Chapter 28

1. Chapter 28 Progressivism and the Republican Party

2. Essential Question? • What tactics were most effective in bringing about the social, economic, and political reforms of the Progressive Era? • How successful were the Progressive Era presidents in leading reform efforts?

3. Roots of Progressive Movement • Targets: monopolies, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice. • 2 Goals: 1. use government power to curb trusts, 2. fight socialism by improving conditions of commoners • Ancestors: Greenback Party of 1870s • Populist Party of 1890s • Social reformers of late 1800s • Jane Addams • Jacob Riis

4. Muckraking • Journalists that exposed the corruption and wrong-doings of society. • Lincoln Steffens: “The Shame of the Cities”; exposed corruption of political machines • Ida Tarbell: wrote an expose on Standard Oil Company • David Phillips: “The Treason of the Senate”, corruption in Senate selection process.

5. Political Progressivism • Direct primary elections • Initiative • Referendum • Recall • Secret ballot • Direct Election of Senators (17th Amendment) • Women’s suffrage

6. Cities and States • Cities fight corruption by creating commissions and city-manager. • Sacrifice efficiency for democracy • Robert La Follette: progressive governor (Wisc.) and US Senator • Fought trusts and corruption

7. Progressive Women • Women began pushing for reforms in the Settlement Houses • Traditional female roles pushed women toward “motherly” causes • Child labor • Food production • prohibition • Muller v. Oregon: laws protecting women workers are constitutional • Today considered discriminatory • 10 hour work days • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire • Women’s Christen Temperance Movement

8. TR’s Square Deal • Teddy’s domestic plan for progressive reform. • 3 C’s: Control corporations, conservation, and consumer protection. • 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike • Workers demand fewer hours and higher wages • Owners refuse and soon a coal shortage cripples the US. • Roosevelt called the owners and workers to the White House for arbitration. • Owners refused to give in until TR threatened to take over the mines with the army. • Incident lead to the Department of Commerce and Labor

9. TR and Trust-Busting • RR were corrupt, and the Interstate Commerce Act was seldom followed. • Congress created the Elkins Act to eliminate rebates. • Hepburn Act: eliminated free passes on RR (given to corrupt congressmen) • TR saw “good trusts” and “bad trusts”, which hurt the public. • Northern Securities v. US: 1904, TR used the Sherman Antitrust Act to dissolve his first monopoly. • Other “bad” trusts soon followed • TR hoped that the “good trusts” would be more agreeable to gov. regulation. • TR cleaned up some of the corporate problem, but his successor would go even farther, too far in TR’s eyes.

10. Consumer Protection • Muckraker Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle” in 1906. • The tale was meant to show the harsh treatment of immigrants working in Chicago meat-packing plants. • He also exposed to awful conditions and unsanitary practices of the meat-packing industry. • Readers, including TR, were repulsed by the disgusting conditions. • TR and Congress sought to clean up food preparation by passing the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. • Today the progressive legacy is with us each time we buy food made in federally inspected facilities.

11. Conservation v. Preservation • Early environmental laws: Forest Reserve Act (allowed pres. To designate land as national parks). • Many were worried that industrialization was stripping the US of it’s resources. • TR’s love of the outdoors sparked the era of conservation. • Groups like the Boy Scouts and Sierra Club fought to save the land. • Rivers were dammed to irrigate dry areas. TR preached “multi-use” of resources (parks, controlled logging, irrigation) Others, called themselves preservationists, and wished that the land be left totally untouched. TR’s legacy is best remembered whenever you visit a national park or forest.

12. Panic of 1907 • TR announced that he would not seek reelection in 1908. • Republicans had grown to resent TR’s regulations, labor agreements, and calls for an income tax. • The stock market took a dip in 1907. • Republicans blamed TR’s intervention with businesses as the cause of the crash. • Real cause was a shortage of currency in circulation. • Many now saw the need for another national bank (FED in 1913).

13. 1908 Election • TR reluctantly kept his promise and did not seek reelection. • He chose Sec. of War William Taft to carry on his progressive reforms. • Taft won the election with 321 votes to Democrat William Bryan’s 162 (Socialist Eugene Debs also received much of the popular vote.) • TR retired leaving a legacy that included strengthening the power of the president. • He began to tame capitalism and laid the groundwork for Franklin Roosevelt’s radical reforms of the 1930s.

14. “Fat” Taft • Taft had been a judge and governor of the Philippines and Cuba. • He had none of the flair that TR used to achieve reforms. • In reality, Taft was a minor progressive, no where near as radical as TR.

15. Dollar Diplomacy • Wall Street had long invested in foreign nations. • Under Taft this was increased,