006 SOUTH DAKOTA 



In the state primary,' August 27, 1912, Blease was renominated for governor, in 

 spite of the opposition of Ira B. Jones (b. 1851), who resigned the chief-justiceship of the 

 state supreme court in order to be a candidate. Blease's opponents claimed that many 

 more votes were cast than the total number of electors in the state, and on this ground 

 contested the result of the primary; but the state committee held the evidence of fraud 

 insufficient and (October i), declared Blease the party's nominee. The same primary 

 re-nominated Benjamin Ryan Tillman as United States senator, an office he had held 

 since 1895. In November Blease received 44,122 votes to 208 for Britton (Socialist). 



The Democratic state convention, May 16, 1912, chose delegates to the national 

 convention pledged to Woodrow Wilson, whose boyhood and youth were spent in 

 Columbia, and he carried the state easily in the November election, receiving 48,355 

 votes to 1,293 for Roosevelt, 536 for Taft and 164 for Debs (100 in 1908); and 7 Demo- 

 crats were chosen representatives in congress, 6 being re-elected. There was no 

 Progressive ticket in the state except for presidential electors. 



A negro accused of rape was lynched October 10, 1911, at Honea Path, Anderson 

 county, after being taken from a sheriff. In 1912 three negroes were lynched (March 

 13) at Olar for arson, two at Blacksburg (March 29) for murderous assault, one at New- 

 berry (November 23) for murder; and one at Norway (December 21) for non-payment 

 of debt, was taken from jail and shot. Governor Blease openly opposed the education 

 of the negro and countenanced lynching by promising in a Fourth of July speech in 

 1911 not to call out the troops to protect negro prisoners from mobs. At the governors' 

 conference held in Richmond, Virginia, in December 1912 he repeated these sentiments 

 and declared that he would not follow the constitution in protecting prisoners accused of 

 crimes against womanhood. A resolution repudiating his speech was passed by 14 

 votes to 4. On December 24, 1912, he pardoned 80 convicts working in chain gangs; 

 of 33 whom he pardoned in November, 15 had been convicted of homicide. 



A street car strike in Spartanburg was accompanied by so much violence that three 

 companies of militia were sent to the city, September 24, 1912, by Governor Blease. 



On November 21, 1912 (by 200 to 21) the commission form of government was 

 adopted in Florence, and in the same year Sumter chose a commission with a city 

 manager (June n, 252 to 72; in effect August 13). On April 14, 1912, the French 

 Protestant Church of Charleston, the only remaining Huguenot church in the United 

 States, celebrated its 225th anniversary. A memorial shaft to the women of the 

 Confederacy was dedicated in Columbia, April u, 1912. 



Bibliography. Acts and Joint Resolutions (2 vols., Columbia, 1911 and 1912); A. S. 

 Salley, Jr., ed., Narratives of Early Carolina, 1650-1708 (New York, 1911). 



SOUTH DAKOTA 1 



Population (1910) 583,888; 45.4% more than in 1900. Density 7.6 to the sq. m. 

 Of the 67 counties only 57 are organised. The greatest rate of increase for any organised 

 county was 1,016.7% in Stanley count-y. The number of Indians (and Asiatics) de- 

 creased in 1900-10, from 20,391 to 19,300. The percentage of foreign-born whites 

 was 22 in 1900 but only 17.2 in 1910, and of whites of foreign parentage 38.9 in 1900, 

 and 37.2 in 1910. In rural territory (unincorporated) there was in 1900 73.4 of the 

 total, and in 191066.8%; in the semi-urban territory (incorporated places, each less 

 than 2,500 in population) 16.4% in 1900 and 20.1% in 1910; and in urban territory 

 one-tenth of the total in 1900 and 13.1 % in 1910, when there were in this class 13 cities, 

 as follows: Sioux Falls, 14,094; Aberdeen, 10,753 (4>87 in 1900); Lead, 8,392; Water- 

 town, 7,010 (3,352 in 1900); Mitchell, 6,515; Huron, 5,791 (2,793 m I Q); Rapid 

 City, 3,854 (1,342 in 1900); Yankton, 3,787; Pierre, 3,656; Deadwood, 3,653; 

 Madison, 3,137; Redfield, 3,060; Brookings, 2,971. 



Agriculture. The acreage in farms increased from 19,070,616 to 26,016,892 between 1900 

 and 1910, and the improved land in farms from 11,285,983 to 15,827,208; the average farm 

 acreage fell from 362.4 to 335.1 and the value of farm property increased from 297,525,- 



1 See E. B. xxv, 506 et seq. 



