Progressivism

1
Progressivism

• Early twentieth-century reform movement that
  pushed the government to resolve problems created
  by urban industrialism
• problems like poverty, racism, child labor,
  vice, and exploitation of labor.

2
How did it get started?

• At the grassroots level, in the cities, in
  reaction to the Gilded Age excesses.

3

• Grassroots Progressivism
• Settlement House Movement
• College-educated women, i.e. Jane Addams wanted
  to civilize the city
• supported labor unions
• supported womans suffrage

4
Examples of Grassroots Progressivism
5
Alliances between middle and lower class women

• A strike held against New Yorks garment industry
  in 1909 was supported by women workers and middle
  class women
• 20,000 workers went on strike
• They won some concessions
• Labels sewn into garments made by union workers

6
Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire

• 146 died, many jumping nine stories to their
  deaths.
• proved that the factories were not safe for
  workers.

7

• Reform Darwinism vs. Social Darwinism
• Social Darwinism came out of the Gilded Age and
  held that human progress came out of survival of
  the fittest and that reform movements were a
  waste of time.
• Reform Darwinism was a social theory that said if
  humans changed the social environment, it could
  improve the lot of humans faster

8
(No Transcript)
9
Characteristics of Progressive Movement

• A belief that environment, not heredity alone,
  determines human potential
• A sense of optimism that conditions can be
  corrected without radically changing economy or
  institutions
• A profound trust in experts and scientific data
• A willingness to take action

10
The Jungle

• The book was instrumental in exposing the meat
  packing industry
• muckraking (The Jungle is an example)
• Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the
  Meat Inspection Act 1906
• I aimed at the publics heart, but I hit them in
  the stomach.

11
Some successes of the Progressive Era

• Hull House and other settlement houses
• Muller v. Oregon, 1908, limited workday for women
  to 10 hours
• Upton Sinclairs novel of 1906, The Jungle
• Conservation of 150 million acres of natural
  landscape

12
W.E.B. DuBois
13
DuBois

• Authored Souls of Black Folk 1903
• Founded the Niagara Movement, precursor to the
  NAACP
• Lifelong radical, later investigated by the FBI

14
Progressivism Finds a President
15
Theodore Roosevelt Domestic Policy

• Anti-Trust, filed suit to enforce the Sherman
  Anti-Trust Act of 1890 which was being ignored.
  He won.
• Labor negotiator, United Mine Workers
• square deal
• Conservationist
• When Roosevelt took office, 45 million acres of
  land as government reserves when he left, it was
  150 million acres

16

• A newspaper editor wrote,
• Wall Street is paralyzed at the thought that a
  President of the United States would sink so low
  as to try to enforce the law.

17
Teddy Roosevelt

• The Square Deal
• Campaign slogan from Roosevelts election in 1904
• Came from his enforcement of the Sherman
  Antitrust Act
• Roosevelt the Reformer
• Used the moral and political authority of the
  presidency
• Roosevelt and Conservation
• National Parks
• Conservation
• Hetch Hetchy?

18
(No Transcript)
19
Roosevelt Foreign Policy

• Speak softly but carry a big stick
• Roosevelt believed that civilized nations
  should police the world and hold backward
  countries in line. . . . he relied on military
  strength and diplomacy

20
(No Transcript)
21

• Monroe Doctrine
• a declaration by President James Monroe in 1823
  that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any
  further colonization or interference by European
  powers. In exchange, Monroe declared that the US
  would not get involved in European conflicts.

• Roosevelt Corollary
• a declaration in 1904 that the US would not
  intervene in Latin America as long as nations
  there conducted their affairs with decency. It
  made the US the policeman of the Western
  Hemisphere and allowed it to enforce repayment of
  European debts.

22
(No Transcript)
23
Panama Canal

• US offered Columbia 10 million and an annual
  rent of 250,000
• Columbia refused
• At the prompting of some investors in New York,
  Panamanians staged an uprising, 1903
• Within 24 hours, Roosevelt government recognized
  the new Panama, and the new country accepted the
  10 million and the canal was begun.

24

• How Did Theodore Roosevelts Foreign Policy Move
  the United States onto the World Stage?
• Enforcement of Monroe Doctrine
• Formulating the Roosevelt Corollary
• Endorsing the uprising in Panama

25
Taft Presidency

• Taft sided more often with big business
• Progressive Party nominated Roosevelt

26
Progressive Party

• Nicknamed the Bull Moose Party
• Nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt
• Platform

• Presidential primaries
• Conservation of natural resources
• An end to child labor
• Minimum wages for women
• Workers compensation
• Social security
• Federal income tax

27
Woodrow Wilson

• Democrat Wilson wins election of 1912
• He turns out to be progressive
• Federal Reserve Act, 1913
• Federal Trade Commission

28

• Woodrow Wilson Reluctant Progressive
• Wilsons Reforms Tariff, Banking, and the Trusts
• Womans Suffrage

29
Progressivism Stalled

• The troubled Presidency of William Howard Taft
• Progressive Insurgency and the Election of 1912
• Radical Alternatives
• Progressivism for White Men Only?
• Women
• Alice Paul vs. Carrie Chapman Catt
• African Americans
• separate but equal
• Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois
• Jim Crow Laws
• Asian Americans
• Alien Land Laws in the West

30
Radical Progressives
31
Margaret Sanger
32
(No Transcript)
33
Eugene DebsSocial Democratic Party (Socialist)

• advocated cooperation over competition and urged
  people to shake free from private ownership