The Progressiv

e Era Chapter 22

What is a “Muckraker”?** 22A—2

During the late 1890's and early years of the 1900's, newspapers, magazines and

books began scathing attacks on the abuses of the new order (child labor, urban

political machines, corrupt government, industrial labor abuses and poor working

conditions, etc.). In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt (right) applied the term

“muckraker” to those who exposed the pungent scandals and misconduct of the

period. Muckraking flourished from 1903 to 1909.

A Changing Society 22A

• Movement arose in the 1890s**

• It endured through the First World War**

Progressivism was a movement at the turn of the 20th century to reform American society.

Why did Society need to be reformed?**22A—1

• The rapid industrialization of America resulted in rapid, unchecked urban growth. 22D—2

• Industrialization and assembly line production had generated unprecedented problems

• America had abused its natural resources and by 1900 had cut down most of its forests.

Continued. . .

• Urban cities were slum ridden and full of poverty, disease and crime

• Urban, state, national and local governments were corrupt and ineffective

• Big Business controlled most of the wealth and, subsequently, the government. Government policy was business policy. 22F—1

• Mal-distribution of Wealth: By 1900, some estimates suggest that 1% of the population had control of 90% of the wealth.

Industrialization and assembly line production

had:

• produced a new class of workers whose wages were low and who suffered from poor living conditions (new poor working class)

• undermined the importance of craftsmanship and replaced pride in workmanship with the repetitious tedium, monotony, and danger of assembly line production and routine

• taken control of the pace of work away from the workers

Big Business

• Merger-mania between 1898-1903 created a business oligarchy that left control of many sectors of the economy in the hands of just a few large corporations

• Interlocking directorates concentrated control in the hands of just a few individuals

• Subsequently, there arose a debate about what the government could and/or should do to protect individual opportunity and preserve fair prices

Who Were the Progressives?** 22A—1

• Mostly urban WASPs.

• They were well educated, successful, but not mega-rich.

• They were the new urban middle class.

Progressives believed in progress—that human nature was perfectible.** Progress holds that by improving one's material well being, one's intellectual and moral well-being will increase also. 22A—1

Conservatism

Progressives were conservative in that they wanted to fix the system not abolish it via some socialist revolution. In other words, they wished to save capitalism from itself and return America to an

egalitarian democracy

The Loss of Democracy

End of Individualism: Urban, industrial society created a situation where the individual was subject to forces he

or she could not control. The new working, urban classes could not exercise individual choice, but had to

survive in the system as the system dictated.

Loss of Equality: The new order created a small class of rich and powerful

and large classes of poor and disenfranchised people.

Big Business exercised such power and monopoly that Laissez Faire ceased to function.

Machines controlled politics so the individual vote was not worth much.

Progressivism and the restoration of

Democracy: 22B—1

• The Jeffersonian notion of "the less government the better" had been rendered obsolete by the new order.

• Progressives saw governmental intervention in society and the regulation of business as a means of restoring democratic institutions.

• Society had produced social evils and social sins; it was society's job (i.e. the government's) to correct them.

Forerunners of Reform

• The Labor Union Movement • Critics of the Industrial Order, such as

Edward Bellamy • Populism - Progressives adopted a good bit

of the Populist platform.• Social Gospel 22—3A.• ICC Act of 1887 and Sherman anti-Trust

Act of 1890 • Settlement houses

The Muckrakers—the Journalistic Voice of the Progressive

Movement 22A—2

Magazines, such as McClure’s, Collier’s and Cosmopolitan ran scathing attacks on government and business.

Writers like Lincoln Steffens, 1866-1936 (right) assailed the unholy union of corrupt politics and business** in their works of the early 20th century. Steffens’ collected writings—serialized in McClure‘s—later appeared in a single volume, The Shame of the Cities, 1904.**

A caricature of the corruption of string-pulling big city politics—Lincoln Steffens—used by McClure’s to expose

corruption in the big cities

Ida Tarbell, 1857-1944

Tarbell wrote a long series

of articles exposing the

sins of Standard Oil in McClure’s.

Upton Sinclair**

Sinclair (1878-1968—left) wrote The Jungle (1906, right) about working in meat packinghouses. It was the single most significant work of the muckrakers. It led to legislation that regulated the food and drug industry (meat inspection bills and the Second Food and Drug Act). The severity of the regulation involved the government in private industry as it had not been before.

Big Business 2F—1

• Worked in collusion with the government to regulate industry. Why?

• American industry was anything but orderly; chaos reigned. Why? The cause was excessive competition

• Excessive competition kept prices too low for adequate profitability

• Poor quality goods were the result of excessive competition in many cases

Examples• The Meat Packing Industry

—Small packing houses were giving the industry a bad name, especially in Europe. Large packers had always had better quality and pushed for regulation

• Railroads had attempted to bring an end to rate wars through their own voluntary efforts, but to no avail. Large railroads looked to government (the ICC) to impose order and set profitable rates, ending costly freight rate wars and excessive competition

Business Successes of the Early-20th Century

Henry Ford (1863-1947) and the American Auto Industry

• large-scale business

• mass production• assembly line

production process**

Ford (left) made the accurate prediction, “I am going to

democratize the automobile. When I am through everybody will be

able to afford one.”

Through producing a large number of automobiles, he was able to drive down

the price of each car (Model A—1903 upper left and Model T—1913 upper right)

Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903

• Ford’s production process created a “nonstop flow from raw materials to finished product

• By 1914, Ford’s workers could assemble a car in 93 minutes

• Ford’s generous wage policy

• Ford’s Americanization program

Ford’s Generous Wage Policy

• To ameliorate worker unrest and promote loyalty to the company, Ford doubled the wage of the common laborer (from $2.50 to $5 a day on January 14, 1914)

• He reduced the work day from 9 to 8 hours

• He established a personnel department to place workers in appropriate jobs

Continued. . .

• Results of Ford’s innovative approach

• Absenteeism and turnover declined

• Output increased

• Other companies copied Ford’s program

• As a consequence, Ford went to a $6 day (January 2, 1919)

Ford’s Americanization Program

• To diminish the separateness of immigrant workers, Ford established English classes for his foreign-born employees

• He emphasized assimilation into the Melting Pot of America

Federal Aid Roads Act of 1916

• had to establish a highway department to plan routes

• oversee construction of those routes• maintain state roads• received 50% of their construction cost from the

federal government • The Act produced a national network of roads

The proliferation of automobiles led to its passage—under its provisions each state:

Frederick Winslow Taylor and Scientific Management**

RQ17

“Folkways of the workplace—workers passing job-related knowledge to each other, performing their tasks with little supervision, setting their own pace, and in effect running the shop—began to give way to ‘scientific’ labor management.” Frederick Winslow Taylor ( 1856-1915, right) was the chief exponent of this new approach toward the production process.

“Taylorism” in Action

• Management must take responsibility for job-related knowledge and classify it into rules, laws, and formulae

• Management must control the workplace “through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation”

• Efficiency and productivity were top priority

Taylor’s Four Principles of Scientific Management—The

Principles of Scientific Management, 1911

• Centralized planning of factory and its output

• Systematic analysis of each job

• Detailed instruction and supervision of each worker

• Incentive wage scale to encourage workers to follow instructions

Women in the Workplace**. . . and Elsewhere 22E

• Women at Work

• Women in Politics 22E

Agitation for the vote is stirring on both sides of the Atlantic. It would be after World War I—first in England and then in

the United States—that legislators gave women the franchise. 22E

Women at Work

• In 1900, 20% of all adult women—5 million—worked• About a third of married women worked, e.g., in

teaching, clerical jobs, & the garment industry• Most working women worked at low-paying jobs outside

of the professional occupations (e.g., medicine, law) • Criticisms of women in the work force

Endangered sanctity of the home (e.g., giving them the financial means to abstain from marriage and/or divorce; taking them out of the nurturing role of full-time mother)

Threatened reproductive function

African-Americans in the Early-20th Century

• The African-American male or female alone could rarely earn enough to support his/her family

• African-Americans were generally paid less than their white counterparts

• Neither did they receive equal educational facilities • They were often the “last hired and the first fired”• Those who stilled lived in rural areas (about 80% of

America’s Blacks) were largely in a condition of peonage

Financial disadvantages of being Black

The Niagara Movement** and

W. E. B. DuBois RQ20 & 22D3

African-American sociologist W. E. B DuBois convened a gathering on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to form a plan for obtaining better treatment

In 1903, DuBois published The Souls of Black Folk, calling for justice and equality

Du Bois vs. Booker T. Washington (below left)

In contrast to Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise” (Chapter 19), DuBois rejected a gradualist approach to securing equal political and civil rights, social equality, and economic opportunities. He urged his fellow-African-Americans to take steps to accelerate the pace of equal rights through effective protest activities.

Race Riots and Racial Unrest

• Race riots broke out in Atlanta, Georgia (1906) and Springfield, Illinois (1908)

• Whites—not Blacks—initiated these riots by invading Black neighborhoods to burn, loot, and kill

Foundation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored

People (NAACP)**

In 1909, William E. Walling called for a conference that

ultimately organized the NAACP. This organization—created the

following year—“swiftly became the most important civil rights organization in the country.”**

22D—3

Key Civil Rights Supreme Court Rulings in the Early-20th Century

• Guinn v. United States, 1915—The “grandfather clause” that prevented African-Americans from voting in Oklahoma is overturned**

• Buchanan v. Worley, 1917—A Louisville, Kentucky law allowing residential segregation is ruled illegal**

The Labor Movement 22C

• Eugene V. Debs was a radical and leader of the Socialist Party of America (founded in 1900).** Debs ran for president in 1900 and 1904. He differed from the progressives in that he was for radical socialism and extolled the class conflict theme. RQ18 & 22C

Socialist currents in early-20th century America aimed at redistribution of wealth with a more equitable balance flowing into the hands of the working class. Those who shared these

sentiments took differing approaches to achieving their end.**

Victor Berger of Milwaukee linked Progressivism and Socialism.

• He differed with Debs - He believed companies should be compensated whenever a municipality or government took them over

• He was for public ownership of cities - "Sewer Socialism"

• He was elected to Congress in 1910 and Socialists swept to power in Milwaukee

The American Federation of Labor, led by Samuel Gompers 22C**

• The AFL grew during the period • Its moderate tone fit right in with

Progressivism • Some 500,000 members in 1900 grew to

1.5 million members in 1910 • The AFL was America’s largest labor

organization• It limited its membership to skilled

workers

AFL Goals**

• better wages

• improved working conditions

• limits to entry into crafts

• protection of worker prerogatives

"Wobblies" or IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)—1905-1920s 22C**

• Founded in 1905 in Chicago• Welcomed members

regardless of gender or race• Sought to organize unskilled

foreign-born laborers• Hope to unite all American

labor to promote labor interests

• Believed that by initiating a series of local strikes, capitalist retaliation would ultimately prompt a general strike thus bringing down the entire American economic system

Called for radical labor reform almost, Communist revolution. The Wobblies appealed to migrant workers, or hobos. The movement was pronounced in the West because of the large number of public works. It was an unsettled region and had a displaced mentality. “Big Bill” Haywood (left) was one of the founders of the IWW

Increasing Wealth and the Birth of Modern Leisure

Activities

• Improving financial circumstances

• New Popular Distractions

• Baseball

• Football

The alarming number of fatalities and serious injuries in college football—1905 saw 18 deaths and 150 badly inured—moved President Theodore Roosevelt (left) to call a White House conference to address the matter of violence in college sports. Out of this gathering was formed the Intercollegiate Athletic Association. In 1910, it became the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).**

Other Entertainments & Distractions

• Motion pictures became a popular and inexpensive recreation

• Vaudeville brought a “Duke’s mixture” of entertainment to audiences in big cities

Funny Girl / Funny Lady

Fanny Brice

Florenz Ziegfeld, the founder of the Follies

The PhonographInvention of the phonograph brought ready-made music into every home that could afford this new machine

The Victrola (right) enabled Americans to play recorded music whenever they wished to hear it. Most of the early recordings were of vaudeville skits or orchestras.

Music with syncopated, faster rhythms became popular

Contributions of immigrants

Russian immigrant Irving Berlin (left) composed the ever-popular “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”—a piece that touched off a dance craze the crossed the entire nation. Meanwhile, a host of new and lively dance steps gained acceptance among Americans who took to the dance floors of hotels and nightclubs.

Beginnings of Jazz

Starting in New Orleans, performers like Buddy Bolden, “Jelly Roll” Morton (left), and Louis

Armstrong (below) initiated an improvisational style of music that—by the time it arrived in Chicago—came to be known as Jazz. Rather

than emphasizing structure and predetermined composition, it focused on feeling and mood.

Popular FictionKate Douglas Wiggins—Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Wiggins’ Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm stories captivated early-20th century readers. A later generation would delight again in these tales when brought to live on the silver screen by adorable child-actress Shirley Temple (right).

Lucy M. Montgomery—Anne of Green Gables

Montgomery’s book became the subject of a television series, as well

as a PBS animated television cartoon.

Megan Follows (right) played

Anne.

Edward L. Stratemeyer—Tom Swift, Rover Boys, and

Bobbsey Twins series of books

Stratemeyer hired a staff of writers who were prolific in their production of not only the Tom Swift literature but other very popular stories for young readers as well. The Bobbsey Twins and the Rover Boys books were both among these publications.

Burt Standish (under nom de plume Gilbert Patten)—Frank

Merrill stories

Standish created the ideal young man, Frank Merrill—a wholesome college athlete who was frank and merry in nature—well in body and mind.

The Progressive Age

“The ferment of progressivism in city, state, and nation reshaped the country. In a burst of reform, people built

playgrounds, restructured taxes, regulated business, won the vote for women, shortened working hours, altered political systems, opened kindergartens, and improved factory safety. They tried to fulfill the national promise of dignity and liberty. . . . People in many walks of life were experiencing a similar sense of excitement and discover. Racism, repression, and labor conflict were present, to be sure, but there was also talk of hope,

progress, and change. . . . People believed for a time that they could make a difference, and in trying to do so, they

became part of the progressive generation.”

Progressivism and the Great Ascent

The spirit of Progressivism suggested that humanity was on a long and upward ascension to increasingly

enlightened and beneficent behavior.**

To the right, a modern-day gladiator, armed with the spirit of

“political independence” and “facts,” puts political corruption and machine politicians to flight.