The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919

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Title: The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919
Author: Hart, Albert Bushnell
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.

*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919" ***

THE MENTOR 1919.07.15, No. 183,
Uncle Sam

LEARN ONE THING
EVERY DAY

JULY 15 1919 SERIAL NO. 183

THE
MENTOR

UNCLE SAM

By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART
Professor of Government
Harvard University

DEPARTMENT OF VOLUME 7
GOVERNMENT NUMBER 11

TWENTY CENTS A COPY

A Picture of Uncle Sam

Best of all the cartoons which both reveal and point the way in our
national existence, and certainly the best among the symbols which
represent great nations, stands Uncle Sam. In no other representative
character is personality so clearly defined; in no other is the range
of expression and of action so great.

* * * * *

Inexhaustible are his activities, and of endless variety the moments
of thought and of action in which the soul of the nation has been
thus caught and fixed. Uncle Sam, farmer, householder, and landed
proprietor, has domestic responsibilities upon a scale never
known before. One sees him, too complacently,--in a rich-Jonathan
moment,--riding the reapers and gathering in inexhaustible harvests;
one sees him waking sleepily from a Rip-van-Winkle drowsiness, to guard
his forests and waterfalls from despoiling hands; or, with a face less
firm than it should have been, settling a dispute among the children,
perhaps in a threatened nation-wide strike. There is often a fatherly
or grandfatherly touch about him; guardian of western lands and seas,
he has not only his own but his step-children to look after.

* * * * *

One cannot touch the many aspects of his whimsical, doubting,
determined, sensitive face. Nearly the whole range of human feeling, of
human expression is there.

* * * * *

Honestly he tries to secure a right balancing of the scales of
justice for his multifarious offspring, yet often finds this delicate
adjustment puzzling beyond his power to endure. Swift are the changes
whereby his Hamlet moments of indecision slip into his Napoleonic
moments of great deeds. Something of woman’s intuition is in him, and
sometimes, too, woman’s over-ready action in the line of eager and
sudden conviction; yet again, sinewy, virile, he shows the muscles
stiffening along his arm, and he is become the very incarnation of lean
and powerful masculinity, moving determinedly to a goal seen steadily
from the beginning.

Margaret Sherwood in _The Atlantic Monthly_.

THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART,
LITERATURE, MUSIC, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE AND TRAVEL

THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH

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POSTAGE 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE
COPIES TWENTY CENTS. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT,
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CAMPBELL; ASSISTANT TREASURER AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY, H. A.
CROWE.

JULY 15, 1919 VOLUME 7 NUMBER 11

Entered as second-class matter, March 10, 1913, at the
postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879.
Copyright, 1919, by The Mentor Association, Inc.

[Illustration: VACANT LOT GARDENING--ENTERPRISE PROMOTED BY THE BUREAU
OF EDUCATION]

_THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_

_Public Health and Education_

ONE

Our country maintains an Army and a Navy to fight against human beings
with whom we are occasionally at war. In the fight against two far more
dangerous and insidious foes with whom we are _always_ at war--Disease
and Ignorance--our doctors have the aid and guidance of the United
States Public Health Service and our schools that of the United
States Bureau of Education. These Federal institutions are aided,
respectively, by state and local boards of health and by state and
local boards of education.

The Public Health Service, which is a branch of the Treasury
Department, was formerly called the Marine Hospital Service, and was
originally devoted only to caring for sick and disabled seamen of
the American merchant marine. Today it is safeguarding the health of
everybody in the country. It maintains quarantine stations and offices
for the medical inspection of immigrants at the principal seaports;
establishes domestic quarantines, when necessary, to prevent the spread
of disease from state to state; investigates and suppresses epidemics;
collects and publishes health statistics; makes elaborate studies
of important diseases, such as hookworm disease, malaria, pellagra,
trachoma, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis; investigates public water
supplies and sewage; carries on research in regard to school, mental
and industrial hygiene; and, last but not least, educates the people
in hygiene and sanitation by distributing tons of literature, holding
exhibits, giving lectures, lending lantern-slides, et cetera. During
a recent outbreak of influenza the Public Health Service distributed
6,000,000 leaflets in regard to the disease. A new duty of the Service
is to operate hospitals for the physical restoration and re-education
of discharged soldiers disabled in the World War. The Service has
established a Sanitary Reserve Corps, consisting of medical men and
others who are available for active duty in time of national emergency.

The Bureau of Education, which is under the Department of the
Interior, is the national clearing-house of information on educational
subjects. This information is set forth in a large number of valuable
publications, and the Bureau also maintains a corps of experts who
travel about the country giving advice and conducting investigations
in regard to various lines of education. One of the duties of this
Bureau is to supervise the expenditure of the liberal funds provided
by the Government toward the support of agricultural and mechanical
colleges, commonly known as the “land-grant colleges.” Another is to
operate schools for the education of native children in Alaska and
to look after the Government reindeer industry in that territory. A
comparatively recent undertaking is the promotion of home gardening
under school direction in cities and towns throughout the country,
and the organization of a School Garden Army, which has materially
increased the national food-supply.

Another educational agency of the Government is the Federal Board for
Vocational Education, which was organized in the year 1917. This Board
directs a scheme of cooperation between the Federal Government and
the states for the promotion of vocational education in the fields
of agriculture, home economics and the industrial arts. Congress
has made liberal appropriations for this work, and these are to be
increased annually until they amount to $7,367,000 a year. Each state
is required to spend as much for vocational education as it receives
from the national Government for the same purpose. Before this plan
was inaugurated, the training of young people at public expense for
definite trades and industries had made little progress in the United
States. Since the World War the Board has had charge of the training
and education of discharged and disabled soldiers and sailors. This
work is carried on in the various technical, trade and commercial
schools of the country, or other institutions offering special courses,
and also directly in the trades and industries. It is not limited to
manual training. The Board has announced that “all careers are open to
the disabled men.”

This educational work must not be confused with that carried on for
discharged soldiers in the hospitals conducted by the Public Health
Service, and for soldiers still in service in the Army hospitals.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

[Illustration: A BOYS’ CORN CLUB--COUNTY AGENT GIVING INSTRUCTION]

_THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_

_The Department of Agriculture_

TWO

It would take a good-sized library to tell adequately all the things
the Department of Agriculture is doing for the people of the United
States. A formal program issued each year sets forth in barest outlines
the undertakings on which the Department is engaged. Although only
a few brief paragraphs are devoted to each project, one of these
“Programs of Work” fills about 600 pages of fine print.

This Department is devoted to the two-fold task of gathering and
disseminating information; primarily for the benefit of farmers, but
also, directly or indirectly, for that of every man, woman and child in
this country. It is also charged with the duty of administering various
laws designed to safeguard the health and welfare of the people. Under
this head come the inspection of food and drugs, meat inspection,
protection of useful birds and animals, supervision of the national
forests, and a host of other useful activities.

Let us set down at random some of the astonishingly varied tasks with
which the Department has lately been occupied. Last year nearly sixty
million animals were slaughtered for food under the inspection of the
Bureau of Animal Industry. The Biological Survey treated more than
thirteen million acres of land with poisoned grain to destroy rodent
pests. The Bureau of Crop Estimates published monthly data obtained
from an army of about two hundred thousand volunteer crop reporters.
The Bureau of Public Roads administered the Federal-Aid Road Act of
July 11, 1916, under which the Government is to cooperate with the
states in road-building by means of appropriations which began with
$5,000,000 for the year 1916, and will increase annually by $5,000,000
to $25,000,000 for the year 1921. The Bureau of Soils continued its
work of mapping and classifying the soils, which work now extends
over nearly a million square miles. The Weather Bureau established
new observing stations in the West Indies, to keep a lookout for
hurricanes, and added the study of volcanic phenomena to its wide range
of scientific undertakings. The Federal Horticultural Board conducted
an immense campaign to rid the cotton-growing regions of the country of
the pink boll-worm. The Department as a whole led a nation-wide effort
to provide means of feeding a hungry world. In a single year the area
planted with agricultural crops was increased by 22,000,000 acres. In
1918 the planted area amounted to 289,000,000 acres. During the same
year the country produced about nineteen and a half billion pounds of
meat: an increase of about four billion pounds since 1914.

A branch of the Department known as the States Relations Service is
engaged in educational work on a vast scale. All over the country
its “county agents” are giving direct instruction and advice to the
farmers. There are about twenty-four hundred of these officials now
in the field, besides 1,700 “home demonstration agents,” who help the
farmers’ wives to solve their domestic problems. Farm work is made
interesting and profitable to the rising generation by means of some
forty different kinds of clubs, such as Pig Clubs, Corn Clubs, Canning
Clubs and Poultry Clubs, in which are enrolled more than two million
boys and girls.

Lastly, the Department is by far the largest publisher of agricultural
information in the world. Last year it issued over twenty-five hundred
documents of all kinds, in editions aggregating nearly one hundred
million copies. Included in this stupendous flood of literature were
millions of copies of Farmers’ Bulletins, distributed free of charge,
and each devoted to some practical topic connected with rural life and
industries.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

[Illustration: EXHIBIT OF BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE]

_THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_

_Promoting Commerce_

THREE

The Department of Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal
Reserve Board, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Bureau of
Markets, the Shipping Board, and many other agencies of the Federal
Government are engaged in promoting and regulating the commercial
business of the country. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce,
a branch of the Department of Commerce, collects information about
foreign markets for American goods from American consuls, commercial
attachés stationed at the principal foreign capitals, and a corps of
traveling special agents. The Bureau issues a daily newspaper called
_Commerce Reports_, containing notes and articles of commercial
interest from all parts of the world and a list of “Foreign Trade
Opportunities.” Each of these “opportunities” for American business in
some foreign country is set forth in a brief paragraph. The following
are examples:

29267.*--Chemicals, and equipment and supplies for
electroplating work are required by a firm in Denmark.
Correspondence may be in English. Reference.

29268.*--A company in India desires to purchase and secure an
agency for the sale of steel and iron in bars, sheets, tubes,
plates, etc.; builders’ and engineers’ hardware; caustic soda;
and petroleum and lubricating oils. References.

29269.*--The purchase of plywood and veneers in all thicknesses
and sizes is desired by a man in England. Terms, credit
preferred, or will pay cash against documents. References.

An American manufacturer or exporter who is interested in one of these
notices can obtain the address of the foreign concern that desires
goods, agencies, etc., by writing to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce, in Washington. The Bureau maintains district offices in
several large American cities. At the New York office, which is in
the Custom House, there is a permanent exhibit of samples showing the
various kinds of foreign-made goods sold in the principal importing
countries of the world. The exhibits, after being shown first in New
York, are usually shown in the principal centers of the particular
industry concerned. Special exhibits of samples are also held in
connection with trade conventions. Apart from _Commerce Reports_,
the Bureau publishes an immense amount of statistical information
concerning the foreign commerce of the United States and foreign
tariffs, and also extensive studies of foreign markets for particular
lines of goods.

The other bureaus of the Department of Commerce are the Bureau of
Standards, which facilitates commerce by regulating weights and
measures and by carrying on scientific research relating to all the
manufacturing industries; the Bureau of the Census, which compiles
elaborate statistics concerning trade and industry, as well as those
relating to population; the Bureau of Fisheries, which has immensely
stimulated trade in fishery products; and four bureaus which aid,
protect and regulate navigation--the Bureau of Lighthouses, the Coast
and Geodetic Survey, the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and the Bureau
of Navigation.

The Federal Trade Commission is charged with the duty of preventing
various abuses in interstate business, especially in the nature of
unlawful trusts and combinations. The Federal Reserve Board supervises
the affairs of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, and indirectly
exercises a certain amount of control over the banking system of the
country. The Interstate Commerce Commission regulates interstate
transportation, controls freight rates and passenger fares, and
promotes the safety of travel by prescribing rules concerning equipment
and methods of operation. The Bureau of Markets of the Department of
Agriculture promotes business in all kinds of agricultural products,
and maintains a market news service. The Shipping Board, which was
established in 1916, is engaged in the very important work of building
up the American merchant marine.

The Pan American Union, a potent factor in promoting our trade with
the Latin-American countries, is not a branch of the United States
Government, but an international organization in which all the American
republics are represented. It has its permanent headquarters in
Washington, and the Secretary of State of the United States is _ex
officio_ chairman of its governing board.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

[Illustration: IMMIGRATION STATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.
HONOLULU--JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS AWAITING EXAMINATION]

_THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_

_The Department of Labor_

FOUR

In his annual report for the year 1918, the Secretary of Labor declared
that “had the Department of Labor not existed at the beginning of the
war, Congress would have been obliged to create such a department.”
During that year, mainly under the stress of war conditions, the number
of bureaus in this department increased from four to thirteen, and
immense efforts were put forth by it to promote the smooth running
of industrial machinery at home, so that the military forces might
successfully prosecute their great task abroad.

In normal times the chief purpose of the Department is, as stated in
the Act creating it, “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.” To
this end the Department collects, digests and publishes statistics
and information concerning labor at home and abroad; supervises the
admission of immigrants into the country and their naturalization; and
aids in the adjustment of disputes between workmen and their employers.

One of the most interesting branches of this Department is known
as the Children’s Bureau. The law provides that this Bureau “shall
investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of
children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall
especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth
rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations,
accidents and diseases of children, employment, and legislation
affecting children in the several states and territories.” The
Children’s Bureau has been especially identified with efforts to secure
effective laws restricting child labor, and it furnished the machinery
for administering the United States Child-Labor Law which went into
operation September 1, 1917, only to be set aside the following
June, when it was pronounced unconstitutional by the United States
Supreme Court. The Court unanimously agreed, however, that child labor
is an evil, and Federal legislation on this important subject not
inconsistent with the Constitution will doubtless be eventually enacted.

A notable development of the war was the United States Employment
Service. The Department of Labor had previously maintained an
employment service in a small way under the Bureau of Immigration
for the purpose of helping newly-arrived immigrants to find work.
During the war this expanded into a vast organization for mobilizing
the labor resources of the country. About eight hundred public
employment exchanges were opened, and labor was moved from place to
place as required, whether for war industries, for harvesting the
crops, or for other purposes. During the year 1918 nearly two million
wage-earners were placed by this service in positions for which
they were qualified and in which their services were needed. After
the armistice an important branch of the work consisted in finding
positions for discharged soldiers. As a means of recruiting workers
for the industries of the country and helping solve the problem of
unemployment, this service is one of the most promising undertakings
of the Government, but its future depends upon further legislation by
Congress.

During the last year before the war began in Europe the number of
immigrants admitted to the United States was 1,218,480. The laws
relating to immigration and the Chinese-exclusion laws are administered
by a branch of the Department of Labor known as the Bureau of
Immigration. Immigration stations are maintained at the principal
seaports, where physical, mental and moral defectives, as well as
persons likely to become public charges or afflicted with contagious
diseases, polygamists, anarchists, contract laborers and Chinese are
eliminated. The most important immigration station is at Ellis Island,
in New York Harbor.

The Bureau of Naturalization, besides supervising the work of the
courts in naturalizing aliens, is in charge of an extensive campaign of
educating and Americanizing prospective citizens.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

[Illustration: EQUIPMENT OF A POSTAL MOTOR TRUCK ROUTE]

_THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_

_The Postal Service_

FIVE

In the year 1790 there were 75 postoffices in the United States. In
1918 there were 54,345. The number of pieces of mail handled in a year
approximates twenty million. In order to operate this vast business
enterprise Uncle Sam requires the services of 300,000 people.

The Postoffice Department, constant in service, day and night, probably
has no rival among Government institutions. In 1863 the free delivery
of mail was undertaken in half a hundred cities, with 449 carriers. In
1918 there were 2,000 city delivery offices, with 35,000 carriers. The
first rural free delivery routes, three in number, were established
as an experiment in 1896. There are now considerably more than a
million miles of such routes, employing over forty thousand carriers.
Special delivery service was established in 1885. In an average year
the number of pieces of mail handled by special delivery approximates
fifty million. In 1865 there were 419 money-order offices and the
money orders issued amounted to $1,360,122. In 1918 only a very small
percentage of postoffices did not issue money orders, and the value of
the orders amounted to $940,575,219.

The postal savings system was begun in 1911. Within six years there
were upward of six thousand postoffices that received deposits and
the amount to the credit of depositors was nearly $150,000,000. The
smallest deposit accepted is $1, but smaller amounts may be saved by
purchasing a 10-cent savings card and affixing 10-cent savings stamps.
Interest is allowed at the rate of 2 per cent.

The parcel post system dates from 1913. It has gradually been made more
serviceable to the public by the removal of restrictions regarding the
size, weight, packing and nature of shipments and by the increased use
of motor vehicles. The Department estimates that 3,000,000,000 parcels
were handled in 1918.

On May 15, 1918, the first regular air mail route was established in
this country between Washington, Philadelphia and New York. The flight
between Washington and New York requires approximately two hours, as
compared with five hours by the fastest railway trains. Other routes
are in course of development.

During the latter part of the World War the Postoffice Department
operated the telegraph and telephone systems of the country.

In the year 1918 the Department inaugurated a system of motor-truck
parcel post routes, especially to facilitate the distribution of
food stuffs. The trucks are owned by the Government and many former
Army trucks are now utilized in this service. A great variety of
merchandize is hauled along these routes; all sorts of farm products
are carried to the city markets and the merchandize purchased in the
city is distributed through the rural districts on the return trip.
The trucks pick up parcels anywhere along their routes--not merely at
postoffices, but at farmhouses--and deliver in the same way. Produce
from the country is delivered directly to the consignee in the city,
house-to-house delivery being made wherever the houses are easily
accessible to the regular routes of the trucks. While certain produce
cannot be shipped through a postoffice, under the postal regulations,
all kinds of produce, including live poultry, are accepted by the
trucks where the delivery can be made directly without having to go
through a postoffice.

Besides these routes operated directly by the Government, many of
the so-called “star routes” (routes operated by contractors) are now
equipped with motor vehicles.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

[Illustration: DISABLED SOLDIERS LEARNING TO WEAVE RUGS AT AN ARMY
HOSPITAL]

_THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_

_War Pensions--and Something Better_

SIX

Although the United States Government has been conspicuously backward,
as compared with foreign Governments, in providing retirement
allowances for its veteran civilian employees, it has generally made
liberal provision for those who have served in the Army and the Navy,
and especially for the veterans of the various wars in which the
country has been engaged. In fact, in the payment of pensions to former
soldiers and sailors, and their families, not only as compensation
for wounds or other disabilities incurred in the service, but also as
a reward for brief participation in a war, this country has carried
liberality to an extreme not approached by any other nation. The
Revolutionary War cost the United States about $70,000,000 in pensions,
and every subsequent war, except the recent world struggle, has added
to the pension roll, which reached its high-water mark in the year
1905, with a total of 998,441 pensioners, while the annual payments
rose to a maximum of $174,171,661 in 1913. The Pension Office is still
one of the largest and busiest establishments of the Government,
although our latest war added practically nothing to its labors.

Shortly after the World War began, and long before the United States
became a participator, Congress established a new office under the
Treasury Department known as the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, for the
purpose of insuring American vessels and their cargoes against the
risks of war. In June, 1917, the Government provided insurance for the
officers and crews of such vessels. Finally, in October, 1917, the
Bureau of War Risk Insurance became the agency for a vast scheme of
protection and compensation afforded to the soldiers and sailors of
the United States and their families--a substitute for the old plan
of war pensions. Under the new plan three forms of financial aid were
rendered, as follows:

1. _Allotments and Allowances._ Every enlisted man was required to
allot at least $15 a month from his pay to his wife and children
and other dependents. To this amount the Government added family
allowances, up to a maximum of $50 a month.

2. _Compensation for Death or Disability._ This applies to officers
and enlisted men alike, and is the same for all ranks, but varies with
the size of the soldier’s or sailor’s family. A bachelor, without
dependents, gets $30 a month for total disability incurred in the war,
while a married man with three or more children may receive as much
as $75 a month. The disabled veteran is also entitled to free medical
and hospital service, artificial limbs, et cetera. In case of death
resulting from injury in the line of duty, the widow and family receive
monthly allowances.

3. _Government Insurance._ During the war all persons in the military
and naval services were granted the privilege of taking out insurance
against death or total disability (whether due to war service or
otherwise) up to the amount of $10,000, at a very low cost. This was
entirely distinct from and in addition to the compensation provided
as mentioned in the foregoing paragraph. The war insurance runs for a
period of five years after the war, and may then be converted into any
of the ordinary forms of insurance offered by commercial companies,
without medical examination. Up to July 1, 1918, the Government
received 2,579,912 applications for insurance under this novel plan,
representing $21,640,065,000 of insurance--an amount about equal to
that carried by all the insurance companies of the United States. In
some regiments every man was insured for $10,000, the maximum amount
allowed.

The Bureau of War Risk Insurance occupies a magnificent new building in
Washington and has about 15,000 employees.

Besides making these liberal provisions for the relief of its disabled
soldiers and sailors, the Government has embarked upon elaborate
measures for restoring them to health and efficiency. They are not only
given the best medical and physical treatment known to science, but
also taught various trades and occupations, suited to their condition
and natural aptitudes. During the period of treatment and training they
receive an allowance for the support of themselves and their families.
The Army and Navy, the Public Health Service, the Federal Board for
Vocational Education and the Bureau of War Risk Insurance all take part
in this paternal enterprise.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT

SERIAL NUMBER 183

[Illustration: UNCLE SAM

A statuette popular during the World War]

[Illustration: “REST HAVEN,” WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN

Discharged soldiers, sailors and marines, patients of The Bureau of War
Risk Insurance, receive free medical treatment for mental and nervous
disorders at this sanatorium]

UNCLE SAM

_And What He Does For His Relatives_

By PROF. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Harvard University

_MENTOR GRAVURES_

VACANT-LOT GARDENING--Enterprise promoted by the Bureau of Education ·
A BOYS’ CORN CLUB--County Agent Giving Instruction · EXHIBIT OF WORK OF
BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE · IMMIGRATION STATION OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, HONOLULU--Japanese Immigrants Awaiting Examination
· EQUIPMENT OF A POSTAL MOTOR-TRUCK ROUTE · DISABLED SOLDIERS LEARNING
TO WEAVE RUGS AT AN ARMY HOSPITAL

On an April day in 1865, a poor old colored woman was walking through
the streets of Richmond wringing her hands and moaning, “Oh, Sam’s
dead; Sam’s dead!” “What Sam’s dead, Aunty?” asked a passerby. “Oh,
Lord, Uncle Sam!” It was the death of Abraham Lincoln for which that
faithful heart was grieving. He was her Uncle Sam, the representative
in human form of America, particularly of the Government at Washington,
that mid-point of the strong, and protection of the weak. Yet after all
she missed the great idea that whoever dies and whoever lives, Uncle
Sam is eternal; for Uncle Sam is the American people governing itself.
He is the emblem of the force and courage and resolution of the United
States of America.

_The Birth of Uncle Sam_

Among the names by which American heroes and popular figures have
been called, how did Uncle Sam come to be adopted as the national
denominator? As well ask why Americans were called Yankees, long
before the Revolution, or why “Yanks” has been the name applied by
Allied soldiers to the forces of the United States in the European
battlefields, and has been accepted by regiments from North and South
alike. As well try to run down the first use of “Brother Jonathan,” in
much the same sense as that in which we now employ “Uncle Sam.” Learned
men and some of the unlearned have delved deep to find the origin of
the term Uncle Sam, and the significance of his out-of-style clothes.

One school of these explorers has presumed to trace Uncle Sam back to
an obscure Samuel Wilson, who during the War of 1812 was engaged in a
government contract for beef and pork to feed the United States army.
Nobody mentioned this yarn until thirty years later, when Jack Frost in
his _Book of the Navy_ gave it currency, without stating where he found
what he himself calls “a silly joke.” Frost asserts that from casks
marked “U. S.” by Samuel Wilson, the idea was taken by the soldiers,
and that gradually it spread through the army and the nation.

[Illustration: AN EARLY PORTRAYAL OF UNCLE SAM

A reproduction of the title page of the first illustrated comic paper
in the United States, 1846]

The only facts that can be ascertained on this subject are that in 1813
there was a firm of meat packers at Troy, in which Samuel Wilson was
a partner. Then that on September 7, 1813, the Troy _Post_ printed an
article containing the expression “Loss upon loss, and no ill luck …
except what lights upon UNCLE SAM’S shoulders.” A note in the newspaper
goes on to say “This cant name for our government has got almost as
current as ‘John Bull.’ The letters ‘U. S.’ on the government wagons,
etc., are supposed to have given rise to it.” A month later another
paper commented on the number of deserters in the army, adding “The
pretence is, that _Uncle Sam_, a now popular explication of the U. S.,
does not pay well.”

Three or four years later, other newspapers, who appeared to have no
knowledge of Samuel Wilson, made the far more probable explanation
that the term Uncle Sam was simply taken from the letters “U. S.”
on soldiers’ caps and knapsacks. Even the Indians accepted the new
term, and when President Madison was at the northern front asked the
privilege “to shake hands with Uncle Sam.”[A]

[A] Note--We have the word of one searcher that as early as 1807 a
regiment of Light Dragoons was raised whose initials, “U. S. L. D.,” on
wagons and accouterment were waggishly interpreted to mean “Uncle Sam’s
Lazy Dogs.”

Uncle Sam’s clothes, like the Quaker dress, were not invented to be
humorous, but as the fashionable costume of the period when Quakers’
and Uncle Sam’s began to appear. Trousers with straps under the
insteps were still worn down to fifty years ago. In the days when the
striped cotton trousers of the French soldiers began to drive out the
old-fashioned knee breeches, Uncle Sam came by his lower protection
naturally. The broad-brimmed beaver hat, till very recently, could
be seen on the heads of wealthy Quaker bankers in Philadelphia. The
star-spangled coats and correctly flag-striped trousers are of course
the inventions of later patriotic times.

[Illustration: SAFEGUARDING IMMIGRATION

Asiatic Detention Quarters at Angel Island, San Francisco Bay]

_What Does Uncle Sam Do for His Nephews and Nieces?_

The great thing about Uncle Sam is his dignity, activity, keenness,
endless good nature and love of his countrymen. His cousin, John
Bull, is the beefy, sturdy, pragmatic, land-owning squire of the
British counties, brave enough, resolute enough, but a defender of
his country, rather than its most intimate friend. Uncle Sam and the
popular interest in his thousands of portraits are standing proofs of
the common sense and good temper of the American people. We like in
Uncle Sam what we like in our personal Uncle Ezra, or Uncle Peyton, his
genuine, affectionate, thoughtful and protecting affection for us.

The three men in American history who have most nearly corresponded to
Uncle Sam in their own personal relations with their fellow men were
Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Jackson was
testy, and sharp tempered, but he could be very genial and gallant
when he chose. Lincoln was the Uncle Abe of the nation; in person, in
speech, in action, and above all in his great affectionate heart he was
what we like to think Uncle Sam is. Theodore Roosevelt was not so much
uncle as brother; there is only one “T. R.” in our history!

[Illustration: EXHIBIT OF UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC
COMMERCE]

In the popular thought Uncle Sam is ourselves at our best; or rather he
is ourselves gathered up into one body, one agency, one force. Uncle
Sam stamps his initials on the public buildings, the camps, the stores,
the guns, the ships, the uniforms, the army wagons, and the army mules.
Uncle Sam carries the mails, prints the greenbacks, sends the seeds,
digs the canals, lays the taxes, enlists the soldiers, fights the war
and makes the peace. Uncle Sam is the national Santa Claus, the trimmer
of America’s Christmas tree, the free mail-order establishment, the
ready subscriber to all good causes. In a way, Uncle Sam means the
Government of the United States--more accurately he stands for the
human side of the Government, interested in the people, eager that they
should be happy, warding off dangers immediate and far away. Uncle Sam
rocked the cradle of the republic and watches over it with pride, just
as the wealthy and generous uncle in ordinary family life looks after a
high-spirited bouncing niece.

[Illustration: WEATHER KIOSK OF U. S. WEATHER BUREAU

A miniature observatory for the man of the street]

To come down to more precise and commonplace terms, what does the
great Government of the United States, centered in Washington, do
for the people of the United States? The moment we attempt to make
a list of his benefits we discover that they outrun the capacity of
any human comparison. The United States Government is more like a
telephone exchange, with direct wires to every hamlet and household.
It is like a vast school with many class rooms in which are taught
various branches of the same subject, namely how to make the United
States citizens happier, better and more prosperous. Out of the
many radiations from this central influence, let us select a few of
those in which the benevolent side of our Government is more clearly
presented. For instance, let us see what the Government does for such
matters as education, labor, agriculture, commerce, and the carrying of
intelligence, for the defense of the community, and protection of free
institutions here and elsewhere in the world.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF STANDARDS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Administration Building in the center

This Bureau is the custodian of official standards of weights and
measures and also a national physical laboratory conducting a variety
of investigations for the benefit of manufacturers and others]

_Uncle Sam’s Schools_

For many years Uncle Sam left to the people at large the task of
educating young people, except the future officers of the United States
army and much later of the navy. These schools have been kept up,
enlarged and provided with magnificent buildings; and they trained
nearly all the officers in high command during the world war in both
army and navy. In the course of the war the number of cadets was
much increased; but it was found necessary hastily to set up special
officers’ schools and training corps in various parts of the country.
The United States also takes part in the public education of the
states in a variety of ways. It has given to the states for common
schools about 80 million acres of land, and for agricultural colleges
and similar purposes about 15 million more. Ever since 1887 it has
made also money grants to state agricultural colleges for experiment
stations; and by the recent Smith-Hughes act is preparing to spend
millions for vocational instruction, including farming. The states are
obliged to put up an equal amount for the same purpose. Other bills
look forward to a larger expenditure which would aid the states to
get rid of the deplorable illiteracy found in some of them. Uncle Sam
maintains schools in the dependencies--the Philippines, Hawaii, Porto
Rico, etc.; and the Bureau of Education in Washington is a kind of
center and clearing house of information and activity in education of
every kind.

[Illustration: THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

Old Building, Washington, D. C.

This leading scientific establishment of the Government is also a great
agency for the distribution of scientific, literary and Government
publications]

[Illustration: A FARMERS’ BULLETIN

The Department of Agriculture issued more than twenty million copies of
these bulletins last year (1918)]

_Uncle Sam as an Employer of Labor_

By far the largest employer of labor within the United States is
Uncle Sam himself, who had, about the time when America entered the
war in 1917, 520,000 employees in the civil service, besides near
150,000 soldiers and sailors. Besides thus furnishing a livelihood
to one person in a hundred and fifty of the whole population of the
United States, the Government carries on a Bureau of Labor, which
gets together all kinds of information about labor conditions in this
country and in other countries. In 1916, the Government passed a
special statute for settling the troubles between the railroad men and
the railroads, commonly called the “Adamson Bill,” under which a strike
was averted and wages were raised.

[Illustration: MOTOR EQUIPMENT FOR “STAR” POSTAL ROUTE 14233

Fredericksburg to Kinsale, Virginia--Two long trucks and working staff
of four; Driver, Assist. Postmaster, Clerk, and Delivery Messenger]

During the war, a National War Labor Board was set up to adjust
troubles between employers and their hands working in munitions
factories and other war industries; and many serious difficulties were
settled by this official arbitration board. Thousands of workmen and
workwomen of every degree of skill were drawn into the war service of
the Government, as clerks, as workers in factories, and in many other
capacities.

Up to the time of the war, the Government was much opposed to
allowing its employees to join in trades unions, but when, in 1917,
the railroads and later the telegraph and telephone operatives were
transferred to Government control, they carried with them their
existing unions, and even formed some new ones. Uncle Sam therefore
takes a large responsibility for labor conditions both inside and
outside of the Government service.

_Uncle Sam as a Farmer_

[Illustration: A DIFFICULT POSTAL TRAIL

Only about three feet wide, and running along the Hoko River from
Clallam Bay to Royal, Washington]

Although farming was the main pursuit of the American people when
Uncle Sam first appeared on the scene, and although 33 per cent. of
the workers in the country are today busy on farms, it was many years
before the Government of the United States aided the agriculturalist.
It began with printed reports (which, oddly enough, were issued by the
Patent Office) on improved breeds of farm animals, with attractive
colored lithographs. The immense Morrill Land Grant of 1862 was
intended chiefly for agricultural education, and the students and
graduates of the resulting colleges have done much to spread a
knowledge of scientific farming, such as the adaptation of crops to
soil, improvement of seeds and grains, the development of high-grade
cattle and other farm animals, and the protection of fruit and other
crops from insect pests.

In 1889 was established a Department of Agriculture, with a Secretary
sitting in the Cabinet; and in the thirty years that have followed
the Department has wonderfully expanded its usefulness. For instance,
it has discovered the cause of the Texas cattle fever, which turned
out to be a tick, and has very nearly put an end to that dangerous
and destructive pest; it has found a serum to prevent hog cholera; it
has established a system for checking the ravages of tuberculosis in
cattle; its Bureau of Plant Industry brings in new seeds and fruits
from all over the world--including such valuable varieties as the Durum
wheat from Russia, Siberian millet and Egyptian dates.

[Illustration: UNCLE SAM’S MAIL IN DIFFICULTIES

In Northern Minnesota]

Closely allied with the work of the Department of Agriculture is the
irrigation service, which is reclaiming millions of acres of land
otherwise useless, by furnishing it with unfailing water. The National
Forests are under the direction of the Department of Agriculture,
which employs about two thousand rangers and fire look-outs.[A] The
Biological Survey has successfully found methods for destroying the
rats, chipmunks, mice and ground squirrels which cause losses of many
millions to the farmers. Millions of copies of printed circulars and
pamphlets on various phases of farming are printed. No agency of
the Government reaches so great a number of the active workers and
producers of the land.

[A] See Mentor Number 165, “Reclaiming the Desert,” and Mentor Number
156, “The Forest.”

_Uncle Sam in Trade_

[Illustration: A SEASHORE MAIL ROUTE ON THE PACIFIC COAST]

Besides their agriculture, our forefathers always pushed shipping
and trade. They were keen on the Indian fur trade, and produced salt
meats, grain “naval stores,” (pitch, tar and turpentine), potashes
and pearl ashes, timber, and other things, and sold them to European
countries. In return they imported calicoes and “oznabrigs” (which were
a kind of linen) “paduasoy” (which was Italian silk), hardware, guns,
tools, china, and the rich cloths, velvets and satins which Colonial
gentlemen delighted to wear. When the United States came into being as
a Government, it paid very little attention to commerce, leaving the
merchants free to develop their trade with all parts of the world.

It is only in recent years that Uncle Sam has realized how he can help
the merchant, the shipper and the vessel owner. Not until 1903 was
there an office at Washington charged with the duty to “promote foreign
and domestic commerce.” Not till 1913 was there a distinct Department
of Commerce, within which were grouped some of the most important
services rendered by the nation to its people. For example, commerce
includes such varied services as lighthouses, steamboat inspection,
fisheries, navigation, and the coast survey. In addition the Department
of Commerce comes very near to the complicated organization of the
business of the country, through its Bureau of Corporations, Bureau of
Standards of Weights and Measures, and Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce, as well as the Census Bureau, which collects a variety of
statistics.

[Illustration: WOMEN AT WORK IN A COMMUNITY CANNING KITCHEN

Under the direction of the Department of Agriculture]

During the war, Uncle Sam stretched out his long arm still farther into
the trade and business of the country, and appointed a Director of
Railroads to take control of most of the railroad lines in the land.
It was that Board which made possible the conveyance of the enormous
quantities of stores and munitions which supplied our armies in France.
Going still farther, Uncle Sam took up the ship carpenter’s axe, the
caulker’s mallet, and the riveter’s electric machine. All the ship
yards in the country were brought under the control and direction of
the Government.

[Illustration: INSPECTORS OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY

Inspection work in a large packing house]

The Post Office has been Uncle Sam’s peculiar interest ever since
the Federal Government was founded; and he pushes that business ever
farther and farther. The letter, the newspaper, the book and the
package, are sent flying from one of the long arms of Uncle Sam to
another, till the business has come to total over three hundred million
dollars a year. The registry service, special delivery system, and
especially the parcel post, bring new conveniences, and new proofs of
our Uncle’s desire to be useful. In the course of the war the whole
system of telegraphs also was taken over. Many lines of business,
especially the newspaper and periodical publishers, the mail-order
houses, and the advertisers are dependent upon this field of Government
operation.

[Illustration: INFANT MORTALITY RATES (PER 1000) ACCORDING TO FATHER’S
EARNINGS

Combined figures from seven cities studied by U. S. Children’s Bureau

The baby death rate rises as the father’s earnings fall]

_Uncle Sam as a Watchman_

Most of all in times of danger and distress do we turn eagerly to that
multiple of ourselves, which we call Uncle Sam. In the most peaceful
days the sailor in blue or the soldier in khaki stood behind the courts
and the laws and the policemen. When rioters and anarchists raised
their heads they knew that Uncle Sam was drawn up around the corner,
and would stop them whenever they passed from noisy words to desperate
deeds. “U. S.” is the trench line which protects this country from
invasion. “U. S.” builds the forts, works out plans of harbor defence,
keeps powerful ships in commission, and raises, clothes, equips, feeds,
and pays the armies which are the clenched fists of the nation. Other
governments, state, municipal and local, offer many benefits, but Uncle
Sam is the only American known to foreign nations as the creator of
armies and the fighter of battles.

[Illustration: WELFARE WORK FOR BABIES, WHITE AND BLACK

Weighing and measuring babies. Work conducted by the U. S. Children’s
Bureau, Department of Labor]

The mystic two letters “U. S.” which are the emblems within the United
States of peace and protection, became known in the World War far
across the seas in many lands. Disturbed and broken nations welcome
occupation by United States troops, because they have learned that
Uncle Sam is both strong and merciful; that he hits his enemies
hard; but raises up and saves the noncombatant, the neutral and the
vanquished. Never has the reputation of the United States of America
stood so high as a stalwart, resolute and unflinching power which puts
out its wealth like water, and enlists its man-power by millions, when
war must be fought. Never has the Uncle Sam conception of the great
North American federation been so clear and so welcome in the minds of
other peoples; what can any nation ask that is better and higher than
to be hailed as the defender of civilization against the most furious
blows; and at the same time as the friend, ally and protector of men of
good will wherever found throughout the world? “U. S.” to hammer the
Hun; “Uncle Sam” to succor the Belgians and French, to aid the Armenian
and the Greek, as the friend of mankind.

[Illustration: REBUILDING THE DISABLED SOLDIER

Class in physical training, Base Hospital, Camp Pike, Arkansas]

_Rivers, Harbors and Parks_

[Illustration: DISABLED SOLDIERS STUDYING AGRICULTURE

Preparatory to practising it on a sixty-acre farm provided next to the
hospital]

In addition to the vast work of reclaiming desert lands, protecting
forests, and improving rivers, harbors and canals, Uncle Sam has spent
millions of dollars in opening up to the people great natural wonder
realms of the country and putting them in order for outdoor pleasure
grounds. Four National Parks--the Yellowstone, the Yosemite, Glacier
National Park and Rainier National Park have already been treated in
individual numbers of The Mentor, and future issues will be devoted to
others of these magnificent public domains. The Grand Canyon, to which
a Mentor number has also been given, is not one of the National Parks,
but is a Reserve set apart for all time by the Government.

[Illustration: SCHOOL AND GARDEN IN ALASKA

A distant outpost of the Bureau of Education]

Most of the National Parks are situated in the western part of the
continent. Through the beneficence and wisdom of Uncle Sam there have
been preserved for the American people the prehistoric dwellings of
extinct races in Arizona and Colorado. Rocky Mountain Park, Colorado,
and Crater National Park, southern Oregon, attract thousands of
visitors annually. Every summer, innumerable groups of Nature lovers
camp and tramp in the Government forest parks of California. In all,
there are now (1919) sixteen National Parks in the United States and
Alaska, with a total area of nearly 10,000 square miles. In 1916 a
National Park was also created in the territory of Hawaii, with an area
of 75,295 acres.

_Use Your Government_

[Illustration: TRAVELING OUTFIT OF U. S. SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS IN
ARCTIC ALASKA]

To many of us, perhaps, Uncle Sam’s Government may appear to consist
of a vast number of men using up time and money in doing a great many
things in which we see no useful purpose whatever. Other men in the
Legislative Department appear to be discussing at great length the
framing of new laws, good, bad or indifferent, and we criticize them
accordingly. The thought that we can capitalize our citizenship in a
most valuable material way and that we can make direct personal use of
the Government, whatever our calling in life may be, few of us have
ever realized. We have pointed out some of the ways in which Uncle Sam
helps his relatives. Whatever your chosen work may be, whatever your
interest may be, turn to Uncle Sam and learn how valuable a friend and
support he can be.

* * * * *

_SUPPLEMENTARY READING_

USE YOUR GOVERNMENT _By Alissa Franc_
UNCLE SAM’S MODERN MIRACLES _By W. A. Du Puy_
UNCLE SAM, WONDER WORKER _By W. A. Du Puy_
THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT _By Frederic J. Haskin_

⁂ Information concerning the above books may be had on application to
the Editor of The Mentor.

* * * * *

Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New
York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1919, by The
Mentor Association, Inc.

_THE OPEN LETTER_

[Illustration: SAM SLICK

Judge Haliburton’s original Yankee character]

The true origin of the character of “Uncle Sam” is a matter of doubt.
The figure has been a familiar one in the history of the United States
for many years, but the actual date of its first appearance is not
known. As a little school girl once wrote in her essay on Ancient
Rome, “its origin is wrapped in antiquity.” It appears that “Uncle
Sam” emerged from the soil and began to materialize into definite form
about one hundred years ago. A favored theory concerning the origin
of the tall, lean, Yankee figure type is that he owes his peculiar
identity to a character created by Judge Thomas Haliburton, and known
in literature as “Sam Slick.” Oddly enough, the creator--if we may call
him so--of the figure that now stands for the national type, was not
himself an American. Judge Thomas Haliburton was born in Windsor, Nova
Scotia, in December, 1796. He was a successful lawyer, and occasionally
took a turn at literature. In 1835 there appeared in a Halifax journal
a series of papers which were afterwards issued in book form under
the title, “The Clock-Maker, or the Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick.”
In this and in a later book “Nature and Human Nature,” the author
pictured an acute, good-tempered Yankee who was a native of the state
of Connecticut--the state of which Jonathan Trumbull, the original
“Brother Jonathan,” was governor. Haliburton described Sam Slick as “a
tall, thin man with hollow cheeks and bright, twinkling, black eyes.”
As he sold his Yankee clocks he was supposed to meet on the road a
“squire” who traveled some distance with him and found entertainment
in Sam’s “down-east talk and shrewd Americanisms.” In England, where
the book had a wide sale, Sam Slick came to be accepted as the symbolic
American in speech, appearance and thought.

The _London Times_ of November 27, 1840, said: “No modern book can give
better insight into the politics, prejudices, manners and actions of
the inhabitants of the United States than this.” Another English critic
found Sam Slick “a knowing individual, sensible, sagacious, not without
tact, and overflowing with humor.” According to Sam, “Push-on--keep
movin’--go ahead,” was the maxim of the States. He described the
typical American as “the chap with speed, wind and bottom; clear grit,
ginger to the backbone, spry as a fox, supple as an eel.”

The illustrators of Sam Slick made him lean, smiling, and in all
respects a contrast to the heavy-set John Bull. They put on his head
the high hat and clothed him in the long-tailed coat and striped
trousers that Uncle Sam still wears. “We call the American public
‘Uncle Sam,’” declared Sam Slick to the Squire, “as you call the
British ‘John Bull.’” Sam’s humor was called “the sunny side of common
sense.”

“The Clock-Maker” ran into fifty editions and was as popular in
America and in Canada as in England--it also had many readers in
France. So potent was the delineation of the Yankee, Sam Slick, that
it established and still influences the foreign estimate of citizens
of the United States. Judge Haliburton had a distinguished career, the
latter part of which was passed in England--where he died in 1865.

* * * * *

We can see from the foregoing that there is some reason, then, for
the claim of certain chroniclers that “Sam Slick” was the original
Yankee character, and that Windsor, Nova Scotia, was the birthplace of
the oddly-costumed figure that now stands for the shrewd, benevolent,
wide-awake and efficient personality that we call “Uncle Sam.”

[Illustration: W. D. Moffat

EDITOR]

The Service of Uncle Sam

All of us know that Uncle Sam means well by the hundred million members
of his family, but few have any adequate appreciation of the many
varied forms in which Uncle Sam lends a helping hand. His service
is apparent everywhere in city, town, village and farm--and in the
great desert wastes and mountain heights. It is worth while to take a
sweeping survey of the whole field of Uncle Sam’s helpful operations:

HELPING THE FARMER. Uncle Sam supplies a wealth of information about
the planting and growing of crops, with crop estimates and statistics
of agriculture. He supplies weather reports and gives helpful
information on the control of destructive insects and birds--also on
the fostering and improving of live stock. He gives advice on forest
lands and forest fire protection. He helps in building rural roads
and assists in farm management and in the procuring of farm help. He
advises the farmer in marketing and in rural organization and farm
finance. He gives information concerning diseases prevalent in rural
districts. He supplies courses of reading for farmer parents, and
assists in the work of rural schools. He spends large sums of money
in administration work in the Department of Agriculture to help the
condition of the farmer, the farmer’s wife and the girls and boys on
the farm. He directs their education and shows them how to improve
their living conditions. His office of information supplies documents
full of valuable practical suggestions for the farmer.

HELPING THE SETTLER. Uncle Sam reclaims desert lands and places them at
the disposal of settlers. He encourages the establishment of homesteads
and conducts forest service and geological surveys to develop land and
make it valuable.

HELPING THE BUSINESS MAN. Uncle Sam gives assistance and information
to almost all businesses--and carries on, at enormous expense, special
work for the Mining, Fishing, Fur, Lumber and Shipping Industries. He
pursues scientific experiments with agricultural products and develops
water power for commercial use. He protects the business man with the
Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Interstate
Commerce Commission.

HELPING THE WORKING MAN. In the Department of Labor a vast amount of
Service is devoted to securing employment for laborers, supplying
information concerning labor conditions, pursuing practical
investigations for the safety and health of the working men. He acts as
a community organizer, advising and supervising, and is a mediator in
disputes on labor questions.

HELPING THE IMMIGRANT. He greets the immigrant with an intelligent and
careful scrutiny as to his health and general welfare. He opens the
eyes of the immigrant to his opportunities in the United States, and
helps him to get employment. He instills in him ideals of industry,
integrity, and good citizenship.

HELPING THE NEGRO. Uncle Sam supplies statistics and detailed reports
concerning the education of the Negro. He gives assistance to the Negro
farmer, instruction to the Negro woman and children in home economics
and in school and home gardening.

HELPING IN THE HOME. Uncle Sam pursues investigations and gives
advice concerning the practical problems of the home. He is ever
inspecting foods, drugs, meats and the quality of milk and water. He
will permit no foul or tainted food or drink to reach the mouth of the
mother or children. He carries on an employment bureau of service,
giving information and advice. In the lives of children Uncle Sam’s
helping hand is ever to be found. He prepares publications and gives
information and conducts courses for the education of children in all
branches of knowledge, stimulating, particularly, vocational education,
in agriculture, and in the trades and industries. For the protection
of children he enforces the Federal Child Labor Act, and to keep them
well and healthy he has devised enticing plans for outdoor occupation
in school and home garden, that they may be sound, healthy and fit for
worthy citizenship.

If you want to know anything about the management of the country; if
you want to make the most of yourself as a citizen, write to Uncle Sam.

[Illustration: THE MENTOR]

THE PLAYGROUNDS OF UNCLE SAM

The National Parks at a Glance

Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation

[Number, 16; Total Area, 9,552 Square Miles]

National Parks of less popular interest are:

Sully’s Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devil’s Lake.
Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern.
Casa Grande Ruin, 1892, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin.

MAKE THE SPARE MOMENT COUNT

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919" ***

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