THE AMERICAN YEAR BOOK A RECORD OF EVENTS AND PROGRESS I. AMERICAN HISTORY FRANCIS G. WICKWARE Latin-American policy, which has been put to a severe test in the relations between the United States and Mexico. American history has been made in ciples has been developed a definite 1913 more rapidly than in any other year since the beginning of the century. After sixteen years of Republican rule, a Democratic Administration has come into power, inspired with new ideals and dominated by the earnest and powerful personality of President Wilson. In ten months of office the new Administration has effected a real and extensive downward revision of the tariff, has introduced the new principle of the income tax into Federal finance, and has placed upon the statute books a new banking and currency law. At the same time, the new Administration has foreshadowed radical changes in our policy toward the Philippines, and has established new and definite principles of action in dealings with foreign states. Out of these new prin In the following pages is outlined the legislative and administrative history of the year-the legislative record of the final session of the Sixty-second Congress and the remarkable programme of the first session of the Sixty-third, and the policies and achievements of the Republican and Democratic Administrations. The political and party history of the year is treated in a subsequent article (see Politics and Parties, infra), while the international relations of the United States are reserved for consideration in a separate department (see III, International Relations). THE SIXTY-SECOND CONGRESS The Third Session.-The third and session affecting commerce amended final session of the Sixty-second Con- the Interstate Commerce Act of Feb. gress opened on Dec. 2, 1912, and 4, 1887, by the addition of a new ended at noon on March 4. Its work section (19a) "providing for a valuawas principally of routine. Most of tion of the several classes of property the subjects of general interest which of carriers subject thereto, and securcame before it were reserved for the ing information concerning their determination of the new Democratic stock, bonds, and other securities." A Administration. It acted, however, bill embodying this amendment (H. on a number of legislative measures R. 22593, 62d Cong., 2d sess.), inand pursued other activities of im- troduced by Mr. Adamson (Ga.), was portance, the courses of which are passed by the House of Representatraced in the following pages. (See tives on Dec. 5, 1912. In the Senate also V, The National Administra- Committee on Interstate Commerce tion.) the measure was redrafted by Senator Physical Valuation of Railroads. La Follette (Wis.), and in The most important legislation of the amended form was passed by the Sen its ate on Feb. 24. The House concurred in the Senate amendments on the 27th and on March 1 the bill was approved by President Taft (Public Act No. 400). The act directs the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate, ascertain, and report the value of every piece of property owned or used by all common carriers subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, which inIclude railroad, sleeping car, express, steamboat, pipe-line, telegraph, and telephone companies. As to every piece of property, the report is to show in detail "the original cost to date, the cost of reproduction new, and the cost of reproduction less depreciation." It is to "state in detail and separately from all improvements the original cost of all lands, rights of way, and terminals owned or used for the purposes of a common carrier, and ascertained as of the time of dedication to public use, and the present value of the same." In ascertaining original cost to date the Commission is instructed to investigate and report upon the history and organization of the present and of any previous corporation operating such property; upon any increases or creases of stock, bonds, or other securi de ties in any reorganization; upon moneys received by any such corporation by reason of any issues of stocks, bonds, or other securities; upon the syndicating, banking, and other financial arrange ments under which such issues were made and the expense thereof; and upon the net and gross earnings of such corporations; and shall also ascertain and report in such detail as may be determined by the Commission upon the expenditure of all moneys and the purposes for which the same were expended. All final valuations by the Commission are to be accepted as prima facie evidence of the value of the property in all proceedings under the Interstate Commerce Act and in all judicial proceedings brought to enjoin, set aside, annul, or suspend any order of the Interstate Commerce Commission. (See also XXII, Railronds.) The Department of Labor.-The establishment of a Department of Labor added a tenth executive department to the Federal Government and a tenth member to the President's Cabinet. The bill creating the new department (H. R. 22913, 62d Cong., 2d sess.), introduced by Mr. Sulzer (N. Y.), was passed by the House of Representatives on July 17, 1912. In an amended form it was passed by the Senate on Feb. 26, and the following day the House agreed to the Senate amendments. President Taft disapproved strongly of certain features of the bill but signed it on March 4 (Public Act No. 426), in deference, it was said, to the wish of the President-elect. His objections to the measure were expressed in a memorandum submitted with the signed bill: I sign this bill with considerable hesitation, not because I dissent from the purpose of Congress to create a Department of Labor, but because I think that nine departments are enough for the proper administration of the Government and because I think that no new department ought to be created without à reorganization of all departments in the Government and a redistribution of the bureaus between them. The distribution of bureaus between the existing departments is far from being economical or logical, and if there is one thing that is needed in the present situation it is a reorganization of our Government on economy in the administration of the regular Governmental machinery. I forbear, however, to veto this bill, because my motive in doing so would be misunderstood. business principles and with a view to The Act defined the purpose of the Department of Labor "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.' At its head was established the Secretary of Labor, appointed by the President, at an annual salary of $12,000, with an Assistant Secretary, also appointed by the President, at a salary of $5,000. To the jurisdiction of the new department the Act transferred from the Department of Commerce and Labor, thereafter to be known as the Department of Commerce, the Children's Bureau, the Bureau of Labor, and the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization was divided into two bureaus, the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization. The name of the Bureau of Labor was changed to Bureau of Labor Statistics; all the powers and duties formerly possessed by the Commissioners of Labor were conferred on the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, with the additional duty of collecting and reporting, at least once each year, "full and complete statistics of the conditions of labor and the products and distribution of the products of the same." (See also V, The National Administration.) The Immigration Bill.-As reported in the last issue of the YEAR BOOK (p. 371) a bill establishing a literacy test for aliens seeking admission to the United States and making other important changes in the immigration law (S. 3175, 62d Cong., 2d sess.), introduced by Senator Dillingham (Vt.), was passed by the Senate on April 19, 1912. The House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization tabled the Dillingham bill on May 21, 1912, but on June 4, 1912, voted to report it in an amended form, by striking out everything after the enacting clause and substituting therefor a less stringent measure introduced in the House by Mr. Burnett (Ala.) and favorably reported on April 16, 1912. The Burnett bill was passed by the House on Dec. 18, 1912, by a vote of 179 to 52, but on the following day the Senate refused to concur in the House amendments, and the bill was thrice sent to conference before it was reported in a form acceptable to the Senate. The bill, finally approved by the House on Jan. 30 and by the Senate on Feb. 1, was a comprehensive codification and revision of the existing law regulating "the immigration of aliens to and the residence of aliens in the United States." It proposed, among the changes in the existing law, an increase of the head tax from $4 to $5; exclusion of aliens not eligible for naturalization; extension of the powers of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to admit skilled labor under the contract labor law; heavier penalties for steamship companies advertising for immigrants; provision for the deportation of aliens who become criminals within three years of entry; establishment of interior immigrant stations; and provision of experts in insanity in large ports of entry. In one of its 38 sections was incorporated the original Burnett bill, providing for the exclusion from the United States, in addition to other specified classes, of: All aliens over 16 years of age, physically capable of reading, who cannot read the English language or some other language or dialect, including Hebrew or Yiddish: Provided, that any admissible allen or any alien heretofore or hereafter legally admitted or any citizen of the United States may bring in or send for his father or grandfather over 55 years of age, his wife, his mother, his grandmother, or his unmarried or widowed daughter, if otherwise admissible, whether such relative can read or not; and such relatives shall be permitted to enter. President Taft vetoed the bill on Feb. 14, after a hearing in which the principle of the literacy test was chiefly supported by organized labor. In the veto message Mr. Taft said: The The bill was repassed over the President's veto by the Senate on Feb. 18 by a vote of 72 to 18, but an attempt in the House the following day to override the veto was defeated. vote in the House was 213 to 114, 138 Democrats and 75 Republicans voting to override the veto and equal numbers of the two parties voting to sustain the action of the President. In practically identical form the bill has been introduced in the Sixty-third Congress. Intoxicating Liquors in Interstate Commerce.-Another bill vetoed by President Taft but repassed over his veto, was the Kenyon-Webb bill, "divesting intoxicating liquors of their interstate character in certain cases" (A. Y. B., 1912, p. 396). The object of this measure was to assist the states in the enforcement of prohibition laws by prohibiting the shipment or transportation into any state, territory, or district of the United States from any other state, territory, or district, or from any foreign country, of intoxicating liquors of any kind intended to be received, possessed, or sold, either in the original packages or otherwise, in violation of any law of such state, territory, or district. A bill (H. R. 17593, 62d Cong., 2d sess.), introduced by Mr. Webb appropriations of $116,718,386.91, was (N. C.) and passed by the House of 8 violation of the interstate-commerce Involuntary Servitude of Seamen.President Taft exercised a "pocket" veto on a "seamen's" bill (H. R. 23673, 62d Cong., 2d sess.) passed by the House in August, 1912, and by the Senate on March 2, with amend ments to which the House agreed the following day. It amended extensively the sections of the Revised Statutes dealing with the hours of labor, payment, lodging, and punishment of seamen in the merchant marine and with the manning of ships, abolished criminal liability for desertion, and directed the President to give notice to the Governments concerned of the abrogation of all articles in treaties and conventions of the United States providing for the arrest and imprisonment of deserters from American vessels in foreign countries or from foreign vessels in American ports. President Taft declined to sign the bill because of its conflict with the treaty obligations of the United States. A more radical measure along similar lines was passed by the Senate during the first session of the Sixty-third Congress (see The Sixty-third Congress, infra). vetced by President Taft on March 4 because of a provision, originating in the House of Representatives on Feb. 20, that no part of an appropriation of $300,000 for the enforcement of the anti-trust law should be expended in the prosecution of labor organizations for entering into any combination or agreement for the purpose of increasing wages, shortening hours, or bettering the condition of labor, or of associations of farmers formed for the purpose of maintaining prices for their products. This provision was characterized by Mr. Taft as "class legislation of the most vicious sort." In the last hour of the Congress the bill was repassed by the House by a vote of 270 to 50, but a filibuster prevented action in the Senate. bill_containing the provision rejected by President Taft was later approved by President Wilson (see infra, The Sixty-third Congress). A A statement agreed upon at the close of the session by leaders of both parties showed that the appropriations of the third session of the Sixty-second Congress, including the Indian and Sundry Civil Appropriation bills, amounted to $1,098,647,960.21. In addition, contracts were authorized, subject to future appropriations, amounting to $76,956,174. The appropriations of the preceding session amounted to $1,019,412,710.91, and the additional contracts authorized to $26,423,900. on No provision was made in any appropriation act for the maintenance of the President's Commission Economy and Efliciency, in spite of a special message from President Taft urging an appropriation of $250,000 for this purpose; the Commission accordingly ceased to exist at the end of the fiscal year. The Commerce Court eked out a precarious existence to the end of the year. Provision for its maintenance until March 4, 1913, Appropriation Acts. Two of the was made in the Legislative, Execuregular appropriation bills for the tive, and Judicial Appropriation Act fiscal year 1914 failed of enactment for the fiscal year 1913. A clause in in the Sixty-second Congress. A con- the General Deficiency Act, secured by ference report on the Indian appropri- agreement of the conferees of the Senation bill, carrying appropriations of ate and House in dropping a similar $10,079,205, was not acted upon by Senate amendment from the new either Senate or House. The Sundry Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Civil Appropriation bill, carrying bill, extended the life of the Court to the end of the fiscal year. It was way, however, were in opposition on finally abolished by the Sixty-third the final vote, which put an end to Congress (see The Sixty-third Congress, infra). a bitter struggle of nearly a decade. Limitation of the Presidential Term. The Public Buildings Bill.—An om- -A resolution to amend the Fednibus Public Buildings bill (H. R. eral Constitution to limit the ten28766, 62d Cong., 3d sess.), generally ure of office of the President and considered a piece of "pork barrel" Vice-President of the United States to legislation, was enacted in the closing one term of six years (S. J. Res. 78, days of the session. The bill as in- 62d Cong., 2d sess.) was passed by troduced in the House of Representa- the Senate on Feb. 1. This resolutives by Mr. Burnett (Ala.) from the tion was part of the unfinished busiCommittee on Public Buildings and ness of the second session of the Grounds authorized expenditures of Sixty-second Congress; it was origslightly over $25,600,000. In this inally introduced in the Senate by form it was passed by the House on Senator Works (Cal.) on Feb. 13, Feb. 17. The Senate, however, added | 1912, and favorably reported by the amendments authorizing additional Committee on the Judiciary on May expenditures of about $19,000,000, 20, 1912, while a similar resolution, and the bill was sent to conference offered in the House of Representathree times before the adoption by tives by Mr. Clayton (Alà.), was both houses on March 3 of a final favorably reported by the House report authorizing contracts amount- Judiciary Committee on June 4, 1912. ing to a total of $39,892,850, exclusive As passed by the Senate, amended of authorizations without contracts from its original form to make it amounting to $5,116,000. President unmistakably retroactive, the resoluTaft disapproved strongly of certain tion proposed to substitute for Art. items authorizing the construction of II, Sec. 1, ¶ 1, the following: public buildings in towns too small to justify them, but signed the bill on March 4 because of its authorization of important improvements and additional Government buildings in Washington (Public Act No. 432). The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. The term of the office of President shall be six years; and no person who has held the office by election, or discharged its powers or duties, or acted as President under the Constitution and laws made in pursuance thereof shall be eligible to hold again the office by elec tion. The Lincoln Memorial.-Congress approved in January the report of the Lincoln Memorial Commission submitted on Dec. 4, 1912, and appropriThe vote in the Senate was 47 to ated $2,000,000 for the erection of a 23, 28 Democrats and 19 Republicans memorial structure in Washington of voting for the resolution, and one the design and on the site recom-Democrat and 22 Republicans, includmended by the Commission with the ing the three "Progressives," against concurrence of the Commission of it. In the House Committee on the Fine Arts. The Commission reported Judiciary, to which the resolution unanimously in favor of a memorial in the form of a Grecian temple, the design of Henry Bacon of New York, to be erected in the new Potomac Park. In the House of Representatives on Jan. 29 a final fight for the rejection of the report was made by the advocates of a memorial to Lincoln of utilitarian rather than of purely æsthetic value, in the form of The Sixteenth Amendment.-After a national memorial highway between being before the states for nearly four Washington and the battlefield of years, the Sixteenth Amendment to Gettysburg, a memorial bridge over the Federal Constitution, empowering the Potomac River, or a memorial Congress to levy a tax on incomes, auditorium hall in Washington. Only received its thirty-sixth ratification the projectors of the Lincoln High- on Feb. 3, and became part of the was referred on Feb. 3, it was offered on Feb. 10, with an added clause providing that the amendment should not be effective until March 4, 1921, but the next day action on the new resolution was postponed indefinitely. It has been reintroduced in the Sixtythird Congress but no action has been taken. |