The subject was given national prominence through the Beveridge-Parsons Bill introduced into the Senate, December, 1907, marking an epoch in the history of federal legislation. This bill proposed to exclude from interstate commerce all products of mines and factories which employ children under the age of fourteen. The bill was not, however, brought up for discussion. The leading arguments of its opponents were as follows: (1) That the question was local only; (2) there was no reason to believe that federal would be better than State administration; (3) that it was limited in effect since it could not prevent children being employed in the manufacture of goods to be sold within a State. A bill passed both houses and was signed by the President, authorizing the Secretary of Commerce and Labor "to investigate and report on the industrial, social, moral, educational, and physical conditions of woman and child workers of the United States, wherever employed, with special reference to their age, hours of labor, term of employment, health, illiteracy, sanitary and other conditions surrounding their occupation, and the means employed for the protection of their health, persons, and morals." An appropriation of $150,000 was made with which to carry on this investigation. Among the demands of the National Child Labor Committee have been a shorter day's work for children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, health certificates for factory employment in dangerous trades, and the regulation of children in street trades. [Illustration] Electric train, Long Island R. R. The period of Mr. Roosevelt's administrations was notable on account of advances made in various other directions. Electricity was applied to new and larger uses. Power was transmitted to greater distances. Niagara Falls was made to produce an electric current employed leagues away. Electric railways, radiating from cities, converted farms and sand-lots into suburban real estate quickly and easily accessible from the great centres. Telephone service was extended far into country parts, and, with the rural free delivery of mail, brought farmers into quick and inexpensive communication with the outside world, robbing the farm of what was once both its chief attraction and its greatest inconvenience--isolation. [Illustration] Guglielmo Marconi and his wireless telegraph. German experiments developed an electric surface car with a speed of two miles a minute. Wireless telegraphy came into use. By means of high masts rigged, with wires diverging to the earth somewhat like the frame of a partly opened umbrella, it was found possible under favorable atmospheric conditions to telegraph hundreds of miles through the air. The most notable use of this invention was to communicate between ships and the shore or between ships at sea, a particularly desirable facility in fog, storm, or darkness, when other signals were useless.