20th century AD

Among the growing number of signs that the next century is approaching is the fact that the terms of many elected officials now in office will last beyond the year 2000.

The new presidential term extends to January 2001. Two-thirds of the members of the Senate will serve into the new century. (Representatives in the Congress of 1999-2001 won't be elected until 1998.)

The historical significance of the status of the chief executive and members of Congress who will usher in the 21st century can be put into perspective by comparing the environment in which they will serve with that faced by their counterparts who presided over the arrival of the 20th century.

William McKinley was reelected president in 1900 as voters endorsed his pledge of tariffs to protect U.S. businesses and jobs and his commitment to the gold standard as a way to fight inflation.

There was no income tax or payroll tax. The federal government's priorities were reflected in the seven Cabinet departments that made up the executive branch--State, Treasury, Navy, War, Interior, Agriculture, and Justice.

The transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy was still under way The air and automotive ages were dawning. The motion-picture medium was in its infancy

The U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War had given the nation its first overseas possessions and a sense that it was becoming a power in global affairs

Succeeding decades saw two world wars, sweeping social and cultural changes, a searing Depression, the Cold War, a new outlook on what constituted civil rights, U.S. emergence as the unchallenged global superpower (but one that must compete in a global economy), and technological advances that involved atomic power, space exploration, computers, television, communications, manufacturing techniques, and medical care.

The growing role of government throughout the 20th century is seen not only from the increased federal budget--$550 million in 1900 and a projected $1.7 trillion in 2000--but also in the expansion of the president's Cabinet.

The very names of the departments added in this century reflect the extent to which the federal government has broadened its scope--Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation Education, Energy, and Veterans Affairs. (The War and Navy departments were combined as the Defense Department after World War II.)

Despite the vastly different circumstances between the emergence of the 20th century and the arrival of the 21st, there is a common denominator for the elected officials who greeted the former and those who will see the dawn of the latter. That denominator is the challenge of managing the inheritance that one era leaves to the next.

As the United States moves into the year 2000 and beyond, it will have to strengthen its ability to compete in the worldwide marketplace, a task whose ramifications include education, continuing technological progress, a strong domestic economy, and government policies that support, or at least do not hamper, the achievement of this basic economic goal.

An urgent responsibility of government will be reining in those payments to individuals that, if not addressed in a fiscally sound manner, could wreak havoc on the national economy.

In preparing to grapple with the many challenges that will endure into, or arise early in, the new century, officials might first think about how they want that era defined.

Legendary publisher Henry R. Luce described the era now ending as "the American century." Some have suggested that the next one will be "the Pacific century" because of the growing economic clout of the nations, including the United States, that border that ocean.

But it might now be time to discard such regional competition and think of the next 100 years as the "century of opportunity"--for all nations and all peoples.

It's none too soon for the leaders we have selected to preside at its beginning to start thinking about how they will approach their historic assignment.

A Century Of Change
1900                                                     2000
76 million           Population                        275 million
$18.7 million        Gross Domestic Product            $8.9
trillion
29 million           Work Force                        139 million
$550 million         Annual Budget                     $1.7
trillion
$2.1 billion         National Debt                     $5.1
trillion
None(*)              Revenue From Income Tax           $749 billion
8,000                Motor Vehicles Registered         205 million
5.5 million          Public-School Enrollment (K-12)   47.6 million
27,410               Bachelor's Degrees Awarded        1,191,000
47.3 years           Life Expectancy At Birth          77 years
22.9 years           Median Age                        35.7 years
3 million            65 + Population                   34 million

COPYRIGHT 1997 U.S. Chamber of Commerce
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group