WEST VIRGINIA 92g 



value of products from $99,041,000 to $161,950,000 (63.5%). The largest manufactures in 

 1909 were: lumber and timber, $28,758,000 (largely yellow poplar and hemlock); iron and 

 steel, steel works and rolling-mills, $22,435,000; leather, tanned, curried and finished, $12,- 

 451,000; glass, $7,779,000; flour and grist-mill products, $7,696,000; coke, $7,563,000, rank- 

 ing the state 2nd in output and 3rd in value; and cars, built and repaired by steam railway 

 companies, $6,733,000. The principal manufacturing centres were: Wheeling, $27,077,000; 

 Huntington, $6,511,000; Parkersburg, $5,498,500; Charleston, $3,253,000; Martinsburg, 

 $2,515,500, and Bluefield, $1,465,000. 



Transportation. Railway mileage, January I, 1912,3,648.41. The Federal government 

 is improving the Little Kanawha river. 



Legislation. The regular session of the legislature was held from January n to 

 February 24, and an extraordinary session May 16-30, 1911. The latter was 

 called to pass a primary election law and to amend the corrupt practices act, especially 

 so as to make it applicable to candidates for the United States Senate, but it passed 

 nothing but appropriations for the expenses of the special session. The regular session 

 submitted to the people, who approved it (164,945 to 72,603 votes), at the November 

 general election in 1912, a constitutional amendment for state-wide prohibition (after 

 July i, 1914) of the sale and manufacture of alcoholic liquors as beverages. The legis- 

 lature urged the state's congressmen to vote for an amendment to the Federal Consti- 

 tution, providing for the direct choice of United States senators. The i2th of October 

 (Columbus Day) was made a legal holiday. The office of state commissioner of public 

 roads was abolished and the law of 1908 for the registration of voters was amended, 

 especially in regard to the relation of county courts to registration. 



The legislature appointed a commission to investigate employers' liability and workmen's 

 compensation, and it submitted part one of an elaborate report late in 1911. A child labour 

 law permits children under 16 to be employed only if an employment certificate is filed; 

 children under 14 to be employed during school hours only on permission of the state com- 

 missioner of labour or the county superintendent of schools, and not to be employed at all in 

 any factory, mill, workshop, or manufacturing establishment. 



A commission charter, much like the Des Moines plan, was adopted for Parkersburg, 

 March 21, 1911, by 208 votes; and the Charleston charter was amended. 



The law of 1909 creating a state fire marshal's department was amended by stricter rules 

 for the investigation and report of fires. The sale of cocaine was forbidden except on a 

 physician's prescription. The punishment for the white slave traffic was made imprison- 

 ment from six months to one year and a fine of $100 to $500, and for second conviction im- 

 prisonment in the penitentiary from one year to three years. It is no defence that part of 

 the offences were committed outside the state, and marriage is no bar to the testimony of 

 an injured woman. 



Finance. In 1911 the legislature required the assessment, at their true value, of stock in 

 banks, trust companies, etc., and increased most licence taxes, especially those on theatrical 

 and similar performances. A state board for the examination and certification of public 

 accountants was created. The appropriation for the Virginia debt was $25,000 for 1911 and 

 the same amount for 1912. The balance on hand in the treasury on October I, 1910 was 

 $1,415,337 and on October i, 1912, $1,616,515. The receipts during the two fiscal years were 

 $10,870,901, and the expenditures, $10,669,723. 



Education. The state superintendent of schools called the work of the legislature of 

 1911 "an educational renaissance." The qualifications for county superintendent of schools 

 were increased and the salary was raised $200 a year. A new law was passed in regard to 

 teachers' examination and one for the formation of district high schools on the favourable vote 

 of electors in any district and for the classification of high schools class one for a four year 

 course to receive state aid of $800, class two, with three years course to receive state aid of 

 $600 and class three with a two years course to receive $400 a year the only limitation being 

 that not more than $40,000 is to be spent in this way in any one year. Medical inspection 

 in public schools was made mandatory, in independent school districts; other districts were 

 permitted to appoint medical inspectors. The legislature established, new county high 

 schools in Clay county and in Nicholas county. 



On the 1st of October 1911, Thomas Edward Hodges (b. 1858) succeeded Daniel Board- 

 man Purinton as president of West Virginia University, in which from 1896 to 1909 he had 

 been head of the department of physics. 



For the school year 1911-12 the school population was 382,938; the enrollment in public 

 schools, 284,281 ; the average daily attendance, 194,629; and the length of the average school 

 year, 6.8 months. The total revenue was about $5,000,000 and the expenditures $4,958,000. 

 The percentage of illiteracy in 1910 of the whole population 10 years of age and over was 

 8.3 (11.4 in 1900): among the whites the percentage was 7.6 (10.3 in 1900); among the 

 negroes, 20.3 (32.3 in 1900). 



