1. Politics, Populists, and Progressives
James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Eighth Edition America: A Concise History Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 20
Whose Government?
Politics, Populists, and Progressives
1880–1917
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. 1. This image depicts an 1894 political march
1. This image depicts an 1894 political march. To where are these men marching and for what reason? (Answer: Coxey’s Army; marched on Washington, D.C., during the depression in 1894; unemployed men asking for relief from the government.)
2. What message are these men seeking to send to onlookers? (Answer: The presence of the U.S. flag indicates that they see themselves as asking for rights as citizens; dressed respectfully; appear to want the support and respect of those who witness their march.)

3. I. Reform Visions, 1880–1892
A. Electoral Politics After Reconstruction 1. Close Elections 2. New Initiatives
I. Reform Visions, 1880–1892
A. Electoral Politics After Reconstruction
1. Close Elections – High voter turnout and partisan conflict characterized elections; northerners were disillusioned by the failures of Reconstruction; Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, and Harrison presidencies were limited by the intense competitions for votes; both parties accused of stuffing ballot boxes and buying votes.
2. New Initiatives – On July 2, 1881, President Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau; some blamed Guiteau’s actions on his frustration with the patronage system (granting government jobs to supporters); Pendleton Act (1883) established the Civil Service Commission (exams), reduced political parties’ opportunities to pass out jobs; “liberals” (term’s use has changed) in the nineteenth century meant Americans who advocated limited and professionalized government; “Mugwumps”: liberal Republicans; liberals wanted smaller government and less regulation; by 1887, Massachusetts was leading the charge for free, compulsory education and public regulatory commissions.

7. I. Reform Visions, 1880–1892
A. Electoral Politics After Reconstruction (cont.)
3. Republican Activism
I. Reform Visions, 1880–1892
A. Electoral Politics After Reconstruction (cont.)
3. Republican Activism – In 1888, the Republican Party gained control of Congress and the White House; gave pensions to all Union veterans; began regulating interstate corporations; President Harrison with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA) proposed a bipartisan federal election board for investigating fraud and disfranchisement in the Federal Elections Bill of 1890; southerners disliked the idea of government intervening in voting; northern liberals believed it was “too much democracy”; westerners opposed and finally defeated the bill.

8. I. Reform Visions, 1880–1892
B. The Populist Program 1. Origins and agenda 2. Supporters
I. Reform Visions, 1880–1892
B. The Populist Program
1. Origins and agenda – In 1890, Kansas Farmers’ Alliance joined with Knights of Labor to form a People’s Party; immediately had success in Kansas state elections; party grew to national prominence in 1892; known as the Populists; wanted the people to have more power to end poverty and injustices; desired public ownership of railroad and telegraph systems, protection of land and natural resources, federal income tax on highest incomes, and looser monetary policy to favor borrowers.
2. Supporters – Populist supporters included farmers, labor groups, prohibitionist and women’s suffrage advocates; party was ultimately hampered by the large number of private interests who joined. 8

10. II. The Political Earthquakes of the 1890s
A. Depression and Reaction 1. Economic Crises of the 1890s 2. Coxey’s Army
II. The Political Earthquakes of the 1890s
A. Depression and Reaction
1. Economic Crises of the 1890s – Depression hit in 1893, and continued until nearly 1900; March 1893 saw an increase in farm foreclosures and railroad bankruptcies; stock market crashed in May; by July, banks were claiming they could no longer grant depositors access to money; unemployment above 20 percent; middle class grew concerned about possible labor unrest or a new agrarian-based political movement.
2. Coxey’s Army – Jacob Coxey, a radical businessman from Ohio, proposed that the government could hire the unemployed to fix roads; in 1894, he led a peaceful march to Washington; Coxey was viewed as an extremist by many but found support among others; arrived in Washington, then was arrested and jailed; public blamed upheaval on political radicals and the Democratic Party (President Cleveland); debate ensued over “free silver” and the “gold standard” (supported by Cleveland, but not his party); Cleveland secretly enlisted the help of private bankers to preserve the gold standard, who then turned a tidy profit; people grew even more angry at Cleveland and his party.

11. II. The Political Earthquakes of the 1890s
B. Democrats and the “Solid South” 1. The People’s Party in the South 2. Disfranchisement
II. The Political Earthquakes of the 1890s
B. Democrats and the “Solid South”
1. The People’s Party in the South – Democratic Party continued to gain strength and power in the South during the 1890s; People’s Party sought to join black and white poor in an effort to help farmers and wage earners.
2. Disfranchisement – Democrats claimed People’s Party was advocating “Negro rule” and were angry to see farmers supporting the cross-racial alliance forged by Populists; Democrats used fraud and violence to maintain white supremacy; by 1908, all southern states had literacy tests or poll taxes to keep black men from voting; voter turnout fell dramatically among African Americans and poor whites; segregation expanded; 1899 citizens of Grimes County, TX, established a secret White Man’s Party to keep black men from voting. 11

13. II. The Political Earthquakes of the 1890s
C. New National Realities 1. William Jennings Bryan 2. Marcus Hanna 3. New limits
II. The Political Earthquakes of the 1890s
C. New National Realities
1. William Jennings Bryan – In the 1896 election, Democrats chose Bryan (NE), a free-silver advocate; his vow was: “You shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold”; wanted a federal income tax on the wealthy; ran as a Democrat without recognizing the importance of populism.
2. Marcus Hanna – Manufacturer from Ohio who ran the Republican campaign; portrayed Bryan’s supporters as “revolutionary and anarchistic”; sought support from immigrants; William McKinley won.
3. New limits – Increasingly, voters were excluded from participating in elections; northern and southern states imposed literacy tests plus restrictions on immigrants voting; turnout declined; direct primaries enabled voters to choose candidates; Seventeenth Amendment (1913) required that U.S. Senators be chosen by popular vote; federal courts used the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down regulatory measures passed in the 1880s; used “due process” clause to shield contract rights; judges argued that they were protecting workers’ freedom from government regulation; labor and farmer’s groups disagreed with these decisions.

17. III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1912
A. Theodore Roosevelt as President 1. Antitrust Legislation 2. Environmental Conservation 3. Roosevelt’s Legacies
III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1912
A. Theodore Roosevelt as President
1. Antitrust Legislation – Roosevelt assumed the presidency after McKinley assassination (September 1901); generally was supportive of business, but during the 1902 coal strike, Roosevelt forced companies to negotiate with the miners’ union.
2. Environmental Conservation – Roosevelt issued fifty-one executive orders creating wildlife refuges, oversaw creation of three national parks, and used Antiquities Act to set aside sites such as the Grand Canyon; some conservation policies were probusiness; he increased amount of land held in forest reserves and created the U.S. Forest Service in 1905; however, his forestry chief insisted on fire suppression to maximize logging potential; Newlands Reclamation Act (1902) promoted economic development in the West by funding irrigation projects.
3. Roosevelt’s Legacies – Roosevelt was full of contradictions; believed in what he called “Anglo-Saxon” superiority yet incurred criticism after inviting Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House; advocated elite rule yet defended the dignity of labor.

18. 1. Can you identify any of the men depicted in this cartoon
1. Can you identify any of the men depicted in this cartoon? (Answer: Holding the sword of “public service” appears to be Teddy Roosevelt; other men are from U.S. businesses: Jay Gould, J. P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller.)
2. What is the central message of this cartoon? (Answer: The enormous, seemingly insurmountable challenges from private businesses/industries/wealth faced by those who fight for the public good.)

19. III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1912
B. Diverse Progressive Goals 1. Protecting the Poor 2. The Birth of Modern Civil Rights
III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1917
B. Diverse Progressive Goals
1. Protecting the Poor – The urban settlement movement called attention to poverty in America’s cities; reformers sought to improve labor conditions for women and children; National Child Labor Committee (1907): hired Lewis Hine to photograph conditions in mines and mills; inspired by new field of social work; Muller v. Oregon (1908) upheld Oregon law that limited women’s workday to 10 hours; achieved first law for public assistance for single mothers (Illinois, 1911) and the first minimum wage law (Massachusetts, 1912); some had concerns that these new laws focused too much on motherhood and not women as equal citizens; some states experimented with mothers’ pensions; male workers benefitted from new workmen’s compensation laws; a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish child labor never won ratification.
2. The Birth of Modern Civil Rights – With an increase in discrimination in the South, civil rights leaders became more vocal; W. E. B. Du Bois: Harvard-educated and advocated higher education for blacks; the 1905 formation of the Niagara Principles led to 1909 founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); National Urban League (1911) was a union of agencies that assisted black migrants in the North; these groups grew into a powerful force for racial justice. 19

21. III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1912 B. Diverse Progressive Goals (cont.)
3. The Problem of Labor
III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1917
B. Diverse Progressive Goals (cont.)
3. The Problem of Labor – American Federation of Labor was slow to ally with progressives, but by the 1910s, labor leaders and progressive reformers began to work together; William “Big Bill” Haywood created a new movement, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which supported the Marxist class struggle and believed that a massive general strike could overthrow capitalism; John J. McNamara, a high official in the AFL’s Bridge and Structural Iron Workers Union, bombed the Los Angeles Times building as revenge against the anti-union newspaper, killing twenty employees; labor issues moved high onto the nation’s agenda.

22. 1. Examine the cover of this periodical
1. Examine the cover of this periodical. What political philosophy are the publishers seeking to advance with its content? (Answer: A socialist publication; note the title The Masses, the article by Max Eastman, a noted radical from this period, about class warfare.)
2. What reaction did the illustrator, John Sloan, hope to evoke with his drawing of the Ludlow Massacre? (Answer: Sadness and anger; the woman on the ground holds a deceased baby, while the man with the gun holds a dead child; the man appears ready to fight whomever has caused this heartache.)

23. III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1912
C. The Election of Roosevelt’s new nationalism 2. Eugene V. Debs and socialism 3. Woodrow Wilson
III. Reform Reshaped, 1901–1912
C. The Election of 1912
1. Roosevelt’s new nationalism – After not running in 1908, Theodore Roosevelt returned to politics in 1910 with a focus on social justice and public welfare; advocated women’s voting rights, minimum wage, and curbs on the power of the courts to halt reform; sought the Republican nomination in 1912; the Republican convention chose Taft; Roosevelt then led his followers into what became known as the Progressive Party.
2. Eugene V. Debs and socialism – Debs had founded the American Railway Union and served time in prison for radical political action; in 1901, he launched the Socialist Party of America.
3. Woodrow Wilson – Democratic Party nominated Wilson, who was a political scientist and former president of Princeton University; advocated reform; hammered out a program that he called the New Freedom to advocate reform while preserving political and economic liberty; Wilson won when the Republicans split between Taft and Roosevelt.

25. IV. Wilson and the New Freedom, 1913–1917
A. Economic Reforms 1. Democrats 2. Federal Reserve Act of 1913
IV. Wilson and the New Freedom, 1913–1917
A. Economic Reforms
1. Democrats – In an era of rising corporate power, many Democrats believed workers needed stronger government to intervene on their behalf; struggled with civil rights issues; passed a federal progressive income tax (1913) and an inheritance tax; new taxes replaced tariffs as revenue for the country.
2. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 – Wilson reorganized the financial system to address the absence of a central bank to back up commercial banks in the states; the Federal Reserve Act (1913) created twelve district reserve banks funded and controlled by their member banks, with a central Federal Reserve Board to impose regulation; The Federal Reserve had authority to issue currency and set the interest rate. 25

28. IV. Wilson and the New Freedom, 1913–1917
A. Economic Reforms (cont.)
3. Trusts
4. Investigating Labor
IV. Wilson and the New Freedom, 1913–1917
A. Economic Reforms (cont.)
3. Trusts – Wilson and the Democratic Congress aimed to prevent trusts from using their power to curb economic competition; the 1914 Clayton Anti Trust Act amended the Sherman Act, leaving the definition of illegal practices flexible, subject to its impact on competition; new Federal Trade Commission gained broad powers to determine fairness and demand an end to any anticompetitive practices.
4. Investigating Labor – New Federal Trade Commission investigated companies; U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations was charged with investigating labor conditions; Commission blamed the ruthless antiunionism of American employers for previous cases of violence between workers and employers and sought a federal law to protect workers. President Wilson championed a host of bills to benefit American workers; they included the Adamson Act, which established an eight-hour day law for railroad workers, and the Seamen’s Act, which eliminated age-old abuses of merchant sailors.

29. IV. Wilson and the New Freedom, 1913–1917
B. Progressive Legacies 1. Limitations 2. Achievements
IV. Wilson and the New Freedom, 1913–1917
B. Progressive Legacies
1. Limitations – Elitism and racial prejudice, embodied in new voting restrictions, limited working-class power at the polls; divided power in a federalist system blocked passage of uniform national policies on issues such as child labor; key social welfare programs did not become a part of the American agenda; limitations stemmed from the power of business interests, as well as ethnic and racial divisions in the working class.
2. Achievements – More and more prosperous Americans began to support stronger economic regulations; outdated political institutions—from the spoils system to urban machines—would no longer do and required reform. Progressives drew new blueprints for a modern American state, one whose powers were more suited to the needs of an industrial era.