under a permanent tax commission, and a minority report favoured immediate measures for segregation. The minority report was adopted, and the tax laws were revised as follows: the state levy on on real estate and tangible property was restricted to educational purposes, and state and local levies on intangible property were apportioned at 65c and 3Oc per $100 respectively; a permanent tax board was created consisting of the governor, the auditor, and the chairman of the State Corporation Commission, with power to employ assistants, whose duties are to collect information relating to taxation, to make recommendations to the Legislature, and to super- vise the work of local tax boards. In 1918 local governments were denied the right to levy income taxes, and in the same year a special tax of eight cents per $100 was levied, four-eighths of which was to be applied to state elementary schools, three-eighths to the con- struction of roads, and one-eighth to the eradication of tuberculosis. In 1919 an additional tax of seven cents was levied for roads. In 1916 a commission on efficiency was constituted to recommend more efficient methods of state and local financial administration, and in response to its recommendations a state budget law was enacted in 1918 which gave the governor large powers over appropriations from the state treasury.
Education. The school revenue, which in 1910 was $4,407,853, amounted in 1920 to $13,791,864, the expenditure per capita of attendance increasing from $14.77 to $39.48 and the length of the school term from 140 to 147 days. In this period the number of state high schools of all grades increased from 360 to 394. In 1912 an additional state normal school for the training of teachers was established at Radford. In 1918 a general property tax was added to the existing sources of school revenue which yielded approximately $660,000. In 1918 school attendance of all children between the ages of 8 and 12 for 16 weeks was required. Teachers' pensions have been provided for, and the pensions disbursed in 1920 amounted to $10,- ooo. In 1918 the Legislature provided for an Educational Com- mission to make a survey of the educational laws and conditions and to make recommendations for reform and improvements. Its report was made in 1920, and in accord with its recommendations the Legislature in that year submitted for ratification the following amendments to the constitution: legalizing the membership of women on school boards, removing the limitation on county and district school tax rates and all limitation on the Legislature in enacting compulsory attendance laws, and giving the Legislature the power to fix the duties of the State Board of Education. Among statutes enacted in 1920 looking to the improvement of the school system were laws encouraging a nine months' term in rural com- munities, making the school age 7 to 20 years, provision for a school census, encouragement of rural high schools, conferring on the state superintendent the right to nominate candidates for positions as teachers, provision for physical education and medical inspection, and placing the state institutions of higher education on an all-year basis of operation.
History. In 1912 the work of children under 12 years of age in coal mines was prohibited and the id-hour day for children in factories was extended to workshops and mercantile estab- lishments, with the exception of packing and fruit industries between July i and Nov. i, mercantile establishments in towns of less than 2,000 pop., and Saturday work in mercantile estab- lishments. In 1918 the mimimum age for employment was raised to 16 years. In 1914 the commitment of insane criminals to asylums by judicial investigation and order before trial for the crime committed was provided for, and in 1916 the State Bfcard of Charities and Correction was required to register all the feeble-minded in the state, to take measures for their commit- ment to asylums, and to instruct parents in the care of feeble- minded children; it was also authorized to supervise private institutions for the feeble-minded. Two institutions for the feeble-minded are supported by the state, one for white patients near Lynchburg and one for negroes near Petersburg. In 1916 the office of public defender for cities of 50,000 or more pop., with the duty of defending the poor in lawsuits, and state com- pensation was authorized for attorneys appointed by courts to that duty. In 1918 a Mothers' Pension law was enacted which allowed city and county governments to make payments to wid- ows with children under 16 years of age. In the same year the principle of the uniform Family Desertion Acts was adopted, and an Industrial Commission was provided to administer a workmen's compensation system.
Three sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis have been established, the Catawba Sanatorium in Roanoke county (1909), Blue Ridge Sanatorium near Charlottesville (1920), and Pied- mont Sanatorium for negro patients near Burkville (1918). In 1918 a state orthopaedic hospital was established at Richmond. In 1914 the Virginia Home and Industrial School for Girls, a
private institution, became the property of the state, and since then three other reformatories have been taken over. In 1919 the State Prison Board was reorganized and reforms in prison management were adopted, notably better medical care of prisoners, investigation of their mental condition, provision for recreation, and elementary and industrial education. In 1914 a State Forestry Commission was established. In 1916 the State Board of Health was given control over all water supplies which might endanger public health. A state art commission was con- stituted in the same year.
In the World War Virginia supplied 81,140 men to the army, navy and marine corps and subscribed $263,948,400 to the Liberty and Victory loans.
In every state and national election between 1910 and 1920 the Democratic party had a majority. In 1909 William Hodges Mann (Dem.) was elected governor, his term being from 1910-4; he was succeeded by Henry Carter Stuart (Dem. 1914-8, and in 1917 Westmoreland Davis (Dem.) was elected, his term of service beginning in 1918. (W. K. B.)
VIRGIN ISLANDS (see 28.126). The group of the Virgin Is. formerly known as the Danish West Indies was purchased by
the United States from Denmark in 1917 for $25,000,000, the
formal transfer taking place March 31 of that year. This group
consists of the islands St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, to-
gether with about 50 smaller ones, most of them unnamed and
uninhabited. These and the islands Vieques and Culcbra ceded
to the United States by Spain in 1898 now compose the Virgin
Is. of the United States. The language of the people is English,
although the islands had been under the Danish flag for 245
years. The total area of the three principal islands is about
132 sq. m.; St. Croix, the largest, had, according to the U.S.
census of 1917, a pop. of 14,901; St. Thomas had 10,191; and St.
John, 959, a total of 26,051, of which 7-4% were white, about
80% negroes and the remainder of mixed races. Illiterates con-
stituted 24-9% of the pop. 10 years of age and over. The largest
city in the islands, Charlotte Amalie, on the island St. Thomas,
had in 1917 a pop. of 7,747. The other towns, Christianstcd and
Fredericksted on the island of St. Croix, had pop. of 4,574 and
3,144 respectively; these three towns embrace approximately
60% of the total population.
The principal industry, the production of sugar, rum and molasses, is confined to St. Croix. The importance of St. Thomas is due to its magnificent harbour, where the repairing and provisioning of vessels constitute practically the sole industry. In 1920 the U.S. Shipping Board completed an oil-fuelling station here with a capacity of 110,000 bar. St. John and St. Thomas produce the finest bay oil and bay rum in the world. In 1918 exports of bay rum amounted to 26,531 gal. valued at $29,101, and in 1919 these returns were more than doubled. There were, in 1917, 430 farms containing an area of 69,892 ac., which was 82-4% of the total land area. There were 6,084 persons, or 41-6% of the working population engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and 380 persons in fishing.
The total trade of the islands in 1919 was valued at $4,196,037, compared with $3,141,775 in 1918. Exports advanced from $1,249,346 in 1918 to $1,919,525 in 1919, while imports increased from $1,892,429 to $2,276,512. The major portion of this commerce was with the United States, being in 1918 more than seven times as great as with all foreign countries, and in 1919 about four times as great. The total exports of the islands to the United States in 1918 were valued at $1,137,501, 82% being sugar, compared with $1,593,13 in 1919, of which sugar constituted 88 % Of the other exports to the United States the chief were rum, hides and skins, and cabinet woods. Of exports to foreign countries in 1919, spirituous liquors to Denmark constituted about 44% and bay rum about 18%. The principal imports from the United States are breadstuffs, meat and dairy products, iron and steel products, cotton manufactures and coal. Since 1918 fuel oil from Mexico has constituted a large proportion of the imports. Many of the provisions imported are resold as ships' stores, while nearly all of the coal and fuel oil imported are used for bunkering ships at St. Thomas.
Since the transfer of the islands from Denmark, their administration has been under the U.S. Navy Department. The first governor was Rear-Adml. James H. Oliver, who was relieved April 8 1919 by Rear-Adml. Joseph W. Oman, U.S. navy. The latter was succeeded in April 1921 by Capt. Sumner E. W. Kittelle. When the United States took over the islands educational facilities were limited, but steps have been taken to improve conditions. Improvements have been made also in the municipal hospitals and along sanitary lines generally, especial attention having been paid to infant welfare work. (W. R. MA.)
