In dealing with this class of claims renewed efforts have been made, and are making, to eliminate from the roll all claims which represent an attempt to impose upon the public generosity, and I am glad to be able to say that substantial success is being attained in this direction. For the fifty-fifth fiscal year the expenditures under this head were $38,000 less than for the fifty-fourth. This saving represents the results of the investigations made, and new methods employed, by the late Walter S. Melick, Secretary of the State Board of Examiners, and to him the credit primarily belongs.

I am glad to say that, in most of the orphanages supported in part by this fund, attention is given to the elementary training in useful employments of the children, and I suggest to the Legislature that it might be well to couple with the appropriations a provision requiring all institutions drawing from this fund to give to children of sufficient age to receive it some form of useful industrial or manual training, the standard of instruction to be made satisfactory to the State Board of Examiners.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

The report of the State Board of Health shows that the health of the commonwealth has, during the year just closed, if not during the whole of the year preceding, been quite free from injurious distempers and malignant contagion. I take this occasion to call to the minds of legislators the urgent need for affording the State Board such added facilities for work as it may require.

I have also to congratulate the State of California upon the cordial and confidential relations existing between our State and Municipal boards of health and the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service of the United States and the boards of health of the several States of our Union. There was a time when California stood in imminent peril of being universally quarantined against because of the existence of a few sporadic cases of Asiatic plague. Rigid remedial measures have been instituted, confidence has been reestablished, and the business of the commonwealth has been allowed to proceed unhampered. The health of the people within the State and without was in nowise impaired by reason of an incident which, inasmuch as California ports are dealing constantly, directly and increasingly with Asiatic ports, constituted merely one of the drawbacks inseparable from commercial and maritime pursuits. The best safeguard our people can have against serious consequences resulting therefrom is to maintain a fully equipped system for the preservation of the public health and for the dissemination among our people of reliable and timely information.

PUBLIC POLICY IN RESPECT TO WATER FRONTS.

During the preceding session of the Legislature I felt compelled to veto a series of bills intended to modify the law to give railroads rights of way through overflowed and other public lands of the State. I believed the bills as passed did not sufficiently guard the State's interests, and hence acted as above stated, although at the time it was urged on behalf of the measures that as the law stands there is no way in which a transportation company can acquire the right to occupy overflowed State land within an incorporated city, or within three miles of it, to be used for necessary wharves, piers, and other structures. Some time afterward it was reported that overflowed land belonging to the State of California in Oakland harbor was being filled in and that the title might be claimed by a corporation which was understood to be paying a dredging contractor to deposit the spoil on this land.

I decided to ask the Attorney-General of the State for an opinion, and I requested him to make it broad enough to clear up most of the questions involving the State's rights in and control over water fronts. He was asked to state by what means, if any, a railroad corporation can acquire rights of way over property such as above described; also, if such rights can be acquired, by what tenure the land will be afterwards held, besides other questions. The object of this request for an opinion was to ascertain what the law is, with a view to the correction of defects, or the supplying of omissions, if either exist.

After some delay, due to the large amount of legal work which he is at all times called upon to attend to, the Attorney-General furnished me with an opinion, in which *he treated the questions asked as relating particularly to the situation in Oakland harbor.

In answering the question first raised, the Attorney-General, after citing various authorities, said:

"The result of all this seems to be that there is no procedure laid down in the codes of California by which a railroad corporation may acquire a right of way for the location and maintenance of roadbeds, tracks, wharves, piers, slips, or terminal facilities over submerged lands beyond the corporate limits of the city of Oakland, which limits are the ordinary low-tide line, and that the only method left for such a corporation to pursue is to obtain a special grant from the Legislature."

If this state of facts obtains as to Oakland, it must also obtain as to any other city or town which is placed as Oakland is, and the need of a State policy in respect to water fronts appears to be indicated. Such a policy should be carefully considered, in order that laws framed in accordance with it may be liberal enough to encourage enterprise and yet conservative enough to prevent monopolization of valuable privileges and to

protect the rights and interests of the State in water-front property. Commercial opportunities are beneficial only as they are utilized, and the building of wharves, piers, and docks promotes the general welfare. There should, therefore, be some wellguarded law under which the right to occupy submerged State land, within or near, incorporated cities, for these purposes may be facilitated and regulated.

As the lands under navigable water are held by the State only in trust, for the promotion of commerce, it can never entirely alienate such lands, and it is a question to be determined by the State government what the tenure of the occupants shall be. Some States, like the State of Washington, on this coast, and the State of Massachusetts, on the Atlantic coast, grant leases for long terms of years, and charge rentals. If legislation should be had on this subject, and it should be determined that the leasehold policy is the most expedient one for California, the rentals should not be fixed so high as to deter enterprise. The primary aim should be to develop commerce; the collection of revenue from this source, while desirable in itself, is secondary.

In referring to the filling in of State land by the deposit of dredgings, the AttorneyGeneral expresses the opinion that lands raised above the water by artificial means are not subject to the principle that controls accretion, and no legal title can be based on such act.

PHARMACY BOARD INVESTIGATION.

Several newspapers having published articles making charges that the examinations of candidates for licenses by the State Board of Pharmacy were not fairly conducted, I decided to order an investigation. For this purpose, Hon. John F. Davis, Code Commissioner, Hon. G. R. Lukens, a member of the Senate, and Dr. F. W. Hatch, General Superintendent of State Hospitals, were appointed a special commission, and instructed to inquire, in a general way, into all transactions of the Board. On August 15, 1904, the commission assembled in San Francisco, and began the investigation, which continued from day to day, until August 23d. The members of the Board of Pharmacy, a number of persons who had been candidates at recent examinations, and others were examined, and the report of the committee, with a transcript of the testimony taken, has recently been put in my hands.

In brief, the conclusions reached by the commission of investigation are that the State Board of Pharmacy has served the purpose of its creation by regulating the practice of the profession; that the charges made in the newspaper articles before referred to had little foundation so far as they alleged intentional unfairness or discrimination between different candidates; that, nevertheless, sufficiently strict regulations to exclude the possibility of improper practices at examinations had not been made and enforced; that it is a mistake to maintain the office of the Board of Pharmacy in the building of one of two rival colleges of pharmacy; that it is unjust, if not illegal, to collect, under the name of arrearages, a charge of $2 a year from former licientiates for all the years they may have been out of practice, or practicing in some other State, before they are allowed to recommence practice here, and, finally, that there are a number of amendments to the law which it would be very desirable to make.

JUDGMENTS AGAINST THE STATE.

In accordance with the law which prescribes that it shall be the duty of the Governor to report to the Legislature at each session, all judgments rendered against the State and not theretofore reported, the following list of judgments is submitted, all of them being "coyote scalp" cases:

From the report of the Attorney-General, I learn that a money judgment was finally obtained against the State in an action entitled Lucy Jane Harvey vs. Board of Trustees of Whittier State School et al., a suit which was instituted many years ago and was decided against the State in the lower court. An appeal was prosecuted, and on March 17, 1904, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment. The action was one for damages on account of the violation of a lease, and the amount of the judgment is $1,035, with interest and costs. I am informed by the Board of Trustees of the Whittier School that there are no available funds from which this judgment can be paid, and that, in the opinion of said Board, an appropriation by the Legislature will have to be made to meet the same.

The only other actions in which judgments against the State have been affirmed are what are commonly known as the coyote scalp" cases. The Superior Court for Sacramento County, in the year 1902, gave judgments against the State in some forty-six suits the aggregate amount of the judgments being $212,720. At its last session the Legislature appropriated the sum of $204,610 to pay these judgments, the appropriations to be available January 1, 1905, provided that, at that time, the judgments should be standing, not reversed or vacated, and that no appeal should be pending.

The acts of appropriation passed by the Legislature in this form appeared to con template appeals to the Supreme Court, and I concurred in the opinion that the State should exercise its privilege of appeal, as any private individual would be likely to do. The appeal was taken, and was prosecuted to final judgment, stipulations being entered that the other cases should stand or fall with the appealed case. On September 19, 1904, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court in the case of Bickerdike vs. State, and in pursuance of the stipulation judgment in the other cases became final. As the appropriations were unavailable until January 1, 1905, the claimants suffered no delay in payment by reason of the appeals being taken.

The judgments which no appropriations were made to pay were for the following persons and amounts:

For a number of years the expense of arresting criminals without the State and returning them for trial has been increasing, while the appropriations have remained the same, being made at the rate of $2,500 per year. The consequence has been the incurring of deficiencies, which recently have tended to equal or exceed the amount of the appropriations.

I have endeavored to impress upon District Attorneys the advisability of refraining from making applications for extradition, except in cases of serious crimes, and upon sheriffs and police officers, acting as State agents, the necessity for rigid economy in their expense accounts. In cases which appeared unimportant I have refused to issue requisitions, and, in a few instances, I have issued requisitions only upon the condition that the arrest and return of the fugitive should be without expense to the State.

At the same time, it would be an encouragement to crime and to criminals not to send for murderers, forgers, and embezzlers who flee to other States, and the expense of doing this is properly a public one, which individuals or corporations can not be expected to assume. I respectfully recommend that the appropriation made for this purpose be increased to $10,000 for the next two years.

INSURANCE OF STATE PROPERTY.

One of the business practices of the State which is of questionable expediency is the refusal to insure its property (with some exceptions) against loss by fire. Because in former years abuses were discovered in connection with the placing of policies, the Legislature passed an Act prohibiting insurance, and it has remained the law for fourteen years. Moreover, the biennial appropriation bill usually contains a prohibition against the expenditure of any money to buy insurance.

Since the enactment of the law of 1891 the State has been fortunate in escaping any very heavy losses by fire; but buildings have burned, and there have been a number of narrow escapes from the destruction of some of the most expensive structures. During the past year one of the buildings of the Preston School of Industry was burned, causing considerable inconvenience, and if one of the larger and more costly State buildings, say one of the hospitals for the insane, should suddenly be swept away, the lack of insurance would make rebuilding a serious problem.

Whether it be wise to continue the prohibition of insurance is a question the Legislature might profitably consider; but should the prohibition be removed, it would be well to require the assent of the State Board of Examiners to each insurance policy accepted. It may be that the conditions are such as to justify the State in carrying its own risks; but, at least, there should be some provision made to meet sudden calls for funds

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to make good losses sustained through fire. To that end, I recommend the establishment of an insurance fund to be made up of a moderate sum set apart from the proceeds of taxation each year. The State Board of Examiners might be authorized to invest this fund in the same class of securities in which the permanent school fund is invested, and also to sell these securities and apply the money to rebuilding when fires occur during a recess of the Legislature.

STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES.

The State Board of Charities and Corrections, which was created by the last Legislature, and given investigative and advisory authority, entered upon the discharge of its duties eighteen months ago. The members accepted the theory, as stated in their report, that their relations toward the various State institutions should be those of assistance and cooperation, rather than of criticism, and such shortcomings as they have discovered they attribute to inadequate facilities or other unpropitious conditions more than to the remissness of boards of directors or officers. A number of important recommendations for the improvement of the prisons and the Whittier and Preston schools have been made and may be found in their biennial report.

All of the county jails have been inspected by members of the board, and the discovery is reported that in many counties the State laws with respect to separate rooms for the confinement of different classes of prisoners, of children and adults, and of men and women, are being violated. On the other hand, the county hospitals, which, also, have been visited, are found to be in better shape and generally serve very well the purpose for which they were created, although these hospitals are not all equally good, and in many there is much room for improvement.

A census of the inmates of jails, hospitals, and infirmaries was made January 1, 1904, and another July 1 of the same year. It was found that at the date first mentioned the jails contained 1.686 persons, while six months later the number had been reduced to 1,256. This marked difference between the winter population of the jails, and that of the summer, emphasizes the conclusion announced by the board that some form of work ought to be found for county jail prisoners.

Of unfortunates condemned by poverty or old age and sickness to be inmates of hospitals and infirmaries, there are no less than 4,042 in the State, and they are divided between custodial and hospital cases in about the proportion of two to one.

THE CAPITOL AND THE ARCHIVES.

In the report of the Secretary of State attention is called to the necessity for making an appropriation which will render it possible to execute some of the needed repairs to the State Capitol. This is a noble building, and a great credit to earlier generations of Californians, but in its plumbing and heating systems it is sadly antiquated, besides being out of repair in a good many ways. The report of the State Board of Health declares the present condition of the building dangerous to the health of its inmates. I wish also to indorse the suggestion of the Secretary of State that better facilities for the keeping and proper arrangement of the archives are urgently needed.

LABOR AND OTHER STATISTICS.

In the biennial report presented by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be found industrial and social data of a good deal of interest. It is shown, on the evidence of the figures of the last census, that the number of the unemployed is smaller in this State than the average in the country at large. In the cities there has been during the past several years a general shortening of the working day for mechanics and several other classes of employés, with an increase in pay. The number of women and children who are breadwinners is increasing in California as well as elsewhere, although the proportion of this class of workers is smaller than in other parts of the country. Labor organizations have increased rapidly during the last two years, and include now more than eight hundred unions, whose membership is estimated to be over 100,000.

A special report on workingmen and university education shows that the number of students in the University of California who are sons or daughters of wage-earners is large and that these students make a fine showing; they comprise 20 per cent of the intrants, 26 per cent of the graduates, and 32 per cent of the honor men.

I recommend that the scope of the statistical work done by this Bureau be enlarged sufficiently to enable it to collect statistics of marriage and divorce and also of crimes, which could be accomplished at small expense, by requiring the coöperation of county and city officers.

HORTICULTURAL INTERESTS.

I am glad to be able to say that the new Horticultural Commission law, which received my approval March 25, 1903, has proven effective for the purposes intended, and, with some possible additions of power and resource, bids fair to continue to meet all reasonable requirements.

Perhaps the most important horticultural fact yet brought to light is that predaceous insects, while in their native habitat and attended by their natural adversaries, are never or seldom so injurious to plant life as to make any form of husbandry unprofitable. It is only when one insect is imported without the company of its natural enemy that the balance of nature is disturbed and injury is inflicted upon agricultural and horticultural production.

To such advantage has this fact been employed in California, and mainly through the assiduous efforts of the State horticultural office, that the once dreaded San José scale is now rendered almost powerless for evil and the various forms of orange scale are fast disappearing from the orchards. It is a reasonable estimate that the Scutellista cyanea, which is cleaning the trees of black scale, has proven itself worth a round million dollars to our commonwealth, and it is hardly too much to say that the Vedalia cardinalis rescued the great citrus fruit industry from imminent danger of destruction through the cottony cushion scale.

Through an arrangement effected by the Horticultural Commissioner with the government of West Australia, Mr. George Compere, the entomologist, was sent, during the past year, upon an extended journey in South America, Europe, and Asia Minor, at the joint expense of these two States. His principal mission, so far as this State is concerned, was to discover a parasite of the codling moth, an insect so destructive that it has been estimated it takes annually forty per cent of the pear and apple crops. Mr. Compere thinks he has found parasites which will destroy the codling moth, and he has sent to Commissioner Ellwood Cooper colonies of these insects, which are now being bred and will be placed in the orchards next season. If the results boped for are secured, every dollar expended in this enterprise will be returned a thousand-fold.

The citrus industry being now menaced by the threatened introduction of the Morelos orange-maggot, which infests the orange-growing districts of Mexico, the importation of the fruit from that country has been prohibited. But since this does not entirely remove the danger that the pest may be brought in, it is proposed that California shall cooperate with Mexico with a view to discovering some means of combating the insect in the Mexican orchards.

OUR MINING INTERESTS.

An industry that has added to the wealth of the State an aggregate value of $418,851,853 in seventeen years, should not lose its proper place in the consideration of the people of the commonwealth or the Legislature which represents them. California is not only rich in precious metals, but in other mineral products of equal, if not of greater, value, and our State is so rich in all these that the exploitation of them thus far has, with the exception of placer mining, left them comparatively untouched. With the completion of the new mining building at the State University it is to be hoped that more young men of spirit and enterprise will have their attention attracted to mining as a life work and to California as a proper field for the exercise of their powers, however great they may prove to be. There are hard problems still to solve, but it can not be doubted that ways will be found for extracting the precious metals from their hiding places without rendering arable areas, upon which humanity must depend for its food supply until time shall be no more, unfitted for human habitation.

PRINTING STATE REPORTS.

The State Controller has submitted the recommendation that a certain sum shall be appropriated and placed at the disposal of the State Board of Examiners to be expended in printing the reports of boards, commissions, and officers whose publication has not been otherwise provided for. It appears to be necessary either to do this, or to make separate appropriations for general printing and for publication of reports for the boards and officers referred to, since under the existing conditions some of them are unable to have their reports printed in the State Printing Office until deficiency appropriations have been made for them. It would be most unwise, however, to go back to the old practice of making a lump sum appropriation for all State printing, because the present plan of making separate appropriations for each office, as recommended by Governors Budd and Gage, has proved to be much more economical.

RIVER CONTROL AND RECLAMATION.

One of the matters of greatest magnitude which the Legislature will be called upon to consider is that of control of the floods of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and the reclamation of the basin lands. Fully twenty millions of money, public and private, have already been expended to accomplish this object, but the results have been unsatisfactory, and in recent years the opinion has been growing that the solution of the problem could be found only in a comprehensive system of channel development and bank protection, such as is beyond the power of accomplishment by land-owners acting individually or through the local district organizations. The previously gradual development of this sentiment received a great impetus from the disasters of last spring, when river floods occurred which inflicted a damage amounting to several millions of dollars and demonstrated the need of a unified public control of the levee system.