New volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica > Volume 30, K-MOR

MARYPORT — MASSACHUSETTS 569
Oysters.—Daring the season of 1898-99 the quantity of oysters
officially inspected was 5,547,793 bushels, but this did not include
all the products of the beds of Chesapeake Bay.
Tobacco.'-—The tobacco received for inspection at the state ware¬
houses in 1898 amounted to 36,219 hogsheads.
Manufactures. —The number of manufacturing establishments re¬
porting in 1900 was 9880, with an aggregate capital of $163,422,260.
Number of labourers, 108,361. Total wages, $38,761,551. Salaried
employes, 7589 ; salaries paid, $7,383,263. Cost of materials used,
$144,539,680. Value of products, $242,752,990. The greater part
of the manufacturing is carried on in Baltimore. There were in
this city 6361 manufacturing establishments, with a capital of
$117,869,175, products valued at $161,945,811, and 79,084 wage-
earners (exclusive of salaried officials, clerks, &c.), who received
wages amounting to $29,304,520.
Commerce.—The size of the foreign commerce is seen in the
following statistics relating to Baltimore city, the chief port:—
Exports for the year ending 30th June 1901
Imports ,, „ ,,
$106,239,081
18,899,473
Custom house receipts, 1898 . . . $1,870,038
,, „ 1899 . . . 2,549,725
Internal revenue collections, 1898 . . 6,657,360
„ „ 1899 . . 8,667,652
Immigration through Baltimore, 1898 . 12,853
„ ,, 1899 . 20,233
Finances.—The funded debt amounted on 1st January 1899 to
$6,009,326. As an offset to this the state held interest-bearing
securities and cash to the credit of the sinking funds amounting
in value to $3,121,283, leaving the net debt $2,888,043. The
value of the property assessed for taxationin 1899 was $611,539,646.
In 1890 this value was $482,184,824.
History, die.—Since 1895 the two great parties—Democratic and
Republican—have been nearly equal in numbers, and the control
of the state government is sometimes with one and sometimes with
the other. The statutory law of the state was codified in 1888,
and a supplement to the code, embracing the subsequent statutes,
was adopted in 1900. The most important work relating to the
history of the state is the Maryland Archives, published by the
Maryland Historical Society under the authority of the legislature
(1882 to date). Twenty volumes have so far appeared, containing
principally the proceedings of the executive and legislative depart¬
ments in the 17th and 18th centuries. The annual reports of the
Maryland Geological Survey, beginning in 1897, convey the result
of much original investigation relating to the soils and the physical
features. Ay, y B ^
Mary port, market-town and seaport in the Cocker-
mouth parliamentary division of Cumberland, England, at
the mouth of the river Ellen, 25 miles west-south-west of
Carlisle by rail. The harbour is easy of access, and with
the river offers 3800 feet of quayage. In 1892 it became
an independent port with Workington, Whitehaven, and
Millom subordinate to it. In 1888, 1459 vessels of
239,981 tons entered and 1456 of 244,501 tons cleared;
in' 1898, 3171 vessels of 606,922 tons entered and 3164
of 612,022 tons cleared. The registered shipping in 1898
totalled 26 vessels of 17,826 tons. Steel rails and coal
are exported; timber, iron-ore, and grain imported. Popu¬
lation (1891), 12,410; (1901), 11,896.
Ma.sca.ra., a town of Algeria, department of Oran,
60 miles south-east of the town of Oran. The principal
industry is wine, for which it has a high repute. Over
3000 acres in the neighbourhood have been planted with
vines, and, notwithstanding an attack of phylloxera, the
area of vineyards is extending. Population (1886), 15,400 ;
(1896), 20,410, of whom 10,104 were French.
Maseru. See Basutoland.
MashonaSanda See Rhodesia (South).
Mason City, a city of Iowa, U.S.A., capital of
Cerro Gordo county, on the Shell Rock river, in the
northern part of the state, at an altitude of 1132 feet.
It is on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul, the Iowa
Central, the Mason City and Fort Dodge, the Mason City
and Clear Lake, and the Chicago and North-western rail¬
ways. It is in a rich agricultural region, for which it
serves as a collecting and distributing point. Population
(1890), 4007 ; (1900), 6746, of whom 914 were foreign-
born and 55 were negroes.
Massa, a town, bishop’s see, and capital of the
province of Massa and Carrara, Tuscany, Italy, situated
near the Mediterranean coast, 27 miles north-west of Pisa
by rail. Like Carrara, it is a centre of the marble industry,
in which some 1100 men were employed in 1898. It also
carries on the manufacture of cotton, silk, and tobacco.
Population (1881), 16,246; (1901), 26,325.
Massachusetts, one of the New England states
of the American Union, bounded on the N. by New
Hampshire and Vermont, on the W. by New York, on the
S. by Connecticut and Rhode Island, and on the E. by
the Atlantic.
Population.—The population in 1890 was 2,238,943, and in 1900
it was 2,805,346, an increase during 1890-1900 of 25-2 per cent.
With the exception of Rhode Island, it is the most densely settled
state in the Union, the average number of persons to the square
mile at^the census of 1900 being 348'9, and the urban population
being 76‘0 per cent, of the total population. In 1900 females
constituted 51-3 per cent, of the total population. Only 1'3 r>er
cent, of the population was coloured. The percentage of the
population that was foreign-born in 1885 was 27-13, and in 1900
it was 30-2. Ireland contributed the largest proportion of the
foreign-born population, although since 1875 the numbers born
in that country and living in Massachusetts have increased but
slowly. The Irish-born proportion of the population of the state,
which in 1875 was 14^ per cent., Avas in 1895, 10^ per cent.
In 1895 a very nearly similar percentage were immigrants from
British America. These were chiefly of French origin, and large
numbers of them found employment in the textile industries.
Other countries which in 1895 contributed more than 15,000 each
to the population were England, Sweden and Norway, Germany,
Scotland, and Italy, in the order named. During the period
1885-90 the largest proportional increase from any foreign
country was from Italy. For the year ending 30th September
1899 the number of passengers arriving from foreign ports was
72,682. Of these there were aliens from the Dominion of Canada
to the number of 24,084, and aliens from transatlantic ports to
the number of 20,065. A large part of the transatlantic immi¬
grants pass speedily to permanent homes in the West, but by far
the greater part of the Canadian influx remains, and may become
citizens. According to the census of 1900, there were 33 incor¬
porated cities in Massachusetts, of which 8 had between 12,000
and 20,000 inhabitants ; 5 between 20,000 and 25,000 ; 10 between
25,000 and 50,000; 7 between 50,000 and 100,000; and 3 more
than 100,000 inhabitants, namely, Boston (560,892), Worcester
(118,421), and Fall River (104,863). In 1890 the urban population
(classing as such all persons in places of more than 8000 inhabitants)
was 69-9 per cent, of the total population; in 1900 it was 76 per cent.
The aggregate number of state, city, and town poor (including the
insane) remaining in institutions was, on 30th September 1899,
12,795. The total number of prisoners was 6772, a reduction of
679 from the year before. The birth-rate in 1895 was 27’02 per
thousand, and was the highest in any census year since 1860. In
1898 it is estimated to have been 27‘37. Of all the children born
in Massachusetts in 1898, 32‘35 per cent, were of native-born
parents, 48'24 per cent, were of foreign-born parents, 19'02 per
cent, were of parents of whom one was foreign-born, and ‘SO per
cent, were of unrepoited parentage. The death-rate in 1895 was
19'01 per thousand, which is less than in any census year since
1870. The death-rate of 1900 was 17'7.
Politics.—Since 1820 the payment of at least a poll-tax had
been one of the pre-requisites to the exercise of the suffrage, but
this requirement was annulled by a constitutional amendment
adopted by the people in 1891. An educational test is exacted for
the privilege of voting, every voter being required to read the
constitution of the commonwealth in the English language, and
to write his name. The number of legal voters in 1895 was
560,802. In the Presidential election of 1896, when an unpre¬
cedentedly large vote was cast, the number of voters registered was
490,554, or nearly 20 per cent, of the population, and of these
401,568 actually voted, or nearly 82 per cent. Massachusetts is
one of the only two states in the Union in which elections for state
officers are now held annually. In 1896 two amendments to the
constitution, establishing biennial elections of state officers and
of members of the general court, were defeated by a large majoritv.
At all elections official ballots are furnished, and are marked and
cast by the voter under provisions of the so-called Australian
Ballot Act, which ensure absolute secrecy. A limited suffrage mas
conferred upon women in 1879. At the present time every female
citizen having the qualifications of a male voter may vote in the
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