Ch. 21: The Progressive Era, 1900-1917

1. Ch. 21: The Progressive Era, 1900-1917

2. How did intellectuals, novelists, and journalists help lay the groundwork for the progressive movement? • What problems of the new urban-industrial order particularly disturbed progressives, and how did they address these problems? • How did progressive reform affect ordinary Americans, including workers, women, immigrants, city dwellers, and African Americans? • As progressivism emerged as a national movement, which politicians and issues proved most important? • How did progressivism change Americans’ view of the proper role of government?

3. The Many Faces of Progressivism • The rapid growing middle class (native-born, white, and Protestant) • White-collar work jumped from 5.1 to 10.5 million between 1900-1920 • Professional societies began to emerge (Bar, Advertising, Professors) • People had new allegiances, certification, licensing, membership and standardization • With these new identities came an effort to make their influence felt

4. College educated women tripled and the divorce rate crept up – the “New Woman” emerged • The initial push for reform came from women’s clubs, settlement houses, and private groups, not from political parties • Even the urban political machines got involved later • No matter, progressivism was a series of political and cultural responses to industrialization and its by-products • They were journalists, academics, social theorists, urban dwellers; reformers, not radicals

5. They sought the following: • Regulation of business • Protection of workers and the urban poor • Government reform • Improved morality • All with the use of science and expert knowledge

6. Intellectuals Offer New Social Views • ThorsteinVelben - The Theory of the Leisure Class • William James – Pragmatism • Herbert Croly – The Promise of American Life and the New Republic • Jane Addams – Democracy and Social Ethics • John Dewey – Democracy and Education • Oliver Wendell Holmes – The Common Law

7. conspicuous consumption

8. truth comes from experience, not theorizing

9. Call for an activist government

10. Each individual’s well-being depends on the well-being of others

11. The key institution for a more humane and cooperative social order was the public school (7 mil.- 23 mil.: 1870-1920)

12. Law must evolve as society changes

13. Novelists, Journalists, and Artists Spotlight Social Problems • Frank Norris – The Octopus • Theodore Dreiser – The Financier • McClure’s and Collier’s • Lincoln Steffens – Shame of the Cities • Ida Tarbell – The History of Standard Oil • Lewis Hines photographs • Muckrakers

14. California’s railroad vs. wheat farmers

15. Tycoon who lacks social conscience

16. Muckraking journalists

17. Exposing city corruption

18. Obvious

24. Reforming the Political Process • Samuel M. (Golden Rule) Jones of Toledo, OH • Profit sharing in factories, playgrounds, free kindergarten, lodging for transients • New styles of governing like the city manager system (many times changing after natural disasters) • These new systems brought in experts to run the city like a business • However, government changes sometimes reduced the power of the immigrant classes

25. Electoral reform was popular • Secret ballot • direct primary • initiative • referendum • Recall • All of these weakened party loyalty and voter participation (individual activity decreases while interest group activity increases)

26. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers • J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Steel Company owned 80% of the nation’s production; he also had the one major farm-implement company, International Harvester • Workers wages did increase from $532 to $687 by 1915 (annual wage) • However, whole families had to work • Average work day: 9 ½ hours • 1907 – 4,534 railroad workers died; 3,000 miners

27. Frederick Winslow Taylor’s Scientific Management focuses on efficiency: standardization • Reformers felt that since business benefited from government’s high tariffs, government should regulate these businesses • Wisconsin’s Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette led the way • Direct primary, railroad regulatory commission, increased corporate taxes, limited campaign spending, legislative reference library

28. By 1907, thirty states had child labor laws • 1903, Oregon limited the work-day of women to 10 hrs. • Political bosses even got involved, especially after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

29. Making Cities More Livable • By 1920, the urban population surpasses 20% • There are campaigns for parks, streetlights, laws against billboards and electric wires • Concern for public health (they had a social-class agenda) • Typhoid Mary (Irish cook) • Infant mortality drops • Antismoke campaign

30. Progressivism and Social Control • Self-righteous nature of the Progressive Movement (pitted native-born vs. immigrant) • Alcohol • Prostitution • Mann Act (1910) – can’t transport a woman across state lines for “immoral purposes” • Drugs • Narcotics Act (1914) – also known as the Harrison Act, bans the distribution of morphine, cocaine, and other addictive drugs

31. Immigration Restriction and Eugenics • NW vs. SE Europeans • Immigration Restriction League and the American Federation of Labor fear job competition and endorse restriction • Literacy bills passed then vetoed repeatedly; overridden in 1917 • Sterilization of “inferior” genetic stock • Proposal: Eugenics gave a scientific justification to anti-immigrant sentiment

32. Racism and Progressivism • The Great Migration to the Northern cities • 1.4 million African American in the North by 1920 • Fed up in the South; growth of the cities; • Birth of a Nation (glorifies the KKK); 75 lynchings occur yearly • W.E.B. du Bois vs. Booker T. Washington • 1905- Niagara Movement (meet annually and eventually formthe NAACP)

33. Revival of the Women’s Suffrage Movement • 1910- Women can vote in WY, CO, UT, and ID • Middle-class women upset that immigrant men can vote • GB movement helped fuel U.S. women • California campaign • Municipal reforms, public-school issues • Joined with labor leaders and male progressives • 1911 – suffrage in CA • “Organized Womanhood” however had limits • Elite and middle-class women mostly

34. National American Woman Suffrage Association • Susan B. Anthony retires and Carrie Chapman Catt takes over • They adopted the Winning Plan: grassroots organization with tight central coordination • Lobbied legislatures, held parades, ran newspaper ads, put up posters, held fundraisers, arranged photo ops, distributed items emblazed with suffrage message • 1917- NY approved a woman-suffrage referendum

35. NAWSA membership was mostly white, native-born and middle class • “Antis” • Alice Paul (who studied the British approach) grew impatient with the state by state method • She formed the Women’s Party • She targeted the White House and the Democratic Party • Accused Wilson of being a hypocrite

36. Enlarging “Woman’s Sphere” • Women were active in Progressive reforms (it was natural) • Contraception and birth-control information were key issues • 1914- Margaret Sanger began her crusade • Her journal The Woman Rebel was “obscene” • 1916- she opened the first birth control clinic • 1921- founded the American Birth Control League

37. Mary Ware Dennett’s The Sex Side of Life was declare obscene • It was a pamphlet for youth • She lobbied efforts to amend obscenity laws • She argued that contraception should by free (Sanger thought you should have them prescribed)

38. Workers Organize; Socialism Advances • American Federation of Labor (AFL) grew to 4 million by 1920; but only in skilled trades and only 20% of the workforce • Industrial Workers of the World (IWW; Wobblies), led by Big Bill Haywood; mostly western miners, lumbermen, fruitpickers and itinerant laborers • Socialism gains followers • End to capitalism • Public ownership of factories, RR, utilities, communications systems • 1900- Socialist Party of America • The Masses – radical magazine • Height was in 1912: Debs receives 900,000 votes

39. National ProgressivismPhase I: Roosevelt and Taft, 1901-1913 • 1905: La Follette goes to Washington as a Senator • TR – cowboy, state assemblyman, New York City police commissioner, U.S. civil serviceman, Asst. Sec. of the Navy • 1902 Pennsylvania Coal Strike: United Mine Workers Union; arbitration and the threat of a govt. takeover; miners get 10% wage increase and a reduction of hours to 9

40. Trustbusting • Suit against the Northern Securities Company (5-4 in favor of dissolution) • He announced his “square deal” • During his presidency, 43 antitrust lawsuits; Standard Oil is broken up and American Tobacco Company is reorganized • During TR’s second term he turned to RR regulation • Hepburn Act (1906) – set maximum RR rates and free passes; govt. could examine financial records

41. Consumer Protection and Racial Issues • Pure Food and Drug Act • Meat Inspection Act • Booker T. Washington to the White House • Brownsville Incident • Dishonorable discharge of three companies, without due process • Rescinded in 1971

42. Environmentalism Progressive-Style • 1891- 35 million acres of public lands for national forests had be set aside • Boy Scouts formed in 1910; Girl Scouts in 1912 • Gifford Pinchot (head of U.S. Forest Service) stresses conservation • John Muir stresses preservation • 1902- National Reclamation Act: water management in arid western regions; construction of dams and irrigation projects • Newlands Act required farmers to repay the construction costs

43. Antiquities Act (1906) - protected archeological sites • TR helps create 53 wildlife reserves, 16 national monuments, and 5 national parks • 1916- National Park Service set up

44. Taft in the White House • Running on a conservative ticket, he beats William Jennings Bryan • Taft actually prosecutes more anti-trust cases than TR, but he doesn’t garner the publicity • Reform turns to Congress and the Insurgents (La Follette is one) • Payne-Aldrich Tariff makes them mad • Ballinger-Pinchot Affair: makes matters worse • TR returns and supports Insurgent Candidates in 1910 and proposes the New Nationalism

45. Election of 1912 • Taft (R), TR (Bull Moose Progressive), Wilson (D), and Debs (S)

46. National ProgressivismPhase II: Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1917 • Tariff and Banking Reform • Underwood-Simmons Tariff lowers rates by 15% • Federal Reserve Act of 1913- 12 regional banks and the FRB • Regulating Business; Aiding Workers and Farmers • Federal Trade Commission Act – FTC is a watchdog • Clayton Antitrust Act- listed actions that would bring a lawsuit such as price discrimination and exclusive dealings (was ineffective due to business links) • Federal Highway Act – matching funds to states • Keating Owen Act – banned from interstate commerce products manufactured by child labor (but declared unconstitutional)

47. Progressivism and the Constitution • Muller v. Oregon – women’s 10-hr. workday • Louis Brandies was the first Jewish Supreme Court justice • 16th Amendment – income tax • 17th Amendment – direct election of Senators • 18th Amendment – Prohibition • 19th Amendment – Women’s right to vote

48. Ch. 21 Notes Quiz • 1. What were three goals of the Progressives? • 2. What book did John Dewey write? Describe its content. • 3. What was the significance of McClure's and Colliers? • 4. What is a referendum? • 5. What were the limits of the women’s suffrage movement? Give two (not just men didn’t like them) • 6. Who opened America’s first birth control clinic?