Chapter 20 THE PROGRESSIVE ERA PROGRESSIVISM 1890 1920 widespread, many-sided effort both parties middle-class efforts Henry George - Progress and Poverty Edward Bellamy - Looking Backward PROGRESSIVES middle-class Christians Social Gospel strive for social justice middle-class affected by society Jane Addams sister died Pullman strike no RRs uplift society uplift themselves SETTLEMENT HOUSES Hull House Chicago (1889) Jane Addams community centers social services Henry Street Settlement NY Lillian Wald Hull House fought for: garbage removal playgrounds police protection better way of life for urban poor Jane Addams COMMON BELIEFS industrialization and urbanization created social problems act for good of society wanted government to take action motivated by religion similar to Populists PROGRESSIVES TARGET PROBLEMS political reform women s suffrage political machines city problems overcrowding, housing, water, sewage, services Trusts big business Aid the poor women, children workers gap between rich and poor 1
MUCKRAKERS magazines reform journalism McClure s, Collier s looked for problems Lincoln Steffens cities Tweed Days in St. Louis 1902 started trend The Shame of the Cities Jacob Riis urban poor How the Other Half Lives Ida Tarbell oil industry The History of Standard Oil David Philips corruption in Senate William Hard industrial accidents child labor MUCKRAKER Theodore Roosevelt 1906 journalists went too far Pilgrim s Progress raking muck muckraker journalists who exposed underside of US life called people to arms WOMEN PROGRESSIVES settlement houses led and staffed by women social progressivism middle-class women charity work National Consumers League 1899 PROTECTING WORKERS Florence Kelley from PA worked at Hull House sweatshop conditions headed Nat. Consumer s League goods produced under fair, safe, and healthy working conditions Advocate for women and children 1893 Illinois outlawed child labor 30 states by 1907 2
1908 Muller v. Oregon toll of workday on women upheld state law of 10 hour workdays led to laws in other states Labor Department Children s Bureau 1912 Women s Bureau - 1920 WOMEN S SUFFRAGE Addams, Kelley new life working-class women immigrant support (NY) 1910 activity picked up Britain hunger strikes MOVEMENT SPLITS western states vote already Alice Paul state-by-state too slow National Woman s Party militant Carrie Chapman Catt NAWSA Catt took over in 1915 broad campaign for fed. amendment VICTORY AT LAST state suffrage laws New York 1918 women s suffrage World War I NINETEENTH AMENDMENT June 1919 passed by Congress August 18, 1920 TN ratified November 2, 1920 women first voted Presidential election FEMINISM freedom for full personal development feminists supported suffrage just as good as men not to uplift politics opposed different treatment because they were women URBAN REFORM 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire New York workers trapped 146 died (young women) 3
NY State Factory Commission 56 new laws fire hazards, unsafe machines, wages and hours Tammany Hall politicians Robert Wagner, Alfred Smith social problems outgrew party machines POLITICAL MACHINES CHALLENGED reform spread to other cities Toledo, OH Mayor Whitlock better schools, cleaner streets, social services Cleveland, Jersey City Socialist Party city politics Victor Berger 1910 1 st Socialist congressman WI URBAN IMMIGRANTS Anti-Saloon League prohibition cover for anti-immigrant goals Immigration Restriction League fought to end open-door policy Urban liberals denounced prohibition, immigration restriction REFORMING POLITICS PROGRESSIVE GOVERNORS Robert La Follette (WI) - Fighting Bob Railroads lowered fees; higher taxes education safer factories laboratory of democracy Hiram Johnson California broke railroad control on government voting reforms conservation ELECTION REFORMS direct primary initiative referendum recall 17 th Amendment direct election of Senators RACISM AND REFORM VOTING LIMITATIONS primaries: South whites only Taft prevent domination by an ignorant electorate Wilson segregation in civil service 4
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Tuskegee Institute 1881 40 black students Views on segregation accomodationist develop black resources W.E.B. DUBOIS Harvard PhD complete equality for blacks talented tenth Washington conceded too much CIVIL RIGHTS Niagara Movement 1906 Canadian side full political & civil equality, black pride, denied black inferiority 1908 race riot (Springfield, IL) NAACP 1909 interracial Mary Ovington, W.E.B. DuBois leadership whites DuBois editor of The Crisis 1 st success fought Wilson s attempts to segregate civil service 1911 National Urban League interracial churches, schools Nat. Association of Colored Women s Clubs unthreatening allies among white women NATIONAL POLITICS THEODORE ROOSEVELT Harvard grad NY legislature rose in Rep. Party Sp-Am War 1898 NY Governor civil service reform taxed corporations, other reforms PRESIDENT TR 1900 NY Rep. leaders nominated TR for VP (McKinley) Sept. 1901 McKinley assassinated TR became President cautious at 1 st used patronage gain control TRUSTS trusts large-scale enterprises controlled industry eliminated competitors 1910 1% controlled 44% output 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act Cleveland, McKinley not enforced 5
TRUST-BUSTING 1903 Bureau of Corporations pursue antitrust cases 1904 Northern Securities Co. RR holding co. (NW) dissolved by S. Court Standard Oil, American Tobacco, DuPont TR 40 antitrust cases TR S VIEWS NOT antibusiness punish those who abused power good and bad trusts Trans-Missouri ruling (1897) no distinction between good and bad TR began making the call 1904 US Steel investigation private RAILROADS 1887 ICC RRs under federal regulation 1903 Elkins Act eliminated discriminatory rates 1906 Hepburn Act ICC set max. shipping rates ENVIRONMENT TR conservationist not preservationist like Muir 1903 Public Lands Comm. fed control over land purpose of efficient use TR 125 million acres set aside national parks, forests Forestry Dept. Gifford Pinchot 1902 Newland Reclamation Act irrigation projects Pinchot angered western ranchers and loggers grazing fees, logging restrictions CONSUMER PROTECTION medicine fraud exposed 1906 The Jungle Upton Sinclair meatpacking exploitation of workers 1906 Laws & FDA created Pure Food and Drug Act Meat Inspection Act SQUARE DEAL TR s program of reform Three C s corporations consumers conservation 1902 PA coal strike ELECTION OF 1908 Republican William H. Taft hand-picked by TR Democrat William Jennings Bryan 3 rd attempt criticized Republicans needed more reform Taft won! WILLIAM H. TAFT distrusted power revered the law Generally conservative 6
TAFT S TROUBLES conservatives vs. reformers progressive Republicans Tariff Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) signed by Taft angered many Ballinger-Pinchot affair Pinchot exposed Ballinger s plans to sell oil-rich Alaska land Pinchot fired insubordination progressives furious Party split Insurgents TR-TAFT SPLIT 1911 Standard Oil dissolved Taft went after US Steel (1911) TR had approved acquisition viewed as personal attack on TR Taft 90 antitrust cases NEW NATIONALISM TR - 1910 speech social justice child labor, labor relations min. wage for women curb power of courts Election of 1912 TR sought Republican nomination support from Insurgents Taft won TR Progressive Party ELECTION OF 1912 DEMOCRATS Woodrow Wilson NJ Governor New Freedom Republicans William Taft continue policies Progressives Roosevelt Bull Moose party New Nationalism SOCIALISTS Eugene Debs won 6% of the vote 7
ELECTION RESULTS Wilson won Republicans split! Progressive Party declined led to reforms WILSON S PRESIDENCY triple wall of privilege tariff, bank, trusts Tariff Underwood Tariff Act 1913 25% 16 th Amendment - 1913 Banks 1913 Federal Reserve Act Fed. Reserve Board issue currency Trusts Clayton Antitrust Act - 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act 1914 OTHER REFORMS Highway construction laws Workingmen s Compensation Act Adamson Act 8 hr days (RR) supported child labor law Louis Brandeis Supreme Court 1 st Jewish justice 8