dbq: progressivism 1875-1925 - reading community … · dbq: progressivism 1875-1925 ... americans...

Copyrighted 2002. All Rights Reserved, John A. Braithwaite, Kaysville, Utah 1

DBQ: Progressivism 1875-1925 By John A. Braithwaite

DIRECTIONS:

The following DBQ is based upon the accompanying documents and your knowledge of the time period involved. This question tests your ability to work with historical documents. Your answer should be derived mainly from the documents, however, you may refer to historical facts, materials, and developments NOT mentioned in the documents. You should assess the reliability of the documents as historical sources where relevant to your answer.

QUESTION FOR ANALYSIS:

To what extent was the Progressive era (1870-1920) a unified movement of reform and change in American Society? How effectively did progressivism manifest itself in national politics on the federal level of government?

PROMPT:

• Formulate a thesis statement • Use documents as well as your own outside knowledge of the period. • Deal evenly with all aspects of the questions • Be sure to cover the time period given • Assess the validity of the documents • Draw effective and specific conclusions whenever possible

TEXTBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Cherny & Berkin The Making of a Nation Gillon & Matson The American Experiment—Chapter 21

Boydston & McGerr Making A Nation Murrin, et.al Liberty, Equality, Power Norton, et.al. A People & A Nation Bailey & Kennedy The American Pageant Boyer, et.al. Enduring Visions

Davidson, et.al. Nation of Nations Cherny & Berkin The Making of a Nation


Document A: It is ... hazardous to describe progressive as static constellation of reforms. Rather, most reformers---and, it appeared, voters---tended to broaden their concerns between the mid-1890s and 1917. Many began by denouncing waste and corruption. Warning to the task of reform, they then demanded an end to "special privilege" the institutions of progressive taxation, and the passage of political reforms---the initiative, referenda, and recall of public officials, the direct primary, the popular election of U.S. Senators. Many progressive reforms cannot be described easily as either humanitarian-egalitarian or repressive-nostalgic. Rather, they equated self-interest with the public good. In the process, they stressed the desirability of "scientific" efficient administration. If their organizations were often narrow-based, and their solutions timid, it was because there were struggling against dimly understood social forces that engulfed much of the Western world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As the first generation of Americans to cope seriously with these forces, the progressives acted with perhaps predictable mixture of altruism and self-seeking, of common sense and fear. Quint, et.al. Main Problems In American History. (Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1987), p. 152 & 157.


Document B: The strength of our republic has always been in what is called our middle

class. This is made up of manufacturers, jobbers, middle men, retail and wholesale merchants, commercial travelers and business men generally. It would be little short of calamity to encourage any industrial development that would affect unfavorably this important class of our citizens.

It seems to me, therefore, that the vital consideration connected with this problem of the trust is its effect upon middle class---the independent, individual business man and the skilled artisan and mechanic.

The trust is therefore the forerunner, or rather the creator of industrial slavery. Honesty to ourselves and loyalty to our country and its free institutions compel us to face and recognize the situation. . . .

I favor complete and prompt annihilation of the trust,---with due regard for property rights, of course.

Hazen Pingree, Chicago Conference On Trusts. Chicago: Civic Federation of

Chicago 1900), pp. 263-7.

Document C: ...Their principal enemies were, therefore, all those forces that worked for

instability and unpredictability in society: cutthroat competition among large producers and shippers, haphazard rape of natural resources by small business, and chaotic urban government by patronage-glutted machines. And in search for stability and system... Progressives often counted the big corporate managers among their leading allies.

David M. Kennedy, Progressivism:The Critical Issues. (Boston: Little Brown, 1971), p.xi.


Document D:

...Progressive Era legislation such as the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal

Trade Commission Act, the Hepburn Act, the Meant Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act was supported and often drafted by businessmen who look to the government to provide stability and order in a too-competitive industrial society...

The businessmen became involved in governmental policy-making in order to protect his own short-run interests: that is, his profits. But he also took a longer-range view of his self-interest. He became aware that the creation of a more responsible social order was necessary...

These men became liberals out of a recognition of the need for change for their own sakes. Their liberalism was neither "anti-big business" nor was it neutral. It demanded an active, interventionist government that would provide for an efficient, orderly, stable (and hence profitable) corporate society. This was corporate liberalism. Within such a context concessions to other interest groups such as labor and farmer were not only possible---they were essential to the creation of the broad support that such a corporate order required.

David Eakins, "Ideology That Shaped Reform" from This World Magazine, San Francisco Examiner. (28 April 1968), p.36

Document E:

The position of the individual within the nation's increasingly industrialized society became a major source of concern for many Americans. If America's greatness was related to individual achievement, what would happen as freedom and social mobility were more and more circumscribed by giant corporations with their impersonal machinelike qualities? Did not the emphasis of corporations on efficient production and material objectives distort the human qualities that had been responsible for America's rise to greatness? Was not the growing disparity between rich corporations and poor workingmen creating a situation akin to that existing in many European countries where there was open class strife? These and similar questions led many Americans to advocate reforms that would restore dignity to the individual and give meaning to his life.

Gerald N Grob and George A Billias Interpretations of American

History. New York: The Free Press, 1972), Vol. 2, p.160


Document F: Cartoon: “The Bull Moose” Gillon pg. 834 Teachers can down-load from

internet or cut-paste a copy of this document.


Document G:

There are in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and

there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon ever evil man, whether politician or businessman, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform or in book, magazine or newspaper, with merciless severity make s such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful. The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or event with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth. An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character does not good but very great harm. The soul ever scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed, or even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.

Hysterical sensationalism is the very poorest weapon wherewith to fight for lasting righteousness. The men who with stern sobriety and truth assail the many evils of our time, whether in the public press, or in magazines, or in books, are the leaders and allies of all engaged in the work for social and political betterment. But if they give good reason for distrust of what they say, if they chill the ardor of those who demand truth as a primary virtue, they thereby betray the good cause and play into the hands of the very men against whom they are nominally at war.

Theodore Roosevelt, New York Times April 15, 1906


Document H:

The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an

enlighten measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for:

1. Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational

diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurious effects incident to modern industry:

2. The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of State and Nation, including the Federal Control over interstate commerce, and the taxing power, to maintain such standards;

3. The prohibition of child labor; 4 Minimum wage standards for working women to provide a "living wage" in all

industrial occupations; 5. The general prohibition of night work for women and the establishment of an 8-

hour day for women and young persons; 6 .One day's rest in seven for all wage workers; 7. The 8-hour day in continuous 24-hour industries; 8. The abolition of the convict contract labor system; substituting a system of prison

production for governmental consumption only; and the application of prisoner's earning to the support of their dependent families;

9. Publicity as to wages, and conditions of labor; 10. Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and

disease... 11. The protection of home life against hazards of sickness, irregular employment,

and old age; 12. The develop of the creative labor power of America by lifting the load of illiteracy

from American youth... We favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their

interests and of promoting their progress...

Kirk H. Porter and Donald Bruce, National Party Platforms,1840-1956. (Urbana, 1956) pp.175-182.


Document I: La Follette was words and deeds in close tandem; Roosevelt was words--and an occasional deed for the sake of the record, or to save face. La Follette was a man who sought to make strict economic analysis the basis of his laws; he never talked without facts, the best available facts, and the University of Wisconsin faculty came, characteristically enough, to replace the lobby in his home State. But Roosevelt was, confessedly, "rather an agnostic in matters of economics"; the tariff bored him. With all his interest in cultural and scientific matters, he never understood the spirit of the laboratory--which was the one hope of the Progressive, or Liberal, movement.... The value of reforms, as I see it, is that they fail to achieve what they are sanguinely intended to achieve; and in so failing they help make the system which they are intended to patch up only the more unpatchable. In other words, every vote for reform, entered upon intelligently, is a Jesuitical vote for revolution. Conservatives like Nicholas Murray Butler know this; that is why they fear the growth of a bureaucracy intended to administer a "return"; that is why they fear the retention of the anti-trust acts. John Chamberlain, Farewell to Reform: The Rise, Life, and Decay of the Progressive Mind in America (New York: John Day Co., 1932), pp. 235-39,

272, 307-09, 311.


Document J:

I stand for the square deal. But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial opportunity and of reward for equally good service.... Now, this means that our government, national and state, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests....We must drive the special interests out of politics.... We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that the people may know beyond peradventure [doubt] whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. ....Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective---a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.... Moreover, I believe that the natural resources must be used for the benefit of all our people, and not monopolized for the benefit of the few....Now, with the water power, with the forests, with the mines, we are brought face to face with the fact that there are many people who will go with us in conserving the resources only if they are to be allowed to exploit them for their benefit. That is one of the fundamental reasons why the special interests should be driven out of politics.... I do not ask for over centralization; but I do ask that we work in a spirit of broad and far-reaching nationalism when we work for what concerns our people as a whole....The national government belongs to the whole American people are interested, that interest can be guarded effectively only by the national government.... ...The New Nationalism puts the national need before sectional or personal advantage. Theodore Roosevelt, The New Nationalism, New York, The Outlook Company,

1910, pp. 11-33.


Document K:

The concern of patriotic men is to put our government again on its right basis, by substituting the popular will for the rule of guardians, the processes of common counsel for those of private arrangement.... In the first place, it is necessary to open up all the processes of our politics....The whole process must be altered. We must take the selection of candidates for office, for example, out of the hands of small groups of men, of little coteries, out of the hands of machines working behind closed doors, and put it into means of direct primaries and elections to which candidates of every sort and degree may have free access. We must substitute public for private machinery. It is necessary, in the second place, to give society command of its own economic life again by denying to those who conduct the great modern operations of business the privacy that used to belong properly enough to men who used only their own capital and their individual energy in business. Take another matter. Take the matter of the initiative and referendum, and the recall.... Why do you suppose that in the United States, the place in all the world where the people were invited to control their own government, we should set up such an agitation as that for the initiative and referendum and the recall.... ....Because we have felt that in too many instances our government did not represent us, and we have said: "We have got to have a key to the door of our own house." The initiative and referendum and the recall afford such key to our own premises....

Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom, New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913, pp. 3-294 passim. Reprinted by permission


Document L:

Source: The Fate of the League of Nations. Wilson Cartoon. Gillon p.916


Document M:

Among the many inexplicable things in life there is probably nothing more out of

reason than our disregard for preventative measures and our apparent willingness to provide almshouse, prisons, asylums, hospitals, homes, etc., for the victims our neglect. Poverty is a culture bed for criminals, paupers, vagrants, and for such diseases as inebriety, insanity, and imbecility; and yet we endlessly go on in our unconcern, or in our blindness, heedless of its sources, believing all the time that we are merciful in administering to its unfortunate results. Those in poverty are fighting a losing struggle, because of unnecessary burdens which we might lift from their shoulder; but not until they go to pieces and become drunken, vagrant, criminal, diseased, and suppliant, do we consider mercy necessary.

Robert Hunter, Poverty. (New York: Grosset and

Dunlap, 1904), pp.76-97.

Document N: The damned cowboy soon began fulfilling Mark Hanna’s worst fears. With Roosevelt’s accession to the presidency, the Progressive movement, which had started with such local efforts as campaigns to oust city bosses like Richard Coker, gained a national leader. To some extent the Progressive movement was house-broken version of Populism. The Progressives tended to come from cities and towns, whereas the Populists had hailed from the countryside, and the Progressives were mostly of middle and professional classes, where the Populists had been farmers and their economic kin. Yet Progressivism, like Populism, was essentially, an attempt to employ the tools of government to restore a balance to society that rapid industrialization had knocked awry. The Progressives distrusted big business, just as the Populists had, and they worked to collar the captains of industry. Roosevelt flummoxed J.P. Morgan in 1902 by bringing an antitrust suit against Morgan’s Northern Securities railroad trust. The Supreme Court decided in Roosevelt’s favor and against Morgan… Taft’s Justice Department won a suit against the Standard Oil Company…Rockefeller later established the Rockefeller Foundation with a gift of $100 million. The Progressives adopted a number of …measures favored by the Populist. They supported an income tax and succeeded in amending the Constitution to allow it. They advocated direct election of senators and…rewrote the Constitution to effect it. They wanted currency reform—and established the Federal Reserve System to produce it. H.W. Brands, The Reckless Decades. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. p. 341


Document O:

“I believe progressivism was a radical movement, though not by the common measures of economic and political radicalism. More influenced by socialism than they liked to admit, progressives nevertheless shied away from fundamental restructuring of the capitalist economy. The sweep of progressivism was remarkable, but because progressive agenda was so often carried out in settlement houses. Churches, and schoolrooms… Progressivism demanded a social transformation that remains at once profoundly impressive and profoundly disturbing a century later. “From its private and intimate origins, the progressive movement ultimately played out on a very public stage. Progressivism was a explosion, a burst of energy that fired in many directions across America. “…We have been scaling back our expectations ever since that age of bold reform. Chastened by his experience in the Wilson government, Franklin Roosevelt pursued a New Deal liberalism that was in many ways less radical than progressivism. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society fought the racial injustice that the progressives had shirked and even helped to perpetuate in the first place; but the Great Society liberalism avoided the sharp attack on upper-class privilege and the optimistic faith in remaking individuals and creating utopia.” Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall Of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920. New York: Free Press, Simon & Schuster, 2003, p. xv-xvi.


AP US History Round Table Discussion TOPIC(S): Progressive Era In America STUDENT GROUP: 5-8 students per group Social Darwinism Pragmatism The Social Gospel Women’s Christian Temperance Movement Social Justice Muckrakers Triangle Shirtwaist Fire New Professions for people NAACP City Reforms Wm. Allen White “Green Light” Constitutional Changes Wisconsin “The Laboratory of Democracy-LaFollette et.al. New senators of change Women’s Voices of change Nativism Catholicism Progressivism & Blacks Radical Reformers Feminism Theodore Roosevelt Thomas Woodrow Wilson Wm Howard Taft The “Bully Pulpit” Roosevelt’s reforms The Political Spectrum Bull Moose New Freedom Brandeis Brief John Dewey Naturalism Owens Keating Act Pure Food & Drug Act Immigrants & Life in America US vs E.C. Knight Labor Changes Northern Securities Case Basic elements of discussion and analysis: Group Leader:________________________________(Appointed by Teacher) Use the spoke diagram attached to this instruction sheet to outline the major issues discussed in your group What were the flash points leading to the Progressive Era?? What were the two contending forces of opposition? 1)____ 2)____ What was the social/cultural status of the average person in the period? Would you like to have lived then? Would you like to have lived as an average person? Are there any enduring characteristics from the time period that affect us today? If you encountered the concepts of Progressivism on an AP Test what ten concepts or achievements would you choose to write on and why? Remember the criteria for grading are: fluency, form, and correctness (both of information and style) What historical significance can be attached to reforms of Progressivism? What was the dark spot of progressivism? Explain. What were the costs and consequences of the progressive changes, reforms and ideas? What was the feeling of Teddy Roosevelt toward the trusts? Why does Woodrow Wilson distrust the Republican Progressive reforms? Discuss in your group the nature of Progressive foreign policy and economic responses to Progressivism?


Discussion Summary-Outline For Progressivism Thesis statement: Point #1:__________________________(Leaders)

• Theodore Roosevelt • William Howard Taft • Woodrow Wilson • Robert La Follette • Hiram Johnson

Point #2:___________________________(Programs)

• Square Deal • Dollar Diplomacy • New Freedom • Constitutional Reforms • Local government changes

Point #3:___________________________(Foreign Affairs)

• Spanish American War • Treaty of Paris 1898 • Central America—Dollar Diplomacy • Wilson and neutrality • World War I & Versailles

Point #4:___________________________(Domestic Reforms)

• Conservation • Trust-busting • City Government • Pure Food & Drug

Point #5:___________________________(Economic Developments)

• Tariffs • Labor & Wages • Demand of populist reformers • WW I economic reforms – Income taxes • Regulation of trusts


Point #6:___________________________(Cultural – Social Changes) • Women’s rights - feminism • African-Americans and their dilemma • Literature of realism • Artistsic impressionism • Immigrants & assimilation

Point #7:___________________________(Court Decisions & Reforms)

• Northern Securities Case • E.C. Knight Case • Muller vs Oregon • Brandeis nomination to the Court •

Point #8:____________________________(Reforms)

• City manager system of government • Challenges of Social Darwinism • Women’s vote • Recall, referendum, & initiative petition • Muckrakers

Conclusion(s)


FREE RESPONSE QUESTION

The Progressive Era, 1889-1916

DIRECTIONS: After reading the chapter in the textbook, thoughtfully read the following question, brainstorm and plan your answer. In an essay, 500-750 words write and respond to the question. Use fluency, form, and correctness so that the stream of ideas is meaningful to the reader.

QUESTION: Not since the Puritans has the middle class taken control of government in an obvious attempt at reform. But the middle class needed leaders of unparalleled talent and virtue. Identify FIVE great progressive leaders at the local, state, and national levels that helped to bring effective major constitutional reforms to the American middle class of the nation. What were the tenets or pillars of progressive ideology and do they exist today?

• Formulate a sound thesis statement • Be sure to cover the scope of the question • Analyze and provide as much factual material as you can to support your thesis • Deal evenly with all parts of the question • Use good mechanics of composition: good spelling, grammar, transitions, & style. • Have someone edit your work before turning it into the instructor of your course. • You should pay attention to the chronology section of the text whenever it will help

you. Your essay will be scored on the generic rubric of Educational Testing Service 9 point scale.


The Progressive Movement 1870-1920 Essay Format-Planning An Essay

Thesis statement: Point #1:

• __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________

Point #2:

• __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________

Point #3:

• __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________

Point #4:

• __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________

Point #5:

• __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________


Point #6: • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________

Point #7:

• __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________

Point #8:

• __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________ • __________________________________________________________

Conclusions:

dbq: progressivism 1875-1925 - reading community … · dbq: progressivism 1875-1925 ... americans...

Documents