unit 3 keyterms

3.4 Empire of Liberty: A Contradiction in Terms and a Conflict of Visions (1800-1848)

25. Henry Clay’s American System

• Consisted of three parts, 2nd bank of the US, the protective tariff, and funding internal improvements

• Prompted by the war of 1812, protecting against the british

• Was unable to get the third component, internal improvements, enacted at this time

• He wanted roads, canals, harbors, to help economic growth and business

• Presidents madison and monroe vetoed internal improvements bills, bc they thought it would infringe on states’ rates

• This system was viewed as patriotic since it protected american manufacturers from cheap british manufactured goods flooding the market and created american financial institutions that supported economic and growth and stability

26. Democratic-Republican Party division (National Republicans and Democrats)

• Result of different opinions on the american system

• Those who supported it became national republicans, to show that they were different from those democratic republicans who supported states’ rights more

• National republicans became kinda corrupt, they used their access to economic and political power for personal benefit, leading many to criticize these connections and call for more opportunity and democracy

• Critics of national republicans reclaimed jeffersonian principles, called themselves the democratic party under leadership of andrew jackson, and wanted equal political and economic opportunity for all white men

27. Marshall Court

• John Marshall was a Chief Justice and was a Federalist at a time when the Federalist party lost government control in the early 1800s

• Marshall Court rulings were pro-capitalist politically and economically because they placed power at the national level and made the laws uniform across the country. These decisions also promoted national economic growth.

• Marbury v. Madison (1803)

  • Established principle of judicial review. Gave the supreme court the power to review and decide on the constitutionality of all legislation. Made the judicial branch very powerful.

• Other rulings helped the increase the power of the federal government and supported capitalist

• In McCulloch v Maryland (1819) the state of maryland attempted too tax the national bank

• The court ruled this tax unconstitutional because states did not have rights to interfere with the national economic policy. It also ruled the national bank was constitutional.

• In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), New Hampshire signed a contract with the College and then tried to unilaterally alter it

• The college appealed and the court decided that contracts must be honored and could be altered unless all parties agreed to the changed, which established an orderly business environment

• The marshall court helped make important decisions and established order

28. Panic of 1819

• First economic depression of significance in US history

• Panics or depressions means problems with the economy and people's job

• Result of a drop in demand for US goods after napoleonic wars

• Many in the south and west could not pay their mortgages and lost their land to bankers in the northeast

• Resentment and tensions grew towards the north, and the south blamed this all on the north's opposition to slavery and other national economic issues that the two disagreed on

• There was nationalism following the war of 1812 but the panic of 1819 showed how sectionalist would take over and create problems

29. Samuel Slater

• Influential to the success of manufacturing in the US

• He was sent to spy on britain textile mills, bc britain was doing good they were the first industrial capital of the world and took what he saw and learned back to the us, he explained to them the breaking up of production into smaller tasks to be more efficient

• Became known as the father of the american industrial revolution

30. Cotton gin

• Invented by Eli Whitney in 1793

• Did the time consuming job of separating cotton fiber from cotton seeds

• Increased efficiency by a lot, 50 times more cotton would be cleaned per day

• This led to a greater demand for land and labor

• Whitney was an abolitionist and wanted his invention to end the dependence on slave labor, but the opposite happened as the machine increased the demand for slaves bc it meant more time and labor could be used on the actual picking of cotton

31. Limited liability laws

• Made it so whatever money stockholders invested in a company was the only money they were responsible for if something went wrong

• They were only liable for their individual investments

• So if the company went into debt it didn't really affect the stockholders they could only lose what they originally put in, not more than that

• In turn more people invested bc it wasn't so risky and these laws were crucial to the expansion of business during the market revolution

32. Erie Canal

• Constructed between 1817-1825

• Key transportation route between eastern and western New York

• Originally 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep, but later expanded and allowed for more trafic

• Cut travel time between buffalo and NYC from twenty days to six

33. Cumberland Road / National Road

• Connected east cost to trans-appalachian west

34. Telegraph

• Completed in 1844 by samuel morse

• By 1860, more than 50k miles of telegraph cables connected the country

• A transcontinental telegraph line operated between NYC and San Fran

• Ruined the newly created Pony Express, created in 1859, within a year there was no need for it

35. Factors for economic growth during Market Revolution

• During market revolution, growing demand for labor in northeastern factories, filled by immigrants and migrants to the cities who were leaving farms

36. Lowell Mills

• Opened in 1823 massachusetts

• Was supposed to be an improvement over england's terrible living and working conditions in factories

• Hired mostly young women, somewhat neat dormitories for workers

• Women hired bc they could be paid less

• Overworked, long days, 6 days a week, strict rules, couldn’t really live life, low wages, fast work

• Eventually the women strike in 1834, but they were just replaced by male workers, and wages continued to decline in 1840s

• Strikers of bad conditions were met with militia

• Finally companies reduced workday hours by a little

37. Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)

• Court ruled that unions were legal organization and strikes were legal tactics

38. King Cotton

• Southern economy during market revolution relied on cotton and cotton dominated partly bc of cotton gin and also slavery

• South expanded west and southwest states had more power, those states grew the most cotton, it grew better in those states like alabama to texas

• Economic growth

39. Jacksonian Democracy

• Expansion of democracy to include all white men

• For the common people

• Equal political and economic rights and opportunities for all white males

• Ironically, he voted against universal white male suffrage when he was part of the tennessee state legislature

40. Tariff of 1828 (Tariff of Abominations)

• A tax on manufactured imports that the north supported and the south opposed

• Northerners thought it would protect their business from foreign competition, and south opposed because they depended on imported manufactured goods which would be more expensive with the tax

• John calhoun helped craft the Tariff even tho he was with the south to prove a point against tariffs bc he thought the north would opposed, but he was wrong, they liked it and he ended up fighting against his own tariff

• The tariff symbolized the power of the federal government to do what it wants to the states and the southerners feared this would affect their slavery, this is why the south didn’t like it

41. South Carolina Exposition and Protest

• Calhoun wrote exposition and protest to secretly fight against the tariff and say that the state had the right to nullify the tariff since it was unconstitutional

42. Jackson’s Bank Veto

• After his opponent, Henry Clay and the head of the BUS, Nicholas Biddle made the BUS an election issue, Jackson was forced to either support it or veto it. Clay thought no matter what Jackson did he would lose support, but the northeast who supported the BUS did not really care or matter in the election, and the south who opposed the bank mattered a lot more. So Jackson chose to veto the bank, gaining popularity in the South and winning the election smoothly. The veto enforced the idea that Jackson represented the common man, against the elites. Also the BUS was believed to only benefit the wealthy class which is why southerners didn’t like it.

• Jackson stated that he was vetoing the bank because he personally did not support it, not because it was unconstitutional. In the past presidents only vetoed bills if they found it unconstitutional. Jackson increased the power of the executive (president in charge) branch and established a new precedent that presidents could use the veto if they just disagreed with a bill.

43. Specie Circular

• An executive order issues by Jackson that required all public land to be bought with specie, meaning gold and silver, which was scare and caused deflation

• This hurt the base of Jackson’s support in the West and South and contributed to the panic of 1837

44. Panic of 1837

• Caused by Jackon’s destruction of the BUS, the creation of “pet banks,” the specie circular, Nicholas Biddle who made it harder for business and banks to borrow money by calling in loans, meaning making the borrow repay a loan immediately, basically a lot of economic troubles, and also the failure of british banks led to calls for loans to be paid by Americans to these banks overseas.

• Van Buren the president after jackson had to deal with the panic and he made it so the federal government had nothing to do with any banking system, and created an independent treasury that had no connection to the federal government

• Independent treasury meant the government stored its money in vaults rather than state or private banks

45. Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)

• Two companies operated toll bridges over the charles river in boston, massachusetts

• Supreme court ruled that the initial contract to build a bridge, charles bridge, could not exclude the competition of a second company, warren bridge, because it would prevent competition and hurt the common good

• This changed the marshall courts doctrine on the sanctity of contracts, they cannot be changed unless both sides agree, ruling instead that states could amend or void contracts when the common good outweighed the importance of the first contract

3.6 With Liberty and Justice for All: Post-Reconstruction Backlash and the Industrial Revolution

(1865-1898)

46. Republican Economic Plan (four parts)

• Created after the 1860 election when the south seceded and the republican party dominated the federal government

• Rooted in hamilton’s and clay’s economic plans

• Consisted of land grants, a protective tariff, internal improvements, and a national bank

• Land Grants: The homestead act gave white americans 160 acres of public land in the west for a small fee, land grants example, homesteaders only had to live on the land for 5 years and improve it, This came at the expense of native americans. The morrill act gave land to the state governments so they could sell it and use the money to finance public education, leading to many state colleges and universities to be created

• Congress passed protective tariffs, by the civil war's end raised the tariff to record levels. Helped to protect us business from foreign competition

• Republicans also passed internal improvements focusing mainly on railroad construction

  • Completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869

  • Union pacific built the railroad west from omaha nebraska

  • Used mostly irish immigrant labor

  • The central pacific built eastward from san fran, using chinese labor

  • The two companies met at promontory point, utah

  • Under the pacific railway act of 1862, the companies received 200 square miles in the states and 400 square miles in the territories for every mile of track completed

  • Federal government support railroad companies financially

• A new national banking system was created

47. Factors leading to industrial growth

• The republican economic plan

• Federal government supporting business and economic growth

• A high tariff, national bank, uniform and stable currency, subsidized internal improvements, court decisions that supported business, open immigration laws for a large labor supply, and the allowance of monopolies

48. Frederick Winslow Taylor and “Scientific Management” or “Task Management”

• Sped up production

• Taylor broke down the factory work into small, unskilled tasks and timed how long they took to complete

• More efficient, but there were critics as Taylor made up a lot of data but workers still had to meet his numbers or they were fired

• Made it harder on workers and made them replacedable, they were like parts in a larger machine

49. Horizontal integration

• The buying out or consolidating (unite, merge, combine) with other businesses involved in the same industry.

• Vanderbilt (railroads) and Rockefeller (oil) used this strategy

50. Vertical integration

• The purchase of various companies to control the entire chain of production of goods. Basically like dominating all the companies to have full control

• Carnegie used this to dominate the steel industry. He owned iron ore mines, steel plants, and railroads and ships that transported the finish product to the market

• Allowed him to control costs and maximize profits

51. Trusts

• Formed when stockholders transferred their stock to a group of trustees who managed all the stock. When the trustees gained enough stock in many companies they could control them and eliminate competition between them. Trustees managed other people’s stock and took a big part of the profit generated.

• Multiple companies in the same industry would essentially consolidate their power by placing their stock under the control of a board of trustees, effectively eliminating competition within that market and allowing them to manipulate prices and production levels to their advantage, often at the expense of consumers; essentially creating a monopoly or near-monopoly within a sector

• Basically took a bunch of business, made them into one big one, so they all got what they wanted, more profits and such, while leaving little business in the dust bc they couldn’t compete against one powerful business

52. “New South”

• The redeemers (large plantation owners, new class of merchants, industrialists, railroad developers, and financiers) hoped to create a “new south”

• They wanted the economy to thrive on more sources of income, from a wider range of sectors and markets (so like not just cotton based, or agriculture or mining based)

• They wanted industrialization

• Realization during civil war that southern economy was too reliant on plantation agriculture

• New south promoted virtues of thrift, industry, and progress, which were qualities that southerners looked down upon before the civil war

53. Convict-lease system

• A system some factories used in south the fill labor supply

• Southern states leased (rented, granted) prisoners who were usually african american to private companies and landowners to create a cheap labor supply

• The prisoners were treated horribly and some died

• They were not paid because the lease fees went to the state government

• This system gave employers unpaid labor even though slavery was illegal

• The system also limited jobs for free laborers since they cannot compete with people who employers don’t have to pay

54. Sharecropping

• Enslavement under a different name

• Black people worked land owned by white families and were not paid except for the fact that they could keep a small share of the crop grown

• The black sharecroppers could not leave the land until their debts were paid off, which was hard to do and did not usually happen, bc they were not paid, and this ensured a constant unpaid labor source

55. Panic of 1873

• Triggered after the cooke brothers incident

• Henry cook basically invested money from his bank the freedmens, savings bank, from former enslaved people into his brothers northern pacific railroad but when the railroad project failed, investors pulled out of the project, Henry Cooks banked collapsed bc he invested money and didn't get any profits back and the railroad company declared bankruptcy

• Businesses failed, deflation worsened, and working class and small farmers were impacted most

• More severe than other panics, lasted four years and affected more people because more americans were connected to the capitalist system than ever before

• Problems regarding currency, greenbacks

56. Gold standard vs. bimetallism

• The gold standard was tying the amount of currency to the amount of gold the U.S. held. Could only print more money if it added more gold to its reserves

• Workers and farmers favored bimetallism, the use of silver in addition to gold to back up the currency

57. Greenback Party

• A single-issue third party

• Hoped to pressure the government to print more greenbacks

58. Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

• Was created as concerns rose surrounding monopolies and trusts (concerns that these things were creating high consumer prices, low wages, and an unstable economy)

• Created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to ensure that railroad rates were fair

• Eliminated rebates (paying back) which railroads used to benefit large companies

• But the ICC was led by former railroad lawyers, and the law did not set specific rates, so there was no actual regulation of railroad companies

• Made it so it seemed like regulation of these monopolies was happening without actually really doing anything

59. Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

• Gave again just the appearance that trusts were being regulated but the law was used to break labor unions rather than corporate monopolies. Lots of corruption here,

60. U.S. v. E.C. Knight (1895)

• Brought about by the lack of reform from the sherman antitrust act

• In this case, the supreme court ruled the E.C. Knight sugar company was not an illegal monopoly even though it produced 98% of the country’s sugar

• Court ruled that the company held a manufacturing monopoly, not a distribution monopoly so it could continue with business as usual

61. Grange Movement

• Formed by farmers in 1967, an education and scientific organization (forming a union)

• Taught farmers how to use new agricultural technology and techniques

• The panic of 1873 ruined many farmers and brought others to the brink of bankruptcy and caused the Grange to become an economic and political organization

• Set up farming cooperatives as farmers pooled their money and resources to help one another

• Also wanted government to regulate railroad companies to prevent price gouging (make someone pay too much)

• Led to passage of granger laws, court decision that favored farmers across the midwest

62. Munn. V. Illinois (1877)

• An example of these court decisions that favored farmers

• The court rules that state governments could regulate railroad prices on rail lines within their state

• Important victory for farmers, railroad owners hated it

63. Farmers’ Alliance

• It replaced the Grange in 1880

• Included several regional association across the country

• Created cooperatives and fought for more government regulation of monopolies and railroad companies

• Favored a lower tariff, bimetallism, and direct election of the U.S. Senators

• This movement did not benefit all farmers, it excluded black farmers in the south who were banned from membership

• In turn black farmers created the Colored Farmers’ Alliance

• Could not implement significant chance at a national level, and led organizers to form the populist party in 1980 with the Ocala Demands

• Populist party became the largest third party political movement in the U.S.

64. Wabash v. Illinois (1886)

• Nine years of Munn v. Illinois and reversed what Munn v, Illinois achieved

• The supreme court rules that only Congress, not state governments, had the power to regulate interstate trade

• Win for railroad owners because they had more influence over federal government than state governments

• Farmers were angry which led Congress to take action in the form of the Interstate Commerce Act and Sherman Antitrust Act, but these laws had small impacts

65. Difficulties in organizing labor unions

• Workers were divided by ethnic tensions, divisions also existed between immigrants and U.S.-born workers

• Wages so low workers were scared to fall further into poverty, making them easier to exploit

• Hard to organize at a national scale because of size and diversity of the workforce

• Unions faced heavy opposition from most Americans who saw them as radical and a threat to society

• Unions were equated with socialism and anarchism because many unions leaders and organizers were european immigrants where these political philosophies had some support among union organizers

• Business leaders portrayed unions as radical to undermine them in the public eye

• Also, some immigrants were planning on just earning some money and then going back to their native country and so they were unwilling to join unions

• Workers changed jobs often making it hard to organize a workforce

• Also, corporations held all the power and could get the government to send in troops to destroy strikes

• Also the idea of self made man and american dream made many people believe that equal opportunity existed and that unions were not needed

• Also when unions were rightfully violent, like the Molly Maguires, it wa used against them and used against unions in general

66. Knights of Labor

• Largest union of the era, formed in 1869 by Uriah Stephens

• Initially existed as a secret society

• Under Terence Powderly, the knights of labor became an open union in the 1870s

• Held nearly a million members by the early 1880s, making it the largest union of the 19th century

• Called for societal reforms, in addition to better pay and working conditions and an eight hour workday

• Reforms also included an end to child labor, equal pay for men and women, and an income tax on the wealthy to pay for government regulatory agencies

• The knights of labor included all workers in the east, even african americans and women, but excluded chinese americans in the west due to local pressure from white workers

67. American Federation of Labor

• Another large union of the era, formed in 1881 under the leadership of Samuel Gompers and it took over the leadership of the labor movement by the mid 1880s

• The AFL was made up of white, male, skilled workers

• Unlike the Knights of Labor, they did not want to reform the capitalist system but focused only on “bread and butter” issues, better wages and working conditions

68. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW/ “Wobblies”)

• Most radical unions of the era

• Founded in 1905 by socialists including “Big Bill” Haywood

• In response to the violence carried out by the government and corporations against other unions during strikes

• The IWW called for violence if necessary to overthrow capitalism

• They were destroyed by the government during and immediately following WWI when its leaders were deported or jailed

• These governments actions were justified during the war as necessary to protect the nation’s security

69. Great Strike of 1877 / National Railroad Strike of 1877

• First national strike in U.S. history and caused fear of a class war across the country, showing how economic concerns were becoming a national scope

• Began after eastern railroad companies announced a 20% wage cut during the Panic of 1873

• Workers went on strike due to these wage cuts and control over working conditions

• State and national troops were called out to violently end the strike

• More than 100 people killed, establishing the pattern followed by other strikes throughout the Gilded Age

70. Haymarket Square Affair (1886)

• Violence after peacefully striking workers were met with violence by the police, who killed four of them, in 1886 after wages were cut for workers at the mccormick harvester company in chicago

• The haymarket square meeting was to protest police actions, thousands of workers met, and police broke up this meeting as it was winding down and a bomb was thrown, killing 8 police officers and four striking workers

• It is unknown who threw the bomb but anarchists were blamed and the Knights of Labor were equated with anarchism and radicalism so the union was destroyed by the claim

• 8 anarchists were convicted for the bombing even though six of the convicted men were not present at Haymarket square went the attack happened and the other two were visible on a podium when the bomb exploded

• These anarchists were still blamed bc the judge ruled that their beliefs in violence made them as guilty as the actual person responsible, and four were executed, two given life sentence, and one given 15 year sentence, one committed suicide

71. Homestead Strike (1892)

• In an attempt to eliminate the AFL, andrew carnegie cut wages at his steel plants, of one them in homestead, pennsylvania

• The union called a strike and henry clay frick shut the plant down, hired 200 pinkerton security agents to protect the plant and strikebreakers who were hired to replace the striking workers

• The guards were the company’s private army and a battle broke out between the striking workers and the pinkerton guards

• Striking workers won the battle, but the company would win the war

• Firck called in governor of Pennsylvania and got the governor to send in national guard troops to break the strike and protect the strikebreakers

• After an anarchists tried to kill Frick, who survived, the assassination attempt lost the public’s support for the union even though the anarchist Alexander Berkman had no affiliation with the union or the striking workers

• Unions seemed like a threat to american society and capitalism

72. Pullman Strike (1894)

• Strike against george pullman who ran a company town where his workers were forced to live and during panic of 1893 he cut wages by 25% but kept prices of good and rent the same so workers striked through the american railway union headed by eugene debs

• The strike effectively shut down railroads

• Pullman appealed to federal government for help and president cleveland and attorney general richard olney who was a former railroad attorney said the strike interfered with the delivery of federal mail

• Eugene Debs was sent to jail after he wouldn't end the strike and the strike was crushed by federal troops

• Thirteen workers were killed and 53 were injured when federal troops opened fire on the striking workers

73. Eugene Debs

• American Railway Union leader Eugene Debs did not start out as a radical, but his experiences led him to become critical of capitalism and business leaders

• After he was arrested during the pullman strike he argued his arrest was illegal and he had been denied constitutional rights

• His case ended up in the supreme court where majority upheld his imprisonment

• While in prison he read socialist theory and became a convert (change of beliefs)

• Became one of the most important socialists in the US during early 1900s and ran for president five times as a social candidate between 1900-1920

• Won 6% of popular vote in 1912, won over 3% (900,000) vores of the popular vote while running from jail in his final presidential candidacy

• Arrested and in jail again for opposing the draft during WWI

74. Emma Goldman

• Jewish immigrant from Russia arrived in the United States in 1885 became an influential critic of capitalism

• Her and her sister fled antisemitism, economic oppression, and an oppressive father

• Became involved in labor struggles and a leading advocate for anarchism especially after the haymarket affair

• She believed anarchy was the only way to attain true freedom

• Did not think change could happen through the political system “if voting changed anything, they’d made it illegal”

• In 1906 she founded an anarchist journal named Mother Earth

• Lecturer in a male dominated world, feminist, critic of the patriarchy, advocate for contraception, supporter of gay rights

• Was viewed as a threat from the US government perspective so she was jailed multiple times, 1917 during world war I when she opposed the draft

• Three years after he arrest she was deported to russia

75. Henry George’s Progress and Poverty

• Written in 1879, a very influential critique of the capitalist system in the late 19th century

• Blamed poverty on the wealthy who controlled most of the land and land prices

• Pointed out that the increased production had not reduced poverty

• Argued land became more valuable during technological advancements like the industrial revolution

• His solution was a new single tax on land that would redistribute wealth

• Said gap between rich and poor was not due to natural laws but resulted from environments made by people and could be altered by laws

• Was most widely sold out book of the era except for the bible

• Credited with helping to spark the progressive era

76. Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward

• Written in 1888

• Protagonist falls asleep and awakens in the year 2000 to find the US became a socialist utopia

• Became another most widely read book

77. Horatio Alger

• Important proponent of the self-made man ideology

• Philosophy based on ben franklins

• Added luck into the recipe for success

78. Social Darwinism

• Emerged at this time (late 1800s) to justify the economic status quo

• Herbert spencer was one of the founders of this ideology and he influenced William Graham Sumner

• Applied Darwin’s theory of evolution and survival of the fittest to the economy

• Spencer and Sumner said only the best businesses and people would be successful and the weak would fail

• Gave a pseudo-scientific justification for the success of the rich and the failure of the poor

• Made it so there was no need to analyze the system or to question its fairness

• Critics like Henry George pointed out that the natural world and the social world are not the same, people create laws and rules within their societies, people establish the rules of the economy and larger society

• There are no natural laws applying to an economic system, economic laws can be changed and be used to benefit some people over others

79. Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”

• Another justification for the wealth of a few

• Argued that excessive wealth already existed but that the wealthy had a responsibility to the rest of society to use their wealth to benefit society

• Believed the wealthy should give back in the form of cultural enrichment that could help others become wealthy

• This meant building schools, universities, libraries, and concert halls

• This led to many private universities being founded in this era, vanderbilt, stanford, duke

• The gospel of wealth was criticized by some who argued it did nothing to improve the working conditions and wages of the working class

80. Ocala Demands (Omaha Demands)

• Made up the Populist platform in the 1892 and the 1896 presidential elections

• Demands included helping out farmers economically, ending concentrated power, replacing private owned banks with postal savings bank, the direct election of US senators instead of the wealthy business owners handpicking senators, government regulation of railroads, telephones, and telegraph lines to avoid monopolies and high prices, income tax to redistribute wealth by taxing the wealth, adopting bimetallism to increase currency in circulation

81. Panic of 1893

• Began when railroad companies began failing after they expanded beyond the demand

• More than 70 railroad companies went bankrupt

• Banks couldn’t regain their loans, couldn’t get the money the were owed back, so they called in loans from small business and farmers (meaning they had to pay their loans instead of the railroad companies who were bankrupt) but the farmers could not pay off their loans either, leading to bank failures bc lack of money

• Unemployment reached 20%

• Between 1889-1890, farm foreclosures were so high that 90% of farmland was owned by banks

• The wealthiest 1% of Americans owned 51% of the country’s wealth and the poorest 44% owned less than 2%

• Led to the first mass march on Washington in U.S. history

82. Coxey’s Army

• In protest to the lack of government action during the panic of 1893, where the unemployed wanted inflation of the currency (bimetallism) and government spending for public works projects to create jobs, Coxey led a march of the unemployed in Washington, D.C.

• Coxey’s army was ignored by the federal government

• Coxey and many protestors were arrested for trespassing after walking on the grass at the Capitol

• No further action came from the government

3.7 Freedom From Fear: Progressivism, the Great Depression, and the World at War (1890-

1945)

83. Progressive Movement

• Foundation was set by the populist party

• Did create real reforms

• Middle class version of the populist movement

• Both fought against the same things but the populist though the system was broken while progressives believed the government could fix social problems through regulation and oversight

• Based on social sciences and wanted to use the federal government as a change agent to make political and economic systems fairer in order to create more equal opportunity

• Most progressives middle class, and were optimistic that change could happen, opposed laissez-faire capitalism and instead called for an “activist state” to restore fairness

• Wanted to eliminate corruption of the corporate state and prevent any radical overthrow of the capitalist system and to use the power of the federal and state governments to eliminate monopolies and trusts and to improve working and living conditions for the working class

• Rooted in jacksonian democracy, the antebellum social reform movements (including abolitionism), and the populist movement

• Inspired by critics of the gilded age

84. Thomas Nast

• Political cartoonist, popular critic during progressive movement

• Cartoons challenged the corruption of “Boss” William tweed and his political machine in NYC

85. Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives

• Exposed the poverty of people living in poverty-ridden tenements

86. Hull House (Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr)

• A settlement established by jane addams and ellen gates starr in 1889, to help the unhoused, immigrants, and poor families

• Also advocated for child care, improved labor protections, and higher wages for workers

87. Ida Tarbell

• Journalist for McClure’s

• Most influential expose, the History of Standard Oil, traced John D. Rockefeller’s rise to dominance over the oil industry, which included many questionable methods

• This work led to the Elkincs act

• Tarbell’s work prevented conservative politicians and business leaders from publicly criticizing the law

88. Lincoln Steffens

• wrote the Shame of the Cities (1904)

• Criticized the corruption of the city bosses and the poor living conditions of people in the cities

• Also blamed citizens for allowing and putting up with corruption

• Led to the defeat of city bosses across the country

89. Muckraker

• Coined by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 to criticize some journalist who he believed were overly critical of American society and seemed to be more interested in selling newspapers and magazines with big headlines, less credible journalists, not those from McClure’s who he supported

• Muckraker means one who digs deep, down the muck of issues

• Roosevelt was mad that some of these journalists didn’t wanna get involved in extensive research and did not care about getting all the facts right

• He was also concerned with growing socialist propaganda

90. Upton Sinclair and The Jungle

• One of the most famous muckrakers and wrote one of the most widely read anti-capitalism novels in U.S. history

• Wanted to advocate socialism, did so through the Jungle

• Exposed the injustices of capitalism

• Lived in packingtown for seven weeks to get research for the book and he found it difficult to find a publisher, but after lawyers verified the truth behind the stories of his book, it was finally published

• Unlike most progressives and muckrakers, sinclair wanted to replace capitalism

• More than most muckraking works, the jungle led to real reform of the capitalist system

• Sinclair got his book to president roosevelt who supported the meat inspection act and pure food and drug act

• Sinclair did get a meeting with roosevelt but roosevelt was not interested in hearing about sinclair’s support of socialism

91. Lochner v. New York (1905)

• (supreme court remained conservative despite the political changes of the progressive era)

• Supreme court ruled that the law that established a ten hour maximum workday (reduced from fourteen hours) was unconstitutional

• Court ruled that the state could not limit the number of hours people could work

92. Muller v. Oregon (1908)

• Supreme court upheld the constitutionality of an Oregon state law that established fewer working hours for women (10 per day) on the grounds that they were more “fragile” physically and emotionally than man

• So the court seemed to take a more progressive stance in that it supported worker protections, but on the sexist belief that women were weaker, in reality all workers needed protection

93. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

• One key event that led to changes in working conditions in this era

• The fire occurred in New York’s Garment District and killed 146 people

• Fire killed garment workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory who were unable to escape because they were locked in the building

• This factory was located on the 7, 8, and 9 floors of the building and there was only one fire escape and it collapsed during the fire

• The workers, mostly women, died from smoke inhalation or they jumped to their deaths in desperation to escape the flames

• Factory owner previously refused the make the workplace safer bc it was too expensive

• Company collected over $64,000 in insurance damages

• 23 families sued for the deaths of their family and were given a total of $1,700 or $75 per life lost

• Worst workplace disaster in NYC until 911

• This fire really catalyzed the creation of laws protecting workers from unsafe working conditions

94. Mother Jones

• Mary Harris, Led efforts to organize child workers and eliminate child labor

• Left ireland during potato famine, settled in memphis tennessee, married george jones, After he family died from sickness she moved to chicago where she lost all her belongings in the great chicago fire of 1871

• Jones then joined the labor movement becoming known as Mother Jones, traveled around helping striking workers and child workers to organize

• In 1903 organized a children’s strike in Philadelphia, which included 16,000 children silk workers

• The children demanded their hours be cut from 60 to 50 hours per week

• Eventually but to 55

• The fight against child labor continued until federal govern prohibited child labor in 1938 under the Fair Labor Standards Act

95. Florence Kelley

• Another leading Progressive who worked on labor rights

• Fought to end child labor and sweatshops for a minimum wage and an eight-hour working day

• Led the national consumer league, exposing working conditions and urging consumes to stop products made by child labor or companies that did not follow worker protection laws

• Co-founder of the national association for the advancement of colored people

96. Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal

• Roosevelt’s domestic policy

• Consisted of the three C’s, control of corporations, care for consumers, and conservation of natural resources

• Roosevelt was a middle-ground reformer of capitalism, wanted to reform some of the problems with capitalism, ensuring its survival in the long run

• Not revolutionary or radical, although critics would claim he was

• He broke forty-four trusts in seven years, but he only attacked monopolies or trusts he deemed back for the consumer, good trusts were like U.S. steel and standard oil, which were let in place since roosevelt argued they kept prices low, while “bad trusts” were J.P. morgan's northern securities company (a railroad trust) and the Beef Trust

• Helped created the Department of Commerce and Department of Labor to gather data that was used to bust some trusts

• Gave strength to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which was empty reform until Roosevelt began using it to regulate interstate trade, eliminated reacted with the Elkins Act and set maximum railroad rates with the Hepburn Act

• For the first time railroad companies were being regulated by the federal government, which is what Populists previously demanded in the late 1800s

97. Elkins Act (1903)

• Eliminated railroad rebates (a partial refund to someone who has paid too much money for tax, rent, utility, etc)

• Roosevelts creation, part of the interstate commerce act of 1887

• Railroads couldn’t make small shippers pay more than large shippers who usually got rebates

98. Hepburn Act (1906)

• Set maximum railroad rates, also part of interstate commerce act

• Made shipping and stuff in railroad business more equal

• The interstate commerce commission had more power over railroads

99. Anthracite coal strike of 1902

• Miners went on strike, as winter approached it became a national issues bc people needed coal to heat their homes and schools at this time

• Unlike past strikes, Roosevelt threatened to use the power of the federal government against the coal mining company and not the striking workers

• Made the company help the workers, negotiate union, better pay and hours, which the company refused to do up until this point

• Roosevelt threatened he would seize the mines with federal troops

• Negotiations led to a 10% wage increase and a reduced nine-hour workday, however the United Mine Workers union was not recognized

• Workers received much of what they wanted but not everything

100. Meat Inspection Act (1906)

• Part of the square deal, care for consumer

• After Roosevelt read Upton sinclair's the Jungle, he ignored his argument for socialism, but realized the need to clean up the meatpacking industry

• Led him to support the passage of the meat inspection act and and pure food and drug act in 1906

• Created federal regulation of the meat and drug industries, ensuring they met minimum health standards

101. Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

• Another result of Roosevelt reading the jungle, and leading him to support this act, ensured meat and drug industries met minimum health standards

102. Panic of 1907

• During Roosevelt’s second term, a short but severe panic

• Roosevelt’s critics called it the “Roosevelt Panic”

• Old Guard Republicans and business leaders tried to blame roosevelt to undermine him and his progressive domestic reforms since they were more conservative

• Led to the passage of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act (1908), which authorized banks to issue emergency currency during the panic to fix deflation

• The success of this law led to creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to manage currency

103. Taft and trusts

• Brought ninety lawsuits against trusts in his four years in office

• Upset Roosevelt by breaking up the Standard Oil and U.S. Steel in 1911, because Roosevelt believed it was a good trust and should be left alone

• Upset progressives with his handling of the tariff issue

• Progressives and many American consumers really wanted a lower tariff because a high one led to higher prices for consumers, they saw the tariff as a major concern

• Taft, like cleveland in the 1890s, failed to substantially reduce the tariff after the senate prevented it

• Despite his disappointment with the final bill, Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) upsetting Roosevelt and Progressives

104. Underwood Tariff Federal Trade Act

• Wilson wanted to significantly reduce the tariff and he did it with the Underwood Tariff act

• The bill also created a graduated income tax to offset the loss of revenue from a lower tariff

• Wilson campaigned that he wanted to eliminate trusts but as president he realized that he could not accomplish this and did the same as Roosevelt, kept “good trusts” and attacked “bad” ones

• To help combat trusts Wilson supported the two pieces of legislation, first the Federal Trade Act which created a commission to examine trusts and monopolies that participated in interstate commerce, investigating corruption and unfair practices

105. Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)

• Second piece of legislation Wilson supported to combat trusts

• Reinforced the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

• Significantly, it also exempted the labor unions and agricultural organizations from antitrust legislations

• In the 1890s the sherman antitrust act had most often been used against labor unions

• The clayton act made sure companies couldn’t stop unions from forming

106. Federal Reserve System

• Based on the Aldrich-Vreeland Act

• Created in 1913

• A kind of Third BUS

• Has a federal reserve board, appointed by the president and approved by Congress, that oversees twelve regional reserve districts, each with its own central bank

• Bankers run these banks with oversight by government officials

• Has the power to print currency and control currency to meet the needs of the economy, with the goal of eliminating the boom and bust cycles of the economy

107. Ludlow Massacre

• In september 1913 a coal strike began in Ludlow, Colorado at a Rockefeller owned mine

• 11 thousand most immigrant workers went on strike following the murder of one of their organizers, they demanded better pay, working and living conditions

• Live in a company town completely controlled by mining company

• When the strike began, miners would evicted from their homes

• Mother Jones led the efforts to organize workers and their families, who set up tent colonies in the nearby hills and continues their strike from this location

• The rockefeller company hired guards who began attacking the workers

• Colorado's government called in the national guard to end the strike and rockefeller paid their wages

• Strikebreakers, unaware of the strike, were brought in at night by the National Guard

• On morning of April 20, 1914, national guardsmen launched a machine gun attack on the workers, they fired back

• Strike leader Lou Tikas agreed to meet and discuss a cease fire but instead he was shot and killed

• 25 people, including women and children were killed in the massacre

• Miners from nearby towns came to defend the strikers

• Fighting went on for ten days and president wilson sent in federal troops to end the violence before it worsened

• Federal troops disarmed both sides and ended the violence but the strike continued until december 1914

• At least 66 men, women, and children were killed during the strike between september and april, making it the deadliest strike in U.S. history

• No national guardsmen were indicted for violence

• National attention quickly shifted to events in mexico where u.s warships were attacking city of veracruz and the massacre was forgotten

108. Louis Brandeis

• Important progressive leader

• Author of Wilson’s New Freedom platform (attacking tariffs, “triple wall of privilege” referred to tariffs, trusts, and banks) and Wilson’s advisor

• Wilson appointed Brandeis to the Supreme Court, making him the first jewish american supreme court justice

• Leading progressive jurist until his retirement in 1939

109. 1920 census

• Showed for the first time that a majority of Americans lived in cities

• Along with the industrialization of the 19th century, confirmed that Hamilton’s industrial vision defeated Jefferson's agrarian vision for America

• Agriculture and farmers remained an important part of the economy but were no longer dominant

110. Reconversion of economy post

-World War I

• Reconverts after war from a wartime to a peacetime economy

• Means the economy moves from a highly centralized, government controlled economic system with a heavy production of war materials (sometimes with wage and price controls) to a much less regulated economy where the prices, wages, and products made are left to supply and demand

• Following the war there was high inflation followed by a recession

• Post world war I economic difficulties had a major impact on workers leading to labor unrest

• Inflation kept prices high, but wages reduced bc government ended its oversight of wages and prices (peacetime economy)

• Companies took away benefits, higher wages, and recognition of unions that they were forced to give workers during the war to prevent strikes and ensure war production continued

• (war was over so they didn’t have to be as nice to the workers who were supporting the war by producing goods like weapons and such, things they needed, and could go back to exploiting them because they didn’t have as much to lose)

• Also as veterans returned from the war there were concerns about job competition

• Record number of strikes occurred across the country after WWI

• Dock Workers in seattle went on strike

• Police force in boston went on strike

• Unions were still prevented, remained weak, made out to seem radial and violent, upper and middle class did not want them, but welfare capitalism was implemented which took care of workers if the business was profitable but this ended with the great depression

• Unions helped distribute wealth which was important because America became a consumer based society meaning more people needed more money to buy stuff and support the economy but by the end of the 1920s too few people had all the wealth, not having unions and business leaders and conservative republicans were part of this problem. Those people did nothing to stop the wealth gap problem

111. McNary-Haugen Bill

• Farmers supported this bill, it passed three times in congress but was vetoed each time by president calvin coolidge who argued for a laissez-faire approach to the economy so he did not support price supports which angered farmers

• The bill helped farmers get a certain price for their produce so that they could make more profit bc they were producing more than ever but bc of overproduction, their goods cost little money since they needed to be bought, leading to the farmers not making much money even though they produced and sold a lot

112. Theodore Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class

• Theodore Veblen was an economist who criticized the growth of consumerism, and wrote the theory of the leisure class in 1899 and coined the concept of conspicuous consumption which means buying things just for the purpose of displaying social status

113. Causes of the Great Depression

• Several causes that were rooted in the decade leading up to the crash

• First the economy relied too heavily on the automobile and construction industries so when they slowed down at the end of the decade the economy was seriously impacted

• Second, excessive corporate mergers led to an even greater concentration of corporate wealth so as some of these corporation were impacted it created a massive effect on the entire economy

• In 1929, 200 companies owned fifty percent of the country’s corporate wealth

• Another caused was rooted in income inequality

• Wealth increased during the decade, the proportion going to workers and farmers decreased, and a greater gap between rich and poor was created which led to fewer consumers

• By 1929 nearly half of american families lived in or near poverty

• An additional problem was the american credit structure, farmers were in debt and their prices were too low to pay off their debts owed to small banks so these small banks could not pay back their debts to large banks that they borrowed from bc farmers did not pay them, causing large banks to fail

• Large banks also invested in the stock market which created further problems

• The federal reserve system added to these problems when it failed to understand deflation was becoming a problem by the end of the decade, and instead raised interest rates making matters worse (raising interest rates means making it more expensive to borrow money so like get a loan I guess)

• Also caused by problems with the global economy and international debt structure

• As european nations had economic issues U.S. businesses lost their support as consumers, so less people were buying goods here and in europe so business made less money

• European countries were also defaulting (not paying back) on loans to the U.S. banks

• After WWI, U.S. banks loaned money to germany under the dawes plan and germany used these loans to pay back the allies as reparations for the war and eventually Germany was unable to make its payments to the allies who then could not pay back the US, leading them to not pay back loans and the collapse of the international debt structure (they were all losing money I guess or struggling financially)

• Britain’s inability to pay back the United States was made even more difficult by tariffs that the United States imposed to protect American businesses

• Countries responded to US tariffs by passing their own which made trade more difficult (tariffs protect from competition with other countries, protect domestic industries)

114. Stock Market Crash (1929)

• Last cause of the great depression, happened in late october

• Did not cause the depression but was the first visible sign of the economic disaster that was just beginning

• Stock prices rose by 40% in the 16 months before the crash, leading to heaving speculation (investments) by people, corporations, and banks

• Rising stock prices led to even further investment as people saw the stock market as a place to make quick profit

• Stocks were purchased on margin, meaning purchased with loans, which was fine as long as prices continued to rise because loans could be paid back with the profits made, but once they began dropping the system collapsed

• By the fall of 1929, wealthy investors, believing their stock prices had reached their ceiling, began to sell off their stock, setting off a panic that triggered the stock market crash

• On october 29, 16 million shares were sold (average number of stocks traded daily was 3 million)

• 30 billion dollars in paper value was lost in a single day, the value of all stocks dropped, people lost their life savings, homes, and farms as banks and corporations went bankrupt, leading to massive unemployment

115. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

• Novel that talked about the dust bowl in the midwest, especially oklahoma and arkansas, which led to the okie migration to the west cost

116. Dorothea Lange

• Photographer during great depression who exposed the terrible impact of the depression on american farming families and psychological and emotional trauma the crisis created

• Photographed americans suffering through the great depression while working for the farm security administration

• Later photographed the forced internment of japanese americans during WWII opposing this government policy

117. Hoover Dam

• Was built because of hoover’s federal public works program which created jobs to build the dam and to operate it after its construction

• Successful program because it dealt with the key problem of the great depression which was unemployment

118. Reconstruction Finance Corporation

• Hoover responded to bank failures and home losses by creating the reconstruction finance corporation (RFC)

• RFC was a federal agency that provided loans to banks and businesses to prevent more bankruptcies

• It failed bc it offered too little money and it did not deal directly with unemployment

• Instead it worked under the assumption of the trickle-down theory, but the money given to banks and business did not trickle-down to the masses in the form of jobs as he believed it would

• Instead banks and businesses held onto the money they were given. Hoover was unwilling to do more because of his own philosophy and this led to a worsening of the economy and his political collapse

119. Bonus Army

• Composed of the WWI veterans and their families who were desperate for money during the great depression

• Set up a camp peacefully in the nation’s capital on the Anacostia flats and demanded that their WWI bonuses would be paid immediately instead of 1945 when they were originally promised

• House of representative approved of the bonus being paid but the senate blocked the bill and president hoover already announced he would veto it if it passed

• Senate a president argued it would lead a budget deficit

• Veterans refused to leave their camp, and hoover made a bad mistake

• He claimed the veterans included radicals who posed a threat to the federal government

• D.C. police chief pelham glassford was sympathetic to the bonus army and assured hoover they were not a threat but hoover ignored this and sent 800 soldiers and the police, under leadership of general douglas macarthur to forcibly remove the veterans

• The Bonus Army shanty town was attacked, set on fire and destroyed, while tanks, tear gas, and bayonets were used to remove the veterans and their family members

• Two veterans shot and killed by police and one baby was killed after being hit by a tear gas canister

• Many americans saw this as a shameful act against veterans of the military and it signaled the end of Hoover’s political career

120. Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA - 1933)

• Franklin Roosevelt dealt with farmer’s problems in the agricultural sector of the economy caused by overproduction and falling prices by creating the AAA

• First component was the AAA paid farmers not to produce crops or livestock and to destroy excessive levels that had already been produced.

• Roosevelt also guaranteed a parity price for crops and livestock, meaning the government would pay the difference between market price and the income farmers needed to survive economically by using the agricultural prices from the pre world war I era when prices had been higher

• The money to pay for this program came from a tax on the processors of agricultural products. This meant the business that converted raw products to consumer goods (ex. Cotton gin operators, poultry companies)

• These actions stabilized the agricultural economy, although it favored large landowning farmers over sharecroppers and tenant farmers bc landowners were paid directly, not those who worked the land

• Landowners rarely shared their benefit payments with sharecroppers meaning that poor and especially african american sharecroppers were left out of these benefits

121. U.S. v. Butler (1936)

• The supreme court ruled the AAA was unconstitutional

• In the 6-3 decision the court said the tax on processors was unconstitutional

• Ruling stated that while Congress had the power to tax for the purpose of the “general welfare” of the public, it could not provide benefits to those who abided by government regulations

• Bc of the success of the program before the ruling, Roosevelt would bring it back without the tax which had been ruled unconstitutional and he would find another way to pay for the program

122. National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA - 1933)

• Aimed at helping the industrial economy by establishing fair competition codes like wage and price controls set up by the National Recovery Administration, by encouraging voluntary cooperation of business and labor

• Attempted to combat the lack of production and unemployment through the private and public sector

• In dealing with private sector the NIRA allowed businesses to voluntarily cooperate to stabilize prices, and to recognize unions so workers could improve wages as industrial profits increased, leading to more consumer buying power

• Section 7a of the NIRA gave labor the right to unionize and collectively bargain and called for a minimum wage and maximum hours in industrial jobs

• In return business would be temporarily exempt from antitrust laws

• In the public sector, the government created jobs through the Public Works Administration (PWA) to help get the economy going until the private sector returned to normal

• The NIRA ultimately failed because industrial production continued to decline, businesses did not voluntarily cooperate, labor unions were not recognized by many businesses, and the supreme court eventually found the NIRA unconstitutional

123. Schechter v. U.S. (1935)

• The supreme court ruled that the NIRA was unconstitutional on two grounds

• First, while congress could regulate interstate commerce, Schechter, a poultry farmer, was not engaged in interstate commerce so his business could not be regulated by congress

• In addition the NIRA was found unconstitutional because congress had given up its power to enforce antitrust laws to the executive branch

124. Civilian Conservations Corps (CCC - 1933)

• Another job creation program under Roosevelt's New Deal

• The CCC put young males to work on national and state parks, planting trees, building bridges, constructing reservoirs, and creating hiking trails among other things

• Three million men were given jobs with the CCC

125. Civil Works Administration (CWA - 1934)

• Also provided federal government jobs

• Put down twelve million feet of sewer pipe, built or upgraded 500,000 miles of secondary roads, built or renovated thousands of schools and recreational facilities, and one thousand airports

• Employed fifty thousand teachers and kept rural schools open

• Also more than three thousand artists and writers were hired

126. Glass-Steagall Banking Act (1933)

• Passed in order to try and stop bank failures and prevent banks from speculating in the stock market

• Also separated commercial and investment banks

• Commercial banks give out loans to individuals and small companies while investment banks deal with large corporations and buy and sell stock and bonds

• Commercial banks could no longer use depositors’ money for risky investments

• Repealed in 1999, ultimately helping to create the conditions for the Great Recession beginning in 2009

127. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

• Part of the glass-steagall banking act

• Created to establish government insurance of deposits up to $2,500 (currently its 250,000)

• Altogether, this law stopped bank runs and ended bank failures

• Over four thousand banks failed between 1929-1933 but no banks failed over the next 60 years

128. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC - 1934)

• Created by Roosevelt to regulate and police the stock market to protect investors

• Made insider trading illegal, made buying on margin illegal, and restricted stock market investment by financial institutions

• Joseph Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s father, headed the SEC after making large profits bootlegging and selling stocks before the Stock Market Crash in 1929 and then buying back the stocks at low prices

• Roosevelt was criticized for the selection of Kennedy because of his record as a stock manipulator

129. Wagner Act / National Labor Relations Act (1935)

• The creation of “Big Labor” began with this act

• Created the national labor relations board, which gave unions the right to organize

• Workers became more militant in their challenge to big business and also had Roosevelt’s support

• The more militant united mine workers, under the leadership of John L. Lewis, began to challenge the conservative American Federation of Labor

• The AFL continue to organize skilled workers by craft, who represented a minority of workers

• Lewis advocated for the creation of an “industrial union”, labor unions where everyone, skilled and unskilled, who work in the same industry belong to the same union

• After facing strong resistance to reform from within the AFL, Lewis broke with the AFL and helped to create the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

• The CIO was open to all workers, skilled and unskilled, people of color, and women

130. Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

• After facing strong resistance to reform from within the AFL, Lewis broke with the AFL and helped to create the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

• The CIO was open to all workers, skilled and unskilled, people of color, and women

131. GM sit-down strike

• A new strike tactic used by the United Auto Workers who were striking against General Motors (GM) from 1936-1937

• These workers did not picket outside the 17 GM plants but instead occupied factories and refused to leave even after they were court-ordered to do so (other workers could not be put in place they just sat there and did nothing)

• GM’s production dropped from 50,000 cars in December 1936 to 125 during the first week of February 1937

• President Roosevelt and Michigan Governor Frank Murphy refused to intervene to end the strike with violence as had always been the case in the past, forcing GM to bargain with the union

• The United Auto Workers won a pay raise and union recognition from GM

• In 1939, the Supreme Court ruled the sit-down strike was illegal

132. Memorial Day Massacre

• Peaceful and unarmed striking workers and their families who were part of the United Steel Workers at Republic Steel in Chicago (smaller steel company who refused to recognize unions) were attacked by police, who shot fifty people, killing ten

• No police officers were prosecuted

133. Social Security Act

• Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, first female cabinet member, led efforts to create the Social Security Act in 1935

• It provided a pension (retirement plan) for the elderly, insurance for the unemployed, federal aid to disabled people, and aid to dependent children

• System was paid for by workers and their employers

• Many were ineligible from the benefits from Social Security, including farm workers, sharecroppers, domestic workers, and restaurant workers among others

• The jobs excluded from Social Security benefits were disproportionately held by Black Americans because conservative white Southern politicians refused to support the program if all Americans were covered by it

• Despite its major shortcomings, the act redefined the role and responsibility of the government toward its people

• Roosevelt said, “If, as our Constitution tells us, our Federal Government was established among other things ‘to promote the general welfare,’ it is our plain duty to provide for that security upon which welfare depends”

134. Works Progress Administration (WPA - 1935)

• Established to replace the Public Works Administration after the Supreme Court ruled the National Industrial Recovery Administration (which included the PWA) was unconstitutional

• The WPA hired Americans to build public works projects such as roads, bridges, airports, buildings, and schools

• The Federal Writers Project, Federal Theater Project, and Federal Arts Project (ex. Tujunga Wash murals) were part of the WPA

• These programs put writers and artists to work producing art for their communities

• Under the federal writers project the biographies of over 2,000 former slaves were recorded

• Community theater performances were carried out by the Federal Theater Project

• Another part of the WPA, the National Youth Administration, provided work and scholarships for high school and college students

135. Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)

• A key piece of legislation during Roosevelt’s Third New Deal (1937-38)

• Law established a minimum wage of 40 cents per hour and a maximum work week of forty hours in all businesses involved in interstate commerce

• Roosevelt believed a minimum wage should be high enough that people could afford the necessities of life, such as shelter, food, and clothing

• Over the years, the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and the cost of living so today’s minimum wage does not cover those same necessities

• The fair labor standards act also outlawed child labor for those under fourteen years of age and allowed minimal hours for those between fourteen and sixteen years of age

• Section 14(c0 of the act permits employers to pay some workers a subminimum wage (less)

• Section 14(c) meant to ensure that people with disabilities, including veterans, would be able to find employment

• At the time of the law’s passage, people with disabilities found it nearly impossible to find a job

• Section 14(c) remains in place in the present and this has amounted to many workers with disabilities receiving less than the minimum wage for their labor

• In fact, there is no minimum wage for people with disabilities

• A U.S. Commission on Civil Rights study found that in 2017-2018, the average wage of people with disabilities working under Section 14(c) was $3.34 per hour

• Some people with disabilities make as little as 22 cents an hour

• The Commission’s research also showed that these workers are often segregated into sheltered workshops

• Sixteen states have passed laws ending subminimum wage (and the Biden Administration has called on Congress to repeal Section 14(c))

136. Keynesian economics

• Roosevelt used Keynesian economics to combat the great depression

• He argued that the government should go into debt to pay for new jobs during hard times and that it could raise taxes during prosperous times to make up the deficit

137. “Four Freedoms” Speech

• Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, and it laid out his vision for a post-war world

• Four freedoms were speech and expression, every person to worship God in his own way, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear

138. Economic (Second) Bill of Rights

• State of the union address of 1944 he announced thisr

• Our duty to lay the plans and determine the strategy for creating peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before. We cannot be happy with that standard of living if some people are ill-fed, clothed, houses, or insecure.

• The republic grew to its present strength under the protection of certain inalienable political rights, free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, they were our rights to life and liberty

• As our nation has grown, our industrial economy expanded, and these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness

• We are realizing that people cannot have true freedom without economic security and independence. Men without all the necessities of life are not free. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

• In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race, or creed. These include:

• The right to a good job

• The right to earn enough to get the necessities of food clothing and also recreation

• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living

• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom and unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad

• The right of every family to a decent home

• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health

• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment

• The right to a good education

• All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being

• America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens

3.8 Grand Expectations: The Cold War, the Freedom Struggle, and Backlash (1945-1980)

139. GI Bill of Rights

• Created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 and implemented by President Truman (roosevelt died in 1945)

• Provided low-interest rate loans for veterans to buy homes, provided tuition for higher education, and job training programs to help returning veterans assimilate back to civilian life

• These funds most benefited white veterans because local governments controlled who received aid and they tended to discriminate against people of color, especially in the South

• Overall was to help economy and also veterans

140. Fair Deal

• Followed many of the same principles of Roosevelt’s New Deal

• It was an activist liberal reform program that included an expansion of Social Security benefits, an increased minimum wage, federal public works programs to create jobs, federal aid to education, and a national health care program

• Faced heavy resistance from Republicans, conservative southern democrats, and business leaders

• In the midterm elections of 1946, republicans won control of both houses of congress, and the democrats had held both houses of congress since the 1930 midterm elections

• After taking control of congress, republicans and business leaders, supported by southern democrats, began to attack the new deal reforms from the previous decade

• They wanted to undo reforms like the power of labor unions

141. Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

• Passed by republicans and their southern, conservative Democratic allies passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947

• This act made the “closed shop” illegal by allowing states to pass “right to work” laws, outlawing mandatory union membership

• Unions supported a closed shop because it forced all workers to join the union, so it created strength in numbers and unifying workings

• Businesses favored and “open shop” because it made it easier to divide workers between union and non-union employees, especially during strikes

• The act also gave the president the power to stop a strike by ordering a ten-week cooling off period, forcing management and labor to work out their problems

• Truman vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto (remember that to override a presidential veto required two-thirds majority)

• The act made it more difficult for unions to organize

142. National Housing Act (1949)

• Provided low-income housing for the working class

143. Causes for the 1950s economic boom

• World war 2 destroyed most industrialized countries but except for the Pearl Harbor incident the US was left untouched by the war, giving the US a huge advantage because we did not have to rebuild cities and factories

• Oil was cheap and available

• The US invested heavily in research and development leading to important advances in science and technology and increasing productivity and per capita income in the process

• Key industries included electronics, plastics, chemicals, food processing, pharmaceuticals, television, and aerospace

• Another source was Cold Wat defense spending

• The baby boom led to an enormous population increase leading to more construction for housing and schools, suburban growth, cars, televisions, household appliances, children’s clothing and supplies, and toys (hula hoop, Barbie, hot wheels, etc. all big brands)

• The government and banks encouraged spending through low interest loans, provided by the Federal Housing Administration

• The emergence of credit cards added to consumerism allowing people to buy more items that they couldn’t afford otherwise

• New consumer products drove spending upward

• Spectator sports grew in popularity as people followed their favorite teams on radio and television

• In 1955 McDonald’s was created and this new business took off with the popularity of America’s car culture

• Automobile manufacturers were aided by television bc they could sell their products as a piece of the American dream to millions

• Auto industry also aided by the federal interstate highway act of 1956 which built America’s highway and freeway system, enabling Americans to go to sporting events, drive thru restaurants, drive-in movies, to explore the country on road trips and weekend getaways, or just while taking a Sunday afternoon drive, even if the ulterior purpose of the highway system was for military preparedness in case of a war with the Soviet Union

144. COLA

• Way for corporations to avoid people unionizing by agreeing to cost of living adjustments called COLAS

• A COLA gave workers automatic raises to keep up with inflation which undermined the immediate need for unions in the eyes of some workers

145. Salk vaccine

• Vaccine for polo which had been a big problem in the 50s

146. National Defense Education Act

• A response to the fear that the Soviet Union was ahead of the US in their technology (Sputnik, first satellite in space) 1957

• Reevaluation of the countries educational system

• Eisenhower reluctantly supported it, it was the country’s first federal aid to education law

• Passed in the name of national defense, funding science and math programs

147. NASA

• Federal government also responded to the want for technological advancements by creating NASA in 1958

• Led to the first suborbital manned flight by Alan Shepard in 1961, John Glenn’s first orbit around the earth (1962), and eventually the moon landing in 1969

148. John Kenneth Galbraith

• 20th century economist

• Coined the term affluent society in irony to point out that the needs of the poor were being overlooked despite the growing of private wealth

• Critiqued the lack of planning for the future

• Popularized Keynesian economics

• Was critical of the power that large corporations held over workers, consumers, and the environment

• Concerned that unions and the federal government were not strong enough to combat the power of corporations

• Argued that in order to increase profit, corporations had to manipulate consumers through advertising to feel unsatisfied and to desire things they did not need

• “What is called sound economics is very often what mirrors the needs of the respectably affluent”

• His work influence leaders like kennedy and johnson

149. Michael Harrington’s The Other America

• Influenced Johnson’s war on poverty program

• Was a study on poverty in america

• Wrote that up to 25% of Americans lived in poverty

150. Medicare

• Created in 1965, providing federal aid to upper- and middle-class elderly americans for medical expenses

151. Medicaid

• Followed in 1966, extending federal aid for medical expenses to working-class americans of all ages

• Under both programs johnson avoided the attack on socialized medicine by avoiding the creation of a government-controlled national health program as Truman faced previously

• Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers were not employed by the government but instead remained privately employed

• Medicare and medicaid changed who paid for the bills of health care. Taxes would now cover the costs of health care under these programs

152. Office of Economic Opportunity

• Created a series of educational, employment, and health care programs that attempted to end the cycle of poverty

• As part of the OEO, Project HeadStart provided food, health care, and education for working-class students to help them prepare for kindergarten

• Upward bound created a support program for working-class students to help them get to college and succeed once they got there

• Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) recruited young people to volunteer for community service projects in marginalized communities

• Work study was a financial aid program that gave jobs to working-class college students to help them pay their tuition

• Many of the recipients of these programs became leaders in their communities and changed the classism, sexism, and racism in american society

• This made the programs controversial as many political leaders did not like the status quo being challenged

• These programs not only created a new generation of leaders, they helped significantly reduce poverty, even if they did not eliminate poverty entirely

• While these programs had many successes, they were never fully funded and supported by the government

153. Elementary and Secondary Education Act (and Title I)

• Provided aid to schools and districts with a high level of students from low-income families through a provision of the law called Title I

• Johnson understand the importance of education in breaking the cycle of poverty so he wanted to increase funding for students

• Most significant federal law concerning education passed in the country’s history

• Qualification for these funds was based on the economic status of the students who went to a school, not the location of the school itself

• Schools administer title I funds

• Law was aimed at closing the achievement gap between different groups of students and to provide equal access to education

• The law has been modified and extended several times since all the way to present day

154. Stagflation

• A new economic problem that began to take root in the 1970s

• Economists had never seen it before

• A simultaneous combination of inflation and economic depression

• Economists didn’t know how to deal with it bc to deal with one problem would worsen the other

• For example, inflating the economy to deal with depression would worsen inflation, and reducing inflation by cutting back on currency would worsen the depression

155. 1973-1974 oil embargo

• Exacerbated the rising employment and inflation problems (stagflation) that were already plaguing the economy in the early 1970s

• President ford (1973-1974) responded by telling americans that they needed to “bite the bullet” during hard times which came off as insensitive

• Carter responded by calling for the country to become more energy self sufficient

• Gas rationing and higher taxes on as to slow down consumption

• Supported the creation of the department of energy, the development of nuclear energy, and the use of renewable energy sources