Progressivism & the Republican Roosevelt

American Pageant Chapter 28 1901-1912

Progressive Roots
Modern society too complex for simple gov. Progressive attacks in literature:
Henry Demarest Lloyd: Wealth against Common Wealth (attack on Standard Oil) Bryan Atgeld: boated trusts=corruption Thorstein Veblen: Theory of the Leisure Classattack on the predatory wealth Theodore Dreiser: The Financier and The Titan attack on promoters & profiteers Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives
Documented NY slums Influenced NY Police CommissionerTeddy Roosevelt (see photos next slide)

Jacob Riis

Progressive Roots--continued
Socialistsoften European Immigrants Social GospelProgressivism based on Christian principles Feminists: suffrage & other urban reforms
i.e. Jane Addams (Hull House) and Lillian Wald
Jane Addams and Hull House

Raking Muck with the Muckrakers

MuckrakersTerm given by T. Roosevelt for those writers who exposed social wrongs (w/o suggested remedies)
the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muckrake, speedily becomes, not a help to society, not an incitement to good, but one of the most potent forces for evil. ~Theodore Roosevelt (1906)

Raking Muck with the Muckrakers

10-15 Cent Magazines dirt sold magazines
Well researched to avoid legal action McClures, Cosmopolitan, Colliers, & Everybodys

Raking Muck with the Muckrakers

Lincoln Steffens: Shame of the Cities
McClure articles about alliance of big business & municipal government

Ida M. Tarbell: Expose on Standard Oil Co. Thomas W. Lawson: Frenzied Finance
Showed dishonest dealing of fellow stock market speculators (he had earned $50 million)

David G. Phillips: The Treason of the Senate

75 of 90 senators represented railroads

Corruption of the Senate--Political Cartoon

Raking Muck with the Muckrakers--cont.

Ray Stannard BakerFollowing the Color Line
Subjugation of 9 million, mostly illiterate, African Americans in the South

John SpargoThe Bitter Cry of Children

Abuses of child labor

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley: Attacked patent medicines for using harmful, addictive ingredients

Political Progressivism
Progressive reformers:
Middle class Pressure from upper and lower classes

Progressive goals:
State power to curb trusts Stop socialism by improving common peoples

Political Reforms
Direct primary elections
Undercut power-hungry party bosses

Initiative
Voters can directly propose legislation

Referendum
Place laws on ballot for final approval by the people

Recall
Voters can remove bad elected officials

17th Amendment (1913)

Direct elections of U.S. Senators

Progressivism in the Cities

City Reform
Some changed to expert-staffed commissions to manage urban affairs, (i.e. Galveston, TX) City Manager System: designed to take politics out of municipal administration Reformers also focused on slumlords, juvenile delinquency, prostitution, & sale of franchise for public utilities

Progressivism in the States

Robert M. La FolletteWisconsin gov.
Routed out entrenched lumber & railroad monopoly interests in state government Regulated public utilities

Hiram W. JohnsonCA governor

Broke Southern Pacific Railroad control in CA politics

Charles Evans Hughes NY governor

Investigator of malpractice of gas & insurance co. and coal trust

Women Suffrage
Feminists Reformers believed that womens votes would elevate the political tone No taxation w/o representation Some western states already had women voters By 1910Nation-wide suffrage is still decade away Public Attitude: A suffragists was one who had ceased to be a lady and has not yet become a gentleman.

Progressive Women
Settlement houses opened door to public life for women Womens clubsfocused on social issues Separate Spheres
womans place was in the home Female progressives believed social work was extension of this sphere Drawn to moral and maternal issues

Progressive Women
Womens Trade Union League & National Consumers League
Mobilized women workers and consumers to pressure for laws protecting women & children workers

Childrens Bureau & Womens Bureau

Part of Department of Labor National stage for social investigation & advocacy

Florence KelleyIL first chief factory inspector

Progressive Women
Judicial role:
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Laws protecting women workers are constitutional

Lochner v. New York (1905)

Supreme Court invalidated 10 hour work day for bakers

1917Court upheld 10 hours work day for factory workers

Progressive Women
Safety Laws not often enforced
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire
Violation of fire code 146 female workers died because doors were locked shut Incidents caused public pressured for stronger safety and working hours laws

Progressive Women
Female progressives versus Corner Saloons
Womans Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
Frances E. Willard leader 1 million women members

Some states passed dry laws Big cities remained wetimmigrant

Antiliquor Cartoon

TRs Square Deal for Labor

Teddy Rooseveltfocused Progressivism
Square Dealfor capital, labor, and the public 3 Cs --control of:
Corporations Consumer protection Conservation of natural resources

TRs Square Deal for Labor

Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Mine 1902
140,000 workers on strike Owners refused to negotiate Roosevelt acts as mediator
TR Has to threaten owners with federal control of mine

TRs Square Deal for Labor

Department of Commerce & Labor1903
Helped with issues between labor and owners Bureau of Corporations
Authorized to investigate interstate businesses Helped break monopolies

TR Corrals the Corporations

Taming the railroad octopus
Elkins Act (1903)Heavy fines for giving rebates Hepburn Act (1906)Free passes (bribery) restricted Interstate Commerce Commission power to nullify existing rates and set maximum rates

TR Corrals the Corporations

good trusts and bad trusts
TR did not go after ALL trusts Bigness wasnt necessarily bad Wanted government, not business to control the company

Northern Securities Company

Monopoly of all Northeast Railroads TR attacked and it was disbanded Action held up by Supreme Court

Teddy goes after 40 other trusts

Caring for the Consumer

American meat botulism The Jungle by Upton Sinclair book about meat packing plant
Purpose was to show plight of workers Public reaction was unsanitary conditions

T. Roosevelt appointed special investigating commissionled to:

Meat Inspection Act (1906)
Inspection of meat crossing interstate lines

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

Prevent adulteration & mislabeling of food and drugs

Theodore Roosevelt and the Environment

We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so. The mineral wealth of the country, the cola, iron, gas, and the like, does not reproduce itself, and therefore is certain to be exhausted ultimately; and wastefulness in dealing with it to-day means that our descendants will feel the exhaustion a generation or two before they otherwise would. ~Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

Earth Control
Wasting of natural resources
TR wanted to protect land & use resources wiselyable to set aside 125 million acres, coal deposits, & water resources

Desert Land Act (1877)

Cheap arid land if irrigated it in 3 years

Forest Reserve Act (1891) Set aside public forests as national parks

Carey Act (1894)

Federal lands to states if irrigated &

Earth Control
John Muir naturalist, influenced TR Gifford Pinchot head of federal Division of Forestry Newlands Act (1902)
Collect $ from public lands in west and use for irrigation projects
i.e. Roosevelt Dam

Call of the Wild by Jack London

This & other books about nature read in cities

Sierra Clubpreserve wilderness in West

The Roosevelt Panic of 1907

Roosevelt easily re-elected in 1904 Conservative Republicans didnt trust him Announced would not run again 1908
Reduced his powerwould be gone in 4 yrs

Panic of 1907
Panic on Wall Street TR blamed Led to fiscal reforms
Aldrich-Vreeland Act (1908)
Authorized national banks to issue emergency currency

The Rough Rider Thunders Out

Election of 1908
Teddy Roosevelt bound by promise not to run for 3rd term Handpicks Secretary of War, William Howard Taft Democrats pick William Jennings Bryan Dull campaignvoters chose stability
Socialist did have 3rd party candidate: Eugene V. Debbs

T. Roosevelts legacy
Nature conservation Held back socialism by regulating business

Taft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole

William Howard Taft
Moderate Progressive Lacked Roosevelts force of personality & enjoyment of conflict Passive toward Congress Misread public opinion foot in mouth disease

The Dollar as a Diplomat

Taft used dollar diplomacy to boost American foreign interests
Wall Street bankers would invest in countries, such as the Far East and Panama Strengthen defenses & preempt other countries from investing

Haiti & Honduras give money to keep stability and prevent other foreign interests (Monroe Doctrine) Cuba, Honduras, Dominican Republic Nicaragua American forces sent to ensure stability

Taft the Trustbuster

Taft attacked more trusts than T. Roosevelt (90 in 4 years versus 44 in 7 years) 1911-Supreme Court ordered dissolution of Standard Oil Company
Violation of Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) Rule of reasondoctrine that combinations that unreasonably restrained trade were illegal

Taft attacked U.S. Steel Corporation trust

Infuriates TR who had personally

Taft Splits the Republican Party

Protective tariffs mother of all trusts
Taft campaign promise to reduce tariffs

Payne-Aldrich Bill (1909)

Moderate changes + hundreds of upward tariff revisions Progressive wing of G.O.P. feel betrayed by Taft

Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel
Secretary of Interior Ballinger opened up some western lands to the public Pinchot disagrees and Taft fires him for insubordination

T. Roosevelt returns to NY and openly criticizes Taft Republicans lose majority in congressional elections of 1910

Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
T. Roosevelt agrees to run for President in 1912 as Progressive Taft is favored by conservative Republicans Divides Republican party