Chapter 11: The Early 20th Century (1890–1945)

The Progressive Era and World War 1 (1900 - 1920)

The Populist and Progressive Movements

• Populists:
  • Aggrieved farmers advocating radical reforms
  • Raised possibility of reform through government
  • Successes in local and national elections
  • Encouraged others to seek change through political action
• Progressives:
  • Built on Populism's achievements and adopted some of its goals
  • Urban, middle-class reformers seeking government's role in reform
  • Greater success due to more economic and political power
  • Less intensification of regional and class differences compared to Populists
• Roots of Progressivism:
  • Growing number of associations and organizations
  • Members were educated and middle class, offended by corruption and urban poverty
  • Boost from muckrakers' exposés of corporate greed and misconduct
• Progressives' Successes:
  • Both local and national level changes
  • Campaigned for education and government regulation
  • New groups for fight against discrimination with mixed success
  • Women's suffrage movement gave birth to feminist movement
  • Wisconsin governor Robert La Follette led the way for Progressive state leaders
• The Progressive Movement:
  • Prominent leader: President Theodore Roosevelt
  • Progressive income taxes to redistribute nation's wealth
  • Work-class Progressives' victories: work day limitations, minimum wage, child labor laws, housing codes
  • Adoption of ballot initiative, referendum, and recall election
• President Theodore Roosevelt:
  • Prominent Progressive leader
  • Republican Party's choice for running mate in 1900 election
  • Succeeded McKinley after assassination in 1901.

Progressive Era

• Progressive Era marked increasing involvement of federal government in daily life
• Progressive presidents: Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson
• The Progressive Era resulted in many reforms, including conservation, regulation of monopolies and trusts, and the establishment of federal standards in food and drug industries.

Teddy Roosevelt

• Early on, showed liberal tendencies and was the first to use Sherman Antitrust Act against monopolies
• Nicknamed "Trustbuster" for his efforts to break up monopolies
• Encouraged Congress to pass Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act to protect workers and consumers
• Created National Park Service and National Forest Service to conserve natural resources

William Howard Taft

• Pursued monopolies even more aggressively than Roosevelt
• Known for "dollar diplomacy" - securing favorable relationships with Latin American and East Asian countries by providing monetary loans
• Became the only former president to serve on Supreme Court of the US as the 10th Chief Justice (1921-1930)
• Split from Roosevelt in the 1912 Republican primary due to opposing policies

Woodrow Wilson

• Distinguished himself from Teddy Roosevelt with his policies referred to as New Freedom
• Argued that federal government had to assume greater control over business to protect man's freedom
• Committed to restoring competition through greater government regulation of the economy and lowering the tariff
• Created Federal Trade Commission, enforced Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, and helped create Federal Reserve System
• Progressive movement ended after World War I, Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918, and a Red Scare

End of Progressive Era

• Achieved many of its goals, which resulted in loss of support from interest groups whose ends were met
• Some say the Progressive movement was brought to an end, in part, by its own success

Foreign Policy and U.S. Entry into World War I

• Roosevelt's domestic policy differed from his predecessor, but he concurred with his foreign policy.

• Roosevelt was an even more devout imperialist than McKinley, strongarming Cuba into accepting the Platt Amendment which committed Cuba to American control.

• ==The US occupied Cuba for 10 years (1906-1922), causing anti-American sentiments.==

• Roosevelt's actions in Central America were equally interventionist, building a canal through the Central American isthmus and supporting the revolution in Panama for a better deal.

• The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, also known as the Big Stick Policy, was used to justify repeated military intervention in Latin America due to the assertion of a threat to American security.

• American foreign policy adhered to the Monroe Doctrine which asserted America's right to intervene in the Western Hemisphere to protect national security.

• Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1912 with a policy of neutrality, but it posed immediate problems due to close relationships with England and relatively distant relationship with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

• When war broke out in Europe, Wilson declared US policy of neutrality, but it was complicated due to the close relationship with England and their effective blockade.

• Germany attempted to counter the blockade with submarines, but the sinking of the Lusitania led to condemnation from the government and public.

• Wilson's efforts to stay out of the war and the events that ultimately drew the US into the conflict.

World War I and Its Aftermath

World War I and Government Expansion of Power

• Government took control of telephone, telegraph, and rail industries
• Created War Industry Board (WIB) to coordinate all aspects of industrial and agricultural production
• WIB had mixed success due to being slow and inefficient
• Curtailed individual civil liberties during the war

The Espionage Act and Sedition Act

• Congress passed the Espionage Act in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918 in response to opposition to U.S. involvement in the war
• Espionage Act prohibited interference with the war effort or draft through the U.S. mail system
• Sedition Act made it illegal to try to prevent the sale of war bonds or speak disparagingly of the government, military, or Constitution
• Laws violated the spirit of the First Amendment but were vague, giving the courts great leeway in interpretation

Schenck v. United States

• Supreme Court upheld the Espionage Act in 1919 in three separate cases, the most notable being Schenck v. United States
• Schenck was arrested and convicted for violating the Espionage Act by printing and mailing leaflets urging men to resist the draft
• Supreme Court ruled that freedom of speech and civil liberties could be curtailed if actions posed a “clear and present danger” to others or the nation

Suppression of Unpopular Ideas

• Laws soon became useful tools for suppression of anyone who voiced unpopular ideas
• Era of increased paranoia due to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and fear of communist takeover
• Radical labor unions and leaders branded enemies of the state and incarcerated
• New government agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, created to prevent radical takeover

Business and Labor Union Changes

• Business assumed greater power while unions lost power
• Strikebreakers and forceful tactics against unions increased under pretext of stamping out radicalism

The Palmer Raids

• In early 1920, government raided suspected radical groups around the country in the Palmer Raids
• Government abandoned all pretext of respecting civil liberties as agents raided union halls, pool halls, social clubs, and residences
• Over 10,000 arrested in over 30 cities, but few weapons or bombs were found
• 500 immigrants were eventually deported

Committee on Public Information (CPI)

• Government helped create frenzied atmosphere through its wartime propaganda arm, the Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• CPI messages grew more sensational as the war progressed
• Image of Germans as cold-blooded, baby-killing, power-hungry Huns created through lectures, movie theaters, newspapers, and magazines
• Americans rejected all things German, changed name of sauerkraut to “liberty cabbage”
• Acts of violence against German immigrants and Americans of German descent.

Wartime Opportunities for Women

• Change in means of employment
  • Many women quit domestic work and started in factories
  • At one point, 20% of factory jobs held by women
  • End of workplace advances with return of veterans

The Great Migration

• Black Southern people left for North for jobs in wartime manufacturing
• Over 500,000 Black people left South for work
• Many joined army, encouraged by W. E. B. Du Bois for inroad to social equality
  • Army segregated and assigned Black people mostly to menial labor
  • Fearful of integration, Black combat units assigned to French command

End of World War I

• America's participation tipped balance in Allies' favor
• Two years after America's entry, Germans ready to negotiate peace treaty
• Wilson's Fourteen Points served as basis for initial negotiations
  • Called for free trade, reduction of arms, self-determination, end of colonialism, League of Nations
• Treaty of Versailles punished Germany, left humiliated and in economic ruin
  • Created League of Nations, but much of Wilson's plan discarded
• Wilson's return home greeted with opposition over League of Nations
  • Senate debate over Article X curtailed America's independence in foreign affairs
  • Senate split into Democrats (pro-League), Irreconcilables (opposed), Reservationists (compromise)
  • Democrats and Irreconcilables defeated treaty with Lodge Reservations
  • US not signatory of Treaty of Versailles, never joined League of Nations
  • America retreating into period of isolationism
• Wilson attempted to muster popular support, suffered major stroke and treaty failed

Possible Success of League of Nations

• Many wonder if League would have prevented World War II had US been a member

The Jazz Age and The Great Depression (1920-1933)

After World War I

• Brief slump in American economy
• Rapid growth from 1922
• Electric motor drives prosperity
• New industries arise to serve middle class

Pro-Business Republican Administrations

• Increased comfort with large successful businesses
• Department stores and automobile industry offer convenience and status
• Government increasingly pro-business, regulatory agencies assist business instead of regulating
• Decreased favor for labor unions, strikes suppressed by federal troops
• Supreme Court nullified child labor restrictions and minimum wage law for women

Woodrow Wilson and Race

• Outspoken white supremacist
• Segregated federal government, wrote admiringly of KKK
• Told racist jokes at Cabinet meetings
• Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover pursued pro-business policies
• Teapot Dome Scandal with corrupt cabinet members
• Harding liberal on civil liberty, Coolidge won election on "Coolidge prosperity" and continued conservative economic policies

Decline of Labor Unions

• Pro-business atmosphere led to decline in popularity of labor unions
• Drop in membership levels throughout decade
• Efforts by businesses to woo workers with pension plans, profit sharing, and company events
• Referred to as welfare capitalism.

Modern Culture

• The automobile was a major consumer product in the 1920s and typified the new spirit of the nation

• Henry Ford's assembly line and mass production made cars more affordable, leading to widespread ownership

• Automobiles allowed people to move to the suburbs and transformed into a necessity

• The impact of cars was tremendous, requiring the development of roadways and traffic enforcement

• Radio also changed the nation's culture, with millions of families owning them and gathering to listen

• Consumerism was fueled by the rise of household appliances and the advertising industry

• Single-earner households pushed more women to enter the workforce, although most still remained in traditional roles

• The flapper image emerged as a symbol of the Roaring Twenties and the new freedom for women

• Entertainment saw growth in movies, sports, and literature with world-class authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway

• Literature reflected disillusionment with the opulence and excess of the 1920s

• The Harlem Renaissance was a major cultural development in the largest Black neighborhood in New York City

• The Harlem Renaissance was marked by the growth of theaters, cultural clubs, and newspapers

• Jazz was popularized and became emblematic of the era, with Louis Armstrong as a major figure

Backlash Against Modern Culture

1920s America:

Backlash and Nativism:

• Ku Klux Klan grew to over 5 million members
  • Targeted Blacks, Jews, urbanites, and anyone whose behavior deviated from their narrow code of acceptable Christian behavior
• Anti-immigration groups grew in strength
  • Targeted southern and Eastern European immigrants
• Accusations of dangerous subversives intensified with Sacco and Vanzetti trial
• US started setting limits and quotas to restrict immigration
  • Emergency Quota Act of 1924 set immigration quotas based on national origins
  • Discriminated against southern and Eastern European "new immigrants"

Societal Tensions:

• Scopes Monkey Trial
  • Tennessee law forbade teaching evolution
  • John Thomas Scopes broke the law
  • Trial drew national attention with prominent attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan
  • Encapsulated debate over sticking with tradition vs. progress

Prohibition:

• Banned manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages
• Roots in reform campaigns of 1830s
• Mainstay of women's political agendas
• 18th Amendment outlawed American liquor industry
• Resentment of government intrusion in private matter
• Weakened by organized crime in producing and selling liquor
• Gangster Era inspired many movies and television series
• Prohibition repealed by 21st Amendment in 1933

Herbert Hoover and the Beginning of the Great Depression

• Republicans nominate Herbert Hoover in 1928

• Hoover predicts that poverty would soon be eradicated in America

• October 1929 stock market crash triggers the Great Depression

• Hoover and advisers underestimated the impact of the crash

• Hoover believed the economy was sound, reassured public that only speculators would be hurt

• Huge banks and corporations among the speculators, causing bankruptcy and unable to pay employees or guarantee bank deposits

• Factors contributing to the Great Depression: Europe's economy due to WWI and reparations, overproduction leading to lay offs and low market value, production outstripping ability to buy, concentration of wealth and power in a few businessmen, government laxity in regulation

• Depression had a calamitous effect on millions of Americans: job loss, savings loss, homeless and shantytowns, rural farmers struggled, drought and Dust Bowl, agrarian unrest, Farmers’ Holiday Association

• Hoover initially opposed federal relief efforts, but later initiated a few programs and campaigned for works projects

• Hawley-Smoot Tariff worsened the economy

• Hoover had the Federal Emergency Relief Administration established to bail out large companies and banks

• Hoover's most embarrassing moment: army attack on Bonus Expeditionary Force in 1932

• Hoover's efforts not enough to secure re-election, defeated by FDR in 1932 election

• FDR's interventionist government approach contrasted with Hoover's traditional conservative values.

The New Deal and World War II (1934 - 1945)

• ==Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural address declared war on the Depression==

• He asked for the same broad powers that presidents exercise during wars against foreign nations

• Most famous line of the speech: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear."

• The New Deal was a result of a powerful presidency and public confidence in Roosevelt

• The First New Deal took place during the first hundred days of Roosevelt's administration

• The Emergency Banking Relief Bill put poorly managed banks under control of Treasury Department and granted government licenses to solvent banks

• The Banking Act of 1933 created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to guarantee bank deposits

• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) provided payments to farmers in return for cutting production, funded by increased taxes on food processors

• Farm Credit Act provided loans to farmers in danger of foreclosure

• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) consolidated businesses and coordinated activities to eliminate overproduction

• Public Works Administration (PWA) set aside $3 billion to create jobs building roads, sewers, public housing units, etc.

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided grants to states for their own PWA-like projects

• The government took over the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and expanded its operations for the economic recovery of the region

• Roosevelt's response to Great Depression was guided by Keynesian economics

• Keynesian economics argued that government should embark on a program of deliberate deficit spending to revive the economy

• Keynesian economics was successful during Roosevelt's administration and led to 30 years of economic expansion from 1945 to 1973

The Second New Deal

New Deal Criticisms

• Conservatives:
  • Higher tax rates
  • Increase in government power over business
  • Removal of incentive for the poor to lift themselves out of poverty
  • Borrowing to finance programs, anathema to conservatives
• Leftists, like Huey Long:
  • AAA policy of paying farmers not to grow is immoral
  • Government policy toward businesses too favorable
  • Blamed corporate greed for Depression, calling for nationalization of businesses

Huey Long Threat to FDR

• Senator and governor of Louisiana
• Promoted a plan similar to Social Security, gaining supporters
• Assassinated in 1935

Supreme Court Dismantles First New Deal

• Invalidated sections of NIRA in the "sick chicken case"
  • Codes were unconstitutional, executive legislation beyond limits of executive power
• FDR argued that crisis of Depression warranted expansion of executive branch
• Supreme Court struck down AAA in United States v. Butler

Roosevelt's Court-Packing Scheme

• Attempted to increase Supreme Court size from 9 justices to 15
• Wanted to pick justices who supported his policies
• Rejected by Congress

Second New Deal

• Emergency Relief Appropriation Act created WPA (later renamed Works Project Administration)
  • Generated over 8 million jobs, funded by government
  • Employed writers, photographers, and artists for public works and local/personal history projects
• Summer of 1935 is called Roosevelt's Second Hundred Days
  • Passed legislation broadening NLRB powers, democratizing unions, punishing anti-union businesses
  • Created Social Security Administration for retirement benefits for workers, disabled, and families
  • Increased taxes on wealthy individuals and business profits

New Deal Coalition

• Made up of union members, urbanites, underclass, and Black people (previously voted Republican)
• Swept FDR back into office in 1936 with landslide victory
• Held together until election of Reagan in 1980.

Roosevelt’s Troubled Second Term

Franklin Roosevelt's Second Term:

I. Judicial Reorganization Bill:

• Proposed allowing Roosevelt to appoint new federal judges
• Effort to pack courts with judges sympathetic to New Deal policies
• Defeated in Democratic Congress
• Intense criticism for trying to seize too much power
• Situation worked itself out with retirements and appointment of liberal judges

II. Economic Problems:

• 1937 recession caused by cuts in government programs and tightened credit supply
• Recession lasted for almost three years with increased unemployment rate
• Forced Roosevelt to withdraw money from New Deal programs to fund military buildup

III. New Deal:

• Debate among historians on whether New Deal worked or not
• Arguments for New Deal:
  • Provided relief and escaped poverty for many people
  • Reforms in banking, finance, management/union relations
  • Took bold chances in conservative political climate
• Arguments against New Deal:
  • Unemployment rate remained in double digits
  • Failed to solve unemployment problem
  • Too small and short-lived to have significant impact
  • Didn't benefit all equally, minorities particularly hurt by AAA and public works projects

IV. Accomplishments:

• Passed Second Agricultural Adjustment Act and Fair Labor Standards Act
• Remade America in banking, finance, management/union relations
• Social welfare system stems from New Deal
• Took bold chances in conservative political climate

Foreign Policy Leading up to World War II

• After World War I, American foreign policy focused on promoting peace and independent internationalism.

• The Washington Conference was held in 1921-1922 and resulted in a treaty that limited armaments and reaffirmed the Open Door Policy toward China.

• In 1928, 62 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which condemned war as a means of foreign policy.

• The US tried to adopt a Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America in 1934, but continued to promote American interests through economic coercion and support of pro-American leaders.

• The Platt Amendment was repealed during this time.

• In Asia, the US had limited influence and was unable to stop Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

• The US sold arms to China and called for an arms embargo on Japan when Japan went to war against China in 1937.

• The US maintained a high-tariff protectionist policy throughout the 1920s.

• The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act allowed the president to reduce tariffs for foreign policy goals.

• Most favored nation (MFN) trade status was granted to eligible countries for the lowest tariff rate set by the US.

• Isolationist sentiment grew due to the results of World War I and the findings of the Nye Commission.

• The Nye Commission revealed unethical activities by American arms manufacturers, leading to the passage of neutrality acts.

• Roosevelt poured money into the military and worked to assist the Allies within the limits of the neutrality acts.

• By the 1940s, US foreign policy became increasingly less isolationist with the Lend-Lease Act and Roosevelt's efforts to supply the Allies.

World War II

• Complicated military strategy and outcome of key battles played a significant role in WW2

• No need to know much about battles, but important to know about wartime conferences between Allies

• Grand Alliance between Soviet Union and West was tenuous

• Manhattan Project of 1942 was research and development effort for atomic bombs

• Soviet spies infiltrated the project

• First meeting of "big three" (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) took place in Tehran in 1943

• They planned Normandy invasion (D-Day) and division of defeated Germany into occupation zones

• Stalin agreed to enter war against Japan after Hitler's defeat

• Allies fought Germans primarily in Soviet Union and Mediterranean until D-Day invasion in France

• Soviet Union incurred huge losses and sought to recoup by occupying Eastern Europe

• Allies won war of attrition against Germans and accelerated victory in East by dropping atomic bombs on Japan

• D-Day on June 6, 1944 was largest amphibious landing

• Government acquired more power during WW2 through War Production Board and control over industry and labor

• Labor Disputes Act of 1943 allowed government takeover of businesses deemed necessary to national security

• Hollywood was enlisted to create propaganda films

• Government size more than tripled during war

• FDR signed Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, creating first peacetime draft in US history

• WW2 affected almost every aspect of daily life and created new opportunities and tensions in American society

• More than a million African Americans served in US military during WW2, but lived in segregated units

• US army was not desegregated until after the war in 1948

• Rosie the Riveter symbolized the millions of women who worked in war-related industrial jobs

• Most women were expected to go back to traditional roles after soldiers returned home

• Government restricted civil liberties, including internment of Japanese Americans from 1942 to end of war

• Over 110,000 Asian Americans were imprisoned without charge based solely on ethnic background

• Supreme Court upheld evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans as constitutional

The End of the War

Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

• Yalta conference held in February 1945 between Allies (US, UK, USSR) to discuss the fate of postwar Europe
• Soviet army occupied parts of Eastern Europe, and Stalin wanted to create a "buffer zone" with "friendly" nations
• Allies agreed on a number of issues concerning borders and settlements and to help create the United Nations

Potsdam Conference

• Held after the end of the war in Europe to decide on implementing the agreements of Yalta
• Harry S. Truman represented the US after Roosevelt's death
• Differences between US and USSR growing more pronounced
• Allies created the Potsdam Declaration to establish the terms for Japan's surrender (removal of emperor from power)

Outcome of Conferences

• USSR given a free hand in Eastern Europe with promise to hold "free and unfettered elections" after the war

• Descent of Iron Curtain (division of Eastern and Western Europe) and beginning of Cold War

• American-Soviet animosity led to US using atomic bombs against Japan

• Fear of Soviet entry into Asian war and display of power, combined with tenacious Japanese resistance, influenced Truman's decision.