1939: New Mexico

Area and Population.

New Mexico, the fourth largest state in the Union, covers an area of 122,503 square miles. Population according to the 1930 census was 423,317; unofficial estimates placed the population in July 1939 at approximately half a million. Whites, including Spanish Americans, comprise the prevailing racial group, but there is a considerable percentage of Mexicans and Indians, and a much smaller representation of the Negro and Asiatic races.

The populations of leading New Mexico cities, according to 1939 estimates issued by the State Highway department, are: Albuquerque, 40,000; Santa Fe, the capital, 15,000; Hobbs, 12,800; Clovis, 12,500; Roswell, 12,500; Las Vegas, 11,000; Carlsbad, 8,500; Las Cruces, 8,500.

Agriculture.

Extensive dry farming in eastern and northern sections of the state is supplemented by irrigation made possible by the Elephant Butte, El Vado and Caballo dams along the Rio Grande and by artesian wells in the Pecos Valley. The Conchas Dam along the Canadian River is opening up vast new fields for irrigation. Many varieties of crops are grown in different sections, including potatoes in the San Luis Valley, fruit in the south and the Rio Grande Valley, peanuts near Portales, wheat in the dry-farming area, hay at Bernalillo, chili, truck and dairy products near Santa Fe and Albuquerque, corn and beans at Socorro and in the Estancia Valley, and cotton near Roswell and Las Cruces. The state also produces sugar beets.

Mineral Products.

The output of petroleum, New Mexico's leading mineral product, was very slightly reduced from the 38,854,000 bbl., valued at $36,600,000 in 1937 to 35,759,000 bbl. in 1938. Copper production, second in importance among the mineral resources of the state, was decreased by about 38 per cent, or from the extraordinary amount of 64,106,000 pounds in 1937, valued at $7,756,826, to 40,878,000 pounds valued at $4,006,044. The bulk came as before from the Chino mines at Santa Rita. The copper output in 1939 was about 91,826,000 pounds (value, $9,549,904), an increase of over 50 per cent. Statistics for other metals in 1938 ranged close to those of 1937: zinc totaling 28,236 tons (value, $2,710,656); gold, 43,050 oz. (value, $1,506,750); lead, 4,949 tons (value, $455,308). Production of coal in 1938 was estimated at 1,252,000 tons.

The total value of New Mexico's metals in 1939, according to preliminary figures, was $15,719,238 compared with $9,473,819 in 1938.

New Mexico's oil industry is centered in Lea, Eddy and Chaves counties. The industry spread rapidly in 1939, and in July 322 wells in Eddy county produced an average of 7,050 barrels daily. The oil is of high grade and medium gravity, with a mixed paraffin and asphalt base. Five refineries are operating in the region near Artesia.

The state has one of the nation's two great potash production centers in Eddy county. Within the past year, beds of langbeinite (magnesium-potassium sulphate) and carnallite (potassium-magnesium chloride) were discovered. Sylvite (potassium chloride), polyhalite (potassium-magnesium-calcium sulphate), and kainite (magnesium sulphate-potassium chloride) had been found earlier in deposits of commercial importance. Ranchers within the last year struck a basin of magnesium sulphate and sodium sulphate brine eighteen miles south of Carlsbad, and while its exact extent is still unknown new wells opened recently indicate that it is at least one mile square.

Education.

New Mexico completed a six-year program of furnishing free textbooks to children in elementary schools at the close of the 1937-38 school year. The state furnished during the 1939-40 school year about 40 per cent of all books needed in New Mexico secondary schools. Teacher certification has made rapid gains during the last two years and there are now fewer than one hundred of the 4,300 teachers in public schools of New Mexico who have had less than one year of college work. By September, 1941, all teachers will be required to have two years of college training.

New Mexico has thirty public libraries, of which the Santa Fe Public Library, reporting 32,006 volumes on June 30, 1939, is the largest. The state also has eleven institutional libraries, including the University Library at Albuquerque with 67,038 volumes, and the three branches of the State Library at Santa Fe with 53,203 volumes.

Legislative Matters.

The Fourteenth State Legislature convened on January 10, 1939, and adjourned March 11, 1939, after considering 571 measures. This surpassed the 1937 total by sixteen. Bond issues totaling $8,200,000 were authorized, including $6,000,000 for highways, and $1,450,000 for an institutional building program. This last issue, however, was subject to approval by the people and was overwhelmingly defeated in a special election on September 16.

The Port of Entry Board was abolished and some of its functions were transferred to the state police. A liquor bill providing for stringent regulation of liquor dealers, and containing provisions also for local option elections on the question of Sunday sale of intoxicants was passed, but the Sunday option clause was struck out by the Governor's veto. Provision for permanent registration of voters was enacted. The Legislature passed a merit-system act for state employees, but exceptions were engrafted exempting a majority of the state departments. A 'Little Wagner Act,' a state labor relations measure, was killed after a vigorous struggle; a companion measure fixing wages and hours was also killed. A 'basic sciences' bill, seeking to establish a state board of examiners to license practitioners of the healing arts caused considerable debate before failure of passage. A bill making citizens guilty of a misdemeanor in failing to report to a voting place on election day also failed. Appropriations voted by the Legislature for the 1939-41 biennium exceeded $5,800,000. The Governor, however, acting under Constitutional authority, ordered budgets cut ten per cent.

Finance and Banking.

The state's total budget for 1939-40 was $3,203,357.00. Approximately $1,408,258 of this was to be raised by taxation, and the balance from miscellaneous sources.

Total bonded indebtedness on June 30, 1939, was $1,926,000.00. Outstanding also were highway debentures amounting to $19,850,000.00 and other debentures totaling $683,881.35.

By June 30, 1939, employers had paid in a total of $3,149,718.05 to the State Unemployment Compensation Fund. In benefits New Mexico workers had been paid $646,302.95 since the state's Unemployment Compensation Law became operative. The total resources of New Mexico banking institutions on December 31, 1938, were; $69,856,270.85, divided thus; national banks, $51,728,285; state banks, $14,374,196.04 and building and loan associations, $3,753,789.81. State chartered building and loan associations showed marked activity, increasing their resources by $175,000 over those of Dec. 31, 1937, and their mortgage loans by $310,000. State banks closed the year with a net gain in deposits of three quarters of a million dollars over 1937. National bank deposits increased $2,574,101.05.

Welfare and Correction.

The state supports nine institutions dealing with charity and correction. Included are: New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe; New Mexico School for the Deaf, Santa Fe; New Mexico School for the Blind, Alamogordo; New Mexico Home and Training School, Los Lunas; Industrial School, Springer; Girls' Welfare Home, Albuquerque; New Mexico State Hospital (for the insane), Las Vegas; New Mexico Miners' Hospital, Raton; and Carrie Tingley Crippled Children's Hospital, Hot Springs. New Mexico maintains a Department of Public Welfare, with principal offices in Albuquerque, which administers the state's extensive social welfare program. Funds derived from a compensating tax law enacted by the 1939 Legislature are turned into the state's Social Security fund.

Events of Interest.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, described by Robert Ripley in 1938 as the world's greatest wonder, was increased in size during 1939 by 49,000 acres, through executive order by President Roosevelt. This added a hundred additional caves to the park area, many of them as yet unexplored.

Preparations continued in full swing throughout the state for celebrating during 1940 the Coronado Cuarto Centennial, commemorating the explorations of Francisco Coronado four hundred years ago. For excavations in the state see ARCHAEOLOGY.

State Officers.

The chief state officers are: Governor, John E. Miles; Lieutenant Governor, James Murray, Sr.; Secretary of State, Jessie M. Gonzales; Comptroller, Caesar R. Sebastian; Treasurer, Rex French; Auditor, E. D. Trujillo; Attorney General, Filo Sedillo; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mrs. Grace J. Corrigan.

United States Senators.

Dennis Chavez, Carl A. Hatch.