The Gilded Age Progressivism

The Election of 1990 and the Succession of Theodore Roosevelt

Election of 1901
Mckinley, and vice president vice presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt easily
defeated Williams Bryan
New York political bosses have Roosevelt nominated for VP to keep him from gaining
power
Felt it was a powerless position
Assassination of President Mckinley
Sept 6 1901
William Mckinley shot at an expositio in Buffalo, NY
Died 8 days later
Assassin Leon Czolgosz
Roosevelt became the youngest US president at age of 42
Reformers
The progressives and their objectives:
WEB Dubois-Black Leader in the early 1900s who fought for civil rights
Founder of the Niagara Movement-Demanded for blacks all their human rights at once.
Niagara movement helped create NAACP in 1909-National Association for the
advancement of colored people
Fought for AF to AM political rights
Booker T Washington-Founder of the Tuskegee Institute
Trained many blacks to be better farmers and mechanics
Felt they should train quickly for jobs they could do with their hands
Self respect, self education, and self help would bring blacks the opportunities they
desired
Muckrakers: Journalists and novelists who investigated and exposed corruption and other
illegal activities
Upton Sinclair: Wrote the Jungle-Described the miseries of workers in the stockyard and rotten
meat packaged for sale
Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act were passed 1906
Pure Food legislation was passed
Consumer Protection
Meat Inspection Act 1906
Federal officials inspect all meat shipped
Checked to see if all animals were healthy and if meat is packaged under sanitary
conditions
Pure Food and Drug Act 1906
The manufacture and sale of impure food, drugs and liquors was forbidden
Labels
Ida Tarbell: Published attacks on the standard oil company
Writing appeared in the popular McClures Magazine
Lincoln Steffens: A pioneer investigative reporter

 Wrote articles on the misgovernment of cities

A new force-media powers-enter politics
Political and Social Reform
Amendments:
16th-Made the federal income tax legal
17th-Allowed for the direct election of senators by voters
In the past Senators had been elected by stage legislatures voting changes
Voting Changes:
Direct Primary- Enabled voters to nominate their party candidates for the general election
Initiative- Voters can propose a law by petition and have it voted on by the public
Referendum- The initiative is put on the ballot for voters to pass or defeat
Recall- By petition, voters could force an official to stand for reelection at any time
Progressives were fighting for a woman's right to vote-suffrage-first state Wyoming
Political Reform:
Roosevelt favored more reforms: Income and inheritance taxes, federal rules for the
stock market, and more effective control of business
The trend was for gov to be more involved
Municipal Reform:
City Manager- A trained manager trying to run the city
The manager was not a politician
Replaced a mayor, worked well in small cities
State Reform
Robert Battling Bob
Laffollette-Elected gov of Wisconsin-1900
Enacted Progressive measures: Direct Primary, Railroad, Commission's, Civil Service,
restrictions on lobbying
Roosevelt called Wisconsin's a laboratory for Democracy
Roosevelts Domestic Program
Square Deal
Anthracite coal strike 1902
Workers hadn't seen a pay raise in 20 years
Roosevelt brought the striking workers and the owners together
Roosevelt showed how federal government could help
Govt action was considered to be fair to both labor and management
Coal Miners-9hrs day & 10% raise
Trust Busting
Northern Securities Case
A holding company that dominated the railroads of the northwest
Roosevelt sued under the sherman antitrust act
The supreme court ordered the company dissolved
Roosevelt's Trust Busting Philosophy
Moved against other unpopular trusts: beef, oil, tobacco
Felt the government should break up large corporations only when they hurt the public
Conservation

 Increased national forests by almost 150 million acres

Created US Forest service;headed by Gifford Pinchot
Pinchot planned reforesting the re planting of trees
Taft administration at home
Election of 1908
William Howard Taft, the secretary of war, was Roosevelt's hand picked successor
Taft easily defeated William J Bryan
Taft as a Progressive
Most felt that taft would follow
Roosevelt in fighting for reform
Many progressives felt he did not fight for anything
Taft and Trust Busting
Did not make the distinction between good and bad trusts like Roosevelt
Indict all trusts and and allow courts to decide which trusts were good or bad
Payne Aldrich Tariff
High tariffs were becoming a problem
consumer traits were raising;Taft promised to lower tariffs
The payne aldrich tariff was actually raised
this upset the progressives
Election of 1912
The Primaries:
The Republican party was badly split
The issue of conservation of natural resources caused a split between Roosevelt and
Taft
Democratic nominee: Woodrow Wilson-Gov of New Jersey
Republican Nominee: William Howard Taft
Progressives Republicans were very upset Taft was the nomination
Progressive Republicans pursued Roosevelt to run on a 3rd party ticket- Bull Moose
Party
Wilson won easily
Taft and Roosevelt split the republican vote giving Wilson The victory
Wilsons Domestic Program: New freedom
Underwood Tariff:
The underwood simmons tariff reduces taxes about 11% from the Paybe Alrich Tariff
Federal Reserve Act:
12 Districts
Created a more flexible Currency
Federal Reserve Note
Also to help a run on the banks

Federal Reserve System

All national banks had to

be part of the federal
reserve system
Divided by the county in 12
districts, each with a
federal reserve bank

Federal Reserve System

Federal reserve banks

held member banks
reserves and lent money
to member banks when
needed

Each was supervised by a

federal reserve board Appointed by the president
Clayton Antitrust Acts
Gave unions the right to exist
Manufacturers could not charge different buyers different prices
Federal Trade Commision
created to monitor bizness
could issue cease and desist orders against companies unfair trade