Questions 25 - 28: Truman Arrives on the Scene

Postwar Baby Boom (cont.)



25.) The "pig passing through the python" referred to the expectation that the oversize postwar generation would strain and distort many aspects of American life. This generation caused drastically icnreased consumerism, from baby products in the 40s and 50s, to trendy clothes and rock music in the 60s, to jeans in the 70s, jobs in the 80s, and so on, followed by products for their own chidlren in the 90s, and, predictably, Social Security in the 21st Century.

Truman: The "Gutty" Man from Missouri



26.) Harry S. Truman was called "the average man's average man". While initially very timid, he soon gained confidence to the point fo dangerous cockiness, and became notoriously stubborn. he once palced a sign on his desk at the White House that said "The buck stops here."

Shaping the Postwar World



27.) U.S. behavior after World War II, in sharp contrast to that of after World War I, was taking the lead in creating the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, important to war-ravaged countries, and supplying most of their funding.



28.) On July 28, 1945, the Senate overhwlmingly apporved the United Nations Charter. The Security Council was led by the Big Five Powers: United States, Britain, the USSR, France, China, and the Assembly, which could be controlled by smaller countries.

To continue the discussion on how the Postwar World was shaped, visit George's Blog!

The Aftermath of War (Questions 17 - 22)

17.) The Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of 1920 encouraged private consolidation of the railraods and pledged the Interstate Commerce Commission to guarantee their profitability.



18.) The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 authorized the Shipping Board, which controlled about 1500 vessels, to dispose of much of the hastily built wartime fleet at 'bargain-basement' prices.



19.) Strategies used to break strikes in 1919 and 1922 included exploiting ethnic and racial divisions among steelworkers and branding the strikers as dangerous 'reds', and an injunction on 1922.



20.) In 1921, the Veterans Bureau was created, representing one of the few benefits enjoyed by a non-business group in this era.



21.) In Paris in 1919, Teddy Roosevelt Jr. founded the American Legion. It met to renew old hardships and let off steam in good natured horseplay, and became associated with patriotism, conservatism, and anti-radicalism.



22.) The Adjusted Compensation (Hold-up bonus) Act gave every former soldier a paid-up insurance policy due in 20 years, adding about $3.5 billion to the total cost of World War I.

To continue this journey through history, please visit Brenna's AP US Blog!

The Prohibition Experiment

Prohibition was officially authorized with the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919 and implemented by Congress' Volstead Act, which "made the world safe for hypocrisy".

Prohibition was especially popular with the southerners, who wanted to keep alcohol away from blacks, and westerners, who wanted to put an end to the saloon vices including public drunkenness, postitiution, corruption and crime.



Strong opposition would come from the larger eastern cities, full of foreign-born old world immigrants who were used to their beer garderns and corner taverns. Yet, with prohibtion coming to stay, many indulged in one last wild fling before the extended "alcoholiday".



The law would not, however, overcome the tenacious American tradition of strong drink and the fact that the government had relatively nonexistent control over people's private lives. Simply put, the lawmakers could not legislate away a thirst.



Supporters of alcohol (wets) believed they could overturn the law if they violated it on a large enough scale... Even hypocritical legislators sometimes sneaked a private drink. The law was disliked by all tpes of peoples, from returning soldiers to grimy workers to flaming youth of the jazz age even to older citizens who engaged in "bar hunts".

Agencies meant to enforce the law were understaffed, underpaid and ineffective, as shown as scores of people, often innocent, were killed by the dry agents, arousing the public even further. Prohibition simply did not prohibit.



Corner saloons were replaced by "speakeasies", where one could speak softly through a window in the door before it was opened to staggering volumes of liquor being consumed. This alcohol was illegally supplied by rumrunners from the West Indies and from Canada.

While overall a failure, the noble experiment did have some good points:
-Bank savings inceased
-Absenteeism in industry decreased
-Less alcohol was consumed than in the days before prohibition

And yet, the ardent wet would still declare, "Prohibtion is better than no alcohol at all!"


Infomration taken from pages 732-733,736 of The American Pageant.

The Fourteen Points Disarm Germany / Wilson Steps Down from Olympus: Questions 41 - 45

41.) Germany sought a peace based on the Fourteen Points.

42.) The United States' main contributions to the war effort had been foodstuffs, munitions, credits, oil for this first mechanized war, and manpower. The Germans were demoralized to the point of surrender by the prospect of endless US troop reserves.

43.) No other man besides Wilson had ever occupied so dizzy a pinnacle as moral leader of the world. Yet, he began to make a series of tragic fumbles.

44.) Wilson went to Europe as a diminished leader because he had staked his reputation on a democratic victory in the congressional elections of 1918, which backfired on him with a narrow republican majority. Unlike his fellows at the table, he did not command a legislative majority back home.

45.) Wilson infuriated Republicans by going in person to Paris (no pervious president had traveled to Europe) and by snubbing the senate in assembling his peace delegation and neglecting to include a single Republican senator in his official party.

For a continuation of the story of the peace treaty, visit Fort Nico's fortess of History!

Progressive Era Conservation / Land Use Acts

Desert Land Act 1877 regulated the selling of arid land with the condition that the buyer would irrigate it.



Forest Reserve Act 1891 set aside public forests as national parks



Carey Act 1894 distributed federal land to the states on the condition that it would be irrigated and settled



Newlands Act 1902: Washington was authorized to collect money from the sale of land in the Western states and use the profits for the development of irrigation projects

As a whole, the progressives viewed the conservation of land as a necessary endeavor, although among them, their reasons varied somewhat (ie. the hunter and the animal-saver).

Progressive Era Foreign Policy Acts

Panama Canal Tolls Act of 1912 specially exepted American coast-to-coast shipping from tolls along the Panama Canal, heartily provoking the British. It was later repealed. (Issued during the Taft Adminsitration)



Jones Act of 1916 granted the Philippines territorial status and promised independence as soon as a stable government could be established (which would be in 1946). (Issued during the Wilson Administration).

New Federal Agencies

The Women's Bureau of 1920 and the Children's Bureau of 1912 were Department of Labor Wedges into the federal bureucracy giving female reformers a nationals tage for social investigation and advocacy.



Federal Trade Commission of 1914 (692)was another movement against the trusts by Wilson. This law empowered a presidentially appointed comission to turn a searchlight on industries engaged in interstate commerce.



Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was the most important piece of economic legislation between the Civil War and the New Deal. A new Federal Reserve Board, appointed by the president would oversee a nationwide system of 12 regional banks and was empowered to issue paper money. This would carry the U.S. through the financial crises of World War I.



Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 (693) made credit available to farmers at low rates of interest, as complying with the ideas of the populists.

Protecting Workers

The La Folette Seamen's Act of 1915 eased the troubles of seamen when it required decent treatment and a living wage on American merchant ships. This provided necessary compensation for their work. Likewise....



...The Workingmen's Compensation Act of 1916 granted assistance to federal civil-service employees during periods of disability. this was yet another necessary benefit for the common man that was now provided for.

Amendments to the Constitution

16th Amendment, 1913: This amendment gave congress the right to impose and collect income taxes without any restriction or order (ie. by population), which would lead to more debate concerning the fairness or excessiveness of said taxes...



17th Amendment, 1913: This amendment stipulated that senators shall be elected by popular vote. This would prevent officials from being placed in power merely by being in the favor of another official.



18th Amendment, 1919: This amendment of prohibition forbade the sale or manufacture of intoxicating liquors. This would cause pleasure for most women (who sought its enactment) and major outrage for men, to the point that it would later be repealed.



19th Amedndment,1920: This amendment gave women their long-awaited right to vote. While skeptical at first, most would later agree this to be another step towards equality in America.

Anti-Trust

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 forbade combinations in restraint of trade, without any distinction between "good" trusts and "bad" trusts. The problem was identified not be behavior, but by size. The law was generally ineffective, granting no specific authority, being full of loopholes. It did, though, get used to ur labor unions....




The Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 lengthened the Sherman Act's lsit of business practices that were deemed objectionable, including price discrimination and itnelrocking directorates. It also conferred long-overdure benefits on labor, seekening to exempt labor and agricultural organizations from antitrust prosecution, while explicitly legalizing strikes and peaceful picketing.

Food Safety

The Meat Inspection Act of 1906, inspired by a nauseated public as a result of Sinclair's novel, "The Jungle", decreed that the preparation of emat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection from corral to can. This would spur larger businesses to booming success (with more appealing products bearing the governement seal of approval) and protect consumers from buying dangerous unhealty meats.




The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals. This would prevent drugstore companies from gaining extra profits with mislabeled products and so would protect consumers from ineffective or dangerously icnorrect medicines.

Railroads

The Elkins Act of 1903 was the beginning of new and effective railroad legislation. Heavy fines could now be imposed on both the railroads that gave rebates and on the shippers that impsoed them.



Even more effective was the Hepburn Act of 1906, in which bribe-infested free passes were now severely restricted. The Interstate Commerce Comission was expanded, now to include express companies, sleeping-car companies and pipelines. This marked the first time the comission was given real power to nullify existing rates and stipulate naximum rates.

An Oration for the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901

[I am writing this oration on behalf of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which, being a treaty, cannot type. But don't let that discredit it...]

I am perhaps the most important event of my day! Just consider it! Before me, there was that annoying Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Britain from way back when in the 1850s, which denied the United States the rights to build passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But then came the very need to do so- in Panama. Imagine the inconvenience of having to travel all the way around South America, a 3 or 4 week journey, when one could reach the same destination in just a few hours by cutting across Panama! The benefits are astronomical! And I, of course, provided those benefits. Because the Brits were so tangled up down there in Africa, they kindly consented to have me written, granting Americans right not only to build the canal but to fortify it, too! And thus the Hay-Pauncefote Trearty was born! Since, I have provided the way to amazing benfits of the wonderfully convenient crossing form Atlantic to Pacific in a few hours, via the Panama Canal!

The Fading Frontier

By 1890, the frontier line was no longer discernable. That is, all unsettled areas were enclosed by areas of settlement. Soon there would be no more land left to explore...



Frederick Jackson Turner wrote "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" in 1893., where he noted that the free land (land open to development) was going or had already gone.



It was predicted in 1827 that at least 500 years would be necessary to completely explore and develop the western U.S. Obviously, this was not true, and the speed at which the land was going drove home the point that the land was not inexhaustble. A plan was then developed to take measures to preserve it: The National Parks. Yellowstone was the first opened, in 1872, and Yosemite and Sequoia followed in 1890.

The passing of the frontier ended the romantic phase of internal development.



Safety Valve Theory: when life in the city brought unemployment, people would head to the frontier, start farming, and prosper there. Few truly did, for they either did not know how to farm or had no means of transport to the frontier.
The frontier did, however, lure immigrant farmers who were less entralled by city life.
The real safety valves were the great western cities, such as Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco. (In 1880, the area west of the Rockies to the Pacific Coast was the most urbanized region in America.

Turner suggested that real American history was the history of the colonization of the great west, a constantly developing process that began with Columbus heading west and discovering the West Indies, and so forth, to the mainland, across the mountains and plains to the Pacific.

Important Points Concerning the Trans-Mississippi West:
*Where the Native Americans' last struggle against colonization took place (and where any reamining live today)
*Where Anglo culture collided with Hispanic culture, sparking a competition for dominance in the New World
*Where America faced across the Pacific to Asia
*The scale and severity of the environment, and all its magnificence and openness, molded political and social life, and the American immigration
*Where the federal government played its most conspicuous role in economic and social development, with landholding distrubution, railroad building, and irrigation projects



Westward-moving poineers and their vast landscapes were immortalized by writers such as Horte, Twain, Jackson and Parkman, and by painters such as Catlin, Remington and Bierstadt. They planted the seeds of civilization in the immense western wilderness...




(Information taken from p. 606 - 608 of "The American Pageant", Twelfth Edition)