THE ORIGINS OF PROGRESSIVISM

1. THE ORIGINS OF PROGRESSIVISM

2. Warm Up • Please read the excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’ • After reading the article, what are three concerns you have about the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s?

3. The Progressive Era • 1895 -1920 • Middle class movement, those above are abusing the system & those below will become a socialist threat • Gov’t needed to be the agency of human welfare

4. Roots of Progressivism • Jane Addams (Hull House) Starts settlement house movement • Protestant clergymen –”Social Gospel” –Christian Socialists • Post-millenialism (must perfect society before the second coming) • Greenback Labor Party (1870s) & Populist Party (1890’s) demanded gov’t intervention • Excesses of the monopolies & trusts

5. GOALS OF PROGRESSIVISM • Progressive organizations were separate movements that worked independently to solve various societal problems • Each worked to one of the following: • Protect social welfare • Promote moral improvement • Create economic reform • Foster efficiency

6. PROTECTING SOCIAL WELFARE • Out of the religious community a new social gospel was preached • Josiah Strong • Walter Rauschenbusch ‘Theology of the Social Gospel’ (1917) • WASP culture has a moral imperative to spread the values of civil liberty & Christianity * • Its message was religious groups should work to help the poor • The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) • The Salvation Army • Instructed poor immigrants in middle class values of hard work and temperance

10. Muckrakers • Magazine publishers make money off exposing ills of society • McClure's, Cosmopolitan, Colliers • Term coined by Theodore Roosevelt • John Spargo –’The Bitter Cry of Children’ • Jacob Riis –’How the Other Half Lives’ • Ida Tarbell –’The History of the Standard Oil Company’ • Upton Sinclair –’The Jungle’ • Licoln Steffens –’Shame of the Cities’

11. AP PARTS

12. Municipal, State & National Reform • Progressives believed that one could solve social problems by taking control of elections & law making • Initiative, Referendum, Recall • Laws to limit political gifts; no free rail passes • Direct elections of Senators to avoid ‘millionaire’s club’ • Public commissioner and city manager who are hired, not elected –Galveston, TX flood of 1900 • Western states need federal intervention in water rights issues • Stop monopolies at city level –stop selling streetcars & utilities to private companies w/o regulation

14. REFORMING STATE GOVERNMENT • A key individual that proposed many voting reforms was Governor Robert La Follette of Wisconsin • Congressman, Senator, 1924 candidate for president • Recall & referendum • State legislatures to require direct primaries for each party to select a candidate –before party bosses controlled candidate selection ‘Fighting Bob’ La Follette

15. REFORMING NATIONAL GOVERNMENT • 16th Amendment (1912) individual income tax • Elimination of tax breaks for corporations • Creation of the Federal Reserve (1913) • The most significant reform at the national level was the 17th Amendment (1913) • Senators were chosen by state legislatures, not the people

17. Progressive Presidents • Theodore Roosevelt – “Square Deal” for all Americans • Control Corporations • Trustbusting -1st railroads Northern Securities Co. v. US, 1903; brings 43 other indictments • 1902 Coal Strike • Hepburn Act, 1906 –regulate interstate railroads b/c ICC didn’t have enough power

18. Consumer Protection 1. Pure Food and Drug Act –labeling • Conservation of Natural Resources • John Muir; Gifford Pinchot • Newlands Act –federal lands sold to pay for western irrigation • Implementation of National Parks laws -125 mil. Acres saved • Balance corporate interests w/nature –Sierra Club

20. ECONOMIC REFORM • American Railway Union leader Eugene V. Debs organized the American Socialist Party • Organized the Pullman Strike of 1894 • After arrest became anti-capitalistic • Advocated that workers could use elections to gain control of gov’t, thus business • In Re Debs –SC ruled that the federal gov’t could intervene in intrastate & interstate commerce to limit strikes • With Daniel De Leon founded in 1905 the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

22. PROMOTING MORALITY • improving the lives of the poor through improving personal behavior • Prohibition • In 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded • Frances Willard • Carrie Nation • Anti-Saloon League was founded in 1895 as the “Church in action against the Saloon” • worked to pass laws to have alcohol banned and lawbreakers punished • created tensions with many immigrant groups

24. PROTECTING SOCIAL WELFARE • Florence Kelley • advocate for improving the lives of women and children • founded the National Consumers League, which organized boycotts of goods produced by children • helped win passage of the Illinois Factory Act in 1893 • It was the first law that prohibited child labor under the age of 14 • Muller v. Oregon, 1908 • Limits women’s work day • *Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, 1911 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdNYqBP_5q4

25. Women’s Rights • Western states pass suffrage first • Challenging the ‘female sphere’ • ‘New Women’ –for the middle class the home is no longer an all consuming place • Women’s Clubs • Carrie Chapman Catt • National American Women’s Suffrage Assoc. (NAWSA); precursor to League of Women Voters

27. Alice Paul • National Women’s Party (off-shoot of NAWSA) • sought a Constitutional suffrage Amendment • Later Equal Rights Amendment • Margaret Sanger • founded Planned Parenthood • Provided contraceptives to women • wrote ‘Motherhood in Bondage’

28. Three Models Black Leadership • Booker T. Washington • Tuskegee Institute, 1888 • Economic advancement before political advancement • ‘Atlanta Compromise Speech’ (1895) • W.E.B. Du Bois • Niagara Movement (1905) • NAACP (1910) • Immediate political, social & economic equality • Marcus Garvey • Pan-Africanism, Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA)

29. African Americans in the Progressive Era • Post-Civil War Era • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments passed, but not consistently honored (14th/15th) • Reconstruction ends too soon (Tilden-Hays Compromise of 1877) • Economic disadvantages • Sharecropping • Crop lien system • Rise of segregation –Plessy v. Ferguson • Republicans are the party of African Americans, but do little to protect suffrage • 30% of blacks in the south were illiterate in 1900

30. AP PARTS

31. The Chink in the Republican Armor • Panic of 1907 • Industrial capacity had outrun domestic and foreign consumption • Rampant speculation & unregulated banking • Industrialists blamed TR’s ‘trustbusting’; TR countered that more regulation was needed • JP Morgan saves the day, but makes deal w/TR • Expands power of US Steel w/purchase of the Tennessee Coal & Iron Co. • Conservative Republicans withdraw support

33. Taft – the ‘bigger’ trustbuster • 90 indictments’ BUT • Becomes an enemy of TR & splits Republican party due to: • Ballinger-Pinchot scandal • Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) • Raises most tariffs • Free trade w/ Philippines • Ultimately loses 1910 Congressional election & presidency • TR responds w/‘new Nationalism’

36. Wilson’s New Freedom • Assault on the triple wall of privilege • Tariffs –Underwood Tariff bill, graduated income tax revenue • Graduated income tax • Banking –Federal Reserve Act of 1913 • Result of 1907 Panic • 12 regional banks run by gov’t, $ supply easily increased/decreased • Trusts –Clayton Anti-trust Act of 1914 • Allows for labor protest –helps unions • Tries to stop shell companies of trusts • Inspired by Louis Brandeis -‘Other People’s Money’ (1913) -Curse of bigness –competition needed, trusts threaten freedom • Federal Trade Commission Act, 1914

38. Immigration Reform • ‘Stem the tide’ –overcrowding, unemployment, alcoholism • Immigrants must assimilate • Eugenics • Science of altering the reproduction process of flora, fauna • Forced sterilization –Carnegie Foundation • Nativism • Madison Grant ‘The Passing of the Great Race’ • Senator William Dillingham

39. SFI Scramble