US HISTORY
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Chapter 16 - Explain the reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s rulings in regard to industry. How was the Court defining freedom? What factors contributed to the rise of the labor movement in the nineteenth century?
The courts seemed to be defining freedom as the freedom to choose your working conditions, if people didn't like working sixty hours a week then they should look elswhere. They also sided more with the business owners allowing them to use their property in any way they saw fit. For example, "The Supreme Court in 1895 declared unconstitutional a state law that outlawed the production of garments in sweatshops and established a forty-eight hour work week for women and children" (Give Me Liberty, 626).
The contributing factors to the rise of the labor movement were mainly poor/unsafe working conditions and long hours of work for low pay. The United States had the largest amount of workers (35,000) dying each year in factory and mine accidents (Give Me Liberty, 600). The widening gap between the wealthy and the working class only exaggerated the low pay and poor conditions of the workers. The workers felt oppressed and like there was a new slavery. Ira Steward, in his Second Declaration of Independence explained how workers who are able to rest will actually have better production and better quality. This seems to be true today based on several studies done on workplace happiness (Forbes, 4/4/12 and New York Times 9/3/11).
DISCUSSIONS 16-22
Chapter 17 - What were the goals of the Populist Party? Why were they considered radical in their day? Describe the plan of the Farmers’ Alliance.
The goal of the Populist Party was to "speak for all the producing classes" (page 640). They started as the Farmers' Alliance, helping farmers warehouse crops so that they could obtain federal government loans and branched out from there to include miners and industrial workers. They were considered radical because they rejected the power of the corporations in favor of individual power. They also fought for and won, public ownership of previously privately owned railroads. Prior to this, the corporations that owned the railways could decide what they would and would not ship. They could also have been considered radical because they had people like Tom Watson, working hard to unite black and white small farmers in the south. They used women like Mary Elizabeth Lease, to promote their ideas and they also endorsed women's suffrage.
The plan of the Farmers' Alliance was to help farmers have "success and freedom" vs "failure and suffering" (page 639). At first they stayed out of politics, with the idea of improving farmers conditions by creating "exchanges" that would loan money to farmers and then sell the crops on their behalf. Unfortunately for them, banks refused to work with them, because of this they came up with the Subtreasury Plan. This plan established warehouses that would hold the farmers crops as collateral allowing the federal government to issue low interest loans to the farmers until the crops were sold.
Chapter 18 - How did Progressivism operate in theory and in practice? What were the limits of Progressive reform?
In theory Progressivism was supposed to bring about significant change in American social and political life. They felt the individual could not compete with big business and the political machine and they wanted to use the federal government as a way to solve the problems of the public. They believed in a distribution of power and that freedom ultimately depended on it. In practice there were mixed results and contradictory goals. It did bring around many reforms and welfare. At first welfare started out as being given to those who "deserved" it, later on though, it was changed to include everyone. They worked for various causes such as; prison reform, education, birth control, women's rights, child labor, improved working conditions, and prohibition.
Progressive reform was limited due to the lack of organization on a platform of issues. While, women wanted the vote, progressives favored allowing women to vote to counter act the poor and the black vote. They believed that the "fitness" of the voters mattered more than the number of voters. They also felt that ordinary citizens couldn't be trusted to run the government and that committees of educated professionals would be better suited.
Chapter 19 - Debate the merits of the ERA. Why did Alice Paul see it as a logical extension to the Nineteenth Amendment? Discuss what the Supreme Court and Congress did during the 1920s to reverse some of the achievements of the Progressive Era. How was freedom used to justify these actions?
Alice Paul saw the Equal Rights Amendment as a logical extension to the Nineteenth Amendment because women now that they had the vote, had a say in what went on around them. If, she realized, women were now equal voting members of society, why would they need special protections? She felt that having the protections would mean that women were not on the same level as men and they did still need to be taken care of. She wanted women to have equal access to employment, education and all the opportunities that regular citizens enjoyed and by doing so be equal members of society.
The Supreme Court and Congress reversed some of the achievements of the Progressive Era, and used "liberty of contract" as their reasoning. Once such decision was Adkins v. Children's Hospital, this decision overturned Muller v. Oregon by reversing the minimum wage law for women in Washington DC. The justices felt that now that women had the ability to vote, they were entitled to the same workplace freedom as men.
Chapter 20 - Debate the merits of the ERA. Why did Alice Paul see it as a logical extension to the Nineteenth Amendment? Discuss what the Supreme Court and Congress did during the 1920s to reverse some of the achievements of the Progressive Era. How was freedom used to justify these actions?
Alice Paul saw the Equal Rights Amendment as a logical extension to the Nineteenth Amendment because women now that they had the vote, had a say in what went on around them. If, she realized, women were now equal voting members of society, why would they need special protections? She felt that having the protections would mean that women were not on the same level as men and they did still need to be taken care of. She wanted women to have equal access to employment, education and all the opportunities that regular citizens enjoyed and by doing so be equal members of society.
The Supreme Court and Congress reversed some of the achievements of the Progressive Era, and used "liberty of contract" as their reasoning. Once such decision was Adkins v. Children's Hospital, this decision overturned Muller v. Oregon by reversing the minimum wage law for women in Washington DC. The justices felt that now that women had the ability to vote, they were entitled to the same workplace freedom as men.
Chapter 21 - Evaluate the success of the New Deal. Did it end the Great Depression?
How did the New Deal create a new meaning for liberalism? What, by 1940, is a liberal in America?
I think the New Deal was very successful with helping end the Great Depression. FDR put people back to work by having them build public works projects like dams, tunnel, roads, bridges, housing, and more. With so many people out of work, they were unable to spend, the people that did have the money worried they would lose it so they wouldn't spend it, and it became a vicious downward spiral. By putting people to work, the people were now able to spend money to stimulate the economy. There were also many regulatory committees that were created to help ensure good working conditions, decent pay, standard costs for items, and standards for how things were made. The regulation allowed the industries and farms to charge a better price for their products, which allowed their workers to earn more, and in turn spend more.
The New Deal created a new meaning for liberalism because never before had the Federal Government had such a large role in the lives of the people. The old meaning of liberalism was limited government and free market economics. By 1940, the new meaning included active efforts by the government to modernize, regulate the market, and uplift the less fortunate. Prior to the New Deal liberals and conservatives would argue about whether or not the government should be so involved in people's lives, after the New Deal the argument was how much should the government be involved.
Chapter 22 - Discuss the climate in America prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Was the general mood isolationist? Internationalist? Why? Discuss the change in attitudes toward various ethnic groups during World War II such as Indians, Mexican-Americans, and Asian-Americans. How were they treated? What freedoms were extended or contracted?
The climate in America prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor was generally Isolationist. As Japan invaded China, Germany militarized the Rhineland, Italy invaded Ethiopia, Spain had a civil war, and Germany also Annexed Austria, Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia the American people seemed to have a "glad it's not us" attitude (p 855 & 856). FDR was growing more concerned about Hitler's aggression but some Americans approved of Nazism thinking it was a counterweight to Communism (p 855). Many Americans still remembered WWI and had considered involvement in that was a mistake. Nye also revealed that international bankers had profited handsomely during WWI, which contributed to that thought. (p 855) Pacifism was spreading on college campuses and students were striking for peace. Ethnic allegiances also reinforced a reluctance to enter foreign conflicts as German Americans and Italian Americans celebrated the expansion of their native countries and Irish Americans were strongly anti-British (p 855). In Congress lawmakers passed Neutrality Acts designed to keep Americans out of the war. They banned travel on belligerent ships, banned the sale of arms to countries at war, and placed an embargo on both sides of the Spanish Civil War (even though once side was for democracy and one side was a dictator). Congress thought this would allow the US to avoid conflicts over the freedom of seas that contributed to WWI involvement (p 856).
The change in attitudes toward various ethnic groups during WWII was, for the most part, positive. Bulosan, a Filipino poet wrote about the 4th freedom and what he wrote was about the American's still outside of the social mainstream. He brought attention to them and showed that to them freedom meant; having enough to eat, sending their children to school, and being able to share the promise and fruits of the American life (p 865). The struggle against Nazi tyranny and its theory of a master race discredited ethnic and racial inequality (p 872). What set the US apart was that Americans of all races, religions, and national groups could enjoy equal freedoms. Racism was the philosophy of the enemy. By the end of the war new immigrant groups were fully accepted as loyal ethnic Americans, rather than distinct inferior races. The US was a vast melting pot, especially for European Americans. Millions moved out of ethnic neighborhoods in what was called Patriotic Assimilation (p 873). FDR promoted pluralism as the only source of harmony and felt that persons of many lands could live together if they believed in freedom they can become a united people. Racism and Nativism was stripped of intellectual respectability and was viewed as a psychological disorder (p 874). Mexicans had a program called the Bracero Program which allowed tens of thousands of Mexicans to be contract labors in the US. Second generation Mexican Americans fought alongside whites and a new Chicano Culture started to flourish (p 875). Indians saw tens of thousands of Indians leaving the reservation for work in job industries. The Iroquois, insisting the US lacked authority to draft them, issued their own declaration of war and the Navajo had the "Code Talkers" who transmitted messages in their native language, which no one else was able to crack their code. Asian Americans (excluding Japanese Americans) were now welcomed a little more freely, Congress ended Chinese exclusion by allowing a quota with an annual limit of 105 to enter the US legally. Over 50,000 Asian Americans fought in the war (p 876). The Japanese Americans were treated much differently. FDR issued Executive Order 9066 ordering the forced relocation of all Japanese and people of Japanese descent. Even though almost 2/3 had been born in the US and were citizens they were not given any court hearings, no due process, and no writs of habeous corpus. (p 877) Groups that normally spoke out for people that were being discriminated against remained silent of even defended these actions.
