All the Baltic powers were more or less interested in the apportionment of this vast tract of land, whose geographical position made it not only the chief commercial link between east and west, but also the emporium whence the English, Dutch, Swedes, Danes and Germans obtained their corn, timber and most of the raw products of Lithuania and Muscovy.
The school fund in 1900 amounted to $1,000,000, an increase of 37% over the average annual fund of the preceding decade; for the year ending the 30th of September 1907 the amount certified for apportionment by the state was $1,150,261.40, and the total annual expenditure was about $1,600,000; in 1906 the school census showed 697,465 children of school age.
This system of apportionment gives to the rural counties a considerable pplitical advantage over the city of Baltimore, which, with 42.8% of the total population according to the census of 1900, has only 4 out of 27 members of the Senate and only 24 out of tot members of the House of Delegates.
The system of apportionment and the franchise qualifications were worked out to meet the needs of a group of agricultural communities.
Everett was a member of nearly all the most important select committees, such as those on the Indian relations of the state of Georgia, the Apportionment Bill, and the Bank of the United States, and drew the report either of the majority or the minority.
