Area and Population.
Arkansas is the original 'Bear State.' Twenty years ago, by act of the Legislature, it was in effect decreed that 'from and after the passage of this resolution Arkansas shall be known as the Wonder State.' The state is also, sometimes, referred to as 'the Diamond State,' due to the fact that diamonds, in apparently commercial quantity, have been discovered in a restricted area in the southwest quarter of the state.
Arkansas is situated inland in the south central part of the United States. Included within its boundaries are 53,353 sq. mi., 810 sq. mi. of which are surface water area. Arkansas is the smallest state west of the Mississippi River, though it is larger than the whole of New England.
The Ouachita and Boston ranges of the Ozark Mountains in western Arkansas form the Arkansas highlands. Central Arkansas, from northeast to southwest, is a broad plateau of rolling plains. Eastern Arkansas, a belt of country 100 miles wide more or less, is a delta land, formed by the Mississippi River and its several Arkansas tributaries. The state has many lakes, hundreds of springs and small streams, which feed into a network of rivers, including the Arkansas, the White, Red, Black, St. Francis, and Ouachita.
Arkansas, though it is too far west to qualify as part of the 'deep South' proper, is nonetheless as southern as any of the states of the 'solid South.' Native Arkansans, who, perhaps, account for 95 per cent of the population, are, for the most part, of pure southern origin, descendants of pioneers who moved into Arkansas from the south before the War of Secession.
Population.
Arkansas had a total population in 1940 of 1,949,387. This includes 1,466,084 whites, and a Negro population of 482,578; 725 people whom the census lists as 'other races,' comprise Indians, Chinese and Japanese.
The people of Arkansas, for most part, live in the country, 1,111,007 of them being classified by the census as 'rural' residents, by which is meant that all but 838,380 of the people reside either on farms, or in the many small towns and villages. During 1942, on account of the war, the Federal Government arranged to move about 20,000 Japanese residents of the West Coast to relocation camps in Arkansas. However, the Government is pledged to move these Japanese out of Arkansas as soon as the war shall have been won.
Little Rock, the capital city, is older than the state, having been founded in 1820. Besides being the capital, it is the principal commercial city of Arkansas, and its 'metropolitan area' gave to Greater Little Rock in 1942 a total population of 147,000. Arkansas has three other cities of more than 20,000 population: Fort Smith, 36,584; Hot Springs, 21,370; and Pine Bluff, 21,290.
Education.
The prestige of education in Arkansas, at a new high in 1941, was still rising in 1942. Leadership is organized and aggressive, perhaps as never before; popular support is liberal and progressive. A recent survey has shown that Arkansas ranks second among the states, with only Massachusetts leading it, in the number of books of literary quality purchased by the people during the year 1942.
For the two-year period ending with 1942, Arkansas spent the grand total of $15,372,000 for the support of its schools of all grades. This was an over-all increase of $2,500,000, as compared with the previous biennium. There are in Arkansas, approximately, 400,000 children of school age. Nearly all these children now go to school, most of them an average of eight months in the year. In many places, village and country schools have been consolidated and graded to standard, in which case the children are transported to and from school by bus from places miles distant. There are nearly 5,000 elementary schools in the state, in which 9,500 teachers are employed. There are now almost 1,000 high schools, having 2,500 teachers and 70,000 scholars.
Within recent years, Arkansas has inaugurated an effective plan for the retirement of its teachers with pay, after a certain period of employment. Text books, which are furnished free of charge by the state, are selected by a state board, or commission, composed of teachers of mature experience.
It is the purpose of the people of Arkansas to afford equal opportunities of education to all its citizens. The Negroes of the state, for example, who make up about one fourth of the total population, pay less than a tenth of the tax levies which are collected for the support of education; even so, separate schools are maintained for the education of every Negro child, with money from the common school fund on the basis of equality. A 'revolving loan fund' of several hundred thousand dollars, is intended to equalize the inequalities of opportunity as between the richer and the poorer school districts.
Agriculture.
The mild climate and excellent soil of Arkansas make it an agricultural state of importance. Over half of the land area of the state is farm land, and half of this is under cultivation. In cotton production, Arkansas usually stands fourth among the states, and only Louisiana and Texas exceed it in the production of rice. Corn is an important crop, ranking perhaps, next in value to cotton. Apples, peaches, strawberries, cantaloupes, sweet potatoes, and watermelons are some of the state's staple fruit crops. Arkansas realizes a normal gross income from all its farming operations of about $200,000,000 per annum.
Stock Raising.
Stock raising has made great strides in the past few years. The total value of all livestock on Arkansas farms is now nearing the hundred million dollar mark. It is estimated that farmers of Arkansas received from livestock sales in 1942 a cash income of $50,000,000.
Mineral Resources.
The most valuable mineral product is petroleum, which was discovered in the southern part of the state, near the older Louisiana oil field, in 1921. The state has since outranked Pennsylvania in total production. Natural gas is found in two separate fields: in the oil field of southern Arkansas and in the coal-bearing area of western Arkansas. Next in importance is coal, of which the state produces very fine grades both of bituminous and semi-anthracite.
From Arkansas is obtained about 92 per cent of the world's supply of bauxite, the ore of aluminum. The only diamond mine on the North American continent is in Arkansas. The stones are of the finest quality, and one gem has been mined which weighed seventeen carats. Precious pearls are found in mussel shells taken from the fresh-water streams of northern Arkansas, chiefly the White and Black rivers. Single gems have brought as high as $7,000. The shells of the mussel are used in the manufacture of the pearl buttons of commerce. A fine quality of whetstone, or oil stone, which is found in the Ouachita Mountains of southwest Arkansas is shipped to all parts of the world. This is a hard novaculite rock of many beautiful tints. Long before the white man came to Arkansas, the Indians, it is said, used this rock to sharpen their tomahawks, hammers, and spearheads.
There are large deposits of granite near Little Rock; a great area in the north, between Black River and the Boston Mountains, is underlaid with marble; limestone and sandstone are found in various parts of the state. Zinc and lead are mined in the northwestern section; the largest nugget of zinc ever mined came from Arkansas, and is now in the Field Museum, in Chicago. Antimony, silver, iron, slate, glass sand, asphalt, chalk, fuller's earth, graphite, gypsum, ocher, and tripoli are found in paying quantities in the state. A phosphate rock, to be had in the southern part of the state, is of good value to farmers as a fertilizer. In Saline County is found a very unusual form of kaolin clay which is made into the beautiful Niloak pottery. In the same county is the largest bed of soapstone (talc) west of the Mississippi River.
Forest Resources.
Arkansas is one of the most heavily wooded of all the states, and ranks seventh in most years in lumber production. Almost 60 per cent of its total cut is yellow pine.
Manufactures.
Arkansas is steadily gaining ground as a manufacturing state. The most important industry is the manufacture of lumber and timber products, such as furniture; with production of cottonseed oil and cake usually second in value.
The census of 1940 showed Arkansas as having approximately 1,200 separate manufacturing establishments. These industries employed 36,256 wage earners, whose annual wages totaled $24,577,234. The workers produced manufactured articles valued at $160,166,984. It is estimated that Arkansas has received from the Government, as part of the war effort during the period 1940-42, $400,000,000, which has been invested in new war industries. It is not possible or proper at the moment to venture a guess as to the details of these developments; though it is no secret that Arkansas now has large war industries located in a number of places, including the Little Rock area, Pine Bluff, Fort Smith, Hot Springs, Texarkana, Hope, Camden, El Dorado, and elsewhere.
Finance.
On June 1, 1942, Arkansas had available cash balances and investments in good securities totaling $31,000,000. This was the largest operating surplus that the state has ever accumulated. During the last biennium, the total income of the state was, for 1940-41, $133,068,451; for 1941-42, $105,389,957. These totals included, however, the proceeds of the sale of bonds in connection with highway refunding operations, and certain other non-revenue receipts. Actually, the operating revenues of the state amounted to $34,952,990 for 1940-41, and $42,527,270 for 1941-42.
The bonded debt of Arkansas was reduced, in 1942, in the sum of $1,000,750, leaving a balance outstanding of $145,925,524. The refunding of the state highway bonds of $136,330,557 made the reduction in 1942 the smallest in several years. The first payment of the principal of the highways debt, since it was refunded, will be made April 1, 1943, to the amount of $1,788,557.
Legislation.
In the general election of 1940 the people of Arkansas approved legislation by referendum providing funds for and regulatory laws governing the payment of workmen's compensation.
Government.
Arkansas has had three Constitutions; the one under which it is now governed was adopted in 1874. It provides for an executive department consisting of the governor, a lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney-general, and commissioner of state lands, each of whom is elected to terms of two years.
The Legislature comprises the senate of 35 members and a house of representatives of 100 members. Senators are elected for four years, representatives for two, and regular sessions of the legislature are limited to sixty days, unless by a two thirds vote of each house the session is extended. The Legislature in Arkansas is officially known as the General Assembly.
In 1893 an amendment of the Constitution was adopted making the right of suffrage conditional upon payment of a poll tax; in 1911 an initiative and referendum amendment was added to the constitution.
State Officers.
Governor, Homer M. Adkins; Lieutenant Governor, Bob Bailey; Secretary of State, C. G. Hall; Auditor, J. Oscar Humphrey; State Treasurer, Earl Page; Attorney-General, Jack Holt; Commissioner of Education, Ralph B. Jones.
United States Senators:
Hattie W. Caraway; John L. McClellan.
