Lecture Outline:
National Progressive Reform and the Creation of the Modern Presidency

 

The Modern Presidency

 

  • Direct Appeal: President to the Public
  • Increased Power of Executive Branch
  • Charismatic (media- friendly) Presidents
  • Federal Government’s Responsibility: regulate, control and promote social justice.
  • United States had an important role to play in Foreign Policy
    • Western Hemisphere
    • Asia and Pacific Rim
    • Europe
    • Middle East

Underlying Assumptions

 

  • Ideology:  Social and Reform Darwinism

  • Mission: Spread Democracy Abroad

 

Teddy Roosevelt

 

Biographical Background

 

Foreign Policy (Chapter 20, 593 – 605)

 

Assumptions:

 

  • Social Darwinism
  • White Man’s Burden
  • Balance of Power among Strong Nations

 

Significance:  “Energetic foreign policy in Latin America, Eastern Asia, and Europe paved the way for the vital role of the United States as a world power.”  (Nash, 593)

 

Actions in Spanish American War

 

  • Dewey to Philippines
  • Roosevelt’s Rough Riders – Charge up Kettle Hill

 

 

Actions as President – Case Study - Taking the Panama Canal

  • Need for Interoceanic Connection
  • Panama – the best location
  • Panama – Province of Columbia; Columbia rejected American offer

 

What Happened?

 

  • “War of Independence” by Panamanian nationalists 1903 – Supported (encouraged) by TR.

  • Treaty: established American right to build and operate a canal through panama

  • Construction completed by 1914.

 

Examples of Presidential Power

 

  • Imposed will on Panamanians and directly interfered with Columbia’s ability to stop the war of independence

 

  • Took the Canal Zone and asked congress later.

 

Other Examples

 

Policing the Caribbean and the Roosevelt Corollary

Russo-Japanese War

 

  • Objective: Balance of Power
  • 1905 – Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire)
  • “Carry a Big Stick” – “Great White Fleet” on goodwill world tour.

 

Domestic Policy

 

Focus: Economic Systems

 

Example One: TR as a “Trustbuster”

 

  • Industrial Capitalism and Monopolies (Trusts)

 

  • Toothless Sherman Anti-Trust Act – 1890

 

  • Purpose: Restrain large business combinations, e.g. trusts and monopolies. 

 

Target: Northern Securities Company

 

  • Monopoly on Railroad Rates
  • J.P. Morgan

 

TR: Told the Attorney General to file a law suit against Northern Securities Company

 

  • Issue: Its violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
  • Demand: Dissolve Northern Securities Company
  • Government Won Its Case
  • Selected other trusts (monopolies): Standard Oil of New Jersey (Rockefeller) and American Tobacco Company

 

Consequence:

 

  • Sustain economic power of giant corporations
  • Alter (regulate) the corporations methods of doing business
  • Federal government – regulator of methods and practices of large corporations/trusts
  • End of laissez faire

 

Example Two: Government as Mediator between Business and Labor

 

Issue:  Anthracite Coal Strike (1902)

 

  • Labor Strike of mine workers (members of United Mine Workers)

 

  • Demands of Workers: low wages, long hours and dangerous conditions

 

  • Response of Mine Owners: Refused to negotiate, hired strike breakers and private security companies

 

Problem:  Oncoming winter: no coal for schools and homes --- citizens would suffer

 

TR steps in:

 

  • Orders owners of mines and labor union representatives to Washington, D.C. – negotiate a settlement

 

  • Established a commission that included representatives from federal government to mediate the issues of the strike with management and labor.

 

Consequence:

 

  • Ended Strike
  • Miners – Wages increase 10 cents per hour
  • No support for labor union or collective bargaining.

 

Other Actions – Social Justice - 1906

 

  • Meat Inspection Act – Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle

 

  • Food and Drug Act

 

 

 

Election of 1908

 

  • Roosevelt’s statement in 1904
  • William Howard Taft – TR’s choice
  • Not a popular president

 

Election of 1912:

 

  • Republican Party: William Howard Taft
  • Democratic Party: Woodrow Wilson
  • Progressive Party: Teddy Roosevelt
  • Socialist Party: Eugene Debs

 

Debate of Ideas:

 

  • New Freedom (Wilson) vs. New Nationalism (Roosevelt)

  • “Twiddle Dum” or Twiddle Dee”

 

Woodrow Wilson and the New Freedom

 

Meaning of New Freedom: Instead of regulating monopoly, as Roosevelt suggested, they proposed to establish and enforce strict rules of competition. Wilson and Brandeis believed that big businesses could be controlled not by direct government regulation, but by making rules that would make it impossible for them to abuse their power.

Wilson appealed to democracy and to the "young men on the make," people trying to enter the businesses or professions who found their opportunities circumscribed by the big corporations. For democracy to survive, he argued, the political process had to be free of the corrupting influence of gigantic monopolies. "This is a second struggle for emancipation," he declared in a campaign speech in Denver. "If America is not to have free enterprise, then she can have freedom of no sort whatever."

 

Wilson’s Legislative Program – 1912 - 1916

Objective: Reduce the Tariff

 

Action: Underwood Tariff - 1913

  • reduce tariff to increase buying power of American citizens
  • graduated income tax – 16th amendment

 

Objective: Free Banking System from Wall Street

 

Action: The Federal Reserve System

  • Reorganized Banking System
  • Distributed Regulation of Banks to Districts
  • Flexible Currency

 

 

Objective: Restore Competition – Industrial Capitalism and Big Business

 

Actions:

 

  • Clayton Act: Curb excesses of trusts and monopolies

 

  • Federal Trade Commission (FTC):  Agency in Federal Government – move against corporations accused of restricting competition.

 

Legacies of National Progressive Reform:

 

Progressive reformers who advocated social justice (“advanced progressives”) – critics because actions of TR and Wilson were directed to managing the economy rather than to advancing social justice.

 

Most significant legacies:

 

  • Strengthened the office of the president and the executive branch of the federal government.

 

  • Changed the nature of policies: agencies and experts.

 

 

Limits of Progressive Reform – All Levels

 

Reformers (WASP’s) –

 

  • Optimistic about the future

 

  • Believed and wanted to advance the American system of economic liberalism, political participation and social standards grounded in middle class values.

 

  • Need to regulate business, promote efficiency, and spread social justice.  Problem – goals were often contradictory.

 

Consequences - Blinders

 

  • Poor and workers not consulted about policy

 

  • African Americans excluded from the process

 

  • Did not end power of giant corporations

 

 

A Comparison:

 

  • Progressive Reform in the United States: Aided business and strengthened corporate capitalism.  Social justice and equal opportunity remained difficult to achieve

 

  • Reform Efforts in industrialized nations in Europe (Great Britain, France, Austria, and Germany): Social Welfare State – old age pensions and health and unemployment insurance.