Maya Chandler
Unit 11 Notes
Pg. 566
➢ Belief in Progress
○ Believed that the society was capable of improvement
■ Though, they also believed that progress could not occur recklessly
➢ Antimonopoly
○ Progressives did not always agree on actions to take which resulted in a variety of
reform impulses
○ Antimonopoly: is the fear of concentrated power and the urge to limit and
disperse authority and wealth
■ Was appealing to farmers and workers and also middle class Americans
● Helped empower government to regulate or break up trusts at both the
state and national level
○ There was also a belief in the importance of social cohesion (act of uniting a whole):
The belief that individuals are not autonomous (self ruling) but part of a great web of
social relationships
➢ Faith in Knowledge
○ Applying to society the principles of natural and social sciences- seemed route to
organization and efficiency
○ Many thought social order was a result of intelligent social organization and rational
procedures for guiding social and economic life
■ Others thought that knowledge kept society equitable and humane
● Others also thought that a modernized government must play an
important role in the process of improving and stabilizing society
➢ Muckrakers: are crusading journalista who began to direct public attention toward
social, economic, and political injustices
■ Committed to exposing scandal, corruption, and injustice to public view
➢ Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens
○ Major targets: trusts and railroads
■ Considered dangerously powerful and corrupt
○ Exposes of the great corporate organizations: Began to appear in the 1860’s when
others uncovered corruption among the railroad barons/nobles
➢ Ida Tarbell
○ Study on standard oil trust
○ By the turn of the century, many muckrakers were turning their attention to
government and urban political machines
➢ Lincoln Steffens
○ Reporter for McClure's Magazine
■ His tone of studied moral outrage all helped arouse sentiment for urban
political reform
○ The alternative to leaving government in the hands of corrupt party leaders was for the
people themselves to take a greater interest in public life
➢ In the twentieth century, muckrakers:
○ Investigated governments, labor unions, and corporations
○ They explored the problems of child labor, immigrant ghettos, and prostitution, and
family disorganization
○ Denounced destruction of natural resources, the subjugation of women, and
(occasionally) the oppression of blacks
Pg. 567
➢ The Social Gospel
○ The religious doctrines preached by those who believed that the churches should
directly address economic and social problems
■ An example of the fusion of religion with reform
○ Christian Social Welfare Organization: With a military structure which recruited
3,00 officers and 20,000 privates by the 1900’s
■ Offered material aid and spiritual service to the urban poor
○ Many religious people left to serve in the troubled cities
Pg. 568
➢ Father John Ryan
○ Catholic liberals such as Father John Ryan took to heart the pope's warning that “a
small number of very rich men have been able to weigh upon the masses of the poor a
yoke little better than slavery itself”
■ Worked to expand the scope of Catholic social welfare social organizations
○ Some progressives dismissed the Social Gospel as irrelevant moralization while others
used it as a compliment to their own work
○ The engagement of religion with reform helped bring to progressivism a powerful
moral component and commitment to all citizens
➢ The Settlement House Movement
○ One of the strongest element of progressive thought was the belief in the influence of
the environment on individual development
○ Social Darwinists argued that people's fortunes reflected their inherent fitness for
survival
■ Ones who argued this theory believed that the effects of an unhealthy
environment was the reason for having bad morals
Pg. 569-570
➢ James Addams and Hull House
○ Crowded immigrant neighborhoods of american cities caused much distress
■ The Hull House (which opened in 1889) in Chicago from the efforts of Jane
Addams
● Helped immigrant families adapt to the language and customs on their
new country
● Embraced a belief that middle-class Americans had a responsibility to
impart their own values to immigrants and to teach them how to create
middle class lifestyles
■ Movement became a training ground for many important female leaders of the
20th century
● Provided women with an environment and role the society considered
appropriate for unmarried women
■ The profession of social work
● Workers maintained a close relationship with the university of
Chicago in the field of sociology
Pg. 571
➢ The Allure of Expertise
○ Many reformers came to believe that only enlightened experts and well-designed
bureaucracies could create the stability and order America needed
○ Scientists and engineers could be brought to bear on the problems of the economy and
society
➢ Rise of Social Sciences
○ The urge toward expertise and organization helped produce the idea of scientific
management
■ Encouraged the development of modern mass production techniques and the
assembly line
● Inspired creation of social science: use of scientific techniques in the
study of society and its institutions
Pg. 572
➢ American Medical Association
○ Throughout the 1980’s doctors who considered themselves trained began to form local
associations and societies
○ State and local governments soon passed laws requiring the licensing of physicians
○ William H. Welch: revolutionized the teaching of medicine by moving students out of
the classrooms and into the laboratories and clinics
➢ National Association of Manufacturers
○ Businessmen created their own national organizations
■ National Association of Manufacturers (1895)
■ United States Chamber of Commerce (1912)
○ Farmers created their own organizations
■ The National Farm Bureau Federation
● Designed to spread scientific farming methods
● Teach sound and marketing techniques
● Lobby for the interest of their members
○ Some professionals used their entrance requirements to
■ Exclude blacks and women from their ranks
➢ Women and the Professions
○ American women found themselves excluded from most of the emerging professions
➢ Female-Dominated Professions
○ ⅔ of grammar school teachers were women
○ Women dominated in the nursing field
○ Most were also librarians
Pg. 573
➢ Socioeconomic Origins of the New Woman
○ A woman of the turn of the 20th century often from the middle class who dressed
practically, moved about freely, lived apart from her family, and supported herself
➢ Boston Marriages
○ Some single women lived alone, while others lived with other women in long term
relationships called "Boston marriages"
➢ GFWC
○
(GFWC) Organization that was created to coordinate the activities of local
organizations
■ These clubs focused on child and women labor reform, food and drug
industries, policies against Native Americans, and other social reforms
Pg. 574
➢ A Public Space for Women
○ Women were needed to extend their influence beyond the traditional females sphere
within the home and the family
○ Charlotte Perkins Gilman: “Women Economics”
■ Gender roles were exploitive and obsolete
○ The club movement
■ Allowed women to define a space for themselves in the public world without
openly challenging the existing male dominating order
■ Gave women access to family community
● Acted in ways that were “usually impossible” in male dominated
institutions
Pg. 575
➢ Women’s Trade Union League (1903)
○ A U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women formed in 1903
to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop
conditions
➢ Woman Suffrage
○ Fight for Women's Suffrage: a movement that attracted support from both
women and men
■ Most important leaders were women
○ Suffrage was a radical demand
■ Because of the rational some of its early supporters used to advance it
○ Most argued that women deserved the same rights as men
■ Right to vote
○ “The arbiter of her own destiny..if we are to consider her as a citizen as a member of a
great nation, she must have the same rights as all other members”
Pg. 576
➢ NAWSA
○ National American Woman Suffrage Association (1890)
■ Was an American women's rights organization formed as a unification of the
National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman
Suffrage Association (AWSA)
■ The NAWSA continued the work of both associations by becoming the parent
organization of hundreds of smaller local and state groups and by helping to
pass woman suffrage legislation at the state and local level
■ The NAWSA was the largest and most important suffrage organization in the
United States, and was the primary promoter of women's right to vote
■ The NAWSA pushed for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's
voting rights, and was instrumental in winning the ratification of the
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920
➢ Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
○ Amendment to the U.S. Constitution extended the right to vote to women in federal or
state elections
➢ Equal Rights Amendment
○ Proposed amendment to the U.S. constitution passed by Congress and submitted to the
states for ratification in 1971; outlawing discrimination based on gender, it was at first
seen as a great victory by women's-rights groups
○ The amendment fell 3 states short of the 38 required for ratification
■ However, many states have adopted similar amendments to their state
constitutions
Pg. 577
➢ Reforming Government
○ Most progressive goals required the involvement of government
○ American government in the United States of America
■ Poorly adapted to perform their ambitious tasks
○ First step: an assault on the dominant role the political parties played in the life of the
state
■ Parties were corrupt
➢ Early Attacks
○ Attacks on party dominance had been frequent in the 19th century
■ Greenbackism and Populism
● Efforts to break the hammerlock with which the republicans and
democrats controlled public life
○ Independent republicans had attempted to challenge the grip of partisanship and they
became important supporters of progressive political reform activity (in the 1890’s +)
○ States adopted the secret ballot (in the late 180’s)
■ Distributed tickets to supporters and went to polls to deposit them in the ballot
box
➢ Attacking Party Rule
○ Party rule could be broken
■ [1] Increasing the power of the people by permitting them to circumvent (find
a way around) partisan institutions and express their will directly at the polls
■ [2] By placing more power in the hands of non-partisan non elective officials
insulated from political life
○ Reformers promoted measures that moved along both of those plans
Pg. 578
➢ Municipal (relating to a city or town or its governing body) Reform
○ Progressives believed the party rule was most damaging in the cities
➢ Middle-Class Progressives
○ Were taking a growing interest in government
■ They attacked salon owners brothel keepers,businessmen who had relationship
with the urban machines
○ Reformers gained political strength
■ Due to growing numbers, and failures of existing political leadership
Pg. 579
➢ Commission Plan
○ The Commission Plan was first used in Galveston, Texas
■ It placed the city government in the hands of a commission of experts
● The City Manager Plan was first used in Dayton, Ohio
■ A specially trained city manager was hired to run the city
● Both plans were attempts to produce an efficient city administration
➢ City-Manager Plan
○ An approach toward reform in which elected officials hired an outside, professionally
trained business manager to take charge of the government
■ By the end of the progressive era, most smaller cities were operating under
commission, and another 45 employed city managers.
Pg. 580
➢ Tom Johnson
○ Fought to raise low assessments on railroad and utilities properties
■ Lower streetcar fares to 3 cents
■ Impose municipal ownership on certain basic utilities
➢ Initiative and Referendum
○ Initiative: people have the right to propose a new law
○ Referendum: a law passed by the legislature can be a reference to the people for
approval/veto
➢ Direct Primary and Recall
○ Direct Primary:
■ An election where people directly elect their party's candidates for office
■ Candidates had previously been selected by party caucuses that were
considered elitist and undemocratic
● This made elected official more accountable to the people
○ Recall:
■ The people can petition and vote to have an elected official removed from
office
● These all made elected officials more responsible and sensitive to
the needs of the people, and part of the movement to make
government more efficient and scientific
➢ Robert La Follette
○ Member of the House, senator and Governor of the state of Wisconsin
○ He brought about many democratic reforms in the state's politics, including the
nomination of candidates by direct vote and the regulation of railroad rates
○ He also introduced the idea of direct appeal to the electorate on questions of policy,
called the referendum
Pg. 581
➢ Decline of Party Influence
○ The reformers contributed to the decline in party influence
■ Decline in voter turnout
● Never again reached at high as 71%
○ Other powers began to replace them
■ Interest groups
○ Organizing government directly than through party structures was emerging
Pg. 582
➢ Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)
○ Fire swept through triangle shirtwaist company in New York
■ Many had been locked in from emergency exits because managers wanted to
prevent people from coming in
● Dramatized the poor working conditions and let to federal regulations
to protect workers
Pg. 583-584
➢ Sources of Western Progressivism (write in during seminar)
➢ W. E. B. Du Bois
○ Scholar and activist for racial equality
■ Founder of the Niagara Movement (1905) (a protest group)
■ Founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(1909) to enforce what is known as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
○ He believed the educated African Americans must use their education and training to
challenge inequality
➢ NAACP
○ Successes:
■ Guinn v United States (1915)
● The Supreme court supported their position that the grandfather clause
in an OK (state) law was unconstitutional
■ Buchanan v Warley (1917)
● There was a law in Kentucky that required residential segregation
○ NAACP established a pattern of black resistance that would
“bear important fruits”
○ Their Strategy:
■ [1] was to get the Court to declare unconstitutional laws creating schools that
were separate but obviously unequal
■
■
[2] was to persuade it to declare unconstitutional laws supporting schools that
were separate but unequal in not as obvious ways
[3] persuade it to rule that racially separate schools were inherently unequal
and hence unconstitutional
Pg. 585
➢ WCTU (1874)
○ This organization advocated for the prohibition of alcohol, using women's supposedly
greater purity and morality as a rallying point
○ Advocates of prohibition in the United States found common cause with activists
elsewhere, especially in Britain, and in the 1880’s they founded the World Women's
Christian Temperance Union
■ Which sent missionaries around the world to spread the gospel of temperance
➢ Eighteenth Amendment
○ Prohibited the non-medical sale of alcohol
○ This amendment is the midpoint of a growing drive towards women's rights as well as
showing the moral attitude of the era
Pg. 586
➢ Eugenics and Nativism
○ Eugenics:
■ Breeding and sterilization of people in an attempt to create the best society
possible
● It’s based on a misunderstanding of Darwinism that social traits and
characteristics are inherited
○ Nativism:
■ The belief that America should be a country of white Protestant Christians;
protecting already existing (Anglo Saxon) inhabitants from outside immigrant
"pollution" basically
Pg. 587
➢ Eugene Debs
○ Led the Pullman Strike
○ Debs organized American Railway Union
■ Workers overturned Pullman cars
■ Paralyzed railway traffic from Chicago to Pacific Coast
○ Debs was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment for contempt of court, federal troops
crushed strike
➢ Eugene V. Debs
○ He was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to
stop striking
○ While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in
America
Pg. 588
➢ Wobblies
○ Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
■ Labor organization
■ This radical union aimed to unite the American working class into one union
to promote labor's interests
● It worked to organize unskilled and foreign-born laborers, advocated
social revolution and led several major strikes
○ (1917) Strike had shut down production in the industry
■ This angered the federal government
● Union leaders were imprisoned
● Laws were passed that outlawed the IWW
➢ Socialism’s Demise
○ Socialists who advocated peaceful change dominated the party
■ By the end of World War 1, the party refused to support the war effort
● Socialism was then in decline
➢ The Problem of Corporate Centralization
○ Excessive corporate centralization and consolidation
○ Many reformers hoped to restore the economy to a more human scale
■ Argued that the federal government should balance the needs for bigness and
the need for competition
○ Bignesss was considered inefficient to some
■ It was a threat to freedom and efficiency
● Limited the ability of individuals to control their own destinies
Pg. 589
➢ Good Trusts and Bad Trusts
○ If a trust controlled an entire industry but provided good service at reasonable rates, it
was a "good" trust to be left alone
○ Only the "bad" trusts that jacked up rates and exploited consumers would come under
attack