At the conclusion of the campaign in German S.W. Africa the Union Government turned its attention to other fields in which assistance was needed. These were oversea, and the liability of S. African citizens to military service did not extend to such distant spheres of activity. It was thus necessary to devise special measures to furnish troops composed of S. Africans who were prepared of their free will to serve beyond the limits of S. Africa.
In July 1915 the Imperial Government accepted the offer of the Union Government to furnish personnel for units for service beyond S. Africa. A director of war recruiting was ap- pointed and recruiting was maintained until the Armistice in 1918. The following are the numbers of all the forces which were raised in the Union for the different campaigns in which South African troops took part:
The rebellion 30,000
German S.W. Africa 67,237
Overseas (France) 30,880
German E. & Central Africa 47,521
For service in the Union . . 5,180
The achievements of the S. Africans in France and their fortitude under hardship in the East African campaign are matters of history.
The coloured community in the Cape province had early expressed a strong desire to furnish a representative body of troops, and an. infantry battalion of the Cape Corps was formed, and later a second battalion was recruited. The regiment after gaining valuable experience in E. and Central Africa was sent as one battalion to Egypt and Palestine, where it served with credit. The natives of the Union, who throughout the war maintained an attitude of complete self-control and loyalty, furnished for non-combatant duties 35,000 men for German S.W. Africa, 10,600 for France and 18,000 for E. and Central Africa. Some hundreds of natives lost their lives in the transport " Mendi " which was sunk in the English Channel.
While, as a consequence of the large number of men who, especially at the outset of the war, joined the British forces as individuals, a full statement of the casualties sustained by S. Africa in the World War is not available, the following figures give some idea of the incidence of losses. In the S. African In- fantry Brigade in France nearly 1 5,000 casualties were sustained, of which some 5,000 were killed. In the Cape Corps which served in E. Africa, Egypt and Palestine, the casualties in dead and wounded totalled 701. Disease and privation took heavy toll in East Africa and hundreds of men returned to the Union from the campaign in that country shattered in health. The Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve supplied and maintained a strong detachment for service in the Grand Fleet and naval establish- ments. Hospitals, camps, supply, and ordnance depots, and veterinary hospitals were formed in S. Africa under Union control, and heavy purchases were made and vast amounts of supplies were forwarded to E. Africa under Union military supervision on behalf of the Imperial Government.
As regards the future military arrangements of the Union the main provisions of the Act of 1912 have been accepted as sound, though methods will doubtless be reformed to a considerable extent. An amending defence bill in May 1921, in addition to important changes in the constitution and functions of the permanent force, provided for a resumption of registration, with retrospective effect as regards citizens who should have been registered in and since 1918; also for the working of the normal training system in 1922, and for a sub- stantial increase in the period of continuous " peace training," as well as for increasing cadet efficiency, by additional expenditure of public funds and by extending the age for cadet service. The bill was, however, dropped in June 1921. (J. J. C.)
SOUTH CAROLINA (see 25.499*). The pop. of the state in 1920 was 1,683,724, an increase of 11-1% over the previous decade, as compared with 13-1% and 16-4% during the two preceding decades. During the decade 1910-20 negroes increased from 679,161 to 818,538, or from 44-8% of the total pop. to 48-6%. The density was 55-2 per sq. mile. The urban, pop. was !7 - 5% of the whole, as compared with 14-8% in 1910. The pop. of Charleston was 67,957 an d the decennial increase 15-5%, the white increase being 28-3% and the negro 4%. The white pop., increased by war industries, was 52-4% of the whole, constituting a majority for the first time in about 200 years. The
pop. and decennial increase for the other leading cities were as
follows:
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1920
1910
Increase per cent
Columbia Greenville
37,524 23,127
26,319
15,741
42-6 46-9
Florence . . . Anderson Sumter
10,968
J0.579 9,508
1 7'5 1 7 7,057 9,654 8,109
29-2 55-7 9-5 17-3
Manufactures. Textile mills paid very large dividends during 1917-20, and in addition doubled or trebled their capital. Wages rose greatly, but were cut 30 to 50% in the depression of 1920-1. The number of spindles in 1918 was 4,914,524; of operatives in 1919, 50.898, a decrease of about 4,000 since 1916; the bales of cotton consumed diminished from 972,000 in 1916 to 779,000 in 1918-9; capitalization that year was $201,237,320. Almost half the motive power in 1920 was hydro-electric. Unionization has not proceeded far among textile workers, though skilled trades in larger places are generally organized. The State Board of Conciliation, created in 1916, arbitrates labour disputes on invitation or investigates them on its own motion or the order of the governor. Women are forbidden to work in stores after 10 P.M. or over 12 hours in one day.
Agriculture. The coincidence of the World War and a large cotton crop in 1914 demoralized farming. A law was passed forbidding the planting of more than a third of a farm's acreage in cotton, but was repealed before the next planting season. An enormous inflation of values soon followed and in turn was succeeded by a decline of prices from about $0.40 to $0.10 or $o.n in six months (1920-1), entailing great hardship. Legislation (1912) sought to stabilize agricultural prices by a system of state warehouses for holding products for a favourable market. Private capital has been extensively invested to the same end. The boll weevil became a serious menace in 1920 in the south-western counties. A packing plant with a daily capacity of 400 hogs was established in Orangeburg. Butter-making in coopera- tive creameries has made some progress. Under the law of 1920 extensive drainage projects were undertaken. Agricultural methods have improved; farm-houses are better; banks, which have increased in number and capital, finance the farmer directly at greatly lower cost than formerly charged by " lien merchants. South Carolina led all the states in 1917 in crop value per acre with an average of $63. The value in 1918 was $75. According to state Government estimate cotton covered in 1920 45% of the cultivated acreage and represented 50% of the value of the 13 leading crops. One million five hundred and thirty thousand bales were raised, the state's acreage being fourth and its production second in the Union. Corn, second in value, amounted to 42,370,000 bushels. Other crops were: tobacco 66,950,000 Ib. ; rice 120,000 bus.; sorghum 1,500,000 gal.; peanuts 1,620,000 bushels. The average value of ploughed lands was $61 per acre as against $91 for the United States. Average monthly wages for adult male farm labour without board were $41.80, next to the lowest for any state. During 1910-20 the number of farms increased from 176,434 to 192,693; improved land from 6,097,999 ac. to 6,184,159 ac. ; average value per farm from $2,223 to $4,946 ; average value per acre from $29.02 to $76.70.
Education. School legislation since 1910 included an Act for compulsory school attendance in 1919 throughout the state, increased state additions to local funds, calculated to ensure after 1920 a seven-months' term in the poorest districts; night schools for adults; consolidation and grading of rural schools, with transportation for children; an increased number of high schools; special teachers and inspectors in rural and textile districts; greatly improved school buildings; enlarged facilities for agricultural, vocational and home economics training; state standard certification of teachers and enforcement of payment for tuition at state colleges by those able to pay. The most significant principle underlying the forward move- ment in education has been the recognition of the necessity of greater assistance from state funds and greater power in the state authorities as distinguished from the local divisions. Difficulties have been the lack of competent teachers to carry out the enlarged programme and maintain the higher standards, the shortness of the rural school term, and excessive local authority to do or neglect to do what it pleases. The expenditure on common schools in 1918-9 exceeded $8,000,000. Attendance in common schools in 1919-20 for whites was 226,065 ; f. r negroes, 251,980; total 478,045. There were in that year enrolled in the 36 colleges in the state 12,000 students, of whom a third were negroes.
The three most numerous religious denominations, the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian, have added materially during 1910-20 to their extensive work in higher education. All but 11 of the 36 institutions for higher education in the state were in 1920 under church control, and these institutions contained a thousand more students than all state and other non-sectarian institutions combined.
Social Legislation. Every attempt of forces of reaction to abandon a step in the large number of forward moves in social legislation since 1910 has been defeated, usually overwhelmingly.,
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