White male teachers receive an average monthly salary of $55; white females, $37; negro male teachers, $39; and negro female teachers, $31. Florida has a local option com pulsory school attendance law, •passed by the last legislature. Duval County has compulsory school attendance.
Religion.— The Baptists are the strongest religious denomination, including about 41.6 per cent of all church members in the State. The Methodists are a close second with 37.2 of the total membership. The remainder is made up of Roman Catholics, numbering 51,000, Protest ant Episcopalians and Presbyterians.
Charities and Penal Institutions.— There is a State Hospital for the Insane at Chatta hoochee, a school for the blind and for deaf mutes at Saint Augustine, a State Industrial School for Boys at Marianna, a Confederate Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Jacksonville, an Industrial School for Girls, and the State Prison Farms at Raiford and Ocala. Juvenile courts are administered by the regular county court judges but separate juvenile records are kept. According to the last census statistics there were 207 paupers in almshouses, being 27.5 per 100,000 of the popoulation. Indigent mothers are pensioned by the State.
There is no penitentiary in Florida, the con victs are leased under contract for their labor as in other States of the South. Previous to 1913 they were hired out to the highest bidder who also undertook to lease all other persons committed during the term of his lease. It was usual for this party to sub-lease the prisoners. A supervisor of convicts was ap pointed in 1889 and additional supervisors might be appointed at the will of the governor under a statute passed in 1905. Special legis lation was enacted from time to time to curb the abuses inherent to the leasing system. Over $200,000 was realized many years by the State under the system, which until 1906 included fe male as well as male prisoners, and the decrepit as well as the able-bodied. In that year pro vision was made for excluding all feeble pris oners upon examination by the State prison physician. Females continued to be leased until 1913. The law passed in that year or dered the Board of Commissioners of State In stitutions to allot able-bodied male convicts for work on the public roads to such counties as might apply for them. For each convict so al
lotted $120 was assessed against the county. Under this provision only 50 convicts were placed at road work in the counties; the other able-bodied convicts were leased to the highest bidders throughout the State for a term of two years. All these were employed in the turpentine industry. The decrepit prisoners were placed on the State farms at Ocala and Raiford, where all able to do manual labor, were put at farm work, building, etc. County probation officers were appointed under the act of 1913. All prison camps are under the super vision of the governor and the supervisors ap pointed by him. Each camp is inspected at in tervals not exceeding 30 days. According to the last census there were in the State 1,836 prisoners, being 243.9 per 100,000 of the popu lation. In 1915 this number was reduced to 1,082.
Government.— The State constitution now in being was framed in convention in 1885, was ratified by the people at the November elections of 1886, and went into effect on the first of January of the following year. Minor amend ments have since been made. Compared with the earlier constitution of 1868, it made many sweeping changes in the direction of democracy. The State and county officers had formerly been mostly appointed by the governor, and the Supreme Court justices were appointed for life; under the present constitution all are elected, except circuit judges, and the judges' terms are six years. An amendment to the constitution may originate in either branch of the legislature in the course of a regular session. If such amendment receive the votes of three-fifths of the members of both houses, it is submitted to the people for ratification at the next general election following. A two-thirds vote of the members of both houses of the legislature is required to submit a revision of the constitution to the people. If ratified by a majority of the latter, a constitutional convention is then pro vided for by the legislature, to meet within six months after the law providing therefor and to be composed of delegates equal in number to the membership of the Lower House, and ap pointed among the counties similarly to the members of the Lower House.