Progressivism (1900-1917)

1. Progressivism (1900-1917)

2. Progressivism was influenced by previous reform movements: • Greenback labor Party • Mugwumps • Labor Movement (NLU, KofL) • Grange and Farmer Alliance Movements • And especially Populist Movement (Omaha Platform of 1892)

3. Some populist ideas fulfilled during the Progressive Era (1900-1917) • railroad legislation (1903 & 1906) • income tax (16th Amendment -- 1912) • expanded currency and credit structure (1913, 1916) • direct election of Senators (17th Amendment -- 1913) • initiative, referendum and recall (early 1900s) • postal savings banks (1910) • subtreasury plan (1916)

4. Goals of Progressives: • The break-up or regulation of trusts • Killing political machines • Reduce the threat of socialism (by improving workers’ lives) • Improve squalid conditions in the cities • Improve working conditions for female labor and end child labor • Consumer protection • Voting reform • Conservation • banking reform • labor reform (working conditions and unionization) • Prohibition of alcohol • Female suffrage

5. Progressive Thinkers • John Dewey(1859-1952) • "learning by doing" • education for living and working played a crucial role in democracy • Goal was to create socially useful adults • Education for life = primary goal of teacher

6. Lester Frank Ward • Challenged "survival of the fittest" thought • Argued it was natural for people to control and change their social environment -- the laws, customs, and relationships among people-- for their own benefit. • It was the role of gov’t to shape society’s destiny. • Richard Ely • Strong supporter of social gospel

7. Charles Beard • historian who applied history to reform corrupt city governments. • Famous for his analysis of the constitution

8. Advances in science • Massive public-health program launched by Rockefeller Foundation in South in 1909 virtually wiped out hookworm by 1920s. • Better nutrition and health care helped increase life expectancy of a newborn infant from 50 years in 1901 to 59 years in 1929.

9. Mucrakers (named by TR) • Journalists who attempted to expose the evils of society

10. Popular magazines such as McClure’s, Cosmopolitan (owned by Hearst), Collier’s, and Everybody’s emerged.

15. Lincoln Steffens Shame of the Cities

17. Ida M. Tarbell • Detailed Rockefeller’s ruthless tactics to crush competition (including her father) • In 1911, Standard Oil trust broken up as result.

20. Upton Sinclair -- The Jungle (1906) • Graphic depictions of the unsanitary conditions in the packing plant sparked a reaction to the meat industry and led to eventual regulation under Theodore Roosevelt • Inspired Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

22. David G. Phillips -- "The Treason of the State", articles in Cosmopolitan • Charged that 75 of 90 senators did not represent the people but rather the trusts and the railroads. (Eventually shot) • Provoked President Roosevelt to label this genre of journalism "muckraking" • As a result, fewer muckraking pieces appeared as editors became fearful of backlash.

23. John Spargo -- The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906)

24. Ray Stannard Baker -- Following the Color Line (1908) • Attacked the subjugation of America’s 9 million blacks, & their illiteracy

25. Frank Norris -- The Octopus (1901) • Detailed stranglehold of railroad and corrupt politicians on California wheat ranchers

27. Theodore Dreisler: The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914)

28. Progressive Activists: • Jane Adams – Settlement House Movement, Child Labor Reform • Florence Kelly - National Consumers League

29. Gains for women and child Labor • Muller v. Oregon, 1906 • *upheld Oregon law restricting women’s labor to 10-hour workday • *case won by Louis Brandeis who argued that women were weaker than men

30. Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire (1911)

34. 146 women workers, mostly girls killed

36. Result of the fire: • NYC and other legislatures passed laws regulating the hours and conditions in sweatshops. • By 1916, 32 states regulated the hours and ages at which children could work • Some states adopted compulsory education up to the high school level.

37. Robert LaFollette "Wisconsin Experiment” -First Republican senator who stood against “Old Guard” Republicans and laissez faire

38. Wisconsin Experiment • Direct primary • Initiative, referendum, recall • Direct election of Senators (later would become 17th amendment) • state income tax (16th Amendment) • Australian Ballot • Hiram Johnson (R. from California), Charles Evans Hughes (R. from NY) and Wodroow Wilson (D. from NJ) would follow Wisconsin’s lead

39. Galveston, Texas and the Commission System • The city placed power into the hands of 5 commissioners, 2 elected & 3 appointed; a full-time city manager was hired. • Commission system peaked in 1915  (later replaced by city manager system.) • Within 20 years, 400 cities adopted Commission System • Reduced the power of machine politics, but increased power of businessmen

40. TR and Progressivism Square Deal Based on 3 C’s: 1. Control of the corporations2. Consumer protection3. Conservation of natural resources

41. Control of Corporations Anthracite Coal Strike (1902) George F. Baer asks TR to intervene using Sherman Anti-Trust Act

42. TR threatened to seize mines and operate them with federal troops if owners refused to compromise (unprecedented in U.S. history) • Owners consented to arbitration • Miners get 9 hour day, 10% increase in wages, coal price increased 10% as well • Department of Commerce & Labor created to settle disputes between capital and labor in 1903. • Bureau of Corporations – authorized to check monopolies

45. Northern Securities Co. • TR goes againstJ. P. Morgan & James G. Hill company • Supreme Court upholds the decision (1904) • TR nicknamed “trustbuter” • Eventually goes after DuPont, American Tobacco Co., Standard Oil etc.

46. Elkins Act (1903) and Hepburn Act (1906)

50. Results of TR’s “trustbusting”?