LAD # 31

We have all herd about President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, he opens up his points with his strong desire to have international peace. With multiple mentions of Russia President Wilson makes it very evident that given Russia current position that peace can be made with them for a short amount of time. It is implied that Wilson believes that the Great War is being fought for purely a moral cause. Before fully discussing what his points are Wilson states his own opinion that the world is one people and that each country is the partner of the next.  He then gives a reminder to the American people of what exactly are America’s motivations for entering this war.  During his fourteen points President Wilson recites the "program of world peace".  The following are his points summarized; one open and public treaties with out private dealings, two freedom of the seas, three removal of economic barriers and establishment of equal trade, four reduced armaments (for Germany), five impartial adjustment of colonial claims, six calls for the evacuation of Russia and international help for Russia, seven calls for the soverniety of Belgium, eight the righting of wrongs done to France by Prussia in dealings with the Alsace-Lorraine, nine readjustment to the Italian borders, ten opportunity for autonomous development of Austria-Hungary, eleven dealt with the evacuation of evacuation of Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro, Dardanelles should be an area of free passage and sovereignty for the Turkish Romanians, twelve the creation of a sovereign polish state, and fourteen was and a general association of nations geared towards world peace and protection ( League of Nations). To conclude Wilsons pleaded for peace and justly reminded Americans what the cause of the Great War were.

LAD#30

In the Supreme Court’s ruling of Schenck vs. US, they found Schenck guilty upon three counts which were; exercising overt actions in the pursuit of a conspiracy, conspiring to commit a crime against the United States, and unlawfully using the mail system to send items that were deemed unsalable by an act passed in June, 1917. During the WWI era Schenck was a secretary to the socialist party, he was arrested and tried for printing and distributing anti-war, mainly anti-conscription pamphlets, these were thought to create insubordination amount the ranks of men that were previously drafted in the army. Upholding the rights of the citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution, Schenck's pamphlets argued that the Conscription Act and the Selective Service Act were both unlawful as they violated the thirteenth amendment forbidding the practice of involuntary servitude. He was also arrested to the right of the people to protest a government act. When he was tried Schenck claimed with much angst that it was his right thanks to the first amendment to say and publish whatever he wanted publically. However, when the ruling was presented the Supreme Court felt that his “right” as inconsistent with the manner in which the crime was committed, he had this right but, they felt that his opinions were a danger to the freedom of other citizens. His actions were dangerous and had the potential to create widespread panic and destruction of peace.

LAD #29

In 1916, due to Senator Beveridge’s proposal, congress passed the ever so needed Keating-Owen Child Labor Act. Using the power of the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce, this bill began to regulate harsh child labor in factories. The Keating-Owen Act banned the sale of products from any company that employed children under the legal age of 14. This ban also included any child under 16 working in a mine, at night, or for more than eight hours a day. Even though this would be extremely beneficial to child workers and was even approved my President Wilson, the Supreme Court declared the bill unconstitutional in the Supreme Court case Hammer v. Dagenhart.  IT was still declared unconstitutional even though many people wanted to see the end to unfair child labor. It eventually came to be that congress was successful in archiving to the goal of an act that regulated child labor.

LAD #28

            As a result of the split in votes between the Progressive Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican William Howard Taft, the democrat Woodrow Wilson won the 1912 election for the democrats. In Wilson’s First Inaugural Address, he called upon his fellow American patriots, he called upon them to remember and stand true to their morals. Wilson describes a country overcome with the evils of industry, and that there country needed to have a time of restoration. With meticulous organization Wilson laid out his plans for everyone. He wanted to continue the cleanse of the industrial system and of course provide better working conditions for the common people. It was his goal to pass regulatory legislation that would regulate the industries of the time. One such legislation is the Pure Food and Drug Act. He saw his election as a cry from the people to help clean up the American way of life and the business world to how it was before, a society based on the true honest morals of man. This concludes Wilson’s very patriotic and hopeful first inaugural address.

LAD #27

 

            In 1914 as a response to the semi-failure of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Congress passed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. This new act prohibited big business corporations from making exclusive contracts, freezing out their competition, interoperate stock holdings and rebates. A main component in this new act was that these labor unions were no longer constrained by the economy and were not specified making this new feature tot eh act more effective than the previous act, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The pervious act which made these unions act as constraints on business. Another added bonus to this new act was that it documented the legalization of peaceful strikes, picketing, and boycotts. In later years the Clayton Anti-Trust act was used a key tool in many lawsuits against big business.