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 sell it to another without her husband’s consent. Grounds for a divorce are adultery, physical incapacity at the time of marriage, sentence to imprisonment for three years or more, desertion for two years, habitual drunkenness, extreme cruelty, or, in case of the wife, refusal of the husband to provide for her maintenance when sufficiently able to do so; but in case the parties were married outside of Michigan the party seeking the divorce must reside within the state at least one year before petitioning for the same. An insolvent debtor’s homestead—consisting of not more than 40 acres of land with a house thereon, or a house and lot in a city or village not exceeding $1500 in value, together with not less than $500 of his personal property—is exempt from execution. For several years previous to 1876 a clause of the constitution prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquors within the state. Since then the whole liquor business has been subjected to a heavy tax, and since 1887 the prohibition of it has been left to the option of each of the several counties. A state court of mediation and arbitration, consisting of three members appointed by the governor with the consent of the senate, was created in 1889 to inquire into the cause of grievances threatening or resulting in any strike or lock-out and to endeavour to effect a settlement.

Charitable and Penal Institutions.—The state supports the Michigan Asylum for the Insane (opened 1859), at Kalamazoo; the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane (opened 1878), at Pontiac; the Northern Michigan Asylum for the Insane (opened 1885), at Traverse City; the Michigan Asylum for the Dangerous and Criminal Insane (established 1885), at Ionia; the Upper Peninsula Hospital for the Insane, at Newberry; a Psychopathic Hospital (established 1907), at Ann Arbor; a State Sanatorium (established 1905), at Howell; the Michigan State Prison (established 1839), at Jackson; the Michigan Reformatory (established 1887), at Ionia; the State House of Correction and Branch Prison (established 1885), at Marquette; the Industrial School for Boys, at Lansing; the Industrial Home for Girls (established 1879), near Adrian; the State Public School (opened 1874), at Coldwater, a temporary home for dependent children until homes in families can be found for them; the School for the Deaf (established 1854), at Flint; the School for the Blind, at Lansing; an Employment Institution for the Blind (established 1903), at Saginaw; the Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic (established 1893), at Lapeer; and the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (established 1885), at Grand Rapids. Each of these institutions is under the control of a board of three or more members appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate, and at the head of the department is the State Board of Corrections and Charities, consisting of the governor and four other members appointed by him, with the approval of the Senate, for a term of eight years, one retiring every two years. This board is required to visit each of the institutions at least once a year to ascertain its condition and needs, and all proposed appropriations for their support, plans of buildings, proposed systems of sewerage, ventilation and heating must be submitted to it.

Education.—Michigan was a pioneer state in creating the American educational system; she began the organization of it at the time of her admission into the Union in 1837, and has since been noted for the high standard of her schools. Each township operating under the District Act has two school inspectors—one being elected at each town meeting for a term of two years—who with the township clerk constitute the township board of school inspectors, and to this board is given authority to divide the township into school districts and to exercise a general supervision over the several schools within their jurisdiction; a township may be organized as a single district, called a “township unit district.” The qualified electors of each district having an ungraded school elect a moderator, a director and a treasurer—one at each annual school meeting—for a term of three years, who constitute the district school board, and this board is entrusted with ample power for directing the affairs of the school. In a district having more than 100 children of school age a graded school under the control of five trustees is formed whenever two-thirds of the electors vote for it at a town meeting, and the trustees of a graded school may establish a high school whenever a majority of the electors authorize them to do so. A high school may also be established in any township in which there is no incorporated village or city if when the question is submitted to the electors of that township a majority of the votes cast are in the affirmative. Each county has a county school commissioner, elected for a term of four years, who exercises a general supervision over the schools within his jurisdiction, and a board of examiners, consisting of three members (including the commissioner) and appointed by the several boards of county supervisors, from whom teachers receive certificates. Finally, at the head

of all the public elementary and secondary schools of the state is the state superintendent of public instruction, elected for a term of two years; he is ex officio a member and secretary of the state board of education, and a member, with the right to speak but not to vote, of all other boards having control of public instruction in any state institution. In every district having as many as 800 children between the ages of five and twenty the state requires that the school be taught not less than nine months a year; and a compulsory education law requires the attendance of all children between the ages of eight and fifteen for four months each year, in cities all between the same ages for the full school year, and between the ages of seven and sixteen if found frequenting public places without lawful occupation.

The higher state institutions of learning consist of a university, to which graduates of high schools on an accredited list are admitted without examination, four normal schools, an agricultural college, and a school of mines. The university (at Ann Arbor) was established in 1837, and is under the control of a board of regents elected by the people for a term of eight years, two every two years; the president of the institution and the superintendent of public instruction are members of the board but without the right to vote. The state normal schools are: the Michigan State Normal College at Ypsilanti (organized in 1849); the Central Michigan Normal School at Mount Pleasant (established in 1895); the Northern State Normal School at Marquette (established in 1899); and the Western State Normal School at Kalamazoo (established in 1904). All of them are under the state board of education, which consists of the state superintendent of public instruction and three other members elected, one every two years, for a term of six years. The agricultural college, at East Lansing, 3 m. east of Lansing, is the oldest in the United States; it was provided for by the state constitution of 1850, organized in 1855 and opened in 1857, and is under the control of the state board of agriculture, consisting of the president of the college and six other members elected by popular vote for a term of six years, two every two years. The college of mines, at Houghton, was established in 1885 and is under the control of a board of six members appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate, two every two years. In 1908 it had 35 instructors, 253 students, and a library of 22,000 volumes. Other important institutions of learning within the state but not maintained by it are: Albion College (Methodist Episcopal; opened in 1843), at Albion; Hillsdale College (Free Baptist, 1855), at Hillsdale; Kalamazoo College (Baptist, 1855), at Kalamazoo; Adrian College (controlled by the Methodist Protestant Church since 1867), at Adrian; Olivet College (Congregational, 1859), at Olivet; Hope College (Reformed, 1866), at Holland; Detroit College (Roman Catholic, 1877), at Detroit; Alma College (Presbyterian; incorporated 1886), at Alma; and some professional schools at (q.v.).

Finance.—The revenue of the state is derived almost wholly from taxes, about 87% from a direct or general property tax and the rest from various specific or indirect taxes, such as the liquor tax and the inheritance tax. The direct tax, other than that on the property of corporations, is assessed by the township supervisors, or, in cities and incorporated villages by the officer named in the charter for that service, on what is supposed to be the full cash value of the property. The assessment roll thus prepared is reviewed by a local board of review; an equalization between the assessing districts in a county is made annually by the county board of supervisors, and between the counties in the state every five years (and at such other times as the legislature may direct) by the state board of equalization, which is composed of the lieutenant-governor, auditor-general, secretary of state, treasurer, and commissioner of the land office. But at the head of the whole taxing system is the board of state tax commissioners and ex officio state board of assessors, consisting of three members appointed by the governor with the approval of the senate for a term of six years. It exercises a general supervision over all other taxing officers and is itself the assessor of the property of railroads, express companies and certain car companies. Mainly through the efficiency of this board the assessed value of the taxable property of the state was increased from $968,189,087 in 1899 to $1,418,251,858 in 1902, or 46·4%, and the taxes levied on railways, which had hitherto been assessed on their gross earnings, were increased from $1,483,907 in 1901 to $3,288,162 in 1902, or 121·6%. In entering upon the work of public improvements in 1837 the state borrowed $5,200,000, and the greater portion of the bonds were sold to the Morris Canal and Banking Company and to the Pennsylvania United States Bank, both of which failed when they had only in part paid for the bonds. About this time it was seen that the cost of the improvements undertaken would be much greater than the original estimate and that several of them were impracticable. The difficulty of meeting the interest as it became due soon threatened to be insurmountable, but the state finally sold the improvements made and came out of the experience with good credit although with a large debt—about two and a half millions of dollars. This was further increased during the Civil War, but after the close of that war it was rapidly diminished and finally was extinguished in