LAD #29: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

Two young boys working in a dangerous mill

The discovery that nearly 2 million children were doing dangerous work meant for adults caused a movement to get rid of child labor because of the negative effects on the health of children. The Keating-Owen bill outlawed the employment of children under 14 in most facilities (children under 16 in mines) and required the workdays of children under 16 to be less than 8 hours. Although the bill was passed and signed into law, it was ruled unconstitutional because it "overstepped the purpose of the government's powers to regulate interstate commerce." The Child Labor Tax Law was passed later but also found unconstitutional. Though the nation wanted laws against child labor, the Supreme Court's rulings made it impossible. Though a Child Labor Amendment was proposed, it was stalled by opponents' campaigns. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was finally passed, passing also the inspection of the Supreme Court in 1941.

LAD #28: Woodrow Wilson's First Inaugural Address

Woodrow Wilson's first inauguration

Now that Congress would soon be primarily Democratic, Wilson predicted that America would begin to look upon situations with fresh new eyes. Though there is much good in life, there is evil as well, as with industry; though innovations have been made, the government hadn't stopped to properly think about the human cost. So it was the country's duty, then, to restore the good that had been lost while the nation was in a hurry to industrialize. Wilson listed some things that needed to be changed, including tariffs, the banking system, the exploitative industrial system, and environmental problems. The government had forgotten about the people, caught up in its own affairs, and Wilson asked for the people's aid in revitalizing the nation. He promised he wouldn't fail them as long as they stood by him.

LAD #27: Clayton Anti-Trust Act

Political cartoon depicting the trusts this law aimed against.

The Clayton Antitrust Act outlawed local price discrimination that destroyed competitors, as well as exclusive deals by businesses to allow only the buying of their own products. They also forbade the prevention of labor union organization and for businesses to merge to create any sort of monopoly.

LAD #26: MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. delivering a speech.

The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation gave hope to millions of African-American slaves in America, but even 100 years later, they aren't truly free; they still face discrimination and crippling poverty. And although they haven't seen the promise given in the Declaration of Independence in effect yet, they are determined to do so, and it needs to happen soon. And people who think the revolts will calm before African-Americans gain their rights are dead wrong. Black people must not stoop as low as to degenerate into physical violence, however, and must remember their white brothers, some of which support them. They can't do it alone and they can't turn back and they won't be satisfied if they must keep living the way they're living.

Even though they have many difficulties to overcome, King dreams that one day America would fully live up to the preamble of its Declaration of Independence, that black and white people would be able to join together in real brotherhood and African-Americans would be really free. And when they are free, all of God's children, no matter their religion, skin color, or any other thing, could be really free.

LAD #25: Dawes Severalty Act

Advertisement for the sale of Native American lands after the Dawes Act

The Dawes Act sent Native Americans populating America to reservations and authorized the President to divide communal lands belonging to different tribes and allot sections of the land to individual owners, with amounts based on factors such as status. It also authorized the sale of Native Wmerican lands to American settlers. It attempted to assimilate Native Americans into American culture but didn't include the "five civilized tribes." The government was also given the right to build railroads through former Native American land.

LAD #24 - Cross of Gold

A badge advocating the central idea of the "Cross of Gold" speech.

In 1895, some Democrats organized to advocate the unlimited coinage of silver. They won over several times, but in the process, people were turned against each other.

William Jennings Bryan was not speaking as an individual, but represented all people of Massachusetts, who were equal before the law. He said the accepted definition of a businessman is too limited; people who worked in country areas should be considered businessmen just as wealthy people in cities are.

The lower class was simply fighting for their rights, not as aggressors.
Bryan also rebutted or countered many points of the opposing side; for example, they said they had passed an unconstitutional law with the income tax law, but Bryan said it hadn't been unconstitutional at the time of passage, only afterwards when a judge changed his mind.

He also opposed the national bank currency, as it injured the working class and protected creditors. He pointed out some of the hypocrisy in this system.

He said there were two ideas of government: one that believed prosperity would trickle down to the masses if given to the prosperous, and one that held that if wealth were given to the masses it would find its way up the classes above them; and he said that cities would live as long as farms existed, but if farms were destroyed, cities wouldn't last long either.

The gold standard would serve only to help upper classes, leaving lower ones in the dust. Bryan declared that those classes would fight those who supported the gold standard, concluding by saying they would not give the laboring class this crown of thorns or crucify mankind on a cross of gold.

LAD #23: Populist Party Platform

Campaign poster for the Populist Party

The nation is in ruins, with corruption in elections and property becoming concentrated in the hands of capitalists. Influences dominate both Democrats and Republicans, but haven't been met with serious efforts to prevent them, and they haven't tried to reform, allowing the many to be destroyed in favor of a few corrupt millionaires. In short, the Populist Party wants to put power back into the hands of the "plain people."

They declared a permanent union of labor forces, that wealth belongs to he who earns it and it's robbery for others to take it, and that the government should own and manage the railroads.

They made several demands regarding finances, including that there should be an unlimited coinage of silver and gold in a 16:1 ratio, more money to be circulated, a graduated income tax, that state revenues be limited to only necessary spending, and that postal savings banks be established.

Transportation and communications should be operated by the government for the interest of the people, and land should not be monopolized nor given to aliens.

Summarized, they wanted a free ballot, for money to be distributed as fairly as possible, and for more power to be put into the hands of the working class.

LAD #22: McKinley's War Message

President William McKinley, who delivered his war message to Congress in 1898

The revolution in Cuba is one in a line of insurrections against Spain. The brutality exercised in it has shocked the United States and made it difficult for the United States to remain neutral throughout the war. A final military victory doesn't seem possible for either side - an alternative would be the physical exhaustion of one or both sides.

Last time, he had laid out the options: recognizing insurgents as belligerent, recognizing Cuba as independent, neutral intervention, or taking a side; however, forced annexation is not among the options. He decided that the U.S. would have to intervene and that the proclamation of neutrality wouldn't accomplish any of their goals.

Intervention to stop the war is justified as follows: It is human duty to put an end to the cruelty in Cuba; they owe it to American citizens in Cuba; there has been great injury to American business and property; and the proximity of Cuba to America threatens their peace. The explosion of the battleship Maine illustrated this danger and horrified the nation.

For the sake of humanity, the war in Cuba needs to end. McKinley asked Congress to authorize him to take measures to end hostilities in the Cuban war. Though he said Spain had recently agreed to suspend hostilities, he emphasized that their decision to authorize him was of utmost importance.