Nov 15, 2006

OUTLINE

Fighting the Machine 
 
I. Preying on the Poor 
  A.  The Political Machine 
    1.  Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall 
  B.  The Business Machine 
    1.  From paternal model to impersonal model 
  C.  Lack of business regulation 
 
II.  The Progressive Impulse 
 A.  Populism 
 B.  Progressivism 
  C.  Theodore Roosevelt, Progressive 
 
III.  Progressive reform 
  A.  Private reform 
    1.  Social activism 
    2.  Labor unions 
  B.  Economic reform 
  C.  Government reform

LECTURE NOTES

Preying on the Poor

The Political Machine
-Corruption
Preying on the Poor
Political "bosses"(Boss Tweed)

One of the biggest problems in this time period was immigration
we will look at three things

MEDIA CLIP: Tammany Hall- a new political organization
-impact on immigrants and other citizens
-Tammany Hall would reach out to new immigrants
-Tammany provided help
--not being able to pay rent
--looking for job
--husband just died
-nothing as famous as tammany hall, leader named Boss Tweed
-superb politician
-shelters for poor, orphanages, etc
-he got people to vote them back into power
-took money from government projects

Boss Tweed gathered political power
-he provided his constituents with needs
-it came at a price, whenever election came around
-and they made sure people voted tweed into power
-it was a corrupt system, sometimes used violence
-he milked 2 billion dollars out of business projects and out of new york citizens

MEDIA CLIP: American tale
-cartoon, a fat mouse he visited a funeral dead mouse
-he wrote down the name of a dead mouse in his election book

The Poor were Exploited
-sweat shops- horrible working conditions in factories, long hours, low wages, dirty
-home work- when you went home from the factory, the boss gave you work to do at home after a 10 hour shift

The Business Machine
-Trusts crushed competition
-Exploitation of immigrants
--sweat shops
--"Home work"

MEDIA CLIP: How factories were run in the progressive era (gilded age)
-the dark side- steel workers worked 12 hours/day
-miners had it worse than steel workers, with explosives and no safety regulations
-when a worker lost an arm he would receive no compensation
-this is now called waged slavery
-new freedom movement rose, called the freedom movement

Some of the people depicted in this clip were children.

There was a big push against it because children were made to work long hours.

MEDIA CLIP: American tale again
-child labor
-mouse looks for his family
-gets put into a sweatshop

Lack of Business Regulation
-No child labor laws
-No worker safety laws
-No Maximum hours


The Progressive Impulse

Populism
-Direction:
--Backward looking, fear and rejection of the present rural
-Manifestation
--Scopes Trial
-Leaders
--William Jennings Bryan

populism- a people movement
-comes in the late 19th century
-backwards looking, a reactive movement
-didn't like new industrial world
-wanted to return to agricultural world
-based in rural areas

one manifestation of populism is called the scopes trial
-a teacher decided to teach evolution in his school
-this was a time of rapid educational change as well
-darwin and froid were making waves with new strange ideas
-that were frightening to a lot of people
-rejection of darwin- backward looking

William jennings bryan was a leader of this movement
-in favor of a silver standard
-he ran for president, but didn't win
-when he lost the populist movement fell apart

Progressivism
-Direction:
--Forward-looking- believed man and science could make world better; urban
-Manifestation
--Social Darwinism: cult of the expert; growth of social programs; govt. regulation
-Leaders
--Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR

Progressivism
-competed with populism, and took its place
-believed mankind could discover truth for himself
-man in partnership with science could create a much better world
-take on challenges, harness technology for benefit of world
-urban based

manifestation
-social darwinism, evolution, but also social evolution
-societies change, they couldn't stop society changing but could
-channel it into positive ways

roosevelt-republican (?)
fDR-democrat (?)


Theodore Roosevelt = TR = teddy roosevelt
-President, 1901-1909 (youngest at 43)
-he was vice president to william mckinley (president)
-but mckinley was killed, so he became president
-Presidential candidate on progressive ticket 1912 (lost)

TR: "Trust-buster"
-He combatted corruption (like a railroad train)
-the southern pacific railroad held too much power

TR (teddy roosevelt)
-he was a conservationist, preserved 230 million acres of land during presidency
-Created 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, 150 national forests, 51 national bird reserves

TR and the "strenuous life"
-led a life of non-stop action

TR visited south america
-wanted to explore and map the a river
-brought his son hermet, went with father on the trip 20 others went
-encountered things in the amazon basin
-pyranas, malaria, snakes
-covered 1500 miles, some people died, another went crazy
-roosevelt lost 57 lbs, almost died
-brought back hundreds of specimens

Some of the ways progressives approached reform:
private reform
-social activism
--journalists: jacob riis, lewis hine, ida tarbell (newspaper series on Standard Oil)
---they published book advertising these conditions to america, and show abused of standard oil-
---published living conditions
--writers: upton sinclair (the jungle), frank norris (the octopus)

work of riis and hine
riis: [see slides]
-Dens of death
-A flat in the paupers' barret
-it costs a dollar a month to sleep in these sheds
-7 cent/night lodging house
-sweat shop
-cigarmakers...

hine: [see slides] knowledge of vanquish evil
-rookeries
-homework
-spinning room
-cotton mill
-cotton mill worker
-knitting mills
-lost arm
-child picking potatoes
-boy picking cotton
-shrimp cannery
-shucking oysters
-newsies

Progressive reform
-labor unions

MEDIA CLIP: Hay market strike
-created labor unions
-most peaceful, some used violence
-August Spies, a violent labor union demonstrator
-police fired and killed 4 workers
-spies compared the revolution to the american revolution
-called for people to arms to fight back
-he rallied more than 3000 workers that day
-380 policemen in the square
-someone threw a bomb at the police
-police started shooting at crowd
-violence at haymarket turn nation against freedom fighters
-Nov 1911, august spees and 3 others were hanged

this is an example of someone using the declaration of independence to promote rights
-you'll see this over again, womens rights, etc, use it to justify their movement

Ludlow massacre April 20, 1914
-Culmination of Colorado Coal strike, Sept 1913-April 1914
-mines were unsafe, miners had gone on strike
-national guard got called out, surrounded workers, violence broke out
-20 killed including 2 women and 11 children
-cause public outcry

Fear of corrupt- foreign influences
-he attended the world fair leon killed mckinley
-Assassination of william mckinley by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, 1901
-anarchists say all kings, presidents, popes leaders should be put to death

Economic Reform
Sherman anti-trust act, 1890
-illegal to conspire to restrain trade
-targets monopolies
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
-regulation of railroads, public utilities
-targets business that had monopolies
Federal Reserve System ("the Fed")
-Board of governors, regional reserve banks
Food and Drug Administration(FDA)
State-level regulations
-Maximum work hours
-Workers compensation laws
-labor safety regulations
-compulsory education for children aged 14 or 16
--designed to pull kids from factories put them in schools

at first the supreme court protected the rights of businesses too much, but then they changed because enough evidence was show women who worked too hard became unhealthy couldn't bear children very well

Governmental Reform
-Efforts to return power to the people, bypass political system corrupted by private power
--referendums, recalls, initiatives
-Direct income tax (Amendment XVI)
--Graduated tax allowed redistribution of wealth
---this means that reach people pay more tax than poor people
--taxation funded social programs
-Direct election of senators (Amendment XVII)

Results
-improved working conditions
-breakup of monopolies
-growth of government-funded social programs
-expansion in size and scale of government
--1/800 federal employees in 1870
--1/200 federal employees in 1927