barrels, valued at $5,386,563—an enormous advance over 1903,
when the product was 1,077,137 barrels, valued at $1,347,797. The
production of natural rock cement, chiefly in Clark county, is one of
the two oldest industries in the state, but in Indiana as elsewhere it
is falling off—from an output in 1903 of about 1,350,000 barrels to
212,901 barrels (valued at $240,000) in 1908. There are many
mineral springs in the state, and there are famous resorts at French
Lick and West Baden in Orange county. A large part of the water
bottled is medicinal: hence the high average price per gallon
($0.99 in 1907 when 514,366 gallons were sold, valued at $507,746,
only 2% being table waters). In 1907 19 springs were reported at
which mineral waters were bottled and sold; they were in Allen,
Hendricks, Pike, Bartholomew, Warren, Clark, Martin, Brown,
Gibson, Wayne, Orange, Vigo and Dearborn counties. A law of
1909 prohibited the pumping of certain mineral waters if such
pumping diminished the flow or injured the quality of the water of
any spring.
Communications.—During the early period, the settlement of the northern and central portions of the state was greatly retarded by the lack of highways or navigable waterways. The Wabash and Erie canal (1843), which connected Lake Erie with the Ohio river, entering the state in Allen county, east of Fort Wayne, and following the Wabash river to Terre Haute and the western fork of the White river from Worthington, Greene county, to Petersburg, Pike county, whence it ran south-south-west to Evansville; and the White Water canal from Hagerstown, Wayne county, mostly along the course of the White Water river, to Lawrenceburg, on the Ohio river, in the south-eastern corner of the state, although now abandoned, served an important purpose in their day. The completion (about 1850) of the National Road, which traversed the state, still further aided the internal development. With the beginning of railway construction (about 1847), however, a new era was opened. Indiana is unusually well served with railways, which form a veritable network of track in every part of the state. It is traversed by nearly all the great transcontinental trunk line systems, and also by important north and south lines. The total railway mileage in January 1909 was 7286.20 m. There has been a great development also in interurban electric lines, which have been adapted both to passenger and to light freight and express traffic; in 1908 there were 31 interurban electric lines within the state with a mileage of 1500 m. Indianapolis is the centre of this interurban network. The first trolley sleeping cars were those used on the Ohio and Indiana interurban railways. The deepening of the channel of the Wabash river was begun in 1872. Below Vincennes before 1885 boats of 3-ft. draft could navigate the river, but after work was concentrated in 1885 on the lock at Grand Rapids, near Mt Carmel, Ill., the channel was soon clogged again, and in 1909 it was impossible for boats with a greater draft than 20 in. to go from Mt Carmel to Vincennes, although up to June 1909 about $810,000 had been spent by the Federal government on improving this river. In 1879 an appropriation was made for the improvement of the channel of the White river, but no work was done here between 1895 and 1909, and although the lower 13 m. of the river was navigable for boats with a draft of 3 ft. or less, there was practically no traffic up to 1909 on the White, because there was no outlet for it by the Wabash river.
Population.—The population of Indiana, according to the Federal Census of 1910, was 2,700,876, and the rank of the state in the Union as regards population was ninth. In 1810, the year following the erection of the western part of Indiana into Illinois Territory, the population was 24,520, in 1820 it had increased to 147,178, in 1850 to 988,416, in 1870 to 1,680,637, in 1890 to 2,192,404, and in 1900 to 2,516,462. In 1900 34.3% was urban, i.e. lived in places of 2500 inhabitants and over. The foreign-born population in the same year amounted to 142,121, or 5.6% of the whole, and the negro population to 57,505, or 2.3%. There were in 1900 five cities with a population of more than 35,000, viz. Indianapolis (169,164), Evansville (59,007), Fort Wayne (45,115), Terre Haute (36,673), and South Bend (35,999). In the same year there were 14 cities with a population of less than 35,000 (all less than 21,000) and more than 10,000; and there were 21 places with a population of less than 10,000 and more than 5000. In 1906 it was estimated that there were 938,405 members of different religious denominations; of this total 233,443 were Methodists (210,593 of the Northern Church), 174,849 were Roman Catholics, 108,188 were Disciples of Christ (and 10,259 members of the Churches of Christ), 92,705 were Baptists (60,203 of the Northern Convention, 13,526 of the National (Colored) Convention, 8132 Primitive Baptists, and 6671 General Baptists), 58,633 were Presbyterians (49,041 of the Northern Church, and 6376 of the Cumberland Church—since united with the Northern), 55,768 were Lutherans (34,028 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference, 8310 of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and other states), 52,700 were United Brethren (48,059 of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ; the others of the “Old Constitution”) and 21,624 of the German Evangelical Synod.
Constitution.—Indiana is governed under a constitution adopted in 1851, which superseded the original state constitution of 1816. An amendment to the constitution may be proposed by either branch of the General Assembly; if a majority of both houses votes in favour of an amendment and it is favourably voted upon by the General Assembly chosen by the next general election, the amendment is submitted to popular vote and a majority vote is necessary for its ratification. The constitution of 1816 had conferred the suffrage upon all “white male citizens of the United States of the age of twenty-one and upward,” had prohibited slavery, and had provided that no alteration of the constitution should ever introduce it. The new constitution contained similar suffrage restrictions, and further by Article XIII., which was voted upon separately, prohibited the entrance of negroes or mulattoes into the state and made the encouragement of their immigration or employment an indictable offence. This prohibition was held by the United States Supreme Court in 1866 to be in conflict with the Federal Constitution and therefore null and void. It was not until 1881 that the restriction of the suffrage to “white” males, which was in conflict with the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the Federal Constitution, was removed by constitutional amendment. Since that date those who may vote have been all male citizens twenty-one years old and upward who have lived in Indiana six months immediately preceding the election, and every foreign-born male of the requisite age who has lived in the United States one year and in Indiana six months immediately preceding the election, and who has declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States; but the General Assembly has the power to deprive of the suffrage any person convicted of an infamous crime. The Australian ballot was adopted in 1889. The general state election (up to 1881, held in October) takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years. The governor and lieutenant-governor (minimum age, 30 years) and the clerk of the Supreme Court are chosen in presidential years for a term of four years,[1] the other state officers—secretary of state, attorney-general, auditor, treasurer and superintendent of public instruction—every two years. The state legislature, known as the General Assembly, which meets biennially in odd-numbered years and in special session summoned by the governor, consists of a Senate of fifty members (minimum age, 25 years) elected for four years, and a House of Representatives of one hundred members (minimum age, 21 years) elected for two years. Two-thirds of each house constitute a quorum to do business. The governor has the veto power, but the provision that a bill may be passed over his veto by a majority of all elected members renders it little more than an expression of opinion.
Law.—The judiciary consists of a Supreme Court of five members elected for districts by the state at large for a term of six years, an appellate court (first constituted in 1891), and a system of circuit and minor criminal and county courts. The system of local government has undergone radical changes in recent years. A law of 1899, aimed to separate the legislative and executive functions, provided for the election of legislative bodies in every township and county. These bodies have control of the local expenditures and tax levies, and without their consent the local administrative officers cannot contract debts. In 1905 a new municipal code, probably the most elaborate and complete local government act in the United States, providing for a uniform system of government in all cities and towns, went into effect. It was constructed on the lines of the Indianapolis city charter, adopted in 1891, and repealed all individual charters and special corporation acts. Its controlling principle is the more complete separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers. For this purpose all cities are divided into
- ↑ No man can serve as governor for more than four years in any period of eight years.
