Chapter 21 Notes (The Progressive Era)

Notes by Thomas Heissenberger. 1/31/2011 Feel free to edit any mistakes or edit/submit notes.

The Many Faces of Progressivism

• Growing middle class transformed city life as well as shaped progressive movement
  • Protestants were the front line fighters in this movement (leaders, protesters)
• Growth of white collar class goes from 5.1 mil to 10.5
  • Professions such as engineering, secretaries, businessmen, techs, desk workers lawyers etc.
  • Professional groups rise as well, AAUP, and AAAA.
  • Young women got stereotypical jobs, school teachers, clerks, typists.
  • Divorce rate for women rose in this busy families
• Urban political machine driven by immigrants also heavily influenced the progressive movement.
• What is progressivism? It was a broad-based response to the industrialization and the problems that came, such as immigrant and urban expansion. Most Progressives were reformers, not radicals. They were people who wished to make industrial life more humane, not overthrow them or create a massive protest like the labor unions in the past.

Intellectuals Offer New Social Views

• Some believed Darwin's theory of evolution was true and should be used to justify the big business.
• Other's attacked these points of views or had their own such as ...
  • Thorstein Veblen
    • He attacked big business and heavily criticized the rich capitalists.
  • William Jones
    • Basically rambled about the reasons of life's practical actions...
  • Herbert Croly
    • Claimed new ideas could transform society, stated the government should create a branch for the general welfare of the people. Not too bad of an idea actually!
  • Jane Addams
    • Argued the well being of one depends on the well being of everyone, was also a women activists.
• Public school enrollment goes from 7 mil in 1870 to 23 by 1920.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed that judicial ideals need to change as the time changes as well. Good point

Novelists, Journalists and Artists Spotlight Social Problems

• Advances in media copying allowed papers and novels to spread at a new rate.
• These progressives spotlighted problems such as railroad corruption, intimidation, tycooning and also political scandals.
• muckrakers are authors who over expose all social problems media. Theodore Roosevelt criticized them.
  • these authors helped shake the middle class and expose the problems, also photographers helped portray the problems in greater detail.

Reforming the Political Process

• Middle Class / Social Elites decide to fight political corruption (prominent activists)
• Success stories such as the take down of Tammany Hall, SF newspaper crusade against Abe Ruef.
• This reform threw out a lot of political cronies.
  • Also exposed hidden monopolies and the sole problems of political imbalance or economic tension.
• 1910 all states changed from the old voting method so it was now harder to rig ballots.
• Voter participation dropped steeply during the progressive age.

Regulating Business, Protecting Workers

• Child labor was an issue, people still worked long hours, sometimes up to 13 hours.
• Companies did not accept worker related injuries
• Companies adopted policies of efficiency comes with reward.
• Corporations benefited from high protective tariffs, but because of this reformers said they also should be subject to government supervision.
• [Robert La Follette] took lead in RR, mining and other business regulating. Defiantly challenged big business, and created corporate taxes.
• 1907, 30 states and outlawed child labor.
• Triangle Disaster happens(a big fire that killed lots of workers)
  • NY passes 56 worker protection laws and fire safety inspection laws.
  • States make employers responsible for injuries or death.
• Worker safety research increases especially over unsafe material such as lead or medical hazards. Another was the granite drills that lead to a deadly respiratory disease, silicosis.

Making Cities More Livable

• NY and Chicago both had over 1 million people. NY had 2.2 mil.
• Rapid expansion in cities created horrific living conditions, no municipal services or civic amenities.
  • Leads to city modernization and planning, traffic resdisging, sewage, municipal water etc. Preserving urban beauty, parks, waterfronts etc.
    • This change in cities had immediate positive results.
    • Battle against airpolution takes place as well. Company chimneys spread awful soot and smoke, and increase pollution restrictions.
      • Companies fight back in court, win quite a few cases. Tough nut to crack.

Moral Control in the Cities

• Bustling boom in cities --> Entertainment
  • Vaudeville
  • Department stores
  • Music halls
  • Theaters
  • Amusement parks
• All provided fun and family rec. time, electricity helps boom more such as street cars and trolleys, Signs and light posts.
• Orville and Wilbur Wright fly the first airplane ever.
• Movies from theaters bring massive change in entertainment. Allowed children and teens freedom
• Reformers also fought against this entertainment, feared disorder, wanted censorship.
• Prostitution becomes a big problem, some women realized it was more economical than a factory.
  • Laws created against prostitution. Fear of STD's, and the Social Evil.
• The Mann Act of 1910 bans transporting a women across state lines for "immoral purposes"

Battling Alcohol and Drugs

• peepee boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy [Anti-Saloon League] shifts it's attention to creating a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages, did this well.
  • Used local churches to gain support, wanted national prohibition.
• This era had heavy issues with alcohol and domestic abuse and health problems.
• Drugs such as opium and cocain were freely distributed without regulations
• 1914 Narcotics Act banned the distribution of Heroin, cocain, morphine and other addictive drugs.

Immigration Restriction and Eugenics

• Immigration is the main source of urban growth since they arrived on the coast.
• Immigrants consist of Mexicans, Europeans, Chinese and Japanese.
• Middle class felt immigrants were to blame for the urban expansion problems.
• Immigrants must have been able to read and write, a literacy test, to come into america. They must also be healthy.
• Charles B. Davonport urged immigration restriction so genetics would not mix up and America would remain the elite (lol)

Racism and Progressivism

• Most blacks lived in the rural south, not the North. 1/5 moved north into cities due to floods.
  • Took jobs at ports, factories, RR etc.
• South creates segregation laws especially on public services like school, parks, cemeteries etc. Black's had it very harshly.
• Anti black mobs exploded during the early 1900s. Mods, lynching, mutilations. Awful, awful stuff.
  • Dreadful times bring mixed new goals in the Progressive movement. These are objectives to address racism, however most progressives remained silent over the black issue at hand.
• Theodore Roosevelt was forgiving on the blacks, he appointed a black customs official. He dined with Booker T. Washington at the White House.
• Woodrow Wilson was the opposite and racism grew rampant in Washington.

African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism

• Booker T. Washington seemed unrealistic to Northern Blacks. Felt they needed to be more civilized. Other blacks HEAVILY criticized him as a big blow to black rights.
• Ida Wells-Barnett launched a massive anti-lynching campaign. She was an amazing speaker and writer. She lectured against lynching and racial abuse.
• Booker T Washington's competition was W.E.B. De Bios. He rejected Washington's patient black integration views and instead wanted full equality-- right then.
• His damn-hard resistance lead to a rise in militaristic activity.
• NAACP forms, advocates sustained activism.

Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement

• Women could only vote in 4 states by 1910. This new movement was the after result of Great Britain suffrage movement that just took place.
• No success until 1911, Cali approves of women suffrage.
• Carrie Champman Catt takes over as president for the NAWSA organization. Her techniques and leadership leads to nearly instant results. State after state approves, like dominoes falling over. Some found her technique to slow.

Enlarging "Woman's Sphere"

• Women wanted better conditions especially for children. Safe food, playgrounds, no child labor.
• Women also wanted education, and did not want to be confined domestically.
  • Birthcontrol! Some states banned
• Margret Sanger begins crusade for birthcontrol, but she was nearly accused and fled to England.

Workers Organize, Socialism Advances

• Labor unions continued to expand at the time. The AFL now had 4 million members by 1920. AFL was comprised of skilled laborers. Executed succesful strikes.
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Rise
  • Made of miners, lumberjacks, fruit pickers, and other different laborers.
  • Executed massive strikes against mines, rebel like activity.
• Some workers turned to socialism for answers, this deems the public ownership of factories, utilities and railroads and all of the systems. These views differed in different variations depending on the ideologists. Karl Marx was the creator of this.
• Socialist Party of America forms, Eugene V. Debs is part of this. He was the leader of the group.

Roosevelt's Path to the White House

• William McKinely (president at the time) is shot, he dies. Roosevelt takes over.
• Politicans feared Roosevelt taking over in office at the whitehouse. Thought of him as a Western cowboy.
• He was a very tough, selfmade president, his wife died, he was a body builder, he has seen hardships. He knew his shit. He was also a very good speaker and like attention, he represented this quite well and captivated the public.
  • NOTE: The Teddy bear is nicknamed after him because he was scared to shoot a bear on a hunting trip. Who would have guessed.

Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, Railroad Regulation

• Mine workers (UMW Union) commits to a strike against mines for higher wagers and shorter hours and also to be recognized as a union. TR took action.
• Forced both parties to accept an agreement, does it effectively. Miners given 10% wage increase and time cut down by 1 hour.
• TR dealt swiftly and firmly with business tycoons. He was unbiased and indifferential to them.
• TR also dealt swiftly with J.P. Morgan, he wanted to break up those big monopolies and trusts. This is the rise of trustbusting. Files 43 other antitrust lawsuits.
• TR now set his eyes on the railroad, he wanted to regulate it.
  • Sets the Hepburn Act of 1906. This law allows the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum railroad rates and examine railroads financial records as they please.

Consumer Protection

• Campaigns against unsafe foods, drugs and medicine proved most popular.
• Upton Sinclair's The Jungle graphically described the foul conditions in some meat packing plants. It graphically described how disgusting the meat was... horrible stuff.
• TR supported the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act which both passed in 1906. It imposed strict sanitary rules and regulations.

Environmentalism Progressive-Style

• 35 Million acres set aside as national forests. Boy scouts form, want to give people a slice of wilderness.
• TR appoints Gifford Pinchot who instead of preservation, encouraged conservation, living on the land and using it but respecting it as well.
• TR backed the National Reclamation Act of 1902 which designated money from public land sales for water management in wester parts and construct dams and irrigation projects.
• Roosevelt Dam in Arizona spurred the growth of cities such as Phoenix. These land projects were paid by in taxes from farmers who helped further pay for new government projects.
  • Projects created to divert precious water on the West Coast to cities such as LA or Arizona / NM / Nevada.
• Congress is pissed at TR for setting aside land and restrict his right on some states. TR creates 53 Wildlife reserves.

Taft in the White House, 1909-1913

• Roosevelt had pleged not run a 3rd term, William Howard Taft is nominated as president. Roosevelt endorsed him. Taft was the like exact opposite of him. TR = Slim, Taft = fat.
  • Taft did do good things and infact busted more trusts than TR.
  • Taft has a big problem over the tariff issue at hand. Congress pushes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff. Congress slaps Taft around a bit.
• A controversy arises, Taft hates controversies. Public outlook criticizes government action.

The Four-Way Election of 1912

• Roosevelt announces his candidacy for Republicans, Taft wants a second term, he also has the upper advantage due to the political machine. TR gets raged and forms the Progressive Party.
• Woodrow Wilson wins the presidency due to Roosevelt splitting the Republican Party. Easily wins.

Tariff and Banking Reform

• Lowering tariff rates was on Wilson's agenda
  • Low tariff bill passes quickly but bogged down in senate, senate then got negative publicity and decided to slash the tariff even more to look good.
• Wilson calls for a currency and banking reform, since the nations banking system needed an overhaul. However, politicians pushed for privately controlled banks similar to banks such as the Bank of England so they could compete with English banks in international finance.
• Federal Reserve Act of 1913, mixed control under 12 banks, each of them could issue money and the bank ownership was assigned in 14 year terms of commission by the president. National Banking was back it seems!

Regulating Business; Aiding Workers and Farmers

• Federal Trade Commission is the new watchdog agency, has power to investigate violations of federal regulations. This also requires reports from corporations on regular intervals.
  • Corporation activity was shut down in the findings of violations
  • Clayton Antitrust Act and Sherman Act of 1890 outlined the rules very clearly. The agency soon began to file hundreds of lawsuits.
• Keating-Owen Act barred commerce products manufactured by child labor.
• Adamson Act established an 8 hour day work shift for interstate railroad workers.
• Federal Farm Loan act and Federal Warehouse Act enabled farmers using their lands, to get low-interest on federal loans so they could grow crops without massive debt.
• Federal Highway Act promoted automobile growth as well.

Progressivism and the Constitution

• Muller v. Oregon
  • Supreme court upheld an Oregon 10 hour law for women workers, court rejected claim of interlocking rights. It upheld worker rights. A breakthrough somewhat.
• New supreme judge, 4 amendment changes.
  • 17th Amendment - U.S. senators must be voted by the public instead of state legislature.
  • 18th Amendment - prohibited the manufacture, sale or importing of "intoxicating liquids" PROHIBITION!

1916: Wilson Edges Out Hughes

• Wilson wins second election and is renominated and wins presidency easily.
• Progressive movement lost momentum as America spun into World War 1