Tuesday, October 20, 2009

On The Edge, p. 16-44.

On The Edge, p. 16-44.

Life In The City
1. The Industrial economy led to the growth of cities
2. urban population tripled between 1890 and 1920(10x that of rural population)
3. 2/3 of urban dwellers were in the Northeast
4. sewage problems were overwhelming
5. 1916, NYC: 500M gallons of sewage into the rivers each day
6. electric trolley lines, underground railways, 
a. poor health practices
b. malnutrition
c. childhood diseases
d. infant mortality rate: 1/100 live births
7. horse drawn vehicles were replaced > reduced animal waste 
8. improved sanitation
a. cures for malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, diphtheria
b. 1/3 decline in the national death rate after 1900
c. life expectancy was 48 years for whites, 33 years for non-whites
d. intense overcrowding, deplorable housing conditions
e. 5 story tenements
f. NY had a higher population density than Bombay, India in some parts
g. rapid disease spread, dangers of fire

Crime
1. one arrest per 11 resident s in Chicago
2. 8x as many murders as Paris
a. Joseph Pulitzer & William Randolph Hearst- “yellow journalists” used color comic strips, 
b. McClure & Cosmopolitan 
c. “Frenzied Finance” by Thomas Lawson, about insurance company fraud
d. “How the Other Half Lives,” Joseph Riis, life in tenements on the Lower East Side
e. “The Treason of the Senate,” David Graham Phillips
f. Roosevelt derided journalists as muckrackers
g. “The Shame Of The Cities,” Lincoln Steffen (1904) about boss-rule
h. “The Jungle,” Upton Sinclair, conditions in Chicago’s meat-packing industry

17
Immigrants & Nativists
a. 18 million foreign people arrived in USA between 1890 and 1917
b. 130,000 Japanese in the West
c. 270,000 migrants from Mexico
d. 1910, 3/5 of the residents of the 12 largest cities were “new” immigrants
e. immigrants from England, Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia (post-Civil War)
f. 1890s, 3/4 of arrivals were from eastern, central and S. Europe
g. peasants from Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, & Jewish faiths
h. most immigrants left repressive & undemocratic governments
i. almost 1/2 of Greeks, Italians & Slavs returned home, bought small farms & businesses
j. women: 1/3 of Catholic immigrants from S. & E. Europe
k. upper class patricians had a strong nativist reaction

Hierarchy:
1. Teutonic
2. Alpine
3. Mediterranean
a. Francis Walker, President of MIT declared “immigrants were beaten men from beaten races, representing the worst failures in the struggle for existence.”
b. nativists were concerned about “race suicide.”
c. Roosevelt lamented that well-to-do families tend to die out
d. “The Passing Of The Great Race,” (1916) Madison Grant, celebrated the supremacy of the white man, Southern & Eastern Europeans threatened the older American stock with “mongrelization.”
e. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred immigration from China, 90,000 Chinese to 60,000 Chinese in 1920
f. Japanese immigrants were equally unwelcome
g. West Coast labor unions saw Asian immigrants as competitors for employment
h. Japanese were pushed into agricultural work, > 1910: Japanese farmers were growing 70% of California’s strawberry crop
i. 1906, San Francisco: segregated schools for Japanese & white students
j. Roosevelt persuaded the school authorities to rescind the vote because of relations with Tokyo
k. the Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907 was signed with Japan: restricted the immigration of male workers
l. 1913, California passed an alien land law abolishing the right of Japanese-born farmers to own property

Ethnic Enclaves
1. Irish Americans were the most populous of the “old immigrants,” dominated public life in cities
a. Irish had the highest citizenship & voting rates of any immigrant group
b. many Irish workers had skilled jobs in construction, industrial crafts & supported trade unions
c. 1890: 40% of US born Irish had white-collar jobs, attended college in greater proportions to their Protestant counterparts
d. 1890, NY’s John Kelly controlled the Democratic Party in the major urban centers of the North-NY, Chicago, Boston & San Francisco: 30% of the municipal employees in America
e. politicians used public payrolls to distribute wealth to communities ostracized because of their working class & Roman Catholic backgrounds
f. Irish American police, firefighters, & civil servants: a mainstay of urban life
g. 1910: Irish women were 20% of the public school teachers, & many found better paying white-collar work as secretaries, clerical employees & nurses
h. Czech immigrants served as skilled workers & artisans
i. Portuguese: fisherman
j. Greeks, Italians: ran fish, vegetable & fruit markets, restaurants, construction companies
k. A. P. Gianinni created the Bank of Italy, became the Bank of america so that fish & vegetable sellers could do business
l. Chinese Americans organized newspapers, local associations, and theaters
m. Mexican Americans: established economic and cultural centers in San Antonio & Los Angeles
n. Catholic hospitals, cemeteries, bookstores solidified Catholic identity
o. 1900: Catholic institutions provided education from kindergarden to university in every major city
p. German, Polish, Italian, Hispanic Catholics were denied the use of their native languages
q. the Catholic Church assumed Irish traditions while Italian & Hispanic immigrants missed their means of worship

The Jews Of The Lower East Side
1. Jewish immigrants had very little interest in returning to Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary
a. 2 million Jews fled to the US
b. the Jews migrated as families
c. Eastern European customs excluded Jews from owning land, Jews pursued business & artisan trades
d. 2/3 of Jews identified themselves as skilled workers but more than 70% were illiterate
e. Jews clustered in Manhattan’s Lower East Side,
f. Jews brought their skills to the garment industry, over 70% of Jewish women over 16 worked in the garment trade
g. mass production: oppressive labor conditions, unhealthy sweatshops > encouraged the democratization of national dress habits, freed many immigrants from destitution, and accustomed many Jewish women to working outside the home
h. Yiddish, a German-based dialect spoken in the ghettos of E. Europe: language of poetry, song, drama, & socialist writing
i. Zionism, a religious & political ideology: only a national state in Palestine could offer protection from anti-Semitism 
j. Jewish immigrants experienced more upward mobility than any other immigrant group, placed a greater emphasis on education than property ownership
k. 1910, the Jewish community contained a higher proportion of over 16-ers that attended colleges. The Ivy League actually imposed quotas on Jewish enrollments
l. the Anglo-Protestant elite denied Jews entry into exclusive residential neighborhoods, country clubs & resorts & many private schools

Nuevos Mexicanos & Native Americans
1. US educators strove to “Americanize” European immigrants
a. legal barriers & racial discrimination sometimes blocked their opportunities for assimilation, economic improvement, & political participation
b. Hispanic residents in the SW had their territory invaded by US owned railroad corporations & ranchers lost their lands to commercial farms > became day workers in Arizona mines or Texas ranches
c. 1912, New Mexico enters the Union, English-only public schools there.
d. 1890, irrigation projects in the SW and CA stimulated fruit & vegetable production which created agricultural jobs for Mexican migrants
e. 1900: 100,000 Mexicans, 1910: 200,000, 1920: 400,000 Mexicans
f. many Mexicans headed back to Mexico in bad times
g. married women worked in the fields or in domestic service
h. 1920, Mexicans formed small, struggling communities in Denver and Los Angeles
i. The Dawes Act of 1887, broke up tribal landholdings
j. poor-soil + cheating by white speculators made farming difficult on the 160 acre allotments
k. 1906, the Burke Act, accelerated land grants to white purchasers by waiving the government’s 25 year trusteeship of Native Property
l. 1917, Native Americans had lost 62% of their lands that they held 30 years earlier
m. Washington, DC reduced federal $ for education
n. the curriculum was changed to provide vocational training & encouraged natives to become farmworkers
o. “bright” children were sent to private boarding schools to Christianize them
p. Charles Eastman believed Jesus embodied Indian principles & white civilization did not live by Jesus’ principles

Maintaining The Racial Divide, p. 23
1. Dubois: why can’t a nation of immigrants accept blacks?
2. prejudice, discrimination & violence against blacks dates back to the days of slavery 
a. 1900, psuedo-scientific racist theories achieved an aura of respectability 
b. 1900, 80% of blacks lived in the South
c. 3/4 of the black labor force worked as farmers or sharecroppers in a declining cotton economy
d. blacks worked at low paying jobs: domestic servants, janitors, day laborers
e. blacks created a small middle class of clergy, physicians, educators, funeral directors, barbers & beauticians
f. 1896, the National Association of Colored Women wanted to promote the social & intellectual uplift of their people
g. George H. White of NC declared his constituents as “a rising people, full of potential.”
h. segregation codes, political disenfranchisement & terror were imposed 
i. 1890s, S. Legislatures imposed Jim Crow Laws: segregation in transportation, schools & public places
j. Plessy v. Ferguson maintained separate but equal
k. mixed races were legally black 
l. S. Populists were not able to build a coalition against the Democrats in 1890s
m. Ben Pitchfork Tillman, Mississippi “White Knight” Vardaman, Georgia’s Hoke Smith rose to the top of the Democratic party by bashing blacks
n. blacks were effectively denied from voting
o. Democrats won support for a poll tax
p. poor whites could avoid restrictions through “grandfather” clauses
q. 1884-1914: white vigilantes/mobs lynched 3,600 black men to “protect the purity of white women from black sexual assault.”
r. Southern leaders cited pseudoscientific literature: biological & cultural inferiority of African peoples
s. blacks had “primitive nerve impulses.”
t. G. Stanley Hall, blacks should be treated by veterinarians
u. Woodrow Wilson: portrayed Reconstruction as a corrupt attempt by N. “carpet baggers” to integrate slaves into social & political life on equal terms
v. “The Clansman,” (1905), Thomas Dixon
w. “The Birth Of A Nation,” (1915) D. W. Griffith
y. major race riots in NYC in 1900 & in Springfield, IL, the hometown of Abraham Lincoln
z. Roosevelt issued dishonorable discharges to an all-black regiment for reacting violently to racial slurs

1. Booker T. Washington, leader of the nation’s African Americans
a. born a slave, graduated from a vocational training school designed by N. philanthropists
b. headed Alabama’s Normal & Industrial Institute @ Tuskegee
c. promoted hard work, frugality, cleanliness, proper manners
d. believed blacks would do better as S. artisans than as northern wage earners
e. encouraged blacks to accept a separate social status from whites
f. the S. plantation economy was stagnant > blacks migrated to the N.
g. the Chicago Defender alerted black migrants to new opportunities in auto plants, steel mills & packing houses

1. W.E. B. Dubois: 
a. history & sociology professor
b. organized a conference dedicated to Negro “freedom & growth”
c. met on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls with Boston activist William Monroe Trotter
d. 1st black American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard
e. accused Booker Washington of failing to adjust to the urban-industrial age
f. blacks needed political power to achieve economic success
g. promoted the “Talented Tenth,” college-educated blacks 
h. 1909. DuBois partners with social-worker Lillian Wald, activist Mary Ovington, socialist William English Walling > organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation’s 1st civil rights organization
i. published the Crisis, the nation’s leading voice of African American rights


The Plight Of Working People, p. 29
1. blacks, Mexicans, European immigrants earned paltry wages
a. hard working conditions, 60% of men didn’t earn enough to support a family
b. 1916, 2/3 of the population held 5% of the national wealth
c. 1911, industrial fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in NYC
d. 100s of Italian & Jewish immigrant women were trapped in a 10 story building 
e. the doors were locked to prevent theft of materials & unionization
f. 80,000 people marched in the funeral procession
g. women workers were an essential part of industrial labor
h. hierarchy 1) teachers, nurses, small # of doctors & lawyers, 2) clerical work, 3) retail sales, factory work, domestic service
i. white women sold goods, black women washed floors
j. 1900, 10% of all girls between 10 & 15 held jobs, 20% of boys between 10 & 15 held jobs
k. 1913, 20% of the nation’s children earned their own livings
l. labor abuses increased in S. manufacturing, 62% of the labor force worked in low-wage extractive industries
m. the American Tobacco Company processed tobacco in the Carolinas & in Virginia, employees earned subsistence wages
n. 1880-1900: massive investment in S. cotton mills, surpassed New England
o. 17,000 to 100,000 textile workers in the S.
p. 1890: child labor increased 130% in S. mills
q. employees wanted their children to work, earnings had to be pooled, blacks were assigned the most menial tasks
r. Mexican workers in Texas & the Southwest faced exploitative conditions
s. Chicanos, new Mexican Americans became a permanent migrant workforce that travelled across the country cultivating & picking crops
t. corporate growers persuaded Congress to waive immigration restrictions on farmworkers in 1917

A Rising Labor Movement, p. 32
a. corporations were prosperous
b. the cost of food was increasing
c. 1900: 800,000 union members, 1917: 2M union members
d. John Mitchell, head of the United Mine Workers Union, gained influence through walkouts in the Pennsylvania & West Virginia coal mines
e. the American Federation of labor thrived by organizing skilled workers
f. 1900, Jewish labor activists organized the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), mobilized female apparel employees, 
g. 1910, ILGWU lost a struggle against the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, company guards beat female strikers
h. Chicago police killed 10 female demonstrators
i. Sidney Hillman’s Amalgamated Clothing Workers combined a conciliatory approach to management with innovative union practices such as cooperative housing & banking
j. common laborers in the South faced greater challenges: piecework, long hours, low wages, competition from child labor, strikers lost when management used blacks to evict them from company-rented housing
k. more violent conflicts erupted in the West, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) became a major force in the 1890s
l. 1903, union strike in Colorado coal fields, the governor declared martial law 
m. WFM formed alliances with Mexican American miners
n. 1913, 15 month strike of Greek, Italian, Slavic, & Mexican workers in Ludlow, Colorado
o. the Colorado Fuel Company evicted strikers from company housing with the National Guard
p. 1903, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Wobblies, organized by “Big Bill” Haywood & other socialists
q. the working class & the employing class have nothing in common
r. rejected labor contracts, wanted to create a classless society
s. mobilized miners, loggers, migrant workers
t. used songbooks, hymns and “free speech” crusades to create worker solidarity
u. IWW: sit-down strikes against General Electric, a walkout in Paterson, NJ & unionized the textile mills of Lawrence, MA
v. US workers wouldn’t develop class loyalty, difficult to link the labor movement to republican, producer or socialist values
w. the ethnic/cultural diversity of the working class made it difficult to force labor unity, racial tensions limited the movement
y. 1903, Japanese & Mexican farmworkers went on strike in California, the AFL refused to charter the union 
z. most AFL groups were racially exclusive, rejected women, ethnic minorities & unskilled labor, blacks were likely to act as strikebreakers & the task orientation of female jobs discouraged collective bargaining

Socialists, Anarchists & Cultural Radicals, p. 34
1. the militancy of organized labor sparked greater support for a vibrant socialist movement
a. 1900, Eugene Debs organizes the Socialist Party of America, brought together industrial workers, agrarian monetarists, radical intellectuals, middle class reformers
b. a pragmatic agenda of workplace democracy & participation in elections
c. unions could develop sufficient class consciousness to elect political leaders & eventually turn government over to working class syndicates
d. Morris Hillquit, skillful Marxist orator in NY, appealed to immigrants
e. 1907, the International Association of Machinists is taken control of by Socialists
f. Samuel Gompers & building trade unions prevented a socialist takeover of the AFL
g. Debs wanted a mass movement that crossed class lines
h. the Socialist party abandoned the call to nationalize private land
i. endorsed municipal ownership of public utilities such as gas, water & sewer systems
j. Socialists placed 33 members in state legislatures
k. Victor Berger, a German American from Milwaukee was elected to Congress
l. 1912, Debs won 1,000,000 votes, 6% of the vote
m. anarchism, the state is an oppressive instrument that only serves the propertied classes
n. utopian collectivists: Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Johann Most disparaged property ownership & sought to dismantle all power structures
o. Berkman advocated the use of violence or armed rebellion to appropriate property for collective use to create a cooperative society 
p. Goldman: feminist, “free-love” advocate, opponent of wedlock, pacifist. Believed marriage, organized religion & bourgeois politics were only extensions of male power
q. Goldman didn’t want the poor to have children, distributed pamphlets in Portland, OR. 1915, arrested. 
r. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the century’s leading critic of gender roles, published “Women & Economics (1898) & “The Man Made World.”(1911) 
s. Gilman dismissed housekeeping, believed women should be free to join the paid work-force
t. 1910, political dissent + free-spirits + bohemians, rejected Victorian hierarchy & genteel propriety
u. NY’s Greenwich Village, Taos, NM, 
v. Floyd Dell & Waldo Frank criticized capitalism through a Marxist lens and adopted Freud’s opinions, against puritanism
w. Randolph Bourne, upset about social injustice
y. The Masses, Max Eastman’s magazine for radical poets, novelists, artists, intellectuals, journalists & cartoonists 

New Families And Popular Culture, p. 35
a. different family patterns, different gender roles, new class of consumers
b. middle class urbanites relied less on the family as an economic unit of survival
c. increased use in contraceptives, advocated by Margaret Sanger
d. expanded opportunities for middle class women 
e. 1880 to 1890: increase of divorce rate from 5 to 10%
f. greater educational opportunities for women, 1920: 47.3% of college students were women
g. long period between physical maturity and economic independence
h. 1898-1914: increased elementary school attendance
i. 1917, 38 states required young people to attend school until 16
j. psychologist Stanley Hall created the term “adolescence,” and asserted that modern industrial society required a long period of disciplined physical development and postponed sexuality
k. working class parents contested consensual sexual relations of their children 
l. 1900-1920: the average work week for middle class employees decreased from 56 to 41 hours
m. college football became a middle-class fad and baseball was popular in industrial cities
n. amusement parks appeared on city outskirts: arcades, carousels, roller coasters, food concessions, live orchestras, dance pavilions
o. NY’s Coney Island: more than a million showed up on hot summer days
p. Middle class consumers bought sheet music to play on parlor pianos
q. NY’s “Tin Pan Alley” district used mass-production techniques to market popular songs
r. 1915, the industry was selling 200M music sheets a year
s. 1900, “rag” or “ragtime” crossed racial, ethnic, and class lines
t. ragtime was popularized by Scott Joplin, used syncopated African-derived rhythm & European melody: clubs & brothels to amusement parks/dance halls > blended with blues & jazz forms in the black south
u. urban men & women mixed together in the informal atmosphere, other attended ethnic comedy and vaudeville stages
v. 1880s, Eastman pioneered the photographic process
w. Thomas Edison developed a movie camera & kinetoscope
y. 1896, “The Kiss,” appeared in penny arcades of urban vice districts
z. 1903, “The Great Train Robbery” by Edwin W. Porter, first film with a consistent plot line 
1. Jewish entrepreneurs: Samuel Goldwyn, Adolph Zukor moved exhibitions to “nickelodeon” 5 cent a ticket storefronts in tenement neighborhoods
2. 1908, 10,000 movie establishments 
3. movie entrepreneurs moved to Hollywood: escaped harsh weather, high costs, production restrictions, troublesome labor unions,
a. consolidated casting, production, distribution, exhibition
b. 1913, “The Perils of Pauline,” and “Ruth of the Rockies” were smash hits
c. Mack Sennett created the “Keystone Kops,” a series of slapstick comedies that parodied police & social authorities 
d. stars: Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplain-the latter two negotiated million dollar contracts
e. Chaplain’s “little tramp,” an underdog in baggy pants resonated with millions of immigrants & rural migrants who faced snobbery & middle class hostility
f. 1915, “The Cheat,” was directed by Cecil de Mille
g. Birth Of A Nation, D. W. Griffiths controversial history film 
h. Mary Pickford & her co-star Douglas Fairbanks flaunted new styles of material consumption in lavish romance stories
i. 1920, the motion picture industry became a major influence on popular consumer tastes & values

Pragmatist Philosophers & Realist Artists, p. 37
1. America’s middle class began to face the tensions & dislocations of urban-industrial life
a. the literary & artistic conventions of the Victorian era began to fade
b. a “Little Renaissance” emerged around realist & naturalist writers
c. 1900, “Sister Carrie,” Theodore Dreiser, depicted a young woman’s corruption by city life
d. 1912, “The Financier,”
e. 1914, “The Titan,”
f. Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Willa Cather, Ellen Glasgow: other naturalists
g. 1910s, young poets rebelled against the Victorian genteel tradition by experimenting with new methods & more contemporary themes
h. 1912, Harriet Monroe founded the influential journal “Poetry” which published works by Robert Frost, Edgar Lee Masters, E. E. Cummings, Carl Sandburg, Amy Lowell, Edna St. Vincent Millay: drew material & language from the experiences of common people
i. modern art: shattered Victorian sensibilities
j. John Sloan, George Bellows: depicted the harshness of the contemporary world forcefully
k. Robert Henri, “paint pictures of what interests you.”
l. 1913, Alfred Stieglitz helped to organize the Armory Show, an exhibition which included abstract paintings by Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso 
m. break with 19th century formalism, explored the internal dimensions of modern life
n. William James, Harvard psychologist & philosopher, suggested an open-ended universe
o. John Dewey, Columbia University Educator, schools should be democratically organized & rooted in direct experience and serve as agents for social reform and to transmit culture
p. public education could stabilize the social order
q. Charles Beard, Thorstein Veblen: believed “progressive” technicians and reformers could apply rational planning to offset vested interests and mere precedent

Social Justice, p. 38
1. Social Gospel: “progressive Christians for social reform.”
a. spiritual regeneration led to social justice
b. government promotion of communal property ownership could reduce class conflict
c. 1907, Walter Rauschenbusch, “Christianity And The Social Crisis,” believed social environment shaped personal character, called for an activist ministry among the urban poor
d. middle class women had smaller families + increased leisure time
e. middle class women wanted to restore morality to public life
f. the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, a) focused on improving working conditions for women and children, b) 50,000 members (1898) to more than a million members (1914)
g. 1889, Jane Addams made a career in the newly developed field of social work
h. 1889, Addams helped start Hull House, a pioneer settlement house: 1) wanted to provide child-care, a library, meeting-rooms, classes in housekeeping, cooking, music & art
i. Social feminists helped the National Child Labor Committee, lobbied 1) to prohibit children under 14 from working in factories, less than 16 from working in mines, 2) eliminate night work & shifts of more than 8hrs, 
j. 22 state legislatures establishing programs to pay child support to widows or abandoned wives
k. 1912, the Children’s Bureau in the Department of Commerce & Labor was created
l. the National Consumer’s League led by Florence Kelley + the National Woman’s Trade Union League won passage of women’s minimum wage bills in 15 state and maximum hour law in 39 states
m. 1908, Muller v. Oregon, Louis D. Brandeis “cited expert testimony on the effect of extended labor on women’s health to convince the Supreme Court to uphold a ten-hour daily work limit for female workers. Viewed as a “progressive” decision, the ruling provided a constitutional basis to limit women’s equality in the workplace until the 1960s.”(39)

Purity & Social Feminism, p. 39
1. social reform often overlapped the purity crusade
a. roots in pre-Civil War evangelical temperance campaigns
b. personal character & disciplined families depend on a wholesome social environment?
c. the liquor trade was thought to be a threat to stable family life
d. 1900, 2,000,000 members in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded by Frances Willard in 1874
e. the purity crusade also targeted prostitution
f. prostitution: 6x the wages of wage labor
g. Elizabeth Blackwell & Caroline Wilson (the 1st two women physicians) & Antoinette Blackwell, the 1st women ordained as a Protestant minister campaigned against the double standard which allows white men to have promiscuous relations but insisted that their wives avoid extramarital liaisons
h. reformers wanted to destroy the sexual marketplace, p, 42
i. the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) & the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) & the Traveler’s Aid Society (YWCA) were created
j. most states raised the age of legal consent for sexual activity & imposed penalties for statutory rape, reforms promoted juvenile courts and reformatories to prevent sexuality before marriage
k. 1908, Lola Baldwin, stationed in Portland, OR, became the nation’s 1st municipally paid police-women to prevent sex crimes
l. prostitution was a public health issue: syphilis, gonorrhea, “silent infections,” 
m. 1910, Congress passed the Mann Act, made transportation of a woman to another state for immoral purposes a federal crime
n. Margaret Sanger, birth control could prevent the ill effects of excessive pregnancies, Emma Goldman believed contraception gave woman greater control over their lives, others wanted to reduce high birthrates among immigrants & the poor
o. some purity groups believed birth control would make women more promiscuous, the NY Society for the Prevention of Vice campaigned against allowing birth control medications through the mail
p. 1916, Margaret Sanger was forced to close her birth control clinic on indictment of obscenity charges
q. stricter licensing of cabarets, curbs of liquor sales on dance floors, and the stationing of police women at amusement parks
r. reformers were worried by motion pictures which glamorized crime and sexuality
s. Social workers John Collier & Jane Addams supported the National Board of Review in 1908 to preview films and eliminate objectionable material
t. 1910, San Francisco censors rejected 32 films- “Saved by a Sailor,” “In Hot Pursuit,” & “The Black Viper,” as “unfit for public exhibition
u. 1920s, dozens of cities and 8 states created similar commissions to monitor the fantasies presented on screen

Prohibition & Woman’s Suffrage, p. 43
a. purity reformers crusaded against the dangers of substance abuse
b. the use of opium, morphine, and cocaine grew in the 19th century
c. physicians prescribed diluted opium
d. Coca Cola had small amounts of cocaine until 1903
e. America had 250,000 narcotics addicts
f. doctors/pharmacists embraced the idea that widespread drug use was socially harmful
g. only professionals with the appropriate credentials should be able to dispense drugs
h. 1906, the Pure Food & Drug Act
i. 1909, prohibition: opium could not be imported
j. 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Act, narcotics could only be used for medical purposes & required federal registration of all drug producers as well as a doctor’s prescription for all drugs
k. alcohol: main focus of social reformers
l. evangelical Protestants denounced the use of liquor as a sin
m. Henry Ford, drinking was an obstacle to efficient production
n. the National Safety council noted the connection between alcohol use & industrial accidents in 1912
o. Anglo Protestants emphasized rationality, efficiency and discipline
p. white supremacists believed abstinence would prevent blacks from raping white women
q. social feminists were concerned about spousal abuse by drunken husbands
r. 2/3 of the counties in the South “voted dry.”
s. William Jennings Bryan praised antiliquor laws as a triumph over the corrupt and exploitative liquor interests
t. the Anti-Saloon League, nationwide lobby, professional agents were sent to influence public officials
u. 1909, 6 states had passed prohibition laws
v. 1913, the Webb-Kenyon Act permitted dry states to stop the transportation of liquor across their boundaries
w. prohibition brought middle class women into the political arena, dramatized the potential power of the women’s vote
y. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) watched 4 western states give women the right to vote
z. right to vote = economic independence = sexual freedom
1.Carrie Chapman Catt appealed to the white middle class
2.. conservatives & liberals looked to the political arena to solve social problems
3. suffrage
4. prohibition
5. sanitation
6. economic regulation

Thursday, October 15, 2009

US History, Horowitz Text, p. 57-69

US History, p. 57-69


Urban Progressives & Reformers

  • 1. Washington politicians looked abroad to strengthen the economy + reinvigorate
  • 2. reformers sought to eliminate corruption/inefficiency in local governments
  • 3. NY’s Tammany Hall, controlled a $12 M payroll & more jobs than Carnegie Steel
  • 4. machine bosses received bribes from liquor, prostitution, gambling
  • 5. 1903, corporate bribes for NY Franchises - $470M
  • 6. politician George Washington Plunkitt defended the activities as “honest graft.”
  • 7. E. L. Godkin, editor of the Nation wanted civil service reform
  • 8. Roosevelt patrolled NY’s Lower East Side
  • 1) civic responsibility, 2) social responsibility, 3) citizenship


Urban Reform

  • 1. machine politicians in Galveston, TX didn’t respond to a tidal wave
  • 2. Galveston plan, civil service examinations administered
  • 3. The Shame Of The Cities,
  • 4. cities lowered public utility & transit rates
  • 5. 2/3 of the nation’s cities owned and operated municipal waterworks by 1915
  • a. introduced city planners, public health officials, sanitary engineers, housing officers, community development advisers & corporate experts
  • b. used the secret ballot
  • c. moved voting from saloons to public schools/libraries
  • d. residency requirements for voter registration
  • e. produced a 20% decline in voter participation between 1890-1920
  • f. S. Dems supported 1) direct primary, 2) alcohol prohibition, 3) worker’s compensation, 4) regulation of railroads/utilities
  • g. Republican reform governors in Oregon, S. Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri challenged boss control of legislatures, 1) promoted direct primary, 2) referendum, 3) voter’s initiative-voters proposed legislation
  • h. governor Robert M. La Follette, “Wisconsin Idea,” “Laboratory of democracy.”
  • i. Gov. Folk’s “Missouri Idea,” a program that used the law to restrain bribery, bossism, and excessive corporate power
  • j. Folk: 1) regulate lobbyists, 2) regulate railroads, 3) pressed trusts on Standard Oil
  • k. Cummins-Iowa, Beveridge-Indiana, Charles Evans-New York, Johnson-California governors
  • l. N. Progressives: regulate women’s and children’s labor
  • m. Muller v. Oregon, Brandeis won special protections for women such as shorter hours
  • n. limited women’s equality in the workforce until the 1960s
  • o. Socialists: government ownership, Conservatives: free marketplace


Roosevelt & Corporate Progressivism

  • 1. William Jennings Bryan criticized imperial expansion
  • 2. McKinley, Roosevelt: incumbents, won 52% of the vote
  • 3. Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley in Buffalo @ the Pan-American Exposition
  • 4. Roosevelt: born to comfort & poor health
  • a. commitment to the strenuous life, violence & struggle are important
  • b. man: “work, fight, breed.”
  • c. soldier, cowboy, big-game hunter, author
  • d. zestfully embraced the task of politics
  • e. won election as governor of New York
  • f. Republican Party bosses were afraid of Roosevelt’s progressivism
  • g. “bully pulpit” for a national agenda, define the public interest & mold opinion
  • h. the White House sent drafts of proposed bills to Congress
  • i. advanced “corporate progressivism.”, used the state to regulate big business
  • j. irresponsible/greedy management would encourage social unrest & radical politics
  • k. wanted to revitalize the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
  • l. targeted the N. Securities Company, a huge holding company, tried to restrain trade
  • m. modified the Knight case, gave new vitality to the Sherman Act
  • n. earned a reputation as a “trust buster.”
  • o. 1911, Supreme court held up dissolution of Standard Oil & the American Tobacco Company
  • p. Roosevelt: preserve corporate stability, encouraged business leaders to accept labor unions
  • q. National Civic Federation (NCF): founded by Mark Hanna in 1900: 1) harmony between labor & management, 2) promoted trust regulations, 3) workers compensation, 4) company welfare programs
  • r. Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was invited to serve as the vice president of the NCF
  • s. John Mitchell: led United Mine Workers (UMW): 1) demanded a 10-20% wage increase, 2) an 8 hour day, 3) management’s recognition of the union
  • t. Roosevelt summoned both sides to a conference: miners received a 10% raise & a 9 hour day BUT owners raised prices 10% and wouldn’t recognize the union
  • u. Roosevelt did not champion unions
  • v. Roosevelt wanted to save federally owned forests from unplanned economic exploitation by private interests
  • w. Roosevelt: government would build dams & irrigation systems throughout the West
  • y. ranchers/growers accessed cheap water through dams constructed through the Bureau of Reclamation
  • z. 16 national monuments, 5 national parks, 51 wildlife refuges-off limits to economic development
  • 1. Gifford Pinchot, head of the Bureau of Forestry
  • a. promoted scientific management of forests


The Square Deal

  • 1. Roosevelt’s “Square Deal,” federal government tried to eliminate inequalities in national life
  • a. won 57% of the vote in 1904
  • b. expanded the power of the federal bureaucracy and presidency
  • c. railroad regulation reforms: agrarian radicals & middle class reformers were pleased
  • d. Elkins Act of 1903, outlawed rebates from railroads to large shipper
  • e. Hepburn Act, 1906, increased the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) & provided the commission with greater authority to set transportation rates
  • f. Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906: improve consumer confidence in products
  • g. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, meatpacking industry abuses
  • h. stock market crash of 1907,
  • i. major NY banks failed
  • j. Morgan’s US Steel was allowed to violate antitrust laws by absorbing a TN mining subsidiary
  • k. Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908, gave nat’l banks additional flexibility
  • l. established a National Monetary Commission to study the banking system
  • m. Congress rejected bills to 1) supervise corporate competition, 2) regulate railroad securities, 3) establish income & inheritance taxes, 4) limit court injunctions against labor unions, 5) to establish an 8-hr day for federal employees
  • n. Roosevelt attacked conservative judges for 1) blocking unions, 2) state worker’s compensation laws, and the regulation of women’s working conditions by the states
  • o. opponent of “fool radicalism” of socialists & the selfishness of “malefactors of great wealth.”


Roosevelt & World Power, p. 68-69

  • 1. Roosevelt hoped to consolidate the strategic & commercial gains of the Spanish-American War
  • a. wanted to build a canal through Central America
  • b. a US controlled canal would permit Latin America to develop as a prosperous region independent of outside forces & capable of upholding “civilized values.”
  • c. Roosevelt invited British help in the construction of the Central American canal
  • d. 1901, the Hay-Herran Treaty with Columbia, secured permanent rights to a canal zone through the middle of Panama
  • e. difficult to make a deal with Columbia rulers
  • f. US warships supported Panama’s move for independence
  • g. 40 mile-long lock canal, opened in 1914
  • h. Roosevelt Corollary > Monroe Doctrine
  • i. US right to intervene
  • j. US would be an international police power
  • k. 1905, Roosevelt sent troops to Santo Domingo to forstall a revolution that would benefit German shipping interests
  • l. sought to contain the spread of Japanese power in Asia
  • m. Treaty of Portsmouth, end of Russo-Japanese War
  • n. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906
  • o. the Chinese Empire collapsed, Japan sent powerful naval fleets to China
  • p. Root-Takahira Treaty, 1908: compelled Washington to accept Japanese restrictions on the Open Door policy in Manchuria
  • q. Japan agreed to respect the policy in the rest of China
  • r. Roosevelt wanted to restrain the expansion of German influence
  • s. Algeciras Conference of 1906, supported British & French interests in N. Africa
  • t. Roosevelt framed a foreign policy directed toward a stable world order & an open door for US corporations

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall(1905), Spirit Of Youth (1909), Souls Of Black Folk(1903)


Plunkitt

  • 1. study human nature & act accordingly
  • 2. college gives you a false view of human nature
  • 3. cement loyalty: glee club, base-ball club, give them opportunities to show themselves off
  • 4. gave the Citizens Union nice desks
  • 5. won 5 votes to 14,000
  • 6. give civil service jobs for votes
  • 7. campaign literature upsets voters
  • 8. send fire-engines, buy clothes
  • 9. poor people have more friends in their neighborhoods
  • 10. knows every big employer
  • 11. give children candy, they are good vote getters


Spirit of Youth, Ch. I Youth In The City

  • 1. industrialism led to large labor supply
  • 2. city is based on industry
  • 3. girls are unsupervised, valued for their labor power
  • 4. boys can earn money independently & spend it on vice
  • 5. society cares more about the products girls produce not their childhood
  • 6. all public recreation is commercial
  • 7. middle age people try to put restrictions on youthful behavior
  • 8. alcohol is sold to the youth
  • 9. joy, lust, gaiety, debauchery
  • 10. girls are exploited in the factories and then exploited by sellers
  • 11. the overworked girls are very self-conscious


The Souls Of Black Folk, W. E. B. Dubois

  • 1. Egyptian > Indian > Greek > Roman > Teuton > Mongolian > Negro(7th son)
  • 2. double-consciousness
  • 3. contempt/pity
  • 4. two-warring ideals
  • 5. strength keeps the Negro going
  • 6. “the history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better & truer self.”
  • 7. struggle to be both a Negro & an American
  • 8. America has much to teach Africa
  • 9. struggle to live without being cursed/spit on
  • 10. struggle to seize opportunities
  • 11. want to add to culture

Monday, October 5, 2009

Class Notes US History 10/05/2009

Class Notes US History 10/05/2009

1. education would only make a good field-hand
2. Tillman, extremely wealthy planter, takes over S. Carolina
3. Watson, different Populist Party, racist/nativism, calls for disenfranchisement of blacks, supports Polk Smith(D), 
4. state constitution convention: put white in front of qualification for voting
5. terrorist campaigns against blacks trying to vote in Louisiana
6. 1890s: whites try to take away the vote 
7. 4,000 blacks were lynched, 3rd part of segregation to protect the “purity” of white-women 
8. Ida Wells Barnet, spoke truth to power, moved to Chicago
9. Successful blacks were lynched
10. Northern investors were developing the market in the south, rural crop economy to consumer economy.
11. American elections were run like military campaigns, tightly disciplined
12. politics: power & patronage
13. McKinley: 10:1 Money capacity 
14. Hanna focused on criticizing Bryan’s campaign
15. society was an interdependent web of producers
16. organized labor supports the protective tariff
17. Bryan, rural imagery, long speeches, 
18. McKinley expands the power of the office of the presidency 
19. McKinley creates a new tariff 
20. wool, silk, cattle hides: higher tariffs

Sunday, October 4, 2009

The Significance Of The American Frontier & The 20th Century Will Be American

Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance Of The American Frontier,” 1893
1. the conditions of frontier life shaped intellectual life in America

Traits
1. coarseness
2. strength
3. acuteness
4. inquisitiveness
5. practical
6. inventive
7. quick to find expedients
8. a masterful grasp of material things
9. lacking in the artistic
10. powerful to effect great ends
11. restless, nervous energy
12. dominant individualism-for good & evil. 
13. buoyancy
14. exuberance
15. frontier: new opportunities, not caught up in a stubborn way of thinking, 
16. freshness
17. confidence
18. new institutions & activities will be developed 

Senator Albert Beveridge (R-IN), “The Twentieth Century Will Be American,” January 1, 1900. 

1. America was conquering new lands
2. new lands will create new markets
3. American culture is less debased, nobler, virile
4. other cultures are debased, decaying
5. Americans are God’s favored people
6. Americans are to be the master organizers of the world 
7. Americans are to make order out of chaos in the world 

On The Edge, p. 52 to 57

US History 

Page 52-57

Commercial Expansion & The Road To Empire
1. Republicans embraced an expansionist foreign policy
2. business leaders sought new outlets for the national surplus
3. corporate leaders brought the domestic economy into a global marketplace by seeking foreign markets, raw materials, and investment opportunities
4. pressure for a more assertive foreign policy came from Captain Mahan, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Lodge, & John Hay.
5. Mahan called for a large navy to secure strategic sea-lanes, overseas markets, and unity @ home. 
6. patricians such as Roosevelt were concerned immigrants would dilute America’s Anglo-Saxon ethnic heritage
7. Roosevelt wanted war in the Pacific: the Pacific was a path for US expansion
8. William Randolph Hearst & Joseph Pulitzer provided sensationalist coverage of Spanish concentration camps, brutality & rape
9. economic depression in 1898
10. the State Department was concerned that Germany might gain control of Cuba-Spain had retreated.
11. civil war in Cuba in 1897
12. McKinley signed an annexation treaty with a revolutionary regime that had been created by US interests in Hawaii, although a bloc of “anti-imperialists” prevented immediate ratification in the Senate. 

The Spanish-American War & The Open Door Policy
1. McKinley was not anxious to go to war
2. sent the Maine battleship to Havana
3. the Maine sank, 260 US sailors were killed (Howard Zinn was upset @ the complacency the public has for such events)
4. internal combustion destroyed the ship?
5. McKinley requested a declaration of war in April 1898
6. the Cuban rebels were on the verge of success
7. the war was extremely popular @ home
8. John Hay, Secretary of State called it a “splendid little war”
9. 17,000 soldiers, the rough riders led by Leonard Wood & Lieutenant Theodore Roosevelt
10. local guerillas held large parts of the island
11. US General William Shafter refused to allow Cubans to sign truce
12. US forces took Puerto Rico with minimal fighting
13. war fatalities: 379 troops + 5,000 deaths from disease, bad sanitation, rotten meat
14. prostitution, race-mixing and venereal diseases were condemned by moralists
15. McKinley convinced Congress to pass a joint resolution authorizing the annexation of Hawaii
16. the Paris Peace Treaty of 18989: Spain gave up Cuba, USA got to control the Philippines, Guam & Puerto Rico
17. 19th century(1800s) tradition generally promoted nonintervention and self-determination
18. McKinley promoted expansionism, imperialism
19. The Anti-Imperialist League (began 1898) opposed Senate ratification of the Paris Peace Treaty
20. William Jennings Bryan, Benjamin Harrison(former president), Grover Cleveland (former president), Andrew Carnegie (industrialist), Samuel Gompers (labor leader), William James (intellectual), William Graham Sumner (intellectual), Mark Twain (intellectual)
21. southern colonies didn’t want annexation where mixing of races would occur
22. US trade COULD be extended without colonies or military force
23. imperialists wanted trade in the Caribbean, Pacific & East Asia
24. the Paris Treaty passed 57 to 27, barely met the two thirds vote needed for ratification
25. the treaty gave Cuba nominal independence
26. US forced Cuba to accept the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution
27. Washington got broad authority over Cuban affairs
28. US was allowed to establish a permanent naval base @ Guantanamo Bay
29. USA could intervene militarily in Cuba at will
30. In the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo turned his struggle against Spain into a war for independence against USA
31. the army put Philippine citizens in concentration camps, destroyed villages/crops, adopted torture tactics
32. the Army built roads, schools & sewers in Cuba
33. 200,000 dead Filipino soldiers, 4,000 dead US soldiers
34. another decade of fighting with Muslims happened in the S. Philippines
35. The US had military outposts in Hawaii, Guam & the Philippines
36. 1899, Sec. of State John Hay issued the Open Door Notes
37. Us business in Asia had to be protected
38. Nationalist Chinese students attacked foreign embassies & massacred missionaries, 2,500 US troops arrived
39. Hay promoted “equal & impartial trade”
40. US didn’t have the naval power to enforce the Open Door Policy
41. Europe & Japan didn’t want a war over the division of China

Urban Progressives & Reformers
1. Washington politicians looked abroad to strengthen the economy
2. reformers wanted to eliminate corruption & inefficiency in local governments
3. middle/rich Anglo-Protestant Republicans, progressive reformers challenged the patronage machine of Tammany Hall in NY
4. Tammany Hall controlled more jobs than Carnegie Steel
5. machine bosses received bribes from liquor, prostitution, gambling
6. city officials sold municipal contracts for public transit lines, road construction & public utilities
7. 1903, corporate bribes for NYC franchises surpassed $470 million
8. corruption put burdens on municipalities’ treasuries/taxpaters
9. E. L. Godkin, editor of the Nation proposed to attack patronage with merit examinations for public employees
10. The Civil Service Act of 1883 established tests for a small %age of federal job seekers
11. Republicans didn’t support much expansion of civil-service reform
12. mugwamps abandoned the Republican Party
13. Theodore Roosevelt remained loyal to the national ticket but tried to fight municipal corruption
14. Roosevelt was the head of NY Board of Police Commissioners, toured police beats to curtail vice on NY’s Lower East Side.
p. 58 DONE

Friday, October 2, 2009

10/02/2009 US History Class Notes

10/02/2009 US History Class Notes


  • 1. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, excessive competition
  • 2. most important social movement: on small farmers
  • 3. farmers depended on railroads/remote banking institutions
  • 4. land grants went to corporations over farmers
  • 5. Homestead Act of 1862, free 160 acres of land
  • 6. farmers want regulation of railroads, state laws are created, Supreme Court strikes them down.
  • 7. farmer’s: 1st cooperative movement, want a “level playing field.”
  • 8. “raise less corn & more hell.”
  • 9. farmers wanted more dollar bills in circulation, debtor’s interest.
  • 10. silver should be 1/16 of gold: bi-metalism, 16:1 ratio.
  • 11. nonperishable crops were kept in government warehouses
  • 12. redistribute resources away from big banking to independent farmers
  • 13. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, regulate commerce among the states, federal government could regulate commerce among the states
  • 14. Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890: outlawed restraints of trade against the public interest
  • 15. common law precedent: reasonable/unreasonable restraints of trade & commerce
  • 16. Knight Case: further restrictions on the Sherman Anti-trust Act: federal government did not have jurisdiction over manufacturing, labor unions were held liable.
  • 17. Ignatius Donally, a Roman Catholic novelist, wanted settlers to get railroad land-grants
  • 18. Omaha Platform,
  • 19. call for graduated/progressive federal income tax on the wealthy
  • 20. call for government ownership
  • 21. Populist: 1st major 3rd party, scared of concentration of power
  • 22. Populist: want some government nervous about government power
  • 23. Ran Weaver for President, 10 members to US house, 5 US Senators, 3 governors.
  • 24. Grover Cleveland won in 1892 (won 2 terms, not consecutive)
  • 25. Cleveland supports the gold standard & high tariff
  • 26. Gold standard, less credit, less money, helps the bankers
  • 27. Pennsylvania Reading Railroad goes bankrupt, stock-market crash
  • 28. Depression of 1893-1897, 15,000 businesses go bankrupt, 20% unemployment
  • 29. The American Federation Of Labor survives the D. of 1893
  • 30. Coxey’s army, march to Washington, demand $500 million spent on road-building
  • 31. William Jennings Bryan, made his name in Nebraska, elected to Congress in 1892
  • 32. Bryan: leading exponent on Populist views, speech over “free silver,” criticizes the arrogant, imperial government. Farmers are real producers, bankers are parasites.
  • 33. American manufacturing workers wanted protective tariffs
  • 34. Bryan, evangelical moral reformer. 36 years old, wins Democratic nomination.
  • 35. Jim Crow Laws,
  • 36. Plessy v. Ferguson: Separate but “Equal”