The Progressive MovementChapter 20

The Progressive Movement

• Defined – putting the public good above self-interest

• Goals:– End government corruption

(Mugwumps & Muckrakers)– End monopolies of big

business (Trust Busting)– End alcoholism (Temperance

Movement)– Gain women’s right to vote

(Suffrage)

Moral and Moral and Social Social ReformsReforms

Political Political

End End CorruptionCorruption

Increase Increase DemocracyDemocracy

EconomicEconomic

Stabilize the Stabilize the Banking and Banking and EconomyEconomy

Women’s Women’s RightsRights

Curtail Power Curtail Power of Big of Big BusinessBusiness

Labor Labor RecognitionRecognition

Progressives Were Diverse Group

• Different reform movements (not United)

Progressives=Reform Movement

• The Progressive movement was a reaction to the excesses of industrialization.

• Negative effects of Industrialization included:– Poverty– Corruption- Municipal, State and Federal– Working conditions– Organizing the Economy– Immigrant living conditions– Immigrant “social issues associated with immigrants,

pejorative- dirty, non-English speakers, Alcohol abuse… – WASP movement- concerned with changes- a movement

to regain control…

Progressives Rise

• Rapid industrialization (Laissez Faire economics) and urbanization (Social Darwinism) causes intolerable problems

• Middle class WASPs were driving force behind movement

• Need for reform• Need for order• Need to remedy industrial problems• Psychological view= “Tension Frustration Thesis”

desire to regain power lost due to changes in society, corporations, immigrants, urbanization”

Progressive Constitutional Amendments

• 16th Amendment= Income Taxes• 17th Amendment= Direct Election of Senators• 18th Amendment= Prohibition of Alcohol• 19th Amendment= Women’s Vote

Progressive Ideas

– Bi-Partisan- Both parties had members– Progress – things are getting better– Society was capable of improvement– Government Intervention was needed- • to limit big Business

– Regulations on business

• To end political corruption– Expand democracy = 19th Amendment, Initiative, Referendum,

Recall

• Solve social problems of alcohol abuse

Muckrakers= Someone who exposes problems in society

• McClure's= magazine that exposed problems corruption, bad working conditions, child labor, pollution…

• Lincoln Steffen's- writer who exposed corruption in city government

• Ida Tarbell- writer who exposed abuse of power by Standard Oil – Rockefeller

• Jacob Riis- exposed problems of the poor in NYC- How the other half lives

African American Muckraker Ida B Wells

• Journalist• Novel – The Red Record• Exposed lynching of African

Americans in the south• Tried to work for Federal

Law• Not much support

Political Reforms Goal to expand Democracy and counter Corruption

• Federal Reforms– 17th Amendment– 19th Amendment

• State Reforms– Initiative- citizens can bring – Referendum- vote of the citizens on an issue– Recall- voters can remove an elected official from office-

• City – City Managers- an appointed manger to prevent corruption in

the cities.– Commission- appointed community members to Government

bodies- to reduce corruption (outside party politics)

Women’s Issues• Poverty, Alcoholism, Child Labor, Prostitution, Public Health,

Birth Control, Prohibition• Middle class women, more educated, different vocations,

nurses, teaching, medicine, social work…• Leaders• Susan B. Anthony (Early Suffragette)• Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Early Suffragette) (Seneca Falls

Convention NY)– Declaration of Sentiments 1848s)

• Jane Addams- Hull House (Social Reformer)• Ida B. Wells (protested lynching)• Margaret Sanger (Birth Control advocate)• Alice Paul (Suffragette) • Mary Chapman Catt (Suffragette)

Women’s Suffrage

• National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

• Movement lasts several decades.• Begins as a state movement- Southern opposition

and Northern cities• Changes to Federal Constitutional Amendment 19th

Amendment• Wilson (Democrat) will back the amendment 1917• Becomes part of Constitution 1920

Prohibition

• WCTU- Women’s Christian Temperance Union long time advocate of anti-alcohol movement

• Anti-Saloon League• Carrie Nation (hatchet) (WCTU) • 18th Amendment Passed during WWI

The Jungle

• Written by Upton Sinclair• 1906 • Highlighted the problems

associated with the Meat Packing Industry in Chicago

• Exploitation of immigrants• Poor working conditions• Spurred Changes:• Pure Food and Drug Act- regulated

food industries• Food and Drug Administration -

Test and Certify Drugs• Meat Inspection Act- Inspection

and labeling of Meat

Social Gospel

• Christian movement- contrast to Gospel of Wealth

• Task of Christianity is to rescue the poor”

• Create the kingdom of god on Earth

• Salvation Army- example• “Salvation ws not merely an

individual matter but also a question of Constituting a just Society.”

• Gospel of Wealth• View of Wealthy• God rewards with wealth• Individual should work hard

to get ahead• Philanthropy-wealthy

return wealth to up lift society- Universities…

• “It’s your duty to get rich”

Government Steps in to Attack business:Laws Passed

• Interstate Commerce Commission: Gov Agency to oversee = regulate on RR. (TR)

• Elkins Act- regulate RR – no specials to friends (TR)• Hepburn Act- regulate RR- no free passes- Bribery (TR)• Meat Inspection Act- • Pure Food and Drug Act- Gov regulate food industry, and

drugs- The Jungle- Upton Sinclair-• Clayton Anti-Trust Act- attacks Big Business (Wilson)• Federal Trade Commission- • Federal Reserve System- Organizes the Banking system,

regulate the money supply• Federal Income Tax

Federal Reserve

• Manages the money supply• Tries to manage the economic cycle• Through putting money into the economy

lower interest rates (stimulus) or pulling money out of economy – raising interest rates.

Theodore Roosevelt

• President 1901-1908• War Hero- Cuba- Rough Riders-

San Juan Hill • Governor of New York• Secretary of Navy• McKinley’s-Vice President 1900.• Assassination of McKinley 1901-

by Anarchist- TR becomes youngest president

• Activist Conservative-wants to reform but not too much-not radical change

TR

• Believed Government can help• Believed in the Gospel of Wealth• Feared Social Revolution• “Bully Pulpit” platform from which to

persuasively advocate an agenda. – Roosevelt often used the word "bully" as an

adjective meaning superb/wonderful.

TR Believed

• “It is the duty of the president to act upon the theory that he is the steward of the people, and …to assume that he has the legal right to do whatever the needs of the people demand, unless the Constitution or the laws explicitly forbid him to do it.”

“Square Deal”

• Roosevelt’s agenda for the country • “a Square Deal for all” involved progressive

legislation:• Fair treatment of Labor and Business• Steps in to help mediate a Coal Miners strike• Instead of just helping business he calls for fair

treatment of labor (unions)• He calls for Arbitration

TR Supported

• Regulating Business• Regulating Food • Regulating Rail Roads • Helping Unions• Conserving Natural Resources

Trust Busting

• TR wanted to limit the trusts• Used Sherman Anti-Trust Act• Supported the Department of Commerce- to

regulate railroads• Bureau of Corporations- to regulate corporations• In 1902 Roosevelt ordered the break up of the

massive Northern Securities Company and in 1904 he was supported by the Supreme Court which ordered the company dissolved

Conservation• TR was a proponent of saving the wilderness• New lands Reclamation Act (set aside National Forests

and reserves)– Gifford Pinchot – forest conservationist– Created the Forrest Rangers

– Roosevelt, the United State's first conservation-minded president established the first national park in 1902 (the Crater Lake National Park in Oregon) and created the National Park Service. He preserved 230 million acres of national land and set a conservation ethos for the American people. He was known for saying “the movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger movement for the conservation of all out natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.”

Taft

• Hand picked successor to Roosevelt

• Conservative Republican-Pro-business (Less Progressive)

• Taft angered TR over the Conservation issue-

• Scandal firing of a TR conservation appointment-

• Ballinger-Pinchot Affair

TR and the Election of 1912

• TR comes out of retirement• “New Nationalism” = more radical reform agenda

than before The Progressive (Bull Moose Party) (mod Republicans)

• Social Justice can only occur through government intervention– More regulation of business– Tariff reduction– Regulate Women and child labor– Raise taxes- Inheritance and income taxes

Election of 1912

• TR was mad a TAFT

• Taft was too conservative

• He decided to run again in 1912

Election of 1912

• Taft • GOP candidate• TR • Took votes from Taft

Election of 1912

• TR and Taft• Split the GOP

Vote• All the

Democrats vote for Wilson

• Wilson wins

Wilson• PHD-Professor then President of Princeton- Political

Science• Governor of New Jersey• Agenda= “New Freedom”– Wanted to end corruption– Economic policy- regulate trusts = Big Business– Destroy Monopoly– Lower tariff = tax on imported goods– Federal Reserve Act 1913 = reorganize banking to protect

American finances– Federal Trade Commission- regulate business – prosecute

unfair trade– Supported Clayton Anti Trust Act – new law to regulate Big

Business

16th Amendment= Income Taxes

• AMENDMENT XVI Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.

• Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.

• The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

17th Amendment= Direct Election of Senators

• AMENDMENT XVII Passed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8, 1913.

• Note: Article I, section 3, of the Constitution was modified by the 17th amendment.

• The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

• When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

• This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

18th Amendment= Prohibition of Alcohol

• AMENDMENT XVIII Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January 16, 1919. Repealed by amendment 21.

• Section 1.After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

• Section 2.The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

• Section 3.This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

19th Amendment= Women’s Suffrage

• AMENDMENT XIX Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.

• The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

• Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

African Americans Since 1877-1916• Plessy v. Ferguson• African American lived

predominantly in the South

• Whites controlled Southern Government and Voting

• Segregation- • Poll Tax• Literacy Tests• Grandfather Laws• Lynching

African American Leaders

Different Approaches• Booker T. Washington- early moderate 1880’s• W.E.B. Dubois- progressive period- more

activism• Marcus Garvey:

Booker T and WEB• Booker T. Washington- Early

African American leader, former slave

• Up Form Slavery• “Agitation of questions of Racial

equality is extremist folly”• Moderate • 1881 Founded Tuskegee Institute-

Vocational school for blacks• Worked for African American

progress, economic priority• Wanted economic growth- learn

skills, work hard, Acquire property• The Atlanta Compromise- famous

speech• Whites liked his ideas

• W. E. B. Dubois- NAACP• PHD Harvard• Militant leader• Advocated political and social

change for blacks• Wanted to end discrimination for

blacks• Niagara Movement leads to the

NAACP• (NAACP) National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People

• The Souls of Black Folks• NAACP Used Federal Courts to

pressure changes in rights• Believed in creating the “Talented

Tenth” to fight for AA rights

Essays1. Compare and contrast the attitudes of THREE of the

following toward the wealth that was created in the United States during the late nineteenth century.– Andrew Carnegie– Eugene V. Debs– Horatio Alger– Booker T. Washington– Ida M. Tarbell

2. The response to the negative consequences of the rise of industrialism led to a series of reform movements, culminating in the Progressive Movement. Discuss the goals of progressivism and how these goals were or were not realized.