CHAPTER 28: PROGRESSIVISM AND THE REPUBLICAN ROOSEVELT
Progressive Roots
Progressives: people who wanted reforms in society, politics, economy, etc., they wanted more democracy and believed that the purpose of the government was to be an agent of human welfare
Laissez-faire: doctrine of lax government regulation and noninterference in regards to business and economics, this let capitalists have free reign of the markets
Henry Demarest Lloyd: author of 1894 book Wealth Against Commonwealth, wanted to make a point against the Standard Oil Company
Jacob Riis: Danish immigrant and reporter for the New York Sun, wrote How the Other Half Lives which was a book showing the horrors of New York slums to his middle class readers, this book would greatly influence Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Dreiser: novelist who used his blunt prose to batter promoters and profiteers in The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914)
Jane Addams: urban pioneer that wanted to improve life for the poor, created the Hull House, a settlement house that offered educational and social services, served mainly immigrants and became a center of activism
Lillian Wald: a nurse and social worker, founded the community health movement in America and worked in New York City
1. What were the goals of the Progressives?
The Progressives had two main goals. The first was to have state power curb the trusts and the other was to have the government active in improving the common person's conditions of life and labor.
Raking Muck with the Muckrakers
McClure's: one of many muckraking magazines dedicated to exposing evil and scandal in American society, extended research and pugnacious writing was encouraged
Lincoln Steffens: New York reporter, wrote a series of articles in McClure's titled "The Shame of the Cities." which revealed an alliance between big business and the government
Ida M. Tarbell: reporter who followed Steffans, pioneering journalist that published a devastating and factual exposure of the Standard Oil Company
Thomas W. Lawson: speculator who made $50 million on the stock market, basically snitched the practices of his accomplices in "Frenzied Finance" This series of articles appeared in the magazine Everybody's and garnered him a lot of enemies among his associates, he died a poor man
David G. Phillips: wrote in the Cosmopolitan a series called "The Treason of the Senate." alleged that seventy-five of the ninety senators did not represent the people at all but the railroads and trusts, impressed President Roosevelt, continued writing attacking novels until his death in 1911 by a deranged young man whose family he had allegedly maligned
Ray Stannard Baker: wrote Following the Color Line (1908), which spotlighted the subjugation of America's 9 million blacks and how a majority still lived in the South and ⅓ were still illiterate
John Spargo: wrote The Bitter Cry of the Children in 1906 which was about abuses of child labor
2 What issues were addressed by the major muckrakers?
The major muckrakers pressed on issues such as child labor, the treatment of African Americans, and corruption in big business. This corruption included the wrongs of drug producers selling addictive medicine to the public and the underground deals of the Standard Oil Company.
Political Progressivism
Direct Primary Elections: when people vote for candidates of their political party by direct vote instead of by delegates at a convention, became a favorite goal of progressives
Initiative: the ability of voters to directly propose legislation themselves and bypass the corrupt state legislatures
Referendum: the ability of the people to vote on laws that affected them
