1939: Rhode Island

Area and Population.

The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (Little Rhody, as it is familiarly known) has a total area, including water, of only 1,248 sq. mi. One of the most densely populated states (and one of the wealthiest per capita), its population according to the Federal census of 1930 was 687,497. The largest cities are Providence, the capital, with 243,006 inhabitants; Pawtucket, 72,820; Woonsocket, 46,822; Cranston, 44,533; and Newport, 29,202.

The foreign-born whites, according to the state census of 1936, numbered 144,952, of whom 33,145 were Canadians; 33,105 were French Canadians; 30,093 were Italians; 20,458, English; 13,459, Irish; 6,355 Polish; and 5,133 Scottish.

Education.

In 1938-39, the 2,003 public elementary schools had 2,269 teachers and 68,790 pupils enrolled; 34,256 pupils were enrolled in private and parochial schools, 6,033 of whom were in the secondary grades. The public high schools (463 senior and 688 junior) had 1,983 teachers and 48,751 pupils. Municipal current expenditures for public schools for the year ending in June 1939 totalled $10,061,823.22, while state and Federal expenditures amounted to $2,100,000. In addition, local communities spent $874,971.84 for capital outlay and $2,674,038.05 for retirement of school bonds, sinking funds, interest and other school indebtedness.

Rhode Island maintains a College of Education with 32 professors and teachers, and 614 students (1938-39); a State College with 93 professors and 1,201 students; a School of Design with 65 professors and 483 students; and a College of Pharmacy with 18 professors and 89 students. Brown University (including the Women's College) in Providence, founded in 1764 by the Baptists and others, is now non-sectarian. In 1938-39 it had 280 professors and instructors and 2,215 students. Providence College, at Providence, founded in 1928-29 by the Order of Preachers (Dominican) and under Roman Catholic administration, has 77 professors and instructors and 820 students. Bryant College (a school of business administration) has 36 professors and teachers and 589 students.

In 1939, a Board of Trustees was created to govern Rhode Island State College and the Rhode Island College of Education, making effective the declared policy of the state that the control of the state colleges shall be removed from partisan political influences.

Agriculture.

By the 1935 census Rhode Island had 4,327 farms with an area of 307,725 acres, of which 78,195 acres were crop land. The total value of farm land and buildings in 1935 was $35,089,160.

Industry.

Rhode Island is primarily a manufacturing state. According to the U. S. Census of Manufactures, taken in 1937, Rhode Island's 1,409 manufacturing establishments had 108,031 wage-earners, who earned $112,933,084 in wages; material, fuel and power consumed were valued at $276,738,611; and the value of manufactured products was $517,196,193. During the month of July 1939 there were 817,528 cotton spindles active in Rhode Island, and 7,847 bales of cotton were consumed in that month.

Legislative Matters.

During the 1939 session of the Legislature a special commission to be known as the Rhode Island Industrial Rehabilitation Commission was created, to make a thorough and scientific study of the most practical approach to community industrial development problems (including the immediate need for industries), and to assemble facts that would interest industrialists or others who might be seeking plant sites in the state. This commission has authority to invite and induce new industries to locate within the state, and is vested with broad powers to devise and execute programs for the improvement of industrial and economic conditions.

In his annual message to the 1939 General Assembly, Governor William H. Vanderbilt, in a sincere desire to set up state government upon a business basis, recommended the following; reorganization of certain state departments; civil service; a survey of the relief situation in the entire state; amendment of the unemployment compensation law so as to simplify the reports which are now required from employers, liberalize and clarify the law from the standpoint of workers, and modify the waiting-period requirement. He also urged the legislators to attack the problem of industrial development; to balance the budget and curtail expenses drastically; to appoint a special bi-partisan commission to draw up and submit a proposed caucus and election law; to see that those guilty of election frauds are prosecuted to the limit of the law; to provide for absolute independence of the courts; to create a bi-partisan commission to investigate and report to the Governor the advantages of a direct primary law and a corrupt practices act; to give systematic consideration throughout the entire session to methods for disposing of legislation in an orderly and businesslike manner; and finally to formulate plans for rehabilitation following the only major hurricane disaster the state has had in more than a hundred years (1938).

With the exception of the suggestions concerning the courts, the recommendations of the Governor were all made effective by legislation.

Finance.

The appropriation bill for the support of the state, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1940, allotted to the Executive Department $850,179; Department of State, $109,440; Department of the Attorney General, $72,675; Treasury Department, $159,099; Department of Public Works, $2,338,298; Department of Social Welfare, $5,284,095. This last sum included for social services, $1,529,430; old-age security, $700,000; reimbursement to cities and towns providing aid for dependent children, $300,000; reimbursement for medical care of children, $1,000; state unemployment relief, $1,510,478; aid to the blind, $10,000; assistance to World War veterans, $75,000; support of destitute families, $7,000; and child welfare, $503,490.

The total for the Department of Education was $1,068,918.50; Department of Labor, $80,180; Department of Agriculture and Conservation, $257,570; Department of Health, $694,870. The state Colleges received $501,226. Additional sums appropriated included $16,500 to the Department of Social Welfare; $6,900 to the Department of Public Works; $5,000 to the Department of Education; $16,750 to the Department of Agriculture and Conservation. An additional $200,000 was appropriated as the state's contribution to the Rhode Island State College.

Social Welfare and Correction.

A Division of Public Assistance has responsibility for a state-wide administration of all forms of relief. Within this Division the Department of Social Welfare supervises and manages State Unemployment Relief. Aid to the Blind and to Dependent children, as well as Old-age Assistance, have also been transferred to the jurisdiction of this Department.

The Director of Social Welfare is aided by an Advisory Council. An Assistant Director administers the function of parole, probation and correctional services, except those relating to the training schools known as the Sockanosset School for Boys and the Oaklawn School for Girls.

State institutions include the following: State Hospital for Mental Diseases, Howard; State Infirmary, Howard; The Exeter School (for the feeble-Minded), Lafayette; State Home and School, for children, Providence; Reformatory for Men, Howard; Sockanosset School for Boys, Howard; Oaklawn School for Girls, Oaklawn; Soldiers' Home, Bristol; State Sanatorium at Wallum Lake.

State Officers.

Governor, William H. Vanderbilt; Lieutenant-Governor, James O. McManus; Secretary of State, J. Hector Paquin; Attorney General, Louis V. Jackvony; General Treasurer, Thomas P. Hazard; Budget Officer, Charles M. Sears, Jr.; Controller, Samuel A. Place.

United States Senators.

Peter G. Gerry, Theodore Francis Green.