Chapter 78:
1901
McKinley’s Second Term

Inauguration Of McKinley and Roosevelt.—The President’s Tour to the Pacific Coast.—At the Pan-American Exposition.—His Farewell Address.—His Death.—Sketch of Theodore Roosevelt.—Continuation of the Philippine War.—The War in China.—Independence for Cuba.—The Isthmian Canal.—The Alaska Boundary.—Great Coal Strike.—Our Island Possessions.—American Inventions.—President Roosevelt’s First Message.—Naval and Military Power.—Gifts of Benevolence.

William McKinley, who had been reelected by larger majorities than he received in 1896, was inaugurated President a second time on March 4, 1901. At the same time Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office as Vice-President.

In his inaugural address President McKinley said: "When we assembled here on March 4, 1897, there was great anxiety with regard to our currency and credit. None exists now. Then our treasury receipts were inadequate to meet the current obligations of the government. Now there are sufficient for all public needs, and we have a surplus instead of a deficit. I have the satisfaction to announce that the Congress just closed has reduced taxation to the amount of forty-one million dollars…. We should not permit our great prosperity to lead us to reckless ventures in business, or profligacy in public expenditures."

His cabinet remained as it was during his first term, except that Attorney-General Griggs soon resigned and was succeeded by Philander C. Knox, of Pennsylvania.

Late in April the President set out on a tour to the Pacific coast, by way of New Orleans. In speaking at Memphis he said: "What a mighty, resistless power for good is a united nation of free men! It makes for peace and prestige, for progress and liberty. It conserves the rights of the people and strengthens the pillars of the government, and is a fulfillment of that more perfect union for which our Revolutionary fathers strove and for which the Constitution was made. No citizen of the Republic rejoices more than I do at this happy state, and none will do more within his sphere to continue and strengthen it. Our past has gone into history. No brighter one adorns the annals of mankind. Our task is for the future. We leave the old century behind us, holding on to its achievements and cherishing its memories, and turn with hope to the new, with its opportunities and obligations. These we must meet, men of the South, men of the North, with high purpose and resolution. Without internal troubles to distract us, or jealousies to disturb our judgment, we will solve the problems which confront us untrammeled by the past, and wisely and courageously pursue a policy of right and justice in all things, making the future, under God, even more glorious than the past."

An Exposition to illustrate the progress of civilization in the western hemisphere in the nineteenth century had been projected, to be held on the Niagara frontier in 1898, and in July, 1897, President McKinley drove the memorial stake on Cayuga Island, near the village of La Salle. But the war with Spain postponed the enterprise, and when it was revived the location was changed to the city of Buffalo, and there the Pan-American Exposition was held, May 1 to November 2, 1901. In its buildings and grounds it resembled the Columbian Exposition that was held in Chicago in 1893, though it was on a smaller scale. The President visited the Exposition early in September, and on the 5th of that month made a speech that at once attracted attention all over the world, and has become historic as his farewell address. The following are its most significant passages:

"Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world’s advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise, and intellect of the people and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and as such instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and even whims of the people, and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and low prices to win their favor.

"The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to devise, invent, improve, and economize in the cost of production. Business life, whether among ourselves or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. Without competition we should be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no farther advanced than the eighteenth century. But though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be.

"The Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illustrating the progress of the human family in the western hemisphere. This portion of the earth has no cause for humiliation for the part it has performed in the march of civilization. It has not accomplished everything; far from it. It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and, recognizing the manifold achievements of others, it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade and commerce, and will cooperate with all in advancing the highest and best interests of humanity. The wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the world’s work. The successes of art, science, industry, and invention are an international asset and a common glory.

"After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world! Modern inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invaded fields which a few years ago were impenetrable. The world’s products are exchanged as never before, and with increasing transportation facilities come increasing knowledge and trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world’s selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with more ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no longer possible or desirable. The same important news is read, though in different languages, the same day in all Christendom. Market prices of products and of securities are hourly known in every commercial mart, and the investments of the people extend beyond their own national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth, Vast transactions are conducted and international exchanges are made by the tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined.

"It took a special messenger of the government with every facility known at the time for rapid transit, nineteen days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a message to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a treaty of peace had been signed. How different now! We reached General Miles in Puerto Rico by cable, and he was able through the military telegraph to stop his army on the firing line with the message that the United States and Spain had signed a protocol suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first shot fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation. The first ship of Cervera’s fleet had hardly emerged from that historic harbor when the fact was flashed to our capital, and the swift destruction that followed was announced immediately through the wonderful medium of telegraphy.

"At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of steam railroad on the globe. Now there are enough miles to make its circuit many times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph; now we have a vast mileage traversing all lands and all seas. God and man have linked the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other. And as we are brought more and more in touch with each other the less occasion is there for misunderstandings and the stronger the disposition, when we have differences, to adjust them in the court of arbitration, which is the noblest forum for the settlement of international disputes.

"My fellow-citizens, trade statistics indicate that this country is in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures are almost appalling. They show that we are utilizing our fields and forests and mines, and that we are furnishing profitable employment to the millions of workingmen throughout the United States, bringing comfort and happiness to their homes and making it possible to lay by savings for old age and disability. That all the people are participating in this great prosperity is seen in every American community and shown by the enormous and unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty is the care and security of these deposits, and their safe investment demands the highest integrity and the best business capacity of those in charge of these depositories of the people’s earnings.

"We have a vast and intricate business built up through years of toil and struggle, in which every part of the country has its stake, which will not permit either of neglect or of undue selfishness. No narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. The greatest skill and wisdom on the part of the manufacturers and producers will be required to hold and increase it. Our capacity to produce has developed so enormously and our products have so multiplied that the problem of more markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. No other policy will get more. In these times of marvelous business energy and gain, we ought to be looking to the future, strengthening the weak places in our industrial and commercial systems that we may be ready for any storm or strain. By the sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our home production, we shall extend the outlets for our increasing surplus. A system which provides a mutual exchange of commodities is manifestly essential to the continued healthful growth of our export trade. We must not repose in fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If such a thing were possible, it would not be best for us or for those with whom we deal. We should take from our customers such of their products as we can use without harm to our industries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can, and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor. The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of goodwill and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not.

"If, perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue, or to encourage and protect our industries, why should they [reciprocity treaties]not be employed to extend our markets abroad? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship service. New lines of steamers have already been put in commission between the Pacific coast ports of the United States and those on the western coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. These should be followed up with direct steamship lines between the eastern coast of the United States and South American ports. We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have more ships. They must be under the American flag, built and manned and owned by Americans. These will not only be profitable in a commercial sense, they will be messengers of peace and amity wherever they go. We must build the Isthmian Canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central and South America and Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot be longer postponed.

"In the furtherance of these objects of national interests and concern you are performing an important part. This Exposition would have touched the heart of that American statesman whose mind was ever alert and though ever constant for a larger commerce and a truer fraternity of the republics of the New World. His broad American spirit is felt and manifested here. He needs no identification to an assembly of Americans anywhere, for the name of Blaine is inseparably associated with the Pan-American movement which finds this practical and substantial expression, and which we all hope will be firmly advanced by the Pan-American congress that assembles this autumn in the capital of Mexico. Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of the earth."

This noble speech aroused the enthusiasm and commanded the admiration of every one that heard it. The President was frequently interrupted with hearty applause, and when he had finished, many came forward with an eager desire to take his hand.

The next day (Friday, September 6) the President held a reception in the Music Hall of the Exposition. Among the crowd that passed in line to take his hand was an anarchist whose right hand was bandaged as if it had been injured. The President turned his own hand to accommodate it to the fellow’s left, when the cowardly assassin fired two shots from a revolver that was concealed in the bandage. The President was taken without delay to the emergency hospital of the Exposition, and skillful surgeons were in attendance. The principal wound was through the stomach, and he was almost immediately anaesthetized and subjected to a severe operation. In the three following days he appeared to be doing remarkably well; then trouble appeared, and on the eighth day (Saturday, September 14) he passed away. While the whole nation had been watching his bedside and eagerly scanning the daily bulletins, the President himself was undisturbed. When those about him seized the assassin and appeared likely to lynch him, Mr. McKinley exclaimed "Let no one hurt him." When he was carried to the hospital, he said to the physicians, "Gentlemen, I trust you to do whatever you judge to be best." In his last hours he lay softly singing his favorite hymns—"Lead, kindly Light" and "Nearer, my God, to Thee." And when the end came he said quietly, "It is God’s way—His will be done. Goodbye all, goodbye!" He had expressed anxiety for the effect of the news to his wife, and lest the affair should harm the Exposition; but it appeared never to occur to him to assume that his death would be a loss to the nation, or that the work of the government could not be carried on as well by others as by himself. He had fought like a hero, he had wrought like a statesman, he had lived like a Christian, and he died like a philosopher.

The body of the President was taken to Washington, where it lay in state one day, after which it was conveyed to his home in Canton, Ohio, and laid beside his parents and his children in the cemetery there.

The assassin declared that he had had no accomplices; that he alone had planned the murder. But the word of such a criminal counts for nothing, and there are strong reasons for believing that this assassination, like some others, was deliberately determined upon by a gang of anarchists, and the one to execute it was chosen by lot. Whether the lot itself is fairly cast, may be doubted, since it appears never to fall upon any leader among the anarchists, or indeed upon one that ever was heard of before.

William McKinley, when Governor of Ohio, was one of the few governors that have prevented a threatened lynching; and disposal of his assassin was exactly what he would have approved. It would have been easy to leave him to the vengeance of the infuriated citizens. But he was carefully guarded, counsel was assigned to him, he had a speedy trial with all the forms of law, and in October he went to the electric chair in Auburn prison. His conduct when he realized the fate that awaited him was craven in the extreme—a complete collapse of every semblance of manliness.

When it was seen that President McKlnley was not likely to survive many days, Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt was summoned from the heart of the Adirondack woods, where he had gone for recreation. He went in all haste to Buffalo, and reached that city before the end came. The same day that the President died (Saturday, September 14) Mr. Roosevelt, at the request of the Secretary of War, took the oath of office as President. All the cabinet, except the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy were present, and the oath was administered by Justice Hazel of the United States District Court. The new President made this declaration: "It shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley, which has given peace, prosperity, and honor to our beloved country…. In order to help me keep the promise I have made, I would ask all the cabinet to retain their positions at least for some months to come. I shall rely upon you, gentlemen, upon your loyalty and fidelity, to help me." The cabinet remained unchanged till December 27, when Charles Emory Smith, Postmaster-General, resigned, and Henry C. Payne, of Wisconsin, was appointed to succeed him.

The same day that he became President, Mr. Roosevelt issued a proclamation in which he said: "A terrible bereavement has befallen our people. The President of the United States has been struck down—a crime committed not only against the chief magistrate but against every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen. President McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his fellowmen, of most earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of Christian fortitude; and both the way in which he lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met his death, will remain forever a precious heritage to our people. It is meet that we, a—a nation, express our abiding love and reverence for his life, our deep sorrow for his untimely death." He then appointed Thursday, September 19 (the day of the burial) as a day of mourning and prayer throughout the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt is a native of the city of New York, where he was born October 27, 1858. He is the youngest man that ever assumed the presidency of the United States, being only in his forty-third year at the time of his inauguration. President Grant, who ranked next in that respect, was forty-seven. Mr. Roosevelt is descended from a Dutch family, who were among the earliest settlers on Manhattan Island. He was not born with a vigorous constitution, and therefore addressed himself to the task, in boyhood, of building up one for himself by a course of athletic training. He appears to have succeeded admirably. He was graduated at Harvard University in 1880, with high enough standing in his class to make him a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and immediately thereafter he traveled in Europe. On his return he studied law in the office of his uncle, the Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt. His favorite reading and study, aside from his profession, was political history and natural history. He was elected to the lower house of the New York Legislature in 1882, 1883, and 1884, and became very active in that body. The earliest measures with which he was identified were those abolishing the fees as a perquisite of the office of registrar and county clerk, abolishing the power of the New York aldermen to reject the major’s appointments, and enacting the civil service reform law of 1884 and the anti-tenement-cigar-factory law. He was a delegate to the national Republican convention in 1884, where he supported the claim of Mr. Edmunds to the presidential nomination. The same year he became a lieutenant in the Eighth Regiment of New York militia, in which he served four years. About this time he bought a ranch on the Little Missouri River, and from his frequent sojourns there and his hunting-trips in the Rocky Mountains he became familiar with the life of the West. In the autumn of 1886 he was the Republican candidate for mayor of New York, and he might have been elected had not a large number of Republicans taken fright at the possibility of Henry George’s election and voted for the Democratic candidate, Abram S. Hewitt, supposing that to be the only way to defeat George. As it was, Mr. Roosevelt received a larger vote than any Republican candidate for the office had received before. In 1889 President Harrison appointed him a member of the United States Civil Service Commission. He is said to have added twenty thousand places to those covered by the law, and President Harrison said of his work: "If he had no other record than his service as a member of the Civil Service Commission, he would be deserving of the nation’s gratitude and confidence." In the spring of 1895 he resigned that office, was appointed a police commissioner in New York, and became president of the board. His action in that capacity was most vigorous and persistent. He set himself to put a stop to blackmail and correct other abuses, and he made unexpected night visits in various parts of the city to see for himself whether his orders were obeyed. In April, 1897, he became Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he retained that office till May 6, 1898, when he resigned it in order to take an active part in the war with Spain. With Leonard Wood as Colonel and himself as Lieutenant-Colonel, a regiment of cavalry was organized, consisting largely of cowboys from the West. This organization became popularly known as the Rough Riders, and it had a conspicuous part in the battle of San Juan Hill. When the war was over Mr. Roosevelt was made the Republican candidate for governor of New York, and he was elected by a plurality of 17,786. Two years later he was the candidate for Vice-President on the ticket with Mr. McKinley. In 1881 Mr. Roosevelt married Miss Alice Lee, of Boston, and several years after her death he married Miss Edith Kermit Carow. He has published a considerable number of books, of which the following is a list: "The Naval War of 1812" (1882); "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman" (1885); a life of Thomas Hart Benton (1887); a life of Geuverneur Morris (1888); "Essays on Practical Politics" (1888); "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail" (1888); "The Winning of the West" (4 vols, 1889-96); "A Brief History of New York City" (1891); "The Wilderness Hunter" (1893); "American Ideals, and other Essays" (1897); "The Rough Riders" (1899); a life of Oliver Cromwell (1900); and "The Strenuous Life, and other Essays" (1901).

The war in the Philippines was by no means ended when the new President assumed office. Two causes had operated powerfully to strengthen the rebellion and enable leaders like Aguinaldo to hold their followers together in the face of repeated defeats by a numerous and determined enemy. The first of these was the action of the American commander who, on the capture of Manila, would not permit the Filipino forces to enter the city, which they were anxious to do in order to loot it and massacre their former rulers and enemies, the Spaniards. The other cause, which was much more powerful and appealed to a better motive, arose from the fact that in the treaty of peace with Spain the United States guaranteed the property of the monastic orders. This was one of the most perplexing questions with which the commissioners and the government had to deal. The Spanish friars in those islands had gradually, through the long years of Spanish possession, be come the holders of a large part of the best lands. Not only were they landlords and employers, keeping large numbers of the natives in a state of poverty and dependence, but they had been allowed to exercise civil authority in their parishes and districts. They were rigid in the collection of church dues, and had worked together with the civilian officials in despoiling the people. This was the main cause of the rebellion against Spanish rule; the insurgents demanded the expulsion of the friars, and wherever they became masters of the situation they drove them out. It is hardly to be wondered at that when the Filipinos learned the terms of the Treaty of Paris, by which the property of the monastic orders was guaranteed to them, they should apprehend a revival and continuance of the very evils that had caused them to struggle so hard to throw off the Spanish yoke. A papal legate was sent to the islands to examine into the condition of the religious institutions, and he reported that there was necessity for reform.

After the better-educated and influential natives had accepted the situation and acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States, the military authorities were able to enlist many natives in their service. Yet there appeared to be always a liability of treachery. The Macabebe scouts were the most valuable of these native auxiliaries. The local officials and leaders in the remote districts kept up their opposition to the Americans, all acknowledging the authority of Aguinaldo as President of the supposititious republic. He was captured March 23, 1901, and carried to Manila, where he took the oath of allegiance to the United States. He then offered, on certain terms, to secure the surrender of all the insurgent leaders. But the government declined to bargain with him; and it was especially justified in doing so in view of the fact that at least once in his career he had sold out to the Spaniards. A major of his staff, who had escaped with a part of the bodyguard, was captured with his party in September—thirty-one officers and men. Between June and September of that year the number of armed Filipinos that were captured or voluntarily surrendered, with their arms, was 387 officers and 4,132 men.

On June 5, 1901, William H. Taft, of Ohio, was appointed civil Governor of the Philippine Islands, and with the establishment of civil government there the administration adopted the policy of appointing natives to office when competent ones could be found. At the same time six hundred teachers were sent from the United States to establish schools in the country districts that were under civil rule.

But the work of pacification was by no means complete. In September a dangerous conspiracy was discovered in the southern provinces of the island of Luzon, and some of the native police, who had been appointed, armed, and trusted by the Americans, had joined in it. The purpose of the conspirators was to make a sudden rising and kill all the whites. Some of the native civil officials were put on trial for aiding the conspirators with information and in other ways. One insurgent officer was hanged for murdering more than a hundred Spanish prisoners. But while the institution of civil government gave opportunity for treachery of petty native officials, on the other hand it did a great deal of good by giving practical assurance to the peaceable and industrious that no harm, but only benefit, was intended in the new regime. Autonomous administration of law and affairs was introduced gradually—necessarily superintended largely by American officers—and when the natives saw school-houses built, roads improved, public buildings put in repair, and taxes fairly assessed and honestly collected and accounted for—in all of which they themselves had part—they realized what great good fortune the change of sovereignty had brought them. All fines that were collected for misdemeanors were expended on schools and public works. The American troops in the Philippines at this time numbered a little more than 43,000.

The Philippine archipelago is stretched across about fourteen degrees of latitude (50 to 190 N.), equal to the distance from the northern line of Vermont to the southern line of Georgia. It consists of a dozen islands of considerable size and scores of little ones. Luzon is the largest, and Mindanao the next; after which come Samar, Mindoro, Palawan, Panay, and Negros, not varying much in size, each being about as large as the State of Connecticut. The natives of these islands are not all of the same race or of the same religion, and they speak various dialects. While the principal military operations had been necessarily in Luzon, the Americans also had a separate task before them in nearly every one of the other large islands. It required four thousand troops, and operations extending through two years, to produce order and establish civil government in Panay, but this has now been accomplished. In Leyte sixteen hundred troops did it in about fifteen months. In these two islands General Robert P. Hughes commanded, and his men fought four hundred engagements—most of the operations being guerilla warfare—and constructed many good roads. He now had the island of Samar added to his command, and this presented a more difficult problem. The inhabitants of that island are Malays, extremely fickle and treacherous. The Spaniards never had occupied it completely. Many of the guerilla bands that had been defeated and broken up in the other islands went to Samar and joined the insurgents there, and with them went outlaws and desperate characters of all kinds. The island was very difficult for offensive military operations, as it has heavily wooded mountains, deep valleys, swamps and jungles, and at that time there were no roads. A general named Lukban managed to bring about some sort of unity and organization among the insurgents, commanded them, and conducted the campaign.

General Hughes at once entered upon the campaign. He drove the rebels from the hills overlooking the towns, and garrisoned twenty places, while gunboats ascended the streams as far as their depth would permit Before the rainy season began in August, he had compelled one body of five hundred insurgents to surrender and had destroyed or scattered smaller ones. It appeared as if the island had been pacified, when a peculiar piece of treachery opened the eyes of the Americans. Seventy-five men of the Ninth Infantry, commanded by Captain T. W. Connell, had garrisoned the town of Balangiga, where they were received with every demonstration of friendliness. While they were at breakfast on September 28, the native ruler of the town and some of his people visited them, and after managing to get between the soldiers and their stacked arms fell suddenly upon them, and with their bolos and rifles killed the captain and two other officers and forty-eight men. The twenty-four survivors escaped in a boat. The bodies of the slain soldiers were mutilated and burned. Some of the attacking party had rifles that the Americans had given them to enable them to protect themselves against the insurgents. A force of regulars and Macabebes was sent to Balangiga, but the entire population of the town had fled to the mountains.

General Hughes, with about 3,600 troops, now began a more vigorous campaign. With the gunboats on the rivers and flying columns on land, he pursued the insurgent bands relentlessly. Sometimes ambush was formed, and there were serious conflicts. In one instance a detachment of forty-six Americans was attacked on the Guadara River, and ten were killed and six wounded. Then came a reenforcement and killed more than a hundred of the rebels and put the remainder to flight. At San Antonio more than a hundred bolo-men attacked a dozen American soldiers, killing two and wounding two; but the other eight stood their ground and succeeded in killing fourteen of the enemy.

With twenty-seven vessels Rear-Admiral Frederick Rogers patrolled the coast, preventing the insurgents from either leaving the island or receiving supplies. General Hughes ordered the peaceable inhabitants to go to the towns while he hunted down the outlaws, and threatened them with deportation if they concealed arms or harbored the murderous gang of Balangiga. For offenses of this kind several villages were destroyed. On a captured insurgent officer were found papers that implicated men who were holding responsible offices, under the American government, in the island of Leyte. Thereupon they were arrested, the ports of Leyte were closed, and a new insurrection in that island was prevented.

These vigorous measures had a good effect on the rebels in the island of Cebu, who became disheartened and surrendered. This disposed virtually of all the dangerous opposition to American rule in the islands; but General Chaffee expressed the opinion that, because of the wild nature of much of the country and the danger to the peaceable inhabitants from bands of robbers and guerillas, there should be no reduction of the forces in the islands before 1903. The whole number of United States troops that had been sent to the archipelago, first and last, was about 112,000, officers and men. The death from all causes were about 3,500.

On July 4, 1902, the President of the United States declared officially, in a proclamation, that the war in the Philippine Islands was ended.

The struggle in the Philippines was not over when a new and singular trouble appeared in China. There has always been a jealousy of foreigners in China, and in recent years this, with large numbers of the people, has grown into an intense hatred. One cause is the introduction of modern improvements and machinery, which they look upon as evil because calculated to throw men out of employment. Another is the jealousy of the priests, who oppose the toleration of any new religion as diminishing their own power. And perhaps the greatest of all is a fear that the European nations may attempt to take possession of the empire and divide it among themselves, as they have done with Africa. This opposition to foreigners finds organized expression in a secret society popularly known as Boxers because they practice gymnastics. The official name of the organization is I-ho-Chuan, which means League of United Patriots. Another name is Brethren of the Long Sword. The society is more than a hundred years old, and in 1803 it was prohibited by an imperial proclamation, but it has grown steadily nevertheless, and is virtually a political party. It has a sort of religious creed, which is a mixture of Buddhism and Confucianism, and its members have superstitions of their own. In 1899 they murdered two German missionaries, whereupon the German government required the execution of three of the murderers and got possession of a Chinese seaport. This created great excitement among them, large numbers of young men joined the organization in the spring of 1900, and an extensive work of slaughter was begun. Missionaries and their converts were the victims, and it was estimated that thirty thousand were slain. The empress, who had deposed the young emperor, and reigned in his stead, at first made a show of punishing the Boxers, but it soon became evident that this was a mere pretense. The Boxers printed and posted exciting proclamations. One of these said: "For forty years the foreigners have been turning the empire upside down. They have taken our seaports, and got possession of our revenues, and they do despite to our gods and sages. Uphold the Great Pure Dynasty, and destroy the ocean barbarians!" Another declared that the introduction of the Catholic and Protestant religions was the cause of the great drought.

The Boxers originated on the Shan Tung peninsula, southeast of Pekin, and most of their recruits were from that province. As their numbers increased and their organization became more perfect, they advanced toward Pekin.

The foreign ministers in the capital supposed the uprising was quite as much against the imperial government as against the foreigners, and were slow to take alarm. But when the railroad to Paoting Fu was torn up, they sent to their ships in the harbor for a guard of marines to protect the legations, and four hundred and fifty marines came. The very next day more of the railroad was destroyed, communication with the coast was cut off, and the legations were besieged. For ten days the besiegers were Boxers; after that the imperial troops joined them, and before long these were more conspicuous in the attack than the Boxers. The eleven foreign legations were all on one street; and as the British legation was best suited for defense; the British minister invited all to take shelter there. The whole number—ministers, attaches, families, servants, missionaries, and teachers—was about one thousand. There were also about two thousand native Christians to be protected.

The besieged people strengthened their position with ramparts of sandbags, hoarded their stocks of provisions carefully, and, when the Chinese began to use artillery, constructed bomb-proofs for the women and children. About a hundred men volunteered as soldiers to act with the marines, who were constantly on guard and sometimes made sorties against the enemy. The wife of a Swiss baker, named Chamot, joined the volunteers with her husband, and used her rifle skillfully. It was understood that if the besiegers should overpower the defenders, all the women in the legislation were to be killed at once by the men nearest related to them, to prevent a worse fate. The siege lasted sixty-six days, and the defenders, some of whom were killed, conducted themselves most heroically.

As soon as it was known to the great powers that their legations in Pekin were thus besieged and in danger of massacre, measures were taken for their relief. Great Britain, Russia, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, and the United States supplied the forces for the purpose, the American troops being drawn from the Philippines. In the harbor at the mouth of the Peiho were twenty-five warships of foreign nations, and on shore were 900 soldiers. As soon as the imperial government began to act with the Boxers against the legations and all foreigners, it sent a reenforcement of 3,000 soldiers to the forts at the mouth of the river, who began to place torpedos in the channel. The commanders of the fleets agreed to act together, and notified the Viceroy that unless the forts were evacuated they would bombard them June 18. That day the battle was begun. The ships poured in their fire, and 1,200 men were landed for storming. The Chinese returned the fire until their main magazine was blown up; and then the storming-party burst in and captured the forts. One third of the Chinese garrison were killed or wounded, and the allies had lost, in killed and wounded, about a hundred men.

Meanwhile the Boxers had laid siege to the European settlements at Tien Tsin, which was twenty miles up the river. The Europeans there had about 3,000 men capable of bearing arms, who had a few machine guns but no heavy artillery. They were bombarded by the Boxers, many of their buildings were burned, and there were numerous casualties. The Russians lost about 160 men and the British about 200. A force of 400 Russians and 150 Americans that tried to reach the city was driven back. Then a force was organized of 1,500 Russians, 380 British, 1,000 Germans, 100 Japanese, and 100 Italians, who carried with them an armored train and artillery, and in three days they raised the siege (June 23). The railroad was repaired, and the allies sent forward more men. But 10,000 Chinese regulars came down and occupied the forts and arsenals, and from there bombarded the French and English quarters of the town. The allies then planned a grand flanking movement to take the Chinese line in reverse. The American contingent was 100 marines, under Major Waller. The Japanese led the line, and the movement was successful (July 9). The Chinese were routed and those that could ran away, leaving their guns and flags. Five hundred of the Boxers were captured, and the Japanese killed nearly all of them.

Three days later, 1,200 Americans arrived from the Philippines, and the allied force was then about 10,000. The day before their arrival, there was a battle in which the Japanese lost 80 men, the French 60, and the British 18. The next day the Russians and French captured the batteries on the canal, and cleared the Chinese camps, but lost about 150 men in the operation. Then the other troops attacked the city. The preliminary bombardment exploded the Chinese magazine, and then the troops advanced to the gates. The hardest fighting was at the south gate, which was attacked by the Japanese, assisted by a French detachment and the Ninth United States Infantry. Slowly they pushed forward, with heavy losses, till at dusk they reached the moat, where they found that the bridge had been destroyed. In the night they made a new bridge, and in the morning they blew open the gate and scaled the walls, only to find that the Chinese had retreated toward Pekin. In this operation the allies lost 775 men. Of this loss, 18 killed and 67 wounded fell upon the Americans, and among their killed was Colonel Emerson H. Liscum, who commanded the regiment.

The Chinese capital is sixty-five miles farther up the river, and before advancing against that the commanders of the allied troops waited for reenforcements. These were promptly forthcoming. The American contingent now (August 1) consisted of 80 officers and 2,300 enlisted men, commanded by Major-General Adna R. Chaffee, a man of great energy and ability, whose military experience began with his service as a private in the Sixth Cavalry in the Civil War, from which he had risen steadily, through merited promotions, till he reached his present rank.

The march on Pekin was begun August 4. The next day there was a fight at Peitsang, in which the Chinese were defeated. And on the 6th there was another battle at Yangtun, which lasted six hours. The day was fearfully hot, and many men prostrated by the heat. The Chinese retreated through fields of broom-corn and got away. In this action the Americans lost seven men killed and sixty-nine wounded, and two died from the heat. Some of these casualties were caused by the British artillery fire from the rear.

The sick and the wounded were sent down the river in boats, and the march was resumed—seven to twelve miles a day. A troop of the Sixth Cavalry overtook the column and joined the American contingent.

Again at Changkiawan there was a fight, in which the Chinese lost 500 men before they retreated. At Hasiwu they were constructing a trench to flood the roads and fields behind them, when the allies came up just in time to prevent its use.

At dawn, August 14, the Americans were within five miles of Pekin. The whole force of the allies was now about 39,000 men, with 120 guns; and it was agreed that the city should be assailed at daybreak on the 15th. The Russian commander, acting independently, attacked one of the gates in the night of the 14th. He blew it open, and his troops entered; but they at once found themselves subjected to a destructive fire from the walls, and retreated with a loss of 126 men. The next morning, in accordance with the plan agreed upon, the Japanese assailed one of the other gates, and the Americans came up to the assistance of the Russians at the gate they had taken and lost the night before. General Chaffee ordered his men into action at once, and Colonel Aaron S. Daggett led a scaling party through a sunken road and across a moat that was swept by fire. Two companies of infantry climbed the wall and displayed the American flag on it, while the Russians forced the gate. Then more American troops entered by the gate, and the American artillery shelled the Chinese soldiers on the walls. The British entered by the southern gate without much difficulty. The Japanese, at the Chihan gate, met with a determined resistance. Here the Chinese had the advantage of a large loopholed tower over the gate and battlemented walls on each side. The Japanese planted half a hundred guns, in a semicircle, on a hill about a mile distant, and concentrated their fire on the gate. This drove off the Chinese temporarily, but as often as the Japanese infantry advanced, the Chinese returned to the tower and beat them back with a hot fire. The Japanese had lost 200 men in these attempts when the Americans and the British inside the city made a diversion that enabled them to reach the gate, blow it open, and clear the tower and the wall.

Pekin is a triple city—the Chinese City, the Tartar City, and (in the center of the latter) the Imperial City. The legations were in the Tartar City, and were continuously fired upon from the walls of the Imperial City. General Chaffee therefore put guns on one of the gates and opened fire on the Imperial City. The American infantry advanced against it, and found five heavy walls between them and the imperial palace, with archways closed by massive gates. All these were blown open with artillery, and advanced in the face of a rifle fire till they reached the palace. General Chaffee then halted them, and soon withdrew them to a camp outside the Tartar City, where also the other allies encamped. It is said that an immense amount of looting was done by the British, the Russians, and the French, and a little (in defiance of orders) by the Americans. Only the Japanese refrained from it entirely.

The Catholics were still besieged in their cathedral, and the French and Russians went to their relief. Then all the troops of the allies made a movement and cleared the city of Boxers and Chinese regular soldiers. Strategic points in the suburbs were occupied also, and thus complete order was restored.

An administration was organized for the captured capital and province, in which England, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United States were represented; and it only remained to settle the terms of peace. When these were discussed it appeared that the Americans and Japanese were most inclined to be lenient toward China, and the Germans most severe. An agreement was not reached until the middle of August, 1901, and the protocol was signed September 7. The disposition on the part of some of the powers to acquire Chinese territory was held in check by the United States government. The terms of peace included these stipulations:

Some of the high officials who had encouraged the insurgents were to be exiled or imprisoned; others to be executed Or required to commit suicide.

In districts where foreigners had been murdered, examinations for office and honors were to be suspended for five years.

The Chinese government was to prescribe the death penalty for membership in any anti-foreign society.

The area of the foreign legations in Pekin was to be greatly enlarged and made capable of defense, and each one to have a guard of its own nationality.

Importation of arms, or material for their manufacture, was to be forbidden for two years.

All the forts between Pekin and the sea were to be destroyed.

China was to pay an indemnity of about $337,000,000, in four percent gold bonds, to mature in thirty-nine years. And this was to be divided among the allies in proportion to the part they had taken in suppressing the rebellion. The United States received one eighth of it.

When the treaty was signed all the foreign troops, except the legation guards, were withdrawn from Chinese soil.

At the beginning of the war with Spain the United States government had distinctly disclaimed any intention of annexing Cuba, declaring that the people of that island ought to be free and independent. This pledge was faithfully kept. On July 25, 1900, President McKinley directed that a call be issued in Cuba for the election of delegates to a convention to frame a constitution for an independent and permanent government. This was done, and by order of the Military Governor, General Leonard Wood, the election was held on September 15, and the convention assembled in Havana on November 5. The governor told the delegates that it was their duty to frame such a constitution as would secure stable, orderly, and free government, and to formulate the relations which, in their opinion, ought to exist between the United States and Cuba; and that the United States government would then take such action as would lead to a final and authoritative agreement between the people of the two countries and promote their common interests.

The convention completed and signed the constitution on February 21, 1901. A committee was then appointed to draw up a project or treaty concerning relations with the United States. The governor gave them suggestions as to what would be acceptable—to the American government, but these were not heeded. The committee presented a project, which was adopted by the convention (February 27), in which the United States was simply placed on the same footing with all other foreign powers. No naval stations were to be granted to any foreign power, and Cuba was not to serve as a basis for military operations against any power. The President had asked for such stipulations against all bother powers, but not against the United States, had demanded naval stations for the United States, and had claimed the Isle of Pines as American territory.

The unexpected action of the convention in the by an amendment to the Army Appropriation Bill, matter of relations with the United States was met offered by Senator Platt, of Connecticut, and adopted by the Senate. This amendment authorized the President to leave the control of Cuba to its own people as soon as a stable government should be established there, which, in defining the relations between the two countries, should make these provisions:

Cuba to make no foreign treaty affecting its independence, and to allow no foreign power to colonize there or acquire military control.

Cuba to contract no debt that cannot be met, principal and interest, out of the net revenues.

The United States may intervene to preserve independence or safety of life and property, or to secure the discharge of obligations assumed by the United States in the Treaty of Paris.

All acts of the United States in Cuba during its military occupation to be ratified and made valid, and all lawful rights acquired thereunder to be maintained and protected.

Cuba to maintain and extend effective systems of sanitation.

The title to the Isle of Pines to be left to future adjustment by treaty.

Coaling or naval stations to be sold or leased to the United States, at points to’ be agreed upon.

All these provisions to be embodied in a treaty.

Though large numbers of the business men in Cuba desired that the United States should retain even more power in the island, and not a few would have been glad of immediate annexation, the convention was loath to make the concessions demanded, and a committee was sent to Washington to argue the question, in the hope of getting some abatement. But the administration was firm in its demand, and the committee were convinced that the stipulations were in reality a safeguard for the stability of the Cuban republic. The convention adopted all the provisions of the Platt amendment (June 12), but only after long discussion and by a majority of only five votes. The constitution is based on that of the United States. On January 1, 1902, Tomaso Estrada Palma was elected President of Cuba; and the transfer of the government from the United States to his administration was made on May 1.

No one can look at a map of the western hemisphere without feeling regret that a narrow isthmus should separate the world’s two great oceans at the point where it is most desirable for them to come together and permit the commerce of each to flow freely through to the other. The first suggestion of a ship canal through the Isthmus of Darien was made in 1600, by Samuel de Champlain, the famous French explorer, whose name is perpetuated in one of our lakes. From the appearance of a flat map, the construction of such a canal seems an easy task. But it is very different from that which the French engineers accomplished thirty years ago on the sandy isthmus of Suez. Here a mountain ridge stands in the way, making a tide-level canal practically impossible, while the peculiarity of the climate, with its heavy storms and sudden rushing floods, creates difficulties from which the best constructed lock canal never can be wholly free. When the railroad was built across the isthmus, soon after the discovery of gold in California, the loss of life among the workmen was so great, from the insalubrity of the region, that it was said each crosstie of the road might be considered a dead man. In the nineteenth century numerous surveys were made of all the narrower portions of Central America, from Tehuantepec to the Gulf of Darien, and the practicable routes for a canal were found to be but two—one at nearly the narrowest part, where the railroad was built, from Colon to Panama, and the other near the boundary between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, passing through Lake Nicaragua. Concessions have been obtained for both these routes, and on the Panama route considerable work was done, and a great deal of money expended, by a French company that became bankrupt. When the war with Spain began, in 1898, the importance of such a canal was keenly realized. One of our finest battleships, the Oregon, was at San Francisco, and was wanted in the West Indies. Her commander, Captain Charles E. Clark, took her down the western coast, through the Straits of Magellan, and northward in the Atlantic to Key West, a run of fourteen thousand miles, at tremendous speed, and was ready for battle on his arrival.

Up to that time any proposal that the isthmian canal should be constructed by the United States government had met with strong opposition, on the theory that it was a mere mercantile enterprise and should be left to private capital and energy: This opposition was now hushed, and the government took up the subject. Secretary Hay and Lord Pauncefote, the British ambassador at Washington, signed a treaty, February 5, 1900, for the construction of an interoceanic canal, to take the place of the articles devoted to that subject in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850. In that earlier treaty it was stipulated that neither the United States nor Great Britain should obtain or hold for itself any exclusive control over a ship canal. By the new treaty Great Britain conceded to the United States the right to build and maintain the canal, and the United States undertook to preserve its neutrality and keep it open to the ships of all nations, whether in war or in peace. The Senate debated this treaty at great length, and finally passed it with important amendments. These declared that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was superseded, and that none of the stipulations of the new treaty should prevent the United States from taking any measures it might find necessary to secure, by its own forces, the defense of the United States and the maintenance of public order; and an article that provided for inviting other powers to join in the treaty was struck out. The British government declined to accept the treaty as amended.

Negotiations were then resumed, and on November 18, 1901, a new treaty was signed at Washington, which received the sanction of the Senate, by a vote of 72 to 6, on December 16. This was ratified by the British government, and was proclaimed February 22, 1902. The provisions of the new treaty are these:

It supersedes the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850.

It provides that the isthmian canal may be constructed under the auspices of the United States government, either directly at its own cost or by loans to individuals or corporations; and that the United States government shall have the exclusive right of regulating and managing the canal.

The United States adopts, as the basis of the neutralization of the canal, rules substantially the same as those embodied in the convention of Constantinople (1888) for the free navigation of the Suez Canal. These rules are: 1. The canal shall be open to vessels of commerce and of war, of all nations, on equal terms; and the conditions and charges shall be just and equitable. 2. The canal never shall be blockaded, nor shall any right of war be exercised or any act of hostility committed within it; and the United States shall be a liberty to police it. 3. War vessels of a belligerent shall not receive supplies of any kind in the canal (except when it is absolutely necessary), and their transit shall be erected with the least possible delay. Prizes shall be subject to the same terms as war vessels. 4. No belligerent shall embark or debark troops or munitions of war in the canal, except in case of accidental hindrance. 5. The same rules shall apply to the waters adjacent to the canal, within three marine miles of either end. The rules of neutral harbors also apply here. 6. Everything pertaining to the canal, for construction, maintenance or operation, shall be considered a part of it and subject to immunity in time of war.

The treaty provides that no change of territorial sovereignty, or international relations of the country traversed by the canal, shall affect its neutralization or the obligations of the constructing parties.

A commission that had been appointed to examine the route proposed for a canal reported to Congress, December 4, 1901, that to build the canal by the Nicaragua route would cost $189,864,000; and that the directors of the Panama Canal Company demanded $109,141,000 for their franchise, machinery, and work already accomplished, and it would cost $144,233,358 to complete the canal by that route. Hence the commission recommended the adoption of the Nicaragua route, as costing less by about $60,000,000. Afterward the Panama Company lowered its price to $40,000,000, and the commission then recommended that route. The choice of routes has not yet (January, 1903) been made, though the Panama route seems certain to be accepted unless the Colombian government raises insuperable difficulties. It is estimated that it will take ten years to complete the Panama Canal, or eight years to build a canal by the Nicaragua route. The length of the Panama route is forty-nine miles; that of the Nicaragua route a hundred and eighty-three miles.

Since the discovery of gold in the Klondike, a dispute has arisen concerning the boundary between Alaska and the British dominions. The American contention is that the line follows the sinuosities of the coast, being everywhere parallel with them and ten marine leagues inland; while the British (or rather Canadian) contention is that the boundary is parallel (ten marine leagues inland) with a line that leaps from headland to headland. If this were admitted, it would give Canada control of all the water, approaches to the Klondike gold-fields by the Dalton trail, the White pass, and the Chilkoot pass, and also of the Lynn canal and of Skagway and Dyea. The Canadian government, desirous of getting a deepwater harbor, offered to give up its claim to Skagway and Dyea if the United States would give it Pyramid harbor, which is the more westerly of the two upper reaches of the Lynn canal. This offer was declined, as was also the proposal of the Canadian government to submit the matter to arbitration. The United States government would not thus admit that there was any doubt as to the correctness of its interpretation of the treaty by which Russia ceded Alaska to the United States, March 30, 1867. A treaty between the United States and Great Britain had been signed on January 30, 1897, providing for the demarcation of so much of the boundary between Canada and Alaska as lies along the one hundred and forty-first meridian west from Greenwich, it being assumed that the peak of Mount St. Elias is on that meridian. At several points there were discrepancies in the results obtained by the Americans and the Canadians, and in 1900 negotiations were begun for a new survey by means of telegraphic observations. Meanwhile a modus vivendi was agreed upon, October 20, 1899, by which the property rights of settlers of both nationalities are protected.

The most serious labor strike in the history of the country was that of the anthracite mineworkers in 1902. These had been organized in 1899, and in 1900 had declared a strike, which was settled by an advance of ten percent in wages, and other concessions. In February, 1902, the United Mineworkers asked the operators to meet them in conference March 12, and agree upon a wage scale for the ensuing year. This the presidents of the companies declined to do, and they gave their reasons. The matter was brought before the National Civic Federation, but without result. The mineworkers then asked to have the question submitted either to an arbitration committee of five, or to a Roman Catholic archbishop, a Protestant Episcopal bishop, and one other person. These propositions also were declined. On May 15 the mineworkers declared a strike, their demands being these: An increase of twenty percent in the pay of those who worked by the ton. An eight-hour day, with no reduction of the wage, for those employed by the day. Payment by weight to be based on a ton of 2,240 pounds. The miners had previously obtained the passage of a law by the Pennsylvania legislature which forbade any man to work as a miner in the anthracite field unless he had a certificate of competence based on two years’ experience as a laborer. Only about 40,000 men held such certificates, and nearly all of them belonged to the union. The whole number of men involved in the strike was 145,000. The men employed in the bituminous coal-fields refused to join in the strike. The mine-owners attempted to operate the mines with non-union labor, and declared that they could do so if their employees and their property were protected as they had a right to be. But there was serious rioting on the part of the strikers, with numerous murders of non-union men and occasioned wrecking of their houses with dynamite; for all of which no one was punished, and no adequate protection was afforded to the men who chose not to be idle. After unaccountable delay, the governor of the State called out militia to suppress the disorder, but to little effect. In many instances the militiamen fraternized with the rioters. The stock of coal in the market ran very low, and prices went up to more than four times the normal. In October the operators offered to submit the matter to the arbitration of a commission to be appointed by the President of the United States, to consist of an engineer officer of the army or the navy, an expert mining engineer not connected with the coal properties, a judge of the United States District Court, an eminent sociologist, and a practical miner; the findings of the commission to be binding for three years. This proposition was accepted by the mineworkers, and mining was resumed on October 23. But the mines had been practically unworked so long that there was a serious scarcity of anthracite through the ensuing winter. The President appointed the commission, of which Judge George Gray was chairman, and it convened promptly and proceded at once to take testimony and hear arguments of counsel.

The Samoan or Navigator Islands, in the Pacific, had been guaranteed independence, at a conference signed in Berlin in 1889, by Germany, the United States, and Great Britain. But when King Maleatoa died, in 1898, there was trouble about the succession, and the kingship was abolished. In November, 1899, Great Britain renounced her claim upon the islands, all west of the meridian of 1710 west from Greenwich to belong to Germany, and all east of it to belong to the United States. This arrangement, which those two powers accepted, gave Germany the two largest islands—Savaii and Upolu—but in giving the island of Tutuila to the United States it gave us the only good harbor in the group, that of Pago Pago. In fact, this landlocked harbor is the largest and best in the Pacific. The island of Tutuila has an area of 54 square miles and nearly 4,000 inhabitants. It is mountainous, well wooded, and very fertile. The other islands in the American part of the group have an area, in the aggregate, of about 25 square miles, with a population of about 2,660. Civil government has been established by the Americans, but the native customs are not interfered with, nor the authority of the native chiefs.

The island possessions of the United States, not contiguous to our coasts, now include Puerto Rico in the West Indies, the Philippine group, the Hawaiian group, Guam of the Ladrone group, a part of the Samoan group, and Wake Island. The last-named is an islet in the Pacific, west of the Hawaiian islands, and about halfway between them and the Ladrones, which may prove valuable as a station for an ocean cable. These island possessions have, all together, an area of more than 140,000 square miles (almost as large as the State of Montana—or more than twice as large as the New England States), with a population of more than ten millions—about as many as New York and Massachusetts together.

The American genius for invention, which manifested itself as soon as the Patent Office was established in 1791, appears never to have ceased its activity to the present day, and never to have lacked more worlds to conquer. One of its earliest triumphs was the cotton-gin, invented in 1793, and this has been followed by the reaping-machine, now developed to an affair drawn by twenty horses, which cuts the wheat, threshes it and cleans it, and puts it into bags as it goes along; the electric telegraph, anesthetics, the sewing-machine, the telephone, the phonograph, the perfecting-press, the grain-elevator, and the electric railway. The greatest of our living inventors is undoubtedly Thomas Alva Edison, who since the date of his first invention, an automatic repeater for the telegraph, just forty years ago, has been steadily at work with his experiments, and has perhaps produced a greater number of largely useful inventions than any man that ever lived. These include his contributions to the scheme of electric lighting, a part of the telephone, the phonograph, the kinetoscope, and, what seems most wonderful of all, sextuplex telegraphy—the sending of six messages on one wire at the same time. After all these achievements, with the inventor still in vigorous manhood, and spending his days in his laboratory, no one can tell what new thing will issue from it next.

Keeping an even step with the development of labor-saving machinery, the business development of the country, in manufactures and commerce, has astonished the world, especially in these latter years. It was an old proverb that blood could not be had from a stone; but Americans showed that at least oil may be taken from a rock, and in such enormous quantities as to kill the whale-fishery and illuminate at trifling expense the lonely cabins on the farthest frontiers. The commerce that passes the Strait of Detroit is greater than that of the Suez Canal, and the power of Niagara has been harnessed like a well-broken horse and carried many miles on simple wires. The Falls of St. Anthony, which not many years ago were but a picturesque subject for wandering artists, are now grinding wheat to feed the nations; while the great stock-yards of Chicago furnish the meat that in movable refrigerators goes to the ends of the world. And in 1901 John Pierpont Morgan, an American financier, grandson and namesake of an American poet, organized and brought into being the greatest business concern that ever existed—the United States Steel Corporation—which has a capital of more than a thousand million dollars. In the first six months of that year the railroads of the United States increased their earnings by nearly seventy million dollars. The output of steel rails that year was nearly three million tons, and of pig-iron more than sixteen million tons. The total capitalization of new industrial enterprises incorporated in that year was nearly three thousand million dollars. The wheat yield was six hundred and forty-five million bushels, and the corn crop more than twice as much. More than two hundred million dollars have been expended on irrigation works for the reclamation of arid lands. The value of the merchandise exported exceeded the value of the imports more than five hundred million dollars; and the number of immigrants that came to our shores was nearly half a million.

Such was the condition of our country, and such its vast and varied interests, when the youngest of our Presidents was suddenly called to the chief-magistracy. His first annual message made a most gratifying presentment of the condition and prospects of the Union. After paying a glowing tribute to the character of President McKinley, he discussed the danger from anarchists that came to us among the least desirable of the foreign immigrants, and said: "I earnestly recommend to the Congress that in the exercise of its wise discretion it should take into consideration the coming to this country of anarchists, or persons professing principles hostile to all government and justifying the murder of those placed in authority. Such individuals as those who not long ago gathered in open meeting to glorify the murder of King Hubert of Italy perpetrate a crime, and the law should insure their rigorous punishment. They and those like them should be kept out of this country; and if found here should they be promptly deported to the country whence they came; and far-reaching provision should be made for the punishment of those who stay. No matter calls more urgently for the wisest thought of the Congress."

He dwelt upon the fact that business confidence had been restored in the past five years and a period of abounding prosperity had begun, and then proceeded to say of the "trusts," which were becoming a political question, "There is a widespread conviction in the minds of the American people that the great corporations known as trusts are in certain of their features and tendencies hurtful to the general welfare. It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract to require that when men receive from government the privilege of doing business under corporate form, which frees them from individual responsibility, and enables them to call into their enterprises the capital of the public, they shall do so upon absolutely truthful representations as to the value of the property in which the capital is to be invested. Corporations engaged in interstate commerce should be regulated if they are found to exercise a license working to the public injury. It should be as much the aim of those who seek for social betterment to rid the business world of crimes of cunning as to rid the entire body politic of crimes of violence. Great corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and our duty to see that they work in harmony with these institutions. The first essential in determining how to deal with the great industrial combinations is knowledge of the facts—publicity. In the interest of the public, the government should have the right to inspect and examine the workings of the great corporations engaged in interstate business. Publicity is the only sure remedy which we can now invoke."

He recommended the creation of a new cabinet office, to be known as the Department of Commerce and Industries.

Of reciprocity, much discussed as a mitigant of tariff burdens, he said: "Subject to this proviso of the proper protection necessary to our industrial well-being at home, the principle of reciprocity must command our hearty support. The phenomenal growth of our export trade emphasizes the urgency of the need for wider markets and for a liberal policy in dealing with foreign nations."

The one thing in which the United States is inferior to all the great European nations is a merchant marine. This condition has existed ever since our commerce was swept from the high seas by Englishbuilt privateers flying the Confederate flag. The attention of Congress and the people has been called to this fact over and over again by our presidents and our publicists, but still it exists. The President made one more plea for a remedy, in these words: "At present American shipping is under certain great disadvantages when put in competition with the shipping of foreign countries. Many of the fast foreign steamships, at a speed of fourteen knots or above, are subsidized; and all our ships, sailing vessels and steamers alike, cargo-carriers of slow speed, and mail-carriers of high speed, have to meet the fact that the original cost of building American ships is greater than is the case abroad; that the wages paid American officers and seamen are very much higher than those paid the officers and seamen of foreign competing countries; and that the standard of living on our ships is far superior to the standard of living on the ships of our commercial rivals. Our government should take such action as will remedy these inequalities. The American merchant marine should be restored to the ocean."

Our forests were disappearing rapidly enough before the axe of the lumberman when an invention of doubtful value enormously increased the peril of their utter extinction. This was the making of paper from pulp, to feed the rapid printing-presses that turn off tens of thousands of sheets in an hour and flood every corner of the country with newspapers and cheap books. The lumberman cuts no tree that is less than eight inches in diameter, but the pulpmill devours everything, devours every sapling within its reach. The subject of afforestation is coming to be one of our great economical problems. The President aptly says: "The wise administration of the forest reserves will not be less helpful to the interests which depend on water than to those which depend on wood and grass. The water-supply itself depends upon the forest. In the arid region it is water, not land, which measures production. The western half of the United States would sustain a population greater than that of our whole country today if the waters that now run to waste were saved and used for irrigation. The forest and water problems are perhaps the most vital internal questions of the United States." And of irrigation he said: "The forests alone cannot, however, fully regulate and conserve the waters of the arid region Great storage-works are necessary to equalize the flow of streams and to save the flood-waters. Their construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual States acting alone. Far-reaching interstate problems are involved; and the resources of single States would often be inadequate. It is properly a national function, at least in some of its features."

There was a loud and continued cry—though probably not from a great number—that our Government was but practicing tyranny in subduing the Filipinos and keeping possession of that archipelago, and that it should be relinquished. On this subject the President says: "History may safely be challenged to show a single instance in which a masterful race such as ours, having been forced by the exigencies of war to take possession of an alien land, has behaved to its inhabitants with the disinterested zeal for their progress that our people have shown in the Philippines. To leave the islands at this time would mean that they would fall into a welter of murderous anarchy. Such desertion of duty on our part would be a crime against humanity."

Of the much-discussed Monroe doctrine he made this declaration: "The Monroe doctrine should be the cardinal feature of the foreign policy of all the nations of the two Americas, as it is of the United States. Just seventy-eight years have passed since President Monroe in his annual message announced that ’the American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power.’ In other words, the Monroe doctrine is a declaration that there must be no territorial aggrandizement by any non-American power at the expense of any American power on American soil. It is no wise intended as hostile to any nation in the Old World. Still less is it intended to give cover to any aggression by one New World power at the expense of any other. It is simply a step, and a long step, toward assuring the universal peace of the world by securing the possibility of permanent peace on this hemisphere."

When Perry won his decisive victory on Lake Erie, in 1813, two of the largest vessels of his fleet had been built the winter before, at Erie, Pa., from green timber just felled in the forest. Half a century later, when our country was plunged into civil war, ironclad gunboats, for service on the western rivers, were built in one hundred days. But so great has been the advance in naval architecture and naval gunnery that the warships of the great nations now require years for their construction and equipment. The building of our modern navy—the ships by which the pride of Spain was humbled and her flag abolished from the Western Hemisphere—was begun in 1882, and has been in progress ever since, the most powerful vessels having been built since 1892. The largest afloat is the new battleship Maine, launched in July, 1901, which has a displacement of twelve thousand three hundred tons and engines of sixteen thousand horsepower, can carry two thousand tons of coal, and has a speed of eighteen knots an hour. Of others that have been planned, but not yet built, some are to have a displacement of fifteen thousand tons and engines of nineteen thousand horsepower, with a speed of nineteen knots. The whole number of vessels in our navy is three hundred and five, of which all but seventeen are fit for sea service. Twenty of these are battleships, eight are armored cruisers, and twenty-three are protected cruisers. The others are smaller and less powerful, torpedo-boats, supply-ships, etc. Some of the protected cruisers can make twenty-three knots an hour. The largest of these ships are clad in heavy steel armor, and all are armed with improved breech-loading and rapid-firing guns. The latest experiments have been with submarine torpedo-boats, and one of these invented by Holland, has proved successful. Rear-Admiral John Lowe remained in it beneath the surface of the water fifteen hours, and reported that it was perfectly manageable. Attempts at this method of warfare have been made from time to time since the first years of the nineteenth century; but heretofore they have proved harmful only to their inventors and navigators.

Our navy has 1,945 officers (commissioned and warrant), and 25,228 enlisted men. The active officers comprise 1 admiral, 24 rear-admirals, and 75 captains. In addition we have a marine corps of 200 officers and 6,000 men, and naval militia in several of the States, consisting in the aggregate of more than 400 officers and 4,600 men.

The maintenance of an army is a simpler problem, since the country has proved more than once that it can quickly put into the field a vast number of volunteers who, from their superior intelligence and education, need but little drill to become equal to regulars. According to the act of Congress of February 2, 1901, the army now consists of 15 regiments of cavalry, 1 artillery corps, 30 field batteries and 126 companies of coast artillery, 30 regiments of infantry, 3 battalions of engineers, and an additional provisional force of 5,000 men. The total strength is about 66,000 men, of whom 3,800 are commissioned officers. The law limits the total strength to 100,000 men.

Our armament is not so vast and powerful as those of some of the European nations; but one of our most eminent citizens has called attention to the fact that it need not be, since in case of war with them we should only have to close our ports and deprive them of our agricultural products on which they so largely subsist.

The march of invention and discovery goes on steadily, and usually Americans are in the lead. The recently perfected discovery that mosquitoes are the distributors of malaria—one of the most important in the medical world—was made and published by Dr. Albert F. A. King, of Washington, as long ago as 1883.

Edison’s wonderful feat of sending six messages simultaneously on one wire has been eclipsed by William Marconi, who sends them thousands of miles on no wire at all. In January, 1903, a wireless message of more than fifty words was sent across the Atlantic from the President of the United States to the King of England, and an answer of equal length was promptly returned. And still later a message was wafted through the ambient air from the United States to Italy.

The dream that began with the Montgolfiers a hundred and twenty years ago has never been abandoned. Tennyson expresses it poetically in one of his finest creations:

"Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a
ghastly dew
From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Far along the worldwide whisper of the south wind rushing
Warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder-storm."

The art of navigating the air has not yet reached that perfection, but great advances have been made. Some of the most daring ascents have been made by American aeronauts, and the longest balloon voyage on authentic record is that of John La Mountain and three companions from St. Louis, Mo., to Watertown, N. Y., more than 800 miles, in sixteen hours. Experiments with dirigible balloons, or air-ships, have been renewed and extended in the past few years; and among the foremost inventors and experimenters is Professor Samuel P. Langley, who has been working on the problem of flight through the air by mechanical means.

With all our material progress and vast accumulation of wealth, it is gratifying to know that we are not growing sordid and penurious. There is not a country in the world that spends money so liberally for popular education, or that has developed so many ways of reaching the people with instruction and making it available to them. Nor is there one in which so much money is given from private means for public uses. For several years a careful record has been kept of the gifts and bequests of American citizens for educational, religious, and benevolent purposes. In this record no account is taken of any gift of less value than $5,000, or of the regular offerings of churches, or of legislative appropriations. In 1900 the total was $47,500,000. In 1901 it was $107,360,000. In 1902 it was $94,000,000.

When we consider that all these things are taking place in a country of more than 3,000,000 square miles, the only one that borders on both the great oceans, with a chain of lakes on the north and an inland sea on the south, with navigable rivers, fertile plains, and mountains filled with mineral wealth, in the north temperate zone, with a people speaking the language of the business world, and having the most popular government ever known, we may reasonably cherish a considerable pride that we are Americans.