[9] In 1910 the following townships each had populations of more than 15,000: Revere, Leominster, Westfield, Attleborough, Peabody, Hyde Park.
[10] The birth-rates every fifth (census) year up to 1895 varied for natives from 14.48 to 19.49; for foreigners from 45.87 to 66.68. The marriage rates in quinquennial periods up to 1905 were 19.6, 18.6, 21.0, 19.8, 15.6, 18.6, 18.6, 18.6, 17.4 and 17.4; the ratio of marriages to the marriageable population was for males (above 16 years) 61.5, for females (above 14) 46.0; the fecundity of marriages seemed to have increased, being about twice as high for foreigners as for natives. See Annual Report of the Board of Health (1896), by S. W. Abbott; and Sixty-fourth Report of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Massachusetts (1906).
[11] The number of representatives from 1832 to 1908 varied from 240 to 635, and the length of session from 58 to 206 days (since 1867 none of under 100 days), with an almost continual increase in both respects.
[12] However, every office-holder was, and every subject might be, required to take (though this was not a condition of the franchise) the oaths enjoined by parliament in the first year of the reign of William and Mary as a substitute for the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy; and the same still applies to the signing of the Declaration.
[13] From 1887-1900, out of 290 cases settled, only 107 were formal arbitrations, 124 agreements were effected by the mediation of the Board, 100 were effected otherwise while proceedings were pending, and in 59 cases the Board interposed when the parties preferred hostilities.
[14] For a summary statement of state labour laws in the United States in 1903 see Bulletin 54 of the United States Bureau of Labor, September 1904; and for a summary of labour laws in force at the end of 1907 see 22nd Annual Report (for 1907) of the U.S. Commissioner of Labor (Washington, 1908).
[15] The usual allotment of the cost of this work is as follows: 65% is paid by the railway company, 25% by the commonwealth and 10% by the municipality in which the crossing is located.
[16] The cost was apportioned between the commonwealth and the local government in the proportion of 3 to 1.
[17] Boston remained a township, governed by town-meetings, until 1822, when it had a population of some 47,000. The government of Brookline (pop. in 1905, 23,436) is an interesting example of the adaptation of the township system to urban conditions. The town is frequently referred to as a model residential suburb; its budgets are very large, its schools are excellent, and, among other things, it has established a township gymnasium. The town hall is not large enough for an assemblage of all the voters, but actually the attendance is usually limited to about 200, and since 1901 there has been in force a kind of referendum, under which any measure passed by a town-meeting attended by 700 or more voters may be referred, upon petition of 100 legal voters, to a regular vote at the polls. Much of the work of the town-meetings is done through special committees.
[18] E. G. Brown, in Monographs on Education in the United States prepared for the Paris Exposition of 1900 and edited by N. M. Butler.