P6 APUSH Wiley Progressive Era Analysis, D___ Name

P6 | APUSH | Wiley | Progressive Era Analysis, D___ Name:

The “Progressive Era” (roughly 1900-1920) was an era of social activism and political, economic, and social reform at all levels of government, aimed at curing many of the ills of American society that had developed during the Industrial, Gilded Age (roughly 1870s-1900). This document will provide an overview of some of the important sources and people of the Era. [Reminder: This is P7 according to the College Board.]

1. Source: The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (1906)
   

Background: Upton Sinclair’s family had once belonged to the southern aristocracy but, at Sinclair’s birth, the family hovered near poverty. When he was fifteen, he began writing to support himself and help pay his college expenses. During his college years, Sinclair encountered socialist philosophy, the influence of which is evident in his writing throughout his life, and became an avid supporter of the Socialist party.

In 1904, the editors of the popular socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason sent Sinclair to Chicago to examine the lives of stockyard workers. He spent seven weeks in the city’s meatpacking plants, learning every detail about the work itself, the home lives of workers, and the structure of the business. The Jungle(1906)—instantly successful—was born from this research. Sinclair then took his place in the ranks of the “muckrakers,” a term that Theodore Roosevelt coined to refer to a group of journalists who devoted themselves to exposing the ills of industrialization. The Jungle raised public outcry against the unhealthy standards in the meatpacking industry and provoked the passage of The Meat Inspection Act and The Pure Food and Drug Act, both passed in 1906 under the Roosevelt administration. But the novel’s success did not satisfy his political motivations for writing it. Sinclair intended the book to raise public consciousness about the plight of the working poor and elicit support for the Socialist movement, but by exposing the physically revolting filth and gore of the stockyards, the novel caused outrage about the unsanitary quality of the meat that was sold in stores, rather than the oppression of the poor. The public pressed less for the socialist reforms that Sinclair backed than the public reform to food laws. The image of all kinds of waste being dumped in with the consumer’s product is surely revolting; that it is dumped in without any regard for the consumer by “greedy capitalists”wasmore infuriating. Sinclair himself stated: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”

Excerpt: The meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water—and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast.

1. Explain what Sinclair meant when he said: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
   
2. What legislation was passed as a result ofThe Jungle? Do you think business owners who endorsed social Darwinist arguments would have supported this legislation? Why or why not?

1. Source: Jacob Riis photography (c. 1900)
   

Background: How the Other Half Lives (1890) was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. Riis, a Danish immigrant, had been working as a police reporter for The New York Tribune, a job that gave him intimate familiarity with the most notorious slums in the city.Riis’s book served as a basis for future muckraking journalism by exposing the slums to New York City's upper and middle class who, according to Riis, were out of touch. Riis documented the filth, disease, exploitation, and overcrowding that characterized the experience of more than one million immigrants and other poor peoples in an attempt to “sear the Gilded Age conscience.” He helped push tenement reform to the front of New York's political agenda. Riis was among the first in the United States to conceive of photographic images as instruments for social change. His sympathetic portrayal of his subjects emphasized their humanity and bravery amid deplorable conditions, and encouraged a more sensitive attitude towards the poor in the U.S. Riis’s and other muckraker’s work, along with the Social Gospel movement, helps to explain the surge in settlement houses during the Progressive Era, which brought medical care and education to many urban poor.

President Roosevelt said of Riis, “The countless evils which lurk in the dark corners of our civic institutions, which stalk abroad in the slums, and have their permanent abode in the crowded tenement houses, have met Mr. Riis, their most formidable opponent.”

1. What influence did Jacob Riis have on the Progressive Era?

1. Why do you suspect his photos, like the ones pictured here, had such an effect on the upper and middle classes?

1. Source: The Antiquities Act (1906)

Background: Conservation increasingly became one of Roosevelt's main concerns. After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt helped pass the Antiquities Act (1906), which he used to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest Service (USFS) and establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments. During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt protected approximately 230 million acres of public land. Today, the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt is found across the country. There are six national park sites dedicated, in part or whole, to the conservationist president. Here are some noteworthy quotes from Roosevelt on the environment: 1) "We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, iron, oil, and gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers and obstructing navigation." 2) "It is vandalism to destroy or permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, forest, or species of mammal or bird. Here in the U.S. we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy forests, and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals -- not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at last it looks as if our people were awakening." 3) After camping in Yosemite: "It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man."

1. What constitutional basis is there for the Antiquities Act? Revisit Period 3 materials on the Constitution.

1. Should presidents today continue in Roosevelt’s footsteps with regards to the environment/conservation movement?

1. Source: Progressive Party Platform, 1912

Background:The presidential election of 1912 was a four-way race that brought out third party candidates and a former president. Theodore Roosevelt, former president, actually won most of the Republican primaries, even in President William Howard Taft's home state of Ohio. Despite Roosevelt's popular support from the people, he was not able to overcome the power of Taft's supporters within the Republican Party establishment, who were far more conservative. Those Republicans upset with Taft’s nomination left the Republican party and formed the Progressive party, naming Theodore Roosevelt as their candidate. [This Progressive party would die in 1916, but has emerged temporarily a few other times in U.S. history.]

During a campaign speech in Wisconsin, TR was shot at close range, but the gunman failed to kill the former president because the force of the bullet was reduced by an eyeglasses case and a speech manuscript in the breast pocket of Roosevelt's overcoat. With the bullet still in his body, he told the crowd, 'You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose.' Only after his speech was over did he go to the hospital. This is how the Progressive party has become known as the 'Bull Moose Party.'

Taft (Republican) / Wilson (Democrat) / Debs (Socialist) / TR (Progressive)
solid antitrust record (90 lawsuits)
supported high import tariffs, limitations on child and female labor, and workmen's compensation laws
was against initiative, referendum and recall—all methods to increase democracy
less reluctant than TR to act on conservation reform / wanted to make business and government, smaller; implement antitrust legislation
viewed big business as unfair and inefficient; reduced opportunity for many ordinary Americans
critical of organized labor, socialism, and radical farmers / labor organizer who advocated for public ownership of the railroads and utilities, no tariffs, a shortened work day, a minimum wage, an income tax, and a system of social insurance against unemployment and industrial accidents and death
advocated for the election of the president and vice president by direct vote of the people / “New Nationalism” principles, which included a broad range of social and political reforms, including a federal child labor law, federal workmen's compensation, regulation of labor relations, and a minimum wage for women
advocated for more democracy: initiative, referendum, recall, and direct election of senators
differentiated between good and bad trusts; claimed that big business should be strictly regulated in the public interest
protection of workers, consumers and in environment were top priorities
only party to advocate women's suffrageat the national level (!!!)

1. Which party platform do you think was the best, given the context of 1912 America?

Wilson and the Democrats won with 435 electoral votes, Roosevelt and the Progressive 'Bull Moose' Party came in second with 88 electoral votes, while Taft and the Republican Party came in third with 8 electoral votes. Debs did not score any electoral votes, but he did manage to earn 6% of the popular vote, the highest proportion ever for the Socialist party. It was clear that the split in the Republican Party had contributed to the Democrats' victory. And yet the popularity of TR drove the Democrats more to the left, so it was not necessarily a “loss” for the Progressives.

The 1912 election was significant for several reasons. It was the high point of the Progressive movement in terms of progressive ideals and rhetoric at the national level. In this election, a third party candidate, Roosevelt of the Progressive Party, beat one of the two major party candidates, Taft, of the Republican Party. Wilson's victory brought the Democrats back in power of the national government for the first time since before the Civil War. The Democrats gained both houses of Congress, as well as the presidency, bringing southern leadership and influence to the national government.

Despite its loss, the strong showing of the Progressive Party signaled the emergence of a significant force in U.S. political history. It also reflected a rising progressive spirit in the United States. Although TR lost the election, much of his, and the progressive platform, was enacted during Wilson's presidency.

Excerpt from the Progressive party platform:The conscience of the people, in a time of grave national problems, has called into being a new party, born of the nation’s sense of justice. We of the Progressive party here dedicate ourselves to the fulfillment of the duty laid upon us by our fathers to maintain the government of the people, by the people and for the people whose foundations they laid.We hold with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln that the people are the masters of their Constitution, to fulfill its purposes and to safeguard it from those who, by perversion of its intent, would convert it into an instrument of injustice. In accordance with the needs of each generation the people must use their sovereign powers to establish and maintain equal opportunity and industrial justice, to secure which this Government was founded and without which no republic can endure.This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Its resources, its business, its institutions and its laws should be utilized, maintained or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest.It is time to set the public welfare in the first place.

THE OLD PARTIES

• From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
• To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.
• Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.

EQUAL SUFFRAGE

• The Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a true democracy which denies political rights on account of sex, pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike.

SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE

• The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for:
• Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurous effects incident to modern industry;The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations…;The prohibition of child labor;One day’s rest in seven for all wage workers;Publicity as to wages, hours and conditions of labor; Full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases, and the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products;Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the industry, and thus to the community;The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use;We favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their interests and of promoting their progress.

BUSINESS

• The corporation is an essential part of modern business. The concentration of modern business, in some degree, is both inevitable and necessary for national and international business efficiency. But the existing concentration of vast wealth under a corporate system, unguarded and uncontrolled by the Nation, has placed in the hands of a few men enormous, secret, irresponsible power over the daily life of the citizen — a power insufferable in a free Government and certain of abuse.
• This power has been abused, in monopoly of National resources, in unfair competition and unfair privileges, and finally in sinister influences on the public agencies of State and Nation. We do not fear commercial power, but we insist that it shall be exercised openly, under publicity, supervision and regulation of the most efficient sort, which will preserve its good while eradicating and preventing its ill.

CONSERVATION

• The natural resources of the Nation must be promptly developed and generously used to supply the people’s needs, but we cannot safely allow them to be wasted, exploited, monopolized or controlled against the general good. We heartily favor the policy of conservation, and we pledge our party to protect the National forests without hindering their legitimate use for the benefit of all the people.

PEACE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE

• The Progressive party deplores the survival in our civilization of the barbaric system of warfare among nations with its enormous waste of resources even in time of peace, and the consequent impoverishment of the life of the toiling masses. We pledge the party to use its best endeavors to substitute judicial and other peaceful means of settling international differences.
• We favor an international agreement for the limitation of naval forces.

THE IMMIGRANT

• We denounce the fatal policy of indifference and neglect which has left our enormous immigrant population to become the prey of chance and cupidity [greed].
• We favor Governmental action to encourage the distribution of immigrants away from the congested cities, to rigidly supervise all private agencies dealing with them and to promote their assimilation, education and advancement.

1. Revisit the background information on the 1912 election (listed before the Progressive party Platform). What were some of the significant elements of this election and its aftermath?
   
2. What are your thoughts/questions on specific points from the Progressive party platform?
   

1. Source: The Politics of Child Labor, by Our Documents (associated with The National Archives)

The 1900 census revealed that approximately 2 million children were working in mills, mines, fields, factories, stores, and on city streets across the United States. The census report helped spark a national movement to end child labor in the United States. In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee hired Lewis Hine as its staff photographer and sent him across the country to photograph and report on child labor (see picture, page 5). Social reformers began to condemn child labor because of its detrimental effect on the health and welfare of children.