705. The Negroes.—On the whole, the negroes of the South have progressed since they were freed from slavery. Many of them are taking advantage of the school facilities afforded them, and some remarkable men, like Booker T. Washington, principal of the Tuskegee (Alabama) Institute, prove that the race is capable of great development, especially under the guidance of its own leaders. They appear to be successful as small farmers, and it seems likely that they will do well in certain industrial occupations. Meanwhile, they are being rapidly disfranchised, and it is hoped that the friction between them and the whites is subsiding. This friction is still kept up, however, by crimes and consequent lynchings which shock the better elements of the population everywhere.
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
706. Industrial Greatness.—The industrial greatness of the United States cannot easily be described. A few statistics may be cited, however, to give a faint idea of what wonderful progress has been made. In the year ending June, 1901, we exported merchandise valued at the enormous sum of nearly $1,500,000,000—the largest figures in our history. After deducting imports and allowing for the export and import of gold and silver, the trade balance for the year was $670,000,000. Other statistics relating to banking, insurance, agriculture, shipbuilding, etc., help us to realize the power of the nation. The number of ships of all sorts built in 1901 was fifteen hundred and eighty, nearly double the number built in 1897. The tonnage increase of 1901 over 1900 was nearly ninety thousand. It is estimated that in 1901 there were forty-four shipyards, of $68,000,000 capital, employing forty-six thousand men. Railroad statistics are much more striking, while those compiled in connection with the great Steel Trust, and those covering the money spent upon our public schools and universities, would alone suffice to prove that we stand practically foremost in wealth and energy among the nations of the world. The total revenue of the general government for the year ending June 30, 1901, was $587,685,338; the total expenditures were $509,967,353. In 1900 no less than 2,105,103,000 bushels of corn and 552,230,000 bushels of wheat were gathered by American farmers. These stupendous figures strain even the most capable imagination. The late eminent statistician, M. G. Mulhall, wrote not long since that he knew nothing to compare with the United States “as regards the physical, mechanical, and intellectual force of nations.” This force is not equally distributed throughout the country, the census of 1900 showing that the Northwest is in many respects the predominant section of the Union. But the Middle states and New England still retain their lead in matters of culture, and are very progressive, while the Pacific states have developed wonderfully, as also the South, whose future is full of promise.
707. Social Characteristics.—As a matter of course, this great growth of wealth has affected in a marked way the character of the people of the United States. Never before has the American been so enterprising and so anxious to prosper in life. His interest in his private affairs is so great that he often neglects to work for good government, and so allows corrupt men to make fortunes out of the public treasury. A rich leisure class has been developed, whose manners and morals are not those of the well-to-do Americans of a hundred, or even fifty, years ago. Extremes of wealth and poverty are found confronting one another in the great cities, and the wealthy corporations are often accused of controlling legislation in their own interests. Nevertheless, it seems clear that the masses of the people live wholesome lives, and that the public conscience of America will not tolerate abuses when once these are made plain. The churches are very active, and no other people have ever had better school and library facilities or made fuller use of them. No other nation has ever shown such interest in organized charities or in reforms of various sorts, such as those directed against the evils of easy divorce and of intemperance. In morals, as well as in wealth and industry, the century just closed marks a great advance for America.
708. Education and Literature.—In general culture, also, a distinct advance has been made. There has been an educational renaissance. The great modern university has grown up out of the old-fashioned college; yet the college, whether in town or country, still continues to do a useful work. Public schools have increased in greater proportion than population, and are equipped and conducted on improved plans. There are also new agencies for reaching people who cannot go to school or college. Chautauqua and its kindred summer schools, university extension courses, lecture lyceums, and literary clubs are doing very valuable educational work. Many of the leading newspapers devote a portion of their increased space to the same purpose. The popular magazines have steadily improved and have been important agencies in making the American people the best educated and most wideawake in the world. There has also been a great increase in the number of books produced and in the cheapness with which classic literature can be secured. In recent years, no American author seems to have equaled in influence or general merit such great writers as Cooper, Hawthorne, Emerson, Poe, and Longfellow; but the average of literary talent has risen, and the mass of good poetry, fiction, and especially history and biography, has grown remarkably. Good historical romances have been widely sold; short stories have been made a distinct branch of art; the life of every section and almost every state has been described in one or more good novels. In criticism and scholarship, also, improvement has been shown. Finally, in such authors as “Mark Twain” (Samuel L. Clemens, born in 1835), William Dean Howells (born in 1837), Sidney Lanier (1842–1881), and Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900), the great writers of the last generation have had worthy successors.
709. Inventions and Science.—An industrial period naturally puts a premium upon everything that ministers to its necessities. The last thirty years have seen many parts of the country knit by a wonderful system of electric street railways and of telephones. Various forms of electric lighting have also been introduced, and it seems impossible to set any limit to the discoveries of science in connection with this mysterious force. Capital has been accumulated by great corporations, known as “trusts,” which occupy gigantic buildings and use larger and more costly machinery than was ever before known. Even private life is affected in manifold ways by recent inventions. Not merely has the cost of manufactured articles been decreased and their numbers vastly increased, but correspondence, modes of locomotion, and other activities have been markedly affected. The typewriter is supplanting the pen, and the bicycle and automobile have made a triumphal entry into the remotest neighborhoods. Better still, there has been an enormous advance in medical science, particularly in surgery; while in engineering and photography, Americans have been notably successful. They have also fairly held their own in pure science, in astronomy and physics, in meteorology and geology. On the other hand, they have cultivated the beautiful as well as the useful arts, and have produced architects and painters and sculptors of whom the civilized world has taken much notice. If, therefore, industrial achievement and territorial expansion seemed to be the most salient features of American history at the close of the nineteenth century, it may nevertheless be believed that an epoch of great literary and artistic achievements awaits the country in the century that has just begun.[[319]]
| [319] | This chapter was written on the basis of the census of 1900, and it has seemed best to leave it intact for the present. The census of 1910 will doubtless furnish even more extraordinary evidence of the country’s growth in population and wealth, but the essential characteristics of the epoch can scarcely be held to have been materially modified. It may be noted that the admission of Oklahoma brought the number of the states up to forty-six. |