Unit 7

1. Unit 7 1. Progressives 2. Immigration 3. Washington and DuBois 4. Imperialism

2. Progressives • The Post-Bellum Industrial Era saw many Economic, Social, and Political Problems emerge • These problems were due to Industrialization, Urbanization, Immigration, Population Explosion, Political and Corporate Corruption.. • Those who emerged to expose these problems, agitate for reforms, or provide solutions (1880’s to 1914), became known as Progressives

3. They were influenced, in part, by the ideas and demands of Labor Unions and of the Populist Party • Progressives / Progressivism is not considered a “Movement” in the strictest sense – no national organization: a collection of individuals and individual organizations promoting different kinds of reform • There were Progressives in both major Political Parties….they were mostly middle class people seeking to reform the Capitalist system, not overthrow it

4. Whether or not it was a “Movement”, most Progressives believed in similar things: • Optimistic View of Human Nature: Society was “Perfectable” (2nd Great Awakening): Progress could and should be made  • Economy and society could not continue to grow haphazardly. Some planning, order and stability were needed – from the government. Laissez Faire would have to be at least modified….regulated…but not abandoned • Society had a responsibility to the individual. The privileged and well off had a duty to help the less well off • The government was part of the problem: it would have to be reformed; political reform would have to take place before significant social and economic reforms could be introduced….the government would have to be an active force for good, not just a neutral bystander

5. Earlier Reform Movement of the Ante-Bellum Years • Emerged to deal with problems of the 1820s – 1850s / first wave of 19th Century Reformers • Some similar problems, similar causes – but the scale was far greater in the Post-Bellum years • Reformers of the earlier era included: • Dix; prisons, treatment of mentally ill • Mann: education • Beecher / Dow: alcohol abuse • Stanton: women’s rights • Lundy, Garrison; abolitionism

6. 4 Groups of Progressives in the 1880s • 1. Muckraking Investigative Journalists • 2. Preachers of the Social Gospel • 3. Middle Class “Club Women” • 4. Crusading Politicians

7. 1. Muckraking Journalists • Given their name by Teddy Roosevelt, who accused (critical) them of raking up muck in their writings (just for the sake of it) as the dirt diggers in Bunyan's poem - Pilgrims Progress. • These Muckrakers uncovered and exposed scandals, corrupt practices, injustice, to the public. Their writings had a huge impact • Increase in literacy (higher standards of education), meant increased sales of newspapers, magazines, books….greater audience for Progressive journalists.

8. New magazines: McClure's, Colliers, Cosmopolitan • Popular newspapers: Pulitzer's World, and Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, and New York Journal - engaged in a circulation war • The term "yellow journalism" came into popular use at this time, symbolizing the sensationalist headlines of the Hearst and Pulitzer papers (tabloids of the time) (term comes from yellow colored cartoons) • Muckraking Journalists focused on a variety of different issues / “abuses”

9. Charles Adams, exposed corruption of RR monopolies, pools • Ida Tarbell (right), exposed RR corruption, but is most famous for exposing corruption in Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company (Read excerpt / document)

10. Ida Tarbell, an influential journalist of the progressive Era. The Progressive Era 3.1B

11. Henry Lloyd in Wealth against Commonwealth, also exposed Standard Oil’s corruption • Ida B. Wells (right), exposed the widespread lynching of AA's by white mobs; 230 documented in one year - 1892. She launched a national campaign to end lynching and combat racism in general.

12. Upton Sinclair: originally intended his book, The Jungle, to expose the horrible living and working conditions of immigrant laborers (read excerpt) • He lived among immigrant workers for 7 weeks and accompanied them to work. • Focused on the life of a Lithuanian immigrant who worked in the meatpacking industry. • But the book became more important for exposing the unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry…..dirt, rats, meat of diseased animals…human flesh

13. the resulting outrage led to the passing of the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug Act, (by TR), preventing the adulteration and mislabeling of food and drugs • Jacob Riis exposed the conditions of urban immigrant ghettoes through his reporting and his vivid and graphic photographs, in his newspaper the New York Sun and in his book How the Other Half Lives (also influenced TR – when Police Commissioner of NY) • Theodore Dreiser, wrote the Financier and the Titan in which he criticized industrialists and businessmen who made huge profits…also Sister Carrie, exposed city life

14. Lincoln Steffens; exposed political corruption, the link between monopolies and city govt., esp. the role of machine bosses in urban areas. • He wrote a series of articles for McClure's titled "The Shame of the Cities". Criticized not just the bosses but also the public for its apathy about the corruption which surrounded them. • David Phillips - in a series of articles in Cosmopolitan titled "The Treason of the Senate", claimed and supported with evidence that 75 of the 90 senators represented trusts, esp. Railroad companies, and not the people.

15. A cartoon from Puck magazine. It is entitled “Bosses of the senate” The Progressive Era 2.2I

16. Ray Stannard Baker, highlighted the continued ill treatment of African Americans in his book Following the Color Line. • John Spargo focused on the abuse of child labor in his book The Bitter Cry of the Children. • Thematic • Economy / Monopolies: Adams, Tarbell, Lloyd, Dreiser, Steffens • Racism: Wells, Baker • Social / Living and Working Conditions/abuse of child labor/abuse of women’s labor: Sinclair, Riis, Spargo • Political: Steffens, Phillips

17. The Jungle, 1905 4 excerpts in pack Use document analysis chart to analyze each document

18. 2. Clergymen / Social Gospel • clergymen / ministers, mostly Protestants, left their comfortable rural churches and moved to the cities to work among the urban poor. • Believed that churches should focus on the present, not the next life, help people to improve conditions on earth, rather than focus too much on the afterlife. • Promoted progressivism based on Christian teaching, using religious doctrine to demand better housing, living conditions for the urban poor • These clergymen became part of the crusade for social reform and justice.

19. The most renowned of these advocates of the Social Gospel Movement was Walter Rauschenbusch, a Protestant minister and theologian, of the Baptist Church: New York • Believed that Environment had as much to do with how people turned out / with their character formation, as much as individual traits • Rejected Social Darwinism, the suggestion that people’s fortunes reflected their fitness for survival. Appealed to the consciences of the middle class.

20. Another preacher who preached the "social gospel" was Washington Gladden, who took over the Congregational Church in Columbus, Ohio. • "Ignorance, poverty, criminality, are not the results of inherent moral or ethnic failings or of the workings of divine providence. They were, rather, the effects of an unhealthy environment. To elevate the distressed, therefore, required an improvement of the conditions in which they lived”……Gladden • He later moved to inner city New York to work among the poor and unemployed

21. 3. Middle Class “Club” Women • A large network of women's associations had sprung up from the 1880’s – at first cultural, intellectual, and social organizations • Later turned their attention to address society’s problems…and proposed solutions • “Clubwomen” took an interest in a wide variety of issues: education, abuse of child labor and women’s labor, workers rights, alcohol abuse, excessive immigration, conditions and rights of immigrants, inner city poverty, unsanitary processing of food, safety codes in apt buildings .

22. The most famous of these reformers was Jane Addams, who set up a settlement house, Hull House, in Chicago in 1889. • Over 400 other such houses would emerge throughout the country • Another famous reformer was Lillian Wald: operated a settlement house in Henry Street, NY.

23. The houses were staffed by middle class women – offered help to inner city working class and poor, esp. to immigrant families as they adjusted to the problems of living in a new country – language, culture, jobs, accommodation, day care • Offered reading and writing classes, day care services, community activities, counseling. • Served as a Community Center for inner city, for immigrant and non-immigrant urban poor

24. Some immigrants were critical of the Settlement Houses and those who ran them for trying to impart middle class and American values / culture (for example, on alcohol consumption; also critical of education system for the same reason) • The settlement houses helped begin a new profession in the US - the professional social worker - who combined a passion for the welfare of the poor with scientific / academic study – a profession dominated at first by middle class women

25. Another prominent Progressive was Florence Kelley: worked at Hull House for 7 years and then at another Settlement House at Henry Street: • Best known for campaigning against child labor: organized consumer boycotts of goods manufactured by children, or by workers who worked in unsanitary dangerous conditions; also campaigned for women's suffrage • Women were heavily involved in the campaigns for Temperance and Women’s Suffrage

26. Temperance • Many Progressives saw alcohol abuse as the root cause of many other evils - poverty, unemployment, crime, violence, divorce. • Led by Frances Willard, Club Women set up the The Temperance Union in the 1870s. By 1911 it had become a well organized, efficient national movement with over 245,000 members • Another prominent Temperance leader was Carrie Nation: she and her followers targeted saloons - smashed them up with hatchets - known as the "hatchetonians.” (saloons were also social centers)

27. In 1893 the Union launched a campaign for the complete Prohibition of the manufacture, distribution, sale, and consumption of all alcohol • Irony, the class they hoped would benefit – the workers and their families – were the strongest opponents of Prohibition. • They claimed that they enjoyed alcohol, it was one of the few comforts they had at the end of a long hard week of work. • Also, alcohol was a big part of the culture of many immigrant groups; workers and immigrants felt it was a middle class or American value being imposed on them

28. In spite of this opposition the campaign made progress: by 1918, 26 states had introduced Prohibition (known as Dry Laws / Dry States) • Entry of US into WWI in 1917 was the final push the government needed to introduce a Federal Prohibition Law, the Volstead Act which became the 18th Amendment in 1920……….. • Prohibition became associated with Patriotism • Alcohol / Beer was identified with foreign countries, with Germany • Also, it was felt that if less money was spent on alcohol then people would spend more money on War Bonds • The barley, grain etc used to manufacture alcohol could be conserved for the war effort

29. However, Prohibition never produced the expected results - did not help decrease problems of poverty, unemployment, violence, crime etc - in fact brought a whole new set of problems - Gangster violence, mafia, Al Capone, illegal speakeasies, casual attitude towards the law in general

30. Women’s Suffrage • Revival in the 1880s of efforts of 1840s (Seneca Falls, 1848) which had floundered because of the distraction of Abolitionism, then the Civil War • Led by leaders of the earlier movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony (right), and new, more radical leaders such as Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul, who favored more radical tactics such as picketing the White House and going on hunger strike when arrested...

31. Many states conceded suffrage to women in city and state elections after 1910 - Washington, California, Illinois, NY, Michigan and others • Finally, because of the performance of women in industry and business during WWI, Pres. Wilson persuaded Congress to grant them universal suffrage in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. • Sadly, after years of struggle to win the vote, two thirds of the women eligible to vote, did not vote in the 20s and 30s • But women were still far from being considered equal: in many states they could not serve on juries, hold office, enter business, or sign contracts without their husband’s permission

32. 4. Crusading Politicians • For the Progressives to make real headway, they accepted that Politics would have to be reformed first – Govt. at all levels - city, state, federal, would have to become more Democratic / Representative…eliminate the power of the special interests and return it to the people • They hoped that reformed governments of sincere, Progressive politicians, would begin intervention and pass legislation in Economic, Social, Political areas.

33. City Government (Municipal) • Progressives first targeted City Govt., perhaps the most corrupt level – controlled by Boss Politicians such as Boss Tweed and Political Machines such as Tammany Hall (controlled New York city and state gov). • Machines bought votes, then used their control of the city’s finances to give contracts to companies who paid bribes to machine politicians (Read excerpts on Washington Plunkett….exposed by muckraking journalists). • In New York, Cartoonist Thomas Nast, helped expose Boss Tweed and the Tweed Ring and bring him down by ridiculing him • The NY city govt. was gradually reformed as the machines were removed

34. The "Brains"Boss Tweed depicted by Thomas Nast in a wood engraving published in Harper's Weekly, October 21, 1871

35. A Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to "Blow Over" – "Let Us Prey."The Tweed Ring depicted by Nast in a wood engraving published in Harper's Weekly, September 23, 1871

36. Nast • Although his contribution to bringing down the Tweed Ring would remain the high point of his career, Nast's influence on American political culture went far beyond and continues today. • Along with the Tammany Tiger, Nast created the G.O.P. Elephant, popularized the Democratic Donkey, and was the first to portray Santa Claus as the jolly, rotund, red-nosed character that is so familiar today. • Nast's work inspired many if not all of the new generation of political cartoonists who worked for the daily press in the 1890s and early 1900s.

38. Many cities introduced new laws about voting - secret ballot: and procedures to end re-voting / “stuffing the ballot box”… • Progressive reformers also had great success in Galveston Texas, where they ended machine politics. • A hurricane, and extensive floods destroyed the city • Progressives took advantage of the new start to campaign for the election of a new city govt. consisting of a mayor and the city council, but with the key powers (contracts, spending) resting with an unelected paid nonpartisan commission of five members, all professionals in some particular field

39. The new system meant less corruption, more expertise, less politics, in managing city affairs, and quicker decisions. • The new Galveston Commission Govt. swiftly and efficiently began to repair the damage done to the city and at a much lower cost than the old machine- dominated council would have done • Other cities followed the example of Galveston and introduced similar Commissions to run their cities. • Others appointed a single City Manager instead - same principle - non-partisan, professional manager - to bring efficiency, eliminate corruption and bribery (he controlled money and contracts…)

40. By the end of the Progressive Era - 1914 - approx 400 cities throughout the US had adopted either the Commissioner System or the City Manager System. • These “reformed” or Progressive city governments then became the agents of further reforms…….social, economic.. • Some cities retained the old system but changed their election practices, electing city council members at large rather than from wards, making it difficult for Bosses and Machines to target specific voters or specific neighborhoods, and thereby reducing their power • As a result of these changes, corruption in City Politics was much reduced or eliminated

41. State Government • Other Progressives focused on reforming state governments, which were controlled by business monopolies, or political machines • To reform state governments Progressive Reformers embraced some of the objectives of the Labor Movement and of the Populists • They campaigned for: • Initiative - legislation could be directly submitted by the people for consideration by the voters during elections – to circumvent corrupt legislatures.

42. Referendum – some laws would have to be submitted to the voters for final approval, after the legislature had voted • Direct Primaries - gave all members of a party a say in choosing that party's candidate: nominating conventions could easily be controlled by the machine bosses. • Recall - gave voters the right to remove a public official from office before his term of office had expired – through a petition. • Cap on campaign spending - reduce amount of money that candidates could spend on their election, and the amount they could get in gifts from Corporations. (Corrupt Practices Acts)

43. As a result of successful campaigning by Progressives, Oregon was the first state to introduce the initiative and referendum in 1902. By 1918, 19 other states had followed. • Mississippi was the first to adopt direct primaries in 1902. By 1915 most states had done so. • Wisconsin was one of the leading states in the drive for Progressive Reforms. Under their Progressive Governor, Bob La Follett (Fighting Bob), Wisconsin introduced Direct Primaries, Initiative, Referendum, Recall – together, this set of reforms became known as the “Wisconsin Idea”. Ended control by machines, trusts, monopolies of state govt.

44. He then proceeded to break up trusts in his state, esp. in the lumber industry • La Follett was the most Progressive Governor of the time: he also introduced regulation of utilities companies, workers compensation in the event of accidents on the job, income tax on inherited fortunes, he doubled state taxes on RR's and big corporations, introduced maximum hours and minimum wages in some industries, new sanitation and safety laws in factories, restrictions on child labor..

45. “Fighting Bob” La Follette, the progressive Governor of Wisconsin and later Republican Senator in the early 1900s. The Progressive Era 3.1A

46. Other notable Progressive Governors were NY's Charles Evans Hughes, and New Jersey's Woodrow Wilson, and Hiram Johnson of CA. • Democracy was restored to State politics, government was restored to the hands of the people / voters

47. National Politics. • Many Progressives felt that real genuine economic and social reform would need the support of the Federal Govt. and President: Control of trusts and monopolies for example would have to come at Federal Govt. level, since most of them operated on the basis of Interstate Commerce, the domain of the Fed. Govt. • To reform the Senate, the 17th Amend, 1913, introducing direct election of senators was passed – took this out of the hands of the potentially corrupt state legislatures • The Senate would now be a genuinely democratic, popularly elected body.

48. Progressives now hoped for a Progressive President who was more responsive / sensitive to societies needs, and less to the interests of businesses, trusts, monopolies • Many previous Presidents had been weak, presided over Corruption / Scandals, supported big business (use of troops, injunctions to break up strikes): Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley...... • Progressives were pleased when TR became President by accident in 1901 (accidental President) after McKinley’s assassination

49. Theodore Roosevelt (TR) • Member of NY State Legislature (Republican Party): supported anti-trust policies and was pro-conservation: became known as a Progressive • Personal tragedy / losses: Rancher in the Badlands of the Dakotas • NY Police Commissioner: strong on anti- crime, battled vice: Progressivism • Assistant Secretary of the Navy • Volunteer / Rough-Rider in the Spanish American War

50. Governor of NY; feared by business interests because of his anti-trust policies: they persuaded Rep party to nominate him as their vice Pres, as running mate of McKinley, to marginalize and silence him • Backfired for them when McKinley was assassinated and TR became President • Vowed to be a pro-active, Progressive President: to restore pride, power, and prestige to the position • He would use it as a "bully pulpit" from which to preach the ideas he advocated. • He was the “first modern president.” (pro-active)