tests

test 1

Muckraker A muckraker is someone who is looking to expose corruption in mostly large businesses or government institutions. They generally looked for the bad in everything. They caused a lot of reform in the early American society by campaigning about and publicizing the darkest and dirtiest parts of the country. The term was first used by Roosevelt in a speech where he talked about how the muckrakers are always looking down and only see the bad. The first muckrakers started in the early 1920s and were publishing in multiple magazines. Some of the main publishers for this type of propaganda were the Cosmopolitan, The Independent, Munsey's and McClure's. The muckrakers did both good and bad in the American society. Some of the problems that they brought up needed fixing. But also some were just people trying to cause problems. Some of the things that they caused to reform were fuel problems wall street regulations housing regulations and other large criseses. Over all I think that the honest of the muckrakers did more good than bad. President Theodore Roosevelt President Roosevelt was our twenty sixth president. He was famous for his stamina and manly cowboy image. He was born in a wealthy family and attended Harvard. And later wrote a book on the naval war of 1812. After he published his first book he moved to New York City where he became famous for fighting the corrupted police service. He ran the US department of the navy when the Spanish American war broke out and he became famous for leading a group, called rough riders, in Cuba earning him the Medal of Honor. He then became governor of New York City, and was nominated to run for vice pres. Then in 1901 pres McKinley was assassinated leaving Roosevelt as pres. At age 42 Roosevelt was the youngest pres to take office. He was also the reason for the finishing of the Panama Canal and the end of the Russo/ Japanese war. Many think of him as one of the greatest presidents ever. President Woodrow Wilson President Wilson was our twenty eighth president. A progressive liberal, former college professor, an idiot and a fan of the welfare state. He was president of Princeton University and then gov. of New Jersey. He was elected by a dividing in the republican party votes. He pushed congress to pass many federal spending acts and the first progressive income tax. He was pres during WWI and focused on financial things leaving the war up to the commanders. He also started our first draft and raised billions in funding for the war through liberty bonds. And received the nobel peace prize for working towards the creation of the league of nations. He is also on the one hundred thousand dollar gold bond. Hull House The Hull House started in 1989 as a sort of boarding house/ education center for new immigrants. By 1911 they had expanded to 13 buildings, it has since evolved into multiple corporations and serves over 60,000 families today. The significance of the original hull house is shown mostly by the outcome. The hull house was the model used by multiple other of the same type of settlement homes that burst up all over the US. It helped people help others and became famous.

Tenements Tenements were small very crowded apartments or flats that housed mainly poor immigrants and criminals. The cost was extremely high for the amount of space and quality there in. They were also a big topic for muckrakers. The main problem with these tenements housing buildings was the amount of people stuck into so little space. Some apartments with one room and one bath would house up to eight people for a large price. These apartments were often used by factory owners to get more money off the workers. The workers would have to live in the factory owned apartments because they were the only ones in existence and therefore they would pay whatever the owners required. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory This was a factory which locked employees inside to prevent stealing and keep work moving. The factory caught fire and the women who worked there either burned to death or jumped out the window to escape the flames and fell to their deaths. The results of this tragedy was the creation of multiple unions and government legislation forcing better working environments and safety standards. The building is now a chemistry building in the New York University. Graduated Income Tax Graduated income tax is essentially the concept of the more you make the more we take… meaning if I make more than bob they take a higher percentage of my check. The problems with this program is that they have a poverty level at which you aren’t taxed, and currently more than forty three percent of Americans don’t pay income tax but they get benefits and tax returns from the government leaving us with a lazy bunch of groupies instead of hard working smart people. One of the other problems you get is if you take more from the guy who owns the big company he will push it off on the people who buy from his company by raising prices. Also the government keeps raising the tax on the people who make more; the highest tax bracket is almost fifty percent which I feel is insane. If you were really honest (unless you’re an extreemly liberal idiot) you would find that it isn’t fair to tax the people who earn more money more than others and give it out to the people not working in handouts. Suffragettes Suffragettes are people who are working towards voting rights. In the early 1900s women of the us were pushing for the right to vote. Much like the women in the popular movie //Marry Poppens// the people were holding rallies carrying signs and protesting in the streets. The right to vote was given to women with the passing of the 19th amendment to the constitution which states: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

Political Machines A political machine is usually a group bosses or one main boss commanding a group of supporters like campaign workers rewarding them for their efforts. Most often the rewards given include some form of political power. It’s usually characterized by the passing of money, political power, and lots of control by the leaders. Usually it’s not the most honest way to run things.

League of Nations The League of Nations was founded mostly because the treaty of Versailles in 1920. The League of Nations really didn’t work the way it was meant. Actually it failed in most everything attempted except for the rare few cases. The main point was to keep the axis power behaving but they really didn’t do anything to stop them much like our united nations today.

Red Scare There were actually two red scares in us history but they were both the fear of communism overrunning the capitalist government in the US. The first was generally brought about by worker revolutions and the second by foreign communists attacking the federal government.

test 2 Dust bowl The dust bowl was a period In the early 1930s where as a result of over working the soil and leaving it uncovered and lifeless combined with drought caused a series of extremely dangerous dust storms. Many people just left, the rest tried to stick it out but there were no crops and no work therefore no money and no food making it extremely hard to live in this area during this time period. Prohibition Was a law that prohibited alcoholic beverages. All sales importations manufacturing and sales of these beverages were made illegal or extremely restricted. The US added this in the constitution in the eighteenth amendment to the constitution. This was especially popular during the depression and was later repealed by the twenty first amendment

Bonus Army The bonus army was a group of WWI vets and families who were protesting in Washington D.C. it was led by Walter Waters a former sergeant. The vets were looking for cash payment for their service certificates. Many of the vets had been out of work since before the start of the great depression. The problem was the certificates matured over a 25 year period meaning that they couldn’t be redeemed until 1945 which didn’t really help the broke vets and their families. Eventually the attorney general ordered the vets to leave government property and the police came against them. Two vets were shot and killed and the pres ordered the us military to remove the rest of the resisting protesters. The military came in equipped with six tanks and lots of gas used as a vomiting agent. Hobos During the great depression many people ended up out of work and homeless. Many of these people took to the road or jumped on the rails. Lots of people saw the hobo as a person who would do anything for work but others saw them as just bums who lived in the streets. Generally hobos were just people looking for work and where ever the work was they would go. Al Capone Al Capone (Alphonse Gabriel) was a gangster in the 1920s and 30s. Most of his work was dedicated to bootlegging and smuggling alcohol. Capone started in Brooklyn early in his criminal career before moving to Chicago and taking control of the Chicago Outfit. He was extremely successful and was never convicted of any of the charges thrown at him until in 1931 he was sent to prison for tax invasion. He served in multiple prisons, Alcatraz being the longest place served and the most famous. Black Tuesday Black Tuesday was on October 29 1929 when the stock market collapsed and continued to fall starting the great depression. FDR Roosevelt was our thirty second president and the only president elected for more than two terms serving three terms and dyeing partway through his fourth term. Pres Roosevelt was the one who lead us through the majority of WWII. His approach to the problems in the economy started with what was called the new deal, which was generally pushing things through congress. When WWII started FDR kept the US neutral. Then in 1941 Roosevelt decided to give aid to the countries fighting Germany. Then when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Roosevelt declared war against Japan, causing the Germans to declare war with the US. When he died in office his vise, Harry Truman, took over and dropped the atomic bombs on japan. Atomic Bomb The first and only two atomic bombs dropped offensively (for use other than that of testing) were both dropped in Japan by pres “Give em hell Harry” Truman. These bombs were named little boy and fat man. The first bomb little boy was a gun type uranium bomb and the second dropped only days later was a plutonium implosion type bomb. Both of these bombs did considerable damage and killed at least 120000 people almost immediately, killing many more from radiation poisoning over the years, and destroying the environment for crops. Quite honestly the bombs probably saved more lives than they took and they were necessary for ending the war… there are now many bans and rules against using weapons of mass destruction which nuclear weapons are classified as. Island Hopping Is using islands as bases as opposed to crossing the ocean in one big journey. This saves time and money and also makes attacks possible that wouldn’t have been before. Commercial Television Commercial television is based on advertising for profit as opposed to public media whichis generally all paid advertisements.