The Underground Railroad was a network of churches, safe houses and community centers that led thousands of people escaping slavery to freedom. Northern states like Pennsylvania played a major role in the progression of freedom, and the trail made several stops in New York, including the Southern Tier counties along the Pennsylvania border. Here are some of the local landmarks near Binghamton that played a role in the success of the Underground Railroad, including private homes and churches across the region.
The Seymore Home in Whitney Point, New York
This Whitney Point home was owned by George Seymore in the late 1850s and was a spot along the Underground Railroad network. During that time most people who lived in the area knew the Seymore home was being used to hide and assist escaped enslaved people. According to former Broome County historian Gerald Smith, the home was later converted into an antique shop called the Underground Antiques and eventually turned into a private residence.
Cyrus Gates Farmstead in Maine, New York
The Cyrus Gates Farmstead was once used as a sanctuary along the Underground Railroad. On 30 acres in Maine, Cyrus Gates’ home — referred to as “Gates’ white elephant” — was built in the 1850s by a New York City architect. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Gates was a cartographer and surveyor, as well as a vocal abolitionist. Up in the attic, the Gates home had an emergency hiding place. Tucked behind a hidden panel in the back of a cupboard, escaped slaves could crawl into a 10-by-20 foot secret room in the house’s south wing attic, crouching so as not to hit the four-foot-tall ceiling, when they needed to hide.
Park Church in Elmira, New York
Members of Park Church, originally named the First Independent Congregational Church of Elmira, were active participants in the Underground Railroad. They included John W. Jones, an escaped slave who helped over 800 travel to freedom through Elmira and Jervis Langdon, a local financier who helped Frederick Douglass escape from slavery. The church offered shelter, provided food and finances, and took legal action against slavery. They also prepared a petition to officially record their stance as an anti-slavery church and in 1871, it became Park Church. In 2006, the church was added to the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom program.
Binghamton, New York home of Dr. Stephen D. Hand
During the mid-19th century, the home of Dr. Stephen D. Hand stood at the site of the current Binghamton City Hall. After moving to Binghamton and starting a successful medical practice, he took an active role in the Underground Railroad. Hand opened his doors to those seeking freedom. His home was near two existing African American churches — the Bethel Church and the First Colored Methodist Episcopal Church — which created a trio of spots in close proximity offering help. The home was demolished in the 1960s and Binghamton City Hall took its place. The building has a plaque to recognize the significant role the Hand home placed in the Underground Railroad.
Trinity AME Zion Church of Binghamton
The church, founded in 1838, is a stop on the Downtown Binghamton Freedom Trail, recognized for its role in the Underground Railroad. The historic marker at the site shares its history as originally the AME Zion Church, a site that was a place of worship and safe spot to rest and receive help while traveling. Rev. Jermain Loguen, director of the Underground Railroad in Syracuse, was also pastor at the church in the 1860s.
My partner Felicia Hirata, friends Judy and Ruben Stern, and I were discussing the movie Killers of the Flower Moon and conversation shifted to the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. Felicia, Ruben, and I are all retired New York City high school social studies teachers and we realized we had never taught about the massacre in class, and we were unsure of whether we even knew about it when we were teachers. It had effectively been erased from history.
As a high school teacher, I did introduce my students, almost all African American and Latinx, to post-World War 1 racist attacks on African Americans with the poem “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay that was first published in the July 1919 of The Liberator coupled with photographs and newspaper headlines of the 1919 Chicago race riot showing white mobs and police attacking Blacks in the street. The McKay poem is especially powerful and resonated with students because it is a call for resistance.
I now teach social studies methods at Hofstra University in suburban Long Island, New York. After our discussion of Killers of the Flower Moon and the Tulsa Massacre, I decided to review how the post-World War 1 race riots and the Tulsa massacre were covered in the textbooks I used as a high school teacher and in more recent editions used by teachers today, books my students will likely use when they become teachers, books that continue to minimize the role that race and racism played in American history.
Ruben and I both taught United States history at Franklin K. Lane High School in the 1980s using Lewis Todd and Merle Curti’s Triumph of the American Nation as our primary textbook. Chapter 27 “New Directions in American Life Changing Ways (1900-1920)” ignores race, in fact the book’s index does not include race or racism as a category (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986). After discussing World War 1, the authors skipped directly to the “Golden Twenties” where the post-war race riots were ignored. In a later chapter, “Decades in Contrast Changing ways (1920-1939),” “Black migration to the North,” “Disappointed hopes,” and “The riots of 1919” are briefly mentioned, but not what happened in Tulsa. Students learned from the book that “Frightened whites, convinced that black Americans were trying to threaten them and gain control, responded with more violence. Police forces, ill-equipped to deal with riots, usually sided with whites” (751). Perhaps even more disturbing than the omissions, is this justification offered for the white rioters.
I also used Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy, The American Pageant, 7th Edition (1983, D.C. Heath) with a college-level dual enrollment class. A section in Chapter 39, “The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920-1932” titled “The Aftermath of War” includes a paragraph explaining that “Vicious race riots also rocked the Republic in years following the Great War . . . [I]n the immediate post-war period, blacks were brutally taught that the North was not a Promised land. A racial reign of terror descended on Chicago in the summer of 1919, leaving twenty-three blacks and fifteen whites dead. Clashes also inflamed Knoxville, Omaha, Washington, and other cities.” There was also no mention of 1921 and Tulsa massacre in this textbook. Unlike Todd and Curti, Bailey and Kennedy didn’t justify the behavior of the white rioters but by suggesting that these were somehow clashes between Blacks and whites, it takes the onus off white mobs killing African Americans and driving them out of housing and jobs.
Even Howard Zinn’s widely used A People’s History of the United States, first published in 1980 by Harper Collins and reissued most recently in 2015 by Harper Perennial, the most progressive history of the United States that I used as a reference, falls short. Zinn included the post-war strike wave but not the race riots in 1919 or the destruction of the Black community of Tulsa in 1921.
I read From Slavery to Freedom, A History of Negro Americans, 3rd edition by John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. (1969, Vintage) as an undergraduate at CCNY in a class on American Nego History during the 1968-1969 school year. Unfortunately, it did not have much influence on the American history curriculum.
In the 7th edition (published in 1994 by Knopf), Franklin and Moss have a chapter “Democracy Escapes” about conditions faced by African Americans in the United States in the post-World War 1 era after approximately 380,000 African Americans served in the army and about 200,000 were stationed in the European theater (346-360; Goldenberg, 2022). Despite welcoming parades in major American cities, The Crisis reported “This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land. It lynches . . . It disenfranchises its own citizens . . . It encourages ignorance . . .It steals from us . . . It insults us . . . We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the U.S.A., or know the reason why” (347).
Between June and December 1919, Red Summer, Franklin and Moss estimate there were twenty-five anti-Black race riots in American cities (349). The most serious riot was in Chicago where there were thirty-eight fatalities, over 500 reported injuries, and 1,000 families left homeless (350-351). The book also briefly describes a “race war” in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June 1921 where nine whites and 21 blacks were killed.
On Long Island, New York, the most widely used United States history textbook is Holt McDougal’s The Americans by Gerald Danzer, Jorge Kor de Alva, Larry Krieger, Louis Wilson, and Nancy Woloch. The 2012 edition has two references to the post-World War I racial climate. A “Historical Spotlight” box in a chapter on “The First World War” explains that “Racial prejudice against African Americans in the North sometimes took violent forms. However, the 1917 East St. Louis riot seems to be excused because “White workers were furious over the hiring of African Americans as strikebreakers at a munitions plant.” The 1919 Chicago riot is also blamed on African Americans who “retaliated” when a Black teenager was stoned to death by “white bathers” after he swam into “water off a ‘white beach’” (600). A later chapter on the Harlem Renaissance mentions that “Northern cities in general had not welcomed the massive influx of African Americans. Tensions had escalated in the years prior to 1920, culminating in the summer of 1919, in approximately 25 urban race riots” (659). This section does not explain who was rioting and who was being attacked.
The 12th edition of The American Pageant (2002), widely used in Advanced Placement classes, added Lisabeth Cohen as a co-author. A section on “Workers in Wartime” included the “sudden appearance” of African Americans in “previously all-white areas sometimes sparked interracial violence,” equally blamed on Blacks and whites (711). A photograph of a victim of the 1919 Chicago race riot lying on the ground face down includes the caption “The policeman arrived too late to spare this victim from being pelted by stones from an angry mob” (711). From the picture, it is difficult to tell that the victim was African American and he is not identified as such in the caption, although the police standing above him are clearly white. Members of the mob and its victims are not identified, and the caption inaccurately suggests that white police were trying to protect the Black community. The 16th edition, published in 2015, notes in Chapter 32 “American Life in the Roaring Twenties, 1919-1929” that a “ new racial pride also blossomed in the northern black communities that burgeoned during and after the war,” but contained no mention of the race riots in 1919 or 1921 (749) and the chapter on “The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920-1932” dropped the reference to “vicious race riots” in the 1983 edition.
The fourth edition of Making America (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) by Carol Berkin, Christopher Miller, Robert Cherny, and James Gormly references the East St. Louis and Tulsa riots in the index and race riots are paired with lynchings as examples of the conditions faced by returning Black veteran after World War 1. Unlike other texts, this book clearly identifies that “white mobs” were attacking African Americans in East St. Louis, Washington DC, Chicago, Omaha, Tulsa, and Detroit (694, 706, 732). It is also one of the few textbooks to list racism in the index.
America’s History9th edition for the AP Course by James Henretta, Rebecca Edward, Eric Hunderaker and Robert Self, published by Bedford, Freeman & Worth in 2018, includes Chapter 21, “Unsettled Prosperity: From War to Depression, 1919-1932.” This chapter has a section titled “Racial Backlash.” White attacks on Black workers and communities are presented as a response to the Great Migration during World War I and competition for jobs and housing. The section references 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois where white mobs “burned more than 300 black homes and murdered between 50 and 150 black men, women and children”; the Chicago race riot of 1919; the Rosewood, Florida Massacre; and the “horrific incident” in Tulsa. The Tulsa “incident” did receive significant coverage, about half of a paragraph. “Sensational, false reports of an alleged rape helped incite white mobs who resented growing black prosperity. Anger focused on the 8,000 residents of Tulsa’s prosperous Greenwood district, locally known as ‘the black Wall Street.’ The mobs – helped by National Guardsmen, who arrested African Americans who resisted – burned thirty-five blocks of Greenwood and killed several dozen people. The city’s leading paper acknowledged that ‘semi-organized bands of white men systematically applied the torch, while others shot on site men of color.’ It took a decade for black residents to rebuild Greenwood” (653-654).
The best coverage of the 1917-1921 anti-Black race riots is probably Eric Foner’s AP text Give Me Liberty (6th edition, Norton). Chapter 19 “Safe for Democracy: The United States and World War I,” has a section on “Racial Violence, North and South.” It reports on the East St. Louis and Chicago attacks by white mobs on Black workers and communities, lynchings in the South targeting returning Black war veterans, a bloody attack on striking Black sharecroppers in Arkansas, and Tulsa. Foner describes Tulsa as “The worst race riot in American history . . . when more than 300 blacks were killed and over 10,000 left homeless after a white mob, including police and National Guardsmen, burned an all-black section of the city to the ground. The Tulsa riot erupted after s group of black veterans tried to prevent the lynching of a youth who had accidently tripped and fallen on a white female elevator operator, causing rumors of rape to sweep the city” (766).
Over one hundred years after the Tulsa Massacre, the United States needs to stop pretending that racism ended with the American Civil War and take steps to address the lingering impact of slavery and systemic racism on American society. An important step would be to ensure that high school students learn about events from the past that continue to shape the present.
Despite widespread and prolonged opposition in many northern cities, President Millard Fillmore affixed his signature to the new Fugitive Slave Act on September 18, 1850. It unleashed a torrent of fear amongst the ever-growing populations of free Blacks and freedom seekers that at any minute slave catchers, who now possessed the ability to forcibly enlist civilians to aid in the recapture of those purported to be enslaved.
In Syracuse, already a hotbed of agitation against the odious legislation for several months, local leaders called for a mass meeting at City Hall on October 4 to further demonstrate their collective resistance. Word of the upcoming gathering reached Rev. Jermain Loguen, who was in Troy on missionary work for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He decided he must return to the city he called home since 1841 to lend his righteous voice to the proceedings.
Following the speech of his friend, Samuel Ringgold Ward, the Black publisher of The Impartial Citizen, Loguen addressed the massive crowd that spilled out of the hall out onto Montgomery and Market streets with the courage and eloquence that characterized his tireless fight against the inhumane institution he’d escaped almost 15 years prior. He declared that he would not be taken into slavery. “What is my life if I am to be a slave in Tennessee . . . I will not live a slave, and if force is employed to re-enslave me, I shall make preparations to meet the crisis as becomes a man.”
For Loguen, those preparations did not include uprooting his wife Caroline and their children and fleeing to Canada, despite the numerous admonitions of friends to do so. Protected as he was in some regard by geography and a strong network of allies, Loguen could make this bold stand. For many other freedom seekers elsewhere in the Union, particularly those in border states like Pennsylvania, the Fugitive Slave Act left them no choice but to continue running further north.
Less than three weeks after Loguen’s stirring call to action, the city of Syracuse found itself at the center of a human tragedy that illustrated perfectly the fear, anxiety, and cruelty engendered by the new legislation. On October 24, 1850, under the headline “Attempted Suicide of a Fugitive,” the readers of the Syracuse Standard, a paper friendly to the cause of abolition, first learned of the tragic ordeal of the Harris family. In response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, William and Catherine Harris and their 3-year-old daughter had fled Philadelphia days earlier in the hopes of gaining safe transport to Canada via Rochester.
Initial reports stated that Harris escaped his own enslavement in South Carolina years earlier, eventually settling in Philadelphia. According to the testimony that Catherine later gave to Syracuse Police Justice Sylvester House, the two were married in 1843 and lived a quiet and peaceful life, and a few years later the couple welcomed the birth of their daughter. Terrified that he might be captured under the auspices of the new law, William made the fateful decision to uproot his family, and they made their way to New York City. There, they procured tickets to Rochester via the Erie Canal.
The real trouble began once they reached Albany on Thursday, October 17. As Mrs. Harris relayed in her testimony, having purchased their tickets for passage to Rochester they boarded their boat. The problems started almost immediately. Captain Hartwell C. Webster refused to return the Harris’s tickets. They were stuck in the cargo hold with large quantities of clams and oysters, delicacies that had become wildly popular all along the canal route in the 25 years since its completion.
The clams and oysters belonged to a merchant named Silas Cowell, who along with one of the boat hand’s, Jeremiah Cluney, began harassing the Harris family that evening. Somehow, they became aware of William’s status as a fugitive. Compounding their predicament was the fact that Mrs. Harris was of markedly lighter skin tone, being described in the New York Tribune[2] as a “mulatto woman, of interesting appearance.”
According to Harris’ testimony, Cluney and Cowell continued threatening to handing them over to slave catchers saying, “no n—– could pass this canal without being taken.” Preying on their fear, these men tormented William and Catherine and their three year-old-daughter for the next two days. They even attempted to extort money from William for passage, aware that the Captain had taken their tickets to Rochester. Mrs. Harris stated that Cluney and Cowell made reference to Syracuse as “the place where they said we would be taken.” After days of ceaseless torment, Catherine Harris could not take it anymore. As she stated in her testimony, she “wants to die rather than be taken by the kidnappers.”
Convinced that the slave catchers were waiting on them in Syracuse, she jumped through the moving boat’s window and into the canal with her daughter in her arms somewhere between Frankfort and Utica. Somehow, she was fished out of the nearly eight feet of water. In the commotion, her daughter slipped out of her grasp. The captain refused to stop the boat to look for her body. William went on deck to beg the captain to stop the boat, but to no avail. Cluney threatened to cut his throat if he did not go back below decks. Their daughter was assumed drowned.
Sometime around 10 p.m., on Monday, Catherine and William retreated to the cargo hold, the depths of their misery unimaginable “awaiting their doom.” In her testimony, Mrs. Harris said Cowell confronted them again saying that the crew was going to “take his head off.” William responded that he would rather do it himself. He took his shaving razor and sliced his own throat. For the next five hours, William lay bleeding next to his wife. All the while, Cluney and Cowell sat there playing cards, yelling racist epithets at him and threatening to “knock his brains out” if he so much as moved.
As the morning sun appeared in the skies outside Canastota on Tuesday, October 22, William was able to jump off the boat and began walking on the towpath towards Syracuse. Catherine recounted being able to see him alongside the boat, while Cluney, acting on the orders of the captain, threatened William with violence if he attempted to rejoin his aggrieved wife. As such, he walked wounded and bleeding alongside the boat for over 20 miles until he collapsed by the Lodi locks, near Beech Street. Catherine reported losing sight of him around this time as the boat continued on into Clinton Square. She remained on the boat as it continued west towards Rochester. There were no slave catchers waiting there. It had all been a grotesque and murderous charade.
According to the reports in the Syracuse Journal, William Harris regained consciousness and threw himself into the canal in front of a moving boat just west of the Lodi locks. The boat’s Captain, V.R. Ogden managed to rescue Harris and bring him into Clinton Square, where he was taken and treated by Dr. Hiram Hoyt, a Syracuse physician with abolitionist sympathies. Though Harris was unable to talk due to the wound on his neck, somehow, he communicated his ordeal to Hoyt, who in turn got word to Rev. John Lisle, a Black preacher in the AME Zion Church and pastor of the Second Congregational Church on Fayette and Almond streets. Rev. Lisle offered to head west towards Rochester to find Catherine, which he did at Montezuma. According to Lisle’s testimony, he encountered no resistance from Captain Webster nor the boat’s crew, a far cry from the harrowing experience of the Harrises.
Upon their return to Syracuse, Catherine provided the testimony upon which this essay is based. As a result of her damning testimony, Justice House issued arrest warrants for Webster, Cluney, and Cowell. The three men were detained in Rochester and brought to Syracuse on charges of assault and harassment. Unconvinced by their testimony, which painted William Harris as a disorderly drunk, they were found guilty, fined and jailed.
According to historian Angela Murphy, the Harrises continued their journey to freedom in Canada, though as a family of two instead of three. Their unimaginable suffering found its way into newspapers all over the union from Wisconsin to Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Virginia, and even Georgia. It helped galvanize the opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law in a way that rhetoric could not.
Here in Syracuse, the memory of the Harrises persisted, actuating more strident resistance. This resistance would come to a head less than a year later in one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience of the period, when a righteous mob freed Jerry from his jail cell just a few steps from the Clinton Street bridge where Dr. Hoyt found William Harris bleeding from a self-inflicted wound.
Attempted Suicide of a Fugitive
“On Tuesday afternoon a colored man named Wm Harris, attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a razor, on the towing path, about two miles east of this city. Harris is from South Carolina, and has been residing in Philadelphia for several years past, but on the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law became alarmed for his safety, and started for Canada, accompanied by his wife and child. In New York he procured a passage ticket for Rochester, but at Albany his ticket was taken from him and destroyed by some persons who threatened to deliver him up unless he paid for his passage again. He succeeded in getting as far as Utica, when his fears were again excited by threats of being taken back to Slavery, and says he was informed by persons belonging to the boat that he would certainly be arrested at Syracuse. He became so much alarmed by these repeated threats, (Whether made in jest or earnest it is now impossible to say) that he determined to commit suicide, and advised his wife to drown herself and their child. Taking his razor he jumped on the towing path and made an attempt to destroy himself by cutting his throat, inflicting a terrible wound, and fainted from loss of blood. His wife, with the child in her arms jumped into the canal about the same time, but was taken out by the hands-on-board the boat. The child was not recovered. The wife was carried west through this city, on the boat, [3] leaving the husband upon the tow path.” Source: Syracuse Standard, October 24, 1850.
Rev. Loguen Denounces the Fugitive Slave Law (Syracuse, NY)
“I was a slave; I knew the dangers I was exposed to. I had made up my mind as to the course I was to take. On that score I needed no counsel, nor did the colored citizens generally. They had taken their stand-they would not be taken back to slavery. If to shoot down their assailants should forfeit their lives, such result was the least of the evil. They will have their liberties or die in their defence. What is life to me if I am to be a slave in Tennessee? My neighbors! I have lived with you many years, and you know me. My home is here, and my children were born here. I am bound to Syracuse by pecuniary interests, and social and family bonds. And do you think I can be taken away from you and from my wife and children, and be a slave in Tennessee? Has the President and his Secretary sent this enactment up here, to you,
Some kind and good friends advise me to quit my country, and stay in Canada, until this tempest is passed. I doubt not the sincerity of such counsellors. But my conviction is strong, that their advice comes from lack of knowledge of themselves and the case in hand. I believe that our own bosoms are charged to the brim with qualities that will smite to the earth the villains who may interfere to enslave any man in Syracuse.
I don’t respect this law- I don’t fear it- I won’t obey it! It outlaws me, and I outlaw it, and the men who attempt to enforce it on me. I place the governmental officials on the ground that they place me. I will not live a slave, and if force is employed to re-enslave me, I shall make preparations to meet the crisis as becomes a man.” Source: The Rev. J.W. Loguen, As A Slave and As a freeman. A Narrative of Real Life (Syracuse, 1859), pp. 391-93; Aptheker 306-308
Engaging High School Students in Global Civic Education Lessons in U.S. History
The relationship between the individual and the state is present in every country, society, and civilization. Relevant questions about individual liberty, civic engagement, government authority, equality and justice, and protection are important for every demographic group in the population. In your teaching of World History, consider the examples and questions provided below that should be familiar to students in the history of the United States with application to the experiences of others around the world.
These civic activities are designed to present civics in a global context as civic education happens in every country. The design is flexible regarding using one of the activities, allowing students to explore multiple activities in groups, and as a lesson for a substitute teacher. The lessons are free, although a donation to the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies is greatly appreciated. www.njcss.org
Era 11 The Great Depression and World War II (1929–1945)
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The beginning of the 20th century marks the foundation of the transformation of the United States into a world power by the middle of the century. In this era industrialization, urbanization, and rapid immigration changed America from an agrarian to an urban society as people lived and worked in cities. The development of the new technologies of electricity, transportation, and communication challenged our long-held traditional policies of limited government, neutrality, and laissez-faire capitalism. The lesson of the Great Depression was that capitalism and free markets did not enable everyone to attain the American Dream. As a result, Americans looked to their government for help with the problems of unemployment, poverty, old age. Housing, and the supply of food.
Activity #1: The New Deal vs. a Five-Year Plan?
During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was 24.9% in the United States (about 13 million people). Without income, there was very limited private consumption. President Roosevelt identified the South as the number one “problem region” of the U.S. for poverty and economic distress. In 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, a federally funded program to protect the environment from floods, encourage economic development, and produce electric power.
In 1934, Shareholders of the Alabama Power Company sued to prevent the TVA from acquiring over half of the company’s property and equipment. The sale would allow the government agency to allocate electric power to consumers. The shareholders argued that Congress exceeded its authority.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, held that Congress did not abuse its power. Justice Hughes argued that the Wilson Dam, the location where the TVA was in the business of generating electricity, had been built originally in the interest of national defense because it produced materials involved in the production of munitions. The government could sell excess electricity to consumers without violating the Constitution. The majority concluded that Congress had the authority to construct the Wilson Dam. The majority also found that the disposal of the electric energy generated was lawful.
This Supreme Court decision is also known for the reasoning of Justice Louis Brandeis regarding conflicts when one branch exceeds its power and infringes on another branch. Justice Brandeis adopted the criteria which has become known as the ‘avoidance doctrine.’ “One branch of the government cannot encroach upon the domain of another, without danger. The safety of our institutions depends in no small degree on a strict observance of this salutary rule.”
The legacy of the Tennessee Valley Authority brought electricity to the southeastern United States increasing the productivity of farming and transforming this region from poverty to sustainable economic development. Before the Tennessee Valley Authority, electric power was generated by private companies. (e.g. Westinghouse, Edison Electric Illuminating Company, Public Service Corporation, etc.) Private companies are concerned with making a profit instead of investing in public areas such as street lights or rural areas. The first buildings to have electricity around 1880 were often hotels and commercial buildings. Wabash, IN, Appleton, WI, Cleveland, OH, and lower Manhattan were some of the first towns and cities to have electric power. Some members in Congress, namely Senator George Norris, favored public utility companies as the most efficient way to bring this new invention to everyone in the United States.
The Soviet Union’s Five-Year Plan: The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine
Since the Russian Revolution of 1917, Lenin prioritized the electrification of the Soviet Union as essential for economic and industrial development. Each of the 12 Five Year Plans included the expansion of power through the construction of dams, fossil fuels, natural gas, and since 1975, nuclear energy. The Soviet state planning committee, Gosplan, developed these plans with clearly stated production goals.
One of the problems with the energy plan of the Soviet Union is the transmission of electricity from the generating plant to other regions of the country. Russia depends on a unified power system and the complexity of its geography and use of different energy sources (fossil fuels, hydropower, natural gas, and nuclear) makes it difficult to transfer power from one source to another efficiently. The heaviest demand for electricity is in the western or European side of the country. However, as electricity became accessible to rural areas, agricultural production became dependent on electricity. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. It was constructed in 1985.
The Soviet Union could benefit from the computer software used in the United States, but the Five-Year Plan model is dependent on Soviet Union computers and boilers. Some of the Five-Year Plans were completed ahead of schedule, some did not meet their goals, and they also included social changes such as closing houses of worship, providing child care, and using large collective farms. The goals of most of the plans were to transform the Soviet Union into a major industrial and economic power.
How is a market economy different from a command economy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both models?
Why did the United States and Soviet Union experience challenges or problems with electrifying their countries?
Is a monopoly or market competition the most efficient economic model for providing utilities to the people in a country? (water, electric, phone, education, etc.)
Is a market or command economy the most efficient model to address the expected problems from climate change in the next 25 years?
Which economic model (market, command, or mixed) is the most efficient one to increase worker productivity?
Activity #2: Two Perspectives on World War II: DR’s Four Freedoms Speech and Hirohito’s Decree
On January 6, 1940, about three months after Hitler’s attack on Poland, President Franklin Roosevelt gave his Four Freedoms speech as part of his State of the Union address. This was during a time when many people in America wanted to remain neutral and isolated from the European conflict which expanded in September 1939 with Germany’s blitzkrieg attack and occupation of independent Poland.
1940 was also a presidential election year. In the mid-term election of 1938, the Republican Party became the majority in the House and Senate. The Republican Party had several contenders for the nomination, notably Governor Thomas Dewey (NY) Senator Robert Taft (OH), and Wendell Wilkie, a businessman from Kansas. When the Republican Party convention was held in June in Philadelphia, Wendell Wilkie’s popularity had increased significantly, while the popularity of Thomas Dewey and Robert Taft was declining.
Excerpt from the Four Freedoms Speech
“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want–which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception–the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.
Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions–without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.”
Historical perspectives were important in 1941, and they are important today. The United States, including President Roosevelt, presented a perspective of Japanese superiority and a destiny to rule the world. He also called America’s citizens to accept the importance of a new moral order that included the religious concept of faith in freedom under the guidance of God. This perspective of American superiority is built on a commitment to an idea and an ideal.
American vs. Japanese Civilian Perspectives
A Life Magazine article about Emperor Hirohito in 1937 stated “To Japanese he is, in all seriousness, a divine descendent of the Sun goddess, the incarnate head of the Japanese divinity idea that makes the conquest of Asia a holy destiny for the Japanese race.” For ordinary Americans, the concept of kami in Japanese culture was not comprehendible. Instead of understanding a perspective of divinity as present everywhere, they accepted Hirohito as a son of a god or goddess or someone connected with divinity.
After the bombing at Pearl Harbor tensions between the United States and Japan escalated. Through the lens of war, the Japanese emperor’s god-like status became a more serious issue because they perceived Japan’s war objectives connected with their religious beliefs. A 1945 United States News story explains, “Shintoism has no religious content and has ethical content to the extent that it is designed to support the idea of the divine origin of the Emperor.” A 1945 article in Life Magazine stated, “The Emperor of Japan is neither a man nor a ruler. Nor is he simply a god living in Tokyo. He is a spiritual institution in which center the energy, the loyalty and even the morality of the Japanese.” He is supreme in all temporal matters of state as well as in all spiritual matters, and he is the foundation of Japanese social and civil morality.
American and Japanese civilians had very opposite reactions following the events of December 7, 1941. For Americans, Pearl Harbor represented “A Day Which Will Live in Infamy.” For citizens of Japan, Pearl Harbor represented the success of a justified military retaliation. The American and Japanese governments both utilized nationalism to their advantage, and implemented various forms of propaganda as tools for shaping their civilians’ perspectives.
Excerpt from Japan’s Announcement Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
“What an uproar! Japan’s Imperial Forces got things off to a quick start with one splendid strike then another in historic surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, where the bravado of the US Asia fleet met with sudden defeat, and off the Malaya Coast, where the main forces of the British Asia fleet were utterly annihilated. Word has it that Roosevelt and Churchill were shaken up and went pale upon hearing of the defeats. In a third strike, Hong Kong Island, England’s strategic base for its 100-year exploitation of East Asia, fell into ruin in only a matter of ten days. During this time, Churchill was sent reeling, cutting off contact with others and showing up in Washington.
What these two headstrong countries are striving for will only lead them on a downhill path to military defeat. Our barbaric enemies are already cowering in fear in the Pacific, and the fall of Manila shall mark the day of the Philippines’ subjugation and reversion back to Greater East Asia. The enemy power of Singapore, which was—alas—boasting of its impenetrable stronghold before the Imperial Forces penetrated the jungle area of the Malay Peninsula and advanced southward like a raging tide, shall also vanish into nothingness in the midst of this glorious chapter in history.
The military gains of the glorious Imperial Forces are truly great, and the army, navy, and air force should be given our heartfelt gratitude. We should also honor our courageous men who are ready to lay down their lives when charging enemy lines, as well as those who went out to conquer but never returned.”
Emperor Hirohito’s Decree
On January 1, 1946, four months after the surrender on September 2, 1945, Emperor Hirohito made the following statement in Japan’s newspapers.
“I stand by my people. I am ever ready to share in their joys and sorrows. The ties between me and my people have always been formed by mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon mere legends or myths. Nor are they predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese are superior to other races and destined to rule the world.
How was the rise of dictators after World War 1 an existential threat? How did ordinary American citizens understand the conflict in Europe and Asia before and after the attack on Poland and the attack on Pearl Harbor?
If you were the President of the United States in 1940, would you deliver the Four Freedoms speech or one that is similar in content and context?
Do you accept President Roosevelt’s statement following Pearl Harbor that before the attack the United States was at peace with Japan? (see video clip above)
Are elected leaders elevated by people and the press or are they criticized to the extent that their decisions and motives are questioned?
Which government delivered the best message to its citizens based on factual evidence and an understanding of the importance of the attack on Pearl Harbor?
Activity #3: Japanese Internment Camps and Soviet Union Deportation Camps
Japanese Internment Camps
Two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 to relocate approximately 117,000 Japanese Americans living on the west coast. At first, the order was voluntary and Japanese Americans had time to sell their property and comply in an orderly manner.
Unfortunately, many did not comply voluntarily, and the relocation became mandatory. Thousands of people lost their homes and businesses due to “failure to pay taxes.” The relocation of Japanese Americans in the United States for safety and security reasons was controversial during World War II and for the decades that followed. The internment camps provided educational and recreational activities, adequate heat, and a process to hear complaints and address concerns.
There were 12 camps located all over the United States, with the Seabrook Farms camp in New Jersey.
President Truman rescinded the Executive Order on June 25, 1946 allowing the Japanese Americans to return to their homes. They were in relocation camps for more than four years. When they returned home, most found their belongings stolen and their homes and property sold. They also faced prejudice and discrimination for years, even though Japanese Americans were combat soldiers during the war.
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. The remaining survivors of the relocation camps were sent formal letters of apology and were awarded $20,000 in restitutions from the United States government.
Soviet Union Deportation Camps During World War II
On February 23, 1944, the Chechens were exiled from their ancestral lands and deported to Siberia and the northern regions of Kazakhstan. The entirety of the Chechen nation was accused of collaborating with the Fascists, even though there is no evidence to support this. The German advance into the Soviet Union never came close to Chechnya. The Chechen deportation of almost 400,000 men, women, and children is the largest Soviet deportation and occurred in a matter of days. Many Chechens had in fact fought on the front lines of the Soviet war against the German aggressor.
On September 1, 1941 the mass evacuation was announced for the approximately 440,000 Volga Germans. Ten days later they began their forced deportation to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Many were forced to work in ‘labor camps’ such as Kolyma. The Volga Germans were then stripped of their citizenship and did not regain their civil rights until after Stalin’s death. Most estimates indicate that close to 40 percent of the affected population perished.
In 1944, Joseph Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar community (roughly 200,000), falsely accusing them of collaborating with the Nazis. Reports suggest that nearly half of the deported died during the ordeal. Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Canada have all formally recognized Stalin’s brutal deportation as a crime of genocide. During this same period, the Soviet Union adopted a policy of “Russification” for the peninsula. Crimea was “Russified” and any study of the Tatar’s native language was banned, ancient Tatar names were erased, Tatar books were burned, and their mosques were destroyed. Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Soviet Russia to Soviet Ukraine.
Is it possible for a government to correct something it did that was morally or legally wrong?
Do governments need to justify the actions they take during a time of war or a national crisis?
Are there significant differences in the actions of the United States and the Soviet Union in the relocation or deportation of innocent people, many who were citizens?
Do ordinary people have any rights during a war or crisis (i.e. Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, etc.)?
How and who determines if and when a government exceeds its authority?
Activity #4: Weapons of Mass Destruction
In World War II, the Japanese were fighting for the Emperor who convinced them that it was better to die than surrender. Women and children had been taught how to kill with basic weapons. kamikaze pilots crashed their planes into American ships. A land invasion would be costly with estimates of more than one million American lives lost.
After a successful test of a nuclear bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom issued the Potsdam Declaration on July 26 demanding the unconditional surrender of the Japanese government, warning of “prompt and utter destruction.” On the morning of August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The result was approximately 80,000 deaths in just the first few minutes. Thousands died later from radiation sickness. On August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The result was 39,000 men, women and children were killed and 25,000 more were injured. Both cities were leveled and Japan surrendered to the United States.
After the news of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, Lieutenant General Leslie R Groves, director of the `Manhattan Project’ that had developed the atomic bomb, commented:
“The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II. There can be no doubt of that. While they brought death and destruction on a horrifying scale, they averted even greater losses – American, English, and Japanese”.
This justification that the use of the bomb saved lives, even though it killed innocent civilians, has haunted the world into our present time. It was a view that generated controversy then and after as to the justification or otherwise of the use of such weapons on largely defenseless civilian targets, at such Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) that has haunted the world into our present times.
Following World War 2, there was an arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Although there were threats of war and conflicts in Korea, Southeast Asia, the Congo and other places, this period was called the Cold War. Other countries also developed nuclear weapons leading to concerns of a global conflict.
The world came close to a nuclear attack during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962, nuclear weapons could be delivered by airplanes, missiles, and submarines. The Soviet Union placed nuclear warheads in Cuba and the United States had some in Turkey. These missiles could attack cities in both countries within a range of 1,200 miles. Fortunately, the Soviet Union began to withdraw its ships and missiles from Cuba and an agreement was made.
In the 1960s, the military strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was debated, In this strategy, two opposing forces, the Soviet Union and the United States, had enough nuclear weapons to completely destroy each other. This deterrence theory assumed that neither side would initiate a nuclear attack because the resulting retaliation would lead to their own destruction. The concept, first discussed in the 1960s during the Cold War, is based on the idea that the devastating consequences of nuclear war would outweigh any potential gains for either side.
As a result, the United Nations initiated the process to limit the production of nuclear testing and weapons. Since the first test ban treaty, several agreements have been ratified to control the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons. The threat from atomic, hydrogen, neutron, and cobalt nuclear weapons is a concern to every person and every country because of the fallout from dangerous levels of radiation. There are still detectable effects of radiation in our atmosphere today from the 1945 explosion. The effects of radiation from a thermonuclear weapon (Hydrogen bomb) will likely last for hundreds of years and affect every living organism and human.
Following the Attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the world became concerned about a terrorist group having access to a smaller nuclear weapon, a dirty bomb, that might be detonated in an urban area. The effects of a dirty bomb would likely be limited to the immediate area of the explosion but the damage to property and the cleanup of radioactive elements would be significant and costly.
Why did an arms race between the USA and the USSR begin after 1945?
How sane was the policy of MAD?
What factors sustained the arms race for so long?
Is a limited nuclear war a plausible scenario or would it quickly lead to an all-out war?
What would life on Earth be like after a nuclear war? What geographic regions might have a chance of survival?
Should the civil defense from a nuclear war or dirty bomb explosion be best coordinated by local, state, or the federal government in the United States?
How would the governments of Europe or the Middle East, where there are many countries within a small geographic area respond to a nuclear war or explosion from a bomb or nuclear power plant?
What is the most likely scenario for a nuclear explosion in the 21st century?
Engaging High School Students in Global Civic Education Lessons in U.S. History
The relationship between the individual and the state is present in every country, society, and civilization. Relevant questions about individual liberty, civic engagement, government authority, equality and justice, and protection are important for every demographic group in the population. In your teaching of World History, consider the examples and questions provided below that should be familiar to students in the history of the United States with application to the experiences of others around the world.
These civic activities are designed to present civics in a global context as civic education happens in every country. The design is flexible regarding using one of the activities, allowing students to explore multiple activities in groups, and as a lesson for a substitute teacher. The lessons are free, although a donation to the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies is greatly appreciated. www.njcss.org
Era 10 The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929–1945)
The beginning of the 20th century marks the foundation of the transformation of the United States into a world power by the middle of the century. In this era economic prosperity and depression, the ability of our government to provide for the needs of people experiencing economic hardship, and the rise of dictators attacking innocent civilians and threatening the existence of democratic governments leading to a second world war dominate the narrative of this historical period. The development of the new technologies of electricity, transportation, and communication challenged our long-held traditional policies of limited government, neutrality, and laissez-faire capitalism.
Activity #1: Father Charles Coughlin, BBC and ABC: Can the ruling political party use public media to advocate for its policies?
In the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest, had a weekly radio program with millions of listeners in the United States. In 1926 he broadcast weekly sermons but as the economy shifted into a recession and depression, his broadcast became more political and economic. They also reflected anti-Semitism with verbal attacks on prominent Jewish citizens. His broadcast following Kristallnacht on November 10, 1938 was particularly divisive. The owner of WMCA, a New York station, refused to broadcast Father Coughlin’s messages
The owner of WMCA, the New York station that carried his program, refused to broadcast Coughlin’s next radio message. The Nazi press reacted to the news with fury: “America is Not Allowed to Hear the Truth” declared one headline. “Jewish organizations camouflaged as American…have conducted such a campaign…that the radio station company has proceeded to muzzle the well-loved Father Coughlin.” A “New York Times” correspondent in Germany noted that Coughlin had become for the moment “the hero of Nazi Germany.”
In the United States the Federal Communications Act of 1934 and subsequent additions regarding television and quiz shows mostly protects licenses, ensures equal access to all geographic areas, and provides for a rapid communications system regarding emergencies and national defense. It protects First Amendment rights regarding content, with some restrictions regarding profanity or inappropriate sexual content or images. The absence of specific content regulations allowed Orson Welles in 1938 to produce “War of the Worlds” over the radio leading to a panic by many citizens regarding their fear of an alien invasion. The Fairness Doctrine of 1949 requires broadcasters to allow responses to personal attacks and controversial opinions. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Red Lion Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. Federal Communications Commissionchallenged the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine allowing the popularity of political radio and television talk and news programs.
The use of public media in the United Kingdom has specific statues to balance the perspectives of opinions and to prevent or limit the public broadcast media as a platform to present the views of the government, propaganda, or to advocate for a particular point of view on a controversial issue. The diversity of opinion in the United Kingdom for the BBC must respect opinions reflecting urban and rural populations, age, income, geography, culture, and political affiliations. There are also reasonable guidelines regarding the editor’s judgment to exclude a particular perspective. Facts and opinions must be defined and clearly stated. Section 4 Impartiality: 4.3.14BBC Editorial Policy
Questions:
How is broadcast media (radio and television) substantially different than print, telegraph or telephone media?
How is social media substantially different than radio and television broadcasting?
Does the U.S. Constitution allow for government regulation of content?
To what extent is self-regulation effective or ineffective regarding news, weather, traffic, programs, and ethical standards?
Are the regulations of content justified when their protect the mental health of people and prevent false or misleading statements and prohibit explicit sexual images and content determined to be pornographic?
To what extent is censorship a problem in the publication of information. Should restrictive editorial policies be considered a form of censorship?
Activity #2: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States and Bank Deposit Insurance in Other Countries
In the United States, deposits in most banks are protected up to $250,000 for each investor. This protection restored confidence in American banks during the Great Depression and is an important reason for a sound financial system in the United States. Investments in stocks and bonds fluctuate with market conditions. Every bank in the United States also has deposits that are not insured. Investments in stocks, mutual funds, and corporate bonds are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The Federal Reserve Bank establishes a reserve requirement, currently 10%, for banks to maintain to ensure adequate funds for withdrawals. The Federal Reserve Bank also monitors the member banks in the Federal Reserve System. Banks are assessed on all of their deposits quarterly and a formula is used to calculate their insurance payment. The FDIC is self-insured, although backed by Congress in the event of a catastrophic collapse of the banking system.
The Banking System in Japan
In Japan, the Deposit Insurance Act was enacted in 1971. The DIA fully insures deposits that do not earn interest. In the United States amounts in checking, savings, money market accounts, and Certificates of Deposit are insured. Deposits that earn interest in Japan are insured up to 10 million yen, or about $70,000.
The most recent crisis in Japan is the exposure of the Aozora Bank to bad loans and investments in the United States. In 2024, it posted a net loss of 28 billion Japanese yen or about $191 million in U.S. dollars. A major earthquake in Japan, effects from extreme weather, or a military conflict would likely present major risks to Japan’s banks.
Examples of countries without any defined deposit insurance are China, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, and South Africa. Perhaps one-third of the countries in the world do not protect deposits in their banks.
There are about 6 million households in the United States without bank accounts. If you consider this a concern, what can be done to address this situation?
What is the role of banks in the macroeconomy?
Does the deposit insurance system in the United States provide sufficient protection?
Are some banks too big to fail? If yes, then is the federal government justified in using taxpayer dollars to protect a large bank from failure or takeover?
To what extent should pension investments, property and homes, investments in government bonds be protected? Should insurance for these investments be paid for by the depositor or the bank?
Is the primary purpose of federal deposit insurance to protect the banks or its depositors?
Activity #3: Governor Huey P. Long and Health Insurance in the United States and other Countries
Huey P. Long is a challenging person for historians and educators. His ‘Share the Wealth’ program, use of the media, authoritarian actions, and criticisms of voter manipulation provide for diverse perspectives. However, he improved healthcare in Louisiana by expanding the Charity Hospital System, creating the Louisiana State University Medical School, reforming institutions to care for the disabled and mentally challenged, and providing free health clinics and immunizations. As a result, many lives were saved.
As governor, Long tripled funding for public healthcare. The state’s free health clinics grew from 10 in 1926 to 31 in 1933, providing free immunizations to 67 percent of the rural population. By building bridges and paving new roads, he made it possible for the rural poor to have access to medical and dental health care and hospitals. In the long historical timeline toward universal health care insurance in the United States, Huey P. Long is a pioneer.
Before Huey Long’s reforms, patients at the Central Hospital for the Insane were locked in chairs during their ‘recreation’ time. from Every Man a King by Huey Long; reproduced by permission.
Long by-passed the negative press by distributing his own newspaper, “The American Progress,” and he spoke directly to a national audience through radio speeches and speaking engagements. In a national radio broadcast on February 23, 1934, Huey Long unveiled his “Share Our Wealth” plan a program designed to provide a decent standard of living to all Americans by spreading the nation’s wealth among the people. Long proposed capping personal fortunes at $50 million each (roughly $600 million in today’s dollars) through a restructured, progressive federal tax code and sharing the resulting revenue with the public through government benefits and public works. In addition, he advocated for a 30 hour work week, four weeks of paid vacation for every worker, free college or vocational educational and limiting annual incomes to $1 million or about $60 million in today’s dollars. He also advocated for pensions and health care provided by businesses and the government.
Long believed that it was morally wrong for the government to allow millions of Americans to suffer in poverty when there existed a surplus of food, clothing, and shelter. By 1934, nearly half of all American families lived in poverty, earning less than $1,250 annually. He supported a health care system for all people using government funds. Long’s authoritarian use of power helped him achieve his goals until his assassination in 1935.
There are four basic health care models
The United States has one of the most expensive health care systems in the world. It invests in research,
However, in 2021, 8.6 percent of the U.S. population was uninsured. The U.S. is the only country where a substantial portion of the population lacks any form of health insurance. The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest death rates for avoidable or treatable conditions, the highest maternal and infant mortality, and one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It also has the highest rate of people with multiple chronic conditions and an obesity rate nearly twice the average of other developed countries.
The current programs provided by Medicare (for people over age 65), Medicaid (for people with low incomes), and the Affordable Care Act (current program for most people) are each under attack because of the high costs associated with them and government regulation of the prices paid.
In your research and discussion consider the following models of health insurance and the programs Gov. Huey P. Long implemented in Louisiana in the 1930s.
The Beveridge Model
This model is named after William Beveridge, the social reformer who designed Britain’s National Health Service. In this system, health care is provided and financed by the government through tax payments, just like the police force or the public library.
Many, but not all, hospitals and clinics are owned by the government; some doctors are government employees, but there are also private doctors who collect their fees from the government. This system has the lowest costs per person, because the government controls what doctors can do and what they can charge. Great Britain, Spain, most Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, and Cuba are countries using this model or one that is similar.
The Bismarck Model
The Bismarck models uses an insurance system financed jointly by employers and employees through payroll deduction. Every person is covered. Doctors and hospitals are private operators. Although there are many payers to this model, costs tend to be regulated by the government. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, and some Latin American are countries that use this model.
The National Health Insurance Model
This system has elements of both Beveridge and Bismarck models. It uses private-sector providers, but payment comes from a government-run insurance program that every citizen pays into. Costs are considered low because there are no profits, no advertising, and claims are pre-approved. It is a single payer system and as a monopolist it is in a position to negotiate for the lowest prices. This system also has the ability to limit the medical services it will pay for, such as preventive care or what is considered elective procedures. Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea are countries using this model. For Americans over the age of 65, Medicare is similar to this model.
The Out-of-Pocket Model
Health insurance is mostly a benefit for industrialized countries. Of the 195 countries on planet Earth, about 40 or 25% have established health care systems. In countries using this model, the poor are neglected. This is a problem for hundreds of millions of people who have low incomes or are living below the poverty line.
Questions:
Does preventive care provide long-term savings for a country?
Who has the primary responsibility for physical and mental health care in a country?
Is government sponsored health care part of the vision of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?
Are there limits to what a government or business can and should provide for its populations?
Local communities finance public education with taxes and the salaries of educators and graduation requirements are controlled by local Boards of Education with some supervision from the state government. Should this model be considered for health care?
Which of the four models would you adopt or adapt for the United States?
How can the United States best address the health care crises it faces regarding obesity, mental health, cancer, and chronic conditions. (i.e. diabetes, hypertension)
Should health care models also include the costs of vision, hearing, and dental expenses?
Activity #4: Dr. Francis Townsend and Direct Payments to Citizens Living in Poverty and Income Transfer in the United Kingdom
In 2023, the official poverty threshold in the United States was $30,900 for a family of two adults and two children. Families can earn well over this amount and still find they cannot pay all of their bills.
Poverty is relative. Someone in your class, school, community, etc. will be in the bottom 25% of income earners. An individual earning an hourly wage of $20.00 an hour who works for 35 hours a week earns $700 a week or $36,400 a year. This total is reduced by state and federal taxes and a 7.65% tax on Medicare and Social Security. Although $20 an hour is higher than the minimum wage in every state, it is not considered a living wage.
About one in seven (14%) of children under age 16 are in poverty in the United States. This means that about 10 million kids in 2023 were living in households that did not have enough resources for basic needs such as food, housing and utilities. The poverty rate in New Jersey is 10% of the population or about 950,000. See the SPM child poverty rate in your state The highest rates of poverty generally occur for the youngest children — under age 5 — kids in single-mother families, children of color and kids in immigrant families. The numbers of children and adults living in poverty are increasing and they are a serious problem. The effects of living in poverty are the concern of your discussion as is the most effective way to reduce or eliminate it.
The effects of economic hardship disrupt the cognitive development, physical and mental health, educational success of children. Researchers estimate the total U.S. cost of child poverty ranges from $500 billion to $1 trillion per year based on lost productivity and increased health care expenses.
Poverty in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the poverty rate for children is 31% or double the rate in the United States. There is no single, universally accepted definition of poverty for the world. The United States identifies an income level for family categories and the United Kingdom uses a measure of disposable income (after taxes) below 60% of the median income (income of the largest group in the population) on an annual basis.
For example, the median income in the United States is $40,000. If we used this formula, the poverty level would be $24,000 (after taxes). If we consider a 20% federal tax, 8% FICA and Medicare tax, and a 5% state tax for a person employed in New Jersey making $40,000, their disposable income would be approximately $27,000 or similar to the measure used in the United Kingdom. If you consider the cost of rent at $2,000 a month, transportation costs at $200 a month, and food at $500 a month for a family or individual in New Jersey, these expenses are $2,700 a month or $32,400 a year. An income threshold of $30,000 a month is not practical.
The Townsend Plan
Dr. Francis Townsend, a medical doctor living in Long Beach, California, introduced a plan in 1933 to provide direct payments to people over the age of 60. The money would be raised through a national sales tax, which in some countries is labeled a Value Added Tax of VAT.
“It is estimated that the population of the age of 60 and above in the United States is somewhere between nine and twelve millions. I suggest that the national government retire all who reach that age on a monthly pension of $200 a month or more, on condition that they spend the money as they get it. This will ensure an even distribution throughout the nation of two or three billions of fresh money each month. Thereby assuring a healthy and brisk state of business, comparable to that we enjoyed during war times.
“Where is the money to come from? More taxes?” Certainly. We have nothing in this world we do not pay taxes to enjoy. But do not overlook the fact that we are already paying a large proportion of the amount required for these pensions in the form of life insurance policies, poor farms, aid societies, insane asylums and prisons. The inmates of the last two mentioned institutions would undoubtedly be greatly lessened when it once became assured that old age meant security from want and care. A sales tax sufficiently high to insure the pensions at a figure adequate to maintain the business of the country in a healthy condition would be the easiest tax in the world to collect, for all would realize that the tax was a provision for their own future, as well as the assurance of good business now.”
Dr. Townsend’s plan became popular with the people and became known as The Townsend Movement. Although it was criticized by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Social Security Administration is similar to what Dr. Townsend proposed. He published a newsletter, The Modern Crusader, to promote his plan. The Social Security plan is funded by a tax on incomes because the burden is shared proportionately by different income levels.
Welfare, unemployment compensation, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are payments to United States’ citizens that are currently being discussed and evaluated. The average monthly payment is slightly less than $2,000. These are direct payments to people from the government, which also benefit local communities as the money is spent on food, housing, and basic needs, and provides a safeguard against bankruptcy and financial hardship. They may also increase the federal debt of a country in times of high unemployment or a pandemic.
Policy makers and economists must also consider public policies regarding the poor and senior citizens. The discussion questions below address the question of poverty for the young, disabled, and elderly and how to finance them.
Questions:
Do governments have a responsibility to provide financial assistance or a guaranteed living wage to individuals or families with inadequate finances for basic needs?
Are direct income payments a burden on a government or do they provide an efficient return on their investment over time?
Is the question of how to reduce or prevent poverty a matter of taxation or a a matter relating to the priorities of the federal budget?
When people with mortgages apply the cost of interest as a deduction on their income tax, should this be considered an income transfer policy of the government providing assistance to people who are able to own property or their own home?
Should income transfers be made in cash or in-kind benefits such as food stamps, vouchers for health care, etc.?
Should the government regulate the consumption expenses of people receiving income transfers?
Should income transfers be financed by income taxes, consumption taxes, or another method?
What will likely be the effects of our government ending its income transfers for Social Security, medical, and/or unemployment? What will be the short-term and long-term effects?
Book Review by Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director
TheLeadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President
Doris Kearns Goodwin
I decided to read this book after listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin speak about this on television following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. After reading the first few pages, I decided to write a review of this book as it should be ‘required’ reading for every social studies teacher, student, parent, and grandparent.
One reason for encouraging teachers, pre-service teachers. students, parents, and grandparents to read this book is in the truisms that are embedded in the stories about each president. For example, in introducing Abraham Lincoln’s decision to enter politics as a Whig candidate, these few sentences should engage young minds in reflective thinking:
“On March 9, 1832, when he declared his intention to run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature just eight months after he arrived in new Salem. ‘Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition,’ Lincoln wrote in a pamphlet announcing his candidacy, as he sought to earn the respect and votes of his neighbors. ‘I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, be rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young and unknown to many of you.’” (Pages 25-26)
As a teacher, I would discuss with my class, why did Lincoln join the new Whig Party and not the popular Democratic Party? Why did he announce his decision to run for the assembly in a pamphlet compared to a letter, newspaper, or verbal announcement? How does Lincoln understand public service?
As a parent or grandparent, I would discuss the political parties we have today and what they stand for. How do candidates in our community or state get elected and announce their decision to run for office? Is it possible for elected representatives to represent the interests and needs of the majority in their community or is it best for them to advance their own beliefs on the issues or vote for the position of their political party?
The reading level of TheLeadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President is for middle school students. Each chapter is just a few pages and should take a middle school student about 20-30 minutes to read and comprehend. This book is a valuable resource for a student research assignment, teaching about the reliability of sources, civics, an afterschool history club such as Rho Kappa or Phi Alpha Theta, a summer reading list activity, or a Saturday Seminar roundtable discussion. The applications of this book are unlimited.
One of the hidden gems in the life of Lincoln is with his learning style, character, persistence, and ability to handle disappointments. These examples are often only a few sentences, but they are prompts to initiate discussion and empathy between students in your class. For example, “The key to Lincoln’s success as a lawyer was his ability to break down the most complex case or issue ‘into its simplest elements.’ He never lost a jury by fumbling or reading from a prepared argument, relying instead ‘on his well-trained memory. (Page 47)
Another example that I found interesting was the evolution of how President Lincoln’s views changed about the emancipation of enslaved persons by listening to others.
“On August 14, 1862, during the period in which he was preparing the proclamation, Lincoln held the first meeting of Black leaders at the White House so he could make his case for a voluntary emigration of Black Americans to a different country….Later that year, Lincoln made another case for colonization during his second annual message to Congress on December 1, 1862, during which he proposed a constitutional amendment to colonize Black Americans and provide for them better lives in ‘their long-lost fatherland,’ where they would have access to homes and schools.’” (Pages 79-80)
“Once the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, he abandoned all efforts at colonization and trained his focus on freedom for the enslaved and keeping the Union whole.” (Page 80)
The second president in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book is Theodore Roosevelt. There are multiple connections for students in the leadership journey of Teddy Roosevelt. These include living with a disability, coping with personal loss, understanding the issues, the importance of integrity, and the challenges and opportunities of the experiences in one’s life.
Although born into a family with wealth, as a child he faced frightening attacks of bronchial asthma. His childhood and teenage years were limited. By age 10, he had opportunities to be home schooled, enjoy summer vacations on Long Island, and travel to Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. However, participating in activities was limited because of his health.
“’But Teedie’s chronic asthma required more and more days of bed rest. Thee worried that without physical activity Teedie’s weak lungs would continue to worsen and that he would lose all physical ability, but Thee also believed that this outcome was not inevitable. His father said to him, ‘Theodore you have the mind but not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.’” (Page 99)
The lesson of how Teddy Roosevelt voted in the New York State Assembly, especially on the bill to stop the manufacture of cigars in tenement houses is one that will likely engage students in a thoughtful discussion or debate about how elected officials represent constituents today. Roosevelt opposed all government supervision and regulations regarding limiting the hours worked, a minimum wage, or prices. Samuel Gompers invited him to visit the places where the cigars were made.
“Roosevelt was stunned by what he witnessed.: five adults and several children, all immigrants from Bohemia (part of the modern-day Czech Republic) who could barely speak English, living and working in a single room, making cigars sixteen hours a day.” (Page 113)
On February 14, 1884, Valentine’s Day, Teddy Roosevelt place a large X in his diary followed by the words “The light has gone out of my life.” His mother, Mittie, and his wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, died. He was 25 years old and had been married for less than four years.
“His forty-nine-year-old mother, Mittie, still a youthful-looking, beautiful woman, had been suffering from what was considered to be a severe cold, but which turned out to be a deadly case of typhoid fever. Theodore was at his mother’s bedside at three a.m. when she died. Less than 12 hours later, as he held his young wife in his arms, Alice died from what was later diagnosed as acute kidney disease, its symptoms masked by her pregnancy.” (Page 117)
These are stories students relate to. They encourage discussions about loss, grief, empathy, confusion, resilience, and life. The leaders Doris Kearns Goodwin writes about are very human and their experiences in life are similar to those of many young adults. Abraham Lincoln also lost his mother and fiancé and his son, Willie, died at age 11 in the White House.
Three examples from the book that should interest middle and high school students are Teddy Roosevelt’s use of the Executive Order renaming the Executive Mansion to the White House in 1901, his daily schedule, and a bizarre episode running naked in Rock Creek Park. Source
“Roosevelt began each day in the White House by darting ‘into the breakfast room with a cheerful hail to those already there’; then he rushed to his office before the official workday started to tackle his loads of letters, dictating ‘one letter after another’ to his secretary. From ten a.m. to noon, except on cabinet days, the second-floor reception room was crowded with senators with whom Roosevelt met for all manner of official and political business. At noon, the White House doors opened to the public, ‘an overflowing stream’ of people eager to see the most colorful president that ever lived. For an hour, Roosevelt moved speedily around the room, giving each person a dazzling smile and a warm handshake. At one p.m., Roosevelt generally excused himself from the crowd for his midday shave. During the ‘barber’s hour,’ reporters were invited in, permitted to ask questions-or more likely listen-as Roosevelt talked animatedly about any number of subjects while the skillful barber tried not to cut the president’s famous face.” (Pages 151-152)
“Late afternoon was devoted to exercise-a horseback ride or boxing match, a raucous game of tennis or a strenuous hike along the cliffs in nearby Rock Creek Park. Dragging visitors and friends through the wooded sections of the park, Roosevelt had one simple rule: you had to move forward ‘point to point,’ never going around any obstacle. ‘If a creek got in the way, you forded it. If there was a river, you swam it. If there was a rock, you scaled it.’ The Frech ambassador Jean Jules Jusserland provided a celebrated account of his first jaunt with the president. After presenting himself at the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ‘in afternoon dress and silk hat,’ he soon found himself in the countryside following Roosevelt ‘at breakneck pace’ through fields and over rocks. When they approached a broad stream, Jusserand assumed the contest had finally ended. ‘Judge of my horror when I saw the President unbutton his clothes and heard him say, ‘We had better strip, so as not to wet our things in the Creek.’ Then I too, for the honor of France, removed my apparel, except for my lavender kid gloves.’ To be without my gloves, he insisted, ‘would be embarrassing if we should meet ladies.’ (Pages 152,153)
The information on the Spanish American War in 1898, settling the coal strike in 1902, nine-week train trip around the United States in 1903, are also presented in a descriptive narrative that will interest students with events in the social studies curriculum.
Although most middle school students do not study Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of U.S. History, this chapter will engage high school students. The importance of reading is to ignite inquiry through questions and thinking about the historical era, the individual, and American government.
Franklin was born into a wealthy family with a large estate about 90 miles north of New York City, where they also had a home on 65th Street near Fifth Avenue and Central Park.
The chapters about Roosevelt are powerful and insightful because they are filled with stories about his character. While most readers will find value and insights into his youth, college years, marriage and positions in the state legislature and federal government, the chapter on his perseverance regarding his paralysis from polio is unusually compelling. Here is an example of how FDR faced the news of his permanent disability as a 39-year-old man with a promising future:
“Told by doctors that his upper body had the greatest likelihood of recovery, Franklin endured punishing exercises to remake his chest, shoulders, neck, arms, and back. Hour after hour he pulled himself up on a set of rings installed in ‘a trapeze-like contraption’ above his bed, slowly and painfully strengthening his muscles until his upper body came to resemble that of a champion boxer or wrestler….Day after day he would ask to be lifted from the wheelchair and set down on the library floor so that he could further exercise his back and arms by crawling around the room like a child would. He then proceeded to tackle stairs, grabbing railings on either side with his hands, hoisting up his body-step-by-step-to the top, sweat pouring from his face.’” (Page 197)
In another chapter Doris Kearns Goodwin portrays FDR’s trait of courage. His courage was both political courage as he risked everything to hide his disability of crippled legs and physical courage. He was fortunate to have the friendship and guidance of Louis Howe, Sam Rosenman, Frances Perkins, and his wife, Eleanor. Here is an example of how Franklin handled every situation with grace, humor, and strength: (This is six years after he was infected by the polio virus, 1928)
“That Franklin was not yet able to walk unassisted, even with braces and crutches, had been made clear months earlier when he’d ventured forth for the first time since the polio attack to meet with business colleagues at a private luncheon on Wall Street in New York City. An elevator would take him upstairs, but first he had to cross a slippery marble lobby floor to reach the elevator bank. With his chauffer’s assistance, FDR had reached the halfway mark when a crutch slid out from under him. He collapsed in a heap, his hat rolling off to the side. Spectators gathered round as he tried to prop himself into a seated position. ‘Nothing to worry about,’ Franklin announced to reassure the concerned onlookers, bursting into a sudden peal of laughter. He then called for help from two young men who eventually pulled him to a standing position. ‘Let’s go,’ he said to his chauffeur. Someone put his hat on his head. Wearing a big smile, he acknowledged the crowd and made his way toward the elevator.” (Page 207)
These two excerpts are only an introduction to what is revealed in his campaign for governor, acceptance speech in Chicago as the Democratic Party candidate for president, his inauguration speech at the Capitol, and his leadership as president. Facts and historical examples are important, but FDR’s personality traits will likely have a lasting impact on students.
Although many students are likely less familiar with the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson than the presidency of Lincoln, T.R. or F.D.R., they will identify with his character, commitment to civic engagement, and experience as a teacher. As a young child, he moved from a small cabin in a rural area to Johnson City. For various reasons, Lyndon’s activities changed, and he became interested in the activities of his father who was a member of the state legislature in Texas.
“The only thing Lyndon loved more than accompanying his father to the statehouse was traveling along with him on the campaign trail. ‘We drove in the Model T Ford from farm to farm, up and down the valley, stopping at every door. …When we got tired or hungry, we’d stop by the side of the road. He sliced the bread, smeared it with jam, and split the slices with me. I’d never seen him happier. Families all along the way opened up their homes to us. If it was hot outside, we were invited in for big servings of homemade ice cream. If it was cold, we were given hot tea…sometimes I wished it could go on forever.’” (Page 259)
Lyndon’s Johnson’s role as a teacher and school principal reveals his work ethic and characteristic as a caring and dedicated public servant.
“My students were poor and they often cane to class without breakfast, hungry. And they knew, even in their youth, the pain of prejudice. Because there was no school funding for extracurricular activities, he used half his first month’s salary to buy sports equipment and then badgered the school board to include track-and-field events, baseball games, and volleyball matches in the school budget.” (Pages 265-66)
He was also the debate coach at Sam Houston High School. He coached the debate team through city, district and state tournaments.
“Johnson appeared to his students ‘a human dynamo,’ a steam engine in pants,’ driven by a work ethic and unlimited enthusiasm that proved contagious.” (Page 269)
I enjoyed reading about how he used his social capital in Washington to advance his goals. Lady Bird and Lyndon moved to Washington where he was the chief of staff to a Texas congressman. He became friends with Sam Rayburn who lived alone and invited him to dinner in his home with his wife, Lady Bird. Through this connection, Lyndon became the director of the National Youth Administration in Texas. When his congressman James Buchanan passed away unexpectedly, Johnson campaigned for his seat. Two days before the election he had emergency surgery to remove his appendix. He won, likely on a promise to bring electricity to the farmers in his area of Texas.
Johnson’s personality traits of empathy, enthusiasm, perseverance, and ‘grit’ are important for students to understand, apply to their own experiences, and engage in discussion with their peers. He lost his bid for re-election by 1,311 votes and a few years later won his election as senator by only 87 votes. As a senator, he was the youngest majority leader in the history of the Senate at age 46 and was considered as a presidential candidate for the 1956 election. Then, suddenly everything changed when he had a devasting heart attack. This event transformed his life and behavior. A lesson about the trait of resiliency.
If a teacher elected to use the resource of this book for just one day, perhaps the most compelling pages are found on pages 317-328. His passion, legislative skill, and personal conviction are important for every student to understand. It is also important for students to understand the long struggle to pass and implement civil rights laws. In our classrooms, the lessons of Freedom Riders, marches, boycotts, and the emotional scars of segregation are too often taught passively through slide presentations and vocabulary terms. Doris Kearns Goodwin captures some of the emotion that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Everyone should read Chapter 24.
“Like a tailor stitching a custom suit, Johnson took measure of Dirksen. A decade of working together had taught Johnson that Dirksen had no hesitation asking for ‘a laundry list’ of favors in return for his support on legislation. But this time, Johnson offered Dirksen something far more important than perks and favors; he appealed to Dirksen’s hunger to be remembered, honored. ‘I saw your exhibit at the World’s Fair, and it said, ‘The Land of Lincoln,’ Johnson pointed out. And the man from Lincoln is going to pass this bill and I’m going to see that he gets proper credit. With a gift for flattery equal to Dirksen’s vanity, he assured the senator ‘if you come with me on this bill, two hundred years from now there’ll be only two people they’ll remember from the state of Illinois: Abraham Lincoln and Everett Dirksen!” (Page 321)
I found value in the leadership journey of these four presidents. Although my review focuses on students and teachers, adults will also enjoy reading what Doris Kearns Goodwin has written. In the closing pages, Doris Kearns Goodwin describes a dinner meeting with her “guys.’ What an opportunity to discuss the historical context of 100 years of American history, the goals of the Declaration of Independence, how each president mastered the communication platforms of newspapers, stories, radio, and television. Perhaps the most significant question is what makes a good leader and a good president? What a nice segway to understanding empathy!
The Impact of Economic Decisions by American Presidents Series
Presidents and Labor Strikes
Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director
Most decisions by American presidents and other world leaders do not have an immediate impact on the economy, especially regarding the macroeconomic issues of employment and inflation. For example, President Franklin Roosevelt’s bank holiday, President John Kennedy’s tariff on imported steel, and President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Recovery Tax Act had limited immediate effects on the economy, but their long-term effects were significant. The accomplishments or problems of a previous administration may impact on the administration that follows.
For example, President Biden faced criticism about the economy during his administration. The jobs created with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve Bank to lower inflation did not show results until years later. The drop in Real Disposable Income from the administration of President Trump is another example. Real Disposable Income is a measure of income that is adjusted for inflation. The drop between the administration of President Bident and Trump is the result of extended unemployment benefits, people working from home during the pandemic when businesses were closed, and stimulus checks from the government. The economic transition following the end of the pandemic had a significant impact on the economy.
President
GDP Growth
Unemployment Rate
Inflation Rate
Poverty Rate
Real Disposable Income
Johnson
2.6%
3.4%
4.4%
12.8%
$17,181
Nixon
2.0%
5.5%
10.9%
12.0%
$19,621
Ford
2.8%
7.5%
5.2%
11.9%
$20,780
Carter
4.6%
7.4%
11.8%
13.0%
$21,891
Reagan
2.1%
5.4%
4.7%
13.1%
$27,080
H.W. Bush
0.7%
7.3%
3.3%
14.5%
$27,990
Clinton
0.3%
4.2%
3.7%
11.3%
$34,216
G.W. Bush
-1.2%
7.8%
0.0%
13.2%
$37,814
Obama
1.0%
4.7%
2.5%
14.0%
$42,914
Trump
2.6%
6.4%
1.4%
11.9%
$48,286
Biden
2.6%
3.5%
5.0%
12.8%
$46,682
This series provides a context of important decisions by America’s presidents that are connected to the expected economic decisions under the second administration of President Trump. The background information and questions provide an opportunity for small and large group discussions, structured debate, and additional investigation and research. They may be used for current events, as a substitute lesson activity or integrated into a lesson.
In the case study below, have your students investigate the economic problem, different perspectives on the proposed solution, the short- and long-term impact of the decision, and how the decision affects Americans in the 21st century.
The Economic Problem
One of the first labor strikes in the United States occurred in Paterson, New Jersey on July 3, 1835. About 2,000 textile workers stopped working in about 20 textile mills demanding better hours. Workers, including women and children worked 13 hours a day six days a week and their wages were reduced as fines for infractions. The strike eventually led to a 12-hour day and a nine-hour day on Saturday.
In 1835 carpenters, masons, and stonecutters in Boston staged a seven-month strike in favor of a ten-hour day. The strikers demanded that employers reduce excessively long hours worked in the summer and spread them throughout the year. In Philadelphia, carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, masons, leather dressers, and blacksmiths went on strike. In Lowell, MA, women also went on strike. The history of labor complaints and strikes date back to the colony of Jamestown. Although the common law in England provided protection for peaceful demonstrations, the courts in the colonies and states often fined workers because their organization as a group was viewed as a ‘restrain of free trade’ or a violation of the right of property for employers. In 1842, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Hunt was a landmark decision that allowed peaceful demonstrations. “In March 1842, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that labor combinations were legal provided that they were organized for a legal purpose and used legal means to achieve their goals.”
The economic problem was long hours, low wages, and oppressive working conditions. The market revolution led to the demand for consumer goods. The new inventions of the cotton gin, steamboats, locomotives, and factories. The nature of work was changing and this led to profound changes in society. Employers and entrepreneurs believed this was the idea behind the pursuit of happiness in the declaration of Independence and how a republic was governed. Laborers used the press to voice their concerns which led to the organization of trade unions in Philadelphia.
President Andrew Jackson’s decision to let the charter of the Second Bank of the United States to expire had an unexpected and profound impact on ordinary people. Working conditions continued to decline and President Jackson’s decision led to an increase in paper money and inflation. Higher prices led to unemployment and longer hours for those who were employed. Illness or injury and debt led to homelessness and poverty. According to a New York City physician, the laboring poor in the 1790s lived in “little decayed wooden huts” inhabited by several families, dismal abodes set on muddy alleys and permeated by the stench from “putrefying excrement.” Source
In 1840 the federal government introduced a ten-hour workday on public works projects. In 1847 New Hampshire became the first state to adopt a ten-hour day law. It was followed by Pennsylvania in 1848. Both states’ laws, however, included a clause that allowed workers to voluntarily agree to work more than a ten-hour day. Despite the limitations of these state laws, agitation for a ten-hour day did result in a reduction in the average number of hours worked, to approximately 11 by 1850. On May 19, 1869, President Grant issue Proclamation 182 making an 8-hour day for all federal government employees. This expanded the decision of Congress made in 1868.
After the Civil War, manufacturing and economic growth increased dramatically. There were many strikes as farmers and laborers, both skilled and unskilled, formed associations and unions. Below are examples of larger strikes that are likely part of the high school curriculum.
Haymarket Square:
During the first week of May,1886 workers in Chicago staged demonstrations and strikes demanding an eight-hour day. On May 4 a bomb exploded near Haymarket Square in Chicago. Several police officers and protesters were wounded or killed by the blast, and 8 individuals were arrested and convicted. Source
A day to recognize the rights of workers was first proposed by Matthew Maguire from Paterson, NJ in 1882. The balance between the right to have peaceful demonstrations under the First Amendment was respected but the Haymarket Riot became violent, strikes were costly to the profits of employers, and violence and strikes were a threat to property. President Cleveland was the first president challenged by the threat of anarchy from socialists. After the Haymarket Riot, a few states, including New York and New Jersey, recognized a Labor Day holiday. This was the fourth federal holiday after Independence Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Congress considered making Labor Day a federal holiday in May, but President Cleveland feared this would become a recognition of the violence of the Haymarket Riot. President Cleveland was the first president to involve the federal government in resolving issues between labor and business interests or capital. Source
Under what conditions would you support workers on strike? (higher wages, better working conditions, unfair practices by an employer, benefits, job security, etc.)
Are labor strikes a violation of the property rights of employers?
Do workers have a right to disrupt the production of goods or services by a slowdown in the workplace, strict adherence to their contract agreement, coordinating a sick out, making public expressions or statements about their situation, etc.
Do workers need to be paid in wages or can employers also pay them in other ways? (time off, goods produced, etc.)
Should workers receive an annual salary increase based on their months or years of service, inflationary costs of living, or only if they produce more than in the past?
How would you determine a fair wage?
Do the students in your class (or a larger group) support the right to strike workers?
In the months before the presidential election of 1892, President Harrison was faced with a violent strike at the Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, PA near Pittsburg. The Knights of Labor and the Amalgamated Association of Iron Workers went on strike on June 30 when their contract expired. Workers in Carnegie’s companies in the area supported the striking workers. Henry Clay, the manager of the Homestead plant, hired private Pinkerton guards to protect the plant and keep the striking workers away. President Harrison privately sent Whitelaw Reid to mediate the conflict.
The strikers threw rocks at the guards, the crowd size was estimated to be about 5,000, and gunshots were fired. At one point amid the chaos, shots were fired. The Pinkertons surrendered and the strikers continued with verbal abuse and assaulted them with rocks as they marched them to a local Opera Hall.
On July 12, Pennsylvania Governor Robert Pattison sent 8,500 National Guardsmen to end the strike. In less than 30 minutes the Carnegie mill was under martial law, the strikers were arrested. Sixteen of the strikers were arrested for conspiracy, murder, and inciting riots. The strike ended three months later in November with the workers agreeing to lower wages, the elimination of 500 jobs, and a 12-hour day. The labor unions lost, and their membership declined.
Pullman Company Strike:
President Cleveland faced a nationwide railroad strike that began on May 11, 1894. The American Railway Union went on strike against the Pullman Company and the major railroads. It became a turning point in U.S. labor law. The workers at Pullman protested the layoff of 2,000 workers and wage cuts that amounted to 25%-50% of their wages. The Pullman workers lived in a company town and paid rent to the Pullman Company, which was located near Chicago, Il. The rents were not reduced. The Pullman Company also had a surplus of $4 million at the time of the strike and consistently paid dividends to shareholders.
The Panic or recession of 1893 negatively affected many companies as production declined. The railroads depended on shipping farm products, which were reduced as a result of crop failures. This was the most serious economic recession in the world as investors in Europe purchased gold from U.S. banks, Americans took their savings out of banks, and companies that had speculated in the stock, bond, and commodity markets lost money/ The economic recovery after the recession ended would take several years.
On July 3, 1894, President Cleveland ordered 2,000 armed federal troops to Chicago to end the strike. The strike ended within a few weeks, union leaders were arrested and jailed on charges of conspiracy to obstruct interstate commerce. The justification of using federal troops to move the U.S. mail was based on the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. This was not the first time federal troops were used to end a strike. President Jackson used troops in 1834 to end the strike by workers building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and in 1877 President Hayes send troops to end the violence in Baltimore during the Great Railroad strike.
Coal Strike:
In May 1902 President Teddy Roosevelt was faced with a nationwide strike by coal miners. Many homes were heated by coal and a prolonged strike in the winter could be catastrophic, deadly, and cause riots. On October 3, 1902, with winter weather approaching, President Theodore Roosevelt called a precedent-shattering meeting to negotiate a settlement. The President did not have any legal authority to settle a labor dispute, although Presidents Jackson, Hayes and Cleveland used federal troops to end labor disputes.
President Roosevelt’s administration proposed the Anthracite Coal Commission to complete a fact-finding report and negotiate a settlement. The strike ended on October 20, 1902, and the Commission recommended in March 1903 increasing miners’ pay by ten percent (one-half of their demand) and reducing the working day from ten to nine hours.
Samuel Gompers wrote: “Several times I have been asked what in my opinion was the most important single incident in the labor movement in the United States and I have invariably replied: the strike of the anthracite miners in Pennsylvania … from then on the miners became not merely human machines to produce coal but men and citizens…. The strike was evidence of the effectiveness of trade unions ….
The victory in the anthracite coalfields breathed new life into the American labor movement.55 It strengthened moderate labor leaders and progressive businessmen who championed negotiations as a way to labor peace. It enhanced the reputation of President Theodore Roosevelt. Sometimes overlooked, however, is the change the conflict made in the role of the Federal Government in important national strikes.” Source
Paterson Silk Strike of 1913:
The silk strike began in February 1913 when twenty-five thousand striking silk workers shut down the three hundred silk mills and dye houses in Paterson, New Jersey, for almost five months. There were several textile strikes that preceded the one in Paterson. The Paterson strike was related to an increased workload and the desire for an eight-hour day. The other strikes occurred because of wages. The Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) were active in organizing the strike and produced the “Pageant of the Paterson Strike” in Madison Square Garden on June 7. Pietro Botton opened his home to the labor leaders from New York City and on May 25, a rally of more than 20,000 people took place outside his home. These rallies continued on Sundays until the strike ended in July.
The strikers returned to work without any concessions, although the employers did not implement the plan to have one worker operating four looms instead of two.
What are the differences between skilled and unskilled laborers?
How is an Association different from a labor or trade union?
Who has the advantage in a strike: labor employees or employers?
How do strikes affect the economy and the lives of people who are not associated with the union?
Why do you think the union and workers failed to achieve their goal in the Paterson Strike of 1913?
Activity #2:
Make a list of labor unions and associations in the United States.
Use these sources to categorize the list of strikes by length of time, size of the unions, and frequency? List of Unions (Wikipedia) 200 Years of Labor History (NPS)
The Seattle General Strike, 1919
The Seattle General Strike of February 1919 was the first 20th-century solidarity strike in the United States to be proclaimed a “general strike.” Seattle had 101 unions that were part of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). On the morning of February 6, 1919, over 25,000 union workers stopped working to support the 35,000 shipyard workers who were already on strike. Although wartime inflation created a need for higher wages, the goals of the striking workers were not clearly articulated. Mayor Ole threatened to declare martial law and two battalions (about 3,000) U.S. Army troops arrived. The union members had already implemented a plan to provide food deliveries, transport people to hospitals, and patrol the streets to prevent crime. Below is an image of a soup kitchen. Union members distributed 30,000 meals a day during the strike.
The strike lasted six days and was peaceful. There were minimal gains for the workers, but most returned to work. There were several outside agitators who were identified as “Reds” or communists who were arrested. The strike is generally viewed as unsuccessful.
The Boston Police went on strike on September 9, 1919. Police officers worked long hours, received low wages, and had inadequate working conditions. They worked thirteen-hour days and wanted an eight-hour day. They had to purchase their own uniforms which cost $200 (about two months’ salary), were required to sleep overnight in the police station several nights a month, and they had not received a salary increase in over ten years. They were paid about 25 cents an hour and earned about $1,400 a year.
U.S. Supreme Court Decisions (1905 – 1923)
The three cases below were landmark decisions in the labor movement. The Lochner decision ruled that employers could issue contracts without any restrictions such as an 8- or 10-hour day. The Adkins decision supported this and ruled it was illegal to have a minimum wage for workers. The Muller decision ruled that the hours of women could be less than those of men if their health was at risk.
The general right to make a contract in relation to one’s business is part of the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, and this includes the right to purchase and sell labor, except as controlled by the state in the legitimate exercise of its police power.
The regulation of the working hours of women falls within the police power of the state, and a statute directed exclusively to such regulation does not conflict with the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses.
Legislation fixing hours or conditions of work may properly take into account the physical differences between men and women, but the doctrine that women of mature age require (or may be subjected to) restrictions on their liberty of contract that could not lawfully be imposed on men in similar circumstances must be rejected.
Frances Perkins was asked to serve as FDR’s Secretary of Labor. As Secretary, she would pursue: a 40-hour work week; a minimum wage; unemployment compensation; worker’s compensation; abolition of child labor; direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief; Social Security; a revitalized federal employment service; and universal health insurance. She is the longest serving labor secretary and one of only two cabinet secretaries to serve the entire length of the Roosevelt Presidency.
The Wagner Act (1935) created the National Labor Relations Board to enforce employee rights rather than to mediate disputes. It gave employees the right, under Section 7, to form and join unions, and it obligated employers to bargain collectively with unions selected by a majority of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit.
The U.S. Supreme Court in NLRB v. Washington Aluminum in 1962 upheld the right of employees to go on strike whether they have a union or not. However, workers and unions still needed to be careful to avoid an unlawful strike.
A strike is likely protected by law if it is in response to “unfair labor practice strikers” or “economic hardship from low wages, excessive hours, or difficult working conditions.”
A strike may be unlawful when it supports an unfair labor practice such as requiring an employer to stop doing business with another company. Workers cannot legally strike if their contract prohibits strikes, although workers can stop working if they are subject to dangerous or unhealthy conditions.
Taft Hartley Act, 1947
After World War II, there were several major strikes and unions were unpopular because of the strikes and fear of the expansion of communism after Churchills’ Iron Curtain speech. The Taft Hartley Act amended the Wagner Act (1935). It was proposed by Rep. Fred Hartley from New Jersey and Senator Robert Taft from Ohio. The Taft-Hartley Act made major changes to the Wagner Act. It was vetoed by President Truman and required a vote by both houses of Congress to override his veto. The Act was amended to protect employees’ rights from unfair practices by unions by making the closed shop and wildcat strikes to be illegal and prohibiting unions from charging excessive fees for membership.
Questions:
What are the differences between a walkout, lockout, strike, and sit-down strike? Do the definitions or labels matter if work stops?
Should certain employees be prevented from having a union to represent their interests?
Should certain employees who serve the public be prevented by law from being able to strike when the public’s safety or interest is at risk? (teachers, bankers, police, sanitation, transportation workers, nurses, etc.)
What is arbitration, fact-finding, and collective bargaining? What is the purpose of each?
What is back pay? Should striking workers be compensated for the days or weeks they did not work?
Activity #3
Interview two or three people or groups of people regarding labor conditions they would like to have negotiated in their favor.
Review the contract between teachers and the Board of Education in your district or another district. Discuss the protections in the contract that are not directly related to salary?
New York City
In January 1966, there was a 13-day transit strike in New York City. The buses and trains were shut down. In 1968, the teachers and sanitation workers went on strike. Thousands of New York City teachers went on strike in 1968 when the local school board of Ocean Hill – Brownsville, fired nineteen teachers and administrators without notice. The newly created school district, in a heavily black neighborhood, was an experiment in community control over schools—those dismissed were almost all Jewish. The strike began in September and ended on November 17. There are many important issues relevant to this strike – civil rights, integrated schools, poor performing districts, and local control vs. a central Board of Education. The strike raised the issue if public sector employees (police, fire, teachers, and private sector employees should have the right to strike over unfair business practices.
On the morning of August 5, 1981, approximately 13,000 workers of the air traffic control facilities called a strike. President Reagan spoke from the Rose Garden at the White House telling them to return to work within 48 hours or be fired. About 2,000 returned to work and the rest were fired. The government used people from the military and retired air traffic controllers to monitor the flights and hired new air traffic controllers. This one event had a proof und effect on the labor movement as workers feared losing their jobs if they went on strike.
The 232-day baseball strike of 1994-95 was the biggest one in professional sports. Although there have been many work stoppages in professional baseball dating back to 1912, the study of this strike is important because of the challenges it presented to labor negotiators. This problem has historical origins and dates back to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that professional baseball was exempt from the anti-trust protection because it was not considered to meet the definition of trade or commerce. Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. National League of Professional Baseball Clubs et al. The case was appealed several times but not reversed. The only option for players was to strike. Source
The strike began on August 12, 1994, and the World Series was cancelled on September 14. One of the main issues was the salary cap that owners placed on the players. The cancellation of the World Series prompted some senators to propose legislation to end the anti-trust exemption given to baseball. This divided the Congress because the protection was favored by owners of smaller teams. President Clinton attempted to intervene but was not able to negotiate a settlement. As the 1995 baseball season was about to begin, baseball owners planned to hire non-union replacement players, a tactic used by the National Football League in 1987. On March 31, 1995, U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction, and the baseball players returned to the field.
International law―the recognized rules of behavior among nations based on customary practices and treaties, among them the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights―has been agreed upon by large and small nations alike. To implement this law, the nations of the world have established a UN Security Council (to maintain international peace and security) and a variety of international courts, including the UN’s International Court of Justice (which adjudicates disputes between nations and gives advisory opinions on international legal issues) and the International Criminal Court (which prosecutes individuals for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression). Yet nations continue to defy international law.
In the ongoing Gaza crisis, the Israeli government has failed to uphold international law by rebuffing the calls of international organizations to end its massive slaughter of Palestinian civilians. The U.S. government has facilitated this behavior by vetoing three UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire, while the Israeli government has ignored an International Court of Justice ruling that it should head off genocide in Gaza by ensuring sufficient humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population. The Israeli government has also refused to honor an order by the International Court of Justice to halt its offensive in Rafah and denounced the International Criminal Court’s request for arrest warrants for its top officials.
Russia’s military assault upon Ukraine provides another example of flouting international law. Given the UN Charter’s prohibition of the “use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” when Russian military forces seized and annexed Crimea and commenced military operations to gobble up eastern Ukraine in early 2014, the issue came before the UN Security Council, where condemnation of Russia’s action was promptly vetoed by Russia. Similarly, in February 2022, when the Russian government commenced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia again vetoed Security Council action. That March, the International Court of Justice, by an overwhelming vote, ordered Russia to halt its invasion of Ukraine—but, as usual, to no avail. Unfortunately, these violations of international law are not unusual for, over many decades, numerous nations have ignored the recognized rules of international conduct.
What is lacking is not international law but, rather, its consistent and universal enforcement. For decades, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France) have repeatedly used their veto power in that entity to block UN action to maintain international peace and security. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of the world’s nations do not accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, while more than a third of the world’s nations (including some of the largest, such as Russia, the United States, China, and India) have resisted becoming parties to the International Criminal Court.
Despite such obstacles, these organizations have sometimes played very useful roles in resolving international disputes. The UN Security Council has dispatched numerous peacekeeping missions around the world―including 60 alone in the years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union―that have helped defuse crises in conflict-ridden regions.
For its part, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) paved the way for the Central American Peace Accords during the 1980s through its ruling in Nicaragua v United States, while its ruling in the Nuclear Tests case helped bring an end to nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. In addition, the ICJ’s ruling in Chad v Libya resolved a territorial dispute between these two nations and ended their military conflict.
Although the International Criminal Court has only been in operation since 2002, it has thus far convicted ten individuals of heinous crimes, issued or requested warrants for the arrest of prominent figures charged with war crimes (including Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the leaders of Hamas), and conducted or begun investigations of yet other notorious individuals. But, of course, as demonstrated by the persistence of wars of aggression and massive violations of human rights, enforcing international law remains a major problem in the contemporary world.
Therefore, if the world is to move beyond national impunity―if it is finally to scrap the long and disgraceful tradition among nations of might makes right―it is necessary to empower the world’s major international organizations to enforce the international law that nations have agreed to respect. This strengthening of global governance is certainly possible.
Although provisions in the UN Charter make outright abolition of the UN Security Council veto very difficult, other means are available for reducing the veto’s baneful effects. In many cases ―including those of the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts―simply invoking Article 27(3) of the UN Charter would be sufficient, for it states that a party to a dispute before the Security Council shall abstain from voting in connection with that dispute. Furthermore, 124 UN nations have already endorsed a proposal for renunciation of the veto when taking action against genocide, crimes against humanity, and mass atrocities. Moreover, the UN General Assembly has occasionally employed “Uniting for Peace” resolutions to take action when the Security Council has failed to do so.
Improving the effectiveness of the international judicial system has also generated attention in recent years. The LAW Not War campaign, championed by organizations dedicated to improving global governance, advocates strengthening the International Court of Justice, principally by increasing the number of nations accepting the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court. Similarly, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, representing numerous organizations, calls on all nations to ratify the Court’s founding statute and, thereby, “expand the Court’s reach and reduce the impunity gap.”
National impunity is not inevitable, at least if people and governments of the world are willing to take the necessary actions. Are they? Or will they continue talking of a “rules-based international order” while they avoid enforcing the rules?
What is plagiarism? Generally speaking, plagiarism is the taking of someone else’s ideas or means of expression and passing them off as your own work. In some cases, educational institutions define plagiarism in faculty or student handbooks.
Is plagiarism a crime? There is a fair amount of misunderstanding about this. For an act to be criminal and punishable by law, legislation would need to be passed by either a state legislature or the U.S. Congress. Some sources refer to plagiarism as an “academic crime,” but that should not be confused with state or federal law. If a state were to pass a criminal law that described behavior understood to be plagiarism, that behavior would be a crime under that particular state’s statute. As a matter of federal law, while there is no national crime of plagiarism, there is criminal liability for certain copyright infringement.
Is plagiarism fraud? Plagiarism could be considered a form of “fraud” because you are misrepresenting as your own someone else’s ideas or work product, with the intention that others rely on it. Whether or not it is actionable and can subject you to liability would depend upon the rules and regulations of your academic institution or the laws of the state in which the act occurs. It may also be deemed “misappropriation,” which may also be actionable.
Is plagiarism cheating? The online version of Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists one definition of “cheat” as “to practice fraud or trickery.” Since you are acting dishonestly or fraudulently when you plagiarize, it could be considered cheating. Whether it subjects you to punishment in an academic context would depend on your school’s rules and regulations. Some academic institutions may deem it a “breach of contract” based on an expressed or implied contract between student and school.
Is it considered plagiarism if someone takes parts of an old research paper turned in last year and uses it for a current assignment? Some teachers will look upon plagiarism in its broad sense as representing that you have done work that you really have not done, and may view you as plagiarizing yourself to the extent you try to pass off a paper in one class as new and original, when you previously submitted it in another class. Some may not view this technically as plagiarism since you are not taking someone else’s work product. However, if you do not reference that it is a prior paper, then some may consider it a different form of cheating. Even if you are expanding on a prior paper, it is better to cite your own prior work rather than simply recycle it as a “new” paper. If you are using certain information from your prior paper in an entirely new way it may not need to be referenced, but it is probably better to err on the side of caution and cite it.
How can someone avoid plagiarism when doing research? How can information be rewritten without using some of the original writer’s words? Many academic institutions offer advice on their websites on how to avoid plagiarism. Your teachers may have their own ideas as well. In general terms, you should: (1) take careful notes and citations; (2) put quotation marks around any direct quotations; (3) identify specific citation information when you paraphrase; (4) indicate in your notes where you have injected original thoughts or comments. Because plagiarism can occur even when it is not intentional, you need to be thorough not only in your note taking but in how you reference your sources. Direct quotations, paraphrases, reference to another’s ideas or theories, and use of another’s charts or graphs, for example, must be acknowledged. Common facts do not have to be cited, such as the fact that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. There is probably no one definitive statement as to what is common knowledge; if in doubt, consult your teacher. Even when you use attribution, if you overdo it, and have very little of your own work, it may be considered inappropriate, if not actually plagiarism.
What is the distinction between summarizing and paraphrasing? When you summarize, you are condensing the main points or ideas from someone else. When you paraphrase, you are restating the way someone else expressed something in your own words.
If information is summarized or paraphrased, must the source still be cited? Yes, unless you are summarizing or paraphrasing common facts.
Is an author’s permission needed to use long passages from his or her book or article in a report? The Copyright Act permits you to use appropriately cited material from someone else’s work as “fair use,” if the use is for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching…scholarship, or research…” However, whether you need permission from an author is not simply a function of the length of a particular passage; it would depend upon the “purpose and character of the use,” the “nature” of the other work, the amount and substantiality of the passages used in relation to the other work as a whole, and the effect of the use on the market or value of the other work. Different journals and academic institutions themselves may have rules of thumb as to how substantial the passage must be in order to require permission. When in doubt, consult your teacher.
What source material needs to be cited in a report to avoid a charge of plagiarism? Different teachers will have different requirements. There are certain reference works, such as TheMLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, (CMS), or A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, (Turabian). These books will tell you what information you’ll need for your bibliography and your footnotes or endnotes, and how citations are used internally and in bibliographies, and in different subject areas. For example, you will generally need to cite in a bibliography the author, title of the work, publisher, city of publication and year of publication.
If parents help to write a paper, is that cheating? Your paper must be your own work product. Most would probably agree that if you write a 20-page paper and ask your father or mother to read it and they say, “It was interesting, but I suggest you rewrite these paragraphs since they are not clear, and you have some spelling errors,” this would not be cheating. However, to the extent your parents actually write part of the paper for you, or give more than the kind of suggestion a teacher might, you are probably crossing the line. Because of the vagueness of the term “help,” there is no hard and fast rule, other than the work must be your own.
What does it mean when someone says to “use your own voice?” You should try to interpret things in your own words and bring your own independent thinking to the subject.
Does writing about personal experiences or thoughts ever require citations? Generally not, unless you are referring to an earlier published or submitted work of your own.
Can you plagiarize facts? Generally, you cannot plagiarize commonly known facts or items of common knowledge, but if the fact itself is someone else’s work product, then failure to cite it appropriately could be considered plagiarism. The University of Pennsylvania calls common knowledge “information that the average, educated reader would accept as reliable without having to look it up.”
What if something is considered common knowledge and is found in several sources? Must each source be cited to avoid a plagiarism charge? You should have a bibliography that refers to all the books you consulted. One school of thought is that if identical information is found in five different sources, then it is common knowledge and does not need to be cited. If the common fact or knowledge, however, is expressed in a particularly different way and you express it that way, you should cite the source of that expression. Again, if in doubt, consult your teacher.
What is the public domain? The public domain refers to works that are no longer copyrighted as a matter of law and that are open to use by anyone. For example, all works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain as a result of expiration of copyright.
Is citing material in the public domain necessary? Yes. While you are not subject to copyright infringement issues, if you do not appropriately cite the source, you would be plagiarizing. Consider, in an extreme example, if you are given a creative writing assignment and you turn in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, passing it off as your own. You would not be liable for copyright infringement in that instance, but you would be plagiarizing, because you have passed off someone else’s book as your own.
How do you know if you have “substantially rewritten” information you obtained through research? This is very fact sensitive. There has to be some level of common sense and good judgment. One way to approach this is to ask yourself whether the average, objective reader would think that you have simply copied the passage. If, for some reason, the issue reached the courts, various technical tests would be used to determine if there was any type of infringement. If you have any doubts, you should probably try to rework your writing and/or consult your teacher.
Is copying material from the Internet considered plagiarism? Copying material from the Internet and passing it off as your own and not appropriately explaining it is plagiarism. The same rules apply in determining whether you have engaged in copyright infringement. The words appearing on a website are someone else’s product and should be treated the same as a hard copy source. There is no difference between copying from the Internet and copying out of a book. The only thing that matters is whether or not you are passing off someone else’s work as your own, and the same tests will apply. The fact that it is easier because you can cut-and-paste does not change the principle.
What is the appropriate use of Internet material? The same rules apply as for hard copy sources. It’s another published source. Consult the style manuals noted above for the particular format of such a citation.
Is it illegal to purchase an entire term paper from the Internet? If you purchase a term paper and pass it off as your own product, then it is plagiarism. If you wish, however, to purchase the legitimate work product of another for your own reference, you may do so, assuming that work itself is not infringing and the website or company selling the paper is legitimate. For example, you may be able to purchase a student’s unpublished thesis that is in the library of a university and use it as another source. Note: In some states it is illegal to sell terms papers to students.
Can a teacher tell if a term paper came from the Internet? If so, how? In many cases, teachers can tell. First, there are software programs that teachers may use to analyze your paper. Another way the teacher can tell is if the writing or quality of work is uncharacteristic of the particular student; for example, if the vocabulary reflects words that the teacher has never heard the student use or the writing style is inconsistent with prior work. In other instances, the teacher may be familiar with the idea or theory being passed off as the student’s own.
Can someone be suspended or expelled for purchasing a term paper off the Internet and passing it off as their own? If your school’s disciplinary code indicates that one of the penalties for plagiarism could be suspension, then it doesn’t matter from what source you got the paper. What matters is whether you have plagiarized and violated the school’s rules. Plagiarizing someone else’s work and passing it off as your own can be a serious offense, depending upon your school’s rules. Other penalties may apply depending upon the teacher’s rules or policies, particularly in a high school setting.
Is copying information out of the encyclopedia considered plagiarism? Encyclopedias are treated no differently than any other source. While a fact is a fact and you are entitled to use that fact, you cannot simply copy word for word an entry in an encyclopedia and pass it off as your own.
Is copying information from a sourcebook considered plagiarism? There are two different issues here. If someone has prepared a table or chart of data, you should cite the source of that chart or data. On the other hand, if you are citing a particular fact that is a common fact, it would probably not be plagiarism. For example, if the sourcebook contains the annual rainfall over 10 years in the Brazilian rainforest, you should not just copy that chart and pass it off as your own. If you wanted to refer to the rainfall in one year, that, too, may not be a commonly known fact, and you probably should cite the source—not only for protection against plagiarism, but to identify the source for other interested persons. If the sourcebook places information in a particular or creative form, that, too, should be acknowledged. On the other hand, if the sourcebook lists the presidents of the United States and their terms of office, that information in and of itself is commonly known and should be able to be utilized without concern. Again, when in doubt consult your teacher or your school’s website and plagiarism policies.
How can it be proven that someone did not plagiarize? The proof is going to be a comparison of the source or sources to what you wrote. You would seek to prove that either you documented the source and that you’ve given credit, or that you did not need to because you were referring to common facts, or that you have appropriately utilized your own language and thoughts. In essence, you would need to prove that you did not do any of the things that have been discussed in this brochure.
What are the consequences of plagiarism? It depends on an individual school’s policies. Apart from personal embarrassment and damage to reputation, you may be subject to discipline that could include suspension, expulsion or delay in obtaining your degree; or receive a failing or reduced grade on the paper or in the course.
What does “ignorance of the law is not a defense” mean? What this means is that even if you have inadvertently plagiarized, you may still have a problem. Schools have made clear in their rules and regulations, and on their websites, what is and is not permitted, so it is probably not going to help you to say you did not know, particularly if you have had the opportunity to find out. While it is an oversimplification to say in all instances that ignorance of the law is not a defense, it generally means that you cannot rely on ignorance when you have a responsibility to find out what your obligations are. In some instances where intent is required, ignorance may be a mitigating element.
What if you accidentally plagiarized a passage because you couldn’t remember if you copied it from somewhere or rewrote it in your own words? Are you still liable for plagiarism? Yes, you can be liable for accidental or inadvertent plagiarism. While it might be a mitigating factor, in other words the school may take into account the fact that your plagiarism was accidental, depending upon the school’s rules, you might still be subject to disciplinary procedures.
Who is hurt by plagiarism? You are hurt by plagiarism because you are not learning proper research habits or disciplining yourself in proper research and writing techniques, and you are not fully thinking through your arguments. The integrity of the academic institution is hurt if this kind of behavior is tolerated. Other students are hurt because they are competing against someone who is taking unfair advantage and otherwise cheating.
If someone is accused of plagiarism, must the accuser prove that he or she plagiarized, or must the accused prove that he or she didn’t plagiarize? In an academic context, the institution needs to show that you plagiarized. If someone accuses you of copyright infringement, they have the burden of proof. However, once they prove ownership and substantial copying, you have the burden of proving your defense, such as fair use.
Is it better to try to turn a paper in on time even if you have to plagiarize, rather than get an “F” on an assignment? No, since there is no guarantee you’ll get a failing grade if you discuss the situation with your teacher prior to submitting the assignment. Moreover, if you are caught plagiarizing, you can still receive an “F” anyway. If it is a true emergency, most teachers will probably work with you. If you have simply waited until the last minute, however, then you have brought the problem on yourself. You cannot justify plagiarism to cure your own lack of planning.
If caught, should the plagiarist be publicly identified, or should the matter be handled privately? An honor code may provide for a type of private intervention by one student to another as a means of ensuring compliance, and the school’s disciplinary proceedings may have confidentiality requirements. Sometimes dealing with a situation privately does more good than publicly embarrassing someone. On the other hand, the particular institution may have different policies on how public or private a particular incident becomes. Certainly, in a civil lawsuit for copyright infringement, the allegations are generally public.
What is an honor code? An honor code is a set of commitments you make to honor certain principles, whether you’re at a company or in an academic environment. In some circumstances it might take on contractual status, which if breached can trigger consequences in accordance with a school’s rules and regulations.
Is plagiarism a violation of the honor code? Most honor codes would make plagiarism a violation, but each school’s code would have to be consulted for the particulars. The penalty for plagiarism under an honor code would be for an individual school to decide. An honor code may provide for sequential and increased penalties for subsequent offenses. Offenses can include getting a zero or the equivalent of receiving a failing grade on the particular assignment, withdrawal of school privileges, and suspension or delay in receiving a degree, and may depend on whether the institution is a public or private school.
Steven M. Richman, a commercial lawyer whose practice includes aspects of copyright and international law, provided the legal information contained in this brochure. The New Jersey State Bar Foundation thanks Mr. Richman for his time and diligence in the production of What You Need to Know About Plagiarism. For more information or copies of program materials, visit the New Jersey State Bar Foundation online at http://www.njsbf.org or call 1-800 FREE LAW. Please follow the Bar Foundation on Social Media and invite your friends to like and follow us as well. @NJStateBarFdn can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The Foundation also has a YouTube channel.
Enhancing Student Learning with AI-Powered Image Features
Andy Szeto
Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, a Bullring in Seville, Spain. Photo Credit: Andy Szeto
Artificial[HB1] intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we approach education, providing tools that enhance student engagement and make abstract concepts more accessible. One such innovation is AI-powered image recognition, which has the potential to revolutionize real-world learning experiences, from understanding historical documents to visualizing complex ideas.
Instant insights: enhancing real-world learning
My recent experience in Seville, Spain, underscores how AI can make learning more dynamic and personal. While traveling with my family in Seville, Spain in August 2024, my soon-to-be teenage daughter turned to me as we stood inside a bullfighting ring and asked, “Hey dad, what do the two red circles mean?” I acknowledged my lack of knowledge on the matter but soon recognized that AI could provide valuable assistance.
Using my paid version of ChatGPT, I uploaded a picture of the bullring, and within moments, the answer appeared. The red circles in the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza are reference points used during bullfighting events, helping the matador and participants position themselves during key stages of the fight. ChatGPT’s photo upload feature, available in its paid version, allowed artificial intelligence to analyze the image quickly and provide a detailed answer to my question, which amazed us both. My daughter was excited to learn this fact, while I marveled at the power of AI in delivering such precise information. This moment highlighted how AI could revolutionize education, by promoting independent learning and engaging students with real-world questions, both inside and outside the classroom.
AI in historical research
This small but powerful moment made me reflect on the broader implications of AI in education. Beyond answering real-world questions, AI can also assist students in engaging with historical materials in new ways, such as transcribing handwritten documents or visualizing historical events. Students can utilize AI image recognition features to enhance their understanding of historical archival materials by uploading images of primary sources, such as draft cards, census records, or letters, into an AI system. These AI tools can process and analyze a wide range of documents, extracting key details such as names, dates, locations, and occupations that are often embedded in handwritten or faded text. This process allows students to work more independently with primary sources, reducing the manual effort needed to transcribe difficult-to-read documents, particularly those written in older or cursive styles.
While the technology is not flawless—certain handwriting styles, ink smudges, or document wear can cause errors—it offers substantial support, especially for novice researchers who might otherwise find these documents inaccessible. For example, students could create a prompt like, ‘Find attached an image, and extract every piece of information from the draft card,’ to encourage the AI to analyze the content in detail. This could include not just the soldier’s name and registration date, but also contextual clues like regional differences in draft registration forms or patterns in the types of exemptions requested.
Furthermore, by leveraging AI’s ability to scan and highlight particular elements, such as identifying a certain region mentioned or flagging unfamiliar terms, students can dive deeper into their analysis. In a classroom setting, teachers can encourage students to compare their own interpretations of a primary source with the AI-generated output, sparking discussions on the reliability and limits of technology in historical research. Through this process, students gain a more hands-on approach to examining archival documents, enhancing their critical thinking skills and historical inquiry capabilities (UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, 2017)
Similarly, AI can help students transcribe historical handwriting, assisting them in reading handwriting from primary sources. For instance, a student may struggle to read government records, such as those about the Governor’s Mansion in North Carolina, detailing the cost of a house in Raleigh for the governor. In this case, AI can assist with the transcription (North Carolina Digital Collections, 2024). Additionally, AI can help students with cursive handwriting, making it easier for them to understand cursive text, which is often seen in older documents. Again, this technology, like extraction, is not perfect but is useful in supporting students as they delve into historical records. This allows for a deeper exploration of historical documents by aiding in the extraction of text and details that might otherwise be difficult to read manually.
WWI Draft Registration Certificate for Ernst Fritz Schuchard, issued June 5, 1917, in Bexar County, Texas
Governor’s Mansion: Payment to Penitentiary for Construction of Governor’s Mansion and Payment for Yard Work
An AI-generated Image depicting Election Day, November 1884, inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem.
Visualizing historical events and concepts
Beyond text recognition, AI’s image generation capabilities further enrich student learning by bringing historical concepts to life. By transforming abstract texts, like Whitman’s poetry, into visual scenes, students can engage more emotionally and intellectually with the material. Using AI’s image generation feature to create an illustration inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem Election Day, November 1884 offers a powerful and engaging experience. The poem reflects the importance of civic duty and voting rights during a significant moment in 19th-century America, when the concept of suffrage was expanding, but not yet fully inclusive. Through imagery rooted in historical contexts—voters gathered at polling places, and the somber, reflective mood of Whitman’s work—the visuals deepen students’ understanding of the era’s political and social dynamics.
This process highlights how visual learning can enhance comprehension of abstract or complex ideas, such as the evolution of voting rights and the struggles for representation. By turning Whitman’s words into visual scenes, students can grasp the weight of these moments in American history more profoundly. The combination of poetry and historical imagery helps students emotionally engage with the topic, making the importance of suffrage and the responsibilities of citizenship more tangible.
Beyond aiding comprehension, AI-generated image tools offer creative opportunities for students to engage with historical texts and events. For example, students can generate visuals that reflect their interpretations of political movements or historical milestones, giving a personal touch to their learning. By visualizing historical settings, they can immerse themselves in the world of 19th-century America, imagining what it might have felt like to be at the center of political change. This not only brings history to life but also encourages students to think critically about the significance of voting rights in a democratic society.
Data interpretation and visualization
Using the image analysis feature to teach data interpretation and visualization is an effective way to engage students in real-world data analysis across multiple disciplines, including economics. For instance, beginning with a handwritten data table, such as voter turnouts for a local election by demographic groups from 2011 to 2015, teachers can guide students in reading, interpreting, and analyzing the data from the image. This activity can extend into mathematics by encouraging students to calculate growth rates, percentages, and year-over-year comparisons. For example, students might calculate the percentage increase in voter turnout for Asian Americans in the five-year period or determine the rate of decline for another demographic group, applying key concepts from algebra and statistics.
Once the data is understood, it can be converted into a graph using tools like Python, Excel, or other data analysis software. In this case, a line graph might be created to visualize trends in voter turnouts.
As another example, students can use data analysis tools to explore economic principles, such as by examining a company’s online sales data. They can utilize the image feature to create graphs that illustrate trends, such as a clear rise in online sales alongside a decline in phone sales over the years. This step could serve as a foundation for discussions around key economic concepts like supply and demand, market shifts, and consumer behavior. Students can also analyze the economic factors that may have driven the increase in online sales, such as the availability of faster internet services or changing consumer preferences for convenience.
Conclusion: The transformative power of ai image generators in education
From answering spontaneous questions in a bullring to transcribing historical documents, AI tools help make learning more relevant and personalized. These innovations empower students to interact with their studies in a hands-on way, fostering critical thinking and independent exploration.
AI-powered tools, such as image generators and recognition features, are transforming education by making abstract concepts more tangible and promoting real-world problem-solving. From my personal experience using AI to answer a question in a bullfighting ring in Seville, to students transcribing historical documents or interpreting data, AI fosters engagement and critical thinking across disciplines. It enhances inclusivity by providing personalized support, particularly for multilingual learners. As educators integrate AI into their practices, they can create more dynamic, interactive, and meaningful learning experiences that equip students with the skills needed to thrive in a complex world.
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