190-201 outline: Progressive America, 1900-1920

The Meaning of Progressivism

Term first started in 1912
Signified a position between standpatters + socialists * Standpatters: same old same old, conservatives * Socialists: radicals who didn’t like corporate
Progressives wanted to work out compromises between owners + masses
Progressivism came with the rise of more relaxed Protestantism in higher education after the Civil War * Before the Civil War: American colleges trained ministers * After the Civil War: NE businessmen contributed to higher learning
Educators changed what students studied ➝ practical science instead of religion
Progressives continued the work of the Social Gospel (Christianity’s relationship with social + psychological science)
Protestants looked to the university for change instead of the church - called liberals
First generations of university women were the forefront of progressives
Progressives with college degrees were superior + highly educated would raise up newcomers
Progressive goals: purify political life, create a more just political economy, share impartial views with ppl

Progressives at Work - The City

Immigrants + their Irish Catholic bosses dominated the city
Progressives wanted to end the boss system * Wanted to install a better class of citizens in office * Would prevent bribery, plundering, + vote stealing * Wanted middle class men in politics
Progressives didn’t like when reformers put “city managers” in place of elected officials
Frederick Howe, The City: The powers available in the city will solve social problems in the industry both small and large. The final municipal program of the new city will make for a better civilization, increased opportunity, and the gradual progression of society
Progressives wanted laws that would give better working conditions all around, especially for women + children.
Also campaigned for improved schooling for the city’s children
John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children: The Social Problem causes poverty for children. Some of the problems: excessive infantile disease and mortality, tragedy of attempting to educate the hungry, ill-fed school children, burdens of the working child
Settlement house * Brought women progressives to live in buildings in slum districts * They organized a better life for the working people of the neighborhood * Progressives taught poor young women how to run a household, how to use their leisure time, + gave them a voice in political life
Florence Kelly on settlement houses: The slum is gross. You have to suffer the same if you want authority. The whole community has to do its part to transform the slum.
Men joined the progressive effort - had more success fighting drinking + the saloon
Another progressive interest: beautifying the city * Tried to make available forms of recreation for the needy * Elected Sam Jones four times * Backed public works, the city’s ownership of utilities, jobs and housing for the unemployed, + free vocational education * Tom Johnson, a wealthy convert to reform, was one of the appointed administrators who managed a city (Cleveland) after a hurricane
Johnson, My Story: The greatest movement is the struggle against privilege. The government precipitated the struggle against a wrong social order.
Prominent settlement house: Hull House, started by Jane Addams in 1889 in Chicago * Chicago became another stronghold of progressive thinking * Offered counseling, childcare, access to doctors, + lessons in English * Tried to replace urban bosses
Addams describes one of her projects: The Working People’s Social Science Club meets weekly at Hull House. It offers opportunity for discussion. This is dangerous when there is suppression and people find that others are as radical in the other way.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, 1911 * Killed 146 women employees in the area of NY where clothing was made * Frances Perkins investigated for the commision that reported on the fire
Frances Perkins: served on the US Secretary of Labor in the 1930s * Pointed out dangers to the health of female workers * Took legislators on a tour of the clothing district * Argued for law that improved safety regulations + limited hours of employment
Growth of the settlement house opened up social work as a new profession

Cleaning Up Politics

Progressives wanted to purify American politics
Wanted to control the rights of people who might not be trusted as citizens
Pushed for the “primary system”: would allow contests within political parties for candidates before a general election * Might put reformers on the ballot * Prevent political machines from automatically nominating their own spokesperson * Permitted voters directly to propose laws ➝ outwit standpatters * Gave the people the final voice in approving laws, could overthrow a law * Allowed voters to remove dishonest public servants from office
Two achievements on the national level with this thinking: * Seventeenth Amendment, 1913 * BEFORE: the legislatures of each state selected Senators * AFTER: voters in each state elected their Senators directly * Nineteenth Amendment, 1920 * Gave women the right to vote * Suffragette central ideas: (1) the right to vote is fundamental, and (2) women would change politics because they lived on a higher moral plane * Carrie Chapman Catt, Suffragette: How can men deny women the right to vote when women have taught men all they know about politics?
Progressives wanted democracy to purify public life, but vetoed democracy in favor of purity when they got in power * reformers wanted to end a system that embraced ignorant voters. Their solutions were to disenfranchise African Americans: literacy requirements, voting tax. Progressives also supported these ideas to prevent many whites from voting.

Political Economy

Nationally prominent progressives did not have radical thoughts
Progressives wanted to centralize power in order to increase democracy
Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life: The American idea is now to become responsible for the inferiority of the individual for a national purpose. Also making Americans responsible for moral distribution of wealth.
Forward looking leaders took up a “search for order” * Upright politicians would remove inequalities + advocate for those who had none
Progressives never intended to overthrow the system and feared what a democracy based on great numbers of voters would encourage
Many progressives were committed to corporate capitalism but wanted reasonable rules
Walter Lippmann, Drift and Mastery: Science has to be critical of itself to get answers. Science = discipline of democracy, the escape from drift, + the outlook of a free man.
Progressives were engaging in political activism that had continuities with populism * Robert La Follette: Wisconsin’s governor in 1901 * Had professors from the University of Wisconsin consult * Founded a reference division to help legislators prepare laws * Became a model for divisions around the country * Called “Wisconsin idea” * Campaign spending laws, codes of ethics for politicians * Brought railroads under the rule of a new commission * Used commissions to make policies on tax assessments, highway construction, the environment * Fought lumber industry, businesses on the edge of law, public utilities

Political Economy and the Judiciary

Louis D Brandeis * Made a name as the people’s attorney before progressivism * Brandeis defended an Oregon law regulating the employment of women * His argument centered around evidence from social sciences about the bad effect of long hours on women + everyone, really * Eastern Rate Case * Argued that the railroad charged too much * Said railroad leaders lacked knowledge of their costs and their basis * Gave name “scientific management” to a system of pricing w credibility * 1915: Woodrow Wilson appointed Brandeis to the Supreme Court

Presidents and Political Economy

Theodore Roosevelt, 1901 * Progressive ideas: Square Deal, America punishing malefactors of great wealth * Wanted corporations to prosper but have regulations * Used expert commission and personal accommodations with capitalists * In his cabinet, created a Department of Commerce and Labor, with a Bureau of Corporations to look at industrial combinations * 1903: Elkins Railroad Act. Strengthened Interstate Commerce Commission in their dealing w railroads * Hinted at presidential action in order to force corporations to change their ways * Businessmen would reform voluntarily to steer clear of legal actions * 1906: Hepburn Act: strengthened ICC and enforced railroad regulation * Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed the meat packing industry * Roosevelt supported FDA and meat inspection laws
William Howard Taft, 1908, wasn’t progressive
Woodrow Wilson, 1912 * New tariff reduced rates * Federal Reserve Act created a central banking system for the country * Federal Trade Commission replaces Bureau of Corporations * Antitrust Act formulated rules for the conduct of large businesses