There were many reasons as to why the American Federation of Labor prevailed against the knights of labor. The AFL became more influential than the knights of labor because they were able to form strikes and other local councils that will cater for the needs of the workers. The reigning labor organization in America was the knight of labor especially in the 1880s.
It was started in 1869, and at first, it was supposed to be a ritualistic organization but due to the fame, it gained fame thus the members expanded especially in the 1880s. They helped to support the culture or social background of the working class people in the working area. They mostly rejected the radicalism and the socialism that was in the working area. They wanted the people to work for only eight hours per day. When the members grew, the organization could not manage with the large numbers of people. This was because the organization was not well planned and thus could not cope up with large numbers of members it had (Phelan, 2000). The members of the group began to drop out of the organization, and this is what brought about the formation of other organizations of labor.
The American federation of labor was formulated in 1886 when the knights of labor refused to have a dialogue with the members of crafts union. The AFL took over as the labor movement after the knight of labor lost almost all its members and most of the members joined it. The AFL had many achievements that the knights of labor were unable to accomplish. These achievements were brought on by the organization being well planned and structured in that they were able to pull off strikes without any problems occurring. In the early years of the organization, it had helped a number of its affiliates by providing with people who are well organizers an also they were able to provide some funds for them. They were also very useful when it came to helping workers to formulate unions a good example is the American federation of musicians. They organization was very instrumental when it came to the formation of the local labor bodies. This is because they provided encouragement, which caused the formation of these bodies. This made it possible for all their affiliates to join and participate in these bodies.
The local labor councils gained large supporters in some of the American areas. Some examples of the local labor councils were the local building trades councils which became very well liked by people in most areas, Chicago federation of labor, which generally consisted of the steel workers especially throughout the world war I period and immediately after the war had ended. The AFL was fighting for women rights in the working environment since the women were not treated the same as the men when it came to payment. In the fight for women’s rights, they were mostly suggesting that the women should be working for lesser hours compared to the male counterparts (Kazin, 2011, P321). This may be seen as a good thing, but the truth was that they were just advocating for women to work less than the men in order for the men to get more jobs.
In conclusion, one of the main reasons that caused the AFL to prevail over the Knight labor was because of the way it was well structured and organized. The knight of labor should have concentrated on how they planned their meetings and strategized on effective means that would have helped their members, then the people would never have left because they would have seen how competent they were with their work. It is a fact that when something is well organized, structured and managed then that thing will flourish or succeed in the future.
Did the American war effort during World War I significantly change the nature of the American government or American society? Give examples to justify your argument.
The American efforts during the First World War did significantly change the nature of the American government and the American society. When referring to politics the American government began to isolate itself from the affairs in the European countries as well as other non-American countries, thus did not want any involvement with any outside disputes. This was because of how horrific the war ended up being as well as the number of people who lost their lives in the war. Social effects are that so many women in the society joined the working environment (Nicholson, 2008).
The fact that so many people’s lives were lost it brought about the formation of the lost generation where the poets, artist and writers wrote about the war and its effect in the world. This artist stopped following the traditional ways of how they used to practice when it came to art or writing. The artists were mostly exposing the dirty secrets of the western countries and the countries involved in the war. The music also changed to the point where the songs did not seem to respect their elders as they used to previously before the war. The reason why the youth was very disrespectful was the fact that they believed that the elders were the ones who were held responsible for the wars that claimed the lives of so many of their peers, mothers and fathers. The jazz music especially seemed to be all about moping and it was miserable (Gomez, 2007). When the war began there was many hate speech against the Germans in that many people volunteered to join the army so as to fight against the Germans. After World War I, there was a great migration in which many Mexican and African migrated to the northern cities in America.
The increase in numbers of the immigrants started scaring the Americans. This is what brought about the formation of laws against immigrations to the United States and also increased racial disparities. This also brought about the eugenic movement in which the white Americans wanted to improve the genes of people therefore; they started sterilizing people. The laws were changed and added new materials such as the forced sterilization (Gomez, 2007). The socialist leaders were imprisoned for the sole purpose that they were conspiring against the government while other socialist could not hold office. A good example of such a leader was Eugene Debs. The status of women after the world war had changed dramatically. In the 19th Amendment, the women had a right to vote.
According to Wilson, this right came as a necessity for war actions. The congress made the 18th Amendment, which banned the transportation or the selling of any kind of alcohol. Socially everything had changed in that the women and children began working. The reasons why the women began working were because of the absence of their husbands who had gone to war. When the war ended, it became difficult for the women to continue being homemakers (Nicholson, 2008).
This brought about conflicts between the men and the women in the society. The women joined unions, which would be used to fight for their rights in the workplace. This was because the kind of jobs the women were getting did not pay very well, and there were numerous cases reported about sexual harassments in the working environment. A good example of the union that the women joined was AFL. After the war things began to get back to normal, therefore, most of the freedom women had while the world war was beginning to be taken away. This infuriated some of the women, but they had to conform because the law was always not in their favor. In the plus side of things, the economy of America boomed and it was able to emerge as a super power in the world. This was all good until the great depression (Gomez, 2007).
In conclusion, after the First World War a lot of things changed in America especially socially and politically. The women realized they could be independent in that they could work and find their own ways in life. The women were given the rights to vote thus they were able to choose the leaders they wanted. There was a lot of fear of foreigners in that the government formulated laws that will make it hard for foreigners to enter the country.
What distinguished Carter’s conduct of foreign policy from Nixon’s?
There was a lot of difference between the foreign policies adopted by President Nixon and carter. During the presidency of Nixon, he established better relations with china a country that is well known to be communist. This was done when Nixon made Henry Kissinger go to china in secret in order to find ways in which the two countries could have a good relationship. He went to Soviet Union countries in order create a good relationship with them. He was able to sign an agreement which included some of the results of SALT I. This brought about the formation of a new debate that had to do with the extension about the arms control and the disarmament measures, which would later be called SALT II.
This also brought about that abandonment of the policy used in the cold war by Americans, which was about confrontation and started adopting the détente policy (Perlstein, 2008). He was able to create a friendly relationship between America and the republic of china together with the Soviet Union. He acted as a mediator in the Middle East during the Yom Kippur war. These were all his good qualities when it came to foreign policy, but this did not bring about good international economy. Apart from this few changes, Nixon followed or adopted the previous policies that had been made by previous presidents where he stayed clear from imposing his government to international affairs.
Jimmy carter who was a democrat was elected as president in 1976. When it came to the formation of foreign policy carter made it a personal issue in that he emphasized on his own ideology. This set him aside from all the other previous presidents. He believed that the foreign policy should reflect the highest moral principles. He went against most of the policies that were been done by President Nixon and the other former leaders. He firmly stated that people should stop adopting the old policies that seemed to have flaws and went against all the values that they believe in. Carter said that he would not stand back and watch injustices or human rights abuses to continue happening to other countries.
He discontinued military support for the president of Nicaragua called Somoza who was well known to be a dictator. He was also harsh to other countries that were promoting injustices to others such as Zimbabwe formerly known as Rhodesia, Iran, South Africa and Argentina. He also in believed in changing the world for the better. He stated that the American military power and its wealth should be used for doing good deeds like helping those who truly needed it (Clymer, 2003, 250). According to the senate and congress, it was very clear that these diplomatic policies were very successful. He took over the process of normalizing the relationship that had started during Nixon’s presidency between America and China.
Carter was among the facilitators during the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. The main purpose for this was to reduce the enmity that was happening between the two countries. The other purpose was to pave way for Middle East to have a peaceful co-existence. Carter was able to convince the senate to return the control of Panama Canal to the people of Panama. Carter was able to sign an agreement about the control of nuclear arms. This agreement was called SALT II (Clymer, 2003, 250). In conclusion, it is obvious that Carter’s foreign policy looked at the moral ground and thus used the resources of America to help their allies compared to Nixon who adopted most of the old ways of foreign policing.
Explain how, having lost the popular vote in 2000, Bush nevertheless became president.
In the 2000, elections in the United States President George W. Bush won the elections without winning the popularity votes. In all the American elections, there have only been four other presidents who won through the Electoral College and not through popularity votes. According to the US constitution, it allows the states to select the people known as electors who do the voting (Rakove, 2002). This was called as the Electoral College. In all the states, in the country, the electors are supposed to be of equal numbers as those of the congress delegates. This therefore means that there are 538 electors and in that, the candidate needs to have around 270 votes in order to win the elections and be claimed as the president.
In all of the 48 states, when a person receives more votes no matter how little the margin is they are stated to be the winners. In the 2000 elections, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 so as to end the Florida recount and gave all the 25 votes to Bush. This is what made him be declared the winner and the president of United States. This win made people start questioning the electoral process in America. Some thought that the elections was free and fair while others thought it was undemocratic as America is well known for having.
There are also those who believe that the process making fun of the system where one vote comes out from one person. In the voting systems, the candidates always rely on the swing states thereby causing the other majority states to be some sort of bystanders. The states that are said to be the swing states for the elections are Michigan, Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, New Hampshire, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (Millerand & Thomas, 2003). There are many who support the Electoral College system and believe that it will reduce any chance of there being a fraud results. This is because it is well known that when electing a president or any other government official there are instances where the votes are stolen but in the Electoral College it is not, easy to fake anything, therefore, the votes cannot be stolen or added in the ballot.
In conclusion, George W. Bush did not get popular votes but ended up being the president because he won the Electoral College by garnering 271 votes compared to Al Gore’s 266 votes. This could seem to be unfair especially for a candidate who has popular votes but by having the Electoral College, it will rule out any result that was gotten through fraudulent ways. George W. Bush got really lucky because if it were the choice of the people then he would never have been the president of United States at that particular time.
Reference
Clymer, Kenton. Jimmy Carter, Human Rights, and Cambodia. Diplomatic History, 2003: 245–278.
Gomez, Gomez. The Political Economic Social and Cultural Consequences of World War I. World Issues, 2007.
Kazin, Michael. The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History. Princeton University Press, 2011: 321.
Miller, Arthur H., and Thomas F. Klobucar. The Role of Issues in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 2003.
Nicholson, Virginia. Singled Out: How Two Million British Women Survived Without Men After the First World War. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Perlstein, Richard. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. New York: Scribner, 2008.
Phelan, Craig. Grand Master Workman: Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor. Scholarly Biography, 2000.
Rakove, Jack N. The Unfinished Election of 2000. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
