Transcript Theodore Roosevelt (President: 1901

The Progressive Era
Roosevelt to Wilson
Theodore Roosevelt (President: 1901-1909)
New Yorker in background.
Influenced by A.T. Mahan
about the United States being
a major international power.
Becomes president after the
assassination of William
McKinley.
First president to harness the
power of media. Took issues
to the general public,
bypassing resistance in
Congress and the courts.
The Square Deal…the Problem
“Under modern industrial conditions
absence of governmental regulation and
control means such swollen development of
a few personalities that all other personalities
are dwarfed, are stunted and fettered, and
their power of initiative, their power of selfhelp, largely atrophied.”
The Square Deal…the Solution
Collective action and individual action,
public law and private character, are both
necessary. It is only by a slow and patient
inward transformation such as these laws are
in bringing about that men are really helped
upward in their struggle for a higher and
fuller life.”
TR: Domestic Policy
Mediated coal strike: 1902
Antiquities Act: 1906
Food and Drug Act: 1906
Hepburn Act: 1906. Empowered ICC to set
maximum rates for railroads.
Statehood for Oklahoma: 1907
Created several national monuments and
parks
Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy
Mediated Russo-Japanese War in 1905
Sent the “Great White Fleet” of U.S. warships on a
global tour as a demonstration of power.
Formulated “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe
Doctrine: U.S. had a right to intervene in affairs of
other countries in the Americas to prevent
European powers from getting involved.
A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama
Theodore Roosevelt, interested in a quicker
sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific,
encouraged a revolution in Panama against
Columbia.
The new nation of Panama agreed to have a
canal build across its mid section.
Completed in 1914, it allowed ships to cross
from one ocean to another without going
around the tip of South America.
The Completed Canal
Progressivism vs. the Establishment in the U.S.:
William Howard Taft (President: 1909-1913)
Lawyer in background
Moderate trying to
balance Progressive and
conservative wings of the
Republican Party.
T Roosevelt did not
think was Progressive
enough. TR decided to
try to run for a third
term, resulting in…..
Dollar Diplomacy in Latin America
Under Taft, U.S. policy centered on “Dollar
Diplomacy:” encouraging business interests
in the Caribbean and Latin America, but
with the implication that the U.S. could
intervene in local affairs at any time to secure
those investments.
Natural Resources
Conservation a major
movement. People such as
Gifford Pinchot (shown here)
advocate “multiple use” of U.S.
forests.
Start of major water reclamation
and dam-building programs.
Free-flowing water seen as
“wasting” a potential resource.
Rise of national and state parks
and formation of National Park
Service, “developing” scenic
areas for tourism.
Progressivism was:
A series of social, economic and cultural
movements from roughly the 1890s to the
1920s that sought to improve society through
science, efficiency, education, government
policy, and morality.
Who were the Progressives?
Leadership of the movements tended to be white,
educated, middle/upper middle classes and WASP
(white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant) in background.
They tended to be Northeastern, urban. Politically,
tended to be Republicans at first. Democrats got
involved by the 1910s. However, people from a
wide range of classes and backgrounds embraced at
least aspects of Progressivism.
Progressive Goals
Felt that the best vehicle to transform society
was through government, legislation, and
institutions. Institutions were the idealized,
orderly solutions to what they saw as the
chaotic, stuffy, dehumanizing, and
contentious world of the late nineteenth
century.
Arenas of Progressive activity
Investigative journalism
Workplace
Politics
Resources
Daily Life
Prohibition
Women’s Suffrage
Investigative journalism
Often called
“muckrakers,”
journalists,
photographers, and
writers exposed the
evils of society to a
larger public
Examples of Muckrakers:
Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle about the
meatpacking industry.
Frank Norris wrote The Octopus about corporate
greed.
Jacob Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives about
life in the slums.
Lincoln Steffens wrote The Shame of the Cities
about urban corruption.
Ida Tarbell wrote articles for McClure’s initially
targeting Standard Oil.
The Changing Workplace
Included Frederick Winslow Taylor’s attempt to
systemize the workplace.
Growing role of office work and clerical staff .
Generally wary of unions. Supported “Welfare
Capitalism.” Examples included Henry Ford and
W.C. Coleman.
Saw big businesses as problems to be addressed
either through “anti-trust” measures or promoting
regulation.
Labor
Rise of the radical groups like the I.W.W.
Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1912
Ludlow strike and massacre in 1914
Immigration
Continues through Ellis and Angel Islands,
with lesser migrations through places like the
St. Lawrence River, Baltimore, and
Galveston.
Settlement House movement, of which
Chicago’s “Hull House” is best known.
Efforts to encourage “Americanization.”
Political reform
Anti-boss system. Favored
appointment of qualified civil
servants. Favored moving from
legislative to executive branch.
Favored City Managers as
opposed to elected mayors and
city councils
Advocated a move away from
party politics. Voters were to
select person, not party.
Start of interest group-oriented
politics.
Political Reform II
Advocated greater “popular” (read white, educated,
upper middle class) control of politics through:
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Initiative: Forcing legislative action
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Direct (goes directly to ballot)
Indirect (legislature must consider)
Referendum: Putting a measure on the ballot, generally
as a sort of “voter approval” of a piece of legislation.
Recall: Voters can recall elected officials.
Direct election of U.S. Senators.
The emerging Western voice
In Canada, creation of Provinces of
Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1905.
In U.S., territories became states such as
Utah (1896), Oklahoma (1907), Arizona and
New Mexico (both 1912).
West for both Canada and U.S. was a source
of Progressive reform movements, from
women’s suffrage to temperance.
Agriculture
In U.S., agricultural extension through the “SmithLever Act” enabled land-grant colleges to teach
farmers everything from home canning to the
building of silos.
“Country Life Movement” promoted the health
and social benefits of being on the farm.
Growth of farming in upper U.S. Great Plains with
a major boom just to the north in Canada.
Roads
Railroads were still the main way of getting
about. Road conditions varied from
marginal to dangerous.
A group of interested organizations known as
the “Good Roads Movement” began
advocating for better road conditions overall
and for a more coordinated, integrated set of
state and national road systems.
Society: Religion
Variants included:
The “Social Gospel”
(Christians obligated to help
those in need).
Advocating a return to what
they saw as traditional, “Biblebased” religion. Examples
includes a series of tracts in the
1910s called “the
Fundamentals.”
A growing interest in “religious
science” and self-help
movements.
Society: Education
Curriculum moves from “classical”
education to more practical
subjects such as “home
economics,” “vocational
education,” and “physical
education.” Rise of “extension”
programs from Land Grant
Colleges to bring the knowledge
of the universities to the people
in the community.
Society: Housing
The housing ideal was
the small bungalow.
Moving away from the
formality of the
Victorian era to a
more informal way of
life that centered on
the family and raising
children.
Society: Prohibition
A variety of groups such as the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union saw liquor and
the saloon as a major cause of social ills in
society. Was often a way of discussing issues
such as domestic violence. At first, laws took
place on the local or state level, as in Kansas.
Resulted in 18th Amendment.
Society: Eugenics
There was a common belief was that each
race/people had their own genetic make-up and
that mixing of races or allowing “inferior” peoples
to reproduce was seen as harmful to the larger gene
pool. Linked closely to concepts of “Social
Darwinism”—the belief that those who were on top
in society were superior than those who were not.
Society: Gender and Sexuality
Some social commentators
were fearful that women
were becoming less
“feminine” and men were
becoming “effeminate.” A
related movement in
popular culture, for
example, was the
“western” that advocated
men coming out west to be
“toughened up.”
Some, such as Margaret
Sanger, advocated sex
education and birth
control, a frank
discussion of sexuality
that was shocking for
the time.
Two arguments for women’s suffrage
Equal Rights In 19th century,
leadership under Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton through the National
American Women’s Suffrage
Association (NAWSA)
advocated suffrage based on
political rights and equality with
men. Also had image of being a
radical movement.
Maternal New leadership in the
early 20th century featured
women such as Anna Howard
Shaw and a generation
representing “The New
Woman,” who argued that
voting women would provide
something new and better into
the political system. White
women were seen as a bulwark
against immigrants and black
male’s votes. Made suffrage
respectable and suitably
“feminine.”
The old generation leading(?) the new
An example of the “New Woman” who, if given the
right to vote, would support reform legislation.
Where women get to vote
U.S. Local elections, then state by state in the late 1800s
and early 1900s (starting with Wyoming) then to U.S.
through 19th Amendment in 1919
Canada: Local elections, then Provincial (starting with the
Prairie Provinces) from 1916-1920. Suffrage in national
elections granted in 1918 but provincial elections varied by
province. Quebec did not give women the right to vote in
provincial elections until 1940!
Mexico. Women guaranteed right to vote on local election
since 1947 and given full rights to vote and run for office in
1953.
The U.S. Election of 1912
Taft as Republican
candidate
Woodrow Wilson as
Democratic candidate
Theodore Roosevelt as
Progressive Party
candidate once
Republicans reject him
as candidate for third
term.
Eugene Debs as Socialist
Party Candidate
Woodrow Wilson (President:
1913-1921)
Virginian in background.
Academic in profession
(was President of
Princeton)
Known for his
ideological/academic
approach to things.
Was a Progressive with a
sympathetic Congress.
Woodrow Wilson: Domestic
Policy
Federal Reserve Act: 1913. Created a system of 12 reserve banks to
provide some oversight over the activities the member banks (required
for national banks, optional for state banks).
Income tax (16th Amendment): 1913.
Direct election of senators (17th Amendment): 1913.
Keating Owen: 1914. Restricting child labor. Supreme Court later
struck down.
Established Federal Trade Commission: 1914. To regulate business.
Have power to prosecute “unfair trade practices.” Had power to
investigate corporate behavior.
National Park System created 1916.
National Prohibition (18th Amendment): 1918
Women’s suffrage (19th Amendment): 1919
Meanwhile, in Mexico…..
Growing numbers of strikes such as the copper
miners of Sonora.
Meanwhile, a popular movement under Emiliano
Zapata emerged against the haciendas in the central
part of the country.
A new Liberal party emerged but was crushed in
the early 1900s. Leaders, especially Flores Magon,
fled to U.S. and argued for the overthrow of Diaz.
Included a modest idealist named Francisco
Madero.
End of the Porfiriato
In 1910, Porfirio Diaz was elected to his eighth
consecutive term as President.
Growing outrage at the indifference and corruption
of the Porfiriato grew into a support for Madero,
who many felt was the legitimate winner of the
1910 election.
Diaz resigns in 1911 and went into exile in France.
The warlords mobilize
Madero barely held on before being toppled
by his main General, Victoriano Huerta, in
1913.
Other rivals such as:
 Zapata in the southern part of Mexico
 Venustiano Carranza and Alvaro Obregon
in Sorona.
 Doroteo Arango (Pancho Villa) in
Chihuahua and Durango.
Huerta and Wilson
Wilson was outraged by Huerta’s power politics.
Huerta tried to get support from Germany.
In 1914, when a group of American Marines tried to stop a
German ship with arms from docking in Tampico, Huerta’s
govt. had them arrested.
U.S. demanded a response. When Huerta refused to go
along, U.S. forces invade and occupy Vera Cruz.
Huerta’s government collapses soon afterward.
A power struggle breaks out between Obregon, Carranza,
and Villa, among others. Carranza ends up holding Mexico
City and U.S. gives nominal support.
The War, the U.S., and Mexico
Francisco “Pancho” Villa
attacked Columbus, New
Mexico (shown here) in March
1916. General Pershing leads
an expedition into Mexico to
capture Villa but fails.
The Zimmerman Telegram
revealed an offer from a
German official to the Mexican
government that if Mexico
supported Germany in the
event of the U.S. getting
involved, and the Germans win,
Mexico could get part of the
American Southwest back as
reparations.