MA-Sem-4-Project-paper-History-of-U.S.A.-1900-CE-1990-CE-munotes

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1 1
U.S.A. AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH
CENTURY:
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENTS
Unit Structure:
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Political Developments
1.3 Economic Transformation
1.4 Summary
1.5 Questions
1.6 Suggested Readings
1.0 OBJECT IVES
1) To understand the potential economic and industrial
development.
2) To know change in agricultural pattern leading to vast
agricultural holdings.
3) To comprehend the growth of transcontinental railroads.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The last decades of t he 19th century and the early years of the
20th century witnessed the transformation of the United States
into an industrial and urban nation at the domestic and the
imperialistic designs at the foreign fronts. The USA came of
age. It was transformed from a rural republic to an urban state.
The frontier vanished. Great factories and steel mills,
transcontinental railroads, flourishing cities and vast
agricultural holdings marked the land. There emerged revolution
in the arena of both industry and foreign tr ade which prepared
the USA sit on the lap of growth, progress and prosperity.
1.2 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
At the turn of the 20th century the American politics was not
found sound. Both the Republican and Democratic Parties failed munotes.in

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2 to provide the people wit h any clear cut programme on major
social or economic issues, instead both became machines for the
capture of power. This was mainly due to two reasons. Firstly,
the local politicians who were in real control of the parties were
reluctant to take important s t a n d o n d i f f e r e n t q u e s t i o n s d u e t o
fear of people getting against them. Secondly, the rigid party
discipline was not present.
1.2.1 Election of 1888 and Benjamin Harrison :
In the election of 1888 the Republican candidate Benjamin
Harrison won. As bot h the houses of the 51 st C o n g r e s s ( T h e
American Parliament) at that time were also Republicans, he
was able to push through his legislative programme without any
difficulty. His iron rule of the House earned him the sobriquet
Czar Reed but only through his firm control of the House could
the Republicans pass three controversial bills in the summer and
early autumn of 1890. One dealt with monopolies, another with
silver, and the third with the tariff. Two more legislations on
Civil Service and Pension were a lso passed.
1.2.1.1 The Sherman Anti - Trust Act :
This Act was passed by the Congress early in July 1890 which
declared illegal all combinations that restrained trade between
states or with foreign nations. More than 10 years passed before
the Sherman A ct was used to break up any industrial monopoly.
It was invoked by the feudal government in 1894 to obtain an
injunction against a striking railroad union accused of restraint
of interstate commerce, and the use of injunction was upheld by
the Supreme Cour t in 1895. To those who hoped that the
Sherman Act would inhibit the growth of monopoly, the results
were disappointing. The passage of the act only three years after
the Interstate Commerce Act was, however, another sign than
the public was turning from s tate capitals to Washington for
effective regulation of industrial giants.
1.2.1.2 The Silver Issue :
Less than two weeks after Congress passed the Anti -Trust Act, it
enacted the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the
Secretary of the Treasury t o p u r c h a s e e a c h m o n t h 1 3 0 , 0 0 0
kilograms of silver at the market price. This Act superseded the
Bland - A l l i s o n A c t o f 1 8 7 8 , e f f e c t i v e l y i n c r e a s i n g t h e
government’s monthly purchase of silver by more than 50
percent. It was adopted in response to pressure from mine -
owners, who were alarmed by the falling price of silver, and
from Western farmers who were always favorable to inflationary
measures and who in 1890, were also suffering from the
depressed prices of their products.
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3 1.2.1.3 The McKinley Tariff
The McKinley Tariff Act was passed in October 1890 which
designed to appeal to the farmers because some agricultural
products were added to the protected list. A few items, notably
sugar, were placed on the free list, and domestic sugar planters
were to be compensated by a subsidy of two cents a pound. The
central feature of the Act was a general increase in tariff
schedules, with many of these increases applying to items of
general consumption. The new Act which added to the agrarian
resentment of the West a n d S o u t h b e c a m e a n i s s u e i n t h e
Congressional elections.
1.2.1.4 Civil Service :
Ignoring the Civil Service rules Harrison packed the government
offices with his party men. But it also goes to the credit of
Harrison that he appointed Theodore Roosevelt t o the Civil
Service Commission, who made all appointments in the
classified category on merit, although this was not fully
approved by the president.
1.2.1.5 Pension Legislation :
The Congress adopted the Dependent’s Pension Act in 1889
which provided p ensions for all Union Veterans who had
suffered any physical or mental disability, no matter how or
where contracted. It also provided for increased allowances to
the widows and children of veterans.
1.2.2 Election of 1892 and Cleveland :
In the election o f 1 8 9 2 t h e d e m o c r a t i c c a n d i d a t e G r o v e r
Cleveland was voted to power. When he was inaugurated for his
second term in March 1893, the country hovered on the brink of
financial panic. Six years of depression in the trans - Mississippi
West, the decline of fo reign trade after the enactment of the
McKinley tariff, an abnormally high burden of private debt was
disquieting features of the situation. Cleveland did not take any
measures to stimulate economic recovery lent simply
concentrated attention on maintainin g the solvency of the
Federal Government, and saw to it that the Treasury could pay at
all times gold dollars in exchange for paper and silver currency.
It was assumed that a minimum reserve of $100,000,000 was
necessary to assure redemption of government obligations in
gold.
When on 21 st A p r i l 1 8 9 3 , t h e r e s e r v e f e l l b e l o w t h a t a m o u n t ,
the psychological impact was far -reaching. Investors hastened to
convert their holdings into gold; banks and brokerage houses
were hard -pressed; and many business houses and financial
institutions failed. Prices dropped, employment was curtailed, munotes.in

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4 and the nation entered a period of severe economic depression
that continued for more than three years.
Cleveland wanted to bring substantial reduction of tariffs but
could not accomp lish anything due to opposition of Democratic
Senators. The House passed a bill that would have revised tariff
rates downward in accordance with the president’s views. In the
Senate, however, the bill was so altered that it bore little
resemblance to the o riginal measure and on some items of
imposed higher duties than had the McKinley Tariff Act. It was
finally passed in August 1894, but Cleveland was so dissatisfied
that he refused to sign it; and it became law without his
signature. The act contained a pr ovision for an income tax, but
this feature was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
in 1895.
1.2.3 Election of 1896 and McKinley
The depression years of early nineties gave stimulus to radical
thinking and people started realizing that the ec onomic system
was fundamentally unsound. The election of 1896 was once
again fought on the specific issue of silver vs. gold in which the
republican candidate McKinley defeated the Democratic
candidate Jennings Bryan. The victory of the McKinley was
interp reted as a vote for the capitalistic system and its
machinery.
When McKinley was inaugurated in office on March 4, 1897 the
depression was coming to an end and the country was making a
re-entry into prosperity. On the same day he called Congress
into speci al session to revise the tariff once again. The Congress
responded by passing the Dingley Tariff Act, which eliminated
many items from the free list and generally raised duties on
imports to the highest level they had yet reached. This is how it
assured in dustrialists of complete protections against foreign
competition and thereby enabled them to increase their prices in
the domestic market.
Although the preservation of the gold standard had been the
chief appeal of the Republicans in 1896, it was not until March
1900 that the Congress enacted the Gold Standard Act, which
required the Treasury to maintain a minimum gold reserve of
$150,000,000 and authorized the issuance of bonds, if necessary,
to protect that minimum. In 1900 such a measure was almost
anti-climactic, for an adequate gold supply had ceased to be a
practical problem. Beginning in 1893, the production of gold in
the United States had increased steadily; by 1899 the annual
value of gold added to the American supply was double that of
any year be tween 1881 and 1892. This was made possible
because huge stocks of gold were discovered in South Africa munotes.in

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5 which greatly increased world’s supply of gold. There was no
controversy regarding the currency till the depression of 1930’s.
With the assumption of Pr esidency by McKinley once again the
politics assumed its earlier shape and two political parties
followed a definite programme. Particularly after the assumption
of office by Theodore Roosevelt every effort was made to put
into practice the reform advocate d by populist platform.
1.3 ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
One of the outstanding features of America’s development
during the period from the Civil war to the World War I have
been her phenomenal economic transformation in the wake of
both agricultural and indu strial revolutions. Before the onset of
the Civil war, the USA was far behind Great Britain and France
in her productive capacity and skill, but by 1914 her industrial
production exceeded the rest of the world put together. In the
field of technology, no o ther nation except Germany could
match her.
1.3.1 Revolution in Agriculture :
Despite the great gains in industry, agriculture remained the
nation’s basic occupation. The revolution in agriculture
paralleling that in manufacturing after the Civil war, invo lved a
shift from hard labour to machine farming and from subsistence
to commercial agriculture. Between 1860 and 1910, the number
of farms in the United States tripled, increasing from 2 million
to 6 million, while the area farmed more than doubled from 1 60
million to 352 million hectares.
Between 1860 and 1890, the production of such basic
commodities as wheat, corn and cotton out stripped all previous
figures in the United States. In the same period, the nation’s
population became more than double with l argest growth in the
cities. But the American farmer grew enough grain and cotton,
raised enough beef and pork, and clipped enough wool not only
to supply American workers and their families but also to create
ever -increasing surpluses.
Several factors acc ounted for this extraordinary achievement.
One was the expansion into the West. Another was the
application of machinery to farming. The farmer of 1800, using
a hand sickle, could hope to cut 20 percent of a hectare of wheat
a day. With the cradle, 30 year s later, he might cut 80 percent of
a hectare daily. Different farm machines were developed in
rapid succession like the automatic wire binder, the threshing
machine and the reaper -thresher or combine. Mechanical
planters, cutters, huskers and shellers app eared, as did cream
separators, manure spreaders, potato planters, hay driers, poultry
incubators and a hundred other inventions. munotes.in

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6 Scarcely less important than machinery in the agricultural
revolution was science. In 1862 the Morrill Land Grant College
Act allotted public land to each state for the establishment of
agricultural and industrial colleges. These were to serve both as
educational institutions and as centres for research in scientific
farming. Congress subsequently appropriated funds for the
creat ion of agricultural experiment stations throughout the
country and also granted funds directly to the Department of
Agriculture for research purposes. By the beginning of the 20th
century, scientists throughout the United States were at work on
a wide vari ety of agricultural projects. Ironically, the federal
policy that enabled farmers to increase yields ultimately
generated vast supplies which drove market prices down and
disheartened farmers.
One of these scientists, Mark Carleton, travelled for the
Depar tment of Agriculture to Russia. There he found and
exported to his homeland the rust - and drought - resistant winter
wheat that now accounts for more than half the United States
wheat crop. Another scientist, Marion Dorset, conquered the
dreaded hog cholera , while still another, George Mohler, helped
prevent hoof -and-mouth disease. From North Africa, one
researcher brought back Kaffir corn; from Turkestan, another
imported the yellow -flowering Alfalfa. Luther Burbank, in
California, produced scores of new fr uits and vegetables; in
Wisconsin, Stephen Babcock devised a test for determining the
butterfat content of milk; at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the
African -American scientists George Washington Carver found
hundreds of new uses for the peanut, sweet pot ato and soya
bean.
1.3.2 Revolution in Industry :
Broadly, two features of America’s industrial development were
distinctly visible. First, United States employed mass production
techniques through development of large - s c a l e b u s i n e s s
organization. Sec ond, along with the growth of industry in
United States there was corresponding growth in population (it
rose from 30 million to over one hundred million), extension of
the rail -road network across the continent, and settlement of the
rest of the west. Wit hin twenty -five years of the death of
Lincoln (1865), America became the first manufacturing nation
of the world. Thus, what England had once accomplished in a
hundred years, the United States achieved in almost half the
time.
Six factors could be accredit ed for the rapid growth of industry
in the USA. They are:
 America possessed vaster and varied raw materials than
possessed by any other country, except Russia; munotes.in

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7  Inventions and techniques to convert the raw materials into
finished products;
 A fully adequate system of water and rail transport to meet
the demands of an expanding economy;
 A consistently expanding domestic market and growth of
foreign markets.
 A consistent labour supply through immigration; and
 The absence of tariff barriers between states, prote ction
against foreign competition, and government subsidies.
Another outstanding feature of industrialization of this period
was that instead of the isolated establishment under the owners
of a single master or a few masters, the big corporations came to
the fore. At the end of the 19 th c e n t u r y t h r e e -fourth of the
manufactured products came from factories under corporate
direction. Production of oil, iron, steel, copper, lead, sugar &
coal etc. was in the hands of huge organizations. As a result of
this tra nsformation, the small units engaged in various
competitions came under the control of the big corporation
which dominated the market, fixed their own prices and charged
whatever they desired.
In short, it resulted in the emergence of a new economic system
in which the principle of ‘competition’ was no longer present.
To eliminate competition the businessmen in the later 19th
century came together and pooled their resources to prevent
competitive price -cutting, which deprived them the high profits.
Competit ion was also eliminated because of another factor. As
the new method of production required huge capital investments,
it was natural that only a small number of enterprises could
work in various fields. And as there were only a limited number
of corporatio ns engaged in any particular branch of
manufacture, it was easy for them to reach agreement on price.
As a consequence, it was not possible for any public authority to
enforce competition. The only way to compete these big
corporations was to set up an equ ally huge organization engaged
in large scale production. But this was not possible because the
investors were not willing to contribute capital for new
enterprises unless they felt assured of a substantial long - t e r m
profits.
The expansion and development o f i n d u s t r y w a s a c o m p l e x
process. War needs after the civil war had enormously
stimulated manufacturing, speeding an economic process based
on the exploitation of iron, steam and electric power, as well as
the forward march of science and invention. In t he years before
1860, 36,000 patents were granted; in the next 30 years, 440,000 munotes.in

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8 patents were issued, and in the first quarter of the 20th century,
the number reached nearly a million. A brief description of the
expansion of certain industries will enable us to have an idea of
the industrial development.
1.3.2.1 Steel Industry :
The nation’s basic industry - i r o n a n d s t e e l w a s f o r g i n g a h e a d
protected by a high tariff. The production of steel was of great
significance because changes in all other industries d epended on
it. As the railroads found their way everywhere, the demand for
steel for rails, engines, cars and equipment grew rapidly. The
iron ore of Michigan and of the Mesabi Range at the head of
Lake Superior in Minnesota provided most of the raw materi al.
With their knowledge and ability, the steel -makers turned out
wire, tubes, sheets and structural parts.
Andrew Carnegie was largely responsible for the great advances
in steel production. A Scottish by birth, who came to America as
a child of 12, progr essed from bobbin boy in a cotton factory to
a job in telegraph office, then to one on the Pennsylvania
Railroad. Before he was 30 years old he had made shrewd and
farsighted investments, which by 1865 were concentrated in
iron. Within a few years, he had organized or had stock in
companies making iron bridges, rails and locomotives. Ten years
later, the steel mill he built on the Monongahela River in
Pennsylvania was the largest in the country. His business, allied
with a dozen others, could command a favo rable term from a
railroad and skipping lines. Nothing comparable in industrial
growth had ever been seen in America before.
In the 1890s, new companies challenged his preeminence and at
first, stung by competition, Carnegie threatened to build an ever
more powerful business complex. But later he was persuaded to
merge his holdings with an organization that eventually
embraced most of the important iron and steel properties in the
nation.
The United States Steel Corporation which resulted from this
merger i n 1901 illustrated a process under way for 30 years: the
combination of independent industrial enterprises into federated
or centralized companies. Begun during the Civil War, the trend
gathered momentum after the 1870s, as business began to fear
that over production would lead to declining prices and falling
profits. They realized that if they could control both production
and markets, they could bring competing firms into a single
organization. The “corporation” and the “trust” were developed
to achieve th ese ends.

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9 1.3.2.2 Oil Industry :
Another important achievement of the period was the production
and refining of oil. Initially the oil was used for the purpose of
lighting, and a small number of operators looked after this
business. However, in 1862 with t h e e n t r y o f J o h n D .
Rockefeller, oil industry underwent far -reaching changes. He
left the job of drilling to other people and concentrated on
refining. He adopted most efficient method of production and by
forming alliance with the ablest men in industry ; he was able to
establish a kind of monopoly of brains. He eliminated all
competition by resorting to ruthless price -cutting.
In 1870 Rockefeller and his associates formed the Standard Oil
Company of Ohio, which acquired a monopoly of refining in
Clevelan d area. In subsequent years he formed alliances with
refineries in other parts of the country and by 1880 his group
controlled almost 90 percent of the oil business in the United
States. In 1882 he formed a trust of nine trustees to look after
the stocks o f corporation, and thus gave a new concept to the
business in United States. Subsequently, the group also began to
acquire ownership of railroads, iron and copper mines, public
utilities and numerous other industries.
1.3.2.3 Electricity :
Another develo pment of the period was the growing use of
electricity for light, power and communication. Though the use
of electricity for the purpose of lighting was being made since
the dawn of the 19th century, it came to general use only in
1879 when Thomas Alva Edi son devised a satisfactory and
durable filament. In 1882 the Edison Electric Company opened a
power plant in New York City to supply current for electric
light. In 1887 Richmond made use of electricity for
transportation and built the first electric street c a r . T h e
telephone and telegraphs were the other means of
communication worked by electricity. Most of the electrical
equipment’s were manufactured by Edison Electric which was
expanded into General Electric in 1892 and Wasting – h o u s e
Electric.
1.3.2.4 R ailways Industry :
Railroads became increasingly important to the United States.
The railroad linked the Atlantic and the Pacific (by 1884 there
were four transcontinental lines linking the two), brought the
farmer his machinery and took his grain to marke ts in the cities
of the East, took live cattle to the city of Chicago and frozen
meat to the cities of New York and Philadelphia, brought new
engineering machinery for the miner without which he could not
work. The construction of railroads, especially in the West and
South, with the resulting demand for steel rails, was a major munotes.in

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10 force in the expansion of the steel industry and increased the
railroad mileage in the United States from less than 93,262
miles (150,151 kilometers) in 1880 to about 190,000 miles
(310,000 kilometers) in 1900.
But the control of the railroads was in the hands of a very small
number of men, who treated it not as an essential public service,
but as a source of private profit. What was worst, the railroads
did not charge the same rates f r o m a l l c u s t o m e r s . T h e y g a v e
special rebates to large -scale shippers, which gave the latter an
advantage over their smaller competitors. Further, by resorting
to pooling agreements, the different railroads avoided
competition, divided the business and ra ised their rates. To
escape public control, they resorted to devices like giving of
face passes to politicians and influential persons and succeeded
in getting favorable laws passed.
1.3.2.5 Other Industries :
Simultaneously equally, revolutionary advances w e r e m a d e i n
other industries. A number of mechanical implements were
devised which greatly transformed the farming methods. With
the development of refrigeration and canning, the food habits of
the public were modified. The growth of business was speeded
by the invention of the electric telegraph in 1844, the typewriter
in 1867, the telephone in 1876, the adding machine in 1888 and
the cash register in 1897. The linotype composing machine,
invented in 1886, and rotary press and paper folding machinery
mad e it possible to print 240,000 eight -page newspapers in an
hour. The talking machine, or phonograph, too, was perfected by
Thomas Edison, who in conjunction with George Eastman, also
helped develop motion picture. These and many other
applications of scien ce and ingenuity resulted in a new level of
productivity in almost every field.
Meat -packing, which in the years after 1875, became one of the
major industries of the nation with a large of it concentrated in
Chicago. Flour milling, brewing, and the manufa cture of farm
machinery and lumber products were other important Mid -
western industries. The industrial invasion of the South was
spearheaded by textiles. Cotton mills became the symbol of the
New South, and mills to Georgia and into Alabama. By 1900
almos t one -quarter of all the cotton spindles in the US were in
the South, and Southern mills were expanding their operations
more rapidly than were their well -established competitors in
New England.
1.3.2.6 Foreign Trade :
The foreign trade of the US, if judge d by the value of exports,
kept pace with the growth of domestic industry. Exclusive of
gold, silver and re -exports, the annual value of exports from munotes.in

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11 America in 1877 was about $590,000,000; by 1900 it had
increased to approximately $1,371,000,000. The valu e of
imports also rose, though at a slower rate. When gold and silver
were included, there was only one year in the entire period in
which the United States had an unfavorable balance of trade;
and, as the century drew to a close, the excess of exports ove r
imports increased perceptibly.
Agriculture continued to furnish the bulk of US exports. Cotton,
wheat, flour and meat products were consistently the items
among exports with the greatest annual value. Of the non -
agricultural products sent abroad, petrole um was the most
important. Despite the expansion of foreign trade, the U.S.
merchant marine was a major casualty of the period. While the
aggregate tonnage of all shipping flying the US flag remained
remarkably constant, the tonnage engaged in foreign trad e
declined sharply, dropping from more than 2,400,000 tons on the
eve of the civil war to a low point of only 726,000 tons in 1898.
1.3.2.7 Check Your Progress :
1. What political party Benjamin Harrison belongs?
2. How was the Sherman Anti -trust Act passe d?
3.Who was responsible for great advance in steel production?
1.4 SUMMARY
At the turn of the century the United States underwent a
metamorphosis in all walks of life. In the political sphere, every
effort was made by the Congress since 1888 to inaugurate an era
of populist reforms for the cause of the bulk of the population.
In the economic field, the United States made phenomenal
progress in the wake of both agricultural and industrial
revolutions. By 1914 her industrial production exceeded the rest
of the world put together. In technology, no other nation except
Germany could match her. Transcontinental railroads developed
ushering great industrial boom. The same trend could also be
experienced in the field of foreign trade. Thus, the USA headed
towards a great political and economic transformation.
1.5 QUESTIONS
1. Explain the political developments in America at the turn of
20th century.
2. Analyze the process of economic transformation in America
at the turn of 20 th century.
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12 3. Write short notes:
i) The McKinl ey Tariffs
ii) Revolution in Agriculture
ii) Foreign Trade
1.6 SUGGESTED READINGS
 Bayer, The Oxford Companion to United States History,
New York, 2001.
 Beards, New Basic History of the United States, New York,
1960
 Henry Bamford Parkes, The United States of America – A
History, (Indian Edition), Khosla Publishing House, New
Delhi, 1986.
 R. K. Majumdar & A. N. Srivastava, History of the United
States of America, Surjeet Book Depot, New Delhi, 1993.
 United States Department of State, An Outline of American
History, New York, 1994.

 
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13
2
PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
(1900 -1919)
Unit Structure:
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Progressive Movement - It’s Nature
2.3 Important features of the populist Movement
2.4 Prohibition
2.5 Theodore Roosevelt and Progressive Movement
2.6 Results of the Progressive Movement
2.7 Summary
2.8 Questions
2.9 Suggested Readings
2.0 OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the features of populist movement.
2. To explain the rule of Theodore Roosevelt and Progressive movement.
3. To analyze the results of t he progressive movement.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
The progressive leaders believed in the traditional American ideals of
democratic government, individual liberty, the rule of law and the
protection of private property. They argued that in the new industrial era
these ideals need to be protected by new political techniques. They
strongly emphasized the ethical, humanitarian and religious values rather
than stir up economic resentments and class hatreds. Socialist proposals
for any thorough transformation of the tr aditional, political and economic
system formed little support.
Progressivism was a movement with predominantly middle -class
objectives and view point. It derived much of its support from small
business, farmers and professional people.
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14 2.2 PROGRESSIVE MO VEMENT - IT’S NATURE
The typical progressive leader was some lawyer, journalist, or
businessman. Aroused by the corruption and mis -government in the
community they started a crusade to elect better men to office. They soon
realized that what were needed wer e a reform of system as well as a
change of men.
They adapted a traumatic approval whenever they saw an evil; they
attempted to deal with it without comprehensive theory or formulating
ultimate objectives.
The progressive movement did not make any clear -cut division between
reformers and conservatives. Popular sentiment was so strong in favour of
reform that most responsible leaders recognized that it was necessary.
Party labels therefore became more meaningless than usual. There were
progressive Republican s and progressive Democrats.
2.3 IMPORTANT FEATUR ES OF THE POPULIST
MOVEMENT
2.3.1 The Progressive Movement and the government:
In times of Jefferson and Hamilton the United States was a country mainly
of small owners and abundant unsettled land. Under t hese circumstances’
democracy could be best protected by restricting powers of government
and by allowing free play to individual initiative. The early American
liberals were generally suspicious of government and opposed any
extension of their responsibil ities. As a result, economic developments
during the nineteenth century big corporations and a large wage -earning
class emerged while the farmer’s condition deteriorated. An average
individual found it difficult to achieve economic independence by his own
unaided efforts. He began to ask for government protection consequently
reformers and liberals wanted to increase the powers of the government.
2.3.2 The problem of Monopoly:
Although the progressives wanted the government to assume prodder
economic respo nsibilities, they differed about the methods. The growth of
monopoly was the chief economic problem in those days. Theodore
Roosevelt and others argued that the growth of big corporations was an
inevitable trend and that the government should regulate them instead of
trying to dissolve them. Woodrow Wilson and others laid emphasis on
prohibiting monopoly, protecting the small businessman and enforcing
effective completion. Theodore Roosevelt and others would like a greater
increase in the powers of governme nt while Woodrow Wilson and others
were more in line with traditional liberalism. On this fundamental question
there were wide differences in the progressive movement.
Herter Crowley in his Promise of American Life (1909) argued that
economic injustice cou ld be ended not by dissolving the trusts but by
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Progressive Movement
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15 up a strong trade union movement that would counteract the powers of
business. The remedy for the special privileges of the rich was not to
abolish them but to give compensatory privileges to other groups in the
community.
Lord Brandeis was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1916. Disturbed by
what he called “Curse of Bigness”, he believed that any organization,
whether in business or gover nment, became too large, it could no longer
be managed efficiently. He suggested that no corporation should be
allowed to control more than 30 percent of any industry.
2.3.3 The Muckrakers:
A group of journalists, known as muckrakers, played a great role in
publicizing the need for reform. Theodore Roosevelt called them
muckrakers. They carefully documented and exposed fraud and graft, and
also emphasized corrupt connections between business and politics. Heavy
Demarest’s Lloyd’s “Wealth against Commonwea lth” (1904) was the first
example of muck -racking which denounced trusts. By 1902 muck -racking
found a large audience. Lincoln Steffen’s analyses political corruption in
St Louis, Missouri, while Ida Tar bale came out with the first installment
of the Hist ory of the Standard Oil Company. Upton Sinclair’s novel ‘The
Jungle’ (1906) exposed the filthy conditions in the Chicago meat
packaging industry. Public alarm that it aroused led to the enactment of
Meat Inspection Act of the same year. Ray Stanford Baker, Charles Russe,
Norman Hopgood and Mark Sullivan were some other leading
muckrakers.
Some of the muckrakers became sensational and unreliable. Public grew
tired of them. By 1914 it died away. There had been nothing like it before
in the history of the Amer ican journalism and there has been nothing like
it since then.
2.3.4 Progressivism in State and Municipal Politics:
Probably the most impressive achievements of the progressive movement
were in local government. On this level problems were simpler than i n the
Federal politics, the corruption was mare and obvious and issues could be
mare easily dramatized in terms that average citizen could understand. In
municipal government, city planning, housing codes, to enforce safety,
health regulation in slum areas and larger provision for schools, parks,
playgrounds and other improvement. In this battle they found that their
real enemies were not corrupt politicians but powerful owners of public
transport and other utility corporations that had obtained special pri vileges
by corrupt methods. Consequently, many progressives began to advocate
public ownership of public transport and other utilities.
Thomas Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio, was the best -known city reformer.
He gathered around him able and enthusiastic descri bes and gave
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16 These were similar reform movements in many others cities where an
attempt was made to get rid of bosses and machines by abolishing the
traditional form of government by a Mayors and a board of older men and
substituting a small non -partisan commission, sometimes accompanied by
a city manager. By 1921 some five hundred cities had adopted some form
of commission government. But the results were not impressive because in
a nu mber of cities bosses soon found a way of controlling the
commissions. Progressivism did not have much effect in the three largest
cities in the United States. New York, Chicago and Philadelphia continued
to be governed most of the time by very corrupt bos ses.
State Reformers – Pioneering examples of progressivism in state
government had been provided during the 1890’s John P. Altgeld (Illinois)
and Hazen Pingree (Michigan). But the outstanding figure among the state
reformers and possibly the greatest of all the progressives was Robert
Marion La Follet of Wisconsin. La Follet inspired respect rather than
affection, but few men in the history of the states have fought more
consistently for democratic ideals. He had faith in the wisdom of the
people. He appe aled to their reason rather than their prejudices. In 1900 he
became the governor of the state of Wisconsin. During his six -year term as
governor he pushed through the State legislature a series of laws which
came to be known as the Wisconsin Idea. This in cluded taxation of rail
roads (railways are known as rail roads in the United States.) Fixing their
rates on the basis of physical value of their properties, regulation of banks
and insurance companies, limiting the working hours of women and
children, a w orkman’s compensation law, creation of forest reserve and
establishment of primary election for the choice of party candidates.
He insisted that effective regulation of business must always be bared on
accurate information for which he enrolled scholars i nto state service and
worked closely with political scientists and economists. The main purpose
of the whole programme was defined as new individualism which would
give the individual a better chance to possess property.
The Wisconsin Idea left a strong in fluence in the Midwest farm states of
Jowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska and South and North Dakota. But
their similar trends in most of the states in the United States.
2.3.5 Extension of Democracy:
State reformers supported measures giving electorate more direct power
over the government in the hope of thereby diminishing the influence of
political bosses. Most important was the adoption of primary system
allowing popular choice of party candidates. This system originated in the
South in the 1890’s and by 1915 it was established in thirty -seven states.
By 1912 twenty -nine states extended the primary system to the choice of
senatorial candidates and passed laws requiring their legislatures to obey
the popular decision. This led to the 17th Amendment of t he constitution
which established direct popular election of Senators.
Throughout the west there was a strong demand for further extensions of
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17 proposal could be submitted to a direct popular vote and recall, by which
elected officials could be removed from office by popular vote. Twenty -
one states adopted the initiative and the referendum, twelve states adopted
the recall of elected officials and eight states adopted the recall of judges.
Wome n’s suffrage – By 1890 the National American Woman Suffrage
Association was founded. Carrie Chapman Katta and Anna Howard Shaw
were its principal leaders. During the Progressive period an increasing
number of women demanded political rights. By 1920 the ni neteenth
amendment was added to the constitution which granted suffrage to
women.
2.3.6 Economic Legislation:
In order to curb powers of business corporations many states set up
commissions to regulate the rates and practices of rail roads and public
utilities. Bribery of officials was diminished by anti -lobbying and corrupt
practices laws and by establishments of civil service rules. By 1920 forty -
three states had adopted the workmen’s Compensation Act. It defined
more stringently the obligations of the employers and set up compulsory
insurance plans for the benefit of injured workers. Limiting hours of work
and fixing minimum wages caused some controversy and the Supreme
Court invalidated them as contrary to the fourteenth amendment of the
constitution. A large number of States passed maximum hours laws for
women which the States of Oregon and Massachusetts also limited hours
of work for male workers. However, some of these laws were invalidated
by the Supreme Court.
2.4 PROHIBITION
Eighteenth Amendmen t to the constitution was another victory of the
reform movement. It prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation
of intoxicating liquors which were defined as containing more than 0.5
percent of alcohol. The Amendment came into force on 1st January 1920.
The Amendment was introduced during the World War when the country
was in a mood of idealism and self -sacrifice. Banning alcoholic liquors
would it was believed, greatly increase the efficiency of the American
people and so further the war effort. W hen the war ended that mood
passed away and the Americans gradually began to realize the difficulties
of prohibition. In practice law against drinking or importing drink was
hard to enforce. The United States had over 18000 thousand miles of coast
line and land boundary and it was very easy to smuggle the liquor at shore.
There were a large number of Americans ready to break the law in order to
get a drink. A large minority had opposed prohibition throughout. The
government spent ten million dollars a year and assessed about 50000
people to enforce the law but failed to completely to check drinking and
boot legging.
It led to a great increase in crimes of every kind, especially violent crimes.
In 1933 the twenty first Amendments was passed repealing the Eig hteenth
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18 admission that the experiment of prohibition had failed. The results of the
experiment were a national disaster.
2.5 THEODORE ROOSEVELT A ND THE PROGRESSIVE
MOVEMENT
After the assas sination of President McKinley Theodore Roosevelt
became the president. Roosevelt was one of the most controversial
characters in American history. Although his achievements in domestic
sphere were meager he infused a new spirit into the Federal politics. He
was shocked by the law ethical standards prevalent among businessmen
and by their apparent conviction that they were independent of the laws
and the government. Although he had no desire to make fundamental
changes in the economic system he believed tha t business must be
compelled to conform to higher standards. Since otherwise American
institutions might be endangered by a growth of revolutionary sentiment.
He was the first president since the size of big corporations, to insist on
the principle of gove rnment supremacy over business. He was also the
first president since Lincoln to assert strong executive leadership.
2.5.1 Theodore Roosevelt and Trust Busting:
In March 1902 Roosevelt ordered his Attorney General to bring suit
against the Northern Secur ities Company under the Sherman Act. James
Hill and Edward Harriman had organized this company to monopolize the
rail road lines in the North -West United States. Since this was the first suit
of its kind the government seemed to be serious about enforcing the
Sherman Act. After the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the government.
Roosevelt went on to attack a number of other trucks, including the
Standard Oil Company. During his tenure as president he was responsible
for forty -three such cases. Roosevelt’s trust-busting crusade aroused
greater popular enthusiasm and equally violent indignation among the
corporation magnets. The trusts were compelled to dissolve into their
component parts but their different parts could not be transferred to
different ownersh ip or compelled to compete with each other.
The economic results were not impressive and Roosevelt himself
recognized the inadequacy of trust busting. He made it clear that he was
not opposed to big business as such. He made a distinction between good
and bad trusts. He drew a line against misconduct, not against wealth. He
favored regulation of corporations by the Federal government instead of
by the states, but bills to this effect were rejected by Congress. He
believed that it was important to assert the principle of government
supremacy. These men demanded for themselves immunity from
government controls which if granted would be as wicked and foolish as
immunity to the barons of the twelfth century. The absolutely vital
question was whether the governme nt had power to control them at all.
Roosevelt tried to regulate business with the Interstate Commission Act.
This 1903 Act required railroads to adhere to their published rates and
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19 and it was directed against the corporations like the standard oil company
which had obtained competitive advantages by forcing the rail roads to
carry their goods at preferential rates. But effective enforcement of this
Act proved to be impossible.
Much mo re important progressive objective was to bring about the
reduction of excessive rates. He suggested that broad powers be given to
the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate rates. As this proposal
was blocked by the senate he agreed to a compromise. T his led to the
Hepburn Act of 1906. It authorized the commission to order a reduction of
unreasonable rates; but a rail road could then appeal to the law courts in
which case the directive of the commission was held in abeyance till and
unless the court de cided that it was reasonable.
The most important feature of the Hepburn Act was that the commission
was empowered to prescribe a uniform system of booking for all rail
roads. It was thus, for the first time, able to find out what they were really
doing and whether their profits were excessive.
Progressives found the Hepburn Act inadequate. But in spite of its
weaknesses it was followed by thousands of complaints of high rates to
the commission. Its prepared way for the measures in later administrations
giving it full power over rates.
Coal Strike – Roosevelt’s intervention in the coal strike was not able
because it set a new precedent. In 1902 miners in anthracite coal mines
struck demanding higher wages, nine -hour day and union recognition.
Roosevelt interv ened to bring about a settlement by negotiations. The
mine owners accepted higher wages and nine -hour day.
Conservation – Roosevelt helped to secure the passage of the 1902 New
Lands Act which authorized the government to establish irrigation projects
on arid lands and created a Reclamation service to supervise them. The
government then constructed a series of dams which are impressive
engineering projects in human history. In 1908 he convened the White
House Conference to publicize the need for action to p rotect and develop
the country’s natural resources. Because of his leadership the American
people began to realize that the time had come to establish checks on the
wrathful individualism characteristic of the pioneering period.
Meat Inspection Act and Pur e Food and Drug Act were passed in 1906.
The FD Act prohibited the sale of certain harmful foods and ordered that
medicines containing dangerous drugs be correctly labeled. Both Acts
marked another break the strict laisse faire doctrines according to which
consumers were supposed to be capable of protecting themselves.
2.5.2 President Taft and the Progressive Movement:
Taft had been Roosevelt’s secretary of State since 1904. Taft did not have
the necessary qualities of leadership. A huge man weighing 350 pounds he
lacked both dynamic force and political safety. He was reluctant to take munotes.in

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20 initiative or assert executive responsibility. In consequence he did not
receive credit even for what he did accomplish.
Taft and Progressive Legislation :
During the four years of the Taft administration more was accomplished
than in the seven and half years of Roosevelt. The popular demand for
reform was so strong that even the old leaders recognized the need for
making concessions. Taft loyally supported most progressive proposals
except when he felt that he was prevented by legal obstacles. He respected
the letter and spirit of the law and the constitution. He was also reluctant
to interfere with the prerogatives of congress.
Taft Administration dissolved ninety trusts. C ongress also passed a series
of progressive laws. The Interstate Commerce Commission was further
strengthened by the Mann – Elkins Act of 1910 which gave it the power to
suspend rate increases for ten on this pending decision as to whether they
were reason able. Ownership of minerals in the sub soil was separated from
the ownership of the surface by an Act. The Act provided for the lease
rather than the sale of minerals in public land. A postal saving Bank and a
parcel post were instituted. Political corrupt ion was checked by laws
which required that campaign expenditure and contributions to party funds
be made public. The sixteen Amendments authorized an Income Tax and
the seventeenth Amendment provided for a popular election of Senators.
There and other mea sures made an impressive record; and although in
some instances, especially Mann – Elkins Act, Congress went further than
Taft desired, most of the programme had his support.
Like Roosevelt before him Taft continued to cooperate with the official
party lea ders rather than with the progressive block. Consequently, the
progressives soon began to denounce him as a conservative and a tool of
predatory business interests. According to Senator Dolliver of Jowa, he
was an amicable man, completely surrounded by men who know exactly
what they want.
Progressivism went on gaining strength. The Democrats won an
impressive majority in the 191 election. They won a majority in the House
of Representatives while most of the states west of Mississippi came under
the control of Progressive Republicans. It was obvious that in the next
presidential election public sentiment would demand a leader much more
dynamic and strongly committed to the progressive cause than Taft had
proved to be. Woodrow Wilson was that dynamic leader.
2.5.3 Woodrow Wilson and Progressive Movement :
Tariff Revision – The underwood Tariff became law in 1913, it marked
the first real reduction since the civil war. Duties were abolished on more
than hundred articles and reduced on nearly thousands of others . The
average rate was cut from thirty -seven to twenty seven percent. The effect
of tariff reduction could not be assessed properly because the World War
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21 The Federal Reserve System :
The Glass Owen Federal Reserve Act refo rmed the monetary system.
Currency reform was demanded by farmers and even Eastern
Conservatives recognized it as necessary. The system set by the National
Bank Act of 1863 had two major weaknesses.
1. Since the quality of Bank notes in circulation was limite d by the quality
of government bonds held by the banks the supply of currency had no
relation to the need for it. There was no provision for increasing the
quality of notes in proportion to the increase in volume of business, so
that money was likely to be scarce, especially in the south and west.
2. Each of the nation’s 30,000 banks was separate and independent and
had to rely solely on its own resources during times of financial
pressures it resulted in frequent bankruptcies.
Twelve Federal Banks were esta blished in the different regions and the
supervision of the whole system was entered to the Federal Reserve
Board, consisting of the secretary of treasury, the comptroller of currency
and five other members appointed by the President for ten -year terms. Al l
national banks were required and state banks were invited to become
members of the new system.
The bank notes circulated under the old system were replaced by Federal
Reserve notes. By 1915 the Federal Reserve System controlled about half
the nation’s ba nking capital and by 1928 the proportion had gone up to
eighty percent.
Anti -Trust Legislation :
In September and October 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act and the
Clayton Anti -trust Act were passed. The Federal State Act, modeled on
the Interstate Commer ce Commission was to supervise business practices,
with powers to cease and desist orders against which corporations could
appeal. The Clayton Act specified as illegal a number of practices tending
to prevent competition. Samuel Gompers has described two s ections of
this Act as the ‘Magna Carta’ of labour. Section six exempted labour
unions from anti -trust laws and section twenty restricted the use of
injunctions and declare that strikes, boycotts and picketing were not
contrary to any federal law.
Wilson c ontinued the trust -busting campaign initiated by Roosevelt. He
brought ninety -two cases in eight years. It was hoped that the problem of
monopoly would be solved by prevention rather than cure. Between 1915
and 1921 the Federal Trade Commission issued 788 formal complaints
and 379 cease and desist orders. The La Follett seamen’s Act, 1915,
improved conditions on board ships. The Adamson Act, 1916, established
an eight -hour day for employees of interstate railroads. The Federal Farm
Act, 1916, set up twelve land banks which were to make mortgage loans
available for farmers at relatively low rates of interests. But the progress munotes.in

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22 of reform had been checked by the World War – I in August 1914. It also
marked the end of the progressive movement in national affairs .
2.6 RESULTS OF THE P ROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
To sum up the progressives had not brought about any major
transformation of political and economic system; it was not their intention
also. They had concentrated on a series of specific reforms most of which
had been achieved by 1914. In politics they had done much to revitalize
democracy by making officials more directly responsible to public
sentiment. In the economic sphere they had failed to find any solution to
the problem of monopoly, but they had extended t he powers of the Federal
and State governments to regulate big business, to check the exploitation
of labour and to conserve natural resources.
Check Your Progress:
1. Who were the muckrakers?
2. What is women’s suffrage?
3. What is Federal Reserve System ?
2.7 SUMMARY
More important than any specific reforms were the new attitude. A
notable result of the progressive movement was that both political and
business leaders became much more concerned with securing popular
approval and support than they had bee n in the nineteenth century. It was
significant that business corporations began to shed large sums on public
relations to present their activities in a favorable light. Ultimately the
effectiveness of progressive reforms depended on enlightenment of voter s
and their capacity for appraising propaganda.
2.8 QUESTIONS
1) Bring out the salient features of the Progressive Movement.
2) Discuss the part played by Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson in the
Progressive Movement.
2.9 SUGGESTED READIN GS
1. Parkers, Henry Bam ford. T he United States of America: A History.
Scientific Book Agency, Calcutta 1.
2. Beards, New Basic History of the United States, New York, 1960.
3. Hill C.P. A History of United States. Arnold Heinemann, India.
4. Jaypalan, N. History of the United States of Ameri ca, Atlantic
Publishers, New Delhi.
5. Hill, C.P. A history of the United States. Arnold – Heinemann India.

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23 3
EMERGENCE OF UNITED STATES
AS A WORLD POWER (1900 -1919)
Unit Structure:
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Growth of Imperialism
3.3 Caribbean and Mexican Policy
3.4 Summary
3.5 Questions
3.6 Suggested Readings
3.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To analyze the g rowth of imperialism.
2) To grasp the rise of U.S.A. from a colony to a World power.
3) To understand the open -door policy of America.
4) To comprehend the Roosevelt Corollary.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the late nineteenth century most of the west European co untries had
completed the process of industrialization. It was a process by which raw
material was turned into a finished product with the help of machines.
Consequently, they began to feel the need for more foreign markets. Since
the industrialized Europe an countries lacked an abundant supply of raw
materials they began searching for colonies which would supply them with
various raw materials at very low prices; these colonies could also serve as
assured markets where their finished products could be sold, without any
competition whatsoever. The industrialized European Countries needed
both raw materials and assured market for these needs. This led to a race
among industrialized European and France were on the forefront while
Germany joined it by the end of the nineteenth century.
3.2 GROWTH OF IMPERIALIS M
Mean while at the other side of the world Japan emerged as a new power.
She joined European powers in cutting the Chinese Melon. Winning the
Sino Japanese war in 1894 the Japanese served a notice on the re st of the
world that a new power was demanding a place in the sun. Perhaps the munotes.in

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24 chief reason for the trend away from isolation in the American Foreign
policy was that the United States could no longer feel so secure as in the
past. All through the ninete enth century British sea power had controlled
the Atlantic, while the Pacific had been a power vacuum. But the revival
of imperialism in the late nineteenth century led to a general sense of
tension and by the beginning of the twentieth century Americans s teadily
became more disturbed by the threat to the world balance of power
presented by the growth of the German and Japanese sea power.
3.2.1 American Imperialism:
Meanwhile the United States also developed tendencies towards
imperialism. American indust ry began to need foreign markets. Although
the United States remained, on balance a debtor nation until the World
War – I surplus capital was being invested in neighboring countries like
Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Yet presidents and secretaries of state were
concerned that with the partitioning of world by European powers,
American business might be denied access to profitable areas and felt it
necessary to ensure that foreign markets remain open for American
capital. They also began to acquire overseas colon ies.
A small group of men who believed in Manifest Destiny strongly
supported the idea of building an American Empire. Influenced by social
Darwinism and by European imperialist writers like Rudyard Kipling they
looked for a world leadership by American pe ople. Theodore Roosevelt,
Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator Albert Beveridge were some of the
prominent leaders of this group. They had considerable influence on the
American policy especially when they advocated the acquisition of naval
bases overseas. American imperialist expansion in the late nineteenth
century was due more to strategic considerations than to economic factors.
Captain Alfred T. Mahan in his “Influence of Naval Power on History”
(1890) had emphasized the importance of naval bases. He argued that
national greatness and prosperity will follow from naval power. Economic
development called for a large navy and an equally large merchant marine.
It was America’s destiny to control the Caribbean, build a Isthmian Canal
and to spread western civilization in the Pacific region.
3.2.2 Social Darwinism:
The Darwinian theory of natural selection provided a convenient
justification to imperialistic ventures. If the theory of natural selection
worked among biological species why can it not work in human societ y?
Historian John Finke in his “American Political Ideas” (1885) stressed the
superior character of Anglo -Saxon people and institutions. He argued that
the English were destined to dominate the world. Josiah strong in his “Our
Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis” (1885) argued that the
Anglo – Saxons embodied two great ideas of civil liberty and spiritual
Christianity.

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25 3.2.3 Expansion in Pacific:
In 1867 secretary of state Seward signed a treaty with Russia to purchase
Alaska from her for $ 7, 20,000/ -. He also annexed the Midway Islands.
Later in the century growing emphasis on sea power led to the acquisition
of naval bases in the Pacific. In 1878 the United States had signed a treaty
with Samoa by which she received the sight to establish a naval base at
Pago Pago. Later on, both Germany and Britain became interested in
Samoa and a conflict among the three powers for the control of the island
seemed imminent. The German government then gave way and an
agreement was reached for a joint prote ctorate. Later the island was
divided among the three powers. Tutubia which included Pago Pago
became an American possession. Though Samoa itself was not very
important the episode was significant as the first manifestation of a new
imperialist psychology in the United States.
Guarding the approach to the American coastline the Hawaii islands had
not been considered as strategically important even before the civil war.
As early as 1842 Secretary of State Webster had declared that the United
States would op pose its annexation by any other power. In 1875 a treaty
was concluded which made Hawaii virtually an American protectorate. In
1887 the United States acquired the right to build a naval base at Pearl
Harbor. In July 1998 Congress voted for annexation and the
Hawaii islands were organized as a territory with a view to eventual
statehood. This was during the war with Spain; When the United States
was in an expansionist mood and becoming more conscious of her
security.
3.2.4 Pan Americanism:
During the 1880 ’s and 1890’s the United States foreign policy began to
look southwards and westward as well. In the hope of finding new markets
for American industry the United States began to cultivate closer relation
with Latin America in general. She also moved toward s establishing an
American sphere of influence in the Caribbean, control of which was
thought to be necessary for American security. In 1889 a conference was
held in Washington, which did little to increase American trade with Latin
America. It founded the Pan American Union as a clearing house for
disseminating information. It was followed by a series of other
conferences. After the First World War the conference began to deal with
serious political and economic problems; the ideal of cooperation with
Latin America became more real.
3.2.5 The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute:
During the boundary dispute between British colony of Guinea and
Venezuela American power in the Caribbean was asserted for the first
time. Since ownership of land in the western theme sp here was at stake
and the British had refused to submit their claim to arbitration President
Cleveland felt that the Monroe Doctrine should be invoked secretary of
State Olney declared that the United States would resort to force unless the
British gave wa y. He declared, “Today the United States is practically munotes.in

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26 sovereign on this continent; and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it
confines its interposition. Its infinite resources combined with its isolated
position render it master of the situation and practically invulnerable
against any or all its powers”.
The controversy continued for some time and war seemed imminent at one
point. By that time the British were also involved in dispute in South
Africa by comparison with the ownership of a few squa re miles of South
American jungles was not important. They agreed to accept the decision of
an international board of arbitration. Prime Minister Lord Salisbury
pointed out that if the United States was going to protect the Latin
American countries from Eu ropean intervention she must, in turn; assume
responsibility for their good behavior. The United States accepted this
implication which in 1904 led to the Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine. In spite of Olney’s belligerence, the Venezuela dispute l ed in the
end to closer relations with Britain. She withdrew most of her armed
forces from the Western hemisphere and began to approve the Monroe
Doctrine.
3.2.6 The Spanish American War:
The next step in the establishment of American hegemony in the
Caribbean was the war with Spain. After losing her possessions on the
mainland, Spain had retained the ownership of Cuba and Puerto Rico but
had failed to reform her methods of government. A ten -year rebellion in
Cuba (1868 -78) ended unsuccessfully. In 1895 t he Cubans rebelled again
and the atrocities committed by the Spanish authorities and ravage nature
of the struggle soon aroused the public opinion in the United States. By
the beginning of 1898 there was considerable popular sentiment in favour
of war with Spain. Liberal and Humanitarian idealism mingled with a
nationalistic eagerness to assert the American power.
Meanwhile a small group of men led by Theodore Roosevelt, who was
Assistant Secretary of Navy at that time, looked forward to world
leadership by the United States also favored war for more practical
reasons. While liberating Cuba the United States could also acquire naval
bases in the Caribbean. Spain also owned the Philippines and if they were
conquered by the United States they would serve as a valuable foothold in
the Pacific. On the other hand, American business community was mostly
opposed to war. It had invested very little money in Cuba and did not
anticipate any particular advantages from its liberalization.
In February 1898 the battleship Marine was blown up. In April 1898
President McKinley declared war. In July 1898 American troops landed
on the Cuban island, defeated the Spanish forces and then went on to
occupy Puerto Rico.
By the Paris Peace Treaty, December 1898, Spain handed over Cub a,
Philippines, Puerto Rico and the small island Guam in the Pacific to the
United States. In 1902 Cuba assumed self -government, with some
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27 by the Platt Amendment passed by the Cong ress in the form of an
amendment to the Appropriations Bill of 1901.
3.2.7 Puerto Rico:
Although American rule in Puerto Rico brought about a number of
improvements, it cannot be regarded as successful. Death rate was
lowered, education was developed and public worker were built. But the
populations began to increase rapidly, and since the government failed to
solve the consequent problems living standards were very low. American
corporations producing sugar and other tropical crops owned much of the
land, a large part of the population worked on the plantations at extremely
low wages. Puerto Ricans strongly resented the control exercised by the
American government over the destinies of their country. A vigorous
nationalist movement soon developed.
3.2.8 The Philippines:
Some of the Philippines had hoped for independence and annexation was
followed by a rebellion headed by Emilio Aguinaldo. Civil government
was set up in 1901, the first governor being William Howard Taft. An
elected legislature was establ ished, public education was developed and
the public health was improved.
From the point of view of American national interests, the annexation of
the Philippines was probably a mistake. They were of little economic
value to the United States; they could n ot serve as a base for trade with
other parts of the Far East. Being six thousand miles away from the
American coastline they were a military liability and the responsibility of
depending them was a serious handicap for the United States.
3.2.9 China and Open -Door Policy:
For a long time, the United States had been active in the Pacific. In the late
eighteenth century, she developed commercial relations with China and
Indonesia. Since the 1830’s American Protestant missionaries had been
active in China. I t was believed that there were immense opportunities for
profit, power and idealistic enterprises in the East, Asia especially in
China, and that it was the duty of the American Government to see that
they remain open. The next step towards involvement in the Far East was
the enunciation of the Doctrine of open Door in China which then became
one of the guiding principles of American foreign policy.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century Britain, France, Russia and
Japan annexed or assumed protectora tes over a number of outlying areas
and by the end of the nineteenth century the central provinces of China
also began to be carved out into spheres of interest. In theory, Political
power remained with the Chinese officials, but foreign powers assumed
the right to invest capital and exercise economic control and it seemed
likely that these spheres of interest would gradually develop into colonial
possessions. In 1898 British officials suggested to the American
government that they join together in sponsori ng another Door Policy, by munotes.in

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28 which China would not be partitioned but remain open to businessmen of
all nations on equal terms. Since President McKinley was not very keen
about the idea nothing came out of it. However, in 1889 Secretary of State
John Hay cir culated a note among the leading powers urging them to
maintain commercial equality for citizens of all countries in their spheres
of interests. Although the replies were decidedly evasive, He resorted to
bluff and declared that all of them had agreed. In 1900 nationalistic
resentment led to the Boxer Rebellion; the United States joined other
nations in sending a joint military expedition to protect their citizens.
Secretary of State was afraid that some of the powers might seize the
opportunity to keep the ir troops permanently in China. He then circulated
a second open Door note much more far reaching than the first in its
implications. He declared that the policy of the United States was to
preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity.
In practic e however none of the powers, not even Britain was willing to
accept the open -Door Doctrine. Although China was never carved out into
colonies, this was mainly due to the inability of the imperialist powers to
come to terms with each other and eventually t o the outbreak of the First
World War, rather than to the influence of the United States. The United
States was not strong enough to maintain Chinese independence. Single
handed and certainly not sufficiently interested in the East Asia to attempt
to do so . The Open -Door Doctrine was thus merely a pious aspiration not
backed by sufficient force.
Later in their Far Eastern policy President Theodore Roosevelt, Taft and
Wilson all professed adherence to the open -door doctrine, but all of them
discovered that l ittle could be done to enforce it. The dominating factor in
the situation was the growth of Japanese ambition to expand at the cost of
China.
3.3 CARIBBEAN AND ME XICAN POLICY
In the Caribbean which was much closer than China the United States was
willing to use sufficient force to protect her interests, although not always
wisely or with adequate justification. It can be argued that the essential
objectives of American policy would have been attained more successfully
if the responsible officials had shown more restraint and more respect for
the view point of their neighbors in Latin America.
Theodore Roosevelt succeeded President McKinley in 1901, he was
particularly inclined towards strong arm methods in foreign policy, the
most flagrant example was the method by which he secured the right to
build the Panama Canal.
3.3.1 Panama Canal:
After the Clayton -Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain in 1850, the project
for a canal across Central America was dropped for a generation. In
1870’s United States again bec ame interested but was no longer willing to
share control with Britain. As President Hays remarked the canal would be
virtually part of the United States. But for a long time Britain would not munotes.in

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29 accept any change in the Clayton -Bulwer Treaty. Meanwhile Frenc h
Company acquired a concession to build a Panama Canal from the
Republic of Colombia; to which the region belonged. A few miles were
constructed after which construction was stopped for lack of funds.
The war with Spain made the United States more securit y conscious and
was followed by a general recognition of the need to build two navies, one
each for the Atlantic and the Pacific. Britain was now willing to surrender
her rights and by the Hay -Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 it was agreed that the
United States could build and fortify a canal provided ships of all nations
could use it in peace times on equal terms. The next question was whether
to build the Canal across Panama or Nicaragua. The congress voted for the
Panama route, the French Company applauded the decision which was
anxious to sell its rights and properties.
In 1903, by the Hay -Harran Treaty with Colombia the United States
agreed to pay ten million dollars and an annual rent of $ 2, 50,000/ - for the
lease of the Canal Zone. The French Company agre ed to sell its properties
for forty million dollars. The treaty was then submitted to the Colombian
Senate which decided that the terms were not good enough and refused to
satisfy. At this point the United States could have negotiated a new treaty
with Col ombia or could have changed to the Nicaragua route, but
Theodore Roosevelt refused to do so. While he did not actually promote a
revolution in Panama he made it apparent that he would support Panamas
if they chose to secede from Colombia. Panama soon decla red herself
independent Republic. The United States immediately granted recognition
and sent an American warship to prevent Colombia from re -establishing
its authority. The United States then made a treaty with Panama leasing a
canal zone and also assuming the right of intervening in order to maintain
order. Construction began in the course and in 1914 the first ship passed
through the Canal.
No other episode in American foreign policy except the war with Mexico
has done so much to arouse Latin American fea rs of Yankee imperialism
and the Colossus of the north. In 1921 the United States decided to make
amends to Colombia and paid twenty -five million dollars in separation.
3.3.2 The Roosevelt Corollary:
Construction of the canal made it necessary for the Un ited States to
control the Caribbean and prevent any hostile power from acquiring bases
in that region. This led in 1904 to the annunciation of the Roosevelt
Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
Most of the small Caribbean and Central American republics were
governed by dictators; they suffered from frequent revolutions during
which foreign citizens were sometimes in danger. They were also unable
to make payments on their national debts, much of which was held by
European financiers. Under such circumstances European powers claimed
the right of intervention by force to protect the rights of its citizens. As a
last resort this right was recognized as valid under the international law.
But there was also the danger that a power would abuse this right to munotes.in

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30 acquire bases or political control. To avert this danger Theodore Roosevelt
decided that when such intervention was necessary it would be done solely
by the Unites States. The Roosevelt Corollary was explained thus: chronic
wrong doings May in America as elsewhere , ultimately require some
intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western hemisphere the
adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the
United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrong doings
or impudence t o the exercise of an international police power. The Latin
Americans came to believe that the United States had deliberately
embarked on a programme of imperialistic expansion and could be
stopped only by force.
In 1905 the Roosevelt corollary was applied in the Dominican Republic
which was unable to pay its debts. With the consent of the Dominican
government the United States assumed control of the finances; the foreign
debt was scaled down and was transferred from European to American
bankers. The America n officials collected taxes and made part payment of
the debt. Otherwise the country retained its autonomy. The only other
intervention during Theodore Roosevelt’s second term was in Cuba under
the Platt Amendment. In 1906 revolutionary disturbances were f ollowed
by the landing of American troops, which stayed there till 1909.
3.3.3 The Mexican Revolution:
The immediate southern neighbors of the United States presented a much
more to complex diplomatic problem than the smaller Caribbean
countries. From 18 76 to 1911 Porfirio Diaz was the President of the
Mexico almost continuously. His main policy was to encourage the entry
of foreign capital. Approximately fifteen million dollars were invested in
rail roads, public utilities, plantations, mines and oil fie lds and about two
thirds of it came from the American Citizens. Mexico’s economic growth
caused Diaz to be regarded as one of the greatest statesmen in the history
of the hemisphere. Unfortunately, it benefited only a small upper class.
Diaz allowed the Me xican Indian peasants to be robbed of their lands and
transformed into workers at starvation wages for big land owners. Miners
and industrial workers were similarly exploited. Almost all Mexicans
resented the privileges acquired by foreign businessmen; the y felt that a
large proportion of national wealth was being drained off to pay dividends
to European and American shareholders.
Mass discontent exploded in a revolution which was to cause for reaching
changes in Mexican society. In 1911 Diaz was exiled an d an idealistic but
somewhat ineffectual liberal Francisco Madezo was elected President.
Though he made no substantial reforms, he allowed the peasants and
workers to organize and express their grievances. He was also less friendly
than Diaz to foreign cap ital. In February 1913 Madezo was overthrown by
a reactionary coup headed by General Victoriana Hereto. To the lashing
discredit of American diplomacy, the coup was aided by Henry Lane
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31 Huerta secured most of the co untry but in the north and south there were
movements to avenge the death of Madezo, restore the constitutional
government and bring about land and labour reforms. The movements
were led by VenustianoCarranzo, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, an
Indian pe asant chief. Thus, when Wilson became President Mexico was
plunged into civil war. Wilson adopted a policy of watchful waiting, he
tried to persuade Huerta to retire and allow free election. Huerta refused to
do so. Wilson then allowed the nationalist lead ers to purchase arms and
ammunition but did not allow Huerta to do so. This meant that the United
States was taking sides in the Mexican conflict, but some form of indirect
participation was inevitable. Whatever attitude the United States adopted
was bound to work for the advantage of one party or the other.
3.3.4 Intervention in Mexico:
Eventually Wilson went beyond watchful waiting. In April 1914 he was
informed that a German merchant ship was on the way to the Mexican
port of Veracruz with arms for Huer ta. He then ordered the marines to
seize Veracruz. Although Wilson’s action was intended to help the
nationalists they denounced it as vigorously as Huerta. Wilson then
arranged a conference on Mexican problems which was attended by
leading South American countries. This move towards participation with
Latin America in setting Latin American problems was a significant step
towards the later Good Neighbor Policy.
In August 1914 Huerta went into exile and in November American
marines left Vezacruz. Now differ ent factions of the nationalist movement
came to blow with each other in a war which continued for two years and
once again the United States was compelled to take sides. By 1917
Mexico achieved some degree of peace and order; she adopted a new
constitutio n which provided for radical agrarian and labour reforms. It was
only after 1920 that the Mexican government began to curtail the
privileges which American investors had acquired during the Diaz era.
3.3.5 United States and Japan:
In their Far Eastern Po licy Presidents Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson
professed adherence to Hay’s Policy of Open Door but they discovered
that little could be done to enforce it. The growth of Japanese power and
ambition about China was the dominating factor in the situation.
3.3.6 Theodore Roosevelt and Japan:
In 1904 rivalry between Japan and Russia for control of Korea and of the
Chinese province of Manchuria led to war. The Japanese won a series of
victories and then became anxious for peace before their strength was
exhausted . At their request Theodore Roosevelt acted as a mediator which
led to the Treaty of Portsmouth (N.H.) of 1905. Japan gained exclusive
control of Korea and southern part of Manchuria but was unable to obtain
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32 Japanese American relations rapidly deteriorated. Japanese assumed
exclusive control of Korea and the southern part of Manchuria paying no
attention to Open Door and blamed the United States for their future to
secure an indemnity. Relations were further str ained by racial
discrimination in the United States where Japanese were looked on as
yellow peril by their white neighbor. The Japanese were extremely
sensitive to any suggestion that they were an inferior people. Both sides
began to talk of war.
Theodore Roosevelt met the danger realistically. He stopped racial
discrimination against the Japanese and in 1907*08 secured an agreement
from the Japanese government to stop the flow of immigrants. By the
1908 Root – Takahira Agreement both countries agreed to re spect each
other’s possession and maintain statuesque in the Pacific area. The
Agreement also reaffirmed Open Door in China and Chinese integrity.
Since the statuesque now included Japanese economic control of Southern
Manchuria these statements were appar ently face saving.
Theodore Roosevelt understood the danger of adopting any position
anywhere unless we can make good. “Never draw unless you mean to
shoot. Japanese advances in Manchuria cannot be stopped unless we (the
United States) go to war and a succ essful war with Manchuria would
require a fleet of good as that of England and an army as good as that of
Germany.
Taft was an exponent of dollar diplomacy; he reverted to the original Open
Door and tried to bring about more American investment in Chinese
railroad. But when Wilson came to power in 1913 he stopped all
government support for American investment in China.
Thus, the United States continued to affirm the Open Door on paper.
While declining to defend it in reality. But now the motivations had
changed. Originally an expansionist measure, designed to keep the
Chinese market open for American trade and investment, it had become
primarily defensive. By 1913 the United States had only fifty million
dollars invested in China, bought from China only two percent of her
imports and sold China only one percent of her exports. She had much
closer economic relation with Japan.
Check Your Progress:
1. What is Roosevelt Corollary?
2. Comment on Mexican Revolution.
3.4 SUMMARY
To sum up American rise as a world power was mainly a matter of trial
and error. Her policy went on evolving during the latter part of the
nineteenth century. She also realized that there is vast difference between
theory and practice, between idealism and reality and that what appeared
attracti ve on paper could not either be brought into reality or that it would
jeopardize national interests. Consequently, the United States position munotes.in

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33 about a particular policy went on changing and made her policy liable to
be charged as opportunistic.
3.5 QUESTIO NS
1) Enumerate the factors that led to the emergence of the United States as
a world power.
2) What is Open Door Policy? How far did it succeed?
3) Discuss the various stages by which the United States became a world
power.
3.6 SUGGESTED READINGS
1) Barck O.T. & Blake N.M: Since 1900: A History of the United States
in Our Times.
2) Parker, Henry Bamford. The United States of America a History.


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34 4
GREAT DEPRESSION
Unit Structure:
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Important Features of Economic Development
4.3 Economy of Abundance
4.4 Weaknesses in the Economic System
4.5 The Great of Depression
4.6 Political Repercussions
4.7 Summary
4.8 Questions
4.9 Suggested Readings
4.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To understand the important features of economic development.
2) To know the causes of Great Depression.
3) To analyze the Great Depression.
4.1 INTRODUCTION
President Harding, Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were convinced that the
primary economic function of the government was to assist business in
making high profits: not to supervise business practice. Their conviction
seemed to be justified during the 1920’s. Business made profits on an
unpreceden ted scale, rapidly invested them in industrial expansion. It
rapidly increased national wealth and productive capacity. Some of these
benefits percolated down to the wage earners in the form of consumer’s
goods, steady employment and higher standards of li ving. However, a
considerable part of the population did not share at all in the prosperity.
Neither the conservatives nor the liberals were able to realize that the
policy of stimulating the accumulation of profits might have been justified
after the Civi l war, but eventually it must lead to disaster in the new era of
abundance. Very soon over production, over speculation and under
consumption brought about the worst depression in American History. It
became quite clear that during the 1920’s there had bee n serious
weaknesses in the whole economic structure and that in failing to take
action to rectify then the abdicated its proper functions. munotes.in

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35 4.2 IMPORTANT FEATURES O F ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
The most important feature of economic development during the 1920 ’s
was the growth of production resulting from the application of scientific
inventions, new sources of power and new techniques of promoting
efficiency. By 1929 sixty -nine workers could produce as much as one
hundred workers in 1920. Total production in a ll branches of economic
system increased between 1920 and 1929 by forty six percent. In 1929
national income amounted to 82 billion dollars; allowing for changes in
value of money this represented an increase of thirty one percent over
1922; while populati on during the same period increased by only eleven
percent.
With the steady improvement of productive methods, relatively few
workers were needed for basic necessities such as food and clothing. In
1899 these had amounted to 57.9 percent, by 1929 this prop ortion had
been dropped to 43.6 percent. Meanwhile there was a rapid increase in
new buildings and machinery and in durable consumption goods such as
cars, refrigerators, telephones and electrical appliances. This meant that
articles originally regarded as luxuries for the upper class were becoming
available for the average American family. The middle -class American
family now enjoyed a standard of living that seemed incredible even to the
very rich at any earlier period of history.
Rapid growth of service, distribution and white -collar operations was
another aspect of economic progress. Fewer people were engaged in
administration and in providing amenities for consumers. Between 1920
and 1929 the number of industrial workers employed in manufacturing,
minin g and transportation actually decreased by more than five lakhs,
while the number of farmers came down by 2, 50,000. According to the
1930 census, only fifty eight percent of the employed population was
directly engaged in production of the remaining eight percent were in
business, 5.5 percent were domestic servants and about 30.5 percent were
engaged in professional, clerical and service occupation.
4.2.1 Automobiles:
Industrial expansion of the late nineteenth century was centered on rail
roads and steel . The expansion of 1920’s was dominated by a building
boom and by a number of durable consumption industries. Most important
of these was the manufacture of automobiles, of which Henry Ford was
the leading figure. By 1909 Henry Ford had evolved his famous Model
TV which could be produced at a price that made it accessible to middle
class Americans. Henry Ford had graced the essential elements of the new
era of abundance – standardization and division of labour in order to cut
costs, high wages to increase p urchasing power and mass production at
low prices for a popular market. Largely because of his leadership, an
automobile after 1909 ceased to be a toy for the rich and became essential
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36 By 1928 a total number o f 24,500,000 cars had been manufactured and
nearly four million workers were directly and indirectly dependent on this
industry. Meanwhile Federal and State government spent one billion
dollars each year on making highways. Thus, American people became
people on wheels. Every big city was facing apparently insoluble
problems; the rhythms of life became much quicker. The nation’s oil
reserves were consumed at a dizzy and alarming rate. But there was no
question that the life of the average American, especial ly in the rural areas,
had become vastly richer and more varied.
4.2.2 Other Industries:
Rapid increase in the use of electricity was another significant advance of
the 1920’s. This made many forms of manufacturing and transportation
cheaper and more eff icient. It also brought about new comforts to the
home and lightened the labors of housewives in their kitchens.
In terms of Horse Power, the production of electricity went from 7,
50,000,000 (1912) to 20,300,000,000 (1922) and to 43,200,000 (1930). It
was an expansion of about sixty percent in eighteen years. E.I. Dupent
made a fortune in making gun powder and later branched into industrial
chemistry, especially coal, tar and cellulose products. A.T. & T General
Motors were giants in the fields of communic ation and automobiles
respectively. By 1920’s seeing films became a national habit and by 1926
there were ten million movie theaters in the United States. Earlier in the
country the inventions of Marconi, an Italian, and Lee De Forest, an
American made pos sible the radio. By 1927 there were 732 radio stations
and a radio set had become a normal feature in the American home.
4.3 ECONOMY OF ABUNDANCE
Many of the new inventions of the early twentieth century directly
enriched the life of the average American citizen. Their combined effect
upon human life was so momentous that they can be fairly described as a
second industrial revolution. The age of coal and steam was being
replaced by an age of oil and electricity. With the use of new sources of
power and for ms of transportation it was no longer necessary for people to
crowd in vast industrial cities. Urban areas were no longer over shadowed
by smoking chimneys; they could become cleaner and healthier. The
farmer no longer lived in isolation and the barriers b etween the city ant the
country began to disappear.
During the 1920’s it was widely believed that the United States had
entered a new era of permanent abundance, and the mass production,
combined with high wage levels, was abolishing poverty and creating, for
the first time in history, a high standard of living for everybody. This
belief was widely held by businessmen, they liked to describe themselves
as serving the people. Rotary Clubs and other businessman’s organizations
began to preach service and high ethical standards. Most big corporations
felt the need for popular support; they began to spend more and more on
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37 be cynical about service, obviously business was still carried on t o make
profit, yet increasing willingness of business leaders to recognize that they
had social responsibilities and to appreciate the dependence of prosperity
upon mass purchasing power, was a significant trend.
4.4 WEAKNESSES IN THE EC ONOMIC SYSTEM
The high hopes of the 1920’s was frustrated by the great depression of the
1930’s. Although the economy could produce goods in an astonishing
quantity and variety, it had not solved the problem of distribution. An
analysis of how industry was organized and con trolled and income
distributed showed that there were serious weaknesses in the mechanism
of market. This led to a financial crisis and made the ensuing depression
unusually prolonged and intense.
4.4.1 Monopoly and Oligopoly:
By the end of the nineteent h century bib corporations came to dominate
the economic system. In 1929 there were 1,349 big corporations with
annual incomes in excess of one million dollars. They earned eighty
percent of all corporate profit leaving only twenty percent to the remaining
4, 55,000 corporations. Almost half of all corporate wealth and a quarter
of national wealth was the property of only 200 firms. Big corporations -
controlled transportation and public utilities, did most of retail trade. Small
ownership remained strong onl y in agriculture, some consumer goods like
clothing, some forms of retail trade and service occupations.
Probably there was less out sight monopoly in 1929 than in 1901. This
was due partly to trust busting and partly due to the vast economic
expansion, wh ich had made it more difficult for a single firm to dominate
an entire industry. But decrease of monopoly had not brought much
revival of price competition. The rise of oligopoly – control of market not
by one corporation but by a few. Under oligopoly corp orations usually
cooperated with each other in maintaining uniform prices, either by
agreement or by following a leader. But they competed through improving
quality and through advertising. This was true of many basic industries
like steel and in some cons umer goods industries; four or five cigarette
companies always charged the same prices.
There were strong arguments in favour of managed prices, as they
facilitated long range planning and expansion. But it made it more difficult
for the economy to weather a depression. Under a fully competitive
system any decrease in purchasing power would have been quickly
counteracted by a cut in prices. But when depression started, the big
corporations found it more profitable to keep their prices stable and cut
product ion, thereby increasing unemployment and intensifying the crisis.
Price rigidity was thus one major weakness in the economic system.
4.4.2 Corporate Organization:
Some industries were controlled by entrepreneurs like Carnegie and
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38 leaders were primarily financial promoters seeking speculative profits; this
type was especially prevalent in electric power industries. With the steady
trend towards the separation of ownership from management, t here was no
longer much room for individual drive and ambition. Ownership was
differed in a large number of shareholders, while management was
assumed by salaried executives. In 1930 A.T. & T was owned by 5,
70,000 shareholders, none of whom held as much a s one percent of shares.
With the rapid increase in the number of shareholders the United States
appeared to be becoming a nation of capitalists. But this was very
optimistic, nobody knew how many individuals were shareholders, but
major share of the profi ts of industry went to a relatively small group.
4.4.3 Distribution of Income:
Salaries and profits increased much rapidly in the 1920’s than wages.
Many corporations gave their workers substantial increase in wages,
adopted pension plans and spent large sums on welfare and recreation.
However, the wage increases failed to keep pace with the growth of
production. Between 1922 and 1929 the real wages of industrial workers
rose, on an average, by 1.4 percent per year, whereas production per
capital was incre asing by 2.4 percent per year. During these years the total
money wages paid to industrial workers increased by thirty three percent
as contrasted with a rise in salaries of forty two percent, corporations net
profits by seventy six percent and shareholder s dividends by one hundred
eight percent. Thus, while wage earners were earning larger incomes they
were at the same time a smaller share of national income.
An appreciable part of population like workers in textile manufacturing
and mining of bituminous c oal had definitely no share in the prosperity.
This was true of many farmers as well. Increased production in the war
years was followed in 1921 by a steep drop in farm prices of forty four
percent. Throughout the 1920’s agriculture never recovered with th e loss
of foreign markets, over production became chronic and farm prices to
other prices, the farmers were eleven percent worse off than 1913. Many
of them were unable to pay off the heavy debts they had incurred during
the boom years of the war. Millions of farmers and their families,
especially in the South, lived close to starvation. About thirty lakhs farm
families had an annual income of less than one thousand dollars.
In 1929 more than seventy percent of the employed population was getting
less than two thousand five hundred dollars a year and more than forty
percent were getting less than one thousand five hundred dollars per year.
The degrees of income inequality become so acute that 6, 31,000 families
at the top were earning much more than sixteen million families at the
bottom of the ladder.
4.4.4 Saving and Purchasing Power:
Since the richer classes save a large part of their incomes, while the poor
save little or nothing, inequality of income distribution leads to a rapid
growth of savings. This is desirable only if the savings can be invested in
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39 goods for consumers, and it is profitable only to the extent that people are
able and willing to buy them. For this reason, an econom ic system is likely
to seem into difficulties if savings are allowed to seem ahead of
consumer’s purchasing power. This happened in the later 1920’s. Large
sums were laid aside by people in higher income brackets. Most of the big
corporations were accumula ting savings instead of distributing their
profits to shareholders. The result was that the building of industrial
expansion of the later 1920’s was far in excess of the effective needs of
the economy while billions of dollars of savings were diverted into
speculation in real estate and the share market instead of being invested in
production.
This deficiency of purchasing power did not become clear because of the
growth of debt. A considerable part of goods sold in the 1920’s, especially
in durable consume r’s goods, were not paid for immediately. But the
process of piling up of debts could not continue indefinitely. Borrowing
money and buying on credit enlarged the market for some time, but sooner
or later debts would have to be paid and the market would th an contract.
4.4.5 Growth of Debt:
Installment buying was one form of debt. Between 1923 and 1929 this was
estimated at five billion dollars per year. The average American family
bought its car and its refrigerator by making a small down payment and
contracting to pay the remainder over a period of years. Other forms of
private debts also increased rapidly. By 1930 the total farm mortgage debt
was 92,200,000,000, dollars and urban mortgage debt reached the colossal
sum of twenty -six billion dollars. Small and medium size businessmen
were also borrowing heavily for expansion. By 1930 the total amount of
long term and short -term private debt was two hundred billion dollars.
Nearly everybody seemed to be in some debt to somebody else. This made
the economy vu lnerable since whenever any group became unable to meet
its obligations, the whole structure would start collapsing like a house of
cards.
4.4.6 Public Debts:
Although the Federalgovernment was to reducing the national debt states
and municipal bodies we re raising more and more money for building
roads, hospitals and offices. In the 1920’s spending on Public works
averaged three billion dollars per year. This was paid partly out of taxes
but by 1930 the total debt of local governments had reached sixteen billion
dollars.
4.4.7 Foreign Investments:
Prior to the FirstWorld War the United States was a debtor country;
foreigners had invested more money in the United States than Americans
had invested abroad. By 1929 total American long -term foreign
investment s amounted to 15.4 billion dollars. Since foreigners had
invested 5 – 7 billion dollars in the United States Americans Credit
balance was 9.7 billion dollars. munotes.in

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40 One of the effects of foreign investment was to make it possible foreign
countries to buy America n goods. The United States continued to export
agriculture products like tobacco, wheat and cotton and manufactured
goods, capturing markets previously held by the British and the Germans.
Between 1922 and 1929 American exports exceeded imports by an
avera ge of seven hundred million dollars every year. In other words, the
American economy was disposing a part of its surplus products by
exporting them and was at the same time lending foreign countries, money
with which to buy them.
4.5 THE GREAT DEPRESSION
4.5.1 Causes of Depression:
1. Relatively too much money was saved while not enough was available
for spending by consumers. Part of the accumulated savings was
invested in expansion but sooner or later the supply of new factories,
machinery and office bu ildings and office buildings and apartment
houses was in excess of the actual possibilities of the market.
Throughout the 1920’s the market was stimulated through the growth
of debt, both internal and foreign. But debt is like a drug; the doses
have to be increased and cannot safely go on indefinitely and once the
period of expansion ended and capital goods industries slowed down
the economy could not quickly or easily readjust itself.
2. An extremely complicated system of debt obligations was another
reason. When one group became unable to meet its obligations,
everybody ran into difficulties.
3. Price fixing by big corporations deprived the economy of the necessary
flexibility and capacity for adjustment. Instead of cutting prices and
maintaining product ion, the corporations -maintained prices and cut
production. Thereby they created large scale unemployment.
4. The economy depended heavily on the sale of durable goods. Even in
bad times people have to eat, but they can go on without buying cars
and refr igerators and they also need not move into new houses.
Recovery in their industries was very slow.
5. These material factors do not represent the whole picture. The inner
motor which keeps the wheels rolling in modern industrial community
is psychologica l. Prosperity depends on that mysterious thing known as
confidence, which causes businessmen to expand their activities, incur
debts on the assumption that they can repay them, produce new goods
in the expectation that somebody will buy them, and keep mone y and
goods in circulation. During the boom period of the 1920’s confidence
led to frenzied over production, speculation and piling up of debts.
When the crash came confidence suddenly disappeared and
businessmen suddenly became reluctant to take any new u nder taking.
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41 4.5.2 The Collapse of 1929:
By the summer of 1929 there were symptoms of a coming depression.
Production was declining in the building, steel and automobile industries
and workers were being laid off. But nobody realized the significance of
these facts, since attention was concentrated on the dizzy rise share prices.
The great bull market of 1929 can only be regarded as a case of temporary
mass insanity.
The main function of the share market was to provide facilities for the
investment of ca pital in productive enterprise was almost forgotten.
Americans now started to gamble on the share prices. People bought
shares not because they wanted sound investments but, in the hope, that
they could sell them to others after a few weeks at substantial profits.
Many Americans now began to buy shares on margin; they paid only a
small fraction of the price and were given credit by their brokers for the
remainder. Mass speculation led to rising share prices which had no
relation to the Company’s real capaci ty for earning dividends. But this
process could not go on indefinitely. As soon as prices began to go down
those who bought on margin were forced to sell in a hurry. Catastrophe
was inevitable.
On 19th October share prices began to fall and the inevitable catastrophe
came on 29th October 1929. Some 16.5 billion shares were bought and
sold and, in some cases, prices dropped as much as eighty percent.
Nobody was prepared to buy them and thousands of margin accounts were
wiped out. Some thirty billion dollars paper wealth was wiped out.
Businessmen stopped investing money in expansion, consumers began to
buy fewer goods, production of capital and durable goods declined,
workers in those industries were laid off and growing unemployment
further contracted purch asing power. Thus, there began a vicious circle of
less investments, less production, more unemployment and further decline
in demand.
4.5.3 The Course of Depression:
Between 1929 and 1932 the national income decreased from eighty -two
billion dollars to forty billion dollars. Allowing for the fall in prices this
represented a drop -in production of thirty seven percent. Total industrial
production fell by forty eight percent which led to a rapid growth of
unemployment. By the summer of 14932 between twelve and sixteen
million people remained unemployed, this was about twenty five percent
of the total work forces.
On the other hand, farmers could not control prices and had to go on
producing. Total farm products fell by six percent while farm prices fell
by sixty three percent. At its lowest point in 1932 the purchasing power of
farmers was exactly half of what it had been ten years earlier.
These figures tell a story of mass misery on a scale unequalled in earlier
American history. Its psychological results were shocking because of the
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42 during the 1920’s. By 1932 lakhs of people became homeless migrant
drifting aimlessly about in the country. Many were living in huts built out
of refuse t imber o0n vacant plots in the city. They were known as
Homerville’s. Five lakh workers had gone back to agriculture; other
unemployed were living on relief doles. For a large part of American
people depression meant deprivation of homed and savings, prolon ged
malnutrition and a loss of respect of confidence in their own capacity to
support themselves.
Yet the most remarkable feature of the depression was the patience
displayed by most of its victims. Throughout these bitter years American
people displayed a n extraordinary respect for law and order and the rights
of property. Among the farmers there were a few outbreaks of organized
violence and some group of workers, like Coalmines, went on strike
against wage cuts. But on the whole country remained astonish ingly
peaceful.
Check Your Progress:
1) State any two features of economic development.
2) Enlist the causes of the Great Depression.
3) What was the rough period of Great Depression?
4.6 POLITICAL REPERCUSSI ONS
In parts of Europe the depression struck a blow to l iberalism, democracy
and private enterprise capitalism. Many people were willing to give up
freedom in the hope of achieving economic security. Many of them turned
to communism which promised a classless society and a planned
economy. Many responded to the programme of fascist organizations as in
Germany and Italy. Even in those countries which retained faith in
democracy governments acquired much powers of economic regulation.
The general trend was towards economic nationalism resembling the
mercantilism o f the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Latin
America there were revolutions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and nine other
countries. Only the Soviet Russia largely isolated from rest of the world
and operating on different economic principles seemed i mmune from the
crises and unemployment.
In the United States democracy had more solid foundations and totalitarian
movements made little headway. Popular sentiments changed from
Republicans to Democrats. In less obvious ways the depression tended to
weaker the faith in the American tradition. The shock of the World War –
I, followed by the favorites money making of the 1920’s had given many
of them a feeling of being alienated from the society, unable to participate
in its activities or believe in its value s. This sense of non -belonging was
now reinforced by the economic collapse.
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43 Socialism and Communism: The depression caused many idealistic
American writers, professors, ministers of religion and college students to
feel that economic salvation could be fo und through a planned economy
and to become sympathetically interested in the Soviet experiment and
willing to believe that it was moving in the right direction.
4.7 SUMMARY
Depression produced three mass leaders whose irrational and hysterical
propaganda had disturbingly fascist flavors. They were Huey P. Long, Dr
Francis Townsend and Father Charles E. Laughlin. Long was elected the
Governor of Louziana in 1928. A cross between a populist shell binder
and a Caribbean dictator he acquired insularly absolute power over the
state of Louziana. But he used them for the benefit not only of himself but
also for the poorer classes. Dr. Townsend was a retired physician from
California. He put forth the idea that depression could be prevented by
paying a pension of t wo hundred dollars a month to everybody over the
age of sixty. He was an honest man but no competent economist approved
of his plan and the methods used by his associates to promote it were
decidedly demagogic. Father Coughlin was a Catholic Priest from
Michigan. He denounced bankers, demanded inflation and advocated
isolationism and was sympathetic to liberalism.
Although they made tall claim a large majority of American people
retained themseize of security. They wanted to bring about full production
and employment without at the same time destroying the essential liberty
of the individual to choose his occupation, accumulate property and to
spend or to save his money as he pleased.
During the darkest period of depression almost everybody demanded
vigorous action by the Federal government but there were considerable
differences about their objectives. They wanted the Federal government to
take positive steps to restore prosperity and most of them accepted the
traditional system of constitutional government and private enterprise.
They rejected the Socialist and communist programme for the abolition of
private ownership. The conservatives regarded government expedient as
temporary expedient, and insisted that the economic system was basically
strong. They att ributed the crisis partly to the disturbing effects of the war
and the post war debt and reparation payments and partly to errors of
financial policy. On the other hand, liberals emphasized the restricted
purchasing power of the farmers and many of the wag e earners and called
for government action to diminish inequalities of incomes and raise mass
living standards.
John Maynard Keynes was the most liberal economist of the 1930’s. He
believed that the accumulation of surplus savings was due to more
fundament al causes than errors of financial policy. According to him this
was bound to happen in a mature economy and could not be rectified by
the automatic process of supply and demand. The remedy suggested by
him was for the government to put their savings into circulation through a
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44 investment. Thus, the traditional belief in a constantly budget ought to be
abandoned, and in times of prosperity the government could impose heavy
taxes and start reducing the debt, but during a depression it ought to spend
more than it collected. The government’s financial policy, if wisely
implemented, could serve as control over the working of the economy,
evening out business cycles and maintaining full employment. A nu mber
of influential American economists such as Alvin Hauzen of Harvard
University adopted the Keynesian theory. During the 1930’s it largely
occupied the American liberal thought.
4.8 QUESTIONS
1. Explain various causes that led to the Great Depression in 1929.
2. Analyze the great Depression and its results on America.
4.9 SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Parker, Henry Bamford. The United States of America a history,
Scientific Book Agency. Calcutta 1.



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45 5
NEW DEAL
Unit Structure:
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Background of New Deal
5.3 Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal
5.4 Banking and Finance
5.5 Roosevelt and the Supreme Court
5.6 Results of the New Deal
5.7 Summary
5.8 Questions
5.9 Suggested readings
5.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To understand the background of New Deal.
2) To examine the role of Franklin Roosevelt in the New Deal of America.
3) To analyses the results of New Deal.
5.1 INTRODUCTION
New Deal is the name given to a series o f actions undertaken by President
Roosevelt to lift the American people out of depression and lead them to a
new future. These actions do not form one carefully planned scheme.
The economic crisis dominated American politics for nearly a decade.
Both Hoov er and Roosevelt attempted to bring about recovery.
Government encouragement and supervision of economic growth had
been an established practice. But the measures adopted during the 1930’s
were of unprecedented scope and involved far reaching changes in th e
relation between the government and business.
5.2 BACKGROUND OF NE W DEAL
Hoover was a strong believer in the virtues of private enterprise and
rugged individualism. He was afraid of the growth of a super state where
every man becomes the servant of the s tate and real liberty is lost. He was
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46 and local authorities. If people get into the habit of looking for
government support, liberty would be destroyed and the country would
come under the dictatorship of a remote bureaucracy. On the other hand,
the Federal government should give up help to private business in order to
bolster up private enterprise and save it from total collapse. However,
Hoover’s willingness to give Federal aid t o corporations, while denying it
to starving people made him appear as callously indifferent to human
suffering. He was a man of high integrity, an efficient administrator and
extremely hardworking. But he lacked political skill and experience and
he could not appeal to masses.
5.2.1 Hoover’s programme:
During the first two years of the debacle Hoover doubled the spending on
public worker, urged businessmen not to cut wages and tried to expand
credit. He went on stressing that prosperity would return soon . But that did
not happen. He set up a Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend
money to business corporations; twelve Federal Home Loan Banks to
refinance the home owners who were in danger of losing their homes; and
Federal Land Banks to help farmers. Similarly, a large extension of Bank
credit was made possible through changes in Federal Reserve System;
taxes were increased to compensate decrease in Federal revenue in the
hope of balancing budget. By the time these measures were affected the
1932 presi dential election was approaching.
5.2.2 The election of 1932:
Renominated by the Republican Party, Hoover argued that severity of the
depression was due to world conditions beyond the control of the United
States and that his measures were rapidly produci ng results. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was nominated by the Democrats. He promised a
balanced budget, a reduced Federal expenditure, sound currency and no
interference with legitimate private enterprise. He also called for some
reforms of business abuses an d Federal spending on relief and public
works. He also gave expression to the main principles of what later came
to be known as New Deal, but in vague and general terms. By the time he
took office on 4th March 1933 serious financial condition threatened to
ruin every bank. In most of the state’s Banks declared a holiday. By
February, 1933 alarmed depositors were removing their money in such
quantities that state governments had to intervene.
5.3 FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT A ND NEW DEAL
In dealing with depression Ro osevelt followed a pragmatic approach; he
was guided by experience rather than by doctrine. He was willing to try
almost any method that appeared promising. He was also willing to
abandon it if it did not succeed. He was also temperamentally on the side
of the underdog. He was an enemy of privilege and exploitation. In
fighting for his objects, he showed stubborn courage and political skill
unsurpassed by any of his predecessors. He had a clear grasp of popular
sentiment and capacity to give it expression a nd direction. His fire side
chats, in a language which everybody could understand, made him more
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47 declared, that only thing we have to fear is fear itself. He promised prompt
action against de pression. The Congress met in a special session and
during the hundred days of his presidency enacted a number of important
laws. He restored the faith of the American people to control their own
destiny.
5.3.1 New Deal:
New Deal consists of a series of actions undertaken by the Roosevelt
Administration to lift the American people out of depression and to lead
them to a new future. These actions were not a part of a carefully planned
scheme. In 1933 time was short and the need was urgent, so many of
Roose velt’s actions were steps taken in a hurry to deal with immediate
problems. Relief, Recovery and Reform were the three great aims of the
New Deal. Relief had to be provided to millions of Americans who were
desperately in need of food and cash. Recovery wa s about the government
action to lead the country out of depression and Reform was about setting
right the glazing wrongs so that the United States can go forward to new
future. In practice they included a wide variety of purposes. Roosevelt
wanted to help the poor, not only the poor people throughout the country
but also poverty -stricken industries like the coal industry, poverty -stricken
regions like the farmlands in the South and West. He wanted to attack the
rich employers and financiers and help the wo rkmen to organize trade
unions so that they can bargain fairly with their employers. He wanted to
safe guard democracy against the power of the rich. He wanted to help
industries to recover not, as President Hoover had done, by making the
ordinary American to buy from the business firms. He also wanted to stop
the waste of America’s natural resources – her oil, her land, in order to
keep them for Americans of the future. He made it clear that it was his
own personal policy. The New Deal was not the policy o f the Democrat
party, but it was the policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He used to the
utmost the fuel powers which the constitution had allowed him. No
previous American President ever wielded such great power in peace time.
He collected around him a gr oup of comparatively young men, college
professors, and experts in finance, economics and such subjects. This
group was known as the Brains Trust. It planned the details of the New
Deal. In his fireside chats he spoke about the common problems of
American people. In his bi -weekly White House press conferences he left
the journalists crowd into his office, ask him any question of their liking.
His quick answers, his friendliness and his willingness to crack jokes won
him popularity among pressmen.
Many able persons with varied opinions such as HazoldJckes (Secretary
for interior), Harry Hopkins (Federal Relief Administrator), and Henry
Wallace (Secretary for Agriculture and Vice -President during Roosevelt’s
third term) Frances Perkins (first woman secretary f or labour) contributed
much to carrying out the New Deal. Roosevelt’s Team changed
substantially over the years, and so did the New Deal itself so much so
that it became customary to talk of two New Deals. The first New Deal
lasted from 1933 to 1935. It co ncentrated mainly on immediate problems
of restoring the banking system, providing jobs for the unemployed and munotes.in

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48 raising agricultural prices to help farmers, setting industries on their own
feet. The second New Deal lasted from 1935 to 1938. It brought more
measures of lasting reform; involved heavy expenditure and unbalanced
budget, higher taxation of the rich. It showed far less sympathy to business
and more to such groups as trade unions. The change was neither so clear
cut nor so sudden as this division s uggests, for actions of the government
were numerous and complicated, they took time to affect. The depression
did not yield easily; the national income for 1934, almost two years of
New Deal, was only little more than half of the 1929 figure and there wer e
almost ten million unemployed. More radical action was needed.
Businessmen had become critical of some points of the Ned Deal and
Roosevelt was very much willing to take up their challenge. He was
worried about the growing popularity of people like Huey Long and Dr.
Francis Townsend. The best way to deal with them was to take some
serious action. Roosevelt had not as yet satisfied the trade unions as a
series of 1934 strikes indicated. All these things led him to lean after two
years in office and thus br ought about more far reaching reforms. Some of
the main reforms of the New Deal were as follows.
Check Your Progress:
1) Comment on Socialism and Communism.
2) What was Hoover’s Programme?
5.4 BANKING AND FINANCE
When Roosevelt assumed office all banks in the co untry were shut. His
first task was to get the national finance system working again. He did this
by giving people confidence in their banks once more. Within a week of
assuming office Roosevelt got the Congress to pass an Emergency
Banking Act, which gave him power over the banks and power to reopen
those he considered solvent. In his first fire side chat he convinced the
people that all was well with the country’s finances. Confidence was
restored; banks were reopened and people deposited their money in t hem
again. He followed this emergency action by other important laws.
Banking Act of 1933 established a stricter control of the banks; in order to
prevent frauds separated banks which did only banking business. Most
important was the setting up of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
which insured deposits in banks and thus safeguarded depositors against
losing their money because of a run on the bank in times of panic. 1933
Securities Act attempted to stop formation of fraudulent companies. It
ordered all companies to state all facts about themselves clearly and
accurately on any prospectus issued to the public. 1934 Act set up the
Securities Exchange Commission. This was a special body to ensure that
all companies carried out the act of 1933 and to invest igate all dishonest
and dubious practices on the share markets. Slowly the Securities
Exchange Commission transformed stock Exchanges into super markets
devoted to their proper purpose of channeling capital into productive
industry. He tried to encourage b anks to lend money at low rates of
interest, for which he made use of the Federal Reserve Banking system
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49 5.4.1 Farmers:
American farmers had gained very little from the prosperity of the 1920’s.
They had suffered in common wi th the rest of the people during the
depression. They faced many difficulties the chief of which was the low
prices their farm products were fetching. They were not able to sell their
crops overseas and they were growing more than the American people
were consuming. The depression made their plight worse by making
Americans pay still less for farm products. Roosevelt’s main aim was
therefore to raise farm prices. He also did a number of other things for the
farmers. The government lent them money to save th em from being
evicted from their farms and helped those whose farms were on poor land
to start all over again in fertile areas. But the only effective way would be
to make sure that farmers got good prices for their produce. So, in 1933
the Farmer’s Relief Act was passed. It created the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration to encourage cooperative marketing for some farm
products. Those American farmers who had lost their overseas markets
such as cotton, tobacco, rice, wheat and pigs. The government devis ed a
scheme for reducing the amount of the produce grown by the farmers.
Farmers who wished to do so could sign agreements with the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration to reduce the amount of a particular crop.
They wished to grow. This meant destroying some of their crops in the
first year and planning to grow less in the following years. The
government paid the farmers to do this because less crop meant higher
prices. The money paid to the farmers was provided by processing taxes.
For example, tax on c otton spinning was used to withdraw poor cotton
lands from cultivation and tax on flour mills was used to give similar help
to wheat farmers. Nature helped the scheme; in 1934 and 1936 there were
severe draughts. But in 1936 the Supreme Court ruled that th e Agricultural
Adjustment Administration was un -constitutional; it took exception to the
processing tax. The government then came back with a soil conservation
Act which did much the same as the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration, raising money by a di fferent method and leasing poor land
from farmers.
The soil Conservation Act also paid attention to the problem of saving
American soil from wastage caused by reckless farming and draught.
Much land had been ruined in the south and the Dust Bowl, the weste rn
parts of the plains, from which dust storms blew tons of soil into the
Middle West. Thus, it tried to prevent great areas of the United States
from going the way of parts of Iraq and North Africa, which once were
fertile land but arid desert now. All th ese attempts produced one clear sign
of Improvement. Between 1932 and 1937 the total income of American
farmers almost doubled.
5.4.2 The Civilian Conservation Corps:
Rising unemployment of young men was one of the worst features of the
depression. Roose velt tried to solve this problem by creating in 1933 the
Civilian Conservation Corps. Under this scheme unmarried young men
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50 for six months government camps set up chiefly in mountain and forest
areas. There they did various jobs benefiting the community. They learnt
forestry, built dams, fought forest fires, floods and storms, constructed
tracts and telephone lines through remote areas. Each month the Corps
paid him thirty dollars of which twenty -five dollars were sent to his
family. The scheme began with three lakh men and by 1940 two million
men passed through it. Many of these rejoined after six months were up.
But the number of those rejoining grew less; employers preferred the
corps men, because training in the camp made them fit and alert and gave
them technical skill. National Industrial Recovery Act and Works Progress
Administration. The National Industrial Recovery Act was the central
feature of Roosevelt’s plan for the recover y of Americans from
depression. His main aim was to put more people to work; once they were
employed and started getting their wages, they would be able to buy more;
the factories would produce more and national recovery would get going.
He also aimed at r eforming the conditions under which they worked, by
raising wages and lowering working hours and by getting rid of child
labour and making trade unions legal.
5.4.3 The National Industrial Recovery Act had three important
features:
1. It set up a works progre ss Administration, an organization which
encouraged the building of public works of all kings. The Federal govt
itself employed many men on building dams, airports, warships, post -
offices and various government offices. It also gave and lent money to
states and cities for public works like roads, bridges, hospitals, schools
and slum clearance schemes. The Works Progress Administration
provided work to millions of men.
2. It set up a National Recovery Administration which was to make rules
to govern industries . Usually their rules were drafted by the industries
themselves and then approved by the National Recovery
Administration. They abolished child labour, lowered working hours,
fixed a minimum wage and stopped unfair competition. Within one
year five hundred such codes were approved. But they took time to
draw up and Roosevelt wanted quick action. So, in July 1933 he first
drafted a blanket code to be applied to any industry that wanted it. This
blanket code abolished child labour, established a eight hour da y and
gave a minimum wage of 12.50 dollars per week. Over two million
workers asked for it and eventually sixteen million were covered by
this code. All employers who accepted it were given the privilege of
displaying a blue Eagle on their goods, and the g overnment encouraged
the public to deal with firms showing the Blue Eagle.
3. It gave workmen the legal right to bargain with their employers through
their trade unions.
5.4.4 Poor Relief:
President Hoover had set up the reconstruction Finance Corporation t o
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51 the poor. In 1933 President Roosevelt set up the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration under which the Federal government itself gave direct cash
relief to the poor throughout th e country as well as assisting local
charitable schemes. Such help was necessary for the tome being but it was
not enough to go on paying money to keep the poor in idleness, and
Roosevelt was determined to provide work instead. For this purpose, in
1933 he created the Civil Works Administration which provided work to
about four million unemployed. A large part of this work was found to be
useless and the scheme was cancelled in 1934. In 1935 the government
created another and much more satisfactory organiza tion – The Works
Progress Administration. Under this scheme millions of men and women
were employed on many jobs of value to the community. The government
paid them wages enough to keep them alive but not as large as they would
have earned in ordinary empl oyment. The Works Progress Administration
built roads, dams, airports, schools, hospitals, community centers, play
grounds and swimming pools. Its activities covered every part of the
country. Moreover, it gave work to out of work actors, musicians, writer s
and artists. For example, the Federal Theater Project sent traveling
companies who performed plays in big cities while artists were employed
in decorating post offices and other public buildings. The Works Progress
Administration was costly but it saved millions of people from wasting in
idleness, and most of its work was of permanent value to the United
States. Taken as a whole the Works Progress Administration was o bold
and notable achievement.
5.4.5 Social Security:
Before 1933 the United States had no scheme of unemployment, or health
insurance or of age pensions, while Germany had Old Age Pensions since
1889 and Great Britain since 1909. Wisconsin was the only state in the
United States which had an unemployment scheme before 1935. The 1935
social security Act was the most important of all New Deal laws. This
established a scheme of old age pensions, run by the Federal government
and paid for by contributions by both the employers and employees. It also
created a plan for unemployment insurance sche me under which the
separate states were to make their own detailed schemes. It also provided
for Federal Government grants to states for such problems as help to the
blind and children’s health. The whole scheme aimed at providing social
security, safety a gainst old age or unemployment, for millions of
Americans.
5.4.6 Trade Unions:
The National Industrial Recovery Act also included a section which gave
workmen the legal right to bargain with employers through their trade
unions. Although beneficial to wo rkmen the Act proved to be difficult to
enforce. It was therefore replaced by the Wagner Act of 1935. This Act
compelled the employers to recognize the union to which the majority of
their workmen belonged, to bargain with it in any dispute over wages and
hours. It also forbade employers to interfere with their workmen’s
freedom to join unions and set up a National Labour Relations Board to munotes.in

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52 which workmen could complain and which had the power to punish
employer. The 1938 Fair Labour Standards Act improved s tandards in
many poorly paid occupations by fixing hours and minimum wages. The
New Deal gave immense encouragement to trade unionism. In 1933 only,
7.3 percent American Workmen were organized in unions while by 1938
the proportion had increased to 21.9 pe rcent in 1935 a group of trade
union leaders led by John Levis seceded from the American Federation of
Labour to set up the committee of Industrial Organization to organize
unskilled workers in mass industry. They were remarkably successful. By
1938 the Co mmittee of Industrial organization had almost four million
members which was about the same number of members as the American
Federation of Labour. In 1937 it won strikes against two of the biggest
American Corporations General Motors and United States Ste el although
it failed against another group of steel companies like Republic steel,
Bethlehem steel and other companies. This strike was marked by blood
shed when police killed eleven strikers in the Memorial Day Massacres at
Chicago. The strike ended in a defeat but the National Labour Relations
board, in a decision subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court, ordered
these companies to accept collective bargaining. In 1936 and 1937
automobile workers went on strike in which instead of merely pirating
they ad opted a new technique and occupied factories. But these sit in
strikes seemed to conservatives as alarming violation of private property
rights and was finally declared illegal by the Supreme Court in 1939.
In seeking benefits for their members unions some times flouted national
interests, and some of them sought to safe guard jobs by blocking
technological progress. But the fundamental reason for the growth of the
unions was the conviction of the workers that they could not obtain their
just rights without unions. Henceforth the unions played an important role
in American economic, social and political life. Union leaders like
Hillman, Dubinsky, Philip Murray, George Meaney and Walter Reuther
ranked among the most influential national figures. In 1955 AFL – CIO
were united in one federation claiming membership of about sixteen
million workers.
5.4.7 Tennessee Valley Authority:
During the First World War the government had built a dam across the
Tennessee River of Muscle Shoals to generate power. Later Senat or Norris
of Nebraska had got though the Congress Bills which would have enabled
the Federal government to use the Muscle Shoals dam for the benefit of
the residents of the Tennessee valley. But both these bills were vetoed by
President Coolidge and Hoover . In 1933 the Tennessee Valley Authority
was created. Through this authority the government undertook a great
experiment in planning the Welfare of the whole Tennessee Valley, an
area of 41,000 sq. miles, covering large parts of seven states. It was the
largest planned area outside the Soviet Russia. The T.V.A was to build
and operate dams along the river and sell power, manufacture fertilizer,
carry out flood control and conservations operations and promote
economic and social welfare of the communities li ving in the valley. By
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New Deal
53 about marked improvements in the standards of living throughout the
valley. It sought voluntary cooperation for all its activities, working
directly with local farm ers and businessmen, avoiding remote control from
Washington and kept clear of politics.
5.4.8 Conservation:
Apart from the Tennessee Valley Authority the New Deal spent a lot of
money in other ways to promote conservation. A series of natural disasters
had now forced a general realization that unless the United States adopted
a new attitude towards her natural resources she could not survive as a
great power for long. With the cutting of forests and loss of top soil rain
water, instead of remaining in the soil, flowed down into the river valleys
producing floods in Ohio, the Mississippi and other rivers wind erosion
created a dust bowl in part of Kansas and Oklahoma states and left it
almost a desert. David Lilienthal, one of the Tennessee Valley Authority
directors said, “For the first time since the trees fell to the settler’s axe,
America set out to command nature, not by defying her, as in that wasteful
part but by understanding and acting upon her first law, the oneness of
man and nature”.
A soil conse rvation service was set up in 1934. It persuaded farmed
farmers to adopt terraced farming and other conservation practices. The
government added extensively to its forest reserves and restricted the
grazing of cattle on public land. Much of the money spent on relief and
public works was used for conservation.
5.4.9 Other Details:
The Home Owner’s Loan Corporation set up by President Hoover, greatly
extended its work and helped to save the homes of many Americans from
being sold because of non -payment of l oan and mortgages.
The Federal Housing Authority (1937) encouraged clearing of slums and
building of flats and houses at low rents, by lending money to cities and
countries.
A National Electricity Scheme was established in 1938. The National
Resources Boar d (1934) made a survey of the natural wealth of the
country.
The government levied higher taxes on the incomes of the rich. An excess
profit tax was levied in 1939. In 1939 Roosevelt attempted to tackle the
trusts by anti -trust laws. Cordell Hull, secretar y of state made a series of
trade agreements with foreign countries to improve foreign trade and by
reducing tariffs in a reciprocal manner.
5.5 ROOSEVELT AND THE SU PREME COURT
Roosevelt began his second term by calling for a reform of the judiciary.
Supre me Court had been opposing the New Deal for two years. Of the
nine judges of the Supreme Court four were extreme conservatives, they
interpreted the constitution to give maximum protection to property rights
in accordance with the precedents established in the 1880’s. These were
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54 for freedom of speech. Chales Evans Hughes who succeeded Justice
Robert Taft as Chief Justice in 1930, inclined more to the liberal side
while Roberts stood in the middle. In practice what the government could
do seemed to depend upon the wavering opinion of Roberts. Between
1933 -1936 the Supreme Court ruled that many measures of the New Deal
were unconstitutional. The most important decision condemned the
Natio nal Industrial Reconstruction Act (1935) and the Agricultural
Adjustment Act (1936). The Supreme Court decided unanimously against
the National Industrial Reconstruction Act while most of the others were
by a majority of five versus four only. The older an d more conservative
judges of the Supreme Court were holding up the New Deal. This also
meant that as long as Robert’s voted with the conservatives, neither the
Federal nor the states could regulate wages and hours.
Roosevelt proposed that when a judge pas sed the age of seventy without
retiring, the President should be allowed to appoint an extra judge to assist
him. Since six judges of the Supreme Court were over seventy this meant
that number of judges of the Supreme Court would be raised to fifteen.
Roos evelt’s Court packing plan aroused the most intense opposition which
was not restricted to the conservatives alone. Many progressives felt that it
would undermine the independence of the judiciary; they wanted a more
strength forward way of doing this, for example, by amending the
constitution. A long and bitter fight followed in the Congress. While it was
in progress Roberts changed his mind and validated the Washington
minimum wage law; the Supreme Court also accepted the Wagner and
Social Security Acts. With resignation of the conservative judges
Roosevelt was able to appoint Hugo Black to Supreme Court. These
developments made reform of the Supreme Court unnecessary. For the
first time Roosevelt had accepted defeat. Yet in the end Roosevelt got his
objec tives. During his second and third term he was able to appoint eight
judges to the Supreme Court. The judiciary now became a strong hold of
liberalism.
Roosevelt’s quarrel with the Supreme Court at the beginning of his second
term was a land mark in the hi story of the New Deal. Much of the
opposition to him centered on one point – the extent of government
control which the New Deal involved.
5.6 RESULTS OF THE NEW D EAL
In its primary objective, the revival of full employment and production
New Deal had obv iously failed. Even in 1937 7.5 million Americans were
unemployed and the national debt had reached only 77.8 billion dollars as
compared to the 1932 figure of 82 billion dollars approximately. While the
consumer goods industries had recovered there was li ttle new investment.
The function of putting the savings of the community back into
circulation, which had been formerly performed by private investors, now,
seemed to have been taken over by the government. When the government
cut down its own spending in 1937 there was an immediate recession.
The opponents of the New Deal argued that by attacking private
enterprise, imposing bureaucratic regulations, increasing the national debt
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55 of uncertainty in which expansion of business was impossible.
Progressives argued that the New Deal had failed because it had not done
enough. They called for a more drastic redistribution of income in order to
increase the purchasing power of the masses. The y also argued that a
falling off a private investment was inevitable in a mature economy.
5.7 SUMMARY
To describe the New Deal as revolutionary would be an exaggeration.
There was no change in the ownership and control of the basic economic
enterprise. In fact, the big corporations had become even bigger in the
1940’s than they had been in the 1920’s. The New Deal had made two
changes in the economic system.
1. It had given protection to wage earners and farmers and thereby had
built up agriculture and big labour as checks on the power of bid
business.
2. It had given the Federal government much broader responsibilities than
in the part for regulating the movements of economy, providing
security and protecting under privileged groups.
To sum up although Ne w Deal did not restore prosperity it introduced a
new spirit in the public affairs. By its forward looking and adventurous
attitude it restored the American morale. By insisting that the government
must find work for starving men it changed despair into ho pe. And
through its public works programme it added immensely to the national
wealth. More satisfying achievements of the New Deal were not its direct
attempts to promote recovery but some of its peripheral activities such as
the Tennessee Valley Authority , dams built in the western states, rural
electrification, promotion of soil conservation and many cultural projects
sponsored by the New Deal.
5.8 QUESTIONS
1) What is New Deal? How and to what extent did it fight with the great
depression?
2) Discuss the var ious aspects of the New Deal.
5.9 SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Parker, Henry Bamford. The United States of America a history,
Scientific Book Agency. Calcutta 1.
2. Hill, C.P. A history of the United States. Arnold – Heinemann India


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56 6

STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE :
A. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
B. WOMEN’S LIBERATIO N MOVEMENT
C. AMERICAN WORKERS AND UNION
Unit Structure:
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Negroes in America
6.3 Negroes in the Twentieth Century
6.4 Martin Luther King
6.5 Rights for Women
6.6 The 19 th Amendment to the Constitution
6.7 Trade Unions
6.8 Beginning of Labour Unions
6.9 Summary
6.10 Questions
6.11 Suggested Readings
6.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To study the conditions of Negroes in the 20 th century.
2) To understand the role of Martin Luther King in Negro Movement.
3) To comprehend the rights of women in American Society.
4) To explain the beginning of trade unions in America.
6.1 INTRODUCTION
American Negroes or African -Americans as they are known thes e days,
women and workers had to undertake a long struggle to secure their
rightful place in society. Some of their demands were met but they still
continue to face some injustices. Their struggle still goes on. munotes.in

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Struggle for justice:
A. The Civil Rights Movement
B. Women’s Liberation Ovement
C. American Workers and Union
57 Conflict is to be expected whenever there i s a marked discrepancy
between the values of a society and its actual practices. The most obvious
examples of such a conflict in American Society is related to the value of
equality. The traditional American belief was that all men are created
equal and we re entitled to equal opportunities for developing their talents
and achieving success. However, in actual practice equality of opportunity
was a myth rather than a reality, since it was restricted by distinctions of
both class and race. Although Negroes ha d been brought into America
during the Colonial period they were never permitted to move up the
social ladder or become fully integrated into the American Community.
A. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT:
6.2 NEGROES IN AMERICA
At the beginning of the twentieth c entury 90 percent of Negroes still lived
in the Southern States and more than 75 percent of them were engaged in
agriculture. A policy of segregation was enforced by law with reference to
them. Jim Crow rules or a policy of segregating them or discriminati ng
against them in public places, vehicles and employment was followed.
Negroes went to different schools. Theoretically educational and other
facilities provided for both the white and the Negro people were supposed
to be equal, but in practice those allo tted to the Negroes were inferior. For
example, even in 1930 the southern states were spending 45.63 dollars on
public education of each white child and only 14.95 dollars on the public
education of each Negro child. In the northern state’s segregation was not
followed officially, but it was enforced in practice by popular pressure,
especially in housing and access to jobs. Severely restricted in their
employment and educational opportunities, Negroes suffered from great
economic handicaps. In addition to t he material problems of poverty they
were also burdened by the difficult problem of emotional adjustment to a
society in which they were branded inferior to the white people.
6.3 NEGROES IN THE TWENT IETH CENTURY
The twentieth century saw a considerable im provement in the position of
the Negro people. They moved in large numbers from south to the north
and from farms to cities; especially during the two world wars. Although
they were confined to congested slum areas, the migration brought some
gains in livi ng standards and cultural levels. By 1950 more than half of
them were living in cities and more than one third of them were outside
the south. New job opportunities in industry and transportation became
available to them; educational facilities steadily ex panded, and illiteracy
dropped from 30 percent in 1910 to 8 percent in 1940. A considerable
Negro professional and professional class emerged and a few gifted
individuals achieved national fame in athletics, entertainment and the arts.
Some Negro leaders, with support from white sympathizers formed
organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People fight for the rights granted to them by the constitution.
After the Second World War a sizeable conscience about colour
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58 discrimination at home, her claim to be the champion of freedom abroad
would be regarded in other countries as hypocritical. A large number of
Negroes in the northern states abandoned their tr aditional Republicanism
and turned to any party which was likely to give them concrete assistance.
In 1941 President Roosevelt set up a Fair Employment Practices
Committee to end discrimination in industries on government contracts.
Some northern states l ater passed legislation to promote the same
objective. During the 1940’s a series of Supreme Court decisions affirmed
the right of Negroes in the South to vote in primary elections, sit on juries
and to secure admission to white educational institutions wh ere the
facilities allotted to Negroes were plainly inadequate. A Negro became
general in the army; Dr. Ralf Bunche became the director of the
Department of Trusteeship in the United Nations, many Negro became
College teachers, Negroes were admitted to pro fessional football in 1948 –
Jackie Robinson, a Negro baseball player, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers
baseball team. More than one million Negroes voted in the elections of
1952 and 1956.
During the 1950’s Negro leaders, with the support of the judicial and
executive branches of the Federal government made bolder moves to
secure their civil rights and there were some orderly and well -organized
protests against discrimination. Negroes in Montgomery, Alabama, carried
out a lengthy boycott of the local bus system . In April 1956 the Supreme
Court affirmed that enforced segregation on all public transport was
constitutional. The main storm center was the segregation in public
schools. In May 1954 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that
segregation in schools was a violation of the legal equality guaranteed by
the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The court also recognized that
desegregation would be a long and painful process but a beginning in that
direction had to be made in that direction. During the next 4 yea rs
segregation was ended only in the District of Columbia schools. In
September 1957 the Federal government was obliged to intervene to
secure the right of the Negro students to attend the high school in Little
Rocks, Arkansas. In 1957 Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill to protect
the Negroe’s right to vote. In 1964 -65 the Johnson administration passed
two more bills providing almost complete Federal protection for Negro
rights.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s there was a sharp increase in the Negro
militancy. The militants wanted to be treated as equals of the white
peoples. They realized that this would not happen unless they engage
active agitation. They turned to organized protests, sought legal action to
stop discrimination and publicized their grievances b y marches and
demonstrations.
6.4 MARTIN LUTHER KING
Born in 1929 Martin Luther was a Baptist minister who played a very
important role in the Civil Rights movement. He took keen interest in the
Gandhian philosophy of non -violence and Satyagraha. In 1954 the munotes.in

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A. The Civil Rights Movement
B. Women’s Liberation Ovement
C. American Workers and Union
59 Supreme Court in Brown VS Board of Education laid down that all
segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. However, white people
resorted to violence to keep Negro students out of the white schools. In
1955 -56 he organized a 381 day boycott of public transport system in
Montgomery, Alabama. It was a milestone in the Civil Rights Movement
which forced the city to administration to desegregate all its public
transport system. In 1963 he led a mass rally of 1,50,000 Negroes into
Washington. It cre ated a profound effect on the Civil Rights Movement. In
1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was shot dead on 4th
April 1968 at Memphis.
In the mid -sixties a new group of militants took over the control of the
Negro organizations and began to advo cate militant action. They believed
that only Negroes could win rights for Negroes. Stokely Carmichael,
Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Committee and Floyd McKissick,
Chairman of the Congress for Racial Equality were typical spokesmen of
this new attitu de. They urged Negroes to preserve their ethnic and cultural
identity and not to shrink from violent action. Black Power was their
favorite slogan.
In 1965 mass misery and deprivation of Negro slums explode into a series
of violent riots. These riots were not planned or organized; they were
spontaneous expressions of a mass anger against a civilization which had
failed to provide its Negro members with the means of decent living.
These riots quickly spread. In 1966 and 1967 there were riots in 38 and 70
different cities. In April 1968 the assassination of Martin Luther King
sparked another series of riots.
6.4.1 Check Your Progress:
1) Where did the Negroes live in the beginning of 20 th century?
2) Who was the prominent leader of the Negroes ?
B. WOMEN’S LIBERATIO N MOVEMENT:
6.5 RIGHTS FOR WOMEN
The European family had been patriarchal, characterized by the rule of the
father over his wife and children. Wives had been denied the power to
own property and deprived of other basic rights. Early American laws
regulatin g family relationships were copied from those of England, but
American mores soon began to diverge. The power of the father decreased
while women and children acquired greater independence. The change in
the status was probably due initially to frontier co nditions. In new country
women had to share equally the labours and dangers of pioneering and
could no longer remain in the sheltered and submission position of their
European cousins. In the west Americans generally admired those women
who were capable of looking after themselves. Women began to win few
legal rights from state governments in the early 19th century but they had
to fight a long battle before they could acquire economic and political
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60 Women played a prominent role in the various ref orm movements.
Although American women had few legal rights and no political rights
they began to assert their convictions about social evils with greater vigor.
Mrs. Lucretia Molts and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton held a convention at
New York in 1848. The convention adopted a Declaration of Sentiments
listing 18 grievances against male tyranny. From this time women like
Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Suzan B. Anthony worked tirelessly for equality
among sexes. Often, they had to face ridicule and abuse. Although wo men
did not get the right to vote until the 20th century a number of states
passed improving legal position of women before the Civil war, they came
to control their property after marriage.
Mean while a number of women were disproving the notion of femini ne
inferiority by becoming highly educated and pursuing professional
careers. Emma Willard, Catherine Beecher, Mary Lyon did pioneer work
in establishing academies for girls. Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria child and
Sarah Josepha Hale were successful journal ists and magazine editors. In
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first fully qualified woman doctor.
In 1853 Antoinette Brown was ordained a minister.
6.6 THE 19TH AMENDME NT TO THE CONSTITUTI ON
The women’s movement initiated before the Civil war became m ore
vigorous after 1880 i.e. when National American Suffrage Association
was founded. Carry Chapman Calt and Anna Howard Shaw were its
principle leaders. During the progressive period an increasing number of
women campaigned actively for social reforms and most of them
demanded political rights.
Four Western states Colorado, Wyoming, Haho and Utah granted women
the right to vote before 1900. By 1914, eight more states, all of them west
of Mississippi followed their example. In 1916 Jeanette Rankin of
Montan a was elected to the Congress. In 1920 the 19th Amendment to the
constitution granted women the right to vote.
6.6.1 New Attitude to Sex:
During 1920’s women began to repudiate some of the restrictions imposed
upon them during earlier periods, so that the line between the respectable
and the immoral woman was no longer drawn so sharply. Girls asserted
their right to smoke in public, began to discuss subjects hitherto taboos
and wore fewer clothes. According to an estimate in 1913 it took 191/4
yards of clo th to for a woman’s dress, in 1928 only 7 yards were required.
Extra marital relations were no longer considered sinful and sexual
inhibitions were regarded as positively harmful. Alfred C. Kinsey of the
Indiana University explored the prevalence of these new attitudes; the
possibility of making such a study was itself a demonstration of changed
values.
There was an alarming increase in divorce rate. From 0.7 for every
thousand people in 1900 it went up to 2.6 in 1949. When hasty war time
marriages were dis solved it went up to 4.3. Thus, during the 1940’s one of munotes.in

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A. The Civil Rights Movement
B. Women’s Liberation Ovement
C. American Workers and Union
61 four marriages was ending in divorce. Fall of birth rate was another
consequence because of the growing use of contraceptives. Rural and
working -class families continued to have large number of child ren. In
1921 Margaret Sanger founded the first Birth Control League. She also led
the campaign for free birth control clinics. By 1950 there were eight
hundred such clinics. Birth rate was much higher among poorer classes
than among the professional classe s. This was a cause of concern.
Check Your Progress:
1) What kind of family Europeans followed?
2) What was the divorce rate in 1900 in America?
C. AMERICAN WORKERS AND UNION:
6.7 TRADE UNIONS
Up to 1830’s native farm population, including women and children w as
the main source of Labour. Small children were employed in the first
textile factories. The Boston Manufacturing Company set out to attract
young women. For this purpose, it built boarding houses, carefully
supervised the morals of their employees, enco uraged them to cultivate
their cultural interests, insisted upon regular Church attendance and black
listed anyone who broke these rules. This was known as the Waltham
System. In 1831, four -fifths of New England textile factory workers were
women. In the 1 830’s immigrants from Ireland came in large numbers,
they began to replace native labour in New England. Soon thereafter the
textile industry was in difficulties; wages were reduced and production
process was speeded up. The Waltham System was no longer at tractive.
Girls stopped working in these textile factories and Irish workers took
their places.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution there was no large permanent working
class in the United States. As the factory system expanded urban areas
sprang up in whic h workers were housed in crowded slums without any
health care or other amenities. Life there was much harsher than on the
farms, even though the wages were high. Throughout the nineteenth
century it was assumed that nothing could be done to regulate busin ess
cycle or mitigate its consequences. Consequently, there was no job
security for workers.
Earliest trade unions were formed not among factory workers but among
skilled craftsmen like shoemakers – than known as Corduiners – Latter’s,
carpenters, masons and printers. Many of these men were earlier
independent but were now becoming employees of merchant capitalists.
When their economic conditions deteriorated they were encouraged to
organize. This was something unskilled workers were not able to do.
Labour organizations appeared in Philadelphia before the end of the
eighteenth century. In 1799 shoe makers went on strike in order to get
higher wages. But early trade unions were short -lived; they were formed munotes.in

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62 in response to specific grievances and dissolved as soon as the grievances
were addressed.
During 1828 -1837 there was a rapid growth of labour organizations. The
Philadelphia craftsmen set up a central organization known as Mechanics
Central Association. Similar organizations were formed in 13 other cities .
In 1834 delegates from 6 of these cities held a convention to form a
National Trade Union. Between 1833 -37 there were 175 strikes. At first
there were regarded as illegal by law courts. In 1842 in the case of
Common Wealth VS Hunt Massachusetts courts fu lly recognized worker’s
right to organize. This epoch -making decision was followed by courts in
other states.
The main demand of the trade unions of the 1830’s was the 10 -hour day.
Originating with the carpenters of Boston the movement assumed national
preparations by 1935 and was the objective of a large number of strikes.
Among the skilled craftsmen it had considerable success. Apart from the
10-hour day the labour organizations were interested in a number of
reforms not directly connected with working co nditions. They advocated
removal of property qualifications for voting, and other extensions of
democracy establishment of free universal education and the abolition of
imprisonment for debt.
6.8 BEGINNING OF LABOUR UNIONS
Prior to the twentieth century u nionism did not make headway except in
those occupations which required skilled craftsmen. Such workers enjoyed
a strong bargaining position because they could not be easily replaced. A
number of craft unions were formed before the Civil war, but the first
attempt to combine them into a united labour movement failed because
their objectives were too ambitious and too vague. In 1865 William
Sylvi’s organized a National Labour union which claimed a membership
of 6, 00,000 by 1868, but it wasted its energies by advocating various
political reforms, by 1872 it almost disappeared. In 1869 a Philadelphia
Garment Cutter Urea Stephens founded the Knights of Labour but it also
displayed a similar lack of realism. The organization admitted almost to its
membership, i t hoped to achieve its purpose by organizing cooperatives
and through legislation rather than by conflict with the employers. Terence
Powderly was a machinist from Pennsylvania; in 1879 he took over its
leadership after which it grew rapidly. By 1886 it ha d a membership of
700,000 workers. But Powderly and his associates did not know how to
organize and guide these workers with the result that by 1900 it had
almost disappeared.
In 1881 Samuel Gompers, a cigar maker in New York, launched a pure
and simple un ion movement aiming at immediate gains and refoundation
more ambitious and remote objectives. In 1886 it assumed a new name –
American Federation of Labour. It had a slow steady growth and by 1900
it had a membership of 5, 50,000. Gompers served as its Pre sident till his
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Struggle for justice:
A. The Civil Rights Movement
B. Women’s Liberation Ovement
C. American Workers and Union
63 This new type of unionism emphasized the value of strict discipline,
regular payment of Union dues, and centralized control under the
leadership of salaried officials. It also built up reserve funds with which to
finance stri kes and bay insurance benefits. Its main objective was to
establish collective bargaining and where ever possible, the closed shop;
that is to make union membership a prerequisite at particular jobs largely
as a result of Gompers political skill, shrewdnes s and force of character
the American Federation of labour won an influential place in American
society. A number of employers were compelled by strikes and other
methods to accept collective bargaining. But while the American
Federation of Labour brought higher wages and shorter hours for its
members, it did little to improve conditions for the vast majority of
American workers. The organization represented chiefly the labour
aristocracy of skilled craftsmen and made little headway in the basic mass -
produc tion industries.
6.8.1 Labour and Courts:
One of the main obstacles to the growth of the Unions was the attitude of
the law courts, which frequently showed a strong bias in favour of the
employers. They used injunctions a court order forbidding a certain action
like strikes and picketing. Those violating these injunctions were
convicted of the contempt of court.
6.8.2 Labour and New Deal:
New deal brought substantial gains to labour. The National Labour
Relations Act brought higher wages and shorter wo rking hours and greatly
encouraged union membership. In July 1935 Congress passed the Wagner
Act reaffirming the workers right to join unions, and bargain collectively.
In 1938 it passed the Fair Labour Standards Act which fixed minimum
wages and maximum h ours and prohibited child labour for all industries
engaged in industries engaged in interstate commerce.
Check Your Progress:
1) What was the force of labour in America in 1930s?
2) Who organized the Labour Union in 1865?
6.9 CONCLUSION
The New Deal legi slation supported the labour because of which there was
a significant rise in militant union movement. After the death of Gompers
in 1924 a group of militant union leaders set up the Committee for
Industrial Organization. Hence forth unions came to play an increasingly
important role in American economic, social and political life. In
December 1955 the American Federation of Labour and Committee for
Industrial Organization united in one federation which, in December 1955
claimed a membership of 16, 00,000 w orkers. It must also be said that
union leaders had often too much power, and sometimes used it corruptly.
Some units American Federation of Labour were led by racketeers; and munotes.in

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64 some units of Committee for Industrial Organization were led by
communists. In s eeking benefits for their members, union sometimes
flouted the national interest, and some of them sought to safeguard jobs by
blocking technological progress. But the fundamental reason for the
growth of unions was the conviction of the workers that they could not
otherwise obtain their just rights.
6.10 QUESTIONS
1. Elucidate the various stages in the struggle for justice of Women or
workers in the United States.
2. What is Civil Rights Movement? Explain the main stages in it.
6.11 SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Parker, Henry Bamford, the United States of America A History.
Scientific Book Agency, Calcutta 1.
2. Hill, C.P., A history of the United States.
Arnold - Heinemann India.

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65 7
MODERN AMERICA:
SOCIETY AND CULTURE, IMMIGRATION AND
ETHNICITY
Unit Structure:
7.0 Objectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Society
7.3 Culture
7.4 Immigration
7.5 Ethnicity
7.6 Summary
7.7 Questions
7.8 Suggested Readings
7.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To stud y the social and cultural transformation of America.
2) To understand the Immigration policies that America adopted.
3) To analyze American strategies to handle the multi -ethnic
immigrants.
7.1 INTRODUCTION
Having set herself on a strong footing in science a nd
technology; and Art and Literature, America plunged into
societal and cultural development. American society underwent
a transition in religion, education, equality, multi -culture,
immigration and ethnicity. In spite of being involved in the Cold
War America did not ignore her thrust areas of development.
She kept her politics away from her all -round development in
her mission to modernize herself. Thus did America enter into
the modern phase of her history.
7.2 SOCIETY
The American society after the World War II presented a
number of apparent paradoxes. On one hand, high standards of
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66 recreation, were more widely diffused among the American
people than ever before. While America had assu med leadership
of a large part of the human race and achieved an unprecedented
power and prestige, changing values and the tensions of modern
life produced a general sense of insecurity and some symptoms
of social disintegration. While American society in 1967 was far
from perfect, it was undoubtedly healthier than many of the
books written about it seemed to suggest. In spite of certain
shifts of value, the basic attitudes and institutions on American
society had built its distinctive character still retai ned their
vitality.
7.2.1 The Church:
In the early years of the 20 th Century religion was incompatible
with rational views of life and concepts of morality. Down to
the 1930’s the churches seemed to be losing influence with the
younger generation. But the anxieties generated by the economic
and political problems of the 1930’s and 1940 have strengthened
the plausibility of the doctrine of original sin. Numerous books
presenting religious answers to personal conflicts became
bestsellers and there was a rapid rise in the church membership.
By 1964 more than 123,317,000 Americans, slightly over one -
half of the total population of all ages, were affiliated to various
churches.
7.2.2 Protestantism:
Nearly two -thirds of Americans belonged to different Protestant
organizations, with the Methodists and various Baptist groups
far in the lead. In the 1930s New Deal programme of socio -
economic planning brought about a change in the religious
attitudes Theological controversies subsided and there was a
strong tendency t owards unification. Different groups of
Lutherans, Congregationalists, and the Methodists combined
into single organizations and in 1950 a majority of the
Protestant Churches in America came together to set up the
National Council of Churches in order to c oordinate their
educational and welfare activities.
There emerged two new trends in the American Protestantism,
the Neo -orthodoxy and the death of God movement. Neo -
orthodoxy, a reaction against the modern world’s optimism, was
an updating of the more pess imistic doctrines of Martin Luther
and John Calvin. The death of God movement held that in
Christianity God stopped being “transcendent” and became
world -bound, thus making it necessary to reexamine traditional
doctrines.

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67 7.2.3 Catholicism:
While the n umber of Catholic immigrants decreased the number
of the Catholic Churches increased tremendously. In 1910 there
were 16,000,000 Catholic Churches; by 1964 their number had
increased to 45,641,000. With the steady growth of its
educational and cultural in stitutions and its increasing influence
in city governments and in the trade union movement, it was an
important factor in the American Society. Between 1940 and
1964 the number of Catholic elementary and high school
students increased from 2,400,000 to mo re than 6,000,000.
There were 300 institutions of higher learning 2,500 secondary
schools and 10,000 elementary schools with 200,000 teachers.
The most significant new movement in Catholicism was
Ecumenism, taking the form of a worldwide inter -religious
dialogue. Emerging slowly in the 20 thCentury, it was greatly
expanded in the 1960’s by Pope John XXIII’s encyclicals, the
First and Second Vatican Councils, the Council’s Constitution
on the Church and the Decree on Ecumenism. The Declaration of
Ecumenism ab jured Catholics to take the initiative in Catholic –
Jewish understanding, and in Catholic –Protestant and Orthodoxy
affairs.
The Catholics and non –Catholics differed on two main issues.
First, non –Catholics objected to the church’s -imposed stand on
birth con trol, divorce, books, plays, TV and movies. Second, it
was held in accord with the federal constitution that public
money should not be used to transport parochial students or
otherwise support parochial institutions.
Towards the close of the 20th Century a large group of
fundamentalist Christians, who regarded the Bible as the direct
word of God, were particularly concerned about an increase in
crime and sexual immorality. A Baptist minister, Jerry Falwell,
led one of the most politically effective groups in the early
1980s, called the Moral Majority. Another group led by Pat
Robertson, built an organization called the Christian Coalition,
which by the 1990’s was a potent force in the Republican Party.
Like many such groups, they wanted religion to occupy a central
place in American life. Television evangelists like Falwell and
Robertson developed huge followings.
7.2.5 Problems of Equality:
Class structure of 20th Century American Society was the
subject of a number of sociological analyses which showed t hat
it had become more complex and more rigid than had generally
been recognized. The most obvious differentiating line in urban
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68 formed an intermediate class, while a number of different grades
could be distinguished within the business class. Although the
differences in living standards between the upper class and
working -class families were markedly less than in earlier
periods, the lines between them were not easy to cross. Children
born into wealthy families had great initial advantages and
access to educational and professional opportunities not open to
children born in poor families. Most business executives were
the sons of the e xecutives while sons of workers became
workers.
A much sharper deviation from the professed American ideal of
equality was represented by the emphasis on distinctions of race
and national origin. Many of these proved to be transitory; each
new immigrant gr oup in turn encountered initial hostility, but
was usually well on the way to assimilation after one or two
generations. At the beginning of the 20 th Century 90 percent of
the Negroes (African -Americans as they are called today) still
lived in the South, a nd more than three -quarters of them were
engaged in agriculture. With a few exceptions, they were not
permitted to vote or sit on juries, and law enforced a policy of
segregation. Negroes in the South went to different schools, and
were kept apart from the W h i t e p e o p l e b y J i m C r o w r u l e s .
Theoretically, the educational and other facilities provided for
the two races were supposed to be equal, but in practice those
allotted to the Negroes were far inferior.
The twentieth century saw a considerable improvement i n t h e
position of the Negroes. They moved in large numbers from the
farms to the cities. By 1950 more than half of them were living
in cities and more than a third of them were outside the South.
In spite of opposition from some white trade unions, new j ob
opportunities in industry and transportation became available.
Educational facilities steadily expanded with a drop in the rate
of Negro illiteracy. Gains became rapid during and after the
World War II. People in large number could feel that as long as
the United States practiced discrimination at home, her claim to
be the champion of freedom abroad would be regarded in other
countries as blatantly hypocritical.
During the 1950’s the Negro leaders, assured of support from
the judicial and executive branc hes of the federal government,
made bolder moves to secure their civil rights, and there were
some impressively orderly well -organised protests against
discrimination. Under the Johnson administration two more bills
were passed in 1964 and 1965, providing almost complete
federal protection for the Negro rights. Equality of opportunity
remained also the basic criteria in social sphere till the close of
the 20th Century.
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69 7.2.6 A Society in Transition:
Shifts in the structure of the American society became a pparent
in 1980s. The composition of the population and the most
important jobs and skills in the American Society underwent
changes. The dominance of service jobs in the economy became
undeniable. By the mid -1980s, capping a trend under way for
more than half a century, three -fourths of all employees worked
in the service sector such as retail clerks, office workers,
teachers, physicians and other health care professionals,
government employees, lawyers, and legal and financial
specialists.
Service –sector activity benefited from the availability and
increasing use of the computer. This was the age of Information
Technology, (IT), that could collect and store enormous amount
of data about economic and social trends. In 1970s two young
Californian entrepreneu rs, working out of a garage, assembled
the first widely marketed computer for home use, named it the
Apple – and ignited a revolution. By the early 1980s, millions of
computers had found their way into the America business and
homes.
Population patterns shi fted as well. After the end of the post war
“baby boom”, which lasted from approximately 1946 to 1964,
the overall rate of population growth declined and the
population grew older. Household composition also changed. In
1980 the percentage of family househ olds dropped; a quarter of
all groups were now classified as “non -family households”, in
which two or more unrelated persons lived together. New
immigrants changed the character of the American society in
other ways. The 1965 reform in immigration policy s hifted the
focus away from the Western Europe, and the number of new
arrivals from Asia and Latin America increased dramatically. In
1980, 808,000 immigrants arrived, the highest number in 60
years, as the country once more became a heaven for people
from around the world.
In the 1980s additional groups became active participants in the
struggle for equal opportunity. Homosexuals, using many of the
tactics of the Civil Rights movement, sought the same freedom
from discrimination that another group claimed. Often pressure
brought results. In 1975, for example, the American Civil
Service Commission lifted its ban on employment of
homosexuals, and many States enacted anti -discrimination laws.
Inevitably, a backlash occurred, and incidents of hostility
towards h omosexuals surfaced as well.
Then in 1981, came the discovery of AIDS (Acquired Immuno
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70 and in America although it affected gay and l e s b i a n s , t h e
general population proved vulnerable as well. By 1992 more
than 150,000 Americans had died of AIDS, with estimates of
those carrying the AIDS virus ranging from 300,000 to more
than one million. But the AIDS epidemic was by no means
limited to America, and the effort to treat the disease
encompassed physicians and medical researchers throughout the
world. One of their earliest successes largely the result of the
joint American and French research, was to isolate the AIDS
virus and develop tes ts to ensure protection of the blood supply.
Check Your Progress:
1) What is Neo -Orthodoxy in American Protestantism?
2) What is Baby Boom in America?
7.3 CULTURE
The culture that endures in America, as in any country, is made
not by vast impersonal forces but by uniquely talented men and
women; and many of the most gifted artists in America, as
elsewhere, have chosen to make their art far from the shared
realities of daily life. Some Americans expressed their
discontent with the character of modern life in the 1920’s by
focusing in family and religion, as an increasingly urban,
secular society came into conflict with older rural traditions.
The fundamentalist preachers such as Billy Sunday, for example,
a professional baseball player turned evangelist and provid ed an
outlet for many who yearned for a return to a simpler past.
Perhaps the most dramatic demonstration of this yearning was
the fundamentalist crusade, which pitted the biblical
interpretation against the Darwinian Science of biological
evolution. In th e 1920s, bills to prohibit the teaching of
evolution began appearing in the mid -Western and Southern
State Legislatures. The issue came to a climax in 1925 in
Tennessee, when the American Civil Liberties Union challenged
the nation’s first anti -evolution l and. A young high school
teacher, John Scopes went on trial for teaching evolution in a
biology class. He was convicted but released on a technicality.
Prohibition stood one more example of clash of cultures when an
Act prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of
alcoholic beverages. Prohibition, although intended to eliminate
the saloon and the drunkard from the American society, served
to create thousands of illegal drinking places called
“Speakeasies”. In 1933 Prohibition had to be repealed.
The common thread linking such disparate phenomenon as the
resurgence of fundamentalist religion and Prohibition was a
reaction to the social and intellectual revolution of the time -
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71 Roaring ‘20s . Many were shocked by the changes in the
manners, morals and fashion of the American youth, especially
on the college campuses. H. L. Mencken, a journalist and critic
who was unsparing in denouncing sham and venality in
American life, became a hero. F. S cott Fitzgerald captured the
energy, turmoil and disillusion of the decade in his short stories
and novels such as “The Great Gatsby”.
Fitzgerald was a part of a small but influential movement of
writers and intellectuals dubbed the “Lost Generation”, who
were shocked by the carnage of World War I and who were
dissatisfied with what they perceived to be the materialism and
spiritual emptiness of life in America. At the same time, an
African –American literary and artistic movement, termed the
“Harlem Renaiss ance” emerged which rejected the middle – class
values and conventional literary forms, even as they addressed
the realities of the American life.
During the 1950’s, a sense of uniformity pervaded the American
society. Conformity was common, as young and ol d alike
followed group norms rather than striking out on their own.
Though men and women had been forced into new employment
patterns during World War II, once the war was over, traditional
roles were re -affirmed. Men expected to be the breadwinners;
women , even when they worked, assumed that their proper place
was at home. Television contributed to the homogenizing trend
by providing young and old with a shared experience reflecting
accepted social patterns.
But not all Americans conformed to such cultural n o r m s . A
number of writers, members of the so -called “beat generation”,
rebelled against conventional values. Stressing spontaneity and
spirituality, they asserted intuition over reason, Eastern
mysticism over Western institutionalized religion. The “beat s”
went out of their way to challenge the patterns of respectability
and shock the rest of the culture. Their literary work displayed
their sense of freedom. Jack Kerouac typed his best - s e l l i n g
novel “On the Road” on a 75 -metre roll of paper. Lacking
acce pted punctuation and paragraph structure, the book glorified
the possibilities of the free life.
Musicians and artists rebelled as well. Tennessee singer Elvis
Presley popularized black music in the form of “Rock and Roll”,
and shocked more staid Americans with his ducktail haircut and
undulating hips. Moreover, Elvis and other rock and roll singers
demonstrated that there was a white audience for black music,
thus testifying to the increasing integration of the American
culture. Painters like Jackson Pollo ck discarded easels and laid
out gigantic canvases on the floor, then applied paint, sand and
other materials in wild splashes of colour, which symbolized the
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72 The 1970’s and 1980’s witnessed the vi sible signs of the counter
culture. Men grew long hair and beards became common. Blue
jeans and tee shirts took the place of slacks, jackets and ties.
The use of illegal drugs increased in an effort to free the mind
from past constraints. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other
British groups took the country by storm. “Hard -rock” grew
popular, and songs with a political or social commentary, such
as those by the singer -song writer Bob Dylan, became common.
The Civil Rights Movement of the mid -1960s also catalyzed the
counter -culture in the American society.
7.4 IMMIGRATION
No country’s history has been more closely bound to
immigration than that of America. During the first fifteen years
of the 20th Century alone, over 13 million people came to the
shore s of America. Many passed through Ellis Island, the federal
immigration center that opened in New York Harbour in 1892.
Though no longer in service, Ellis Island reopened in 1992 as a
monument to the millions who crossed America’s threshold
there.
The firs t official census in 1790 numbered Americans at
3,929,214. Approximately half of the population of the original
13 states was of English origin; the rest were Scots -Irish,
German, Dutch, French, Swedish, Welsh and Finnish who were
mostly Protestants. A fif th of the population was enslaved
African Negroes. From early on, Americans viewed immigrants
as a cheap source of labour. As a result, few official restrictions
were placed upon immigration into America until the 1920s. As
more and more immigrants arrived , however, some Americans
became fearful that their culture was threatened. The Founding
Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, were ambivalent over
whether or not America ought to welcome arrivals from every
corner of the globe. The author of America’s Dec laration of
Independence, Jefferson wondered whether democracy could
ever rest safely in the hands of men from countries that revered
monarchs or replaced royalty with mob rule. However, few
supported closing the gates to new –comers in a country
desperatel y short of labour.
Immigration lagged in the late 18th and 19th Centuries as wars
disrupted trans -Atlantic travel and European governments
restricted immigration to retain young men of military age. After
1750 the European mortality rates declined in respo nse to
improved medical care and sanitation. Food supplies increased
as crop rotation and systematic fertilization became standard.
Still, more people on the same land constructed the size of
farming lots to a point where families could barely survive.
Mor eover, cottage industries were falling victim to an Industrial
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73 artisans unwilling or unable to find jobs in factories were out of
work.
Between 1890 and 1921 almost 19 million people arrived in
Ameri ca. Most of these immigrants were from Italy, Russia,
Poland, Greece and the Balkans. The Non -Europeans came too
from Japan in the East, Canada in the North and Mexico in the
South. By the early 1920s an alliance was forged between the
wage -conscious organ ized labour and those who called for
restricted immigration on racial or religious grounds, such as the
Ku Klux Klan and the Immigration Restriction League. The
Johnson – R e e d I m m i g r a t i o n A c t o f 1 9 2 4 p e r m a n e n t ly c u r t a i l e d
the influx of new –comers with quota s calculated on the nation of
origin which was to characterize the national immigration policy
until 1968.
This quota system drastically reduced the flow of immigrants
from southeastern Europe and discriminated in favour of of
northwestern European countri es. Under this system Great
Britain, Ireland and Germany were allotted more than 70 percent
of the quota, an allotment that rarely was filled. The Great
Depression of the 1930s dramatically slowed immigration still
further. With public opinion generally op posed to immigration,
even for persecuted European minorities, relatively few refugees
found sanctuary in America after Adolf Hitler came to power in
1933. Throughout the post war decades America continued to
cling to nationally based quotas. The supporter s of the
McCarran –Walter Act of 1952 argued that quota relaxation
might inundate America with Marxist subversives from the
Eastern Europe.
The quota system was liberalized in December 1965, and in
1968 it was finally abolished in favour of a first –come, fi rst-
served policy. An annual ceiling of 170,000 immigrant visas for
nations outside the Western Hemisphere was established with
20,000 the maximum allowed to any nation. A ceiling of
120,000 was set for persons from the Western Hemisphere. In
1978 the hemi spheric quotas were replaced by a worldwide
ceiling of 290,000, a limit reduced to 270,000 after passage of
the Refugee Act of 1980. Since the mid -1970s, America has
experienced a fresh wave of immigration, with arrivals from
Asia and Latin America, in par ticular, transforming communities
throughout the country.
The more open attitude towards the newcomers has tended to
dissolve the older suspicion against refugees. Increasing
numbers have entered from repressive regimes in the Eastern
Europe, the Caribbean , Central and South America and Asia.
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74 Because immigrant and refugee quotas remain w e l l u n d e r
demand, however, illegal immigration is still a major problem.
A law in 1986 granted amnesty to many of those already in
America, regularized their status, and sought to prevent further
unauthorized immigration. Since the national – origins quot a had
lapsed in 1968 migration for family reunification was preferred,
the law favored the most recent immigrants and particularly the
Asians and diminished opportunities for the Europeans formerly
favored. The current estimates suggest a total annual arri val of
approximately 600,000 legal newcomers to the United States.
An old immigrant saying is that “America beckons, but
Americans repel”. As the current wave of immigration spills into
the American mainstream economically, politically and
culturally, the debate over immigration has sharpened. Deeply
ingrained in most Americans, however, is the conviction that the
Statue of Liberty does, indeed, stand as a symbol for America as
she lifts her lamp before the “golden door”, welcoming those,
“yearning to breat he free”. This belief, and the sure knowledge
that their fore -bearers were once immigrants, has kept America a
nation of nations
Check Your Progress:
1) Write briefly on American Culture.
2) What was the American population in 1790 Census?
7.5 ETHNICITY
Although t h e c u r r e n t u s a g e c o n f i n e s t h e t e r m “ e t h n i c ” t o t h e
descendants of the newest immigrants, its proper, more
comprehensive meaning applies to all groups unified by their
cultural heritage and by their experience in the New World.
More recently established e thnic groups have preserved greater
visibility and greater cohesion. Indeed, by the 1970s and 1980s,
“ethnic” had come to be used to describe the Americans of
Polish, Italian, Lithuanian, Bohemian, Slovakian and other
extraction, most of whom live in the n orthern and mid -western
cities. They tend to be middleclass Roman Catholics.
Most workers are either part of the blue – collar labour force or
holders of low -level white -collar jobs. The neighborhoods in
which many of them live have their roots in the “Lit tle Italys”
and “Polish Hills” established by the immigrants. Their strong
ethnic ties are apparent in the pattern of their lives: spouses,
friends, neighbours, fellow churchgoers, and even co -workers
often are also the Polish, Italian, or Slovakian. Their e t h n i c
group identity is not, however, merely a holdover from the era
of mass immigration. It is based not only upon a common
cultural heritage but also on the common interests, needs, and
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75 As the ethnics beco me more vocal, the public has become aware
of the problems and concerns of the urban ethnic minorities and
stopped dismissing them as merely “racist” or “uneducated”.
Ethnic groups have begun to be included in the planning and
administration of social welf are programmes of the government.
An ethnic identity is no longer looked upon as somehow un -
American and vaguely shameful. It has become legitimate to be
an “ethnic”.
7.5.1 The Blacks:
The Civil Rights Movement that gained momentum in the early
1960s awake ned the nation’s conscience to the plight of black
Americans, who had long been denied first class citizenship. By
the late 20 th Ce n tu ry , de s p i te g o ve r n me n t p o ve r ty pr og ra m m es
and equal opportunity laws that outlawed discrimination in
education, housing an d employment, blacks remained unequal
partners in the American society. Their income and education
are below those of whites, and their average rate of
unemployment is far greater. The black population still has
made spectacular progress. Their share of hi gher paying jobs,
their median income and their college enrolment have
dramatically increased.
The rise of militancy among the blacks to claim their rights in
the American society and culture was a great factor to be
reckoned with. The militants rejected t he American cultural
mainstream and spoke of black pride. They turned their attention
to developing black political organizations that would give them
a position of bargaining strength and political control over their
own communities. The older civil right s tradition, however,
remained vital, sustained by steadily widening access to
professional and business opportunities. In Chicago, Los
Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.,
the black mayors gained election with white support,
demons trating the openness of the political system; and
government programmes at all levels promised improvement of
the condition of the disadvantaged. Above all, the non -violent
message of the martyred Martin Luther King, Jr., retained its
attraction long after h i s de a t h. I n 1 98 8 a f o l l ow er of t he K i ng ,
Jesse Jackson, campaigned for the Presidential Electio ns on a
platform, which rejected separatism.
7.5.2 The Hispanics:
Persons with Spanish surnames make up more than 7 percent of
the U.S. population, but they h a r d l y f o r m a c o h e r e n t g r o u p .
Majority of them are of Mexican origin, some are descendants of
ancestors who had lived in areas were once part of Mexico, such
as Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California – o t h e r s , l e g a l
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76 Hispanics of Puerto Rican origins are similar to the Mexican –
Americans only in language. Puerto Ricans are citizens of the
United States who leave their overcrowded island for the
mainland in the hope of raising their conditio ns of life.
Migration for them is like the continuous process of movement
by which the Americans have always moved to where chances
seem best.
The example of black activism and growing self -confidence has
induced the Mexican -Americans and the Puerto Ricans t o d ra w
together to further group influence through politics and social
organization. They have lacked cohesion to form any large
nationwide associations, but rather have developed spontaneous
local groupings that fight for better health, housing and
muni cipal services, for bilingual school programmes and for
improved education for their children.
7.5.3 The Asian - Americans:
The Asian – A m e r i c a n s a s a g r o u p h a v e c o n f o u n d e d e a r l i e r
expectations that they would form an indigestible mass in the
society. The Chinese, earliest to arrive, and the Japanese were
the victims of racialism. 1924 Law barred further entries; those
already in America had been ineligible for citizenship since the
previous year. In 1942, thousands of Japanese, many of them
born in America a n d w e r e t h e r e f o r e A m e r i c a n c i t i z e n s w e r e
interned in relocation camps because their loyalty was doubted.
In the decades since World War II attitudes changed and the
anti–Asian prejudice has diminished. Asian – A m e r i c a n s a l o n g
with others like the Vietname se have adjusted and advanced
despite occasional local outbreaks of hostility.
7.5.4 The Indians:
The Native American Indians form an ethnic group only in a
very general sense. Actually, they encompass numerous tribes
that are widely separated in language , inherited cultures, and
experiences in adaptation. In the East, centuries of co -existence
with the dominant whites have led to some degree of
intermarriage and assimilation and to various patterns of stable
adjustment. In the West the hasty expansion of agricultural
settlement crowded the Indians into reservations, where federal
policy has vacillated between efforts at assimilation and the
desire to preserve tribal cultural identity, with unhappy
consequences. The Indian reservations are often enclaving o f
deep poverty and social distress. The median Indian family
income is far below the national average. The infant mortality
rate among the Indians is higher than the national figure, and the
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77 The physical and social isolation of the reservation has caused a
cultural hiatus that has left Indians unprepared educationally
and culturally to take part in the urbanized, technical America.
Poverty and frustration of life on the reservation h as prompted
many Indians to migrate to larger cities like Los Angeles and
Chicago. In such environments they often possess neither the
occupational skills nor the cultural background necessary to
sustain them, and social workers report a high percentage of
family disintegration, alcoholism and suicide among them. A
few activist Indian groups have begun to organize to call
attention to their condition and press for change through
political and legal means.
7.5.5 The Cuban Immigrants:
The Cubans and their ch ildren who fled Fidel Castro’s
revolution of 1959 are altogether a different ethnic group in the
American society. Although among them are representatives of
every social group, the Cubans are distinctive in the large
number of professional and middle -class people who migrated.
Despite being Spanish –speaking, their social and political
attitudes differ significantly from those of the Mexican –
Americans and Puerto Ricans.
Check your Progress:
1) What is “Speakeasies”?
2) Comment on Hispanics.
7.6 SUMMARY
The clo sing decades of the 20th Century brought fresh
challenges to the Americans at home and abroad. The only
constant was change. The Cold War came to an end. The
computer and telecommunications revolutions began to
transform both the economy and the way people l i v e d . N e w
waves of immigration made the American Society even more
diverse than in the past, producing what one commentator, has
called “the first universal nation”. Shifts in the structure of the
American society became apparent by the time the 1980s
arrived. The composition of the population and the most
important jobs and skills in the American society underwent
huge transformation too.
7.7 QUESTIONS
1. Enumerate the important characteristics of the American
society.
2. Bring out the multi religious, multi e thnic and multi -racial
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78 7.8 SUGGESTED READINGS
 Alan Brinkley, Unfinished Nations, 2 vols, McGraw – H i l l ,
1995.
 Bayer, The Oxford Companion to United States History, New
York, 2001.
 Beards, New Basic History of the United Sta tes, New York,
1960.
 Frederick L. Allen, The United States of America – A
History, (Indian Edition), Khosla Publishing House, New
Delhi, 1986.


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8
ART AND LITERATURE
Unit Structure:
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Art
8.3 Education
8.4 Literature
8.5 Summary
8.6 Questions
8.7 Suggested Readings
8.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To study the progress in art and Literature in American society.
2) To evalua te the cultural development in America.
8.1 INTRODUCTION
In American society there was progress in the society and culture of
expressionism, pop art, photography, dance, music, architecture etc. The
American society also, had some remarkable progress in e ducation in the
20th century and it continued till modern period. Apart from the society of
America and its art and education also witnessed progress in classical
literature.
8.2 AMERICAN ART
Perhaps the greatest and loudest event of American cultural l ife
after World War II was what the critic Irving Sandler has called
“the triumph of American painting” – the emergence of a new
form of art that allowed the American painting to become
dominant in the world. This dominance lasted for at least 40
years, fr om the birth of the so – called New York School or
Abstract Expressionism, around 1945 until at least the mid –
1980s, and took in many different kinds of art and artists.

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80 8.2.1 Abstract Expressionism:
This new painting seemed abstract, rarefied and constr ucted
from a series of negations, from saying “no” to everything
except the purest elements of painting. Abstract Expressionism
seemed to stand at the farthest possible remove from the
common life of American culture. This painting, in later years,
came un der a new and less austere scrutiny; and the art historian
Robert Rosenblum has argued that many of the elements of
Abstract Expressionism, for all of their apparent hermetic
distance from common experience, are inspired by the scale and
light of the Ameri can landscape and of 19 th Century landscape
painting.
A group of American painters, who throughout the 1950’s
continued the unparalleled dominance of American influence in
the visual arts, made their art aggressively and unmistakably of
the dialogue betwee n the studio and the street. The painter
Jasper Johns took as his subject the most common and even
banal of American symbols – maps of the 48 continental states,
the flag itself while his contemporary, Robert Rauschenberg,
took up the same dialogue in a di fferent form. His art consisted
of dream like collages of images silk –screened from the mass
media, combined with personal artifacts and symbols. In a
remarkably similar spirit, Joseph Cornell worked largely in
isolation; his sense of poetry that lurks uns een in everyday
objects had a profound effect on other artists.
8.2.2 Pop Art:
By the early 1960s, with the explosion of the new kind of art
called the Pop Art, the engagement of painting and drawing with
popular culture seemed so explicit as to be almos t
overwhelming. Artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein
and Claus Oldenburg took the styles and objects of popular
culture – everything from comic books to lipstick tubes and
treated them with the absorption and grave seriousness
previously reserved for religious icons. Oldenburg drew
ordinary things – fire hydrants, ice –cream bars, bananas etc.
with a vision and Warhol silk -screened images of popular movie
stars. Lichtenstein used the techniques of comic –book
illustration to paraphrase some of the mo numents of modern
painting.
The Minimalists like Frank Stella, who made abstract art out of
simple, and usually hard -edged, geometric forms, carried on the
tradition of austere abstraction. Some artists made their art
public by borrowing from images and ic ons of the street while
other artists wanted art to take on a new responsibility by
making an art for the street. Many artists in the 1970s and 1980s
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81 tried to bridge the gulf between the America n art and life
through the simple means of making sculpture for public spaces.
This movement, called “site –sculpture” or “public art”, rejected
the idea of public sculpture as forbidding monuments set in the
middle of arid plazas and instead tried to const ruct environments
through which viewers could pass, so that their experience of
the work took place overtime.
8.2.3 Photography:
Photography also gained popularity as an important art. In the
first half of the 20th Century, American photographers tried to
make photography into a fine art by divorcing if from its
ubiquitous presence as a recorder of moments and by splicing it
onto older, painterly traditions. After World War II, however, a
few photographers were able to transcend the distinction
between med ia image and aesthetic object, between art and
photojournalism and to make from a single, pregnant moment a
complete and enduring image. Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane
Arbus, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn dominated both fashion
and portrait photography for al most half a century and straddled
the lines between museum and magazine.
8.2.4 Theatre:
Perhaps more than any other art form, the American theatre has
suffered from the invention of the new technologies of mass
reproduction. At the beginning of the 20th C entury, a few
dramatists, notably Bronson Howard, Augustus Thomas and
Clyde Fitch were writing social comedies of some merit. And in
1915 two important non – commercial theatrical groups were
organized; the Washington Square Players, which later became
the Theatre Guild; and the Provincetown Playhouse. These
groups produced an outstanding figure, Eugene O’Neill, whose
first play; “Bound East for Cardiff” was staged at the
Provincetown Playhouse in 1916.
In 1920s there emerged some authors of comedy and satir e, such
as S. N. Behrman, Sidney Howard, Philip Barry and George
Kelly who made sophisticated liberalism as their base to display
their theatrical acumen. Experimenting with the realistic
methods of presenting social problems became one of the main
themes of this decade. The radicalism of the 1930s produced one
talented dramatist Clifford Odets whose portrayals of middle -
class futility were more convincing than his affirmations of faith
in revolution. The 1940’s and 1950’s saw the emergence of
several gifte d dramatists. Arthur Miller supported a radical view
of American society in which he tried to analyze the failures of
American individualism. William Inge glorified a frank
sexuality, which he saw as the remedy for the ailments of
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82 ordinary development of off – Broad way theatres, which
operated on low -budget and were able to make experiments in
both subject –matter and production techniques.
Thus, the main function of the American theatre was to provide
popular entertainment, with the musical comedy as its most
characteristic expression. Perhaps the most encouraging feature
of theatrical history was the steady improvement in the aesthetic
and intellectual standards of Broadway musicals.
8.2.5 Dance:
Danc e, a remarkable development of another art form associated
with the theatre also was experienced. At the beginning of the
20th Century America produced one of the greatest figures in
choreographic history, Isadora Duncan. Impulsive,
undisciplined, and egoi stical, Miss Duncan had a tempestuous
and, in some ways, tragic life; but she transformed the technique
of the dance, in Europe as well as America, by making it a
vehicle for spontaneous emotional expression. Partly as a result
of her innovations, the ball et developed into one of the most
interesting art forms of 20th Century culture.
Unto the mid -century there had been a rapid growth of interest
in the ballet in America, and the American audiences enjoyed
the dancing of such individual figures as Martha Gr aham, Ruth
St. Denis and Ted Shawn; and the choreography of Agnes De
Mille and George Balanchine. Balanchine dominated the greatest
of the American ballet troops, the New York City Ballet, from
its founding in 1948 until his death in 1983. He created new
standards of beauty for both men and women dancers and
invented an audience for dance in America, where none had
existed before.
8.2.6 Architecture:
Architects sought to design houses adapted to 20th Century
needs and in harmony with their environment, an d made a bold
and imaginative use of the new building materials supplied by
modern technology. The twenty years following the World War
II were an exciting period in American architectural history.
During 1950s and 1960s a considerable part of the urban
population was rehoused, and many of the new apartment and
office buildings were barrack -like structures, oppressive,
monotonous and which crowded even more people to each acre
of ground than the slum tenements had ever done. Meanwhile,
the long controversy between classicism and functionalism
remained unsettled, and conservative –minded critics continued
to deny the basic premises of functionalism.
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83 8.2.7 Music:
The history of serious music in America has remained largely a
history of appreciation. Here the progress made during the 20th
Century has been remarkable. The invention of the phonograph
and radio made good music accessible to the average citizen.
Appreciation courses increased in high schools and colleges,
while an important contribution was made du ring the 1930’s by
the WPA music project, which organized unemployed musicians
into orchestras and gave thousands of concerts all over the
country. In 1900 there had been fewer than half a dozen of
symphony orchestras in the whole country and by 1940s ther e
were hundreds.
Check your Progress:
1) Comment on Abstract Expressionism.
2) Name any three dancing stars of America during mid -
twentieth century.
8.3 PROGRESS OF EDUCATION
Great cultural changes set in motion as a consequent to
economic development and urbani zation, Large scale
immigration from various countries of Europe to the United
States provided a wide variety of new ethnic groups to the
American society and culture. But the progress of educated,
culture etc. was made possible and to a great extent stimu lated
by urbanization which enabled the people of like libraries,
schools, museums and theatre; and provided money for its
utilization in the growth of culture.
8.3.1 School Education:
Most of the States began by requiring only two - or three -year’s
attend ance at a grammar school. But after the initial adopted of
compulsory education, the number of years was steadily
extended, and states began to assume responsibility for
providing secondary as well as primary education. The number
of public high schools in creased from 500 in 1870 to 2,500 in
1890 and 12,000 in 1915. By the end of fell from 17 percent to
11 percent.
The expansion of the public -school system seemed to indicate
that the American Society had an unlimited respect for
education. But this did not always extend to the profession
responsible for it, which contained to the underpaid and to have
a relatively low social status. The city and state authorities had
a careful watch over teachers best they express radical opinions
or violate established more s. Teacher’s salaries were low. As
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84 month, less than a manual laborer, while women teachers
received even less. During the 20th century there was a
considerable improvement in the richer states, but even in New
York and California teaching was still underpaid by contrast
with other professions. Since it was impossible to support a
family on the average teacher’s salary, relatively few men cared
to enter the profession. The proportion of male teachers dropped
from 43 percent in 1880 to 30 percent in 1900 and 15 percent in
1920.
Compulsory education meant that every American child had an
opportunity to learn the essentials of literary and citizenship.
The passage of most American Children through the sa me school
system promoted national unity and secured as a check on the
growth of class and race distinctions. It was primarily in the
schools that children of immigrant parents learned American
ways and won acceptance into the American society often by
becoming star -performers in the high -school athletics.
8.3.2 College Education :
Striking developments took place in the field of higher
education the federal government was a principal contribution
through the Morell Act of 1862, under which 13,000,000 acres
of public land were turned over to the states for the support of
colleges and universities. Long established colleges like
Harvard, Yale and Columbia grew into large universities, and
new institution like Chicago, Cornell, John Hopkins, Duke
Vanderbilt and Stanford were founded. By 1900 there were some
500 colleges in the United States, an increase of nearly 100
percent since 1860. The right of women of higher education was
now generally recognized, and by 1900 they comprised about 25
percent of the total n umber of graduates. Around 70 percent of
the colleges, turned coeducational, while the two decades
following the civil war had seen the foundation of such women’s
colleges as Vassar, Wellesley, Smith and Bryn Mar.
More important than the number of institut ions that grew during
this period was the kind of leadership which was provided by a
small group of University Presidents like Charles W. Eliot of
Harvard, Daniel Coat Gilman of John Hopkins, Andrew Dickson
white of Cornell, David Starr Jordan of Stanford, and William
Rainey Harper of Chicago. All of them were not only
outstanding scholars, but also were determined to have on their
faculties only such scholars who did have the passion for
extending the boundaries of learning. They too stood
instrumental in setting the American system of higher education
revised from time to time according to the changing demand of
time
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85 8.3.3 Professional Education :
The period also witnessed sharp increase of technical and
professional education. So far most of the American s received
their professional education to become doctors, lawyer and
dentists by working for a few years under the supervision of
some experienced practitioner. While a few professional
institutes existed. Students merely memorized lectures and
received t o practical experience. The pioneering role in this
direction was played by President Eliot who in the 1870s
reorganized the Harvard Schools of Medicine and Law. So that
they would give adequate training in both theory and practice
and impose strict standa rds of appointment. Other universities
followed suit. The state governments made regulations
preventing unqualified persons from practicing law, medicine
and dentistry. This encouraged the Americans to go for high
standard technical degrees.
8.3.4 Adult Ed ucation :
The scientific progress and wide ethnic variables of the society
made the diffusion of new knowledge among the mass of the
adult population even more necessary than in the past. One of
the chief agencies in this field was the free public library. By
1900 there were 9000 libraries containing at least 300 books a
piece, as contrasted with a mere handful before the civil war.
This growth owed much to Andrew Carnegie, who contributed
$6,000,000 to the building of libraries on condition that
municipal authorities undertake to support them.
In the field of adult education, the most important role was
played by Chautauqua Movement, originated in 1874. It soon
expanded into a nation -wide organization for all adults
interested in educating themselves. In ad dition to its annual
summer schools, it organized study circles which had 100,000
members by 1892 and sent out for thousands of lectures, among
them men like William James, Josiah Royer, and William
Jennings Bryan, who were among the nation’s intellectual and
political leaders.
The period also witnessed the development of philosophy and
social studies. William James, who served on the Harvard
Faculty over thirty -five years, gave wide popularity to the
philosophical concept known as pragmatism, which laid
emphasis on the practical mode of thinking. Study of Literature
& Fine Arts was also made popular. Scholars like Mack Twain,
Hora tic Alger, Lewis Wallace, Henry James, William Dean
Howells, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Stephen Crane
contributed greatly to the literary world of the American
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86 and paintings had their profound footprints in enriching the
American Culture.
Check Your Progress:
1) What kind of school education was imparted in Amer ica?
2) How was the professional education given in American
society?
8.4 LITERATURE
After the World War II many American writers made their
subject the things that set Americans apart from one another.
Although, for many Americans, ethnic and even religious
differences had become increasingly less important, many post
war writers seized on these differences to achieve a detached
point of view on American life. Beginning in the 1940’s and
1950’s, three groups in particular – the Southerners, Jews and
Blacks br ought a special vision to fiction. Each group had a
sense of uncertainty, mixed emotions and stifled aspirations that
lent a questioning counterpoint to the general chorus of
affirmation in American life.
8.4.1 Fictional Works:
The Southerners namely Will iam Faulkner, Eudora Welty and
Flannery O’Connor thought that a noble tradition of defeat and
failure had been part of the fabric of Southern life since the
Civil War; at a time when “official” American culture often
insisted that its American story was on e of endless triumphs and
optimism, they told stories of tragic fate. Jewish writers, most
prominently, the Chicago novelist Saul Bellow, who won the
Nobel Prize in 1976, Bernard Malamud, and Philip Roth found
in the “golden exile” of the Jews in America a juxtaposition of
surface affluence with deeper unease and perplexity that seemed
to many of their countrymen to offer a common predicament in a
heightened form.
For black Americans the promise of the American life had in
many respects never been fulfilled . “What happens to a dream
deferred?” the poet Langston Hughes asked, and many black
writers attempted to answer that question through stories that
mingled pride, perplexity and rage. Black literature achieved
one of the unquestioned masterpieces of the 20 th Century
American fiction was Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” (1952).
Since the 1970s there has been an explosion of women’s fiction,
including the much -admired work of Toni Morrison (Beloved;
1987), Anne Tyler (The Accidental Tourist; 1985), and Louise
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87 Many writers, on the other hand, had the sense that fiction, and
particularly the novel, might no longer be the best way to record the
American life. For them, the novel seemed to have become above all a
form of private, inte rior expression and could no longer keep up with the
extravagant oddities of America. Many of them took up journalism with
same of the passion for perfection of style that had once been reserved for
fiction. The exemplars of this form of poetic journalism included the
masters of “The New Yorker” magazine, most notably A. J. Liebling,
whose books included “The Earl of Louisiana” (1961), a study of an
election in that state. The dream of combining facts and lyrical fire also
achieved a masterpiece in James Ag ee’s “Let Us Now Praise Famous
Men” (1941), an account of sharecropper life in the South which is a
landmark in the struggle for imparting to nonfiction the beauty and
permanence of poetry.
8.4.2 Non – fictional Works:
As the century developed, the genre of imaginative nonfiction
(sometimes called the “non -fiction novel” or “documentary
novel”) took on different forms. Truman Capote’s “In Cold
Blood” (1965), for example, recreated a multiple murder in
Kansas. By contrast, Tom Wolfe, whose influential book s
included “The Right Stuff” (1979), an account of the early days
of the U.S. space programme, and Norman Mailer, whose books
included “The Armies of the Night” (1968), a ruminative piece
about the political conventions in 1968, took on huge public
events and made them subject to the insights of a personal
sensibility.
As the nonfiction novel often pursued extremes of grandiosity
and hyperbole, the short story assumed a preciously unexpected
importance in the life of American writing. The short story
became the voice of private vision and private lives. The short
story, with its natural insistence on the unique moment and the
glimpse of something private and fragile, came to have a new
prominence. The rise of the American short story is bracketed
by two rema rkable books – J. D. Salinger’s “Nine Stories” of
1953 and Raymond Carver’s collection “What We Talk About
When We Talk About Love” (1981), almost exactly a quarter
century later. Salinger inspired a generation by imagining that a
serious search for a spiri tual life could be reconciled with an art
of gaiety and charm. Carver confirmed in the next generation
their sense of a loss of spirituality through an art of taciturn
reserve and cloaked emotions.
Check Your Progress:
1) Name any two fictional work in Americ an literature.
2) What was Truman Capote’s famous non -fictional work?
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88 8.5 SUMMARY
America transformed its elf in the early 20th Century. A rural,
agricultural nation became an industrial power whose backbone
was steel and coal, railroads and steam power. A yo ung country
bound by the Mississippi River expanded across the North
American continent, and on to overseas territories. And a nation
divided by the issue of slavery and tested by the trauma of the
civil war became a world power whose global influence was first
felt in the World War I.
For America, the 20th Century has been a period of
extraordinary turmoil and change in which she endured the
worst economic depression in its history; emerged triumphant
with the Allies in the World War II; assumed a role of global
leadership in the twilight conflict known as the Cold War; and
underwent a remarkable social, economic, political, scientific
and technological transition at home. Where once America
transformed itself over the slow march of centuries, it now
seemed to reinvent herself almost by decades.
8.6 QUESTIONS
1. Briefly describe society and culture of America in the 20 th
Century.
2. Enumerate the new trends in American art and literature in
the 20 th Century.
8.7 SUGGESTED READINGS
 Alan Brinkley, Unfinished Nations , 2 Vols, McGraw – Hill,
1995.
 Bayer, The Oxford Companion to United States History, New
York, 2001.
 Beards, New Basic History of the United States, New York,
1960.
 Frederick L. Allen, The United States of America – A
History, (Indian Edition), Khosla Publi shing House, New
Delhi, 1986.
 United States Department of State, An Outline of American
History, New York, 1994.
 William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since
World War II, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1991.


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89 9

AMERICA AND WORLD WAR - II
Unit Structure:
9.0 Objectives
9.1 Introduction
9.2 American Attitude towards War
9.3 Intervention VS Isolation
9.4 Roosevelt re -elected as President
9.5 Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor
9.6 The United States at War
9.7 Second World War
9.8 Planning for Peace
9.9 Summary
9.10 Questions
9.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To understand the role of America in the Second World War.
2) To study the American attitude after Second World War.
3) To analyze the reconstruction of America after Second Wor ld War.
9.1 INTRODUCTION
The Road to War: Throughout the 1930’s Europe had traveled the road to
ruin with appalling rapidity. In 1931 the Japanese had seized Manchuria
which the League of Nations had failed to prevent. In 1935 Mussolini
attached Ethiopia while Britain and France took some halfhearted and
ineffectual action in terms of economic blockade. In 1935 Hitler began
rearming Germany and in 1936, remilitarized Rhineland. In 1936 General
Franco launched a rebellion with the help of Hitler and Mussoli ni against
the democratically effected leftist government in Spain. In the same year
Germany and Japan formed the Berlin Tokyo Axis which Italy joined in
1937. In 1938 Hitler seized Austria and later as a part of the Munich
settlement he was allowed to occ upy a large part of Czechoslovakia. In
1939 having seized Prague he turned towards Poland. He obviously
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90 Minister Chamberlain of Britain promised aid to Poland against German
aggression. T his made war inevitable. Germany invaded Poland on 1st
September, 1939 and by 3rd September both Britain and France declared
war against Germany.
9.2 AMERICAN ATTITUDE TO WARDS WAR
9.2.1 The Neutrality Act of 1935:
The administration hoped that the League of Nations would impose
sanctions against Italy and support Ethiopia, and that the United States
would back the League by independent action, Hull prepared a bill which
conceded to isolationist on every point except the crucial one of the arms
embargos. It asked for presidential authority to prohibit loans to
belligerents to forbid American ships to carry munitions to belligerents,
and to withdrew diplomatic protection from American who traveled on
belligerent ships - all to prevent “incidents” of the sort which isolationists
believed the Wilson administration had used as “excuses” for falling in
with the conspiracy of bankers and munitions makers. But the bill also
granted the President authority to determine which party or parties to a
dispute should be pl aced under an arms embargo and this would leave
room for him to impose a discriminatory embargo against Italy in
conjunction with the League while permitting Ethiopia to buy American
arms. The bill ran into adamant opposition from Senators who threatened
to filibuster against the administration domestic reform bills. As Mussolini
blustered that his legions were ready to attack. President Roosevelt on
August 18 addressed to him a personal letter begging him to refrain from
war. The dictator answered that it was too late because Italy had
mobilized, and he cannily added a threat that fed isolationists fears, he said
that any interference would lead to an extension of the war.
In the Senate the administrations bill was altered to require a
nondiscriminatory emb argo on aggressor and victim alike. Hull obtained a
concession limiting the measure to six months and then it quickly passed
both houses by strong majorities. Roosevelt signed it on August 31,
expressing the hope that the nondiscriminatory embargo might la ter be
changed because - and here he uses the bed -rock argument of advocates of
collective security -it “might drag us into war instead of keeping us out”.
When Italy invaded Ethiopia in October, the President issued a
proclamation applying the provision of the law to both sides. But he and
Hull saw an opportunity to rescue something from the isolationist’s
victory. Italy’s war machine depended on imports of oil and other raw
materials. In this proclamation the President went beyond the letter of the
Neutral ity Act to warn that sales of American oil, coal and other raw
material to belligerents although legal would not be accorded diplomatic
protection. On November 15, Hull proclaimed against Italy alone a “moral
embargo” on sales of raw materials.
He and Roos evelt hoped that this would encourage the League to adopt
sweeping sanctions against Italy as the aggressor. But appeasement of the
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91 When the League issued its sanctions list, oil an d coal were not included.
Britain, Russia, and other league nations proceeded to sell oil to Mussolini
without restraint. Although the moral embargo was not perfectly obeyed
by American businessmen the United States, found itself in the strange
situation o f taking stronger action against Italian aggression than the
League powers. Still the latter could correctly argue that the Neutrality Act
had let them down, and that it rather than the extralegal moral embargo
against Italy, represented the sentiment of t he American people and the
policy of Congress.
9.2.2 The Neutrality Act of 1936:
Sir Samuel Hoare, Foreign Minister in Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin’s
government and Premier Pierre Laval of France negotiated a pact with
Mussolini to give him virtual contr ol of Ethiopia. News of the project
caused revulsion in British opinion which forced Hoare out of the
government. Anthony Eden as supporter of the League took his place on
December 22 1935. Roosevelt and Hull were encouraged to work in the
next session of Congress for a legal embargo against aggressors on oil and
other new materials. Still he subordinated this aim to the need for
domestic reform the administration bill to change the Neutrality Act was
never reported.
Instead the existing Act was extended to May 1, 1937. An amendment
requiring extension of the arms embargo to any additional nations that
became involved in a war was designed to frustrate the administration’s
plan for a united front of governments opposing aggression Another
change dropped the requirement that the President apply the Act to nations
at war and granted him discretionary power to apply it when and if he
“shall find that there exists a state of war”.
In this form the President signed the Neutrality Act of 1936 on February
29, Mussol ini successfully carried out his conquest of Ethiopia.
9.2.3 Rearmament:
The departure from the British government of its last supporter of
collective security and Hitler’s annexation of Austria on March 12, 1938,
without opposition by Britain or France d iscouraged Roosevelt.
Abandoning his hope that something might be done to implement
quarantine against aggression; he turned to rearmament as the best
remaining method to strengthen American security. In a special message
to Congress on January 28, 1938, h e asked for a heavy naval building
programme to permit simultaneous flex operation in the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. He stated that it was needed “because of the piling up of
additional land and sea armaments in other countries,” in such manner as
to inv olve a threat to world peace and security.” In 1934 Japan had
denounced the Washington Naval Treaty and in 1935 Great Britain had
agreed to German naval rearmament including unlimited submarine
construction. Now Roosevelt in private discussions with Britai n and
France brought pressure on them to rebuild their navies according to plans
concerted with his own program. Some isolationists detected the munotes.in

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92 internationalist purpose of the President and opposed the Two -Ocean
Navy Bill even after they obtained an amend ment forbidding the use of the
new navy for “aggression” - which they identified with collective security.
Holding to a different definition the President accepted the amendment
and signed the Act on May 17. It authorized 24 new battleship and
comparable nu mbers of lesser warship besides some increase in Army and
Air programmes. Without these the United States would have been
rendered defenseless at sea when the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor -and
destroyed mostly old battleships.
9.2.4 The Munich Crisis:
Hitler with Mussolini in tow proceeded during the summer of 1938 to
wage against the Czechoslovakian Republic a “war of nerves” that
threatened to engulf all Europe. Chamberlain amplified his dream of
appeasement to embrace Hitler as well as Mussolini. When Hitler had
whipped up the crisis to the breaking point by claiming the right to annex
the German -speaking Sudeten areas of Czechoslovakia - which would
give Germany the mountain defense perimeter of the country -Chamberlin
September 22 flew to meet Hitler a nd beg him to take the Sudeten area
peacefully. Hitler immediately raised his demands. Chamberlain
apparently prepared to resist. He ordered air -raid shelters dug in London
mobilized the Royal Navy and warned Hitler that Britain would stand by
France and t he chain of alliances linking the latter to the Soviet Union, and
the Soviet Union to Czechoslovakia. This seemed to Roosevelt an
opportunity to add the moral weight of the United States to the cause of
resistance. On September 26, he addressed messages to the European
leaders appealing for a peaceful solution. But when Chamberlain Premier
Edouard Daladier, Mussolini, and Hitler met at Munich on September 29
the French and British leaders conceded not only the stepped up demands
of Hitler, but new ones besi des. The Czechoslovakian Republic was
dismembered in the resulting Munich Agreement of September 30, in
return for a pledge by Hitler to take his winnings peacefully and refrain
from annexing the defenseless remainder of Czechoslovakia.
With the hysteria o f relief much of the world hailed Chamberlain’s boast
that he had won “peace in our time.” But there is much evidence that
President Roosevelt believed the betrayal at Munich had brought war
closer, that dictators could not be appeased. During the months a fter
Munich he worked to reestablish the unity of the Democratic Party, which
had most recently been torn by the primary’s “purge” campaign. He
decided to abandon further major efforts to obtain domestic reforms for
the sake of an all -out effort to repeal the arms embargo. He stepped up
defense spending and initiated plans for vastly increased aircraft
production in November Hitler lost his followers upon Jews, torturing
them on public streets in broad daylight. His Propaganda Minister Joseph
Goebbels calle d this proof of the “Healthy instincts” of Germans.
Roosevelt publicly stated; “I myself could scarcely believe that such
things could happen in a twentieth century civilization” and he recalled the
United States Ambassador from Germany Americans now began to loathe
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93 Japan, too became bolder after Munich. On November 3, she proclaimed a
“New Order in East Asia” to include annexation of China. the Roosevelt
administration rejected an offer to negotiate instead it arranged loan of $25
million to China and private credits for the purchase of war materials. On
November 17, important reciprocity trade agreements with Great Britain
and Canada were hurried to conclusion. In December Hull strength ened
hemispheric defenses in the Declaration of Lima.
9.2.5 The Fight to Repeal the Arms Embargo:
President Roosevelt in his Annual Message on January 4, 1939
subordinated all other issues to obtain repeal of the arms embargo. “There
are,” he said, “many m ethods short of war, but stronger and more effective
than mere words of bringing home to aggressor governments the aggregate
sentiments of our own people.” First among these methods short of war
was repeal of arms embargo.
This speech was the most importa nt turning point in the twelve -year
history of the Roosevelt administration. It marked the end of the creative
period of the New Deal and the beginning of a new period when
strengthening foreign policy commanded the chief attention of Roosevelt
and his sub ordinates. Again, Secretary Hull worked quietly with Senator
key Pittman, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and after
Hitler marched into Prague on March 15, Roosevelt accepted a
compromise resolution to extend “cash -and-carry” to arms and muniti ons
as well as commodities. This would at least help Britain and France in
their new policy of guaranteeing the independence of Poland and other
countries east of Germany. But isolationists dug in for a fight against all
compromises. Hitler now plainly mar ked Poland as his next victim and
Mussolini grabbed Albania on April 7. The president decided that time
was running out and something must be done to warn Hitler that the
economic might of the Unites States would be available to his enemies.
On May 1, cash -and -carry for commodities expired and the Neutrality Act
became more unsatisfactory than ever to internationalists. On May 19,
Roosevelt told House leaders that repeal of the arms embargo and
application of cash -and -carry for all war materials and commo dities might
prevent war in Europe or if it did not would make less likely a victory by
the powers unfriendly to the United States.
The State Department learned that a Nazi -Soviet pact opening the door to
Poland for Hitler was in the making. On July 14, th e President sent to
Congress a special message in terms of the greatest urgently with a
masterly argument by Hull that the best method to secure the peace and
neutrality of the United States was to end the penalty the Neutrality Act
placed upon Great Brita in and France.
After this, Congressional leaders abandoned their original argument and
simply denied that Roosevelt and Hull were correct in their warning that
war was imminent in Europe. The Senators told Roosevelt they would
postpone action on the Neutra lity Act until the next session of Congress in
January 1940. Roosevelt was defeated. Congress adjourned, but he made munotes.in

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94 public the contention of the isolationists that there would be no war in
Europe for the present. This helped to discredit them when the fea rful
events of August unfolded.
9.2.6 T he War: Repeal of the Arms Embargo:
On August 23, 1939, the Nazi -Soviet Pact was signed. It promised mutual
nonaggression in its public terms and provided in secret protocols for a
division of spoils in Eastern Europe . Safe from the threat of a two -front
war, Hitler stormed against Poland and mobilized additional divisions. He
rejected last -minute British efforts to negotiate his pretended grievances
admitting finally that war and conquest was his object. On September 3,
Great Britain and France declared war against Germany in fulfillment of
their guarantee of assistance to Poland. That evening President Roosevelt
addressed the nation. He said he hoped that now “Our neutrality can be
made true neutrality,” by repeal of the arms embargo. When peace has
been broken anywhere the peace of all countries is in danger.
The President called Congress into special session on September 21. Last -
ditch isolationists fought hard but the tide of opinion in and out of
Congress had turne d. Americans were frightened by the onrush of Nazi
power and by new moves of Russia, aligning her with Japan as well as
Germany. Their sympathy went out to France and Great Britain not only
on moral grounds but because they began to realize what genuine is olation
of the Western Hemisphere would mean if brutal dictatorships triumphed
from the Atlantic shores of Europe to China. Roosevelt carefully avoided
one of Wilson’s mistakes by obtaining the co -operation of Alfred M.
Landon and Frank Knox the leaders of the Republican Party as the nucleus
of a bipartisan coalition to renovate American foreign policy. His
assuagement of anti -New Deal rancor’s began to show results. Almost the
same proportion of the nation’s newspapers that had opposed his
reelection in 19 36-80 per cent - now supported repeal of the arms
embargo.
He told the special session of Congress that he regretted that he had signed
the Neutrality Act - a rare instance of a President admitting he had been
wrong in an important matter. Pleading that re peal of the arms embargo
would restore traditional neutrality he made no secret of his hope that it
would help Britain and France to win the war and argued that this was the
best assistance of American peace and security. He was willing that cash -
and -carry should apply to all sales to belligerents and urged that
American ships be forbidden to enter war Zones. Alfred E. Smith returned
to support the President and former Secretary of state Stimson campaigned
vigorously for repeal.
The Senate adopted the bill in the President’s terms on October 27 by a
vote of 63 to 80. It was the first no isolationist measure to pass that body
since it defeated Wilson and the Leagues. A large majority of
Representatives voted for the measure and the President signed it on
November 4, 1939. At the moment Britain and France made very slight
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95 adopted a defensive strategy in the West. The War in its major phase had
not yet begun. But in the United States the era of isolationism was drawing
to a close. President Roosevelt henceforth was never defeated by Congress
on a major issue of foreign policy.
9.2.7 The Axis Challenges 1940 -41:
The Fall of France in June 1940 immensely affected the course of
American history . The Fall of France to Hitler and his immediate threat to
invade the British Isles opened the eyes of Americans to these elements of
their national security which they had come to take for granted. The
awakening began in near -panic. But it was permanent.
Most people became eager for measures short of war but well beyond the
scope of neutrals under the older code of international law. President
Roosevelt took the lead in reorganizing the foreign policy of the United
States, and his leadership was all the mo re exceptional because he was
convinced he should take the great political risk of running for a third term
to carry the work through. The willingness of voters to elect him again,
despite the two -term tradition, demonstrated their recognition of the crisi s
the country faced and of Roosevelt as a leader equal to it. Though by no
means unaware of the Japanese threat in the Far East, he and his advisers
gave first consideration to those who were fighting against tyranny in
Europe. When the war lords of Japan struck a surprise below against the
United States in the Pacific, they forced the Republic into war on two
fronts.
The Pearl Harbor attack did more than that. It instantly unified the
American will to victory. In almost equal measure it determined
American s not to allow victory in this war to be thrown away on another
isolationist gamble.
In August 1939, the President had created a War Resources Board to
prepare a plan of industrial mobilization. The Board was criticized by
spokesmen of labour farmers and t he New Deal. When the war settled
down to apparent stalemate, Roosevelt quietly shelved the War Resources
Board and rejected its report calling for a single economic dictator.
Soviet policy further confused American attitudes towards the war. Anger
against the Russian leaders for betraying the anti -Nazi cause was
exacerbated when the American merchantman City of Flint was captured
by the German battleship Deutschland in October and taken to Murmansk,
where the Soviet government refused to perform its duty u nder
international law of returning the ship to its American crew. Late in
November, Stalin refused Roosevelt’s offer of good offices to settle Soviet
disputes with Finland and invaded the small Republic. The Finns aroused
American admiration by their rema rkable defense. Roosevelt publicly
condemned the Soviet Union as an absolute dictatorship, Credits for
agricultural products were extended to Finland, but she needed weapons.
She was allowed to buy 44 military airplanes, while a moral embargo was
placed on exports to Russia. When Congress convened in January 1940 it
was ready for stronger measures of aid to Finland. But as Secretary Hull munotes.in

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96 later explained the President and he were unwilling to drive Russia
“further into the arms of Germany.” Convinced that th e Nazi and
Communist regimes were fundamentally irreconcilable they did what they
could during the following year to convince the Russians that their interest
lay in common action against the Axis. This strategy disturbed many
Americans who wished for a st ronger policy against Soviet aggression.
The Russians finally broke Finish resistance in March 1940.
Peace talk further confused the situation. Roosevelt commissioned Under
Secretary Wells in February 1940, to consult with the heads of the
belligerent gove rnments in Europe to discover whether grounds existed for
a peaceful settlement. The European leaders learned from Welles as he
traveled from capital to capital hat the President was now interested in a
compromise or appeasement scheme. Welles tried to dis courage Mussolini
from joining Hitler and he learned from the Nazi leaders that they planned
an offensive in the West. His mission was a failure in its avowed purpose,
but it gave the administration a fresh view of the European situation.
Congress indulged in cuts of defense appropriation throughout the winter
and early spring. Privately the President took momentous steps to explore
the possibility that nuclear fission could be exploited for military use.
Warned by Albert Einstein and others that Germany mi ght win the race to
develop an atomic bomb, Roosevelt appointed an Advisory Committee on
Uranium and early in 1940 carried out its advice to procure graphite and
uranium. American scientists, heavily reinforced by refugee experts from
Europe, soon discover ed the decisive characteristics of uranium isotope -
235.
Opponents to the Reciprocity Trade Agreements Act argued that it should
not be renewed because the war and attendant dislocation of trade made it
useless. But it was precisely the war and their desir e to use liberal trade
policy to strengthen the international political order that made Roosevelt
and Hull fight for renewal. They won by a margin of three votes in the
Senate on April 5, four days before the “real” war began.
In April and May 1940, the Am erican people forgot the confusions and
distemper of the winter of “phony war” as they watched Hitler burst into
Norway, Denmark and the Low countries. In June, they were transfixed by
the apparition of savage and triumphant Nazi war machine on French
shores opposite the United States. These were days when consoling
fictions gave way to terror. Americans felt cut adrift from the world as
they had known it. They suddenly demanded strong leadership and swift
action to hold off the appalling danger of conquest of the world by Axis
and Communist dictatorships. Only the coming to power to Prime
Minister Winston Churchill on May 10, and the refusal of the British
people under his galvanizing leadership to compromise, gave Americans a
point of hope. “Aid to Britain !” superseded all other public demands in the
United States.
The Nazi attack on Norway aroused Americans’ emotions, but Germany’s
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97 States. Greenland and Iceland, which were Danish possessi ons,
commanded the sea and air routes to North America and the possibility
that Germany would occupy them created new apprehensions. On April
13, President Roosevelt publicly condemned Nazi aggression against
Norway and Denmark. Hull encouraged the ancient Icelandic parliament,
the Althing to form independent diplomatic relations with the United
States. On April 18, the President announced that Greenland was part of
the Western Hemisphere and under the protection of the Monroe Doctrine.
The Coast Guard assi sted the Greenlanders with food and with arms so
that they were able to wipe out several Nazi expeditions to establish
weather stations in the northern wastes of the great island.
Hitler on May 9 began his main assault against France. Destroying the
defens es of The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg he outflanked the
French Maginot Line. Churchill had told the Commons that this policy
was war and victory. He now told Roosevelt privately that the situation of
Britain was desperate and that if she felt Ameri cans would face the
Nazified Europe alone. He asked Roosevelt to send him immediately a
fleet of overage destroyers, hundreds of airplanes, antiaircraft guns and
ammunition and other materials. Britain would pay dollars as long as her
resources lasted, he said but he would like to be “reasonably sure that
when we can pay no more you will give us the stuff all the same.”
For two years before the war broke out Roosevelt and his Secretary of
State Cordell Hull had been looking for ways of checking the drift to wards
war. They saw the futility of appeasement but their hands were tied by the
neutrality legislation and the isolationist public opinion in the United
States. When Chamberlain finally dropped appearement they asked
senator leaders of both the parties to reconsider revising the neutrality
legislation which they refused. When war came American sentiment began
to change. Congress passed the new Neutrality Act in November 1939
allowing for the sale of arms and ammunition to belligerents under cash
and carry rules but the Act forbade American merchant ships to enter
Combat Zone. Thus, Britain and France could buy arms and ammunition if
they had enough money and ships.
In April 1940 German forces seized Denmark and Norway. In May they
overran Holland and Belgiu m and quickly inflicted a crushing defeat on
the French army. On 25th June Marshal Petain signed an armistice
agreeing to German occupation of a large part of France. Meanwhile Italy
entered the war and Battle of Britain started. If Hitler were able to con quer
Britain he could control all the eastern Atlantic and compete with the
United States for naval supremacy. He could also take over West Africa
from where he could move into South America and the United States
could not possibly defend it. Japan was thr eatening to take over all the
Western Pacific. The United States then would be able to hold only North
America and the Caribbean. This view of the situation was the
determining influence on American foreign policy after the spring of
1940.
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98 Check Your Pro gress:
1) What was the attitude of America towards Second World
War?
2) What is Munich Crisis?
9.3 INTERVENTION VS ISOL ATION
The fall of France precipitated one of the greatest debates in American
history, a debate conducted not only in Congress and in the Press but
among private citizens all over the country of the various organizations
which undertook to influence public opinion two were outstanding: The
Committee to Defend America by Biding the Allies headed by William
Allen White, editor of the Emporia Gazett e, and the isolationist America
First Committee. The interventionists argued that security of American
people required the defeat of Hitler for which the United States should
give all possible aid to Britain, short of going to war. On the other hand,
the isolationists argued that Hitler could never consolidate his conquests,
and even if he were victorious it would be possible to come to terms with
him, and that the United States would never be attacked.
The results of this debate are still a subject of bitt er controversy. It had
been said that most of the Americans favored neutrality and that
Roosevelt, eager to retain power and conceal the failure of the New Deal,
pulled the country into war against its will. While there were many honest
and patriotic Ameri cans in the America First Committee, it was also
supported by reactionary groups who thought that Hitler was better than
the New Deal, fascistic and anti -Semitic agitators and those who looked
any form of liberalism as communism. As opinion crystallized in favour of
intervention Roosevelt’s policy became more firm. He decided that
aviation industry must increase its production to produce fifty thousand
planes per year and by 1944 production had reached double that figure. By
October 1939 the Congress approp riated 17,692 million dollars for
defense. In September the United States for the first time in year time
adopted conscription or compulsory military service. Meanwhile
American diplomacy tried, without any success, to defer Italy from
entering war and Fra nce from accepting armistice. After the fall of France,
the Defense Department sold its surplus guns and planes to Britain. The
United States also leased bases on the Britain territory of New -found land
and the West Indies and gave Britain fifty destroyers in return. The United
States also made plans to take over any European colony in the Western
hemisphere which might be occupied by Germany. In July 1940 Havana
Conference secured the assent of Latin America. This conference also
produced the strongest sta tement so far of hemisphere unity; it passed a
resolution to the effect that an attack on any of the American states from
outside the hemisphere would be considered an attack on all. Thus, the
Unites States had definitely abandoned neutrality. Henceforth t he
American Policy was to bring about the defeat of Hitler.
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99 9.4 ROOSEVELT RE -ELECTED AS PRESIDENT
In 1940 Roosevelt was re -elected as President but with a reduced margin
and the chief reason for his victory was the feeling of Americans was that
it was wi se to keep an experienced man in office in time of crisis.
Roosevelt interpreted his victory as a mandate for all out support to
Britain. He wanted the United States to be the great arenol of democracy.
Implementing this policy meant the dropping of cash a nd carry
requirements of the Neutrality Act, since the British required supplies far
in excess of what they could pay for and transport. In order to solve the
financial problem Roosevelt devised the Lend -Lease programme. He
proposed that instead of money g oods be supplied to Britain, with the
understanding that repayment be made in kind after the war. He suggested
that the United States should think of herself as a man lending his garden
hose to a neighbor whose house was on fire. This momentous and
imagina tive proposition was approved by the Congress in March 1941
with a large majority. Goods might be lent to any country whose defense
the President thought as vital to the defense of the United States. The
shipping problem was far more complex. As in the Fir st World War
German submarines were sinking British freight ships rapidly, but if the
United States herself undertook to transport war material across the
Atlantic she would almost certainly be involved in a shooting war, which
the Roosevelt administration was still trying to avoid. In April American
naval and air patrols were instructed to watch out for hostile sub -marines
and warm the British accordingly. By July American forces occupied
Greenland and Iceland and American war ships began to escort British
vessels as far as that point.
Shooting quickly followed in September 1941. The destroyed Greer was
attacked by a sub -marine. In October 1941 two more destroyers were
attacked, one of them, Reuben James, was sunk. Congress kept aside what
was left of the N eutrality Act authorized arming of merchant vessels and
their entry into combat zone. Thus, the United States was engaged in an
undeclared naval war in the North Atlantic.
In August 1941 Roosevelt and Churchill held conference on a battleship
near the coas t of New -Found land to discuss Britain’s need for supplies.
They also issued the Atlantic Charter which contained their war aims.
1. They sought no territorial aggrandizement for themselves.
2. They sought no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the pe ople
concerned.
3. They wanted people to have the right to choose their own form of
government.
4. They wanted all nations to have access to trade and raw materials.
5. They would encourage international cooperation for economic
advancement, social security and peace and freedom from want.
6. They wanted that aggressive nations be disarmed. munotes.in

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100 Meanwhile, the Nazis, unable to conquer Britain turned eastward. They
over ran Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria without any resistance. Early in
1941 they took over Greece and Yug oslavia. On 22nd June, 1941 they
launched an invasion of Russia. Both Britain and the United States were
convinced that the defeat of Hitler was more important than any other
consideration. They therefore immediately rushed war material to the
Soviet Union . Communist organizations the world over were till now pro -
German, they now began to advocate war against the Axis powers.
9.5 JAPAN’S ATTACK ON PE ARL HARBOUR
Meanwhile Japan was still fighting in China with only a part of her forces;
they could easily c onquer South East Asia. In September both Japan and
Germany signed a treaty by which they agreed to assist each other if either
were attacked by the United States. Meanwhile the Japanese ambassador
to the United States Kichisaburo Nomura and his assistant Sabuzo Kurusu
had a series of meetings with secretary of state Cordell Hull. They
promised that Japan would not attack Indonesia if, in return, The United
States would give her a free land in China and dropped all trade
restrictions. Whether Japan was seri ous about this offer was doubtful. But
Roosevelt was not ready to abandon either China or the traditional
American Policy of Open Door and maintain status quo in the Pacific.
Thus, the negotiations broke down. On 7th December 1941 Japanese
planes raided Pe arl Harbor and sunk the entire American fleet anchored in
the port. Pearl Harbor united the American people more fully than ever
before in history. The Congress declared war on Japan and soon thereafter
both Germany and Italy declared war on the United Sta tes. The European
and Asiatic conflicts now merged into a single global war.
9.6 THE UNITED STATES AT WAR
American contribution to the defeat of the Axis powers was the greatest.
The Achievements of American industry were almost beyond belief. The
total n ational production increased by 125 percent. So that by 1944 the
administration was able to spend on war purposes alone a larger sum than
the whole national income in any peacetime year. In addition to 49 billion
dollars’ worth of lend -lease goods sent to other countries mainly Britain
and Soviet Russia, the United States created a powerful navy, army and air
force that fought two wars in Europe and in Asia at the same. Although
there was little production of durable consumer’s goods, some serious
shortages developed, especially in housing. General standard of the living
of the civilian population actually grew higher. About 12 million able
bodied workers joined the armed forces. Although planning for war began
in early 1939 nothing concrete was done for abo ut a year. An advisory
committee of seven members was appointed to supervise the armament
programme but it was not given adequate powers. In December 1940 it
was replaced by other office of Production Management under the dual
control of William Knudsen of General Motors and Sidney Hillman,
President of Amalgamated clothing Workers. Finally, in January 1942
James F. Byrens was appointed the head of office of the economic
Stabilization. In 1943 an office of war mobilization was created under munotes.in

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101 Fred M. Winson. The original selective Training and Service Act of
September 1940 made men between 18 and 35 years of age liable for
compulsory military service the upper age limit was extended to 45 years
but men above 38 were rarely called. With 12 million men joining t he
armed forces serious man power shortage might have been expected but
their places were taken by women and young boys under 18 and by retired
persons. In 1940 about 50 million people were gainfully employed and
another 4 million people were looking for w ork.
9.6.1 Prices, wages and Taxes:
With national income increasing to 198 billion dollars (72 billion dollars
in 1939) these was an enormous amount of purchasing power over
available goods. This made price control essential. IN April the office of
Price Administration was set up but it did not have the authority to fix
price ceilings as farmers wanted higher prices for their products. By 1942
there was a danger of sum away inflation. In October 1942 the Congress
passed the Stabilization of Cost of Living Act which authorized the office
of price administration to freeze wages and prices at September 1942
levels. After this the office of Price Administration was remarkably
successful in holding the price line. The total increase in the cost of living
betwee n 1939 and 1945 was about 31 percent. The office of Price
Administration also rationed a number of essential goods but it was felt
only in serious cut in the national levels of patrol consumption. Part of the
higher purchasing power was absorbed by the hig her taxes, but much of it
was saved until after the war, which made possible the remarkable boom
of 1945 -1949.
The National War Labour Board arbitrated labour disputes. It allowed 15
percent wage increase in 1942 but later on it was able to stabilize wages
during the war years. Hours of work rose to 45 but overtime rates were
paid after 40 hours. Almost all union leaders cooperated with the
government, coal fields were the only exception where in 1943, and the
government had to assume in order to prevent st rike.
From 1939 to 1945 the government spending on war purposes was about
300 billion dollars; 215 of which was paid out of taxes. This raised the
level of taxation and the number of income tax payers increased from 4
million in 1939 to 30 million in 1943. By the end of the war the national
debt had risen to 247 billion dollars. But it caused no alarm and prevented
no insoluble difficulties.
9.6.2 Civil Liberties:
One of the most satisfying features of the war period was the absence of
intolerance. These were little interference with civil rights, partly because
most radicals were as anxious for the defeat of Axis powers as anyone
else. The administration set up the Office of War Information but it did not
create any war hysteria. Public opinion remained c alm and critics of the
government continued to express their opinions freely. Treatment of
Americans of Japanese descent was the only blot on record. About 1,
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102 country. Many of them we re born in the United States and were therefore
American citizens. Yet most of them were loyal to the United States. Ships
and planes were the most vital needs of the war programme. In 1940, the
production of new merchant shipping was about 600,000 tons. I n 1943 it
went up to 19 million tons and in 1944 to 16 million tons. During the same
period the number of combat vessels went up to 19 million tons and in
1944 to 16 million tons. During the same period the number of combat
vessels went up from 380 to 1100 . Plane production was about 2100 in
1939 and 96358 in 1944. The output of tanks, guns, and many other items
went up fantastically. New industries like synthetic rubber also came into
existence.
In agriculture there was little increase acreage under cultiv ation and farm
labour supply decreased by 10 percent. Yet by making use of improved
methods the American farmers increased farm production by about 1/3.
Which was more than enough to cover what the United States was
shipping to other countries?
Throughout the war an effort was made to establish a close partnership
with Britain. Personal relations between Roosevelt and Churchill were
very congenial. They held 6 major conferences and were in constant
communication with each other. Joint Boards were set up to coordinate
war planning and production. American and British commanders were
appointed in different theaters of war. Global unity of command was
however not possible. The Russians and Chinese fought their own wars.
9.6.3 Later developments in the War:
For five months after Pearl Harbor Japanese continued their winning sheer
while a small army under the command of Gen. Mac Arthur was
defending the Philippines. In 1942 Gen. Montgomery defeated the
German forces in the battle of El Alamein. By November 1942 t he
German army was forced to withdraw from Soviet Russia. Although the
Allies had not as yet won the war the Axis powers had lost it. By 1943
Gen. Montgomery and Eisen Hower liberated North Africa. On 17th
August they also captured Sicily. Their army lande d in south Italy in
November 1943. It soon became clear that Germany would have to be
invaded.
6th June was the Day. Allied forces landed on the Normandy beach heads.
By August almost all France was liberated. By February 1945 Russian
army was crossing the Oder and threatening to invade Berlin. While the
Allied forces began crossing the Rhine on 13th March German resistance
began to crumble. At the end of April, 1945 Hitler committed suicide and
a few days later German army agreed to surrender unconditional ly. The
war in Europe ended officially on 7th May 1945.
9.6.4 Surrender of Japan:
After the surrender of Germany Allied forces were gathered for an
invasion of the Japanese mainland. In the event this invasion was not
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103 were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th
and 10th August respectively. On 10th August Japan agreed to surrender
unconditionally and on 14th August the Pacific war ended officially.
Check Your Pro gress:
1) What was the incident that led the America’s entry into
Second World War?
2) Comment on the Civil Liberties during Second World War in
America.
9.7 THE SECOND WORLD WAR
At an early stage in the conflict the United States administration took lead
in drafting peace laws. Earlier President Wilson’s efforts in that direction
were repudiated by the American people; but it soon became apparent that
his experience was not going to be repeated. In 1943 both the houses of
Congress passed by a large majority re solution calling for American
membership in world organization. Later the State Department cooperated
with senators of both political parties in working out a bi -partism foreign
policy. Isolationism was not dead but now it took the form of various
forms of economic cooperation.
In order to avoid any repetition of Wilson’s unhappy experience both
Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull tried to secure agreement
about the main features of the peace settlements while the war was still
going on. They also clearly separated the treatment of enemy powers from
the planning of a new world order. Germany and Japan were required to
surrender unconditionally by the Casablanca Conference held in January
1943. Meanwhile it was hoped that wartime association among t he allies
could be permanent and extended into a permanent organization.
Second World War changed the balance of power more drastically than
the First World War of the eight great powers existing in 1914 (Britain,
France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Russia, The United States and
Japan.) only one Austria -Hungary had been eliminated. But by the end of
the Second World War only the United States and Soviet Russia were still
first-class powers. All of Europe was exhausted. The Soviet Russia was
left as t he main center of power in the whole Eurasian continent. But the
Soviet Union was not likely to join the United States in maintaining peace.
During the war Russians were not willing to cooperate. They refused to
share military information, did not acknowle dge the 11 billion dollars’
worth of land lease and given by the United States and recognized
communist groups instead of the official governments in -exile in
Yugoslavia and Poland. However, Roosevelt was willing to go to great
lengths to meet soviet deman ds. He argued that their uncooperativeness
was due to fear and could be removed by a display of friendship. This was
a gamble, and in the end, it failed. It was obvious that the Soviet Policy
was determined not by fear but by the expansionist policy of Sta lin and by
his conviction that communism was basically opposed to capitalism and
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104 remembered that large sections of American people were hopeful of
winning Soviet cooperation and read y to find excuses for Stalin’s policies.
Moreover, if the United States had not tried to win over Soviet Russia
public opinion throughout the world would have blamed the United
States.
9.8 PLANNING FOR PEACE
Top level planning for peace began in October, 1943. Secretary of State
Hull, Anthony Eden of Britain and Molotov of Soviet Russia met in
Moscow. They signed a declaration promoting permanent cooperation and
the establishment of a general international organization based on
sovereign equality of all pe ace-loving states. In November 1943 these
followed meetings of Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai Sheik at Cairo
and Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin at Teheran, At Cairo it was agreed that
Japan should be deprived of whatever she had conquered since 1894. At
Teheran it was agreed that Russia should retain some, at least, of the
territories she had appropriated in 1939 -40.
9.8.1 Yalta and Potsdam:
During 1944 cooperation promised at the Moscow Conference was
conspicuously absent. When the Russians drove t he German armies out of
Poland and the Balkan countries they installed communist controlled
governments without consulting the United States and Britain. Meanwhile
the British stepped into Greece and set up a conservative regime there.
This led Roosevelt t o make his last attempt to reach an understanding with
Russia at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. It was attended by the
top leaders of Britain, the United States and Soviet Russia. The
Conference decided to divide Germany into four zones one each of which
was to be occupied by the United States, Britain, Soviet Russia and
France. Germany was also to pay some reparation for the damage she had
inflicted on other countries. In the smaller liberated axis nations broadly,
representative democratic governm ents would be set up. These were to be
followed by free elections. Poland was to be compensated for the loss of
her eastern province by getting a part of East Germany. By a secret
agreement Russia promised to enter the war against Japan for which she
was t o regain territories she had lost to Japan also to recover her
prominent position in Manchuria. In making these concessions Roosevelt
acted at the request of American Military leaders who were convinced that
Russian assistance would save many American live s. Stalin also promised
to make a treaty of friendship and alliance with Chiang Kai Sheik which
could lead to permanent peace in East Asia.
In July 1945 the last of the war time conferences took place at Potsdam
which was concerned mainly with filling the details of decisions made at
Yalta. The occupation policies of the four powers in Germany were to be
coordinated through a Central control Council; the general purpose was to
bring about disarmament and promote democracy. The Western border of
Poland was f ixed provisionally and the German city of Konigsberg was to
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105 elections in Poland and the Balkans were never honored, nor was there
any coordination of occupation policies in Germany. Fro m the beginning
the Russians set out to establish communism in zones assigned to them.
Yalta and Potsdam agreements weakened the moral but not the power
position of the United States. Russian armies were already in control of
Eastern Europe and Roosevelt c ould not give them anything which they
could not have taken in any care.
9.9 SUMMARY
To sum up; for the second time idealists throughout the world hopped to
bring about the rule of law in international affairs. United Nations was not
a world government. I t was based on the principle of Sovereign equality of
all its members. Its efficacy would depend on the willingness of the
member states to support its purposes. It would depend, in particular, on
the attitude of the United States and the Soviet Union each of which could
wreck the organization by refusing to support it. The United Nations
structure assumed that the war time cooperation between its leading
members would continue in the post war period. This did not happen.
So, the United States entered the Second World War defensively by the
acts of the aggressor nations. The challenge to American survival was so
clear and menacing that the people and their political parties closed ranks
far more tightly than in the First World War and far more sternly than the
Axis militarists; with their contempt for “degenerate democracy”,
expected. The Pearl Harbor attack and the declarations of war by Hitler
and Mussolini killed American isolationism. The hope that out of their
new realization of national insecurity the American people and their
government could develop a new world order of collective security was
dependent first of all upon victory in the most dangerous war the Unites
States had ever fought.
9.10 QUESTIONS
1) Enumerate the sequence of events leading to Ame rican entry into
World War II.
2) Discuss the contribution of the United States towards winning the
World War II.
9.11 SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Parker, Henry Bamford. The United States of America a history,
Scientific Book Agency. Calcutta 1.
2. Hill, C.P. A history of the United States. Arnold – Heinemann India.


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DEVELOPMENT IN SCIEN CE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Unit Structure:
10.0 Objectives
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Scientific Advancement
10.3 Technological Development
10.4 Summary
10.5 Questions
10.6 Suggested Readings
10.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To understand the progres s of scientific advancement in
modern America.
2) To study the development in technology from 2oth century
and in modern America.
10.1 INTRODUCTION
America dominated the global affairs in the years immediately
after World War II. Victorious in that great str uggle, her
homeland undamaged from the ravages of war, the nation was
confident of its mission at home and abroad. American leaders
wanted to maintain the democratic structure they had defended
at tremendous cost and to share the benefits of prosperity as
widely as possible. They accepted the need for a strong position
against the Soviet Union in the Cold War after 1945 on one
hand, and endorsed the growth of government authority and
accepted the outlines of welfare state on the other. They enjoyed
the pos twar prosperity that created new levels of affluence in
America through spectacular development of science and
technology; and art and literature; taking America into the
modern phase of her history.
The 20 th Century witnessed great changes in technology a nd
science that humans have ever witnessed. These occurred
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107 inventors and engineers built upon the great inventions of the
19th Century to expand the reach of modern technology. For an
American in 19 00, communication, transportation and
agriculture were still primarily local activities, but by 2000, he
was a part of interconnected global community. These
developments in science and technology were also important in
the social and cultural changes of t he period. The Great
Depression, the World Wars and the Cold War, the Civil Rights
and Women’s Rights Movements – all were greatly affected by
the rapid scientific and technological advancements in
universities and industries.
10.2 SCIENTIFIC ADVA NCEMENT
As the 20 th Century began, the inner logic of scientific
development had superseded physical environment in shaping
American Science. All leading American universities now
encouraged research, and vast sums of money were devoted to
its promotion by foundati ons, by business corporations, and by
the Federal government. In consequence, America was now
beginning to assume world leadership in science and
scholarship, especially after 1933, when the growth of
totalitarianism compelled many of Europe’s most gifted
intellectuals to seek refuge in American universities.
The only two American Nobel laureates in science during the
first twenty years of the 20 th Century, they were Albert
Michelson in Physics in 1907 and Theodore W. Richards of
Chemistry in 1914, won for characteristically American feats of
precision in measurement. The British and the Germans still
outpaced the Americans, but the Americans were now in the
running and bent on taking the lead. The growth of American
pre-eminence was indicated by the distrib ution of the Nobel
Prizes for the sciences. Between 1930 and 1950 one -third of
them went to American citizens, as contrasted with less than 6
percent from 1901 to 1929, while Britain and Germany together
received another third, and remainder were distribut ed over rest
of the world. The growing interdependence of science and
technology in both theory and instrumentation made science’s
claims to public favour more persuasive. And the expansion and
democratizing of higher education broadened the base of the
scientific community.
10.2.1 Physics:
The most important developments in both theory and practical
application were made in physics. New experimental data and
hypothesis presented mankind with a view of the universe
radically different from common -sense per ceptions. The
principles of relativity and indeterminacy undermined traditional
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108 less universal and human knowledge more subjective. Possibly,
there was little justification for the argument, advanced by some
scientists, that the new physics corroborated religious beliefs,
but there was no doubt that it had made untenable the kind of
dogmatic materialism popular in the 19th Century. The problem
of coping with its applications, however, was urg ent and
inescapable, since the new physics led directly to the atomic
bomb.
World War I aroused public and governmental interest in the
enlistment of science and technology, now ripe for the
assignment. The resulting agencies had no time to achieve much,
but the National Research Council (1916) survived to dispense
postwar fellowships, and the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (1915) ultimately evolved into the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of 1958.
The 1920s saw private sup port of science at its relative peak.
Foundations increased their funding minor but significant
projects as seed money for unconstrained research. Herbert
Hoover’s Commerce Department promoted industrial research,
and academic physics developed strong ties with industry.
American technology now captivated the mind of Western
Civilization. Revolutionary developments in Europe excited
physicists, now braced by more advanced training in
mathematics. Ernest Lawrence moved physics towards “big
science” with his cyclotron.
While Europeans formulated most of the major new hypotheses,
Americans like Robert A. Millikan, Arthur Compton, Harold C.
Urey, Ernest Lawrence and Robert Van de Graaff made
important additions, particularly in finding experimental
validations. Physicists from half a dozen different countries
helped to formulate the theories on which the invention of the
atomic bomb was based, while the most essential American
contributions were the money and resources, the practical know –
how, and the capacity f or organizing effective teamwork. The
most notable new weapons – radar, the proximity fuse, the atom
bomb, sprang from pr -war breakthroughs. And it was neither
basic research nor applied science but applied technology that
decided the World War II. Neverthe less, the awesome revelation
of the atom bomb project at war’s end convinced the nation that
science could win the next war – or better yet, prevent it.
10.2.2 Medicine:
While science was making it easier to kill, it was also enabling
human life to be prol onged. Most important achievements were
made in the field of medicine. The main medical advances
between the 1920s and the 1960s were a series of new drugs,
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109 a number of discoveries in nutritio n, and a growing
understanding of the importance of psychic factors in somatic
disorders. While relatively little progress was made in fighting
the degenerative diseases of middle and old age, such as cancer
and heart trouble, most of the infections could now definitely be
kept under control.
Medical progress intensified the practical problem of making the
best treatment available to families in the lower in come
brackets. Proposals by the Truman administration for
compulsory health insurance were opposed as socialistic by the
conservative spokesmen for the medical profession, though a
rapid growth of private insurance plans helped to make sickness
less catastrophic. But even though many people could not afford
adequate health care, the general progress of me dical knowledge
and the activities of the public –health authorities had
remarkable results. Between 1900 and 1949 the death rate
dropped from 17.2 to 9.7 per thousand, male life expectancy
increased from 45 to 64, and the median age of the population
rose from 22.9 to 30.1.
10.2.3 Big Science:
A massive government –sponsored postwar research and
development (R & D) programme gathered force after Soviet
Russia put her satellite “Sputnik” (1957) in the orbit. The Soviet
Sputnik inspired the National Defense Ed ucation Act (1958),
strengthening the educational underpinnings of science and led
to NASA and the triumphant moon landing of 1969. Serving the
cold war arms race, longer –lived government R & D agencies
succeeded the wartime the Office of Scientific Resear ch
Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The Federal wealth supported a new age of big science, not only
in high –energy physics but also in astronomy and biomedicine,
culminating in the nineties with the Hubble Space Telescope, the
human genome mapping project, and the superconducting
supercollider, as grandiose in scale as in name. Big technology
armed science with space vehicles, computers, lasers, and other
wonders. Although big science made headlines, other science,
even in physics, also fl ourished. In the late eighties the
Americans produced more than a third of the world’s scientific
papers.
10.2.4 Space Programme:
Space became another arena for competition after the Soviet
Union launched “Sputnik”, an artificial satellite in 1957. The
Americans were chastened, for the Russians had beaten them
into orbit with a rocket that could have easily carried a nuclear
bomb. Americans only managed to launch their first satellite
“Explorer I” in 1958. The public mood worsened when the
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110 Kennedy responded by committing the United States to land a
man on the moon and bring him back the earth before the end of
the 1960’s.
With “Project Mercury”, in August 1962 John H. Glenn Jr.
became the firs t American astronaut to orbit the Earth. In the
mid–1960s, the American scientists used the “Gemini
Programme” to examine the effects of prolonged space flight on
man. “Gemini”, Latin word for “twins” carried two astronauts,
one more than the earlier Mercu ry series and one less than
subsequent “Apollo” spacecraft. The Gemini achieved several
firsts, including an eight - day mission in August 1965, the
longest space flight at that time and in November 1966, the first
automatically controlled re -entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Gemini also accomplished the first manned linkup of two
spacecraft in flight as well as the first U.S. walks in space.
The “Apollo Project” achieved Kennedy’s goal. In July 1969,
with hundreds of millions of television viewers watc hing around
the world, Neil A. Armstrong became the first human to walk on
the surface of the moon. Other Apollo flights followed, but
many Americans began to question the value of manned space
flights. In the early 1970s, as other priorities became more
pressing, America scaled down the space programme. Some
Apollo missions were scrapped; only one of two proposed
“Skylab” space stations were built.
In 1981 America launched the space shuttle “Colombia”, the
first reusable manned spacecraft. Between 1981 and 1985, the
shuttle demonstrated extraordinary versatility, with astronauts
conducting experiments, taking photographs and launching,
retrieving and repairing satellites while in orbit. But in January
1986, tragedy struck when the space shuttle “Challenger”
exploded 73 seconds after takeoff, instantly killing six
astronauts and a schoolteacher who was to have been the first
ordinary citizen in space. Space shuttle missions were postponed
indefinitely while the NASA set out to redesign the shuttle for
safety. By the time the U.S. successfully launched the shuttle
“Discovery” in late 1988, there had been over 300 changes in
shuttle’s launch systems and the computer software.
10.2.5 Computer Revolution:
Americans also led the postwar computer revolution, spring ing
from a marriage of science and technology and offering each of
its progenitors a tool of epochal versatility and power. Although
the computer’s early theoretical development owed much to
European mathematicians from Blaise Pascal to Charles Babbage
to William Thomson, Americans dominated the crucial transition
from mechanical analogue machines to electronic digital
machines in the 1940s. The first large – scale automatic digital
computer was conceived by Howard Aiken of Harvard in 1937
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111 Eckert, John W. Mauchly, Herman H. Goldstone and John G.
Brainerd developed the fast all –electronic, general -purpose
computer, ENIAC (1943 -1945). In those years also the ENIAC
group, joined by John von Neumann, formu lated objectives basic
to further development, such as stored programmers, random –
access memories, and conditional branching. And the Americans
led in the practical realization of those concepts.
By 1951 Eckert and Mauchly had developed a commercially
avai lable line of computers. Industry assumed a major role in
extending computer speed and power. American advances in
solid –state technology, notably the transistor, and integrated
circuits in the fifties and sixties greatly reduced size and cost
and increase d reliability and speed. Microminiaturization in the
seventies and eighties carried those trends to astounding lengths.
The new instruments themselves gave new scope and power to
both science and technology. Not only in storing, processing,
and interpretin g immense quantities of numerical data in
astronomy, meteorology, physics, chemistry, genetics and other
sciences, but also in furnishing tools for scientific observation,
such as space –probe guidance systems, image transmission and
enhancement, and non – invasive medical scanning, computers
became indispensable.
In industry, computers gave new scope to automation, industrial
design, business transactions, quality control, air and rail traffic
control, stock market operations, and economic modelling. They
entered the home in personal computers, word processors, video
games, and household appliances.
Thus, science and technology in the 20 th Century American life
chronicles the relationship between science and technology and
the revolutions in the lives of ever yday Americans. In the field
of transportation, the century marked the transition from the
railroad to the automobile and airplane, and the mass production
of the automobile, and the building of roads and highways made
it possible for Americans to travel a ll over the country by car. In
communication, radio and television brought news and
entertainment into the home, while at the end of the 20 th
Century the World Wide Web linked people, news and
entertainment by personal computer. And in the field of
agricul ture, the 20th Century America witnessed an era of
scientific farming. The techniques of animal and plant breeding
were combined with the science of genetics to produce high
yielding varieties of crops and live stocks to suit consumers.
Check your Progress :
1) Name the two American Nobel Laureates during the 20 th
century.
2) What was the name of first American satellite launched in
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112 10.3 TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
10.3.1 Agricultural Development:
Despite the great gains in industry, agriculture remained the
nation’s basic occupation. The revolution in agriculture
paralleling that in manufacturing after the Civil war involved a
shift from hard labour to machine farming and from substitute to
commercial agriculture. Between 1860 and 1910, the number of
farms in the United States tripled, increasing from 2 million to 6
million, while the area farmed more than doubled from 160
million to 352 million hectares.
Between 1860 and 1890, the production of such basic
commodities as wheat, corn and cotton outstripped all p revious
figures in the United States. In the same period, the nation’s
population more than doubled with largest growth in the cities.
But the American farmed grows enough grain and cotton, raised
enough beef and pork, and clipped enough wool not only to
supply American workers and their families but also to create
ever increasing surpluses.
Several factors accounted for this extraordinary achievement
One was the expansion into the west. Another was the
application of machinery to farming. The farmer of 180 0, using
a hard sickle, could hope to cut 20 percent of a hectare of wheat
a day. With the cradle, 30 years later, he might cut 80 percent of
a hectare daily. Different farm machines were developed in
rapid succession like the automatic wire binder, the th reshing
machine and the reaper -thrasher or combine. Mechanical
planters, cutters, huskers and shellers appeared, as did cream
separators, manure spreaders, potato planters, hay driers, poultry
incubators and a hundred other inventions.
Scarcely less import ant than machinery in the agricultural
revolution into science. In 1860 the Mom ill Land Grant College
Act allotted public land to each state for the establishment of
agricultural and industrial colleges. These were to serve both as
educational institution s and as centers for research in scientific
farming. Congress subsequently appropriated funds for the
creation of agricultural experiment stations throughout the
country and also granted funds directly to the Department of
Agriculture for research proposes . By the beginning of the 20th
Century scientists throughout the United States were at work on
a wide variety of agricultural projects. Ironically, the federal
policy that enabled farmers to increase yields ultimately
generated vast supplies which drove ma rket prices down and
disheartened farmers.
One of these scientists, Mark Carleton, travelled for the
Department of Agriculture to Russia. There he found and
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113 wheat that now accounts for more tha n half the United States
wheat crop. Another scientist, Marion Dort, conquered the
dreaded hog cholera, while still another. George Mohler helped
prevent hook -and-month disease. From North Africa one
researcher brought back Kaffir corn; from Turkestan, ano ther
imported the yellow -flowering alfalfa. Luther Burbank, in
California, produced scores of new fruits and vegetables; in
Wisconsin Stephen Babcock devised a test for determining the
butterfat content of milk; at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the
Africa n-American scientists George Washington Carver found
hundreds of uses for the peanut, sweet potato and soya been.
10.3.2 Industrial Development:
Broadly speaking two features of America’s industrial
development are distinctly visible. First, United State s employed
mass production techniques thorough development of large -scale
business organization. Second, along with the growth of industry
in United States there was corresponding growth in population
(it raised from 30 million to over one hundred million extension
of the rail -road network across the continent, and settlement of
the rest of the west. Within twenty -five years of the death of
Lincoln (1865), America became the first manufacturing nation
of the world. Thus, what England had once accomplished i n a
hundred years, the United States achieved in almost half the
time.
Six factors could be accredited for the rapid growth of
industry in the USA. They are:
i. America possessed vaster and varied raw materials than
possessed by any other country, except R ussia;
ii. Inventions and techniques to convert the raw materials into
finished products;
iii. A fully adequate system of water and rail transport to meet
the demands of an expanding economy;
iv. A consistently expanding domestic market and growth of
forei gn markets.
v. A consistent labour supply through immigration; and
vi. The absence of tariff barriers between States, publication
against foreign competition, and government subsidies.
Another outstanding feature of industrialization of this period
was tha t instead of the isolated establishment under the owners
of a single master or a few masters, the big corporations came to
the force. At the end of the19th Century three -fourth of the
manufactured products came from factories under corporate
direction. Pro duction of oil, iron, steel, copper, lead, sugar &
coal etc. was in the hands of huge organization. As a result of
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114 competitions came under the control of the big corporation
which dominated the market , fixed their own prices and charged
whatever they desired.
In short, it resulted in the emergence of a new economic system
in which the principle of ‘competition’ was no longer present.
To eliminate competition the businessmen in the later 19th
century ca me together and pooled their resources to prevent
competitive price -cutting, which deprived them the high profits.
Competition was also eliminated because of another factor. As
the new method of production required huge capital investments,
it was natural that only a small number of enterprises could
work in various fields. And as there was only a limited number
of corporations engaged in any particular branch of manufacture
it was easy for them to reach agreement on price. As a
consequence, it was not poss ible for any public authority to
enforce competition. The only way to compete these big
corporations was to set up an equally huge organization engaged
in large scale production. But this was not possible because the
investors were not willing to contribut e capital for new
enterprises unless they felt assured of a substantial long -term
profit.
The expansion and development of industry was a complex
process. War needs after the civil war had enormously
stimulated manufacturing, speeding an economic process b ased
on the exploitation of iron, steam and electric power, as well as
the forward march of science and invention. In the years before
1860, 36,000 patents were granted; in the next 30 years, 440,000
patents were issued, and in the first quarter of the 20t h century,
the number reached nearly a million. A brick description of the
expansion of certain industries will enable us to have an idea of
industrial development.
10.3.2.1 Steel Industry:
The nation’s basic industry -iron and steel was forging ahead
protected by a high tariff. The production of steel was of great
significance because changes in all other industries depended on
it. As the railroads found their way everywhere, the demand for
steel for rails, engines, cars and equipment grew rapidly. The
iron ore of Michigan and of the Mesabi Range at the head of
Lake Superior in Minnesota provided most of the raw material.
With their knowledge and ability, the steel -makers turned out
wire, tubes, sheets and structural parts.
Andrew Carnegie was largely respo nsible for the great advances
in steel production. A Scottish by birth, who came to America as
a child of 12, progressed from bobbin boy in a cotton factory to
a job in telegraph office, then to one on the Pennsylvania
railroad. Before he was 30 years old he had made shrewd and munotes.in

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115 foresighted investments, which by 1865 were concentrated in
iron. Within a few years, he had organized or had stock in
companies making iron bridges, rails and locomotives. Ten years
later, the steel mill he built on the Monongahela River in
Pennsylvania was the largest in the country. His business allied
with a dozen others, could command a favorable term from a
railroad and skipping lines. Nothing comparable in industrial
growth had ever been in America before.
In the 1890s, new com panies challenged his preeminence and at
first, by competition, Carnegie threatened to build an ever more
powerful business complex. But later he was persuaded to merge
his holdings. With an organization that eventually embraced
most of the important iron and steel properties in the nation.
The United States steel corporation which resulted from this
merger in 1901 illustrated a process under way for 30 years: the
combination of independent industrial enterprises into federated
or centralized companies. Beg un during the Civil war, the trend
gathered momentum after the 1870s, as business began to feat
that overproduction would lead to declining prices and falling
profits. They realized that if they could control both production
and markets, they could bring c ompeting firms into a single
organization. The “corporation” and the “trust” were developed
to achieve to achieve these ends.
10.3.2.2 OIL Industry:
Another important achievement of the period was the production
and refining of oil. Initially the oil was u sed for the purpose of
lighting, and a small member of operators looked after this
business. However, in 1862 with the entry of John D.
Rockefeller, oil industry underwent far -reaching changes. He
left the job of an operator to other people and concentrate d on
refining. He adopted most efficient method of production and by
forming alliance with the ablest men in industry, he was able to
establish a kind of monopoly of brains. He eliminated all
competition by resorting to ruthless price reduction.
In 1870 Ro ckefeller and his associates formed the Standard Oil
Company of Ohio, which acquired a monopoly of refining in
Cleveland area. In subsequent years he formed alliances with
refineries in other parts of the country and by 1880 his group
controlled almost 90 percent of the oil business in the United
States. In 1882 he formed a trust of nine trustees to look after
the stocks of corporation, and thus gave a new concept to the
business in United States. Subsequently, the group also began to
acquire ownership of r ailroads, iron and copper mines, public
utilities and numerous other industries.
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116 10.3.2.3 Electricity Generation:
Another development of the period that the growing uses of
electricity for light, power and communication. Though the use
of electricity fo r the purpose of lighting was being made since
the dawn of the 19th century. It came to general use only in
1879 when Thomas Alva Edison devised a satisfactory and
durable filament. In 1882 the Edison Electric Company opened a
power plant in New York City to supply current for electric
light. In 1887 Richmond made use of electricity for
transportation and built the first electric street car. The
telephone and telegraphs were the other means of
communication worked by electricity. Most of the electrical
equi pment’s were manufactured by Edison Electric which was
expanded into General Electric in 1892 and wasting – house
Electric.
10.3.2.4 Railway Network:
Railroads became increasingly important to the United States.
The railroad linked the Atlantic and the Pa cific (by 1884 there
were four transcontinental lines linking the two) brought the
farmer his machinery and took his grain to markets in the cities
of the East, took live cattle to the city of Chicago and frozen
meat to the cities of New York and Philadelp hia, brought new
engineering machinery for the minor without which he could not
work. The construction of railroads, especially in the west and
south, with the resulting demand for steel rails, was a major
force in the expansion of the steel industry and i ncreased the
railroad mileage in the United States from less than 93,262
miles (150, 151 kilometers) in 1880 to about 190,000 miles
(310,000 kilometers) in 1900.
But the control of the railroads was in the hands of a very small
number of men, who treated i t not as an essential public service,
but as a source of private profit. What was worst, the railroads
did not charge the same rates from all customers. They gave
special rebates to large -scale shippers, which gave them profit
and advantages over their sma ller competitors. Further, by
resorting to pooling agreements, the different railroads avoided
competition, divided the business and raised their rates. To
escape public control, they resorted to devices like giving of
face passes to politicians and influe ntial persons and succeeded
in getting favorable laws passed.
10.3.2.5 Other Industries:
Simultaneously equally, revolutionary advances were made in
other industries. A number of mechanical implements were
devised which greatly transformed the farming met hods. With
the development of refrigeration and canning, the food habits of
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Development In Science
And Technology
117 by the invention of the electric telegraph in 1844; the typewriter
in 1867, the telephone in 1876, the adding machine i n 1888 and
the cash register in 1897. The linotype composing machine,
invented in 1886, and rotary press and paper folding machinery
made it possible to print 240,000 right -page newspapers in an
hour. The talking machine, or phonograph, too, was perfected by
Thomas Edison, who in conjunction with George Eastman, also
helped develop motion picture. These and many other
applications of science and ingenuity resulted in a new level of
productivity in almost every field.
Meat -packing, which in the years after 1 875 became one of the
major industries of the nation with a large part of it concentrated
in Chicago? Flour milling, brewing, and the manufacture of farm
machinery and lumber products were other important Mid -
western industries. The industrial invasion of the South was
spearheaded by textiles. Cotton mills became the symbol of the
New South, and mills to Georgia and into Alabama. By 1900
almost one -quarter of all the cotton spindles in the U.S. were in
the South, and Southern mills were expanding their oper ations
more rapidly than were their well -established competitors in
New England.
Check your Progress:
1) Comment on oil industry.
2) How was the electricity generated in America?
10.4 Conclusion
During the 20th century and up to modern period America made
quite remarkable progress in sciences like Physics, Medicine,
Space Science, Computer etc. Americans scientists were
awarded the Nobel Prizes for their achievements in the science.
Apart from scientific advancement Americans also made
tremendous development in technology and its application in the
industries to and facilitate the American life.
10.5 QUESTIONS
1) Trace the scientific advancement in America.
2) What were the technological development achieved by
America in various fields ? Elaborate.
3) Write short notes:
i) Development in Medicine
ii) Space Programme
iii) Agriculture and technology
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118 10.6 SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Parker, Henry Bamford. The United States of America a history,
Scientific Book Agency. Calcutta.
2. Hill, C.P. A history of the U nited States. Arnold – Heinemann India.


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119 11
AMERICAN FOREIGN POL ICY
(1900 – 1920)
Unit Structure:
11.0 Objectives
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Growth of Imperialism
11.3 American Expansionism
11.4 Role of Theodore Roosevelt
11.5 Reign Wilson
11.6 The Entry of America in the World War -I
11.7 Paris Peace Conference
11.8 Summary
11.9 Questions
11.10 Suggested Readings
11.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To study the American Expansionism.
2) To understand the preparation of America before the entry into World
War-I.
3) To explain the reign of Wilson.
4) To analyze the role o f Americans and the Paris Peace Conference.
11.1 INTRODUCTION
For a generation after the Civil War American attention was concentrated
on internal development and foreign relations were of little importance.
This period of isolation came to an end before t he turn of the century. IN
the 1890’s the United States became deeply involved in the affairs of Latin
America and East Asia, and began to assume the role of a world power.
Decisions made during this period made any return to isolation almost
impossible. H ence forth the lives of the American people were to be
affected in increasingly important ways by events in other parts of the
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120 Many Americans did not like this new trend in foreign policy; they argued
that entanglement in affairs of Europe and Asia was not in accord with the
true interests of the American people and was due mainly to the blunders
or personal ambitions of Presidents and their secretaries of State. But in
the retrospect of history, the abandonment of isolation appears as a result
of br oad economic trends, operating in the Western Civilization as a
whole, which were perhaps too strong to be resisted. Technological
development was drawing all parts of the world more closely together and
making all countries more interdependent. The end of American isolation
was merely one example of general process which seemed to be leading to
some form of global unification. This unit tries to analyze the American
foreign policy in this background.
11.2 GROWTH OF IMPER IALISM
By the end of the nineteenth century leading industrial nations of Western
Europe felt the need of foreign markets. Industrialists required raw
materials, not available at home, new customers to buy their products and
new opportunities for investing their surplus capital. Britain, Fr ance,
Germany and other countries sought exclusive control of their colonies
which led to a bitter rivalry among them. Britain came to control India;
she also possessed other colonies which gave her a prominent position in
the race for colonies. Between 18 80 and 1900 there was a three -cornered
rivalry between Britain, France and Germany for the partition of Africa.
As the competition became more intense and war became more imminent
Europe was divided into hostile camps. Germany was allied with Austria -
Hung ary while Britain, France and Russia came together.
Under these circumstances the United States could no longer feel so
secure as in the past and that perhaps was the main reason why the United
States turned away from isolation. Throughout the nineteenth c entury
British sea power had controlled the Atlantic while the Pacific had been a
power vacuum. But imperialist rivalries in the late nineteenth century led
to a general sense of tension and in the 1910’s Americans became steadily
more disturbed by the thr eat to the balance of power presented by the
growth of German and Japanese sea power.
11.3 AMERICAN EXPANSIONIS M
It was in this situation that the United States developed tendencies towards
imperialism. American industry began to feel the need of new fore ign
markets and American surplus capital began to be invested in the
neighboring countries like Canada, Mexico and Cuba. The building of an
American empire was strongly supported by men who were influenced by
social Darwinism and by European imperialist wr iters like Rudyard
Kipling. They looked forward to a world leadership by American people.
American imperial expansion in the late nineteenth century was probably
due more to the strategic considerations than to economic factors. The
emphasis on naval bases owed much to the writings of Alfred T. Mahan
and his “Influence of Sea Power on History” (1890). During the 1880’s
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121 1890 clearly stated that American Navy had changed from being defensive
to a potentially offensive role. Hence forth, strategic requirements were to
have an increasingly important influence on the American Foreign Policy.
In 1867 Secretary of State Seward negotiated a treaty with Russia
purchasing Alaska for 72, 00,000 dollars. He also annexed the Midway
Islands in the same year. In1878 by a treaty with Samoa the United States
established a naval base at Pago Pago. In 1887 the United States acquired
the right to build a naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In 1889 the Pan -
Ameri can Conference was convened in Washington. It established a Pan -
American Union as a clearing house of ideas and information. In 1895
there arose a boundary dispute between Venezuela and the British Colony
of Guinea. Invoking the Monroe Doctrine Secretary o f state Olney issued
a provocative statement declaring that the United States was practically a
Sovereign on this continent and its fiat is a law on the subjects to which it
confines its interposition. Victory in the Spanish -American war was
followed by a peace treaty by which the United States acquired Cuba, the
Philippines, Puerto, Rico and the small Pacific island of Guam.
11.3.1 China and the Open -Door Policy:
Enunciation of the Open -Door Policy in China became one of the guiding
principles of American foreign policy. Instead of being partitioned
between various European countries China should remain open to
businessmen of all nations on equal terms. It was the only way by which
American citizens could be assured of entry into Chinese market. It was
also the United States Policy to preserve Chinese territorial and
administrative entity. However, none of the European powers, including
Britain, was willing to accept the Open -Door Policy. Although China was
not partitioned between various European powers it was not because of the
influence of the United States. The United States was not strong enough to
maintain Chinese independence on her own. She was not sufficiently
interested in East Asia to attempt to do so. Thus, the Open Door was
merely a pious aspira tion not backed by sufficient force.
11.4 ROLE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Theodore Roosevelt became the President in 1901. He was particularly
inclined towards using strong arm methods in foreign policy. The method
by which he secured the right to build the Pan ama Canal was the most
flagrant example of this method.
11.4.1 The United States and the Panama Canal:
The war with Spain made the United States more security conscious. It
was followed by a general recognition of the need of such a canal. In the
absence of such a canal the United States would have to build two navies;
one for the Atlantic and one for the Pacific. In 1903, by the Hey – Harran
Treaty with Colombia the United agreed to lease the canal zone for an
annual rent of 250,000 dollars. However, the Colombian Senator refused
to ratify this treaty. At this point the United States should have negotiated
a new treaty or find an alternate site to build the canal. Roosevelt did munotes.in

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122 neither of this; he promoted a revolution in Panama by making it appear
that h e would support the Panamians if they chose to secede from
Colombia. Panama declared herself an independent republic, which was
immediately granted recognition by the Unites States. An American
warship was sent to prevent Colombia from re -establishing her authority
in Panama. The United States then entered into a treaty with Panama by
which she was granted a lease of the Canal Zone. In due course
construction of the canal began and the first ship passed through it in
1914. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Construction of the
canal made it even more necessary for the United States to control the
Caribbean and prevent any potentially hostile power from acquiring bases
in that region. This led in 1904 to the enunciation of the Roosevelt
Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Most of the small Caribbean and
Central American republics were governed by dictators, suffered from
frequent revolutions during which foreign citizens were in danger. They
were also unable to make payments on their national debts much of which
was held by European financiers. Under these circumstances European
powers claimed the right of intervening by force to protect the rights of
their citizens. As a last resort such a right was recognized under
international law. But there was alwa ys a danger that any power may
abuse it by intervening not merely to protect its citizens but to acquire
bases or political control. In order to avert such danger Roosevelt decided
that whenever such intervention was necessary, it should be done solely by
the United States. Most of the Latin Americans reacted strongly against
the Roosevelt corollary. In their eyes the United States was even more to
be feared than the European powers. In 1903 Louis Drago, the Argentine
foreign minister made it clear that any form of intervention was a violation
of the rights of a Sovereign State. For the next generation it was widely
believed in the Latin America that the United States had deliberately taken
up a imperialistic programme and could be stopped only by force.
Roosevelt corollary was first applied in the Dominican Republic which
was unable to pay its debts. With the consent of the Dominican
government the United States assumed the control of the finances. The
foreign debt was scaled down and was transferred from Eu ropean to
American financiers. American officials collected taxes, allotted the
proceeds partly to pay government expenses and partly to pay the debt. In
1906 revolutionary disturbances in were followed by landing of American
troops which stayed there unti l 1909.
In 1909 President Taft and his Secretary of state Knox wanted this kind of
financial supervision set up in the Dominican Republic to be extended to
other countries. This would serve American strategic and financial
interests and also promote order and prosperity in the Caribbean. For the
same reason they encouraged American investment. This policy was
known as Dollar Diplomacy. Unfortunately, Taft was not tactful in
promoting it. In 1911 American bankers took charge of Nicaragua’s
finances and in 1 912 American forces landed there to prevent a revolution.
For the next twenty years American forces stayed there and governments
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123 more honest than previous regimes, but most Nicaraguans r esented the
loss of their independence.
Check Your Progress:
1. Who were the countries fighting for the partition of Africa?
2. What is Open Door Policy?
11.5 REIGN OF WILSON
President Wilson was an enemy of imperialism. He declared that the
United States wou ld never gain one additional foot of territory by
conquest and that his foreign policy would not be determined by material
interests. But in spite of his noble declarations his administration was
responsible for more interventions than those of Roosevelt a nd Taft
combined. By the end of World War, I American forces were in control of
four nominally independent republics – Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican
Republic and Cuba. This was the high watermark of American capitalism
in the Caribbean. After World War I the United States gradually
abandoned intervention and began to work out a new relationship with her
Latin American neighbors based on cooperation rather than on force.
11.5.1 The Mexican Revolution:
The immediate southern neighbor of the United States pre sented a more
complex problem. President Porfirio Diaz was the president of Mexico
from 1876 to 1911. His main policy was to encourage foreign capital.
About 1.5 billion dollars were invested in rail roads, public utilities,
plantations, mines and oil fiel ds. About two thirds of it was invested by
American citizens. Although he was regarded as a great statesman in the
history of the hemisphere, his policy benefited only a small upper class.
Mass discontent finally exploded in a revolution which was to cause far
reaching changes in Mexican society. In 1911 Diaz was sent into exile and
Francisco Madero was elected the President. He was markedly less
friendly towards foreign capital. Many American businessmen hoped for a
counter revolution which Henry Lane Wils on, the United States
representative in Mexico helped to bring about. February 1913 Madero
was over thrown by General Huerta and was murdered soon thereafter.
By the time Wilson became president Mexico was plunged into civil war
determined that the Mexican people be left to work out their own destiny.
Adopting a policy of watchful waiting he advised Huerta to retire which
he refused. In 1914 a German ship was on its way to the Mexican port of
Vera Cruz. He then attended by representatives of leading Latin A merican
countries. This move towards partnership with Latin American countries
was a significant step towards the later good neighbor policy.
11.5.2 War in Europe:
When war burst upon Europe in August, 1914, most Americans wished
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124 trenches and on the high seas, the United States stayed officially neutral.
But the tide of opinion gradually shifted. Emotional ties to the British and
French powerful economic considerations, the vision of the world remade
in America image, and German violations of Woodrow Wilson definition
of neutral rights all combined by April 1917 to suck the United States into
the maelstrom.
11.5.3 American People’s Response to the World War -I
President Wilson immed iately proclaimed American neutrality and called
on the nation to be neutral “in thought as well as on action”. Most
Americans supported Wilson’s positions. They felt gratitude that three
thousand miles of salt water lay between them and the War.
Although most Americans fervently shared Wilson’s desire to stay out of
the war, his admonition to remain neutral in thought proved more difficult.
The United States and Britain were linked by extensive economic ties.
Many Americans of British ancestry, including W ilson himself and most
members of his administration, felt an emotional connection with England.
As early as August, 1914, Wilson mused to his brother -in-law that a
victory for militaristic Germany would spell a disaster for the world.
Countless Americans had travelled in England; School textbooks stressed
the English origins of American history and institutions. The English
language itself the language of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, and the
king James versions of the Bible - formed a strong common bond between
Britain’s and Americans. The British government subtly reinforced this
pro-British mood by a variety of informal contacts as well as by
propaganda stressing the British -American link.
But not all Americans felt spontaneous ties with the British. Mi llions were
of German origin, and many looked with sympathy on Germany’s cause.
Irish-Americans found little reason for dismay in the prospect of a German
victory that might at last free Ireland from the British colonial yoke. Some
Scandinavian immigrants initially identified more with Germany than with
England.
Even though a variety of cultural and ethnic crosscurrent influenced
American attitudes toward the War, they did not at first override the
fundamental commitment to neutrality. For most Americans, a nd for the
Wilson administration itself, keeping the United States out of the conflict
became the chief goal.
11.5.4 The Perils of Neutrality:
Despite its commitment to neutrality in 1914, the U.S. government went to
war in 1917, with strong popular suppo rt. What causes this turnabout?
First of all, Wilson’s vision of a world order built on American political
and economic values conflicted with his commitment to neutrality. The
international system that he favoured, based on liberalism, democracy, and
freedom for American capitalistic enterprise, would have been impossible,
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125 ruler Kaiser Wilhelm II. Furthermore, Wilson gradually became convinced
that even an Allied victory would not ens ure a liberal peace without U.S.
participation in the post war settlement. If America were to help shape the
peace, America would have to help fight the war.
This larger global vision influenced Wilson’s handling of the issue that
most obviously and immedi ately dragged the United States into the
conflict; the question of neutral nations’ rights on the high seas. Within
days of the war’s outbreak, the British had intercepted American merchant
ships bound for Germany, declaring their cargo contraband that cou ld aid
Germany’s war effort. Wilson had protested vehemently.
Wilson’s protests intensified in November 1914, when Britain declared the
North Sea a war zone and planted it with deadly explosive mines. By
choking off Germany’s maritime imports, including fo od, Britain hoped to
bring Germany to its knees. In March 1915, the British blockaded all
German ports. Once more, the United States protested in vain. Britain was
determined to exploit its naval advantage to the fullest, even if it meant
alienating Americ an public opinion.
But it was Germany, not England, which ultimately violated the American
conception of neutral rights so grossly that the United States went to war.
If Britannia ruled the waves, Germany controlled the ocean depths with an
awesome new wea pon; the torpedo -equipped submarine or U -boat. In
February 1915, Berlin proclaimed the waters around the British Isles a war
zone and warned off all ships, including those of neutrals. Once again
Wilson protested; Germany would be held to strict accountabi lity”, he
declared, for any loss of American ships or lives. Nevertheless, several
Americans died in the succeeding months as U -Boats torpedoed British
ships and a U.S. tanker.
Then on May 1, 1915, in a small announcement published in U.S.
newspapers, the German embassy cautioned Americans against travel on
British or French vessels. Six days later, a U -boat without warning sank
the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast, with the loss of 1,198 lives,
including 128 Americans. As newspapers reported the news in bold
headlines, U.S. public opinion turned sharply anti -German. (The
Lusitania’s cargo holds historians later discovered, had carried munitions
destined for England,)
In increasingly strong messages to the German government, collectively
called th e Lusitania notes, Wilson demanded specific pledges that
Germany would cease unrestricted submarine warfare. A few days after
the Lusitania sinking, Wilson insisted that America could persuade the
belligerents to recognize the principles of neutral rights without resorting
to force.
The Lusitania disaster exposed deep divisions in U.S. public opinion.
Many Americans, concluding that war with Germany had become
inevitable, ridiculed Wilson’s “too proud to fight” speech. Theodore
Roosevelt, the Noble Peace P rize winner, beat the drums for war and
heaped scorn on the president’s “abject cowardice and weakness”. The munotes.in

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126 organizers of a “preparedness” movement, led by a lobby of bankers and
industrialists called the National Security League, stirred up patriotism an d
promoted armament and universal military training. The National Security
League organized “preparedness” parades in New York, Washington, and
other cities. By the fall of 1915, Wilson himself was calling for a military
buildup.
Many others, however, incl uding not only German -Americans and
pacifists but millions who had taken Wilson’s neutrality speeches
seriously, deplored the drift toward war. Some leading feminists and
social -justice reformers warned that the militant war spirit eroded the
humanitarian values central to progressive reformers James Addams, for
example, pointed out that the International movement to reduce infant
mortality and provide better care to the aged had been “scattered to the
winds by the war”.
Serious divisions surfaced even with in the Wilson administration.
Believing Wilson’s Lusitania notes too hostile and dismayed by what he
saw as the abandonment of true neutrality, Secretary of State Bryan
resigned in June 1915. His successor, the colorless and retiring Robert
Lansing, was us ually content to let Wilson act as his own secretary of
state.
Some neutrality advocates concluded that incidents like the Lusitania
crisis were inevitable if Americans continued to sail aboard belligerent
ships. Early in 1916 a congressman and a senator i ntroduced legislation to
forbid such travel (the Gore -Macklemore Resolutions), but it failed under
strong opposition from President Wilson, who insisted that the principle of
neutral rights must be upheld.
For a time, Wilson’s firm but restrained approach seemed to work.
Although Germany did not specifically answer the Lusitania notes, it
secretly ordered U -boat captains to spare passenger ships and eventually
agreed to pay compensation for the loss of American lives in the Lusitania
sinking. In August 1915 , when a U -boat violated orders and sank a British
passenger vessel, the Arabic, killing two Americans, Germany pledged
that such incidents would not recur. In March 1916, however, a German
sub sank a French passenger ship, the Sussex, in the English Chann el, and
several Americans were injured. This violation of the Arabic pledge
provoked Wilson to threaten to break diplomatic relations - a first step
toward war. In response, Berlin pledged not to attack merchant vessels
without warning, although it added t hat the United States must compel
Britain to observe “the rules of international law”. Ignoring this
qualification, Wilson announced Germany’s acceptance of American
demands; for the rest of 1916, the crisis over neutral rights eased.
The debate over the m eaning of neutrality also involved questions of U.S.
financial support to the warring nations. Soon after the war had begun,
when banker J.P. Morgan sought permission to extend a loan to France,
Secretary of State Bryan had rejected the request as” inconsi stent with the
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127 But towering economic considerations, combined with outrage over the
Lusitania sinking, undermined this policy. In August 1915, Treasury
Secretary William G. McAdoo warned Wilson of dire economic
consequences if t he Allied purchase of munitions and agricultural
commodities in the United States was cut off by lack of funds. “To
maintain our prosperity, we must finance it”.
Swayed by such arguments, and personally sympathetic to the Allied
cause, Wilson permitted the Morgan bank to lend $500 million to the
British and French governments. By April 1917 U.S. banks had lent $2.3
billion to the Allies, in contrast to only $27 million to Germany. And
although U.S. trade with the Central Powers dropped precipitously from
1914 to 1917, trade with the Allies increased nearly fourfold in these
years. Despite dependence upon the United States grew progressively
stronger. Although the United States still remained on the sidelines
militarily, Wilson had taken full advantage of the Allies’ credit needs to
strengthen America’s commercial and financial position in the world
economy.
The war loomed large in the 1916 presidential election, in which
Woodrow Wilson narrowly edged out Charles Evacuees to win a second
term.
Check Your Progr ess:
1. Comment on the Mexican Revolution.
2. What is Lusitania disaster?
11.6 ENTRY OF AMERIC A IN THE WORLD WAR -I
Early in 1917 Germany’s leaders took a fateful step; they resumed
unrestricted submarine warfare. From 1914 on a sharp debate had raged in
Berlin between Chancellor Theobald Von Bethmann -Hollweg, who
favored limiting U -boat warfare to keep the United States neutral and top
military leaders who wanted to utilize Germany’s U -boats to the
maximum. As the war dragged on and a German victory seemed to ne arer,
Bethmann -Hollweg’s position weakened. Even if the United States
declared war, the generals argued, unrestricted U -boat use could bring
victory before an American army reached the front. With billions in
American loans already financing the Allied war effort, they further
argued, a formal U.S. declaration of war meant little. The military
significance of an American war declaration, said one German naval
official would be “zero, zero, zero”.
The generals ultimately prevailed. The Germans resolved on Ja nuary 9,
1917, to return to the earlier policy of unlimited U -boat attacks - a
decision that would almost certainly pull the United States into the war.
Events now rushed forward with the rapidity of a torpedo speeding toward
its target. Germany made its f ormal announcement on January 31. Three
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128 five American ships fell victim to U -boat assaults. On February 24, the
United States learned through British intelligence of a telegram from the
German foreign secretary, Alfred Zimmermann, to the German
ambassador in Mexico. The cable proposed that, should the United States
enter the war against Germany, a military alliance be formed among
Germany, Mexico and Japan with Mexico promised the ret urn of its “lost
territories” of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Then later in March a
revolution overthrew Russia’s czarist government and established the
provisional government of a Russian Republic. The fall of the czarist
autocracy allowed Americans the illusion that all major Allied powers
were now fighting for constitutional democracy. Not until November 1917
was this illusion shattered when the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia.
On April 2 Wilson went before Congress with his solemn call for a
declara tion of war. A short but bitter debate followed. Senator Robert La
Follette of Wisconsin gave an impassioned speech in opposition. The
Senate voted 82 to 6 for war, and the House 373 to 50. Three key factors -
German attacks on American shipping, U.S. econ omic investment in the
Allied cause, and American cultural links to the Allies, especially England
- had converged to draw the United States into the war.
11.6.1 Mobilizing at Home, Fighting in France:
Compared to European nations, the United States was t ouched relatively
lightly by World War - I. The European states were at war for more than
four years; the United States, for nineteen months. Their armies suffered
casualties of 70 percent of more; the American army’s casualty rate was 8
percent. The fighti ng left large parts of France brutally scarred; the
American homeland was untouched. Nevertheless, the war marked a
profound turning point in American history. Not only did it change the
lives of the hundreds of thousands of men who fought in it, but it de eply
affected almost all Americans, men and women alike. As American
soldiers struggled and died on the Western front, the crisis of war
mobilization transformed the nation’s government and economy.
11.6.2 Raising an Army:
The U.S. declaration of war in A pril 1917 found America’s military
woefully unprepared. The regular army consisted of 120,000 enlisted men,
few with combat experience, plus some 80,000 recently federalized
National Guardsmen. Enough ammunition was on hand for only two days
of fighting. T he War Department was a snake pit of jealous bureaucrats.
To raise an army and impose order on the War Department constituted the
most immediate challenge. The brilliant army chief of staff Peyton C.
Marsh handled the latter task, and Wilson’s Secretary of War, Newton D.
Baker, took on the former. The fast -talking reform mayor of Cleveland,
Baker was a poor administrator but a public relations genius. The
Selective Service Act of May 18, 1917, required all young men between
twenty -one and thirty (later expa nded to eighteen and forty -five) to
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129 By November 1918 more than 24 million American men had registered, of
who nearly 3 million were drafted Volunteers and National Guardsmen
swelled the total to 4.3 million.
Thanks to a prece dent-breaking decision by Secretary of the Navy
Josephus Daniels, eleven thousand women served in the navy in World
War I, and several hundred in the marines. Although not assigned to
combat duty, these women performed crucial support functions as nurses,
clerical workers and telephone operators.
The War Department’s original plan called for several months of training,
but some urgently needed draftees embarked for France after only a few
weeks.
11.6.3 Organizing the Economy for War:
The coming of war in 1917 brought not only military mobilization but also
unprecedented government oversights of civilian life. For decades,
reformers had called for greater government control of the economy, and
now, under the stress of war emergency, an elaborate framework o f
control quickly took shape.
In 1916, Congress created an advisory body, the Council of National
Defense, to oversee the government’s preparedness program. In 1917 this
council set up the War Industries Board (WIB) to coordinate military
purchasing fight waste, and ensure that the military’s needs for weapons,
equipment, and supplies were met. The WIB limped along until March
1918, when Wilson reorganized it and put Bernard Baruch in charge.
Under Dr. Baruch, the WIB for a few months exercised enormous con trol
over the industrial sector. In addition to allocating raw materials, the board
established production priorities and introduced all kinds of efficiencies.
As a war measure, the WIB induced companies that had been bitter
competitors to standardize and coordinate their production processes to
save steel, rubber, and other scarce commodities.
Another wartime conservation measure, daylight saving time, was
introduced by federal law in March 1918. Benjamin Franklin, in the
1770s, had originally proposed th e idea of adjusting the clocks to take
advantage of the longer summer daylight hours, but it took the war
emergency to bring it about.
Baruch’s counterpart on the agricultural front was Herbert Hoover, head
of the Food Administration Born in poverty in Iow a; Hoover had
prospered as a mining engineer in Asia. He was organizing food relief in
Belgium when Wilson brought him back to Washington. The Food
Administration, created by Congress in August 1917, oversaw the
production and allocation of foodstuff -espec ially wheat, meat, and sugar -
to assure adequate supplies for the army as well as for the desperately
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130 The War Industries Board and the Food Administration represented only
the tip of the regulatory iceberg. Nearly five thousand governme nt
agencies supervised home -front activities during the war. The Overman
Act of May 1918 gave President Wilson ultimate control of this vast
tangle of federal agencies, including the Fuel Board, and the National War
Labor Board, which resolved labor -manage ment dispute that jeopardized
production. When a massive railroad tie -up during the snowy winter of
1917 -1918 threatened the flow of supplies to Europe, the government
simply took over the system. Within a few months, the U.S. Railroad
Administration, head ed by Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo,
transformed the four hundred thousand miles of track owned by nearly
three thousand competing companies into an efficient national
transportation system.
American business, long a target of attack by progr essive reformers
utilized the war emergency to improve its image. Corporate executives
poured into Washington as consultants and advisers. Factory owners
distributed prewar propaganda to their workers. Trade associations worked
to mobilize the nation’s pro ductive strength behind the war.
In place of the trustbusting of a few years before the government how
waived the antitrust laws and actively encouraged industrial cooperation.
The number of major corporate mergers in 1917 soared to nearly two
hundred, mor e than twice the annual average for the immediate prewar
years.
This colossal regulatory apparatus fell apart quickly when the war ended,
but its influence lingered. The corporate mergers and coordination of the
war years profoundly affected the future evo lution of American business.
And the old laissez -faire further blows in 1917 -1918. In the 1930s, when
the nation faced a different kind of crisis, the government activism of
World War I would be remembered.
11.6.4 Advertising the War:
For President Wilson the war at home was no less important than the war
in France. Wilson’s was aware that millions of Americans opposed the
war. The opponents of the war represented many diverse view points, but
collectively they posed a formidable barrier to Wilson’s dream of rallying
the nation behind his crusade for a new and finer world order.
Seeking initially to overcome domestic opposition by voluntary rather
than coercive means, the Wilson administration drew upon the new
professions of advertising and public relation s to sell the war to
Americans. Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo set the tone.
McAdoo played a critical role in raising the enormous sums needed to
defray the costs of the war. Including loans to the Allies, World War I cost
the United States $35.5 billion - more than the government had spent in its
entire first century of existence. About two -thirds of this amount was
raised by a series of government bond drives, called Liberty Loans,
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131 borrowing, the national debt rose from $1 billion in 1914 to nearly $27
billion in 1919.
The remaining one -third of the government’s war costs came from the
pockets of the American people in the form of higher taxes. Taking
advantage of its new power to tax individual income granted by the
Sixteenth Amendment (ratified in 1913), Congress imposed stiff wartime
income taxes that rose as high as 63 percent at the top income levels. War -
profits taxes, excise taxes on liquor and luxuries, and increased estate
taxes also helped finance the war.
A progressive reformer and journalist named George Creel headed
Washington’s most effective wartime propaganda agency, the Committee
on Public Information (CPI). Established in April 1917, ostensible to
combat wartime rumors by providing authoritative information, the Creel
committee in reality functioned as a propaganda agency, tirelessly
proclaiming the government’s version of reality and discrediting those
who questioned that version.
11.6.5 Support to intellectuals, Cultu ral Leaders and Reformers to
War:
The nation’s teachers, writers, religious leaders and magazine editors
overwhelmingly supported the war. These custodians of culture saw the
conflict as a struggle to defend threatened values and standards. Historians
comp osed learned essays contrasting Germany malignant power and
glorification of brute force with the Allies’ loftier, more civilized ideals.
Many progressive reformers who had applauded Wilson’s domestic
program now cheered his war. The wartime climate of he ightened
government activism and sacrifice for the common good, they believed,
would encourage further reform activity.
11.6.6 Wartime Intolerance and Hysteria:
Responding to this drumfire of propaganda, some Americans became
almost hysterical in their h atred of all things German, their hostility to
aliens and dissenters, and their strident patriotism. Isolated actions by
German saboteurs, including the blowing up of a New Jersy munitions
dump, fanned the flames.
11.6.7 Opponents of the War:
Despite the overheated conformist climate, a few Americans refused to
support the war. Some were German -Americans with ties of memory and
ancestry to the land of their forebears. Others were religious pacifists,
including Quakers, Mennonites, and members of other hist oric peace
churches.
Socialist party leaders, including Eugene V. Debs and Victor Berger,
opposed the war on political grounds. They regarded it simply as a
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132 mere cannon fodder. The U. S. devaluation of war, they insisted, reflected
mainly Wall Street’s desire to protect its loans to England and France.
The war produced deep fissures within the American women’s movement.
11.6.8 Suppressing Dissent by Law:
Wartime intolerance also found expression in federal laws and in the
actions of top government officials. The Espionage Act of June 1917
prescribed fines of up to ten thousand dollars and prison sentences of up to
twenty years for a variety of loosely defined antiwar activities. The ev en
more severe sedition Amendment to the Espionage Act (May 1918)
imposed heavy penalties on anyone convicted of using “disloyal, profane,
scurrilous, or abusive language” about the government, the Constitution,
the flag, or the military.
Wilson’s reaction ary attorney general, Thomas W. Gregory of Texas,
employed these measures to stamp our dissent. Under this sweeping
legislation and similar state laws, the authorities arrested some fifteen
hundred pacifists, socialists, and others whose only crime was to speak or
write against the war. Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland
sentenced to ten years in a federal penitentiary for a noninflammatory
speech discussing the economic causes of war.
The Espionage Act also authorized the post -master general to bar f rom the
mail a wide variety of suspect material - a provision enthusiastically
enforced by Wilson’s postmaster general, Albert s. Burleson, a pompous,
radical hating superpatriot. Burleson suppressed a number of socialist
periodicals.
A few citizens protes ted these actions. Wilson did little to restrain either
his postmaster general or his attorney general nor did the U.S. Supreme
Court. In 1919, decisions, the Court upheld the Espionage Act convictions
of persons who had spoken out against the war.
The wa rtime mood, originally one of idealism and high resolve, had
degenerated into fearful suspicion, narrow ideological conformity, and
persecution of those who failed to meet the zealots’ notions of “100
percent Americanism”. The effects of this ugly wartime climate would
linger long after the armistice was signed.
11.7 PARIS PEACE CONFEREN CE
At the outset of the war it was assumed that the United States would
remain neutral, but a considerable majority of American people quickly
became committed to the cause of Britain and France. This was due not
only to the strong ethnic and cultural ties between the United States and
Britain but also due to considerations of national interest. On the other
hand Germany’s drive for colonies and her aggressive methods of
diplomacy had aroused growing antagonism and alarm in the United
States. Majority of Americans believed that a German victory would
endanger their interests, institutions and ideals. Wilson assumed direct munotes.in

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133 control over the American foreign policy and his perso nal convictions
were therefore of Special importance. He had strong personal sympathy
for the cause of the allies and believed that they were much less to blame
than the Germans. As early as 1914 he had said privately that England was
fighting our (the Uni ted States) war. A German victory would compel the
United States to give up its present ideals and devote all its energies to
defense, which would mean the end of its present system of government.
Wilson thus put in nutshell the basic motivation of America n policy. After
he was re -elected in 1916 Wilson explored the possibility of a negotiated
peace by asking both sides to state the terms for which they were fighting.
Their replies showed clearly that neither side was willing to settle for
anything less tha n total victory. He then formulated his own conception of
a satisfactory peace. This was Wilson’s last chance to act as a mediator.
January 1917 the German government announced unrestricted sub marine
war fare around Britain and France, and that neutral an d belligerent ships
would be sunk. On 12 March the first American ship was sunk and within
the next three weeks five more ships were sunk. On 6th April 1917 the
United States declared war against Germany.
On 18th January Wilson summarized his objectives in his Fourteen Points.
Open covenants of peace openly arrived at, freedom of seas, removal of
economic barriers between nations, reduction in armaments, an impartial
settlement of Colonial Claims and a general association of nations were
some of the most im portant of the fourteen points. On 11th November
1918 Germany accepted an armistice and the war came to an end.
Wilson headed the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in
January 1919. He did not invite any of the spokesmen or leaders of the
Republican Party to join him. This was a serious error of judgment on his
part. He was so convinced of the righteousness of his own ideals. Wilson’s
main victory was the establishment of the League of Nations. The Paris
Peace Treaty was signed in June 1919 and submitted to the United States
Senator in July. Eventually, the whole treaty, of which the Covenant of the
League of Nations was a part, was defeated. In retrospect it does not seem
likely that American membership of the League would have made it
effec tive. The really underlying question was whether the United States
would continue to act with Britain and France in defense of the Settlement
her armed forces had helped to win. By her refusal to assume
commitments, the United States would continue to act with Britain and
France in defense settlement her armed forces had helped to win. By her
refusal to assume commitments, the United States helped to create a
general sense of instability that led in the end to another division of the
world into two hostile camps.
Check Your Progress:
1) What was the foreign policy America towards China?
2) Where was the Peace Conference held after World War -I?
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134 11.8 SUMMARY
By the end of the 19 th century many western countries needed the foreign
markets for selling of manufacture d goods as well as for getting the raw
materials and hence they followed the expansionism policy. America
being a developed nation also needed the colonies for raw materials and
selling of goods and therefore followed expansionism. Theodore
Roosevelt becam e President in 1901 and was inclined to use strong arm
methods in foreign policy. There was the competition among these
western dominant developed countries in Asian and African continents.
This led to the aggressive imperialism and expansionism which resu lted
into the First World War. In the beginning of war America did not want to
participate in the war but the circumstances compelled her to enter into it
and she played an important role in post war Paris Peace Conference of
1919.
11.9 QUESTIONS
1. Discuss expansionism and imperialism of America.
2. Evaluate the role of Theodore Roosevelt during the World War –I.
11.10 SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Parker, Henry Bamford. The United States of America a history,
Scientific Book Agency. Calcutta.
2. Hill, C.P. A history of th e United States. Arnold – Heinemann India.



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135 12
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
(1920 -1945)
Unit Structure:
12.0 Objectives
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The Versailles Peace Conference
12.3 The United States and Far East
12.4 The Washington Conference
12.5 The Japanese Immigration
12.6 The Failure of the Naval Limitations
12.7 The United States and Europe
12.8 The United States and Latin America
12.9 The Good Neighbor Policy
12.10 Rearmament
12.11 The Munich Crisis
12.12 Lend -Lease and Battle of the Atlantic
12.13 Japan Joins the Axis
12.14 Summary
12.15 Questions
12.16 Suggested Readings
12.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To study role of America in the Versailles Peace Conference.
2) To Understand the American Policy in Europe.
3) To examine the United States and her policy I Latin America.
4) To analyses the good n eighbor policy of America.

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136 12.1 INTRODUCTION
Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s a majority of American people were
unwilling to assume binding commitments to act against an aggressor or to
give support in the event of war. But this did not mean that the Unit ed
States refrained from seeking international agreements. In fact, the
Harding, Coolidge and Hoover administrations assumed world leadership
in promotion of disarmament, peaceful settlement of disputes, and
economic stabilization. This even included some cooperation with the
League of Nations on non -political questions. Although the United States
refused to become a member she sent delegates to more than forty League
conferences between 1924 and 1930. Her concern with world affairs was
due not only to a ge neral interest in peace but also to a rapid expansion of
her foreign trade and overseas capital investment. Unfortunately attempts
made during the 1920’s to bring about international harmony had only
temporary results.
12.2 THE VERSAILLES PEACE CONFERENCE
Wilson’s idealistic emphasis on self -determination and democracy
influenced some of the treaty’s provisions. Germany’s former colonies (as
well as those of Turkey in the Middle East) went to the various Allies
under a “mandate” or trusteeship system by wh ich they would eventually,
at least in theory, become independent. The treaty also recognized the
independence of Poland; the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
(territories that Germany had seized in a harsh peace treaty with Bolshevik
Russia in March 1918); and two new nations carved from the wreckage of
the Austro -Hungarian and Ottoman empires; Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia.
On balance, however, the Versailles treaty proved a disaster. Not only did
its provisions arouse festering resentment in Germany, but its framers
made no effort to come to terms with revolutionary Russia. Indeed, even
as the Versailles conference was going on, Allied troops took part in a
campaign to overthrow Russia’s new Bolshevik government. In August
1918 a fourteen n ation Allied force had landed at various Russian ports on
the Baltic and at Vladivostok in Siberia, ostensibly to protect Allied war
material and secure the ports from German attack. But these troops were
soon assisting a counter -revolutionary Russian forc e (including both
tsarists and liberal democrats) seeking to overthrow Lenin.
U.S. troop, with Wilson’s approval, participated in this intervention. By
the end of 1918, seven thousand AEF members who had hoped to spend
the holidays at home found themselves in Siberia, where they remained
until April 1920. Like nearly every political leader of his day, Woodrow
Wilson was strongly anti Bolshevik. Having welcomed the liberal Russian
revolution of March 1917, he viewed Lenin’s October coup, and Russia’s
subsequ ent withdrawal from the war, as a betrayal of the Allied cause and
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137 The Versailles treaty reflected this hostility. Its territorial settlements in
Eastern Europe were designed to keep Russia as weak as possible. Be fore
leaving Versailles, Wilson and the other Allied leaders agreed to support a
Russian military leader, Admiral Aleksander Kolchak, who was waging
what would prove to be an unsuccessful campaign against the Bolsheviks.
Wilson, who had earlier refused to recognize Huerta and his government
of “butchers” in Mexico, now refused to recognize Lenin’s communist
government. (The United States did not recognize the Soviet Union until
1933)
12.3 THE UNITED STAT ES AND THE FAR EAST
Distrust of Japan occasioned an im mediate change of direction. Wilson
had refused to include in the League Covenant clause requested by the
Japanese government declaring the equality of races, because in his view
this was inappropriate to an organization of governments. To the Japanese,
nationalism was identical with race -consciousness, and they were angered.
Americans were disturbed by the massive Japanese intervention in Siberia,
which continued after the withdrawal of American troops in 1920. Many
theoretical isolationists urged a strong policy to counter Japanese
imperialism. An “inevitable” war between the two countries was
frequently discussed in both of them. The United States found itself
strategically isolated from the Philippines by the former German islands
now in Japanese hands u nder League mandate. Wilson had tried to save
the island of Yap for a cable station, and the Department of State
persistently urged Japan to concede this point. To offset Japanese
influence in China, Wilson himself had revived Dollar Diplomacy after
the Un ited States entered the war. He induced hesitant American bankers
to join a Four Power Consortium to prevent Japan from gaining exclusive
leadership in Chinese economic development and the agreement was
signed on October 15, 1920. But the Lansing -Ishii Agr eement and Japan’s
success in obtaining Shantung shifted the balance in her favour.
American -Japanese tension was chiefly expressed in a naval building race.
This dangerous rivalry involved Great Britain as well. Warships require
years to pass from drawing -board to shake -down cruise, and none of the
three powers was disposed to halt construction when the Armistice
suddenly came. The Japanese were convinced that the new American and
British fleets were intended for use against their country; American
superpa triots were convinced that the Anglo -Japanese Alliance would
bring the British and Japanese navies into battle against the United States;
Britain assumed that her traditional supremacy on the seas and her far -
flung Empire justified naval superiority. Here was a situation that the
League of Nations was intended to solve.
Some American isolationists, led by Senator Borah, decided that the
United States must do something outside the League. His proposal of a
disarmament conference won a great public response a nd overwhelming
vote in Congress. Britain hurried to act, but Secretary Hughes sent out
invitations on July 8, 1921. He included France, Italy, Belgium China, The
Netherlands, and Portugal, and proposed discussion of the whole range of munotes.in

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138 Pacific and Asian te nsions. Reluctantly and with reservations, Japan
accepted the invitation to convene in Washington, while the other powers
came eagerly. The most important international conference to meet in
America prior to the United Nations began less than a year after Wilson
left the White house.
12.4 THE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE
In the United States only extreme chauvinist newspapers, led by the Hearst
chain and a few isolationists, including Senator Borah, protested against
the results of the Washington Conference. Early in 1922, the Senate
approved by heavy votes the Five -Power Naval Treaty, the Four Power
Consultation Treaty and the Nine -Power Open Door Treaty, besides a
batch of lesser agreements. The achievement of Secretary Hughes seemed
immense and most observers be lieved that the Conference turned the tide
towards thoughts of peace instead of war in the Far East. In later
perspective its value was written down. Time showed that economic
exploitation of China was not affected. The United States seemed to have
avoided the embarrassments of its unilateral support of China and the
Open Door by unloading it onto other nations which were very unlikely to
act in case of violations. For its right to fortify island possessions, the
United States had exchanged promises by Japa n which were not trust -
worthy. Most elusive was the naval -limitation agreement because light
cruisers, destroyers, and submarines were not affected by it, and the naval
race simply shifted to these weapons. When the test of the Washington
Treaties came wit hin a decade, they were no obstacle to the revival of
Japanese imperialism. In the meantime, they gave the world a false sense
of security.
It is more difficult to say what should have been done by Hughes in the
pressing circumstances of 1921. Admittedly t he Treaties required the
continuing good faith of all the signatories to observe their letter and spirit
or if one refused the determination of the others to act. It was not the
Treaties of Washington that failed, but the peoples and governments who
later violated their commitments or failed to act against the violators. The
treaty structure created by the Washington conference amounted to a
regional system of collective security for the Pacific Ocean and the Far
East, and the most substantial efforts to ca rry out the disarmament
program of the League Covenant. The strategic meaning of the 5 -5-3 ratio
was that none of the three leading naval powers could launch aggressive
actions against the others. Considered in the context of the time, the work
of Secretar y Hughes contributed substantially to world peace, and the
Washington Conference had little competition as the worthiest
accomplishment of the Harding administration.
A good reason for optimism about the Washington Treaties during the
mid-twenties was the evolution of Japanese internal politics away from
militarism and imperialism and towards democracy. For the first time, a
civilian became Premier of Japan. The franchise was universalized, trade
unions grew stronger and the improvement of the lot of the h ome
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139 manufactures, the need for which Japanese imperialists used to justify
conquests. But another American action in the midst of this encouraging
development strengthened the imperialists i n their bid for a return to
power. The hypersensitivity of the Japanese about their racial prestige was
once more needlessly offended, this time by the federal government itself.
12.5 JAPANESE IMMIGR ATION
Some Californians and others were not satisfied wit h the Gentlemen’s
Agreement of 1908. They complained that Japanese -Americans were
bringing in “picture brides” and having too many children. When the
Immigration Act of 1924 was debated in Congress, opponents of Japanese
immigration were not content to rel y on the quota system (annual
admission of 2 percent of a country’s nationals present in the United States
in 1890), though this allowed Japan only 250 per year. Congress insisted
on a total and special legislative ban. It inserted in the Act a clause
prohibiting entrance to any “aliens intelligible to citizenship” - which
meant Japanese because all other Asians were excluded by other laws. The
enactment would abrogate the Gentlemen’s Agreement. Secretary Hughes
opposed this offense to Japanese pride, and i nvited the Japanese
Ambassador to state the case of his country to Congress. But the
Ambassador unwisely uttered the threat of “grave consequences” if the
law passed. This inflamed American sentiment. Congress voted Japanese
exclusion by large majorities a nd President Coolidge signed the Act. It
brought on paroxysms of resentment in Japan. The Japanese paid no more
attention to the triviality of the number of immigrants involved than
Americans had; they took it as the worst of injuries, an insult to their r ace.
Hatred of America provided a chief ingredient of the brew which Japanese
imperialists and militarists stirred up to win their way back to power. The
glow of good feeling that following the Washington Conference faded.
12.6 THE FAILURE OF NAVAL LIMITA TIONS
President Coolidge in 1927 tried to extend to light cruisers, destroyers,
and submarines the disarmament principal of 1922. The United States did
not keep pace with the other powers in these classes, or even maintain its
treaty strength in battleshi ps and heavy cruisers. The p resident’s motive
was economy. but his Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg, was not of
Hughes’ and stature, and necessary preparation for a conference was
neglected. France and Italy declined to attend a meeting at Geneva calle d
hastily by the President. Navalists among the delegates were not interested
in disarmament. The crucial distinction was between heavy cruisers
designed for offense and light cruisers for defense, but the delegates failed
to agree on specific definition o f the 5 -5-3 ratio. The Conference was a
complete failure.
The question of the renewal of the original Washington Naval Treaty fell
into the lap of President Herbert Hoover. He, too, opposed expenditure for
the Navy and was inclined towards pacifism. Preli minary discussions
between the United States and Great Britain resulted in agreement that
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140 labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, was very agreeable to antiwar
policies. After discus sion with Hoover in Washington, he invited the naval
powers to general disarmament conference in London. It met in January
1930 with Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson in charge of a bipartisan
American delegation. France demanded military guaranties in e xchange
for naval agreement, but Hoover refused. Italy, growing bellicose under
Mussolini, refused all but a few minor arrangements. Great Britain and the
United States agreed on a maximum for each category of warship. Japan
reluctantly agreed to renew the 5-5-3 ratio except for submarines, in which
it obtained equality. These successes were vitiated by an “escalator”
clause which allowed all the naval powers to exceed their limitations if
any nation not bound by the treaty (meaning Germany and Russia) shou ld
build in way to threaten any one signatory. The treaty in any case would
expire in 1936.
In these disappointing terms the London Naval Treaty was ratified by the
United States, Great Britain, and Japan while something was saved of the
spirit of the 1922 treaty the new one signified the rapid decline of the
hopes for disarmament incorporated in the League Convenient, and the
rise of new threats of war. Japan invaded Manchuria the next year.
Even more disappointing than the London Naval Treaty was the reco rd of
failure to carry out disarmament in land weapons. Here French fear of
Germany was the chief obstacle. The failure of the League powers to
instruments the program of the Covenant was a leading argument used by
Adolf Hitler and German nationalists to o verthrow the Treaty of
Versailles. Finally, in 1932, the World Disarmament Conference met in
Geneva. The United States had reduced its land forces to trifling size after
the war, but it always stood ready to take part in negotiation for
disarmament, whethe r in weapons of land or sea. In the naval sphere,
where the country maintained powerful armaments, it took the lead, set a
strong example, and brought about more actual reduction of armaments
than any other such effort in history. In short, the United Stat es did more
than any League power to carry out the League program for disarmament,
in domestic debate, the Washington Conference established the precedent
that action for disarmament by international agreement was exempted
from isolationist opposition.
Check Your Progress:
1) What is Mandate system?
2) Comment on Japanese immigration.
12.7 THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE
THE WAR DEBTS
Relations with Europe during the twenties were dominated and
exacerbated by the war debts. To most Americans the matter seemed
simple ; European governments had borrowed money from the United
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141 President Coolidge reduced the problem to the ultimate of simplicity in his
characteristic remark: “They hired the money, didn’t they” Many
Europeans viewed the debts with equal simplicity: America was wealthy;
she was fortunate in having been able to contribute mostly treasure to the
common effort for victory, instead of dead and wounded on the French
and British scale; to ask for literal repayment, and interest besides, was to
turn Uncle Sam into “Uncle Shylock”. But these inter governmental loans
could not wisely be either likened to personal debts, or related to personal
emotions of greed or generosity. They were best viewed in their relation to
the common interest of the nations in economic reconstruction and
political amelioration.
To treat the loans as if they were no different from private loans was the
great mistake. In the first place, the transfer of money internationally on
this scale was inseparably linked to other transfers, most obviously to
reparations payments by Germany to the Allies, and most closely to year -
to-year trade balances. In the second place, the United States had not
loaned actual gold to the Allies, alth ough the contracts were drawn in
terms of gold. It had loaned goods -munitions, food and clothing and raw
materials. The only practicable method of repayment was in goods,
because gold in this quantity simply did not exist. But the United States in
the Emer gency Tariff Act of 1921, in the Fordney -McCumber Tariff Act
of 1922, and most drastically in the Smoot -Hawley Tariff Act of 1930,
raised higher and higher protective walls against imports and thereby
made it impossible for foreign countries to build dolla r balances in the
United States which might be used to pay the war debts. Finally, the
United States as the leading creditor nation of the world, now an exporter
of surplus investment capital as well as of surplus farm and factory
products, had an overridi ng interest in developing foreign markets and
economies. Compared with this, the collection of the war debts was
unimportant. But Americans in influential positions came too slowly to
understand the true bearings of the problem. The angers aroused by effor ts
to collect the debts tended to divide the United States from its former
associates and helped open the way for the revival of German aggression.
The United States loaned $10.3 billion to the Allies and new states of
Europe. Almost one -third of the total was contracted for reconstruction
after the Armistice. Britain was the largest borrower ($4.2 billion), France
second ($3.4 billion), and Italy third ($1 -6 billion). The original
understanding was that interest would be 5 percent and repayments spread
over a period of years. The Allies tried at the Paris Peace Conference to
make payment of the war debts to the United States dependent on payment
of reparations by Germany to themselves, but Wilson refused to recognize
any connection. This refusal was maintai ned under Presidents Harding,
Coolidge, and Hoover, until the debts became uncollectable. Then Hoover
indicated he might relent.
The Allies in 1921 set German reparations at the colossal figure of $33
billion. Hopeless and defiant, the government of the Ge rman Republic
inflated its currency and after a few installments gave up the effort to pay.
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142 German reparations returned to the gold standard. As part of the process it
regularized it s war debt to the United States in 1923 in an agreement to
pay 3.3 percent interest and the whole within sixty -two years. France,
however, refused to admit that Germany could not pay and also refused to
pay her debt to the United States. In 1923, the Frenc h army was ordered
into the Ruhr Valley to collect reparations by force. The Germans resisted
by, means of strikes and sabotage, while their government ruined the
German currency, until France gave up. The Allied Reparations
Commission turned to an America n banker, Charles Gates Dawes of
Chicago, to help pull Europe out of economic chaos. Dawes had no
official American position, but Secretary Hughes had quietly worked to
secure his appointment. The Dawes Plan reduced the bill for German
reparations to more reasonable proportions and provided Germany with
private loans with which to establish a new and stable currency.
The key to this solution was the lending of private American capital to
European governmental and private borrowers. This financed the recover y
of German in particular and Europe in general, and facilitated for a few
years’ regular reparations payments, which in turn made possible
payments by the Allies on their war debts to the United States. It was a
bankers’ system providing seemingly profita ble foreign investment of
surplus American capital, and creating European purchasing power for
surplus American farm and factory products. Besides, few understood that
American private capital was going out as long -term unfavorable trade
balances and as pa yments on the war debts to the Treasury. This was the
best method of reconstructing the world’s economic life that businessmen
could organize. The flaw in the system was that United States tariff policy
forced Europeans to spend much of their newly borrowe d American
capital on consumers’ goods which disappeared without leaving a trace of
productivity to yield means of repayment. German municipalities were
particularly lavish in this kind of expenditure. Within a few years
payments on earlier American loans were made with money obtained by
new borrowings in America.
The Dawes Plan initiated the only approximation of postwar recovery
Europe was to know. A threat by the Department of State to discourage
private American loans to European countries in default on their war debts
finally brought Italy (November 1925) and France (April 1926) to agree
on payments The United States reduced the interest rate to 0.4 per cent for
Italy and 1.6 per cent for France. The smaller debtor nations received
similar concessions. The momentary political pacification of Europe in the
later twenties was founded on this economic arrangement. But political
resentments against the United States had been aroused, particularly in
France. Americans generally including Treasury officials an d the
investment bankers who channeled American money into Europe to make
the whole system work, failed to understand that the structure was
unsound and certain to collapse if the United States persisted in its
campaign to export virtually everything, incl uding investment capital, and
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143 No country ever before found itself in the new American position of
producer of surpluses in all three main categories of manufactures, farm
produce, and investment capit al, so it is not strange that Americans failed
to adjust their thinking and their government policy immediately to the
need for a sound, long -range solution of the problem. Secretary Hughes,
by his work for the Dawes Plan and for war debt settlements which
seemed reasonable at the time, did as much as could be expected of a
business -oriented administration to find solutions that worked for the short
range. But this success generated over optimism. Foreign borrowers and
American investment bankers in the lat e twenties became reckless.
German reparations were viewed as the key to international economic life,
and a final effort was made to satisfy German complaints in January 1929,
when Owen D. Young and J.P. Morgan were appointed to aid a new
committee on Germ an Reparations. Young became chairman, and the
committee’s report, designated the Young Plan, reduced the amount of
reparations to 58 billion and allowed almost 60 years for payment.
International transfer of money was to be facilitated by a Bank for
international settlements whose profits would eventually be used to pay
Germany’s installments for her. German payments would be further
reduced if the United States would reduce the war debt. Long before this
Plan could show results, the speculative boom in Am erican domestic
investments drained capital away from the ever -growing structure of
American investments abroad on which the whole system of inter -
governmental payments depended. At the same time Congress became
bitterly insistent that the Executive must n ot “play Undle Sam for a
sucker” by forgiving the war debts. In the hurricane of the Great
Depression, the entire international financial structure collapsed while
Congress continued to make it impossible for administrations to negotiate
a solution. It acc epted default of the war debts, at first thinly veiled as a
“moratorium”, rather than consider any adjustment by agreement. The
only value rescue by the United States from the debacle was an
inescapable example of how not to handle the problem of war debts and
the related problems of reparations, private foreign investments, and tariff
rates. The lesson boiled down to the conclusion that these questions cannot
be viewed as purely business matters but must be considered from the
point of view of integrated e conomic and political policy towards the
world and the long -range national interest.
12.8 THE UNITED STAT ES AND LATIN AMERICA
Intervention by one nation in the affairs of other countries is aggression,
no matter how lofty the purpose or how veiled the use of force. It was a
weakness of President Wilson understands of collective security that he
held to the traditional view that the United States had extralegal rights in
the American hemisphere of the sort he would not admit when Japan tried
to assert them i n the Far East. At the end of his eight years as President the
United States was engaged in more interventions in Latin America than at
the beginning; and Secretary Hughes extended them, so that in 1925 the
United States controlled the financial policies o f half of the twenty
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144 But the opinion was growing among American internationalists that
interventionism must be abolished. This was the view of an influential
section of the press, led by the New Yor k World and the New Republic,
and of muckraking books like Dollar Diplomacy by Scott Nearing and
Joseph Freeman (1925) - exaggerated in its thesis but shocking in its
factual details. Anti -imperialism was one of the few prewar reformist
movements that surv ived into the twenties. United States officials were
embarrassed by the growing insistence of representatives of the Latin
American republics that Uncle Sam stop exercising his benevolence with
bayonets. Among the career officers of the Department of State , Summer
Welles, on the basis of long experience in Latin America, took leadership
in a drive to end interventionism. Late in the twenties, this new force of
anti-imperialist opinion, with its important implication for collective
security, met head -on the surviving doctrine of interventionism as a
necessity for United States security. The anti -imperialists won this
struggle, with the consequence that Republican administrations
inaugurated what became known under President Roosevelt as the “Good
Neighbor Pol icy”.
12.8.1 Mexico and Nicaragua:
Once more Mexico and Nicaragua tested United States Policy in Latin
America. Almost unnoticed by Americans in 1917, Mexico adopted a new
constitution full of dynamite for future relations with the United States. It
was a nticlerical and led to struggles between Church and State which
troubled American Catholics. It strongly favoured peasants and labourers
but it was anticapitalistic only as it applied to foreign ownership of
Mexican resources. Essentially it was nationalis tic.
A clause of Article 27 of the Constitution restored the ancient Spanish rule
that subsoil resources are inalienable property of the government.
Americans who had obtained vast oil and mineral resources under the
Porfirio Diaz regime feared that the ru le would be applied retroactively to
invalidate their titles. When President Obregon succeeded Carranza in
1920, the Wilson administration refused to recognize him because he
would not give a guarantee against retroactive application of Article 27.
Secret ary Hughes, however, obtained assurances in the Bucareli Executive
Agreement of 1923 that pre -1917 American titles to subsoil resources
could be validated by some ‘positive act’, and the United States thereupon
recognized the Obregon government. It seemed to nationalistic Latin
Americans and to liberals in America that the United States had once more
used diplomatic pressure to support dubious business interests. Plutarco
Calles was elected President of Mexico in 1924 and he favoured the
nationalists. Hi s campaign to repudiate the Bucareli Agreement and
enforce Article 27 resulted in the Petroleum Law of January 1927. It
limited foreign concessions to 50 years and in the famous Calvo Clause,
required foreign -owned corporations to waive the right to appea l to their
own governments against Mexican law as a condition of their right to
operate. A Land Law limited foreign land ownership and prepared for
division of the great haciendas for the benefit of the peasants. munotes.in

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145 At the same time relations with Nicaragua reached the stage of acute
crisis. United States Marines withdrew in 1925 and the country fell into
civil war. The regime of Adolfo Diaz was supported by American bankers
and received quick recognition by the Coolidge administration. Mexico
recognized the opposing regime. The United States sent Marines back to
Nicaragua to support Diaz. He was allowed to buy arms in the United
States with money supplied by the bankers while his opponents were
embargoed. In 1927, more than 5000 Marines conducted undec lared war
in Nicaragua. President Coolidge justified this by reference to the canal
rights of the United States, and Secretary of State Kellogg tried to gain
popular support by raising a ‘Red scare’. He told Congress, in January,
1927, that a Bolshevik c onspiracy in Mexico and Central America was
directed towards gaining control of the Isthmus for Russia. President
Coolidge countered Calles’ policy with an extreme version of the principle
that American citizens and property in a foreign country are entit led to
governmental protection as if they were at home. Some newspapers tried
to stir up war fever against Mexico.
12.9 THE “GOOD NEIGHBOUR” POLICY
In his first Inaugural Address President Roosevelt devoted one short
paragraph to foreign policy: “In the Field of world policy I would dedicate
this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor -the neighbor who resolutely
respects himself and because he does so, respects the rights of others -the
neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his
agreements in and with a world of neighbors.”
The germ of the foreign policy of the United States during the twelve
cataclysmic years of the Roosevelt administration -and of the United States
ever since - is in these words which received scant attention in the
domestic crisis of 1933. Their full meaning was unfolded by responses to
event rather than by any sudden or sweeping innovations. The “good
neighbor” label meanwhile was attached not to the world policy which
Roosevelt eventually developed but to h is policy in Latin America where
Congress and the public were ready for change when he was inaugurated.
12.9.1 The Liquidation of Imperialism:
Cuba was the scene of the first test of Roosevelt Latin -American policy.
The island fell into civil war in August 1933. The United States had a
treaty right under the Platt Amendment of 1903 to intervene with force to
restore order. But Roosevelt refrained from intervention. The United
States in consultation with other Latin -American governments agreed to
recognize t he new Mendieta government of Cuba. Following a trade -
reciprocity agreement in 1934, the United States imported increased
quotas of Cuban sugar. In the same year the United States in a new Treaty
of Relations abrogated the Platt Amendment. All this fulfill ed the spirit as
well as the letter of a statement made by Roosevelt late in 1933, “The
definite policy of the United States from now on is one opposed to armed
intervention.” The Roosevelt administration also abolished the Quasi -
protectorates over Haiti a nd Panama. In 1934, Americans troops were munotes.in

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146 withdrawn from Haiti and finances of that country were freed from the
control of the National City Bank of New York. A New treaty with
Panama signed in 1936 and ratified in 1939 abolished protectorate features
of the Hay -BunauVarilla Treaty of 1903, including the right of the United
States to intervene. A treaty of 1949 ended United States financial control
over the Dominican Republic.
A plan of independence for the Philippine Island was incorporated in the
Tidings Mc Duffie Act of 1934. A common wealth was organized in 1935
to govern the Islands for a ten -year period until definitive independence
should be established on July 4, 1946. Manuel Quezon was elected first
president of the Philippine commonwealth. The pros pects of putting the
Islands outside United States tariff walls appealed to some interests in the
United States but the Roosevelt administration worked to prevent hardship
for the Island economy. The neglected and impoverished Virgin Island
was afforded so me economic relief by application of new deal measures.
They gained improved political status by the Organic Act of 1936, under
which a territorial legislature was established. A small but fanatical
nationalist movement in Puerto Rico demanded independence . The
majority hoped for statehood or at least an elected governor. Rexford G.
Tug well as Governor from 1941 to 1946 brought a reformist spirit to the
Puerto Ricans. They were granted the right to elect their own governor and
embarked in 1948 under Luis M unoz -Marin on a broad program of social
and economic improvement. In 1952 Puerto Rico became a
commonwealth. A bill to grant statehood in Hawaii was defeated in 1937
because Congressmen distrusted the large Japanese element in the
population as a threat to the security of the great naval base at Pearl
Harbor.
Strategic -defensive naval policy survived the liquidation of American
Imperialism. Cuba granted the United States continued use of Guantanamo
as a naval base in new treaty of 1934, and similar arrangem ents were made
in the Philippines. Nevertheless, the United States led the Great Powers in
the movement to unravel the colonial network of the nineteenth century.
The program for Philippine independence was the first instance of
liberation of nonwhite colo nial peoples which came to fruition after the
Second World War. In Latin American the problem was to allay distrust of
the “Yankee Colossus” by abandoning interventionism and at the same
time to build a mutual security system for the hemisphere to prevent
intervention by other powers. Nazi and Communist activities in various
republics spurred the adoption of a consultative pact by the Buenos Aires
Conference of 1936 which President Roosevelt opened. In 1938, the
republic adopted the Declaration of Lima prom ising to resist all threats to
“the peace security, or territorial integrity of any American Republic.”
Thus, the foundation was laid for the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine
by multilateral procedures which removed from it the suspicion that it
veiled A merican designs upon Latin America.

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147 12.9.2 Mexico:
The most severe test of the sincerity of the Good Neighbor Policy was
posed by Mexico. The radical nationalist administration of President
Lazaro Cardenas in 1938 climaxed his campaign against foreign
owne rship of Mexican resources by expropriating one -half billion dollars’
worth of properties of United States and British oil companies. The date,
March 18, became a national holiday in Mexico. The legal bases of the
Mexican expropriation were the revived Spa nish doctrine of inalienable
governmental title to subsoil resources and the refusal of the oil companies
to concede extreme demands of their Mexican employees which the
Mexican government supported. A movement for forceful intervention
arose in the United States among supporters of property right and some
Roman Catholics who opposed the anticlericalism of the Cardenas
administration. All the Latin America watched the struggle of the militant
Mexican leaders against the country of the Good Neighbor.
Secreta ry Hull maneuvered carefully among these conflicting pressures.
He recognized Mexico’s right of expropriation, while insisting on
compensation to the oil companies and suspending purchases of Mexican
silver by the United States Treasury. A joint commission was established
to determine the amount of compensation due the companies. Mexico
refused to pay for anything except actual capital investments - a small
fraction of the whole. In November 1938, just nor to the Lima conference.
Hull by accepting Mexico’s terms of payment in a lesser dispute over
expropriated agricultural lands indicated that the United States would not
support all the claims of the American companies. During the next three
years the Mexican government raised its tariff rates against import s from
the United States and made better agreements to deliver oil to Germany. In
November 1941, a few weeks before the Pearl Harbor attack Hull without
the oil companies consent, accepted the Mexican terms of settlement
amounting to about $35 million. Rep risals were dropped by both
government and Mexico allied herself to the United States in the Second
World War.
No small country in the neighborhood of a Great Power had ever won
such a victory as this one by Mexico. It contradicted Marxist -Leninist
dogma o n the nature of financial imperialism. It reassured Latin -American
countries that the Good Neighbor Policy presaged the end of economic
exploitation as well as of political and military intervention. Indeed the
United States began, in agreements with Brazi l in March 1939, to make
loan encouraging industrial development in Latin America, a striking
result on which was the erection in Brazil of the first steel mill in the
hemisphere outside the United States. Perhaps the most interesting
consequence of Mexico ’s successful expropriation was a drastic shift in
the policies of United States corporations operating in Latin -American
countries they began to accept advanced local labor and social legislation
and to develop enlightened programs for the benefit of thei r employees.
Consequently, the Mexican example was not widely initiated and Mexico
herself under President Avila Camacho turned moderation and co -
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148 12.9.3 Hemispheric Solidarity:
The Good Neighbor Policy was the first great success of the Roosevelt
administration in foreign relations. Only Argentina which was influenced
by Italian fascism and German Nazism and was ambitious to displace the
United States and leader of the hemisphere, offered important opposition
to the develop ment of hemispheric unity. Canada welcomed application of
the new security system to herself by the promise of President Roosevelt
on August 18, 1938; “The people of the United states will not stand idly
by if domination of Canadian soil is threatened.” Wh en France fell to the
German invaders in 1940 the American security system was instrumented
in the Act of Havana. Under it the 21 republics established a committee to
assume administration of any American colony threatened by aggression.
In case of emergen cy, any one or more of the republics were authorized to
act. In 1941, the United States and Brazil jointly protected Dutch Guiana
when Nazis threatened to take it.
The Act of Havana and the subsequent growth of hemispheric solidarity
demonstrated that the broadest meaning of the Good Neighbor Policy was
collective security against aggression. A usual the United States
instrumented a new foreign policy first in relations with Latin America.
That region was exempt from restrictions which isolationists in and out of
Congress placed upon relations with the rest of the World.
12.9.4 The World Disarmament Conference 1933:
Roosevelt at the time of his inauguration, wanted to move the United
States towards a world policy of collective security and immediately to
join a united front with peaceful nations to stop Hitler. This is shown by
his initial response to the crisis of the World Disarmament Conference at
Geneva. Disarmament Agreements like Latin -American policy were
exempt from the rule of isolationism. The Genev a Conference was
supposed to carry out the promise of the victors in the First World War to
reduce their own land armaments as well as those of the Central Powers.
President Hoover in June 1932 proposed that all the nations reduce their
military establishm ents by one -third. France countered with demand for
prior guarantees to secure herself from attack. In January 1933, President
Hoover tried to satisfy France by asking Congress for authority to
embargo on aggressor nation while sending arms to its victim. This would
add economic sanctions to the diplomatic sanction of the Stimson
Doctrine; President -elect Roosevelt publicly approved the proposal and
retained Norman Davis as head of the United States delegation to the
Conference.
The seizure of power in Germ any by Adolf Hitler in January 1933 made
disarmament urgent in order to frustrate his threat to rearm Germany.
France demanded that the United States make a commitment that it would
impose a discriminatory arms embargo if aggression occurred. This raised
the issue on which the League had been defeated in the United States
Senate. Roosevelt solved the dilemma in April 1933 by offering the
powers in return for a disarmament agreement a consultative pact. He munotes.in

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149 hoped to allay isolationists suspicions by promising no more than that the
United States would confer with the nations if one of them claimed
aggression had been committed, while reserving to the United States
power to decide on its action. The House of Representatives on April 17
approved a resolution embo dying the discriminatory arms embargo.
For a moment the vista opened of the United States helping to stop Hitler
before he started on the course that led to the Second World War. When
Hitler, cornered threatened to withdraw Germany from the Conference,
President Roosevelt on May 16 sent out an “Appeal to the nations,”
proposing universal abandonment of offensive weapons and warning that
no nation should take responsibility for the failure of the Conference.
Hitler turned conciliatory. But on May 27, the Sen ate Committee on
Foreign Relations, the stronghold of isolationism reported on amendment
to the House resolution which required the President to embargo both the
aggressor and the victim in any future war. This was the “new neutrality,”
the isolationist’s prescription for preserving the peace of the United States.
Roosevelt dropped the issue rather than see the Senate vote on the
amended resolution. In the midst of the domestic emergency, he was
unwilling to risk revival of the bitterness of the debate on t he League and
distraction of attention from his crucial recovery measures. France
consequently refused to disarm. The World Disarmament Conference
dragged on until Hitler killed it by withdrawing in October 1933. But for
the Senate, might not the United St ates under the plans devised by
Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt have strengthened collective security
against the foul dictator who plotted the Second World War? This is a
poignant “if” of history.
The furor over arms manufacturers being responsible for Am erican’s entry
in the war and similar exposes led the Senate in April 1934 to authorize an
investigation of the munitions industry under the extreme isolationist
Republican, Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota. Unquestionably the
armaments industry tried to infl uence public opinion and governmental
policy, and for this reason the Roosevelt administration supported the Nye
Investigation in the hope that it would lead to legislation establishing
governmental and international supervision of the industry. But this w as a
far cry from the use Nye made of his power. By tendentious procedures he
convinced many that bankers and munitions makers had successfully
conspired to push the United States into the war for their own profit. The
conclusion followed that Uncle Sam, t o avoid being duped again, ought to
forbid sale of munitions and extension of loans to belligerents. The deep -
seated American deal of peace was channeled into isolationism and
produced an overwhelming demand for a nondiscriminatory arms embargo
when Mussol ini prepared in 1935 to invade Ethiopia.
12.9.5 The Neutrality Act of 1935:
The administration hoped that the League of Nations would impose
sanctions against Italy and support Ethiopia, and that the United States
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150 conceded to isolationist on every point except the crucial one of the arms
embargos. It asked for presidential authority to prohibit loans to
belligerents to forbid American ships to carry munitions to belligerents,
and to wit hdrew diplomatic protection from American who traveled on
belligerent ships - all to prevent “incidents” of the sort which isolationists
believed the Wilson administration had used as “excuses” for falling in
with the conspiracy of bankers and munitions ma kers. But the bill also
granted the President authority to determine which party or parties to a
dispute should be placed under an arms embargo and this would leave
room for him to impose a discriminatory embargo against Italy in
conjunction with the Leagu e while permitting Ethiopia to buy American
arms. The bill ran into adamant opposition from Senators who threatened
to filibuster against the administration domestic reform bills. As Mussolini
blustered that his legions were ready to attack. President Roos evelt on
August 18 addressed to him a personal letter begging him to refrain from
war. The dictator answered that it was too late because Italy had
mobilized, and he cannily added a threat that fed isolationists fears, he said
that any interference would l ead to an extension of the war.
12.9.6 The Neutrality Act of 1936:
Sir Samuel Hoare, Foreign Minister in Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin’s
government and Premier Pierre Laval of France negotiated a pact with
Mussolini to give him virtual control of Ethiopia . News of the project
caused revulsion in British opinion which forced Hoare out of the
government. Anthony Eden as supporter of the League took his place on
December 22 1935. Roosevelt and Hull were encouraged to work in the
next session of Congress for a legal embargo against aggressors on oil and
other new materials. Still he subordinated this aim to the need for
domestic reform the administration bill to change the Neutrality Act was
never reported.
Instead the existing Act was extended to May 1, 1937. An amendment
requiring extension of the arms embargo to any additional nations that
became involved in a war was designed to frustrate the administration’s
plan for a united front of governments opposing aggression Another
change dropped the requirement th at the President apply the Act to nations
at war and granted him discretionary power to apply it when and if he
“shall find that there exists a state of war”.
In this form the President signed the Neutrality Act of 1936 on February
29, Mussolini successful ly carried out his conquest of Ethiopia.
12.10 REARMAMENT
The departure from the British government of its last supporter of
collective security and Hitler’s annexation of Austria on March 12, 1938,
without opposition by Britain or France discouraged Roose velt.
Abandoning his hope that something might be done to implement
quarantine against aggression; he turned to rearmament as the best
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151 to Congress on January 28, 1938, he asked for a he avy naval building
programme to permit simultaneous flex operation in the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. He stated that it was needed “because of the piling up of
additional land and sea armaments in other countries,” in such manner as
to involve a threat to world peace and security.” In 1934 Japan had
denounced the Washington Naval Treaty and in 1935 Great Britain had
agreed to German naval rearmament including unlimited submarine
construction. Now Roosevelt in private discussions with Britain and
France bro ught pressure on them to rebuild their navies according to plans
concerted with his own program. Some isolationists detected the
internationalist purpose of the President and opposed the Two -Ocean
Navy Bill even after they obtained an amendment forbidding the use of the
new navy for “aggression” - which they identified with collective security.
Holding to a different definition the President accepted the amendment
and signed the Act on May 17. It authorized 24 new battleship and
comparable numbers of lesser warship besides some increase in Army and
Air programmes. Without these the United States would have been
rendered defenseless at sea when the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor -and
destroyed mostly old battleships.
12.11 THE MUNICH CRISIS
Hitler with Mussoli ni in tow proceeded during the summer of 1938 to
wage against the Czechoslovakian Republic a “war of nerves” that
threatened to engulf all Europe. Chamberlain amplified his dream of
appeasement to embrace Hitler as well as Mussolini. When Hitler had
whippe d up the crisis to the breaking point by claiming the right to annex
the German -speaking Sudeten areas of Czechoslovakia - which would
give Germany the mountain defense perimeter of the country -Chamberlin
September 22 flew to meet Hitler and beg him to tak e the Sudeten area
peacefully. Hitler immediately raised his demands. Chamberlain
apparently prepared to resist. He ordered air -raid shelters dug in London
mobilized the Royal Navy and warned Hitler that Britain would stand by
France and the chain of allia nces linking the latter to the Soviet Union, and
the Soviet Union to Czechoslovakia. This seemed to Roosevelt an
opportunity to add the moral weight of the United States to the cause of
resistance. On September 26, he addressed messages to the European
leaders appealing for a peaceful solution. But when Chamberlain Premier
Edouard Daladier, Mussolini, and Hitler met at Munich on September 29
the French and British leaders conceded not only the stepped up demands
of Hitler, but new ones besides. The Czechosl ovakian Republic was
dismembered in the resulting Munich Agreement of September 30, in
return for a pledge by Hitler to take his winnings peacefully and refrain
from annexing the defenseless remainder of Czechoslovakia.
With the hysteria of relief much of the world hailed Chamberlain’s boast
that he had won “peace in our time.” But there is much evidence that
President Roosevelt believed the betrayal at Munich had brought war
closer, that dictators could not be appeased. During the months after
Munich he wo rked to reestablish the unity of the Democratic Party, which
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152 decided to abandon further major efforts to obtain domestic reforms for
the sake of an all -out effort to repeal the arms embargo. He stepped up
defense spending and initiated plans for vastly increased aircraft
production in November Hitler lost his followers upon Jews, torturing
them on public streets in broad daylight. His Propaganda Minister Joseph
Goebbels called this proof of t he “Healthy instincts” of Germans.
Roosevelt publicly stated; “I myself could scarcely believe that such
things could happen in a twentieth century civilization” and he recalled the
United States Ambassador from Germany Americans now began to loathe
the Na zi regime as they had probably lathed no other in their history.
Japan, too became bolder after Munich. On November 3, she proclaimed a
“New Order in East Asia” to include annexation of China. the Roosevelt
administration rejected an offer to negotiate ins tead it arranged loan of $25
million to China and private credits for the purchase of war materials. On
November 17, important reciprocity trade agreements with Great Britain
and Canada were hurried to conclusion. In December Hull strengthened
hemispheric defenses in the Declaration of Lima.
12.11.1 The Fight to Repeal the Arms Embargo:
President Roosevelt in his Annual Message on January 4, 1939
subordinated all other issues to obtain repeal of the arms embargo. “There
are,” he said, “many methods short of war, but stronger and more effective
than mere words of bringing home to aggressor governments the aggregate
sentiments of our own people.” First among these methods short of war
was repeal of arms embargo.
This speech was the most important turning poin t in the twelve -year
history of the Roosevelt administration. It marked the end of the creative
period of the New Deal and the beginning of a new period when
strengthening foreign policy commanded the chief attention of Roosevelt
and his subordinates. Agai n, Secretary Hull worked quietly with Senator
key Pittman, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and after
Hitler marched into Prague on March 15, Roosevelt accepted a
compromise resolution to extend “cash -and-carry” to arms and munitions
as well as commodities. This would at least help Britain and France in
their new policy of guaranteeing the independence of Poland and other
countries east of Germany. But isolationists dug in for a fight against all
compromises. Hitler now plainly marked Poland as h is next victim and
Mussolini grabbed Albania on April 7. The president decided that time
was running out and something must be done to warn Hitler that the
economic might of the Unites States would be available to his enemies.
On May 1, cash -and -carry for commodities expired and the Neutrality Act
became more unsatisfactory than ever to internationalists. On May 19,
Roosevelt told House leaders that repeal of the arms embargo and
application of cash -and -carry for all war materials and commodities might
prevent war in Europe or if it did not would make less likely a victory by
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153 The State Department learned that a Nazi -Soviet pact opening the door to
Poland for Hitler was in the making. On July 14, the President sen t to
Congress a special message in terms of the greatest urgently with a
masterly argument by Hull that the best method to secure the peace and
neutrality of the United States was to end the penalty the Neutrality Act
placed upon Great Britain and France.
After this, Congressional leaders abandoned their original argument and
simply denied that Roosevelt and Hull were correct in their warning that
war was imminent in Europe. The Senators told Roosevelt they would
postpone action on the Neutrality Act until the next session of Congress in
January 1940. Roosevelt was defeated. Congress adjourned, but he made
public the contention of the isolationists that there would be no war in
Europe for the present. This helped to discredit them when the fearful
events of August unfolded.
12.11.2 WAR: Repeal of the Arms Embargo:
On August 23, 1939, the Nazi -Soviet Pact was signed. It promised mutual
nonaggression in its public terms and provided in secret protocols for a
division of spoils in Eastern Europe. Safe from the t hreat of a two -front
war, Hitler stormed against Poland and mobilized additional divisions. He
rejected last -minute British efforts to negotiate his pretended grievances
admitting finally that war and conquest was his object. On September 3,
Great Britain and France declared war against Germany in fulfillment of
their guarantee of assistance to Poland. That evening President Roosevelt
addressed the nation. He said he hoped that now “Our neutrality can be
made true neutrality,” by repeal of the arms embargo. When peace has
been broken anywhere the peace of all countries is in danger.
The President called Congress into special session on September 21. Last -
ditch isolationists fought hard but the tide of opinion in and out of
Congress had turned. Americans were frightened by the onrush of Nazi
power and by new moves of Russia, aligning her with Japan as well as
Germany. Their sympathy went out to France and Great Britain not only
on moral grounds but because they began to realize what genuine isolation
of the We stern Hemisphere would mean if brutal dictatorships triumphed
from the Atlantic shores of Europe to China. Roosevelt carefully avoided
one of Wilson’s mistakes by obtaining the co -operation of Alfred M.
Landon and Frank Knox the leaders of the Republican P arty as the nucleus
of a bipartisan coalition to renovate American foreign policy. His
assuagement of anti -New Deal rancor’s began to show results. Almost the
same proportion of the nation’s newspapers that had opposed his
reelection in 1936 -80 per cent - now supported repeal of the arms
embargo.
He told the special session of Congress that he regretted that he had signed
the Neutrality Act - a rare instance of a President admitting he had been
wrong in an important matter. Pleading that repeal of the arms embargo
would restore traditional neutrality he made no secret of his hope that it
would help Britain and France to win the war and argued that this was the munotes.in

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154 best assistance of American peace and security. He was willing that cash -
and -carry should apply to all sales to belligerents and urged that
American ships be forbidden to enter war Zones. Alfred E. Smith returned
to support the President and former Secretary of state Stimson campaigned
vigorously for repeal.
The Senate adopted the bill in the President ’s terms on October 27 by a
vote of 63 to 80. It was the first no isolationist measure to pass that body
since it defeated Wilson and the Leagues. A large majority of
Representatives voted for the measure and the President signed it on
November 4, 1939. At the moment Britain and France made very slight
use of their opportunity to buy Americans and materials. Their leaders
adopted a defensive strategy in the West. The War in its major phase had
not yet begun. But in the United States the era of isolationism was drawing
to a close. President Roosevelt henceforth was never defeated by Congress
on a major issue of foreign policy.
12.11.3 The Axis Challenges 1940 -41:
In April and May 1940, the American people forgot the confusions and
distemper of the winter of “phony war” as they watched Hitler burst into
Norway, Denmark and the Low countries. In June, they were transfixed by
the apparition of savage and triumphant Nazi war machine on French
shores opposite the United States. These were days when consoling
fictions gave way to terror. Americans felt cut adrift from the world as
they had known it. They suddenly demanded strong leadership and swift
action to hold off the appalling danger of conquest of the world by Axis
and Communist dictatorships. Only the coming to power to Prime
Minister Winston Churchill on May 10, and the refusal of the British
people under his galvanizing leadership to compromise, gave Americans a
point of hope. “Aid to Britain!” superseded all other public demands in the
United States.
The Na zi attack on Norway aroused Americans’ emotions, but Germany’s
occupation of Denmark was more strategically important to the United
States. Greenland and Iceland, which were Danish possessions,
commanded the sea and air routes to North America and the poss ibility
that Germany would occupy them created new apprehensions. On April
13, President Roosevelt publicly condemned Nazi aggression against
Norway and Denmark. Hull encouraged the ancient Icelandic parliament,
the Althing to form independent diplomatic r elations with the United
States. On April 18, the President announced that Greenland was part of
the Western Hemisphere and under the protection of the Monroe Doctrine.
The Coast Guard assisted the Greenlanders with food and with arms so
that they were abl e to wipe out several Nazi expeditions to establish
weather stations in the northern wastes of the great island.
Hitler on May 9 began his main assault against France. Destroying the
defenses of The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg he outflanked the
French Maginot Line. Churchill had told the Commons that this policy
was war and victory. He now told Roosevelt privately that the situation of munotes.in

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155 Britain was desperate and that if she felt Americans would face the
Nazified Europe alone. He asked Roosevelt to se nd him immediately a
fleet of overage destroyers, hundreds of airplanes, antiaircraft guns and
ammunition and other materials. Britain would pay dollars as long as her
resources lasted, he said but he would like to be “reasonably sure that
when we can pay no more you will give us the stuff all the same.”
12.11.4 The End of Traditional Neutrality:
Churchill repeatedly warned Roosevelt that if Britain were defeated and
his government overthrown the Royal Navy might be surrendered to
Hitler. Roosevelt ordered the War and Navy Departments to “scrape the
bottom of the barrel” for “surplus” weapons to send to the British. He
hesitated to send the destroyers Churchill wanted, because old rules of
international law forbidding a neutral to send warships to a belliger ent had
been strengthened by Congress, on June 28, in an amendment to a naval
appropriations bill forbidding the President to send any war material
abroad unless the Joint Chiefs -of-staff certified that it was not essential to
the defense of the United Sta tes. This was a constitutional monstrosity as
it gave the President’s subordinates a veto over him, but Roosevelt did not
make an issue of it. On July 31, as Hitler prepared for invasion of the
British Isles. Churchill pressed Roosevelt hard for destroyers with which
to defend the Channel.
12.11.5 The Destroyers -Based Deal:
Roosevelt decided upon a “Deal.” He told Churchill early in August that
he might exchange the destroyers for naval and air bases in British
possessions from New and found to the West Ind ies. Such bases would
obviously be more “essential” to United States defense than the
destroyers. Roosevelt asked, furthermore, that Churchill make a public
declaration that the Royal Navy would go to America rather than
surrender to the Germans. Churchill found both conditions humiliating. As
a horse trade, the deal obviously gave the United States more than Britain
would receive. He solved the problem by making the two most important
bases at Newfoundland and Bermuda, free gifts to the United States. The
other six, in the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua, and
British Guiana, he traded for 50 destroyers. Churchill refused to make the
public declaration about the Royal Navy for fear it would injure morale,
but he gave Roosevelt private assuranc e that a statement of his in
Parliament that Britain would never surrender or scuttle her fleet.
Roosevelt was satisfied. On August 16, he made known to the public that
negotiations were going forward. The response of the people was strongly
favorable.
The Destroyers -Bases Deal was consummated on September 2, 1940, in
an exchange of letters constituting in Executive Agreement. The
destroyers reconditioned and with magazines and larders filled, were
turned over to British crews in Canada. The War and Navy De partment
began to build a ring of bases on sites leased to the United States for 99
years. Criticism of the Deal was largely confined to the President’s failure munotes.in

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156 to send the agreement to the Senate for approval as a treaty. As made
public in an opinion of A ttorney General Robert Jackson, Roosevelt’s
position was that disposition of defense materials is within the President’s
authority as Commander -in-chief. In international law the Deal could be
defended only under the new rules derived from doctrines of col lective
security. It destroyed the neutral status of this country and made it
“nonbelligerent” supporting defenders against aggression.
This strengthened the morale of the British people as they stood alone
under the blitz which Hitler bombers built up to a fearful climax in mid -
September. Roosevelt and Churchill had now shown their remarkable
capacity for diplomacy by personal correspondence.
12.12 LEND -LEASE AND THE BATTLE OF THE
ATLANTIC
The British people withstood the climax of the Blitz in Septemb er. The
danger of German invasion receded. But two new dangers emerged. From
May 1940 to the end of the year, Nazi submarines sank over 3 million tons
of shipping, most of which was engaged in supplying Britain and the rate
of sinking climbed steeply. Afte r Churchill became Prime Minister his
government took full advantage of cash -and-carry to purchase 84.5 billion
of war materials in the United states. Now it was reaching the end of its
cash dollar resources.
On December 8, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt tha t Americans had
evidently determined that their safety was bound up with the survival of
the British Commonwealth Britain would hold off Hitler while the United
States converted its industries to was production. The question of payment
Churchill left to Ro osevelt with confidence “that ways and means will be
found.”
He did not propose the Lend -lease idea. That had already become United
States policy under the Pittman Resolution of June 15, 1940, extending
military and economic aid to Latin -American countries threatened by
aggression. The administration had also found that a law of 1892
authorized the Secretary of war to lease Army property for five years,
“when in his discretion it will be for the public good.” Churchill’s letter
precipitated in Roosevelt’s m ind the ultimate formula of the Lend -Lease
Act.
It geared the war potential of the United States to national foreign policy
instead of leaving the American market opens to competition between
American needs and foreign purchasers. It left the amount and fo rm of
payment to future agreement while the President might “sell, transfer, title
to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of “goods to countries
whose defense he deemed essential to the defense of the United States.
12.12.1 The Atlantic Charter:
These were warnings to Roosevelt that isolationism was far from dead and
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157 against his policy. On July 13, he sent Harry Hopkins to London to
arrange with British leaders for a meeting to con cert plans. In Hopkins’
notes the limits of the President’s policy were clear: “No talk about war”,
and, with respect to postwar settlements: “Economic or territorial deals -
NO”. Hopkins obtained permission from Roosevelt to go on to Moscow to
consult wit h Stalin and obtain information on the quality of Russia’s war
effort. For several days British and American staff officers and Churchill
and Roosevelt conferred on problems of the war.
There issued from the Atlantic Conference a joint declaration stressin g
accomplishments and agreements. The first four points of this Atlantic
Charter amounted to the broadest statement of anti -imperialism ever
supported by a British Prime Minister. The two leaders promised that their
common purposes in the war would allow n o territorial aggrandizement or
changes which did not accord with the wishes of the people concerned.
They affirmed the right of all peoples to choose their form of government
and promised the restoration of self -government to those who had been
forcibly d eprived of them. They promised to further the access of all
nations on equal terms to trade and raw materials. The fifth point promised
international collaboration to improve labour standards, economic
advancement, and social security. The sixth incorporat ed Roosevelt’s
goals of freedom from fear and freedom from want after destruction of the
Nazi tyranny. the seventh affirmed freedom of the seas. The eight, and
from the American long -range viewpoint the most important point
promised that after victory the aggressors would be disarmed and then “a
wider and permanent system of general security” would be established.
The essential meanings of the Atlantic Charter lay in the promise of Great
Britain to abandon imperialism and the promise of the United States to
join an international organization for collective security.
Diplomacy between Roosevelt and Churchill had become relatively easy
by this time. Personal friendship cemented their mutual respect and
understanding. The relation of Stalin to the growing anti -Axis coalition
was troubled by doubts and suspicions. Stalin had informed Hopkins that
the Red Army would begin a counter offensive during the winter and that
he would welcome lend -lease aid. Convinced that it was desirable to
bolster Russian resistance in order to preoccupy vast German forces,
Roosevelt and Churchill authorized diplomatic discussions in Moscow in
September 1941. These resulted in an agreement by the United States and
Britain to send $1 billion of aid to Russia by mid -1942. Roosevelt was
encouraged by Stalin’s willingness to subscribe to the Atlantic charter.
When Congress defeated a prohibition of Russian aid in a new Lend -Lease
appropriation of $6 billion, Roosevelt on November 7 formally declared
Russia eligible.
12.12.2 Undeclared Naval Warfare:
The fact that aid to Russia was shipped chiefly by the dangerous northern
route to Murmansk made victory in the Battle of the Atlantic more
essential than ever. The United States Merchantman Steel Seafarer was
torpedoed and sunk in the Red Sea on S eptember 6. Roosevelt called these munotes.in

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158 acts “piracy -legally and morally.” But he did not ask for a declaration of
war. Instead he announced that henceforth the United States would
counter Hitler’s plan to gain control of the Atlantic with a new policy of
“acti ve defense” The American Navy in its patrol and escort operations
would shoot on sight against any Axis submarine or surface raider found
in the waters up to and including Iceland. This amounted to a policy of
limited undeclared naval warfare.
Roosevelt on October 9 asked Congress to repeal those sections of the
Neutrality Act which prohibited the arming of American merchantmen
and their entry into belligerent posts. Isolationists made a strong stand, but
submarine sinking’s of two destroyers in October wit h a loss of 126 lives,
besides the sinking of merchant ships weakened their cause. The logic of
the situation demanded that the United States act to assure delivery of the
massive shipments of Lend -Lease materials to which it was committed.
On November 13, the pertinent clauses of the Neutrality Act were
repealed.
The President and many of his supporters still hoped that the United State
without engaging in full -fledge war could help Great Britain and Russia
gain the victory over Hitler. But a growing numbe r of interventionists
believed that the United States was now committed so deeply to the anti -
Hitler cause that it was futile and even ignoble to limit American
participation to the Battle of the Atlantic Isolationists on the other hand,
intensified their opposition as their numbers dwindled. All three groups
considered the least likely outcome to be an overt Axis attack upon
American soil.
12.13 JAPAN JOINS THEAXIS
Germany, Italy and Japan signed a military alliance on September 27,
1940. British, Australi an and American leaders did not believe that the
Japanese would be so foolhardy as to attack the United States directly. The
British wanted President Roosevelt to commit himself to war in case Japan
attacked non -American territories, but he refused. Withou t his authority,
Admiral Harold R Stark, Chief of Naval Operations began staff talks in
January 1941 between British and American military leaders. Again, the
British tried but failed to obtain the commitment they wanted. In April,
1941, a new series of st aff talks began at Singapore among United States,
British, Australian and Dutch officers. Their Report, called “ABD” not
only included plans contingent upon United states entry into the war but
also named circumstances in which the United States would ente r it,
including Japanese attack upon certain non -American territories. For fear
that this might constitute a commitment Admiral Stark and General
George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, refused to sign the ADB report.
Again, at the Atlantic Conference in August 1941, British leaders tried to
obtain an American promise to go to war in circumstances short of direct
attack upon American territory; again, they failed. These efforts continued
until the very moment of the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor and ar e
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159 commitment to war, although the staff talks of 1941 were later
misinterpreted by critics and made the grounds for such a charge.
12.13.1 Diplomatic Negotiations with the Japanese:
Early in 1941, President Roosevelt and his chief advisers agreed that the
world strategy of the United States would be to aid in the defeat of
Germany and Italy first, and postpone crisis in the Pacific as long as
possible. This decision was based upon the fact that Germany was by far
the most powerful of the three aggressors, and the calculations that if
Germany were defeated Japan would be isolated and relatively easy to
defeat, whereas the converse would not be true if the United States
concentrated first upo n Japan. As a corollary, Roosevelt and Hull in
February 1941 initiated diplomatic negotiations with Japan to explore
every possibility of restraining her leaders short of appeasement at the
expense of third countries.
12.13.2 American - Japanese Crisis - Pearl Harbor:
Hitler’s invasion of Russia in June 1941 further improved Japan’s
position. The militarists prepared to take advantage of the increased
preoccupation of the major powers by moving southward to carve out an
empire. News of this in Magic intercep ts reached the American leaders in
Washington including a message of Matsoukis to Nomura that diplomatic
negotiation should be carried on to prevent the United States from “joining
the war”, while Japan would decide “when and how force will be
employed.” I n July, Japanese troops invaded southern Indo -China and
built up bases which pointed towards the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore
and the Netherlands East Indies. This new aggression made a force of
Nomura’s professions of his government’s peaceful intention s. Hull broke
off the conversations. On July 24, President Roosevelt explained to
Nomura that by continuing to allow Japan to obtain oil in the United
States he had hoped to avoid giving her an “incentive or pretext “for
conquest of the Netherlands East In dies, but that now it appeared that
American oil simply helped her carry -on aggression. He proposed as a
way out that Japan and the United States agree to neutralize Indo -China.
The next day the United States tightened economic restrictions by freezing
Japanese assets in order to prevent their use in trade in ways “harmful to
national defense and American interests”.
Ambassador Joseph C. Grew in Japan warned Hull and Roosevelt that the
“moderate” government of Konoye would fall if Roosevelt refused his
terms for a meeting and that a policy of “constructive conciliation” of
Japan should be found between the roads of appeasement and of economic
sanctions which might lead to war. He advised Hull and Roosevelt that
they should not expect specific commitments bef ore a meeting with
Konoye. But in fact, the Konoye government did make its terms quite
clear, and Roosevelt and Hull rejected them because they would require
the United States to support Japanese aggression. Hull told Nomura on
October 2, that peace would not be served by a Roosevelt -Konoye meeting
on the basis of Japan’s terms but he assured him that President still hoped munotes.in

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160 that a meeting could be held. On October 16, the Konoye government fell
and the “Pearl Harbor” government of Premier Hideki Tojo and For eign
Minister Togo took power.
Check Your Progress:
1) What is the neutrality act of 1953?
2) Comment on Atlantic Charter.
12.14 SUMMARY
So, the United States entered the Second World War defensively by the
acts of the aggressor nations. The challenge to America n survival was so
clear and menacing that the people and their political parties closed ranks
far more tightly than in the First World War and far more sternly than the
Axis militarists; with their contempt for “degenerate democracy”,
expected. The Pearl H arbor attack and the declarations of war by Hitler
and Mussolini killed American isolationism. The hope that out of their
new realization of national insecurity the American people and their
government could develop a new world order of collective security was
dependent first of all upon victory in the most dangerous war the Unites
States had ever fought.
12.15 QUESTIONS
1) Explain American foreign policy with reference to Europe.
2) Evaluate the Good Neighbor policy of America.
3) Write Short Notes:
i) U.S.A. and Latin America
ii) Rearmament
iii) Atlantic charter
iv) U.S.A. and Japan Crisis
12.16 SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Parker, Henry Bamford. The United States of America A History.
Scientific Book Depot. Calcutta 1.
2. Beards New Basic History of the United States; Ne w York, 1960.
3. Hill, C.P., A History of United States. Arnold Heinemann, India.
4. Bayer, TheOxford Companion to United States History, New York,
2001.
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161 13
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY:
COLD WAR AND EFFECTS
Unit Structure:
13.0 Objectives
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Europe and Containment Policy
13.3 Chartering the UNO
13.4 Pattern of Soviet Imperialism
13.5 Truman Doctrine
13.6 Atomic Arms Race
13.7 Marshall Plan
13.8 Berlin Blockade and NATO
13.9 Fall of China
13.10 American anti -Colonialism
13.11 Latin America
13.12 Korean War
13.13 Intervention under UNO
13.14 Reaction at Home and Recall of MacArthur
13.15 Strengthening the Lines in t he Pacific
13.16 Vietnam War
13.17 Cuba Crisis, 1963
13.18 Summary
13.19 Questions
13.20 Suggested Readings


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162 13.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To understand the containment policy of America during Cold War.
2) To study ‘Truman Doctrine’.
3) To evaluate Marshall Plan of Am erica.
4) To examine America’s anti -colonialism policy.
5) To analyze America’s policy towards Pacific, Vietnam and Cuba.
13.1 INTRODUCTION
The wartime cooperation between the United States, the Soviet Russia and
Britain did not last long after the war. Since it was a case of making a
virtue out of necessity differences between them became clear. Stalin
began to peruse his plan of spread of communism. Russian forces
occupied Poland and Balkans and unilaterally established their
government favorable to them. He al so wanted to leave Germany
permanently weak so that she would never pose a danger to Soviet Russia
while the United States and Britain wanted a strong and stable Germany
which would occupy her rightful position among nations. Thus, there
emerged two rival blocks one led by Soviet Russia and the other led by the
United States and Britain. They are generally referred to as communist and
capitalist blocks. Relations between them were always very tense with
each trying to score a point over the other. Both bloc ks began to re -arm
themselves. In this situation there arose a series of crises leading to
heightened tensions between the two any one of these crises could have
led to a war. This atmosphere of tense relations between the two blocks is
known as Cold War.
Wendell Willkie after a tour of wartime Russia, India and China wrote a
book called One World (1943). Circulated in mammoth editions at home
and abroad, this book voiced the hope of millions that out of the war world
unity could emerge. Willkie had no tro uble proving that the interests of all
peoples and nations would be served by peaceful co -operation. His book
helped the Republican Party to shed isolationism and created support for
United States entry into the United Nations. Indeed, Roosevelt and many
others believed that the magnificence of the One World dream justified
concessions and compromises if necessary to establish a permanent
organization that would guarantee peace.
13.2 EUROPE AND CONT AINMENT POLICY
Soon after the war Stalin came to control g overnments in Poland,
Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania. He was trying to do the same
in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and encouraging a rebellion against the
royalist government in Greece and making territorial demands on Turkey.
Obviously, the Unite d States could not allow most of Europe to be
dominated by Stalin and communism. In March 1947 the first step in the
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163 asked Congress to appropriate 400 million dollars for military and
economic aid to Greece and Turkey. He declared that it must the policy of
the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure. This statement
quickly came to be known as the Truman Doctr ine. The Communist
rebellion in Greece was ended Turkey remained outside the Soviet
Control.
This was just the beginning. In November Truman asked congress to
appropriate money for Marshall Plan, officially known as the European
Recovery Programme. Between 1948 and 1952 fourteen billion dollars
were spent to implement this programme under the direction of an
Economic Cooperation Administration. The logical sequence to economic
cooperation was military alliance. In April 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty
Organi zation came into existence. An armed attack on any one of the
members of the organization was to be considered an attack against all
members. In December 1950 members of the organizers agreed to create a
united army to defend Western Europe Gen. Eisenhower became the first
Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. The Marshall Plan and the
subsequent measures stopped the advance of communism in Europe, at
least for the time being. There was a remarkable improvement in
economic conditions in Western Europe.
13.3 CHARTERING THE UNO
President Truman, who shared this ideal and purpose set out immediately
to instrument Roosevelt’s plan to write the charter of the UN at a great
conference of all governments fighting the Axis. After Yalta, Stalin
showed little interest in the San Francisco Conference and proposed to
send a minor official as the chief Soviet delegate instead of Foreign
Minister Molotov. President Roosevelt had protested this and President
Truman insisted that Molotov must come. He did so and the Conferen ce
opened on April 25, 1945. But once more the Russians argued that each of
the permanent members of the Security Council should be entitled to veto
not only the use of force against a country accused of aggression but even
the discussion of such as accusa tion. Harry Hopkins had retired from
government service because of illness but on Truman’s request he
undertook another trip to Moscow in May. Through him President Truman
appealed directly to Stalin and obtained agreement to the American
position. This wa s the largest of many disputes between the American and
Soviet delegations and its settlement assured the success of the
Conference.
At its close on June 26, the Charter of the United Nations was offered to
50 governments for ratification. Besides the Secu rity Council of five
permanent members (United States, Great Britain, Soviet Union, France
and China) and six elected ones, the Charter provided for a General
Assembly in which every member country has a vote. Its functions are to
debate and to make recomm endations to the Security Council. A
Secretariat headed by the Secretary General is charged with
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164 of 15 judges elected by the Assembly and Council with jurisdiction
limited to dispute which both parties refer to it. The Economic and Social
Council of 18 members is elected by the Assembly and Council with
jurisdiction limited to dispute which both parties refer to it. The Economic
and Social Council of 18 members is elected by the Assem bly to deal with
a vast range of problems involving human rights and welfare. The
Trusteeship Council supervises former League of Nations mandated and
territories taken from Japan and Italy at the end of the Second War. The
United Nations Educational Scien tific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) encourage international exchanges conducive to friendship.
The International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund,
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and United
Nations Relief and Reh abilitation Administration were placed under the
Economic and Social Council.
The Charter authorizes regional organizations for security such as the
Inter -American Organization which has evolved from the Monroe
Doctrine. Most ambitious is the provision tha t national contingents of
armed forces may be placed under the authority of the Security Council. It
has chief responsibility for enforcement of the basic provisions of the
Charter; the mutual guarantee of the security of every member nation
against aggres sion, the promise of every member to refrain from
aggression in any form, and the provision for sanctions - diplomatic,
economic and military - against any aggressor nation. Nevertheless the
Charter did not create the “world government “which some opponent s
professed to see in it and some idealists believed to be essential for peace.
This was because none of the Great Powers and probably few of the lesser
ones was willing to surrender to the UN its sovereignty, most particular
the power to commit it to war against its will. The substantive veto of the
five Great Powers makes the UN charter weaker than the League of
Nations Covenant. But the adherence to the charter of all the Great Powers
makes is stronger than the League. After a public debate that revealed
overwhelming and indeed overly -optimistic enthusiasm, the Senate
approved United States membership in the United Nations on July 28,
1945, by a vote of 89 to 2. The Charter went into effect on October 24,
1945. The governments of the world were now commit ted to the code of
collective security and it thereby became international law. The
disillusionment of Americans with the results of the Second World War
was more bitter than that which followed the First War, but it did not drive
them into the same retrea t from responsibility to prevent another war.
They poured out their wealth in private gifts, in governmental loans, and
most of all in governmental contributions to feed the millions left destitute
in the wreckage of war in Asia and Europe. This they did b y means of
private agencies, the Red Cross, the sale on credit of surplus Lend -Lease
supplies, and UNRRA. Truman ended Lend -Lease aid very abruptly when
the fighting stopped as the existing law required. He later admitted tat this
was a serious mistake. Th e purchase of American goods by devastated
nations while they had little to sell to the United States ran up deficits of
more than $7 billion in 1946 and $11 billion in 1947. These were paid by
Export Import Bank loans. The British government received a sp ecial munotes.in

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165 United States Treasury loan of $8.75 billion to prevent the collapse of its
economy. The United States made generous settlements of the Lend -Lease
accounts. It avoided withdrawal of Lend -Lease balances in foreign
currencies by turning the money over to American students and
researchers (Full bright scholars) who spent it in local currencies. All this
was only the beginning of expensive programs to build up the welfare ad
the economies of foreign countries which stretched over the postwar years
in long succession. American taxpayers bore the brunt with little
complaint.
13.4 PATTERN OF SOVI ET IMPERIALISM
Russia failed to obtain what Stalin believed the United States should
provide. She did receive immense aid by UNRRA and private agencies.
She refused even to negotiate a settlement of her Lend -Lease account and
retained much, including merchant ships and entire factories, that was
more useful in peace than in war. She looted the industries of Asia and of
eastern European countries overrun by the Red Arm y besides obtaining
heavy reparations from Germany. Stalin believed that in addition to all this
United States government loan of $10 billion was not only essential for
reconstruction of his country but a test of American good faith in
professing readiness to see the Soviet Union emerge from the war strong
and secure. But he refused to meet the tests of good faith which the United
States regarded as essential to prove that only security, and not
imperialism, was his goal. Besides all his broken promises in Eastern
Europe and Asia. Stalin violated his treaty engagement to remove Red
troops on time from Iran.
Poland remained the main scene of conflict. The chief object of Hopkins’
conversations with Stalin in Moscow in May 1945 was to solve the Polish
problem. Stalin told him that he believed Churchill intended to form a
cordon sanitaire against the Soviet Union in Poland and other East
European countries. He insisted that the governments of these countries be
“friendly” and “strong” as a guarantee that Russia could not again be
invaded. Hopkins assured him that the United States understood and
concurred in this. But it turned out that Stalin’s definition of a “friendly
government was one completely dominated by Communists subservient to
the Kremlin, and that hi s definition of “free and unfettered elections” was
incompatible with Western democratic ideas. After Communist political
parties were denied equal rights in elections and soon were eliminated
entirely. After that, “elections” on the Russian model, in whic h only a
single slate of candidates was offered, became the rule.
In Finland national leaders collaborated with Stalin and paid reparations;
their country was left relatively free in its internal political life. In
Yugoslavia a strong Communist army and le ader, Marshal Josip Broz Tito
emerged victorious against local enemies and the Nazis. Tito organized a
Communist dictatorship and for a few years accepted Moscow’s
leadership. In Czechoslovakia a government in which Communists held
key post satisfied Stali n for a time. In Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Albania
and Bulgaria Communist governments which could not possibly claim to
represent their people were imposed by Russia and protected by the Red munotes.in

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History of U.S.A.
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166 Army. As the ominous meaning of this pattern became clear for all to see,
the United States and Great Britain time and again tried to obtain Soviet
obedience to the Yalta Agreement, all in vain. Clearly only war could
dislodge Russia from her belt of satellites Secretary of State Byrnes in
effect accepted Soviet control of this belt in December 1946 by joining
Russia in signing peace treaties with the former enemy states of Hungary,
Rumania and Bulgaria as well as with Italy.
Beyond the belt of Soviet satellites lay the meeting around of East and
West and the main battle ground of the “Cold War.” The military potential
of Germany made her future political alignment crucial for both sides.
That this, rather than intrinsic difficulties, was the reason for Soviet
obstructionism is suggested by the relatively co -operative poli cy of Russia
in Austria, where four -power occupation was equally in invitation to
trouble. Moreover the Austrian treaty of peace and neutralization for
which the Western powers finally in May 1955, obtained Russian approval
followed by withdrawal of all fo ur occupation forces, illustrated the policy
the United States pursued for Germany from the beginning Roosevelt,
after dropping the Morgenthau Plan had turned to a plan to demilitarize to
de-Nazify and after withdrawal of occupation forces, to neutralize
Germany. He believed he had obtained Stalin’s agreements to this policy.
After Roosevelt’s death, Byrnes and his successor as Secretary of States,
George C. Marshall, proposed to Russia a multilateral 25 years alliance to
guarantee Germany’s neutrality. Sta lin refused. At the same time the
Allied Control Council at Berlin, which was intended to agree on uniform
policy in the four occupation zones, was furstrated by the Soviet member.
The four powers co -operated only in punishing leading Nazis. At
Nuremburg t hey conducted war crimes trials which resulted in the
sentencing to death of ten of Hitler’s chief aides, prison sentences for
seven more, and the acquittal of three. The removal of active Nazis from
participation in German public life was presumably carri ed out according
to a common procedure in each zone. Reparations payments by the
Western Zones broke down when the Russians refused to co -operate in
mutual inspection and drew an “iron curtain” around their zone, as they
did around the entire Soviet block of nations. In the Russian zone of
Germany the large Socialist Party was forced in April 1946 to merge with
and accept the leadership of the German Communists in the Socialist
Unity Party. This organized the local government and Sovietized East
Germany und er the protection of the Red Army.
The Western occupation authorities for a time worked to break up the
large concentrations of Germany industry and to encourage small
business. But the Soviet authorities refused to allow food from their zone
to be exchang ed for industrial products of western Germany. The western
authorities were forced to feed the German people in their zones. They
ended decartelization in order to increase industrial production and
develop German exports to pay for food. These divergent e conomic
policies resulted in a crisis over the German money system and a complete
deadlock in the Allied Control Council. The essential reason was Soviet
fear that a democratic and unified Germany would align herself with the
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American Foreign Policy: Cold War And Effects
167 13.5 TRUMAN DOCTRINE
Contrary to Stalin’s understanding with Churchill, communists now
reached out for control of Greece. Greek Communists amounted to only a
fraction of the antimonarchist parties which had refused to take part in
elections in 1946. They obtained aid from the Com munists governments
of Yugoslavia and Albania and fomented civil war against the British
supported monarchy. Britain in addition was supporting Turkey against
Soviet demands for the Turkish provinces of Kars and Ardahan and for
position in the Straits of t he Dardanelles. The labour government of Prime
Minister Attlee reduced Britain’s commitments because the British
economy could no longer sustain the burden. It informed the United States
government that on March 31, 1947, it would terminate aid to Greece a nd
Turkey. This faced President Truman with the alternative of allowing
responsibility. On March 12, 1947, he told Congress that the United States
could not allow changes in the governments of members of the United
Nations by outside coercion or infiltrati on. Proposing “to support free
peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures”, he asked for $ 400 million to aid Greece and Turkey and for
authority to send American military and civilian advises to help their
government s defend themselves. Congress agreed by strong majorities.
With American aid Turkey stood fast against Soviet demands and the
Greek government put down the Communist rebels.
The significance of the “Truman Doctrine” was manifold. It marked the
willingness of the United States to act against Soviet imperialism outside
the United Nations. For this it was widely critized, but the unrestrained use
of the veto in the Security Council by the Soviet delegate seemed to make
unilateral action necessary, and the UN c harter specifically authorized
such action by any nation in self -defense. The new policy amounted to an
extension of the Monroe Doctrine to a region of the Old World, and other
regions would be added in the future. It proved the determination of the
United States to deny Russia’s greatest postwar hope the withdrawal of
American power from Europe and a return to isolationism. Above all, the
success of the policy showed that Soviet expansion could be stopped by
vigorous counteraction, and this encouraged form ulation of a policy of
“containment” against the Soviet Union around its entire periphery. The
President showed that he possessed great skill and courage in organizing
bipartisan foreign policies even though his administration was generally
frustrated in d omestic affairs. Finally, Americans now discovered that
with the decline of British Empire which they had scarcely noticed - the
protection of the independence of small nations.
Check Your Progress:
1) What was the pattern of Soviet imperialism?
2) Comment on Tr uman Doctrine.
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History of U.S.A.
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168 13.6 ATOMIC ARMS RAC E
Perhaps the decisive blow to American hopes that UN would prove fully
effective was the refusal of the Soviet Union to co -operate in measures for
international control of atomic energy. AT the war’s end the United Sta tes
was far in advance of all other countries in nuclear research and weapons
manufacture. It offered the world an extremely generous plan for sharing
its secrets, in return for guarantees of peaceful use to which it would be
subject along with all other n ations. On June 14, 1946, Bernard M.
Baruch, delegate to the UN Atomic Energy Commission, proposed an
International Atomic Energy Commission, proposed an International
Atomic Development Authority to which the United States would give its
secrets for the b enefit of all members of the UN provided that inspection
and control be established free of any government’s veto. Thereupon the
United States would destroy its own bombs and the manufacturer of
bombs by any nation would be forbidden. This opened vistas of freedom
from the nightmare of humanity’s self -destruction and of the devotion of
the great new energy source to human welfare throughout the world. The
proposal was welcomed by all governments except those of the
Communist bloc. The Soviet delegate to the UN rejected the Baruch Plan
and proposed instead a prohibition of atomic weapons without provision
for international control or inspection. The fraudulent character of this
proposal was apparent, for in the Iron Curtain countries total government
control over the movements of citizens and foreigners could readily shield
violations. For weary months and years this issue was debated with the
Soviet government in every channel of negotiation, but that government
did not budge from its refusal to allow inspect ion by the international
authority.
This and the revelations in the Fuchs spy case that Russia had stolen
American secrets proved that the Soviet dictator preferred an atomic arms
race. In blatant imitation of Hitler’s “big -lie” technique, the Soviet
gover nment covered up its policy by propagandizing for abstract “peace”
and accusing the United States of “war -mongering”. This was not very
successful in advanced free countries but in the Iron Curtain countries and
among illiterate populations it had extremel y dangerous effects. Scientists
believed that the Soviet Union could develop its own atomic weapons in
less than a decade, but the revelation on September 24, 1949, that the
Soviet government had already successfully exploded an atomic bomb
produced deepes t fears in the free world. In January, 1950, President
Truman announced that the United States would develop an even more
terrifying thermonuclear hydrogen bomb. In November, 1952, it
successfully tested one. Nobody doubted that the Soviet Union soon
would match this weapon, too.
13.7 MARSHALL PLAN
The Truman administration looked upon support of Greece and Turkey in
the spring of 1947 as a “crash program” which could at best stop one
prong of Russian expansion at the eleventh hour. To reduce the appeal of
communism, especially in Italy and France where the Communist parties munotes.in