At present supreme court judges serve for twenty-one years and are ineligible for re-election. Superior court and common pleas judges serve for ten years, and justices of the peace for five. Judges may be impeached for misdemeanour in office or they may be removed by the governor, with the consent of two-thirds of each house of the general assembly, for any reasonable cause which shall not be sufficient ground for impeachment.
Local Government.—The local government is a combination of the county system of the South and the township system of New England. The county officers are sheriffs, coroners, prothonotaries, registers of wills, recorders of deeds, commissioners, treasurers, surveyors, auditors or comptrollers, clerks of the courts, and district attorneys, elected for three years. The three commissioners and the three auditors in each county are chosen by the same limited vote process as the supreme-court judges, thus allowing a representation to the minority party. Pennsylvania has suffered more perhaps than any other state in the Union from legislative interference in local affairs. Under an act of the general assembly passed in 1870 the people of Philadelphia were forced to contribute more than $20,000,000 for the construction of a city-hall. To guard against such encroachments in the future the constitution of 1873 imposed the most detailed limitations upon special legislation. The object of the provision, however, has been in a large measure nullified by the system of city classification, under which Philadelphia is the only city of the first class. The passage of the “Ripper Bill” of 1901 shows that the cities of the second class are by no means secure. The apparent object of the measure was to deprive the people of Pittsburg temporarily of the privileges of self-government by empowering the governor to appoint a recorder (in 1903 the title of mayor was again assumed) to exercise (until 1903, when the municipal executive should be again chosen by the people) the functions of the mayor, thus removed by the governor under this statute; and this act applied to the other cities of the second class, Allegheny and Scranton, although they had not offended the party managers.}}
Miscellaneous Laws.—A woman’s right to hold, manage and acquire property in her own right is not affected by marriage, but for a married woman to mortgage or convey her real estate the joint action of herself and her husband is necessary. The rights of dower and courtesy both obtain. When a husband dies intestate leaving a widow and issue, the widow has the use of one-third of his real estate for life and one-third of his personal estate absolutely; if he leaves no issue but there be collateral heirs or other kindred, the widow has the real or personal estate or both to the value of $5000, the use of one-half the remaining real estate for life, and one-half the remaining personal estate absolutely; if the husband leaves a will the widow has the choice between her dower right and the terms of the will. When a wife dies intestate leaving a husband and issue the husband has the use of all her real estate for life, and the personal estate is divided among the husband and children share and share alike; if there be no issue the husband has the use of all her real estate for life and all her personal estate absolutely; if the wife leaves a will the husband has the choice between its terms and his right by courtesy. Whenever there is neither issue nor kindred the surviving husband or wife has all the estate. The principal grounds for an absolute divorce are impotency, adultery, wilful or malicious desertion, cruel and barbarous treatment, personal abuse and conviction of any such crime as arson, burglary, embezzlement, forgery, kidnapping, larceny, murder, perjury or assault with intent to kill. Before filing a petition for a divorce the plaintiff must have resided within the state at least one year. A suit for a divorce on the ground of desertion may be commenced when the defendant has been absent six months, but the divorce may not be granted until the desertion has continued two years. The party convicted of adultery is forbidden to marry the co-respondent during the lifetime of the other party. A marriage of first cousins or a bigamous marriage may be declared void. Pennsylvania has no homestead law, but the property of a debtor amounting to $300 in value, exclusive of the wearing apparel of himself and family and of all Bibles and school-books in use, is exempt from levy and sale on execution or by distress for rent; and the exemption extends to the widow and children unless there is a lien on the property for purchase money. The child-labour law of 1909 forbids the employment of children under eighteen years of age in blast furnaces, tanneries, quarries, in managing elevator lifts or hoisting machines, in oiling dangerous machinery while in motion, at switch tending, as brakesmen, firemen, engineers, motormen and in other positions of similar character. The same law prescribes conditions under which children between fourteen and eighteen years of age may be employed in the manufacture of white-lead, red-lead, paints, phosphorus, poisonous acids, tobacco or cigars, in mercantile establishments, stores, hotels, offices or in other places requiring protection to their health or safety; and it forbids the employment of boys under sixteen years of age or of girls under eighteen years of age in such factories or establishments more than ten hours a day (unless it be to prepare for a short day) or for more than fifty-eight hours a week, or their employment there between nine o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning, except that in the factories requiring continuous night and day employment boys not under fourteen years of age may be employed partly by day and partly by night not exceeding nine hours in any twenty-four. The employment of children under fourteen years of age in coal-mines is forbidden, as is also the employment of children under fourteen years of age in any cotton, woollen, silk, paper, bagging or flax factory, or in any laundry, or the employment of children under twelve years of age in any mill or factory whatever within the commonwealth.
Prisons and Charities.—Penal and charitable institutions are under the supervision of a board of public charities of ten members, established in 1869, and a committee in lunacy, composed of five members of this board, appointed under an act of 1883. An agitation begun by the Philadelphia society for assisting distressed prisoners in 1776, checked for a time by the War of Independence, led ultimately to the passage of a statute in 1818 for the establishment of the Western Penitentiary at Allegheny (opened 1826) and another of 1821 for the establishment of the Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia (opened 1829). In the former penitentiary prisoners are congregated; in the latter they are kept in solitary confinement. An act of 1878 provided for a third penitentiary in the middle district, but through the efforts of Governor Henry M. Hoyt the plans were changed and instead the Industrial Reformatory was established at Huntingdon (opened 1889). The House of Refuge of western Pennsylvania, located in Allegheny in 1854 (act of 1850), became the Pennsylvania Reform School in 1872, and was removed to Morganza, Washington county, in 1876. Few states have done so much as Pennsylvania for the humane and scientific treatment of its dependent and defective classes. Largely as a result of the efforts of Dorothea Lynde Dix (q.v.), a hospital for the insane was established at Harrisburg in 1851 (act of 1845). A second hospital was opened at Pittsburg in 1853 (act of 1848), but the location was ruined by Pennsylvania railway improvements, and in 1862 it was removed to a new site about 7 m. from the city, which was called Dixmont in honour of Miss Dix; the hospital is not a state institution, but the state provides for the maintenance there of patients committed by the courts or the poor authorities in the thirteen counties forming the western district. For three other districts three state institutions have been established—at Danville, 1872 (act of 1868), Warren, 1880 (act of 1873), and Norristown, 1880 (act of 1876). An act of 1901 established a homoeopathic hospital for the insane at Allentown. A distinction is made between hospitals and asylums. The asylum for the chronic insane is at South Mountain, 1894 (act of 1891). A state institution for feeble-minded of western Pennsylvania at Polk, Venango county, was opened in 1897 (act of 1893), and the eastern Pennsylvania state institution for feeble-minded and epileptic at Spring City, Chester county, was opened in 1908 (act of 1903). There are institutes for the blind at Overbrook and Pittsburg, and for the deaf and dumb at Philadelphia and Edgewood Park, an oral school for the deaf at Scranton, a home for the training of deaf children at Philadelphia, a soldiers’ and sailors’ home at Erie (1886), a soldiers’ orphans’ industrial school (1895) at Scotland, Franklin county, the Thaddeus Stevens industrial school (1905) at Lancaster, hospitals for the treatment of persons injured in the mines, at Ashland (1879), Hazleton (1887) and Shamokin (1907), and cottage hospitals at Blossburg, Connellsville, Mercer and Philipsburg (all 1887). In addition to the institutions under state control a large number of local charities receive aid from the public treasury. In 1907–1908, $14,222,440 was appropriated for institutions: $7,479,732 for state institutions, $1,240,108 for semi-state institutions, $4,757,100 for general hospitals, $149,500 for hospitals for consumptives, and $745,900 for homes, asylums, &c. The system of juvenile courts, created under a statute of 1901, has done much to ameliorate the condition of dependent and delinquent children.}}
Education.—During the colonial period there were many sectarian and neighbourhood subscription schools in which the poor could receive a free education, but public schools in the modern American sense were unknown. The famous Friends’ public school, founded in Philadelphia in 1689 and chartered in 1697, still exists as the William Penn charter school. An agitation begun soon after the War of Independence resulted in the creation of a school fund in 1831 and the final establishment of the present system of public schools in 1834. The attempt to repeal the law in 1835 was defeated largely through the efforts of Thaddeus Stevens, who was then a member of the state house of representatives. During the years 1852–1857 the educational department became a separate branch of the state government, the office of county school superintendent was created, the state teachers’ association (known since 1900 as the Pennsylvania educational association) was organized, and a law was enacted for the establishment of normal schools. Since 1893 the state has furnished textbooks and other necessary supplies free of charge, and since 1895 education has been compulsory for all children between the ages of eight and thirteen. Schools must be kept open not less than seven and not more than ten months in the year. Out of a total expenditure of $30,021,774 for the fiscal year 1909, $7,875,083 was for educational purposes, of which $6,810,906 was for common schools, being appropriations to the
to be chosen for the same term of service each voter shall vote for one only, and when three are to be chosen he shall vote for no more than two; candidates highest in vote shall be declared elected.”
