just the facts- the emergence of modern america the progressive era
U.S. History
the emergence of modern America the progressive era facts
As the 20th century dawned, it seemed to many that America was on the cusp of a grand new epoch. Bolstered by a booming industrialized economy, victory in the Spanish-American War, and a host of new inventions like the telephone and lightbulb, a large number of American citizens were extremely optimistic about the future. So much so, that the period between 1919 ten was often referred to as the age of optimism. But an increasing number of Americans began to focus on the problems that the new industrial age presented. Problems that included corporate monopolies, mistreatment of laborers, and overcrowding in cities. Citizens who sought reforms to these issues were known as progressives, and historians now refer to the period between the turn of the century and the outbreak of World War I as the progressive era. Following the victory in the Spanish-American War, America had emerged from an extended period of isolationism to announce itself as a world power. Cuba was gained as a protectorate. And Puerto Rico Guam and the Philippines were all gained as territories. Americans were thrilled with the victory, and the idea that America should have its own overseas empire was growing in popularity.
New machines in a production supply from American farms and factories to exceed the domestic demand. New outposts in foreign countries would benefit the American economy and increase America's position as a world power. While many Americans were pleased with his new imperialism, many of the native inhabitants of the foreign lands were not so happy. In 1900, Americans met the first significant challenge to their new authority. In the late 1800s, America sought access to trade outposts in China that had been established by Europeans. By 1900, a Chinese secret society called the fists of righteous harmony was mobilizing with the aim of ridding their homeland of foreign influence. They came to be known as the boxers by the western powers. In the summer of 1900, the boxers began a violent assault on foreigners. The boxers took control of Peking, forcing many European diplomats to take refuge in the British embassy there. A counterattack was planned, and America contributed 2500 troops to the cause. The multinational group successfully ended the boxer rebellion, improved the American military was a force to be reckoned with. Prior to the 20th century, ships moving goods from coast to coast in America had to make the long and treacherous trip around the tip of South America. As America's economic interests spread, the long talked about dream of a Central American canal system became a high priority. Negotiations took place to create the canal and the Colombian province of Panama.
Panama had the narrowest isthmus on the continent, and creating a canal there would drastically reduce the amount of time necessary to sail from coast to coast for American ships. The Colombian government rejected the American proposal. In 1903, the American government sent troops to support a Panamanian uprising. The revolution was successful and Panama became its own country. Shortly thereafter, the new government gave the United States the right to build and operate the canal, digging commenced immediately, and the canal was opened in 1914. The result of the promise of faster shipping to ever increasing foreign markets was more industrialization. As the nation's businessmen rushed to fill the growing demand for products, three distinct problems were becoming increasingly apparent. The capitalist system upon which America was thriving was based in large part on the idea of competition. Fair competition between companies was seen as an insurance that prices would be kept low and quality would remain high. In 1890, the Sherman antitrust act was passed in an effort to prevent the growth of monopolies or trusts, which occur when one company controls every aspect of production and distribution of a specific product. The antitrust laws had been weakened by Supreme Court rulings, and many businesses were able to create monopolies by the turn of the century.
With little to no competition, these trusts were able to set their own prices and consumers were forced to pay whatever was demanded of them. Another end result of industrialization was the concentration of the nation's wealth into fewer and fewer hands. By 1900, it is estimated that 1% of Americans owned a higher share of the wealth than the other 99%. While some of the richest Americans like Andrew Carnegie gave away large percentages of their fortunes, many kept their wealth to themselves. As businessmen enjoyed the high life, the men, women and children who built their fortunes, toiled away in factories. The factory workers of the early 1900s often faced long hours, low pay and unsafe working conditions. Many of these workers had emigrated from other countries, and while working conditions in America were often better than in Europe, they were still horribly lacking in many areas. As few laws existed in forcing fair treatment of laborers, factory owners and managers often treated their employees as lowly parts of machines. Working ten to 12 hour days for work weeks that often stretched 6 to 7 days, factory laborers were routinely worn out or ill from overwork. Added to the stress of long hours and pay as low as a dollar 50 a day was the often unsafe factory conditions. Factories were often filthy under heated, under ventilated, and dimly lit.
When combined with massive complicated machines, these conditions often allowed for on the job injuries and even the occasional death. The accident rate in America's factories, mines, and railroads was higher than for any other industrialized nation. At the time, there was no such thing as workers compensation insurance. The cities were so crowded that replacing an injured worker was easy for employers. If you couldn't work, someone else could easily take your place. This same issue also came into play when workers asked for pay races. Business owners could often get away with paying their laborers the bare minimum, since there was always another man who would do the job for less. The terrible working conditions also aided the spread of disease. Tuberculosis could quickly spread through poorly cleaned factories and black lung disease was the scourge of miners. Workers often brought their illnesses home to their unsanitary living conditions in the overcrowded city slums. As of 1900, politicians had yet to address the problems of overpopulation in the poorest neighborhoods of the nation's cities. No standards existed for building or maintaining apartment buildings. Unethical landlords would force large families to cram into tiny one or two room apartments, oftentimes with no restrooms and few windows. Many of these families were recent immigrants who were forced to live under such conditions because they couldn't afford anything better.
For the poor and immigrant populations, it was often necessary to have all members of the family contribute what they could to help make ends meet. While men toiled over heavy machinery, women often found work sowing in clothing factories. Worst of all, however, was child labor. Though there were laws aimed at protecting young children from factory work by the early 1900s, these laws were rarely enforced. Around the turn of the century, its estimated that around 10% of girls and at least 20% of boys 15 and under were working jobs and factories, mines are farms. Workdays were just as long for children as they were for adults. Accidents were more common among the child laborers who were forced to work the same dangerous machinery as adults twice their size. The situation was dire, but there was little incentive for factory owners to change their ways, as long as labor was cheap and enlarged supply, their profits would continue to grow. As industrialization spread, the problems associated with it became harder and harder to ignore.
Some members of the middle and upper classes saw the dreadful way the poor lived and wanted to do something about it. Many Americans did not know how bad the situation in factories and slums were, until they read about it in the books and newspaper articles written by a group of writers who would eventually be called the muckrakers. Journalist Ida tarbell wrote about the unfair business practices of the Standard Oil trust. Lincoln steffens exposed political corruption in the nation's big cities. Novelist Frank Norris published the octopus, a story of California ranchers struggles with corporate railroads. In 1906, Upton Sinclair published the jungle, a powerful expose detailing unsafe and unsanitary practices of a meatpacking industry. The work of these writers galvanized the progressivists, most of whom were native born, college educated middle and upper class city dwellers. The progressivists sought immediate reforms, hoping to change society for the better, while preserving capitalism and democracy. Not everyone was so swayed by the muckraking, however, it was Theodore Roosevelt who gave the muckrakers their name. He felt that the muckrakers were necessary to society, but also that they often went too far, focusing solely on the negative aspects of the issues they wrote about. But it was in Teddy Roosevelt that the progressives had their strongest ally. Roosevelt was a hero of the Spanish-American War, and the vice president under William McKinley.
Roosevelt was a headstrong and popular Republican, and a known enemy of political corruption. Tragically, president McKinley was assassinated by a deranged anarchist in 1901. When Roosevelt was thrust into the presidency, corrupt politicians and businessmen knew they had a problem. No sooner had Roosevelt been sworn in than he delivered an address to Congress, stating that old laws and customs were no longer sufficient in the face of the new social problems facing the United States. Roosevelt set out to convince the American people of a need for social change and gain support for his strategy, a strategy he called the square deal. Roosevelt first went after monopolies where he could. This was sometimes tricky since the existing antitrust law stated that businesses that were not involved in interstate commerce were not under the control of the federal government. This prompted Roosevelt to set his sights on the railroads since they were involved in interstate commerce. Roosevelt succeeded in breaking up some of the railroad monopolies, such as northern securities, which had been combining their forces in order to raise the cost of shipping. The Supreme Court ordered northern securities dissolved in 1904. Roosevelt's administration also won a case against swift and company, the beef trust, which had been combining to set high prices for cattle. Under Roosevelt, the government also won major victories against the tobacco and oil trusts. In all the Roosevelt administration brought 44 antitrust cases before the Supreme Court.
Though he was not always victorious, Roosevelt sent a powerful message to big business with his antitrust cases. Roosevelt also disliked the fact that government usually favored business over strikers when they were labor disputes. In 1902, Roosevelt got involved when the united mine workers went on strike. The mine workers were seeking shorter working hours and higher wages. In reaction, mine owners halted operations, hoping to wait out the strikes until the laborers could no longer afford to pick it. This had an effect on the nation as a whole, since most homes at the time were still heated by coal. A lack of coal would drive up prices and hurt many Americans financially. In the hopes of settling the strike and averting national crises, Roosevelt called the union leaders in mine owners to a conference at The White House. When the mine owners refused to talk to the union representatives, Roosevelt grew impatient and threatened to have the army take control of the mines. This prompted the mine owners to give the strikers what they wanted. Shorter hours and a pay increase. Roosevelt's action marked a historic precedent. The first time a president intervened on the side of labor. This made Roosevelt extremely popular with the population that saw him as willing to fight for their rights. As a result, Roosevelt easily won reelection in 1904.
In addition to his trust busting, Roosevelt sought the passage of legislation that would keep new trusts from forming. In 1906, the Hepburn act increased the strength of the already existing interstate commerce commission, giving the ICC increased power to set maximum railroad freight rates. Roosevelt also sought reforms in the way food and drugs were prepared and marketed. Before the meatpacking industry was regulated, it was not uncommon for meat factories to be rat infested on sanitary environments, detailed by Upton Sinclair in his muckraking novel, the jungle. The meat inspection act of 1906 sought to remedy the deplorable conditions. The same year, Roosevelt pushed through the pure food and drug act. Prior to the new set of laws, the patent drug industry was booming despite the fact that the cure all remedies that were marketed were often little more than alcohol and coloring. It usually did more harm than good. The food and drug act established guidelines for the safe preparation of medications and certain foods. Roosevelt was an outdoors enthusiast and avid hiker and hunter, and many of his progressive policies were geared toward protecting the American wilderness, so that future generations could share his enjoyment of nature. In 1903, pelican island in Florida became the first national wildlife preserve. In 1906, the Lacey antiquities act was passed in order to protect areas of historical significance.
The national commission for the conservation of national resources was created in 1908. To protect the nation's natural resources from being wasted, and Roosevelt saw that laws were passed that restricted industries like coal mining. Roosevelt stated that of all the reforms he oversaw as president. He was proudest of his working conservation. Roosevelt decided not to run for reelection in 1908. Instead, throwing the weight of his support behind William Howard Taft. Taft had promised to continue Roosevelt's progressive policies and Roosevelt's enormous popularity assured him the election. Taft kept his word and became an even more vigilant trust buster than Roosevelt. During the taft administration, 90 antitrust cases went before the Supreme Court. The man Elkins act passed in 1910, extended the power of the ICC over the telephone and telegraph industries. Taft also reformed the federal government with anti corruption measures, passing a law that required members of the House of Representatives to reveal who had contributed money to their campaigns. Taft even followed in Roosevelt's footsteps by acquiring new land as New Mexico and Arizona became states in 1912. The same year that Alaska was deemed a U.S. territory. In many ways, the taft presidency was like a continuation of the Roosevelt administration. But there was one significant difference between taft and Roosevelt, and that was the importance the two men placed on conservation. Taft was much more conservative than Roosevelt in regard to protecting natural resources, and he failed to enact much in the way of new legislation on behalf of the movement.
This enraged Roosevelt, who rightfully felt that taft had betrayed him. In 1912, Roosevelt ran against the Republican taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson as a candidate for the new Progressive Party. The party came to be known as the bull moose party after a statement Roosevelt made about roaring like a bull moose. Roosevelt stands was a continuation of the platform he had as president. Increased regulation of business and conservation of the natural environment. The bull moose party did very well in the elections actually surpassing taft by an impressive margin of 600,000 popular votes. But Roosevelt's party split the Republican vote, allowing the democratic candidate a former New Jersey governor named Woodrow Wilson to win the election with only 41% of the popular vote. President Wilson seemed very dissimilar to Teddy Roosevelt. He was a quiet man who didn't seek the public's attention, but in terms of his conviction, determination and commitment to progressive causes. Wilson was very much a president in the Roosevelt tradition. Wilson fought hard to lower tariffs at a 1913 the Underwood tariff act was passed. This act eliminated taxes on food, iron, and wool, and dramatically reduced taxes on many other items. This decreased revenue for the federal government, so in 1913, Congress enacted the first federal income tax, as provided for by the Sixteenth Amendment to the constitution.
The income tax marked a change in the way the federal government generated revenue, and a variation of the tax Wilson helped to create is still in use today. Also in 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the constitution was ratified. It provided for the direct election of U.S. senators, previously state legislatures had appointed senators, but Wilson gave the American people a chance to choose their senators for themselves. Under Wilson, a more direct democracy was extended to the American people in the form of initiative, referendum, and recall. Initiative gave voters the right to initiate legislation, referendum allowed for the approval or veto of legislation. We call enabled voters to remove and elected official from office by special election. These new rights gave citizens an increased say in politics, but Wilson's reforms did not stop with government. Wilson also attacked the banking trust by stripping it of its power. He encouraged Congress to pass the Owen glass act, which created the Federal Reserve system. Basically, the Federal Reserve system established a central federal bank and 12 regional banks that were under the control of a Federal Reserve board. The board controlled inflation by setting interest rates and adjusting the supply of money. This placed the power of banking at the federal level rather than leaving it to the money trusts.
Wilson then went on to create the Federal Trade Commission in 1914 in order to investigate corporations and put a halt to unfair business practices. Wilson did not stop there. The same year, Congress passed the Clayton antitrust act. The law strengthened the existing Sherman antitrust act by legally forbidding what were called interlocking directories, meaning that corporate heads could not control more than one company in the same or related fields, where they might be able to create monopolies and fix prices. The Clayton antitrust act legalized striking and boycotting, giving a big boost to labor unions, which previously had been seen as a threat to American capitalism. Unions had been growing in strength since the early 1900s, with two unions boasting large memberships and considerable sway over laborers. The conservative American federation of labor, and the radically socialist international workers of the world. On March 25th, 1911, a fire broke out at the triangle shirtwaist factory in New York City. Of the 500 women employees who worked in the sweatshop like conditions 146 would die. Negligence on the part of the management and unsafe working conditions were to blame. In order to keep the women working at their sewing machines all day, the management locked the doors that led to the exits. As the fire spread rapidly, fed by fabric, the panicked women tried to find an escape.
The poorly maintained fire escape collapsed, killing many, and leaving many more to jump to their deaths in an effort to avoid being burned. A few days later, 80,000 people marched to protest the unsafe working conditions that led to the tragedy. The owners of the factory were tried for and acquitted on charges of manslaughter. The triangle shirt waste fire was a sad reminder that while many reforms were indeed being enacted, there were large numbers of Americans who were untouched by the benefits of the progressive era. Women were generally not allowed to join labor unions, and the workplace reforms that helped clean up the factories in which men worked, often did little for women. Likewise, progressive reforms generally ignored problems of racial, ethnic and religious persecution. With the lack of a support from the government, minority groups had to seek reform for themselves. In the early 1900s, women were still very much second class citizens, who in most states lacked the right to vote, make legal decisions or own property. Women had very few opportunities for employment and married women were expected to stay at home and be full-time wives and mothers. Though the suffrage movement was decades old by the beginning of the progressive era, the progressive spirit revitalized women's groups that sought the right to vote.
Organizations like the national American women's suffrage association held rallies and lobbied hard on behalf of their cause. Slowly, more state governments listened to the suffragists and extended women the right to vote. Eventually, the federal government followed suit as the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, gave women the right to vote on a national level. Another cause championed by women would gain support in the progressive era, Temperance was the name of the movement that sought the complete ban on the manufacture and sale of alcohol. As the world changed, struggling farmers and disillusioned factory workers were turning to drinking to escape their problems because of this alcoholism became an even greater problem in America. As a result of the Temperance movement, the Eighteenth Amendment would be passed and alcohol would be prohibited for the entirety of the next decade. Americans at the time were often fearful of things they found strange or different than the culture they were used to. This fear extended to the new wave of immigrants that were entering America from the late 1800s through the first two decades of the 1900s. These new immigrants mostly from southern and Eastern Europe brought an influx of Catholics and Jews to American cities, where previously the majority of citizens were protestants. Unlike the previous waves of immigrants who assimilated well to the American way of life, immigrants from countries like Italy, Russia and Poland brought with them different languages, as well as different religions, and this made assimilation increasingly difficult. As a result of the public's dislike for the new immigrants, the progressives of the period did little to help them.
Left to their own devices, the immigrants banded together in their own communities and formed organizations aimed at helping one another. The only major help new immigrants received from native citizens came in the form of settlement houses. Settlement houses such as hull House founded by Jane Adams in the late 1800s, helped immigrants to better assimilate by teaching them English and helping them understand American customs. By 1900, over 100 settlement houses existed in the ethnic communities of the nation's largest cities. Asian immigrants, however, were completely left out of progressive policies. In 1902, a federal law was passed that effectively stopped immigration from China. The Chinese had been instrumental in building the transcontinental railroad, but they were intensely disliked by anti immigrationist, who felt that Asians were stealing jobs that could have gone to native born Americans. Anti Asian sentiment was fueled by the nation's conservative newspapers, who called them the yellow peril. The progressives also failed to seek reforms that would benefit African Americans. Like women, African Americans were often forbidden to join labor unions, and therefore were largely unable to benefit from higher wages and safer working conditions.
President Wilson was a supporter of segregation and under his administration black and white federal workers were obliged to use separate restrooms and lunch areas. If African Americans wanted any kind of social betterment, it became clear that it would have to come from within their community. Fortunately, two African American men of extraordinary character rose to the occasion. The first, Booker T. Washington founded the tuskegee institute in 1881. The Alabama school trained African Americans for trades in agricultural jobs. Washington's institute gained support during the progressive era as a result of his endless speaking tours in which he actively sought the respect of white America. Washington accepted segregation but taught that through hard work and good moral character. African Americans could earn respect and gain equality. Washington was an intelligent man and a talented speaker, but his words did not sit well with many Americans, many of whom were in his own community. Washington's willingness to accept segregation and his failure to demand even the most basic civil rights came under intense scrutiny from a man who would become one of the most important civil rights leaders of the century. WEB Dubois was a profound thinker and a brilliant writer orator and activist.
The first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university. In 1909, Dubois cofounded the national association for the advancement of colored people and edited the organization's news journal crises. Dubois stressed that African Americans should take pride in themselves and demand their civil rights rather than willfully allow those rights to be stripped away. African Americans also made progress in the realm of popular music, refinements and Edison's phonograph made listening to music at home much easier. Two of the most important and influential musical styles of the day were blues and ragtime. Ragtime featured jaunty piano based melodies that were influenced by African dance. Blues, on the other hand, was darker and Saturn tone, evolving from the slave songs and field hollers comment in the south. The progress of the era was not limited to political or social gains. The progressive era also saw impressive advancements in technology and transportation. In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was organized, just 5 years later, the model T was introduced to the American public. Though it was slow to catch on with Americans still skeptical of horseless carriages. The model T would go on to create a revolution in transportation and Ford's use of the assembly line would revolutionize automobile production. In the cities, electric trolleys and subway systems were replacing horse drawn trolleys as the means of mass transit.
In 1903, an entirely new industry literally took off as the Wright brothers made their first successful flight of a heavier than aircraft. Though they received little fanfare for their feet at the time, by 1908, the rights had demonstrated their airplane for government officials. Airplanes were put to the test in the First World War, first as observers and later as fighters and bombers. On May 15th, 1918, air mail service began between New York and Washington, D.C., further increasing the speed of communication. The entertainment industry saw great progress as the motion picture developed from being a mere curiosity to a full fledged industry. In 1903, the first narrative film was exhibited to the public. It was called the great train robbery, and it created quite a stir. As thrilling as it was, the film was only a few minutes long and lacked any technical sophistication. By 1915, all that had changed, that year, D.W. Griffith's birth of a nation debuted in theaters. It was cinema's first epic, with a running time of well over two hours, and a story that told the history of the United States. Although its racist overtones offended sung, the film offered a glimpse of what lay ahead for an industry that would soon have a profound influence on culture. Electricity was also becoming increasingly available. The percentage of electrified homes jumped from only 5% at the turn of the century to over 50% by the end of the progressive era.
The increase in electricity brought with it a greater ability to use another recent invention, the telephone. The amount of phones in the U.S. grew an astounding 600% between 1919 15. By 1914, war was consuming Europe. President Wilson had won reelection by promising to keep Americans from the battlefield, but German aggression was becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Unrestricted submarine warfare claimed American lives as German subs sank ocean liners and cargo ships with U.S. citizens aboard. It became clear that Wilson was going to have to go back on his word. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, the progressive era faded as the attention of the nation became more focused on what was going on in Europe than what reforms were left to complete at home. In the 15 to 20 year period that was called the progressive era. Many new laws were passed with the aim of bettering society. The presidents of the period, particularly Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, did much to address the problems that had arisen as the result of unprecedented industrialization. While the problems of monopolies and government corruption had been effectively dealt with, there were still much left to be done. World War I brought about the end of the era, but many of the progressive policies were simply put on hold. The progressive era was a crucial period in American history. It created a new, more hands on role for the federal government and proved that when the American people worked together, they could change society for the better.