Progressivism and a Square Deal AP US History

Progressivism and a Square Deal AP US History Unit 9: Progressivism and World War I 1901 -1919

Who were the “Progressives”? � The reformers of � Fought against society monopolies, trusts, corruption, and social injustice. � Wanted to abandon the Laissez-faire approach to the government. � Wanted the Federal government to intervene to reform society. � There were different areas of progressives in society: • • Political progressives City/State progressives Female progressives Media progressives �Journalism �Exposure of social evils

Political Progressivism � Fought • • • for: Direct primary elections Initiative Referendum Recall Direct election of senators �(17 th amendment: 1913)

City/State Progressivism � Fought to improve: Sanitation Clean water Street lighting “slums” and “tenements” • Juvenile delinquency • Prostitution • Regulation on RR’s and trust companies • •

Women’s Progressivism � � Settlement house movement Social gathering of middle-class women Discussed social issues Wanted to improve issues dealing with the home: • Child labor • Factory conditions (sweatshops) • Govt’ regulation of products used in the home (food) • Receiving of pensions for widowed mothers • Temperance movement � Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • Suffrage for women � � Jane Addams of Chicago Lillian Wald of New York

Media Progressivism “Muckrakers” Circulation wars of newspapers and editorials about the evils of society. � Most effective in exposing the social issues: � � • Slave trafficking of women • Industrial accidents and working conditions • Subjugation of African. Americans • Child labor

It’s a jungle out there…. � 1906 � Upton Sinclair writes a novel titled “The Jungle” • Describes the filth, disease, and disturbing conditions of the Chicago slaughterhouse. � After reading, Roosevelt motivated to pass the Meat Inspection act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act also in 1906.

Teddy Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” � 3 C’s: • Control over corporations • Consumer protection • Conservation of nat. res. � Roosevelt’s goal was to prove that government, not businesses, ruled the country. � He didn’t want to close the corporations, he wanted to regulate them.

Roosevelt the “Trust-Buster” � � 1903 Creates the Dept. of Commerce and Labor • Bureau of Corporations �Probe businesses, investigate monopolies and trust companies. Roosevelt did distinguish “good” trusts and “bad” trusts � 1904 Roosevelt dissolves J. P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Company who held a monopoly on numerous railroads �

Helping out “Mother Nature” � � Roosevelt angered about the overuse of our timber and mineral resources by large corporations. Newlands Act 1902 • Project designed to create irrigation projects in the west. • Hundreds of dams built on rivers in the west • Roosevelt Dam in Arizona � � � Preserved 125 million acres of forest 1902: No Christmas trees in the White House Influenced the “multiple-use resource management”

Victories of Roosevelt Presidency Brought greater power and prestige to the Presidential office � Shaped the progressive movement � Helped create the status of the United States as a world power. � • With this position we now have a great responsibility to the world. • Influential in later attempts to making the world “safe for democracy”?

Election 1908 Roosevelt promised that he would not run for a 3 rd term. � Republicans nominate his predecessor William Howard Taft. � Democrats nominate William Jennings Bryan…. again. � Socialist party nominate Eugene Debs � Taft wins the election with the backing of Roosevelt. �

Who was Taft? � Yale graduate � Former lawyer, judge � Hostile to labor unions � Passive in dealing with Congress � Poor judgment of public opinion � Mild progressive…not as passionate as Roosevelt � Big dude…. . 350 pounds

Taft’s Foreign Diplomacy Blunders � East Asia � • “Dollar Diplomacy” • Taft called it ‘substituting dollars • • � for bullets’. Japan and Russia hold a monopoly on RR in China. Afraid that the Open Door would be shut on American trade. Offers to buy the RR from Japan and Russia and then sell back to China. Japan and Russia decline Taft’s foreign diplomacy ideas contradicted the focus of Roosevelt’s. This caused much tension b/w the two. � � To help stabilize the governments and economies in Latin America (mainly Caribbean) Taft saw the need to intervene. To do this, we would provide loans to those nations from American banks to help them pay off their loans to Europe. To be sure these operations were being carried out and to stop revolution we placed military personnel in these nations. The Marines were in Nicaragua for 13 years. Substituting dollars for bullets ultimately failed.

Taft the Trust Buster � 1911 • Dissolves the Standard Oil Company due to violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. • Files suit against the United States Steel Corporation �One of Roosevelt’s “Good” trusts �Roosevelt again, infuriated at Taft.

Split of the Republican Party � � Over signing a tariff bill that would support large corporations the Republican party is split. Republican Primary: 1912 • Roosevelt infuriated over Taft’s policies decides to run for a 3 rd term as a “Progressive” party nominee. • Taft as the Republican nominee had the support of the big businesses due to his support in securing their interests abroad. � Taft wins the nomination.