1911-1920Sarah Pritchard

April 2010

APUSH

Thesis Statement

Although there were some significant social and economic changes made between 1911 and 1920, the changes made politically had the greatest affect on the country as a whole, by allowing itself to be recognized as a major world power.

“Work or Fight”

• The War Department’s rule of 1918 threatened any unemployed male with being immediately drafted if he was found (lead to “draft dodgers” and “slackers”)

• Samuel Gompers and his American Federation of Labor (AF of L) supported the war, although some smaller and more radical labor organizations did not

Employment

• The black workers who entered the steel mills in 1919 were but a fraction of the tens of thousands of southern blacks drawn to the North by employment

• Their appearance in previously all-white areas sometimes sparked interracial violence

Employment continued

• Thousands of women also flooded to the factories and fields, taking up jobs vacated by men who left for the front line

Feminist Movement

• Women received the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920

• Feminists continued to “flex their political muscles” in the postwar decade, especially in campaigns for laws to protect women in the workplace and prohibit child labor

Education

• The number of people enrolled in schools, especially schools specializing in higher education, doubled during the first part of the 20th century

1920- the Highland Park School, South Carolina

Armed Forces

• For the first time, women were admitted to the armed forces in 1917; some 11,000 to the navy and 269 to the marines

• African Americans also served in the armed forces, though in segregated units and usually under white officers

• Military authorities hesitated to train black men for combat, so the majority of black soldiers were put to work unloading ships

Woodrow Wilson: A Minority President

• Wilson, with only 41 percent of the popular vote, was clearly a minority president, though his part won a majority in Congress

• Roosevelt: 27 percent • Taft: 23 percent• Other: 9 percent

“This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity…. I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me!” - Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Inaugural, 1913

Presidential Election of 1916

•Ignored Hughes on the theory that one should not try to murder a man who is committing suicide

•Woodrow Wilson built his campaign around the slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War.”

Conservation

• Saving the environment became increasingly important and lead President Woodrow Wilson to pass the National Park Service Act of 1916, which preserved parks

Entering WWI

• The Zimmerman Note gave the United States a reason to declare war against Germany After

• Germany broke the Sussex Pledge with the sinking of American ships, therefore, the President was forced to reconsider America's neutrality

• On April 2, 1917, Wilson stood before Congress and asked for a declaration of war

Entering WWI continued

• Wilson had lost his gamble that America could pursue the profits of neutral trade without being involved in the war

• The US sided with the Allies and the war concluded in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles

“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make.” - Woodrow Wilson, War Message, April 2, 1917

Wilson’s Dream

• Wilson’s dream of lasting peace after the war ended, would be obtained by addressing the 4 M.A.I.N. causes of the war and creating a League of Nations

1. Militarism

2. Alliances

3. Imperialism

4. Nationalism

Wilson’s Fourteen Points

• On January 8,1918, he delivered his Fourteen Points Address to Congress

• One of his main goals was to keep Russia in the war

The Red Scare

• The big “red scare” of 1919-1920 resulted in a nationwide crusade against leftists whose Americanism was suspect

Clayton Anti-Trust Act

• Lengthened the Sherman Act’s list of business practices that were deemed objectionable, such as price discrimination

• Conferred long-overdue benefits on labor• Sought to exempt labor and agricultural organizations

from antitrust prosecution • Union leader Samuel Gompers hailed the act as “the

Magna Carta of labor…”

Purchase of the Virgin Islands

• In 1917, Wilson purchased the Virgin Islands, in the West Indies, from Denmark, furthering Uncle Sam’s grip in the Caribbean Sea

World War I

• When war erupted in Europe in 1914, the United States was in a recession, but fate soon stepped in, and British and French war orders soon “pulled the American industry out of its hard times and onto a peak of war-born prosperity”

• American bankers, like J. P. Morgan and Company, eventually gave the Allies enormous sums of money during the period of American neutrality

• Central Powers protested, but the “traffic” did not violate the international neutrality laws

Immigrants

• Businesses expanded during 1911 to 1920 largely due to the number of immigrants

• The immigrants worked for low wages, allowing money to be put back into the economy

• America's fear of foreigners and radicals lead to restrictions and quotas to limit immigration from Europe

Timeline• 1912: Wilson defeats Taft and

Roosevelt for presidency• 1913: Underwood tariff Act;

Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) passed; Federal Reserve Act; Seventeenth Amendment passed (direct election of senators)

• 1914: Clayton Anti-Trust Act; Federal trade Commission passed; World War I begins in Europe

• 1915: La Follette’s Seamen’s Act; Luisitania torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat; U.S. marines sent to Haiti

• 1916: Sussex ultimatum and pledge; Workmen’s Compensation Act; Federal Farm Loan Act; Wilson defeats Hughes for presidency

• 1917: United States buys Virgin Islands from Denmark; Zimmerman Note; United States enters WWI; Espionage Act of 1917

• 1918: Wilson proposes the Fourteen Points; Armistice ends WWI

• 1919: Wilson’s pro-League tour and collapse

• 1920: Nineteenth Amendment (women’s suffrage) passed; Harding defeats Cox for presidency

• 1919-1920: “Red scare”

Conclusion

Even though considerable changes were made socially and economically during the time period of 1911 to 1920, the time period was really known for its political successes, that allowed the country to thrive.

Works Cited

• Thomas A. Bailey, David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen. “The American Pageant.”

• http://images.google.com/• http://www.wikipedia.org/• http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/millnews/ill64.html• 5 Steps To A 5• Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam 2010 Edition