Friday, February 18, 2011
Progressive Era Study Guide
The Progressive movement (ca. 1900-1920) responded to an increasingly urban, corporate, and industrial American society, whose outlines alarmed the middle classes. In the view of reformers, political machines, ethnic enclaves, and social disorder threatened democracy and equality. Consequently, Progressives embarked on a drive to reform American life. Child labor laws, welfare benefits, factory inspections, restrictive immigration laws, Prohibition, trust-busting, and women's suffrage are just some examples of the contradictory yet historic reforms enacted by the Progressives. Historians view the American entry into the First World War as both the high point and the beginning of the end for the movement, but many Progressive impulses survived into the New Deal era. Help yourself & your classmates gain an even deeper understanding of the key aspects of this era by creating a study guide for your assigned topic. (16 points)
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Cassidy Cohen
ReplyDeleteMackrakers: reporters who investigated information that was hidden to the public, which exposed corruption and dishonesty
Key players:
• Henry Demarest Lloyd: early muckraker who attacked practices of Standard Oil and railroads
• Samuel Sidney: founded magazine→ contained many muckraking articles
• Jacob Riis: described big city politics “How The Other Half Lives”
• Upton Sinclair: “ The Jungle”, conditions of meat packing industry
Why did this movement come about?
• Growth→ concern for many Americans
• People wanted to make the corruption of big business known
• Wanted reform
What efforts were made at reform?
• Muckraking: exposed differences and injustices and revealed corruption
• Informed the public of the realities of politics and factory conditions
• Books, articles, magazines
How successful were they?
• Became very popular→ publishers found that readers loved to read about secret plans in politics
• McClaure’s Magazine (1893)- successful muckraking articles
• Journalists helped raise public awareness of flaws within U.S politics and society
• Began to decline after 11910
What is the legacy?
• Decline after 1910
Reasons that muckraking declined:
1. It became difficult to outdo the last story
2. Economic pressures from banks and businesses
3. Cooperation’s became more aware of their public image
Emily Koller
ReplyDeleteStudy Guide Topic: Woodrow Wilson
Background
-Wilson was the 28th president of the US
-He was a leader of the Progressive Movement
-Previously the President of Princeton University and the Governor of New Jersey
-Elected president in 1912 (democrat)
New Freedom
-Wilson's idea of New Freedom promoted a limited federal government and strong opposition to monopolies
-Wilson tried to accomplish this by 3 types of reform:
~Banking Reform-Federal reserve system and the Federal Farm Loan Act (set up bank loans to help farmers); helped protect "the people"
~Business Reform-"If America is not to have free enterprise, he can have freedom of no sort whatever." (Wilson) was strongly against trusts and monopolies; Federal Trade Act (halted illegal business practices); CLayton Anti-Trust Act (sought to prevent anticompetitive practices in the economy, helped give laborers more rights)
~Tariff Reform- Underwood Tariff Act of 1913 (lowered tariffs substantially)
Moral Diplomacy
-Wilson opposed self-interested imperialism and hoped to promote and use a higher moral standard when dealing with foreign affairs
-With the help of Secretary of State William Bryan, Wilson wanted to show respect towards other nations and hopefully spread democracy
-Tried to fix the past:
~Jones Act of 1916 tried to fix relations with the Philippines by offering them independence when they have a stable government
~1917 Congress passed an act granting U.S citizenship to all living in Puerto Rico
~1914 Wilson got Congress to repeal the act that allowed US boats from paying tolls at the Panama Canal; the British were very pleased by this
Wilson and Latin America
-Despite his feelings of anti-imperealism, Wilson kept troops in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic throughout his presidency because he felt it was necessary to maintain stability
-The revolution in Mexico tested President Wilson; the Tampico Incident created tension between US and MX which was mediated. However, revolutionary Pancho Villa entered America and killed 17 Americans, triggering Wilson to send in troops.
-The tension between US and MX was growing.
Although Wilson was faced with some very difficult challenges, he succeeded in reforming domestic policy through the Federal Reserve System, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, the Underwood Tariff Act, etc. He also made some progress with his idea of Moral Diplomacy, although it was not as much as he had wanted.
Andy Smithline
ReplyDeleteStudy Guide Topic: President William Howard Taft
Background
- Taft was a member of Roosevelt''s cabinet as secretary of war.
- Roosevelt, being loyal to the two term limit, picked Taft to be his successor.
- With a great deal of support from the republican party Taft defeated Democratic nominee William Jennings Brian in the Presidential election of 1908 to become the President of the United States.
- Taft is a mammoth!!! He's 300 plus pounds.
Taft's Presidency
- Taft continued Roosevelt's progressive policies.
- Taft was a trust buster. He ordered the prosecution of nearly twice the number of antitrust cases than Roosevelt had.
- Taft was also a conservationist. Taft established the Bureau of Mines, added large tracts in the Appalachians and set aside federal oil lands.
- The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to suspend new railroad rates and oversee telephone, cable and telegraph companies.
- The 16th Amendment justified the United States government to collect income tax, protecting the lower class.
- Taft desired great civil service reform to protect the lower classes across America.
- Taft also improved the performance of the United States Postal Service.
-17th Amendment was also mandated in Taft's presidency. The amendment mandated the direct election of senators by the people, replacing the previous system in which they were selected by state legislatures.
- During Taft's presidency he did not get along so well with the media as he was not as socially outgoing as his predecessor Teddy Roosevelt had been.
- Taft actively pursued "Dollar Diplomacy" in order to further economic developments of Latin American and Asian countries.
- Supporter of free immigration. Endorsed Booker T. Washington but did not stop the practice of lynching and did not enforce the 15th Amendment.
Split in the Republican Party
- During Taft's Presidency the Republican Party split. Progressives vs. Conservatives. Progressives argued against Taft because....
1.) They were against the Payne-Aldrich Tariff. Raised the tariff which angered the Republicans and made a public statement of support for it.
2.) Progressives did not trust Taft's secretary of interior, Richard Ballinger as he opened up public lands in Alaska for private development. Progressives did like his chief of Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot as he was a dedicated conservationist. Taft fired Pinchot after he criticized Ballinger much to the anger of Progressives.
3.) Progressives viewed Joe Cannon a conservative Speaker of the House in congress as a shield from a dictatorship and they did not like when Taft did not support Cannon.
4.) At midterm elections Taft supported conservative candidates and not progressive candidates. His support of the conservative candidates ultimately led to the fraction between the republican party.
- During the Presidency not only did the Republican Party split but a third party grew. The Socialist Party who called for more radical reforms than the progressive party like public ownership of railroads, utilities and even major industries such as oil and steel. Founder= Eugene Debs.
Taft's Run for a 2nd term
- Candidates = Conservative Republican= Taft
- Progressive Republicans- Theodore Roosevelt
- Democrats= Woodrow Wilson.
- Socialists- Debs.
- Taft however had little popularity after his first term and he lost the election (received 23 percent of the votes). The election of 1912 was mainly a battle between Roosevelt and Wilson won by Wilson.
The Aftermath
- Taft joined the League to Enforce Peace, in an attempt to generate world peace.
- Taft was also appointed Chief Justice by President HArding after World War I.
- Taft died in March of 1930. He had sleep apnea.
- His legacy will not be too good as he was not the most popular president. However, Taft did take some progressive steps during his Presidency.
Study Guide topic: Women's Suffrage
ReplyDelete*by 1900, the older generation of suffrage crusaders (like Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton) had passed to the younger generation
*gaining the vote was the most popular movement in the Progressive Era for women
*not all male Progressives however approved the women’s movement
*President Wilson refused to support the suffragists’ call for a national amendment until late his presidency
Key Figures:
Carrie Chapman Catt
-from Iowa, became the new president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1900
-believed that vote would empower women & enable them to actively care for their families in an industrial society
-tried to win votes for women at state level then changed strategy for a suffrage amendment in the Constitution.
Alice Paul
-New Jersey
-was a militant suffragist: DEF- women who took a more militant approach to gaining the vote; took to the streets with mass pickets, parades and hunger strikes
-separated from NAWSA in 1916 and formed the National Woman's Party
-focused on winning the support of Congress and the President for an amendment to the Constitution (like Catt)
Important Accomplishment:
Nineteenth Amendment
1920-it was until after WWI that the majority in Congress and President Wilson to adopt the women’s suffrage amendment
-guaranteed women’s right to vote in all elections at the local, state and national levels
Extra Note:
-after amendment approval- Carrie Chapman Catt organized the League of Women Voters (1920)
-League of Women Voters: a civic organization dedicated to keeping voters informed about candidates and issues
-women activists also fought for other rights besides suffrage & achieved in-
-securing educational equality
-liberalizing marriage & divorce laws
-reducing discrimination in business & professions
-recognizing women’s rights to own property
-Although Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were popular suffrage crusaders, it was until the Progressive era that the women achieved in what they wanted most: Vote. Most important for women is the forming of the Nineteenth Amendment & that women finally got their voice heard.
Study Guide Topic: Settlement Houses
ReplyDeleteImmigrant Neighborhoods
- Increase in immigrants--> increase in poor ethnic neighborhoods
-Landlords divided inner-city housing into small, windowless rooms
-4,000 people in one city clock
- 1879= law passed requiring each bedroom to have a window because too many people were living in the same cramped and dirty conditions.
This law was passed to try and limit the amount of deadly diseases (Cholera, Typhoid, Tuberculosis) were spread
- Different immigrant groups created their own neighborhoods with its own language, social areas, places of religious worship, and sometimes schools
- "ghettos" were usually very poor,overcrowded, dirty, and full of crimes which was why settlement houses were established.
Settlement Houses
- Well Educated, idealistic middle class people like Jane Addams, Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins settled into immigrant neighborhoods to get an insider's look on the problems immigrants were facing in their poor living conditions.
- Hull House: 1889 Jane Addams taught immigrants how to speak English and sparked the idea of industrial arts, and education for the children in immigrant neighborhoods
-Reforms: Child labor laws, housing reforms, women's rights--> took action in Franklin Roosevelt's reform programs in 1930s New Deal
Conservation Study Guide (reached its height between 1904-1912)
ReplyDeleteWhy did it start?
-Americans start to realize that they do not have an unlimited supply of natural resources- desire to preserve nation’s beauty and biodiversity
-major debate: exploit resources until they run out or conserve resource to sustain the supply
-forests were depleted, farmland was not fertile bc it was exhausted by overuse, oil and gas excretions polluted the air
-conservationists realize that they need to take action or else greedy Americans will use up all nations resources
-Laissez-faire economy is wasteful and inefficient- need to take action
Key Players
Teddy Roosevelt
-loved wilderness so when became president did a lot to further the success of conservation
-made Conservation a national political movement
-used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to make 150 acres of federal land into national reserves that could not be privately sold
-set up bird and game reserves and national parks and monuments
-1908-hosted a conference at the White House to publicize conservation
Gifford Pinot
-leader of the National Conservation Commission (formed after Roosevelt's conference)
-eventually becomes director of the US Forest Service
-worked to preserve 170 acres in the West and led national park management
William G Steel
-Worked to create the Crater Lake National Park in Oregon
John Muir
-1901- wrote Our National Parks about the US national scenic wilderness- helped gain national attention to the issue of conservation
Key Legislation
-1902- Newlands Reclamation Act- gov takes an active role in water management- money from the sale of public land used for irrigation projects in the Western states
-1906- Roosevelt Signs the Antiquities Act- president can restrict the use of certain public land that is owned by the federal government - led the the establishment of numerous national monuments such as the Grand Canyon National Monument
Success
-overall the Conservation movement was successful in that it set preserves a lot of land for national forests, monuments, game and bird reserves
- some of the many national parks created were: Sullys, Mesa Verde, Platts National Park
-however, Roosevelt and the other key players of this movement couldn't defeat the greed and waste associated with the Laissez-faire economy- so there was still a lot of land used to sustain the economy and still a lot of natural resources exploited to contribute to national wealth and prosperity
Matt Cysner
ReplyDeleteThe Socialist Labor Party
Founder
-Eugene V Debs
-formerly a railroad union leader.
-he ran for president in this party 5 times but never won. (He got 6% of the votes which was huge for a 3rd party).
The Group
-considered a group of radical progressives.
-made up of mostly the middle class.
-started to gain steam in the early 1900’s.
-same ideals as progressive.
-wanted radical reforms such as public ownership of companies (railroads, steel, oil, etc…).
-Didn’t like the idea of one person controlling the wealth, instead they wanted combined ownership.
-wanted to make many reforms similar to those wanted by labor unions.
-worker’s pension, 8 hour work day, etc…
-the progressives distanced themselves from the Socialist Labor Party.
-it never really became popular because the public wanted mild reform. Throughout history, radicals never become the main part of anything.
The Temperance Movement
ReplyDeleteKey Players:
- Frances E. Willard (Leader of WCTU)
- Carry A. Nation (Kansas) raided saloons and smashed barrels of beer with a hatchet
- Susan B. Anthony (also was vigorously involved with women’s suffrage)
Why did this movement come about?
Before the 1870’s:
- high rate of alcohol consumption (5 gallons of hard liquor per person in 1820)
o believed to therefore be the cause of social ills like poverty and insanity
During the 1870’s:
- Women were convinced that excessive drinking of alcohol by male factory workers was the main cause for poverty for immigrants and working-class families.
During the progressive era:
- Urban progressives understood that saloons were often the neighborhood headquarters of political machines, but they more often then not showed no sympathy for temperance. Rural reformers thought they could kill two birds with one stone by cleaning up both politics and morals through temperance.
- From the 1850’s and onward, the movement focused mainly on Irish and German Immigrants
What efforts were made at reform?
Before the 1870’s:
- The American Temperance Society was formed in 1826 by a group of protestant ministers and others whom were concerned with the high rate of alcohol consumption.
o Used moral arguments to persuade others to stop they’re consumption of alcohol.
- The Washingtonians was another society that was formed in 1840 by a group of recovered alcoholics.
o Alcoholism was a disease that needed actual treatment.
During the 1870’s:
- The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in 1874 and was led by Frances E. Willard.
o Had 500 members by 1898
- The Anti-Saloon League was founded in 1893, and by 1916 had persuaded 21 states to close down all saloons and bars.
During the Progressive Era:
- Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the constitution in 1918, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
How successful were they?
Before the 1870’s:
- By the 1840’s it had become extremely respectable to only drink water in households, and with societies having over a million members, temperance became a path to middle-class respectability
During the Progressive Era:
- Hoover called prohibition a “noble experiment”, but by the 1930’s a majority of Americans had grown tired of this “noble” experiment and the 18th amendment was repealed.
o “Bootlegger”, “bath tub gin” and “speakeasy” became household words, and gangs had started to traffic alcohol.
What is the legacy?
Before the 1870’s:
- illustrated change from moral exhortation to political action
- Maine was the first state to ban the manufacturing and sales of alcohol before the civil war.
- In the 1850’s the issue was overshadowed by controversies involving slavery, but in the 1870’s it once again gained momentum.
After the Progressive Era:
- Effects of efforts included:
o Government regulation
o Instruction of alcoholism in schools
o Energizes study of alcoholism
- The repeal of the 18th amendment marked the end of the temperance movement as it lost its steam.
o An affect of the movement that is still visible today is alcoholics anonymous.
Michael Chen
ReplyDeleteTemperance and Prohibition
"The Noble Experiment"
Key players:
• Woodrow Wilson: Vetoed the Volstead Act
• Al Capone: St. Valentine's Massacre
• Franklin Roosevelt: Cullen-Harrison Act to counter Volstead Act
Why did this movement come about?
• Alcohol pushing people to do crazy things
• Previous feelings of anti-alcohol from Antebellum Era
What efforts were made at reform?
• 18th Amendment: Outlawed sale, transportation, and manufacture of alcohol
• Volstead Act: Ban on alcohol (poorly enforced)
How successful were they?
• Initially successful; however many underground clandestine organizations and gangs sprouted because of it
• Little effort to enforce ban on alcohol
• More violence erupted and the ban was put to blame
• Lost much power after St. Valentine's Massacre and during the Great Depression
What is the legacy?
• Decline after St. Valentine's Massacre and during the Great Depression
Reasons that temperance declined:
1. It became difficult to completely rid America of alcohol
2. Little effort was put into banning alcohol
3. Roosevelt countered Volstead Act with Cullen-Harrison Act which allowed for sale of certain alcoholic beverages
Kevin Song Study Guide
ReplyDeleteTopic: Roosevelt and the “Square Deal”
Key Players:
President Theodore Roosevelt.
• The Square deal was deal formed my President Theodore Roosevelt.
• It consisted of 3 main points.
• Conservation of natural resources
• Control of corporations
• Consumer protection.
• This deal tried to help middle class Americans be protected from the demands of organized labor.
• What this actually meant was that it limited power of trusts
• Promoted public health and safety
• Improved working conditions.
• This allowed Teddy to go after “bad trusts”
• Teddy used the Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890 and used that to file law suits against bad trust , such as the American Tobacco Company and Rockefellers Standard Oil.
African Americans in the Progressive Era: Study Guide
ReplyDeleteMaddie Pollack
Issues:
-Segregation:
Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate but equal ruling)
Jim Crow laws in the south
Segregated schools- inferior education to whites
-Unemployment
-Sharecropping
-Inability to vote:
Literacy tests
Grandfather clauses
-Lynchings by racists/the KKK
Reforms/Solutions:
-Many African Americans migrated north- ineffective, as many of the problems they’d had in the south were met in the north as well
-Tuskegee Institute: All-Black farming college, founded by Booker T. Washington
-NAACP- formed by W. E. B. DuBois, fought for equality of African Americans
-Return to Africa movement- Marcus Garvey
Booker T. Washington: believed that there should be peace between African Americans and whites, and that equality had to be achieved slowly (but surely!). Also believed that economic equality had to be achieved before political equality.
W.E.B. DuBois: Believed that African Americans should never accept inequality- demanded equality ASAP.