Chapter 28

Progressivism and the Republican Party

Essential Question?

• What tactics were most effective in bringing about the social, economic, and political reforms of the Progressive Era?

• How successful were the Progressive Era presidents in leading reform efforts?

Roots of Progressive Movement

• Targets: monopolies, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice.

• 2 Goals: 1. use government power to curb trusts, 2. fight socialism by improving conditions of commoners

• Ancestors: Greenback Party of 1870s– Populist Party of 1890s

• Social reformers of late 1800s– Jane Addams– Jacob Riis

Muckraking

• Journalists that exposed the corruption and wrong-doings of society.

• Lincoln Steffens: “The Shame of the Cities”; exposed corruption of political machines

• Ida Tarbell: wrote an expose on Standard Oil Company

• David Phillips: “The Treason of the Senate”, corruption in Senate selection process.

Political Progressivism

• Direct primary elections• Initiative• Referendum• Recall• Secret ballot• Direct Election of Senators (17th Amendment)• Women’s suffrage

Cities and States

• Cities fight corruption by creating commissions and city-manager.

• Sacrifice efficiency for democracy

• Robert La Follette: progressive governor (Wisc.) and US Senator– Fought trusts and corruption

Progressive Women

• Women began pushing for reforms in the Settlement Houses

• Traditional female roles pushed women toward “motherly” causes– Child labor– Food production– prohibition

• Muller v. Oregon: laws protecting women workers are constitutional– Today considered

discriminatory• 10 hour work days• Triangle Shirtwaist Fire• Women’s Christen

Temperance Movement

TR’s Square Deal

• Teddy’s domestic plan for progressive reform.

• 3 C’s: Control corporations, conservation, and consumer protection.

• 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike– Workers demand fewer hours and higher

wages– Owners refuse and soon a coal shortage

cripples the US.– Roosevelt called the owners and workers

to the White House for arbitration.– Owners refused to give in until TR

threatened to take over the mines with the army.

– Incident lead to the Department of Commerce and Labor

TR and Trust-Busting

• RR were corrupt, and the Interstate Commerce Act was seldom followed.

• Congress created the Elkins Act to eliminate rebates.

• Hepburn Act: eliminated free passes on RR (given to corrupt congressmen)

• TR saw “good trusts” and “bad trusts”, which hurt the public.

• Northern Securities v. US: 1904, TR used the Sherman Antitrust Act to dissolve his first monopoly.

• Other “bad” trusts soon followed• TR hoped that the “good trusts”

would be more agreeable to gov. regulation.

• TR cleaned up some of the corporate problem, but his successor would go even farther, too far in TR’s eyes.

Consumer Protection

• Muckraker Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle” in 1906.

• The tale was meant to show the harsh treatment of immigrants working in Chicago meat-packing plants.

• He also exposed to awful conditions and unsanitary practices of the meat-packing industry.

• Readers, including TR, were repulsed by the disgusting conditions.

• TR and Congress sought to clean up food preparation by passing the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

• Today the progressive legacy is with us each time we buy food made in federally inspected facilities.

Conservation v. Preservation• Early environmental laws: Forest

Reserve Act (allowed pres. To designate land as national parks).

• Many were worried that industrialization was stripping the US of it’s resources.

• TR’s love of the outdoors sparked the era of conservation.

• Groups like the Boy Scouts and Sierra Club fought to save the land.

• Rivers were dammed to irrigate dry areas.

TR preached “multi-use” of resources (parks, controlled logging, irrigation)

Others, called themselves preservationists, and wished that the land be left totally untouched.

TR’s legacy is best remembered whenever you visit a national park or forest.

Panic of 1907• TR announced that he would not

seek reelection in 1908.• Republicans had grown to resent

TR’s regulations, labor agreements, and calls for an income tax.

• The stock market took a dip in 1907.

• Republicans blamed TR’s intervention with businesses as the cause of the crash.

• Real cause was a shortage of currency in circulation.

• Many now saw the need for another national bank (FED in 1913).

1908 Election• TR reluctantly kept his promise and

did not seek reelection.• He chose Sec. of War William Taft

to carry on his progressive reforms.• Taft won the election with 321

votes to Democrat William Bryan’s 162 (Socialist Eugene Debs also received much of the popular vote.)

• TR retired leaving a legacy that included strengthening the power of the president.

• He began to tame capitalism and laid the groundwork for Franklin Roosevelt’s radical reforms of the 1930s.

“Fat” Taft• Taft had been a judge and

governor of the Philippines and Cuba.

• He had none of the flair that TR used to achieve reforms.

• In reality, Taft was a minor progressive, no where near as radical as TR.

Dollar Diplomacy• Wall Street had long invested in

foreign nations.• Under Taft this was increased,