1. Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt 1901-1912
Chapter 28
Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt

2. Progressivism Roots in with Greenbacks and Populists
Wanted social, economic and political reform
Sick of the corruption and divide between rich and poor
Jacob A. Riis 1890: How the Other Half Lives
Middle class women

3. The Muckrakers 1902 popular magazines in circulation wars= exposes
TR: “muckrakers” because they just focus on the worst in society’
Lincoln Steffens 1902: “The Shame of the Cities”
Ida Tarbell 1902: “Mother of Trusts”
David G. Phillips 1906: “The Treason of the Senate”
John Spargo 1906: “The Bitter Cry of Children”

4. Political Progressivism
Progressives= improve living/working conditions not party or regional allegiances
1. direct primary elections
2. initiatives
3. referendums
4. recall
5. campaign finance reform
6. Australian ballot
7. Direct election of US Senators

5. Progressives and Women
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 NYC
Public outrage= state legislature forced to do something
Change over time from laissez faire to some responsibility to employers
Militant temperance= Women’s Christian Temperance Union (Frances E. Willard)
Wanted “dry laws” 18th amendment

6. Square Deal TR’s Square Deal= domestic policy (3 C’s)
1902 anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania (United Mine Workers Association)
Owners refused negotiation until TR stepped in to force a compromise
1903 Department of Commerce and Labor

7. Trust Busting Need for stronger laws with real teeth
Elkins Act 1903 and Hepburn Act 1906
TR focused on the “bad trusts” to sue under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
1st= Northern Securities Company (JP Morgan, James J. Hill)
Case appealed to SC and upheld had to dissolve
44 other suits for TR= Trust Buster
Real trust buster= William Howard Taft with 90 during 1 term

8. Meat Packing Upton Sinclair- The Jungle 1906
TR= investigators to substantiate Sinclair’s claims almost all true!
Meat Inspection Act of 1906
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

9. Conservation Conservation began late 19th century Desert Land Act 1877
Carey Act 1894
Newlands Reclamation Act 1902
TR and Gifford Pinchot
Boy Scouts of America and Sierra Club
Hetch-Hetchy Valley- John Muir
Multiple use resource management

10. Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy
Dollar Diplomacy- focus on Latin America and Eastern Asia
Extension of the Roosevelt Corollary
Panama Canal 1909, Nicaragua 1912, Haiti, Honduras
Manchuria- Japan and Russian railroads threat to Open Door?
Secretary of State Philander C. Knox 1909

11. Trust Busting 90 anti-trust suits during 1 term
Standard Oil Company of NY vs. United States
“Rule of reason”
1911 went after US Steel unsuccessfully schism between Taft and TR

12. Split of Republican Party
Taft campaign promise= lower tariff
Conservatives in Senate added amendments to tariff reduction
Taft signed Payne-Aldrich Bill (angered progressives)
Ballinger Pinchot controversy 1910= growing rift between progressives and Old Guard conservatives
TR’s New Nationalism

13. Taft vs. Roosevelt
The National Progressive Republican League with Senator La Follette 1911
TR decided to try for Republican nomination for 1912
Angry at Taft for dropping “his policies”
Came into primaries too late
1912 Convention in Chicago= Taft the Republican nominee