Unit 4 – Progressives and Reformers
I. Early Reformers
Ø Gilded Age – period between 1870 – 1890 known for greed and political
corruption.
Ø What does ‘Gilded’ mean?
A. Gilded Age Politics
Ø During the Gilded Age, political power was split between the two major political parties.
ü Where did the Republicans draw support?
ü Where did the Democrats draw support?
Ø In national elections, margins of victory were often paper-thin and neither party could win control of Congress for more than a term or two.
ü Republicans did control White House for 25 years, but Congress generally had more power during the Gilded Age.
Ø What were politics like for Americans during the Gilded Age?
Ø Two concerns shaped the politics of the Gilded Age:
1. Many Americans worried over the growing power of ‘special interests’ – such as bankers who unfairly influencing politics for their interests.
2. A second worry was political corruption – What were examples of political corruption in the Gilded Age?
B. Taming the Spoils System
Ø Patronage = giving jobs to loyal supporters
ü Used by politicians to cement ties with supporters and increase their control of the government.
ü How did patronage often led to corruption?
1. Early Reform Efforts
q President Rutherford B. Hayes was elected in 1877 and took steps towards ending the spoils system – only appointed qualified people.
q In 1881, James Garfield becomes president and he also believed that people should be given jobs based on their abilities.
ü What happened to Garfield?
2. Exams for federal jobs
q Chester Arthur became president after Garfield’s death and worked with Congress to reform the spoils system.
q In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act and it created a Civil Service Commission to conduct exams for federal jobs.
ü What is the ‘civil service’?
C. Regulating Big Business
Ø Many Americans were convinced that big business controlled the government and the public outcry against monopolies grew
1. Interstate Commerce Act - 1887
q Signed by President Grover Cleveland, this law forbade railroad practices such pools and rebates.
q Created the Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee railroads.
q Was this law effective?
2. Sherman Antitrust Act - 1890
q Signed by President Benjamin Harrison, this law prohibited trusts or other businesses from limiting competition.
q However, the trusts used the courts to block enforcement.
q This act, however, was used to stop what?
II. The Progressives and Their Goals
A. Reform City Government
Ø Growing cities needed many improvements (roads, sewers) and in many cities politicians traded these jobs for money (bribes and corruption).
1. Boss Rule
q Powerful politicians known as bosses came to rule many cities.
q The bosses controlled all work done in the city and demanded payoffs from businesses
q Why were the bosses popular with the poor and immigrants?
2. Boss Tweed
q In New York City, Boss William Tweed carried corruption to new heights
q Cheated New Yorkers out of more than $100 million.
q How did cartoonist Thomas Nast help expose Boss Tweed?
3. Good government leagues
q The goal of these leagues was to replace corrupt officials with honest leaders.
B. Muckrakers Rouse Public Opinion
Ø To bring about change, reformers first had to ignite public anger and the press was a key to making this happen.
Ø How did Jacob Riis help?
Ø Muckrakers = journalists who raked the “dirt or muck”, and exposed it to the
public view.
q Famous muckrakers include:
ü Ida Tarbell =
ü Upton Sinclair =
C. The Progressives
Ø By 1900, reformers were calling themselves Progressives = forward-thinking people who wanted to improve American life.
Ø Progressive Era = period from 1898 to 1917.
Ø Progressives were never a single group with a single aim.
1. Progressive Beliefs
q Progressives drew inspiration from two sources:
i. Religion
ü Protestant ministers had begun preaching the Social Gospel in the late 1800s – stressed that Christians improve society.
ü What should guide government actions?
ii. Education
ü Progressives stressed the importance of education.
ü Who was John Dewey?
q Women played a leading role in the Progressive Era
ü A new view of women emerged in the mid-1800s, which was the women were morally superior to men.
ü In a world of corruption, women had the moral force to bring about change.
ü To increase their social influence, what did women want?
2. The Wisconsin Idea
q Progressive governor Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
q His statewide program was called the Wisconsin idea – what was one idea in the plan?
3. The will of the people
q Progressives believed that the people would make the right choice if given the chance = reforms to give voters more power were enacted:
Primaries
InitiativeReferendum
Recall
D. Other Reforms
Ø Other Progressive reforms required federal action:
1. 16th Amendment – Federal Income Tax - 1913
q What is a graduated income tax?
2. 17th Amendment – Direct Election of Senators - 1913
q Senators elected by people, not state legislatures anymore.
III. Presidents Support Reforms
A. Teddy Roosevelt
Ø Becomes president when William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.
1. Early Career
q Born into a wealthy family and instead of living a life of ease and privilege, he entered politics to end corruption and protect public interest
q IDENTIFY steps in Roosevelt’s rise in government
2. A Progressive Governor
q TR worked for Progressive reforms in New York but became Vice-president in 1900 – Why were the political bosses happy?
B. TR and Big Business
Ø Roosevelt thought that there were good trusts (efficient and fair) and bad trusts (cheated the public and unfair to workers).
1. Taking on the trusts
q First big Trust that TR went after was the Northern Securities; then Standard Oil and American Tobacco Company.
q Why did business leaders call TR ‘trustbuster’?
2. Support for labor
q TR forced mine owners to sit down with the miner’s union and work aout a deal before winter came.
q Why was this so significant?
C. The Square Deal
Ø The theme of this campaign for the Presidency in 1904 was a SQUARE DEAL for all Americans – everyone (workers and consumers) had equal opportunity.
1. Protecting consumers
q After reading The Jungle, TR got Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 that forced packers to open their door to meat inspectors.
q What did the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) require?
2. Protecting resources
q TR grew alarmed about the destruction of the American wilderness by industries that fueled the nation’s industrial growth.
q DEFINE conservation
q TR created the national park system (an area set aside and run by the federal government for people to visit)
D. Taft and the Reformers
Ø With TR’s backing, William Howard Taft became president in 1908.
Ø Taft supported many Progressive causes - List some of his accomplishments:
Ø Taft lost Progressive support when he signed a bill that raised most tariffs; something that most progressives believed would hurt consumers.
E. Election of 1912
Ø When TR got back from his African safari, he was unhappy with Taft and decided to run against Taft for the Republican nomination.
1. The Bull Moose Party
q Although TR won almost every state primary he entered, he did not win the Republican Party nomination. Why did this happen?
q Progressive Republicans stormed out of the convention and set up a new Progressive Party with TR as its leader.
q Why was it also known as the Bull Moose Party?
2. A Democratic Victory
q Democrats picked Woodrow Wilson as their candidate.
q Wilson was a Progressive and a son of a Presbyterian minister.
q Why was he able to win the election of 1912?
F. President Wilson
Ø Program was called “New Freedom”
1. Federal Reserve Act – 1913
q What did this act do?
2. Federal Trade Commission – 1914
q Investigated companies that used practices to destroy competitors.
IV. Progress for Women
Ø During the Progressive Era, women continued their long battle to win the right to vote but they also worked for many other reforms.
A. Working for the Vote
Ø After the Civil War, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led a renewed effort to win the vote.
Ø They formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869.
1. Women vote in the West
q Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho were the first states were women gained the right to vote.
q What did being from the West have to do with this?
2. Suffragists
q A new generation of leaders took up the cause – Carrie Champman Catt spoke powerfully in favor of suffrage.
q DEFINE suffragists
q More states in the West and Midwest gave women the right to vote, but only in state elections.
B. Amending the Constitution
Ø Some suffragists (Alice Paul) took strong measures to achieve their goal.
1. Protest at the White House
q Paul and other suffragists met with President Wilson after he took office; Wilson said he supported women’s suffrage but not the amendment.
q How did Paul and the other suffragists respond?
2. Victory at Last
q Finally in 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.
q The necessary states ratified by August 1920 making it official.
C. Women win New Opportunities
Ø For years, women struggled to open doors to jobs and education.
1. Higher Education
q Despite obstacles, a few women managed to get the higher education needed to enter the professions.
q What college granted the first PH.D to a woman?
2. Commitment to Reform
q Women in the Progressive Ear were committed to reform and some entered the new profession of social work.
q What did Florence Kelley work for?
q Faced with racial barriers, African American women formed their own clubs and crusaded against lynching and racial separation.
D. The Temperance Crusade
Ø The temperance movement against the use of alcoholic beverages began in the early 1800s and was picking up strength by the end of the century
Ø What were some of the arguments for the ban?
1. Willard and Nation
q In 1874, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed and Frances Willard became a leader.
ü Worked to educate people on the evils of liquor and urged states to pass laws banning the sale of liquor.
q Who was Carry Nation and what was she known for?
2. The 18th Amendment
q Temperance crusaders wanted to amend the Constitution to prohibit the sale of liquor.
q How did the Temperance movement use US entry into World War I?
q Congress passed the 18th Amendment in 1917 and by 1919 ¾ of the states has ratified the amendment.
q It was now illegal to sell alcoholic drinks anywhere in the United States.
V. Fighting for Equality
A. African Americans
Ø After the end of Reconstruction, African Americans in the South lost their hard-won political rights.
Ø Jim Crow (segregation) became a fact of life in the South.
Ø What was life like for northern blacks?
Ø A major problem in the South after the depression of 1893 was lynching; more than 1000 blacks were murdered by lynch mobs in the 1890s.
1. Washington’s solution
q Booker T. Washington (founder of Tuskegee Institute) offered one answer to the question of how to fight discrimination.
q What was Washington’s idea?
2. Du Bois disagrees
q W.E.B Du Bois and other African Americans disagreed with Washington.
q Du Bois urged blacks to fight discrimination actively.
q What organization did he co-found?
3. Obstacles and successes
q Still, most Progressives thought little about the problems of African Americans and they got little help from Presidents of the era.
q Some African Americans succeeded despite huge obstacles:
ü George Washington Carver
ü Sarah Walker
B. Mexican Americans
Ø In 1910, revolution and famine swept Mexico and 1000s crossed the border into the American Southwest.
1. Living in the Southwest
q What types of jobs did Mexicans do?
q Barrios were ethnic neighborhoods that Mexicans lived in.
2. Need for mutual aid
q Some Americans in the Southwest responded with violence to flood of immigrants from Mexico.
q How did the Mexicans respond?
C. Native Americans
Ø The Dawes Act had granted Native Americans plots on reservation lands.
ü Indians were supposed to become farmers and enter mainstream of American life – what happened?
Ø In the early 1900s, the Society of American Indians was set up
ü It included artists, lawyers, and doctors from many Native American groups
ü What did the Society work for?
D. Asian Americans
Ø Chinese immigration was halted in 1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act
1. Japanese immigration increases
q More than 100,000 Japanese entered the United States in the early 1900s
q Many were hard working farmers; others worked in canneries, lumber mills and mines.
2. San Francisco school crisis
q Many Americans mistrusted the Asian newcomers because they competed for jobs and had an unfamiliar culture.
q What was the school problem in San Fransico?
q President Roosevelt reached a Gentleman’s Agreement (1907) with Japan that had (2) parts:
- Japan would =
- America would =