The Progressive Era PDF

THE PROGRESSIVE ERA THE PROGRESSIVE ERA BIG QUESTION: To what extent were the Progressives successful in achieving their reform goals? Tracing change & continuity between the progressive presidents and from the Gilded to the Progressive Era. ...

THE PROGRESSIVE ERA THE PROGRESSIVE ERA BIG QUESTION: To what extent were the Progressives successful in achieving their reform goals? Tracing change & continuity between the progressive presidents and from the Gilded to the Progressive Era.  IN 1900… The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47. Only 8% of homes had a telephone and a three minute call from Denver to New York cost $11. Only 14% of homes had a bathtub. There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S. and 144 miles of paved roads. The average wage in the U.S. was only 22 cents/hour and the average American worker made $200-$400/year. More than 95% of births took place in the home. 90% of all American doctors had no college education. Instead they attended medical schools that were reportedly “substandard.” Most women washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo. The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were 1.Pneumonia and Influenza 2.Tuberculosis 3.Diarrhea 4.Heart Disease 5. Stroke Drive-by shootings- in which teenage boys galloped down the street and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else- was an ongoing problem throughout the West. Las Vegas, Nevada had a population of only 30 people. Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine. Only one in ten U.S. adults could read or write. Only 6% of Americans graduated from High School. 18% of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant. There were about 230 reported annual murders… in the entire country. PROGRESSIVISM (1890s-1920s) ▪ A movement of mostly middle class men and women who were convinced society could no longer afford to be laissez-faire. ▪ Waged a war against monopoly, corruption & social injustice. ▪ Wanted to regain power that had slipped from the hands of the people to the “monied interests” ▪ Wanted to strengthen the state & saw the government as a potential protector of social welfare 5 EXPANDING DEMOCRACY ▪ INITIATIVE - citizens can directly propose legislation ▪ REFERENDUM - voting directly on a piece of legislation (like propositions) ▪ RECALL - voters can petition to have a corrupt politician removed from office ▪ SECRET BALLOT - avoid coercion ▪ DIRECT PRIMARY - voters select candidates vs. party bosses 6 PROGRESSIVE AMENDMENTS ▪ 16TH AMENDMENT (1913) - income tax ▪ 17TH AMENDMENT (1913) - direct election of senators ▪ 18TH AMENDMENT (1919) - prohibition - didn’t rely on alcohol tax due to income tax ▪ 19TH AMENDMENT (1920)- women’s suffrage GOALS OF POPULISTS ACHIEVED 7 MUCKRAKING Investigative journalists trying to bring public attention to societal problems that needed to be fixed. ▪ Jacob Riis - “How the Other Half Lives” ▪ Lincoln Steffens -“The Shame of the Cities,” ▪ Ida Tarbell exposed corrupt tactics of Standard Oil ▪ Upton Sinclair - “The Jungle” 8  HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES JACOB RIIS HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES JACOB RIIS HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES JACOB RIIS 12 WOMEN IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA ▪ Women typically framed activities as an extension of the “domestic sphere”-- not a challenge. ▪ Settlement Houses & literary clubs ▪ Florence Kelley led National Consumers League & became a factory inspector ▪ WCTU joined with Anti-Saloon League ▪ Increased activism in the Suffrage movement 13 REFORMS FOR WORKERS ▪ MULLER V. OREGON (1908) - accepted the constitutionality of laws protecting women workers by presenting evidence of the harmful effects of factory labor on women's weaker bodies ▪ TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE (1911) - doors were locked and windows were too high for them to get to the ground. ▫ Dramatized the poor working conditions and let to federal regulations to protect workers. 14 STOP & DISCUSS: TO WHAT EXTENT & IN WHAT WAYS DID THESE DEVELOPMENTS REPRESENT A CHANGE FROM THE GILDED AGE? STOP & DISCUSS: SELECT 2 OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED & EXPLAIN HOW THEY ARE CONNECTED. TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S DOMESTIC POLICIES ▪ “Square Deal” for capital, labor & the public at large ▪ 3 Cs: control corporations, consumer protection & conservation ▪ Sided with strikers in 1902 ▪ 1903 - est. Dept of Labor & Commerce ▪ Differentiated between “good” & “bad” trusts → attacked JP Morgan’s Northern Securities Co. ▪ Conservationism - worked with John Muir Gifford Pinchot to set aside national forests & made plans to irrigate the arid west 16  THE “BIG STICK” OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT Panama Canal: 1901 - Under the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, the U.S. was authorized to construct and manage a Central American canal but the canal zone would be neutral and open to free trade. ○ Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty finalizes agreement Roosevelt Corollary - the U.S. would handle any “necessary” intervention in Latin America on behalf of “SPEAK SOFTLY & CARRY A BIG STICK” Europe, keeping the Monroe Doctrine intact→ unpopular with Latin America which saw US as a bully → “bad neighbor” TAFT’S DOMESTIC POLICIES ▪ The true “TRUST BUSTER” - US foreign investment by 1914 dissolved Standard Oil (1911) & went after US Steel → rift with TR ▪ Taft established the Bureau of Mines & added large tracts in the Appalachians to the national forest reserves ▪ Mann-Elkins Act (1910) gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to audit new railroad rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies. 19 TAFT’S FOREIGN POLICY ▪ DOLLAR DIPLOMACY - use American investment abroad to boost American political influence ▫ Pumped money into Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic & Nicaragua to “prevent economic & political instability” 20 WILSONIAN PROGRESSIVISM AT HOME & ABROAD ELECTION OF 1912 ▪ Taft was the incumbent Republican president (more conservative/”Old Guard”) challenged by Roosevelt who forms his own party ▫ Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party advocates for “New Nationalism” ▪ Wilson, supported by William Jennings Bryan, secures the Democratic nomination ▫ New Freedom: stronger anti-trust laws, banking reform, and tariff reduction. ▪ Eugene Debs - Socialist Party (most radical) gets 900,000 popular votes 22 PLATFORMS IN THE ELECTION OF 1912 ROOSEVELT TAFT WILSON NEW NATIONALISM - Progressive NEW FREEDOM - smaller strong president & more conservatism…? Doesn’t gov & favored small active gov role in really campaign enterprise, economic & social affairs, entrepreneurship, and the continued breaking up bad free unregulated but trusts, women’s suffrage, un-monopolized markets. DEBS minimum wage laws, and trade unionist, one of the Opposed social welfare socialistic insurance founding members of the programs; break down Industrial Workers of the “triple wall of ADD TO World (Wobblies), privilege” (banks, tariffs DOMESTIC denounced the Capitalist & trusts) system POLICY NOTES 24 25  WILSON’S IDEALISM ▪ “New Freedom” favored small enterprise, entrepreneurship & unregulated, un-monopolized free markets ▫ This itself was idealistic as lack of regulation often led to development of monopolies. ▪ He was less pragmatic and unwilling to compromise than Roosevelt ▪ Tackling the Tariff: Underwood Tariff passed despite lobbyists’ protests → reduced tariffs ADD TO ▪ Took on another part of the “triple wall of privilege”: BANKS → urged DOMESTIC POLICY sweeping reforms of the banking system NOTES ▫ Federal Reserve Act - increased amount of currency in circulation ▪ Federal Farm Loan Act - low interest loans (Populist goal) 26 WILSON & THE TRUSTS ADD TO DOMESTIC ▪ TRUSTS = 3rd part of the “wall of privilege” POLICY ▪ Federal Trade Commission Act - presidentially NOTES appointed commission could actively investigate businesses engaging in interstate commerce ▪ Clayton Anti-Trust Act - widened the scope of business practices considered objectionable (ex. Interlocking directorates in which individuals served as directors of allegedly competing firms) ▫ Benefitted labor by exempting labor and agricultural orgs from anti-trust prosecution & explicitly legalized strikes 27  WILSON’S FOREIGN POLICY ▪ MORAL DIPLOMACY ▫ Suspicious of Wall Street, he opposed Taft’s “dollar diplomacy” → Announced America would no longer offer special support to investors in Latin America or Asia ▪ Anti-Imperialist ideas: ended US exemption on Panama Canal tolls and promised Philippines independence ▪ Haiti - 1915 sent Marines to protect American lives and property in the face of turmoil → remained for 19 years as a US protectorate ▪ Mexico - Revolution in Mexico put Huerta in power → US refused to intervene but also refused to recognize Huerta’s regime ▫ Allowed US arms to flow to his rivals: Carranza & Villa ▫ Eventually did send navy to port of Veracruz & sent Gen. John J. Pershing to break up the bandit bands 28  DOMESTIC POLICY OF THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS ROOSEVELT TAFT WILSON SQUARE DEAL → Busted more trusts than → Federal Reserve Act (1913) - → conservation of natural Roosevelt, incl. Standard Oil, president appt. Federal resources (230 million acres of the American Tobacco Reserve Board with power to land for national parks with John Company, & the American issue paper money Muir & Gifford Pinchot) Sugar Refining Company → Underwood Tariff reduces → corporate regulation (Elkins tariffs & Hepburn Act & strengthening → minimal tariff reforms: of ICC; used Sherman Anti-Trust Payne-Aldrich Bill → 16th Amendment creates Act as it was intended) graduated income taxes RECAP & → consumer protection (ex. IDENTIFY → The Clayton Anti-Trust Act Pure Food & Drug Act) CCOT - officially legalized strikes STOP & DISCUSS: IDENTIFY CHANGES AND CONTINUITY BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTS & FROM THE GILDED AGE. 29  FOREIGN POLICY OF THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS ROOSEVELT TAFT WILSON → "speak softly, but carry DOLLAR DIPLOMACY - MORAL DIPLOMACY - U.S. a big stick" make countries dependant would encourage countries → Great white fleet on the U.S. by heavily to adopt democratic ideals investing in their → Roosevelt Corollary economies → sent marines to Haiti, → Open Door Policy to undermining “anti- increase trade with China imperialist” ideals → Panama Canal → Kept control of → Opposed Huerta in Mexico Philippines RECAP & by sending aid to rivals IDENTIFY CCOT STOP & DISCUSS: IDENTIFY CHANGES AND CONTINUITY BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTS & FROM THE GILDED AGE. 30