PROGRESSIVISM and the

REPUBLICAN ROOSEVELT

Chapter 29

I. Progressive Roots

A. Greenback Labor Party (1870s)

1. Sought to reduce power of the “robber barons”

2. Wanted inflationary monetary policies.

B. Populism; its legacy:

1. Populism failed as

a 3rd Party but influenced

politics for 25 years after failed election of 1896.

2. Populists ideas that carried forward to the Progressive Era:

a. Legislation to regulate railroads

b. Income tax

c. Expanded $$ supply & credit

d. Direct election of Senators

e. Initiative, referendum, & recall

3. Populism was geared toward rural life, but its ideas appealed to urban progressives who wanted to curb power of trusts/political machines & to eliminate social injustice.

II. What did Progressives Believe?

A. An efficient government could protect thepublic interest & restore order to society.

* Government is an agency for human welfare.

B. Specific issues for progressive reform:

1. The break-up or regulation of trusts.

2. Killing political machines.

3. Reduce the threat of socialism (by improving workers’ lives).

4. Improve squalid conditions in the cities (“The Shame of the Cities” – Lincoln Steffans)

5. Improve working conditions for female labor and end child labor

6. Consumer protection

7. Voting reform

8. Conservation of natural resources

9. Banking reform

10. Labor reform (working conditions; unionization)

11. Prohibition of alcohol

12. Female suffrage

III. Progressive Agenda

A. Trusts

1. By 1910 the wealthiest 2% had almost 20% of nation’s total income.

* Flaunting of wealth by nouveau richeangered many Americans.

2. Competition eliminated by an oligarchy.

3. Politicians were dominated by trusts.

B. Political Machines (state and local)

1. “Bosses” regularly accepted bribes

2. Immigrants enticed by bosses for votes.

3. City politics now out of the hands of civic- minded Americans (ex: Tammany Hall)

C. Shame of the Cities

1. Living conditions were often horrible;

* Dumbell tenements unhealthy, dangerous.

2. City infrastructure was poor, inadequate.

3. Crime: violence, gambling, & prostitution rampant.

4. Working conditions appalling; women & children exploited.

* Estimated 500,000 workers injured, 30,000 killed per year in industrial accidents

IV. Progressives who were Critics

A. Henry Demarest Lloyd - Wealth against Commonwealth (1894)

B. Thorstein Veblen - The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)

C. Jacob A. Riis - How the Other Half Lives (1890) - lots of shocking pictures!

1. Exposed dirt, disease of rat-infested NY slums

2. Strongly influenced TR

“Children Sleeping on Mulberry Street”

“Five Cents Lodging, Bayard Street”

In the New York of Jacob Riis’s day, approximately 100,000 children lived on the streets, surviving by selling newspapers, shining boots, begging, and stealing.

D. Socialists criticized existing injustices

1. Many were European immigrants who hated the excesses of capitalism.... BUT....

2. Many Progressives, like Woodrow Wilson, saw socialism as biggest threat to US.

E. Social Gospel Movement

1. Stressed role of church in improving life on Earth, not just helping people to go to heaven.

2. Walter Rauschenbusch

3. Washington Gladden

F. Muckrakers

* Journalists who attempted to expose evils of society.

1. Magazines (McClure’s, Collier’s, etc.)

2. Yellow press (Pulitzer & Hearst)

3. Lincoln Steffens - Shame of the Cities (1902)

* Corrupt alliance of big business & municipal government.

4. Ida M. Tarbell – devastating expose’ on Standard Oil

5. Upton Sinclair - The Jungle (1906)

a. Graphic depictions of meat-packing plant

in Chicago

b. Inspired Meat Inspection Act &

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

G. Progressive activists

1. New career opportunities for women

a. Social workers, secretaries, store clerks,seamstresses, telephone operators, etc.

b. Still deplorable conditions for many

2. Jane Addams

a. Hull House – Settlement houses were centers of women’s activism/social reform.

b. Helped found NAACP

c. Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

3. Women & Child Reform (child labor most successful of Progressive social reforms)

a. Florence Kelley

* Investigated/reported on child labor while living at Hull House.

* Life-long battler for welfare of women, blacks, & consumers.

* Helped organize consumer boycotts of goods manufactured by children or

by workers in unsanitary/dangerous jobs.

* Was a Socialist.

b. Muller v. Oregon 1906 – upheld Oregon law restricting women to 10-hr. workday; case won by Louis Brandeis who argued that women were weaker than men (Brandeis Brief - use experts’ statistics, scientific data).

* Led to number of federal & state laws protecting women workers.

c. Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire in 1911 killed 146 women workers.

* NYC & other legislatures passed laws regulating conditions in sweatshops.

d. By 1916, 32 states had reformed child labor

e. Some states adopted compulsory education

laws. (helped lessen the amount of child labor.

V. Political Reforms

A. Robert “Fighting Bob” LaFollette & the“Wisconsin Experiment” (sometimes called the “Wisconsin Idea”)

1. Wisconsin Governor; helped destroy political machines and to control trusts; established progressive state government

a. First of GOP “insurgents” to reach the US Senate; stood up to GOP “Old Guard” who favored laissez faire government.

(Wisconsin Idea continued…)

b. Regulated public utilities and workers’ safety.

c. Replaced existing spoils system with state civil service (merit)

2. Direct primary: selection of party candidates was open to all voters within the party; eliminated candidate selection behind closed doors by party “bosses.”

3. New ways to make politicians answer to the people for their voting record & performance.

a. Initiative – let voters introduce a bill & required state legislature to vote on it.

b. Referendum: voters cast ballots for or against legislature’s proposed laws.

c. Recall: citizens have the right to remove elected officials before their term expired.

4. Direct election of Senators

* 1913 - ratified as 17th Amendment.

5. Adopted state income tax - first state to do so.

B. Secret ballot

1. Reduced bribery voting - now done secretly; bribers unable to monitor votes.

2. Unfortunately, ballot also eliminated illiterate voters; workers could not help voters mark their ballots.

* Hundreds of thousands of black

& white voters thus were effectively

disenfranchised.

C. Galveston, Texas and the Commission System

1. Sept, 1900 - hurricane devastated the city; had to rebuild.

2. Commission system

a. Power put in hands of five commissioners;

full-time city manager was hired.

b. In 20 years, 400 cities followed the model.

c. Reduced power of political machines.

VI. President Theodore Roosevelt (lst “modern”president)

A. First President to use government as a vehicle to directly help public interest.

* Saw presidency as a “bully pulpit” to preach his ideas and convince others to follow.

B. First President to play significant role in world affairs

1. “Speak softly but carry a big stick”

2. Major proponent of military and naval preparedness.

VII. Square Deal - TR’s 1906 campaign slogan

* TR's three C’s: Control corporations; Consumer protection; Conserve natural resources.

A. Control of Corporations

1. Anthracite Coal Strike 1902

a. United Mine Workers on strike

b. Management refused to arbitrate/negotiate

c. TR threat: use federal troops to run mines

d. Owners consented to arbitration

e. Gave TR a lot of power!

2. Department of Commerce & Labor created to settle disputes between management & labor - 1903.

3. 1902 - TR attacked Northern Securities Co.

a. Supreme Court upheld TR’s antitrust suit to dissolve it in 1904.

b. TR now seen as a “trustbuster”

4. Elkins Act 1903 – heavy fines to RRs for abusing rebates (esp. on farmers)

5. Hepburn Act 1906 - expanded power of ICC to regulate RRs

6. TR as a “trustbuster”

a. TR exaggerated his anti-trust activities to gain votes.

b. TR did not think all trusts should be broken.

* Big business not necessarily all bad; why punish success?

c. Believed in regulating trusts.

d. Pres. Taft actually busted up more trusts than TR did.

B. Consumer Protection

1. Meat Inspection Act 1906; made meat safer.

2. Pure Food & Drug Act; prevented mislabeling of food & drugs.

C. Conservation (most significant TR legacy)

1. TR & conservation

a. TR (outdoorsman) appalled at destruction of timber & mineral resources.

b. Gifford Pinchot, head of Forestry

* Aroused public awareness of problems.

* Advocated smart use; recreation, logging,

watershed protection, etc.

2. Reclamation Act 1902

a. Government sold public lands in western states; used $$ for irrigation.

b. Dozens of dams constructed in later yrs.

3. Saving the forests

a. TR reserved 125 million

forest acres in federal

b. Earmarked millions of acres of coal deposits; also earmarked water resources for irrigation & power.

Yellowstone National Park

D. TR wins reelection in 1904

1. Eugene Debs ran on Socialist ticket; Prohibition Party was also on ballot.

2. TR made himself a “lame duck” president when he announced that he would not run

for a 3rd term.

VIII. Panic of 1907

A. Wall Street suffered short but brutal panic 1907

1. “Runs” on banks, suicides, & criminal indictments against speculators.

2. Business leaders blamed TR for Panic

3. TR hurt by criticism; accused Wall St. of engineering the Panic

a. Second wave of trustbusting.

b. Lower tariffs

c. Insurgent GOPs & Dems vs. GOP “Old Guard” (firmly pro-business)

B. Results

* Panic showed need for elastic money supply.

a. During Panic, banks unable to increase volume of currency in circulation.

b. Those with money were reluctant to loan $$ to fellow banks in need.

c. This apparent weakness in the systempaved the way for the Federal ReserveAct of 1913.

IX. President William H. Taft

A. Election of 1908

1. TR endorsed Taft; assumed he would continue all of TR's policies.

2. Taft defeated Bryan 321-162; third time Bryan had been defeated in 12 years.

ELECTION OF 1908

B. Taft’s style

1. Lacked the fire or guts

that TR possessed.

* Taft content to keep status quo rather

than rock the boat.

2. His cabinet did not contain a single member of TR’s reformist wing.

Taft was a very large man at approximately 350 pounds. He had to have a custom-made bathtub for the White House.

C. Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy

* Believed that the goal of diplomacy was to create stability and order abroad that would best promote American business interests.

* Whereas TR used the “Big Stick” of US power to mold events overseas, Taft used the US dollar as his weapon.)

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$ $$

(Dollar Diplomacy continued)

1. Taft urged Americans to invest abroad

2. Called for Wall St. bankers to invest $$ into foreign areas of strategic concern to the US

a. Especially in the Far East

b. Regions critical to the security of the Panama Canal; otherwise rival powers like Germany might weaken US trade & influence there.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

3. Manchuria, 1909

a. Taft wanted to break monopoly Russia & Japan had on Manchurian Railway.

b. Proposed that a group of US & foreign bankers buy the RR & give it to China.

4. US $$ into Honduras & Haiti to prevent takeover by nations hostile to US, BUT...

5. He did not use only $$; he also ordered US Marines into Cuba, Honduras, Dominican Republic, & Nicaragua to put down unrest.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

D. Taft as a trustbuster

* Brought 90 suits against trusts during his four years in office; two times that of TR!!!

E. Progressive legislation under Taft

1. Conservation: Taft was a dedicated conservationist; his contributions equaled or surpassed TR’s.

2. Mann-Elkins Act 1910 - telegraph, telephone, & cable corporations put under ICC control.

X. Split in the Republican Party

A. Payne-Aldrich Tariff 1909 –biggest cause for split of GOP

1. Reducing tariff high on list for progressives.

2. Payne-Aldrich actually raised tariffs in some cases.

3. Taft signed Payne-Aldrich into law, betraying campaign promises to lower tariffs.

* Claimed it was good bill (really, he was too weak to get a bill that progressives wanted)

* Progressive wing of GOP outraged!!!

Old

Guar

d Progressi

ve

B. Ballinger-Pinchot controversy 1910; over- shadowed Taft’s conservation successes.

1. Sec. of Interior Ballinger opened public lands in WY, MT, & Alaska to corporate development; did not share Pinchot’s desire to reduce mining.

2. Pinchot publicly criticized Ballinger (Taft’s man, so he indirectly criticized Taft!).

3. Taft fired Pinchot for insubordination.

4. Protests from conservationists & TR’s friends; congressional committee exonerated Pinchot.

5. Ballinger– Pinchot controversy contributed to the growing split between TR & Taft.

C. GOP split complete when Taft deserted progressives in their attack on GOP Old Guard Speaker of the House, “Uncle Joe” Cannon.

D. 1910 - TR’s Osawatomie speech – Kansas

1. TR had been on African safari 1909-10; tariff & conservation issues galvanized him to become more active.

2. Shocked Old Guard GOPs with his new doctrine: “New Nationalism” (progressive!)

TR’s New Nationalism:

a. More federal government action!

b. Proposed action by government:

* Regulate large corporations * Tariff reform * Graduated income & inheritance taxes * Currency reform * Sell public lands to real settlers, NOT corporations * Labor reforms * Strict accounting of campaign funds * Initiative, referendum, & recall.

c. “The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.”

E. GOPs lost badly in congressional elections of 1910.

* First time in 20th century that Democrats controlled the House of Representatives.

F. Taft-Roosevelt split

1. 1911 - National Progressive Republican League was formed.

a. LaFollette (Wisc) – leading candidate for Progressive presidential nominee.

b. Then....TR said, “My hat is in the ring!”

2. TR: Progressive candidate; LaFollette axed!

a. 1912 convention - Taft got nomination even though TR had majority of votes...

b. Progressive GOPs left the party to form a third party: TR’s “Bull Moose Party.”