Study Session: Old West to Progressives

• OLD WEST– Transcontinental Railroad• First completed in 1869, 5 total, Irish & Chinese workers • Consequences for the Great Plains=key role in the near

extinction of the buffalo-huge blow to Native culture– Nomadic way of life threatened– Disease– RR transforms economy of the entire region

• Railroad brings settlers, miners, farmers & cattlemen • Range-fed cattle replace the buffalo herds

Impact on Native Americans

• Century of Dishonor 1881- Helen Hunt Jackson• Dawes Act of 1887– Goals: Inspired by CoD, attempt to reform govt. Native

American policy & assimilate Natives– Consequences=natives lost 50% of 156 million acres, Indian

Reorganization Act of 1934 partially reversed individualistic approach to Dawes Act

– Ghost Dance= sacred ritual expressing vision that buffalo would return & white civilization would vanish

– Resulted in Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 out of fear that an uprising would occur

Fading Frontier

• Watershed Report– 1890 census reported that there was no longer a

“frontier line”– Basically said frontier was closed– Frederick Jackson Turner writes “Significance of the

Frontier in American History” where he argued that cheap, unsettled land had played a key role in making American society more democratic- the American spirit of democracy, nationalism, individualism, but no hereditary landed aristocracy as a result

Your view of Frontier v. APUSH writer view

• Where you think Custer, buffalo, gun fights and cattle drives when you imagine the Old West, the APUSH writers focus on other things.

• APUSH Test Tip= High probability you will have questions on Helen Hunt Jackson’s Century of Dishonor and Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis

Industrial America

• Consolidation of Big Business– Vertical integration=company controls both production

and distribution of its product– Horizontal integration=occurs when one company gains

control over other companies that produce the same product

– Consequences of consolidation=corporations build large organized factories where machines & unskilled workers perform labor

– Corporations accumulate vast sums of investment capital & railroads help develop markets for their goods

Labor 1865-1900

• Key trends: – Immigrants, women and children expand labor

force– Machines replace skilled artisans– Large corporations dominate American economy– National markets & international markets for

goods– Rags to riches- American Dream- Horatio Alger

Knights of Labor Industrial Workers of the World

American Federation of Labor

Terence Powderly “Mother Jones”, Elizabeth Flynn, Bill Haywood

Samuel Gompers of Cigar Makers Union

Open membership “Injury to one is injury to all”-One Big Union

Skilled workers in craft unions

Skilled & Unskilled All even African Americans

Goal: Cooperative society were laborers own the industries where they work

Goal: unite all laborers including African Americans who were excluded from craft unions

Goal: higher wages, shorter hours, better working conditions

Haymarket Square riot blamed on Knights

Endorsed violent tactics

Anti violence

APUSH TEST TIP

• Very important to understand similarities and differences between the 3 unions. All dedicated to organizing workers, but varying views on violence, skilled vs. unskilled, etc.

Labor strikes

• Homestead strike 1892 • Pullman strike 1894– Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages while

maintaining rents and prices in a company town where 12,000 workers lived- strike resulted

– Pullman strike halted a substantial portion of American railroad commerce

– Cleveland ordered federal troops to Chicago to “protect the mail” but really to crush the strike

Immigration• Old Immigrants- prior to 1880 most come from Britain and W. Europe• New Immigrants- in 1880s start coming from S. & E. Europe (Italy,

Russia, Poland, A-H)• Settled in large cities but very few in the South• Chinese Exclusion Act 1882

– First law to exclude a group due to ethnicity– Prohibits immigration of Chinese to America– Working-class felt threatened by Chinese workers– Strong support in CaliforniaNativism= had opposed Irish & Germans in the past.

Oppose new immigrants who are Catholic & Jewish, different languages & cultures, feel they don’t understand political traditions, feel they are threatening jobs

Industrial Order- Supporters & Reformers• Social Darwinism- fittest survive in nature & society• Wealthy business & industrial leaders use Social Darwinism to justify

their success• Social Darwinists believe industrial & urban problems are part of

natural evolutionary process that humans cannot control• Gospel of Wealth= Andrew Carnegie

– Expressed the belief that as guardians of society’s wealth rich have a duty to serve society

– Carnegie donates more than $350 million to libraries, schools, peace initiatives and the arts

Social Gospel was a reform movement based on the belief that Christians have a responsibility to confront social problems- Christian ministers were among the leaders of the Social Gospel movement

Populism & Progressives• Angry frustrated farmers a.k.a agrarian discontent– RR high rates exploiting the farmer– Big business high taxes exploiting farmer– Gold standard hurting farmer– Corporations charging way too much for farmer equipment

& fertilizer• Populist Party forms to unite farmers & improve famer conditions

– Supported- » Silver standard at 16 to 1 to increase money supply» Use Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 to regulate RR & stop

discrimination against small customers» Support candidacy of William Jennings Bryan in 1896

Reasons Populist Party fails

• Western and Southern farmers did not agree on political strategies

• Racism prevents poor white and black farmers from working together

• Increases in urban population led to higher prices for agricultural products

• Discovery of gold in the Yukon eased farmer access to credit

• Democratic party was too similar to Populist and took ideas

• WJB lost in 1896 & Populists faded off

Progressives

• Key Points:– Middle class reformers concerned with urban &

consumer issues– Govt should tackle social problems– Govt should regulate industry & improve labor

conditions– Rejected Social Darwinism, arguing cooperation is

best way to improve society

Progressives Key Goals

• Direct election of senators• Women’s suffrage• Recall & referendum• City- manager type form of govt for greater

professionalism• Nonpartisan local govt to weaken political machines• Child labor laws• Antitrust legislation• Pure Food and Drug Act

APUSH TEST TIPRemember what Progressives fought for & what they did not fight for. DID NOT fight for civil rights

Progressive Amendments

• 16th= gave Congress power to lay and collect taxes

• 17th=senators to be elected by popular vote• 18th=outlaws sale and manufacture of liquor• 19th=women granted right to vote

Muckrakers• Keys: investigative reporters who promoted social and

political reform by exposing corruption & urban problems

• Criticized political bosses & robber barons• Mass circulation of newspapers & magazines reach the

public• Leading muckrakers=– Upton Sinclair: The Jungle- leads to Meat Inspection Act &

Pure Food & Drug Act– Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives– Ida Tarbell: History of Standard OilAPUSH TEST TIP: Writers feel most know Tarbell and Sinclair but not so much

Riis, so a number of questions on Riis

Progressive Presidents

• Teddy Roosevelt– Conservation of natural resources– Unsanitary conditions in meatpacking industry– Went after monopolies in RR industry– Went after food & drug safety– Square Deal: Three C’s ???– Bull Moose Party to run again in 1912

Progressive President• Woodrow Wilson– All out assault on high taxes, banking trouble &

trusts – Federal Reserve Act of 1913• Created system of district banks coordinated by a

central board • Made currency & credit more elastic

APUSH TEST TIP: Teddy, Taft and Wilson all supported Progressive reform but the exam does not give them equal treatment. Most attention given to Teddy, omit Taft to a degree and limit questions to Wilson’s Federal Reserve. However…many questions on Wilson’s foreign policy stuff

Reformers and Suffragettes 1865-1920

• Jane Addams=Hull House (settlement house) in Chicago

• Suffrage- greater sense of equality on frontier so Western states to allow women the vote before 1920- WY first in 1869

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union– Carry Nation best known & outspoken leader– Moral responsibility to improve society by working

for prohibition

Women & Progressive Reform

• Dorothea Dix- worked for better conditions for mentally ill

• Ida B. Wells-Barnett- African American civil rights advocate especially opposed to lynching

• Women also involved in progressive movements against:– Child labor– Limiting hours for women and children

Women at work

• Late 19th & early 20th majority of female workers employed outside home were young and single

• Domestic servants• Garment workers• Teachers• Cigar makers• Least likely to be doctors or lawyers

Black Americans & Progressive Era

• W.E.B. DuBois-most influential advocate of full political, economic and social equality for Black Americans- founded NAACP 1909. Advocated development of the talented 10th- more educated & directly involved in change. Goal integration not separation

• Booker T. Washington- advocated gradualism and separation- Atlanta Compromise speech

• KKK active in progress period & has a resurgence due in part to D.W. Griffith’s film, Birth of a Nation which portrayed KKK activities as heroic