A K S U — A L A B A M A AkSU (White Water a town of the Chinese empire, Eastern Turkestan, in 41° 7' N. and 79° 7' E., 70 miles E. of Uch-Turfan and 270 miles N.E. of Yarkand, near to the left bank of the Aksu river, which takes its origin in the Tian-shan Mountains and joins the Tarim. It belongs to the series of oases (Uch-Turfan, Bai, Koucha, (.fee.) situated at the southern foot of the eastern Tian-shan Mountains. The town, which is supposed to have about 6000 houses, is enclosed by a wall. It is an important centre for caravan routes, and has a considerable trade. Extensive cattle breeding is carried on by the inhabitants. Aktyubinsk (Ak-tube), a district town and fort of Russian Central Asia, province Turgai, situated on the Ilek river, 135 miles S.E. of Orenburg. It is the centre for the administration of the Kirghiz, with whom a lively trade is carried on. In 1897 the population was 2840. Akyab, a district and city in the Arakan division of Burma, lies along the north-eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. The district area is 5136 square miles. Population (1891), 415,305; (1901), 482,374. There were 2040 villages paying a revenue of Rs.16,91,191 in 1898-99. Buddhists and Jains numbered 258,259, Mahommedans 119,157, Hindus 9762, aborigines 28,234, and Christians (European and native) 893. Of the total area of 3,287,040 acres, the area under cultivation was 590,991, there were 64,950 acres lying fallow, the cultivable waste amounted to 1,669,478 acres, and 961,621 acres were not capable of •cultivation. The rainfall in 1898-99 was 193'49 inches. Akyab, the chief town, had in 1891 a population of 37,938 ; in 1871-72 the total was 15,281. It has a municipality with a committee of 16 members, 10 of whom are elected. There is a second-class district jail. The export of rice from Akyab has increased greatly of late years. There are two oil-wells in the district, both •on Boronga island, worked under the Canadian oil-boring system. During the year 1898-99, 290 vessels with a tonnage of 167,158 entered the port, and 282 of a burden of 166,752 cleared. Ala, a town in South Tyrol, Austria, in the government district of Rovereto, on the Adige river, at the entrance of the Ronchi valley. It is the last station on the Brenner railway, and has an Austrian and an Italian custom-house. Silk and velvet manufactures. Population in 1890, 4646; in 1900, 4933, chiefly Italian. Alabama, one of the Southern States of the American Union, situated between 35° and 30° 13' N. lat., and 84° 53' and 88° 35' W. long., and bounded on the X. by Tennessee, on the E. by Georgia, on the S. by Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and on the W. by Mississippi. In the last quarter of the 19th century Alabama experienced a new era of prosperity. During the decade of the Civil war the cotton product had fallen off from 989,955 bales in 1860 to 429,482 bales in 1870, and the corn product from 33,226,282 bushels to 16,977,948 bushels, these being the leading products of the State, which was almost entirely agricultural. Politically and economically the result of the war was even more marked. The emancipation and enfranchisement of the negroes, who constituted almost half of the population (475,510 coloured in a total of 996,992), threw the Government into the hands of strangers, “ carpet-baggers,” who were attracted mainly from the north by the prospect of political power. When these went into office under the constitution born of the bayonet, their auditor said in his first report: “ Alabama stands in a proud position in the
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financial world. . . . Nothing but gross mismanagement of her finances will cause her credit to decline.” The State’s bonded debt was . . . $5,270,000.00 Educational fund and miscellaneous . $3,085,683.51 Total . . . $8,355,683.51 Under the new regime the State’s endorsement was granted to railways to the extent of $16,000 a mile ; and many roads were begun, partially completed, and then abandoned. So gross was the mismanagement in general that, before the close of 1873, the governor was compelled to report to the legislature his inability “ to sell for money any of the State bonds,” a condition of things which, according to an official report (30th September 1874), had resulted from the fact that the debt had grown to the sum of $25,503,593, including both direct and endorsed railway securities. At this crisis the white people, worn out by misgovernment at the hands of irresponsible rulers, resolved to re-establish the public affairs of the commonwealth upon a normal basis. Under the lead of George S. Houston, the bulk of the white voters united in the democratic and conservative party triumphed in the memorable contest of 1874, electing not only the governor, but large majorities in both branches of the legislature. The affairs of the State were again in the hands of the taxpayers. That event made possible the political, economic, and industrial reorganization which has since lifted the State to its present condition of prosperity, not only as an agricultural community, but as one of the great coal and iron-producing States of the Union. Under the constitution of 1875, which superseded that of 1868, and which is still in force, official salaries and the power of the legislature to indulge in financial extravagance were severely restricted. The debt, then beyond the ability of the State to bear, was readjusted, and was so reduced by amicable settlements that, on 30th September 1888, it had shrunk from $25,000,000 to $12,085,220. Owing to subsequent payments, the total bonded debt amounted on 1st March 1898 to only $9,357,600. The total population, which had increased in 1890 to 1,513,017 (833,718 whites and 679,299 negroes), was 1,828,697 in 1900, showing an increase for the decade of 20‘8 per cent. The total land surface of Alabama is, approximately, 51,540 square miles, and the density of population was therefore 35’4 per square mile in 1900, as compared with 29'3 ten years earlier. There were, in 1900, 201 incorporated cities, towns, and villages, and of these 9 had a population in excess of 5000, and 3 in excess of 25,000. These three were Mobile, with 38,469 inhabitants, Birmingham, with 38,415, and Montgomery, with 30,346. The proportion of rural to urban population is increasing. The total taxable values, which in 1876 were $135,535,790, were in 1898 $256,256,295, the total state tax being 5J mills on the total values. The total cotton product, which in 1870 was 429,482 bales, was in 1899, 1,130,000 bales. The main feature in the modern transformation is the vast development of the mineral region, which occupies the north-eastern two-fifths of the State. The southeastern fourth of this area, the Gold Belt, produces gold, copper, pyrites, and mica. In the north-western threefourths are the three coal-fields—Warrior, Cahaba, and Coosa—aggregating 8000 square miles (about 2000 productive), separated by narrow north-east and south-east valleys, in which are bauxite, barytes, iron ores, and limestones. Thus all the raw materials for the production of iron occur in close proximity, with no natural barriers between. The total annual coal production, which in 1870 amounted only to 13,200 tons, had risen in 1875 to 67,200; in 1880 to 380,000; in 1885 to 2,492,000; in
