USII Summer Homework Part I (Progressivism & Reform)

What kind of people were the Progressives?

Middle class, reform-minded, Northeastern, urban, educated, and Protestant people.

What did the 20th century focus on?

Populism ideals and reform.

Who were the 3 Progressive Presidents?

Roosevelt, (Republican) Taft, (Republican) and Wilson (Democrat)

What is the central idea of Progressivism?

Laissez-faire is wrong and that the people and the government should work together to help solve problems.

Why did Progressivism decline?

World War I started, so people focused on the war instead of domestic problems.

What were some roots of the Progressive movement? (5)

1. Urbanization

2. Middle-class, educated women wanting reform in cities

   • Jane Addams: Progressive reformer

3. Settlement House Movement: summary of Progressive ideals

4. Temperance: helping family life

5. “Social Gospel” preachers: addressed the needs of city residents

Describe the Progressive works of Henry George, Edward Bellamy, and Thorstein Veblen.

1. George: “Progress and Poverty”

   • Land sale profits have to be fully taxed

   • Blamed wealth inequality and landowners

2. Bellamy: “Looking Backward”

   • The hero wakes up in 2000 and sees the Gilded Age challenges going away due to activists & socialism

3. Veblen: “the Theory of Leisure Class”

   • Rich families spent money on expensive things which should be put to better use

What is Pragmatism?

It was based on why people should accept suffering due to natural selection, and the answer was that humans adapt to environments that suit their purposes. People don’t need to accept Social Darwinism. This is better, as an active government helps socially by being an agent of the public. Dewey applied this to education through “learning by doing,” which is better than memorizing.

Describe the Populist influence.

Populists influenced Progressives through referendum, the secret ballot, recall, initiative, & rejecting free silver. Most reforms were state level. Income tax & direct senator elections (16th & 17th amendments) were Populist ideas, child labor regulations & workers’ compensation increased, & skilled technicians got to make important decisions instead of politicians. Other reforms tried to root out corruption through new city governments.

Muckrackers

Republicans became more powerful and writing to Congress about problems was slow, so muckrakers, a group of reports, exposed severe injustices in America which led to pricey newspaper subscriptions.

Steffens’s influence on corruption

He published “Tweed Days in St. Louis,” exposing how city officials worked with big businesses through corrupting the treasury for power. He published “The Shame of the Cities” which helped the public demand reform and strengthened Progressive ideas of a city manager or city commission system.

Tarbell vs. Standard Oil (Steffens)

She wrote “History of the Standard Oil Company” in McClure’s Magazine which documented the cutthroat strategies behind Rockefeller’s rise. Other publications hired their own muckrakers due to how much profit it gained.

Examples of muckrakers (5)

1. Lawson: “Frenzied Finance” (stock market)

2. Spargo: “The Bitter Cry of the Children” (child labor)

3. Phillips: “The Treason of the Senate” (linked senators to big businesses)

4. Hard: “Making Steel and Men” (accidents in the steel industry)

5. Baker: “Following the Color Line” (revealed Southern Black oppression)

Sinclair’s “The Jungle” & effects

Sinclair was a socialist who explained the capitalist effects of Chicago meatpacking industry workers. Workers sacrificed limbs, fingers, freezing conditions, & long hours for low pay. He saw spoiled meat covered with chemicals, body parts being packaged as cheese, & rats in warehouses. Congress passed the Pure Food & Drug Act & Meat Inspection Act.

Women’s Suffrage

The Seneca Falls Convention demanded women’s suffrage for the first time. Females were angry because the 15th amendment proposed suffrage for Black males.

AWSA and NWSA

Stone & Blackwell founded the American Women Suffrage Association & pressured state governments, but Anthony & Stanton founded the National Women Suffrage Association & wanted a constitutional amendment. This weakened the movement. The NWSA forced officials to turn votes away by setting up mock ballots so women can vote in protest and the AWSA stood up to state governments.

NAWSA

Stanton and Anthony were the Presidents of the National American Women Suffrage Association which helped with new reform and combined the AWSA & NWSA. States west of the Mississippi got full women’s suffrage and the Midwest allowed women to vote in presidential elections. NAWSA heads to win a state in each region for a national amendment and they supported the war. Prominent positions held by women gained support and after Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, it was added to the Constitution.

Booker T. Washington

He helped with change in the South. He was born into slavery, got an education, and became a teacher. He established the Tuskegee Institute for practical education and thought that quick social equality would be unproductive. The institute was a hub of agricultural research because he would train Blacks in helpful skills. He published “Up From Slavery,” an autobiography about him being a self-made man and he was invited to the White House by Roosevelt.

George Washington Carver

A student at the Tuskegee Institute that discovered new uses for crops and proved that agricultural lands would be more productive by diversifying crops. This meant a rise in economic status for African Americans.

What were some of the problems African Americans were facing in the South?

• Jim Crow laws

• The Supreme Court not implementing “separate but equal” societies promised in Plessy vs. Ferguson

• Poll taxes, literacy tests, violence, and intimidation

• Poor sharecroppers with debt

Atlanta Compromise

Washington said that Blacks should focus on education that benefits them and if Blacks were productive society members, equality would happen. Whites approved, but the Blacks split because people thought he was messing with Southern racism even though Washington was the leader of the Black Community.

W.E.B. DuBois

He was Washington’s enemy and thought that integration & social equality wasn’t what suited African Americans. He was a free Black & got his college education from Fisk & Harvard and liked a classical education. Blacks could be stripped of their rights through legal loopholes. He attacked Jim Crow Laws, oppositions against Black Suffrage, and published “The Souls of Black Folk”: a series of essays attacking Washington’s strategy. He edited “The Crisis” which glorified Black culture and achievements, but lost hope that equality could be achieved.

Talented Tenth

A group that people would rely on to improve their social status.

The Niagara Movement/NAACP

Dubois & 30 men drafted demands to end all discrimination but was condemned as radical by whites, but educated Blacks supported it. They formed the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) for national equality & wanted to improve the image of Blacks. They thought that Blacks accepted their position being second class citizens.

Why did some people dislike Roosevelt? Describe some of Roosevelt’s accomplishments and early life.

He was reckless, a popular threat, a war hero, and governor of New York. He helped McKinley get reelected by being Vice President due to his popularity, but he wouldn’t be as powerful. People were scared of him due to his headstrong and individualistic attitude. Roosevelt was born rich and was frail and had poor eyesight. However, he was dedicated to fitness and married Alice Lee. He loved nature, dedicated his life to public service, was assistant secretary to the navy, police commissioner of NY, & was part of the Civil Service Commission. He formed the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War & they were a success. He was the 1st President to win the Nobel Prize & leave the country. He also was photographed everywhere to show America to see a leader who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. However, he was mainly loved & honored by the people.

Describe Roosevelt’s bully pulpit.

Roosevelt sided with American labor with more conservation and used the presidency to promote an active government that protected the people more than businesses. (bully pulpit) This scared Conservatives as Roosevelt was a Progressive. Roosevelt picked Taft to succeed him, but Taft did a bad job.

How was Wilson a Progressive Democrat?

After Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican vote in 1912, the party split, and Wilson, a Progressive Democrat, won. He helped the government restrict trust, ban child labor, & require worker compensation. Progressive causes, temperance, & women’s suffrage were written in the Constitution.

What were some of Roosevelt’s beliefs?

He thought that nobody should control the people’s representatives, there would be a violent revolution if workers abuse wasn’t addressed, was anti-socialist, thought that no one was above the law, wanted restrained capitalism, thought there was no limit to greed, and thought that financiers & people in trusts were foolish due to the rest of the country doing poorly while they were doing very well. He criticized the American wealthy class by saying an uprising could destroy everything, exploiting the public, & thought that industry bosses were arrogant in thinking they were better than the government.

Sherman Antitrust Act

It said that anything that restrained trade was illegal. The US courts sided with business when this act was reinforced.

Roosevelt vs. J.P. Morgan

Morgan controlled a railroad company called Northern Securities with Hill & Harriman. Roosevelt’s Attorney General sued Morgan, so Morgan tried to appeal to Roosevelt because he was being treated like a criminal. Roosevelt said he couldn’t compromise & that this affair would go to court. Roosevelt said that if Morgan did anything wrong regarding his other business ventures, Morgan would be penalized for that in court.

Reforms in trusts by Roosevelt

Roosevelt thought that if a trust provided good service & had reasonable rates, it would be left alone. But, if a bad trust jacked up rates & exploited customers, it would be attacked. He made these decisions and the public loved it. Moreover, Morgan’s company was dissolved.

Reforms in labor by Roosevelt

Governors & mayors used the National Guard & police to stop strikes, but when coal miners in PA went on strike led by Mitchell, president of the United Mine workers, Roosevelt tried to negotiate a strike settlement. This was because Mitchell demanded union recognition, better wages, & shorter hours, but Baer, representing the owners, refused. They weren’t able to compromise because Baer didn’t want to, so violence erupted.

How did Roosevelt help in the Mitchell vs. Baer strike situation?

Roosevelt invited them to the White House. Mitchell wanted an arbitration commission but Baer refused. Roosevelt said that violence would lead to a class civil war. Roosevelt vowed to end the strike by getting Root, the War Secretary, to prepare the army, but not take action against strikers. Coal operators knew that if no settlement was reached, the army would make coal available to everyone. So, Morgan convinced Baer & others to dispute the commission and the strike ended. Workers got a 10% pay increase & their workday was reduced to 8-9 hours. Owners weren’t forced to recognize the United Mine Workers, and workers now loved Roosevelt.

Problems with land/Sierra Club

Farmers worked on overworked soil, depleting nutrients, land eroded because miners removed layers of topsoil, & forests were shrinking with less wildlife. The Sierra Club worked to stop the sale of public lands to private developers, and Roosevelt helped.

How did Roosevelt help with land conservation? (Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902)

Roosevelt backed the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902, encouraging developers & homesteaders live on land without irrigation works. If the buyer assumed irrigation costs & lived on the land for at least 5 years, lands were sold cheaper so the government used the revenue to irrigate more lands. Over 1 million barren acres were improved. Harrison’s Forest Reserve Act empowered Roosevelt to declare national forests and withdraw public lands from development. Around 150M acres of land were deemed national forests & could not be deforested. Conservation & wildlife societies soared, boy & girl scouts formed, & 16 national parks were opened.

Describe the transition from Roosevelt to Taft.

Taft was governor of the Philippines and was friends with Roosevelt and Taft became Secretary of War, and he became the next Republican President. Roosevelt went to Africa and Europe and let Taft handle being President, but Taft couldn’t keep both progressives & conservatives happy.

Payne-Aldrich Tariff & Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy

The Payne Aldrich Tariff raised rates & was in favor of the conservatives, so Progressives were mad. The Ballinger-Pinchot controversy happened because Ballinger became Taft’s Secretary of the Interior which surprised Pinchot, the chief forester. Pinchot criticized Ballinger because he didn’t like Roosevelt’s conservation efforts, and Taft fired Pinchot.

Taft’s Progressive Reforms

Taft supported Progressive Republican goals, broke double the trusts Roosevelt did, limited employee hours to 8 hours, & supported the 16th Amendment which gave Congress power to levy a federal income tax. He started a Children’s Bureau & supported the 17th Amendment, allowing senators to be directly elected by the people instead of state legislatures.

The Election of 1912

Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican nomination. Roosevelt thought he could unite the party better and thought it was his duty to run again, and Progressives said Taft betrayed them, so Taft was pressured to help them. Roosevelt overlooked Taft’s pros for presidency & supported new nationalism, but Taft had party leadership. Roosevelt supported the Federal Trade Commission for unfair business practices so he supported women’s suffrage, proposed a child labor law, minimum wage, a workers’ compensation act, funds to help with healthcare, & government pensions for retired people. Taft disagreed. However, the Democratic nominee, Wilson, won.

Wilson’s New Freedom + Triple Wall of Privilege + Underwood-Simmons Act + Federal Reserve Act + Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914

Wilson liked the idea of a nation of farmers & small businessmen, so the New Freedom attacked the Triple Wall of Privilege: tariffs, banks, and trusts. Tariffs protected industrialists at the expense of farmers. Wilson’s Underwood-Simmons Act reduced tariffs as banking small farmers & entrepreneurs. The gold standard made currency restrained & expensive loans, so Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, making currency more flexible. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 named certain business strategies illegal and exempted labor unions from antitrust suits, declaring strikes legal.

Bull Moose Campaign + Federal Farm Loan Act

A federal trade commission to watch over businesses, a child labor bill & workers’ compensation act were turned into law, railroad worker hours were limited to 8 hours, & included a Federal Farm Loan Act to help farmers. This helped Progressive Republicans elect him for a second term.