Studied by 2 people
Statistics of Americans
1/7 foreign-born in 1900
1900-1914 - 13 million immigrants
Progressives
crusaders who waged war on monopoly, corruption, inefficiency, and social justice
Cause/origin of new reformist wave
Greenback Labor party and the Populists because industrialists made fewer and fewer have power
Progressive theorists believed
Society could no longer afford the luxury of laissez-faire policy. The people, through government, must substitute mastery for drift
Henry Demarest Lloyd
(1894) "Wealth Against Commonwealth: - wrote against Standard Oil Company
Thorstein Vablen
(1899) "The Theory of the Leisure Class" - attack on the new rich. Viewed the leisure class engaged in making money for money's sake instead of making goods to satisfy real needs
Argued that the social leadership should go from the useless rich to those who are useful
Jacob A. Riis
(1890) "How the Other Half Lives" - spoke about the horrors of the NY slums
Influenced future NYC police commissioner, TR
Theodore Dreiser
Pounded promoters and profiteers in "The Financier" (1912) and "The Titan" (1914)
Socialism in America
Many advocates for this were European immigrants inspired by the strong movement for socialism in Europe -> began to get more strength at the ballot box
Types of reformers
Social gospel, university-based economists, feminists, muckrakers, temperance, labor rights, and many more
Social gospel
Used religious doctrine to demand better housing and living conditions for the urban poor
University-based economists
Advocated for new reforms modeled on European examples
Feminists (suffrage)
Jane Addams in Chicago and Lillian Wald in NY - made women enter the fight to improve the lot of families living and working in the festering cities
10¢ and 15¢ magazines
McClure's Cosmopolitan, Collier's, and Everybody's. Extensive research for finding things bad about business that the public loved
Muckrakers
Bright young reporters at the turn of the 20th century, term coined by TR, but boosted circulations of their magazines by writing exposés of widespread corruption in American society (business manipulation of government, white slaves, child labor, and illegal deeds of trusts). Also helped spur passage of reform legislation
Popular Muckrakers
Lincoln Steffens: The Shame of the Cities
Ida M. Tarbell: exposé of the Standard Oil Company
Upton Sinclair: The Jungle
David G. Phillips: The Treason of the Senate
Social evils in the Progressive Era and books about them
"White slave" traffic for women, slums, and industrial accidents
Stannard Baker's "Following the Color Line" (1908) - 9 million blacks, 90% of the South, and 1/3 illiterate
John Spargo's "The Bitter Cry of the Children" (1906) - abuses of child labor
Habit-forming drugs
Often sold for money, induced with alcohol. In Collier's, they exposed the medicine and were reinforced by Dr. Harvey W. Wiley
Significance of the muckrakers
Symbolized much of the nature of the progressive reform movements
Long on lamentation but stopped short of revolutionary methods
Counted on publicity and aroused public conscience (not drastic political change) to right social wrongs
Sought to not overthrow capitalism but to cleanse it (Puritans vs Pilgrims anyone??)
Believed more democracy was the answer to solve issues
Most progressive reformers were
middle-class men and women
How progressives sought to modernize American institutions
Use the state to curb monopoly power
Limit socialist threat by improving the common person's conditions of life and labor
Progressivism can be best described as
a broadly dispersed majority mood, not a movement
Objectives of Progressives
Regain the power that had slipped from the hands of the people into those of the "interests"
Getting rid of graft (bribery, corrupt practices, etc.)
Direction election of US Senators - often heeded to the voice of business instead of the people (even referred to as the "Millionaires' Club)
How Progressives attempted to get power into the hands of the people
Direct election of US senators, initiative, referendum, and recall
Initiative
A Progressive reform measure allowing voters to petition to have a law placed on the general ballot
Referendum
Progressive reform procedure allowing voters to place a bill on the ballot for final approval even after being passed by the legislature
Recall
Enabled the voters to remove corrupted elected officials
Significance of initiative, referendum, and recall
Brought democracy to the people and helped foster a shift towards interest-group politics and away from old political machines
How Progressives aimed to get rid of graft
Limited the amount of money a candidate could spend on their election campaign
Australian ballot
Australian ballot
A system developed in Australia in 1850 that allows voters privacy in marking their ballot choices. Counteracted boss rule (can't bribe if they don't know who they're voting for)
17th Amendment
Direct election of senators. Many Senators liked existing methods, and local legislatures found it wise to give the vote to the people
Women suffrage support
Political reformers believed the women's vote would elevate the political tone
Anti-Saloons felt they could rely on support of enfranchised females
Women's suffrage gradually began especially in:
Western states
Urban Progressive reforms
Frustrated by inefficiency and corruption of city government — looked to Galveston, TX as an example (expert-staffed commissions to manage urban affairs)
Often favored efficiency over democracy
City-manager systems
City-manager systems
take politics out of municipal administration
Urban reformers
Attacked slumlords, juvenile delinquency, and wide-open prostitution in red-light districts
Looked to English and German cities
Robert M. La Follette
Most militant of progressive Republican leaders. Became the governor of WI in 1901.
Tackled RR and lumber "interests"
Regulated public utilities and inspired other states to follow
Gave the power from the business -> people
Hiram W. Johnson
Republican governor in 1910, broke the dominant grip of the Southern Pacific Railroad on California politics and set up a political machine of his own
Charles Evans Hughes
Republican governor of NY; investigator of malpractices by gas and insurance companies and the coal trust
Settlement houses — significance
Offered door to public life - showed issues of America's cities and gave women skills/confidence to attack them
Literary clubs
Educated women met to improve literary knowledge -> went to social issues instead of literature
"Separate spheres"
Women's place was in the home, Republican Motherhood
Women viewed being involved in issues was an extension of their motherly role (protecting children from labor issues, health problems, etc.)
The most successful reform of the Progressive Era was
child labor reform
Florence Kelley
Illinois' first chief factory inspector, one of the nation's leading advocates for improved factory conditions. Also took control of the National Consumers League
National Consumers League
Mobilized female consumers to pressure for laws safeguarding women and children in the workplace
Muller v. Oregon
(1908) Louis D. Brandeis persuaded the SC to accept the constitutionality of the laws protecting women workers by presenting evidence of the harmful effects of factory labor on women's weaker bodies; restricted women to 10-hour work day
At the time, protecting ___________ rather than __________ was more common and similar to __________
women and children —— granting benefits to everyone —— Western Europe
Lochner v. New York
(1905) Semi-setback for reformers, the SC invalidated a NY law establishing a 10-hour work day for bakers
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911)
Locked doors and fire code violations made the factory a death trap. 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, incinerated or leapt to their death from 8 or 9 stories
Results of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire
NY had much stronger laws regulating hours and conditions
30 other states by 1917 put workers' compensation in the books (insurance)
Progressively changed from dog-eat-dog world to employer's responsibility
Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
Founded by Frances E. Willard, largest organization of women in the world
"Dry" laws
Controlled, restricted, or abolished alcohol
Major centers for alcohol products and why
Big cities. Large immigrant vote; Old World had free-flowing alcohol
The temperance movements resulted in tensions between:
Nativists and immigrants
"Square Deal" and TR's three C's
Control of corporations
Consumer protection
Conservation of natural resources
Anthracite Coal Mines in PA
140k workers demanded 20% increase in pay and 9-hour workday
Unsympathetic mine owners, George F. Baer also unsympathetic
Coal supplies dwindled -> factories, schools, and hospitals had to shut down because of the lack of heat --
TR brandished the Big Stick -> threatened to seize the mines and use federal troops
Owners arbitrated -> 10% pay boost and working day of 9 hours
Department of Commerce and Labor
Settle disputes between owners and workers
Bureau of Corporations
Probe business engaged in interstate commerce; useful in breaking stranglehold of monopoly and allowing "trust-busting"
Elkins Act
(1903) Law passed by Congress to impose penalties on RRs that offered rebates and customers who accepted them. Strengthened the ICA of 1887
Hepburn Act
(1906) Restricted free passes and also strengthened the ICC (now included express, sleeping-car, and pipeline companies)
TR's actions against trusts
Believed there were good and bad trusts
Didn't want to completely destroy all big business
Northern Securities Company
Railroad holding by JP Morgan and James Hill, wanted a monopoly of NW RRs
1904 - Company appealed to SC, ordered it to be dissolved -> Upset Wall street and big business but gave TR reputation as a trust-smasher
Beef Trust Cases
SC declared beef trust illegal, monopolists controlling sugar, fertilizer, harvesters, and other key products suffered
Roosevelt's real purpose of in getting rid of big business
To prove conclusively that the government, not private business, ruled the country. Believed in regulating, not fragmenting, the big business
Big business at the end of TR's reign
"healthier" but more "tame" — even gave JP Morgan blessing with US Steel to absorb TN Coal and Iron Company
Meat companies in Europe
shut out because of unsanitary meat sold
Upton Sinclair and The Jungle (1906)
Described the grotesqueness of Chicago's slaughterhouses. Moved readers and even TR to appoint an investigating commission
Meat Inspection Act
(1906) The preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection, regardless of packaging. Larger companies saw it as a way to put smaller competitors out of business
Pure Food and Drug Act
(1906) Designed to prevent the mislabeling of food and pharmaceuticals
Desert Land Act
(1877) Fed govt sold arid land cheaply on the condition that the purchaser irrigate the thirsty soil within three years
Forest Reserve Act
(1891) Authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves
Carey Act
(1894) Distributed federal land to the states on the condition that it be irrigated and settled
Newlands Act
(1902) Fed govt was authorized to collect money from the sale of public lands in the western states and then use the funds for the development of irrigation projects
Roosevelt Dam
Arizona Salt River, dedicated to TR in 1911. Resulted in more dams in all major western rivers in upcoming decades
TR's nature conservation
Set aside 125 million acres for federal reserves. Designated millions of acres of coal deposits and water resources for irrigation and power
Cause of TR's conservation
His outdoorsman persona
Upwelling national mood of concern about the disappearance of the frontier
Jack London's Call of the Wild (1903) and other books of nature made the Boy Scouts of America the country's largest youth organization
Roosevelt's most enduring achievement was:
preserving or conserving land (IMPORTANT!!)
Ways people conserved nature
Middle-class club-women raised money for nature preserves and organized the Massachusetts Audubon Society (save birds by banning the use of plumes to hats)
Sierra Club - preserve wilderness of western landscape
Hetch Hetchy Valley
Government allowed San Fran to build a dam here in 1913. Blow to the preservationists, who wished to project the Yosemite National Park, location of the dam
Opponents and proponents of the Hetch Hetchy Valley Dam
Opponents: "temple" of nature that should be preserved. Proponents: Should use nature's resources wisely (TR and Gifford Pinchot)
"Multiple-use resource management"
Combined recreation, sustained-yield logging, watershed protection, and summer stock grazing on the same expanse of federal land
Business influence/characteristics in the West
Large companies found ways to work with the federal conservation programs
Individuals and single-person enterprises had minimal influence and were set aside in favor of efficiency
Roosevelt in the 1904 election
Easily elected president in 1904, yet Republican bosses found him unpredictable
Blunder: announced he would never run a third term
Platform was stronger regulation of corporations, taxing incomes, and protecting workers
"Roosevelt Panic" of 1907 / Panic of 1907
Financial world blamed TR for causing it, TR lashed back
Paved way for fiscal reforms
Aldrich-Vreeland Act
Fiscal reforms in the panic of 1907
Banks unable to increase volume of money in circulation
Those with ample reserves reluctant to lend to their competitors
Aldrich-Vreeland Act
Authorized national banks to issue emergency currency backed by various kinds of collateral. Paved way for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. In theory, more people could have $, spend it, and help out the economy
Election of 1908
Boring.
Roosevelt hand-picks for Taft
421k votes for Eugene V. Debs (Socialism)
TR's presidency charas
Political lightning rod to protect capitalists against popular resentment and socialism
Middle road between unbridled individualism and paternalistic collectivism
Lasting achievements of TR's presidency
Most lasting achievement: Conservation crusade (conservationists of wilderness and resource predators)
Enlarged power and prestige of presidential office
Helped shape the progressive movement and reform campaigns later in the century
Square Deal - grandfather of the New Deal
Opened the eyes of Americans to the fact that they shared the world with other nations
T/F: Roosevelt busted more trusts than Taft
False, Taft busted almost two times as many trusts
William Howard Taft, the other bull-necked president
Reputation as lawyer and judge, regarded as hostile to labor unions, trusted administrator under TR
Suffered from political handicaps: didn't have the charisma of TR, passive towards Congress, and poor judge of public opinion
Cabinet didn't contain any of the insurgent wing on fire for current issues (tariff)
Dollar diplomacy
In other words: Wall Street bankers encouraged to invest in areas of strategic concern to the US. Helped other countries while made $$ for the US
The government often encouraged bankers to:
invest their money in foreign places -> strengthened American defenses and foreign policies
Manchuria
Object of Taft's effort to inject the dollar into the Far East
Japan and Russia controlled the RRs here
Saw Chinese economic interests and a slamming of the Open Door in the faces of US merchants
Philander C. Knox
Proposed that a group of American and foreign bankers buy the Manchurian RRs and turn them over to China under a self-liquidating arrangement
Japan and Russia rejected -> Taft ridiculed
Caribbean involvement
Washington encouraged Wall Street bankers to pump money into Honduras and Haiti to keep out foreign funds. Couldn't allow other countries to invade under the Monroe Doctrine
American forces in the Caribbean
Disorders in Cuba, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic made marines be deployed there
Taft the Trustbuster
Brought more suits against trusts than TR did
1911 - SC demanded the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company (violated Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890) -> rule of reason
Taft decided to press an antitrust suit against US Steel Corporation -> upset Roosevelt
"Rule of reason"
Only those combinations that "unreasonably" restrained trade were illegal
Bureau of Mines
Controlled the mineral resources, attempt at conservation by Taft
Note
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