Resource Center OLLibrary
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[1920-1921 |
118,000,000, as compared with a total of 101,100,000 reported
by the Census of 1910. This makes our continental growth about
14,000,000 and our total growth over 16,000,000.
450. Summary. The most important points
in President Wilson's administration were: (1) the ratification of
three new amendments to the Constitution, -- namely, the
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth (the first declared that
members of the United States Senate must be elected by the direct
vote of the people; the second declared Prohibition in force in
all parts of the country; the third established Woman Suffrage
throughout the United States); (2) a new tariff was adopted,
admitting many articles free of duty, and reducing the duty on
others; (3) this new tariff included a National Income Tax; (4) a
new system of National Banks called Federal Reserve Banks was
established; (5) the Panama Canal was opened and we purchased the
Virgin Islands in the West Indies; (6) in 1917 we entered the
Great War and did our part toward winning the final victory; (7)
the Presidential Election of 1920; (8) the Census Report of 1920
showing the growth of the country in population.
451. Harding's Administration (Thirtieth
President, 1921 the Inauguration. Standing at the top of the
east steps of the main entrance of the National Capitol, President
Harding took the same oath of office that Washington took on the
balcony of Federal Hall in New York City more than a hundred and
thirty years before (§ 199). He also made use of the same
copy of the Bible that our first President did.
1 Warren G. Harding
was born on a farm at Blooming Grove, Ohio, in 1865. As a boy he
did his share of work on the farm; as he grew older he learned to
set type in a village printing-office, and when the opportunity
came he entered the Ohio Central College to complete his
education. When he reached manhood he became the editor and later
on the owner of the Marion "Star," a newspaper to which he devoted
a large part of his time, on which he did much excellent work, and
which he still continues to publish. In 1915 he was elected to the
United States Senate -- as a preparation, it would seem, for his
election in 1920 to the highest office in the gift of the American
people. In our long list of Presidents he is the first newspaper
man and the first employer of labor who has risen to that
position. His record shows that he believes in doing things as
they should be done and that he puts his heart into what he
believes.
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When this brief ceremony was over,
President Harding delivered his inaugural address to the
assembled members of Congress, judges of the Supreme
Court, and other distinguished men present, and to the
people collected in the great square. |
He
expressed his deep, abiding faith in America and in all
that America has stood for in the past and stands for
now. He declared his belief that we are entering upon an
"era of the Golden Rule," provided the people accept it
and do their work bravely and efficiently; for without
their help the government can do but little.
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[1917-1918 |
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The proposition made by Secretary Hughes impressed the
members of the Conference. Later they spent many weeks in
drawing up agreements, or treaties, which they
signed.1 The President, expressing his
approval of what had been accomplished, sent their
treaties to the Senate, which in time voted for them. |
have
seen it grow from a few colonies on the Atlantic coast to
thirteen independent states. We have followed the
development of that commonwealth into a prosperous and
powerful nation, which numbered in 1920 nearly
118,000,000 people, and which extends from ocean to ocean
and embraces important islands in both the Atlantic and
the Pacific. The total continental area of the United
States comprises the chief part of the land of North
America. It is considerably greater than the area of
Continental Europe, and, with the possible exception of
the Republic of Siberia,3 it covers the
largest portion of the earth's surface4 under
the control of any one government on any one of the grand
divisions of the globe.
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Here every advantage is open. Education is
absolutely free. Millions of acres of Western lands still invite
industrious settlers. Here, and here only, among the leading
civilized nations of the world, no immense standing army eats up a
big slice of the daily earnings of the people.1 Here
all men and all women now have an equal right to vote. Here every
law springs, or may spring, directly from the will of the
majority.
Here men coming from all parts of the world have
made their home. Here they have learned to dwell together, work
together, and stand together, in peace and in war, loyal to the
flag and to the government which they have created and which they
uphold by their own free will.
These facts prove the truth of the motto chosen
for this book. They show that America means Opportunity. In
closing this brief history can we do better than ask, each one of
himself, What use do I intend to make of this opportunity? The
whole future of the Republic, for good or ill, for growth or
decay, for glory or shame, depends on the way in which we
individually answer this question.
1 The "standing army"
of the United States is at present less than 150,000.
