Progressivism Notes

Progressivism: The Progressive Era

• Lecture focuses on the progressive era and its role in shaping modern America.
• Highlights the political aspects of the era.

Background

• Turn of the 20th century marked by the industrial revolution, economic growth, resource exploitation, and infrastructure development.
• America emerged as a major economic and diplomatic power on the global stage.
• Despite the Spanish American War and the war in the Philippines, the US military was still relatively weak compared to European powers.
• Nationalism and Americanism were prevalent, with a desire for improvement.
• Republicans were in control of the White House, but this would change.
• The lecture will be careful with the word "progressive" because the progress mentioned are not like todays progressives.
• Progressives in the early 1900s are on the right, on the left, on the middle. They're all over the political spectrum.

Problems in America

• High rates of poverty, especially in the Deep South.
• Income inequality: widening gap between the rich and the poor, making it difficult for the poor to succeed.
• Civil rights: growing awareness of the rights of women, African Americans, and immigrants facing harassment, hatred, and violence.
• Cultural identity crisis: questioning what it means to be an American, whether it's a fluid or rigid concept.
• Societal duty: debating whether there is a duty to improve society and who is responsible for the less fortunate.

Progressivism Defined

• Progressivism is an ideology that believes the majority have a right and duty to improve the nation and create a level playing field by ending corruption, unfairness, and inefficiency.
• It appealed to members of both parties, not just one particular political leaning.

Key Elements of Progressivism

• Rooted in idealism and religion, primarily among evangelical Protestants.
• Partnership between social activism (the people) and legal reform (the government).
• Response to the Gilded Age, which was perceived as a time of wealth for the rich but inequality for others.
• Led by the middle class, which was growing in power and influence.
• The middle class didn't like the super rich, because they thought they're a threat to simple, wholesome, evangelical, Victorian era values, they think the rich are corrupt, big business has not done enough to help people.
• Middle class didn't like the lower classes, because they said, look. These guys are joining unions, They look out for themselves, they're not looking out for the better part of society.
• Rejection of individualism: emphasis on working together for the greater good of society.
• Promotion of association: people working together across class lines to improve society, regardless of commonalities.
• Not associated with just one party: both Republicans and Democrats were progressives.
• Belief in a clear mandate for change, but confusion about how to implement it effectively.
• The progressive movement will run for about three years.

Three Key Areas for Reform

• Big business and the wealthy
• Politics
• Society

Big Business and the Wealthy

• Problem: Big business has grown too large and powerful, leading to corruption and harm to competitors, consumers, and employees.
• Dependence on companies: Americans have become too reliant on companies for basic needs.
• Land resources should be shared with all of society.
• Solution: Government regulation, breaking up monopolies, creating federal agencies (e.g., FDA), and preventing crooked capitalism.
• Progressives are very much capitalist, but they are not for crony capitalism, crooked, corrupt capitalism.

Successes in Business Reform

• Taxes:
  • Corporate excise tax (1909): a tax on the profits of big companies.
  • Federal income tax (1913): initially targeted the super-rich with rates from 1 to 7%, eventually increasing to 15%.
  • During World War I, the income tax rate reached as high as 90%.
• Trust Busting:
  • Breaking up monopolies such as Rockefeller's Standard Oil, US Steel, the Aluminum Company of America, both Westinghouse and General Electric, DuPont Chemicals, the largest railroads in the company or in the country.
• Federal Agencies:
  • The Meat Inspection Act
  • The Pure Food and Drug Act, all run to the FDA.
• The Department of Labor created in 1913 that will create new laws on worker safety, maximum hours worked.
• Rules that say if you work more than forty hours a week, they have to pay you overtime.
• Federal Reserve Act: creates a central banking system to stabilize the US currency and build confidence.
• Welfare capitalism: corporations providing for your employers.
  • Companies providing retirement plans for their employees
  • Company health care
  • Profit sharing
  • Simple amenities in companies like company cafeterias.
• Government programs such as:
  • Workers' compensation.
  • Unemployment benefits.

Politics

• Goal: to fix corruption in politics.
• Local government:
  • Should be run like a business by trained experts rather than corrupt individuals.
  • Galveston plan: implemented in Galveston, Texas, after a devastating hurricane in 1900.
  • Replaced the old system with a five-member commission of local businessmen.
  • Shifted voting power from ethnic working classes to the urban middle class.
  • The plan was so successful that it was adopted by other major cities in the United States.
  • The city was raised up, like, 12 to 15 feet and built up this seawall.
• Robert Fighting Bob LaFollette:
  • A senator from Wisconsin and a famous progressive who promoted direct democracy.
  • Direct primaries: allowing voters to choose candidates within a party.
  • Initiatives: enabling citizens to get issues on the ballot through petitions.
  • Referendums: letting voters decide big issues.
  • Recall elections: providing a way to remove politicians from office before their term is up.
• 1908 Presidential Election:
  • Republican William Howard Taft (handpicked successor of Teddy Roosevelt), Democrat William Jennings Bryan, and Socialist Eugene Debs.
  • Taft wins easily, but Debs takes votes from Bryan.
  • Taft is not a progressive.
• 1912 Presidential Election:
  • Taft (Republican), Debs (Socialist), Woodrow Wilson (Democrat), and Teddy Roosevelt (Progressive Party/Bull Moose Party).
  • Roosevelt runs as a third-party candidate, splitting the Republican vote.
  • The idea of that election, said we must have big government to police the nation.
  • We need a dramatic increase in federal power, in federal police agencies (minimum wage, national health insurance (calling Obamacare in 1912), and Medicare & Medicaid).
  • Roosevelt was shot before a speech.
  • Woodrow Wilson wins due to the split in the Republican vote.

Society

• Goal: to improve society in every way possible, making it safer, more modern, and more efficient for the good of the masses.
• Quote: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" (from Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan).
• Four areas of focus:
  • Fight against vice: targeting illegal activities like prostitution, gambling, and public drunkenness.
  • Civic improvement: cleaning up cities and making them safer.
  • Women: giving women a bigger role in society, as they had the right to vote during the progressive era, because it was believed that women were more moralistic and ethical.
  • Charity: encouraging the average person to help their fellow man.
• Poverty and the conditions of poverty promote vice.
• The main vice that the progressives are gonna go after is alcohol.
• Anti Saloon League: formed in Ohio by evangelical protestants to push legislation against alcohol.
• Water fountains: Temperance fountains.
• There must be mandatory schooling up to a certain age to make it better for the kids. Government should start and push for better education.
• Boy Scouts of America in 1910, the Girl Scouts in 1912.
• YMCA: places for young men to go, work out, get a free meal, have a place to stay, and get a religious lesson.
• There should be sports in public schools, and sports creates money to pay for this. All these things that know of today all start with the progressives.
• Playgrounds make society safer for kids to be safe not out committing crimes and doing things they shouldn't do.
• Public Schools Athletic League will be formed. These were often tied to schools.
• They resist this very traditional idea that men and women occupy different spheres (men belong in a public sphere, while women belong in the private sphere).
• They will promote women's rights, Women's suffrage, women's voting, and Women's education. But because they encourage the women to get educated its really in home economics & English, not biology and law.
• Charity is a duty of those in society who can assist to help those who are less fortunate, so it applies mostly to rich people.
• Hall House: to help immigrants adapt to mainstream society and avoid homelessness and prostitution.
• Government, especially the local level, should be involved.
• Citizens should take care of one another.

Dark Sides of Progressivism

• Segregation: promoted the separation of races, believing it was best for African Americans due to perceived inferiority.
• Eugenics: belief in improving the genetic quality of mankind by limiting the impact of inferior races and those with physical or mental disabilities.
• Racism, nativism, xenophobia all wrapped into one.
• Who gets to make these decisions, though, about the superior race/inferior race?
• Forced sterilization: laws passed to sterilize those deemed unfit for reproduction.
• Buck versus Bell (1927): US Supreme Court case that upheld forced sterilization laws, ruling that it was constitutional. This case has never been overturned and can technically be implemented at any time.
• Eugenics used for justification by the Nazis.

Decline of Progressivism

• Cracks appear due to entertainment and leisure activities (radio, movies, amusement parks).
• People want to have fun, but progressives say it doesn't help society.
• What about this (leisure)? We like to have a good time. And as technology improves, people like to listen to the radio, go to the movies. They like baseball.
• That's where it starts becoming a little too much for society.
• But how do we improve these things and how to do?
• Support for progressivism starts to fade because it's too restrictive.
• World War I and the actions of Woodrow Wilson will ultimately end progressivism.