upon them as to sanitary condition and venti- 
 lation of factories and workshops, the employment of 
 women and minors and precautions against fires. 
 
 In order to protect operatives from fines for imper- 
 fect weaving, a law has been passed (1887, c. 361) 
 putting the imposition of such fines under strict regu- 
 lation, tending to make weavers more watchful, and 
 the fine is in no case to exceed the actual damage to 
 the employer. 
 
 "No child under the age of fourteen years shall be permitted 
 to clean any part of the machinery in a factory while such part is 
 in motion by the aid of steam, water or other mechanical power, 
 or to clean any part of such machinery that is in dangerous prox- 
 imity to such moving part" (1887, c. 121). 
 
 One of the most protracted labor contests was that 
 for weekly payments of wages to employees of corpora- 
 tions. Year after year the petitions were presented, 
 but only to be defeated. Fortnightly payments bills 
 were introduced, but they shared the same fate. The 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 77 
 
 especial opponents of the change were the great cotton 
 manufacturing corporations, and they had their agents 
 at the state house to prove to the legislature that 
 it was impossible to make the change. But it was 
 learned that the system was followed by some mills 
 successfully. The petitioners were persistent and fin- 
 ally the opposition ceased for the most part and the 
 law was enacted (1886, c. 87) : 
 
 "Every manufacturing, mining or quarrying, mercantile, rail- 
 road, street railway, telegraph, telephone and municipal corpora- 
 tion and every incorporated exj3ress company and water company 
 shall pay weekly each and every employee engaged in its busi- 
 ness the wages earned by such employee to within six days of the 
 date of said payment : provided, however, that if at any time of 
 payment any employee shall be absent from his regular place of 
 labor he shall be entitled to said payment at any time thereafter 
 upon demand." 
 
 The penalty for violating the law was fixed at from 
 ten to fifty dollars. In 1887 (c. 399) every municipal 
 corporation and every incorporated county were also 
 put under law. Railroad corporations, at the discre- 
 tion of the railroad commissioners, may be exempt from 
 weekly payments to such employees as prefer less fre- 
 quent payments, when their interests and the public's 
 will not suffer. The chief of the district police, or 
 any factory inspector, is allowed to bring complaint 
 against any corporation for violation of the law. This 
 act was anticipated in part by that of 1879 (c. 128) 
 requiring all cities to make weekly payments to all 
 
78 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 their laborers who demand them, who are not given 
 
 over two dollars a day. 
 
 We come now to a radical and important departure 
 
 in labor legislation — the "act to provide for a state 
 
 board of arbitration for the settlement of differences 
 
 between employers and their employees " (1886, c. 263). 
 
 As it marks a decided step of development, it is worth 
 
 noticing in some detail, with its amendments of 1887 
 
 (c. 269). Section 1 provides for the appointment by 
 
 the governor of three competent persons to serve as 
 
 " a state board of arbitration and conciliation." One of 
 
 the board must be an employer, or from an association 
 
 representing employers of labor. One must be from 
 
 a labor organization and not an employer of labor. 
 
 The third is to be appointed on recommendation of 
 
 the other two, or, if they do not agree within thirty 
 
 days, by the governor, without their recommendation. 
 
 The governor can fill vacancies and make removals. 
 
 Section 2 requires the board to establish rules, subject 
 
 to the approval of the governor and council. Section 
 
 3 is the most important of the law, and is as follows : 
 
 " Whenever any controversy or difference, not involving ques- 
 tions which may be the subject of a suit at law or bill in equity, 
 exists between an employer, whether an individual, copartnership 
 or corporation, and his employees, if at the time he employs not 
 less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business 
 in any city or town in this Commonwealth, the board shall, upon 
 application as hereinafter provided, and as soon as practicable 
 thereafter, visit the locality of the dispute and make careful in- 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 79 
 
 quiiy into the cause thereof, hear all persons interested therein 
 who may come before them, advise the respective parties what, if 
 anything, ought to be done or submitted to by either or both to 
 adjust said dispute, and make a written decision thereof. This 
 decision shall at once be made public, shall be recorded upon 
 proper books of record to be kept by the secretary of said board, 
 and a short statement thereof published in the annual report 
 hereinafter provided for, and the said board shall cause a copy 
 thereof to be tiled with the clerk of the city or town where said 
 business is carried on." 
 
 Section 4 (1887) prescribes the method of application 
 to the board. The application is to be signed by 
 the employer, or by a majority of the employees in the 
 department where the controversy exists, or by their 
 agent, or by both parties, must give a concise state- 
 ment of grievances and a promise to continue the 
 business or work without lock-out or strike until the 
 decision of the board, if it is within three weeks. The 
 names of employees represented by an agent are to be 
 kept secret by the board. Public notice of the time 
 and place of the hearing is to be given, unless both 
 parties request otherwise. If the applicants fail to 
 keep their promise, the board shall not go on without 
 the written consent of the other party. Witnesses 
 may be examined under oath, and books with record 
 of wages paid be required to be produced. Section 5 
 provides for publishing the decision. Section 6 says 
 that the decision shall be binding for six months on 
 the parties who join the application, "or until either 
 
80 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 party has given the other notice in writing of his 
 intention not to be bound by the same at the expira- 
 tion of sixty days therefrom." Section 7, by act of 
 1887, is much changed from section 7 of 1886. It 
 allows the parties to submit their dispute to a local 
 board of arbitration and conciliation, to be selected, 
 one by each party, and the third by the other two, 
 which board shall have all the powers of the state 
 board in like case. When mayors or boards of select- 
 men are informed that a strike or lock-out is likely to 
 occur, or is in progress, they must at once notify the 
 state board of the facts. Section 8, by act of 1887, 
 provides that in case of such notice to the state board, 
 
 " — it shall be the duty of the state board to put itself in com- 
 munication as soon as may be with such employer and employees, 
 and endeavor by mediation to effect an amicable settlement be- 
 tween them, or to endeavor to persuade them, provided that a 
 strike or lock-out has not actually occurred or is not then continu- 
 ing, to submit the matters in dispute to a local board of arbitra- 
 tion and conciliation, as above provided, or to the state board ; 
 and said state board may, if it deems it advisable, investigate the 
 cause or causes of such controversy and ascertain which party 
 thereto is mainly responsible or blameworthy for the existence 
 or continuance of the same, and may make and publish a report 
 finding such cause or causes and assigning such responsibility 
 or blame." 
 
 Sections 9 and 10 provide for compensation of wit- 
 nesses and of the board. 
 
 Immediately following this chapter in the laws of 
 1887 is another (c. 270), which also marks a radical 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 81 
 
 departure. It is the famous employers' liability law, 
 which was fought on both sides for years with great 
 skill and persistence. Like some other laws, it appears 
 to owe its existence, at as early a date as the present, 
 to the conviction of one man that it was necessary to 
 right a wrong, and that man, by his enthusiasm and 
 untiring effort, has converted the majority. In this 
 case that one man was Mr. Charles G. Fall, a young 
 Boston lawyer. Striking instances were narrated, year 
 after year, of great wrong to persons and suffering to 
 families because an injured employee could not recover 
 damages. Mr. Fall had the support from the begin- 
 ning of those representing the employees to be bene- 
 fited, but was opposed by the great corporations, by 
 the conservatism of capital in its relation to labor, and 
 by contractors. This law, also, is worthy of mention 
 in detail, because it introduces a new feature in the 
 practice of the state. 
 
 Section 1 gives the injured employee, who was in 
 the exercise of due care and diligence (or, if the 
 injury was fatal, his legal representative), the same 
 right of compensation and remedies against the em- 
 ployer as if the employee had not been in his service, 
 under these conditions : when he was injured, 
 
 " (1) By reason of any defect in the condition of the ways, 
 works or machinery connected with or used in the business of the 
 employer, which arose from or had not been discovered or rerae- 
 
 6 
 
82 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 died owing to the negligence of the employer or of any person 
 in the service of the employer, and entrusted by him with the duty 
 of seeing that the ways, works or machinery were in proper con- 
 dition ; or 
 
 " (2) By reason of the negligence of any person in the service 
 of the employer, entrusted with and exercising superintendence, 
 whose sole or principal duty is that of superintendence. 
 
 " (3) By reason of the negligence of any person in the service 
 of the employer who has the charge or control of any signal, 
 switch, locomotive engine or train upon a railroad." 
 
 Section 2 provides that, in case of instant death, the 
 widow or next of kin dependent upon the employee's 
 wages may have the same rights as if the death had 
 not been instantaneous, or as if the deceased had con- 
 sciously suffered. Section 3 limits the compensation 
 for personal injury to four thousand dollars, and for 
 death at from five hundred to five thousand dollars, 
 and provides the formalities for legal action. Sec- 
 tion 4 covers the cases of contractors and sub-contract- 
 ors to insure his rights to the employee. Section 5 
 debars from the benefit of the act any employee who 
 knew of the defect which caused the injury and did 
 not give notice of it to his employer or to a superior. 
 Section 6 allows a part of the damages recoverable to 
 be offset by the amount the employee has received 
 from any insurance fund or other relief fund which 
 was contributed by his employer. Section 7 is that 
 the act shall not apply to injuries caused to domestic 
 servants or farm laborers by fellow-employees. 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 83 
 
 Preceding this law by a few weeks (1887, c. 130) 
 was the act to incorporate the American Mutual Lia- 
 bility insurance company from some of the best known 
 business men of the state, 
 
 " — to be located in the city of Boston, for the purpose and with 
 the power and authority of insuring employers of labor against 
 losses from claims of their employees for injuries received while 
 in their service. 11 
 
 Before the employers' liability bill was enacted, 
 three laws were passed which in part grew out of the 
 agitation, and were used to help postpone the main 
 question, till the corporations finally succumbed to 
 the inevitable. In 1882 (c. 244) employees of rail? 
 road and steamboat companies were authorized to form 
 relief societies. In 1883 (c. 243) railroad companies 
 were made liable for the death of an employee, in the 
 exercise of due care, if he was killed under such cir- 
 cumstances as would have entitled him, if death had 
 not resulted, to maintain an action for damages. In 
 1886 (c. 125) railroad corporations were authorized 
 to join relief societies with their employees. The idea 
 was that thus the road would contribute to the support 
 of injured employees. 
 
 In 1884 (c. 222) railroad corporations were required 
 to use safety couplers on freight cars. These are to 
 be tested by the railroad commissioners (1886, c. 242). 
 In 1886 (c. 120) such corporations were required to 
 
84 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 fill or block the frogs, switches and guard rails on 
 their tracks, so that the feet of the employees might 
 not be caught in them. Instances were narrated in 
 which men walking backward in making up trains had 
 caught their feet in these traps and had been killed 
 before they could extricate themselves, These laws 
 were enacted by the direct effort of those who urged 
 the labor legislation and were considered among their 
 measures. 
 
 Women and minors in mercantile establishments 
 have been the subject of legislation for their health, 
 comfort and education. Sympathy for women and 
 shop girls who were compelled to stand for hours 
 behind counters, even though there might be ample 
 opportunity to sit, thus endangering health and life 
 by the prolonged strain, led to this law (1882, c. 150), 
 with a penalty of from ten to thirty dollars : 
 
 "Every person or corporation employing females in any man- 
 ufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment in this Com- 
 monwealth shall provide suitable seats for the use of the females 
 so employed, and shall permit the use of such seats by them when 
 they are not necessarily engaged in the active duties for which 
 they are employed." 
 
 The prohibition upon employing women or minors 
 under eighteen years over ten hours a day in manu- 
 facturing establishments was extended in 1883 (c. 157) 
 to mechanical and mercantile establishments. The 
 same subject was up the next year (1884, c. 275) and 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 85 
 
 it was enacted that no minor under eighteen years 
 should be employed in laboring in any mechanical 
 establishment more than sixty hours in any one week, 
 under penalty of from fifty to one hundred dollars. 
 Conspicuous notices of the hours to be observed must 
 be posted. The application of the law to mercantile 
 establishments was repealed by this last act. 
 
 To induce employees to have a greater interest in 
 their employer's business and to give them a share of 
 the profits, a law has been passed (1886, c. 209) au- 
 thorizing corporations to issue special stock to be held 
 by their employees only. The par value of a share is 
 to be ten dollars to be paid for in monthly instalments 
 of one dollar. Proportional dividends are to be al- 
 lowed to stock fully paid for, and the stock cannot be 
 sold, except to fellow employees or to the corporation 
 itself. This law owes its existence to Mr. Moseley of 
 Newburyport, since secretary of the national inter-state 
 commerce commission. 
 
 The regulation of convict labor has in recent years 
 been a fertile issue in Massachusetts with "labor legis- 
 lators," but the conservative element has for the most 
 part held the others in check. In 1883 (c. 217) the 
 number of prisoners who could be employed in any 
 prison under any contract was limited as follows, in 
 order that "honest labor" in the same industries might 
 not suffer by competition : 
 
86 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 " — in the manufacture of men's, boys 1 and youths' boots and 
 shoes, not more than one hundred and fifty ; in the manufacture 
 of women's, misses' and children's boots and shoes, not more than 
 one hundred and fifty; in the manufacture of hats, not more 
 than one hundred and fifty ; in the manufacture of brushes, not 
 more than one hundred ; in the manufacture of wood mouldings, 
 not more than one hundred; in the manufacture of harnesses, 
 not more than one hundred ; or in any other industry, not to ex- 
 ceed one hundred and fifty." 
 
 In 1887, after long agitation and after wide re- 
 searches by the committee on prisons, a bill was hur- 
 riedly forced through on the last day of the session 
 (c. 447), providing in much detail for work on the 
 state account system. As the law is the prospective 
 (February, 1888) object of repeal or great modifica- 
 tion, it cannot be said yet to embody the sense of the 
 state. 
 
 A distinct labor enactment was that (1887, c. 263) 
 "to make the first Monday of September, known as 
 Labor's holiday, a legal holiday ." 
 
 Another labor law of the same session (1887, c. 272) 
 allows voters employed in manufacturing, mechanical 
 or mercantile establishments two hours after the open- 
 ing of the polls in which to vote. Employers violat- 
 ing the law are liable to a fine of from twenty to fifty 
 dollars for each offence. 
 
 The labor wing of the legislature, helped by a few 
 from the other side, has endeavored to pass a law and 
 has come very near it by which the state shall build 
 
 
LABOR LEGISLATION. 87 
 
 small houses for laboring people to cost but a few hun- 
 dred dollars each and to be paid for, principal and in- 
 terest, in small sums. The chief advocate of the plan 
 in the legislature was Mr. Robert Treat Paine in 1884 
 and, outside of the legislature, Mr. John M. Berry, who 
 was the chief incorporator of the Lynn Workingmen's 
 Aid Association (1880, c. 195), which renders such aid 
 to men of small means. But no other act than that of 
 1880 has been passed. 
 
TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 State Bonds — Savings Banks — Co-operative Banks— Rail- 
 roads — Insurance — Loan and Trust Companies— Elec- 
 tricity — Gas — Insolvency — Agriculture — Limited Part- 
 nerships — Payments by Instalments — Checks. 
 
 If one looks over the tilings which the state within 
 the ten years has ordered to be done, he will notice 
 that a large proportion of them relate to what may be 
 called its business and financial development. In other 
 words, the state is proceeding rapidly, but cautiously, 
 to make it easier for its citizens to acquire the good 
 things of life. Though the broad opportunities are 
 laid down in the constitution, yet the detail could not 
 be foreseen by the state in its less developed condition, 
 and new places are constantly found where the per- 
 mission of the law is necessary for the development 
 of new lines of investment for capital, for the promo- 
 tion of new kinds of enterprises, and for the protection 
 of property rights from new dangers which are found 
 to be. inherent in the changes continually made as busi- 
 ness adapts itself to new forms and circumstances. 
 
 In the latter part of the ten years, especially, this 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 89 
 
 class of business legislation has developed rapidly, 
 showing that the capital and labor of the state are 
 accumulating an increasing amount from their profits 
 and savings with which to enter into the production 
 of other things for health, convenience or comfort. 
 The Blue books of the later years are larger than ever 
 before, and one who observes their contents will find 
 that the growth is natural, as is the growth of that 
 community whose enlarged sphere of action, extending 
 in every direction from the center, finds ever before 
 it an enlarging sphere of opportunity. This develop- 
 ment seems to be healthful, and to be the right result 
 of enterprise founded in reason, pushed with vigor, 
 and backed by frugality and caution. It is not the 
 unhealthy product of trade artificially stimulated by 
 fictitious rewards. 
 
 In taking up now this legislation somewhat in detail 
 by classes, to indicate the development of the state in 
 this field, there may be put, first of all, a declaration 
 of the state when the terrible effects of the long 
 national debauch upon paper money had so broken 
 the hopes of those who looked for a speedy recovery, 
 that many were demanding a return to the cause of 
 their suffering as a remedy for their pain. Debts were 
 pressing. The years of retribution had been long. 
 Even though the evil was in way of recovery and the 
 worst had passed, yet the delusion of greenbackism 
 
90 TEN YEAKS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 had many followers, and the temptation to pay the 
 public debt in depreciated money was irresistible to 
 many. Then (1878, c. 11) the state declared : 
 
 "The interest and principal of all scrip or bonds of the Com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts are payable, and when due, shall be 
 paid in gold coin or its equivalent.'" 
 
 That was the good faith and honor of Massachusetts 
 under temptation. 
 
 Savings Banks. 
 
 In looking at what the state has done for the benefit 
 of its people in their private finances directly, the care 
 for the savings bank system is of high importance, 
 for it relates to many thousand persons and to the 
 solid prosperity of the small home-makers, upon whom 
 rests much of the well-being of the whole. First on 
 the list is what was popularly called the "stay law" 
 (1878, c. 73), which gave rise to ridicule and defama- 
 tion from outsiders, though it was wholly different 
 from the " stay laws," with which it was invidiously 
 compared. It was near the end of the financial depres- 
 sion, after the crash of 1873, though not so near but 
 that savings banks were unable to realize the face of 
 their loans on mortgaged real estate, and in the case 
 of at least one Boston bank, an excited run for several 
 days had blocked the street with alarmed and despond- 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 91 
 
 ent depositors. The bank weathered the storm, but 
 others were in no condition to meet such a run. 
 Under such pressure, the law was hastily enacted, like 
 a command for the common safety of a boat-load of 
 people, not all to rush to one side at once and capsize 
 the boat, but to keep their places. The important 
 section is in full, as follows : 
 
 11 Whenever, in the judgment of the board of commissioners of 
 savings banks, the security and welfare of the depositors in any 
 savings bank in this Commonwealth shall require a limitation or 
 regulation of payments to its depositors, said board may, by an 
 order in writing directed to such bank, limit and regulate such 
 payments in time and amount as the interests of all the depositors 
 may require. Such order shall fully express the terms of said 
 limitation or regulation ; and it may be changed or wholly re- 
 voked whenever in the judgment of said commissioners the wel- 
 fare of the depositors in such bank shall so require. 1 ' 
 
 An aggrieved person had the right of appeal to the 
 supreme judicial court, which should give public hear- 
 ing upon the facts, and then affirm or annul the order 
 of the commissioners. The law was self-limited to 
 three years. It produced instantly the desired effect 
 of preventing runs, and thus secured to depositors full 
 payment of their deposits which they might otherwise 
 have lost. 
 
 The same year was enacted a law (1878, c. 253) to 
 regulate the practices of receivers of savings banks for 
 the better management of the property and for the 
 protection of depositors. By law of 1880 (c. 162), the 
 
92 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 trustees of every savings bank are required to file with 
 the savings bank commissioners a copy of the bond of 
 their treasurer, and every treasurer must give a new 
 bond as often as once in five years (1886, c. 93). In 
 1881 (c. 214) the improved financial situation giving 
 new opportunities for safe investment, the strict lim- 
 itations upon savings banks were relaxed so that they 
 might invest in the safe first mortgage bonds of any 
 New England railroad, or in notes secured by such 
 bonds. Investments in public funds and bank stock 
 were also given a wider field, but still were much 
 restricted. That the public may know who are re- 
 sponsible for investments, it has been enacted (1883, 
 c. 50) that the names of the boards of investment in 
 savings banks must be advertised semi-annually in a 
 newspaper in the county, the first time to be within 
 thirty days of the election of the board. 
 
 To keep savings banks from too close connection 
 with other banks, warned by disastrous examples, no 
 savings bank can invest or hold as collateral security 
 (1882, c. 224) more than three per cent, of its deposits 
 in any state or national bank, nor can it deposit (1886, 
 c. 95) over five per cent, of its total deposits in any 
 one national bank, or trust company, or to an amount 
 over twenty-five per cent, of the capital stock and sur- 
 plus of such bank or company. 
 
 It was further enacted in the same spirit (1884, 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 93 
 
 c. 253) that savings banks should do business at their 
 banking houses only, should not receive or pay de- 
 posits at any other place, and the house must be in the 
 city or town where the corporation is. 
 
 By three several enactments the field for invest- 
 ment has been gradually enlarged to include state 
 bonds of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indi- 
 ana, Wisconsin, Iowa and the District of Columbia; 
 also the municipal bonds of any city in those states 
 and New York state with over fifty thousand people 
 and not over five per cent, net debt, or any notes 
 secured by such bonds to eighty per cent, of their 
 face; bonds and notes of incorporated districts in 
 Massachusetts with not over five per cent, net debt; 
 and further in New England railroad securities. A 
 law of 1887 (c. 423) reduced the population qualifi- 
 cation mentioned above to thirty thousand. By act of 
 1886 (c. 69) one third of the deposits and income may 
 be invested in personal securities, not to run over a 
 year, with two sureties, when principal and sureties 
 are all residents and citizens of the state. 
 
 To add to the safety of depositors, no borrower on 
 personal security, including corporations and partner- 
 ships, can borrow (1884, c. 168) over five per cent, of 
 the deposits and income. In 1881 (c. 305) the tax on 
 savings banks' deposits was reduced from three-fourths 
 to one half of one per cent. 
 
94 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Some savings banks hold a large amount of money 
 in the names of depositors who have not been heard 
 from for a long time and probably never will be heard 
 from again. To provide a means of restoring this 
 money to the owner or heirs, if possible, a law was 
 passed in 1887 (c. 319), Mr. "felker of Worcester hav- 
 ing more to do with its passage than any other one 
 member, requiring savings banks treasurers to report 
 to the savings bank commissioners sworn statements of 
 
 " — the name, the amount standing to his credit, the last known 
 place of residence or post-office address and the fact of death, if 
 known to such treasurer, of every depositor who shall not have 
 made a deposit therein or withdrawn therefrom any part of his 
 deposit, or any part of the interest thereon, for a period of more 
 than twenty years next preceding." 
 
 Advertisement of these particulars is to be made by 
 the treasurers, but the law does not apply to depositors 
 known to be living, nor to sums under twenty-five 
 dollars. 
 
 Development of the savings bank system continues 
 and banks have lately been established by special law 
 in Warren (1882), South Framingham (1883), Read- 
 ing (1885), Somerville (1885), Belmont (1885), the 
 North Middlesex (1885), Holyoke (1885), West New- 
 ton (1887) and Conway (1887). 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 95 
 
 Co-operative Banks. 
 
 Co-operative saving fund and loan associations, as 
 business investments for men of small means and as 
 inducements to home building, have received care in 
 late years and have been put under the supervision of 
 the savings bank commissioners (1878, c. 52) who 
 have all the powers over them that they do over sav- 
 ings banks (1879, c. 129). Regulation of the manner 
 of distributing profits and losses is made (1881, c. 271) 
 and also the method of paying for the shares. The 
 name of the associations has been changed to " co-oper- 
 ative banks " (1885, c. 121) and the maintenance of a 
 guaranty fund is required. Shares may be issued 
 (1887, c. 216) up to one million dollars. The method - 
 of withdrawing unpledged shares and of shares issued 
 to minors is regulated, also the treatment of partial 
 payments of loans on real estate and the retirement 
 of shares. 
 
 Rallkoad Development. 
 
 As to its railroad policy, the ten years have seen the 
 state abandon its holding of railroad stocks and with- 
 draw from any share in railroad management and in- 
 vestment as far as possible. It has sold its Boston and 
 Albany stock, its New York and New England stock, 
 
96 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 and the Hoosac Tunnel, with its accompanying line of 
 over forty miles of track. Each of these transactions 
 has been on a large scale and each, except the last, 
 has had its dramatic interest in a marked sensational 
 event. 
 
 The development of railroad law has not been exten- 
 sive since the thorough codification in 1874. In order 
 to prevent the imperiling of property by projected 
 railroads and to limit railroad building to persons of 
 ability and good faith, it was enacted (1878, c. 215) 
 that: 
 
 " No railroad corporation shall be authorized to locate or con- 
 struct its road or any branch or extension thereof or to enter upon 
 and use any land or other property except for making surveys, 
 until a sworn estimate of the total cost of constructing the same, 
 prepared by the chief engineer of the corporation shall have been 
 submitted to the board of railroad commissioners and approved 
 by them ; nor until it shall also have been made to appear to the 
 satisfaction of said board that there has been actually subscribed 
 by responsible parties, without any condition which invalidates 
 the subscription, an amount of the capital stock of said corpora- 
 tion equal to at least fifty per centum of such estimated cost of 
 construction, and that twenty per centum of the par value of 
 each and every share has been actually paid into the treasury." 
 
 It was further enacted (1882, c. 265) that no road 
 shall be constructed without a certificate from the rail- 
 road commissioners that the public convenience and 
 necessity require it, and the articles of association are 
 to be void, unless the certificate of incorporation is 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 97 
 
 issued within one year from the time the route is fixed. 
 No steam railroad, or part of one, is to be located 
 within three miles of the state house without the writ- 
 ten consent of the railroad commissioners and of the 
 mayor and aldermen, or of the selectmen where the 
 location is desired. 
 
 Railroad consolidation has progressed greatly during 
 the ten years. The Worcester and Nashua was au- 
 thorized (1883, c. 129) to unite with the Nashua and 
 Rochester. The Boston and Lowell was authorized 
 (1886, c. 278) to unite with the Boston, Concord and 
 Montreal and with several other roads to the north 
 operated by it. The Lowell road has leased the Cen- 
 tral Massachusetts and then leased itself, with the 
 Central, to the Boston and Maine, which had already 
 leased the Eastern. After the session of 1887, the 
 Boston and Providence was leased to the Old Colony, 
 leaving the act to be passed upon by the legislature. 
 
 By act of 1879 (c. 274) fifteen persons or more, a 
 majority of them inhabitants of this state, may form a 
 corporation to build railroads in foreign countries. 
 This was passed to enable Massachusetts capitalists to 
 engage in railroad building in Mexico, which was then 
 looked upon with much favor. 
 
 For the benefit of fast trains and for the safety of 
 travellers, a law of 1885 (c. 85) permits the establish- 
 ment of interlocking or automatic signals where rail- 
 7 
 
98 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 roads cross each other at grade, and another of the 
 same year (c. 194) promotes the abolition of grade 
 crossings of highways. 
 
 Street railway development may be briefly noticed. 
 After a persistent struggle for years, during which 
 several schemes for elevated roads in Boston were pre- 
 sented as rivals, the Meigs Elevated Railway company 
 was chartered (1884, c. 87) to have a capital of one 
 hundred thousand dollars a mile and to run between 
 Boston and Cambridge. The ingenious invention 
 which was thus given a possibility of life is the work 
 of Captain Joe V. Meigs, and to him the enterprise 
 owes its existence in the face of discouraging obstacles. 
 But beyond building an experimental track in Cam- 
 bridge, it had made no construction in the ten years 
 under review. 
 
 To enable street railways to use the inventions of 
 the times, a law of 1886 (c. 337) permits the use of 
 the cable system. The consolidation of the street rail- 
 ways of Boston, permitted by act of 1886 (c. 229), but 
 not completed till after the passage of the much-talked- 
 about West End Bill of 1887 (c. 413), is to be noticed 
 as a tendency of the times in that direction. 
 
 To prevent discrimination by railroad corporations 
 in freight rates, a matter which has since had the 
 attention of the interstate commerce commission, a law 
 was passed in 1882 (c. 94) that 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 99 
 
 "No railroad corporation shall discriminate in charges for the 
 transportation of freight against or in favor of any person, firm 
 or corporation, or demand or accept from any person, firm or 
 corporation for the transportation of freight, a higher or lower 
 rate, or demand or grant terms more or less favorable, than 
 those demanded or accepted from any other person, firm or 
 corporation for like service." 
 
 But, after two years of trial, this was repealed and 
 superseded by the following modified form (1884, 
 c. 225) : 
 
 "No railroad company shall in its charges for the transporta- 
 tion of freight or in doing its freight business make or give any 
 undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to or in favor 
 of any person, firm or corporation, nor subject any person, firai 
 or corporation to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or dis- 
 advantage. 1 ' 
 
 Even earlier than this the matter had come up, and 
 a law was enacted (1879, c. 206) to prevent discrimin- 
 ation, but it related to milk only, and grew out of 
 difficulties with railroad customers, who considered 
 themselves injured by better rates given to rival milk 
 dealers. 
 
 Insurance Changes. 
 
 The body of insurance legislation in the ten years 
 has been large and important, mostly for the extension 
 of the system, at the same time with added protection 
 to the insured. Fire insurance companies of other 
 states have been given added powers and duties in 
 
100 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Massachusetts (1878, c. 12) ; the dividends of joint- 
 stock fire, marine and fire-marine companies of the 
 state are forbidden (1878, c. 35) to exceed ten per 
 cent, cash; the insurance commissioner is to be the 
 attorney in this state of insurance companies of other 
 states and countries (1878, c. 36) ; the number, extent 
 and origin of fires, the amount of damage and of 
 insurance, and the names of the owners or occupants 
 of the premises must be sent to the commissioner 
 every January by every city and town (1878, c. 104) ; 
 foreign companies cannot do business in the state 
 without depositing a sum equal to that required of 
 state companies (1878, c. 130) ; fire insurance in ex- 
 cess of " the fair value of the property " is forbidden 
 (1878, c. 162) ; no unlicensed persons or associations 
 can engage in insurance (1878, c. 218) ; a standard 
 form of insurance policy has been established (1880, 
 c. 175, and 1881, c. 166) ; no policy of life or endow- 
 ment insurance issued by a state company can become 
 void for non-payment of premium after two full annual 
 premiums have been paid (1880, c. 232), any stipula- 
 tion to the contrary notwithstanding (1881, c. 63) ; 
 re-insurance cannot be effected with a company or 
 individual not authorized to do business in the state 
 (1883, c. 33, and 1884, c. 120) ; a change in the form 
 of securities deposited may be made (1883, c. 107) ; 
 foreign fire insurance companies are given an option 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 101 
 
 (1884, c. 58) of returning their foreign business in 
 their report to the commissioner, but if they do not 
 return it, they cannot advertise it here; insurance 
 directors may be elected by classes (1884, c. 74), so 
 that the whole board cannot be changed at once ; 
 marine companies may insure against fire and light- 
 ning (1884, c. 177) ; life companies must not discrim- 
 inate against persons of color (1884, c. 235) — a law 
 owing its existence solely to the effort of Mr. Chap- 
 pelle of Boston, the only member of color in the legis- 
 lature that year ; citizens may be licensed to procure 
 fire insurance policies in companies not authorized to 
 transact business in the state (1885, c. 300) ; mutual 
 fire insurance companies may be formed with a sub- 
 scription fund of from two hundred thousand to one 
 million dollars (1885, c. 394) ; Canada has been added 
 to the field of mutual fire insurance companies (1886, 
 c. 222) ; finally, the whole body of insurance law has 
 been codified (1887, c. 217), as the last work and 
 monument of the late Commissioner Tarbox. 
 
 The new kinds of insurance permitted within the 
 state by laws of the last ten years are fidelity insurance 
 (1881, c. 51, 1884, c. 296 and 1885, c. 241), and real 
 estate title insurance (1884, c. 180). 
 
 A rapid growth of assessment insurance has taken 
 place during the decade and annual reports are re- 
 quired of such companies by act of 1880 (c. 196). 
 
102 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Fraudulent concerns were formed which imposed upon 
 the public and the entire law was revised, strengthened 
 and codified in 1885 (c. 183). The formation of as- 
 sessment associations was at once checked and the 
 system is now working out its development under the 
 protection of law for honest dealing with the insured. 
 
 Loan and Trust Companies. 
 
 A noticeable feature of recent business legislation 
 is the incorporation of loan and trust companies whose 
 incorporators are usually moneyed men and whose 
 capital is large. Each of these companies has a spe- 
 cial charter and an attempt to frame a general law was 
 found to excite so much opposition and to be so im- 
 practicable, as the companies persuaded the legislature, 
 that it was abandoned. The tendency to form com- 
 panies of this sort is a feature of the times. There are 
 to be noticed the following corporations within the ten 
 years: the International Trust company (1879), cap- 
 ital, $1,000,000 to 11,500,000; the American Loan and 
 Trust company (1881), capital, $250,000 to 11,000,000; 
 the Springfield Safe Deposit and Trust company 
 (1885), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the National 
 Mortgage and Debenture company (1886), capital, 
 $500,000; the New Bedford Safe Deposit and Trust 
 company (1887), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 103 
 
 B. M. C. Durfee Safe Deposit and Trust company of 
 FaU River (1887), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the 
 Bay State Trust company (1887), capital, $200,000 to 
 $1,000,000 ; the Commonwealth Safe Deposit and Trust 
 company (1887), capital, $2,000,000 to $10,000,000; 
 the Lynn Safe Deposit and Trust company (1887), 
 capital, $100,000 to $300,000; the Boston Water Trust 
 and Investment company (1887), capital, $500,000; 
 the Manufacturers' Loan and Trust company of Hol- 
 yoke (1887), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the Suf- 
 folk Trust and Investment company (1887), capital, 
 $100,000 to $1,000,000 ; and the Hampden Loan and 
 Trust company of Springfield (1887), capital, $100,000 
 to $500,000. 
 
 The Field of Electricity. 
 
 Regulation of telegraph and telephone companies is 
 a growing feature of recent legislation. The local 
 authorities are given power (1880, c. 83) to make 
 reasonable regulations for the erection and mainte- 
 nance of wires (including telegraph, telephone, fire 
 and police) and the erection of lines may be prevented, 
 or lines already erected may be removed at the ex- 
 pense of the owner or contractor. Lines for electric 
 lights are put under the same rules as far as applicable 
 (1883, c. 221). Putting wires upon any person's prop- 
 
104 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 erty without his consent may be punished by one 
 hundred dollars' fine (1884, c. 202). Telephone com- 
 panies are forbidden (1885, c. 267) to discriminate 
 between telegraph companies. This grew out of a 
 complaint by the Baltimore and Ohio telegraph com- 
 pany that it was not served on the same terms as the 
 Western Union. To prevent the aggrandizement of 
 the American Bell Telephone company, it was forbid- 
 den (1886, c. 326) to hold over thirty per cent, of the 
 capital stock of any subordinate telephone company. 
 To secure greater care in the transmission of tele- 
 graphic messages, a penalty of one hundred dollars 
 may be imposed (1885, c. 380) for each case of dam- 
 ages up to that amount, actually caused by negligence. 
 New inventions for lighting and heating have de- 
 manded the attention of the law-makers. In 1879 
 (c. 202) corporations with a capital of from five thou- 
 sand to five hundred thousand dollars were authorized 
 to be formed to sell gas, steam or hot water for light- 
 ing, heating, cooking or mechanical power. Gas com- 
 panies could also engage in the business, and in 1885 
 (c. 240) a law authorized the formation of corporations 
 to supply gas for heating, cooking, chemical and me- 
 chanical uses. By law of 1886 (c. 250) the gas of 
 every company with over fifty consumers must be 
 inspected at least twice a year, with an additional 
 inspection for every six million feet oi gas furnished. 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 105 
 
 In 1885 occurred the great gas contest in the legisla- 
 ture, resulting in a law (c. 814) establishing a board 
 of gas commissioners and practically giving every es- 
 tablished company a monopoly in the city or town 
 where located. This course of public policy was de- 
 cided upon on the ground that it had been shown by 
 experience that competing gas companies resulted 
 ultimately, by consolidation and advance of prices to 
 make up the losses of previous competition, in more 
 expense to the people than a single company. Ag- 
 grieved consumers may appeal to the commission, 
 which has power to reduce rates. Great power is 
 given to the commission and further regulations are 
 laid down in the law of the following year (1886, 
 c. 346), one of which is that "no gas company shall 
 transfer its franchise, lease its works, or contract with 
 any person, association or corporation to carry on its 
 works, without the authority of the legislature." Gas 
 companies have been empowered in a general law 
 (1887, c. 385) to furnish electric light and the board 
 of gas commissioners has been made a board of gas 
 and electric light commissioners. 
 
 Miscellaneous Matters. 
 
 The insolvency laws have been changed in some 
 detail in the ten years. An insolvent debtor may be 
 
106 TEX YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 examined under oath (1881, c. 235) by the assignee or 
 by any creditor before a judge upon all matters relat- 
 ing to his insolvency and any person suspected of 
 fraudulent connection with the insolvency may be 
 examined in like manner. Refusal to answer is pun- 
 ishable by imprisonment. In order to avoid going 
 through the regular course of insolvency, a law was 
 enacted in 1884 (c. 236) to provide a method of com- 
 position in insolvency, with full provision for division 
 of the assets equitably and a discharge from insolv- 
 ency. The course of proceeding was modified in 1886 
 (c. 353). The causes which shall prevent a discharge 
 from insolvency were changed and restated in 1886 
 (c. 322). An act of 1887 (c. 340) confirms the acts 
 done in good faith in a voluntary assignment by an 
 insolvent person, notwithstanding subsequent insolv- 
 ency proceedings by or against him. 
 
 Farmers and their pecuniary interests have been the 
 subject of legislation to a slight degree. Several acts 
 have been passed to control contagious diseases among 
 domestic animals and they were codified in 1887 
 (c. 252). Plantations of timber trees are exempt from 
 taxation (1878, c. 131 and 1880, c. 109), but this was 
 done more to benefit the climate of the state by 
 encouraging forests than to benefit the owners of 
 woodland. "Wanton destruction of forest by fire is 
 punishable (1882, c. 163) by one hundred dollars' fine 
 
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 107 
 
 or by six months' imprisonment. An elaborate bill 
 for the preservation of forests was passed in 1882 
 (c. 255), authorizing towns and cities to make appro- 
 priations for that object, empowering the state board 
 of agriculture to act as a state board of forestry and 
 and permitting the taking of land for forests to be held 
 as public domain. Strict regulations have been made 
 for the inspection and sale of commercial fertilizers 
 (1878, c. 258). 
 
 Some miscellaneous business acts are of interest to 
 show certain tendencies or oddities. The Boston Lim- 
 ited Partnership company of 1885 (c. 208) was formed 
 to loan money to likely young men to give them a 
 start in business, and the company was to be a limited 
 partner with them. By act of 1887 (c. 248) a limited 
 partnership, lawfully succeeding to the business of a 
 firm, may use the firm's name, upon consent of its 
 members or of their legal representatives. 
 
 The Board of Aid to Land Ownership (1878, c. 148) 
 was a half business, half philanthropic organization to 
 help settlers to the west, somewhat after the manner 
 of the Rugby settlement in Tennessee. It was formed 
 while many people were still idle who would have 
 gone west, had they had a chance, but the changed 
 industrial situation soon made the board superfluous. 
 
 Abuses of the customers of those who sold furniture 
 and other articles on the instalment plan, led to a law 
 
108 TEN YEABS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 (1884, c. 313) to prevent poor people with small busi- 
 ness experience, especially women, from being made 
 the victims of sharpers. 
 
 Occasional inconvenience and loss was the cause of 
 the law of 1885 (c. 210) authorizing the payment of 
 checks, demand drafts and savings bank orders, in case 
 of the death of the drawer before payment, without 
 waiting for the settlement of the estate. 
 
TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 109 
 
 TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 
 
 Sixth-class License — Liquor Transportation — Civil Dam- 
 age Law — Punishment for Drunkenness — The Screen 
 Law — Abuttor's Objection — School-house Law — Sure- 
 ties — Sales at Night — Election Days — Sales Forbidden 
 to Certain Persons — Temperance Text-books — Habitual 
 Drunkards — Pigeon-holing Appealed Cases — Cigarettes 
 — Liquor Clubs — Riots — Common Nuisance — Forfeiture 
 of License — Prima Facie Law — Druggists and Apothe- 
 caries — Patent Ballot Boxes. 
 
 Last of all, in our view of the growth of Massa- 
 chusetts, we come to a development of public morals 
 which is worth separate notice because of its high 
 importance — the liquor question. It is associated not 
 only with morals, but with public administration, with 
 religion, with education, with society, with life and 
 health, with the labor question and with the business 
 interests, and in every place it is present as a curse. 
 It comes into every department of state development, 
 changing, hindering and injuring the progress of the 
 Commonwealth. No other subject approaches it in 
 perennial interest in the legislature. Other matters 
 rise and fall in apparent importance, but liquor meas- 
 ures have more interest for the members, session after 
 
110 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 session, than anything else. A liquor debate is sure 
 of attention. Personal sympathy, in opposition or 
 support, is always excited by liquor bills, as if the 
 members had themselves some tiling to gain or lose. 
 Something is attempted every year, and there is no 
 doubt that the state is honest in its determination to 
 restrict liquor selling in every practicable way. If 
 the state could be satisfied that prohibition would stop 
 selling better than the local option law, there is no 
 doubt, from the temper of successive legislatures, that 
 prohibition would be enacted. 
 
 At the beginning of the ten years the local option 
 law was in force and has so remained, but at nearly 
 every point where it has seemed possible to get a twist 
 on the liquor dealers, the screws have been applied. 
 Below will be found noted the several steps of the 
 state's progress in fighting the liquor business. 
 
 In 1878 (c. 203) was established a new class of 
 licenses, the sixth, that of druggists and apothecaries 
 " to sell liquors of any kind for medicinal, mechanical 
 and chemical purposes only, and to such persons only 
 as may certify in writing for what use they want it ; " 
 fee, one dollar. Records were to be kept, open at all 
 times to official inspection, showing the date of pur- 
 chase, the name and residence of the purchaser, the 
 kind and quality of the liquor, the purpose in using 
 it, and the price. 
 
TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. Ill 
 
 The same year (1878, c. 207) it was enacted that 
 
 " No person shall bring into any town or city in which licenses 
 are not granted any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, with intent 
 to sell the same himself, or to have the same sold by another, or 
 having reasonable cause to believe that the same is intended to be 
 sold in violation of law." 
 
 The penalty for violation was forfeiture of the liquor. 
 
 In 1879 (c. 297) came the so-called "civil damages" 
 law, which was stoutly opposed by the liquor interests. 
 It says that 
 
 " Every husband, wife, child, parent, guardian, employer, or 
 other person, who shall be injured in person or property, or 
 means of support, by any intoxicated person, or in consequence 
 of the intoxication, habitual or otherwise, of any person, shall 
 have a right of action in his or her own name, severally or jointly, 
 against any person or persons who shall, by selling or giving 
 intoxicating liquors, have caused the intoxication, in whole or 
 in part of such person; and any person or persons owning, 
 renting, leasing, or permitting the occupation of, any building or 
 premises, and having knowledge that intoxicating liquors are to 
 be sold therein, or who, having leased the same for other pur- 
 poses, shall knowingly permit therein the sale of any intoxicating 
 liquors, shall, if any such liquors sold or given therein, have 
 caused, in whole or in part, the intoxication of any person, be 
 liable severally or jointly, with the person or persons selling or 
 giving intoxicating liquors as aforesaid, for all damages sustained, 
 and the same may be recovered in an action of tort." 
 
 The owner or lessor, paying a penalty under the 
 act, may recover it from the tenant under action of 
 contract. This law, however, has been but little used. 
 
 By law of 1880 (c. 221) the second offence of drunk- 
 enness was made punishable by one dollar fine or ten 
 
112 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 days' imprisonment. A male person, convicted of a 
 third offence, might be punished by ten dollars' fine 
 or a year's imprisonment. This law was modified in 
 1881 (c. 276), so that the first penalty should apply to 
 the first offence, and should include costs. The sec- 
 ond offence of a male person within twelve months 
 was made punishable by five dollars' fine and costs, or 
 two months' imprisonment, the third offence's punish- 
 ment remaining the same as before. But even this 
 policy was not satisfactory, and in 1885 (c. 365) the 
 third offence was made punishable by sentence to the 
 Concord reformatory for from one to two years, and 
 the first offence was made punishable (1885, c. 375) 
 by raising the fine from one to five dollars and the 
 imprisonment from ten to thirty days. 
 
 Licenses of the first three classes (retailers') must 
 specify (1880, c. 239) the rooms in which they are 
 to be exercised, and cannot be exercised elsewhere. 
 The licensee may be required to close permanently all 
 entrances to the licensed premises, except from the 
 street where located, under penalty of forfeiting the 
 license. A free view of the premises may be ordered 
 — the germ of the screen law. Intoxicating liquor is 
 to include all with over three per cent, in volume of 
 alcohol at sixty degrees Fahrenheit. 
 
 Conviction of illegal sale must be certified (1880, 
 c. 249) to the board issuing the license. 
 
TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 113 
 
 In 1881 (c. 54) the law for taking the local option 
 vote was put into its latest form, except the regulation 
 of the size and typography of the ballots (1886, c. 49). 
 
 The famous screen law was enacted in 1881 (c. 225), 
 and the essential words are these : 
 
 "And no such licensed person shall place or maintain, or 
 authorize or permit to be placed or maintained, upon any prem- 
 ises used by him for the sale of spirituous or intoxicating liquors 
 under the provisions of his license, any screen, blind, shutter, 
 curtain, partition, or painted, ground, or stained glass window, 
 or any other obstruction, which shall interfere with a view of the 
 business conducted upon the premises. No person licensed as 
 aforesaid shall expose in any window upon his premises any 
 bottles or casks or other vessels containing, or purporting to con- 
 tain, intoxicating liquors, in such way as to interfere with a view 
 of the business conducted upon the premises." 
 
 Putting up an obstruction voids the license (1882, 
 c. 259). 
 
 Following this (1881, c. 226) was enacted a law 
 making the buildings used by liquor clubs in no-license 
 cities and towns common nuisances. 
 
 The next restriction on the trade was to require 
 all applications for a license to be advertised (1881, 
 c. 255), so that the abutters might be informed, and 
 objection made, if desired. If the owner of adjoining 
 real estate objected within ten days, the license could 
 not be granted. This "abutter's objection" law was 
 evaded afterward in some cases by selling a strip of 
 land a few inches wide to some friend of the liquor 
 8 
 
114 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 seller, so that the objector was no longer an abnttor. 
 This trick was met in 1887 (c. 323) by extending the 
 right of objection so as to cover twenty-five feet on 
 each side of the property. 
 
 The "four hundred feet" law — that no retailer's 
 license shall be granted for liquor selling within four 
 hundred feet, on the same street, of a building used in 
 whole or in part for a public school — was enacted in 
 1882 (c. 220), and was at once enforced amid much 
 interest, particularly in Boston. 
 
 Official inspection and analysis of liquor is provided 
 for in detail (1882, c. 221). Common victuallers must 
 close their premises (1882, c. 242) between midnight 
 and five o'clock in the morning. 
 
 No surety on the bond of a licensee can be accepted 
 who is not worth at least two thousand dollars over all 
 liabilities (1882, c. 259). 
 
 Sale or delivery of liquor to a person who has re- 
 ceived public charity within the twelve months next 
 preceding the date of the license is forbidden (1884, 
 c. 158). 
 
 The hours in which liquor selling is prohibited to 
 licensed persons have been lengthened (1885, c. 90), 
 so that the period of closed doors is from eleven p. m. 
 to six a.m., instead of from midnight to six o'clock. 
 This act was fought stubbornly on the ground that the 
 hour next before midnight was one of the most profit- 
 
TEMPE11ANCE LEGISLATION. 115 
 
 able, and that the saloons were then most patronized, 
 especially in Boston. But the legislature held to the 
 argument that by that time of night most people ought 
 to be in bed. 
 
 The sale or delivery of liquor on election days is 
 prohibited to common victuallers and to innholders, 
 except to registered guests, under fifty dollars' penalty 
 (1885, c. 216). This was done to prevent the pres- 
 ence of an unusual number of intoxicated men on the 
 streets on election days, which had become a scandal, 
 especially in Boston. 
 
 To prevent liquor-selling to a person with the liquor 
 habit, written notice, signed by the mayor or select- 
 men, may be given to any seller, forbidding any sale 
 to the person named in the notice, and if liquor is sold 
 to that person within twelve months, the mayor or 
 selectmen may bring suit for damages for from one 
 hundred to five hundred dollars (1885, c. 282). 
 
 The temperance text-book law (1885, c. 332) is as 
 follows : 
 
 "Physiology and hygiene, which, in both divisions of the sub- 
 ject, shall include special instruction as to the effects of alcoholic 
 drinks, stimulants and narcotics on the human system, shall be 
 taught as a regular branch of study to all pupils in all schools 
 supported wholly or in part by public money, except special 
 schools maintained solely for instruction in particular branches, 
 such as drawing, mechanics, art, and like studies. All acts or 
 parts of acts relating to the qualifications of teachers in the public 
 schools shall apply to the branch of study prescribed in this act." 
 
116 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Any habitual drunkard may be committed to a state 
 lunatic hospital (1885, c. 339), and not be released 
 " unless it appears probable that he will not continue 
 to be subject to dipsomania or habitual drunkenness, 
 or that his confinement therein is not longer necessary 
 for the safety of the public or for his own welfare.'' 
 
 Much dissatisfaction was felt for years because ap- 
 pealed liquor cases were not tried, especially in Boston, 
 but that they were " pigeonholed " by the district 
 attorney. A law was passed to prevent this (1885, 
 c. 359), and though efforts to repeal it were made in 
 both 1886 and 1887, they failed. The law was that no 
 liquor case should be "placed on file or disposed of, 
 except by trial and judgment according to the regular 
 course of proceedings in criminal cases, unless in any 
 case the purposes of justice require other disposition 
 thereof." 
 
 The "cigarette law" was passed in 1886 (c. 72), 
 when but little liquor legislation was enacted, thus : 
 
 " No person shall sell any cigarette, snuff or tobacco in any of 
 its forms to any person under sixteen years of age. No person 
 other than the minor's parent or guardian shall give any cigar- 
 ette, snuff or tobacco in any of its forms to any minor under six- 
 teen years of age." 
 
 Penalty, fifty dollars. So far as appears, the law has 
 been left to enforce itself. 
 
 In 1887 more interest than ever was shown in liquor 
 
TEMPEEANCE LEGISLATION. 117 
 
 legislation, and though the prohibitory constitutional 
 amendment was defeated, yet material addition was 
 made to the restrictive liquor laws. Unlicensed sell- 
 ing, distributing or dispensing intoxicating liquors by 
 clubs, is prohibited (1887, c. 206), except by such as 
 do not appear to be organized for the liquor business 
 and are duly licensed. This device of clubs as a means 
 of evading the license law had particular development 
 in some of the cities. 
 
 A consequence of the public disturbances during 
 the Cambridge horse-car strike was the law (1887, 
 c. 365), passed upon recommendation by Gov. Ames 
 in a special message, empowering the local authorities 
 in all places to close all retailers' establishments ih 
 cases of riot or great public excitement, for not over 
 three days at any one time, the penalty of keeping 
 open to be two hundred dollars' fine and forfeiture of 
 the license. 
 
 Much is expected of the following law (1887, c. 380), 
 which puts it in the power of ten men to close a saloon, 
 without a trial and without that trouble with a jury 
 which has so often been found a serious obstacle to the 
 enforcement of the liquor laws : 
 
 "The supreme judicial court and superior court shall have 
 jurisdiction in equity upon information filed by the district attor- 
 ney for the district or upon the petition of not less than ten legal 
 voters of any town or city setting forth the fact that any building 1 , 
 place or tenement therein is resorted to for prostitution, lewdness 
 
118 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 or illegal gaming, or is used for the illegal keeping or sale of 
 intoxicating liquors, to restrain, enjoin or abate the same as a 
 common nuisance, and an injunction for such purpose may be 
 issued by any justice of either of said courts.'" 
 
 Another screw on the liquor sellers is the law (1887, 
 c. 392) that conviction of violating any part of the 
 liquor code shall make void the license. 
 
 In the case of illegal selling, all the implements and 
 furniture may be seized (1887, c. 406), as well as the 
 liquor itself. 
 
 The "prima facie" law (1887, c. 414) is intended to 
 facilitate convictions by making to be prima facie evi- 
 dence of sales the exposing of any placard, sign or 
 advertisement (except in a drug store), or of a United 
 States tax receipt as dealer in spirituous or intoxicat- 
 ing liquors, other than malt liquors. 
 
 To check illegal selling by retail druggists and 
 apothecaries, such persons are to be allowed only a 
 sixth-class license (1887, c. 431), or a license for medic- 
 inal, mechanical or chemical purposes only, and they 
 are put under close restrictions as to keeping records 
 of sales. 
 
 The final liquor law of the session of 1887 was that 
 (c. 443) to require the use of self-registering and self- 
 cancelling ballot boxes in voting on the issue of liquor 
 licenses under the local option law. This was in 
 accord with a special message of Gov. Ames. The 
 most important laws of the year are largely creditable 
 
TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 119 
 
 to the efforts of Mr. Darling of Somerville, house 
 chairman of the liquor law committee, upon whom fell 
 the brunt of the contest. The house stood well by the 
 committee, and other restrictive measures, notably the 
 bill to prevent liquor selling in tenement houses and 
 " kitchen dives " were passed by it, but only to be 
 defeated in the senate. 
 
120 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 THE SUM OF IT ALL. 
 
 The sum of it all is that the state has made material 
 and manifest progress in the ten years. It is a better 
 state than it was ten years ago. It has a keener per- 
 ception of injustice to those who fail to secure justice, 
 and a stronger purpose to redress wrongs done to its 
 citizens, either by the working of civil forces or by the 
 direct deeds of other citizens. The state is on a higher 
 level than it was ten years ago, and the steps by which 
 it has mounted are to be found in its laws. It is 
 inspired by a stronger public virtue, and advances with 
 a larger intelligence. If this seems to our friends in 
 national union to be saying too much, it yet remains 
 that at least the same public virtue and the same 
 intelligence have secured a material addition to the 
 rights and to the privileges of the large body of the 
 people. 
 
 But the advance of the state is opposed and threat- 
 ened at every step. Not only has it to meet the dis- 
 integrating forces of vice and ignorance, which are 
 ever old, yet ever new, but it has also to face evils 
 wholly new, growing out of the changes in its condi- 
 
THE SUM OF IT ALL. 121 
 
 tion. The population of Massachusetts is becoming 
 dense. Half of its people are in its cities, and the 
 strength of the cities is from the country. Yet the 
 proportion of the state which consumes men is con- 
 stantly becoming larger, while the proportion which 
 furnishes them for consumption is constantly becom- 
 ing smaller. Immigration does not check, but aggra- 
 vates the evil, and the question is whether the supply 
 among the hills of the other New England states can 
 satisfy the demand. The boys and girls of the state 
 who grow up in cities, strangers to the freedom and 
 strength of country life, without opportunity to work, 
 save in the hotbeds of the public schools, and without 
 scope to develop that self-reliance which is a second 
 nature to those who must help themselves or go with- 
 out, are constantly becoming a larger proportion of the 
 whole. 
 
 Social and business conditions are changing with 
 the growing density of population and with the new 
 industrial situation. Large establishments are increas- 
 ing. Small enterprises are crushed or smothered by 
 large ones. Aggregation of capital and concentration 
 of labor are the rule. Men capable, under the old 
 system, of making a sufficient competence, are forced 
 by the iron laws of trade to take subordinate positions 
 in these large establishments where they have no plans 
 of their own to make, no field of their own to develop, 
 
122 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 no enterprise of their own to push to success, but only 
 to do as best they may the will of their employer. 
 As continual giving of charity to the poor tends to 
 make them lean habitually upon others, to the loss of 
 their own power of self-support, so this dependence of 
 increasing numbers of capable men upon the will of a 
 few tends to pauperize that spirit of manly independ- 
 ence which has been the strength of the state in the 
 past. As self-government in local affairs, free from 
 interference by the central authority, tends to the per- 
 manent well-being of the whole, so the management of 
 his own affairs by the individual man tends to make 
 the most of him. Massachusetts helps to local self- 
 government in towns, but her business development 
 tends to increase the ranks of the salaried men and to 
 reduce the number of employers to the heads of a 
 comparatively few great concerns. It is the resistless 
 tendency of the times. 
 
 With these dangers to its children and to its adults, 
 it promises to be in the future the chief concern and 
 pressing problem of the state how to raise men. 
 
INDEX 
 
 A. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abandoned children 36, 58 
 
 Abuttor's obj ection 113 
 
 Accidents, railroad 66 
 
 Accidents to employees 74 
 
 Accounts, county 24 
 
 Adulterations 60 
 
 Amendments, constitutional.... 9 
 
 Ames, Oliver 117, 118 
 
 Analysis of liquor 114 
 
 Apparatus, school 53 
 
 Appealed liquor cases 116 
 
 Arbitration 78 
 
 B. 
 
 Bail 22 
 
 Ballot boxes 12 
 
 Ballot regulations 13 
 
 Ballots , counterfeiting 14 
 
 Bartlett, Fred'k, C. S 28 
 
 Beet sugar bounty 26 
 
 Berry, John M 87 
 
 Bets 45 
 
 Birds and game 28 
 
 Boilers, locomotive 66 
 
 Boston, debt limit 25 
 
 Brackett, John Q. A 20 
 
 Bridges, highway 67 
 
 Bridges, railroad 66 
 
 Buildings, construction 68 
 
 Curdett, Joseph 30 
 
 Burials 71 
 
 Butter, imitation 62, 63 
 
 C. 
 Car stoves 66 
 
 Change of venue 22 
 
 Chappelle.J. C 101 
 
 page 
 
 Charitable associations 59 
 
 Check list 15 
 
 Children, abandoned 58 
 
 Children at am usements 48 
 
 Children in factories 55 
 
 Children in theatres 70 
 
 Children, neglected 35, 36 
 
 Churches, Congregational 41 
 
 Churches, Roman Catholic • 42 
 
 Cigarettes 116 
 
 Cities, new 33 
 
 City debts 25, 26 
 
 Civil damages law Ill 
 
 Civil service 29 
 
 Claims 32 
 
 Clark university 54 
 
 Clubs, liquor 113, 117 
 
 Coffin, Charles Carleton 20 
 
 Colorblindness 65 
 
 Colored persons 33 
 
 Combustibles 67 
 
 Commissions 28 
 
 Common nuisance law 117 
 
 Common victuallers 114 
 
 Concord reformatory 38 
 
 Constitutional amendments 9 
 
 Contagious diseases 69 
 
 Controller, county accounts 24 
 
 Convict labor 85 
 
 Co-operative banks 95 
 
 Counterfeiting ballots 14 
 
 County accounts 21 
 
 Courts, district 21 
 
 Courts, inferior 21 
 
 Courts, police 21 
 
 Court, superior, claims 32 
 
 Court, superior, enlarged 22 
 
 Court, superior, jurisdiction 22 
 
 Cremation 7L 
 
 123 
 
124 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Criminals, habitual 23 
 
 Crossings, railroad 66, 97 
 
 Cumulative sentences 40 
 
 D. 
 
 Dangerous weapons 79 
 
 Darling, Samuel C 119 
 
 Debts of cities 25, 26 
 
 Defacing voting lists 16 
 
 Deformed persons 47 
 
 Dickinson, John W 50 
 
 Discharged convicts 39 
 
 Diseases, contagious 69 
 
 Discrimination, railroad 98 
 
 District courts 21 
 
 District police 18 
 
 Divorced persons 57 
 
 Divorces, fraudulent 49 
 
 Divorces, jurisdiction 22 
 
 Divorces, statistics 49 
 
 Domestic animal's 106 
 
 Double taxation 24 
 
 Drugs, adulterated 61 
 
 Drunkenness 112 
 
 E. 
 
 Election sermon 43 
 
 Elections, good order at 14 
 
 Elections, liquor at 115 
 
 Electric bells 74 
 
 Electrical inventions. 103, 104 
 
 Electric light commission 29 
 
 Elevated roads 98 
 
 Elevators 69 
 
 Employer's liability 81 
 
 Equity jurisdiction 21 
 
 Evening schools 52 
 
 Exemption, soldiers' 32 
 
 Experiment station 25 
 
 Explosives u 67 
 
 F. 
 
 Factory inspectors 18, 76 
 
 Fall , Charles G 81 
 
 Fall River water case 28 
 
 Fines, imperfect weaving 76 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fires in workshops 73 
 
 Fire regulations 68 
 
 Forests 27, 106 
 
 Foundlings 35 
 
 Free text-books 53 
 
 Frogs and switches 84 
 
 Fund, school 50 
 
 Furniture, by instalments 107 
 
 G. 
 
 Gag in prisons 39 
 
 Game 28 
 
 Gaming 46 
 
 Gas companies 104, 105 
 
 Gift enterprises 46 
 
 Gifts to wives 57 
 
 Gold payments 90 
 
 Grade crossings 66, 97 
 
 H. 
 
 Habitual criminals 23 
 
 Habitual drunkards 116 
 
 Hand tools 53 
 
 Hastings, Thomas J 24 
 
 Homes for laboring people 87 
 
 Hoosac Tunnel line 95 
 
 Hotels, lire regulations 68 
 
 I. 
 
 Ice, impure 64 
 
 Illiterate minors 55 
 
 Illustrated papers 47 
 
 Imperfect weaving . . 76 
 
 Imprisonment, reduction 37 
 
 Indecent language 46 
 
 Industrial training 53 
 
 Insane, the 34 
 
 Insolvency 106 
 
 Instruction, religious 43 
 
 Insurance 100, 101 
 
 J. 
 
 Jail discipline 39 
 
 Jeffries, Dr. B. Joy 65 
 
INDEX. 
 
 125 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Jurisdiction of inferior courts. . . 21 
 
 Jurisdiction in equity 21 
 
 Juvenile offenders 35 
 
 K. 
 Knights of Labor 72 
 
 L. 
 
 Labor day 86 
 
 Land ownership, board 107 
 
 Lard 62 
 
 Liability, employers' 81 
 
 Liability, insurance 83 
 
 Liability, railroads 83 
 
 Liability, street railways 67 
 
 Libraries 55 
 
 License, retailers' 112 
 
 License, sixth -class 110, 118 
 
 License voided 118 
 
 Liquor sales forbidden 115 
 
 Liquor seizures 118 
 
 Lists, voting 16 
 
 Loan and Trust Companies 102 
 
 Local option law 113 
 
 Lotteries 46 
 
 M. 
 
 Manual Training 53 
 
 Manufactories 72 
 
 Manufactories, census of 26 
 
 Manufactories, children in 55 
 
 Manufactories, women and ) RA 
 
 minors j e * 
 
 Manufactories, voters 86 
 
 Matrons, police 40 
 
 Meal hours 75 
 
 Meigs, Joe V 98 
 
 Memorial day 33 
 
 Metropolitan police 19 
 
 Midnight liquor law 114 
 
 Militia 32 
 
 Milk, adulterated 61 
 
 Minors and women 84 
 
 Minors, illiterate 55 
 
 Missiles thrown 67 
 
 Moseley, Edward A 85 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mufflers 70 
 
 Municipal courts 21 
 
 N. 
 
 Naphtha 68 
 
 Naturalization 15 
 
 Neglected children 35, 36 
 
 New cities 33 
 
 New towns 33 
 
 O. 
 
 Obscene papers 47 
 
 Obstruction to officers 48 
 
 Officer, probation 37 
 
 Oleomargarine 63 
 
 Opium joints 47 
 
 Order at elections 14 
 
 Orphans 36 
 
 Paine, Robert Treat 87 
 
 Parks 34 
 
 Parochial schools 51 
 
 Partnerships - 107 
 
 Pauper children 35 
 
 Pauper veterans 9 
 
 Petroleum 67 
 
 Physical training 52 
 
 Pigeon shooting 45 
 
 Poisons 70 
 
 Police courts 21 
 
 Police, district 18 
 
 Police in towns 20 
 
 Police matrons 40 
 
 Police, metropolitan 19 
 
 Police, steamboat 20 
 
 Pools 45 
 
 Ponds, great 28 
 
 Precinct voting 9, 16 
 
 Prima facie law 118 
 
 Private schools 51 
 
 Probation officer 37 
 
 Probation system 38 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quincy, Josiah 74 
 
126 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 K. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Race distinctions 33 
 
 Railroad accidents 66 
 
 Railroad consolidation 97 
 
 Railroad development 95 
 
 Railroads, foreign 97 
 
 Bailroads, new 96 
 
 Randall, Charles L 20 
 
 Reading-rooms 55 
 
 Reduction of imprisonment 37 
 
 Reformatory, Concord 38 
 
 Reformatory , Sherbom 37 
 
 Registration of voters 10-12 
 
 Relief societies &3 
 
 Religious instruction 43 
 
 Religious societies 43 
 
 Returns of votes 15 
 
 Riots, saloons in 117 
 
 Rousing bells 73 
 
 S. 
 
 Safety couplers 83 
 
 Sanitary measures 74 
 
 Savings banks 90 
 
 School apparatus 53 
 
 School districts 51 
 
 School fund 50 
 
 School information 52 
 
 Schools, evening 52 
 
 School-house law 114 
 
 Schools, physical training 52 
 
 Schools, private 51 
 
 School suffrage 17 
 
 School teachers' tenure 54 
 
 Screen law 113 
 
 Sentences, cumulative 40 
 
 Sherborn reformatory 37 
 
 Smoking 49 
 
 Societies, relief 83 
 
 Societies, religious 43 
 
 Soldiers' exemption 32 
 
 Speaking tubes 74 
 
 Stage coach companies 67 
 
 Steamboat companies 67 
 
 " Stickers " 15 
 
 Stock, special 85 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Stoves, car 66 
 
 Street railways 98 
 
 Street railways' liability 67 
 
 Streets and parks 34 
 
 Suffrage, woman 16 
 
 Sunday law 43 
 
 Superior court 22, 32 
 
 Sureties 22, 115 
 
 T. 
 
 Taxation, double 24 
 
 Tenements, fire regulations 68 
 
 Tenure of teachers 54 
 
 Text-books, free 53 
 
 Text-books, temperance , 115 
 
 Thayer, S. Proctor 30 
 
 Theatrical exhibitions 70 
 
 Towns, new 33 
 
 Toy pistols 70 
 
 Tramps 58 
 
 Truancy 54 
 
 Trustees, churches, etc 43 
 
 V. 
 
 Venue, change of 22 
 
 Vinegar 65 
 
 Voters in boarding houses 15 
 
 Voters in certain establishments. 86 
 
 Voters, naturalization 15 
 
 Voters, registration 10-12 
 
 Votes, re-counts 15, 10 
 
 Votes, returns of 15 
 
 Voting, illegal 13 
 
 Voting lists 16 
 
 Voting precincts 9, 16 
 
 w. 
 
 Wagers 45 
 
 Wdlkii, Jusuphll. -M- 
 
 Water, returns of 64 
 
 Water supplies 64 
 
INDEX. 
 
 127 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Weapons, dangerous 70 
 
 Weaving, imperfect 76 
 
 Weekly payments 76 
 
 Whistles, locomotive 70 
 
 Wives, gifts to 57 
 
 Woman suffrage 16 
 
 Women as lawyers 57 
 
 Women and minors 84 
 
 Women on probation 38 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wooden flues 69 
 
 Woodland 27 
 
 Workshops, sanitary condition... 74 
 
 Young persons at amusements. . . 48 
 Young persons in court 46 
 
OCT 28 1910 
 
hHS