Download A. Gilded Age Politics

Unit 4 – Progressives and Reformers
I.
Early Reformers
 Gilded Age – period between 1870 – 1890 known for greed and political
corruption.
 What does ‘Gilded’ mean?
A. Gilded Age Politics
 During the Gilded Age, political power was split between the two major political
parties.
 Where did the Republicans draw support?
 Where did the Democrats draw support?
 In national elections, margins of victory were often paper-thin and neither party
could win control of Congress for more than a term or two.
 Republicans did control White House for 25 years, but Congress generally
had more power during the Gilded Age.
 What were politics like for Americans during the Gilded Age?
 Two concerns shaped the politics of the Gilded Age:
1. Many Americans worried over the growing power of ‘special interests’ –
such as bankers who unfairly influencing politics for their interests.
2. A second worry was political corruption – What were examples of political
corruption in the Gilded Age?
B. Taming the Spoils System
 Patronage = giving jobs to loyal supporters
 Used by politicians to cement ties with supporters and increase their control
of the government.
 How did patronage often led to corruption?
1. Early Reform Efforts
 President Rutherford B. Hayes was elected in 1877 and took steps
towards ending the spoils system – only appointed qualified people.

In 1881, James Garfield becomes president and he also believed that
people should be given jobs based on their abilities.
 What happened to Garfield?
2. Exams for federal jobs
 Chester Arthur became president after Garfield’s death and worked with
Congress to reform the spoils system.
 In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act and it created a Civil Service
Commission to conduct exams for federal jobs.
 What is the ‘civil service’?
C. Regulating Big Business
 Many Americans were convinced that big business controlled the government
and the public outcry against monopolies grew
1. Interstate Commerce Act - 1887
 Signed by President Grover Cleveland, this law forbade railroad
practices such pools and rebates.
 Created the Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee railroads.
 Was this law effective?
2. Sherman Antitrust Act - 1890
 Signed by President Benjamin Harrison, this law prohibited trusts or
other businesses from limiting competition.
 However, the trusts used the courts to block enforcement.
 This act, however, was used to stop what?
II.
The Progressives and Their Goals
A. Reform City Government
 Growing cities needed many improvements (roads, sewers) and in many cities
politicians traded these jobs for money (bribes and corruption).
1. Boss Rule
 Powerful politicians known as bosses came to rule many cities.
 The bosses controlled all work done in the city and demanded payoffs
from businesses
 Why were the bosses popular with the poor and immigrants?
2. Boss Tweed
 In New York City, Boss William Tweed carried corruption to new heights
 Cheated New Yorkers out of more than $100 million.
 How did cartoonist Thomas Nast help expose Boss Tweed?
3. Good government leagues
 The goal of these leagues was to replace corrupt officials with honest
leaders.
B. Muckrakers Rouse Public Opinion
 To bring about change, reformers first had to ignite public anger and the press
was a key to making this happen.
 How did Jacob Riis help?
 Muckrakers = journalists who raked the “dirt or muck”, and exposed it to the
public view.
 Famous muckrakers include:
 Ida Tarbell =
 Upton Sinclair =
C. The Progressives
 By 1900, reformers were calling themselves Progressives = forward-thinking
people who wanted to improve American life.
 Progressive Era = period from 1898 to 1917.
 Progressives were never a single group with a single aim.
1. Progressive Beliefs
 Progressives drew inspiration from two sources:

i.
Religion
 Protestant ministers had begun preaching the Social Gospel in
the late 1800s – stressed that Christians improve society.
 What should guide government actions?
ii.
Education
 Progressives stressed the importance of education.
 Who was John Dewey?
Women played a leading role in the Progressive Era
 A new view of women emerged in the mid-1800s, which was the
women were morally superior to men.
 In a world of corruption, women had the moral force to bring about
change.
 To increase their social influence, what did women want?
2. The Wisconsin Idea
 Progressive governor Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
 His statewide program was called the Wisconsin idea – what was one idea
in the plan?
3. The will of the people
 Progressives believed that the people would make the right choice if given
the chance = reforms to give voters more power were enacted:
Primaries
Initiative
Referendum
Recall
D. Other Reforms
 Other Progressive reforms required federal action:
1. 16th Amendment – Federal Income Tax - 1913
 What is a graduated income tax?
2. 17th Amendment – Direct Election of Senators - 1913
 Senators elected by people, not state legislatures anymore.
III.
Presidents Support Reforms
A. Teddy Roosevelt
 Becomes president when William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.
1. Early Career
 Born into a wealthy family and instead of living a life of ease and
privilege, he entered politics to end corruption and protect public interest
 IDENTIFY steps in Roosevelt’s rise in government
2. A Progressive Governor
 TR worked for Progressive reforms in New York but became Vicepresident in 1900 – Why were the political bosses happy?
B. TR and Big Business
 Roosevelt thought that there were good trusts (efficient and fair) and bad trusts
(cheated the public and unfair to workers).
1. Taking on the trusts
 First big Trust that TR went after was the Northern Securities; then
Standard Oil and American Tobacco Company.
 Why did business leaders call TR ‘trustbuster’?
2. Support for labor
 TR forced mine owners to sit down with the miner’s union and work aout
a deal before winter came.
 Why was this so significant?
C. The Square Deal
 The theme of this campaign for the Presidency in 1904 was a SQUARE DEAL
for all Americans – everyone (workers and consumers) had equal opportunity.
1. Protecting consumers
 After reading The Jungle, TR got Congress to pass the Meat Inspection
Act of 1906 that forced packers to open their door to meat inspectors.
 What did the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) require?
2. Protecting resources
 TR grew alarmed about the destruction of the American wilderness by
industries that fueled the nation’s industrial growth.
 DEFINE conservation

TR created the national park system (an area set aside and run by the
federal government for people to visit)
D. Taft and the Reformers
 With TR’s backing, William Howard Taft became president in 1908.
 Taft supported many Progressive causes - List some of his accomplishments:
 Taft lost Progressive support when he signed a bill that raised most tariffs;
something that most progressives believed would hurt consumers.
E. Election of 1912
 When TR got back from his African safari, he was unhappy with Taft and
decided to run against Taft for the Republican nomination.
1. The Bull Moose Party
 Although TR won almost every state primary he entered, he did not win
the Republican Party nomination. Why did this happen?


Progressive Republicans stormed out of the convention and set up a new
Progressive Party with TR as its leader.
Why was it also known as the Bull Moose Party?
2. A Democratic Victory
 Democrats picked Woodrow Wilson as their candidate.
 Wilson was a Progressive and a son of a Presbyterian minister.
 Why was he able to win the election of 1912?
F. President Wilson
 Program was called “New Freedom”
1. Federal Reserve Act – 1913
 What did this act do?
2. Federal Trade Commission – 1914
 Investigated companies that used practices to destroy competitors.
IV.
Progress for Women
 During the Progressive Era, women continued their long battle to win the right
to vote but they also worked for many other reforms.
A.
Working for the Vote
 After the Civil War, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led a
renewed effort to win the vote.
 They formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869.
1. Women vote in the West
 Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho were the first states were women
gained the right to vote.
 What did being from the West have to do with this?
2. Suffragists
 A new generation of leaders took up the cause – Carrie Champman Catt
spoke powerfully in favor of suffrage.
 DEFINE suffragists

B.
More states in the West and Midwest gave women the right to vote, but
only in state elections.
Amending the Constitution
 Some suffragists (Alice Paul) took strong measures to achieve their goal.
1. Protest at the White House
 Paul and other suffragists met with President Wilson after he took office;
Wilson said he supported women’s suffrage but not the amendment.
 How did Paul and the other suffragists respond?
2. Victory at Last
 Finally in 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment guaranteeing
women the right to vote.
 The necessary states ratified by August 1920 making it official.
C.
Women win New Opportunities
 For years, women struggled to open doors to jobs and education.
1. Higher Education
 Despite obstacles, a few women managed to get the higher education
needed to enter the professions.
 What college granted the first PH.D to a woman?
2. Commitment to Reform
 Women in the Progressive Ear were committed to reform and some
entered the new profession of social work.
 What did Florence Kelley work for?

D.
Faced with racial barriers, African American women formed their own
clubs and crusaded against lynching and racial separation.
The Temperance Crusade
 The temperance movement against the use of alcoholic beverages began in the
early 1800s and was picking up strength by the end of the century
 What were some of the arguments for the ban?
1. Willard and Nation
 In 1874, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed
and Frances Willard became a leader.
 Worked to educate people on the evils of liquor and urged states to
pass laws banning the sale of liquor.
 Who was Carry Nation and what was she known for?
2. The 18th Amendment
 Temperance crusaders wanted to amend the Constitution to prohibit the
sale of liquor.
 How did the Temperance movement use US entry into World War I?


Congress passed the 18th Amendment in 1917 and by 1919 ¾ of the states
has ratified the amendment.
It was now illegal to sell alcoholic drinks anywhere in the United States.
V.
Fighting for Equality
A. African Americans
 After the end of Reconstruction, African Americans in the South lost their hardwon political rights.
 Jim Crow (segregation) became a fact of life in the South.
 What was life like for northern blacks?
 A major problem in the South after the depression of 1893 was lynching; more
than 1000 blacks were murdered by lynch mobs in the 1890s.
1. Washington’s solution
 Booker T. Washington (founder of Tuskegee Institute) offered one
answer to the question of how to fight discrimination.
 What was Washington’s idea?
2. Du Bois disagrees
 W.E.B Du Bois and other African Americans disagreed with Washington.
 Du Bois urged blacks to fight discrimination actively.
 What organization did he co-found?
3. Obstacles and successes
 Still, most Progressives thought little about the problems of African
Americans and they got little help from Presidents of the era.
 Some African Americans succeeded despite huge obstacles:
 George Washington Carver
 Sarah Walker
B. Mexican Americans
 In 1910, revolution and famine swept Mexico and 1000s crossed the border into
the American Southwest.
1. Living in the Southwest
 What types of jobs did Mexicans do?

Barrios were ethnic neighborhoods that Mexicans lived in.
2. Need for mutual aid
 Some Americans in the Southwest responded with violence to flood of
immigrants from Mexico.
 How did the Mexicans respond?
C. Native Americans
 The Dawes Act had granted Native Americans plots on reservation lands.
 Indians were supposed to become farmers and enter mainstream of
American life – what happened?
 In the early 1900s, the Society of American Indians was set up
 It included artists, lawyers, and doctors from many Native American groups
 What did the Society work for?
D. Asian Americans
 Chinese immigration was halted in 1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act
1. Japanese immigration increases
 More than 100,000 Japanese entered the United States in the early 1900s
 Many were hard working farmers; others worked in canneries, lumber
mills and mines.
2. San Francisco school crisis
 Many Americans mistrusted the Asian newcomers because they competed
for jobs and had an unfamiliar culture.
 What was the school problem in San Fransico?

President Roosevelt reached a Gentleman’s Agreement (1907) with Japan
that had (2) parts:
-
Japan would =
-
America would =