The Progressi ve Era Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy in New York, where 146 die, most young immigrant women.
Dec 25, 2015
The Progressive EraTriangle Shirtwaist Factory
tragedy in New York, where 146 die, most young immigrant women.
The Roots of Progressive Reform
Aims of progressives—diverse targets: government,
business, social justice, welfare, vice, immigration
Pragmatism—each reform: does it work?
Behaviorism—people can be shaped
Sociological jurisprudence—law in
light of everyday experience—does past apply?
Brandeis Brief—Muller v.
Oregon: experience over precedent
(102 pp. describing damaging
effects, 15 pp.
precedent)
William James, most
famous of the Pragmatists,
wondered, “Does it
work?”; John Dewey
believed environment
shaped human
thought, unbolted
desks.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who
practiced “sociological jurisprudence.”
Muckrakers—documentation
spurred, educated people
Voluntary organizations—civic-
mindedness with 400 new organizations in 30 years:
volunteerism, collective action
Professionals—expertise of doctors, engineers,
psychiatrists, city planners to investigate, regulate
McClure’s Magazine, which ran muckraking articles by Ida M. Tarbell
(right) exposing practices by Standard Oil and Lincoln Steffens (below), who
attacked big-city corruption.
The Search for the Good Society
Pattern of reform—professionalism to uplift needy
into middle class
Naturalism—effective to portray it just the way it is:
no more, no less—it’s the environment/not the people
Social work—new profession that grew out of
settlement houses didn’t do
things to or for people,
but with them
MIT associate Ellen Richards of the New England Kitchen, a settlement
house variation that provided cheap, wholesome food for working poor—at
first, anyway.
Muckraker Jacob Riis and one of his
photographs portraying city
slum life.
Women’s organizations—taking good care of
homes meant working outside, too New woman—find fulfillment: “nurturer professions”
Margaret Sanger—bonds of “chronic pregnancy”
Keating-Owen Act—forbade child-made goods to
cross state lines (fedaction necessary)
Charlotte Perkins Gillman (top), who wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” and condemned
domesticity as enslaving and wanted communal child rearing and housework,
and (below) Margaret Sanger who championed birth control.
Florence Kelley and Julian Lathrop who helped shape labor
conditions for women and children.
Militant suffragists—amendment “at any cost”:
examples
Nineteenth
Amendment—1920, doubles
enfranchisement
League of Women Voters Founder Carrie Chapman Catt (center, in
white and below) leads a suffragist march in New York City in 1917.
Alice Paul took the campaign for woman suffrage in a more militant
direction.
Controlling the Masses
Eugenics—selective breeding; “lesser breeds” will “mongrelize” America: arf, arf!
Americanization—paternalists wanted to teach middle-class ways while benefiting from the cultural diversity of the immigrants
Literacy test—WWI brings reading qualification for immigrants
Anti-Saloon League—pamphlets discussed insanity, family crisis, labor accidents and inefficiency; by 1917 three-fourths citizens live in “dry” counties.
The Politics of Municipal and State Reform
City-manager plan—experts, professionals, not political hacks
Weaknesses of city government—rural
state interests over city interests
Seeds of the welfare state– “urban liberalism”
Fighting Bob LaFollette of Wisconsin, also known as “Battle Bob,” early in his career, later, and making his case over the radio. He championed “direct primaries,” among many other reforms.
Progressivism Goes to Washington
Brownsville incident—discharged
w/o honor on unjust charges
Philosophy of the Square Deal—big vs. big okay, as long as fair
Anthracite coal strike—intervened
Cartoonists satirize the Booker T. Washington lunch, the Brownsville incident and the coal strike; miner’s families are evicted after the strike.
U.S. v. E. C. Knight—Sherman Antitrust applies
only to commerce not manufacturing?
Northern Securities—dissolved Northwest RR
monopoly; prosecuted 44 others
Railroad regulation—tougher ICC; Elkins Act
and Hepburn Railway Act nears “continuous
regulation” of business
Conservation through planned management—government oversight
of natural resources
Attorney General Philander Knox, who, under
Roosevelt’s direction, prosecuted “bad” trusts.
Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, which spurred
consumer protection laws.
John Muir and preservation– “forever wild” vs. conservation
Taft’s accomplishments—preserved
more land, regulated labor safety, created
children’s bureau, set 8-hour day, backed
16th Amendment
Teddy Roosevelt, the leading force in American conservation, with John Muir, a preservationist,
in Yosemite Valley in California.
Taft’s campaign ran him as “Billy Possum” taking a hand-off from “Teddy Bear,” but the job he really wanted and got was Supreme Court Justice.
New Nationalism—protect individual interests through big government: defiantly progressive, almost liberal
Progressive, or “Bull Moose,” party—progressives splinter off
from Republican party
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom—big is
bad: corporations or government
Even when Roosevelt was on his African safari after his Presidency, he started getting impatient with his buddy Taft’s anti-
Progressive tendencies. When he got back he started developing his ideas for a “New Nationalism.” When he decided to run, he
said he was “throwing his hat in the ring” and he felt “as fit as a bull moose.
Woodrow Wilson had been head of Princeton University and Governor of New Jersey before he ran for President under his “New Freedom” platform.
Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality
Underwood-Simmons Tariff—finally, a downward revision compensated by graduated income tax: momentous shift in revenue
Federal Reserve Act—to control credit and money supply with system controlled by a central board and including 12 regional banks
Federal Trade Commission—to oversee business activity
Clayton Antitrust Act—outlawed ugliest corporate practices: price discrimination, holding companies, interlocking directorates