I.
II.
Organizing for Change
A. The Changing Face of Politics
1. Organization was indispensable for success among the reformers.
a) Regional thinking
b) These new technologies eased the way for citizens to organize.
c) Organizations to protect and advance certain economic interests
d) Some organized interest groups increasingly looked to the government for help, and
others expected to foster the interests of ethnic, racial, and gender groups.
2. Groups shared the optimism that responsible citizens were capable of progress.
a) The term progressivism signifies three related developments.
b) Reflected concerns of the urban middle class
3. Progressivism appeared at every level of government.
B. “Spearheads for Reform”: The Settlement Houses
1. Hull House was the first settlement house in Chicago.
C. Women and Reform
1. Organizations formed or dominated by women burst upon politics.
a) The New Woman
2. Women were increasing control over their lives in regard to the birth rate.
a) The birth rate fell steadily.
b) Many women used abortion, but it became illegal.
c) Margaret Sanger
d) The National Birth Control League
3. Some states passed laws specifically to protect working women.
a) Muller v. Oregon (1908)
4. However, most women were not allowed to vote or hold office.
a) Support for suffrage grew as social reform required political action.
b) By 1896, four western states had given women the right to vote.
5. The National American Woman Suffrage Association
a) During the 1920s, the cause of woman suffrage ignited a mass movement.
b) Women also argued that they should vote because they deserved full equality.
C. Moral Reform
1. Alcohol was the primary target of moral reform.
a) The Anti-Saloon League
b) Opposition to prohibition
c) The drive against alcohol was ultimately successful.
2. Prostitution was another target of moral reforms.
a) The Mann Act
D. Organizing Against Racism
1. Racial issues were usually more remote than other issues.
a) Lynching and violence continued.
b) Some posed alternatives to the accomodationist leadership of Washington.
2. Some African American leaders organized the Niagara Movement and the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
E. Challenging Capitalism: Socialists and Wobblies
1. The Socialist Party of America (SPA)
a) Workers would share in ownership and control of the means of production.
b) Eugene V. Debs
c) Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies)
The Reform of Politics and the Politics of Reform
A. Exposing Corruption: The Muckrakers
1. Journalists played an important role in preparing the ground for reform.
a) President Roosevelt called them muckrakers.
b) McClure’s Magazine
c) Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906).
2. Pure Food and Drug Act
a) Meat Inspection Act
B. Reforming City Government
1. Muckrakers helped focus public concern on city government.
2. Municipal reformers urged honest and efficient government.
3. City governments also took up city planning.
4. Public health, mental health, social work, and education
a) Their objective was to use scientific and social scientific knowledge to control
social forces so that they could define the future.
2. Professionals also sought change in the public schools.
3. Standards of medical colleges were raised and access to the profession was restricted.
D. Reforming State Government
1. Robert M. La Follette
a) Direct primary
b) Commission to regulate railroad rates and increased taxes on corporations.
c) Merit system
E. The Weakening of Parties and Rise of Organized Interest Groups
1. Party organizations that had dominated politics cane under attack.
2. Oregon System
3. Term limits
4. Rise of lobbyists
III. Roosevelt, Taft, and Republican Progressivism
A. Roosevelt: Asserting the Power of the Presidency
1. Roosevelt saw political office as a duty he owed the nation.
a) Roosevelt initiated more than forty antitrust actions.
b) Trustbusting
c) Coal strike
B. The Square Deal in Action: Coercing the Regulatory State
1. Roosevelt’s trustbusting and coal strike settlement brought him great popularity.
a) Congress approved several measures he endorsed.
2. Roosevelt won reelection by one of the largest margins up to that time
a) Elected in his own right, Roosevelt set out to implement meaningful legislation.
C. Regulating Natural Resources
1. Established five national parks and over fifty wildlife preserves
a) He strongly supported the National Reclamation Act of 1902.
D. Taft’s Troubles
1. William Howard Taft was virtually named Roosevelt’s successor
a) William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic nominee.
b) Taft won just under 52 percent of the vote; the Republicans kept control of
Congress.
2. Taft’s approach to the presidency was more restrained than Roosevelt’s
a) Republican Party split over tariff rates, conservation, and other issues.
IV. “Carry a Big Stick”: Roosevelt, Taft, and World Affairs
A. Taking Panama
1. Considered Nicaragua and Panama (part of Colombia) as possible sites
a) Roosevelt supported the Panamanian Revolution against Colombia.
2. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1904)
a) Canal not completed until 1914
B.
Making the Caribbean an American Lake
1. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
2. Roosevelt acted forcefully to establish his new policy.
a) Taft and Wilson continued to expand Roosevelt’s policy.
C. Roosevelt and Eastern Asia
1. Roosevelt built on the Open Door notes and American participation against the Boxers.
2. Treaty of Portsmouth (1905)
3. Gentleman’s Agreement (1907)
D. The United States and the World: 1901 to 1913
1. By the turn of the century, U.S. commitments were obvious to all.
a) Modern navy
V. Wilson and Democratic Progressivism
A. Debating the Future: The Election of 1912
1. Republicans were plagued by divisions and an economic downturn
2. Roosevelt ran as the Progressive Party’s candidate.
3. Wilson centered his campaign on the issues of big business and depicted monopoly itself
as the most serious problem.
a) Wilson received 42 percent of the total vote, and the Democrats won in Congress.
B. Wilson and Reform, 1913 to 1916
1. Wilson believed in an active role for the president in policymaking.
a) Underwood Act
b) Federal Reserve System
c) Clayton Antitrust Act
d) Federal Trade Commission Act
2. Beyond his support for labor, Wilson did little in the area of social reform.
VI. New Patterns in Cultural Expression
A. Realism, Impressionism, and Ragtime
1. American novelists
a) American painting
2. The most influential musician at the turn of the century was Scott Joplin.
B. Mass Entertainment in the Early Twentieth Century
1. New forms of entertainment emerged.
2. Professional baseball
C. Celebrating the New Age
1. The World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago in 1892.
VII. Progressivism in Perspective
A. The Transformation of American Politics and Government
1. Roosevelt and Wilson asserted presidential authority
a) Americans came to expect domestic policy to flow from the White House.
2. Reforms rarely fulfilled all the expectations of their proponents.