***CHAPTER 19 PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENTS, PROGRESSIVE POLITICS***

19.1
Utopian Idealists
Henry George young journalist in California who troubled by the railway strike of
1877 wrote Progress and Poverty. As a solution to industrialization, George
proposed a 100% tax on any increase in the value of land. It would reduce the
overall cost of land, allow farmers to once again flourish and redistribute wealth.
Promoted the single tax movement and in 1886 George ran under New Yorks
Central Labor Union but lost the mayorship.
Edward Bellamy, a journalist from Massachusetts, wrote Looking Backward in 1888.
It was of a society devoid of warfare, poverty and politics.
Ignatius Donnelly wrote Caesars Column in 1891 which was of the disparity
between a large working class and the elite. In the story, a few escape from the
working class to start a new community around platforms like the Farmers Alliance.
The Professors
John Dewy born in 1859 was invited to teach at the University of Chicago in 1894.
Because of the Pullman strike, he had difficulty getting to Chicago but learned of the
cause and its implications. Social Darwinism, or the application of Darwins theory to
the economy and that the fittest are those who naturally should rule. William
Sumner and Herbert Spencer supported these ideas but Dewy saw them as
unethical.
Richard Ely of John Hopkins attacked Social Darwinism as well as Dewey but called
for direct government action. Albion Small developed sociology and saw it not just
as a field of study but as a way to reform society.
The Muckraking Journalists
When Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York Evening World in 1887 he made it the
largest paper in the country famous for investigative journalism. The World did a
story on the adventures of the managers of the Equitable Life Assurance Society,
and public anger over the managers gambling of public money led to the election
of reform Charles Hughes.
A decade later William Randolph Hearst bought the San Francisco Examiner and
hired many famous investigative reporters for his paper as well.
Henry Demarest Lloyd was one of the first muckrakers. Muckraking is exposing
economic, social and political evils through journalism. So it was named by
Theodore Roosevelt. Lloyd covered the 1877 railroad strike and his 1881 expose of
Standard Oil Company denounced monopolies.
In 1893 S. S. McClure launched McClures Magazine included Ida Tarbells articles on
Rockefeller, Ray Bakers report of visiting striking miners and the report by Lincoln
Steffens on the Shame of Minneapolis.

In 1906 Upton Sinclair published the Jungle which led to the Federal Meat Inspection
Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act regulating the slaughterhouses.
19.2
The Rise of Machine Politics and the Progressive Response
Between 1870 and 1900 the population grew from 40 million to 75 million people.
Immigrants needed jobs and services and within that mix political machines formed
in the big cities.
New Yorks political machine was called Tammany Hall which ruled New York from
the 1850s to the 1930s. Gaining access to Tammany was part of the Irish rise to
power in New York. One of the earliest bosses was William M. (Boss) Tweed who led
Tammany between 1860-1870. He made his ally Abraham Oakley mayor of New
York and became wealth from stealing from development projects all across New
York. Tweed and the bosses after him robbed some one billion dollars from the city
and controlled the elections. When necessary Tammany created jobs to support
their underclass.
Tweeds corruption was attacked by Thomas Nast who helped arrest Tweed. Tweed
died in 1878 in prison. The New Leader John (honest John) Kelly was the first of
many Irish politicians in charge of Tammany. Kelly controlled the citys 40,000 jobs.
Politics in Boston was played at the neighborhood level where different leaders each
ruled their respective regions. John F. Fitzgerald of the North End had his daughter
Rose marry Joseph Kennedy and their son JFK became president. The political
machines may have worked but it shut many minorities and natives out of office.
The Progressive Challenge to City and State Government
Progressive reformers had little interest in major reforms like to socialism.
Grover Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo and in 1881 promised to clean up
municipal corruption. He did just that and secured the White House two years later.
Hazen S. Pingree was elected mayor of Detroit after 1889 Republican business
leaders want to end Detroits Democratic political machine. Pingree even forced the
private City Railways Company to lower fares from five cents to three cents. When
the 1893 Depression but many out of work he convinced owners of vacant lots to
allow people to use them for farming. He became known as Potato Patch Pingree.
Samuel M. jones known as Golden Rule Jones was mayor of Toledo from 1897 to
1904. Jones sold his oil company to Standard oil and was nominated mayor by
business leaders. Jones pent municipal funds on education and fought for eight hour
work days. The Republicans refused to nominate him so he ran independently and
won. He died in office and his successor Brand Whitlock continued until Woodrow
Wilson appointed Whitlock as US ambassador to Belgium during WWI.
Cleveland and Pingree both moved to the governors office.

South Dakota in the 1890s and Oregon in 1902 adopted these methods. These were
never really popular east of the Mississippi.
Initiative procedure by which citizens can introduce a subject for legislation
Referendum submission of a law to direct popular vote
Recall the process of removing an official by popular vote, usually after using
petitions by a vote
Reform came to New York City in a different way. Seth Low, the president of
Columbia University, was elected as an anti-Tammany candidate in 1901. He was
defeated in election two years later. At that point, New York returned to Charles
Murphy in 1910 but he launched his own reforms with loyalists Robert F Wagner and
Alfred E Smith in the House. After the Triangle Factory Fire in 1911 Murphy directed
Wagner and Smith to create the New York Factory Investigating Commission.
Frances Perkins who had witnessed the fire worked with Wagner and Smith and
pushed 36 measures through the New York Senate. Later, Perkins served as the
head of the states Department of Labor from 1933-1945. Robert Wagner went to
Washington and created the Social Security System and legislation for
unemployment insurance. He sponsored the Wagner Act, which gave labor unions
the right ot bargain. Al Smith was the governor of New York in the 1920s.
Progressive Education
In 1899 John Dewey wrote The School and Society which described how he thought
Progressive Education should be. Alice Chapman Dewy and Ella Young opened the
Laboratory School at the University of Chicago in 1896 as a child-centered
approach.
Jane Addams and the Settlement House Movement
In 1913 Jane Addams who lived at the Hull House on her purpose. Addams and
friend Ellen Starr opened the Hull House which was part of the community to help
poorer neighbors. Lillian Wald and Mary Brewster founded the Henry Street
Settlement and the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Services. Under Addams the Hull
House helped many in Chicago for 30 years.
19.3
Temperance the Womans Christian Temperance Union
The womens campaign against alcohol which was rooted in protestant faiths began
in the 1870s. In Hillsboro, Ohio the movement began and the Ohio women between
1873-1874 closed down 3,000 salons. The WCTU began with Frances Willard who
led the union until her death in 1898. It broadened its goals, and was one of the
strongest female voting candidates. By the time Willard died they had 200,000
members. Carry Nation smashed up the salon where her husband use to get drunk.
Their actions led the foundation for the eighteenth amendment but also the
nineteenth amendment.
The Social Gospel

In 1897, Charles Sheldon created In His Steps which sold 15 million copies. It was
the application of religious ethics to industrial conditions to alleviate poverty. In
1917 book A Theology for the Social Gospel Walter Rauschenbusch write on this.
Josiah Strong also wrote Our Country pleading for American missionary work in their
cities.
Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore pleaded for the end of monopolies. Many
Jewish immigrants into secular reform.
19.4
Progressive Politics on the National Stage
In 1901, President William McKinley died in Buffalo after being shot by Leon
Czolgosz but of an infection. Leon was an anarchist so there was heavy backlash
against their movement. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt too rein of the
presidency in Buffalo after a camping trip.
Roosevelt went to Harvard, and was elected to the New York Assembly at the age of
23 after marrying Alice Hathaway Lee. When she died he was a cowboy in Dakota
but returned to New York with Edith Carow and began his ascent. He was assistant
secretary of the navy by age 39. During the Spanish American War Roosevelt led
the Rough Riders in Cuba and eventually was elected governor of New York. The
boss of the Republicans in New York Tom Platt supported Teddy but when he realize
he was truly a progressive he derailed him and made him McKinleys running mate.
The Trustbuster and the Square Deal
James Hill who controlled the reat northern Railroad and E.H. Harriman of the Union
Pacific Railraod met with representatives of J. Piermont Morgan created the Northern
Securities Company limited. Roosevelt did not mention northern Securities to
Congress but under the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act Roosevelt would break up the
company.
In 1883 Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act which changed up
the Spoils system. The Pendleton Act covered only 10% of federal employees. By
1904 Roosevelt had broken up the Northern Securities Company Limited through
the Courts after two years.
Conservation In Nature
Roosevelt loved the great outdoors. He published the Strenuous life and increased
the Us forest reserves to 194 million acres. He promoted David E Warford as the
federal forest ranger and nominated Gifford Pinchot to be head of the Division of
Forestry. In 1907 charles Fulton said that no further forest reserves could be created
without an act of Congress. Roosevelt created 21 forests in ten days and then
signed the bill.
Roosevelt and African Americans

One of Roosevelts first moves was to invite Booker T. Washington to the White
house. Roosevelt supported African-American concerns but never made a big effort
to translate that concern into legislation.
Roosevelts Continuing Popularity
In 1904 the Republicans nominated Teddy but he refused to run for a third term.
Alton Parker, a chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals of the democrats lost.
Roosevelts popularity only grew until he chose William Howard Taft as his candidate
in 1908.
Taft Wins, Taft Loses the Elections of 1908 and 1912
Taft, a Federal district court judge in Ohio and governor general of the Philippines
and then secretary of war was nominated. The Democrats for 1908 returned to
William Jennings Bryan for a third try.
Tafts Administration, Tafts Policies
Taft replaced Secretary of the Interior James Garfield with Richard Ballinger. Taft kept
Pinchot and Roosevelt sailed for Africa. New York Representative Sereno Payne
proposed reducing the tariff rates and substituting an income tax. Aldrich revised it
however and aft still signed the Payne-Aldrich tariff. Taft vetoed bills by Congress to
lower the tariff on cotton, wool, steel and iron. Word came to Roosevelt in 1910. Taft
was far tougher on Standard oil Company and brought more antitrust suits in his
four than Roosevelts seven years.
The Unique election of 1912
Roosevelt was not alone in his estrangement of Taft. Senator Robert La Follete was
hinting that he would try to secure the nomination of 1912. La Follete was a
different type of Progressive who advocated an income tax, and was appalled by
current Southern conditions to African-Americans. Through the spring Taft and
Roosevelt fought it out. Taft while losing all of the primaries still controlled the party
machinery. Roosevelt ran for office under the Bull-Moose party after being rejected
at the RNC. Woodrow Wilson was also campaigning under the democrats. Wilson
had a degree in law from John Hopkins and was the president of Princeton. In 1910
Wilson was offered the nomination of governor for New Jersey and he accepted. He
was a progressive and got the state to adopt workmens compensation, a
commission to regulate public utilities and more open election laws. In addition, a
fourth candidate Eugene V Debs candidate of the Socialist party was running. While
Roosevelt spoke of nationalism Wilson spoke of a New Freedom that would break up
giant monopolies. Roosevelt was shot at a speech in Milwaukee but continued on for
another hour before receiving help. Wilson still won by 82%.
Woodrow Wilsons New Freedom
Wilson planned a few major initiatives for his country, conservation, access to raw
materials, banking and finance. He pushed for the creation of the National Park
Service and a month after his presidency gave a speech in person to the Congress.
Wilsons first victory was the passage of the Underwood-Simmons tariff. Wilson

managed to get tariff reductions through lobbyists by at least 10%. The new law
also used the power in the 16th amendment to introduce the first federal income tax
since the Civil War.
Wilson turned to reforming the banking system. JP Morgan had acted as the nations
banker, but they did little to help the nations farmers. Working with Virginia Senator
Carter Class, Wilson created the Federal Reserve System in a matter of months. It
passed the House and the Senate after Frank Vanderlip tried to derail it. The Layton
Anti-Trust Act of 1914 outlawed directorates and defined unfair business practices. It
helped unions according to Samuel Gompers. Separate legislation created the
Federal Trade Commission which had the mandate to limit monopolies. Wilson did
nothing in 1915 about child labor laws and did nothing to further the cause of
activists like Washington and WEB Dubois. He only spoke vaguely of a federal
commission to help African Americans.
In November of 1913 William Trotter of Boston talked with Wilson who did nothing to
pass legislation. They met again and Wilson lost his temper with Trotter when Trotter
lost his. Wilson watched the film Birth of a Nation which glorified the KKK.