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Social Darwinism, Social Gospel, Social Welfare I. Social Darwinism- “The millionaires are product of natural selection.” Self justification by the wealthy inevitably involved contempt for the poor. Many of the rich, especially the newly rich, had pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps; hence they concluded that those who stayed poor must be lazy and lacking in enterprise. A. Plutocracy, like the earlier slaveocracy, took its stand firmly on the Constitution. The clause that gave Congress sole jurisdiction over interstate commerce was a godsend to the monopolists; their high priced lawyers used it time and again to thwart controls by the state legislatures. Giant trusts likewise sought refuge behind the 14th Amendment, which had originally been designed to protect the rights of the ex slaves as persons. B. The New plutocrats took the language of democracy and reshaped it to fit their purposes. For example Laissez-Faire was typically associated with Jeffersonian and Jacksonian principles. 1. The new doctrine was conservative, however, in the sense that it was bent on defending the status quo. The laissez-faire conservatives naturally found comfort in classical economics, and those who had heard of them found special fascination in the biological theories of Charles Darwin and the sociological theory of Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, who believed in the superiority of the Anglo Saxon Race. 2. The Gospel of Wealth (Andrew Carnegie) and its corollaries of Social Darwinism included many proposition widely accepted. Among them were the following: a. the American economy was controlled for the benefit of all by a natural aristocracy and that these leaders were brought to the top by a competitive struggle that weeded out the weak, the incompetent, and the unfit and selected the strong, the able, and the wise. b. that politicians were not subject to rigorous natural selection and therefore could not be trusted to the same degree as businessmen c. the state should confine itself to police activities of protecting property and maintaining order and that if it interfered with economic affairs it would upset the beneficent effect of natural selection. d. slums and poverty were the unfortunate but inevitable negative results of the competition struggle and that state intervention to eliminate them was misguided e. stewardship of wealth obliged the rich to try and ameliorate social injustice. C. Critics of Social Darwinism. 1. Lester Frank Ward- There is a difference between human and animal economics. Bears have claws, but men have intellect. Evolution and competition in the animal world were extremely wasteful. Social planning was able to eradicate that waste. Government regulation was necessary for competition to survive. Fundamentally opposed Herbert Spencer. He proposed “social liberalism” in response to the “classical liberalism” of the upper class. 2. Henry George- Wealth is produced by applying labor to land, and capital is the surplus above the cost of labor. Labor therefore creates all capital. Capitalists had an unfair control over the land that was used to create capital. The Gov’t needed to tax the land to prevent the capitalists from using the “unearned increment.” George Believed in nationalization of the actual railways, not the actual rails. 3. Edward Bellamy- the author of “Looking Backward”. Novel about the utopian future where all industry was collectivized into one gigantic trust that had eliminated the destructive practice of competition. II. Social Gospel- believers in the Social Gospel insisted that the churches tackle the burning social issues of the day. The Sermon on the Mount, they declared, was the science of society, and many social gospelers predicted that socialism would be the logical outcome of Christianity. These “Christian socialists” did much to prick calloused middle-class consciousness, thus preparing the path for the progressive reform movement after the turn of the century. A. Example of Jane Addams and Hull House (1889). It was located in a poor immigrant neighborhood of Greeks, Italians, Russians, and Germans. Hull House offered instruction in English, counseling to help newcomers cope with American big-city life, childcare services for working mothers, and cultural activities for neighborhood residents. 1. Following Jane Addams lead. Women founded settlement houses in other major cities as well. B. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was led by Frances Willard who joined the Knights of Labor C. John Dewey and William James established a philosophical organization for reform. C. Suffrage- National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Three main arguments for women’s suffrage: 1. women can vote for their own self protection 2. Women’s morals and nature was needed to reform society 3. White female votes could counteract the immigrant tide. III. Urban ReformA. Boss System within the cities. Contracts for city developments, police protection, tips to real estate developers, all of this dispensation was consolidated in the Political Machine. B. Reformist mayors such as Hazen Pingree and Samuel Golden Rule Jones of Toledo.