GEORGIA 



2453 



GEORGIA 



and the associate colleges. The latter, which 

 have separate boards of trustees, consist of 

 the colleges of pharmacy and veterinary med- 

 icine. The institution is maintained largely 

 by friendly subscription pledges and by tuition 

 fees. The location of the university buildings 



in the heart of the city gives the students ready 

 access to the valuable materials collected by 

 the national government in its' museums, libra- 

 ries, laboratories and archives. About 1,350 

 students are regularly enrolled, and the staff 

 of instructors numbers about 180. 



'EORGIA, jor'jia, a South Atlantic 

 state of the United States, known popularly 

 as THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE SOUTH. It was 

 the largest of the original thirteen states, and 

 is still, with its area of 59,265 square miles, 

 the largest state east of the Mississippi River. 

 To the north of Georgia are Tennessee and 

 North Carolina, to the east South Carolina 

 and the Atlantic Ocean, to the south Florida 

 and to the west Alabama. The Savannah 

 River forms almost the entire boundary be- 

 tween Georgia and South Carolina, and the 

 Chattahoochee about half of that between 

 Georgia and Alabama. For the state flower 

 the school children selected the Cherokee rose, 

 one of the most beautiful of all roses, which 

 grows abundantly in the state. In August, 

 1916, the legislature legalized the choice. 



The People. In size the twentieth among 

 the states of the Union, Georgia ranks tenth 

 in population, and among the Southern states 

 is second only to Texas. In density of popula- 

 tion, however, it ranks above Texas, and is 

 in turn surpassed in this respect by Kentucky, 

 North and South Carolina, Virginia and Ten- 

 nessee. At the formation of the Union, Georgia 

 had 82,500 inhabitants; in 1910 it had 2.609,121, 

 while its estimated population in 1916 was 

 2,860,209. White people do not greatly pre- 

 dominate, for in 1910 there were 1,431,802 

 whites and 1,176,987 negroes. There are some 

 counties, especially in the central parts of the 

 state, where there are more negroes than 

 whites. 



In Georgia, as in most of the other Southern 

 States, a large proportion almost four-fifths, 

 in fact live under what may be called rural 

 conditions; that is, either on farms or in towns 

 of less than 2,500 people. In this proportion, 



however, there is a tendency to shift, the urban 

 population increasing much more rapidly than 

 the rural. Four cities have a population of 

 more than 25,000: Atlanta, the capital and 

 largest city; Savannah, near the mouth of the 

 Savannah River, the chief seaport; Augusta 

 and Macon, important centers of the cotton 

 industry. Other cities of note are Columbus, 

 Athens, Waycross, Rome and Brunswick. Some 

 of these have had a remarkable growth since 

 the beginning of the twentieth century, Way- 

 cross increasing over 150 per cent between 1900 

 and 1910. 



This Empire State of the South differs very 

 decidedly from^the Northern Empire State, 

 New York, in its proportion of foreign-born 

 inhabitants. In the latter this is very large, 

 while in Georgia but six-tenths of one per cent 

 of the population are of foreign birth. Thus 

 far, it has been almost entirely unknown soil 

 to the immigrants. 



Education and Religion. To say that the 

 percentage of illiteracy in Georgia is 20.7 does 

 not give a fair idea of the progressiveness of 

 the state, for it is the large proportion of 

 negroes which makes it so high. In comparing 

 statistics it must be remembered that there are 

 more colored people in Georgia than in any 

 other one state. Among the whites, only seven 

 people out of one hundred are unable to read 

 and write. As in the other Southern states, 

 the educational problem is difficult of solution, 

 not only because of the negroes, but because 

 the rural population is so large. There is no 

 compulsory education law in the state, but 

 every possible effort is made to convince the 

 people of the value of schooling. The public 

 school system, which includes primary, sec- 

 ondary and collegiate schools, is becoming 



