America in the Progressive Era

1. America in the Progressive Era What were hallmarks of the Progressive Era?

2. Progressivism • Reform became a major, self-sustaining phenomenon. • The old order was challenged and changed both politically and economically. • Reformers believed that problems could be addressed through scientific investigation and that people had the ability to master their environment. • Educated women found a congenial intellectual environment in which to play an active public role. • Religion played an underlying role in much reform activity. • There was a drive for information gathering and high degree of confidence in academic expertise.

3. What impact did the ‘muckrakers’ have on American society? • Inexpensive general-circulation magazines containing exposẻs became popular reading material. • Investigative journalism established itself as a legitimate enterprise. • Muckraking publications attracted new converts to progressive reform. • Exposure of municipal corruption gave rise to reform on the local level. • Exposẻs, such as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, spurred federal regulation of dangerous industrial practices.

4. Religion in the Progressive Era • Most reformers had been raised in Christian families and had adopted Christian ethical principles. • Leaders of the Social Gospel movement helped to formulate progressive principles. • Some urban churches opened centers that served as settlement houses.

5. Women Capitalize and Participate in the Progressive Era • Women’s organizations became powerful lobbies for the rights of women and children. • The nature of the work of those organizations made women’s public activities more acceptable in a patriarchal world. • The prominence of certain women progressives allowed them to serve as role models for the younger generation. • The movement for woman suffrage was reinvigorated by progressive activists. • The feminist movement for complete gender equality was founded. • Women made concrete improvements in labor safety, family planning, and other significant fields.

6. African Americans in the Era • The adoption of the white primary in southern states completed the process of disfranchisement. • Blacks migrated in increasing numbers from the rural South to northern cities. • The all-black Niagara Movement of African American intellectuals was organized in 1906 to seek racial equality. • White progressives joined black activists to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. • The National Urban League was organized in 1911 by black and white social workers in order to assist black migrants who relocated to the cities. • Southern black women worked for progressive reform through civic organizations, filling the vacuum left by the disfranchisement of black men.

7. Teddy Roosevelt and Progressivism • He sought to protect wilderness areas from inappropriate development so that they would be available for use by the public. • He threatened a government takeover of coal mines if their owners refused union recognition. • He personally intervened to control the abuses of what he called bad trusts. • He supported the passage of the Hepburn Railway Act, which empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to curb discriminatory railroad rates. • He helped to enact consumer-protection legislation such as the Pure Food and Drug and the Meat Inspection Acts

8. Conservation • Forest Reserve Act (1891 act) that was used by TR to preserve 150 million acres. • Newlands Reclamation Act – 1902 • National Conservation Commission – 1908 • Taft ~ Is not as focused on conservation, but accepts and continues TR’s previous advancements.

9. Consumer Protection • TR’s “Square Deal” • Pure Food and Drug Act • Meat Inspection Act • Taft continues consumer protection ~ not at the same rate.

10. Big Business Regulation • TR • Elkins Act (1903) • Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) - • Hepburn Act – “just and reasonable” rates. • Taft ~ continues TR trust busting and business regulations.

11. Before Presidency • Taft as… • Lawyer • Governor General of the Philippines

12. Election of 1908

13. Taft Presidency • Theodore Roosevelt selected William Howard Taft to be his successor and gave him vital support during the presidential campaign of 1908. • Taft was a conservative of upper-middle-class background with a long career on the bench, and he aspired to a judicial rather than a political career. • Roosevelt nevertheless believed that Taft, a close personal friend, was the best man to continue his policies. • Taft agreed with many of Roosevelt's objectives, but not with his interpretation of presidential authority. • As Taft saw it, his function as president was to establish a legal basis for the reforms undertaken by Roosevelt, not to enlarge the degree of federal intervention in the economic and social life of the nation. • Taft quickly earned the contempt of the progressives as one who had deserted their cause. • During the first two years of his administration he battled with them over the Payne-Aldrich tariff and the conservation of natural resources. • His compulsive upholding of the letter of the law resulted in the severing of his friendship with Roosevelt and the splitting of the Republican party.

14. Taft and the Judiciary • 1878 Graduated from Yale University • 1880 Graduated Cincinnati Law School and admitted to the bar to practice law • 1887-90 Judge of the superior court of Cincinnati • 1890-92 Solicitor General of the United States • 1892-1900 U.S. Circuit Judge • 1896-1900 Professor and Dean of the Law Department of the University of Cincinnati • 1913 Appointed Professor of Law at Yale University • 1921-30 Chief Justice of the United States

15. Taft and Roosevelt • Ironically, a greater number of progressive reforms were accomplished in Taft's four years in office than in Roosevelt's seven. Taft undertook the first tariff revision since 1897. • He improved upon Roosevelt's conservation work, made advances in railroad regulation, and launched an antitrust crusade with which Roosevelt's paled in comparison. • He successfully avoided American military involvement in various international disputes during his term. • Among other achievements, his administration created the postal savings bank and parcel post systems, added two states to the Union and two amendments to the constitution, established a Department of Labor separate from Commerce, nearly completed the Panama Canal, regulated corporate campaign contributions, and strengthened the Pure Food and Drugs Act. • When viewed in the era of transition from Rooseveltian to Wilsonian progressivism, Taft is best remembered as a constitutional conservator.

16. Split in the Republican Party • Payne-Aldrich Tariff – Taft promised to lower tariff ~ in 1909 tariff raised on most imports. • Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy – • Gifford Pinchot – respected chief of Forest Service (appointed by TR) • Richard Ballinger – Sec. of the Interior (appointed by Taft) • 1910 – Pinchot criticizes Ballinger for selling Alaskan land to private developer. • Taft fires Pinchot for insubordination.

17. Continued Split in Rep. Party • Speaker of the House Joe Cannon – Leading Conservative Speaker was supported over Progressive. • Midterm Elections – Taft openly supports Conservatives over Progressives in election of 1910. • Progressives want TR to run in 1912…

18. Socialists Labor Party • Eugene Debs – Ran first in 1900 and last in the election of 1920. • In 1912 (the height of his popularity) • Popular Pro-Labor and Unionist • A “new” alternative in Progressivism.

19. Woodrow Wilson’s Progressive Program • Calls Special Session of Congress • Tariff Reduction • Underwood Tariff of 1913 –substantially lowers tariff rates for the first time in 50 years. • Banking Reform • Rejects Rep. proposal for privatized national bank ~ Federal Reserve Act of 1914 – FR Board – 12 district banks

20. Wilson Progressivism Continued • “Real” Business Regulation • Clayton Antitrust Act – Strengthens Sherman Antitrust Act • Federal Trade Commission – Unfair trade practices • No special interest legislation – then changes • Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 • Child Labor Act of 1916 • Supreme Court later finds unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart