1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA (see 20.57). The pop. of Oklahoma in 1920 was 2,028,283; in 1910 it was 1,657,155; an increase of 371,128 or 22.4% as compared with 866,764 or 109.7% in the preceding decade. The urban pop. increased from 19.3% of the total in 1910 to 26.6% in 1920. During the same period the density of pop. increased from 23.9 per sq. m. to 29.2. Indians decreased from 74,825 to 57.337. Negroes increased from 137,612 to 149,408. The pop. in 1920 of the larger cities of the state was:—
| Oklahoma City | 91,295 |
| Tulsa | 72,075 |
| Muskogee | 30,277 |
| Okmulgee | 17,430 |
| Enid | 16,576 |
| Shawnee | 15,348 |
| Bartlesville | 14,417 |
| Ardmore | 14,181 |
| McAlester | 12,095 |
| Guthrie | 11,757 |
| Sapulpa | 11,634 |
| Chickasha | 10,179 |
Industries.—The most interesting fact in connexion with the state between 1910 and 1920 was the development in the production of oil and gas. In 1920 there were 25,000 wells producing either oil or gas or both, and 36 counties were classed as oil and gas producers. Tulsa is the centre of the oil and gas area of the state. Its pop. increased from 18,000 in 1910 to 72,075 in 1920. The production of oil increased from 52,028,700 barrels of crude oil in 1910 to 103,087,420 barrels in 1920, and its value from $19,227,000 in 1910 to $347,355,445 in 1920. In 1920 Oklahoma produced 3,900,000 tons of coal, 70,000,000,000 cub. ft. of gas, 130,950,500 lb. of lead, 6,275,560,500 lb. of zinc, and 125,500 tons of gypsum. The total value of Oklahoma's mineral products increased from $33,000,000 in 1910 to $400,000,000 in 1920. Of almost equal importance was the increase in the value of agricultural products. In 1909 the total value of all crops was $131,522,220, in 1919 it was $549,249,277; but, due to the drop in prices, in 1920 the total value was only $294,715,000. Corn, cotton, live stock and wheat are the most important farm products. The growth of manufacturing also has been large. The chief industries are the manufacture of flour and meal, smelting, oil-refining, and meat-packing. The following table prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau gives a comparative summary for 1914 and 1919:—
| 1919 | 1914 | |
| Number of establishments | 2,445 | 2,518 |
| Proprietors and firm members | 2,320 | 2,464 |
| Salaried employees | 6,491 | 2,793 |
| Wage-earners | 29,503 | 17,443 |
| Capital | $277,034,318 | $ 65,477,654 |
| Salaries | 11,961,191 | 3,202,332 |
| Wages | 35,025,942 | 11,011,043 |
| Cost of materials | 312,605,829 | 70,969,750 |
| Value of products | 401,362,869 | 102,005,693 |
| Value added by manufacture | 88,757,040 | 31,035,943 |
Education.—During the decade 1910-20 great progress was made in education. The public schools employed 8,315 teachers in 1910 and 15,711 in 1920. The number of teachers holding first-grade certificates increased from 2,095 to 9,906. The enrolment of pupils in 1910 was 415,116, in 1920 it was 589,282. The number of graduates from the eighth grade increased from 3,725 in 1911 to 11,465 in 1920. The number of accredited four-year high schools increased from 29 in 1912 to 269 in 1920. The total expenditures for public schools in 1910 were $8,600,450.32 as against $22,826,947.57 in 1920. Similar growth has been shown in the higher educational institutions supported by the state. The six state normal schools, the Agriculture and Mechanical College and the secondary agricultural schools, as well as other state secondary schools, have made progress. The university of Oklahoma, which in 1907-8 had 40 instructors and 790 students, had in 1920-1, 215 instructors and 3,965 students, inclusive of the summer session, but exclusive of correspondence and extension work. In 1916 the Industrial Institute at Chickasha was reorganized and renamed the Oklahoma College for Women; it is the only school maintained by the state that is not coeducational. The following colleges are maintained by their respective churches:—Kingfisher College, Kingfisher (Congregational); Oklahoma City College, Oklahoma City (successor to Epworth; Methodist Episcopal); university of Tulsa, Tulsa (Presbyterian; formerly Henry Kendall College); Phillips University, Enid (Christian); Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee (Baptist); Oklahoma Catholic University Shawnee (Roman Catholic). The following junior colleges are maintained by church interests: Oklahoma Catholic College for Women, Guthrie; Oklahoma Nazarene College, Bethany; Oklahoma Presbyterian College for Girls, Durant.
History.—In 1910 the state capitol was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. In 1913 an effort to move it back to Guthrie was defeated by popular vote. The state adopted in 1910 an election law designed to keep negroes from voting. This law contained the “Grandfather Clause,” but was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1915. In 1918 an amendment to the constitution was adopted granting equal suffrage to women. The state steadily maintained a law guaranteeing depositors in state banks against loss. This law has been so far successful that not a single depositor has met loss through the failure of a state bank. At the time of its admission in 1907 Oklahoma contained more than one-third of the Indian population of the United States. These Indians came from numerous tribes that had been moved to Oklahoma in the 19th century. The absorption of the Indians into the general body of citizens has gone on increasingly since 1910. The Indians of Oklahoma had by 1920 practically no separate history, and such tribal organizations as were maintained were not for governmental purposes but were business corporations for the control of tribal property. The great mineral wealth of Oklahoma has made many of the Indians extremely wealthy. The Osage tribe in particular continued to hold much of its land as tribal property, and its members receive very large royalties. This was not true of certain other tribes, as the lands assigned to them are valuable only for grazing purposes, and the individual allotments under such circumstances bring small incomes.
The governors of Oklahoma after 1910 were:—Lee Cruce (Dem.) 1911-5; Robert L. Williams (Dem.) 1915-9; James Brooks Ayres Robertson (Dem.) 1919-.
Bibliography.—Recent works on the history of Oklahoma include the following:—Joseph B. Thoburn, The Standard History of Oklahoma (1916); Roy Gittinger, The Formation of the State of Oklahoma (1917); John Alley and Frederick F. Blachly, Elements of Government with History and Government of Oklahoma (1920). For statistics see Bulletins of the Oklahoma Geological Survey (Norman 1911); Annual Reports of the State Board of Agriculture; and Biennial Reports of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
(R. Gi.)