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The new crusaders
- called themselves "progressives"
- waged war on evils such as corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice
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henry demarest lloyd
assailed the Standard Oil Co in 1894 with his book "Weath against commonwealth"
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Jacob A. Riis
shocked middle-class americans in 1890 with "How the other Half lives" wich described the dark and dirty slums of New York
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socialist and feminist
were at the front of social justice
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muckrakers
- popular magazines (muckrakers) begain to appear in newsstands in 1902
- they exposed the corruption and scandal that the public loved to hate
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lincoln steffens
launched a series of articles in McClure's titled "The shame of the cities" which unmasked the corrupt alliance between big buisness and municipal gov
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Ida Tarbell
published devistation but factial dipiction of standard oil company
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david g phillips
published a series "the treason of the Senate" in cosmopolitan that charged that 75 of the 90 senators did not represent the ppl but they rather represented RR's and trusts
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muckrakers attack social evils (John Spargo and Ray Stannards)
- Ray Stannard's "following the color line" (1908) showed the suppression of america's blacks
- john spargo wrote of the abuses of child labor in "the Bitter Cry of the Children (1906)
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progressive reformers
- mainly middle-class women
- 2 goals: use state power to control the trusts & to stem the socialist threat by generally improving the common person's conditions of life and labor
- Supported direct primary elections and favored "initiative" so that voters could directly propose legislation themselves
- supported referendum and recall
- as a result of pressure from Prog. the 17th amend was passed in 1913 to establish direct election of U.S. senators
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referendum and recall
- referendum- would place laws on ballots for final approval by people
- recall- would enable the voters to remove faithless corrupt officials
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Progressivism in states
states began march toward progressivism when they undertook to regulate RR's and trusts
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Robert M. La Follette
- in 1901 govonor of Wisconsin and significant figure of prog era
- took considerable control from the corrupt corporations and returned it to the ppl
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Hiram W. Johnson
- Governor of California
- helped break the dominant grip of the southern pacific railroad on cali politics in 1910
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Settlement houses
- exposed middle-class women to poverty, political corruption, and intolerable working and living conditions
- crucial focus for womens activism
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female progressive activists
- most defended their new activities as an extention of their traditional roles of wife or mother
- worked through organiszations like the women's trade Untion League and National Consumers League in
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Florence Kelley
- took over control of National Consumers League in 1899 and mobilized female consumers to pressure for laws safeguarding women and children in the workplace
- caught up in crusade, some states controlled, restricted, or abolished alcohal
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Teddy Roosevelts "Square deal"
- believed in progressive reform
- program consisted of 3 parts: control of the corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources
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coal miners strike in Penn (Roos v. baer)
- 1902 miners went on strike and demanded a 20% pay raise and a workday decrease frojm 10 hours 9 hours
- mine spokesman George f. Baer refused to negotiate
- roos stepped in and treatened to operate the mines with federal troops
- deal was struck in which the miners recieved a 10% raise and an hour workday reduction
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Department of Commerce in 1903
congress is aware of the increasing hostilities between capital and labor so created this
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Elkins act
- allowed for heavy fines to be placed on RR's that gave rebates and on the shippers that accepted them
- (RR companies would offer rebates as incentives for companies to use their rail lines)
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Hepburn Act of 1906
restricted free passes and expanded the Interstate Commerce Commission to extend to include express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipelines
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Northern Securities Co
- A RR trust co that sought to achieve a monopoly of the RR in the northwest
- the SC upheld the presidnet Roos challange and the trust was forced to be dissolved
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Meat inspection act of 1906
- after botulism was found in Am meats foreign govs threatened to ban all american meat imports.
- pres roos passed this act, stated that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection
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The pure food and drug act 1906
designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals
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Desert Land Act of 18887
- first step towards conservation
- UNDER WHICH THE FEDERAL GOV SOLD DRY LAND CHEAPLY ON THE CONDITION THAT THE PURCHASER WOULD IRRIGATE THE SOIL WITHIN 3 YRS
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forrest reserve act 1891
authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves
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the carey act of 1894
distributed federal land to the states on the condition that it be irrigated and settled
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Newlands act of 1902
convinced congress to pass which authorized the federal gov to collect money from the sale of public lands in western states and then use these funds for the development of irrigation projects
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Roosevelts attempt to preserve the nations shrinking forests
- set aside 125 acers of land in federal reserves
- professional foresters and engineers develped a policy of "multiple-use resource management"
- sought to combine recreation, sustained- yield logging, watershed protection, and summer stock grazing on the same expanse of fed land
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the rooselvelt panic of 1907
- T. Roosevelt was elected as president in 1904
- pres made it known he would nto run for a 3rd term
- a panic descended upon wall street in 1907
- the financial world blamed the panic on pres for unsettling the industries with his anti-trust tactics
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aldrich-vreeland act 1908
- in response to panic of 1907
- act authorized national banks to issue emergency currency backed by various kinds of collateral
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The rough rider thunders out
- for the election of 1908 the republican party chose william howard taft (sec of war to TR) dem chose william jennings bryan
- taft won
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president taft does not fit
- pres taft had none of the arts of a dashing political leader (such as roos)
- and none of roos zest
- he generally adopted an attitude of passivity towards congress
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taft and foreign affairs
- encouraged wall street bankers to invest in foreign areas of stratigic interest to the US
- NY bankers strengthened american defenses and foreign policies, while bringing prosperity to america
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japan and russia's controll of railroads
- taft saw in the manchurian monopoly a possible stangulation of chinese economic interest and a slamming of the open door policy
- 1909 secretary of state philander c. knox proposed that a group of american and foreign bankers buy the manchurian rr and then turn them over to china
- both jap and russia flatly rejected the selling of their rr
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taft the trustbuster
- brought 90 lawsuits against the trusts durning his 4 years in office as opposed to roos who brought just 44 suits in 7 yrs
- 1911 SC ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Co, stating that it violated the sherman anti trust act of 1890
- 1911 courts handed down its "rule of reason" a doctrine that stated that only thoes trusts that unreasonably restrained trade were illegal
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taft splits the republican party
- pres taft signed the payne-aldrich bill in 1909 a tarrif bill taht placed a high tarriff on many imports. with the signing taft betrayed his campaign promises of lowering the tariff
- taft was strong conservationist but in 1910 the ballinger-pinchot quarrel erased much of his conservatioinist record
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Ballinger-Pinchot quarrell
- when sec of th inerior richard ballinger opened public lands in Wyoming, montana, and alaska to corporate development
- he was criticized by chif of the agriculture departments division of forestry, gifford pinchot
- when taft dismissed pinchot much protest arose from conservationist
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R party splits
- spring of 1910 reformist wing of the republican party was furious with taft and the republican party had split
- one once supporter of taft, roosevlet , was now an enemy
- taft had broken up roos us steel coorporation, which roos had worked long and hard to form
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taft-roos rupture
- 1911 the national progressive republican league was formed with La Follette as its leading candidate for the republican presidential nomination
- 1912 roosevelt, with new views on taft, announced that he would runa gain for pres, clairifying that he said he wold not run for 3 consecutive terms
- when it came time to vote the roose supporters claimed fraud and in teh end refused to vote -taft won re nom
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wwilson reform
Woodrow wilson won the gov of NJ waging a reform campaign in which he attacked the predatory trusts and promised to return that state government to the ppl
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"bull Moose" campaign of 1912
- dem chose wilson- saw an outstanding reformist leader of whom they felt would beat R taft
- strong platform that called for stronger anitrust laws, banking refum, and tarriff reductions
- roos ran agian- him and wilson agreed more active gov role in econ amd social affairs, but disagreed over specific strategies
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New Nationalism vs New Freedom
- New Nat- roos campained for stronger control of trusts, women suffrage, and programs of social welfare
- New freedom favored small enterprise, entreprenuship, and the free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized markets
- democrats shunned socail welfare programs and supported the fragmentaiton of trusts
- campaign cooled down after roos got shot by a fan and suspended his campaign
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wilson: a minority president
roosevelts progressive party soon died out due to lack of officials elected to state and local offices
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wilson: the idealist in politics
- wislon relied on sincerity and moral appeal to attract the public
- he was very smart bu tlacke dthe common touch with the public
- his idealism and sense of moral righteousness made him incredibly stubborn in negotiating
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