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minister; and a grandson of James Wilson, a Pres-, 80, at Plymouth, Vt., March 18, 1926), and Victoria
byterian, of Ulster, Ireland, who settled at Phila-
delphia in 1807, and became a printer, marrying,
in 1808, a girl, also an Ulster Presbyterian, who
had come across the Atlantic in the same ship
with him.

Wilson graduated at Princeton University, 1879; graduated in law at the University of Virginia in 1881; and took his Ph.D degree at Johns Hopkins in 1886. He practiced law at Atlanta, Ga., 18821883: taught history and political economy at Bryn Mawr College, 1885-1888 and at Wesleyan University, 1888-1890; professor of jurisprudence and political economy at Princeton University, 18901902.

In 1902 he was chosen President of Princeton University and served until Oct., 1910: Governor of New Jersey, 1911-1913; elected President in 1912. re-elected in 1916.

He helped draft a treaty of peace with Germany. at Paris (Versailles) in 1919, welding in it the covenant of the League of Nations. The treaty and Covenant were accepted by Japan and the Allies in Europe, but were rejected by the U. S. Senate. In campaigning in the West to arouse public sentiment for the treaty, the President was partly paralyzed by apoplexy, Sept. 26, 1919.

In the first days of March, 1919, as Mr. Wilson left for Paris after his brief visit home, a manifesto signed by 39 senators warned him against locking the League of Nations covenant with the peace The final vote in the treaties. He paid no heed. Senate on the treaty, in March, 1920, was 49 for, and 35 against; 29 votes against on that poll, would have been enough to reject. The opposition was led by Senators Henry C. Lodge of Mass., William E. Borah of Idaho, and Hiram Johnson of California.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. He was entombed in Wilson was a Presbyterian. the P. E. Cathedral, Washington. His estate was His papers were given, valued at over $600,000. in Oct. 1939, to the Library of Congress. was a Presbyterian.

He

J. Moor. His ancestor, John Coolidge, came with
his wife, Mary, from England and settled at Cam-
bridge (then Watertown), in the Puritan Colony of
Massachusetts Bay, in 1630.

Coolidge graduated at Amherst College, 1895:
admitted to practice law, 1897, at Northampton.
Mass.; City Councilman, 1899; City Solicitor, 1900-
1901; clerk of the Courts, 1904; member of the
Mayor of Northampton, 1910-1911:
Lower House of the Massachusetts Legislature.
1907-1908;
dent of that body, 1914-1915; Lieutenant-Governor
member of the State Senate, 1912-1915; and Presi-
of Massachusetts, 1916-1918; Governor, 1919-1920:
elected Vice-President in 1920, and became Presi-
dent on Harding's death, Aug. 2, 1923. He was
sworn by his father, Col. John Coolidge, in the
family homestead, at Plymouth Notch, Vt., early
in the morning of Aug. 3. A question was raised
There-
as to the validity of that oath, Col. Coolidge being
only a state officer (Justice of the Peace).
fore, a second oath was taken, on Aug. 17, before
A. A. Hoehling, then a Justice of the Supreme
Court of the District of Columbia. He was elected
President in 1924, for the full term. On retirement
he returned to Northampton (Mass.), where he
died, unexpectedly and unattended, on Jan. 5.
1933, at "The Beeches," an estate which he had
bought on the outskirts. There, in the daytime, he
was found lifeless, on the floor of an upstairs room.
There
by his wife, on her return from shopping. It was
said he had suffered from indigestion.
The certificate of the family
was no autopsy.
doctor stated the cause of death as "probably
which means that a blood
coronary thrombosis,"
He was buried at Ply-
clot stopped the heart.
He was a Congregationalist.
mouth, Vt.
His
Mr. Coolidge's will, made at the White House
Dec. 20, 1926, left his estate to his wife.
papers are with the Library of Congress.

Mrs. Coolidge is the daughter of Capt. Andrew I. Goodhue and Almira Barret, was born on Jan. 3. 1879, at Burlington, Vt. The Captain was a Democrat, and was a steamboat inspector while Grover Cleveland was President. Mrs. Coolidge graduated at the University of Vermont in 1902 and then the Clarke School for the Deaf, taught at Northampton, Mass.

Of the two children, John B. Coolidge, born in 1906, graduated at Amherst College in 1928; and Calvin Coolidge, jr., born in 1908, died in Wash

The first Mrs. Wilson, Ellen Louise Axson, of Rome, Ga., born in 1860, was a sister of Prof. Stockton Axson of Princeton University, and a daughter of the Rev. S. E. Axson and Margaret Hoyt. She was aided as mistress of the White House by her three children, Margaret W., Eleanor R.. who there became the second wife of William G. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury under Wil-ington, July 7, 1924. John B. Coolidge, on Sept. son; and Jessie W., who also there married, Nov. 25, 1913, Francis B. Sayre, a lawyer, a member of the Pennsylvania family that has large coal and railroad properties. Mrs. Sayre died on Jan. 15, 1933, at Cambridge, Mass. The first Mrs. Wilson died in the White House in 1914.

Wilson, Edith Bolling of The second Mrs. Wytheville, Va., widow of Norman Galt, a Washington Jeweler, was born in 1872. One of three fortune from her first sisters, she inherited a husband, and was mistress of the White House during the last of the first and all of the second Wilson Administrations. She accompanied him to the Versailles Peace Conference, was his companion in all of his travels in Europe and the United States, and was with him when he was stricken in the West.

He

Warren G. Harding, a Republican, was born at Corsica, O., Nov. 2, 1865, and died at San Francisco, Aug. 2, 1923. He was the son of Dr. George Tyron Harding and Phoebe Elizabeth Dickerson. studied, 1879-1882, at Ohio Central College; in 1884 became connected with the Daily Star at Marion, O., and later owned and edited the paper, selling it shortly before his death. He was a Congregationalist.

He served in the State Senate, 1900-1904; Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 1904-1906: defeated for Governor in 1910; entered the U. S. Senate in 1915; elected President in 1920.

The Limitation of Armament Conference was
held under his invitation, at Washington, begin-
ning on Nov. 11, 1921.

Harding was tall, leisurely in movement, genial,
He was buried at
and a pacifier: a Baptist.
Marion, O.

His estate, exclusive of his newspaper, was
officially appraised at $486,566.

Mrs. Harding, Florence Kling, born Aug. 15,
1860, was a daughter of Amos O. Kling, a Marion,
Ohio, hardware merchant and later a banker. Her
family were Mennonites. Mrs. Harding's first hus-
band was Henry DeWolfe, by whom she had a son.
Marshall Eugene De Wolfe. Mrs. Harding died at
Marion. Nov. 21, 1924. Almost all of her estate,
estimated at $350,000, was left in trust to Marshall
was born at
De Wolfe's children, Jean and George N.
a Republican,
Calvin Coolidge,
Plymouth, Vt., July 4, 1872, son of Col. John Calvin
Coolidge, farmer and storekeeper (who died, aged

23, 1929, married Florence, daughter of Gov. John H. Trumbull of Connecticut.

Herbert Clark Hoover, a Republican, was descended from Andrew Hoover, born in Ellerstadt, the Palatinate, came to America in 1738, settling in Pennsylvania, later migrating to Maryland, and from there to North Carolina. His son, John Hoover, removed from North Carolina to Ohio. John Hoover's son, Jesse Hoover (1799-1856), settled at West Branch, Iowa, 1854, and was Herbert His father, Jesse Clark Hoover's great grandfather. His grandfather was El Hoover (1820-1892). Hoover (1847-1880), married Hulda Randall Minthorn (1848-1883). Herbert Hoover was born at West Branch, Iowa, Aug. 10, 1874.

Herbert Hoover's ancestors were Quakers and such is he; his father was a blacksmith. Left an orphan in childhood, Herbert lived with his Uncle Allan on a farm in Iowa, later with an Uncle Laban Miles, Osage Indian Agent in Indian Minthorn at Newberg and Salem, Oregon, Territory, and then with a third uncle, John

Herbert Hoover's education began in the public schools at West Branch, Iowa, and in Oregon, and was finished at Leland Stanford Junior University, which he entered when it first opened, in the fall of 1891. He specialized in engineering, and graduated in 1895. He married in 1899 Miss Lou Henry. he worked upon the As an undergraduate daughter of Charles D. Henry, of Monterey, Calif. Arkansas and the United States Geological Surveys, and in the mines in California. In 1896 he began his career as a mining engineer, and to 1914 was thus engaged, in this country, Australia, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

At the outbreak of the war he was in Europe in furtherance of the participation of foreign governments in the celebration of the opening of the Panama Canal, to be held in San Francisco, With the declaration of war he was made Chairman of the American Relief Committee at London, and subsequently was the head of the Commission for 1917-June, 1919, member War Council, and various Relief in Belgium; U. S. Food Administrator, Aug. commissions.

He was U. S. Secretary of Commerce, 1921-28; served in many other public capacities.

Herbert Hoover in Feb., 1938, was quoted as say. ing, in response to an inquiry, that he did not take for his own personal use, any of the salary paid him while he was President, Secretary of

Commerce, Food Administrator, or Director of the Belgian Relief Program. Part of the money went to charities, part to supplement salaries of persons who worked under him and to whom the government paid less than he thought they were worth. Mrs. Hoover was born at Waterloo, Iowa, on March 29, 1875, daughter of Charles D. Henry, a banker and man of means, who died in 1928. Because of the mother's poor health, the Henrys moved first to Whittier, in Los Angeles County, Calif., and then to Monterey, same state. Mrs. Hoover attended Stanford University, went, as a bride, in 1899, to China, and took part with her husband in the defense of Tientsin in the Boxer outbreak of 1900.

The Hoovers have two children, Herbert Jr., and Allan. The former is married, and has children. Mrs. Hoover was brought up as an Episcopalian. She and her husband were married at Monterey at the Roman Catholic mission there. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on the family estate at Hyde Park, N. Y., on the east side of the Hudson River on Jan. 30, 1882, son of James Roosevelt, who died Dec. 8, 1900, and of the later's wife. Sara Delano, who died Sept. 7. 1941, and a direct descendant in the eighth generation of Claes Martenszan van Rosenvelt, Roosevelt, who arrived in New Amsterdam about 1649 from somewhere in Holland and married Jannetje Samuels. They died in 1660, leaving five minor children, the youngest of whom, Nicholas, baptized in New Amsterdam in September, 1658. settled at Esopus, now Kingston, and there married Heyltje Barentsen. In 1690 he was back in New York where he became an Alderman, first in 1700. and again in 1715.

or

From Nicholas's second son, Johannus (born 1689 at Esopus), President Theodore Roosevelt was descended.

From Nicholas's son Jacobus, or James (born 1692), the line runs to Franklin D. Roosevelt, through Isaac (born 1726), James (born 1760), Isaac (born 1790), who set up the family estate at Hyde Park, and James (born 1828; died Dec. 8, 1900).

Roosevelt was graduated at Harvard in 1904. He attended Columbia Law School; took the Bar Examination, and was admitted to the bar. In 1910 he was elected as a Democrat to the State Senate from the Hyde Park (Dutchess County) district, and was re-elected in 1912, in which year he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, at Baltimore and supported the nomination of Woodrow Wilson, who, in 1913, appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He was in Europe on Army inspection July-Sept., 1918, and was there again in charge of demobilization of U. S. troops, Jan.-Feb., 1919. He is an Episcopalian.

At the Democratic National Convention at San Francisco, in July, 1920, Roosevelt was nominated for vice-president on the ticket with James M. Cox of Ohio. Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York made the seconding speech for him. After his defeat Roosevelt resumed the practice of law in New York City, and was until 1928 vice-president of the Fidelity and Deposit Co. of New York City.

In August, 1921, while at his summer home at Campobello, New Brunswick, he was stricken with infantile paralysis, which left him with his legs paralyzed, but he finally discarded his crutches to walk with the use of canes and with steel braces fitted to his legs. The healing waters of Warm Springs, Ga., proved beneficial and he established the Foundation there to help sufferers without means to obtain treatment. He had been a tennis player and a swimmer.

He was elected governor of New York State in 1928 and was re-elected in 1930. He offered Alfred

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E. Smith as the Democratic candidate, at the National Convention in 1924, at New York City, where the nomination finally went to John W. Davis, & Wall Street lawyer; and again, in 1928, at the Democratic National Convention at Houston, Tex. Roosevelt spoke in Smith's favor, calling him the "Happy Warrior." The nomination was accorded to Smith that time, but he was defeated, partly because, it was supposed, of the religious cry raised against him as a Roman Catholic.

Smith's supporters threw his brown derby into the ring, for the third time, at the National Convention of 1932. at Chicago. They made a plea for his political vindication. The nomination was given to Roosevelt, on his record as Governor and because of a combination of delegates formed by William G. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury under Woodrow Wilson. McAdoo was himself a candidate. Roosevelt campaigned for the "Forgotten Man," and in his first administration laid the foundations fo his New Deal by liberal aid to the unemployed al over the country, through public works and by direct relief. He was renominated, and re-elected in 1936. He was renominated again in 1940 and elected the first President to be chosen for > third time.

Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt-Before her marriage, on Mch. 17, 1905, she was Miss Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, of Tivoli, N. Y., the daughter of the late Elliott Roosevelt, younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Mrs. Roosevelt was born in New York City, Oct. 11, 1884. She was educated in private schools and was given the honorary degree of D. H. L. by Russell Sage College in 1929. She taught in a private school for girls and has been active in educational, sociological and political affairs, and has made many speeches. She was financial chairman of the woman's division of the New York Democratic State Commission 1924-28, a member of the advisory committee in charge of Women's Activities, Democratic National Campaign committee, 1928, and vice-president of the New York State League of Women Voters. She plays tennis and likes outdoor life.

The Roosevelts have five children and 10 grandchildren (July, 1940) The children are

James, married, June 4, 1930, Miss Betsy Cushing.
of Brookline, Mass., who divorced him in March,
1940. On April 14, 1941, he married Miss Rom-
elle Theresa Schneider, who had been his nurse
in a hospital in Rochester. Minn.

Elliott, married, Jan. 16, 1932, Miss Elizabeth B.
Donner, of Bryn Mawr, Pa.; divorced, July 17,
1933; married, July 22, 1933, Ruth Josephine
Googins of Fort Worth, Tex.

Franklin D., Jr., married, June 30, 1937, Miss
Ethel du Pont, of Wilmington, Del.

John A., married, June 18, 1938, Miss Anne L.
Clark, of Nahant, Mass.

Anna Eleanor, married, June 5, 1926, to Curtis
B. Dall, of N. Y. City; divorced, July 30, 1934;
married, Jan. 18, 1935, to John Boettiger of
N. Y. City.

A 12-acre tract on the Roosevelt estate, Hyde Park, N. Y., on the east side of the Hudson River, was deeded to the United States Government in July, 1939, as the site of a library to house more than 6,000,000 of the Chief Executive's documents and manuscripts, including his personal papers as State Senator, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York and President. The building is of stone in Dutch colonial style.

In 1933 the Equity and Law Life Assurance Society of London sold to the New York Stock Exchange firm of Jacquelin & De Coppet, a £60,000 policy on the life of President Roosevelt.

Henry Agard Wallace, Vice President

1888, in

Henry Agard Wallace, 52, of Des Moines, Iowa, elected Vice-President on Nov. 5, 1940, succeeding John Nance Garner, was born Oct. 7, Adair County, Iowa, son of Henry C. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, and grandson of Henry Wallace, a farmer and Presbyterian minister. The lastnamed's father came from the north of Ireland late in the 18th century and settled in Pennsylvania. The new Vice-President and his father and grandfather owned a farm paper,

Graduating at the Iowa State College in 1910, he at once engaged in the experimental as well as practical elements of agriculture, and, in addition to his editorial duties, took up astronomy and sociology. He was called a mystic by some of the New Dealers when he became the Secretary of Agriculture under F. D. Roosevelt in 1933. Soon thereafter he wrote a book, "America Must Choose," in which he said: "Much as we dislike them, the new types of social control we now have

in operation are here to stay, and to grow on a world or national scale. We shall have to go on doing all these things we do not want to do**** In 1915 he was the first to devise a corn-hog ratio chart indicating the probable course of the market. "Agricultural Prices," a detailed study of factors causing fluctuation of prices, appeared in 1920.

Although he was sponsor of the two Agricultural Adjustment Acts, the first of which was killed by the U. S. Supreme Court, he was credited by his political intimates with being personally cool to compulsory crop control, but the farmers pushed it through Congress.

Mr. Wallace married, in 1914, Miss Ilo Browne. They have 3 children-Henry B., Robert B., and Miss Jean B. Wallace. The Vice-President is almost a six-footer, does not drink or smoke, has brown hair, ruddy face, blue eyes, and an ample voice. His vocabulary is stocked with Biblical quotations.

The National Capital

Source: The Board of District Commissioners.

Havre de Grace. Wright's Ferry. Baltimore. and Conococheague were discussed. The South Carolinians opposed Philadelphia, because the Quakers favored emancipation. Large towns were objected to on the score of undue influence, while others ridiculed the idea of building palaces in the forest.

Section 8. Article 1. of the U. S. Constitution | vantages of New York, Philadelphia, Germantown, provides that Congress shall exercise exclusive legislation over such district (not exceeding 10 miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government. Maryland and Virginia made the cession in 1798. and it was accepted by Congress. The original District of Columbia was 10 miles square, lying on either side of the Potomac River at the head of navigation. Later, Congress retroceded to Virginia that portion of the District lying in that state. The District now contains 70 square miles on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The subject of a permanent seat of government was first debated in Congress after the insult offered to that body in Philadelphia, in June. 1783. by a band of mutinous soldiers, who assailed the hall during session, demanding arrearages of pay.

Finally, in 1790, a compromise was effected. The Southern members agreed to vote with the Northerners for the government to assume the debts of the states ($21,000,000), and the Northerners agreed to vote to locate the capital on the Potomac. The location and the boundaries were proclaimed by George Washington on March 30. 1791. Congress assumed jurisdiction Feb. 27. 1801.

When the District of Columbia was selected as the Capital. the land therein was owned by a number of people. who deeded their land to two trustees to lay out the streets, avenues and public squares, and divided the rest of the land into

The northern members were in favor of a site on the Susquehanna, while the south favored the Delaware or Potomac; and the comparative ad-blocks and lots.

Washington National Monument

Source: An Official of the Monument Society

The Washington National Monument. at Washington, D. C.. is a tapering shaft or obelisk of white marble. 555 feet, 51% inches in height, and 55 feet, 11⁄2 inches square at the base. Latitude, 38° 53' 21" .681 N.; longitude, 77° 02′ 07′′ .955 W. Eight small windows, two on each side, were cut into the pyramidion, near its base.

The erection of the Monument by the Washington National Monument Society, using funds obtained by popular subscription, was authorized by Congress in 1848. The cornerstone was laid on July 4 of the same year. Work progressed slowly until 1854. $300.000 having been subscribed and 150 feet of the shaft erected, when a block of marble from the Temple of Concord, in Rome. contributed by the Pope, was stolen. Mainly because of the popular indignation caused by this incident, no further funds were forthcoming from the public, and construction work ceased until 1876, when it was resumed, at Government expense, by the Corps of Engineers. U. S. Army.

The capstone, which weighs 3.300 pounds, was set in place on December 6, 1884. marking the completion of the work. The Monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885, and was opened to the public on October 9, 1888.

The Monument is faced with dressed white

marble in 2-foot courses. All of the marble was obtained from a nearby source in Maryland, with the exception of the first 13 courses laid after work was resumed in 1876, which were brought from Massachusetts. For the first 150 feet, the marble is backed by rubble masonry of Potomac River gneiss, or bluestone. From this point, cut New England granite was used to the 452-foot level. above which the walls are entirely of marble.

Set into the interior walls are memorial stones. with inscriptions, contributed by foreign countries. States, cities and organizations.

The capstone is crowned by a small right pyramid of pure aluminum 5.6 inches at its base and 8.9 inches high, weighing 100 ounces.

The computed weight of the Monument is 81.120 tons, divided as follows: Foundation, 36,912 tons; lower portion of shaft, erected prior to 1854, 22,373 tons; upper portion of shaft. 21.260 tons; pyramidion, 300 tons; iron framework, 275 tons.

The Monument may be ascended by elevator: or. by stairs. 898 in number. Visiting hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily including Sundays and holidays, throughout the year; except that, from April 15 to October 31, visiting hours on Saturdays and Sundays are from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The Monument is not open to visitors on Christmas Day.

The National Archives

Source: An Official of the Institution

The National Archives Building of the United States is the finest structure of its kind in the world. The building, which is located at Washington near the eastern apex of the "triangle" of Government buildings, is a double one, consisting of two cubes, one inside of and projecting above the other. The inner cube is a concrete vault. containing 21 levels of stacks and subdivided by five walls and concrete floors into numerous smaller vaults or stack sections.

The volume of the archives is enormous; almost three million cubic feet of them are to be found in the District of Columbia alone, while vast quantities are scattered in Federal offices throughout the country and abroad. They not only constitute a fundamental source of information concerning the history of the American people and their Government, but they are also essential for the effective administration of the public business.

The functions of the organization fall into four parts, two dealing with internal matters (professional and administrative) and two with external affairs (historical publications and general public relations). The professional staff is supervised by the Director of Archival Service, the business staff by the Executive Officer. The Director of Publications is charged with the planning and editing of publications, such as guides, inventories, and documentary collections; and the Administrative Secretary handles official relations with other Government agencies and the general public.

The National Archives has two fundamental objectives: (1) The concentration and preservation in a central depository of the archives of the United States Government; (2) the arrangement and administration of these archives so as to make them easily accessible to officials and students who desire to use them. To this end the Archivist is empowered "to inspect personally or by deputy the records of any agency of the United States Government whatsoever and wheresoever located." and a corps of deputy examiners has surveyed such records in the District of Columbia: Federal records outside of Washington have been similarly surveyed as a WPA project, with The National Archives as cooperating sponsor.

The National Archives is a public record office. designed primarily to serve specialized groups such as officials and scholars: visitors, however, find much to interest them.

It is the duty of The National Archives to file and edit for publication in the Federal Register all proclamations, Executive orders, rules, and regulations that have general applicability and legal effect.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park. N. Y., established by Congress in 1939 and opened in 1941, is adminstered by the Archivist; and he serves as chairman of the National Historical Publications Commission, an organization composed of Government officials and historians, which is closely affiliated with The National Archives.

The papers of a number of the Presidents are in the Library of Congress in Washington. They include not only political and government letters, but also documents pertaining to the correspondence; and they are of value to writers on American history and biography.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AREA-Total, Continental, 3,022,387 sq. mi.; land area-2,977,128 sq. mi.; total including Territories and Dependencies, 3,733,993 sq. mi.

POPULATION-Census of 1940, Continental, 131,669,275; including all Territories and possessions, 150,621,231. The population of the Philippines is estimated at 16,356,000, based on extrapolation from the census figures for 1918 (10,314,310) and 1939 (16,000,303). The increase in the population of the United States and Territories and possessions, excluding the Philippines Islands, based on the 1940 returns is estimated at 7.5 per cent as compared with 1930, which recorded a percentage gain of 16.1 over the preceding ten years.

The population increase of 1940 over 1930 was 8,894,229, while the 1930 gain over 1920 was 17.064,426. The greatest volume of increase was for the Panama Canal Zone, 31.3 per cent, and the smallest increase for the Virgin Islands, 13.1 per cent. The population density for continental United States is 1940 was 44.2 per square mile as compared to 41.1 in 1930.

The United States of America, Federal republic. is bounded on the north by Canada, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. It comprises 48 States and the Federal District of Columbia. This is called for convenience in reference Continental United States. Continental United States is the fifth largest country in the world in point of area. being exceeded only by Soviet Russia, China (all) Canada and Brazil. Only three countries have a larger population-China, India and Soviet Russia. Its non-contiguous areas are the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii; Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, the Virgin Islands of the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Wake and scattered islands in the Pacific; and the Panama Canal Zone. The United States also claims about one hundred ungoverned islands in various parts of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

The Division of Territories and Island Possessions set up in the Interior Department by Executive Order of President Roosevelt (March 3, 1933), has oversight of the affairs of Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Canal Zone is under the control of the War Department and American Samoa and Guam under the Navy Department.

The general topography of Continental United States and the climate,, natural resources and racial elements are varied. In the eastern part, excepting in the south, are several mountain ranges of the Appalachian system, rising never to more than 6,000 to 7,000 feet of altitude, and ranging north and south. The Adirondacks, in northern New York State, are declared by the United States Geological Survey to have been the first land that arose in the western world. Sweeping westward from the eastern mountains is a vast, fertile plain, the valley of the Mississippi River, a thousand miles wide and about as long, to where the mountain formation again is found, the Rocky Mountain range, highest in North America, beyond which westwardly is a tableland of mean elevation of 3,000 to 5,000 feet, and still farther to the westward are other mountain ranges of lesser altitudes, with a low coast range skirting the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

The United States has eight great rivers-the Hudson, entering the Atlantic at the harbor of New York City in the northeastern corner of the country; the Delaware, entering the Atlantic through Delaware Bay, midway down the coast; the Potomac, entering the Atlantic through Chesapeake Bay, just south from Delaware Bay; the Mississippi, greatest of North American rivers in its relationship to civilization, rising in Minnesota, near to Canada, entering the Gulf of Mexico on the southern side of the country; the Ohio, flowing from the eastern mountains westwardly to join the Mississippi in the east central part of the country; the Missouri, which flows from the northwestern mountains eastwardly to the Mississippi, being confluent with that stream just north of where the Ohio Joins it; the Columbia, which rises in British territory, and flows across a vast tableland west of the Rocky Mountains, into the Pacific Ocean two hundred miles down that coast; the Colorado, non-navigable, which rises in the State of Colorado, flows in general course southwestwardly through Utah and Arizona, and between Arizona and California, into the Gulf of California, in Mexico.

Besides these streams, there are many of considerable and navigable size in the areas east from the Rocky Mountains, including the Great St.

Lawrence River, the outlet of the Great Lakes on the northern border between the United States and Canada.

The Great Lakes, largest inland body of fresh water in the world: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, are a striking phase of the geological formation, and carry immense passenger and freight tonnage.

Columbia Rivers are navigable for considerable The Mississippi, Potomac, Delaware, Hudson and distances, and the Missouri for light-draught craft quite a distance up from the Mississippi. The Red River, southernmost of the great tributaries of the Mississippi, is navigable for 350 of its 1,200 miles for light-draught vessels, and at high water several hundred miles farther. The Sacramento in California is navigable for 180 miles. Of the lesser rivers, the most important are the Connecticut, Susquehanna, James, Cumberland, Tennessee, Tombigbee, Warrior, in the eastern half of the country, and the Arkansas west of the Mississippi. The Rio Grande, rising from its mouth, is in the eastern half boundary in Colorado, non-navigable, save for 61 miles between the United States and Mexico.

The Yukon in Alaska, which rises in small lakes in the Dominion of Canada, flows northwestwardly into Alaska, then westwardly and then southwestinto Bering Sea. It flows for 1,765 miles through wardly into Norton Sound, which in turn makes Alaska and is navigable for 1,200 miles.

In natural resources, the United States is one of the richest countries in the world. Its coal, oil, stores, and practically every base mineral known to timber and precious metals exist in vast natural resources have been depleted seriously; but the civilization is deposited in its areas. The timber Federal Forest Service has begun reforestation.

The original forest area of the United States is estimated at 820,000,000 acres, or nearly half of the land area of the United States. In addition there were about 100,000,000 acres of non-commercial forest or low-grade woodland and scrub. The present area of commercial forest land is estimated (1940) at 461,697,000 acres, divided as follows: Sawtimber areas

Old growth

Second growth.
Cordwood areas

Fair to satisfactory restocking areas.
Poor to non-restocking areas.

Total

Acres

[blocks in formation]

Non-commercial forest land in the United States covers an additional 168,461,000 acres. In all, about 630 million acres, or one-third of the continental United States is forest land.

There are over 176,000,000 acres in the 160 National Forests. National Forests are administered by the U. S. Forest Service for continuous production or "sustained yield" of timber. The Forest Service also cooperates with the States and with private timberland owners to provide protection from fire and to develop sustained yield management on other timberlands of the country. Communities own and manage more than 1,550 forest areas, containing approximately 211⁄2 million acres. States own 20 million acres of forest land.

The land in farms is 2,120,014,710 acres, divided as follows:

Crop land harvested

Idle, failure and waste.
Plowable pasture
Nonplowable pasture.
Woodland pasture
Woodland not pastured

Acres 321,757,900

[blocks in formation]

1,060,507,355

The land not in farms is 917,000,000 acres, di-
vided as follows:
Private forest (grazed).
Public forest (grazed)
Private forest (not grazed)
Public forest (not grazed)
Private grazing land
Public grazing land
Cities and towns
Parks, reservations, etc
Roads, railroads

Desert, swamps, rocky, dunes

Acres

134,000,000

116,000,000

115,000,000

80,000,000

44,000,000

219,000,000

17,000,000

20,000,000

24,000,000

76,000,000

The Department of Commerce reported that the assessed valuation (1938) of the 48 States and the District of Columbia was $141,357,503.000.

Wildlife is abundant in the United States and proved a means of sustenance for the early pioneers. The bison (or buffalo) is now nearly extinct and protected in national parks, although it once roved in tremendous herds across the great plain

States. This country has been the domain of numerous species of interesting fauna. There is the Rocky Mountain sheep, the Rocky Mountain goat (a goat-like antelope); the prong-horn antelope (the only antelope extant with deciduous and forked horns); the moose (true elk); caribou (reindeer); other species of deer, several varieties of bear (including the grizzly bear), the raccoon, cougar (American lion or panther); ocelot (in the southwest), lynx, wolf, fox, weasel, marten, skunk, polecat, otter, mink, beaver, muskrat, woodchuck, prairie-dog, sewellel, hare, porcupine, squirrel, gopher, opossum, armadillo (Texas) and many destructive species of the rat and mouse family. The jaguar used to be seen in Texas and the peccary in Arkansas. American birdlife is represented by the wild turkey, grouse, crane, heron, pigeon, mocking-bird, parrot, humming-bird, song thrush, other small birds (sparrows, warblers, flycatchers), eagle, falcon, owl; buzzard-vulture, flamingo, ibis, goose, duck, swan, other game-birds and waterfowl of many species.

The alligator basks in southern waters; also a true crocodile on the southeast coast of Florida; the "Gila-monster" (lizard) and horned toads cause gooseflesh in the southwest; the green lizard or chameleon in Florida; and many poisonous rattlesnakes, moccasins and copperheads are found throughout the country.

In the northern part of the United States are rich forests of pine (including white pine), spruce, hemlock, yellow cedar, hackmatack or larch, finden or basswood, black and white ash, sugar and other maples, birch and elm. Somewhat further south are to be found in abundance the hickory, the oak, the tulip-tree, sassafras, cherry, magnolia, walnut, red cedar, tupelo, persimmon, plane, poplar, beech, catalpa. In the southern coast regions are the longleaved pine, hard or pitch pine, live oak, palmetto and the deciduous cypress. Much of the commercial supply of white pine has come from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Oak, hickory, ash, elm, black walnut, cherry and other hard woods are indigenous to every section of the eastern part of the United States. Spruce, hemlock, birch, beeech and maple have come mostly from the northeastern section of the country, although hemlock and beech exist far into the south.

Distinctive American small flora include the buffalo berry, laurel (shrub), leatherwood, pawpaw, spice-bush, witch-hazel, Azaleas, blackberries, dogwoods, rhododendrons, sumachs, whortleberries are found in Europe as well as America.

The climate of the United States is of every gradation, from the north temperate, with rather cold winters and pleasant summers, to the subtropical, with every variety of flora adapted to so wide a range of latitude. Eastwardly and westwardly, even greater variation is found. For there are regions of normal moisture precipitation in the northeast, of excessive precipitation in the southeast, of normal precipitation in the central tableland regions, and then of varying degrees of aridity and moistness as one proceeds westwardly, until on the coast of Oregon, at Tillamook, is the heaviest average precipitation in the United States-120 inches a year.

Being in the north temperate zone, in a general region of prevailing westerly winds, part of the United States is subject to cyclonic storms because the air does not move eastward in steadily blowing winds, as is the case with the trades, but in whirling formations that have a general easterly direction. The West Indian hurricane, which has caused much damage in the United States, generally originates in the tropics, moves over the West Indies, enters the United States in Florida or on the Gulf Coast and disappears into the Atlantic Ocean in a northeasterly direction.

The government of the United States is composed of three co-ordinate branches, the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution adopted (Sept. 17, 1787), to which 21 amendments have been added.

The Union of 48 States is composed of the 13 Original States, 7 States admitted to the federation without having been previously organized as Territories, and 28 States which had been Territories. The District of Columbia, including the city of Washington, is the capital of the United States. In each State there is a Legislature of two houses (except Nebraska, which has adopted a uni-cameral form of government), a governor and a judicial system.

There is a public school system in every State in the Union, comprising elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools.

The United States Government has made a practice (since 1803) on the organization of all new States, of setting aside from one to four "sections" (square miles) of land in each town

ship of six square miles. The principal part of the permanent school funds of such States consists of the proceeds of the sale of this land. Receipts from permanent school funds and unsold school lands represent about 1.2% of the income of the schools of the country. Appropriations and taxation provide about 95% of total revenue receipts and other sources yield about 3.8%.

Agriculture is an important industry in the United States and provides a livelihood for approximately 32,000,000 persons. Kansas is by far the greatest wheat State in the Union, producing nearly twice as much as its runner-up, North Dakota. Other wheat states are Nebraska, Oklahoma, Montana, Washington, Texas, Illinois and Ohio."

The principal oat states are Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, South Dakota. Rye comes from North Dakota, Minnesota. South Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania. Iowa is known as the corn state, but large quantities are grown in Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio and Kansas. Maine is the chief potato state, followed by Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Idaho in the order named. Tobacco is grown in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Connecticut. The barley States are North Dakota, South Dakota, California and Wisconsin.

The principal industrial areas in the United States with their leading industries, ranked according to the value of their products, are follows:

as

New York City Area-Women's clothing; printing and publishing, newspaper and periodical: men's, youths' and boys' clothing (except work clothing); bread and other bakery products; printing and publishing, book, music and job; meat packing, wholesale; petroleum refining; canesugar refining; gas, manufactured, illuminating and heating.

Chicago Area-Meat packing, wholesale; steel works and rolling-mill products; petroleum refining; printing and publishing, newspaper and periodical; printing and publishing, book, music and job; foundry and machine-shop products; bread and other bakery products; confectionery; electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies.

Philadelphia Area-Petroleum refining: knit goods; printing and publishing, newspaper and periodical; cane sugar refining; bread and other bakery products; men's, youths and boys' clothing (except work clothing); worsted goods; foundry and machine-shop products; meat-packing, wholesale. The "radio apparatus and phonographs" industry is one of the leading industries in this area, but its rank cannot be given without the possibility of disclosing (by comparison with Census reports) approximations of the data for individual establishments.

Detroit Area-Motor vehicles, not including motorcycles; motor vehicle bodies and motor vehicle parts.

Boston Area-Worsted goods; boots and shoes, other than rubber; leather, tanned, curried and finished; bread and other bakery products; printing and publishing, newspaper and periodical; printing and publishing, book, music and job: meat packing, wholesale; electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies; foundry and machine shop products. "Cane-sugar refining" and "soap" are also among the leading industries in this area, but their rank cannot be given without the possibility of disclosing (by comparison with census reports) approximations of the data for individual establishments.

St. Louis Area-Meat packing, wholesale; motor vehicles, not including motorcycles; petroleum refining; chemicals; malt liquors; electrical machin

ery,

apparatus and supplies; bread and other bakery products; boots and shoes, other than rubber; printing and publishing, newspaper and periodical. The boot and shoe cut stock, not made in boot and shoe factories" and the "tobacco, chewing and smoking, and snuff" industries are among the leading industries in this area, but their rank cannot be given without the possibility of disclosing (by comparison with Census reports) approximations of the data for individual establishments.

Pittsburgh Area-Steel-works and rolling-mill products; blast-furnace products; foundry and machine-shop products: glass; electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies; coke-oven products: bread and other bakery products; structural and ornamental metal-work, not made in plants operated in connection with rolling mills; canned and dried fruits and vegetables, preserves, Jellies, fruit butters, pickles and sauces.

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