fund into the general fund of the State. To do this is a violation of the contract entered into by and between the pensioner and the State of Indiana, and we claim as a fundamental principle of law that the Legislature transcends its powers when it undertakes to set aside by statute, or express enactments, the written contracts of citizens of the State. The United States Pension Department permits the contracts to be made with the pensioner; the United States statutes which provide for soldiers' homes provide for this; in the report that is required to be made to the Board of Managers of the National Home hereinafter referred to, we are required to report the amount of "pension retained;" the courts hold in well adjudicated cases that such contracts are legal and binding and may be enforced against the pensioner. We believe the law in so far as it applies to this pension fund of the Soldiers' Home should be amended, excepting this fund from the provisions of the act.

The following table will show the number who draw pensions, the amount of pension paid per month to pensioners, the total amount of pension paid to members of the Home during the year, the amount paid into the Home Fund, the amount paid to wives and minor children, and the net amount retained by the pensioners:

Total amount of pensions paid to members of the Home from

October 31, 1899, to October 31, 1900, $38,501.70.

This large amount of pension was divided as follows:

Paid into Home fund by men...

Paid into Home fund by women.

$2,406 00

283 00

$2,689 00

Paid to dependents (wives and minor children).

$1,714 00

Retained by pensioners..

34,098 70

$38,501 70

There are, of course, a large number of the members of the Home, men and women, who draw no pension.

From Auditor of State, per capita at $150.. 74,968 73

Subsistence

623 81,

Clothing

943 15

84,630 71

45 45

32 90

SPECIFIC APPROPRIATIONS.

This Home asks for specific appropriations in sums as follows:

For addition to hospital to accommodate 100 patients...

$30,000 00

For new building to accommodate 100 inmates for old women..
For new building for matron and nurses.

30,000 00

6,000 00

For new barn

2,000 00

For new roadway and to improve walks and grounds.

6,000 00

Total

$74,000 00

SALARIES.

The trustees also ask that the Commandant's salary be increased from $1,200 to $1,500 per annum, and that the Adjutant's salary be increased from $900 to $1,200 per annum.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

Since the maintenance of this institution is provided for in the statute creating the institution, no appropriation is asked for this purpose. The committee recommends the following specific appropriations:

The committee feels that since there were present during the last year a daily average of 525 patients, and the capacity of the Home is now 700, that by the addition of this new hospital the Home will be able to provide accommodations for all who may apply for admission during the next two years.

SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' ORPHANS' HOME.

A. H. GRAHAM, SUPERINTENDENT.

This institution is located near Knightstown. It is a home and school combined. The qualifications for admission are prescribed by statute as follows:

The trustees and (under regulations and a form of application which they shall prescribe) the superintendents are authorized and required to receive as pupils of said Home, orphans and children residing in this State under the age of sixteen years who may be destitute of the means of support and education in the following order:

First. Orphans, children of deceased Union soldiers or sailors in the army or navy of the United States in the late Civil War, said orphans not having mothers living. If there be not applications for the admisson of persons of this class sufficient to fill said Home, then there shall be in like manner admitted:

Second. Orphans, children of such deceased soldiers or sailors, said orphans having mothers living. If there be not applications for the admission of persons of said two classes sufficient to fill said Home, then in like manner there shall be admitted:

Third. Children of permanently disabled or indigent soldiers or sailors of said service residing in this State or in National military homes having been admitted thereto from this State.

POPULATION.

The population on October 31, 1900, is shown by the following table:

THE SCHOOL.

The total enrollment in the school is 377 boys and 258 girls, of which 394 are in school all day and 241 are in school one-half of each day, spending the other half at their respective trades.

The departments maintained in the school are kindergarten, common school and industrial school.

In the industrial department pupils are afforded an opportunity to learn the following trades: Printing, carpentering, gardening, farming, painting, engineering, baking, cooking, shoemaking, laundering, tailoring, sewing, floriculture, stenography and typewriting.

The following statement shows the receipts and disbursements for the two years ending October 31, 1899, and October 31, 1900: