Chapter 21

What is Progressivism?massive growth of private

wealth in Gilded AgeUrbanizationPromise of better future

Progressives:Christian missionRemove social evilsConcern about growing

power of wealthy and trustsFeared immigrant poor

Progressive reformersProtestant church leadersAfrican-AmericansUnion leadersFeministsLargest group: middle-class

Disturbed what might happen to American Democracy if issues were left unchecked

Professionals want rewards of hard work

Intellectuals Thorstein Veblen

Conspicuous consumption 1899 Criticized wealth lifestyle, wasteful Workers and engineers should lead society, not robber barons

William James Pragmatism 1907

Pratical and rational approach, truth determines conduct Herbert Croly

Promise of American Life 1909 Activist government

Jane Addams Democracy and Social Ethics 1902 Twenty Years at the Hull House 1910

John Dewey Schools engine of change Democracy and Education 1916

Schools should create human/ cooperative society Schools should be machines for social change

Oliver Wendell The Common Law 1881 Law must change as society changes

ProgressivismStrength lay in citiesProgressives:

Journalists Academics Social theorists Urban dwellers

Importance of Science: All problems could be solved through careful study and

organized effort, collect data to study social ills reverence for experts

What to fix?BusinessWorkers/urban poorStructure of governmentImmigrationUrban moralitySocial disorder

Novelists, Journalists, and Artists Novelists

Frank Norris The Octopus 1901

Tyrannical power of railroad companies

Theodore Dreiser The Financier, The Titan 1912

Portrayed ruthlessness of an industrialist

Lincoln Steffens The Shame of Cities 1904

JournalistsMcClures, ColliersLincoln Steffens/ Jacob Riis

ArtistsAshcan School NYJacob Riis photographed

harshness of SlumsLewis Hine photo child labor

The famous photographer Lewis Hine used his camera to document child labor. Theeight-year-old girl on the right in this 1911 photograph of women and children workingin an Alabama canning factory had been shucking oysters for three years.

Political ReformersEarly Efforts 1880s, 1890s

NYC: Protestant clergy vs. Tammany Hall

Mayor Hazen Pingree (Detroit) Lowered transit fare Fairer tax structure Services for poor

Mayors Thomas Johnson (Cleveland,

Ohio) Copied Pingree with streetcar

fares Fought for fairer taxation Municipal owned public facilities

Samuel M. “Golden Rule” Jones (Toledo, Ohio) Social Gospel follower Profit-sharing in factory Playgrounds, free kindergarten,

lodging for homeless

Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette (Wisconsin) Brought scientist and

academics to his administration

Lowered railroad rates Raised railroad taxes Improved education “laboratory of democracy”

1903 Direct Primary

State Reforms Secret Ballots

Copied Australia 1910 all states used

New procedures weakened party loyalty and voter decline

Regulating business, protecting workersCorporate consolidation

continued into 1900sUnited States Steel

Company 1901 (J.P. Morgan)

International Harvester Company

General Motors Company 1908

Worker’s benefitreal wages increase

DifficultiesEntire family worked

1.6 million childrenLong hours/ hazards

EfficiencyFrederick Taylor

Scientific Management

Laws/reformsFlorence Kelley

Conditions in factories

Making Cities More LivableHuman warehouses

Lacked: Adequate parks Municipal services Public Health resources Recreational facilities

ReformsCity PlanningRegulation of milk and

food handlersImproved sewage and

water systemsVaccinations = IMR

dropsPublic utilities taken out

of the hands of political bosses

Moral Control in the CitiesProgressive = self-righteous

Lower-class amusements immoral Amusement parks Nickelodeons

Charlie Chaplin, Mae West “nickel madness”

Attempts at reform Anti-Saloon League

1895, Protestant Clergy Focused on actual ban of alcohol

instead of just “taking the pledge”

Women’s Christian Temperance Movement (WCTM) Targeted prostitution “social evil”= STDs, “White slave”

hysteria 1910 Mann Act

Illegal to transport women over state lines for immoral purposes

Natives vs. Immigrants Temperance targeted:

Irish Germans Italians

Importance of saloons to immigrant communities

Drug-use Campaigns Opium, Cocaine widely used

Cocaine in Coca-Cola Cough Medicine

1912 treaty banning Opium trade

1914 Narcotics Act

Carrie“Hatchet”Nation

Immigration Restriction Use of science

1911 study, Edward A Ross Proved immigrants degeneracy Low browed, big faced, low mentality

Henry Cabot Lodge Literacy Tests, vetoed

1896, 1913, 1915

Laws Alien Land Law 1913- CA

Barred Japanese from buying land

Eugenics Used immigration

restriction as a means of to keep “American stock” from becoming inferior

Controlled reproduction Madison Grant

Denounced southern Europeans, Jews, and Africans

Bogus data Racial segregation, forced

sterilization

Racism and ProgressivismRacism peaking in the south

PoliticallyDemocrats push

disenfranchisement as “reform”

Tensions in the NorthMigration to north 1890-1910Only slightly better conditionsBirth of a Nation 1915

HostilityAtlanta Riots 1906Response:

Strong social institutions Church Urban black community

Black Organization African-Americans basically

ignored by Presidents

William Monroe Trotter 1902, Criticizes Booker T.

Washington, too slow

Ida Wells-Barnett Anti-lynching campaign

W.E.B. Du Bois Attacked “Tuskegee Machine”

Believe blacks needs social and political rights to get economic independence

The Souls of Black Folk 1903 Demanded full racial equality

Niagara Movement 1905 Universal male suffrage Civil rights

NAACP 1909 Founded on Lincoln’s birthday By 1920= 100,000 members

Reforming SocietyFor whites only?

Racism was a major theme of the Progressive Era. In the South, progressivism was based on black segregation and disfranchisement.

In the North, race relations also deteriorated.In the South, African Americans worked to realize

progressive reforms, creating black kindergartens, settlement houses, and day care centers.

Woman Suffrage Movement 1910

4 western states allow women to vote

Grass-Roots Campaign California triumph 1911

National Movement Susan B. Anthony Carrie Chapman Catt

Lobbied legislation, state level Argued broadening democracy would

empower women, enabling them to take better care of their family

Media blitz, fundraisers 1917 NY Victory

Civil Disobedience Alice Paul

Radical, thought C.C.C. was to passive Picketed President Wilson

Formed National Women’s Part in 1916 Focused on support of congress,

amendment 19th amendment

Woman’s “New Sphere”Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Women and Economics 1898

Roots of female subordination

Advocated economic independence

Herland 1915 Three young males living in a

utopia run by women

Margaret Sanger Coined term “birth control”Social movement for social

change

Worker’s OrganizationLabor Unions expand 20%

1908 Danbury Hatters Case Forbade unions for organizing

boycotts

International Ladies’ Garment Worker’s Union Success strikes 1909, 1911 Women of all classes

participated Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire

Industrial Workers of the World, Chicago 1905 Wobblies

Early socialist movement Led by William “Big Bill” Haywood

Called for radical change of capitalism

Targeted most exploited workers

Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1908 “Now that damned Cowboy is

President” – Mark Hanna

Progressive Reformer White house a bully “pulpit” for

reforms Worked to shift power from wall street

to Washington

Trustbuster Enforced Sherman Anti-Trust 1890 Distinguished between “bad” and

“good” trusts Good = efficient, low prices for consumer

1902 United Mine Worker’s Union Strike

1902 State of the Union “Trustbusting” Suit against Northern Securities

(Rockefeller’s railroad monopoly) Created Department of Labor and

Commerce Hepburn Act of 1906

Empowered Interstate Commerce Commission Could fix rates for railroad

Teddy’s “Square Deal”Favored neither business nor

labor but wanted a square deal for both conservation of natural

resources control of corporations consumer protection aimed at helping middle class

citizens and involved bad trusts while at the same time protecting business from the most extreme demands of organized labor

Coal Miner’s Strike 1902 Tried to mediate Threatened to take over mines

with troops Settled on 10% wage raise and

9 hour work day reduction

Helped win Teddy election in 1904

T.R. Reforms

Consumer ProtectionPure Food and Drug Act

1906 The Jungle 1906- Upton

SinclairMeat Inspection Act 1906

Environmentalism Boy Scouts 1910, Girl Scouts

1912 National Reclamation Act 1902

Money from public lands for water management in arid regions

16 million acres of national forest

National Park Service Act 1906

Conservation NOT PreservationGilford Pinchot

Planned developmentUS Forest Service

Forest Reserve Act150m acres of national

reserve

William Howard Taft Handpicked by T.R.

T.R.’s Secretary of War Wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice

Presidency marked by progressive stalemate, bitter break with T.R., and a schism in the Republican Party Sided with Conservatives

Mann-Elkins Act 1910 Gave power to ICC to suspend new railroad

rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies

More trustbusting than T.R. Took on U.S. Steel

Insurgents Sen. La Follette

Taft had promised to lower the tariff

Payne-Aldrich Tariff Raised the tariff

The Ballinger-Pinchot AffairGifford Pinchot leading conservationist,

Roosevelt appointeePinchot accused Interior Secretary of Interior

Richard Ballinger of selling public lands to friends

Taft fired PinchotPinchot had been right which antagonized the

Progressives against Taft

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The Greatest Presidential Election Republicans

Taft Conservative

Democrats Woodrow Wilson

NJ governor, President of Princeton New Freedom

Small government, small business, free competition Limited of government power

Progressives Roosevelt, “Bull Moose Party” New Nationalism

Federal planning and regulation More social welfare Increases in power of government Tariff regulation, Women’s suffrage Regulation of businesses and unions

Socialist Eugene V. Debs

Woodrow Wilson Owed victory to Democratic

machine, turned his back

Democratic congress ready to do his bidding Believed President should

actively lead Congress

Tariff Campaign pledge Spoke directly to Congress

Appeal to people for support of legislation

Underwood-Simmons Tariff Reduced rates by average of

15%, included income tax Lowered tariff for 1st time in 50

years

Banking and Currency Reform 1913 Panic of 1907 Federal Reserve Act 1913

Proposed to Congress a national banking system with 12 regional Federal reserve banks

Federal Trade Commission -- government oversight of business activity to prevent monopolies.

Louis Brandeis (Sociological Jurisprudence) for Supreme Court

Adamson Act for RR workers – 8hr day

Wilson Reforms Federal Trade Commission Act 1914

Watchdog agency Took action against unfair trade

practices

Clayton Anti-Trust Act 1914 Improved Sherman act Magna Carta of labor

Spelled out illegal practices Exempted labor unions from being

prosecutred

1916 Reforms Keating-Owen Act

Barred Child labor Supreme Court found unconstitutional

1918 Hammer v. Dagenhart Adamson Act

8 hr workday Worker’s Compensation Act Federal Farm Act

Use land or crops to get low-interest federal loans

Federal Warehouse Act Federal Highway Act

Constitutional Amendments16th Amendment

Income tax authority 1913

Max of 7%

17th AmendmentDirect election of US

Senators by voters rather than state legislatures Populist influence Wisconsin

18th AmendmentProhibition

19th AmendmentWomen’s right to vote