Day One (45-60 minute class)
- In order to understand the Progressive Era and trust busting students need to understand the definition of a trust. The following is a classroom simulation where students will create both a competitive market and one that has a monopoly. The teacher needs to engage and encourage students for each step.
Monopoly Simulation
- Name three students to act as vendors and give them
five pens each. Explain to the rest of the class
that these pens are for sale and they can purchase
them from these three vendors using an allotted amount
of currency (five pieces per student) that you will
distribute. The vendors are competing for their
classmates' business, so they need to be creative
in how they market and price the goods and possibly
even decide what policies they will have. For
example, are they going to accept returns; promote
that they are a "green" company; offer special
deals; etc.? Place your business owners in different
corners of the room. Give the class 5-10 minutes
to buy and sell these pens.
- At the end of the time limit ask each vendor how much money they each raised and how many pens they sold. Have an open class discussion about why they chose to buy pens from a vendor, and why the vendors chose to sell the pens as they did. Is it difficult or hard to sell the pens? Does it make a difference that other vendors are selling the same product? (5-7 minutes)
- Collect all the pens and tell the class that the student who raised the most money is buying out the other vendors and he/she is the sole vendor of pens. There is no other competition. Give all the pens that were sold or unsold to the remaining vendor. Remember to tell the student that he/she is trying to make money. Ask them to consider how they might change their strategy. Next tell the rest of the class that they must buy at least two pens for an upcoming exam and if they fail to buy pens then they will receive an automatic F. Give the class 5 minutes to purchase their pens. Encourage the vendor to make as much money as possible. As a teacher you are trying to create a monopoly situation. (7-9 minutes)
- At the end of 5 minutes debrief what took place either in a journal or in a class discussion. Ask the students how easy or difficult it was to acquire the pens. How did the vendor change his/her selling tactics? What were some problems? If you were not able to buy a pen, how did you feel knowing you were going to get an F on your next exam? (5-7 minutes)
- Give the students some key terms and go over them
as a class. Using the PowerPoint found under
Materials, introduce the terms in
Part I. List of key terms: commodity, currency, supply
and demand, competitive market, monopoly. Students
should take notes based on the PowerPoint. (7-9 minutes)
- After you have gone over Part I of the PowerPoint,
show the class Part II of the PowerPoint to give them
a background of the Gilded Age. This places
the idea of a monopoly or trust in a historical context
and lets students see how monopolies affected real
people. (7 minutes)
- Give each student copies of Theodore Roosevelt's
speeches. Have the students read each speech.
You can read the speeches to them and have them follow
along, or they can read individually or with partners.
As they read the speeches have them underline
the places where Roosevelt talks about the benefits
or good aspects of business, and have them circle
the places where Roosevelt talks about the problems
with trusts in America. These are challenging readings
and may require extra help from the teacher. (8-15
minutes) For further examination of the readings here
is a worksheet that can be assigned for homework or
the questions can be used for a class discussion Teddy
Roosevelt Worksheet.doc.
Day Two (45-60 minute class)
- Debrief the Theodore Roosevelt speeches. You can lead a discussion based upon the questions in the worksheet from Day One. (5-7 minutes)
- Create a gallery walk by placing
each political cartoon, found under Materials,
on its own poster board or large piece of
paper. Display these pictures around the room
as if the students would be walking in an art gallery.
Give each student a marker or pen and tell them that
this is an interactive gallery where they can write
their thoughts, observations, and questions about
the cartoons that they are viewing on the large pieces
of paper. This is sometimes referred to as a
graffiti wall because they are allowed
to write on the big paper. Remind students to be appropriate
when writing on the paper. This is a silent
exercise since they are in an art gallery. Students
can move at their own pace through the gallery, but
if your students need more structure, start each student
or pair of students at a picture and after 1-2 minutes
tell student to rotate to the next picture. (15-20
minutes)
- Use the Think, Pair, Share method to debrief the political cartoons. Give the students time to write their thoughts in their notebooks or journals, and then discuss with a partner before sharing as a class. Here are some prompts for thought and discussion: What were the artists saying about trusts? How were businesses portrayed and how did that affect your view on business? How was Theodore Roosevelt portrayed? How might these political cartoons affect you if you saw them in a newspaper during the late 1800s or early 1900s? Make sure in your discussion to read some of the thoughts and questions from the big paper. (7-10 minutes)
- Show the class Part III of the PowerPoint. This
gives the background and new key terms to the Progressive
Era. Key Terms: Trust-busters, Theodore Roosevelt,
Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and Clayton Anti-Trust Act.
(7-10 minutes)
- Give each student a piece of white 81/2 X 11 paper.
Instruct them that they are to use markers or crayons
to create a bumper sticker for a Model T Ford that
has a slogan and/or picture that the Progressive Party
member or trust-buster might put on his car.
When they are done have them display their sticker
on the wall. If time permits, have each student
explain their sticker. (11-20 minutes)
Assessments
Possible Assessments
- Quiz on the key terms from the Monopolies, Theodore Roosevelt, and Trust-Busting PowerPoint.
- Students can write their own persuasive speech or jingle to talk about the problems with or the benefits of monopolies.
- Students can create a collage of the conditions of the poor workers and contrast that with the progression and advances that business made for America during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
- Students can research the viewpoints of the workers and the business owners and create a debate over whether trusts should be regulated.
Bibliography
"Business of America, 1850-1900 (Overview)." American History. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 22 Aug. 2008 <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>.
"Theodore Roosevelt: Controlling the Trusts speech (1901)." American History. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 26 Aug. 2008 <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>.
Fink, Leon, and Thomas Paterson. "Theodore Roosevelt
Announces the New
Nationalism, 1910." Major Problems in the Gilded
Age and the Progressive Era: Documents and Essays.
2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin College Division,
2000. 392-93.
Cartoons
Image 1: Cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt with "Trust Pigs" - typical of cartoons portraying Roosevelt's "anti-trust" legislative agenda. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. http://www.fairfightfilm.org/press/Stills/index.php
Image 2: Farmer versus railroad cartoon. Wood engraving by Wust Publishing in New York newspaper, August 14th, 1873. Courtesy Library of Congress. http://www.fairfightfilm.org/press/Stills/index.php
Image 3: Political cartoon showing a Standard Oil tank as an octopus with many tentacles wrapped around the steel, copper, and shipping industries, as well as a state house, the U.S. Capitol, and one tentacle reaching for the White House. From J. Ottmann Lith, Co., 1904 Sept. 7. Udo Keppler Artist. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
http://www.fairfightfilm.org/press/Stills/index.php
Image 4: Teddy Roosevelt with "trust-busting" stick, circa 1904. Source unknown. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
http://www.fairfightfilm.org/press/Stills/index.php
Image 5 The Vulture's Roost. Trusts as vultures (led by Standard Oil/Rockefeller) roosting on roof of Senate. Drawing by E.W. Kemble in Collier's, Feb. 1905. Courtesy Library of Congress. http://www.fairfightfilm.org/press/Stills/index.php
Image 6: A political cartoon by C.J. Taylor entitled "King of the World" depicts John D. Rockefeller and the monopoly held by Standard Oil.
http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=27& searchtext=trusts&type=simple&option=all &searchsites=1%2c2%2c3%2c4%2c5%2c6%2c7%2c8%2c &entryid=290208&issublink=true&fromsearch=false
Image 7: This editorial cartoon, published around 1900, shows Uncle Sam shining a light on "big trusts," represented by a king. Library of Congress http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Media?id=pc308486&st=trusts
Image 8: W. A. Rogers was a champion for common honesty and an unrelenting foe of corrupt government, especially in his adopted home, New York. His political cartoons were featured in the New York Herald and Harper's Weekly. It was the latter that included this "trust busting" cartoon in 1903. (Bettmann/CORBIS)
http://ap.grolier.com/picturepopup?productid=gme&assetid= uh366&templatename=/article/picturepopup.html
Image 9: This cartoon from the November 4, 1906, St. Louis Post-Dispatch shows Roosevelt aiming a cannon at the oil trust. Courtesy of St. Louis Post-Dispatch http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://americanhistory.si.edu/ PRESIDENCY/images/medium /05_G_037_M.jpg&imgrefurl= http://americanhistory.si.edu/PRESIDENCY/2b5.html&h=202&w=200&sz
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Image 10: Rockefeller as an industrial emperor, 1901 cartoon from Puck magazine.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= http://content.answers.com/main/content/ wp/en/thumb/9/ 9a/300px-Jdr-king.JPG &imgrefurl= http://www.answers.com/ topic/john-d-rockefeller&h=465&w=300&sz=41&hl=en&start=5&um=1&usg=__ Wsif6QCcuJEH3ZK_wLSg-b5NASk= &tbnid=9prmMqIlTp_9EM:&tbnh=12
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Image 11: http://media.artdiamondblog.com/images2/VanderbiltCartoon.jpg
Image 12: Squeezing the trusts as Roosevelt Watches.
http://www.wallstreetmuseum.org/quiz4cartoons.html
Image 13: Most notable is a political cartoon depicting Theodore Roosevelt as King Turkey, and a commentary on his Big Stick policy, with new born chicks perched upon Roosevelt's "Big Stick" representing extravagance, postal scandal, foreign complication, imperialism, hatched from "peace", "trust regulator", "anti imperialism" and "simple life." A single chick upon his back representing "illegal trust."
http://www.down-jersey.com/sale.html
Special Thanks to Facing History and Ourselves with whom I have done several professional development workshops.
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