Rise of ProgressivismR. HornerEHSAPUSHSupplemental to American Pageant and N. Miller

Who are these People? (Successors of the Reformers)

•Grangers•Populists

•Progressives

Conflicting Tides

•Munn v. Illinois, 1877▫Conviction for price-fixing upheld▫Granger laws OK

•Wabash, St. Louis…RR vs. Illinois▫State legislatures could only act where

Congress had not▫Only some Granger laws ok▫Led to Interstate Commerce Commission

Populists

•Product of rural discontent•Late 1880s•Product of Farmer’s Alliances•Foe: railroads, banks, big business, tariffs•IDEA: A People’s Party

Election of 1890• McKinley Tariff (a low as possible to achieve

its goal): protect industry, but don’t raise too much revenue– Result: 1894 US had an alarming deficit

• Ds (Cleveland): adequate revenue and moderate protection

• Result: Wilson-Gorman Act, 1894– Slightly lowered tariff; many special deal for

industries– Income Tax• “Communistic, socialistic”

Supreme Court

•“Income tax is unconstitutional”•Populists and other advocates for the

poor: even the courts are TOOLS… of the wealthy!

Terms of the economic debate, absolutely:• Capitalism: capital– Private property for private property– Laissez faire marketplace

• Socialism: society– Government ownership of critical industries• Trains, telephone, electricity, etc.

– Social programs to provide decent living standards for all

• Communism: common– All property held in common–Needs of all provided on equitable terms

Political Systems

• Autocracy–Authoritarian/dictatorship/tyranny/monarchy• Lenin and the Bloshevik Revolution

• Aristocracy–Oligarchy/plutocracy/meritocracy/elitism

• Democracy – Republican Democracy–Careful of the “majority rules” notion: our

definition of democracy includes a basic set of rights that are protected for all despite the beliefs of the majority

Election of 1896

•McKinley v. Bryan•Free Silver vs. the Status Quo

Progressivism• Middle class felt itself squeezed and shrinking– Pressure• Labor Unions• Giant Corporations• Immigrants

• Goals:– Use state power to curb trusts– Stop the socialist threat by improving the

conditions of the ordinary people– Reform corrupt government• Initiative, referendum recall; Australian secret ballot

Progressivism, cont.• Based in cities– Jacob Riis: Attack the slums

– Republican: Robert LaFollette• Regulate public utilities

– R’s Charles Evans Hughes• Regulate utilities and trusts; investigate corrupt practices

• Accomplishments– Safety and sanitations codes– Child labor laws; protective codes of women– Workmen’s compensation laws for injuries– Hours and wage regulations– Fire safety and machine safety regulations

•Business’s responsibilityor

Dog-eat-Dog?

TRs Square Deal for Labor• “the public interest”• Operate the mines with federal troops?• Dept. of Commerce and Labor• Interstate Commerce Commission– Give it some teeth to regulate railroads

• “Good” Trusts and “Bad” Trusts– Public conscience vs. lust for power and wealth?

• Consumer Protection– FDA

• Conservation: public lands, forests, and water– Reclamation– Dams

Panic of 1907

• Shows the need for banking reform• TR paves the way for Federal Reserve Act

of 1913 with the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908

Election of 1912

•Wilson vs. TR vs. Taft•And the winner is . . . . Progressive ideas

▫Woodrow Wilson Probably would not have won without it being

a three-way race

Woodrow Wilson (D)

• “New Freedom”• More active gov’t role in economic and

social affairs – but what does that mean?

• Smaller Businesses are better businesses• Unregulated markets – free trade• Rely on competition–Wilson: “…the man on the make”

• Fragment big corporations rather than regulate them

Wilson Tackles the Tariff and Banks

• Federal Reserve System, 1913– Regulate America’s financial markets

• 16th Amendment:– “The Congress shall have the power to lay and

collect taxes on income, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

• Income Tax– Article I, Section IX: “No capitation or other direct

tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before direct to be taken.”

Wilson Progressivism at High Tide•Federal Trade Commission Act 1914•Clayton Anti-Trust Act 1914•Federal Farm Loan Act 1916•LaFollette Seamen’s Act 1915•Workingmen’s Compensation Act 1916

Progressive fade…..?• Today’s news today:–Huckabee promised to eliminate the income tax– Obama and Clinton called for national health insurance– All candidates give attention to global warming…but

what kind of attention?– Gov’t agencies are on the watch for mad cow disease,

lead paint in toy, salmonella–Hearing are being held to discuss the financial bailout

and re-regulating markets and industries–Modern-day trust busting or other ‘populist’ or

‘progressive’ activities• Microsoft, environmental standards, etc.