Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/232

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196
ARMENIA

timber wasestimated in 1920 at 78, 700,000,000 feet. The chief centres of manufacturing were Little Rock, Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, North Little Rock, Helena and Hot Springs. A considerable impetus was given to manufactures, especially in glass, in Fort Smith by the discovery of gas.

Banks and Finance. In 1920 there were 404 state and private bank and trust companies and 76 national banks with capital and reserves amounting to $29,549,357 and resources amounting to $273,915,676. The state banks had 389,383 depositors. There were no separate savings banks, but the savings deposits in the banks amounted to $12,450,710. The increase in the ratio of the banking resources of the state to those of the nation during the years 190919 was exceeded only by Oklahoma and Nevada. There were few bank failures for several years and depositors lost little, though there was no guarantee law. The state budget amounted to $6,546,470. The recognized debt amounted to about $2,000,000 provided for by spe- cial tax. Revenue was derived mainly from the general property tax, but a considerable sum was secured from licenses and poll taxes. In 1920 the assessed valuation, real and personal, was $612,426,000, which is only a small part of the real value. The appropriations for 1921-3 total $14,241,395, which was well within the estimated revenue. The largest item, apart from the state aid to public schools, was $2,400,000 for pensions to Confederate veterans.

Education. The school population was in 1920 676,009, of whom 483,172 attended school. For support of the schools the state and districts expended $7,600,000 annually. The state university is supported by a special tax which in 1912 was one mill per $1 of assessed valuation. An amendment to the constitution, submitted by initiative, removing the limit on taxes for school purposes, was to be voted on in 1922.

Transportation. In 1910 the state had 4,876 m. of steam railway; in 1920, 55,220 m. There were in 1920 eight electric street and inter-urban lines with 152 m. of track. In the same year 59,058 motor-cars, trucks and tractors were licensed. By the close of 1920 the road-building programme comprised 9,000 m. at an estimated cost of $108,000,000, about half of which was under construction or contract. Dissatisfaction, partly over the cost and partly over the fact that only real estate was assessed to pay for these roads, led to the abandonment of many of those projected. Some of the roads were to be asphalt or concrete, but the prevailing type was gravel. As the counties were forbidden to issue bonds the work was carried on by improvement districts with state and Federal aid. The total amount of state aid available 1917-21 was $1,400,000; Federal, $4,615,210. To secure this aid the work done by the dis- tricts had to meet the approval of the state highway department.

Minerals and Mining. -The bauxite industry continued to develop, growing from 115,837 long tons in 1900 to 532,000 in 1918. All the other states together produced only 32,000 tons. Platinum was dis- covered near Batesville in 1920. The output of coal rose from 13,195 tons in 1880 to 1,701,748 tons in 1910 and to 1,994,738 tons in 1913; after this there was a slight falling off. The production of natural gas was small (125,000 ft. from six wells) until 1915, when the first strong well was opened in Crawford county. The output of the wells near Fort Smith was in 19^0 about 200,000,000 ft., only one-fifth of which was used. In 1921 a strong well was developed near El Dorado; also, oil was discovered in the same region early in 1921, and by Aug. the production has risen to over a million barrels a month. The state ranks first in the production of whet-stones, which are made from the famous " Arkansas " and " Ouachita " oilstones. The clay in Saline county is used for making pottery of a very artistic type.

History. The state continued under control of the Demo- cratic party without interruption from 1874 to 1921. Several attempts have been made to amend the conservative constitution, most of which have ended in failure, owing to the requirement of a majority of the total vote to adopt any amendment. An initiative and referendum amendment was adopted in 1910, but a part of it was declared unworkable by the Supreme Court. In 1916 a new initiative and referendum, submitted by petition, was voted down; in 1920 it received a large majority of the vote cast, but not a majority of the total vote. It was again submitted by petition and will be voted on in 1922. In 1912 an amendment submitted under the initiative limited the pay of legislators to a session of 60 days, with half pay for an extra session of 15 days. The previous session had been long and expensive. The Legisla- ture of 1917 called a constitutional convention. When the con- vention met, the United States had just entered the World War and a strong effort was made to adjourn without doing anything. As a compromise the convention adjourned to July 1918. It then met and submitted a revised edition of the old constitution. This was rejected by the people. Important legislation during the period 1910-20 included abolition of the convict lease system (convicts may now be worked on the roads) ; provision for a state farm for convicts;- reform schools; state-wide prohibition (1915);

inheritance tax; minimum wage; restricting child-labour; com- pulsory education; and abolition of the " fellow servants " rule. In 1917 women were by statute given the right to vote in, primary elections; in 1920, before the adoption of the national woman suffrage amendment, an amendment to the state constitution giving full rights of suffrage and the right to hold office was sub- mitted to the voters, but failed to receive a majority of the total vote. A legislative Act of 1921 gave women the right to hold office. In 1921 Gov. McRae induced the Legislature to make a beginning of reform in the state administration by abolishing a number of offices and commissions. The governors of the state since 1909 have been: George W. Donaghey, 1909-13; Joseph T. Robinson, Jan. 8-March 1913; W. K. Oldham (acting), March 8-23; J. M. Futrell (acting), March 23Aug. 6; G. W. Hayes, Aug. 6 1913-7; C. H. Brough, 1917-21^. T. McRae, 1921-

(D. Y. T.)


ARMENIA (see 2.564). The years between 1914 and 1921 are, perhaps, the most important of any in the modern history of the Armenian people. The bloodless Turkish revolution of 1908, followed by the assembling of a representative Parliament, opened a period in which, for a time, racial animosities seemed to have disappeared from the greater part of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians hailed the change as the end of their troubles, and massacre and oppression became dim memories. They appeared content henceforward to be citizens of a reformed Turkey and anxious to bear their part in all the duties of citizen- ship. Some, indeed, went so far in their new-formed patriotism as to call themselves Osmanlis, seeking to make a national name of the term hitherto used only by Turkish Moslems a term embodying in the past the very spirit of Turkish conquest and oppression. Nor was it merely the rank and file of the Armenian people who so readily accepted the prospect of a new Turkey. Leaders of Armenian revolutionary societies organiza- tions whose purpose was to achieve Armenian independence, the Hunchakists by constitutional means, the Dashnakists by violence themselves believed that the Young Turk movement deserved well of the Armenian people, and that the revolution should receive Armenian support. We need not enquire too closely into the causes of this sudden confidence. The Young Turks possessed, as yet, little experience in organization; they were deficient in means: they therefore courted leading Armenians and the Armenian secret societies, from which sources, to some extent, experience and financial aid could be obtained. On their part Armenians held that any change which diminished the power of the Sultan 'Abdul Hamid and his creatures was so much to the good; and their leaders felt them- selves competent to use the Young Turks for Armenian ends, and to go with them only so far as Armenian interests required. It is, indeed, a singular fact that the Young Turks and the Dashnakists continue to find some degree of usefulness in each other to the present time.

Cilician Massacres. But disillusionment on the part of the Armenian people in general was not long delayed. The first free Ottoman Parliament met on Dec. 27 1908: in April 1909 massacre broke out at Adana, in the rich Cilician plain. After the first outbreak troops of the Young Turk army were hurriedly brought from Salonika, and the affair seemed to have been stamped out by the promptitude of the Government. But after a few days it flared up again, in consequence, it is stated, of Armenians having fired on the soldiery, who thereupon took an active part in the work of killing and burning. From Adana massacre spread to various towns of the vilayet of Adana, and into northern Syria, particularly at Antioch, Kirk Khan, and Mar'ash. Though thousands perished in the towns, a greater number were slaughtered in remote villages and on lonely roads; for it was the time when Armenians from the mountains were on their way to the annual harvesting on the fertile Cilician plain. It is believed that in all not less than 20,000 lost their lives in this unexpected and disastrous outbreak.

Origins of the Cilician Massacre of /pop. The origins of these massacres remain obscure; that some form of official prompting lay behind them, however, cannot be doubted. Not