Origins of Progressivism

1. Origins of Progressivism • State reforms from the 1890’s • Catapulted by Teddy Roosevelt • Continued through Taft and eventually ends with the advent of World War I during Wilson’s presidency • Middle class alarmed at the rising power of big business, the gap between rich and poor, the violent conflict between labor and management, and the dominance of machine politics • Jim Crows laws in the South • Women’s suffrage Attitudes and Motives

2. Who were the Progressives? • Urban middle class • White collar workers • Roosevelt, LaFollette • Bryan, Wilson • People should take a practical approach to morals, ideals, and knowledge • Rugged individualism did not seem to apply • Scientific management as described by F.W. Taylor could be used by the government to help people • What was their philosophy?

3. One historian, Paul Johnson, labeled the Progressive Movement as Un-american. Assess the validity of the statement?What data would you use to support

4. The Muckrakers • Origins • Henry Demarest Lloyd Wealth Against Commonwealth exposed corruption and greed of oil monopolies • Magazines • McClures Magazine • Lincoln Steffens Tweed Days in St. Louis • Ida Tarbell The History of Standard Oil Company • Collier’s & Cosmopolitan • All competed for the most shocking exposes of political and economic corruption

5. Muckraker Books • Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives (1890) • Lincoln Steffens Shame of the Cities (1904) Fictional Accounts: • Theodore Dreiser’s The Titan & The Financier

7. Political Reforms • Australian Ballot • Direct Primary • Direct Election of Senators • Initiative; referendum, recall (Most of these reforms first happen West of the Mississippi River)

8. Municipal Reforms • Controlling public utilities • Commissions and city managers State Reforms • Wisconsin idea • Direct primary • Tax reform • Regulation of railroad rates

9. Theodore Roosevelt • Square Deal • Anthracite Coal mine strike of 1902 • First time President enters negotiations to settle dispute

10. Theodore Roosevelt • Trust busting • Northern Securities • Standard Oil • good v. bad trusts • Railroad Regulation • Elkins Act (1903): regulated rebates • Hepburn Act (1906): fix rates for railroads

12. Theodore Roosevelt • Consumer protection • Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) • Meat Inspection Act (1906)

13. Theodore Roosevelt • Conservation • Often used Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to set aside 150 million acres • Newlands Reclamation • National Conservation Commission under Gilford Pinchot

14. William Howard Taft • More trust-busting than Roosevelt • Mann Elkins Act gave ICC the power to suspend new railroad rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies • Income tax (16th amendment) 1913 • Split the Republican party in 1912 • Roosevelt Progressives v. Taft conservatives • Over Payne-Aldrich Tariff and Pinchot-Ballinger controversy • Democratic Woodrow Wilson wins election of 1912

15. Woodrow Wilson • Roosevelt’s (Bull Moose Party) New Nationalism v. Wilson’s New Freedom • Tariff reduction • Bank reform • Federal Reserve Act of 1914 • Business Regulation • Clayton Anti-trust Act • Federal Trade Commission • Federal Farm Loan Act • Child Labor Act (Keating Owen Act • struck down with Hammer v. Dagenhart

16. African Americans in Progressive Era • Largely ignored by progressives because they shared in general prejudice • Other reforms considered more important because they reached more people • Washington and DuBois shape the debate for equal rights. • Urban migration will begin in 1910 with the better job opportunities in the North because of poor cotton crops. Also Jim Crow era raised race tensions

17. Civil Rights Organizations • Niagra Movement 1905 which led to • NAACP • Included African Americans and whites • Mission was to abolish all forms of segregation and increase educational opportunities. By 1920, the largest civil rights organization • National Urban League • Stressed “Not alms but opportunity” reflecting an emphasis on self-reliance

18. Women and Suffrage • National Women’s Suffrage Association NAWSA led by Carrie Chapman Catt switched from a state to federal focus for suffrage in 1900 • Alice Paul split the association and formed the National Women’s Party in 1916 • Nineteenth Amendment (1920) guaranteed women’s right to vote in all elections at all levels.