The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919, by Albert Bushnell Hart This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919 Author: Albert Bushnell Hart Release Date: July 16, 2015 [EBook #49456] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MENTOR: UNCLE SAM *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE MENTOR 1919.07.15, No. 183, Uncle Sam Cover page LEARN ONE THING EVERY DAY JULY 15 1919 SERIAL NO. 183 THE MENTOR UNCLE SAM By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART Professor of Government Harvard University DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT VOLUME 7 NUMBER 11 TWENTY CENTS A COPY A Picture of Uncle Sam est of all the cartoons which both reveal and point the way in our national existence, and certainly the best among the symbols which represent great nations, stands Uncle Sam. In no other representative character is personality so clearly defined; in no other is the range of expression and of action so great. (decorative) Inexhaustible are his activities, and of endless variety the moments of thought and of action in which the soul of the nation has been thus caught and fixed. Uncle Sam, farmer, householder, and landed proprietor, has domestic responsibilities upon a scale never known before. One sees him, too complacently,—in a rich-Jonathan moment, —riding the reapers and gathering in inexhaustible harvests; one sees him waking sleepily from a Rip-van-Winkle drowsiness, to guard his forests and waterfalls from despoiling hands; or, with a face less firm than it should have been, settling a dispute among the children, perhaps in a threatened nation-wide strike. There is often a fatherly or grandfatherly touch about him; guardian of western lands and seas, he has not only his own but his step-children to look after. (decorative) One cannot touch the many aspects of his whimsical, doubting, determined, sensitive face. Nearly the whole range of human feeling, of human expression is there. (decorative) Honestly he tries to secure a right balancing of the scales of justice for his multifarious offspring, yet often finds this delicate adjustment puzzling beyond his power to endure. Swift are the changes whereby his Hamlet moments of indecision slip into his Napoleonic moments of great deeds. Something of woman’s intuition is in him, and sometimes, too, woman’s over-ready action in the line of eager and sudden conviction; yet again, sinewy, virile, he shows the muscles stiffening along his arm, and he is become the very incarnation of lean and powerful masculinity, moving determinedly to a goal seen steadily from the beginning. Margaret Sherwood in The Atlantic Monthly. THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, MUSIC, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE AND TRAVEL THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC., AT 114-116 EAST 16TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE COPIES TWENTY CENTS. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; SECRETARY, W. D. MOFFAT; TREASURER, J. S. CAMPBELL; ASSISTANT TREASURER AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY, H. A. CROWE. JULY 15, 1919 VOLUME 7 NUMBER 11 Entered as second-class matter, March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1919, by The Mentor Association, Inc. VACANT LOT GARDENING—ENTERPRISE PROMOTED BY THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM Public Health and Education ONE ur country maintains an Army and a Navy to fight against human beings with whom we are occasionally at war. In the fight against two far more dangerous and insidious foes with whom we are always at war—Disease and Ignorance—our doctors have the aid and guidance of the United States Public Health Service and our schools that of the United States Bureau of Education. These Federal institutions are aided, respectively, by state and local boards of health and by state and local boards of education. The Public Health Service, which is a branch of the Treasury Department, was formerly called the Marine Hospital Service, and was originally devoted only to caring for sick and disabled seamen of the American merchant marine. Today it is safeguarding the health of everybody in the country. It maintains quarantine stations and offices for the medical inspection of immigrants at the principal seaports; establishes domestic quarantines, when necessary, to prevent the spread of disease from state to state; investigates and suppresses epidemics; collects and publishes health statistics; makes elaborate studies of important diseases, such as hookworm disease, malaria, pellagra, trachoma, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis; investigates public water supplies and sewage; carries on research in regard to school, mental and industrial hygiene; and, last but not least, educates the people in hygiene and sanitation by distributing tons of literature, holding exhibits, giving lectures, lending lantern-slides, et cetera. During a recent outbreak of influenza the Public Health Service distributed 6,000,000 leaflets in regard to the disease. A new duty of the Service is to operate hospitals for the physical restoration and re-education of discharged soldiers disabled in the World War. The Service has established a Sanitary Reserve Corps, consisting of medical men and others who are available for active duty in time of national emergency. The Bureau of Education, which is under the Department of the Interior, is the national clearing-house of information on educational subjects. This information is set forth in a large number of valuable publications, and the Bureau also maintains a corps of experts who travel about the country giving advice and conducting investigations in regard to various lines of education. One of the duties of this Bureau is to supervise the expenditure of the liberal funds provided by the Government toward the support of agricultural and mechanical colleges, commonly known as the “land-grant colleges.” Another is to operate schools for the education of native children in Alaska and to look after the Government reindeer industry in that territory. A comparatively recent undertaking is the promotion of home gardening under school direction in cities and towns throughout the country, and the organization of a School Garden Army, which has materially increased the national food-supply. Another educational agency of the Government is the Federal Board for Vocational Education, which was organized in the year 1917. This Board directs a scheme of cooperation between the Federal Government and the states for the promotion of vocational education in the fields of agriculture, home economics and the industrial arts. Congress has made liberal appropriations for this work, and these are to be increased annually until they amount to $7,367,000 a year. Each state is required to spend as much for vocational education as it receives from the national Government for the same purpose. Before this plan was inaugurated, the training of young people at public expense for definite trades and industries had made little progress in the United States. Since the World War the Board has had charge of the training and education of discharged and disabled soldiers and sailors. This work is carried on in the various technical, trade and commercial schools of the country, or other institutions offering special courses, and also directly in the trades and industries. It is not limited to manual training. The Board has announced that “all careers are open to the disabled men.” This educational work must not be confused with that carried on for discharged soldiers in the hospitals conducted by the Public Health Service, and for soldiers still in service in the Army hospitals. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. A BOYS’ CORN CLUB—COUNTY AGENT GIVING INSTRUCTION THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM The Department of Agriculture TWO t would take a good-sized library to tell adequately all the things the Department of Agriculture is doing for the people of the United States. A formal program issued each year sets forth in barest outlines the undertakings on which the Department is engaged. Although only a few brief paragraphs are devoted to each project, one of these “Programs of Work” fills about 600 pages of fine print. This Department is devoted to the two-fold task of gathering and disseminating information; primarily for the benefit of farmers, but also, directly or indirectly, for that of every man, woman and child in this country. It is also charged with the duty of administering various laws designed to safeguard the health and welfare of the people. Under this head come the inspection of food and drugs, meat inspection, protection of useful birds and animals, supervision of the national forests, and a host of other useful activities. Let us set down at random some of the astonishingly varied tasks with which the Department has lately been occupied. Last year nearly sixty million animals were slaughtered for food under the inspection of the Bureau of Animal Industry. The Biological Survey treated more than thirteen million acres of land with poisoned grain to destroy rodent pests. The Bureau of Crop Estimates published monthly data obtained from an army of about two hundred thousand volunteer crop reporters. The Bureau of Public Roads administered the Federal-Aid Road Act of July 11, 1916, under which the Government is to cooperate with the states in road-building by means of appropriations which began with $5,000,000 for the year 1916, and will increase annually by $5,000,000 to $25,000,000 for the year 1921. The Bureau of Soils continued its work of mapping and classifying the soils, which work now extends over nearly a million square miles. The Weather Bureau established new observing stations in the West Indies, to keep a lookout for hurricanes, and added the study of volcanic phenomena to its wide range of scientific undertakings. The Federal Horticultural Board conducted an immense campaign to rid the cotton-growing regions of the country of the pink boll- worm. The Department as a whole led a nation-wide effort to provide means of feeding a hungry world. In a single year the area planted with agricultural crops was increased by 22,000,000 acres. In 1918 the planted area amounted to 289,000,000 acres. During the same year the country produced about nineteen and a half billion pounds of meat: an increase of about four billion pounds since 1914. A branch of the Department known as the States Relations Service is engaged in educational work on a vast scale. All over the country its “county agents” are giving direct instruction and advice to the farmers. There are about twenty- four hundred of these officials now in the field, besides 1,700 “home demonstration agents,” who help the farmers’ wives to solve their domestic problems. Farm work is made interesting and profitable to the rising generation by means of some forty different kinds of clubs, such as Pig Clubs, Corn Clubs, Canning Clubs and Poultry Clubs, in which are enrolled more than two million boys and girls. Lastly, the Department is by far the largest publisher of agricultural information in the world. Last year it issued over twenty-five hundred documents of all kinds, in editions aggregating nearly one hundred million copies. Included in this stupendous flood of literature were millions of copies of Farmers’ Bulletins, distributed free of charge, and each devoted to some practical topic connected with rural life and industries. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. EXHIBIT OF BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM Promoting Commerce THREE he Department of Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Bureau of Markets, the Shipping Board, and many other agencies of the Federal Government are engaged in promoting and regulating the commercial business of the country. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, a branch of the Department of Commerce, collects information about foreign markets for American goods from American consuls, commercial attachés stationed at the principal foreign capitals, and a corps of traveling special agents. The Bureau issues a daily newspaper called Commerce Reports, containing notes and articles of commercial interest from all parts of the world and a list of “Foreign Trade Opportunities.” Each of these “opportunities” for American business in some foreign country is set forth in a brief paragraph. The following are examples: 29267.*—Chemicals, and equipment and supplies for electroplating work are required by a firm in Denmark. Correspondence may be in English. Reference. 29268.*—A company in India desires to purchase and secure an agency for the sale of steel and iron in bars, sheets, tubes, plates, etc.; builders’ and engineers’ hardware; caustic soda; and petroleum and lubricating oils. References. 29269.*—The purchase of plywood and veneers in all thicknesses and sizes is desired by a man in England. Terms, credit preferred, or will pay cash against documents. References. An American manufacturer or exporter who is interested in one of these notices can obtain the address of the foreign concern that desires goods, agencies, etc., by writing to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, in Washington. The Bureau maintains district offices in several large American cities. At the New York office, which is in the Custom House, there is a permanent exhibit of samples showing the various kinds of foreign-made goods sold in the principal importing countries of the world. The exhibits, after being shown first in New York, are usually shown in the principal centers of the particular industry concerned. Special exhibits of samples are also held in connection with trade conventions. Apart from Commerce Reports, the Bureau publishes an immense amount of statistical information concerning the foreign commerce of the United States and foreign tariffs, and also extensive studies of foreign markets for particular lines of goods. The other bureaus of the Department of Commerce are the Bureau of Standards, which facilitates commerce by regulating weights and measures and by carrying on scientific research relating to all the manufacturing industries; the Bureau of the Census, which compiles elaborate statistics concerning trade and industry, as well as those relating to population; the Bureau of Fisheries, which has immensely stimulated trade in fishery products; and four bureaus which aid, protect and regulate navigation—the Bureau of Lighthouses, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Steamboat- Inspection Service, and the Bureau of Navigation. The Federal Trade Commission is charged with the duty of preventing various abuses in interstate business, especially in the nature of unlawful trusts and combinations. The Federal Reserve Board supervises the affairs of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, and indirectly exercises a certain amount of control over the banking system of the country. The Interstate Commerce Commission regulates interstate transportation, controls freight rates and passenger fares, and promotes the safety of travel by prescribing rules concerning equipment and methods of operation. The Bureau of Markets of the Department of Agriculture promotes business in all kinds of agricultural products, and maintains a market news service. The Shipping Board, which was established in 1916, is engaged in the very important work of building up the American merchant marine. The Pan American Union, a potent factor in promoting our trade with the Latin-American countries, is not a branch of the United States Government, but an international organization in which all the American republics are represented. It has its permanent headquarters in Washington, and the Secretary of State of the United States is ex officio chairman of its governing board. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. IMMIGRATION STATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. HONOLULU—JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS AWAITING EXAMINATION THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM The Department of Labor FOUR n his annual report for the year 1918, the Secretary of Labor declared that “had the Department of Labor not existed at the beginning of the war, Congress would have been obliged to create such a department.” During that year, mainly under the stress of war conditions, the number of bureaus in this department increased from four to thirteen, and immense efforts were put forth by it to promote the smooth running of industrial machinery at home, so that the military forces might successfully prosecute their great task abroad. In normal times the chief purpose of the Department is, as stated in the Act creating it, “to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage-earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.” To this end the Department collects, digests and publishes statistics and information concerning labor at home and abroad; supervises the admission of immigrants into the country and their naturalization; and aids in the adjustment of disputes between workmen and their employers. One of the most interesting branches of this Department is known as the Children’s Bureau. The law provides that this Bureau “shall investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, and legislation affecting children in the several states and territories.” The Children’s Bureau has been especially identified with efforts to secure effective laws restricting child labor, and it furnished the machinery for administering the United States Child-Labor Law which went into operation September 1, 1917, only to be set aside the following June, when it was pronounced unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. The Court unanimously agreed, however, that child labor is an evil, and Federal legislation on this important subject not inconsistent with the Constitution will doubtless be eventually enacted. A notable development of the war was the United States Employment Service. The Department of Labor had previously maintained an employment service in a small way under the Bureau of Immigration for the purpose of helping newly-arrived immigrants to find work. During the war this expanded into a vast organization for mobilizing the labor resources of the country. About eight hundred public employment exchanges were opened, and labor was moved from place to place as required, whether for war industries, for harvesting the crops, or for other purposes. During the year 1918 nearly two million wage-earners were placed by this service in positions for which they were qualified and in which their services were needed. After the armistice an important branch of the work consisted in finding positions for discharged soldiers. As a means of recruiting workers for the industries of the country and helping solve the problem of unemployment, this service is one of the most promising undertakings of the Government, but its future depends upon further legislation by Congress. During the last year before the war began in Europe the number of immigrants admitted to the United States was 1,218,480. The laws relating to immigration and the Chinese-exclusion laws are administered by a branch of the Department of Labor known as the Bureau of Immigration. Immigration stations are maintained at the principal seaports, where physical, mental and moral defectives, as well as persons likely to become public charges or afflicted with contagious diseases, polygamists, anarchists, contract laborers and Chinese are eliminated. The most important immigration station is at Ellis Island, in New York Harbor. The Bureau of Naturalization, besides supervising the work of the courts in naturalizing aliens, is in charge of an extensive campaign of educating and Americanizing prospective citizens. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. EQUIPMENT OF A POSTAL MOTOR TRUCK ROUTE THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM The Postal Service FIVE n the year 1790 there were 75 postoffices in the United States. In 1918 there were 54,345. The number of pieces of mail handled in a year approximates twenty million. In order to operate this vast business enterprise Uncle Sam requires the services of 300,000 people. The Postoffice Department, constant in service, day and night, probably has no rival among Government institutions. In 1863 the free delivery of mail was undertaken in half a hundred cities, with 449 carriers. In 1918 there were 2,000 city delivery offices, with 35,000 carriers. The first rural free delivery routes, three in number, were established as an experiment in 1896. There are now considerably more than a million miles of such routes, employing over forty thousand carriers. Special delivery service was established in 1885. In an average year the number of pieces of mail handled by special delivery approximates fifty million. In 1865 there were 419 money-order offices and the money orders issued amounted to $1,360,122. In 1918 only a very small percentage of postoffices did not issue money orders, and the value of the orders amounted to $940,575,219. The postal savings system was begun in 1911. Within six years there were upward of six thousand postoffices that received deposits and the amount to the credit of depositors was nearly $150,000,000. The smallest deposit accepted is $1, but smaller amounts may be saved by purchasing a 10-cent savings card and affixing 10-cent savings stamps. Interest is allowed at the rate of 2 per cent. The parcel post system dates from 1913. It has gradually been made more serviceable to the public by the removal of restrictions regarding the size, weight, packing and nature of shipments and by the increased use of motor vehicles. The Department estimates that 3,000,000,000 parcels were handled in 1918. On May 15, 1918, the first regular air mail route was established in this country between Washington, Philadelphia and New York. The flight between Washington and New York requires approximately two hours, as compared with five hours by the fastest railway trains. Other routes are in course of development. During the latter part of the World War the Postoffice Department operated the telegraph and telephone systems of the country. In the year 1918 the Department inaugurated a system of motor-truck parcel post routes, especially to facilitate the distribution of food stuffs. The trucks are owned by the Government and many former Army trucks are now utilized in this service. A great variety of merchandize is hauled along these routes; all sorts of farm products are carried to the city markets and the merchandize purchased in the city is distributed through the rural districts on the return trip. The trucks pick up parcels anywhere along their routes—not merely at postoffices, but at farmhouses—and deliver in the same way. Produce from the country is delivered directly to the consignee in the city, house-to-house delivery being made wherever the houses are easily accessible to the regular routes of the trucks. While certain produce cannot be shipped through a postoffice, under the postal regulations, all kinds of produce, including live poultry, are accepted by the trucks where the delivery can be made directly without having to go through a postoffice. Besides these routes operated directly by the Government, many of the so-called “star routes” (routes operated by contractors) are now equipped with motor vehicles. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. DISABLED SOLDIERS LEARNING TO WEAVE RUGS AT AN ARMY HOSPITAL THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM War Pensions—and Something Better SIX lthough the United States Government has been conspicuously backward, as compared with foreign Governments, in providing retirement allowances for its veteran civilian employees, it has generally made liberal provision for those who have served in the Army and the Navy, and especially for the veterans of the various wars in which the country has been engaged. In fact, in the payment of pensions to former soldiers and sailors, and their families, not only as compensation for wounds or other disabilities incurred in the service, but also as a reward for brief participation in a war, this country has carried liberality to an extreme not approached by any other nation. The Revolutionary War cost the United States about $70,000,000 in pensions, and every subsequent war, except the recent world struggle, has added to the pension roll, which reached its high-water mark in the year 1905, with a total of 998,441 pensioners, while the annual payments rose to a maximum of $174,171,661 in 1913. The Pension Office is still one of the largest and busiest establishments of the Government, although our latest war added practically nothing to its labors. Shortly after the World War began, and long before the United States became a participator, Congress established a new office under the Treasury Department known as the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, for the purpose of insuring American vessels and their cargoes against the risks of war. In June, 1917, the Government provided insurance for the officers and crews of such vessels. Finally, in October, 1917, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance became the agency for a vast scheme of protection and compensation afforded to the soldiers and sailors of the United States and their families —a substitute for the old plan of war pensions. Under the new plan three forms of financial aid were rendered, as follows: 1. Allotments and Allowances. Every enlisted man was required to allot at least $15 a month from his pay to his wife and children and other dependents. To this amount the Government added family allowances, up to a maximum of $50 a month. 2. Compensation for Death or Disability. This applies to officers and enlisted men alike, and is the same for all ranks, but varies with the size of the soldier’s or sailor’s family. A bachelor, without dependents, gets $30 a month for total disability incurred in the war, while a married man with three or more children may receive as much as $75 a month. The disabled veteran is also entitled to free medical and hospital service, artificial limbs, et cetera. In case of death resulting from injury in the line of duty, the widow and family receive monthly allowances. 3. Government Insurance. During the war all persons in the military and naval services were granted the privilege of taking out insurance against death or total disability (whether due to war service or otherwise) up to the amount of $10,000, at a very low cost. This was entirely distinct from and in addition to the compensation provided as mentioned in the foregoing paragraph. The war insurance runs for a period of five years after the war, and may then be converted into any of the ordinary forms of insurance offered by commercial companies, without medical examination. Up to July 1, 1918, the Government received 2,579,912 applications for insurance under this novel plan, representing $21,640,065,000 of insurance—an amount about equal to that carried by all the insurance companies of the United States. In some regiments every man was insured for $10,000, the maximum amount allowed. The Bureau of War Risk Insurance occupies a magnificent new building in Washington and has about 15,000 employees. Besides making these liberal provisions for the relief of its disabled soldiers and sailors, the Government has embarked upon elaborate measures for restoring them to health and efficiency. They are not only given the best medical and physical treatment known to science, but also taught various trades and occupations, suited to their condition and natural aptitudes. During the period of treatment and training they receive an allowance for the support of themselves and their families. The Army and Navy, the Public Health Service, the Federal Board for Vocational Education and the Bureau of War Risk Insurance all take part in this paternal enterprise. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.