1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Washington (State)

by Edmond Stephen Meany

WASHINGTON (State) (see 28.358).—The pop. in 1920 was 1,356,621, an increase of 214,631, or 18.8%, over the 1,141,990 of 1910, as against an increase of 120.4% in the preceding decade.

The density of pop. was 20.3 per sq. m.; in 1910 17.1. The urban pop. (in 35 places of 2,500 or more) was 55.2% of the whole, as against 53% in 1910. The pop. of the eight cities having more than 15,000 was:—

	1920	1910	Increase  per cent
Seattle	315,312	237,194	32.9
Spokane	104,437	104,402
Tacoma	96,965	83,743	15.8
Everett	27,644	24,814	11.4
Bellingham	25,585	24,298	5.3
Yakima	18,539	14,082	31.7
Walla Walla	15,503	19,364	-19.9
Aberdeen	15,337	13,660	12.3

The most significant change in the characteristics of the pop. was the increased number of Japanese and especially of Japanese women. In 1900 there were 5,617 Japanese, or 1.1% of the total pop., 96.7% being males. In 1910 the Japanese had increased 130.2% to a total of 12,929, which was still 1.1% of the total pop., 86.9% being males. In 1920 there were 17,114 Japanese, or 1.3% of the total. The rate of increase was 32.4% and the percentage of males had declined to 65.3. One reason for the proportional increase of females was the privilege, prior to the legislative session of 1921, of acquiring title to land in the names of native-born children of Japanese parents.

Agriculture.—During the decade 1910-20 the number of farms increased from 56,192 to 66,288; the acreage of improved land from 6,373,311 ac. to 7,129,343 ac.; the value of all farm property from $637,543,411 to $1,057,429,848. The average value of land per acre in 1910 was $44.18; in 1920 $60.22. The following table shows the change in acreage, production, and value of the chief crops for the decade 1909-19.

		Acreage	Production	Value
Wheat	1919	2,494,160	41,837,909 bus.	$91,206,642
	1909	2,118,015	40,920,390 bus.	35,102,370
Oats	1919	191,673	8,073,481 bus.	8,073,481
	1909	269,742	13,228,003 bus.	5,870,857
Barley	1919	84,568	2,249,856 bus.	3,374,792
	1909	171,888	5,834,615 bus.	3,331,930
Indian corn	1919	34,799	901,905 bus.	1,623,433
	1909	26,033	563,025 bus.	404,367
Potatoes	1919	55,132	5,866,710 bus.	12,320,093
	1909	57,897	7,667,171 bus.	2,993,737
Hay and forage	1919	1,064,130	2,013,913 tons	47,717,065
	1909	742,741	1,399,597 tons	17,200,252
Sugar beets	1919	5,363	46,386 tons	500,969
	1909	1,270	6,556 tons	38,007

Crops of increasing importance are bulbs, flowers, vegetable seeds, flax, filberts, and English walnuts. Prohibition increased enormously the demand for berry-juices. Three-fifths of the loganberries produced in the United States come from Washington (1,157,778 qt. in 1919, valued at $208,402). The evergreen wild blackberry (supposed to have been introduced from Hawaii) is spreading through the river valleys, and the fruit is shipped in carload lots to the canneries. In 1919 the state ranked first in the production of apples and third in hops (1,615,761 lb., valued at $727,092). The growth of the chief orchard crops between 1909 and 1919 was as follows:—

		Production	Value
Apples	1919	21,568,691 bus.	$38,823,641
	1909	2,672,100 bus.	2,925,761
Peaches	1919	1,544,859 bus.	3,321,449
	1909	84,494 bus.	118,918
Pears	1919	1,728,759 bus.	3,025,331
	1909	310,804 bus.	328,895
Plums and Prunes	1919	785,920 bus.	1,532,546
	1909	1,032,077 bus.	600,503

The following table shows the growth in number and value of domestic animals during the decade 1910-20.

		Number	Value
Horses	1920	296,381	$25,069,336
	1910	280,572	29,680,849
Mules	1920	23,091	2,930,813
	1910	12,185	1,776,297
Milch cows	1920	289,635	23,648,537
	1910	186,233	7,988,133
Sheep	1920	623,779	7,750,407
	1910	475,555	1,931,170
Swine	1920	264,747	5,049,249
	1910	206,135	1,674,927

In 1917-8 condenseries used 205,657,654 lb. of whole milk to produce 1,844,097 cases of condensed milk, valued at $8,870,825. Cream and butter were sent to the cities from 110 creameries. In 1919 in 19 factories the production of cheese was 2,004,365 lb., valued at $348,669.

During the decade 1910-20 the irrigated farms increased from 7,664 to 13,271; irrigated acreage from 334,378 ac. to 529,899 acres. The Reclamation Service of the Federal Government has impounded the waters in Keechelus Lake (Kittitas county) and other lakes to serve large projects in the Yakima valley. The Kittitas county project under the state law was designed to reclaim 70,000 ac.; the Klickitat county project to irrigate 90,000 acres. The largest enterprise is the Columbia Basin project, to utilize the waters of Pend Oreille lake and river for the irrigation of 1,750,000 acres.

Mining.—The value of gold production decreased from $840,000 in 1911 to $280,000 in 1919. The amount of silver produced increased from 230,000 oz. to 299,000 oz.; copper from 196,000 lb. to 1,320,000 lb.; lead from 848,000 lb. to 1,700,000 lb.; zinc from 25,000 lb. to 39,000 pounds. Coal mined in 1911 was 3,573,000 tons; in 1919 3,100,000 tons. During the decade 1910-20 five new cement plants were established in the state, and large quantities of Portland cement exported. Of increasing importance are clay products, such as paving brick, sewer pipe, and terra cotta.

Manufactures.—The following table shows the growth of manufactures 1909-14.

	1914	1909
Number of establishments	3,829	3,674
Wage-earners (average)	67,205	69,120
Capital	$277,715,262	$222,261,229
Salaries	11,504,088	9,826,579
Wages	51,703,052	49,766,368
Cost of materials	136,609,309	117,887,688
Value of products	245,326,456	220,746,421
Value added by manufacture	108,717,147	102,858,733

The chief items were lumber and timber products, flour-mill and grist-mill products, slaughtering and meat-packing, butter, cheese and condensed milk, printing and publishing, malt liquors, canning and preserving. In 1914 the state ranked twenty-third in value of products and twenty-seventh in number of wage-earners.

Water Power.—Chief Engineer Merrill, of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, has prepared a chart showing the distribution of water-power resources in the United States. The total represents 54,000,000 H.P. Washington is shown to exceed all other states, with 16% of the total, California being second with 14.5% and Oregon third with 12.3 per cent. Efforts were being made in 1921 to secure Government control of trunk lines for the distribution of hydro-electric power.

Ports and Commerce.—During and immediately after the World War the commerce passing through the district of Puget Sound was second only to that of New York. A law approved on March 14 1911 authorized the organization of ports, and where these are made coextensive with the areas of first-class counties they become ports of the first class. These have elaborate powers of taxation and management. Seattle, Tacoma, Aberdeen and other cities have taken advantage of this law to improve their harbours and to build great wharves and other conveniences to handle the increasing commerce.

Highways.—The state has embarked upon the task of providing an extensive system of improved roadways. These include the Washington link of the Pacific Highway, intended to extend from Alaska to the Straits of Magellan, another highway around Puget Sound to the Pacific; and highways across the Cascade Range and eastern Washington. The Federal Government maintains the Mt. Rainier National Park and the Olympic National Monument. Efforts were being made in 1921 to preserve the Mt. Baker and the Mt. Adam national parks. National forests include 12,000,000 ac. within the state. The Legislature has created a state Park Board authorized to receive lands for parks and to preserve strips of native forest growth along the highways.

History. Ernest Lister, Democrat, became governor in 1913 and was reëlected in 1916. He died June 14 1919, and was succeeded by Lt.-Gov. Louis F. Hart, Republican. Governor Hart was elected to succeed himself in 1920. He recommended what is known as the Governor's Administrative Code of 1921, one of the most significant changes in the state government since its organization. It was enacted by the Legislature, and many boards of commissioners were abolished. The work formerly in their hands was entrusted to appointive officers.

Commerce with many nations developed rapidly during the decade 1910-20. In Seattle there were in 1921 24 resident consuls representing foreign countries. By far the greater number of vessels coming to ports of Puget Sound were under the Japanese flag. Branches of Japanese banks were established. In 1921 the Legislature passed a law restricting alien ownership of land, aimed especially at the Japanese. It provides that: an alien shall not own land or take or hold title thereto; no person shall take or hold land or title to land for an alien; land now held by or for aliens in violation of the constitution of the state is forfeited to and declared to be the property of the state; land hereafter conveyed to or for the use of aliens in violation of the constitution or of this Act shall thereby be forfeited to and become the property of the state. The word “alien” is so defined that it does not include an alien who has in good faith declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, but does include all other aliens and all corporations and other organized groups of persons a majority of whose capital stock is owned or controlled by aliens or a majority of whose members are aliens. During the World War many yards were established for the building of steel and wooden ships. A special railway was built into the spruce forests of Clallam county to get materials for airplanes. The Federal Government established a permanent cantonment at Camp Lewis, near Tacoma. A naval training station was established on the campus of the university of Washington in Seattle.

Progressiveness was shown in such legislation as the working men's compensation law (1911), initiative and referendum (1913), recall of public officers (1913) and aid for destitute mothers (1915). To meet the high cost of government the Legislature in 1921 enacted laws levying a poll-tax on every person between the ages of 21 and 50, and a tax of one cent on each gallon of gasoline used by motor vehicles; the tuition charges in state institutions of learning, and the fees for licences for automobiles and for fish-dealers and others were also increased.

During the World War the state supplied to the army 45,154 men; navy 11,887; and marine corps 1,767. The state's subscriptions to the Liberty loans were: First, $17,070,650; Second, 38,481,100; Third, $42,907,950; Fourth, $70,189,650; Fifth, 45,024,150. (E. S. M.)