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