The Great Depression was from 1929 to 1939 and was the deepest and longest economic collapse in the history of the United States, but it did not just have an effect on the US but worldwide. In the United States the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which we know as black Tuesday.  This sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors.  People rushed to the banks and take out their money but could not do it because there money was gone. The years following, consumer spending and investment dropped causing declines in industrial output and the unemployment began to rise, because companies began to lay off workers.  By 1933 the Great Depression reached its peak causing around 15 million people to be unemployed and half the banks in the United States have failed, by 1933 140 billion dollars disappeared.  Reforms that were put into place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after he won the election of 1933 helped the economy, but did not start to really turn around until 1939.

Economy entered a recession during the summer of 1929, as consumer spending dropped. At the same time stock prices continued to rise and by the fall of that year had reached levels that could not overcome. In October 1929, the stock market crashed, as investors tried to get rid of all their shares.  A record 12.9 million shares were traded that day, known as black Thursday. Five days later, on black Tuesday 16 million shares were traded after another bad day on Wall Street. Millions of shares ended up worthless, and those investors who had bought stocks with borrowed money were gone.

The New Deal was a series of domestic programs by the United States between 1933 and 1938. It had stated that laws passed by Congress as well as president during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. By creating this New Deal it helped him win again in a very large margin.  The New Deal programs created an alliance of labor unions, blacks and other minorities, and some farmers. The hardship brought on by the depression affected americans by losing jobs, money in banks were lost, and companies having to layoff employees.  During this time many women did not work, so families did not get much money.  Men were hit harder than the women were because they were supposed to be the providers of the families and they could not do that.

In the 1929 Herbert Hoover took over in office, and three years after he took office the depression got worse.  What I believed this stemmed from was that he thought that the government should not interfere with the economy, which means that the people should buy goods and services to get money into the economy to get it going.  1930 comes around and 4 million people were unemployed and one year later it rose to 6 million people.  The country’s industrial production had dropped by half, and the homeless people started to make the streets.  The minority population was hit harder than the whites particularly the blacks.  It is said that the jobs that the blacks did have were taken from them and given to the whites.  In 1930, 50 percent of blacks were unemployed, but Eleanor Roosevelt set out for black rights and the New Deal does not allow discrimination. Don’t get me wrong there was still discrimination but it was going on in the south.

Since  so many people were out of money and out of jobs they had no places to live.  Great depression and lasted about a decade, shantytowns appeared across the U.S. as unemployed people lost their homes. As the depression got worse in 1930s times got harder for millions of people they started to turn to the government for help. When the government failed to provide the help, President Hoover was blamed for the terrible conditions. The shantytowns that came up across the nation and were mainly outside of cities came to be known as  Hoovervilles.  One of the largest one in the country was in Missouri and was going on for the longest time.  It is also said that this Hooverville was so big that it had its own mayor to ran it and reported to the larger community outside the Hooverville.

In my opinion this was the worst time for the US economy and also the world.  Because of this even in history I personally think that it changed the way people do business.  What I mean by that is I think it turned the economy worldwide.  Businesses started to go overseas and exports and imports started to increase.  Even though the economy went through a rough time I think it made the economy stronger when it came back.

Questions

Where was the biggest and longest hooverville located?

Chicago, New York, Missouri, Washington DC

What year did the Great Depression start?

1928,1932,1931,1929

What president set apposed the New Deal?

Obama, Hoover, Franklin D Roosevelt, Theodor Roosevelt,

Workcited

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243118/Great-Depression

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/rails-timeline/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-great-depression/

http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/money_08.html

http://www.history.com/topics/hoovervilles

 

Andrew Carnegie: 1835 – 1919

Andrew Carnegie, a poor immigrant from Scotland, would become one of the richest and most successful people in the U.S., representing the American Dream. Carnegie was a hard worker and made his way to the “center of the American Steel Industry” (An Empire of Wealth, 245). What separates Carnegie from other Rich people of his time is his philanthropist works. Throughout his lifetime he would donate $380,695,653 to foundations, charities and other ways to improve the poorer classes.

ChildHood Jobs

The Carnegie family moved from Scotland to Allegheny, Pennsylvania for the prospect of a better life. Allegheny was a very poor area and Andrews first job was as a bobbin boy at age 13. His starting wage was $1.20 per week. 2 years later Andrew became a telegraph messenger boy and received $2.50 per week. Within a year he was able to translate telegraphs without a slip and was promoted to operator. 3 years later in 1853 he became secretary telegraph operator for Thomas Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad company. He now earned $4.00 per week. He then began to develop a closer relationship with Scott allowing him investing opportunities in the railroad industry.  His mom helped him secure $500 on a mortgage for their $700 home, to invest in the Adams Express (another railroad). This would pay off and he would be saving up capital that would lead into success in the future.

Accumulating Wealth and Carnegie Steel 

During the Civil War Carnegie worked on several transportation investment opportunities while personally being in charge of the defeated forces. Defeating the confederacy required massive amounts of supplies and showed how integral these industries were to American Success. At this point Carnegie still did not have enough capital to pursue the steel industry. Then, in 1864, he invested $40,000 in Story Farm which would yield over $1,000,000 in dividends. After the war he focused all his energy on iron works, using his relationships from the Pennsylvania railroad eventually opening his own steel plant. This would lead into Carnegie Steel and Andrew would buy out most of the competition. Eventually, he would agree to a buy out by the United States Steel Corporation, his share was $225,639,000 that he would through 5% 50-year gold bonds. Now that he had a fortune, what was Andrew Carnegie going to do with it?

Heres a short video summary about Carnegie and His success in Steel

http://www.history.com/topics/andrew-carnegie/videos/the-men-who-built-america-andrew-carnegie

Words from Andrew Carnegie

“I propose to take an income no greater than $50,000 per annum! Beyond this I need ever earn, make no effort to increase my fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes! Let us cast aside business forever, except for others. Let us settle in Oxford and I shall get a thorough education, making the acquaintance of literary men. I figure that this will take three years active work. I shall pay especial attention to speaking in public. We can settle in London and I can purchase a controlling interest in some newspaper or live review and give the general management of it attention, taking part in public matters, especially those connected with education and improvement of the poorer classes. Man must have no idol and the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry! No idol is more debasing than the worship of money! Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately; therefore should I be careful to choose that life which will be the most elevating in its character. To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time, must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery. I will resign business at thirty-five, but during these ensuing two years I wish to spend the afternoons in receiving instruction and in reading systematically!”

Philanthropist

This period of Andrew Carnegie’s life is what makes him so unique and such a valuable person in the economic history of the United States. It is said that more than 2,800 libraries were opened with his support. Several are under his name while many others received funding without any recognition. Although it was written that he would commit to education and the community at age 35, Carnegie more than made up for the wait. The extra 25-30 years of work allowed for him to accumulate even more wealth and when you compare his career and buy out amount with what he donated, its easy to see that 60-70% of his earnings went towards our economies education or community. At one point, Carnegie possessed 4% of all wealth in the United States. That is amazing for a boy from Scotland that started working for a $1.20 per week. I also feel that his commitment to his goals set a great example for people to follow.

Written Works:

– Gospel of Wealth (1889)

– Triumphant Democracy (1886)

My Opinion

Overall, it’s people like Andrew Carnegie that make me happy to be an american. A country that rewards people who work hard and never give up. There is a big trend throughout history when you look at entrepreneurs. That is, they weren’t lucky, they made their own luck. Wealth can consume many and thats when character really shows. If you are a kind hearted person, wealth will only make you more generous. If you are a selfish person it will make you more self conceded. Andrew Carnegie set a standard for giving back at a level that is ridiculously high. Without him the United States wouldn’t be the same.

 

Resources

• An Empire of Wealth – Chapter 13
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie
• http://www.history.com/topics/andrew-carnegie

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian scientist that lived from 1856 to 1943. He is best known for his works of radio, the Tesla Coil, and the developing of Alternating Current.

Nikola Tesla worked for Thomas Edison in New York City. Thomas Edison had the idea of DC current while Nikola Tesla favored AC. DC current was much less efficient than AC current and with Nikola Tesla’s innovations in AC current, power was able to be provided very easily, cost effective, and safely.

By using AC, power was able to be provided to the United States much more effectively than using coal and gas lamps. With this, production was able to rise greatly. Instead of only being able to work with the light from the sun, light bulbs led the way. Along with just a reliable light source, more technology was able to be created using this new power to further enhance production.

There are many creations looking back at U.S. history at greatly changed everything. Rather it being the creation of railroads that helped trade and provided people a way of transportation, or the telegraph that allowed people to communicate. AC power was also one of the large steps forward in U.S. history because it allowed production to rise like never before. Power was available everywhere, not just where there was running water.

“Nikola Tesla (Serbian-American Inventor).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.

 

Henry Ford was most commonly known as the creator of the Ford Motor Company, the 5th largest auto-maker in the world. Ford is also well-known for another thing. That other thing is his perfection of the vehicle assembly line. Ford created a way to build a Model T in just 93 minutes. This allowed for production for the masses. The assembly also allowed for cheaper production of the automobile, placing it in the $575 price range, which was just about 4 months pay for the average worker. This meant millions of people could now afford their very own automobile and caused mass expansion in the auto industry.

The first assembly line implemented by Ford was at the Highland Park Plant, where a central winch pulled the chassis of the car down a 150ft assembly line where 140 individual workers assembled parts onto the vehicle. This process took approximately 5 hours and 50 minutes.The next implementation to this line was a continuos conveyor which shortened the production time even further, to 93 minutes.

The new cheaper automobiles provided by ford also allowed for populations to branch out, away from the cities into what we call suburbs because they now had a reliable and cost effective way of getting to work. These cars started the whole new lifestyle of american families having automobiles and they were so easy to drive that nearly everyone knew how to drive one.

The assembly line was originally implemented for automobiles by Ransom E. Olds, a Lansing native. Olds patented the assembly line he used to mass produce his Oldsmobile automobiles. Henry Ford then took that assembly line and made the addition of driven conveyor belts, which made a full Model T produceable in 93 minutes flat.

The assembly line also allowed for a better work environment, workers did not have to do any heavy lifting. This also allowed for more people to be able to do these jobs, as working an assembly line did not take any special skills or training.

Without Fords innovation, the auto industry would not have had nearly as large of a boom as it did. Everybody wanted an automobile now that they were affordable. This also made the business extremely profitable, which is where his major competitor General Motors came into play.

Regardless, Henry Ford knew what he wanted to do and exactly how to do it. He even went as as far as to pay his workers enough to actually afford their own Model T’s a practice hardly carried out even these days.

With his implementation of moving conveyor belts and today’s invention of automobile producing robots Ford is able to produce a new car every 10 seconds. Even today, ford has two of the top producing automobile plants in the US. These plants are the Dearborn MI Truck Plant and the Ford Factory in Kansas City, which produced 460,000 cars in 2011.

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/henryford/

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/the-15-top-producing-american-car-plants-151801/#__federated=1

http://corporate.ford.com/our-company/heritage/historic-sites-news-detail/663-highland-park

Images:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_line

Bob Dylan

Robert Allen  Zimmerman, otherwise known as ” Bob Dylan”, was born to his father Abe Zimmerman on May 24 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. His father worked for the Standard Oil Co. At the young age of six years old they up and moved the family to Hibbing. There in Hibbing is where Dylan first taught himself how to play the piano and guitar. He started off playing in many high school rock bands and in 1959 he began at the University of Minnesota and this is when he first started performing in clubs and using the name he most known; “Bob Dylan.” That next year Dylan moved to New York and in 1961 is when Columbia signed Bob Dylan with his contract and the following year Is when his first album was released.

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Bob Dylan is a folk rock singer-songwriter who started his career in the 1960s. Well known for his songs having to do with social issues such as civil rights. He aimed to get his opinion across through his music. His music was very much apart of what was going on around the world in the 60’s. Bob expressed what he wanted through his music and people caught on to is as an expressions of how they were thinking and feeling about current worldly events. Bob changed the way of music.

He was known for much more than being just a singer. It would be rare to have been a teenager of the 1960s and not know who he was. He effected a lot of worldly movements. Dylan was very much involved with the Civil Rights movement.

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Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights movement is a very powerful and ‘heroic” time in America’s history. It is one that will never be forgotten. The goal of the movement was to give African-Americans the same citizenship as Americans. African-Americans were treated very poorly throughout history. Times had been so bad and heartbreaking to those of their race. For some African-Americans this will be something that they will always hold a grudge against. Times had been so bad that African-Americans weren’t even allowed to share the same bathrooms as whites and they even had their own drinking fountain because white people did not even want to touch anything that they had laid their hands on. Restaurants would not serve them, sports teams would not allow them to play and teachers wouldn’t even considering having them in their classrooms. Times were more than just tough for African-Americans. They were not given any right to vote or have a say on any current events going on and finally people were so fed up with the way that they were treated that they began to rebel. And this.. this is what all led up to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America.

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Bob Dylan’s Involvement

On August 28, 1963 in Washington, D.C. on the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr gave his world-famous speech “I Have a Dream.” This speech took place during the time of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The dream was, in King’s words, “that white and black children would one day walk hand in hand and that one day sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners would be able to agree to live together.” At the world-famous speech one of the singing performances was by non-other than Bob Dylan himself. He performed to of his song’s title by “When the Ship Comes In” and “Only a Pawn in Their Game.”

 “Yes, how many years can some people exist Before there allowed to be freed?  Yes, how many times can a man turn his head Pretending he just doesn’t see?”

 

Bob Dylan had a great impact in the music world because he was “one of the first musicians to take an active role on ethical issues.” He was able to unite people with his sing writing. Through his music Dylan was able to gain attention of the officials in Washington and not only that but the youth in America. His goal was to bring everyone together. He wanted peace and freedom for everyone no matter their race. Bob Dylan took a huge part in moving towards the Civil Rights Movement.

As it is said Bob Dylan was “crowned as the laureate of a social movement, hailed as “the voice of a generation“.

 

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Bob Dylan’s career in the early days and through 1963 was well-known for his thoughts and helping of the civil rights movement but as shown in 1964 he speaks out that he no longer wanted to be the voice of anyone. He no longer wanted to write music for people but ultimately he just wanted to write music about his feelings and anything else he felt in his heart. As said in an interview with a critic named Nat Hentoff Dylan says “Me, I don’t want to write for people anymore – you know, be a spokesman. From now on, I want to write from inside me …I’m not part of no movement… I just can’t make it with any organization…”

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Where would we even be without music today? What would some of our biggest life events be if music wasn’t apart of? Imagine a birthday cake without a Happy Birthday song or a bride walking down the aisle of a silent church. Think about sitting in the car on a long road once everyone is too tired to talk. Think about the big smile that shoots upon your face when you’re brought back the memory of your favorite day lying out on the beach with you best friend that shoots upon your face when you’re brought back the memory of your favorite day lying out on the beach with you best . Maybe even the Christmas song your family listens to every year while decorating the Christmas tree. Music can jog so many different emotions within a person. In my eyes, music plays such a powerful part in our lives and quite frankly I’m not too sure where we would be without it. Not only does music make you feel but it makes you think. It can help you remember loved ones who are no longer around, it can make you dream of the future, it can help set you at ease when you are stressed out or having a bad day, it help you express your emotions when you’re at a loss of words. Music is so powerful and Bob Dylan knew just that. Dylan used his thoughts and put them into lyrics so that he express exactly what you felt about Americas struggles back in 1960s. He wrote about the way it felt to struggle and how to overcome them. Dylan used his music to express his opinion on racism and by doing so he grabs the attention of many other around him. This is the reason I was so drawn and interested in Bob Dylan and his work. What better way to express yourself than through music. Not only did he express himself but he effect a nation, he brought people together and made a difference and to me that is just amazing. No matter our shape, size, color or gender we are all human beings with feelings that should have every right to be free to express ourselves. We are all equals and that should never be forgotten. Bob Dylan was a part of making this movement a reality and for that he is heroic.

Resources:

• http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/27/bob-dylan-joan-baez-more-music-at-1963-s-march-on-washington.html
• http://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/43
• http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/09/how-bob-dylan-changed-the-60s-and-american-culture/62654/
• http://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-politics-of-bob-dylan/

 

What is the Civil Rights Movement?

“I Have a Dream”

 

 

 

Benjamin Franklin has long been considered one of the Founding Fathers of America with contributions that are still in use today. As a printer, he purchased and published the most successful newspaper within the colonies, the Pennsylvania Gazette, along with other pamphlets and papers. As an inventor, his Franklin stove kept homes warm until more modernized heating systems were developed, and bifocals remain heavily in use today.

Another contribution applied to Mr. Franklin is also his turn as the first Post Master General of the United States in 1775, however he began as the joint postmaster of the British Crown Post in 1737 due to his station as a newspaper publisher. During his time as the Postmaster of the British Crown Post, the post office of the colonies posted its first profit in 1760. Under Franklin’s guiding hand, the penny post was implemented, allowing for delivery of mail to locations other than the post office, newspapers being delivered for a small fee, and much faster delivery times due to the mail being moved day and night, and more efficient routes within the colonies, which Franklin himself helped map and scout.

During his time as a young man, Ben Franklin took part in a group of like minded individuals to form a group, known as the Junto, to discuss the matters of the day. All the members had a fondness to reading, and they discussed developing a library system by pooling their money and buying books to share. This may have been the inspiration for one of Ben Franklin’s lesser known contributions, a mail order service for books.

“A Catalogue of Choice and Valuable Books, Consisting of Near 600 Volumes, in most Faculties and Sciences” was sent out by Ben Franklin in 1744 and offered hundreds of titles for sale. The sale began April 11^th at 9 am and would continue for 3 weeks and no longer. The books were sold at the lowest cost during the sale, but after the sale ended, they would be sold at an ‘advanced cost’.

This opportunity was almost unheard of back in 1744.  While the printing press allowed for mass producing the written word, books were expensive and not as freely available as they are now.   In addition, postal carriers never seemed to carry parcels as cumbersome as a book.  It is believed that the books would have been delivered by wagons traveling to the delivery area, as most other materials would have been.  This publication may seem small in scale but it acted as a precursor to the mail order catalogs that still are in use today.

The significance of his appointment as the first Post Master General (and his appointment as a Joint Postmaster prior to the first Congressional Congress) is that we as a society today enjoy one of the most efficient postal services around the world, and have for over two hundred years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/06/by-one-measure-we-have-the-best-postal-service-in-the-world/

As for his use of the ‘Catalogue’ to begin the process of mail ordered materials, major corporations such as Sears, Montgomery Ward, JCPenny and Hammacher Schlemmer have conducted business for decades using that same business model. While the creation of websites and online businesses have since replaced the majority of mail order catalogs, many are still sent out by businesses such as LL Bean and Dell to draw attention to their products.

Resources:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-13/how-benjamin-franklin-invented-the-mail-order-business

https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100/pub100_007.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

The First American by H.W. Brands (2002)

Hardships, trials, abandonment, sex scandals, and death are hardly the things that are thought about when our founding fathers are thought of.  The great things that they did, the war that they fought, and the constitution are things that normally come to mind.  Often it is hard to imagine an of these great men going through tough times.  Alexander Hamilton, however, had to overcome all of these things are more.

Alexander Hamilton’s rough life started long before he was born.  His mother Rachel Faucett, was wed to a man that she did not love at the age of 16. According to Michael  Gerson, author of  Overcoming adversity: The Childhood of Alexander Hamilton, Rachel’s husband was abusive and controlling.  Rachel fled from her marriage to the island of St. Kitts, leaving behind her first born son, Peter.

While on St. Kitts Rachel met John Hamilton, Alexanders father and they fell in love and began living together.  They were unable to get married because Rachel was still legally married.  During this time Rachel gave birth to Alexander and his older brother John.  Rachel’s husband eventually fell in love with another woman and sued Rachel for a divorce.  During the divorce he told the courts all about Rachel’s shameful acts of adultery and the bastard children she had born.  As a part of the divorce decree the courts ruled that Rachel was not to return to St. Croix and when she died all of her estate will belong to her only legitimate child Peter, whom she had not seen since she left her husband.

When Alexander was about 8 years old, his father was required to move to St. Croix for work (Overcoming Adversity).  Even though Rachel was not supposed to return, she packed up Alexander and his brother and they moved with their father to St. Croix.  Here Alexander was known to be a bastard and was treated by the locals as lower than dirt.  Shortly after arriving at St. Croix Alexanders father abandon them.  Even though Alexander had a very close relationship with his father, he was never to see him again.

Alexanders mother, alone and jobless took out a loan and opened her own local grocery store (overcoming Adversity). There Alexander and his older brother worked for their mother and learned how to run a business.  Things seemed to be looking up for the family and when Alexander was about ten years old he was able to get a job working for one of the distributes for his mothers store.  There it became apparent that he was a very bright and a fast learner.  His employers enjoyed him and taught him everything he could learn.

When Alexander was eleven tragedy struck and both Alexander and his mother.  They became very ill with high fevers.  His mother would not recover and would leave Alexander and his brother as orphans.  Because of the past court ruling, Alexander and John would not see a dime of their mothers estate. They went to live with his mothers cousin who committed suicide a year later leaving the two boys all alone to fend for themselves.

Alexander’s older brother John would become an apprentice carpenter and Alexander would go live with a friend’s family. The only good thing he had going for him was that he was still working for Cruger Wholesale Export Firm.   He took on more responsibility and advanced very quickly.  He learned about business and finance and by the age of fourteen he was making complex business decisions, and running the entire operation (Overcoming Adversity).

Education was very important to Alexander, and every spare minute he had he spend teaching himself reading, writing, and arithmetic. One person was especially impressed with his self directed reading program, the Minister of his Church, Reverend Hugh Knox.  Reverend Knox, and Alexanders’ employer, Nicholas Cruger, arranged for Alexander to go to the new country to attend a university.  Reverend Knox wrote letters of introduction to friends in America, who would take Alexander under their wing when he arrived (overcoming adversity).

At age sixteen Alexander would arrive in America to begin his formal education.  His mentors felt that he was not quite ready to attend college.  For a year Alexander would attend Presbyterian Academy in Elizabethtown, a prep school that was sponsored by College of New Jersey, currently known as Princeton.  Regardless of this Alexander would fall in love with New York City and despite the wishes of his mentors and sponsors would attend Kings College, currently known as Columbia University.

Alexander Hamilton’s military career started in 1775 according to the army historical Series, Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution by Robert K Wright Jr., and Morris J. MacGregor Jr.  He joined a volunteer militia group called Hearts of Oak.  There he trained under a former British officer and was commissioned a Captain in 1776.  Shortly after receiving his commission he was called to duty by orders from Colonel Henry Knox.  Knox was so impressed with Alexander that he recommended him to Washington’s personal attention (Soldier-Statement of the Constitution).  In March he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and received the position of Commander in Chief.  He resigned form his duties under Washington after a minor reprimanded in April of 1781.

In December of 1780 Alexander married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of Major General Philip Schuyler.  In 1782 he took up the study of law and he and Elizabeth lived in New York.  Alexander completed an apprenticeship in three months that normally would take three years and was admitted to the bar in July.  With in six months he was representing New York in the Continental Congress.  In 1789 he was appointed to be the nations first Secretary of the Treasury (Soldier-Statesman of the Constitution).

Alexander Hamilton  understood public finance and helped to shape the future of the America.  According to John Steel Gordon in An Empire of Wealth, “Hamilton’s most pressing problem was to deal with the federal tax”.  In January of 1790 Hamilton submitted his first report on public credit.  He suggested that bonds be issued backed by the new tariff that had just been placed on foreign vessels.   Also in order to help the hold on Union Hamilton insisted that the government take on the debts that had been incurred by the state while fighting the revolution (Empire of Wealth). The bonds were such a success that by 1794 the United States had an excellent credit rating in France and the bonds were often selling above par.  Hamilton also established the first central bank.  He insisted that the bank be owned privately so that the government would not be able to print money when ever they wanted it.

Alexander Hamilton is also on of the first political figures in America to have a public sex scandal.  Which caused him to step down from office just five years after obtaining the position.

Like most of his unique life Hamilton also had a unique death.  He was killed in a gun dual by Arron Burr in July of 1804.  Arron Burr was later accused of murder however the charges were dropped.  Alexander Hamilton is the picture of the American dream.  He grew up in poverty and was still able to create a wealth for himself and become one of the founding fathers and most famous men in American history.

 

Works Cited

“Alexander Hamilton – Mini Biography .” You Tube. BIO., Sept. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP2a1xkbLgU>.

Gerson, Michael J. Overcoming Adversity: The Childhood of Alexander Hamilton. Archiving Early America®. , n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014. <http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2002_winter_spring/hamilton.html>.

Gordon, John S. En Empire of Wealth. New York: Harper Perennial, 2004. 68-81. Print.

Wright, Jr., Robert K., and Morris J. MacGregor, Jr. Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution. N.p., 11 Aug. 2000. Web. 29 Nov. 2014. <http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/ss-fm.htm>.

The United   States

Military

The United States military has a greater cause then what meets the eyes. It’s purpose is to Protect, Serve, Defend the interests of the United States of America. This is accomplished through a number of ways; primarily guaranteeing humankinds freedoms for those in pursuit of liberty and its basic democracies. But through all the relic(s) and political propagandas, lets take a closer look at what it takes to become the #1 Super Power on this planet also being mindful of the many years of ultimate sacrifices and casualties that this great nation has endured, in achieving one ultimate goal, FREEDOM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The United States has a total of 5 military branches serving the interests of the people of this God great land. The Army military branch, which was founded by the Continental Congress in June of 1775, has a total of 561,984 in active personnel with 205,000 in reserve personnel findthedata.org. The average pay for an enlisted soldier of the Army for 4-years is $28,178.00.  According to online statistics;

“The United States Army is the main ground-force of the United   States. The Army’s main function is to protect and defend the United States (and its interests) by way of ground troops, armor (tanks), artillery, attack helicopters, tactical nuclear weapons, etc. The Army is the oldest U.S. Military service.”

The Airforce is the smallest of the military branches but serves as an instrumental factor to the military depending on the kind of warfare the US can be engaged in. This military branch is made up of 333,370 active soldiers. The average pay for an Airforce Cadet is $846.00 per month in serving this great mighty nation. According to online statistics;

“The primary mission of the Air Force is to defend the United States (and its interests) through exploitation of air and space. To accomplish this mission, the Air Force operates fighter aircraft, tanker aircraft, light and heavy bomber aircraft, transport aircraft, and helicopters (which are used mainly for rescue of downed-aircrew, and special operations missions). The Air Force is also responsible for all military satellites, and controls all of our Nation’s strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.”

The United States Navy was established in the same year the Army was established which was in 1775 by the Continental Congress. The Navy’s primary purpose is to maintain the freedom of the seas. The active duty Navy has about 54,000 officers, and 324,000 enlisted personnel with the average pay to be about and around $18,127 for an E-2 enistee.

“The Navy makes it possible for the United States to use the seas where and when our national interests require it. In addition, in times of conflict, the Navy helps to supplement Air Force air power. Navy aircraft carriers can often deploy to areas where fixed runways are impossible. An aircraft carrier usually carries about 80 aircraft. Most of these are fighters or fighter-bombers. Additionally, Navy ships can attack land targets from miles away (with very heavy guns), and cruise missiles. Navy submarines (fast attack and ballistic missile subs) allow stealth attacks on our enemies from right off their shores. The Navy is also primarily responsible for transporting Marines to areas of conflict.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The few, The proud, The Marines! This motto is best known for the military branch of the United State Marines. The Marines was founded in 1778 by the Continental Congress. The Marines main purpose is to specialize in amphibious operations. Their primary specialty is to assault, capture, and control “beach heads,” which then provide different avenues to attack the enemy from any point source location. A private first classman (PFC) soldier in the US Marines earns around $20,398.00 per year.  

“For combat operations, the Marines like to be self-sufficient, as much as possible, so they also have their own air power, consisting primarily of fighter and fighter/bomber aircraft and attack helicopters. Even so, the Marines use the Navy for much of their logistical and administrative support. For example, there are no doctors, nurses, or enlisted medics in the Marine Corps. Even medics that accompany the Marines into combat are specially-trained Navy medics.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In total, there is an estimated 2,291,910 active/reserve soldiers, serving in today’s  United States military. China has an estimated 4,585,000 active/reserve military soldiers at their disposal. The Russia Federation has an estimated 3,524,000 active/reserve, North Korea with an outstanding 9,495,000

 

 Currently the United States rank #1 in Global spending on its military, which is projected to be slashed in billions by the year 2016. While the US military deploys its servicemen on bases around the globe, it is seen to provide World peace, along with humanitarian efforts, giving people a sense of security and hope which is truly needed in this day and age. The lingering question about how much we are supposed to spend on our military defense or military testing, is left to our country’s economists and political experts. In a society where world peace can be easily compromised in a blink of an eye, through nuclear programs, technological weaponry advancements, and strong military’s globally, it can be seen as neither a good idea or a bad idea investing in our own military.

 Our future spending, on current and future soldiers, deserve our country’s top dollar. We’ll eventually will work out the kinks to our defense budgets spending as issues arise, but the price to Protect, Serve, and Defend this great free Nation comes with no price-tag. We as Americans, don’t do enough for American Veterans who have already served this country, and that too needs to be addressed, however cutting back drastically on defense budgets in this country gives American soldiers a disadvantage in areas of technological advancements other countries are making with their military’s.

 

Sources:

1. Statistics for military services:

http://us-military-branches.findthedata.org/q/1/2405/How-many-active-personnel-does-the-US-Military-Branch-Army-have

2.  General military information 5 Branches:

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/military101.htm

3. Army soldiers pay 4yrs:

http://www.goarmy.com/benefits/money/basic-pay-active-duty-soldiers.html

4. Pay rate for Air Force cadet:

http://www.usafa.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=9420

5. Pay rate for Navy military:

http://www.navy.com/joining/benefits/military-pay.html

6.  Pay rate for Marines:

http://www.militarypaychart.us/marine

7.  Military by the Numbers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel

8. Active Duty Military Personnel, 1940–2011

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004598.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bessemer Process
Importance of The Bessemer Process:

   Widely impacting the US’s construction of everything from buildings, boats, bridges, and railroads. The Bessemer process is one of the most important discoveries in steel manufacture. Reducing the cost, time, and labor needed to make steel through this valuable process, allowed the transition between construction through wrought iron possible, and allowed the creation of some of the most incredible construction projects in history.

History:

Discovered in 1855 by Sir Henry Bessemer. The Bessemer process was discovered through Sir Henry’s attempts to manufacture steel faster and more cheaply. Particularly for the purpose of manufacturing military weapons, which were at the time made with iron, which is considerably heavier than steel. At the time, steel was only used for generally small items; forks, spoons, and tools. However, the ability to make widespread military use of steel was very appealing because of steel’s strength and reduced weight in comparison to wrought iron.

Working with a standard reverberatory furnace, Henry made the accidental discovery of hot air’s effect upon iron, the hot air alone converted the outsides of pig iron into steel. He then completely redesigned his furnace, by creating what’s known as a Bessemer furnace, doing this allowed forced hot air through the molten iron with special air pumps. Generally, one would assume that air would cool the iron rather than burn it hotter. However, oxygen in the forced air ignited impurities of silicon and carbon within the iron. This reaction would then increase the iron’s temperature, and therefore burn out more and more impurities in the iron. Which made the conversion to steel much easier than before.

Below is the process in which a Bessemer furnace works:

http://youtu.be/_kSp5K70cYc

Manufacture through the Bessemer process began in a wider scale in 1858, By W and J Galloway using imported pig iron from sweden. The firm of W and J Galloway were the first company to license Sir Henry’s patent of the Bessemer process.

Importance:

The Bessemer Process impacted industry and labor in so many ways. Allowing steel to be manufactured at much higher rates. Dramatically reducing the cost of manufacture, originally the cost to make steel from iron was roughly £40 per ton, but once the Bessemer process was introducing the price was dropped to between  £6–7 per ton. This brought the price right down to the same ballpark as wrought iron. Prior to this process, iron was the main material for things like bridges and bulding frames, now that steel was accessible it became the main component in these types of construction. With reducing the time it took to create the steel brought the cost of labor down as well.

Although the Bessemer process was replaced by the Basic Oxygen process in 1968. The Bessemer process had an immeasurable impact upon the US economy, manufacturing system, and work force. It allowed steel to become the dominant material for large construction, and made it much more cost effective. Countless millions of tons of steel were manufactured in this manner and countless buildings, bridges, and boats were made with the resulting steel crop, stimulating the US economy in every way possible.

Sources:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~tmisa/NOS/1.2_invent.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kSp5K70cYc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer_process#History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverbatory_furnace

 

The Currency Act

Passed by the British Parliament on September 1, 1764, and sought out by George

 Grenville, was The Currency Act.  This act was passed in hope to reduce the British

National debt and in hope that it would boost the British Economy.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why?

The British were in debt during the French and Indian war, the debt continued after the war

when the British had to continue to station troops in America.  Once the war was over,

the colonial traders did not have enough buyers for their products, which resulted in the down-

fall of the British economy.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What?

The Currency Act of 1764 was a more in depth version of The Currency act of 1751.  In 1751 the

act forbid the New England Economies from issuing paper money.  Paper money that had

already been issued was to only be used for paying debts. In 1764 when the new version

was passed, it prohibited ALL the colonies from issuing new bills and it prohibited the use of

already issued currency that was past its expiration date.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome:

The Currency Act of 1764 backlashed.  While the British were expecting this

to help them it made it worse.  The trading industry died down because

the act made it less smooth to trade goods.  Also because they weren’t allowed to use paper

bills for anything other than debts, colonies ran out of things to trade because they didn’t have

any resources left.  The act also caused a lot of resentment among the colonies.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By: Lauren Hoisington

Sources

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/currency-act.html#galler

http://www.stamp-act-history.com/timeline/1764-currency-act/y[pageGallery]/0/

Samuel Brannan

The First Millionaire of the West

Who was Samuel Brannan?

Samuel Brannan was considered the first millionaire west of the Mississippi. He became a millionaire during the California gold rush in 1849 by capitalizing on the needs of miners. He created a monopoly over mining goods and supplies in California.

Sam was born in Saco, Maine in 1819. He grew up as a member of the Mormon church, the Latter Day Saints. Sam later moved to Ohio in 1844 to help out with his church. It was here he learned about journalism and printing. When the center of his church relocated to California in 1846, Sam went with them with the intent to help lead. Moving to California would turn out to be both the best and worst things he could possibly do.

Samuel Brannan and his Millionaire Monopoly

Sam heard gold had been discovered. So he started buying gold at a cheap rate from early miners with money he stole from the church and resold it for a large profit. He the used the  money he was making from buying and selling gold to buy up all the available mining supplies in San Francisco. He published news of the gold findings in his paper, the California Star.

Once word spread of all the undiscovered gold available in California, the gold rush began. Same owned the only supply store between the mining fields and San Francisco. So every single miner that came out for gold had no choice but to stop at the store owned by Sam Brannan. He eventually opened several more stores. His first store was selling $150,000 a month in goods and supplies in 1849 (almost $4 million in today’s money).

Samuel also increased his fortune in other ways. He had several luxury hotels built in various cities in California. He also created a successful ship trade with China and the east coast.

Crime was very high in San Francisco due to the large volume of people and the large amount of gold and money. The average murder rate was 49 per 100,000 people. So to help maintain his own control over much of San Francisco, Samuel formed the San Francisco committee of Vigilance. It was an unofficial citizens police force. Unfortunately Samuel was part of a group in this committee that was accused of helping to kill in innocent man. This event would get him removed form the Latter Day Saints.

After the gold rush things started going bad for Samuel Brannan. Being removed from his church that he was

 member of most of his life, and marital problems with his wife were just a few. His wife filed for divorce and he would eventually lose most of his fortune to this. Samuel Brannan died alone, homeless and penniless on May 6, 1889 in Escondido, California.

Samuel Brannan and his Legacy

By publishing the finding of gold in California in his news paper, he essentially created the gold rush and was the cause of so many people making the long journey to California. If he hadn’t published this, would the news still have made it to east coast? Or would the California gold rush not have happened as fast as it did. We will never know.

Sam Brannan helped the California economy in many ways. He basically helped to increase the population, therefore stimulating the local economy. He helped form the

 

 

Society of California Pioneers to develop banks, railroads, and telegraph companies. He also played a large part in a company that initiated the development of the now largely populated Los Angeles County.

Samuel Brannan is an example of how a single person can affect the economy of our country on multiple levels and over a long period of time. We as Americans have been, and always will be a capitalistic society as Samuel Brannan demonstrated. He played a large role in Californian economic history.

 

 

Sources

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWbrannan.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Brannan
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/gold-fever/bios/sam-brannan.htm
http://napavalleyregister.com/inv/lifestyles/sam-brannan-pioneer-dreamer-and-scoundrel/article_600ee514-3ae9-11e0-8969-001cc4c002e0.html

           Samuel Morse was born on April, 27, 1791, in MA. A student at Yale, he was interested in art and electricity (a new concept of its time). After Yale, he became a painter. After hearing about a newly discovered electromagnet while sailing home from Europe in 1832, he came up with an idea of developing an electric telegraph. The next several years were spent developing a prototype for the invention. Two people assisted him in the development, Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail.

          The Telegraph is a machine that was used to transfer messages in the form of electrical impulses. Messages sent from it were called Telegrams; and the sender was called a Telegrapher. It was a major way of communicating in the mid 19th and late 20th centuries. Come the 21st century though it was made obsolete by things like phone calls, faxes and the birth of the Internet, Pictured below is the telegraph used to receive to the first telegram.

             The machine was demonstrated in 1838 with the use of Morse Code (dots and dashes representing letters & numbers). It would take the next 5 years in 1843 for Morse to finally convince a skeptical Congress to fund the building of the first telegraph line from D.C. to Baltimore. Below is a video of the first telegram “What hath God wrought?”

The First Telegram

             Over the next few years private companies began to emerge using Morse’s patent. In 1851, the New York and Mississippi  Valley Printing Telegraph Company was founded; later to be known as a very familiar company name that still exists today, Western Union. A decade after its birth, the company built the first transcontinental line across the United States. In 1866 the first successful permanent line across the Atlantic was finished, by this time the world had seen telegraph systems in 5 continents: North America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe.

Why was it important?

          Though the telegraph fell out of widespread use by early 21st century, it paved the way for future innovations that are still widely used every second of every day. The Telegraph laid the groundwork and was replaced by: the Telephone, Fax Machine and the Internet. With all these things in existence, media & communications have become big employers and healthy supporters of the economy.

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com

http://www.history.com

http://www.wisegeek.org

 

The Legacy of Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinsons legacy will go down as one of the most prolific in sports history as well as in all of American history. Jackie paved the way for the civil rights movement. Not only his skill in athletics but his will and desire made Americans question the “seperate but equal” “equality” in America. I will be going over biography, his accomplishments, what he did outside of baseball and how all that he accomplished ties in to what we studied this year.

Biography

Jackie Robinson was born to a single mother in a sharecropping family in Georgia in 1919. As 1 of 5 kids Jackie grew up with much hardship and racism towards him and his family which only brought them closer together. He learned to make his way in his life, and ended up with varsity letters in 4 sports at UCLA, basketball, football, track, and of course baseball.  After monetary issues made Jackie have to leave UCLA he joined the army where he progressed through the ranks very quickly. After being court marshalled due to a “racial incident” he left the army. Shortly after he began playing in the negro league for the Kansas City Monarchs until 1947 when his life changed and he was approached by Branch Rickey to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie was married and had 3 kids before he died in October 1972.

Few of many Accolades

• Broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947 by becoming the first African-American player and first African-American player to make the Hall of Fame.
• Named National League Rookie of the Year in 1947.
• Led the National League in stolen bases in 1947 and 1949.
• Led second basemen in double plays 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952.
• Selected as the National League MVP in 1949
• Won the 1949 batting title with a .342.
• National League All-Star Team, 1949-1954.
• Had a career batting average of .311 with the Dodgers, .333 in All-Star games Led the Dodgers to six World Series and one World Series Championship in a 10-year span.

Outside of Baseball

Jackie Robinson was a large part in the movement and did many great things outside of baseball as well, including:

• Starred in “The Jackie Robinson Story” in 1950.
• Opened a men’s apparel store on 125th street in Harlem from 1952-1958.
• Signed a contract with WNBC and WNBT to serve as Director of Community Activities in 1952.
• Became Vice President of Chock Full O’Nuts in 1957.
• Served in numerous campaigns and on the board of directors for the NAACP from 1957-1967.
• Established the Jackie Robinson Construction Company in 1970 to build housing for families with low incomes.
• Wrote an autobiography “I Never Had It Made.”
• Helped establish the Freedom National Bank.

Tying it together with our class

Segregation in America was not good for the economy. Jackie Robinson with the help of many other people paved the way for a reform to the “seperate but equal” doctrine and segregation in the US. Desegregation gave African-Americans the right to go to better schools, get better jobs and have the oppurtunities that white people were already entitled to. With African-Americans having the right to get an education and be creative many things were invented that have been very successful in America including potato chips, the blood bank, gas masks, etc. In a diagram shown below it shows arguments of Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton in American Apartheid(Harvard UP, 1993) on how segregation causes poverty.

More information as well as explations for each example can be found on http://www.umich.edu/~lawrace/consequences.htm

Other sources I used throughout my project are

http://www.jackierobinson.com
http://www.history.com/topics/jackie-robinson

As the 20^th century neared and the American economy was undergoing continuous transformation, all was not well between labor and management.  The growing industrial labor force that helped power new industries and the many factories that came with them was experiencing long hours at low wages.  In this time of little government interference, management often sought out any way to keep profits rising.  Twelve hour work days, six-day work weeks and wage cuts were the norm.  Exhausted workers, tired of working in dangerous conditions for low wages, began to band together to force employers to treat them more fairly.  Such was the case at Andrew Carnegie’s steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania.

By 1890, Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in America, with an estimated net worth over $100 million.  His company, Carnegie Steel, was the largest steel producer in the country.  In the winter of 1891, the Homestead Mill, located in Homestead, Pennsylvania, became part of Carnegie’s steel empire.  Carnegie and his associate, Henry Clay Frick, had defeated the union at their other factories.  Despite his public stance as a champion of labor, Carnegie was determined to break the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers at Homestead.  He hated how this craft union, not even inclusive of all workers, dared to decrease the efficiency of one of his plants.  Facing one of the strongest craft unions in the country, he had a difficult task.

Not wanting to dirty his hands and soil his reputation, Carnegie tasked Frick, the violently anti-labor General Manager of Homestead, with cutting wages and breaking the union while Carnegie vacationed in Scotland.  Anticipating the expiration of the union’s contract at the end of June, Carnegie and Frick schemed to produce as much steel product as possible in the spring of 1892 in order to weather a strike.  Frick also fortified the mill with a three-mile long, 10 foot high wall topped with barbed wire.  With his fort complete and large inventory on hand, Frick planned to shut down the plant and wait for the union to buckle if his terms for a new contract were not accepted.

As negotiations on a new union contract began, Frick announced his intentions to slash wages and cut jobs.  Neither Frick nor Carnegie expected the union to accept these terms.  They were correct.  As the end of June neared, Frick began to close the mills at Homestead and lock out the workers.  Then, on June 25^th, Frick declared that he would no longer recognize the union and would only negotiate with individuals.  The workers at Homestead were willing to bend on almost every issue during negotiations but they were not willing to disband their union.  Management had acted on the belief that employees would abandon their union to save their jobs.  They had not anticipated the resolve shown by the workforce at Homestead.

On June 29, Frick locked out all 3,800 employees at the mill.  Only 750 of the 3,800 workers belonged to the craft union, however, over 3,000 met and voted overwhelmingly to strike.  They guarded the plant all day and night, not willing to allow management to employ strikebreakers to run the mill.  Strike leader Hugh O ‘Donnell did not want any violence but the union members would not allow any scabs into their factory.  In response, Frick hired the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, a private police force with more men and guns than the U.S. military.  They were to protect the non-union scabs that would be hired to run the factory.  Frick thought a show of strength and resolve was all that was needed to break the workers. Again, management badly miscalculated.

On the morning of July 6, 1892, a tug pulled two barges containing 300 Pinkerton men down the Monongahela River.  They were preparing to secure the factory via a river entrance.  Union members and townspeople, tipped off about the arrival of the Pinkerton men, gathered by the thousands at the mill to prevent the agents from taking over the factory.  It is not known who fired first, but a fierce battle ensued when the Pinkertons attempted to take the mill.  Workers frantically tried to sink the barges.  They soaked a raft with oil, set it on fire and sent it afloat in an attempt to burn the agents out.  They tried to ram the barges with a burning rail car.  They employed dynamite and cannon fire.  The tugboat left the barges to ferry out wounded men, leaving the remaining agents stranded.  Several Pinkerton attempts at surrender were denied.  During this fighting, union leadership tried to defuse the situation behind the scenes but Frick would not bargain. He knew that the more chaotic events got, the better chance militia would be dispatched to safeguard his factory.  Finally, after more than twelve hours of brutal violence, surrender was negotiated with the safety of the Pinkertons promised.  Three Pinkertons lay dead and 9 workers had been killed or mortally wounded.

Despite the promise of safety for the Pinkertons, they were forced to walk through a gauntlet of angry townspeople on their march from the mill to Homestead.  During this walk, they were beaten badly with fists, rocks and clubs.  Many were seriously injured.  This beating and the subsequent reporting of it by the media turned many citizens against the strikers.  Upon arrival to the town, they were put into the jail for their safety and whisked away to Pittsburgh by train at night.  Despite assurances to the union that they would be prosecuted for their crimes, the Pinkertons were released by state officials without facing any charges.

Under pressure from Carnegie Steel and the Carnegie-backed political machine that helped to elect him, the governor of Pennsylvania ordered the state militia to Homestead to break the strike.  On July 12, 8,500 militiamen arrived by rail and quickly took back control of the plant.  Strikebreakers arrived by train and took over work in the mill.  By August, the factory employed 1,700 scab workers and the mill was running as usual.  The strikebreakers lived on mill grounds, as the town of Homestead was a dangerous place for them.  The strike continued on, with union requests for renewed negotiations ignored by Frick.

An assassination attempt on Frick by anarchist Alexander Berkman further undermined public support for the strike.  Although Berkman had no connection to the union, sympathy for the strikers had been eroded.  Strike leadership fell apart and workers went back on Frick’s terms.  The strike had failed and the union collapsed.  All strike leaders were blacklisted. Many strikers were arrested but sympathetic juries convicted none.

The crushing of the union during the Homestead Strike of 1892 was just one of many clashes between labor and management around the beginning of the 20^th century.  It was representative of many of the battles, as big business, with political and judicial backing, often triumphed over organized labor.

References:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande04.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/mh_horror.html

http://www.history.com/topics/homestead-strike/videos#homestead-strike

http://www.history.com/topics/homestead-strike/videos#andrew-carnegie-and-the-homestead-strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NljbZAGk0w

The Early Years

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was born on January 30^th, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. He was born into a wealthy, prominent family that had made their fortune in real estate and trade. The only child of James and Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, Franklin lived a very privileged childhood. He was educated by private tutors until the age of 14 when he began attending Groton School for boys, a prestigious preparatory school for boys in Massachusetts. Roosevelt graduated from Groton in 1900 and went on to attend Harvard University.

At Harvard, he joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and became editor of the Harvard Crimson newspaper. He graduated in just three years. During his final year at Harvard, he became engaged to his fifth cousin Eleanor Roosevelt, the niece of his idol and distant relative, Theodore Roosevelt. They married on March 17, 1905. Franklin moved on to Columbia University Law School and in 1907 he passed the bar and left Columbia early. For the next few years, Franklin practiced law in New York but he did not find his career fulfilling. He made a decision to enter public service and delved into the world of politics, a career that had always held his interest.

FDR The Politician

In 1910 at the young age of 28, FDR ran for the New York State Senate. Despite a strong Republican family background as well as a strong Republican history in his district, Roosevelt ran on the Democratic ticket and with the help of his well-respected last name, was the first Democrat to be elected in 16 years. Roosevelt was reelected in 1912 and served as chair of the agricultural committee, where he was successful in passing farm and labor bills and social welfare programs. During the same year, FDR supported Woodrow Wilson at the Democratic National Convention, who returned the favor by appointing him Assistant Secretary to the Navy. This was the exact position Theodore Roosevelt had used to propel himself toward presidency. Two short years later, FDR ran for the US Senate seat for New York but was unsuccessful. Strongly against the political machines in New York, he was unable to get the support needed to win the election. In 1920 Roosevelt’s political career gained national exposure when he accepted the nomination for vice president alongside James M. Cox. They were soundly defeated by Republican Warren G. Harding, however, the election gave Roosevelt the boost into publicity that his career needed.

Just as Roosevelt felt that his political career was really beginning to boom, tragedy struck as he was diagnosed with polio. At that time, polio had no known cure. Roosevelt decided to remove himself from politics in order to focus on rehabilitation and recovery. After four years out of the public eye, Roosevelt decided to return to politics despite being wheelchair bound and hesitant to the public reaction of his disability. However, the public reaction was one of compassion and his career continued to advance once again. By 1928 he was governor of New York, and after serving two terms, he ran for President in 1932.

The 32nd President

Franklin Roosevelt became the 32^nd President of the United States in 1933 with John Nance Garner as his Vice President. The United States was in the middle of the Great Depression, and FDR used this to his advantage as he campaigned against the Republicans whom he blamed for the failing economy. His platform of hope called for government intervention that would prove relief, recovery, and reform to the economy. Roosevelt won the election with 472 electoral votes to a mere 59 for current Republican President Herbert Hoover. FDR took the office of presidency in March of 1933, to a nation with nearly a quarter of the workforce unemployed, hundreds of bank closures, and the greatest economic crisis the country had ever seen. What Roosevelt accomplished in the first 100 days of Presidency was unprecedented. He immediately set forth in his efforts to turn the economy around with what became famously known as Roosevelt’s New Deal. In contrast to the small government, free-market philosophy of Hoover, FDR sought for radical and immediate changes. In his New Deal, he promised American’s that his respond to the depression would be with bold, consistent experimentation and he followed through with just that. In his first 100 days in office, FDR passed 15 major bills through Congress as a part of his promised New Deal.

The New Deal

October 29th, 1929 will forever be known in American economic history as Black Tuesday, the day the stock market crashed, and the country plummeted into the Great Depression. Soon after, banks failed, the money supply diminished, companies went bankrupt, and unemployment skyrocketed. President Hoover sought for patience from citizens, arguing that the economic crisis would pass and the government need not intervene. However, it became clear that this was no ordinary crisis, and Roosevelt recognized government intervention was of the utmost importance to save the country. As soon as Roosevelt took office, he set forth his plan for a New Deal.

FDR’s first act as president was to declare a four-day banking holiday, in which time Congress drafted the Emergency Banking Bill of 1933. The bill stabilized the banking system by putting the federal government behind it, in an effort to restore public faith in the banking system. Next, FDR signed the Glass-Steagall Act which created the FDIC and provided federally insured deposits. The Civil Conservation Corps was a successful New Deal program that provided work for 3 million young men. The program sent young men to the nation’s forests where they dug ditches, built reservoirs, and planted trees for $30 a month. The Works Progress Administration, another work relief program, employed more than 8.5 million people to build bridges, roads, airports, and public buildings and parks. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the National Recovery Act (NRA) addressed employment issues by regulating the number of hours worked per week and banning child labor. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was yet another implementation of Roosevelt’s New Deal, this one giving $3 billion to states for work relief programs. The Agricultural Adjustment Act provided loans for farmers facing bankruptcy, and The Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) saved thousands of homes from foreclosure.

Just as FDR had promised, he provided bold and consistent experimentation. He tried various methods to ease the Depression and although some were not successful, he continued on with new approaches. His effectiveness with Congress was unrivaled and it allowed him to make a sweeping reform. While the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, it helped the American people enormously not only by taking care of basic needs, but by providing hope that sustained them throughout the recovery.

 

 

 

 

 

References

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/franklinroosevelt/p/pfdroosevelt.htm

http://www.biography.com/people/franklin-d-roosevelt-9463381?page=3

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutfdr/polio.html

http://www.history.com/topics/franklin-d-roosevelt/photos#videos

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-franklin-d-roosevelt/

http://www.usnews.com/news/history/articles/2009/02/12/the-first-100-days-franklin-roosevelt-pioneered-the-100-day-concept

 

How General Motors changed the automobile industry in the 1920s.

When people think about the making of the auto industry and what has made it survive and even thrive the first thing that comes to mind is Henry Ford and the Model T. It is thought that Ford created the assembly line. This is not true, the credit actually goes to Ransom Eli Olds. Now don’t get me wrong Ford did some great things in the auto industry. Such as, adding automation to the assembly line and lowering the cost of the Model T from a range of $600-$7500 to $265. However with this price drop came a few drawbacks. First, the only color available was black (simply because it dried faster). Second, the Model T was completely square with no curves or anything else to make it visually appealing (strictly a cost saving measure). Oh and did I mention that the only vehicle available from Ford for seventeen years straight was the Model T (he only began making the Model A because of the persistence from his son from the falling sales). What happens when a family with a rising income wishes to replace their car for a newer and better model and yet all that is available from Ford is the same Model T they purchased seventeen years ago? This is where General Motors stepped in and saved and expanded the automobile industry.

After General Motors was behind Ford in sales for what seemed like an eternity Pierre DuPont decided to change things up in 1920 by appointing Alfred Sloan to the job of overcoming Ford’s sales figures. Sloan realized that price was simply not an option. Ford had driven the price of the Model T down so far that Sloan knew the only thing he could do was make a better quality car.

Work began on a copper cooled engine to be released with the 1923 Chevrolet. However, due totechnical problems the engine was delayed and was not ready in time for the release of the 1923 Chevrolet. So, instead of just throwing in the towel and waiting until next year Sloan made the call to release the 1923 Chevrolet with the same technology that it had kept for the past nine years (remember Ford had released the same exact car for seventeen years). However, one thing would be different, the latest style body. We’re talking the same car with the looks of a luxury car, lower roof, higher hood, and rounded lines. Sales boomed and the focus of the automobile industry changed forever. This proved it was not the latest and greatest technology under the hood consumers were looking for. They wanted something shiny and new to show off.

Another area where General Motors exceeded was being able to build cars for different markets. The different brands included Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac. Sloan lowered the cost of producing all these brands by sharing parts between the brands. A Buick and a Pontiac could have the same transmission but the finished product would look completely different from each other.  All the models under all the brands only varied by three different shells which came in different sizes. They then were made aesthetically different by superficial parts like taillights and fenders. Remember how if you bought a Ford your only color choice was black? General Motors decided this wasn’t good enough and offered a spectrum of colors. Since new is always better according to the consumer General Moors released a new model every year. Before this a new car every year was unheard of. Although the shell and mechanics stayed the same sometimes for multiple years the exterior was changed to have a “new” appearance.

Check out the YouTube video to see the assortment of vehicles offered by General Motors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZbM5cqeyDw

Finally in 1927 General Motors surpassed Ford in sales. In fact in the 1920s a few jokes circulated about the Model T. “Why is a Model T like a mistress? Because you hate to be seen on the streets with one.” Another joke about the Model T’s construction was about a driver not needing a speedometer because he already knew his speed.  “When my Ford is running five miles per hour, the fender rattles; twelve miles an hour, my teeth rattle; and fifteen miles an hour, the transmission drops out.” 

Driven by the fact that looks sell more than whats under the hood General Motors brought in Harley Earl in 1927 to make an inexpensive Cadillac, the La Salle, look like a luxury Cadillac. Earl built expensive looking cars for the movies in Hollywood and Sloan knew he would be the perfect guy for the job. The La Salle was an obvious success and at the time “was the most beautiful car ever built”. Earl stated, “I try to design a car so that every time you get in it, it’s a relief–you have a little vacation for awhile”.

General Motors was founded on September 16, 1908 originally only holding Buick. Now 105 years later holding Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC. General Motors led vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years, from 1931 through 2007, longer than any other automaker in history. This story of success is made possible by management standing up and stepping out of the box to save an industry that was only going downhill. They knew what consumers were looking for and changed the automobile industries way of thinking in order to give them what they wanted and even what they only dreamed of.

References:

(Main Reference) http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Gartman/D_Casestudy/D_Casestudy1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_General_Motors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZbM5cqeyDw

         The Train system in the economic

Although we had a glance of the rail road and trains in our books I decided to take a further look into the economic benefits because of my grandfather, who has passed, and his love of trains. So to start in 1828 the rail road was developed and started to expand across the US first from the north then to the south. The rail road was closely modeled after the English rail line meaning all of the lines were inter connected together.

The exception was the south, instead of intertwining their rail lines they disconnected them making it nearly impossible to stay on one line for very long. This decision seriously hurt them in the civil war. Whenever the south needed supplies they would have to go through many different train lines to get any of it making it impossible to get any supplies. So they used canals and water ways to ship their goods from place to place. But even the water road was unusable due to blockades by the north. Soon they started to take apart the rail road to make new guns and to scavenge parts for other supplies they deeply needed. The north took part the rail ways mainly to stop the south from getting the supplies they desperately needed. This was one of the reasons the north won.

After the civil war the nation got to work putting their economy back together. They also started to put damaged rail road lines back together mainly in the north. Newly designed Train cars were developed to help with different types of transportation. One of those special cars was the passenger car; this revolutionized the way that people got from place to place. The rail road could go through any weather and on any day to places that most water ways and canals could not. It was also more comfortable for the passengers then going in a wagon because of the accommodations that were not available. Wagons did not have room to move around, or food car, or even a sleeping car. So passengers never had to stop traveling so someone could stretch their legs or eat, making the trip shorter and easier on the passengers. Not to mention in a wagon you were riding on rocky bumpy roads were as in a train it was nice and even. It was also safer then canals and water ways. It was less likely for a train to get into an accident that a boat to cap size in the river. Even though the rail ways were very popular for many reasons, many were often not financed by government founding or financing, infect most were financed by Privet Company’s or by investors. Mainly because the government didn’t actually think that it was going to work as well as it did.

Of course passengers weren’t the only thing that was affected positively by the rail ways. The transportation of goods such as but not limited to wheat and cotton were also helped by the trains. Thanks to the rail ways more food was able to get from place to place. It cost less money and time to get things to other cities and states making it cheaper. It took fewer products to supply the demand thanks to the reliability of the trains and the speed of them. It also cost less to insure the items in transport, the water ways became less and less in demand. Even with most of the demand in trains there were still those who chose to use the canals and water ways that were closest to them. But for the most part both people and goods relied on trains to get them safely to their destination.

Rail roads like many businesses had invested into Wall Street and at first it helped the business grow bigger and stronger. However after the great depression the rail road slowly died. Because of the lack of funding thanks to the depression it became harder for the rail road to pay back investors and soon their employs.  After cut in pay check a large strike ensued the biggest strike in the history of trains. This seriously hurt the train system and they never quite recovered to their former glory. Soon the automobiles took over for the best way to travel making the train only useful for transporting goods.

President Ronald Reagan and “Reaganomics”

The president of the United States is considered one of the most powerful men in the world. Becoming president is a grueling and long process, and it takes a gifted individual to win a presidential election. There are many reasons why a president is elected by the people to be the leader of the United States, but no matter the reason, the main goal of every president is to improve the government, the economy, and the country as a whole. Some presidents have done little to change, and others have made drastic and controversial changes. One president that is considered to make the most drastic changes in the government and the economy, which are still debated to this day, was President Ronald Reagan.

Elected in 1980, Reagan was the 40th president of the United States, and is well-known for his radio broadcasting, Hollywood film career, charismatic leadership, sense of humor, and his legacy as a president. Even with all of his achievements and successes, Reagan’s presidency is highlighted by his plan to stimulate the economy and create growth, which we know today as Reaganomics.

Reagan’s Early Life and Hollywood Career

 

Reagan was born on February 6th, 1911 in Tampico, IL. He was a gifted athlete and played football in high school and played in college for Eureka University. After graduating from college, he began working on the radio in Iowa, where he was an announcer for football and baseball. While he traveled to Los Angeles on a spring training trip with the Chicago Cubs, he contacted a former colleague who was able to organize a meeting with a Hollywood agent. In 1937, he signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers studios. He was also a Captain in the United States Army Air Forces where he served from 1937 to 1945. 

Reagan landed his first movie role in 1937 as a radio reporter in the movie Love is on the Air. Even though he was a natural performer, it was not until a few years later that Reagan starred in the movie that made his career. He was chosen to play George Gipp in the movie Knute Rockne – All American. After starring in that movie, Reagan was all over Hollywood. His sense of humor, handsomeness, and love of showbusiness was adored by all. His acting career includes more than 50 films such as Bedtime for Bonzo, Kings Row (Which Reagan considered his best film and even titled his autobiography “Where’s the Rest of Me?” after the movie’s main quote), the host of the 1950’s television program General Electric Theater, involvement in the Screen Actors Guild, and guest appearances on other shows, such as “What’s My Line?” as seen in the link below. Great example of Ronald Reagan’s sense of humor.

Ronald Reagan Guest Appearance on “What’s my Line” TV Show

 

From Actor to Politician

Reagan’s grand entrance into the world of politics came in 1965 when he gave a speech at a fundraiser for Barry Goldwater, the current Republican presidential candidate at the time. About a year later, Reagan became governor of California. He served as governor until 1974, and then began his run at the presidency. His history in Hollywood was seen as a weakness at the beginning of his political career, but Reagan proved that this was actually one of his greatest assets. He used quotes like “Win one for the Gipper!” from his movie Knute Rockne during his campaigns to tie his acting career to his political career. After a few years of campaigning, he a won the election in 1980 and became the 40th President of the United States. Reagan was the oldest President to take office at the age of 69 years old, and is still the oldest president to serve in office to this day. He won re-election in 1984 and served as president until 1988. He remained in the public eye until 1994 when he announced that he had Alzheimer’s Disease, and passed away at the age of 93 on June 5th, 2004. 

 

Reaganomics

Still considered to be one of the most severe attempts to alter the course of U.S. economic policy of any presidential administration to this day, “Reaganomics” defines the economic policies of Ronald Reagan during his presidency. The goal of Reaganomics was to increase investment and saving, stimulate economic growth, successfully balance the national budget, reduce interest rates and inflation, and restore healthy financial markets. Once Reagan claimed presidency and moved to the White House, he did not waste any time initiating his plan to turn the economy around.

Reagan’s vision to change the economy included many goals and policies that occurred over the course of the Reagan administration. The first and possibly most important step toward fixing the economic problems facing America was Reagan’s 1981 Program for Economic Recovery, which consisted of four major policy objectives:

1) Decrease the growth of government spending – The annual increase in real federal spending decreased from four percent during President Carter’s presidency to two and a half percent during the Reagan Administration. Unfortunately, the increase in defense spending was greater than Reagan originally proposed during the 1980 campaign. Reagan did not achieve a significant decrease in federal spending because economic growth was slower than expected. This struggle was most likely the greatest disappointment of Reagan’s presidency.

2) Reduce the marginal tax rates on income from not only labor but also capital – The changes Reagan made in tax rates is one of the most noticeable changes. Reaganomics achieved sharp reductions in marginal tax rates and in inflation, and were accomplished at a cheaper cost than what was predicted. From 1980 to 1988, the corporate income tax rate dropped from 48 percent to 34 percent, and the top marginal tax rate in individual income decreased 70 percent to 28 percent. 

3) Cut back on government regulation – Decrease in regulation by the government was ranked last in priority compared to the other goals of Reagan’s economic policy, but was successful. Although it was at a slower rate, the decrease in economic regulation that began during the Carter Administration continued. Reagan also eliminated or lessened price controls on cable TV, ocean shipping, interstate bus service, long-distance telephone service, and oil and natural gas.

4) Reduce inflation by controlling the growth of the money supply – Inflation proved to be one of the most difficult issues to overcome. At the time, Stagflation had been an ongoing in the U.S. economy, but escalated in 1973 and continued until 1980. The Reagan economic program corrected this problem and began a period of lower inflation and higher growth. Over the course of Reagan’s presidency, the inflation rate decreased from 10.4 percent in 1980 to 4.2 percent in 1988.

It may not have been to the degree that was intended, but Reaganomics delivered on all of their objectives. It was clear that there was a significant improvement in the economy that was led by the Reagan economic program. Just not as much as Reagan had wanted. There were a few areas of the initial goals of his first program that were unsuccessful due to resistance from Congress and the American voters. As a whole, Reagan achieved his goal of improving the economy for the most part, something that had not been accomplished by a U.S. president in a long time.

There is a great deal that can be learned from Ronald Reagan, his presidency, and Reaganomics. In today’s world, we still experience difficulties in the economy; the rising National Deficit, rises and falls in the economy, the Obama-care situation, and more. Perhaps the most important lesson to learn from Reagan’s past is not in the issues he prevailed against or the problems he faced, but how he reacted and what drove him to attempt the impossible. For someone to charge straight in and attempt to completely change the entire economy is a feat in itself. But to be able to with a smile and endless optimism is something else. As americans, we have slightly lacked in the pro-action department, and are putting our faith in the idea that the economy and the government will fix themselves. This placement of faith needs to be moved, and relocated back into ourselves, and trust that we have the ability to make a difference. After all, if an actor has enough faith in himself to become president and succeeds, what’s stopping us from achieving our own goals?

 

Sources:

Niskanen, William A. “Reaganomics”. The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty. Nov 5 2013.  http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Reaganomics.html

“Ronald Reagan Born”. This Day in History. The History Channel. Nov 10 2013.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ronald-reagan-born

Suarez, Ray. “Reagan’s Economic Legacy”. PBS News Hour. June 4 2004. Nov 3 2013. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june04/reagan_06-10.html

Pictures

http://desertpeace.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/reagan-bonzo.jpeg

http://www.airfieldsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Former-President-Ronald-Reagan.jpg

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/183/0/6/ronald_reagan_riding_a_velociraptor_by_sharpwriter-d55rsh7.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H8er77IBK4Y/TonNh49irHI/AAAAAAAAFlY/DXt99Si64hE/s1600/reagan22new.jpg

http://www.notable-quotes.com/r/ronald_reagan_quote.jpg

The Federal Reserve

In researching the topic I found nothing but controversies surrounding the institution. Both left and right wing proponents take issue with the Fed. Being that it is a very complex and extensive topic I decided to try to focus on how the Fed was created, and how its creation has fueled controversy.

The Fed, what is it?

The Federal Reserve Act was passed on December 23^rd, 1913. The act brought into existence the nation’s central bank, the Federal Reserve. The Fed is often seen as a mysterious institution, with many not even knowing what it actually is, or does. According to the Fed’s website they are responsible for: “conducting the nation’s monetary policy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices, supervising and regulating banks, maintaining the stability of the financial system, and providing certain financial services to the U.S. government.” The Fed consists of twelve regional reserve banks. These banks act as operating arms that provide services to banks and the public in their region. These regional banks are overseen by a 7 member Board of Governors. These board members are also responsible for implementing monetary policy for the United States. The board is appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. The Fed is a unique institution in that it is both public, and private. It is considered “independent within the government.”

 First Banks

The Federal Reserve was not the first attempt at a national bank. In fact, there were two national banks before our current system. Both of these banks had twenty year charters and both of them expired after twenty years (1791-1801, 1816-1836). Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were strongly opposed to the first bank. They believed the bank was unconstitutional and at the expense of the majority. The second bank shared the same fate as the first, this time it was Andrew Jackson denying the renewal. Jackson was strongly opposed to the Second Bank and ultimately vetoed the bill to renew it as he thought the bank put too much power in the hands of too few.

Gold Standard

In 1834 the United States went on the gold standard with a fixed price of gold per ounce ($20.67). This meant that one US dollar was worth approximately 1/20th of an ounce of gold. The gold standard was thought of as ” hard money,” and a “money of the people.” It was money that could not be tampered with. During the Civil War the government went off the gold standard and printed money (greenbacks) in order to finance the war. These fiat notes were legal tender, however they were not redeemable for any gold. The governments power to print unbacked currency can later be seen as one of the pillars of the Federal Reserve. After the civil war the US went back on the gold standard and experienced one of the greatest periods of prosperity the United States has ever seen. For twenty years the total output of goods and services increased at a rate of four percent per year. The US later lowered  how much gold the dollar was worth to 40% of it’s initial value in order to print more money into circulation. The gold standard was essentially abandoned in 1933. This is important because some do not realize there is absolutely nothing backing our currency, just the promise of the government, and the trust in the US dollar.

Panic of 1907 and further push for a central bank

By the late 1800’s the financial elite (led by JP Morgan and John D Rockefeller) began advocating for a central bank. They wanted cheap credit and an inflated money supply to expand their empires. The effort received a boost with the banking panic of 1907. During this financial crisis there was a run on many of the banks. Since banks use fractional reserve banking and only need to keep a small amount of its customer’s deposits on hand, banks run intro trouble if enough people withdrawal their money. These runs ultimately lead to the failure of the Knickerbocker Trust, and lead other establishments to near bankruptcy. This crisis would have been worse if not for JP Morgan and other New York bankers bailing out the banking system. The fear of bank failure was adopted and used by wall street, and the financial elite to sell the idea of a central bank. A bank that could be used as a lender of last resort.

Jekyll Island

In November of 1910, several financially, and politically prominent men took part in a very secretive trip to Jekyll island, an island off the coast of Georgia. The trip was so secretive the men only used their first names and arrived separately. One member even brought a shotgun with him in order to claim he was going on a duck hunting trip. The men in attendance were:

• Frank Vanderlip – President of National City Bank of New York
• Nelson Aldrich – Senate republican leader and chairman of the National Monetary Commission
•  Henry Davidson – Senior partner J.P. Morgan Co.
• Charles Norton – President of the First National Bank of New York
• Paul Warburg – Partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Co
• A. Piatt Andrew – Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Special Assistant to the National Monetary Commission
• Benjamin Strong – Vice President of Banker’s Trust of New York

Over the course of 7-10 days the men hammered out much of the details that later became known as the Aldrich Plan. The need for secrecy was evidenced  years later in an autobiography by Frank Vanderlip. In it he stated: “if it were to be exposed publicly that our particular group had gotten together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress.”

Senator Aldrich proposed his plan to Washington a few years later. Unfortunately for him, the plan came at a bad time as democrats had just captured congress. Though most republicans and Wall Street bankers favored the plan, it did not fair well with progressives, or the public, because the plan very much favored large bankers.

The Federal Reserve Act

Woodrow Wilson was voted into office in 1913. During his tenure he pledged financial reform of banking. He liked some aspects of Aldrich’s proposed plan, which would later come to be be the basis of the Federal Reserve bill. A new bill was proposed by advisers of Wilson’s; Carter Glass, and H. Parker Willis. Wilson liked the plan but wanted to add an amendment, a Federal Reserve Board to have control over the bankers. Wilson proposed the revised bill but was met with some opposition from bankers, and from conservatives who thought it was a radical break from the nation’s lazissez-faire economic policy. After many debates, and amendments, the Federal Reserve Act passed congress on Dec 22nd, 1913 and  was signed by Wilson the following day. It represented a compromise of different parties and interests, including Aldrich’s Plan.

Conclusion

The Federal Reserve has had profound implications on our economic system. After all, they literally print our money, and printed right on each bill it says: “Federal Reserve Note.” It’s an entirely different way of doing banking that every nation has adopted, a fiat based currency. The Federal Reserve was designed in part to contain banking crises. Though, as we have learned this year this wasn’t necessarily the case. Only 16 years after the Federal Reserve Act was the start of the Great Depression. We’ve also learned about how the Fed changes the market by raising or lowering interest rates. On a few occasions the Fed would try to keep money tight by raising interest rates in order to keep inflation down. Sometimes this would have dire consequences as the nation would be plunged into recessions because of this money policy.

  Many opponents of the Federal Reserve claim that it is in itself unconstitutional, and too private to be trusted to having the whole in mind. There are many who think we should scrap the Fed altogether and go back to some sort of gold standard. The meeting on Jekyll Island itself causes much controversy and has sparked many conspiracy theories; so much so that nearly every documentary I found on the Fed was a “truth” documentary. I myself found the whole topic interesting and will never think about the Fed the same way.

Works Cited:

Money, Banking, and The Federal Reserve – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZM58dulPE

www.federalreserve.gov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Federal_Reserve_System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Board_of_Governors

http://www.bostonfed.org/about/pubs/begin.pdf

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3815

Images:

http://static-imgs-acf.hereisthecity.com/20110721/17/federal_reserve_logo_2147.gif

http://thoughtsontheatre.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/national-bank-cartoon.jpg

http://i.investopedia.com/inv/articles/site/CT-GoldStandard.gif

http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/1907panic_4.jpg

http://www.mindcontagion.org/images/jekyll_island.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Fed_Reserve.JPG/220px-Fed_Reserve.JPG