LAD# 37

  Vs.

Little Linda Brown, an African American, had to walk a mile in order to get to her bus stop for school. Linda could have easily walked to the white elementary school seven blocks away, but was denied enrollment into the school because of her race. Oliver Brown, her father, and thirteen other parents then decided to bring this issue to the courts. Brown argued that black schools were only getting a third of the money that the white schools were receiving. "They did not have the most current textbooks, not enough school supplies, and overcrowded classrooms". Yet, the white dominated court room referred to Plessy vs. Ferguson and stated that the schools were separate, but equal. The NAACP would not face defeat that easily, and decided to bring the case to the Supreme Court. On October first, 1951, similar cases regarding separate schools for blacks and whites were combined into one case and the trial would begin on December 9, 1952. The Browns argued in court that Black people were in different schools because they were different than everyone else. The case went on for several months. However, one of the justices died and the case had to be presented again. Finally, after two years, the court turned in favor of the Browns and segregating schools became against the law. Although, it took many states years to put blacks in the same schools as whites because of the tensions between the two races.

LAD #36

The Truman Doctrine was an address of the foreign policy and the national security of the United States, and also Turkey and Greece. The United States received an urgent appeal from Greece for economic and financial assistance, if they did not receive aid it seemed as though they would not survive as an independent nation. Greece was never a wealthy country and it lacked many natural resources, and it has “suffered invasion, four years of cruel enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife”; it was reported that the “Germans had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities, communications, and merchant marine. More than a thousand villages had been burned. Eighty-five per cent of the children were tubercular. Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared. Inflation had wiped out practically all savings.” Tragic conditions, a militant minority and human exploitation have made economic recovery seem impossible. The Greeks were asking for help to resume purchases of the bare essentials that were unavailable at the time. The Greeks also asked the United States for political aid “the assistance of experienced American administrators, economists and technicians to insure that the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration”. Truman tells the joint session of Congress that the aid the United States has already provided for Greece is inadequate and that the United States, as a self governing democracy, must do more for Greece. The British had been helping them previously but they can no longer offer economic support after March 31st.
Turkey is another nation that Truman mentions “as an independent and economically sound state is clearly no less important to the freedom-loving peoples of the world than the future of Greece.” Turkey was better off than Greece but Truman still urged that Turkey is also in dire need of American support. Turkey is seeking aid for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity to preserve the order in the Middle East. Truman says: “We are the only country able to provide that help.” “The disappearance of Greece [and Turkey] as...independent state[s] would have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the damages of war.” Truman then asks Congress for “assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1948”and “$350,000,000 for the prevention of starvation and suffering in countries devastated by the war.” He also asks Congress for commodities, supplies, and equipment for the two nations, and to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey.

LAD #35

Franklin D. Roosevelt starts right off the bat, stating and citing where he has the right to do everything in his power to protect the United States " against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities". In the paragraph, he says that he hereby authorizes the building of military areas at any location, which can house any one that may be helping the enemy's government. However, it also states that the military officers must respect the rights of the detainees and must provide adequate transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations. Roosevelt then puts the Attorney General in charge of all of these camps. He also gives power to the commanders of the camps such as the use of federal troops and the assistance of state and local agencies. Roosevelt authorizes departments in charge of "hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and other supplies". The president then closes the letter, stating that this order can not be modified unless prescribed by him

LAD #36

Franklin D. Roosevelt, president during the year 1941, was shocked to hear that on December 7, Japanese fighter planes swooped down from the skies at Pearl Harbor. The planes killed 2,335 military soldiers, but they failed to destroy major targets such as the U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers. Roosevelt the next day assembled Congress and gave one of the greatest speeches of American history, one that rivaled Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Martian Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech. He starts of the speech with its famous line, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." He explains that the United States was at peace with Japan and Japan also looked "toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific." Roosevelt also stated that the attack came one hour before the Japanese Ambassador delivered a message that revealed not threat of an attack. It was obvious, according to Roosevelt, that this attack was premeditated for many months or weeks. Ironically, during this time, the Japanese government was deceiving the United States by making it look like they were hoping for continued peace. Many Americans lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, however, Japanese forces also attacked many other islands such as Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippine Islands. Roosevelt then proclaims that we will defend this nation and "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory." He does not hesitate that say that, despite the danger, "we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God." War then is declared on December 8, 1941 on Japan and three days later, the United States is in war with Italy and Germany.

LAD #33

Before Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, the economy was spiraling downwards at a freakish pace. Banks were failing, businesses were going under, and Americans who were once living comfortable were then living on the streets. Hoovervilles were constructed outside major cities and the poor wandered the dirty cities looking for work. Wilson could do nothing but sit in horror. Although once FDR was elected, he boosted the spirits of the American people by his first inaugural address. He begins his speech stating that "our distress comes from no failure of substances." He says this to show the people this is not something they can not control. "We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply." He continues to say that the money changers that had caused the failure of the banks had " fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." This means that FDR has faith in the country that they work together and overcome the greedy in order to become a economically stable nation again. FDR also calls for action at that very moment to help the struggling economy. He says that we must "recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms." Instead of Wilson's ideas of letting the people solve the problems of the nation, he decides to take charge and tell people what to do so the nation can be fixed.

LAD #32 Kellog-Briand Peace Pact

TM

The act declared a “renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy” to promote the welfare of mankind. With the renunciation war as an instrument of national policy, peaceful and friendly relations between nations may be perpetuated and it will instate union between the civilized nations of the world in a common renunciation of war as an instrument of their national policy”. Any nation that resorts to war to promote its national interests shall not receive the benefits of the treaty. The treaty declared condemnation of “recourse to war for the solution of international controversies” and it was to be implemented as soon as possible. Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Kingdom of the Serbs, Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Siam, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Panama were all signers of the Act. “Convinced that all changes in their relations with one another should be sought only by pacific means and be the result of a peaceful and orderly process, and that any signatory Power which shall hereafter seek to promote its national interests by resort to war a should be denied the benefits furnished by this Treaty”.

LAD #31 Wilson's Fourteen Points

Wilson’s Fourteen Points calls for peace and an international policy of openness. “The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world.” He also calls for a sense of national unity when he says that “all the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest”.
1. calls for public diplomacy
2. freedom of navigation of the seas – in both times of war and peace
3. equality of trade conditions
4. reduction of national armaments
5. impartial adjustment of all colonial claims – allowing the populations to have a voice in colonial decisions
6. “evacuation of all Russian territory” and assistance for the Russian government
7. sovereignty for Belgium
8. a correction of the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine and sovereignty for all French territories
9. “readjustment of the frontiers of Italy”
10. free opportunity to autonomous development for the peoples of Austria-Hungary
11. evacuation of Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro
12. Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees and sovereignty for the Turkish portion of the ottoman empire
13. erection of a sovereign polish state guaranteed by international covenant
14. “ a general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”
Wilson asks for peace and mutual understand with Germany and international unity.

LAD #30

On March 3rd, 1919, Schenk was declared guilty with the “mailing of printed circulars in pursuance of a conspiracy to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service”, “an unlawful use of the mails for the transmission”, and for an “offence against the United States...to use the mails for the transmission of matter declared to be non-mailable”. Despite the protection of freedom of speech by the first amendment, Schenck’s distribution of printed documents posed a serious threat and danger so therefore Congress had the right to halt his activities. According to the testimony, Schenck was general secretary for the socialist party and he was in charge of the socialist headquarters from where the documents were sent. “The document in question upon its first printed side recited the first section of the Thirteenth Amendment, said that the idea embodied in it was violated by the Conscription Act and that a conscript is little better than a convict.” Schenck’s messages were: “"Do not submit to intimidation” and to “Assert your rights”. His impassioned document was to prevent the draft. “It denied the power to send our citizens away to foreign shores to shoot up the people of other lands, and added that words could not express the condemnation such cold-blooded ruthlessness deserves”. During times of peace, Schenck’s document may have been completely within the realm of the rights of a citizen, but his words were a threat to the smooth operation of the military as it was a time of war. It is similar to yelling fire in a crowded movie theatre when there is no fire: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force.” Schenck simply commited a crime that was an obstruction of the recruiting services.

LAD #29 Keating-Wilson Child Labor Act

The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 "limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor." The 1900 census showed that two million children were working all across America, all ranging from small child to teen. This census caused a movement that fought for the end of child labor. Lewis Hines and other muckrakers took pictures of children laboring in factories where they were forced to fix dangerous machinery and do back-breaking work in coal mines for long hours. Many influential men joined the fight against child labor, including Carl Marx and Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote many books, including Oliver Twist, that portrayed young orphans working in factories and living in poorhouses in London. Albert Leveridge first proposed the bill in 1906 and "used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor. The act banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than 8 hours during the day." This law was eventually passed by Congress and signed by Woodrow Wilson, however, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Hammer vs. Dagenhart Case. This was because "it overstepped the purpose of the government's power to regulate production and commerce." Another law, the Child Labor Tax Law of 1919 was proposed, but soon ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Not until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was there a successful law enforcing child labor regulations, which is still upheld today.

LAD #28 Wilson's First Inaugural Address

Wilson begins his inaugural address by praising the political system and the industrial success of the country. "But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded. But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded." He says that Americans are wasteful. The physical and spiritual cost cost of human life and natural energy has not been reviewed. "With the great Government went many deep secret things which we too long delayed to look into and scrutinize with the candid, fearless eye. The great government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish proposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people." Essentially, the government is not doing its proper duty of protecting the citizens of the United States. In turn, Wilson says that "our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, (and) to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it." He reminds his audience that the original intention of the American democracy was policy " (that) was meant to serve the humblest as well as the most powerful, with an eye single to the standards of justice and fair play." He directly addressed an unjust tariff, a corrupted banking and currency system, a restricting industrial system, an inefficient agricultural body, and misuse of the natural environment. The security of society is the most important service that the government can offer. Finally, he concludes his speech with a call for patriotism.

LAD #27 Clayton Anti-Trust Act

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act was put into effect so the government could regain control of big business. It was passed during the adminsitration of Woodrow Wilson after being introduced by a Senator from Alabama. This set up a regulation for the business world. Originally business could only be regulated under the Sherman anti-trust act, which also hurt labor unions. So this new act, passed alongside the Federal Trade Commission Act, gave authority to the government to regulate previously lawless big businesses. Plus this law could not hurt such unions as the Knights of Labor and the National Labor Union. Major League baseball was also exempt from this law since it reflected national heritage. With this new law in place unions could be formed and boycotts, picketing, and strikes were all legal signs of protest free from government control

LAD #26 I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King starts off his speech similarly how Abraham Lincoln starts off his Gettysburg Address. Instead of four score and seven years ago, King starts off his with five score years ago. He says five score years ago, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and it gave a beacon of hope from blacks throughout the country. But a hundred years later, the blacks are still not free and is still treated horribly. King explains the blacks have conjugated at the capital to cash in a check, 'a promissory note that the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution signed that every American would fall heir.' "The note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'" King continues to use this analogy of a check and a bank by saying that the whites have marked "insufficient funds" on their check of freedom. But King "refuse(s) to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (He) refuse(s) to believe that there is insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation." So he wants to cash the overdue check in order to recieve "the riches of freedom and the security of justice." King moves on from the analogy and says this is a time for action so that they get the freedoms they deserve. Blacks can not wait wait any longer or use gradualism to get these desired freedoms. He says the revolt will continue "until the bright day of justice emerges." King goes on to say that blacks must fight for their freedom, but do so with dignity and pride. "We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence." He says we can not turn back and that do not "...wallow in the valley of dsespair..." King procliams that he has a dream that is "deeply rooted in the American dream." His dream is that blacks can live peacefully side by side with whites and that his four children can "one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." He concludes the speech repeating the words of an old African spiritual; "'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"'

LAD #25 Dawes Act

The Dawes Act called for the provision of land to indians on various reservations and extentsion of "the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians." the Act gave the president the power to call the assessment of and land for "agricultural and grazing purposes". The concept of the Dawes Act was to replace communal tribe land holdings with individually owned and maintained properties. It was an attempt basically to assimilate the Indians into the larger American society. It gave the Indians an opportunity to become American citizens, even though many did not want this; if "his residence (is) seperate and apart from any tribe of Indians therin, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, (he) is herby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and he is entitled to all rights, privleges, and immunities of such citizens. The Secretary of the Interior was given the power to "prescribe such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to secure a just and equal distrubution thereof among the Indians residing upon any such reseervation". The provisions of the Dawes Act, however, was not to be extended "to the territory occupied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and Osage, Miamies and Peorias, and Sacs and Foxes, in the Indian territory, nor any of the reservations of the Senecac Nation of the New York Indians in the state of New York, nor to that strip of territory in the state of Nebraska adjoining the Sioux Nation on the south added by executive order." Which is basically almost all the indians I know of.

LAD #24 Bryan's "Cross of Gold"

In his speech, William Jennings Bryan spoke on behalf of the Democratic Party to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16:1; "we believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government". The gold standard favors the wealthy minority and it does not benefit the common man, Bryan directs the speech towards the common man and he puts down McKinley's Republican platform. "This struggle between the idle holders of idle capital and the struggling masses who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country". The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it". He also emphasizes the Democratic belief that the most important contributors to the American society are the common people. He champions "the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses".

LAD #23 The Populist Party Platform

The growth of industrialism sparked the emergence of the Populist Party. Populists opposed the concentrated capital of large businesses and banks and criticized the negative affects of industrialization on America. They thought that industrialization widened the gap between the rich and poor by stealing the "fruits of the toils" of the "plain people"in order "to build up the colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind." The working class was payed less in order to benefit the wealthy. As a progressive party, The Populist Party wanted to end  "oppression, injustice, and poverty", and  for there to be "equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all" people in America.

LAD #22

McKinley's main reason for going to war is because of the "crisis that has arisen in the relations of the United States to Spain by reason of the warfare that for more than three years has raged in the neighboring island of Cuba. . . ." McKinley seems to be using the raging civil war almost as an excuse to attack the Spanish and place the island of Cuba under control of the United States. McKinley argues that the United States has had problems keeping their promise of neutrality with the crisis in Cuba, and that Spain has offended the United States with its "exercise of cruel, barbarous, and uncivilized practice of warfare". McKinley then goes on to say that "Our trade has suffered, the capital invested by our citizens in Cuba has been largely lost". McKinley wanted an armistice to the war between Cuba and Spain so America could regain its lost economic assets in the country and try to revive the ailing economy. McKinley also wants to put an end to the atrocities that were taking place in Cuba under the Spanish government. He also states that the sinking of the USS Maine was a clear indicator of the conditions in Cuba and that direct intervention is necessary to protect American interests. He ends the speech by saying " this measure attains a successful result, then our aspirations as a Christian, peace-loving people will be realized." showing America's growing role as big brother in the Western Hemisphere.