HIST 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: William Jennings Bryan, Silver Standard, Disfranchisement
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Election of 1896
William McKinley ran against William Jennings Bryan
In the picture McKinley is being raised up on a gold coin by workers and
other wealthy people
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Voting was up 15% over 1892 election
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By the time of the election populism gets less radical
Say they are going to economically restructure the US
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Bring in more silver
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During this election, it is a resounding victory for McKinley
Northern industrial immigrants decide not the vote for Bryan anymore,
instead they vote for McKinley
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They were worried moving to the silver standard was going to raise the
price of the goods that they purchased with their wages
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As a result, the populist party dies, but a lot of the legacies of populism
moves on and the policies that populists wanted are brought into policies
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Legacies of Populism
Woman's suffrage
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Public education
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Federal income tax
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Some banking reform
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Cultural legacy
Movement culture - you can by building up a movement from grassroots
settings can be built up and inspire people to join movements
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Pervasive discourse of anti-elitism/anti-intellectualism
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Tensions over race, nativism
Decided that they were not willing to get more democratic votes if it
meant giving up white supremacy
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Wilmington Riot, 1898
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Lynching
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Disfranchisement
§
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Wizard of Oz
William Jennings Bryan is the cowardly lion
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The populists are marching down the yellow brick road to Washington
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Dorothy has silver slippers that help her save the day
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Today
"Progressive Era"
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Efforts, by "non-state actors" to improve American society and culture, some
then moved into realms of formal politics
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Grassroots activism around political issues and bring people such as women and
African Americans in the realm of politics
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Rhetoric of "uplift"
Women's Club Movement
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Settlement House Movement
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African American Education and Political Activism
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Alternatives to "uplift"
"bottom-up" transformation
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Socialist Party, WWI
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Women's Club Movement
Emerged in mid 19th century
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Dual goal of women's education and social betterment
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Helped carve out public roles for women and inculacted participation in large-
scale reform efforts
Started by Women's Christian Temperance Union - WCTU (not drinking
alcohol) in 1874
Located in someone's house, church, etc.
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Also: 8 hour day, protection of working girls, immigrant aid
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Founded by Frances Willard "Do Everything" (she was the president)
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One of the first organizations to have professional lobby in DC
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Campaigned to have alcohol prohibitions in the US and have
allegiances with other unions
§
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General Federation of Women's Clubs
Voluntary association
§
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National Association of Coloured Women's Clubs (NACWC) is founded in
1896
"Lifting as we Climb"
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Started this because a lot of the women's clubs would not allow
African Americans into their clubs
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Mostly upper and middle class women arguing that they could lift
American morally
§
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Dr. Susette Bright Eyes La Flesche Tibbles
Wanted alcohol to be kept out of Indian territories
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Was an indigenous women who wrote to the WCTU
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Settlement House Movement
Movement of middle-class professionals who use grassroot movements to
improve the lives of urban citizens in the US
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Attracted educated women who had gone to college and had nothing to do with
their university degrees
Earlier causes
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Aimed to help poor immigrants (including immigrant women) assimilate into
American culture
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Acted as advocated for social and later political reforms
Think they need to be involved in municipal governments in order to make
changes
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1891 there are 6 settlement houses
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1905 there are 200 settlement houses
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1910 there are 400 settlement houses
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Hull House
Founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in Chicago
Jane Addams is the daughter of an upper middle class family, in the 1880s
she has a nervous breakdown and the doctor tells her to be as domestic as
possible
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She asked her friend Ellen for money and Jane provides her expertise from
university
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Mission: "To provide a center for a higher civic and social life; to institute and
maintain education and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and
improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago"
Settlement house was supposed to help poor immigrants and the women
who moved to the settlement houses who felt that their lives were
purposeless
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Designed to help two groups at once
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"Residence, Research, Reform"
Wants people to live next to the people they are helping
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Reform because increasingly politicized by the 1900s
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Emphasis on social rights and obligations
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Increasing professionalization of social work (from charity to expert work)
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Jane Addams talks a lot about the importance of the settlement house to give
her life meaning and people like her
Immigrants criticized this at the time and how the movement was just as
much about as self-actualization
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Reconfiguring women's relationships to the environment and bringing them into
public roles in an increasingly professionalized way
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Philanthropy or politics?
Public hygiene and sanitation
There were no building codes which made everything a lot dirtier
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City wasn't doing anything about contaminated municipal water supplies
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Labour and especially child labour laws
Child labour laws are needed so employers don’t lie about wages
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Juvenile court system
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Social welfare programs for women and children
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Settlement house workers believe that public schools need to be funded more
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President creates Federal Children's Bureau in 1912
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"Americanization"
Mutuality is not equality
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Settlement workers thought they were going into neighbourhoods in order to
Americanize them
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Segregation of settlement and growing US black/white binary
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"Nutritious diet"
People were told to use canned goods instead of fresh vegetables
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Settlement workers work in ethnic neighbourhoods, not in African American
communities
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English-language focus
English only education and teaching English in order to allow those people
to assimilate
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"Cultural gifts" movement
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"Melting pot" version of assimilation
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Lecture 9 -Top-Down Uplift
Friday, January 26, 2018
9:33 AM
Document Summary
In the picture mckinley is being raised up on a gold coin by workers and other wealthy people. By the time of the election populism gets less radical. Say they are going to economically restructure the us. During this election, it is a resounding victory for mckinley. Northern industrial immigrants decide not the vote for bryan anymore, instead they vote for mckinley. They were worried moving to the silver standard was going to raise the price of the goods that they purchased with their wages. As a result, the populist party dies, but a lot of the legacies of populism moves on and the policies that populists wanted are brought into policies. Movement culture - you can by building up a movement from grassroots settings can be built up and inspire people to join movements. Decided that they were not willing to get more democratic votes if it meant giving up white supremacy.
