HIST 2112 Test 2

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Manhattan Project

A program FDR authorized that was top-secret. American scientists developed an atomic bomb during World War II. It was initiated became Einstein warned Roosevelt that Nazi scientists were trying to develop an atomic weapon, so FDR should so the same. Then when Truman was president, they dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima because it was the only Japanese city that didn't suffer damage. Almost 70,000 died immediately. Then they bombed Nagasaki. The use of this bomb was controversial.

Tennessee Valley Authority

A public work initiative during the Hundred Days that built a series of dams to prevent floods and deforestation along the Tennessee River. Provided electric power for homes and factories in a 7 state region where family still lived in isolated log cabins. For the first time, the TVA put federal government in competition with private companies for selling electricity.

Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO)

AFL leaders called for the creation of unions of industrial workers, but when they refueled, the head of the United Mine Workers, John Lewis, led a walkout to produce a new labor organization, the Congress of Industrial ORganizations. This created unions in the main bastions of the American economy to secure economic freedom and industrial democracy ( a fair share in the wealth produced by their labor and a voice in determining their working conditions) CIO put forward an ambitious program for federal action to shield Americans from economic/social insecurity (public housing, universal health care, unemployment/old age insurance)

Roosevelt Corollary

After Roosevelt intervened heavily with Panama, causing tension, to build the Panama Canal Zone, this implemented the principle called the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. This held that the US could exercise "an international police power" in the Western Hemisphere, a huge expansion of Monroe's pledge to defend this hemisphere against European intervention. Earlier, British, ITalian, and German naval forces blockaded Venezuela to collect debts, which Roosevelt persuaded them to withdraw. He thought this meant that financial instability of the New World would cause intervention from Old. So, Roosevelt ordered Americans to seize customs houses of Dominican Republic to ensure paymore of the country's debts to Europe and America. Then he arranged an executive agreement, giving American banks control over Dominican finances. He also put troops in Cuba to oversee a disputed election. He also encouraged invested by United Fruit Company, whose banana plantations dominated economies of Honduras and Costa Rica

Battle of Midway Island

After a bunch of Allied defeats, Americans started to win. In this battle, Americans won over the Japanese navy. American codebreakers deciphered Japanese communications code, so the navy was forewarned about the timing of the assault and prepared an ambush for them. 4 Japanese aircraft carriers/other vessels were destroyed. Was the turning point of the Pacific naval war**** These victories allowed Americans to launch bloody campaigns that drove the Japanese from fortified islands and brought American troops closer to Japan.

Americanization programs

Americanization is the creation of a more homogeneous national culture. "The Melting Pot" was a play by Jewish immigrant and a name given to the processes where newcomers were supposed to merge their identity into American nationality. Public and private groups took up the task of Americanizing new immigrants. The Ford Motor Company's sociological department entered homes of immigrant workers to evaluate their clothing, furniture, and food preferences, and enrolled them in English courses. Ford fired people who didn't assimilate to American standards after a certain amount of time. The Americanization programs targeted women as the bearers/transmitters of culture. In LA, teachers and religious missionaries tried to teach English to Mexican-American women, and public schools tried to Americanize the immigrants' children. Only a few Progressives questioned these efforts. In Hull Houses, teachers taught English but also wanted immigrants to value their heritage. Bourne wrote an essay saing "there is no distinctive American culture" because America was based on mixing these nationalities. Later these immigrants were willing to Americanize because it granted them greater rights. German Americans were the main victims of forced Americanization. Mexicans were also candidates for Americanization, since they were legally classified as white and they wanted them for labor.

Isolationism

Americans' longstanding desire to avoid foreign entanglements; this idea dominated Congress. This caused them to pass a series of Neutrality Acts that banned travel on army ships and sale of arms to countries at war. They thought this would keep US out of conflict unlike WWI.

Huey Long

As Huey Long became popular, it was obvious that there was a ton of dissatisfaction with the slow pace of economic recovery. His career embodied opulist and Socialist traditions and the state's heritage of undemocratic politics. He wanted to uplift the common people, so he won election as governor and then took a seat in US Senate. He used power to build roads, schools, and hospitals and to increase tax burden on Louisiana's oil companies. He was nicknamed "kingfish" and launched the SHARE OUR WEALTH movement with the slogan "Every Man a King" HE wanted the confiscation of most of the wealth of the richest Americans to finance immediate grant of $5000 and guaranteed job/annual income for all citizens

Great Migration

As a result of increased wartime production and decrease in immigration from Europe, thousands of industrial jobs to black laborers opened up. This promoted a huge migration from South to North. Motives that contributed to the Great Migration included higher wages in northern factories, opportunities for educating children, escape from lynching, and prospect of exercising right to vote. The migrants carried a new vision of opportunity of social and economic freedom. However, migrants encountered lots of disappointments including restricted employment opportunities, exclusion from unions, housing segregation, and outbreaks of violence.

W.E.B. Du Bois

At this time, it was hard for black leaders to find ways to make the nation care about their equality and how it relates to American democracy. WEB Du Bois was a scholar and activist educated at Fisk and Harvard. He dedicated his career to reconcile the contradiction between "American freedom for whites" and the continuing subjection of Negroes. He wrote "The Souls of Black Folk" which issued a clarion call for blacks dissatisfied with Booker T. Washington's policies. He believed the educate African AMericans like himself (the talented tenth) must use their education/training to challenge inequality. In 1905 he gathered a group of black leaders at Niagara Falls and organized the Niagara movement, which sought to reinvigorate the abolitionist tradition. The Declaration of Principles called for restoring blacks' right to vote, end to segregation, and equality in economic/educational opportunity. Later Du Bois joined with a group of white reformers to create the National Association for the Advancement of Colored PEople (NAACP) which launched a long struggle for enforcement of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

Glass-Steagall Act

Barred commercial banks from becoming involved in buying/selling of stocks until 1990s This prevented many irresponsible practices that caused the inital stock market crash Also established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a government system that insured the accounts of individual depositors

Wilson's 14 Points

Before Americans arrived in Europe, WIlson issued the Fourteen Points, which clearly stated the war's intentions and his vision of a new international order. This is because when Russia withdrew from the war, they published the secret treaties which showed how Allies agreed to divide up conquered territory. This was embarrassing for Wilson because he just promised peace. In the 14 points, some key points were self-determination for all nations, freedom of the seas, free trade, open diplomacy, the readjustment of colonial claims with colonized people given equal weight in deciding their futures, and the creation of a general association of nations to preserve peace. This last statement led to the establishment of League of Nations.

D-Day

Before, Roosevelt didn't immediately become involved in Europe. Most Americnas were in the Pacific. However, major involvement of American troops began on June 6, 1944 (D-day). 200,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers were under command of General Eisenhower in Normandy, France. A Million troops followed later, making it the most massive sea-land operation in history. Then, the German armies retreated eastward.

The Bracero program

Bracero program was agreed to by Mexican and American governments, where thousands of contract laborers crossed into the US to take up jobs as domestic/agricultural workers. It was supposed to be temporary response, but lasted til 1964. Braceros were supposed to receive decent housing/wages, but they couldn't become citizens and could be deported, so it was almost impossible to form unions/get better working conditions. The program reinforced statos of Mexicans as unskilled labor, but second generation Mexicans got tons of new opportunities.

Bretton Woods conference

Britain tried to resist American efforts to dominate the postwar economic roder. 45 nations met at Bretton Woods, where they replaced the British pound with the dollar as the main currency for international transactions. The conference reestablished the link between the dollar and gold ($35 per ounce of gold). The conference also created two American dominated financial institutions: The World Bank (provided money to developing countries/rebuild Europe) and The International Monetary Fund (worked to prevent governments from devaluing their currencies to gain an advantage in international trade)

Lawrence, Mass., strike of 1912

City had woolen mills employing thousands of men, women, and children immigrants living in ethnic communities. They worked 6 days per week and earned 16 cents and hour. The state legislature put in a 54 hour limit to the workweek, and employers reduced the pay of those who worked longer hours, causing workers to go on strike with the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). Haywood and a group of women strikers sent strikers' children out of the city during the walkout (socialist families took them in). Seeing the children super emaciated made everyone feel sympathy for the strikers. Then city officials said no more kids could leave Lawrence, so mothers and children gathered at railroad station to defy it, but then police drove them away. This made the whole world mad, so the governor settled it on workers' terms. New slogan to labor movement "We want bread and roses too" saying workers wanted higher wages and opportunity to enjoy finer things

Immigration Act of 1924

Congress permanently limited European immigration to 150,000 per year, which aimed to severely restricted numbers from southern and eastern Europe. Wanted to ensure that descendants of old immigrants forever outnumbered children of the new. To satisfy demands of farmers in Cali who relied heavily on seasonal Mexicon labor, it didn't have any limits of immigration from Western Hemisphere. The law also barred entry of those ineligible for naturalized citizenship (entire population of Asia except Philippines). This law established a new category: illegal alien, and caused a new enforcement mechanism, the Border Patrol. They policed the boundaries of the US and arrested/deported people who entered US illegally.

Rosie the Riveter

During the war, the nation had a ton of "womanpower" as men left for war. OWI publications encouraged women to work, films glorified independent women, and private advertising celebrated the achievements of Rosie the Riveter. She was a female industrial laborer, depicted as muscular and self-reliant in Rockwell's magazine cover. Additionally, after the bracero program, Mexican-American women got more public participation and higher incomes during the war. There became a "Rosita the RIveter', which went along with Rosie in the West Coast's multiethnic war production factories.

United Nations

Early in the war, the Allies agreed to establish a successor to League of Nations, so in 1944 they developed the UN. There would be a General Assembly (forum for discussion where each member enjoyed an equal voice) and Security Council (responsible for maintaining world peace). There were ten rotating members, and the council would have 5 permanent ones (Britain, China, France, Soviet Union, and US) each with the power to veto resolutions. In June 1945, representatives of 51 countries met to adopt the UN Charter, which outlaws force as a means of settling international disputes, and the US Senate endorsed this charter. Even though the senate didn't want US to join League of Nations, they supported joining the UN.

Farmers' plight (rural depression)

Farming reached its peak during WW because government wanted to maintain high farm prices and feed Europe. However, because of mechanization and use of fertilizer, lots of agriculture was being produced even when worldwide demand decreased. Therefore, farm incomes also decline and banks closed thousands of farms when owners couldn't meet mortgage payments. This was the first time the number of farms and farmers declined. Extractive industries (mining, lumber) also had economic declines. 3 million people migrated out during this decade and many headed for southern California, making the population of Los Angeles go up to 2 million. Mechanization encouraged an increase in amount of agriculture, so western states became home to modern factory farms and employed lots of migrant laborers. Irrigation projects made the west more suitable for farming, so farms recruited workers from across the southern border.

Federal Reserve System / Federal Trade Commission

Federal Reserve System: 12 regional banks that Wilson created. They were overseen by a central board appointed by the president. They had the responsibility of handling issuance of currency, aid banks in danger of failing, and influence interest rates to promote economic growth. It was a delayed response to Panic of 1907, when failure of several financial companies almost collapsed the banking system, which left J.P. Morgan to assemble funds to help these threatened financial institutions. This emphasized how absence of federal regulation of banking put power of finance in private hands. Federal Trade Commission: This investigated and prohibited unfair business activities such as price-fixing and monopolistic practices. Both FRS and FTC were welcomed because they restored order to economy and warded off radical measures for curbing corporate power. They reflect a huge expansion of federal role in economy.

Feminism / Margaret Sanger

Feminism: the Feminist Alliance, a small organization of NY professional women, tried to build houses to free women from the constraints of home, but they were never constructed because they couldn't get a mortgage. At New York's Cooper Union meeting, they defined feminism as woman's emancipation both as a human being and a sex being. Margaret Sanger: As the presence of women grew in labor market, this reinforced demands for access to birth control, which would change sexual behavior. People started to believe in the right to "control one's body" so they don't have to do sexual stuff with their husbands. It suggested that they can have an active sexual life without the purpose of reproducing. Margaret Sanger placed the birth control movement at the heart of the new feminism. She began a colum on sex education, "What Every Girl Should Know" for the Call, a NY socialist newspaper. Postal officials tried to bar and issue because it talked about venereal disease, so she published another headline called "What Every Girl Should Know - nothing by order of the US Post Office" Later she was openly advertising birth control devices in her own journal, The Woman Rebel. She also opened a clinic in Brooklyn and distributed contraceptive devices to poor Jewish and Italian women, which made her go to prison for a month. Few Progressives rallied to her defense. The IWW and Socialist Party distributed her writings, and slowly laws regarding birth control began to change.

Fordism

Henry Ford: worked as an apprentice in machine shops and later as engineer, developed techniques of production and marketing that made it available to ordinary Americans. Ford developed Ford Motor Company and introduced model T, a car focused on standardizing output and lowering prices. They used moving assembly line and conveyor belt, which allowed them to expand output rapidly. Ford also raised wages at his factory, attracting lots of skilled workers (labor conditions still not that good). Ford used spies and armed detectives to prevent unionization. Ford said workers must be able to afford the goods being produced. Fordism is the economic system based on mass production and mass consumption

Election of 1928

Herbert Hoover was a rich engineer working for firms internationally and gained international fame by providing overseas food relief. He was extremely reputable and exemplified the "new era" of American capitalism. He published American Individualism which condemned gov. Regulation but also said self-interest should be subordinated to public service. He labelled himself Progressive but he called it "associational action" where private agencies directed regulatory and welfare policies, to government intervention in the economy. Calvin Coolidge handed piece of papers to reporters saying he won't run for president, so Hoover ran. He accepted the Republican nomination and promised prosperity and that poverty will be gone.His Democratic opponent was Alfred Smith (Catholic). Smith was born into poverty and was a symbolic spokesman for southern and eastern Europe immigrants. His bid for Democatic nomination was blocked initially to nativists and Klansmen. Because of Hoover's reputation and existing prosperity, Hoover definitely won. Their platforms were the same, so people many just voted on their character/religion. People didnt like how Smith was Catholic, so the Republicans got a lot of southern states votes for the first time.

"Black Tuesday" (stock market crash)

Hoover celebated the Festival of Light and in his speech mentioned how there will only be progress in the future. Then Black Tuesday happened and the stock market crashed. 10 billion dollars vanished in 5 hours, leaving the US in the Great Depression. The crash itself didn't cause the Depression, there were a lot of economic problems before. Southern Cali and FLorida had bad real-estate, banks failed, land was undeveloped, mortgages closed, unequal distribution of income The crash destroyed lots of investment companies, wiped out thousands of investors,, and reduced business and consumer confidence. It also affected the global market, and European banks stopped repaying debts to American banks. Depositors withdrew money because they were scared they couldn't redeem paper money in gold.

Keynesian Economics

In "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money" Keynes challenged economists' belief in the sanctity of balanced budgets. He insisted large government spending was necessary to sustain purchasing power and stimulate economic activity during downturns, and this spending should be enacted even at the cost of a budget deficit. Roosevelt wanted to follow this model and in April, he asked Congress for billions more for work relief/farm aid.

Triangle Shirtwaist fire

In 1911, there was a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York where young Jewish and Italian immigrant women worked for $3 per week. It was extremely hard for them to escape, so about 150 people died. Triangle company played big role in era's labor history, 200 of its workers tried to join International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, the owners responded by firing them, which had a huge walkout of female garment workers, and one of the strikers' demands was better safety in clothing factories. Immigrants forged alliances with the middle/upper class. By the time walkout ended, ILGWU won union contracts with more than 300 firms, but Triangle wasn't one of them. The fire served as an example of why the government needed to regulate the industry, so laws passed new factory inspection laws and fire safety code, also highlighted how gender roles were changing.

Harlem Renaissance

In 1920s, Harlem of NY became the "black capital" yet was still dominated by white people and poverty in blacks. However, Harlem had a vibrant black cultural community. Poets and novelists (Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay) were befriended and sponsored by white intellectuals and published by white presses. Broadway included black actors. The theater flourished in Harlem, freeing black writers/actors from constraints imposed by white producers. Here the term New Negro was coined, meaning the rejection of establishe stereotypes and search for black values to put in their place. The writers of Harlem Renaissance went back to roots of black experience, Africa, the rural South's folk traditions, and life of urban ghetto. Writing contained strong element of protest. Examples of Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay's Home to Harlem and If We Must Die (response to race riots of 1919)

The Four Freedoms

In State of Union Address, Roosevelt spoke of a future world order founded on essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These empowered the Allied aims. The embodied the rights of men of every creed/race wherever they lived and made clear the difference between ourselves and the enemies we face. Rockwell made paintings of these 4 freedoms while depicting ordinary situations. These paintings were widely spread and displayed at the Four Freedoms Show, which persuaded Americans to purchase war bonds. The Four Freedoms provided a crucial language of national unity. But this hid how there was still divisions in how to establish freedom (racial rights, gender rights, etc)

Indian Reorganization Act

John Collier (Commissioner of Indian Affairs) ended the policy of dividing Indian lands into small plots for individual families and selling off the rest (Dawes Act). Federal authorities recognized Indians' right to govern their own affairs except where specifically limited by national laws. Navajos rejected the act as a protest against a federal program that required them to reduce their herds of livestock.

Muller v. Oregon

Louis D. Brandeis filed brief scientific and sociological studies to demonstrate that because women had less strength than men, long hours of labor were dangerous. Therefore, their innate ability to have kids made the government take action on their working conditions. This led to the Supreme Court holding the law that set maximum working hours for women. This was a large breach in "liberty of contract" and it showed how everybody still saw women workers as weak and dependent even though so many were entering the labor market

National Recovery Administration

National Industrial Recovery Act established the NRA, which worked with groups of business leaders to establish industry codes that set standards for output, prices, and working conditions. This ended the cutthroat competition. These industry-wide arrangements would be exempt from antitrust laws. Established codes for textile, steel, mining, and auto industries, headed by Hugh Johnson. The NRA's symbol was a Blue Eagle. At first the public was super excited by NRA, but then it become controversial. Large companies started getting involved and used NRA to drive up prices, limit production, lay off workers, and divide markets. In the end, the NRA didn't produce economic recovery or peace between employers/workers. Eventually declared unlawful because it gave legislative powers to president

New Immigration

New immigration from southern and eastern Europe (Italy, Russia, Austro-Hungarian empire) peaked during Progressive era. Jump started a process of WORLDWIDE (US and other Western Hemisphere) migration because of industrial expansion and decline of agriculture. Causes: Poverty, illiteracy, declining economies, and political turmoil at home Many Chinese, Mexican, and Italian migrants weren't free laborers and were bound to long-term labor contracts with labor agents, who provided workers to American employers. European immigrants came through Ellis Island. Asian and Mexicans came mainly through the West. After the exclusion of Chinese, Japanese immigrants started to grow. Angel Island was considered "Ellis Island of the West" Mexicans came through El Paso, Texas and many ended up in California. Many newcomers moved west to take part in expansion of farming, but most clustered in industrial centers, and took the main population of workers in manufacturing/mining industries. New immigrants arrived to obtain freedom. Some immigrants planned to stay permanently but many just wanted to earn enough money to return home (birds of passage). New immigrants clustered in close knit "ethnic neighborhoods" and continued to speak native languages. They earned more than in their hometowns, but they still had low wages, long hours, and dangerous working conditions.

The "Court Fight"

On Roosevelt's second inaugural address, he made a big political miscalculation. He said that several members of the Supreme Court were too old to perform their functions, so the president should be allowed to appoint a new justice for each one who remained on the Court pase 70. He wanted to changed the balance of power on a Court that he thought would invalidate the Second New Deal. This received backlash that the president wanted to be a dictator and the Congress rejected it. However, this threat caused the Court to suddenly support his economic regulation ideas.

Jane Addams / settlement houses

Progressivism had an elitist side (where they thought qualified citizens meant more than all citizens) and a democratic/activist side. Organized women spoke more for the democratic side. Jane Addams was a prominent female reformer. She wasn't married and hated how a woman's life was expected to be governed by "family claim", the obligation to devote herself to parents, husband, and children. In 1889 she founded Hull House, a settlement house devoted to improving the lives of immigrant poor. Unlike other reformers, who aided poor from afar, the settlement house workers moved into poor neighborhoods and built kindergartens/playgrounds for kids. They also established employment bureaus, health clinics, and showed how to gain legal protection from domestic abuse.

Second Ku Klux Klan

Resurgence of KKK was based on the obsession with "100 percent Americanism" in the 1920s. They wanted to conserve the idea that enjoyment of American freedom should be limited on religious and ethnic grounds. It was reborn in Atlanta after lynching of Leo Frank, and by 1920s claimed more than 3 million members (white, powerful Protestants). Now they prevailed in North and West and controlled Indiana's Republican Party. It was partly responsible for Oregon law banning private schools. In southern California, large marches and auto parades made KKK visible. KKK attacked broader array of targets (blacks, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, and forces(feminism, unions, immorality))

Social Security Act, 1935

Social Security act was a huge part of the Second New Deal and represented how the national government needed to ensure the material well-being of ordinary Americans. It created a system of unemployment insurance, old age pensions, and aid to the disabled, the elderly poor, and families with dependent children. They drew ideas from the Progressive platform, maternalist reformers, and European countries. Instead of temporary relief, this was a permanent system. The act launched the American version of the welfare state - term that refers to a system of income assistance, health coverage,e and social services for all citizens.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Women and Economics

Stated that the growing number of younger women who desired a lifelong career offered evidence of a spirit of personal independence. It showed how economic and family life was transforming. She reinforced the idea that the road to women's freedom lay in the workplace. Stated that women were oppressed in the home and a housewife is just a servant.

16th Amendment to the Constitution (income tax)

The 16th Amendment authorized Congress to enact a graduated income tax (where the rate of taxation is higher for wealthier citizens). It was ratified shortly before he left office. The movement to resurrect income tax united southern and western farmers, who wanted the government to stop relying on revenue from the tariff, which they believe discriminated against nonindustrial states, and Progressives, who believed taxation should be based on ability to pay. This was a key step in modernization of federal government, because income tax provided a reliable and flexible source of revenue as the nation grew.

Henry Luce's "The American Century"

The American Century was Luce's effort to mobilize American people both for the coming war and for an era of postwar world leadership. He said Americans should embrace the role of being a "dominant power in the world" and seize the opportunity to share with everybody their "magnificent industrial products" and the great American ideals (specifically, the love of freedom). After the war, American power and values would power an amazing prosperity - "the abundant life", produced by "free economic enterprise". America's goal to spread freedom goes back to the Revolution, but instead of as an example, America's now an active agent. Henry Wallace offered a response to this in "The Price of Free World Victory".

The "Scottsboro Boys"

The Comminust influence in the International Labor Defense mobilized popular support for black defendants victimized by a racist criminal justice system. Scottsboro case was an example where 9 young black men were arrested for the rape of 2 white women in Alabama. There was weak evidence against the boys and one of the two accusers recanted, but the Alabama authorities 3 times put them on trial and 3 times won convictions. Then Supreme Court decisions overturned the first 2 verdicts and established legal principles that expanded the definition of civil liberties, that defendants have a constitutional right to effective legal representation, and states cannot exclude blacks from juries. The Court let the 3rd set of convictions to stand, so 5 of the boys got prison sentences.

War Industries Board

The War Industries Board was headed by Wall Street financier Bernard Baruch. It presided over all elements of war production from distribution of raw materials to prices of manufactured good. It established standardized specifications for everything (automobile tires, shoe colors).

Committee on Public Information

The Wilson administration created the Committee on Public Information to explain to US and the world "the cause that compelled AMerican to take arms in defense of its liberties and free institutions" They put prowar propaganda everywhere using every medium (posters, movies, newspaper ads). They trained 75,000 four-minute men who delivered brief standardized talks (sometimes in other languages) to all kinds of audiences. First time an agency of federal government attempted to manipulate public opinion. The CPI's activities proved that it was possible to sway ideas of whole populations. CPI was supported by Progressivism ideals of social cooperation and expanded democracy. Progressivists thought war would solve old problems of poverty, inequality, oppression, etc. CPI pamphlets would see a postwar society complete with universal 8 hours days and living wage for all. They also made their point more effective by saying "we don't want to be like the Germans because they are barbarians"

Prohibition

The ban of intoxicating liquor. Employers thought it would promote a more disciplined labor force. Other reformers thought it would make the city environment more orderly and undermine other political machines that used saloons as places to organize. Women thought banning alcohol would protect wives and children from abuse. Native born Protestants saw Prohibition as a way of imposing "American" values on immigrants. They first concentrated on state campaigns and won victories where immigrant population was small and Protestant denominations (Baptists, Methodists) strongly opposed drinking. But then they used the war to make it nationwide, since many breweries were owned by German-Americans. The Food Administration said that grain must be used for food not alcohol. The 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture/sale of intoxicating liquor.

Espionage Act of 1917

The federal government began to enact laws to restrict freedom of speech. This act prohibited spying/interfering with the draft as well as false statements that might impeded military success. The postmaster general barred numerous newspapers and magazines critical of the administration. Victims ranged from socialist press, to foreign publications, to The Jeffersonian (criticized the draft as violation of states' rights)

The Navajo "Code Talkers"

The war brought lots of American Indians closer to American life. Lots served in the army, including the Navajo code-talkers, who transmitted messages in their complex native language, so the Japanese couldn't intercept it.

Grand Coulee Dam

There was the Columbia river in the Northwest and could be used to produce a ton of energy. The government finally launched a program for a dam construction that created thousands of jobs for unemployed and network of dams produced abundant cheap power. It became the largest manmade structure in world history and provided hydroelectric power. It also provided cheapest electricity in the country and created towns/farms. A consequence is that the Columbia River used to have a lot of salmon, but the dam killed it all Dam was part of a "public works revolution"

Agricultural Adjustment Act

This act combated the plight of farmers. The AAA authorized federal covernment to set production quotas for major crops and pay farmers to plant less in attempt to raise farm prices. Government ordered more than 6 million pigs slaughtered. AAA succeeded in raises farm prices/incomes but not all farmers benefitted, only property owning farmers. The government paying these farmers to not grow crops encouraged eviction of thousands of poor tenants/sharecroppers.

Equal Rights Amendment

This amendment was proposed by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party. It proposed to eliminate all legal distinctions "on account of sex". Before, there was a division between two conceptions of woman's freedom, but they came together to form this. Paul thought that since they gained political equality, women didn't need special legal protection either. Women should have equal access to employment, education, etc. To those that supported mothers' pensions and laws limiting women's hours of labor, the ERA seemed like a step backwards. Every major female organization opposed it except the National Woman's Party. Eventually, the ERA failed.

"Welfare Capitalism"

Welfare Capitalism was a more socially conscious kind of business leadership. Corporations provided employees with private pensions and medical insurance plans, job security, and greater workplace safety. This showed how businesses paid more attention to human factor in employment.

League of Nations debate in the U.S. Senate

When Wilson attended the Versailles peace conference, he negotiated poorly with Britain and France. However, the Versailles Treaty did establish the League of Nations. Wilson thought League of Nations was great, but many Americans feared that their involvement would mean that US will always be involved with other countries. He thought that the US had the responsibility of saving world, so they ahve to be in it. The senate argued that the Leagued deprived the country of its freedom of action. Man senators would've accepted the treaty reluctantly if the obligation to assist League members against attack didn't supersede power of Congress to declare war. However, Wilson refused to compromise with them. In the middle of this debate, Wilson suffered a stroke and remained incapacitated for his presidency. Later, the Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty.

Lusitania

When the Great War first broke out, Wilson said America will be neutral. Then Britain declared naval blockade of Germany and began to stop American merchant vessels. Germany had submarine warfare against ships entering/leaving British ports. They sank the British Lusitania, killing lots of passengers including 124 Americans. Wilson composed note of protest so strong that Bryan resigned as secretary of state. Bryan wanted everybody to just not travel on ships involving war, but Wilson thought this owuld retreat from principle of freedom of the seas. This sinking made the US public super angry and strengthened opinion of US involvement in the war. These advocates included people who always wanted stronger military establishment and businessmen with close economic ties to Britain. By end of 1915, he had a policy of "preparedness", a program to expand American army and navy.

Red Scare

Wilson administration dismantled agencies that had control over industrial production/ labor market. Red Scare of 1919-1920 was a short lived but intense period of political intolerance inspired by postwar strike wave and social tensions/fears from Russian Revolution. There were tons of strikes like the steel strike, and people were convinced it was part of a worldwide communist conspiracy, so federal agents were dispatched to raid offices of radical and labor organizations in the nations (Palmer Raids). More than 5000 people were arrested, most without warrants. Hundreds of immigrant radicals were deported. These were huge abuses of civil liberties, and Palmer came under huge criticism from Congress and press. The aftermath instigated a new appreciation of civil liberties. However, radical and labor organizations were setback and IWW was destroyed. The Socialist Party also crumbled under governmental repression and internal differences over Russian Revolution.

Scopes Trial

n 1925, a trial in Tennessee debated the division between traditional values and modern, secular culture. John Scopes, a teacher in TN, was arrested for violating a state law that prohibited teaching theory of evolution; the case became nationally famous. Fundamentalist Christians (strongest in rural areas of South and West) clung to idea of "moral" liberty - voluntary adherence to time honored religious beliefs, and evolution contradicted the bible. Evolutionists were identified as feminists, socialists, and religious modernists, and fundamentalists claimed they substituted human judgement for word of God. ACLU defended Scope, and defenders said freedom meant the right to independent thought. To them, TN law offered a lesson of dangers of religious intolerance and merger of church and state. Lawyer Darrow (defended Scopes) called Bryan to stand as "expert witness" on Bible, and Bryan revealed an ignorance of modern science and couldn't respond to Darrow. Jury found Scopes guilty, but TN Supreme Court overturned decision on technicality. After the trial, Bryan died and movement for anti evolution laws disintegrated.


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