AP US History Chapter 28

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

Name applied by Taft's critics to the *policy* of *supporting US investments* and *political interests* abroad. First applied to the financing of the railways in China after 1909, the policy then spread to Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua
--
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