The Progressives1889-1916

What was Progressivism?

An effort to impose order & justice on society that was approaching chaos

What created the chaos?Rapid industrializationUrbanizationImmigrationLaissez faire

Who were the Progressives?

White Protestants

African Americans

Middle class

College-educated professionals

Scholars, writers

Politicians

Union leaders

What did Progressives

believe?Society was capable of improvement

Growth and advancement were the nation’s destiny

What didn’t work?Laissez faireSocial Darwinism

Direct, purposeful human intervention in social and economic affairs was essential

GOVT ACTION NEEDED!

Progressives wanted MILD reforms. They were NOT RADICALS

Varieties of Progressivism

AntimonopolyFear of concentrated power

Urge to limit/disperse authority & wealth

Social cohesionWe are part of a great social web

Each person’s welfare is dependent on the welfare of society as a whole

Faith in KnowledgeApplying the principles of natural and social sciences to society

Knowledge can make society equitable and humane

Modernized govt must play important role

The Muckrakers

Crusading journalists

Exposed scandal, corruption and injustice

Targets:TrustsPolitical machinesFactories

The Social Gospel

Social JusticeJustice for all of societyEgalitarian societySupport for the poor and oppressed pplAmerican Protestant movement

Social justice and sacrifice should be foundation of society

Salvation ArmyFusion of religion and reform

The Social Gospel

Charles Sheldon: In His Steps (1898); “What would Jesus do?”

Walter Rauschenbusch: all ppl should work toward creating the Kingdom of God on Earth

Father John A. Ryan: expand Catholic social welfare organizations

Settlement House Movement

Influence of the environment on the individual

Crowded immigrant neighborhoods

Staffed by educated middle class teaching middle class values

Young college women

Social work

The Allure of Expertise

Enlightened experts should run govt and economy

Scientists and engineers

Thorstein Veblen

The Professions

New middle class emerges

Industries: managers, technicians, accountants

Cities: commercial, medical, legal, educational services

New technology: scientists, engineers

Requires schools and teachers to train them

Education and individual accomplishments

Women in the “helping” professions

The Professions

Created professional organizationsWhy?

Set up standards to secure position

Lend prestige to profession

Keep #’s down to ensure high demand

AMA (1901); medical schools

Bar associations; law schools

Chamber of Commerce (1912); schools of business

Women and Reform

The “New Woman”

1. Vast majority of income-producing work outside of the home

2. Children going to school earlier & longer

3. Technological innovations impact the home

4. Families are smaller

5. Living longer

6. Some shun marriage

7. Divorce rates increase

The ClubwomenWomen’s clubs

First social but then concerned w/ social betterment

Non-partisan (Remember, couldn’t vote)

Middle to upper class women (clubs had $$)

Allowed women to create a public space for themselves w/o threatening male dominated society

Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903)Join unions, support strikes, picket lines, bail money

African Americans excluded

Women & Social Justice

NY Women’s Trade Union League & Intl. Ladies Garment Workers Union

1909: 50 hour workweek, wage increases, preferential hiring for union members

1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (NY)146 female workers killed; avg age 19

Reformers, union leaders, women’s groups, politicians from Tammany Hall

Machine politicians & progressive reformers

Laws regulating fire safety, equipment, wages and hours for women and children

19th Amendment provides full suffrage to women in all the states, 1920.

Woman Suffrage

Radical idea: it was a “natural right”Led to a powerful anti-suffrage movement; a threat to the “natural order”

Looseness, promiscuity, divorce, child neglect

20th CenturyNational American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

Justify suffrage in a “safer” way

NAWSA Rhetoric

Not challenging the separate sphere

Because they ARE mothers, wives and homemakers

Bring special experiences and sensitivities to public life

Would help temperance movement (largest supporter)

Would help war become a thing of the past

Conservative ArgumentIf blacks, immigrants and other undesirables have the vote, then…educated “well-born” women should

Suffrage Timeline

1848: Seneca Falls

1890: Wyoming

1910: Washington

1911: CA

1913: IL (1st state east of Miss. River)

1919: 39 states

1920: 19th Amendment

Alice Paul: Not enough; Equal Rights Amendment

Controlling the Masses: Prohibition

1873: Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Francis Willard

1890s: Anti-Saloon LeagueLocal level: isolate “wet” areasState level: Use of direct democracy

1913: Lobby for Amendment

Impact of entry into WWI

1919: 18th Amendment

Controlling the Masses: Immigration Restriction

Eugenics

Immigration polluting the nation’s racial stock

Carnegie Foundation: turn eugenics into a method for altering human reproduction

Races and ethnic groups graded

Sterilization

1916: “The Passing of the Great Race” (Madison Grant)

Dillingham Commission

Supporters of Eugenics

The Assault on the Parties

Reforming the City

Muckrakers role

Middle class blamedmachine politicianssaloon ownersbrothel keepersbusinessmen connected to political machines

CityCommissioner Plan

Cities hired experts in different fields to run a single aspect of city government. For example, the

sanitation commissioner would be in charge of garbage and sewage removal.

City ManagerPlan

A professional city manager is hired to run each department of the city and report directly to the city

council.

City Reforms

New Forms of Governance

1900: Galveston, TX tidal waveCommission Plan

1908: Staunton, VACity-Manager Plan

Plans promotes efficiency/undermines patronage of machine

Old system benefitted the working class; new ones were controlled by new professionals

New Forms of Governance

Non-partisan mayoral elections

Mayoral elections moved to off-election years

Ward (neighborhood) elections switched to citywide elections

Progressive Mayors

Hazen Pingree (Detroit): 1889-96

Samuel Jones (Toledo); 1897-1903

Tom Johnson (Cleveland); 1901-09

Recall

Allows voters to petition to have an elected representative removed from office.

Initiative

Allows voters to petition state legislatures in order to consider a bill desired by citizens.

Referendum

Allows voters to decide if a bill or proposed amendment should be passed.

Ensures that voters select candidates to run for office, rather than party bosses.

State Reforms

Secret Ballot

Privacy at the ballot box ensures that citizens can cast votes without party bosses knowing how they voted.

Direct Primary

Robert La Follette & the Laboratory of Democracy

Wisconsin governor, Senator

Direct primaries, initiatives and referendums

Regulated RRs and utilities

Workers’ compensation

Inheritance tax

Increased taxes on RRs and business

Parties and Interest Groups

Decline of party of influenceVoter turnout decreases

Why?Secret ballot

Illiteracy among immigrants

Interest groups

17th Amendment: Direct election of Senators

Thomas Nast was the artist for Harper's Weekly

in the late 1800s. Father of American

Caricature." Nast's campaign against New York City's political boss William Tweed is

legendary Nast's cartoons depicted Tweed as a sleazy criminalTweed was known to say,

"Stop them damn pictures. I don't care

what the papers write about me. My

constituents can't read. But, damn it, they can

see the pictures."

Social Tensions in an Age of Reform

African Americans and Reform

Contradiction b/w progressive rhetoric and their conscious discrimination

Fearful of interracial alliance under populism

1890s south: Jim Crow, voter restrictions

Mississippi Gov. James Vardaman

Booker T. Washington

Atlanta Compromise

Self-improvement first

Equality later

By turn of century: challenge to Washington and structure of race relations

W.E.B. Du BoisHarvard grad

1903: Souls of Black Folk

Trade school vs. university education

Fight for civil rights; don’t wait for white to rescue them

1905: Niagara Movement

1909: NAACP

NAACP Successes

NAACP attorneys

1915: Guinn v United StatesGrandfather clause unconstitutional

1917: Buchanan v WorleyResidential segregation unconstitutional

Lynching

NAACP wanted federal law against lynching

Ida WellsNACWWomen’s Convention of the National Baptist Church

Challenging the Capitalist OrderRadical Reformers

The Dream of Socialism

Radicalism: 1900-14

Socialist Party of America

Eugene Debs

Urban workers, intellectuals, tenant farmers

1,200 public offices; 79 mayors in 24 states

Public ownership of utilities, 8 hr workday, pensions

Limitations of Socialism

Need for basic structural changes in economy

Differed in extent of those changes and the tactics necessary to achieve them

Allow small-scale private enterprise but nationalize major industriesElectoral politics vs. direct militant action

Moderates dominated (workers’ comp and min. wage)

Opposed WWI; hurt the PArty

The “Wobblies”Industrial Workers of the World (1905)

Utopian state run by workers

Blacks, immigrants and women; unskilled labor

Rejected political action; favored general strikes

Uncompromising

1917 timber strikeWilliam “Big Bill” Haywood

But most progressives believed capitalist system could be reformed from within

Reformers pushed for the government to play an active role in planning and regulating economic life

SUPERVISION, CONTROL and REGULATION

McKinley Assassinated!

Sept. 14, 1901

Theodore Roosevelt

Harvard: 1876-1880

NY Assemblyman: 1882-4

North Dakota Rancher: 1884-6

US Civil Service Commissioner: 1889-

95

NYC Police Commissioner: 1895-

7

Assistant Secretary, US Navy: 1897-8

Rough Rider: 1898

NY Governor: 1898-1900

Vice President: 1901

Republican Party leaders thought that the vice presidency would be a political dead end

President 1901-1909

“The unscrupulous rich man who seeks to exploit and oppress those who are less well off is in spirit not opposed to, BUT IDENTITCAL WITH, the unscrupulous poor man who desires to plunder and oppress those who are better off.”

A “Square Deal”

Controlling corporations

Consumer protection

Conservation of natural resources

Roosevelt’s Vision of Federal Power

Govt should have power to investigate the activities of corporations and publicize the results

1903: Dept of Commerce and Labor

1903: Elkins ActIllegal for RRs to give or shippers to receive rebates

1906: Hepburn ActIncreased power of ICCOversee RR rates

TR as Trust Buster

Centralization was a fact of modern life

“good” vs. “bad” trusts

J.P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Company

“Send your man to my man and they can fix it up.”

1904: Supreme Court decision

“Square Deal” for Labor

1902: Anthracite Coal Strike in PA (May through Oct.)

20% wage increase; 8 hour day, recognition of union

TR supported workers; owners refused to compromise

TR threatened to send in 10k fed. Troops to seize the mines and resume work.

Workers got: 10% wage increase, 9 hour day BUT no union recognition

Caring for the Consumer

1906: Meat Inspection Act

Federal inspection of meat

The Jungle

Pure Food and Drug Act

Crime to sell adulterated food or medicine

Correct and complete labeling of ingredients

Roosevelt and Conservation

Used executives powers to restrict private development on govt land

1907: conservatives restricted his authority over public lands; he just seized all forests in public domain before bill became law

ConservationistPromoted policies to protect land for careful MANGAGED DEVELOPMENT

1902: Newlands Act

Roosevelt and Preservation

Naturalists

John Muir and the Sierra Club

Added to the National Park System

Hetch Hetchy Controversy

The Panic of 1907

Bank run and recession blamed on TR’s “mad” economic policy

J.P. Morgan to the rescue

US Steel purchased Tennessee Coal and Iron Co.

TR promises to look the other way

Crisis averted

Republican conservatives couldn’t stand TR

TR and Taft

1904 promise

Taft: trusted ally of TR

Progressives loved him

Easily defeat Bryan in 1908 election

Too lazy and introverted

Status quo

Lacked personality

Taft as Trustbuster

90 lawsuits in 4 years

Compared to TR’s 44 in 7.5 years

1911: Supreme Court breaks up Standard Oil

1911: Taft brings suit against US Steel for its purchase of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Co

TR upset

Taft and the Progressives

TariffProgressives: deep cuts to the “Mother of Trusts”

1909: Payne-Aldrich Bill; betrayal

Ballinger-Pinchot DisputeTaft replaces Sec. of Interior w/ corporate lawyer Ballinger

Ballinger accused of turning over public coal land to company for personal profit

Pinchot went to Taft; Taft said nothing wrong

Pinchot goes public and gets fired

Theodore Roosevelt atOsawatomie, KS: New

Nationalism

Big business requires big government.

Is TR’s hat in the ring?

Antitrust lawsuit against US Steel in Oct. 1911

Robert La Follette’s nervous breakdown in Feb 1912

Announces candidacy in Feb. 1912