| Summary: | More Than Thi.l.j Years Aqo in 1909 In 1909, the year the Uxbridge Consolidated School was built, William Howard Taft was inaugurated President of the United States. It was impossible to follow the traditional custom of having the inaugural address delivered from the east front of the capitol, for the worst snow storm in several years had visited the nation. The ceremonies, therefore, for the first time in many years were held in the Senate Chamber. Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt sailed from New York that March for Gibraltar, en route to Africa, where he spent a year hunting big game. Robert Peary, after twenty-three years of almost uninterrupted endeavor, reached the North Pole and Louis Bleriot, French aviator, flew in an aeroplane from France to England. The United States government showed great progress in the construction of the Panama Canal and in Germany, the great Kaiser Wilhelm Canal was deepened to thirty-six feet. In New York city one of the greatest railroad terminals in the world, with its connecting tunnels with New Jersey and Long Island, was completed and the Dreadnought "North Dakota," largest in the United States navy, was launched near Quincy, Massachusetts. The Seattle Yukon, Alaska, Pacific Exposition was in progress and a placard at this exposition read: "North Dakota has more wealth per capita than any other state in the union; it has no millionaires and no paupers." Philander Knox was Secretary of State and Joseph Cannon was Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Payne-Aldrich tariff act was passed that year and Porter J. McCumber and Martin N. Johnson were North Dakota's two United States Senators. Martin N. Johnson died in office that year. Leading members of the Senate included Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Robert M. La- Follette of Wisconsin, and William E. Borah of Idaho. John Burke was Governor of North Dakota and Woodrow Wilson was then President of Princeton University. William Jennings Bryan was a defeated candidate for the Presidency and Hiram W. Johnson was a prosecuting attorney in California. A. C. Townley was unknown at this time and Lynn J. Frazier was living on his father's homestead near Hoople, North Dakota. William Langer was a student at Columbia University Law School and Gerald P. Nye was attending high school in Wisconsin. The state knew nothing of the Non-Partisan League at this time and the Democrats were in power. The population of the state was about 500,000. Other leading members of the United States Senate included Reed Smoot of Utah, Ellison D. Smith of South Carolina, Elihu Root of New York and Knute Nelson of Minnesota. In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II was emperor and in England, Edward VII was king, with Herbert Henry Asquith as his Prime Minister. The World War was then just brewing. Jack Johnson was heavyweight champion of 76 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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