1940: Kentucky

Area and Population.

Within an area of 40,588 sq. mi. Kentucky has a population of 2,845,627, according to the 1940 census. This is a gain of 8.8 per cent over the 1930 figure. Louisville, the metropolis, has a population of 319,077. The next largest cities are Covington, 62,018; Lexington 49,304; Paducah, 33,765; Ashland, 29,537; Newport, 30,631; and Owensboro, 30,245. Frankfort, the capital, has 11,492.

Only .09 per cent of the state's population are foreign born. About 13 per cent of the total are Negroes. There are no Indians, and the Asiatic population is negligible.

Education.

The school census for 1940 showed a total of 778,429 inhabitants of school age. The number of elementary schools in operation for the school year ending June 30, 1940, was approximately 5,200. The number of pupils enrolled in the elementary schools for the same year was 460,953. The number of high schools was 758. Enrollment in the high schools totaled 141,545. State expenditures for elementary and secondary schools for the year equalled $15,410,000. The median salary of elementary school teachers is $625, of high-school teachers, $1,064. There were in 1940, 18,871 elementary and high-school teachers in Kentucky.

Among the items of outstanding importance connected with public education in Kentucky are the following. The Teachers' Retirement System became operative on July 1, 1940. Approximately 96 per cent of all the teachers in Kentucky are enrolled in the system. The plants of many of the Teachers Colleges and the University of Kentucky were expanded greatly during the year. The General Assembly authorized the submission of an amendment to the Constitution at the regular election in 1941, for the purpose of permitting the state school funds to be distributed on the basis of need.

The school-age census in Kentucky showed a decrease in 1940 for the first time since 1926. While the elementary school enrollment in Kentucky is showing a slight decrease, the high-school enrollment continues to increase.

The efforts of the teaching profession in Kentucky are being expended on a three-point program: (1) the improvement of instruction in the schools of the state; (2) the dissemination of information pertaining to the proposed constitutional amendment to enable the state to offer additional aid to impoverished school districts; and (3) the contribution of the public schools of Kentucky toward an adequate program of national defense.

A suit was brought in the State Court in Jefferson County to make the pay of Negro teachers the same as that for white teachers in like grades. No opinion has yet been rendered. Preparations are also in progress for a similar suit to compel equality of pay for male and female teachers of like grades.

Agriculture.

Kentucky's crop of tobacco brought good prices for the year 1940. The agriculture experiment stations in some sections of the state are improving, and new methods of increase in agriculture, and the practice of bringing western steers to blue-grass pastures continue to bring in additional cash. The Kentucky State Agriculture Fair was one of the largest and best attended in the history of the institution.

Mineral Products.

The largest item in the total value of Kentucky's minerals, which amounted in 1938 to $106,654,903, is bituminous coal. This accounted in that year for $70,094,000, as the result of an output of 38,545,000 tons. In 1939 coal production was increased to 42,805,000 tons. The state's oil fields furnished in the same year 5,581,000 bbl. of petroleum, an amount slightly less than in 1938 when 5,821,000 bbl. had a value of $7,570,000. Natural gas continues to be a leading resource of the state, though in variable amounts. In 1938 it had a value of $19,539,000.

Events of the Year.

The United States defense program has brought much business to Kentucky factories and mines, and one or more arms and ammunition factories are being built. Because of the U. S. Government storage vault at Fort Knox, first used in 1937, Kentucky continues literally to contain more gold than any other state in the world.

Work on flood levees along the Ohio is progressing slowly but surely. The construction of a dam on the Tennessee River at Gilbertsville, 25 miles southeast of Paducah, is being pushed. During the past year the Work Projects Administration completed a number of fine county schools and roads.

State Officers.

Governor, Keen Johnson; Lieutenant Governor, Rhode K. Myers; Secretary of State, George W. Hatcher; Attorney General, Hubert Meredith; Treasurer, E. E. Shannon; Auditor, D. A. Logan; Superintendent of Public Instruction, John W. Brooks.

United States Senators:

Alben W. Barkley, Albert B. Chandler.