Rise of Progressivism

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Rise of Progressivism
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Mugwumps Want Change

• Men of wealth and social standing concerned about
  the change in Americas political social
  climate due to the rise of the industrialists --
  monopoly, plutocracy, oligarchy
• Protestant/Victorian ideals of hard work
  success are now threatened

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The Progressives

• Believed an efficient Gov could protect the
  public interest and restore order to society
• Gov is an agency of human welfare
• Progressive crusaders created a reform movement
  not seen since the 2nd Great Awakening

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Specific Reforms

• Killing political machines
• Reduce the threat of socialism (improve workers
  lives)
• Improve nasty conditions in the cities
• Improve working conditions for female labor and
  end child labor
• Voting reform
• Conservation
• Banking reform
• Labor reform (working conditions and
  unionization)
• Prohibition of alcohol
• Female suffrage

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Progressive Agenda
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Political Machines

• Bosses who controlled districts or cities
  regularly accepted bribes from special interests
  for favors.
• Immigrants were often persuaded by bosses for
  their vote. Result immigrants represented but
  WASPs were not.
• Municipal politics now out of the hands of civic
  minded Americans
• New York Citys Tammany Hall is the biggest
  example

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Shame of the Cities Urbanization

• Between 1880 and 1920, about 27 million
  immigrants entered the U.S., mostly from Eastern
  Southern Europe
• Many rural Americans came to the city looking
  for work
• Cities offered entertainment, shopping, new
  technology (electricity, plumbing) anonymity

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Results

• Living conditions in many parts of the large
  cities were revolting
• City infrastructure ill-equipped to deal with the
  population explosion
• Crime violence, gambling, and prostitution
  became rampant

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Bad Working Conditions

• Women child labor exploited
• An estimated half million workers wounded and
  30,000 killed in industrial accidents every year
  during early 20th century

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Progressive Analysts

• Between 1870 and 1920, college enrollment
  increased 400

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Separate Science Depts Formed

• Economics and sociology
• Purpose to analyze human society with same
  objectivity that scientists used to study nature
• Reflected growing faith in ability of people to
  analyze society and solve human problems
• Rejected "survival of the fittest" ideology
• Many social science professors and students
  became progressives

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John Dewey

• "learning by doing" rather than just reading
• Education for living and working played a crucial
  role in democracy
• "Education for life" should be primary goal of
  the teacher
• Goal was to create socially useful adults

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Lester Frank Ward

• Challenged "survival of the fittest" thought
• Argued it was natural for people to control and
  change their social environment -- the laws,
  customs, and relationships among people-- for
  their own benefit
• It was the role of Gov to shape societys destiny

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Pre-1900 Critics and Others

• Henry Demarest Lloyd -- Wealth against
  Commonwealth (1894)
• Criticized Standard Oil
• Beginning of investigative journalism
• Thorstein Veblen -- The Theory of the Leisure
  Class (1899)
• Attacked the nouveau riche
• Jacob A. Riis -- How the Other Half Lives (1890)
• Exposed the dirt, disease, vice, and misery of
  the rat-infested New York slums
• Heavily influenced Theodore Roosevelt

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• Woman and Economics (1898)
• Called on women to abandon their dependent status
  and contribute to the larger life of the
  community through productive involvement in the
  economy
• Advocated centralized nurseries and cooperative
  kitchens to facilitate womens participation in
  the work force

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Socialists

• Socialism Collective Ownership
• Criticized existing injustices
• Many were European immigrants who hated excesses
  of capitalism
• Many Progressives, such as Woodrow Wilson, saw
  socialism as biggest threat to US

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Social Gospel Movement

• Emphasized the role of the church in improving
  life on earth rather than in helping individuals
  get into heaven

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Muckrakers

• Journalists who attempted to expose the evils of
  society

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Works

• Lincoln Steffens Shame of the Cities -
  Unmasked the corrupt alliance between big
  business and municipal Gov
• John Spargo The Bitter Cry of the Children -
  Exposed the abuses of child labor
• Ray Stannard Baker Following the Color Line -
  Attacked the subjugation of Americas 9 million
  blacks, their illiteracy

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The Jungle (1906)

• By Upton Sinclair
• Graphic depictions of the unsanitary conditions
  in the packing plant sparked a reaction to the
  meat industry and led to eventual regulation
  under Theodore Roosevelt
• Inspired Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and
  Drug Act (1906)

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Progressive Activists

• Focus to improve living conditions in cities and
  labor reform for women and children

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Florence Kelley

• Investigated and reported on child labor while
  living at Hull House
• A life-long battler for welfare of women, AAs,
  and consumers
• Socialist views

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Muller v. Oregon, 1906

• Restricted womens labor to 10-hour workday case
  won by Louis Brandeis who argued that women were
  weaker than men
• Many states enacted safety and sanitation codes
  for industry and closed certain harmful trades to
  juveniles

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Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire 1911

• Killed 146 women workers, mostly girls
• NYC and other legislatures passed laws regulating
  the hours and conditions in sweatshops

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Gains Losses

• By 1916, 32 states regulated the hours and ages
  at which children could work
• Some states adopted required education up to the
  high school level
• Supreme Court eventually overturned many gains

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Political Reforms
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Robert LaFollette

• Governor of Wisconsin in 1901, he helped destroy
  the political machine
• Instituted commissions to regulate public
  utilities
• Replaced the existing spoils system with state
  civil service

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"Wisconsin Experiment Reforms

• Direct Primary An election open to all voters
  within a party
• Direct election of Senators
• Adopted state income tax
• Australian Ballot (secret ballot)
• Commission system a city run by 5 commissioners

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Initiative, Referendum, and Recall

• Initiative -- allowed citizens to introduce a
  bill
• Referendum procedure where voters cast ballots
  for or against proposed laws
• Recall gave citizens right to remove elected
  officials from office

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President Theodore Roosevelt

• 1st "modern" president

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His Politics

• Saw the Presidency as a "bully pulpit" to preach
  his ideas
• Often bypassed congressional opposition
• Enormously popular among a large percentage of
  Americans

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More on His Politics

• 1st Pres. to play a significant role in world
  affairs
• "Speak softly but carry a big stick and you
  will go far"
• Major proponent of military and naval
  preparedness

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"Square Deal"

• TRs program embraced three Cs         1.
  Control of the corporations         2. Consumer
  protection         3. Conservation of natural
  resources    

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Other Roosevelt Achievements

• Create Dept of Commerce Labor
• Consumer protection Pure Food Drug Act, etc.
• Conservation protecting land, building
  infrastructure, etc.

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President William H. Taft

• Elected in 1908
• Maintained Dollar Diplomacy conservation
• Under saw the split in the republican party

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The Issue

• Taft promised to lower the tariff
• He signed a reductive tariff but not enough for
  the Progressives
• Roosevelt continues to champion the Progressive
  cause

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Election of 1912

• Dr. Woodrow Wilson democrat nominee (winner)
• TR Progressive-Republican party (Bull Moose
  Party) nominee
• Eugene V. Debs socialist nominee

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Wilsons Presidency

• Serious student of Gov
• White-supremacist didn't sympathize with efforts
  to improve rights for African Americans
• Believed president should play a dynamic role in
  Gov

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Notable Achievements

• Reduced Tariff
• Federal Reserve Act Created banks ran by a
  board who issued money
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act monitored union activity
• Federal Highway Act
• Child Labor Act

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Foreign Policy

• Wilson hated imperialism but would eventually
  intervene in Latin America more than any other
  president in U.S. history

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Imperialism Under Wilson

• Kept marines in Nicaragua after they landed in
  1912 to deal w/a corrupt U.S. customs officer
• U.S. forces sent to Haiti in 1914-15
• 1916, U.S. marines sent to Dominican Republic
  when riots civil war broke out
• 1917, U.S. purchased Virgin Islands from Denmark,
  Caribbean sea dominated by U.S

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Mexican Revolution

• 1910

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Porfirio Diaz

• Dictator since 1876 but now opposed by Indian
  masses middle-class
• Francisco Madero, revolutionary, replaced Diaz as
  president
• Madero was not preferred by foreign investors
  diplomats, but ok w/Wilson

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Overthrow

• Poor Mexicans waged a revolution in 1913
  overthrew Madero
• General Huerta, a full-blooded Indian, installed
  as president
• Massive migration of Mexicans to U.S. followed

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U.S. Interests

• 50,000 U.S. citizens living in Mexico owned 43
  of property
• Wilson originally was firm against intervention
• Wilson saw Huerta as a "brute" "I am going to
  teach the South American republics to elect good
  men."

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Tampico Incident

• Small party of U.S. sailors arrested at Atlantic
  seaport of Tampico for being in a war zone
  without a permit
• Mexico released sailors and apologized but
  refused the U.S. admiral's demand for 21-gun
  salute unless the U.S. likewise saluted the
  Mexican flag

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The Start of Conflict

• Huerta knew that saluting the Mexican flag meant
  U.S. recognition of Huerta as Mexicos legitimate
  leader
• Wilson was furious at Huertas ploy at
  recognition
• Orders the U.S. navy to seize Vera Cruz
• U.S. public Huerta outraged, U.S. occupied the
  city for 7 months

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ABC Powers

• (Argentina, Chile, Brazil) offered to mediate
  on the brink of full-scale war
• Huerta collapsed in July 1914 and was succeeded
  by Carranza who was still resentful over U.S.
  action in Vera Cruz.

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"Pancho" Villa

• Carranzas chief rival
• Carranza was reluctantly supported by U.S. with
  arms and diplomatic recognition
• 1916 Villa retaliated by killing 18 Americans at
  Santa Ysabel, later shot up Columbus, New
  Mexico, killing 17 Americans

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U.S. Response

• General John J. Pershing ordered to subdue Villa
• Entered Mexico w/5,800 forces clashed with
  Carranzas forces and mauled Villas forces
• U.S. did not have Mexican permission
• Villa never captured by U.S. but later
  assassinated in 1923

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U.S. Withdraws

• With threat of war with Germany becoming real,
  U.S. withdrew its invading army on February 5,
  1917

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Other Historical Events of the Progressive Era

• National American Woman Suffrage Association grew
  
• Emphasized the "Winning Plan"
• Publicized womens contributions to the war
  effort which President Wilson used in urging
  Congress to approve suffrage
• 19th Amendment passed in 1920
• Granted women full suffrage

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Prohibition of alcohol

• Anti-Saloon League successfully convinced the
  U.S. of the evils of alcohol
• 18th Amendment (1919) banned sale, transport,
  manufacturing, or consumption of alcohol

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Sinking of the Titanic

• April 12, 1912

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