PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S SECOND TERM-CONTINUED

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.