Transcript Document
Origins of Progressivism • State reforms from the 1890’s • Catapulted by Teddy Roosevelt • Continued through Taft and eventually ends with the advent of World War I during Wilson’s presidency Attitudes and Motives • Middle class alarmed at the rising power of big business, the gap between rich and poor, the violent conflict between labor and management, and the dominance of machine politics • Jim Crows laws in the South • Women’s suffrage Who were the Progressives? • Urban middle class • White collar workers • Roosevelt, LaFollette • Bryan, Wilson What was their philosophy? • People should take a practical approach to morals, ideals, and knowledge • Rugged individualism did not seem to apply • Scientific management as described by F.W. Taylor could be used by the government to help people One historian, Paul Johnson, labeled the Progressive Movement as Unamerican. Assess the validity of the statement? What data would you use to support • Origins The Muckrakers – Henry Demarest Lloyd Wealth Against Commonwealth exposed corruption and greed of oil monopolies • Magazines – McClures Magazine • Lincoln Steffens Tweed Days in St. Louis • Ida Tarbell The History of Standard Oil Company – Collier’s & Cosmopolitan – All competed for the most shocking exposes of political and economic corruption Muckraker Books • Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives (1890) • Lincoln Steffens Shame of the Cities (1904) Fictional Accounts: • Theodore Dreiser’s The Titan & The Financier Political Reforms • Australian Ballot • Direct Primary • Direct Election of Senators • Initiative; referendum, recall (Most of these reforms first happen West of the Mississippi River) Municipal Reforms • Controlling public utilities • Commissions and city managers State Reforms • Wisconsin idea • Direct primary • Tax reform • Regulation of railroad rates Theodore Roosevelt • Square Deal – Anthracite Coal mine strike of 1902 • First time President enters negotiations to settle dispute Theodore Roosevelt • Trust busting – Northern Securities – Standard Oil – good v. bad trusts • Railroad Regulation – Elkins Act (1903): regulated rebates – Hepburn Act (1906): fix rates for railroads Theodore Roosevelt • Consumer protection – Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) – Meat Inspection Act (1906) • Conservation Theodore Roosevelt – Often used Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to set aside 150 million acres – Newlands Reclamation – National Conservation Commission under Gilford Pinchot William Howard Taft • More trust-busting than Roosevelt – Mann Elkins Act gave ICC the power to suspend new railroad rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies • Income tax (16th amendment) 1913 • Split the Republican party in 1912 – Roosevelt Progressives v. Taft conservatives – Over Payne-Aldrich Tariff and Pinchot-Ballinger controversy • Democratic Woodrow Wilson wins election of 1912 Woodrow Wilson • Roosevelt’s (Bull Moose Party) New Nationalism v. Wilson’s New Freedom • Tariff reduction • Bank reform – Federal Reserve Act of 1914 • Business Regulation – Clayton Anti-trust Act – Federal Trade Commission • Federal Farm Loan Act • Child Labor Act (Keating Owen Act – struck down with Hammer v. Dagenhart African Americans in Progressive Era • Largely ignored by progressives because they shared in general prejudice • Other reforms considered more important because they reached more people • Washington and DuBois shape the debate for equal rights. • Urban migration will begin in 1910 with the better job opportunities in the North because of poor cotton crops. Also Jim Crow era raised race tensions Civil Rights Organizations • Niagra Movement 1905 which led to • NAACP – Included African Americans and whites – Mission was to abolish all forms of segregation and increase educational opportunities. By 1920, the largest civil rights organization • National Urban League – Stressed “Not alms but opportunity” reflecting an emphasis on self-reliance Women and Suffrage • National Women’s Suffrage Association NAWSA led by Carrie Chapman Catt switched from a state to federal focus for suffrage in 1900 • Alice Paul split the association and formed the National Women’s Party in 1916 • Nineteenth Amendment (1920) guaranteed women’s right to vote in all elections at all levels.