Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/560

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508

UNITED STATES : — ARKANSAS

ARKANSAS.

Government. — The State was admitted into the Union on June 15, 1836. The General Assembly consists of a Senate of 35 members, elected for four years, partially renewed every two years, and a House of Representatives of 100 members elected for two years. The Sessions are biennial and limited to 60 days unless extended by a two-thirds vote of each House. Senators and Representatives must be citizens, the former 25 years of age and the latter 21, and both must have resided in the State two years, and in the county or district one year next before election. The State is represented in Congress by two Senators and seven Representatives.

Governor.— Thomas C. McRae (1921-23) (4,000 dollars).

Secretary of State. — T. J. Terral.

The State is divided into 75 counties. The State Capital is Little Rock.

Area, Population, Instruction. — Area 53,335 square miles (810 square miles being water). Census population on Jan. 1, 1920, 1,750,995.

Population

White i

Negro

Total

Per CSq. Mile

1860 1890 1900 1910

324,191

819,094

944,708

1,131,858

111,259 309,117 366,856 442,891

435,450 1,128,211 1,311,564 1,574,449

8 3 21-5 25-0 30-0

1 Including Indians and Asiatics. In 1910 the population by birth and sex was : —

White

Negro

Asiatic

Indian

Male Female

Native.

575,813

538,304

Foreign.

10,607

6,302

223,323 219,568

68 4

215 245

Total

1,114,117

16,909 442,891

72

460

Of tha foreign born 5,813 were German.

The population in 1910 was 1,574,449 (810,025 males and 764,424 females).

Little Rock (capital) had a population of 65,030 in 1920 ; Fort Smith, 28,870; Pine Bluff, 19,280 ; Hot Springs, 11,695. Of the total population in 1910, 12*9 per cent, was urban.

The most numerous religious bodies in the State are Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Disciples of Christ, and Presbyterian, in the order named.

The State has a full public school system under which separate schools are provided for white and black children. No child under 14 can be employed in a manufacturing establishment unless he attends school 12 weeks each year and can read and write English.

In 1918 the public schools bad 12,008 teachers and 461,591 enrolled pupils ; 2 public normal schools had 42 teachers and 922 students. The University of Arkansas, founded in 1872 at Fayetteville, had, in 1918, 136 professors and 641 students. There are a large Baptist college (Onachita College at Arkadolphia founded in 1886) with 31 professors and 358 students,