PROGRESSIVISM (1890s-1920s)
▪ A movement of mostly middle class men and
women who were convinced society could no
longer afford to be laissez-faire.
▪ Born out of the idea that fear of the power of Big
Business, business cycle swings, disparities
between rich/poor, violent labor strikes,
dominence of corrupt political machines
▪ Waged war against monopoly, corruption & social
injustice.
▪ Wanted to regain power that had slipped from the
hands of the people to the “monied interests”
▪ Wanted to strengthen the state & saw the
government as a potential protector of social
welfare 2
EXPANDING
▪ DEMOCRACY
INITIATIVE - citizens can directly propose legislation
▪ REFERENDUM - voting directly on a piece of
legislation (like propositions)
▪ RECALL - voters can petition to have a corrupt
politician removed from office
▪ SECRET BALLOT - avoid coercion
▪ DIRECT PRIMARY - voters select candidates vs. party
bosses
3
PROGRESSIVE
AMENDMENTS
▪ 16TH AMENDMENT (1913) - income tax
▪ 17TH AMENDMENT (1913) - direct election of senators
▪ 18TH AMENDMENT (1919) - prohibition - didn’t rely on alcohol tax due to
income tax
▪ 19TH AMENDMENT (1920)- women’s suffrage
GOALS OF POPULISTS ACHIEVED
4
MUCKRAKING
Investigative journalists trying to bring public
attention to societal problems that needed to
be fixed.
▪ Jacob Riis - “How the Other Half Lives”
▪ Lincoln Steffens -“The Shame of the Cities,”
▪ Ida Tarbell exposed corrupt tactics of
Standard Oil
▪ Upton Sinclair - “The Jungle”
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwScHa
HxIJM
5
6
WOMEN IN THE PROGRESSIVE
ERA
▪ Women typically framed activities as
an extension of the “domestic
sphere”-- not a challenge.
▪ Settlement Houses & literary clubs
▪ Florence Kelley led National
Consumers League & became a
factory inspector
▪ WCTU joined with Anti-Saloon League
▪ Increased activism in the Suffrage
movement (more on this later)
7
REFORMS FOR
▪ MULLER V. OREGON (1908) - accepted the
WORKERS
constitutionality of laws protecting women
workers by presenting evidence of the
harmful effects of factory labor on women's
weaker bodies
▪ TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE
(1911) - doors were locked and windows
were too high for them to get to the ground.
▫ Dramatized the poor working conditions
and let to federal regulations to protect
workers. 8
TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S DOMESTIC
POLICIES
▪ “Square Deal” for capital, labor & the public
at large
▪ 3 Cs: control corporations, consumer
protection & conservation
▪ Sided with strikers in 1902 (coal)
▪ 1903 - est. Dept of Labor & Commerce
▪ Differentiated between “good” & “bad”
trusts → attacked JP Morgan’s Northern
Securities Co.
▪ Conservationism - worked with John Muir
Gifford Pinchot to set aside national forests
& made plans to irrigate the arid west
9
TAFT’S FOREIGN & DOMESTICUS foreign investment
POLICIES
▪ DOLLAR DIPLOMACY - use American by 1914
investment abroad to boost American political
influence
▫ Pumped money into Honduras, Cuba,
Haiti, Dominican Republic & Nicaragua to
“prevent economic & political instability”
▪ The true “TRUST BUSTER” - dissolved
Standard Oil (1911) & went after US Steel →
rift with TR
▫ 1912 Republican convention: schism
between Taft’s “old Guard” &
Progressives
11
WILSONIAN
PROGRESSIVIS
M: AT HOME
& ABROAD
ELECTION OF 1912
▪ Taft was the incumbent Republican
president (more conservative/”Old
Guard”) challenged by Roosevelt who
forms his own party
▫ Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party
advocates for “New Nationalism”
▪ Wilson, supported by William
Jennings Bryan, secures the
Democratic nomination
▫ New Freedom: stronger anti-
trust laws, banking reform, and
tariff reduction.
▪ Eugene Debs - Socialist Party (most
radical) gets 900,000 popular votes 13
PLATFORMS IN THE ELECTION OF 1912
ROOSEVELT TAFT WILSON
NEW Progressive NEW FREEDOM -
NATIONALISM - conservatism…? smaller gov &
strong president & Doesn’t really favored small
more active gov campaign enterprise,
role in economic & entrepreneurship,
social affairs, DEBS and the free
continued unregulated but
breaking up bad trade unionist, one unmonopolized
trusts, women’s of the founding markets. Opposed
suffrage, minimum members of the social welfare
wage laws, and Industrial Workers programs; break
socialistic of the World down “triple wall
insurance (Wobblies), of privilege”
denounced the (banks, tariffs &
Capitalist system trusts) 15
16
DOMESTIC POLICY OF THE PROGRESSIVE
PRESIDENTS
ROOSEVELT TAFT WILSON
SQUARE DEAL → Busted more → Federal Reserve
→ conservation of trusts than Act (1913) -
natural resources (230 Roosevelt, incl. president appt.
million acres of land for Standard Oil, the Federal Reserve
national parks with American Tobacco Board with power to
John Muir & Gifford Company, & the issue paper money
Pinchot) American Sugar
Refining Company → Underwood Tariff
→ corporate regulation reduces tariffs
(Elkins & Hepburn Act
& strengthening of ICC; → minimal tariff → 16th Amendment
used Sherman Anti- reforms: Payne- creates graduated
Trust Act as it was Aldrich Bill income taxes
intended)
→ The Clayton Anti-
→ consumer protection Trust Act - officially 17
FOREIGN POLICY OF THE PROGRESSIVE
PRESIDENTS
ROOSEVELT TAFT WILSON
→ "speak softly, DOLLAR MORAL
but carry a big DIPLOMACY - DIPLOMACY -
stick" make countries U.S. would
→ Great white fleet dependant on the encourage
U.S. by heavily countries to adopt
→ Roosevelt investing in their democratic ideals
Corollary economies
→ Open Door Policy → sent marines to
to increase trade Haiti, undermining
with China “anti- imperialist”
→ Panama Canal ideals
→ Kept control of
Philippines → Opposed Huerta in
Mexico by sending
aid to rivals 18
WILSON’S IDEALISM
▪ “New Freedom” favored small
enterprise, entrepreneurship &
unregulated, un-monopolized free
markets
▫ This itself was idealistic as lack of
regulation often led to development of
monopolies.
▪ He was less pragmatic and unwilling to
compromise than Roosevelt
▪ Tackling the Tariff: Underwood Tariff
passed despite lobbyists’ protests →
reduced tariffs
▪ Took on another part of the “triple wall of
privilege”: BANKS → urged sweeping
reforms of the banking system 19
WILSON & THE TRUSTS
▪ TRUSTS = 3rd part of the “wall of
privilege”
▪ Federal Trade Commission Act -
presidentially appointed commission
could actively investigate businesses
engaging in interstate commerce
▪ Clayton Anti-Trust Act - widened the
scope of business practices considered
objectionable (ex. Interlocking
directorates in which individuals served
as directors of allegedly competing firms)
▫ Benefitted labor by exempting labor
and agricultural orgs from anti-trust
prosecution & explicitly legalized
strikes
▪ Clearly the candidate of Progressivism 20
WILSON’S FOREIGN POLICY
▪ MORAL DIPLOMACY
▪ Suspicious of Wall Street, he opposed Taft’s “dollar
diplomacy” → Announced America would no longer
offer special support to investors in Latin America or
Asia
▪ Anti-Imperialist ideas: ended US exemption on Panama
Canal tolls and promised Philippines independence
▪ Haiti - 1915 dispatched Marines to protect American
lives and property in the face of turmoil → remained for
19 years as a US protectorate
▪ Mexico - Revolution in Mexico put Huerta in power → US
refused to intervene but also refused to recognize
Huerta’s regime
- Allowed US arms to flow to his rivals: Carranza &
Villa
- Eventually did send navy to port of Veracruz & sent
Gen. John J. Pershing to break up the bandit bands 21
THE GREAT WAR BEGINS
▪ Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
ignites the tinder box of Europe
▫ Alliances make the war global
▪ In retaliation for the British blockade,
Germany began to use u-boats & policy
of unrestricted submarine warfare
to sink Allied ships including the
Lusitania (1915)
▫ Sussex Pledge - agreeing not to
sink passenger ships and merchant
vessels without warning
▫ US does NOT join the war yet
▫ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
_7z1zThGXxg 22
A PRECARIOUS
▪ NEUTRALITY
Most
Americans wanted to stay o
ut of the war
▪ Still engaged in profitable trade
with Allies
▪ Opposed Germany on principle
& the Kaiser was a natural
villain
▫ Invasion of Belgium &
unrestricted submarine
warfare added to negative
image Side Note: Start of WWI will diverted public’s
▪ Wilson’s 1916 campaign was attention away from domestic social issues
built on the slogan, “He Kept and brought the Progressive Era to an end.
LET’S REFLECT:
To what extent were the
Progressives successful in
achieving their reform goals?
WWI Escape Room
• Complete the escape room posted in Schoology
that introduces us to the Great War that we will
continue to explore in our next class.
