Society and it's Education in the Progressive Era
Prior to the creation of the Land Grant Colleges, education was largely an investment in the wealthy elite class by religious institutions. The beauty of the Land Grant Colleges is that they were founded on the idea that the common people, who at that time were poor farmers and disadvantaged working class poor preyed upon by the wealthy elite industrialist, needed the skills and practical education to have a decent life and to have the ability to improve their lives in a free society. If democracy was to be successful "We, the People, in order to form a more perfect Union" needed to be well educated and with a stake in the shape of their community and their country. This philosophy gave birth to the Progressive Movement of 1890 - 1930's, which tended to be research inspired and devoted to establishing local governments that could be flexible and respond to the needs of the people, replacing the Party Boss concept as small towns sprang up and cities grew in size.
Progressivism in the United States is a broadly based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th century and is generally considered to be middle class and reformist in nature. It arose as a response to the vast changes brought by modernization, such as the growth of large corporations and railroads, and fears of corruption in American politics. In the 21st century, progressives continue to embrace concepts such as environmentalism and social justice.[1] Social progressivism, the view that governmental practices ought to be adjusted as society evolves, forms the ideological basis for many American progressives.
One historian defined progressivism as the "political movement that addresses ideas, impulses, and issues stemming from modernization of American society. Emerging at the end of the nineteenth century, it established much of the tone of American politics throughout the first half of the century."[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_MovementBy the turn of the 20th Century, the study of Domestic Science in High School included in the first year of study, first aid in which the students learned the parts of the skeleton, muscles, joints nervous system and the circulatory system. This foundation in physiology, based on "personal observation and reasoning from cause to effect a natural system of rules which deal with all the simple cases of injury to body.." , was followed by practice bandaging, caring for the drowned, transportation of the wounded and to train the hand to work with the brain, combining physiology with effective English.
In the second year, after 10 weeks of physics and 20 weeks of general chemistry at an hour and half a day, the student built upon this science foundation with a study of cooking and cleaning. The history and use of fire and fuels included - the study of physics and chemistry, of how to use cooking tools and the chemistry of cleaning. Over eight weeks, the student would apply this knowledge by planning and cooking foods appropriate for the needs of the body for the three daily meals within a budget for a family of four. Meat cutting, food pricing, the chemistry involved in the cooking of vegetables, ancient history, colonial history and English were all studied.
In the third year, the chemical reactions of food and nutrition were studies in detail, combining organic chemistry and physiology. The science of nutrition was practiced by preparing a daily and weekly menu which provided the correct number of calories and provided the greatest amount of nutrition for each family member depending on their needs (age, work, state of health, etc) and for the least cost, more English and physics.
The senior year dealt with the sanitary and hygienic issues. These studies were of sanitation of the ground (most "starter homes" in the new West had dirt floors), the study of house plans, plumbing, heating and ventilation and food sanitation including the study of insects, mold and bacteriology, which was to create a broad understanding of the causes of disease and rules for the hygienic care of the family, both well and sick. This all was aimed at furthering the habit of independent study and independent thought. Along with this was more English; grammar and sentence structure... it was intended that all students learn this information and be able to explain it intelligently. Each high school was geared to provide these basics with emphasis on what the local population needed. The autonomy to tailor the education to the locale was instrumental in the advancement of the studies as new findings were shared at the annual Lake Placid Conferences. Cornell University has made available images of the documents from the actual proceedings from these conferences so you don't have to take my word for it... see this wealth of information for yourself at...
http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;idno=6060826_5315_002
The number of high school students in 1890 was 200,000 and grew to 1,000,000 in 1910. Parents began moving closer to urban centers so their kids could get this education. The character of schools were changing to meet the demands of growing cities and adjusted to accommodate the ever growing number of immigrants strange to American ways. The curricula changed to prepare students for the growing number of state and private universities.
Education received a boost when information from the 1910 census showed that 50% of the population lived on a farm somewhat removed from a city center, about 50% the workforce were industrial laborers and less than 1% of both populations were adequately trained. To put this in context of the time; the mining industry experienced 2,000 deaths per year, there were 8 thousand cars and only 10 miles of paved roads with 96 auto deaths. There were 115 reported lynchings and the life expectancy of a female was 47 years, males 46 years and blacks were not expected to reach 35. The established white American culture saw the Native American population (approx 240,000) as impediments to industrial civilization and cultural modernity, in need of moral guidance and assimilation into their Euro-American social norms. This attempt at assimilation through "Indian Schools" both Christian and non religious had been going on since the Dawes Act of 1887 and was failing as the remaining tribes clung to their ways and eked out a living in their own style on the lands they were allotted. Also this period of time was a Golden Age of immigration to the US. Ellis Island workers processed 11,747 immigrants on one day, April 17, 1907. The country had to grow up quick. The election of 1912 was coming and the country was about to re-elected a wartime president for the first time. This was only 100 short, quick years ago. My Grandmothers were girls then. Yours maybe, too.
In 1914 Democratic President Wilson appointed a commission to study national aid to vocational education using the 1910 census information as a guide.
The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 established a system of cooperative extension services and correspondence programs connected to the land-grant colleges to educate about current developments in agriculture, home economics, public policy and government, leadership, economic development and established the 4-H youth organization and the National Sea Grant College Program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Lever_Act_of_1914 .
The 1917 Smith-Hughes Act providing money to states to create state colleges and subsidized teacher training and paid 1/2 of vocational teachers salaries. "Vocational" training was education specific to employment, targeting students over 14 years of age and was required prior to employment. This education was also available to those already employed who wished to improve and advance their careers. It also established a Federal Board of Vocational Education to oversee the educational systems by requiring the states to submit annual reports on the status of their vocational education. This act brought vocational training to public schools but the piece that subsidized the vocational teachers salaries made things complicated. Academic pursuits were not subsidized nor were their teachers and all subjects had to be defined as to academic or vocational. Students were taught job-specific skills but not theory nor how to solve problems etc and this became a problem as new technologies were coming on fast and furious. This legislation intended to promote vocational learning but divided education into vocational and academic studies. They meant well, but who could foresee this down side? More information on Hughes-Smith Act @ http://jschell.myweb.uga.edu/history/legis/smithughes.htm
Home Economics was becoming common knowledge along with the ability to think independently and grow as a person. In the Progressive era, education bloomed. Enter John Dewey...
The leading educational theorist of the era was John Dewey (1859–1952), a professor at the University of Chicago (1894–1904) and from 1904 to 1930 at Teachers College, of Columbia University in New York City.[56]Dewey was a leading proponent of "Progressive Education" and wrote many books and articles to promote the central role of democracy in education.[57] He saw schools not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live. The purpose of education was not so much the acquisition of a predetermined set of skills, but rather the realization of the student's full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good. Dewey notes that, "to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities." Dewey insisted that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that "education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction.".[58] Although Dewey's ideas were very widely discussed, they were implemented chiefly in small experimental schools attached to colleges of education. The problem was that Dewey and the other progressive theorists encountered a highly bureaucratic system of school administration that in general was not receptive to new methods.[59]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_the_United_StatesThe Smith-Lever Act of 1914 established a system of cooperative extension services and correspondence programs connected to the land-grant colleges to educate about current developments in agriculture, home economics, public policy and government, leadership, economic development and established the 4-H youth organization and the National Sea Grant College Program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Lever_Act_of_1914 .
The 1917 Smith-Hughes Act providing money to states to create state colleges and subsidized teacher training and paid 1/2 of vocational teachers salaries. "Vocational" training was education specific to employment, targeting students over 14 years of age and was required prior to employment. This education was also available to those already employed who wished to improve and advance their careers. It also established a Federal Board of Vocational Education to oversee the educational systems by requiring the states to submit annual reports on the status of their vocational education. This act brought vocational training to public schools but the piece that subsidized the vocational teachers salaries made things complicated. Academic pursuits were not subsidized nor were their teachers and all subjects had to be defined as to academic or vocational. Students were taught job-specific skills but not theory nor how to solve problems etc and this became a problem as new technologies were coming on fast and furious. This legislation intended to promote vocational learning but divided education into vocational and academic studies. They meant well, but who could foresee this down side? More information on Hughes-Smith Act @ http://jschell.myweb.uga.edu/history/legis/smithughes.htm
Home Economics was becoming common knowledge along with the ability to think independently and grow as a person. In the Progressive era, education bloomed. Enter John Dewey...
The leading educational theorist of the era was John Dewey (1859–1952), a professor at the University of Chicago (1894–1904) and from 1904 to 1930 at Teachers College, of Columbia University in New York City.[56]Dewey was a leading proponent of "Progressive Education" and wrote many books and articles to promote the central role of democracy in education.[57] He saw schools not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live. The purpose of education was not so much the acquisition of a predetermined set of skills, but rather the realization of the student's full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good. Dewey notes that, "to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities." Dewey insisted that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that "education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction.".[58] Although Dewey's ideas were very widely discussed, they were implemented chiefly in small experimental schools attached to colleges of education. The problem was that Dewey and the other progressive theorists encountered a highly bureaucratic system of school administration that in general was not receptive to new methods.[59]
Political Landscape of the early 20th Century
In 1897 our President was William McKinley (1897-1901), a Civil War vet and lawyer married to a bankers daughter. As a Republican Congressman, he had a reputation of being pro-public over private interests, of taking a new approach to the new problems of governance and was of exemplary character. The Great Depression was going on and there was heated debate between the Republicans against and the Democrats being for additional minting of gold and silver coinage to boost the desperate economy. (Does that sound familiar? Now, in the early 21st Century we going through this very same thing but not in silver and gold currency but with printed dollars) The core issue of currency was a big consideration both domestically and internationally as the US had to compete with Mexico for access to China's market. Cuba was deep in a revolution with Spain just off our southern border. McKinley penned a huge tariff bill increasing the duty to 50% on imports, to protect our industries. This period of time was crazy with inventions, typewriters, telephones, all manner of new communication and mechanical breakthroughs. Europe was experiencing a period of scientific and intellectual breakthroughs with the US improvements focused on engineering/manufacturing thanks to the Agricultural Colleges curriculum of vocational engineering over theory and personal growth one generation prior. The business of industry exploded in railroad tracks, mining, etc. There were some but not much in govt controls of business due to the rapid growth. Eventually railroads were forced to be responsible and fair because they could not be trusted with safety issues nor fair pricing, etc. Industries colluded with each other to create the extreme conditions which would force profits unfairly. McKinley condemned this practice but ultimately was consumed with the issues in Cuba as newspapers fanned public indignation and the call to war was roused and in retrospect, his administration advanced irresponsible business practices through inaction. McKinley stood fast on non-intervention but the US Navy's new battleship, the Maine was sent to protect US interests (US big business had big interests in Central and South America) and was sunk (suspiciously). The Democratic party, Congress and the media ganged up on the Republican President and we entered the fray and called it the Spanish-American War. The US defeated the Spanish Fleet in the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba was freed and the US annexed Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines for their trouble.
McKinley was shot shortly after being elected for his second term and his vice-president, Republican Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest President at age 43. His early political days is very instructive. He believed that the Government should bring about compromise between the great conflicting forces in the US at the time, Industry and Labor. He wanted to "guarantee justice to each and dispense favors to none." The Republican Party in those days was centered in New York. City politics fed the State politics fed the National Party and a "Party Boss" was the ruler.
(One generation prior, it was the Democratic Party that controlled New York City under Party Boss (William) Tweed, who created the "political machine". His was called Tammany Hall.
"When we remember Ellis Island was in New York harbor (with the Statue of Liberty) and it is estimated that two fifths of the American population have relatives that were processed through that migration site. Think what the people of New York are, more than one half are of foreign birth. They do not speak our language, they do not know our laws, they are the raw material with which we have to build up the state....there is no denying the service that Tammany has rendered the Republic. There is no other organization for taking hold of untrained, friendless men and converting them into citizens." "http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/tweed.html
The downside of the Tammany Hall political machine was "off the chart" greed for money and power...
Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York City taxpayers through political corruption, although later estimates ranged as high as $200 million.[3] Based on the inflation or devaluation rate of the dollar since 1870 of 2.7%, $25–$200 million is between $1 and $8 billion 2010 dollars. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail. (kapow!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed)
Teddy Roosevelt's early political career was steered by then Republican Party Boss Thomas Platt who pretty much owned NYC like Boss Tweed had before him. He needed a hero to distract the media and populous from the corruption happening in his political machine. Roosevelt distinguished himself so brilliantly in the Spanish-American War earlier that year. Platt endorsed Roosevelt for Governor of New York who immediately showed his independence and crusaded against political machines and corruption. Now Platt wanted to shed himself of Roosevelt in favor or a more pliable Governor so when McKinley's vice president died in office shortly before the 1900 election, Platt nominated Roosevelt and thanks to Roosevelt's popularity, McKinley was re-elected. Next thing you know, Roosevelt is President. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_C._Platt
Roosevelt was successful in busting up the collusion in the railroad industry and others with the Sherman Antitrust Act http://www.stolaf.edu/people/becker/antitrust/statutes/sherman.html,
and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War and reached a "Gentleman's Agreement" with Japan as to immigration. He made great strides in establishing the US as a powerful world wide player with his "Great White Fleet Good Will Tour" consisting of 16 Navy battleships with escorts that toured the globe. His record on conservation was influenced by the ideas of "philosopher-scientists" and the largest government-funded conservation related projects in US history were undertaken. After his term in office he took a short sabbatical, then returned in 1912 ran again under a Progressive Bull Moose party and many social minded Republicans joined him, permanently changing the face of the Republican Party which became pro business. He, like McKinley before him, was shot. Roosevelt survived but his brilliant political career was done.
Like Republican Roosevelt before him, Democratic Woodrow Wilson believed the President to be the servant of the people. "No one but the President seems to be expected to look out for the general interests of the country." War was overtaking Europe at the time (1914 - 1918) but Wilson was determined to stay out of it and deal with matters at home. After several financial panics, the very concepts of currency and the control of cash flow was of great concern and the country needed banking and currency reform. The divides between industry and labor, and between the rural and urban landscapes was shaping the country. "Big Money" was hoping for the passage of the Aldrich Plan proposed by Republican Senator from Rhode Island, Nelson Aldrich, which gave control of banking system to private banks in the East. The industries of the West and rural America distrusted this. Democratic Representative from Louisiana Arsene Pujo chaired the House Committee on Banking and Currency and held investigations of the drafters of the Aldrich Plan. Wilson was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a platform called New Freedom championing individualism and states rights. The parties platform was strongly opposed to the Aldrich Bill and called for a systematic revision of banking laws in ways that would provide relief from financial panics, unemployment and business depression and protect the public from "Big Money"(gee, does this sound familiar?) The money issues fueled the election, he won and Democrats also controlled the Congress so there was a burst of legislation which addressed the needs of average families and small business. At this time, the tariff on imports was the primary source of income for the govt. With the Revenue Act of 1913, he lowered the tariff and created a graduated Federal Income tax to offset the loss of revenue, established the Federal Reserve Act which provided the nation with a more elastic money supply, established the Fair Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices, enacted child labor laws and laws protecting railroad workers. All of this legislation to safely shape the flow of currency to be practical and fair came at a great cost.
So, the take away here is * rapid growth is hard to manage, even a pro-active President plays catch up under these circumstances * the management of currency is very tricky, divisive and hard to predict the outcomes of any decision or inaction * Presidents, regardless of what they want or stand for get bullied by the media, their political opponents and Congress to do things they don't believe in * big business can be like a little child; willful, irresponsible, cavalier when facing risky or dangerous behavior, insensitive to everyone and everything but their own immediate needs, the very definition of youthful immaturity in need of guidance also the very definition of a predator * political machines are all guilty of the same thing and it doesn't matter which political party or which decade. * war is very distracting for a President and for the citizens which can present an opportunity for a predator to gain ground
The Cost of Progressive Thought
During this Progressive time, the educated private sector was active in reforming local government to weed out corruption and introduce efficiency. Many recognized the saloon as the power base for corruption and tried to get rid of them. These redefined cities created municipal research bureaus which established the concepts of city and school budgets. The city of Cleveland under Mayor Democrat Tom Johnson championed just taxation and home rule for Ohio cities and established an organized streetcar system with a 3 cent fare. Detroit's 4 term Republican Mayor Hazen Pingree (originally of Denmark, Maine, yay Maine) produced much in the way of social reform by exposing corruption in city paving and sewer contracts and in the school board. He challenged the electric and gas monopolies by championing municipally owned companies. He gained national recognition through his systematic use of vacant city land for gardens which produced food for the cities poor. As Governor of Michigan he promoted the direct election of US Senators which created a more direct link from the citizens to national policy.
Now that the general population was able to read, leading intellectuals began writing. Journalists publicized the economic privileges of the elite class, political corruption and social injustice. Publications of all kinds; novels, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets brought to the masses an awareness of the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy, harsh portraits of ruthless businessmen, exposed the horrific truth of the Chicago meatpacking plants and of oppressive race relations. There was much to tell.
One example was the textile industry in Lawrence, Massachusetts which made staggering profits for it's shareholders because 1) it mechanized, going to a two-loom system and 2) used minimal profits to support it's workers. The factory owners eliminated skilled workers and employed large numbers of unskilled immigrant women and children. The conditions were grueling, the increased pace of the work was dramatic and the labor was repetitive and dangerous. Half of the workers in the 4 mills of the American Woolen Company were girls between 14 and 18. This company-owned town provided only the most over crowded and dangerous living conditions with the pay so low they survived on bread, molasses and beans. The mortality rate of children was 50% by age 6 and a third of the workers were dead by 25. When a new Massachusetts law went into effect reducing the maximum number of hours per week for women and children from 56 to 54 effective Jan 1st 1912, one of the mill owners decided to lower wages to match the reduction in their hours. The workers went on strike. Mill owners turned fire hoses on the picketers gathered in front of the mills and the picketers responded by throwing ice breaking a number of windows. Being January in Massachusetts, the water became ice quickly and the ice was a handy tool used to express their indignation at being hosed. The city of Lawrence, under pressure from the mill owners had the protesters arrested and the court sentenced 36 workers to a year in jail, the judge stating "the only way we can teach them is to deal out the severest sentences." In less than a week the strike had grown to 20,000 people, the first of it's kind in the US. The Governor called out the armed militia to patrol the streets and mass arrests followed and it got really ugly really quickly. Many died before the strike was over. This strike is well documented and 2012 being the 100th anniversary of the strike an in-depth history is available at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bread-and-Roses-1912-2012/341113802569909?ref=stream
So much for the East, now a brief look at the situation out West.
Robert L. Hill, an African American self educated via a correspondence course in detective training and a physician, Dr V.E. Powell incorporated the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (PFHUA) in Drew County, Arkansas. Their goal was "to advance the interest of the Negro, morally and intellectually and to make him a better citizen and a better farmer". The history of this organization began in 1865 in Washington DC, under an act of Congress and was then known as the Colored Union Benevolent Association. Membership into the union was one dollar and the resulting capital was used to invest in real estate by the joint stock company of the PFHUA with members having a share. The PFHUA grew steadily and had several lodges in the Elaine, Arkansas area and in 1919 they organized to insist on better wages and fair treatment of the black women servants and cotton pickers in the area. Meetings of the Union grew to include non union members interested in educating themselves. Labor conflicts were increasing and racial conflict had occurred in cities all across America at the end of WW1. (US involvement 1917 -1919) Some government officials and businesses took this organized union activity as being the work of a foreign influence and felt it was a threat to their hold on the American economy. Added to this unrest was the return of black soldiers who no longer wanted to tolerate the Jim Crow society around them. On September 30, 1919, approx 100 African Americans, mostly sharecroppers of white plantation owners attended a meeting of the PFHUA in Phillips County to seek support for just payment for their work on the cotton crops as they were often exploited in their efforts to collect their wages. The local white land owners saw the Progressive Farmers as a threat to the tenet of white supremacy but also to the basic concept of capitalism as they knew it. Even though the US won the war, supporters of American capitalism saw communism in every threat to their way of life. The leaders of the meeting placed armed guards around the church were they were meeting to prevent disruption of the meeting and intelligence gathering by the white opponents. Unfortunately, shots were fired between the guards and three individuals whose vehicle was parked in front of the church resulted in the deaths of a white security officer and deputy sheriff. The next morning, the Phillips County Sheriff sent out a posse to arrest those suspected of being involved in the shooting. There was minimal resistance from the black residents of the area around the town of Elaine but the fear of the African Americans, who outnumbered whites in Phillips County 10 to 1, led and estimated 500 to 1,000 armed white men from surrounding Arkansas counties and even from across the river from Mississippi, to converge on Elaine to put down what was being called an "insurrection". Local authorities freaked out and sent three telegrams to Gov Brough requesting US troops be sent to Elaine. The military placed several hundred African Americans in makeshift stockades while other blacks were free to move about in publick only if they had a pass signed by a military authority and a reputable white citizen. While this was going on, white mobs began killing blacks around the town of Elaine. An eye-witness account claimed "several hundred of them.... began to hunt negroes and shooting them as they came to them". A grand jury consisting of local landlords and businessmen decided the fates of the prisoners. Those who testified against others or agreed to work under terms set by the landowners were freed. Affidavits supplied by the defendants after the fact described beatings, whippings and torture by electric shock and death threats to encourage the testimony and ensure they would not later recant. Eleven defendants were sentenced to death with no witnesses called, no evidence produced and no defendants were allowed to testify. The Arkansas Gazette called the trial a triumph of the rule of law, as none of the defendants had been lynched. Walter F. White, assistant secretary of the NAACP who was sent to investigate the violence was blonde and blue-eyed and able to pass for white was granted credentials from the Chicago Daily News which enabled him to get an interview with Governor Brough. White, whose identity was discovered left town, the conductor of the train telling him that he was leaving "just when the fun is going to start" and that he was a "damned yellow nigger passing for white and the boys are going to get him and when they get through with him we won't pass for white no more!". He published his findings in the Daily News, the Chicago Defender and The Nation as well as the NAACP magazine The Crisis. Governor Brough's attempts to get the United States Postal Service to prohibit the mailing of these publications failed. The NAACP took on the task of organizing an appeal hiring Scipio Africanus Jones, (an African- American attorney who was denied entry to law school because of race so he worked for free as a janitor at the law offices of a local US District Judge and read the law books in his free time, became an apprentice and passed his bar exam in 1889) and Colonel George W. Murphy, (a Confederate veteran, former Attorney-General for the State of Arkansas and unsuccessful candidate for Governor on the Progressive Party ticket). After 4 years of much legal back and forth, the convictions of this court, dominated by mobs of armed whites who surrounded the court house, were eventually reversed by the US Supreme Court in 1923. The case, Moore v. Dempsey was a great victory for justice in general and gave the NAACP much deserved credibility.
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1102
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_v._Dempsey
The cost of progressive thought was and is still incredibly high. The freedom promised by the Declaration of Independence, created by the intelligence and courage of our Founding Fathers, paid for by the blood of 50,000 dead and wounded patriots (approx 1/5th of the population of the Colonies) during the Revolution was only the beginning. Intelligence and courage to this day must be accompanied with spilled blood on too many occasions to achieve what was promised by these truths...
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
As we, the people became educated the more interested we became in an equal share of these "self evident truths" and the more defensive those who held power over the previously uneducated became. These battles were everywhere, in the urban centers, the cotton fields, in print and in Congress. The wealthy elite spent their money to keep the power they had and this battle rages on today. The wealthy elite continue to spend their money to sway politics, the media and to prey on the uneducated and unaware, taking every advantage to distract the population and our leaders with threats and fear, bribes and collusion.
World War 1 and the Fight for Civil Rights
Democratic President Woodrow Wilson had many international challenges in Central America where American investors were heavily invested in mining, railroads and other interests, emboldened by having forced McKinley's hand to secure this area for them 20 years before. Most of Europe was embroiled in the Great War, later to be called World War I. Wilson, was an an intellectual, educated in law and wanted to be a great statesmen ever since he was a schoolboy. Diplomacy was where he focused his energies and shortly after his second term he tried to end the war with active mediation. The Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare anyway and like President McKinley before him, non-involvement in international hostilities was not possible, April 2nd, 1917 before a joint session of Congress he said
"The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind. It is a war against all nations. . . . We are accepting this challenge. . . . The world must be made safe for democracy." On April 6, Congress declared war. "
http://history-world.org/wilson.htm
"World War I provided the final push for women's suffrage in America that had been going on for 100 years. After President Woodrow Wilson announced that World War I was a war for democracy, women were up in arms. The National Women's Party led by Alice Paul became the first "cause" to picket outside the White House. Paul and Lucy Burns led a series of protests against the Wilson Administration in Washington. Wilson ignored the protests for six months, but on June 20, 1917, as a Russian delegation drove up to the White House, suffragettes unfurled a banner which stated; "We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote. President Wilson is the chief opponent of their national enfranchisement". Another banner on August 14, 1917, referred to "Kaiser Wilson" and compared the plight of the German people with that of American women. With this manner of protest, the women were subject to arrests and many were jailed. On October 17, Alice Paul was sentenced to seven months and on October 30 began a hunger strike, but after a few days prison authorities began to force feed her. After years of opposition, Wilson changed his position in 1918 to advocate women's suffrage as a war measure. The next year Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote."
http://history-world.org/wilson.htm
This proved to be a golden era of education which fed the country what it needed to grow. I'll "bring it on home" in my next installment.
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