Transcript The Progressives - Shasta Union High School District

The Progressives
Good Politics or Meddlesome Control?
Origins of the Progressives
Problems associated with industrialization,
immigration and urbanization
 Belief that these problems can be
addressed and solved
 Belief that government is the agency to
address these ills
 Increased use of scientific theory, formal
education, expertise, and use of data
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Who were progressives?
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Middle Class
◦ Civic Involvement, $, and Time
◦ Sympathy for the lower classes but not among
them
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Educated
Across geopolitical boundaries
Across political parties
Grassroots oriented
Exposure of issues needing reform
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Socialism = against
political machines = against
Trusts = against
Consumers protections
voting reforms
working conditions
(+child labor and living
Conservation
women’s rights
Federal Reserve System
Prohibition
Income tax
Progressive Reforms needed..
Local codes, state regulations
 Temperance (eventually national WCTU)
 Poverty, Disease
 Prostitution
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Social Progressive Reforms
Margaret Sanger – Educated urban poor
about the benefits of family planning
through birth control.
 Booker T Washington – Trade skills to
earn a living
 W.E.B. DuBois – founder of NAACP
 Muckrakers – members of the press that
investigated corruption in order to expose
problems to the American people.
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Social Reformers
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Magazines
◦ McClure’s
◦ Collier’s
Newspapers
 Books
(Newspaper series collected into Books)
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Muckrakers
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Thomas Nast –
exposed abuses
of the NYC
political machine
called Tammany
Hall and Boss
Tweed – used
political cartoons
Exposing corruption
Muckrakers
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Ida Tarbell (Standard Oil)
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of Cities
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives
Thorstein Veblen, (Conspicuous
Consumption)
Upton Sinclair (The Jungle)
◦ "I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident
hit its stomach."
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*emotive, empathetic, short on policy*
Welfare
 Services for the
people
 Hiram Johnson,
Governor of CA
 Pingree (DTW)
 Jones (TOL)
Utilities
To regulate - Water,
gas, electricity
 Hazen Pingree, Mayor
of Detroit
 “Golden Rule” Jones Toledo
Woodrow Wilson,
Governor of New
Jersey
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Prominent Local Progressives
Prominent Local Progressives
City Reforms
 Settlement houses – workers,
professionals, club members could pressure
for changes
 Jane Addams - created Hull House
 Women targeted slums, tenements, wages
& hours, child labor, alcohol abuses and
prostitution
Political Reforms start at state
level move to federal
17th Amendment – election of senators 1913
 Direct Primary – LaFollette – gives voters more
voice in government and limit the political
bosses power.
By 1916 only 3 states did not have a direct
primary
 Initiative – citizens propose laws via petitioning,
then placed on next election ballot
 Referendum – citizens demand a law be
“referred” to voters for approval or rejection
 Recall – voters able to remove public officials
from office
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Increased regulation of big business
Stronger Anti-Trust Legislation
Maximum Hours and Minimum Wage
Worker’s Compensation (Job Injury)
Worker Safety
SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY
◦ Food, drugs, city streets, playgrounds,
◦ Emergence of more modern notion of
childhood
Economic Progressive Reforms
Cross Political Parties
 TR (Republican)
 Taft (Republican)
 Wilson (Democrat)
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Progressivism Goes National
TR and the Square Deal
Consumers
 Meat Inspection Act
 Pure Food and Drug
Act
 Aldrich-Vreeland Act
Labor
 Anthracite Coal Miner
Strike
Big Business
 Elkins and Heburn
Acts
 Northern Securities
 Good Trust/Bad Trust
Environment
 National Park Land
 MURM
 Hetch Hetchy Valley
Taft Presidency
Consumers – Society
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Payne – Aldrich Tariff Act
Children’s Bureau
16th Amendment – (income
tax)
17th Amendment – (senate
elections)
Big Business
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Mann – Elkins Act
99 trust busts –
prosecutions – including
the sugar trust
Labor
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Created 35,000 postmasters
and 20,00 skilled workers in the
Navy under civil service
protection
Department of Commerce and
Labor was divided into 2
departments
8-Hour workday for
government employees
Environment
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Put more land into
conservation than TR
Wilson – “New Freedom”
Consumers
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Federal Reserve Bank
Federal Trade Commission
Big Business
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Underwood Simmons
Act (lowering tariffs to stop
Labor
Federal Farm Loan Board
 Clayton Anti-Trust Act
 Adamson Act – 8-Hour
workday for RR workers
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Civil Liberties
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monopolies)
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War Industries Board
Committee on Public
Information
Espionage & Sedition Acts
Weaknesses of Reform
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Material progress of
Americans weakened zeal of
reformers
Myriad of Progressive goals
were often confusing and
contradictory
Opposition to Progressivism
apparent as initiatives failed
and courts struck down
legislation
Government remained mainly
under the influence of
business and industry
WWI – use of government to
create a just society lessens
Accomplishments
Trust-busting forced
industrialists to notice public
opinion
 Legislation gave federal and
state government the tools to
protect consumers
 Income tax helped build
government revenues and
redistribute wealth
 Challenged traditional
institutions and approaches to
domestic problems
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Evaluation of Progressives
Those not helped
Little was done to help
migrant farmers or renter
farmers or nonunion
workers
Immigration restriction or
literacy tests
Imperialism policies to
“civilize” underdeveloped
nations
African Americans and
Jim Crow segregation
situations
Support of women’s
suffrage