Progressivism

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Progressivism and World War I
By Jim and Jessica
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Progressive Era 1901-1917
Series of reforms, started by Theodore
Roosevelt Chiefly middle class residents in urban
cities Groups Protestant church African
Americans/minorities Union Leaders Feminists Att
acked monopoly, corruption, inefficiency, social
injustice, poverty, urban squalor, racism,
etc. Committed to democratic values and believed
that honest government and just laws could
improve the human condition
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Literature
Popular Novels How the Other Half Lives by
Jacob Riis Wealth Against Commonwealth by Henry
Damarest-Lloyd Origin of Species by Charles
Darwin The Octopus and The Pit by Frank
Noris Magazines McClures Magazine
1893 Colliers Cosmopolitan
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Muckrakers

• Muckrakers
• Pulitzer
• Hearst
• Ida Tarbell
• Thomas Lawson
• Lincoln Steffens
• Upton Sinclair
• Reasons for Decline
• writers found it hard to top the sensationalism
  of latest stories
• publishers were expanding and they faced economic
  pressures from banks and advertisers
• Public Relations became a new concept
  Corporations became more aware of the public
  image and developed new specialty

• Lasting Effects
• Exposed inequalities
• Educated the public about corruption in high
  places
• Prepared them for corrective action

David G. Phillips Treason of the Senate
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Political Reform

• Terms
• Initiative ability for voters to directly
  propose legislation
• Referendum laws voted on by the people
• Recall remove corrupt politicians by majority
  vote
• Corrupt Practice Acts Stated limitations on
  corporate gifts and donations to campaigns to
  root out bribery
• Interstate Commerce Commission
• Elkins Act of 1903
• Progressive Goals
• -direct election of US senators
• -temperance/prohibition
• -trust busting (Taft the Trustbuster, etc.)
• Square Deal TRs reformation proposal that, like
  a square, sought to make every side equal
• Coal mine strike brought leaders to White
  House
• Department of Commerce and Labor - Bureau of
  Corporations

Reform for Businesses, workers, Urban poor, and
Provided government at all levels
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Woodrow Wilson
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Wilsonian Politics
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The War to End War

• 1917-1918

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World War I

• Central Powers vs. Allies
• Central Powers Germany, Austria, and later
  Turkey
• and Bulgaria
• Allies France, Britain, Russia, and later Japan
  and Italy

• Wilson instructed America to remain neutral
  many took the Allies side, while others wanted to
  stay out of the conflict altogether
• Officially were offering aid to both sides, but
  trade between US and Germany virtually ceased
  because Britain controlled the sea ports
• Germany declared a submarine war zone around the
  British Isles
• U boats sunk approximately 90 ships

The Lusitania was torpedoed and killed 128
Americans one of immediate causes of US
entering the war
Charles Evans Hughes was republican candidate for
election of 1916 Wilson was reelected
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The Fourteen Points The Fourteen points were
proposed by Wilson to Congress in 1917 they
were Wilsons resolutions to the war and the
problems it initiated 1.) No more secret
treaties 2.) Freedom of the seas was to be
maintained 3.) Removal of economic barriers
between nations 4.) Arms reductions 5.)
colonial claims adjustments in the interest of
the natives and colonizers 6.)
Self-Determination 7.) The League of
Nations -Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917 and
1918) These las displayed an America on high
alert, where suspicion ran rampant they served
to uproot all German sympathizers, Capitalists,
and Unionists because the government feared they
may possibly be allied with the enemy
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Isolationism Ending -Wilson continued to try and
keep America out of war -The Zimmerman Note
event provoked Wilson to dissuade his own
beliefs he asked Congress on April 17,1917 to
declare war -Wilsons earlier motto of peace
without victory soon changed to preserving
democracy across seas The Committee on Public
Information headed by George Creel, this
organization sought to promote the war and make
it easier for Americans to accept ex Patriot
songs, anti-German movies like The Kaiser,
pamphlets, and posters that heralded
Wilsonisms -Many would argue that this
committee resulted in disillusionment amongst the
American people
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Factories and the Economy
-William Taft led the National War Labor
Board -Samuel Gompers and the AF of L supported
the war, and thus the many skilled union members
did as well -Production was still in bad shape as
about 6,000 strikes occurred during war
time -African Americans were eventually brought
in (roughly 30,000) to replace the people on
strike which provoked many strikers to return
to their jobs -Women also had a large part in the
war effort, efforts that eventually gave way to
the 20th Amendment which granted womens
suffrage -Women in the workforce also began to
receive benefits (ex Womens Bureau, the
Shepard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921) -After the
war most women left the workforce and returned to
their positions as homemakers The
Economy -Herbert Hoover headed the Food
Administration which was known for dictating the
meatless Tuesdays and giving out ration cards
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Conscription/the Draft -while it was not
supported by Congress it was still passed and
soon the army grew to over four million
people -Unlike past wars you could not buy your
way out of the draft -African Americans were
drafted into war for the first time, although in
segregated units The Allies Fighting
Force -French Marshal Foch led a unified army of
all allied nations -Germany began to fail and
their allies began to desert them they were
also forced to withdraw from many of their
holdings -The Germans were threatened by the
Americans and the incoming troops Declaration
of Victory -Germany ultimately surrendered out
of fear of the American troops and the onslaught
it would bring upon them
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The Big Four
Wilson, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, David Lloyd
George of Britain, and Georges Clemenceau of
France -The Big Four met in France where they
decided upon the Treaty of Versailles -An
integral piece of this was the League of
Nations -America ultimately did not join the
League of Nations because it seemed too soon
to give up on isolationism -The treaty also
settled several land disputes, most notably
Japans want of Chinas Shantung Peninsula and
German islands in the Pacific and Italys want
of Flume -Senator Warren G. Harding won the
election of 1920