SS- Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Progressive Era

By 1900, the US was a powerful, wealthy nation. Urbanization, immigration and industrialization had made it so. Together with these changes came a slew of problems, and the Progressive Era was going to change these problems.

Problems:
1. Huge monopolies in business
2. Violence in the labor movement
3. Poverty and crime in the cities
4. Increasing gap between the rich and the poor
5. Political corruption
6. Abuse of natural resources

The Progressive Era (1900- 1920) wasn’t one group of people, it was many groups of people. They all had one basic similarity- they were middle class Americans with some extra time and money to do good. In America, it was easy to spread a movement because of the forms of communication:
1. Telephones
2. Railroads
3. Mail

Movements:
1. Muckrakers- a group of progressives who worked toward a social and economical change-. They were all journalists who wanted to expose different evils of society- wanted to dig up the “muck”.
Five Muckrakers:
a. Frank Norris- he wrote “The Octopus”. This book discusses the monopolies of the railroads in California and how the workers were mistreated.
b. Ida Tarbell- she wrote “History of Standard Oil”, which exposed the evil practices of Rockefeller- he was a thief.
c. Lincoln Stephens- he wrote “Shame of Cities”- exposed the corrupt city practices.
d. Jacob Riis- he was a photographer and wrote a photoplay “How the Other Half Lives”. He exposed the horrible living conditions of the poor in the cities. This had an impact on reform in the city. One of the goals was to improve the sewage in the city. They also wanted codes and licensing for building.
e. Upton Sinclair- he wrote “Jungle”. This book exposed the horrors of the meat packaging industry. As a direct result, two laws were passed:
i. Pure Food and Drug act
ii. Meat Inspection act
2. Peace movement- Lillian Wald and Jane Adams led the Woman’s Peace Party- against war. They were pacifists. As a result of her efforts as a pacifist, Jane Adams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
Jeanette Rankin was the first female senator. She voted against our entry into WWI and WWII. She was a pacifist.
3. Temperance Movement and Prohibition- felt that it could produce better citizens if it was alcohol free. Under the leadership of Francis Willard, the temperance movement took a turn- it began to advocate for the Prohibition. The Prohibition would be an amendment to the constitution stating that alcohol consumption, selling, manufacturing and drinking is illegal. Willard formed the WCTU (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) to stop the sale of alcohol. In 1920, the eighteenth amendment was passed, in which it stated that the sale, consumption and manufacturing of alcohol was illegal. This amendment was a big mistake and was later repealed.
4. Child Labor-the progressives worked to limit child labor. In 1912, the Federal government formed the Federal Children’s Bureau:
a. To investigate child labor
b. To pressure states to set a minimum wage
c. To pressure states to set maximum hours
5. Woman’s Rights movement- woman’s rights movements began way back in 1848. As time progressed, they decided to make suffrage their main goal.
Susan B. Anthony made it her life’s goal. Susan was very strong in her stand on woman’s rights. Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell were more moderate in their goals. Their group joined with SBA and ECS and was called NAWSA. Susan B. Anthony died in 1906. Carrie C. Catt took over NAWSA and worked for suffrage. Alice Paul was a member of NAWSA. She was a militant and was kicked out of NAWSA.
Historians feel that it was the united efforts of woman during WWI who got the nineteenth amendment to be passed in 1920. This amendment gave woman the right to vote.
Another sign of improvement was education for woman- by the end of the 1800s, many women’s colleges had opened. By the early 1900s, a third of the people attending college were woman. Female colleges:
a. Vassar
b. Wellesley
c. Smith
Soon, co-ed colleges were started.
Another woman’s issue was the campaign for birth control. Margaret Sanger formed the Planned Parenthood Organization (aka American Birth Control League). She went into inner city homes and advocated limiting children in a family. She was jailed very often.
6. Jewish groups formed the ADL- fought against anti-Semitism.
7. Progressive efforts in the government- the government was corrupt. They wanted to end the political machines and didn’t want a mayor. They worked on a few main ideas to make the government closer to the people, and that would minimize corruption:
a. Secret Ballot- no one should know who you are voting for. This would end the intimidation of the party bosses.
b. Initiative- the voter could petition to get a law passed.
c. Referendum- voters decide whether a law should be passed. This is direct democracy.
d. Recall- people can be removed from office.
e. Direct primary- you choose the person you want to represent you.
f. Direct election of senators- the seventeenth amendment was passed, which allowed for this to happen.
All these ideas were presented by the Populist Party, but weren’t passed until now.

The state of Wisconsin was used as a role model for progressive reform under their governor Robert Lafollette. Wisconsin enacted many progressive reforms. They passed laws to:
1. Regulate railroads
2. Correct banks
3. Stop corruption
Lafollette was nicknamed “Fighting Bob”.

Other states copied and tried to bring change:
1. California under Hiram Johnson
2. New York under Teddy Roosevelt

The first three presidents of this century were all progressives:
1. Roosevelt
2. Taft
3. Wilson

Roosevelt became president in 1901. He was elected as vice president in 1900, but when McKinley was killed, he became president. Roosevelt was a proactive person. He was the first president in history who was heavily involved with the people. Today, presidents are extremely involved with the people.

He was heavily involved in social and economic reform. He promised every American a Square Deal- a fair chance that they should be serviced in this country. It was under Roosevelt that the Pure Food and Drug act and the Meat Inspection act were passed.

Roosevelt was heavily involved in regulating business. He wanted to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) - set up to regulate business. In order to do this, he passed the Elkins and Hepburn Act- force railroads to set formal rates. They made it illegal to give out free passes to friends. The ICC also regulated ferries, bridges and pipelines later on.

Roosevelt was known as the “Trust Buster”- he checked into trusts. If they were good trusts that benefited the city, they could remain, otherwise not.

He convinced Congress to set up the Bureau of Corporations- division of the department of labor. The bureau would investigate trusts and let the public know what they doing wrong. They would bring the trusts to court if they were doing something wrong.

Two major trust busting cases:
1. Northern Security vs. USA- broke up the railroad monopoly, so the court ruled against it.
2. Swift and Co. vs. USA- it was a meat packaging company. The court ruled that the monopoly had to be crushed. This case was a clear deviation of EC Knight vs. USA because then, the court ruled in favor of the monopoly.

In this time period, America was moving away from laissez faire.

Roosevelt also worked to help labor unions grow. In 1902, the Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike but the owner refused to do anything. Roosevelt called them down to the White House to talk with them and force them to work with the labor unions. This is called arbitration. This was the first time that the government got involved with the unions to favor the worker.

Roosevelt passed the Employer’s Liability Act- bosses need some form of insurance in case the workers get hurt on the job.

Lockner vs. NY- limiting the work hours.

Roosevelt was a conservationist- he loved the outdoors. Roosevelt was influenced to set aside land by:
1. John Muir
2. Pinochet

National parks were built now and the National Reclamation Act was passed- took money from the sale of public land and used it for irrigation and to fix things. The National Forest Reserve Act was also passed- set aside land for forests.

Roosevelt organized the Conservation Convention- a meeting of many governors of many states to discuss conservation issues.

In 1908, Roosevelt decided not to run for a third term, and told Republicans to vote for Taft. Taft won the presidency.

Taft was a progressive and there were many reforms under Taft:
1. Trust Buster- busted many trusts, even more than Roosevelt. Standard Oil Co. vs. USA- felt that they were violating the Sherman Anti Trust Act- the Supreme Court used the rule of reasoning- look deep into the trust and see if it’s illegal.
2. Man Elkins Act- gave more power to the ICC.

Taft ran into a money problem and he wasn’t politically capable. He made two mistakes:
1. As the progressives wanted to lower the tariff, he promised to. However, not all the members of his party were progressives. In fact, many of the Republicans wanted to raise the tariff. The tariff was indeed raised. The Payne Aldrich Tariff raised the tariff. Many people didn’t agree.
2. Taft fired the head of the forest department- Pinochet. Taft fired him because Taft’s friend Balinger had been taking land for business and Pinochet said that he’s doing the wrong thing. People were upset that Taft fired him.

Election year of 1912- Roosevelt said that he’s going to run for a third term, but the Republican Party nominated Taft because people don’t like change.

Roosevelt formed the Bull Moose Party- to take care of things on his own. Now, the Republican Party was split. This paved the way for the democratic victory which occurred. Woodrow Wilson now became president. Wilson was also a progressive. “New Freedom” was Wilson’s slogan- he wanted to change finance in the city.

Reforms:
1. Underwood Tariff- lowered the tariff. This was the first time the tariff was lowered since the Civil War. It also added a provision to the sixteenth amendment that was passed at the end of Taft’s term. The sixteenth amendment started an income tax. Now, a provision was added- Graduated Income Tax- the amount was based on an individual percent of income.
2. Federal Reserve System- reshaped the banking system in America. Wilson divided the USA into twelve banking districts. In each of the sections, he placed a Federal bank. All these banks had to answer to a Federal Reserve Board, which regulated the banks. The Federal Reserve Board issued new currency and made all the decisions for the banks. The main goal of the Federal Reserve Board was to regulate interest rates- raise of lower according to what the economy needs.

Wilson made two business regulations:
1. Federal Trade Commission- to investigate unfair business tactics.
2. Clayton Anti Trust Act- was stronger than the Sherman Anti Trust act. It controlled business and was against unfair business practices. It tried very hard to end the practice of using anti-trust laws against labor unions. In an effort to crush unions, the trusts stated that unions are trusts, therefore they have to be crushed. The Clayton Anti Trust Act still busts trusts until today.