production during the preceding decade. The contrast is shown in
the following table:
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1969
1920
Wheat .... Indian Corn . Oats .... Buckwheat .
26,265,000 bus. 48,800,000 " 25,948,000 " 5,665,000 '
26,774,760 bus. 65,755-66o ' 44,858,325 ' 4,952,860 '
The depreciation in the value of crops from 1919 to 1920 was due in part to reduced acreage, but chiefly to the heavy decline in prices. The average farmer in 1920 lost $434.20 as a result of depreciation. The price of the average dairy cow during the year dropped from $96.75 to $75.50, the dairy industry alone depreciating $20,890,774. Sheep depreciated $3.75 a head, falling from $10.25 to $6.50, and the total loss to sheep- raisers was $4,000,000. Hogs declined from $30.90 to $16.15 and farm horses from fin to $102. The potato production for the entire state for 1920 was 29,158,435 bushels. The state department of agriculture valued the total fruit production of 1920 (20,825,000 bus.) at $18,742,500.
Mineral Production. The following table shows the figures of the coal and coke industry during 1910-8, in tons:
Bituminous
Anthracite
Coke
1910 1911 1912
1913 1914
1915
1916
1917 1918
148,770,858 142,189,329 160,830,492
172,965,659 145,884,530 157,420,068 169,123,814 171,074,411 177,217,294
83,683,994 90,917,176 84,426,869 91,626,964 91,189,641 89,377,706 87,680,198 100,445,299 99-445-794
23,722,944 19,984,320 24,682,474 24,718,238 17,164,124 22,012,945 26,428,926
23,240,777 27,157,373
During these years an average of 190,000 persons were engaged in mining bituminous coal and 170,000 in mining anthracite.
Manufactures. In the absence of final industrial figures for the U.S. census of 1920, not yet available in Dec. 1921, comparisons between the industries of 1909, 1914 and 1919 must be drawn from U.S. census figures for the first two periods and the survey made by the state department of internal affairs for the latter. In 1914 Pennsylvania became the foremost state in the value of silk produc- tion, displacing New Jersey. Her 1914 production was valued at more than one-third of the total for the United States, and the state had more than two-fifths of all the employees in the industry. In 1909 226 silk-producing establishments, with 36,469 employees, had a production valued at $62,061,000. In 1914 284 establishments, with an average of 44,755 wage-earners, produced material valued at $86,938,554. In 1919 347 establishments, with 57,079 employees, produced material valued at $238,422,600. Pennsylvania was the leading state in 1914 in hosiery manufacture, reporting 39-7 % of the national quantity and 41-2% of the national value. In 1909 464 establishments manufacturing hosiery, employing 38,206 hands, produced a value of $49,658,000; in 1914 498 establishments, with 41,130 employees, produced a value of $64,163,449; in 1919 328 establishments, with 35,400 employees, $130,167,800. In the iron and steel industry in 1909 66 blast furnaces, with 14,521 employees, yielded $168,578,000, and in 1914, 52 with 11,518 employees a prod- uct valued at $135,806,067. Notwithstanding the decrease the state in 1914 employed 39-2 % of all the wage-earners and produced 42-8 % of the total product of the country. Steel works and rolling mills in 1914 also showed a decrease from 1909. In 1909 189 establishments, with 126,911 employees, produced $500,344,000, and in 1914 178 establishments, with 131,955 employees, produced $488,106,324. In the manufacture of tin-plate, Pennsylvania in 1914 led the nation. Comparative figures show :
Establishments
Employees
Product
1909 1914 1919
17 13
8
2,346 2,368 12,311
$ 25,234,066 36,795,990 115,642,300
The state census of 1919, for all industries, shows a total of 20,888 establishments in the state divided as follows: buildings and con- tracting, 2,895; chemicals and allied products, 768; clay, glass and stone, 583; clothing, 1,398; food and kindred products, 2,404; leather and rubber goods, 395; liquors and beverages, 453; lumber and its remanufacture, 1,114; paper and printing, 1,740; textiles, 1,024; laundries, 273; metals and metal products, 3,432; mines and quarries, 1,564; public service, 1,005; tobacco and its products, 709; and miscellaneous 1,131. The total average number of employees was 1,691,171 (167,562 salaried employees, 1,523,609 wage-earners); the total wages, $2,176,449,100, and the total value of products, $8,853,047,600. The highest valuation was placed on metals and metal products, $3,675,971,500, more than 40% of the whole value of production. Employees in this industry numbered 508,311. Next was a product of $722,515,300 from the mining industries, which employed on an average 329,179 men in 1919. The textile industry maintained third place with 125,291 employees and a pro- duction valuation of $646,683,000. The figures from 1915-9 are as shown in the following table.
Establishments
Average No. Wage-Earners
Value of Production
1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
22,359 20,961 22,101
21,158 20,888
1,503,188
1,735-543 1,802,813 1,827,101 1,523,609
$4,180,790,500 6,419,410,000 8,336,984,800 9,403,306,600 8,853,047,600
Education. Two progressive steps a decade apart mark the de- velopment of the public schools. The first was the adoption of the School Code of May 18 1911 ; the second the enactment of what is known as the Finegan programme (named after the State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction) by the Legislature of 1921. The School Code of 191 1 was virtually a codification of all the laws govern- ing the public-school system and a general unification, with many new features, of administrative measures. Its most important sec- tions provided for independent control of taxation and borrowing by school boards with minimum and maximum tax rates varying according to the size of the school district ; reduction of the number of members in school boards so as to simplify official business; establishment of a State Board of Education; establishment of a state school fund, and general provisions for the better selection of text-books and for the development of higher education. The meas- ures of 1921 (the Finegan programme) are as follows: (i) Providing that after Sept. I 1927 those persons who enter the teaching service must show evidence of graduation from a state normal school or an equivalent education and training; (2) requiring fourth-class dis- tricts to maintain schools for 150 days in 1921-2 and 160 days in 1922-3; (3) increasing the qualifications of county superintendents by providing that no one except college-trained persons or normal- school graduates with certain school experience shall be qualified for the position ; (4) increasing the salaries of all assistant county super- intendents from $1,800 to $2,500 per year and giving most of the county superintendents an increase in salary of $500 or $1,000;
(5) establishing a state-wide salary schedule for teachers, fixing the minimum at $1,200. In cities annual increments are required, and proportionately higher salaries are provided for high-school teachers;
(6) increasing the state aid to schools for each biennial period from $24,000,000 to $36,000,000 and establishing a new basis of appor- tionment; (7) encouraging consolidation by providing that for each school closed the district shall be entitled to receive an annual allot- ment of $200 ; (8) making sufficient appropriations for normal schools so that they may be supported without tuition fees and providing a salary schedule for the faculties; (9) creating a State Council of Education to consist of nine business and professional men and women, replacing the State Board of Education and the college and univer- sity council; (10) standardizing the elementary courses in public and private schools and requiring that they be taught in the English language and from texts written in English; (ll) strengthening the compulsory attendance laws.
Finance. The revenues of the state more than doubled from 1909 to the end of 1920. The receipts in 1909 were $28,945,210; in 1920, $62,071,293.97. This does not include $11,800,000 derived from the sale of state road bonds, a fund kept separate from the regular state moneys. Governor Sproul recommended to the 1921 session of the state Legislature an increase of about 10% in the tax on manu- factures and a small tax on mined coal, a combination which would add more than $30,000,000 to the treasury annually. The treasury disbursements in the fiscal year 1920 were $7^,960,1 12.20, the highest ever known. The total was $18,000,000 higher than in 1919, the increase being due to road construction. During the 1920 season approximately 410 m. of concrete state road were built, and 350 m. were under construction in 1921. In two years, 660 m. of i8-ft. concrete roadway, some of which had a brick wearing surface and some asphalt, were constructed by the state. In 1920 a total of 337 m. of macadam highway were resurfaced and 1,400 m. of highway had surface treatment. The maintenance force of the State Highway Department in March 1921 was keeping up 9,503 m. of roadway, of which 463 m. were in boroughs and on state-aid roads. The total resources in 1919 of all the banking institutions within the state,' whether organized under national or state laws, were $4,529,919,000. Of these the state banks had resources in 1920 of $3,615,244,850, divided as follows: savings banks, $314,256,637; banks of deposit, $331,759,257; trust companies: banking resources, $1,380,919,028; trust funds, $1,578,424,021 ; trust funds in banks, $9,885,906.
Constitutional Changes. The first two constitutional amendments of the decade ending 1920, adopted in 1911 and 1913 respectively, had to do with the courts, the one of 1911 increasing the number in Philadelphia county and merging those in Allegheny county, the one of 1913 altering the judicial and municipal terms to conform with an amendment of 1909 which changed the date of the elections from Feb. to November. Another amendment of 1913 enabled munici- palities, except Philadelphia, to embark upon the construction or acquisition of waterworks, subways, etc., even though their cost brought the indebtedness above the limit allowed, and permitted arrangement whereby the interest and sinking-fund charges were paid from the principal until the properties should have been completed and in operation for one year. A limit of 10% of the assessed valua- tion of taxable property in a municipality was fixed for such indebted-
