Progressive Reforms

1877-1920

The Progressive Movement

No one really knew how horrible living conditions and the division between rich and poor really were

In 1890 Jacob Riis wrote a book entitled How the Other Half Lives.

His book had powerful photographs which portrayed immigrant life in New York City’s tenements

How the Other Half Lives

Fighting Corruption Americans in the 1800s were calling for

reforms, although many of the reformers had different goals

They focused on things such as:

Urban problems

Government

Business

Many people felt that government and big business were taking advantage of the American people rather serving them

Fighting Corruption Political Machines – powerful organizations

linked to political parties

They controlled local government in many cities

In each political district a machine representative controlled jobs and services

He was referred to as the Political Boss

Fighting Corruption Bosses gained votes for their parties by doing favors

for people

Offering turkey dinners

Summer boat rides

Providing jobs for immigrants

Helping needy families

A political boss was a citizen’s closest link to local government

Some bosses helped people but many were dishonest

Fighting Corruption How did they make the money?

Accepted bribes from tenement landlords in return for overlooking violations of city housing codes

Received campaign contributions from contractors hoping to do business with the city

Accepted kickbacks – an arrangement in which contractors padded the amount of their bill for city work and paid a percentage of that amount to the bosses

Fighting Corruption The Most Corrupt Boss: Boss Tweed

William M. Tweed headed New York City’s Democratic political machine in the 1860’s and 1870’s

He controlled the police, the courts, and some newspapers

He collected millions of dollars in illegal payments from companies doing business with the city

He did all of this with a network of city officials

New Ways to Govern Cities

Progressive Presidents

Progressive Reforms

Theodore Roosevelt

• Received the Republican vice-president

nomination in 1900• He replaced

assassinated president, William McKinley, and became the nation’s

youngest president at 42 years old

• He brought a lot of progressive ideas with

him

Theodore Roosevelt Was known to support business regulation

and other progressive reforms

1902 he ordered the Justice Department to take legal action against certain trusts that had violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Northern Securities Company – railroad monopoly formed by financiers JP Morgan and James J. Hill

This was Roosevelt’s main target

Northern Securities Company

Fought the government’s accusations of illegal activity all the way to the Supreme Court

1904 the Justice Department won the case

Supreme Court decided that Northern Securities had illegally limited trade and ordered the trust to be taken apart

Theodore Roosevelt During his term he obtained a total of 25

indictments (legal charges) against trust in the beef, oil, and tobacco industries

He was hailed as a trustbuster but he did not want to break up all the trusts

Trusts should be regulated not destroyed

Labor Crisis 1902 more than 100,000 Pennsylvania coal

miners (members of the United Mine Workers) went on strike

They demanded: better pay, an 8-hour workday, and recognition of the union’s right to represent its members in discussions with mine owners

Labor Crisis The mine owners refused to negotiate with

the workers

Coal Strike dragged on for months and public opinion turned against the owners

Roosevelt invited representatives of the owners and miners to a meeting at the White House

Labor Crisis Roosevelt was angered when the owners

refused to negotiate and so he threatened to send federal troops to work in the mines and produce the coal

Arbitration – settling the dispute

Owners agreed to accept the decision of an impartial outsider

Workers won a pay increase and a reduction in hours but they did not gain recognition for the union

Square Deal During his campaign in 1904 he promised

the people a Square Deal

Square Deal – fair and equal treatment for all

It called for a considerable amount of government regulation of business; which contrasted to Thomas Jefferson’s policy of laissez-faire

Laissez-Faire – French term for “let people do as they choose”

Square Deal

• Roosevelt supported the Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug

Acts• These acts gave the

Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration

the power to visit businesses and inspect

their products

Conserving the Wilderness

Roosevelt had a great enthusiasm for the outdoors and the wilderness and believed in need of conservation

Conservation – the protection and preservation of natural resources

1905 he proposed the US Forest Service which pressured Congress to set aside millions of acres of national forests and created the nation’s first wildlife sanctuaries

Conserving the Wilderness

Roosevelt also formed the National Conservation Commission which produced the first survey of the country’s natural resources

He had been called America’s first environmental president

He also recognized economic growth and development

He tried to strike a balance between business interests and conservation

William Howard Taft

In the election of 1908 Taft easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan

Taft went beyond many of Roosevelt’s policies

His administration won more anti-trust cases in four years than Roosevelt had won in seven

16th Amendment

• Taft supported the 16th Amendment which gave Congress the power to tax people’s incomes to

generate revenue for the federal government

William Howard Taft

The amendment did not specify how income would be taxes

Congress passed additional laws so that higher incomes were taxed at a higher rate than lower incomes

Despite his reforms, Taft disappointed Progressives in 2 areas: tariffs and conservation

He failed to fight for lower tariff and he modified some conservation policies so that they favored business

Roosevelt vs. Taft 1912 Roosevelt became disappointed with

Taft

So he decided to challenge Taft for the Republican presidential nomination

He claimed that Taft had “completely twisted around” his own policies

The Showdown Occurred during the Republican national

convention in Chicago in June

Roosevelt won every primary and had many supporters but Taft had the backing of Republican Party leaders and influential business interests who controlled the party machinery

Roosevelt charged the Republican party leaders with stealing the presidential nominiation from him

The Showdown Roosevelt led his supporters out of the

convention hall

They formed a new party – Progressive Party

A reporter asked Roosevelt how he felt about his health, Roosevelt replied “I feel as strong as a bull moose!”

From that point on the Progressive Party was known as the Bull Moose Party

Election 1912 The Republican split hurt both candidates

Democrat Woodrow Wilson gathered enough support to defeat them in the election

Wilson had a reputation as a progressive reformer while serving as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey

He gained only 42% of the popular vote, Roosevelt received 27%, and Taft 23%

Wilson won the presidency by the largest electoral majority: 435 out of 531 electoral votes

Wilson in the White House

During his campaign he had criticized big government as well as big business

He called his program the “New Freedom”

1913 he achieved a long a tariff reform

He persuaded the Democrat-controlled Congress to adopt a lower tariff on imported goods such as sugar, wool, steel, and farm equipment

Wilson in the White House

1913 Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act to regulate banking

By creating 12 regional banks supervised by a central board in DC that act gave the government more control over banking activities

Banks were required to join the Federal Reserve System and abide by its regulations

Wilson in the White House

He worked to strengthen government control over business

Federal Trade Commission – passed in 1914 by Congress to investigate corporations for unfair trade practices

Clayton Antitrust Act – passed in 1914 which joined the Sherman Antitrust Act as one of the government’s chief weapons against trusts

Wilson in the White House

By the end of his first term, progressives had won many victories

Their movement lost some of its momentum as Americans turned their attention to world affairs – especially the war that had broken out in Europe in 1914

Excluded From Reform

Progressive Reforms

Prejudice and Discrimination

During the 1800s many Americans were white and Protestant as well as born in the US

Therefore many of these people believed that America should remain a white Protestant nation

Discrimination – unequal treatment of others because of their race, religion, ethnic background, or place of birth

Prejudice and Discrimination

Springfield, Illinois 1908: a white woman claimed to have been attacked by an African American man. The man was jailed by the police, but by that time, white townspeople had formed an angry mob

This mob was armed with axes and they stormed through African American neighborhoods driving people from their homes. They lynched two African American men and injured many more.

No one was punished for these crimes. Later the woman admitted that her accusation was untrue

Aftermath? This shocked the nation and highlighted the

deep racial divisions in American life

Ironically it took place in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown

Although no longer enslaved, African Americans were still abused by racial hatred

Anti-Catholicism Some people faced discrimination because

of their religion

Protestants feared that Catholic immigrants threatened the “American” way of life

American Protective Association – group with a membership of 2 million across the nation

They spread rumors that Catholics were preparing to take over the country

Anti-Semitism Many Jewish people who came to the US

also experienced prejudice

Eastern European Jews faced prejudice for being Jewish and for being eastern European

Anti-Asian Policies This was based on race

In most of the western states such as California, Asians struggled against prejudice and resentment

Whites claimed that Asians took away jobs because they worked for lower wages

Congress then passed the Chinese Exclusion Act

Japanese immigrants were not allowed to become citizens in California

Gentlemen’s Agreement – it restricted Japanese immigration to the United States but it did not bring an end to anti-Japanese feeling

African American Discrimination

They faced discrimination in the north and the south

Many worked as rural sharecroppers or in low-paying jobs in the cities

They were separated from white society

1896 the Supreme Court legalized segregation of the races in the famous court case Plessy v. Ferguson

It recognized “separate by equal” facilities

Ku Klux Klan Had terrorized African Americans during

Reconstruction and was reborn in 1915

They anted to restore white Protestant America

They lashed out against minorities – Catholics, Jews, Asians, African Americans

Racial Violence People who lost their jobs during the

economic depressions of 1893 and 1907 sometimes unleashed their anger against African Americans and other minorities

More than 2,600 African Americans were lynched between 1886 and 1916

Progressivism & Prejudice

Many people in the 1800s were very biased and believed that only white, male, native-born Americans had the right to make decision for all of society

Most progressive leaders were from the middle and upper class who wanted to improve the conditions of society

Trade union often prohibited African Americans, women, and immigrants form joining

The temperance movement was partly an attempt to control the behavior of Irish Catholic immigrants

Equal Opportunity Minorities battled for justice and

opportunity on their own

African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans took steps to improve their lives

Booker T. Washington – had been born enslaved and taught himself to read, founded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 which taught African Americans farming and industrial skills

Equal Opportunity Washington believed that if African

Americans had more economic powers they would be in a better position to demand social equality and civil rights

National Negro League – founded by Washington to promote business development among African Americans

He argued that equality would be achieved when African Americans gained the education and skills to become valuable memebers of their community

African American Women Take Action

These women worked together through groups such as the National Association of Colored Women to fight the practice of lynching and other forms of racial violence

Ida B. Wells – was forced to leave town after publishing the names of people involved in a lynching

She showed that lynching was used primarily against African Americans