CHAPTER IV THE GREAT STAGE IT IS not surprising that Princeton resisted the reforms which President Wilson pressed upon her nor that other universities viewed askance the plan of democratizing college life. The sons of rich men have almost always resisted the persuasions of their teachers to enter upon the toilsome road that leads to learning. What does surprise the historian is the readiness with which the conservatives, the bosses even, of the Democratic party turned to this educational reformer for a national leader. Moreover, it was this unnatural move of the conservatives of the East which set in motion that marvellous train of events which have made Woodrow Wilson the foremost leader in the world. Only a fair understanding of the complicated state of things in the United States in 1910 will enable one to understand this miracle of American history. At the close of the Civil War it became increasingly plain that Lincoln's generous policy of reconstruction would restore the free-trade and poverty-stricken South to its old position in the country and with an enlarged delegation in Congress because of the emancipation of the slaves. The South would thus at once exercise a large influence in national affairs. "It is delightful to find how much sympathy exists for my somewhat lonely fight here among the men in the faculties of the great universities as well as the small colleges, and I am hoping every day that some other President may come out and take his place beside me. It is a hard fight, a long fight, and a doubtful fight, but I think I shall at least have done the good of precipitating a serious consideration of the matters which seem to me fundamental to the whole life and success of our colleges."-Letter to author, dated May 4, 1910. Further, the Western states from Ohio to Nebraska had grown very jealous of the industrial states which dominated the whole North. The railroad, manufacturing, and banking groups of the Eastern states had grown immensely rich during the struggle. All these forces united in 1866 to insist upon a national tariff and financial policy which would hold the West in subjection for half a century. Westerners, therefore, like George Pendleton and Allen G. Thurman of Ohio and scores of others from other states, protested against paying the national debt in gold and against a steadily rising tariff which bore heavily upon farmers everywhere. Here were two powerful sections of the nation, the South and the West, which had formerly supported each other in national affairs. They each had grievances. If the South were readmitted to the Union, Southern and Western men would inevitably unite their strength and arrange a national policy which would serve their interests. Andrew Johnson, in spite of his loud talk during the early months of his presidency, represented the promise and guarantee of such a combination. Hence the bitter struggle to impeach him. Industrial men succeeded by a campaign of hatred both in defeating Johnson and in holding the South out of the Union for a decade. Meanwhile, industrialism made its position secure.1 The Republican party was the agency through which this industrial supremacy was made secure.2 High tariffs, high wages, and rapid railway development were the popular slogans under which elections were carried. Prosperity with the exception of certain violent reactions known as panics was the result, a prosperity which enabled railroads to be built across the continent, which raised great cities upon the William A. Dunning, "Reconstruction, Political and Economic," Ch. V. James A. Woodburn, "The Life of Thaddeus Stevens," Indianapolis, 1915, Ch. XXI. plains like mushrooms that spring overnight. Industries that had to do with wool, cotton, iron, coal, copper, and railroads increased their returns, enriched their owners, and herded millions of human beings about their smoking chimneys, men who spoke strange tongues, lived in dingy hovels, and worked for wages that just kept them going. From Boston to Minneapolis stretched this vast industrial domain. Railroads tied the mines and the farms of the rest of the country to the nerve centres of this busy, smoke-blackened region. National, state, and private banks fed the industries, the railroads, and the other ancillary businesses with the necessary capital which was borrowed from Europe or from the savings of the country. Real estate rose in value beyond the wildest dreams of its owners because industry brought millions of tenants; bank and industrial stocks doubled and quadrupled both in volume and in price because vast populations gathered in the cities increased the consumption of goods. Rich men grew to be millionaires and millionaires became masters of hundreds of millions of wealth. Was there ever anything like it? The Republicans answered, "No," with a mighty shout.1 From 1866 to 1896, the process went on almost without interruption. The opposition, led in the beginning by members of Congress from the Middle West, called itself the Democratic party. It consisted in a solid South voting against the East whether in good or ill repute and the provincial West. The provincials of America could not see that it was a blessing to cover the earth with great plants and wideflung mill settlements so long as cotton, corn, tobacco, and all other products of their lands declined in value. Their sons 1E. Stanwood, "History of the Presidency," gives official platforms; his "Tariff Controversies" gives the philosophy. A more subtle and popular philosophy of industrialism will be found in John Hay's, "The Breadwinners," 1883. ran away to the cities to swell the enormous tide of newcomers from Europe, both of which masses of men added to the representation of the industrial districts in Congress and made the more difficult the election of any leader of the farming groups to the presidency. Every year the country regions not touched by industry became less attractive. Houses took on a tumbledown appearance. The South became a waste. Planters became farmers; farmers became tenants; and tenants took places as day labourers or emigrated to the city. There was no help for it. Old America that lived upon the land and talked of liberty and equality was vanishing. Men of the Protestant faiths, people who read their Bibles daily and looked to the next world for adjustments of the wrongs of this world, had their faith for their pains. Little else came their way. Still, it must not be inferred that the industrial forces held undisputed sway in all their rich region. There were remote Republican districts where people doubted the divinity that hedges business about; and there were clerks and bookkeepers and Irishmen in the big cities who worked and voted stubbornly against "their betters." These doubting Republicans and organized common folk of the cities were potential or actual allies of the provincial South and West, of that older America which might yet win control. Nor were the provincials altogether masters in their areas. The Negroes, always poor and ignorant, were a Republican thorn in the side of the Democratic South. Even in the agricultural West there were industrial and commercial pockets where the faith of "Pig Iron" Kelley2 was warmly preached and voted. The difficulty of holding a great state to an industrial programme is well illustrated in Mr. Herbert Croly's "Marcus Hanna-His Life Work," Ch. XVI. 'A unique champion of the industrial system. See W. D. Kelley, "Speeches, Addresses, and Letters," 1872. |