Apart from the effects of the cataclysm in Europe, the year was marked by financial disturbances and trade depression, which combined with the apparent results of the President's policy in Mexico to react unfavourably on the position of the Administration.
At the opening of the year the President was popular in the country, and had an unusual control over Congress. The solution of the tariff and currency problems had cleared the way for anti-Trust legislation, and the effect of the Report of the Pujo Committee was seen in the voluntary resignation by the members of the great banking firm of J. P. Morgan & Co. of thirty out of their thirty-nine directorships in railroad and other companies. Those resigned by Mr. J. P. Morgan included directorships of the New York Central and other Vanderbilt lines, and of the Western Union Telegraph Company, while his partners retired, inter alia, from the United States Steel Corporation, the Guaranty and other Trust Companies, and the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Other members of banking firms followed the Morgan example.
Congress reassembled on January 12, and on January 20 President Wilson read to it in joint session his Message dealing with "the very difficult and intricate matter of trusts and monopolies." Disclaiming any desire "to unsettle business or anywhere seriously to break its established course athwart," he recommended (1) the effectual prohibition of interlocking directorates of banks, railroads, industrial, commercial and public service bodies; (2) a law empowering the Interstate Commerce Commission to superintend the issue of stocks and bonds of railways needing money for their development; (3) more specific definition of "restraints of trade" under the Sherman Law; (4) the creation of an Interstate Commission to aid the Courts and provide information enabling business to conform to the Sherman Law; (5) Legislation ensuring the punishment of persons responsible for unlawful business practices; (6) prohibition of "holding companies" [i.e. companies controlling others by owning large amounts of their stock]; and (7) the grant to private persons of the right to bring suits for redress based on the results of Government suits. The Message was conciliatory in tone, and its favourable reception, especially in financial circles, showed that the business world was ready to meet public opinion in attenuating the features of "big business" most resented by the public.
These recommendations were embodied in four Bills: (a) prohibiting interlocking directorates, but allowing two years for their holders to resign; (b) creating an Interstate Trade Commission of five members, with wide and inquisitorial powers of investigating the business of companies (other than railroads) engaging in interstate and foreign commerce, and designed to aid the Attorney-General in inquiries into offences against the anti-Trust law; (c) a Trade Relations Bill, prohibiting certain unfair trade practices and enabling persons injured by them to recover damages by the aid of the proofs established by Government inquiries; (d) a Bill further defining unlawful monopoly and restraint of trade as dealt with under the anti-Trust law, and imposing penalties for violation. Among other items in the programme for the session were a Rural Credits Bill facilitating advances to farmers, and a Bill for leasing the Alaska coal lands, designed to prevent the growth of a monopoly in them.
The President now turned his attention to foreign policy, which gave cause for anxiety in more than one direction. A settlement of the dispute with Colombia was already pending, but the friction with Japan was aggravated by a Japanese Exclusion Bill (shelved eventually through the influence of the Administration), by a drastic Immigration Bill, and by rumours that Japan was assisting Huerta in Mexico. The Spanish-American countries were obviously hostile to any sort of financial protectorate by the United States, Hayti and the Dominican Republic were seriously disturbed, and the Mexican problem still awaited solution. The Senate was adverse to the Arbitration Treaties (A.R., 1913, p. 459), and the Panama tolls question was pressing. On January 26 the President conferred with the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and on February 5 he stated what had already been intimated, that he would press for the suspension of the exemption of coastwise shipping in the current session. But the most serious difficulty was in Mexico. Early in the year preparations had been made for the possibility of enforced intervention by the purchase of stores of ammunition and the order that the warships, after their pending Southern cruises, should meet off the Mexican coast; and the alleged attitude both of General Huerta and of Japan gave force to the demands made for an increased Army and Fleet. But Huerta seemed likely to have to retire, and on February 4 President Wilson issued a proclamation removing the embargo on the export of arms to Mexico, on the ground that, as there was now no constitutional government, the embargo interfered with the settlement by Mexico of her own affairs—a view which overlooked the danger that the arms imported would partly go to Zapata and other leaders who were brigands rather than politicians, and so might intensify the disorder. The step, nevertheless, was favourably received by the American Press, as likely to hasten a settlement; and public attention was temporarily diverted to other matters. The new banking system was to be supported by banks representing some 99 per cent. of the banking capital in the country; and business seemed to be improving.
The President's announcement regarding the Panama tolls, however, had set up some opposition, primarily among the shipbuilding interests, the ultra-Protectionists and the Irish-Americans, but extending also to his own Democratic followers; and it and his advocacy of the arbitration treaties were attributed to a desire to establish better relations with the European Powers in the face of possible complications in Mexico, owing to the Benton case (p. 483), and of danger from Japan. On March 5 he sent a Message to Congress strongly urging the repeal of the exemption. In his own judgment, he said, exemption was a mistaken economic policy from every point of view, and a plain breach of the Anglo-American Treaty of 1901; it was only in the United States that there was any doubt about the language of the Treaty, and the nation was "too big and powerful and self-respecting" to put a strained interpretation on its promises just because it had power enough to read them as it pleased. "The large thing to do is the only thing we can do—voluntary withdrawal from a position everywhere questioned and misunderstood." Were his request not granted, he would not know "how to deal with other matters of even greater delicacy and nearer consequence." This appeal was effective, and the Commerce Committee of the House favourably reported the Bill on March 6. It was, however, strongly opposed by a number of Democrats, among them Mr. Underwood, of Alabama, leader of the party in the House, and Senator O'Gorman, of Maryland; by the New York American and Mr. Hearst's other papers, and by the Irish-American Press, whose chronic suspicions of Great Britain were excited by the Ulster crisis. It was a sign of the disquiet aroused by the Bill that Mr. Page, the American Ambassador to Great Britain, was called to account by a resolution of the Senate for his speech at the London dinner of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, in which he was reported to have minimised the Monroe doctrine; but his explanation proved satisfactory.
While the House was busy with the Bill the Senate dealt with a proposed amendment to the Constitution, introducing women's suffrage on the lines of the famous 15th Amendment, and providing that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. This was voted on March 19, by 35 to 34, and thus failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority. Amendments offered respectively by Senator Vardaman, of Mississippi, rescinding the franchise granted to negroes under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, and by Senator Williams, of Mississippi, excluding negro women, were rejected by 19 to 48 and 21 to 44. Apart from the stock arguments against the proposal it departed from the practice, hitherto broken only by the 15th Constitutional Amendment, of leaving suffrage regulation to the separate States.
Another issue which now became temporarily prominent was that of the restriction of the consumption of alcoholic liquors. Early in April, the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Daniels, took the final step in enforcing teetotalism on the Navy by issuing an order prohibiting the introduction from July 1, 1914, of alcoholic liquor of any kind into any naval vessel, establishment, or station, and holding commanding officers responsible for infringements of the rule. The men had long been deprived of their grog, and this order, which was issued on the advice of the Surgeon-General, extended prohibition to the officers, who would now be unable to offer wine when entertaining guests from foreign fleets. But a resolution was also introduced into Congress demanding prohibition throughout the United States of the manufacture of intoxicants "for beverage," or of their sale, by means of an amendment to the Constitution (p. 467), and this resolution was the subject of more memorials, for and against, than any other issue before Congress.
To the Panama Tolls Bill the House showed itself favourable by passing a special closure rule limiting debate on it to fifteen hours (March 1), and defeating by 200 to 179 an attempt to rescind this rule (March 27). The Bill, however, aroused much opposition among the Democratic majority, notably from Mr. Underwood (Alabama), the Democratic leader in the House, Speaker Clark, Mr. Wilson's most formidable rival in 1912 for the Presidential nomination, and Senator O'Gorman in the Senate, while Senator Lodge and some other Republicans strongly supported it. The President's attitude was regarded in some quarters as the result of a bargain designed to conciliate Great Britain in view of the Benton case (post, p. 483), and of British dissatisfaction with the results of his policy of watchful waiting in Mexico; a view expressly repudiated by the President himself and by the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the House of Commons (March 29, 30). President Wilson's foreign policy in general, including the Colombian treaty (signed April 8, post, p. 461), was adversely criticised, and Mr. Roosevelt's friends urged him to attack the Administration on his return from his exploration in Brazil. However, the Bill was finally passed by the House on April 1 by 247 votes to 162. It went to the Senate, and was first dealt with by the Committee on Interoceanic Canals. The temporary unpopularity of the Administration seemed to be indicated by the success of Mr. Underwood in obtaining the nomination for Senator in Alabama, and by the return at Congressional bye-elections of a Republican in New Jersey and an anti-repeal Democrat in Boston. The New Jersey contest had been described by the President as giving the people an opportunity to express themselves as to his policy.
But public attention was now diverted to a new crisis in Mexico. A portion of the Atlantic Fleet had concentrated, after its winter cruise, off the Mexican coast; several ships had then left to refit, or for other reasons, and four remained: the Florida and Utah at Vera Cruz, the Connecticut and Minnesota at Tampico. On April 10 a party of bluejackets landed at the latter port to obtain gasolene; they were arrested by a Federal (Huertist) colonel and marched through the streets, but were eventually released with an apology. Admiral Mayo, the United States commander, demanded that, by way of reparation, the Mexican authorities should hoist the American flag and give it a salute of twenty-one guns. President Huerta replied by a proposal that the United States and Mexican flags should be hoisted together and saluted reciprocally, gun for gun, and that an agreement to that effect should be recorded in a protocol. The United States Government regarded this course as a recognition of the Huerta Government, and were willing only that the American firing should follow the Mexican. A time-limit (6 P.M. on April 19) was eventually fixed for General Huerta's compliance. The United States had also to complain of the arrest of a naval mail-carrier at Vera Cruz. On April 20 President Wilson read a message to Congress asking it to approve the use of "the armed forces of the United States in such ways and to such extent as may be necessary to obtain from General Huerta and his adherents the full recognition of the rights and dignity of the United States." This, he said, would not mean war with the Mexican people, but only with General Huerta and his supporters, and the object of the United States would only be to restore to the Mexicans freedom to set up their own laws and Government.
A joint resolution was introduced into both Houses embodying the President's demand, declaring that he was justified in the employment of the armed forces of the United States to enforce the demand on Huerta for unequivocal amends to its Government. It was passed in the House by 337 to 37, but before it had passed the Senate Rear-Admiral Fletcher was ordered (April 21) to seize the Vera Cruz custom house, so as to prevent the landing of munitions for the Huertists, expected from Havre by the German steamer Ypiranga. He first demanded, through the United States Consul, the surrender of the town; on receiving a refusal he landed a body of marines, who were fired on by snipers, and were assisted by the guns of the United States warship Prairie. Shells were fired also from the Utah, and eventually most of the Mexicans retreated to the west of the town, the rest sniping the invaders from the housetops. Next day, April 22, the American ships shelled other buildings occupied by snipers, together with the Naval Academy and the artillery barracks, and practically took the town.
The American people, as a whole, rallied to the support of the President. There was some war feeling, though hardly among the politicians; the President was generally backed by the Press, the Churches, and even the labour unions, though the Industrial Workers of the World threatened a general strike in the event of war. The joint resolution was passed, in a modified form, substituted in the Senate and accepted by the House; but the insult to the flag was an occasion for trying to end the anarchy in Mexico. A force of some 4,000 was embarked at Galveston, troops were also sent to defend the Mexican border against raids, the United States warships Louisiana and Mississippi were despatched to Vera Cruz, and a Bill was passed by Congress authorising the mustering of the National Guard and the Regular Army. General Carranza, however, disappointed American hopes by declaring that the seizure of Vera Cruz was an affront to the Mexican people, and demanding its evacuation; and in view of his attitude, the United States Government hesitated to seize Tampico. British and German subjects meanwhile were warned to leave Mexico, and General Huerta facilitated their departure; and gave Mr. Nelson O'Shaughnessy, the American charge d'affaires, his passport.
A temporary lull in the warlike preparations was now set up by the offer of mediation made by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, which was cordially welcomed by President Wilson and took shape in the Conference at Niagara Falls (post, p. 484). An armistice was arranged meanwhile, and General Funston took over Vera Cruz from the naval authorities on May 1. The public funeral of some of the marines and bluejackets killed in the fighting (May 11) afforded the President another opportunity to emphasise his purpose. Going with the procession from Battery Park, New York, to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, he delivered an address, paying a tribute to the patriotism of the slain, and adding: "We have gone down to Mexico to serve mankind if we can find a way. We do not want to fight the Mexicans; we want to serve them if we can." In a war of service, he proceeded, it was a proud thing to die; and it was as hard, he thought, to do one's duty when men were sneering at one as when under fire. "When they shoot at you they can only take your natural life. When they sneer at you they can wound your heart." But a man ought to regard his conscience and the conscience of mankind.
During this lull in Mexican affairs attention was again directed to domestic problems. The anti-Trust Bills (p. 453; consolidated, with some omissions, into one measure) made some progress, and were supplemented by a Railway Capitalisation Bill, providing that railroad stock and bond issues should require authorisation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, that facts concerning the issue should be made public by that body, and that "interlocking directorates" should require its authorisation. In financial quarters this measure was regarded as far too drastic. But the railroad interests were somewhat reassured by the favourable decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission on an application by the Southern railroads regarding an increase of rates. Further increases were permitted by the same body later in the year.
The Naval Appropriation Bill, passed by the House on May 7, and subsequently by the Senate, authorised a building programme of two battleships, six destroyers, and eight submarines. A third battleship, it was eventually arranged, was to be provided out of the proceeds of the sale of the Mississippi and Idaho to Greece (p. 459).
While the majority in Congress struggled with the anti-Trust programme, the Republican Opposition was provided by the disappointing financial results of the new tariff with fresh material for attacking the Administration. The value of imports of manufactured articles from October 1, 1913, to April 1, 1914, as compared with the corresponding period of 1912-13 had increased from $215,000,000 to $228,000,000; exports of such articles had fallen to $541,000,000 against $582,000,000; materials for manufacture imported had fallen from $517,000,000 to $409,000,000; Customs receipts had fallen from $165,000,000 to $140,000,000. The deficit for the year had already reached $37,000,000, and a few weeks later the new income tax proved to be likely to yield only $30,000,000 for the first ten months of its operation, as against estimates before its introduction by its projectors and the Treasury respectively of $80,000,000 and $54,000,000.
The position of the Administration was not bettered by the course of events in Mexico. The Constitutionalists, whose success it favoured as the more legitimate claimants of authority, committed excesses at Saltillo, Tampico and elsewhere; and the alleged murder after torture of Private Parks, who had strayed into the Huertist lines at Vera Cruz, stimulated the cry for drastic intervention. The Constitutionalists' refusal to accept an armistice or to submit to the findings of the Niagara Conference, together with the growing differences among their leaders, gave little hope of a permanent pacification; and ultimately, at the end of June, the conference broke up, leaving the Huertists and Constitutionalists to arrange for another conference composed of their representatives, which should deal with the establishment, composition, and programme of a provisional Government.
However, the Administration obtained some success elsewhere. The Panama Tolls Bill was debated in the Senate at considerable length; but some waverers were conciliated by an amendment moved by Senator Simmons (North Carolina), providing that the repeal should not impair American rights under the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, and on June 11 the Bill passed by 50 to 35—the majority consisting of 37 Democrats and 13 Republicans, the minority of 23 Republicans, 11 Democrats, and a Progressive. Among the rejected amendments was one referring the Hay-Pauncefote treaty to the Hague Court for interpretation. The Bill was accepted by the House as amended, and signed by the President on June 15. The honour of America was thus vindicated in the view of Europe; and the way was cleared for the completion of the programme of anti-Trust legislation and for the adjustment of relations with Colombia and other Spanish-American States.
Another success for the Administration was the authorisation by Congress of the sale to Greece of the battleships Idaho and Mississippi, launched in 1905, and considerably inferior, of course, both to the newer battleships of the United States and to the Dreadnought just purchased by Turkey from Brazil. They were, however, of 14,465 tons each, could steam nearly seventeen knots, and carried twelve-inch guns. They were to be sold at cost price ($11,726,000) to pay for a Dreadnought; and the sale was partly intended to enable Greece to be a match for Turkey, and so to avert a Greco-Turkish war. The sale was sanctioned by Congress owing mainly to President Wilson's influence.
Meanwhile the anti-Trust legislation had been partly postponed and considerably modified by the Senate—notably by an amendment designed to exempt labour unions and agricultural and mutual aid associations from being treated as combinations in restraint of trade under the Sherman Law; and business did not improve. It was true that the railroad world was encouraged by the decision of the United States Supreme Court (June 8) that a State must not impose, even within its own borders, rates which conflicted with the fair operation of those fixed by the Inter-State Commission for similar services in traffic crossing the State border; but the general depression was ascribed to the uncertainty of legislation, and the President's repeatedly expressed view that the depression was "merely psychological" was not generally shared. A fresh shock was given to the hopes of revival by the largest failure on record in the dry goods trade (June 27), that of H. B. Claflin & Co., an immense wholesale house, with liabilities of $35,000,000, though the assets awaiting liquidation were estimated at $44,000,000. The failure, however, was mainly caused by financing retail customers and inability to raise money on the debts due to it, and a reorganisation scheme was arranged later.
The situation in politics and business gave Mr. Roosevelt an excellent opportunity for attack. On his arrival from Spain (June 25) he denounced the President's Colombian and Mexican policy; and a few days later (June 30) he spoke at Pittsburg in favour of the candidature for the Senate of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, who was standing against Senator Penrose, Republican. After attacking the Democrats for tariff reduction, and for their "wretched" foreign policy, he denounced the Republican managers for splitting the party, and promised that the Progressives would have a scientific Tariff Commission, and would recognise that big business was not necessarily purely pernicious. The tone of his speech was less Radical than in former years, and seemed to hint at a possible fusion of the Progressives with a reformed Republican party.
The passing of the Panama Tolls Act had cleared the way for the settlement of other foreign questions. Mr. Bryan was anxious to obtain the ratification of his "Peace Commission" Treaties, supplementing the existing Arbitration Treaties by providing for the submission of disputes between the countries who were parties to them to a permanent International Commission (which was allowed a year within which to report) before going to arbitration before the Hague Court. This Commission would be composed of five members, two appointed by the respective Governments from their subjects, two from another country, the fifth from another neutral country by agreement between them. The Commission's Report would not be final, as in that case the prerogatives of the Senate would have been infringed. The British treaty was to be delayed for submission to the Dominion Governments, but a number of similar treaties with the minor Powers on both sides of the Atlantic were submitted to the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate.
But there were more troublesome questions ahead. The Mexican tangle was somewhat simplified a little later by the retirement of General Huerta (July 23, post, p. 485), but the Colombian Treaty, which gave Colombia $25,000,000 as compensation for her loss of Panama in 1903, and contained words which looked like an apology for the action of the United States Government on that occasion, was regarded by many politicians on both sides as both costly and humiliating; while the Nicaragua Treaty provided for the loan to that State (in return for the right of constructing a canal by the San Juan route and of using certain islands as a naval base) of $3,000,000 for certain urgent items of expenditure and the establishment of a sort of financial Protectorate. This was regarded as doubtful policy, and as likely to benefit certain financiers more than either of the Powers concerned, while the Diaz Government in Nicaragua was believed to be merely the creature of the United States. There was trouble, moreover, in Santo Domingo, for which the United States had a certain responsibility through having lent it financial administrators, and in Hayti, where German creditors were pressing the Government, and revolution was impending; and marines were sent in the middle of July to Cuba, for use if necessary in either Republic.
The anti-Trust legislation, however, was not passed yet, and, while business men feared its effects, the need of further regulation, especially in the matter of interlocking directorships and stock and bond issues, was exhibited by the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission on the affairs of the New York, Newhaven, and Hartford Railroad, once among the best managed systems in America, now, by agreement with the Government, in voluntary liquidation. The inquiry had been undertaken at the direction of the Senate, and the evidence, especially that of Mr. Mellen, the President, had been sensational. Substantially the Directors were found to have used illicit and corrupt means, including bribery, extortionate commissions, and excessive payment for properties purchased, to obtain a complete monopoly of traffic in New England. They had increased the Company's liabilities between 1903 and 1912 from $93,000,000 to $410,000,000, and had lost from $60,000,000 to $90,000,000 of the stockholders' money. The directorate contained representatives of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads, of the United States Steel Corporation, the Standard Oil and Pullman Companies, and the stockholders seemed to have less representation than any other interest.
Meanwhile the President had completed the arrangements necessary for giving effect to the Currency Act (A.R., 1913, p. 459). In April the twelve cities in which the district banks were to be were determined as follows: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas (Texas), and San Francisco. The selection of Dallas instead of New Orleans or Galveston, and of Cleveland instead of Cincinnati, caused some comment, but it was explained that considerations of the wealth and commercial importance of a city might have to be overridden by that of the direction of trade. The Presidency of the Board was declined by Mr. Olney (Attorney-General in the Cleveland Administration of 1893-97), probably in view of his age; and ultimately (June 15) the nominations were sent to the Senate as follows: Charles S. Hamlin, Boston, first Assistant-Secretary to the Treasury, two years; Paul M. Warburg, of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., an important banking firm, four years; Thos. D. Jones, Chicago, six; W. Harding, Birmingham, Ala., eight, and A. C. Miller, San Francisco, ten years. Mr. Warburg and Mr. Jones, however, were objected to by the Senate, on the ground that they were too closely connected with "big business," Mr. Warburg being a financier and Mr. Jones a director of the International Harvester Company, against which proceedings were pending under the anti-Trust Law; and Mr. Warburg resented being cross-questioned by the Senate Committee. They requested the President to withdraw their nominations, though Mr. Warburg afterwards gave way and was confirmed; so that by the end of July the Board had not yet got to work.
The war took America by surprise as it did Europe, and almost produced a tremendous financial crisis. Practically all markets were closed, and shipping and exchange, for a short time, were utterly disorganised. On July 31 the Stock Exchange did not open, the news received during the night indicating that an immense amount of stock would be offered not only from American but from European holders, and that consequently a drain of gold would be set up from the United States.[29] Cargoes accumulated at the ports, inasmuch as the banks would not negotiate bills of lading on uninsured freight, and insurance was paralysed. Five hundred million dollars of emergency currency was at once printed, for use under the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908, which permitted sudden expansion in emergencies (A.R., 1908, p. 446), and the Secretary of the Treasury promised the assistance of his Department to the utmost extent of its powers. A Bill was hastily passed by the Senate, authorising the Secretary of the Navy to establish naval lines to carry mails, passengers and freight to South America and Europe, a course, however, which proved unnecessary owing to the activity of the British Fleet in recovering command of the sea.
But the Mauretania and Cedric had to put into Halifax; the German liner Kronprinzessin Cecilie, with a large consignment of gold on board for London, was stopped on her way by wireless orders, and crept back without lights to Bar Harbour, Maine, where she remained for some months through fear of capture; eventually she made her way through coastal waters to Boston. The plight of Americans in Europe was serious (p. 187). Even more completely than British tourists, they were held up by the worthlessness, for the moment, of all drafts and means of credit, and were stranded, not only on the Continent, but in Great Britain. The Administration, the Embassies, the Consulates, and private and voluntary effort, worked hard to get them home; the American cruiser Tennessee brought $250,000 in gold to facilitate the process (Aug. 20); and special trains (Aug. 26 and 29) took 3,000 from Geneva to Paris; these were required to stay in specified hotels, and to leave Havre for New York on appointed dates. An American Committee in London did admirable work in advising and repatriating others, and special trains were also run from Germany to Rotterdam and from Austria to Genoa, whence special steamers were despatched to New York.
At the outset of the war President Wilson tendered his services for mediation at once or at any future time to all the European Powers involved; but the offer was premature and brought no definite response. Strict neutrality was observed, though a few German liners, anticipating the declaration of war, put to sea with stores and coal for the converted liner-cruisers; the coast was patrolled by destroyers, and care was taken that wireless stations should not be used for communicating with the German Fleet. From the first, except among German-Americans and a few Irish extremists, American sympathy was with the Allies, and in spite of the persistent but extremely maladroit propaganda carried on by the German Ambassador, Count Bernstorff, Professor Münsterberg of Harvard, Dr. Dernburg, the former German Colonial Secretary, who was well acquainted with American business circles, and some German financiers, it became more and more positively anti-German, especially after the news of the atrocities in Belgium and the destruction of Louvain. The Belgian Mission (p. 371) was received by the President, and the statements of its members made a profound impression and set up a great movement to relieve Belgian distress. The German Emperor telegraphed early in September to President Wilson, protesting against the use imputed to the Allies of dum-dum bullets, a use of which President Poincaré telegraphed a denial. But President Wilson declined to commit himself in his replies, whether to the Belgians or to the Emperor, and this reserve was strongly condemned in view of the German atrocities. An active agitation for peace was initiated by Mr. Hearst, which culminated in a meeting (Sept. 20) in New York addressed by the Vice-president, the Speaker of the Lower House of Congress, and the President of the Steel Corporation, but it was, of course, without result. Later a shipload of Christmas gifts for soldiers' children in the belligerent countries was sent to Great Britain by the United States naval auxiliary vessel Jason. An immense amount of Red Cross work was also done, and relief sent to sufferers in practically all the countries most affected by the war. By Presidential proclamation, October 4, was appointed as a day of prayer for the peace of Europe.
On September 4 the President read a Message to Congress, advising additional taxation to the extent of $100,000,000, of which $20,000,000 would be spent on war insurance, ship purchase, and bringing home Americans in Europe. A loan of $100,000,000 was raised without difficulty by New York City in short-term notes to meet foreign obligations maturing in the near future.
Gradually the economic disturbance righted itself, with some assistance. The Government undertook to insure cargoes against war risks, appropriating by Act of Congress $1,000,000 for that purpose. The difficulty of sending gold abroad was met, partly by the shipment on the Tennessee to Paris (p. 463), and more fully by depositing a large sum in gold at Ottawa on account of the Bank of England, so that bills could then be drawn against it as usual; and the enormous wheat crop, followed by immense supplies of munitions of war and stores to Great Britain and France (and even to Russia, via Seattle and Vladivostok), facilitated a readjustment of the situation. The product most depressed was cotton, in view of the shortage of factory labour caused in Europe by the war, though its export to Germany was not hindered before the new year, and a "Buy a Bale" movement was started to relieve the producers. The Ship Purchase Bill encountered unexpected difficulties, partly because the Seamen's Bill, also pending, would make the working of American ships more costly, still more because the Allies objected to the purchase by the United States of the interned German liners, the only shipping available, and the question was not settled at the end of the year.
Some temporary difficulty arose in October through the seizure by British cruisers of ships belonging to the Standard Oil Corporation. The Brindilla had been transferred since the war began from the German to the American flag, but Great Britain treated the transfer as invalid, and the vessel was taken into Halifax; the John D. Rockefeller (which had always been American), bound under the American flag for Copenhagen, was also stopped, but released, as Denmark had prohibited the export of oil to Germany. At the end of the year the United States Government made a temperate protest against the British detention of American ships and seizure of cargo on them (Dec. 30).
The war served Mr. Roosevelt as an example of the futility of such engagements as the arbitration treaties just signed by the Administration. His own plan for maintaining the peace of the world was an improved Hague Court, whose decisions the nations should pledge themselves to carry out by force.
The session of Congress closed on October 24. As there had been no break between the session of 1914 and the ordinary session preceding it, Congress had been sitting continuously (with very brief recesses) for the longest period on record. The record of work was remarkable. Following the Tariff and Currency Acts of 1913, there were the two Acts representing President Wilson's anti-Trust programme—the Trade Commission Act, creating a tribunal to arbitrate between commercial disputants, and the Clayton anti-Trust Bill, preventing interlocking directorates and otherwise controlling monopolies; the Panama Tolls Act, the Alaska Railroad Act, providing for the construction and working by the Government of 1,000 miles of railroad, telephones and telegraphs; an Act regulating dealings in cotton "futures," and the conclusion not only of twelve arbitration treaties (p. 460) but of twenty-three Peace Commission treaties with Great Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Persia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, France, and Spain. Besides this there was the emergency war legislation, comprising the Emergency Currency Act (p. 462); the insurance of war risks, to which $1,000,000 was devoted; the appropriation of $1,000,000 for special diplomatic and consular services and the transport home of American citizens whose return was hindered by the war; and the emergency war taxation, which was estimated to produce from $94,000,000 to $107,000,000 annually. This included taxes on beer ($1.75 a barrel), whisky (5 cents a gallon), American still wines, champagne (25 cents a quart), bankers ($1 per $1,000 of capital, surplus, and undivided profits), pawn-brokers, commercial brokers, commission merchants, proprietors of places of amusement, dealers in leaf tobacco, and cigar and cigarette manufacturers. There were also internal revenue (stamp) taxes on a few articles such as perfumery, on bonds, promissory notes, bills of lading, conveyances, telegrams, telephone messages, marine, fire, and casualty insurance, steamship tickets to foreign ports, and parlour-car berths and seats.
Among the measures left over to the next Congress were the Immigration Bill (p. 454), the Philippine Government Bill, and the Rural Credits Bill (p. 453), which had not passed the Senate; a Bill empowering the Treasury to deposit $250,000,000 in banks in the tobacco and cotton States (to facilitate loans to the planters); constitutional amendments respectively establishing women's suffrage throughout the Union, which had been reintroduced after its failure in the Senate, and prohibiting throughout the Union the sale or manufacture of intoxicants "for beverage" (p. 455); and the Bill empowering the regulation of railroad stock issues by the Interstate Commission. So were the treaties with Colombia and Nicaragua, which the Senate had not yet ratified, and Peace Commission treaties with China, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Russia.
The President and the Democratic majority in Congress had thus held together—except, to some extent, on the Panama Tolls Bill—and had carried much of their programme. But the November Congressional and State elections showed a very marked reaction against the Administration, and a rally in the Republican party, emphasised by the disappearance of the semi-independent "Progressive Republicans," and a general return of the Progressives to the Republican fold. The Democratic majority over all the other parties in the House together fell from 141 to 31; and in some of the Eastern and Middle-Western States there was a Republican "landslide." New York State, New Jersey (the President's own State), Illinois, Wisconsin, and eleven other States which had been Democratic in 1912 went Republican; Michigan, Pennsylvania and Washington reverted from the Progressives to the Republicans; New York, to the general surprise, elected a Republican Governor. The Progressive numbers in the House fell from fifteen to seven, though Governor Hiram Johnson secured a personal triumph by his re-election in California. Women's suffrage was voted on in seven States and defeated in five, in spite of much agitation just before the election. A Socialist was elected to Congress from New York City, the first from any Eastern State.
This sixty-third Congress, however, would not assemble earlier than the following spring in any case, and meanwhile the sixty-second met on December 7. Besides the legislative programme just mentioned, the European War forced on its attention the question of national defence. The Army League and the Navy League were agitating for an increase, and Congressman Gardner (Republican), of Massachusetts, was pressing for an inquiry into the "preparedness" of the nation for war. Before the session opened President Wilson let it be known that he deprecated such an inquiry, as likely to create an unfavourable impression abroad; and he took the same line in his Message (Dec. 8). He dealt mainly with the war, declaring the dearest hope of the nation to be that its own character as the champion of peace and concord would shortly, in God's providence, bring it an opportunity such as had seldom been vouchsafed to any nation—"an opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in the world and the reconciliation and healing settlement of many matters that have hitherto cooled and interrupted the friendship of nations." He urged the country to develop its resources so as to supply the needs set up by the appalling destruction wrought by the war; and he specially recommended the Ship Purchase Bill. He urged also a larger measure of self-government for the Philippines, and a survey of the Alaska coasts. He declared that, as regarded national defence, they must depend, not on a standing army or a reserve army, "but upon the citizenry, trained and accustomed to arms." They must, in short, develop the Volunteer National Guard—the State militia system. "More than this would merely mean that we had lost our self-possession, been thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do. A powerful Navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defence, but who shall tell us now what sort of Navy to build?... We have not been negligent of national defence." They would profit by current experience, and what was needed would be adequately done.
The War Secretary's annual Report next day, however, declared the Army inadequate. The total maximum force available—Regulars and National Guard—would be but 158,000, and it would take six months to train additional volunteers; the delay, with a prepared enemy, would be fatal. He recommended the immediate filling up of the existing organisation, and fresh legislation dealing with enlistment and the reserve, both in the Union and in the States. Artillery ammunition was inadequate, and the aviation corps should be largely increased. The Secretary of the Navy recommended a building programme for the coming year of two Dreadnoughts, six destroyers, eight or more submarines, one gunboat, and one oil fuel ship; he declared that expert opinion favoured the continuance of building Dreadnoughts, and recommended that five million dollars should be spent on the air service.
A vigorous agitation was now started for and against the increase of armaments, but more interest was taken in the debate and division in the Lower House of Congress (Dec. 22) on the constitutional amendment, imposing "nation-wide prohibition" of the sale or transport of alcoholic liquors for "beverage purposes" in the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Provision, however, was made for continuing the supply of intoxicants for sacramental, medicinal, and industrial purposes. The resolution proposing this amendment (which would have had to be ratified by the legislatures of two-thirds of the States to become valid) opened with a preamble strongly denunciatory of alcohol as demonstrated by scientific research to be a narcotic poison, imposing a "staggering economic burden" on the people, and leading to crime, pauperism, insanity, disease, and national degeneracy. The resolution was moved by Mr. Hobson, of Alabama, and received 197 votes against 189, but it required the support of a two-thirds majority of those present, or 258, and therefore fell through. It divided all the parties; the Ayes comprised 114 Democrats, 67 Republicans, 12 Progressives, and 4 Independent Republicans, the Noes 141 Democrats, 46 Republicans, 1 Independent Republican, and 1 Progressive. Two alternatives were defeated, one to submit the amendment to the States instead of the Legislatures, the other prohibiting the importation of liquor into any State, thus localising liquor manufacture. Both sides professed themselves satisfied with the result.
The celebration of the completion of a century of peace with Great Britain fell through, owing to the war. Committees for its promotion had been established in both countries, and the Sulgrave Manor House, the old house of the Washington family in Northamptonshire, had been purchased in January by the British Committee. The persistent British refusal to participate officially in the Panama Exhibition at San Francisco hampered the movement, and on June 30 the House of Representatives refused by 187 to 52 to vote money for the celebration.
In State politics—a subject of great interest to students of political science—very few points can be mentioned here. The "eugenic" marriage law in Wisconsin, requiring a medical certificate of sound health as a condition of marriage, was declared unconstitutional by a State Court; so was an ordinance of a North Carolina city (Winston-Salem) segregating the coloured population. The November elections showed the activity of reformers: twenty-three States voted on one or more amendments to their Constitutions; seven on women's suffrage; six on liquor traffic prohibition; in each of the two latter cases five States decided against change.
Throughout the year the mining region of Colorado was almost in a state of civil war, owing to a coal-miners' strike. In September, 1913, the Miners' Union had called out some 11,000 men, on the masters refusing their demands, which included liberty to buy provisions and supplies where they pleased, and to choose their own doctors, the right to elect their own check-weighers, better working conditions and pay, an eight hours' day, and recognition of the union. Strike-breakers had been imported and the State militia (which was said to be controlled by the owners) called out to preserve order, and in April it destroyed and burnt tent colonies sheltering the strikers and erected on land leased by the union; women and children were killed, and order was restored by Federal troops. Congress attempted to promote a settlement, but ineffectually; President Wilson (May 10) ordered the disarmament of all civilians; the State Legislature did nothing beyond authorising a bond issue to pay the militia, closing saloons, and forbidding the carrying of arms; mediation failed; and in September President Wilson wrote to both sides urging a settlement on specified conditions—the enforcement of the mining laws, the prohibition of intimidation whether of union or of non-union labour, the continuance of work during the investigation of grievances, and an elaborate plan for such investigation with an ultimate appeal to a Commission of three which was to see that the conditions were maintained. The owners made difficulties, but the President appointed the Commission, and the unions ended the strike. In connexion with it, the Industrial Workers of the World raised a disturbance in New York, and Mr. John D. Rockefeller, junior, one of the leading owners, had his residence picketed by Socialists.
Strikes of engineers and firemen on the Western and Eastern railways was averted respectively at the end of July, when President Wilson induced both sides to accept a plan proposed by the Federal Board of Mediation, and in December by arbitration. The murderers of Rosenthal in New York were executed on April 13, and Becker was again convicted after a second trial (A.R., 1913, p. 467). Their lives had been prolonged by the ingenuity of their lawyers. Thaw's extradition was also confirmed in December by the Supreme Court (A.R., 1913, p. 468).
The Cape Cod Ship Canal, connecting Buzzard's Bay with Barnstable Bay, was opened on July 29. It was a joint-stock undertaking, and had cost $12,000,000. [For the Panama Canal see post, p. 486.]
Dependencies. From Cuba there was no news of importance. In Porto Rico the November elections—the quietest on record—resulted in large gains for the Republican party, which desires American citizenship and eventual admission to the Union. It obtained sixteen seats in the Lower House of the Legislature against nineteen held by the anti-American party. The United States Government had previously appointed two natives of the island to the Executive Council, giving the natives the majority in it, and a Bill for giving the island popular Government had been favourably reported in the Congress. In the Philippines Governor Burton Harrison's concessions to the natives, and the reductions of official salaries, which drove many Americans to retire from the service, roused severe criticism in the United States, and a Bill promoted by the Administration, promising the islands independence, "as soon as a stable Government shall be established in the Archipelago," was passed by the House of Representatives (Oct. 14) by 211 to 59, but was not taken up by the Senate. At Christmas an unimportant and abortive rising, promoted by an agitator named Ricarti, was reported to have been suppressed at Manila.
Parliament met on January 14. Seven new members were introduced, six of them supporters of the Government. Among them was Hon. Arthur Meighan, the new Solicitor-General.
In his speech from the Throne, H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught expressed his gratitude for the public sympathy extended to himself and the Duchess during her serious illness. Reference was also made to the financial stringency from which the country had been suffering, but which was passing away. The necessity for readjusting the representation of the people in Parliament, after the last Census, was stated. An increase in the number of Senators from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia was foreshadowed. No mention was made of any Naval programme. The debate on the Address began on January 19. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Opposition leader, moved an amendment regretting that, while the Speech admitted that business is in a depressed condition, there was no indication on the part of Ministers of a determination to take any steps towards relieving the situation. Replying to him on January 20, the Finance Minister, Hon. W. T. White, so far indicated the policy of the Government as to point out, (1) that "Free Food," as advocated by the Opposition, meant Free Trade; (2) that Free Trade had long been abandoned by both parties in Canada; (3) that the Government did not propose to depart from a policy of reasonable Protection; (4) that the remedy for the high cost of living—which was universal—was an increased universal production; (5) that the Government had voted $10,000,000 for the purpose of increasing production.
On January 21 the two Houses adjourned in token of respect to the memory of Lord Strathcona (see post, Obit.). The Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition joined in eulogising the late Peer; and the Prime Minister read to the House of Commons a despatch from the Colonial Secretary conveying the deep sympathy of the Imperial Government, and closing as follows:—