Figure 1, President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, full-length portrait from behind, standing on deck of steamer Mississippi, during tour of Inland Waterways Commission
Introduction
Progressivism
is like pornography, hard to define but you know it when you see it. It certainly embraced ideas such as
progress, regulation, democracy, commissions, conservation, opportunity and
modernity but how these would be implemented was not clear. Progressivism, unlike many earlier and
later social movements, attracted such a wide range of supporters, held so many
complementary as well contradictory ideas and crossed so many political
identities that it is not possible to really delineate a prototypical
progressive or write the definitive progressive platform. However, despite this seemingly dubious
foundation progressivism was a long-lived and fundamentally successful
movement, which has left a legacy still felt today. For example, in the 2004 Wisconsin Democratic primary
Republicans were allowed to vote, this is the heritage of Robert M. La Follette
and the progressive concept of the open primary as a means of combating the
excessive power of machine party politics. Also the simple fact that the 2004 Democratic candidate for
president will be chosen primarily by direct primaries, and not by various
political machines is also a inheritance of the progressives. In 2003, for the first time, California
recalled its governor using a progressive reform, the recall election, this
reform measure was passed during the administration of progressive governor
Hiram Johnson. Elected in 1910 his
administration also requested and received legislation granting the Golden
State the referendum and the initiative.
California’s second movie star governor was not only elected by
means of a progressive measure but is using another in an attempt to solve the
state’s budget crisis. He is
campaigning in promotion of a ballot initiative aimed at passing a bond to
refinance the state’s debt, which if successful will neatly by pass the
state legislature and be enacted as a direct result of an appeal to direct
popular support. Calling on an
informed citizenry to correct the failures of the political system is classic
progressivism.
Figure 2, Robert M. La Follette, Progressive Presidential candidate in 1924, Chicago
Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society
Figure 3, Anarchist
Emma Goldman, sitting in a chair and facing the camera, in a room in Chicago,
Illinois. 1906, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical
Society
Of
course progressive were not necessarily politicians, they could be, in modern
terms, investigative journalists, or as known one hundred years ago, “muckrakers.” These were not simply reporters,
observers reporting news of the day, but investigators who disclosed the
secrets of monopolies, trusts, corporations, or political parties, political
machines and government at all levels.
The muckrakers simply sought to expose corruption wherever it might be
found. One hundred years after Ida
Tarbell’s The Story of Rockefeller first appeared in McClure’s Magazine it is taken as a given that a primary functions of
the media is to investigate anyone and everything on the behalf of the
public.
Figure 4, Portrait of Mrs. Mary Harris
(Mother) Jones, a labor organizer, sitting in a room in Chicago, Illinois,
1915, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society
Progressives
were also often ordinary citizens, who simply had a mission. They lobbied, formed organizations,
supported sympathetic political candidates and advocated a range of causes as
mundane as beautifying a city and improving roads to issues as emotionally
charged as the promotion of child labor laws or as seemingly unpopular as the
income tax and even as divisive as civil rights. If any era proves the importance of motivated citizens many
of objectives were met during the progressive era or the resulting organization
continued struggling decades into the future.
If
the Progressive Era started at the end of a depression following the 1896
presidential election it ended when the United States failed to join the League
of Nations in 1920. But in between
the changes were immense.
Political structures and party politics drastically changed. Reforms such as the secret ballot, the
direct primary, the initiative, the referendum and the recall empowered the
citizenry and crippled machine politics.
Areas, which had once been off limits to regulation due to respect for
property rights were now regularly regulated. The results were that employers had to consider the safety
of their employees and manufacturers were responsible for the quality and
labeling of food and drugs.
Corporations were subject to effective regulation first by the Bureau of
Corporation and then later by the Federal Trade Commission. Interstate business, which really meant
the use of railroads and pipelines, was finally regulated by the Interstate
Commerce Commission. Even banking
began to be regulated when the Federal Reserve Act established the Federal
Reserve System which gave the federal government an influence on banking that
had not be possibly since the administration of Andrew Jackson.
However
the clearest and greatest success of the Progressive Movement can be seen by
looking at the top levels of the federal government. There were three progressive presidents and four progressive
amendments to the United States Constitution. This was an achievement
Chapter Reading
In
this unit you will be reading Chapters twenty-two and twenty-three from The
American Nation, which cover important reformers and the United States
brief empire-building era. While
these two areas seem quite different they can also be recognized as two sides
of a coin. As Americans examined
ways to reform their own nation, as this nation entered the world stage its
influence on the world could be seen as a type of international reform as well.
There will be five threaded discussions included in this module. All students must actively participate in all the threaded discussions; the due dates of the threaded discussions are listed in the syllabus.
All
issues discussed in the text are important for this class as well as the years
in which events took place. After reading the assigned chapters student needs
to be able to answer the following questions and discuss related topics:
Chapter 22 Questions:
1. What was the source of the people who made
up the Progressive Movement?
2. How were Grangers and Populists related to
the Progressive Movement?
3. How did the return to prosperity in 1896
affect the Progressives?
4. How did mergers and
“Morganizations” affect the Progressives?
5. Where did women have their greatest impact
on the Progressive Movement?
6. In 1900, how many children under 16 worked
in factories?
7. What was the "status
revolution?"
8. How did Pragmatists, Social Gospel
advocates and social scientists affect the progressive movement?
9. Who was S.S. McClure:
10. What was the Atlantic Monthly?
11. Who were Henry Demarest Lloyd, Ida Tarbell
and Lincoln Steffens?
12. What was "Muckraking?"
13. Who coined the term
"Muckraking?"
14. What did progressives believe about human
beings?
15. What was “Municipal
socialism?”
16. What did George Norris fight for?
17. How do you compare Progressives and
Socialists?
18. Who ran on the Socialist party ticket for
president several times?
19. What was the Industrial Workers of the
World?
20. Who was "Mother" Jones?
21. What were Wobblies?
22. What happened in Greenwich Village?
23. Who were Isadora Duncan and Eugene
O'Neill?
24. What was the "ashcan school?
25. What was The Interpretation of Dreams?
26. Who were Margaret Sanger and John Reed?
respectively?
27. What were "Bohemians?"
28. What was The Masses?
29. Who were Abe Ruef and Rudolph Spreckels?
30. Who was Samuel M. "Golden Rule"
Jones?
31. What was “Home rule?”
32. What did Galveston, Texas introduce?
33. What was the city manager system?
34. W ho was Robert M. La Follette?
35. What was "The Wisconsin Idea?"
36. What was a direct primary?
37. What was the initiative?
38. What was the referendum?
39. Where were the initiative and referendum
introduced?
40. Who said "Democracy is based on
knowledge?"
41. How did the 14th amendment
affect social legislation?
42. What important law was passed in Utah in
1896?
43. What did the 1901 New York law, which
regulated tenements require?
44. What was the result of Lochner v. New
York?
45. What did Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. have to
do with Lochner v. New York?
46. What was the purpose of the National Child
Labor Committee?
47. What was the result of the child labor law
passed by congress in 1916?
48. By what year where most states able to
pass laws protecting women, children, and workers performing dangerous tasks
with special legislation.
49. What was the result of Adkins v.
Children's Hospital?
50. What happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory?
51. What was the result of Muller v. Oregon?
52. What was the "Brandeis brief?"
53. What was the Consumers’ League?
54. To some progressives what were the
“Seven Sisters?”
55. What progressive measures were undertaken
by Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota respectively?
56. Who was Woodrow Wilson?
57. What major women’s rights
organization was formed in 1890?
58. Who were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan
B. Anthony?
59. What was the Congressional Union?
60. When was the 16th amendment
ratified and what did it do?
61. When was the 17th amendment
ratified and what did it do?
62. When was the 18th amendment
ratified and what did it do?
63. When was the 19th amendment
ratified and what did it do?
64. Who was Joseph Cannon?
65. Which President was assassinated in 1901?
66. Who wrote the Naval War of 1812 and The Winning of the West?
67. What was the Elkins Railroad Act of 1903.
68. How were Theodore Roosevelt and J. P.
Morgan related to Northern Securities?
69. What was Theodore Roosevelt's preferred
method when dealing with large corporations?
70. What happened to U. S. Steel, McCormick
Harvester, and Standard Oil?
71. What did the UMW stand for?
72. Who were George F. Bear and John Mitchell?
73. How did Theodore Roosevelt handle the 1902
Anthracite strike?
74. How did Theodore Roosevelt's solution to
the Coal strike compare with Grover Cleveland's handling of the Pullman strike?
75. What was the "Square Deal?"
76. What was the Hepburn Act?
77. Who was Upton Sinclair?
78. What was The Jungle?
79. What was the Pure Food and Drug Act?
80. What was "Roosevelt's panic?"
81. Which presidential candidate was once the
American governor of the Philippines?
82. Who was William Howard Taft?
83. What was the Elkins-Mann Act?
84. How was Taft different from Roosevelt?
85. What was the Pinchot-Ballinger
debacle?
86. What was the ultimate result of the
Pinchot-Ballinger debacle?
87. What were The Old Guard and the
Progressives?
88. What was the “New
Nationalism?”
89. What did the Roosevelt led faction of the
Republican party evolve into?
90. Who did Democrats nominate for the
Presidency in 1912?
91. What was the “New Freedom?”
92. Which party polled 6% in the 1912
Presidential election?
93. What was the Underwood Tariff?
94. What was the Federal Reserve Act?
95. What governing body replaced the Bureau of
Corporations?
96. What was the purpose of the Federal Trade
Commission?
97. What was the Clayton Antitrust Act?
98. What was the Dillingham Commission?
99. What was the "Gentlemen’s
Agreement?"
100.
What was the
Dead Indian Land Act?
101.
Who was
W.E.B. DuBois?
102.
What was The
NAACP?
103.
What effect
did Woodrow Wilson have on segregation?
Chapter 23 Questions:
1. Before the 1890s the United States possessed an
"old" empire, how can this empire best be described?
2. How [s1]did the end of slavery in the United States effect the
development of an American overseas empire?
3. How might American Social Darwinists have effected the
development of an American overseas empire?
4. How did John Fiske effect the development of an
American overseas empire?
5. How did the Rev. Josiah Strong effect the development
of an American overseas empire?
6. How did the completion of the trans-continental
railway possibly effect the development of an American overseas empire?
7. How did the lure of foreign markets effect the
development of an American overseas empire?
8. What [s2]did Robert Arthur Salisbury mean when he spoke of
"living and dying nations?"
9. How might The Significance of the Frontier in
American History, by Frederick
Jackson Turner have been a factor in the development of an American overseas
empire?
10. What did the French do in 1866 that contributed to the
American development of an oversea empire?
11. What did William Seward do in 1867 that contributed to
American imperial ambitions?
12. What wasthe Burlingame Treaty?
13. How [s3]did the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 encourage an
American overseas empire?
14. What were the Alabama claims?
15. How did the Alabama claims encourage an American overseas empire?
16. How did the Treaty of Wanghia contribute to the
development of an American overseas empire?
17. What were the Opium Wars?
18. How did Commodore Perry contribute to the development
of an American overseas empire?
19. What was the importance of Midway?
20. What [s4]was the importance of Pago Pago in the Samoan Islands?
21. Who was Alfred Mahan?
22. Who wrote The Influence of Sea Power Upon History and The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French
Revolution and Empire?
23. What was the importance of the books and theories of
Alfred Mahan?
24. How was Henry Cabot Lodge related to Alfred Mahan?
25. What importance was Hawaii to the United States before
the Civil War?
26. When did Hawaii potentially agree to being annexed by
the United States, provided statehood was granted?
27. What was the Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty?
28. What did the United States expect from Hawaii in the
1875 Reciprocity Treaty?
29. What was a very important aspect of the1887 renewal of
the Reciprocity Treaty?
30. How [s5]was t[s6]he McKinley Tariff related to the Hawaiian coup?
31. Who were King Kalakaua and Queen Lililuokalani?
32. How did the McKinley Tariff affect Hawaii?
33. What happened during the Hawaiian coup (or coup d'état) of 1893?
34. Who was Minister John. L. Stevens?
35. What role did the Boston play during the Hawaiian coup (or coup d'état)
of 1893?
36. How did Benjamin Harrison react to the Hawaiian
situation?
37. How did Grover Cleveland react to the Hawaiian
situation?
38. How did William McKinley react to the Hawaiian
situation?
39. What was the Monroe Doctrine?
40. What was the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty?
41. Who was Ferdinand de Lesseps?
42. What was Rutherford B. Hayes’ position on
Ferdinand de Lesseps’ project?
43. What was the Venezuelan Crisis of1895?
44. What was the result of the Venezuelan Crisis?
45. What was Lord Salisbury’s attitude regarding the
Monroe Doctrine?
46. What pre-Civil War interest did the United States have
in Cuba?
47. When was slavery abolished in Cuba?
48. Who was Valeriano Weyler?
49. What happened in Cuba in 1868?
50. How did Spain deal with disgruntled Cubans through
1878.
51. What effect did the Wilson-Gorham Tariff (American tariff act of 1894) have on
Cuba?
52. What were reconcentration camps?
53. Who in the United States supported the Cuban rebels?
54. Wh[s7]at was “Yellow Journalism?”
55. How were William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer
connected with the Spanish-American War?
56. Why was the Maine sent to Havana?
57. What was the Dupuy de Lôme letter?
58. Why did the United States declare war on Spain?
59. What did the United States recognize in April of 1898?
60. What was the Teller Amendment?
61. What was the "Splendid Little War?"
62. W[s8]ho alerted Commodore George Dewey to prepare for
battle against Spanish forces?
63. Where was Commodore George Dewey’s naval
squadron located when alerted to prepare for battle?
64. Who was Emilio Aguinaldo?
65. Where did Commodore Dewey fight Admiral Montojo?
66. From where did Commodore Dewey direct the American attack against the Spanish
fleet?
67. Who led the attack against San Juan Hill?
68. If the logic of the Teller Amendment had been applied
in the Pacific what might have happened?
69. Who was in favor of the American annexation of the
Philippines?
70. Why did President McKinley annex the Philippines?
71. What did Samuel Gompers, Samuel Clemons, Andrew
Carnegie, and Jane Addams share in common?
72. Who became the first American civilian governor of the
Philippines?
73. What was the Platt Amendment?
74. What was Downes v. Bidwell?
75. What were the “Insular Cases?”
76. Who was Calixto Garcia?
77. Who was John Hay?
78. What were the “Open Door”
notes?
79. What did Theodore Roosevelt consider
America’s Achilles heel?
80. What was the Open Door policy?
81. What was the “Roosevelt
Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine?
82. What was the Boxer Rebellion?
83. What was the Treaty of Portsmouth?
84. What was the “Gentlemen’s
Agreement?”
85. What was the significance of the U.S.S.
Oregon?
86. Which treaty needed to be abrogated in
order to build a canal between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans?
87. President McKinley appointed a commission which
initially recommended building a canal across which nation?
88. Which nation acquired its independence as
a result of American interest in a canal between the Pacific and Atlantic
oceans?
89. In 1903 President Roosevelt sent John Jay to negotiate
a treaty to allow the United States to build a canal,
with which nation’s representative did the Secretary of State first
negotiate?
90. What was the New Panama Canal Company?
91. In order to build the Panama Canal what revolutionary
movement was supported by the United States?
92. What was “Dollar Diplomacy?”
93. What was “non-colonial imperial
expansion?”
Figure 5, U.S.S. Olympia, c. 1900, Library of Congress Collection
Conclusion
At
first glance there does not seem to be a direct connection between the general
category of American reform and the process of building an overseas empire
under the American flag. The
United States is fundamentally a revolutionary nation, which was founded under
the aegis of radical ideas used to justify a new political system that came
into being by breaking away from a colonial overseas empire. The reasons for this break were diverse
but many related to the distances of empire, cultural differences between
“Americans” and the English, and the political rights of the
colonists that were ignored by a far away and indifferent government and the
illegitimate manipulation of the colonial economy for the benefit of the
imperial power. Taking this
into consideration Americans should be opposed to an overseas empire on basic
principles. But of course the
United States had always dabbled in empire building of one sort or another. As soon as the United States had
acquired title to the Louisiana territory it became in a sense an
empire-building nation.
“Manifest Destiny” justified American filibustering and the
acquisition of Texas, New Mexico and California and other overseas territories
might have been acquired, such as Cuba and Hawaii, had there not been
abolitionist’s opposition as these areas were considered fertile ground
for the expansion of slavery.
The
United States had also maintained various toeholds that could have been
converted into empire. American
whalers and missionaries had been frequenting the Hawaiian Islands in growing
numbers since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The United States had benefited from
the British Opium Wars in China by also gaining trade concessions as a result
of the Treaty of Wanghia in 1844, Commodore Perry had forced Japan open to
American trade in 1854 with Treaty of Kanagawa and there are several other
related events which demonstrate imperial potential. So in a sense America was in the “imperialists’
game well before the 1890s. It is
possible that had there not been such a vast area in the American west, an
internal empire, that an overseas empire might have been on the national agenda
much sooner, particularly following the end of slavery and the end of the
abolitionists’ perennial objection to overseas possessions.
Nevertheless
it seems reasonable that reformers would be opposed to building an empire based
upon morality and basic American principles. This was of course the case for many reformers but in
particular with progressives, who could find empire building completely
compatible with their objectives and principles. One of the themes of progressivism was the idea of
oversight, a committee of experts, of the learned, who would be empowered in
the form of a commission to regulate an industry, a city, a state, or even the
Constitution itself. If this were
reasonable why not improve the world by regulating a foreign, presumably
backward lands that could benefit be being forced fed American style economics,
democracy and government. At the
same time American industries derived profits, American hegemony was enhanced
and consequently the world was made a better place.
Three
prominent and very influential progressives were clearly compatible with this
line of thought. There was no
greater general advocate of progressive objectives and ideas than Theodore
Roosevelt and it is unlikely anyone else has a stronger imperial pedigree. His chosen successor William Howard
Taft was a much less forceful personalities but he endorsed America’s
colonial prerogatives first as serving as America’s first civilian
colonial governor of the Philippines and later as president by endorsing
America fledgling empire and by personally inspecting the construction of the
Panama Canal.
Figure 6, Secretary Taft's Philippine
themed dinner party, 1906, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Washington
The
last of the progressive presidents moved in a sense beyond the little overseas
empire that the United States already controlled. When Woodrow Wilson brought his fourteen points to the Paris
Treaty Conference he was advocating an extension, or globalization, of other
recent American policies. The
guaranteeing of the freedom of the seas and open markets is a grander
“Open Door” policy.
His avocation of national self-determination applied only to the
defeated nations empires and if the League of Nations formed following his
direction the world would be partially governed by essentially a commission of
empires, a regulatory agency presided over by the influence of the United
States. A better world might be
made from an empire of empires.
Figure 7, View of President Woodrow Wilson with Colorado Governor Oliver H. Shoup as they leave the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado. President Wilson is about to deliver a speech in support of the League of Nations. 1919, The Harry M. Rhoads Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington