Progressivism in America:1890s to 1920s

The Progressives

• Believed efficient government could protect public interest and restore order to society

The Progressives

• The break-up or regulation of trusts

• Killing political machines• Reduce threat of socialism

(by improving workers’ lives)

• Improve squalid conditions in the cities

• Improve working conditions for female labor & end child labor

• Consumer protection• Voting reform• Conservation• Banking Reform• Labor reform (working

conditions & unionization)• Prohibition of alcohol• Female suffrage

Specific issues for reform:

The MuckrakersTerm coined by Teddy Roosevelt:“In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress you may

recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in his hands; Who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.”

The Muckrakers• Journalists who attempted to expose the

evils of society• Popular magazines such as McClure’s and

Cosmopolitan (owned by Hearst), and Collier’s emerged

Progressive Activists• Jane Addams (Hull House)

• Florence Kelley (child labor reforms)

Political Reforms• Robert La Follette (R)-Wisconsin

– Regulated public utilities, esp. railroads– Direct primary– Initiative, referendum, recall– Direct election of senators (led to passage of 17th

Amendment in 1913)– State income tax– Civil service reform

• Australian ballot (secret ballot)• Commission System

– Cities run by 5 commissioners w/a city manager; reduced the power of machine politics

Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Legacy“Square Deal” for capital, labor, & the public A. Regulation of Corporations (distinguished good trusts from bad

trusts)

1. Anthracite Coal Strike-TR pressured end to strike; threatened to seize mines & operate them with federal troops if owners refused compromise

-owners consented to arbitration 2. Created Department of Commerce & Labor 3. Attacked Northern Securities Company to break

up alleged railroad trust; TR seen as “trustbuster” 4. Elkins Act: railroad co’s had to keep to advertised

rates; no rebates 5. Hepburn Act: expanded power of the ICC which

could now set max. RxR rates & restrict rebates

Teddy R.

Taming the

Trusts

Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive LegacyB. Consumer Protection 1b. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle prompted TR to support federal regulations 2. Meat Inspection Act 3. Pure Food & Drug ActC. Conservation 1b. Gifford Pinchot 2. Newlands Reclamation Act: federal

gov’t more active in water management & land reclamation

3. Forest protection

Election of 1904

Panic of 1907

Causes: speculation & mismanagement in

Wall St. banks & trusts; overextension of credit

Results: showed need for elastic money supply

-paved way for est. of Federal Reserve Act of 1913

Taft Becomes President• Roosevelt chose not to

run for reelection in 1908; supported his Sec. of War, William Howard Taft for Republican nomination

• Taft defeated Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan

President Taft• More cautious

progressive agenda than T.R.

• Continued as a trustbuster

-1911, US v. American Tobacco Co.

• Was much more passive toward Congress than T.R.

Split in the Republican Party

Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 1909: most important cause for split of Republican Party.

1. Taft pushed to reduce tariff (key reform for progressives & a campaign promise)

2. House passed moderately reductive bill but Senate revised it back upwards

3. Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff thus betraying his campaign promises to support a lower tariff                     

Split in the Republican PartyBallinger-Pinchot controversy

(1910)1. Secretary of Interior Ballinger

opened public lands in WY, MT, Alaska to corporate development

2. Gifford Pinchot, chief of Agriculture Department's Division of Forestry and strong TR supporter criticized Ballinger

3. Taft fired Pinchot for insubordination.

4. Storm of protest arose from conservationists & Roosevelt’s friends. -- A congressional committee ruled Pinchot not guilty of wrong-doing.

5. Contributed to growing split between Taft and TR.

                     

Split in the Republican PartyBallinger-Pinchot controversy (1910)

                     

Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism”

• Teddy’s domestic program which sought continued consolidation of trusts & labor unions, & growth of powerful regulatory agencies in Washington; taxation of businesses & more efficient government

                        

Split in the Republican Party• Split over conservation & tariff issues,

Republicans lost control of the House of Reps in the 1910 midterm elections (1st time in 18 years the Dems gained control)

• Taft also pushed an anti-trust suit against J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Steel Co., infuriating TR

                     

Split in the Republican Party• 1911, National

Progressive Republican League formed

• TR becomes its candidate for 1912 presidential election-he reasoned that the 3rd-term tradition applied to three consecutive terms“My hat is in the ring!”

                     

Bull Moose Party

                     

Election of 1912A. Woodrow Wilson nominated by

Democrats-Platform: antitrust, monetary changes, tariff reductions

• Wilson’s domestic platform referred to as the “New Freedom”:

-  pro-small enterprise, entrepreneurship, free competitive economy w/out

monopoly; strong states’ rights -trustbusting was a campaign promise -wanted less gov’t interference in human affairs (social issues)          

Election of 1912

B. Teddy Roosevelt nominated by Progressive-Republican party (Bull Moose Party)  

• "New Nationalism": Teddy’s domestic program which sought continued consolidation of trusts & labor unions, & growth of powerful regulatory agencies in Washington; taxation of businesses & more efficient government

                        

Election of 1912New Nationalism

• Sought to set liberal agenda for next 50 years.• Like Wilson, Roosevelt favored active gov’t role in economic affairs; but favored both good trusts AND regulation. • supported women’s suffrage, graduated income

tax, lower tariffs, campaign spending limits, currency reform; and broad program of social welfare: minimum-wage laws, abolition of child labor, and workers' compensation.                         

Election of 1912

C. Taft was nominated by the Republicans-he didn’t campaign & was primarily supported by the Republican “Old Guard”          

Election of 1912

 

Election of 1912

        

Election of 1912

• Wilson won with only 41% of the popular vote

• TR’s party fatally split the Republican vote and gave the election to Wilson (TR & Taft combined for over 1.25 million more popular votes than Wilson!)

    

Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency  Wilson’s Background:-Born in VA-didn't support efforts to improve rights for blacks. -worked as lawyer, history professor (!), president

of Princeton University, & Gov. of NJ-”New Freedom” program included his plan to

attack the trusts, tariffs, and high finance -attacked the “triple wall of privilege”: high

tariff, the banks, the trusts

Wilson & Taxation

-successfully lobbied Congress to cut tariff (Underwood Tariff Bill, 1913 substantially reduced tariff from 37-40% to 29% & eliminated it entirely for about 100 items; 1st tariff decrease since Civil War)

-oversaw ratification of the 16th Amendment (legalized graduated federal income tax which taxed individual earnings & corporate profits)

Wilson & the Federal ReserveSigned off on Federal Reserve Act of 1913: -created Federal Reserve System -sought to establish decentralized private banking

system under federal control -divided nation into 12 districts w/regional

central bank in each district -could issue paper currency in times of

emergency, transfer funds to member banks in trouble

-failed in preventing economic depressions***still serves as basis of the U.S. banking system

Wilson & the Federal Reserve

Wilson’s Key Anti-Trust LegislationFederal Trade Commission Act of 1914

-Empowered presidential-appointed commission (FTC) to monitor industries in interstate commerce (e.g. meat packers)• cease and desist orders:

Commissioners could end unfair trade practices: unlawful competition, false advertising, mislabeling, adulteration, & bribery.

Wilson’s Key Antitrust Legislation cont.

Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 Purpose: strengthen Sherman Anti-Trust Act

-banned co’s from acquiring stock of another if doing so would create a monopoly; co. officers could be prosecuted if found guilty of this - labor unions & agricultural organizations

wouldn’t be subject to antitrust prosecution -legalized strikes and peaceful picketing.       i. AFL leader Samuel Gompers hailed act as

the "Magna Carta of labor"           -- weakness: didn’t explicitly state what was

and what wasn't legal union activity; Wilson refused to go further.

       

Prohibition of Alcohol

18th Amendment: banned sale, transport, manufacture, or consumption of alcohol

Volstead Act: passed to enforce 19th Amendment

    

Women’s Suffrage during Wilson’s Presidency

*By 1910, woman had federal voting rights in WY, UT, CO, WA, and ID*Carrie Chapman Catt succeeded Susan B. Anthony as president of National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

-Increased pressure on gov’t by organizing more support, lobbying, & using ladylike behavior-More radical women’s org’s used picketing & hunger strikes to increase pressure

Women’s Suffrage during Wilson’s Presidency

-Alice Paul’s Congressional Union

-militant women’s rights protestors

-Put forth Equal Rights Amendment after 1920; never succeeded in getting it passed.

Women’s Suffrage during Wilson’s Presidency

• Women’s support for the war effort during WWI was rewarded by increased support for suffrage

• Suffrage bill put forth in House by Jeannette Rankin

• 1919, Congress passed 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote

Failures of Progressivism: Civil Rights

• Great Migration resulted in violent race riots

• Wilson spoke out against lynching in his 1912 campaign but opposed federal anti-lynching legislation once in office

• Segregation in federal bureaucracy increased

Lynching in 1930

Civil Rights: W.E.B. DuBois• Advocated for immediate inclusion of the

top 10% of African-Americans into American life

• Wrote Souls of Black Folk, rejected Booker T. Washington’s gradual approach to equality

• Founded Niagara Movement; advocated civil rights for African-Americans

– Demanded “talented tenth” of black community get immediate access to equality

• Early member of NAACP; advocated for civil rights

• Editor for The Crisis; magazine intended to increase awareness of need for civil rights

Civil Rights: Booker T. Washington• Advocated acceptance of

segregation in the short-term; believed African-Americans should work hard and earn the respect of whites

• In Atlanta Compromise speech, suggested African-Americans should forego political equality, civil right, and higher education for the time being; focus on industrial education and accumulating wealth

• Founded Tuskegee Institute as school for industrial education