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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, FEB 6–12  
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_ A Sad Day for Liberty (in 1899), Strikers Kill a Wage Cut (1894),
If Men Were Angels (1788), Women Close in on the Right to Vote (1919),
The Times They Are a-Changing' (1964), Strikers Shut Seattle Down
(1919), Nixon in Crisis (1974) _

The White (?) Man's Burden,

 

_A SAD DAY FOR LIBERTY_

125 YEARS AGO, on February 6, 1899, the U.S. Senate put its final
stamp of approval on the controversial creation of the Empire of the
United States, a nation with overseas territories spanning the globe.
On this day the Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris between the U.S.
and Spain, which gave the U.S. sovereign authority over Puerto Rico,
Guam and the Philippines, and over millions of Puerto Ricans,
Guamanians and Filipinos. That the birth of the U.S. Empire was
controversial can be seen by the fact that the treaty was ratified by
a vote of 57-27, just one more "yes" vote than the constitutional
requirement for a two-thirds majority. The treaty's opponents had many
strong objections, especially that under the treaty's terms, the
citizens of the overseas empire would become residents of U.S.
territory and subject the U.S. laws and courts, but they would have no
voice in making the laws that governed them. Under the treaty, some 15
million people would be living under the same kind of tyrannical yoke
that the 13 colonies had thrown off only 120 years earlier.
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_STRIKERS KILL A WAGE CUT_

130 YEARS AGO, on February 7, 1894, the Western Federation of Miners
in Colorado began an unusually successful  strike to oppose a
17-percent wage cut. The strike lasted five violent months and ended
in a victory for the union. The workers, all gold miners, were
incensed because the only reason for the wage cut was the mine-owners
greed.  The value of gold was steady because it was fixed by law, but
there were enough unemployed miners in the region for the mine owners
to cut wages and hope to make their profiteering stick. The
mine-owners might have succeeded had it not been for the intervention
of Colorado Governor and People's Party member Davis Waite, who
dispatched the state militia with orders to preserve the peace in the
strike region and not to intervene on behalf of the mine owners.
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_IF MEN WERE ANGELS . . . _

236 YEARS AGO, on February 8, 1788, Federalist Paper Number 51 (by
James Madison) was published. It advocated the ratification of the
U.S. Constitution with these words: "If men were angels, no government
would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor
internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a
government which is to be administered by men over men, the great
difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to
control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control
itself." [link removed]

_WOMEN CLOSE IN ON THE RIGHT TO VOTE_

105 YEARS AGO, on February 9, 1919, a large group of militant National
Woman's Party members demonstrated outside the White House, demanding
women's right to vote. They took the unusual step of burning an effigy
of President Woodrow Wilson, because they blamed Wilson for the failue
of Congress to pass the proposed 19th Amendment. Women's right to vote
had been a major U.S. political issue for more than 70 years,
 gaining support steadily, but it had always fallen short of the
necessary majority in Congress.  For more than 30 years Congress had
been considering the 19th Amendment, but it had never passed. A new
vote on the Amendment was scheduled to take place the day after the
demonstration, but it failed to pass again, this time by a single
vote. Finally, five months later, the 19th Amendment passed both the
House and the Senate. It went into effect when it was ratified by the
required number of states in August 1920.
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_THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGING'_

60 YEARS AGO, on February 10, 1964, Bob Dylan's album, "The Times They
Are a-Changin'" was released by Columbia Records. Many of its tracks,
including the title song and "With God on Our Side" soon occupied
major places in the soundtrack of the movements for civil rights and
against the war in Vietnam.
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_STRIKERS SHUT SEATTLE DOWN _

105 YEARS AGO, on February 11, 1919, a 6-day-long general strike by
virtually all 65,000 union members in Seattle, Washington, came to an
end. The strike had been enormously successful in bringing one of the
largest cities on the West Coast to a virtual standstill. The
multi-union General Strike Committee had authorized and organized the
maintenance of essential services, such as garbage collection, normal
hospital operations and the delivery of milk and food, but virtually
no unauthorized economic activity took place for the strike's
duration.  The strikers also had complete success in maintaining the
peace; even though the city and state governments mobilized thousands
of heavily armed police and troops, no violence occurred. On the other
hand, the strike did not achieve its demand, which was to end the
years-long wage freeze that had been imposed on the city's thousands
of shipyard workers. When it became clear that the shipyard owners
were going to remain adamant in refusing to negotiate with the unions,
the unions made the decision to call the strike off. According to the
General Strike Committee, despite the strike's failure to force an end
to the wage freeze, the strikers went back to work "not feeling
defeated . . . glad they had struck, equally glad to call it off, and
especially glad to think that their experience [of organizing the
continuation of essential services] would now be of use to the entire
labor movement . . . ."
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_NIXON IN CRISIS, AGAIN_

50 YEARS AGO, on February 12, 1974, the evidence of President Richard
Nixon's Watergate-related lawlessness was becoming clearer and
clearer, and his grip on the power to remain in office was rapidly
diminishing. In less than six months,  he would become the first and
only president to resign. On this day, he somewhat bizarrely seized
upon the 165th birthday Abraham Lincoln to deliver an unscheduled (but
not extemporaneous) speech during the annual ceremony at the Lincoln
Memorial. Some of his words, in light of the events of the following
months, are indeed memorable: "Why is Lincoln, of all the American
Presidents, more revered, not only in America but in the world?" Nixon
asked. "There are several reasons that come to mind," he continued.
"He freed the slaves. He saved the Union. He died of an assassin's
bullet just at the height of his career. . . . When we examine the
American Presidents, it is quite clear that no President in history
has been more vilified or was more vilified during the time he was
President than Lincoln. . . . He was very deeply hurt by what was said
about him and drawn about him. But on the other hand, Lincoln had that
great strength of character never to display it, always to stand tall
and strong and firm no matter how harsh or unfair the criticism might
be."
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* U.S. history
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* U.S. imperialism
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* Spanish-American War
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* Colorado
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* Bob Dylan
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* Seattle General Strike
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* Richard Nixon
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* Watergate scandal
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