ARKANSAS 77 , 



$1,192,350, expenditures of $1,300,858, and a balance of 411,441. The net state debt was 

 $946,972, exclusive of a funded county and city indebtedness of $2,098,303. 



Education. The constitution leaves educational administration mostly to legislative 

 provision and a school code was adopted in 1912, but the constitution vests general conduct 

 and supervision of public schools in a state board of education. The governor appoints 

 regents of the university and the governing boards of other state educational institutions. 

 A permanent school fund is derived from the sale of public lands, from escheated estates 

 and from unclaimed shares and dividends of corporations incorporated in the state. Laws 

 of 1912 give state aid for vocational education in high schools (and in normal schools); and 

 provide for free text books in public schools; for county scholarships in the state university 

 and for the retirement on a pension of $600 a year of any teacher who has served in the 

 public schools for 25 years or more. 



In 1911-1912 the school population was 42,381; the enrollment, 32,749; the average daily 

 attendance, 22,812; and the length of the average school year, 8 months. The total revenue 

 was $1,817,647 and the expenditures $1,321,595. 



Of the total population 10 years and over in 1910, 20.9% were illiterate (29% in 1900). 



Charitable Institutions. In 1910 a pioneers' home was opened. 



History. The proposed new state constitution was ratified by the people on 

 February 9, 1911 by a vote of 12,000 to 3,500. The first state election, on December 

 12, 1911, resulted in the success of the Democratic ticket, headed by George Willie Paul 

 Hunt (b. 1859), who had been president of the constitutional convention and whose 

 four-year term of office began on December 31, 1911. The proclamation admitting 

 Arizona as a state to the Union was signed on February 14, 1912. On March 2yth the 

 legislature (15 Democrats and 4 Republicans in senate; 30 Democrats and 5 Republicans 

 in house) chose as United States senators two Democrats, Marcus Aurelius Smith (b. 

 1852), who had been a delegate to Congress from the Territory, and Henry F. Ashurst 

 (b. 1875), who was speaker of the Territorial legislature in 1899. There was no election 

 for state officers in 1912. In June the Republican state convention chose delegates 

 pledged to President Taft, but there was a contesting Roosevelt delegation; the national 

 convention decided against the latter. At the November election the state was carried 

 by the Democrats with 10,324 for Wilson, 6,949 for Roosevelt, 3,163 for Debs and 3,021 

 for Taft; the Congressman chosen was a Democrat; and the people approved several 

 railway bills passed by the legislature but " referred " on petitions, which were easily 

 secured by the railways, by far the largest employers of labour in the state. 



On November 8, 1912, Phoenix adopted a new charter with a commission of three 

 and with provisions for initiative and referendum; but this charter was not approved 

 by the governor. 



Bibliography. Session Laws (Phoenix, 1912) and reports of state departments; F. M. 

 Irish, Arizona (New York, 1911), a state geography. 



ARKANSAS 1 



Population (1910) 1,574,449 (one-fifth greater than in 1900); 28.1% negroes (28% 

 in 1900) ; 68.4 % native whites of native parentage, and 2.3 % of foreign parentage; i.i % 

 foreign-born. Density of population 30 per sq. m. Jn 1910 the 28 incorporated places 

 with 2,500 or more each contained 12. 9% of the total; in 1900 the 15 such places contained 

 8.5%. In 1910, 273 cities and towns with less than 2,500 each contained one-ninth 

 of the total population; in 1900, 173 contained 8.6%. The strictly rural population, not 

 in cities and towns, decreased from 82.9% in 1900 to 76.1 % in 1910. The largest cities 

 in 1910 were: Little Rock 45,941; Fort Smith, 23,975; Pine Bluff , 15,102; Hot Springs, 

 14,434; Argenta (Pulaski county; incorporated from part of Little Rock.in 1904; Baring 

 Cross consolidated with it in 1905), 11,138; Helena, 8,772; Jonesboro, 7,123; Texar- 

 kana, 5,655; and Paragould, 5,248. 



Agriculture. In 1910 51.8% of the state's area was in farms; 8,076,254 out of 17,416,075 

 acres were improved (one-sixth more than in 1900). The average number of acres in each 

 farm was 8i.l; average value per farm, $1,864. The total value of farm property increased 

 in 1900-10 from $181,416,001 to $400,089,303 (land, $246,021,450; buildings, $63,145,363; 

 implements and machinery, $16,864,198, and domestic animals, $74,058,292). Of the farms, 

 107,412 were operated (1910) by owners and managers and 107,266 by tenants. In 1909, 



1 See E. B. ii, 551 et seq. 



