«История Соединенных Штатов, Том 6»

eminence in various lines of work in our country. In scientific

investigation the names of Takamine, Noguchi, Yatsu, Takami, Asakawa,

and Iyenaga are well known. The names of those who have been more than

ordinarily successful in business would make a long list. The most

serious objections to the Japanese arise in the coast States where these

immigrants have raised a serious labor problem. The people of these

commonwealths also fear a race problem which in gravity will rival the

one in the Southern States. It is claimed that even now, when the number

of Orientals is small, the enforcement of law is exceedingly difficult

in the Chinese quarters, while the control of the Japanese is next to

impossible since they do not congregate in certain sections of the

cities as do the Chinese. It is claimed that the 2,000,000 whites who

live on the Pacific Coast will be swamped and lose control of the

government if this Oriental immigration is not entirely prohibited. The

Chinese do not cause so much anxiety. Since the passage of the exclusion

act thirty years ago, few have come to the United States--scarcely more

than 2,000 a year. As laborers they are efficient, patient, and honest

in keeping labor contracts.

Gypsies excluded and deported as undesirable.

Ruthenian shepherds from Austria, bound out West for farmers.

Considered desirable and qualified to enter.

A German family of ten considered desirable and qualified to enter.

GROUPS OF IMMIGRANTS UPON THEIR ARRIVAL AT ELLIS ISLAND

These swarms of foreigners who come to us each year are causing

uneasiness in the minds of the thinking people. Can our foreign

population be growing more rapidly than our power to assimilate it? Is

this element as dangerous to our civilization as we think? Has

criminality increased as a result of increased immigration? Has this

element increased labor agitations during the past decade? Some contend

that we are rapidly approaching the limit of our power of assimilation

and that we are in constant danger of losing the traits which we call

American. The immigrants from southern Europe are in too many cases

deficient in education. This lack of education may or may not prove a

danger. So far it seems to have been the rule that in the second

generation these foreigners have shown themselves extremely anxious to

take advantage of the opportunities offered by our free schools.

One of the most serious charges made against the Americanized foreigner

has been that through him there has developed in our political system a

strain of corruption which endangers our institutions. Political

corruption did not come with the immigrants: it was known in all its

forms years ago. This much can be said, however: the worst class of

foreign-born citizens has ever proved to be a support of corrupt

political bosses. Our city governments have been notoriously corrupt and

the cities harbor the great masses of foreigners. The high cost of

living in the cities and the relatively low wages force the aliens into

poor and crowded quarters which tend to weaken them physically and

degrade them morally and socially. Among the Italians of the cities

there appears to be a vicious element composed of social parasites who

found gambling dens, organize schemes of black-mail, and are the agents

of the dreaded Black Hand. It is the class which furnishes aids for the

lowest political bosses and furnishes the bad reputation for the

Italians.

Group of Cossack immigrants considered desirable and qualified to enter.

An investigation of the nationalities in the city of Chicago has been

made by Professor Ripley, of Harvard. The results illustrate the

wonderful dimensions of the problem which the cities confront in the

assimilation of the foreign element. In the case of Chicago, were the

foreigners (those not American beyond the third generation) to be

eliminated, the population would dwindle from 2,000,000 to about 100,00.

In this city fourteen languages are spoken by groups of not less than

10,000 persons each. Newspapers are regularly published in ten different

languages and church services conducted in twenty different tongues.

Measured by the size of its foreign colonies, Chicago is the second

Bohemian city in the world, the third Swedish, the fourth Polish, and

the fifth German. There is one large factory employing over 4,000 people

representing twenty-four nationalities. Here the rules of the

establishment are printed in eight languages. So it is with the other

cities. New York, for example, has a larger Italian population than

Rome, and is the greatest Jewish city, for there are in the city some

800,000 Jews. In all eighty per cent of the population of New York are

foreigners or the children of foreigners. In Boston the per cent reaches

seventy and in Milwaukee about eighty-six.

The charge that criminality has increased rapidly with the increased

immigration from southern Europe seems to be substantiated by

statistics. From 1904 to 1908 the number of aliens charged with

committing grave crimes nearly doubled. While this fact will not prove

the point, it suggests thought on the question.

It has been truthfully said that the fundamental problem in this

question of immigration is most frequently overlooked. Back of the

statistics of illiteracy, pauperism, criminality, and the economic value

of immigrants lies another one of great proportions. What has been the

effect upon our native stock? What has been the expense, to our native

stock, of this increase of population and wealth through immigration?

The decreasing birth rate of our native population some contend is due

to the industrial competition caused by the foreign element. If this be

true, the foreigners have supplanted not supplemented the American, and

the question arises, how long can the assimilation go on before we lose

our American characteristics?

Swedish immigrant family considered desirable and qualified to enter.

The number of Europeans who return to their native lands after living a

time in the United States is comparatively small and the loss is not

great. The emigration of our farmers to Canada is a more serious thing.

Since 1897 the Dominion Government has fostered high-class immigration.

Canadian agencies have been established in many of our Western cities

with the avowed object of attracting farmers to the Provinces. The

Canadian Pacific Railway Company has taken up the pioneering business.

It sells the land, builds the home and the necessary buildings, breaks

the fields, plants the first crop, and hands over to the prospective

settler a farm under cultivation. In return the railway demands

high-class immigrants and, to insure this, no settler can take

possession of a railway farm unless he can show $2,000 in his own right.

Between 1897 and the close of 1910 Canada gained by immigration nearly

2,000,000 inhabitants. Of these, 630,000 were from the United States,

and it is estimated that those who went from the United States during

the past five years took with them $267,000,000 in cash and settlers'

effects. The end of the movement has not come, for the railway companies

have now gone into the reclamation of arid lands. Since 1908 over

1,000,000 acres of arid land in Alberta have been placed under

irrigation, and the work of reclaiming another equally large section has

begun. The American farmers who are taking advantage of this opportunity

form a class which we cannot afford to lose.

CHAPTER XII

NOTABLE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

[1907]

The Northern Securities Company is a corporation, formed under the laws

of New Jersey, for the purpose of obtaining control of a majority of the

stock of the Northern Pacific Railroad and part of the stock of the

Great Northern Railroad. These roads, which parallel each other from

Lake Superior to the Pacific, have been held by the courts, in the case

of Pearsall vs. the Great Northern Railway, to be competing lines.

The organizers of the Northern Securities Company contended that their

ultimate purpose in organizing the company was to control the two

railway systems not for the purpose of suppressing competition, but to

create and develop a volume of trade among the States of the Northwest

and between the Orient and the United States by establishing and

maintaining a permanent schedule of cheap transportation rates.

When the company had completed its organization and the full

significance of the organization was known, the State of Minnesota

instituted proceedings against the company in the State courts. Later

the case was transferred to the federal Circuit Court and eventually

carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the contentions

of the State were overruled.

In March, 1902, a suit was instituted by the United States in the

Circuit Court of the eighth federal district. The judges who sat upon

the case decided unanimously that the acquisition of the stock of the

Northern Pacific and the Great Northern Railways by the Securities

Company was a combination for the restraint of trade among the States,

and therefore a violation of the Sherman act. A decree was issued by the

court prohibiting the company from acquiring any more of the stock of

these roads and from exercising any control over either of the roads in

question.

Copyright by Clinedinst. Washington.

W. Van Devanter. H. H. Lurton. C. E. Hughes. J. R. Lamar.

O. W. Holmes. J. M. Harlan. E. D. White. J. E. McKenna. W. R. Day.

Justices of the United States Supreme Court who acted upon the cases of

the Standard Oil and American Tobacco Companies.

The case was carried to the Supreme Court which by a vote of five to

four, affirmed the decree of the lower court. In the majority opinion

the court took the position that the mere acquisition by the Securities

Company of the stock of the two roads was in itself a combination for

the restraint of trade. The power to do things made unlawful by the

Sherman act had been acquired and this in effect violated that act.

Another point was made clear by the court. The defendants had vigorously

denied that the power of Congress over interstate commerce was extended

to the regulation of railway corporations organized under State laws, by

reason of these corporations engaging in interstate commerce. The court

declared that while this was not the intention of the Government, the

Government was acting within its rights when it took steps, not

prohibited under the Constitution, for protecting the freedom of

interstate commerce. Furthermore, it was held that no State corporation

could stand in the way of the enforcement of the national will by

extending its authority into other States. In substance the court denied

the right of any State to endow a corporation of its creation with power

to restrain interstate commerce.

The contention of the defendants, that the Sherman law was intended to

prohibit only those restraints which are unreasonable at common law, was

dismissed on the ground that this question had been passed upon by the

lower court in other cases.

The dissenting opinions were two in number and were written by Justice

White and Justice Holmes.

Several conclusions of importance may be drawn from the court's

decision.

1. That Congress may forbid transactions of purchase and sale when such

transactions confer on an individual or group of individuals the power

to destroy competition.

2. No State can create corporations and confer upon them power to

interfere with interstate commerce.

3. The Sherman law is not to be interpreted as forbidding the reasonable

restraints of trade which are not objectionable at common law.

The Bailey case is one of importance by reason of the fact that the

decision handed down by the Supreme Court was an effective blow against

the "peonage system," which is an evasion of the constitutional

prohibition of slavery. The Alabama law provides, in effect, that the

mere act of quitting work on the part of a contract laborer is

conclusive evidence that he is guilty of the crime of defrauding his

employer.

Alonzo Bailey was engaged by a corporation to do farm work and signed a

contract for a year, the wages being $12 a month. The company, to bind

the contract, paid Bailey $15 down and it was agreed that thereafter he

should be paid at the rate of $10.75 a month. After working a month and

a few days he left. Instead of suing him for a breach of contract and

recovery of damages, the company caused the arrest of Bailey on the

charge of an attempt to defraud. No direct evidence could be produced

that this was his intention, but the law expressly authorized the jury

to find him guilty of fraud, on the ground that he quitted work. The

accused was not allowed to testify as to his unexpressed intention. His

opportunity to escape prison was to pay back the $15 or to work out the

sum. In case neither was done, he was to be fined double the amount paid

at the time of making the contract or go to work at hard labor.

The attorneys for Bailey, wishing to test the constitutionality of the

Alabama law, carried the case to the Supreme Court of the United States.

The constitutionality of the law was called into question on the

following grounds: (1) That it violated the prohibition against

involuntary service; (2) it denied the plaintiff in error the right of

due process of law; (3) that by laying a burden on the employee and no

equivalent burden on the employer, the law denied to the plaintiff the

constitutional right of equal protection of the laws.

The decision of the court was not unanimous. Justices Holmes and Lurton

upheld the Alabama law, but the majority, in an opinion written by

Justice Hughes, declared the law in conflict with the Thirteenth

Amendment, which prohibits slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a

punishment for crime.

The significance of the decision is this--slavery has been outlawed by

our highest court, and one more legal barrier to the progress of the

black man has been removed.

The case of Loewe vs. Lawler, probably better known to the public as the

Danbury Hatters case, was decided by the Supreme Court in February,

1908, Chief Justice Fuller rendering the decision. The action was

brought originally in the United States Circuit Court for the District

of Connecticut and, after passing through the Circuit Court of Appeals,

reached the Supreme Court late in 1907.

Photograph copyright by Clinedinst, Washington.

Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller.

The plaintiffs, who were manufacturers of hats, complained that the

defendants--members of the United Hatters of North America, an

organization which was a part of the American Federation of Labor--were

"engaged in a combined scheme and effort to force all manufacturers of

fur hats in the United States, including the plaintiffs, against their

will and their previous policy of carrying on their business, to

organize their workmen . . . into an organization of the said

combination known as The United Hatters of North America, or, as the

defendants and their confederates term it, to unionize their shops, with

the intent thereby to control the employment of labor in, and the

operation of, said factories . . . and to carry out such scheme, effort

and purpose by restraining and destroying the interstate trade and

commerce of such manufacturers by means of intimidation of, and threats

made to such manufacturers and their customers in the several States, of

boycotting them, their product and their customers . . . until . . . the

said manufacturers should yield to the demand to unionize their

factories."

These methods had been successfully employed before, as is evidenced by

the fact that seventy of the eighty-two manufacturers of fur hats had

been compelled to accept the conditions set forth by the American

Federation of Labor. The boycott against the Danbury, manufacturers

began in July, 1902, and was widened to include the wholesalers who

handled the goods of the Danbury concern, the dealers who bought from

the wholesalers, and customers who bought from these dealers. Notices to

this effect were printed in the official organs of the American

Federation of Labor and the United Hatters of North America. To make the

feeling against the manufacturers more intense, statements were

published to the effect that they were practising an unfair, un-American

policy in discriminating against competent union men in favor of the

cheap unskilled foreign labor.

The counsel for the defence argued that no case could be set up under

the Sherman act, since the defendants were not engaged in interstate

commerce, implying that a combination of laborers was not a violation of

the act. The court held that an action could be maintained in this case

and that the combination as it existed was "in restraint of trade" in

the sense designated by the act of 1890. The significance of the

decision lies in the fact that the Supreme Court made no distinctions

between classes. Records of Congress show that efforts were made to

exempt, by legislation, organizations of farmers and laborers from the

operation of the act and that their efforts failed. Therefore the court

held that every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of

trade was illegal and cited a former decision (The United States vs.

Workingmen's Amalgamated Council) to show that the law interdicted

combinations of workingmen as well as capital.

The Sherman act was passed by Congress in 1890. It was entitled "An Act

to Protect Trade and Commerce against Unlawful Restraints and

Monopolies." Since its passage various cases falling under it have been

decided, but until the decisions in the Standard Oil Company and the

American Tobacco Company cases the extent and intent of this act have

not been understood.

In the Standard Oil case the question involved was this: Was the Sherman

act violated by the existence and conduct of this corporation, which

owned or controlled some eighty corporations originally in competition?

The control had been acquired for the purpose of monopolizing the sale

and distribution of petroleum products in the United States, and had

been acquired by various means of combination with the intent either by

fair or unfair methods "to drive others from the field and to exclude

them from their right to trade." The proof was that, to destroy

competitors, prices had been temporarily reduced in various localities,

spies had been used on competitors' business, bogus independent

companies operated, and rebates given and taken.

In the case of the American Tobacco Company, there were more than one

hundred formerly competing companies united under the control of a

single organization and the market in nearly all tobacco products was

monopolized. This domination was secured "by methods devised in order to

monopolize the trade by driving competitors out of business."

In each case the court found the defendants guilty on the grounds that

the agreements and the conduct of the defendants indicated a purpose to

destroy competitors and monopolize trade in certain articles. The

desired result was accomplished by wrongful means which injured the

public as well as the competitors.

The facts in neither case required the consideration of the question as

to whether the Sherman act prohibited every unification of formerly

competing properties and every restraint of trade, reasonable or

unreasonable but, owing to the uncertainty of the public concerning the

meaning of the law, the court stated definitely the meaning and scope of

the act. From appearances the Supreme Court has practically amended the

Sherman act by limiting its application to "unreasonable" restraints of

trade. The significance of the decisions lies here rather than in the

fact that both companies were compelled to dissolve. The best legal

authorities believe that the new interpretation of "reasonableness" and

"unreasonableness" of restraint of trade has increased rather than

decreased the effectiveness of the law, inasmuch as the meaning has

always been obscure. The new policy is a notification to combinations of

capital that to exist without prosecution they must not resort to any

unfair, oppressive, or illegal methods to control competition or crush

competitors.

CHAPTER XIII

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S SECOND TERM--CONTINUED

[1907]

While President Roosevelt advocated peace, he believed that the best

means to preserve peace was suitable preparation for war. In his message

to Congress, 1904, he said; "There is no more patriotic duty before us

as a people than to keep the navy adequate to the needs of this

country's position. Our voice is now potent for peace, and is so potent

because we are not afraid of war. But our protestations would neither

receive nor deserve the slightest attention if we were impotent to make

them good." At all times he urged a larger and more efficient navy. For

years, before he became Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he had been a

student of naval affairs. He found that there was no programme for

building ships as in the European countries, and that there was general

unpreparedness for war.

Before the war with Spain, the American navy was so inferior that it was

excluded from any table of the principal navies of the world. Had the

United States possessed a few more battleships at that time, it is

probable that war would not have occurred. Spanish authorities had been

told by naval experts that their navy was superior to ours.

Profiting by that experience, plans for a larger navy were projected. By

the close of the year 1907 there were about 300 vessels in the navy

manned by 35,377 men. In comparative strength it ranked second only to

that of Great Britain. Not only was there an increase in the number of

vessels but there was great improvement in marksmanship and in the

handling of ships. In the battle of Santiago it has been estimated that

about five per cent of the shells struck the enemy. During the year 1902

Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans introduced regular and frequent target

practice. So effective was this work that in 1908, at ranges twice as

great as at Santiago, gunners throughout the fleet averaged sixty per

cent and one vessel scored eighty per cent. Rapidity of fire also was

increased nearly fourfold.

It was the custom to send the fleet each winter to the Caribbean Sea for

manoeuvres, which lasted about four months. In December, 1907, the

Atlantic fleet, comprising sixteen battle-ships and a flotilla of

torpedo-boats, began a cruise around the world. President Roosevelt

steadily adhered to the plan in the face of the most extravagant

denunciation on the part of those who declared that it could be

considered only as a menace toward Japan. Naval experts claimed,

however, that the experience to be gained by this cruise, such as

practice in handling ships in all kinds of weather, the renewal of

stores and coal, and the meeting of other problems incident to actual

warfare, justified the experiment.

Copyright. 1908. by Harris & Ewing.

Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans.

Under command of Rear-Admiral Evans the fleet reached Rio Janeiro on

January 12. Unusual honors were tendered the men by the Brazilian

government and people. The day of their arrival was made a national

festival. In reply to the friendly greeting from the Brazilian

government President Roosevelt wrote: "The war-ships on this cruise

exist for no other purpose than to protect peace against possible

aggression. As between the United States and Brazil these ships are not

men-of-war, but messengers of friendship and good-will." There were

similar manifestations on the part of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. The

visit of the fleet to these countries was regarded as a compliment. They

were permitted to see something of the strength of the republic at the

north and learned that the Monroe Doctrine might be enforced, if need

be, by a navy of the first rank. Notable ceremonies attended the arrival

of the fleet at Honolulu, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, and Manila. A

despatch to a London paper said: "It is beyond question that the United

States is no longer a Western but a cosmic power. America is now a force

in the world, speaking with authoritative accent, and wielding a

dominant influence such as ought to belong to her vast wealth,

prosperity, and importance."

Copyright, 1907. by Underwood & Underwood.

The Atlantic fleet starting on its journey round the world, December, 1907.

Rear-Admiral Charles S. Sperry.

At Auckland Rear-Admiral Evans, who had spent forty-eight years in the

navy, having reached the age limit of sixty-two years, was succeeded in

command by Rear-Admiral Sperry. Unusual honors were accorded the fleet

by Japan. Each American warship was escorted into the harbor of Yokohama

by a Japanese vessel of the same class and many other evidences of

friendship were manifest during their visit. The fleet then proceeded to

China, through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, and at the

end of one year and sixty-eight days, after covering 45,000 miles,

dropped anchor in Hampton Roads. The accomplishment of this feat,

without precedent in naval annals, still farther contributed to the

establishment of the prestige of the United States as a great world

power.

In 1889 the government of the United States purchased from the Indians a

large irregular tract of land not then occupied by them and erected it

into a separate territory under the name of Oklahoma. When it was opened

for settlement, April 22, 1889, a horde of settlers who had been waiting

on the borders rushed in to take possession of the lands. Cities and

towns sprang up as if by magic. The loose system of government exercised

by the five civilized tribes became steadily more ineffective when the

Indian Territory was thus brought into contact with white settlers. By

1893 affairs had become so confused that Congress decided to take steps

toward the ultimate admission of the territory into the Union as a

State. A committee of the Senate reported that the system of government

exercised by the Indians cannot be continued, that it is not only

non-American but it is radically wrong, and a change is imperatively

demanded in the interest of the Indians and the whites alike, and such

change cannot be much longer delayed, and that there can be no

modification of the system. It cannot be reformed; it must be abandoned

and a better one substituted.

Gradually the five tribes--Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and

Seminole--were shorn of their governmental powers. Lands were allotted

in severalty, certain coal, oil, and asphalt lands being reserved. A

public school system was established and maintained by general taxation.

In his message to Congress, 1905, President Roosevelt recommended the

immediate admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory as one State and

Arizona and New Mexico as another. A statehood bill embodying this

recommendation was passed by the House, but was amended in the Senate so

as to strike out the provision relative to the admission of New Mexico

and Arizona. Opposition to the admission of the last two territories as

one State came principally from the great mining companies of Arizona

supported by the railroad corporations. They were in practical control

of the territory with hundreds of millions of dollars in property. They

were fearful of the loss of control and an increase of taxation under

such a combination. Finally an act was passed by Congress, in 1906,

enabling the people of Oklahoma and Indian Territory to form a

constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union. The

enabling act provided that all male persons over the age of twenty-one

years who were citizens of the United States or who were members of any

Indian nation or tribe in said Oklahoma and Indian Territory, and who

had resided within the limits of said proposed State for at least six

months next preceding the election, should be entitled to vote for

delegate or serve as delegates in a constitutional convention. A number

of Indians were delegates in this convention. The constitution, which

was adopted by the voters, September 17, 1907, was greatly criticised on

account of its radicalism. The new State, the forty-seventh, was

formally proclaimed by the President in 1908. It has an area of 70,000

square miles. In 1900 the population was 800,000 which was increased to

1,500,000 by the date of admission. The wonderful climate and fertile

soil together with the energy of its population have continued to

attract thousands of immigrants each year.

The exclusion of Japanese students from the public schools of San

Francisco, 1906, seemed for a time to augur grave results. One-half of

the ninety Japanese who were in attendance upon these schools were above

sixteen years of age and were taught in the classes with little

children. The order of the San Francisco school board excluding the

Japanese was in harmony with the California law which permitted local

school boards to segregate Mongolians in schools apart from those for

white children. But this order nullified our treaty with Japan which

provided that the subjects of that nation should be granted the same

personal rights when in this country that our own citizens enjoy.

President Roosevelt acted with promptness and decision. His attitude was

shown in his message to Congress, December, 1907, in which he said: "To

shut them out from the public schools is a wicked absurdity . . . .

Throughout Japan Americans are well treated and any failure on the part

of Americans at home to treat the Japanese with a like courtesy and

consideration is by just so much a confession of inferiority in our

civilization . . . . I ask fair treatment for the Japanese as I would

ask fair treatment for Germans or Englishmen, Frenchmen, Russians, or

Italians .... In the matter now before me, affecting the Japanese,

everything that is in my power to do will be done, and all of the

forces, military and civil, of the United States which I may lawfully

employ will be so employed."

But the problem was not settled, for early in the year 1909

anti-Japanese resolutions were brought before the legislatures of

California, Nevada, Oregon, and two or three other Pacific States. The

bills before the legislature of California provided:

1. For the segregation of Japanese and other Orientals in residential

quarters at the option of municipalities.

2. That aliens should not own land in California.

3. That aliens should not become directors in California corporations.

4. For separate schools for Japanese students.

On February 8, President Roosevelt sent a telegram to the Speaker of the

California assembly giving the Government's views on the pending bills.

"The policy agreed to by both governments," he said, "aims at mutuality

of obligation and behavior. In accordance with it the purpose is that

the Japanese shall come here exactly as Americans go to Japan, which is

in effect that travellers, students, persons engaged in international

business, men who sojourn for pleasure or study, and the like, shall

have the freest access from one country to the other, and shall be sure

of the best treatment, but that there shall be no settlement in mass by

the people of either country in the other." While there is nothing in

the Constitution or laws to prevent the President from urging a State

legislature to vote for or against certain pending bills, such a course

is unusual. It had become a national question, however, and the

President's energy in handling the problem is worthy of praise.

According to the census of 1900, there were over 700,000 children under

sixteen years of age at work in the mills, mines, factories, and

sweat-shops of the United States. Nearly all of the States had

child-labor laws, but they were ordinarily poorly enforced and no State

was wholly free from the blight of this child slavery. While fourteen

years was the minimum in most of the States, a few permitted the

employment of children of ten years of age. In the majority of cases

there was no legal closing hour after which children might not be

employed.

Cotton-mill operatives so small that in order to reach

their work they have to stand upon the machinery.

The spinning-room overseer and his flock in a Mississippi cotton-mill.

The subject was given national prominence through the Beveridge-Parsons

Bill introduced into the Senate, December, 1907, marking an epoch in the

history of federal legislation. This bill proposed to exclude from

interstate commerce all products of mines and factories which employ

children under the age of fourteen. The bill was not, however, brought

up for discussion. The leading arguments of its opponents were as

follows: (1) That the question was local only; (2) there was no reason

to believe that federal would be better than State administration; (3)

that it was limited in effect since it could not prevent children being

employed in the manufacture of goods to be sold within a State. A bill

passed both houses and was signed by the President, authorizing the

Secretary of Commerce and Labor "to investigate and report on the

industrial, social, moral, educational, and physical conditions of woman

and child workers of the United States, wherever employed, with special

reference to their age, hours of labor, term of employment, health,

illiteracy, sanitary and other conditions surrounding their occupation,

and the means employed for the protection of their health, persons, and

morals." An appropriation of $150,000 was made with which to carry on

this investigation. Among the demands of the National Child Labor

Committee have been a shorter day's work for children between the ages

of fourteen and sixteen, health certificates for factory employment in

dangerous trades, and the regulation of children in street trades.

Electric train, Long Island R. R.

The period of Mr. Roosevelt's administrations was notable on account of

advances made in various other directions. Electricity was applied to

new and larger uses. Power was transmitted to greater distances. Niagara

Falls was made to produce an electric current employed leagues away.

Electric railways, radiating from cities, converted farms and sand-lots

into suburban real estate quickly and easily accessible from the great

centres. Telephone service was extended far into country parts, and,

with the rural free delivery of mail, brought farmers into quick and

inexpensive communication with the outside world, robbing the farm of

what was once both its chief attraction and its greatest

inconvenience--isolation.

Guglielmo Marconi and his wireless telegraph.

German experiments developed an electric surface car with a speed of two

miles a minute. Wireless telegraphy came into use. By means of high

masts rigged, with wires diverging to the earth somewhat like the frame

of a partly opened umbrella, it was found possible under favorable

atmospheric conditions to telegraph hundreds of miles through the air.

The most notable use of this invention was to communicate between ships

and the shore or between ships at sea, a particularly desirable facility

in fog, storm, or darkness, when other signals were useless.

Marconi Transatlantic Station at South Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Mass.

Electricity and the gasolene engine were applied to bicycles, vehicles,

and boats, often generating sufficient power to run a small factory.

Bicycles somewhat passed from vogue, but automobiles became fashionable,

partly for rapid transit, partly for work formerly consigned to heavy

teams. Auto-carriages capable of railway speed, varying indefinitely in

style and in cost, might be seen upon the smoother roads about cities

all the way from Maine to California. They exerted great influence in

inducing communities to macadamize roads, for which the passing of the

stage-coach and the spread of railroads had diminished the demand.

Courtesy of Scientific American.

The "Arrow" getting under way.

Effort with flying machines was incessant but only partially successful.

No air-ship had thus far been devised which could undertake a definite

voyage of length with any certainty of reaching its destination. The

best feat yet was that of the air-ship Arrow, which, October 25, 1904,

at St. Louis, made a ten-mile trip. On the other hand, the development

of boats able to carry life for hours beneath the surface of the sea

added a new form of attack and defence against the well-nigh

impenetrable sides and enormously powerful guns of modern naval ships.

About 1890 the use of the Australian ballot system became general, and

thus the purchase of votes became more difficult. But this reform did

not eliminate the evils of machine politics. State laws were extended to

the control of party affairs, with severer punishments for corrupt

practices, the control of lobbying, and the requirement of publicity for

campaign expenses. In a few States the primary election system was put

into operation. Public officers won popular approval in numerous States

and cities by their activity in revealing "graft" and by their fearless

enforcement of the law.

These reforms were made possible by the increase of independent voting

in State and city politics. Politicians must reckon, as never before,

with the demand of the average citizen for honesty in public service.

The influence of corporations in governmental affairs received a check,

and there came to be a growing demand for the more complete control of

public utilities, and for the public ownership of them in cities.

Courtesy of Scientific American

Baldwin's airship "Arrow" at a height of 600 feet over

the Exposition Palaces, St. Louis, October 25, 1904.

The prominence of the moral element in the business and political

reforms mentioned above characterizes this as an era of "awakened civic

conscience." Both moral and economic considerations may be seen in the

protest against the excessive use of alcoholic liquors that has resulted

in the prohibition of liquor selling in a number of States and parts of

States, especially in the South. Educationally, the period showed

increased attention to the industrial and practical aspects of school

work. Courses in manual training came to be regarded as necessary for

the complete development of mind and body. Physical education received

greater attention. The establishment of public libraries, aided by the

munificent gifts of Andrew Carnegie, was rapid.

Millions of dollars, also, were contributed to the cause of education

and research. Among the most notable of these gifts were those by Mr.

Carnegie for the establishment of the Carnegie Institution and the

Carnegie Foundation, and the contribution to the General Education Board

by John D. Rockefeller. In 1902 the Carnegie Institution at Washington

was established by a gift of $10,000,000 by Andrew Carnegie. This sum he

afterward increased to $25,000,000. The work of the institution is to

carry on scientific study and research. Material is being collected for

the economic history of the United States, and students of American

history have been aided by the catalogues showing the location of

documentary and other source material. While the head-quarters of the

Institution is in Washington, important departments are located

elsewhere throughout the country. There is a laboratory at Tucson,

Arizona, for the study of desert plant life; a biological laboratory at

Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island; a marine biological laboratory at

Tortugas, off the Florida coast, and an astronomical observatory at

Mount Wilson, California.

Atlanta, Ga.

Washington, D. C.

Pittsburgh, Pa.

CARNEGIE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

May 6, 1905, the announcement was made of a gift of $10,000,000 for the

purpose of providing retiring pensions for the teachers of colleges,

universities, and technical schools in the United States, Canada, and

Newfoundland. In making the gift Mr. Carnegie wrote: "I hope this fund

may do much for the cause of higher education and to remove a source of

deep and constant anxiety to the poorest paid and yet one of the highest

of all professions." The fund was to be applied without regard to age,

sex, creed, or color. Sectarian institutions, so-called, or those which

require a majority of their trustees, officers, faculty, or students to

belong to a specified sect, or which impose any theological test

whatever, were excluded by the terms of the gift. Universities supported

by State taxation were at first excluded, but a supplementary gift by

Mr. Carnegie of $5,000,000, in 1908, extended the privileges of the

foundation to these universities.

In February, 1907, John D. Rockefeller increased the money at the

disposal of the General Education Board by a gift of $32,000,000. This

fund, which had been originally established by him, amounting to

$11,000,000, had been used chiefly for the improvement of education in

the South. Common schools were aided, high-schools established, and

instruction in agriculture fostered. The additional sum was to be

devoted to lending assistance to certain selected colleges, with the

stipulation that the college was to raise three times the amount of

money granted it by the Board.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1908

[1908]

In spite of the oft-repeated statement made by President Roosevelt that

he would not be a candidate for nomination on the Republican national

ticket in 1908, the party leaders seemed to fear a stampede in the

Chicago convention. Plans had been laid carefully by the party leaders

to prevent this possibility, and when William H. Taft, of Ohio, received

the nomination on the first ballot, delegates and spectators gave vent

to their feelings by prolonged applause. Out of a total of 980 ballots

cast Mr. Taft received 702. As Secretary of War in President Roosevelt's

cabinet he had been chosen by the President to succeed him, for it was

believed that through training and sympathy he was best fitted to carry

out the policies of the administration.

Other candidates for nomination had appeared during the summer and each

had a following of more or less strength. Senator La Follette, of

Wisconsin; Governor Hughes, of New York, and Speaker Cannon, of

Illinois, each received some support in the convention. Throughout the

land no surprise was occasioned, however, by the nomination of Mr. Taft.

Apparently the nomination of James S. Sherman, of New York, for the

office of Vice-President was the result of political expediency; he was

a good organization man; he had enjoyed considerable experience in

public affairs and had been a member of Congress for twenty years.

Moreover, the fact that he came from New York made it a wise move,

politically, to give him a place on the ticket.

Copyright by Clinedinst, Washington.

Joseph G. Cannon.

To outside observers the convention was a harmonious one, ready and

anxious to adopt and indorse the Roosevelt policies and to accord a most

hearty support to the candidate who best represented these policies. The

platform which was drawn up was a strong political document which not

only stated the Republican policies clearly but was also a piece of

campaign literature of some note from the stand-point of literary worth.

Photograph by C. M. Ball, Washington.

James S. Sherman, nominated for Vice-President.

Throughout the months preceding the assembling of the Democratic

convention, in Denver, there was some uncertainty as to who would

control it. Governor Folk, of Missouri, had been much in the public eye

through his war on graft and on account of his successful administration

of the gubernatorial office. Judge Gray, of Delaware, who had served his

State in the United States Senate and had acquired an enviable

reputation as a justice of the United States Circuit Court, was also a

strong candidate. Judson Harmon, of Ohio, Attorney-General under

President Cleveland, and Governor Johnson, of Minnesota, had numerous

supporters.

When the voting began in the convention the result was not long in

doubt. William Jennings Bryan was for the third time accorded the honor

of leading the Democratic party. On the first ballot Mr. Bryan received

892-1/2 votes; Judge Gray, his chief opponent, received 59-1/2. The

cheers which followed the announcement of the vote showed that two

defeats had not dampened the loyalty of the Western Democrats. Mr. Kern,

of Indiana, was nominated by acclamation for the Vice-Presidency. The

committee on the formation of the platform seemed to have some

difficulty in determining the final form of some of the planks.

Both parties in their platforms favored tariff revision. The Republican

party declared for the protective system and reciprocity and promised a

special session of Congress to treat the whole tariff question. The

Democratic party adhered to the old principle of "tariff for revenue"

and pledged itself to return to that basis as soon as practicable.

Furthermore, it pledged itself to bring about immediately such

reductions as would put trust-controlled products upon the free list and

to lower the duties on the necessaries of life, particularly upon those

which were sold more cheaply abroad than at home. Lumber was to go on

the free list. Any deficiency in the revenues which might arise from

this policy was to be made up through the medium of an income tax.

Both platforms declared for reform in the currency laws, but neither one

advanced any plan for revision. The Democratic platform condemned as

criminal the large expenditures of the recent administration, but showed

some inconsistency by favoring such policies as a large navy, generous

pensions, large expenditures for the improvement of rivers and harbors

which would necessitate the expenditure of great sums.

The regulation of railways and corporations was demanded by both

parties. The difference between the demands lay in the means to be

employed. The Democratic platform declared for State control of this

question as well as that relating to the conservation of our natural

resources. The Republicans took the stand that both questions should be

solved by the Federal Government.

In treating the problem of the alien races the Republican document

referred to the negro race by name, demanded equal justice for all men,

and condemned the devices used by some States for disfranchising the

negro. Nothing was said concerning Chinese and Japanese immigration. The

Democratic platform was silent on the negro question and declared

against the admission of Orientals into our country.

Arbitration was favored by the Republicans, but was not mentioned in the

opposition platform. On the Philippine question there was a division.

The Republicans favored a gradual development of home-rule; the

Democrats for early independence under an American protectorate.

Three things in the Democratic platform are worthy of note: (I) The

demand for a federal law compelling publicity of campaign contributions;

(2) the election of senators by direct vote, and (3) the adoption of

such parliamentary rules as would make the House of Representatives a

deliberative body.

The Socialist convention, which assembled in Chicago, nominated Eugene

V. Debs for President and Ben Hanford for Vice-President.

Two tendencies of political thought were displayed in the Socialist

platform as framed by the committee. First, a tendency away from

individual ownership of productive property and the individual

administration of industry, and toward the collective ownership of

productive property and the collective administration of industry. This

was illustrated by the demands made for the collective ownership of all

railways, steamship lines, and other means of transportation, as well as

telephones, telegraphs, etc. It was further evidenced by the demand that

the public domain be made to include mines, quarries, oil wells,

water-power, reclaimed and reforested lands. The second tendency was

away from a form of government of checks and balances toward one by the

unrestrained majority. This was shown by the demands for the abolition

of (I) the Senate, (2) the veto power of the President, (3) the power of

the Supreme Court to pass on the constitutionality of legislation.

Industrial demands were made. There should be a more effective

inspection of workshops and factories; there should be no employment of

children under sixteen years of age; interstate transportation of the

products of child labor or convict labor should be forbidden; compulsory

insurance against unemployment, illness, accidents, old age, and death

should be adopted.

Among the political reforms demanded were inheritance and income taxes,

equal suffrage for men and women, the initiative and referendum,

proportional representation, and the right of recall. The Federal

Constitution was to be amended by majority vote. Judges were to be

elected for short terms.

The nominees of the Prohibition party were Eugene W. Chapin, of

Illinois, for President, and Aaron S. Watkins, of Ohio, for

Vice-President. In the platform framed there were the usual declarations

against the liquor traffic, but there were also planks demanding

reforms. The election of senators by direct vote; the passage of

inheritance and income taxes; the establishment of postal savings banks;

the guaranty of bank deposits; the creation of a permanent tariff

commission; the conservation of natural resources; an equitable and

constitutional employers' liability act, and legislation basing suffrage

only upon intelligence and ability to read and write the English

language, were the chief planks. Beyond any doubt this platform--the

shortest of all--shows that the men who constructed it were not

dreamers. It is possible that the delegates may have been looked upon as

visionaries, for there were few among them who could be called

"practical politicians," but, as one writer of note has said, the

delegates were "typical of that class of society on which the nation

ever depends in a great crisis, the sort from which all moral movements

spring. . . ."

It has often been said that the excitement of presidential campaigns is

detrimental to the nation. This could hardly be said of the campaign of

1908. To produce political excitement there must be debatable questions

termed, by the politicians as "issues." Just what the issues were in the

campaign few people could determine. There were no issues which involved

foreign affairs. The Democratic party did not criticise the sending of

the fleet around the world, the administration's policy in Cuba, the

policy concerning the Panama Canal, nor even the policy pursued in the

Philippines. As regards military and naval matters, pensions to

veterans, the development of internal waterways, the conservation of

resources, etc., there were no issues simply because the people had

practically the same views about them. Consequently issues had to be

made, and, generally speaking, the Republican leaders appealed to the

people along the lines of the personal fitness of the candidates.

It was pointed out that President Roosevelt had indicated his Secretary

of War as the best man to carry out the policy inaugurated by the

administration of subduing and controlling influential law-breakers. The

chief officer of the government has vested in himself powers of wide

range--the appointment of the judiciary, the superintendence of the

administration of the business affairs of the nation, the guidance of

our international affairs. Therefore the President must be a keen judge

of men capable of distinguishing the honest, efficient servant of the

nation from the self-seeking politician; he must resist political

pressure; he must be national in his patriotism and breadth of vision;

he must know our foreign relations intimately, that the continuity of

policies may not be broken and the efficiency of our foreign service

weakened thereby. He must have the capacity to work long hours, with

skill, care, and rapidity. In short, the chief executive must be a man

who is fit mentally and physically.

William H. Taft on his trip, stumping for the nomination.

Some of these essential qualities the candidates of the two great

parties possessed in a high degree. They were honest and sincere; they

were familiar with the desires and needs of the various sections of the

nation; they were national in the breadth of their policies. But they

were different in temperament, equipment, and experience, and upon this

difference the Republican leaders made their appeal to the voters.

The Democratic nominee was essentially an orator--he swayed the masses

by his denunciation of the perils which threatened the nation through

the concentration of wealth which had gone on under the Republican rule.

His opponents admitted that a man of his stamp was invaluable to the

American people, but they contended that his place was in the editor's

chair, in the pulpit, or upon the lecture platform, not as the chief

executive of the nation. Furthermore, it was said that this great orator

had views on political, social, and economic questions which bordered on

the visionary, and that any man who had openly supported free silver,

anti-imperialism, or even the guaranty of bank deposits, could not be

safely trusted with the guidance of the nation's destinies.

The Republican candidate had none of the qualifications of an orator; he

was rather a teacher. He did not cater to the desires of his audience;

he struck at the abuses most prevalent in the section where he spoke. It

was his business to point out weaknesses; to find remedies for them; to

educate, not sway, his audiences. His mind was constructive; his

training had been along the lines of constructive political thought; he

had proven his ability by his organization of a civil government for the

Philippines and by his solution of the vexed question of Cuba. So it was

argued that the best test of his ability and guaranty of efficiency was

the work he had already done.

The campaign was lacking in life and enthusiasm simply because there

were no clearly defined issues. The candidates went through the usual

performances of "swinging around the political circuit." Mr. Taft was

accorded a warm welcome on his trip, for the people wished to get

acquainted with President Roosevelt's choice as much as to hear him

discuss the Republican policies. Mr. Bryan, who conducted a great

speaking campaign, confined his attention to advocating the bank

guaranty plan and to attacking the evils of private monopoly. Political

enthusiasm was at a low ebb. Few people took matters seriously and the

campaign was aptly characterized as the "Era of No Feeling."

The vote cast for presidential electors was primarily an expression of

popular confidence in the Roosevelt administration. For nearly half a

century the situation in the nation had been becoming more and more a

source of anxiety to the thinking men of the land. Our economic

development had taken place so rapidly that the great aggregations of

capital and the great corporations had gotten beyond control and had

shown dangerous tendencies toward lawlessness and political corruption.

The feeling that the great corporations were not only beyond the control