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Condition, in 1865.
Missouri is a central
state. Classified as southern because its dominant citizenship in the
early days was from south of the Ohio River, bringing slavery to the
state, Missouri has become in later years central in social
characteristics as it has always been in situation. Since the close of the
"War of Secession Missouri has found herself. The bitterness of border
strife has disappeared. The rancor aroused by the war is no more.
Immigration has come from all sections, and the new Missouri, builded upon
the old, partakes of the qualities of all sections. Perhaps in no state is
such admixture of south and north, west and east, as in the Missouri that
has come to be since the war.
During the War of Secession
Missouri sent to Northern armies over 100,000 men and to Southern armies
over 50,000 men, a larger number in proportion to population than any
other state. Missouri kept her quota full without draft or forced
enlistment in both armies, a record unequaled. The state's citizenship was
of fighting stock. When the war ended, the same energy shown in warfare
was transferred to soberer pursuits. The state had been devastated by
contending troops. Everywhere schools were closed, commerce languished,
fields were uncultivated. It was to the task of remaking a state that the
returning soldiers addressed themselves. Slavery had been abolished by
popular vote, Missouri being second only to Maryland in taking voluntarily
this action. The war government had been, though extra-constitutional,
strong and efficient. No scenes of disorder, no race conflicts, followed
in the wake of peace. A new state constitution was framed, drastic in
political provisions, requiring the so-called "Iron-clad Oath" to be taken
by all suspected of sympathy with the Confederacy, but a constitution with
liberal provision for education. The objectionable oath was declared
unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, and with it
disappeared the last vestige of partisan reconstructive legislation in
Missouri. Liberal provision for education remained.
Industrial Progress and
Growth of Population.
The industrial development
of Missouri promptly began. Missouri was no longer, as in the earlier
years, a frontier state. Economically it was speedily to become the most
independent in the Union. It had been and was — and is — an agricultural
state; it was now to become a state rich in opened mines, in established
manufacture and in wide-spreading commerce. The extension of the railroad
systems hastened development. The Missouri Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas
and Texas, the Burlington, the "Wabash, the Chicago and Alton, and the St.
Louis and San Francisco railroads built hundreds of miles of tracks. Towns
grew where hamlets had been, and cities succeeded villages. "Here is good
location for a depot," said the railway builder; and there, promptly, was
a town. The towns founded by railroads were sustained by agriculture.
Before the war and until the early seventies transportation was largely by
water. The centre of commerce was the river town. With the coming of the
locomotive the railway station platform succeeded the steamboat wharf.
Missouri life had been concentrated on its great rivers and the lesser
streams. The earlier settlers stayed close by the water courses. In the
first two decades after the war, population pushed on to the prairies of
north Missouri and to the rolling lands and mineral fields of the
Southwest. Another decade and southeast Missouri, where had been the first
settlements, received an influx of immigrants. Stimulation of agriculture
accompanied the additional transportation facilities which the rail road
gave, and the state's population grew apace. In 1860 its inhabitants
numbered 1,182,012. In 1900 forty years afterward, the inhabitants of
Missouri numbered 3,106,665, nearly three times as many as were shown by
the Federal census taken at the opening of the war. There were seventeen
inhabitants to the square mile in 1860; there were forty-five in 1900. The
relative rank of Missouri in population among American states had grown
from eighth to fifth.
The population growth was
largely from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and states further to the
eastward. Foreign immigration, chiefly German and Irish, was not large.
The pioneers in Missouri had been of sturdy stock. Three gates had opened
wide then toward Missouri. The Spanish came through the lower water gate
in search of gold; the French through the upper water gate in quest of
adventure or led by Marquette's noble missionary zeal; through the
mountain gate from the eastward came the Virginians, their children of
Kentucky, and in later times the Scotch-Irish. The Spanish are remembered
in Missouri by an occasional name of town or river, and the French in the
same wise or by some ancient family tree. The colonists from east of the
Appalachians, seeking homes, were the real founders of the state. They
builded homes. They constituted a brave, intelligent, patriotic
citizenship. They founded a state in the wilderness and equipped it with
all the machinery of government a year before the Congress of the United
States could make up its mind to admit the sturdy youngster to sit
full-privileged at the republic's council-table. They were of genuine
pioneer stock. Some peoples will not bear transplanting; even in the
wilderness others are the architects of states. Of the latter were the
settlers in Missouri, hardy, dominant and daring. Missouri, a very Titan
for strength, is the product of their handiwork, while every state from
the Father of "Waters to the Golden Gate shows their skill in
commonwealth-construction. To understand the Missouri since the war there
must be understanding of the Missouri before that stressful period. The
foundations were laid then broad and deep. Its people have been both
house-builders and colonizers. The early Missourians had been church-going
and school-encouraging. They had respect for law. No vigilance committee
was needed to preserve order even in the most primitive community. In the
first constitution Missourians recognized the providence of God, provided
for the establishment of free schools, and planned for a state seminary of
learning. One interior county, with population of a scant few hundred,
gave, seventy years ago, by subscription, $117,000 for the founding of a
college, a farmer, who could neither read nor write, heading the voluntary
subscription list with $3,000, a gift, considering time and circumstance,
more princely than that of any modern millionaire. It is not strange that,
with such ancestry, with the newer population, the Missouri of to-day
should have the largest revenue-producing, permanent school fund of any
state, give fifteen million dollars yearly to public education, set apart
one-third of the entire state revenue to the support of the public
schools, have 2 per cent. more children in school than the average for the
United States, more than 4 per cent. fewer illiterates, and a church bell
in earshot of every citizen.
The population in recent
years has had some admixture of foreign elements. This admixture has been
of thrifty, easily assimilated, rather than of thriftless, unhomogeneous
kind. Of the foreign-born citizens of Missouri — only 7 per cent. of the
total population — there are 124,000 Teutons, 27,000 Irish, 14,000 Slavs.
In the first state to the eastward — Illinois — where the foreign-born
population constitutes 20 per cent. of the whole, 385,000 are Teutons,
130,000 Irish and 140,000 Slavs. Though Missouri sends many of her sons
and daughters to colonize western and southwestern and northwestern
states, 70 per cent. of the present population was born in Missouri, a
striking commentary upon the homestead-loving character of the people.
Such a population might well be expected to own its own homes. There are
for 3,106,665 inhabitants 646,872 homes. Nor is the expectation contrary
to the census facts. Conditions may best be shown by comparison. In homes
owned free of encumbrance Missouri outranks Illinois, Alabama, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and New
Jersey. Missouri outranks all neighboring states in farmhouses owned free
of encumbrance. Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, each has a larger
percentage of mortgage-encumbered farms than Missouri. Missourians are
home-builders and home-owners. They have not outgrown the love of
homestead.
The history of Missouri
since the war has been a story of progress. The spirit of Missouri has
been the spirit of a community conscious of its own secure position,
somewhat too careless at times of the world's opinion, yet progressive
withal. This spirit has found expression in the changing industrial
development of Missouri. It is yet chiefly an agricultural state, but its
industrial development along other lines has been large and rapid. In
manufactures and in mining the advance has been notable. St. Louis is the
greatest shoe-manufacturing centre in the United States. The mineral
output of Missouri — mainly lead and zinc and coal — exceeds the mineral
output of California or Colorado. Agriculture continues the chief business
of its people, the base of its accumulating wealth. Outside the three
great cities in Missouri, St. Louis, Kansas City and St. Joseph, only 7.6
per cent. of the state's population live in towns of over 4,000
inhabitants. Farming is the foundation of the state's fortune. Taking
Jefferson City, the capital of the state, as a centre, within 250 miles
are the centre of the area of farm values of the United States, the centre
of the total number of farms, the centre of oat production, the centre of
gross farm income, the centre of improved farm acreage, the centre of the
production of the six leading cereals. The growth in population has been
on the farms as well as in the cities.
St. Louis.
Missouri is rightly
regarded as an agricultural state, but within its borders have grown up
three cities of over 100,000 inhabitants, a larger number than in any
other state in the Union, except five. St. Louis, the metropolis of
Missouri and the chief city of the southwest, is the only city in the
United States which by special constitutional enactment is a city without
a county organization. It is indeed a free city.
The "War of Secession
period was in St. Louis a time of feverish excitement and bitter political
animosities. Largely Southern in its sympathies, St. Louis took place in
the war history as the American city that kept its state in the Union
against the will of the majority of the state's people. Following the
close of the war there was a period of stagnation in St. Louis. The fever
of war time had quieted and healthy growth had not begun. Within a dozen
years, however, the spirit of progress was awakened and the new St. Louis,
preeminent in its dominance of the southwest territory, was in the making.
In 1876 the so-called "scheme and charter" was adopted, making St. Louis
an independent city without county government or taxation. This has been
called the birth of the new St. Louis. Certainly it is true that from this
time the Missouri metropolis speedily took rank among the great cities of
the Union. In 1884 the first St. Louis Exposition was held, being the
beginning of the most successful permanent exposition known in American
history and giving assurance of the success of the World's Fair held in
St. Louis in 1904, to celebrate the centennial of the acquisition by
Thomas Jefferson of the Louisiana territory. In 1884 also the local
movement for rapid transit street railway facilities was inaugurated,
culminating ultimately in securing a street car service which has made St.
Louis notable for its easily accessible and spacious residence sections,
as well as for its business districts. Local capital, reinforced by
outside investments, attracted by the industrial and commercial
possibilities of the gateway to the southwest, began its transforming
influence. There was a marked increase in the number, capitalization and
influence of local banks and trust companies. In addition and as a
singularly helpful force, the development of St. Louis as a railway centre
went forward. Two new bridges spanned the Mississippi and now a third has
been voted, to be erected — free forever — by local taxation. The Union
Station, the largest in the world, was completed in 1893. It was in that
same year that St. Louis gained the title of the "solid city," because
none of its banks or business houses failed in the panic and St. Louis
city 4 per cent. renewal bonds were placed in London at par. The
mainspring of the growth of a city, as of its prosperity, is its commerce.
Pierre Liguest Laclede founded St. Louis where it is because, applying the
rude rules which the pioneers had learned from their trafficking, he saw
that the site would control commercially a vast territory. The growth of
railway mileage in the last twenty years has been large in the west and
southwest, the sections where the influence of St. Louis is largest and of
which it is the metropolis and trade centre. The admission of Oklahoma as
a state and the increased population of the entire southwest has added to
the material greatness of St. Louis. It is now a city of more than
three-quarters of a million population, the fourth in population in the
United States.
St. Louis, as the World's
Fair city, achieved large distinction. Contrary to the expectation of
many, there was no business reaction following the Fair, but instead a
continuing development. St. Louis now takes rank as the fourth
manufacturing city in the world. It covers an area of eighty-three square
miles, has twenty miles of river frontage and is the terminal point for
twenty-four railway lines. Within fifty miles of St. Louis there is a
population of 4,000,000 and 90,000 miles of railroad. This gives field for
a great city. St. Louis now leads the world in the manufacture of boots
and shoes, as a primary fur market, in the manufacture of tobacco, as a
hardware distributive point, and in other lines of commerce and
transportation. St. Louis boasts a blended population, potent for
commercial and civic development. Following the French, who had been the
earliest settlers, in the course of years Kentucky had joined Virginia,
Tennessee and the Carolinas in contribution of strong blood for the city's
upbuilding. "There had been a heavy accession of Germans, due to national
discontent culminating in the revolution of 1848 in Germany and resulting
in the emigration of Germans by thousands. These people in St. Louis have
been thrifty, home-making, commercially acute to a marked degree and of
admirable citizenship material. The increase of Irish citizens was also
notable, constituting an element that has lent its best efforts to the
service of St. Louis. The New England contingent has been materially
strengthened, an enterprising, resolute and valuable component part of the
local population."
Other Cities.
The two other great cities
of Missouri, Kansas City and St. Joseph, are even more than St. Louis
parts of the history of Missouri since the war. While both were
incorporated as towns before the war, Kansas City in 1853 and St. Joseph
in 1851, both have come into their own within the last two decades. Kansas
City suffered for a time in the seventies from the baneful effects of an
exploded real estate boom. A few years, however, changed conditions and
this stirring city has now an established reputation for financial
strength. Within the corporate limits of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas
City, Missouri, cities divided merely by an imaginary state line, are
nearly 300,000 inhabitants. The city is the centre of an unexcelled trade
territory. Where Joseph Robidoux, a French trader, settled, in 1838, at
the foot of the Black Snake Hills, in northwestern Missouri, is now the
city of St. Joseph, with over 100,000 inhabitants, doubled in population
in a single decade, in the centre of a fertile agricultural country. Both
Kansas City and St. Joseph are on the eastern border of the region once
known in history and geography as the great American desert or the great
plains, now known as one of the nation's most productive farm sections.
Mining.
No material development in
Missouri in the last quarter of a century has been more remarkable and
romantic than that told in the history of the southwest section. Here are
the lead and zinc mines, from which three-fourths of the world's supply of
these minerals is taken, and here is Joplin, "the town that Jack built,"
now a city of 40,000 people. The history of the rich mining field dates
back to August, 1870, though there had been scattered mining of jack
before that time. It was in 1870, however, that mining began in earnest.
Since that time the millions of tons of mineral brought from below the
surface of the earth have placed "the Joplin district" among the world's
great mining fields. Southward of St. Louis is the Flat River mining
district, rich in lead. The development of this district has been marked.
Of large historical importance as indicating the material progress of
Missouri is the reclamation for agricultural use of a considerable acreage
in southeast Missouri. Much land there, of almost fabulous fertility, was
under water during several months of each year or all the year. By a
system of ditching, the land was drained and a territory almost as large
as cultivable Egypt was added to the productive area of Missouri.
Immigration, of course, rapidly followed, and as the area thus reclaimed
is increased the population and wealth of that important section of the
state grows by leaps and bounds.
Agriculture.
The agricultural
development of the entire state has been marked. The agricultural acreage
has particularly increased in the drained districts and the cultivation of
this acreage has become more intensive. The farmer's wealth has grown.
Twenty years ago he brought his family to town or to church in a two-horse
farm wagon. He has instead to-day a surrey with rubber tires or an
automobile. Rural telephones and rural mail delivery have made the farmer
and his family less isolated, but improved methods of farming in Missouri
had preceded these. The state early accepted the foundation gift of the
Federal government and established an agricultural college and
agricultural experiment station, locating them wisely in connection with
its State University.
A state board of
agriculture was created, which disseminated information upon farm topics.
The fine result of the state's interest in agriculture was the stimulation
of better farm methods and the inauguration of better farm conditions. In
the later eighties there was a stream of immigration from the high-priced
farm lands of Iowa and Illinois to the then cheaper farm lands of
Missouri. About the same time the agricultural development began to bear
fruit. Farm lands increased in value because of the increased demand and
because of the increased revenue which it was found they would yield. The
Missouri farmer is the bank depositor, the solid citizen of the state.
Corn became king in Missouri agriculture. Practically one-half of the
annual harvest of the state is corn. Wheat amounts to one-fifth, and all
other farm crops to three-tenths. Of the state's 45,425,000 acres,
33,997,883 acres are included in farms. This stamps the state as an
agricultural commonwealth. The farms, averaging in size a fraction less
than 120 acres, had an aggregate value of over a billion dollars.
Agriculture, formerly confined mainly to the river counties, gradually
spread until all Missouri has come into cultivation for agricultural
purposes. The number of growing crops increased with the added intensity
of cultivation until the Missouri farm has now an unexcelled variety of
valuable crops. And the Missouri farmer, by the new methods of
agriculture, has come to have no lean years. Feast does not alternate with
famine.
Education.
The school has grown with
the farm. The public educational system of the state provided for primary
schools, high schools, normal schools for the professional training of
teachers, and for a state university. In early years there were academies
and colleges supported by churches or private endowment. Some of these yet
remain doing excellent work. The academies were the forerunners of the
present free high schools. "They did almost nothing within the higher
branches of knowledge until the wonderful development of the state school
system provided the public high school for the field occupied by the
academy. To avoid competition with the free school and to avert a new
demand, that for higher education, some academies took up more nearly the
work of the college. Others passed out of existence. The stronger church
colleges added to their endowment and field of usefulness. The chief
educational development since the war has been, however, in the public
school system. The original constitution of the state, adopted in 1820,
made provision for free schools and urged upon the legislature the
establishment of a state university. In the language of the revised
constitution of 1865, "a general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence
being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the
people, the General Assembly shall establish and maintain free schools for
the gratuitous instruction of all persons in the state between the ages of
five and twenty-one years." The constitutional revision of 1875 changed
the period of free schooling to that between the ages of six and twenty
years. With the decadence of the old sentiments which brought the private
schools into existence, the public school took on new life and power.
Support came more cheerfully, better equipment resulted, and teachers of
higher qualifications were in demand. A united pride in the public school
and the willing support gave it a growth and prosperity in Missouri which
have been known in few states. Within the last decade Missouri has perhaps
invested a larger percentage of her wealth in public school property than
has any other state in the same period. This is especially true of the
high school. Only a generation ago the schools of this class in Missouri
could be enumerated in numbers of one figure; to-day they are numbered by
hundreds, and the growth in efficiency seems to have been commensurate
with the growth in number. As late as 1890 only twenty-three high schools
were accredited by the State University. Now nearly 200 are so accredited,
notwithstanding the requirements for such honor have been largely
increased within this period. The popularity of the public high school, as
marked by this increased equipment and greater number, is well founded and
will endure. A much larger percentage of Missouri children are now in
school, a larger percentage of the entire school enrollment are now in the
public high school, and a larger percentage of the population are now in
higher institutions of learning than at any previous time. Moreover, these
facts indicate the result of a growth in educational sentiment, not merely
an expression of increased wealth. The state normal schools and the new
State University are parts of the history of educational growth since the
war in Missouri. The first state normal school was established in 1871,
later others, in different sections of the state, were added, until to-day
there are five. While the State University had been suggested in the state
constitution of 1820, it was not until 1839 that the legislature founded
such an institution, and it depended upon tuition fees and local
contributions for its support until the early seventies. Within the last
decade the legislature, spurred on by the educational sentiment of the
state, has appropriated generously to its upbuilding and maintenance. The
result is a state university on a plane with those of first rank in the
nation. Missouri has two other universities of large endowment and
usefulness, Washington University and St. Louis University, both in St.
Louis. St. Louis University is under the patronage of the Catholic church,
while Washington University rests upon private foundation.
Intellectual Life.
School and church and the
more leisurely social life of recent years have encouraged intellectual
output. Missourians have added much since the war to the nation's
literature. The greatest American humorist, Mark Twain (Samuel L.
Clemens), was born in Monroe county, Missouri, and grew to manhood in this
state. In Missouri was born and educated the children's poet, Eugene
Field, and here he did his first literary work. The most popular
historical novel in recent years is by a Missourian, Winston Churchill,
and has its scene laid in Missouri. The Little Booh of Missouri Verse,
edited by J. S. Snoddy, and Missouri Literature, edited by President E. H.
Jesse and Dr. E. A. Allen, contain the names and extracts from the
excellent works of Missouri authors in verse and prose. The Missouri
Bibliography, compiled by F. A. Sampson, of Columbia, secretary of the
State Historical Society, contains the titles of one thousand five hundred
volumes by Missourians. Among them are William Vincent Byars, William F.
Switzler, J. M. Greenwood, William Marion Reedy, Henry M. Blossom, George
W. Ferrel, E. E. Taylor, John T. Hughes, John D. Lawson, Frank Thilly, W.
V. N. Bay, John F. Darby, Alexander Majors, R. E. Lee Gibson, John N.
Edwards, Raymond Weeks, Hugh A. Garland, Constance Faunt Le Roy Runcie, W.
E. Hereford, C. L. Phifer, Lee Merriwether, W. P. King, Thomas L. Snead,
Robertus Love, Claude H. Wetmore, F. H. Sosey, L. W. Allen, Champ Clark,
Kate Field, James K. Hosmer, John E. Musick, James Newton Baskett, W. T.
Moore, J. H. Garrison, E. A. Allen, E. M. Field, W. E. Hollister, Harry
Norman, D. C. Allen, N. C. Kouns, J. W. Buel, C M. Woodward, Henry Tudor,
D. E. McAnally, Ernest McGaffey, and Denton J. Snider. Missouri newspapers
are well-edited, widely circulated and influential. There is no county
without a daily or weekly newspaper. Every shade of political, social and
religious thought is represented. In 426 cities, towns and villages are
published the 992 newspapers and magazines of the state. Of these,
eighty-seven are daily, fourteen semi-weekly, 746 weekly, four
fortnightly, ten semimonthly, 119 monthly, three bi-monthly, and nine
quarterly. The Missouri Gazette — now the St. Louis Republic — is the
oldest Missouri newspaper. Its publication dates to 1808. The Palmyra
Spectator is the oldest weekly newspaper continuously in one family.
Political Conditions.
The political history of
Missouri since the war has developed no radical partisanship. The issues
have been largely economic, except while the fever of war days was yet
unabated. Negro suffrage, while the shadow of the civil strife was still
dark on the land, caused the first hard-fought battle at the polls. Shall
the negro, now a free man, be permitted to vote? The legislature in 1867
had submitted an amendment to the state constitution giving the negro the
right to vote. The people, at the election of 1868, refused by a majority
of nearly 19,000 to adopt the amendment. In 1870 the question arose in the
legislature and the legislature, practically unanimously, gave suffrage to
the negro. The negro population has been slowly decreasing in proportion
to the white population and numbers only 5 per cent. of the state's total.
Following the settlement of the question of negro suffrage came a
political campaign, growing out of the war differences. There were two
political parties, the Democratic and the Republican. A campaign was waged
to repeal the constitutional provisions which denied suffrage to men who
had sympathized with the Confederacy. The Republican party was rent by
dissensions. One element wished immediately to repeal all such legislative
provisions. Another element in the Republican party opposed such repeal.
The result was a division, two Republican tickets for state officers, the
success of the so-called Liberal Republicans and the repeal of the
objectionable provisions. The United States supreme court overthrew "the
test oath," and there was manhood suffrage in Missouri from 1870 without
regard to race, color or previous political sympathy.
The victory of the Liberal
Republicans was followed by Democratic triumph at the election of 1872,
and for over thirty years the state kept the Democratic party in power.
The state was, however, carried by the Republican candidates for president
in 1904 and 1908, and on other occasions elected state tickets partly or
entirely Republican. Partisan political lines are less closely drawn.
Politically the state is well-nigh equally divided between the two great
parties. Though it has voted, with the exceptions noted, the Democratic
ticket by varying pluralities for three decades, Missouri casts more
Republican ballots than any other state except New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.
Railroad debts caused much
trouble in 1872 in many Missouri counties. Under the constitution of 1865
county courts were permitted to issue bonds for railroad building when
two-thirds of the qualified voters gave their consent. In some instances
the county courts were composed of ignorant or corrupt men. In others the
"qualified voters" were men with little interest in the welfare of the
community. Many voters were disfranchised under the constitution. The
result of dishonesty and ignorance on the part of courts and people was
that some $15,000,000 of debt in railroad bonds was saddled on the people
to pay for railroads that were never built. The bonds were sold to parties
in New York or elsewhere, who forced the payment. The parties who bought
the bonds claimed they did not know of any fraud or sharp practice in
their issuing. In several counties the people resisted the payment of
these debts, claiming the railroads were never built, and the entire state
was stirred with excitement. In some cases the parties who issued the
bonds were attacked. In Cass county a judge, the prosecuting attorney and
one of his bondmen were killed by a mob of enraged citizens. Bitterness
spread to other counties and it was months before the feeling was allayed.
The courts decided the bonds were legally issued and the counties must
pay. After some years all the bonds were paid in full or, upon a
compromise, agreed to by both sides, paid in part. The state also had
railroad debts. Before the "War of Secession the state had issued bonds to
the amount of $23,701,000 in aid of the building of railroads. The
railroads in return agreed to pay the interest on the bonds and to forfeit
to the state the roads if the interest was not paid. One railroad — the
Hannibal and St. Joseph — paid its bonds and the interest. The other
railroads failed to do so and were forfeited to the state. The state sold
them at a low price, not enough to pay the debt. The debt which remained
was over $31,000,000, including principal and accumulated interest. This
debt, largely caused by the aid of railroad construction, has since been
paid in full. It cost the state, in principal and interest, many millions,
however, before it was finally settled. Missouri now has no bonded debt.
The financial depression of
1873 was felt in Missouri as throughout the entire nation. The governor,
in a special message to the legislature, recommended that during the deep
business depression governmental expenses be reduced to the minimum. The
recommendation was adopted by the legislature and nearly one-half the
expenses were cut off. As a political result of the depression the Grange
was formed. What has caused hard times? The reply which many made was: bad
legislation. It was sought to unite all farmers and other workingmen into
an organization to correct the evils. Thus came into existence in Missouri
the Grange, sometimes called the Patrons of Husbandry. The organization
was chiefly composed of farmers. No lawyers, bankers or merchants were
admitted. Particularly strong in the agricultural districts, the Grange
entered politics and had, in 1874, a candidate for governor. He was
unsuccessful, however, at the polls and the Grange soon disappeared as a
political force. Legislation for the reduction of railroad rates was
demanded by the Grange. Growing public sentiment favored such legislation,
and, in 1887, there was a hard fight in the General Assembly to enact such
measures. Failing to secure adequate laws at the regular session of the
General Assembly, a special session was called. At the special session
laws forbidding railroads to charge lower rates per car to large than to
small shippers and forbidding them to charge higher rates for short
distances than for longer distances over the same road and to the same
market, were passed. These were among the first fruits of the popular
agitation for railroad legislation, afterward so general in the United
States. The
free silver issue, prominent in national politics in 1896, found in
Missouri its earliest and one of its ablest champions, Richard P. Bland,
member of Congress.
In 1875 the people of
Missouri adopted a new constitution, the third in the history of the
state. Unsatisfied with the drastic provisions of the constitution of
1865, the voters in 1874 authorized the calling of a convention to frame a
new constitution. The convention framed a new organic law and adopted it
unanimously. The people shortly afterward ratified the constitution and
made it the supreme law of the state. The constitution contained stringent
provisions upon the power of taxation, lengthened the terms of many state
officers from two to four years and contained many new and wise
provisions.
Sentiment for more rigid
control of the sale of liquor has grown in Missouri. In 1887 a stringent
law was enacted on the subject, giving to a locality the right to say, by
majority vote, whether or not intoxicating liquor should be sold as a
beverage in that locality. Elections were held in many towns and counties
and there was much excitement. A considerable majority of the towns and
counties voted against the sale of liquor as a beverage. Because of legal
defects some elections were held by the courts to be invalid. In 1906 and
subsequently the agitation was renewed and saloons were banished from a
large area.
The uncovering of
corruption in the municipal assembly of St. Louis attracted in 1903 the
attention of the entire nation. The circuit attorney, Joseph W. Folk,
discovered that franchises to own and operate public utilities had been
procured from the municipal assembly by bribery. He indicted and convicted
the boodlers, after a series of sensational episodes. The result was an
awakening of the public conscience toward civic righteousness that went,
in its good effects, far beyond the limits of Missouri.
With the successful holding
of a World's Fair at St. Louis in 1904 Missouri entered upon a new era of
material prosperity. The state by popular vote appropriated a million
dollars — the only instance in history where an American state by popular
suffrage voted an appropriation for exposition purposes. The city of St.
Louis voted $5,000,000, the citizens subscribed the same amount, and the
Congress of the United States contributed an equal sum; other states and
foreign governments appropriated large amounts. The result was an
exposition unequalled in beauty, interest and magnitude. It celebrated the
one hundredth anniversary of the purchase of the territory of Louisiana,
of which Missouri is the greatest state, by the United States under the
administration of President Thomas Jefferson. The exposition served most
effectively to direct the eyes of the world toward Missouri and the
Southwest. Immigration and industrial development have followed.
Conclusion.
The history of Missouri
since the war is the history of a state coming into its own. No longer
frontier, it has the sturdiness of the pioneer yet living in its
civilization. Located between the 36th and 41st parallels and between the
89th and 96th meridians of west longitude, Missouri is a part of the
temperate zone in which the larger work of the world is done. Government
is well administered, laws are enforced, property rights held sacred, and
administration of state affairs conducted with accuracy. Banks have
increased in number. Diverse industries have added to the state's wealth.
Missouri has not, however, neglected those things which make for the
higher life. School, church, the press are encouraged. Missouri has had an
interesting and important history. At least three times within the
three-quarters of a century of its life as a sovereign state has it been
the central figure of national political affairs, swaying the politics of
the republic. The state has given great men to the nation, the chief
product of any state. Four hundred Missourians were asked to name the
leaders of the state's thought, the men who had done the most for Missouri
and through Missouri for the world. The list is history and popular
commentary upon history. The majority named Thomas Hart Benton, Frank P.
Blair, John S. Phelps, B. Gratz Brown, Richard P. Bland, Hamilton B.
Gamble, James S. Green and Edward Bates, statesmen; James S. Rollins, the
father of the State University; Sterling Price and A. W. Doniphan,
soldiers; James B. Eads, engineer; E. M. Marvin, preacher; Eugene Field,
poet; and George C. Bingham, artist.
If Missouri, which is
capable of supporting as large a population in proportion to area as
Egypt, equalled that land in population, there would be 64,000,000 people
in this state, instead of less than 4,000,000. The state is 328 miles in
extreme length from north to south, and contains 69,415 square miles. Its
entire population could be placed, allowing to each a space of six square
feet, upon less than a third of a square mile. The soil of Missouri is
capable of yielding varied products more largely than the soil of any
other country in the world. The state has space — and to spare — for
millions upon millions of thrifty, industrious citizens.
The spirit of Missouri is
the spirit of progress tempered by conservatism. It rejects not the old
because of its age, nor rejects the new because it is not old. It is the
spirit of a community conscious of its own secure position, somewhat too
careless at times of the world's opinion, hospitable, generous, brave. The
dream of the greatest statesman is a nation of useful citizens dwelling in
happy homes. In Missouri the dream finds realization.
The noble Latin motto of
the state has ever expressed — and does — the spirit of the united
citizenship: "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law." Nobler
motto there could not be for any commonwealth, for any citizen.
Bibliography.— Barnes, C.
R.: ed. Commonwealth of Missouri (1877); Carr, Lucien: Missouri (1892);
Davis and Durner History of Missouri (1876); Rader, P. 8.: History of
Missouri (1908); Sampson, F. A.: Missouri Authors (1904); Sharp, J. T.:
History of St. Louis (1883); Switzler, Wm. F.: History of Missouri (1897);
Williams, Walter: ed. The State of Missouri (1904); Encyclopedia of the
History of Missouri (1901); Proceedings of Missouri State Convention of
1865 and 1875; Proceedings of the General Assembly of Missouri.
Walter Williams,
Dean of the Department of Journalism and Professor of the History and
Principles of Journalism, University of Missouri; editor of The State of
Missouri. |
