The Progressives

The Progressives Q: Why were the Progressives more successful at achieving their goals than the Populists?

I. What and Who • Progressive movement(s): series of movements to renovate/restore American society, values, institutions • Diff. motives + tactics, sometimes at odds • Legacy of social activism forerunner of New Deal • 3 goals: 1) end abuses of political/economic power; 2) reform institutions (government/education) to address problems (poverty); 3) apply scientific expertise • Centrist, moderate: laissez-faire obsolete, but rejected radicalism (v. few joined socialists)

Motivated by: • 1) Belief direct gov’t action, when guided by experts, can benefit society, • 2) Foreign examples (Euro: city planning, suffrage, old-age insurance) • 3) Social Gospel • 4) Working-class experience “bread + butter reforms” • 5) Humanitarianism (esp. upper class) • 6) Stability (biz leaders) • 7) Apparent collapse Gilded Age politics: turnout falling, party loyalty collapsing opening for interest groups

“Populists who moved to the cities”: view city w/alarm (greed, immorality, vice), but Prog see as not necessarily bad • Southern Progressives: sim. to N, but marred by maintenance white supremacy • N + W also marked by racism • Most influential: well-educated WASPs (lawyers, educators, doctors, small businessmen) faith in rational thought and driven by moral mission: “humanity’s universal growth”, utopianism • Opponents: 1) biz (defend free enterprise), 2) Supreme Court (strict construction), 3) Major parties (undermined power)

II. Progressive Reforms A. Local: Undermining the Bosses • Run “good government reformers” (“goo-goos”) to reform from w/in city managers + commissions • Settlement Houses + poverty relief • Muckraker Lincoln Steffens • TR: Pilgrim’s Passage, focused on problems

B. State + National • 1. Leaders • “Battling Bob” La Follette (WI): goal “not to ‘smash’ corporations, but to drive them out of politics, and then to treat them exactly the same as other people are treated.” (later US Senator) • Hiram Johnson (CA): 1 of strongest Prog. movements in nation: opp. to Southern Pacific RxR: controls 90% transport + state legis.1910 elect HJ + Prog. Legis.

2. Reforms Democracy • Direct primaries (undermine party conventions), initiatives, referendum, recall • Often fell under control of well-funded special-interest groups • Woman suffrage: “cleaning up” gov’t [States (esp. W) grant suffrage before 19th in 1920] • Politics did not change dramatically • Bosses controlled elections through organization • Women did not vote diff. (gender gap) • White supremacy and nativism

Morality • Ban prostitution/white slavery (1910: Mann Act) • Gambling • Prohibition: “local option”: cities/states can ban (1919: 18th Amend) • As before, major push women: Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Labor and Business • 1906: Pure Food and Drug Act + Meat Inspection Act • Upton Sinclair, The Jungle • Aimed for their hearts, hit them in their stomachs • National Child Labor Committee child labor laws • Little change: not enough enforcement, families needed children to work • Muller v.Oregon (1908): limits women’s work hours • Split among Prog./feminists: should women be treated diff?; split middle/working: women need to work • Lochner v. NY (1905) Court voided work-hour limits for male bakers

3. Ambiguities • Anti-Immigration (push 1921 + 1924 laws) • 1913: Alien Land Act (CA, OR, WA): bars immigrants (esp. Japanese) from owning land • Eugenics: forced sterilization “defectives” (30 states legalize by 1930) • California: about 20,000 mentally ill and criminals • Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942): Supreme Court upholds State laws; last use 1981 in Oregon

III. Progressive Women • “Woman Movement”: women, as mothers, could humanize society & correct problems (J. Addams) • Club movement • Feminism: equal rights & challenged sex-typing/ stereotypes • Tend to be younger and more radical

Florence Kelley: National Consumer’s League: white ribbons combine power of consumer’s w/needs of workers • Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Women and Economics (1898): radical rejection domesticity + female innocence women into industry, treat domestic work as real work (paid + regulated) • Frances Willard: head WCTU expand to “do everything” vice in general, suffrage • Link prohibition + suffrage liquor industry opposes suffrage

Margaret Sanger: nurse in NYC for immigrants (stairs, lye, coat hangers) • Opposed abortion but info about birth control illegal (Comstock Laws: moral reform) “The Woman Rebel” + direct action + Birth Control Federation of America (later Planned Parenthood) 1936 Supreme Court legalizes prescription birth control • However: found eugenics rhetoric gained her support • 1973 Roe v Wade

IV. Fighting Jim Crow A. Booker T. Washington and Self-Help • Assimilation through temporary acceptance of subordination/ segregation • Called for hard work & dignity of “common labor” as paths to acceptance/ success • “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” • Vocational school (Tuskegee, 1881) • Washington did not argue blacks inferior • White leaders praised Washington’s accommodationism & gradualism

B. W.E.B. Du Bois & the “Talented Tenth” • To other blacks, Washington’s ideas degrading • Niagara meeting (1905) demanded rights now • Du Bois = a Progressive & a sociologist • Called for educated black elite to lead charge • Founded NAACP (1909) to use courts to challenge discrimination (Ida B. Wells + Anti-Lynching crusade) & gain vote • Debate continued over whether to join white society or preserve aspects of black culture

Despite reformers in all levels of gov, white Progressives did little to aid blacks • No action on lynching, 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson • Some econ + pol gains in urban N+W (Harlem Renaissance in 1920s)

V. Progressive Presidents A. Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) • Most forceful president since Lincoln • Shaped office for 20th-century by his activity • Wealthy but concerned for less fortunate • In age of industry, U.S.G. must guide economic development to protect public good: Began government regulation

Trust Busting: TR enforces Sherman Anti-Trust (tobacco, oil, RxR) • Ida Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Company • Roosevelt accepted consolidation as efficient • Distinguished b/t good & bad trusts • More regulation but compromised w/ trusts • Cut deal w/ J.P. Morgan to stem 1907 financial panic (stop dumping stocks/expand US Steel); criticized “bad” trusts

Conservation • Roosevelt loved outdoors and praised efficiency conservation of resources • Kept U.S.G. control of public lands in West, expand forests + parks • Worked w/ Gifford Pinchot & new U.S. Forest Service to stop overuse of public lands by business

B. Taft Administration (1909–1913) • Offended reformers on tariff: allowed to stay high • 1910 fires Pinchot over water + coal • But: Taft prosecuted more trusts, expanded national forests, strengthened ICC, supported labor reform, 16th + 17th • Lacked Roosevelt’s ability to mold public opinion

1912 Election • Splintering Republicans TR bolted  Progressive or Bull Moose Party • TR platform: New Nationalism: gov coordinated economy w/big biz: not destroy big businesses / ensure public good • Taft (R) and Woodrow Wilson (D) • WW: New Freedom: Rejected TR’s gov-big business cooperation: trusts threaten liberty break-up, continue gov. regulation • 3-way race: WW 42% pop, overwhelming electoral

C. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) • In office, mixed New Freedom/ New Nationalism • 1913: Fed. Reserve Act Board shaped interest rates (monetary policy) + regulated banks • 1914 Clayton Anti-Trust Act: strengthened Sherman, created Federal Trade Commission to enforce • Underwood Tariff (1913) reduced rates & levies first U.S. income tax (16th Amendment)

The Progressives