American Experiment

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American Experiment Page 208

by James Macgregor Burns


  innovation in: education and, 82; late 19th century, 77–85, 108; pragmatism of, 82; 20th century, 289, 290–1

  Marx on, 76, 82, 289, 382

  military, 436

  and production, 74, 76

  science and, 289–91

  standardization in: of alternating current, 108; of gauges, 79; metric system, 81; of nuts, bolts, screws, 79

  and workers, 143, 259

  see also machines

  telephone, 83–4

  Teller Amendment (1898), 237, 240

  tenant farmers, 130–3

  tenement life, 137–8, 141

  tennis, 529

  Tenure of Office Act (1866), 53, 54, 56, 57

  Terrill, Tom, 213

  textiles, manufacture of:

  in Civil War era, 15

  late 19th century, 107

  machinery for, 74, 381

  Thalberg, Irving, 526

  Thayer, William Makepeace, 160

  theaters, movie, 525

  Theory of the Leisure Class (Veblen), 302–3

  Thernstrom, Stephan, 260–1

  third parties, political, 207–9, 235, 501

  Thomas, Gen. George, 34–5

  Thomas, Norman, 552

  Thompson, Annie, 261

  Thompson, Mary Wilson, 445

  Thrasher, Leon, 415

  Tilden, Bill, 529

  Tilden, Samuel J., 67, 201, 202, 205, 210

  Tillman, Benjamin R., 131, 336

  Time magazine, 521–2

  tires, rubber, 108

  Tocqueville, Alexis de, 83, 192, 438

  Trachtenburg, Alan, 309

  Tracy, Benjamin, 223

  trade unions, see labor unions

  trains, 249, 556

  see also railroads

  transients (in Depression), 556–7, 558–9

  transportation:

  in Civil War, 16–17

  railroads supplant canals, 108

  turn-of-the-century, 288

  urban, 250–1

  see also airplane; automobile; bicycling; railroads; trains; trolleys

  travel, foreign, 220–1

  Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 435

  Treaty of Portsmouth, 342

  Treaty of Versailles, 456–7

  American ratification of, 457–68

  and German reparations, 496

  Triangle fire (1911), 444, 502

  Trilling, Diana, 320

  trolleys, 250–1

  Trotsky, Lev Davidovich, 432

  Trumbull, Lyman, 42, 57

  trusts:

  Adams (H.) on, 305

  “beef,” 332

  Brandeis and, 392

  “money,” 387, 388, 391, 392

  resistance to, see antitrust movement

  Roosevelt (T.) and, 332–3, 349–52

  Wilson and, 389–91

  Tuchman, Barbara, 412

  tunnel, in Hoosac Mountains, Mass., 76–8

  Tunney, Gene, 530

  Turner, Frederick Jackson, 299, 400

  Turner, George Edgar, 17

  Tuskegee Institute (Ala.), 284

  Twain, Mark, 168, 170–1, 250, 291

  Huckleberry Finn, 170–1, 172

  Innocents Abroad, The, 221

  Tweed, William Magaer, Jr. (“Boss”), 266–7

  twine binder, 81

  Underwood, Oscar, 369

  underworld, 265, 266

  unemployment:

  1893, 226

  in Depression, 543, 545–7, 556; of blacks, 546

  unemployment insurance, 551–2

  Unger, Irwin and Debi, 246

  Union, the (in Civil War), 17–18

  Union Army, 8

  casualties of, 14

  “Colored” regiments in, 22

  conscripts and “volunteers” in, 14–15

  desertions from, 8

  morale of, 8, 22

  supplies for, 15

  Union for Concerted Moral Effort, 269

  Union Pacific Railway, 4, 93, 96

  unions, see labor unions

  United Artists, 525

  United Mine Workers, 333

  United Nations, 414

  United States Steel Corporation, 350–1, 389

  upper classes, 113–19

  upward mobility, social, 259–60

  urban living conditions, 255–62

  for blacks, 147–8

  for immigrants, 146–7, 247, 256–8

  progressives and, 245–6

  reform efforts and, 266–75

  upward mobility, 259

  for working class, 136–41

  see also cities

  Urofsky, Melvin, 392

  utilities, 273, 274

  utopianism, 173

  vagabonds, 556–7, 558–9

  Vallandigham, Clement, 8, 33

  Van Buren, Martin, 210

  Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 92–3, 127

  Vanderbilt, Frederick W., 118–19

  Vanderbilt, Mrs. William K., 118

  Van Syckel, Samuel, 81

  Van Waters, Miriam, 512

  Vanzetti, Bartolomeo, 537–8

  Vardaman,James, 149

  Veblen, Thorstein, 90–1, 302–4, 507

  and Dos Passos, 536

  and Marx, compared, 303–4

  Theory of the Leisure Class, The, 302–3

  Versailles peace negotiations (1919), 450–3, 455–7

  and League of Nations, 452, 455–7

  preparations for, 434, 437, 448–9

  Treaty of Peace, 452, 456

  veterans, as bonus marchers (1932), 558

  Vickrey, Fanny, 185

  Vicksburg, Va., battle of, 9–10, 12

  Victoria League, 125

  Villa, Francisco “Pancho,” 405–6

  violence:

  against blacks owning farms, 134

  and black suffrage, 66

  in labor strikes, 175–6, 177, 225–6, 227, 556

  see also lynching; riots

  Virgin Islands, 403

  visual arts, 308–13

  voting rights, see suffrage

  Wade, Benjamin F., 42, 44, 56

  Wade-Davis Bill, 32

  wages:

  in Civil War period, 19

  in Depression, 556

  in manufacturing (1860s–1890s), 140

  Ricardo’s “iron law” of, 155

  of women, 19, 140, 429, 431, 489

  Waite, Morrison R., 200, 203, 204

  Wald, Lillian, 278, 419

  Wall, Joseph, 162, 235

  Wall Street, see stock market

  Ward, John W., 510

  War Industries Board, 428–9

  Waring, George E., 254

  Washington, D.C.:

  blacks in, 148; suffrage of, 53

  in Civil War, 28

  as nation’s capital, 211–12

  planning and completion of, 271

  Washington, Booker T., 132–3, 234, 284

  Washington Conference (1921), 493–5

  Waterman, Lewis E., 82

  water supply, urban, 253–4

  Watson, Thomas A., 84

  Watson, Tom, 131, 187–8, 224, 228, 231, 232

  Wayland, Francis, 155

  wealth:

  distribution of, 140, 142–3, 192

  government and, 217

  justified by Social Darwinism, 158–9

  Wealth Against Commonwealth (Lloyd), 166

  Wealth of Nations (Smith), 154–5, 258

  wealthy, the, 113–19, 262

  athletic activities of, 527

  Bryan and, 369

  Fitzgerald (F. S.) on, 537

  among Jews in New York, 145–6

  pleasures of, alleged, 288–9

  Roosevelt (T.) and, 331–2, 349–51

  weapons:

  in Civil War, 16

  reduction and control of, 493–5

  Weaver, Gen. James B., 190, 208

  Webster, Daniel, 153

  Wecter, Dixon, 534

  Weinryb, Bernard, 259 />
  Weinstein, Edwin A., 466

  Western Federation of Miners, 282–3

  Western Reserve, Ohio, 196

  western U.S., landscape of, 96–7

  see also California

  Westinghouse, George, 81

  westward expansion, 128–9

  Weyl, Walter, 393–4

  Wharton, Edith, 319–23

  Wheeler, Burton K., 501, 553

  Wheeler, Gen. Joseph, 238–9

  White, Edward Douglass, 488

  White, Henry, 448

  White, William Allen, 160, 186, 329, 346, 360

  “whitecapping,” 134

  Whitehead, Arthur, 223

  Whiteman, Paul, 509

  Whitman, Walt, 30, 37, 123

  on democracy, 192–3

  Democratic Vistas, 193

  and Dos Passos, 536

  Leaves of Grass, 192, 193

  Whittier, John Greenleaf, 110

  Wiebe, Robert, 214, 218, 268

  Wiener, Norbert, 109

  Wiley, Bell, 23

  Wiley, Harvey, 348

  Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 407, 437

  Wilkes, Capt. Charles, 31

  Willard, Frances, 279

  Williams, T. Harry, 15

  Willson, Thomas L., 289

  Wilson, Edith Galt, 448, 463, 465, 470

  Wilson, Edmund, 557

  Wilson, Henry, 60, 68

  Wilson, Woodrow:

  and blacks, 418

  character and personality of, 366, 449, 467

  Congressional Government, 386

  and Democratic party, 368–70, 386, 388

  early life of, 365

  and elections: 1912, 371–7 passim; 1916, 420–1; 1920, 469, 473–4

  first political speech of, 363–4

  as governor of New Jersey, 366

  health of, 456, 463–6 passim, 469–70

  on leadership, 364–5, 383

  and Lenin’s ideology, compared, 412

  and power, 365

  as President, 383–475; and Clemenceau, 450–1; economic policy of, 374, 385–91; election of, 377, 421; flexibility of, 388–9, 391, 456; foreign policy of, 399–406, 418; Fourteen Points speech, 435, 437; and House (E. M.), 386, 423, 456; inauguration of, 383–4; leadership qualities of, 385–6, 391, 417, 425; and League of Nations, 414, 449, 452, 453–75; and Lodge (H. C), 454, 459–60; nomination of, 369–70, 420; as orator, 363–4, 383–4, 463; at Paris peace talks, 451–3, 455–7; progressivism of, 419; and Supreme Court, 418–19; travels to Paris (1918), 448–51; and World War I, 411–13, 418, 422–6, 427, 434–5

  as Princeton president, 365–6

  and Roosevelt (T.), 372–3

  and third-term possibility, 469, 473

  and wife’s death, 411

  Wise, Stephen, 419

  Wissler, Clark, 290

  Wister, Owen, 288

  “Wobblies,” see Industrial Workers of the World

  women:

  in Civil War, 26–7

  college education of, 514

  in Depression, 546

  in farm families, 127–8

  health of, 123–4

  in labor force: labor unions and, 176, 179, 280, 431; leadership of, 280–1; in manufacturing, 19, 422; strikes by, 280–1; wages of, 19, 140, 429, 431, 489; in World War I, 429, 430–1, 442

  leaders among (turn-of-century), 275–81

  middle class, 119–27, 261–2; housework of, 261

  and peace movement, 493

  in politics and political parties: 1920s, 534; People’s Party, 185–6; socialists, 398; for suffragist cause, 442, 444

  in professions, 261–2, 442

  as reform leaders, 270, 275–8

  sexuality of, 121–4, 15–6

  suffrage of, 442–7; and black suffrage, 204, 208–9; and 15th Amendment, 61; and 19th Amendment, 444–7; People’s Party and, 190; political priorities and tactics on, 209, 444; Roosevelt (T.) and, 444, 445; state-by-state movement, 445; support for, among women, 262, 280, 445, 534; Wilson and, 376, 418, 444, 445, 446–7; Woodhull and, 125

  wealthy, 115, 117–18, 262

  and women’s clubs, 262

  Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 279

  women’s club movement, 262

  Wood, Leonard, 471 Woodhull, Victoria Claflin, 124–7

  Woodward, C. Vann, 131, 135, 187, 398

  workers:

  in Chicago stockyards, 111

  cultural diversity among, 143–4

  and industrial democracy, 392, 421

  Marx on, 112, 259, 489; on class solidarity, 143, 173; proletarianization, 260–1, 382–3; and trade unionism, 173

  political organizing of, 209

  Social Darwinism and, 173

  and socialism, 173–4, 398–9

  sports for, 528

  standardization and efficiency of, 258–9, 480

  wages of, see wages

  women as: labor unions and, 176, 179, 280, 431; leadership of, 280–1; in manufacturing, 19, 422; strikes by, 280–1; wages of, 19, 140, 429, 431, 489; in World War I, 429, 430–1, 442

  see also immigrants

  Workingmen’s Party, 101

  workweek and workday, length of:

  eight-hour day, 176, 177, 178, 421, 429

  five-day week, 144

  nine-hour day, 333

  World Court, 495

  World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893), 271, 287

  World War I, 407–47

  aftermath of, 450; reparations, 496–7

  American attitudes toward, 410–11, 416, 425, 438–41; domestic agitation on, 412–13

  Arabic pledge on ships’ neutrality, 415, 417, 422

  armistice for, 437–8

  aviation and aviators in, 436

  economic causes of, 409–10, 422

  House-Grey Memorandum on, 422–3

  military aspects of, 407, 410, 417, 431–4, 435–7; battles, see battles, of World War I

  peace negotiations on (Paris, 1919), 450–3, 455–7; and League of Nations, 452, 455–7; preparations for, 434, 437, 448–9; Treaty of Peace, 452, 456

  propaganda efforts in, 412, 416–17, 426–7, 439

  U.S. and: financial aspects, 418, 421–2, 425–6, 439; military involvement and mobilization, 417, 425, 427–30, 431–2; neutrality, 411, 412, 414, 416, 426; public opinion, 410–16, 425, 438–41

  Wilson and, 411–13, 418, 422–6, 427, 434–5

  Wounded Knee Creek, massacre at, 219

  Wright, Frank Lloyd, 312–13

  Wright, Orville and Wilbur, 290

  writing and writers, American, 288, 313–23

  best-selling books, 322

  “yellow-dog” contracts, 488, 489

  Yosemite valley, 97

  Young, Art, 313–14

  Young, Brigham, 95

  Young, Owen D., 497, 532

  youth (1920s), 512–15

  Zimmerman, Joan, 278

  Zimmermann, Arthur, 425

  Zukor, Adolph, 524–5, 526

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  IN CARRYING THIS STUDY of “The American Experiment” on from the Civil War years to the crises of the early 1930s, I have continued to emphasize the role of purposeful leadership in the processes of historical causation. But now my central concern is with economic as well as intellectual and political leadership. The late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries were indeed an era of great financial and industrial tycoons—Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, and many others. I have tried to indicate some of the influence these leaders had on American thought, society, and politics.

  As in the first volume, however, I do not conceive leadership as a function merely of the more celebrated persons, but as the product of numberless purposes and actions of leaders of the second and third cadres in many social and political arenas. Even in situations where the top economic leadership—the great industrialists and financiers—appears capable of wielding enormous economic and political power, the “subordinate” leaders in my view have a critical influence
on the course of events. Their role also helps to explain why economic power cannot be simply or mechanically converted into political power; for these “lesser” leaders, reflecting as they do the endless social and ideological diversity of the American people, will often tend to lie outside, or even block or divert, the vertical flow of power from the top—and the more numerous and varied such leaders, the greater this tendency. I plan to return to the central problem of the role of concentrated economic power in a democratic republic in the third volume of this trilogy.

  Once again I have sought to illuminate the role of second- and third-cadre leaders by sinking “historical drill-holes” in specific sectors and situations, through research in a number of archives and libraries. For their unfailing helpfulness I thank the archivists and librarians at the Baker Library at Harvard Business School, the Buffalo Historical Society, California Historical Society, Columbia University Library, Ford Motor Company, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Huntington Library, Kansas State Historical Society, Library of Congress, Louisiana State University Library, Massachusetts Historical Society, Minnesota State Archives, New-York Historical Society, New York Public Library, Ohio Historical Society, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, Stanford University Library and Archives, Stowe-Day Library (Hartford), Williams College Library, and various other, more specialized archives and libraries.

  This volume, like The Vineyard of Liberty, has been very much a collaborative venture, in which I have had the privilege of working with great and varied talents. Once again I have pitilessly enlisted assistance from my family. My wife and fellow author, Joan Simpson Burns, helped me understand literary and other cultural forces in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries by sharing with me her ideas on and extensive knowledge of these subjects. I made full use of the versatility of Deborah Edwards Burns, a journalist who helped me with research on women’s history and related social history, and who conceived and executed the illustrative endpapers. Trienah Meyers Kuykendall critiqued the whole manuscript, making particular use of her legal background, and I tested my ideas against those of Peter Meyers, a young political theorist. I was especially fortunate to have the creative assistance of Stewart Burns, author of a doctoral dissertation, “The Populist Movement and the Cooperative Commonwealth: The Politics of Non-Reformist Reform” (1984), who generously helped me in placing the role of the Farmers Alliance in a broad historical and theoretical framework, shared with me his data, and collaborated with me in the drafting of the sections on the Alliance, Populism, and related intellectual and political developments.

  Because of the emphasis on economic and social history as well as intellectual and political history in this volume, I am especially grateful for help and collaboration from social historians working in these areas. Joan G. Zimmerman gave me indispensable assistance in the fields of Progressive politics, social legislation, and women’s education, as did Ellen M. James and Dee Ann Montgomery in women’s history, Eric Scheye in intellectual and ethnic history, Fran Burke in the political leadership of women, Anne Margolis in intellectual history, and Philippa Strum, author of a preeminent study of Louis Brandeis, in legal history and politics. Others who provided valued help in specific areas were Eunice Burns, Laurie Burns Gray, Rodger Davis, Lee Farbman, Michael Koessel, and Jay Leibold. Michael Beschloss, Lisl Cade, and Maurice Greenbaum also contributed in important ways. Milton Djuric provided extensive and invaluable editorial assistance at every stage of the book’s preparation.

 

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