Distinctive advance has been made in adapting the Constitu tion and the system of administration to the new needs of the State. At the election in 1910, a general Constitutional Conven tion was approved by a large majority. Delegates were chosen in Nov. 1911, and the convention sat from January to June 1912. The delegates, of whom the majority were Democrats, represented the progressive elements of both major parties. Forty-two amend ments were submitted to the voters on Sept. 3, 1912, of which 34 were ratified; among those defeated were the abolition of cap ital punishment, woman suffrage and a $5o,000,000 bond issue for a State system of roads. The tax-reformers secured for the gen eral assembly the power to impose inheritance, income and franchise taxes as well as taxes upon the production of coal, oil, gas and other minerals. Several of these sources of taxation have since been adopted. The League for Direct Legislation secured the initiative and referendum, and those opposed to the liquor interests succeeded, in 1918, in establishing prohibition by a consti tutional amendment. As the result of an administrative reorgani zation act passed in 1921, the numerous departments, com missions and boards were combined into eight departments, each with a director at its head—a system of administration similar to that of the Federal Government.
Insurance.—The State has attempted to regulate the health and safety of its industrial population. The workmen's compensa tion act of 1911 established voluntary "compensation for in dustrial accidents, which compensation is to be paid out of a State insurance fund, to which both employer and employes con tribute (90%*and ro% respectively) in lieu of the civil action for damages." A constitutional amendment of 1912 and a perma nent law of 1913 made compulsory the system of State insurance. Ohio, under the act, maintains its own State insurance fund. By 1928 the premium income to the State amounted annually to more than $13,300,000, and protection was furnished to more than 1,600,000 workmen. Employers also were required to guard the safety of employes and to arrange reasonable hours of work. A statute of 1919 created a State-wide system of municipal and general health districts and a State teachers' retirement system. From 1933 to 1936 the farmers of the State received $38,668,662 in benefit payments from the Agricultural Adjustment Administra tion. Political power in Ohio has, since 1930, tended to fluctuate between the two major parties and in the elections of 1932 and 1936 the Democratic tide carried the State by a safe margin.
Southern Ohio has suffered at various times from floods. Dur ing the great flood of 1884, the Ohio river at Cincinnati reached the highest flood stage ever recorded at that place (over 71 ft. above normal), and throughout the Ohio valley millions of dollars worth of damage was done. Another disastrous flood in 1913, affecting especially the inhabitants of the Miami, the Scioto and the Muskingum river valleys, led to a measure for the protection of the river valley from future damage of the kind. The pro tective system, which consists of a series of dry reservoir dams, was undertaken by two conservancy districts—the Miami and the Upper Scioto—at a cost of and $306,300 respectively.
a treatment of the physical features of Ohio see Stella A. Wilson, Ohio (1902) ; the publications of the Geological Survey of Ohio (1837 seq.) ; and the volumes of the Ohio Co-opera tive Topographical Survey (1916 seq.). For administration see the Report of the Joint Committee on Administrative Reorganization (Columbus, 1921) ; Americanization Bulletin No. I published by the education department (1922) ; and the annual reports of the various State officials and departments. Older works of merit are S. P. Orth, The Centralization of Administration in Ohio, in the Columbia univer sity Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, xvi., No. 3 (1903), and W. H. Seibert, The Government of Ohio, its History and Administration (19o4). The work of J. A. Wilgus, "Evolution of Township Government in Ohio," in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1894 (1895), is a study in local government.