1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Texas

TEXAS (see ).&mdash;In 1920 the pop. was 4,663,228, as against 3,896,542 in 1910, an increase of 766,686, or 19.7%, as against 27.8% in the preceding decade. The urban pop. (in places of 2,500 or more) was 1,512,689, or 32.4% of the total as compared with 24.1% in 1910. The average number of inhabitants per sq. m. increased from 14.8 in 1910 to 17.8 in 1920. The following table shows the growth of the 10 cities in the state having in 1920 a pop. of more than 30,000:&mdash;

History.&mdash;After about 1880 prohibition was perhaps the most bitterly contested issue in state politics. A constitutional amendment providing for state-wide prohibition was voted down in 1887 and again in 1911; but was carried in 1919. In the meantime prohibition by local option had made great progress, so that by 1918 more than three-fourths of the area of the state, including the cities of Dallas, Waco and Austin, was dry. The Legislature in March 1918 ratified the Federal amendment, and in April put into effect the &ldquo;zone&rdquo; law, prohibiting the sale of liquors within 10 m. of a military, naval, or shipbuilding establishment. In June 1918 statutory state-wide prohibition was established, and doubts of the constitutionality of the Act were ended by the amendment of the next year. The Dean law (July 1919) is one of the most drastic of enforcement Acts. A law of March 26 1918 permitted women to vote in party primaries and nominating conventions; but a constitutional amendment, submitted the next year, to enfranchise women in regular elections, failed. The Legislature nevertheless ratified the Federal Woman Suffrage amendment in July 1919. The effect of the World War is seen in a law of April 2 1918, confining the franchise in primary elections to citizens of the United States; and in another of March 23 1918, amended a year later, providing that assistance should be given at the polls only in the English language and to persons physically unable to write or to those past 60 years of age and unable to read. Aliens could not be debarred from voting in final elections without amendment of the constitution, but preponderance of the Democratic party makes the primary election, in effect, definitive.

The total registration in Texas under the Selective Service Act was 990,522. From the best figures available in July 1921, there were 13,191 voluntary enlistments in the regular army, and 18,573 in the National Guard (transferred to Federal Service in the summer of 1917), and 127,531 inductions (not including officers) under the draft law; while 13,599 men and 6 women served in the regular navy and 4,505 men and 107 women in the naval reserve. The total number in both services, not including all officers, was 177,512. The total losses (officers and men) were 2,722, of whom 1,164 were killed in action, 456 died of wounds, 942 of disease, and 160 from other causes. The wounded numbered 7,331. Figures for the Texan subscription to the First Liberty Loan were not separately available. The eleventh Federal Reserve district, in which the state is included, subscribed $48,948,350. The Texan subscription to the four following loans was $363,273,350. When the Armistice was signed the Emergency Fleet Corp. had wooden ships under construction at Beaumont, Orange and Rockport, and in the Houston Ship Channel. Contracts had been let for 97 hulls and for 18 barges, of which were completed 52 hulls with tonnage of 196,400; and 4 barges aggregating 9,000 tons.

The governors of Texas after 1910 were Oscar Branch Colquitt (Dem.) 1911-5; James E. Ferguson (Dem.) 1915-Sept. 1917; William P. Hobby (Dem.) 1917-21, and Pat M. Neff (Dem.) 1921-. Mr. Ferguson was removed from office by impeachment and was succeeded, ex officio, by Lt.-Gov. Hobby, who was subsequently elected for one term, 1919-21.


 * (Author:Eugene Campbell Barker)