apush period 7 (pt. 1)

The Progressive Era / progressivism

1890s-1920s

progressivism = improvement through human intervention

society can’t fix its own problems, the gov is needed

muckrakers

journalists who began to direct the public attention to social, economic and political injustices

Rosevelt accused them of racking up much → muckraker name

committed to exposing scandal, corruption and injustice

wanted people to take greater interest in public life

helped inspire others to take action

expose trusts and RR

Ida Tarbell

notable muckraker journalist → famous for study of standard oil trust

Lincoln Steffens

A reporter for McClure's magazine and author of a famous book based on his articles (the shame of the cities (1904))

protraits of ‘machine govt’ and ‘boss rule’ and boodlers in diverse cities → aroused setiment for urban political reform

By 1900s, many MR were turning toward the govt

The Social Gospel

growing outrage at social and economic injustice → social justice movement → rise of “social gospel”

power movement with in American Protestantism → redeeming nations cities

salavation army → material and spiritual aid to urban poor

religous leaders left traditional work to serve poor cities

Jane Addams and Hull House

progressives disagreed with social darwinism → said lack of wealth was a product of an unhealthy environment

jane addams → social worker who opened hull house → model for similar institutions

staffed by members of educated middle class

helped immigrants with language and American customs

avoided moral disapproval, but believed they should impose middle class values on immigrants

women sheltered from “difficult environment”

origins of the career of social work

“The Professions”

late 1800s saw a dramatic expansion in numbers of American engaged in administrative and professional tasks

industries needed managers, technicians, accountants, workers

cities needed commercial, medicinal, legal and educational services

new tech needed → scientists, engineers → needed people to train them

NEW MIDDLE CLASS

high value on education and individual accomplishment

professionalism → changed to needing stricter practice of profession → AMA, NAM

association used to exclude people (AA, women, immigrants)

how was the role of women changing during the early 20th century

women barred from entering professions, but many had education and entered careers nonetheless

female dominated professions → settlement houses, social work,

teaching (90% of professional women), black women taught in segregated schools

children in school + new tech = household less consuming

lived longer, less children, higher divorce rate

radical challenge of women’s suffrage

suffrage advocated (Elizabeth Cady Stanton) argued that women are citizens and should have the same rights → challenged view that society needs separate spheres

anti-suffrage movement argued that it was linked to divorce, looseness and neglect of children

NAWSA

National American Women’s suffrage

Ann Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman = notable leaders

grew at the beginning of the 20th century because it was presented in a safer way → didn’t challenge spheres (women’s household sphere could contribute to politics), helped temperance movement, would decrease war with womans nature (backed by WW1)

19th amendment

1920 → political rights to women throughout nation

some women argued that if immigrants and black americans could vote educated “well born” women should be able to

WY (1869) = first to let women vote

before 1910 → many states extended suffrage

1939 = 39 states in at least some elections, 15 full participation

equal rights amendment

Alice Paul → didn’t support separate spheres

women needed constitutional amendment that would protect rights

to guarantee legal gender equality and eliminate sex-based discrimination

found limited favor

Booker t Washington

work for immediate self improvement rather than long range social change

WEB Dubois

argued for education for talented blacks and fought for civil rights

founded the NAACP → won Guinn v US (grandfather clause), Buchannon v worly (residential segregation),

leading black organization, aruged against lynching and wanted fed laws against segregation

WCTU

Womens Christian Temperance Movement

Frances willard

largest womens org in US history up until that point

fought legal abolition of saloons and sale and manufacturing of alcohol

employers favored movement due to efficiency issues

18th amendment

advocates began to advocate for a national prohibition law, WW1 provided push

1919- ratified

1920- became law (effective)

appealed by 21st amendment (1933) due to increased crime and difficulty enforcing it

eugenics and nativism

some progressives wanted to help/assimilate immigrants while others wanted to limit immigrants

scholarly theories argued that immigrants were polluting nation → eugenics → effort to grade races and ethnic groups according to genetic qualities, forced sterlization (disabled, criminals)

inequalities = hereditary

immigrants contributing to mulitplication of the unfit

buck v bell → A Virginia law allowed for the sexual sterilization of inmates of institutions to promote the health of the patient and the welfare of society

Eugene Debs

1900-1914 - critiques of capitalism → socialist party of American

support from communities (germans and jews), protestant farmers

won election in state and local offices

ran for pres 5 times, last time in jail (at peak got 6% of the votes in 1912)

wobblies

IWW → industrial workers of the world

militant radical labor union

lead by william (big bill) haywood

advocated for single union of all unskilled workers in the US and abolition of wage slave system, rejected strikes

believed to be responsible for acts of terror (dynamighting RR lines)

helped unskilled workers

unpopular in WW1 → anti war, composed of many immigrants, framed as threat to public safety (xenophobia, increased nationalism)

strike → govt wrath and lost support

how did progressives try to reorders society

tried to use the gov to change issues

wanted gov to restore econ to a more human pace

Teddy Rosevelt

“Trust buster”, progressive, against monopolies

sends fed troups to mining companies → makes them neg before strike happens, forced arbitration

used SATA and HA and emported DoJ to break up standard oil

the square deal

northern securities act

TR ordered DoJ to invoke the sherman anti trust act against northern securities company (rr monopoly)

President Theodore Roosevelt used the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up the Northern Securities Company, a holding company controlling major railroads like the Great Northern and Northern Pacific, establishing the government's power to regulate monopolies and big business during the Progressive Era. 

Pure Food and Drug Act 1906

sough restricted sale of dangerous or ineffective medicines

meat inspection act → helped eliminate diseases in meat

TR also worked for better working conditions

Hepburn Act 1906

allowed for limited gov control over the RR (gov could see if RR rates were just and reasonable)

sought to restore some gov regulating authority to the gov → satified few progressives

TR asked congress for legislation to increase gov power over RR rates

conservation and preservation

conservation → restricted priv dev on land, instead added to national forest system, promoted policies to protect land for carefully managed dev

preservation → protected natural beauty of land and health of wildlife form human intrusion, added to national park system

newlands act → provided fed funds for the construction of dams, reservoirs, canels in west → opened land for cultivation

forest reserve act 1891 → reserve 150 million acres of unspoiled land

Woodrow Wilson

progressive, professor, gov of NJ, won passage of progressive legislation

enforced income tax

lower tariffs to increase competition

FRA

proposed 14pts League of Nations

enforced segreation in the fed gov (brings it back)

held viewing of “birth of a nation”

“New Freedom”

1912 as pres canidate → NF → wanted to destroy monopolies

advocated accepting econ consentration and using gov to regulate and control it

proper response to monopolies was not to regulate but destroy it

Federal Reserve Act

12 region banks, each to be owned and controlled by individual banks of its district (major reform of US banking system)

FR banks would hold percent of the assets of their member bank in a reserve, use these reserves to support loands in private banks at an interest

FR notes - paper currency, backed by gov

to what extent did TR and WW reshape the US?

ended laissez-faire through progressive reforms

expanded fed power, championed labor rights and conservation

improved working conditions, regulated child labor

fought against monopolies, protected land

reformed US banking system

new technologies in the “New Era”

radio → became possible to transmit speech and music

air travel → laid ground work for new wave of travel in 1930s and beyond

new plastics → du pont

telephones

trains → faster and more efficient trains, airplanes, electronic, telephones

computers → early computers developed

Women and minorities in the work place

women → “pink collar jobs” → low paying service occupations

black excluded from skilled crafts and organizations → service jobs (janitors, dishwashers, etc)

increase of Japanese, filipino and Mexican immigrant workers

actively excluded from white dominated unions

The American Plan

protecting the open shop → a shope where no worker could be required to join a union

became pretext for a harsh campaign of union busting across the US

Mechanized farming

new mechanics for increasing production in agriculture

tractors power by internal combustion engines (like cars)

possible to produce more crop with fewer workers

technologies increased agriculture productivities, but demand for goods didn’t rise as fast = bad

how did the American economy change in the 1920s

creation of a mass consumer culture

items bought for pleasure and luxury

huge increase in automobiles

first wave of feminism

end of 1800s to early 1900s (ends with 19th amendment which was the main fight)

National American Women’s Suffrage Association

NAWSA

2 million members by 1917

some racist roots (not necessarily fighting for all women)

white women

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

National Women’s Party

Alice Paul (head of party)

many imprisoned, hunger strikes

picketing, strikes, public protests

hunger strikes AP → showed her passion

Indigenous assimilation

160s-1890s → systematic actions taken to remove and assimilate indigenous populations

Dawes act → fams given land but limited to 160 acres, promote private ownership, no more communal living

90 million acres go to us govt → national parks (often associated with TR)

Carlisle boarding school → designed to white wash indigenous children

why was there a boom in the 20s

after WW1, the US was the only truly healthy industrial power in the world

tech and industrial expansion

automobile industry → assembly line

automobile increased demand for suburban housing → construction industry

welfare capitalism

some employers wanted to avoid disruptive labor unrest and growth of independent trade unions → welfare capitalism

henry ford shorted workweek, raised wages and instituted payed vacations

some able to take a pension for retirement

was mostly to stop unions and didn’t help workers all that much

urban and rural divide

urban - modern liberate world

rural - isolationism, return to American values

Scopes Monkey Trail

John scopes, TN teacher teaches about evolution

violates NS law against teaching evolution (can’t teach a theory that denies or contradicts the bible)

William Jennings Bryan -prosecutor, fundalmentalist, protector of Protestant values

scopes is found guilty

Volstead Act

1919

empowers the FBI to enforce prohibition

Prohibition

Alcohol still widely available at speak easies

bootleggers smuggle alcohol -organized crime

short term causes of GD

general conditions - unstable market economy, accumulation of wealth does not regulate itself

lack of diversity - econ is reliant on specific booming industry (auto, construction)

poor distribution of wealth - half of families living at or bellow poverty line, top 5% hold 1/3 of wealth

credit structure - farmers in debt, defult on loans, same banks close, reckless speculation, people don’t have a good grasp on how the econ works

lack of euro markets - high tariffs, reimergence of european industry, countries that owe high reparations, no demand for exports, no purchasing power

Black Tuesday (oct 29, 1929)

stock market crashes

led to banking collapse

9000 bankes, $2.5 million in deposits are lost

over speculation → prices rise above actual value, belief it could only grow, panic selling on black Thursday

belief in personal responsibility

americans taught to believe that unemployment and poverty were signs of personal failure

helplessness and shame of unemployment was a challenge to traditional notions of masculinity

dust bowl

decades long drought from texas to dakotas

fertile farm regions turned into desert

dust storm suffocated live stock and foolish people

effects of GD on AA

collapse of crop prices → little to no income for black famers

many left land in search of new jobs → conditions not much better in north (less discrimination though)

50% unemployment

whites in southern cities demanded black jobs with intimidation and violence

effects of GD on Hispanics

high rates of unemployment

many left the US for mexico

excluded from most relief programs no access to schools or hospitals

some resistance but little impact

effects of GD on asian americans

reinforced patters of discim and econ marginalization

jobs stolen by whites

japanese citizens league → goal of assimilating to the US

effect of GD on women

dissapproval of employment

gender expectations

still an increase of employment

how did the GP change American culture

retreat from consumerism

informal break up of families

marriage and birthrate decrease

criticisms of american society and econ system

reinforcement of traditional values and goals

self blame, some wouldn’t leave their home out of shame

one way FDR restored confidence

possitive personality

first pres to make reg use of radio → fireside chats

economy act 1933

designed to convince americans that gov was safe

balance fed budget → cut salaries of gov employees, reduced veteran pensions