Progressivism
Social Justice Movement
“By altering the environment they
could reconstruct society and
eliminate poverty.”
• “By the last two decades of the
century many thoughful men had
begun to march under various
banners declaring that somewhere
and somehow the promise of the
American dream had been lost –
they often said ‘betrayed’ – and
that drastic changes needed to be
made to recapture it.”
• America: A Narrative History v2 p.922
Those of the outside
• African Americans and racism
• Booker T. Washington
• WEB Du Bois
• Women and the Domestic
Sphere
“to use the govt. as an agency
of human welfare”
• To reform … monopolies,
corruption and inefficiency in govt.
and social injustice.
• Based on white middle class values
• Response to the complexity of the
urban/industrial cities, political
machines, and “robber barons.”
Muckrakers
• Publicists … exposés
• TR and Pilgrim’s Progress
• Lincoln Steffens Shame of the
Cities
• Ida Tarbell Standard Oil
• Upton Sinclair The Jungle
• Frank Norris The Octopus
Focus on Children
• horror stories… a waste of human
resources…broken before adults
• Florence Kelley …
1. Hull House and Jane Addams,
2. Nat. Consumers League,
3. Nat. Child Labor Committee,
4. Juvenile Court System
Focus on Cities
• Jacob Riis How the Other Half
Lives
1. Photographer
2. “green space”
3. Urban overcrowding …National
Housing Assoc. … tenement laws
Focus on Education
• Learning by rote questioned
• Kindergarten
• Vocational/agricultural schools
• John Dewey
• Goal … flexible, better educated,
more open minded/understanding
adults.
Temperance Movement
• Reasons …
• Women's Christian Temperance
Union … Francis Willard
• Carrie Nation and her hatchet
• 1906-12 7 states pass laws
• 1919 18th Amendment then 23rd
Suffrage
Stanton and Anthony
Alice Paul
Focus on Politics
Goal … to increase democracy
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Wisconsin Idea: Robert La Follette
Primary
Recall
Referendum
Initiative
16th Amendment (1913, income tax)
17th (1913, direct election/Senators)
19th (1920, women’s suffrage)
TR’s Square Deal
• “second only to
Niagara Falls…”
• Square Deal
• 3 Cs …
1. Control of corps.
2. Consumer
protection
3. Conservation
• 1902 Coal strike
• Dept. of Commerce and labor
• “laissez faire” vs. good and bad trusts …
regulation the key
• Elkins and Hepburn Acts and RR
• JP Morgan and Northern Securities
• “Trustbuster”
• Meat Inspection & Food and Drug Acts
• National Parks, Forests and Monuments
William Howard Taft
• 1908 election vs.
Bryan and Debs
• Dollar Diplomacy
• Sherman Anti-Trust
vs. Standard Oil
• TR’s back
1912 Election
• 1910 TR had begun to campaign
• 1911 Progressive party under Robert
La Follette
1. 8 hour day, 6 day week
2. No child labor under 16 years
3. System of accident, old age, and
unemployment insurance
4. Women’s suffrage
“The Progressive cause is based on the
eternal principles of righteousness. In
the end the cause itself shall triumph.”
• Republicans = Taft
• Progressives = TR = Bull Moose
• Democrats = Woodrow Wilson
• Socialists = Eugene V. Debs
“make the working class the ruling
class of the nation and world”
Corporate Capitalism okay. Socialist/
radical labor org. bad. Conservative
unions good. Promote Democracy.
• New Nationalism
• New Freedom
1. Corp. “inevitable
and necessary
2. Increase Fed. Govt.
power to regulate
business
3. Strong govt. to
protect rts of people
1. Restore old forms
of economic
competition and
equal opportunities
2. Less Fed.power
“Free men need no
guardians”
Woodrow Wilson
• 41% of the vote but
Progressivism wins
• “preacher intellect”
• “zealous idealism”
• “triple wall of
privilege” …tariffs,
banks, trusts…
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Tariff issue
Joint session of Congress
1913 Underwood Tariff Bill
Why so easy?
Banks
Other People’s Money and How the
Bankers use It …Brandeis
1913 Federal Reserve Act sets up the
bankers’ bank
Trusts
• Federal Trade Commission takes on
interstate commerce and unfair trade
practices
• Clayton Anti-trust Act… strengthened the
weaker Sherman.
• Exempted Labor from anti-trust
prosecution, legalized strikes and
picketing. AF of L’s Gompers called it
the Magna Carta of Labor