Unit 6: The Progressive Era

Progressive Movement

• there was a variety of movements (mainly reform movements)

• during this time, people were trying to fix the political, economic, and social problems of the Gilded Age in a series of reform movements

  • political problems: political machines/corruption (main problem)

  • economic problems: poverty, low wages, wealth gap, poor working conditions, and cooperation have more power than the government

  • social problems: slum aspects, child labor, and alcohol problems due to water pollution

• progressives tended to be white, middle-class, college-educated, Protestant-Christian women taking strong roles

  • most women were involved in social reform movements

  • goal: wanted to transform America into a white, middle-class society and think problems will go away

  • political goal: end political corruption, end power of the political machine, want to make government more democratic (increase people’s participation in government, mainly through voting), and women suffrage (want women to have the right to vote)

  • economic goal: progressives were going to end laissez-faire capitalism, want regular capitalism, the government to set some boundaries, want the government to break up monopolies, and want the government to require better working conditions

  • social goal: end child labor, fix America’s drinking problem, and clean up the urban slums

The Social Gospel

• the progressives’ philosophies

• the problems are there not because of birth, but because society is corrupt

• this is directly against Social Darwinism

• society has to be built based on the teachings of Jesus

  • if this succeeds, then society built the Kingdom of God on Earth

Muckrakers

• raise awareness of Gilded Age problems

• reporters or journalists to publicize injustice and/or scandals

• exposés → type of writing that exposes the problems to the country and people would want to fix this

• 4 muckrakers

  • Jacob Riis → Tenement

    • wrote a book called How the Other Half Lives

    • his book raises awareness of the tenements and the conditions of them

    • increase support of the tenement buildings

  • Lincoln Steffens → “Tweed Days in St. Louis”

    • exposing the problems of the political machines

    • increase the support for getting rid of them

  • Ida Tarbell → The History of Standard Oil

    • exposed John D. Rockefeller and put his private files in the book

    • regulations being put on business and Rockefeller’s oil company is out of business

  • Upton Sinclair → The Jungle

    • goes undercover in Chicago’s meat-packing factories

    • wanted to raise awareness for the workers

    • created regulations on the products

Political Reforms

• City/Municipal

  • solution: Commission Government

  • problem: political machines

    • commission government made the city, state, and federal government all into one and had 5-7 people running for government

• State Reforms

  • increase voters

  • direct primary

    • Robert LaFollette created the “Wisconsin Idea”

      • college professors ran this

    • the voters get to decide which candidate will represent their party during an election

  • recalls → the voters can remove selected candidates

  • initiative → Voters can propose a law that must be voted on by the state government

  • referendum → laws proposed by the state government, but must be approved by the voters

• Federal Government

  • President James A. Garfield was an active member of the Spoils System

    • he is assassinated by an upset job-seeker

  • Pendleton Act

    • Congress passes this act to get rid of the Spoils System and replace it with the Merit System

  • 17th Amendment → requires a direct election of senators

• Women’s Suffrage

  • National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

    • Carrie Chapman Catt is the leader of this association

    • the members tend to be older and more conservative, meaning that they do not want to be radicals, do not want to make a scene, and are willing to be more patient for the opportunity

      • they will have petition drives and suffrage parades

      • they wanted to celebrate America’s voting rights

  • National Woman’s Party

    • Alice Paul and Lucy Burns are the leaders of this movement

      • this group is much younger and more radical

      • they wanted to push people’s buttons and wanted their voting rights immediately

  • Silent Sentinal Campaign

    • over 2,000 women silently stand outside the White House to protest and this goes on for 18 months

    • they would quote Woodrow Wilson’s words at him because he was a hypocrite

    • about 150 women will be arrested for this

      • once they were in jail, women had to experience these brutal punishments:

        • they were chained to a wall

        • beatings were common

        • leaderships thrown away

        • denied a trial and were not allowed to have a lawyer (fundamental rights)

        • thrown into psych wards

        • hunger strikes (force-feeding)

          • news of how these women were treated ended up going to the Press, making Wilson look bad and an embarrassment

    • Carrie Catt told Wilson to give women the voting rights or else she was going to destroy him

    • 19th Amendment → guarantee the right to vote for women

Economic Reforms/Progressive Presidents

• Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

  • first modern-day president and proactive (wanted to be in charge)

• Bully Pulpit → “Bully” meant excellent/grand and he wanted to influence the U.S. and the future of the nation

• A Square Deal

  • Roosevelt promises to treat everyone correctly and equally, especially labor and producers

  • The Coal Strike of 1902 (United Mine Workers)

    • coal workers on strike and producers do not even talk to them or refuse to be in the same room as the workers

      • this turned into a national problem

    • Roosevelt treated the laborers as adults and sat them down with the producers

    • the White House mediated the situation to end the strike

  • Trustbuster (breaking up monopolies)

    • Roosevelt wanted to break up the bad monopolies such as child labor, Robber Barons, poor working conditions, etc.

    • Interstate Commerce Act, 1887

      • allowed the federal government to investigate bad businesses

    • Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890

      • allowed the federal government to break monopolies (Ex, the federal government used this to break the railroad monopoly)

    • Elkins Act, 1906

      • allowed the federal government to fine railroad companies that use secret deals

    • Hepburn Act, 1906

      • put a limit on railroad transportation rates

    • Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906

      • the FDA has two jobs

        • promote public health

        • monitor food and medical drug productions

• Conservation

  • Teddy Roosevelt wanted to preserve the American natural environment

  • Antiquities Act

    • created the Grand Canyon National Park

William Howard Taft

• next president after Teddy (Teddy followed Washington’s consecutive terms)

• he is a Republican

• known as the “disappointing” progressive

• Taft will not push or advocate for additional or new progressive forms

• Triangle Waist Co.

  • a factory that produced triangle waist shirts

  • 500 immigrant women were employed and they did not get paid much at all

    • they were locked into the factory floors from the outside

    • they had to light candles for them to see

    • when they had fires, they had no proper fire escapes to the point where they had to jump off the building from high places

      • despite this tragedy, Taft would not push for reforms

        • because of this, Teddy tried to take away the Republican nomination from him

        • the Republicans renominate Taft for the presidency

        • Teddy created the Bull Moose Party to run for president

Election of 1912

• Democrat Woodrow Wilson wins easily because of the split Republican vote

• they are all progressives

• Triple Wall of Privilege

  • 3 walls: tariffs, banks, and trusts (monopolies)

  • Wilson wanted to get rid of these

  • 16th Amendment → allowed Congress to tax one’s income

    • wanted to increase government revenue

    • have the producers pay more to increase the wealth gap rather than the middle-class people

  • reduce the tariffs

    • make products more affordable for the middle-class

  • banks

    • Wilson convinces Congress to pass the Federal Reserve Act, which creates the Federal Reserve System (national bank)

      • manages the money supply

  • trusts (monopolies)

    • Wilson does not believe in “good” monopolies and believes that they are bad for the economy and middle-class

    • convinces Congress to pass the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which made the Sherman Anti-trust Act stronger, and Wilson breaks monopolies up more

Social Reform

• women were very important and they would become national figureheads

• 2 reforms: slums and child labor

  • slums

    • Jane Addams → Progressive Crusader

      • accomplishments: Chicago, Illinois to regulate tenements and Hull House

        • set this house in a poor immigrant area in Chicago

        • this house provided a wide range of services to the neighborhood: kindergarten, daycare, after-school clubs for teenagers, education classes for adults, a playground, a library, and a boarding school for girls

  • child labor

    • Florence Kelly

      • educated at the Hull House

      • investigated and pushed reforms

      • investigated factories and tenements

      • convinced the state government of Illinois to do these three things: ban child labor, have Illinois regulate factories, and Illinois will put a limit on the number of working hours for women

        • middle-class women are expected to stay home and raise their children

• Julia Lathrop → national leader

  • President Taft will appoint her as the head of the children’s bureau

    • first woman to be in charge of a federal city

    • Children’s Bureau will improve the conditions of child labor, able to reduce the childbirth rates, reduce the juvenile rate, and improve the care for the ill

Prohibition Movement

• alcohol problems affected more of the women than the men

• goal: ban alcohol

• Carrie A. Nation → figurehead

  • she would go around the city telling people to stop drinking alcohol and that they would go to hell if they kept doing it

  • Anti-Saloon League

    • pushing for this goal publicly

    • 18th Amendment → ban on the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol

International Progressivism

• expansionism/imperialism

  • a policy of exerting economic, political, and/or military control over a weaker territory/country

• 3 reasons why Americans participate in this process:

  • looking for extra-economic markets to sell all of our surplus goods to

  • we want to expand our territory to make us a bigger/stronger country

  • we want to spread progressivism all around the world

Alaska and Hawaii

• in 1867, America bought the Alaskan territory from Russia

• Queen Liliuokalani

  • the queen believed that the American plantation owners were getting too pushy

  • she dismissed some pro-American legislatures in her Congress and reduced the rights of American settlers on the island

  • in 1893, these American settlers staged a coo and overthrew the queen

Spanish Colonies in the Western Hemisphere

• Spain had two colonies: Cuba and Puerto Rico

• America was interested in buying these colonies because of sugarcane plantations located in Cuba

• Native Filipinos moved to open revolt and demanded independence from Spain

  • Spain’s response was brutal such as torture, targeting civilians, and starvation

The Spanish-American War (April-December 1898)

• USS Main

  • in February 1898, this ship blew up killing 260 sailors

• Yellow Journalism

  • sensationalized news reporting which uses exaggeration, melodrama, and sets out lies for readers

    • they blamed the Spanish people without any evidence and the U.S. declared war against Spain

• Philippines (May 1898)

  • Commandeer George Dewey quickly captured the Philippines and destroyed the Spanish Fleet and the Spanish Navy in the process

• Battle of San Juan Hill (July 1, 1898)

  • U.S. victory is going to earn “Teddy” Roosevelt’s rough-riders

  • Spain lost and this battle was led by a lot of African Americans

• Treaty of Paris, 1898

  • Spain will officially grant independence to Cuba

  • Spain will “donate” the islands of Puerto Rico and San Juan to the U.S. as U.S. territories

    • in return, the U.S. agreed to buy the Philippines from the Spanish for $20 million

  • Cuba gained independence from this because they had agreed to lease some land to the U.S. Navy and the Navy is going to build the San Juan Naval Space in Cuba

The Philippines-American War (1889-1902)

• the Filipino Nationalists are going to continue to have war against the U.S., still demanding independence

  • the U.S.’s response is the same as Spain’s: torture, targeting civilians, and starvation

Big Stick Diplomacy and the Roosevelt Corollary

• developed by Teddy Roosevelt

• the U.S. will intervene in Latin American affairs when the U.S believes it to be necessary

• goal: extend American influences around the world, but especially in Latin America

• methods

  • Teddy Roosevelt is going to build a really strong navy and adopt an aggressive form policy outlook

  • negotiate peacefully where they can, but not be afraid to show off their military strength to scare them into doing what they want them to do

• the Panama Canal

  • the U.S. wanted to build a canal where it would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean

  • seen as an economic and military necessity for the U.S.

  • Colombia did not want the U.S. to be involved

  • Teddy Roosevelt used the Big Stick Diplomacy to incite the people in Panama to rise and rebel against the Colombian government

    • he helps them by using the U.S. Navy

    • Panama gained independence and leased the land to the U.S. for them to build the canal, opening in 1914