1.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
2.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
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United States Department of Agriculture
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Approximately 80% of USDAs $140 billion budget goes to the Food and Nutrition Service program. The largest component of the FNS budget is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, after the resignation of Thomas Vilsack on January 13,2017 and the departure of President Barack Obama from office on January 20,2017, the acting Secretary of Agriculture is Michael Young. Activities in this include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides healthy food to over 40 million low-income. The USDA also is concerned with assisting farmers and food producers with the sale of crops and it plays a role in overseas aid programs by providing surplus foods to developing countries. This aid can go through USAID, foreign governments, international bodies such as World Food Program, the Agricultural Act of 1949, section 416 and Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, also known as Food for Peace, provides the legal basis of such actions. The USDA is a partner of the World Cocoa Foundation, early in its history, the economy of the United States was largely agrarian. Officials in the government had long sought new and improved varieties of seeds, plants. In 1837 Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, a Yale-educated attorney interested in improving agriculture, became Commissioner of Patents and he began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds and plants through members of the Congress and agricultural societies. In 1839, Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office and allotted $1,000 for the collection of agricultural statistics, Ellsworth was called the Father of the Department of Agriculture. In 1849, the Patent Office was transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior, in the ensuing years, agitation for a separate bureau of agriculture within the department or a separate department devoted to agriculture kept recurring. Lincoln called it the peoples department, in the 1880s, varied advocacy groups were lobbying for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry, and farmers tried to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank, finally, on February 9,1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level. In 1887, the Hatch Act provided for the funding of agricultural experiment stations in each state. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 then funded cooperative extension services in each state to teach agriculture, home economics, with these and similar provisions, the USDA reached out to every county of every state. During the Great Depression, farming remained a way of life for millions of Americans. The Department of Agricultures Bureau of Home Economics, established in 1923, published shopping advice and recipes to stretch family budgets and make food go farther. USDA helped ensure that continued to be produced and distributed to those who needed it, assisted with loans for small landowners. The Department of Agriculture was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2015 of $139.7 billion, the Washington Post reports that he said There are days when I have literally nothing to do, he recalled thinking as he weighed his decision to quit
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Food and Drug Administration
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The Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments. As of 2017, 3/4th of the FDA budget is funded by the pharmaceutical companies due to the Prescription drug user fee act and these include regulating lasers, cellular phones, condoms and control of disease on products ranging from certain household pets to sperm donation for assisted reproduction. The FDA is led by the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, appointed by the President with the advice, the Commissioner reports to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Dr. Robert M. Califf, MD is the current commissioner, who took over in February 2016 for Dr. Stephen Ostroff, the FDA has its headquarters in unincorporated White Oak, Maryland. The agency also has 223 field offices and 13 laboratories located throughout the 50 states, the United States Virgin Islands, in 2008, the FDA began to post employees to foreign countries, including China, India, Costa Rica, Chile, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. The site was renamed from the White Oak Naval Surface Warfare Center to the Federal Research Center at White Oak, the first building, the Life Sciences Laboratory, was dedicated and opened with 104 employees on the campus in December 2003. Only one original building from the facility was kept. All other buildings are new construction, the project is slated to be completed by 2017, assuming future Congressional funding While most of the Centers are located in the Washington, D. C. The Office of Regulatory Affairs is considered the eyes and ears of the agency, the Office of Regulatory Affairs is divided into five regions, which are further divided into 20 districts. Districts are based roughly on the divisions of the federal court system. Each district comprises a main office and a number of Resident Posts. ORA also includes the Agencys network of laboratories, which analyze any physical samples taken. Though samples are usually food-related, some laboratories are equipped to analyze drugs, cosmetics, the Office of Criminal Investigations was established in 1991 to investigate criminal cases. Unlike ORA Investigators, OCI Special Agents are armed, and dont focus on aspects of the regulated industries. In many cases, OCI pursues cases involving Title 18 violations, OCI Special Agents often come from other criminal investigations backgrounds, and work closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Assistant Attorney General, and even Interpol. OCI receives cases from a variety of sources—including ORA, local agencies, OCI is a smaller branch, comprising about 200 agents nationwide. The FDA frequently works with federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection. Often local and state government agencies also work with the FDA to provide regulatory inspections, the FDA regulates more than US$1 trillion worth of consumer goods, about 25% of consumer expenditures in the United States
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United States Secretary of Agriculture
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The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The current Acting Secretary is Mike Young, who has held the office since the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20,2017, the position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments. The 297,000 mi2 of national forests and grasslands are managed by the United States Forest Service, the safety of food produced that are produced in the United States and sold here is ensured by the United States Food Safety and Inspection Service. The Food Stamp Program works with the states to provide food to low-income people, advice for farmers and gardeners is provided by the United States Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. The Washington Post reports that he said There are days when I have literally nothing to do, president Obama asked him to stay and asked him to look into the problem of opioid addiction. The following is a list of Secretaries of Agriculture, since the creation of the office in 1889, parties Democratic Republican As of April 2017, there are nine living former Secretaries of Agriculture, the oldest being Robert Bergland. The most recent Secretary of Agriculture to die was Clayton Yeutter, the most recently serving Secretary to die was Edward Rell Madigan on December 7,1994. United States Department of Agriculture website
6.
Upton Sinclair
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Upton Sinclair Jr. was an American writer who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclairs work was well-known and popular in the first half of the twentieth century, in 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created, Time magazine called him a man with every gift except humor and silence. He is also remembered for the line, It is difficult to get a man to understand something. Many of his novels can be read as historical works, writing during the Progressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of industrialized America from both the working mans point of view and the industrialist. Novels like King Coal, The Coal War, Oil. and The Flivver King describe the conditions of the coal, oil. He attacked J. P. Morgan, whom many regarded as a hero for ending the Panic of 1907, the Flivver King describes the rise of Henry Ford, his wage reform, and the companys Sociological Department to his decline into antisemitism as publisher of The Dearborn Independent. King Coal confronts John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his role in the 1913 Ludlow Massacre in the fields of Colorado. Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party, Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Upton Beall Sinclair and Priscilla Harden. His father was a salesman whose alcoholism shadowed his sons childhood. Priscilla Harden Sinclair was a strict Episcopalian who disliked alcohol, tea, as a child, Sinclair slept either on sofas or cross-ways on his parents bed. When his father was out for the night, he would sleep alone in the bed with his mother, Sinclair did not get along with her when he became older because of her strict rules and refusal to allow him independence. His mothers family was affluent, her parents were very prosperous in Baltimore. Sinclair had wealthy maternal grandparents with whom he often stayed and this gave him insight into how both the rich and the poor lived during the late nineteenth century. Living in two social settings affected him and greatly influenced his books, as he was growing up, Uptons family moved frequently as his father was not successful in his career. He developed a love for reading when he was five years old and he read every book his mother owned for a deeper understanding of the world. He did not start school until he was ten years old and he was deficient in math and worked hard to catch up quickly because of his embarrassment. In 1888, the Sinclair family moved to Queens, New York, Upton entered the City College of New York five days before his 14th birthday, on September 15,1892
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The Jungle
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The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago. Sinclair famously said of the public reaction I aimed at the publics heart, the book depicts working class poverty, the lack of social supports, harsh and unpleasant living and working conditions, and a hopelessness among many workers. These elements are contrasted with the deeply rooted corruption of people in power, a review by the writer Jack London called it the Uncle Toms Cabin of wage slavery. Sinclair was considered a muckraker, or journalist who exposed corruption in government, in 1904, Sinclair had spent seven weeks gathering information while working incognito in the meatpacking plants of the Chicago stockyards for the newspaper. He first published the novel in form in 1905 in the Socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason. The main character in the book is Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant trying to make ends meet in Chicago, the book begins with his and Onas wedding feast. He and his family live near the stockyards and meatpacking district and he takes a job at Browns slaughterhouse. Rudkus had thought the US would offer more freedom, but he finds working conditions harsh and he and his young wife struggle to survive. They fall deeply into debt and are prey to con men, hoping to buy a house, they exhaust their savings on the down-payment for a sub-standard slum house, which they cannot afford. The family is eventually evicted after their money is taken, Rudkus had expected to support his wife and other relatives, but eventually all—the women, children, and his sick father—seek work to survive. As the novel progresses, the jobs and means the family uses to stay alive slowly lead to their physical and moral decay, accidents at work and other events lead the family closer to catastrophe. Rudkus father dies as a result from the unsafe work conditions in the meat packing plant. One of the children, Kristoforas, dies from food poisoning, jonas—the other remaining adult male aside from Rudkus—disappears and is never heard from again. Then an injury results in Rudkus being fired from the packing plant. The familys hardships accumulate as Ona confesses that her boss, Connor, had raped her, in revenge, Rudkus attacks Connor, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment. After being released from jail, Rudkus finds that his family has been evicted from their house and he finds them staying in a boarding house, where Ona is in labor with her second child. She dies in childbirth at age eighteen from blood loss, the infant also dies, Rudkus had lacked the money for a doctor
8.
Progressive Era
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The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s. The main objectives of the Progressive movement were eliminating problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, the movement primarily targeted political machines and their bosses. By taking down these corrupt representatives in office a further means of democracy would be established. They also sought regulation of monopolies and corporations through antitrust laws and these antitrust laws were seen as a way to promote equal competition for the advantage of legitimate competitors. Many progressives supported prohibition in the United States, ostensibly to destroy the power of local bosses based in saloons. At the same time, womens suffrage was promoted to bring a purer female vote into the arena, many activists joined efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. Progressives transformed, professionalized and made scientific the social sciences, especially history, economics, in academic fields the day of the amateur author gave way to the research professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. The national political leaders included Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M, La Follette, Sr. and Charles Evans Hughes on the Republican side, and William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and Al Smith on the Democratic side. Yet, leaders of the movement also existed far from presidential politics, jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge were among the most influential Progressive Era reformers. Initially the movement operated chiefly at local levels, later, it expanded to state, Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers and business people. Some Progressives strongly supported scientific methods as applied to economics, government, industry, finance, medicine, schooling, theology, education, reformers felt that old-fashioned ways meant waste and inefficiency, and eagerly sought out the one best system. S. Magazines were not a new medium but they became more popular around 1900. It was an age of Mass media, thanks to the rapid expansion of national advertising, the cover price fell sharply to about 10 cents. One cause was the coverage of corruption in politics, local government and big business. They were journalists who wrote for magazines to expose social and political sins. They relied on their own investigative journalism reporting, muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate, the journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like Ray Stannard Baker, George Creel, and Brand Whitlock. Other like Lincoln Steffens exposed political corruption in many large cities, Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained they were not being helpful by raking up all the muck. The Progressives were avid modernizers, with a belief in science and they looked to education as the key
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Muckraker
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The term muckraker was used in the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded American journalists who attacked established institutions and leaders as corrupt. They typically had large audiences in popular magazines. The muckrakers played a visible role during the Progressive Era period. Investigative journalists view the muckrakers as early influences and a continuation of watchdog journalism, the term is a reference to a character in John Bunyans classic Pilgrims Progress, the Man with the Muck-rake that rejected salvation to focus on filth. While a literature of reform had already appeared by the mid-19th century, by the 1900s, magazines such as Colliers Weekly, Munseys Magazine and McClures Magazine were already in wide circulation and read avidly by the growing middle class. The January 1903 issue of McClures is considered to be the beginning of muckraking journalism. Ida M. Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker, claude H. Wetmore and Lincoln Steffens previous article Tweed Days in St. Louis, in McClures October 1902 issue was called the first muckraking article. The muckrakers would become known for their investigative journalism, the muckrakers were influenced by both eras. One of the biggest urban scandals of the post-Civil War era was the corruption, Lincoln Steffens titled his first muckraking article Tweed Days in St. Louis in comparison with the New York case. Publishers of yellow journals, such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, were intent on increasing circulation through scandal, crime, entertainment. Note that in journalism, the idea was to stir up the public with sensationalism. If, in the process, a wrong was exposed that the average man could get indignant about, that was fine. Julius Chambers, New York Tribune, is considered by many to be the original muckraker, Chambers undertook a journalistic investigation of Bloomingdale Asylum in 1872, having himself committed with the help of some of his friends and his newspapers city editor. His intent was to obtain information about alleged abuse of inmates and this later led to the publication of the book A Mad World and Its Inhabitants. From this time onward, Chambers was frequently invited to speak on the rights of the mentally ill, Nellie would go on to write more articles on corrupt politicians, sweat-shop working conditions and other societal injustices. Helen Hunt Jackson – A Century of Dishonor, U. S. policy regarding Native Americans, henry Demarest Lloyd – Wealth Against Commonwealth, exposed the corruption within the Standard Oil Company. Ida B. B. O. Flower - author of articles in The Arena from 1889 through 1909 advocating for prison reform, the muckrakers appeared at a moment when journalism was undergoing changes in style and practice. The growth of services had also contributed to the spread of the objective reporting style
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Theodore Roosevelt
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Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. As a leader of the Republican Party during this time, he became a force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century. Born a sickly child with debilitating asthma, Roosevelt successfully overcame his health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle and he integrated his exuberant personality, vast range of interests, and world-famous achievements into a cowboy persona defined by robust masculinity. Home-schooled, he began a lifelong naturalist avocation before attending Harvard College and his first of many books, The Naval War of 1812, established his reputation as both a learned historian and as a popular writer. Upon entering politics, he became the leader of the faction of Republicans in New Yorks state legislature. Returning a war hero, he was elected governor of New York in 1898, the state party leadership distrusted him, so they took the lead in moving him to the prestigious but powerless role of vice presidential candidate as McKinleys running mate in the election of 1900. Roosevelt campaigned vigorously across the country, helping McKinleys re-election in a victory based on a platform of peace, prosperity. Following the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, Roosevelt succeeded to the office at age 42, making conservation a top priority, he established a myriad of new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nations natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began construction of the Panama Canal and he greatly expanded the United States Navy and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, elected in 1904 to a full term, Roosevelt continued to promote progressive policies, but many of his efforts and much of his legislative agenda were eventually blocked in Congress. Roosevelt successfully groomed his close friend, William Howard Taft, to succeed him in the presidency, after leaving office, Roosevelt went on safari in Africa and toured Europe. Returning to the United States, he became frustrated with Tafts approach, failing to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1912, Roosevelt founded his own party, the Progressive, so-called Bull Moose Party, and called for wide-ranging progressive reforms. The split among Republicans enabled the Democrats to win both the White House and a majority in the Congress in 1912, Republicans aligned with Taft nationally would control the Republican Party for decades. Frustrated at home, Roosevelt led an expedition to the Amazon basin. During World War I, he opposed President Woodrow Wilson for keeping the country out of the war, and offered his military services, although planning to run again for president in 1920, Roosevelt suffered deteriorating health and died in early 1919. Roosevelt has consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest American presidents. Historians admire Roosevelt for rooting out corruption in his administration, but are critical of his 1909 libel lawsuits against the World and his face was carved into Mount Rushmore, alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was born on October 27,1858, at East 20th Street in New York City and he was the second of four children born to socialite Martha Stewart Mittie Bulloch and glass businessman and philanthropist Theodore Roosevelt Sr
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