Poles - Did you know?

There were Poles in Texas before Panna Maria (supposedly the oldest Polish settlement in the US). There were Poles in the failed French colony of Champ D'Asile, near present day Liberty, Texas. Polish veterans of the failed revolt of 1831 joined the Texan army during the Texas Revolution. Several Poles fought under Fannin at Goliad in 1836. A survivor mentions the Texas artillery was commanded by '"all fine-looking Poles". There were Poles in Sam Houston's Army that defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, winning independence for Texas. Frederick Lemsky, was one of the musicians who played "Come to the Bower" as the Texas Army charged the Mexicans at San Jacinto. Felix Wardzinski was present at the capture of General Santa Anna, the Mexican dictator.

Poles - The Labor Force

(One of) the largest immigrant group(s) to respond to industrialization was the Poles. About 2 million of them "fled" Europe for America between 1870 and WWI.

Primarily, the Poles fled to the US to earn money to buy land (and stave off starvation). Originally European Peasants, they were forced to abandon ship when mechanized agriculture took over. Plus, Catholic Poles bred like rabbits, compounding economic pressures with large populations of landless individuals. Who could resist such a temptation as $1 a day?

Many Poles arriving in the US went to big industrial cities like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago. 4/5 of the men worked in coal mines, meatpacking factories, textile/steel mills, oil refineries, and garment-making shops. I'm sure they would have no problem with putting America on rubber tires, helping humans develop wings, and working at movie theaters.

Less money spent on workers' salaries is money saved. So when you get your allowance this week, remember that every penny today came out of a poor Polish workers' salary in the past.

Besides, whatever money the workers were earning was being sent back to relatives in Austria and Russia.

Uh oh! That means less money in the US! TIME TO PANIC!!!

Few Poles wanted to return to Europe after WWI was over and an independent Poland was created (I don't blame them). Instead, they doubled their efforts to integrate into American Society. This resulted in Polish institutions, street names, and the like (where do you think the road name "Pulaski Pike" came from?)

The Domestic Parade of Prejudice & Wilson's Tour and Collapse (1919)

Continuing from where we left off with the Treaty of Versailles, we shall see other groups have to say about it. Plus, we will see what Wilson did to emphasize the League of Nations.

52. Each of the following groups found objections with Wilson's Peace in Paris

a. Isolationists, who wanted no part in foreign entanglements and alliances, wanted nothing to do with the League of Nations.

b. "Hun-Haters" thought that the punishments that were described were not strict enough.

c. Hyphenated Americans, including German-Americans, Italian-Americans, and others found the peace settlements insufficiently favorable to their native lands.

d. Irish Americans, having hard time with the British, voiced their dislike of the League saying that Britain, with all their territories, would have too much influence in the League.

53. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was to Woodrow Wilson what John Dean was to Richard Nixon. Each despised, loathed, and criticized the other. It seemed far too late for Lodge to defeat the Treaty. What he attempted to do was to amend the Treaty to better suit him and his party so they could take credit for the changes.

54. Wilson's bulky pact was bogged down in the Senate and it wasn't certain if he could get the League to pass through. In order to be certain that it did, Wilson went on a speech-tour around the country to go over the heads of the Senate directly to the sovereign people. The tour had its ups and downs and ended with downs for him. Once he returned home, he became paralyzed by a stroke.

Now, I shall pass the microphone to maria.

Foreign Policy Acts

Foreign Policies between the New Nationalists and he New Freedomists differed greatly.

The Panama Tolls Act, signed by William Taft, exempted American shipping from tolls and taxes, provoking sharp protests from Britain, who needed to use the Canal but were being taxed heavily. This Act was repealed by Wilson in 1914.

In response to the Philippines, Wilson signed off on the Jones Act of 1916, which granted the Philippines the title of "territory". They would eventually be granted independence as well. However, this would happen thirty years later, on 4 July 1946.

Conservation/Land Use Acts - Save the Planet!

Land Conservation was a major concern of Theodore Roosevelt's. He, therefore, took steps to preserving the natural landscape.

The first step was the Desert

Land Act of 1877 (before TR time). This act sold land to any purchaser that could turn an arid backwater into a less-arid backwater in three years.

More successful was the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, which authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves. Some 46 million acres of trees were saved from the lumber yard thanks to this Act.

States were granted federal land so that it could be irrigated and settled via the Carey Act of 1894.

The Newlands Act of 1902 authorized Washington to collect money from the sale of public lands in the western states and use the money for the development of irrigation projects.

There was a split among the Progressives about how they viewed the land. There were the ones who wished to save the land so as to use it as a resource for long-term projects (dams, etc.) and there were the ones who wished to save the land because of its beauty (preservationists). In general, the preservationists lost many a fight.

Federal Agencies

The national stage was generally closed to female reformers. However, two wedges were driven into the federal bureaucracy (via the Department of Labor) in the form of two new Bureaus: The Children's Bureau and The Women's Bureau. Both of these gave female activists a place to send forth their grievances from.

Once again, Wilson comes in with another move and scheme to reform the economy. This one is called the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. It empowered a commission to perform seek and destroy monopolies at the source by rooting out unethical trade practices.

Here is yet another act signed by Wilson, the Federal Reserve Act. The Federal Reserve Board, established by this Act, oversaw a twelve region system of reserves with their own central banks. Furthermore, the board was also empowered to issue Federal Reserve Notes - paper money.

And yet another Act signed by Mr. President Wilson (last on this post, I promise!). This one, the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916, made credit available to farmers at low interest rates - a move long demanded by populists.

Amendments to the Constitution

Was an income tax legal? Whether it was or not, Congress made it legal in 1913 with Amendment XVI to the Constitution. This Amendment directly made it legal for the government to tax part of a workers income.

Isn't there an intimacy between corporations and Congress? This is true; the muckrakers uncovered this. Because of the pressures caused by this, Congress passed Amendment XVII, establishing direct election of senators via popular choice rather than by electoral college.

Alcohol is prohibited in the United States! ... or at least it was when Amendment XVIII was in effect. Passed in 1919, the Amendment floored Demon Rum temporarily thanks to pressures caused by antiliquor campaigns, such as the WCTU.

Women? Voting? At the time, that must have been a riotous joke! However, it happens

all the time today. Why is that? In 1920, women's suffrage was granted under Amendment XIX. This includes rights for women to vote.