Section II
Part A
(Suggested writing time: 45 minutes.)
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of Documents A to H and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period.
1. To what extent did the Supreme Court advance or inhibit Progressive regulation of corporations in the period 1885 to 1920?
Document A
Source: U.S. v. Debs, et al., 1894 (response to the Pullman Strike)
That the original design [of the Sherman Antitrust Act] to suppress trusts and monopolies ... is clear; but it is equally clear that further and more comprehensive purpose came to be entertained. ... Combinations are condemned, not only when they take the form of trusts, but in whatever form found, if they be in restraint of trade.
Document B
Source: U.S. v. E. C. Knight Company, 1895
Congress did not attempt... to make criminal the acts of persons in the acquisition and control of property which the states of their residence or creation sanctioned or permitted.
The contracts and acts of the defendants related exclusively to the acquisition of the Philadelphia refineries and the business of sugar refining in Pennsylvania, and bore no direct relation to commerce between states or with foreign countries. The object was manifestly private gain in the manufacture of the commodity, hut not through the control of interstate or foreign commerce.
Document C
Source: Holden v. Hardy, 1898
We think the [Utah act limiting the hours of miners] may be sustained as a valid exercise of the police power of the state. The act does not profess to limit the hours of all workmen, but merely those who are employed in underground mines ... These employments, when too long pursued, the legislature has judged to be detrimental to the health of employees.
[Mine owners] naturally desire to obtain as much labor as possible from their employees, white the latter are often induced by the fear of discharge to conform to regulations which ... would be detrimental to their health. ... In other words, the proprietors lay down the rules and the laborers are practically constrained to obey them.
In such cases, self-interest is often an unsafe guide and the legislature may property interpose its authority.
Document D
Source: Smyth v. Ames, 1898
By the 14th Amendment it is provided that no state shall deprive any person of property without the due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws. That corporations are persons within this amendment is now settled.
[The Court] adjudged that the enforcement of the schedules of rates established by the (Nebraska law reducing railroad rates]... would deprive the railroad companies of the compensation they were legally entitled to receive.
Document E
Source: Lochner v. New York, 1905
The act [state law limiting maximum hours of bakers] is not... a health law, but is an illegal interference with the rights of individuals, both employers and employees, to make contracts regarding labor upon such terms as they may think best Statutes of the nature of that under review, limiting the hours in which grown and intelligent men may labor to earn their living, are meddlesome interferences with the rights of the individual, and they are not saved from condemnation by the claim that they are passed upon the subject of the health of the individual whose rights are interfered with.
Document F
Source: Muller v, Oregon, 1908
The two sexes differ in structure of body, ... in the amount of physical strength in the capacity for long-continued labor, ... the influence of vigorous health upon the future well-being of the race, ... and in the capacity to maintain the struggle for subsistence. This difference justifies a difference in legislation.
For these reasons, and without questioning in any respect the decision in Lochner v. New York, we are of the opinion that it cannot be adjudged that the [state law limiting the hours women may work] is in conflict with the Federal Constitution, so far as it respects the work of a female in a laundry.
Document G
Source: Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States, 1911
The public policy has been to prohibit ... contracts or acts entered into with the intent to wrong the public and which unreasonably restrict competitive conditions, limit the rights of individuals, restrain the free flow of commerce, or bring about public evils such as the enhancement of prices.
The combination of the defendants in this case is an unreasonable and undue restraint of trade in petroleum and its products moving in interstate commerce, and falls within the prohibitions of the [Sherman Antitrust Act].
Document H
Source: Wilson v. New, 1917
The effect of the [Adamson Act] is not only to establish permanently an eight-hour standard for work and wages as between the [railroad] carrier and employees affected, but also to fix a scale of minimum wages for the eight-hour day and proportionately for overtime.
Viewed as an act establishing an eight-hour day as the standard of service by employees, the statute is clearly within the power of Congress under the commerce clause.
Viewed as an act fixing wages, the statute merely illustrates the character of regulation essential, and hence permissible, for the protection of the public right.
Section II
Part B and Part C
(Suggested total planning and writing time: 70 minutes.)
Part B
Directions: Choose one question from this part. You are advised to spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing your answer. Cite relevant historical evidence in support of your generalizations and present your arguments clearly and logically.
2. Before he was elected president, Thomas Jefferson believed that a strict interpretation of the Constitution firmly bound the actions of the federal government. To what extent did Jefferson adhere to this belief during his two terms in office?
3. Explain the impact of manifest destiny upon the 1840s.
Part C
Directions: Choose one question from this part. You are advised to spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing your answer. Cite relevant historical evidence in support of your generalizations and present your arguments clearly and logically.
4. Discuss the effects of New Deal reform legislation by examining two of the following acts: Social Security Act Wagner (National Labor Relations) Act Fair Labor Standards Act
5. Compare and contrast the post-World War I Red Scare with the anticommunism crusade after World War II.
END OF SECTION II