Progressivism

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Progressivism

• Early twentieth-century reform movement that
  pushed the government to resolve problems created
  by urban industrialism
• problems like poverty, racism, child labor, vice,
  and exploitation of labor.

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How did it get started?

• At the grassroots level, in the cities, in
  reaction to the Gilded Age excesses.

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Settlement Houses

• An example of
• Grassroots Progressivism
• College-educated women, i.e. Jane Addams wanted
  to civilize the city
• supported labor unions
• supported womans suffrage

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Examples of Grassroots Progressivism
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Alliances between middle and lower class women

• A strike held against New Yorks garment industry
  in 1909 was supported by women workers and middle
  class women
• 20,000 workers went on strike
• They won some concessions
• Labels sewn into garments made by union workers

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Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire

• 146 died, many jumping nine stories to their
  deaths.
• proved that the factories were not safe for
  workers.

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Triangle fire
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Reform Darwinism vs. Social Darwinism

• Social Darwinism came out of the Gilded Age and
  held that human progress came out of survival of
  the fittest and that reform movements were a
  waste of time.
• Reform Darwinism was a social theory that said if
  humans changed the social environment, it could
  improve the lot of humans faster

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Characteristics of Progressive Movement

1. A belief that environment, not heredity alone,
   determines human potential
2. A sense of optimism that conditions can be
   corrected without radically changing economy or
   institutions
3. A profound trust in experts and scientific data
4. A willingness to take action

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The Jungle

• The book was instrumental in exposing the meat
  packing industry
• muckraking (The Jungle is an example)
• Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the
  Meat Inspection Act 1906
• I aimed at the publics heart, but I hit them in
  the stomach.

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Progressivism Finds a President
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Conservationist

• When Roosevelt took office, 45 million acres of
  land as government reserves when he left, it was
  150 million acres

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Controversy over Hetch Hetchy
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Theodore Roosevelt Domestic Policy

• Anti-Trust, filed suit to enforce the Sherman
  Anti-Trust Act of 1890 which was being ignored.
  He won.
• Labor negotiator, United Mine Workers
• square deal

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• A newspaper editor wrote,
• Wall Street is paralyzed at the thought that a
  President of the United States would sink so low
  as to try to enforce the law.

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Teddy Roosevelt

• The Square Deal
• Campaign slogan from Roosevelts election in 1904
• Came from his enforcement of the Sherman
  Antitrust Act
• Roosevelt the Reformer
• Used the moral and political authority of the
  presidency
• Roosevelt and Conservation

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Roosevelt Foreign Policy

• Speak softly but carry a big stick
• Roosevelt believed that civilized nations
  should police the world and hold backward
  countries in line. . . . he relied on military
  strength and diplomacy

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Monroe and Roosevelt

• Monroe Doctrine

• Roosevelt Corollary

• A declaration by President James Monroe in 1823
  that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any
  further colonization or interference by European
  powers. In exchange, Monroe declared that the US
  would not get involved in European conflicts.

• A declaration in 1904 that the US would not
  intervene in Latin America as long as nations
  there conducted their affairs with decency. It
  made the US the policeman of the Western
  Hemisphere and allowed it to enforce repayment of
  European debts.

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Panama Canal

• US offered Columbia 10 million and an annual
  rent of 250,000
• Columbia refused
• At the prompting of some investors in New York,
  Panamanians staged an uprising, 1903
• Within 24 hours, Roosevelt government recognized
  the new Panama, and the new country accepted the
  10 million and the canal was begun.

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How Did Theodore Roosevelts Foreign Policy Move
the United States onto the World Stage?

• Enforcement of Monroe Doctrine
• Formulating the Roosevelt Corollary
• Endorsing the uprising in Panama

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Taft Presidency

• Taft sided more often with big business
• Progressive Party nominated Roosevelt in 1912

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Progressive Party 1912

• Nicknamed the Bull Moose Party
• Nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt
• Platform

• Presidential primaries
• Conservation of natural resources
• An end to child labor
• Minimum wages for women
• Workers compensation
• Social security
• Federal income tax

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Woodrow Wilson

• Democrat Wilson wins election of 1912
• He turns out to be progressive
• Federal Reserve Act, 1913
• Federal Trade Commission

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Radical Progressives
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W.E.B. DuBois

• Authored Souls of Black Folk 1903
• Founded the Niagara Movement, precursor to the
  NAACP
• Lifelong radical, later investigated by the FBI

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Margaret Sanger
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Eugene DebsSocial Democratic Party (Socialist)

• advocated cooperation over competition and urged
  people to shake free from private ownership

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Some successes of the Progressive Era

• Hull House and other settlement houses
• Muller v. Oregon, 1908, limited workday for women
  to 10 hours
• Upton Sinclairs novel of 1906, The Jungle
• Conservation of 150 million acres of natural
  landscape

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Some Failures of the Progressive Movement

• Jim Crow laws
• Nativism
• Prohibition