1938: Missouri

Area and Population.

The 'Ozark' or 'Show Me State,' Missouri, lies between Illinois and Kansas, Iowa and Arkansas. Admitted to statehood Aug. 10, 1821, it ranks 18th in size among the states, with an area of 69,420 sq. mi. Three-fourths of its area is farm land; therefore agriculture is the dominant activity, though manufacturing is more important economically. In population, Missouri ranks 10th, numbering 3,629,367 according to the census of 1930; 3,989,000 on July 1, 1937, according to the latest Federal estimate. The largest cities are St. Louis, 821,960 (1930 census); Kansas City, 399,746; St. Joseph, 80,935; Springfield, 57,527. The capital is Jefferson City, 21,596. The population is 51.2 per cent urban, with four-fifths of this percentage in the three chief cities. The foreign-born are 5.8 per cent of the total, including Germans, Russians, Irish, Italians and English, in that order. Five per cent, or 224,000, are Negroes.

Industry and Transportation.

Among the trans-Mississippi states, Missouri is second only to California in manufacturing, with 144 separate industrial classifications. Meat-packing stands first, followed by boot and shoe making, motor vehicle assembly, and flour and grain milling.

River and rail transportation are of great economic importance. The three largest cities are river ports. Navigation on the Missouri across the state between St. Louis and Kansas City is being vigorously developed and expanded. Both cities as rail centers are exceeded in importance in the Midwest only by Chicago. Since the days of the Santa Fe Trail, Kansas City has been in a special position as the 'gateway to the West.' Aviation is also now recognizing and utilizing this strategic position of Kansas City.

A unique feature of the state is the second largest artificial lake in the world, the Lake of the Ozarks, near the center of the state. This body of water, 60,000 acres of fresh water created by the Bagnell Dam, forms the natural entrance to the famous region of the Ozarks, rapidly developing as a favorite resort for sportsmen and other tourists, yet still keeping largely intact its primitive mountaineers, close kin to those of Kentucky and eastern Tennessee.

Mineral Products.

In the production of lead, a mineral in which Missouri leads the Union, the state showed an increase of more than 40 per cent in 1937, rising to 157,631 tons compared with 110,428 in 1936. The increase in value was even greater, $18,600,458 as against $10,159,376 for the previous year. Cement followed close with 4,565,448 bbl. valued at $7,041,016. Zinc and glass sand both showed an appreciable rise in 1937; production of the former amounting to 20,600 tons, and of the latter to 200,475 tons.

Education.

Both in secondary and higher education Missouri separates white and Negro students. Efforts made in 1938 to compel the state university Law School to admit Negro students were unsuccessful in the state courts; but a decision of the United States Supreme Court later reversed their action. Public school education is at present under special criticism by prominent educators in the state for its alleged inadequacy as preparation for adult life.

The superintendent of schools reports as of June 30, 1938, the following basic facts concerning the public schools: The inhabitants of school age (6 to 20) numbered 950,493, including 57,267 Negroes. Of these there were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools 659,498 white pupils and 46,565 Negroes. White teachers numbered 6,035 men and 18,593 women; in addition, Negro teachers included 360 men and 1,071 women. Salaries for men in city schools averaged $942 in elementary grades, and $1,422 in secondary; for women, $1,201 in elementary and $1,367 in secondary grades. Negro men teachers averaged $1,234 in elementary schools and $1,850 in secondary, Negro women teachers, $1,650 and $1,682 in the same categories. School expenditures in 1937-38 totalled $56,013,564.

Events of the Year.

The chief legislative event of the year was the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This reflected the concentrated efforts of the far-flung industrial interests to promote better relations between employers and workers, in the hope of keeping prices down and at the same time holding wage scales up.

In the Spring the new Hannibal bridge across the Mississippi, costing about a million dollars, was opened to traffic.

In regard to natural resources, the event of the year was the recent phenomenal interest in the leasing of oil lands, in what geologists call the Forest City basin in northwest Missouri. Approximately three million acres of land have lately been leased by a hundred independent and major oil companies for oil and gas development in 14 counties of Missouri and 16 adjoining counties in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. A single operator has leased 60,000 acres in 4 counties. The major companies are said to have more operators in this region at present than in their home territories. The activity is described as 'the biggest leasing campaign known to the oil business.' A remarkable feature of the situation is that not a single well has yet been drilled; but at the end of 1938 drilling was expected to begin soon and to be extremely intensive by spring.

Conditions in banking and finance throughout the state were not as good in 1938 as in 1937; in manufacturing, they were poorer, with a slight improvement at the end of the year; relief costs were higher; employment increased very slightly in the last months of 1938.

The November election campaign produced severe criticism of WPA methods, and the swing was toward conservatism, with an intimation of the possibility of three parties in the national election of 1940.

Finance.

The executive budget message issued by Governor Lloyd C. Stark Jan. 18, 1939, showed receipts from all funds for the calendar year 1938 to be $48,035,140; expenditures, $62,111,208. Among receipts, the largest item was from the State Highway Department Fund, $22,087,021. During the year the state expended $7,267,857 on old age assistance.

For the biennium 1939-40, the executive budget anticipates reduction by $13,460,000 of the state debt, which on Dec. 31, 1938, was $114,341,839. The budget calls for biennium appropriations of $189,563,636, as against appropriations for the preceding biennium of $167,774,434. It estimates the following receipts for the biennium 1939-40: ordinary revenue, $85,786,500; sales and liquor and beer taxes, $55,300,000; Federal funds, $36,428,000; highway funds (including $7,000,000 in the preceding item), $52,000,000.

The budget recommends appropriations of $36,600,000 for the social security program.

State Officers.

The state executives, all Democrats, elected in 1936 for four years, are as follows: Governor, Lloyd C. Stark; Lieutenant Governor, Frank G. Harris; Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown; Auditor, Forrest Smith; Treasurer, Robert H. Winn; Attorney General, Roy McKittrick; Supt. of Public Schools, Lloyd W. King.

Judiciary.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Charles T. Hays. Division 1: Presiding Judge, Wm. F. Frank; Associates, Ernest S. Gantt, James M. Douglas. Division 2: Presiding Judge, C. A. Leedy, Jr.; Associates, Ernest M. Tipton, George R. Ellison.

United States Senators:

Bennett Champ Clark and Harry S. Truman.