Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/660

 538 UNITED STATES: — RHODE ISLAND

18,014 Italian, 4,463 German. In ]910, 178,031 were foreign-born. The chief town is Providence which (1910) had a population of 224,326 ; Paw- tucket, 51,622 ; Woonsocket, 38,125 ; Newport, 27,149 ; Warwick, 26,629 ; Central Falls, 22,754; Cranston, 21,107 ; E. Providence, 15,808. In 1910 there were 13,354 births in the State, 9,298 deaths, and 4,558 marriages. The death rate in cities in 1910 was 16*7 and in rural districts 18*1 per 1,000 of population.

The principal religious bodies are Catholic, Baptist, Protestant Episcopal, Congregational, and Methodist.

Bv custom, not by authority, there is devotional exercise at the beginning of the school day ; but no formal religious instruction. In 1910 the public elementary schools had 2,137 teachers and 75,863 enrolled pupils ; 22 high schools had 257 teachers and 6,174 pupils. The State maintains a Normal school with 21 teachers, and 402 students (1911), and an Agricultural College with 33 teachers and 250 students. The Brown University at Providence, founded in 1764, is under Baptist control. In 1911-12.it had 100 professors and teachers, and 944 students, male and female.

Charity. — The state has several charitable institutions, comprising a school for the deaf, a State Home and school for children, a Soldiers' Home, a sanatorium for consumptives, a Hospital for the Insane with 1,205 inmates, a school for the feeble minded, and a State Almshouse which in 1911 had 552 inmates. There are also 37 benevolent institutions, hospitals, orphanages, homes, &c., provided by private associations and religious bodies.

Each town must support its own poor and give temporary relief to paupers not legally settled in it ; but parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren of a pauper are liable for his support. Settlement is gained by •ownership of real estate and payment of taxes on it for 5 consecutive years, or by having an estate of the yearl}^ value of 20 dollars and taking its profits for 3 consecutive years. Pauper children may be bound out by the overseers of towns to certain charitable societies. To bring a pauper into a town where he has not a settlement is punishable by fine of 100 dollars. Town alms- houses are managed by the town councils. Paupers with no settlement in the State are supported in the State almshouse.

Finance, Defence. — For the year 1912 the receipts and payments were to the following amounts : —

Dollars Cash on hand January 1, 1912. . 145,806

Receipts during 1911. . . . 2,510,412

Bank certificates, 1911. . . . 6,595

Total 2,662,813

Payments during 1912. . . . 2,456,021

Balance Jan. 1, 1913. . 206,792

The bonded debt of the State in January, 1912, amounted to 5,030,000 dollars; the sinking fund to 593,310 dollars; net debt, 4,436,689 dollars. The true value of the property within the State in 1911 was estimated at : —

Dollars Real property. . . . . . . 419,992,907

Personal property ...... 133,724,747

Total. . 553,717,654