History Notes

The Progressive Era

]]Definition: A reform movement concerned with curing the ill caused by industrialization]]

  • ]]Muckrakers- Progressive journalists; the name given to them by Teddy Roosevelt; trying to expose the muck of America.]]
  • ]]Jacob Riis- How the other half lives; Exposed the slums]]
  • ]]Ida Tarbell- History of the standard oil company; corrupt oil practices]]

Features of Progressivism

  • Democracy
  • ]]Initiative- When a designed number of voters petition to put something on the ballot]]
  • ]]Referencium- when the elected votes up or down on the incentive item]]
  • ]]Recall- Being able to remove public official by petition or a vote]]
  • ]]17th Amendment- Allows voters to cast direct votes for U.S senators (ratified)]]
  • ]]Fredrick W Taylor- The principles of scientific knowledge]]
  • Regulation
  • Ways to deal with business
    • ]]laissez-faire - allowing businesses to operate freely with little to no government interference.]]
    • ]]Nationalize industries- The government takes over the industries and they would be publicly owned]]
  • ]]Social Justice - fought to get alcohol banned, end child labor, improve working conditions, and make it safer.]]

]]Reforming State Governments]]

  • Robert La Follette’s “Wisconson Idea”
    • ]]Direct Primary]]
    • ]]Increase Taxes]]
    • ]]Commissions for Regulations]]
    • ]]Laws to curb lobbying]]
    • ]]Labor legislation]]
    • ]]Conservation of natural resources]]

]]Reforming the Workplace]]

  • ]]1900’s statics]]
  • ]]Workday - 10 hours a day]]
  • ]]Work Week - 6 days a week]]
  • ]]Wages - $1.50 a day (women and children were paid less)]]
  • ]]Triangle Fire - March 25, 1911]]
    • ]]Killed 146 people and injured Dozens more]]
    • ]]the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers]]
    • ]]The Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law- It required factory owners to install sprinkler systems, established the New York City Fire Prevention Bureau, and expanded the powers of the fire commissioner]]

]]The Supreme Court and Working Conditions]]

  • ]]Lochner v New York (1905) -]]
  • ]]Muller v Oregon (1908) - Challenged the 10-hour work day in Oregon; sided with Louis Brandies that 10-hour workdays have bad effects on people and their well being]]
  • ]]Louis Brandies -]]

Reforming the city

  • Reforming efforts in cities - By 1920, about 50% of Americans lived in cities
  • Playgrounds
  • National Conference on city planning - the first conference was held in 1909
  • Daniel Burnham - Architect; showed a plan to redesign Chicago

Motion Pictures

  • The Great Train Robbery
    • The first film to tell a story; produced in 1903
  • 1916 Films were the 5th largest industry
  • Censorship boards- To ban movies they found immoral

Prohibition

  • Anti-Saloon league
  • Women’s Christian Temperance Union
  • 18th Amendment - Prohibits Alcohol
    • 21st Amendment overturns it

T.R Progressivism

  • 1901 - Assassination of McKinley
  • Youngest to become president
  • “Bully Pulpit” position of moral authority to get done what he wants to get done
  • 1902 - Pennsylvania Coal Strike
    • Better Pay, recognization of union
  • Arbitration
  • Square Deal - conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection.
  • Regulation of business
  • Regulation of Railroads - Congress passed two laws
  • 1903 Elluns Act - forbade shippers from accepting rebates
  • 1906 Hepbarn Act - authorized the ICC to set railroad gates
  • Upton Sinclair’s the Jungle
  • Meat Inspection Act - makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat and meat products being sold as food, and ensures that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under strictly regulated sanitary conditions.
  • Pure food and drug act - prohibited the interstate transport of unlawful food and drugs under penalty of seizure of the questionable products and/or prosecution of the responsible parties.
  • 1872 - Yellowstone
  • 1881 Division of Forestry
  • Gifford Pinchot
  • 50 wildlife refuges
  • 5 national parks
  • 1902 - Newlands Reclamation Act
  • 1908 - National Conservation Commission
  • 1916 - National Park Service

Taft

  • 1908 election - defeated Bryam
  • Mann-Elkins Act - strengthened the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) over railroad rates.
  • Department of Labor - helps enforce labor laws
  • Sixteenth Amendment - The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and regard to any census or enumeration.
  • Trustbuster - T.R or Taft

Taft and Progressives

  • Payne-Aldrich Tariff - law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1909 in response to a call from Republican Pres. William Howard Taft for lower tariffs. His acceptance of a bill that failed to significantly decrease rates caused him to lose the support of the progressive wing of his party.
  • Richard Ballinger - mayor of Seattle
  • Pinchot was fired - Pinchot was promptly fired by Taft for his insubordination. In the ensuing public relations battle, initiated by Pinchot, Pinchot skillfully manipulated public opinion to taint Ballinger with suspicions of corruption. Meanwhile, Pinchot was heralded as the defender of the public good.
  • T.R’s reaction
    • New nationalism
  • Joesph Cannon

Election of 1912

  • Republican - Taft
  • Progressives - Bull Moose T.R
  • Democrat - Wilson
    • New Freedom
  • Socialist - Debs
  • Winner? Wilson

Wilson and Progressiveism

  • Underwood Tariff Act - re-established a federal income tax in the United States and substantially lowered tariff rates.
  • Federal Reserve Act of 1913 - created a national currency and a monetary system that could respond effectively to the stresses in the banking system and create a stable financial system.
  • Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 - banning the practices of price discrimination and anti-competitive mergers, the new law also declared strikes, boycotts, and labor unions legal under federal law. The bill passed the House with an overwhelming majority
  • Federal Trade Commission - regulate monopolies, eliminate unfair competition, and prevent the use of unfair or deceptive business practices
  • Federal Farm Loan Act - “to provide capital for agricultural development, to create a standard form of investment based upon farm mortgage, and to equalize rates of interest upon farm loans.”
  • Adamson Act - avoids a nationwide strike of railroad workers. The act sets an eight-hour work day and establishes overtime compensation for railroad workers, marking the first time the U.S. government regulates the labor conditions of non-government workers.
  • Keating-Owen Child Labor Act - It banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than eight hours during the day.

Women’s suffrage

  • 1890 - National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony
    • 1900 - Carrie Chapman Catt
  • Alice Paul
    • 1916 - National Women’s Party
  • 19th Amendment - granted the women’s right to vote

Long Range Causes

  • Nationalism
  • Imperialism
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina - annexed by Austria Hungry and angered Serbia
    • Russia Desires Iced free harbor in the baltic seas for Russian warships from the black sea to the Mediterranean sea; Germany opposed
    • Alsace-Lorraine - French land Germany took in 1871
  • Militarism Alliance
    • Triple Alliance - Germany, Austria Hungry, Italy
    • Triple Entente - Great Britain, Russia, France

The immediate cause of WWI

  • The Balkans - an unstable region
    • “Powderkeg of Europe”
  • June 28th, 1914
  • Franz Ferdinand and Sophie - both killed by Gavrilo Princip by gunshot in their open car
  • Gavrilo Princip - Killed Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, Members of the terrorist group the black hand from Serbia
  • Allied Powers - Germany, Austria Hungry, Bulgaria, The Ottoman Empire (Turkey)
  • Central Powers - Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan, United States

Early Weeks of WWI

  • Germany’s Schlieffen Plan - Started making plans as early as 1905 - quickly defeat France and then shift east to fight Russia. Its armies were to sweep down through Belgium and northern France toward Paris, like a giant swinging door. On August 4, Germany invaded Belgium, violating its neutrality.
  • Kaiser Wilhelm II - Believed the war would end before the leaves had fallen off the trees; Spent nearly 3 weeks fighting Belgium
  • General Joseph Joffre - Pushed troops to the Belgium border
    • British Troops pushed troops to northern France, however, it didn't stop the German advance. German troops pushed British and French troops to the marne river in eastern France.
  • The first battle of the Marne - German line fell back 40 miles, French and British launched a counter-offensive but were unable to dislodge the Germans
  • End of 1914 - Leaders on both sides realized there would be no quick victory.

Background of European Relationships

  • British and Russian connection - Was a descendant of Queen Victoria, Cousin was the Zhar of Russia
  • Militerisitc
  • Philosophy - “world power or decline”
  • Approved Schlieffen Plan
  • Pushed the war
  • Tried the neutralize Britain - failed
  • Churchill - commence hostilities against Germany”
  • Brutal in Belgium - The Huns went through Belgium and murdered innocent civilians

Wilson’s Personal Life

  • August 6, 1914 - Ellen passed away from a kidney disease
  • December 18, 1915 - Edith Bolling Galt married Wilson

American’s Status

  • What was the United States like at the beginning of WWI - Neutral
  • Concerns about Mexico
    • “Teach the Latin Americans to elect good men”
  • May 7, 1915 - A German U-Boat sunk the Lusitania

“There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight; there is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right”

  • Reaction Teddy, Taft, and F.D.R - They were shocked. They thought it was weak, They believed we should be going to war

Wilson and the Germans

  • Wilson’s notes - The third letter was dated July 21, 1915, not May 21, 1915, as stated in the audio clip, my apologies. If you kept your receipt, you may receive a refund)
  • Bryan’s resignation - believed Wilson should condemn Britain for there blockade against Germany
    • Replaced by Lansing
  • More German attacks
    • Arabic - August 19, 1915
    • Sussex - March 24, 1916
    • Sussex Pledge

Sussex pledge

  • May 4, 1916 - Germany issued the Sussex pledge, Passenger ships would not be targeted merchant ships would not be targeted without establishing the presence of weapons on board
  • Provisions
    • Passenger ships would not be targeted
    • Merchant ships
    • Not targeted without providing for the safety of passengers and crew
  • February 1, 1917 - Germany Resent the Sussex pledge

Wilson’s concerns

  • Critics
  • Personal Life
  • Demographics
    • 10 million out of 92 million either immigrated from Germany, had 1 or 2 parents that immigrated from Germany or Austria Hungry
  • Threat to progressive reform goals

Honors of the war

  • Trench Warfare
    • No man’s land
  • Weaponry
  • The German policy of schreklichkeit

Election of 1916

  • Candidates
    • Wilson - Democrat
    • Hughes - Republican
    • California misstep
    • Benson - Socialist
  • 1916 Election Results - Wilson
    • 277 to 254

Mid-1916 to Early 1917

  • Horrors of the War
    • Battle of the Somme - July 1 - November 18, 1916
  • Allies near financial collapse
  • German’s doubted Wilson’s Willingness to fight
  • Zimmermann Note (Zimmerman Telegram)

The US enters the war

  • National Defence Act of 1916
  • February 1, 1917
  • April 2 - Requested a declaration of war from congress
  • April 4 - Congress voted on the declaration of war 86 yes 6 no
  • April 6, 1917 - The House voted on the declaration of war
  • \
    • Wilson’s Quote
  • Jeannette Rankin - First woman to be elected into congress (Women in some states had the right to vote - it just wasn’t a federal law yet)
  • May 18, 1917, Selective Service Act - Gave the president power to draft soldiers
  • June 1917 - The first American troops arrived in Europe under the command of Genral John J Pershing

The U.S and WWI

  • Convoy System - a group of ships sailing together for protection
  • Paying for the war - the selling of bonds and taxes
  • Food Administration - Herbert Hoover
  • Fuel Administration - Harry Garfield
  • Railroad Administration - William McAdoo
  • War Industries Board- Bernard Baruch
  • Between April and October 1917 - 3,000 strikes
  • Red Scare - Fear of the spread of communism
  • National War Labor Board
  • Committee on Public Information
  • The Great Migration
  • Espionage and Sedition Act - The Act made it a crime to convey information intended to interfere with the war effort

Americans Arrive at the right time

  • Status of French Units
  • Russia
    • Nicholas II was overthrown in March 1917
    • Lenin and Bolsheviks
    • Treaty of Brest Litovsk
  • Ferdinand Foch
  • Allies took the offensive

The End of WWI

  • 11/11/18 - WWI ended
  • Wilson’s 14 points
    • Self-Determination
    • League of Nations
  • The big 4 at the Paris peace conference
    • Wilson
    • David Lloyd George
    • Georges Clemenceau
    • Vittorio Orlando

The Treaty of Versailles

  • Mandate System
  • New Nations
  • Alsace-Lorraine
  • Article231
  • League of Nations
  • The U.S Senate
    • Wilsonians - People in the senate who supported the treaty
    • Irreconcilable - People in the senate who don’t like the treaty
    • Reservations - If the league covenant were ammended

Statistics and WWI

  • 20 million military and civilian deaths
  • 21 million wounded
  • 116,000 Americans (53,000 servicemen in combat; 63,000 died of diseases)
  • Spanish influenza (1918-1919)
    • 500 million infected
    • 50-100 million worldwide died
    • 675,000 in the U.S

The Decades to Come

  • Germany, Italy, Japan
  • Middle East - Balfour Declaration 1917 - a letter written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lionel Walter Rothschild, in which he expressed the British government's support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine
    • Support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine

The roaring 20s

Post WWI Years

  • Demobilization - a shift from wartime to a peaceful time
  • Recession - Factories slowed their production; 5 million Americans were unemployed; US farms were hurt as European farms recovered from the war wanted higher wages and shorter hours
  • 1921 - unemployment
  • Red Scare
    • Palmer Raids - Searched for communists; created a special government office to collect information on radical activiy
    • Nicola Sacco - anarchists; convicted of murdering a guard during an armed robbery April 15, 1920; Sentenced to death; Excuted in 1927
    • Bartolomeo Vanzetti - anarchists; convicted of murdering a guard during an armed robbery April 15, 1920; Sentanced to death; Excuted in 1927

African Americans in the Early 1900s

  • KKK
  • Springfield Race Riot (1908) - The Springfield race riot of 1908 consisted of events of mass racial violence committed against African Americans by a mob of about 5,000 white Americans and European immigrants in Springfield, Illinois, between August 14 and 16, 1908; Six Black people were shot and killed, two were lynched and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property destroyed
  • NAACP (1909) - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
  • Marcus Gravey - He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa; Jailed for mail fraud, President Coolige pardoned him
  • W.E.B. Du Bois - Opposed to Gravey back to Africa movement

Factors that led to the Economic boom of the 1920s

  • Republican pro-business policies - 3 republican presidents in a row that were pro business
  • Abundant supplies of energy - Coal, Oil, Natural Gas, Water Power
  • Electricty - demand in new electrical appliances
  • Assembly line productions

Changes in work

  • Technical skill? Assembly line required little skill
  • What work was like - boring
  • Henry Ford’s changes - 8 hours a day, doubled there wages
  • Taylorism - scientific mangement
  • Technological advances
  • Whose jobs were threatened - Domestic servants and delivery people

Cars

  • Registered vehicles
    • 1920 - 8 million
    • 1929 - 23 million
  • Ford’s Model T
    • 1908 - $850 ($22,000 today)
    • 1923 - $290($4,000 today)
    • one color - black
  • 400,000 miles of roads were constructed in the 1920s
  • New structures - Filling stations, Drive in resteraunts, tourist cabins, billboards were popping up
  • Suburbs
  • Negative effects - Accidents, Traffic jams, parking problems

Consumerism in the 1920s

  • Percentage of home with electricity
    • 1920 - 35%
    • 1930 - 68%
  • Advertising -1929
  • Sales Techniques
  • Chain Stores
  • Credit and installment purhases

Popular Entertainment in the 1920’s

  • Commercial radio
    • NBC
    • CBS
  • Movies
    • Nickelodeons
    • “Talkies”
    • The Jazz singer
    • 1929 - 80 million Americans went to the theater each week

Famous People in the 1920s

  • Rudolph Valentino - The latin lover, Actor during the silent era
  • Clara Bow - one of the most famous actresses of her day
  • Al Jolson - He was a white man who portrayed a black man the Jazz singer which was the first “talkies” movie
  • Charlie Chaplin - famous actor
  • Cecil B. DeMille - film director & producer during 1914-1958
  • Babe Ruth - Carrer spanned 22 seasons, 1914-1945, pitcher and outfielder
    • Yankee stadium was called “The house Ruth Built”
  • Lou Gehrig
    • Yankees from 1923 -1939
  • Jim Thrope - first native American to win a gold medal for the united states
  • Gertrude Edele - swimmer
  • Helen Wills - tennis player
  • Harnold Edward “Red” Grange - Best college football player
    • Football
  • William Harrison “Jack Dempsey
    • Heavyweight champion from 1919-1926
  • Charles Lindbergh - piolet, flew 33 1/2 hour flight first transatlantic flight
  • Ameila Earhart - piolet, first female passenger, first none stop solo trip
  • Billy Sunday
  • Aimee Semple McPherson
  • Darrow and Bryan
  • Gertrude Stein
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • Sinclair Lewis
  • T.S. Eliot

Prohibitation

  • 3/4 Americans were living somewhere where it was legally dry
  • 18th Amendment (in effect from 1920-1933) - ban alcohol
  • 21st Amendment - repleaded the 18th amendment
  • Al Capone -bootleger in chicago

Fundamentalsim

  • What fundamentalists believe the bible is the word of god
  • Billy Sunday - fundamentalist
  • Aimee Semple McPherson - fundamentalist
  • The Scopes Trial
    • A.K.A Monkey Trial
    • Dayton, Tennessee
    • 24 year old John Scopes on trial
    • William Jennings Bryan
    • Clarence Darrow
    • Scopes found Guilty - fined $100

Other Cultural Issues

  • Culture of Relativity - space and time and mass was not absolute
  • Women
    • Flappers
    • 19th Amendment - women’s right to vote
    • Margaret Sanger - an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse
  • Divorce - went up

The Jazz Age

  • Origins - African Americans in the south
  • Louis Armstrong - Jazz trumpet player
  • Ferdinand Morton - Jazz piano player
  • Impact on whites
  • Dance - faster dances

Black Renaissance

  • Harlem
  • Jazz, Blues, and spirituals
  • Langston Hughes - author

The lost Generation

  • Gertrude Stien - an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector
  • Ernest Hemingway - an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
  • Sinclair Lewis - an American writer and playwright
  • T.S. Eliot - Thomas Stearns Eliot OM was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor

The role of Government in 1920s

Harding

  • 1920 election - defeated Cox
  • Symbol
  • Pro-Business Cabinet
    • Andrew Mellon
    • Herbert Hoover
  • ICC & FTC

Harding’s Economic Goals

  • Goals
    • Reduce the debt
    • budget and Accounting act of 1921
      • Created a new Bureau of the budget to streamline the process of preparing annual federal budget
    • Charles Dawes
    • Promote Economic Growth
    • Mellon’s proposal
  • Results of economic policies
  • “Sick industries”

Scandals in the Harding years

  • The Ohio Gang - followed him to Washington
  • Charles Forbes - involved in corrupt schemes
  • Daughtery - Illegally selling federal porals and pardons
  • Teapot Dome - a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923
    • Albert Fall - signed contracts with close friends

Coolidge and Hoover

  • Coolidge
    • 1924 - defeated John Davis and Robert La Follette
    • Business of America
    • Government Spending
    • Bonus Bill
    • Farm Bill
  • Hoover
    • 1928 - defeated Al Smith

Business Growth

  • Surplues Capital - money for investment
  • ]]Mergers - the combining of two or more companies]]
  • 200 corporations
  • Antitrust laws - Didn’t force anitrust laws

Labor and Farming

  • 1923 to 1929
    • Business profits - 60%
    • Workers incomes 10%
    • Farm prices slumped
  • Sick industries
  • Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act
  • Labor
    • “Yellow-dog contract”
    • The American Plan
    • Union membership

The equal rights amendment

  • Purpose - eliminate legal distinctions between men and women
  • 1923 - first introduced
  • 1972 - Congress adopted it
  • Never ratified

The Crash

  • Bull Market -The collapse of the Long Bull Market led to debt and ruin for millions of Americans and contributed to the period known in US history known as the Great Depression.
  • Bear Market -sustained periods of downward trending stock prices, often triggered by a 20% decline from near-term highs.
  • Stock Speculation
  • Margin Buying
  • Black Thursday (10/24/29)
  • Black Tuesday (10/29/29)
  • Brokers demands

The great deppression begins

  • Gross national product - Total value of all goods; 56 billion dollars
  • Average income - fell by half
  • Banks - 1930 to 1932 -People withdrew there savings
  • Causes
    • Crash
    • War Debts
    • Economic practices of the 1920s
    • High Tariffs
  • Business cycle theory

Effect on the People

  • Disposable income -1923-1929
    • Wealthiest 1% - up 63%
    • Poorest 93% - down 4%
  • Unemployment
    • 1929 - 1.5 million
    • 1930 - 4 million
    • 1931 - 8 million
    • 1932 -12 million
    • 1933 - 15 million
  • Wages - fell dramaticly
  • Black Employment - were usually the first to be let go
  • Women - women in the workforce increased
  • 1932 - Bonus Expeditionary Force

Urban America

  • Charitable Organizations
  • Neighbors helping neighbors
  • Breadlines
  • Shantytowns
  • Hooverisms

Rural America

  • Demand for farm products - prices plummeted
  • Foreclosures on farms
  • Repatriation of those of Mexican decent

Family Life

  • Dependece on eachother
  • Marriage - decline
  • Divorce - decline
  • Mothers

Culture during the deppression

  • Literature
    • James Hilton
    • Nathanael West William Faulkerner
  • Movies
  • Radio Programs
  • Magazines and comic books