Unit 1 Exam Terms

American Federation of Labor

(1886): It was a union that was not out to change the world but wanted to achieve realistic and attainable goals. They sought to organize craft unions in a federation in which the individual unions maintained some autonomy. The structure of this was different from the Knights of Labor, who wanted to absorb individual unions into one big union. The founding leader was Samuel Gompers, and it was open exclusively to skilled workers. It was more successful than other major unions, mostly because skilled workers are harder to replace and because the union had modest goals.

Treaty of Paris

(1898). 1. Cuba gained its independence. 2. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded to the US. 3. The US agreed to pay $20 million for the Philippines.

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

(1901). This was a treaty between the US and Britain. The Treaty nullified the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 and gave the United States the right to create and control a canal across the Central American isthmus to connect the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. In the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, both nations had renounced building such a canal under the sole control of one nation.

Newlands Reclamation Act

(1902). It irrigated land in 20 Western states. Much of the West could not have been settled without the water provided by the Act. The West became one of the premier agricultural areas in the world. Bureau of Reclamation statistics show that the more than 600 of their dams on waterways throughout the West provide irrigation for 10 million acres of farmland, providing 60% of the nation's vegetables and 25% of its fruits and nuts.

Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty

(1903). This treaty established the Panama Canal Zone. The US agreed to pay $10 million and an annual $250,000 for the 12-mile wide canal zone. The US was granted sovereignty (control) over the land forever. This created a lot of friction between the US and Panama, which eventually led to the US returning the Panama Canal Zone to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.

Northern Securities case

(1904) TR ordered the Justice Department to prosecute the this Company, a $400 million monopoly that controlled railroad lines and traffic between Chicago and Washington State. The courts then broke up the company under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. TR believed that industrial concentration brought the US wealth, productivity, and a rising standard of living. He believed that the federal government should use its power to punish those that used their power improperly, and to protect citizens who were at a disadvantage in their dealings with industry. The new role would require the federal government to expand its powers. The strengthening of the federal government, not a return to a small-scale industry, was the true aim of Roosevelt's antitrust campaign.

Hepburn Act

(1906). TR encouraged the Congress to pass this act in 1906. It greatly increased the regulatory power of the Interstate Commerce Commission and finally made it an effective body. Its most important new authority gave it the power to fix maximum rates.

Gentlemen's Agreement

(1907). In 1906, the San Francisco, California Board of Education had passed a regulation whereby children of Japanese descent would be required to attend racially segregated separate schools. This occurred in the aftermath of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Needless to say, this angered the Japanese government, who did not like the implication that their people were inferior. Newspapers in Tokyo stated that the segregation was an "insult to their national pride and honor." The people of California had been freaking out because the Japanese were "taking our jobs," even though they made up only about 1% of the population. Anyway, the agreement said that the Japanese would not allow any more emigration to the US, and the US would not restrict Japanese immigration (like we had with the Chinese in 1882). So, basically, it drastically reduced the number of Japanese coming to the US without the US banning the Japanese from coming here. Also, TR pressured California to end segregation of public facilities against people of Japanese descent.

Underwood-Simmons Act

(1913) Wilson, instead of customarily sending his presidential message to the Capitol to be read to Congress, appeared before a joint session of Congress to make his appeal to lower tariffs in person. His eloquence and willingness to fight the lobbyists for what he believed in, led to the first reduction in tariff rates in memory. Also, under authority granted by the 16th Amendment, Congress enacted a graduated income tax, which taxed only people making over $3,000 per year.

Haymarket Square Riot

(May 1, 1886): In Chicago, the McCormick Harvester Company workers were on strike for a shorter workday. City police had been harassing the strikers, and labor and protest leaders called a protest meeting at Haymarket Square. During a peaceful speech, police ordered the crowd to disperse, someone threw a bomb, and 7 cops were killed. The police, who had killed 4 strikers the day before, fired into the crowd, killing 4 more. Conservative, property-owning Americans demanded retribution! Chicago officers rounded up 8 anarchists and charged them with murder, on the grounds that their words had incited whoever threw the bomb. 7 were sentenced to death! One committed suicide, 4 were executed, and 2 had their sentences commuted to life in prison. The press, owned by the industrialists, reported frightening tales of anarchist terrorists threatening the US. The anarchists were connected with the Knights of Labor, weakening the union.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

(NAWSA). In 1890, the NWSA and the AWSA, which had disagreed over the right to vote for African-American males, combined to form this. Its strategy was to push for suffrage at the state level, believing that state-by-state support would eventually force the federal government to pass an amendment to the Constitution to grant all women the right to vote. Its major leaders were Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Carrie Chapman Catt. Catt led the final push to victory - the 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, guaranteed women the right to vote. This had been successful at the state level - all western states had granted women the right to vote well before 1920. Sadly, Mississippi finally formally ratified it in 1984 (it took them until 1995 to formally ratify the 15th Amendment, so they must have liked women)!

Yellow journalism

(a.k.a. "yellow press"). This term comes from the newspaper wars of the 1890s between William Randolph Hearst (New York Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (New York World). Both papers were criticized for sensationalizing stories to drive up the papers' circulation. Though the papers were loaded full of lurid crime stories, they also included stories that investigated political corruption and the terrible working and living conditions in the cities. The papers opened peoples' eyes to the problems this country faced.

Keeping the Philippines

1. McKinley decided to keep the Philippines because he felt that we needed to Christianize and civilize the natives. 2. Americans also felt proud of having an empire. 3. Businessmen thought that they could exploit the Philippines raw materials and sell American products in Philippine markets. 4. The islands gave the US a base to use for trade in the Far East. 5. We didn't want the islands to fall into the hands of the Germans or the Japanese. This decision to keep the Philippines proved to be a huge mistake. As soon as Emilio Aguinaldo figured out that the US planned to keep the Philippines, he led the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902) against us. Thousands of Americans died because the US declared that the Philippines was not yet capable of governing themselves. Sound familiar? We stayed until 1946!

1912 Election

4 people ran for the Presidency: Taft for the Republicans, TR for the Bull Moose, Debs for the Socialists, and Woodrow Wilson for the Democratic Party. Wilson was known as a passionate reformer as governor of New Jersey. He frequently appealed to the people over the heads of the scheming party bosses. He attacked trusts and promised to return sovereignty to the people. During the campaign, TR boasted that he was "as strong as a bull moose." "I want to be a Bull Moose, and with the Bull Moose, stand with antlers on my forehead and a Big Stick in my hand" was one of the slogans for the Progressive Republicans. Seriously! Wilson won the election easily, as the Republicans divided their vote between Taft and TR. Wilson received 435 electoral votes to 88 for TR to only 8 for Taft. Though Debs received 0 electoral votes, he did receive 900,000 popular votes (by comparison, Taft had 3.5 million). This was double of the vote total they received in 1904. Taft, by the way, went on to become Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, the only ex-President to do so.

Ida Wells

71 years before Rosa Parks refused to move from her seat on the bus, she refused to leave her seat on a railroad car. This happened in 1884, one year after the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 had struck down the desegregation laws of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Anyway, it took three men to drag her off the train! She hired a lawyer and sued the railroad. Unfortunately, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled against her, essentially saying that she was a troublemaker. She is more famous for her writings in opposition of lynching (mob "justice" against black "troublemakers" that resulted in the death, usually publically, of the victim). Her most famous work is Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

USS Maine

A battleship sent by the US to protect its interests in Cuba, it exploded in Havana Harbor in January 1898. 261 Americans were killed. Immediately, the American press and the public blamed the explosion on a Spanish mine. This was the event that triggered the Spanish-American War. The cry, "Remember the _____! To Hell with Spain!" was used to rally the troops. Historians still argue about what caused the ship to sink. Most modern scholars believe that a boiler room explosion was what really sunk it, but many others believe that the US did it to ourselves to give an excuse for war.

Randolph Bourne, "Twilight of Idols"

A graduate of Columbia University, he (no relation to Jason) was an American progressive writer. He is well known for his essays, including "this." In this essay, he discusses how America claims to have entered the war to spread democracy and preserve it where it already was. He points out that democracy was just used to justify our entrance to the war and that democracy itself was never actually examined as a war effort. The essay was an argument against John Dewey, the head of the faction of pro-war progressives who he had taken a class under at Columbia. His former professors believed that the war was to fight to spread democracy, and he used what he learned from his class to write the essay fighting against it. Clearly, he was a Hun-loving traitor!

Hull House

A settlement house in Chicago, it was established in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Starr. The greater ____ House neighborhood was a mix of various ethnic groups that had immigrated to Chicago. There was no discrimination of race, language, creed, or tradition for those who entered the doors of this. Every person was treated with respect. The settlement provided education, health care, midwife services, food, public baths, a theater, and playgrounds, all designed to help poor immigrants adapt to life in America.

Henry Street Settlement

A settlement house in Manhattan, it was established in 1893 by Lillian Wald. Wald founded the settlement after saving an immigrant woman who had just given birth and the doctor had left because she couldn't afford to pay him. This performed the same functions as Hull House.

Socialist Party of America

Dissatisfied with the relatively conservative pace of the Progressive Movement, some Americans turned to socialism. Socialism stood for the transfer of industry from private to public control. Socialists believed that such a transfer, usually defined in terms of governmental ownership of private corporations, would allow the workers to control the wealth and power that industrialists had amassed for themselves. Socialists became very popular after the publication of Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy. In 1912, the party's perennial candidate (he ran 5 times), Eugene V. Debs, attracted nearly 6 percent of the popular votes (nearly 1 million votes) in the presidential election. The socialists had over 300 newspapers and periodicals. The most important was Appeal to Reason, published by Julius Wayland and sent out to 750,000 subscribers each week. In 1905, Wayland published Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in serial form. Luckily, WWI came along, and the government was able to pass laws that allowed them to arrest and imprison socialist leaders, essentially destroying them as a political force.

Imperialism -why?

During the 1890s, the US joined several major European powers in the drive to conquer less powerful peoples in other parts of the world. While Europe focused on both Africa and Asia, the US confined itself mainly to the Pacific and Asia. The main reasons why: 1. Economic - manufacturers wanted access to cheap raw materials and they wanted a market for their finished products. Hawaii, for example, could supply cheap sugar to the US. Meanwhile, they might buy American-made tools to use for farming. 2. Religious - some people felt it was the duty of a superior civilization (like ours, of course!) to "civilize" less fortunate people. Making them Christian was one part of this civilizing effort. 3. Power - the US felt it needed control of coaling stations across the Pacific so that we could trade with the Far East. Since ships ran on steam power, coaling stations needed to be strategically located and controlled. 4. Prestige - other countries had colonies, and we were worried that we'd appear inferior if we didn't man up and have our own colonies. So, if we had a lot of colonies, it showed that we had risen to the top of the Darwinian pyramid and were one of the "fit" societies.

Coxey's Army

During the Panic of 1893, Jacob _____ of Ohio led a few hundred followers on a march on Washington D.C. He demanded that the government help the people by creating a public works program (in other words, have the government create jobs by hiring people to build roads and bridges, plant forests, etc). The US Attorney General, Richard Olney, was determined to stop this march, and he had _____ and his followers clubbed and arrested for walking on the grass of the US Capitol! Trivia - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is based on this march because the author witnessed it. Oz is Washington D.C., the yellow brick road represents the route he took and the gold standard, the Tin Woodman represents the industrial worker, the Scarecrow is the farmer, and Dorothy's shoes were silver (in the book), representing the struggle for free silver. The Cowardly Lion is supposed to be William Jennings Bryan and the Wizard is President Cleveland. Dorothy is supposed to be Mary Lease.

Spanish-American War (1898)

Even though the Spanish gave in to every single demand made by the US government, McKinley felt that he had to ask Congress to declare war because the American people were whipped up into a frenzy. He was afraid that he and the Republican Party would lose the next election if he didn't ask for war. To show you how much this didn't have to do with Cuba, the first place the US attacked was the Philippines! Admiral Dewey sailed the US fleet into Manila harbor, allied with Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo, and freed the Filipinos from Spanish rule. The US Army was woefully unprepared for the war. The commander of the invasion was chosen by politics instead of ability, and he weighed 300 pounds and had to be lifted onto his saddle! The supplies for the invasion of Cuba were gathered in Tampa, but it was mass chaos. The men were supplied were heavy winter uniforms (in Cuba!), and "embalmed" beef and spoiled food. Of the 5,400 American deaths in the war, about 5,000 were from spoiled food and lack of sanitation. As bad as this is, it is really important because it showed the US that we needed to make reforms in the Army. These reforms allowed the Army to be much better prepared when they were called for duty in WWI.

Turner Thesis

Frederick Jackson Turner was an influential historian of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1893, he wrote "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," also known as the Frontier Thesis and as the this. He argued that the American frontier changed the character of the American people so that we were different than Europeans. The frontier made us individualistic, inventive, rough and tough, and democratic.

John Maynard Keynes

Germany was forced to pay $31 billion in reparations. At the time, he, perhaps the best-known economist of the 20th century, wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919). He stated that the loss of Germany's colonies, the loss of the Rhineland and Saar, the loss of its navy, and the huge reparations all would lead to German economic collapse. He was right!

W.E.B. DuBois

He became the leading voice of black opposition to Booker T. Washington after 1909. He said that Washington was an "accomodationist" - in other words, Booker T. sucked up to white people! He was determined to fight for civil rights and also for educational opportunities beyond simple job preparation. He envisioned a "Talented Tenth," a class of black intellectuals who would be leaders. He was one of the founders of the Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910. He used the NAACP to file lawsuits against Southern state governments to try to gain more civil rights for African-Americans.

Dr. James Naismith

He invented basketball in 1891. Basketball became a professional sport by the end of the 1890s.

Albert Spaulding

He popularized baseball, which became a major US sport in the 1880s. The first World Series was held in 1903, won by the Boston Americans (now the Red Sox).

William Seward

He was Secretary of State for Abe Lincoln. The reason he is listed here in the terms is because some historians consider him to be the father of American imperialism. In 1867, He purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million (about 2 cents per acre). People at the time made fun of it, calling Alaska "______'s Icebox," "______'s Folly," and "Icebergia." He considered it his greatest accomplishment, and I agree!

Russell Conwell

He was a Baptist minister in Philadelphia, and became an extremely wealthy man by delivering his lecture, Acres of Diamonds, to paying audiences. He stressed the idea that wealth was available to all people and it was not necessary to travel afar in search of it. Opportunities existed in every village and town if only people would take the trouble to look. In his view, God was responsible for directing wealth to those who could use it for beneficial purposes. So, basically, if you were rich, it was because God smiled upon you! By implication, if you were not rich, then God did not favor you. He, the founder of Temple University in Philadelphia, became one of the great public speakers of his day and delivered his talk more than 6,000 times!

Porfirio Diaz

He was a Mexican War volunteer and later the President of Mexico from 1876 to 1910, but really a dictator. In 1910 the Mexican people revolted against him, and Francisco Madero replaced him. His presidency is extremely controversial. On the plus side, he focused on Mexican modernization and economic strength. But, he did not tolerate opposition. While he was running for his eighth term, he threw his opponent, Francisco Madero, in jail, and declared himself the winner. This started the Mexican Revolution, and he was forced out of office.

Josiah Strong

He was a Protestant missionary who encouraged his colleagues that their work should be directed at America's cities, teeming with immigrants. He wrote Our Country: Its Future and Present Crisis (1885) to encourage his fellow missionaries to do this work. The Anglo-Saxons, according to Strong, are a superior race and thereby destined to take the lands of the inferior races and to assimilate them. This process would take awhile, but in the end all of mankind would be Anglo-Saxonized. He argued that this was a good thing because Anglo-Saxons love freedom and practice a form of pure Christianity. Historians suggest that his ideas may have encouraged support for imperialistic United States policy among American Protestants. In other words, he convinced people that it was our mission to "help" the world's less fortunate people of color by conquering them! During the 1890s, the US annexed Hawaii, conquered Cuba, took the Philippines, etc. His followers formed the Social Gospel movement, which had the aim of combating injustice, suffering and poverty in society. They were involved in the settlement movement and prohibition, for example.

De Lôme Letter

He was a Spanish minister. In a personal letter, which was stolen despite being under diplomatic protection, he referred to the US President : "...McKinley is weak and catering to the rabble and, besides, a low politician who desires to leave a door open to himself and to stand well with the jingos of his party." The press printed the letter, and the country was angry! McKinley had resisted the mood of the country to go to war against Spain, but now he felt he had to. Otherwise, he'd feel weak and unmanly!

Victoriano Huerta

He was a conservative politician who represented the wealthy landowners in Mexico, unlike Madero who represented the peasants. President Wilson, who was President of the United States when he replaced Madero, refused to recognize Mexico's government because he believed that he was a murderer. Because Wilson wouldn't acknowledge him, Mexico arrested a small group of American sailors at Tampico as a reprisal. Wilson demanded an apology from him and captured Veracruz to make sure the Germans couldn't supply him with weapons. The ABC Powers (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) were forced to step in to prevent war from breaking out. Wilson accepted the mediation offered by the ABC Powers but Huerta didn't. As a result of his refusal, he lost Mexican support and was forced to flee the country. The U.S. then withdrew its troops from Veracruz.

George Washington Carver

He was a famous scientist, botanist, educator, inventor, and Mr. Carver's great-great-grandfather. He is most famous because of the research he did on crops, in an attempt to find alternatives to growing cotton. Especially well-known for his work with peanuts, he developed over 100 recipes for them, and developed over 100 inventions that used the peanut, including paints, cosmetics, and gasoline! He taught at the Tuskegee Institute for 47 years!

Jacob Riis

He was a muckraker who wrote "How the Other Half Lives" (1889). It was a photojournalistic exposé of living conditions in the slums of New York. The book explains the plight of working children in the factories and at other jobs. Some of the children were garment workers and newsies (newsboys). The effect of the book was the tearing down of New York's worst tenements and sweatshops. The book led to improvements in sewers, garbage collection, and indoor plumbing, thanks to public reaction to his book.

Upton Sinclair

He was a muckraker who wrote "The Jungle" (1906). This novel exposed the inhumane working environment and unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants. It led to major reforms in food safety, but did not lead to socialism, which is the purpose of the novel. Specifically, the novel led to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which established the FDA to inspect food and drugs (still around today).

Lincoln Steffens

He was a muckraker who wrote "The Shame of the Cities" (1904). His stories told the tale of bribery and corruption that were strangling local governments in the nation's great cities. "The Shame of the Cities" is a collection of articles he had written for McClure's magazine, with titles like "The Shame of St. Louis" and "The Shame of Philadelphia," for example. It reports on the workings of corrupt political machines in several major U.S. cities. He wanted to draw attention to the public's complicity in allowing corruption to continue. He advanced a theory of city corruption: corruption, he claimed, was the result of "big business men" who corrupted city government for their own ends, and "the typical business man"—average Americans—who ignored politics and allowed such corruption to continue. Much like the average U.S. citizen today who cares more about her Candy Crush level than about who her Senator is!

Edward Bellamy

He was an American author and socialist, who was very critical of the Gilded Age. He wrote Looking Backward, 2000-1887, about a man who woke up after 113 years in a hypnotic trance. The U.S. in the year 2000 is a socialist paradise! The book includes this really awesome quote, "...buying and selling is essentially anti-social in all its tendencies. It is an education in self-seeking at the expense of others, and no society whose citizens are trained in such a school can possibly rise above a very low grade of civilization." His book was so influential that these Clubs sprang up across the country to advance his agenda, and several utopian communities were founded on his model. It outsold all books of the 19th century, except Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ben Hur, and the Bible.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

He was called, "the most important American strategist of the 19th century." He wrote The Influence of Sea Power Upon History in 1890, explaining that countries with the most naval power had the greatest world power. This kicked off a shipbuilding race that helped lead to WWI.

William James

He was one of the first American psychologists and philosophers. He believed in free will instead of determinism.

Big Bill Haywood

He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He committed to working for the working class in America by fighting in the Colorado Labor Wars, the Lawrence textile strike, and other textile strikes in Massachusetts and New Jersey. He fought to unite the working class under one union regardless of position or trade. Setting him apart from other union leaders, he believed that workers of all ethnicities should unite under the same union, which was not true for most other unions at this time. Referred to as a "labor radical," he was dismissed from the Socialist Party in 1912 because he believed in direct action instead of political tactics.

Venustiano Carranza

He was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He became president of Mexico after the dictator Huerta was taken out of power by the Mexican people. When Huerta was in power, President Wilson supplied him with weapons to aid him in overthrowing Huerta. When Huerta's rule collapsed, he, who was angry at President Wilson for meddling in Mexico's affairs (Veracruz Incident), became the next president. He was unable to keep order, and he was assassinated near the end of his term because some army generals resented the fact that he had wanted his successor to be a civilian. During his term in office, the constitution of Mexico was written, the one that is still current to this day.

Pancho Villa

He was one of the most prominent generals in the Mexican Revolution. He was the commander of the Division of the North and the Mexican state Chihuahua, a region extremely close to the United States and rich in mineral resources. He, along with an army of his supporters, seized "hacienda" land that was later distributed to soldiers and peasants in Mexico. He was compared to Robin Hood because he would take from the rich and give to the poor. Robbing trains, printing counterfeit money, and redistributing land to the poor were only a few of the illegal acts He committed. He was one of Victoriano Huerta's two rivals. President Wilson supplied him with weapons to aid him in overthrowing Huerta. When Huerta's rule ended and Venustiano Carranza became president of Mexico, President Wilson supported him, who became Carranza's rival as well. He, however, wanted to cause a war between Wilson and Carranza, so he and his men murdered 16 American engineers in Mexico. He and his men then crossed the border into America and murdered 19 more Americans in the town of Columbus, New Mexico. His plan worked, and Wilson sent several thousand troops into Mexico, but these troops attacked and easily beat his men and tried to capture him, but he escaped. Luckily for him, WWI broke out and distracted the US from really putting the hammer down on him!

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

He was the Archduke of Austria. When the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Ferdinand, the event caused Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. This declaration of war caused Germany to side with Austria-Hungary. The Russians, allied with Serbia, then declared war on Austria and Germany. These multiple declarations of war marked the beginning of World War I.

Frank Norris

He was the author of The Octopus (1901), which is about how the railroads controlled the lives of individuals.

Samuel Gompers

He was the leader of the American Federation of Labor. He was known for "business unionism," a pragmatic approach based on negotiating for gradual concessions to labor. The AFL was more conservative compared to others such as the Knights of Labor, and rarely went on strike. Craft unions that made up its membership maintained autonomy, unlike the radical Knights of Labor.

Schenck v. United States

He was the leader of the Socialist Party and was responsible for printing, distributing, and mailing leaflets to nearly 150,000 eligible for the draft. The letters were advocating opposition to the draft, which was illegal according to the Espionage Act of 1917. The Court upheld the Espionage Act of 1917 as constitutional. It was ruled that the defendant did not have his 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech against the draft because of the Espionage Act. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed the Court's unanimous decision that the First Amendment could be restricted in time of war. The "clear and present danger" standard for free speech was established. If words "are of such nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantial evils that Congress has a right to prevent," then free speech could be limited. Yikes! We were becoming like the society we were trying to defeat! I will have to re-examine the 1st Amendment to try to find the part that says that it can be suspended during wartime, but, then again, I am not as wise as the justices!

Booker T. Washington

He was the most dominant African-American political figure between 1890 and 1915. He represented the last group of African-Americans born into slavery. His speaking ability was legendary, and his "Atlanta Address of 1895" is known as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In his Atlanta speech, delivered to a white audience, he asked Southern whites to give jobs to blacks, instead of relying on immigrants, as the North did. His focus was on economic advancement for black people, not on civil rights. In fact, he supported the "separate, but equal" standard set forth by Plessy v. Ferguson (see #29) because he felt that blacks needed to be accommodating to whites, instead of challenging them on issues like civil rights. Washington felt that education was the path to job advancement for blacks. He became the first principal of Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers (also known as the Tuskegee Institute), the first teachers' college for African-Americans. The main focus was vocational education - take classes so you can get a job.

Henry George

He wrote Progress and Poverty (1879), criticizing the Gilded Age and putting forth ideas on how to help the working classes. He proposed a "single tax" on land, which would allow all other taxes to go away. He felt that the increase in the value of property created poverty because as the population went up, property values went up (more people = less land per person). Furthermore, he felt that it was a great injustice that private profit was being earned from restricting access to natural resources while productive activity was burdened with heavy taxes.

William Jennings Bryan

He, a three-time Democratic Party candidate for President, supported Wilson for President in 1912. As a result of his support, he was appointed Secretary of State when Wilson won the election. Though he was Secretary of State, in control of foreign affairs, he was rarely ever consulted, with Wilson making all of the decisions for foreign policy on his own. He, on multiple occasions, attempted to negotiate a treaty with Germany to avoid war between the United States and Germany. In 1914, he wrote, "It is not likely that either side will win so complete a victory as to be able to dictate terms, and if either side does win such a victory it will probably mean preparation for another war. It would seem better to look for a more rational basis for peace." Unfortunately, Wilson did not listen to he, despite Wilson's claim that he wanted the US to remain neutral. He advised Wilson that Americans not be permitted to travel on belligerent ships and that passenger vessels not be allowed to carry war goods. Wilson ignored him! Are these the actions of someone who doesn't want war?! He resigned in protest of Wilson's actions. Pro-British Robert Lansing replaced him.

Henry Cabot Lodge

He, who was famously known as "Cabot," was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His most important political role was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As the chairman, he had an enormous role in the debate over whether or not to join the League of Nations. His personal stance was against the League of Nations, and he was successful in opposing it. He was a "reservationist" who intensely disliked Wilson. Reservationists changed the treaty so much that Wilson would not support it.

Francisco Madero

His goal was to distribute land to all Mexicans, mostly the peasants. This motive made him popular among the destitute population in Mexico, and unpopular with large plantation owners, including those controlled by wealthy Americans. About 50,000 Americans lived in Mexico, and they had invested about $1 billion into mines, oil, and railroads in Mexico. Unfortunately for the peasants, he was murdered in 1913 and replaced by General Victoriano Huerta, a conservative politician who represented wealthy landowners in Mexico.

Horatio Alger

In 1867, he published the first of more than 100 short novels depicting rags-to-riches stories meant to inspire the nation's youth. Bearing such titles as Ragged Dick and Tattered Tom, the novels traced the rise of street urchins to positions of wealth and prominence. The virtues of loyalty, hard work, faith, thrift and clean living were trumpeted. His work made no pretense of literary merit, but was intended to convey the idea that great rewards awaited those who applied themselves and followed the rules. He, whose name became synonymous with successful fortune-seeking, sold more than 100 million books.

Exodusters

In 1879 and 1880, about 40,000 African-Americans left the Deep South and moved to Kansas. These people are called this. They fled the South because of racial violence and the loss of voting rights.

Venezuelan Crisis

In 1895, Venezuela and British Guiana both claimed the same piece of land that included gold mines. When the British demanded the land from Venezuela, the Venezuelan ambassador to the US asked us to invoke the Monroe Doctrine to keep Britain from enlarging its territory at the expense of Venezuela. President Cleveland asked Congress to appoint a commission to determine the proper boundary, which the US would then defend on behalf of Venezuela. This crisis was significant because: 1. It upheld the Monroe Doctrine and even expanded it because it now meant that the US would go further than just telling Europe that they could not colonize here, 2. It was another victory for the use of arbitration instead of warfare between the US and Britain, 3. Britain realized that she had no friends, but a very powerful German enemy when war broke out in South Africa in 1895. So, the US and Britain started getting along so well that they eventually became allies in WWI.

Square Deal

In 1904, TR ran for reelection by offering every American one of these. The slogan resonated with voters who saw TR as the champion for fighting against ill-gotten wealth and privilege, while still treating business fairly. Shockingly, the Republican Party had temporarily aligned itself with the cause of the progressive reformers.

Niagara Movement

In 1905, several men led by W.E.B. DuBois, met on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to discuss full civil liberties and an end to racial discrimination. Interestingly, they had their second meeting at Harper's Ferry to honor the memory of John Brown. This lasted only 5 years, as Booker T. Washington, who had a lot of influence, feared that the Movement would anger whites.

Hetch Hetchy

In 1906, a major earthquake and subsequent fire devastated San Francisco, showing the inadequacy of the city's water system. San Francisco applied to the United States Department of the Interior to gain water rights to this, and in 1908 San Francisco was granted the rights to dam the Tuolumne River. This provoked a seven-year environmental struggle with the environmental group Sierra Club, led by John Muir. Muir observed: "Dam _____ ______! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man." I think you can guess the outcome - the river was dammed, the valley flooded, and thousands of species of flora and fauna were destroyed. But, at least SF now had water!

Nativism

In reaction to the New Immigration, the American Protective Association formed in 1887. At its height, it had 2 million members and elected 20 Congressmen. The A.P.A. platform included drastic curtailment of Catholic immigration, English as a requirement for citizenship and the elimination of Catholics from public schools and public office. They were convinced that American Catholics were disloyal, favoring the Pope over the USA. The movement died down in the early 1910s, but resurfaced in 1916 with the new KKK. They are still strong today, as they blame America's problems on immigration.

Florence Kelley

Inspired by the settlement houses, she became an advocate for improving the lives of women and children (she apparently cared little for men!). She fought against sweatshops and for the 8-hour workday, the elimination of child labor, the minimum wage, and educational equality (schools for white kids were getting a lot more federal aid than other schools). She lived at Hull House and Henry Street for most of her life.

Communism

It is a form of government that relies on every person to work in the society, and everyone will receive an equal share in return. its main focus is to bring everyone to equal social status. To do this, the wealth is redistributed to the nation's poor by taking it from the upper class, bringing them down to the level of everyone else. These countries are eager to spread communism because the system would be more efficient if the entire world participated. After the war, fear of it replaced fear of the Germans, and the US suffered through the first Red Scare.

Lusitania

It was a British passenger liner torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. 1198 died, including 128 Americans. It was carrying more than forty-two hundred cases of ammunition, which the Germans used as a reason to defend their act of piracy. After all, the ship was supposed to be a passenger vessel, carrying people, furs, and cheese! As a result of the sinking, the Eastern part of the United States continued to lean toward declaring war while the rest of the country wanted to stay out of the fighting. Wilson, claiming to remain neutral, did not declare war after the incident in fear that it would be similar to the mistake of entering the War of 1812.

War Industries Board

It was a United States government agency established in July 1917 during World War I. Its responsibility was to coordinate purchases of supplies for the war. This organization encouraged large corporations to mass-produce to increase their efficiency. The board also encouraged corporations to eliminate waste by standardizing products. This board set quotas for production, distributed raw materials, and fixed prices. Bernard M. Baruch was the leader of this. As a result of it, industrial production raised 20%.

Vaudeville

It was a form of theater popular from the 1880s to the early 1900s. It linked the poor and the rich culturally, since it was popular with both groups. It was similar to America's Got Talent - lots of different types of acts in the same show. It declined slowly and was replaced by the movie theater by the 1930s.

Liberty Bonds

It was a war bond that supported the Allied cause in World War I. The money from the bonds supported our war efforts. Quickly becoming a "patriotic duty," buying a war bonds became a common contribution to the war for most Americans. People who did not buy them were viewed with suspicion.

Zimmermann Note

It was one of the main causes to the United States entrance to World War I. Also known as the __________ Telegram, this telegram was sent by the Germans to Mexico. Germany urged Mexico to attack the United States and ally with Germany in the event that the United States declared war against Germany. They also promised the Mexicans the territory they lost to the United States back in the Mexican War. Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico were the states that Germany guaranteed would be reentered as Mexican territories. Though this note was coded and secretly sent to Mexico, the British were able to obtain and translate the note. Kindly passing the note on to the United States on March 1, 1917, the British were able to get what they wanted by having the United States enter the war on the British side. The note is named after Arthur __________, the German foreign secretary.

Doughboys

It was the name given to fighters in the American Expeditionary Force. At first the nickname solely referred to infantryman, but between 1917 and 1918 the term expanded to include all American armed forces. Though it sounds like 'this' would be a nickname used in a derogatory sense, the term was often used in diaries and letters of US servicemen. Where the term originated is still being debated.

Robert M. La Follette

Known as "Fighting Bob," he was a Progressive U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1906-1925.

Woman's Christian Temperance Movement (WCTU)

Led by Frances Willard, one of the leading feminists of the 19th century, this is the organization that worked to try to prohibit alcohol. They were finally successful in enacting Prohibition via the 18th Amendment in 1919.

National Woman's Party

Led by Quaker activist Alice Paul, it was a group of women who opposed the war and female contributions to the war effort. Founded in 1916, the party fought for women's rights. Unlike most other women's organizations, it focused on passing an additional amendment to the Constitution that would grant women the right to vote and guarantee women's suffrage. They fought for suffrage through marches and strikes.

Rough Riders

Legendary cavalry unit that made Theodore Roosevelt famous. In the movies, they charged up San Juan Hill to heroically force the Spanish into retreat. In real life, they didn't even have horses because they were left behind in Tampa! But, the real action doesn't matter - Teddy became famous for his heroics on the hill, which allowed him to become Vice-President in the next election.

Root-Takahira Agreement

Negotiated in 1908 between the US and the Empire of Japan, it did the following: 1. Affirmed the territorial integrity and independence of China (Open Door Policy), 2. Maintained free trade between the two countries (no tariffs), 3. Japan recognized the US annexation of Hawaii and control of the Philippines, 4. The US recognized Japanese special interest in Northeast China and the right to annex Korea (which it did in 1910). The Agreement did help the US and Japan get along better for awhile, but it also fueled Japan's expansionist attitude. Unfortunately, all of the attempts by TR and Japan to get along could not overcome the racism of the Californian and American people. California passed laws to prohibit people of Japanese descent from owning land, for example. Plus, both Japan and the US had expansionist aims in Asia, perhaps making conflict inevitable.

American entry into WWI

On April 2, 1917, Wilson called a special session of Congress. He declared that Germany was fighting a "war against mankind." The world "must be made safe for democracy" and this would be the "war to end all wars." On April 6, we go to war! *America went to war to reform world politics. Wilson feared that we wouldn't get a seat at the peace conference (and thereby lose our chance to shape the post-war world) if we didn't fight. Incidentally, Jeanette Rankin, a former suffrage organizer, became the first woman ever elected to Congress (1916). She represented Montana, voted against WWI, and was the only person in Congress to vote against U.S. entry into WWII! We had been preparing for war. War leagues and preparedness movements had encouraged Wilson to build up our armed forces. Not surprisingly, anti-war groups were active, but made to look unpatriotic. Clearly, anyone against the war was a German terrorist!

Mark Twain

One of the greatest writers in American history, he is best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). He has been called "The Father of American literature." Politically, he was a die-hard imperialist until 1900, when he realized that US promises to "help" the Philippines actually meant that we were going to subjugate it. More on this later...

Carrie Nation

One of the most determined temperance workers, she attacked salons and bars with a hatchet and smashed bottles of alcohol with rocks. She carried a Bible in one hand and a hatchet in the other, convinced she was doing God's work. This proves that even crazy people can be famous!

Platt Amendment

Only 3 years after the Teller Amendment, Congress passed this. It said, 1. Cuba could not make any international agreements that would impair her ability to control herself without America's agreement, 2. Cuba could not borrow money from foreign powers (which might give foreign powers an excuse to invade later when Cuba didn't repay its debts), 3. The US could invade any time we wanted if we felt that Cuba wasn't politically stable (in other words, if they ever disagreed with us), 4. The US would be able to keep two naval bases in Cuba (we kept one - Guantanamo Bay)

Gavrilo Princip

Princip was a Serb who was a Yugoslav nationalist involved in the movement Young Bosnia to free Bosnia from Austrian rule. He is known because he assassinated the Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie. The assassinations took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia in June 1914. He and his accomplices were arrested and implicated many members of the Serbian military. The arrest and discovery of Serbian involvement in the assassination led to Austria-Hungary issuing the Austro-Hungarian Ultimatum to Serbia, basically telling Serbia to surrender its sovereignty or be invaded. Serbia refused and was invaded!

Anthony Comstock

Self-described as the "weeder in God's garden," he spent much of his life trying to enforce Victorian Era moral standards in America. The ________ Law (1873) was passed to "make illegal the delivery or transportation of both 'obscene, lewd, or lascivious' material as well as any methods of, or information pertaining to, birth control." As U.S. Postal Inspector, he destroyed 15 tons of books, 4 million pictures, and he bragged that he was responsible for 4,000 arrests. He was often at war with Victoria Woodhull, Margaret Sanger, and Emma Goldman.

Victoria Woodhull

She became the first female broker on Wall Street in 1870, and with the money, she started a newspaper advocating sex education, free love, women's suffrage, short skirts, spiritualism, vegetarianism, and licensed prostitution. The first hippie! She was referred to as "Mrs. Satan" by moralists of the time! By the way, most historians consider her the first female candidate for the Presidency (for the Equal Rights Party in 1872).

Ida Tarbell

She was a muckraker who wrote "History of Standard Oil" (1904). It exposed the ruthless tactics of the robber baron J.D. Rockefeller.

Liliuokalani

She was the last monarch of Hawaii. In 1893, she was overthrown by about 1,500 armed American and European immigrants who wanted Hawaii to be annexed by the US. Since President Cleveland opposed this action, he refused to annex Hawaii, which resulted in the establishment of the Hawaiian Republic. The US annexed Hawaii 5 years later during President McKinley's term.

Alice Paul

She was the leader of the National Woman's Party. She was a Quaker activist that opposed America's involvement in the war and female contributions to the war effort. Paul's focus was to lobby for a constitutional amendment that would guarantee women's suffrage in the United States. Along with Catt, her hard work led to the enactment of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

Margaret Sanger

She was the leader of the modern birth control movement. She felt that in order for women to have a more "equal footing" in society and to have physically and mentally healthy lives, they needed to be able to decide when a pregnancy would be most convenient for themselves, instead of leaving it up to the man to decide when he was going to impregnate his wife again. Her arguments shocked Victorian Era morality, she was arrested under the Comstock Law, and she served prison time for distributing birth control. She is hated by anti-abortion conservatives, who even to this day write nasty things about her online!

New Immigration

Starting in the 1880s and continuing until the 1910s, millions of immigrants came to the United States from Eastern and Southern Europe. Before 1880, most immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe. They were persecuted because they tended to be Catholic, and many had darker skin. Oh yeah, and they were takin' our jobs!

Bull-Moose Party

TR formed the Progressive Party, better known as this, in 1912 to oppose Taft. He said, "It takes more than that to kill a bull moose" while giving a scheduled campaign speech minutes after being shot in the chest in an assassination attempt during the 1912 campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Amazingly, he spoke for 90 minutes with the bullet lodged in his rib cage! The party was quite progressive, including women's suffrage. The platform's main theme was reversing the domination of politics by business interests, which allegedly controlled the Republican and Democratic parties, alike. The platform asserted that: "To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."

William Howard Taft

TR had promised in 1904 not to run for reelection in 1908, so he reluctantly stepped aside, despite his popularity. TR chose a successor who would carry out "my policies." At the Republican convention in 1908, TR used his control of party machinery to push through his nomination on the first ballot. The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan, loser in two previous elections, as their man. He, at 6 feet, 350 pounds, squashed Bryan in the election! Though TR was known as the "trust buster," he actually brought 90 lawsuits against trusts during his 4 years in office compared to 44 for TR in his 7.5 years. In 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the breakup of Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, for example. Also in 1911, he decided to go after United States Steel, but failed. Interestingly, this attempt infuriated TR, which makes one wonder just how much of a "trust buster" he really was (TR considered US Steel to be a "good" trust). TR and He split after this, leading to TR's re-entry into the presidential race in 1912.

Trust-buster

TR has a reputation for being one of these, someone who went after big business and brought it to its knees, all to benefit the average Joe. However, it is VERY important to understand that TR did not seek to eliminate big business, but only to end its abuses. Bigness was not necessarily bad.

Elkins Act

TR worked to expand the federal government's power to regulate the railroads by strengthening the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. This (1903) made the acceptance of rebates punishable, as well as the granting of them. Prior to this act, the livestock and petroleum industries paid standard rail shipping rates, but then would demand that the railroad company give them rebates. The railroad companies resented being extorted by trusts like Standard Oil and therefore welcomed passage of this act. President Theodore Roosevelt sponsored the law as a part of his "Square Deal" domestic program, and it greatly boosted his popularity.

Great White Fleet

TR, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, sent a fleet of 16 battleships on a voyage around the world to impress the world with our naval power. The fleet left Virginia in December 1907, and returned in Feb. 1909. Part of the reason for sending this fleet was to show Japan that we were capable of sending our fleet anywhere to defend American interests in the Pacific. The fleet was received with great fanfare in Japan, with elementary school kids singing the US National Anthem!

Payne-Aldrich Tariff

Taft alienated the progressives of the Republican Party by signing this into law. This tariff, despite Taft's campaign promises to lower tariffs, actually raised taxes on hundreds of products. Taft then really angered the progressives by claiming that it was "the best bill that the Republican Party ever passed."

Mann-Elkins Act

Taft sponsored this in 1910. It greatly increased the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, extending its jurisdiction to include telephone, telegraph, and cable lines.

Harlem Hellfighters

The 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the this, was the first all-black combat unit from the U.S. to enter World War I. The Harlem Hellfighters were shipped overseas on December 27, 1917 to Europe to fight. Since there was no official role for America's black soldiers, General John J. Pershing assigned the troop to France. The Germans nicknamed the unit "this" because in 191 days they never had any of their men captured and lost no ground. In the end, almost one third of the men in the unit died during the war. The French government awarded each member of the unit an honorary metal called the Croix de Guerre. Unfortunately, when the war was over, blacks returned to second-class citizenship in the US, dashing the hopes of men like DuBois who hoped that fighting for democracy and making the world free would lead to equal rights for African-Americans.

Espionage and Sedition Acts

The E________ Act (June 15, 1917) was passed immediately after the United States declared war against Germany to make the world safe for democracy. The act authorized officials to arrest people whose opinions were allegedly threatening national security. This act was controversial because it went against the 1st Amendment. Along with this act, the S_______ Act was also extremely controversial. Passed May 16, 1918, the S_______ Act was an addition to the E________ Act and said that "uttering, printing, writing, or publishing any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language intended to cause contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrespect for the U.S. government or the Constitution" was illegal and grounds for arrest. Much like the E________ Act, the S_______ Act violated the 1st Amendment and was extremely controversial in the public's eyes.

Roosevelt Corollary

The Monroe Doctrine (1823) said that no European country could reestablish colonies in this hemisphere. It was an update and extension of the Doctrine, made by Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. It asserted that the US had the right to intervene in Central American and Caribbean countries any time they were unable to pay their debts to other countries. Basically, the US told the Europeans that they could not go into these countries to force them to pay their bills. The US would do it, instead. It was used to justify American invasions of Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic during the 1900s-1934, when FDR's "Good Neighbor Policy" replaced it. Unfortunately, Teddy Roosevelt believed that the US should have the same authority in North Asia, but, since we were unable to exercise our power there, he secretly agreed to a Japanese Monroe Doctrine for Asia in 1905. This allowed Japan to take over Korea and eventually led to Japanese expansionism (which led to WWII). Read The Imperial Cruise (2009) by James Bradley, and I will give you a test grade!

"Dollar diplomacy"

The Monroe Doctrine had warned Europeans not to intervene in America; the Roosevelt Corollary maintained this warning, and added that the US alone could intervene in Latin American affairs. Now, instead of "thou shalt not intervene," or policy was "we shall intervene to prevent you from intervening!" TR's rewriting of the Monroe Doctrine led directly to the "Bad Neighbor" policy - the US repeatedly landed marines in Cuba (4 times between 1900 and 1933), Nicaragua (2 times, once for 8 years), Haiti (2 times, once for 19 years), Dominican Republic (4 times, once for 8 years), Panama (6 times), Honduras (7 times), and Guatemala (once - weren't they lucky!). By 1924, half of the Latin American states' economies were being directed by some extent by the US. The Caribbean became known as a "Yankee lake." Our involvement in other countries around the world to protect our "interests," such as the United Fruit Company in Central America, for example, led to our policy under Taft being known as "this." In other words, as a nation, we determined our foreign policy based on whether or not American corporations were threatened in other countries. It involved the U.S. government granting loans to nations in Latin America and East Asia to support friendly governments and to keep out other countries' investments. Sadly, the US fought numerous movements for democracy and sided with dictators to protect our own corporate interests in other parts of the world. Some countries, known as Banana Republics, became little more than American puppet states. Thank God we've learned from history and don't do that sort of thing anymore!

Portsmouth Conference

The Russians and Japanese fought a war from 1904-05 called the Russo-Japanese War. Everyone expected Russia to win easily, but Japan inflicted several defeats upon them. The war was very unpopular in Russia, so Russia wanted peace by 1905. The treaty was negotiated and signed at the Portmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. The terms of the treaty were very favorable towards Japan, but TR did not give them everything they wanted. Both Japan and Russia were unhappy (usually the sign of a fair treaty). As a result of this treaty, Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize!!! Keep in mind that this is the guy whose foreign policy was called the Big Stick Policy, he encouraged a revolution in Panama, and invaded numerous Caribbean and Central American nations!

Muller v. Oregon

The case upheld Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women as justified by the special state interest in protecting women's health. The ruling had important implications for protective labor legislation. The case was decided a mere three years after Lochner v. New York. This decision is confusing because the Court had just decided in Lochner that protective state laws infringed upon a company's contract rights, but now the Court was saying that state laws regulating female working conditions were not an infringement of contract rights! The Court rationalized this because they believed (until Adkins) that women needed the special protection of the courts because they were weak and helpless (their thoughts, not mine!).

Triple Alliance

The military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy was called this. This alliance lasted from 1882 to the middle of World War I (when Italy switched sides). Each country in the alliance agreed to support each other in the event of an attack on any of them. In 1914, Germany and Austria-Hungary went to war against the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia. The members were called the "Central Powers." We think of them as the "bad guys!"

Triple Entente

The name of the alliance between Britain, France, and Russia. This was an effective alliance against the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The geographical strategy was to encircle Germany with allied forces. The members were called the "Allied Powers."

National War Labor Board

The purpose of this was to end disputes between workers and employers to ensure worker reliability during the war to remain productive. This federal agency, created in April 1918 by Woodrow Wilson, was made up of representatives from business and labor. The chairman of the board was William Howard Taft, former President. The board supported an eight-hour workday, equal pay for women, and the right to form unions. It did, however, fight against strikes because of the threat to wartime production posed by strikes. This board didn't actually have enforcement power, but since the president and the public supported it, its decisions were followed. As a result, the strength of organized labor was increased, union membership doubled, and the AFL membership rose by 1 million!

Australian Ballot

The secret ballot was brought back. The government, rather than political machines, prints the ballots and supervises elections. This is an example of a reform successfully made by Progressives.

Panic of 1907

The stock market crashed, and prices fell to half their value of 1906. Conservatives claimed Roosevelt had caused the recession by destroying confidence in business. However, the actual cause was speculators attempting to corner the market of stock in the United Copper Company. Don't you hate it when facts get in the way of politics? Anyway, the panic is important because it led to reform of the currency and banking system, ultimately culminating in the Federal Reserve System (more on this later).

Big-stick Diplomacy

Theodore Roosevelt became President following the assassination of McKinley in 1901. His foreign policy is often summed up by his expression, "speak softly, but carry a big stick." In other words, use diplomacy, but show the other side that you are ready and willing to use military force.

Settlement House

These were houses established in poor, urban areas to assist people in poverty. These houses often offered food, shelter, and basic, as well as higher, education. The charity of wealthy donors, the residents of the city, and scholars who volunteered their time paid for the houses. The most famous houses were Hull House in Chicago and the Henry Street Settlement in New York.

Irreconcilables

They was a group of 16 Senators who opposed the League of Nations. Senator William Borah, Hiram Johnson and Robert La Follette led the group. These Senators included men who had opposed US entry into World War I, and continued to argue that America avoid entangling itself in European affairs. Another contributor to their opposition for the League of Nations was their hatred toward Wilson, the President who proposed and supported the League of Nations. They were conservative Republicans and Wilson was a Progressive Democrat. Wilson neglected to take any Republicans with him when he traveled to Europe to the peace conference, and they resented this. Unlike the reservationists, they rejected the treaty completely. Both groups together defeated it, and the US did not sign the Treaty of Versailles.

Big Four

They were the leaders of the Versailles peace negotiations in 1919. David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and Woodrow Wilson of the United States were the Big Four leaders (Great Britain, France, Italy, and the US). The Allies at the Paris Peace Conference numbered more than 20; thy, however, were the decision makers in the Peace Conference.

League of Nations

This (a precursor to the United Nations) was the most important point to Wilson in his 14 Points. This intergovernmental organization was a result of the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of World War I. Its main goal was to prevent war (avoiding another world war) by "collective security, disarmament, and settling international disputes." Other topics to be discussed by this would be labor conditions, treatment of native inhabitants, trafficking of people and drugs, global health, prisoners of war, protection of minorities, and the arms trade. Though Wilson suggested and supported it, the United States didn't end up joining it because of the Irreconcilables and Wilson's own stubbornness (he would not compromise).

Lochner v. New York

This 1905 case involved a New York law that limited the number of hours that a baker could work each day to ten, and limited the number of hours that a baker could work each week to 60. By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the law was necessary to protect the health of bakers, deciding it was a labor law attempting to regulate the terms of employment, and calling it an "unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract." It is one of the most controversial decisions in the Supreme Court's history, giving its name to what is known as the Lochner Era. In the Lochner era, the Supreme Court issued several controversial decisions invalidating federal and state statutes that sought to regulate working conditions during the Progressive Era and the Great Depression.

Foraker Act (1900)

This act established the government of Puerto Rico, now under US control.

17th Amendment

This allows Americans to vote directly for U.S. Senator, instead of having the state legislatures do it. This is an example of a reform successfully made by Progressives, as it holds Senators more responsive to the concerns of the people.

Russian Revolution - Effect on War

This had an enormous effect on World War I. Russia's losses on the Eastern Front during the war were a major cause of the Revolution. At the conclusion of the Revolution, Russia's conflict with Germany was solved upon the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. As a result of this agreement, Germany was able to focus its troops on France and Belgium. Removing German troops from the Eastern Front near Russia and relocating them to France and Belgium was extremely threatening to the Allies. Luckily for the Allies, however, the United States had just joined the war, which compensated for their loss of Russia. It established the first communist economic system in the world.

Closed shop

This is a place of employment where union membership is required. This usually harms business by raising the cost of labor and requiring them to provide expensive safety equipment.

Industrial Workers of the World

This is also known as the IWW and the members as the "Wobblies." This international union was founded in Chicago in 1905 as a result of the opposition of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to including unskilled laborers in their union. Nearly 200 socialists, anarchists and radical trade unionists joined together in Chicago and founded it. Among the first organizers of the union were Big Bill Haywood and Eugene v. Debs. Their goal was to represent and promote "worker solidarity." They wanted to promote solidarity among workers, end the wage system, and overthrow the employing class. Not convinced the AFL had done its job in uniting the working class of America, it was founded. Their motto was, "an injury to one is an injury to all." During WWI, the government accused the union of siding with the Central Powers as a way to destroy the union. Debs and Haywood were both imprisoned because of their alleged attempts to hurt America and help Germany.

Social Darwinism

This is the idea that humans, like animals and plants, compete in a struggle for existence in which natural selection results in "survival of the fittest." Some of these people argue that governments should not interfere with human competition by attempting to regulate the economy or cure social ills such as poverty. Instead, they advocate a laissez-faire (hands-off) political and economic system that favors competition and self-interest in social and business affairs. They argued that rich people were rich because they were the most fit, and poor people deserved to be poor because they were the least fit. The major ones were Herbert Spencer, William Graham Sumner, and Andrew Carnegie. Interestingly and hypocritically, these men opposed government intervention to regulate business, but they thought it was just fine for government to intervene to destroy unions!

Black Hand

This is the name of a military secret society behind the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Founded in Serbia, it was created in 1911. Its intention was to unite all the territories populated by South Slav peoples who had been annexed by Austria-Hungary, and free them from Austrian rule. It succeeded in causing WWI! Ultimately, since Austria did lose WWI, they achieved their goals because Yugoslavia was created at the end of the war.

Open shop

This is where a business where a person is not required to join the union as a condition of employment. Going back to medieval times, craft unions (guilds) had restricted the number of people allowed to practice a certain craft in order to keep wages high and product quality high. During the Gilded Age of the late-19th century, skilled workers were commonly replaced by cheap, unskilled (and easily replaced) workers. Companies wanted this so they could destroy the craft unions. It allows employers to break unions because it allows employers to hire people who won't join a union.

Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914

This law created this to oversee corporations involved in interstate commerce. Its job was to stop unfair competition, false advertising, and other dishonest acts.

Pullman Strike

This occurred in a company town on the outskirts of Chicago on May 11, 1894. 50,000 workers at _______ Palace Car Company went on strike. George _______ was the owner of the company. His workers lived in company-owned houses that were nicer than the houses other workers had to live in. But these nice houses came at a price. Since the workers lived in the company's town, this meant they had to buy from the company store, and the company controlled every aspect of their lives. The company kept a debt on their workers by having the rent so high on them that it was impossible to pay. Basically, they were stuck to the company for life. In the 1890's, George cut wages by 25% and kept his rent and other costs high. The workers joined the American Railway Union led by Eugene V. Debs and decided to strike. This strike sparked a nationwide sympathy strike, with the railroad workers refusing to operate the trains. President Grover Cleveland ended the strike with force, just as Hayes had with the Great Railroad Strike in 1877. He used the army to break it up, saying that the strike was interfering with the mail, getting the courts to issue an injunction to make the strike illegal. 13 strikers were killed and 57 wounded. Debs was sent to prison for 6 months for interfering with the mail. While in prison Debs became a socialist and went on to lead the Industrial Workers of the World, which we'll cover later.

Volstead Act

This prohibited alcohol in the United States, by enforcing the 18th Amendment. The 18th Amendment prohibited liquors, but did not define which "intoxicating liquors." It was suggested that a bill be added to better define the terms of the 18th Amendment. The three main purposes of the act were: 1. to prohibit intoxicating beverages 2. to regulate the manufacturing of high proof spirits to be sold for purposes other than beverages, and 3. to promote a small amount of alcohol to be produced solely for scientific use, dyes, and manufacturing (anything other than consumption).

Progressive movement

This refers to a group of mostly middle class reformers who exposed the unsafe conditions faced by factory workers, fought against child labor, and questioned the dominant role played by large corporations. It was a large and varied group of reformers who wanted to cleanse politics of corruption, reduce the power of the trusts, and help the less fortunate. They fought against prostitution, gambling, drinking, and other forms of vice. They started in the cities, fighting against bossism and organizing movements to oust crooked mayors and break up local monopolies (like the cable company today, for example). They then carried these fights to the states, and then to the nation.

National Labor Union

This union was formed immediately following the end of the Civil War. It was the first trade union that organized workers regardless of gender or race, except for the Chinese (who they hated), whether they were skilled or unskilled. It was open to workers in both the agrarian and industrial sectors of the economy. One of their major goals was to get Chinese workers excluded from the United States. Some of their better goals included higher wages and an eight-hour work day, and also racial and gender equality. At the time, the ten-hour workday was normal and many workers worked longer. Their major accomplishment was that they were able to win the eight-hour workday for federal employees. The union dissolved in 1873, and most of its members joined the American Federation of Labor.

Adkins v. Children's Hospital

This was a 1923 United States Supreme Court opinion holding that federal minimum wage legislation for women was an unconstitutional infringement of liberty of contract, as protected by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment (so it shot down the decision they had made in Muller). Like Lochner, the Court showed its determination to thwart Progressive legislation by striking it down as unconstitutional!

Workingmen's Party

This was a California labor organization led by Dennis Kearney in the 1870s. It particularly aimed against Chinese immigrant labor and the Central Pacific Railroad that employed them. Kearney's attacks against the Chinese were of a particularly open racism, and found support among the white Californians of the time. This eventually led to the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Debs v. United States

This was a Supreme Court decision that upheld the Espionage Act of 1917. He, leader of the Socialist Party, fought the draft during World War I. In Canton, Ohio, he made a speech that protested the U.S. involvement in the war. After the speech, Debs was arrested under the Espionage Act of 1917. After being convicted, he had to serve ten years in prison. He argued that he had the right to free speech from the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Great Migration (African-American)

This was a long-term movement of African Americans from the South to the North. The migration from the South transformed many of the northern cities like Chicago. Chicago took more than 500,000 of the 7 million African Americans from the South to the North. People wanted to escape the poverty in the South and find jobs in the industrialized North.

Treaty of Versailles

This was a peace treaty at the end of WWI. Resolving the conflict between the Allied Powers and Germany, the treaty was signed on June 28, 1919. Each international power that had sided with Germany in the war signed other, separate treaties. There were many provisions to this. One of the most controversial of the provisions was the fact that Germany had to accept sole responsibility for causing the war, disarm, and pay reparations to some countries that had formed the Entente Powers. These reparations were valued at about $31.4 billion dollars, which is approximately $400 billion US dollars in 2013. Many believed this sum was too excessive for Germany to pay because it would destroy their economy.

Homestead Strike

This was a strike that occurred in Homestead, PA between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) and Carnegie Steel Company. It occurred in 1892 when the two organizations fought over contract negotiations. Homestead Steel Works was on the bank of the Monongahela River about seven miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1889, the workers had led a strike, won, and negotiated a three-year contract for a sliding scale wage (wages were determined by the market price of what they were manufacturing) and was due to expire on June 30, 1892. This resulted in a fairly dramatic pay cut, as the price of steel declined during this period. As the expiration date of the contract neared, Andrew Carnegie left for Scotland, leaving Henry Clay Frick, who was known for his anti-union beliefs, in charge. Carnegie was very concerned about his public image, and he supported unions in public, saying that no steel mill was worth a drop of worker blood. However, behind the scenes, he ordered Frick to make as much steel as possible before the contract expired in June, so that the company would be prepared for a strike. He told Frick to lock the workers out if they did not agree to the company's contract demands. Contract negotiations went poorly, since Frick's offer to workers was to slash their wages. The workers responded by burning him in effigy (they burned a dummy that looked like him)! The company began to shut the mill down on June 28 and by June 30 the entire workforce was locked out the plant. Frick then built a fence three miles long and 12 feet high around the steelworks plant, adding peepholes for rifles and topping it with barbed wire. Workers named the fence "Fort Frick." Both union and non-union workers gathered to keep guard around the plant and keep any 'scabs' (replacement workers) from entering. However, Frick had contacted Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, a private army, and got them to agree to send 300 Pinkerton Detectives to break up the scene. On July 6, the Pinkertons were seen being towed on a barge up the river at 3 A.M., and the workers sounded the alarm, lined the riverbank, and tore through a fence surrounding the property to stop them. The workers warned the Pinkertons not to get off the barge, but the Pinkertons made the mistake of trying to gain a foothold on the riverbank. It is still unknown who fired the first shot, but the 'battle' lasted from 4a.m. until 5p.m. that day - 3 Pinkertons and 9 workers died. Six days later, the National Guard of Pennsylvania arrived under the order of the Governor. The National Guard carried the newest rifles and Gatling machine guns, quickly taking over the mill. The company then evicted workers from company homes, arrested people repeatedly just to charge them bail and involved workers in many costly court cases to weaken the unions. On November 17 some of the workers voted to go back to work and three days later the Amalgamated Assn. voted to lift the ban on returning to work for the company. Some workers were re-hired as non-union members while others were blacklisted. The mills were not able to organize for the next 40 years. Carnegie's reputation as a great democrat was forever tarnished.

American Anti-Imperialist League

This was an organization established in 1898 by people opposed to American annexation of the Philippines. Some Americans were appalled at the idea of controlling the Filipino people without their consent. The idea of "consent of the governed" is essential to republicanism - the idea that the people should rule themselves. In addition, they wanted to keep America isolated and out of the affairs of other nations, and they felt that the acquisition of the Philippines would suck us into Asian affairs (they were right). Famous members of this included William Jennings Bryan (who made it an election issue in 1900), Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, and Jane Addams.

Knights of Labor

This was founded in 1869 and led by Terence Powderly. They wanted to combine various unions into one organization, and sought racial and gender equality. They welcomed all workers - skilled and unskilled. They started declining after one of their members was executed for allegedly killing a policeman in the Haymarket Riot of 1886.

Selective Service Act (1917)

This was passed by Congress to authorize the federal government to raise a national army to fight the war. The act was canceled in November 1918, at the end of the war. At the time of World War I, the United States Army was tiny compared to those of European powers. The National Defense Act of 1916 authorized for the army to grow, but by 1917 only 120,000 men served in the army. Wilson at first believed that we could use only volunteers to fight this war, but it soon became evident that volunteers alone would not suffice. According to this act, all men from the age of 21 to 30 were required to enlist for military service. By June 1917, nearly 10 million men had registered with this, and about 5 million men, including volunteers, served in WWI. Later, Congress revised the age requirements to include all men from 18 to 45! Though historically there has been a low draft success rate, this draft was overall fairly successful since only 350,000 "dodged" the draft.

18th Amendment

This went into effect in January 1920. It prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol. It was the Progressives' wish to reduce immorality, drunkenness, and disloyalty (drinking was often associated with Germans and Irish, who were the "bad guys" in WWI). A group known as the Anti-Saloon League had fought for years to get alcohol prohibited, and they used the Great War to make it happen. Leaders of the movement to limit or ban alcohol included the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, which sought to ban alcohol, and Neil S. Dow of Maine, who was the first leader of the Prohibition movement.

Fourteen Points

Toward the end of WWI, Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress with a speech called the this. On January 18, 1918, Wilson delivered the speech to a joint session of Congress to assure the world that the war was being fought for moral reasons and that peace would come to Europe as a result of the fighting. These became the basis of terms that Germany had to agree to at the conclusion of the war. It espoused a belief in the right of all peoples to self-determination. Wilson supported the creation of new nations to reflect ethnic boundaries. It included: freedom of the seas, open covenants (no secret treaties), adjustment of colonial claims with respect for native populations, free trade, reductions in armaments, and impartial mediation of colonial claims. It proposed a League of Nations, an association of nations that would aid in implementing the new principles and in resolving future controversies.

Anthracite Coal Strike

Unlike his pro-business/anti-labor predecessors, TR defended the right of labor to organize, and refused to use the army to put down strikes. In 1902, he intervened in this on the side of labor to force management to agree to binding arbitration (when an arbitrator makes a decision, both sides agree to abide by it). Miners in the anthracite fields of eastern PA wanted recognition of their union, the United Mine Workers. They also wanted a 10 to 20% increase in wages and an 8-hour day. When their employers refused to negotiate, they went on strike. In the 5th month of the strike, TR called the mine owners and the UMW to the White House. The mine owners expected TR to arrest strike leaders if they refused to go back to work. Instead, TR supported arbitration and warned the mine owners that if they refused to go along, 10,000 federal troops would seize their property! The UMW got the workers a 10% wage increase and a 9-hour day, but still was not officially recognized by the company.

16th Amendment

When President Woodrow Wilson signed the Underwood-Simmons Tariff into law (more on this later), the tariff was reduced significantly. This reduction would hurt the United States government budget because it relied on the revenue from the tariff. To compensate for this lost revenue, Congress ratified this. After the ratification of this, Congress began a graduated income tax. The graduated income tax began with a levy on incomes over $3,000, which was well above the average family's income. This tax made up for the lost revenue from the now reduced tariff. The amendment was actually proposed in 1909 by President Taft, but it took until 1913 for 3/4 of the states to ratify it. This is an example of a reform successfully made by Progressives.

Federal Reserve Act

When Woodrow Wilson was elected president, one of his three goals was to fix the banks. In 1913, Wilson made an appearance before the House and the Senate fighting the banks. Within the same year, Wilson signed this. The act was referred to as, "The most important piece of economic legislation between the Civil War and the New Deal." This act enacted a Federal Reserve Board that oversaw a new banking system with twelve regional reserve districts. Each district had its own central bank. Although member financial institutions owned the regional banks, public control was still guaranteed by the Federal Reserve Board. This board was also given the right to print paper currency called "Federal Reserve Notes." Referred to as a "Red-letter achievement," it helped the nation through the financial dilemma of the First World War. This was Wilson's was Wilson's solution, which turned out to be successful, to the bank issue.

American Expeditionary Force

When the United States declared war against Germany and its allies in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson sent this under the authority of General John Pershing to the Western Front. It fought beside British and French allies against the Germans throughout the last years of the World War. By the end of the war, it had suffered 320,000 casualties, including 53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 non-combat deaths, and 204,000 wounded. Another major cause of death of members was the influenza pandemic in 1918. More than 25,000 men from it were ill from the sickness and many died.

American neutrality

Wilson asked Americans to be neutral "in fact as well as in name" and in thought as well as in deed. Wilson worried that ethnic groups would fight each other, so it was better just to stay out of the war. Three realities doomed the neutrality policy: A. German-Americans, anti-British Irish-Americans, and anti-Russian Swedish-Americans cheered for the Central Powers. But more Americans associated with the Allied cause. "Remember Lafayette!" (the Frenchman who helped us in the American Revolution) was the cry. B. Economic ties to the Allies. $2.3 billion in exports to Britain & France. Only $289,000 to Germany. Loans - $2.3 billion to Allies, $27 million to Germany. *Germany saw the US as an Allied arsenal and bank! Germany decided that it must stop contraband from the US ships! C. pro-Allied sympathies of the Wilson administration. Wilson disliked German militarism. He felt that his ideas of internationalism stood a better chance if Britain won. He wanted a world governing body so that countries could work together to prevent future wars. Wilsonianism is the name given to this idealist internationalism. The ideal world would be open in every sense of the word - no trade barriers, democracy, no secret diplomacy, self-determination, free-market capitalism, and world peace! Sounds like Fantasyland! But remember, these were times of idealism, when we thought if we just applied ourselves that we could solve any problem. Still, just because war was inevitable does not mean that Wilson wanted to get us into a war. Wilson did keep us out for two and a half years. He ran on a platform of "peace, progressivism, and preparedness." The 1916 Democratic slogan was, "He kept us out of war." Wilson defeated Republican Charles Evans Hughes by suggesting that the Republicans would drag us into the war. Close election - 277 to 254 - but Wilson wins! One month after Inauguration Day, we go to war!

Clayton Anti-Trust Act

Wilson went to Congress for the third time, in early 1914, (remember, he was the first President to go to Congress since John Adams, and this was his third time in a year, so it was dramatic, unlike today, where he might get on CSPAN2 if lucky)! This law: 1. defined in detail which practices by business were unfair; 2. outlawed price discrimination and interlocking directories (people would serve on the boards of competing companies!); 3. exempted labor unions from antitrust laws, unlike the Sherman Antitrust Act; 4. limited the use of injunctions in labor disputes. Samuel Gompers called it the "Magna Carta of Labor."

Activist government

a government that exists to help the people! Many progressives wanted the government to be used to tax income, regulate industry, protect consumers from fraud, safeguard the environment, protect consumers from corporate greed, and provide social welfare. In other words, progressives believed that government, not corporations or states, was best equipped to solve social problems. Darned liberals!

Muckrakers

a term coined by Teddy Roosevelt to describe journalistic tactics of "raking the filth" in search of wrongs (kind of like the National Enquirer or Star magazines); these authors and journalists wrote searing accounts of corporate and political evils. These writings, unlike the corporate-loyal mainstream newspapers of the Gilded Age, moved the public to demand reform. They wanted to shock the public into recognizing the shameful state of political, economic, and social affairs and to prompt the people to take action.

Ragtime

a type of music that is most popular in New Orleans, it was created by African-Americans and spread by German-Americans during the 1890s. In dance halls of the late-19th century, popular hang-out spots for immigrant teens, it was most popular. The most popular performer was Scott Joplin.

Yellow-dog contract

also known as an iron-clad oath, this is a promise by a new employee not to join a union. Companies with open shops typically required new employees to sign these contracts as a condition of employment. Then, if a person broke the contract, the company sued the union. This practice became illegal in 1932, with the passage of the Norris-Laguardia Act. But, companies still practice means to keep people from joining unions, by scaring workers about what will happen to the company if their employees join unions.

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916

an act passed by Congress after intense lobbying by Woodrow Wilson, it prohibited the sale in interstate commerce of goods produced by factories that employed children under fourteen, mines that employed children younger than sixteen, and any facility where children under sixteen worked at night or more than eight hours daily. The Court struck it down as unconstitutional only two years later, but it showed that Wilson had abandoned his New Freedom and embraced the New Nationalism, at least to some degree.

Referendum

gives voters the right in general elections to repeal an unpopular act that a state legislature had passed. For example, if the Maine Congress passes a bill to legalize cocaine, the people of Maine can get a petition together and force the issue onto a ballot. This is an example of a reform successfully made by Progressives.

Marcus Garvey

he, black man, tried to revive the Back to Africa Movement in the 1920s. He called on blacks to forget about integration: his goal was a separate black nation. His ideas are called "black nationalism." The Universal Negro Improvement Association, with millions of members, tried to facilitate the nationalist movement. He argued bitterly with other black leaders, especially DuBois, and made some mistakes when he expressed support for the KKK on the grounds that neither group believed in desegregation! His movement was a complete failure, but his talk of Black Nationalism resonated with many blacks who did not want to integrate with whites.

Election of 1920

is seen as a referendum on the Treaty of Versailles. The Democrats ran James Cox of Ohio, who had supported the League, against Republican Warren G. Harding of Ohio, who seemed opposed to it. Republicans wanted to "return to normalcy," and be done with international affairs. Harding won easily. Interestingly, federal prisoner number 9653 at the Atlanta Penitentiary, Eugene V. Debs, received over 900,000 votes as the Socialist candidate! Harding went on to be one of the worst Presidents in U.S. History.

Conservationists

led by Gifford Pinchot, they cared little for national parks or grand canyons. They wanted to manage the environment to ensure the most efficient use of the nation's resources for economic development. TR created the National Forest Service to institute a system of competitive bidding for the right to harvest timber on national forest lands. Conservatives and they scored a major victory with the passage of the Newlands Reclamation Act, which publicly financed irrigation projects.

Food Administration

led by Herbert Hoover, the future president. It ran programs to improve the production of food and to conserve as much as possible. The country sacrificed so much that our consumption of food dropped by 15%! It set prices on food and regulated its distribution. Americans were urged to grow "victory gardens" to help the war effort. People were also asked to tolerate meatless ("Meatless Mondays") and wheat-less ("Wheatless Wednesdays") meals. Yuck!

Preservationists

led by John Muir, they wanted to use federal funds to buy lands to keep them pristine. As much as possible, the natural features would be left alone and preserved, and the lands would be forever off-limits to developers and industrialists. To preserve the West, in particular, they encouraged TR to create 5 new national parks, 16 national monuments, and 53 wildlife reserves. And, the National Park Service was established in 1916 to oversee these treasures.

Graduated income tax

the 16th Amendment created a national income tax. This means that people who are wealthier pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than poor people. Tax rates for the wealthiest Americans were once 90% (during WWII), but have declined since then to a rate of 39.6%.

Reconcentration policy

the US had long desired to gain control of Cuba. Remember the Ostend Manifesto? During the 1890s, the Spanish gave the US an excuse to invade when they began this policy. This policy placed 300,000 Cuban civilians in concentration camps. The American press referred to the Spanish general as the "Butcher." Hearst and Pulitzer competed for telling the most horrific stories of Spanish atrocities committed against the Cuban people. Since Americans are suckers and believe most of what they are told, especially if it is repeated often enough, the American people began demanding war.

Direct primary

the citizens get to vote on the nominee for the party instead of party bosses doing it. This is an example of a reform successfully made by Progressives.

19th Amendment

the right to vote for women was guaranteed at the federal level by this in 1920. Women had fought for the right to vote since the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in 1848. In 1890, Wyoming became the first state to allow women to vote, and several western states quickly followed. Believe it or not, New York was the only state east of the Mississippi that allowed women the right to vote before this passed in 1920. Also in 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed. Made up of young women who went door to door campaigning for their rights, NAWSA argued that women were not equal to men, unlike earlier groups. They argued that women were different from men (pretty smart women)! Women, they argued, were more moral and nurturing than men and understood how to vote with virtue in their hearts. Predictions that women would radically change politics were false. In fact, women helped elect Warren G. Harding, generally regarded as the worst President in history, with their first ballot!

Initiative

this allows reformers to put before voters in general elections legislation that state legislatures have not yet approved. For example, if people get enough signatures on a petition to legalize marijuana in Maine, then the issue gets put on the ballot. This is an example of a reform successfully made by Progressives.

Recall

this gives voters the ability to remove a public official from office who is doing a terrible job or does something unethical that doesn't rise to the level of impeachment. For example, if we had recall in Maine, and the people of Maine gathered enough signatures, they could force Paul LePage out of power now instead of waiting until his term expires. This is an example of a reform successfully made by Progressives.

New Nationalism

this was TR's political philosophy during the 1912 election. The central issue he argued was government protection of human welfare and property rights. But he also argued that human welfare was more important than property rights. Commie! He insisted that only a powerful federal government could regulate the economy and guarantee social justice, and that a President can only succeed in making his economic agenda successful if he makes the protection of human welfare his highest priority. Roosevelt believed that the concentration in industry was a natural part of the economy (so monopolies are natural). He wanted executive agencies (not the courts) to regulate business. The federal government should be used to protect the laboring men, women and children from exploitation from "bad" trusts. This advocated the 40-hour workweek, minimum wage laws, and a federal system of social insurance (including social security and health care).

New Freedom

this was Woodrow Wilson's political philosophy during the 1912 election. Wilson argued that monopolies are inherently evil and that the power of government should be used to break them up to allow free enterprise and competition. Once the government had done this work, then its role should be greatly reduced, and the states and localities could address social issues better than the Federal government. Wilson was an admirer of Thomas Jefferson. The agrarian utopia of small, educated farmers envisioned by Jefferson struck a chord with Wilson. Of course, the advent of industry could not be denied, but a nation of small farmers and small businesspeople seemed possible. It sought to achieve this vision by attacking what Wilson called the "Triple Wall of Privilege" — the tariff, the banks, and the trusts.

Carrie Chapman Catt

A women's suffragist during the early 1900s, she argued in front of Congress for equal rights. She was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for an additional amendment to the constitution granting women the right to vote. In her address to Congress she said, "How can our nation escape the logic it has never failed to follow, when its last unenfranchised class calls for the vote? Behold our Uncle Sam floating the banner with one hand, "Taxation without representation is tyranny," and with the other seizing the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom refuses 'representation.'... Is there a single man who can justify such inequality of treatment, such outrageous discrimination? Not one."

Negro Leagues

African-Americans had played professional baseball in the 1870s, but were kicked out during the 1880s. So, they formed their own leagues, which operated until the early 1950s.

"Insular Cases"

After 1900, the Supreme Court was called upon to decide whether or not people living in the newly-gained territories had the same rights under the Constitution as citizens of the states. Sadly, the Court decided that they did not. Its decision said that the "Constitution does not necessarily follow the flag."

Sussex

After German U-boats sunk the Lusitania and another ship named the Arabic, Wilson was able to coerce Berlin to agree not to sink any more passenger ships "without warning." Of course, warning a merchant ship meant that the U-boat had to surface. Doing so left it completely vulnerable to attack, and the British were known to violate international law by arming their merchant vessels. So, in March of 1916, the Germans torpedoed a French passenger ship named this. Wilson was livid and threatened to terminate all diplomatic relations with Germany if they continued their submarine warfare. This threat was basically threatening war. The sinking resulted in the ______ Pledge, which was an agreement between the United States and Germany stating that passenger ships would not be targeted, merchant ships wouldn't be sunk unless there were confirmed weapons on board, and merchant ships would not be sunk without provisions for the passengers and crew. This pledge was repealed in 1917 when Germany believed they could defeat the Allied Forces with unrestricted warfare before the United States entered the war. This event, along with many others, contributed to the decision made by the United Stated to enter the war.

The New South

After Reconstruction ended in 1877, the South very slowly began to industrialize. This effort was a failure for many years, with limited success in textiles. Unfortunately, this was the same as the Old South when it came to racial relations and white supremacy.

Open Door Policy

After gaining control of the Philippines, the US looked to expand its trade with China. At the time, though, several European powers and Japan were on the verge of carving up China for themselves. So, to protect its economic interests in China, the US, represented by Secretary of State John Hay, sent notes to each of the major powers to get them to agree to respect the territorial integrity of China (in other words, to get them to agree not to split it up). The notes also stated that all nations could trade freely with China. This policy caused a lot of friction between the US and Japan, but it took quite a few years for it to result in war.

Teller Amendment

After receiving McKinley's war message, Congress passed this amendment, declaring that the US only meant to help the Cuban people and all we wanted was for them to be free and independent. It also promised that we would not annex Cuba.

Panama Canal

After the US acquired the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, we needed a route to get there more quickly. At the time, Panama was part of Colombia, and Colombia voted down a treaty that would have allowed the US to build a canal. So, the US allied itself with a group of wealthy Panamanian families and started a revolution to free Panama from Colombia! When the Colombian Navy tried to bring forces to stop the revolution, it was blocked by the US Navy. About 30,000 workers died building the canal, which is about 48 miles long. The canal was completed in 1914.

Eugene Debs' Arrest

Along with the many Socialists and Wobblies that voiced opposition to the war, he did as well. Debs delivered a series of speeches against the war effort, which got him arrested. Charged with "impeding the war effort," he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in federal prison. Ten years in prison for opposing the war! Rapists serve about 5 years! On Christmas Day in 1921, President Warren G. Harding freed him and 23 other prisoners "of conscience." While in prison in 1920, he received nearly 1 million votes for President!

Gospel of Wealth

Also called the "Gospel of Success," wealthy businessmen used this term as nicer way of talking about Social Darwinism. The advocates of this linked wealth with responsibility, arguing that those with great material possessions had equally great obligations to society. Carnegie even wrote an essay called "this" in 1889. He argued that the accumulation of wealth was beneficial to society, and the government should take no action to impede it. Carnegie believed the rich held their money until proper public uses could be discovered. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Carnegie usually practiced what he preached and spent his last years giving away his vast fortune. One of his many charitable ventures was the funding of more than 2,800 public libraries. Carnegie wrote, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced."

Committee on Public Information

Also known as this or the Creel Committee, it was an agency founded by the government of the United States. The purpose for the committee was to influence the citizens' public opinion about our participation in World War I. In other words, it was a propaganda arm of the US government. From April 13, 1917, to August 21, 1919, they used every type of media to stir up enthusiasm for the war effort and gain the support of the people. Though it was only 28 months, the committee was able to convince Americans to support the war and to become involved in its efforts. Overall, the committee was founded to spread "good feelings" about the war to Americans.

Safety-valve theory

As industrialization increased, people began to fear civil unrest by the working classes. In Europe, workers occasionally rebelled and anarchists threw bombs at politicians. After all, these people were essentially slaves, so what did they have to lose? During the second half of the 19th century, people argued that providing cheap land in the West, like that provided by the Homestead Act, would allow discontented workers to leave the cities. Employers, who wanted cheap labor, opposed this effort. Historians argue about whether or not this theory actually worked.

Jack London

Author of Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906), he used his experiences as part of the Klondike Gold Rush as the setting for these famous novels.

U-Boats

Before World War I, Germany and Britain declared war zones in the seas around Europe. Britain planted ocean mines throughout their waters and the Germans used them to defend their waters. It was a submarine. These German submarines were the main cause of America declaring war on Germany. Germany disregarded international law by practicing unrestricted submarine warfare with them, and claimed American lives by using them to torpedo American ships. The Germans referred to these "undersea boats" as Unterseeboot, which eventually were termed this.

Ballinger Affair

Conservationist Gifford Pinchot criticized his superior, R.A. Ballinger, the Secretary of the Interior, for giving public waterpower sites and coal lands to private interests. Taft fired Pinchot for insubordination. The public was angry because Taft fired a friend of conservation.