Talking Points Chapter 21/22: Progressivism

  1. What is it? Who made up the Progressive reformers?
  2. 1890-1920
  3. Causes: “action is the sole medium of expression for ethics”-Jane Addams
  4. Unregulated industrialization
  5. Unplanned urbanization
  6. Unrelenting immigration
  7. Unequal distribution of wealth and power
  8. Abusive power of “big business”
  9. Corruption in politics
  10. Goals:
  11. Greater democracy (Honest and efficient govt)
  12. More effective regulation of business
  13. greater social justice for working people
  14. Who were Progressives?
  15. Mostly , Middle class, literate, people with leisure time, men and women, all political parties, diverse jobs, religions
  16. inspired by Populist movement and Mugwumps (anti spoils system)…start of progressive party
  17. Weaknesses of the movement:
  18. Still racially biased (very little focus or gain for blacks)
  19. The Social Gospel
  20. Rich move to suburbs (electric streetcars!),leaving poor in inner cities. Church movement in cities leads to mix of classes and awareness “thou shalt love thy neighbor as themselves
  21. Rejected Social Darwinist view that poor deserve their fate, class lines shouldn’t be part of churches, we should help those less fortunate, if society goes, so will church
  22. YMCA grows in popularity, Salvation Army too
  23. Muckrakers (see chart, discuss) McClure’s, Harpers…usually published in serial format first, then books
  24. Social and Urban Reform
  25. Settlement House movement, Hull house-Addams, South End House, Boston, Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement
  26. Bring together working poor, usually immigrants…teach English, pragmatism rather than preaching, enroll kids in clubs, nurseries, kindergarten, health clinics, lectures, music, art studios, job training, saving bank
  27. Encourage more than just ‘in house” fixes: Local and state laws: housing codes, playgrounds, juvenile courts, pensions, workers comp laws, anti child labor laws, monitoring sweatshops…Addams, Nobel Prize!
  28. Women’s Christian Temperance Union (..like during the Age of Jackson…)…advocated prison reform, aid to homeless kids, and temperance
  29. Social problems result from alcohol abuse
  30. Leads to Prohibition movement and Anti-Saloon League…state 3/4th dry by time 18th amendment is passed in 1919
  31. Carrie A. Nation (smashing and preaching outside saloons)
  32. Child Labor: Florence Kelley…inadequate enforcement of state law regulating child abuse
  33. Federal Children’s Bureau, Keating-Owen Act…banned products sold if made by kids, repealed later, not til 1930s will this be addressed again
  34. Margaret Sanger: nurse and midwife, witnessed too many unwanted pregnancies, miscarriages, amateur abortions, ..women are “doomed” until they can have control over their own reproductive ability, arrested for obscenity with Women Rebel” mag, creates Planned Parenthood in 1921
  35. Falls out of favor when endorses eugenics
  36. Ida B. Wells: lynching stats and laws A Red Record
  37. Environmental protection: (under T. Roosevelt)protect big game animals, works with John Muir, eventually National Park Service created (1916), but he created 50 fed wildlife refuges, 5 new national parks, 51 bird sanctuaries, , 18 national monuments, including Grand Canyon
  38. Forest Reserve Act to protect 172 million acres of land (eventual falling out with friend Gifford Pinchot)
  39. Newlands Act (aka Reclamations Act), construct dams and irrigation in western areas
  40. Public Education: high schools added, mainly to train people for jobs
  41. Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois: fight for great equality for blacks
  42. Political Reforms (Better Democracy)
  43. National Woman Suffrage Association (Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul (crazy radical, protested at Wilson’s inauguration), Liz Cady Stanton, Susan B)
  44. Finally get right in 1919 as part of 19th Amendment as a “thanks” for everything they do in the WWI war effort, tie vote, last guy changes b/c his mother asked him to
  45. Susan B. Anthony leads the way
  46. Lincoln SteffensShame of the Cities
  47. Robert LaFollete: governor WS, direct primary, puts public utilities under got regulation (gas and water socialism)RR regulation, conservation and workmen’s comp and…
  48. Direct primary: all party members choose candidates, instead of “insiders”
  49. Pendleton Act: requires a civil service test for government jobs, ends patronage for merit based jobs
  50. Initiative, referendum (1902)
  51. Recall (1910)
  52. Secret ballot (Australian idea)
  53. Voter registration laws (1899)…started as anti-immigration
  54. Direct election of senators, Beginnings of 17th amendment, finally ratified in 1913
  55. Galveston Hurricane (1901) leads to city departments, city manager plans, elected council and mayor…managers are professional and qualified in their area
  56. 16th amendment in 1913 federal income tax
  57. women’s suffrage (Cary Chapman Catt…work on suffrage in a state by state manner, Alice Paul: forms National Women’s Party, militant, protest at White House, wants National Amendment…becomes 19th )
  58. More Regulation of Business
  59. Taylorism: supposed to make things more efficient, promise of higher wages, but backfires and makes human labor more like machine
  60. Ida Tarbell: History of Standard Oil
  61. 10-12 hour workday: voided in Lochner v NY 1905 (workers have liberty of contract)
  62. Muller v Oregon (1908) upheld 8 hour workday laws for women
  63. Buntin v Oregon (1917) finally agrees to 10 hr workday, but holds out on state minimum wage laws
  64. Triangle Shirtwaist in 1911, 146 dead…leads to workman’s comp
  65. Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890 blows…”gas and water socialism” takes hold as an idea, later strengthen by the Clayton Anti Trust Act (1913)
  66. Federal Trade Commission 1914: unfair trade practices, made companies more transparent
  67. Northern Securities vs Illinois (1902): broke up RR monopoly
  68. 1903 Elkins Act…illegal to give or take RR rebates to buddies
  69. Mann Elkins Act…extend ICC power to telephone and telegraph companies
  70. Hepburn Act...gave ICC power to set max RR freight rates
  71. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle…read from page 954, leads to…Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act
  72. Federal Reserve Act: regulate currency, 12 member banks, fractional banking and interest rate regulator…control the money supply!!
  73. Failures of Progressive Era
  74. Very little progress on anti lynching, Jim Crow
  75. Rundown summary on Booker T and WEB (good link:
  76. Ida B. Wells, Red Record
  77. Women play an active role in the movement, but little progress is made for women (suffrage and temperance the few exceptions)
  78. Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressivism
  79. “bully pulpit”…use the power of the presidency to change the world!
  80. Mark Twain said TR was ready to “kick the Constitution into the backyard if it gets in his way”
  81. “Square Deal”…regulation of businesses, more anti trust! Three C “corporation, consumers, conservation”
  82. 1902 breaks up Northern Securities
  83. Anthracite coal strike…supports United Mine Workers, 9 hr workday and 10% wage increase
  84. Wins in 1904: 336 to 140
  85. Was so pro business Henry Clay Frick said “we bought the son of a bitch, and he did not stay bought!”
  86. Trust regulator: 1890 Sherman Anti Trust ineffective, so he breaks up (Northern Securities and Standard Trust), 40 corporations total, but believed there were “good and bad” trusts
  87. Elkins Act (increased penalties for rate rebates), Hepburn Act (RR rates), strengthened ICC with this
  88. Environmental Guy: myth USA has inexhaustible resources
  89. Goes off in 1909 to Africa after vowing to not run for a 3rd term
  90. William HowardTaft: wins 321 to 162
  91. Surprise Socialist Deb gets 421K votes, never confident in role as prez
  92. Lowered tariff Payne Aldrich Tariff, which raises rates
  93. Gilford Pinchot, Pisses off Roosevelt by building dams in federal conserved lands, so Roosevelt runs against him in 1912…calls Taft a ”hopeless fathead’
  94. P.s. Roosevelt shot on the way to deliver a campaign speech, bullet went through his speech and glasses, and bruised a lung (takes more that that to kill a bull moose!), giving it name Bull Moose”
  95. T.R. Runs on New Nationalism: active federal government
  96. Also Eugene Debs runs as socialist , gets nearly a million votes(shows the public is tired of the slow pace of the reform
  97. Dollar Diplomacy: invest $ in areas key to American power
  98. Woodrow Wilson (educated, smartie, booksworm)
  99. Election of 1912: Roosevelt in Bull Moose Party (New Nationalism, similar to populist progressive…square deal for the poor man)…vote is split 4 ways, Wilson wins the majority
  100. Election of 1912: first in which there was a primary, gave Democrats back power first time since Civil War, brought Southerners back into orbit, weakened the Republicans with the split
  101. “New Freedom”:low tariffs, anti trust laws, bank reforms (Tariffs…1st major reduction in 50 yrs, Trusts, (Clayton AntiTrust and Federal Trade Commission to regulate trusts, and banks…create Federal Reserve Act…fix limited money supply problems:)
  102. Created FTC…anti trust, “unfair trade practices”, “cease and desist” if competition is unfair, outlawed price discrimination
  103. Federal Farm Loan board, Federal Highways Act of 1916
  104. Child Labor Act (prohibits interstate commerce of products made by kids)
  105. Names Louis D. Brandeis (first Jew on Supreme Court)
  106. Never supported women’s suffrage, crazy racists “ignorant and inferior race”, turned conservative at end
  107. Wilson’s foreign policy: Moral Diplomacy: promote democracy to other countries, less imperialism
  108. Mexico having lots of revolutions, Wilson doesn’t like “govt of butchers” under Huerta, gives aid to revolutionaries fighting him (Pancho Villa). Tampico incident
  109. US Naval forces occupy Veracruz, Pancho Villa raids, pissed we are in Mexico, John J. Pershing sent to MX to arrest him, but this doesn’t happen. Growing WWI threat in Europe causes us to pull out of Mexico