APUSH: Fraser Ch.19 (1879-1917)

The Progressive Movement

1890-1917

led to the electoral success of Theodore Roosevelt & successors

reform efforts to end corruption & monopolies/trusts

Temperance (anti-alcohol) & Protestant reformers

Many different types of progressives

in response to the anger that addressed the strikes in the 1890s/1900s

fueled by immigration, urbanization, and rapid industrialization

new intellectual climate & proposed new ways for ordering economic, political, and social life

Included a lot of different voices (women, religious figures etc.) but driven mostly by the middle class

local-> state-> national (gradual)

Efficient urban management seen as cold and heartless by some residents who were used to more face-to-face dealings of old style political machines & bosses

Sometimes seen as an effort to restore power in cities to old protestant elite.

Henry George

1877

Young journalist in California

published Progress and Poverty (1879)

Benefits to industrialization but also many complaints.

Solution: 100% tax on increase in value of land to make it cheaper for farming & create a labor shortage that would increase wages and lead to better working conditions= the Single Tax Movement

The Single Tax Movement

Proposed by Henry George in 1879.

The Single Tax= 100% tax on increase in real estate value.

Meant to keep property values low and limit accumulation of wealth while spreading opportunity (farming) more broadly in the society.

Became a big political movement- Single Tax Clubs- but never enacted.

Led to a permanent reform coalition in NY even though Henry George lost his bid for election as Mayor.

Edward Bellamy

1888

Published Looking Backward that described a classless society free of lawyers & politics.

Utopian idealist.

Ignatius Donnelly

1891

Caesar's Column

contrasted to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward.

Rigidly divided country w/ large working class in brutal living conditions and small elite class

John Dewey

Best remembered for educational ideas but his goal was philosophical response to industrialization.

Married to Alice Chapman Dewey.

Talked to Pullman strikers to see their perspective.

Opposed Social Darwinism

Wise ppl should intervene in economy to make it more just.

Supported by Oliver Wendell Holmes & Richard Ely

Wrote The School and Society- progressive education

Social Darwinism

The application of Charles Darwin's theory of biological evolution to society. The fittest and the wealthiest should thrive & the weak/poor "deserve" their fate.

Gov't should not alter this "natural" process.

William Graham Sumner

"Survival of the fittest" coined by British writer Herbert Spencer

Richard Ely

young scholar in 1880s-90s opposed to Social Darwinism.

Developed economic theory that called for gov't to intervene directly in economic affairs.

Albion Small

Built new academic discipline of Sociology.

Sociologists did not just study society- they reformed it.

"Action, not speculation, is the supreme teacher"

part of a generation of academics who shared the goal of changing society.

Muckraking Journalists

Journalism exposing economic, social, and political evils.

Named by Theodore Roosevelt for its "raking the muck" from the bottom of American society.

Joseph Pulitzer's New York Evening World, William Randolph Hearst, Henry Demarest Lloyd, S.S. McClure, Ida M. Tarbell, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

Ida M. Tarbell

1903

Muckraking journalist who wrote articles on John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company's treatment of employees and monopoly on oil.

Joseph Pulitzer

Late 1800s-1900s

Made the New York Evening World the largest circulation paper in the country.

Banner headlines, comic strips, & investigative journalism.

Exposé on the Equitable Life Assurance

Society's abuse of ppl's money- leading to the election of reform republican Charles Hughes & new regulations on insurance industry

William Randolph Hearst

Imitated Pulitzer's tactics for his paper & purchased New York Morning Journal to compete w/ him.

Exposés of NY corruption.

Henry Demarest Lloyd

Muckraking journalist in Chicago

covered the 1877 railroad strike

1881 Standard Oil Company exposé

one of the first Muckraking journalists

1894 book Wealth against Commonwealth- denounced monopolies

Created Cosmopolitan magazine for investigative journalism

Upton Sinclair

1906

Published the Jungle about the horrible and unsanitary working conditions in the meat packing industry.

Immediate public response

led to Federal Meat Inspection Act & Pure Food and Drug Act that regulated the meat/ food & drug industries.

Change in US population during the Progressive Era

(after 1870-1900)

Population almost doubled

1/3rd of growth due to immigration

High birth rate

Population concentrated in cities

Tammany Hall

New York City's Democratic Party organization, from before the Civil War, that evolved into a powerful political machine after 1860.

Used patronage and bribes to maintain control of city administration.

Promised immigrants jobs.

development projects for money & political favors for bribes.

William Boss Tweed ( English protestant. Attacked by cartoonist Thomas Nast & arrested)

John "Honest John" Kelly- first of many Irish politicians to run Tammany

Close links to immigrant communities & Catholic parishes

Boston political machines

Politics played at neighborhood level

Patrick J. Kennedy (East Boston)

John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (North End)

Martin Lomasney (West End)- most powerful

Marriage b/tween Fitzgerald's daughter & Kennedy's son --> JFK

Initiative

Procedure by which citizens can introduce a subject for legislation through a petition signed by a specific number of voters.

Legislation at state level seen as essential by progressives to limit power of corporations & political machines. Gave voters chance to change policy

Referendum

Submission of a law, proposed or already in effect, to a direct popular vote for approval or rejection.

Recall

Process of removing an official from office by popular vote, usually after using petitions to call for such a vote

Progressive education

1899 The School and Society by John Dewey describing his approach to progressive education.

The Laboratory School (Dewey & Ella Flagg Young) in Chicago= child-centered approach not structure.

Other progressives thought education should be more business-like.

Teachers wanted to restructure schools for more pay and voice.

Some thought that education should be scientific w/ standardized testing.

Jane Addams

1913

lived at Hull House (settlement house in Chicago)

All citizens had a role to play in defining what a good life was.

Provide services and better housing for urban poor.

Not the first settlement house, but served as the model for future houses.

Reformers met those they helped face to face.

Support in legal/labor disputes & helped women strikers by launching a cooperative women's boarding house when they lost their company housing.

Religious response to the Gilded Age

Many reformers were Protestant & reform efforts echoes ideas of individualism/ Protestant Christianity.

Emphasized personal & social transformation.

The Temperance movement

The Social Gospel

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

A national organization formed after the civil war in 1874 dedicated to prohibiting the sale and distribution of alcohol.

"Demon Rum"

Temperance movement sparked by the Panic of 1873- husbands spent too much on alcohol & it led to abuse

led by Frances E. Willard- broadened its goals to politics.

Women needed right to vote so they could vote on matters affecting drink & the home = "home protection"

Carry Nation

Kansas woman in the temperance movement who smashed up local saloon after her first husband drank himself to death.

"Hatchetations" of saloons- symbol of the violent side of the Temperance movement

Theodore Roosevelt

1901

McKinley's vp who became the youngest president ever at that time after McKinley died from a gun wound after he was shot by an anarchist.

Republican progressive- first of the progressive presidents.

War hero from the Spanish-American War (Rough Riders) & governor of NY

"trustbuster" - limited power of industrial corporations- made an example of the Northern Securities Company Limited using the Sherman Antitrust Act to break it up (brought the act back to life)

1904 Supreme court affirmed Roosevelt's interpretation.

Department of Commerce with investigative authority, ban on secret railroad deals, and more money for Dept. of Justice to try antitrust cases

Endorsed a "Square Deal" for business and labor

"good trusts" vs "bad trusts"

Regulation of big business/railroads

Added 50 wildlife refuges, 5 national parks, and system of designating national monuments

published The Strenuous Life

Teddy bears

Invited Booker T. Washington to the White House & speeches on lynchings- symbolic (no actions/laws passed)

Easily re-elected in 1904, decided not to run in 1908 even though he could have won (followed precedent of 2 terms)

The Sherman Antitrust Act

1890

First federal antitrust measure.

Promote economic competition by prohibiting business combinations in restraint of trade or commerce.

Outlawed business practices that unfairly raised costs for consumers.

Preservation vs Conservation

Preservation= can never be used or sold (National parks/ monuments)

Conservation= gov't land conserved for future use- still debated today

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

1883

Law reforming spoils system by prohibiting government workers from making political contributions and by creating the Civil Service Commission to oversee their appointment on the basis of merit.

Supported by Chester A. Arthur (President after Garfield)

Roosevelt and African Americans

Invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House.

Mixed record on African American rights

More symbolic support than action- no intervention in south.

Gov't integrated in civil service

Election of 1908

Republicans: William Howard Taft (chosen by Roosevelt)

Democrats: William Jennings Bryan

Socialists: Eugene V. Debs

Taft won

Roosevelt thought he would continue his progressive policies, but was disappointed by Taft's conservatism.

William Howard Taft

1908

President after Roosevelt

Federal district court judge & Secretary of War before presidency.

More conservative Republican than Roosevelt (progressive)

Disappointed TR- did not continue some of his progressive ideas (in some aspects he was actually more progressive)

Signed the revised Payne-Aldrich tariff bill that did not lower the tariff & vetoed later bills to lower tariff on cotton, wool, steel, & iron- connected himself to the Aldrich conservative wing of Republican party- split party for the next election

Fired Roosevelt's Gifford Pinchot from the US Forest Service b/c he disagreed w/ Richard A. Ballinger (Secretary of the Interior)

8-hr work day for gov't workers

Sixteenth Amendment to Constitution (Federal income tax)

Tougher trustbuster than TR- broke up Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company & brought more anti-trust suits than Roosevelt

The Sixteenth Amendment

1913

(President Taft)

Ensured a federal income tax could be collected

Woodrow Wilson

1908

Progressive democrat

New Freedom (used to beat Roosevelt's New Nationalism)

4 major initiatives for his administration: [conservation, access to raw materials, banking & finance, and tariff & taxes]

National Park Service

Underwood-Simmons Tariff

Added to Sherman Anti-Trust Act with the Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914) going after specific unfair trade practices

Allowed segregation in federal gov't offices & showed the movie Birth of a Nation (glorified KKK) at the White House

Anti-immigrant

Federal Reserve System

Underwood-Simmons Tariff- used power of 16th Amendment

Federal Trade Commission

Domestic affairs

The Federal Reserve

1908 (President Wilson)

Main function to regulate economic growth

Can expand or retract currency supply- stimulate economic growth by expanding currency & in times of inflation can reduce the flow of currency.

Raises/lowers interest rates at which Fed loans money to other banks (The Fed Rate)

If you lower interest rates ppl will borrow/spend- if you raise interest rates ppl will save.

Took some power out of JP Morgan's hands- restored federal control of banking which had been ended with Jackson's destruction of the Bank of the United States.

S.S. McClure

Created McClure's Magazine in 1893

leader in field of investigative journalism.

If ppl knew what was wrong w/ society they would change it.

Key role in Progressive movement.

Ida M. Tarbell's analysis of Rockefeller's Standard Oil

What contributed to the population growth between 1870 and 1900?

1/3= immigration

2/3= high birth rates

Population almost doubled & became concentrated in cities.

The rise of political machines

As cities grew and population increased new urban politics formed b/c cities were the entry for immigrants. Politics= way to gain social respectability.

Need for new services.

In political machines, constituents supported a candidate in return for favors once the candidate got elected.

Tammany Hall in NY- created jobs w/ development projects and gave aid to families in need

Politics in Boston= neighborhood level (Patrick Kennedy, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, Martin Lomasney)

Increased cost of municipal govt and shut the children/grandchildren of native born elite out of office.

Progressive urban reforms

Sometimes came across as cold and heartless compared to the personal nature of political machines that gave handouts to families in need.

Focused on efficient urban management.

Wanted to cut costs-attacked many services.

Some saw it as an effort by old protestant elite to reclaim power.

Wanted to end municipal corruption.

Included members of both parties.

Grover Cleveland

Democrat Mayor of Buffalo, NY- reformer

Promised to end corruption.

Honest.

Hazen S. Pingree

Mayor of Detroit (Republican reformer)

Shoe manufacturer in the 1880s

Challenged the awarding of city contracts for schools, toll roads, and sewer services.

Forced City Railway Company to cut fares when they asked for a long term contract.

Convinced owners of vacant lots to let the city use them for the unemployed during the depression of 1893. Gave ppl seeds and farm tools to start potato patches -"Potato Patch Pingree"

Samuel M. Jones

"Golden Rule Jones"

Mayor of Toledo, Ohio 1897-1904

Originally a day laborer who rose to own an oil company- sold to Standard Oil.

Opened kindergartens, parks, and ensured an 8hr work day.

Denounced political parties.

National reputation of good govt and effective public services

The Tammany Twins

Alfred E. Smith (House) and Robert F. Wagner (Senate)

Chosen by Tammany boss Charles Murphy to be party leaders.

Created the New York Factory Investigating Commission after Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire- hired strikers to investigate conditions.

The Wagner Act

Sponsored Social Security system & unemployment insurance/workmen's compensation

Francis Perkins

A social worker who had seen the Triangle Fire and volunteered w/ the NY Factory Investigating Commission.

Worked w/ the Tammany Twins (Alfred Smith and Robert Wagner) to write legislation for sprinklers, fire drills, unlocked exits, and reorganization of Dept. of Labor.

Served as head of state Dept. of Labor and became first woman to serve in the cabinet as US Secretary of Labor in 1933-45

The Wagner Act

Robert Wagner (Tammany Twins)

Gave labor unions right to bargain effectively

John Dewey's opinion on progressive education

The School and Society 1899

Worked w/ Alice Chapman Dewey and Ella Flagg Young to open the Laboratory School as a child-centered approach. Emphasis from curriculum to needs of child.

Not all progressives agreed w/ them- some thought goal was to make education more scientific and use standardized testing

The Henry Street Visiting Nurses

Lillian Wald and Mary Brewster.

Visiting nurses based in settlement houses visited the tenement apartments of the poor to bring medical help.

How is religion connected to progressive reform?

Reform efforts often took on the language of evangelical religion.

Both reform & revival emphasized personal and social change & used govt to cause changes in behavior.

Many reformers were Protestant.

Progressive reforms rooted in individualistic ethos of Protestantism.

Charles M. Sheldon

1897

Young minister who wrote In His Steps that asked "What would Jesus do?"- led many protestants to embrace reforms

The Social Gospel

Application of Religious ethics to industrial conditions and thereby alleviating poverty, slums, and labor exploitation.

Based on idea that improving society was the right thing for religious ppl to do & God's will.

Walter Rauschenbusch

(Protestant)

Walter Rauschenbusch

1917

Wrote A Theology for the Social Gospel that broadened the definition of sin from individual flaws to encompass social institutions that were oppressive.

George D. Herron

Social gospel pastor

"The Message of Jesus to Men of Wealth"= "a rich Christian is a contradiction of terms"

Josiah Strong

Social gospel magazine publisher & advocate for missionary work in American cities and around the world.

Catholic reaction to the Progressive movement and Gilded Age

Cardinal James Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore, defended labor movement.

Rise of monopolies was against Catholicism.

Focused more on private devotional activities or street festivals to the Virgin Mary- faith = refuge not a way to change society.

Mother Cabrini

Jewish opinion on the labor movement and reforms

Jewish community split slightly on Progressive issues.

Some first generation immigrants put their religious energy into secular reform and labor movements.

Rabbis worried that focus on secular politics could harm the spiritual world of the immigrants.

Saw anarchists and union radicals as taking ppl away from faith.

Mother Cabrini

Served needs of Italian Catholic immigrants (1889) but stayed out of labor organizing and politics.

How did William McKinley die?

President McKinley was shot by an anarchist at the American Exposition in Buffalo, NY and died of an infection.

Succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt

1901

Jacob Riis

Immigrant from Denmark

Newspaper reporter who published How the Other Half Lives (1890)- described life of poor New Yorkers to the upper class through photos and writing.

The Northern Securities Company Limited

James J. Hill (Great Northern Railroad), E.H. Harriman (Union Pacific), & JP Morgan (Northern Pacific)

Ended the railroad competition across the northern plains and allowed the company to raise prices.

Attacked by Roosevelt under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

The Strenuous Life

Roosevelt's book arguing that Americans did nor get enough time outside and the strenuous life in nature needed to be protected for future generations by conserving America's natural resources.

Roosevelt's conservation

Professionalized conservation with the forest rangers and Division of Forestry.

Gifford Pinchot appointed to be head of US Forest Service.

Used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to set aside national monuments and parks.

Worked around senator Charles W. Fulton's bill to prohibit additional national parks or have no funds for the Dept. of Agriculture by creating 21 new reserves in the 10 days before he had to sign the bill and then signing it.

The Payne-Aldrich Tariff

Sereno Payne: reduce tariffs and create an income tax to eliminate protection for industries that no longer needed it

Nelson Aldrich: raise tariff and drop income tax

The revised tariff was what Aldrich wanted (higher w/ no income tax) and Taft signed it despite his progressive promises.

The Election of 1912

Roosevelt first competed w/ Taft for Republican nomination but Taft controlled party machinery- Roosevelt became the new Progressive Party nominee (first major convention to include women delegates)

Democrats: Woodrow Wilson

Socialists: Eugene V. Debs

Democrats held the "solid south" and the Republican party was split b/tween Progressives and Republicans who sided w/ Taft.

Wilson won.

Senator Robert La Follette

Wanted to challenge Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912

More open nominating process, income tax to limit power of rich, destroy monopolies that Roosevelt only wanted to regulate & appealed by connections to white south.

Horrible speech ended his bid for the nomination

The Progressive Party

Election of 1912

Nominee: Theodore Roosevelt

First major convention to include female delegates. Also included African Americans.

Labor unions, conservation, women's suffrage, old age insurance, workmen's compensation.

Jane Addams gave 1st convention speech by a woman.

Governmental oversight of monopolies (as opposed to socialist ownership)

New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson's 1912 program for government intervention in the economy to restore competition by curtailing the business monopolies, providing opportunities for individual achievement.

The Underwood-Simmons Tariff

Woodrow Wilson

1913

Investigated lobbyists' involvement w/ several senators to get his bill passed.

Reduced tax on goods imported into US by at least 10% and introduced new Federal income tax under the 16th amendment.

1% of income above $4,000.

The Federal Reserve System

Woodrow Wilson & Senator Carter Glass

Built coalition of the Democrats and Progressive Republicans to take control of nation's finances.

Created the Federal Reserve to end Morgan's interventions that didn't help small farmers or small business.

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act

1914

Woodrow Wilson

Outlawed interlocking directorates (same person could not serve on boards of competing companies) and defined unfair trade.

No collusion over prices that had created Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company.

Expected labor unions and farmer cooperatives from being charged w/ restraining trade.

Federal Trade Commission

1914

Woodrow Wilson

Government agency to provide regulatory oversight of business activity and limit growth/ power of monopolies.

Wilson's disappointments

Did not support a bill for Child Labor reforms that died in the senate.

Did not fight for credits to help farmers.

African Americans deeply disappointed- WEB DuBois had endorsed him but Wilson only spoke vaguely about investigating race and ultimately segregated federal buildings.

Allowed Birth of a Nation (glorified KKK) to be shown at the White House.