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Chapter 20 - Commonwealth and Empire

 

 

Governmental Problems:

·         1877 Great Uprising (first nationwide strike)

o   Wage cuts and railroad workers

·         Tariffs

o   Democrats wanted reduction

o   Republicans wanted increase

·         Executive branch yielded power to Congress and the state legislature in the late 1800’s

·         Spoils System (bosses, patronage)- Political parties would give bribes (jobs and food) to persuade people to vote for them

·         Revenue Increased

Politics and Legislation:

·         Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act  1883

·         Circuit Court of Appeals Act 1891

·         Granger Laws-- Midwest 1870s

o   Supreme Court overturned

Special Interests

·         Angry farmers—Grangers Prices

·         Sothern Farmers’ Alliance

o   Colored and Northern Farmers Alliance

·         Populists Party—People’s Party

o   Hated rich people

o   Headed by James Weaver

·         WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union)

o   Frances E. Willard

o   Reform Prison system, eradicate prostitution, eliminate wage system

o   Temperance

·         AWSA (American Woman Suffrage Association) and NWSA (National Woman Suffrage Association)

o   Combined to form NAWSA

·         Depression of 1893

o   Rail, big industry, stock market, banks

o   150 banks in receivership, 100s more closed, 200 railroads & 15,000 businesses slip into bankruptcy – unemployment 25%

o   Vagrancy laws made matters worse

o   Coxey’s Army

·         Strikes

o   “protective association” & Coeur D’Alene Idaho 1892-

§  Owners join ideas and collaborate so that there is no competition between them

§  Wages are cut

o   Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers Union – member of AFL- works for Andrew Carnegie (steel monopoly)- they strike because of cut wages by Carnegie

§  Work days were lengthened

§  Wages were cut by 25% for those who chose to work on the job

o   Homestead, PA – Carnegie owned factory – 1892

§  Army and strikers began a shootout

§  Strike works in Carnegie’s favor and PA national guard comes in to control strikers (national guards were established specifically for this purpose)

o   Pullman, IL – 1894

§  Provided wages, but deducted rent, library fees, and grocery bills

§  Eugene V. Debs – American Railway Union (ARU)

·         Works with unionized members against Pullman rail company

·         Army puts down the strike and arrested Eugene V. Debs

·         Social Gospel- Protestant churches no longer sanction the situation of the lower class such as long hours, unhealthy conditions, and subsistence wages (just enough to live on)

o   Washington Gladden – Applied Christianity 1886- Pleads for owners to treat their workers (pay, conditions, etc.)

o   W.T. Stead – If Christ came to Chicago 1894- Question equality in Chicago

o   Edward Everett Hale – If Jesus Came to Boston 1894

o   Charles Sheldon – In His Steps 1896- Urges middle class people to rethink their actions by saying WWJD

§  WWJD?

o   YWCA- Young Women’s Christian Association- Provided job training, homes for elderly, and provided unmarried mothers with vocational instruction and help with physical fitness.

o   African American Women and the Baptist Church

§  Phyllis Wheatley Home, Chicago – 1908

·         Election of 1896

o   Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890- Changes how currency is backed, allows silver and gold to back currency

§  Repealed by influence from Cleveland 1893

§  “free silver”- silver mines were prevalent, Populists wanted U.S. to sanction the use of silver

o   William Jennings Bryan – D- Populists back him up

o   William McKinley – R

§  Dingley Tariff 1897- Raised import duties to an all-time high

§  Erdman Act 1898- Act that established a system of arbitration to avoid rail strikes

§  Gold Standard Act 1900- Act that stated all currency must be backed up with gold

·         Nativism and Jim Crow

o   AFL- Samuel Gompers (Jewish Immigrant) lobbied Congress to restrict immigration from eastern and southern Europe

o   NAWSA-

o   Civil Rights Cases 1883- Overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875

o   Plessy v. Ferguson 1896- Court upheld a Louisiana state law formally segregating railroad passenger cars on the basis of “separate but equal” doctrine, which established a precedent for segregation

§  John Marshall Harlan- Only Supreme Court justice who disagreed with Plessy v. Ferguson, he lamented that the Court’s majority rulings gave power to the states ”to place in  a condition of legal inferiority a large body of American citizens.”

o   Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Ed 1899-  Court allowed separate schools for blacks and whites, even where facilities for African American children did not exist

o   Grandfather clauses & poll taxes

§  Grandfather clauses- A measure that enfranchised whites and barred African Americans, it allowed poor whites to vote even though they were illiterate and didn’t own much property as long as they were entitled to vote on January 1, 1867.

§  Poll taxes- Another measure enacted by the Supreme Court to keep African Americans (and some poor whites) from voting.

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