That American Century

On April 25, 1970 The New York Times runs a story with the headline "Graft Paid to Police Here Said to Run Into Millions." One of the sources for the story was Detective Frank Serpico. For years, he had been trying to get the NYPD to take his claims of police corruption seriously. 

The bad press leads to the formation of the Knapp Commission, certainly not the first commission tasked with looking into New York Police corruption. 

In 1894, the Lexow Committee had exposed the rampant graft running the New York Police, and in 1895 new Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, is determined to turn the department around. Can he do it? 

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt
• T.R.: The Last Romantic by H.W. Brands
• Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean up Sin-Loving New York by Richard Zacks
• Satan's Circus by Mike Dash
• The New York Times, April 25, 1970
• Politico Magazine The Police Are Still Out of Control by Frank Serpico, October 23, 2014
• Cherries in America & The Rise and Fall of Cherry Street, Manhattan, newyorkalmanack.com

What does the Black Sox Scandal and the Becker-Rosenthal case have in common? Arnold Rothstein. 

His career in New York City's world of vice spans the 1890s to the 1920s, adjusting during periods of reform and always staying steps removed from scandal. 

If we're talking about graft and organized crime in the 20th century, we should definitely mention Arnold Rothstein. 

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• Rothstein by David Pietrusza
• Satan's Circus by Mike Dash
• The Society for American Baseball Research
• InfamousNewYork.com
• The Chicago Tribune, September 29, 1920
• The Philadelphia Enquirer, September 29, 1920

It was called "The Trial of the Century." 

In July 1912, a New York City Bookmaker is assassinated in front of the Hotel Metropole. Four gunmen and one NYPD Lieutenant are implicated in the crime. 

Lieutenant Charles Becker was no stranger to the graft that had ruled New York City for decades, but his teaming up with Herman Rosenthal would prove to be his undoing. He would face a trial, a retrial, and, ultimately, an execution. 

The 20th century had plenty of police scandals, and the Becker-Rosenthal case is a good one.  

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• Satan's Circus by Mike Dash
• The New York World July 15, 1912
• The New York Times July 30, 1915
• New York Tribune July 31, 1915

From The Jungle to HUAC to California in 2003 - entertainment and politics collide time after time in the 20th century. 

Upton Sinclair, Ronald Reagan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. All three were celebrities first then California gubernatorial candidates second.

Sinclair and Reagan also have something else in common - they were both players during crucial moments in American labor history. Reagan v. PATCO and Sinclair v. Rockefeller after the Ludlow Massacre.

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair
• Schwarzenegger CA acceptance speech 2003
• Schwarzenegger sworn in as CA Governor
• Reagan's October 1980 letter to PATCO
• Reagan fires air traffic controllers 1981
• Politico Reagan Fires Air Traffic Controllers
• Reaganlibrary.gov
• The New York Times "IWW Pickets Pen Rockefellers" May 4, 1914
• The New York Times "Attack In Church on Rockefeller" May 2, 1914
• Vanity Fair "Reagan Unscripted" June 2007
• Graham Bensinger Governing California: Arnold Schwarzenegger on challenges and triumphs

Veracruz, the Ludlow Massacre, Bill Haywood, the IWW, and Rockefeller. All are "In the News" at the beginning of May - 1914.

After the Ludlow Massacre in April 1914, Picketers head down to Standard Oil headquarters at 26 Broadway to protest the Rockefellers. One of these protestors is famous novelist, Upton Sinclair.

Also protesting are Anarchists who, on May 1, 1914, get caught up in the stampede and chaos at the May Day rally in Union Square. 

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair
• The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum
• The Poison Squad | American Experience | PBS
• Titan by Ron Chernow
• Macon Telegraph - “Enemies of the Country” May 2, 1914
• The New York Times "Rockefeller Balks"  April 30, 1914
• The New York Times "5k Stampeded by Police Clubs"  May 2, 1914
• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• historycolorado.org

Two weeks before the Ludlow Massacre, John D. Rockefeller Jr. testifies before Congress about the ongoing Coal Miner's strike in Southern Colorado. 

The Rockefellers have a controlling interest in the company that owns the mines, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. Rockefeller Jr. claims the striking mineworkers are being forced to strike. They are being pressured by the United Mineworkers of America and have received threatening letters from "The Black Hand." Rockefeller Jr. and the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. refuse to hear the mineworkers demands for reform. They're not interested in treating these men with any dignity.

It's the same stance his son, Governor of New York Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, will take when it came to rioting prisoners at Attica in 1971. He refuses to hear demands for reform. He is not interested in treating these men with any dignity.

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• Titan by Ron Chernow
• democracynow.org
• The United Labor Bulletin (April 11, 1914)
• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• historycolorado.org

Labor v. Capital is a recurring theme in That American Century.

The conflict between striking mineworkers and the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company comes to a deadly climax on April 20, 1914. Two women and 11 children will suffocate to death in a cellar dug underneath a tent in the colony where striking mineworkers and their families had been living for over six months.

When details of the Ludlow Massacre come to light, the nation reacts with horror and outrage. Historian Howard Zinn described the Ludlow Massacre as "the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history."

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• historycolorado.org
• Eyewitness to Murder: Recounting the Ludlow Massacre
• History - UMWA
• pbs.org
• revolutionnewsstand.com
• Louis Tikas
• C-Span: Ludlow Coal Miners' Strike and Massacre
• Old Man Trump - woodyguthrie.org

“This is the right place” declared Brigham Young as he entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. 

Persecuted and harassed in every place they had tried to make a home, the Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, establish Zion in the Great Salt Lake Valley. Ten years later, however, in 1857, rumors abound that President James Buchanan is sending someone new to replace Brigham Young as Governor of the Utah Territory.

The Mormons refuse to be persecuted any longer. If the United States wants war with the Mormons - war is what they will get. 

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks
• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Newsroom
• The American Presidency Project: Republican Party Platform of 1856
• American Midnight by Adam Hochschild
• The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood by William Haywood
• Roughneck : the life and times of Big Bill Haywood by Peter Carlson
• Big Bill Haywood threatens to close the mines
• The Daily Journal (Telluride), April 21, 1914

On the anniversary of the Battle of Chapultepec (September 13, 1847), the President of Mexico recites the names of eight Los Niños Héroes (boy heroes) during the annual ceremony commemorating the young boy's ultimate act of patriotism and sacrifice.

Six of the eight Los Niños Héroes die during the Battle of Chapultepec (1847), and two die during the American Invasion of Veracruz in 1914. 

Prior to the American landing in 1914, President Huerta orders Federal Troops to abandon Veracruz, leaving the defense of the city to its citizenry and to cadets at the Naval Academy. The cadets fight the Yankee Invaders for seven hours, and their safe and successful retreat is thanks, largely, to the courageous machine gun fire coverage provided by 19-year old José Azueta.

Mexicans are outraged by this American invasion and occupation of their city. Tensions will persist between these two countries to the present day, but some of that tension is eased a bit when President Harry S. Truman makes the first trip by an American President to Mexico in 1947, 100 years after the Battle of Chapultepec. 

He makes an unscheduled stop at The Monumento a los Niños Héroes ("Monument to the Boy Heroes") and pays tribute to the brave young men. When asked why he visited the monument President Truman replied, "brave men don't belong to any one country. I respect bravery where I see it."

The eight Niños Héroes whose names are read aloud every year are: Juan de la Barrera, Juan Escutia, Francisco Márquez, Agustín Melgar, Fernando Montes de Oca, Vicente Suárez, Virgilio Uribe, and José Azueta. 

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Library of Congress
• The Landing at Veracruz by Jack Sweetman
• An Affair of Honor by Robert E. Quirk
• Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz
• Truman by David McCullough
• Plain Speaking – an Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman by Merle Miller
• The Chapultepec Group

The President of the United States has refused to recognize the leader of a sovereign nation, US oil interests are in danger, and the use of military force has been authorized. It’s April 1914, and Woodrow Wilson has sent battleships to the port of Veracruz, Mexico. The invasion plan is set. Smedley D. Butler will lead his marines ashore, take the Customs House, then take the city. 

Smedley D. Butler received 16 medals during his distinguished career in the United States Marines, including two Medals of Honor. He receives his first Medal of Honor after leading his men in urban combat during the 1914 Invasion of Veracruz. After he retires in 1931, Smedley D. Butler becomes very vocal about US Foreign Policy and his speeches are turned into a short book titled War is a Racket. 

In 1932, Butler boosts morale when he makes an appearance at the Bonus Army camp in Washington D.C. The Bonus Army protestors had been in the nation's capital that summer to petition Congress for early payment of the bonus promised to them for their service in The Great War. Their request is denied, and President Herbert Hoover wants them out of the city. 

The United States Army is called in and a violent conflict between active soldiers and veterans plays out on the streets of Washington. 

All this and more - in this episode of That American Century.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz
• Maverick Marine by Hans Schmidt
• Old Gimlet Eye by Lowell Thomas