Child Labor (ME) Jade Kramer

          Child labor was one of the most emotional progressive issues. Children had always worked on family farms, which was understandable. But some children were working in mines and factories, and this was hazardous to their health. A muckraker John Spargo exposed the harsh working conditions of children in a book called The Bitter Cry of the Children. Children that were the ages of 9 or 10 we working in coal mines, they picked slag out of coal. They worked for 60 cents an hour for ten hours a day. The way he described it was it bent their back permanently and crippled their hands. Articles like these convinced states to make a minimum age for employment and established limits on childhood labor. 

Women Suffrage (ME) Jade Kramer

Women's Suffrage

Women didn't have rights at one point and time; they had to fight for them. It is now an amendment, it is called Women’s suffrage. It was a slow start, but at least we got there. Some people thought it was unfeminine and immoral and threatened women suffragists. This was around the time that the Civil War had just ended and that slavery was abolished.  Also, this gave the African American males the right to vote. There were debates over the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; this split the suffrage movements in two. There were organizations that were made to support women’s suffrage. One of the organizations was National Woman Suffrage Association; this association was founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. One group wanted to focus on making this a constitutional amendment. Later on it because an amendment.

    

William “Boss” Tweed (KI) Eric Carmona

He was the leader of the most infamous organization called the New York City’s corrupt Tammany Hall political during the 1860s and 1870s.  In the 1850s he became a powerful figure in the Tammany Hall. During the 1860s he risen to the top of the position and formed the Tweed ring, it encouraged judicial corruption.  He was sent to prison for forgery and larceny and other charges but in 1875 he escaped from prison and traveled to Cuba and Spain.  In 1876 the Spanish police arrested him because they recognized him from a picture and was sent back to the United State, returned to prison that’s where he died in 1878.   

John J. Pershing (KI) Nick Attkisson

John Pershing was a commander of American Expeditionary force (AEF). Him and his group of soldiers went to Paris on July 4^th, 1917. They went to Picpus cemetery where Lafayette was buried. France helped the United States gain their freedom now they were going to help preserve theirs. British and French commanders wanted to be in command over the American soldiers and Pershing didn’t approve. President Wilson backed him up on that. French and British needed Americans to replace their losses; Pershing held his ground but made one change. The 93^rd infantry, an African American division, was transferred to the French. They became the first unit of Americans to go into war.

Treaty of Versailles (ME) Nick Attkisson

     

Fight had stopped for a while in November 1918, but World War 1 was not over. A treaty had to be made and signed by every party. In 1919, delegates from 27 countries came to France to talk and negotiate the treaty. The conference took place at the palace of Versailles, near Paris. The treaty with Germany became known as the treaty Versailles. The treaty of Saint Germain was also negotiated, ending the war with Austria-Hungary.

The negotiations of Versailles lasted for 5 months. The most important participants were the “Big Four” of the allies. President Wilson of the U.S, David Lloyd George, a Prime Minister from Britain, Itialian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando, and French Premier Georges Clemenceau. Russia wasn’t invited because majority of the people didn’t recognize them as legitimate.

Zimmerman Telegram (ME) Nick Attkisson

    

After Wilson was re-elected everything brought the country to the brink of war. In January of 1917, Andrew Zimmerman, a German official sent a telegram. It contained a message to the German ambassador in Mexico asking him to offer a deal to the Mexican government. The deal was if Mexico allied with Germany in a war against the United States, Mexico would regain all its lost territory after the war. The land included areas in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The letter was intercepted by the British and leaked to the American newspaper. America concluded they would definitely be going to war against Germany.

On February 1^st, 1917, Germany resumed submarine warfare. Believing they could starve Britain into submission in four to six months, if they could sink all the boats in sight. By doing this it raised concerns that the Americans would try to gather an army and send them, but Germany believed they wouldn’t get there in time. Between February 3^rd and March 21^st German boats sank 6 American ships. Wilson then asked Congress to declare war on Germany. 

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (KI) Nick Attkisson

 

On June 28^th, 1914 a Serbian assassin had his target marked. He was going to take out Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  While Ferdinand and his wife visited Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, the Serbian revolutionist rushed their chariot. The assassin open fired on both of them, killing them both. Later the shooter was caught and put in jail. Gavrillo Princip was the assassin, a member of the Serbian nationalist group, also known as the “Black Hand”. Serbian officials had knowledge of the assassination taking place and hoped it would start a war to bring down the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

If the Austro-Hungary Empire was to fall the Serbian’s would be able to take control. Instead of letting that happen, the Austro-Hungarian government asked their German allies to crush the Serbian’s. By attacking Serbia, Russia got involved and mobilized its army against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That’s where Germany steps in and declares war on Russia. World War 1 had begun.

Mark Twain (KI) Eric Carmona

                His real name is Samuel Clemens and was an incomparable American genius.  He published his masterpiece called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884.  Most of his work was novels, travel narratives, short stories, sketches, and essays. Twain's first published story was "The Celebrated Jumping frog". 

Chinese Exclusion Act (ME) Eric Carmona

            The Congress passed the Act and 1882 and it barred the Chinese immigration for 10 years and it prevented the already in the United States to become citizens.  The Congress renewed the law in 1892 and made it permanent in 1902.  In 1906 the San Francisco Board of Education ordered all the Chinese, Japanese and Korean children to attend a racially school in the Chinatown neighborhood.  Chinese children have been forced to attend racially schools since 1859. 

            Japan took great offense to the treatment they were giving to their people.  In that response Roosevelt invited the school board leaders to the White House.  He made them a deal that he would limit Japanese immigration if the school board would cancel their segregation order.  After that he began talks to Japan and negotiated an agreement and Japan agreed to reduce the emigration of Japanese to the United States.

Jane Addams (KI) Eric Carmona

            In 1889 Addams visited a settlement house in London and when she saw it she decided to open Hull House.  She opened it to assist poor immigrants fin Chicago, it many forms as in day care, kindergartens, libraries, an art gallery and employment agency.  While in the Hull House she wrote books about her experience in it.  She served as the first president of the organization that became the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.  In 1931 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her activeness in the Peace movement.

Who Were the Progressives (ME) Jade Kramer

Progressivism was a reaction against laissez-faire. For those who don’t know what that means “laissez-faire” is French for let the people do what they want. Progressives believed that industrialization and urbanization had created social problems. After seeing problems with poverty of the working class reformers started doubting the free market’s ability to solve those problems. Progressives belonged to major political parties; most of them were urban educated, middle class Americans. The leaders were journalists, social workers, educators, politicians and members of a clergy. They agreed that the governments should take charge and be more active role in solving the problems that the society faced. They also doubted that government being the way it was would be able to fix the problems. They came to the conclusion that the government needed to be fixed in order to fix the problems we faced as a nation. 

Ellis Island (ME) Eric Carmona

          Ellis Island is a tiny island in New York Harbor.  There is a three-story building and many of the immigrants that arrived from Europe go through this building in 1892.  Many immigrants pass through Ellis Island about one day.  About Every hour ships loads of immigrants hurry through the Island.  There were about 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.

          The Island is usually crowded by immigrants from all over the world; every language on the earth would go there.  When they get there they would have to see a doctor to see if they pass the inspection.  About one out of five people would be marked with letters telling what kind of problems they would have as in heart problems, hernias, scalp problems and mental disability.  New people that fail the inspection might get separated from their families even get sent back were they came from.

Christopher Sholes (KI) Shania Campbell

We as living beings need to communicate. In 1867, Christopher Sholes, with the help of Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soule, aided the human race by inventing the very first practical mechanical typewriter machine. It not only helped us communicate better, but influenced future inventors and their ideas to assisted the people around them and make a profit off of it. The typewriter started with the idea of applying a similar concept of the printing press. They molded the idea into a machine for individual uses. In 1714, something similar to a typewriter was invented by Henry Mill in England, but none of these inventions survived.

In 1829, from Detroit, Michigan a man, William Burt, had patented his ‘typographer’. It had characters on a rotating frame, but much like many of the similar inventions after it, it was very heavy, unreliable, hard to use, and more times than not, it took longer to produce a letter than writing it by hand. The typewriter Sholes, with the assistance of Glidden and Soule, had invented was the most reliable to date. They patented their invention, and licensed it to Remington & Sons of Ilion, New York. By 1867, the Remington Model one was placed on the market. It was the first useful, commercial typewriter. It wasn’t until 1978, though, that the first electronic typewriter that was capable of storing text first appeared. It was developed by the Olivetti Company in Italy and the Casio Company in Japan.