The Progressive EraTextbook 573-600 – Mark Bao

I. IntroductionA. McKinley administration wanted to ensure business confidenceB. Depression in the 1890s

1. industrial disputes created tension in the social tiersC. Richard Olney: “the great Pullman strike had brought the country ‘to the ragged edge of

anarchy.’” (573)D. Olney suppressed a strike, but did not want such strikes to happen again, and wanted gov-

ernment regulation of labor on the railroads1. Congress passed the Erdman Mediation Act in 1898

E. There were a lot of costs to building “the world’s most advanced industrial economy” in the United States – “a frightening concentration of corporate power, a rebellios working class, misery in the cities, and the corruption of machine politics” (574)

II. The Course of ReformA. progressivism: no single movement, agenda, or organization: it is a post-1900 effort to

build a better societyB. The Progressive Mind

1. Progressive thinking: “if the facts could be known, everything else was possible” (574)

2. Scientific investigation was becoming popular: various statistics, social research, etc.3. Scientific management was also popular among progressives

a) founder Frederick W. Taylor said scientific analysis is useful in solving many problems in life and the world

4. A new institutional school wanted to take apart capitalism and the economy to see how they worked

5. Progressives were against laws that were not verified in real life, and this became le-gal realism

6. Liberty of contract was invoked by the Supreme Court in Lochner v. New York against a law that limited working hours of bakers, which went against bakers’ own contracts

7. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said “the life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” (574)

8. William James denied that there were absolute truths, and started the idea of pragma-tism judging ideas by their consequences

9. Sources of Progressive Idealisma) Progressives are like idealistsb) Progressive ideas were rooted in literature such as Progress and Poverty, Wealth

against Commonwealth and Looking Backward, all against the idea of corporate greed.(1) Many socialists became progressivists

c) The most important source of progressive idealism was religion.(1) The Protestant Church had a doctrine: the Social Gospel, in response to the

urban poor

10. The Muckrakersa) New form of journalism in response to progressivismb) “editors discovered that what interested readers was the exposure of mischief in

American life” (575)(1) writers investigated corporate greed and poverty

c) muckrakers: coined by Theodore Roosevelt, journalists who exposed wrongdo-ings and the like in America

C. Women Progressives1. Women were part of charities and humanitarian efforts in cities2. Josephine Shaw Lowell believed that the betterment of the working people would

make crime go down, and established an organization to improve wages and working conditions of female clerks: New York Consumers’ Leaguea) Became a national organization: the National Consumers’ League became a lobby

organization for issues concerning women and children3. Muller v. Oregon (1908) approved an Oregon law that limited the workday to 10

hours for womena) Lawyer Louis D. Brandeis used Consumers’ League data that showed the effect

of long hours on women’s healthb) After it was upheld, laws like it passed around the nation

4. Women’s lobby organizations affected women’s rights laws, child labour laws, among others.

5. Settlement Housesa) Following the Hull House established by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in

1889, more settlement houses appeared as community centersb) Addams believed it would improve conditions in cities and of slum dwellers

6. Revival of the Suffrage Movementa) Reformers founded the Women’s Trade Union League

(1) Organized strikes, appointed leaders(2) At first a state-by-state movement that won 6 states in the West(3) Believed to be too slow–better, a constitutional amendment

7. The Birth of Feminisma) feminism was made up of young, self-supporting college-educated women

(1) “freedom for full personal development” for women, without the social norms of what women should be

b) In suffragism, instead of believing that they deserved suffrage because they would improve politics, they believed they deserved the right to vote simply because they were equal to men

c) Margaret Sanger was a public health nurse in NYC, who believed in birth control, illegal at the time (refer to jigsaw notes)(1) In 1916, she opened the first birth control clinic

d) Feminism challenged Addams’ ideas about social reform: in her reform ideology, protection for working women implicated that they were weaker(1) Feminists did not want compensation for being different because they simply

did not believe that they were different(2) progressive Gvoernor Charles J. Bonaparte had opposition against the 1914

minimum wage bill for women

(3) some suffragists believed that they did not need “special care, protection and privilege” and laws like this were giving them that, which went against their ideas of equality to men (583)

D. Reforming Politics1. progressives attacked the party system “boss rule”2. progressives had mixed motives and feelings about political power3. La Follette: Political Reformer

a) Robert M. La Follette served in Congress for 3 terms, until a Republican boss tried to bribe him to “fix a judge in a railroad case” (584).

b) Because of this, he realized the corruption in the political system and became a political reformer focused on restoring democratic ideals

c) became Governor in 1900 with plans to increase taxes for corporations, make reg-ulation for utility and railroad stricter, and political reform

d) he thought that political reform could be achieved by changing the rules of nomi-nations: the bosses do not choose who represent the candidacy, but rather, popular vote does

e) Controlled the Wisconsin Republican system for 25 yearsf) Like other successful progressive politicians, he was interested in political reform

4. Municipal Reforma) People demanded more efficient government. Taxes increased, but the govern-

ments were still inefficientb) After a hurricane strike in Galveston, Texas, business owners wanted a nonparti-

san five-member board instead of the mayor and board of aldermen(1) along with this a city manager was elected(2) was managed like a business

5. Urban Liberalisma) In 1910, Hiram Johnson was running for California governor, and wanted to re-

form politics in the state as well as the Southern Pacific Railroad, appealing to the middle class(1) however, his second term became about social and labour legislation, appeal-

ing to the working class(2) move towards reform of working class is called urban liberalism

b) Fire in New York factory in 1911 killed many people, trapped(1) In response, the New York Stet Factory Commission developed 56 laws fore

general safety and wages for factories over 4 years(2) Tammany realized that reform could not just happen on a low scale, only the

state had the power to make wide changes6. Cultural Pluralism Embattled

a) “Urban liberal leaders championed both the economic needs of city dwellers and their cultural and religious freedom” (586)

7. Organized Laboura) American Federation of Labor (AFL) did not want the state to have a say in laborb) trade unions did not adopt urban liberalism easily like city machinesc) trade unions thought workers should not seek government help but instead help

themselves, called voluntarism(1) this idea died down in the progressive era

d) judges were willing to disallow strikes to happene) AFL wanted better treatment and lobbied this from Congress

8. Toward Social Insurancea) 2,000 coal miners killed every yearb) liability laws favored the employer, and rarely was enough compensation givenc) by 1917, all industrial states had insurance laws covering accidents during em-

ploymentd) urban liberalism in the Progressive Era was not able to reform unemployment

benefits, pensions, or healthcare benefitsE. Racism and Reform

1. Introductiona) In the south, the primary was a white primary to prevent blacks from having polit-

ical power2. White Supremacy in the Progressive Vein

a) some believed that allowing the black vote with the 15th amendment wasn’t goodb) people including President Taft believed that the blacks were ignorant of politicsc) racial tensions in the north due to black migration from the south

3. The Civil Rights Struggle Reviveda) young black professionals started to fight back for civil rights, with a new ideol-

ogy of “resistance and aggression” due to the failings of the Booker T. Washing-ton’s “compromise” (589)

b) formed the Niagara Movement with W.E.B. Du Bois, based on:(1) black pride(2) demand for full political and civil equality(3) black agreement to inferiority

c) Some whites were part of the African American reform, including Mary White Ovington, who organized other white sympathizers to form the NAACP 1909(1) The NAACP leadership was mostly white, with Du Bois as the editor of their

journald) also formed was the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs

III. Progressivism and National PoliticsA. The Making of a Progressive President

1. Roosevelt was appointed to the “dead-end” job of McKinley’s VPa) however, McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became presidentb) Roosevelt pushed for conservation of the outdoorsc) When it became necessary to quell a miners’ strike to prepare coal for the winter,

Roosevelt threatened a government takeover of the operation and enlisted J.P. Morgan to help them, when the managers caved into an arbitration

d) was against irresponsible business2. Regulating the Marketplace

a) elimination of competition after the depression was a primary motive of business, trusts were formed

b) Trust-Busting(1) Roosevelt established the Bureau of Corporations as well as started investi-

gations into corporations(2) Only investigated those that were abusing their power

c) Railroad RegulationB. The Fracturing of Republican Progressivism

1. Taft’s Troublesa) progressives were against tariffs because they stifled competition, and Taft cam-

paigned on tariff reformb) however, Taft approved a tariff

2. New Nationalisma) “human welfare versus property rights” (597)