Annotated Bibliography Progressive Era
"Progressive
Era."
Vernon
Johns.
Web.
27
Mar.
2012.
<http://www.vernonjohns.org/vernjohns/sthprgrs.html>.
The Progressive era illustrates the ineffectiveness of American society and
government in dealing with issues of control over industrial capitalism. In Europe,
the working classes pushed through effective controls of capitalist excesses. In
America, however, the racist white working class never adequately supported
measures to limit the excessive powers of industrialists. This failure of the American
labor movement is little acknowledged by either white liberal or radical scholars. In
part, this blindness is the result of both racism and simplified Marxism.. The defeat
of the South in the Civil War cleared the way for the dominance of industrialism in
the entire nation. With the race issue conveniently swept under the southern rug,
the major political issue of the post-Civil War era was what to do about the
increasing concentration of industrial ownership. By 1909, 1 percent of the total
industrial firms produced 44 percent of the manufactured goods. Perhaps the bestknown example of the trend was that of financier J.P. Morgan, who purchased some
of John D. Rockefeller's iron mines and Andrew Carnegie's entire steel business. In
February 1901 the financier combined the two into the U. S. Steel Corporation. The
entire business cost $1 billion, a first in American industrial history.
"Profiles of U.S. Presidents." Stretching Presidential Power. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Grant-Eisenhower/Theodore-RooseveltStretching-presidential-power.html>.
Immediately on his election in 1904, Roosevelt committed what most of his
advisers and later historians considered his greatest political blunder: he
announced then that he would not under any circumstances be a candidate for
reelection to a third term in 1908. Certainly the move made him something of a lame
duck at the outset of his only full administration. Yet, instead of limiting him, it is
possible that lame-duck status served Roosevelt's purposes well. He may have felt in
fact that it freed him morally to move to the far side of constitutional law whenever
his view of the national interest required it. That, at least, would be consistent with
the man's unwillingness to be controlled by anything less than his own moral
commitment to serving the public interest as steward of the nation. Roosevelt was
quite capable of magnifying a sense of crisis as occasion demanded, his presidency
did not in fact confront great national or international troubles that might have
tested his restraint. More than that, sensitivity to the abuse of presidential power
stems from many decades of strong presidential leadership that by the 1970s
eventuated in what came to be called—aptly enough—the Imperial Presidency.
Theodore Roosevelt's generation faced the opposite problem—decades of weak
leadership in which images of governmental usurpation were served up regularly by
special interests trying to preserve their immunity from public control and
accountability. Moreover, not even the severest critics of modern government (the
lunatic fringe aside) would be comfortable now with the relatively small power that
resided in the presidency even at the conclusion of T. R.'s reign. As Richard E.
Neustadt noted in his landmark book Presidential Power, "A striking feature of our
recent past has been the transformation into routine practice of the actions we once
treated as exceptional.. . . The exceptional behavior of our earlier 'strong' Presidents
has now been set by statute as a regular requirement." That Roosevelt acted to the
degree that he did in advance of such statutory requirements says more for his
intelligence than for his recklessness.
"Theodore Roosevelt in Progressive Era Politics." Shmoop. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.shmoop.com/progressive-era-politics/theodore-roosevelt.html>.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the 26th president of the United States
and a proponent of the "New Nationalist" variety of Progressivism. A master of
populist rhetoric and public charm, Roosevelt quickly tapped into the widespread
fervor for reform. His administration pursued some widely publicized antitrust
cases against large companies like Northern Securities and the Swift Beef Trust, but
for all his aggressive rhetoric, Roosevelt actually went after fewer monopolies than
his successor, William Howard Taft.
Throughout his administration, Roosevelt
attempted to strike a balance between employers and employees in labor disputes
and pledged to give Americans a "Square Deal" that prized a person's character
above his class. He made notable strides in the cause of conservationism, dedicating
many National Parks and restricting private development on government lands.
After voluntarily stepping down from office in 1908, Roosevelt became increasingly
disenchanted with William Howard Taft, his hand-picked successor to the
presidency. He challenged Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912, and when he
lost, he started his own Progressive (or "Bull Moose") Party, positioning himself as
the more aggressive trust-busting candidate. While Roosevelt's New Nationalist
policy accepted economic concentration as an inevitability in America's rapidly
industrializing society, Democrat Woodrow Wilson pledged to destroy the trusts
altogether in order to restore competition to the marketplace. Roosevelt lost the
election but remained a legendary figure in American political history.
"The Progressive Era, 1896-1916." Academic American History. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.academicamerican.com/progressive/topics/progressive.html>.
The nation Theodore Roosevelt inherited upon President McKinley’s death in
1901 was a vigorous and powerful entity. The Spanish-American War of 1898 freed
Cuba from Spanish control and also gained the United States an empire—the
territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. As was noted above,
Theodore Roosevelt was instrumental in guiding the nation toward participation in
the conflict. His conduct in the war led to his election as governor of New York and
then as vice president. Somewhat like his cousin Franklin, who guided the nation
through the Great Depression and World War II, Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy is built
upon his contributions in both foreign and domestic affairs. In 1901, his attention
was fixed firmly on domestic issues. Under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt,
Woodrow Wilson and many other political and business leaders, the nation began to
clean up its act. By 1916 hundreds of national, state and local laws had begun to
make the cities cleaner and healthier, the workplace safer, and businessmen more
considerate of their workers and customers. Progressive reform also touched
private institutions such as universities, hospitals, and even charitable or religious
groups. Although politics remained a rough-and-tumble sport, steps were taken to
clean up the political process, especially at the state and local level, and four
constitutional amendments advanced progressive causes.
Dougan, Michael. "Michael Dougan, Little Rock, 1994,684pp." Progressive Era.
Arkansas
Odyssey.
Rose
Publishing
Com.
Web.
<http://www.pccua.edu/keough/progressive_era%20ark.htm>.
State affairs were in considerable disarray at the end of Governor Jeff Davis's
third term. By counting the property of the schools as income, Davis had told the
legislators that the state had a surplus and should give the voters a tax break. The
legislature complied and increasing deficits in the state treasury resulted. In
1909 George W. Donaghey a self-made man who had begun as a carpenter and
furniture maker and then in the construction business. As a member of the Capitol
Commission, Donaghey claimed to be the best informed individual about the state
Capitol construction a leading embarrassment and expense. Substantial work on
the state Capitol had been done during the Davis years, but it was accompanied by
charges of fraud and corruption in the construction and substandard workmanship
in the building. An angry and wary legislature finally cut off all funding and left the
partially finished capitol to decay. Donaghey exploiting public discontent claimed
that as a practical businessman he could get the job done and he did. After being
elected Donaghey set about achieving his goal, using convict labor, making
unauthorized expenditure and working around costly strikes. The General
Assembly moved into the unfinished building in 1911, though the project was not
completed.
A firm believer in education he brought in the Southern Regional
Education Board to help raise the state's educational standards and add new
programs. His administration sponsored the creation of a tuberculosis sanitarium
at Booneville and the state compulsory smallpox vaccination law. He endorsed the
initiative and referendum constitutional amendment whereby voters could pass
laws and constitutional amendments or repeal those found objectionable. Initiative
and referendum were supported by Prohibitionist who believed in a bone-dry law
was more likely to come from voters that the legislature. The passage of the
initiative and referendum in Arkansas was the first such move by any Southern state
and it was put to use immediately. In 1912, by referendum, voters repealed the
1912 tax reassessment law that had been passed to straighten out the state's
finances. The initiative was used to pass a child labor law, though it was weaken by
the legislature. In 1913 the passage of Amendment 15 limited the legislature to a 60
day session. Voters had become convinced that legislative sessions were prolonged
in order to increase legislators' per diem pay. The last session before the
amendment took effect cost $200,000 and the first after it went into effect cost
$80,000.