Conservation in The Progressive Era

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Conservation in The Progressive Era

• Pathways to Sustainability and Justice
• March 2006

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Big Changes After the Civil War

• US Emerged as Industrial Giant steel, petroleum
  refining, electrical power, etc.
• Expansion Across the Western Plains to Join CA
  and OR with the East.
• Immigration from around the world Ireland,
  Scandinavia, Southern and Eastern Europe, China,
  etc.

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Led to Demographic Changes

• Very Wealthy Class of Newly Rich Industrialists
  Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc.
• Growing Blue Collar Working Class.
• More Diverse Society and Occasional Hard Times
  Lead to Conflicts.

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Captains of Industry (Robber Barons?)

• John Jacob Astor (real estate, fur) -- New York
  City, NY
• Andrew Carnegie (steel) -- Pittsburgh, PA and New
  York City, NY
• Jay Cooke (finance)-- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• James Buchanan Duke (tobacco) -- Durham, NC
• Henry Flagler (railroads)-- New York City and
  Miami, FL
• Henry Ford (automobile)-- Dearborn and Detroit,
  MI
• Henry Clay Frick (steel)-- Pittsburgh, PA and New
  York City, NY
• Jay Gould (finance, railroads)-- New York City,
  NY
• Edward Henry Harriman (railroads)-- state of New
  York
• Collis P. Huntington (railroads)-- California,
  Virginia, and New York
• James J. Hill (railroads)-- St. Paul, MN
• J. P. Morgan (banking)-- New York City
• John D. Rockefeller (oil, the Standard Oil
  company)-- New York City
• Leland Stanford (railroads) Sacramento and San
  Francisco, CA
• Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads, shipping)-- New
  York City

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Chinese Immigrants in Colorado, _at_1890 (Library
of Congress Archives)
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Deep Creek Massacre

• May 27, 1887
• Thirty Chinese miners camped along Deep Creek off
  the Snake River (Eastern OR).
• Six local men arrested. Three tried and
  acquitted. Three escaped and never tried.
• US Government paid 276,619 as full indemnity
  to the Chinese Government.

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Swedish Immigrants in North Dakota, Late 1880s
(Library of Congress)
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Led to Changes in the Land

• Railroads Are The Newest Land Barons.

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Current Bison Range
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Forest Reserve Act of 1891

• Congress concerned about poor forestry practices.
• Gave the President the power to protect
  watersheds from erosion and flooding by
  prohibiting cutting.
• Preserved federal lands and timber until plans
  were drawn up to protect and/or manage them.

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Forestry Commission of 1896

• Congress funded a National Academy of Sciences
  study.
• Charles Sprague Sargent (Director or Arnold
  Arboretum in Boston) chosen to lead the trip out
  West in May 1896.

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C.S. Sargent

• Born 1841 into wealthy Boston family.
• Graduated Harvard 1862, near bottom of class.
• Fought in Civil War. Traveled Europe. Came home
  to manage the family estate.
• 1872 hired to build and manage nations first
  arboretum the Arnold Arboretum.
• Became leading arborist and botanist.

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Arnold Arboretum, Boston MA
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Gifford Pinchot

• Born in Pennsylvania to prominent family.
• Graduate Yale in 1889 and studied forestry in
  France (L'Ecole Nationale Forestiere).
• Went to work for George Vanderbilt at Biltmore
  North Carolina.
• Known as scientific forester in 1896.

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Captains of Industry (Robber Barons?)

• John Jacob Astor (real estate, fur) -- New York
  City, NY
• Andrew Carnegie (steel) -- Pittsburgh, PA and New
  York City, NY
• Jay Cooke (finance)-- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• James Buchanan Duke (tobacco) -- Durham, NC
• Henry Flagler (railroads)-- New York City and
  Miami, FL
• Henry Ford (automobile)-- Dearborn and Detroit,
  MI
• Henry Clay Frick (steel)-- Pittsburgh, PA and New
  York City, NY
• Jay Gould (finance, railroads)-- New York City,
  NY
• Edward Henry Harriman (railroads)-- state of New
  York
• Collis P. Huntington (railroads)-- California,
  Virginia, and New York
• James J. Hill (railroads)-- St. Paul, MN
• J. P. Morgan (banking)-- New York City
• John D. Rockefeller (oil, the Standard Oil
  company)-- New York City
• Leland Stanford (railroads) Sacramento and San
  Francisco, CA
• Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads, shipping)-- New
  York City

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Traits

• Hardworking, smart, and personable.
• Ruthless in working the system.
• Money manipulators.
• Totally corrupt in dealing with politicians.

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Problems

• Homestead Strike, 1892

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• Ludlow
• Massacre,
• 1914

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Philanthropy

• Carnegie 2811 libraries pipe organs in 7689
  churches colleges (including Carnegie Mellon in
  Pittsburg).
• EH Harriman funded expedition to AK for scholars
  and scientists (Muir In almost every way, he
  was a man to admire.)
• Rockefeller R Center R Foundation U of
  Chicago Colonial Williamsburg UN Grand Teton,
  Acadia, Great Smoky, Virgin Islands, and
  Shenandoah NP.

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Forest Commission Report, 1896

• Recommends establishing 13 National Forest
  Reserves under Dept of Interior.
• Aim it to protect forests and conservatively
  manage them i.e. protect them from public
  cutting and use.
• All 13 members of commission sign report authored
  by Sargent.
• Cleveland establishes reserves on Feb 17, 1897.

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Forest Management Act of 1897

• March 4, 1897 William McKinley inauguration.
• Congress Establishes US Forest Service and gives
  it a compromise multiple use mandate.
• Opened forests back up to public use.
• Essentially an anti-conservation measure.
• Pinchot appointed Chief of the Division of
  Forestry, Dept of Agriculture.

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Splendid Little War

• TR appointed Assistant Secretary of Navy in March
  1897.
• Battleship Maine destroyed in Havana, February
  17, 1898.
• US declares war, April 19.
• US marines land at Guantanamo, June 10.
• Charge of Rough Riders, July 1.

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Rough Riders Charge Up San Juan Hill Frederic
Remington, 1898
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Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders Charge Up
San Juan Hill VG Read, 1898
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Splendid Little War

• US acquires and annexes Hawaii, July 8.
• August 15, 1898 Mission Accomplished.
• Philippines insurrection lasts until 1902.
• 4,200 US Soldiers
• 20,000 Filipino Soldiers
• 200,000 Civilian Casualties

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Theodore Roosevelt

• Born 1858 in NYC to wealthy family.
• Interest in nature at young age.
• Graduated Harvard
• in 1880.
• Wife died in 1884.
• Moved to Medora, ND.

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• President of NY Board of Police Commissioners
  Assistant Sec. Nav.
• Spanish-American War vet.
• Governor of NY in 1898 VP in 1900.
• Speak softly and carry a big stick
• William McKinley assassinated Sept 8, 1901 by
  anarchist Leon Czolgosz.
• TR assumes the Presidency at age 43.
• First American to win Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.

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• Permanently blinded in right eye while boxing,
  1908.
• Pushed for construction of Panama Canal.
• Ran for President again in 1912 as a candidate of
  the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party.
• Shot in Milwaukee during campaign stop.
• Died 1919.

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TR and Conservation

• "...The conservation of natural resources is the
  fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem
  it will avail us little to solve all others.
• Address to the Deep Waterway Convention, Memphis,
  Tennessee, October 4, 1907
• Established 5 national parks, 51 wildlife
  refuges, and 150 national forests.
• Lobbied for and signed Antiquities Act in 1906
  proclaimed 18 national monuments.

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• Worked with Pinchot to build modern Forest
  Service.

On the Mississippi, 1907
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• Worked with Muir to protect Parks.
• (At Glacier Point, Yosemite, 1903)

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• Lobbied for and signed Newlands Reclaimation Act
  in 1902.
• Established 24 large-scale irrigation projects in
  14 states (including Blackfeet, Flathead, and
  Fort Peck Reservations).

Klamath Basin Project, OR/CA
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TR and Conservation
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TR and Conservation
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