Chapter 28 Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt
1901-1912
Progressivism
 Roots in with Greenbacks and Populists

Wanted social, economic and political reform
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Sick of the corruption and divide between rich and poor

Jacob A. Riis 1890: How the Other Half Lives

Middle class women
The Muckrakers
 1902 popular magazines in circulation wars= exposes

TR: “muckrakers” because they just focus on the worst in society’
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Lincoln Steffens 1902: “The Shame of the Cities”
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Ida Tarbell 1902: “Mother of Trusts”
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David G. Phillips 1906: “The Treason of the Senate”

John Spargo 1906: “The Bitter Cry of Children”
Political Progressivism
 Progressives= improve living/working conditions not party or regional allegiances

1. direct primary elections
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2. initiatives
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3. referendums
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4. recall
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5. campaign finance reform
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6. Australian ballot
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7. Direct election of US Senators
Progressives and Women
 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 NYC
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Public outrage= state legislature forced to do something
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Change over time from laissez faire to some responsibility to employers
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Militant temperance= Women’s Christian Temperance Union (Frances E. Willard)

Wanted “dry laws” 18th amendment
Square Deal
 TR’s Square Deal= domestic policy (3 C’s)

1902 anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania (United Mine Workers Association)

Owners refused negotiation until TR stepped in to force a compromise

1903 Department of Commerce and Labor
Trust Busting
 Need for stronger laws with real teeth

Elkins Act 1903 and Hepburn Act 1906

TR focused on the “bad trusts” to sue under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

1st= Northern Securities Company (JP Morgan, James J. Hill)

Case appealed to SC and upheld had to dissolve

44 other suits for TR= Trust Buster

Real trust buster= William Howard Taft with 90 during 1 term
Meat Packing
 Upton Sinclair- The Jungle 1906

TR= investigators to substantiate Sinclair’s claims almost all true!

Meat Inspection Act of 1906

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
Conservation
 Newlands Reclamation Act 1902
o TR and Gifford Pinchot

Boy Scouts of America and Sierra Club
o Hetch-Hetchy Valley- John Muir

Multiple use resource management
Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy
 Dollar Diplomacy- focus on Latin America and Eastern Asia
o Extension of the Roosevelt Corollary
o Panama Canal 1909, Nicaragua 1912, Haiti, Honduras
o Manchuria- Japan and Russian railroads threat to Open Door?
o Secretary of State Philander C. Knox 1909
Trust Busting
 90 anti-trust suits during 1 term

Standard Oil Company of NY vs. United States

“Rule of reason”

1911 went after US Steel unsuccessfully schism between Taft and TR
Split of Republican Party
 Taft campaign promise= lower tariff

Conservatives in Senate added amendments to tariff reduction

Taft signed Payne-Aldrich Bill (angered progressives)

Ballinger Pinchot controversy 1910= growing rift between progressives and Old Guard conservatives

TR’s New Nationalism
Taft vs. Roosevelt

The National Progressive Republican League with Senator La Follette 1911

TR decided to try for Republican nomination for 1912
o Angry at Taft for dropping “his policies”
o Came into primaries too late
o 1912 Convention in Chicago= Taft the Republican nominee