Week 10. Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Quiz Words
"liberty of contract" doctrine
Granger Movement
Farmers' Alliance
Populist Party
new American imperialism
Progressivism
Jacob Riis
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
World War I

National Politics
corruption, partisan politics, and equal support for Democratic and Republican parties
high voter turnout (70-80 percent), strong party loyalty
weak presidents
Republicans controlled the Senate, Democrats controlled the House
few important laws were passed on the federal level

State and Local Politics
bigger spending than on the federal level, more active in reform
political campaigns were a form of entertainment (picnics, rallies, meetings in saloons)
curtailed big business
passed laws on work conditions: limited work hours and child labor

Supreme Court
limited power of local governments: forbid states regulate insterstate commerce
defined corporations as "artificial persons" protected under the Fourteenth Amendment
"liberty of contract" doctrine prohibited states from regulating work conditions and wages: workers could be paid in commodities rather than money; aided big business

Agrarian Protest
by 1890 economic crisis: high tariffs, higher debts, and declining crop prices
in response, farmers in the South and West organized for political action
led by middle-size farmers but difficult because large, midsize, and small landowners and wage workers had different interests
social and political organizing

Granger Movement
founded in 1867, 1.5 million members by 1874, disintegrated after 1884
farm cooperatives for buying and selling
successfully established state regulation of railorad and warehouse rates

Farmers' Alliances
more grassroots than Granger, more tenant farmers involved, interracial
in Kansas and the Dakotas
by 1890, Alliance had 1.5 million members and Colored Alliance 1 million
proposed subtreasury plan: farmers would store crops in government warehouses and obtain government loans for 80 percent of crop value at 1 percent interest--never adopted
won support of Democratic Party in the South and direct seats in Congress in the West

Populist Party
organized in 1891-1892
platform focused on finance (silver, graduated income tax), transportation (nationalize railroads), land (take away land from railroads to farmers), eight-hour workday
very strong in the West, won some Congressional seats
lost 1896 presidential election because supported Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan
Bryans' platform was too similar to populists on the silver and farm policies
Bryan lost 1896 election to William McKinley because of urban vote (urban workers didn't vote for him either)
as a result Populist party declined in power but their reforms were eventually adopted (eight-hour workday for example)

Gold vs. Silver debate
by 1873 Congress dropped the use of silver in coinage
but silver production increased, so silver coinage became useful for farmers (caused inflation)
Populists and Bryan supported silver coinage but lost
inflation happened anyway because more gold was found in South African and Canada

New American imperialism
continued expansionist doctrine of "Manifest Destiny"
used theories of racial and national superiority (Anglo-Saxon civil liberties, Christian missionaries)
continued development of the economy--expanded to new global markets
president Theodore Roosevelt amended the Monroe Doctrine -- U.S. can intervene to forestall European influence and exercise "internationa police power"
expanded to the Pacific, Asia
U.S. competed with other Western countries also expanded to African and Asia (Britain, France, Spain)
1867 U.S. bought Alaska for 7.2 million from Russia
political annexation of Hawaii and Samoa
Spanish-American war over Cuba and the Philippines (U.S. advocated independence but wanted influence)
China's Open Door trade policy - all European powers can exert influence in China equally
Panama Canal (1903 Panama won independence from Colombia)--U.S. built and occupied the canal

Progressivism
reform movement, 1900-1917
President Theodor Roosevelt (1901-1909) and Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) directed progressivist reforms
middle-class movement
often presumed Anglo-Saxon superiority (anti-black and anti-immigrant)
the muckcrackers - journalists uncovered corporate and political corruption (Jacob Riis photographed the poor on the Lower East Side in NYC for How the Other Half Lives 1890, "slumming" comes in part from that work)

Progressivist views
democracy (direct election of senators by the people, 1912 - 17th Amendment)
efficiency (Frederick Taylor's research in assembly-line efficiency, rule of experts)
regulation of corporations (Interstate Commerce Commission - federal regulation of manufacturing)
social justice (National Child Labor Committee 1904, fewer hours of work for women, )
Prohibition (1893 Anti-Saloon Leagure)

Roosevelt's contribution
established federal regulation of manufacturing
Meat Inspection Act 1906 (inspired by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle)
conservation (designated national monuments such as the Grand Canyon)

Wilson's contribution
lowered the tariff to promote competition
Federal Reserve Act created a new banking system of Federal Banks - decentralized money supply
anti-trust legislations - Federal Trade Commission 1914 to regulate "unfair trade practices"
weak on social justice (did not support women's suffrage amendment and federal child-labor legislation)
did not support reform for African-Americans (supported segregation in the south, did not want blacks to vote)
1916 - many laws passed (child labor, loans for farmers, federal aid for highway construction)

World War I
broke out in Europe between France, Britain, Russia vs. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
U.S. joined the war on the side of Britain, etc. in 1917
modern warfare - used machine guns, aerial bombing, poison gas
war gave federal government more control to mobilize the country (daylight savings time)
witch-hunts against Germans and radicals (socialist Eugene Debs imprisoned for anti-war leaflets)
after the war Wilson campaigned for the League of Nations (idealist progressivist idea)
but Congress did not support U.S. involvement in the League so his efforts ultimately failed
Congress ratified the Versaille peace treaty in 1921 when Wilson was no longer president