Roosevelt

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Roosevelt the ProgressivesAmerica Seeks
Reforms in the early 20th century

• What was the connection between the Gilded Age
  and the Progressive Era?
• What were the goals of Progressive reformers? How
  was this different than reforms of the Gilded
  Age?
• How did Roosevelt embody the Progressive movement?

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Origins of Progressivism

• As America entered the 20th century, middle class
  reformers at the municipal, state, and national
  levels addressed the problems of the Gilded Age,
  including
• Economic inequities
• Environmental issues
• Social welfare
• Working conditions
• Rights for women and children

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Four Goals of Progressive Reformers

1. Protect social welfare
2. Promote moral development
3. Secure economic reform
4. Foster efficiency

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Theodore Teddy Roosevelt

• Born into an elite New York family
• Had some physical limitations, pushed himself
  through with a love of exercise and the outdoors
• After graduating from Harvard, married love of
  his life, enters politics
• Wife dies in 1884 he becomes depressed and moves
  his family west to the robust life
• By 1890, already back in NY politics and elected
  to the Senate and eventually runs Department of
  the Navy

• Roosevelt captured national attention by
  advocating war with Spain in 1898.
• His volunteer cavalry brigade, the Rough
  Riders, won public acclaim for its role in the
  Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba.
• Roosevelt returned a hero, and was elected NY
  governor and later, McKinleys vice-president.

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Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders
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Roosevelts Modern Presidency

• President McKinley was assassinated just months
  into his second term in 1901.
• Theodore Roosevelt became the nations 26th
  president
• he became the youngest president at age 42
• He quickly established himself as a modern
  president who could influence the media and shape
  legislation
• bully pulpit
• stump speeches (including one in which he is
  shot)
• Using the new motion picture to showcase his
  actions and the work of the government

McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist in
Buffalo in September of 1901. The assassin was
refused a patronage position by NY party members.
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The Square Deal

• While McKinley was pro-business, Roosevelt came
  into office with a strong anti-corruption agenda,
  called The New Nationalism
• Goal to eliminate influence of political machines
  and big business trusts (the trust-buster)
• Success in using Sherman Antitrust Act against
  monopolies restricts business (next slide)
• Reforms greatly influenced economic,
  environmental, and international affairs (see
  following)
• Roosevelts platform became known as the Square
  Deal because he vowed not to favor any group of
  Americans but to be fair to all.

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The Square Deal

• Roosevelt defended the right of labor to
  organize, and avoided use of federal troops to
  put down strikes.
• In 1902, he intervened in a United Mine Workers
  Strike and got miners a wage increase and
  shortened workday
• Roosevelt restricted the power of big business by
  breaking up monopolies and trusts
• Northern Securities Co. v. United States (1904)
• Court ruled against the stockholders of the Great
  Northern and Northern Pacific railroad companies,
  who had essentially formed a monopoly, and
  dissolved Northern Securities Company

• After reelection in 1904, Roosevelt negotiated
  the passage of the Hepburn Act which gave the
  Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), a
  previously weak agency, to set maximum railroad
  rates and inspect railroad companies financial
  records.

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Other trust-busting

• By 1900, trusts legal bodies created to hold
  stock in many companies controlled 80 of U.S.
  industries.
• Roosevelt filed 44 antitrust suits under the
  Sherman Anti-Trust Act

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Raking the muck

• The term muckraker was coined by TR in his 1906
  speech, The Man With the Muck Rake
• However, he was not in favor of most of these
  journalists. The term was in reference to one of
  his favorite books, Pilgrim's Progress, in which
  a character was so busy raking up muck that he
  could not see a heavenly crown over his head
• One of the most famous Progressive era muckrakers
  was Ida Tarbell, who caused a sensation with her
  "History of the Standard Oil Company," an account
  of how Rockefeller ruthlessly crushed his
  competition to become the first American
  billionaire.

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The Jungle Leads to Food Regulation

• Muckrakers exposés, such as Upton Sinclairs The
  Jungle, highlighted the unsanitary conditions in
  food plants and dangerous ingredients in foods
  and medicines
• Disgusted by what he read, in 1906 Roosevelt
  endorsed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat
  Inspection Act
• The first act prohibited the sale of adulterated
  or inaccurately labeled foods and medicines, and
  the second established federal regulations for
  meatpackers and a system of inspection (later,
  the USDA).

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Roosevelt and the Environment

• Early 20th century rise in environmental concerns
  led to conservation and protection movement by
  preservationists
• Preservationists were often in direct opposition
  to business interests, who saw the environment as
  unlimited resources and development sites

• Roosevelt was at heart a preservationist, but saw
  a need for compromise through his conservation
  program, which provided for the regulated use of
  the nations wilderness
• 200 million acres as national forests, mineral
  reserves, and potential waterpower sites
• Creation of national parks and monuments
• Creation of the National Conservation Commission
  in 1908 to inventory the nations resources and
  efficiently manage their use

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
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Roosevelt and Civil Rights

• Roosevelt failed to support legislation or
  actions for ongoing Civil Rights for African
  Americans
• Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee
  Institute to provide a technical education for
  African Americans
• George Washington Carver, head of Tuskegee's
  agriculture department, helped end the failing
  cotton industry in the South by convincing
  farmers to plant peanuts, soybeans and sweet
  potatoes to save the soil
• Allowed black farmers to get new sources of
  income, food

G. W. Carver
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois

• In 1909 black and white reformers, including
  W.E.B. DuBois created the formed the National
  Association for the Advancement of Colored People
  (NAACP)
• goal was full equality among the races through
  the court system

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Limits of Progressivism

• Progressive era was responsible for many
  important reforms, but failed to make gains for
  African Americans
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Court allows separate
  but equal facilities
• The KKK, which formed during Reconstruction, grew
  to almost 4.5 million members by 1924
• D.W. Griffiths' silent film Birth of a Nation
  (1915) glorified white supremacy and the Ku Klux
  Klan (premiered at the Wilson White House)
• Massive parade in D.C.

• Lynching nationwide
• Billie Holidays Strange Fruit
• Some, like Marcus Garvey, advocated a Back to
  Africa movement, as they believed equality could
  never be reached
• Brownsville Incident (1906)
• Roosevelt dishonorably discharged 167 black
  infantrymen at Fort Brown, TX after some whites
  allege they shot and killed a white man
• Senate upholds Roosevelts actions

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Progressivism under President Taft

• William Howard Taft (right) was Roosevelts War
  Secretary, and was hand-selected by Roosevelt to
  be the next Republican president
• Taft easily defeated Democrat William Jennings
  Bryan in 1908
• Among his accomplishments, Taft busted 90
  trusts during his four years in office more
  than Theodore Roosevelt during his eight years in
  office.
• However, Taft was not popular with the American
  public or reform-minded Republicans.
• Presidency was the lonesomest job in the world.
  
• By 1910, Democrats had regained control of the
  House of Representatives
• Roosevelt was not pleased with Tafts inability
  to keep the party in line

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REVIEW Progressive Era
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Four Goals of Reformers

1. Protect social welfare
2. Promote moral development
3. Secure economic reform
4. Foster efficiency

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Protect Social Welfare

• Industrialization in the late 19th century was
  largely unregulated. Employers felt little
  responsibility toward their workers.
• As a result, settlement houses and churches
  served the community and organizations like the
  YMCA and the Salvation Army took on service roles.

Salvation Army Shelter
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Promote Moral Development

• Some reformers felt that the answer to societys
  problems was personal behavior. They proposed
  such reforms as prohibition.
• Groups wishing to ban alcohol included the
  Womans Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

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Secure Economic Reform

• The Panic of 1893 prompted some Americans to
  question the capitalist economic system.
• As a result, some workers embraced socialism.
  Eugene Debs organized the American Socialist
  Party in 1901.

Debs encouraged workers to reject American
capitalism
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Muckrakers Criticize Big Business

• Though most Progressives did not embrace
  socialism, many writers saw the truth in Debs
  criticism.
• Investigative journalists, known as Muckrakers,
  exposed corruption in business. For example, Ida
  Tarbell exposed Standard Oil Companys
  cut-throat methods of eliminating competition.

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Fostering Efficiency

• Many Progressive leaders put their faith in
  scientific principles to make society better.
• In industry, Frederick Taylor began using time
  and motion studies to improve factory efficiency.
  Taylorism became an industry fad as factories
  sought to complete each task quickly.

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Cleaning Up Local Government

• Efforts at reforming local government stemmed
  from the desire to make government more efficient
  and responsive to citizens.
• Some believe it also was meant to limit
  immigrants influence on local governments.

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Regulating Big Business

• Under the progressive Republican leadership of
  Robert La Follette, Wisconsin led the way in
  regulating big business and implementing the
  Wisconsin Idea a partnership between government
  and the experts at the University of Wisconsin.

Robert La Follette
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Protecting Working Children

• As the number of child workers rose, reformers
  worked to end child labor.
• Children were more prone to accidents caused by
  fatigue.
• Nearly every state limited or banned child labor
  by 1918

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Efforts To Limit Hours

• The Supreme Court and the states enacted or
  strengthened laws reducing womens hours of work.
• Progressives also succeeded in winning workers
  compensation to aid families of injured workers.

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Election Reform

• Citizens fought for and secured such measures as
  secret ballots, referendums, and recalls.
  Citizens could petition and get initiatives on
  the ballot.
• In 1899, Minnesota passed the first statewide
  primary system.

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Direct Election Of Senators

• Before 1913, each states legislature had chosen
  U.S. senators. To force senators to be more
  responsive to the public, Progressives pushed for
  the popular election of senators.
• As a result, Congress passed the 17th Amendment
  in 1913.

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Women in Public Life

• Before the Civil War, American women were
  expected to devote their time to home and family.
• By the late 19th and early 20th century, women
  were visible in the workforce.

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Domestic Workers

• Before the turn-of-the-century women without
  formal education contributed to the economic
  welfare of their families by doing domestic work.
• Altogether, 70 of women employed in 1870 were
  servants.

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Women in the Work Force

• Opportunities for women increased especially in
  the cities. By 1900, one out of five women
  worked.
• The garment industry was popular as were office
  work, retail, and education.

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Women Lead Reform

• Many of the leading Progressive reformers were
  women. Middle and upper class women entered the
  public sphere after graduating from the new
  womens colleges.

Colleges like Vassar and Smith allowed women to
excel
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Women and Reform

• Women reformers strove to improve conditions at
  work and home.
• In 1896, black women formed the National
  Association of Colored Women (NACW).
• Suffrage was another important issue for women.

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Three-Part Strategy for Winning Suffrage

• Suffragettes tried three approaches to winning
  the vote
• Convincing state legislatures to adopt the vote.
• Pursuing court cases to test 14th Amendment.
• Pushing for national Constitutional amendment.

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Women Win Suffrage

• Native-born, educated, middle-class women grew
  more and more impatient. Through local, state,
  and national organization, as well as vigorous
  protests, women finally realized their dream in
  1920.