The Gilded Age and Progressive Reforms

The Gilded Age and Progressive

Reforms

Major Themes of the Gilded Age and Progressive Reform

Major Themes of the Progressive Movement

1. The Expansion of Democratic Participation.

2. Helping the Poor and Improving Working Conditions.

3. Equal Rights and Greater Political Participation for Women.

4. The Temperance Movement5. The Regulation of Businesses for

Economic Justice.6. Conservation of the Environment

The Gilded Age, 1870s – 1890s

O The term “gilded” means covered with a thin layer of gold paint. It is generally, however, a pejorative term – suggesting that there is a falseness beneath the surface.

O During the “Gilded Age” American citizens suffered due to unfair business practices and corruption in government. And as a result, the glittering technological gains and accumulated wealth which characterized the lives of a handful of important businessmen were not shared by most citizens – most were quite poor.

Mark Twain Mark Twain coined the phrase “The Gilded Age” in a book which he co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner. But Twain was really more concerned with the real estate speculation and graft in Washington, D.C. than some of the topics we associate with the “Gilded Age” today.

The Major Concerns of the Gilded Age in the America:O Wealthy industrialists and major

business leaders were engaged in unfair business practices which allowed them to enrich themselves at the expense of the public – while running competitors out of business.

O Corruption and dishonesty in government were rampant – bribery and voter fraud characterized many elections, and government leaders were self-interested.

The Spoils System“To the Victor go the Spoils!” This was the ancient motto of all conquering armies, and President Andrew Jackson –who had commanded a few conquering armies – believed the idea applied to politics, too. He established and defended the “Spoils System” – the practice of rewarding loyal supporters of your political party with government jobs.

The Assassination of President James Garfield

President James Garfield was murdered in 1881 by a disappointed office seeker named Charles Guiteau. In response, the United States Congress passed the Pendleton Act, a law which encouraged Civil Service reform.

The Pendleton Act

The Pendleton Act created the Civil Service Commission, the duty of which was to hire for government jobs only the most qualified candidates. Merit, not political connections, would determine who should be hired for civil service jobs. From now on, only those individuals who scored highest on a series of civil service examinations would be employed. The previous system, pictured to the right, resulted in incompetent bureaucrats running the government – people who’s only qualification for the job was making a donation to the winning campaign.

Railroads and PoliticiansRailroad barons were

notorious for bribing politicians during the Gilded Age.

Stock in the railroad companies was frequently handed out to Senators and Congressional Representatives – with the hope that they would vote for measures which encouraged the value of that stock to go up!

Valuable real estate along side the railroad tracks could also be granted to politicians.

President Grover Cleveland & the Interstate Commerce ActThe Interstate Commerce Act was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland – an anti-trust and anti-monopoly leader – in 1887. The law forbid railroad companies from offering rebates to companies who shipped larger quantities – giving smaller businesses the ability to compete on equal terms with the greater industrial interests. Consider, for example, the rebates which were offered to Standard Oil Company, John Rockefeller’s juggernaut, which crushed smaller companies.

The Sherman Anti-Trust ActO The law was intended to prevent unfair

combinations of businesses – trusts or pools, for example – from using unfair methods to destroy their competitors.

O The act was meant to protect consumers.O Unfortunately, judges willfully

misinterpreted the law in several cases, claiming that the intention was to prevent labor unions from discouraging or disrupting free enterprise.

Political Bosses like William “Boss” Tweed bought votes. Because they controlled

all local contracts for sewage, garbage collection, road construction, and building, “Boss” Tweed and the Tammany hall circle controlled much of the public spending in New York.

By accepting bribes and kickbacks for these contracts, they could buy the votes of poor immigrant workers – who often sold their votes for a job, a meal, or a kindness during their time of need.

Kickbacks and Bribery

Politicians who accept money from competitors hoping to secure a government contract have obviously been bribed. Everyone can understand how this would hurt a city – contracts would go to people with the most money, not the most ability to complete the job cheaply.

“Kickbacks” occur when government officials offer a company a contract for a high bid – with the expectation that the company will return part of the money to the politicians themselves.

In both cases, the taxpayers lose out.

Thomas Nast, the political cartoonist: “Who Stole the People’s Money?”

William“Boss” Tweed made it to jail eventually, but he was never truly condemned by the people he had robbed…

“Fighting Bob” La Follette

As the Senator from the state of Wisconsin, Robert “Fightin’ Bob” La Follette was well known for his efforts to empower ordinary consumers and voters. He believed in economic justice – not the controlling interests of the railroads – and greater power for voters – more direct democracy, and less corruption from government officials on the local, state, and national level.

Progressive Voting Reforms

O The Primary System – Instead of allowing party leaders to pick their candidates, an election in which voters can choose their candidates is held.

O The Recall – a process by which people may vote to remove an elected official from office.

O The Initiative – a process that allows voters to put a bill before the state legislature – without sponsorship by any particular delegate or member.

O The Referendum – a way for the people to vote directly on a new law – or a tax increase.

The 16th AmendmentThe 16th Amendment created the graduated income tax, a method of collecting taxes based on the income of the individual citizen. When courts ruled this unconstitutional, the Congress passed an amendment allowing it. Since taxes are collected at different rates – the poor paying a lower rate of taxation, the wealthy pay higher rates – it distributes the tax burden to those who benefit the most in society.

The 17th AmendmentThe 17th Amendment to the Constitution was another voter reform amendment– providing for the direct election of Senators. Previously, Senators had been selected by State Legislatures, meaning that the party in power could select their own leaders according to party politics. In Wisconsin, the voters continued to choose Robert “Fightin’ Bob” La Follette, largely for his anti-trust and anti-monopoly stances. Voting reforms that empowered the people were characteristic of the Progressive Era.

The 18th AmendmentO The Eighteenth is better

known as the Prohibition amendment. It is one of the only changes to the Constitution which actively repressed liberty in the United States – and codified moralizing on the part of middle class, Protestant citizens. Not coincidentally, it is also the only amendment in United States History which was repealed!

The 19th AmendmentO This long overdue

change to the Constitution allowed women the right to vote in national elections. Women had been eligible to vote in state and local elections for quite some time, particularly in the Western States.

MuckrakersO Theodore Roosevelt was trying to insult the

journalists who went around exposing corruption and malpractice in society when he coined the phrase “muckraker.” He found these journalists bothersome.

O Muckrakers kind of liked the sound of it, though! O Muckrakers were crusading journalists who

attempted to expose problems in society and then encourage the people – and the people’s government – to solve the problems.

O Poverty, crime, living conditions, consumer safety, child labor, lynching, education, and economic exploitation were all addressed by muckrakers.

Ida TarbellNot to be confused with another muckraking journalist – Ida B. Wells – Ida Tarbell was the author of the book A History of the Standard Oil Company. In her work, Tarbell describe the unscrupulous and illegal methods John D. Rockefeller had used in order to create his monopolistic control of the oil industry – The Standard Oil Trust was eventually destroyed by the courts.

“There is no man more dangerous, in a position of power, than he who refuses to accept as a working truth…

… the idea that all a man does should make for righteous and soundness – that even the fixing of a tariff rate must be moral…

Jacob RiisJacob Riis was a New York City photographer who was compelled by what he photographed to become a forceful advocate for the poor – and particularly for poor children. Riis was the author of How the Other Half Lives – a muckraking photo-essay exposing the poverty, crime, and desperation of immigrant families in New York’s poorest communiites.

“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

Upton SinclairThe novel The Jungle is really a story of immigration and the need to reform the working conditions in our nation’s urban centers – particularly in Chicago, where Jurgis is doomed to a life of low wages, injury, and alcoholism. But part of the novel which captured the public’s attention was the disgusting description of the goings on in the meatpacking plants in fictional “Packingtown.” As a result of his novel, the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Acts were passed in short order – approved by TR!

“I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach.”- Upton Sinclair, Socialist,

Novelist, Activist.

Jane Addams – Founder, Hull

House in ChicagoWhile Upton Sinclair could write about the difficulties of families attempting to make a go of it in America, Jane Addams offered practical solutions for poor immigrant families by opening the Hull House in 1886. A devoted pacifist with socialist inclinations, she provided food, shelter, job skills, education, and day care for immigrant families and Chicago’s working poor.

The Progressive Presidents

President Theodore Roosevelt

O "Don't any of you realize there's only one life between that madman and the presidency?“

O "Now that damn cowboy is president!"

- Mark Hanna, Political Advisor to William McKinley

The Goals of Theodore Roosevelt

O Roosevelt was a strong supporter of Progressive goals, including:

1. The regulation of unfair business practices like trusts and monopolies.

2. The preservation of natural resources and the environment.

3. The protection of consumers.4. Worker’s rights as employees.

Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt was a political newcomer,

impulsive, unpredictable, and arbitrary in his passions.

He had served as an ambitious Secretary of the Navy, as the Governor of New York, and as Vice President.

As President, he was fearless and beyond being bought; he might, however, be flattered.

Theodore Roosevelt, the

“Trustbuster” - Trustbusters were men and women who used laws – like the Sherman Anti-Trust Act – to destroy monopolies and trusts. These practices were unfair to consumers and to free enterprise. Theodore Roosevelt used anti-trust lawsuits more than any President before him had, but he still considered many trust and monopolies “good for Americans.” He only wen after the “bad trusts.”

Roosevelt sued the Northern Securities Trust, the Standard Oil Company, and the American Tobacco Trust as President

TR the Trustbuster

Companies like Standard Oil and the many corporations owned by J.P. Morgan didn’t think the young president was in earnest when he began to take on the trusts.

The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902

During the strike, the President decided to intervene as an arbitrator. He suggested that both sides meet at the White House, since the winter was settling in and coal was needed in many communities just to satisfy the basic necessities of families. Coal company owners were certain that TR, like past Presidents would side with company owners, not labor. But in this case, they were wrong! The President forced the company owners to give in to many of the striking workers demands – in the name of justice.

Conservation - Conservation is simply the protection of natural resources. As Roosevelt stated: “I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.” In other words, the use of natural resources should be supervised by companies who would encourage sustainability – and preserve the countries resources for future generations.

The U.S. Forest ServiceAt the urging of environmentalist leaders like John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and hiker, set aside vast expanses of land as National Parks and National Forests. Both Yosemite in California and Crater Lake in Oregon were set aside by Roosevelt, and portions of the Grand Canyon bear his name, as well, for the role he played in preserving the area for future citizens.

The US Forest ServiceThe National Parks had a peculiar relationship with the railroad companies at the turn of the century. As railroads attempted to expand into the West, causing an increased demand for lumber, mining ventures, and encroachments on the federally protected lands, National Parks might have objected. Instead, they sought to cooperate with the railroads – who brought them paying customers to visit the grounds.

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

The Congress passed and TR signed two bills into law.

The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was put into effect thanks to the efforts of Congress and President Roosevelt. Many who read Upton Sinclair novel were sickened by the portrayal of the filth and indifferent workers in meatpacking plants.

Prior to the Pure Food and Drug Act, medicines were not required to list their ingredients. Most were simply alcohol and sugar, which may have temporarily relieved symptoms, but never cured anything.

William Howard Taft

President TaftO Weighing in at well over 300 lbs., the President

got stuck in the original White House bathtub…. O Taft, however, was responsible for breaking up

more trusts in four years than Theodore Roosevelt had in seven.

O He encouraged the 16th Amendment, creating a graduated income tax.

O He strengthened laws protecting coalminers and other workers, established the eight hour day for government employees, and helped to make regulations controlling child labor.

The Election of 1912

Three Candidates for the White House, Election of 1912

And the winner is….

Woodrow Wilson. Since both Roosevelt and Taft had been Republicans, the party’s vote was divided between two candidates. Wilson did not win a majority of the votes cast – more Americans voted against him than voted for him - yet, he did garner enough electoral college votes to secure the Presidency. He was sworn into office in March of 1913.

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act

O The Clayton Anti-Trust Act improved upon the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by banning practices which limited competition.

O The law also prevented anti-trust legislation from being used against unions who attempted to bargain collectively or negotiate with large corporations.

O The bill was signed into law by Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act frustrated monopolists like J.P. Morgan

The Federal Reserve Act

The Federal Reserve Act set up a system of federal banks and gave the government the power to raise or lower interest rates (the cost of loans to borrowers) and the money supply. Having this power gave the government the ability to control competition between banks and to regulate some parts of the United States economy.