Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt
I.
II.
III.
Population
a.
What Was the Make-Up of America At the Turn of the Century?
i. 76 million
ii. 1/7 were foreign born
iii. 13 million more immigrants would enter America by 1914
Progressive Roots
a.
Who Are Progressives?
i. People who waged war on:
1. Monopolies
2. Corruption
3. Social injustice
b. How Did the Progressive Movement Begin?
i. Greenback Labor Party of the 1870s
ii. Populists of the 1890s
iii. Trusts:
1. People increasingly became frustrated with all the money industrialists were getting and
how little money workers were getting
2. People were also increasingly getting weary of the hands-off policies that the government
had. Government needed to become capable of handling these problems
iv. Social Injustice:
1. European immigrants were growing in strength at the polls
2. Christians used religion to justify better housing and living conditions for the urban poor
3. Feminists added social injustice to suffrage on their list of reforms
c.
Writers and Trusts
i. Henry Demarest Lloyd (1894) – Wealth Against Commonwealth – criticized the Standard Oil
Company trust
ii. Thorstein Veblen (1899) – Theory of the Leisure Class – viewed the rich as engaged in wasteful
business (or making money for just because they could) rather than productive “industry” (or making
goods to satisfy real needs)
d. Writers and Slums
i. Jacob A. Riis (1890) – How the Other Half Lives – shocking book on all the dirt, disease, vice, and
misery of New York slums
ii. Theodore Dreiser (1912) – The Financier & (1914) The Titan – Criticized promoters and profiteers
e.
Affects of the Writers
i. Drew attention to progressive problems
ii. The NY Police Commissioner, Teddy Roosevelt, was influenced by Riis’ book
Muckrakers
a.
Who Are Muckrakers?
i. American journalists, novelists, and critics who exposed corruption, especially in business, politics,
and social
ii. Many wrote articles in magazines such as McClure’s, Cosmopolitan, Collier’s, and Everybody’s.
These magazines competed with each other for subscribers
iii. President Teddy Roosevelt is said to have given the muckrakers their name because he was annoyed
by their excessive zeal and dirt-digging. There was a book in which someone was so intent on
racking manure that he couldn’t see the “celestial crown” hanging overhead
iv. They led to increased support for the progressive movement. Some of their works were printed in
books
v. Most paid dearly to verify their reports to make sure that there would be no reprisals
b. Lincoln Steffens
i. McClure writer – wrote a series of articles called “The Shame of Cities”
ii. He wrote about how some governments allied themselves corruptly with big businesses
c.
Ida Tarbell
i. McClure writer – published a devastating expose of the Standard Oil Company
d. Thomas W. Lawson
i. Speculator who made $50 million in the stock market
ii. Everybody’s writer – explained the corrupt practices of those who new how to play the stock market
e.
David G. Phillips
i. Cosmopolitan writer – wrote a series of articles called “The Treason of the Senate”
ii. 75% of the Senators did not represent the people, but railroads and trusts
iii. His criticisms impressed Teddy Roosevelt and would lead to his murder
f.
Ray Stannard Baker
i. Wrote Following the Color Line (1908) – about poor conditions of blacks (1/3 were illiterate)
g. John Spargo
i. Wrote The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906) – about child labor
h. Who Did Muckrakers Target?
i. Insurance companies
ii. Trusts
iii. Women trafficking
IV.
V.
VI.
iv. Slums
v. Industrial accidents
vi. Child labor
vii. Poor conditions of blacks
Political Progressivism
a.
Who Were the Progressives?
i. Mainly middle-class men and women who felt pinched by:
1. Corporations
2. Immigrants
3. Labor unions
ii. Sought two goals:
1. Curb the trusts
2. Improve the common person’s conditions of life and labor
iii. Emerged in:
1. Both parties
2. All regions
3. All levels of government
b. Progressive Reforms
i. Direct primary elections – candidates had been elected by State legislatures (this would undercut
power-hungry party bosses who paid off State legislatures)
ii. Initiative – voters could propose legislation themselves
iii. Referendum – place laws on the ballot for approval by the people
iv. Recall – enable the voters to remove faithless elected officials
v. Australian ballot –
vi. Limited the amount of money that candidates could spend for their elections
vii. Restricted huge gifts from corporations
c.
17th Amendment
i. Established the direct election of U.S. senators
ii. The purpose was to eliminate corruption, give the people more of a voice, and improve the caliber of
senators
d. Women’s Suffrage
i. Revived their effort
ii. Opponents of saloons felt they could count on the women’s vote
iii. Argued it was “taxation without representation”
iv. Gradually given to women in the West
Progressivism in the Cities and State
a.
City Commissions
i. People were upset with political machine and corrupt city government, so they formed city
commissions
ii. Commissions – expert-staffed groups to manage urban affairs
iii. Public utilities commissions – regulated railroads and trusts
b. Progressives Attacks
i. Slumlords
ii. Juvenile delinquency
iii. Prostitution
iv. Sale of franchises for streetcars and other public utilities
c.
Reform In Wisconsin
i. Governor – Robert LaFollette
ii. He took control from crooked corporations and returned it to the people
iii. Perfected a scheme for regulating public utilities
d. Reform In California
i. Governor – Hiram Johnson
ii. Helped break the dominant grip of the Southern Pacific Railroad on State politics
e.
Reform In New York
i. Governor – Charles Evans Hughes
ii. Gained national fame as an investigator of malpractices by gas and insurance companies
iii. Investigated the coal trust
Progressive Women
a.
Settlement House Movement
i. Women couldn’t vote or hold political office, but settlement houses (homeless shelters) shelters
benefited women because:
1. Made women aware of the problems of:
a.
Poverty
b. Political corruption
c.
Bad working conditions
d. Bad living conditions
2. Gave women skills to attack those evils
3. Allowed them to participate in the political arena
4. Led to literary clubs, which had existed earlier, becoming clubs to discuss social issues
and current events
ii.
VII.
Led to female activist organizations, such as:
1. Women’s Trade Union League
2. National Consumers League
3. Children’s Bureau (1912) – a new federal agency (provided women reformers a national
stage for social investigation and advocacy)
4. Women’s Bureau (1920) – a new federal agency (provided women reformers a national
stage for social investigation and advocacy)
b. Separate Spheres
i. Belief that a woman’s place is in the home
ii. Progressive women thus turned to the traditional roles of wife and mother, advocating for:
1. Keeping children out of bad working conditions
2. Attacking the disease in tenements
3. Winning pensions for mothers
4. Ensuring that safe food was sold
c.
Factory Reform
i. Unsafe and unsanitary sweatshops – factories where workers toiled long hours for low wages – were
a public scandal in many cities
ii. Florence Kelley (use to be a resident of Jane Addam’s Hull House) because the State of IL’s first
chief factory inspector and one of the nation’s leading advocates for improved factory conditions
d. Muller v. Oregon (1908)
i. Oregon established a law that limited women to ten hours of work in factories and laundries
ii. Muller, a laundry owner, challenged the legality of the law, arguing that it violated the “liberty to
contract.” He had asked an employee to remain after hours to do an extra load of laundry and was
fined $10. Muller refused to pay the fine
iii. The Supreme Court accepted the constitutionality of laws protecting women workers by presenting
evidence of the harmful effects of factory labor on women’s weaker bodies
iv. Although it may seem discriminatory today, it was a victory for women because it meant that
employers couldn’t have total control over the workplace
e.
Lochner v. New York (1905)
i. The Supreme Court invalidated a New York law establishing a 10-hour day for bakers
ii. Eventually, in 1917, the Court upheld a 1-hour law for factory workers
f.
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire (1911)
i. Violations of fire codes (such as locked doors) caused a disaster
ii. 146 workers, most of them young immigrant women, were burned to death or leapt to their death
from 8-story windows
iii. Results –
1. The New York legislature passed stronger laws regulating the hours and conditions of
sweatshops
2. By 1917, 30 States had put workers’ compensation laws on the books, providing
insurance to workers injured in accidents on the job
3. Gradually, the concept of the employer’s responsibility to society was replaced by
unregulated free enterprise
g. Antiliquor Campaigns
i. Saloons were very prevalent (1 per 200 people in some cities)
ii. Alcohol was connected to:
1. Prostitution
2. Drunken voter
3. Crooked city officials
4. Political bosses
iii. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) –
1. Founded by Frances E. Willard
2. Mobilized 1 million women to “Make the world homelike” and built the WCTU into the
largest organization of women in the world
3. She allied herself with the Anti-Saloon League
iv. Some States and counties passed “dry” laws – controlled, restricted, or abolished alcohol
v. By 1914, ¾ of the country had “dry” laws; cities usually didn’t because most of the immigrants, who
were used to alcohol in their culture, were living there
TR’s Square Deal For Labor
a.
Roosevelt Gets Interested In Progressivism
i. Gets interested because he feared that the public wasn’t being listened to
ii. Wanted a Square Deal, which called for:
1. Control of corporations
2. Consumer protection
3. Conservation of natural resources
b. Coal Mines Strikes of PA
i. 140,000 workers did a strike because they had been exploited and nothing was done about consistent
accidents
ii. They demanded:
1. 20% pay raise
2. Reduction of hours from 10 to 9
iii.
iv.
v.
VIII.
IX.
X.
Mine owners were unsympathetic and believed that the public would react against the coal miners
As coal supplies dwindled, factories, schools, and hospitals were forced to shut down
Roosevelt invited both sides to the White House to negotiate. He became annoyed by the rich mine
owners who he believed were stupid, had bad tempers, and acted high and mighty
vi. Consequently, Roosevelt threatened to seize the mines and operate them with federal troops. It
would be the first time that the government would threaten use of troops against owners, not workers
vii. Compromise – gave the miners a 10% pay raise and cut their working day to 9 hours
c.
Results of the Coal Mine Strikes
i. Creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor – a cabinet level department
ii. Bureau of Corporations – an arm of the department which was authorized to probe businesses
engaged in interstate commerce (it broke up monopolies and began an era of trust busting)
TR Corrals the Corporations
a.
Railroad Reform
i. Elkins Act of 1903 – heavy fines could now be imposed both on the railroads that gave rebates and
on the shippers that excepted them
ii. Hepburn Act of 1906 –
iii. Interstate Commerce Commission –
b. Trust Busting
i. TR thought they were there to stay – some were good (ones with consciences) – others were bad
(greedy and in it for the money). He wanted to do away with the bad ones
ii. Northern Securities Company (NSC) –
1. Owned by J.P. Morgan
2. Sought a monopoly of railroads in the NW
3. Appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld Roosevelt’s antitrust suit and ordered the
NSC to be dissolved
4. This increased TR’s reputation as a trust buster
c.
Roosevelt A Trust Buster???
i. He did not consider trust busting sound economic policy – some trusts were good, others were bad
ii. He didn’t want to:
1. Destroy trusts completely because he felt that combination of companies was a hallmark
of the age
2. Why punish success?
iii. He wanted to:
1. Trust bust to prove that the government, not private business, ruled the country
2. Regulate big businesses, not fragment them
3. Threaten dissolving big businesses, which would make them adhere to government
regulations (this worked)
iv. He initiated over 40 legal proceedings against them. Some trusts included:
1. Beef
2. Sugar fertilizer
3. Harvesters
4. Other key products
v. Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, “busted” more trusts than TR did. In fact, some trusts
grew during Roosevelt’s administration, although they followed government regulations more often
(they were more tame than before)
Caring For the Consumer
a.
Packaging and Canning Food
i. Some meat-packers weren’t packaging meat well, so it was going bad. European countries were
threatening to ban all American meat imports (botulism – bad food poisoning)
ii. American consumers wanted safer canned products
b. Upton Sinclair
i. Was a novelist (won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942) and socialist. He lost a bid to become governor of
CA in 1934
ii. Wrote The Jungle (1906) – he intended to focus attention on the plight of workers in the big canning
factories, but instead he appalled the public with his description of disgustingly unsanitary food
products
iii. The book described the filth, disease, and putrefaction (decay, with a foul odor) in Chicago’s damp,
ill-ventilated slaughterhouses
iv. His book led to food inspection reforms and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906
c.
TR and Canned Food
i. TR appointed a commission that reported some slaughterhouses had piles of poisoned rats, rope
ends, splinters, and other debris that were scooped up and canned as potted ham
ii. A saying was “Mary had a little lamb, And when she saw it sicken, She shipped it off to
Packingtown, And now it’s labeled chicken.”
iii. Meat Inspection Act of 1906 –
1. The preparation of meat shipped over State lines would be subject to federal inspection
iv. Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 –
1. Designed to prevent the mixing and mislabeling of foods and drugs
Conservation
a.
Destruction of the Environment
i.
XI.
Western ranchers, timbermen, and other people assumed that natural resources were inexhaustible,
and began using them at great speed
ii. New technology, such as steam powered drills and railroads, that allowed for more control over
natural resources
iii. Government leaders realized that this had to be stopped, or else America would have serious
problems in the future
b. Important Governmental Actions
i. Desert Land Act of 1877 –
1. Federal government sold desert land cheaply under the condition that the purchaser
irrigate the soil within 3 years
ii. Forest Reserve Act of 1891 –
1. Authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks
2. 46 million acres of trees were preserved
iii. Carey Act of 1894 –
1. Distributed federal land to the States on the condition that it be irrigated and settled
iv. Newlands Act of 1902 –
1. Authorized the federal government to collect money from the sale of public lands in the
dry western States and use the funds for irrigation projects
2. Settlers would pay money for reclamation (restoring their soil to usefulness) and the
money would be used for more irrigation projects
3. Dozens of dams were built across nearly every major western river
v. Division of Forestry –
1. Led by Gifford Pinchot
2. He and Roosevelt intended to use preserved land wisely (“rational use”). They battled
between:
a.
Commercial interests
b. Romantic preservationists
3. Wanted the systematic harvesting of trees to benefit the people (by building homes)
rather than preserving wildlife
4. They neglected the wildlife’s biological system (this concept wouldn’t come to the
forefront until after WWII)
vi. Roosevelt Dam –
1. Created in 1911
2. Named after Teddy, who oversaw much of the conservation programs (he was an
outdoorsman – raised cattle in the Dakotas, shot lions in Africa, and rafted down wild
rivers in the Amazon)
vii. Status of U.S. Forests In 1900
1. Only ¼ of the original forests remained
2. Roosevelt put in federal reserves 125 million acres (3x the amount saved by his
predecessors)(he even banned Christmas trees from the White House)
c.
Why Did People Want To Conserve the Environment In the Early 1900s?
i. Knew that forests were disappearing
ii. City people worried that too much civilization might not be good for the national soul – the frontier
represented individualism and democracy – characteristics of America
iii. Jack London – wrote Call of the Wild (1903) – which was about nature and was popular
iv. Boy Scouts of America because the country’s largest youth organization
v. Sierra Club (1892) – dedicated itself to preserving the wildness of the western landscape
d. Hetch Hetchy Valley
i. The federal government allowed the building of a dam for San Francisco in this valley in Yosemite
National Park
ii. Many conservationists criticized the president for tainting this pristine area
The “Roosevelt Panic” of 1907
a.
Roosevelt’s Friends and Enemies
i. Many people liked him and his personality (Teddy Bear)
ii. Others disliked him because he was:
1. Regulating trusts
2. Taxing incomes
3. Protecting workers
iii. Roosevelt’s power declined after winning the 1904 election because he said that he wouldn’t run
again in 1908
b. Panic of 1907
i. Featured:
1. People “running” to banks to get out their money
2. People committed suicide
3. Criminal indictments against speculators
ii. Why Did It Happen?
1. Some blamed Roosevelt and his regulations on trusts and industry
2. Roosevelt criticized the wealthy, who deliberately engineered the monetary crisis to force
the government to relax its assaults on trusts
c.
Results of the Panic of 1907
i.
ii.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
Gave way to overdue fiscal reforms
Banks were unable to increase the amount of money in circulation, and those with ample reserves
were reluctant to lend to their less fortunate competitors
iii. Aldrich-Vreeland Act –
1. Authorized national banks to issue emergency currency backed by various kinds of
collateral
The Rough Rider Thunders Out
a.
Seeking A Successor
i. Wanted to live up to his promise that he wouldn’t run again
ii. Chose someone who he thought would carry out his policies to be his successor – William Howard
Taft, who was the Secretary of War
iii. Roosevelt used his power to get his nomination in the Republican National Convention
iv. The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan
b. Election of 1908 Results
i. Taft won:
1. 321-162
2. 7.7 million-6.4 million
3. The Socialist Party and Eugene V. Debs got 421,000 votes
c.
Roosevelt’s Legacy
i. Many called him a radical in reform, but his reputation is inflated. He fought many sham battles and
many industrialists knew they really had a friend in the White House. The number of laws he passed
wasn’t in proportion to the amount he talked
ii. His enthusiasm and youthfulness appealed to many
iii. He protected capitalists against socialists
d. What Were His Lasting Achievements?
i. His conservation efforts
ii. He greatly enlarged the power and prestige of the presidential office
iii. Using threat of military force (the big stick)
iv. He helped shape the progressive movement, which would continue on
v. The Square Deal was the grandfather of the New Deal later launched by his 5 th cousin, Franklin D.
Roosevelt
vi. He opened the eyes of Americans to the fact that they shared the world with other nations
Taft: A Round Peg In A Square Hole
a.
Good Characteristics of Taft
i. Was second in class at Yale
ii. Was an exceptional lawyer and judge
iii. Was regarded as hostile to labor unions
iv. Was a trusted administrator (Secretary of War) under Roosevelt:
1. Philippines
2. Cuba
b. Bad Characteristics of Taft
i. Roosevelt led through his strong personality and had adept political skills; Taft had neither
ii. Had a passive attitude toward Congress and was a poor judge of public opinion
iii. Was only a mild progressive and didn’t want change
The Dollar Goes Abroad As A Diplomat
a.
Dollar Diplomacy
i. The federal government encouraged Wall Street bankers to slice their surplus dollars into foreign
areas of strategic concern to the U.S., especially in the Far East and in the regions critical to the
security of the Panama Canal
ii. The purpose would be to intertwine themselves favorably with America’s rivals. The dollar would
supplant the big stick
b. Dollar Diplomacy and Manchuria
i. Russia and Japan owned a monopoly over the railroads in this country
ii. The U.S. was afraid that this could lead to a Chinese economic downfall and the closing of the Open
Door Policy
iii. As a result, Taft’s secretary of state unsuccessfully tried to buy the railroads
iv. Taft was ridiculed for these actions
c.
Dollar Diplomacy and the Caribbean
i. To keep other countries from investing in foreign countries in the Caribbean and to uphold the
Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. pumped money into several nations
ii. However, when civil distress broke out in Cuba, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, the U.S.
now had to send troops to protect American investments
iii. The U.S. had to keep troops in Nicaragua for 13 years
Taft the Trustbuster
a.
Success Against Monopolies
i. Taft brought 90 suits against the trusts during his 4 years in office, as compared to 44 for Roosevelt
in 7 ½ years
ii. In 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the break up of the Standard Oil Company, which was judged to
be in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
The Court also handed down the doctrine of the “rule of reason” – only those combinations that
“unreasonably” restrained trade were illegal. This made it difficult for the government to regulate all
trusts, because trusts that reasonably restrained trade couldn’t be dissolved
iv. Taft filed an antitrust suit against the U.S. Steel Corporation, which infuriated Roosevelt because he
had been involved in one of the mergers to form that company
Taft Splits the Republican Party
a.
Reducing Tariffs
i. Taft, in his campaign, promised to reduce tariffs
ii. 1909 – Taft calls Congress into a special session
iii. The House passed a moderately reductive bill, but the Senate attached many revisions that increased
the tariff on most items
iv. Taft signed the bill anyhow, although he had promised to reduce tariffs
v. This outraged the progressive wing of his party, most of which was in the Midwest
vi. Taft claimed it was the best bill the Republican party ever passed, further inflaming resentment
b. Taft and Conservation
i. Was a dedicated conservationist:
1. Established the Bureau of Mines to control mineral resources
2. Rescued millions of acres of western coal lands from destruction
3. Protected water-power sites from private development
ii. Most of his accomplishments were erased by the Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel in 1910. The Secretary
of the Interior Richard Ballinger opened public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska to
corporate development, he was criticized by Gifford Pinchot (allied with Roosevelt). Taft dismissed
Pinchot on the grounds of insubordination, causing a storm of protest from Roosevelt and his
followers
c.
Internal Divisions of the Republican Party
i. Roosevelt opposed many of Taft’s policies and decisions. He advocated “New Nationalism” – urged
the national government to increase its power to remedy economic and social abuses
ii. The Republicans lost badly in the congressional elections of 1910. The Democrats when 228 seats,
while the Republicans won only 161
iii. Republicans retained their Senate majority because only 1/3 are up for elections every 2 years. They
had a 51-41 majority
The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
a.
National Progressive Republican League
i. Formed in 1911
ii. Figured on Senator LaFollette (WI) to be nominated for the presidency because Roosevelt was antithird term
iii. However, Roosevelt didn’t like that Taft was turning to the Republican Old Guard and discarding
many of his policies. As a result, Roosevelt changed his mind and wanted to get the Republican
nomination for the presidency
iv. Taft ended up winning the Republican nomination for president
v. Roosevelt responded by forming a third-party
iii.
XVI.
XVII.