LAD #34 Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine was an address of the foreign policy and the national security of the United States, and also Turkey and Greece. The United States received an urgent appeal from Greece for economic and financial assistance, if they did not receive aid it seemed as though they would not survive as an independent nation. Greece was never a wealthy country and it lacked many natural resources, and it has “suffered invasion, four years of cruel enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife”; it was reported that the “Germans had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities, communications, and merchant marine. More than a thousand villages had been burned. Eighty-five per cent of the children were tubercular. Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared. Inflation had wiped out practically all savings.” Tragic conditions, a militant minority and human exploitation have made economic recovery seem impossible. The Greeks were asking for help to resume purchases of the bare essentials that were unavailable at the time. The Greeks also asked the United States for political aid “the assistance of experienced American administrators, economists and technicians to insure that the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration”. Truman tells the joint session of Congress that the aid the United States has already provided for Greece is inadequate and that the United States, as a self governing democracy, must do more for Greece. The British had been helping them previously but they can no longer offer economic support after March 31st.
Turkey is another nation that Truman mentions “as an independent and economically sound state is clearly no less important to the freedom-loving peoples of the world than the future of Greece.” Turkey was better off than Greece but Truman still urged that Turkey is also in dire need of American support. Turkey is seeking aid for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity to preserve the order in the Middle East. Truman says: “We are the only country able to provide that help.” “The disappearance of Greece [and Turkey] as...independent state[s] would have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the damages of war.” Truman then asks Congress for “assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1948”and “$350,000,000 for the prevention of starvation and suffering in countries devastated by the war.” He also asks Congress for commodities, supplies, and equipment for the two nations, and to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey.

LAD # 33 FDR's FIrst Inaugral Address

Before Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, the economy was spiraling downwards at a freakish pace. Banks were failing, businesses were going under, and Americans who were once living comfortable were then living on the streets. Hoovervilles were constructed outside major cities and the poor wandered the dirty cities looking for work. Wilson could do nothing but sit in horror. Although once FDR was elected, he boosted the spirits of the American people by his first inaugural address. He begins his speech stating that "our distress comes from no failure of substances." He says this to show the people this is not something they can not control. "We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply." He continues to say that the money changers that had caused the failure of the banks had " fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." This means that FDR has faith in the country that they work together and overcome the greedy in order to become a economically stable nation again. FDR also calls for action at that very moment to help the struggling economy. He says that we must "recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms." Instead of Wilson's ideas of letting the people solve the problems of the nation, he decides to take charge and tell people what to do so the nation can be fixed.

LAD # 32 Kellogg Briand Peace Pact

The act declared a “renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy” to promote the welfare of mankind. With the renunciation war as an instrument of national policy, peaceful and friendly relations between nations may be perpetuated and it will instate union between the civilized nations of the world in a common renunciation of war as an instrument of their national policy”. Any nation that resorts to war to promote its national interests shall not receive the benefits of the treaty. The treaty declared condemnation of “recourse to war for the solution of international controversies” and it was to be implemented as soon as possible. Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Kingdom of the Serbs, Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Siam, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Panama were all signers of the Act. “Convinced that all changes in their relations with one another should be sought only by pacific means and be the result of a peaceful and orderly process, and that any signatory Power which shall hereafter seek to promote its national interests by resort to war a should be denied the benefits furnished by this Treaty”.

LAD # 31 Wilson's Fourteen Points

Wilson’s Fourteen Points calls for peace and an international policy of openness. “The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world.” He also calls for a sense of national unity when he says that “all the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest”.
1. calls for public diplomacy
2. freedom of navigation of the seas – in both times of war and peace
3. equality of trade conditions
4. reduction of national armaments
5. impartial adjustment of all colonial claims – allowing the populations to have a voice in colonial decisions
6. “evacuation of all Russian territory” and assistance for the Russian government
7. sovereignty for Belgium
8. a correction of the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine and sovereignty for all French territories
9. “readjustment of the frontiers of Italy”
10. free opportunity to autonomous development for the peoples of Austria-Hungary
11. evacuation of Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro
12. Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees and sovereignty for the Turkish portion of the ottoman empire
13. erection of a sovereign polish state guaranteed by international covenant
14. “ a general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”
Wilson asks for peace and mutual understand with Germany and international unity.

LAD # 30 Schenck vs. U.S. Cases

On March 3rd, 1919, Schenk was declared guilty with the “mailing of printed circulars in pursuance of a conspiracy to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service”, “an unlawful use of the mails for the transmission”, and for an “offence against the United States...to use the mails for the transmission of matter declared to be non-mailable”. Despite the protection of freedom of speech by the first amendment, Schenck’s distribution of printed documents posed a serious threat and danger so therefore Congress had the right to halt his activities. According to the testimony, Schenck was general secretary for the socialist party and he was in charge of the socialist headquarters from where the documents were sent. “The document in question upon its first printed side recited the first section of the Thirteenth Amendment, said that the idea embodied in it was violated by the Conscription Act and that a conscript is little better than a convict.” Schenck’s messages were: “"Do not submit to intimidation” and to “Assert your rights”. His impassioned document was to prevent the draft. “It denied the power to send our citizens away to foreign shores to shoot up the people of other lands, and added that words could not express the condemnation such cold-blooded ruthlessness deserves”. During times of peace, Schenck’s document may have been completely within the realm of the rights of a citizen, but his words were a threat to the smooth operation of the military as it was a time of war. It is similar to yelling fire in a crowded movie theatre when there is no fire: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force.” Schenck simply commited a crime that was an obstruction of the recruiting services.

LAD # 28 Clayton Anti-Trust Act

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act was set in place in order for the government to get a grip on regulating business. It was passed by Woodrow Wilson's administration after introduced by Alabama Democrat Henry De Lamar Clayton, Jr. This act helped set the base of the regulation of business done by the government today. Earlier in the past, the Sherman anti-Trust act was the only way the government could control big businesses.Theodore Roosevelt used the act to become America's first trust buster. The Clayton Anti-trust Act, passed alongside the Federal Trade Commission Act, was used to control the behaviors of large corporations that are not enforced under law. The major difference between the Clayton Anti-Trust Act and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is that the Clayton Act can not be used against labor unions. The Sherman Anti-trust act was used to threaten labor unions such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. One of very few companies exempt from the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was Major League Baseball due to its national heritage. With the new anti-trust act in place, labor unions could be formed and boycotts, picketing, and strikes were permitted without the threat of interference with the government.

LAD # 27 The Keating-Owen Child, Labor Act

The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 "limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor." The 1900 census showed that two million children were working all across America, all ranging from small child to teen. This census caused a movement that fought for the end of child labor. Lewis Hines and other muckrakers took pictures of children laboring in factories where they were forced to fix dangerous machinery and do back-breaking work in coal mines for long hours. Many influential men joined the fight against child labor, including Carl Marx and Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote many books, including Oliver Twist, that portrayed young orphans working in factories and living in poorhouses in London. Albert Leveridge first proposed the bill in 1906 and "used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor. The act banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than 8 hours during the day." This law was eventually passed by Congress and signed by Woodrow Wilson, however, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Hammer vs. Dagenhart Case. This was because "it overstepped the purpose of the government's power to regulate production and commerce." Another law, the Child Labor Tax Law of 1919 was proposed, but soon ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Not until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was there a successful law enforcing child labor regulations, which is still upheld today.