6. Which do you think of the greater importance the Portsmouth Peace Conference or the trip of the battleship fleet around the world? Explain. 7. Discuss in class whether the present great annual expenditure for new battleships is necessary. 8. What is the meaning of "conservation" in its broadest sense? What are you doing at home or school to prevent waste? 9. Compare the questions before the people in Roosevelt's Administration with public questions in Washington's Administration. 10. Make an outline of the chapter. COMPOSITION SUBJECTS 1. Write or tell about the use of wireless telegraphy in some emergency at sea, of which you have read or heard. Write it in the form of a story if you wish. 2. Let the class select four members, each of whom is to deliver a brief Friday afternoon address on one of the following subjects: The Peace Conference at Portsmouth. The Pure Food Act. The Meat Inspection Act. The Conservation of Forests, Mines, and Water Powers. 3. Let each member of the class tell what may be done in the way of conservation: (a) in school; (b) in his neighborhood; (c) in the country at large. TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION: STEPS TOWARD INTERNATIONAL PEACE, AND THE COMPLETION OF THE UNION 1909- 421. The Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill. William Howard Taft followed Mr. Roosevelt as President. Early in his Administration (August, 1909) Congress passed the PayneAldrich Tariff Bill. This lowered the Copyright, 1908, by Moffett Studio 2 duties on some classes of imports and raised them on others. At the same time Congress provided for a Tariff Board. The members of this body were instructed to inquire into how much it really costs to produce goods in other countries, so that Congress might know what duties should properly be levied in order to protect our manufacturers from foreign competition. 422. The discovery of the North Pole. In the month of September, 1909, the entire civilized world was startled by the news that an American naval officer, Commander Robert E. Peary, had reached the North Pole on April 6 of that year. For three hundred years the search for the Pole had 1 William H. Taft was born in Ohio in 1857, graduated from Yale University in 1878, and began life as a lawyer in Cincinnati. Before being elected President he was judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio (1887-90), a solicitor-general of the United States (1890-92), a United States circuit judge (1892-1900), president of the United States Philippine Commission (1900-04), first civil Governor of the Philippines (1901-04), and Secretary of War in President Roosevelt's Cabinet (1904-08). While in the last-named office he adjusted the Cuban insurrection, was for a time provisional governor of that island, and went around the world on various diplomatic duties connected with the Federal Government. 2 The South Pole was discovered on December 14, 1911, by Captain Roald Amundsen, of Norway. The sailing by this enterprising navigator through the Northwest Passage, in 1904-05, has been mentioned in the note on page 21. been courageously carried on by European and American explorers. In that time many famous men had lost their lives in brave attempts to overcome the terrible cold of the Arctic region and to cross its vast and lonely wilderness of ice and snow. Peary himself had spent a quarter of a century in this extremely hazardous undertaking, and on previous visits to the Far North had approached within a few hundred miles of the goal. His long and patient quest was at last rewarded. The praise that he received was well deserved. Great scientific societies in both hemispheres granted him diplomas, medals, and other marks of honor, for he had made a lasting contribution to the study of geography. In 1910 Congress voted him the rank of a rearadmiral in the American navy.1 423. Postal banks. There came into effect in June, 1910, a Federal act establishing postal banks. The object of this law is to encourage among Americans the habit of thrift and to provide absolutely safe places where they can keep their savings. Any person ten years of age or over can deposit money in these postal banks in sums not less than one dollar, and each year the Government will pay him two per cent interest on such deposits. 424. Warfare along the Mexican Border. For many years General Diaz was President of the neighboring Republic of Mexico. He was an able man, but ruled his people in such a despotic and oppressive manner that they rebelled against him during the winter of 1910-11. In the spring of 1911 much of the fighting between Diaz's troops and the insurrectos took place along the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande River; as a result, several towns on the American bank were damaged by stray shots. President Taft thereupon sent 20,000 regular troops and eight warships to protect our frontier and enforce the neutrality of the United 1 The Hudson-Fulton Anniversary. In September, 1909, a great double celebration was held in New York City, in honor both of the three-hundredth anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of the river that bears his name (see also, note I on page 29), and the one hundredth anniversary of Robert Fulton's navigation of that river by a steamboat. States for arms and men from this country were being smuggled southward over the border to aid the revolutionists. After several sharp battles within plain sight of the American towns and military camps, the opponents of Diaz won their long contest against him. He soon resigned his office and took up his residence in Europe. 425. Steps toward international peace. Taft's Administration has been notable for two important efforts toward Photograph by Paul Thompson SIGNING THE ARBITRATION TREATIES Reading from left to right the representatives of the three countries participat- permanent peace between the Governments of three of the great nations of the world: (a) Ever since our first treaty with Great Britain in 1783, the fisher folk of New England and Newfoundland had been in serious dispute over a question of much importance to them, just what rights did that treaty give to the American fisherman off the shores of Newfoundland? In September, 1910, The Hague Tribunal clearly defined these rights to the satisfaction of the two nations, so that hereafter everybody can know exactly what they are. (b) In August, 1911, treaties were signed by the President and by representatives of both Great Britain and France by which it was agreed-subject to ratification by the Federal Senate that every sort of difficulty likely to arise between the United States and those nations should after this be settled through The Hague Tribunal or by other friendly methods.1 426. New treaty with Japan. In 1911, also, the United States made a new treaty with Japan, the purpose of which was to strengthen the friendship which has always existed between these two nations. There was in the old treaty a provision allowing to the United States the right to exclude laborers from Japan. But that country complained that none of our treaties with other civilized powers contained such a clause, and this fact offended her pride. The new treaty therefore omitted the objectionable clause; a private agreement was, however, made between the two countries, by which the United States still retains the right to regulate immigration from Japan. 427. New Mexico and Arizona become States, and thus complete the Union. In August, 1911, Congress also passed bills admitting as States the two remaining Territories of New Mexico and Arizona. This action completed the Union throughout the vast region of what is called Continental United States; that is, all of the United States that lies upon the continent of North America, except the Federal District of Columbia and far-off Alaska, is now at last under State Government. A century and a third ago our flag contained but thirteen stars, emblems of the thirteen weak and struggling English colonies strung along the Atlantic Coast, that united to free themselves from the harsh rule of the motherland. As each new State was born to the perpetual Union that followed independence, a new star was added to the field. Now there 1 In March, 1912, however, the Senate made so many amendments to these treaties that fresh negotiations will doubtless be necessary before consent to the changes can be obtained from Great Britain and France. |