US History, February 25 Entry Task: Everyone take out a sheet of paper. Make a list at your table of SOCIAL ISSUES (in the Gilded Age, people were concerned about: alcohol, monopolies, food safety, child labor, etc) Announcements: While Chilson was gone, did you turn in: The Jungle 5 questions? The Jungle reading guide (with letter to Roosevelt)? Movie Questions Triangle Shirtwaist Factory?
Muckrakers and Reform Efforts Problem: Filthy, unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. Muckraker: Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle
Casualties of the Spanish American War (1898) 274,000 US soldiers sent to Cuba only 379 killed in battle rest killed by malaria, yellow fever, dysentery or from 500,000 pounds of beef purchased from Armour and Co.
5. Sinclair: I aimed for America s heart And hit it in the stomach!
6. Why do you think Sinclair titled his novel The Jungle?
Federal Meat Inspection Act President Theodore Roosevelt sent in inspectors to find out if the Jungle was true NEARLY ALL OF IT WAS. PREDICT what Teddy Roosevelt will do about Sinclair s story.
Meat Industry Today Today only 13 slaughterhouses process the majority of the beef consumed by 300 million Americans what effects does this have? Salmonella, listeria, e coli, etc. cause 300,000 hospitalizations each year
Pure Food & Drug Act 1906 If the ingredients of a food were labeled, that statement had to be accurate. Before this act: CAVEAT EMPTOR - The presence and amount of 11 dangerous ingredients, including heroin, morphine, cocaine, and alcohol, had to be labeled on all drugs and foods. The law forbade adding substances to food so as to conceal inferiority, to substitute for something else, or to make the food injurious to health, and it was forbidden to market a food that was filthy or decomposed.
Elixir Lash Lure Sulfanilamide Diethylene glycol is used as an automotive antifreeze today! No toxicity Tests conducted: 107 Americans Killed in 1937 FDA had a display: Chamber of Horrors
Dr. Harvey Wiley s Poison Squad - a group of volunteers whose carefully controlled diet included measured amounts of various food preservatives, such as borax, benzoates, and formaldehyde, and the effects were noted.
Several early 20th-century epilepsy "remedies." The maker of Dr. Lindley's Epilepsy Remedy, top left, pleaded guilty to misbranding in violation of the Pure Food and Drugs Act, just days before the U.S. v. Johnson ruling.
Thalidomide withdrawn in 1961 10,000-20,000 cases worldwide of children who were born with defects
What a Funny Little Government (1899)
Standard Oil Co.
Muckrakers and Reform Efforts Problem: Unfair business practices by Standard Oil and other trusts. Muckraker: Ida Tarbell, journalist for McClures First CEO Profile (ever) Reform: Her stories led to demands for tighter control of trusts. 1911 Supreme Court called Standard Oil an unreasonable monopoy broken down into 34 companies (Exxon, Mobil, etc.)
Mr. Rockefeller has not squandered his income. He has applied it for thirty-five years to accumulating not only oil property but real estate railroad stock, iron mines, copper mines, anything and everything which could be bought cheap by temporary depressing and made to yield rich by his able management. For thirty-five years he has worked for special privileges giving him advantages over competitors, for thirtyfive years he has patiently laid net-works around property he wanted, until he had it surely corralled and could seize it; for thirty-five years he has depreciated values when necessary to get his prey. And to-day he still is busy. In almost every great financial maneuvre in the country is felt his supple, smooth hand with its grip of steel, and while he directs that which is big, nothing is too small for him to grasp. Tarbell, Ida. John D. Rockefeller: A Character Study McClures. July, 1906
The Bosses of the Senate
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) - Prohibited trusts and the unfair limiting of competition, such as monopolies.
Congress Who s In It and Who Owns It ; by Jacob Burck
State Reforms by 1920, 20 states had adopted one of these: Recall Allows voters to petition to have an elected representative removed from office. Initiative Referendum Allows voters to petition state legislatures in order to consider a bill desired by citizens. *Drafted by citizens can either be accepted by Legislature or go to voters Allows voters to decide if a bill or proposed amendment should be passed. Secret Ballot Privacy at the ballot box ensures that citizens can cast votes without party bosses knowing how they voted. Direct Primary Ensures that voters select candidates to run for office, rather than party bosses.
Gray Davis CA Governor recalled in 2003
Recall WA state Article I, 33 of the Washington Constitution says that a recall can only occur if the targeted public official has engaged in the "commission of some act or acts of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office, or who has violated his oath of office." Signature requirement 25 or 35% depending on position
WA Recent Initiatives and Referendum 2/3 needed to change an initiative (difficult) 2011 1183 Privatization of Liquor Sales Approved 2012 502 Marijuana Law Reform 2012 REFERENDUM 74: Legalized same sex marriage 2013 594 Background Check for Gun Sales/Transfers
1790 to 1828 Caucus---small group of individuals who would choose a candidate 1828 to 1900 Convention---members from the political parties nominate a candidate Current System Used Direct Primary---allow registered voters to participate in choosing a candidate Which of these nominating processes would be the most democratic way to nominate candidates and narrow the field of candidates for the general election?
NATIONAL LEVEL 17 th Amendment: Direct Election of Senators (1913) Increased voters power and reduced corruption in Senate
17 th Amendment: Direct Election of Senators (1913) Increased voters power and reduced corruption in Senate
Patronage practice of giving out government jobs as favors to loyal party workers Patronage oftentimes led to corruption. Examples: Jobs were frequently given to unqualified people. I ve got to thank Uncle Billy for getting me this cool job. Well a little joke never hurt anyone, right?
President James Garfield (20 th ) attempted to reform the spoils system.
An angry office seeker (Charles Guiteau) assassinated Garfield before he could reform the system (in office only 200 days)
Presidents like Grover Cleveland (22 nd and 24 th President) were split between the Democrats who voted for him and the reformers who expected him to support civil service reform (ended up firing almost 2/3 of federal employees to make room for deserving Democrats ).
Garfield believed that civil service jobs should be given to people based on merit and ability, not political connections. Pendleton Civil Service Commission (1883) - began to award jobs based on the results of an exam.
The Emergence of Political Machines Organized group that controls a city s political party Give services to voters, businesses for political, financial support Example: firms that contribute to the machine receive gov t contracts, tax breaks Behind the scenes control of elections (funding), politicians Often used dishonest ways to get income
Recruiting Followers: What tells in holdin your grip on your district is to go right down among the poor families and help them. I've got a regular system for this. If there's a fire in Ninth or Tenth or Eleventh Avenue, for example, any hour of the day or night, I'm usually there with some of my election district captains as soon as the fore engines. If a family is burned out I don't I don't ask them if they are Republicans or Democrats, and I don't refer them to the Charity Organization Society, which would investigate their case in a month or two and decide if they are worthy of help about the time they are dead from starvation. I just get quarters for them, buy clothes for them if their clothes were all burned up, and fix them up until they get things runnin' again. It's philanthropy, but it's politics too - mighty good politics. Who can tell me how many votes one of those fires brings me? The poor are the most grateful people in the world, and, let me tell you, they have more friends in their neighborhoods than the rich have in theirs...
Recruiting Followers Another thing, I can always get a deserving man a job. I make it a point to keep track of jobs, and it seldom happens that I don't have a few up my sleeve ready for use. I hear a young feller that's proud of his voice... I ask him to join our Glee Club. He comes up and sings, and he's a follower of Plunkitt for life. Another young feller gains a reputation as a baseball player in a vacant lot. I bring him into our baseball club. That fixes him. You'll find him working for my ticket at the polls next election. I rope them all in by givin' them opportunities to show off themselves off. I don't trouble them with political arguments. --George Washington Plunkitt, Politician, New York, 1889
William Boss Tweed Kept Democratic Party in power in NYC called Tammany Hall, formed the Tweed Ring Tweed: commissioner of public works - Bought votes, encouraged corruption, controlled NYC politics
Officeholders stole public money. William Marcy Tweed as a Robin Hood? In the three or four years that Tweed and his group were in control the city debt rose from about $30 million to $200 million. Tweed Ring milked the city with false leases, padded bills, false vouchers, unnecessary repairs and overpriced goods
Who stole the people s money? Twas Him
Muckrakers and Reform Efforts Let s stop them damned pictures, the Boss supposedly said. I don t care so much what the papers write about my constituents can t read but damn it, they can see pictures. Boss Tweed Muckraker: Thomas Nast, cartoonist for Harper s Weekly Reform: - Tweed was arrested 1871, nearly every Tammany Hall member lost elections - Good government leagues were formed to replace corrupt leaders.
Muckrakers and Reform Efforts Reinhart, Charles S. He Tries to Steal Away. Harper s Weekly. July 17, 1875
Muckrakers and Reform Efforts Tweed-le-dee and Tilden-dum, Thomas Nast, Artist, Illustration in Harper's Weekly, July 1, 1876. Tweed was sued by New York State for $6 million; Held in debtor's prison (cell = luxurious). Escape: Fled to Spain; was recognized from Nast s pictures Tweed died in debtor's prison on April 12, 1878.
City Bosses Kansas City's Boss Tom Thomas J. Pendergast During the Great Depression: he manipulated elections and undermined prohibition, but he also kept Kansas City working Boston's James Michael Curley Chicago's Richard J. Daley Mayor 21 years last of the big city bosses Possibly stuffed ballot boxes for JFK 1960
December 9, 2008 ILLINOIS GOVERNOR ARRESTED IN OBAMA SUCCESSOR PROBE RELEASED AFTER COURT APPEARANCE CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder in what a federal prosecutor called a "corruption crime spree." On December 7, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.