davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1915-11-21
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

Jackson was a vigorous Presbyterian.
Martin Van Buren, told the people Of
this country that he looked ito the
Divine Being for support" and that he
prayed for strength"
The first Harrison-William Henry
believed in religion. spoke for it and
attended church. He promised to join
the Episcopalians after he became
President. but he died in a month and
the promise was not kept.
His successor, John Tyler. declared
when he delivered his inaugural ad-
dress that he 'conf1ded in God" James
K. Polk, in his last illness, was bap-
tized by a Methodist minister and an
old friend.
Though a soldier, rough and ready.
Zachary Taylor. on taking the oath Of
Office, asked God ito bless the United
States" In a message to Congress, Mil
lard Fillmore confessed that he relied
upon Him who holds in His hands the
destiny of nations" There is no ma
tional security" Franklin Pierce said,
in his first address to the people. but
in the nations humble acknowledged
dependence upon GOD and His overrul-
ing providence"
Nevertheless. all of these Presidents
neglected to observe the custom of
Washington, John Adams and Madison.
and Thanksgiving day passed out of
existence for nearly half a century.
Buchanan summoned the republic to
prayer that the great calamities he de-
scribed might pass away. but the north
and south had gone to war.
And now, in April. 1852. Abraham Lin
coin summoned his countrymen to fall
upon their knees. in their places of
worship. especially to acknowledge
and render thanks to our Heavenly
Father for the signal victories, vouch-
81 a n he a nd
naval forces engaged in suppressing an
internal rebellion and for averting
from our country the dangers Of for
eign intervention aad INVASION
From that prayerful and reverent year
to this. Thanksgiving day has been
national institution. No President has
Evening star., 1915-11-21

mad OF acquiring and diffusing useful
knowledge"
They should pray. he. said, for the
pardon OF our national and other
transgressions; for wise, just and con-
stitutional laws, discreetly and faith
fully executed and obeyed; for a larger
knowledge and better practice of true
religion and virtue and for the in
crease of science among all mankind"
The second day Of national Thanks
giving was Thursday, February 10.
ton said. had blessed the people, and
an insurrectiop which 80 wan only
threatened the tranquility of the ma
tiop had been suppressed. The insur-
counties of Pennsylvania. and WIS
caused by a federal tax laid on alco-
holic liquors and stills. A large body
Of militia put it down without blood
shed. 1t was a serious outbreak, in
the opinion of Washington. and he
hurried $4,000 troops, under Gov. Lee
of Virginia, over the Allegheny noun
tains.
There were no more Thanksgiving
proclamations until John Adams be-
IN March. 1898. asked for prayers
against the impending calamity of a
foreign war rather than for public
acknowledgment Of the favors with
John Adams, plainly enough. was
alarmed
"The safety and prosperity of ma
tions," he said, in the opening para
graph, ultimately and essentially de-
pend on the protection and blessing Of
Almighty God"
He asked that Wednesday. May 9. be
observed throughout the United States
as day of solemn humiliation, fasting
and prayer The citizens. he said.
should offer their devout addresses to
the Father of Mercies and acknowledge
the manifold sins and transgressions
with which we are Justly chargeable
as individuals and as a nation. be-
seeching Him at the same time. of his
infinite grace through the Redeemer Of
the World, freely to remit all OF our
offenses and to incline us by His Holy
Spirit to that sincere repentance and
reformation which may afford us rea-
son to hope for His inestimable favor
and heavenly benediction.
The war did not occur. and year
later, John Adams, in his second and
Evening star., 1915-11-21
T.. e.


dia with notes on Ceylon. Afghanistan
and Tibet. Each book la a digest of all
the information we have on trade pos
sibilitfes and business conditions in the
country. 1t gives the manufacturer or
exporter. in compact form. the things
he wants to know to help him reach a
decision as TO whether he should seek
a market there for his goods.
Then there is our series of miscel-
laneous publications. This includes such
books as our Factors in Foreign Trade,
directories of dealers in certain lines,
classified by countries, our directory Of
American sawmills, our directory of
foreign trade and class publications and
many other valuable works.
Tariff publications fall into a class of
their own. We have in our organiZa-
ton a division which devotes itself en-
tireIy to a study Of foreign tariffs.
Formerly the results of those studies
were published with each country
treated separately. Now we have
adopted Q different system and one
Evening star., 1915-11-21
URING a period of forty-seven
| years from April, 1915. until
April. 1862, days of national
thanksgiving were unknown

~ URING a period of forty-seven
" years from April. 1915. until
Ill " April, 1862, days of national
~ thanksgiving were unknown
in the United States. There was one
day of hum liation. fasting and prayer.
however. 1t was observed two months
before Abraham Lincoln became Presi-
dent.
Complying with the requests of nu-
merous '.pious and patriotic assoc "a
tons and citizens and out of his own
sense of duty. 'in view of the dis
rracted and dangerous condition of our
country" James Buchanan. a week be-
fore the secession of South Carolina,
called on all the people to make Friday,
January 4, 1861, "a day of humiliation,
fasting and prayer"
Famine and distress of a fearful
character" Buchanan said, in his
proclamation. prevailed in all parts of
the country. The union of the states
mediate danger" The counsels of the
seemed ''to have deserted the minds of
men, and all classes were "in a state
of confusion and dismay."
=
Christian himself and a believer in
prayer, President Buchanan pleaded
with his countrymen. north and south,
TO humble themselves. to go without
food and to pray. 1t was the first time
since the administration of James Mad
ison that the nation had been asked
either to engage in prayer or to offer
thanks.
And yet all the Presidents from Mad
ison to Buchanan were religious men,
James Monroe. in his first inaugural
address, said that he took up his great
duties with prayers to Almighty God"
John Quincy Adams was member of
the Congregational Church. Andrew
Evening star., 1915-11-21

book will include an exposition of the
tariffs of all countries as they affect a
certain class Of goods. A typical exam
Pile Is a recent publication on Foreign
Import Duties on Office Appliances
The manufacturer of Office appliances
seeking market abroad can obtain
from this exact information as to the
duties his goods will have to pay and
the regulations under which they may
enter any particular country.
"a second method OF distributing the
information is through our own branch
offices. We have eight Of these. estab-
lished. respectively, at Boston, New
York. Atlanta, Chicago. st. Louis. New
Orleans, San Francisco and Seattle:
In no way does the work of these
branch offices duplicate the work Of tho
central office at Washington. The branch
offices take the information we furnish
and bring 1t into contact with the manu-
facturers in their territory. for each
branch ONCE has to cover particular
territory assigned to It. We In WASH
Evening star., 1915-11-21

4 Presbyterian elder. Woodrow Wilson
has been one for years. William Nc
<inley belonged to the Methodist de-
'omination. Theodore Roosevelt is a
'ember of the Dutch Reformed Church.
''lliam Howard Taft is a Unitarian.
IS father, Judge Alphonso Taft, might
ave been Governor of Ohio had his re-
gious doctrines been orthodox.
The first Thanksgiving as a national
vent was brought about by an action
of Congress. the First Congress, which
met in New York. March 4, 1889. and
was In session until September 20.
Shortly before adjournment 1t passed
a resolution asking President Wash
ington. whose inauguration had occur
red on April 80, "to recommend to the
people of the United States a day of
public thanksgiving and prayer. to be
observed by acknowledging with CRATE
Evening star., 1915-11-21

religion, but that they were antagonis-
tic to mixing 1t up with the politics and
agencies of government.
So at their earliest opportunity, near
Congress. men who had helped to write
and others who had labored to have the
Constitution adopted united in re-
quest that President Washington call
the nation to prayer and a public
thanksgiving.
The First Congress. like the constitu-
tional convention. was composed OF
Americans who were orthodox in their
religious opinions. statement that in
safety can be repeated with respect to
a majority of the members of every
Congress that followed and to the one
that Is to- meet early in December.
The greatest, the best and the most
active men of the republic sat in the
Evening star., 1915-11-21
PRESIDENT WILSON.

First Congress. Statesmen, judges, edu-
Gators. physicians. lawyers. planters,
merchants and soldiers were in the
Senate and the House of Representa-
tives Some had signed the Declara-
tion of Independence. Others had
fought with gallantry and distinction
in the revolution. All had lived through
the perils and sufferings which began
continued until the surrender of Corn
wallis ut Yorktown, eleven years later.
Frederick A. Muhlenberg of Pennsyl-
vania, Speaker of the House, had been
Lutheran clergyman. Serving with
him in that branch of Congress were
Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts,.
who graduated at Yale, studied the
ology and became lawyer and a
Judge: George Partridge of the same
state. graduate of Harvard. a minis
ter and a teacher, who at his death
left a large part of his estate to re-
ligion and charity, and Fisher Ames,
Evening star., 1915-11-21

0N THE ordinary course of his work
the commercial attache of the
American embassy at Paris found
q it necessary to run down recently
TO Madrid-where there is no CONNER
cial attache-and have a little chat
with Alfonso XIII. King of Spain, on
the subject of coal II was an emf
nently satisfactory chat, for the young
King OF Spain happens to be a very
good business man. and the result has
profted American trade largely.
The problem the attache had before
him was this: Spain buys her coal
abroad and buys it at the rate of some
10000 tons year. Most of the i'm
portations were Welsh coal. No Amer
icsn coal was going into Spain. Why:
Searching out that why" the attache
found that. under existing Spanish
tariffs and regulations, American coal
could enter Spain only after having
paid a handicap of sl.20 a ton, which
handicap was not imposed on Welsh
coal.
There did not seem to be any par
t!cular reason for this. and, moreover,
II did not seem TO be good business
for Spain, which finds the Welsh sup
ply diminished by reason of the war
Apparently IL was just one of those
things that had gone into the law
many years ago and the reason for
which had been forgotten.
Obviously. the thing to do was to
get the handicap, which was made up
chiefly of what is known as transport
tax. removed. But getting nation to
change it's law is not exactly an easy
task. In times past the diplomatic
officer who had made the discovery or
why American coal does not so into
spain would have written Il long re-
port on the subject and forwarded that
report to the Department of state in
Wash!n gton.
In the course of time the American
ambassador at Madrid would have
been Instructed to make representa- :
HONS TO the Spanish government i'll
che premises. asking a modification OF
%he transport tax. Long diplomats
correspondence would have resulted
and. perbdps. In a year or SO Spain
would have consented graciously and
q great diplomatic victory would be
chalked UP to the account OF the Amer
lean government.
But this sort of procedure did not ap-
peal to the attache. His job is to get
results. To him his course was plain
he must go to the fountain head OF
power in the Spanish government di.
rect. Possessing a diplomatic standing
he had no difficulty in getting an au.
dience with the king. Briefly, con .
cisely. he laid the facts before the royal
~uler. He asked nothing, he simply
made 1t clear that Spain needed Amer
icap coal and that, under existing con i.
6ittons. Spain was denying herself that
which eho needed The king saw the
point.
Two weeks later, at 10 o'clock in the
morning, the bureau Of foreign and do.
1uestic commerce in the Department oil
Commerce at Washington received a
cablegram from the attache announcing
that by royal decree the Spanish trans.
Evening star., 1915-11-21
ID States First Observed Thanksgiving Day

COMENG About Who Asked Washington Call the Nation
Abraham Yet Pns
Fatho of Lincoln
Evening star., 1915-11-21

port tax as it applied to American coal
had been abrogated. Before noon The
bureau had advised by telegraph six
teen of the large American export coal
of these firms reported by letter to the
department that 1t already had OBJ
tained, by cable. large order of coal
for Spain and that prospects were ex-
cellent for building UP a profitable
trade there.
This little story. taken from the ac-
tual record. illustrates one of the many
methods by which the bureau of for
eign and domestic commerce is help
ing to increase American export trade
Normally this country sells less than
$4,000. 100000 worth of goods abroad
each year. This year export trade will
jump to not far from $4,000. .0G0. 900. war
orders. of course. being chiefly respnn-
sible. Nevertheless the bureaus eff
forts have contributed more than a lit
tie to the general result. The chief
benefits Of it's work. as the bureau sees
the TACT. are yet to come. however. for
II is building for the future.
Service to the American exporter, ac-
tuai and potential. is the watchword Of
the bureau. 1t has an organization that
can be of immense use. And yet its
chief difficulty SO far has been in ao-
Quainting the American manufacturer
with the fact that it is in existence !;
that II has service to give.
Here Is a concrete instance: The bu-
reau has compiled the consular regula-
tions OF foreign countries and printed
them In a handy volume which it sells
for 10 cents. Still, American manufac-
turers are writing to consular officers
abroad for information on that very
subject, and also writing to other
sources far more remote than the bu-
reau.
Another instance: Among the bureau
publications are directories of dealers
ir certain lines. classified by countries.
Neyertheless. many manufacturers and
jobbcrs, unaware of the fact, continue
TO do vast amount of useless corre-
spondence In an effort to obtain similar
lists for themselves.
knowledge of the service the bureau
has TO ofer Is one of the problems
which the bureau Is now solving. That
u is making progress is indicated by
Der OF demands made on It. The COM
pilation of consular regulations has
gone into the fourth edition, and the
demand for the publication lis growing.
The rate of distribution of other publ
cations is increasing with tremendous
rapidity.
AL the head OF the bureau of foreign
and domestic commercs is i. singuiarly
forceful personality. tho youngest bu-
reau chief in the government employ,
DIR. Edward Ewing Pratt. He came to
the position year ago from the Mer-
chants Association of New York Only
twenty-nine years old. he. prior to en-
tering the government service, already
had acquired high standing as an econ
omist. as a researcher. as a statistician
and as very capa BILE organizer.
Tell me-" said an interviewer to hin,
recently, lust how your bureau is Or
sanized to be of service to the export
er. and what IL Is doing"
ITO begin with" said he, whatever
we do must be based on accurate in
formation regarding foreign markets.
Our information comes to US from
three sources; first, by a system Of re-
Evening star., 1915-11-21

of facts regarding the comparative cost
of production of certain articles here
and abroad One such study. the re-
suits of which we published recently,
had to do with the pottery industry.
In this work no attempt is made to
reach conclusions or to suggest legis-
lation. We simply collect all the facts
regarding what 1t costs to produce a
certain character of goods in the
United States and in foreign countries
and present them.
I'm the matter of acquiring and dis
seminating trade Information. We are
striving particularly toward two goals.
accuracy and rapidity. A practical
contain these two elements. A trade
scout, such as we send out, must be
equipped with a special and complete
knowledge of the business an inquiry
into which he is conducting, and, in
some instances, must have technical
training Also. he must have reporto-
rial ability; that is, ability to see and
to tell.
Then, in the matter of distribution,
there must be no delay in getting the
information into the hands of those to
whom it is of use. Thus We are using
the cable and the telegraph more than
ever, first in obtaining reports. and
next in distributing them. Formerly
we had to print the daily Commerce
Reports on a four-day SCHEDULED that is,
matter received Tuesday did not ap-
pear in print until Saturday. That has
been reduced to a one-day schedule.
We send copy to the printer at 10
am. and the paper is out byl2:30 pm.
Thus, II a cable report is received from
commercial attache at $50 am, it
is printed and started through the
mails by early afternoon. Also We
have speeded up in like manner the
distribution of special Information by
direct methods.
You ask about the cost of all this
for this bureau are considerably less
than half million dollars a year
They really ought to be doubled to
give the best service in this time of
wonderful yoon:a opportunity pst to gain and hold
centage half a million dollars is of the
total volume of foreign trade. and you
will have to work far out beyond the
decimal point.
Since he took Office a year ago DIR.
Pratt. already well known to the busi-
ness community Of New York city. has
visited all of the eight branch offices
of his bureau and has addressed COM
mercial bodies in various parts of the
country on the subject closest to his
heart-the expansion of foreign trade
This has brought him in close touch
with all business America. His inti-
macies and associations lie with busi-
ness rather than with politics.
In fact he never has dabbied in poll
tics, and, as it Is told in Washington,
he never met his chief. Secretary Red
field of the Department of Commerce,
who nominated him to the President,
until a few weeks before appointment.
His Endorsements for tho position are
said to have come from business men
rather than from politicians.
Evening star., 1915-11-21

ports made by our consuIs abroad,
some 300 in number, scattered all over
the face of the earth second. from our
commercial attaches abroad. ten in
number, accredited respectively to
London. Paris. Berlin. Petrograd. Peking.
Melbourne. Lima. Santiago. Chile, Rio.
Brazil and Buenos Aires. Argentine
Republic; these commercial attaches
the first the country ever had-having
been appo nted under law passed In
1914; and third, from the commercial
agents of the bureau, who are forever
travelling on special missions.
The special agents are our trade
scouts; the commercial attaches our
business diplomats. The special agents
go wherever an opportunity seems to
exist for the expansion OF trade In
certain line to make a special study of
that opportunity. For example, we have
recently dispatched one to South Africa
and another to South America to f1nl
out the opportunities for increased sales
Of American agricultural machinery.
The information they are to obtain
must be of the fullest. They must
study soil conditions, to give informa-
tion as to the character of crops and
cry best adapted for those soils and the
like.
I'VE have twelve of those special
agents on the road constantly. They
have conducted special studies of lum-
Der markets In South America and the
far east. electrical machinery and
hardware markets In South America;
cotton manufacturers markets in the
far east; fruit markets in many coun-
tries and the like.
"In addition to these three chief
sources of information we also obtain
information from our own branch off,
ces in this country and from books.
magazines. periodicals and newspapers
from all parts of the world.
"All of this Information comes here
practically reservoir of business in
formation. From there 1T Is drawn off
for distribution to those who need it.
There are three chief methods of dis
series Of publications. Among the pub
lications In our daily newspaper, Com
merce Reports. now issued in two parts
and mailed together. Commerce Re-
cable reports from attaches and con-
sular officers abroad and from our own
agents at home and abroad, while the
supplement carries special reports at
For example, one supplement will review
i'll detail the commercial and financial
condition of particular country.
Another class Of publication is the
special consular reports. Often we will
send out a general QUESTIONABLE to
many consuls on a particular subject,
thus one on Markets for American
Fruits The resulting reports from all
over the world will be brought together
in one publication.
Special agents reports make UP an
other class. One will be the results of
an intensive study of the shoe and
leather trade in a group of countries,
another on the drug trade in still an
other group. third on banking and
tfons in Germany.
"Handbooks make up class by them
selves. Here. for instance, is q hand
book on Russia. and one on British In
Evening star., 1915-11-21

full hearts the many and signal favors
of Almighty God. especially by afford
ing them an opportunity peaceably to
establish Il form of government for
their safety and happiness"
Z: r
There were complaints two years be-
fore that all reference to God had been
omitted from the new Constitution. The
thirteen states were inha bited by pious
men and women. They had come to
America indeed, that they might wor-
ship God in their own fashion. They
wanted the state and the church sepa-
rated. but they were no less loyal and
devoted to the one than to the other.
gauic law of the nation were part cular
to keep religion out of that great in
strument: not that they were hostile to
Evening star., 1915-11-21

Born in Streator. ILL.,. in 1886, DIR.
Pratt received his common school edu-
cation there and then, in 1899. he
moved to Oberlin. Ohio, where he en-
Evening star., 1915-11-21

'"Handbooks make up class by them
selves. Here. for instance, is q hand
book on Russia. and one on British In