Transcript Document
At first, an optimistic vision The natural laws of the marketplace (and laissez faire and Social Darwinism) were insufficient to create the order, stability, and justice their growing society required Variety of reform impulses: Antimonopoly Importance of social cohesion Deep faith in knowledge Muckrakers (term coined by Theodore Roosevelt) Crusading journalists who directed public attention toward social, corruption and injustice to public view Major targets: trusts, particularly railroads Lincoln Steffens (McClure’s) Most influential Portraits of machine government and boss rule Tone: studied moral outrage Ida Tarbell Most influential study of Standard Oil trust Later: urban political machines Social Gospel: a clear expression of a a commitment to the pursuit of social justice •Brought about by a sense of outrage at social and economic injustice •Powerful movement within American Protestantism •Never dominant, however Walter Rauschenbusch Hell’s Kitchen: “One could hear human virtue cracking and crashing all around.” Jane Addams and Hull House Middle class Americans had a responsibility to impart their own values to immigrants and to teach them how to create middle class life styles Efforts of college women Hull House: a model for more than 400 similar institutions throughout the nation Social work as a profession: combined a compassion for the poor with a commitment to the values of bureaucratic progressivism: scientific study, efficient organization, reliance on experts Professions New middle class: high value on education Medical profession took the lead 1901: American Medical Association— called for strict, scientific standards for admission to the practice of medicine State and local governments: laws requiring licensing of all physicians Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Most people, male and female, in the American culture believed that women were not suited for the male-dominated public world—rather they should (and did) inhabit their own sphere Women who lived outside traditional families Addams Wald Willard Boston marriages 1880s-90s—women’s associations Vanguard of many important reforms General Federation of Women’s Clubs 100,000 members/500 clubs 1 million women by 1917 Tended to be from wealthy families Non-partisan image—women could not vote Allowed women to define a space for themselves in public world without openly challenging male-dominated order Elizabeth Cady Stanton “The woman of 1892 is the arbiter of her own destiny. If we are to consider her a citizen, as a member of a great nation, she must have the same rights as all other members.” Jane Addams, et al: Justified suffrage in safer, less threatening ways Suffrage would not challenge the separate sphere in which women lived Women could bring their special and distinct virtues more widely to bear on society’s problems Enfranchising women would help the temperance movement—largest voting bloc Some: war a thing of the past 19th Amendment—1920 Australian Ballot Galveston, TX Mayor and city council replaced with an elected, nonpartisan commission Des Moines, IA Nonpartisan Tom Johnson, Cleveland, OH Long and difficult war against streetcar interests Lowered fares to 3 cents Municipal ownership on basic public utilities Initiative Referendum Direct Primary Recall Lobbying Robert LaFollette of WI Under his leadership, Wisconsin: Direct primaries, initiative, referendum Regulated railroads & utilities Laws to Regulate workplace Workman’s compensation Graduated taxes on inheritances Doubled state levies on RR & corporations Personal magnetism—more awareness Decline in party influence Decline in voter turnout Late 19th century: 81% of electorate for national elections 1900: 73%; 1912: 59% Other power centers: interest groups Professional organizations Trade associations Labor organizations Farm lobbies New pattern of politics Labor reform—early 20th Century Samuel Gompers—workers should not rely on government to improve their positions Union Labor Party—committed to a program of reform almost indistinguishable from that of the middle-class and elite city progressives 1911-1913—CA—child labor law, workman’s compensation law and limited women’s working hours Charles Francis Murphy Leader of Tammany Hall— fused techniques of boss rule with some concerns of social reformers Tammany: increased interest in state and national politics (traditionally scorned) Used political power on behalf of legislation to improve working conditions, protect child laborers and eliminate the worst abuses of industry Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, 1911 Led to a series of pioneering labor laws— strict regulations on factory owners Booker T. Washington Work for immediate selfimprovement, not longrange social change African Americans faced greater obstacles than any other group in challenging their oppressed status and seeking reform W. E. B. Du Bois Accused Washington of encouraging white efforts to impose segregation and of unnecessarily limiting the aspirations of his race Advocated that talented blacks should accept nothing less than a full university education and aspire to the professions. They should, above all, fight for the immediate restoration of their civil rights, not wait for them to be granted as a reward for patient striving (Washington) The Niagara Movement—DuBois-led meeting at Niagara Falls, Canada Anti-alcohol constituencies Settlement House Workers and Social Agencies—abhorred the effects of drinking on working class families Women—alcohol was a source of great social problems; reform male behavior Employers—alcohol an impediment to industrial efficiency Critics of economic privilege Political reformers Frances Willard Leader of Women’s Christian Temperance Union after 1879 Against prohibition: immigrant and working class voters By 1916—19 states Consumption of alcohol increasing in unregulated areas; WW I final push Eugenics: the science of altering the reproductive processes of plants and animals to produce new hybrids or breeds Dillingham Report Senator William P. Dillingham Southern and Eastern European immigrants had proven themselves less able to assimilate than earlier immigrants; therefore immigration should be restricted by nationality Agreement: T. Roosevelt and Lodge Opposition: employers (immigrants = cheap labor; immigrants themselves & political representatives 1,000 state & local offices Over 1 million total votes for President Socialist Party of America Supporters L. Steffens Lippmann F. Kelley F. Willard All socialists agreed on the need for basic structural changes in the economy Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) Single union for all workers Abolish wage slave system Favored general strikes Dynamited railroad lines and power stations plus other acts of terror Championed causes of unskilled workers Particular strength in West Far-flung social network— home to workers who were otherwise rootless Big Bill Haywood Louis Brandeis Other People’s Money (1913) Federal government should work to break up the largest combinations and enforce a balance between the need for big business and the need for competition Big business: inefficient and morally a threat to freedom; “bigness” limited the ability of individuals to control their own destinies; also “bigness” encouraged abuses of power Herbert Croly The Promise of American Life Government must maintain a continuing oversight of economic consolidation in American business. The government must be strong and modern Walter Lippmann Drift and Mastery (1914) “Society must act to introduce a plan where there has been clash, and purpose into the jungles of disordered growth.” Theodore Roosevelt “We should enter upon a course of supervision, control, and regulation of those great corporations— a regulation which we should not fear, if necessary, to bring to the point of control of monopoly prices.”