Railways.—The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company controls railroad operations in the State. The railroads within the State comprise 202 miles of single track and a total mileage of all tracks operated of 446.40 miles and 359.96 miles single track of electric railway. The total length of single track, operated steam and electric, is 562 miles; the net income, steam and electric, amounted to $6,101,381.60 in 1915. After a long period of controversy over location and terms for the dis posal of the so-called °Cove Lands;° in the centre of the city of Providence, and over which the tide formerly ebbed and flowed, a union station was erected where all railroads now enter.
Commerce.— The export commerce from Rhode Island ports is insignificant. Receipts from foreign imports at the port of Providence for the year ending 30 June 1915, amounted to $320,563.49, which included the custom dis tricts of Providence and Newport. Congress has made liberal appropriations for the im provement of harbor facilities at Block Island. The wharves at Providence and other ports, which once gave room to Indiamen, whalers and privateers, now accommodate steamers and other vessels used in the coastwise trade and summer travel. The boat-building industry of Bristol is known the world over on account of the Herreshoffs, who have constructed several successful defenders of the America's. Cup. Narragansett Bay has become a pleasure resort from Providence River to Newport in the east and Point Judith in the west, and in this way a large amount of money is brought into the State while wealthy men from New York and elsewhere, with summer homes in Rhode Island, have selected the State as their legal residence and pay personal taxes there.
Finance,— Since the State recovered from the final disorder occasioned by the War for Independence its credit has always been of the highest, and its obligations promptly met. The construction of the new State House at Provi dence and other improvements due to the grow ing needs of the commonwealth have led to extraordinary expenditures within recent years and at the close of the year 1917 the net in debtedness was $6,437,226. On 1 Jan. 1917 the balance in the State treasury amounted to $32, 839; the revenues during 1917 amounted to $4, 507,000, making a total of $4,539,839. The ex penditures for the same year aggregated $4,046, 292, leaving cash on hand 1 Jan. 1918 at $493, 547. The assessed value of the property within the State in 1917 was realproperty $495,006, 727; personal property, making a total of $768,090,225.
Population.— Rhode Island was the most densely inhabited State in the Union by the census of 1910, which gave 542,610 as the total population or 508 inhabitants to the square mile. It is the only State east of the Mississippi River where a majority of the population are not natives of the State. In 1915 the population by sex and birth was: The foreign-born whites numbered 135,894, of whom Canada contributed 23.5 per cent; Ire land 16.7 per cent; England 15.6 per cent and Italy 15.3 per cent. The chief city is Providence (q.v.) which (1915) had a population of 250, 025; other cities are Pawtucket, 58,156; Woon socket, 43,355; Newport, 29,631; Warwick, 29, 431; Central Falls, 25,171; 25,201; East Providence, 17,741. The urban popula
tion is 96.8 per cent of the whole. In 1916 there were 14,622 births in the State, 5,727 marriages and 9,512 deaths. The death rate in cities was 16.2 and in rural districts 14.3 per 1,000 of the population.
Education.— Rhode Island has excellent public schools, supported by local taxation and administered by local authority, and under the general supervision of a commissioner of schools. Education is compulsory, and while there is much illiteracy among certain classes of foreigners, parents, almost without excep tion, show eagerness to have their children edu cated. In 1916 the school population of the State was 127,479, of whom 76,359 were en rolled in schools. The State Normal School at Providence is a handsome building, and the State also maintains a College of Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts. The leading educa tional institution of the State, and one of the best in the United States, is Brown University. The Rhode Island School of Design furnishes educational advantages in the arts of the highest order. Since 1914 the minimum school term is 36 weeks. High schools are provided by every town.
Religion.— The First Baptist Church of Providence, said to be the first in America, dates back to 16 March 1639. Roger Williams was one of the organizers. The Quakers were among the early settlers, seeking refuge from persecution in Massachusetts, and the Friends' School at Providence is one of Rhode Island's best-known educational institutions. The Con gregationalists did not venture into Rhode. Island until 1721, and while their proposal to conic there was received with some bitterness by the descendants of those whom their ances tors had driven into the wilderness, they have become one of the leading denominations in the State. While Roman Catholics were as free to worship in Rhode Island as members of any other creed, it was not until 1813 or 1814 that mass was publicly celebrated in the city of Providence; the church of Saints Peter and Paul was completed in 1838. The present hand some cathedral stands partly on the site of the old church, and the Roman Catholic faith now includes about 275,000, or 46.1 per cent of the entire population of the State. (