When World War II finally came to an end on September 2, 1945, adult Pennsylvanians welcomed an end to the dual adversity of economically depressed conditions and wartime sacrifices. The nation entered an era of change that is arguably the most significant since the end of the Civil War.
POPULATION
Pennsylvania’s population was determined in 2000, by the U.S. Census Bureau, to be 12,281,054, a 3.4 percent increase since the 1990 Census. The Census estimate for July 2006 was 12,440,621. Pennsylvania had long been the second most populous state, behind New York, but in 1950 it fell to third due to the growth of California. In 1980 Texas also exceeded our population, as did Florida in 1987 and Illinois in 1990. Thus, the present national rank is sixth. In density of population, Pennsylvania ranks eleventh, and in terms of the federal government’s definition of metropolitan statistical areas, Pennsylvania is tied with Texas and Illinois for having the fourteenth highest percent of state population residing in metropolitan areas. Women outnumbered men by 418,555 in 2000. Pennsylvania’s population has continued to age. The median age was 38 years in 2000 and is estimated to have been 39.5 in 2005. In 2000, Pennsylvania had the second oldest state population, behind Florida, as measured by percentages of population over 65, and in 2005 was estimated to be also younger than West Virginia. Thus, by the over 65 standard, it has the third oldest population. However, the Census Bureau’s median age table ranked Pennsylvania as also having a younger profile than Maine. Eighty percent of Pennsylvania’s population growth comes from international immigration, and 20 percent from the excess of births over deaths within the population already residing here. The number of other states’ residents migrating into Pennsylvania each year is less than the number of Pennsylvanians who leave, so entrants from other states are not a positive factor in the state’s present overall population growth.
Population trends that have been noticeable since 1980 have generally persisted up to the Census Bureau’s estimates completed for July 1, 2006. In western Pennsylvania, only Butler County experiences robust growth, and only six other western counties have escaped net population decline since 2000. Allegheny County has lost an estimated 58,255 in this six-year period; Pittsburgh lost an estimated 21,744. Estimates to July 1, 2006, show all the southeastern counties except Philadelphia have continued to grow, as did Monroe, Pike, and Wayne. All the other northern tier counties and most of the contiguous counties immediately to the south of them had net population losses except Forest, as did five of the anthracite mining counties: Lackawanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and Montour. Philadelphia is estimated to have lost 69,166 residents since the Census of 2000.
Minorities and Racial Composition – In 2000 the U.S. Census, for the first time, allowed individuals to classify themselves as belonging to more than one race. Only 1.15 percent of Pennsylvanians chose that option, as compared to 2.4 percent of the nation’s population.
The 2000 Census showed 9.97 percent of Pennsylvania’s population to be African American, less than the national average of 12.3 percent. This included 45 percent of the population of Philadelphia County, 17 percent of Dauphin County, 14.5 percent of Delaware County, and 12.4 percent of Allegheny County.
Pennsylvania’s Hispanic or Latino population in 2000 was 3.2 percent of the state’s total, far less than the Hispanic percentage for the nation, which was 12.5 percent, although in Pennsylvania there had been an increase of about 70 percent since 1990. The largest Hispanic groups were found in Philadelphia (80,360, or 13 percent of the county), Berks (21,111), Lancaster (15,685), Northampton (11,006), Chester (10,594), and Montgomery (10,321) counties. This cluster of counties, however, only partially corresponds to the pattern of communities to which large numbers of Hispanics have spread since 1990. Such a growth pattern suggests that Hispanics prefer rural counties and small cities.
There were 18,348 Native Americans and Alaskan natives in 2000. The Asian racial population was 1.78 percent of the state’s population, and was concentrated in the cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and in Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton counties.
Women – After World War II, Pennsylvania women continued to add to their record of achievements. Rachel Carson, whose Silent Spring (1962) did much to awaken the nation to environmental dangers, was born in Springdale and educated at Chatham College. The theories of anthropologist Margaret Mead still today provoke discussion and research in that field of science. Catherine Drinker Bowen’s historical and biographical works have received general acclaim. Jean Collins Kerr, dramatist and drama critic, has influenced a generation of cinema and television audiences. Actresses Lizabeth Scott and Grace Kelly were national idols in the 1950s. Hulda Magalhaes of Bucknell University had a remarkable career in biological research and teaching. Kathryn O’Hay Granahan was the first female member of Congress from Philadelphia and the Treasurer of the United States from 1962 to 1966. Hilda Doolittle from Bethlehem, a renowned imagist poet, wrote many of her works between World War II and 1961. Elizabeth Nath Marshall, four times mayor of York, was largely responsible for urban renewal there. The remarkable career of Genevieve Blatt included twelve years as Secretary of Internal Affairs followed by judicial service on the Commonwealth Court. Philadelphian C. Delores Tucker was a renowned civil rights leader who marched in the 1965 protest rally in Selma, Alabama, and was Secretary of the Commonwealth from 1971 to 1977. As the first African American female Secretary of State in the United States, she organized voter registration by mail and worked for lowering the voting age to 18. Later she would crusade against sexually explicit musical lyrics.
Currently the public is concerned about the number of women holding office in government. Since 1923, one hundred and five women have been elected to the state House of Representatives. The present General Assembly has nine women senators and twenty-five women representatives, thus constituting 13.4 percent of all legislators. The number of women has consistently increased in both houses of the General Assembly since 1975, when only one senator and eight representatives were women. Women presently holding other major elective offices include Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll, Supreme Court Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin, and six judges of the Superior Court. With Knoll’s election, Pennsylvania joined fifteen other states that have women lieutenant governors. Five Pennsylvania women have served in the United States House of Representatives, and Representative Melissa Hart presently carries on that tradition. In Pennsylvania, women lawyers have been remarkably successful in rising to the judiciary. First Lady Marjorie O. Rendell is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The first woman on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was Ann X. Alpern, who was appointed in 1961. Juanita Kidd Stout was next, in 1988, the first woman elected to the high court, and in 1995 Justice Sandra Schultz Newman was elected. Cynthia A. Baldwin was elected to the Supreme Court in 2006. Six of the present fifteen commissioned judges of the Superior Court are women. Judge Phyllis W. Beck, who is now among that court’s present senior judges, was, in 1981, the first woman on that bench. Genevieve Blatt was the first woman on the Commonwealth Court, assuming office in 1972. Presently, in addition to Judge Baldwin and the six Superior Court judges, five of the Commonwealth Court’s complement of nine are women, including the president judge. The office of State Treasurer is a major government position which three women have held for much of the last four decades: Grace Sloan, Catherine Baker Knoll, and Barbara Hafer. Also, Major General Jessica L. Wright’s appointment as Adjutant General in 2004 marks the first time a woman has held that post.
In February 1975, the state’s Commission for Women was created and was re-established in June 1997. Primarily it is a referral agency for women’s interests, and gives a priority to childcare, domestic violence, and women’s economic self-sufficiency. The Million Women’s March of October 24, 1997, brought an estimated one and a half million women, primarily African Americans, together in Philadelphia.
Health – Public health is a major concern for the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania’s birth rate, after record increases in the 1980s, declined throughout most of the 1990s. The 2000 birth rate of 11.9 per 1,000 population was 17 percent lower than the United States rate of 14.5; in 2004 Pennsylvania stood at 11.7 per 1,000 population and the United States at 14.0. Since 1980, the percentage of births to older mothers (aged 30+) has increased dramatically. Pennsylvania’s 2000 general fertility rate was a remarkable 44 percent lower than the 1960 general fertility rate for the state. In comparing Pennsylvania’s birth and fertility rates to United States rates back to 1950, Pennsylvania’s rates were consistently about 16 percent lower, even during the “baby boom” years of 1950 through 1964.
In 2000, Pennsylvania’s infant death rate (7.1 per 1,000 live births dying within their first 364 days) was above the national average (6.9) and ranked as the twentieth-fourth highest (and twenty-seventh lowest) among the fifty states and the District of Columbia. In past decades Pennsylvania’s infant death rate had usually been similar to the United States rate.
The state’s 2004 crude death rate per 1,000 population was reported by the National Center for Health Statistics to be 10.7 which was the second highest among the 47 states that reported and the District of Columbia. However, when adjusted for age, Pennsylvania’s death rate was only slightly higher than the national average and ranked nineteenth among the forty-eight units as yet reported.
The three leading causes of death among Pennsylvania residents (heart disease, cancer, and stroke) have remained the same since 1945. Together they accounted for 59 percent of deaths in 2003. However, cancer’s share of deaths has consistently increased since 1950, while the other two have declined. The death rates for all three leading causes have usually been higher than United States rates, as should be expected for Pennsylvania’s aging population. In addition, Pennsylvania’s death rates for accidents and suicide, which were almost always lower than national rates in the past, have been higher in recent years. However, the state’s rates for deaths from HIV infection and homicide have remained lower than national figures. Deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s Disease have increased substantially in recent years, while deaths from syphilis and tuberculosis have all but disappeared.
Pennsylvania ranks higher than the national average for the percentage of adults who are overweight (33 percent), have diabetes (6 percent), and smoke (24 percent). Surveys completed in 2004 showed that the percentage of smokers in Philadelphia and in the 13 northwestern counties was 29, whereas in seven southeastern counties outside Philadelphia it was only 21. Surveys at public schools, completed in 2000 and 2007, show that adolescent smoking has decreased sharply. In 2007 only 17.5 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 smoked cigarettes, and in grades 6 through 8 only four percent.
Concerns about the state’s health care complex have worried the public increasingly over the last two decades. Pennsylvania’s State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which became a separate legislative appropriation item in 1997, has greatly benefited uninsured families. Pennsylvania has not only a lower percentage of its total population not covered by health insurance than has the United States, but also a lower percentage of its children not covered. Legislation enacted November 2, 2006, expanded SCHIP coverage to all Pennsylvania families by specifying that families with incomes above 200% of the poverty level income can enroll their children if they pay part of the cost in premiums. The bill’s sponsors hope all children will be enrolled within three years.
Statistics of the American Medical Association for 2004 show that Pennsylvania had the ninth highest number of physicians per 100,000 population among the fifty states, and U.S. Department of Health’s statistics show the state stood eleventh in its percentage of nurses to population. However, there are currently critical shortages in both those professional categories. The high cost of malpractice insurance and obligations to treat uninsured patients are among the factors leading many medical specialists to leave the state, and Governor Edward G. Rendell has recently discussed the irony of the state’s medical schools producing superior numbers of graduates – very few of whom remain to practice in Pennsylvania.
The Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly (PACE) program was enacted in 1984 to assist elderly Pennsylvanians unable to pay for needed medication. Administered by the Department of Aging, it was expanded by PACENET in 2003 so that it now assists about 250,000 seniors. In 1986 the legislature created the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, which has collected and published information about the costs, quality, and accessibility of health services and, on request, investigated particular health problems. It has given valuable advice to people making personal health decisions. The late 1990s had seen the rise of managed medical care, a series of policies intended to reduce costs of health services by streamlining traditional distribution methods. On his first day in office, Governor Rendell created the Office of Health Care Reform for investigating, planning, and advocating changes in this troubled area.
The last two decades have also seen major innovations in transplanting human organs. Dr. Thomas Earl Starzl pioneered in liver transplant surgery at Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital and Presbyterian-University Hospital, and he became the nation’s spokesman for transplant medicine through his autobiographical narrative, The Puzzle People (1992).
Labor – The entire decade following World War II was a period of frequent labor strife. Fringe benefits for wage earners were points of heated dispute; they had scarcely been dreamt of before 1941. The steel strikes of 1952 and 1959-1960 required the intervention of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. The outcome in 1960 was a triumph for the Taft-Hartley Labor Relations Act, which was less favorable to labor’s power to bargain than the preceding Wagner Labor Act, although the merger of the AFL and the CIO in 1955 had given organized labor more strength. The recessions of the 1970s prevented expansion of unionization in many manufacturing areas and may have diminished union membership in traditional factory forces as well. Unionization of office workers, however, has gone on, in line with the increasing absorption of workers into the service sector of the economy. Pennsylvania is not considered to be among the right-to-work states that protect workers unwilling to join unions that have recognized collective bargaining powers. In 1970 the Public Employee Law (Act 195) established collective bargaining for teachers and other public workers. During the last decade, labor unrest has been highly visible in certain occupations such as public school teaching, newspaper work, and hospital nursing. Statistics compiled by the Bureau of National Affairs show that despite increased unionization of public sector workers, unionization has declined overall in the twenty-four years since 1983. In 2002 only 10 percent of Pennsylvania private sector workers were union members, and the percentage of overall union membership had dropped from 27.5 percent in 1983 to 15.7 percent in 2002. The fact that the total civilian work force within the state has increased during this period means that the absolute drop in union membership does not shrink the ranks of unions as much as it would if the total work force had remained constant. By 1996 a worker’s compensation reform statute was put in force by the state over strong opposition from labor unions. Both state and federal programs have been created to retrain workers laid off due to technological change. Today, Pennsylvania has the sixth largest state civilian labor force in the nation, standing at 6,255,170 workers in April 2007. From 1976 through 1985, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rates ran above national rates, but from 1986 through 1990 and in 1994 and 1995 it was below the national average. Since 2000 it has been very close to the national average; for 43 of the last 53 months it has been at or below the national rate. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for June 2007 were 4.2 percent for Pennsylvania and 4.5 for the United States. From August 2004 through April 2007, the number of new jobs created monthly has steadily increased.
Veterans – According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ statistics, in 2007, Pennsylvania’s approximately 1,117,000 living veterans includes 204,000 who served in World War II (of whom 63,000 are women), 162,000 who served in the Korean War, and 347,000 who served during the Vietnam era.
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE
Diversity came to Pennsylvania after World War II as the coal, steel, and railroad industries declined. Ironically, Pennsylvania’s earlier domination in industrial development created a major liability in plants and equipment. Its enormous capital investment, past and present, left a complex now less efficient than newer industrial centers elsewhere. In steel, Pennsylvania’s integrated mills have been less efficient than the South’s minimills and the new steel complexes abroad. Pennsylvania’s steel production began to contract in 1963, although the nation’s output, stimulated by the Vietnam War, rose to its all-time maximum in 1969 of 141 million tons. The national figure then declined until it reached 88.3 million tons in 1985, and did not rise above 100 million tons again until 1994. Across the nation, the new locations and their altered technology increased the output per worker three fold between 1975 and 1990. In 2006 Pennsylvania produced 6,816,784 short tons of raw steel. Also, Pennsylvania is still a national leader in specialty steel products.
The tremendous consumer power of Pennsylvania is reflected in statistics for 2003 and 2004. Our state was sixth in total retail sales receipts, fifth in the number of retail establishments, and seventh in the number of wholesale establishments. In 2002, Pennsylvania’s total state and local government spending was $86.2 billion, giving the state the rank of sixth among the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Pennsylvania was fourth in state and local government spending for public welfare and sixth in spending for education.
A very important statistical measure of a state’s economic vitality is Gross State Product (GSP), the equivalent, for the fifty states and the District of Columbia, of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. In 2006 Pennsylvania’s GSP was $440.7 billion in current dollars. Pennsylvania had long been fifth in this category, but was surpassed by Florida in 1990. It has retained sixth position ever since, behind Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York, and California. In seven of the nine components into which GSP is di - vided, Pennsylvania, in recent years, has been either sixth or seventh in the nation. In the manufacturing component of GSP Pennsylvania is sixth.
ENERGY RESOURCES
The market for Pennsylvania’s coal began to decline at the end of World War II. Oil and natural gas were by then regarded as so much more convenient to use that they replaced anthracite coal for heating buildings. The 1959 Knox Mine disaster in Luzerne County, and resulting investigations and criminal proceedings, revealed the extent of corruption that had gripped the anthracite industry. The disaster and its aftermath brought about an end to deep mining in a large part of the anthracite region. Today, Pennsylvania’s anthracite production remains steady, usually amounting to no more than five percent of bituminous tonnage; most anthracite is now produced by surface mining and refuse reprocessing. In 2005, anthracite mines produced 2,239,073 tons, whereas recovery from refuse sites produced 4,223,507 tons of this very valuable fuel. Only 189,899 of the mined tonnage came from underground operations at 17 mines, a remarkably small amount when compared with statistics from the early twentieth century. In 2005 there were 697 anthracite miners, but only 128 of them worked underground.
In the 1960s the bituminous market revived because larger amounts were put to use to produce electric power, even though the market for industrial coke was dropping as the steel industry showed signs of decline. Pennsylvania stood at a competitive disadvantage to Wyoming, West Virginia, and Kentucky because of the sulfur content in its bituminous and our state’s stiff environmental regulations. The period between 1975 and 1995 was not favorable to the Pennsylvania coal industry, with the state’s share of national output shrinking from nearly 15 percent to under 6 percent in 1995. While U.S. production rose 71 percent from 1970 to 1995, Pennsylvania’s output dropped by 22 percent. West Virginia and Kentucky lead the Commonwealth by substantial production margins, and Wyoming, in first place, mines more than four and a half times as much coal as Pennsylvania. A large proportion of Pennsylvania’s production decline has been in the surface mining component of the industry since 1977, the year Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Production from the state’s surface operations has fallen over 70 percent since its peak that year.
Mining methods became much more efficient over the course of the twentieth century. Traditional “room and pillar” mines had been improved in the 1940s by conveyor equipment and rotating drums that shredded coal surfaces with dramatic speed, but more significant was the adoption of longwall mining operations for bituminous, beginning in the 1960s. In these arrangements powerful shredders move back and forth along walls sometimes over two miles long, with the machine operators protected by overhead covers made of steel. No coal is wasted to provide supporting pillars because the mined out longwall areas are simply left to collapse, often causing subsidence on surfaces above. Not needing support pillars, longwalling allows mining at much deeper levels, levels where any safe pillars for traditional mining would have had to be so large that little coal could have been produced. Surface subsidence caused by longwalling, however, has drawn criticism. The 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act and the 1971 Federal Clean Air Act initially impacted worker productivity and placed Pennsylvania’s coal at a disadvantage by cleanliness standards because of its high sulfur content. The problem was exacerbated by emissions requirements in 1990’s Clean Air Act acid rain amendments. Eventually concentration on low sulfur coal veins and improved scrubbing technology restored Pennsylvania’s bituminous competitive status. Beginning in 1997, bituminous underground mines returned to production levels not seen since 1970, so that while surface production continues to be small, the subsurface operations carry the total production to robust levels. In 2005, the last year for which statistics are available, total bituminous production (from underground, surface mining, and reclamation) was 73,080,672 tons, of which 54,979,266 tons was produced from 43 underground mine sites. By 2007, the number of underground bituminous mines has decreased to 39. Far fewer seams for profitable surface mining remain, whereas deep mining has been spurred by the shift to the extremely efficient longwall technology. Geologically, the Pittsburgh Coal Seam underlying several western Pennsylvania counties is ideally suited for longwalls because it has six-toeight foot seam heights and relatively good roof and floor conditions. Although Wyoming, West Virginia, and Kentucky continue to produce more coal than Pennsylvania, the outlook for Pennsylvania coal is still favorable. In 2004, nearly 74% of Pennsylvania’s bituminous was sold for electric power generation, about half of which was distributed outside Pennsylvania. Longwall operations were responsible for about 83 percent of subsurface bituminous production in 2000.
However, a new criticism has emerged more recently with the recognition that coal poses another hazard to humanity. Highlighted by former Vice-President Al Gore’s alarming presentation to Congress in March 2007, the validity of the theory that unchecked greenhouse gas emissions will subject mankind to a long future of increasing global warming is finally accepted by a preponderance of scientists. Carbon dioxide emission produced by burning coal has been identified as a major factor in this trend. Complex emission control technology of the “capture and store” type is envisioned for industrial sites that rely on coal fuel, but none is yet in large scale use. Despite the recent concern about global warming, “gasified” coal is being advanced as an alternative energy source to replace the world’s shrinking natural gas and oil reserves. In 2005 there were 4,322 employees at Pennsylvania’s underground bituminous mines and 2,085 at bituminous surface mines. Some western Pennsylvania companies have started miner training programs because the pool of veteran miners from the decades of high production is no longer available. The rescue of nine trapped miners at Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, in July 2002, was a triumph of the human spirit greeted with compassion by the public, but it also underscored the need for uninterrupted, diligent safety oversight at all underground operations.
Although once a leader in petroleum production, Pennsylvania now produces very little crude oil. Its production of natural gas, however, is still very abundant. In 2005 Pennsylvania’s gas utility industry ranked seventh among the states in gas b.t.u.’s sold, and fifth in the amount sold only for residential use.
Pennsylvania’s nine nuclear energy plants, located at five plant sites, produced 36 percent of the state’s electricity in 2004, and make our state the second most productive state in nuclear generated kilowatt hours, just behind Illinois. Many Americans have objected strongly to nuclear power plants as health hazards and point to the nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island generating station in March 1979. However, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as well as the federal government closely regulate all nuclear plants for safety. Four of Pennsylvania’s five plant sites have two operating units: Berwick, Beaver Valley at Midland, Limerick, and Peach Bottom. The plant at Three Mile Island, near Middletown, was built with two units, but following the 1979 accident the core of the damaged unit was removed, leaving it inoperative. The other unit was not dam aged and is still producing power. Efforts to establish low-level radiation waste storage areas within Pennsylvania have been defeated in the legislature, and nuclear waste is now shipped to sites in South Carolina, Utah, and a few small toxic dumps elsewhere.
Under the administration of Governor Edward G. Rendell, a number of alternative energy projects have been underway, and more research in this area is enthusiastically supported. Travelers can see one of these when passing the large energy generating wind mills that are visible from several highways.
AGRICULTURE
While the number of farms and the acreage farmed has generally declined over the past sixty years, farm production has increased dramatically due to scientific and technical improvements. In 1950 there were 146,887 farms and their average size was 146 acres. In 2005 there were 58,105 farms and their average size was 132 acres. About 27 percent of the state’s land area is committed to farming. Agriculture continues to be fundamental to the state’s economy, and benefits from statewide efforts of farm and commodity organizations, agricultural extension services, strong vocational programs, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, all of which keep farmers informed of new developments and assist them in promoting and marketing farm products. In 2004, cash receipts for all crops and livestock products of Pennsylvania farms rose to $4.86 billion, and agribusiness and food-related industries were responsible for at least ten times that amount in annual economic activity. In 2004, Pennsylvania ranked twentieth among the states in total agricultural sector output value, and twentieth in net farm income. The four principal Pennsylvania farm commodities in terms of marketing receipts were: dairy products, cattle, agaricus mushrooms, and greenhouse products. Our state was fourth in cash receipts for dairy products, tenth in turkeys, fourteenth in broiler chickens, and nineteenth in corn. Since livestock and dairy products are so profitable for farmers, field crops have dropped in acreage; farmers have converted land previously producing field crops to pasture and growing livestock fodder. Among field crops corn remains the strongest because it is the most valuable for feeding livestock. Foods for which the state’s record is outstanding include: cheese, maple syrup, pretzels, potato chips, sausage, wheat flour, and bakery products.
Two federal programs impact on Pennsylvania’s future farming. The National Organic Products Act of 1990 as amended, establishes standards under which products may be represented to consumers as organically produced. Also, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 made country-of-origin labeling mandatory for all beef, lamb, pork, fish, perishable agricultural commodities, and peanuts, although labeling of fish and shellfish is still delayed pending further discussions..
TRANSPORTATION
Highways – The Pennsylvania Turnpike, which set the pattern for modern superhighways throughout the nation, was ex panded, after World War II, from the western boundary to the Delaware River, as well as northward into the anthracite region. A far-reaching federal highway act was passed in 1956, authorizing the federal government to pay 90 percent of the costs of new roads connecting the nation’s principal urban centers. More state turnpike miles would probably have been built had it not been for the cost advantage of toll-free interstate highways authorized under this federal legislation of 1956. Taking advantage of U. S. funds, Pennsylvania built an interstate system that today stretches along 1,751 miles. The most outstanding example of the system is Interstate 80, known as the Keystone Shortway, which is 313 miles long and traverses 15 northern Pennsylvania counties. In 2004 Pennsylvania’s 120,623 miles of rural and urban highways ranked it ninth among the fifty states. Pennsylvania had 9,821,000 registered motor vehicles, 60% of which were automobiles, placing it sixth among the fifty states. Its 8,430,000 licensed drivers were the fifth largest such group among the states, and Pennsylvania was fourth in motorcycle registration (291,000). The number of deaths from traffic accidents in Pennsylvania has dropped from 2,089 in 1980 to 1,490 in 2004, and the state in 2004 had the seventh highest total of traffic accident deaths. Alcohol blood counts were reported in 614 of the 1,490 deaths.
Waterways – Waterways have always been of major importance to Pennsylvania. The state has three major ports: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Erie. The Port of Philadelphia complex, encompassing Philadelphia proper and four other cities along the Delaware River, is the largest freshwater port in the world and has the second largest volume of international tonnage in the United States. Pittsburgh, located at the confluence of the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny rivers, has long been a center for barge transportation, especially of coal and limestone. Erie has been a major center for Great Lakes transportation for a long time, especially for steel and zinc.
Aviation – Constant expansion of passenger service has been the story of aviation in Pennsylvania since World War II. Today there are sixteen major airports, five of which have been granted international status. Instrument landing systems became standard at airports in all the smaller cities following several Bradford Regional Airport accidents in 1968-1969. In the 1970s, automated radar terminal systems were installed at all the major airports to safely handle the increased volume of traffic. The international airports of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are among the nation’s twenty-nine major aviation terminals, and compete favorably with the others in total numbers of scheduled flights. The expansion of All American Aviation to Allegheny Airlines, and then to U.S. Air, is typical of progress in the industry. The energy crises beginning in the late 1970s caused reorganization involving commuter lines using smaller craft that operate as feeders from smaller cities to the major airports. Deregulation by the federal government and a trend toward corporate mergers in the 1980s caused further reorganization of the industry. Two aircraft manufacturers prospered in Pennsylvania during this period. Piper Aircraft Corporation of Lock Haven outdistanced its competitors and produced America’s most popular light airplane until the 1970s. Vertol Division of Boeing Corporation, successor to the Piasecki Helicopter Corporation, was located in Delaware County and was a major manufacturer of helicopters.
Railroads – Because of its extensive service during World War II, the railroad industry in 1946 was financially more sound than it had been since 1920, but by the end of the 1950s it was losing ground rapidly to the growing trucking industry. Diesel engines and a few electrified systems replaced the coal-burning locomotives which had been the railroads’ pulling units for a century. In 1962 the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central merged as the Penn Central Railroad, but it did not receive federal ICC approval until 1968, after having made extensive reductions in services and divestiture of assets. The new giant was bankrupt in 1970, the same year the federal government created Amtrak, a service system subsidizing passenger service on the major rail lines of the northeastern states. The federal government took control of the major freight lines in 1974 by forming Conrail, which subsidized 80 percent of the freight lines in Pennsylvania. Rail mileage was reduced by eliminating obsolete and unnecessary lines, typically those to now non-productive coal mines. The work force was reduced by a fourth, and commuter service trains, which in 1974 had been made the responsibility of Conrail, were gradually eliminated. In 1981 Conrail finally began to operate profitably, and in 1987 the federal government sold it to private stockholders. Although passenger service to smaller municipalities has been eliminated, faster travel is possible on the remaining routes. Seamless rails, cement ties, and the elimination of grade crossings have made this possible.
CULTURE
Computer Revolution – Pennsylvania is now in the midst of a worldwide cultural leap at least as important as the coming of internal combustion engine transportation early in the twentieth century. In 1946, scientists J. Presper Eckert Jr. and John W. Mauchly of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania produced the world’s first electronic computer, the ENIAC, for the U.S. Army. Its unique feature was that its vacuum tubes performed the operation in place of the mechanical switches used in previous computers. In Philadelphia, the Remington Rand Corporation produced the first commercial computer, the Univac I, in 1951. In 1958, the Univac Division of Sperry Rand Corporation built the first solid-state electronic computer at its Philadelphia laboratory, further advancing electronic data processing. The introduction of real-time computer application in the 1960s meant that computers now did far more than solve complex individual problems, and the microminiaturization trend of the 1970s, following the introduction of silicon chips and integrated circuit design, led to a myriad of applications for the personal computer. Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD and CAM) were also trends of the 1970s. Startling developments in digital and graphic imaging and scanning capabilities followed, and now the new frontier of voice interaction with computer processes is reaching maturity. The information highway developed from the merging of the Department of Defense’s ARPAnet and universities and learned institutions’ data banks and internal networks. Local-area and regional-area networks also emerged, and in the 1990s the nation’s information highway became part of the World Wide Web. From medical applications to business transactions, from education to almost every function of society, computer-based systems have vastly upgraded the cultural level of Pennsylvanians. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s statistics for 2003 showed that Pennsylvania ranked 32nd among the states in the percentage of households with computers (60.2%) and 27th in those having internet access (54.7%). Cellular telephones, hand-held computer devices, digitalization, and the electronic transaction of numerous forms of commercial activity are becoming commonplace and have significantly transformed Pennsylvania’s culture.
Literature – Pennsylvania has launched many major writers on the American literary scene who flourished in this period. Pearl S. Buck won both the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes. Christopher Morley, John O’Hara, Conrad Richter, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and James Michener have left indelible imprints. John Updike, whose stories are largely placed in the anthracite region, has fascinated generations of Pennsylvanians and is considered the state’s senior living creative writer. Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore were poets of renown. Naturalist Rachel Carson grew up in Pittsburgh; her Silent Spring was pivotal in launching the modern environmental movement. Edward Abbey was brought up in Indiana County and wrote novels condoning forceful resistance to destruction of the western American desert landscape. Marguerite de Angeli thrilled generations of children with books such as Thee, Hannah!
Two works of the 1980s, Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood and John Edgar Wideman’s Sent for You Yesterday depict contrasting views of neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. Wideman, a leading African American writer, has also dealt with personalities in Philadelphia’s inner city. Another African American, David Bradley, was acclaimed for his historical novel, The Chaneysville Incident. Writers popular today, who place their novels in Pennsylvania settings, include Stephen King (From a Buick 8); K.C. Constantine whose mysteries in Philadelphia center on an Italian American sleuth; Carrie Bender and Tamara Myers, who use Amish-Mennonite settings; and David Poyer whose Hemlock County cycle deals with the early Pennsylvania oil industry. Lisa Scottolini’s detective novels with criminal law themes take place in Philadelphia, as do Neil Albert’s Dave Garrett mysteries. Juvenile historical fiction is a growing field, well represented by Gloria Skurzynaki’s The Rockbuster and GoodBye, Billy Radish. Robin Moore and Laurie Halse Anderson write for the same audience, intending to show the emerging generation some important historical events in exciting settings. Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilts’ novels trace experiences of elderly characters reconciled with the present through the metaphor of producing quilts. Michael Novak’s Guns of Lattimer is a classic historical novel sensitively expressing the horror of an actual massacre of immigrant coal miners, and it carries on the earlier twentiethcentury tradition of Michael Musmanno’s Black Fury and Thomas Bell’s Out of This Furnace. Peter Blair celebrates the tradition of dangerous skilled industrial work with strong implications of class distinctions in his book of poems, Last Heat. Poet Jan Beatty, in “Aware in a Strange Landscape,” reflects impressions of several generations seeking to escape a world of despair such as Peter Blair portrays. These challenging dangers and pressures arising within society have parallels in the wartime experiences of an African American Pittsburgher in Vietnam, as told in 1997 by Albert French in Patches of Fire. Another school of Pennsylvania writers emphasizes Pennsylvania locations that impart a nostalgic beauty and emotional sanctuary from which, under stress and necessity, the native Pennsylvania protagonist must at least temporarily depart. Following this theme have been Maggie Anderson’s poem, “Promised Land: A Sense of Place,” and Updike’s The Olinger Stories.
Performing Arts and Media – Among the famous Pennsylvanians who starred in the movies were W.C. Fields, Gene Kelly, Richard Gere, Tom Mix, Jack Palance, and James Stewart. Stewart received the first Governor’s Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist Award in 1980. In 1984, Bill Cosby also received this award. From the 1930s until the late 1950s, audiences throughout the country thrilled to the romantic musical drama of two native Pennsylvanians, singers Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
Beginning about 1976, there was an upsurge in the use of Pennsylvania locales as filmsettings by major motion picture producers, and many cinema stories touched on past or present human experiences taking place in the state. The Rocky series of films began, and in 1977 Slapshot, The Deer Hunter, and The Boys from Brazil displayed contemporary scenery. Since then, numerous popular films – serious and humorous, documentary and imaginatively fantastic – have displayed regions of the state, and independent and low-budget producers have joined the traditional Hollywood giants. Set in Philadelphia have been Jersey Girl, Unbreakable, and the 1993 movie Philadelphia. The sensitive interpretation of African American slavery, Beloved, was also filmed there, as was the award winning Six Sense. Both the set and the story for Championship Season belong to Scranton. Central Pennsylvania was the scene for Witness and Gettysburg. A number of films were made in Harrisburg: Lucky Numbers, 8 Millimeter, The Distinguished Gentleman, and Girl, Interrupted. In western Pennsylvania, Silence of the Lambs and Prince of Pennsylvania featured areas outside Pittsburgh, whereas Hoffa, Sudden Death, and Flash Dance displayed the city.
In the field of dance, the Pennsylvania Ballet founded by Barbara Weisberger in 1964, has an international reputation. The Pittsburgh Ballet is also widely acclaimed. Band leaders Fred Waring and Les Brown distinguished themselves in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia has a worldwide reputation for the advanced study of music. Distinguished singers who were Pennsylvanians by birth or are so remembered by association include Louis Homer, Paul Athouse, Dusolina Giannini, Mario Lanza, Helen Jepson, Perry Como, Bobby Vinton, and Marian Anderson (who received the 1982 Governor’s Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist Award). Leopold Stowkowski rose to fame as the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Victor Herbert was conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony during part of his career. Eugene Ormandy, conductor of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra for forty-four years, received the 1980 Hazlett Memorial Award for Excellence in the Arts in the field of music. For twenty- five years the Philadelphia Orchestra has been chosen for extended summer performances at the Saratoga Springs, NY, Performing Arts Festival. The Pittsburgh Symphony is proud to have had Andre Previn (recipient of the 1983 Hazlett Memorial Award for Excellence in the Arts) as its conductor. Samuel Barber, Peter Mennin, and Charles Wakefield Cadman are among the betterknown Pennsylvania symphonic composers.
The television industry grew rapidly beginning in the 1950s, and today Philadelphia is the fourth largest television market in the country and Pittsburgh the eleventh. Both cities have three major network stations, a public broadcasting station, and smaller independent stations. WQED in Pittsburgh pioneered community-sponsored educational television when it began broadcasting in 1954. The late Fred Rogers, a Latrobe native, was leader in this movement, carrying a message moral values intended for children. His Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood used friendliness, empathy, and the world of fantasy to foster healthy mental maturation in an increasingly technical and aggressive environment, and it received national and international acclaim.
Pennsylvania has 83 daily and 41 Sunday newspapers, ranking it fourth among the fifty states and Washington D.C. It has the sixth highest number of paid newspaper subscribers and the eighth highest percentage of subscribers.
Religion – Pennsylvania’s religious composition at the beginning of the twenty-first century can be judged by statistics compiled by the Association of Religion Data Archives, which is located in the Department of Sociology of the College of Liberal Arts at The Pennsylvania State University. The information in detail, including explanations of complexities, is available at www.theARDA.com. A total of 8,448,193 individual religious adherents are believed to presently exist, amounting to 68.8 percent of Pennsylvania’s population in 2000. However, 1,331,835 (or 15.8 percent) of that total figure is estimated because numerous congregations are known to exist but have no record of their total adherents. These faiths include the Church of Christ Scientist and the following nine historically African American denominations: African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Church of God in Christ, National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., and Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. The Religion Data Archives had divided along major theological differences the 115 faiths in Pennsylvania for which it has counts. This breakdown resulted: Catholic – 3,802,524; Orthodox – 75,354; Evangelical Protestant – 704,204; Mainline Protestant – 2,140,682; and twelve faiths of “other theologies” – 393,584. The twelve other faiths are: Baha’i, Buddhism, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Tao, Unitarian Universalism, and Zoroastrian.
The following simplified table lists 25 adherents’ groups including nine that combine denominations linked only historically and that are divided theologically today. The nine combined groups are: Jewish, Methodist, Lutheran, Muslim, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal, Amish and Mennonite, and Orthodox.
Education – School consolidation became a major goal after World War II. By 1968 the number of school districts had been compressed from over 2,000 to 742; today there are only 501. Centralization and improved spending produced this desirable result. In the 1970s, programs for exceptional and for disadvantaged students first became available, and the vocational-technical secondary school option assisted many youths in finding career areas. In 1974, Pennsylvania’s Human Relations Commission ordered that racial imbalance in public schools be eliminated by the end of the year.
Today, education is one of the Commonwealth’s most treasured assets. Total enrollment in all its schools and learning institutions has been very constant between 2001, a peak year for elementary and secondary total enrollment, and 2003-2004, the latest school year fully reported. Annual increase of fall enrollment in institutions of higher learning have tended to grow by about 20,000, offsetting public school decline which is largely a result of lowered elementary enrollment. Presumably the drop at the elementary years is due to decreased state population in the pre-secondary school years. For the fall 2004 total enrollments minus a figure of 23,000 non-resident higher education enrollees, the total enrollment was about 2,739,000, about 22 percent of the entire state population. Home schooling and charter schools are playing increasingly important roles. In 2001-2002, home schooled enrollment was 23,909, and 28,413 students were enrolled in Pennsylvania’s seventy-seven charter schools. The charter schools are concentrated in urban areas and have a student population drawn sixty-three percent from minorities. Sixty percent of the charter schools are at the elementary level, the remaining 40% are at the secondary school level.
The total enrollment in Pennsylvania’s 146 higher educational institutions was 649,650 for the year beginning in the fall of 2003. Female enrollment reached 56 percent, extending a trend observable for the last decade. However, there were far more female than male part time students, so that female full time students made up only 53.5 percent of total full-time enrollment. The total enrollment of graduate students was 91,350 in the fall of 2003, but that does not include the “first-professional” categories of law, medicine, and theology.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Survey provides statistics on Americans over twenty-four years old who have gradu - ated from high school and college. Given in percentages, this data from the 1990 Census and the 2005 population census estimates can be used to compare the progress achieved by each state’s educational system. By the year 2005, 86.3 percent of Pennsylvanians over twenty-four were high school graduates and 25.8 percent were college graduates with bachelor’s degrees or more, compared to the U.S. averages of 85.2 percent and 27.6 percent respectively. Pennsylvania’s standings were virtually the same as those of Ohio and Delaware, although our percent of college graduates fell far below neighboring New York, Maryland, and New Jersey. In terms of progress since the 1990 Census, Pennsylvania has increased 11.6 percent in over-24 high school graduates and 7.9 percent in over-24 college graduates, somewhat ahead of the increases in both categories for the entire nation.
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS: A TWO-PARTY STATE
The New Deal, the rising influence of labor, and the growing urbanization of the state ended a long period of Republican dominance. In stride with the New Deal, the Democrats fielded a successful gubernatorial candidate in 1934, but the Republicans dominated the next four gubernatorial elections. The Democrats, however, took control of the two major cities, Pittsburgh in 1933 and Philadelphia in 1951, and achieved electoral majorities for the Democratic nominees in seven of the eleven presidential elections from 1936 to 1976. In 1954 and 1958 the Democrats elected George M. Leader and David L. Lawrence successively as governors. They were followed in 1962 by Republican William Warren Scranton, and in 1966 by Republican Raymond P. Shafer. In 1970 the Democrats elected Milton Shapp and regained firm control of the legislature for the first time since 1936. Shapp became the first governor eligible to succeed himself under the 1968 Constitution, and he was re-elected in 1974. In 1978 Republican Dick Thornburgh was elected governor. Within two years, the Republicans became the majority party when, in addition to the governorship, they held both U.S. Senate seats, supported President Ronald Reagan’s candidacy in 1980, and won majorities in both houses of the state legislature. In 1982 Governor Thornburgh was re-elected, but in 1985 the Democrats became the majority party in the House of Representatives. In 1986 the Democrat Robert P. Casey of Scranton, a former State Auditor General, defeated Lieutenant Governor William W. Scranton III for the governorship. In 1990, Governor Casey was re-elected by an overwhelming majority over the Republican candidate, Auditor General Barbara Hafer.
The accidental death of U.S. Senator John Heinz in April 1991 led to the appointment and then overwhelming election victory for the vacant seat by Democrat Harris Wofford, who raised the issue of reform of the nation’s health care system. He de feated former Governor Thornburgh. In 1992 Democratic majorities were returned in both houses of the General Assembly for the first time since 1978. On June 14, 1993, Gov. Robert P. Casey underwent a heart-and-liver transplant operation necessitated by a rare disease, familial amyloidosis. He was the first American for whom this operation was performed for that condition. Lieutenant Governor Mark S. Singel exercised the powers and performed the duties of governor until Governor Casey returned to work on December 21. In November 1994, U.S. Representative Tom Ridge defeated Lieutenant Governor Singel and third-party candidate Peg Luksik of Johnstown in the gubernatorial election. In 1995 and 1996 the majority in the House of Representatives swung from Democratic to Republican by the shifting of one seat. The November 1996 elections gave Republicans a five-member House majority and they maintained their majority in the state Senate. Governor Ridge was overwhelmingly re-elected over the Democratic candidate, Assemblyman Ivan Itkin, and two third-party challengers, in November 1998. Following the November 2000 election, Republicans held ten seat Senate majority and a five seat majority in the House of Representatives. As a result of congressional reapportionment following the U.S. Census of 2000, Pennsylvania lost two representatives’ seats.
On October 5, 2001, as a result of the national crisis following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Governor Tom Ridge resigned to answer the call of President George W. Bush to serve as the nation’s first Director of the Office of Homeland Security. Lieutenant Governor Mark S. Schweiker was then sworn in as Governor and Robert C. Jubelirer, President Pro Tempore of the State Senate, as Lieutenant Governor. In the election of November 2002, the Democratic candidate, Edward G. Rendell, a former mayor of Philadelphia, was elected Governor by 53.5 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican candidate, the incumbent Attorney General Mike Fisher, as well as the Green Party and Liberal Party candidates. Governor Rendell is the 45th state governor and the first Philadelphian to win the office since 1906. Republican majorities existed in both houses of the General Assembly throughout the Governor’s first term. In the November 2006 election, Governor Rendell was re-elected over Republican candidate Lynn Swann, a former Pittsburgh Steelers football star, sports announcer, and a motivational speaker. Rendell received 60.4% of the total of 4,014,109 votes cast for the two major candidates. Swann was the first African American to be nominated for governor of Pennsylvania on a major party ticket. In the same election, incumbent U. S. Senator Rick Santorum, a Republican, was defeated by the Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr., a former auditor general and state treasurer. Public criticism of a legislative vote to increase the salaries of its own members was in part responsible for many outgoing legislators refusing to run for re-election or being defeated for re-election. The November 2006 elections resulted in a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in twelve years, although the new composition was only 102 Democrats to 101 Republicans. The state Senate elections produced a chamber that had a Republican majority of 29 to 21.
COLD WAR, KOREAN CONFLICT, VIETNAM INVOLVEMENT, AND PERSIAN GULF WAR
After the end of World War II, the United Nations was established as a parliament of governments in which disputes between nations could be settled peacefully. Nevertheless, the United States and Communist countries started an arms race that led to a “cold war,” resulting in several undeclared limited wars. From 1950 to 1953, individual Pennsylvanians were among the many Americans who fought with the South Koreans against the North Koreans and their Communist Chinese allies. Pennsylvania’s 28th Infantry Division was one of four National Guard divisions called to active duty during the crisis, being deployed to Germany to help deflect any aggression from Russia or its allies. At home, during the early 1950s, public fears of Communist infiltration reached hysterical levels but then subsided as it became apparent that exaggeration and unfounded fears had been forced on the public by Red-baiters.
Pennsylvanians served their country faithfully during the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf conflicts. In Korea, Pfc. Melvin L. Brown of Mahaffey, Sfc. William S. Sitman of Bellwood, and Cpl. Clifton T. Speicher of Gray gave their lives in self-sacrificing combat deeds for which they were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Major General John Huston Church (1892-1953) commanded the 24th Infantry Division in the first year of fighting. Lieutenant General Henry Aurand commanded the U.S. Army- Pacific (which included the Korean operation) from 1949 to 1952. General Lyman L. Lemnitzer, a native of Honesdale, was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which brought about a brief thaw in the Cold War.
In 1964 a conflict developed in Vietnam. American troops fought beside the South Vietnamese against the North Vietnamese and their supporters until 1973, and many Pennsylvanians served and died there. Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz of Philadelphia and Sgt. Glenn H. English Jr., a native of Altoona, were mortally wounded while performing courageous acts for which they were both awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Pfc. William D. Port of Harrisburg, Spec. David C. Dolby of Norristown, and Lt. Walter J. Marm Jr. of Pittsburgh received the Medal of Honor for conspicuous acts of leadership and personal valor. Major General Charles W. Eifler, a native of Altoona, directed the First Logistical Command in South Vietnam until May 1967. The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. includes 1,449 Pennsylvanians among the 58,715 who died as a result of combat. The war was very unpopular in Pennsylvania, as in the rest of the nation, and anti-war protests and rallies drew large crowds. The Cold War ended with a number of climactic events between late 1988 and 1991. The importance of each event has been debated, but the fall of the Berlin Wall, in November 1989, has been most deeply embedded in the popular mind.
In 1990 and 1991 Pennsylvania units sent to Saudi Arabia, as part of the international force confronting Iraqi aggression, included the 121st and 131st Transportation Companies of the Pennsylvania National Guard, the 193rd Squadron of the Air National Guard, and the 316th Strategic Hospital Reserve. This conflict has been known as the Persian Gulf War and sometimes as the First Iraq War. On February 25, 1992, 13 members of the 14th Quartermaster Detachment, U.S. Army Reserves, a Greensburg unit, were killed by an Iraqi Scud missile attack.
WAR AGAINST TERRORISM, SECOND IRAQ WAR, AND IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION
On September 11, 2001 United Airlines Flight 93 scheduled for San Francisco, bearing forty-four passengers and crew, was hijacked by four terrorists of the Muslim extremist terrorist organization al-Qaeda. It was crashed into a farm field near Shanksville, Somerset County, killing all on board. On-flight recordings and phone calls suggest passengers heroically struggled with their captors before the crash and sacrificially thwarted al-Qaeda’s plan to crash the plane into some sensitive government site in or near the nation’s capital. On the same morning, sixty-four Pennsylvanians perished among the estimated 2,752 killed in the destruction of New York City’s World Trade Center Towers by two other airliners taken over by al-Qaeda terrorists. A fourth hijacked airliner destroyed large sections of the Pentagon in the nation’s capital. Volunteer relief for World Trade Center victims sprang forth from Pennsylvania, and Governor Tom Ridge resigned to become director of President Bush’s newly created federal Office of Homeland Security, and in November 2002 the federal Department of Homeland Security was created. Ridge went on to head the new department. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, National Guard and military reserve units within the state were mobilized for domestic security. Some of these forces were soon assigned to the nation’s international war against terrorism, which included combat missions in Afghanistan. In 2003, National Guard involvement as peacekeepers in Bosnia ended, but a similar assignment in Kosovo continued into 2004. A second war against Iraq erupted in March 2003, and National Guard and reserve units participated in the invasion of Iraq, known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the subsequent period of United States’ occupation to stabilize and rebuild that country.
By early 2005, some 8,000 Pennsylvania National Guard members had been employed in the Global War on Terror since September 11, 2001. The First Battalion, 107th Field Artillery was on duty as military police in Iraq from January 2004 until February 2005. Beginning in November 2004, the First Battalion, 103rd Armored Regiment was deployed to Iraq for twelve months, the first time since World War II that a 28th Division combat battalion had operated in a war zone. Later, the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard was among the first United States units organized around a superb new eight-wheeled combat vehicle, and has seen combat service in Iraq. Today, Pennsylvania’s Army National Guard is the largest in the United States, and its Air National Guard is the fourth largest. Recruiting and retention statistics for the 2006 fiscal year were the highest achieved in the last two decades and among the highest in the country. Altogether, the National Guard has 19,000 members and 2,400 full-time employees. In July 2007, the 111 Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard left its Willow Grove Air Reserve Station for re-reployment in support of ground forces in Iraq, flying A-10 Thunderbolt attack fighters.
GOVERNMENT MODERNIZATION
After the Second World War there was a renewed emphasis on reorganizing state government. In 1945 the State Museum and State Archives were placed under the Historical and Museum Commission. In 1947 the Tax Equalization Board was created to review school tax assessments so that the burden of public education would fall evenly on all districts. In 1951 the Council on Civil Defense was created, and in 1978 it became the Emergency Management Agency. In 1955, during the administration of Governor Leader, an Office of Administration was set up within the executive branch. A government reorganization act permitted any governor to transfer functions from one department to another, subject to the approval of the General Assembly. With the accompanying fiscal and appointment reforms of the Leader administration, the reorganization act was the most important change in state machinery since Governor Pinchot instituted an administrative code in 1923. The Human Relations Commission was established in 1955 to prevent discrimination in employment. In 1966 the Department of Community Affairs was created to deal with matters concerning local governments. The termination, in 1968, of the Department of Internal Affairs resulted in four of its bureaus being placed in other agencies.
By a constitutional amendment in 1959, the General Assembly resumed annual sessions but with limitations on actions in the even-numbered years. With bipartisan support, Governor Raymond P. Shafer obtained legislation for a convention which was limited to specific problems of the existing 1874 Constitution. There was agreement that the uniformity clause, which prevents enactment of a graduated income tax, would not be altered. The Constitutional Convention of 1967-1968 revised the 1874 Constitution. A significant provision prohibits the denial to any person of his or her civil rights. The governor and other elective state officers were made eligible to succeed themselves for one additional term. A unified judicial system has been established under the Supreme Court, a Commonwealth Court has been created, and the inferior courts have been modernized. Broad extensions of county and local home rule became possible. In 1971 the voters amended the state constitution to guarantee that equal rights could not be denied because of sex. By an act of Dec. 6, 1972, the State Constitution so amended was declared to be henceforth known and cited as the Constitution of 1968. Sessions of the General Assembly were made two years in length, coinciding with the period of Representatives’ terms. The House was fixed at 203 members, and a Legislative Reapportionment Commission was authorized. By dropping the provision for election of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, the breakup of that department was foreshadowed and actually took place later in 1968. Except in certain emergencies, the new constitution limited state borrowing to 175 percent of the average annual revenue raised by taxation. All departments now had to be audited, and the Governor’s Office was required to submit a budget annually to the legislature.
In 1970, creations of a Department of Transportation and a Department of Environmental Resources were results of an enlarged concept of the role of state government. Both had broader functions than the departments they replaced, the Highways Department and Forest and Waters. The consolidation of two agencies into the Department of General Services in 1975 was another step in the direction of efficiency. The creation of a Commission for Women by executive order in 1975, and the replacement of the Council on Aging with a Department of Aging in 1978, both followed the trend toward serving population segments that have special needs. As a result of a constitutional amendment in 1978, the Attorney General became an elected official in 1980, and that office became an independent department. The designation Department of Justice was discontinued. Within the executive branch, an Office of General Counsel was formed to continue the old function of an attorney appointed and subordinate to the governor. A further result of the break up of the Department of Justice was the eventual creation, in 1984, of a separate Department of Corrections. In 1987 an Office of Inspector General was created, responsible to the governor through the General Council, with investigative powers intended to maintain the integrity and efficiency of activities of the executive agencies. In 1980 the Superior Court was expanded from seven to fifteen judges. The establishment of an Ethics Commission, in 1978, and an Independent Regulatory Review Commission, in 1982, were two of the many measures dealing with particular problems that have surfaced in the governmental process. The augmentation of the Department of Commerce, in 1987, by the Economic Development Partnership anticipated a more powerful economic policy. In June 1996, the Departments of Commerce and Community Affairs were merged to form the Department of Community and Economic Development. Under the administration of Governor Tom Ridge, the Department of Environmental Resources was divided into the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which operates the state parks and forest, and the Department of Environmental Protection, which enforces laws and regulations concerning other components of the environment. Other changes that occurred during the Ridge administrations include creation of governor’s advisory commissions on African American Affairs (1998) and Latino Affairs (1996); re-establishment of the Commission for Women (1997); and formation of the Governor’s Growing Greener Council (1998). During its fifteen months in office, the administration of Governor Mark S. Schweiker Pennsylvania’s Office of Homeland Security was created within the Governor’s Office to coordinate anti-terrorism activities by state agencies. Under the administrations of Governors Ridge, Schweiker, and Rendell, adaptations of internet communication have gradually increased until now they make a vast amount of useful data easily available to the average citizen, including official forms that can be printed quickly to speed up interacting with many government agencies. An example of this is the Rendell administration’s web site link for applying for Right-to-Know access to public data.
The Office of Health Care Reform was created on the first operational day of Governor Rendell’s administration. A Governor’s Cabinet for Children and Families was created in September 2003, followed by a Commission for Children and Families in 2004. In September 2003, Governor Rendell also established the Governor’s Council on Hunting and Fishing to receive input from experts in these recreational activities for policy purposes.
