Lesson 3: The Rise of Progressivism Flashcards

Question

How did city governments become so corrupt?

Answer 1

As cities grew, they needed to expand services such as sewers, garbage collection, and roads. Often, politicians accepted money to give away these jobs. As a result, bribes and corruption became a way of life.

Answer 2

Powerful politicians called political bosses gained power in many cities. Political bosses also ruled county and state governments. Bosses controlled work done locally and demanded payoffs from businesses. City bosses were popular with the poor, especially with immigrants. They provided jobs and made loans to the needy. They handed out extra coal for heating in winter and turkeys at Thanksgiving. In exchange, the poor voted for the boss or his chosen candidate.

Answer 3

In New York City, Boss William Tweed carried corruption to new extremes. During the 1860s and 1870s, he cheated the city out of more than $100 million. Journalists exposed Boss Tweed's wrongdoing. For example, cartoonist Thomas Nast pictured Tweed as a vulture feeding on the city. Nast's cartoons especially angered Tweed. His supporters might not be able to read, he said, but they could understand Nast's cartoons. Faced with prison, Tweed fled to Spain. There, local police arrested him when they recognized him from Nast's cartoons. When Tweed died in jail in 1878, thousands of poor New Yorkers mourned for him.

Answer 4

The spoils system had grown since the days of Andrew Jackson. When a new President took office, job seekers swarmed into Washington. They demanded government jobs as rewards for their political support. Giving jobs to followers is called patronage. Patronage often led to corruption. Some jobholders simply stole public money. Others had no skills for the jobs they were given. In New York, for example, one man was made court reporter even though he could neither read nor write.

Answer 5

Calls for reform slowly brought change. In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes took steps toward ending the spoils system. He ordered an investigation of the New York customhouse. There, investigators found hundreds of appointed officials receiving high salaries but doing no work. Despite the protests of local Republican leaders, Hayes dismissed two customhouse officials.

Answer 6

In 1881, James Garfield entered the White House and was soon swamped with office seekers. He thought that government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit, or ability, not politics. That July, however, a disappointed office seeker, Charles Guiteau (gee TOH), shot the President. Garfield died two months later. The assassination sparked new efforts to end the spoils system.

Answer 7

Vice President Chester A. Arthur succeeded Garfield. Arthur was a product of the spoils system. In fact, he was one of the New York customhouse officials dismissed by Hayes a few years earlier! Yet, as President, Arthur worked with Congress to reform the spoils system.

Answer 8

In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act. It created the Civil Service Commission to conduct exams for federal jobs. The civil service includes all federal jobs except elected offices and the military. The aim of the Civil Service Commission was to fill jobs on the basis of merit. People who scored highest on the civil service exams earned the posts. At first, the Civil Service Commission controlled only a few federal jobs. However, under pressure from reformers, later Presidents placed more jobs under the Civil Service Commission. By 1900, the commission controlled about 40 percent of all federal jobs.

Answer 9

In many cities, reformers set up good-government leagues. Their goal was to replace corrupt officials with honest leaders. The leagues had some successes. In Minneapolis, a corrupt mayor was indicted. Cleveland reformers helped elect Tom Johnson mayor. Johnson gave out contracts honestly, improved garbage and sewerage systems, and set up services for the poor.

Answer 10

In 1877, Collis Huntington, builder of the Central Pacific Railroad, tried to bribe members of Congress to kill a railroad bill that would be unfavorable to his interests. He gave large amounts of money to members of Congress. “It costs money to fix things,” Huntington explained.

Answer 11

The behavior of men like Huntington convinced many Americans that big businesses controlled the government. They demanded that something be done to limit the power of big business. In response, the government began to regulate railroads and other large businesses. Under the Constitution, the federal government had the power to regulate interstate commerce, or business that crossed state lines. In 1887, President Grover Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act. It forbade practices such as pools and rebates. It also set up the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to oversee the railroads. At first, the ICC was weak. In court challenges, most judges ruled in favor of the railroads. Still, Congress had shown that it was ready to regulate big business. Later, Congress passed laws that made the ICC more effective.

Answer 12

In 1888, President Cleveland lost his bid for reelection. Benjamin Harrison became President. In 1890, Harrison signed the Sherman Antitrust Act. The act prohibited businesses from trying to limit or destroy competition. The Sherman Antitrust Act sounded strong, but enforcing it proved difficult. At first, judges ruled in favor of trusts. They held that the law was an illegal attempt by the government to control private property.

Answer 13

Instead of regulating trusts, the Sherman Antitrust Act was often used against labor unions. The courts said union strikes blocked free trade and thus threatened competition. Later on, as the reform spirit spread, the courts began to use the Antitrust Act against monopolies.

Answer 14

Reformers used the press to turn public opinion against corruption. Newspaper reporters described how corruption led to inadequate fire and police protection and poor sanitation services. Jacob Riis (reess), a photographer and writer, provided shocking images of slum life. Crusading journalists like Riis became known as muckrakers. People said they raked the dirt, or muck, and exposed it to public view. One muckraker, Ida Tarbell, targeted the unfair practices of big business. Her articles about the Standard Oil Company led to demands for more controls on trusts.

Answer 15

In 1906, Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle shocked the nation. Although the book was fiction, it was based on facts. It revealed grisly details about the meatpacking industry, including descriptions of the horrid working conditions and the unsanitary practices in the plants. Sinclair told how the packers used meat from sick animals. He described how rats often got ground up in the meat, which was then dyed to make it seem healthy. He explained just how little thought was given to the health of the consumer. There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and … made over again for home consumption. —Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906 Sinclair claimed that his purpose in writing The Jungle was to alert the public to the unfit working conditions of meatpackers. However, the public outrage focused on the contaminated food they were unknowingly being fed. Soon after the novel's publication, the federal government passed the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection Act. Sinclair's writing did impact reform.

Answer 16

As magazines became affordable, muckrakers began publishing in them to reach a wider middle-class audience. McClure's Magazine was a popular forum for crusading journalists. Lincoln Steffens, who published with McClure's Magazine, eventually gathered his articles in a book about the political corruption that plagued cities across the nation. The [political bosses] control the whole process of voting, and practice fraud at every stage. The assessor's list is the voting list, and the assessor is the [boss's] man…. The assessor pads the list with the names of dead dogs, children, and non-existent persons. —Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities, 1904 Muckrakers helped change public opinion. For years, middle-class Americans had ignored the need for reform. When they saw how dishonest politicians and businesses corrupted the nation—and even the food they ate—they, too, demanded change.

Answer 17

By 1900, reformers were calling themselves Progressives. By that, they meant that they were forward-thinking people who wanted to improve American life. Progressives won many changes during the period from 1898 to 1917. As a result, this period is called the Progressive Era.

Answer 18

Progressives were never a single group with a single goal. Instead, they came from many backgrounds and backed different causes. They were united by a belief that the ills of society could be solved. Progressives wanted the government to act in the public interest, for the good of the people.

Answer 19

Both religion and science inspired Progressives. The Social Gospel movement of the late 1800s stressed the duty of Christians to improve society. At the same time, Progressives used scientific studies and statistics to find ways to solve society's problems.

Answer 20

Progressives valued education. John Dewey, a Progressive educator, wanted schools to promote reform. Schools must teach democratic values by example, he argued. He therefore urged students to ask questions and to work together to solve problems.

Answer 21

Among the leading Progressives was Robert La Follette of Wisconsin. “The will of the people shall be the law of the land,” was his motto. As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette introduced various Progressive reforms that became known as the Wisconsin Idea. For example, he lowered railroad rates. The result was increased rail traffic, which helped both railroad owners and customers.

Answer 22

Progressives like La Follette wanted voters to participate more directly in government. Since Andrew Jackson's time, party leaders had picked candidates for local and state offices. Progressives called, instead, for primaries. In a primary, voters choose their party's candidate for the general election. In 1903, Wisconsin was the first state to adopt a primary run by state government officials. By 1917, all but four states had done so. Other reforms gave voters more power. They included the initiative, which gave voters the right to put a bill before a state legislature. A certain number of qualified voters must sign initiative petitions to propose a law. The referendum allowed voters to put a bill on the ballot and vote it into law. The recall allowed voters to remove an elected official from office. That reform let voters get rid of corrupt officials. Progressives from other states visited Wisconsin to study La Follette's reforms. A number of states elected Progressive governors eager for reforms.

Answer 23

Progressives fought for other changes, too. They favored lowering tariffs on imported goods. If American industry had to compete against foreign imports, they argued, consumers would benefit from lower prices.

Answer 24

Some reforms led to changes in the U.S. Constitution. Many reformers backed a graduated income tax, which taxes people at different rates. The wealthy pay taxes at a higher rate than the poor or the middle class. Because the Supreme Court had held that a federal income tax was unconstitutional, Progressives campaigned for a Sixteenth Amendment. It gave Congress the power to pass an income tax. By 1913, the states had ratified the amendment. The states approved another amendment in 1913. Since 1789, state legislatures had elected senators. Powerful interest groups had sometimes bribed lawmakers to vote for certain candidates. Progressives wanted to end such abuses by having voters elect senators directly. In 1912, Congress approved the Seventeenth Amendment, which allowed for the direct election of senators. It was ratified a year later.