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Theodore Dreiser
-American author, outstanding representative of naturalism, whose
novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. Dreiser's novels
were held to be amoral, and he battled throughout his career against
censorship and popular taste. It was not until 1981 that the work was
published in its original form. Dreiser's principal concern was with
the conflict between human needs and the demands of society for
material success.
Jacob Riis
After years of extreme poverty and hardship he finally found employment
as a police reporter for the New York Tribune in 1877. In the 1880s his
work gravitated towards reform and he worked with other New York
reformers then crusading for better living conditions for the thousands
of immigrants flocking to New York in search of new opportunities. His
most popular work, was How The Other Half Lives
-important figure in the history of documentary photography.
-employed a blend of reporting, reform and photography that made him a
unique legend in all three fields.
Immigration
To enter and settle in a country or region to which one is not native
Marcus Hanna
-an industrialist, a U.S. senator and one of the most influential
members of the Republican Party
-built a fortune in the coal and iron business in Cleveland.
-Hanna raised money in unprecedented amounts and was a senator until
1904.
-Hanna had an active interest in the problems of capital and labor, was
one of the organizers and the first president of the National Civic
Federation, whose purpose was to solve social and industrial problems
Jane Addams
-founded Hull-House on Chicago's Near West Side in 1889.
-reputation as the country's most prominent woman through her writing,
her settlement work, and her international efforts for world peace.
-hull house housed immigrants to Chicago crowded into a residential and
industrial neighborhood. Italians, Russian and Polish Jews, Irish,
Germans, Greeks and Bohemians predominated.
-provided services for the neighborhood, such as kindergarten and
daycare facilities for children of working mothers, an employment
bureau, an art gallery, libraries, and music and art classes.
-By 1900 Hull House activities had broadened to include the Jane Club
(a cooperative residence for working women), the first Little Theater
in America, a Labor Museum and a meeting place for trade union groups.
Walter Rauschenbusch
-primary theologian of the Social Gospel movement of the first two
decades of the nineteenth century. While a number of prominent
ministers of the day became involved in the movement's mission to meet
social needs through the ministrations of the institutional Church,
Rauschenbusch gave this special emphasis a theology, legitimizing it in
mainstream American Protestantism.
Social Gospel
-God works inside rather than outside the social system, that God works
out his purposes within society.merged with evolutionist theory to
create an optimism toward social problems and toward history as a whole.
-makes ethics central in religion and demands immediate social renewal.
Early supporters oworked with labor relations, although they insisted
on reforming capitalistic practices from within rather than directly
attacking it from the outside. They called for a recognition of the
rights of labor, an improvement in living conditions for the working
classes, and just wages and profit sharing. They denounced the
concentration of wealth, unrestrained competition, and the philosophy
of laissez-faire . Eventually these same liberal Christians also
advocated better race relations and international justice and peace.
National Labor Union
originally named International Industrial Assembly of North America,
then sought a stronger organization. Led by William H. Sylvis , trade
union officicers gathered in Baltimore during August 1866 to launch a
National Labor Union .
-focused on mutual support.
-found common ground in the desire for a government-imposed eight-hour
workday and an interest in the organization of cooperatives which
confronted the difficulties of credit. Both began to involve components
of the part in local and state politics.
-failed, remnants of the NLU merged with the western and southern
Industrial Brotherhood in 1874.
Yellow-dog contracts
-an employment contract that forbids membership into a labor union;
yellow dog contracts are now illegal.
-Such contracts, used most widely in the United States in the 1920s,
enabled employers to take legal action against union organizers for
encouraging workers to break these contracts.
Knights of Labor
-began by nine inconspicuous tailors in Philadelphia on December 9,
1869 , the K of L sought to promote a unionism to embrace all workers,
skilled and unskilled, in a single labor organization.
-founded by Stephens
-It called for the 8-hour day, the establishment of cooperatives, the
reservation of public lands for actual settlers and a fiat currency,
prohibition of child labor, equal pay for the sexes,
establishment of the bureau of labor statistics, abolition of contract
system for prison labor, adoption of a graduated income tax, and
government ownership of the railways and telegraphs.
Hay market Affair
Hay market Affair
-began when a bomb exploded among a squad of policemen at a workers'
rally in Haymarket Square, Chicago, on May 4, 1886.
-police had fired on the crowd and four people had been killed. The
Haymarket rally, organized by a small anarchist group, was one of many
called to protest the killings. Only thirteen hundred people attended,
and most left when it began to rain. About three hundred remained when
180 police arrived and demanded that they disperse. Suddenly a bomb
exploded among the policemen, killing one and wounding many more,
including seven who died later. The police responded with wild gunfire,
killing seven or eight people in the crowd and injuring about a
hundred, half of them fellow officers.
The Haymarket bombing triggered a national wave of fear; public
officials, civic leaders, the press, and some union leaders joined in
equating foreign birth with anarchism and terror. In Chicago hundreds
of socialists, anarchists, and other radicals were rounded up.
IWW
an international union movement having much in common with
anarcho-syndicalist unions, but also many differences. It believes that
all workers should be united within a single union as a class and the
profit system abolished.
first leaders included Big Bill Haywood ,Daniel De Leon ,Eugene V.
Debs ,Thomas J Haggerty ,Lucy Parsons ,Mary Harris Jones commonly known
as "Mother Jones", William Trautmann ,Vincent Saint John ,Ralph Chaplin
etc.
AF of L
The American Federation of Labor was a “union of unions." Founded in
1886, the A.F. of L. was the largest labor organization in the United
States in 1912. Its president was Samuel Gompers (a Dutch-Jewish
immigrant who was a cigar maker by trade). Gompers sought to
strengthen the union movement more generally by winning "bread and
butter" gains--better hours--especially the 8 hour day and the
48 hour work week--better wages, and better working conditions.
Triangle shirtwaist fire
The worst factory fire in the history of New York City. It occurred on
25 March 1911. To keep the women at their sewing machines the
proprietors had locked the doors leading to the exits. The fire began
shortly after 4:30 p.m. in the cutting room on the eighth floor, and
fed by thousands of pounds of fabric it spread rapidly. Panicked
workers rushed to the stairs, the freight elevator, and the fire
escape. The rear fire escape collapsed, killing many and eliminating an
escape route for others still trapped. Some tried to slide down
elevator cables but lost their grip; many more, their dresses on fire,
jumped to their death from open windows. Pump Engine Company 20 and
Ladder Company 20 arrived quickly but were hindered by the bodies of
victims who had jumped. The ladders of the fire department extended
only to the sixth floor, and life nets broke when workers jumped in
groups of three and four. A total of 146 women died in less than
fifteen minutes. Although there was widespread revulsion and rage over
the working conditions that had contributed to the fire, many defended
the right of shop owners to resist government safety regulation, and
some in government insisted that they were at any rate powerless to
impose it. It remains one of the most vivid symbols for the American
labor movement of the need for government to ensure a safe workplace.
Homestead strike
-1892 at Andrew CarnegieÂ’s steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania.
Carnegie's involvement in the union-breaking action left many men dead
or wounded and forever tarnished Carnegie's reputation as a benevolent
employer and a champion of labor.
-bad time in economy, many strikes had happened in other places.
-Carnegie's steel prices went down, too. Henry C. Frick, general
manager of the Homestead plant that Carnegie largely owned, was
determined to cut wages and break the Amalgamated Association of Iron
and Steel Workers, one of the strongest craft unions in the country.
-Although only 750 of the 3,800 workers at Homestead belonged to the
union, 3,000 of them met and voted to strike. Frick responded by
building a fence three miles long and 12 feet high around the
steelworks plant, adding peepholes for rifles and topping it with
barbed wire. Workers named the fence "Fort Frick."
-Frick turned to the Pinkerton Detective Agency's private army
When the private armies of business arrived, the crowd warned the
Pinkertons not to step off the barge. But they did. No one knows which
side shot first, but under a barrage of fire, the Pinkertons retreated
back to their barges. For 14 hours, gunfire was exchanged. Strikers
rolled a flaming freight train car at the barges. They tossed dynamite
to sink the boats and pumped oil into the river and tried to set it on
fire. By the time the Pinkertons surrendered in the afternoon three
detectives and nine workers were dead or dying. The workers declared
victory in the bloody battle
-The governor of Pennsylvania ordered state militia into Homestead. All
the strikers leaders were blacklisted. The Carnegie Company
successfully swept unions out of Homestead and reduced it to a
negligible factor in the steel mills throughout the Pittsburgh area.
Pullman strike
1894, Pullman slashed wages by 25 percent. He didnÂ’t lower the rents
or grocery cost in the company town. His workers went on strike, aided
by Eugene Debs' American Railway Union. Workers refused to handle any
train with Pullman cars attached. In order to ensure that the mail on
those trains would not be delayed, President Cleveland sent federal
troops to break the strike
James G. Blaine
-leader of the “Half-Breed” Republicans, who were against corrupt
patronage practices
-As Secretary of State, he was worked hard in fostering closer
relations with the Latin American nations.
-he was able to bring about and preside over the first Pan-American
Congress, thus laying the foundation for subsequent meetings
-helped establish the Pan-American Union
-hoped to increase commercial relations among American nations by
reciprocal tariff treaties
-his idea of tariff “reciprocity” gained some credence and was used
later.
Pres. Hayes-McKinley
William McKinley
-"the advance agent of prosperity."
-”generally on the side of the public and against private interests."
-became the leading Republican tariff expert
-McKinley Administration was friendly to trusts.
-McKinley was supposedly controlled by Marcus Hanna, the representative
of the trusts.
-McKinley claimed he saw the trusts as "dangerous conspiracies against
the public good."
-In control of the 100-day war with Spain for Cuba (McKinley had wanted
a “peaceful intervention”, but congress voted for something which
looked suspicious like war)
William J. Bryan
-American political and religious leader, who was known as the "Great
Commoner." A persistent agitator, he acted as the conscience of the
nation in opposing special privileges for favored groups.
-delivered the "Cross of Gold" speech—in which he argued the case for
free silver ("You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this
crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold" )
-Bryan led the "dry" forces in gaining passage of the 18th Amendment.
He also helped the suffragettes to win adoption of the 19th Amendment.
Though a proponent of world peace and disarmament, he opposed Wilson's
League of Nations on the ground that it could not win Senate approval.
-appeared for the prosecution in the scopes trial.
Stalwarts and halfbreeds
The two wings of the Republicans were nicknamed the "Halfbreeds" and
the "Stalwarts"; the latter, headed by Senator Conkling, resolutely
supported General Grant for the presidency in the Chicago Convention;
the former, led by Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State, and indorsed by
the President himself, had control of the government, and were
numerically stronger than their opponents. The Stalwarts claimed the
right of patronage. The President, supported by his division of the
party, and in general by the reform element in politics, insisted on
naming the officers in the various States according to his own wishes
and what he conceived to be the fitness of things.
so--- that all means-- Stalwarts were for patronage. halfbreeds were
reformists and were basically in control.
Roscoe Conkling
-lawyer and political leader
-At first a Whig, he joined the Republican party at its formation, and
was a Republican representative in Congress from 1859 to 1863. He
refused to follow the financial policy of his party
-an opponent of civil service reform
-he had bitter rivalries with many members of his own party (especially
James G. Blaine)
Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Act classified certain jobs, removed them from the
patronage ranks, and set up a Civil Service Commission to administer a
system based on merit rather than political connections. As the
classified list was expanded over the years, it provided the American
people with a competent and permanent government bureaucracy. Today,
with the exception of a few thousand policy-level appointments, nearly
all federal jobs are handled within the civil service system.
McKinley Tariff(1890)
law establishing record-high tariffs on many
imported items. Sponsored by Representative William McKinley, chair of
the House Ways and Means Committee, the act was designed to protect
American industries from foreign competition. Its unpopularity led to
its replacement by the Wilson Act in 1894.
Wilson-Gorman tariff
1894 slightly reduced the U.S. tariff rates from the numbers set in the
1890 McKinley tariff .
Supported by the Democrats , this tariff is most important because it
contained the first United States income tax , which was struck down in
the U.S. Supreme Court case Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Company
157 US 428 1895 . Ultimately, the 16th Amendment made the income tax
constitutional when it was finally ratified in 1913 .
Panic of 1893
-the Reading Railroad failed. That collapse was soon magnified by the
failures of hundreds of banks and businesses dependent upon the Reading
and other railroads. The stock market reacted with a dramatic plunge.
Fearing further collapse, European investors pulled their funds from
the United States, but depression soon gripped the other side of the
Atlantic as well. An ongoing agricultural depression in the West and
South deepened, spreading the misery to those regions.
-Prez Cleveland did little. He believed, like most people of both
major parties, that the business cycle was a natural occurrence and
should not be tampered with by politicians.
-One economic problem- gold reserves were being drained because of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
-The depression of the 1890s did not fully abate until 1897. businesses
consolidated and a lot of the poor people felt like they were being
abused. wanted more reform.
Farmers Alliance
-moved to the forefront of the agrarian revolt in the 1880s, as farmers
in the South and West found it increasingly difficult to survive
economically. The post-Civil War deflation caused farm prices to fall,
and farmers sank deeper into debt. Thousands lost their land.
-Two principal groups emerged: the National Farmers' Alliance (Northern
Alliance) in the plains states, and the National Farmers' Alliance &
Industrial Union (Southern Alliance) centered in Louisiana, Texas, and
Arkansas.
-list of demands included government control of transportation and
communication and a "subtreasury" scheme for agricultural credit, as
well as reforms of currency, land ownership, and income tax policies.
Meanwhile the Northern Alliance was placing increasing emphasis on the
free coinage of silver.
-The Populist platform that year repeated nearly all the Alliance
demands, and although the defeat of the Populists in 1896 finished both
the party and the Alliance, many of the reforms they had advocated were
adopted over the next half century.
Populist Party
The Populist Movement emerged from the farmersí alliances of the 1870s
and 1880s. In the 1890s the Populist Party appeared to represent a
viable third party independent of the Democrats and Republicans. A
response to the growth of industrialism, the Populists opposed the
"concentrated capital" of banks and big businesses and decried the many
of the effects that industrialism was having on American society.
initiative, referendum, Recall
The people shall have the right to propose ordinances, to require
ordinances to be submitted to a vote, and to recall elective officials
by processes known respectively as initiative, referendum and recall.
Initiative, referendum or recall shall be initiated by a petition
signed by registered voters of the city equal in number to eight (8)
percent of those who voted for the office of mayor in the last
preceding city election in the case of initiative or referendum, and
twenty (20) percent in the case of recall.
“Crime of ‘73”
the demonetization of silver enacted by the Coinage Act of
1873. Alexander Hamilton had set the United States on a bimetallic
standard in 1792 and, with the notable exception of the Civil
War, the country had not moved from this system.
-the dollar (and so the American monetary mass and ultimately output
and employment) was linked to a metal that was getting
scarcer and scarcer, because between 1879 and 1897 the rate of increase
in gold output slowed, and the demand increased at the same time. The
monetary mass could not keep pace with the strongly expanding economy,
and price measured in gold declined strongly. This deflationary effect
was hindered to some extent by the spreading monetization of the
American economy and a more efficient banking system that allowed to
pile up more paper money on a given currency base (that is,
gold).
-this results in the worst depression ever (until the great depression).
bimetallism
A bimetallic standard is a monetary standard where the monetary unit is
defined as consisting of either a certain amount of a metal or a
certain amount of another, with the monetary authority being ready
at all times to coin either metal at the legal price. For example,
in the United States for the greater part of the 19th century the
dollar was defined as consisting either of 22.5 grains of gold or 371
grains of silver (a grain is 0.065 grams). People could bring gold or
silver bars at the Mint (the agency responsible for coining money)
and they would get gold or silver dollar coins in exchange.
Whenever the market price of silver in terms of gold is
sufficiently far from the legal ratio, the economy switches to a
monometallic standard, using the relatively cheapest metal as money and
removing the other from circulation.
“Cross of Gold”
-speech delivered by william J bryan in favor of a silver system.
Dingley Tariff
1897 raised United States tariffs again. They reached a new high,
averaging 50%, and in select cases up to 57%. The Republican President
William McKinley fully supported the bill.
Currency Act of 1900
-aka US Gold Standard Act
-The great increase in America's stock of gold leads to abandonment of
bimetallism. The act also halves the minimum capital requirement for
the smallest national banks, thus stimulating an increase in their
numbers, and raises the limitations on the issue of notes.

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