“ No child under 16 may do more than 48 hours a week of night work. No child of less than 12 is allowed to work more than 66 hours in any one week. An able-bodied parent who does not work when he has the opportunity, unless “idle under strike orders, or lock-outs,” and who hires out his minor children, is declared a vagrant and may be fined $500 and imprisoned or sentenced to hard labour for not more than six months.
All amendments to the constitution must be approved by a three-fifths vote of each house of the legislature and then ratified by the people. ”

“ But the passage, by the legislature, of vagrancy and apprenticeship laws designed to control the negroes who were flocking from the plantations to the cities, and its rejection of the fourteenth amendment, so intensified the congressional hostility to the presidential plan that the Alabama senators and representatives were denied their seats in Congress. ”

“ The constitution of 1901 prohibits the increase of the debt for any other purposes than the suppression of insurrection or resistance to invasion, and the assumption of corporate debts by cities and towns is also restricted. ”

“ Cotton has always been the principal source of wealth, the amount of its exports at Mobile increasing from 7000 bales in 1818 to 25,000 bales in 1821, and the total product of the state in 1840 being double that of 1830. This was accompanied by an extensive employment of slave labour, and from 1820 until 1860 the rate of increase of the blacks was greater than that of the whites. The success of the economic system was such that in 1860 the cotton crop of Alabama was nearly 1,000,000 bales (989,955 bales) , being 18·4% of the entire cotton product of the United States. ”

“ The governor, auditor and attorney-general are required to prepare and present to each legislature a general revenue bill, and the secretary of state, with the last two officers, constitute a board of pardons who make recommendations to the governor, who, however, is not bound to follow their advice in the exercise of his pardoning power. State officials are forbidden to accept railway passes from railway companies, and individuals are forbidden to receive freight rebates. ”

“ Communications.—The navigable mileage of the Alabama rivers is 2000 m., but obstructions often prevent the formation of a continuous route, notably the “Muscle Shoals” of the Tennessee, extending from a point 10 m. below Decatur to Florence, a distance of 38 m. To remove or circumvent these impediments, and to improve the Mobile harbour, the United States government spent, between 1870 and 1904, approximately $12,000,000. As the streams in the mineral region are not navigable, the railways are the carriers of its products. ”

“ The passage of local or special bills by the legislature was prohibited. A provision intended to prevent lobbying is that no one except legislators and the representatives of the press may be admitted to the floor of the House except by unanimous vote. No executive official can succeed himself in office, and the governor cannot be elected or appointed to the United States Senate, or to any state office during his term as governor, or within one year thereafter. Sheriffs whose prisoners suffer mob violence may be impeached. ”

“ This limits the right to vote to those who can read and write any article of the constitution of the United States, and have worked or been regularly engaged in some lawful employment, business or occupation, trade or calling for the greater part of the twelve months next preceding the time they offer to register, unless prevented from labour or ability to read and write by physical disability, or who own property assessed at $300 upon which the taxes have been paid ”

“ By acts of 1903 child labour under 12 years is forbidden in any factory unless for support of “a widowed mother or aged or disabled father,” or unless the child is an indigent orphan; “no child under the age of ten years shall be so employed under any circumstances.” Certificates of children’s ages are necessary before a child is employed; false certification is forbidden under penalty of a fine of from $5 to $100 or hard labour not exceeding three months. No child under 13 may do night work at all. ”

“ Many similar cases were found later in other southern states, but those in Alabama being the first discovered attracted the most attention. The system came into existence in isolated communities through the connivance of justices of the peace with white farmers. The justices have jurisdiction over petty offences, of which negroes are usually the guilty parties, and the fines imposed would sometimes be paid by a white farmer, who would thus save the accused from imprisonment, but at the same time would require him to sign a contract to repay by his labour the sum advanced. ”

“ These institutions are managed by trustees who are appointed by the governor. In addition to the usual method of employing convicts in the penitentiary or on state farms, Alabama, like other southern states, also hires its convicts to labour for private individuals. Reports of abuses under this system caused the legislature in 1901 to order a special investigation, the results of which led in 1903 to a new system of leasing to contractors, whereby the prisoners are kept under the direct supervision of state officials. ”

“ The native white people united, formed a Conservative party and elected a governor and a majority of the lower house of the legislature in 1870; but, as the new administration was largely a failure, in 1872 there was a reaction in favour of the Radicals, a local term applied to the Republican party, and affairs went from bad to worse. In 1874, however, the power of the Radicals was finally broken, the Conservative Democrats electing all state officials. ”

“ No man may vote in any election who has not by the 1st of February next preceding that election paid all poll taxes due from him to the state. In 1902 nine-tenths of the negroes in the state were disqualified from voting. [3] The constitution of 1901 (like that of 1867) and special statutes require separate schools for white and negro children. A “Jim Crow” law was enacted in 1891. Buying, selling or offering to buy or sell a vote has for penalty disfranchisement, and since 1891 the Australian ballot system has been used. ”

“ In 1894 the Republicans united with the Populists, elected three congressional representatives, secured control of many of the counties, but failed to carry the state, and continued their opposition with less success in the next campaigns. Partisanship became intense, and charges of corruption of the ignorant negro electorate were made. Consequently after division on the subject among the Democrats themselves, as well as opposition of Republicans and Populists, a new constitution with restrictions on suffrage was adopted in 1901. ”

“ Mobile, the only seaport of the state, has a channel 30 ft. deep, on which the national government spends large sums of money; yet an increasing amount of Alabama cotton is sent to New Orleans for shipment, and Pensacola, Florida, receives much of the lumber.
Population.—In 1880 the inhabitants of Alabama numbered 1,262,505; in 1890, 1,513,017, an increase of 17%; in 1900, 1,828,697, a further increase of 20%. This population is notable for its large proportion of negroes (45·23%) , its insignificant foreign element (·08%) , and the small percentage of urban inhabitants (10%) . ”

“ The manufacture of cotton goods has also developed rapidly. As late as 1890 there were only 13 cotton mills in Alabama, one more than the number in 1850; in 1900 there were 31, representing a capital of $11,638,757 and an annual product valued at $8,153,136, an increase of 272·2% over the product ($2,190,771) of 1890; in 1905 there were 46 establishments, representing a capital of $24,758,049 (an increase of 112·7% over that of 1900) , and having a product (for the year) of $16,760,332, an increase of 105·6% over that for 1900. ”

“ During each winter there is usually one fall of snow in the S. and two in the N.; but the snow quickly disappears, and sometimes, during an entire winter, the ground is not covered with snow. Hail-storms occur in the spring and summer, but are seldom destructive. ”

“ This is crossed by foot-hills and rolling prairies in the central part of the state, where it has a mean elevation of about 600 ft., becomes lower and more level toward the S.W., and in the extreme S. is flat and but slightly elevated above the sea. ”