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 power to fix maximum rates, which has met with general commendation throughout the country.

The charitable, penal and reformatory institutions of the state are all under a “Board of Control of State Institutions,” composed of three electors appointed by the governor and approved by two-thirds of the senators, careful provision being made also to prevent the board from becoming subject to either political party. The institutions under its charge include a Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home at Davenport; a Soldiers’ Home at Marshalltown; a College for the Blind at Vinton; a School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs; an Institution for Feeble-minded Children at Glenwood; an Industrial School for Boys at Eldora; an Industrial School for Girls at Mitchellville; and, at Oakdale, a Sanatorium for the Treatment of Tuberculosis. The Board of Control of State Institutions has supervisory and inquisitorial powers over all county and private institutions in the state in which insane are kept, and over homes for friendless children maintained by societies or institutions. In 1907 the General Assembly passed a law under which the indeterminate sentence was established in the state, and the governor appoints a Board of Parole of three members, of whom one must be an attorney and not more than two are to belong to the same political party.

Education.—The percentage of illiterates (i.e. both those unable to read and write and those unable to write) ten years of age and over, according to the census returns of 1900, was only 2.3; of all the other states of the Union, Nebraska alone made such a good return. But teachers were poorly paid, and fourteen schools have been closed at a time within a single county from want of teachers. However, there are laws requiring that each school be taught at least six months in a year, and that children between the ages of seven and fourteen attend for at least twelve consecutive weeks, and for a total of sixteen weeks in every year. In 1905–1906 male teachers received on an average $63.97 per month, women teachers, $43.41. Although the electors of each school district have ample powers reserved to them, in actual practice matters are attended to chiefly by an elected board of directors. The county administration is in the hands of a board of education and a superintendent. The school tax was derived in 1905–1906 from interest on the state’s permanent school fund—amounting to 2.3% of the total tax, and distributed in proportion to the population of school age; from a 1 to 3 mill county tax, amounting to 5.2% of the whole; and from local or district taxation, 92.5% of the entire tax. A law of the state provides for the establishment of a county high school whenever a majority of the electors of a county desire it, but in 1902 only one county (Guthrie county) had such a school. The number of public high schools in towns and cities, however, increased from 256 in 1893 to 345 in 1903. The state established a university at Iowa City in 1847, a State Agricultural College and Model Farm in 1858 (opened at Ames in 1869 as the Iowa State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts), an Agricultural Experiment Station in 1887, an Engineering Experiment Station in 1904, and a normal school at Cedar Falls in 1876.

At the head of the whole system is the state superintendent of public instruction, assisted by a board of educational examiners. In 1901 the total receipts for school purposes were $6,001,187; and the total disbursements $5,813,541; in 1906 the receipts were $7,126,162.12 and the disbursements $6,950,580.27. The pupils enumerated in 1906 were 707,843. Educational institutions not supported by the state include: Iowa Wesleyan University (Methodist, opened in 1842) at Mt. Pleasant; Iowa College (Congregational, 1848) at Grinnell; Central University of Iowa (Baptist, 1853) at Pella; Cornell College (Methodist, 1857) at Mt. Vernon; Western College (United Brethren, 1856) at Toledo; Upper Iowa University (Methodist Episcopal, 1857) at Fayette; Leander Clark College (United Brethren, 1857) at Toledo; Lenox College (Presbyterian, 1859) at Hopkinton; Luther College (Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran, 1861) at Decorah; Des Moines College (Baptist, 1865) at Des Moines; Tabor College (Congregational, 1866) at Tabor; Simpson College (Methodist, 1867) at Indianola; Wartburg Kollege (Lutheran, 1868) at Clinton; Amity College (Non-sectarian, 1872) at College Springs; German College (Methodist Episcopal, 1873) at Mt. Pleasant; Penn College (Friends, 1873) at Oskaloosa; St Joseph’s College (Roman Catholic, 1873) at Dubuque; Parsons College (Presbyterian, 1875) at Fairfield; Coe College (Presbyterian, 1881) at Cedar Rapids; Drake University (Disciples of Christ, 1881) at Des Moines; Palmer College (Disciples of Christ, 1889) at Legrand; Buena Vista College (Presbyterian, 1891) at Storm Lake; Charles City College (Methodist Episcopal, 1891) at Charles City; Morningside College (Methodist Episcopal, 1894) at Sioux City; Graceland College (Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, 1895) at Lamoni.

Finance.—The taxing system of Iowa embraces a general property tax, corporation taxes (imposed on the franchises or on either the capital stock or the stock in the hands of shareholders), taxes on certain businesses and a collateral inheritance tax. Several important attempts have been made to effect a segregation as between state and local taxes, but for the most part without success. For the year ending June 30th, 1908, the receipts of the state from all sources were $3,663,154.67, and the total expenditure was $3,891,842.81. The full value of all property, according to assessment of 1904, is $2,567,330,328. The state has no bonded debt, and the constitution forbids it to incur debts exceeding in the aggregate a quarter of a million dollars, except for warlike purposes or for some single work to which the people give their consent by vote; the constitution also forbids any county or municipal corporation from incurring an indebtedness exceeding 5% of the value of its taxable property. When first admitted into the Union, Iowa had a strongly pronounced antipathy to banks. This was largely overcome by the year 1857, and yet the constitution of that date prohibits any legislation of primary importance relating to banks without referring the matter to a direct vote of the people. The number of banks and the amount of banking business has, nevertheless, rapidly increased.

History.—Iowa, as a part of the whole Mississippi Valley, was taken into the formal possession of France in 1682; in 1762 as a part of the western half of that valley it was ceded to Spain; in 1800 it was retroceded to France; in 1803 was ceded to the United States; from 1804 to 1805, as a part of the District of Louisiana, it was under the government of Indiana Territory; from 1805 to 1812 it was a part of Louisiana Territory; from 1812 to 1821 a part of Missouri Territory; from 1821 to 1834 a part of the unorganized territory of the United States; from 1834 to 1836 a part of Michigan Territory; from 1836 to 1838 a part of Wisconsin Territory. In 1838 Wisconsin Territory was divided, the western portion being named Iowa, and out of this the state with its present bounds was carved in 1846.

The name Iowa (meaning “sleepy ones”) was taken from a tribe of Siouan Indians (probably of Winnebago stock), which for some time had dwelt in that part of the country and were still there when the first white men came—the Frenchmen, Marquette and Joliet, in 1673 and Hennepin in 1680. Early in the next century the Sauk and Foxes, vanquished by the French in Michigan, retreated westward, and in their turn largely supplanted the Iowas. Thither also came Julien Dubuque, a French Canadian, to trade with the new occupants. He discovered lead mines on and near the site of the city which now bears his name, in 1788 obtained an Indian grant or lease of about 21 sq. m., established there a settlement of miners and continued his mining operations, together with a trade in furs, until his death in 1810. The Indians refused permission to others to work the mines, and when intruders attempted to do so without it United States troops protected the red man’s rights, especially from 1830 to 1832. But Black Hawk’s war policy soon resulted in letting the white man in; for the war which he instigated was concluded in 1832 by a cession to the United States of nearly 9000 sq. m., embracing much of what is now the district of the Iowa lead and zinc mines. Without further waiting, though still in the face of the Act of Congress of 1807 prohibiting such settlements, the frontiersmen rushed in to mine and to farm, and government was established through voluntary associations. Such proceedings of these associations as related to claims to land were later recognized by the United States authorities, while such as related to the establishment of schools were tolerated for a time by the state government. Iowa, having separated from Wisconsin in 1838 on account of lack of courts for judicial relief, the question of applying for admission into the Union as a state was voted on as early as 1840, the Territory in that year having a population of 43,112; but the measure was defeated then, as it was again in 1842, by those who most wished to avoid an increase of taxes. In 1844, however, the vote was otherwise, a convention was called, a constitution framed and application for admission made. The question of boundaries, to which the question of slavery gave rise, then became the cause of delay, but the Territory became a state in 1846.

During the period in which the question of admission was under consideration, the Whigs opposed the measure, while the Democrats carried it through and remained in power until 1854; but ever since 1857 the state has been preponderantly Republican in all national campaigns; and with but two exceptions, in 1889 and 1891, when liquor and railroad legislation were the leading issues, has elected a Republican state administration. Nevertheless there has always been a strong sentiment in the state urging that corporations be held more in check, and its industries are not such as to receive a large benefit directly from tariff legislation. As a consequence there has been a tendency towards the formation of two opposing elements within the dominant party; the