1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Alabama

ALABAMA (see ). In 1920 the pop. was 2,348,174 as against 2,138,093, in 1910, an increase of 210,081, or 9.8%, as compared with 309,396, or 16.3%, in the preceding decade. Although the proportion of urban pop. was greater than in 1910, yet in spite of the marked development of mining and manufacturing interests, more than three-fourths of the inhabitants were still rural and chiefly agricultural. The urban pop. (inhabitants of cities of 2,500 or more) was 509,317; the rural, 1,838,857. The growth of pop. in the chief cities is shown in the following table:&mdash;

The distribution of pop. by race was as follows: whites, 1,447,032; negroes, 900,652; Indians, 405; Chinese, 59; Japanese, 18; all others, 8. During the decade 1910-20 the white pop. increased 17.8%, while the negro pop. decreased 0.8%, due to male negro migration to northern industrial centres.

Agriculture.—There were 256,099 farms in 1920; 262,901 in 1910, a decrease due to the negro migration noted above, but there was a marked increase in total production. The state Department of Agriculture estimated that in 1920 there were harvested 5,630,000 tons of commodities compared with 5,203,000 tons for the year 1919. The same department made the following estimates of the acreage, production and value of crops in 1920:&mdash;

The above estimates did not include the acreage grazed or &ldquo;hogged&rdquo; and not harvested, which the state department of Agriculture placed in 1920 at 1,344,000 ac. with an approximate value of $20,001,000. The Statistical Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the value of all crops in Alabama in the year 1920 at $240,000,000.

Industries and Transportation.—Three new lines of material progress during 1910-20 were notable: (1) The use of hydroelectric power; (2) shipbuilding; and (3) the utilization of the canalized Warrior and Tombigby rivers from the heart of the inland mineral district to tidewater at Mobile. A private corporation completed a great dam across the Coosa river and was in 1920 delivering electricity for lighting and power purposes to the chief centres of population and industry in northern and central Alabama; and the same company in 1921 began another great dam across the same river which would increase greatly the power available. In the meantime the U.S. Government undertook the famous &ldquo;Wilson dam&rdquo; across the Tennessee river at Muscle Shoals. The impetus given to shipbuilding at Mobile continued after the World War; and the great shipyard at Chickasaw, a suburb of Mobile, was in 1920 steadily sending down the ways ships of heavy tonnage, made from steel fabricated in the Birmingham district and barged down the Warrior and Tombigby rivers. The growth of down-stream tonnage of coal, iron, steel and timber on the canalized Warrior river continued for a year or two under private enterprise; but the closing months of the year 1920 marked a new era when the first vessel of a fleet of Government-owned and -operated self-propelling barges made its way down the Mississippi river to New Orleans and into the Gulf, then to Mobile and up the rivers to Birmingham and Cordova in the heart of the Warrior coal-fields. A balanced tonnage, up and down stream, was steadily being developed in 1921 by the transhipment at Mobile of manganese ore from Brazil, for use in making high-grade steel in the Birmingham district, and by the establishment of an all-water freight rate from New York and other eastern points, via Mobile, to the various river ports.

(T. C. McC.)