The Progressives

1. The Progressives 1889-1916

2. What was Progressivism? • An effort to impose order & justice on society that was approaching chaos • What created the chaos? • Rapid industrialization • Urbanization • Immigration • Laissez faire

3. Who were the Progressives? • White Protestants • African Americans • Middle class • College-educated professionals • Scholars, writers • Politicians • Union leaders

4. What did Progressives believe? • Society was capable of improvement • Growth and advancement were the nation’s destiny • What didn’t work? • Laissez faire • Social Darwinism • Direct, purposeful human intervention in social and economic affairs was essential • GOVT ACTION NEEDED!

5. Progressives wanted MILD reforms. They were NOT RADICALS

6. Varieties of Progressivism • Antimonopoly • Fear of concentrated power • Urge to limit/disperse authority & wealth • Social cohesion • We are part of a great social web • Each person’s welfare is dependent on the welfare of society as a whole • Faith in Knowledge • Applying the principles of natural and social sciences to society • Knowledge can make society equitable and humane • Modernized govt must play important role

7. The Muckrakers • Crusading journalists • Exposed scandal, corruption and injustice • Targets: • Trusts • Political machines • Factories

8. The Social Gospel • Social Justice • Justice for all of society • Egalitarian society • Support for the poor and oppressed ppl • American Protestant movement • Social justice and sacrifice should be foundation of society • Salvation Army • Fusion of religion and reform

9. The Social Gospel • Charles Sheldon: In His Steps (1898); “What would Jesus do?” • Walter Rauschenbusch: all ppl should work toward creating the Kingdom of God on Earth • Father John A. Ryan: expand Catholic social welfare organizations

10. Settlement House Movement • Influence of the environment on the individual • Crowded immigrant neighborhoods • Staffed by educated middle class teaching middle class values • Young college women • Social work

11. The Allure of Expertise • Enlightened experts should run govt and economy • Scientists and engineers • Thorstein Veblen

12. The Professions • New middle class emerges • Industries: managers, technicians, accountants • Cities: commercial, medical, legal, educational services • New technology: scientists, engineers • Requires schools and teachers to train them • Education and individual accomplishments • Women in the “helping” professions

13. The Professions • Created professional organizations • Why? • Set up standards to secure position • Lend prestige to profession • Keep #’s down to ensure high demand • AMA (1901); medical schools • Bar associations; law schools • Chamber of Commerce (1912); schools of business

14. Women and Reform

15. The “New Woman” • Vast majority of income-producing work outside of the home • Children going to school earlier & longer • Technological innovations impact the home • Families are smaller • Living longer • Some shun marriage • Divorce rates increase

16. The Clubwomen • Women’s clubs • First social but then concerned w/ social betterment • Non-partisan (Remember, couldn’t vote) • Middle to upper class women (clubs had $$) • Allowed women to create a public space for themselves w/o threatening male dominated society • Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903) • Join unions, support strikes, picket lines, bail money • African Americans excluded

18. Women & Social Justice • NY Women’s Trade Union League & Intl. Ladies Garment Workers Union • 1909: 50 hour workweek, wage increases, preferential hiring for union members • 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (NY) • 146 female workers killed; avg age 19 • Reformers, union leaders, women’s groups, politicians from Tammany Hall • Machine politicians & progressive reformers • Laws regulating fire safety, equipment, wages and hours for women and children

20. 19th Amendment provides full suffrage to women in all the states, 1920.

21. Woman Suffrage • Radical idea: it was a “natural right” • Led to a powerful anti-suffrage movement; a threat to the “natural order” • Looseness, promiscuity, divorce, child neglect • 20th Century • National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) • Justify suffrage in a “safer” way

22. NAWSA Rhetoric • Not challenging the separate sphere • Because they ARE mothers, wives and homemakers • Bring special experiences and sensitivities to public life • Would help temperance movement (largest supporter) • Would help war become a thing of the past • Conservative Argument • If blacks, immigrants and other undesirables have the vote, then…educated “well-born” women should

23. Suffrage Timeline • 1848: Seneca Falls • 1890: Wyoming • 1910: Washington • 1911: CA • 1913: IL (1st state east of Miss. River) • 1919: 39 states • 1920: 19th Amendment • Alice Paul: Not enough; Equal Rights Amendment

26. Controlling the Masses: Prohibition • 1873: Women’s Christian Temperance Union • Francis Willard • 1890s: Anti-Saloon League • Local level: isolate “wet” areas • State level: Use of direct democracy • 1913: Lobby for Amendment • Impact of entry into WWI • 1919: 18th Amendment

27. Controlling the Masses: Immigration Restriction

28. Eugenics • Immigration polluting the nation’s racial stock • Carnegie Foundation: turn eugenics into a method for altering human reproduction • Races and ethnic groups graded • Sterilization • 1916: “The Passing of the Great Race” (Madison Grant) • Dillingham Commission

29. Supporters of Eugenics

30. The Assault on the Parties

31. Reforming the City • Muckrakers role • Middle class blamed • machine politicians • saloon owners • brothel keepers • businessmen connected to political machines

32. CityCommissioner Plan City Reforms Cities hired experts in different fields to run a single aspect of city government. For example, the sanitation commissioner would be in charge of garbage and sewage removal. City ManagerPlan A professional city manager is hired to run each department of the city and report directly to the city council.

33. New Forms of Governance • 1900: Galveston, TX tidal wave • Commission Plan • 1908: Staunton, VA • City-Manager Plan • Plans promotes efficiency/undermines patronage of machine • Old system benefitted the working class; new ones were controlled by new professionals

34. New Forms of Governance • Non-partisan mayoral elections • Mayoral elections moved to off-election years • Ward (neighborhood) elections switched to citywide elections

35. Progressive Mayors • Hazen Pingree (Detroit): 1889-96 • Samuel Jones (Toledo); 1897-1903 • Tom Johnson (Cleveland); 1901-09

36. Recall State Reforms Allows voters to petition to have an elected representative removed from office. Initiative Allows voters to petition state legislatures in order to consider a bill desired by citizens. Referendum Allows voters to decide if a bill or proposed amendment should be passed. Ensures that voters select candidates to run for office, rather than party bosses. Privacy at the ballot box ensures that citizens can cast votes without party bosses knowing how they voted. Secret Ballot Direct Primary

37. Robert La Follette& the Laboratory of Democracy • Wisconsin governor, Senator • Direct primaries, initiatives and referendums • Regulated RRs and utilities • Workers’ compensation • Inheritance tax • Increased taxes on RRs and business

38. Parties and Interest Groups • Decline of party of influence • Voter turnout decreases • Why? • Secret ballot • Illiteracy among immigrants • Interest groups • 17th Amendment: Direct election of Senators

39. THOMAS NAST • Thomas Nast was the artist for Harper's Weeklyin the late 1800s. • Father of American Caricature." • Nast's campaign against New York City's political boss William Tweed is legendary • Nast's cartoons depicted Tweed as a sleazy criminal • Tweed was known to say, "Stop them damn pictures. I don't care what the papers write about me. My constituents can't read. But, damn it, they can see the pictures."

41. Social Tensions in an Age of Reform

42. African Americans and Reform • Contradiction b/w progressive rhetoric and their conscious discrimination • Fearful of interracial alliance under populism • 1890s south: Jim Crow, voter restrictions • Mississippi Gov. James Vardaman

43. Booker T. Washington • Atlanta Compromise • Self-improvement first • Equality later • By turn of century: challenge to Washington and structure of race relations

44. W.E.B. Du Bois • Harvard grad • 1903: Souls of Black Folk • Trade school vs. university education • Fight for civil rights; don’t wait for white to rescue them • 1905: Niagara Movement • 1909: NAACP

45. NAACP Successes • NAACP attorneys • 1915: Guinn v United States • Grandfather clause unconstitutional • 1917: Buchanan v Worley • Residential segregation unconstitutional

46. Lynching • NAACP wanted federal law against lynching • Ida Wells • NACW • Women’s Convention of the National Baptist Church

47. Challenging the Capitalist Order Radical Reformers

48. The Dream of Socialism • Radicalism: 1900-14 • Socialist Party of America • Eugene Debs • Urban workers, intellectuals, tenant farmers • 1,200 public offices; 79 mayors in 24 states • Public ownership of utilities, 8 hr workday, pensions

49. Limitations of Socialism • Need for basic structural changes in economy • Differed in extent of those changes and the tactics necessary to achieve them • Allow small-scale private enterprise but nationalize major industries • Electoral politics vs. direct militant action • Moderates dominated (workers’ comp and min. wage) • Opposed WWI; hurt the PArty

50. The “Wobblies” • Industrial Workers of the World (1905) • Utopian state run by workers • Blacks, immigrants and women; unskilled labor • Rejected political action; favored general strikes • Uncompromising • 1917 timber strike William “Big Bill” Haywood