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Reforms and Setbacks and Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era. Why is an umbrella an appropriate metaphor for this era?. PROGRESSIVISM. M i d c l a s s W o m e n. Muckrackers. Labor Unions. Suffragettes. Civi l Rights. Popul ists. Temperance. Goo Goos.
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Reforms and Setbacksand Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era
Why is an umbrella an appropriate metaphor for this era? PROGRESSIVISM MidclassWomen Muckrackers Labor Unions Suffragettes CivilRights Popul ists Temperance Goo Goos
The “Culture Wars”:The Pendulum of Right v. Left CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION ChristianEvangelicalMovement 2nd Great Awakening Social Gospel 1920s Revivalism 1950sRevivalism CIVILWAR Antebellum Reforms[1810s-1850s] Progressivism[1890s-1920] New Deal[1930s-1940s] Great Society&1960s SocialMovements Populism[1870s-1890s]
Muckrakers and Lincoln Steffens • Investigates and publishes truthful reports about social issues • Especially, crime and corruption involving elected officials. • Also, leaders and influential members of business and industry. • Exposes of Standard Oil, cattle farming and meat packing, child labor, medicines, wage, labor and working conditions in factories and farms. • Led to public outcry AND governmental and legal investigations
Lincoln Steffens • “The Shame of Cities” • Overall disillusionment • McClure’s Magazine, venue for reform • Socialist: "I have been over into the future, and it works." (after visit to the Soviet Union, 1921)
“The Shame of Cities” • There is hardly an office from United States Senator down to Alderman in any part of the country to which the business man has not been elected; yet politics remains corrupt, government pretty bad, and the selfishcitizen has to hold himself in readiness to rush forth at any hour, in any weather, to prevent the “fire”; and he goes out sometimes and he puts out the fire (after the damage is done) and he goes back to the shop sighing for the business man in politics. The business man has failed in politics as he has in citizenship. Why?
The Shame of Cities, continued • Because politics is business. That’s what’s the matter with it. That’s what’s the matter with everything—art, literature, religion, journalism, law, medicine,—they’re all business, and all—as you see them. • Don’t try to reform politics with the banker, the lawyer, and the dry-goods merchant, for these are business men and there are two great hindrances to their achievement of reform: one is that they are different from, but no better than, the politicians; the other is that politics is not “their line.”
Social Gospel • Protestant, Intellectuals • Goal: apply Christian ethics to social problems • No “2nd Coming” until humanity removed all social ills • Seen as liberals, but typically conservative in beliefs • Believed that we should all work hard, sacrifice now for divine reward
Catholic response: Pope Leo XIII • All Christians should work to alleviate "the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class” • Role of the state is to promote social justice • Says yes to trade unions and collective bargaining as peaceful means to an end
TR: Progressive President • 1901: McKinley assassinated. TR serves until 1908. • “Square Deal” = fairness to all citizens after years of government neglect and corporate abuse • Wants to disband Trusts • Progressive: Food and Drug Act, National Parks
Jane Addams • Settlement House Movement: social reform, focus on urban poor • Hull House: Founded 1889 • Night school for adults, kindergarten, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gym, a girls' club, a bathhouse, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group, and a library, as well as labor-related divisions. • Pacifist during WWI: “Women have a special mission to preserve peace.” Many saw her as a socialist. 1940
Lillian Wald • Henry Street Settlement, New York • Nursing, immigrant assistance, but also founded Women’s Trade Union League • Believed in racial integration and women’s suffrage
Ashcan School • Realistic depiction of urban life in NYC • Prostitution, tenements, poverty, and other social problems
“A Theory of the Leisure Class” • Criticism of contemporary culture and consumerism: 1889 • “division of labor” favors those who do NOT work in menial task, yet these are the most important tasks in society • How do we determine value to society? Are all luxuries bad? Where is there room for enriching activities?
Temperance Movement • Background: 1820s, immigrant pop., urbanization • Frances Willard (1800s): Women are NOT the weaker sex and must join politics to ensure fairness. • Women's Christian Temperance Union: 1880, connected drink (and vice) with domestic abuse and poverty • Anti-Saloon League: “Don’t change your drinking habits, just your voting habits.”
18th Amendment • Outlaws the production, transfer, and sale of alcohol. • Volstead Act provided • monetary support to • enforce the • amendment
Women’s Suffrage • Charlotte Perkins Gilman • Reform Darwinism: “There is no female mind; might as well speak of a “female liver” • Women and Economics (1898) • Women should not rely on men for economic security
The Struggle for the Vote • NAWSA: National Women’s Suffrage Assoc. : pass voting legislation at local level. Moderate – yet moral – argument • Alice Paul/NWP (Nat. Women’s Party): more militant. ERA (1923) fails (1972) • 19th. Amendment: Gives women the right to vote, June 1919
Other Advocates for Women’s Rights • Margaret Sanger: in favor of birth control (and eugenics. • Women cannot have complete control over their lives until they decide when to take the economic burden of child-rearing • Mann Act [White Slave Traffic Act] (1910): Addressed prostitution, cannot take an underage female across state lines
Cities and Voting: A move to “direct democracy” • Commissioner plan: 5-7 elected reps manage the city. Nominate one of them to be mayor. • City-manager plan : remove influence of pol. Parties and hire an “expert' instead. • Initiative: voters place legislation on the ballot by getting required number of signatures • Referendum: entire voting population is asked to accept or reject a proposal • Recall: voters remove an elected official via signatures
Laboratory of Democracy Wisconsin Gov. “Fightin’” Bob LaFollette • Worker's comp, minimum wage, anti-bossism, progressive taxation • Idea: Legislation should only be proposed after exam and review by experts in the field
Horrendous Events Highlight Need for Reform • Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire , 1911 • 146 dead • NYC passes several safety and compensation laws
The Memory Endures Detail, History of the Needlecraft Industry (1938). A mural commissioned by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGW).
Other Relevant Terms • The Passing of the Great Race: Eugenics is necessary to preserve the Nordic race • Dillingham Report: an effort to halt immigration from non-Nordic areas of Europe
Other Progressive Terms • Louis Brandeis: The people’s lawyer, upheld progressive legislation (anti-monopoly, for workplace regulation and safety). • The Promise of American Life: Encouraged TR to adopt “New Nationalism” • Discusses the necessity of a transfer from capitalism to a state-run welfare state.
1912: The Election that Changed the Century
Keep theWhistleBlowing Taft was determined to defeat TR and preserve the conservative heart of the Republican Party.
“Come, Mr. President. You Can’t Have the Stage ALL of the Time!”
Republican Party Platform High import tariffs. Put limitations on female and child labor. Workman’s Compensation Laws. Against initiative, referendum, and recall. No “bad” trusts. Creation of a Federal Trade Commission. Stay on the gold standard. Conservation of natural resources because they are finite.
The GOP Afterthe Circus TR: The Republican Party must stand for the rights of humanity, or else it must stand for special privilege.
The Progressive Party &Former President Theodore Roosevelt People should riseabove their sectarianinterests to promote the general good.
Theodore Roosevelt and New Nationalism Big business requires big government.
Progressive Party Platform NewNationalism Women’s suffrage. Graduated income tax. Inheritance tax for the rich. Lower tariffs. Limits on campaign spending. Currency reform. Minimum wage laws. Social insurance. Abolition of child labor. Workmen’s compensation.
The Socialist Party & Eugene V. Debs The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.
“The Working Class Candidates” Eugene V. Debs Emil Seigel for President for Vice-President
The Industrial Worker: I. W. W. The first American labor group to open its membership to all wage-earning workers, regardless of skill, nationality, race, sex, or gender.
Socialist Party Platform Government ownership of railroads and utilities. Guaranteed income tax. No tariffs. 8-hour work day. Better housing. Government inspection of factories. Women’s suffrage.
The Democratic Party &Governor Woodrow Wilson Could he rescue the Democratic Party?
Democratic Party Platform Government control of the monopolies trusts in general were bad eliminate them!! Tariff reduction. One-term President. Direct election of Senators. Create a Department of Labor. Strengthen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Did NOT support women’s suffrage. Opposed to a central bank. NewFreedom