1941: Tennessee

Area and Population.

One of the earlier states admitted to the Union (June 1, 1796), following upon the original thirteen. Tennessee now has a population of 2,915,841, ranking it 15th in the Union. Of the state's total population, the only major racial group besides native-born whites are the Negroes, who constitute about 18 per cent of the total. The principal cities are Memphis, 292,942; Nashville, the capital, 167,402; Chattanooga, 128,163; and Knoxville, 111,580.

Tennessee has an area of 42,022 sq. mi. Included in this total are 340,800 A. of surface water area in lakes and rivers. Of the several large artificial lakes created by dams constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Federal power and flood-control project, the largest are back of Pickwick Dam on the Tennessee river, Chickamauga Dam on the Tennessee, and Norris Dam on the Clinch. Other dams with large storage capacities, nearing completion by the TVA in Tennessee, are Watts Bar and Fort Loudoun dams on the Tennessee, and Cherokee Dam on the Holston river.

Education.

The state provided $9,042,665.75 for public high and elementary schools for the 1940-41 terms. Enrollment in high schools was 111,262 and in elementary schools 647,405. High-school teachers numbered 5,227, and elementary 15,942. Teachers were paid an average annual salary of $671.50. There were still 2,515 one-teacher schools in the state. The education appropriation for the next biennium was $21,910,000.

Colleges or universities maintained by the state include the University of Tennessee with branches at Knoxville and Memphis, Austin Peay Normal College at Clarksville, Tennessee Polytechnic Institute at Cookeville, State Teachers Colleges at Johnson City, Murfreesboro and Memphis, and the Agricultural and Industrial College for Negroes at Nashville. Schools for the deaf and blind and a state industrial school for underprivileged are also maintained.

In 1941 education became an issue for the 1942 political campaigns in the state, as educators asked for increased appropriations, security of tenure legislation, and retirement pensions for teachers with long service records. The General Assembly, meeting early in the year, increased appropriations slightly.

Agriculture.

Farming, one of the chief industries of Tennessee, returned a cash income, in 1940, of $141,490,000, a 6 per cent advance over the previous year, but considerably under the anticipated amount for 1941. Total income from crops — with cotton, tobacco, and grains leading in that order — was $66,566,000. Livestock marketings brought $58,717,000, and government payments $16,207,000.

Tennessee farms were enrolled in both 1940 and 1941 in the state-sponsored Home Food Supply Program, which encourages farmers to produce at least 75 per cent of the foodstuffs needed for consumption in the farm home. The only such state-sponsored program in the nation, it has attracted wide attention because of its beneficial effects upon the diet and living conditions of farm families. Late in 1941 the Rockefeller Foundation agreed to sponsor the first statewide nutrition experiment in Tennessee, with the goal of better diet and nutrition in both rural and urban homes. The program was to start in 1942.

Industry.

Nearly 400,000 Tennesseans are employed in various industries other than agriculture, and payrolls approximate $500,000,000 annually. Manufacturing plants produce textiles, lumber and finished lumber products, paper, chemicals, petroleum and coal products, rubber products, leather and leather products, stone, clay and glass products, iron and steel, machinery, food and kindred products and tobacco. These plants employ about 200,000 workers. Other leading industries are construction, transportation, communication and other public utilities, wholesale and retail trade, real estate, and the service industries.

Mineral Products.

In 1940, production of Tennessee's leading mineral, bituminous coal, amounted to 6,010,000 tons, an appreciable advance over 1939, when the amount mined had a value of $10,402,000. Phosphate rock, for which the state ranks next to Florida, outstripped in 1940 the all-time high of the previous year, with 994,361 tons worth $3,967,043. Marble, for which the state also ranks second, fell to about half of the amount for 1939, with 219,020 cu. ft. valued at $1,272,584. Cement production again added more than five and a half millions to the state's total mineral resources.

Legislative Action.

The Tennessee General Assembly, in biennial session, concluded its 1941 work in a record forty-one days. The limit for an Assembly session in the state is seventy-five days. The members enacted legislation to redistrict the state so as to provide for a tenth representative in the United States Congress, an increase of one because of the rise in population; to establish Home Guard units to replace the National Guard now in Federal service; to authorize a $500,000 bond issue for construction or purchase of a state tuberculosis hospital; to appropriate $43,583,908 for general state purposes for the next two years; and to permit retirement of judges on full salary after twenty-four years on the bench.

National Defense.

In the selective service registration for military training, Tennessee registered 360,417 young men in October, 1940. The gross quota for the state was 40,766 men, but, because Tennessee, the 'Volunteer State,' already had 26,537 men in active duty with the Army, Navy, Marines or National Guard, the net quota was 14,229. Tennessee industries, by the end of 1941, had received government contracts totaling more than $275,000,000 for the production of defense items ranging from parachute silk to heavy ordnance. One large military training center, Camp Forrest at Tullahoma, was completed early in the year and 26,000 troops began training there. The War Department had under construction a $50,000,000 ordnance plant at Milan, and another of about the same size at Chattanooga.

Finance.

Tennessee's bonded debt is now $108,106,885.95, as it was reduced by more than $3,000,000 in 1941. Operating under a strict budget system put into effect in 1937, the state completed the fiscal year with a general fund surplus of $933,243. Unemployment compensation taxes collected totaled $9,214,717, while benefits paid were $5,243,163. Legislative appropriations for the biennium were $43,583,908.

Total assets of 226 state banks and 33 branches increased more than $11,500,000, according to the June 30 report. Demands deposits were $100,996,998; time deposits $66,087,448; cash reserves $65,886,901; and bills payable and rediscounts $25,000.

State Officers.

Governor, Prentice Cooper; Secretary of State, Joe C. Carr; Treasurer, John W. Harton; Comptroller, Robert Lowe; Attorney General, Roy Beeler; Commissioner of Education, B. O. Duggan.

United States Senators:

Kenneth McKellar, Tom Stewart.