CHAPTER 23Making the World Over: The Progressive Era

PROGRESSIVE ERA

Varied Sources of Progressivism Business owners want to avoid problems Populism Mugwump and civil service reform

THE SOCIAL GOSPEL

Christian Crusaders for Reform establish minimum wage Shorter work day

Religious Reformers Washington Gladden: love thy neighbor as thyself

EARLY EFFORTS AT URBAN REFORM

The Settlement House Movement Residential community centers

Arrange nurseries for working women Kindergartens Neighborhood programs for children

Jane Addams and Ellen Starr Middle-class, college educated women No jobs Appropriate charity work

Women’s Employment and Activism By 1910 7.8 million women worked outside home

(mostly poor and immigrant women) Cult of Domesticity alive and well in middle and upper classes

Suffrage

JANE ADDAMS, ELLEN STARR, HULL HOUSE

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE IN THE STATES

EARLY EFFORTS AT URBAN REFORM

State Reforms and Legal Backlash U.S. Supreme Court overturned early state attempts to regulate big business

Muckrakers Investigative journalism

FEATURES OF PROGRESSIVISM

Democracy Direct Primary System

Every party member allowed to vote for a candidate Initiative and Referendum in state laws

Efficiency 1911: Taylorism: Frederick Winslow Taylor workplace efficiency: scientific management

enable workers to accomplish more in less time

ROBERT M. LA FOLLETT

“Robert M. La Follett Radio Address.” 1925, National Photo Company (Library of Congress) (PD)

La Follett (R) Wisconsin Governor, U.S. Senator, Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Part (17% of popular vote in (1922).Republican Party must return to anti-slavery roots;Championed minimum wage, workers Compensation, open primaries, direct election of U.S. Senators, women’s suffrage, progressive taxationOpposed U.S. Entry in WWICalled T.R. “a skunk who ought to be hanged.”

FRANCES ELIZABETH WILLARD

Founded the Womens’ Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Lobied for Women’s Suffrage

PROGRESSIVE CAUSES

Child Labor: 10 year old girl working as a spinner in Vermont in 1910Click icon to add picture

ROOSEVELT’S PROGRESSIVISM

Executive Action Square Deal for Americans

Government enforcement powers under existing Anti-Trust legislation Efficiency = regulation of trusts rather than dissolution of trusts

The 1902 Coal Strike Workers sought 20% pay increase Mine owners closed the mines and sent in scabs Roosevelt refused to send in troops Attempted to broker a deal Owners refused to cooperate Roosevelt threatened to take over the mines and owners relented

Coal Miners in Hazelton, PA, c. 1900 (PD)Rau, William H. Commissioners appointed to arbitrate the 1902 coal strike(PD).Cartoon in Chicago Chronicle 1902 (PD)

ROOSEVELT’S DUALITY

FEATURES OF PROGRESSIVISM

Expanding Federal Power? Roosevelt administration initiated 25 anti-trust suits Decided by U.S. Supreme Court Interstate Commerce Clause 14th Amendment Regulation under Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Business interests resented limits on their power to make money People appreciated limits on worker abuse Did these reforms make the marketplace more competitive?

Rogers, William Allen. “Lining Up for the Greatest Race in the World.” Harper’s Weekly July 2, 1904. (PD)

1904 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Theodore Roosevelt (R) 56.4 % (336 E.C.) vs. Alton B. Parker (D) 37.6% (140)

ROOSEVELT’S SECOND TERM

Legislative Leadership Mandate to pursue more progressive policies

Railroads, meat packers, food processors, drugs and patent medicines

Environmental Conservation National Parks, Division of Forestry, Water distribution in the West

FROM ROOSEVELT TO TAFT

Roosevelt did not run in the 1908 election and backed William Howard Taft against William Jennings Bryan. Taft won.

FROM ROOSEVELT TO TAFT

Tariff Reform After the election, Taft supported lowering the tariff in opposition to the

Republicans Taft alienated the Republican Party

Richard Ballinger and Gifford Pinchot Ballinger opposed establishing National Parks in favor of private industry

Coal mining Waterpower

Taft did not oppose Ballinger Pinchot went to the press Taft fired Pinchot for insubordination

THE 16TH AMENDMENT

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

Resolution passed in 1909

Income Tax supported by Southern and Midwestern States Tariffs disproportionately affected the poor, interfered with prices and

caused unpredictable markets

Opposed by Big Business and states in the industrial North

Republican “insurgents” (Progressives) supported the income tax to fund increasing military expenditures to keep pace with the rapidly expanding militaries in Europe and Japan

1913 two thirds of states had ratified the income tax

1912 ELECTION

Roosevelt was choice of progressives in the Republican Party

Taft was the choice of the conservative establishment (Stalwarts)

Taft won the nomination and the Republican Party split

1912 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

William Howard Taft (R) 23.2 % (8 E.C.)Theodore Roosevelt (P) 27.4% (88 E.C.)Woodrow Wilson (D) 41.8 % (435 E.C.)

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1912#axzz2fvQUCNPQ

Kemble, Edward Windsor. “The Motorist.” Harper’s Weekly,November 25, 1911

Kemble, Edward Windsor. “Hoopla! Here We Are Again.”Harper’s Weekly, (January 20, 1912, p. 7)

Kemble, Edward Windsor. “After the Circus,” Harper’s Weekly,(June 22, 1912, p. 7)

Kemble, Edward Windsor. “The New Rider.” Harper’s Weekly(July 13, 1912, p. 1)

PROGRESSIVE PARTY CONVENTION

“1912 National Progressive Party Convention “ Library of Congress (PD)

WOODROW WILSON’S PROGRESSIVISM

Wilsonian Reform Power of convictions Underwood-Simmons Tariff (1913)

Reduced the tariff on most goods from 37 to 29% 16th Amendment ratified and 1% income taxs on people making over $3,000 per year

WOODROW WILSON’S PROGRESSIVISM

The Federal Reserve Act Federal Reserve Act

Spread out the flow of currency by creating a system of national banks and a central board of directors

Anti-Trust Laws “New Freedom” Federal Trade Commission established in 1914 with strong powers to regulate

trusts.

WOODROW WILSON’S PROGRESSIVISM

Social Justice Wilsonian “social Justice”

Regulate business and society will adjust to reform social problems on its own

Progressivism for Whites Only

History of the American People Described white, European Americans with empathy Described African Americans and their children as “unsuitable for citizenship and unable to

assimilate positively into American society.

Referred to African Americans as “darkies”

Enforced segregation in Washington DC and his policies regarding segregation resulted in many African American Federal employees being fired Required all federal applicants to attach a photo to application

Denounced the KKK

WOODROW WILSON’S PROGRESSIVISM

The Women’s Movement Women gained the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment Wilson renounced his reservations to the Amendment

Margaret Sanger and Birth Control A nurse who pushed for distribution of birth control information to women Supported sterilization of mentally incompetent people and those with hereditary

conditions Mental incompetence could include alcoholism Blindness was considered a hereditary condition Eugenics: apply survival of the fittest to human biology

sterilizing the less abled so they could not pollute the gene pool

WOODROW WILSON’S PROGRESSIVISM

Progressive Resurgence Following the outbreak of WWI, Wilson supported reform legislation

8 hour work day for RR workers Child labor restricted for children under 14