Texas in the Progressive Era

Progressive Era U.S. Presidents

Teddy Roosevelt (R)1901-1909

William Howard Taft (R)1909-1913

Woodrow Wilson (D)1913-1921

Urban Changes

1890s Urban growth is extraordinary

1860: 5 cities of 100,000

1890: 38 cities of 100,000

(2010: 252)

1900

• Tremendous social stratification and inequality.– Andrew Carnegie’s income was $23 million/year,

Average head of household was $500/year.– 1% of Americans owned 87% of wealth– 80% of Americans were subsistence wage earners

Progressivism

• Rational use of government powers to solve social problems.

• Social uplift/social control.• Role of “experts”.• Space for “woman’s maternal role”.• Rises from municipal to state and national and

then international levels.

Muckrakers

The social pressures of increased population density led to calls for municipal level reform.

• Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 1895• Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities, 1904• Ida Tarbell, History of Standard Oil, 1904• Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906Muckrakers identified social issues, very rarely

propose solutions.

Professionalization

The 1880s to 1900s witnessed a wave or institutional reforms that created professional standards.• American Bar Association 1878• American Historical Association 1889• American Psychiatry Association 1892• American Medical Association 1897

Trust Busting

• 1902: Ida Tarbell’s History of Standard Oil published magazine series, a muckraking anti-monopoly tract.

• 1904: Teddy Roosevelt elected president, campaigned as “trust buster.”

• 1905-1909: US government prosecuted S.O. for unfair trade practices.

• 1911: Standard Oil ordered to dissolve.

Breaking up the Giant• Seven regional mini-Standard Oils and a 25+ smaller companies:

– S.O. of New York = Mobil– S.O. of New Jersey = Exxon (later merged with Mobil)– S.O. of Ohio = Sohio (later bought by BP)– S.O. of California = Chevron (later merged with Texaco)– S.O. of Indiana = Amoco (later bought by BP)– Continental Oil = Conoco (later bought by Phillips)– Atlantic Oil = Arco (later bought by BP, now Sunoco)

Progressive Reforms

• Initiative• Recall• Referendum• City Councils and Managers• Public school expansion • State Universities• Sanitation services• National and State Park Systems

1912

1912

Woodrow Wilson (D): 6.3 million435 EC

Teddy Roosevelt (P): 4.1 million88 EC

William Taft (R): 3.5 million8 EC

Eugene Debs (S): .9 million0 EC

Texan Progressive Era Governors

James Hogg, 1891-1895Charles Culberson, 1895-1899Joseph Sayers, 1899-1903S. W. T. Lanham, 1903-1907Thomas Campbell, 1907-1911Oscar Colquitt, 1911-1915James Ferguson, 1915-1917William Hobby, 1917-1921Pat Neff, 1921-1925Miriam Ferguson, 1925-1927

• 1870s and 1880s: two organizations focused on Woman’s suffrage.• National WSA sought federal amendment. Led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton.• American WSA sought state level reforms. Led by Lucy Stone and others.• NWSA and AWSA merge in 1890

Continued both campaigns at state and national level.

Wyoming, territory, 1869Utah, territory, 1870 to 1887Wyoming, state, 1890Colorado, state, 1893Utah, state, 1895Idaho, state, 1896Washington, state, 1910California, state, 1911Arizona, Oregon, states, 1912Illinois, state, 1913Montana, state, 1914New York, state, 1917 !!! Jeannette Rankin, 1st Woman in Congress

Elected in 1916 from Montana

Amendment 19

1915, Defeated in House 1918, President Wilson urges passage of law1919, Fails in Senate1919, Wilson calls special session and leans on Congress

to solve this before 1920 electionsJune 1919 passes Congress and goes to states for

ratificationAugust 1920 36th state (Tennessee, in a 50 to 49 vote)

ratifies it and Women’s Suffrage becomes national law.

Holdouts?• Connecticut, 1920• Vermont, 1921• Delaware, 1923

• Maryland, 1941• Virginia, 1952• Alabama, 1953• Florida, 1969• South Carolina, 1969 • Georgia, 1970• Louisiana, 1970• North Carolina,1971 • Mississippi, 1984

Connecticut, Vermont, and Delaware delayed ratification because of the timetable for their state assemblies to meet, but ratified relatively soon after the Amendment became national law.

Why did the US South resist ratifying the Amendment? Unnecessary effort? A symbolic, anti-Progressivism act? Generally slower to respond to national changes?

What about Arkansas, Texas, and Tennessee?

ProhibitionAmendment 18, 1919 (Repealed in 1933)• Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture,

sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

• Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

• Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Loophole?

http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/local_option_elections/

Progressive Amendments

• Amendment 16: Income Tax (1913)• Amendment 17: Direct Election of Senators

(1913)• Amendment 18: Prohibition (1919)• Amendment 19: Women’s Suffrage (1920)• Amendment ??: Child Labor Act (1924)

28 States ratified, just 10 to go!