The State University deserves mention, since the state provides so largely for the instruction there, small fees only being required from students. About 3,800 students are now in attendance. Larger appropriations are needed to develop its vast interests. Its president, its faculty, its fine buildings and campus, are the pride of every Minnesotan.

Our State Normal Schools, at Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Moorhead, and Duluth, also come under the head of beneficial and indeed charitable institutions, as the state thus aids very largely in giving an education to the teachers for its public schools.

The Minnesota Soldiers' Home, at Minnehaha Falls, is beautifully situated, well managed, and is one of the best in the country. When the new building for the wives and children and widows of old soldiers is erected, this institution will be even more complete. It now provides for about 380 veterans, including 64 in the hospital. The cost per capita per annum is about $200, and in addition some government aid is received. A relief fund of great value also exists, so that all who prefer to remain at their own homes can do so and have aid there. This institution is not under the State Board of Control.

The masonic, fraternal and beneficial societies, throughout the state, have been already referred to, but their charitable work deserves special mention. In almost every town and village of Minnesota lodges and societies exist, whose highest and best work is the relief of sick and dependent members and their families.

The Odd Fellows' Home and Orphan Asylum at Northfield has a fine new building and some 120 acres of land, together valued at $70,000.

Although no separate exhibition of the charities of Minnesota was made last year at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition by our Board of Control, some showing was made indirectly, and not without favorable notice. If a complete exhibit had been made, it would have demonstrated that this state is in the front rank among the states of the Union in respect to its system of charities.

MINNESOTA JOURNALISM FROM 1858 TO 1865.*

BY DANIEL S. B. JOHNSTON.

SIXTH PAPER, 1858 TO 1860.

No force in the world today is more potent than journalism; no soldier is more honored than he who serves in its ranks, and no service equals that of the pioneer newspaper in the early beginnings and upbuilding of territory and state.

This paper is the sixth in the series of the history of journalism in Minnesota. Five papers already printed cover the territorial period. This paper dates from May 11th, 1858, the day Minnesota was admitted as a state, and closes at December 31st, 1860.

THE FIRST EDITORIAL CONVENTION.

It is generally supposed that the excellent history of Minnesota editorial conventions, which Mr. H. P. Hall has compiled, dates back to their beginnings. Two earlier conventions were held, however, prior to those of which he writes, one being in St. Paul, June 3d, 1858, and the other in Mankato, June 4th, 1862. The minutes of the convention held in St. Paul read as follows:

"The convention met according to previous notice. Columbus Stebbins, editor of the Hastings Independent, was elected chairman of the preliminary organization. A committee of seven was appointed to present business; and A. J. Van Vorhes, Dr. Foster, W. A. Croffut, W. C. Dodge, C. B. Hensley, Marshall Robinson, and Charles Brown, constituted that committee.

*Read at monthly meetings of the Executive Council, April 10, 1905, November 12, 1906, and March 11, 1907. Mr. Johnston had previously read a series of five papers on "Minnesota Journalism in the Territorial Period," published in the Historical Collections of this Society, Volume X (Part 1), pages 247-351.

"The convention was permanently organized by the election of Columbus Stebbins, president; Frederick Somers and A. J. Van Vorhes, vice presidents; and David Blakeley and D. S. B. Johnston, secretaries. A. J. Van Vorhes, T. M. Newson, and James Mills, were appointed to draft a constitution and report at a meeting which was ordered to be held on the next anniversary of Franklin's birthday, January 17, 1859. "W. A. Croffut, Dr. Foster, and J. K. Averill, were appointed to select suitable persons to deliver an oration and read a poem on that occasion.

"Publication of general and local laws, uniform rates for subscription and advertising, establishment of paper manufactures in the state, and increase of prices for publication of legal advertisements, were advised by resolution."

Those present at the above meeting were A. J. Van Vorhes, of the Stillwater Messenger; Frederick Somers, of the St. Paul Pioneer and Democrat; David Blakeley, Bancroft Pioneer; D. S. B. Johnston, St. Anthony Express; Dr. Thomas Foster, St. Paul Minnesotian; W. A. Croffut, St. Anthony News; T. M. Newson, St. Paul Times; James Mills, Pioneer and Democrat; J. K. Averill, Winona Times; W. C. Dodge, Shakopee Free Press; Marshall Robinson, Glencoe Register; Charles Brown, Brownsville Herald ; and C. B. Hensley, Mankato Independent.

The day appointed in St. Paul for the adjourned meeting of this first editorial convention in the winter of 1859 passed, and I did not think of it and it is doubtful if any of the other Minnesota editors did.

January 17th, 1860, came, and the Pioneer and Democrat thus tersely refers to it: "If the printers who are supposed to be most interested in its appropriate celebration have made no preparations to observe it, we can do no more than call attention to the anniversarv."

THE SECOND EDITORIAL CONVENTION

was held in Mankato, June 4th, 1862. A. J. Van Vorhes, of the Stillwater Messenger, was chairman; and Orville Brown, of the Faribault Republican, secretary. The other editors present were William R. Marshall, St. Paul Press; Louis E. Fisher, St. Paul Pioneer; D. Sinclair, Winona Republican; D. Blakeley, Rochester Post; W. H. Mitchell, Rochester Republican; Frederick Driscoll. Belle Plaine Journal; Martin Williams, St. Peter Tribune; N. B. Hyatt, Blue Earth City News; Col. John H. Stevens, Glencoe Reg

ister; J. H. McKenney, Chatfield Democrat; J. C. Wise, Mankato Record; C. B. Hensley, Mankato Independent; and James J. Green, Minnesota Statesman.

The committee to draft a constitution and by-laws were Van Vorhes, Marshall, Sinclair, Col. Stevens, and McKenney.

The committee on a uniform schedule for job work and advertising were Blakeley, Hensley, Wise, Fisher, and Green. This committee was to prepare and furnish a copy of the price schedule to each editor in the state for examination and concurrence. The secretary was to invite each editor in the state to meet in a third A final account of the editorial convention, October 22, 1862. June mecting was published June 21, 1862, in the Republican, of Preston, Fillmore county, and it is from that issue that I take this record.

Either Mr. Brown did not invite, or the war made the editors forget, as I can find no trace of even an attempt to hold the adjourned meeting at the time appointed.

I find no further attempt made to hold conventions until February 20th, 1867, when the next editorial convention was held, as H. P. Hall continues the record.

CORRECTIONS OF THE FIFTH PAPER IN THE TERRITORIAL SERIES.

Sickness and death in my family, coming about the time my papers on "Minnesota Journalism in the Territorial Period" went to the printer, prevented the final revision of my last preceding paper. I afterward found that one Territorial newspaper, the Minnesota Posten, had been left out; and two, the Northfield Journal and the Hastings Weekly Ledger, were included, which did not belong in the Territorial period. Therefore I make my correction of number five in number six of the series.

The Minnesota Posten should immediately precede the notice of the Belle Plaine Inquirer, and the numbering onward for the Taking out the next seven pages should be increased by one. Northfield Journal and the Hastings Weekly Ledger, mentioned in the closing part of the notice of the Hastings Daily Ledger, leaves seventy-five weekly journals, instead of seventy-six, of the total Territorial papers.

THE MINNESOTA POSTEN.

November 7th, 1857, a paper called the Minnesota Posten was started in Red Wing. It was a weekly and was published by E. Norelius and J. Enberg about a year, when it was united with the Newlandit of Chicago. My authority for this is Robert Gronberger of Forest Lake, Chisago county, Minn. The Posten was the sixtyseventh paper started in the Territory. This disturbs the order. of the list of Territorial newspapers, making the Belle Plaine Inquirer the sixty-eighth, the Folkets Röst the sixty-ninth, the New Ulm Pioneer the seventieth, the St. Cloud Visitor the seventyfirst, the Winona Times the seventy-second, the Minneapolis Gazette the seventy-third, the Rochester Free Press the seventy-fourth, and the Shakopee Reporter the seventy-fifth and last of the Territorial series.

The Northfield Journal, the first of the two papers that I included in the Territorial period by mistake, went in carelessly without date. The fact is, the first number of that paper was printed early in June, 1858, and Minnesota was admitted as a state May 11th, 1858. The Journal, therefore, was not a Territorial paper.

The Hastings Daily Ledger will be counted number seven of the Minnesota dailies, as I have it in paper five of the Territorial series; and the Weekly Ledger, which did not begin until after the daily had run a year, as I stated plainly, but which I carelessly counted as the seventy-sixth and last weekly established in the Territory, should be there omitted. Both the Northfield Journal and Weekly Ledger will appear in this paper, where they belong.

While making corrections, I want to make one regarding Earle S. Goodrich, long the forceful editor of the Pioneer and Democrat, now a part of the Pioneer Press. My first paper on Journalism in the Territorial period gave the date of his birth as July 27th, 1827. It should be July 20th, a week earlier.

I have studiously aimed to have these papers go into print free from mistakes. In view of the circumstances, I trust that these errors will be pardoned.