Progressive Movements

Review

1890 to 1917

“Progressives were reformers who attempted to solve problems caused by industry, growth of cities and laissez faire.”

Progressives include:

• White Protestants
• African Americans
• Middle class and native born
• College educated professionals
• Social workers
• Scholars
• Politicians
• Preachers
• Teachers
• Writers

Progressive Beliefs

• Move away from laissez faire with government regulating industry.
• Make US government responsive to the people (voting).
• Limit power of the big business
• Improve worker’s rights, conditions for poor, and immigrants.
• Clean up the cities
• End segregation and Jim Crow

Populists vs. Progressives

Progressive Presidents

• Theodore Roosevelt “The Trustbuster”

  • 1901 to 1909

• William Howard Taft

  • 1909 to 1913

• Woodrow Wilson

  • 1913 to 1921

• In the 1880s, many middle-class Protestant Christians embraced the Social Gospel movement.

• The Social Gospel taught that to honor God, people must help others and reform society.

• The United States entered the Progressive Era from 1890 to 1920 when a variety of reformers tried to clean up problems created during the Gilded Age.

Areas to Reform

• Social Justice
• Political Democracy
• Economic Equality
• Conservation

Social Justice

• Improve working conditions in industry
• Regulate unfair business practices
• Eliminate child labor
• Help immigrants and the poor

Political Democracy

• Give the government back to the people.
• Get more people voting and end corruption with political machines.

Economic Justice

• Fairness and opportunity in the work world, regulate unfair trusts and bring about changes in labor.
• Demonstrate to the common people that U.S. government is in charge and not the industrialists.

Conservation

• Preserve natural resources and the environment.

• Progressive reform began in American cities in response to slums, tenements, child labor, alcohol abuse, prostitution, and political corruption.

• An early reformer was Jane Addams who created the Hull House in Chicago.

• Hull House was the first settlement house which offered baths, cheap food, child care, job training, and healthcare to help the poor.

• Jane Addams’ efforts inspired reformers in other cities to build settlement houses to assist the poor.

Jane Addams- Settlement House

• Run by college educated women
• Provided educational, cultural, social services
• Send visiting nurses to the sick
• Help with personal, job, financial problems
• Goals:
  • To provide a center for higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises.
  • To investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago.
  • To help assimilate the immigrant population.

Progressives Continued

• New reforms for professions

  • American Medical Association (AMA)
  • States established bar associations
  • National Farm Bureau Federation

• Women were excluded from most profession

  • Settlement houses, teaching, and social work

• Urban reformers tried to improve the lives of poor workers and children.

• The YMCA created gyms and libraries to help young men and children.

• The Salvation Army created nurseries and soup kitchens.

• Florence Kelley fought to create child labor laws and laws limiting women to a 10-hour day.

• Many reformers saw alcohol abuse as serious problem.

• Temperance reformers hoped that ending alcohol would reduce corruption, crime, assimilate immigrants.

• Reformers Frances Willard and Carrie Nation led the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) to fight for prohibition laws.

• Investigative journalists known as muckrakers exposed corruption, poverty, health hazards, and monopolies.

Journalists & Muckrakers

• Muckrakers were journalists and photographers who exposed the abuses of wealth and power.
• They felt it was their job to write and expose corruption in industry, cities, and government.
• Progressives exposed corruption but offered no solutions.

What did Ida Tarbell’s The History of Standard Oil (1904) expose?

Ida Tarbell’s The History of Standard Oil (1904) revealed Rockefeller’s ruthless business practices and called for the break-up of large monopolies.

The Jungle- 1906 Upton Sinclair- Muckraker

• The novel portrays the conditions of immigrants in the meat industry.
  • Revealed the unsanitary conditions of slaughterhouses and led to government regulation of food industries.
• His goal was to push socialism, however, most readers focused on the health violations.
• Led to the Meat Inspection Act and the Food and Drug Act (FDA)

Child Labor

• Child labor was prevalent during this time.
• The National Child Labor committee was formed in 1904.
• Lewis W. Hine took more than 5,100 photographs documenting the working conditions.

Women

• The Progressive Era led to demands for equal rights by women.
• In most states, married women could not divorce or own property.
• Women could not vote, but black, immigrant, and illiterate men could.
• Women workers were paid less than men.
• Women were expected to remain at home as wives and mothers.
• The Gilded Age brought new opportunities for women and new ideals about personal rights.
• Women lived independently in cities as secretaries, store clerks, and telephone operators.
• More girls graduated from high school and attended universities.
• During the Progressive Era, many women took the lead and played important roles as reformers.
  • Jane Addams created the first settlement house.
  • Muckraker Ida Tarbell exposed corporate monopolies.
  • The WCTU fought for prohibition laws.
  • Florence Kelley helped bring about children and women labor laws.
• Women reformers gained laws that banned prostitution.
• Margaret Sanger promoted birth control for poor and middle-class women and opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1915.
• NAWSA leaders pressured states to let women vote and called for a national suffrage amendment.
• By the early 1900s, most western states allowed women to vote bu women in the East could not vote.
• Alice Paul advocates for women’s suffrage and was the author of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Important Muckrakers

African American Progressive Leaders

• Booker T. Washington
  • Established Tuskegee Institute
  • Promoted trade schools for African Americans so that they could become self sufficient in American society
  • Believed African Americans shouldn’t fight discrimination.
• W.E.B Dubois
  • Founded the Niagara movement and NAACP
  • Encouraged African Americans to fight against discrimination.
• Ida B. Wells
  • Journalist/muckraker who wrote about lynching in the South and went around the country promoting the end to lynching laws in states.

The Assault on Parties

• Key voting reforms- state level and mostly in Western states
  • Initiative: voters could propose legislation
  • Referendum: final approval of laws would be approved by voters
  • Recall: voters could remove elected officials
  • Secret Ballot (also called the Australian Ballot): No one would see who a voter would vote for
  • Direct election of US Senators: instead of state legislatures, seen in 17th amendment
• Robert La Follette:
  • “Wisconsin Experiment”
  • Income taxes on inheritances
  • Initiatives and referendums; regulated railroads and industries
• Decline of voter turnout:
  • 1900- 73% voter turnout, 1912- 59%
  • Why the decline?
  • Party bosses were less influential

Challenging Capitalism

• Socialism:
  • Growing force in the early 20th century
  • Eugene V. Debs main leader of this movement
  • Received almost 1,000,000 presidential votes in 1912
  • Most socialists did not support WWI- hurt their cause
• International Workers of the World
  • “Wobblies,” “I won’t work”
  • Hurt by striking during WWI
• Regulating Trusts
  • Many individuals advocated the distinction between “good and bad” trusts

Negative Aspects of the Progressive Movements

• Nativism continues to rise with new waves of immigration and change.
• Rise and rebirth of the KKK due to immigration and D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation movie.
• Rise of the Eugenics Movement
  • Sterilization of certain individuals
  • Mentally handicapped, criminals, etc.
  • Most of the people impacted were immigrants, African-Americans, and other people of color (NC’s history is not good on this issue).

Roosevelt’s Rise to the Presidency

• Served 3 terms in the New York State Assembly
• Civil Service Commission under Harrison
  • Fought the spoils system and corruption
• Then became the New York City Police Commissioner in 1894
  • Eliminated a lot of corruption in the police force in NYC and cracked down on drinking on Sundays
• Served as Assistant Secretary of the US Navy and volunteered for service during the Spanish American War (Rough Riders).
• Governor of New York in 1898, then elected Vice President of the US in the election of 1900.
• After President McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the President.

A Modern Presidency

• Presidency as a “bully pulpit”- influenced news media and shaped legislation.
• A Square Deal- large sponsor of progressive reforms during the 1900s.
• 3 C’s
  • Control of corporations
  • Consumer protection
  • Conservation

Trust Busting

• By 1900, trusts (big businesses_ controlled 4/5ths of the industries in the US.
  • Theodore Roosevelt did not believe all trusts were harmful, but he did seek to curb the actions of those that hurt public interest.

1902 Coal Strike

• 140,000 miners strike in Pennsylvania to demand a 20% raise and a 9-hour workday.
  • Also requested the right to unionize.
• 5 months in, Theodore Roosevelt threatens to take over the mines from mine operators who refused to bargain/
  • Forced opposing sides to submit differences to an arbitration commission that resulted in a 10% pay hike and a 9 hour workday.
• Impact? if a strike threatened public welfare, the federal government has the right to intervene.

Regulating Food and Drugs

• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair- prompts Roosevelt to appoint commission to investigate meat packing industry.
  • Meat Inspection Act (1906)- dictated cleanliness requirements for meatpackers and creates programs of federal meat inspection.
• Pure Food and Drug Act- halted sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling.

Conservation and Natural Resources

• By late 19th century- government stood by while private interests take shrinking wilderness.
• John Muir, naturalist and writer, persuaded Roosevelt to set aside 1.5 million acres of water- power sites and 80 million acres of land to explore for mineral and water resources.
• Roosevelt established 51 wildlife sanctuaries, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments.
• 1905- Roosevelt names Gifford Pinchot as head of the US Forest Service.

Roosevelt and Foreign Policy

• Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) threatened America’s Open Door Policy in east Asia.
  • Roosevelt helped hammer out a peace deal between Russia and japan with the Treaty of Portsmouth. Roosevelt earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 because of this peace deal.
• Panama Canal
  • US took over the canal; rights and then helped Panama gain independence from Columbia in 1903 (gunboat diplomacy)
• Big Stick Diplomacy and the Roosevelt Corollary
  • Roosevelt feared European intervention due to financial agreements.
  • Added Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904.
  • US would use force to protect its economic interests in Latin America.

Taft Takes Over

• Theodore Roosevelt pledged not to run for third term- handpicks his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft as the Republican Party Candidate.
  • Taft defeated William Jennings Bryan (Democrat) in the 1908 election.
• Cautiously Progressive Agenda- sought to consolidate rather than expand Roosevelt’s reforms.
  • Broke apart more than 90 trusts in a 4-year term. WAY MORE THAN ROOSEVELT.
  • Campaigned for the Congressional passing of the 16th and 17th Amendments.

The Payne-Aldrich Tariff

• Taft campaigned on a platform of lowering tariffs.
• Payne-Aldrich Tariff only moderated the high interests rates on imported manufactured goods.
  • Nothing really changed with tariffs and compromised to Big Business.
• Many people begin to believe that Taft abandoned progressivism.

Disputing Public Lands

• Taft appoints lawyer Richard Ballinger as Secretary of the Interior.
  • Ballinger disapproved of conservationist controls on western lands.
• Gifford Pinchot, Roosevelt’s Director of the US Forest Service, accused Ballinger of letting commercial interest exploit the national resources that rightfully belonged to the public.
  • President Taft sided with Ballinger and fired Pinchot from the US Forest Service.
  • Angered Roosevelt

The Rise of the Bull-Moose Party

• Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” Bull Moose Party
  • Federal government exerts its power for the “welfare of the people”.
• Election of 1912
  • Bull Moose Party- Progressive
  • Republicans- Theodore Roosevelt
  • Republicans- Incumbent William Howard Taft
  • Democrats- Reform governor of New jersey Woodrow Wilson

Election of 1912

• Roosevelt divides the Republican Party and this allows Woodrow Wilson to win the presidency.
  • Taft only wins two states
• Wilson served as President of Princeton University and Governor of New Jersey before winning the election.
• First term as President was focused mostly on domestic issues and then WWI for second term.

Wilson’s Key Antitrust Measures

• Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914- prohibited corporations from acquiring the stock of another if doing so would create a monopoly.
  • Guaranteed labor unions and farm organizations right to exist.
  • Way more powerful than the Sherman Antitrust Act.
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)- watchdog agency that investigated possible violations of regulatory statutes.
  • New Freedom
  • Lowering the protective tariff
  • Creating a better banking system
  • Strengthening antitrust laws

New Tax System and The Federal Reserve

• 1913 Underwood Act- reduced tariff rates for the first time since the Civil war
  • So how will the US make up for lost revenue?
• Federal Income Tax- 16th Amendment
  • Legalized federal income tax on individual earnings and corporate profits.
• Federal Reserve System- set up 12 districts within the US with a regional central bank in each district.
  • Strengthened the ways in which banks were run.
  • Allowed government to quickly adjust the money supply.

Progressive Era Amendments

• 16th- Federal Income Tax
• 17th- Direct election of Senators
• 18th- Prohibition
• 18th- Women’s Suffrage

Progressive Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt

• Republican
• Former leader of the Rough Riders
• McKinley’s Vice President
• Progressive President
• Added 150 million acres to national forests
• Established 5 national parks
• Established the U.S. Forestry Service
• Started 4 national game preserves
• Created 51 federal bird reservations
• 25 irrigation/reclamation projects
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Worked with unions to resolve disputes
• Pure Food and Drug Act
• Meat Inspection Act
• Split from Republican party to run in the “Bull Moose Party” during the 1912 election
• Panama Canal began during his presidency
• “Big Stick” Foreign Policy

William Howard Taft

• Republican
• Prosecuted twice as many trusts as Roosevelt
• Progressive President
• Established the Children’s Bureau
• Viewed Presidency as an administrative job
• Postal Savings System
• Alaska given territorial government
• Expanded number of acres of national forest
• Supported laws requiring mine owners to improve safety
• Believed in supporting or working with other countries through “Dollar Diplomacy”
• Became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court after leaving office

Woodrow Wilson

• Democrat
• Progressive President
• Won the 1912 election due to the split in the Republican Party with the Bull Moose Party
• New Freedom Policy
• First President to hold regularly scheduled press conferences
• Underwood Tariff Bill reduced taxes
• Federal Reserve System reformed banks
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act broadened regulation of trusts
• Federal Trade Commission
• Protected workers and children through federal laws
• gave compensation for injuries on the job