Fourth Party System [1890s–1932] IV Flashcards
Review - Timeline: Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business, 1870-1900
1870: John D. Rockefeller founds ‘Standard Oil’. 1873: Andrew Carnegie founds ‘Carnegie Steel’; ‘Panic of 1873’ triggers extended depression. 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. 1877: ‘Great Railroad Strike’ lasts forty-five days. 1879: Thomas Edison invents the light bulb. 1886: Labor rally at Haymarket Square erupts in violence; ‘American Federation of Labor’ is founded. 1892: ‘Homestead Steel Strike’.
Review - Timeline: The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900
1876: Professional baseball begins with the founding of the National League. 1885: Chicago builds first ten-story skyscraper. 1887: Frank Sprague invents electric trolley. 1889: Jane Addams opens ‘Hull House’ in Chicago. 1890: Jacob Riis publishes ‘How the Other Half Lives’; ‘Carnegie Hall’ opens in New York. 1893: ‘City Beautiful’ movement begins. 1895: Coney Island amusement parks open.
Review - Timeline: Politics in the Gilded Age, 1870-1900
1873: Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner publish ‘The Gilded Age’. 1877: ‘Compromise of 1877’ results in Rutherford B. Hayes presidency. 1881: Charles Guiteau assassinates President James Garfield. 1883: Congress passes ‘Pendleton Civil Service Act’. 1891: Populist Party emerges out of Alliance movement. 1894: Coxey’s Army marches on Washington; Pullman Strike paralyzes railroad traffic. 1896: William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan for president.
Review - Timeline: Age of Empire - American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914
1893: Turner presents ‘Frontier Thesis’. 1898: U.S. fights Spanish-American War; U.S. annexes Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. 1899: Hay drafts Open Door policy regarding trade in China. 1900: Boxer Rebellion erupts in China. 1901: Congress approves ‘Platt Amendment’ regarding Cuba. 1903: U.S. obtains rights to build Panama Canal. 1904: Theodore Roosevelt announces ‘Roosevelt Corollary’.
Timeline: Leading the Way - The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920
1901: President William McKinley assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt assumes presidency. 1906: Meat Inspection Act passes; Pure Food and Drug Act enacted. 1910: Interracial coalition forms NAACP. 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire triggers first factory inspection laws. 1912: Roosevelt founds Progressive Party. 1913: Sixteenth Amendment authorizes federal income tax; Seventeenth Amendment subjects U.S. senators to popular vote. 1920: Eighteenth Amendment prohibits manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages; Nineteenth Amendment guarantees women right to vote.
The Origins of the Progressive Spirit in America
In its first decade, the Progressive Era was a grassroots effort that ushered in reforms at state and local levels. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Progressive endeavors captured the attention of the federal government. The challenges of the late nineteenth century were manifold: fast-growing cities that were ill-equipped to house the working poor, hands-off politicians shackled into impotence by their system of political favors, and rural Americans struggling to keep their farms afloat. The muckraking journalists of the era published books and articles highlighting the social inequities of the day and extolling everyday Americans to help find solutions. Educated, middle-class, Anglo-Saxon Protestants dominated the movement, but Progressives were not a homogenous group: The movement counted African Americans, both women and men, and urban as well as rural dwellers among its ranks. Progressive causes ranged from anti-liquor campaigns to fair pay. Together, Progressives sought to advance the spread of democracy, improve efficiency in government and industry, and promote social justice.
Progressivism at the Grassroots Level (A)
Progressive campaigns stretched from the hurricane-ruined townships of Texas to the slums of New York, from the factory floor to the saloon door. But what tied together these disparate causes and groups was the belief that the country was in dire need of reform, and that answers were to be found within the activism and expertise of predominantly middle-class Americans on behalf of troubled communities. Some efforts, such as the National Child Labor Committee, pushed for federal legislation; however, most Progressive initiatives took place at the state and local levels, as Progressives sought to harness public support to place pressure on politicians.
Progressivism at the Grassroots Level (B)
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a more radical, revolutionary breed of Progressivism began to evolve. While these radical Progressives generally shared the goals of their more mainstream counterparts, their strategies differed significantly. Mainstream Progressives and many middle-class Americans feared groups such as the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, which emphasized workers’ empowerment and direct action.
New Voices for Women and African Americans
The Progressive commitment to promoting democracy and social justice created an environment within which the movements for women’s and African American rights grew and flourished. Emergent leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul spread the cause of woman suffrage, drawing in other activists and making the case for a constitutional amendment ensuring a woman’s right to vote. African Americans—guided by leaders such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois—strove for civil rights and economic opportunity, although their philosophies and strategies differed significantly. In the women’s and civil rights movements alike, activists both advanced their own causes and paved the way for later efforts aimed at expanding equal opportunity and citizenship.
Progressivism in the White House (A)
Theodore Roosevelt became president only by historical accident, but his activism in the executive branch spoke to the Progressive spirit in the nation and transformed the president’s office for the twentieth century. The courage he displayed in his confrontation of big business and willingness to side with workers in capital-labor disputes, as well as his commitment to the preservation of federal lands, set an agenda his successors had to match. Like Roosevelt, William Howard Taft pushed antitrust rulings and expanded federal oversight of interstate commerce. But estrangement from his predecessor and mentor left Taft in a difficult position for reelection. Roosevelt’s third-party challenge as a Progressive split the Republican vote and handed Woodrow Wilson the presidency in 1912.
Progressivism in the White House (B)
A Progressive like his predecessors, Wilson was also a political creature who understood the need to do more in order to ensure his reelection. He, too, sought to limit the power of big businesses and stabilize the economy, and he ushered in a wave of Progressive legislation that grassroots Progressives had long called for. The nation’s entanglement in World War I, however, soon shunted the Progressive goals of democracy, efficiency, regulation, and social justice to the back burner. The nation’s new priorities included national security and making the world “safe for democracy.”
Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” Foreign Policy
When Roosevelt succeeded McKinley as president, he implemented a key strategy for building an American empire: the threat, rather than the outright use, of military force. McKinley had engaged the U.S. military in several successful skirmishes and then used the country’s superior industrial power to negotiate beneficial foreign trade agreements. Roosevelt, with his “big stick” policy, was able to keep the United States out of military conflicts by employing the legitimate threat of force. Nonetheless, as negotiations with Japan illustrated, the maintenance of an empire was fraught with complexity. Changing alliances, shifting economic needs, and power politics all meant that the United States would need to tread carefully to maintain its status as a world power.
Taft’s “Dollar Diplomacy”
All around the globe, Taft sought to use U.S. economic might as a lever in foreign policy. He relied less on military action, or the threat of such action, than McKinley or Roosevelt before him; however, he both threatened and used military force when economic coercion proved unsuccessful, as it did in his bid to pay off Central America’s debts with U.S. dollars. In Asia, Taft tried to continue to support the balance of power, but his efforts backfired and alienated Japan. Increasing tensions between the United States and Japan would finally explode nearly thirty years later, with the outbreak of World War II.
Theodore Roosevelt (R)
The rising young Republican politician Theodore Roosevelt unexpectedly became the 26th president of the United States in September 1901, after the assassination of William McKinley. Young and physically robust, he brought a new energy to the White House, and won a second term on his own merits in 1904. Roosevelt confronted the bitter struggle between management and labor head-on and became known as the great “trust buster” for his strenuous efforts to break up industrial combinations under the Sherman Antitrust Act. He was also a dedicated conservationist, setting aside some 200 million acres for national forests, reserves and wildlife refuges during his presidency. In the foreign policy arena, Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War and spearheaded the beginning of construction on the Panama Canal. After leaving the White House and going on safari in Africa, he returned to politics in 1912, mounting a failed run for president at the head of a new Progressive Party.
Summarize the goals of the Progressive Era
In summary, the Progressive Era, which lasted from around 1900 to 1917, was marked by a movement to correct social, economic, and political problems. Social reformers addressed the moral well-being of society. Economic reformers challenged the government’s laissez-faire, or hands-off approach, and the social inequalities of the Second Industrial Revolution. Public reformers worked to make government more democratic.
Identify and describe the three C’s of Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal.
Theodore Roosevelt promised a ‘Square Deal’ to protect the people’s common interest by using the federal government to deal fairly with both business and labor. You should remember Roosevelt’s Square Deal in terms of the three Cs: control of corporations, consumer protection, and conservation.
List some of the progressive reforms passed during Roosevelt’s presidency - Control of Corporations.
Control of Corporations: Roosevelt sought to enforce the ‘Sherman Antitrust Act’ (passed in 1890 under the Harrison administration), pledged to break up monopolies, and used over 40 antitrust lawsuits to prevent them from manipulating markets; he also defended labor’s right to organize; he set up the ‘Department of Commerce and Labor’ in 1903 to regulate business and enforce federal regulations, particularly those involving interstate commerce.
List some of the progressive reforms passed during Roosevelt’s presidency - Consumer Protection.
Consumer Protections: He supported legislation combating unsafe and falsely labeled food, drugs, and medicine and regulations of the meat packing industry; the ‘Meat Inspection Act’ and the ‘Pure Food and Drug Act’ both passed with his help in 1906.
List some of the progressive reforms passed during Roosevelt’s presidency - Conservation.
Conservation: His personal interest in the environment involved the federal government in conserving and efficiently managing natural resources; he stressed the planned, regulated use of forestlands for public and commercial uses; he set aside millions of acres of public land as national forests, mineral reserves, and water power sites; he also created wildlife reserves, national monuments, and new national parks and established the ‘National Conservation Commission’; he held the first ‘National Governors’ Conference’ in 1908 in which governors and natural-resource experts gathered to discuss planned resource management and utilization.
Progressive Era (1900-1917) - Muckrakers
In summary, during the Progressive Era, which lasted from around 1900 to 1917, muckraking journalists successfully exposed America’s problems brought on by rapid industrialization and growth of cities. Influential muckrakers created public awareness of corruption, social injustices, and abuses of power. Muckrakers’ sensational accounts resulted in public outcry and served as a catalyst for Progressive Era social, economic, and political reforms.
Progressive Era (1900-1917) - Discuss who the muckrakers targeted.
Muckrakers targeted many turn-of-the-century injustices brought on by the large increase of immigrants, the rapid growth of the cities, unregulated big business, and the influence of political machines, as well as many other social problems.
Progressive Era (1900-1917) - List the most influential muckrakers and identify their works.
Lincoln Steffens launched attacks against corrupt government connections with big businesses in ‘The Shame of the Cities’, a series of articles in McClure’s magazine. Also appearing in McClure’s, Ida Tarbell wrote an extensive, factual expose against John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust in 1904, called ‘The History of the Standard Oil Company’. Upton Sinclair wrote ‘The Jungle’, published in 1906, to expose the problems of workers in the big canning factories in Chicago, notably the deplorable, unsanitary conditions. In 1906, David Graham Phillip wrote ‘The Treason of the Senate’, which appeared in the ‘Cosmopolitan’ magazine. He illustrated the unfair influence large trusts had over the U.S. Senate.
Progressive Era (1900-1917) - Analyze how the muckrakers impacted society.
Muckraking articles appealed to people’s appetite for uncovering sleaze and scandal. The American people read the muckraking literature with great interest and began to push for progressive reforms, such as the ‘Meat Inspection Act’ and the ‘Pure Food and Drug Act’ in 1906. The work of muckrakers prompted trust-busting law suits and legislation aimed at lessening the stranglehold of monopolies and trusts. The backlash against political machines brought on by muckrakers encouraged some states to pass democratic reforms allowing the people to exercise more power over corrupt politicians. By 1914, nearly every state had passed labor laws addressing child labor, working hours, and the protection of the health of workers.
Progressive Era (1900-1917) - Pragmatism and William James
A philosophy popular in the early twentieth century. Followers of pragmatism, pragmatists, as they became known, stressed that the value of an idea was based on its usefulness as determined through practice and experimentation. William James, author of ‘Pragmatism’ (1907), stressed that truth comes from the ability to solve problems. Many Progressive reformers adhered to pragmatist ideas, believing social problems could be fixed through intelligent and purposeful action.
