THE AGE OF REFORM-Progressivism (1890s-1920)

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THE AGE OF REFORM-Progressivism (1890s-1920)

• Roots of Progressivism
• progressives were never a single unified group
  seeking a single objective
• they sought civil service reform, political
  reform, government regulation of big business,
  improvement of conditions in the workplace, and
  the enactment of antitrust legislation
• in response to an increasingly complex society,
  progressivism represented a search for order

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PROGRESSIVISM
CivilRights
Suffragettes
Muckrackers
Temperance
Labor Unions
MidclassWomen
Goo Goos
Popul ists
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The Muckrakers

• the popular press published articles on social,
  economic, and political issues of the day
• McClures published Ida Tarbells critical series
  on Standard Oil and Lincoln Steffenss expose on
  city machines
• soon, other editors rushed to adopt McClures
  formula
• a veritable army of journalists published stories
  exposing labor gangsterism, the adulteration of
  foods and drugs, corruption in college athletics,
  and prostitution

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Muckrakers
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• the degree of sensationalism used by some authors
  prompted Theodore Roosevelt to label them
  muckrakers

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The Progressive Mind

• despite its democratic rhetoric, progressivism
  was paternalistic, moderate, and often
  soft-headed
• reformers oversimplified issues and regarded
  their personal values as absolute standards
• progressives came from all walks of life and
  included great tycoons, small operators,
  advocates of social justice, prohibitionists, and
  others

Carry Nation with her hatchet
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• progressivism never truly challenged the
  fundamental principles of capitalism nor did it
  seek to reorganize the basic structures of
  society
• many progressives held anti-immigrant views, and
  few progressives concerned themselves with the
  plight of blacks

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Radical Progressives The Wave of the Future

• influenced by European revolutionary theories,
  some segments of American society sought radical
  relief for the ills of industrialism
• some labor leaders rejected craft unionism and
  advocated socialism
• in 1905, a coalition of mining and other unions,
  socialists, and other radicals formed a new
  union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

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International Workers of the World (Wobblies)
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Mother Jones The Miners Angel

• Mary Harris.
• Organizer for theUnited MineWorkers.
• Founded the SocialDemocratic Party in 1898.
• One of the founding members of the I. W. W. in
  1905.

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• the openly anticapitalist IWW never attracted the
  support of mainstream labor
• other nonpolitical European ideas influenced
  progressive intellectuals
• few understood, and even fewer read, Freud, but
  his theories became a popular topic of
  conversation
• some used Freud to argue against conventional
  standards of sexual morality

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Political Reform Cities First

• corrupt political machines ruled many cities
• city bosses and machine politics became the
  primary targets of progressivism
• reformers could not defeat the machines without
  changing urban political structures
• new forms included home rule, nonpartisan
  bureaus, city commissioners, and city managers
• beyond reforming the political process,
  progressives hoped to use it to improve society

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• some experiments at the municipal level included
  urban renewal, municipalizing public utilities
  and public transportation systems, and reform of
  penal institutions

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State Social Legislation

• by the 1890s, many states passed laws regulating
  conditions in the workplace
• these laws restricted child labor, set maximum
  hours for women and children, and regulated
  conditions in sweatshops
• conservative judges, unwilling to accept an
  expansion of the states coercive power, often
  struck down such laws on the ground that they
  violated the due process clause of the
  Fourteenth Amendment

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Child Labor
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Here, Marie Michaels poses in an apron
advertising the cause for 8-hour workday for
women in Oregon.
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Women Working
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• progressives also achieved state legislation
  regulating the transportation, utilities,
  banking, and insurance industries
• however, piecemeal regulation by the states
  failed to solve the problems of an increasingly
  complex society

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Political Reform The Womens Suffrage Movement

• the Progressive Era saw the culmination of the
  struggle for womens suffrage
• the womens movement was handicapped by rivalry
  between the NWSA and the AWSA, by Victorian
  attitudes about the role of women, and by
  applications of Darwinian theory
• feminists attempted to turn ideas of womens
  moral superiority to their advantage in the
  struggle for voting rights
• in doing so, however, they surrendered the
  principle of equality

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Women Win Suffrage

• in 1890, the two major womens groups combined to
  form the National American Womens Suffrage
  Association (NAWSA)
• the growth of progressivism contributed to the
  cause of suffrage
• after winning the right to vote in several
  states, NAWSA focused its attention on the
  national level
• the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) granted women the
  right to vote

It took 41 years from the beginning of the
womens suffrage movement for women to finally
get voting rights!
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Political Reform Income Taxes and Popular
Election of Senators

• progressivism also found expression in the
  Sixteenth Amendment, which authorized a federal
  income tax, and the Seventeenth Amendment (1913),
  which provided for direct election of senators
• a group of progressive members of Congress also
  managed to reform the House of Representatives by
  limiting the power of the Speaker

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Theodore Roosevelt Cowboy in the White House

• Roosevelt assumed the presidency following
  McKinleys assassination
• he brought to the presidency solid political
  qualifications, a distinguished war record, and
  credentials as a historian
• although the prospect of Roosevelt in the White
  House alarmed conservatives, he moved slowly and
  with restraint
• his domestic program included some measure of
  control of large corporations, more power for the
  Interstate Commerce Commission, and the
  conservation of natural resources

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Teddy Roosevelts Square Deal
President Teddy Roosevelt took a leading role in
the Progressive Era. Among other reforms that he
championed, Roosevelt fought against corporate
monopolies and for consumer and environmental
protections.
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Roosevelt and Big Business

• although Roosevelt won a reputation as a
  trustbuster, he did not believe in breaking up
  big corporations indiscriminately he preferred
  to regulate them
• Roosevelt was not an enemy to all large-scale
  enterprises, merely those that flagrantly seemed
  to restrain trade
• facing a Congress that would not pass strong
  regulatory laws, Roosevelt resorted to use of the
  Sherman Act

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• although his Justice Department brought suit
  against the Northern Securities Company, the
  President preferred to reach gentlemanly
  agreements with large trusts
• this approach proved successful with U.S. Steel
  and International Harvester
• when Standard Oil reneged on an agreement,
  however, the Justice Department brought suit

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Roosevelt and the Coal Strike

• Roosevelt effectively used the powers and
  prestige of his office to intervene in the
  anthracite coal strike of 1902
• he attempted to arbitrate between management and
  the United Mine Workers, but management proved
  intransigent
• the presidents threat to seize and operate the
  mines convinced the owners of the wisdom of
  accepting arbitration

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• neither side was entirely pleased, but, to the
  American public, the incident seemed to
  illustrate the progressive spirit and Roosevelts
  square deal
• Roosevelts use of executive power in this case
  dramatically extended presidential authority and
  hence that of the federal government

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TRs Triumphs

• Roosevelt easily defeated the Democratic
  candidate, Alton B. Parker, in 1904
• encouraged by his victory and aware of the
  growing militancy of progressives, the president
  pressed Congress for passage of the Hepburn Act
  (1906), which allowed the ICC to inspect the
  books of railroad companies and to fix maximum
  rates
• it also gave the ICC authority over other
  interstate carriers and prohibited railroads from
  issuing passes freely

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TRs Triumphs Upton Sinclairs The Jungle

• in response to Upton Sinclairs novel, The
  Jungle, which described the filthy conditions in
  the meat-packing industry, Roosevelt pressed
  Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act
  (1907)

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The Jungle
Meatpacking Industry
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• What unsanitary practices did Sinclair publicize
  in his book?
• Was the primary purpose of The Jungle to expose
  the meat industry?
• What kinds of regulation ultimately emerged from
  this investigation?

• Upton Sinclairs book The Jungle exposed the
  unsanitary practices of the nation's meatpackers
  and launched a full-scale government
  investigation. Here President Roosevelt takes
  hold of the investigation and muckrakers in the
  packinghouse scandal.

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Roosevelt Tilts Left

• as the progressive impulse advanced, Roosevelt
  advanced with it
• Roosevelts approach became increasingly liberal
• he placed more than 150 million acres of public
  lands in federal reserves, strictly enforced
  usage laws on federal lands, and encouraged state
  governments actively to regulate their public
  lands
• as Roosevelt moved toward the left, many Old
  Guard Republicans turned against the president

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• the Panic of 1907 exacerbated the split
• when conservatives blamed him for the panic,
  Roosevelt responded by moving further toward
  progressive liberalism he advocated federal
  income and inheritance taxes, stricter regulation
  of interstate corporations, and reforms designed
  to help industrial workers
• when Roosevelt began to criticize the courts, he
  lost all chance of obtaining further reform
  legislation

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William Howard Taft The Listless Progressive, or
More is Less

• Roosevelts hand-picked successor, William Howard
  Taft, garnered the support of Old Guard
  Republicans as well as progressives and easily
  defeated William Jennings Bryan
• although he enforced the Sherman Act vigorously
  and signed the Mann-Elkins Act, which expanded
  the power of the ICC, Taft made a less aggressive
  president than T.R. had been

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Progressive President Taft
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• Taft was not comfortable with Roosevelts
  sweeping use of executive power
• his political ineptness contributed to Tafts
  problems
• he alienated progressives when he failed to lend
  full support to a Congressional movement to
  reform the tariff system
• Taft ran afoul of the growing conservation
  movement in 1910 when he fired the chief forester
  of the United States, Gifford Pinchot

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Breakup of the Republican Party

• the Ballinger-Pinchot affair signaled the
  beginning of a split between Roosevelt and Taft
• perhaps inevitably, the Republican party split
  into factions
• Roosevelt sided with the progressives, and Taft
  threw in his lot with the Old Guard
• Tafts management of antitrust action brought
  against U.S. Steel in 1911 finalized the split
• a portion of the suit was directed against the
  merger of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company
  with U.S. Steel in 1907

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• Roosevelt had personally approved of merger and
  viewed Tafts action as a personal attack
• Roosevelt decided to challenge Taft for the
  nomination in 1912
• while Roosevelt carried the bulk of the
  primaries, Taft controlled the party apparatus
  and secured the nomination
• Roosevelt formed the breakaway Progressive party,
  also known as the Bull Moose party, and ran in
  the general election

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The Election of 1912

• the Democrats ran Woodrow Wilson, the reform
  governor of New Jersey
• Wilsons New Freedom promised eradication of
  special interests and a return to competition
• Roosevelt called for a New Nationalism, based
  on regulation of large corporations
• hard-core Republicans voted for Taft, but the
  progressive wing went for Roosevelt
• Democrats, both conservative and progressive,
  voted for Wilson as a result, Wilson won easily

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Wilson The New Freedom

• Wilson quickly established his legislative agenda
  and successfully steered his legislation through
  Congress
• in 1913, the Underwood Tariff substantially
  reduced tariffs a graduated income tax made up
  for lost revenue
• the Federal Reserve Act finally provided the
  nation with a centralized banking system
• Congress created the Federal Trade Commission to
  regulate unfair trade practices

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Wilson The New Freedom

• the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 outlawed price
  discrimination, tying agreements, and the
  creation of interlocking directorates
• Wilsons decisive management style and a
  Democratic majority in Congress accounted in
  large part for his successes
• Wilsons progressivism had its limits he refused
  to support legislation to provide low-interest
  loans to farmers or to exempt unions from
  antitrust actions
• Wilson also declined to push for a federal law
  prohibiting child labor and refused to back a
  constitutional amendment granting the vote to
  women

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The Progressives and Minority Rights

• a darker side of progressivism manifested itself
  in the area of race relations
• a reactionary on racial matters, Wilson was
  fairly typical of progressive attitudes only a
  handful failed to exhibit prejudice against
  nonwhite people
• most progressives assumed that Native Americans
  were incapable of assimilating into white society
• Asians were subject to intense discrimination

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• in the South, the Progressive Era witnessed the
  institutionalization of Jim Crow
• many progressive women adopted racist arguments
  in support of the Nineteenth Amendment, while
  Southern progressives argued for the
  disenfranchisement of blacks to purify the
  political system
• Booker T. Washington and his philosophy of
  accommodation failed to stem the rising tide of
  racism, and a number of young and well-educated
  blacks broke away from his leadership

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Black Militancy

• W. E. B. Du Bois, the first American black to
  earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, called upon blacks to
  reject Washingtons accommodationism
• he urged them to take pride in their racial and
  cultural heritage and demanded that blacks take
  their rightful place in society without waiting
  for whites to give it to them
• he recognized that environment, not racial
  factors, caused problems of poverty and crime
• Du Bois was not, however, an admirer of the
  ordinary black American

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W. E. B. Du Bois

• frankly elitist in approach, Du Bois contended
  that a talented tenth of blacks would lead the
  way to their races success
• in 1905, he and other like-minded blacks founded
  the Niagara Movement
• while it failed to attract mass support, it did
  stir some white consciences
• a group comprised largely of white liberals
  founded the National Association for the
  Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909

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• the NAACP was dedicated to the eradication of
  racial discrimination from American society
• the leadership of the NAACP was largely white in
  its early years, but Du Bois became a national
  officer and editor of the organizations journal
• more important, after the founding of the NAACP,
  virtually every leader in the struggle for racial
  equality rejected Washingtons approach

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New Constitutional Amendments

• 16th Income Tax
• 17th Direct election of U.S. Senators
• Purpose- Reduce corruption and give people a
  voice in government
• 18th Prohibition of Alcoholic Beverages
• Purpose- believe it hurt the family
• 19th Womens Suffrage
• Most Controversial- Divided households and the
  longest to achieve

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The Progressive MovementElection Reforms

• INITIATIVE bill proposed by the people instead
  of lawmakers put on a ballot (voters can
  propose laws)
• REFERENDUM- voters, not legislature, decide if
  initiative becomes law
• RECALL voters remove elected official through
  early election
• passage of statewide direct primary election
  which led to the
• 17th AMENDMENT direct election of Senators by
  voters rather than state legislators

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Chapter 22 The Progressive
Movement Reforms
What actions did the Progressives take to create
reforms? In the boxes below, list 2 (or more)
examples of actions taken by people and/or
organizations aimed at reform.
Social
Workplace (women/children)
The Progressive Movement
Moral
Economic
Political
Which group was the MOST SUCCESSFUL and WHY?