HIST 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Bully Pulpit, Insular Cases, Collection Agency
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Major Issues, 1900 - 1910s
Consciousness about the new, "modern" century
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Industrial/agricultural/technological powerhouse, growing wealth, booming
population, global reach
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Progressive government
Government as active - taking on new powers
To increase international strength and influence
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To address social, economic, and political problems through policy
Wealth inequality, labour-capital relations, environment, debates
over immigration and empire, multi-cultural population
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President Theodore Roosevelt 1901-08
Reformer, Rough Rider, Gov of NY, VP
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Helped shape the modern presidency
Active expansion of executive authority
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Celebrity, "bully pulpit"
Knew how to give speeches and rally people
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People wanted the government to expand
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Progressive republican
Civil service reform
People need to take tests to get positions in the federal government
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National parks, FDA
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Departments of commerce and labour
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Some worker protections (mostly undone)
Protections for child and women workers
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"Trust busting"
Aimed at harmful monopolies
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Some railroad and banking monopolies were un-American and they were
harming the United States
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He was a republican
Liked some of the policies that came out of the democratic party
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Colonial Administrations
Rhetoric of "expanding democracy" through tutelage, investment and infrastructure
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Talked about Cuba
Platt Amendment
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Puerto Rico and Philippines - colonial administrations
W.H. Taft governor general Philippines
Then became president in 1908
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Controlled finance, foreign relations, upper house government
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Tutelage for self-determination
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Americanization but NOT citizenship rights
Insular cases - supreme court decides that the Constitution does not follow the
flag, Puerto Rico and Philippines are unincorporated territories of the US
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Argue that because these administrations are in their country they should have
the right as citizens
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The government argues that it needed to intervene in order to help countries
become democracies
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1909 protests of "False Americanization": PR House of Delegates refused to pass the
annual appropriations bill
Outcome of this was: President Taft: refusal of the legislator to pass the annual
appropriations bill is evidence of "unfitness" for self-government
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Panama Canal
Increased international investment
Between 1897 and 1914, US investors direct investments abroad more than
quadrupled to $2.6 billion
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Caribbean and Latin America
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US-sponsored Panamanian revolt against Colombia
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"Treaty No Panamanian Signed"
Treaty signed by the US Secretary of State and owner of the Panama Canal Co.
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Canal Zone, US ownership
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Enormous infrastructure marvel
Transnational labour force
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Canal as Progress
Built by 75,000 workers (at peak 40,000)
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Important of Progressive Era technological and medical advances
"Tropical Medicine"
Huge drop in death toll from French period
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Yellow fever, malaria
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Importance of Progressive Era ideas about labour, race
International work force (West Indians)
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Gold and silver rolls
American, British, Spanish were paid in Gold and were given good
accommodations
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Everyone who was not European was paid in Silver and had different
accommodations
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This mirrored segregation in the US
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Police (labour activism)
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Segregated Canal Zone
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The Promotional State
The idea that growing influence of private individuals and groups abroad would
enhance America's position in the world
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State assisted entrepreneurs, investors, and developers
Military
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Developed policies aimed at reducing restrictions to free trade, cultural exchange,
and development
US controls 78% Mexico's silver, lead, cooper mines
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Debt collection as part of foreign relations
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Exceptionalist justifications of power and intervention that framed US progressive
empire
History of continental conquest
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Racial violence
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Economic asymmetry
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US government emerged as a promotional state
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Criticism at home of imperious government
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Suspicions of Big Business and Money Trust
Who benefitted from the US empire?
Corporate growth
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Fears of immigration, integration
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Some attempts to curtail
Government regulation of some banking monopolies
Clayton Anti-trust Act □
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Continued boom and bust instability, strife
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Rights activism: women's suffrage, workers' rights, civil rights
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Election of 1912
Candidates
Taft ( R )
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Teddy Roosevelt (PP/Bull Moose)
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Woodrow Wilson (D)
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Eugene Debs (SPA) -6%
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Reforms platforms, including trust regulation
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"Win" for some progressive policies, especially as Wilson is influenced by the lft
Graduated income tax
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8 hour day federal employees
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Established federal reserves
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Women's suffrage
But also: segregation of Washington, DC refusal to support anti-lynching
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Lecture 12 - Fighting the Great War
Thursday, February 1, 2018
3:48 PM
