The Election of 1920 at a rate of 25 per cent, while the rate of increase of the rural districts was 3.4 per cent. That is to say, cities were increasing in population more than seven times as fast as rural districts. Rural communities in some parts of New England had a smaller population than they had a hundred years ago, and in hundreds of rural counties scattered over the country, there was a decline in population. This flow of population away from agricultural districts, as shown by the census, became a matter of deep public concern, for it seemed to threaten the food supply of the nation. men. The question of food supply was not forgotten by the statesThe policy of conserving the nation's natural resources (p. 546) was still being earnestly carried forward, and by 1920 over 150,000 persons were living on 40,000 farms irrigated by the federal Reclamation Service and were annually raising crops valued at nearly $100,000,000. In 1920 Congress gave impetus to the cause of conservation by passing the Jones Water-Power Bill. This was a measure designed to conserve a portion of the many million horse-power of hydroelectric energy that was lying latent in streams and that if put to work would result annually in saving hundreds of millions of tons of coal. The Jones Bill created a Water-Power Commission to which was given authority over all matters coming within the federal jurisdiction pertaining to the development of water-power on the public domain and in the natural forests. The commission was authorized to issue to citizens of the United States, to corporations, to States, and to municipalities, licenses for operating hydroelectric plants, the licenses to be given for a period of fifty years. The law encouraged the building of head-water storage reservoirs to prevent floods and to obtain water for irrigation purposes. Thus a comprehensive policy of waterpower development was instituted by Congressional action. THE HARDING ADMINISTRATION Credit for the enactment of the Water-Power Bill was claimed by the Republicans in the platform that they drew up on the day the bill was passed (June 10). For the Presi dential campaign of 1920 was now under way. The Republi- as their candidate for President. Photograph by Brown Bros. Warren G. Harding. With The new President could work in harmony with Congress, Peace for it was Republican in both branches. One of the first things Germany to be attended to was the question of a peace settlement with Germany, a question that had been left unsettled when the Treaty of Versailles was rejected. The problem was solved in July, 1921, when Congress passed a joint resolution providing: "That the state of war declared to exist between the Imperial German Government and the United States by the joint resolution of Congress approved April 6, 1917, is hereby declared at an end." Budget The first act of Congress in the Harding administration was The to create in June, 1921, a Bureau of the Budget and provide a for a more orderly administration of the national finances. For years Congress had been meeting the expenses of the executive departments by a procedure that was "haphazard, uncertain, unbusinesslike and indefensibly wasteful." Under the budget plan adopted in 1921 provision was made for a full and clear statement of expenditures and revenues, and for a detailed estimate of the Government's needs and financial resources. At the head of the Bureau of the Budget was placed a director Total Appropriations for Year Ending June 30, 1920: $5,686,005,706 3 cents out of each $1 for ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNMENT (Expenses of the Congress, President, Departments, etc.) Conference 93 cents out of each $1 for PAST WARS PRESENT ARMAMENTS (Including care of soldiers, pensions, railroad deficit, shipping board, interest on the public debt, European food relief, etc.) (From Analysis by E. B. Rosa, Chief Physicist, U. S. Bureau of Standards) How our nation spends its income. whose duty is to prepare the budget which the President transmits to Congress on the first day of each regular session. Late in the autumn of 1921 there met at Washington a conference on the subject of limitation of armament. At the meeting there were delegates from the Governments of the United Limitation States, Belgium, the British Empire, China, France, Italy, ments Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The object of the con for the of Arma ference, which was held at the suggestion of President Harding, was to do something to check competition in the building up of military establishments. In connection with the subject of the limitation of armaments the conference was expected to discuss relations of the Pacific and the Far East. That the limitation of armaments was a subject that should engage the serious attention of statesmen was plain to the whole world, for the whole world was suffering from the policy of competitive armament. The United States was spending more than nine tenths of its immense revenue either in paying for past wars or in building up armament for future wars, and the military burdens of other nations were even heavier. Nothing was done at the conference in the way of land disarmament, but in accordance with a proposal made by Secretary of State Hughes, a sweeping reduction in naval construction was agreed upon and a ratio of naval strength was established. Under the terms of the Five-Power Naval Treaty, it was agreed that the United States should have a capital ship tonnage of 525,000, Great Britain the same, Japan three fifths as much, and France and Italy slightly more than one third as much. At the conference, also, the Four-Power Treaty was drawn up. The purpose of this treaty, the parties to which were the United States, Great Britain, France, and Japan, was to create in the Orient a diplomatic situation that would be favorable to peace in case controversies should arise. The most significant feature of the treaty was the provision which terminated the alliance that had been in force between Great Britain and Japan since 1911. Another question of foreign policy which engaged the serious. attention of the Harding administration related to the Per- Join the manent Court of International Justice, or World Court, organized and supported by the League of Nations for the purpose of settling controversies between nations by judicial methods. The President was opposed to joining the League, yet he was in favor of joining the World Court, because he believed this tribunal would prove to be a powerful agency for peace. Accordingly in February, 1923, he sent to the Senate Shall We World Court? Flexible The a message asking for its consent to joining the World Court. The Senate, however, by a vote of two to one rejected the President's proposal.1 In September, 1922, after a debate which had continued for more than twenty months, the Forney-McCumber Tariff Act was signed by the President. The most important feature of this law is the section that provides for a "flexible tariff." When the President finds that the rate of duty fixed upon an article by the act of 1922 is not sufficient to equalize the costs of production of that article between the United States and the principal competing foreign country he may fix a rate which will equalize the cost of production, and the rate thus fixed shall go into effect in lieu of the duty specified in the act. He cannot, however, increase or decrease any rate of duty more than fifty per cent of the amount named in the act, nor can he change a rate until after an investigation of the differences of the cost of production at home and abroad has been made by the United States Tariff Commission, a bi-partizan body consisting of six members whose duty is to investigate the fiscal and industrial effects of the tariff laws and to report the result of their investigation to the President and Congress. While the lawmakers were working on the tariff bill the President was attempting to settle the greatest and one of the most stubbornly contested coal strikes in our history. On April I, 1922, the miners in both the bituminous and anthracite fields threw down their tools. About 550,000 union and 90,000 nonunion miners quit work. The bituminous miners struck in order to avoid a threatened reduction in wages. In the anthracite fields the mine-owners matched a demand for an increase on the part of the miners with a demand for a reduction. In July President Harding felt called upon to intervene. At 1 Public interest in the World Court was greatly increased by the winning plan selected by the jury of the American Peace Award which consiste of a prize of $50,000 offered by Edward W. Bok for "the best practical plan by wich the United States may cooperate with other nations to advance and preserve the peace of the world." Of the 22,165 plans submitted the one prepared by Dr. C. H. Levermore was adjudged in January, 1924, to be the best. The fundamental pro posals of the successful plan were (1) that the United States should enter the Permanent Court of International Justice and (2) that it should offer to extend its cooperation with the League and participate in its work as a body of mutual counsel. |