ARKANSAS 



3GS 



ARKANSAS 



an outlet through Memphis and New Orleans. 

 But Arkansas also has an efficient railway serv- 

 ice, though railroad-building has not been as 

 extensive as in some of the states. Save in the 

 mountainous northwestern section, however, 

 there are now good facilities, and all the towns 

 of importance are connected by railway lines. 

 Since 1853, when the first railroad in the state 

 was built, there has been steady though slow 

 growth, and the state now has slightly more 

 than 6,000 miles of line. The chief roads are 

 the Saint Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, 

 the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the 

 Saint Louis Southwestern. A state railroad 

 commission, with authority to regulate all rates, 

 has general supervision, and the state has pro- 

 gressive laws as to railroad liability in case 

 of accident. 



In electric railways the state is not far ad- 

 vanced, there being but 113 miles in 1914. 



Educational Institutions. Like all states 

 which have a proportionately large rural pop- 

 ulation, Arkansas has found its educational 

 problem a difficult one. At its admission to 

 the Union in 1836 liberal provision was made 

 for education, but no school system was organ- 

 ized until after the War of Secession. Re- 

 cently decided advance has been made, and 

 since 1909 a compulsory school attendance law 

 has been in force. Local taxation is needed 

 for the support of schools, despite the public 

 school fund of $1,500,000, but this latter will 

 be increased as the resources and industries 

 of the state develop. At present the percent- 

 age in the state of those who cannot write is 

 12.6, but a statement of this sort is scarcely 

 fair to the white population, as it is the illiter- 

 acy of the negroes which makes it so high. 



The population of school age six to twenty 

 is somewhat over 550,000, and of these about 

 325,000 are enrolled in the schools, negroes and 

 white children attending separate institutions. 

 The system includes grammar schools, over 

 150 high schools, normals, four agricultural 

 schools and a state university at Fayetteville 

 (see ARKANSAS, UNIVERSITY OF). There are 

 also many sectarian schools and colleges, some 

 of them of high rank. 



State Institutions. Little Rock has most of 

 the charitable and penal institutions; the Deaf 

 Mute Institute, the School for the Blind, the 

 Hospital for Nervous Diseases, the reform 

 school and the state penitentiary are all in 

 that city. Most of the convicts are not left 

 confined in the prison, but are employed on a 

 state farm about thirty miles from Little Rock 



or are leased to contractors. The system of 

 leasing has not been successful, and repeated 

 efforts have been made to abolish it. 



Government. Arkansas has had three con- 

 stitutions; the one under which it is now gov- 

 erned was adopted in 1874. It provides for 

 an executive department consisting of governor, 

 secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and attor- 

 ney-general, each of whom holds office for two 

 years. As there is no lieutenant-governor, a 

 new election must be held if the office of gov- 

 ernor becomes vacant, unless such vacancy 

 occurs less than one year before the expiration 

 of the term, in which case the president of the 

 senate becomes acting governor. 



The legislature comprises the usual two 

 houses a senate of thirty-five members and 

 a house of representatives of not more than 

 100 members. Senators are elected for four 

 years, representatives for two, and a session of 

 the legislature may not last longer than sixty 

 days unless a two-thirds vote of each house 

 decrees otherwise. 



At the head of the judiciary is a supreme 

 court, and the lower tribunals include circuit, 

 county and probate courts, besides justices of 

 the peace. The units for local government are 

 the county and the township. 



Amendments and legislative acts have added 

 certain distinctive features to the governmental 

 system. In 1893 an amendment was passed 

 making the right of suffrage conditional upon 

 payment of a poll tax, in 1911 an initiative and 

 referendum provision was made, and in 19i5 a 

 bill was passed establishing state-wide prohibi- 

 tion. 



History. Before the coming of the white 

 man two great tribes of Indians lived in the 

 Arkansas region the Osages, who lived north 

 of the Arkansas River, and the Quapaws, or 

 Arkansas, as they were called by the French, 

 who lived to the south. It was from this 

 latter tribe that the territory took its name. 

 It was not until the early years of the nine- 

 teenth century, after the United States had 

 gained control of the region, that these two 

 native tribes finally left the state. The famous 

 De Soto was the first white man to enter the 

 territory now included in Arkansas; he spent 

 about ten months there, journeying as far 

 from the Mississippi as the Ozarks and the 

 present site of Hot Springs. Indeed, it was the 

 tales of these springs which had lured him 

 so far from the Gulf. Some historians hold 

 that the great explorer was buried in the 

 Arkansas River, but most authorities believe 



