 Chapter 6 of THE MENTOR THE MENTOR II by Various Chapter 6 THE MENTOR, July 15, 1919 Number 183, Uncle Sam, by Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of Government, Harvard University. 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 and wrinkle 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 nationwide 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 he 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 a 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 has 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 Story of Uncle Sam Public Health and Education 1. Our country maintains an army and a navy to fight against human beings with whom we are occasional 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 seaman 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, pelagra, trochoma, 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, etc. During a recent outbreak of influenza, the Public Health Service distributed six million leaflets in regard to the disease. A new duty of the service is to operate hospitals for the physical restoration and reeducation 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 clearinghouse 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 opened 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. The Department of Agriculture, too. It would take a good-sized library to tell adequately all the things the Department of Agriculture was doing for the people of the United States. A formal program issued each year sets forth embarrassed 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. The Department is devoted to the twofold 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 60 million animals were slaughtered for food under the inspection of the Bureau of Animal Industry. The biological survey treated more than 13 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 200,000 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 five million dollars for the year 1916, and will increase annually by five million dollars to 25 million dollars 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 bowl worm. The Department as a whole led a nationwide effort to provide means of feeding a hungry world. In a single year the area planted with agricultural crops was increased by 22 million acres. In 1918 the planted area amounted to 289 million acres. During the same year the country produced about 19 and a half billion pounds of meat, an increase of about four billion pounds since 1914. A branch of the department known as the State's 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 2,400 of these officials now in the field besides 1,700 home demonstration agents who helped the farmers' wives to solve their domestic problems. Farm work is made interesting and profitable to the rising generation by means of some 40 different kinds of clubs such as pig clubs, corn clubs, canning clubs, and poultry clubs in which are enrolled more than 2 million boys and girls. Lastly, the department is by far the largest publisher of agricultural information in the world. Last year it issued over 2,500 documents of all kinds, in editions aggregating nearly 100 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. Promoting Commerce 3. 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. 4. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce A branch of the Department of Commerce collects information about foreign markets for American goods from American consoles, commercial attachés stationed at the principal foreign capitals, and a core 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. 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. These 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 in industry, as well as those relating to population. The Bureau of Fisheries, which has immensely stimulated trade and 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 12 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. The Department of Labor, 4. In his annual report for the year 1918, the Secretary of Labor declared that, had the Department of Labor not existed in 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, the 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 a 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 one million, two hundred and eighteen thousand, four hundred and eighty. The laws relating to the immigration of 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 chargers, 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. The Postal Service, Five In the year 1790, there were 75 post offices in the United States. In 1918, there were 54,345. The number of pieces of mail handled in a year approximates 20 million. In order to operate this vast business enterprise, Uncle Sam requires the services of 300,000 people. The Post Office 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 40,000 carriers. Special delivery service was established in 1885. In an average year, the number of pieces of mail handled by special delivery approximates 50 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 post offices 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 6,000 post offices that received deposits, and the amount to the credit of depositors was nearly $150 million. The smallest deposit accepted is $1, but smaller amounts may be saved by purchasing a $0.10 savings card and a fixing $0.10 savings stamps. Interest is allowed at the rate of 2%. 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 billion 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 Post Office 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 foodstuffs. The trucks are owned by the government, and many former army trucks are now utilized in this service. A great variety of merchandise is hauled along these routes. All sorts of farm products are carried to the city markets, and the merchandise 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 post offices, but at farm houses, 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 whenever the houses are easily accessible to the regular routes of the trucks. While certain produce cannot be shipped through a post office, 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 post office. 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. 6. 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 occurred in the service, but also as a reward for a 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 million dollars 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 dollars 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 crew 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 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. One, allotments and allowances. Every enlisted man was required to allot at least fifteen dollars 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 fifty dollars a month. Two, 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 soldiers or sailors family. A bachelor without dependents gets thirty dollars a month for total disability incurred in the war, while a married man with three or more children may receive as much as seventy five dollars a month. The disabled veteran is also entitled to free medical and hospital service, artificial limbs, etc. In case of death resulting from injury in the line of duty, the widow and family receive monthly allowances. Three, 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 ten thousand dollars at a very low cost. This was entirely distinct from, and in addition to, the compensation provided is mentioned in the forgoing 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 two million five hundred and seventy nine thousand nine hundred and twelve applications for insurance under this novel plan, representing twenty one billion six hundred and forty million sixty five thousand dollars 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 ten thousand dollars, the maximum amount allowed. The Bureau of War Risk Insurance occupies a magnificent new building in Washington and has about fifteen thousand 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. Uncle Sam and what he does for his relatives. 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's Sam's dead, auntie? asked the 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 inhuman form of America, particularly of the government at Washington, that midpoint of 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-asked why Americans were called Yankees, longer before the Revolution, or why Yanks, has been the name applied by Allied soldiers, to the forces of the United States and the European battlefields, and has been accepted by regiments from North and South alike, as well tried 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 30 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. 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 7th, 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 can't 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 pretense is that Uncle Sam, a now popular explication of the U.S., does not pay well. Three or four years later, other newspapers, who appear 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. 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 accoutrement, were waggishly interpreted to mean Uncle Sam's lazy dogs. End of note. 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. 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 the 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 Payton, 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 man, were Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Jackson was testy, and sharp-tempered, but he could be very genialing gallant when he chose. Lincoln was the Uncle E above 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 TR in our history. 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 with 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. 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 classrooms, in which are taught various branches of the same subject, namely how to make the United States citizen 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. 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 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 of 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 is 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-Ues 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, Puerto 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. 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 850, 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. 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 work women 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. Although farming was the main pursuit of the American people when Uncle Sam first appeared on the scene, and although 33% 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 moral land grant of 1862 was intended chiefly for agricultural education, and the students and graduates of the resulting colleges have done much to spreading knowledge of scientific farming, such as the adaptation of crops to soil, improvements 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. 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 lookouts. 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 of 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. Uncle Sam in trade. 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, potash, and pearl ashes, timber, and other things, and sold them to European countries. In return they imported calicoes and osnabricks, which were kind of linen, patasoy, which was an Italian silk, hardware, guns, tools, china, and the rich cloves, 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 until 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. 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 further, Uncle Sam took up the ship's carpenter's axe, the cocker's mallet, and the riveter's electric machine. All the shipyards in the country were brought under the control and direction of the government. The post office has been Uncle Sam's peculiar interest ever since the federal government was founded, and he pushes that business even 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. Uncle Sam is 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 defense, keeps powerful ships in commission, and raises clothes, equips, feeds, and pays the armies which are the clenched fist 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. The mystic two letters, U.S., which are the emblems within the United States of peace and protection become 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 he raises up and saves the non-combatant, 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 manpower 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, were ever found throughout the world. U.S., to hammer the Hun, Uncle Sam, to succor the Doljans in French, to aid the Armenian and the Greek as the friend of mankind. Rivers, Hobbers and Parks In addition to the vast work of reclaiming desert lands, protecting forests and improving rivers, hobbers 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, Yosemite, Glacier National Park and Rainier National Park, have already been treated in individual numbers of the mentor. The 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. 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, 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, 16 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. To many of us, perhaps, Uncle Sam's government may appear to consist of a vast number of men using up time and money and 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. Recording by Kate Follis The Mentor II by Various Chapter VII Photography by Paul L. Anderson The Mentor 1918.08.01 Number 160 Photography August 1st 1918 Serial number 160 by Paul L. Anderson Department of Fine Arts Photography a daguerreotype one Louis-Jacques Mont-Daguerre, born 1789, died 1851, was a great French scene painter who experimented for many years trying to find some way of rendering permanent the image projected by a lens. Jay Nisafour Niepce was engaged in the same research, and from 1829 until the death of Niepce in 1833 the two worked together, but it was not until some years after the latter date that Daguerre discovered the process that bears his name. This process may be briefly described as follows. A highly polished and perfectly clean silver plate is rendered sensitive to light by the formation of a deposit of silver iodide on the surface, this being accomplished by exposing the plate, of course in the dark, for some minutes to the vapor of iodine. When the plate has assumed a uniform golden brown color, it is placed in the camera and the exposure is made, the light projected by the lens causing a chemical change to take place in the silver iodide. The image thus obtained is very weak, and in order to strengthen it the plate is exposed for some minutes to the vapor of mercury. It is subsequently fixed or rendered permanent by bathing with a solution of sodium thiosulfate, ordinarily known to photographers as hypo. This dissolves the silver compounds that were not affected by light. In some cases the picture is still further strengthened by treating it with chloride of gold. This not only increases the vigor of the image, but at the same time improves its stability so that it is less likely to fade as the result of atmospheric action or exposure to light. The effect of the chloride of gold is literally to gold plate the image. As the surface of the completed daguerreotype is very sensitive to any mechanical action it must be protected by glass. A mere touch of the finger leaves an irremediable scratch. The daguerreotype was at one time very popular for portraiture, but the process has certain drawbacks that have caused it to be superseded by improved methods. Among these drawbacks are the following. The exposures required are rather long, it is impossible to make duplicates. A separate exposure must be made for each picture. The picture must be held at a certain angle to make it visible, and the process is rather expensive and laborious to work. Nevertheless, exquisite effects may be obtained in daguerreotype. The writer has seen pictures of this kind, which for sheer beauty yield to none of the modern printing mediums. The decadence of the daguerreotype is to be regretted for at least one reason. The man who elected to work in that medium was necessarily at least a craftsman, whereas at the present time many photographers are neither artists nor craftsmen, but merely mechanics of only fair skill. Photography has been brought to such a state of perfection that good technical results may be obtained by persons that work by rote and know absolutely nothing of the principles underlying the craft. This lack of training and enthusiasm for the work must evidently be reflected in the results obtained. There are few forms of portraiture art that equal in beauty choice early examples of daguerreotype photography. They have the exquisite delicacy, softness, and individual charm of the best miniature portraits. Good old daguerreotypes are treasured possessions in the homes of many families, and rightly so, for they combine a fine quality of art with a gentle personal appeal. Portraits by D. O. Hill II David Octavius Hill, born 1802, died 1870, was a Scotch painter who conceived the idea of producing a great historical picture representing the disruption of the Church of Scotland. This work involved paintings from four or five hundred portraits, and Hill, despairing of obtaining satisfactory sittings from so many persons, turned to the newly discovered art of photography to furnish the portraits he needed, with the idea of using the photographs as a guide in painting. Hill used the calotype process invented by Fox Talbot, which rendered a piece of paper sensitive to light by coating it with the iodide of silver. When it was exposed in the camera and developed, a negative resulted, and positive prints were made from this negative in the same medium. Hill became so much interested in photography that he worked with it for several years, to the neglect of his painting. During those years he produced photographic portraits which have certainly never been surpassed, and which some people think have never been equaled. The exposures necessary were very long, four or five minutes in bright sunlight. This fact lends a great deal of beauty to the results, for there is no doubt that full sunlight gives effects that cannot be obtained in any other way, and these may be of surpassing beauty, provided the photographer is skillful enough to manage his apparatus and pose the sitter properly. It is regrettable that so many photographers of the present day shun outdoor portraiture, for there is unquestionably a great opportunity in that class of work. The claim of some photographers that outdoor light is not satisfactory for portraiture is refuted by Hill's results. Hill was not a great painter. His works in that medium are well nigh forgotten, but he was unquestionably a man of great sensitiveness, who possessed the quality of psychic insight so necessary to a portrait worker. It is the estimate of an authority that, though he could never be compared with the great masters of portraiture, Rembrandt and Velazquez, nevertheless his works are entitled to a place in the second rank. Hill was especially fortunate in his sitters for the men and women that he photographed were persons whom it would be difficult to render commonplace in appearance, among them being Christopher North, Professor John Wilson, J. G. Lockhart, Lady Rothbin, Robert Haldane, William Henning, Mrs. Anna Brannel Jameson, and others of equal note in Great Britain. The paper negatives made by Hill are carefully preserved. The writer is fortunate in the possession of prints from two of these negatives, the reproduction shown herewith, a gum platinum plate made and given to him by Alvin Langdon Coburn is from one of them. Much of the beauty of this example of Hill's work is due to modern printing methods, but the quality in this negative brought out in the print proves undeniably that Hill merits recognition as a master of portraiture. Astronomical Photography 3 Photography has made possible many discoveries of tremendous importance in the realm of astronomy by revealing the existence of stars too faint because of their small size or great distance to be seen by the eye. This is one of the most conspicuous ways in which the sensitive plate has been an aid to the scientist. A device for carrying a photographic plate is attached to a telescope and the plate exposed to the image projected by the telescope for a prolonged period. This may in fact amount to several hours. Exposures are sometimes partly completed one night and finished the next, a comparatively small area of the heavens being chosen for investigation at one time. On development of the plate the stars are counted and compared with existing charts of the area in question. Of course this method requires that the telescope move with the same angular velocity as that of the Earth's rotation so that the image of each star may remain in precisely the same position on the plate during the entire time of exposure. Otherwise the star would be represented as a trail of light, the slightest variation in the speed of rotation being sufficient to cause blurring of the image. It is apparent that the clockwork employed for driving the telescope must be a marvel of accuracy. The power which this method possesses of revealing hitherto undiscovered stars depends on a curious fact. If an observer looks into the eyepiece of a telescope he can discern only those heavenly bodies that send to the Earth a certain minimum of light. But when a photographic plate is exposed for long periods there is a cumulative effect of light on the sensitive emulsion. That is the long continued impact of the light rays causes little by little a gradual change in the constitution of the sensitive silver salt. The action thus piles up so to speak and records light that is far below the visible minimum. The photographic plate has not only aided discoveries in the vast realms of interstellar space but has also revealed to us things so exceedingly minute that no other method of observation could bring them within the range of our perceptions. By Paul L. Anderson Portrait by the Bromoyle Process. Photography. A Bromoyle print. Four. In the Bromoyle process the first step is to make a bromide enlargement. The negative from which a print is to be made is placed in an apparatus resembling the familiar stereopticon and an enlarged image is projected on a piece of bromide paper or paper that has been coated with an emulsion similar to that used for plates. After the paper has been exposed to the image it is developed, fixed and washed the result being a large positive print of the original small negative. Often this print is allowed to remain as it is and it is then known as a bromide enlargement or simply an enlargement. Sometimes the worker converts it into a bromoyle. The image in an enlargement consists of metallic silver in a film of gelatin. The gradations of the picture resulting from the varying thicknesses of the silver image. The first step towards changing this to a bromoyle is to treat it with certain chemicals that bleach out the silver image and at the same time harden the gelatin in proportion to the amount of silver present. The bleached print is then soaked in warm water and the highlights of the picture where the gelatin is least hardened absorb the water freely. The halftones less so and the shadows least of all. An oily ink then dabbed on the print with a brush adheres freely in the shadows less freely in the halftones and least of all in the lights being repelled by the water in the film. The final result is a print in which the images formed by varying thickness of ink which of course may be of any color. The advantages of bromoyle over bromide are numerous. In the first place a bromide print cannot be regarded as absolutely permanent but a bromoyle may be. Next the color of a bromide print is limited to black and varying shades of brown unless chemical toning is resorted to which still further reduces the stability of the image. But a bromoyle may be of almost any color and indeed of different colors in different portions of the picture. The greatest advantage of the bromoyle process however lies in the fact that as much or as little ink as may be desired can be put on any given area. By varying the consistency of the ink it can be made to adhere more or less freely. By modifying the brush action it can be placed on the print or omitted from it and can even at times be removed after being deposited on the paper. It will be seen that the artist has complete control over the gradations and to some extent also over the outlines of the picture. He can therefore make the process respond to his desire for artistic expression to an extent not possible with any other photographic printing medium even the superficial texture of the image being largely under the workers control. A variant of bromoyle is the oil process though it would be more correct to put it the other way about the latter process being the older of the two. A sheet of paper is coated with gelatin alone this being rendered sensitive to light by means of certain chemicals and then printed under a negative. The effect is to render the gelatin hard in proportion to the amount of light action that is hardest in the shadows less so in the halftones and least of all in the lights. The print is then washed to remove the excess of sensitizer and soaked in warm water. The subsequent operations are the same as in bromoyle. Oil is superior to bromoyle in being slightly easier to manipulate and in not requiring a dark room but it is inferior in that it demands either daylight or a powerful artificial light for printing. Furthermore a negative the size of the finished print is necessary whereas with bromoyle large prints can be made from small negatives. Oil and bromoyle have the drawback of not being very rapid to work. Three or four eleven by fourteen bromoyles representing a good day's work for a careful manipulator but they are by far the most satisfactory of all photographic printing mediums when the desire is for artistic expression. Pictorial photography five. The accompanying photograph entitled The Lake Winter illustrates admirably the use of the soft focus lens. It is also of interest as showing the advantages sometimes to be gained from the intentional use of defects. The normal human eye is unsurpassed for the purpose for which it is designed. It is difficult to imagine an organ more perfect in this respect. The eye automatically and almost instantaneously adjusts itself for near or distant objects and for varying intensities of light and has moreover a field of view of nearly 180 degrees almost a complete half circle. Nevertheless it has two defects that tend to impair the accuracy of vision namely chromatic and spherical aberration. Chromatic aberration is the inability to focus simultaneously on two or more of the primary colors. It is this defect in the eye that causes red letters to seem to stand out from a blue or green background a trick sometimes used in poster work. Spherical aberration is the inability to bring to a focus the rays of light that pass through the lens near the margins at the same time as those that pass through near the center. For these reasons and in lesser degree some others the eye cannot see sharp lines and a lens that gives sharp definition to the edges of objects produces results that are aesthetically unpleasing because foreign to our experience. The soft focus lens of which there are numerous makes is so designed that it possesses the errors that are normal to the eye and therefore if the characteristic softness of definition is not overdone by a two enthusiastic worker gives results having an agreeable vagueness of outline. At one time the qualities of this type of lens were overworked the results being so excessively diffused that as one writer said of a print it was impossible to tell whether it was a portrait of a lady or a water spout in the Gulf Stream. But for some years past the pendulum has been swinging the other way and photographers in general it must be understood that this refers only to artistic workers not scientists are now using the unconnected lens so as to secure as nearly as possible the quality characteristic of the normal eye with perhaps a slight exaggeration for the sake of suggestion and as a stimulus to the imagination. Motion picture photography six. A phase of photography that has a very broad scope is motion picture work the mechanics of which depend on this fact if an object is looked at for a time and is suddenly removed from before the eye the eye continues to see it for an appreciable time after its removal. This phenomenon is called persistence of vision a motion picture camera is so arranged that a long strip of film can be drawn past the lens in a series of jerks the shutter being opened to permit the image projected by the lens to fall on the film during the period that the ladder is at rest the film is drawn on to the next position while the shutter is closed naturally an object moving before the lens will move slightly during the interval between exposures so the film when developed shows a consecutive series of photographs of the object in slightly different positions a positive print is made from this series of negatives on a similar strip of film this is projected by means of an apparatus something like the familiar magic lantern or stereopticon but so arranged that this film may be drawn along in jerks each photograph is shown for a fraction of a second and is replaced during the time that the shutter is closed by one showing a slightly later phase of the motion because of the persistence of vision the eye blends the successive photographs into one apparently continuous motion it will be seen that the term moving pictures is really a misnomer since the pictures on the screen do not move but remain perfectly stationary during the time that they are seen by taking the pictures rapidly and projecting them slowly the apparent motion may be slowed down so that a rifle bullet may take three or four minutes to travel across a screen space of as many feet by taking them at wide intervals and projecting rapidly the motion may be speeded up and a plant may seem to grow from a seedling to maturity in a few minutes the ordinary taking and projecting speed is 16 pictures per second experiment having shown that this is the least number that the eye will blend satisfactorily since each picture is one inch wide by three quarters of an inch high in the film it is evident that each second of time represents one foot of film the writer has seen a rather elaborately staged photo play that required an hour and 40 minutes for projection a simple calculation shows that this involved six thousand feet of positive film a little over a mile the length of the negative film was undoubtedly more on account of retakes cuts and so on an expenditure of five or six hundred dollars for film however is but a small item in the cost of producing an elaborate photo play for the actors receive large salaries though not so large as the press agents would have us believe and the cost of scenery is great the production of photo plays is nevertheless a profitable industry as may be understood from the fact that the average daily attendance in this country is estimated at about 12 million assuming that each spectator pays only ten cents this represents an intake of one million two hundred thousand dollars daily and as is well known the prices of admission in many theaters range from twenty five cents up to one dollar and more the artistic possibilities of the motion picture play are obviously limited it can never hope to rise to the emotional heights of the legitimate drama but they are nonetheless considerable it is to be regretted that the motion picture industry is at present so much in the hands of producers who pander to the coarser instincts of the public through sensationalism and slapstick farce who are often indifferent to detail the writer has seen a cow puncher represented as wearing his six shooter but foremost who treat the author's work according to their own ideas a well-known author remarked on seeing the screen version of one of her books if I hadn't been fairly familiar with the story I wouldn't have known what it was all about in general firms seem to be more concerned with getting the public's money than with producing really artistic results the writer once saw a photo play version of a fairly well-known book in which the producer had changed an elderly gray haired quiet experienced cattlemen into a cheap imitation of a Bret Hart gambler of 30 years of age the purpose of this metamorphosis being to transform a noble and self-sacrificing affection into a piece of gaudy sensationalism such tactics cannot fail to displease thinking people but there are fortunately producers to whom these remarks do not apply really conscientious men of high ideals and signs are not wanting of an improvement in this regard the motion picture and worthy hands can be made an educational medium of great value not only in the dramatic art but in many other ways films frequently show scenes of historical interest life in foreign lands industries scientific subjects are treated such as the peristaltic movements of the intestines and the action of the heart photographed by means of the x-ray also the life cycle of microorganisms the microscope being used in this case and many other activities of life among the most interesting of these films are those produced by the williams and brothers showing sea life though mechanical difficulties have so far prevented the photographing of the most interesting phase of marine life that of the extreme depths the story of photography by paul l anderson numerous investigators daguerre ne'eps fox talbot and others have been credited with the discovery of photography but the fact seems to be that these and many more merely contributed each in his turn some portion of the total that goes to make up the art as it now stands photography means literally light writing the name being derived from two greek words foes light and graphing to write the practice of photography depends primarily on the fact that certain chemical compounds are changed into other compounds by the action of light another fact is closely allied with this namely that a suitably constructed lens of glass or other transparent material or a fine needle hole used instead of a lens will project the image of objects placed in front of it a camera then consists of a light tight box having at one end an arrangement for holding a lens or a card with a needle hole in it and at the other end a device for holding some light sensitive chemical to receive the image projected by the lens in modern practice this light sensitive chemical is almost always bromide of silver or a mixture of the bromide with other silver compounds these chemicals being held in an emulsion of gelatin when the gelatin emulsion is coated in a thin film on a sheet of glass the result is known as a dry plate or simply a plate when it is coated on a strip of celluloid wound on rollers so that successive portions may be exposed to light it is called a roll film and when it is coated on separate sheets of celluloid arranged like a pad to be exposed successively it is called a film pack a similar emulsion coated on paper gives bromide or gaslight paper which as will be seen later is used for making prints at one time wet collodion plates were generally used a sheet of glass being coated with collodion and sensitized by bathing it with iodide of silver the exposure was made before the plate dried but these plates were inconvenient to handle and have been almost entirely superseded by the gelatin dry plate the prepared plate of whatever type it may be is placed in the camera and exposed for a longer or shorter time depending on circumstances to the light projected by the lens but no image is visible after exposure unless indeed the exposure has been tremendously excessive and the plate must be developed there are about 50 different reducing agents on the market most of them are derived from coal tar though some are made from nut gulls lichens and other substances the developer consists of a solution in water of one or more of these reducing agents with other chemicals to control the action the exposed plate being bathed in this solution either in the dark or in a light to which the plate is not sensitive wherever light has acted on the silver salts the developer causes metallic silver to be deposited in proportion to the amount of light action so that on holding the developed plate up to the light a dense deposit is seen in those parts representing the brightest portions of the subject while the shadows of the original are represented by thin areas and the half tones by deposits of intermediate density for this reason the developed plate is called a negative the plate is then bathed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate generally called hypo which dissolves the unaffected silver salt but does not affect the metallic silver or at least does so only very slowly next the plate is washed in water to remove all unnecessary chemicals and is dried the ordinary plate is sensitive only to ultraviolet invisible and violet light so it cannot render truthfully any subject having color but by the addition of certain analyne dyes to the emulsion it may be rendered sensitive to green in addition to violet and ultraviolet it is then described as ortho chromatic right colored or isochromatic equally colored still other dyes extend the sensitiveness to include not only ultraviolet but also the entire visible spectrum such a plate is called panchromatic all colored printing the photograph the finished negative when dry must of course be printed and there are many printing mediums available the carbon process gives an image in lamp black or some earth pigment bound up in a film of delatine the gum pigment process gives an image similar to that of carbon the binder in this case being gum arabic the platinum process gives an image of black metallic platinum direct on the paper support other processes give different effects one of the most valuable to the pictorial worker being gum platinum in which a completed platinum print is coated with a gum pigment film and printed under the negative a second time the final result being a gum pigment image superimposed on the platinum image of all printing mediums the one that has the most intrinsic beauty and is at the same time most capable of rendering satisfactorily the gradations of the negative is probably platinum so this is most used by pictorial workers but since it is expensive and requires daylight or strong artificial light for printing nearly all commercial workers prefer the somewhat less beautiful and less permanent but more convenient gaslight paper so-called because it can be manipulated entirely by gaslight neither daylight nor dark room being required this medium consists of paper that has been coated with an emulsion somewhat similar to that used for plates but requiring much longer exposure the negative is placed in an appliance that holds it in close contact with paper then a sheet of paper is put in and an exposure of a few seconds is given obviously the paper receives most light under the thin parts of the negative and less under the denser portions so that when the print is developed fixed washed and dried the resulting picture is light the resulting picture is light where the original subject was light dark where that was dark and show intermediate gradations where these existed in the original for purposes of reproduction two processes depending on photography have almost entirely superseded the older methods of etching and wood engraving these photomechanical processes as they are called are far more rapid and much cheaper and are in addition more accurate in photogravure the photographic image copied by photographing the original is transferred to a copper plate and the plate is automatically etched in an acid bath to varying depths depending on the depth of shadow in the original this plate is then inked all over the ink being worked into the depressions in the copper and the surface ink wiped off a sheet of papers brought into contact with the plate under heavy pressure and after being forced into the hollows of the copper and taking up the ink from them a print results in the less beautiful but cheaper and more rapid half tone process the copy is made through a cross ruled glass screen the image being thus broken up into a series of dots the image so obtained is transferred to a zinc plate which is etched in an acid bath or with an acid spray the dots served to protect the zinc from the action of the acid the finished plate shows an image consisting of dots with hollows between them the dots being large and near together in the shadows small and far apart in the lights this plate is inked with a roller and a sheet of paper lightly pressed against it takes up the ink to form a print thus it will be seen that photograph your is an intaglio cut in process and half tone a surface printing process photographic illustrations photography has not only superseded manual processes for reproduction but is also largely replaced them for purposes of illustration practically all news illustrations are now made by photography which is also extensively used for advertising work to a less extent it is employed for fiction illustration admirable work having been done in this field by Clarence H. White, Carl Strauss and Lageran Ehiller it does not however seem probable that photography will ever entirely replace draftsmanship for the illustration of fiction since the very strength of the camera that is its surpassing power of rendering accurately the outlines and gradations of natural objects operates as a severe limitation in the case of original imaginative work it is difficult to conceive of the fall of the house of Usher or the rhyme of the ancient mariner being satisfactorily illustrated by photography and if for instance Lamorte d'Arthur were made a photographic subject the cost of models costumes and scenery would probably be excessive despite the limitations of the camera as regards imaginative work there is a small but devoted band of photographers who use the camera as a means of artistic expression and these men and women have produced some wonderfully fine results that fulfill the definition of art a means of arousing an emotion in the spectator in the last analysis however it will be found that such results are due to one or two methods of approach either the careful selection of an unusual natural effect or the use of one of the so-called control processes that is printing mediums that allow the worker to modify at will either the outlines or the gradations of the negative or both in the former case however the photographer cannot be regarded as more than an exceptionally sensitive and perceptive craftsman and in the latter instance the camera user of course ceases to be a photographer and becomes a creative artist using photography merely as a basis on which to construct an imaginative result the possibilities of this second method of work have not yet been fully explored they appear to be limitless the precision of photography the literalness of photography which prevents it ever competing with etching or painting in imaginative art makes it of inestimable value in certain realms and scientists of all sorts astronomers physicists physicians pathologists as well as architects building contractors businessmen who wish a precise and accurate record of any object recognize the value of the camera photographs are often admitted as legal evidence in court it is impossible to overstate the value of the dry plate to the surgeon since the x-ray generated by passing an electric discharge through a glass tube from which most of the air has been exhausted penetrates many objects that are opaque to ordinary light and though invisible to the eye nevertheless affect a photographic plate thus making possible a precise diagnosis of fractured bones gunshot wounds digestive disturbances and many other pathological conditions in which diagnosis without a radiograph would be mere guesswork in portraiture photography is superior to any other graphic art since the camera worker can by judicious selection of lighting pose and facial expression render the character of the sitter quite as well as the draftsman this being the final test in portrait work though it must be admitted that few portrait photographers meet this requirement micro photography the human eye and mind are from a mechanical point of view but imperfect instruments admirably as they serve the purpose for which they are designed it is nevertheless impossible for them to observe with absolute accuracy the camera however has no such limitations its observations are accurate and its records unquestionable so long as no definite effort is made to impair their exactness for this reason photography is used not only in astronomy but in many other branches of science among its most important uses being the making of records of microscopic objects a device carrying a photographic plate is attached to the eyepiece of a microscope the plate being exposed affords on development a precise record of the subject under observation it may be noted that in this case as an astronomical photography no camera lens is required the microscope like the telescope projects an aerial image which is impressed on the plate it thus becomes possible for the microscopist to study at leisure a photograph of the object that was in the field of the microscope and thereby eliminate eye strain and minimize the likelihood of overlooking any feature of interest it is further possible to make lantern slides from the negatives so obtained a lecture by this means is enabled to show the photograph to a large group of individuals simultaneously though the photographic plate thus extends the usefulness of the microscope this is not the limit of its value in this respect light is transmitted by waves similar in some ways to waves in water the light waves being disturbances of the light bearing ether an invisible imponderable substance of zero density and infinite elasticity which pervades all matter it must be understood that the ether has never been observed nor its actual existence proven it is however a necessary assumption for the satisfactory explanation of the observed phenomena of light so far as our present knowledge extends the distance from the crest of one wave to the crest of the next is known as the wavelength the lengths of the various light waves having actually been measured the human eye is sensitive only to waves between about four ten thousands and seven ten thousands of a millimeter in length a millimeter being about one twenty fifth of an inch and an object is invisible in the microscope if its diameter is less than half the wavelength of the light by which it is illuminated since in that case the light waves bend around the object and meet on the other side we cannot therefore see objects whose diameter is less than about two ten thousands of a millimeter but the photographic plate is sensitive to shorter waves than the eye these waves are known as the ultraviolet by illuminating the microscope stage with ultraviolet light it therefore becomes possible to photograph objects so small that they must forever remain invisible to the naked eye unless indeed the progress of human evolution brings with it increased sensitiveness to the shorter wavelengths in this connection it is interesting to note that there are organisms so small that they cannot be made apparent to us even by photography though we are made aware of their existence by inductive reasoning from their observed effects in the case of some objects a fuller knowledge of their characters gained if they are examined in a manner somewhat different from that usually adopted one of the photographs given herewith shows the effect obtained by what is known as dark ground illumination ordinarily the light by which a microscopic object is examined passes through the slide so that an opaque object is really seen only as a silhouette but in dark ground illumination an opaque background is placed behind the object and the light is allowed to fall on it from the sides the object is thus made visible by the light that is refracted that is bent into the lens of the microscope in the present instance the effect seen by looking into the eyepiece was wonderfully beautiful the crystals glowing with a brilliant yellow light against an intensely black ground radiography some persons object to the inclusion of radiography as a branch of photography since no camera or lens is used but photography means literally light writing and radiography is precisely this if the air be nearly exhausted from a glass tube so that a high vacuum exists therein and it be then sealed up a current of electricity may be sent through the remaining air setting up ether vibrations that pass out from the tube these ether waves have the power of passing through many substances that are opaque to visible light the x-rays as they are termed being totally invisible though light waves to which the eye is sensitive are set up at the same time within the tube many persons confuse the greenish light from an x-ray tube with the x-rays but the two are actually entirely different manifestations the x-rays though invisible to the eye are nevertheless able to affect a photographic plate strongly so that photographs may be made through solid objects for example if a sensitive plate be laid on a table and the arm or the hand placed on it and an x-ray tube is brought near the arm of photograph results in which the bone is represented as a dark area and the flesh around it as lighter this being of course simply a shadow picture this affords an intensely valuable aid to diagnosis and a good surgeon will if possible first radiograph a fractured bone before setting it unless the circumstances are very exceptional the value of radiography is not however confined to fractures but extends to wounds it is of great help in locating metallic fragments or other foreign bodies in a wound to many intestinal disorders and to the diagnosis of other diseased conditions though not strictly bearing on photography it is interesting to note that the x-rays like the gamma rays y-rays of radium are in reality either vibrations of very short wavelength and like the shorter waves the ultraviolet in sunlight possess curative powers in some skin disorders and also the power of causing terrible burns sunburn does not result from exposure either to visible sunlight or to the heat of the sun but to the ultraviolet rays and an x-ray burn is identical with sunburn in extreme cases the x-rays may cause complete destruction of the skin and even cancer and before the properties of the x-rays were so well known as at present many operators lost hands and some their lives as a result of excessive exposure to the rays at present x-ray workers shield themselves and when necessary the patient with lead screens that metal being practically opaque to the rays color photography many workers have tried with varying success to devise a means whereby photography could be made to reproduce not only the outlines and gradations of natural objects but the colors as well and there is now available a method of great worth for this purpose in brief it consists in making by one exposure and an ordinary camera a set of three color negatives each of which represents that portion of one of the primary colors violet green and red which was reflected from the subject that is one negative represents the violet sensation the second the green and the third the red prints are made from these negatives and suitable dies on transparent films which are cemented together one over the other thus giving a true color photograph in which the secondary and tertiary colors blue yellow orange purple brown etc are obtained as in painting by the mixture in proper proportions of two or more of the primaries this is the first method of color photography to possess the great advantage of producing prints not transparencies so that any number of duplicates may be made no special camera is required and the process is within the reach of any careful amateur the writer believes the artistic value of color photography is relatively slight a black and white art is capable of the fullest intellectual expression and color is merely sensuous in its appeal after much experiment with different color processes he finds his own monochrome single tone prints more satisfying than the color work however the value of color to the scientific worker is incalculable as will be realized at once on considering only one of the possible applications namely the study of skin affections it is interesting to note that several methods have been devised for the reproduction of natural colors in motion picture work the familiar method of coloring the positive film by hand being only an approximation to truth but none of those presented up to this time is fully satisfactory though the prospects of future development are good when we consider the manifold and widespread uses of photography and the pleasurable diversion that it affords it seems safe to say that there is no other form of industry not an actual necessity that is of such importance to the welfare and happiness of the human race what who and when what is photography it is the science and art of producing pictures by the action of light on chemically prepared sensitized plates or films who discovered photography no one particular individual there is no known date on which photographic action was first recorded the action of the sun in making impressions of one sort or another on surfaces was known to man from the earliest times records of it can be seen in fossilized vegetable remains and this action of the sun is apparent in the change of color that takes place in the ripening of fruits and foliage who first applied a sensitized plate to the purpose of making photographic prints no single individual discovered this essential principle of photography it came to be recognized in the course of many experiences beginning with the alchemists and developing through the experiments of a number of investigators until the end of the 18th century when the sensitiveness of various silver compounds to light became well-known and the character of the change produced on these compounds by light became established Thomas Wedgewood the fourth son of Josiah Wedgewood the renowned Potter developed a process by means of which the image printed by photographic means could be fixed and made permanent what instrument brought the photographic process to a perfected form the camera the camera is the photographic apparatus in which the image is projected upon the sensitized plate thus securing a photographic impression the word camera is Italian for room and the full name of the original instrument camera obscura means dark room who invented the camera Giovanni Baptista della Porta who lived in the 16th century has often been stated to have invented the camera but he appears only to have popularized and improved it the first use of cameras was not for printing photographs but simply as an interesting toy or to assist one in tracing the outlines of various objects there are many applications of the camera obscura a notable one being the periscope of a submarine it was not until a suitable sensitive plate was discovered that the camera became useful as an apparatus of photography who were most prominently identified with the development of the photographic process Joseph Niepz and Louis J. M. Degueur Niepz was successful not only in getting pictures produced in the camera but he succeeded in fixing them permanently Degueur developed a process known as Degueurotype which was the first method of photography available for practical purposes this was in 1837 with the general acceptance of Degueurotypes photography became a profession the process had no rival until about 1851 when the collodion process was discovered and after that the Degueurotype process became obsolete who developed the modern process of photography William Henry Fox Talbot an English inventor 1800 to 1877 he greatly increased the sensitiveness of paper and from his negatives prints were produced in much the same way as in the present day end of chapter seven