Ch 28: Progressivism & Republican Roosevelt (1901-1912)
A) Progressive Roots
1. Origins: Greenback Labor Party, Populist Party, Concentrated power in wealthy few
2. Writers assailed society’s evils well before 1900
B) Muckrakers count on aroused public conscience, aot political change, to right social wrongs
1. Exposing evil became flourishing industry--> reporters=muckraker in Bunyan’s Pilgram Progress
C) Political Progressivism: Goals
1. Prog reformers= middle-class under pressure of giant corporations, restless immigrants, aggressive labor unions--> sought to (1) use gov to curb trusts (2) to stem socialist threat by improving life/labor
2. Put power back into hands of ppl, aot interests:
D) Progressivism in the Cities and States
1. City-dwellers frustrated by inefficiency & corrupt political machines
E) Progressive Women
1. “Woman’s place=home”à side doors to public life & argued that new activities=extend trad roles
F) T. Roosevelt & the “Square Deal” for Labor
G) TR Corrals the Corporations
H) Caring for the Consumer
I) Conservation
1. Forest Reserve Act 1891 authorized pres to set aside public forests as nat’l parks
2. Newlands Act 1902 authorized gov to collect $$ from sale of pub lands in W for irrigation projectsà settlers repaid cost of reclamation from now-productive soil--> more projects, eg Roosevelt Dam
3. Sierra Club, f. 1892, dedicated to preserving wildness of western landscape
4. Hetch Hetchy controversy: fed gov allowed SanFran to build dam for municipal water supply in HH Valley (Yosemite nat’l park). Sierra club John Muir vs TR & chief forester Gifford Pinchot—agst greedy comm interests that abused nature & romantic preservationists
J) 1907 Roosevelt Panic & 1908 Election
1. Roosevelt wins election 1904, called more for regulating business, taxing incomes, protecting workers--> conservatives consider him dangerous & he is blamed for 1907 panic
2. Currency shortage--> Aldrich-Vreeland Act 1908 authorized nat’l banks to issue emergency currency backed by various kinds of collateral
3. TR could have won 1908 election, but felt bound to promise to not run again, so passes torch to William Taft who ran agst William Jennings Bryan (Dem) & Eugene Debs (Socialist—Pullman Strike)
K) Taft Presidency & Split of Republican Party
1. Dollar Diplomacy: encouraged Wall Street bankers to invest in strategic foreign areas such as Manchuria—Jp/Russ controlled RR, could strangle Am comm interests in China--> SecState Philander C. Knox proposed that bankers buy RRs & turn them over to China--> plan rejected
2. 1911 Trustbuster:
1. Origins: Greenback Labor Party, Populist Party, Concentrated power in wealthy few
2. Writers assailed society’s evils well before 1900
- Wealth against Commonwealth (1894): Henry Lloyd’s attack of Standard Oil Company
- Theory of Leisure Class (1899): Thorstein Veblen’s attack on ‘predatory wealth’ & ‘conspicuous consumptn’; said leisure class engaged in business (make $ for $), not industry (make $ for needs)
- How the Other Half Lives(1890): reporter Jacob Riis’ shocking account of dark, dirty NY slums
B) Muckrakers count on aroused public conscience, aot political change, to right social wrongs
1. Exposing evil became flourishing industry--> reporters=muckraker in Bunyan’s Pilgram Progress
- ‘The Shame of the Cities’: Lincoln Steffens assailed union of big business & municipal govt
- ‘History of Standard Oil Company’: Ida Tarbell’s devastating but factual exposé of SOC
- ‘The Treason of the Senate’: David Phillips charged that senators represented RR/trusts, not ppl
C) Political Progressivism: Goals
1. Prog reformers= middle-class under pressure of giant corporations, restless immigrants, aggressive labor unions--> sought to (1) use gov to curb trusts (2) to stem socialist threat by improving life/labor
2. Put power back into hands of ppl, aot interests:
- Direct primary elections & Initiative: voters propose legislation themselves
- Referendum & Recall: laws on ballot for final approval by ppl & remove corrupt elected officials
- Corrupt-Practices acts: limited amt $ candidates could spend & receive for election
- Secret ballot to counteract boss rule
- Direct election of Senators: to eliminate alliance b/w corporations & congress ‘millionaire club’--> 17th Amendment
D) Progressivism in the Cities and States
1. City-dwellers frustrated by inefficiency & corrupt political machines
- City-manager system: expert-staffed commission to manage urban affairs
- Reformers tackled juvenile delinquency, prostitution, police bribery, corrupt sale of franchises
- WI Gov. Fighting Bob (Robert La Follete) routed RR/lumber interests & returned power to ppl
- CA Gov. Hiram Johnson helped break dominant grip of S Pacific RR on CA politics
- NY Gov. Charles Evans Hughes investigated malpractices of gas & insurance co/coal trust
E) Progressive Women
1. “Woman’s place=home”à side doors to public life & argued that new activities=extend trad roles
- Settlemt House Mvt: let women engage in public life & see social evils to attack them
- Women’s Club Mvt: orig to discuss literature, now focused on social issues & current events
- Women’s Trade League Union & Children’s Bureau gave feminists natl stage for advocacy
- Florence Kelley, IL’s 1st chief factory inspector, took control of newly founded Nat’l Consumers League, which mobilized F consumers to pressure for laws protecting women/children at work
- Muller v. OR 1908: Louis Brandeis persuaded SupCt to accept const of laws protecting F workers
- Lochner v. NY 1905: SupCt invalidated NY law est 10hr day for bakers
- Still, many laws weren’t enforcedà Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911à public outcry, massive strike by womenà worker compensation laws (insurance to injured workers)
- WCTU (Wo’s Christian Temp Union) f. by Frances Willard brought 1mn women to the cause
- 18th Amendment: (temporary) prohibition
F) T. Roosevelt & the “Square Deal” for Labor
- Square Deal: control of corporations, consumer protection, conservation of natural resources
- 1902 Coal Strike: workers demands of 20% wage increase & 9hr work day met with unsympathetic, unyielding mine ownersà devastating shortage of coal--> Roosevelt met strike reps & threatened to seize mines and operate them w. fed troopsà 10% raise & 9hr work day
- TR created Department of Commerce and Labor to address mounting antagonism bw capital & labor and Bureau of Corporations authorized to probe businesses engaged in interstate commerce
G) TR Corrals the Corporations
- TR destroyed bad trusts (lusted greedily for power) while leaving good trusts (w. public conscience) alone to prove that govt, not private business, ruled the country. He regulated, aot fragmented trust.
- 1903 Elkins Act: imposed heavy fines on RRs that gave rebates & shippers that accepted them
- 1906 Hepburn Act: restricted free passes
- 1904 Northern Securities decision: SupCt upheld TR’s decision to dissolve NSecCo’s RR monopoly.
H) Caring for the Consumer
- Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle appalled ppl w details of tainted meat, big meatpackers shut out of Eur
- Meat Inspection Act 1906: prep of meat shipped over state lines subject to fed inspection
- Pure Food and Drug Act 1906: to prevent adulteration & mislabeling of foods/pharmaceuticals
I) Conservation
1. Forest Reserve Act 1891 authorized pres to set aside public forests as nat’l parks
2. Newlands Act 1902 authorized gov to collect $$ from sale of pub lands in W for irrigation projectsà settlers repaid cost of reclamation from now-productive soil--> more projects, eg Roosevelt Dam
3. Sierra Club, f. 1892, dedicated to preserving wildness of western landscape
4. Hetch Hetchy controversy: fed gov allowed SanFran to build dam for municipal water supply in HH Valley (Yosemite nat’l park). Sierra club John Muir vs TR & chief forester Gifford Pinchot—agst greedy comm interests that abused nature & romantic preservationists
J) 1907 Roosevelt Panic & 1908 Election
1. Roosevelt wins election 1904, called more for regulating business, taxing incomes, protecting workers--> conservatives consider him dangerous & he is blamed for 1907 panic
2. Currency shortage--> Aldrich-Vreeland Act 1908 authorized nat’l banks to issue emergency currency backed by various kinds of collateral
3. TR could have won 1908 election, but felt bound to promise to not run again, so passes torch to William Taft who ran agst William Jennings Bryan (Dem) & Eugene Debs (Socialist—Pullman Strike)
K) Taft Presidency & Split of Republican Party
1. Dollar Diplomacy: encouraged Wall Street bankers to invest in strategic foreign areas such as Manchuria—Jp/Russ controlled RR, could strangle Am comm interests in China--> SecState Philander C. Knox proposed that bankers buy RRs & turn them over to China--> plan rejected
2. 1911 Trustbuster:
- SupCt ordered dissolution of Standard Oil Co
- SupCt handed out rule of reason: only trusts that “unreasonably restrained trade” were illegal
- Taft sued US Steel Corp--> infuriated TR who had personally been involved in merging
- Payne-Aldrich Bill to raise tariffs: betrayed campaign promises & outraged progressives (TR)
- Ballinger-Pinchot Affair: Taft fires Pinchot on grounds of insubordinationà protest by TR ppl
- New Nationalism: nat’l gov to increase power to remedy socioecon abuses
- Taft won nomination at Rep convention 1912--> TR led 3rd party crusade
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