kEITABLE AND PEN SA. 1 NSTITUTIDNS. Indi ana has only recently begun a serious study of correctional and charitable problems. Formerly the township trustees 1rtrILure.1 alms without let d r hindrance, the burden of which was borne by the county. AI present the township hears the of caring for its own poor. outdoor relief is discouraged. and uniform and detailed reports are made to county and State ollkers. Judges of the Circuit Court :ire now authorized to appoint boards of charity. whose 1111•111111•1'.4 are un salaried. The State has pursued a policy of plac ing children in families rather than retaining them in institutions, and all children not defec tives have been removed from the poor In 1900 the number of children in orphan.' homes was 1682. The former prison at has been transformed into ;t reformatory fur first offense eases, and is conducted very nitwit on the 'Elmira' plan. The State has a parole law. There is a State board of charities appointed by the Governor, which has the power to investigate and supervise the charitable and correctional in stitutions of the State. These institutions are as follows: Hospitals for the insane at Rieliniond. Logansport. Evansville, and Indianapolis: a State Soldiers' Home. at Latayette: School for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind. at Indianapolis: School for Feeble-Atinded Youths. at Fort NVayne; Soldiers' Orphans' ]Iona', at Knight st : Girls' Reform School. at Indianapolis; Boys' Reform School, at Plainfield; NVoman's Prison, at. In dianapolis; State prison. at .lichigan City: and the State Reformatory, at JetTersonville. Of these, all but the State prison are under the con trol of non-partisan boards. The expenditure in curred by these institutions in 1900 was $1.61.-A. 455. of which 81,290.790 was for maintenance. The earnings of the institutions for the .ante year amounted to $132.189. The expenditure for out door relief for the year ending in October, non, or only one-third as great as it in 1895. The number of inmate. (3090 in 1900) in the county poor asylums deereased relative to the total population during the same period. in 1900 the expenditure for gross main tenance of county poor asylums amounted to 345.49(1.
Ilisroftv. French trappers and fur-traders ap peared within the present limits of 'Indiana as early probably as 1(179. It is certain that La Salle, on iris way to the Illinois Indians. crossed t be northwestern part of the State by way of the Kankakee in The :\IMinis and Onahaelii (or Wabash) Indians then occupied the region. and welcomed the French, who built Fort thia tanon. tin the NVabash, in 172n. and Fort Vin cennes in 1727. The first permanent set t 11'1111'11i Was founded in 1731-35, by a number of families who made their home in the neielthorlicod of Fort Vineennes. The population increased slow ly; but, owing to the richness of the soil. the inhabitants (French entirely. together with negro and Indian slaves) enjoyed ease and great plenty. The territory came into the possession of Eng land in 1763. but the English occupation was too brief to effect any change in the people or the laws. in 177S-79 George Rogers Clark (q.v.), With a 'landfill of men. wrested the country from Great Britain. Hostilities with the Indians, continuing 17'41 to 1793, a peace was conquered by General brought great dis• tress upon the settlers at May, ISO°, the Indiana Territory was organized, com prising all that portion of the Northwest Terri tory lying vast and north of Ohio. Alichigan and
Illinois were subsequently set till, indi• ana tti it. The capital ma. moved from Vincennes to Corydon in 1813 Mild it) dia Ila 110115 in 1,823. In 1811 Gun. 1\ Mimi' II. Harrison (q.v.i. at. the head of a force of regulars and militia, crushed the Indian tribes under the broth, r of Tecumseh at the battle of Tippecanoe (q.v.). \Viten the war with England broke out the Indians renewed hostilities, but they were speedily subdued. and never more troubled the settlers. -\ in thecase Of a proportion of the immigrants into Indiana came from the Smith . and hefore Hill repeated attempts Were made to legalize shivery in the Territory, in spite of the ordinance of 1787. In IsIti, the year of the State's admission into the Union, the filiation was definitely settled against slavery by the first constitutional eonvention, thdnagh a law prohibiting and mulattoes front immigrating into the State remained in force till after the Civil \Var. The growth of the State ill weallh and population was accelerat ed greatly by the construction of the 'National Road and the \Valmsli and Erie canals. \Vild speculation in and railroads led to a gen eral bankruptcy in 1837: hut after IS-16, when a compromise with the public creditors was etTeet ed. the eeonomic and tinaneial condition of the State improved steadily. Its prosperity since the Civil War has been due in great measure to the discovery of extensive coal. iron. and gas fields. and deposit. of building-stone, in ditrell-nt part, of the State. Conditions have been monotonously peaceful. except for spas modic eruptions of mob violence, notably in the years 181;9 and 1888, and the disorders around Hammond attending the great railway strike of 189 I. when strikers and Federal troops came into conflict. A. a result of the a board of labor eommi•sioners was created in 1897. to net as a permanent. tribunal of arbitration. In the same year an anti-trust law and a factory-h-pee I bin law were passed. and primary education was made compulsory. For more than twenty years after 1878 the State balanced almost perfectly' between the two great political parties, vacillat ing, in State elections especially. from side to --hie Iry minute majorities in a total vote of several bundled thousand. The opportunity for political manipulation was correspondingly great. and in national electiohs every device known to prac tical politics was brought into play to gain the electoral vote of the State. Law-making was carried on frequently in a partisan spirit. and it was a favorite itinneenvre with the minority in the Legislature, Republican or Democrat, selwn ever it N•:1•4 hopelessly ontnumbered on an im portant question. to resign in a body. so as to prevent a quorum and thus block legislation. In national eleetions the State was I)einocratie op to H6n. excepting in the years 1S36 and 1810, when it cast its vote for William H. Harrison, the \\'hig candidate. It seas Republican from 18,60 to 1872. Dcmoeratie in 1876. 1884, and 1892, and Republican again in ]SRO, I SS's'. 1S9f1, and - „