Chapter 29 The American Pageant 16th Edition

Underwood Tariff

This tariff greatly reduced rates and enacted an unprecedented, graduated federal income tax. By 1917, revenue from the income tax surpassed receipts from the tariff, a gap that has since been vastly widened.

Historical Significance: Participation in paying income taxes is seen a civic duty and has consequences if taxes are not paid by citizens. The graduated income attempted to alleviate the tax amount on the poor to find a better balance than one percentage of all incomes.

Federal Reserve Act

This act established the Federal System, which established 12 distinct reserve to be controlled by the banks in each district; in addition, a Federal Reserve board was established to regulate the entire structure; improved public confidence in the banking system.

Historical Significance:

American business and wealth accumulation required a better system of banking since the Divorce Bill. By establishing reserves in different cities Americans felt the money was more secure.

Synthesis: First and Second National Bank

Jackson Banks Wars and the development of Pet Banks

Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)

A banner accomplishment of Woodrow Wilson's administration, this law empowered a standing, presidentially appointed commission to investigate illegal business practices in interstate commerce like unlawful competition, false advertising, and mislabeling of goods.

Historical Significance:

Americans depend upon the practices of a business to keep them safe. The law provided security in preventing the issues uncovered by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

Clayton Antitrust Act

Law extending the anti-trust protections of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and exempting labor unions and agricultural organizations from anti monopoly constraints. The act conferred long-overdue benefits to labor.

Historical Significance:

law actually enforced anti trust protections

Holding Companies

Companies that own part or all of other companies' stock in order to extend monopoly control. Often, a holding company does not produce goods or services of its own but only exists to control other companies. The Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 sought to clamp down on these companies when they obstructed competition.

Historical Significance:

Rockefeller's companies will be broken up to prevent holding and trusts

Workingmen's Compensation Act

Passed under Woodrow Wilson, this law granted assistance to federal civil-service employees during periods of disability. It was a precursor to labor-friendly legislation passed during the New Deal.

Historical Significance:

shift away from protecting businesses over workers

Adamson Act

This law established an eight-hour day for all employees on trains involved in interstate commerce, with extra pay for overtime. It was the first federal law regulating the hours of workers in private companies, and was upheld by the Supreme Court Wilson v. New (1917).

Historical Significance:

In modern times the work day is still set by these standards.

Shift from protecting business over the worker

Jones Act

Law according territorial status to the Philippines and promising independence as soon as a "stable government" could be established. The United States did not grant the Philippines independence until July 4, 1946.

Historical Significance:

Many territories held by imperial countries did not gain independence until after WWII

Act is reflective of Wilson's belief outlined in his Fourteen Points that nations would have the right to self determination.

Tampico Incident

An arrest of American sailors by the Mexican government that spurred Woodrow Wilson to dispatch the American navy to seize the port of Veracruz in April 1914. Although war was avoided, tensions grew between the US and Mexico.

Historical Significance:

Germany will attempt to utilize these tensions to their benefit through the Zimmerman Note.

Wilson's involvement in Mexico is a contradiction to his Moral Diplomacy and right of self determination by supporting one leader over another.

Central Powers

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria

Historical Significance:

This alliance once was known as the Triple Alliance and included Italy

Germany will accept complete fault for WWI through the War Guilt Clause

Allies (Triple Entente)

France, Britain, Russia

Historical Significance:

Later joined by Italy and the US

This group will outline the Treaty of Versailles minus Russia

U-boats

German submarines, named for the German Unterseeboot, or "undersea boat," proved deadly for Allied ships in the war zone. U-boat attacks played an important role in drawing the United States into the war.

Historical Significance:

Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare will pull the US into WWI

Lusitania

Lusitania

British passenger liner torpedoed and sank by Germany on May 7, 1915. It ended the lives of 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, and pushed the United States closer to war.

Historical Significance:

reflection of unrestricted submarine warfare

US will fight for trade rights and freedom of the seas a point reflected in Wilson's Fourteen Points

Zimmerman Note

German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman had secretly proposed a German-Mexican alliance against the United States. When the note was intercepted and published in March 1917, it caused an uproar that made some Americans more willing to enter the war.

Historical Significance:

US will enter WWI

Mexico may have been enticed due to the flare ups with the Tampico Incident, US meddling, and still the loss of the Mexican American War from the 1840's

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's proposal to ensure peace after World War I, calling for an end to secret treaties, widespread arms reduction, national self-determination, and a new league of nations.

Historical Significance:

The US will not sign the Treaty of Versailles because of the point included where the nation would join the League of Nations.

Committee on Public Information

A government office during World War I known popularity as the Creel Committee for its Chairman George Creel, it was dedicated to winning everyday Americans' support for the war effort. It regularly distributed pro-war propaganda and sent out an army of "four-minute men" to rally crowds and deliver "patriotic pep."

Historical Significance:

US will begin to use national pride through advertising to gain support and money through war bonds for WWI.

Espionage Act

A law prohibiting interference with the draft and other acts of national "disloyalty." Together with the Sedition Act of 1918, which added penalties for abusing the government in writing, it created a climate that was unfriendly to civil liberties

Historical Significance:

Eugene Debs will be arrested and run for president from jail after being found guilty of this act.

Scneck v. United States

A Supreme Court decision that upheld the Espionage and Sedition Acts, reasoning the freedom of speech could be curtailed when it posed, "a clear and present danger" to the nation.

Historical Significance:

Since the nation was at war speech which endangered war security and efforts could be stopped.

War Industries Board (WIB)

Headed by Bernard Baruch, this federal agency coordinated industrial production during WWI. Under this economic mobilization, U.S. industrial production increased 20 percent during the war.

Historical Significance:

All industries including food will focus on war production. This will later be a problem for farmers who became accustomed to producing in mass quantities taking out loans for equipment they will not be able to pay back when demand falls after the war. The impact will be heavily felt during the Great Depression in 1929.

Industrial Workers of the World

also known as the "Wobblies," was a radical organization that sought to build "one big union" and advocated industrial sabotage in defense of that goal. At its peak in 1923, it could claim 100,000 members and could gain the support of 300,000. The IWW particularly appealed to migratory workers in agriculture and lumbering and to miners, all of whom suffered from horrific working conditions.

Historical Significance:

Increase in unions and power of the worker

Great Migration

The movement of 6 million African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1910 and 1970.

Historical Significance:

blacks will find racial discrimination continues in northern areas

work opportunities are better because of industrial cities

After 1970 with increased opportunity in the south the New Migration saw the return of many blacks to the south and race relations also saw improvement

Nineteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment adopted in 1920 that guarantees women the right to vote.

Historical Significance:

Finally the labor of Susan B Anthony and Alice Paul will come to pass

Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act

Designed to appeal to new women voters, this act provided federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care and expanded the role of government in family welfare.

Historical Significance:

Reflects the power of the women's vote

This is often considered by modern politicians

American Expeditionary Force

About 2 million Americans went to France as members of this under General John J. Pershing. Included the regular army, the National Guard, and the new larger force of volunteers and draftees and they served as individuals

Historical Significance:

Start of US involvement in WWI

Battle of Chateau-Thierry (1918)

The first significant engagement of American troops in WWI - and indeed, in any European war. To weary French soldiers, the American doughboys were an image of fresh and gleaming youth

Historical Significance:

US involvement

Meuse-Argonne Offensive

also called the Battle of the Argonne Forest, was a part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire western front. The whole offensive was planned by Marshall Ferdinand Foch to breach the Hindenburg line and ultimately force the opposing German forces to surrender;

League of Nations

an international organization formed in 1920 to promote cooperation and peace among nations

Historical Significance:

proposed by Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points

rejected by US Senate for fear that the US would be pulled into foreign entanglements

-Conflict between Democrats and Republicans

Treaty of Versailles

World War I concluded with this vengeful document, which secured peace but imposed sharp terms on Germany and created a territorial mandate system to manage former colonies of the world powers. To Woodrow Wilson's chagrin, it incorporated very few of his original Fourteen Points, although it did include the League of Nations that Wilson had long sought. Isolationists in the United States, deeply opposed to the League, led the opposition to the Treaty, which was never ratified by the Senate.

Historical Significance:

harsh reparations will cause financial issues and lead to a worldwide Great Depression

-harshness of the treaty will give Hitler a platform for power in Germany

Irreconcilables/Reservationists

Isolationist senators who opposed the Treaty of Versailles and its attempt of ending World War I and also did not like the League of Nations

Historical Significance:

Wilson may have been able to appeal to other Republican Senators to pass the Treaty of Versailles but chose to try to pressure the Senate through the American public which ultimately failed.

Louis Brandeis

A progressive-minded confidant of Woodrow Wilson, he was the litigator behind Muller v. Oregon. In 1916, Wilson made him the first Jewish American to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court.

Pancho Villa

combination bandit/freedom fighter, murdered 16 Americans in January 1916 in Mexico and then killed 19 more a month later in New Mexico.

Arthur Zimmerman

Germany's Foreign Secretary who proposed an alliance with Mexico against the United States

George Creel

Headed the Committee on Public Information, for promoting the war effort in WWI

Eugene V. Debs

Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America.

William D. ("Big Bill") Haywood

(1869-1928) As a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World, the Western Federation of Miners, and the Socialist Party of America, Haywood was one of the most feared American labor radicals. During World War I, he became a special target of anti-leftist legislation.

Herbert C Hoover

A Quaker-humanitarian tapped to head the Food Administration during World War I. During the 1920s he become secretary of commerce, promoting economic modernization and responsible leadership by business to hold off further expansion of government power. Elected to the presidency in 1928 as a Republican, he soon faced the Great Depression, which he tried to combat with voluntary efforts and restrained government intervention. He lost the 1932 election to Franklin Roosevelt who favored a more activist role by the government.

Alice Paul

Head of the National Woman's party that campaigned for an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. She opposed legislation protecting women workers because such laws implied women's inferiority. Most condemned her way of thinking.

Henry Cabot Lodge

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was a leader in the fight against participation in the League of Nations