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The Progressives

The Progressives. Good Politics or Meddlesome Control?. Problems associated with industrialization, immigration and urbanization Belief that these problems can be addressed and solved Belief that government is the agency to address these ills

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The Progressives

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  1. The Progressives Good Politics or Meddlesome Control?

  2. Problems associated with industrialization, immigration and urbanization • Belief that these problems can be addressed and solved • Belief that government is the agency to address these ills • Increased use of scientific theory, formal education, expertise, and use of data Origins of the Progressives

  3. Middle Class • Civic Involvement, $, and Time • Sympathy for the lower classes but not among them • Educated • Across geopolitical boundaries • Across political parties • Grassroots oriented • Exposure of issues needing reform Who were progressives?

  4. Silly Socialism = against • Purple political machines = against • Turkeys Trusts = against • Chase Consumers protections • Very voting reforms • White working conditions (+child labor and living • Chickens Conservation • While women’s rights • Fighting Federal Reserve System • Pink Prohibition • Iguanas Income tax Silly purple turkeys chase very white chickens while fighting pink iguanas

  5. Magazines • McClure’s • Collier’s • Newspapers • Books (Newspaper series collected into Books) Muckrakers

  6. Ida Tarbell (Standard Oil) • Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of Cities • Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives • Thorstein Veblen, (Conspicuous Consumption • Upton Sinclair (The Jungle) • "I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident hit its stomach." • *emotive, empathetic, short on policy* Muckrakers

  7. Hazen Pingree, Mayor of Detroit • Hiram Johnson, Governor of California • Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey • Robert LaFollette, Governor of Wisconsin • Laboratory of Democracy • The Wisconsin Idea Prominent Local Progressives

  8. City Managers • Use of university “think tanks”/ “braintrusts” • Direct Election of Senators • Initiative • Referendum (Binding vs. Non-Binding) • Recall • Australian Ballot/ Secret Ballot • Women’s Suffrage Political Progressive Reforms

  9. 17th Amendment – election of senators 1913 • Direct Primary – La Follette (Wis) – give voters more voice in government and limit the political bosses power. By 1916 only 4 states did not have a direct primary Political Reforms start at state level move to federal

  10. Local codes, state regulations • Temperance (eventually national WCTU) • Poverty, Disease • Prostitution Social Progressive Reforms

  11. Increased regulation of big business • Stronger Anti-Trust Legislation • Maximum Hours and Minimum Wage • Worker’s Compensation (Job Injury) • Worker Safety • SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY • Food, drugs, city streets, playgrounds, • Emergence of more modern notion of childhood Economic Progressive Reforms

  12. Cross Political Parties • TR (Republican) • Taft (Republican) • Wilson (Democrat) Progressivism Goes National

  13. TR and the Square Deal Consumers • Meat Inspection Act • Pure Food and Drug Act • Aldrich-Vreeland Act Labor • Anthracite Coal Miner Strike Big Business • Elkins and Heburn Acts • Northern Securities • Good Trust/Bad Trust Environment • National Park Land • MURM • Hetch Hetchy Valley

  14. Taft Presidency Consumers – Society • Payne – Aldrich Tariff Act • Children’s Bureau • 16th Amendment – (income tax) • 17th Amendment – (senate elections) Labor • Created 35,000 postmasters and 20,00 skilled workers in the Navy under civil service protection • Department of Commerce and Labor was divided into 2 departments • 8-Hour workday for government employees Big Business • Mann – Elkins Act • 99 trust busts – prosecutions – including the sugar trust Environment • Put more land into conservation than TR

  15. Wilson – “New Freedom” Consumers Federal Reserve Bank Federal Trade Commission Labor Federal Farm Loan Board Clayton Anti-Trust Act Adamson Act – 8-Hour workday for RR workers Big Business Underwood Simmons Act (lowering tariffs to stop monopolies) Civil Liberties War Industries Board Committee on Public Information Espionage & Sedition Acts

  16. Weaknesses of Reform • Material progress of Americans weakened zeal of reformers • Myriad of Progressive goals were often confusing and contradictory • Opposition to Progressivism apparent as initiatives failed and courts struck down legislation • Government remained mainly under the influence of business and industry • WWI – use of government to create a just society lessens Accomplishments • Trust-busting forced industrialists to notice public opinion • Legislation gave federal and state government the tools to protect consumers • Income tax helped build government revenues and redistribute wealth • Challenged traditional institutions and approaches to domestic problems Evaluation of Progressives

  17. Those not helped Little was done to help migrant farmers or renter farmers or nonunion workers Immigration restriction or literacy tests Imperialism policies to “civilize” underdeveloped nations African Americans and Jim Crow segregation situations Support of women’s suffrage

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