Progressivism

• Early twentieth-century reform movement that pushed the government to resolve problems created by urban industrialism

• —problems like poverty, racism, child labor, vice, and exploitation of labor.

How did it get started?

• At the grassroots level, in the cities, in reaction to the Gilded Age excesses.

Grassroots Progressivism

Settlement House Movement

– College-educated women, i.e. Jane Addams wanted to “civilize the city”

– supported labor unions– supported woman’s suffrage

Examples of Grassroots Progressivism

– A strike held against New York’s garment industry in 1909 was supported by women workers and middle class women

– 20,000 workers went on strike– They won some concessions– Labels sewn into garments made by union

workers

Alliances between middle and lower class women

Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire

• 146 died, many jumping nine stories to their deaths.

• proved that the factories were not safe for workers.

• Reform Darwinism vs. Social Darwinism– Social Darwinism came out of the Gilded Age

and held that human progress came out of “survival of the fittest” and that reform movements were a waste of time.

– Reform Darwinism was a social theory that said if humans changed the social environment, it could improve the lot of humans faster

Characteristics of Progressive Movement

• A belief that environment, not heredity alone, determines human potential

• A sense of optimism that conditions can be corrected without radically changing economy or institutions

• A profound trust in “experts” and scientific data

• A willingness to take action

The Jungle

• The book was instrumental in exposing the meat packing industry

• “muckraking” (The Jungle is an example)

• Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act 1906

• “I aimed at the public’s heart, but I hit them in the stomach.”

Some successes of the Progressive Era

• Hull House and other settlement houses

• Muller v. Oregon, 1908, limited workday for women to 10 hours

• Upton Sinclair’s novel of 1906, The Jungle

• Conservation of 150 million acres of natural landscape

W.E.B. DuBois

DuBois

• Authored “Souls of Black Folk” 1903

• Founded the Niagara Movement, precursor to the NAACP

• Lifelong radical, later investigated by the FBI

Progressivism Finds a President

Theodore Roosevelt Domestic Policy

• Anti-Trust, filed suit to enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 which was being ignored. He won.

• Labor negotiator, United Mine Workers– “square deal”

• Conservationist– When Roosevelt took office, 45 million

acres of land as government reserves; when he left, it was 150 million acres

A newspaper editor wrote,

“Wall Street is paralyzed at the thought that a President of the United States would sink so low as to try to enforce the law.”

• The Square Deal – Campaign slogan from Roosevelt’s election in 1904– Came from his enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act

• Roosevelt the Reformer– Used the moral and political authority of the presidency

• Roosevelt and Conservation – National Parks– Conservation– Hetch Hetchy?

“Teddy” Roosevelt

Roosevelt Foreign Policy

• “Speak softly but carry a big stick”– Roosevelt believed that “civilized nations”

should police the world and hold “backward” countries in line. . . . he relied on military strength and diplomacy

Monroe Doctrine

• a declaration by President James Monroe in 1823 that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any further colonization or interference by European powers. In exchange, Monroe declared that the US would not get involved in European conflicts.

Roosevelt Corollary

• a declaration in 1904 that the US would not intervene in Latin America as long as nations there conducted their affairs with “decency.” It made the US the policeman of the Western Hemisphere and allowed it to enforce repayment of European debts.

Panama Canal

• US offered Columbia $10 million and an annual rent of $250,000

• Columbia refused• At the prompting of some investors in New

York, Panamanians staged an uprising, 1903• Within 24 hours, Roosevelt government

recognized the new Panama, and the new country accepted the $10 million and the canal was begun.

How Did Theodore Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy Move the United States onto the

World Stage?

• Enforcement of Monroe Doctrine• Formulating the Roosevelt Corollary• Endorsing the uprising in Panama

Taft Presidency

• Taft sided more often with big business

• Progressive Party nominated Roosevelt

Progressive Party

• Nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party”

• Nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt

• Platform:•Presidential primaries•Conservation of natural resources •An end to child labor•Minimum wages for women•Workers’ compensation•Social security•Federal income tax

Woodrow Wilson

• Democrat Wilson wins election of 1912

• He turns out to be “progressive”– Federal Reserve Act,

1913– Federal Trade

Commission

Woodrow Wilson Reluctant ProgressiveWilson’s Reforms: Tariff, Banking, and the Trusts

Woman’s Suffrage

Progressivism Stalled• The troubled Presidency of William Howard Taft• Progressive Insurgency and the Election of 1912 • Radical Alternatives• Progressivism for White Men Only?

– Women• Alice Paul vs. Carrie Chapman Catt

– African Americans • “separate but equal” • Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois• Jim Crow Laws

– Asian Americans• Alien Land Laws in the West

Radical Progressives

Margaret Sanger

Eugene DebsSocial Democratic Party

(Socialist)

• advocated cooperation over competition and urged people to shake free from private ownership