XLV THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT In the opening years of the twentieth century the country was animated by a reforming or progressive spirit, and by the time Taft entered upon his duties the word that charmed the popular ear and stirred the popular heart was "reform." The forward-looking tendency was characteristic not only of the political world but of almost every department of American life. So pervasive and general was the demand for progress that men fondly believed the new century had ushered in a progressive era whose end no man could see. PROGRESS IN EDUCATIONAL MATTERS Growth Popular The progressive movement that at the dawn of the twentieth century was beginning to show strength acquired its greatest force from the thing upon which all real progress The must be grounded, popular education. Educational agencies of were raising the intelligence of the people to higher and higher Education levels. The public-school system, which was in so flourishing a condition in the eighties (p. 469), continued to gain strength. By 1900 there were more than 15,000,000 pupils enrolled in our schools; twenty years later the mighty army of learners had increased to more than 20,000,000. In the meantime the financial support given to the schools was becoming more and more generous: in 1900 the annual expenditures for public education was a little more than $200,000,000; in 1920 they were more than $1,000,000,000. Students in public high schools and other secondary institutions numbered 630,000 in 1900, more than 1,000,000 in 1910, and nearly 2,000,000 in 1920. In our colleges and universities the registration in 1900 was about 100,000; ten years later it had nearly doubled, and twenty years later it had trebled. While the schools were growing in number, educators were striving to make them more useful. Besides the instruction given in the traditional subjects-in language, in mathematics, Vocational in science-courses were given in manual training and in the Education Supplementary Agencies of Education Libraries domestic arts. Some schools furnished even a vocational training that aimed (1) to assist the younger pupils in finding out what kind of work they were best fitted to perform and (2) to give the older pupils the specific training necessary to prepare them for their chosen vocations. In 1917 impetus to vocational training was given by the Smith-Hughes Act. This law provided for the promotion of vocational education through the coöperation of the Federal Government with the States. Under this law the money appropriated by Congress must be used in the paying of salaries of teachers of subjects connected with agriculture and home economics, and every sum of money contributed by the Federal Government must be matched by an equal amount contributed by the State. Five years after the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act nearly half a million pupils were enrolled in schools where the principles of vocational training were applied. In addition to the regularly organized schools, many supplementary and indirect agencies assisted in spreading intelligence among the people. The rural free delivery carried the daily newspaper to millions who hitherto had not been accustomed to receive it; summer, vacation, and evening schools were attended by multitudes who could find no other opportunity for study; free public lectures were established in the large cities and were attended by large audiences; the university extension system, the Chautauqua circle, and the correspondence school reached hundreds of thousands of students. But the most useful handmaid of the public schools was the free public library. At the opening of the nineteenth century free libraries were few, indeed, but a hundred years later almost every city and town had a collection of books that 1 The cause of education was advanced by the gifts of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The total endowment of this institution (in 1913) was twenty-two million dollars. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 for the purpose of providing retiring-allowances for teachers and officers in certain colleges and universities. The endowment of the Foundation (1913) was fourteen million dollars. The Carnegie Corporation of New York was organized in 1911 with the purpose of promoting the advancement and diffusion of knowledge among the people of the United States by giving aid to institutions of higher learning. The endowment of this corporation (1913) was twenty-five million dollars. The General Educational Board chartered in 1903 by Congress, was organized and endowed for the purpose of promoting education in the South. The gifts of Rockefeller brought the endowment of the board up to thirty million dollars. could be used by readers without cost. In some of the States a state-wide service for lending books was rendered by means of small traveling libraries. The growth of the library system in the first years of the twentieth century was dazzling in its proportions. In 1900 there were less than 7000 libraries with 1000 or more volumes; in 1920 there were probably 20,000 such libraries, containing altogether probably more than 100,000,000 volumes. An influential factor in the creation of many new libraries and in the expansion of numerous old libraries was the benefactions of Andrew Carnegie. In twenty-five years he and the Carnegie Corporation gave more than $40,000,000 to cities and colleges for the erection of library buildings. SOCIAL BETTERMENT With this greater diffusion of knowledge there arose a cry for social betterment louder than any similar demand that had been made within the memory of man. Not since the progressive movement of the thirties (p. 294) had there been so much agitation for reform. The chief object of the reformer's concern was the working-men. More was done for the welfare of toilers in the first few years of the twentieth century than had been done for them in the entire previous century. Inasmuch as under our system most of the affairs of every-day life are regulated by the State (p. 166), it was by means of state legislation that most of the reforms were accomplished. The warfare against child labor and against the overworking of women in factories was conducted with such vigor that few States failed to enact laws forbidding the employment of children too young to work and limiting the number of hours that women could be lawfully employed. Many States enacted employers' liability laws that gave increased protection to workmen suffering injury from accidents. In a few of the States there was a movement for old-age pensions. Wisconsin undertook to furnish life insurance at the cheapest possible rates, having provided by law that the state insurance commissioner should conduct a life-insurance busi ness solely for the benefit of the policy-holders. Illinois, Colorado, and Pennsylvania ventured upon a system of pensions for indigent parents. In Illinois pensions were provided for parents who were so poor as to be unable to care for their children. In Michigan boards of education were given. power to grant pensions not exceeding three dollars a week to children whose services were absolutely necessary at home. and who by law were compelled to go to school. Several States went so far as to attempt to secure for laborers a minimum wage, that is, the lowest wage that employers should give, if they wish their employees to live in a decent and comfortable manner. Although the powers of the Federal Government in respect to labor matters are small, the reformers nevertheless knocked at the door of the Federal Government. In 1898 the Erdman Act was passed. This authorized the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission to endeavor to bring together the employees and employers of any railroad threatened with a strike and if possible to effect an immediate and peaceful settlement of the dispute. In 1908 an act was passed making interstate railroads responsible for injuries to employees, thus extending the benfits of an employers' liability law to hundreds of thousands of trainmen. In 1912 Congress established a Children's Bureau, which was charged with the duty of investigating all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life. The next year Congress organized the Department of Labor and gave it power to make investigations in regard to the welfare of working-men. In order to reach the subject of child labor by federal action a law was passed excluding from interstate commerce all goods produced in factories or mines in which children less than fourteen years of age were employed. This reform, however, came to grief; the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional on the ground that it was not an attempt to regulate commerce, but an attempt to regulate the conditions of manufacture, a matter that would have to be dealt with by the State. In 1919 Congress, making another attempt to regulate child labor, passed a law imposing a tax of ten per cent on the net profits of factories employing children not fourteen years of age. But the second law also came to grief, for in 1922 it was nullified by a decision of the Supreme Court. Thus it seemed that if child labor was ever to become a subject for federal action the Constitution would have to be amended. tion It was now that a fresh impulse was given to the cause Prohibiof prohibition (p. 455). At the end of the nineteenth century only Maine and Kansas had state-wide laws prohibiting the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquors. In the early years of the new century, however, the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League began a fight against the liquor interests that resulted in victory after victory for prohibition. By 1913, Maine, Kansas, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Oklahoma had adopted state prohibition, and Congress had enacted the Webb Bill, which forbade the shipping of liquor into a dry State in violation of a state law. Charity But it was not only through the agencies of government that social reforms were undertaken. Private agencies were also potent in the movement for social betterment.2 organization societies-associated charities-extended their work and increased in number until almost every small city had an agency by which the poor could be helped in a rational and scientific manner. Hospitals founded by private munificence also increased in number to such an extent that in some States there was hardly a locality where there was not a hospital in which the sick could be cared for at a reasonable rate." The work of the hospital was supplemented by visiting nurses, who went into the homes of the poor and gave practical instruction in the art of nursing. The Red Cross Society, which was originally organized for the purpose of mitigating the horrors of war by alleviating the suffering of 2 Prominent among these agencies was the Russell Sage Foundation, which was organized in 1907 with an endowment of ten million dollars, devoted to the broad social mission of "discovering and eradicating as far as possible the causes of poverty and ignorance." The public health of the whole world became the concern of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, an institution founded in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller with an endowment of over twelve million dollars. Private Agencies of Social Better ment |