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