December 20, 2010
Gilded Age Reforms
Henry George Progress and Poverty and Edward Bellamy Looking Backward - Forward thinking authors
William James and Pragmatism - Ideas defined by consequences
December 20, 2010
Informed Public
Larger circulation of magazines such as Atlantic, Century, Scribner, McClure's, Cosmopolitan, etc.
Ashcan School of Artists - Defined by drawing and painting city scenes
December 20, 2010
What is a Muckraker?
Term coined by Teddy Roosevelt from Bunyon's book Pilgrim's Progress
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle - Exposed corruption in the meat packing industry, one of the problem trusts
Jacob Riis - How the Other Half Lives - exposé of life in the tenements - Exposed life in the slums and led to urban reform
Lincoln Steffens The Shame of the Cities published in McClure's Magazine - Exposed corruption in state and local governments
Ida Tarbell - American's Magazine - Exposé on Standard Oil
Edwin Markham published an exposé of child labor in Children in Bondage (1914)
David Graham Phillips' Cosmopolitan article, "The Treason of the Senate," a bitter indictment of political corruption, provoked President Roosevelt's wrath, but created momentum that would culminate in the adoption of the 17th Amendment
Henry Demarest Lloyd's Wealth against Commonwealth (1894) chronicled the rise of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil
Ray Stannard Baker examined the sad state of race relations in America in Following the Color Line (1908)
Brand Whitlock expressed his opposition to capital punishment in the novel The Turn of the Balance (1907), while serving as the reform mayor of Toledo, Ohio
Samuel Hopkins Adams won fame from his muckraking exposés of the patent medicine industry
Muckraking fades over time because of1. lack of good stories,2. advertising pressure3. growth of public relations as an industry
December 20, 2010
Organized LaborConflict between immigrant habits, tyranny of the clock and Taylorism
American Federation of LaborGrowth to two million membersGompers promotes cooperation but strikes bring backlashPressure from National Association of Manufacturing use of scabs, strike breakers, blacklisting, etcMore sympathy for women and childrenWomen's trade unions grow
Sweat shopsShirtwaist dresses being manufacturedILGWU protested conditionsSome success, mainly ignoredUntil the Triangle fire
Federal Industrial Relations Committee1913 response to triangle fire and Ludlow Massacrediscovered class conflict from poor distribution of wealth and hired gunsreport went no where
Radical ResponseEugene Debs - SocialistMother Jones, Bill Haywood form IWWToo radical for DebsHaywood tried for murder of former Governor of IdahoStrikes in 1912 and 1913Almost resulted in class warfare
December 20, 2010
Women's Roles
Seen as the moral authority from outside the governmentJane Addams - Hull HouseLillian Wald - Public HealthFlorence Kelly - Worked toward women's labor rightsFrances Kellor - Social worker
Infectious optimism with African AmericansDuBoisAddamsNAACPGrandfather clause deemed unconstitutionalBut - Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith glorifies the Klan and sets back race relations
December 20, 2010
Municipal Reform
Reaction by the middle class to the excesses of industrial power and one party city machine politics
Mayoral power was stronger after push for home rule vs. state legislatures
City beautiful vs. Social Justice - less grandeur, more help for poor and disadvantaged
Trend toward municipal ownership of city services, transportation, water, sewage, etc.
December 20, 2010
States
Initiative - People can sponsor billsReferendum - Questions placed on ballotsRecall - Remove elected officials from officeDirect Primary - as opposed to political party naming candidatesLouis Brandeis says the "states are the laboratories of America."Seventeenth Amendment - Direct election of Senators
December 20, 2010
Education
Learning should be child centeredLearn by doing to accommodate societybecome an instrument of changeEducation of all not just the brightestPlacing middle class values on lower class immigrants
December 20, 2010
Women and the Progressive Era
Muller v. Oregon - 10 hour day in 1908Lochner case 1905 NYC bakers could not be limited by hours
SuffrageWestern states gave women vote firstEastern men worried about women being pro prohibitionNAWSA - Carrie Chapman Catt organized state by stateNational Women's Party of Congressional Union - Alice Paul - More radicalWomen finally given vote after WW I by Wilson
ContraceptionMargaret Sanger violated Comstock Law of 1873Fled to Europe to avoid arrest in 1914Returned in 1921 formed American Birth Control League - became Planned Parenthood
Prohibitionby 1915 2/3rds of states had laws restricting or prohibiting sale and consumption of alcoholCongress passed the 18th AmendmentAlcohol was tied to prostitution drugs and political corruptionMann Act - prohibited interstate transport of females for "immoral purposes" - think Elliot Spitzer Most laws missed the root cause, poverty, education, ets
December 20, 2010
Roosevelt's Administration
Elihu Root - StateWilliam Howard Taft - WarJames Garfield - InteriorGifford Pinchot - ForestryReorganized Army, Navy, Consular ServiceOpen door to progressivesMicromanages everything right down to a football conference on how to deal with violence and death in football
December 20, 2010
Trust Buster
Test Case 1904 - Northern Securities Trust - Railroad monopoly - Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy RRs.Public outcry over monopoly and price gougingWin for Roosevelt first of 45Roosevelt said there were good and bad trustsLarge corporations were to be expected
Railroads1903 - Elkins Act - strengthened the ICC by heavily fining railroads that offered rebates to preferred customers1906 - Hepburn Act - Allowed ICC to set maximum rates for shippingGained support from public due to transparencyEstablished new Department of Commerce and Labor
Mine Workers StrikeDangerous workUnited Mine Workers - John Mitchell leaderDemanded 8 hour work day and 10-20% increaseoffered arbitrationowners used usual strike breakersRoosevelt threatens to use troopsCompromise at 10% and 9 hour day
December 20, 2010
Roosevelt's Square DealBelieved workers had a right to join a union without interferencechampioned open shop for gov. workersGained support of farmers, small business, professionals and laborseen as willing to take on big moneyhelped middle class, attacked trusts and protected business from organized labor unreasonable demands
Pure Food and Drug ActInitially reaction by Meat Inspection Act as a result of The JungleAct aimed at safety of drugs
ConservationRoosevelt was an outdoorsman1902 National Reclamation Act - allowed for use of land for irrigationDevelopment of National Conservation commissionLed to the development of the National parks and government land preserved
RaceMixed Record - supports ideas but dishonorably discharges soldiers who complain about race discrimination
December 20, 2010
TaftHandpicked by RooseveltWanted to be a judge - wife wanted White HouseNot a politician
Tried to lower tariffsOld Guard Republicans high jackedCompromise led to 16th Amendment and first tax on corporate profitsMann - Elkins Act - expanded role of ICC but also a compromise with the Old Guard over Progressives
Opened land previously closed for development
Prosecuted more anti-trust suites in one term than Roosevelt did in two
December 20, 2010
1912 ElectionDemocrats selected WilsonBorn in GeorgiaFootball player from Wesleyan UniversityNJ GovernorWrote the book Congressional Government criticizing weak presidents
RepublicansOld Guard rigs convention to nominate TaftProgressives and Roosevelt Supporters leftFormed Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party)
Roosevelt campaigned onminimum wagewomen's voteeight hour daysocial insuranceexpert oversight
Wilson used the ideas in Brandeis' book Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use itBanks and trusts controlled raw materialsmoney and markets should be broken up to competitionChampioned the Jeffersonian idea of limited government
December 20, 2010
Wilson's Administration
First two years are a great successFirst President to appear before Congress since AdamsUnderwood Tariff - lowered basic tariff rates but reaffirmed income taxes following passage of the sixteenth amendmentUses public opinion to get past special interests in the senate
Banking SystemNation still using Civil War era systemChanged and compromisedNot one large private bank but instead 12 regional banks and federal reserve notes issued or recalled to balance money supplyMoved closer to his idea of New Nationalism with the Federal Trade Commission
Clayton Actno interlocking directorates or exchange of stock to reduce competition
Wilson's final acts before WWIFederal Farm Loan Act - Low interest loans to farmersSeamans Act - fair treatment and living wage to merchant marineWorkman's Compensation ActRestriction of child labor - struck down by Supreme CourtAdamson Act - Railroad workers receive and 8 hour day with 10 hour payAppointed Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court but accelerated segregation in government