Brinkley, Chapter 20 Notes

Brinkley Progressives Target a Variety of Problems

Political Reform

Government regulations to help consumers Chapter 20 Women's Suffrage

Meat Packing The Progressives Reduce income gap between the rich and poor

Honest Government

"Trust Busting"

Social Welfare Laws to help children

Harsh working and living conditions

Belief in Progress Progressive Governors Take Charge Progressives believed in Progress - that society was capable of improvement and that continued growth and advancement were the nation's destiny. The most celebrated state-level reformer was Robert La Follette of Wisconsin. Elected in 1900 Muckrakers were crusading journalists who directed public attention toward social, economic, and political injustices. They Under his leadership, Wisconsin progressives won approval of direct exposed scandal, corruption, and injustice. primaries, initiatives, and referendums. Muckraker Written Work Focus RRs and utilities were regulated and had to pay higher corporate The History of Standard Oil Trusts income taxes Helen Hunt Jackson A Century of Dishonor Treatment of Indians Passed laws to regulate the Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives New York City's tenements workplace and provide Upton Sinclair The Jungle Conditions of meat packing factories compensation for laborers injured on the job. Lincoln Steffans The Shame of the Cities Corruption of city governments Instituted graduated taxes inherited fortunes Ida B. Wells Southern Horrors: Lynch Jim Crow, Chesapeake & Ohio Railroads Laws in all its Phases Improved public education

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Statehouse Progressivism In the early 1900s, the United States had the highest rate of industrial accidents in the world. Reformers began looking for ways to circumvent the boss controlled legislatures by increasing the power of the electorate. Two of the most important changes were innovations In March, 1911 a terrible fire swept through the Triangle first proposed by Populists in the 1890s: the initiative and the referendum. Shirtwaist Company in New York. Initiative - new legislation is submitted directly to the voters in general elections to vote on 146 workers, mostly women women, died. Outraged Progressives intensified their calls for reform. Referendum - provided a method by which actions of the legislature could be returned to the electorate for approval. The electorate may uphold or reverse the legislature's decision.

The direct primary and the recall were other efforts to limit the power of party and improve A state commission studied the background of the fire and the the quality of elected officials. general conditions of the industrial workplace. By 1914, the commission issued a series of reports calling for major reforms Recall - Voters can remove a public official from office at a special election, which could be in working conditions. called after a sufficient number of citizens had signed a petition. The report itself was a progressive document - based on the The primary election removed the selection of candidates from the bosses to the people. In testimony of experts and filled with statistics and technical data. the South, it was also an effort to limit black voting - since primary voting, many white When its recommendations reached the Pushed through a series of labor laws imposing strict southerners believed, would be easier to control than general elections. NY legislature, its most effective regulations on factory owners and established effective By 1915, every state in the nation instituted primary elections for some offices. supporters were Tammany Hall mechanisms for enforcement. Many states set up Democrats: Robert Wagner and Al Smith. workers' compensation laws.

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The Social Gospel Settlement House Movement

Growing outrage at social and economic injustice committed many Urban reformers believed the home environment influenced reformers to the pursuit of social reform. That helped create the rise of the individual development. "Social Gospel", the effort to make Christianity the basis of social reform. Progressives established Settlement Houses to help immigrant families Walter Rauschenbush - "Father of the Social Gospel" adapt to the language and customs of America. Women from the educated middle class staffed Settlement Homes. His book, Christianity and the Social Crisis outlined the Social Gospel. He believed people could make society "the kingdom of God." Christian The most famous was Hull principles must be translated into actions that promote compassion, House in Chicago led by Settlement houses justice, and social change. Jane Addams. provided college women with an environment and a The Social Gospel movement was chiefly concerned with redeeming the nation's cities. role that society considered The Social Gospel was never the dominant element in the movement for urban reform but "appropriate" for unmarried the engagement of religion with reform helped bring to Progressivism a powerful moral women. The settlement commitment to redeem the lives of the poor. houses helped spawn the profession of social work. The Salvation Army was one example of fusing religion with reform.

The "New Woman" African Americans and Reform The phenomenon of the "new woman" was a product of social and The question of race was relatively non existent to White Americans, but African Americans economic changes in both the private and public spheres: benefitted from the Progressive movement. African Americans faced greater obstacles than Almost all income-producing activity moved out of the home and into any other group in challenging their own oppressed status and seeking reform. the factory or the office. Many embraced the message of Booker T. Washington to work for immediate self-improvement Women were having fewer children and children were beginning school rather than long range social change. at earlier ages. Argued that African Americans needed to accommodate themselves to For wives and mothers who did not work for wages, the home was segregation. They should not work to overturn Jim Crow laws but establish less of an all-consuming place. More women began to look for themselves as honorable and hard-working citizens. activities outside the home. Women's clubs began largely as cultural organizations to provide middle and upper class women with an outlet for their intellectual Worked hard to make the Tuskegee Institute well known for energies. Non-controversial activities: planted trees, supported schools, and worked in providing an "industrial settlement houses. (vocational) education." He believed this would help prepare Clubwomen won passage of laws regulating working conditions of women and African Americans for citizenship. children, regulating the food and drug industries, reformed policies towards Indian tribes, applied new standards to urban housing, and Prohibition.

Most clubs excluded blacks and so African Americans formed clubs of their own.

W.E.B. du Bois NAACP Founded, 1909 Born in Massachusetts and earned a Ph.D from Harvard. 4 years after the launching of the Niagara Movement, members joined with sympathetic whites and formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk - a powerful challenge to The new organization led the drive for equal rights. Among the many Washington. Du Bois accused Washington of encouraging white efforts to issues that engaged the NAACP and other African American impose segregation and of limiting the aspirations of his race. organizations was lynching in the South. The most effective crusader was journalist Ida Rather then content themselves with education at the trade and agricultural B. Wells Barnett. Wells was born a slave in MS. schools, Du Bois advocated, talented blacks should aspire to the professions. They should, above all, fight for their civil rights and demand Moved to Memphis, TN and worked as a them immediately. school teacher. Bought a newspaper and renamed it Free Speech and wrote many stories about the mistreatment of blacks. In 1905, Du Bois and a group of his supporters met Eventually, Wells was run out of town by local at Niagara Falls and launched the Niagara whites. She spent the rest of her life educating Movement. the world of what she called "legalized murder"

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Roosevelt Becomes President Roosevelt and Labor

After McKinley's assassination in 1901, became president. Roosevelt Roosevelt's view of government as an impartial regulatory mechanism shaped Roosevelt's was the first Progressive President (Taft, then Wilson). policy toward labor. Roosevelt became a champion of cautious, moderate When a bitter 1902 by the United Mine change. Reform was a vehicle for protecting American Workers endangered coal supplies for the society against more radical challenges, not for coming winter, Roosevelt asked both the remaking society. operators and the miners to accept impartial Roosevelt allied himself with progressives who federal arbitration. urged regulation (but not destruction) of trusts. At the heart of his policy was a desire to win for When the mine owners balked, Roosevelt Roosevelt was not a trustbuster government the power to investigate the activities of threatened to send federal troops to seize at heart. He had no serious corporations and publicize the results. the mines. The operators finally relented. commitment to reverse the In 1902, he ordered the Justice Department to invoke the prevailing trend toward Sherman Antitrust Act against a great new RR company economic concentration. Arbitrators awarded the strikers a 10% wage increase and a 9 hour day, although no recognition in the Northwest, the Northern Securities Company, a History remembers him as a of their union - less than they had wanted but more than they would likely have won without $400 million enterprise pieced together by JP Morgan and "trust buster" because he broke Roosevelt's intervention. others. up 45 trusts.

The "" Food and Drugs In the 1904 campaign Roosevelt boasted to provide everyone with a "Square Deal". Roosevelt, inspired by Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, pressured Congress to enact His first target was the RR industry. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 the which restricted the sale of dangerous or ineffective had been an early effort to regulate the RR industry, but the courts had medicines sharply limited its influence.

The Hepburn RR Regulation Act of 1906 sought to restore some regulatory authority to the government by giving the ICC the power to oversee RR rates.

In 1907, he proposed even more stringent reforms: an 8 hour day for workers, broader compensation for victims of industrial accidents, inheritance and income taxes, and regulation of the stock market. The Meat Inspection Act helped eliminate many Conservative opposition blocked much of his agenda, widening the gap between the diseases once transmitted in president and the conservative wing of his party. impure meat.

Roosevelt and the Environment Roosevelt and the Environment

Roosevelt's position on conservation contributed to the gap. Despite his sympathy with conservation, Roosevelt also shared some of the concerns of the Using executive powers, he restricted private development on millions of acres of undeveloped Naturalists - those committed to protecting the natural beauty of the land and the health of land - most of it in the West - by adding them to the previously modest forest systems. the wildlife from human intrusion. When conservatives on Congress restricted his authority over public lands in 1907, Roosevelt and At the beginning of his presidency, Roosevelt spent 4 days his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot (1st director of the US Forest Service), seized all the forests and with John Muir in the Sierras. Muir was the nation's leading many of the water power sites still in the public domain before the bill became law. preservationist and founder of the Sierra Club.

Roosevelt also added Roosevelt was the first president to take an active interest in the new and struggling significantly to the still young American conservation movement. In the early 20th century, conservationists promoted National Park System, policies to protect land for carefully managed development. whose purpose was to protect public land from any The Old Guard eagerly supported public reclamation and irrigation projects. In 1902, exploitation or development Roosevelt backed the National Reclamation Act - provided federal funds for the at all. construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals in the West - projects that would open new lands for cultivation and provide cheap electric power.

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Western Progressives Panic of 1907 Despite some reforms government still had little control over the industrial economy. The American West produced some of the most notable progressive leaders of the time: Hiram Johnson (CA), George Norris (NE) and William Borah (ID). Also known as the Knickerbocker Crisis The New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from 1906. Panic Many important issues to the West required occurred, and there were numerous runs on banks. The 1907 action beyond the state level. panic eventually spread throughout the nation when many state and local banks and businesses entered bankruptcy. Disputes over water, land grants, railroads, Primary causes of the run include a retraction of credit by a number of forests, etc. required the attention of the New York City banks and a loss of confidence among depositors, federal government. exacerbated by deregulation of financial markets. Huge areas of the West remained public lands In October 1907 a failed attempt to corner the market on stock of the United Copper controlled by DC. Much of the growth of the Theodore Roosevelt Company started the bank failures. When the bid failed, banks that lent money to the West was a result of federally funded dams, National Park (ND) cornering scheme suffered runs that later spread to affiliated banks and trusts, leading to water projects, and other infrastructure the downfall of the Knickerbocker Trust Company—New York City's third-largest trust. The undertakings. collapse of the Knickerbocker spread fear throughout the city's trusts as regional banks withdrew reserves from NYC banks. Panic extended across the nation as vast numbers of people withdrew deposits from their regional banks.

Panic of 1907 Panic of 1907 By November 1907, a further crisis emerged when a large brokerage firm borrowed heavily Conservatives blamed Roosevelt's "mad" economic policies (The Hepburn Act led to a using the stock of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TC&I) as collateral. devaluation of RR stocks) for the Panic.

Collapse of TC&I's stock price was averted by an emergency takeover by Morgan's U.S. Production fell by 11%, imports by 26%, and unemployment rose from under 3% to 8%. The Steel Corporation. JP Morgan helped construct a pool of assets of several important New frequency and severity of the 1907 Panic, in addition to the outsized but critical role that York banks to prop up shaky financial institutions. The key to the arrangement was the Morgan played, created considerable pressure for reform of the financial system. purchase by US Steel of the shares of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, currently held by a threatened New York bank.

Morgan insisted that he needed assurances that the purchase would not prompt The following year, Senator Nelson W. antitrust action. Roosevelt agreed, and the Morgan plan proceeded. Aldrich, father-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., established and chaired a The panic might have deepened if not for the intervention of financier J. P. Morgan who commission to investigate the crisis and pledged large sums of his own money, and convinced other New York bankers to do the propose future solutions, leading to the same, to shore up the banking system. creation of the Federal Reserve System.

It is unclear if the Morgan plan subsided the Panic or not.

Retirement Roosevelt loved being president, but did not run again due to long-standing tradition of 2 Taft recognized his policies would differ from Roosevelt. Unlike Roosevelt, Taft did not term presidencies. believe in the stretching of Presidential powers.

The Panic of 1907 and his reform efforts alienated Taft's first problem arose in the opening months of the conservatives in the Republican Party that he may have new administration, when he called Congress into had trouble winning the nomination. special session to lower protective tariffs.

Roosevelt "picked" William Howard Taft to "succeed" him. He encountered much resistance from the Old Guard and alienated many liberal Conservatives Progressives were pleased with Republicans (who later formed the believed he would Taft's election. "Roosevelt has Progressive Party), by defending the Payne- abandon Roosevelt's cut enough hay," they said; "Taft Aldrich Act which unexpectedly continued aggressive use of is the man to put it into the high tariff rates. A trade agreement with presidential powers, barn." Conservatives were Canada, which Taft pushed through Taft further antagonized Progressives by but in the end, Taft delighted to be rid of Congress, would have pleased eastern upholding his Secretary of the Interior broke up more trusts Roosevelt--the "mad messiah." advocates of a low tariff, but the Canadians (Richard Ballinger), accused of failing to than Roosevelt. rejected it. carry out Roosevelt's conservation policies.

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Spreading Insurgency Roosevelt v. Taft The battle for the nomination at the Chicago convention revolved around 254 delegates In the angry Progressive onslaught against him, little attention was paid to the fact that his administration initiated 80 antitrust suits and that Congress submitted to the states The RNC, controlled by the Old Guard, awarded all of 19 of them to Taft. Roosevelt took his supporters amendments for a Federal income tax and the direct election of Senators. A postal savings out of the convention as Taft was nominated as the Republican nominee system was established, and the Interstate Commerce Commission was strengthened. Roosevelt summoned his supporters back to Chicago in August for another The congressional elections of 1910 provided further evidence of how far the progressive convention, this one to launch the new revolt had spread. Progressive Party (Bull-Moose Party) In primary elections, conservative Republicans suffered defeat, while almost all progressive and to nominate himself as its presidential candidate. incumbents were re-elected. In the general election, the Democrats won control of the House for the first time in 16 years and gained strength in the Senate. The Republicans lost the election of 1912 because they were divided between Roosevelt still denied any presidential ambitions and claimed his real purpose was to Roosevelt and Taft. pressure Taft to return to progressive policies.

Two events changed his mind. October 27, 1911 Taft announced his administration's suit Taft, free of the Presidency, served as Professor of Law at Yale until President Harding made him against US Steel, that the acquisition of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company was illegal. Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until just before his death in 1930. To Taft, the The other incident was Senator Robert La Follette (WI) dropped out of the presidential race. appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote: "I don't remember that I ever was President."

Wilson's "New Freedom" Federal Reserve Act As a presidential candidate in 1912, Wilson presented a progressive program called "New Freedom". Wilson also reformed the American banking system via the creation of the Federal Reserve. Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" advocated accepting economic concentration and using government to regulate and control it. Wilson The Act created 12 regional banks, each to be believed that "bigness" was unjust and was bent on destroying it. owned and controlled by the individual banks of its district. The regional Federal Reserve banks Lowering the Tariff would hold a percentage of the assets of their The regional banks issued Federal Wilson exerted firm control over his cabinet and delegated real authority member banks in reserve; they would use those Reserve notes. Most important, they to only those whose loyalty was beyond question. reserves to support loans to private banks at an interest rate that the Federal Reserve system could shift funds quickly to troubled Wilson's first triumph as president was the fulfillment of an old progressive would set. areas - to meet increased demands for goal: a substantial lowering of the protective tariff. credit or to protect troubled bans. The Underwood-Simmons Tariff provided cuts big enough to break the power of the trusts. Supervising and regulating the entire system was a national Federal Reserve Board, To make up for the loss of revenue, Congress approved a graduated income tax that whose members were appointed by the President. would ultimately become the 16th amendment.

Dealing with Monopolies Retreat from the "New Freedom" Wilson proposed 2 measures to deal with the problem of By the Fall of 1914, Wilson believed the New Freedom program was complete and that monopoly, which took shape as the Federal Trade Commission calls for reform would subside. Act and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. He refused to support women's suffrage. He condoned segregation of the agencies of the federal government. He denounced reform legislation as unconstitutional or The FTC created a regulatory agency that would help businesses unnecessary. determine in advance whether their actions would be acceptable to the government. The congressional elections of 1914 shattered Wilson's complacency. Progressive supporters in the 1912 election retreated to the Republican Party. The agency would also have the authority to launch prosecutions against "unfair trade practices" and it would have wide power to Wilson returned to being a Progressive. He appointed Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court, investigate corporate behavior. making him not only the first Jew but the most progressive justice. 1916, Wilson supported the Keating-Owen Act which prohibited the shipment of goods The Clayton Antitrust Bill proposed stronger measures to break up produced by underage children across state lines, thus giving an expanded importance to the trusts. Wilson did little to protect it from conservative assaults, which constitutional clause assigning Congress the power of regulating interstate commerce. greatly weakened it. The Supreme Court struck down the Keating-Owen Act in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918). It was not until the Supreme Court reversed its ruling in US v. Darnby Lumber Co. in 1941 that child labor was banned in the US.

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Temperance Crusade WCTU & 18th Amendment

Many Progressives considered the elimination of alcohol from Temperance had been a major reform movement before the American life a necessary step in restoring order to society. Civil War mobilizing large numbers of people in a crusade with strong evangelical overtones. Scarce wages vanished as workers spent hours in saloons. Drunkenness spawned violence and poverty in families. In 1873, the movement developed new strength. Temperance advocates formed the Women's Christian Temperance Union, Working class wives and mothers hoped temperance to reform led after 1879 by Frances Willard. male behavior and thus improve women's lives.

Employers too regarded alcohol as an impediment to In 1893, the Anti-Saloon League joined the temperance industrial efficiency. Workers missed time on the job movement and, along with the WCTU began to press for because of drunkenness or worked while intoxicated. the legal abolition of saloons. Gradually, that demand grew to include the complete prohibition of the sale and Critics of economic privilege denounced the liquor manufacture of alcoholic beverages. industry as one of the nation's most sinister trusts.

WCTU & 18th Amendment Suffrage Demanded

Pressure for prohibition grew steadily through the first decades of the new century. By 1916, During Reconstruction, while the debate over African - American suffrage ensued, some 19 states passed prohibition laws. women believed it was their chance to push lawmakers for universal suffrage.

Among those women were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. So enraged the America's entry into WWI, and the moral fervor it unleashed, 15th Amendment did not include women, Stanton and Anthony allied with racist Southerners provided the last push to the advocates of prohibition. arguing that (white) women's votes would counter the vote of African Americans. In 1917, with the support of rural fundamentalists who In 1869, they formed the National Woman Suffrage Association and began to fight for a opposed alcohol on moral and religious grounds, Constitutional Amendment for women's suffrage. progressive advocates of prohibition steered through Congress a constitutional amendment. Those opposed to Stanton and Anthony - Lucy Stone and Julia Howe argued that it was unfair to endanger black enfranchisement by tying it to the markedly less popular campaign 2 years later, after ratification by every state except CT for female suffrage. They formed the American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for and RI (large populations of Catholics opposed to suffrage on a state-by-state basis. prohibition) the 18th Amendment became law to take effect in January 1920. In 1890, the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Elizabeth Cady Stanton became its first president.

Women's Suffrage NAWSA The largest single reform movement in American history was suffrage. Early in the 20th century, the suffrage movement overcame obstacles and won some Throughout the late 19th century, suffrage advocates presented their views victories. Suffragists were becoming better organized and more politically sophisticated. in terms of "natural rights" arguing that women deserved the same rights as Under the leadership of Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, membership in the men - including, first and foremost, the right to vote. National American Woman Suffrage Association grew to 2 million in 1917 because they began to Promoting this view, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and justify suffrage in "safer," less threatening ways. Susan B. Anthony challenged the traditional role of women to remain in the private sphere. They argued suffrage would not challenge the "separate sphere" Suffrage, though, was seen as a radical demand by critics. in which women resided.

A powerful anti-suffrage movement emerged, dominated by men but with the active support of many women. Catt Anti-suffragists railed against the threat suffrage posed to the "natural order"- associating suffrage with divorce, promiscuity, and neglect of children. Shaw

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NAWSA Women Divided The new tactic claimed that because women occupied a distinct sphere suffrage would Not all women believed in the goals of NAWSA. Some women who belonged to make an important contribution to politics as having the unique experience of wife, NAWSA left the organization to form other suffrage groups. mother, and homemaker. Alice Paul worked with radical British Suffragettes in London Many suffragists argued that enfranchising women to secure the vote. She then returned to the US and joined would help the temperance movement, by giving its NAWSA. After multiple conflicts with Shaw and Catt, she and largest groups of supporters a political voice. Lucy Burns left NAWSA in 1916 and formed the militant National Woman's Party.

Against the wishes of NAWSA, Paul and Burns openly attacked Wilson for denying women suffrage. Outraged, Some suffrage advocates claimed that once women had NAWSA openly supported the vote, war would become a thing of the past, since Wilson.

women, by nature, would curb the tempers of men. Lucy Burns Alice Paul

19th Amendment Triumphs of the suffrage movement began in 1910, when WA extended suffrage to women. CA followed in 1911. By 1939, 39 states extended suffrage. In 1920, finally, suffragists won ratification of the 19th amendment. To some feminists, however, the victory seemed less than complete. Alice Paul never accepted the relatively conservative (private sphere) justification for suffrage.

She argued the 19th amendment alone was not sufficient enough to protect women's rights. Women needed more: a constitutional amendment that would provide clear, legal protection for their rights and would prohibit all discrimination on the basis of sex. The Equal Rights Amendment

Paul's argument found limited favor even among many of the most important leaders of the recently triumphant suffrage crusade. The Equal Rights Amendment was never ratified.

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