Prohibition of Alcohol

1
Prohibition of Alcohol

• 18th Amendment, 1917
• Volstead Act

2
Organized Labor in the Progressive Era

• AFL still king
• Rise of radical labor
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
• DeLeon, Debs, Haywood, Jones

3
Working Conditions

• Triangle Fire, 1911
• 100 women killed in NY City due to locked exits
  and lack of fire escapes
• Triangle Fire investigative commission
• Classic progressive tactic
• Experts studied problem and made recommendations
• Frances Perkins

4
Federal Industrial Relations Commission, 1912

• Set up by federal government to investigate labor
  problems
• Investigated Ludlow Massacre of 1912
• 13 women and children killed by strikebreakers
  during strike at Rockefeller-owned company

5
Municipal Reform

• City Commissions, City Managers sought to
  alleviate corruption in city governments

6
State-Level Reform

• Most popular and successful for progressives
• Robert LaFollettes Wisconsin Idea
• Business regulation
• Democratization of state government

7
Progressive Era Presidents
Woodrow Wilson
TR
William Howard Taft
8
TR as Progressive Trust-Busting

• TR was the first president to take on trusts that
  he believed used unfair business practices.
• Use of Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
• Northern Securities Case of 1904 (J. P. Morgan)

9
TR as Progressive Government Regulation

• An activist president in every way, TR believed
  in government regulation of business to promote
  the public interest.
• Meat Inspection Act, Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

10
TR as Progressive Conservation

• An ardent naturalist, TR moved to protect vast
  swaths of the American West by creating numerous
  national forests and national monuments by
  executive order.
• His point-man on conservation issues was Chief of
  Forestry Gifford Pinchot.

11
Conservation Movement
Legendary conservationist John Muir founded the
Sierra Club in 1892
12
Taft Conservative or Progressive?

• While undoubtedly more conservative than TR, Taft
  was not without his progressive leanings.
• TRs close friend and hand-picked successor
• Supported 16th Amendment
• busted trusts

13
The Republican Split Taft v. TR

• Pinchot-Ballinger Affair
• Interior Secretary Ballinger sold off
  conservation lands, sparking a public feud with
  Chief of Forestry Pinchot
• Taft sided with Ballinger and fired Pinchot
• TR was incensed and generally disappointed with
  the more conservative values that Taft displayed
  as president.

14
Election of 1912
15
Woodrow Wilson

• Born in Staunton, VA
• son of a Presbyterian minister
• grew up in the South -- first So. Democrat
  elected since Civil War
• extremely well-educated Princeton undergrad,
  Ph. D. in Political History from Johns Hopkins
• college professor, Princeton president
• progressive governor of NJ

16
Wilsons Progressive Accomplishments

• Impressive list of legislation passed early in
  first term
• First graduated income tax
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act
• Federal Reserve Banking System
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

17
Graduated Income Tax

• Passed as a rider on Underwood Tariff bill
  (which lowered tariff rates)
• major part of progressive agenda!

18
Increased Federal Government Regulation of
Business

• Clayton Anti-Trust Act
• continued trust-busting tradition of TR
• stronger than Sherman Act
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) replaced ICC
• intended to enforce federal regulations on
  interstate trade/commerce
• stronger, more effective than ICC

19
Federal Reserve System

• national bank
• consisted of 12 Federal Reserve Banks, scattered
  across US
• governed by Federal Reserve Board appointed by
  the president
• took control of US money supply away from private
  bankers and placed it in the hands of the federal
  government

20
Wilsons Less-than-Progressive Side

• Opposed woman suffrage for most of his presidency
• ardent segregationist
• actually increased segregation in federal
  facilities
• made D. W. Griffiths racist epic The Birth of a
  Nation the first film ever screened at the White
  House (and enjoyed it)

21
The Birth of a Nation (1915)

• Work of renowned director D. W. Griffith
• glorified rise of Ku Klux Klan in post-Civil War
  south
• enormously popular
• helped spark a rebirth of the KKK

22
Progressive Amendments16, 17, 18, 19