In 1900 the United States had more medical schools than the rest of the world combined. Many of them were commercial institutions devoted to making profits rather than to educating men to perform competently within the medical profession. The profit incentive precipitated low educational standards and made American medical practice decidedly inferior to medical practice almost anywhere else in the civilized world. By 1900 medical education had become pernicious, threatening the health of the nation and the future of the American medical profession. This thesis discusses the efforts to reform medical education practices.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Progressive reformers attacked the problem of corruption and lack of efficiency in city government. Reform groups in individual cities banded together in the National Municipal League and, because they believed that partisan politics were the root of the problem, attempted to devise a system which would remove politics from municipal government. Their work culminated in the introduction of the city manager, or as it is often called council-manager, form of city government. Under this plan, which closely resembles the organization of a business corporation, the elected council would serve as a board of directors and the city manager as the operating head of city government. Reformers hoped that by taking the day-to-day decisions out of the hands of elected officials and placing them in the hands of a professionally trained manager they might remove the stigma of corruption and partisanship from city government and promote efficiency. Whether this plan as it was originally conceived was or was not successful in Dallas is the subject of this thesis.

Arkansas state politics during the Civil War was influenced by the preceding thirty years and many of the state's problems for which political answers were sought were similar to problems experienced in this period of political development. The war simply magnified and multiplied the problems faced by the state. This thesis is concerned with identifying the political forces in the state and their development, with investigating problems to which political solutions were sought and attempts made to solve these. Finally, an effort is made to determine the effectiveness of the various political moves made during the terms of Governors Rector and Flanagin.

The history of the agrarian reform movement in Texas, its origin and its activities, reveals a minimal participation of the Negro. The relationship of the white farmer and the Negro in Texas with regard to agrarian reform demonstrates what they had in common and why the black did not choose to embrace agrarian reform.

"The primary concern of this work is to present a clearer picture of the Reconstruction period in Texas, particularly as it relates to the black. Little consideration is given to those blacks elected to public office; rather concern is placed on those outside the then 'Establishment.' To view the black in terms of those elected to public office only presents a distorted picture and negates the influence blacks had on electoral politics. In the main, evidence presented by most historians writing on this period has tended to ignore a major factor which has influenced Texas politics, namely violence. Those who acknowledge the presence of this violence tended to 'understand' the southern white and thus justify the use of this violence. The influence of violence is massive and some attempt must be made to understand the actual way in which it was directed. Here it is only established that violence was racial with some political overtones. There is no doubt that further research will prove very valuable in understanding this period."-- leaf 1.

"This study concerns the examination of the historical importance and achievements of a small cotton mill located in the agrarian Texas community of Itasca, Texas. Newspaper clippings and numerous interviews with former mill employees and Itasca citizens supplied factual material pertaining to the Itasca mill; however, company records provided the basic research material for this paper... The company offices have since been destroyed, and most of the records are now in the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas...In the final chapter, the author concludes that this mill, like numerous other southern mills, fell under the influence of northern companies because of undercapitalization which severely limited available operating capital. Even though the mill eventually prospered, it never managed to free itself from the influence of northern commission companies. In the final analysis, the Itasca company proved to be different from other cotton duck mills in the South in its development of a line of unique decorative fabrics sold by mail as well as through thirteen company-owned stores."-- leaf 1.