The Origins of Progressivism
- Chapter 19:i [Image source:
The American impulse towards forging an empire
shared a common root with Progressivism.
[Image source: http://www.edloretto.net/7bpoliticalcartoons/Week7_Towards_Empire_Week.jpg]
Social
reformers,
such as
Henry George,
pondered why
poverty
continued to
flourish in
advanced
societies like the
United States.
[Image source:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/janusg/images/h-g.jpg]
In his book Progress and Poverty, George concluded
that poverty resulted from land speculation.
[Image source: http://www.edu365.cat/aulanet/comsoc/Lab_economia/economistes/Henry_George_archivos/savana.gif]
George
suggested that
land be taxed
based on its
value, and not as
it had been on
improvements,
such as houses
and cultivation.
[Image source: http://www.taxguru.net/comix/interestintaxreformkillit.jpg]
[Image source: http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/dover-single-tax-club-1895.jpg]
As the United Labor
Party candidate for
mayor of New York
in 1886, George
came in second to
a Democrat drafted
by the Tammany
machine. (Teddy
Roosevelt came in
third!)
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http://www.multiline.com.au/~georgist/puck1.gif]
[Image source: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mpimages/mp141.jpg]
Edward Bellamy
published the
novel Looking
Backward, a Rip
van Winkle-like
story, where the
protagonist
awakens in the
year 2000.
[Image source: http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/0/0b/Edward_Bellamy_-_photograph_c.1889.jpg]
The future in the
novel Looking
Backward is one
where governmentcontrolled companies
work
to meet peoples’
needs, rather than
making profits.
[Image source:
http://www.massmoments.org/teachers/images/uploads/Documen
t%20HS%20II-14%20LookingBackward-Foster.jpg]
Bellamy’s views
resonated with
• [Image who
source:
people
were
drawn to socialism,
an economic system
where industry is
nationalized (i.e.
government-owned)
and wealth more
evenly distributed.
Some socialists thought they could change the way
America did business through the ballot box.
[Image source: http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/7c/300px-1904socialist.jpg]
By 1912 the Socialist Party had managed to get
more than 1,000 people elected to municipal offices.
[Image source: http://www.dancollinscartoons.com/Editorials/Ballot-box-fs.jpg]
Many Americans were
still very suspicious
of socialism.
[Image: http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/0820lat.jpg]
The view of our
nation from St.
Louis.
[Source: St. Louis Globe Democrat
30th August 1896]
The union movement grew slowly in the
1890s, partly because employers preferred
to deal with individual workers.
[Image source: http://www.members-first.org/shoots%20of%20unionism.bmp]
Business leaders
could almost
always count on
the courts to
issue injunctions
prohibiting
workers from
going on strike.
[Image source: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/labor/images/wuerker_injunction_3in.jpg]
Municipal
reformers
opposed the
influence of
political
machines.
[Image source: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/pm/11104cs.jpg]
Reformers worked for home
rule, which allowed cities to
escape the domination of
machine-controlled state
governments through a
greater degree of self-rule.
[Image source: http://history.ucsc.edu/history25b/4-19slides_files/slide0021_image083.png]
1. Investigate issues of concern, . . .
[Image source:
http://visitmt.com/history/Montana_the_Magazine_of_Western_History/summer2003/Swibold%20graphcis/TeapotCartoon.gif]
2. publicize results of investigation, . . .
[Image source: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ellis-island/newsboys.jpg]
3. mobilize readers to pressure legislators
for change.
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Women’s clubs and charitable
groups actively lobbied for reform.
[Image source: http://www.nmwh.org/images/18.%20Women%20factory%20inspectors,%201913%20(Florence%20Kelley%20is%20third%20from%20left).jpg]
President
Roosevelt
disparagingly
referred to
investigative
reporters as
muckrakers.
[Image source: http://www.ralphmag.org/BC/muckrake355x430.gif]
Lincoln Steffens brought to light the political
corruption in cities such as St. Louis.
[Image source: http://www.mohawk.k12.ny.us/progressive/steffens2.jpg]
Ida Tarbell
chronicled
the abuses
committed by
the Standard
Oil trust.
[Image source: http://mohawk.k12.ny.us/progressive/TARBEL1A.jpg]
Upton Sinclair exposed the horrors of the meatpacking industry in his novel The Jungle.
[Image source: http://sphtc.org/timeline/meatinspection.jpg]
Progressives:
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. . . nativists, . . .
[Image source:
http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/NYIrishList/nastcartoon.jpg]
. . . prohibitionists, . . .
[Image source: http://prohibition.osu.edu/ASL/images/DownwardPathBeard.JPG]
Purity crusaders
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Charity reformers
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Social gospel adherents
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. . . settlement house workers, . . .
[Image source: http://www.wellesley.edu/WomensReview/archive/2004/10/hull-house.gif]
. . . and Populists.
[Image source: http://www.edloretto.net/7bpoliticalcartoons/Week5_populist_party-Week.bmp]
Goals of the Progressives:
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1. Incremental economic and political changes.
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2. Maintain stability and order.
[Image source: http://www.rationalrevolution.net/images/anarchists.png]
3. Maintain their middle-class lifestyle.
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4. Protect civil liberties.
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5. Corruption-free government.
[Image source: http://www.mohawk.k12.ny.us/progressive/steffens5(nast).gif]
6. Efficient government acting as a
guardian of workers and the poor.
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Progressives wanted government
to control companies that
supplied
essential
services.
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Progressives wanted social welfare
programs that would ensure a basic
standard of living for all Americans.
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Women
disagreed
on how to
reform
society.
[Image source: http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/cartoons/mud.gif]
Some wanted to outlaw alcohol.
[Image source: http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/media/0701_012001.gif]
Others wanted to reform
conditions in the workplace.
[Image source: http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=79591]
Cornell-graduate
Florence Kelley
investigated
labour conditions
in Chicago while
a resident at Hull
House.
[Image source: http://chswg.binghamton.edu/kelley.jpg]
[Image source:
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/empty.jpg]
Florence
Kelley was
instrumental
during 1893
in getting
legislation
passed in
Illinois
prohibiting
child labour.
[Image source: http://www.edteck.com/dbq/dbquest/images/Child_labor.gif]