Progressivism

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Progressivism the Republican Roosevelt

• 1901 - 1912

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Progressive Roots

• 1900 1 in 7 was foreign born
• 13 million more arrived between 1900 1914
• Progressivism use government as an agency of
  human welfare opposed to hands-off individualism
  / Laissez-faire
• Waged war on many evils, notably monopoly,
  corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice

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Late 19th Century Social Critics

• 1894 Henry Demarest Lloyd
• Attacked trust such as Standard Oil
• Wealth Against Commonwealth
• 1899 - Thorstien Veblen
• Assailed the new rich their conspicuous
  consumption predatory wealth
• The Theory of the Leisure Class
• 1890 Jacob Riis
• Exposed the slum conditions of NYC
• How the Other Half Lives

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Critics of Social Injustice

• Used religious doctrine to demand better housing
  living conditions for the urban poor
• Women were committed to improve the lots of
  families living working in the festering cities

• Urban Pioneers
• Jane Adams Hull House
• Lillian Wald

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Early 20th Century Muckrakers

• 1902 - Lincoln Steffens
• Articles in McClures entitled
  The Shame of the Cities
• Unmasked the corrupt alliance between big
  business city government
• 1904 Ida M. Tarbell
• Articles in McClures
• Exposé of Standard Oil Company
• 1906 David G. Phillips
• Article in Cosmopolitan
• Charged that US Senate represented RRs trusts

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20th Century Muckrakers conti

• 1908 Ray Stannard Baker
• Following the Color Line
• Spotlighted that 33 of
  African Americans were illiterate
• 1906 John Spargo
• The Bitter Cry of the Children
• Abuses of child labor

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Muckrakers Progressive Reformers

• Muckrakers - believed their primary function was
  to make the public aware of social problems not
  propose solutions
• Progressive reformers were mainly middle-class
  people who sought to
• Curb the threats posed by trusts
• Stem the threats of Socialists by improving the
  common persons conditions of life labor
• Sought to cleanse capitalism not overthrow it!
• More democracy was needed to fix things

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Political Progressivism

• Direct primary undercut party bosses
• Initiative voters could directly propose
  legislation. By passing the boss-bought state
  legislatures
• Referendum place laws on the ballot for final
  approval by the people
• Recall enable voters to remove
  elected officials who were corrupt

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Political Progressivism conti

• Campaign spending contribution laws evened
  the playing field curbed political bribes
• Secret ballot cut down on political bribes
• 1913 - Direct Election of Senators
• 17th Amendment
• City-Manager System designed to take politics
  out of municipal administration

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Fighting Bob

• Robert M. LaFollette Wisconsin
• Became governor took control from the crooked
  corporations returned it to the people
• Regulated public utilities
• Became an example for others to follow
• Hiram W. Johnson California
• Broke the grip of the Southern Pacific Railroad
  in CA
• Charles Evans Hughes New York
• Investigator of malpractices by gas
  insurance companies coal trust

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Battling Social Ills

• Enactment of safety sanitation codes for
  industries
• Closed harmful trades to juveniles
• Workmens compensation laws
• Maximum hours minimum wage laws

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Sweatshops

• 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Company
• Fire at the company in NYC incinerated 146 female
  workers
• Legislation was passed that regulated the hours
  conditions of toil in such firetraps
• Muller v. Oregon 1908
• Louis Brandeis persuaded Supreme
  Court to accept the constitutionality
  of laws protecting women
  workers
• Used to discriminate against women workers

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Courts Legislation

• 1905 Lochner v. New York
• Length of workday was increased
• Later decreased
• Saloons
• Alcohol was connected to prostitution
• Antiliquor campaigns began

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Prohibition Movement

• Womens Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
• Founded by Frances E. Willard
• Prayed in saloons
• 1 million women members
• Largest womens organization in the world
• Dry laws passed in some states
• Controlled, restricted, or abolished alcohol
• 18th amendment passed in 1919 making alcohol
  illegal

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TRs Square Deal

• 3 Cs
• Control of the corporations
• Consumer protection
• Conservation of natural resources

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TRs Square Deal Labor

• 1902 Coal Strike in Pennsylvania
• Workers demanded more pay reduction of hours
• Owners refused arbitration
• TR held a meeting in the White House
• TR threatened to use federal force against owners
• TR urged Congress to create Dept of Commerce
  Labor
• Goal achieved in 1903
• Bureau of Corporations branch of Dept
• Authorized to probe businesses engaged in
  interstate commerce

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TR Corporations

• Interstate Commerce Commission 1887
• Inadequate because railroad barons could appeal
  the commissions decisions on rates
• Later extended to include more than railroads
• Power to nullify existing rates stipulate
  maximum rates
• Elkins Act of 1903
• Heavy fines could be imposed both on railroads
  that gave rebates shippers that accepted them
• Hepburn Act of 1906
• Free passes were restricted

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The Trustbuster

• 1902 attacked Northern Securities Company
• Railroad holding company organized by James Hill
  J.P. Morgan
• Monopoly of the railroads in the Northwest
• 1904 Courts upheld TRs suit ordered the
  company to be dissolved
• Initiated over 40 proceedings against trust
• Purpose TR wanted to prove that the govt, not
  private business, ruled the country
• He believed in regulating not fragmenting

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Caring for the Consumer

• 1906 Upton Sinclairs The Jungle
• Exposed the meat packing industry its filth
• He aimed for the nations heart, but hit its
  stomach
• Results
• Meat Inspection Act 1906
• Preparation of meat shipped over state
  lines would be subject to
  federal inspection
• Sing the song p.668
• Pure Food Drug Act 1906
• Prevent mislabeling of foods drugs

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Earth Control

• Americans overall were wasteful
• Desert Land Act of 1877
• Govt sold arid land cheaply on the condition
  that the purchaser irrigate the thirsty soil
  within 3 years
• Forest Reserve Act of 1891
• Set aside public forests as national parks
• Carey Act of 1894
• Distributed federal land to the states on the
  condition that it be irrigated settled

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• Newlands Act of 1902
• Govt would sell public lands in the western
  states use the funds for irrigation projects
• 1911 - Roosevelt Dam built on Arizonas Salt
  River
• Earmarked coal deposits water resources useful
  for irrigation power
• Sierra Club Boy Scouts

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The Roosevelt Panic of 1907

• 1904 - TR elected president
• Called for
• Regulation of corporations, taxing
  incomes, protecting workers
• Announced that he would not seek a 3rd term
• Panic of 1907
• Run on banks, suicides, and criminal indictments
  against speculators
• TR was blamed
• Aldrich-Vreeland Act 1908
• Authorized national banks to issue emergency
  currency

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Election of 1908

• William Howard Taft (R)
• Carry out TRs policies
• Wins easily hand picked by TR
• William Jennings Bryan (D)
• Eugene V. Debs (Socialist)

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Lasting Impact of TR

• Greatly enlarged the power prestige of the
  presidential office
• Helped shape the progressive movement the
  liberal reform campaigns that came later
• Square Deal was the grandfather of FDRs New Deal
• Opened the eyes of Americans to
  the fact that they shared the world
  with other nations

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William Howard Taft

• Former judge lawyer
• Hostile to labor unions
• foot-in-the-mouth disease
• Definitely not the reformer that TR was

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Dollar Diplomacy

• Tafts foreign policy
• Use American investments to boost American
  political interests abroad
• Govt encouraged Wall Street bankers to invest in
  other countries
• Especially in the Far East around the Panama
  Canal
• NY bankers would strengthen American defenses
  foreign policies through investments

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Problems for Taft

• Manchuria, China (Open Door Policy)
• Wanted Americans to end Japanese Russian
  monopoly of RR by buying the RR returning it to
  the Chinese
• Sec of State Philander C. Knox made the proposal
• Japan Russia would not sell
• Caribbean (Monroe Doctrine)
• Americans encouraged to invest in Honduras
  Haiti to keep out foreign funds
• American forces were sent Nicaragua in 1912
• Stayed for 13 years

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Taft the Trustbuster

• Brought 90 suits against trusts
  compared to TRs 44
• 1911 Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of
  Standard Oil
• Violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
• rule of reason only those combinations that
  unreasonably restrained trade were illegal
• 1911 Taft filed an anti-trust suit against US
  Steel Corporation
• Infuriated TR

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Taft Splits the Republican Party

• 1909 Taft called Congress into special session
  to lower tariffs
• Eventually signed the Payne-Aldrich Bill which
  did not really lower tariffs
• 1910 Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy
• Sec of Interior Richard Ballinger opened up
  public lands in Wyoming, Montana, Alaska to
  corporate development
• Criticized by Gifford Pinchot chief of
  Agriculture Dept of Forestry
• Taft dismissed Pinchot for insubordination

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TR Reappears

• 1911 National Progressive
  Republican League was formed
• Fighting Bob was the leading candidate (La
  Follette)
• TR lets it be known that he wants to run again
• 1912 Taft-Roosevelt explosion
• Republican convention Taft was selected
• TR begins third-party crusade