1940: Indiana

Area and Population.

Indiana Territory was formed in 1800, from the western portion of the Northwest Territory. From the large area originally included, Michigan was cut off in 1805 and Illinois in 1809. The state of Indiana was admitted into the Union on December 11, 1816. The land surface of the state is 36,045 sq. mi.; rivers and lakes (including the southeast corner of Lake Michigan) cover 510 sq. mi., making a total area of 36,555 sq. mi.

The 1940 census showed a population of 3,427,796, compared with 3,238,503 in the 1930 census, a gain of 3.5 per cent. Apparently the population center of the United States is still within Indiana, as it has been for fifty years. The principal cities, with the 1940 census figures are: Indianapolis, 386,972; Fort Wayne, 118,410; Gary, 111,719; South Bend, 101,268; Evansville, 97,002; Hammond, 70,184; Terre Haute, 62,693. Indications are that there have been larger increases in the number living outside of cities than within city limits, with a larger number both of farms and of suburban residences. The shrinking in the size of families is shown by the statistics of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis; there has been an increase of 13.8 per cent in the number of private households in the decade 1930-1940, while the population has increased only 5.5 per cent.

Education.

Through state aid to public schools, providing minimum salaries for teachers, opportunities for schooling have been afforded all children. The number of children in public schools from the kindergarten through high school, for the school year 1939-40, was 671,364, compared with 678,858 in 1938-39; of these, Negroes numbered 24,023 in 1939-40, and 23,924 in 1938-39. An additional 55,153 pupils were enrolled in parochial and private schools in 1939-40. The decline in the number of white children in public schools was greatest in the lower grades.

Current expenditures on public schools during 1939-40 were $52,419,960. The capital outlay of $6,438,825 was more than two million dollars less than the previous year. The consolidation of schools decreased the number in operation from 3,027 in the school year 1939-40, to 2,941 at the beginning of the school year 1940-41.

Industry and National Defense.

Our program of preparedness has involved, among many other developments, a phenomenal expansion of the Allison Engineering Company, a division of General Motors in Indianapolis, for the manufacture of liquid-cooled airplane engines: the construction of a fifty-million-dollar powder plant by the Du Pont Company, north of the Ohio River near Charlestown in Clark County; a thirteen-hundred acre shell-loading plant (known as the Kinsbury Ordnance Plant) at Union Center in La Porte County; an ordnance proving-ground seventeen miles long and between three and six miles wide in Jefferson, Jennings, and Ripley counties north of Madison; and a naval ammunition depot in Martin County, covering 48 sq. mi., for the service of the Atlantic fleet. At the close of the year 1940, other defense projects were approaching definite allocation.

Mineral Products.

During 1939 there was a general rise in production of Indiana's most important industrial mineral items. Coke, for which Indiana ranked second among the states in that year, amounted to 4,878,033 tons with a value of $28,532.944; of pigiron, for which the state ranks third, 3,375,325 tons valued at $68,164,618 were shipped, compared with 1,807,808 tons in 1938 valued at $37,025,980; and production of open-hearth steel totalled 5,791,520 tons, leaving Indiana still third in rank for that product. Bituminous coal was mined in the amount of 16,650,000 tons, compared with 14,758,484 tons in the preceding year.

Finance.

The Gross Income Tax returns afford a measure of the financial situation during the year. Returns from the Gross Income Tax for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1940, were $23,538,225, compared with $19,981,968 in the year ending June 30, 1939. The most marked tendency of the financial policy in the state is the increase of subsidies by the state and Federal governments to local units. State funds distributed during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1940, were $19,811,317 to the schools, and to other units $52,301,303.

Political and Legislative Matters.

The election of November 5 brought out the largest vote in the history of the state. Wendell L. Willkie, the Republican candidate for the presidency, a native son, born at Elwood, Indiana, received 99,466 votes; President Roosevelt, 874,063. Henry E. Schricker, Lieutenant-Governor and Democratic candidate for Governor, was the only Democrat to carry the state. He received 89,620 votes to 85,657 cast for Glen R. Hillis, his Republican opponent. The Republican majority in the presidential race was 25,403; the Democratic majority in the gubernatorial race, 3,963. The Communist party was refused a place on the ballots and on the voting machines.

Three constitutional amendments were passed in the election: (1) removing the constitutional requirement of double liability of stockholders in state banks; (2) the twenty-year limit of bank charters; (3) giving the General Assembly authority to prescribe individual liability of stockholders of corporations.

The movement to establish the city-manager type of local administration resulted in the creation by the General Assembly in 1939 of a commission to study the question and to draft legislation to be presented to the General Assembly of 1941. The report of the commission, published in October, 1940, proposes a constitutional amendment giving wide and detailed powers to cities and towns to form charters which permit the establishment of city-manager administration. (See also MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.)

State Officers.

Governor, Henry F. Schricker; Lieutenant Governor, Charles M. Dawson; Secretary of State, James M. Tucker; Auditor, Richard T. James; Treasurer, James M. Givens; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Clement T. Malan.

United States Senators:

Frederick Van Nuys, Raymond E. Willis.