Other days

100 YEARS AGO Nov. 4, 1923

■ Governor McRae tomorrow will commute to 12 years imprisonment of the sentences of the six Elaine negroes who have been held at the penitentiary walls for almost four years awaiting execution for first degree murder. The governor said yesterday the his action is in response to a petition from Helena requesting clemency. The petition is signed by court and county officers, members of the Committee of Seven appointed in 1919 by Governor Brough to investigate the Elaine race riots and by other well-known men.

50 YEARS AGO Nov. 4, 1973

FAYETTEVILLE— John Nims, an internationally known poet and translator, will visit the University of Arkansas campus the week of November 5-9 under the auspices of the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English. Nims, a professor of English at the University of Florida at Gainesville, has written a number of books, including “The Iron Pastoral,” “Knowledge of the Evening” and “Of Flesh and Bone.” He is best-known in international literary circles for his translations of the poems of St. John of the Cross.

25 YEARS AGO Nov. 4, 1998

WALNUT RIDGE — A Hot Springs Village couple has deeded a tract of land in Texas valued at $500,000 to Williams Baptist College, Jerol Swaim, president of the college, said Tuesday. Wayne and Doris Meyer gave the college 393 acres located in the Hill Country near Austin in central Texas. Swaim made the announcement during the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, which is meeting this week in Arkadelphia. Swaim said $25,000 from the sale of the land will be used to endow the Wayne and Doris Meyer Scholarship, which will benefit students who come to the college from the Arkansas Baptist Children’s Homes. The remaining money from the sale will go toward the school’s planned Science and Professional Studies Center. Wayne Meyer, a retired petroleum engineer, said in a news release issued by the college that he and his wife were interested in supporting the college.

10 YEARS AGO Nov. 4, 2013

PINE BLUFF — Jefferson County officials knew as soon as the 2010 U.S. Census figures were released that their finances would suffer. The numbers showed a more than 8 percent countywide population loss and a more than 10 percent loss in Pine Bluff, the county seat. Jefferson County has a little more than 77,000 residents, down from more than 84,000 in 2000, according to census figures. Pine Bluff’s population dipped from more than 55,000 in 2000 to less than 50,000. The population loss means lost dollars, said Dutch King, Jefferson County judge. That means the 2014 county budget will be among the tightest in county history, he said. “Every year our population goes down, our tax revenue goes down,” King said. “And when it continues to slide like this, we just have to make adjustments. We can’t spend what we don’t have, obviously.” The county’s general budget — which is just over $9 million — has seen nothing but red all year, Jefferson County Treasurer Elizabeth Rinchuso said. The entire county budget has been operating at about a $2 million shortfall this year, with projected revenue for 2013 down to $26.1 million from $28.2 million in 2012.