the progressive era - the slaughterhousethe progressive era reform shifts from the farm to the city...

The Progressive Era

Reform shifts from the farm to the city and climbs the ladder of government

from the local to the state and then to the national level.

I. The Problems of the 1890’s

• Huge Gap between

rich and poor

• Tremendous economic

and political power of

the rich

• Wealthy were

insensitively flaunting

their wealth before a

poorer public

I. Problems of the 1890’s (cont.)

• Industrial workers hideously poor, living in squalor and working in dangerous conditions

• Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives (1890)

• Little concern for Black America

II. Progressive Reformers

A. Streams of Reform

• The “Social Gospel”

movement

--Walter Rauschenbusch:

Christianity and the Social

Crisis (1907)

• Settlement House Workers

--Jane Addams, Hull House

in Chicago (1889)

• Americans of “Old

Wealth”

A. Streams of Reform (cont.)

• Young, socially-conscious lawyers

• Investigative Journalists

-- “Muckrakers”

--Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, John Spargo, and Upton Sinclair

• Small businessmen

Thomas Nast

• Political cartoonist /

satirist

• Lampooned big

business, politicians,

cops, etc.

Muckrakers • John Spargo – Bitter

Cry of the Children –

Child Labor

practices in U.S.

factories

• Lincoln Steffens –

Shame of the Cities –

Urban Poor

• Upton Sinclair – The

Jungle – Child Labor,

then unsanitary

conditions

B. Features of Progressive Reform • Desire to remedy problems

through government initiative

• Reliance on “experts”

-- Robert Lafollette’s “Wisconsin Idea”

• Change government if government is not going to change

• Wanted reform not revolution

• Stressed the importance of efficiency in reform

--Frederick W. Taylor

B. Features of Progressive Reform

(cont.)

• Want to bring order out of

chaos

--Creation of NCAA in

1910

--Federal Budget (1921)

• Desire to make politics

more democratic

• Desire to make

businessmen more

responsible for problems

B. Features of Progressive Reform

(cont.)

• Desire to make society more moral and more just

• Desire to distribute income more equitably

• Desire to broaden opportunities for individual advancement

• Women were active in progressivism

--Suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony / Carrie Chapman Catt

B. Features of Progressive Reform

(cont.)

• Infiltrated both political

parties

-- Republican

“insurgents”

• Middle-class reform

movement

• Operated on all three

levels of government

III. Sample Progressive

Reforms

A. Political Reforms

• Tried to put more power into the hands of the people

• Innovative changes in city government

--city managers and commission model / Galveston TX

WISCONSIN IDEA – Robert M. LaFollette

• The Direct Primary

• Initiative, Referendum and Recall

• The Secret Ballot

• Direct Election of Senators and the Vote for Women

B. Social Reforms • Child labor laws

• Ten-hour work days

--The “Brandeis brief”

--Muller v. Oregon (1908)

The case upheld Oregon state

restrictions on the working hours of

women as justified by the special

state interest in protecting women's

health.

--Bunting v. Oregon (1917)

• Prohibition initiatives

• Moral Purity campaigns

--Mann Act (1910) -prohibited white

slavery and the interstate transport of

females for "immoral purposes".

B. Social Reforms (cont.) • Minimum safety standards

on the job

• Minimum standards for housing codes

• “City Beautification” movement

• Immigration Restriction

• Eugenics

--Buck v. Bell (1927)

• Little Help for Blacks

--NAACP (1909)

-- “Birth of a Nation” – DW Griffith

IV. Progressive Amendments to

the Constitution

• Progressive reliance on the

law

• 16th Amendment (1913)—

federal income tax

• 17th Amendment (1913)—

direct election of senators

• 18th Amendment (1919)—

prohibition

• 19th Amendment (1920)—

vote for women

V. Presidential Progressivism:

Theodore Roosevelt

• Great drive, energy and exciting personality

• TR’s interests and early years

• NYC police commissioner

• Spanish-American War experience

-- “Rough Riders”

• Political Rise from NY Governor to Vice-President

A. First Term as President (1901-

1904)

• McKinley’s assassination

• Offered energetic national

leadership

• Cast every issue in moral

and patriotic terms

--The “Bully Pulpit”

• Master Politician

• Modest goals for his

“accidental” presidency

B. “Trust-Buster”? • TR’s attitude toward Big

Business

• Wants to regulate in order to get businesses to act right

• The “Square Deal” (1902)

• Making an example of the Northern Securities Co.

• The Elkins Act (1903) and the Bureau of Corporations

• heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates

C. Second Term as President

(1905-1909)

• More vigorous

progressivism

• Hepburn Act (1906)

• Federal Meat Inspection

Act (1906)

• Pure Food and Drug Act

(1906)

• Conservation Policy

--Preservation vs.

Conservation

VI. “A Tough Act to Follow”: The

Presidency of William Howard Taft (1909-

1913)

• The Election of 1908

• Taft’s political experience

• Taft’s weight

• Not a dynamic politician

• Never completely comfortable as President

VI. Presidency of Taft (cont.)

• Controversy over the Tariff

• More conservative than TR, but also more trust suits

• The “Ballinger-Pinchot” Affair

• Growing tension with Teddy Roosevelt

VII. The Election of 1912

• Growing split within the

Republican Party

• Creation of the “Bull

Moose” Party

• Progressive Party Platform:

“New Nationalism”

• Democrats drafted

Woodrow Wilson

• Results of the Election

VIII. Democratic Progressivism: The

Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

• Wilson’s early life and political career

• True progressive and dynamic speaker

• Sympathetic to small businessmen

• Could be a stubborn, moral crusader and ideologue

A. “New Freedom”

• Wilson’s brand of

progressivism

• Wants to recreate the

“golden age” of small

American businesses

• Wilson wants to open

channels for free and fair

competition

• Historic Jeffersonian

approach to federal power

B. Key Wilsonian Legislation

• Underwood Tariff Act

(1913) – Lower Tariff

• Federal Reserve Act

(1913) – created

• Clayton Anti-Trust Act

(1914)

• Federal Trade

Commission (1914)

C. Congressional Progressivism

After 1914

• Wilson was not a strong progressive when it came to social reform

• Congress takes over the progressive agenda

• Appointment of Brandeis to Supreme Court

• Examples of congressional progressive legislation after 1914

--Federal Highways Act (1916)

IX. The Waning of the Progressive

Movement

• Progressive movement peaks by 1917

• Success of the movement led to its decline

• Advent of World War I also hurt progressive activism

• Progressives themselves began to weary of their reform

zeal—as did the nation as a whole

• Ironically, voter participation has steadily declined since

the election of 1912