Transcript PROGRESSIVISM AND THE REPUBLICAN ROOSEVELT

PROGRESSIVISM AND THE
REPUBLICAN ROOSEVELT
Chapter 28
The Progressives
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By 1900 America was faced with social
problems
Progressivism.
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"political movement that addresses ideas,
impulses, and issues stemming from
modernization of American society that
emerged at the end of the nineteenth
century
Unlike farmers’ populism
But urban and middle class, Dr, Lawyers,
businessmen, protestant – Jane Addams
Denigration of country life
Honest and efficient government AND
business
Progressivism
Scientific planning
 More democracy
 Break monopolies
 Eugenics- IQ tests, immigration,
increase of discrimination against
Southern Blacks
 Basic prescription: use
government as an agency of
human welfare.
 At heart, a rejection of Laissez
Faire
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Roots of Progressivism
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Pressure from
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Socialists from Europe—start to gain
strength in US
Christians preaching Social Gospel—
focused on the needs of the poor and
the workers at the mercy of
corporations.
Feminists—suffrage movement
included social justice in their call for
reform because women were often
those who suffered the most.
Urban pioneers exposing corruption of
cities and working conditions of
children and women.
Muckrakers
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Magazines and Newspapers
began to compete with each
other to expose evil and
corruption
TR dubs Muckrakers.
Lincoln Steffens—Shame
in the Cities
Ida Tarbell—expose of
Standard Oil
David Phillips—The
Treason of the Senate
Muckraking Targets
Malpractice of life insurance
company
 tariff lobbies
 beef trust
 money trust
 railroad barons
 White slave traffic in women
 Slums
 High rate of industrial
accidents
 Child labor
 Plight of blacks in the south
 Adulterated Patent Medicine
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Progressives in the Middle
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Were mainly middle-class people
including many lawyers, teachers,
physicians, ministers and business
people
They felt that old-fashioned ways
meant waste and inefficiency, and
eagerly sought out the "one best
Robert M. La Follette (1855system".[
1925) speaking before an
audience of 12,000 in Los
Curbing capitalism; insulation
Angeles, 1907
against socialism.
Progressives crossed party
boundaries, existed in all regions
and at all levels of government.
Goals of Progressives
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Regain the power that had slipped
from the hands of the people into the
hands of the special interest. Thus,
pushed for:
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primary elections.
initiatives
referendum
recalls, allowing voters to remove
candidates who were screwing up.
Another objective was rooting out
corruption.
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corrupt practices acts.
secret ballot
direct election of US senators.
 This eventually passes as the 17th
Amendment.
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Woman’s suffrage.
Progressivism In The Cities And States
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Progressives scored their biggest victories
at the State and City level.
City commission form of government -Galveston Texas.
Urban reformers
Wisconsin a test lab for progressive
proposals.
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Hiram Johnson in California
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Gov. Robert La Follette.
Women suffrage, recall, initiative, founder of
progressive party, isolationist . War & Truth
Charles Evans Hughes in New York.
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Lessland Act, the power as governor to oversee
civic officials as well as officials in state
bureaucracies. Fired many corrupt officials.
Progressive Women
Settlement House
movement
 Social Clubs.
 “Women’s issues”
 Sweat shops.
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Triangle waistshirt fire
146 young women die
Fire inspection – safety
Story Of Us- Triangle
Shirtwaist Fire Segment
Triangle
video
From
Episode
7 -FLV
YouTube.flv
Temperance Movement
Temperance movement
 Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union :Frances
Willard.
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one million members.
Some states and counties
passed laws controlling,
restricting or banning liquor.
 The big cities generally stay
wet
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TR’s Square Deal For Labor
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Roosevelt a progressive.
Demanded a “Square Deal” for capital,
labor and the public.
Believed the government should uphold
the public interest.
He pushed control of three Cs:
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Intervened in the coal strike of 1902.
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corporations,
consumer protection
conservation of natural resources.
Significance
Department of Commerce and Labor
1903. - the ninth Cabinet office
TR Corrals The Corporations
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Interstate Commerce Commission
was largely ineffective.
Elkins Act of 1903 –
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Illegal for railroads to give rebates on
their published freight rates
Strengthened the Interstate Commerce Act
of 1887 by imposing heavy fines on
railroads
Hepburn Act of 1906
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Interstate Commerce Commission
given new teeth.
jurisdiction expanded; allowed to set
maximum rates and nullify existing
rates.
TR Trust Busting
Under TR the Justice
Department initiated over 40
anti-trust suits.
 The Northern Securities case
was one of the earliest and
most important antitrust
cases and provided
important legal precedents
for many later case
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Caring For The Consumer
TR backed legislation
protecting against
adulterated and
mislabeled food.
 1906 Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
 Meat Inspection Act of
1906
 Pure Food and Drug
Act of 1906
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Roosevelt and Conservation
Earth Control
Americans using up natural resources
 Corporations hungry to exploit resources.
 Conservation and naturalist movement
started before TR president but weak.
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Desert Land Act of 1877.
Forest Reserve Act of 1891
TR gave the movement a huge kick in the
pants
 Newlands Act of 1902
 Roosevelt set aside vast tracts of forests to
prevent logging on it.
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Roosevelt Emboldens Enemies
Roosevelt is easily elected
in his own right in 1904.
 TR’s big mistake:
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announces that he will not
run for a “Third” term.
Makes him a Lame Duck
Emboldens the conservative
wing.
Roosevelt Panic Of 1907
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Sharp but short-lived panic on Wall Street
in 1907.
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Conservatives blame TR.
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Stock Exchange fell close to 50 percent from
its peak the previous year
The panic may have deepened if not for the
intervention of financier J. P. Morgan, who
pledged large sums of his own money, and
convinced other New York bankers to do the
same, to shore up the banking system
“Theodore the meddler”
Panic caused by retraction of market
liquidity by a number of New York City
banks
Aldrich-Vreelant Act
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Established the National Monetary Commission,
recommended the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. It
also provided for the issuance of emergency
currency
p681
The Rough Rider Thunders Out
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Roosevelt used his political clout to
engineer nomination of Taft in 1908
Dems nominate Bryan.
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Taft wins easily.
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Progressive platform attacking "government
by privilege". His campaign slogan, "Shall the
People Rule?
Bryan suffered the worst loss in his three
presidential campaigns,
"Vote for Taft now, you can vote for Bryan
anytime,"
Socialists manage nearly a half-million
votes
Contributions of TR
Enlarged the power and
prestige of the presidency
 Began the process of taming
capitalism ensuring that it
would survive rather than
being replaced.
 Developed technique of using
publicity as a political weapon
 Helped shape the progressive
movement and to lay the
ground-work for later liberal
reforms
 Opened Americans, eyes to
world affairs and America’s
role and potential influence on
world events.
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William Howard Taft
William Jennings
Bryan
Republican
Democratic
Ohio
Nebraska
Running mate
James S. Sherman
John Worth Kern
Electoral vote
321
162
States carried
29
17
Popular vote
7,678,395
6,408,984
Nominee
Party
Home state
Taft
Taft was passive,
comfortable with the
status quo and not a
strong leader.
 Poor judge of public
opinion;
 Foot-in-mouth disease.
 Passive toward Congress
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Dollar Diplomacy
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"Dollar Diplomacy" to further the economic
development of less-developed nations of Latin
America and Asia through American investment
in their infrastructures. Leads to much
investment in Caribbean,
Causes US entanglement in these countries
US Marines land in Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras
and the Dominican Republic to restore order and
to protect US investments.
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Continues the distrust of Caribbean and Central
American countries toward US.
US Marines stay in Nicaragua for 13 years
The United States in the Caribbean
Taft The Trustbuster
Taft brought antitrust suits at nearly four
times the rate of TR. 90 in his 4-year term.
 Sup court breaks up Standard Oil in 1911
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But sets a high bar only “unreasonable”
restraints of trade were illegal.
Created a huge hole in fed’s anti-trust net.
Taft also went after US Steel,
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Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who
disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big
business (which disliked his actions), and of
Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé.
Taft Splits The Republican Party
 Lower tariff one of the primary progressive
aims.
 Payne-Aldrich Bill.
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In its essence a compromise bill, had the
immediate effect of frustrating both proponents
and opponents of reducing tariffs.
The debate over the tariff split the Republican
Party into Progressives
and Old Guards and
led the
split party to lose the
1910 congressional
election
Taft Splits The Republican Party
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Gifford Pinchot.
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Pinchot is known for reforming the
management and development of forests
and for advocating the conservation of
the nation's reserves by planned use
and renewal.
Taft fired Pinchot for speaking out
against his policies and those of the
Secretary of the Interior
That episode hastened the split in the
Republican Party that led to the
formation of the Progressive Party, of
which Pinchot and his brother were top
leaders.
Republican Split
By 1910 the progressive wing of
Republican party moving into
open revolt
 Taft being pushed into the
camp of the conservatives.
 Osawatomie, Kansas, speech
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Doctrine of “New Nationalism”
He insisted that only a powerful
federal government could regulate
the economy and guarantee social
justice.