01:512:104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: National Civic League, Timothy Sullivan, Settlement Movement
15 May 2018
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Chapter 21 - Urban America and the Progressive Era
The Currents of Progressivism
- Progressives could be found in all classes, regions, and races
- Felt that America needed a new social consciousness to cope with problems
- Several key issues behind progressivism:
- Ending political corruption
- More businesslike governing methods
- More compassionate leglislative response to the excesses of industrialism
- Many feel this term is exceedingly vague
Unifying Themes
- Three basic attitudes behind progressive movements:
- Anger over the excesses of industrial capitalism and urban growth
- Emphasized social cohesion and common bonds to understand modern
society
- Against social Darwinism
- Felt citizens needed to intervene to improve social conditions
- Progressives offered a combination of social justice and social control
Women Spearhead Reform
- Many middle class women supported the settlement house movement
- Reformers such as Jane Addams and Florence Kelley promoted female
education
The Urban Machine
- Women had to work outside existing political institutions
- City politics had become a closed and corrupt system
- Machine politics - well organised, dominant political parties catering to
specific voters
- Viewed their work as a business, served people who needed assistance
- “Honest Graft” - Making money from inside information on public
improvements
- Timothy “Big Tim” Sullivan - embodied the machine politics style
- Gained votes by helping pass reforming legislature, eg. child labour laws, etc
Political Progressives and Urban Reform
- Political progressivism originated in the cities to challenge machine politics
- Governments hardly seemed capable of providing basic essential services
- “Good Government Movement” - led by the National Municipal League
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- Fought to make city management a non-partisan process, like a large
corporation
- Progressive politicans focused on changing policies, not the political
structure
Progressive in the Statehouse
- “Wisconsin Idea” - The application of academic scholarship and theory to
public needs
- Adopted by many states
- Western progressives displayed the greatest enthusiasm for institutional
political reform
- The Initiative - allowed direct vote on an issue raised by petition
- The Referendum - allowed voters to decide on bills referred to them by the
legislature
- These and other measures intentionally weakened political parties
- Southern populism = biracial policies - Southern progressivism = whites
only
- Southern progressives supported black disfranchisement as a reform
- “Grandfather clauses” - uneducated whites could vote if their grandfather
was able to
- Southern progressives pushed for fully segregated public areas
New Journalism: Muckraking
- Jacob Riis - How the Other Half Lives - first real exposé detailing poor living
conditions
- Journals such as McClure’s began uncovering the bad side of American life
- Journalists included Lincoln Steffen (The Shame of the Cities) and Ida
Tarbell (History of the Standard Oil Company)
- Exposure Journalism, as it was called, paid handsomely
- President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “muckrakers” for these
journalists
Intellectual Trends Promoting Reform
- Intellectual thinkers began challenging several core American ideas - this led
to reforms
- L. F. Ward - Dynamic Sociology - said applying Soc. Darwinism to society
was wrong
- Legal, educational and industrial reformers began speaking out against their
fields
- Lochner v. New York - Judge Holmes ruled that a 10-hour day for bankers
was wrong
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- Holmes affected a new group of lawyers known as the “social jurisprudence”
- Edward A. Ross - Social Control - became a key phrase in progressive
thought
- Argued that society needed an elite with the best interests of society at heart
Social Control and Its Limits
- Some progressives felt they were acting for the common good, but were
actually racists
- Extreme side of these views supported eugenics (making a supreme race)
The Prohibition Movement
- WCTU provided women with their first political forum to voice their protests
- Core supporteres were generally small-town, Protestant, native-born
Americans
- Some “ritualists” protested against prohibition - usually working-class
immigrants
The Social Evil
- New movements arose to reform society in general - prostitution, gambling,
etc
- Portrayed religious minorities as the cause of these vices
- Huge crackdowns in prostitution districts only led to the transformation of the
sex trade
The Redemption of Leisure
- Progressives felt that “commercialised leisure” must be closely watched
- 1909 - NYC movie producers joined to make the National Board of
Censorship (NBC)
- 1914 - The NBC reviewed 95% of the nation’s film output
Standardizing Education
- Public schools were seen primarily as agents of “Americanization” - huge
melting pot
- 1930 - 47% of kids aged 14-17 were in school
- Progressives led the way in developing specialized fields of study
Working-Class Communities and Protest
- Industrial Rev reached its peak in the early 19th century
- Differences between workers in skill, ethnicity and race proved to be
powerful barriers
- Industrial workers began calling for increased social justice
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapter 21 - urban america and the progressive era. Progressives could be found in all classes, regions, and races. Felt that america needed a new social consciousness to cope with problems. More compassionate leglislative response to the excesses of industrialism. Many feel this term is exceedingly vague. Anger over the excesses of industrial capitalism and urban growth. Emphasized social cohesion and common bonds to understand modern society. Felt citizens needed to intervene to improve social conditions. Progressives offered a combination of social justice and social control. Many middle class women supported the settlement house movement. Reformers such as jane addams and florence kelley promoted female education. Women had to work outside existing political institutions. City politics had become a closed and corrupt system. Machine politics - well organised, dominant political parties catering to specific voters. Viewed their work as a business, served people who needed assistance. Honest graft - making money from inside information on public improvements.
