dition of the labor element have allowed factory legislation to lag behind the development of the factory system. Throughout the whole country and among all its diverse Ideals and public streams of population, the predominant questions of the time, opinion. in public and private life, come more and more to be immediate, practical, and complex. The general truths for which the earlier generations contended are mostly established, and their limitations realized. Equality of opportunity and equality before the law, belief in the brotherhood of man and in the sovereignty of the people, are accepted as forming the most satisfactory basis for government, but they obviously do not of themselves solve the problems of government. It is not enough to make man free, it is necessary to keep perpetual watch and ward. Many of the new issues arise on questions of detail, questions of better or worse, not of right or wrong. Continued interest and study are more important than enthusiasm. The new leaders of thought are increasingly students unable themselves to present their views to the public. The essay, the poem, the editorial, the sermon, the oration, the first-hand utterance of the leader to the people are largely supplanted by the popularized semiscientific article in the magazine. Literature has declined in quality and in influence. Poetry has become the pleasure of the dilettante, not a real force; philosophy languishes; theology attracts interest chiefly when it offers health to the body as well as peace to the soul. Humanitarianism is more widespread, more self-devoting than ever before, but it has become, not only more practical, but more material. Ideals, however, remain potent. Foremost among the national ideals is the preservation of democracy, although there is more inequality of condition than in the time of Jackson, and more appreciation of the difficulties of making it a vital living force. Political morality rests upon a higher plane than at any time since the first period of the republic, and political interest is far more widespread than at that time. The Historical accounts. energy and the self-reliance developed by the conquest of the continent remain as a heritage for the nation in solving its new and more humdrum problems. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Hart, A. B., Ideals of American Government. Ross, E. A., Changing America. Encyclopedia Britannica (11th ed.), XXVII, CHAPTER XXIX POLITICAL ADJUSTMENTS AND LEGISLATION succeeds ON September 6, 1901, while attending the Pan-American Roosevelt Exposition at Buffalo, President McKinley was shot by an McKinley. anarchist. He died on September 14, and was succeeded on the same day by the Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt. While the latter thus became President unexpectedly, having been elected to an office which carries with it little prestige or power, he embodied more conspicuously than any other man in the country the new forces which were coming to the front in politics. career. Entering politics at the age of twenty-four as member Roosevelt's of the New York legislature, he speedily became interested in civil service reform. From 1889 to 1895 he served on the United States Civil Service Commission, doing much to promote its efficiency, and to spread the movement. As president of the New York City Police Board, 1895 to 1897, he showed great energy in breaking up the connection of the police force with vice and "graft" which had been exposed by various investigations. Appointed by President McKinley as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he resigned at the opening of the Spanish War, and organized and served as Lieutenant Colonel of a regiment of "Rough Riders," enlisted largely from the "cowboys" of the western plains with whom he had become familiar by residence in North Dakota, 1884 to 1886. During the war he distinguished himself, not only by gallantry, but by an attack on the efficiency of the War Department, which resulted ultimately in the resignation of Secretary Russell A. Alger. At the close of the war he was elected governor of New York. Securing Civil service and labor. High finance. this position in opposition to "Boss" Thomas C. Platt, at that time senator from New York, he came to be looked upon as a leader by those who wished to change the old order of things. His career as governor confirmed his hold on this element, and he became a leading power in politics. In the Republican convention of 1900 he was chosen as candidate for the vice presidency, not only because of the strength he would bring to the ticket, but because Senator Platt and Senator Hanna of Ohio, the political managers for President McKinley, considered that he would be least dangerous to the established order in that position. In all the offices in which he had served Mr. Roosevelt showed an unusual capacity for work, and a remarkable vigor and directness in urging his opinions. As President, Mr. Roosevelt continued his work for civil service reform, very greatly extending the number of "classified" positions which came under the examination rules, and improving the consular service, which was still left open to personal appointments. He showed great interest in the problems of labor. In 1902 a strike of the anthracite coal miners for a time caused great distress throughout the North and threatened a cessation of industry by cutting off the coal supply. The President induced both sides to submit their cases to a commission which he appointed, and whose decision brought peace. In 1903, at his suggestion, Congress created a new department of government — that of Commerce and Labor-to investigate and help remedy industrial conditions. During these years the movement to concentrate the control of industry went on with greater rapidity than ever before. In 1900 J. Pierpont Morgan arranged the United States Steel Company, with stocks and bonds amounting to $1,100,000,000-the greatest corporation ever organized. Controlling ore properties, transport lines, and factories, it was able to prevent disputes between different branches of ELECTION OF 1904 521 the trade, to carry out great economies, and for several years to fix the price of steel products. E. H. Harriman combined railroad with railroad, the Union, Central, and Southern Pacific, the Illinois Central, the Oregon Short Line, and smaller units, securing a firm grip on transportation within the quadrilateral formed by Chicago, Portland, San Diego, and New Orleans. His only competitors were the Santa Fe and the Gould system, consisting of the Missouri Pacific and allied lines. In New England, the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, under the initiative of Mr. Morgan, was rapidly acquiring a monopoly of transportation by land and sea, by steam and electricity. In the far northwest, James J. Hill, builder of the Great Northern, attempted to complete his hold by uniting with that road the Northern Pacific and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy. As the two latter were directly competing roads, a merger would be illegal, so the Northern Securities Company was formed to hold and vote a majority of the stock of both. The era of competition in transportation seemed about to end. By direction of the President, however, suit was brought under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law against the Securities Company, and the Supreme Court in 1904 ordered it dissolved as a trust within the meaning of the law. In 1912 the Court ordered the Union Pacific to give up its control of the Southern Pacific. Before Mr. Roosevelt's becoming President, four Vice Election of Presidents had become chief executive by the death of the 1904. elected President. All of them had desired election to the office to which they had thus accidentally arrived, but in no case had they even received the nomination of their party. Mr. Roosevelt, however, had by 1904 taken so strong a hold on the public good will that he was unanimously nominated by the Republican convention to succeed himself. In the Democratic convention the conservative wing triumphed, choosing Judge Parker of New York as candidate, and enjoining silence on the currency question. |