1 The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America,
2 Backdrop to a RevolutionVictorian Era wealthy members of society separated themselves in many ways: Their children were sent out on their own at a very early age to exclusive boarding schools in England. Divorce became popular amongst the rich. Ten percent of the Americans worth $20 million or more who were born between 1839 and 1865 were divorced. Of those born from 1865 to 1900, approximately twenty percent were divorced. Backdrop to a Revolution
3 Divorce Rates
4 Breaking With TraditionMost Victorian-era men and women believed in the virtue of hard work, and that a man could only be free if he showed rigid self-discipline, and limited his leisure time. Determined to secure wealth, many of the rich thus glorified hard work, limited leisure, and warily eyed consumption. As a boy in a Victorian household, Bradley Martin had learned about, “the importance of work” and “absolute self denial.” But he, and so many of the upper ten percent, had little need of work, or to deny themselves pleasures. Instead, they became pleasure seekers and accumulators of wealth. Breaking With Tradition
5 The children of the wealthy learned well in some casesThe children of the wealthy learned well in some cases. The Vanderbilt's were no exception. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s oldest brother had a $5 million dollar house on Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Third street in New York. They paid their twenty-four servants approximately $200,000 to $300,000 a year to maintain their residence while they were away. George Vanderbilt takes the cake with his estate, aptly named Biltmore, a 250 chateau on 146,000 acres, and employing more workers than the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Biltmore included gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, as well as schools, a hospital, and a model village. Oh, To Be Rich…
6 The Down-Side To All That Money…By 1913 John D. Rockefeller was unquestionably the richest man in America with a fortune that clocked out just north of $1 billion dollars. All that money could not save his son, John Jr., who succumbed to a mental breakdown in his early twenties and was institutionalized. For all the talk of the supposed good of self-denial and accumulation of wealth, it did have unintended side-effects like allowing some to engage in what might be called self- destructive behavior. The Down-Side To All That Money…
7 Move Over McKinley, Hello Roosevelt!McKinley’s original vice president, Garret Hobart, had died in late 1899, and Republican Party leaders named Roosevelt, now virtually Mr. Imperialism, his running mate. McKinley outpolled Bryan by 7.2 million to 6.4 million popular votes and 292 to 155 electoral votes. Less than a year later, on September 6, 1901, at a reception at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz (Chole-gosh) approached the fifty-eight-year-old president with a gun concealed in a bandaged hand and fired at point-blank range. McKinley died eight days later, after only six months on the job, and Theodore Roosevelt was elevated to the White House. At age 43 he was the youngest president the country had ever had. Move Over McKinley, Hello Roosevelt!
8 Roosevelt As PresidentRoosevelt filed 44 antitrust suits under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. A leading imperialist under McKinley, Roosevelt relished America’s role as policeman to the world—and he took great advantage of his position as the top cop. In 1905, he brokered the treaty that settled a war between Russia and Japan for which he won a Nobel Peace Prize. Roosevelt As President
9 “Muckrakers” were investigative journalists, who thrived on exposing the social ills of American society. They include the likes of Henry Demarest Lloyd (Wealth Against Commonwealth, 1894), Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives, 1890), Upton Sinclair, whose novel on meatpacking practices in Chicago, called The Jungle, made the entire country queasy. The majority of these social journalists used the new and inexpensive medium of magazines to spread their social gospel. “Muckrakers are often indispensable to…society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.”
10 The Impact of the MuckrakersThe muckrakers’ impact was magnified by the fact that they were often published in the fairly new medium: the popular (and cheap) magazine. The magazines included McClure’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and the Ladies’ Home Journal. Muckrakers like Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis, and Upton Sinclair had a profound effect on American culture through the articles they wrote for these magazines.
11 Without muckrakers, Progressivism would never have achieved widespread popular support.However, in giving the public the sordid stories and details they craved, Progressives and their movement showed its central weakness: Progressives were far stronger at being able to diagnose social ills than come up with any sort of workable remedy for them. Progressives believed that giving the people the information they needed would be enough to help them make better decisions and remedy ills where they found them. This led to a mixed bag of successes and failures. The Good With The Bad
12 “There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust where workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it…a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put out poisoned bread for them, they would die, and then rats, bread and meat would go into the hoppers together.” Reading The Jungle
13 Roosevelt Reacts to The JungleRoosevelt sent two agents to Chicago after reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and they confirmed what Sinclair had written. They reported to Roosevelt that, “We saw meat shoveled from filthy wooden floors, piled on tables rarely washed, pushed from room to room in rotten box carts, in all of which processes it was in the way of gathering dirt, splinters, floor filth, and the expectoration of tuberculous and other diseased workers.” Immediately, Roosevelt pushed Congress to act. Roosevelt Reacts to The Jungle
14 For The Public Good Congress, acting on Roosevelt’s information created two measures that would both pass on the same day ironically. They would have a lasting effect on interstate commerce, and American consumption. The Meat Inspection Act (1906) It required federal inspection of meats destined for interstate commerce and empowered officials in the Agriculture department to impose sanitation standards in processing plants. The Pure Food and Drug Act Enacted the same day, it created the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It stopped the sale of contaminated foods and medicines. It also called for truth in labeling and urged manufacturers to place warning labels on items containing harmful ingredients.
15 Teddy Roosevelt and ConservationBefore Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government paid very little attention to the nation’s natural resources. Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern of his administration. Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves, 1.5 million acres of water-power sites, 50 wildlife sanctuaries, and several national parks. Teddy Roosevelt and Conservation
16 Roosevelt and Conservation
17 Yellowstone National Park
18 Roosevelt and Civil RightsWhile Roosevelt did a great many things during his Presidency, he did very little in the way of supporting Civil Rights. He did, however, support great individuals and their efforts to change the racial landscape of America during the Progressive Era. For example, he supported Booker T. Washington and his creation of the Tuskegee Institute, which provided a technical and vocational education for African-Americans. Roosevelt and Civil Rights
19 The Creation of the NAACPIn 1909 a number of African Americans and prominent white reformers formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP had 6,000 members by 1914. The goal of the organization was full equality among the races through the court system, a position supported by W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington. The Creation of the NAACP
20 Republicans split in 1912 between Taft and Roosevelt (who returned after a safari to Africa).Convention delegates nominated Taft and discontented Republicans formed a third party, the Progressive Party (nicknamed the Bull Moose Party), and nominated Roosevelt. The Democrats put forward a reform-minded New Jersey governor, Woodrow Wilson. The Election of 1912
21 1912 Election Results
22 Wilson’s “New Freedom”Having won by a fairly large margin, Wilson was now firmly in the Presidency and spared no time getting to work. Wilson moved to enact his program, the “New Freedom.” He planned his attack on what he called the triple wall of privilege: trusts, tariffs, and high finance. Despite the great programs he backed, he was at heart a Southerner, a Democrat, and would hardly budge on the issue of segregation. Wilson’s “New Freedom”
23 Changes to the Federal Government:The People Begin to Overhaul the System
24 The Clayton Anti-Trust ActIn 1914 Congress enacted the Clayton Anti-Trust Act that strengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It had an anti-trust provision that prevented companies from acquiring stock from another company and supported workers’ unions. The Clayton Anti-Trust Act
25 The Creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)The FTC was formed in 1914 to serve as a “watchdog” agency to end unfair business practices. The FTC protects consumers from business fraud. The Creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
26 Income Tax For All!!!: The 16th AmendmentA federal income tax had been tried before, once during the Civil War and once during the hard economic times of 1894, but neither attempt was successful. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5 to 4 vote, struck down the 1894 effort as unconstitutional. The Sixteenth Amendment, which was pushed by Progressives, was proposed in and ratified in 1913. This amendment gave Congress the power to slap a federal tax on income, which it promptly did. Congress required a 1 percent tax on annual income above $4,000, and a 2 percent tax on income above $20,000. Of course, the rates have gone up since. Income Tax For All!!!: The 16th Amendment
27 The People Elect Their SenatorsThe Seventeenth Amendment (1913)- This amendment provided for the direct election of U.S. Senators instead of having them selected by state legislatures. The People Elect Their Senators
28 The Creation of the Federal ReserveThe Federal Reserve Act of This act divided the country into 12 districts, each with its own bank and board of directors. This division helped to better oversee banking practices and policies and prevent panics and bank failures. The Creation of the Federal Reserve
29 Federal Reserve System
30 Women Fight for Their Right…To VoteIndependent Women: Women Fight for Their Right…To Vote
31 “Fight For Your Right!”: Women Get the Right to VoteIn 1870, 60 percent of working women were in domestic service. By 1920, it was only 20 percent, and women made up 13 percent of the professional ranks. In 1892, membership in women’s clubs was about 100,000. By 1917, it was more than one million. And women’s increasing independence was reflected in the fact that the divorce rate rose from 1 in every 21 marriages in 1880 to 1 in 9 by 1916. Women began to occupy more non-traditional roles and, as a result, began to demand equality in voting rights with men. “Fight For Your Right!”: Women Get the Right to Vote
32 Woman Suffrage Before 1920
33 Knowing Their Place: Women Begin to Break FreeWomen began to cross social boundary lines into public spaces. In cities, department stores became a legitimate place for women. Some streets became the particular province of women alone. In New York City, there was the famous Ladies’ Mile, up Broadway from Fourteenth to Twenty-Third streets, where women could stroll and window shop with no question about the morals or reasons for being there. Still the basic premise of segregation remained paramount. Albeit the segregation between the masculine world and the feminine one, but still segregation just the same. Knowing Their Place: Women Begin to Break Free
34 Women Are Made to “Suffer”By 1917 the suffrage movement was building momentum. In July of that year, a score of suffragists tried to storm the White House. They were arrested and taken to the county workhouse. President Woodrow Wilson was unamused, but sympathetic, and pardoned them. The next year, a constitutional amendment, the nineteenth, was submitted to the states. When ratified in 1920, it gave women the right to vote in every state.
35 “SUPERMEN”: The Battle For Racial Purity:Eugenics and Its Impact on the Progressive Movement in America
36 Eugenics in America: A Downside to ProgressivismEugenics is the science of improving the genetic stock of mankind by encouraging the reproduction of people with desirable traits and discouraging the reproduction of those that were undesirable. Eugenic scientists in the U.S. were much more focused on making sure the wrong kind of people couldn’t reproduce. Fearing the human race would be overrun by the “feebleminded” and the insane, Eugenists campaigned for state laws allowing for the involuntary sterilization of the inmates of mental institutions. The states of Indiana and California enacted such laws from to 1910. Eugenics in America: A Downside to Progressivism
37 The Eugenics “Platform”Produce superior races of people (Central Belief of the Movement) Social Darwinism (Natural Selection, Survival of the Fittest) No miscegenation (Mixed races, mixed marriages, etc.) Anti-immigration (Chinese, Irish, Italians, etc.) Control & organize races (Separate them/control their reproduction) Racial purity (Strength in the Blood/Strength of National Heritage) “Intelligence” (I.Q. Test to separate “feebleminded” from others) Sterilization (Reproductively disabling the undesirable of society) The Eugenics “Platform”
38 The Progressives and EugenicsThe Progressives, by and large, did not support the type of exclusion eugenics offered. Instead, many of them supported segregation. In supporting segregation, although they did not support literacy tests and separate facilities, they negated the basic premise of their movement, association. This reveals yet another weakness of the overall movement. While they were constrained by the social and political mores of their day, Progressives had a hard time pushing beyond them in this particular situation. The Progressives and Eugenics
39 States That Authorized Sterilization of “Inferiors”
40 YIKES!: The Immigration Act of 1917"all idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons; persons who have had one or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; persons of constitutional psychopathic inferiority; persons with chronic alcoholism; paupers; professional beggars; vagrants; persons afflicted with tuberculosis in any form or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease; persons not comprehended within any of the foregoing excluded classes who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such physical defect being of a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living; persons who have been convicted of or admit having committed a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; polygamists, or persons who practice polygamy or believe in or advocate the practice of polygamy; anarchists, or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States" YIKES!: The Immigration Act of 1917
41 “Give Prohibition A Chance”:Women’s Temperance Groups, Fundamentalists, and the Outlawing of “Demon” Rum
42 Carrie Nation Gets To WorkOn the morning of June 6, 1900, in Medicine Lodge, Kansas Carrie A. Nation loaded brickbats and other “smashers” into her buggy and headed for the town of Kiowa nervous and praying all the way to town. Saloons had been outlawed in Kansas since the passage of an amendment in 1880, but that did not stop them from operating. So called “joints” and “dives” still did a healthy business in most towns. The next morning she strode into Mr. Dobson’s saloon pronouncing, “I do not want to strike you, but I am going to break up this den of vice.” She then hurled her brickbats and other smashers at the liquor bottles behind the bar and then destroyed the mirrors around the bar. She left that bar and destroyed three more in the town that same day. Passersby, the bar owners, and law enforcement officials were puzzled by her actions and did not move to arrest her.
43 Carrie Goes Too Far Seven months later she went to Wichita, Kansas and smashed the bar of the swanky Carey Hotel with an iron rod hidden in her dress. The people were not perplexed this time and she was arrested, tried, and found guilty of “malicious mischief,” then sent to jail for a month. She next took down saloons in Enterprise, Kansas where people threw rotten eggs at her, beat her, kicked her and tore out chunks of her hair. Finally in Topeka, Kansas (the state capital), she used a hatchet to attack dives and gin joints, raised her own army of “Home Defenders,” and of course, went to jail on more than one occasion. Across Kansas many of these groups attacked dives and joints and destroyed them. This caused many of the people in power in the Kansas state government to take prohibition more seriously than they had before.
44 Carrie Nation’s SignificanceHer “smashing” laid bare much of the logic and passion that spurred the progressive crusades to reshape adult behavior. Her behavior may have been extreme, but the things that drove it were typically progressive: changing middle-class values, and a profound sense of urgency. Like many progressives, she sought to regulate pleasure and alter masculine behavior. She also displayed the typical middle-class preoccupation with religious fervor and an insistence on action. Her obsession with the saloon and its destruction because of its adverse effects on masculinity and the family is typical of the era as well. Carrie Nation’s Significance
45 Prohibition In America, 1880-1920
46 The Backdrop to ProhibitionProhibition was among a litany of other adult behaviors Progressives tried to regulate. Among them were: card playing, gambling, horse racing, Sabbath breaking, pornography, dance halls, and contraception. Alcohol outweighed all of these in the 1900s. Liquor was seen by many as “the open sore of this land…the most fiendish, corrupt, and hell- soaked institution that ever crawled out of the slime of hell.” It was believed that drinking contributed to prostitution. Taken together, drink, prostitution, saloons, and brothels were the epicenter of vice in America. Another issue, divorce also loomed large in this time. For many Americans, the dissolution of marriage posed an obvious mortal threat to the home and domesticity. The Backdrop to Prohibition
47 Backdrop to Prohibition cont.Per capita consumption of beer and hard liquor was on the rise in the 1890s. Americans had drunk 590 million gallons of beer and other malt liquors in 1885; in 1900, that figure reached 1.2 billion gallons. In the twenty years from 1880 to 1900, the number of retail liquor establishments had nearly doubled from 150,000 to 250,000. Prostitution had likewise skyrocketed. There were now several different places around the U.S. specializing in the trade. The Tenderloin in Manhattan, the Levee in Chicago, Hooker’s Division in Washington and the Barbary Coast in San Francisco. The spread of venereal diseases were directly related to the growth of prostitution, and people blamed prostitution for bringing those diseases into the innocence of American homes. Backdrop to Prohibition cont.
48 Nail in the Coffin: Divorce Rises Among All ClassesProgressives noticed that states were accepting more grounds for divorce; in particular “cruelty,” expansively defined had become a popular grounds for divorce. Some religious denominations seemed more willing to sanction divorces. As a result, the divorce rate had risen from 3.0 divorces per thousand marriages in 1890 to 4.0 per thousand in 1900. As the new century dawned, the United States had the highest rate of legal marital dissolution in the world. Nail in the Coffin: Divorce Rises Among All Classes
49 Women’s Organizations Join the FightThe Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) began and continued to pressure state legislatures for better liquor laws and “scientific temperance instruction” in schools. The Anti-Saloon League, formed in Ohio in the 1880s focused its attention on the saloon. The ASL pushed to give local communities the option to close their saloons. The ASL exerted real power over the prohibition question. If they failed to close, saloons were harassed by a variety of laws restricting selling hours, forcing Sunday closings, banning side and rear entrances, raising license fees, and mandating one and two mile “dry zones” around schools, military bases and crossroads. By 1905 prohibitionists began to exhibit real political power and influence. The Republican governor of Ohio lost his bid for reelection because of his opposition to the Anti-Saloon League.
50 Prohibition Fever Takes Over the CountryIn 1907 Georgia and Alabama went dry. Oklahoma, with the help of Carrie Nation, entered the Union as a dry state that same year. The states of Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Connecticut, Illinois and even Kansas followed suit in the years Spurred mainly by fundamentalist religious groups in the South and Midwest, the decade-long effort to abolish the production and sale of alcoholic beverages gained momentum. Culminating in the Eighteenth Amendment, also referred to as Prohibition, it went into effect on January 16, 1920. The amendment was repealed in 1933.
51 Prohibiting ProstitutionThe prostitution campaign did not have as much backing as Prohibition. It never had the political, personal or law enforcement connections that Prohibition did. However, it made some progress. Iowa approved the Injunction and Abatement Act of 1909, which allowed a permanent injunction against any brothel and an abatement closing the property for up to a year and permitting the sale of its contents. Prohibiting Prostitution
52 “Sorry Mrs. Jackson”: Divorce Gets Its DueDivorce, like prostitution, never really had the political and social influence of the crusade against “Demon” rum. While it did see the formation of the National Divorce Reform League in the 1880s, and then the National League for the Protection of the Family in the 1890s, it never got far beyond simply lobbying Congress. They tried to create a National Uniform Divorce Law, but neither they, nor the state legislatures they lobbied, could agree on what exactly that law was supposed to cover. As one writer, and proponent of the league stated, “Instead of ending their marriages, unhappy couples should content themselves with the purging, purifying influence of suffering.” “Sorry Mrs. Jackson”: Divorce Gets Its Due