American History

Final Exam Review

1) Ida Tarbell (November 5, 1857 – January 6, 1944)

a) Was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading
"muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism".
She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies. She is best-known for her 1904 book
The History of the Standard Oil Company, which was listed as No. 5 in a 1999 list by the New
York Times of the top 100 works of 20th-century American journalism. [1] She became the first
person to take on Standard Oil. She began her work on The Standard after her editors at
McClure's Magazine called for a story on one of the trusts.
2) Initiative, referendum, recall
a) The initiative enables citizens to draft laws and constitutional amendments and place them on
the ballot for a popular vote.
b) The referendum provides for a popular vote on laws passed by the legislature.
c) The Recall allows citizens to remove elected officials from office.
d) The initiative process is the most commonly used form of direct democracy. The first state to
adopt it was South Dakota in 1898. Today, 24 states have the initiative. The most recent to
amend its constitution and add the initiative was Mississippi in 1992.
3) Robert LaFollette – Not in Book or notes?
a) In 1924, the Federated Farmer-Labor Party (FF-LP) sought to nominate La Follette as its
candidate. The FF-LP sought to unite all progressive parties into a single national Labor Party.
b) La Follette's platform called for government ownership of the railroads and electric utilities,
cheap credit for farmers, the outlawing of child labor, stronger laws to help labor unions, more
protection of civil liberties, an end to American imperialism in Latin America, and a referendum
before any president could again lead the nation into war.
c) He came in third behind incumbent President Calvin Coolidge and Democratic candidate John
W. Davis. La Follette won 17% of the popular vote, carried Wisconsin (winning its 13 electoral
votes) and polled second in 11 Western states. His base consisted of German Americans,
railroad workers, the AFL labor unions, the Non-Partisan League, the Socialist Party, Western
farmers, and many of the "Bull Moose" Progressives who had supported Roosevelt in 1912.
LaFollette's 17% showing represents the third highest showing for a third party since the
American Civil War, only surpassed by Roosevelt's 27% in 1912 and Ross Perot's 19% in 1992.
Following the 1924 election, the Progressive Party disbanded.
4) Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
a) The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest
industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of
life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment
workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were
recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three; the oldest victim was
 48, the youngest were two fourteen-year-old girls. Many of the workers could not escape the
burning building because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. People
jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The fire led to legislation requiring improved
factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment
Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
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5) 18 Amendment
a) The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation
of alcohol (the beginning of Prohibition). It was ratified on January 16, 1919 and repealed by the
21st Amendment in 1933. In the over 200 years of the U.S. Constitution, the 18th Amendment
remains the only Amendment to ever have been repealed.
6) 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike
a) The Coal Strike of 1902 was a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite
coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. The strike threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to
all major cities (homes and apartments were heated with anthracite or "hard" coal because it
had higher heat value and less smoke than "soft" or bituminous coal). President Theodore
Roosevelt became involved and set up a fact-finding commission that suspended the strike. The
strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours; the owners got a higher
price for coal, and did not recognize the trade union as a bargaining agent. It was the first labor
episode in which the federal government intervened as a neutral arbitrator.
7) Northern Securities Case
a) In 1901, James Jerome Hill, president of and the largest stockholder in the Great Northern
Railway, won the financial support of J. P. Morgan and attempted to take over the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q). Hill's strategy was for his railroad and Morgan's
Northern Pacific Railway to jointly buy the CB&Q. However, Edward Henry Harriman, president
of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad, also wanted to buy the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy. Harriman demanded a one-third interest in the CB&Q, but Hill refused
him. Harriman then began to buy up Northern Pacific's stock, forcing Hill and Morgan to counter
by purchasing more stock as well. Northern Pacific's stock price skyrocketed, and the artificially
high stock threatened to cause a crash on the New York Stock Exchange. Hill and Morgan were
ultimately successful in obtaining more Northern Pacific stock than Harriman, and won control
not only of the Northern Pacific but also the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. Alarmed by
Harriman's actions, Hill created a holding company—the Northern Securities Company—to
control all three of his railroads. The public was greatly alarmed by the formation of Northern
Securities, which threatened to become the largest company in the world and monopolize
railroad traffic in the western United States. President William McKinley, however, was not
willing to purse antitrust litigation against Hill. McKinley was assassinated, however, and his
progressive Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, ordered the United States Department of
Justice to pursue a case against Northern Securities. Hill was forced to disband his holding
company and manage each railroad independently. The Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy finally merged in 1969.
8) Pure Food and Drug Act
 a) The Pure Food and Drug Act of June 30, 1906 is a United States federal law that provided federal
inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of
adulterated food products and poisonous patent medicines.[1] The Act arose due to public
education and exposés from Muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair and Samuel Hopkins Adams,
social activist Florence Kelley, researcher Harvey W. Wiley, and President Theodore Roosevelt.
9) Gifford Pinchot

a) In 1900, Pinchot established the Society of American Foresters. Its establishment helped bring
instant credibility to the new profession of forestry and was part of the broader
professionalization movement underway in the United States at the turn of the twentieth
century.

b) Pinchot sought to turn public land policy from one that dispersed resources to private holdings
to one that maintained federal ownership and management of public land. He was a progressive
who strongly believed in the efficiency movement. The most economically efficient use of
natural resources was his goal; waste was his great enemy. His successes, in part, were
grounded in the personal networks that he started developing as a student at Yale and
continued developing throughout his career. His personal involvement in the recruitment
process led to high esprit de corps in the Forest Service and allowed him to avoid partisan
political patronage. Pinchot capitalized on his professional expertise to gain adherents in an age
when professionalism and science were greatly valued. He made it a high priority to
professionalize the Forest Service; to that end he ate the Yale School of Forestry as a source of
highly trained men.
10) President Taft
a) Timeline
i) 1878 Graduated Yale College
ii) 1880 Graduated Cincinnati Law School
iii) 1886 (June 19) Married Helen Herron.
iv) 1889 Son Robert Alphonso Taft was born.
v) 1891 Daughter Helen Herron Taft was born.
vi) 1892 Appointed judge of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
vii) 1897 Son Charles Phelps Taft was born.
viii) 1901 Appointed governor of the Philippines.
ix) 1904 Appointed Secretary of War.
x) 1908 Elected President of the United States.
xi) 1909 First Junior High School was established in Columbus, Ohio.
xii) 1909 Admiral Robert E. Peary discovered the North Pole.
xiii) 1910 The Union of South Africa was founded.
xiv) 1910 The Mexican Revolution began.
xv) 1910 Post Office Department established the Postal Savings System.
xvi) 1910 Taft threw out the "First Ball" at the major league season game.
xvii) 1911 Explorer Roald Amundsen discovered the South Pole.
xviii) 1912 The Republic of China was established, with Sun Yat-sen as provisional president.
xix) 1912 Bull Moose Campaign started.
 xx) 1912 Defeated for re-election by Woodrow Wilson.
xxi) 1912 New Mexico became a state.
xxii) 1912 Arizona became a state.
xxiii) 1913 The 16th Amendment came to be, which gave Congress the legal power to levy
income taxes.
xxiv) 1913 U.S. population was 97,200,000.
xxv) 1921 Appointed Chief Justice of the United States.
11) 1912 Election

a) The United States presidential election of 1912 was a four-way contest. Incumbent President
William Howard Taft was re-nominated by the Republican Party with the support of the
conservative wing of the party. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to receive the
Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created the Progressive Party
(nicknamed the "Bull Moose Party"). It nominated Roosevelt and ran candidates for other offices
in major states. Democrat Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the 46th ballot of a contentious
convention, thanks to the support of William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic
presidential candidate who still had a large and loyal following in 1912. Eugene Debs was the
nominee of the Socialist Party.

b) Wilson defeated Taft, Roosevelt, and Debs in the general election, winning a huge majority in
the Electoral College, and won 42% of the popular vote while his nearest rival won 27%. Wilson
became the only elected President of the Democratic Party between 1892 and 1932. Wilson was
the second of only two Democrats to be elected President between 1860 and 1932. This was
also the last election in which a candidate who was not a Republican or Democrat came second
in either the popular vote or the Electoral College and the first election where the 48 states of
the continental United States participated.
12) Bull Moose Party (The Progressive Party)

a) The Progressive Party of 1912 was an American political party. It was formed after a split in the
Republican Party between President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore
Roosevelt. The party also became known as the Bull Moose Party when former President
Roosevelt boasted "I'm fit as a bull moose," after being shot in an assassination attempt prior to
his 1912 campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Inspiration for the party's beginnings may
have come from Roosevelt's friend and supporter, U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns of Utah, who in
October of 1906 broke off from the Republican Party and started the American Party in that
state. This was a direct response to LDS Church leadership influence on the Senatorial elections
from 1902 to 1905.
13) Woodrow Wilson
a) Timeline
i) 1879 Graduated College of New Jersey (now Princeton)
ii) 1889 (June 9) Named president of Princeton University.
iii) 1910 (Nov. 8) Elected governor of New Jersey.
iv) 1912 (Nov. 5) Elected President of the United States.
v) 1913 Wilson signed a bill creating an independent Department of Labor.
vi) 1913 17th Amendment became law
 vii) 1913 Congress passed the Underwood Tariff Act and established the Federal Reserve
System.
viii) 1914 Congress passed the Clayton Antitrust Act and created the Federal Trade Commission.
ix) 1914 World War I began in Europe.
x) 1914 Wilson emphasized U.S. neutrality, following the outbreak of World War I in Europe.
xi) 1915 (May 7) German submarine torpedoed the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing 128
Americans.
xii) 1916 (Nov. 7) Re-elected President under the phrase “He kept us out of war.”
xiii) 1917 Congress approved the purchase of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25,000,000.
xiv) 1917 (April 6) Congress declared war against Germany.
xv) 1918 (Jan. 8) Wilson set forth the Fourteen Points.
14) Federal Reserve Act of 1913
a) Most significant domestic legislation of Wilson’s Presidency
b) Established a national banking system composed of twelve regional banks, privately controlled
but regulated and supervised by a Federal Reserve Board appointed by the president.
c) The Federal Reserve gave the United States its first efficient banking and currency system,
provided for a greater degree of government control over banking, and made currency more
elastic and credit adequate for the needs of business and agriculture.
15) Federal Trade Commission Act
a) Wilson also supported the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission, which had wide
investigatory powers and the authority to prosecute corporations for “unfair trade practices”
and to enforce its judgment by issuing “cease and desist” orders.
b) The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 started the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a
bipartisan body of five members appointed by the President of the United States for seven year
terms. This commission was authorized to issue Cease and Desist orders to large corporations to
curb unfair trade practices. This Act also gave more flexibility to the US Congress for judicial
matters. It passed the Senate by a 43-5 vote on September 8, 1914 and, without a tally of yeas
and nays, it passed the House on September 10.
16) Clayton Aintitrust Act
a) Wilson tackled the trust issue, supporting the Clayton Antitrust Act, which outlawed price
discrimination and interlocking directorates, regulating rather than breaking up big business as
he had promised to do.

b) The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 was enacted in the United States to add further substance to
the U.S. antitrust law regime by seeking to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency.
That regime started with the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first Federal law outlawing
practices considered harmful to consumers (monopolies, cartels, and trusts). The Clayton act
specified particular prohibited conduct, the three-level enforcement scheme, the exemptions,
and the remedial measures. Passed during the Wilson administration, the legislation was first
introduced by Alabama Democrat Henry De Lamar Clayton, Jr. in the U.S. House of
Representatives, where the act passed by a vote of 277 to 54 on June 5, 1914. Though the
Senate passed its own version on September 2, 1914 by a vote of 46-16, the final version of the
 law (written after deliberation between Senate and the House), did not pass the Senate until
October 5 and the House until October 8 of the same year.
17) Wilson intervention in Mexico
a) History Book –
i) Wilson’s most serious and controversial involvement in Latin America occurred in Mexico;
the country witnessed a violent political turnover in the weeks before Wilson’s inauguration
that culminated in General Victoriano Huerta’s seizure of power.
ii) The United States forced Huerta into exile, only to prompt a rebellion among desperately
poor farmers who believed that the new Mexican government, aided by American business
interests, had betrayed the revolution’s promise to help the common people.
iii) A rebel army, led by Francisco “Pancho” Villa, attacked Americans and American interests,
causing Wilson to send 12,000 troops to Mexico, only to withdraw them soon after to
prepare for the possibility of fighting in World War I.
b) After years of public and documented support for Villa's fight, the United States, following the
diplomatic policies of Woodrow Wilson, who believed that supporting Carranza was the best
way to expedite establishment of a stable Mexican government, refused to allow more arms to
be supplied to Villa's army, and allowed Carranza's troops to be relocated over U.S. railroads.
Villa felt betrayed by the Americans. He was further enraged by Obregón's use of searchlights,
powered by American electricity, to help repel a Villista night attack on the border town of Agua
Prieta, Sonora, on 1 November 1915. In January 1916, a group of Villistas attacked a train on the
Mexico North Western Railway, near Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, and killed several American
employees of the ASARCO company. The passengers included eighteen Americans, fifteen of
whom worked for American Smelting and Refining Company. There was only one survivor, who
gave the details to the press. Villa admitted to ordering the attack, but denied that he had
authorized the shedding of American blood.
c) Cross-border attack on New Mexico
i) On 9 March 1916, General Villa ordered nearly 500 Mexican members of his revolutionary
group to make a cross-border attack against Columbus, New Mexico. The raid was
conducted because of the U.S. government's official recognition of the Carranza regime and
for the loss of lives in battle due to defective bullets purchased from the United States. They
attacked a detachment of the 13th Cavalry Regiment (United States), seizing 100 horses and
mules, and setting part of the town on fire. 18 Americans and about 80 Villistas were killed.
On 15 May, they attacked Glenn Spring, Texas, killing a civilian and wounding three
American soldiers; on 15 June, bandits killed four soldiers at San Ygnacio, Texas; on 31 July,
one American soldier and a U.S. customs inspector were killed.
18) Lusitania (1917)
a) History Book –
i) The attack provoked a mixed reaction from Americans; some demanded war, while others
pointed out that the Lusitania was carrying munitions as well as passengers and was
therefore a legitimate target.
ii) Wilson’s response was to stay neutral, retaining his commitment to peace without
condoning German attacks on passenger ships, but Bryan, in protest of Wilson’s lack of
action, resigned his position as secretary of state.
iii) Germany apologized for the civilian deaths on the Lusitania and tensions subsided for a
while.
 b) The U.S. maintained neutrality despite increasing pressure placed on Wilson after the sinking of
the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania with American citizens on board. Wilson found it
increasingly difficult to maintain U.S. neutrality after Germany, despite its promises in the Arabic
pledge and the Sussex pledge, initiated a program of unrestricted submarine warfare early in
1917 that threatened U.S. commercial shipping. Following the revelation of the Zimmermann
Telegram, Germany's attempt to enlist Mexico as an ally against the U.S., Wilson took America
into World War I to make "the world safe for democracy." The U.S. did not sign a formal alliance
with the United Kingdom or France but operated as an "associated" power. The U.S. raised a
massive army through conscription and Wilson gave command to General John J. Pershing,
allowing Pershing a free hand as to tactics, strategy and even diplomacy.
19) Sussex Pledge
a) The Sussex pledge was a promise made in 1916 during World War I by Germany to the United
States prior to the latter's entry into the war. Early in 1916, Germany had instituted a policy of
unrestricted submarine warfare, allowing armed merchant ships – but not passenger ships – to
be torpedoed without warning. Despite this avowed restriction, a French cross-channel
passenger ferry, the Sussex, was torpedoed without warning on March 24, 1916; the ship was
severely damaged and about 50 lives were lost. Although no U.S. citizens were killed in this
attack, it prompted President Woodrow Wilson to declare that if Germany were to continue this
practice, the United States would break diplomatic relations with Germany. Fearing the entry of
the United States into World War I, Germany attempted to appease the United States by issuing,
on May 4, 1916, the Sussex pledge, which promised a change in Germany’s naval warfare policy.
The primary elements of this undertaking were:
i) Passenger ships would not be targeted;
ii) Merchant ships would not be sunk until the presence of weapons had been established, if
necessary by a search of the ship;
iii) Merchant ships would not be sunk without provision for the safety of passengers and crew.
b) In 1917 Germany became convinced they could defeat the Allied Forces by instituting
unrestricted submarine warfare before the United States could enter the war. The Sussex pledge
was therefore rescinded in January 1917, thereby initiating the decisive stage of the so-called
First Battle of the Atlantic. The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the
Zimmerman Telegram caused the United States to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
20) Fourteen Points
a) The Fourteen Points was a speech delivered by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a
joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country
that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe. People
in Europe generally welcomed Wilson's intervention, but his Allied colleagues (Georges
Clemenceau, David Lloyd George and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando) were skeptical of the
applicability of Wilsonian idealism. The speech was delivered 10 months before the Armistice
with Germany and became the basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at
the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The Treaty of Versailles had little to do with the Fourteen
Points and was never ratified by the U.S. Senate
b) The Points
i) Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private
international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in
the public view.
ii) Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and
in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the
enforcement of international covenants.
iii) The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of equality of
trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves
for its maintenance.
iv) Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the
lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
v) A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon
a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the
interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of
the government whose title is to be determined.
vi) The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia
as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining
for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination
of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome
into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a
welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The
treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test
of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own
interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
vii) Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt
to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other
single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws
which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with
one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is
forever impaired.
viii) All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done
to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace
of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be
made secure in the interest of all.
ix) A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of
nationality.
x) The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see
safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous
development.
xi) Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored;
Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan
states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of
allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic
independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.
xii) The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty,
but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an
undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous
development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the
ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.
xiii) An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories
inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure
access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity
should be guaranteed by international covenant.
 xiv) 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.
21) Western Front / WWI
a) Timeline
i) The government of Germany declares war against France and England: August 1914.
ii) The government of the United States declares war against Germany: 6 April 1917.
iii) The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) begins arriving in France: June 1917.  By March
1918 there are 250,000 U.S. soldiers in France; this number increases to 1 million by July and
to 2 million by November.  Two-thirds will see action, in 29 Divisions.
iv) The government of Germany signs Armistice, Western Front: 11 November 1918.
22) Espionage and Sedition Acts
a) Espionage Act
i) The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly
after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years.
It was originally found in Title 50 of the US Code (War) but is now found under Title 18,
Crime. It originally prohibited any attempt to interfere with military operations, to support
U.S. enemies during wartime, to promote insubordination in the military, or to interfere
with military recruitment. In 1919, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Schenck v.
United States that the act did not violate the freedom of speech of those convicted under its
provisions. The constitutionality of the law, its relationship to free speech, and the meaning
of the law's language have been contested in court ever since.
b) Sedition Acts
i) The Sedition Act of 1918 was an Act of the United States Congress signed into law by
President Woodrow Wilson on May 16, 1918. It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane,
scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed
forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with
contempt. The act also allowed the Postmaster General to refuse to deliver mail that met
those same standards for punishable speech or opinion. It applied only to times "when the
United States is in war." It was repealed on December 13, 1920. Though the legislation
enacted in 1918 is commonly called the Sedition Act, it was actually a set of amendments to
the Espionage Act. Therefore many studies of the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act find it
difficult to report about the two "acts" separately. For example, one historian reports that
"some fifteen hundred prosecutions were carried out under the Espionage and Sedition
Acts, resulting in more than a thousand convictions." Court decisions do not use the
shorthand term Sedition Act, but the correct legal term for the law, the Espionage Act,
whether as originally enacted or as amended in 1918.
23) Schenck vs. U.S.
a) Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919), was a United States Supreme Court decision that
upheld the Espionage Act of 1917 and concluded that a defendant did not have a First
Amendment right to freedom of speech against the draft during World War I. Ultimately, the
case established the "clear and present danger" test, which lasted until 1927 when its strength
was diminished. The limitation to freedom of speech was further eased in 1969, with the
establishment of the "Imminent lawless action" test by the Supreme Court.