Exam Study Notes 23-33

Meat Inspection Act

• A direct result of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and subsequent investigations into meat processing plants.

• Revealed unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry.

• Authorized the government to inspect and grade meat.

Pure Food & Drug Act

• Established the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

• Prohibited mislabeled food and drug products.

• Mandated that all food products have active ingredients labeled for consumer awareness.

Square Deal

• The name given to Teddy Roosevelt’s domestic agenda

• Featured the "3Cs":

  • Consumer Protection: Addressed by the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food & Drug Act.

  • Conservation: Achieved through the Antiquities Act, Newlands Act, and establishment of National Parks.

  • Controlling of Corporations: Accomplished via the Elkins & Hepburn Acts, and trust-busting using the Sherman Act.

• Political Reforms (initiative, referendums, etc…)

  • Many progressives believed that democracy needed reformed because of the amount of money being used to buy influence.

  • Initiatives & referendums gave voters direct access to legislation
    *Recalls allowed them to throw out an elected official.
    *Primaries allowed for voters to have a say in who their party nominates as well.

Temperance Movement

• Aimed to ban alcoholic beverages.

• Proponents believed alcohol consumption led to abuse, crime, and unproductive work habits.

• Achieved the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1920.

• Arguments for prohibition included its benefit to the war effort, suggesting that abstaining from alcohol was patriotic due to grain shortages needed for troops.

Progressive Era Amendments (16-19)

• 16th Amendment: Introduced income tax, justified by the wealth gap between the rich and poor.

• 17th Amendment: Established direct election of Senators, perceived as more democratic.

• 18th Amendment: Prohibited alcohol to address social issues.

• 19th Amendment: Granted women the right to vote, ensuring states could not deny suffrage based on gender.

Payne-Aldrich Tariff

• A controversial tariff in 1909 that deepened divisions within the Republican Party.

• Progressives sought a lower tariff, while conservatives opposed it, leading to increased tariff rates.

• President Taft's signing of the bill angered Progressives, including Theodore Roosevelt.

• This disagreement led Roosevelt to leave the Republican Party and run as a Progressive Party (Bull Moose) candidate.

Tammany Hall & Boss Tweed

• Tammany Hall was the most notorious example of political machines commonly found in cities.

• Controlled by Democrats in New York City, it engaged in bribery, extortion, and kickbacks to siphon money from city funds.

• Boss Tweed led Tammany Hall and amassed a personal fortune as a public official.

Hull House

• Established and operated by Jane Addams as a settlement house for immigrants to help them adjust to American life.

• Supported immigrants' assimilation through various programs.

• Settlement houses spread across the country with the same mission.

Social Gospel

• A movement within Protestantism that sought to address social problems using Christian principles.

• Advocated government intervention to solve these issues.

Defining Progressivism

• Progressivism was a reform movement that aimed to use the government to solve the problems caused by industrialization.

Success of Progressives at the Federal Level

• Progressives achieved significant success in implementing reforms at the federal level.

Inclusivity vs. Exclusion in Progressivism

• Progressivism was exclusionary due to its encompassing of diverse, sometimes unrelated movements.

• Examples include conservation, civil rights, workers' rights, and environmentalism, showcasing the breadth of the Progressive movement.

Populism: Pendleton Act

• Passed in 1883, this Civil Service reform act eliminated the Spoils System.

• Mandated that candidates seeking government positions pass an exam to demonstrate qualifications.

• Unintended Outcome: Politicians needed to find a new source of money to fund their campaigns, so they looked to private and corporate money instead.

Ocala Platform

• Established in 1890 by the Southern Farmers' Alliance.

• Demanded direct election of Senators, government control of currency, and lower tariffs.

• Influenced the Omaha Platform.

Omaha Platform

• Encompassed many elements from the Ocala Platform.

• Called for the nationalization of railroads and communication systems, an income tax, and the adoption of the silver standard.

• Signaled the official start of the People’s (Populist) Party.

William Jennings Bryan

• Three-time Democratic presidential candidate (lost all three elections).

• Secured the Democratic nomination in 1896 with his "Cross of Gold" speech.

• Incorporated many Populist ideas into the Democratic Party, leading to the short-lived but influential Populist Party.

McKinley Tariff

• A high tariff enacted by Republicans in 1890.

• Did not encompass many farm goods, raising the cost of manufactured products for farmers.

• Increased global competition for farmers, thus lowering crop prices..

Mechanized Farming

• Is the the core reason for increased agricultural production.

• Increased food production and less need for people working farms allowed more people and growth in industrialization and urbanization.

Farmers Alliance

• The precursor to the Populist movement, it was farmers from different areas of the country banding together.

• Supported government regulation of transportation, inflation of the currency (later silver), and an income tax.

Silver Standard

• Farmers incurred debt to afford new machinery, and in order to help fix that debt supported switching the US monetary system over to a silver standard instead of a gold standard.

• switching the monetary system would inflate the currency and help pay off their debts.

Homestead Act

• Enacted in 1862, it opened the West to free soilers.

• Granted 160 acres of land in the West to homesteaders who improved the land.

Morrill Act

• Established land-grant universities across the country to foster higher education.

The Grange

• Is one of the oldest organizations in the Farmers Alliance.

• Promoted cooperatives, with farmers uniting to demand better RR rates and storage fees, and lobbied state legislatures to regulate RR rates successfully.

Frederick Jackson Turner (Historian)

• Authored the Frontier Thesis after Americans had settled the entire continent by the end of the 19th Century.

• Proposed that the frontier was the defining attribute of American society.

• The frontier has fostered values like individualism, freedom, independence, but also violence.

Dawes Severalty Act

• A law in 1887 that meant the assimilate Native Americans to American society by requiring them to be land-owning farmers.

• Failed because the land was not fertile, many Native Americans had no farming experience, and it led to the tribal identity of many Indian people breaking down.

The People’s Party (Populists)

Farmers' Alliances and Granges united at the national level to form their own political party.

• Refer to the Ocala & Omaha Platforms for their views.

Problems Faced by Rural People in the U.S. at the End of the 19th Century

• Many farmers struggled with debt due to the mechanization of farming (expensive equipment).

• High tariffs on industrial goods increased costs for farmers.

• The tariffs did not fully protect agricultural products, forcing farmers to compete globally, thus decreasing prices.

• Land taxes, high RR rates, and storage fees exacerbated the debt issue.

Solutions Farmers Developed

• Farmers organized collectively and formed cooperatives for market power.

• Lobbied for a switch to the silver standard to inflate the currency and alleviate debt.

• Refer to the Ocala & Omaha Platforms.

Technology's Influence on American Farms

• New threshers, harrows, seed drills, and combines improved farming productivity.

• Farmers specialized in one crop to compete, but this specialization made market changes risky.

Imperialism: Monroe Doctrine

• Issued in 1823, stating that the Western Hemisphere was in America’s sphere of influence.

• European powers should stay away from recolonizing places here after the breakup of the Spanish Empire.

SPAM War

• After the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor, and was made worse buy the press, McKinley finally asked for a declaration of war against Spain.

• The United States victory in 6 months made America an empire as we gained Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico & the Philippines. The war was dubbed “A Splendid Little War”.

Filipino Insurrection

• Filipinos cooperated with the United States during the SPAM War for their independence from Spain, but turned on the United States when we decided to stay.

• In a brutal 3 year war, the US put down the Filipino uprising.

Roosevelt Corollary

• Issued in 1904 after the Venezuelan Crisis, Theodore Roosevelt stated that the Western Hemisphere was within the United States’ sphere of influence and that the U.S. would intervene when necessary to protect American interests.

• This essentially made the U.S. the police force of the hemisphere.

Hawaii

• The monarchy was overthrown by United States business interests, but the U.S. government denied annexation until the SPAM War.

• The strategic location of Hawaii became important for fighting the Spanish in the Philippines.

"White Man’s Burden"

• A poem by Rudyard Kipling that suggests white nations had a responsibility to spread their civilized way of life to non-white nations.

• Used as justification for imperialism on social Darwinistic principles.

Teller Amendment

• Added to the declaration of war with Spain, it stated that the United States had no territorial aspirations in Cuba and promised to grant Cuba independence.

Platt Amendment

• When the United States left Cuba, they put the Platt Amendment in their constitution.

• The Platt Amendment gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs when we felt the US interests were threatened.

Panama Canal

• It connects the Pacific & Atlantic oceans.

• Secured rights to build the canal by supporting Panama rebelling against Colombia.

• This was strategically important for the US in terms of shipping naval power as we could quickly move back and forth.

Venezuelan Crisis

• The 1902-03 crisi was where Germany, Britain, and Italy demanded repayment of debts from Venezuela and sent their navy to blockade Venezuela.

• The United States later intervened and pressured Germany into settling the matter through arbitration, which led to issued the Roosevelt Corollary.

Boxer Rebellion

• Nationalist rebellion in China against imperialist nations.

• The United States sent in a small force to help the Europeans put down the rebellion.

Anti-Imperialist League

• Many Americans opposed imperialism and the war in the Philippines so they formed the A-I League.

• Opponents believed it was hypocritical to our values of self-government but some opposed it for racist reasons.

Open Door Policy

• The United States circulated notes to open up their spheres of influence to other countries.

• The United States was able to open up some markets in China.

Gentlemen’s Agreement

• The San Francisco School Board implemented segregation against Japanese students that threatened the US, so Roosevelt worked out the GA which reintegrated schools in exchange for Japan stopping additional laborers from coming to the US.

Dollar Diplomacy

• Taft’s policy of encouraging United States business investments in Latin America to bring about prosperity and better relations.

• This created resentment instead.

Yellow Journalism

• American newspapers sensationalized stories in competition for readers, and helped push the US into war with Spain in 1898.

Alfred Mahan

• Wrote "Influence of Sea Power Upon History" and said that throughout history, the great powers had large navies and that they were necessary to be a world power, which helped convince the US government to invest in a larger navy.

Philippine Autonomy Act

• Set up a representative government for the Philippines and paved the way for formal independence later.

Differences in U.S. Foreign Policy in the Western Hemisphere and Other Parts of the World

• The United States saw the Western Hemisphere as its sphere of influence and was willing to get involved in affairs using the Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary.

• Was not typically willing to risk war outside of the Western Hemisphere.

• The Open Door policy is a good example here of us trying to get access to Chinese markets but not going to war to open the doors.

Arguments for and Against American Overseas Expansion

• Many Americans believed that the United States should be a great world power and that our economic might justified our expansion.

• Others wondered if imperialism fit with the United States belief in self-government and democracy, or the consent of the governed.

• Some, such as Samuel Gompers, feared unskilled labor would pour into America from colonies and hurt labor and wages.

• Some did not want America to be associated with people who they saw as inferior using the ideas of Social Darwinism.

Wilson & World War 1: 14 Points

• The basis for the cease fire in World War 1, and they called for self-determination (democracy), free trade, open seas, no more secret alliances, and de-colonization.

• Most European powers rejected these ideas but they set an important precedent.

Keating-Owens Act

• Federal law that banned child labor by restricting the movement of goods over state lines using child labor.

• The Supreme Court struck it down in Hammer v. Dagenhart.

Clayton Anti-Trust Act

• Added power to the Sherman antitrust act, banning interlocking directorates and exempting labor unions.

Federal Reserve

• Banking reform signed by Wilson that creates a central bank that can raise and lower interest rates as well as regulate the banking sector.

Underwood Tariff

• Progressive tariff signed by Wilson that lowered the tariff significantly.

Federal Trade Commission

• Enforces antitrust laws and deals with consumer protection.

Zimmerman Note

• Telegram intercepted by Britain, Germany asked Mexico to invade the United States to keep the U.S. from sending troops to Europe, in exchange Mexico would get back the Mexican Cession if they won.

• Outraged Americans and is one of the reasons the United States eventually went to war with Germany.

Bull Moose Party

• Started by Theodore Roosevelt when he was denied the Republican nomination in 1912.

• This is essentially the Progressive Party, which consisted mostly of the progressive wing of the Republican Party.

• Managed to divide the Republican vote and allow Wilson to win the election.

Mexican Revolution

• Unrest in Mexico caused almost 1 million Mexican refugees to come to the United States.

Creel Committee

• Also called the Committee of Public Information.

• This agency produced propaganda to promote the war effort in WW1.

War Industries Board

• Government committee that coordinated and planned production of military goods in WW1, consolidating more power to the federal government.

National War Labor Board

• Government committee that tried to organize labor to fit the needs of war mobilization in WW1. Many workers chose to go on strike during the war anyway.

Treaty of Versailles

• Treaty that ended WW1 officially and punished Germany with war guilt and reparations.

• The US was wary about joining the League of Nations so they refused to sign the treaty.

Espionage & Sedition Acts

• Acts passed during the war to curtail dissent. These acts made it illegal to undermine the draft or the war effort, and were upheld in Schenck v. US.

Palmer Raids

• Series of anti-communist, anti-radical raids on suspected radical leftists by the US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer.

• Bombings and labor unrest had made many Americans nervous about letting more radical people into the U.S. Helps fuel the Red Scare.

Republican Party Split in 1912

• Split over the Payne-Aldrich tariff, was too high and made consumer goods too expensive.

• Also disagreed over the conservation movement, specifically the Pinchot-Ballenger Affair.

Treaty of Versailles Ratification Failure

• Republicans did not want the US to be dragged into a war without their own consent, so they were skeptical of the League of Nations. When Wilson was not willing to accept reservations protecting US interest, Most Republicans opposed ratifying the treaty in order to protect American sovereignty.

Government Mobilization for WW1

• Coordinated production, drafted an army, mobilized for total war.

• The NWLB tried to mobilize labor and the Creel committee produced propaganda.

• Women worked in factories and blacks moved north in the Great Migration to take available manufacturing jobs.

Roaring 20s: Red Scare, KKK

• Group that reemerged as a backlash to immigration and the Great Migration, and pushed for the federal government to outlaw Prohibition, became widely popular in the 1920s.

Prohibition

• Alcohol was an illegal substance in the 1920s because drys insisted it would help curb social dysfunction.

• This led to increases in organized crime as people like Al Capone battled for the illegal liquor business.

Sacco & Vanzetti

• Italian immigrants who were petty criminals and radicals were accused of robbing and murdering the driver of an armored car.

• Even though the evidence was sketchy at best, they were convicted anyway.

• This shows the influence the Red Scare had in America in the 1920s

Wets vs. Drys

• Supporters of Prohibition (drys) tended to come from places that were more rural, protestant, and Anglo-Saxon.

• Wets tended to be from more liberal and urban places that saw banning alcohol as a threat to freedom and liberty, especially of immigrants.

Flappers & Vamps

• Independent women who might smoke, drink or be open with their sexuality.

• They tended to be young, urban, and employed, symbolizing the more carefree lifestyle of the 1920s.

Speakeasies

• Secret bars that operated during prohibition and drove demand for illegal liquor while embodying a more carefree attitude in the 1920s.

Laissez-Faire Economics

• After decades of progressive reform, the traditional wing of the Republican Party espoused older ideas about small government and hands off economics.

• This became the predominant theme in the 1920s as taxes were low, business boomed, regulations were limited, and Americans lived a more carefree lifestyle, buying consumer goods.

Radio

• Key to spreading a national American culture and revolutionized advertising as Americans in the 1920s spent lots of money on consumer goods.

Stock Market Crash

• The Stock Market crashed in 1929 because it was apparent that stocks were overvalued.

• Another theory is that the overproduction of goods had outpaced American’s ability to buy them and that the gap between the rich and poor had gotten so bad that consumer spending declined.

Scopes Monkey Trial

• A teacher in Tennessee was charged with teaching evolution, symbolic of a nation grappling with modernization and tradition.

Charles Lindbergh

• First man to successfully fly over the Atlantic solo symbolizing wholesome traditional American values.

Credit

• The ability to buy now, pay later. Installment buying became popular in the 20s and it allowed many Americans to buy cars and more expensive consumer appliances.

Harlem Renaissance

• Cultural awakening in Harlem that emphasized the “New Negro” and celebrated black culture and history through journals, newspapers, music, and art, emphasizing black contributions to American life

Marcus Garvey

• Black nationalist from Jamaica that advocated Pan-Africanism in the 1920s and participated in the Back to Africa movement.

• He printed his own newspaper and bought steam ships to help blacks emigrate to Africa.

Roaring 20s Clash Between Old and New Ideas

• Culture wars ran rampant as Americans wrestled with modernization.
  *The Scopes trial represented a struggle between religion and science, Sacco & Vanzetti as well as the rise in the KKK & the National Origins Act all represented Anglo-Saxon backlash to a more diverse America due to immigration.

Groups Excluded in the Prosperity of the 1920s

• Farmers missed out as crop prices fell and the Dust Bowl set in.

• African-Americans also missed out because of racism.

Science & Technology's Influence on American Life and Nationalized Culture

• Americans embraced new technology. The radio allowed people to hear the same shows and advertisements. The Radio allowed for more entertainment.

Associational Philosophy (Hoover)

• Was a belief in cooperation between government and the private sector.

Great Depression: Smoot-Hawley Tariff

• 1930 tariff on thousands of goods imported into the United States.
  *This undoubtedly deepened the depression and misery of the time.

New Deal

• FDR’s domestic agenda, he hoped to bring progressive era ideas to the federal government, where he would use the power of the federal government to help Americans through the economic crisis.

New Deal Programs:

TVA

• Tennessee Valley Authority, this program built hydroelectric dams on the Tennessee River to provide power for a poverty stricken area in the rural south.

AAA

• Agricultural Adjustment Act, paid farmers not to farm in order to stabilize farm prices.

WPA

• Works Progress Administration, paid unemployed workers to build things like school, post offices, and streets, or doing other forms of manual labor. It also provided funding to the arts, humanities & music, paying some of people like John Steinbeck to write books or Jackson Pollack to create art.

CCC

• Relief program designed for young people, it paid them 30 a month to do manual labor in parks and other outdoor spaces. 25 was sent home so they would not be tempted to spend it on immoral things.

NRA

• National Industrial Recovery Act, was meant to end “destructive competition” by having government officials and business leaders write codes (minimum wages, max hours, price ceilings, etc…)for American businesses.

PWA

*New Deal program designed to give government contracts to private companies to build infrastructure projects. Most of the workers were skilled laborers, which is different from programs like the CCC & WPA.

Social Security

• Large social safety net program that provided old age pensions, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and many other things.

Wagner Act

• 1935 law that gave unions the legal right to collective bargaining. As well as legal protections against blackmailing of union voters.

Fair Labor Standards Act

• Bill passed in 1938 that established the first minimum wage, banned child labor, and required overtime pay for anything over 40 hours.

Court Packing

• After the AAA & NRA are declared unconstitutional, FDR responds by trying to pack the Court by adding more justices.

Bank Holiday

*FDR upon taking office ordered all banks to close temporarily to stop bank runs, as the government trucked in new money to meet the demand.

Opposition to FDR

• American Liberty League: Group of conservatives, many of whom were business owners, who opposed FDR’s New Deal as a dangerous threat to US democracy.
  *Huey Long: Former Senator and Governor of Louisiana and started “Share Our Wealth” Clubs and became a big critic of FDR and the New Deal for not taking America far enough to the left.
  *Father Charles Coughlin: Anti-semitic radio preacher who was also a critic of the New Deal for not doing enough to curb corporate power.
  *

Bonus Army

• US army veterans was another example of how inept Hoover was and how America was desperate for action, because they were asking for a cash bonus during The Depression that they were promised in 1945

Legacy of The New Deal

*Townsend, Francis: California doctor who lobbied very hard to get the Social Security Act passed to help elderly people, especially with old age pensions.
*Congress of Industrial Organizations: After the passage of the Wagner Act, unions felt empowered to strike because they had federal protections, and this lead to auto workers in Flint, led by John Lewis, went on a sit-down strike in the mid-1930s and won union recognition.

• This lead to the that formed the CIO out of the AFL, which was a new industrial union for common laborers, not just skilled workers like the old AFL.

Hoover vs. FDR

*FDR revolutionized the role of government in the 1930s with his New Deal, because Progressivism brought forth the idea that the government should take a more active role in society to help solve problems, was brought to the federal government by FDR.
*The New Deal brought about the idea that it was the government's responsibility to take care of people and provide for them when they were in need.

New Deal Success

*Liberals and Keynesian economists believed that FDR did not do enough to get us out of the depression, because Keynesian economists believed in the need for more government spending to boost production. Others believed that FDR had gone too far to the left and was making the US more socialist.

• Either way, the unemployment rate remained in the high teens until WW2. So the government spent lots of money on alphabet soup programs but still had high unemployment until war spending lowered the unemployment rate.

Foreign Policy Between the Wars: Five Powers Treaty

• Agreement between the US, Britain, Japan, France & Italy to limit the number of battleship that each country could produce.

Dawes Plan

• As the German economy collapsed in the 1920s, partially due to the reparations required by the Treaty of Versailles, the US put this plan together to try and stabilize the finances of the nations involved, because the US would loan money to Germany at low interest rates, who could then pay their reparations to Britain & France.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

• Agreement between the US and other European powers that said war was no longer a viable policy unless in cases of self-defense.

Nye Committee

• Congressional committee that investigated US entry into WW1 and concluded that banks and arms manufacturers were partially to blame because they pressed the US to go to war so they could make money off of loans or arms shipments.

• Using the Nye Committee for guidance, Congress adopted cash and carry policies in the Neutrality Acts which said we would only sell non-military goods to warring nations in exchange for cash and those nations coming to get them.

Good Neighbor Policy

• With turmoil brewing in Europe, FDR adopts the Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America which essentially committed the US to non-intervention in Latin American affairs.

Neutrality Acts

• Passed yearly in the second half of 1930s, they attempted to keep America out of foreign conflict by adopting the practice of Cash & Carry.

Lend-Lease Act

• This makes the US the “Arsenal of Democracy” by committing us to supporting allies around the world with money for supplies and not men.

1940 Draft

*Unlike WW1, FDR convinced Congress to implement a draft before we entered the war so that we would be more prepared.

Impact of Nye Committee on Foreign Policy

*The US made an effort to stay isolated as much as possible and to stay out of foreign conflicts.

US Role in the World Between Wars

*But the US was very much an active neutral with things like the Washington Conference, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and Dawes Plan, and the US attempted to forge world affairs as to eliminate conflict and keep the US out of foreign wars.

Supreme Court Cases of Note: Slaughterhouse Cases

*was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only protects the legal rights that are associated with federal U.S. citizenship, not those that pertain to state citizenship.

Cases:

*Schenck v. U.S.: Said that free speech did not give people the right to undermine government interests or to encourage people to do things that broke the law.
The Court compared this to yelling fire in a crowded theater.

• Muller v. Oregon: The Court upheld an Oregon Law that limited the number of hours that women could work.
  *Holden v. Hardy: The Court upheld a mining law in Utah that limited the number or hours worked in mining.

• Lochner v. New York: Overturned a NY law that limited the number of hours in a week worked by bakers.
  *Schecter v. U.S.: Ruled the provisions of the NRA Act to be unconstitutional because the NRA allowed businesses and government bureaucrats to write codes and provisions of key industries.
  *Plessy v. Ferguson: Many southern states enacted “Jim Crow” laws the Court ruled that a Louisiana Laws that allowed for segregated train cars was Constitutional.

World War II

*Rationing: Because of shortage due to the war, many goods were rationed. Gasoline, meat, cheese, and sugar.
*Recycling: The government need help because of the war and asked Americans to recycle things like paper, rubber, and metal.
War Bonds: The government raised taxes and borrowed money by selling war bonds which funded about half the cost of the war through debt.