manufacture of mineral products, and by North Carolina and South Carolina in the number and output of cotton mills, in 1900 and in 1905 Georgia surpassed each of those states in the total value of factory products, which was, however, less than the value of the factory products of Louisiana and Virginia among the southern states. The chief features of this industrial activity are its early beginning and steady, constant development. As far back as 1850 there were 1522 manufacturing establishments (35 of which were cotton mills) in the state, whose total product was valued at $7,082,075. Despite the Civil War, there was some advance during each succeeding decade, the most prosperous relatively being that from 1880 to 1890. In 1900 the number of establishments was 7504, an increase of 75.1% over the number in 1890; the capital invested was $89,789,656, an increase of 57.7%, and the value of products ($106,654,527) was 54.8% more than in 1890. Of the 7504 establishments in 1900, 3015 were conducted under the “factory system,” and had a capital of $79,303,316 and products valued at $94,532,368. In 1905 there were 3219 factories, with a capital of $135,211,551 (an increase of 70.5% over 1900), and a gross product valued at $151,040,455 (59.8% greater than the value of the factory product in 1900).
The most important manufacturing industries are those that depend upon cotton for raw material, with a gross product in 1900 valued at $26,521,757. In that year[1] there were 67 mills engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods, with a capital of $24,158,159, and they yielded a gross product valued at $18,457,645; the increase between 1900 and 1905 was actually much larger (and proportionately very much larger) than between 1890 and 1900; the number of factories in 1905 was 103 (an increase of 53.7% over 1900); their capital was $42,349,618 (75.3% more than in 1900); and their gross product was valued at $35,174,248 (an increase of 90.6% since 1900). The rank of Georgia among the cotton manufacturing states was seventh in 1900 and fourth in 1905. Cotton-seed oil and cake factories increased in number from 17 to 43 from 1890 to 1900, and to 112 in 1905, and the value of their product increased from $1,670,196 to $8,064,112, or 382.8% in 1890–1900, and to $13,539,899 in 1905, or an increase of 67.9% over 1900, and in 1900 and in 1905 the state ranked second (to Texas) in this industry in the United States. This growth in cotton manufactures is due to various causes, among them being the proximity of raw material, convenient water-power, municipal exemption from taxation and the cheapness of labour. The relation between employer and employee is in the main far more personal and kindly than in the mills of the Northern States.
The forests of Georgia, next to the fields, furnish the largest amount of raw material for manufactures. The yellow pines of the southern part of the state, which have a stand of approximately 13,778,000 ft., yielded in 1900 rosin and turpentine valued at $8,110,468 (more than the product of any other state in the Union) and in 1905 valued at $7,705,643 (second only to the product of Florida). From the same source was derived most of the lumber product valued[2] in 1900 at $13,341,160 (more than double what it was in 1890) and in 1905 at $16,716,594. The other important woods are cypress, oak and poplar.
Fourth in value in 1905 (first, cotton goods; second, lumber and timber; third, cotton-seed oil and cake) were fertilizers, the value of which increased from $3,367,353 in 1900 to $9,461,415 in 1905, when the state ranked first of the United States in this industry; in 1900 it had ranked sixth.
Communications.—Means of transportation for these products are furnished by the rivers, which are generally navigable as far north as the “fall line” passing through Augusta, Milledgeville, Macon and Columbus; by ocean steamship lines which have piers at St Mary’s, Brunswick, Darien and Savannah; and by railways whose mileage in January 1909 was 6,871.8 m. The most important of the railways are the Central of Georgia, the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Georgia and the Georgia Southern & Florida. In 1878 a state railway commission was established which has mandatory power for the settlement of all traffic problems and makes annual reports.
Population.—The population of Georgia in 1880 was 1,542,180; in 1890 1,837,353, an increase of 19.1%; in 1900 2,216,331, a further increase of 20.6%[3]; in 1910, 2,609,121. Of the 1900 population, 53.3% were whites and 46.7% were negroes,[4] the centre of the black population being a little south of the “fall line.” Here the negroes increased, from 1890 to 1900, faster than the whites in eighteen counties, but in northern Georgia, where the whites are in the majority, the negro population declined in twelve counties. Also the percentage of negro illiteracy is higher in northern Georgia than in other parts of the state, the percentage of negro male illiterates of voting age being 38.3% in Atlanta in 1900, and in Savannah only 30.7%. The population of Georgia has a very slight foreign-born element (.6% in 1900) and a small percentage (1.7% in 1900) of people of foreign parentage. The urban population (i.e. the population in places of 2500 inhabitants and over) was 15.6% of the total in 1900, and the number of incorporated cities, towns and villages was 372. Of these only forty had a population exceeding 2000, and thirteen exceeding 5000. The largest city in 1900 was Atlanta, the capital since 1868 (Louisville, Jefferson county, was the capital in 1795–1804, and Milledgeville in 1804–1868), with 89,872 inhabitants. Savannah ranked second with 54,244, and Augusta third with 39,441. In 1900 the other cities in the state with a population of more than 5000 were: Macon (23,272), Columbus (17,614), Athens (10,245), Brunswick (9081), Americus (7674), Rome (7291), Griffin (6857), Waycross (5919), Valdosta (5613), and Thomasville (5322).
The total membership of the churches in 1906 was about 1,029,037, of whom 596,319 were Baptists, 349,079 were Methodists, 24,040 were Presbyterians, 19,273 were Roman Catholics, 12,703 were Disciples of Christ, 9790 were Protestant Episcopalians, and 5581 were Congregationalists.
Government.—The present constitution, which was adopted in 1877,[5] provides for a system of government similar in general to that of the other states (see United States). The executive officials are elected for a term of two years, and the judges of the Supreme Court and of the court of appeals for six years, while those of the superior court and of the ordinaries and the justices of the peace are chosen every four years. Before 1909 all male citizens of the United States at least twenty-one years of age (except those mentioned below), who had lived in the state for one year immediately preceding an election and in the county six months, and had paid their taxes, were entitled to vote. From the suffrage and the holding of office are excluded idiots and insane persons and all those who have been convicted of treason, embezzlement, malfeasance in office, bribery or larceny, or any crime involving moral turpitude and punishable under the laws of the state by imprisonment in the penitentiary—this last disqualification, however, is removable by a pardon for the offence. Before 1909 there was no constitutional discrimination aimed against the exercise of the suffrage by the negro, but in fact the negro vote had in various ways been greatly reduced. By a constitutional amendment adopted by a large majority at a special election in October 1908, new requirements for suffrage, designed primarily to exclude negroes, especially illiterate negroes, were imposed (supplementary to the requirements mentioned above concerning age, residence and the payment of taxes), the amendment coming into effect on the 1st of January 1909: in brief this amendment requires that the voter shall have served in land or naval forces of the United States or of the Confederate States or of the state of Georgia in time of war, or be lawfully descended from some one who did so serve; or that he be a person of good character who proves to the satisfaction of the registrars of elections that he understands the duties and obligations of a citizen; or that he read correctly in English and (unless physically disabled) write any paragraph of the Federal or state constitution; or that he own 40 acres of land or property valued at $500 and assessed for
- ↑ The manufacturing statistics for 1900 which follow are not those given in the Twelfth Census, but are taken from the Census of Manufactures, 1905, the 1900 figures here given being only for “establishments on a factory basis,” and thus being comparable with those of 1905. In 1890 there were 53 mills with a capital of $17,664,675 and a product valued at $12,035,629.
- ↑ In these valuations for 1900 and for 1905 the rough lumber dressed or remanufactured in planing mills enters twice into the value of the product.
- ↑ The population of the state was 82,548 in 1790, 162,686 in 1800, 252,433 in 1810, 340,989 in 1820, 516,823 in 1830, 691,392 in 1840, 906,185 in 1850, 1,057,286 in 1860, and 1,184,100 in 1870.
- ↑ This negro percentage includes 211 Chinese, Japanese and Indians.
- ↑ The state has had four other constitutions—those of 1777, 1789, 1798 and 1868.
