1920

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/movies-become-big-business-in-the-1920s-111456524/131238.html

 

The article begins with a brief overview of the technologies of the era. The first technology talked about in the article was the automobile, which spread people out and was mass produced in large quantities. The other technology was the radio, which begun the era of home entertainment. The article then goes on to explain the other major invention to change the lives of Americans, the motion picture. A quick history is given on the motion picture, how Thomas Edison made very short films to test the technology, before they got overly popular. The article concludes with telling how important motion pictures were to the social lives of people, as they provided an escape from day to day life.

This topic about the rise in popularity of movies makes perfect sense in the category of the 1920s, as this was then it began to rise rapidly. Almost all American towns had a movie theater, and cheap entertainment was a great way to get away from daily life. The began to get even more popular when the Great Depression occurred, as a way to avoid problems for a very low price.

In a more modern time, movie theaters themselves have gone down in popularity, slightly. Since there are more options to watch movies and television at home, theaters are not as popular. Also the price of seating, as well as food or gas, almost makes it more expensive to go out and watch the movie then watch it at your house. However, like the article says, because we are all seeing the same movie, it allows us to be brought together. You can talk to your friends about your favorite scenes and actors.

Up to WWI timeline

1898-U.S. backed planters overthrow Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani: Queen Liliuokalani was the last queen to rule over Hawaii. However when Hawaii became part of the United States she was forced to give up her throne by the United States government.

1898-Spanish American War: Was a conflict between the Spanish and the United States and was result of American intervention in Cuba. After spanish cruelty towards the Cubans lead to revolution, the United States came to help.

1899-U.S. Philippine War: An armed conflict between the United States and the Philippines due to the United States taking parts of the Philippines after and during the Spanish and American war.

1899-U.S. pursues Open Door Policy in China: John Hay proposed an open door policy to China, which demanded that the United States gets similar powers over parts of China like Europe did.

1900-U.S. helps suppress a nationalist rebellion in China (Boxer Rebellion): The rebellion in China was greatly enhanced by a massive drought in the country, as well as an increase in the spheres of influence. The United States eventually stepped in to snuff out the rebellion.

*1901-Theodore Roosevelt is elected president: A year earlier he was elected Vice President to president McKinley, however in 1901, McKinley was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt was moved up to president.

1903-U.S. Recognizes Panama’s independence from Colombia: After Panama gained its independence from Spain, it was brought into the Republic of Gran Colombia. They then fought for independence, in which they won. The United States approved of this split, creating the
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty.

1914-Panama Canal opens: A passage way to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean to each other. This canal helped cut down travel prices by boat, as well as making voyages much shorter for cargo and trade.

1914-WWI begins in Europe: The war began when a Serbian terrorist shot an Austro-Hungarian archduke in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Other argue that the war started later or sooner, but this was the first act of violence. This war lasted about four years and was full of shaky alliances and new military actions, the war to end all wars.

*1915-The first long distance call is made: The call stretched from New York to San Francisco and was the very first of its kind. This call was demonstrated in front of crowds of people. This paved the way for more long distance communication to be created.

1917-U.S. declares war on Germany and it’s allies: This pivotal moment before WWI locked the United States into the war, if they had not then the United States involvement in the war would have been much lower.

*1918-WWI ends: With the German home support, supplies, soldiers and war material running short, they finally surrendered. And with the United States entering the war they realized they wouldn’t last. After this the Germans continued to face problems with money value.

*1919-Adolf Hitler is sent to jail: After breaking into a German government building, with the intent of overthrowing the government, he was thrown into jail. He also began his book here, Mein Kampf, or my struggle, while in jail for nine months.

*1919-The rejection of the Treaty of Versailles: When the First World War finally ended, the United States began to draft an official treaty. This would outline the terms for peace and would also mention what the United States wanted. The treaty was rejected many times by the senate.

1920-19th Amendment grants grants Women’s Suffrage: This amendment states that all citizens of the United States, regardless of sex, are allowed to vote. This amendment was finally out into play as result of the woman’s suffrage.

 

Progressive era timeline

1866-NYC contains cholera epidemic: Cholera was an ongoing problem throughout the 1800’s due to poor living conditions and poor sanitation . The outbreaks became less and less frequent due to improvements in sanitation and living conditions.
(http://www.virtualny.cuny.edu/cholera/1832/cholera_1832_set.html)

1885- The first Skyscraper of Chicago was a home insurance building and became the first skyscraper ever built. This became possible through the creation and use of steel so now buildings were much stronger then they were before. Because of this buildings could be built much higher and access to the highest floor could be attained through elevators.
(http://www.history.com/topics/home-insurance-building)

1889-Jane Addams & Ellen Gates Starr found Hull House in Chicago: The Hull House was a settlement house where middle class people would help teach and enrich the lives of less wealthy peoples.
(http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/)

1890-Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives: A book emphasizing how the people in poverty lived their lives.
(http://www.authentichistory.com/1898-1913/2-progressivism/2-riis/)

1892- Ellis Island was America’s largest immigration station until the mid 1900’s. This was a place for immigrants to go to where they could get a green card and they could take their first step towards becoming a permanent U.S Citizen. Since it shut down in 1954, this site has been added to the National Park Service.
http://www.nps.gov/elis/faqs.htm

1899- The National Consumers league was created to fight for low payed and poor workers. They created things like minimum wage which marks the lowest a worker could be paid for any given company. Also they decreased the working hours to much more excepting amounts.
(http://m.search.eb.com/topic/404635)

1901- Tenement Housing Law. This law was passed in New York because the city was well over populated and this was making the city over crowded and unsanitary. This law made it so their needed to be light and ventilation in each room in a tenement so know disease would not spread so easily and the living conditions would be much better.
(http://www.livingcityarchive.org/htm/framesets/themes/tenements/fs_1901.htm)

1900- The population of the world exceeds 75 million people: This number was capped right at the beginning of the century, and does effect the United States even though it’s the worlds population, as more people filled the world, more people also moved to the United States, primarily Ellis island. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_history_(1900–29))

1906- Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle Published: The Jungle was a book that was trying to raise awareness for the poor working conditions of workers, and it ended up impacting peoples view of the food that came out of these meat packing plants instead.
(http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/jungle/)

1906- The food and drug administration was created in 1906 to fight against poorly handled and unsanitary food in the meat packing industry. The administration would make yearly inspections of each of these meat packing industries to make sure the work place was clean and the food was being made properly. This administration still exists today.
(http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=a24509ee707e3735cde6db3e17c5304e&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=bhs&tabID=T001&docId=CX1918600204&type=retrieve&contentSet=EBKS&version=1.0)

1906- The pure food and drug act is passed by president Roosevelt after muckrakers exposed the unsanitary conditions within the meat packaging companies as well as the existence of fake medicines. (http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1900timeline.htm)

1911-Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in NY: One of the deadliest industrial disasters in the history of the city, and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. It was also one of the deadliest disasters that occurred in New York City. It occurred due to poor conditions, and fire precautions, and many people died due to the lack of fire escapes.
(http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/)

1915- Federal Farm loan act was created with a combination of president Wilson’s progressive ideals as well as the ideals and needs advocated by the rural Populists, this act allowed farmers, primarily small business farmers, to burrow as much money as they want from the government with a low interest. (http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/1900_2000_timeline.htm)

1916- The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act is created in order to limit the hours children are allowed to work, where they are allowed to work and how much they are payed for their time. This was a wide reaching act, as over two million children were employed in manufacturing. (http://teachers.history.org/sites/default/files/Progressive%20Era%20Timeline.pdf)

1920- Women of America are granted the right to vote after years of protest and arrest for attempting to vote. The nineteenth amendment was very short, only being two sentences long, but still granted a very important right to women. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution)

A birth strike

In 1920, Margaret Sanger published an article titled “A birth strike to avert world famine” this title should be enough to grab a reader. World famine seemed like a huge problem that could very much happen, but could a stop in births really avoid the issue? Sanger had been trying to link a rise in births to many problems and movements, such as trying to link birth control socialism, trade unionism, free-love, and eugenics, and even the use of selective breeding to improve humanity. Some of these seemed more of a far fetched idea then a conclusion. But the idea of linking births to famine seemed convincing enough. Sanger stated, “In this hour of crisis and peril women alone can save the world. They can save it by refusing for five years to bring a child into being. And there is no other way.”

This statement came along at a good time, many people were thinking about global change. The financial state of many European countries was becoming weaker and weaker, and war was continuing to weaken the supplies and drive of the United States. Food was one of the lowest supplies, and many speculated that before the next years crop was to arrive many people would stave to death. The lack of food and the war had begun to make rivalries more intense, this leading to more and more people without food and children forced to work to help support their families.

Sanger states that even though the food crisis had yet to fit the United States, European problem could become their problem if they did not take action. She said that this could be predicted by the already raising food prices. She states that the only people who can help protect the children of the world was to stop having children. It wouldn’t have made sense to bring a child into the world without the food to support it. SpI the only thing left to do was to stop having children, until the nation fixed itself.

“Birth strike.” PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .

“Digital History.” Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. .

“National Women’s History Museum.” Education & Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. .

Mary Church Terrell, an interview

The format of the first interview given is very different form the format of the second interview. In the initial interview with the Chinese immigrant focuses on the racism focused on the Chinese people, while the second articles focuses on the racism given to the African American people of the United States. Mary Church Terrell, in 1904, became a civil rights activist and a writer in hopes of getting the word out about the treatment of the African Americans in America. After experiencing the lynching of one of her good friends, she became inspired to take action against violence towards the African Americans. She wanted justice for all. In order to achieve this, she took action and founded the Colored Women’s league as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In 1904, several months into the year, thirty one Negros had been lynched. Many of these people were accused of crimes, many of which they didn’t even commit. Even more of them were completely innocent, and were victims of hate crimes. Soon, the unfair and unjust murders of the colored people of America was such a common story, that people soon got used to hearing about them. As a writer and activist for the colored people of America, Mary ended up observing and reading and writing about many gruesome and terrible things. Such as learning and reading about the torture and murder of two colored people, a married couple, the husband who was accused of a crime and the wife who had never been confirmed to commit any crimes.

These two, as well as all of the other colored men, women, and even children who were killed were more often then not tortured before their executions. Many had fingers and limbs several or removed, had flesh and ears torn off as well as other horrible and gruesome acts done onto them. Many others tried to avoid talking about these horrible deaths, passing them off as allowed and creating fake crimes that these people were said to ‘commit’. Because of these lies, the northern people often took the southern peoples side, thinking they were siding with the people who were working to stop crimes against women. Soon more and more organizations began to form, all with the goals to keep the colored Americans in line using fear and killing any negro who opposed them, or held positions in power.

From this, Mary began to draw conclusions as to why lynchings occurred. Since many of these negros were innocent, or proven innocent after their deaths, there must have been another reason as to why they were being the targets of hate crimes. The reason for this, Mary concluded, was a lack of respect. Many of the white men and women who killed and accused the negros were the sons and daughters of those who held the negros in slavery. This lack of respect passed through the generations, leading to more and more hate being held. If bothe white people could not hold the negros in bondage, they could attempt to control and ruin their lives with fear and destruction.

New Life

The year is 1903, the man is Lee Chew. Lee was born in Canton, China, but decided to leave the comfort and familiarity of home for a new life in the land of opportunity, the United States of America. In 1880, a sixteen year old Lee decided to move to the united states in pursuit of new work to support his famIly. He began the work of constructing railroads, and once the work was done he remained in the united states and moved to new york for further work opportunities. He was given one hundred dollars and a ride on a steam boat to get to America, as well as the wisdom of the man of his village to keep away from evil men and women, gambling and other dirty things.

His life in his original country was much different from his life in America. His family life was very different from the family lives of others in America, as well as the traditions and work for all of the men, women and children in his tribe. He had worked hard from a young age, lived in a small house in a small village and had a large amount of poor people in his community. He was told that the people of America were devils, greedy people, who often used others for their own personal gain. Despite this Lee still went to America after seeing another boy from his village leave for the country as a poor farmer, and return with many riches.

When Lee first arrived he was nervous to eat and live with the Americans, but after staying with a small family for awhile he began to adapt. They were kind to him and taught him how to do basic house work for three dollars and fifty cents a week, most of which he saved. He was allowed outside the house when his work was done, he found the people of California were very generous and kind to him, even though he didn’t understand English. He continued to work in houses, getting more and more money and learning more English. He continued to send money home to his parents.

Not everyone was kind to him however. Once he opened his own business, with a partner, money became tighter and people began to try and get more and more money out of them by claiming things that were not true in hopes of getting free services. If they did not get what they wanted the would often insult or fight with Lee and his business partner. Lee found that he didn’t always belong with others, or that pranksters were constantly messing with him because he was Chinese. The violence soon got too bad for Lee and his partner, and they had to move locations and open up a new shop.

Lee found that there was quite a bit of discrimination against the Chinese, although some people were kind and patient with him, he was often on the receiving end of violence, pranks and theft. He also found it hard to blend into American society, as his way of life was rather different from the Americans. His clothing was changed as to better fit in, and he found that the food and life schedule was a bit different as well. He began to blend into American culture and society as he continued to life there, but still enjoyed traditional Chinese food and activity.

Raising the Minimum wage

Obama’s minimum wage hike, put into perspective.
By danielle kurtzleben on January 28th 2014

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/01/28/obamas-minimum-wage-hike-put-into-perspective

One of the most talked about and debated current events in the united states is the plans to raise the minimum wage of the country. President Obama has made a plan to raise the minimum wage from 7.25 an hour to 10.10 an hour. This is a huge jump up, but it still is full of arguments and problems. This article highlights some of the issues with the plans to raise the wage. The two main ideas she highlights is that it won’t help many people right away and that it will create arguments. The first statement makes sense, it only affects new contracts so people working now will not see raises for a long time, according to this source. The second statement also makes sense, as there are already arguments as to what is right and what is wrong. Even by looking at the comments of this article there are arguments.

I have learned quite a bit about low wages, pennies a day for working long hours and in dangerous situations. Even today there are countries where this is true, the United States has one of the largest minimum wages. I’m sure that over the years wages have changed for different ages, genders and work, eventually coming to what it is today.

i think the primary reason as to why the minimum wage is being raised is because it is hard, if not impossible, to work for so little. People need to pay for food, water, heat and gas to work. With so little money for long hours it is impossible to get ahead in their job or life.

Industrial Era

When looking for new technology. I decided to look for something I would use if I had the chance. Thus enter the worlds most advanced driving simulator! I always get nervous when I get behind the wheel and something like this would defiantly help me with that fear. That is if I’m willing to pay 80 million dollars to get one built! The machine is about as large as the gymnasium with a large pod that acts like a car would, minus the wheels and the engine to make it move. It is completely life like, moving and swerving as you move the steering wheel With a screen to make it look like you really are driving.

This machine is used to teach people the movement of cars, and to teach you to keep yourself safe. Having safety simulators might have helped back during the industrial era. Many jobs were dangerous, and by learning more about the inner workings of machines and what could happen if something was to go wrong would half save lives and fingers.

I think this awesome simulator has becoming a reality because of the dangers of cars. It might serve as a lesson to crazy drivers of the dangers they might face or to help nervous drivers get experience without risking their lives. It could also be used as a teaching tool for gravity and physics as the simulator is completely realistic. 

 

My smart goal

My goal is to get A 100 in the class, by getting 600 xp points and three badges, as well as do it in a rather quick pace. While writing this goal I am well on my way to getting 200xp points, on the second day of class. I would also like to have opportunities to work when I want, I don’t want to have to do this weird 3rds rule. It takes away from my love for working on my own and at my own pace.