America in the 1900s

1. America in the 1900s

2. Teddy Roosevelt • Born in NYC • Sick as a child, encouraged to be athletic and spend time outdoors • Boxing, camping, hunting • Masculinity

3. Teddy Roosevelt • Harvard Educated • NY Assemblyman • Rancher in Dakota Territory, 1880s • Worked in Harrison administration, NYC Police Commissioner, Asst Sec of Navy during Spanish American War.

4. Rough Riders

5. President Roosevelt, 1901 - 1909 • 1899: VP Hobart dies in office. • 1900: McKinley/TR defeat WJ Bryan. • 1901: McKinley assassinated, TR becomes President.

7. 1900 • Tremendous social stratification and inequality. • Andrew Carnegie’s income was $23 million/year, Average head of household was $500/year. • 1% of Americans owned 87% of wealth • 80% of Americans were subsistence wage earners

9. Urban Changes 1890s Urban growth is extraordinary 1860: 5 cities of 100,000 1890: 38 cities of 100,000 (2010: 252)

10. Muckrakers The social pressures of increased population density led to calls for municipal level reform. • Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 1895 • Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities, 1904 • Ida Tarbell, History of Standard Oil, 1904 • Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906 Muckrakers identified social issues, very rarely propose solutions.

12. Trust Busting • 1902: Ida Tarbell’s History of Standard Oilpublished magazine series, a muckraking anti-monopoly tract. • 1904: Teddy Roosevelt elected president, campaigned as “trust buster.” • 1905-1909: US government prosecuted S.O. for unfair trade practices. • 1911: Standard Oil ordered to dissolve.

13. Breaking up the Giant • Seven regional mini-Standard Oils and a 25+ smaller companies: • S.O. of New York = Mobil • S.O. of New Jersey = Exxon (later merged with Mobil) • S.O. of Ohio = Sohio(later bought by BP) • S.O. of California = Chevron (later merged with Texaco) • S.O. of Indiana = Amoco (later bought by BP) • Continental Oil = Conoco (later bought by Phillips) • Atlantic Oil = Arco (later bought by BP, now Sunoco)

14. Professionalization The 1880s to 1900s witnessed a wave or institutional reforms that created professional standards. • American Bar Association 1878 • American Historical Association 1889 • American Psychiatry Association 1892 • American Medical Association 1897

15. Progressivism • Rational use of government powers to solve social problems. • Social uplift/social control. • Role of “experts”. • Space for “woman’s maternal role”. • Rises from municipal to state and national and then international levels.

16. Progressive Reforms • Initiative • Recall • Referendum • City Councils and Managers • Public school expansion • Sanitation services

18. Progressive President? Teddy Roosevelt & Election of 1904 1904: Teddy Roosevelt seeks nomination on Republican ticket for his first Presidential election. Teddy Roosevelt (R): 7.6 million 336 electoral college votes 56% Alton Parker (D): 5 million 140 electoral college votes 38% Eugene Debs (S): .4 million 3% Prohibition, Populists, and other small parties run candidates as well.

19. 1904

20. Progressive President Roosevelt Teddy Roosevelt embraces Reform • State and federal parks system, Yellowstone, Muir • Promoted fitness and exercise to restore masculine vigor to American men; emergence of YMCA • Sent in federal militia to PROTECT striking coal miners, 1902 • Oversaw establishment of Dept. of Commerce, 1903 • Pursued anti-trust action against monopolies, particularly Standard Oil, 1905-1911 • Interstate Commerce Commission, 1904 • Established Food and Drug Administration, 1906

21. 1908 Teddy Roosevelt declines to run a second time for a third term. William Howard Taft (R): 7.7 million 321 EC 52% William Jennings Bryan (D): 6.4 million 162 EC 43% Third time to lose! Eugene Debs (S): .42 million 2.8%

22. 1908

23. President Taft 1908 Roosevelt’s Secretary of War and former governor of the Philippines vs. aging, perennial Democrat William Jennings Bryan. 1909-1913: Taft served one term as President. Traditional pro-Wall Street Republican. Opposed much of TR’s Progressive reform agenda. 1912: Roosevelt frustrated with own inactivity and with Taft administration, challenged Taft in 1912 for nomination.

24. 1912 Republican Party denied Teddy Roosevelt the nomination in favor of business friendly incumbent. Roosevelt founded his own party, the Progressive Party, nicknamed the Bull Moose Party. Democrats nominated Virginian born and Princeton University president Woodrow Wilson as a “Progressive Democrat”.

25. 1912 Woodrow Wilson (D): 6.3 million 435 EC Teddy Roosevelt (P): 4.1 million 88 EC William Taft (R): 3.5 million 8 EC Eugene Debs (S): .9 million 0 EC

26. 1912

27. 1912? • What was Roosevelt thinking? • Progressive Party as spoiler? Republican Party as spoiler? • Debs and Socialists more than double their support since 1908? Aberration or sign of growth? • Democrat victory, what about Progressivism as a bipartisan ideal?

28. Progressive Amendments • Amendment 16: Income Tax (1913) • Amendment 17: Direct Election of Senators (1913) • Amendment 18: Prohibition (1919) • Amendment 19: Women’s Suffrage (1920) • Amendment ??: Child Labor Act (1924) 28 States ratified, just 10 to go!