LAD #31: Wilson's 14 Points

14 Points

Summary: President Wilson, an idealist even through one of history's most awful wars, listed out his 14 main points necessary to restore and maintain peace. In a swift stroke of optimistic idealism lacking all realistic thought, the President's first point was the end of secret alliances between states. He then advocated America's greatest desire, freedom of the seas (and the Dardanelles). Thirdly, Wilson called for the elimination of all trade barriers and tariffs between nations, another idealistic folley. For the main body of the points, Wilson focused on territorial and national issues, such as supporting  the post-revolution Russians, creating a Polish state, and re-evaluating colonial borders. Finally, the President's 14th point called for an international body of nations to serve as a diplomatic forum, thus beginning the short-lived League of Nations.

(Although the League of Nations failed, and never even included the USA, the organization's successor, the UN, persists to this day).

LAD #30: Schenck vs. US

Schenck vs. US

Summary: Charles Schenck was an anti-drafter during the Great War. He circulated pamphlets to draftees urging them to protest the Conscription Act and avoid the draft. Schenck was then arrested on charges of Conspiracy (to Violate the Espionage Act) by encouraging military insubordination. His appeal was unanimously struck down, with the key line of the case being "The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent." This essentially waved Schenck's First Amendment rights because they endangered US Military and Government interests. As can be seen above, many rallied around the defense of free speech, but the ruling held and set a new precedent in American politics and law.

(Similarly a century later, the post-9/11 USA PATRIOT Act muddied the waters of citizen's rights, under the purpose of protecting and empowering military interests to fight off the contemporary enemy of the USA).

LAD #29: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916

Summary: By the turn of the century, popular outcry against child labor had become extremely significant, in large part due to the works of contemporary authors and speakers. The Keating-Owen Act used the federal power to control interstate commerce to ban the sale, purchase, or transportation of goods produced by child laborers. This might have been effective, however it was soon overturned by the Supreme Court as an unconstitutional overextension of the federal government's powers. 

(It would take another twenty years for actual anti-child labor laws to be signed into law and then be supported by the supreme court, in the form of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938).

LAD #28: Wilson's First Inaugural

Wilson's First Inaugural Address

Summary: Wilson begins his speech positively, with a long list of many things that made the America of his day a great and noble state. However, this does not last, and he soon addresses his main platform and agenda: rooting out all the rot that has developed in the shadow of prosperity. Wilson elaborates, explaining that progress has come at great human costs, and that the government must act to protect the people treaded on by big business and industry. He then also lists several other key issues, including the need for infrastructure development, sanitation laws, child labor laws, and to reduce the tariff to favor everyday Americans. Finally, he ends his Address with a strong message that his election is a call to arms for everyday working Americans, who have suffered at the heels of the new era, without justice or recourse.

(On this very day, just as Wilson took power for the Democrats and was sworn into office, President Trump has taken power from the Democratic party, and delivered his own first inaugural.)

LAD #27: Clayton Antitrust Act

Clayton Antitrust Act

Summary: The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 did just as the title implied: it attacked the large, monopolistic, trusts. The act first illegalizes monopolistic price discrimination (for different consumers buying the same goods). It also banned corporate actions seeking to create a monopolistic level of market domination, and perhaps most importantly, it banned one corporation from holding a majority share of stocks in another. This prevented a common system of monopolizing undertaken by business "fat cats" like Carnegie in the previous century. Although this act in no way totally killed the trusts, it was another critical step to restoring competition to the American markets.

(Similarly, in the present day, the airline industry has become more and more oligopolistic, as more companies merge and are bought out by the "big fish" like Delta).

LAD #26: MLK's "I Have A Dream"

MLK's I Have A Dream

Summary: Dr King begins his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a reference to the famed emancipator, saying "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation." However, this joyous and celebratory tone lasts only a few lines, when MLK then says that even 100 years later, black Americans were not truly free. He then spend the great majority of his speech discussing the wrongs of segregation, discrimination, and police brutality. After working up the audience by listing their many grievances, the Reverend Dr. urges them to remain in peaceful protest, and not to descend into violence and chaos, as such would only harm the movement for legal and social equality. Finally, MLK closes with the "I Have a Dream" segment for which the speech is famously named. He discusses his hopes of a world where race is not a factor in life, law, or politics, and the hopes he has for his children's future and the future of their children. To fully close the speech, Dr. King quotes several lines of an old spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Overall, the speech was extremely powerful and moving, and did a great job of both getting people upset/committed, and reminding them to remain peaceful and kind in their push for liberty.

(At the same time as MLK urged peaceful protest to attain their goals of equality and freedom, another civil rights group, the Black Panthers, urged the need for militant defense of their rights by force. Although there were few actual incidents of violence from the Panthers, they often dressed like insurgents and carried blades and firearms as a threat to any who would attempt to tread on their rights).

LAD #25: Dawes Severalty Act

Dawes Act

Summary: The 1889 Dawes Severalty Act essentially served as a means of assimilating natives into the white American culture. It gave the President the authority to survey Tribal Lands and divide them up into private allotments for Individual indian owners. If these owners would leave the tribe and live in the white fashion, they would be given the land, and full citizenship. Again, this really just served as an attempt by the Federals to deal with the "Indian Problem" via assimilation.

(To this day, conflicts between Indians and the Government over land usage and ownership exist, as can be seen in the recent Dakota Access Pipeline debacle).