In the early 20th century the US had alot of human rights abuses that are usually only reserved for the worst countries of today’s standards.
Torture by police and prison officials was common. Carl Panzram’s biography talks about things like electroshock and severe physical beatings, things usually associated with places like Egypt, Vietnam or Syria. In fact torture didn’t even become illegal as a method of gaining information until 1936 when Brown vs. Mississippi found you couldn’t use torture to gain info for a criminal case.
Extrajudicial executions (ie the police murdering someone) were not unheard of, and judicial executions could be flimsy and racist. I don’t have stats onhand but I remember reading that many/most executions in the US in that period were of blacks who were mostly accused of crimes against whites. Situations like the Scottsboro boys were common where people were railroaded and executed on flimsy evidence.
Women and most non-whites couldn’t vote, disenfranchising about 70-80% of the adult population.
Child abuse and spousal abuse were either common or not taken seriously by law enforcement.
The police sometimes stood by and allowed domestic terrorism to happen (the KKK in the 1920s for example).
Corruption in the legal and political systems were extremely common.
Prison sentences of 20 years for opposing WW1 were handed out. Compare this to Cuba a few years ago which came under intense scrutiny for handing out sentences of 20ish years to journalists for opposing the regime. Cuba is considered one of the least free countries on earth according to freedom house.
There are probably more examples but I can’t think of them right now.
So if you applied 21st century standards to the America of 1910 would we be near the middle end of the global spectrum, at the very bottom of human/civil/political rights or just near the bottom? It is interesting to see how far the world came in just 100 years on this issue.
I don’t understand; you’re assuming 1910 America would be in the middle, near the bottom, or at the very bottom? Even with all you describe, I’ll be the U.S. was still near the top (though lagging behind other Westernized nations, as they still do) because everywhere else was even worse than it is today. Admittedly, it’s not a ringing endorsement to have less institutional torture than other places, but were you assuming that, say, 1910 India or China (or anywhere else) were better than they are now?
By the way, lest anyone think I’m ignoring the evolution of other westernized nations, including my own, I’ll just cite Agnes MacPhail, first female member of the Canadian Parliament (elected 1921, shortly after women were allowed to vote and stand for office nationally) and active participant in the Archambault Commission on prison reform in 1935, before which Canadian prisons were brutal savage places with routine beatings and mistreatment. I’d guess that they still are, to a lesser degree.
I believe the OP would want to know how 1910 America would fit in today’s world, not in 1910 world. Would 1910 America be considered on par with, say, today’s Egypt or Cuba?
I realized that afterward, though it seems patently unfair. But going with it anyway, the U.S. would slip from lagging near the back of the front third of the race (filled with the westernized democracies) to slipping to the front (or middle) of the second third.
The back third, filled with such charming bastions of freedom as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, most of Africa, are likely worse now that the U.S. was in 1910.
I think the US of 100 years ago wouldn’t be much worse than these countries, it would probably be a little worse. Legalized apartheid, disenfranchisement of 70%+ of the voting public, routine torture by police officials, etc.
In Syria not too long ago a Canadian was kidnapped and tortured there. The torture consisted of things like using a large rubber hose to beat his hands with and solitary confinement. In 2005 standards that places Syria near the bottom in regards to human rights but things like that were common in the US in the early 20th century.
Near the middle top seems high. I would place us near the bottom 30 of the world’s countries by today’s standards.
By those standards, 1910 America wouldn’t be worse at all. These nations have routine torture; there may be some form of apartheid-like official brutalitity directed against unfavoured tribal groups, native populations or (in the case of China) Tibetans, and since military dictatorships are the norm, everyone is disenfranchised.
Rather than compile anecdotal evidence and before this gets any more vague, why not compile a list of nations with a population over (say) ten million, throw in in 1910 America, and rank them.