reform." In the legislative election that Batlle called for January 1905, his hand-picked candidates won the majority of seats. According to one study, "It was the first election in thirty years in which the outcome was not predetermined." In the 1905 elections for the House of Diputados, Batlle’s sector the Batllistas won 57.7% of the vote. In subsequent elections for the House of Diputados and the Constituency Assembly the Batllistas continued to perform well, winning 64.2% of the vote in 1907, 79.9% of the vote in 1910, 60% of the vote in 1913, 45.2% of the vote in 1916, 49.3% of the vote in 1917, 29.5% of the vote in 1919, and 52.2% of the vote in 1920. As noted by one study, “Until 1917, Batllismo dominated the successive elections and obtained its best result in 1910 with 79.9 % of the votes.” As noted by another study, "The institutional difficulty resulting from the complex reading of the results was apparently not immediately perceived by contemporaries, but it came to the forefront when in January 1917 the legislative elections held according to the traditional rule of public vote gave Batlle back control of both chambers." The Batlle era saw the introduction of various reforms such as new rights for working people, the encouragement of colonization, universal male suffrage, the nationalization of foreign-owned companies, the creation of a modern social welfare system. Under Batlle, the electorate was increased from 46,000 to 188,000. Income tax for lower incomes was abolished in 1905, secondary schools were established in every city (1906), the right of divorce was given to women (1907), and the telephone network was nationalized (1915). Unemployment benefits were introduced in 1914, and an eight-hour working day was introduced in 1915. In 1917, Uruguay proclaimed a secular republic. In 1910 a hospital for children and an asylum were constructed, while building started on a hospital for tuberculosis patients. In 1915, a Maternity House, asylums for older children, a milk program for children up the age of two, and a service in medical emergencies in homes were initiated. Hospital services "also began to improve in the capital cities of the interior" while small asylums were set up for abandoned mothers and their children in some rural towns. Research institutes were also founded, while a children’s hospital, an orphanage, a senior citizen’s home and military hospital were also built. In 1920 a second public