Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/604

 552 UNITED STATES: — MASSACHUSETTS

Elizabeth River near Norfolk with Currituck Sound in North Carolina. This canal is to have a depth of 12 feet. The entire section, from the Delaware to Beaufort, is estimated to be fully completed within four years after construc- tion has been begun.

There were 141 State banks and trust companies in the State on December 31, 1915, including 15 branches with resources of 157,655,891 dollars ; 19 saving institutions with 106,405.307 dollars resources. The total amount of deposits in all the banks of Maryland on December 31st, 1915, was 166,473,063 dollars.

On June 30, 1919, there were 17 mutual savings banks in the State, with 264,940 depositors, who had to their credit 116,086,000 dollars, being 438-14 dollars to each contributor.

British Consul at Baltimore. — G. Fraser.

Books of Reference.

Constitutions of Maryland, 1776, 1S51, 1864 and 1S67. Published by the Secretary of State.

Maryland Manual. A Compendium, legal, historical, and statistical. By the Secretary of State. Baltimore, annually.

Report of the Bureau of Statistics and Information of Maryland. Annual.

Bond (B. W. ), Ptate Government in Maryland, 1777-81. Baltimore, 1905.

Browne (W. H.), Maryland. In 'American Commonwealths' Series. Boston, Mass.

Edgar (Lady), A Colonial Governor in Maryland : Horatio Sharpe and his Times, 1753-1773. London, 1912.

Williams (T. J. C), The State of Maryland compiled for the Board of Public Works. Baltimore, 1906.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Constitution and Government— In 1614, the Plymouth Company undertook exploring expeditions to New England, and obtained a Royal Charter granting sovereign powers over the region lying to the north of Virginia. It is supposed that the coast of Massachusetts was visited by the Norsemen as early as the year 1,000, but the first permanent settle- ment within the borders of the present state was made at Plymouth in December, 1620, by the Pilgrims from Holland, who were separatists from the English Church. This was the nucleus of the Plymouth Colony. In 1628 another company of Puritans settled at Salem, and from that beginning the Massachusetts Bay Colony was formed. In 1630 Boston was settled. In 1629 the whole region called New England was formed into a province. By a special Charter the Government was divided between the colony of Plymouth and that of Massachusetts Bay, but in 1692 they were re-united, and thenceforward acted together both in peace and war. In the struggle which ended in the separation of the American colonies from the mother country, Massachusetts took the foremost part, and became one of the thirteen original States of the Union.

There is a legislative body consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, styled collectively the General Court of Massachusetts. The Senate consists of 40 members elected annually by popular vote, the State being divided into 40 senatorial districts each of which returns one senator. The House of Representatives consists of 240 members, elected in 165 districts, each of which returns one, two, or three repre- sentatives according to population. Since November, 1920, there is a biennial session of the Legislature.

All citizens of the United States who can read and write may vote in all State elections, provided they are not paupers or under guardianship, and provided they have lived one year in the State and six months iu the election district or precinct,