Quarter 1 RecoveryPrimary Source Analysis: The Triumph of Industry 1865-1914

Witness to History

Intro to Quote Quote Questions

“From Rags to Riches” In 1848, 12 year old Andrew Carnegie and his poverty stricken family immigrated to the US. He immediately began work in a Pennsylvania textile factory. Two years later, he got a job in a RR office. By the time he was 40, he was a wealthy investor and the nation’s most successful steelmaker, famous for his commitment to innovation. Carnegie’s “rags to riches” story did not end with wealth. Believing that “the man who dies rich thus dies disgraced,” he established a number of charitable organizations in the US and around the world.

1. Why do you think Carnegie believed that a man who dies rich is “disgraced”?

2. Why did so many people admire Carnegie?

“The Right to Strike”

In 1890, labor leader Samuel Gompers testified before a government labor commission. Describing the condition of workers, he argued that unions and strikes were the only way workers’ rights could be expanded.

We recognize that peaceful industry is necessary to successful civilized life, but the right to strike and the preparation to strike is the greatest preventative to strikes. If the workmen were to make up their minds to-morrow that they would under no circumstances strike, the employers would do all the striking for them in the way of lesser wages and longer hours of labor—Report on the US Industrial Commission on Capital and Labor, 1890

3. According to Samuel Gompers, how could workers ensure their rights?

4. What does the need for labor strikes indicate about the relationship between workers and business owners?

The Railroads: Shaping American Cities

Geography and History

5. Why is it accurate to refer to Chicago as a railroad “hub”?6. How did the railroads contribute to the growth of American cities?

Comparing Viewpoints

What is the legacy of the business tycoons?

Business tycoons like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt had a huge role in spurring America’s industrial growth. Yet even today, historians debate the real legacy of those men.

Matthew Josephson

Josephson was the political and economic historian who coined the phrase “robber barons.”

“To organize and exploit the resources of a nation upon a gigantic scale…and to do this only in the name of an uncontrolled appetite for private profit—here surely is the great inherent contradiction whence so much disaster, outrage and misery has flowed.”

Burton W. Folsom, Jr.

Folsom is a historian who has described the great businessmen of the time as entrepreneurs.

“In 1870, when Rockefeller founded Standard Oil, kerosene was 30 cents a gallon. Twenty years later, Rockefeller had almost a 90 per cent market share and kerosene was only eight cents a gallon. Customers were the real winners here, because Rockefeller’s size allowed him to cut costs…”

Compare

7. What is the basic difference between Folsom’s and Josephson’s views of these businessmen?8. What is Folsom’s main defense of Rockefeller’s tactics?

Analyzing written sources: Andrew Carnegie: Wealth (1889)

One of America’s wealthiest tycoons, Andrew Carnegie was also a dedicated philanthropist. By the time he died, he had given away over 80 percent (over $350 million) of his own fortune. Carnegie wrote frequently about the role of wealthy businessmen in the American economy. In Wealth, he wrote that people had the right to accumulate as much wealth as they could, but they also had the responsibility to give it away. His ideas became popularly known as the “gospel of wealth.”

“It is well, nay, essential for the progress of the race, that the houses of some should be homes for all that is highest and best in literature and the arts, and the refinements of civilization, rather than none should be so. Much better this great irregularity than universal squalor…

The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is also great; but the advantages of this law are also greater still, for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved conditions in its train. But, whether the law be benign or not, we must say of it, as we say of the change in the conditions of men to which we have referred: it is here; we cannot evade it; no substitutes for it have been found; and while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department…

What is the proper mode of administering wealth after the laws upon which civilization is founded have thrown it into the hands of the few?...

Individualism will continue, but the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; entrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself…The man who dies leaving behind him millions of

available wealth, which was his to administer during life, will pass away ‘unwept, unhonored, and unsung,’ no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him. Of such as these the public verdict will then be: The man who dies rich thus dies disgraced.”

Thinking Critically.

9. Analyze Information: Does Carnegie believe that there is anything wrong with amassing wealth? Why or why not?10. Synthesize information: How does Carnegie use the doctrine of Social Darwinism to support his argument?

Analyzing Visuals

Adults supervise child workers in a textile factory circa 1890.Info about the cartoon:

11. What can you tell about the condition of the children from the photograph?

The banner is the title of the cartoon, “Knights of the Nineteenth Century”

The cooper wears a huge, bloated barrel

The plumber carries his bank book filled with profits made from the heavy bills he charges for his services.

12. What two meanings does the tile of the cartoon convey?13. How does the cartoonist’s treatment of the cooper and the plumber

suggest that their actions are not “Knightly”?

Looking Backward

14. What groups of people are represented in this picture?15. What point was the artist trying to make?

Experience Ellis Island

By 1900, thousands of immigrants steamed past the Statue of Liberty and landed at Ellis Island each day. After checking their baggage, immigrants walked up a staircase toward the Great Hall on the second floor. Doctors watched closely,

looking for signs of illness. At the top of the stairs, about one tenth of immigrants were marked with chalk and sent for a closer examination. Some were quarantined on the island until they recovered their health. Others were sent home, their dreams crushed.

At the Great Hall, immigrants waited for an interview with a customs officer who checked paperwork and determined if immigrants would be able to support themselves. If they passed inspection, they could buy a train ticket before boarding a ferry for the mainland. Those with no money might stay in the dormitories until a sponsor arrived to vouch for them. Single women were detained until a relative collected them, or they could marry on the island. By 1954, more than 12 million immigrants had passed through Ellis Island on their way to a new life.

16. What were the main steps in the inspection process for immigrants?17. Why did medical personnel check immigrants for illnesses?18. Why was it important to determine whether immigrants could support themselves?19. In what ways might Ellis Island have been an intimidating place?20. Why were single women not allowed to leave Ellis Island on their own?

Analyzing Visuals

How the Other Half Lives (1890)Jacob Riis

Introduction The rapid growth of industrialization in the United States of the 1880s created an intense need for labor. The flood of tens of thousands of people— of them immigrants— northeastern cities created a housing problem of major proportions. Landlords, rushing to realize quick profits, persisted in subdividing their apartments into ever smaller units, forcing the poor into increasingly overcrowded living conditions.

In the late 1880s, Jacob Riis, himself a Danish immigrant, began writing articles for the New York Sun that described the realities of life in New York City's slums. Riis was one of the first reporters to use flash photography, allowing him to take candid photos of living conditions among the urban poor. In 1890, he published How the Other Half Lives, illustrated with line drawings based on his photographs. Riis's work helped spark a new approach to reporting called "muckraking" that eventually led to the Progressive Era reform movements to improve these conditions. Here is an excerpt from Riis's book.

Source The twenty-five cent lodging-house keeps up the pretence of a bedroom, though the head-high partition enclosing a space just large enough to hold

a cot and a chair and allow the man room to pull off his clothes is the shallowest of all pretences. The fifteen-cent bed stands boldly forth without screen in a room full of bunks with sheets as yellow and blankets as foul. At the ten-cent level the locker for the sleeper's clothes disappears. There is no longer need of it. The tramp limit is reached, and there is nothing to lock up save, on general principles, the lodger. Usually the ten- and seven-cent lodgings are different grades of the same abomination. Some sort of an apology for a bed, with mattress and blanket, represents the aristocratic purchase of the tramp who, by a lucky stroke of beggary, has exchanged the chance of an empty box or ash-barrel for shelter on the quality floor of one of these "hotels." A strip of canvas, strung between rough timbers, without covering of any kind, does for the couch of the seven-cent lodger who prefers the questionable comfort of a red-hot stove close to his elbow to the revelry of the stale-beer dive. It is not the most secure perch in the world. Uneasy sleepers roll off at intervals, but they have not far to fall to the next tier of bunks, and the commotion that ensues is speedily quieted by the boss and his club. On cold winter nights, when every bunk had its tenant, I have stood in such a lodging-room more than once, and listening to the snoring of the sleepers like the regular strokes of an engine, and the slow creaking of the beams under their restless weight, imagined myself on shipboard and experienced the very real nausea of sea-sickness. The one thing that did not favor the deception was the air; its character could not be mistaken.

The proprietor of one of these seven-cent houses was known to me as a man of reputed wealth and respectability. He "ran" three such establishments and made, it was said, $8,000 a year clear profit on his investment. He lived in a handsome house quite near to the stylish precincts of Murray Hill, where the nature of his occupation was not suspected. A notice that was posted on the wall of the lodgers' room suggested at least an effort to maintain his up-town standing in the slums. It read: "No swearing or loud talking after nine o'clock." Before nine no exceptions were taken to the natural vulgarity of the place; but that was the limit.

There are no licensed lodging-houses known to me which charge less than seven cents for even such a bed as this canvas strip, though there are unlicensed ones enough where one may sleep on the floor for five cents a spot, or squat in a sheltered hallway for three. The police station lodging-house, where the soft side of a plank is the regulation couch, is next in order. The manner in which this police bed is "made up" is interesting in its simplicity. The loose planks that make the platform are simply turned over, and the job is done, with an occasional coat of whitewash thrown in to sweeten things. I know of only one easier way, but, so far as I am informed, it has never been introduced in this country. It used to be practiced, if report spoke truly, in certain old-country towns. The "bed" was represented by clothes-line stretched across the room upon which the sleepers hung by the arm-pits for a penny a night. In the morning the boss woke them up by simply untying the line at one end and letting it go with its load; a labor-saving device certainly, and highly successful in attaining the desired end. . . .

. . . If the tenement is here continually dragged into the eye of public condemnation and scorn, it is because in one way or another it is found directly responsible for, or intimately associated with, three-fourths of the miseries of the poor. In the Bohemian quarter it is made the vehicle for enforcing upon a proud race a slavery as real as any that ever disgraced the South. Not content with simply robbing the tenant, the owner, in the dual capacity of landlord and employer, reduces him to virtual serfdom by making him become his tenant, on such terms as he sees fit to make, the condition of employment at wages likewise of his own making. It does not help the case that this landlord employer, almost always a Jew, is frequently of the

thrifty Polish race just described. . . .

. . . Probably more than half of all the Bohemians in this city are cigar makers, and it is the herding of these in great numbers in the so-called tenement factories, where the cheapest grade of work is done at the lowest wages, that constitutes at once their greatest hardship and the chief grudge of other workmen against them. . . .

Men, women and children work together seven days in the week in these cheerless tenements to make a living for the family, from the break of day till far into the night. Often the wife is the original cigar maker from the old home, the husband having adopted her trade here as a matter of necessity, because, knowing no word of English, he could get no other work. As they state the cause of the bitter hostility of the trades unions, she was the primary bone of contention in the day of the early Bohemian immigration. The unions refused to admit the women, and, as the support of the family depended upon her to a large extent, such terms as were offered had to be accepted. The manufacturer has ever since industriously fanned the antagonism between the unions and his hands, for his own advantage. The victory rests with him, since the Court of Appeals decided that the law, passed a few years ago, to prohibit cigar making in tenements was unconstitutional, and thus put an end to the struggle. . . .

. . . I have in mind an alley— inlet rather to a row of rear tenements— is either two or four feet wide according as the wall of the crazy old building that gives on it bulges out or in. I tried to count the children that swarmed there, but could not. Sometimes I have doubted that anybody knows just how many there are about. Bodies of drowned children turn up in the rivers right along in summer whom no one seems to know anything about. When last spring some workmen, while moving a pile of lumber on a North River pier, found under the last plank the body of a little lad crushed to death, no one had missed a boy, though his parents afterward turned up. The truant officer assuredly does not know, though he spends his life trying to find out, somewhat illogically, perhaps, since the department that employs him admits that thousands of poor children are crowded out of the schools year by year for want of room. . . .

Questions to Consider

21. Explain some of the conditions described in this excerpt from How the Other Half Lives.

22. What point do you think Riis was trying to make when he chose the title for his book?

23. How effective is Riis's message?

24. Why did the poor agree to live in such conditions?

25. Why did city government officials allow these conditions to continue?

26. Do similar conditions exist today? Why or why not?

The South and West Transformed Primary Sources

The Final Spike

In 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads came together at Promontory Summit, UT. A symbolic golden spike was the final one driven in to mark the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

28. How does this image illustrate the mood of this event?

Issues of the Gilded Age Primary Source Analysis

Women in American Society

Women in the Workplace: On average, women earn less than men in the workplace. This wage gap has led to

charges of sex discrimination. Feminists also argue that a “glass ceiling” keeps many women from rising to the top of their profession. But other factors may be involved, too.

“The wage gap is the result of a number of factors in addition to discrimination, such as the differences in women’s education, their shorter time in the workforce, and their concentration in a narrow range of jobs that are underpaid because women are in them. Nonetheless, a significant portion is attributed to discrimination”—Sonia Pressman Fuentes, founding member, NOW

“[Feminists] often portray working women as victims of rampant discrimination [which] [they say]…renders women powerless in the face of an impenetrable glass ceiling. While discrimination does exist in the workplace, levels of education…and time spent in the workforce play a far greater role in determining women’s pay and promotion.”—Naomi Lopez, Director, Center for Enterprise and Opportunity

Connect to Your World

29. Compare: How do the two writers agree? How do they disagree?30. Analyze: Affirmative action makes it possible for women and minorities to compete in the workplace. Which of the two women

quoted above might support it?

Can Separate Treatment Be Equal Treatment?

Background Quote Questions

Frederick Douglass Laminates the Color Line

In 1883, Frederick Douglass, the famous black leader and former runaway slave, addressed a gathering of African Americans in Louisville, Kentucky. Twenty years had passed since Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, yet, as Douglass observed, African Americans had not realized their hopes for equality.

Though we have had war, reconstruction and abolition as a nation, we still linger in the shadow and blight of an extinct institution. Though the colored man is no longer subject to be bought and sold, he is still surrounded by an adverse sentiment, which fetters all his movements. In his down-ward course he meets with no resistance, but his course upward is resented and resisted at every step of his progress…-Frederick Douglass, 1883

27. What is the main idea of Douglass’s speech?

The Fourteenth Amendment, passed during Reconstruction in 1866, guaranteed equal rights to all citizens. By 1890, civil rights and racial equality were not significant issues for whites in the North and South. Already, the Supreme Court was handing down decisions that overturned Reconstruction legislation and encouraged racial discrimination.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The Facts

In 1890, Louisiana passed a law allowing RRs to provide “separate but equal” facilities

Homer Plessy, an African American, sat in the car reserved for whites.

He was arrested when he refused to move to the “colored” car

The Issue

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Plessy argued that the separate car act violated the 14th Amendment.

The Decision

A 7 to 1 majority declared that state laws requiring separate but equal accommodations for whites and blacks did not violate the 14th amendment

Why it Matters

The majority of the Supreme Court reasoned that the Constitution was not intended to protect social equality of race. This interpretation allowed southern states to make laws requiring separate but equal facilities. These racial discrimination laws, known as Jim Crow laws, lasted nearly 60 years before the Court reversed its decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

31. Who was Plessy, and why did he take his case to the Supreme Court?32. Why did the Supreme Court rule against him?33. What does the reversal of the Supreme Court ruling in 1954 reveal about the way the Court works?

Analyzing Political Cartoon—Bosses of the Senate

In this political cartoon, Joseph Keppler shows how corporate interests have taken over the business of the Senate.

34. Why do you think the businessmen are drawn so large?

35. How do you think most Americans responded to the political influence of corporations?

Background Quote Question

Children in the Coal Mines

Progressive reformers were appalled by the child labor that was common in coal mines, textile mills, and other industries. John Spargo, a union organizer and socialist, sadly described the terrible conditions endured by boys working in the coal mines

“the coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered and dead. Clouds of dust fill the breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundations for asthma and miners’ consumption”—John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children 1906

36. Why were children allowed to work at dangerous jobs such as mining?

Women at Work

As the Progressive Movement wore on, many reformers took up causes that affected

“it was a world of greed; the human being didn’t mean anything. The hours were from 7:30 in the morning to 6:30 at night when it wasn’t busy. When the season was on we worked until 9:00. No overtime pay, not even supper money…When you were told Saturday

37. How would voting help women change the conditions in which they worked?

women. Although women spearheaded a number of Progressive reforms, they did not have the right to vote in national elections. In workplaces like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, women endured the awful conditions described by one worker

afternoon, through a sign on the elevator, ‘If you don’t come in on Sunday, you needn’t come in on Monday,’ what choice did you have? You had no choice’

A Bold Leader Takes Control

When Theodore Roosevelt entered the White House, never before had the country had so young a leader. He brought to the presidency tremendous energy, vision, and a willingness to expand presidential power in order to improve American lives. In a rousing speech, he urged some young supporters

“the principles for which we stand are the principles of fair play and a square deal for every man and every woman in the United States…I wish to see you boys join the Progressive Party, and act in that part and as good citizens in the same way I’d expect any one of you to act in a football game. In other words, don’t flinch, don’t fold, and hit the line hard.”—Theodore Roosevelt, Address to Boys Progressive League, 1913

38. To what does Roosevelt compare the work of the Progressive Party?

39. What does this quotation tell you about Roosevelt’s personality?

Analyzing Political Cartoons:

Business and Government Corruption: In the late 1880s, Jacob Sharp expanded his streetcar business by bribing New York City alderman and other government officials.

40. How does the political cartoon illustrate the problems with many city governments at the time?

41. What symbols represent the corruption of city government?

42. According to the cartoonist, what is the effect of the street railroad monopoly on the taxpayer?

Primary Source Quote:

Lincoln Steffens and Claude Wetmore, “Corruption and reform in St. Louis” McClure’s Magazine October 1902

“The visitor is told of the walth of the residents of the financial strengths of the banks, and of the growing importance of the industries; yet he sees poorly pavedk, refuse-burdened streets, and dusty or mud covered alleys; he passes a ramshackle firetrap crowded with the sick and learns that it is the City Hospital…Finally, he turns a tap in the hotel to see liquid mud flow into the wash basin or bathtub”

43. Why was the work of the muckrakers so effective in bringing about reform?

Comparing Viewpoint: How should we respond to discrimination?

African Americans were freed from slavery, but discriminatory laws and racist attitudes kept them oppressed and threatened. African Americans debated how they should respond to this discrimination.

Booker T. Washington

Washington believed that African Americans had to achieve economic independence before civil rights. Black people must tolerate discrimination while they proved themselves equal to white people. Slowly, civil rights would come.

“The Negro must live peaceably with his white neighbors…the Negro must deport himself modestly…depending upon the slow but sure influences that proceed from the possessions of property, intelligence, and high character for the full recognition of his political rights.”

W.E.B Du Bois

Du Bois believed that black Americans had to demand their social and civil rights or else become permanent victims of racism. African Americans must fight every day for the rights given to them in the Constitution.

“We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American…and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest…How shall we get them? By voting where we may vote, by persistent, unceasing agitation, by hammering at the truth by sacrifice and work.”

Compare

44. How did the views of Washington and Du Bois about the nature of civil rights differ?45. How do these leaders’ opinions reflect the era in which they lived/ Would leaders today make similar arguments? Explain.

Taft in the White House

Theodore Roosevelt looks on as President Taft is entangled in troubles.

46. What details illustrate Taft’s troubles?47. What does the cartoon suggest about Roosevelt’s

reaction to Taft’s situation?

An Emerging World Power Primary Sources

1890-1917

Background Quote Questions

Americans Charge to Victory

When Theodore Roosevelt assumed command of the First US Regiment of Volunteer Cavalry, the press nicknamed his new unit “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.” On July 1, 1898, the Rough Riders, together with other units—including African American troops from the US Ninth and Tenth Cavalries—stormed into battle outside Santiago, Cuba. A junior officer who would later become a decorated general remembered the unity of his fellow soldiers as the

“White regiments, black regiments, regulars and Rough Riders, representing the young manhood of the North and South, fought shoulder to shoulder, unmindful of race or color…mindful only of their common duty as Americans”—Lieutenant John J. Pershing

48. What does the quotation suggest about the ability of soldiers to work together against a common foe?

Americans charged up Spanish-held San Juan Hill

Remember the MAINE!

On February 15, 1898, an explosion ripped through the hull of the USS Maine in Havana harbor, in the Spanish colony of Cuba. More than 250 American sailors died. The incident ignited a furor as Americans clamored for war with Spain. In newspapers, speeches, and songs, patriots implored their fellow citizens to remember the Maine

“and shall our country let it pass, this deed of foul intent? And shall our country dare believe it was an accident?...Come arm, we all, and let us teach a lesson to bold Spain. We will avenge, by more than speech and destruction of the Maine!”—HW Petrie, lyrics from “The Wreck of the Maine” 1898

49. What does H. W. Petrie want people to think caused the Maine’s destruction?

50. How do you think Petrie wants the US to “teach a lesson” to Spain?

A Plea for Peace

Sixto Lopez, a leading Filipino spokesman, wrote to President McKinley to express his disapproval of America’s decision to keep control of the Philippines. When he wrote the letter, many Filipinos had already taken up arms against the US military.

“I only know that the Filipino people are asking for [what] the American people have enjoyed for more than a hundred years…At this season of peace I plead for peace. I plead on behalf of the wife and mother whose cheeks are coursing the silent tears…on behalf of the sad little faces, too young to realize what has happened”—Sixto Lopez, 1900

51. In what way is this time period both a “season of peace” and the beginning of conflict for the speaker?

Dollars for Bullets

Like President Roosevelt, President Taft stressed the need to assert American power around the world. Taft’s “dollar diplomacy” aimed to expand American investments abroad

“The diplomacy of the present administration…has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets…It is [a policy] frankly directed to the increase of American trade upon the axiomatic principle that the government of the US shall extend all proper support to every legitimate and beneficial American enterprise abroad”—President William Taft, 1912

52. According to Taft, what foreign interests will the US support?

53. How will US foreign policy change?

Territorial Expansion of the United States

Debate the Issue

Native Hawaiian Sovereignty—In 1898, the US annexed Hawaii without the consent of native Hawaiians. In recent years, some Hawaiians have called for the return of native sovereignty. One possible solution is the establishment of some form of self rule for natives, much like the “nation within a nation” status of Native Americans.

For the overwhelming majority of Hawaiians, justice means political status and federal recognition, the restoration of our inherent sovereignty and redress from the US for the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii…

Although there are more Hawaiians than…any other native peoples in the US, Hawaiians have remained without recognition of our right to self govern.—Clayton Hee, Office of Hawaiian Affairs

Would the citizens of [a] Native Hawaiian government---like reservation Indians—be immune from state laws, regulations and taxes? ..If Congress were to create a separate tribal government for Native Hawaiians, it would be imposing just such a system on the people of Hawaii. Persons of different races, who live together in the same society, would be subject to different legal codes. This…is a recipe for permanent racial conflict.---John Kyl, senator from Arizona

54. Compare: How do the two speakers differ on the issue of self rule for Hawaiians?55. Analyze: If Native Hawaiians gain sovereignty, how would their lives change?

TO WAR!

The Coming of the Spanish-American War

Three circumstances came together to sweep the US into war in 1898: Two New York newspapers, The New York World and the New York Journal, were competing for bigger readership. Cubans were rebelling gains Spain, and the US was immersed in the spirit of imperialism.

When Cuban rebels burned plantations and bleu up trains, Spain responded with brutal measures. The Journal and the World inflamed American public opinion—and increased their sales—by printing tabloid headlines about Spanish atrocities. Then, shortly after the US government dispatched the USS Maine to Cuba to protect American interests, the ship exploded in Havana harbor. Americans clamored for war.

56. What were the goals of the Yellow Press?57. .Does yellow journalism exist today? Explain.

Background Account Questions

To Fight or not to Fight?

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, the US decided to stay neutral. However, incidents like the senseless destruction of Louvain, a medieval university town in Belgium, by German troops turned American opinion against Germany.

“For two hours on Thursday night I was in what for six hundred years had been the city of Louvain. The Germans were burning it…the story was written against the sky, was told to us by German soldiers incoherent with excesses; and we could read it in the faces of the women and children being led to concentration camps and of the citizens on their way to be shot.”—American journalist Richard Harding Davis, August 1914

58. Why did the US shift its position from neutrality to involvement?

59. Why might the Germans have destroyed Louvain?

Supporting the War

While soldiers trained to fight in the war, Americans on the home front supported the war by working in war industries, lending money to the government, and conserving food to feed the troops abroad.

“Perhaps it will not be long before we will read each day long lists of American boys killed or wounded in the trenches of France. There will be boys in those lists that you know, boys that I know. And as our eyes film over with tears it will be at least some comfort to us to be able to say, ‘I am helping too. I am saving food for the boys who are fighting”—Committee on Public Information bulletin, July 1917

60. Why would the government want citizens to support the war effort?

Debate the Issue

War on Terrorism: After the terrorist attacks of 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the War on Terrorism. The war aimed to track down the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks and to prevent future attacks by promoting democracy in the Middle East.

“The use of military force against terrorist networks and regimes abetting their crimes is certainly justifiable…Our leaders are, in my judgment, morally obligated to use as much force as necessary…to protect innocent Americans and other potential victims of terrorism.”—Robert P. George, professor, Princeton University

“When you make the argument that there is a ‘just war’ what you are saying is that there is an aggression, a major offense is being committed and you do not have any other way to protect people from that aggression except to use force”—Reverend J. Brian Hehir, Catholic theologian

61. Compare: Why does Professor George support the War on Terrorism? Why does Reverend Hehir oppose it?62. Do you think Hehir would have supported the decision to enter WWI? Explain

Should the US join the League of Nations?

After the Paris Peace Conference, the US had decided whether to join the League of Nations. The League’s purpose was to help maintain peace in the world.

President Wilson Favors Joining

“A general association of nations must be formed…for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike…it is the principle of justice to all peoples…and their right to live on equal terms…with one another, whether they be strong or weak.”—President Woodrow Wilson, January 8, 1918

Senator Borah Opposes Joining

“Mr. President, there is another reason…why I shall record my vote against this treaty. It imperils what I conceive to be the underlying, the very first principles of this Republic. It is in conflict with the right of our people to govern themselves free from all restraint, legal or moral, of foreign powers. It challenges every tenet of my political faith.”—Senator William Borah, November 19, 1919

You Decide

63. Why did Wilson favor joining the League of Nations?64. Why did Borah oppose joining?65. What decision would you have made? Why?

Roaring Twenties Primary Source Analysis

Witness to History

Background Quote Questions

A Fun Loving President

In 1920, voters turned from the intellectualism and rigid idealism of Woodrow Wilson to someone who presented himself as an average American, Warren G. Harding. “I am a man of limited talents from a small town,” Harding admitted. “I don’t seem to grasp that I am President.” The genial politician from Marion, Ohio, got more pleasure from golf, poker and music. He once claimed that he could play every band instrument “but the slide trombone and the e-flat cornet.” But what Harding loved most was shaking hands with tourists who visited the White House:

“I love to meet people. It is the most pleasant thing I do; it is really the only fun I have. It does not tax me and it seems to be a very great pleasure to them”—Warren G. Harding, US President

66. How did Harding’s personality symbolize the Jazz Age?

Kicking, Fighting, Butting, and Biting “I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head. I’ll

67. Who wouldn’t agree with Sunday’s

In a time of rapid social change, with a deadly war behind them, many Americans sought a return to more traditional values. They found comfort and strength in the words of preachers such as Billy Sunday. A former pro baseball player, Sunday never lost the dynamic energy of an athlete. Arms flailing, fists punching the air, he railed against the evils of greed, card playing, dancing, and especially drinking. He liked to tell audiences:

bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it ‘till I go home to Glory.”—Billy Sunday, sermon

message?

“Ain’t We Got Fun?”

The phonograph had come a long way from that day in 1877 when inventor Thomas Edison had recorded himself reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. By the 1920s, Americans were buying thousands of phonographs and millions of shiny phonograph records. In the comfort of their living rooms, they listened and danced to popular songs that reflected the carefree spirit of the age. One hit tune of 1921 told of a young couple who were determined to enjoy themselves even though they didn’t have much money:

“Night or daytime, it’s all playtime,

Ain’t we got fun?

Hor or cold days, anny old days,

Ain’t we got fun?

If wifie wishes to go to a play,

Don’t wash the dishes, just throw them away!”—Gus Kahn and Raymond B. Egan “Ain’t We Got Fun?”

68. What do the lyrics to “Ain’t We Got Fun?” reveal about the changing US culture in the 1920s?

The Excitement of Harlem

In the early 1920s the New York City neighborhood known as Harlem was the most vibrant African American community in the nation. Teeming with people and teeming with activity, it was also, as one observer noted, “a great magnet for the Negro intellectual.” Among those who were drawn to Harlem was a young Missouri born poet named Langston Hughes. He later recalled what he felt like as he stepped off the subway:

“I can never put on paper the thrill of the underground ride to Harlem. I went up the steps and out into the bright September sunlight. Harlem! I stood there, dropped my bags, took a deep breath and felt happy again.”-Langston Hughes, The Big Sea

69. Why might a young African American male from the South feel “happy again” in Harlem?

Teapot Dome Scandal

70. What object is used to represent the scandal? Why?71. According to the cartoon, what is the impact of the scandal?

Comparing Viewpoints: Should a State Ban Teaching of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

The Scopes Trial of 1925 revolved around a Tennessee law that banned the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The deeper issue involved a clash between traditional religious beliefs and modern science.

The Prosecution The Defense

William Jennings Bryan believed that Tennessee had a right to protect its children from ideas that violated biblical teachings.

“Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals…In war, science has proven itself an evil genius; it has made war more terrible than it ever was before…It is for the jury to determine whether this attack upon the Christian religion shall be permitted in the public schools of Tennessee by teachers employed by the state”

Dudley Field Malone, who joined Clarence Darrow in the defense of Scopes, argued against a state determining what should be taught.

“We feel we stand with progress. We feel we stand with science. We feel we stand with intelligence. We feel we stand with fundamental freedom in America.

Let the children have their minds kept open. Close no doors to their knowledge. Shut no door from them. Make the distinction between theology and science. Let them have both. Let them be taught both. Let them both live.”

Compare.

66. How does Bryan’s view of science differ from that of Malone?67. What does each man feel should happen when science clashes with religion?

Two Poems by Langston Hughes

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

My People

I’ve known rivers:I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Thinking Critically

72. Analyze Literature: In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” what point do you think Hughes is making when he names four rivers at four different periods of history?

73. Make Inferences: How would you describe the speaker’s attitudes toward being African American in these poems?

The Great Depression Primary Sources

1928-1932

Eyewitness to History

Background Quote Questions

Stock Market Prosperity

As the 1920s roared along, millions of Americans poured their savings into the souring “bull” market. Excited investors bought and sold stocks based on “tips” from friends or brokers. Many investors amassed huge fortunes on the strength of rising stock prices. Families who had to scrimp and save at the beginning of the decade found themselves fabulously wealthy by its end. In 1929, a prominent magazine printed a poem that captured the essence of America’s market fever:

“Oh, hush thee, my babe, granny’s bought some more shares,

Daddy’s gone out to play with the bulls and the bears,

Mother’s buying on tips and she simply can’t lose,

And baby shall have some expensive new shoes!”

76. Why might Americans have invested their money in stocks instead of putting it into savings accounts?

Hoovervilles

77. What problems might people who were displaced during the Great Depression have faced?

The Dust Bowl

By the middle of the 1930s, drought and wind had cut a huge swath of destruction down the middle of the continental US. The “black blizzards” of the Dust Bowl soared to heights of 8,000 feet and swept like waves across towns and farms. Outside, rabbits, birds and field mice suffocated and died in the swirling dust. Inside, dirt seeped through every crack and covered everything and everyone in layers of grit. “We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it,” observed one witness. A single storm could carry more than 300 million tons of dust, and constant storms in the “dirty thirties” destroyed as many as five million acres of wheat. Much of the Great Plains “breadbasket” simply blew away.

78. How did environmental change affect farmers living on the Great Plains during the 1930s?

The Bonus Army

During the economic boom of the 1920s, Congress promised a bonus to WWI veterans to be paid out in1945. In the summer of 1932, as the nation struggled in the grasp of the depression, the “bonus Expeditionary Force” of veterans converged on Washington DC, seeking immediate payment. When the Senate rejected their demands, President Hoover called upon the army to keep order. General Douglas MacArthur brought in troops to drive the protesters out of the city. Evalyn McLean, a Washington DC resident, remembered the federal action: “I saw in the news reel the tanks, the cavalry, and the gas bomb throwers running those wretched Americans out of our capital. I was so raging made…” Memories of the event influenced the next presidential election.

US troops set fire to the Bonus Army camps after driving out the protesters The Bonus Army gathers on Capitol Hill

Thinking Critically:

79. How might the veterans and regular soldiers have felt about one another during the standoff? (Identify points of view)80. Was the Bonus Army justified in its protest? Why or why not? (Making Generalizations)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Published during the depths of the depression, The Grapes of Wrath won its author the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. Steinbeck’s sympathetic portrayal of dispossessed Okies, along with his searing criticism of the rich and powerful who profited from the story of the Joad family, hardy Dust Bowl farmers who are forced off their land by the bank. The Joads join the mass migration west, to the “promised land” of California. There, instead of opportunity, they find low ages, harsh conditions, discrimination—and finally, after years of drought, the cruel irony of a killing flood.

In the barns, the people sat huddled together; and the terror came over them, and their faces were gray with terror. The children cried with hunger, and there was no food.

Then the sickness came, pneumonia, and measles that went to the eyes and to the mastoids (area of the skull behind the ears).

And the rain fell steadily, and the water flowed over the highways, for the culverts could not carry the water.

Then from the tents, from the crowded barns, groups of sodden men went out, their clothes slopping rags, their shoes muddy pulp. They splashed out through the water, to the towns, to the country stores, to the relief offices, to beg for food, to cringe and beg for food, to beg for relief, to try to steal, to lie. And under the begging and under the cringing, a hopeless anger began to smolder. And in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger, and anger at the hungry people changed to fear of them. Then sheriffs swore in deputies in droves, and orders were rushed for rifles, for tear gas, for ammunition. Then the hungry men crowded the alleys behind the stores to beg for bread, to beg for rotting vegetables, to steal when they could.

Frantic men pounded on the doors of the doctors; and the doctors were busy. And sad men left words at the country stores for the coroner to send a car. The coroners were not too busy. The coroners’ wagons backed up through the mud and took out the dead.

And the rain pattered relentlessly down, and the streams broke their banks and spread out over the country.

Thinking Critically:

81. Why did the townspeople’s pity for the hungry migrant workers change to anger and then to fear? (Draw inferences)82. Notice the words Steinbeck uses to describe the rain and flooding. What might the flood symbolize in the story? (analyze literature)

The New Deal Primary Sources

Background Quote Questions

Overcoming Fear

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s March 1933 inauguration came at a somber moment in American history. The US economy had hit rock bottom. Many Americans wondered if they would ever find work again. With the first words of his Inaugural Address, FDR reassured the American people:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, efforts to convert retreat into advance.—FDR First Inaugural Address March 4, 1933

83. What is the main goal of Roosevelt’s speech?

The Caring First Lady

Eleanor Roosevelt played a crucial role in the New Deal. She traveled to places FDR could not, advised her husband and served as an inspiration to millions of Americans. Mrs. Roosevelt also corresponded with thousands of citizens. The following letter

“Ridley Park, Pennsylvania

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,

…Just to look at your picture and that of our President seems to me like looking at the picture of a saint. So when you answered my letter and

84. How did Eleanor Roosevelt help support FDR’s administration?

85. How did Eleanor Roosevelt’s work affect FDR’s popularity and programs?

reflects the affection that many citizens felt for the first lady.

promised to have some one help me it only proved that you are our own Mrs. Roosevelt. I have told everyone what you have done for me. I want them to know you are not too busy to answer our letters and give us what help and advice you can. You hold the highest place any woman can hold still you are not to[o] proud to befriend the poor…Thank you and God bless you both”—Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, September 1, 1935

Over the Rainbow

Americans eager to escape the gloom of the depression regularly sought refuge in the fantasy world presented by the movies. One of their favorites was The Wizard of Oz, which opened in 1939. In an early scene, the farm girl Dorothy sings of better times.

Somewhere over the rainbow/way up high,/there’s a land that I’ve heard of/once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow/skies are blue,/and the dreams that you dare to dream/really do come true.

Someday I’ll wish upon a star/and wake up where the clouds are far behind me./where troubles melt like lemon drops/away above the chimney tops/that’s where you’ll find me.

--Over the Rainbow—EY Harburg, 1939

86. Why did the song “Somewhere over the Rainbow” appeal to people during the depression?

Analyzing Political Cartoons

87. Why did the cartoonist use a snail to represent Congress?

88. What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship between the President and Congress?

The Ingenious Quarterback! This 1937 cartoon makes fun of FDR’s court packing plan 89. Why did the cartoonist make FDR the quarterback and Congress the referee?

90. What is the cartoonist’s message?

The New Deal: Too Much—or Not Enough?

Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal raised the issue of how involved the government should be in ghe economy and in the lives of its citizens. This question divided many Americans.

Alfred E. Smith—served as governor of NY and ran for President in 1928. He believed the New Deal made the government too powerful and described it as a “trend toward Fascist control” and “the end of democracy”

“Something has taken place in this country—there is a certain kind of foreign ‘ism’ crawling over [it]…There can be only one Capitol, Washington or Moscow! There can be only one atmosphere of government, [the] clear, pure fresh air of free America, or the foul breath of Communistic Russia.”

Francis Townsend—medical doctor who felt the New Deal did not do enough to help older Americans devastated by the depression. He proposed a pension plan funded by a national sales tax.

The Townsend Plan

$200 per month for those over 60 years of age. The spending of this money will put the control of credit in the hands of the people—preventing economic chaos

Compare

91. Which man thought that the New Deal went too far? Which man thought that the New Deal did not go far enough?92. Why does each oppose the New Deal?

Debate the Issue—Social Security

The government manages retirement accounts for millions of Americans through the Social Security system. But with the coming retirement of millions of baby boomers, some people believe that Social Security can no longer achieve its original goals.

“Well, the system is facing serious financial problems, but more than that it has become an increasingly bad deal for today’s workers. Workers are paying 12 ½ percent of their income into a system that is providing a poorer and poorer return. It’s a system in which workers don’t own their assets, have no legal rights to their benefits, don’t control their money, and a system that penalizes groups like African Americans and working women”—Michael Tanner, Cato Institute

“Social Security is one of the most successful government programs. It has consistently provided a safety net for seniors so that retirees are able to support themselves through their retirement and pay for food, housing and medical costs. By helping to support the elderly and vulnerable among us, Social Security parodies Americans with the guarantee of security for life.”—Center for American Progress

Connect to Your World

93. Compare—Do you think that today’s Center for American Progress would support or oppose New Deal laws like the AAA?