APUSH Chapter 21 - The Progressives

Progressiveness

• Optimistic, belief in progress, and that society was capable of improvement. However, growth and progress could not occur recklessly and direct, purposeful intervention was important.

• Many different reform impulses bc they could not agree on the form their intervention should take.

Antimonopoly

• The fear of concentrated power and the urge to limit and disperse authority and wealth.

• Encourage the government to regulate or break up trusts

Social Cohesion

• The belief that individuals are part of a great web of social relationships and that individual welfare is based on society’s welfare.

• Concern for the victims of industrialization.

Faith in Knowledge

• Applying the principles of natural and social sciences to society. Knowledge was the most important vehicle for making society better.

• Must have a modernized government.

Muckrakers

• Journalists who directed attention to injustices.

• The first major targets were trusts and railroads (Tarbell). It then turned to the government and political machines (Steffens).

• People needed to take greater interest in public life

The Social Gospel

• “Redeeming the nation’s cities” by advocating for social justice (justice for society, belief in a egalitarian society, and support the poor/oppressed)

• The Salvation Army: A religious organization dedicated to helping the urban poor

The Settlement House Movement

• The belief in the influence of the environment on individual development. The poor and criminal were effected by unhealthy environment (opposite of social darwinism)

Crowded immigrant neighborhoods

• Responded with the settlement house

  • Hull House (Jane Addams)

  • Tried to help immigrant families adapt to the language and customs

  • The middle-class had a responsibility to teach their own values to immigrants

  • Young College Women = important and the house served mostly women - reinforced the belief that women needed to be sheltered from difficult environments

• Placed importance on the profession of social work

The Importance of Education

• People began to place more importance on knowledge and expertise, believing that only enlighte

• ned people could create stability and order.

• Late 1800s: increased # of Americans in administrative and professional tasks - create a new social group, the new middle class

  • High value on education and individual accomplishment

  • However, there was little way for the skilled professionals to distinguish themselves from others (reform)

The American Medical Association

• Skilled doctors formed the AMA and set strict, new scientific standards for practicing medicine

• State governments passed laws that required licensing of all physicians

• Medical education became better

National Association of Manufacturers

• Lawyers established Bar associations and law schools expanded.

• Businessmen support schools for business administration and create the NAM and the Chamber of Commerce

• Farmers created the National Farm Bureau Federation

Admissions also tried to protect the people from excessive competition. They used entrance requirements to exclude “undesirables” and to keep the number low.

Women in Profession

• Mostly excluded but many women still entered profession after going to women’s colleges and state university

Female Dominated Profession

• Most went into “helping” professions that were considered domestic and suitable for women, including settlement houses, social work, teaching, and nursing.

Women

• Played a prominent role in reform movements

The “New Woman”

• Home life began to change because of schools, technological innovations and declining family size

  • Spent fewer years with children in the home and lived longer after the children were grown

• Some educated women disliked marriage and could only play a role by being single (single women were among the greatest female reformers)

  • “Boston Marriages” - women that had romantic relationship with other women

  • Divorce rate increased and women initiated majority of them.

The Clubwomen

• Increase in women’s clubs

Formed the General Federation of Women’s Club: concerned with improving society and many were from wealthy families (had a big influence)

• Mostly excluded African Americans so they started the National Association of Colored Women

Allowed women to have a defined space for themselves int he public world without challenging the existing, male-dominated order.

• Mostly did uncontroversial work but also helped pass state laws concerning women

Also allied with other women’s groups, like the Women’s Trade Union League

Woman Suffrage

Seen as a radical demand. Women were challenging the view that women have a distinct sphere and that being a wife/mother came first

• This started an antisuffrage movement because men (ew) thought that suffrage threatened the “natural order” of civilization

• Suffrage was also associated with divorce, promiscuity, immorality, and neglect of children.

Formation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

• Started advocating for suffrage as something that was “safe.” Women suffrage could contribute a lot to politics because women had special experiences and sensitivities

• Would help the Temperance movement

• Women could help prevent war because of their calming and maternal influence

• People also believed in African Americans, immigrants, etc had voting rights, then so should women

19th Amendment: gave suffrage to women

Reforming the Government

• Early attacks on party dominance - Greenbackism, populism, Independent Republicans

  • Resulted in the adoption of the secret ballot which was less easy for bosses to monitor votes

After the Civil War, “respectable” citizens began to avoid participation in municipal government. A new group of activists began to attack the government.

• Attacked bosses, saloon owners, brothel keepers, and businessmen

Commission Plan (City)

• The original mayor and council are replaced by an elected, non-partisan commission

City Manager Plan (City)

• Elected officials hired outside experts to take charge of the city government and hope that the city manager would remain untouched by corruption.

• Example: Tom Johnson - reform mayor of Cleveland against streetcar interest

State Legislatures

An attempt to get rid of corruption

• Initiative: allowed reformers to submit new legislation directly to the voters

• Referendum: actions of the legislature could be returned to the electorate for approval

Direct Primary: an attempt to take the selection of candidates away from the bosses and give it to the people

Recall: voters had the right to remove a public official from office at a special election (signing a petition)

Example: Robert La Follette - state level reformer who was elected governor. Helped win approval of direct primaries, initiatives, and referendums.

Contributed a decline in party influence and voter turnout due to the secret ballot

• Party bosses unable to get voters to the polls, illiterate voters could not read the new ballots

• Formation of “interest groups” - operated to advance their demands (organizations outside of the party system)

Reforming the Workplace

• Tammany Hall, which used to be a political machine, turned into an organization dedicated to improving working conditions, etc.

Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire - many died because the emergency exits were locked and resulted in the calling for major reforms in working conditions.

Western reformers focused more on the Federal government because they had more power in the West than in the East (example: disputes over water, lands/resources, etc)

African Americans

• Began to challenge the entire structure of race relations

WEB Du Bois

• Advocated that African Americans should strive for nothing less than a full university education and fight for their civil rights.

The Niagara Movement and formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• Guinn v. United States - the grandfather clause in Oklahoma was unconstitutional

• Buchanan v. Worley - Got rid of a law required residential segregation in Kentucky

Fought against lynching (biggest group against lynching

were Southern Women)

The Temperance Crusade

• Eliminating alcohol from American life. Drunkness caused violence and they wanted to reform male behavior.

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) - demanded for the legal abolition of saloons and prohibition o the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages

18th Amendment - prohibited the manufacturing and selling of alcohol

Immigration

• reformed believed the growing immigrant population was causing social problems

Immigrants were polluting the population.

Eugenics: altering reproductive processes to produce new hybrids. Tried to apply this to humans.

• An attempt to “grade races” based on their genetic qualities

• Wanted sterilization of people with disabilities, criminals, etc. Also believed that human inequalities were hereditary and that immigration was causing an increase in the population of the unfit.

Immigration should be restricted by nationality. Restriction was believed to be a good way to solve urban problems like overcrowding, unemployment, etc

• Opponents of restriction to immigration were employers (immigrants were cheap labor)

Capitalism and Socialism

Creation of the Socialist Party of America

• Support from urban immigrant communities, Protestant farmers

Some people wanted militant direct action as reform

• The Industrial Workers of the World/”Wobblies” - advocated for a single union for all workers and abolition of the “wage slave” system

  • Used terror instead of strikes

  • Prominent in the west, especially with migrants, because they supported unskilled workers