Look/think back (you may use your notes) to the period after the Civil War, and specifically to the period known as the Gilded Age (1877-1900)…Make a list of 10 economic, political, social, racial, issues facing American Society.

Read pages 416-17 in your textbook. What is Progressivism?

Then, circle the issues on your list that will be issue tackled by Progressives.

Urbanization’s huge problems. Poverty, crime and overcrowding Health and sanitation Issues

Corruption in Government Monopolies and Trusts Working conditions for factory workers Women’s Rights

Social & Governmental Reforms in the Early 20th Century

Belief that honest government and just laws were the proper methods for correcting social and economic ills.

Mostly a white, middle-class, Protestant movement

Started with the ascendancy of Teddy Roosevelt to the Presidency in 1901 and ended with US entrance into WWI

The Social Gospel: (Walter Rauschenbush) By following the Bible’s teachings we can “make society into the kingdom of God”…Protestant Churches preached against vice and taught a code of social responsibility…caring for the poor and insisting on integrity in public life.

Muckrakers: Journalists (in newspapers, magazines, and books) who exposed corruption and poor working and living conditions, especially in the cities.

Muckraking combined in-depth, investigative journalism with sensationalism…muckrakers tried to outdo each other with shocking exposes of political and economic corruption.

Examples: Jacob Riis – How the Other Half Lives…

Thomas Nast’s– political cartoons Upton Sinclair – The Jungle

The History of Standard Oil Company

In McClure’s Magazine, she reported on the ruthless tactics that John Rockefeller used to defeat competitors.

Her father was, at one point, one of his competitors.

Wrote the Jungle about the meat packing Industry.

At one point made a significant number of people in the US Vegetarian

“I aimed for America’s heart and I hit it in the stomach.”

Triangle Shirt Waist Fire: March, 1911

On the upper story of a New York City Building.

146 people dead Mostly young Jewish women Doors were locked and many

women jumped out of the windows in desperation

Led to calls for workplace reform

Compared to Abraham Lincoln Presidents of the Gilded Age (1877-1893) seemed especially weak, both in gaining the presidency and in their actions as president.

One Exception: Grover Cleveland, who maintained a reputation for integrity through two terms (1885-1889 & 1893-1897)

This time was possibly the most corrupt period in American politics.

Spoils system – awarding government jobs to loyal party workers, no matter qualified (or unqualified) they were

President Grant’s Administration was especially well known for corruption (Remember Grantism?):

The Credit Mobilier was a French construction company that had helped build the Union Pacific RR. The heads of the company were also stock holders of Union Pacific stock, and steered large, fraudulent contracts to their company. They ended up stealing a lot of money from Union Pacific and the government who helped fund the building of the RR. To make sure they didn't get caught, they transferred some of their stock to big-wig congress members. In 1872, congress went to investigate and found that Schuyler Colfax, Grant's VP had accepted stock from the deal. It made the Republican party look super corrupt. Whether Grant knew of this, who knows.

The Whiskey Ring of 1875, exposed by Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow, involved diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. Over $3 million in taxes were stolen from the federal government with the aid of high government officials. Orville E. Babcock, the private secretary to the President, was indicted as a member of the ring but escaped conviction because of a presidential pardon.

Grant’s Secretary of War, William Belknap, was caught taking bribes to sell lucrative Native American trading posts in Oklahoma to his cronies. Grant let him resign (just before he was to be impeached) and get away with the crimes.

An unofficial organization that worked to keep one politician or political party in power.

Ex. Tammany Hall/the Tweed Ring kept William Tweed in power in New York.

Most large cities were run by political machines at the turn of the century.

The machine decided who got hired for what jobs within the city and who got contracts for stuff like roadwork.

In return the machine (and its leaders) got paid with kickbacks (bribes)

This form of corruption is called Graft Political Machines were kept in power by

ward bosses who “served the concerns of the poor urban citizens” and would then tell them who to vote for

The most infamous example of machine politics was Tammany Hall, headquarters of the Democratic Party in New York City. Headed by William Marcy Tweed, the Tammany Hall political machine of the late 1860s and early 1870s used graft, bribery, and rigged elections to bilk the city of over $200 million. Some of this money went to create public jobs that helped people and supported the local economy. Some went into constructing public buildings at hugely inflated expense, thus lining the pockets of building contractors and suppliers of materials. But contractors and suppliers, and anyone else doing business in the city, had to give kickbacks to the bosses in order to stay in business. Many machine bosses, including Boss Tweed, amassed fortunes as a result of kickbacks and bribes.

In New York Gave $50,000 to

the poor 2 million for

schools, orphanages and hospitals

Ran the city’s debt up to 70 million with its graft and illegal practices.

His political Cartoons helped to bring down Boss Tweed and his ring.

Political/editorial cartoon is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events or personalities.

They typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and biting humor in order to question authority and draw attention to corruption and other social ills.

Also created the Modern Santa Claus

Draw a political Cartoon and then explain it. You may use either a current issue or an issue from the time period that we have been studying.

In your explanation include the issue and how you represented the issue in pictures.

Many were Governors- Robert La Follette (“Fighting Bob”)

of Wisconsin improved education, limited the power of the railroads, and made factories safer in his state…He also introduced the idea of direct primaries in elections, quickly adopted in most other states.

Other Progressive governors: Hiram Johnson (CA); Teddy Roosevelt (NY); Woodrow Wilson (NJ)

Settlement Houses: a community center that provided social, educational, and cultural services to the urban poor.

Leader in the Settlement House Movement: Jane Addams.

AMERICANIZATION

Hull House Settlement, founded in 1889…by 1911, there were over 400 settlement Houses in the US.

Each year 30,000+ workers died (plus ½ million were injured) on the job, due to hazardous machinery and fumes, long hours, poor ventilation…

After the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Progressives called for (and earned to some degree) workplace reforms such as 10 hour-days; workplace safety; workers’ compensation laws

Led by the efforts of Progressive reformer, Florence Kelley, the federal government formed the US Children’s Bureau in 1912 to examine the health and Welfare of children

Keating-Owens Act (1916) banned child labor. It, like many workplace safety laws, was later ruled unconstitutional. In 1938 child labor was banned for good

Public Education for young children continued to expand during this time period. Educators debated what the students should be taught.

Florence Kelley also worked in the Settlement House Movement, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and was a founding member of the NAACP

Direct Primary: the people, rather than party leaders choose the candidates

Initiative: People suggest (through petitions) laws that then get put on the ballot in the next election.

Referendum: the people vote to approve or reject the laws passed by a legislature

Recall: Public Servants could be removed from power before the end of the term.

Direct election of senators by voters, rather than by state legislators (see 1913 17th Amendment)

Primarily a women’s effort, the Temperance Movement promoted the practice of never drinking alcohol.

These Progressives believed that alcohol led to social problems (domestic abuse and neglect) and that it was their moral duty to force men to stop drinking.

Led to the 1920 18th Amendment, outlawing the production and sale of alcohol. (repealed in 1933 by 21st Amendment)

Carrie Nation: Well known member of the Temperance Movement.6 feet tall &175 pounds, she would walk into bars and pray while smashing them up with a hatchet.

During this time period women did not have the right to vote and were expected to stay in the home or hand over their wages to their husbands, fathers, brothers.

However women were very active in the many social causes throughout the time period…NAACP, Temperance, Settlement House, Child Labor and Education…soon women saw the need to promote their own rights, in the home, in the workplace, and...in politics…

Suffragettes argued that only through the right to vote would women be able to make sure that the government passed laws protecting children, fostering education and promoting family life.

Through the leadership of women like Susan B. Anthony, & Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the 1860’s, and Carrie Chapman Catt, Florence Kelley, & Alice Paul in the 1890’s and early 1900’s, suffragettes were able to get the 19th Amendment passed in 1919 , giving all US women the right to vote (some states already had it).

Susan B. Anthony

Alice Paul

16th - Income Tax 17th - Direct Election of Senators 18th - Temperance 19th -Women’s Suffrage Which group benefited the most from reform legislation passed during the Progressive Era?

A African Americans

B factory workers

C American Indians

D big business

Progressive Politics with a Popular Leader

Spanish American War Hero – Rough Riders…we will come back to this later

Youngest president to date, at 43 Energetic and incredibly popular Attention hog: “the bride at every

wedding and the corpse at every funeral”

Loved to hunt, fish, hike, and box Will expand the power of the

Presidency, pushing through the reform policies of his Square Deal, so as to keep the wealthy and powerful from exploiting the poor and ruining small businesses.

TR broke up trusts that he found were cheating consumers or running small businesses out of business

However he felt that some trusts were more efficient and worked in the favor of the public. These trusts should be preserved, as long as they did business fairly.

Roosevelt’s Attorney General filed suit against this railroad company from the Northwest. The Supreme Court deemed it an illegal trust and forced it to split into smaller companies.

This was one of the largest trusts to be “busted” by TR and one of the first uses of the Sherman Anti Trust Act against trusts.

TR also encouraged Congress to pass the Elkins Act, and the Hepburn Act, increasing the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

Helped resolve the 1902 Pennsylvania Coal strike

Mine owners refused to listen to the workers

Roosevelt stepped in and threatened to take over the mines with the help of federal troops unless they came to an agreement with the Union.

Workers got small pay rise and 9 hour workday- first time the fed. Govt. sided with workers in a labor dispute!

Within the year, Congress established the Department

of Commerce and Labor

After reading The Jungle (and hearing public opinion) Roosevelt called for heavy regulation and inspection of food and drug producers (ex. 1906 Meat Inspection Act)

Led to the Pure Food and Drug Act and, later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Roosevelt and the Environment: TR loved the great outdoors and hung out with the founder of the Sierra Club (John Muir, right) but TR’s government policy was to conserve (protect areas/resources for later, public use) not preserve (leave untouched) natural resources.

• National Reclamation Act of 1902 gave the federal government the power to decide where and how water would be distributed, especially in the arid Southwest

William Howard Taft TR’s Secretary of War– seemingly handpicked by TR.

Busted twice as many trusts as Roosevelt, dropping the distinction between good and bad trusts (including Standard Oil and US Steel)

Made a lot of other policies that got on the nerves of Roosevelt, so TR decided to run again for president

Roosevelt started his own party, the Progressive Party (nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party”)

Taft ran for the Republicans Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democrats on

also on a Progressive platform he called New Freedom , attacking the “triple wall of privilege” – tarrifs, banks and trusts.

Note: Eugene Debs ran for the Socialist Party, showing some growth on that end of the political spectrum

Because Roosevelt and Taft spilt the Republican vote, Wilson won the 1912 election by a landslide.

Progressivism and the Democrats

An Intellectual (President of Princeton Univ.)

Progressive Governor of New Jersey Son of a Virginia Minister,

lived much of his life in Augusta, Georgia

First Southerner to win Presidency in 60 years

Probably a Racist, who would not have attacked Jim Crow Legislation in his Progressive Reforms.

Wilson faced great Foreign Relations Issues during his Presidency (Latin America and WWI), but for now we will focus on his Domestic Policy and return to International Affairs after the Exam Break…

Using the expanded power of the presidency (thanks to TR) Wilson’s most important domestic policy decisions were the ones that allowed him to regulate the economy…

Cut tariffs on foreign goods to allow for more competition with American goods.

Included a provision for a graduated income tax, which the 16th Amendment had just given Congress the power to do.

Created the Federal Reserve Board to reform the banking system by creating a central authority to supervise banks

Set up Regional Banks to hold the reserve funds from commercial banks.

Set(s) interests rates.

Prevents too much money from being held in the hands of one person, bank, or region

Supervises banks to make sure they are well run

Sets interest rates, so that they do not fluctuate wildly over time or from bank to bank…by-product: also helps the government manipulate the economy

Strengthened earlier (Sherman Antitrust Act) legislation by spelling out the specific activities that corporations were not allowed to do.

Prevented Unions from being attacked as Trusts, which helped protect labor’s right to organize!

Federal Trade Commission, 1914

•Organization to Monitor trade practices that might lead to monopoly•The FTC also a watchdog for false advertising and labeling.

Government reforms like the initiative, referendum, and recall, and Amendments like the 17th and19th increased voters’ influence on government and legislation.

Created the lasting idea that Government can/should take action to fix problems within the nation and to protect Americans’ private and work lives; health; & consumerism.

Created federal agencies which still watch over the economy and regulate business and commerce and protect the environment.

Come up with five examples of how the legacy of the Progressive Era has shaped the world around you.

How might your life be different if the Progressive era had not happened?