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1172

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION (1919)

(U.S. Census Reports)

Increase

Increase

Crop

Quantity

Per cent over

Value

Per cent over

1909

1909

All crops

$607,037,562

174-6

Cereals, total (bus.)

259.547,851

4-8

391,834.355

184-1

Corn (bus.)

149,844,626

-4.9

217,274,709

163-9

Oats (bus.)

46,818,330

-18-7

39,795.590

71-4

Wheat (bus.).

58,124,351

89-6

127,873,574

311-0

Beans, peas, pea-

nuts, flaxseed, su-

gar-beet seed

281,767

558-4

Seeds: Clover, al-

falfa, timothy, etc.

(bus.). ..

309,968

7-4

5,978,760

321-2

Hay and forage

(tons).

7,661,890

130,187,929

Vegetables

43.365,158

107-7

Miscellaneous, total

20,216,824

90-4

Tobacco (Ib.)

64,420,472

-27-3

13,528,302

50-3

bruits and nuts

15,172,769

93-i

The total for cereals includes barley, rye, buckwheat, and mixed crops besides corn, oats and wheat. " Miscellaneous " includes to- bacco, sorghum, sugar-beets, maple sugar, broom corn, hemp, ginseng and minor crops. The total acreage harvested in 1919 was 11,780,- 554, an increase of 3-1 % over 1909.

Mineral Products. In 1918 Ohio ranked fifth among the states in the value of the products of mining industries in general, fourth in the amount of bituminous coal produced. From 1900 to 1918 there was an increase in the annual output of bituminous coal from 16,900,000 short tons to 40,900,000, an increase of 142 % which was about the rate of increase in other coal-mining states. Ohio pro- duced 7-6 % of the bituminous coal of the United States in 1917. Of this 85-7 % was mined by machinery, mostly electrically driven. The coal of Ohio is produced mainly in the south-eastern part of the state, in Belmont, Athens, Jefferson, Guernsey, Perry and Hocking coun- ties. The fire-clay mines of Tuscarawas, Jefferson, Columbiana, Stark and Carroll counties supply the raw material for a rapidly rising industry. In coke Ohio ranked third (1917) with a production of 3,694,302 net tons; in the value of its natural gas output (1918) it was fourth, $24,234,741. As a producer of crude petroleum Ohio has fallen far behind in recent years; the total for 1918 was 7,285,005 bar. with a value of $23,465,197.

Manufactures. According to the preliminary report of the census bureau for the year 1919, manufactured products were valued at $5,100,298,728; the average number of wage-earners was 730,733, and the value added by manufacture, $2,189,460,420. The pig-iron tonnage, 8,700 tons in 1918, was nearly as great as that of Great Britain at the same time. The most notable advance in the decade was in the production of motor-cars, in which Ohio ranked next to Michigan, and in the manufacture of motor-car tires. The following table shows the relative importance in 1914 of leading manufacturing industries the value of whose products exceeded $25,000,000:

Industry

No. of Wage- Earners

Value of Products

Increase Per cent 1909-14

All industries.

510,435

$1,782,808,279

24-0

Iron and steel. Foundries, machine shops

46,397 73,103

205,023,391 178,855,069

37

22-6

Rubber goods. Automobiles, etc..

21,705 18,752

109,658,605 85,710,585

103-4 I2O-7

Blast furnaces. Meat-packing. Printing and publishing. Flour-milling, etc..

5,786

3,6l9 18,070 2,363

72,969,368 66,674,379 55,608,924 45,171,200

12-8

31-2

33-5 6-1

Brick and tile products.

27,334

38,667,374

26-6

Electrical apparatus Boots and shoes Railway cars, etc.*. Bakery products Liquors, malt. Timber products. Tobacco manufactures. Men's clothing.

12,695 14,674 21,639 7,665 5,340 11,921 13,282 10,758

36,120,978 33,641,705 33,286,205 30,560,881 31,990,274 31,852,694 28,467,079 27,621,829

92-4 6-6 16-0 32-8 26-3 7'9 i-5 li-l

Food preparations.

1,523

27,346,187

152-3

' Includes only operations of steam railways in buildine their own equipment.

The true value of all property in Ohio was estimated in 1912 at 8, 908,432 ,943, but with all its varied industries the per capita wealth ($1,868) was below that of other manufacturing states such as New York Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut and Michigan, and that of agricultural states such as Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and California.

History. The chief political advance in the decade 1910-20 was the progress in adapting the constitution and the system of administration to the new needs of the state.

The constitution was made in 1851 for a frontier agricultural community, and no important changes had occurred in 60 years. A revision of the constitution in 1874 was defeated at the polls, largely because of the clauses on taxation. It was, however, the beginning of a struggle for the readjustment of the system of taxation to meet more complex social conditions. A proposal to hold a convention in 1891 was rejected by the voters. As the end of another 20 years approached, the Ohio Board of Commerce, which was conducting the campaign for tax reform, started a movement for a general constitutional convention. Several groups, like the Ohio Direct Legislation League, which advocated the initiative and the referen- dum, and the liquor interests that saw an opportunity to secure a licensing system, supported the movement, which was endorsed by both political parties. At the election of 1910 a convention was almost unanimously approved. Delegates were chosen in Nov. 1911, and the convention sat Jan.-June 1912. The delegates, of whom the majority were Democrats, represented the progressive elements of both major parties. Forty-two amendments were sub- mitted to the voters on Sept. 3, 1912, of which 34 were ratified. Among the proposals defeated were those for the abolition of capital punishment, woman suffrage, the use of voting machines, and $50,- 000,000 bond issue for a state system of roads. In the convention itself the tax reformers lost their main battle for a classification of property for purposes of taxation. Indeed the convention and the voters approved a clause which was intended to make it more diffi- cult for supporters of tax reform to succeed. The tax reformers did secure for the General Assembly the power to impose, if it would, in- heritance, income and franchise taxes as well as taxes upon the pro- duction of coal, oil, gas and other minerals. A tax commission of three created in 1910 did succeed in bringing out for taxation the property of corporations at something near a true valuation, and in obtaining the adoption of the I % rule as the maximum rate for taxa- tion. The League for Direct Legislation secured the initiative and the referendum, the liquor interests a licensing system. Many of the amendments expressly enlarged the powers of the General Assembly. Several sought by the labour element were intended to spur the Legislature to action for industrial and social betterment. Amendments affecting the judiciary and the jury system were designed to expedite the work of the courts. A home-rule amend- ment gave the cities freedom to adjust themselves to the new eco- nomic conditions. The old rule that amendments to be ratified must be approved by the majority of those voting in the election gave way to a new one requiring only a majority of those voting on the amend- ment. An attempt in 1913, following the convention of 1912, to introduce the short ballot by making a large number of state, county and township officers appointive, failed. In 1918 the effort whicn had continued for nearly 50 years to give the Legislature power to classify property for taxation was approved by the people, only to be declared unconstitutional by the courts, on a technicality. At the same time, on the eve of Federal prohibition, an amendment incorporated state prohibition in the state constitution.

More significant of the purpose to adapt state government to the needs of the time is the legislative history. In 1909 Ohio had the customary administrative system composed of special boards, commissioners, bureaus and departments created to meet special problems as the Legislature had recognized them, but with over- lapping jurisdiction and uncertain responsibility. In hardly any respect was the state service adequate or modern. In charge of the charitable and penal institutions, for example, were 1 8 or 19 separate boards, competing for support, maintaining as many accounting systems, failing wholly in coordination. Successive Legislatures took up during the following decade the problem of reorganization. For a time, chiefly during the years 1909-15, the legislators seemed to be working towards a commission type of administrative organization. Then followed a period of hesi- tation in which party politics interfered with progress, 1915-7. The third stage of opinion, following 1917, strongly favoured a single executive officer, appointed by the governor.

A law of 1910 centralized the taxing power in a small State Tax Commission, bringing to an end an expensive system of decennial boards of equalization. The following year all the charitable and penal institutions were placed under a Board of Administration. Four commissioners took the place of 57 trustees. A single fiscal agent replaced 19 stewards. In 1911 the old Railroad Commission became the Public Service Commission. In this case, largely for per- sonal reasons, the duties of state commissioner of railways and tele- graphs, created in 1867, had been transferred to a commission of three members (Act of 1906). The law of 1911 gave the Public Service Commission the same power over public utilities in general which the Railroad Commission had had over railways and telegraphs. In 1913 the Legislature changed the Public Service Commission to a