* Chapter 21 – The
Rise of
Progressivism
US 2 – Honors
Mrs. Carchidi
Section 1 - The Progressive Impulse
I. Belief in Progress
A. Industrialization brought good things to the US but it also
brought about unsafe working conditions and poor living
conditions. It was to correct these ills that a number of
educated men & women began the Progressive Movement.
1. Varieties of Progressivism included:
a) Anti-monopoly – the fear of concentrated
power & the urge to limit & disperse authority
& wealth.
b) Faith in Knowledge – Social order was a result
of intelligent social organization & rational
procedures for guiding social & economic
life.
2. Many progressives were native born, middle & upper class, College
educated men and women.
3. They wanted to restore control of the government to the people &
correct the abuses that had crept into American life as a result of
industrialization.
II.
The Muckrakers
A. These were Progressive Journalists that helped to
spread the message of reform. They were nicknamed
MUCKRAKERS by Teddy Roosevelt because they dug up
the “dirt” or “Muck” about an issue.
1. LINCOLN STEFFENS – wrote: “Tweed Days in St. Louis” & “The Shame of
the Cities” in which he described political corruption in American cities.
In his autobiography he stated that the biggest weakness of American
society was our desire to be “special” and deserving of “special”
treatment.
IDA TARBELL – she
wrote “The History
of Standard Oil
Company” in which
she exposed J.D.
Rockefeller’s
business practices &
eventually led to
the break up of the
Standard Oil Trust
by the Supreme
Court.
2. )
3.)
FRANK NORRIS
– he wrote “the
Octopus” in this
book he
exposed the
ways in which
railroads
misused their
vast power to
control the life
of the farmers.
4.) JACK LONDON – “The
Iron Heel” in which he
warned that a bloody
revolution might result
if something was not
done to curb
capitalism’s abuses.
(he also wrote the
books Revolution &
the War of the Classes
and among his
adventure series of
books about life in
Alaska are White Fang
& Call of the Wild).
5.)
RAY STANNARD
BAKER –
Following the
Color Line - An
honest report of
segregation &
racial
discrimination in
a nationwide
context.
6.) UPTON SINCLAIR – The
Jungle - exposed the
unsanitary practices in
the meat packing
plants. He was said he
aimed for the reader’s
heart & hit them in the
stomach. This book
turned many readers
into vegetarians and
eventually led to
Congress passing a
series of laws to keep
food pure.
7.JACOB RIIS – “How the
Other Half Lives” – Riis was
a photojournalist who took
pictures & wrote a book
about life in the slums of
cities in America.
III. The Social Gospel
A. The Outrage of the Muckrakers combined
with a humanitarian sense of social
responsibility, helped produce many
reformers committed to the pursuit of
social justice.
B. The Social Gospel became a powerful
movement within American Protestantism
& to a lesser degree in Catholicism &
Judaism.
1. The Salvation
Army – began in
England – offered
both material aid
& spiritual service
to the urban poor.
(still in existence)
Walter Rauschenbusch
2.
Baptist Minister
Walter Rauschenbusch
– published a series of
influential discourses on
the possibilities for
human salvation
through Christian
reform.
a) “Translate the
evolutionary
themes into
religious faith and
you have the
doctrine of the
Kingdom of God”
Pope Leo XIII
3.
Pope Leo XIII – Rerum
Novarum (“New Things”) –
The pope said “a small
number of very rich men
have been able to lay upon
the masses of the poor a
yoke little better than
slavery itself”.
Father John A. Ryan
a)
Father John A. Ryan – worked
for decades trying to expand
the scope of Catholic social
welfare organizations.
IV. The Settlement House Movement
A. Progressive theorists argued that ignorance, poverty & criminality were not the
result of inherent moral or genetic failings or of the workings of providence; they
were the effects of an unhealthy environment. To elevate the distressed required an
improvement of the conditions in which they lived.
1. JANE ADDAMS – an upper middle class woman set up HULL HOUSE in
Chicago as a place where immigrants could go for learning how to be
middle class Americans.
a) It offered Babysitting services, English speaking courses, food
preparation, etc.
b)Hull House became the example for other settlement houses that
followed. Over 400 were built across the US.
c) College Educated Middle Class Women who were unmarried found
employment in the Settlement Houses and began working with
Universities becoming the basis for the modern field of Sociology.
(1).
Social Work became a field of study as a result.
Jane Addams & Hull
House in Chicago
2. The emergence of the social work profession brought about a belief
in knowledge & expertise. Many Progressive theorists felt that only with
the expertise of scientists & engineers could the problems of the
economy & society be fixed.
a. THORSTEIN VEBLEN – “A Theory of the Leisure Class”, 1899 – in
which he argued that highly trained engineers could fully understand
the “machine process” by which modern society must be governed.
b. Scientific Method – aka “Taylorism” – It encouraged the
development of modern mass production techniques and the
assembly line.
V. The Professions
A.The late 19th Century saw a dramatic expansion in the number of Americans engaged in
administrative & professional tasks. This was the “new” middle class who placed a high
value on education & individual accomplishment.
1. American Medical Association – was reorganized in 1901 into a national association
& by 1920 2/3rd of all American doctors were members.
a) The AMA quickly called for strict, scientific standards for admission to the
practice of medicine, with doctors themselves serving as protectors of the
standards.
b) State & Local governments responded by passing new laws requiring the
licensing of all physicians & granting licenses only to those practitioners
approved by the profession.
2. Professional Bar Associations – were organized in 48 states virtually all of them
succeeded in creating central examining boards, composed of lawyers to regulate
admission to the profession
a) Law Schools expanded greatly in numbers and in the rigor of their curricula.
3. National Association of Manufacturers – created in 1895 & the United States
Chamber of Commerce created in 1912 were run by businessmen and supported the
creation of schools of business administration among other things.
B.
American women found themselves excluded from most of the
emerging professions but a substantial number of middle class
women entered professional careers nevertheless.
1. Female Physicians – by 1900 5% of all American
physicians were female – a proportion that remained
unchanged until the 1960’s.
2. Teachers – 90% of all professional women were teachers
1. Black Educated women Teaching was one of the only
professional opportunity they could hope to fine.
3. Nursing – considered a menial occupation was by the turn
of the century becoming a professional job needing
certification from schools of nursing.
4. Librarians was predominantly female
5. Advanced degrees opened up professional opportunities in
the new and expanding women’s colleges.
Section 2 – Women & Reform
I. The “New Woman”
A . The New Woman was a product of social & economic changes that affected the private
world as much as the public one.
1. By the end of the 19th Century almost all income producing activity had moved out of
the home & into the factory or the office.
2. Children were beginning to go to school at earlier ages & spending more time there
3. The home was a less all-consuming place because of new technological innovations
such as running water, electricity & household appliances.
4. Middle Class women who had domestic help became more involved in activities
outside the home.
5. Many educated women shunned marriage entirely, believing that only by remaining
single could they play the roles they envisioned in the public worlds.
a) 10% of American women did NOT marry
b) Single women were the most prominent female reformers of the time.
(1.) Jane Addams & Lillian Wald in the settlement house movement
(2.) Frances Willard in the temperance movement
(3.) Anna Howard Shaw in the suffrage movement.
c) “Boston Marriages” – women lived with other women in long-term
relationships
d) Divorce Rates rose from 1 in every 21 marriages in 1809 to 1 in 9 marriages in
1916.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L13b0t9aARY
II.The Clubwomen
A.
Among the most visible signs of the increasing public roles of women in the late 19 th & early 20th
centuries were the women’s clubs that became the vanguard of many important reforms
1. GFWC – Greater Federation of Women’s Clubs – coordinated the activities of local
organizations nearly 500 clubs which had 100,000 members in 1892 & by 1917 over 1 million
members strong
2. National Association of Colored Women – modeled on their white counterparts but also took
positions on issues of particular concern to blacks such as lynching & segregation.
3. Women’s Trade Union League – founded in 1903 by female union members & upper-class
reformers. Committed to helping female workers by raising money to:
a) support strikes,
b) march on picket lines
c) & bailed striking women out of jail.
4. National Child Labor Committee (1904) – organized by Florence Kelley – worked to
persuade state legislatures to pass laws against employing young children
a) By 1912 – 39 states passed child labor laws & limited older children’s employment
b) Kelley worked with Josephine Goldmark and her brother Louis D. Brandeis the
lawyer who represented them in front of the Supreme Court in the case MULLER V.
OREGON, 1908
i. BRANDEIS BRIEF – broke new legal ground by including extensive evidence
of the bad effects that working long hours had on women’s health & well being.
ii. This brief convinced the Supreme Court to uphold the Oregon Law that
established a 10 hour workday in the state. & became the model for the defense of
other social legislation.
III.Woman Suffrage
A. Under the leadership of Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt the
NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFFRAGE ASSOCIATION grew from 13,000
members in 1893 to over 2 million by 1917.
1. Jane Addams gave added respectability to the cause when she joined.
2. Suffrage supporters argued that women would bring their special
experiences & special sensitivities to public life
a.) Many felt with women voters WAR would be outlawed.
b.) Also many felt it would help the temperance movement if
women were allowed to vote.
3. 1920 – Suffragists won ratification of the 19th Amendment which
guaranteed political rights to women throughout the nation.
B. National Woman’s Party founded in 1916 & headed by New Jersey’s own
ALICE PAUL wanted not just the right to vote but an EQUAL RIGHTS
AMENDMENT
1. This amendment would provide clear, legal protection for their rights
& would prohibit all discrimination on the basis of sex.
2. Many women did not support this amendment & it still hasn’t been
ratified (the last time it came close was 1979-1980)
Lucy Burns
Carrie Chapman Catt
Alice Paul
Section 3 – The Assault on the Parties
I
Municipal Reform
A. Municipal government became the first target of those working for
political reform.
1. City Commission – After a hurricane & tidal wave destroyed
Galveston, Texas in 1900 the community replaced the Mayor &
City council with an elected, non-partisan commission to run the
city. (Fire Commissioner, Police Commissioner, etc.)
2. City Manager – appointed administrator to direct the government
& the operation of the city. He was an expert in municipal affairs
& not politically affiliated.
II. Statehouse Progressivism
A. Progressives did not limit their reform efforts to social ills. They
wanted to combat corruption in government by restoring control of
the gov’t. to the people at the local, state & National levels.
1. Direct Primary – nominating election in which voters choose
the candidates who will later run in a general election
2. Initiative – procedure enabling voters in a state to introduce
legislation for consideration by lawmakers.
3. Referendum – by securing a specified number of signatures on
a petition, voters can compel the legislature to place a
measure on the ballot
4. Recall – enables voters to remove an elected official from
office by calling for a new election
5. Australian Ballot – Secret Vote – a ballot printed at public
expenses that lists all candidates & is cast in secret.
B. Robert Lafollette (Fighting Bob), Governor of Wisconsin was the 1st
progressive elected as a governor of a state. His reforms became known
as the Wisconsin Idea & were later used at the national level by Teddy
Roosevelt.
1. Among his reforms were:
a) He persuaded legislators to levy heavier taxes on the RR’s &
newer public utilities.
b) Hew persuaded the legislators to create commissions to
regulate companies with a public interest.
c) He also started a movement for the conservation of
Wisconsin’s forests & waterpower sites.
d) By using University scholars to help legislators find needed
facts & draft laws that the courts could not easily set aside.
e) He also appointed scholars to serve on the new state
regulator commissions.
2. LaFollette was elected to the US Senate in 1905 where he
continued to battle for reform until his death in 1925.
C. In addition to progressive reformers labor unions continued to battle for
better conditions.
1. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR – Pres. Samuel Gompers felt
strongly that the union needed to work WITHIN the system to change
their lot. Skilled workers were organized & struck for better wages,
working conditions, pension & workmen’s compensation laws.
2. Union Labor Party – was able to get California to pass a child labor
law, workmen’s compensation law, & a limitation on working hours for
women.
3. TRIANGLE FACTORY FIRE – over 146 workers were killed in this fire in
NYC most of t hem women who had been locked inside their factory
while it was burning. This fire led to NYC government to force the
state of NY to protect the workers, especially the women.
a) Senator Robert E. Wagner & Assembly man Alfred E. Smith – both
from working class backgrounds in NYC introduced and with the
help of Tammany Hall were able to steer though a series of
pioneering labor laws that imposed strict regulations on factory
owners & established effective mechanisms for enforcement.
b) The Triangle Fire also helped educated women in spurring
reform.
D.)
The western progressives were not as effective at the local level
because so much of the reforms that were needed in the west came under
Federal Gov’t. Control
1. This is why aspiring politicians were much quicker to look to
Washington as a place form which they could influence the future
of their region
a. George Norris of Nebraska
b. Hiram Johnson of California
c. William Borah of Idaho
III.
AFRICAN AMERICANS & REFORM
A.) Race received relatively little attention from white progressives
but among African Americans themselves, the progressive era produced
some significant challenges to existing racial norms.
1. Booker T. Washington – A former slave who in the late 19th
century wanted Af.-Am. to work for immediate selfimprovement rather than long-range social change.
2. W.E.B. DuBois – had never known slavery, was born in
Massachusetts, educated at Fisk University in Atlanta & at
Harvard. He wanted African-Americans to accept nothing less
than a full university education. They should aspire to the
professions.
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois
a.)1905 – He & his supporters met at Niagara Falls and
launched the Niagara Movement.
b.) Four Years later DuBois & his followers formed the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
COLORED PEPOPLE (NAACP).The NAACP led the drive for
equal rights and using this principal as a weapon in lawsuits
in federal courts.
(1) GUINN V. UNITED STATES, 1915 – The Supreme
Court outlawed the “grandfather clause”
that kept blacks form voting. (Oklahoma
laws was to deny the right to vote to any
citizen whose ancestors had not been
enfranchised by 1860)
(2) BUCHANAN V. WARLEY, 1917 – Supreme Court
overturned a Louisville, Kentucky law
requiring segregated housing.
3. The National Urban League – founded in 1910 it has worked to improve job
opportunities & housing for urban blacks.
4.) Ida Wells Barnett – A southern educated black woman who at great
personal risk fought to end lynching & challenge segregation in the south.
Section 4 – Crusade for Social Order, Reform &
Challenging the Capitalist Order
I. The Temperance Crusade
A.) Drunkenness spawned violence, & occasionally murder, within urban
families. Women saw alcohol as a source of some of the greatest problems of
working-class wives & mothers & hoped through temperance to reform male
behavior & thus improve women’s lives.
1. WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION (WCTU) – President was
FRANCES WILLARD – this group wanted to stop the manufacture, sale
& transportation of all alcoholic beverages.
a) WCTU educated the people as to the dangers of Alcoholism
b) 1917 – their goal was realized when the 18th Amendment was
passed which barred the manufacture, sale or importation of
alcoholic beverages.
c) 1933 – the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st
Amendment because the 18th was so unpopular & hard to
enforce.
II. Immigration Restriction
A. Virtually all reformers agreed that the growing immigrant population had created social
problems but there was wide disagreement on how to best respond.
1. The Carnegie Foundation wanted to turn eugenics into a method of altering human
reproduction. To GRADE Races & Ethnic groups according to their genetic qualities.
a) EUGENICS – the science of altering the reproductive processes
of plants & animals to produce new hybrids or breeds
b) Advocated the forced sterilization of the mentally retarded,
criminals & others.
c) Spread the belief that human inequalities were hereditary & that
immigration was contributing to the multiplication of the unfit.
2. MADISON GRANT – wrote the book The Passing of the Great Race (1916) in which
he said that it was important to protect the purity of Anglo-Saxon & other NORDIC
stock from pollution by eastern Europeans, Hispanics, & Asians.
3. The Dillingham Report – argued that the newer immigrant groups from southern &
Eastern Europe had proven themselves less able to be assimilated than earlier
immigrants.
a) Immigration should be restricted by nationality.
b) Powerful opponents managed to block the restriction movement for a time but by
WW I the nativist tide was clearly gaining strength.
III. The Dream of Socialism
A. Between 1900 & 1914 Radical critiques of the capitalist system attracted
more support than at any other time.
1.) Eugene V. Debs, Pres. of the American Railway Union, received
nearly 1 million ballots in the 1912 Presidential race.
2.) Progressive Intellectuals like Lincoln Steffens, Frances Willard,
Florence Kelley and others were attracted to socialism because of its
support for pacifism & labor militancy.
3.) All socialists agreed that there needed to be basic structural
changes in the economy but they differed widely on how to do this.
a.) Some wanted to allow small-scale private enterprise to
survive but would nationalize major industries
b.) some believed in working for reform through electoral
politics
c.) others favored the militant goals of the European Marxists.
B.) Many Americans felt that labor unions were socialist but the one union
that wanted to create a communist state was the International Workers of
the World (IWW) aka. Wobblies
1. William “Big Bill” Haywood was the president of the IWW
a) advocated a single union for all workers
b) abolition of the wage slave system
c) rejected political action in favor of strikes (general
strikes)
d) used terrorist methods to make their point (blowing up
rail lines, etc.)
2. At the start of WWI the IWW went on strike in Washington & Idaho
virtually shutting down production of timber.
a) The Federal Gov’t. Imprisoned the leaders of the union & a
series of laws that were passed at the state level effectively
outlawed the IWW.
3. After WWI the fear of communism from the Russian Revolution
caused the socialist party in the US to go into decline & it
no longer was a political force in the USA.
IV. Decentralization & Regulation
A. Many reformers felt that the greatest threat to the nation’s economy was
excessive corporate centralization & consolidation.
1. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 & the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of
1912 were enacted to give the Supreme Court and the federal
gov’t. the power to break up monopolies, combinations in
restraint of trade, etc.
a.) The Gov’t used these acts to break up unions more than
illegal corporations but they were used and some
large monopolies were broken up as a result.
2. Progressives viewed big business in two ways: Good Trusts
vs. Bad Trusts.
a) Louis D. Brandeis – Other People’s Money, 1913 – argued
that Bigness was a threat to freedom.
b) Herbert Croly – The Promise of American Life – 1909 argued that since economic consolidation was destined to
remain a permanent feature of American society,
continuing oversight by a strong, modernized government
was essential.
c) Walter Lippmannn – Drift & Mastery -1914 - argued that
business need to bring order to themselves learning new
ways of cooperation & self-regulation.