Government REFORM

MUNICIPAL (Local) REFORMCities posed some of the most obvious social problems of the new industrial age In cites – Political Bosses rewarded their

supporters with jobs and kickbacks and openly bought votes with favors and brides

Reformers – wanted to make government more efficient AND responsive to the people

Shoe line - Bowery men with new pair of shoes (reward ‘repeat voters”) from NYC ward boss Tim Sullivan, February, 1910

Sullivan once explained:

“When you've voted ‘em with their whiskers on, you take ‘em to a barber and scrape off the chin fringe. Then you vote ‘em again…Then to a barber again, off comes the sides and you vote ‘em a third time with the mustache…[Then] clean off the mustache and vote ‘em plain face. That makes every one of ‘em for four votes."

Ex: MUNICIPAL REFORMcouncil-managers form of government

council-manager plan (Dayton, 1913)

COUNCIL

MEMBER

CITY MANAG

ER

COUNCIL

MEMBER

COUNCIL

MEMBER

COUNCIL

MEMBER

COUNCIL

MEMBER

CITY SERVICES

People would elect a city council to make lawsThen council appointed a manager (typically a person with training and experience in public administration) to run the city’s departments. By 1925 – managers were administration nearly 250 cities

MUNICIPAL (Local) REFORM)

Also focused on utilities – owned by greedy and corrupt private owners (monopolies – one company dominate market)

By 1907, Samuel Insull had acquired 20 other utility companies and renamed his firm Commonwealth Edison

Reformers -better and more affordable services - gasworks, waterworks, electricity, transit lines) publicly owned enterprises (headed by regulative commissions)

STATE POLITICAL REFORMEx: Wisconsin Gov. Robert M. LaFollette*Well-known Progressive Reformer

As governor - Battled an entrenched political establishment - Progressive legislation included : Measures to increase control over the

railroads Limitations on lobbying activities He advanced what came to be known

as the “Wisconsin Idea,” calling upon university professors and other outside experts to help tailor reform legislation and staff the resulting regulatory agencies. In this way he hoped to free state

government from the influence of self-serving politicians and special interest groups

Robert M. LaFollette,

AdditionalSTATE POLITICAL REFORM

Got people involved in

Government

Federal Government Reforms

During the Progressive Era, the Federal Government passed an enormous amount of legislation designed to conserve the environment, tighten past economic regulations, preserve the health and safety of American citizens, and generally provide needed capitalist reforms.

Amendments

16th - Income Tax

17th – Direct Election of Senators

18th - Prohibition

19th – Women’s Suffrage

elect representatives to the U.S. Senate, instead of allowing party-controlled state legislatures to do

Theodore Roosevelt:Republican (1901-1909)

(The New-York Historical Society)

Roosevelt the “trust-buster”

He believed Wall Street financiers and powerful trust titans to be acting foolishly. While they were eating off fancy china on mahogany tables in marble dining rooms, the masses were roughing it. There seemed to be no limit to greed. If docking wages would increase profits, it was done. If higher railroad rates put more gold in their coffers, it was done. How much was enough, Roosevelt wondered?

“ONE SEES HIS FINISH UNLESS GOOD GOVERNMENT RETAKES THE SHIP”

Teddy’s Good Trusts vs. Bad Trusts

If a trust controlled an entire industry but provided good service at reasonable rates, it was a "good" trust to be left alone.

Only the "bad" trusts that jacked up rates and exploited consumers would come under attack. Who would decide the difference between

right and wrong? T. Roosevelt trusted only himself to make this decision in the interests of the people

Bad Trust – J.P. Morgan and Northern Securities

Morgan controlled a railroad company known as Northern Securities. Morgan controlled the bulk of railroad shipping across the northern

United States.

Also involved were railroad industrialists James J. Hill and E. H. Harriman,

Roosevelt's Attorney General was bringing suit against the Northern Securities Company.

Four days later, Morgan was at the White House with the President. Morgan bellowed that he was being treated like a common criminal. The President informed Morgan that no compromise could be

reached, and the matter would be settled by the courts. The Supreme Court, in a narrow 5 to 4 decision, agreed and dissolved

the Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt said confidently that no man, no matter how powerful, was above the law

ROOSEVELT AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Before Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government paid very little attention to the nation’s natural resources

Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern of his administration Roosevelt, left, was an avid

outdoorsman – here he is with author John Muir at Yosemite Park

CONSERVATION:National Parks and Forests

William Howard Taft

President 1909-13*served in Roosevelt’s cabinet

and were good friends

Taft’s Progressive Accomplishments - continued many of the programs that Roosevelt had initiated

Congress passed laws mandating safer working conditions in mines and an 8-hour workday for the laborers in any company that did business with the federal government.

Con’t Trust-busting Filed nearly a hundred

lawsuits against trusts Forest and oil reserves

Set aside more land Sixteenth Amendment

providing for a federal income tax proportional to the amount a person earned

BUT: Caused split in Republican Party Payne-Aldrich Tariff

(1909)▪ This tariff raised the prices of

consumer goods

▪ Pinchot-Ballinger

Controversy ▪ sale of a vast tract of land in

Alaska to the timber industry

(Taft has) “…completely twisted around the policies I advocated and acted upon.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

Democrat

Embarked on a program to continue Progressive reform called the "New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson – Wait on him

Significance of Progressivism

Was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth around the 1890s… The frontier had been tamed Great cities and businesses developed Overseas empire established (later)

BUT not all citizens shared in the new wealth, prestige, and

optimism.

Significance con’t 1. There WERE a lot of

politicians that were exposed and voted out of office

2. Several new acts were written and passed to help break apart monopolies

3. Laws WERE established to make factories cleaner, working conditions safer, and days shorter.

4. Thanks to muckrakers like Lincoln Steffans and Jacob Riis the American people learned about these terrible living conditions and slum legislation helped clean up many inner city nightmares

5. The work of these progressives will be instrumental in the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 that will lead to Prohibition being passed under the terms of the 18th Amendment in 1920. .

Significance con’t

6. Various Supreme Court cases helped bring an end to child labor

7. Beginning in Wyoming and Utah states began to grant women the right to vote in STATE elections, but it wasn't until 1920 that women earned the right to vote in federal elections thanks to the 19th Amendment.

Significance con’t 8. Thanks to the work of

Upton Sinclair and his book "The Jungle" the federal government under Teddy Roosevelt passed two measures to eliminate unsanitary food processing practices. The Pure and Drug Act of 1906 and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were both passed to this end

9. People began to have much, MUCH involvement in government thanks to the Progressives. The initiative, the referendum, the recall, the direct election of senators, and women being granted the right to vote all were successes of the progressives.

Federal Trade Act (1914) -Set up FTC or Federal Trade Commission to investigate and halt unfair and

illegal business practices. The FTC could put a halt to these illegal business practices by issuing what is known as a "cease and desist order."

2. Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) -Declared certain businesses illegal (interlocking directorates, trusts,

horizontal mergers) -Unions and the Grange were not subject to antitrust laws. This made unions

legal! -Strikes, boycotts, picketing and the collection of strike benefit funds ruled

legal C. Banking Reform - Needed elastic currency, ability to control the amount of

$ in circulation. 1. Creation of Federal Reserve System - Federal Reserve Banks in 12 districts would print and coin money as well as

set interest rates. In this way the "Fed," as it was called, could control the money supply and effect the value of currency. The more money in circulation the lower the value and inflation went up. The less money in circulation the greater the value and this would lower inflation.

2. Federal Farm Loan Act set up Farm Loan Banks to support farmers.