P6 | APUSH | Wiley | Sources on the Progressive Era, D___Name:

The “Progressive Era” (roughly 1900-1920) was an era of social activism and political, economic, and social reform at all levels of government, aimed at curing many of the ills of American society that had developed during the Industrial, Gilded Age (roughly 1870s-1900). This document will provide an overview of some of the important sources and people of the Era.

A. Source: The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (1906)

Background: Upton Sinclair’s family had once belonged to the southern aristocracy but, at Sinclair’s birth, the family hovered near poverty. When he was fifteen, he began writing to support himself and help pay his college expenses. During his college years, Sinclair encountered socialist philosophy, the influence of which is evident in his writing throughout his life, and became an avid supporter of the Socialist Party.

In 1904, the editors of the popular socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason sent Sinclair to Chicago to examine the lives of stockyard workers. He spent seven weeks in the city’s meatpacking plants, learning every detail about the work itself, the home lives of workers, and the structure of the business. The Jungle was born from this research. The first few publishers whom Sinclair approached told him that his novel was too shocking, and he financed a first publication of the book himself. Eventually, however, Sinclair did find a willing commercial publisher, and in 1906, The Jungle was published in its entirety. With the instant success of The Jungle, Sinclair took his place in the ranks of the “muckrakers,” a term that Theodore Roosevelt coined in 1906 to refer to a group of journalists who devoted themselves to exposing the ills of industrialization. The Jungle raised a public outcry against the unhealthy standards in the meatpacking industry and provoked the passage of The Meat Inspection Act and The Pure Food and Drug Act, both passed in 1906 under the Roosevelt administration. The novel’s success satisfied Sinclair’s financial concerns but not his political motivations for writing it. Sinclair intended the book to raise public consciousness about the plight of the working poor and elicit support for the Socialist movement, but he relied on a technique that emphasized the physically revolting filth and gore of the stockyards. As a result, the novel caused outrage about the unsanitary quality of the meat that was sold in stores rather than the oppression of the poor. The public pressed less for the socialist reforms that Sinclair backed than the public reform to food laws. The image of all kinds of waste being dumped in with the consumer’s product is surely revolting; that it is dumped in without any regard for the consumer by greedy capitalists is infuriating. Sinclair himself stated: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”

Excerpt: The meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water—and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast.

1. Explain what Sinclair meant when he said: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”

2. What legislation was passed as a result of The Jungle?

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B. Source: Jacob Riis photography (c. 1900)

Background: How the Other Half Lives (1890) was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. Riis, a Danish immigrant, had been working as a police reporter for The New York Tribune, a job that gave him intimate familiarity with the most notorious slums in the city. Riis’s book served as a basis for future muckraking journalism by exposing the slums to New York City's upper and middle class who, according to Riis, were out of touch. Riis documented the filth, disease, exploitation, and overcrowding that characterized the experience of more than one million immigrants and other poor peoples in an attempt to “sear the Gilded Age conscience.” He helped push tenement reform to the front of New York's political agenda. Riis was among the first in the United States to conceive of photographic images as instruments for social change. His sympathetic portrayal of his subjects emphasized their humanity and bravery amid deplorable conditions, and encouraged a more sensitive attitude towards the poor in the U.S. Riis’s and other muckraker’s work, along with the Social Gospel movement, helps to explain the surge in settlement houses during the Progressive Era, which brought medical care and education to many urban poor.

President Roosevelt said of Riis, “The countless evils which lurk in the dark corners of our civic institutions, which stalk abroad in the slums, and have their permanent abode in the crowded tenement houses, have met Mr. Riis, their most formidable opponent.”

3. What influence did Jacob Riis have on the Progressive Era?

4. Why do you suspect his photos, like the ones pictured here, had such an effect on the upper and middle classes?

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C. Source: The Antiquities Act (1906)

Background: Conservation increasingly became one of Roosevelt's main concerns. After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt helped pass the Antiquities Act (1906), which he used to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest Service (USFS) and establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments. During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt protected approximately 230 million acres of public land. Today, the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt is found across the country. There are six national park sites dedicated, in part or whole, to the conservationist president. Here are some noteworthy quotes from Roosevelt on the environment: 1) "We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, iron, oil, and gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers and obstructing navigation." 2) "It is vandalism to destroy or permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, forest, or species of mammal or bird. Here in the U.S. we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy forests, and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals -- not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at last it looks as if our people were awakening." 3) After camping in Yosemite: "It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man."

5. What constitutional basis is there for the Antiquities Act? Revisit Period 3 materials on the Constitution.

6. Should presidents today continue in Roosevelt’s footsteps with regards to the environment/conservation movement?

D. Source: Progressive Party Platform, 1912

Background: The presidential election of 1912 was a four-way race that brought out third party candidates and a former president. Theodore Roosevelt, former president of the United States, actually won most of the Republican primaries, even in President William Howard Taft's home state of Ohio. Despite Roosevelt's popular support, he was not able to overcome the power of Taft's supporters within the Republican Party. [In the early 20th century, the Republican Party was becoming more conservative.

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Remember, when the party formed in 1854, it reflected former Whig and Federalist principles, supporting a much larger, more activist federal government than the opposing parties.] Those Republicans upset with Taft’s conservatism refused to support his nomination at the Republican National convention and, instead, formed the Progressive Party and named Theodore Roosevelt as their candidate.

During a campaign speech in Wisconsin, TR was shot at close range, but the gunman failed to kill the former president because the force of the bullet was reduced by an eyeglasses case and a speech manuscript in the breast pocket of Roosevelt's overcoat. With the bullet still in his body, he told the crowd, 'You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose.' Only after his speech was over did he go to the hospital. This is how the Progressive Party has become known as the 'Bull Moose Party.'

Taft (Republican) Wilson (Democrat) Debs (Socialist) TR (Progressive)Taft had a solid antitrust record, using ninety lawsuits against the trusts during his time as president. Taft supported high import tariffs, limitations on child and female labor, and workmen's compensation laws. He was against initiative, referendum and recall—all methods to increase democracy. He was reluctant to act on conservation reform.

Wilson wanted to make business and government, smaller. He wanted to implement antitrust legislation to eliminate monopolies, viewing big business as unfair and inefficient. Wilson felt that big business reduced opportunity for many ordinary Americans. He sought an era of small government, small businesses, and free competition. Wilson was critical of organized labor, socialism, and radical farmers.

Debs was a labor organizer who advocated for public ownership of the railroads and utilities, no tariffs, a shortened work day, a minimum wage, an income tax, and a system of social insurance against unemployment and industrial accidents and death. He also advocated for the election of the president and vice president by direct vote of the people. He maintained that the other political parties were financed by the large trusts.

Roosevelt's platform formed around his “New Nationalism” principles, which included a broad range of social and political reforms, including a federal child labor law, federal workmen's compensation, regulation of labor relations, and a minimum wage for women. The Progressive Party also advocated for more democracy: initiative, referendum, recall, and direct election of senators. Roosevelt differentiated between good and bad trusts and claimed that big business should be strictly regulated in the public interest. He believed in the protection of workers and consumers and in environmental protection. The Progressive Party was the only party to advocate women's suffrage, or the right to vote, at the national level.

Wilson and the Democrats won with 435 electoral votes, Roosevelt and the Progressive 'Bull Moose' Party came in second with 88 electoral votes, while Taft and the Republican Party came in third with 8 electoral votes. Debs did not score any electoral votes, but he did manage to earn 6% of the popular vote, the highest proportion ever for the Socialist party. It was clear that the split in the Republican Party has contributed to the Democrats' victory.

The 1912 election was significant for several reasons. It was the high point of the progressive movement in terms of progressive ideals and rhetoric at the national level. In this election, a third party candidate, Roosevelt of the Progressive Party, beat one of the two major party candidates, Taft of the Republican Party. Wilson's victory brought the Democrats back in power of the national government for the first time since before the Civil War. The Democrats gained both houses of Congress, as well as the presidency, bringing southern leadership and influence to the national government.

Despite its loss, the strong showing of the Progressive Party signaled the emergence of a significant force in U.S. political history. It also reflected a rising progressive spirit in the United States. Although TR lost the election, much of his, and the progressive platform, was enacted during Wilson's presidency.

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Excerpt: The conscience of the people, in a time of grave national problems, has called into being a new party, born of the nation’s sense of justice. We of the Progressive party here dedicate ourselves to the fulfillment of the duty laid upon us by our fathers to maintain the government of the people, by the people and for the people whose foundations they laid. We hold with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln that the people are the masters of their Constitution, to fulfill its purposes and to safeguard it from those who, by perversion of its intent, would convert it into an instrument of injustice. In accordance with the needs of each generation the people must use their sovereign powers to establish and maintain equal opportunity and industrial justice, to secure which this Government was founded and without which no republic can endure. This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Its resources, its business, its institutions and its laws should be utilized, maintained or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest. It is time to set the public welfare in the first place.

THE OLD PARTIES From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they

have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.

Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.

EQUAL SUFFRAGE The Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a true democracy which denies political rights on account

of sex, pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike.

SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial

justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for: Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary

unemployment, and other injurous effects incident to modern industry;

The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations…;

The prohibition of child labor;

One day’s rest in seven for all wage workers;

The eight-hour day in continuous twenty-four hour industries;

Publicity as to wages, hours and conditions of labor; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases, and the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products;

Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the industry, and thus to the community;

The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use;

We favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their interests and of promoting their progress.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

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We pledge our party to establish a department of labor with a seat in the cabinet, and with wide jurisdiction over matters affecting the conditions of labor and living.

BUSINESS The corporation is an essential part of modern business. The concentration of modern business, in some degree, is both

inevitable and necessary for national and international business efficiency. But the existing concentration of vast wealth under a corporate system, unguarded and uncontrolled by the Nation, has placed in the hands of a few men enormous, secret, irresponsible power over the daily life of the citizen — a power insufferable in a free Government and certain of abuse.

This power has been abused, in monopoly of National resources, in unfair competition and unfair privileges, and finally in sinister influences on the public agencies of State and Nation. We do not fear commercial power, but we insist that it shall be exercised openly, under publicity, supervision and regulation of the most efficient sort, which will preserve its good while eradicating and preventing its ill.

CONSERVATION The natural resources of the Nation must be promptly developed and generously used to supply the people’s needs, but we

cannot safely allow them to be wasted, exploited, monopolized or controlled against the general good. We heartily favor the policy of conservation, and we pledge our party to protect the National forests without hindering their legitimate use for the benefit of all the people.

PEACE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE The Progressive party deplores the survival in our civilization of the barbaric system of warfare among nations with its enormous

waste of resources even in time of peace, and the consequent impoverishment of the life of the toiling masses. We pledge the party to use its best endeavors to substitute judicial and other peaceful means of settling international differences.

We favor an international agreement for the limitation of naval forces.

THE IMMIGRANT We denounce the fatal policy of indifference and neglect which has left our enormous immigrant population to become the prey

of chance and cupidity [greed]. We favor Governmental action to encourage the distribution of immigrants away from the congested cities, to rigidly supervise

all private agencies dealing with them and to promote their assimilation, education and advancement.

7. Revisit the background information on the 1912 election (listed before the Progressive Party Platform). What were some of the significant elements of this election and its aftermath?

8. What are your thoughts on the Progressive Party Platform? Generally speaking, did you agree or disagree with their platform?

E. Source: The Politics of Child Labor, by Our Documents (associated with The National Archives)

The 1900 census revealed that approximately 2 million children were working in mills, mines, fields, factories, stores, and on city streets across the United States. The census report helped spark a national movement to end child labor in the United States. In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee hired Lewis Hine as its staff photographer and sent him across the country to photograph and report on child labor (see picture, right). Social reformers began to condemn child labor because of its detrimental effect on the health and welfare of children.

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The first child labor bill, the Keating-Owen bill of 1916, used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor. The act banned the sale of products from any factory or shop that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than 8 hours during the day. Although the Keating-Owen Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) because it “overstepped” the purpose of the government's powers to regulate interstate commerce. In its opinion the Court delineated between the Congress's power to regulate commerce and production (while the commerce could be regulated, the Court argued the production could not). Despite the nation's apparent desire for federal laws against child labor, the Supreme Court's rulings left little room for federal legislation. A constitutional amendment was soon proposed to give Congress the power to regulate child labor. The campaign for ratification of the Child Labor Amendment was stalled in the 1920s by an effective campaign to discredit it. Opponents' charges ranged from traditional states' rights arguments against increases in the power of the Federal Government to accusations that the amendment was a communist-inspired plot to subvert the Constitution. Federal protection of children would not be obtained until passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which was also challenged before the Supreme Court. This time, the movement to end child labor was victorious. In February of 1941, the Supreme Court reversed its opinion in Hammer v. Dagenhart and, in U. S. v. Darby (1941), upheld the constitutionality of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is still in force today.

9. Why was the Keating-Owen Act declared unconstitutional? Do you think the Court made the right decision in overturning the law?

F. Source: Prohibition Materials

Background: The 18th Amendment (1920) prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol, but the idea of temperance in drinking began more than a century earlier. The early 19th century temperance movement, which was one of many evangelist social reform movements of the first half of the 19th century (period 4 material), eventually gained fuel by the rising influence of the progressive movement, which emphasized the importance of an activist federal government and the notion that man’s nature can and should be bettered by “enlightened” government. Though the temperance movement began as an effort to persuade individuals to abstain from alcohol, it shifted (during the Progressive Era) to an effort to use the force of law to ban its sale and transport.

Advocates of Prohibition realized that for temperance to become mainstream, moral arguments against liquor (such as its tendency to result in crime, violence, domestic abuse, economic folly, etc.) would not be enough. They began to employ a scientific, fact-based approach, emphasizing studies that found alcohol limited motor reaction, caused heart problems, interfered with digestion, and worsened diseases. Using these studies, Progressives, Protestant churches, and the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) lobbied for anti-alcohol legislation. Through letters, telegrams, and petitions to state and federal representatives, they convinced the majority of states to pass prohibition measures at the state-level and, eventually, succeeded in persuading the U.S. Congress to pass the Prohibition Amendment in 1919 (it was then sent to the states for ratification, which was achieved in 1920, while Woodrow Wilson was president). Though perhaps noble in aim, the legal enforcement of the ban limited personal freedom, gave rise to widespread lawlessness, and encouraged the growth of organized crime. In 1933, Congress approved the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment.

Article: Unintended Consequences, PBS—Michael Lerner

Prohibition's supporters were initially surprised by what did not come to pass during the dry era. When the law went into effect, real estate developers and landlords expected rents to rise as saloons closed and neighborhoods improved. Chewing gum, grape juice, and soft drink companies all expected growth. Theater producers expected new crowds as Americans looked for new ways to entertain themselves without alcohol. None of it came to pass. Instead, the unintended consequences proved to be a decline in

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amusement and entertainment industries across the board. Restaurants failed, as they could no longer make a profit without legal liquor sales. Theater revenues declined rather than increase, and few of the other economic benefits that had been predicted came to pass. The closing of breweries, distilleries and saloons led to the elimination of thousands of jobs, and in turn thousands more jobs were eliminated for barrel makers, truckers, waiters, and other related trades.

One of the most profound effects of Prohibition was on government tax revenues. Before Prohibition, many states relied heavily on excise taxes in liquor sales to fund their budgets. In New York, almost 75% of the state's revenue was derived from liquor taxes. With Prohibition in effect, that revenue was immediately lost. At the national level, Prohibition cost $300 million to enforce.

Once the Great Depression hit (c.1930), the tide drastically turned against Prohibition. Some lawmakers believed that a tax on alcohol could help increase federal revenue to aid the struggling country. Citizens were concerned about the upsurge in crime and violence. Franklin D. Roosevelt reversed his position on the matter and came out against Prohibition during the 1932 presidential campaign. Congress approved the 21st Amendment in 1933, which repealed the 18th Amendment (this was the first and only time in American history that a constitutional amendment had been repealed) and affirmed the right of the states to make laws concerning the sale and transport of alcohol. Most states began tightly controlling liquor usage through licensing requirements, drinking age limits, and specific hours of operation for liquor sellers. Many of these regulations are still in force today.

While the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages, it did not outlaw the possession or consumption of alcohol in the United States. The Volstead Act, the federal law that provided for the enforcement of Prohibition, also left enough loopholes and quirks that it opened the door to myriad schemes to evade the dry mandate, which are outlined in the paragraph below:

One of the legal exceptions to the Prohibition law was that pharmacists were allowed to dispense whiskey by prescription for any number of ailments, ranging from anxiety to influenza. Bootleggers quickly discovered that running a pharmacy was a perfect front for their trade. As a result, the number of registered pharmacists in New York State tripled during the Prohibition era. Because Americans were also allowed to obtain wine for religious purposes, enrollments rose at churches and synagogues, and cities saw a large increase in the number of self-professed rabbis who could obtain wine for their congregations. The law was unclear when it came to Americans making wine at home. With a wink and a nod, the American grape industry began selling kits of juice concentrate with warnings not to leave them sitting too long or else they could ferment and turn into wine. Home stills were technically illegal, but Americans found they could purchase them at many hardware stores, while instructions for distilling could be found in public libraries in pamphlets issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The law that was meant to stop Americans from drinking was instead turning many of them into experts on how to make it.

The trade in unregulated alcohol had serious consequences for public health. As the trade in illegal alcohol became more lucrative, the quality of alcohol on the black market declined. On average, 1,000 Americans died every year during the Prohibition from the effects of drinking tainted liquor.

The effects of Prohibition on law enforcement were also negative. The sums of money being exchanged during the dry era proved a corrupting influence in both the federal Bureau of Prohibition and at the state and local level. Police officers and Prohibition agents alike were frequently tempted by bribes or the lucrative opportunity to go into bootlegging themselves. Many stayed honest, but enough succumbed to the temptation that the stereotype of the corrupt Prohibition agent or local cop undermined public trust in law enforcement for the duration of the era. Additionally, the growth of the illegal liquor trade under Prohibition made criminals of millions of Americans. As the decade progressed, court rooms and jails overflowed, and the legal system failed to keep up. Many defendants in prohibition cases waited over a year to be brought to trial. As

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the backlog of cases increased, the judicial system turned to the "plea bargain" to clear hundreds of cases at a time, making it common practice in American jurisprudence for the first time.

The greatest unintended consequence of Prohibition however, was the plainest to see. The statistics of the period are notoriously unreliable, but it is very clear that in many parts of the United States more people were drinking, and people were drinking more. There is little doubt that Prohibition failed to achieve what it set out to do, and that its unintended consequences were far more far reaching than its few benefits. The ultimate lesson is two-fold. Watch out for solutions that end up worse than the problems they set out to solve, and remember that the Constitution is no place for experiments, noble or otherwise.

10. Generate a list of unintended consequences of Prohibition:

Statistics/Facts on Alcohol Today: Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

o Prevalence, in 2012: Percent of adults 18 years of age and over who

were current regular drinkers: 51.3% Infrequent drinkers: 12.9%

o Mortality, in 2013: Number of alcoholic liver disease deaths: 18,146 Number of alcohol-induced deaths, excluded accidents and

homicides: 29,001 Data from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

o Every day in America, another 28 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes

o In 2011, 239 child passengers (under age 15) were killed in drunk driving crashes—representing 20% of all child traffic fatalities; of those, more than half (52%) were passengers in a vehicle with the drunk driver

o Drunk driving costs the U.S. $199 billion a year Countries with current alcohol prohibition: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, certain states

in India, Iran, Libya, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen Countries with past alcohol prohibition: Canada (1901-1924), Iceland (1915-1935), Norway (1916-1927), Russia and Soviet Union

(1914-1923), Finland (1919-1932) Data from National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

o A majority of criminal offenders were under the influence of alcohol alone when they committed their crimes o Alcohol use by the offender was a factor in 40% of rapes and sexual assaults

11. What is your reaction to the statistics/facts outlined above?

12. It is common knowledge that drinking has many negative, and often dangerous, effects. Why should it continue to be legal? Consider that the U.S. has outlawed many similarly dangerous drugs. Do not cite the failure of Prohibition as your answer. OR: What could be done to remedy the drinking problem in America (alcoholism, college drinking culture, alcohol poisoning, etc.) while maintaining the legality of alcohol?

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