Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/543



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:

1803, the Honorable Thomas McKean, then governor of this state, said that Pennsylvania commanded “general admiration and respect for the melioration of her penal code, for the good faith and punctuality of her fiscal transactions, for her benevolent and literary institutions, for her encouragement of public improvements in roads and inland navigation, and for the ardor and discipline of her militia,” and he added, “the geographical position and the political rank which we hold in the Union seem to assign to us the patriotic task of setting an example of virtue and industry, of public spirit and social harmony.” Much of this depiction of then existing conditions may after the lapse of a century be repeated with propriety.
 * —In his message to the assembly, December 9,

The reports of the various departments, which are herewith submitted, show a state of affairs which ought to be very gratifying to the good people of the commonwealth. For the fiscal year ending June 1, 1904, the receipts of the treasury amounted to the sum of $21,789,940.75. During the same period, the payments for the expenses of the government were $19,266,369.11, leaving a balance of receipts over expenditures of $2,523,571.64. The moneys in the treasury on the first of June, 1904, were $16,801,067.38. The debt over and above the value of bonds and cash in the sinking fund was on June first, 1903, $335,507.21, and on June first, 1904, $232,858.76, so that substantially the commonwealth is free from debt. During the same fiscal year, there were expended for the support of the schools $6,013,725.58, in aid of Rh