Today was blog discussion. The Progressive Reform Era (1890-1920)
GOALS of PROGRESSIVISM
1. protecting social welfare (helping the poor)
2. promoting moral improvement (push toward getting rid of alcohol)
3. creating economic reform (capitalism (people own businesses) and socialism (government owns business) socialism is like communism which was created by Karl Marx) combination of socialism and capitalism is mixed economy
4. fostering efficiency (ford idea- pay workers more, so workers want and stay on the job, and so they work harder and more efficiently. Also expands the market, so people make more and they can by the product)
-Temperance Movement-18th Amendment
designed to ban alcohol, mostly women-18th amendment was passed in 1919 it was to ban production, sale and purchase, transportation of alcohol
Woman's Christian Temperance Union- big union that really pushed banning alcohol
-Muckrakers-Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens
journalist who would expose problems in society, slums or issues in the hospital system, name came from book- Upton Sinclair was trying write about the immigrants workday, and sees how bad the meat plant was and wrote about that instead, it was called the Jungle. There weren't any regulations or rules.\
-Ida Tarbell- she helped bring down Standard Oil, book. History of Standard oil company, she exposed what rockenfeller did
-Lincoln Steffens- shame of the cities, book he wrote in mclures magazine. The corruption in city government, he exposed all the corruption in the city government, people demanded change and change would come, political machine would die out.
-Laws making the workplace better, safer, etc
Sherman anti-trust act, keeting owen act, 10 hour workday established for women first (couldn't handle working that many hours) then men, limiting child labor, workers compensation
-Direct Election of US Senators-17th Amendment
people elected us senators instead of the state government choosing, called direct election of us senators. made country more democratic.
-Women's Suffrage (voting) Movement-19th Amendment
once city started going women wanted more opportunities, they would get easy jobs, they didn't like that, so they started fighting for rights, they didn't like how blacks could vote and women couldn't. They took it to court, court said because your a citizen you didn't have a right to vote. Tried going state to state to get women to vote, first convinced wyoming, because women were more independent in the west, then more states started allowing it. Then got Elizibeth caty stanton, suzie b anthony, started organizations, 1.) go state by state 2.) take it to the court, 3.) work towards getting amendment. suzie b anthony befriended someone in government and then the government started approving and got the 19th amendment
-Teddy Roosevelt's Background
grew up in a normal family, he was scrawny, sick, and his dad told him to become a man, he started lifting, he went to Harvard, liked hiking. Before becoming president, he was governor of New York, vp, then president. War broke out, Teddy was all for fighting it, got close to a million volunteers to fight the war.
His first wife died in child labor, he went out west to be a cowboy.
After president he went over to Africa to hunt, came back went back into politics, an assassin shot him and he gave a speech then went to the hospital. Died in his sleep in 1921?
-Teddy Roosevelt's Domestic Presidential Accomplishments/Issues:
his accomplishments as presidents in the U.S.
1. Square Deal
2. Breaking up strikes- he was pro labor union
3. Breaking up trusts-trustbuster
trustbuster- (nickname he gave himself) teddy going and trying to break up monopolies, monopolies would do what ever possible to get more money, teddy enforced the Sherman Anti trust act, it passed in 1890 and it wasn't enforced till teddy. He waited till he had a sympathetic court. Teddy vs. Jp Morgan settled in courts. Right vs wrong, if monopolies doing good like not having high prices he will leave it (good trusts vs bad trusts) he broke up about 55 trusts.
4. Regulating railroads-Elkins Act, Hepburn Act
Elkins Act- end large companies wanting rebates after shipping
Hepburn Act- the bill made in 1906 that helped limit the railroads power, give more fairness, did it from the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Elkins Act, increased the powers of previous acts
5. Pure Food and Drug Act
made in 1906 had to do with harmful foods that people produced, made companies name at least 10 different dangerous things in the drugs. point is to get rid of food that is dangerous (like things to preserve it) to eat
6. Meat Inspection Act
was in place because the packing plants for the meat were disgusting, Teddy noticed and looked into it and noticed all the disgusting stuff that went into meat. Teddy passed the meat inspection act, which had inspectors check to see if it was healthy clean and good, also had inspectors to make sure it was clean packing.
7. Conservation-Transfer Act, Antiquities Act
protecting the forests, teddy was the first green president, transfer act- taking all the forests juristictions from the department of mentirior to the department of agriculture antiquities act- preservation for natural land, in 1906, pubic land owned by government,
8. Newlands Reclamation Act
the u.s. federal law funded irrigation projects out west
9. Gentleman's Agreement
agreement between america and japan, because the japanese started being segregated from the whites, made them mad, they wanted to be equal, they agreed to keep japanese out.
10. Federal Employers Liability Act
states had their own compensation laws, they created the federal employers liability act, set in place the federal workers compensation act.
11. Policy toward African-Americans
did little to preserve suffrage in south, then thought some blacks were superior to whites in some cases. they weren't helped much, segregation still in place. it was unpopular to help blacks, they wanted to get voted back in office, congress would vote against something else like conservation if he tried helping blacks
-William Howard Taft's Background
born in cincinatti ohio, chief of justice, governor of cuba, teddy liked his leadership, teddy handpicked taft, turned out he wasn't a good political leader, congress didn't like him, he ticked off a lot of conservatives, he didn't do much to help progressives either, he was the biggest president president. he wasn't interesting. only president after being president to be the head justice of the supreme court
-William Howard Taft's Domestic Presidential Accomplishments/Issues:
u.s
1. Payne-Aldrich Tariff
tariff- is price on importing goods, we had a high tariff trying to get u.s. to buy american products. Payne aldrich tariff- progressives wanted taft to lower tariff, but couldn't get it done, the payne aldrich tariff actually lowered a little and mostly stayed same,
2. Ballinger/Pinchot Land Dispute
taft fired ballinger and he was a progressive, it made people look like taft didn't like environment. Pinchot sold land teddy put aside to rich people
3. Breaking up trusts
taft had almost double the trust break ups so taft broke more than teddy, but taft broke up good and bad trusts, so he wasn't the best trust breaker, taft thought he was doing the right thing. he broke up standard oil in 1911
4. Income Tax-16th Amendment
federal government could collect the taxes on what you make, more you make more you pay. government does it so they can pay for things
5. Policy towards African-Americans
he didn't really help them, it was segregated still, most blacks lived in south worked for farmers, pretty much were owned by them, Jim-Crow laws, segregation laws. During WWI was when blacks started moving north
-1912 Presidential Election
1. Democratic candidate and platform (what he stands for)
Woodrow Wilson, he wanted to keep breaking up trusts, wanted tariff reduction, direct selection of senators, single term served by presidents, independence for the Philippians. 28th president
2. Republican candidate and platform
William Howard Taft, wanted to keep breaking up trusts, improved performance of postal service
3. Progressive(Bull Moose) Party and platform
Teddy Roosevelt- Bull Moose- Teddy felt like he had been shot after he didn't get republican candidate, he wanted to make people want to vote, 8 hour work day, minimum wage for women, breaking up trusts
4. Socialist candiate and platform
Eugene V. Debs- minimum wage, direct election of president, supporter of women's suffrage and limited working hours
5. Results and why Wilson won
Woodrow Wilson won mostly because Teddy had the progressive republicans and Taft had the conservative republicans so they pretty much split votes, and Wilson gets all democratic votes
-Woodrow Wilson's Background
thomas woodrow wilson, wasn't really a rich family, had a religiously and devoted household. went to princeton university, got a bachelor degree, graduated from law school, got his doctrine degree, he was a lawyer teacher, professor, became president of princeton university, entered politics as governor of New Jersey, was president, He had a stroke and died, his wife ran the white house
-Woodrow Wilson's Domestic Presidential Accomplishments/Issues:
1. Clayton Anti-Trust Act
it clarified the sherman anti trust act, it strengthened it and helped break up monopolies, also gave labor unions the right to exsist, strikes became legal
2. Federal Trade Commission Act/Commission
created to stop and break up trusts- it carries out the clayton anti trust act
3. Federal Farm Loan Act
created for farmers having money problems, it helped pay for their farms and equipment
4. Underwood Tariff
lowering tariffs from 40% to 25%, they had a meeting of congress and wilson brought up tariffs, he started an act and it was supported by oscar underwood and it lowered tariffs
5. Federal Reserve Act
act that set up banking system, allowed them to use bills instead of coins, new banking system had 12 banks in it, banks would barrow from federal banks, it was a bankers bank, (biggest issue for banks people would take all their money out during the depression and banks would go broke. if a bank is running low on money they would go to a federal reserve bank. they can give out loans. they have lowered interest rates. It controls interest rates, during good times interest rates will go up, too low or not strict enough will not end up good. can control inflation and deflation by taking money out of circulation.
6. Keating–Owen Act
first law labor bill- it banned the selling of products made by children,l- first act to deal with child labor
7. Adamson Act
gave an 8 hr work day to railroad industry workers, first federal law of 8 hr workday, also started overtime pay
8. US Neutrality in WWI
WWI broke out in 1914, officially US declared neutrality, we could trade with anyone, GB was stopping and ceasing goods on our ships, Germany was sinking our ships with submarines, woodrow wilson said we should be nuetral in thought and action, in 1916 woodrow won presidency again, takes oath in march 1917, 1 month after oath we declared war on Germany, we were in for a year and a half, WWI ended in 1919
9. Policy towards African-Americans
progressives didn't do anything for African americans, mostly because of popularity, woodrow wilson brought segregation to D.C. he allowed it to happen
Comments