America in the Progressive Era

America in the Progressive Era

What were hallmarks of the Progressive Era?

Progressivism Progressivism • Reform became a major, self-sustaining

phenomenon.• The old order was challenged and changed both

politically and economically.• Reformers believed that problems could be

addressed through scientific investigation and that people had the ability to master their environment.

• Educated women found a congenial intellectual environment in which to play an active public role.

• Religion played an underlying role in much reform activity.

• There was a drive for information gathering and high degree of confidence in academic expertise.

What impact did the ‘muckrakers’ have on American society?

What impact did the ‘muckrakers’ have on American society?

• Inexpensive general-circulation magazines containing exposẻs became popular reading material.

• Investigative journalism established itself as a legitimate enterprise.

• Muckraking publications attracted new converts to progressive reform.

• Exposure of municipal corruption gave rise to reform on the local level.

• Exposẻs, such as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, spurred federal regulation of dangerous industrial practices.

Religion in the Progressive EraReligion in the Progressive Era

• Most reformers had been raised in Christian families and had adopted Christian ethical principles.

• Leaders of the Social Gospel movement helped to formulate progressive principles.

• Some urban churches opened centers that served as settlement houses.

Women Capitalize and Participate in the Progressive Era

Women Capitalize and Participate in the Progressive Era

• Women’s organizations became powerful lobbies for the rights of women and children.

• The nature of the work of those organizations made women’s public activities more acceptable in a patriarchal world.

• The prominence of certain women progressives allowed them to serve as role models for the younger generation.

• The movement for woman suffrage was reinvigorated by progressive activists.

• The feminist movement for complete gender equality was founded.

• Women made concrete improvements in labor safety, family planning, and other significant fields.

African Americans in the EraAfrican Americans in the Era

• The adoption of the white primary in southern states completed the process of disfranchisement.

• Blacks migrated in increasing numbers from the rural South to northern cities.

• The all-black Niagara Movement of African American intellectuals was organized in 1906 to seek racial equality.

• White progressives joined black activists to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.

• The National Urban League was organized in 1911 by black and white social workers in order to assist black migrants who relocated to the cities.

• Southern black women worked for progressive reform through civic organizations, filling the vacuum left by the disfranchisement of black men.

Teddy Roosevelt and Progressivism Teddy Roosevelt and Progressivism

• He sought to protect wilderness areas from inappropriate development so that they would be available for use by the public.

• He threatened a government takeover of coal mines if their owners refused union recognition.

• He personally intervened to control the abuses of what he called bad trusts.

• He supported the passage of the Hepburn Railway Act, which empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to curb discriminatory railroad rates.

• He helped to enact consumer-protection legislation such as the Pure Food and Drug and the Meat Inspection Acts

ConservationConservation

• Forest Reserve Act (1891 act) that was used by TR to preserve 150 million acres.

• Newlands Reclamation Act – 1902

• National Conservation Commission – 1908

• Taft ~ Is not as focused on conservation, but accepts and continues TR’s previous advancements.

Consumer ProtectionConsumer Protection

• TR’s “Square Deal”• Pure Food and Drug Act• Meat Inspection Act• Taft continues consumer protection ~

not at the same rate.

Big Business RegulationBig Business Regulation

• TR • Elkins Act (1903) • Interstate Commerce Commission

(ICC) - • Hepburn Act – “just and reasonable”

rates.• Taft ~ continues TR trust busting and

business regulations.

Before PresidencyBefore Presidency

• Taft as…

• Lawyer

• Governor General of the Philippines

Election of 1908Election of 1908

Taft PresidencyTaft Presidency• Theodore Roosevelt selected William Howard Taft to be his successor

and gave him vital support during the presidential campaign of 1908. • Taft was a conservative of upper-middle-class background with a long

career on the bench, and he aspired to a judicial rather than a political career.

• Roosevelt nevertheless believed that Taft, a close personal friend, was the best man to continue his policies.

• Taft agreed with many of Roosevelt's objectives, but not with his interpretation of presidential authority.

• As Taft saw it, his function as president was to establish a legal basis for the reforms undertaken by Roosevelt, not to enlarge the degree of federal intervention in the economic and social life of the nation.

• Taft quickly earned the contempt of the progressives as one who had deserted their cause.

• During the first two years of his administration he battled with them over the Payne-Aldrich tariff and the conservation of natural resources.

• His compulsive upholding of the letter of the law resulted in the severing of his friendship with Roosevelt and the splitting of the Republican party.

Taft and the JudiciaryTaft and the Judiciary

• 1878 Graduated from Yale University

• 1880 Graduated Cincinnati Law School and admitted to the bar to practice law

• 1887-90 Judge of the superior court of Cincinnati

• 1890-92 Solicitor General of the United States

• 1892-1900 U.S. Circuit Judge • 1896-1900 Professor and Dean of the Law

Department of the University of Cincinnati • 1913 Appointed Professor of Law at Yale

University • 1921-30 Chief Justice of the United States

Taft and RooseveltTaft and Roosevelt

• Ironically, a greater number of progressive reforms were accomplished in Taft's four years in office than in Roosevelt's seven. Taft undertook the first tariff revision since 1897.

• He improved upon Roosevelt's conservation work, made advances in railroad regulation, and launched an antitrust crusade with which Roosevelt's paled in comparison.

• He successfully avoided American military involvement in various international disputes during his term.

• Among other achievements, his administration created the postal savings bank and parcel post systems, added two states to the Union and two amendments to the constitution, established a Department of Labor separate from Commerce, nearly completed the Panama Canal, regulated corporate campaign contributions, and strengthened the Pure Food and Drugs Act.

• When viewed in the era of transition from Rooseveltian to Wilsonian progressivism, Taft is best remembered as a constitutional conservator.

Split in the Republican PartySplit in the Republican Party

• Payne-Aldrich Tariff – Taft promised to lower tariff ~ in 1909 tariff raised on most imports.

• Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy – • Gifford Pinchot – respected chief of Forest

Service (appointed by TR)• Richard Ballinger – Sec. of the Interior

(appointed by Taft) • 1910 – Pinchot criticizes Ballinger for

selling Alaskan land to private developer.• Taft fires Pinchot for insubordination.

Continued Split in Rep. PartyContinued Split in Rep. Party

• Speaker of the House Joe Cannon – Leading Conservative Speaker was supported over Progressive.

• Midterm Elections – Taft openly supports Conservatives over Progressives in election of 1910.

• Progressives want TR to run in 1912…

Socialists Labor PartySocialists Labor Party

• Eugene Debs – Ran first in 1900 and last in the election of 1920.

• In 1912 (the height of his popularity)

• Popular Pro-Labor and Unionist

• A “new” alternative in Progressivism.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressive ProgramWoodrow Wilson’s Progressive Program

• Calls Special Session of Congress• Tariff Reduction

• Underwood Tariff of 1913 –substantially lowers tariff rates for the first time in 50 years.

• Banking Reform• Rejects Rep. proposal for privatized

national bank ~ Federal Reserve Act of 1914 – FR Board – 12 district banks

Wilson Progressivism ContinuedWilson Progressivism Continued

• “Real” Business Regulation• Clayton Antitrust Act – Strengthens Sherman

Antitrust Act• Federal Trade Commission – Unfair trade

practices• No special interest legislation – then changes

• Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916• Child Labor Act of 1916

• Supreme Court later finds unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart