1901 – 1912. the gilded age: “predatory wealth” & “conspicuous consumption” the...

PROGRESSIVISM AND THE REPUBLICAN ROOSEVELT

1901 – 1912

PROGRESSIVE ROOTS

The Gilded Age: “predatory wealth” & “conspicuous

consumption” The Greenback Labor Party & Populist

Party 1870s and 90s Responding to industrialist

PROGRESSIVE ROOTS CONTINUED

Early writers Jacob Riis

How the Other Half Lives (1890) Henry Demarest Lloyd

Wealth Against Commonwealth (1894) Thorstein Veblen

Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)

RAKING MUCK WITH THE MUCKRAKERS

Muckrakers (early 1900s) Phrase coined by Theodore Roosevelt

Topics Life insurance co. Tariff lobby groups Trusts and Monopolies Trafficking of women Slums Pharmaceuticals Industrial accidents

RAKING MUCK WITH THE MUCKRAKERS Famous Muckrakers

Ida Tarbell History of the Standard Oil Company

Upton Sinclair The Jungle

POLITICAL PROGRESSIVISM

Modernizing American Institutions Goals

1) to use the government to curve monopolies 2) improve the common person’s conditions at work and

home Initiative:

Voters can petition directly for a law to be placed on a general ballot.

Referendum: Place laws on the ballot for final approval for the people.

Recall: Allowed people to get rid of elected officials who were not

fulfilling their obligations.

POLITICAL PROGRESSIVISM

17th Amendment: Direct election of senators

After the local victories using the primary election

Secret ballot Inspired by the Australian ballot

PROGRESSIVISM IN THE CITIES AND STATES

Taking out the political machine Robert La Follette: Wisconsin governor,

militant progressive Took out the monopolies of lumber and

railroad

PROGRESSIVE WOMEN

Entering the public square to take up the fight Women and Children’s

labor laws Food safety Work conditions Temperance (Woman’s

Christian Temperance Union)

Used the traditional role as an argument for lobbying against unfair practices Muller v. Oregon

PROGRESSIVE WOMEN

TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST COMPANY FIRE

1911 – New York City

146 employees killed

Got the attention of America that reform was needed in business and labor.

Strikers for shorter hours and better conditions pushed the New York legislature into action

TR’S SQUARE DEAL FOR LABOR

Control of corporations Worked for labor reform that would benefit the

public Coal strike in 1902: threatened the coal industry with

government takeover. Corporations

Elkins Act: Heavy fines on railroads and shippers who dealt rebates.

Hepburn Act: expanded the role of Interstate Commerce Commission to include sleeper cars, express co., & pipeline

Trustbuster: 1902 defeated Northern Securities Co.’s attempt to create a monopoly on railways.

CARING FOR THE CONSUMER

Consumer protection Looked to benefit corporations and

consumers Meat Protection Act (1906)

Meat shipped over state lines was subject to federal inspection

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) Prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of

foods and drugs

EARTH CONTROL

Conservation of natural resources 7th Annual Address to Congress

Resources are not inexhaustible Hired Gifford Pinchot: head of Division

of Forestry Set aside 125 million acres

THE “ROOSEVELT PANIC” OF 1907

Roosevelt was blamed But it stirred up the people to make

reforms Aldrich-Vreeland Act: banks can issue

emergeny currency

THE ROUGH RIDER THUNDERS OUT

Roosevelt hand picked Taft to keep his policies going strong

Taft beat William Jennings Bryan What did Roosevelt leave behind?

A more powerful executive branch Gave power to the progressive movement

TAFT: A ROUND PEG IN A SQUARE HOLE

Mild progressive

Didn’t want the presidency

THE DOLLAR GOES ABROAD AS A DIPLOMAT

Supporting U.S. financial and political investments abroad Manchurian railroads Caribbean

TAFT THE TRUSTBUSTER

90 suits in 4 yearsversus Roosevelt’s 44 suits in 7

½ years 1911: Supreme Court

ruled Standard Oil to be dissolved

Taft brings suit against U.S. Steel Corporation. Angers Roosevelt who was in on one of the questionable mergers.

TAFT SPLITS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

Payne-Aldrich Bill Ballinger-Pinchot

quarrel

THE TAFT-ROOSEVELT RUPTURE

Roosevelt was not happy with Taft’s handling of Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel, the Payne-Aldrich Bill, and big business

Roosevelt runs against Taft for the Republican nomination He can do this because Republicans are

split between mild and ardent progressives