1901 – 1912. the gilded age: “predatory wealth” & “conspicuous consumption” the...
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PROGRESSIVISM AND THE REPUBLICAN ROOSEVELT
1901 – 1912
PROGRESSIVE ROOTS
The Gilded Age: “predatory wealth” & “conspicuous
consumption” The Greenback Labor Party & Populist
Party 1870s and 90s Responding to industrialist
PROGRESSIVE ROOTS CONTINUED
Early writers Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890) Henry Demarest Lloyd
Wealth Against Commonwealth (1894) Thorstein Veblen
Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
RAKING MUCK WITH THE MUCKRAKERS
Muckrakers (early 1900s) Phrase coined by Theodore Roosevelt
Topics Life insurance co. Tariff lobby groups Trusts and Monopolies Trafficking of women Slums Pharmaceuticals Industrial accidents
RAKING MUCK WITH THE MUCKRAKERS Famous Muckrakers
Ida Tarbell History of the Standard Oil Company
Upton Sinclair The Jungle
POLITICAL PROGRESSIVISM
Modernizing American Institutions Goals
1) to use the government to curve monopolies 2) improve the common person’s conditions at work and
home Initiative:
Voters can petition directly for a law to be placed on a general ballot.
Referendum: Place laws on the ballot for final approval for the people.
Recall: Allowed people to get rid of elected officials who were not
fulfilling their obligations.
POLITICAL PROGRESSIVISM
17th Amendment: Direct election of senators
After the local victories using the primary election
Secret ballot Inspired by the Australian ballot
PROGRESSIVISM IN THE CITIES AND STATES
Taking out the political machine Robert La Follette: Wisconsin governor,
militant progressive Took out the monopolies of lumber and
railroad
PROGRESSIVE WOMEN
Entering the public square to take up the fight Women and Children’s
labor laws Food safety Work conditions Temperance (Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union)
Used the traditional role as an argument for lobbying against unfair practices Muller v. Oregon
PROGRESSIVE WOMEN
TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST COMPANY FIRE
1911 – New York City
146 employees killed
Got the attention of America that reform was needed in business and labor.
Strikers for shorter hours and better conditions pushed the New York legislature into action
TR’S SQUARE DEAL FOR LABOR
Control of corporations Worked for labor reform that would benefit the
public Coal strike in 1902: threatened the coal industry with
government takeover. Corporations
Elkins Act: Heavy fines on railroads and shippers who dealt rebates.
Hepburn Act: expanded the role of Interstate Commerce Commission to include sleeper cars, express co., & pipeline
Trustbuster: 1902 defeated Northern Securities Co.’s attempt to create a monopoly on railways.
CARING FOR THE CONSUMER
Consumer protection Looked to benefit corporations and
consumers Meat Protection Act (1906)
Meat shipped over state lines was subject to federal inspection
Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) Prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of
foods and drugs
EARTH CONTROL
Conservation of natural resources 7th Annual Address to Congress
Resources are not inexhaustible Hired Gifford Pinchot: head of Division
of Forestry Set aside 125 million acres
THE “ROOSEVELT PANIC” OF 1907
Roosevelt was blamed But it stirred up the people to make
reforms Aldrich-Vreeland Act: banks can issue
emergeny currency
THE ROUGH RIDER THUNDERS OUT
Roosevelt hand picked Taft to keep his policies going strong
Taft beat William Jennings Bryan What did Roosevelt leave behind?
A more powerful executive branch Gave power to the progressive movement
TAFT: A ROUND PEG IN A SQUARE HOLE
Mild progressive
Didn’t want the presidency
THE DOLLAR GOES ABROAD AS A DIPLOMAT
Supporting U.S. financial and political investments abroad Manchurian railroads Caribbean
TAFT THE TRUSTBUSTER
90 suits in 4 yearsversus Roosevelt’s 44 suits in 7
½ years 1911: Supreme Court
ruled Standard Oil to be dissolved
Taft brings suit against U.S. Steel Corporation. Angers Roosevelt who was in on one of the questionable mergers.
TAFT SPLITS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
Payne-Aldrich Bill Ballinger-Pinchot
quarrel
THE TAFT-ROOSEVELT RUPTURE
Roosevelt was not happy with Taft’s handling of Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel, the Payne-Aldrich Bill, and big business
Roosevelt runs against Taft for the Republican nomination He can do this because Republicans are
split between mild and ardent progressives