PROGRESSIVE AMERICAPROGRESSIVE AMERICA

Unit VBUnit VB

AP United States HistoryAP United States History

Fundamental Question

►To what extent was the progressive movement “progressive”?

Solving the Problems of the Gilded Age

► Massive industrialization, production, and urbanization led to a wide variety of issues and problems or an expanding of existing concerns Political ineptitude Social inequalities Economical gaps Culture clashes

► Certain individuals and groups strongly pursued causes to improve America’s conditions and led the way for further government intervention

Progressivism (1900-1920)

► Reformers destined to solve the many issues through a pragmatic approach Experiment for improvement

► Most Progressives came from the urban middle-class

► Progressives charged with Christian values and morality

► American ideals seemed antiquated and needed changes or modifications The American character should change/evolve with

society

Development of Progressives► Industrialization, commercialism, and urbanization

exacerbated social, political, and economic problems and issues

► Expansion of the middle-class who were educated and understood the conditions Whereas upper-class preferred status quo and lower-class

enveloped in conditions► Laissez-faire and limited government proved ineffective and

socialism and anarchism proved too radical► Inspired by Social Gospel and Gospel of Wealth to solve

problems affecting society through promotion of Christian values

► Fueled by historic idealistic pursuits such as Jeffersonianism, Jacksonian democracy, and Populism

► Initiatives and referendums at municipal and state levels spread notice of issues in hopes of making them national

► Use of scientific research and statistics supported Progressive initiatives to justify and reason for change/modification

Progressives and Democracy► Promotion of democracy by pursuing policies

and initiatives to expand the people’s voice In order to limit the corruption and influence of

patronage, political machines, and big business

► Secret ballots (Australian ballot) Polling places inundated with corrupt tactics All candidates printed on ballots Vote in privacy at assigned polling place Established in all states by 1891

► Direct primaries Eliminate practice of electing candidates

through political bosses Not thoroughly effective

► Direct election of Senators Eliminate patronage practice with state

legislators selecting candidates Seventeenth Amendment (1913) Most Southern states did not ratify due to

belief in limiting states’ rights► Initiatives, referendums, and recalls

Way of persuading legislatures to seriously consider and adhere to issues

States Not Ratifying 17th Amendment

►Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Rhode Island, Florida, Utah*

Progressive Social Initiatives and Developments

► Settlement Houses and YMCA From idealistic reformers to professional social workers Provide shelters, constructive leisure activities, education Hull House in Chicago and Jane Addams

► Blue Laws Regulating morality at the local and state levels

► Temperance to Prohibition Support for prohibition more from rural reformers than urban reformers Eighteenth Amendment (1919) and Volsteadt Act prohibited manufacturing and sale of alcohol

► Connecticut and Rhode Island rejected it► Education

Comprehensive and compulsory education Teachers based on merit and professionalism Educational reform varied from location

► Labor Unions AFL worked better for labor reforms

► Workers’ compensation, minimum wages, improved conditions Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) aka Wobblies

► Direct action use of general strikes► Socialists, anarchists, immigrants

Progressives and Minorities► Blacks and Civil Rights

Whether exploited through sharecropping or publicly segregated, blacks suffered inequities and Progressives tended to ignore their plight

By 1900, 90% blacks in South; Great Migration to cities and the North► National Urban League (1911)

W.E.B Du Bois – demand for civil rights for progress Booker T. Washington – economic opportunity for progress

► President of Tuskegee University► Up From Slavery and White House dinner

Niagara Movement to NAACP (1908)► Women’s Suffrage Movement

Younger women rose up for women reform and suffrage Suffrage gains at the state levels and changed to national suffrage movement National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) (1900) – Carrie Catt Stronger tactics – Alice Paul and Lucy Burns AND National Women’s Party (NWP, 1916)

► Picketing, parades, hunger strikes► Silent Sentinels

Nineteenth Amendment (1920)► League of Women Voters for female efficacy

► Immigrants Gilded Age: Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), 1882 Immigration Act excluded “lunatics,” Anarchist Exclusion Act (1903) Naturalization Act of 1906 required English for citizenship Dillingham Commission (1907-1911)

► Southern and Eastern Europeans threatened American character► Recommended literacy requirements

Immigration Act of 1917► Extended list of “undesirables”► Asiatic Barred Zone

States Delaying Ratification of the 19th Amendment

►Maryland (1941), Virginia (1952), Alabama (1953), Florida (1969), South Carolina (1969), Georgia (1970), Louisiana (1970), North Carolina (1971), Mississippi (1984)

Internal Migration

Suffrage by States

Migration

Muckrakers► Journalists and authors investigated

and probed the “dirty side” of politics, economics, and society by combining research with sensationalism

► Originated with attacks on the Standard Oil Company

► Targets included: monopolies/trusts (steel, oil), corporations (railroads), political bosses and machines, poor living and working conditions (tenements)

► Informed public and aroused feelings against corruption and poor conditions

► Led to more and new government regulations and enforcement; development of public relations by businesses

► Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle

Local Political Reform

►Political bosses and local businesses forged corrupt allegiances

►Cities asserted more control and regulation of public utilities

►Commissioners and city councils popularly elected; city managers

►Progressive mayors: Toledo’s Samuel Jones and Cleveland’s Tom Johnson

State Political Reform

►More and more states assumed progressive reforms Direct primaries, business regulations, tax

reforms, suffrage, temperance►Wisconsin’s Robert LaFollette’s “Wisconsin

Idea”►As more states became progressive,

reformers began to pursue initiatives on a national level

Roosevelt and Progressives (1901-1908)

► Square Deal Favored fairness and national

welfare Domestic “Big-Stick”

► Trust-Busting Enforce Sherman Anti-Trust Act Good trusts and bad trusts

► National Regulation Elkins Act and Hepburn Act

strengthened ICC over railroads Pure Food and Drug Act Meat Inspection Act

► Conservation Forest Reserve Act Newlands Reclamation Act Gifford Pinchot and National

Conservation Commission

National Parks

Taft and the Progressives (1908-1912)

►Trust-busted more than Roosevelt►Set aside lands for conservation►Mann-Elkins Act

Increased powers of ICC over communications and railroads

►Sixteenth Amendment Federal income tax

Election of 1912

► Taft’s policies lead to a split in the Republican Party Conservative Republicans and Progressive Republicans

(Insurgents)

► Bull Moose Party and Roosevelt New Nationalism – executive regulations of industries and social

justice

► Democrat Woodrow Wilson New Freedom – regulate business but promote competition and

small businesses

► Socialist Party of America and Eugene V. Debs Radical reforms

► Woodrow Wilson defeated Roosevelt as the Republicans were split

Election 1912

Woodrow Wilson and Progressives (1912-1920)

► Business Regulation Clayton Antitrust Act Federal Trade Commission

► Regulate unfair practices in most industries

► Federal Reserve Banks’ bank Federal Reserve Board dictated

monetary policy 12 national financial districts

► Federal Farm Loan Act Low interest loans from federal banks

► Child Labor Act (1916) Prohibited interstate shipment of

products made with children under 14 Found unconstitutional

► Underwood Tariff Lowered tariffs and increased income tax