The Progressive Era1901-1918

Chapter 21

Don’t Forget About the Notes in Outline Format

• “The value of government actions should be measured by the good they do.”

John Dewey

• “Ignorance is not an excuse. It is the real enemy.”

Ray Stannard Baker

Progressivism: A Preview

7:20

Muckrakers

• Where did the name originate?– Pilgrims Progress (John Bunyan)

• Who gave the journalists this nickname?– Theodore Roosevelt– Because journalist were always looking

downward and were raking filth.

• Most muckrakers were not activists.

• They merely identified problems and argued for reform, but counted on others to accomplish it.

Previously Discussed

• How The Other Half Lives– Jacob Riis

• Poverty and Progress– Edward Bellamy

The Exposés

• Mostly done in magazines such as:– McClure’s– Cosmopolitan– Collier’s

Lincoln Steffens

• Series of articles for McClure’s• Described shocking graft and corruption in city

governments across the nation.• Turned it into the book, The Shame of the Cities.• Impact on History: Encouraged creation of

independent, professional city commissioners and un-elected city managers to handle city affairs and finances

Henry Demarest Lloyd

• Chicago reporter

• Series of articles for Atlantic Monthly, "Story of a Great Monopoly,"

• An exposé of the railroads and Standard Oil.

• 1894 – The Wealth Against Commonwealth.

Ida Tarbell

• Exposé of Standard Oil in McClure’s.

Impact on History:

• Encouraged the "trust-busting" case against Standard Oil (United States v. Standard Oil Co. of NJ)

• Standard Oil broken into 23 smaller companies in 1911

• Increased antitrust legislation passed in the Clayton Antitrust Act (1911)

David Phillips

• Series in Cosmopolitan.

• Exposed the corruption between big business and 75 Senators.

John Spargo

• Bitter Cry of the Children

• Revealed the abuses of child labor.

• Impact on history: Passage of several child labor laws, limiting hours worked and types of work done

Ray Stannard Baker

• Following the Color Line.

• Revealed the long pattern of discrimination against African-Americans in both the North and South.

Frank Norris

• Criticism of the railroad monopolies in the West.

• Novels – fictional. • Impact on History:

– Encouraged the strengthening of the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) via the Hepburn Act of 1906, further regulating RR

– Increased support for regulation or break-up of monopolies

Theodore Dreiser

• Sister Carrie

• The Financier

• The Titan

Upton Sinclair

The Jungle

2:00

• Exposed unsanitary conditions in meat packing plants

• Exposed poor working conditions of many recent immigrants

• Impact on History:– Passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act, requiring

government inspection of food processing facilities – Passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act,

requiring labeling of food products and limiting some ingredients

The Jungle: Impact on History

2:50

Muckraking Declines

• Began in 1910.

• Reasons:– Stories became harder to top.– Publishers were pressured by banks and

businesses to “tone down” attacks.– Businesses were becoming more conscious

of their public image.• Hence – the start of PR firms.

The Job…The Hope

• Muckrakers highlighted the problems and the voters brought the hope.

• Faith in Democracy.

Voter Participation

• Previous elections were done by voters who received a party “ticket”.

• Led to much corruption.

• Reform…

Australian Ballot

• Done in secrecy

• Came from Australia

• 1888 Massachusetts first to adopt

• 1910 All states had adopted.

Direct Primaries

• Before 1903, candidates were nominated by conventions (hand-picking).

• Robert LaFollette (WI)– A proponent of Progressivism and a

vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations.

– Majority vote by the people.• Continued to have voting problems

however.

Getting Rid of the Millionaires Club

• Senate chosen by state legislatures.

• Nevada was first state to change the election process (1899).

Making sure the “Will of the People” is Obeyed

• Methods:• Initiative

– a procedure by which a specified number of voters may propose a statute, constitutional amendment, or ordinance, and compel a popular vote on its adoption.

• Referendum– the principle or practice of referring measures proposed or

passed by a legislative body to the vote of the electorate for approval or rejection.

• Recall– the removal or the right of removal of a public official from office

by a vote of the people taken upon petition of a specified number of the qualified electors.

Progressivism: Legislative Impacts

Urban Reforms

Many ran in opposition to political machines.

Some machines began to work with the reformers.

Cities took over privately owned utilities (water, gas, power).

Cities provided welfare services. - Public bath and parks - Work-relief programs - Playgrounds - Free kindergartens

Reforms at the National Level

Appeared in areas of: - Business and commerce - Environmental preservation - Social legislation

Roosevelt’s Square Deal - UMW Strike

Antitrust Activism - Sherman Antitrust Act Environmental Regulation - Established national parks - National Reclamation Act

Social Legislation - Women’s and Children’s Bureaus

Reforms at the State Level

Reforms to make government more efficient and responsive to voters.

Championed state labor and factory legislation.

Labor departments were established to provide information and dispute-resolution to both sides.

Developed workers accident and compensation system.

Tried to control working conditions - Lochner v. New YorkSuccessful - Woman labor laws. - Muller v. Oregon - Child labor laws

Temperance and Prohibition

Lochner v. New York (1905)

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

The Brandeis Brief

• 1907– Hired by Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark (sister-in-law)

to represent the state of Oregon in Muller v. Oregon (208 US 412)

– Case before the US Supreme Court that involved the constitutionality of limiting hours for female laundry workers.

• To support his argument that overwork was inimical to the workers' health, he compiled a number of statistics from medical and sociological journals and listed citations to the articles in his brief.

• He won the case.• He “fathered” a legal landmark in its own right. • Briefs that cited non-legal data quickly became

commonplace and became known as "Brandeis briefs."

Louis D. BrandeisSupreme Court Justice 1916-1939

Square Deal

2:14

Triangle Shirtwaist

5:38

Quotation by

George Washington Plunkett

• “A reformer can’t last in politics. He can make a show for a while, but he always comes down like a rocket. Politics is as much a regular business as the grocery or dry goods or the drug business. You’ve got to be trained up to it or you’re sure to fail.”

Quoted in Riordan, William L. Plunkett of Tammany Hall. Dutton, 1963, pg. 19).

• Do you agree or disagree with Plunkett? Do you think a newcomer to politics, an outsider, can make a difference? Explain both your answers.

Taft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole

“Everybody Loves a Fat Man”

• Roosevelt’s hand-picked choice.• Taft was very jovial and personally

popular.• Taft had many lethal political handicaps.

– Adopted a passivity toward Congress.– Poor judge of public opinion.

• “foot-in-mouth” disease.

• A mild progressive, wedded to the status quo rather than change.

The Dollar Goes Abroad as a Diplomat

• Spheres of Influence.– China – Manchuria specifically

• “Dollar diplomacy”

• Preempting investors from rival powers (Germany) by investing and bringing home to America prosperity.

• Also strengthened American defenses and foreign policy.

The Yankee Lake

HondurasHaiti

Nicaragua

Dominican Republic,

Taft the Trustbuster

• Taft – 90 suits (4 years)– Roosevelt – 44 (7½ years)

• Most famous: Standard Oil Company

BUT…

• “Rule of Reason”– Decision made by Supreme Court– 1911

• Ruling stated: That only combinations that “unreasonably” restrained trade were illegal.

• Ripped a huge hole in the government’s antitrust net.

A Relationship Ruined Completely…

• 1911 Taft decided to press Anti-trust suit against U.S. Steel Corporation.

• Infuriated Roosevelt

Taft Splits the Republican Party

• Agreed to lower tariffs, but something happened…– Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (R-RI) tacked on items that

raised the tariffs.– Taft signed Payne-Aldrich Bill

• Conservation– Contributions actually surpassed Roosevelt– Est. Bureau of Mines– Rescued millions of acres from exploitation (coal).– Protected water-power sites from private ownership.

Ballinger-Pinchot Quarrel

• Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger

• Gifford Pinchot, chief of the Agriculture Department’s Division of Forestry.

• Pinchot (friend of Roosevelt) criticized Ballinger and was dismissed by Taft.

• Republican’s who supported Pinchot loudly protested.

Roosevelt Returns

• On safari in Africa.

• Osawatomie, Kansas stump speech.

• “New Nationalism”– Government intervention to increase to

remedy economic and social abuses.

Stage Set for a Bruising Confrontation

The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture

• 1911 – Getting ready for another election…

• National Progressive Republican League formed.– Senator Robert LaFollette (WI) as Republican

presidential candidate.

• Roosevelt grows increasingly furious at Taft.• Decides to change views about third term.

– “My hat is in the ring!”

The Playbill…

• Taft – Republican

• LaFollette – Progressive Republican

• Roosevelt – Bull Moose Republican– “I’m as strong as a bull moose.”

• Wilson - Democrat

The “Bull Moose” Campaign of 1912

• Wilson– National Convention in Baltimore (June/July)– “New Freedom”

• Stronger antitrust legislation, banking reform, and tariff reductions, small enterprise, and entrepreneurship.

• Roosevelt– Convention in Chicago (August)– Jane Addams provided nomination.

• Taft– Convention in Chicago (June)

The only president to have earned a doctorate (Ph.D.)