Education.—Owing to various reasons educational conditions in the State are not good. There are about 780,000 chil dren of school age, of whom about 525, 000 are white and 254,000 colored. About 410,000 white children are en rolled in the schools and about 200,000 colored children. There are about 14,000 teachers, of whom about 10,000 are white. The total annual expenditures for school purposes is about $5,000,000. Among the colleges are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, David son College at Davidson, Trinity Col lege at Durham, Biddle University at Charlotte, Shaw University and the State Agricultural and Mechanical Col lege at Raleigh, and Wake Forest Col lege at Wake Forest. The women's colleges include the Salem Female Acad emy at Salem, Claremont Female Col lege at Hickory, the Baptist Female Col lege at Raleigh, Greensboro Female Col lege at Greensboro, Asheville College at Asheville, and Oxford College at Ox ford.
Churches.—The strongest denomina tions in the State are the Regular Bap tist, South; Regular Baptist, Colored; African Methodist; Methodist Episcopal, South; Presbyterian, South; Methodist Episcopal; Methodist Protestant; Chris tian; and Disciples of Christ.
Transportation.—The total railway mileage in the State in 1917 was about 5,000. The roads having the largest mileage are the Southern Railway and the Atlantic Coast Line.
Finances.—The receipts for the bien nial period ending Dec. 1, 1918, amounted to $12,665,351, and the disbursements to $11,850,430. There was a balance en hand of $1,039,543. The State has an outstanding debt of about $10,000,000.
Charities and Corrections.—There are hospitals at Morgantown, Raleigh, and Goldsboro; a State prison at Raleigh; various schools for the blind and deaf and a home and industrial school for women.
State Government.—The governor is elected for a term of four years. Legis lative sessions are held biennially and are limited in length to 60 days each.
The Legislature has 50 members in the Senate and 120 in the House. There are 10 representatives in Congress. The State government in 1920 was Demo cratic.
History.—North Carolina was first partially colonized by a body of English under Raleigh in 1585, but no permanent settlement was made till 1663 when Charles II. made a grant of the terri tory to eight English gentlemen. In 1705 an internecine conflict took place among the colonists with reference to the claims of two rival governors. From 1711 to 1713 a war was waged with the Tuscaroras and other Indian tribes, who were ultimately reduced to subjection, the Tuscaroras going to New York and becoming one of the Six Nations. In 1769 the colony declared against the right of the home government to levy taxation. North Carolina united with the other colonies in the Declaration of Independence and made the first decla ration at Charlotte, May 20, 1775. A partisan warfare next ensued between the patriots and the loyalists, which lat ter were in strong force throughout the State. On March 15, 1781, General Green, with a force of 4,500 men, was attacked at Guilford Court House by a body of British troops, 2,000 strong, commanded by Lord Cornwallis, but the British, though claiming victory, were put in such plight that the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown was a neces sary sequence. The National Constitu tion was adopted in 1789. The State joined the Southern Confederacy May 20, 1861, and furnished some of the very best troops in the Confederate army, having 125,000 in service and los ing 40,000 by wounds and disease. The present constitution was amended in 1875, and again in August, 1900, when the suffrage was amended so that after Jan. 1, 1908, no one who came of age that year or afterward, who is unable to read and write, can vote.