Transcript Progressivism

Progressivism
Roots of,
TR’s Square Deal,
Environment, Corps, Consumers,
Taft….Wilson & Triple Wall of Priveledge
Roots of Progressivism
• 1900- 76 mill Americans
– 1/7: 4n born
– By WWI, 13 mill more immigrants enter US
• Progressivism= 2nd big reform movement
– 1st: 1840s
– Anti: monopoly, corruption, inefficiency, social
injustice
– Battle cry: strengthen the STATE
• Use Gov as agency of human welfare
Origins
• Greenback labor party 1870s
• Populists 1890s
– Increasing unrest; industrialists concentrate more
power in fewer hands
– Laissez-Faire policy of 19th century no longer
works
Targets
• Trusts: symbols of corruption + wrongdoing
• Predatory wealth + conspicuous consumption
– Thorsten Veblen, “The Theory of the Leisure
Class”, 1899
– Jacob Riis,- Danish immigrant, NY Sun reporter
• “How the Other Half Lives” account of dirt, disease,
vice, misery, rat infested slums NYC
– Deeply influenced future NYC Police Commissioner T.
Roosevelt
Development of P
• Immigrants brought ideas: Germany’s state
socialism
• Women’s movement grows
– Jane Addams & others
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Clean up city govs
Protect children in factories
Keep children out of mines, mills
Make food & drugs safe
Muckrakers
• 1902 American Publishers seek to expose evil
– Aggressive 10 cent & 15 cent mags: McClure’s
Cosmopolitan, Collier’s Everybody’s
• Circulation wars
• Compete for stories of muck + depravity
– 1906 TR, annoyed by mud slinging magazine dirt
diggers
• Compared them to Pilgrims Progress character so busy
raking manure he couldn’t see celestial crown dangling over
his head
– Most scandalous exposes pub’d as books: best sellers
• Lincoln Steffens: McClure, 1902: “The Shame of the Cities”
– Uncovered corrupt alliance- big business & city govs
• Ida Tarbell: devastating expose on Standard Oil
– Fearing lawsuits, mags verify facts (Tarbell: $3k)
Muckrakers 2
• Other targets:
– Life insurance cos
– Beef trust
– Money trust
– RR barons
– Corrupt speculators
Muckrakers 3
• Thomas W Lawson: bcm rich in stock speculation
– Wrote “Frenzied Finance” to expose corruption by
making enemies among rich associates
• Died a poor man
• Pub’d in Everybody’s
• David G Phillips, “Treason of the Senate” (1906)
claimed 75 of 90 senators don’t rep people; just
RRs & Trusts
– Shot by crazed young man who’s family he’d maligned
Muckrakers 4
• Social Evils attacked:
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White slave traffic in women
Rickety slums
Industrial accidents
Subjugation of 9 mill Black Amers:
• Ray Stannard Baker’s “Following the Color Line” 1908
– Child labor abuses
• John Spargo’s “Bitter Cry of the Children” (1906)
– Patent medicines- largely alcohol
• Vendors sold many w/ dangerous addicting narcotics while
paying $$$ for lavish advertisements
• Collier’s, Dr. Harvey Wiley, “Poison Squad” – chief chemist
dept of agri– Performed experiments on himself
Muckrakers 5
• Long on laments; short on remedies
– Sought to cleanse, not overthrow capitalism
– Cure: more Democracy
Political Progressivism
• Majority mood not a minority movement
– Reformers: mostly middle class
– Squeezed from above and below
– Giant Corps, aggressive labor unions, immigrants
• Goals: use state power to curb trusts
– & stop threat of Socialism; improve conditions of life + labor
– Take power back from interests (party bosses)
– Thru direct primary elections
Political Prog 2
– Initiatives: so voters cd propose legislation
– Referendum: to put laws on ballot for final
approval by people
• Can’t be railroaded thru on Big business lobbyist $$
– Recall: lets boters remove faithless elected
officials, esp if bribed by Party bosses or lobbyists
Other political goals
• Rooting out graft
– Pushed for & got laws limiting amt spent on
campaigns
– Restricts gifts from corps (who expect favors)
– Secret Australian ballots – to counteract boss rule
– Direct election of senators
• From being chosen by state legislatures
• Tie-ins btwn congress & corps; made it a ‘millionaire’s club’
by 1900
• Trusts dominated state legislatures & put their own boys into
Fed Senate
Women
• Suffrage would elevate political tone
– Opponents fear women’s votes wd shut down
saloons
• Many states gave women the vote, esp in West
States & Cities
• Galveston, TX pioneered 1901 appointed expert
staffed commission to run city
– Hurricane, tidal wave had destroyed city; old city gov
not repairing much
– City manager system
• Adopted by other cities
• Removes politics from city management but removes
democracy too
– Progs also attack slum lords, juvenile delinquency,
prostitution, corrupt sales of franchises for public
utilities & street cars
State Level
• WI bcms notable for reform
– Gov Robt “Fighting Bob” La Follette
• Tiny tough crusader
• Most militant of Republicans
– Elected 1901 after desperate fight w/ monopoly
– Took lots of control from lumber, RR interests & returned it to People
– Worked w/ Madison U faculty to figure a better way to regulate public utilities
• OR moves toward progressivism
• CA under stocky Hiram Johnson
– Elected 1910- broke grip of S Pacific RR on CA politics
• Set up own machine
• NY Charles Evans Hughes Gov, investigates malpractice by
gas, insurance cos & coal trusts
Juveniles & labor
• Laws written to protect from working in harmful
trades,
• Protect injured workers from having to file
lawsuits to prove employer negligence
• Set max hours, min wages
– Sweatshops bcm national scandal 1911
• Triangle Shirtwaist Co fire, NY
– 146 women workers, most girls, incinerated
– NY legislature passed laws to reg hours, conditions of fire traps
– Prison, reform schools gain public acceptance as
places for reform not punishment to get cleaned up
Setbacks
• 1905 NY law est’d 10 hr work day for bakers
– Supreme Ct struck it down
– 1917 Ct upheld 10 hour workday for factory
workers
Prohibition
• Alcohol connected w/ prostitution, drunken violence,
booze interests, city bosses (corruption) cemetery vote
– WCTU, Frances Willard
• Wd fall to knees in saloons; pray loudly for souls of patrons
• Allied w/ anti saloon league- aggressive, well financed
• Caught up in cold water crusade, some states, counties pass ‘dry
laws’ to restrict, control or abolish alcohol
– Big cities usually stayed wet
– Large immigrant vote; accustomed to old world beer, wine
– By 1914 (WWI) ½ US: dry
• ¾ US outlawed saloons
• 18th amendment will outlaw sale, mfctr, transp of alcohol in 1919
TR’s Square Deal for Labor
• Reformer
– Personal policy: sportsmanlike conduct
– Demanded square deal for capital, labor and
public
• Control of corporations, consumer protection &
conservation of natural resources
• 1902: crippling coal strike
– Anthracite mines, PA
– 140,000 workers; many immigrants, accident plagued,
exploited
» Demanded 20% pay hike, reduction from 10 hr day to 9
Coal Strike
– Mine owners won’t negotiate
– Believed workers aren’t cared for by labor agitators; but by
Christian Men to whom God has given Propertied Interests
• Mines shut down
• Nation’s coal supply dwindled
• Factories, shops, schools, hospitals shut down in winter
• TR summoned reps of both to WH
– Tried to reason
– Threatened to seize mines & operate w/ fed troops
– First time troops might be used against capital, not labor!
• Arbitration starts
• Compromise: 10% pay increase, 9 hr day
• Union NOT recognized as bargaining agent
Labor 2
• TR urged creation of Dept of Commerce &
Labor
– 1903
– 1913 split in two
– Pt of dept of C & L: Bureau of corporations
• To investigate businesses involved in interstate
commerce
• Helped clear out monopolies & trusts
Trust buster
• Interstate commerce commission 1887: inadequate
– Commission decisions cd be appealed to courts
• Takes up to 10 yrs
• Elkins Act 1903 outlawed rebates by RRs
– Threat of heavy fine to both RR & shippers who get them
• Hepburn Act 1906 free passes restricted
– ICC expanded: covers sleeping car companies, express co.s
& pipelines
– Given real authority to nullify existing rates & stipulate
max rates
Trusts
• Considered Big & Efficient
– TR believes there are good trusts & bad trusts
– Doesn’t harm good ones
• 1903 attacked Northern Securities Co (RR holding co)
– Org’d by JP Morgan & James J Hill (Empire builder)
» Virtual monopoly of all RRs in NW
• 1904 Sp Ct upheld TRs anti trust law suit & ordered N
Sec Co dissolved
– Angered Big business; estab’d TR rep as trust buster
• 40 other anti trust suits started
Trusts 2
– Sugar, Fertilizers, Harvesters, others
– Key: bigness does not equal badness
• Don’t smash all, just go after bad ones
• Belief in regulation not fragmentation of the rest
• Taft actually busts more trusts than TR
Trusts 3
• 1907 TR gave blessing to US steel absorbing
TN coal & Iron (JP Morgan)
• Taft launched anti trust against US steel 1911
& TR blew up
Square Deal for Consumers
• 1906 response to threat of tainted meat
– 4n market refused to buy US meat because so much was
bad
– Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle” points out conditions in
packing industry & canning: horrible worker conditions,
scares public w/ portrayal of unsanitary facilities
(unintentional)
• Even TR went vegan for a time
• Appoints commission to investigate Chicago Meat packing industry
• Report out did Jungle
– Piles of poisoned rats, rope ends, splinters, other debris all scooped up
and canned w/ meat
– Meat Inspection Act 1906P preparation of meat shipped over state lines
subject to inspection from corral to can
– Pure Food & Drug Act, 1906: prevents mislabeling of food & drugs
– Big firms accept it; to shut down small time competition
Earth Control
• 1st attempt at conservation:
– Desert Land Act: 1877 gov sold cheap land on condition it
wd be irrigated w/n 3 yrs
– Forest Reserve Act: 1891 Public forests cd be set aside as
national parks and reserves
• 14 million acres reserved from Lumber Cos in 1890s
– Carey Act 1894 gave fed land to states if irrigated, settled
– Newlands Act 1902 DC cd collect $ from sale of public
lands in West & use $ to develop irrigation projects
• Settlers repaid cost of reclamation from now productive land & $$
revolving fund to finance more of this
• Huge dams built across West
Conservation
• To preserve forests
– ¼ original forests remain
– TR set aside 125 million acres in NW
– Also set aside coal deposits and water resources
• To set example banned Xmas Tree from WH 1902
• Conservation= TRs most enduring tangible achievement
– Key to plan: Multiple Use Resource management
• Combines recreation, sustained yield logging, water shed
protection, summer stock grazing all on same protected land
• Worked well w big bus; just regulated them
Roosevelt Panic 1907
• Elected1904 vastly pop except w/ conservative Rep bosses
– Announced after election: wd NOT be candidate for second
term
– Loss of power
• Panic 1907: hit wall st. w/ runs on banks, suicides, criminal
indictments of speculators
– TR blamed for unsettling industry
– TR blamed trusts & wall st for engineering the Panic to get the
gov to relax its assault on Trusts
– Panic caused currency shortage
• Solution: Vreeland Aldrich Act: lets authorized national banks use
emergency currency, backed by various kinds of collateral.
– Leads to Federal Reserve Act 1913
TR rides off into sunset
• Left office, bound by promise not to run
– Chicago Convention 1908: TR used his control of
party machinery to push thru Wm H Taft’s
nomination on 1st ballot (Sec War)
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Trusted him to carry out his policies
Denver: Dems nominate 2x beaten Wm J Bryan
Both try to be Progressive
Taft read cut & dry speeches
Bryan complained TR stole ‘his’ policies
Eugene V Debs got socialist vote: almost ½ mill
TR sum up
• TR off on African Safari (age 50)
• Enemies toast to health of lions & hoped the lions
would do their duty
• Overall: TRs rep as radical undeserved
– Made more noise than laws
– Really gospel of Wealth friend
– Trimmed back rosebush of capitalism so it could grow
healthier blooms
– Very anti socialist
– Very middle of the road
– Made presidency more powerful, prestigious
– Used public opinion to his advantage
– Shaped progressive reform movement
Taft
• Rep as lawyer, judge, trusted administrator to
TR Philippines, home & Cuba
– Lacked strength of personality to hold together his
own party
– Passive about congress
– Poor judge of public opinion
– Often said the unpopular thing (too candid)
– More a status quo supporter; very mild
progressive
Dollar Diplomacy
• Used 4n pol to protect Wall St investments
abroad
• Used Wall St to uphold foreign pol
– First one: played up by critics
– Second: wildly misunderstood
• Gov encouraged Wall St investments in far east &
areas that could threaten Panama Canal
– To prevent Germany or others taking financial
advantage of weak economies w/ loans
DD 2
• Focus: China’s Manchuria; where Japan & Russia fought
to control RRs
– If one got monopoly; cd strangle China’s econ & close our
open door
– Plan to have multi national corps build RR & turn over to
Chinese blew up
• Taft looked bad
• Honduras & Haiti in need of $$
– Gov encouraged US investors
– Disorders in Cuba, Honduras, Domin. Rep, brt Marines
– Nicaragua; too close to canal.. US stomped out Revolution
1912
Taft & Trusts
• 90 suits brought to court in 4 yrs
• 1911 Sup Ct ordered Standard Oil split up
– Combination in restraint of trade under Sherm.
Anti trust Act
– Ct’s rule of reason only combinations that
unreasonably restrained trade were illegal
• Filed suit on US Steel; infuriated TR
Taft splits party
• Called for tariff reduction
– Sen Aldrich tacked on hundreds of upward
revisions
– Taft agonized but signed it “Payne Aldrich Bill”
• Betrayed campaign promise, angered progressive wing
• Called it the Best Bill the Rep Party ever passed
Taft on Conservation
• Set up bureau of mines to control coal lands in West
• Protect from private development
• Sec of interior: Ballinger opened public lands in WY, MT
and AK to corporate development
– Criticized by Gifford Pinchot, chief of Agri div. of forestry
– Taft dismissed Pinchot for insubordination
– Huge storm of protest by conservationists & TR friends
• Angered TR
• Taft now viewed as conservative; progressives are angry
TR is back
• 1910 went on Stump gave speeches about ‘new
nationalism’
– Urged gov to increase power to remedy econ & social
abuses
– Division cost Repubs congressional seats; lost house; kept
senate
• 1911: National Progressive Republican league formed
– Leading candidate: La Follette, WI
• TR throws hat into ring
• Ran an anti-Taft campaign (He sold out)
• Taft gets nomination of Reps & Progressives walk out to form own
party
Wilson 1
• From mild conservative to militant progressive
– Background: professor on Gov  President of
Princeton U
– New Jersey Bosses front him for Gov
– Turns into progressive crusader and turns NJ into
one of most liberal states
– Appeals over heads of scheming bosses directly to
the people
– Nominated by Dems 1912 in Baltimore
1912
• Repubs divided: 3rd party Progressives become
Bull Moose Party
• Taft on TR: dangerous egotist & demagogue
• TR on Taft: fat head w/ brain of guinea pig
• TR: New Nationalism
– Continued consolidation of Trusts & Labor Unions
– Growth of regulatory agencies
– Women’s suffrage & broad program of social welfare
• Min wage laws, social insurance
New Freedom
• Wilson’s plan
– Small enterprise & entrepreneurship
– Free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized markets
– NO social welfare
– Competition is key
• Not regulation but fragmentation of big trusts
• Vigorous enforcement of anti trust laws
1912 (2)
• TR shot by nut & finished speech anyway but
out of campaign for two weeks after
• Finished second in 3 way race
Pres. Wilson
• Minority pres w/ 41% of vote
• Happy Taft: taught law 8 yrs at Yale
• 1921 bcm Sup Ct chief justice
• Southern, Jeffersonial Democrat
– Son of Presby. Minister
– Intellectual & righteous w/ burning idealism to
reform ever present wickedness
Triple Wall of Privilege
• 1. Tariffs:
– Personal appeal to congress
– 1913 House passed Underwood Tariff, big
reduction in rates & Wilson appealed to people to
hold senators in line… worked!
– 16th amendment graduated income tax on
incomes over $3k yr (upper middle class and up)
#2 Banks
• Personal appeal to congress for reform laws
– Endorsed a decentralized bank in gov hands &
appeals to people too
– Gets Federal Reserve Act: passed 1913
• New Fed Reserve Board: appointed by pres. Oversees
12 regional reserve districts; each w/ central bank
– Can issue paper money, made money in circulation flexible
– Big success; financed US thru WWI
#3 Trusts
• Personal appeal to Congress: Federal Trade
Commission Act, 1914
– Commission appointed by president w/ power to
investigate all interstate commerce & crush
monopolies
– Clayton Anti Trust Act, 1914: added to Sherm.
A.T.A.
• List of bad business practices, incl price discrimination,
interlocking directories (same ppl direct competing
firms)
• Exempts labor unions from monopoly status
Trusts 2
• Federal Farm Loan Act 1916 gave low int loans to farmers
• Warehouse Act 1916 authorized loans on security of staple crops
• La Follette’s Seaman’s Bill 1915: req’d decent treatment & livable
wage on merchant ships
• Workman’s Compensation Act 1916: assist to fed employees while
disabled
• Laws passed restricting child labor
– Sp Ct slapped down
• Adamson Act 1916 gave 8 hr day to RR workers (interstate) & extra
pay for over time
• Nom’d Louis Brandeis , reformer, lawyer, 1st Jew to Sp Ct 1916
• No better treatment for Blacks
4n Pol
• Stopped dollar diplomacy no more special support to
American investors in Latin America
• Repealed Panama Canal tolls Act of 1912
– Which had exempted American ships from toll
• Signed Jones Act 1916: wd grant Philippines territorial status +
indep when ‘stable gov’ estab’d
• Haiti Revolt: populace tore brutal president to pieces
– Sent Marines to protect Amer lives + property
– 1916 treaty US supervision of finances & police
– Dominican Rep rioted
• 1917 purchased VI from DR
4n Pol 2
• Mexico:
– US investments in oil, RRs, mines
– 50,000 Amers live there
• MXs very poor & resentful
– Revolution 1910
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1913 popular pres murdered & Gen Huerta ‘installed’
Mass exodus of MXs north
Jingoes demand intervention
Wilson refused to intervene but refused to recognize
Huerta
4n Pol 3
• Said he’d teach S. Amer. Republics to elect
good men
– 1914 allowed Amer. Arms sales to rivals: Carranza
& Pancho Villa
– Tampico Apr. 1914 small party US sailors arrested
• Released, apology but refused demand for 21 gun
salute
• Meanwhile German ship bearing arms for Huerta heads
for Vera Cruz
• Wilson authorized seizure of port 1st & intercepted ship
4n Pol 4
• ABC powers mediated (Argentine, Brazil, Chile)
– Huerta regime collapsed from pressure July 1914
– Replaced by Carranza (also resented Wilson’s meddling)
• Pancho Villa= chief rival
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US gives reluctant recognition & arms
Jan 1916 Villa’s group killed 18 Amers at Santa Ysabel MX
Mar 1916, Villa shot up Columbus NM; killed 17 Amers
Gen J. J. Pershing (Black Jack) (Vet Cuba, Philippines)
• Sent after Villa MX
• Clashed w/ Carranza’s troops but didn’t capture Villa
• Army w/d Jan 1917
Meanwhile, in Europe
• Serb patriot killed heir to throne of Austria
– Austro-Hungary (backed by G) –stern ultimatum
• Serbs refused to meet all terms
– Appealed to ally, R
• R mobilized on G’s E. border
• R’s ally F mobilized on G’s SW border
– G struck back at F (no 2 front war!) thru neutral B
• To k.o. F quickly; deal w/ R at leisure
• B’s coastline threatened by assault on B.. Moves in
– Also allied w/ F
Europe 2
• Germany, Austro-H, Turkey, Bulgaria: Central Powers
• Fr, Br, R, Japan, Italy: Allies
– American: neutral
• Wilson: be neutral in thought/ deed
• England censured news of war/ fav to allies
– German Atrocity stories (Bel)
• 11 mil Amers had blood ties to central powers
• Most Amers: anti G
• Briefcase left on N subway – docs w/ plans 4 indust sabotage
– Public upset!
– Majority still hope to stay out of war
Blood $$
• Recession 1914- soon lifts; B & F war orders 
Boom
– Partly financed by Wall St
– JP Morgan loans allies 2.3 Bill
– G protests huge trade… neutral??
• G free to trade w/ US but Br navy blockades, mines N.
Sea (gateway)
• Br also force US ships n2 Br ports
– US G trade stops
G reaction to blockade
• Sub warfare
– Old rules of int’l law don’t apply
– G warns US: can’t promise it won’t neutrals; mistakes
happen
– We continue trading
• Warn G: ‘strictly accountable’ for any loss ships/ citizens
– U Boats sank 90+ in 1915 in war zone
– Lusitania- off Ireland, May 7• Loss: 1198 (128 Amer)
• East coast less interested in neutrality
– Wilson issues strong notes; Bryan resigned
– TR anti-Wilson; anti-neutrality
Sub warfare
• Aug 1915: Arabic (Br) sunk; 2 Amers dead
– G agrees -no more lines sunk w/o warning
– Mar 1916 Sussex sunk
• Ultimatum: stop sinking ships w/o warning or we break
dip relats
• Sussex pledge: we’ll stop if you get B to lift blockade
• Wilson accepts pledge; ignores string
1916-17
• Wilson re-elected, ‘he kept us out of war’
– TR refused to run as Prog & split Rep party
– Reps draft Hughes (Sp Ct J)
– Rep platform:
• Condemns Underwood Tariff, assaults on trusts, wishy-washy
dealings w/ MX, G
• Hughes not a war hawk
• TR speeches: anti- Wilson (privately saw little diff btwn two)
• Wilson never attacked Hughes
– One should not murder a man who is committing suicide
– Hughes swept E; Wilson rest; narrow victory