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What is Progress?
• Reform = always possible, always good• the spirit of the age, shared by all
– Progress not inevitable; can be blocked by Ignorance and Corruption
• Everyone and everything can be improved– traditions = automatically suspect– Experts can ALWAYS find one best
way– Education & Purity always = progress.
• American mission = Progress for world
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Core Values
• Republican Virtue• Democracy: duty of citizen to participate• threatened by corruption
• Modernity– Efficiency
• science, education• threatened by ignorance, tradition, corruption
– free enterprise; free labor; free land
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Efficiency
• Personal--plan your future achievement– compulsory education; “reform”
schools• Society: everything can be improved
– experts analyze the problem– old ways = wasteful; everything can
be improved; ignorance as the #1 enemy
– science, technology, medicine – university as research center
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Efficiency in Business
• F. W. Taylor & Scientific Management
• Henry Ford & Assembly Line – Fordism: high wages
= high skills, lower turnover, high spending power
• Railroad Efficiency: E.H. Harriman
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Efficiency in Business
• Finance: J. P. Morgan• Heavy Industry: Andrew Carnegie
– Judge Gary & U S Steel (1901)• Retailing: Julius Rosenwald @ Sears• “new, improved”; annual model changes• Eliminate waste = higher wages, lower
prices, more profit
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Experts in Government
• Need “disinterested” experts in fairness
• Party politics = controlled by special interests
• Independent Regulatory Commission– Appointed experts
(European model)– Missing: fear that they
will become captive
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Judiciary
• Judges as experts in fairness– Taft (conservative) & Brandeis
(liberal): courts & judges = best, final experts
• Labor: hates injunctions that stop strikes• Roosevelt: Courts are undemocratic
– overrule them by referendum– key reason GOP rejected TR in 1912
• Taft wins: picks 5 Supreme Court justices– active as Chief Justice 1921-30
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Efficiency in Local & State Government• Conduct a survey to discover problems• Local: better service, lower taxes• State: Independent Regulatory
Commission– sets rates; solves monopoly problem– Missing: fear that they will become
captive• Danger: patronage & corruption
– Solution: civil service reform– crusading district attorneys– clean elections; reform parties
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Religious Activism:Social Gospel
• Social Gospel = mainline Protestant
• Missions to all world• End evils
– Will speed Christ’s Second Coming
• End saloons– Prohibition
• End prostitution
Christ calls on efficiency oriented businessman, who is listening to the devil
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Social Gospel appeals
Compare Gast 1872, no religion
Woman with cross = ChristianityLeading man labeled “civilization” carrying tools (= industry) and telescope (= science)
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Who was Jane Addams?
• Hull House = bring best practices to inner city Chicago
• Rally intellectuals• Americanize
immigrants• Clean up politics• Woman suffrage• World Peace
See Citizendium article
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Hull House
• "to teach by example, to practice cooperation, and to practice social democracy, that is, egalitarian”
• Housing reform• Focus on children
– Fight child labor– Music, sports
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Crusade Against Evil Corruption: Muckraking
journalism• Hidden Evil doers threaten
America– actual people, not just
social forces– they block reform for own
selfish $$$• Expose Them! Muckraker
Journalism– expose boss rule in all
major cities– expose corporate wrong-
doing; Rockefeller– magazines: Lincoln
Steffans, Ida Tarbell– newspapers: Wm R Hearst
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Crusade against Corruption
• Moralism: strong religious flavor – destroy "saloon power" by prohibition– strong law enforcement; FBI & Hoover
• Fear of Evil Escalates 1904-1912– only antidote = more democracy
• Conservatives = Counter-Crusade– “the crusaders are crazy and dangerous”
• WWI Crusade against “Huns” (Germans)• Crusades burn out after a couple years
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Political Crusaders
• Democrats:– William Jennings Bryan, Wm R. Hearst– Woodrow Wilson
• Republicans:– Robert LaFollette (Wisconsin)– Hiram Johnson (California)– Teddy Roosevelt (after 1907)
• Cities: local crusaders in every big city
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Democracy: Let the People Rule! That is The Pure People
• Women: needed force for purity in politics, interests in "good housekeeping" & needs of family. America needs their vote– antisuffrage: vote corrupts pure
womanhood• Stop corrupt voting; Literacy test; Registration• no votes for “unrepublican” groups
– Asians, African Americans– doubts re: Hispanics delays statehood for
New Mexico; granted in 1912
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How can the people rule?
• weaken parties; elect Senators; Primaries; reject party bosses (hard to do)
• direct rule: referendum & initiative (California); recall of judges (Arizona)
• stunning shock in WWI = people easily manipulated by propaganda; no true "public opinion" at all
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States & Cities Take Lead
• Wisconsin; Bob LaFollette: tax & spend; university experts – LaFollette machine– Battles conservative anti-tax GOP
• California; Hiram Johnson: destroy parties – Numerous independent crusades
• New Jersey; Woodrow Wilson (Dem) ruins the bosses
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State & Local Issues
• Corruption in Politics• Efficiency in Government• Protect women
– Regulate working hours & conditions– Attack prostitution
• Public Health; Hospitals– Water & sanitation; smoke; TB; milk
• High Schools & Colleges– Compulsory education to age 14
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Presidential Progressives4 contrasting styles
• Roosevelt: the Warrior– strong moral character; call to battle
• Taft: the Judge– judicial supremacy, cautious
• Wilson: the Priest– moralism; global leadership; inflexible
• Hoover: the Engineer – pro-business; poor politician
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Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919)
• Media Superstar; middle class hero
• Family: wealthy business; Civil War?
• The Cowboy; manliness; extreme sports; barbarian & civilized
• intellectual in politics; history & biology
• 1890s: Navy & Empire; Spanish War 1898
• President 1901-1909• 1912 “Progressive” 3rd Party
split GOP
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TR as President 1901-09
• Railroads: mild regulation by ICC & Courts• National Civic Federation
– business/union cooperation to avert radicalism; settle 1902 Coal Strike
• Conservation: efficient use of resources• Good Trusts (US Steel) Vs Bad Ones (Standard
Oil, Northern Securities)• 1907 Panic; he blames big business• Elihu Root modernizes the Army
– Modernization in Cuba, Philippines
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Railroad Reform
• The Problem: monopoly RR as threat to businessmen and to politics
• Solution: Federal Regulation– ICC controls rates; no rebates; no secrets
• Railway Labor: 1916 Wilson gives in– 1918: Wilson seizes all railroads– 1920: railroads returned to private hands
• Long term: regulation helps shippers and hurts RR; can’t compete w highways
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Antitrust 1• Democracy
– big business = illegitimate political power
– hurts small business– gov’t regulation is even more
dangerous• Efficiency
– trusts are more efficient & innovative• not true, says Brandeis
– trusts raise prices, hurt consumer– trusts reduce innovation
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Antitrust 2
• Trust = Monopoly, any big business– illegitimate political power– run roughshod over smaller
entrepreneurs– efficient and good for consumers??– raise or lower prices?
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Antitrust 3
• Trust = Monopoly, any big business– illegitimate political power– run roughshod over smaller entrepreneurs– efficient and good for consumers??– raise or lower prices?
• TR & Taft most active• Break up hated Standard Oil (1911)
– Supreme Court: “rule of reason”– Fail to break up US Steel
• no sense of limits of expertise, or need to limit gov't
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Antitrust 4
• 1914: Federal Trade Commission– specifies illegal activities– 1920s: helps business
• Fordism: high wages, low prices, efficiency through mass production– Ford a national hero despite monopoly
• 1930s New Danger = cutthroat competition– small business needs protection
• Today: big mergers need approval
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Tariff Debate• GOP high tariff (1890-1913)
– GOP: it “protects” industry & high wages– Dems: it is corrupt --> monopoly & inflation– Actually: does neither. It’s a delicate balance
of interests inside GOP with little $ impact• 1909 Midwestern GOP insurgents fight new tariff;
defeated by Aldrich; they revolt • 1913: Wilson lowers tariff
– Debate fades away; income tax more important
• 1922, 1930: GOP raises it again
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Labor Unions
• Grow rapidly 1900-1920, then collapse• Locals = branches of national crafts unions
– coal miners, machinists, teamsters, printers, needle trades, carpenters etc
• National: AFL & Samuel Gompers• Goals: control trade, higher pay
– support technology & modernization– politics: stay loose; lean Democratic– Most oppose Socialism
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Union Political Goals
• Local: keep police away from strikes (strikers threaten violence to win)
• State: no National Guard intervention– problem: judges rule against strike
tactics• National: work w both parties• 1916: Wilson get +++ Railroad Labor Law• 1917-18 support war; grow; get $$$• 1919: strikes, collapse
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Public Opinion on Unions
• Favor Working Man, high wages, short hours
• Oppose Union monopoly– illegitimate use of
power• Usually oppose strikes
– Strongly oppose strike violence
• Street railway strikes test public patience
• National Civil Federation = efficient harmony
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War with Spain 1898• Causes: anger at Spain’s
treatment of Cubans• Result: “splendid little
war”– Insurrection in
Philippines• US Empire: Hawaii,
Philippines, Puerto Rico• 1905: US gives up
expansion plans, looks to Panama Canal
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Imperialism Worldwide• Asia, Africa divided up by Europe & Japan
– Britain & France: large empires– Germany: stuck with leftovers;
resentful• American sentiment:
– Empires are evil & cause war– But they also modernize backward
peoples– Give up Cuba & Philippines– Keep Hawaii, Puerto Rico
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The Far Left attacks Republicanism
• IWW overthrow the system!– Reject republicanism for Class
Struggle– Reject democracy for Dictatorship
of Proletariat (i.e. by left wing leaders like Haywood)
– Anarchists: Assassinate McKinley– Lawrence Strike 1912 fails– 1917: oppose the war
• Destroyed by Federal Government– 1919: Radicals deported to USSR– Remnant forms Communist party
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Socialists are split
• Socialist Party: Eugene Debs– capitalism is evil &
inefficient– scientific solution =
workers own industry– strongly opposed by
Catholic Church & by most unions
– left: oppose WW1; go to jail
– War: right wing supports war (Lippmann)
• Debs opposes it & goes to prison
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Taft Vs TR Progressives
• Tariff battle disrupts GOP– Income tax: constitutional
amendment • Purists distrust Taft; he relies on courts
and conservative GOP (Senator Aldrich)• Feuds erupt between left and right
wings – Crisis of 1910-1912 splits the GOP – Republican Insurgents weaken
Speaker– Democrats: sweep 1910 elections
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1912: Taft-TR-Wilson
• TR breaks with Taft – conservation issue; trusts;
personality– TR: recall of judicial
decisions• TR challenges Taft for GOP
nomination; starts too late; beaten; cries foul
• TR forms "Progressive Party" ("Bull Moose" 1912); amateur hour
• GOP split 1912-14 elects Democratic Wilson & Dem Congress
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Wilson the Priest
• Scholar, speaker, superb writer• conservative states righter,
moves left 1913 • 1913: tariff lowered (little
effect) • 1913: Federal Reserve System
created; break the Money Power? efficient management of money? or disaster waiting to happen?
• Antitrust laws strengthened • Pro-Labor; 1916 Railroad laws
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Private solution fails
• The Problem: inadequate financial system– Panic of 1907 solved
by one old man, Morgan
– need for liquidity– need for international
banking• Aldrich Solution: banks
form system• Bryan demands more
democracy
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1920s: Efficiency Decade
• Democracy Distrusted– propaganda too powerful; H L
Mencken• Corruption Issue continues
• Teapot Dome; Bootleg Liquor; Cities
• Efficiency Stronger than Ever– Business: Age of Henry Ford
• Gov't: Age of Hoover– cooperation with Business– End poverty through modernization
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Democracy Vs Efficiency
• When they work together, irresistible. – Major legislation passed near
unanimous• ICC, Antitrust, Income Tax, RR regulation
• When they are opposed, deep problems– African American status– Labor unions, violence, anti-trust– Imperialism in Philippines– Woman Suffrage
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African Americans
• Blacks excluded from power & prestige• Segregation: De Facto & De Jure
– Supreme Court approves: Plessy v Ferguson, 1896– schools, churches, jobs & gov’t service= separate &
unequal– geographical separation: “BLACK BELT” in South
• Politics: Age of White Supremacy– Disfranchisement, 1890-1915– Lynchings during transition
• Economic Status: very poor• White Racism Vs white paternalism
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Segregation continues;ends in 1965
• Supporters– purify politics. Reduce corruption– reduce violence, lynchings– keep White supremacy
• Opponents– violation of Constitution– degrades Blacks– degrades Whites
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Leadership Disputes
• Booker T. Washington, political leader– Atlanta speech, 1896 = accept segregation– Tuskegee = industrial education
• W.E.B. DuBois--intellectual leader– political rights– liberal arts for “talented tenth”– NAACP for middle class “Colored People”
• Marcus Garvey: separate out– Black Nationalism; “Back to Africa”;
deported
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African American Progressives
• Booker T. Washington & Tuskeegee Institute
• Emphasis on Efficiency– Education, skills needed for full
citizenship– must educate BOTH whites &
blacks – community development
essential• promote black business, professions,
careers– quietly seek rights (avoid
backlash)• cooperate with white elite• danger = lower class white
demagogues
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Progressives: DuBois & NAACP
• Emphasis on Rights & White Corruption• demand all rights now
– rely on Constitution & federal courts • white racism = corruption of republicanism
– root cause of all black problems• demand for reform of black community is
itself racism
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Woman Suffrage
• Supporters– women are good,
efficient republicans
– they will purify politics (“clean house”)
– experts in needs of home & children
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Anti-Woman Suffrage
• Arguments– Women not
independent --controlled by husbands
– can’t fight for USA– will defeminize &
corrupt women– will support
prohibition– Gender role reversal
—women become men
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What difference?
• Women’s issues to the front in 1920s– Peace– Prohibition– Schools– Public Health
• Corruption became worse• Few women run for office• Women vote same as men
(except on war)• Conservative Catholics:
sign up their women to vote for Al Smith 1928
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Imperialism Worldwide• Asia, Africa divided up by Europe & Japan
– Britain & France: large empires– Germany: stuck with leftovers;
resentful• American sentiment:
– Empires are evil & cause war– But they also modernize backward
peoples– Give up Cuba & Philippines– Keep Hawaii, Puerto Rico
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War with Spain 1898• Causes: anger at Spain’s
treatment of Cubans• Result: “splendid little
war”– Insurrection in
Philippines• US Empire: Hawaii,
Philippines, Puerto Rico• 1905: US gives up
expansion plans, looks to Panama Canal
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Imperialism
• Supporters– Strengthen USA– bring Democracy to them– modernize them– link to missionary movement
• Opponents– bring tyranny to them and to us– they are not ready for democracy
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Critical Weaknesses of Progressive Faith
• Assumes “the people” make up their own minds independently & are not influenced by propaganda
• Assumes single best solution actually exist• Assumes the solution will always work and
not backfire because of unintended consequences
• Rejects pluralistic viewpoints or solutions
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Dates: when was Progressive Era?
• "short" (1901-1917 = efficiency, morality, democracy)– destroyed by hysteria of WWI– subtheme of failure & frustration
• "long" (1890s-1932) = efficiency– challenged by New Deal but still alive
today• major long-term impact on society • Was it good or evil?
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Bibliography
• Mowry, Era of Theodore Roosevelt (1955)• Diner on Progressive Era
– Steven Diner, A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era (1998)
• Ohio State: documents & cartoons• Short books:
– Arthur Link & Richard McCormick, Progressivism (1983)