Chapter 18: The Progressive Movement

1. Chapter 18:The Progressive Movement Section 1: The Roots of Progressivism

2. The Rise of Progressivism • Progressive Era 1890- 1920. • Progressivism was a collection of different ideas and activities about how to fix the problems within American society. • Progressives felt that government should take a more active role in solving society’s problems caused by urbanization and industrialization. • Felt that government needed to be fixed and made more responsive to the people. • The muckrakers- a group of journalists who investigated social conditions and political corruption. • Their articles led to public debate on social and economic problems. • Muckrakers uncovered corruption in many areas. • Results in pressure on politicians to introduce reform.

3. Making Government Efficient • There were many types of progressivism. • One group believed that problems in society could be solved if government was efficient. • Government could be efficient by applying principles of scientific management. • Become more efficient by managing time, breaking tasks down into small parts, and using standardized tools. • Commission Plan- replace existing system with a board of commissioners or a city manager with an expertise in city services who would select and hire specialists to run city departments.

4. Democracy and Progressivism • Robert La Follette- Governor of Wisconsin, criticized how political parties ran their conventions. He pressured the state legislature to require each party to hold a direct primary. • Direct primary- a party election in which all party members vote for a candidate to run in the general election. • Three new reforms introduced by progressives. • 1. Initiative-allowed a group of citizens to introduce legislation and require the legislature to vote on it. • 2. Referendum- allowed proposed legislation to be submitted to the voters for approval. • 3. Recall- allowed voters to demand a special election to remove an elected official from office.

5. The Suffrage Movement • Suffrage- the right for women to vote. • Becomes one of the major issues/topics for progressives. • July 1848, Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s rights convention. • After the Civil War, the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed to protect the voting rights of African Americans. • Women wanted to be apart of this but they were refused. • By 1900 only Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado had granted voting rights to women. • 1890 National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed. • They picketed the White House and went on hunger strikes to get their message across. • August 26, 1920, the states ratified the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

6. Social Welfare Progressivism • Progressives created charities to help poor and disadvantaged. • 1900 over 1.7 million children under the age of 16 worked outside the home. • The National Child Labor Committee worked to end child labor. • Many adults worked in difficult and dangerous conditions. • Building codes, worker’s compensation laws, zoning laws, and health codes all made working conditions better.

7. The Bitter Cry of the Children • Written by John Spargo in 1906. • The book presented detailed evidence on child labor conditions. • “Breaker boys”- hired at age 9 or 10 to pick slag out of coal and were paid 60 cents for a 10 hour work day. • The work left there backs permanently bent and their hands crippled. • Convinced States to push for child labor laws and prevent child labor.

8. Prohibition • Temperance movement called for moderation or elimination of alcohol. • Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) worked to reduce alcohol consumption and pushed for prohibition. • Prohibition- laws banning the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol. • 18th Amendment in 1919 prohibited the manufacturing, sale or transport of intoxicating beverages in the United States. • The Volstead Act of 1919 defined intoxication as having a alcohol content greater than 0.5 %.

11. Progressives Versus Big Business • Progressives focused on regulating big business but they disagreed on the solutions. • One side believed government should break up big companies to restore competition. • Other side wanted the creation of government agencies to regulate big companies and prevent them from abusing their power. • Socialism- the idea that government should own and operate industry for the community as a whole. (Small group of progressives). • Eugene Debs- led the American Socialist Party and ran for President in 1912.

12. Roosevelt in Office Section 2

13. Roosevelt Revives the Presidency • Square Deal- Roosevelt’s reform program in his second term. • Roosevelt felt the government should try to balance the needs of all the groups in American society. • T.R. believed that the U.S. needed progressive reforms to remain an efficient society that could compete successfully with other nations. • Northern Securities- new holding company created by E.H. Harriman (Union Pacific), James J. Hill and J.P. Morgan (Great Northern and Northern Pacific). • T. R. felt that the Northern Securities violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and he filed a lawsuit. • Supreme Court ruled in favor of T.R. • Northern securities was broken up.

14. United Mine Workers (UMW)- called for a strike of the miners who dug coal. • About 150,000 workers from the mines in Eastern PA demanded pay increase, shorter work hours, and union recognition. • The strike goes on for months, threatening a coal shortage. • T.R. urges the union and owners to accept arbitration (a settlement imposed by an outside party), the workers agreed but the owners did not. • T.R. threatens military action and then the owners agree to terms.

17. Department of Commerce and Labor • The Bureau of Corporations- • Had the authority to investigate corporations and issue reports on their activities. • The Bureau began by investigating U.S. Steel. • “Gentlemen’s Agreement”- a deal between T.R. and the leaders of U.S. Steel. • Afraid of anti-trust law suit, U.S. Steel agreed to open up their account books and records to the Bureau. • In exchange, if the Bureau found anything wrong, the company would be advised privately and allowed to correct the problem without going to court. • T.R. has the ability to regulate big business without having to sacrifice economic efficiency by breaking up the trusts.

18. Hepburn Act and the ICC • The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)- • Hepburn Act was designed to strengthen the ICC by giving it the power to set railroad rates. • The railroad companies found that they can work with the ICC to set rates and regulations that would limit competition and prevent new competitors.

19. Social Welfare Action • By 1905 consumer protection became a national issue. Patent medicines and food consumption became serious threats to Americans, forcing new legislation. • 1906 Upton Sinclair’s The Junglebrought light into the poor conditions of the slaughter houses of Chicago. • The Meat Inspection Act required federal inspection of meat sold and set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants. • The Pure Food and Drug Act prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure or falsely labeled food and drugs.

21. Conservation • President Roosevelt urged Americans to conserve natural resources. • 1902 the Newlands Reclamation Act authorized the use of federal funds from public land sales to pay for irrigation and land development projects. • Gifford Pinchot- appointed by Roosevelt to head the United States Forest Service to carefully manage the timber resources in the West. • Pinchot and his department created regulations controlling lumbering federal lands. • Americans began to look to the President to solve the nation’s economic and social problems. As a result, the executive branch greatly increased in power.

22. The Taft Administration Section 3

23. Taft Becomes President • The Election of 1908: • Roosevelt endorsed Republican candidate William Howard Taft. • T.R. hand selected Taft, because T.R. promised not to run for another term. • Democrat candidate, William Jennings Bryant. • Taft easily defeated Bryant in the election. • Taft felt that high tariffs limited competition, hurt consumers, and protested trusts. Taft called Congress into session to lower tariff rates. • Payne- Aldrich Tariff-raised some tariffs instead of lowering them. Taft had alienated progressives and made progressives feel betrayed and angry.

24. Richard Ballinger- named Secretary of the Interior by Taft. • Gifford Pinchot charged that Ballinger had tried to turn over valuable public lands in Alaska to a private business group for his own profit. • Taft in return fired Pinchot for insubordination. • Progressives felt that Taft had sold the Square Deal down the river and resulted in a Democratic victory in 1910. • Democrats took control of the House and Democrats and Progressive Republicans gained control of the Senate.

25. Taft’s Progressive Reforms • Taft brought twice as many antitrust cases as Roosevelt. • Taft establishes the Children’s Bureau to fight child labor. • He monitored the activities of the mining companies, expanded national forests, and protected waterpower sites from private development. • T.R. refused to criticize Taft ‘s actions as President until Taft brought an antitrust lawsuit against U.S. Steel. • Progressives convinced Roosevelt to reenter politics and attempt to replace Taft as the Republican nominee for president in the election of 1912.

28. The Wilson Years Section 4

29. The Election of 1912 • Republican conservatives supported William Taft. • Republican progressives supported Theodore Roosevelt. • Taft gained the Republican nomination. • Roosevelt runs as an independent for the Progressive Party, the Bull Moose Party. • Democrats select Woodrow Wilson governor of New Jersey and a progressive.

30. The election comes down to Roosevelt and Wilson. • Roosevelt runs with New Nationalism, reforms that favored legislation to protect women and children in the workforce and workers’ compensation. • Wilson plan was New Freedomwhich supported free enterprise and criticized Roosevelt for supporting programs that Wilson felt supported monopolies. • Roosevelt and Taft split the Republican vote, giving Wilson the Electoral College win. • Wilson is first Democratic President since 1892. • Taft only received 8 electoral college votes.

31. Regulating the Economy • In 1913, the Underwood Tariff reduced the average tariff on imported goods to about half of what it had been in the 1890’s. • Income tax- a direct tax on the earnings of individuals and corporations. • Wilson supported the Federal Reserve system where the banks would have to keep some of their deposits in a reserve to protect customers’ money. • 1914 The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)- monitors American business involved in unfair trade practices. • Clayton Antitrust Act-put a ban on tying agreements, which required retailers who bought from one company to stop selling a competitor’s products, and price discrimination. • It declared that unions were not unlawful and called the worker’s “Magna Carta” because it gave unions the right to exist.

32. Federal Aid and Social Welfare • In 1916 Wilson signed the Keating- Owen Child Labor Act. • Prohibited children under the age of 14 from working in factories. • Adamson Act- • Established an 8 hour workday for railroad workers. • Federal Farm Loan Act- • Provided farmers with long- term loans at low interest rates.

33. The Legacy of Progressivism • By the end of the Progressive era, Americans looked to the government to play an active role in regulating the economy and solving social problems. • In 1905 African American leaders met to demand full political rights and responsibilities and an end to racial discrimination for African Americans. • 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. • Group still exists today and protects the interest of minority groups.