Review for Final Examination History 419: American Social and Intellectual History

1. Review for Final Examination History 419: American Social and Intellectual History Examination Date: December 10, 2007

2. Financing Relief Efforts (1931) Herbert Hoover

3. Herbert Hoover • Born: August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa • Son of a Quaker blacksmith • Grew up in Oregon • Went to Stanford University in 1891 and graduated as a mining engineer • Married Lou Henry • Worked for a private corporation in China as a lead engineer • Him and his wife were caught in the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 for almost a month; Herbert helped build barricades for the village while his wife helped at the hospital • Helped return 120,000 stranded tourists back the U.S. from London after Germany declared war on France • He then proceeded to help feed Belgium which was overrun by the German Army • President Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration at the beginning of WWI • He was a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration by the time the Armistice was signed • He organized shipments of food for starving people in Europe and even in Soviet Russia in 1921 • Served as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge • Served as the 31st President from 1929-1933 • Always known as the scapegoat for the depression • Died: October 20, 1964 in New York, New York

4. 1. Americans should use self-help and charity to get through troubled times. • “It is a question as to whether the American people will maintain the spirit of charity and mutual self-help through voluntary giving…in times of national difficulty”. • “The basis of successful relief in national distress is to mobilize and organize the infinite number of agencies of self-help in the community”. • “There is no such paralysis in the United States, and I am confident that our people have the resources, the initiative, the courage, the stamina and kindliness of spirit to meet this situation in the way they have met their problems over generations”.

5. 2. If the government gives appropriations, then the people will rely on appropriations in the future. • “Once this has happened it is not the cost of a few score millions, but we are faced with the abyss of reliance in future upon Government charity in some form or other”. • “The people support the Government, the Government should not support the people” - President Grover Cleveland, 1887

6. 3. “Federal aid…weakens the sturdiness of our national character” – President Grover Cleveland, 1887 • “If we start appropriations of this character we have not only impaired something infinitely valuable in the life of the American people but have struck at the roots of self-government. The money involved is indeed the least of the costs to American ideals and American institutions”.

7. 4. No one is going hungry or cold. • “I convoked a meeting of the Governors, the Red Cross and the railways, the bankers and other agencies in the country and laid the foundations of organization and the resources to stimulate every degree of self-help to meet the situation”. • “The Red Cross officials, whose long, devoted service and experience is unchallenged, inform me this morning that, except for the minor incidents of any emergency organization, no one is going hungry and no one need go hungry or cold”. • “But beyond this to assure that there shall be no suffering, in every town and county voluntary agencies in relief of distress have been strengthened and created and generous funds have been placed at their disposal”.

8. “Our American system requires that municipal, county, and State governments shall use their own resources and credit before seeking such assistance from the Federal Treasury”. 5. The local and state governments need to use all their resources before the federal government will step in to help.

9. Impact on Society • This document had a huge impact on all Americans at the time it was written. This document told the Americans that they would not get any help from the government for the depression, drought, and unemployment and that they would have to fend for themselves in this great time of need. • This document also made a great argument against Hoover for FDR in the following presidential election.

10. Questions • What would happen if charities did not respond to the crisis? • Why does Hoover feel that the expenditure of public moneys would have a negative impact on Americans? • Do you think Hoover would have felt the same way if he personally volunteered in those distressed communities?

11. Socialist Party Platform (1932) Norman Mattoon Thomas

12. Socialist Party, Socialist Party Platform, (1932) Main Points: 1.The unbalanced nature of the capitalist system produces unemployment and poverty. -Under capitalism the few own our industries. The many do the work. The wage earners and farmers are compelled to give a large part of the product of their labor to the few. The many in the factories, mines, shops, offices, and on the farms obtain but a scanty income and are able to buy back only a part of the goods that can be produced in such abundance by our mass industries... 2. The Socialist Party believes that workers are exploited by a capitalist economy. -The Socialist Party is to-day the one democratic party of the workers whose program would remove the causes of class struggles, class antagonisms, and social evils inherent in the capitalist system. It proposes to transfer the principal industries of the country from private ownership...to social ownership and democratic control. 3. Socialist Party's propositions to benefit workers. ...The 6-hour day and the 5-day week without a reduction of wages... ...Health and maternity insurance. ...Improved systems of workmen's compensation and accident insurance. ...Adequate minimum wage laws... ...the rights of workers to organize into unions...

13. Socialist Party, Socialist Party Platform, (1932) • 4. Socialist Party's propositions to benefit the unemployed. • ...A compulsory system of unemployment compensation with adequate benefits, based on contributions by the Government and by employers. • ...Old-age pensions for men and women 60 years of age and over. • 5. Socialist Party's propositions that benefit the rural community. • ...Government aid to farmers and small-home owners to protect them against mortgage foreclosures and a moratorium on sales for nonpayment of taxes by destitute farmers and unemployed workers. • ...Increased Federal and State subsidies to road building and educational and social services for rural communities... • 6. Socialist Party's propositions to benefit African-Americans. • The enforcement of constitutional guarantees of economic, political, and legal equality for the Negro. • The enactment and enforcement of drastic antilynching laws. • Question: How do the Socialist Party's propositions in 1932 compare with our system today?

14. Source: http://www.drfurfero.com/books/231book/ch03f1.html

15. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (1933) Timeline of Roosevelt’s life 1882- January 30, Franklin D. Roosevelt was born 1896-1900- Attended Groton (a prestigious preparatory school in Massachusetts) 1900-1903- Received his BA degree in History from Harvard 1905- Married distant cousin Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (the couple had 6 children) 1907- Passed the bar exam at New York’s Columbia University 1912- Elected to the State Senate 1920- Nominated for Vice-Presidency 1921- became sick with infantile paralysis (polio) 1932- Won the Democratic nomination for president winning by seven million votes 1933- Depression becomes worse, Roosevelt initiates his New Deal 1941- Pearl Harbor attack and Germany and Italy declare war on the United States 1942- The U.S. invades North Africa 1945- Victory in Europe 1935- April 12, Roosevelt had a massive stoke and died at the age of 63

16. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (1933) Main points 1. America will prosper just as she always has. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country to-day. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. 2. Times are tough. In such a sprit in my part and on yours we face out common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels, taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen, government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income, the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the saving if many years in thousand of families are gone.

17. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (1933) 3. We can be thankful we have what it takes to address the present crisis. We have the character and natural resources to fix our current economic problems. Yet our distress comes from no failure of substances. We are stricken by no plague of locust. 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. 4. Money will not buy happiness, but achievement will. This crisis will teach us how to minister ourselves and other people. We now need to sacrifice for the common good. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy if achievement, in the thrill if creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation if work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that out true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to out fellow men.

18. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (1933) 5. The country needs jobs to get Americans back on their feet. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is not unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through the employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use if out natural resources. 6. Problems need to be fixed, in order to fix out nation. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosures of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the federal, state, and local government act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by unifying of relief activities which to-day are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for supervision of all forms of transportation and communications and other utilities which have definitely pubic character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly. 7. Banking industry must be accountable to regain the people trust. The troubles are due to the unscrupulous money changers. There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investment; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men...

19. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (1933) 8. In foreign policy, the United States will, like a good neighbor, redpect the rights of others. In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor-the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others- the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors. 9. The constitution stands strong through hardships. Our constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss if essential form. That is why out constitution system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. 10. The people have asked their leaders for discipline and direction to meet the present crisis. The people have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership if frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support if the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

20. Roosevelt consciously abandoned the term “progressive” and chose instead to employ “liberal” to define himself and his administration. In so doing, he transformed “liberalism” from a shorthand for weak government and laissez-faire economics into belief in an activist, socially conscious state, an alternative both to socialism and to unregulated capitalism. (Foner, The Story of American Freedom, pp. 201-204.) Redefining Liberalism Freedom, Hoover insisted, meant unfettered economic opportunity for the enterprising individual. Far from being an element of liberty, the quest for economic security was turning Americans into “lazy parasites” dependent on the state. For the remainder of his life, Hoover continued to call himself a “liberal,” even though, he charged, the word had been “polluted and raped of all its real meanings.” (Foner, The Story of American Freedom, p. 205.)

21. Four Freedoms (1941) Franklin D. Roosevelt

22. Franklin D. Roosevelt • Born: January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York • Attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School • Married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in 1905 • Following his 5th cousin, Teddy Roosevelt, he entered public service through politics, as a Democrat • Won election to New York Senate in 1910 • President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy • In the summer of 1921 he was stricken with polio and lost most of the use of his legs • 1928 he became Governor of New York • Took Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression and served as the 32nd President from 1933-1945 • He was elected President in November of 1932 and in March of 1933 there were 13,000,000 unemployed and almost every bank was closed • Established the Tennessee Valley Authority and numerous other programs to bring relief • New Deal-carious social programs including Social Security, and new control on banks and public utilities • Devoted a lot of time in the United Nations, hoping to be able to keep peace in the world • Died: April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia

23. 1. American life is being threatened by war and communism. • “At no previous time has American security been as seriously threatened from without as it is today…Every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world-assailed either by arms of by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations still at peace.” • “No realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion-or even good business.”

24. 2.The future of our country lies in the events outside of America. • “I find it necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders.” • Armed defense of democratic existence is now being gallantly waged in four continents. If that defense fails, all the population and all the resources…will be dominated by the conquerors.”

25. 3. America is unprepared for war. • “It is times like these it is immature for anybody to brag that an unprepared America…can hold off the whole world.”

26. 4. Our country needs to increase the production of munitions and war supplies to aid our allies. • “The immediate need is a swift and driving increase in our armament production…I also ask this Congress for authority and for funds sufficient to manufacture additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds, to be turned over to those nations which are now in actual war with aggressor nations.” • “I recommend that we make it possible for those nations to continue to obtain war materials in the United States.”

27. 5. We will not be intimidated by dictators. • “We will not be intimidated by the threats of dictators that they will regard as a breach of international law and as an act of war our aid to the democracies which dare to resist their aggression. Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator should unilaterally proclaim it so to be.”

28. 6. We seek a world based upon four human freedoms. • “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.” • Freedom of speech and expression • Freedom of every person to worship God in their own way • Freedom from want, or, economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life • Freedom from fear, or, a world-wide reduction of arms to such a point that no nation will be able to commit acts of aggression towards any other nation

29. Impact on Society • There is a lot of controversy over this document because critics think that FDR was trying to push the United States into WWII, and others believe he was trying to help the allies without getting involved directly in the war. • I think it had a big impact on society because it foreshadowed that the United States eventually had to enter into the war, no matter what side you take on this specific document.

30. Norman Rockwell, Our Four Freedoms, (1943)

31. Questions • Were Roosevelt’s critics fair in charging him with sneaking the United States into WWII? • Why should the United States be “the arsenal of democracy,” as Roosevelt called it in an earlier speech? • Entry into the war helped pull our country out of the depression. Do you think it was worth it? • If Roosevelt were President today, how do you think he would handle our present situation with terrorists?

32. Harry S. Trumanin the Military • Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri on May 8, 1884. • In 1905, shortly after graduating from high school, Truman served in the Missouri National Guard. • Part of the 129th Field Artillery and sent to France, he and his unit saw action in several different campaigns. • He was promoted to captain, and after the war he joined the reserves eventually rising to the rank of colonel.

33. Harry and Bess Truman • On June 28, 1919, Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace. • Their only child, Mary Margaret, was born on February 17, 1924. • He ran a men's clothing store in Kansas City but due to the post-war recession it failed. • Truman began politics in 1922 as one of three judges of the Jackson County Court. • In 1934, Truman was elected to the United States Senate where he gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program.

34. President Harry S. Truman • On January 20, 1945, he took the vice-presidential oath, and after President Roosevelt's unexpected death, he was sworn in as the nations' thirty-third President. • Truman's presidency focused on foreign policy which was centered on the prevention of Soviet influence by which he proposed The Truman Doctrine.

35. Harry S. Truman, The Truman Doctrine (1947) Main Point #1: The security of the United States depends on safeguarding democracy abroad. “We shall not realize our objectives [creating a world free of coercion], however, unless we are willing to help free peoples to maintain their free institutions and their national integrity against aggressive movements that seek to impose upon them totalitarian regimes… Totalitarian regimes imposed upon free peoples, by direct or indirect aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States. Main Point #2: It is the duty of the United States to protect democracy wherever it is under attack by minorities and outside subversion. “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” “The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedom.”

36. Harry S. Truman, The Truman Doctrine (1947) Main Point #3: Truman believes that is must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. This is the threat in Turkey and Greece, and if it is left unchecked it could disrupt world order. “Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East.”

37. The Communist Menace- by J. Edgar Hoover History 419 Cynthia Cox

38. J. Edgar Hoover • Speech given by Hoover in 1947 to the HUAC - House Un-American Activities Committee

39. Audience: Prominent member, Richard M. Nixon

40. Hoover (left) with Harry S. Truman and Howard McGrath (right)

41. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

42. “The great god of the American Communists,…whose writings are their Bible…”

43. Communists PartyMain Points: • …The preamble of the latest constitution of the Communist Party of the U.S., filled with Marxian “double talk,” proclaims that the party “educates the working class, in the course of its day-to-day struggles, for its historic mission, the establishment of socialism. 2.The Communist movement in the U.S. intends to destroy the American businessman, take over our government, and throw the whole world into a revolution. The Communist movement in the U.S….stands for the destruction of free enterprise; and it stands for the creation of a “Soviet of the United States” and ultimate world revolution.

44. Main Points contd. 3. The Communist used American programs such as social security, veterans’ benefits, and welfare to conceal themselves and entrap gullible followers. The American progress which all good citizens seek, such as old-age security, houses for veterans, child assistance and a host of others is being adopted as window dressing by the Communists to conceal their true aims and entrap gullible followers.

45. Main Points contd. 4. The greatest threat of communism is not the number of Communists in this country but their capacity to insert themselves into positions of power and their ability to persuade others through lies and deception. “What is important is the claim of the Communists themselves that for every party member there are 10 others ready, wiling, and able to do the party’s work.Herein lies the greatest menace of communism. For these are the people who infiltrate and corrupt various spheres of American life. So rather than the size of the Communist Party the way to weigh its true importance is by testing its influence, its ability to infiltrate.” “…When the Communists overthrew the Russian government there was one Communist for every 2,277 persons in Russia. In the U.S. today there is one Communist for every 1,814 persons in the country…”

46. Rather than the size of the Communist Party the way to weigh its true importance by testing its influence, its ability to infiltrate.

47. Historical Significance 1947-1957 2nd Red Scare • Ronald Reagan & wife Jan Wyman provided the FBI names of SAG members believed to be communist sympathizers. • Top Hollywood executives decided to not employ individuals who refused to answer questions about the communist infiltration of the film industry. • McCarthyism starts: Sen. Joseph P. McCarthy says he has a list of 205 communists in the State Dept. • California Legislature passes a bill that required state employees to sign a loyalty oath. 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiring to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and are executed.

48. Questions to Consider • Given the small number of Communists in the United States, why was Hoover so fearful? • Was there any reality to this Cold War fear of foreign subversion?

49. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address (1961) Main Points 1) Accomplishments have been made with the cooperation of Congress during this presidency. My own relations with Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and finally to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years. 2) Despite four major wars, America prospers, mainly because of her compassion for humans. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment. 3) The vast military industry is a new experience for Americans, and can influence many important aspects of our daily lives. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

50. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address (1961) Main Points 4) We must stand firm in our beliefs of peaceful methods, and not let the rise of power in the military industrial complex destroy our goals. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. 5) Americans must not just live for today, because the future of our democracy depends on our prudent use of our natural resources. Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. 6) We must respect the security concerns of our foes when we meet them at the conference table. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield. 7) Differences can be solved between nations without fighting, but with peaceful compromise. Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.