Progressivism

1. Progressivism Notes Part 1

2. Introduction • 76 million Americans in 1900 • Progressivism • Waged war on many evils, notably: monopolies, corruption, inefficiency, and fought for social justice • Main Precepts • Strengthen the State • Use of gov. as an agency to improve human welfare

3. Progressive Roots

4. Progressive Roots • Roots in Greenback Party of 1890 • Progressives believed a Laissez Faire government longer worked • Movement amongst politicians and writers started before 1900 • Bryan, Altged, and populists branded the “bloated trust” • 1894 – Harry Lloyd criticized Standard Oil • Wealth Against Commonwealth” • Thorstein Veblen • Criticized rich and the leisure class • Jacob Riis • How the Other Half Lives • Expose on NYC Slums • Influenced TR who was NYC Police Commissioner at the time

5. Progressive Roots Cont…. • Dreiser • Wrote The Financier and The Titan • Socialists • European Immigrants • Social Gospel • Emphasized Christian Teachings • Interest in better housing, living, social justice, and suffrage • Jane Addams – Hull House • Lillian Wald

6. Muckrakers • In 1902 exposing evil became the prime focus of American publishing • McClure’s, Cosmopolitan, Collier’s, Everybody • Editors financed extensive research • Spent large sums of money to fact check before publishing • Roosevelt branded progressive reporters Muckrakers in 1906 • Compared to Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress • Lincoln Steffens • Series of articles in McClure’s 1902 • Ida Tarbell – McClure’s • Standard Oil – father had been ruined by industry • Thomas Lawson • Made 50 million on stock market – wrote frenzied finance • Rocketed Circulation of Everybody

8. Muckrakers Cont.. • Phillips wrote The Treason of the Senate • Said 75 of 90 senators represented railroads and trusts not the people • Fatally shot by person who said family was maligned • Ray Standard Baker • Following Color Lines • 9 million blacks – 90% illiterate • Dr.Harvey Wiley – Chief Chemist Dept. Agr. • Poison Experiment • Spargo’s The Bitter Cry of Children • Muckrakers in actuality • Long on criticism short on remedies • Cleanse but not overthrow capitalism • More democracy not less

9. Political Progressivism • Reformers were middle class men and women • Sensed pressure from corporations, immigrants, and labor unions. • 2 Main Goals • State power to curb trusts • Negate increase of socialism • Progressives emerged in both major parties, all regions, and all levels of government • Pushed for direct primary elections • Referendum – would place laws on ballet for approval of the people • Limited money candidates could spend on election • Restricted gifts from corporations • Australian ballot more common in states • Senate – “Millionaires Club” • 17th Amendment in 1913 established direct election of senators • Women fought for suffrage, by 1910 nationwide suffrage was still a decade away

10. Progressivism in Cities and States (Notes Part 2) Most gains were in cities Galveston Texas in 1901 pioneered appointing expert staffed commissions Other communities adopted the city-manager system Both designed to take politics out of municipal administration Some valued efficiency more highly than democracy Control of Civil affairs was further removed from the people’s hands Reformers attacked slumlords, Juvenile Delinquency, and prostitution districts unchallenged by police Urbanites also moved to halt sale of franchises for streetcars and other public utilities

11. JACOB RIIS

15. Robert LaFollette “Fighting Bob” • Governor of Wisconsin • One of the most militant progressive Republican crusaders • Help start Progressive Party • Fought the “machine” (railroad and lumber interests) to win election in 1901 • Returned control to the people • Regulated public utilities • Worked closely with UW faculty in Madison

16. 1924 Election • “The equality of opportunity proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence and asserted and defended by Jefferson and Lincoln as the heritage of every American citizen has been displaced by special privilege for the few, wrested from the government of the many”

17. States Follow La Follette • Other followed suite • Regulated railroads and trusts, mainly through public utilities commissions • Hiram W. Johnson • Elected Gov. of CA in 1910 • Busted grip of southern Pacific railroad • Set up personal political machine • Charles Evan Hughes • Rep. Gov of NY earlier investigated malpractice by gas and insurance co.

18. Progressive Women • Settlement House Movement • Enabled women, who could not vote or hold office, entry to public life. • Exposed middle class women to urban problems: poverty, political corruption, intolerable working and an living conditions • Gave them skills to attack evils • Women’s Club Movement – dealt with problems rather than literary works

19. Progressive Women’s Movement Cont… • “Separate Spheres” mentality • Female progressives defended work outside home as an extension not a rejection of traditional values • Often drawn to moral issues involving children and working conditions • Agitated through Women’s Trade Union League, National Consumers' League, Children’s Bureau (1912) and Women’s Bureau (1920) • Pushed for factory reform, better working conditions and higher wages • Florence Kelley, former resident of Hull House, became first chief factory inspector in Illinois • 1899 took control of National Consumers League • Muller vs. Oregon – Brandeis argued and won that jobs were harming women’s more fragile bodies, hailed as a triumph at the time for women’s rights, today would be considered discriminatory • 1905 – Lochner v. New York abolished 10 hr work day for bakers • 1917 Supreme Court reconsidered and upheld 10 hr work day

20. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire • 1911 – Locked doors and flagrant violations turned the factory into a death trap • 146 young women died (mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants) • Women striked in needle trades as a show of solidarity • NY Leg. Passed new laws regulating hours and conditions • By 1917, 30 states put Workman’s Compensation laws in place

21. Letter to NY State Leg. From Italian Girls Industrial League • “we think that the 54 hour bill ought to be passed and not only passed but enforced…girls…that go to work at 7 in the morning and work through until seven in the evening, with only 1/2 hour for lunch & only get 7 cents for the extra hour… • “…We think it an outrage that those people have to work such long hours not only for the girls and women but for those innocent little children who have to work so hard when they ought to be at play.” • Written by Maria Gonzaga, President

22. Temperance Movement • Alcoholism was connected with prostitution, drunken voters, crooked officials/corruption • In 1900 NYC and SF and one saloon for every 200 people. 3-4 times more than today. • WCTM– spearheaded by Frances E Willard, became allies with Anti-Saloon League • When WWI started in 1914 • ½ pop. Lived in “dry "territories and nearly ¾ had outlawed saloons • Eighteenth Amendment in 1918 would put outlaw the sale of alcohol for human consumption.

23. TR’s Square Deal for Labor • TR – Ushered in the modern era of the US presidency and utilized the “bully pulpit” to make changes • Demanded a “Square Deal” for capital labor and the public at large • Three C’s • Control of Corporations • Consumer Protection • Conservation of Natural Resources • Arbitrated coal strikes – threatened federal seizure of mines if owners did not make some concessions • Miners received 10% pay boost and 10 hr work days • Urged Congress to create Department of Commerce and Labor (1903) • Split in two in 1910 • Broke many monopolies

24. TR “Busts” the Corporations

25. TR’s Cont.. Reforms

26. Jack and the Wall Street Giants (1904) “This political cartoon, which appeared in the humor magazine Puck in January 1904, is entitled "Jack and the Wall Street Giants." It shows President Theodore Roosevelt facing giants of business and finance J. P. Morgan, James J. Hill, John D. Rockefeller, and Jay Gould. Roosevelt is holding a typical progressive sword: public service.”

27. Progressivism Notes Part 3

28. Caring for the Consumer • Sinclair’s published the Jungle in 1906 • Europeans stopped buying meat from large American packing houses • Europeans threatened to stop buying all American meat products • Inspired TR to support the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (corral to can inspection) • Pure Food and Drug Act was a companion act • “Mary had a little lamb, And when she saw it sicken, She shipped it off to Packingtown, And now it’s labeled as chicken

29. Earth Control Environmental degradation occurred at great speed during US industrialization Business superseded env. preservation and conservation Desert Land Act of 1877 – first conservation act – owner would irrigate within three years Forest Reserve Act of 1891 – president could set aside public forests as national parks and reserves, 46 million acres were prserved in the 1890s Carey Act of 1894 distributed federal land to states if it was irrigated

31. TR and John Muir Standing in front of Yosemite Falls (3,254 feet) in Yosemite National Park

32. TR the Conservationist • TR continued the conservation efforts of Gifford Pinchot the head of the federal Division of Forestry • Newlands Act of 1902 – sell public lands and use funds for irrigation projects • Roosevelt Dam completed on Arizona’s Salt River in 1911 • Dozens of dams were constructed on Western Rivers • ¼ of Virgin Forests Remained in 1900 • TR worked to preserve 125 million acres, almost three times the acreage saved by the former three presidents • Earmarked coal deposits and water resources for power creation • In 1902 banned Christmas Trees from the White House

33. The Public Supports Conservation Reclamation Efforts were supported by the public sense of the lost of the “frontier”, which represented American individualism and freedom 1903 – Call of the Wild Boy Scouts become largest youth organization (founded in 1910) The Sierra Club is founded in 1892 Preservationists lost the fight to stop the dam in the HetchHetchy Valley

34. Opposing Viewpoints • Preservationists • Sierra Club • John Muir • “HetchHetchy” was a temple to be preserved • Nature was man’s temple and refugee from the industrialized world • Opposed many of the hydro dams • Supported Wilderness Act of 1964 • Perpetual debate with conservationists • Conservationists • Roosevelt • Pinchot • “wilderness was a waste” • Use natural resources intelligently • Battle against greedy industrialists and romantic preservationists • Multiple Use Policy – recreation, sustained yield logging, watershed protection, and grazing • Big business and government worked together

35. HetchHetchy Past and Present

36. The “Roosevelt Panic” of 1907 • Elected in 1904 “in his own right” • TR announced he would not run in next election and became a lame duck candidate • Congress and his colleagues did not have to take him seriously • Panic of 1907 • Knickerbocker Trust collapsed – depressed stock market until WWI • Rockeffeller blamed Roosevelt’s Trust Busting • TR was labeled a “quack” a “meddler” and his critics named the event the “Roosevelt Panic” • J.P. Morgan came out or retirement to assist • Ushered in monetary reforms • 1908 – Aldrich-Vreeland Act – authorized banks to issue emergency currency – paved way for Federal Reserved Act

37. The Rough Rider Thunders Out • TR could have easily won in 1908, but he remained true to his promise to step down • TR choose Taft to as his successor • Republicans adopted many of Bryan’s progressive reforms and Bryan was no longer relevant • Taft defeated William Jennings Bryan • Taft 321 electoral votes to Bryan’s 162 • Socialists Debbs 420,793, later imprisoned for speaking out against US WWI involvement

38. TR’s Legacy • Political catalyst to protect capitalists against indignation and socialism • Many feared that without reform socialists policy would dominate • Sought middle road between capitalism and socialism • Conservation policies are arguably his most lasting achievement • Enlarged the power and prestige of the president- ushered in modern age of presidency • Mastered big stick diplomacy • Directed progressive movement • Square Deal was grandfather of the New Deal launched by fifth cousin FDR • Commenced US presence as “world power”