The Era of Progressive
Reform, 2
Objective : Explain how Progressive
politicians and reformers reacted to, and
managed changes caused by mass
migration, industrialization, and
urbanization.
3. Conservative Reaction to Reformers
a. Supreme Court - 14th
Amendment
b. Child labor law unconstitutional
1. Lochner v. NY (1905)i. Bakers – max. hours
ii. Right to contract
2. Hammer v. Dagenhart
(1918)
i. Child labor laws UC
3. Adkins v. Children's Hospital
(1923)
a. Min Wage for women
Un Con
b. Overturns Muller
4. West Coast Hotel Co. v.
Parish (1937)
I. C. Theodore Roosevelt (1901)
1. Background
2. “Go slow” (Between Sumner and Debs)
a. Support middle class
b. Oppose “lunatic fringe.” — Radicals scared him
c. But conservatives irritated him
d. “I am the answer.”
i. Domestic program - Square Deal--Three C’s
e. Conservation-a moral issue
i. Newlands Act (1902)
- $ for irrigation projects, makes AZ
ii. Gifford Pinchot in charge
- John Muir opposed
iii. He used executive actions to get around
opposition
- Eventually created 5 new parks &
115 national forests
b. Control Monopolies - Square Deal part 2
1. Avoid tariff
2. Trust Buster
a. Regulate not bust indiscriminately
1. “Good trusts" and "bad
trusts"
2. Used Sherman Act
selectively
- Northern Securities Trust
(1904)
I. RR holding co.
2. Dissolved by the
Supreme Court
a. Sets precedent for future
anti-trust
b. Meat packers (1902-1903)
c. Standard Oil (1909-1911)
d. American Tobacco Co. (1907-1911)
e. He insisted the government grow to
regulate business
i. Do not destroy all business
trusts [Sherman trusts]
c. Strengthen ICC
1. Elkins Railroad Act-Disallowed rebates (1903)
2. Hepburn Act (1906)
a. ICC set rates
b. Inspect records
c. Outlaw free passes.
d. Consumer Protection in Square Deal
1. Labor
a. 1902 coal strike
b. United Mine Workers
c. John Mitchell vs George Bear.
d. Commission and investigation
d. Government intervention?
3. Meat Inspection (Sinclair's The Jungle). = Pure Food and
Drug Act (1906)
4. Child labor - factory inspections - Minimum wage (all fail).
5. Reputation rose with Progressives
a. Moderate Reformer
2. Business assurances
a. "Gentlemen's Agreement”
1. "We check books
2. You fix things.
b. Avoid shame
D. Struggle for women's suffrage and
reform
1. A.W.S.A. v. N.W.S.A.—
2. Arguments favor
a. Politics be less corrupt
b. Wars would end.
3. Argument against
a. Vote in West
b. “Superior" abandons equality.
4. Merge in 1890 into NAWSA
5. Alice Paul – NWP - 19th Amend.
a. Congressional Union
b. Adelina Otero - NM
5. African-American Fight for Suffrage
a. Fraternal and Sororal
Organizations
b. ACW - “Lifting As we Climb”
i. Mary Church Terrell
c. Alpha Mu – Ida B. Wells Barnett
6. Hispanas and Chicanas
a. Adelina Otero
i. New Mexico – Suffrage
b. Dr. Mary Boido
7. Double burden – Racism and gender
inequality
E. Moving Left
1. Roosevelt grew more liberal--1908
a. Income tax
b. Regulate interstate commerce
c. Attack courts
2. TR had become vulnerable.
a. Panic of 1907
b. JP Morgan funded a recovery
c. Conservatives now opposed his reforms
3. Now he moved with a frenzy
a. Income tax
b. Regulate interstate bus
c. Attack courts
4. Conservatives beat back every measure
II. William Howard Taft: Listless Progressive
A. Election of 1908
1. Bryan again
2. Referendum on TR.
B. A Conservative-Progressive
1. Intelligent, experienced, public spirited
2. “Carry out TR policies”
a. Enforce Sherman Act
b. Add to forest reserves
c. Mann-Elkins Act (1910)—strengthened
ICC-suspend rate increases.
C. Problems emerge
1. Lack of stamina & vigor
2. Disliked use of executive power.
3. Refused to schmooze Congress
4. Tariff: Payne Aldrich (1909) angered many
5. Ballinger-Pinchot (Conservation) Affair (1910).