MR. LIPMAN’S APUS POWERPOINT CHAPTER 28

1. MR. LIPMAN’S APUS POWERPOINT CHAPTER 28 The Progressive Era 1901-1912

2. Keys to the Chapter • What Progressive’s Want • Supreme Court Speaks on Progressivism • Muckrakers • Teddy Roosevelt and the Three C’s • Panic of 1907 • Taft’s Presidency • Dollar Diplomacy

3. Where did these Progressive critics come from? • Socialists • Many were European immigrants • Social gospel movement • Used religion to demand better for urban poor • Feminists • Demanded suffrage along with other reforms • Led by Jane Addams (Chicago) who worked to improve conditions for urban poor

4. T.R. Referred to them as Muckrakers • Most focused on big business and need for government to right the wrongs of society: • Jacob Riis (“How the Other Half Lives”) • Lincoln Steffens (“Shame of the cities”) • Ida M. Tarbell (“Mother of Trusts-Standard Oil) • Upton Sinclair (“The Jungle”- Meat Companies) They sought social change but primarily highlighted the bad without clear ideas to fix it.

6. What Progressives Wanted • End to Urban Slums • End to Machine Politics • Direct Election of Senators • Regulation of Trusts • Suffrage for Women • A Federal Income Tax • Child Labor Laws / Limit on Working Hours • Improve Life of Poor & stop Socialism

7. Progressivism was a national movement • Were in both major parties • Wanted to regain power of the people that had been given up to powerful “interests” • Direct primaries (instead of rule by party bosses) • Initiative so that voters could propose legislation, bypassing corrupt legislators • Referendum put laws on ballot to allow voters themselves to pass (or not) laws, • Recall elections to remove corrupt elected officials

8. Progressive reforms at state level - Wisconsin • Governor Robert M. La Follette (“Fighting Bob”) • Take power from corps and give it back to people • Came up with way to regulate public utilities • Worked with experts from faculty at university • New York under governor Charles Evans Hughes • Investigated gas, insurance, and coal industries to end corruption

9. Issues for women: factory reform; temperance; suffrage; child labor laws • Muller v. Oregon (1908) • Supreme Court accepts special laws protecting women and children in the workplace • Employers previously had had total control over the workplace • Right to Contract overruled because of need to “procreate the race”.

10. Lochner v. New York (1905) - overturned a N. Y. law establishing a 10-hour workday for bakers • No special interest to protect workers present to void private party contract rights • In 1917 Court will finally change its views

11. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire(1911) 146 Die-----Brings calls for reforms

12. Young Women’s Bodies Lie on the Street Below

13. Gradual change from unregulated capitalism to belief that employers and government had responsibility to workers and society • Many states passed tougher laws regulating sweatshops (after the Triangle fire) • Worker’s compensations laws gave injured workers insurance for lost income • States begin to limit alcohol sales but cities will remain “wet” due to large immigrant populations

14. Prohibition on Eve of the 18th Amendment, 1919

15. Roosevelt decided to protect “public interest” • Demanded “Square Deal” for public • Three C’s: • control of corporations, • consumer protection, • conservation of natural resources He Believed That Government, and Not Big Business, Should Rule the Country

16. TR’s Square Deal for Labor • 1902 coal strike in Pennsylvania • Workers exploited in dangerous mines • Workers demanded 20% increase in pay and working day of 9 hour • Mine owners refused arbitration or negotiation

17. Roosevelt’s actions • Realizes importance of coal for fuel • Sided with workers, in part because of the arrogance of the mine owners • Threatened to seize and operate mines with federal troops • First time government had threatened owners, instead of workers, with violence

18. Roosevelt’s good and bad trusts • Realized can’t eliminate all trusts • Good trusts had a public conscience; bad trusts greedy for $ and power • Only against bad trusts • Use threat of breakup to force corporations to accept gov’t regulation

19. Good vs. Bad Trusts

20. Northern Securities Case (1904) • Railroad company organized by JP Morgan to monopolize railroads in Northwest • 1902 - Roosevelt orders breakup of Northern Securities & they sue • 1904 - Northern Securities decision • Supreme Court upheld Roosevelt’s order, greatly strengthening his reputation as trust buster

21. But in truth Taft “busted” more trusts

22. Meat Inspection Act (1906) – Brought about because of “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair • Meat shipped over state lines subject to federal inspection throughout entire process • Used by large packing houses to drive smaller competitors out of business • Large packing houses got US approval for their meat - increase shipments to Europe • Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) • Prevented adulteration and mislabeling

23. Roosevelt energized conservation movement at federal level • Lover of outdoors - hunter, naturalist, rancher • Using up natural resources appalled him • Set aside 125 million acres of forests, 3 times what his predecessors had done • Set aside acres of coal and water resources

24. Roosevelt easily re-elected in 1904 • Called more strongly for Progressive measures • Taxing income, protecting income, regulating corporations • Announced he would not run for a 3rd term in 1908 during 1904 election and he would later regret the decision • 1907 - short panic hit Wall Street • Included runs on banks, suicides, and criminal proceedings against speculators • Roosevelt blamed by business leaders

25. Panic of 1907 led to currency reforms • Aldrich-Vreeland Act (1908) • Authorized national banks to issue currency backed by collateral • Eventually will lead to Federal Reserve Act (1913) and understanding that Government must be in charge of the money supply but that it must be kept separate from fiscal policy.

26. Roosevelt decides not to run in 1908 Picks his secretary of war William Howard Taft to be his successor • used his power and control of the Republican party to push Taft’s nomination through

27. Roosevelt Hands “My Policies” Off to Taft

28. The Election of 1908: Taft vs. Bryan

29. Assessing Roosevelt’s Presidency • He usually chose the middle road • Acts to soften the worst abuses of capitalism, but effectively preserved capitalism and allowed the system to flourish • Able to head off move towards socialism • Most important and lasting contribution - preservation of natural resources - he chose the middle road between preservationists and those who wanted to rape the land of all its resources

30. T.R. enlarged the power and prestige of the presidential office • used the power of publicity (the “bully pulpit”) to get his way • Helped guide progressive movement and later liberal reforms • Square Deal was forerunner of the later New Deal from FDR • Opened Americans’ eyes to the fact that they shared the world with other countries • As a great power, the USA had responsibilities and ambitions that could not be escaped

31. Taft’s weaknesses: • Lacked Roosevelt’s strong political leadership skills or his love of a good fight • Became passive when dealing with Congress • Not a good judge of public opinion and frequently misspoke in public • Too conservative to make Progressives in his party happy

32. Taft’s plan for foreign policy replaced Roosevelt’s “bigstick” policy with “dollar diplomacy” • US investors would pour money into areas of strategic concern for the US - especially the Far East and Latin America around the Panama Canal • US investors thereby block out rival investors from foreign countries while bringing profit to themselves and USA

33. Dollar diplomacy in Latin America • US refused to allow European investment in Latin America (cite Monroe Doctrine) • Taft urged US investors to pump money into Latin America to keep out foreign funds • To protect investments US forces frequently used to put down protests and revolutions • For example, in 1912 a force of 2,500 US marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolution, and stayed 13 years

34. The United States in the Caribbean

35. 1911 - Supreme Court ordered breakup of Standard Oil Company because held to violate the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act • Court handed down its “rule of reason” which held that only combinations that “unreasonably” restrained trade were illegal; this rule greatly weakened the government’s strength against other trusts

36. Taft Splits the Republican Party • Progressive wing wanted to lower protective tariff (which they called the “Mother of Trusts” because of it protected big business) • Taft says okay but ends up actually raising tariff and loses support of progressives • Also splits the party on issue of Conservation

37. Taft Makes a Mess

38. February 1912 - Roosevelt, angry with Taft for apparent rejection of Progressivism (“my policies”), decided to fight for Republican nomination • He reasoned that the third-term tradition applied to 3 consecutive elective terms • “My hat is in the ring!” AT THE CONVENTION HE NARROWLY LOSES AND DECIDES TO RUN ON THIRD PARTY TICKET

39. Roosevelt the Take-Back Giver