1939: Ohio

Area and Population.

Ohio was admitted to the Union as the seventeenth state on March 1, 1803. The total area is 41,040 square miles. The population in the 1930 census was 6,646,697. The average number of inhabitants per square mile was then 163.1. The urban population was 67.7 per cent, the rural non-farm 7.3 per cent, and farm 24.9 per cent. More than half of all the people in Ohio have lived since 1900 in incorporated cities or villages of more than 2,500 population. There are 110 cities in Ohio having a population of 5,000 or more. Cleveland, the largest city, sixth in size in the United States, has a population of 900,429 (1930 census); Cincinnati, the second city, 451,160. The next three cities are of almost equal size: Toledo, 290,718; Columbus, the capital, 290,564; and Akron, 255,040. Dayton with 200,982, Youngstown with 170,002 and Canton with 104,906 persons conclude the list of cities of over 100,000.

In 1930 the state population included 644,151 foreign-born whites, 309,304 Negroes, and 6,257 others. Native whites of native parentage included 4,325,311, native whites of foreign parentage, 921,783, and native whites of mixed parentage, 439,891. The principal countries of birth of Ohio's foreign-born whites were: England, 40,665; Scotland, 17,862, Eire (Ireland), 17,879; Germany, 95,697; Poland, 64,493; Czechoslovakia, 68,738; Austria, 20,547; Hungary, 47,026; Yugoslavia, 38,884; Russia, 32,627; Rumania, 19,580; Greece, 12,050; Italy, 71,496; Canada, 24,241.

Education.

According to statistics collected by the state Department of Education, Ohio's population of school age (5 to 17) in 1938 was 1,470,990. There were during the school year 1938-39 in Ohio, 1,668 one-room elementary schools and 2,966 other elementary schools with 21,236 kindergarten pupils and 720,897 regular pupils in grades 1 to 6 or 8, depending on the local system. There were 633 four-year high schools, 439 six-year high schools, 44 three-year high schools, 128 three-year junior high schools, 12 high schools for grades 9 to 11, and 6 for grades 9 and 10, equalling a total of 1,262. High-school enrollment totalled 94,975 in junior high schools and 383,305 in senior and four-year high schools. Special classes for deaf, blind and crippled children enrolled 23,398 more, making a total enrollment of children in public schools of 1,243,793. Non-public elementary schools, 520 in number, enrolled 131,289 pupils, while non-public high schools enrolled 22,096 in 138 schools.

Total public expenditures by school districts for the latest year for which figures are available was $104,000,000. Of this $45,700,000 represented state aid under the school foundation program. The rest was met from locally collected real estate taxes. The average salary for elementary school teachers in Ohio is $1,405 per year, and for high school teachers $1,761.

Agriculture.

Ohio agriculture, in 1939, was distinguished by two major trends. One was a marked increase in the use of hybrid seed corn. Almost two million acres, or 57 per cent of the state's corn acreage, was planted in 1939 with hybrid seed. The second trend is the remarkable increase in acreage and yield of soybeans. The unavailability of supplies formerly secured from the Orient, and the rapid development of uses for soybean oil and meal, have led to local cultivation and processing.

Industry.

The principal feature of the year in industry was the shift of the manufacture of rubber products from its former concentration in Akron to other parts of the country. The manufacturers explained this as due to labor difficulties.

Mineral Products.

The production of bituminous coal, which was quite generally reduced in the United States in 1938 because of the industrial recession, was decreased by 28 per cent in Ohio, the estimated amount for the year being 17,920,000 tons as against 25,177,867 in 1937 valued at $44,313,000. The flow of petroleum in 1938 compared favorably with that of the preceding year, at 3,298,000 bbl. Salt production, in which the state ranks third, stood at 1,489,270 tons, valued at $2,562,620. Shipments of cement amounted to 5,258,603 bbl. Production of pig iron, like that of bituminous coal, was greatly lowered in 1938 through industrial conditions, the amount being down to 4,186,217 tons compared with 7,724,882 in 1937; the manufacture of steel, both open-hearth and Bessemer, was also substantially reduced, with 5,372,234 tons for the former, and 1,074,032 for the latter. The manufacture of coke too fell by almost 50 per cent, the estimated total being 3,703,819 tons compared with 6,737,881 tons in 1937 with a value of $32,185,945. In the manufacture of the last three products Ohio ranks second among the states.

Legislative Matters.

A regular session of the Ohio General Assembly opened in January. Both houses were overwhelmingly Republican in membership. The recommendations of the Republican Governor, John W. Bricker, were accepted, almost without exception. New laws included the creation of a Department of Taxation to take the place of the former Tax Commission; the reorganization of the Unemployment Compensation Agency; the establishment of a State Department of Publicity; the reorganization of the Department of Health; the abolition of earmarking for state revenues other than those for highway purposes; and the reorganization of the Pardon and Parole Commission. An Act reorganizing the Civil Service Commission was passed by the Legislature but was defeated on referendum at the November election.

Finance.

The new state administration came into office in January 1939 to find a deficit in the general revenue fund of $1,002,953. In addition, $1,251,368 had been appropriated, but not spent. During the year 1939 both of these sums were liquidated. The school foundation fund had never been able to pay local school districts all that the law had promised. The accumulated deficit, represented by notes issued by school districts, was, by December 31, 1938, $17,422,863. During 1939 all payments required by law were made so that this deficit has not increased. In addition all interest on the notes was paid by the state and a payment of $3,000,000 was applied on the principal. Without new revenues a budget of $255,000,000 for the biennium 1939-40 was approved by the Legislature, and for 1939 expenditures will be less than appropriations by more than $1,000,000. From the General Revenue Fund alone, expenditures for 1939 were at least $3,000,000 less than for 1938. The Department of Liquor Control operated on $1,000,000 less in 1939 than in 1938 and showed a profit of more than $1,750,000 in excess of 1938.

Events of the Year.

The election of November 1939 included votes on four matters of state-wide importance: three proposed amendments to the state Constitution and one law passed by the Legislature but suspended by referendum petition pending a popular vote. The first proposed amendment was submitted by the Legislature. It would have substituted a state Board of Education for the present state Director of Education, as administrative head of the state Department of Education. The second and third amendments were popularly known as the Bigelow Plan. (See also UNITED STATES: Politics.) They were submitted as a result of initiative petitions. The first of these would have provided an entirely new scheme of old-age pensions with increased benefits and no means test, to be financed by an elaborate system of special taxes. The second would have reduced drastically the number of signatures required on initiated laws and amendments and would have made other changes in existing requirements for initiative and referendum. The referendum vote was on a revision of the state civil service law to change the Civil Service Commission from two to three members and alter procedure. Every one of these measures lost by a heavy vote.

Ohio occupied the national political limelight in 1939 with two potential candidates for the 1940 Republican nomination for President of the United States. Senator Robert Taft and Governor John W. Bricker. While the latter has presumably withdrawn in favor of the former he remains a factor as a possible dark horse. The Republican trend in the state was accentuated by the situation in the November election in both Cleveland and Columbus where both mayoralty candidates under a non-partisan primary, were Republicans.

Near the end of the year Governor Bricker was the object of nationwide attention because of his refusal to call a special session of the General Assembly to appropriate much-needed additional relief funds for Cleveland. Mayor LaGuardia of New York, Secretary of the Interior Ickes, and President Roosevelt accused the Governor of being inhumane in his efforts to maintain a balanced budget. The refusal to call a special session was based on the declaration by legislative leaders that Cleveland's request for additional funds would not be granted by the legislators even if they were called together. The city was directed by the Governor to take advantage of existing legislation and issue tax anticipation warrants against delinquent taxes. This was done, some undistributed money was distributed by the state Treasurer, and the 'crisis' was passed. Mayor Burton, in an open letter, thanked the Governor for his cordial cooperation and indicated that 1940 would produce no repetition of the affair.

Toledo closed her public schools on Thanksgiving Day, 1939, not to reopen them until January 2, 1940. This action, with a payless furlough for all members of the staff, averted a $400,000 deficit in school operating funds. All Ohio cities and schools are suffering acutely from tax starvation due to the state's ten-mill Constitutional limit on real estate taxes. Adequate replacement taxes have not yet been devised to enable cities to operate at accustomed levels. Real estate assessments are also at a very low ebb — probably not over 40 per cent of full and true value.

Municipal Representation.

See MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

State Officers.

The present state officials include: Governor, John W. Bricker; Lieutenant Governor, Paul M. Herbert; Secretary of State, Earl Griffith; Treasurer, Don H. Ebright; Auditor, Joseph T. Ferguson; Attorney General, Thomas J. Herbert. Their terms all expire in January 1941.

United States Senators.

Vic Donahey, Robert A. Taft.