Social Civics | Project Gutenberg

217. In a general way the distinction between real and personal property is simple enough, but the exact line between the two is not as a practical matter so easy to draw. For example: Is grain growing in the field real or personal property? Which is it after it is cut by the reaper? To which class do the trees in the forest belong (a) before they are cut down, (b) after they have been felled? Would it be correct to say that cattle grazing in the field are converting real estate into personal property?

218. Real estate is in plain sight and cannot be concealed from the taxing authorities; but stocks, bonds, notes, and so forth, are kept in a safe where no one sees them but the owner. There is no way of knowing how much taxable wealth a man has hidden away unless he is honest enough to tell. In some states the plan of taxing intangibles has been given up altogether on the ground that such taxes are too easy to evade. As a substitute these states impose a tax on the income from intangibles and require every person to make, once a year, a sworn statement of such income.

219. The exemptions, allowances, and rates change from time to time. The existing rules can be found in the latest edition of the World Almanac. They cannot be briefly stated without serious danger of inaccuracy.

220. See Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. III, p. 492. The court held that a tax on land was a direct tax; that a tax on the income from land was in effect a tax on land, and hence also a direct tax.

221. During the years 1918-1921 these excises were also laid on railway tickets, telegrams, and sales at soda fountains. The excess profits tax, which also brought in a large revenue during the years 1918-1922 was levied upon all business profits above a designated standard.

222. Every state undoubtedly has power to lay such a tax. There is some doubt whether the national government also possesses it, because a tax on the products of labor is in reality a means of regulating the conditions of labor, and the constitution gives the national government no authority to regulate the conditions of labor; such authority belongs to the states. The question whether the national government can levy a tax on the products of child labor is now pending before the Supreme Court. See also p. 415.

223. People who have large fortunes may invest them in non-taxable investments, such as state and municipal bonds, thus evading the heavy surtaxes on incomes.

224. Henry George advocated that on all land a tax should be levied equal to the full amount of its ground rent (see p. 43) and that all other taxes should be abolished. This, in effect, would do away with the private ownership of land, making the government the real owner. Mr. George endeavored to prove that nearly all our economic troubles are due to the private ownership of land and land monopoly. “What I therefore propose”, he said, “as the simple yet sovereign remedy which will raise wages, increase the earnings of capital, extirpate pauperism, abolish poverty, give remunerative employment to whoever wishes it, afford free scope to human powers, lessen crime, elevate morals and taste and intelligence, purify government and carry civilization to yet nobler heights, is—to appropriate rent by taxation.” Progress and Poverty, Book VIII, Ch. ii. This is a good example of the extravagant and Utopian hopes held out by reformers who are carried away by a single idea. If earth could be changed into heaven by merely taxing one thing instead of another, the transformation would have been made long ago.

225. President Harding, early in 1922, suggested the imposition of a sales tax as a practicable method of obtaining money with which to pay a bonus to veterans of the World War.

226. It was the custom to take such individual measures as were approved by the various committees and put them all together into what was called an “omnibus bill”, providing for many millions of dollars to be spent upon the erection of new post-offices, the dredging of harbors, and so on. In these bills every congressman expected to get something for his district, whether there was need or not. Such grants of money were commonly known as “pork barrel” appropriations. One way of keeping congressmen in Washington until the very last day of the session was to hold back these appropriations until just before adjournment. Every senator and representative would then stay at his post lest by some mishap his particular item might be dropped out.

227. About ten billion dollars of this total was loaned by the United States to England, France, and other countries to help them carry on the war (see pp. 613-614).

228. There are some exceptions. The income from the first issue of Liberty Bonds is entirely exempt from national taxation; the income from the other issues is exempt up to a certain amount for a designated period of years. All the bonds issued by the national government are exempt from state and local taxation. Bonds issued by states, counties, cities, and other municipalities are exempt from national taxation; they may or may not be exempt from state and local taxes, depending usually upon where the owner resides. For example, if a man owns bonds issued by the city of San Francisco and resides in California, the income from these bonds is exempt from state and local taxes; but if the owner resides in some other state which has an income tax, the income is taxable.

229. The debt of New York state is about one hundred and thirty-five millions; no other state has a debt half as large. A few states have no debts at all. The total net debt of the counties, cities, towns, villages, and other communities is nearly five billions. It would be conservative to say that the total public indebtedness of the American people today is about twenty-eight billions. From this may be subtracted, of course, the ten billions owed to the United States by other countries. But even allowing for this, the debt is about $700 per family.

230. It is a sound rule of public finance that bonds ought not to run for a longer period than the estimated life of a public improvement improvement. For example, if a new street pavement is estimated to be good for twenty years, the bonds should all be repayable within that term. Very often, however, the taxpayers of American cities have been paying off paving bonds long after the pavements have completely worn out.

231. The cost of any public service is made up largely of two items, overhead charges and running expenses. In the case of electric light the overhead charges include interest on the capital invested in power houses, machinery, wires and poles, conduits; also such things as insurance, taxes, and rentals, which go on whether the plant produces much or little. Running expenses include the cost of labor, coal, supplies, etc., and these things, of course, vary with the amount of business done. Overhead charges often make up half the cost of producing electric current; so if you double the overhead, the price to the consumer would go up, not down.

232. Public service companies, when the government gives them the power to take private property by right of eminent domain must pay just compensation for what they take. The government could not give a company power to take private property without compensation, for it does not itself possess that power.

233. Franchises were often granted in perpetuity. When the laws forbade the granting of perpetual franchises the attempt was sometimes made to evade this restriction by granting them for 999 years. Sometimes the grant of a franchise was put through the board of aldermen or the city council without any notice being given to the public. Loud protests then followed, but they availed little after the grant had been made.

234. These payments are arranged in a variety of ways. Sometimes a gas company pays the city so much per year for every mile of gas-mains or so much per million cubic feet of gas sold. Street railway companies occasionally pay so much each year per mile of track. More commonly the payment is based upon gross earnings or upon the value of the company’s capital stock, or upon the estimated value of its franchise. In some instances the franchise is sold to the highest bidder, that is the company which offers to pay most for the privilege of using the streets gets it.

235. The street railway system of Boston, for example, operates in more than twenty other cities and towns. A single telephone company sometimes controls the telephone service in all the cities and towns of the state or even in several states.

236. Fifty years ago these water supplies were usually controlled by private companies operating under franchises. Today there are very few public water-supply companies in the country. Among the sixty-five cities of over 100,000 population there are only six which do not have municipal ownership of this service.

237. The city of Glasgow, in Scotland, is sometimes cited as an example of a community which has gone the longest distance in the way of municipal ownership. The citizen of Glasgow, it is said, may be born in a municipal tenement, be fed on milk from the municipal dairy (which is warmed on a municipal gas stove), be transported to school on municipal tramcars, and when he dies be carried off in a municipal hearse to the municipal cemetery.

238. There are about thirty municipal gas plants and several hundred municipal electric lighting plants in the United States; but the great majority of them are in small communities.

239. There are municipal street railways in San Francisco, Seattle, and New Orleans. Public operation of street railways, without public ownership, is the policy of Boston and several other cities. These street railways are operated on a service-at-cost plan. The government of the state or city takes over the street railway, appoints officials to manage it, and charges whatever fares are necessary to pay the expenses of operation (including whatever rate of interest is to be paid to the owners of the street railway). When wages go up, fares go up. In some cases service-at-cost has been proved to be a costly plan. When wages went up during and after the war, fares rose correspondingly. But although wages have come down since 1920 in private employments, they have not been reduced to the same extent on publicly-owned street railways, hence the fares remain where they were. To be fair to the public, the system ought to work both ways.

240. The national, state, and municipal governments can borrow money at five per cent or less; the companies have to pay six or seven per cent under present conditions.

241. Notice the way in which gas and electric lighting companies try to increase their business by selling gas stoves, electric irons, and other appliances at low figures and on the installment plan. Telephone companies place public pay-stations in every nook and corner to pick up a few extra nickels and dimes. Telegraph companies give special rates on night letters to get messages which would be sent by mail if the regular rates were charged. Can you imagine the post-office keeping open at night in order to obtain more business?

242. By naming these three purposes of education, first, second, and third, it is not intended to imply that this is their order of importance. Some would put service to the community first of all. Over one of the main gates at Harvard University, through which the students pass out into the world after they have been graduated, is this timely inscription: “Depart to serve thy country and thy kind.”

243. The laws and the practice differ greatly from state to state, and sometimes from one community to another. It would be futile to attempt the task of presenting here even the most important variations. Those who desire to know exactly how the schools are controlled and managed in different parts of the country will find full information in S. T. Dutton and David Snedden, The Administration of Public Education in the United States.

244. In 1917 Congress provided that each year a grant from the federal treasury should be made to the several states in order to encourage vocational education. This money is distributed among the states on condition that each shall contribute an equal amount, the distribution being made, not by the Bureau of Education, but by a body known as the Federal Board for Vocational Education. This board is made up of seven persons, the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, the Commissioner of Education and three other persons appointed by the President. A considerable part of its work for the present is connected with the providing of vocational training for American soldiers and sailors who were disabled in the World War.

245. The Smith-Towner Bill, now the Towner-Sterling Bill.

246. According to the census figures only one person in fifteen (above school age) is unable to write; but the experience of army officers with drafted men during the war showed that the proportion must be a great deal larger. The census enumerators take a man’s word for it; the army authorities at the various camps applied an actual test. They found that about one man in every five was unable to write a simple letter of a dozen lines.

247. The essential differences between grammar school and high school instruction are these: the work of the grammar school grades is practically all prescribed; in the high school there are some elective studies; in the grammar school grades one teacher gives the instruction in all the subjects, whereas in the high schools the various subjects are taught by different teachers, each one a specialist.

248. A proper system of vocational education involves three things: (a) a broad and practical foundation in elementary education of the ordinary type; (b) a study of the social and civic forces which control the life of the people; and (c) definite training in some particular vocation or trade. In order to help the pupil choose his life work more intelligently, many schools have made provision for vocational guidance. A vocational director or counsellor studies the special aptitudes and abilities of each pupil, points out what opportunities are open, and advises as to the best means of training for the work selected.

249. The demand for vocational education has come from several sources: namely, from parents who believe that education ought to be directly related to earning-power; from teachers who are convinced that there is little or no educational value in drilling pupils in studies which do not interest them; from the general public which thinks the schools would render a larger social service in training pupils to vocational efficiency; and from enterprising employers who see in this form of education a chance to get a supply of trained workers without having to break them in as apprentices. Organized labor at first looked with suspicion upon the movement, but is now more favorably disposed toward it. Vocational education should be clearly distinguished from manual training, which is merely a general education in the principles of skilful hand work without regard to any particular vocation or trade. Vocational education does not turn out a fully-trained worker, but only one who has practically finished the apprentice stage.

250. There is a current notion that those who stand highest in their studies at school or in college usually do poorly when they get out into the world, and that those who take a prominent part in school or college activities, even though their scholarship be very poor, are the ones who rise to the top in later life. The evidence is all to the contrary. Every investigation that has ever been made into this matter indicates that in the vast majority of cases the boy who does well at school does well in his college studies if he goes to college; and that students who stand high in their college studies are much more likely to succeed in later life than those who stand low. Three great Eastern universities, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, gave the nation three successive Presidents during the years 1901-1921, Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson. Nobody thought it worth while to mention that each of the three was a scholar of high rank at graduation; but if anyone of them had been graduated near the bottom of the list, we should have heard comment in plenty. The exceptions are too often singled out for notice; the instances that prove the rule are so numerous that they pass unobserved.

251. Measures for the promotion and protection of the public health have a marked effect upon the death rate. Fifty years ago it was not at all uncommon to find, in American cities and towns, an annual death rate of thirty persons per thousand of population. Today this rate has everywhere been cut in two. Even in large centers of population like New York and Chicago the annual death rate, in normal years, is now below fifteen per thousand. This means, of course, that the average duration of life, taking the population as a whole, has been lengthened. The lowered death rate has probably added seven or eight additional years to the average life-span. It is easy to see what an enormous gain this has meant to the productive power of the country.

252. Recall, for example, the passage in Homer’s Iliad, where the sun god in anger raised his terrible bow and with every twang of the bow-string sent men to their death by pestilence.

253. It was the same with many other things. The Romans, for example, used seals with which to stamp impressions on documents and coins. That is the essence of printing. Yet the world did not learn the next important step, how to print books, for a thousand years.

254. During the earlier years of the World War, before the armies of the Central Powers overran Serbia, that country was stricken with typhus from one end to the other. The Allied countries equipped a great sanitary expedition which went through the land and virtually disinfected the entire population. Trains of box cars were fitted up as bathing and delousing plants, with hot water and steam from the locomotive. These trains went along from village to village, stopping at each long enough to put the inhabitants, one by one, through the scrubbing process and their clothing through the steam vat.

255. In order that measures for preventing the spread of disease may be effective, they must be based upon a well-organized and accurate system of vital statistics. These statistics include figures relating to births, deaths, and illness. They are compiled in the offices of the health authorities from the reports sent in by physicians. These reports, to be of real value, must not only be accurate but prompt. By means of these statistics the health authorities can sense the beginnings of an epidemic, can often determine its source or cause, and can immediately set the machinery in motion to ensure its control. When one physician reports a case of typhoid this may not be of great significance; but if a dozen cases are reported on the same day, the necessity of an immediate investigation into the water and milk supplies becomes apparent.

256. The city of Glasgow obtains its supply of pure water from Loch Katrine, immortalized in The Lady of the Lake.

257. The choice between the two kinds of filtration depends upon local conditions. Where the raw water is excessively turbid or bad-colored, the rapid sand filter is more commonly used. The chemical treatment of water involves the use of chlorinated lime (better known as bleaching powder) or some other chemical disinfectant which kills the noxious bacteria. Only small quantities are required in proportion to the volume of water used. Chemical treatment is not commonly used except in emergencies; it is not regarded as a satisfactory permanent plan of water treatment.

258. These housing regulations now provide, as a rule, that houses designed to accommodate more than two families shall not occupy more than two-thirds of the lots upon which they are built, the remaining space being left for light and air. They also require that such houses shall not be of highly inflammable construction, that they be provided with lighted hallways, that sanitary equipment be installed, and that no rooms be used for ordinary living purposes unless they have one or more windows. A further provision in some of these tenement-house laws is that houses may be condemned as unsanitary if they contain less than so many cubic feet of air space for each person living in them. This last provision is difficult to enforce except by frequent inspection, yet it is very important because no matter how well a house may be constructed, there will be a danger to the public health if it is seriously overcrowded.

259. At the Peace Conference in 1919 the protection of the public health throughout the world was considered so important that provision for it was included in the Covenant of the League of Nations (see p. 638).

260. An exception to this must be made in the case of the negro population of the South. The amount of poverty among the Southern negroes is large, although most of them live in rural communities.

261. Poverty, in a way, reproduces itself. Some years ago a New York social worker gave the following rather cogent description of the way in which one generation passes its poverty on to the next. “A child, reared in a poor home, is taken out of school and sent to work at an early age. He drudges away, brings home every cent of his pay, is allowed to keep little or none of it, and gets no fun out of life. After a while he gets tired of this; he meets some girl who has been brought up in the same way; they get married; but neither of them has saved any money nor has the slightest idea of how to manage a home. They rent a small flat, buy some furniture on the installment plan, and then find that they are not able to pay for it. They get into debt and when either falls sick or the husband is out of work there is nothing to eat. When children come they grow up on improper nourishment; they are slapped in the face and scolded at all hours; they get no home training and very little schooling; as soon as they are able to earn a few dollars a week they are hauled out of school and put to work—and so history just repeats itself.”

262. The marriage of feeble-minded or other mentally defective persons ought to be prevented, for the results of such marriages are bad for the whole community. They help to fill the poorhouses, the asylums, and the jails. There are some who believe that the government ought to go further and lend its influence towards the promotion of greater care in determining the marriage of persons who are not mentally defective. Marriage, as has been shown in an earlier chapter, is the basis of the home and hence the foundation of the whole social order. It is an institution of exceedingly great importance to the well-being of society. Yet we leave the whole thing to the caprice of individuals, or their passing fancy, or to the accidents of chance friendships. Whatever may be the inspiration to marriage it can truly be said that many unions of man and woman contribute nothing to the well-being of present or future society. Is it right that an institution of such importance to the human race, both present and future, should be so little controlled by law, by custom, or by public opinion and so largely left to the discretion of individuals? Can the race be improved in that way? Beyond preventing the marriage of mentally degenerate persons is there any further action that society ought to take?

263. Many explanations are offered for this. We are a relatively new country, with a population made up of many races. Court procedure is slow and cumbrous; it takes a long time to punish offenders, and they have a fair chance of escaping punishment altogether. Police have been under the control of politicians and have been lax in enforcing the laws. We have emphasized the idea of liberty so strongly that it has benefited even the criminal. We have not made punishment certain enough or severe enough to deter people from evil-doing. All these excuses have some force, no doubt, but do they fully account for our poor showing in comparison with other countries?

264. The reformer who first educated the public to this doctrine was Jeremy Bentham, an English writer on social topics who lived in the early years of the nineteenth century.

265. The most conspicuous figure in this branch of prison reform during recent years is Mr. Thomas Mott Osborne, who was for a time in charge of the state prison at Auburn, N. Y. Mr. Osborne entirely abolished the old system of discipline and established a scheme of self-government among the prisoners. But public opinion was not quite ready for such a radical experiment as Mr. Osborne inaugurated, and his work was bitterly criticised in many quarters, although it was commended in others. In the midst of the controversy he gave up his post and his successor did not continue his policy.

266. A good many people are beginning to wonder whether the reaction against the old-fashioned methods of dealing with offenders has not been carried too far. Persons charged with crime are now given a fair trial with liberal opportunities for appeal. When convicted they are frequently given indeterminate sentences and then, after a short term of confinement, are released on parole. In prison they are well housed, properly fed, given various privileges, provided with motion picture entertainments, and given other forms of recreation. The complaint is made that we have made the path of the transgressor altogether too easy and that the sort of punishment which is now meted out to offenders is inadequate to serve as a deterrent to crime. The increase in crime, particularly in the larger American cities, is by some attributed to this leniency of treatment.

267. One of the first of these courts, and the best known of them all, is the Juvenile Court of Denver, Colorado, which was for some years presided over by Judge Ben B. Lindsey. For a time the success of this court seemed to be remarkable, for Judge Lindsey possessed the knack of getting wayward boys to tell him the truth; but in his zeal for giving them a chance to reform he appeared to many citizens of Denver to be unduly lenient. The Juvenile Court was retained, but another judge was put in charge of it.

268. In number of divorces the United States, unhappily, leads the world. More divorces are granted each year in this country than in all other civilized countries put together. This is one of the things which gives us no occasion for boasting, because it points to a serious weakening in the stability and strength of the family as a social unit. Not only is the number of divorces very large, but it is rapidly increasing year by year. Fifty years ago the number per annum in the United States was only about twenty thousand; now it is over one hundred and twenty thousand. On the average there was one divorce for every thirty marriages in 1870; today the ratio is one in ten. At the present rate of increase it has been estimated that by 1950 no fewer than one-fourth of all marriages will be terminated by divorce, and if the same condition of affairs should continue until the end of the twentieth century, one-half of all the marriages would eventuate in that way. This would indeed be an ominous outlook were it not that conditions are likely, sooner or later, to undergo a change. When a social problem becomes very serious, as this one is now becoming, it is the habit of society to seek out and apply appropriate remedies.

269. Since its foundation in 1788 the national government has spent, in round figures, about sixty-seven billion dollars. Of this entire sum fifty-eight billions have been spent for war, that is, for maintaining the army and navy, for carrying on the nation’s various wars, for pensions, and for interest on war debts.

270. Theodore Roosevelt, Fear God and Take Your Own Part (N. Y., 1915), Ch. I.

271. History is full of examples to support this statement. When Carthage proved unable to defend herself against Roman aggression, the victors left not one stone upon another. Look at Poland, ripped apart during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by her avaricious neighbors and now restored to nationhood by the armed forces of France, England, Italy, and America. And what of China today? Are her four hundred million people happier and more prosperous because they happen to be citizens of a defenceless country?

272. The War of Independence was won by a volunteer army. On the conclusion of peace this army was disbanded, but the absence of a defence force was deemed a serious danger. Accordingly, when the constitution was framed in 1787, it provided that the new Congress should have power “to raise and support armies.” During Washington’s first term a Department of War was established in the national government and a small regular army was created under the supervision of this department. The size of this army was not above five thousand men of all ranks, barely sufficient to keep the Indian tribes from giving trouble. But the Napoleonic wars in Europe led Congress to increase its size as a measure of precaution, and during the War of 1812 an endeavor was made to raise the regular army, by enlistment, to about 35,000 men. Recruits, however, did not come readily because the war was unpopular in some parts of the country, and it therefore became necessary to call out the militia organizations of the several states. After 1816, when peace was made, the regular army was greatly reduced, and until 1860 it remained small with the exception of the years in which the United States was at war with Mexico. The Civil War necessitated a considerable expansion of the regular army, but the larger portion of the fighting force was obtained by calling out the state militia and by raising regiments of volunteers. When the war was over, Congress fixed the maximum strength of the regular army at 25,000, and there it remained until the outbreak of the war with Spain, when it was more than doubled. In 1916, during the World War, but before the United States entered the conflict, a further increase to a maximum of 175,000 was authorized. This figure subsequently rose to 225,000 but in 1921 it was cut down by Congress to 150,000, at which point it remains today, although a further reduction is now being considered.

273. Prior to 1916 the national guard could not be called upon for service outside the United States, but only for defence against invasion and for the suppression of internal disturbances. But in 1916 it was provided by the National Defence Act that whenever Congress authorizes the use of armed forces in addition to the regular army, the President may draft any or all members of the national guard into the service of the United States and may employ them outside American territory.

274. Theodore Roosevelt was serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy when the war with Spain began in 1898. He offered to raise a volunteer cavalry regiment of cowboys from the cattle country and his offer was accepted by the government. Resigning his position in the Navy Department he organized this regiment of Rough Riders and became its lieutenant-colonel. The Rough Riders went to Cuba, where they gave a good account of themselves.

275. The actual organization and disciplining of the army during peace, as well as its movements and operations in war, are under the immediate direction of the General Staff. This body consists of a Chief of Staff, who is appointed from among the high officers of the army, and numerous other army officers who are detailed for this service. The General Staff is so organized that in the event of war one section of it can take charge of operations in the field while the other keeps building up the army at home. General Pershing, who commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in the World War is now Chief of Staff, his principal assistant being Major-General Harbord, who commanded the First Army overseas.

276. For minor offences an enlisted man is tried by summary court-martial before a single officer. For more serious offences a special court-martial of from three to five officers is convened. If the offence is very serious, or if the accused person is a commissioned officer, the trial takes place before a general court-martial of from five to fifteen officers, who must be, wherever possible, at least of equal rank with the accused. The verdict, or finding, of the court-martial, together with its recommendations for punishment in case of conviction, is transmitted to the officer by whose order the court was convened. This officer has power to diminish but not to increase the punishment recommended by the court-martial.

277. There is still another phase of military jurisdiction which must be distinguished from both military law and martial law. This is called military government. It may be explained as follows: When any territory is conquered and held by an invading army it must obviously be given some temporary form of government. The former government usually flees and something must be put in its place. Under such conditions the commander-in-chief of the occupying force sets up a temporary administration. In 1919, when a portion of the American Expeditionary Force advanced into German territory under the terms of the armistice, a military government with its headquarters at Coblenz was established for the area occupied by the American troops. A military government may even be set up in home territory during a civil war or insurrection. After the fall of the Confederacy military governments were maintained in the South until the state governments were reconstructed, hence we commonly speak of the “reconstruction” period. Military government is always a temporary arrangement, never intended to be permanent, although it may last for several years. It does not, like martial law, supplant the ordinary laws of the occupied territory, but merely means that the occupying army, through its commander-in-chief, takes over the administration.

278. The beginnings of the American Navy go back to the time of the Revolutionary War, when a few frigates were placed in service; but when the war was over these ships were sold and the navy abolished. In 1794, however, Congress authorized the building of six new frigates, and four years later a Department of the Navy was created, with a member of the Cabinet at its head. The number of vessels increased very slowly and when the War of 1812 began the United States had only sixteen war vessels, some of them too small to be of great usefulness. This small navy, nevertheless, gave a good account of itself during the course of the war at sea. From 1815 to the outbreak of the Civil War little attention was paid to the upbuilding of American naval strength, but during the course of this struggle a great expansion took place. The invention of the iron-clad Monitor revolutionized naval construction. But when the South had been subdued the Navy was once more allowed to dwindle and it was not until after 1885 that the United States again made a serious attempt to build up a strong naval establishment. Since that date naval progress has been steady and today the United States navy ranks second in point of size among the sea forces of the world. By the terms of the agreement concluded among the chief naval powers of the world at Washington in 1922 it has been arranged that the United States, Great Britain, and Japan shall each destroy certain war vessels now built or in process of building, and that each shall refrain from building new capital ships (except for purposes of replacement), during the next ten years. At the end of this period the navies of the United States and Great Britain will be approximately equal in strength, while that of Japan will be about three-fifths as strong. See also p. 577.