Transcript Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt

Progressivism and the
Republican Roosevelt
Chapter 28
By: Jessica & Maria Lopez
Progressive Roots
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The “Progressive Movement” initiated before
the first decade of the 20th century.
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They attempted to expose the abuses of business
and the corruption in politics.
Their main purpose was to use the government as
an agency of human welfare.
They originated from Greenback Labor Party of
the 1870s &1880s and the Populist Party of the
1890s.
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Writers and Politicians began to pinpoint
targets for the progressive attack
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1894 Henry D. Lloyd “Wealth Against Common
Wealth” exposed the corruption of monopoly of
the Standard Oil Company.
1899 Thorsten Veblen “The Theory of the Leisure
Class” criticizing those who made money out of
the trusts.
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Socialist promoted a brand of progressivism
base on Christian doctrines to get better
housing and living conditions for the urban
poor.
Feminist entered the fight to improve the lives
of families that lived and worked in cities with
bad condition.
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Jane Addams
Lillian Wald
Raking Muck with Muckrakers
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1902 magazines joined in on the bashing of
the trusts.
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Cosmopolitan
Collier’s
Everybody’s
President Roosevelt gave them the name of
“Muckrakers” he found them annoying.
Some of their writings became best-selling
books
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These writers exposed the “money trusts,” the
railroad barons, and the corrupt amassing of
American fortunes
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John Spargo’s “The Bitter Cry of the Children”
exposed child labor.
Ray Stannard Baker’s Following the Color Line was
about the illiteracy of Blacks.
Ida M. Tarbell against Standard Oil
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Most well-known woman in muckracking movement, and a
respected business historian.
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Some of the most effective topics of the
muckrakers involved immoral “white slaves”
traffic in women, the unstable slums and the
dreadful amount of industrial accidents.
They believed that in order to cure American
democracy, was more democracy.
Political Progressivism
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Progressives were usually middle-class men
and women who felt squeezed from the big
trusts and the immigrants that worked for
cheap labor.
Two goals
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To use state power to curb state tursts and to stem
the socialist threat by generally improving the
common person’s conditions of life and labor
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1st objective was to regain the power lost to
the “interests”. In order to do that they were in
favor of…
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“Initiative” so that
voters could directly propose legislation.
“Referendums” so that the people could actually
vote on issues that affected them.
“Recalls” would let the voters eliminate previous
elected officials.
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2nd Root-out graft
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Graft: is one thing attached to another by insertion
or implantation so it becomes part of it. Transplant.
Australian ballot was secretly beign intorduced
in the states to ensure the voter records a
sincere choice.
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Bribery was less achievable
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Finally in 1913 17th Amendment established
the direct election of U.S. senators.
Feminists received support from progressives
early 1900’s for Woman suffrage (right to
vote) but did not come yet.
Progressivism in the Cities and States
Progressivism gained a lot in the cities
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For example Galveston, TX used expert-staffed
commissions to manage urban affairs or the citymanager system, that was created to take politics
out of municipal administration.
Urban reformers took on “slumlords,” juvenile
delinquency, and wide-open prostitution.
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Later on this elevated from cities to state
level.
1901 Wisconsin, Governor Robert M. La
Follette fought for control from the trusts and
returned power to the people, leading him up
to a progressive Republican leader. Other
states followed
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Oregon and California, which was led by
Governor Hiram W. Johnson.
Charles Evans Hughes, governor of New York,
obtained fame as an investigator of all the
wrongdoings of gas and insurance companies,
and coal trusts.
Progressive Women
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Woman could not vote or hold a position in
office, but they were still very active in regards
of family-ill issues.
Most female progressives related their
activities as extensions of their traditional
roles of wife and mother.
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Keeping children out of mills and sweatshops
Winning pensions for mothers with dependent
children
Making sure food products were safe to eat
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Women’s Trade Union League and the
National Consumers League
Two new federal agencies in the Department
of Labor
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The Children’s Bureau (1912)
The Women’s Bureau (1920)
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The fire in 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist
Company in New York City, 146, mostly young
women killed from severe burns, or from
jumping off from the eight or ninth story.
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New York city legislator passed stronger laws
regulating the hours and conditions of sweatshops
1917 thirty states established worker’s
compensation laws, this provided the workers with
insurance incase of an injury caused by industrial
accidents.
Gradual turn into free enterprise
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Founded by Frances E. Willard Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), AntiSaloon League.
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Formed to go against alchocol (because it was
related with prostitution and thretened family
stability).
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1 million women to “make the world homelike”
Lead WCTU into the largest woman’s organiztion in the
world.
In 1919, the 18th Amendment forbade the
sale and drinking of alcohol.
TR’s Square Deal for Labor
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President Roosevelt was touched by the
progressive movement and embraced a
“Square Deal”, a program with the three C’s
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Control of the corporations
Consumer protection
Conservation of natural resources
1902 a strike took place in the anthracite coal
mines of Pennsylvania, 140,000 workers
demanded 20% pay increase and reduction
of working hours from ten to nine hours.
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Mine owners did not pay any attention to the workers
and refused to even negotiate.
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Desperate, and annoyed, Roosevelt threatened to
seize the mines and operate them with federal troops.
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Schools and factories were being shut down, and hospitals
were suffering the winter cold.
A compromise decision gave the minors 10% increase and
nine hours of work.
1903 Department of Commerce and Labor, which was
also a part of the Bureau of Corporations (breaking
the monopoly and making way for the “trust-busting"
era).
TR Corrals the Corporations
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The Interstate Commerce Commission
created in 1887 did not succeed. So
Congress passed the Elkins Act in 1903, this
fined railroads that gave rebates and the
shippers that accepted them.
Hepburn Act, 1906 restricted the free passes
of the railroad.
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Roosevelt believed that there were “good
trusts” and “bad trusts”, so he did not want to
go smashing all of the businesses. For
example the Northern Securities Company,
which was organized by J.P. Morgan and
James J. Hill.
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1904, the Supreme Court upheld Roosevelt’s
antitrust suit and told the Northern Securities to
vanish, this made Wall Street really mad but
helped Roosevelt’s image.
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Roosevelt cracked down on over 40 trusts, and he
helped remove the beef, sugar, fertilizer, and harvester
trusts, but in reality, he wasn’t as great of a trustbuster
as he might seem to be.
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His intentions were not to take down the “good trusts,” but the
trusts that did fall under Roosevelts’s regulations fell
symbolically, so that other trusts would reform themselves.
Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, took
down more trusts.
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1911 when Taft tried to crack down on U.S. Steel, a company
that had personally been allowed by Roosevelt to absorb the
Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, the reaction from
Roosevelt was explosive.
Caring for the Consumer
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A lot of the meat companies were preparing meat in
very unsanitary ways and the Europeans were
complaining about the exported meat that they
bought from the U.S.
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In 1906, the Meat Inspection Act was passed, which
decreed that the preparation of meat shipped over state
lines would be subject to federal inspection from corral to
can. Canned food is something that the Americans
desperately needed.
Pure Food and, Drug Act initiated to prevent the
misuse and mislabeling of foods and anything
related to pharmacy.
Earth Control
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Desert Land act of 1877- under which federal
government sold arid land cheaply.
The act that was successful was the Forest
Reserve Act of 1891which allowed to set
aside public forest as national parks and
other reserves. 46 million acres of land were
preserved due to this.
Roosevelt as well as pinchot loved natural
resources and helped initiate conservation
projects.
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Another act that was created was the
Newlands act of 1902 that initiated projects
for western states.
By 1900 a quarter of the nations natural
timberlands remained so Roos. Set aside 125
millions acres. Big accomplishment during his
presidency.
The book of Jack London’s call and the boy
scouts of America were created due to
disappearance of the national frontier.
The “Roosevelt Panic” of 1907
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TR was elected president but he denied it
since he had served two terms by then.
There was a panic in Wall Street where the
financial flurry frightened runs on banks,
suicides, and criminal indictments against
speculators in 1907.
TR was found in the middle but he got out
and the panic died.
In 1908 the Aldrich- Vreeland act which led to
Federal Reserve act of 1913.
The Rough Rider Thunders Out
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In 1908 campaign William Howard Taft was elected
as the successor of TR where he was hoping that
Taft would follow “his policies”.
Taft defeated William Jennings Bryan.
TR went on a lion hunt while Taft was in charge.
He helped many Americans have healthy adult lives,
and ensured that new trusts would fit in capitalism.
TR protected against socialism and opened the
eyes of Americans to see that they share the world
with other nations. So it couldn’t be isolationist.
Traft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole
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Everybody loves a fat man.
Taft was a mild progressive, and a sensitive
to criticism and not liberal as TR.
People were inspired since he graduated 2nd
in his class at Yale.
The Dollar Goes Abroad as Diplomat
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Taft urged Americans to invest in a policy called the
“dollar diplomacy” and called out to the Wall Street
to sluice their dollars to foreign areas.
They wanted to go to the far east where the
Panamal canal was so they went to Japan and
Russians who controlled the railroads of province.
Taft had a secretary of state- Knox who sent a group
of Americans, and foreign bankers to try to buy
railroads and turn them to china.
Japan and Russia denied.
Taft the Trustbuster
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Taft brought 90 suits against the trust during
the four years in office.
In 1911 the supreme court ordered the
dissolution of the mighty standard oil
company.
Also Taft decided to press an antitrust suit
against the U.S steel corp.
He now became TR’s antagonist.
Taft Splits the Republican Party
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Two issues split the rep. party: the tariff and
the conservation of lands.
Taft passed a reductive bill led by senator
Aldrich, then later the Payne-Aldrich bill was
passed and Taft signed it betraying his
campaign promises.
It was drawn from the west and it outraged
many people.
Taft called it the best bill ever passed.
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Taft tried to control the mineral resources by
establishing the Bureau of mines, but all he
did was mess up and fire Pinchot the chief of
the agriculture depart. People were infuriated.
By spring of 1910 the Republican Party was
split wide open.
The democrats emerged with a landslide in
the house.
The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
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In 1911 the National Progressive Republican
League with La Follete being the leader
TR tried coming back to the rep. party to
make things better but all he won was being
the candidate on the progressive party ticket.
He was pushing La Follete
Roosevelt tasted the bitter cup of defeat but
was on fire to lead a third party crusade.