Showing posts with label Teddy_Roosevelt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teddy_Roosevelt. Show all posts

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal

1. 1902 COAL STRIKE

a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 

When 140,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike and demanded a 20 percent raise, Roosevelt stepped in and called both sides to the White House, eventually settling the strike. It was clear to Roosevelt that the federal government was needed to intervene in an orderly manner when a strike was threatening public welfare.  



b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?


the federal government stepped in to end the strike. 

2. TRUSTS

a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 

Roosevelt did not believe that all trusts were harmful. In 1902, Roosevelt made newspaper headlines as a trust-buster when he ordered the Justice Department to sue the Northern Securities Company, which had established a monopoly over northwestern railroads. Roosevelt's administration filed 44 antitrust suits.  

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?

The Supreme Court dissolved the Northern Securities Company in 1904. 



3. UNREGULATED BIG BUSINESS

a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 

One of Roosevelt's real goals was federal regulation. Roosevelt urged for Congress to pass the Elkins Act in 1903. Roosevelt had to compromise with conservative senators who opposed the Hepburn Act of 1906, but the passage boosted the government's power to regulate the railroads.


b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?
  

Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, which prohibited wealthy railroad owners from colluding to fix high prices by diving the business in a given area. Congress passed the Elkins Act in 1903, which made it illegal for railroad officials to give, and shippers to receive,  rebates for using particular railroads. The Hepburn Act of 1906 strictly limited the distribution of free railroad passes.  

4. DANGEROUS FOODS AND MEDICINES

 a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 

After reading Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, Roosevelt appointed a commission of experts to investigate the meatpacking industry. In 1906, Roosevelt pushed for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act. 

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?

In 1906, Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act, requiring strict cleanliness for the meat industries. Congress also passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, requiring truthful labels on medicines and haltering the sale of contaminated foods.  


5. SHRINKING WILDERNESS AND NATURAL RESOURCES

a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 

Roosevelt set aside 1.5 million acres of water-power sites and another 80 million acres of land that experts from the U.S Geological Survey would explore for mineral and water resources. In addition, Roosevelt also established more than 50 wildlife sanctuaries and several national parks. Roosevelt named Gifford Pinchot as head of the U.S Forest Service in 1905.  

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?

The National Reclamation Act of 1902 established the precedent that the federal government would manage the precious water resources of the West. 



6. RACIAL DISCRIMINATION


a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 

Roosevelt failed to support civil rights for African Americans. However, Roosevelt supported a few individual African Americas. He appointed an African American as head of the Charleston customhouse. Some whites in Mississippi refused to accept the black postmistress Roosevelt has assigned, instead of giving in he chose to close down the station. In one incident, many African Americans were angry with Roosevelt when he dismissed an entire regiment of African American soldiers accused of conspiracy.    



b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?

none.

Explain the importance of each of the following:

7. Square Deal:                 

Roosevelt's "Square Deals" were important because they aimed to help middle class citizens while at the same time protecting big businesses. 

8. The Jungle:


The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, was extremely important because it led to the Meat Inspection Act, which required strict cleanliness for meatpackers.                           

9. Upton Sinclair:           
 


Upton Sinclair was important because his book The Jungle was read by thousands including Roosevelt who responded by appointing a commission of experts to investigate the meatpacking industry. The general public became aware of how unclean and contaminated the meat products were and acted quickly in response to the horrific conditions in the factories.    

10. NAACP: 

The NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) aimed for full equality among races. The NAACP was important because it combined both blacks and whites together to try and end racial injustice.

11. Meat Inspection Act:



The passage of the Meat Inspection Act dictated strict cleanliness requirements for the meat industry. This act was extremely important because it prevented the passage of tainted meat. The Meat Inspection Act was mainly in response to the publication of The Jungle.                           


12. Pure Food & Drug Act



The Pure Food & Drug Act, passed by Congress in 1906, was important because it called for truth in labeling. Although this act did not ban harmful products, it required truthfulness in labeling which reflected the progressive belief that people would act wisely when given accurate information. 

13. Significance of the 1902 Coal Miners’ Strike



The miners of the 1902 Coal Miners' Strike won a 10 percent pay hike and a shorter, nine house workday. The actions Roosevelt took to deal with this strike were important because they allowed the federal government to step in when a strike was threatening the public welfare. This incident reflected the progressive belief that disputes could be settled in an orderly way with the help of experts. 



Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Jungle - Exposing the Meatpacking Industry

1. In your opinion, which specific details in this excerpt most convincingly highlight problems in the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s? Why? Use specific passages and quote. Analyze at least five details

A.  The meat was suppose to be inspected by the government inspector, however, he let dozens of carcass of possibly tubercular pork pass right by so that they got a stamp of government approval but hadn't actually been inspected.

B. They used spoil meat. "They cleaned out the waste barrels only once a year and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers and sent out for the public's breakfast."

C. They never paid the least bit of attention to what was in the sausage. For example, "There would could all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected and that was moldy and white-it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption." "There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs."

D. Rats would run all over piles of stored meats and men would "sweep off hand fulls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put out poisoned bread for them: they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. The meat would be shuffled into carts, and the man who did the shuffling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw them-there were sings that went into the sausage that a poisoned rat was a tidbit."

E. "There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage."

2. What is the overall tone of the story?

The overall tone of the story is horrified disbelief and very serious. The narrator states "this is no fairy story and no joke." He wants the reader to not only understand that there were problems in the meat packing industry but to have a complete picture in their mind of the absolutely disgusting conditions so that they couldn't just forget it.


3. Based on your reading of this excerpt, why do you think Sinclair titled his novel The Jungle?

Sinclair decided to title his novel The Jungle because the conditions were so primitive and there was such a lack of high gene and lack of enforcement of any kind of rules or regulations with men doing whatever they wanted, that it was as though the meat packing plants were jungles themselves in the city.