The Progressive Roots

1. TheProgressiveRoots

2. Roots • Grangers & populists reacting to the social environment – want to MAKE CHANGES

3. Goals Common belief that gov’t should: • Be more accountable to citizens • Decrease power of wealthy • Improve lives of citizens • Be more efficient & less incompetent

4. Muckrakers • Define: investigative journalists who exposed problems in society

5. Upton Sinclair • Exposed meat packing industry in The Jungle

6. Ida Tarbell • Exposed oil industry in “The History of Standard Oil” (series of articles) "They had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me."

7. Jacob Riis • Exposed tenements & urban poor in How the Other Half Lives

8. Ida B. Wells • Exposed lynching in Southern Horrors & Other Writings (series of pamphlets)

9. Lincoln Steffens • Exposed local political corruption in The Shame of the Cities (series of articles) "In all cities, the better classes — the business men — are the sources of corruption, but they are so rarely pursued and caught that we do not fully realize whence the trouble comes."

11. TheProgressivePresidents

12. Theodore Roosevelt • 1858 – 1919 • 26th President (1901-09) • Republican • Promoted his “Square Deal”: promise to treat both citizens and businesses fairly – protect consumers from the dangers of “bad” trusts, but also protect businesses from unreasonable labor demands

13. Anthracite Coal Mine Strike • 1902: 150,000 Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for higher pay, reduced hours, and union recognition • Roosevelt offered arbitration when the strike threatened to leave the nation without coal for the winter; union accepted, but mine owners refused • Roosevelt threatened to seize the mines, forcing owners to the bargaining table • In the end, miners got more pay and fewer hours, but owners were not required to recognize the miners’ union

14. Elkins Act of 1903 • Banned railroads from giving rebates to “preferred” shippers – railroads had to charge everyone the same shipping rates • Strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) by giving it the ability to impose fines for violations

15. US v. Northern Securities • 1901: Three major railroads joined forces under a holding company called Northern Securities, essentially creating a dangerous monopoly • Roosevelt sued, claiming a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act • 1904: Supreme Court ruled in Roosevelt’s favor, ordered breakup of Northern Securities

16. Hepburn Act of 1906 • Further strengthened the ICC by giving it the authority to set railroad rates rather than just regulate them • Actually helped the railroads because the ICC worked with them to ensure railroads were profitable while also making it difficult for new railroads to enter the marketplace

17. Dept. of Commerce & Labor • Even while opposing trusts, Roosevelt knew that supporting business interests was good for the nation • 1903: Created the Dept. of Commerce & Labor which included the Bureau of Corporations, a branch which monitored businesses and advised them when their practices were of concern to the government so they could self-correct and avoid bad publicity of government intervention

18. Upton Sinclair • 1878 – 1968 • Wrote The Jungle (1906) which exposed the horrific conditions within the meat-packing industry • Public outcry prompted Roosevelt to push through food inspection reforms

19. Excerpt- The Jungle • ...There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white--it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one-- there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.

20. Excerpt---The Jungle • There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water--and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public's breakfast. Some of it they would make into "smoked" sausage--but as the smoking took time, and was therefore expensive, they would call upon their chemistry department, and preserve it with borax and color it with gelatine to make it brown. All of their sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it "special," and for this they would charge two cents more a pound…

21. Excerpt- The Jungle Partner Discussion Questions 1. What do you find most surprising in Upton Sinclair's account of the meatpacking industry around the turn of the century? Why? 2. What do you think was Sinclair's purpose for writing this piece? 3. How do you think readers reacted to The Jungle when it first came out? 4. Do you think this legislation ( Meat Inspection Act) would have passed without the public attention these issues received after the publication of articles and books like this one? Why or why not? 5. What does the publication of The Jungle tell you about the progressive movement?

22. Meat Inspection Act of 1906 • Required the inspection of meat sold through interstate commerce and required the United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) to set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants

23. Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906 • Prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure or falsely labeled food and drugs • Products containing drugs like alcohol, caffeine, or cocaine had to be labeled with contents and dosage

24. Land Conservation • Roosevelt supported conservation of the nation’s natural resources through limiting consumption • Began to set aside millions of acres of public lands for national parks, forests, and wildlife preserves

25. PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT: 1901-1908 Republican Nicknames: TR, Teddy, Trustbuster Platform Square Deal: Protect little people from Big Business Laws Passed • 1902 Coal Strike: TR used arbitration to stop strike; threatened to use military • Pres. Can end strikes to protect American people Elkins Act, 1903: Illegal to change rates or give rebates without notice • Keep good ones & get rid of bad ones • Enforced Sherman Anti-Trust Act Feelings about Trusts Hepburn Act, 1906: Set maximum rate railroads can charge Tariffs High Pure Food & Drug Act, 1906 • TR considered this to be a very important issue • Nat’l. Reclamation Act, 1902: Created irrigation projects in the West • US Forest Srvc., 1905:Manages Nation’s water & timber resources Conservation Conservation Laws

26. William Howard Taft • 1857 – 1930 • 27th President (1909-13) • Republican • Later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-30) • Hand-picked by Roosevelt to succeed him as President, but was Roosevelt’s opposite in personality

27. Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909 • Progressives and Taft (but not most Republicans) supported lowering tariffs • Taft tried to get a lower tariff passed, but ended up being forced to accept the Payne-Aldrich Tariff which actually raised tariffs on most goods • This angered & disappointed Progressives, including Teddy Roosevelt, and badly hurt Taft’s reputation

28. Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy • 1909: Taft’s Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger, was accused by head of the US Forest Service (and close friend of Roosevelt) Gifford Pinchot of corruption • Taft’s Attorney General dismissed the charges, so Pinchot leaked his story to the press • Taft fired the popular Pinchot, angering Progressives • Ballinger was later cleared of any wrongdoing by congressional investigators

29. Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 • Again increased the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission by giving it more regulatory control • Added communications (telegraph & telephone companies) to the industries overseen by the ICC

30. Taft the “Trustbuster” • Roosevelt was perceived as being a more efficient trustbuster than Taft, but Taft actually prosecuted twice as many antitrust cases in his 1 term as president as Roosevelt did in 2 terms!

31. US v. American Tobacco • 1911: Supreme Court ruled that James Duke’s American Tobacco Co. had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by establishing an illegal monopoly on the cigarette industry; Court ordered the company broken up

32. Children’s Bureau • Created by Taft in 1912 • Designed to protect children from abuse, both at home and in the workplace and to monitor orphanages, foster care, and adoptions • First federal agency to be headed by a woman (Julia Lathrop)

33. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire • March 25, 1911 • Exit doors to the factory were kept locked from the outside to prevent employees from stealing • When fire broke out, workers could not escape and 146 women workers died • Public outrage led to major reforms in working conditions and building codes

34. Bull Moose Party • Disappointed in Taft, Teddy decided to run for president once again in 1912, but the Republican Party nominated Taft • Roosevelt formed his own Progressive Party, better known as the “Bull Moose” Party and ran as its candidate, splitting the Republican vote • The Bull Moose platform of “New Nationalism” supported a federal government which was powerful enough to regulate corporations • Roosevelt was shot while campaigning, limiting his ability to appear in public over the last several weeks of the election

35. Election of 1912 • Democratic Party nominated Progressive NJ governor (and political newcomer) Woodrow Wilson • With the Republicans split, Wilson won the election fairly easily

36. Woodrow Wilson • 1856 – 1924 • 28th President (1913-21) • Ran on the “New Freedom” platform: rather than empower government to regulate monopolies and trusts, simply destroy monopolies to ensure fair competition • Believed in limited government, especially where the economy was concerned

37. 16th Amendment • 1913 • “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration” • US now taxed individuals rather than the states

38. 17th Amendment • 1913 • US Senators had been appointed by state legislatures, but after David Graham Phillips’ articles on corruption in the Senate, the 17th Amendment changed the law to direct election of Senators by the people

39. PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENT William Taft: 1909-1913 Republican Platform None Amendments Feelings about Trusts Attacked ALL trusts 16th:Income Tax Tariffs Said he would lower tariffs, but never did 17th:Direct Election of Senators Conservation • Ballinger-Pinchot Affair, 1910: Sold land TR set aside • Angered TR & conservationists Laws Passed None

40. Underwood Tariff of 1913 • Wilson believed that competition with European companies would force American companies to produce better products more efficiently (cheaper) • Underwood Tariff cut tariff rates in half, to about 30%

41. Federal Reserve Act of 1913 • Wilson revived the idea of a “national bank” • Federal Reserve Act required private banks to keep a portion of their deposits on reserve in federally run reserve banks to act as a cushion against unexpected losses; federal reserve banks would set national interest rates and regulate the amount of money in circulation, allowing them to control inflation and prevent recessions

42. Federal Trade Commission • Created in 1914 to monitor businesses • Had the authority to investigate and issue cease-and-desist orders against businesses using unfair trade practices which hurt competition • Not designed to breakup trusts, but rather to deter companies from using unethical practices

43. Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 • Banned “tying” agreements which required retailers who bought products from one company to stop selling products from competitors • Required businesses to charge all customers the same price for a product • Banned manufacturers from giving price discounts to retailers who bought larger volumes of goods • Declared labor unions to be exempt from antitrust laws

44. Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 • Prohibited the employment of children under 14 in factories producing goods sold through interstate commerce • Later struck down by the Supreme Court as being outside of federal jurisdiction

45. Adamson Act of 1916 • Established the 8-hour workday for railroad workers, created overtime pay • Passed by Congress to avoid a national railroad strike • First US law to regulate the hours of workers in private industry

46. Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 • Created special federal banks to provide loans to farmers and small businesses • Encouraged small businesses to compete with bigger rivals, thereby avoiding trusts and monopolies

47. 18th Amendment • 1919 • Growing support for the temperance (anti-alcohol) in the US led to a ban on the manufacture, transport, or sale of alcoholic beverages anywhere in the US • 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933

48. 19th Amendment • 1920 • Finally granted women suffrage (the right to vote) in federal elections • Suffrage had been sought by women since the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848!

49. Robert La Follette • 1855 – 1925 • Leader in Progressive reforms at the state level as governor of Wisconsin • Developed the “Wisconsin idea” of applying scientific methods to the running of state government • Later served in the US Senate and ran for President

50. City Government Changes • Efficiency experts began calling for cities to be “managed” by experts rather than by politicians and their buddies • Divided city services into departments, each headed by an expert in that field under the leadership of a hired city manager