The Progressives 1889-1916
Dec 17, 2015
The Progressives1889-1916
What was Progressivism?
An effort to impose order & justice on society that was approaching chaos
What created the chaos?Rapid industrializationUrbanizationImmigrationLaissez faire
Who were the Progressives?
White Protestants
African Americans
Middle class
College-educated professionals
Scholars, writers
Politicians
Union leaders
What did Progressives
believe?Society was capable of improvement
Growth and advancement were the nation’s destiny
What didn’t work?Laissez faireSocial Darwinism
Direct, purposeful human intervention in social and economic affairs was essential
GOVT ACTION NEEDED!
Progressives wanted MILD reforms. They were NOT RADICALS
Varieties of Progressivism
AntimonopolyFear of concentrated power
Urge to limit/disperse authority & wealth
Social cohesionWe are part of a great social web
Each person’s welfare is dependent on the welfare of society as a whole
Faith in KnowledgeApplying the principles of natural and social sciences to society
Knowledge can make society equitable and humane
Modernized govt must play important role
The Muckrakers
Crusading journalists
Exposed scandal, corruption and injustice
Targets:TrustsPolitical machinesFactories
The Social Gospel
Social JusticeJustice for all of societyEgalitarian societySupport for the poor and oppressed pplAmerican Protestant movement
Social justice and sacrifice should be foundation of society
Salvation ArmyFusion of religion and reform
The Social Gospel
Charles Sheldon: In His Steps (1898); “What would Jesus do?”
Walter Rauschenbusch: all ppl should work toward creating the Kingdom of God on Earth
Father John A. Ryan: expand Catholic social welfare organizations
Settlement House Movement
Influence of the environment on the individual
Crowded immigrant neighborhoods
Staffed by educated middle class teaching middle class values
Young college women
Social work
The Allure of Expertise
Enlightened experts should run govt and economy
Scientists and engineers
Thorstein Veblen
The Professions
New middle class emerges
Industries: managers, technicians, accountants
Cities: commercial, medical, legal, educational services
New technology: scientists, engineers
Requires schools and teachers to train them
Education and individual accomplishments
Women in the “helping” professions
The Professions
Created professional organizationsWhy?
Set up standards to secure position
Lend prestige to profession
Keep #’s down to ensure high demand
AMA (1901); medical schools
Bar associations; law schools
Chamber of Commerce (1912); schools of business
Women and Reform
The “New Woman”
1. Vast majority of income-producing work outside of the home
2. Children going to school earlier & longer
3. Technological innovations impact the home
4. Families are smaller
5. Living longer
6. Some shun marriage
7. Divorce rates increase
The ClubwomenWomen’s clubs
First social but then concerned w/ social betterment
Non-partisan (Remember, couldn’t vote)
Middle to upper class women (clubs had $$)
Allowed women to create a public space for themselves w/o threatening male dominated society
Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903)Join unions, support strikes, picket lines, bail money
African Americans excluded
Women & Social Justice
NY Women’s Trade Union League & Intl. Ladies Garment Workers Union
1909: 50 hour workweek, wage increases, preferential hiring for union members
1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (NY)146 female workers killed; avg age 19
Reformers, union leaders, women’s groups, politicians from Tammany Hall
Machine politicians & progressive reformers
Laws regulating fire safety, equipment, wages and hours for women and children
19th Amendment provides full suffrage to women in all the states, 1920.
Woman Suffrage
Radical idea: it was a “natural right”Led to a powerful anti-suffrage movement; a threat to the “natural order”
Looseness, promiscuity, divorce, child neglect
20th CenturyNational American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
Justify suffrage in a “safer” way
NAWSA Rhetoric
Not challenging the separate sphere
Because they ARE mothers, wives and homemakers
Bring special experiences and sensitivities to public life
Would help temperance movement (largest supporter)
Would help war become a thing of the past
Conservative ArgumentIf blacks, immigrants and other undesirables have the vote, then…educated “well-born” women should
Suffrage Timeline
1848: Seneca Falls
1890: Wyoming
1910: Washington
1911: CA
1913: IL (1st state east of Miss. River)
1919: 39 states
1920: 19th Amendment
Alice Paul: Not enough; Equal Rights Amendment
Controlling the Masses: Prohibition
1873: Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Francis Willard
1890s: Anti-Saloon LeagueLocal level: isolate “wet” areasState level: Use of direct democracy
1913: Lobby for Amendment
Impact of entry into WWI
1919: 18th Amendment
Controlling the Masses: Immigration Restriction
Eugenics
Immigration polluting the nation’s racial stock
Carnegie Foundation: turn eugenics into a method for altering human reproduction
Races and ethnic groups graded
Sterilization
1916: “The Passing of the Great Race” (Madison Grant)
Dillingham Commission
Supporters of Eugenics
The Assault on the Parties
Reforming the City
Muckrakers role
Middle class blamedmachine politicianssaloon ownersbrothel keepersbusinessmen connected to political machines
CityCommissioner Plan
Cities hired experts in different fields to run a single aspect of city government. For example, the
sanitation commissioner would be in charge of garbage and sewage removal.
City ManagerPlan
A professional city manager is hired to run each department of the city and report directly to the city
council.
City Reforms
New Forms of Governance
1900: Galveston, TX tidal waveCommission Plan
1908: Staunton, VACity-Manager Plan
Plans promotes efficiency/undermines patronage of machine
Old system benefitted the working class; new ones were controlled by new professionals
New Forms of Governance
Non-partisan mayoral elections
Mayoral elections moved to off-election years
Ward (neighborhood) elections switched to citywide elections
Progressive Mayors
Hazen Pingree (Detroit): 1889-96
Samuel Jones (Toledo); 1897-1903
Tom Johnson (Cleveland); 1901-09
Recall
Allows voters to petition to have an elected representative removed from office.
Initiative
Allows voters to petition state legislatures in order to consider a bill desired by citizens.
Referendum
Allows voters to decide if a bill or proposed amendment should be passed.
Ensures that voters select candidates to run for office, rather than party bosses.
State Reforms
Secret Ballot
Privacy at the ballot box ensures that citizens can cast votes without party bosses knowing how they voted.
Direct Primary
Robert La Follette & the Laboratory of Democracy
Wisconsin governor, Senator
Direct primaries, initiatives and referendums
Regulated RRs and utilities
Workers’ compensation
Inheritance tax
Increased taxes on RRs and business
Parties and Interest Groups
Decline of party of influenceVoter turnout decreases
Why?Secret ballot
Illiteracy among immigrants
Interest groups
17th Amendment: Direct election of Senators
Thomas Nast was the artist for Harper's Weekly
in the late 1800s. Father of American
Caricature." Nast's campaign against New York City's political boss William Tweed is
legendary Nast's cartoons depicted Tweed as a sleazy criminalTweed was known to say,
"Stop them damn pictures. I don't care
what the papers write about me. My
constituents can't read. But, damn it, they can
see the pictures."
Social Tensions in an Age of Reform
African Americans and Reform
Contradiction b/w progressive rhetoric and their conscious discrimination
Fearful of interracial alliance under populism
1890s south: Jim Crow, voter restrictions
Mississippi Gov. James Vardaman
Booker T. Washington
Atlanta Compromise
Self-improvement first
Equality later
By turn of century: challenge to Washington and structure of race relations
W.E.B. Du BoisHarvard grad
1903: Souls of Black Folk
Trade school vs. university education
Fight for civil rights; don’t wait for white to rescue them
1905: Niagara Movement
1909: NAACP
NAACP Successes
NAACP attorneys
1915: Guinn v United StatesGrandfather clause unconstitutional
1917: Buchanan v WorleyResidential segregation unconstitutional
Lynching
NAACP wanted federal law against lynching
Ida WellsNACWWomen’s Convention of the National Baptist Church
Challenging the Capitalist OrderRadical Reformers
The Dream of Socialism
Radicalism: 1900-14
Socialist Party of America
Eugene Debs
Urban workers, intellectuals, tenant farmers
1,200 public offices; 79 mayors in 24 states
Public ownership of utilities, 8 hr workday, pensions
Limitations of Socialism
Need for basic structural changes in economy
Differed in extent of those changes and the tactics necessary to achieve them
Allow small-scale private enterprise but nationalize major industriesElectoral politics vs. direct militant action
Moderates dominated (workers’ comp and min. wage)
Opposed WWI; hurt the PArty
The “Wobblies”Industrial Workers of the World (1905)
Utopian state run by workers
Blacks, immigrants and women; unskilled labor
Rejected political action; favored general strikes
Uncompromising
1917 timber strikeWilliam “Big Bill” Haywood
But most progressives believed capitalist system could be reformed from within
Reformers pushed for the government to play an active role in planning and regulating economic life
SUPERVISION, CONTROL and REGULATION
McKinley Assassinated!
Sept. 14, 1901
Theodore Roosevelt
Harvard: 1876-1880
NY Assemblyman: 1882-4
North Dakota Rancher: 1884-6
US Civil Service Commissioner: 1889-
95
NYC Police Commissioner: 1895-
7
Assistant Secretary, US Navy: 1897-8
Rough Rider: 1898
NY Governor: 1898-1900
Vice President: 1901
Republican Party leaders thought that the vice presidency would be a political dead end
President 1901-1909
“The unscrupulous rich man who seeks to exploit and oppress those who are less well off is in spirit not opposed to, BUT IDENTITCAL WITH, the unscrupulous poor man who desires to plunder and oppress those who are better off.”
A “Square Deal”
Controlling corporations
Consumer protection
Conservation of natural resources
Roosevelt’s Vision of Federal Power
Govt should have power to investigate the activities of corporations and publicize the results
1903: Dept of Commerce and Labor
1903: Elkins ActIllegal for RRs to give or shippers to receive rebates
1906: Hepburn ActIncreased power of ICCOversee RR rates
TR as Trust Buster
Centralization was a fact of modern life
“good” vs. “bad” trusts
J.P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Company
“Send your man to my man and they can fix it up.”
1904: Supreme Court decision
“Square Deal” for Labor
1902: Anthracite Coal Strike in PA (May through Oct.)
20% wage increase; 8 hour day, recognition of union
TR supported workers; owners refused to compromise
TR threatened to send in 10k fed. Troops to seize the mines and resume work.
Workers got: 10% wage increase, 9 hour day BUT no union recognition
Caring for the Consumer
1906: Meat Inspection Act
Federal inspection of meat
The Jungle
Pure Food and Drug Act
Crime to sell adulterated food or medicine
Correct and complete labeling of ingredients
Roosevelt and Conservation
Used executives powers to restrict private development on govt land
1907: conservatives restricted his authority over public lands; he just seized all forests in public domain before bill became law
ConservationistPromoted policies to protect land for careful MANGAGED DEVELOPMENT
1902: Newlands Act
Roosevelt and Preservation
Naturalists
John Muir and the Sierra Club
Added to the National Park System
Hetch Hetchy Controversy
The Panic of 1907
Bank run and recession blamed on TR’s “mad” economic policy
J.P. Morgan to the rescue
US Steel purchased Tennessee Coal and Iron Co.
TR promises to look the other way
Crisis averted
Republican conservatives couldn’t stand TR
TR and Taft
1904 promise
Taft: trusted ally of TR
Progressives loved him
Easily defeat Bryan in 1908 election
Too lazy and introverted
Status quo
Lacked personality
Taft as Trustbuster
90 lawsuits in 4 years
Compared to TR’s 44 in 7.5 years
1911: Supreme Court breaks up Standard Oil
1911: Taft brings suit against US Steel for its purchase of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Co
TR upset
Taft and the Progressives
TariffProgressives: deep cuts to the “Mother of Trusts”
1909: Payne-Aldrich Bill; betrayal
Ballinger-Pinchot DisputeTaft replaces Sec. of Interior w/ corporate lawyer Ballinger
Ballinger accused of turning over public coal land to company for personal profit
Pinchot went to Taft; Taft said nothing wrong
Pinchot goes public and gets fired
Theodore Roosevelt atOsawatomie, KS: New
Nationalism
Big business requires big government.
Is TR’s hat in the ring?
Antitrust lawsuit against US Steel in Oct. 1911
Robert La Follette’s nervous breakdown in Feb 1912
Announces candidacy in Feb. 1912