Name Date

. PRIMARY SOURCE from Report on the Steel Strike of 1919 Section 1 A Commission of Inquiry appointed at the request of the lnterchurch World Movement of North America prepared a report on the steel strike of 1919. The report included affidavits from more than 500 striking and nonstriking steel workers. As you read this portion of the report, consider why investigators recommended that the 12-hour day and 7-day week be eliminated.

t is an epigram of the industry that “steel is a “4 i.—Wake up. put on dirty clothes, go to Jman killer.” Steel workers are chiefly attendants boarding house, eat supper, get pack of lunch. of gigantic machines. The steel business tends to “5:30 P.M.—Reportfor work.” become, in the owners’ eyes, mainly the machines. This is the record of the night shift; a record of Steel jobs are not easily characterized by chilly sci inevitable waste, inefficiency and protest against entific terms. Blast furnaces over a hundred feet “arbitrary” hours. Next week this laborer will work high, blast “stoves” a hundred feet high, coke ovens the day shift. What is his schedule per week? miles long, volcanic bessemer converters, furnaces Quoting again from the diary: with hundreds of tons of molten steel in their bel “Flours on night shift begin at 5:30; work for lies, trains of hot blooms, miles of rolls end to end twelve hours through the night except Saturday, hurtling white hot rails along,—these masters are when it is seventeen hours, until 12 Sunday noon, attended by sweating servants whose job is to get with one hour out for breakfast; the following close enough to work hut to keep clear enough to Monday ten hours; total from 5:30 Monday to 5:30 save limb and life. It is concededly not an ideal Monday87 hours, the normal week. , industryfor men fatigued by long hours. “The Carnegie Steel worker works 87 hours out First, what exactly is the schedule of the twelve- of the 168 hours in the week, Of the remaining 81 hour worker? Here is the transcript of the diary of he sleeps seven hours per day; total of 49 hours. He >a) an American worker, the ol)servations of a keen eats in another fourteen; walks or travels in the a) (1) man on how his fellows regard the job, the exact street car four hours; dresses, shaves, tends fur a) (I) record of his own job and hours made in the spring nace, undresses, etc., seven hours. His one reaction -c 0) of 1919, before the strike or this Inquiry, and is ‘What the Flell!’—the universal text accompany selected here because no charge of exaggeration ing the twelve-hour day.” d could be made concerning it. It begins: from The Commissionof Inquiry, TheInterchurchWorld “Calendar of one from a) (lay the life of a Movement,Report on the Steel Strike of 1919 (New York: -J Carnegie steel workman at Homestead on the open Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920), 58—60. 0) hearth, common labor: 0 “5:3()to 12 (midnight)—Six and one-half hours 0 Activity of shoveling, throwing arid carrying bricks and cm Options 1. Imagine that you are 0) (icr out of bottom of’old furnace. er hot. either a steel worker or a 0) \7 “12:30—Back to the shovel and cinder, within steel mill of’ficial.Write a letter to the editor of a 0 few feet of pneumatic shovel drilling slag, for three newspaper stating your opinion on the 12-hour anti one—halfhours. day. Share your letter with the class. 2. Interview a) “4 o’clock—Sleeping is pretty general, including someone you know who works full E boss. time—a family member, a neighbor, a teacher— a) “5 o’clock—Everybody quits, sleeps, sings, about his or her typicalwork day. Then compare swears, sighs for 6 o’clock. this person’s schedule with that of the steel “6 o’clock—Start home. worker in this excerpt. “6:45 o’clock—Bathed, breakfast. “7:45 oclock—Asleep.

Politics of the Roaring Twenties 9 21

‘

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26

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of it Inc. NAME CLASS DATE

(continued) PRIMARY SOURcEACTIVITYj

white girl what she wanted, She also wanted a My mother came out and told me my father want pound of center-cut pork chops. ed to see me. I ran into the bedroom. Daddy sat “Please may I have my meat?” I said, as the there, looking at me for a long time. Several times little girl left. The butcher took my dollar from the he tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t C counter, reached into the showcase, got a handful come. I stood there, looking at him and wonder H A of fat chops and wrapped them up. Thrusting the ing why he was acting so strangely. Finally he p package at me, he said, “Niggers have to wait ‘til stood up and the words began tumbling from T I wait on the white people. Now take your meat him. Much of what he said I did not understand. E and get out of here!” I ran all the way home crying. To my seven-year-old mind he explained as best R When I reached the house, my mother asked he could that a Negro had no rights that a white 21 what had happened. I started pulling her toward man respected. the door, telling her what the butcher had said. I He dropped to his knees in front of me, opened the meat and showed it to her. “It’s fat, placed his hands on my shoulders, and began Mother. Let’s take it back.” shaking me and shouting. “Oh, Lord, I knew I shouldn’t have sent her. “Can’t you understand what I’ve been say Stop crying now, the meat isn’t so bad.” ing?” he demanded. “There’s nothing I can do! If “But it is. Why can’t we take it back?” I went down to the market I would only cause “Go on out on the porch and wait for Daddy.” trouble for my family.” As she turned from me, her eyes were filling with As I looked at my daddy sitting by me with tears. tears in his eyes, I blurted out innocently, When I saw Daddy approaching, I ran to him, “Daddy, are you afraid?” crying. He lifted me in his arms and smiled. “Now, He sprang to his feet in an anger I had never what’s wrong?” When I told him, his smile faded. seen before. “Hell, no! I’m not afraid for myself, “And if we don’t hurry, the market will be I’m not afraid to die. I could go down to that mar closed,” I finished. ket and tear him limb from limb with my bare “We’ll talk about it after dinner, sweetheart.” hands, but I’m afraid for you and your mother.” I could feel his muscles tighten as he carried me That night when I knelt to pray, instead of my into the house. usual prayers, I found myself praying that the Dinner was distressingly silent. Afterward butcher would die. After that night we never my parents went into the bedroom and talked. mentioned him again.

From THE LONG SHADOW OF LITTLE ROCK by Daisy Bates. Copyright © 1987 by the University of Arkansas Press. Reprinted by permission of the University of Arkansas Press.

1. How did Daisy’s father view the racial attitudes of white people? Why wouldn’t Daisy’s parents take the meat back to the butcher? 2. Why was Daisy satisfied to let the butcher wait on adult customers before filling her order?

3. While waiting, Daisy Bates and a little white girl talked to one another. What might this situation reveal about race relations? 4. Recognizing Cause and Effect Assuming that this episode was not an isolated occurrence, what can you generalize about the effects of Jim Crow laws on both white and African Americans?

© Prentice-Hall,Inc. Chapter 21 Primary Source Activity • 27 Name Date

PRIMARY SOURCE from “When the Negro Was in Vogue” by Langston Hughes mSection 4 Poet Langston Hughes was one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance. What different aspects of life in Harlem does Hughes capture in this excerpt from his autobiography?

he I920s were the years of Manhattan’sblack Harlem. And when the parties of A’LeliaWalker. T Renaissance... the Negro heiress, were filled with guests whose White people began to come to Harlem in names would turu any Nordic’social climber green droves. For several years they packed the expensive with envy, it was a period when Harold Jackman. a Cotton Club on Lenox Avenue. But I was never handsome young Harlem schoolteacher of modest there, because the Cotton Club was a Jim Crow means, calmly announced one claythat he was sail— club for gangsters and monied whites. They were mg for the Riviera for a fortnight, to attend not cordial to Negro patronage, unless you were a Princess Murat’syachting party. It was a period celebrity like Bojangles.So Harlem Negroes Cli(l when Charleston preachers opened up shouting not like the Cotton Club and iiever appreciated its churches a.ssideshows for white tourists. It was a Jim Crow policy in the very heart of their dark period when at least one charming colored chorus community. Nor did ordinary Negroes like the girl, amber enough to pass for a Latin American, growing influxof whites toward Harlem after sun was livingin a penthouse, with all her bills paid b’ down, floodingthe little cabarets and bars where a gentleman whose name was banker’s magic on formerly only colored people laughed and sang, Wall Street. It was a period when every season and where now the strangers were given the best there was at least one hit play’on Broadway acted ringside tables to sit and stare at the Negro cus by a Negro cast. And when books by Negro authors tomers—like amusing animalsin a zoo. were being published with much greater frequency The Negroes said: “Wecan’t go downtown and and much more publicity than ever before or since sit and stare at you in your clubs. Youwon’teven in history It was a period when white writers wrote let us in your clubs.” But they didn’t say it out about Negroes more successfully (cornmercially a) spealdng) than Negroes did about themselves. It a) loud—for Negroes are practicallynever rude to (I) was the period (God help us!) when Ethel a) white people. So thousands of whites came to C,, Harlem night after night, thinking the Negroes Barrymore appeared in blackface in Scarlet Si.vtr loved to have them there, and firmlybelieving that 1Man It was the period when the Negro was in all Harlemites left their houses at sundown to sing vogue.! 0 C and dance in cabarets, because most of the whites from LangstonHughes,The Big Sea: An Autobiography a) saw nothing but the cabarets, not the houses. (New York: Hill & Wang, 1940).

It was a period when, at almost every Harlem C, upper-crust dance or party,one would be intro C duced to various distinguishedwhite celebrities Discussion Questions C) 1.. would you 1920s cC there as guests. it was a period when almost any How describe Harlem of the 0) 0) ilarlem Negro of any socialimportance at all would based on your reading of this excerpt? be likelyto saycasually:“AsI was remarking the 2. Why do you think white America suddenk’ C,) other (lay to Heywood—,” meaning Heywood became fascinated by Harlem? C

Broun. Or: “As I said to George—,” referring to 3. ‘Whatis ironic about the situations described in a) George Gershwin. It was a period when local and this excerpt? visiting royalty were not at all uncommon in a)

0

28 UNIT 6, CHAPTER 21 something, near home. of a states, but public The South, girls burning mother slaves of continued and faced What THINK Bethune-Cookman the and Affairs the adversities become Mary colored The A I milk [In her Americans Cookman mentally was 17th cotton Industrial knock by. and insights many those McLeod until own But schools without whole to from and exulted, the born director She THROUGH seven child get missionary How in I and I fields. African on from the days] bread, walked logs asked rushed © we the education. 1936 world does in Institute, with our of School McDougal a boys. Bethune Emancipation triumphs Mayesville, were “Thank with McIntosh single of her former it My Americans this door to and my College. the was white always opened back former sent When 1945. still their for mother, HISTORY: COLLEGE article parents Negro walked National BETHUNE-CO a Littell changed There almost (1875—1955) slaves. God, she and school Training by children. enslaved. Mary employ own on I to In master. South the provide experienced was in Inc. taught Proclamation... school, Mary winged me to father, were this five the impossible She hands. Northern for Youth my send born, when McLeod Carolina, Negro article, early Summarizing until Mr. miles rose hundreds Then into African-American came life it 1 was and and feet. me. to 900s I the Administration’s Lincoln 1 I she the over-night. was 1 from to 900s? when the learned Girls my older born colored under first Presbyterian Every for first school; social had Bethune a the BEGAN others . parents of After a disadvantaged country published in she in brothers free had Negro earned square our morning last to and Mayesville, 1904. children opened every There Mother at read. child told own of built economic home.... boys, town child, Church seventeen enough miles, This OKMAN and our Division in afternoon, As in vine I stood were our The picked was 1941, their in in soon race especially conditions sisters school South sometimes and cabin, the conditions 1923 to Daytona to not a freed own we children, of start young she as buy up midst fig had allowed five merged Carolina, Negro to I were cutting a recalls tree.”... she understood home, five in a little form been to miles Literary woman, of school entire that the free, acres ten rice with pail in the and my HOWBETHUNE-C’OOKMAN COLLEGE BEGAN

By the time I was fifteen I had taken every subject taught at our little school and could go no further. Dissatisfied, because this taste of learning had aroused my appetite, I was forced to stay at home. Father’s mule died—a major calamity—and he had to mortgage the farm to buy another. In those days, when a Negro mortgaged his property they never let him get out of debt. I used to kneel in the cotton fields and pray that the door of opportunity should be opened to me once more, so that I might give to others whatever I might attain. My prayers were answered. A white dressmaker, way off in Denver, Colorado... offered to pay for the higher education of some worthy girl. My teacher selected me, and I was sent to Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina. There I studied English, Latin, higher mathematics, and science, and after classes I worked in the Scotia laundry and kitchen to earn as much extra money as I could.... When I was graduated, I offered myself eagerly for missionary service in Africa, but the church authorities felt I was not sufficiently mature. Instead, they gave me another scholarship, and I spent two years at the Moody Bible School, in Chicago. Again I offered myself for missionary service, and again I was refused. Cruelly disappointed, I got a position at Haines Institute, in Augusta, Georgia, presided over by dynamic Lucy C. Laney, a pioneer Negro educator. From her I got a new vision: my life work lay not in Africa but in my own country. And with the first money I earned I began to save in order to pay off Father’s mortgage, which had hung over his head for ten years! In 1904 I heard,. .[that] Henry Flagler was building the Florida East Coast Railroad, and hundreds of Negroes had gathered in Florida for construction work.... I [went to] Daytona Beach, a beautiful little village, shaded by great oaks and giant pines... .1 found a shabby four-room cottage, for which the owner wanted a rental of eleven dollars a month. My total capital was a dollar and a half, but I talked him into trusting me until the end of the month for the rest. This was in September. A friend let me stay at her home, and I plunged into the job of creating something from nothing. I spoke at churches, and the ministers let me take up collections. I buttonholed every woman who would listen to me.... On October 3, 1904, I opened the doors of my school, with an enrollment of five little girls, aged from eight to twelve, whose parents paid me fifty cents’ weekly tuition. My own child was the only boy in the school. Though I hadn’t a penny left, I considered cash money as the smallest part of my resources. I had faith in a living God, faith in myself, and a desire to serve,... We burned logs and used the charred splinters as pencils, and mashed elderberries for ink. I begged strangers for a broom, a lamp, a bit of cretonne to put around the packing case which served as my desk. I haunted the city dump and the trash piles behind hotels, retrieving discarded linen and kitchenware, cracked dishes, broken chairs, pieces of old lumber. Everything was scoured and mended. This was part of the training to salvage, to reconstruct, to make bricks without straw. As parents began gradually to leave their children overnight, I had to provide sleeping accommodations. I took corn sacks for mattresses. Then I picked Spanish moss from trees, dried and cured it, and used it as a substitute for mattress hair.

2 The Americans © McDouga Littell Inc. HOWBETHUNE-COOKMAN COLLEGE BEGAN

The school expanded fast. In less than two years I had 250 pupils. In desperation I hired a large hall next to my original little cottage, and used it as a combined dormitory and classroom. I concentrated more and more on girls, as I felt that they especially were hampered by lack of educational opportunities.... I had many volunteer workers and a few regular teachers, who were paid from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a month and board. I was supposed to keep the balance of the funds for my own pocket, but there was never any balance—only a yawning hole. I wore old clothes sent me by mission boards, recut and redesigned for me in our dress-making classes. At last I saw that our only solution was to stop renting space, and to buy and build our own college. Near by was a field, popularly called Hell’s Hole, which was used as a dumping ground. I approached the owner, determined to buy it. The price was $250. In a daze, he finally agreed to take five dollars down, and the balance in two years. I promised to be back in a few days with the initial payment. He never knew it, but I didn’t have five dollars. I raised this sum selling ice cream and sweet-potato pies to the workmen on construction jobs, and I took the owner his money in small change wrapped in my handkerchief. That’s how the Bethune-Cookman college campus started.... But what use was a plot without a building? I hung onto contractors’ coat-tails, begging for loads of sand and second-hand bricks. I went to all the carpenters, mechanics, and plasterers in town, pleading with them to contribute a few hours’ work in the evening in exchange for sandwiches and tuition for their children and themselves. Slowly the building rose from its foundations. The name over the entrance still reads Faith Hall. I had learned already that one of my most important jobs was to be a good beggar! I rang doorbells and tackled cold prospects without a lead. I wrote articles for whoever would print them, distributed leaflets, rode interminable miles of dusty roads on my old bicycle; invaded churches, clubs, lodges, chambers of commerce.... Strongly interracial in my ideas, I looked forward to an advisory board of trustees composed of both white and colored people. I did my best missionary work among the prominent winter visitors to Florida. I would pick out names of “newly arrived guests” from the newspapers, and write letters asking whether I could call. One of these letters went to James N. Gamble, of Procter & Gamble. He invited me to call at noon the next day.... Mr. Gamble opened the door, and when I gave my name he looked at me in astonishment. “Are you the woman trying to build a school here? Why, I thought you were a white woman.” I laughed. “Well, you see how white I am.” Then I told my story. “I’d like you to visit my school and, if it pleases you, to stand behind what I have in my mind,” I finished.

He consented.. . .The next day.. . he made a careful tour of inspection, agreed to be a trustee, and gave me a check for $150—although I hadn’t mentioned money. For many years he was one of our most generous friends.

3 The Americans© McDougal LitteHInc. HOWBETHUNE-COOKMAN COLLEGE BEGAN

Another experience with an unexpected ending was my first meeting with J. S. Peabody, of Columbia City, Indiana. After I had made an eloquent appeal for funds he gave me exactly twenty-five cents. I swallowed hard, thanked him smilingly, and later entered the contribution in my account book. Two years later he reappeared. “Do you remember me?” he asked. “I’m one of your contributors.” I greeted him cordially. He went on: “I wonder if you recall how much I gave you when I was here last.” Not wishing to embarrass him, I told a white lie: “I’ll have to look it up in my account book.” Then after finding the entry, I said, “Oh, yes, Mr. Peabody, you gave us twenty-five cents.” Instead of being insulted, he was delighted that we kept account of such minute gifts. He immediately handed me a check for a hundred dollars and made arrangements to furnish the building. When he died, a few years later, he left the school $10,000.... Gradually, as educational facilities expanded and there were other places where small children could go, we put the emphasis on high-school and junior-college training. In 1922, Cookman College, a men’s school, the first in the state for the higher education of Negroes, amalgamated with us. The combined coeducational college, now run under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church, is called Bethune-Cookman College. We have fourteen modern buildings, a beautiful campus of thirty-two acres, an enrollment in regular and summer sessions of 600 students, a faculty and staff of thirty-two, and 1,800 graduates. The college property, now valued at more than $800,000, is entirely unencumbered. When I walk through the campus, with its stately palms and well-kept lawns, and think back to the dump-heap foundation, I rub my eyes and pinch myself. And I remember my childish visions in the cotton fields. But values cannot be calculated in ledger figures and property. More than all else the college has fulfilled my ideals of distinctive training and service. Extending far beyond the immediate sphere of its graduates and students, it has already enriched the lives of 100,000 Negroes. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed me director of the division of Negro affairs of the National Youth Administration. My main task now is to supervise the training provided for 600,000 Negro children, and I have to run the college by remote control. Every few weeks, however, I snatch a day or so and return to my beloved home. This is a strenuous program. The doctor shakes his head and says, “Mrs. Bethune, slow down a little. Relax! Take it just a little easier.” I promise to reform, but in an hour the promise is forgotten. For I am my mother’s daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.

Source: Excerpt from “Faith That Moved a Dump Heap” by Mary McLeod Bethune in Who, The Magazine About People, Volume 1, Number 3, June 1941. Used by permission of Bethune-Cookman College Archives.

4 TheAmericans© McDougal LftteIIInc. NAME CLASS DATE

Teens and Cigarette Smoking

From 1918to 1928,ciga rette production more NationalCigarette Law Enforcement League Inc. than doubled in the EXCt1TIV C Oihrr Di,rtrr United States. Part of r, 4. 9221, 0,. 3’rr,, C Duitr., err.. O. F,.4 Mr,rh Nr,n.,,, OkIr. SiiU,rrtr,, Ok3. this increase was due 0,. Wr. Frrrry Hrrd.. l.a V-Pr.. Mr. d L. K1rn Ok,,n. Cray.Ok.. Cray Ok).. to the number of P,.. 3. 31. Barer.... 3rd Vky,.Pru. ‘ Crn. 3rd ahn,ora Okitharna City, Old... . An,dark UkLr. Jrad Jar. I. Phr!p., 3rd Vlre.Pr..*. . Rn,. C 14. I... American women of 4 “ (a-, Blathenril, 01)., (ikl.kar..r Cky. 01)., Pi. E.,l P. W,un,. 4th Via. Pr,... / W ‘‘ Pna). C. W. Gahae.-ra all ages who took up Ceir.C1,. CM.. /IM” Okl,ln.r... City, 011.. R.e Air. P. J,trarr. Sapt. 11/’ Mr.. Ala, M. 4Dan Old.leaanr Ciiy, 011... C3kl..har,ra. 011., smoking and the M.L.ACrayp.gr.Trea .‘ increasing numbers of Mr. ON ,n,,it,. S.ay. .- Mr. 0. M. Beuahrean 013.1..’.... City, 01!., ‘-.‘n) 0k1.hn,r.. 3,.C1L OIl... Pr.(, Fø.rn. C. 1,a..a, A.a)le.,n Mr. 3.....A- larry..... men who replaced their C..raa,,ala,, 01),. 011.1...... Clay 010.. Car. 13”. j. HnaIl,rw..y, Ctr.r,a,L M,. 3..,,.‘31. 1l,id’an,ak cigars and chewing 14..,... 03.1.. 0l,l..k...r.. Clry, CII.. k. 25, 19. 29 Okl.harra City, OIl. tobacco with cigarettes. The rab].e Rerbert !{cover, President, In the letter to the right, United tates of iaeriea, ‘aahington, 33. 13. the superintendent of Deer Mr. President: the National Cigarette I u eratani that while you were 3eeretary of the Interior yon Law Enforcement gave out a. statement saying, ‘There is no agency in the .worli today that is so aeriousi.y affecting the health, e&ucation efficiency League asks President and obaraote of boys and girls as the cigarette habit. iNearly every delinQuent is a cigarette soer.” Herbert Hoover to Dr. C. I., Barber, former President of the e&ico—Phyaieal Research study the problem lsaoeiation of America said, ‘Tb eat way of crime is due to the of ise of cigarettes and. moth .e a a cigarette smoking, c and. any other product that has & kick, is due to the use of cigarettes and. nothing else. That, ‘MOu especially among say legislate all the Volstead .cta, or any other acts you have a mind and.’ unLl to, but you. never will sto; this ways of crime t demoralization American youth. you step the manufacture and saleThigaTii.” Concerning ‘Aerolei,’ ass of the 20 different poisons in the As you read the letter, smoke of a cigarette, Mr. Edison says, ‘rreafly believe aerolein often makes boys insane.” Ami Dr. Forbes uinslow says, ‘Cigarette smoking think about the assump is one of the chief causes of insanity,’ tions Superintendent In view of these and like statements, from other eminent authorities, would. it not be a fine idea for your crime commission of eminent urist5 Jones is making. Then to make a careful stny of the bearing of cigarette snioking upon the ni especially Mr. Roover, since there are forty states of answer the questions that our Union which are trying to protect their tuure citizens from the cigarette evil y passing laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and followon a separate sheet cigarette papers to their youths? ofpaper. If cigarette sacking helps to produce criminals, it may be necessary to prohibit this evil before our crime wave can be ultimately solved (t With great faith in the success of your administration, I an, Moat Qcr.iially,

Superintanlaut, Eatioma.]. Cigarette Law Enforcement League. A2.T/1C, NATIONAL ARCIILVES The a920’.—Doaaran.rat61

QUESTIONS TO Discuss

1. Identifying Assumptions What possible assumptions about cigarette smoking are reflected in Superintendent Jones’s letter? About young people who are cigarette smokers? (3 C 2. On what evidence, if any, might these assumptions be based? IIt 0 3. Why do you think so many young Americans became cigarette smokers C) 0C in the 1920s? 0

Chapter 21 Survey Edition Primary Source Activity • 27 Chapter 11 Modern American History Edition The officers searched where correspondence 1 attached names districts. known Communist What THINK Communists? were thousands following for 2,000 radicals Palmer. damaged On When Meeting You Particular The Our Americans the June often do they alleged and strike activities will bombs,

as INSTRUCTIONS searching The the a (including lists. The and THROUGH 2, the ISSUED list citizen Communists. of rooms addresses © beaten, may also 1919, Party instructions efforts will following McDougal in meeting home people of radicals.

On CONDUCT every are be, arrest will instructions be is his should of bombs January held Communists, arrested should of to and, BY made be America had of home Littell places instance the HISTORY: be all November, The directed the for without THE with been be exploded taken. active Attorney promptly Inc. be the at officers 2, next as thoroughly of given INSTRUCTIONS and the made respect simultaneous U.S. rounded raids all a the against members hearings Communist, morning, socialists, time literature, the to Palmer Communists in and General reveal to and

DrawingConclusions 1920 DEPARTMENT arresting to eight Communist of apprehend up heads the searched. such simultaneously the

and ON where about launched the in cities, radical and raids of

membership REGARDING search. “Palmer he officers,

that deported New officers. the anarchists) in Palmer’s must found. in including all

Labor RAIDS you your United organizations

33 York a the series be Raids.” their are cities By without territory, OF at Party officers attitudes present

cards, Times States, March to 8:30 he one residence JUSTICE of led arrest, held Those of raids bomb trials. P.M. records to published with known irrespective A. America, and toward 1920, the responsible Mitchell are against arrested should in the the that arrest on all and as the the also the the of be of INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING CONDUCT ON RAIDS

Locate and obtain the charter. All records, if not found in the meeting rooms, will probably be found in the home of the Recording Secretary or Financial Secretary, but in every instance, if possible, records should be found and taken. All literature, books, papers, pictures on the walls of the meeting places, should be gathered together and tagged with tags which will be supplied you, with the name and address of the person by whom obtained and where obtained. In searching meeting places, a thorough search should be made and the walls sounded. It is an order of the Government that violence to those apprehended should be scrupulously avoided. Immediately upon the apprehension of the alien, or citizen, search him thoroughly. If found in groups in a meeting room, they should be lined up against the wall and searched. Particular efforts should be made to obtain membership cards on the persons who are taken. Make an absolute search of the individual. No valuables, such as jewelry and moneys, to be taken away from those arrested. After a search has been made of the person arrested you will take all the evidence you have obtained from his person and place in an envelope, which will be furnished you, placing the name, address, contents of the envelope, by whom taken and where, on the outside of the envelope and deliver to me with the alien. Everybody will remain on duty until relieved, without exception. Flashlights, string, tags and envelopes should be carried, as per instructions. In searching rooms of an alien pay particular attention to everything in the room and make a thorough search thereof. You are also warned to take notice “that no violence is to be used.” You will communicate with me by telephone from your several districts, the number of the telephone herewith given. Attached you will find a list of those to be apprehended in your district, and you will also apprehend all those found arrested with these names at the time of the arrest whom you find to be active members of the Communist Party. You are also instructed to use reasonable care and good judgment.

Source: “Raiders Ordered to Make Cleanup Thorough; Warned Against Violence or Taking Valuables,” in the New York Times, January 3, 1920, p. 1.

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(1) a) from MY BOOTLEGGER 1921

Samuel Hopkins Adams

In September 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act which prohibited the sale, manufacture, and import of all “intoxicating beverages.” The Eighteenth Amendment was ratified in support of the Volstead Act in 1920, yet federal agents were unable to successfully enforce these laws. This article from Collier’s magazine describes some of the troubling consequences of Prohibition. THINK THROUGH HISTORY: DrawingConclusions According to this article, why was Prohibition difficult to enforce?

“My bootlegger used to be a good citizen. So did I. He respected and obeyed the law. As I did. Before the Volstead enactment he would never have considered taking part in any furtive or forbidden trade; not any more than I would. But he needed the money, and when he saw his opportunity of making it at the expense of a law which he believed unfair and oppressive, he took it. I wanted liquor to which I had always been accustomed and which I had never abused, and when he offered me opportunity of supplying myself at the expense of a law which I believe unfair and oppressive, I took it. Thus he became an illicit seller and I became an illicit buyer. Together we are successfully defeating and overthrowing the law of the land. Doubtless there are thousands of teams like us all over the country. We represent, I suppose, an abnormal condition of the body politic. My bootlegger is the symptom of it. I, I suspect, am the disease. So writes to me a friend of many years’ standing, a man who has attained success and prominence in his chosen profession, honored, thoughtful, fair- minded, courageous enough to look at himself in relation to the problem under discussion with candor, tenacious of his own rights, respectful of the rights of others, an instinctive believer in law and order, a typical “best citizen.” Yet the phrase “my bootlegger” comes naturally from his pen, a profoundly significant phrase. Back of it lies the implication that the hired violator of law, the criminal who makes his profit out of systematized defiance of the will of the people duly enacted, has become an established institution, partnership in which need not be occasion for shame on the part of a self-respecting citizen. The man who asserts his right or privilege to live on the same basis as in ante-Volstead days now has his bootlegger as he has always had his physician, his lawyer, his tobacconist.

1 The Americans © McDougalLittellInc. FROM MY BOOTLEGGER

So far have we progressed along the road into which prohibition has led us! And here at the turn of the road stands “my bootlegger” pointing the way to contempt of the law, to anarchism, limited to one selected phase, it is true, but essentially corruptive of respect for all law. How widespread and important an institution “my bootlegger” has become may be estimated from any week’s file of the larger newspapers. Everywhere the drink question is to the fore. Properly and logically it should be a dead issue, since for nearly two years we have theoretically banned booze; yet it still holds the center of the stage. As a nation, if the newspapers correctly reflect what most interests us, we sit in rapt contemplation of ourselves in the act of discrediting a law which we enacted only after the maturest and most careful consideration; and if many of us greet the anomalous performance with hisses, millions of others contribute laughter and applause. A stranger, ignorant of our peculiar national psychology, might justifiably suspect a deliberate conspiracy to overthrow the law of the land, with “our leading citizens” and “my bootlegger” as chief conspirators. There is, of course, no such conspiracy. If there were, the situation would be far simpler. Conspiracy is positive action. It can be dealt with positively. The present revulsion is mainly negative. It is an unformulated, almost instinctive campaign of obstruction and nullification; a sullen, contemptuous, resentful determination not to be bound by a restriction upon personal tastes, even though every dictate of patriotism and good citizenship calls for submission. It therefore follows with inevitable logic (does it not?) that the revolt is made up of the lawless and disreputable classes; criminals, wastrels, the vicious, the outcast, the dregs of society? Nothing could be farther from the fact. The people who are in more or less active rebellion against prohibition (that is to say, the law) comprise pillars of the social structure—as well, of course, as many of the other kind—props of church and state, leaders in the professions, the industrial world, and society, men such as the friend from whose letter I quote above; the type which exults in terming itself 100 per cent American. A strange and saddening phenomenon, the solubility of 100 per cent Americanism when it encounters the one-half of 1 per cent alcoholic limit. Taking laws in general, it is practicable to classify as respectable citizens those who obey them and as dubious citizens those who do not. Not so with this National Prohibition Law; there is no such line of cleavage. In fact, there is no clear line of cleavage whatsoever, social, sectional, political, economic, or religious, other than the elementary difference between those who want to take a drink and those who are determined—though most ineffectually thus far— that they shall not take it. The trail of the bootlegger is over us all. From the Mexican border come reports of a reliable supply pouring into States, some of which were dry before the nation voted that way, and are decidedly less dry now. A southern

2 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. FROM MY BOOTLEGGER

California acquaintance tells me: I can go or send across the border to Tia Juana or other places, put in an order, and have the stuff delivered to me, safe and not too expensive, at whichever one of half a dozen spots is most convenient.” The officials on the border estimate that not more than 3 per cent of the contraband is confiscated. San Francisco is well supplied both by land and by water. The “Barbary Coast” resorts are wide open except when warned of occasional spasmodic reactions of official virtue, and “Dago red” flows plentifully at many restaurants. On the Eastern coast the “booze ships,” despite an occasional capture, do a steady traffic. The moonshiner continues to supply the South as he has always done, except that his trade area has broadened to take in the cities as well as the country districts. Along the northern border there is a constant stream of Canadian booze flowing in through systematized channels: from original seller to Canadian representative of bootlegger, thence to boat for transfer across the water, from boat to temporary storage in boathouse on the American side, finally by motor car or van to bootleg headquarters in the city whence it is distributed, There was a time when as high as 3,000 cases a week were coming into Buffalo, mainly by moving van, from the banks of the Niagara River.... The influx into Buffalo via water probably averages 500 cases a week. Yet when I was recently there the local government office had available just two agents for field work! A regiment might successfully have guarded the river frontage, though I am inclined to think that the regiment would have needed a fleet to reenforce it.... If there were no other testimony to the absurdity to which the law has been reduced, the figures of the Department of Commerce for the fiscal year would be enough, showing that $5,000,000 worth of intoxicants were imported into the United States (not including, of course, that brought in by border runners), as against one-tenth of that total in the previous year. One item which may be commended to the thoughtful and law-abiding is 195,000 gallons of whisky, brought in from overseas. All this may be for non-beverage, medical, sacramental, or manufacturing purposes, but as the reported shipments for 1920 were but 32,000 gallons, the inference is that Europe is acting the part of “my bootlegger” on an increasing international scale. It is impossible to study the effects of prohibition over a large area and escape the conviction that never before has there been enacted a law which has bred such widespread corruption, official and unofficial. To hold the law itself responsible is, of course, the shallowest casuistry. The blame must be imputed first to our national spirit of insubordination which bids us refuse allegiance to the will of the majority unless our own private conscience jump with it; second, to the attitude, supine or worse, of those who, having promulgated the law, now cripple their own enactment by negligence of the means to enforce it, as if

3 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. FROM M BOOTLEGGER

a man should build and launch a ship and then leave it, masterless, to the disposal of wind and wave. Prohibition enforced would be at least an honest and worthy experiment. Prohibition half enforced or unenforced is merely an incitement to trickery, lawlessness, blackmail, and extortion. It has hatched a precious brood of lawbreakers ministering to the unashamed demand for stimulants of a public which would blush at the thought of a tacit conspiracy to nullify any other law... The prohibition leaders most skillfully stimulated public opinion to pass the law. They have not inspired it to respect the law. They ceased effective work just when their missionary endeavors were most needed. For—let me repeat it again—new and restrictive laws do not enforce themselves. Hence “my bootlegger.” So long as the prohibition enactment remains, in the minds of a large, determinedly rebellious, otherwise law-abiding and self- respecting minority, as “your law” or “Volstead’s law” or “blue law,” it will continue in its present slow-poisoning process of dry rot. But if ever, by a repetition of the endeavors which enacted it, it can be made to be regarded in any wide sense as “my law,” to be rigorously respected and jealously upheld, then good-by to “my bootlegger” and all that he implies.

Source: “My Bootlegger” by Samuel Hopkins Adams in Collier’s, September 17, 1921. Reprinted in A Cavalcade of Collier’s, edited by Kenneth McArdle (New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, Inc., 1959), pp. 228-237.

4 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. SENATE DEMANDS INFORMATION ON TEAPOT DOME 1922

Teapot Dome was the name of the naval oil reserve in Wyoming that became the focus of a congressional inquiry in the spring of 1922. A decade of litigation eventually revealed that the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had received more than $400,000 in bribes from two oil companies in exchange for exclusive rights to this resource-rich land. This editorial that appeared in the Denver Post was one of the first to break news of preliminary investigations to the public. THINK THROUGH HISTORY: Evaluating Decisions What interests would individual senators have had in pursuing the Teapot Dome investigation?

Washington, April 15th.—The secretary of the interior and the secretary of the navy were requested to inform the senate if negotiations are being conducted for the leasing to private oil interests of 7,000 acres of government oil lands in Wyoming, by a resolution adopted by the senate Saturday by a viva voce vote. The resolution was sponsored by Senator Kendrick, Democrat, of Wyoming.

EDITOR’S NOTE After having made an unpardonable and inexcusable blunder in the leasing of the naval oil reserve in Wyoming to the Sinclair oil interest, purely a Standard Oil company, the secretaries of the navy and interior have issued the statement below, not because it is news, but in a feeble attempt to justify the most serious blunder that the present administration has made up to date. The preposterous idea of getting oil out of the ground where it is stored free and putting it into tanks that cost a lot of money, where loss from evaporation and from other causes are large, where danger from fire, lightning and storm is constant and tremendous, is an absurdity so great as to make all oil people and all sensible people smile and wonder if this is a sample of the efficiency of our naval and interior departments. They leased the entire Teapot dome, the very center of the best oil field in the world; a section five miles long by one mile wide; a section that is supposed to contain over a half a billion dollars worth of oil; and they leased that to one

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company, and did not give a single other person or company in the world a right to bid. It is beginning to look as tho the present administration is heart and soul in harmony with all the big corporation interests in the United States, and that the common everyday fellow is to get very little except the pleasure of paying enormous taxes and help make the corporations of the United States so rich and powerful as to dominate our officials and to pass and construe our laws. That’s what the people of Colorado, Wyoming and the Rocky mountain region are protesting against. It is just such favoritism, based on just such stupid reasons as the secretary of the navy and the secretary of the interior are using to try to justify this awful lease that shakes confidence in our Washington officials. The most powerful corporation of the country gets everything and not an independent oil man in the United States is even given a chance to bid. A few such arbitrary and autocratic deals as this will set the country aflame with protest against these kinds of methods, these kinds of deals, and this kind of favoritism of the government for the powerful and already completely entrenched oil monopoly.

Source: “Senate Demands Information on Deal to Lease Teapot Oil Dome to Private Interests,” Denver Post, April 15, 1922.

2 The Americans © McDougalLittell Inc. from A LETTER REGARDING 1MM IG RATI ON RESTRICTIONS 1924

Louis Marshall

Nearly 1 million immigrants a year flooded the United States following World War I. Congress responded by enacting legislation in 1921 that set a total immigration quota at 350,000 per year and banned all Asian immigration. Three years later, the National Origins Act lowered the quota to 150,000. In this letter written to a woman in favor of immigration quotas, Louis Marshall (1856—1929), one of the leading lawyers of his time and the son of German Jewish immigrants, argues in favor of a culturally diverse America. THINK THROUGH HISTORY: Analyzing Issues Based on your analysis of this document and an understanding of the 1920s, what were some of the specific economic, social, and political issues affecting immigration at that time? Do any of these issues remain relevant today?

If The New York Times quoted me as saying that there was no demand for a restriction of immigration, it was an inaccuracy. Knowing of the existence of the organization of which you are an official and of other similar organizations, I could not possibly have made the remark. What I argued was that there was no reason for the restriction of immigration beyond that contained in the basic Immigration Act of 1917, which I described as a highly selective immigration law. By its terms all persons who are mentally, morally and physically unfit, who are likely to become public charges, who are opposed to organized government, and who are followers of anarchistic and communistic theories, are excluded. If properly administered by an adequate staff of public officials there is no possible doubt in my mind but that the law to which I have referred would prove in every way advantageous to the country. I also called attention to the fact that much of the objection to immigration is due to a lack of understanding of the immigrants who have come to this country and to hatred and prejudice, which, unfortunately, prevail all over the world and which bode ill for the happiness of mankind. I emphasized the fact that, for the first time in our history, we are seeking to legislate along racial, nationalistic and religious lines, to differentiate between the various inhabitants of our country, to create a class spirit, to sow the seeds of jealousy and suspicion, and to forget our finest American traditions and the underlying spirit of our Government. You refer to the members of Congress who have voted against the Immigration

1 The Americans © McDougalLittellInc. FROM A LETTER REGARDING IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS

Bill as being cheap politicians, who pander to what you term “the foreign vote.” May I not retort in kind by saying that there are many Congressmen who voted for the bill who were the cowards and whose votes were dictated by political considerations, knowing as any calm observer must know the great debt which our country owes to its immigrants, who have advanced its development in every direction and who have brought to it noble spiritual, moral and ethical gifts? Taking our population in its entirety, on an average there are not two generations which separate our present population from the steerage of an immigrant ship. Among the most exalted contributors to science in this country are such immigrants as Tesla, Marconi, Steinmetz, Prof. Pupin and Prof. Jacques Loeb. President Wilson’s mother was an immigrant. Both parents of our present Secretary of State were immigrants. I could present to you thousands upon thousands of names the very enumeration of which would afford an unanswerable argument in favor of immigration. Are you aware of the number of immigrants, many of them unnaturalized, who served in our army during the late war, and so far as that is concerned in every war in which we have been engaged, not excluding that of the Revolution? It is a very easy thing to indulge in denunciation, but after all is said and done the record of our industrial, commercial and intellectual life refutes the appeals of fanaticism.... There are others in this country who have made remarks which are inconsistent with American ideals. I refer to those of the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.... Your statement that during this last Congress foreign blocs threatened our Government and the Republican Party if they passed the Johnson bill, is incorrect. Of course foreign governments have nothing to say about our legislation. Under the Constitution it is within the power of Congress to pass any law it desires on the subject of immigration. There are always, however, two ways of reaching a result—one which is right and the other which is wrong; one calculated to give unnecessary offence and irritation, and the other of a conciliatory character. The fact that our honored President—and I speak not only as an American citizen, but also as a Republican—has been greatly embarrassed by the manner in which Congress dealt with the Japanese phase of immigration, shows that it has been attempting to make laws in a superheated atmosphere not congenial to that calm thought which should accompany the formulation of far-reaching national policies. You voice the fervent wish that you can live to see America speaking one language, reading one language, and united in ideals. It is my wish that we shall always have a united country, that it shall not be impervious to the thought that there are other parts of the world in which there are human beings actuated by noble motives who seek the advancement of humanity, that although it is desirable that every person living here shall, as soon as possible, speak and read the English language, I trust that the time will never come when we shall be so chauvinistic as to refuse to be receptive to the intellectual sustenance to be derived from the literatures of other peoples, not only those of England, France, Germany, Italy

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and Spain, but even those of Russia and Poland, and of that language in which the greatest spiritual possession of the world, the Bible, was written. We have been a liberal nation, broad in our sympathy, lofty in our aspirations. Let us not become narrow, provincial and bigoted. If there is one thing more than another that immigration has done for the United States, it has been to give it a wider and more extensive perspective and a better understanding of its mission as a great civilizing influence based upon the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Source: From Louis Marshall: Champion of Liberty, edited by Charles Reznikoff. Used with the permission of the American Jewish Committee.

3 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. THE SULTAN OF SWAT STEALS A WORLD SERIES SHOW 1923

Heywood Broun

George Herman “Babe” Ruth (1895—1948) played for the New York Yankees from 1920 to 1934, stunning audiences with his incredible skill and power. In 1927, he hit more home runs in one season than had any previous player, and more home runs than any other team in the American League. “The Babe” was one of the premier sports celebrities of his day. Newspaper articles such as this one from the New York World elevated Ruth to the status of mythic hero. THINK THROUGH HISTORY: RecognizingBias Do you think the author of this article intended his report to be read for entertainment or as a historical account? Support your opinion with specific examples.

The Ruth is mighty and shall prevail. He did yesterday. Babe made two home runs, and the Yankees won from the Giants at the Polo Grounds by a score of four to two. This evens up the World Series, with one game for each contender. It was the first game the Yankees won from the Giants since October 10, 1921, and it ended a string of eight successive victories for the latter, with one tie thrown in. Victory came to the American League champions through a change in tactics. Miller Huggins could hardly fail to have observed Wednesday that terrible things were almost certain to happen to his men if they paused anyplace along the line from first to home. In order to prevent blunders in base running he wisely decided to eliminate it. The batter who hits a ball into the stands cannot possibly be caught napping off any base. The Yankees prevented Kelly, Frisch, and the rest from performing tricks in black magic by consistently hammering the ball out of the park or into sections of the stand where only amateurs were seated. Though simplicity itself, the system worked like a charm. Three of the Yankees’ four runs were the product of homers, and this was enough for a winning total. Erin Ward was Ruth’s assistant, Irish Meusel of the Giants also made a home run, but yesterday’s show belonged to Ruth. For the first time since coming to New York, Babe achieved his full brilliance in a World Series game. Before this he has varied between pretty good and

1 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. THE SULTAN OF SWAT STEALSA WORLD SERIES SHOW

simply awful, but yesterday he was magnificent. Just before the game John McGraw remarked: “Why shouldn’t we pitch to Ruth? I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, we pitch to better hitters than Ruth in the National League.” Ere the sun had set on McGraw’s rash and presumptuous words, the Babe had flashed across the sky fiery portents which should have been sufficient to strike terror and conviction into the hearts of all infidels. But John McGraw clung to his heresy with a courage worthy of a better cause. In the fourth inning Ruth drove the ball completely out of the premises. McQuillan was pitching at the time, and the count was two balls and one strike. The strike was a fast ball shoulder-high, at which Ruth had lunged with almost comic ferocity and ineptitude. Snyder peeked at the bench to get a signal from McGraw. Catching for the Giants must be a terrific strain on the neck muscles, for apparently it is etiquette to take the signals from the bench manager furtively. The catcher is supposed to pretend he is merely glancing around to see if the girl in the red hat is anywhere in the grandstand, although all the time his eyes are intent on McGraw. Of course the nature of the code is secret, but this time McGraw scratched his nose, to indicate: “Try another of those shoulder-high fast ones on the Big Bam and let’s see if we can’t make him break his back again.” But Babe didn’t break his back, for he had something solid to check his terrific swing. The ball started climbing from the moment it left the plate. It was a pop fly with a brand-new gland and, though it flew high, it also flew far. When last seen the ball was crossing the roof of the stand in deep right field at an altitude of 315 feet. We wonder whether new baseballs conversing together in the original package ever remark: “Join Ruth and see the world.” In the fifth Ruth was up again, and by this time McQuillan had left the park utterly and Jack Bentley was pitching. The count crept up to two strikes and two balls. Snyder sneaked a look at the little logician deep in the dugout. McGraw blinked twice, pulled up his trousers, and thrust the forefinger of his right hand into his left eye. Snyder knew that he meant, “Try the Big Bozo on a slow curve around his knees and don’t forget to throw to first if you happen to drop the third strike.” Snyder called for the delivery as directed, and Ruth half topped a line drive over the wall of the lower stand in right field. With that drive the Babe tied a record. Benny Kauff and Duffy Lewis are the only other players who ever made two home runs in a single World Series game. But was McGraw convinced and did he rush out of the dugout and kneel before Ruth with a cry of “Maestro” as the Babe crossed the plate? He did not. He nibbled at not a single word he has ever uttered in disparagement of the prowess of the Yankee slugger. In the ninth Ruth came to bat with two out and a runner on second base. By every consideration of prudent tactics an intentional pass seemed indicated.

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Snyder jerked his head around and observed that McGraw was blowing his nose. The Giant catcher was puzzled, for that was a signal he had never learned. By a process of pure reasoning he attempted to figure out just what it was that his chief was trying to convey to him. “Maybe he means if we pitch to Ruth we’ll blow the game,” thought Snyder, but he looked toward the bench again just to make sure. Now McGraw intended no signal at all when he blew his nose. That was not tactics, but only a head cold. On the second glance, Snyder observed that the little Napoleon gritted his teeth. Then he proceeded to spell out with the first three fingers of his right hand: “The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders.” That was a signal Snyder recognized, although it had never passed between him and his manager. McGraw was saying: “Pitch to the big bum if he hammers every ball in the park into the North River.” And so, at Snyder’s request, Bentley did pitch to Ruth, and the Babe drove the ball deep into right center; so deep that Casey Stengel could feel the hot breath of the bleacherites on his back as the ball came down and he caught it. If that drive had been just a shade to the right it would have been a third home run for Ruth. As it was, the Babe had a great day, with two home runs, a terrific long fly, and two bases on balls. Neither pass was intentional. For that McGraw should receive due credit. His fame deserves to be recorded along with the men who said, “Lay on, MacDuff,” “Sink me the ship, Master Gunner, split her in twain,” and “I’ll fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” For John McGraw also went down eyes front and his thumb on his nose. Babe Ruth was too much for the baffled Giants. The American League Yankees won the 1923 World Series from the National League champions by a final score of four games to two. During the 1932 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs the Babe performed his greatest feat. The Windy City team, with Root pitching, was giving Ruth an unmerciful riding. He had already hit one home run when he came to bat in the latter part of the game. The entire Cub bench came to the front of the dugout to hurl choice epithets at him. When Ruth missed the first pitch, the Chicago fans roared, whereupon he held up one finger so that everyone could see it. When he swung again and missed, the crowd rocked with laughter and the Cub players hurled more insults. The Babe held up two fingers. Then there were two pitches, pitches wide of the mark. At this point came the magnificent gesture. With his forefinger extended, the Babe pointed to the flagpole in center field to show the pitcher, the Cubs, and the crowd where he was going to wallop the next ball for a home run. He blasted the next ball straight and true out of the park at exactly the point he had predicted. It was an amazing feat, and it is already being denied by baseball historians.

3 The Americans © McDougalLittell Inc. THE SULTANOF SWATSTEALSA WORLD SERIES SHOW

The Babe’s legs gave out at forty, and he retired. He never got the chance to manage a big-league ball club; it was said that nobody could be sure that Ruth could manage himself. When, in the summer of 1948, the Big Fellow died, after a prolonged and cruel illness, some 80,000 fans filed past his bier as he lay in state at Yankee Stadium, “the House that Ruth Built.” “It is part of our national history,” the New York Post’s Jimmy Cannon commented, ‘that all boys dream of being Babe Ruth before they are anyone else.”

Source: “The Sultan of Swat Steals a World Series Show” by Heywood Broun, from New York World, October 12, 1923. Reprinted in A Treasury of Great Reporting, edited by Louis L. Snyder (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949), pp. 414—416.

4 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. from FLAPPER JANE 1925

Bruce Bliven

The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 granted women the right to vote—and fostered new attitudes among many young women. Nowhere was this more evident then in the short skirts, unbuckled boots, loose beads, and heavy makeup of the “flapper.” Daring-minded teenage girls shocked older generations with their outrageous fashions and attitudes, although the author of this magazine article sounds mostly amused. THINK THROUGH HISTORY: AnalyzingCauses, Recognizing Effects Why do you think the push for the vote ushered in an era of new attitudes and fashion among many American women?

Jane’s a flapper. That is a quaint, old-fashioned term, but I hope you remember its meaning. As you can tell by her appellation, Jane is 19... .She urgently denies that she is a member of the younger generation. The younger generation, she will tell you, is aged 15 to 17; and she professes to be decidedly shocked at the things they do and say. .. . Yet if the younger generation shocks her as she says, query: how wild is Jane? Before we come to this exciting question, let us take a look at the young person as she strolls across the lawn of her parents’ suburban home, having just put the car away after driving sixty miles in two hours. She is, for one thing, a very pretty girl. Beauty is the fashion in 1912. She is frankly, heavily made up, not to imitate nature, but for an altogether artificial effect—pallor mortis, poisonously scarlet lips, richly ringed eyes—the latter looking not so much debauched (which is the intention) as diabetic... . And there are, finally, her clothes. These were estimated the other day by some statistician to weigh two pounds.... I doubt they come within half a pound of such bulk. Jane isn’t wearing much, this summer. If you’d like to know exactly, it is: one dress, one step-in, two stockings, two shoes. A step-in, if you are 99 and 44/100 ths percent ignorant, is underwear—one piece, light, exceedingly brief but roomy. Her dress, as you can’t possibly help knowing if you have even one good eye, and get around at all outside the Old People’s Home, is also brief. It is cut low where it might be high, and vice versa. The skirt comes just an inch below her knees, overlapping by a faint fraction her rolled and twisted stockings. The idea is that when she walks in a bit of a breeze, you shall now and then observe the knee (which is not rouged—that’s just newspaper talk) but always in an accidental, Venus-surprised-at-the-bath

1 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. FROM FLAPPER JANE

sort of way. This is a bit of coyness which hardly fits in with Jane’s general character. Jane’s haircut is also abbreviated. She wears of course the very newest thing in bobs, even closer than last year’s shingle. It leaves her just about no hair at all

in the back, and 20 percent more than that in the front.. . .Because of this new style, one can confirm a rumor heard last year; Jane has ears. The corset is as dead as the dodo’s grandfather; no feeble publicity pipings by the manufacturers, or calling it a “clasp around” will enable it, as Jane says, to “do a Lazarus.” The petticoat is even more defunct. Not even a snicker can be raised by telling Jane that once the nation was shattered to its foundations by the shadow-skirt. The brassiere has been abandoned, since 1924.... These which I have described are Jane’s clothes, but they are not merely a flapper uniform. They are The Style, Summer of 1925, Eastern Seaboard. These things and none other are being worn by all of Jane’s sisters and her cousins and her aunts. They are being worn by ladies who are three times Jane’s age, and look ten years older; by those twice her age who look a hundred years older. Their use is so universal that in our larger cities the baggage transfer companies one and all declare they are being forced into bankruptcy. Ladies who used to go away for the summer with six trunks can now pack twenty dainty costumes in a bag. Not since 1820 has feminine apparel been so frankly abbreviated as at present; and never, on this side of the Atlantic, until you go back to the little summer frocks of Pocahontas. This year’s styles have gone quite a long step toward genuine nudity. Nor is this merely the sensible half of the population dressing as everyone ought to, in hot weather. Last winter’s styles weren’t so dissimilar, except that they were covered up by fur coats and you got the full effect only indoors. And improper costumes never have their full force unless worn on the street. Next year’s styles, from all one hears, will be, as they already are on the continent, even More So.... “Jane,” say I, “I am a reporter representing American inquisitiveness. Why do all of you dress the way you do?” “I don’t know,” says Jane. This reply means nothing: it is just the device by which the younger generation gains time to think. Almost at once she adds: “The old girls are doing it because youth is. Everybody wants to be young, now—though they want all us young people to be something else. Funny, isn’t it? “In a way,” says Jane, “it’s just honesty. Women have come down off the pedestal lately. They are tired of this mysterious feminine-charm stuff. Maybe it goes with independence, earning your own living and voting and all that. There was always a bit of the harem in that cover-up-your-arms-and-legs business, don’t you think? “Women still want to be loved,” goes on Jane, warming to her theme, “but they want it on a 50-50 basis, which includes being admired for the qualities they really possess. Dragging in this strange-allurement stuff doesn’t seem sporting. It’s like cheating in games, or lying.”

2 The Americans © McDougalLittellInc. FROM FLAPPER JANE

“Ask me, did the War start all this?” says Jane helpfully. “The answer is, how do I know? How does anybody know? “I read this book whaddaya-call-it by Rose Macaulay, and she showed where they’d been excited about wild youth for three generations anyhow—since 1870. I have a hunch maybe they’ve always been excited. “Somebody wrote in a magazine how the War had upset the balance of the sexes in Europe and the girls over there were wearing the new styles as part of the competition for husbands. Sounds like the bunk to me. If you wanted to nail a man for life I think you’d do better to go in for the old-fashioned line: ‘March me to the altar, esteemed sir, before you learn whether I have limbs or not.’ “Of course, not so many girls are looking for a life meal-ticket nowadays. Lots of them prefer to earn their own living and omit the home-and-baby act. Well, anyhow, postpone it years and years. They think a bachelor girl can and should do everything a bachelor man does. “It’s funny,” says Jane, “that just when women’s clothes are getting scanty, men’s should be going the other way. Look at the Oxford trousers!—as though a man had been caught by the ankles in a flannel quicksand.” Do the morals go with the clothes? Or the clothes with the morals? Or are they independent? These are questions I have not ventured to put to Jane, knowing that her answer would be “so’s your old man.” Generally speaking, however, it is safe to say that as regards the wildness of youth there is a good deal more smoke than fire. Anyhow, the new Era of Undressing, as already suggested, has spread far beyond the boundaries of Jane’s group. The fashion is followed by hordes of unquestionably monogamous matrons, including many who join heartily in the general ululations as to what young people are coming to. Attempts to link the new freedom with prohibition, with the automobile, the decline of Fundamentalism, are certainly without foundation. These may be accessory, and indeed almost certainly are, but only after the fact. That fact is, as Jane says, that women to-day are shaking off the shreds and patches of their age-old servitude. “Feminism” has won a victory so nearly complete that we have even forgotten the fierce challenge which once inhered in the very word. Women have highly resolved that they are just as good as men, and intend to be treated so. They don’t mean to have any more unwanted children. They don’t intend to be debarred from any profession or occupation which they choose to enter. They clearly mean (even though not all of them yet realize it) that in the great game of sexual selection they shall no longer be forced to play the role, simulated or real, of helpless quarry. If they want to wear their heads shaven, as a symbol of defiance against the former fate which for three millennia forced them to dress their heavy locks according to male decrees, they will have their way. If they should elect to go naked nothing is more certain than that naked they will go, while from the sidelines to which he has been relegated mere man is vouchsafed permission only to pipe a feeble Hurrah! Hurrah!

3 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. FROM FLAPPER JANE

Source: ‘Flapper Jane” by Bruce Bliven in The New Republic. Copyright © 1925 The New Republic. Reprinted by permission of The New Republic, Inc.

4 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. from Mi DDLETOWN 1929

Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd

In 1929, Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd published Middletown, a landmark sociological study based on research conducted in 1924—1925 in Muncie, Indiana. Among other findings, the Lynds’ research showed that a typical middle-American city of the mid-1920s had undergone dramatic changes due to the influence of increasing industrialization and the availability of new consumer items. This excerpt examines life within the high school. THINK THROUGH HISTORY: DrawingConclusions What conclusions can you, as a historian, draw through an analysis of this sociological study? Be specific in your response.

ScHooL “LIFE”

Accompanying the formal training afforded by courses of study is another and informal kind of training, particularly during the high school years. The high school, with its athletics, clubs, sororities and fraternities, dances and parties, and other “extracurricular activities,” is a fairly complete social cosmos in itself, and about this city within a city the social life of the intermediate generation centers. Here the social sifting devices of their elders—money, clothes, personal attractiveness, male physical prowess, exclusive clubs, election to positions of leadership—are all for the first time set going with a population as yet largely undifferentiated save as regards their business class and working class parents. This informal training is not a preparation for a vague future that must be taken on trust, as is the case with so much of the academic work; to many of the boys and girls in high school this is “the life,” the thing they personally like best about going to school. The school is taking over more and more of the child’s waking life. Both high school and grades have departed from the attitude of fifty years ago, when the Board directed: “Pupils shall not be permitted to remain on the school grounds after dismissal. The teachers shall often remind the pupils that the first duty when dismissed is to proceed quietly and directly home to render all needed assistance to their parents.”

Today the school is becoming not a place to which children go from their homes for a few hours daily but a place from which they go home to eat and sleep.

1 The Americans © McDougal LittellInc. FROM MIDDLETOWN

This whole spontaneous life of the intermediate generation that clusters about the formal nucleus of school studies becomes focused, articulate, and even rendered important in the eyes of adults through the medium of the school athletic teams—the ‘Bearcats.” The business man may “lay down the law” to his adolescent son or daughter at home and patronize their friends, but in the basket ball grandstand he is if anything a little less important than these youngsters of his who actually mingle daily with those five boys who wear the colors of “Magic Middletown.” There were no high school teams in 1890. Today, during the height of the basket-ball season when all the cities and towns of the state are fighting for the state championship amidst the delirious backing of the rival citizens, the dominance of this sport is as all-pervasive as football in a college like Dartmouth or Princeton the week of the “big game.” At other times dances, dramatics, and other interests may bulk larger, but it is the “Bearcats,” particularly the basket-ball team, that dominate the life of the school. Says the prologue to the high school annual: “The Bearcat spirit has permeated our high school in the last few years and pushed it into the prominence that it now holds. The ‘24 Magician has endeavored to catch, reflect and record this spirit because it has been so evident this year. We hope that after you have glanced at this book for the first time, this spirit will be evident to you. “However, most of all, we hope that in perhaps twenty years, if you become tired of this old world, you will pick up this book and it will restore to you the spirit, pep, and enthusiasm of the old Bearcat Days’ and will inspire in you better things.” Every issue of the high school weekly bears proudly the following “Platform”: “1. To support live school organizations. “2. To recognize worth-while individual student achievements. “3. Above all to foster the real ‘Bearcat’ spirit in all of Central High School.” Curricular and social interests tend to conform. Friday nights throughout the season are preempted for games: the Mothers’ Council, recognizing that every Saturday night had its own social event, urged that other dances be held on Friday nights instead of school nights, but every request was met with the rejoinder that “Friday is basket-ball night.” This activity, so enthusiastically supported, is largely vicarious. The press complains that only about forty boys are prominent enough in athletics to win varsity sweaters. In the case of the girls it is almost 100 per cent vicarious. Girls play some informal basket-ball and there is a Girls’ Athletic Club which has a monogram and social meetings. But the interest of the girls in athletics is an interest in the activities of the young males. “My daughter plans to go to the University of———,” said one mother, “because she says, ‘Mother, Ijust couldn’t

2 The Americans © McDougal Littefl Inc. FROM MIDDLETOWN

go to a college whose athletics I couldn’t be proud of!” The highest honor a senior boy can have is captaincy of the football or basket-ball team, although, as one senior girl explained, “Every member is almost as much admired.” Less spectacular than athletics but bulking even larger in time demands is the network of organizations that serve to break the nearly two thousand individuals composing the high school microcosm into the more intimate groups human beings demand. These groups are mainly of three kinds: the purely social clubs, in the main a stepping down of the social system of adults; a long distance behind in point of prestige, clubs formed around curriculum activities: and, even farther behind, a few groups sponsored by the religious systems of the adults.... “When do you study?” some one asked a clever high school Senior who had just finished recounting her week of club meetings, committee meetings, and dances, ending with three parties the night before. “Oh, in civics I know more or less about politics, so it’s easy to talk and I don’t have to study that. In English we’re reading plays and I can just look at the end of the play and know about that. Typewriting and chemistry I don’t have to study outside anyway. Virgil is worst, but I’ve stuck out Latin four years for the Virgil banquet; Ijust sit next to———and get it from her. Mother jumps on me for never studying, but I get A’s all the time, so she can’t say anything.”

The relative status of academic excellence and other qualities is fairly revealed in the candid rejoinder of one of the keenest and most popular girls in the school to the question, “What makes a girl eligible for a leading high school club?”

“The chief thing is if the boys like you and you can get them for the dances,” she replied. “Then, if your mother belongs to a graduate chapter that’s pretty sure to get you in. Good looks and clothes don’t necessarily get you in, and being good in your studies doesn’t necessarily keep you out unless you’re a ‘grind.’ Same way with the boys—the big thing there is being on the basket-ball or football team. A fellow who’s just a good student rates pretty low. Being good-looking, a good dancer, and your family owning a car all help.”...

In this bustle of activity young Middletown swims along in a world as real and perhaps even more zestful than that in which its parents move. Small wonder that a local paper comments editorially, “It is a revelation to old-timers to learn that a genuine boy of the most boyish type nowadays likes to go to school.” “Oh, yes, they have a much better time,” rejoined the energetic father of a high school boy to a question asked informally of a tableful of men at a Kiwanis luncheon as to whether boys really have a better time in school than they did thirty-five years ago or whether they simply have more things. “No doubt about it!” added another. “When I graduated early in the nineties there weren’t many boys—only two in our class, and a dozen girls. All our studies seemed very far away from real life, but today—they’ve got shop work and athletics, and it’s all nearer what a boy’s

3 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. FROM MIDDLETOWN interested in” The relative disregard of most people in Middletown for teachers and for the content of books, on the one hand, and the exalted position of the social and athletic activities of the schools, on the other, offer an interesting commentary on Middletown’s attitude toward education. And yet Middletown places large faith in going to school. The heated opposition to compulsory education in the nineties has virtually disappeared; only three of the 124 working class families interviewed voiced even the mildest impatience at it. Parents insist upon more and more education as part of their children’s birthright; editors and lecturers point to education as a solution for every kind of social ill; the local press proclaims, “Public Schools of [Middletowni Are the City’s Pride”; woman’s club papers speak of the home, the church, and the school as the “foundations” of Middletown’s culture. Education is a faith, a religion, to Middletown,...

Source: Excerpt from Middletown: A Study in American Culture by Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd (Harcourt Brace and Company, 1929). Used by permission of Staughton Lynd.

4 The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc. 204 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American Hictory, Volume 2 The NAACP Program of 1919 205

5. Defense against lynching and burning at the The NAACP hands of mobs. 6. Equal service on railroad and other public “The Task for the Future—A Program for Program of 1919 carriers. This to mean sleeping car service, dining 1919.” car service, Pullman service, at the same cost and (1919) upon the same terms as other passengers. 7. Equal right to use of public parks, libraries and other community In the late i 800s, African Americans in the United services for which he is taxed. States suffered numerous setbacks. In the South laws 8. An equal chance for a livelihood in public legalizing racial segregation were passed. Other laws and private employment. 9. The abolition kept blacks from voting. In the North blacks faced of color-hyphenation and the substitution of ‘straight Americanism.” economic and social barriers, Throughout the country, If it were not a painful fact that more than lynchings of blacks made headlines. four-fifths of the colored people of the country are In 1910 a group of blacks and whites joined denied the above named elementary rights, it would together to form the National Association for the seem an absurdity that an organization is necessary Advancement of Colored People INAACP) in an to demand for American citizens the exercise of effort to secure equal protection under the Constitution such rights, One would think, if he were from Mars, for blacks. At the end of its first decade of existence or if he knew America only by reading the speeches in 1919, the organization published a document that of her leading statesmen, that all that would be need clearly stated its goals and objectives. As you read ful would be to apply to the courts of the land the document, try to determine the main objective of and to the legislatures. Has not slavery been abol

ished? • the NAACP at the time the document was written. Are not all men equal before the law? Were • Are not all not the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments passed men equal by the Congress of the United States and adopted before the law? irst and foremost among the objectives for 1919 by the States? Is not the Negro a man and a citizen? F must be the strengthening of the Association’s When the fundamental rights of citizens are organization and resources. Its general program must so wantonly denied and that denial justified and be adapted to specific ends. Its chief aims have many defended as it is by the lawmakers and dominant times been stated: forces of so large a number of our states, it can be 1. A vote for every Negro man and woman realized that the fight for the Negro’s citizenship on the same terms as for white men and women. rights means a Fundamental battle for real things, 2. An equal chance to acquire the kind of an for life and liberty. education that will enable the Negro everywhere This fight is the Negro’s fight. “Who would wisely to use this vote. he free, himself must strike the blow.” But, it is no 3. A fair trial in courts for all crimes of which less the white man’s fight. The common citizenship he is accused, by judges in whose election he has rights of no group of people, to say nothing of participated without discrimination because of race. nearly 12,000,000 of them, can be denied with 4. A right to sit upon the jury which passes impunity [without any costj to the State and the judgment upon him. social order which denies them. This fact should 206 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings inAmer can Histoiy, Volume 2 TbeNAACPPrograinoflQI9 207

be plain to the dullest mind among us, with the upheavals of Europe before our very eyes. Whoso loves America and cherishes its institutions, owes it to himself and his country to join hands with the members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to “Americanize” America and make the kind of democracy we Ameri cans believe in to be the kind of democracy we shall have in fact, as well as in theory. The Association seeks to overthrow race preju dice but its objective may better be described as a fight against caste. Those who seek to separate the Negro from the rest of Americans are intent upon establishing a caste system in America and making of all black men an inferior caste. As America could not exist “half slave and half free” so it cannot exist with an upper caste of whites and a lower caste of Negroes. Let no one be deceived by those who would contend that they strive only to maintain long of right to no separate class of the people but The National Associa “the purity of the white race” and that they wish to all the people, and to them as individuals. The tion for the Advance to separate the races but to do no injustice to the constitution and the laws are for the protection of ment of Colored People black man. The appeal is to history which affords the minority and of the unpopular, no less than (NAACP), whose early no example of any group or element of the population for the favorites of fortune, or they are of no meaning offices are shown here, of any nation which was separated from the rest as American instruments of the government. became a very effective and at the same time treated with justice and consid Such a fight as has been outlined is worthy of political organization eration. Ask the Jew who was compelled [forced] the support of all Americans. The forces which seek fighting for civil rights to live in the proscribed Ghetto whether being held to deny, and do deny, to the Negro his citizenship of African Americans. separate he was afforded the common rights of citi birthright, are powerful and intrenched. They hold zenship and “equal protection of the laws?” To raise the public offices. They administer the law. They the question is to find the answer “leaping to the say who may, and who may not vote, in large mea eyes,” as the French say. sure. They control and edit, in many sections, the Nor should any one be led astray by the tire influential organs [publications] of public opinion. some talk about “social equality.” Social equality is They dominate. To dislodge them by legal and con a private question which may well be left to individual stitutional means as the N.A.A.C.P. proposes to en decision. But, the prejudices of individuals cannot deavor to dislodge them, requires a strong be accepted as the controlling policy of a state. organization and ample funds. These two things at The National Association for the Advancement of tained, victory is but a question of time, since justice Colored People is concerned primarily with public will not forever be denied. ecluality. America is a nation—not a private club. The The lines along which the Association can best privileges no less than the duties of citizenship be- work are fairly clear, Its fight is of the brain and 208 Eyewitnesses and Othm: Readings in American History, Volume 2 The NAACP Program of 1919 209

the soul and to the brain and soul of America. It colored people are denied the commonest citizenship seeks to reach I the conscience of America. America is a large rights, must be brought home to all Americans who and busy nation. It has many things to think of love fair play. Once again, money is needed. besides the Negro’s welfare. In Congress and state The facts must be gathered and assembled. This requires legislatures and before the bar of public opinion, effort. Facts are not gotten out of one’s imagination. the Association must energetically and adequately Their gathering and interpretation is skilled work. defend the Negro’s right to fair and equal treatment. Research workers of a practical experience are To command the interest and hold the attention needed. Field investigations, in which domain the of the American people for justice to the Negro requires Association has already made some notable contribu money to print and circulate literature which states tions, are essential to good work. More money. the facts of the situation. And the appeal must be The country must be thoroughly organized. The Asso on the basis of the facts. It is easy to talk in general ciation’s nearly 200 branches are a good beginning. terms and abstractly. The presentation of concrete A field staff is essential to the upbuilding of this data necessitates ample funds. important branch development. A very large percent Lynching must be stopped. Many Americans do not age of the branch members are colored people, As believe that such horrible things happen as do happen a race they have less means, and less experience in when Negroes are lynched and burned at the stake. public organization, than white people. But, they Lynching can be stopped when we can reach the are developing rapidly habits of efficiency in organi htarts and consciences of the American people. zation. Money, again is needed. Again, money is needed. But, not money alone is needed. Men and women Legal work must be done. Defenseless Negroes are are vital to success. Public opinion is the main force every day denied the “equal protection of the laws” upon which the Association relies for a victory of because there is not money enough in the Associa justice. tion’s treasury to defend them, either as individuals or as a race. Legislation must be watched. Good laws must be REVIEWING THE READING promoted wherever that be possible and bad laws 1. What do you think was the main objective opposed and defeated, wherever possible. Once of the NAACP at the time the document more, money is essential. was written? The public must be kept informed. This means a regular 2, According press service under the supervision of a trained news to the document, why should all Americans, paper man who knows the difference between news black and white, be con cerned with and gossip, on the one hand, and mere opinion on democracy for blacks? the other. That colored people are contributing their 3. Using Your Historical imagination. Why fair share to the well-being of America must be made do you think the NAACP placed greater known. The war has made familiar the heroic deeds emphasis on public equality than on social of the colored soldier. The colored civilian has been, equality? Do you think that one could be and is now, contributing equally to America’s welfare. achieved without the other? Explain your If men have proven to be heroes in warfare, they answer. must have had virtues in peace time. That law-abiding 210 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American History, Volume 2 A Novelist’s Portrait ofHeniy Ford 211

dreamlike smoothness. There was none of the bumping common

A Novelist’s Portrait even to a streetcar. . . . By this time the boulevard had been and automobileer, letting a lever fall a little, From The Bq Money by reached, the John Dos Passos. of Henry Ford let her out. Whiz! She picked up speed with infinite rapidity. As she ran on there was a clattering behind, the new noise (ca. 1920) of the automobile.” For twenty years or more, Americans coming of age in the early 19205 faced a world their parents had not even dreamed of. Industri ever since he’d left his father’s farm when he machineshop, alization and technology were was sixteen to get a job in a Detroit expanding at a dizzying Henry Ford had been nuts about machinery. First rate. Radios, airplanes, and automobiles were common it was watches, then he designed a steamtractor, sights. The Jazz Age was in full swing. People then he built a horseless carriage with an engine swarmed to the movies and to sporting events. For adapted from the Otto gasengine he’d read about most people times were good. in The World of Science, then a mechanical buggy with Henry Ford, one of America’s greatest industrial a one cylinder fourcycle motor, that would run for pioneers, helped bring about those good times. Ford ward but not back1 helped change the automobile from a toy for the rich at last, in ninetyeight, he felt he was far enough to a practical form of transportation for the common along to risk throwing up his job with Detroit Edison person. The following selection is an excerpt from a Company, where he’d worked his way up from night novel written by American author John Dos Passos. fireman to chief engineer, to put all his time into In it the author uses an almost poetic style of writing— working on a new gasoline engine, often ignoring the spacing and punctuation usually Un the late eighties he’d met Edison at a meeting found in narratives—to characterize many of the of electriclight employees in Atlantic City. He’d gone events and people of the early twentieth century. up to Edison after Edison had delivered an address As and asked him if thought gasoline was practical as you read the author’s characterization of Henry Ford, a motor fuel. Edison had said yes. If Edison said it, try to determine how Ford’s production methods revolu it was true. Edison was the great admiration of Henry tionized the automobile industry. Ford’s life)1 and in driving his mechanical buggy, sitting II r. Ford the automobileer,” the featurewriter t.vrote in there at the lever jauntily dressed in a tight-buttoned 1900, jacket and high collar and a derby hat, back and “Mr. Ford the automobileer began by giving his steed forth over the level ilipaved streets of Detroit, three or four sharp jerks with the lever at the righthand side scaring the big brewery horses and the skinny of the seat; that is, he pulled the lever up and down sharply trotting horses and the sleekrumped pacers with the in order, as he said, to mix air with gasoline and drive the motor’s loud explosions,

charge into the exploding cylinder. . . . Mr. Ford slipped a looking for men scatterbrained enough to invest small electric switch handle and there followed a puff, puff, money in a factory for building automobiles.

puff. . . . The puffing of the machine assumed a higher key. He was the eldest son of an Irish immigrant She was flying along about eight miles an hour. The ruts in who during the Civil War had married the daughter the road were deep, but the machine certainly went with a of a prosperous Pennsylvania Dutch farmer and 212 Eyewitnesses and Othess: Rsadings in American History, Volume 2 A NovelisD’s Portrait ofHenry Ford 213

Engine Company that built engines for steamboats, by giving him forty acres of land. Young Henry built himself an uptodate square white dwellinghouse with a false mansard roof [roof with two slopes on each of four sides] and married and settled down on the farm, but he let the hired men do the farming, he bought himself a buzzsaw and rented a sta tionary engine and cut the timber off the woodlots. He was a thrifty young man who never drank or smoked or gambled or coveted his neighbor’s wife, but he couldn’t stand living on the farm. He moved to Detroit, and in the brick barn behind his house tinkered for years in his spare time with a mechanical buggy that would be light enough to run over the clayey wagonroads of Wayne County, Michigan. By 1900 he had a practicable car to promote. He was forty years old before the Ford Motor Company was started and production began to move. Speed was the first thing the early automobile This photograph from manufacturers went after, Races advertised the makes 1919 shows Henry of cars. Ford seated in his office. Henry Ford himself hung up several records at the track at Grosse Pointe and on the ice on settled down to farming near Dearborn in Wayne Lake St. Clair. In his 999 he did the mile in thirtynine County, Michigan, and fourfifths seconds. like plenty of other Americans, young Henry But it had always been his custom to hire others grew up hating the endless sogging through the to do the heavy work. The speed he was busy with mud about the chores, the hauling and pitching ma was speed in production, the records in efficient nure, the kerosene lamps to clean, the irk and sweat output. He hired Barney Oldfield, a stunt bicyclerider and solitude of the farm. from Salt Lake City, to do the racing for him. He was a slender, active youngster, a good Henry Ford had ideas about other things than skater, clever with his hands, what he liked was to the designing of motors, carburetors, magnetos, jigs tend the machinery and let the others do the heavy and fixtures, punches and dies, he had ideas about work. His mother had told him not to drink, smoke, sales: gamble, or go Into debt, and he never did. that the big money was in economical quantity When he was in his early twenties his father production, quick turnover, cheap interchangeable tried to get him back from Detroit, where he was easilyreplaced standardized parts: working as mechanic and repairman for the Drydock it wasn’t until 1909, after years of arguing with 214 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American Histoiy, Volume 2 A Novelist’s Portrait of Herny Ford 215

his partners, that Ford put out the First Model T. But that five dollars a day Henry Ford was right. paid to good, clean American workmen That season he sold more than ten thousand who didn’t drink or smoke cigarettes or read tin lizzies, ten years later he was selling almost a or think, million a year. and who didn’t commit adultery In these years the Taylor plan was stirring up and whose wives didn’t take in boarders, plantmanagers and manufacturers all over the coun made America once more the Yukon [reference try. Efficiency was the word. The same ingenuity to the Alaska gold rush I of the sweated workers of that went into improving the performance of a ma the world, chine could go into improving the performance of made all the tin lizzies and the automotive age, the workmen producing the machine. and incidentally, • • • In 1913 In 1913 they established the assemblyline at made Henry Ford the automobileer, the admirer they established Ford’s. That season the profits were something like of Edison, the birdlover, the assembly line twentyfive million dollars, but they had trouble in the great American of his time. at Ford’s. keeping the men on the job, machinists didn’t seem to like it at Ford’s. Henry Ford had ideas about other things than production. REVIEWING THE READING He was the largest automobile manufacturer 1. in what way did Ford revolutionize the in the world1 he paid high wages, maybe if the steady automobile industry? How did his new workers thought they were getting a cut (a very methods make it possible for the common small cut) in the profits, it would give trained men person to buy a car for the first time? an inducement [a reason] to stick to their jobs, 2. Why did Ford give his welipaid workers might save enough money to workers a small cut in the profits buy a tin lizzie1 the first day Ford’s announcement of the company? that cleancut properlymarried American workers who 3. Using Your Historical Imagination. wanted jobs had a chance to make Five bucks a Henry Ford and many other industrialists day (of course it turned out that there were strings of his time were opposed to labor unions to it, always there were strings to it) and laws governing the rights of workers. such an enormous crowd waited outside the What policies do you think workers at Highland Park plant the Ford plant might have changed if they all through the zero January night had had a choice? that there was a riot when the gates were opened, cops broke heads, jobhunters threw bricks, property, Henry Ford’s own property, was destroyed. The company dicks [armed guards] had to turn on the firehose to beat back the crowd. The American Plan automotive prosperity seep ing down from above, it turned out there were strings to it. 216 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American Histoiy, Volume 2 A Minister Calls for Christian Unity 217

And this necessity A Minister Calls is being forced home upon us for from many sides. Hard facts are driving us to see Iroin The Call 1a Unity: the evils, and the perils of The Bedell Lectures Christian Unity our present situation. for The outbreak 1919 Dclij’ered at Kenvon of the world war burned into our (.olleqe May 24th and (1920) souls the weaknesses of a divided Christianity. 25th, 1920, bvWiIIiamT. We saw that, Manning. as a power to preserve peace among men, the Church did not seriously count. Its voice In the sixteenth century, a phenomenal religious up— was not heard speaking unitedly and clearly for heava i—the Reformation—took place in Europe and principles those of justice and righteousness upon which resulted in the founding of Protestantism and the break alone peace can rest. Its influence in the hour of ing away of millions of Christians from the Roman the world’s crisis was negligible. And the whole Catholic church. Over the centuries, groups of religious course of events since has served to make this inade reformers formed many different denominations quacy clearer of to us. Whatever explanation, or de Christian churches, each fense, or palliation with its own doctrines and [excuse] there may be for them, traditions. it is plain that our divisions are a disaster to cause the By the twentieth century, there was a growing of Christ. Before the present unprecedented need of the world, concern among many Christian leaders about the the Christian Church stands with her life enfeebled, lack of cooperation among the churches. Many believed her witness weakened, her message in large that this lack of cooperation was interfering measure discredited by her own differences tvith and the ability of any of the churches to be truly dissensions [disagreements]. effective Christian in bringing the message of Christianity Unity is no mere ecclesiastical [reli to the world. gious] problem. In the following excerpt It is the greatest, and the most far from his book of collected reaching of all present day questions. It lies back lectures, William T. Manning, Rector of Trinity of, and holds the key to, all our other problems, Church in New York, calls for Christian unity. As national and international, social, political and you read the selection, written in 1 920, try to determine nomic. eco As men face the tremendous responsibilities the reasons that Manning and others believed Christian and tasks of this new time, they are feeling the unity was so important. need of support and guidance. They know that if there is to be a new order it must be filled with a new spirit. They are looking he whole world to-day is moved by the thought for moral and spiritual strength and help. But they of fellowship. It is not surprising therefore that are not looking, with T confidence, to the Church we feel more than ever the incongruity [disharmony] for this, A disunited A disunited Church cannot call forth of our lack of fellowship in the Christian Church. the faith of men, nor give the message of Christ Church cannot The desire for fellowship among Christians to the world. Its own inconsis has in tency, and self-contradiction call forth the fact reached a new point of progress. It has ceased are too evident. How can the world learn the faith of to be merely a pious aspiration [religious hope], Gospel of fellowship from an organization which is and has become a world wide movement. Never at variance with itself? What men power is there in since the divisions in the Church an appeal for a united world issued of Christ took by a divided Church? place has the need What force is there in a of reunion been felt as it is now. for brotherhood plea by those who fail to give evidence 218 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American History, Volume 2 A Minister Callsfor Christian Unity 219

order of cooperation, fellowship, brotherhood is to be established. In all this the Church should be not a spectator, nor a mere sympathetic influence, but the great guiding power. The one true hope for the world is that these movements shall be actu ated [motivated] by the spirit, and the principles, of Christ. There should now be a world-wide call from the Church for a redeemed social order, in which the spirit and law of Christ shall rule, for the bringing of Christian principles into the whole fabric of modern civilization1 for the Christianization Episcopal minister Wi! of every department of life. Who but the Church (jam T. Manning was can issue such a call? What other power but that one of the first American of religion is able to bring the spirit of brotherhood Protestants to argue for into human relationships and “to make justice and greater cooperation be love the controlling motive in all social conditions”? tween Christian denomi But her own divided state makes it impossible for nations in the United the Church to give such a call with effect. “Doth a States. fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” Can a Church which is divided by the of brotherlinesS? Such an appeal suggests at once spirit of sect liberate men’s hearts from the spirit the retort: ‘Physician, heal thyself,” of class and of caste? Can a Church which maintains The Christian Church is commissioned to show barriers of religious antagonism and division be the the world the true meaning of human brotherhood. herald of cooperation, and of the common life? Can It is for this that the Church is set here among a Church in which men are separated into competi men. It is to preach and to be, the truest realization tive and rival groups preach effectively the social of fellowship ever seen on this earth1 a fellowship message of the Gospel? In his interesting essay on which transcends all bounds of nation, or race, or “Christianity and the Working Classes,” Mr. Arthur color1 a fellowship blessed, made holy and complete, Henderson very pointedly asks “Is Christianity, as in oneness with Jesus Christ. This fellowship was we have it represented to-day, split up as it is into to be the proof of the Church’s Divine mission and almost innumerable denominational churches, capa of the power of Him in Whose Name she speaks. ble of dealing adequately with the growing forces While the Church fails to furnish this proof, can of reaction?” and he adds: “However much Christians we wonder if the world listens to her message with may console themselves that a Church divided into doubt and uncertainty? numerous sects is justified and, as many think, a The Church should be the inspiration and guid source of strength, the multitude is slow to believe ing force of the present movements for social ad in a Christianity so divided.” vance. Changes far greater than any of us realize Of the practical waste, the squandering of are taking place. We have entered into a new era. energy, time and resources, occasioned by our Vast problems are pressing for solution. The truer divisions it is scarcely necessary to speak. We see ____

220 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American History, Volume 2 j A Portrait ofFDR,fro,n Sunrise at Campobello 221

the evidences of this on every hand. It is obvious that the energies, which as Christians, we devote A Portrait of FDR, to controversy and conflict with each other should be concentrated on the one great purpose for which from Sunrise at From Sunrise at the Church exists. But the overlapping, Campobello by Dore the duplica Schary. tion of effort, the competition and rivalry among Campobello (1924) Christians are worse than mere waste of power, seri ous as this is. They are a spectacle which lessens In June 1924 Franklin the faith of men, Delano Roosevelt, who would which brings religion into disrepute later become the [disfavor], and which does daily hurt the thirty-second president of the United to cause States, clicked of Christ. Men generally are not hostile to religion, heavy braces into place on his legs, but the message of Christ seems to them confused positioned crutches under his arms, and slowly began and uncertain. Amid the controversies of the a long ten steps forward. Then, leaning against the churches they cannot hear the great central message lectern for support, Roosevelt electrfied the delegates of the Church. The fact which they see clearly is of the Democratic convention with a rousing speech that, however the divisions may be accounted for, nominating Alfred E. Smith for president. they conflict with the Church’s own teaching, and More than 30 years later, playwright Dory contradict her own fundamental principles. They Schaiy captivated theater audiences with his play know that whatever else the Church of Christ stands Sunrise at Campobello. The play dramatically for it must, it if truly represents Him, stand for har captured Roosevelt’s struggle from the onset of the mony, not f’or discord, for peace, not for dissension, polio that crippled him in 1921 to his courageous for fellowship, brotherhood and love. A divided return to the political arena at the 1924 Church is giving us a non-believing world. Democratic convention. As you read the final two scenes from the play, consider the courage Roosevelt displayed REVIEWING THE READING as he faced those ten dfflcult steps. 1. What reasons did Manning give to sup port his call for Christian unity? Scene Two 2. According to Manning, what is the pri e are in a small room of Madison Square Garden. mary purpose of the Christian church? We are aware of the roaring sound of the Convention How does he believe churches have failed hail, which is swarming with delegates. The sound is constant and in this mission? present in the room, but not loud enough to distract us. It is June 26, 1924, about 11:30 P.M. 3. Using Your Historical Imagination. Why In the room is FDR, seated in a more conventional do you think the minister believed that wheel chair than the ones he has used in his home, the period of time in which he spoke— He is bronzed and beaming with vitality. JAMES, the eldest in 1920—was a good time to call for unity son, stands near the back wall, on which his father’s of the Christian churches after so many crutches lean. ELEANOR [Eleanor Roosevelt, centuries of diSunity? FDR’s wife] is seated to the left of FDR, knitting. HOWE [Louis M. Howe, aide and close advisor to FDR] is standing by. Missy 222 Eyewitnesses and Othm: Readings inAmerian Hictory, Volume 2 A Portrait Of FDR,frOIn Sunrise at Campobello 223

[Missy LeHand, FDR’s private secretary] is seated to FDR: Jimmy— the right of FDR. A uniformed POLICEMAN is on duty, JIMMY: I’ve got them, Father. guarding the door. A screen is in one corner of the room, (JIMMY takes the braces from the desk and goes behind large enough to cover FDR and his wheel chair. FDR’s the screen with FDR. HOWE takes braces a step toward the are on the desk. A roar goes up outside. HOWE looks screen and calls over) at his watch. HOWE: Franklin, I want to take another crack at you about the finish of the speech. FDR: (Back HOWE: That, very likely is the finish of Miss of the screen) Louie, not again. Kennedy’s address to the brethren. HowE: Yes, again. Listen, Franklin, this phrase of ELEANOR: Now what’ Proskauer’s is a rich one, and I think you’re HOWE: Now Bill Sweet, to second the nomination murdering it by not using it at the finish. of McAdoo—then the roll call—and if FDR: (Back of the screen) It’s close enough to the finish. Connecticut remembers its cue, it yields to New HOWE: I think it ought to York—and— be the last thing you say. “I give you—the Happy Warrior of the (He points to FDR) Political Battlefield—Al Smith.” Period, Crash. FDR: Then they get one half-hour of little ol’ me. FDR: (Back of the screen) I don’t think so. Period. Crash. (DALY, a young man, dashes in. He is frantic) HoWE: You’re wrong. It’s a sock phrase and will DALY: Mr. Roosevelt, I’ve checked everything again stick. It ought to be the punch line. and again—and everything should be all right. ELEANOR: Franklin, may I say a word? FDR: I’m certain it will be, Daly. FDR: (Back of the screen) Certainly. If you’re going DALY: You’re feeling okay? to agree with me. FDR: (Nodding) Fine. ELEANOR: Then I’ve nothing to say. DALY: Is there anything I can do for you, sir? FDR: (Back of the screen, annoyed) That’s FDR: No, thank hardly a sign you. of wifely devotion. HOWE: (Noticing DALY’S tension) Say, Daly— HOWE: Your being here and doing this is the DALY: Yes— most important thing. I only feel you’re losing the value HowE: I’d like to make sure that everything is on of the last minute or two of a good speech. schedule. Take a look—size up the crowd—get FDR: (Back of the screen) Louie—I’m not sold on some impressions and then report back. Will you changing it. I’m sorry. do that? HOWE: Further deponent [one who gives sworn DALY: Of course. testimony] sayeth not. HowE: Thanks. Thanks very much. (At that moment FDR appears with JIMMY from behind (HOWE motions to MissY to open the door. She does, the screen) as DALY approaches it. We see the POLICEMAN and JIMMY: Did I get it too tight, Father? hear the crowd, louder now. DALY goes out, and the FDR: I don’t think so, Jimmy. No, that’s fine. door closes) (At this moment SAa FDR: Thanks, ROOSEVELT enters. The noise Louie. is suddenly louder.) HOWE: I wasn’t thinking about you. He was driving SARA: Franklin, they hardly let me crazy. (He crosses me through to you— to FDR) You’d better get ready, FDR: Mama, ever the Franklin. lady. You came in just at the right time—just as I stepped into my pants. 224 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American History, Volume 2 A Portrait ofFDR, from Sunrise at Campobello 225

SAi: Oh, Franklin— FDR: Welcome to the smoke-Filled back room of politics. SARA: That howling mob outside is frightening. • . . That FDR: That howling mob consists of ladies and howling mob gentlemen conducting the business of democracy. consists of ladies SARA: How anything of consequence can be and gentlemen accomplished out of such a babble is a miracle. FDR: Mama—I’m all for conducting the noisy congregations. God help us if our conventions ever turn into high business of school pageants. democracy. SARA: Franklin, this is hardly the time to give me lessons in politics. I wanted only a moment to say God bless you. FDR: (Simply) He has given me many blessings. (SARA kisses him) SARA: And, Franklin, speak out loudly and clearly. (SARA exits) HowE: Franklin, if I know Mama, in a couple of months she’ll be working on a political primer. (He looks at his watch) I know this is awful—but I’m getting nervous. FDR: Thanks, Missy. For everything. This 1924 photo shows ELEANOR: And I have dropped three stitches. (Missy starts for the door) Franklin Delano Roose FDR: He’s only been on a few minutes. It just seems DALY: Good luck, Mr. Roosevelt—and to you, Mrs. velt at the time he re long. Roosevelt—and to you, Elliott. turned to politics after (The noise swells as the door bursts open. The POLICEMAN JIMMY: James—Jimmy. his is gripping DALY) recovery from polio. DALY: Yes—thank you. DALY: Mr. Howe—Mr. Howe—for God’s sake, Miss HOWE: Okay, Daly. Good luck to you. LeHand, will you tell this man I belong here? (DALY waves and goes out with Missy) Missy: (To POLICEMAN) He does. He does. FDR. Jimmy, are you all set? (The POLICEMAN unhands DALY, who moves into the JIMMY: Yes, Father. In my mind I have gone room, excited) over it a hundred times. (He smiles) You make the speech, DALY: Sorry I got panicky. Mr. Howe, you ought and I’ll worry about everything else. to get ready. The crowd is enormous and busting FDR: (With a laugh) That’s my son—man of iron. with excitement. Senator Walsh says it’s time to (Now FDR leans over his legs) Better check the braces. get Mr. Roosevelt to the platform. (He clicks them into place—turns them with his hands HowE: Missy—will you check the press handouts. and then releases them, leaving his knees limp again. Take Daly here with you for anything you need. JIMMY brings the crutches over) They should be Missy: Right. (Crosses to FDR, shakes his hand) Boss, I Fine. Jimmy, if I slip, pick me up in a hurry. know you’ll be tremendous, (ELEANOR comes to him and they caress each other) 226 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American History, Volume 2 A Portrait qfFDR,from Sunrise at Campobello 227

• • . FDR: (He takes the crutches I’m ready. from Jimmy) I’m ready. WALSH: (Banging for quiet) Ladies and Gentlemen! (He Jimmy—battle Jimmy—battle stations! hammers away vi th his gavel andfinally gets some attention) (JIMMY starts to push the chair DALY stations! as bursts in excitedly) The Chair recognizes the Honorable Franklin D. DALY: Mr. Roosevelt— Roosevelt of the State of New York! The Curtain Falls (As he says this, there is applause. JIMMY hands FDR the Scene Three crutches, he gets to his feet and then, proud, smiling and The scene reveals the platform in Madison Square Garden. confident, he starts to walk on his crutches to the lectern, as the We are looking toward the rear platform. Facing us are huge applause mounts in intensity. Slowly, but strongly and surely, drapes of bunting and pictures of Wilson and Jefferson, Stage FDR walks those ten great steps. The cheering starts— whistles, front is the speaker’s lectern, about twenty feet from the rear, screams, and rebel yells—and the band plays “Side walks of New York.” where are grouped FDR in his wheel chair, JIMMY, holding FDR reaches the lectern and hands the crutches to JIMMY, the crutches next to him, the other children, ELEANOR ROOSE who takes them and steps down. The screaming crowd continues VELT, SARA ROOSEVELT, Missy, Louis HOWE, and the to sound off. FDR stands there, POLICEMAN. holding the lectern with his left hand. Now he waves his right hand at the crowd At the lectern is a SPEAKER. Next to him is SENATOR in that familiar gesture. He smiles broadly, WALSH of Montana, the Chairman. The crowd noise swells, basking in the warmth of this genuine and whole hearted loud and turbulent. It comes from all sides. There is no micro tribute to his appearance, his courage and his future. phone, and the speakers must yell to be heard. It is bedlam The cheering continues as:) as the SPEAKER tries to be heard. The Curtain Falls

REVIEWING THE READING WALSH: (Banging gavel and screaming) Ladies and I. In what way did Roosevelt show tremen Gentlemen! Please—give the speaker your dous courage by agreeing to give the nom attention— inating address at the convention? (There is some measure, small but noticeable, of attention) 2. How SPEAKER: (Also yelling) There is a good deal of mail did the delegates of the convention show accumulating for the delegates in the Convention their respect for Roosevelt? post office—and we urge you, please, to pick up 3. Using Your Historical Imagination. In your mail. It’s getting very crowded. Please pick 1928 Roosevelt was elected governor of up your mail! Thank you! New York, and just five years later he (There is cheering and screaming again. WALSH takes would be elected to the first of four terms the gavel) as president. (He died in office before WALSH: (After hammering the audience into some quiet) We completing his fourth term.) What effect will continue with the calling of the roll. do you think Roosevelt’s choice to walk, Connecticut! rather than use his wheelchair, at the 1924 VoicE: (From the pit) Connecticut, the Nutmeg State, convention had on his future career in yields to the great Empire State of New York! politics? (An enormous cheer and more yelling)