Finance. In 1900 the finances of the State were in the best condition they have reached since the Civil War. The bonded debt of $9,357,000, created during the “carpet-bag” régime, constitutes the tax-payer's heaviest burden. Provisions have been made by law for the refunding of this debt, but none looking to its final extinction. According to the new constitution, new debts can be incurred only for purposes of repelling an invasion or suppressing an insurrection. The valuation of property in this State has increased steadily from $139,000,000 in 1880 to $226,000,000 in 1900. The general tax increased during the same period from $908,000 to $1,467,000. The general purpose tax rate for six years has been two and one-half mills, and for two years there has been a special soldier and special school tax rate of one mill each. The receipts for 1900 amounted to $2,656,000, this being an increase of about $400,000 over the average of previous years. The principal items of revenue are: General taxes, 50 per cent. of the entire revenue; licenses, about 9 per cent.; pension fund taxes, 10 per cent.; special school tax, 10 per cent.; hire of convicts, less than 5 per cent.; poll tax ($1 per poll, $150,000). As there are over 400,000 people subject to a poll tax in the State, it is evident that this tax is generally disregarded.
Education. Education in Alabama is in a very unsatisfactory but hopeful condition. The percentage of her illiteracy is exceeded in but three other States. There are great difficulties in the way of maintaining satisfactory educational standards, such difficulties as are incident to the breakdown of an industrial system and the presence of a large ex-slave class. The schools have lacked financial support, partially through the fault of the law, for there has been no provision for local taxation for educational purposes. The new constitution, however, provides for county school taxes. Many of the teachers lack proper qualifications (especially the colored teachers), the schools are not graded, and heretofore have been very inadequately supervised. The length of the school term is commonly less than ninety days per year; but in the white schools the teachers are often retained for longer terms, at the expense of the parents of the school children. Of late, however, public interest in the matter has been aroused. Laws now make it possible to secure better qualified teachers and provide a better financial support. The school appropriation, which for a long time had amounted annually to about $650,000, was increased in 1900 to $1,000,000; but even this makes the sum for each child of school age only about $1.50. The white children of school age numbered 350,000 in 1900; the black children, 282,000. In 1899 the enrollment of white children amounted to 196,000; of blacks, 122,000. Thirteen hundred children were enrolled in public high schools, and a somewhat less number in private secondary schools. The State supports, together with the aid of the Peabody Fund, seven normal schools, three of which are for colored students. A district system of agricultural schools has been established by the State, there being nine such district schools. The State also supports an agricultural and mechanical college (colored), four normal schools, a Polytechnic Institute at Auburn, a girls' industrial school (white) at Montevallo, and a university at Tuscaloosa. Private institutions of learning are as follows: Blount College, Blountsville; St. Bernard College, Cullman; Howard College, East Lake; Southern University, Greensboro; Lafayette College, Lafayette; Lineville College, Lineville; Selma University, Selma; Spring Hill College, Spring Hill, and eight colleges for women. The Industrial Institute (colored) at Tuskegee (q.v.) has become famous under the administration of Booker T. Washington for the efficient way in which it is helping to solve the race question.
Charity and Penal. The State institutions comprise the Alabama Institution for the Deaf, the Alabama School for Negro Deaf Mutes and Blind, and the Alabama Academy for the Blind, all at Talladega; a hospital for the insane, at Tuscaloosa; a penitentiary, at Wetumpka, and two prisons at Pratt Mines. The State owns a cotton farm and cotton mills, where labor is performed by boys and women convicted of offenses by the courts. The convict system has undergone radical improvements, but prisoners are still leased to contractors for various kinds of work. In 1898 the convicts numbered 1763.
Religion. As in other portions of the South, the Baptists and the Methodists have the field almost to themselves. The other denominations, of which the strongest are the Presbyterian, Catholic, Christian, and Episcopalian, are small in numbers.
Population. The population of the State by decades was as follows: 1820, 127,901; 1830, 309,527; 1840, 590,756; 1850, 771,623; 1860, 964,201; 1870, 996,992; 1880, 1,262,505; 1890, 1,513,017; 1900, 1,828,697. Her rank rose from nineteenth in 1820 to twelfth in 1840; since 1800 it has been gradually falling back, being eighteenth in 1900. The population increased 20.9 per cent. for the last decade, or at a ratio almost identical with that of the nation. The number of inhabitants per square mile in 1900 was 35.5, as against 25.6 for the whole country. In common with the other Southern States, the population is almost entirely native born, the foreign born never having exceeded 15,000 for the whole State. The negroes in 1900 numbered 827,000, but three other States containing a larger number. They are centred largely in the cotton belt, where in certain counties they outnumber the whites five to one, while this ratio is just reversed in a number of counties north and south of this belt. Owing to the relative importance of agriculture, the population is largely rural, but 10 per cent. of the total living in cities of 4000 population and over in 1900. With the development of mining and manufacturing the urban element has rapidly increased, the number of places containing a population of more than 4000 having risen from ten in 1890 to sixteen in 1900. While the negroes engage but little in these occupations, they yet show a strong inclination to gravitate to the urban centres. For the population of the State by counties, see back of map.
Cities. The census of 1900 gives the following figures for the population of the largest cities: Mobile. 38,469; Birmingham, 38,415, and Montgomery, 30,346.
Government. The present Constitution was adopted by a vote of the people in November, 1901. The right of suffrage is restricted to those who have resided two years in the State, one year in the county, and three months in the precinct or ward, and have paid the required poll tax
