Early 20th century attempted to improve social and Economic Conditions through trust busting, interstate regulation and prohibition. Also Theodore Roosevelt the periods most dominant political figure. Our goal today is to think about what progressivism was, and to think about what i think its core dialectic. Was the tension between democracy and efficiency. These were both ideals that people from a Broad Spectrum of political spectrums in the progressive area believed were important, and they believe they werent incompatible but you can see some ways in which they were fundamentally at some tension. So again throughout cost day think about democracy versus efficiency. So the central question for historians at the earliest 20th century is what is progressivism . A famous article that he met in 1982 with entitled, in search of progressed subsystem, which i think aptly summed up the way historians were rummaging around knowing that the progressive area existed but wondering about what it ended. Some people limit only to Political Party it was named for. Others to find it much more broadly. So for me in this class, this is how im going to define progressivism. In the broader sense progressivism was the way a whole generation of americans defined themselves politically, and how they addressed the problems of the new century, in what i think we can all agree begins to look like modern america. They are interested in reforming a messy society that is new in fundamental ways while trying to keep some aspects of the old. Im defining the progressive era as lasting from approximately 1890 through world war one. And before i subjected you ought to this lecture today i consulted with my colleague who many of you know its a expert on populism wrote a phenomenal biography on and also tuck socialism. Hes professor as well and i also asked him what he thought, got rid of any howlers in my lecture. Luckily there were none. This is what he wrote to me and i think this is actually worth talking about the ways that we all are basically on the same page but we basically arguably the edges. The chronology of the progressive era as always debatable, beginning in 1890 the shermans act, well talk about today, and which will talk about on thursday. But in a nationalist politics there were no people beat consider progressive in power until about 1900, so he saying for wanted to find it that way we have to push it up a little bit. If William Jennings bryant had won the election in 1986 that would be different of course the chronological scope you favor depends on what you thought mattered most. Its worth noting he has a point out to me that many publicity came progressives and that something and want to talk to a button that something youre already recognized already. Spoiler alert, were going to talk about how wilsons new freedom plan included many things that the populist party had proposed in the 1890s, but also many of them also the queue socialists and places we dont think of us bastions of socialism today, like texas and oklahoma, and western states. What historians do largely agree on is that the high mark of the progressive era was in 1912. The election, the fourway elections between taft, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, who decided to come out of retirement, come back from african safari, and run as the head of the Progressive Party. Also known as the Bull Moose Party as well as the fourth candidate was a socialist whose readings you read today about how he came through the Labor Movement to consider himself a socialist. He pulled 6 of the votes in that 1912 election, almost 1 million votes. Now, again, i think everyone across that spectrum would have defied themselves in some sense as a progressive. Again, lets put some were fine notes on our definition of progressivism. Progressivism was a commitment to some sort of reform in society. Often using local, state, or federal governmental needs means. I think too often in u. S. American history classes we talk about it turns into a discussion about wilson versus roosevelt, i want to tell you its really starting in the grass roots in cities and states and territories and moving upward to the federal level. It was a form of protectionism, by which i mean the belief that society could be perfected using proper principles. And in the sense i think it is a mood as much as a method. Theres no one way of doing things if you consider yourself a progressive, but it is a kind of mood or attitude towards change and reform in society and politics. That is one and what you believe that things could be improved, and in that sense, as im going to talk about through the rest of lecture the some pessimism, worry and concern, but theres also incredible confidence and optimism that society and economics and democracy can be improved and maybe even perfected, and here we have again, the tension between democracy and efficiency. Now lets be honest, i wrote the first version of this lecture many many years ago. History changes but not that fast. And, i have to tell you, this is the first two that i actually signed a portion of Woodrow Wilsons new freedom plan, and i could not have invented a document better suited for the things that i want to stress today. What does he compare liberty to . You all suddenly got shy. Yes. The engine, a machine. Right . This is perfect for all you matt, science, mechanical people. Right . This is the perfect metaphor for the way people think about government and politics in the early 20th century. Right . The machine doesnt work well with friction. He wants to reduce the friction. The more efficient the machine is the better. Liberty for the several parts would consist in the best possible assembling of the mall he says. You can see his optimism, even his might i say, egoism as a professor. His optimism, human freedom consists and Human Interest and human activities and human energies, because the trouble lies when the machine gets out of order. Another words, he saying the governments job quite literally is to get under the hood and tinker with the machine to get it running right. Here we also see from a cultural perspective, i love this document so much. We get back to machines. Technology, railroads, its not an accident that efficiency is a concept that becomes enormously fascinating to people in the early eighth 20th century. Efficiency its industrial and components. Heres some key words if you need to come back to them in class. Over forgot to tell you, of course agent starts with a song because you knew i was going to skirt up so i decided to 86 that, will come back to music on thursday. Let me move forward before i get into the weeds about what progressivism looks like in this time period, to give you a sense of the absolute incredible wide range of things, efforts, reforms, causes, that people thought of as progressive campaigns in the early 20th century. So weve got Civil Service reform, cleaning up bureaucracy, Conversation Movement which at some of you are particularly interested in and we wont dally in there today but you are reading emphasize the way conversation as a efficiency of that famous way that historians have written about the conservation. Movement lean mill campaigns, making sure that children who drank milk that their mom purchased from a dairy is clean and an adulterated. Women suffrage. There is a reason why the word is singular. They thought about women in a particular way and well talk about it more on thursday. Public education really invigorated since the construction area particularly at the local area the establishment of public integrity, and the stab list of some of the first public high schools. Campaign finance reform. Trying to keep out those corrupt Railroad Owners from politics. Not successful, but a worthy effort. Public utility regulation. The origin of modern public utility which are either a private corporation which is licensed to a municipality to or a state or ones that are actually publicly owned and operated. Regulation of food and drugs. I know many of you took a pea history under roosevelt, the oppression of railroads which is a opening salvo of the progressive errol talk about than a. Second the municipal ownership of the temperance or prohibitions that long of a call. Social work, the modern field of social work then and now estimated by women. Anti prostitution and anti the way slavery Women Movement saving women from prostitution, so you can see a strong moral and protective element of this campaign. The campaign for legal breath control which was the constant act of the late 19th century meant disseminating information about her control illegal. Election reform which will talk of a particularly on the steep level in just a few minutes. So ok, maybe making some judgments, so im seeing as positives because i put them at the bottom but also course of social control of welfare clients, stripping immigrants of culture segregation in the south as a sign of efficiency, prohibition and later, eugenics. I know i went through that really quickly thats fine. No worries. Those are illustrative we dont have to get into all the details and some of them ill return to you but were talking about from clean milk, to voter initiatives. Were talking about from kindergarten to funding higher end. From kindergarten to the first peach tea programs in the United States. A really wide variety of things. And you can see in the examples ive noted here again, this relationship a little bit between democracy and efficiency. And wilson talks about the scent terms of liberty, the Liberty Works best in efficient capacity, and you can see in just a random example of clean milk which was a campaign that many people campaigned for because companies adulterated milk with the chemicals to make it seem like it would last longer and keep it white and it seems it point poisoned children. Liberty says were not going to interfere with regulations for dairy, efficiency would say maybe our society would work better if children didnt die from adulterated milk. So you can see thats what a tiny example but actually something that was very important to people in the early 20th century. So why these two obsessions with democracy and efficiency . Could these be compatible . Where does this come from . What i want to talk about is the way in which, and we can go back to the slides here. But the different computer. Okay. What i want to talk about is the way that we talk about as progressive them as a National Youth movement bubbles up from the grassroots even though its something thats known as government by experts. Its a National Movement built by regional movements. So what youve simplified, you know i like geography. Midwestern and northeastern concerns, concerns about overcrowding, industrialization, urbanization, political machines, political corruption. You have on the one hand great mass of demands for change, concerns, the rise of political figures like Theodore Roosevelt. Those meet up with the more rural and agrarian concerns of southern and western populism. Populism may not seem so today as much as we generalize were from america, a few of you are from more rural places. The midwestern coren commodity culture was a very different kind of agrarian economy than the souths cotton based sharecroppers vestiges of jim crow. But they found enough common cause briefly to unite and populism, that didnt last. But part of it was about this feeling a rural places being left behind. Some of the political, electoral success of the progressive era in the early 20th century was that these midwestern or northeastern urban concerns were able to find in some cases common cause with these folks who had been formerly populist. Particularly with issues like regulating the railroad, starting to talk about conservation. In fact after 1900 populism and progressiveism essentially merch as the professors comments suggest, populism becomes progressive instead of those who stay yet more radical interest in join the socialism party. Theyre inspired by gospel theory, you read about that today. A rather i dont want to say aggressive, but assertive campaign from religious leaders primarily protestant, who said we need to realize that we cant just be focused on the afterlife and the spiritual life. We also have to think about life here on earth. So i think about what it needs to do justice is work right here and now, and the gospel theory and forms this. Work Woodrow Wilson comes from a entire family of ministers. Most of these folks definitely feel a sense of christian mission. This is what did to the invention of new social science. Disciplines like social some sociology, political science, economics, history, the first professional so chs merge in this literally creating experts. Open a places like john hopkins, the ivy leagues, at schools like the university of wisconsin. And michigan. University of california. Those dried Public Research institutions alongside the kind of prestige institutions, and mobsters like hopkins and university of chicago, which are designed to create these graduate programs, like europe has. The idea is that theyre going to produce not just, you know, professors like me but experts who are going to go out and solve social problems. Find the efficient answer. Which are a wilson has a ph. D. From hopkins, the president of princeton becomes before he becomes the president of the United States. So what is bothering them . We will review them and i think you know what many of these things are. We can talk about a few of their motivation in terms of fear. Fears of new capitalism. As companies become larger and capitalism becomes more and more impersonal, im talking really fast, im going to step back and have you think about that. Think about a 19th century world, where your neighbor might have chickens in her yard. To sell eggs, and you know. Her and her eggs are not going to be rotten because just want to rip you off because she is a face to face relationship. Or you are a farmer that we have to the local green elevator, you know that operator. Youre not selling at a fixed rate across hundreds of miles at the Southern Pacific Railroad where you have to pay a difference a specific rate you can negotiate. You dont have the seller. Is i think we take for granted global capitalisms and personal nature. When you get things from amazon prime unit thinking of whos pulling it off the warehouse shelf putting in a box putting a label on it and sending it to. This was threatening. This was a real change. They feared that thats has power of his corporations would ruin democracy. The Runaway Railroad democracy as a mentioned was just one example. The journalists were revealing the dangerous methods of companies, running one exposes magazines at this reflected but the real challenge change is happening in american capitalism as well as the anxieties that those produced in americans. Speaking of anxieties in americans, new immigrants, look talk about this a lot more in the coming. Weeks the cities are filling with people. Many americans have discomfort with immigration, even though many of them are the children of immigrants themselves. And you immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe constitute an unprecedented wave of new arrivals from about 1880 to 90 20. 18 to 24 million new immigrants come to the United States in this exact same time period were calling the progressive area era. I did speak they represent almost 15 of the American Population. 80 figure we never exceeded, we came very close into this in seven before the recession. But those are sort of parallels. Think, dont tell you what a hot issue immigration is right now . Actually our numbers are we down from a decade ago. That, sense from the standpoint of the proportion of American Population who are immigrant similar. Different places though. They are from southern and Eastern Europe. But theyre also often feud in the same ways. They are predominantly catholic or eastern orthodox or jewish. The seam unassailable. They are very poor. They tend to congregate in urban places in a country that is still leaving itself to be of rural origin. African americans are starting to move in what would be called the great migration. Migrating like i w. Walls did from the close to 2 million African Americans move from the south to north between 18 nineties and 19. Ten many northern whites are confronted with mixed populations for the first time. The tradition transition from they are predominantly ruled people. Not used to city life, facing obviously segregation in the north as well as the south. Horrible overcrowded conditions, beautiful public health, lack of utilities like safe water electric and safe water. Many residents. Theres a bit of a chicken and egg debate among more pushed americans. Are these new immigrants and African Americans from the south because of the poor conditions . Or are the poor conditions thats producing the inequalities evident for all americans to see . This is kind of a central question in the progressive era, which eventually, in spite of all the prejudice i would argue comes, and its not gonna be what you think it, is environmentalism. What i mean by that is the belief that once environments ships that outcome. So if you can improve the informant, you will improve the quality of americans. I dont know i why i am unclean milk. Today that would be a perfect example. Urban dwellers who dont have their own cow to milk that have fresh clean milk from the front and have to buy milk, it will have Poor Health Outcomes if they dont have good nutritious food. Is the problem of the poor city dweller . Is the problem with the conditions they are dealing with . Remember when i talked about the ideal, when we talked about pornography and the gospel of wealth and we talked about the fact that this recognition of class difference as a fundamental future of American Society was profoundly threatening to many people, and many, not coincidentally middle class and upper class folks rejected the idea that there would be permanent class distinctions in the u. S. One of the things that they worried about, did they worry about economic inequality . Yes. They worried about whether a democracy could function with those kinds of entrenched, seemingly irreparable differences. They worried about the state of democracy. But all of these new citizens know how to operate in a democracy . With the big citizens . I will use the example of president Theodore Roosevelt, a month before the 1912 election just so i can clarify for you hes not currently president. He is sends to the presidency with mckinleys assassination. He serves out his terms. Then he says im going to hand the baton to taft, who had been his Vice President. Tuft runs, serves one term from 1908 to 1912. Roosevelt becomes very concerned that toughest former conservative. Theodore roosevelt wants to move far faster and progressive maneuvers. He is frustrated with taft so he says screw it im going to run against this guy that i and wanted to be the next president. Im going to start a new party, i will endorse womens suffrage, im going to ask jean adams the most famous women in america, if you dont know who she is looker up. Ill talk about her on thursday. I will ask her to talk about me in the nominating convention. She resides in wisconsin, a hotbed of socialism, republican progressive politics, wisconsin is worthy come from. The university of wisconsin, having mentioned that. . Invented this thing called progressive idea, a pitcher progressives, the idea that the Public University should be in the service of the state. Its going to produce experts and answers and solve social problems. Hes in milwaukee, this is a place where he thinks he can get a lot of republican and progressive votes. Hes giving a Campaign Speech and a angry saloon keeper, its not too hard to find a saloon keeper and milwaukee, tries to assassinate him. His speech is so thick, and its so long that it protects him from the bullet. He is like oh i am fine and he gives that speech. True story. Here is one of the things he says in the speech. France, what we progressives are trying to do is in rule rich or pool or, whatever their industrial or social position, to stand together for the most elementary of rights for citizenship. This elementary writes which are the foundation of good citizenship in this Great Republic of ours. Eventually reformers begin to look to local and federal government for solutions. They are afraid of classification as i mentioned, the major strikes, starting with 1877 and the role road strikes, the 18 eighties, the 1890s, the union, eugene dubs emerges as a leader. The coal strike, Many Americans as i mentioned see the ended states splitting into two camps. Labor on capitol. Labor organizing is accelerating. Union membership in 1911, on the eve of this 1912 election is five times what it had been in 1987. Think about that. That would be like, trust me this didnt happen. That would be like since 2004 if the number of Union Members multiplied by five times. New immigrants are creating low wage labor competition, no minimum wage, race to the bottom. African Americans Strike workers fueling divisions between strict workers trying to organize. Manufacturing organizers tried to pit one immigrant group against another so they cant organize. Or African Americans against white as we talked about in the south. So 60 years ago a very famous historian named richard, that has been knows who richard is by the way but whenever i see someones famous hes like history famous are famous famous . A richard is history. Famous worried about status anxiety. Basically that they were middle and upper class wasps that felt frightened by their position in the shooting world. It was a deeply psychological position that reflected the friday needs some. Cant help but absorb the moment in which its created. We know that he exaggerated in the sense that these folks were as much optimistic as they were anxious about status. Dismissed the fact that many catholic, jewish, and working class organizers shared many of the singles as progressives. But having said all that, i think its still a useful way to think about the phenomenon of progressivism. On the one hand, theres general insecurity about the state of society. And about how its enormous social problems can be solved. There is this recognition of a fundamental change in the economy. A kind of sobering realization that industrial capitalism is here to stay. At least it is in 1912, its a different story in 2019. Also this optimism of we can do something about this. This isnt existential, paralyzing fear. This is weve got a problem, lets roll up our sleeves, get dictatorial degrees and solve. It didnt see this as antithetical. The bottom line is that progressive reform meant something to people with something to lose. Including those with statistics society. Theyre fearful but not hopeless. Maybe that seems like a contradiction but one thing i want to emphasize is that if theres one thing they share is this and normas confidence that economic and social conditions can be improved, maybe even solved. You can see that in rule since fascination with making this machine of liberty bs frictionless as possible. Now this may reflect a politics professor zalaten of knowledge about engineering and friction, but nevertheless hes bringing book knowledge into this problem assuming that we can solve the problems of democracy. Ill give you another example. But at this, way Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt are very different types of people and i suspect you all know that. But who is more confident than Theodore Roosevelt . Hes got a big stick. There is nothing that will stop him. He runs right over his Vice President , hes anointed to be Vice President. He starts a new Political Party. Hes like the kids that never gets picked at recess and he vents himself as a set the quota ranch. Are hes very confident. He really shows, i think, this progressive idealism and confidence. And for him of course that comes from a position of privilege. Like dont tell Theodore Roosevelt he cant do something, he cant fix this great nation, that is born and bred in him. Women though, one of my favorite things about teaching the progressive era is that this isnt one of these deals where the famous history famous womens history professor, said while there is a early stage of womens history, youre part of history doesnt have any movement and it just throw them in it like chocolate chips. Slightly better but still the same thing. You cant understand the progressive era, unless you include women from top to bottom. Women were central to this reorganizing of Liberty Freedom and democracy. You know im going to bring up clean milk. Again i think its a wisconsin think. Its not the men who are all about this. Its the women. This is the head of the womens suffrage movements which will talk about in greater detail on thursday. But even beyond human suffrage, even beyond womens suffrage women are involved and prohibition which will and. With they are attending institutions of Higher Education in unprecedented numbers. The going to graduate school. Theyre getting phds. Of course this is mostly middle and upper class white women, middle and upper class black women although their numbers are much smaller in fact they are much more likely to have careers than white middle and upper class women, partly because there has been scant often make a living that their families can afford to live off. Women reflected capitalize on this confidence. Women are newly confident in the progressive era. They believe we have the power to make change. They are appearing in public forum. Jean adams is nominating roosevelt as the Progressive Party nominee. They also have confidence in the ability of the government to solve social problems, they share with progressive iran then this idea, wait for it, that bureaucracy is a good thing. They believe and bureaucracy. In fact they want more of it. Wilsons proposal to make liberty more efficient is through bureaucracy. They dont think its a paradox. They believe and Good Government. That brings me to the last big picture point i want to make. For aggressives are not radicals. Its important to recognize that progressivism was a forms, sorry, was a set of reform movements not radical movements. In fact progressivism was conservatism in the sense that progressives want to perfect something that already existed. They were ultimately optimist and perfectionists who believe you can protect society with enough planning and careful organization. We can see that many progressives saw progressivism as a way to stem radicalism. To cut increasingly popular radical movements off at the knees by decreasing their need by solving the obvious social problems that socialists, anarchists, and communists are beginning to name and address. So roosevelt and wilson, although they degree on many things are saying lets regulate, not have a revolution. We recognize that rib roads are a problem, we recognize that workers probably need a eighthour days. We dont think that we have to get the whole thing to cynical as we think we can tinker the margins and fix this thing. Even eugene tabs you mentioned is the socialist, he runs five times for president. In 19 oh 80 runs from prison, where he has been jailed because of actions having to do with the strike he was involved in. Inflammatory statements he supposedly made. But even he, hes not staging a revolution. Hes running for president. Even, that hes not bombing people, like what maybe happened to the market. Hes part of the system as well. I brought up senator from indiana, a pro potent of imperialism who is a important voice for roosevelt in the senate when he roosevelt was president. He said this about peter roosevelt, he said that peter roosevelts press brilliance was in differentiating that species of anarchists and that we popularly term bolsheviks them, so isolatingng all right, the progressive era contained such a wide range of different movements and causes, it would be impossible to discuss even a portion of them. This is one of the most studied areas in American History, precisely because its so complex and internally contradictory. So today what i want to do is just offer you a couple of examples of what i would call economic and political progressivism, and im going to emphasize the way that political progressive system comes out of municipalities and states first. Then i will end with prohibition because i think prohibition really is emblematic, its in some ways the quintessential for reform its a excellent bridge for speaking about women and immigrants on thursday. It involves both of them in important ways. I think its also the quintessential progressive reform that we have forgotten about because its so deeply unfashionable. As i speak to college students, as ive referenced milwaukee several times. It wasnt popular there, i will tell you that. So, i want to, i dont know if i want to rehabilitate it. That might be too big a task. I want to resuscitate it sensuality to the progressive era, i think it sheds light on some of the pros and cons of progressive causes. Okay, lets talk about economic and political progressivism. The two i want to talk about in particular, the two laws that i think, excuse me, exemplify the anti trust movement which begins economic progressivism are the anti state act and the act. Okay. These both come out of the populist movement. They reflect a anti monopoly tradition, and we havent talked a lot about and type monopolize, am i mentioned it briefly when i talk about populists. I think its fair to say that in the late 19th century, monopoly was one of the central concerns of the american people. And it touched on many of the things that have already mentioned to you. The idea that some people have h the diminishing of the importance and power of the individual. And the increasingly obstruct nature of industrial capitalism. Monopoly offended 19th century americans in a way that was deeply fundamental, because they saw themselves as a nation of individualism, and individuals them was central to freedom and democracy. So while we might say that was freedom of business or what have, you they saw monopoly not just an increasing combinations of American Business, but in the political power that those folks had, even in things like the vice trade. So this campaign against with slavery, sex trafficking. Reformers, most of whom were municipal pump republican politicians and women reformers. Reformers active in this movement believe there was a vice monopoly. They thought there was a secret group musky women unwilling across International Lines for this International Sex syndicate, the reality it wasnt as organized as they thought but i think its very very telling, that they when they saw a problem they feared monopoly. That is where the kind of general ability and a nonpartisan way to address trust come from. Chess dont go away, and anyone who studies American Business now knows its bigger than ever. But this effort to dismantle what people saw as unfair business combinations comes out of that anti monopoly tradition. So the really kind of landmark example, or piece of legislation is the interstate congress act which passes in 1887. This comes out of many state attempts to regulate railroads. You all, emily and i talked about, it we did a terrific job of talking about and we both which we had more time to talk about we feel are so much more to say. In my section we talked about how its not an accident happened on a railroad, it was a state law that was challenging. Many states, states like nebraska that had strong populist support tried to pass laws to regulate railroads and railroad rates in their states. The Supreme Court overruled those laws, overturned them think railroads engaged in interstate commerce and any regulation of them has to be at the federal level. So Congress Finally responds at passes the interstate commerce act. Which is really a watershed moment, because it means that the federal government for the first time is turning towards what we would now call a regulatory state. The interstate Commerce Commission becomes a model for this hybrid of executive and legislative and Judicial Branch in a commission. What do i mean by that . The interstate commerce act created a 5 commission to regulate railroads. This commission was thus removed from some of the whims of politics that the legislative branch might be for example. These are appointed positions that can decide things like railroad rates. Solve railroad disputes. This is the expansion of executive power that we now think is power, but was really a turning point. It had many weaknesses. It couldnt proactively regulate. It relied on losses to bring about, actions so you had to have the wherewithal to actually bring a suit to the icc if you want to challenge something, which obviously favored big business over. Small railroad attorneys who i mentioned to you were the First Corporate attorneys and the United States, could tie up these cases for years. But even if the icc in its early years was weak, it created this precedent for this dominant form of regulatory government, the independent appointed commission, and i bet you can think of a whole bunch of independent appointed commissions. I wrote about one, its not the one he thought of but you might have thought for example the 9 11 commission, which is in some ways the most recent and famous example of a precedent set by the icc. Ill give you an example of how in the with the icc could get. Though i literally found this out to be. Scow i want to at worship on jewish genealogy, and i dont even use genealogical sites for. This agreement my great grandfathers name and i found out that he was involved in a case that he and his Business Partner took to the interstate commission and i want to say 1919. In which, you want to talk about small potatoes,e they d an argument with the santa fe railroad, they were junk dealers, Eastern Europe peons they were a company that sold secondhand scrap metal and iron, not a titan industry, the sued the railroad over what they felt was a unfair rate for used beer bottles. Anyway, they went to the icc and said this railroad is charging us too much for these truckloads of used beer bottles that we bought. And they want the case, and they got a refund of the country 27 dollars from the railroads for their multiple we are bottles. I dont know that one when i started talking to you about populism, i literally just from the south. I think its a good example of the federal government is regulating beer bottle use in el paso texas. So that is the president for the antitrust act. So this monopolies, oil, sugar, still industries. The situation grows worse with the series of Supreme Court rulings and 18 eighties saying that legally speaking a corporation is a person under the 14th amendment. It means that corporations cant be denied life, liberty, or property without due process of the law, and this invalidates a lot of the state monopoly laws as i mentioned to you. In response, Congress Passes the sherman antitrust act. It makes any restraint of trade or commerce in interstate commerce illegal. Not unlike the i see a its unforced with fines and lawsuits, although these are scenes that can be brought by public district attorneys. Its used by clear monopolies and cartels, that is secret agreements that engage in right fixing. So this is actually the kind of thing although it was an icc matter because of the railroad that my greatgrandfather wouldve complained about. He would have said the southern pacific and the pizza atkinson fixed rates, i dont have a choice. You could call that a cartel, or a secret agreement. So supposed to outlaw that. Not affective against holding. Companies theyre not able to prosecute these companies there Shell Companies that own a bunch of different companies. But its in this context, how many of you have heard of theater roosevelt as the trust buster . Kind of famous right. He comes down as history as a trust buster during this presidency in 19 oh. To you probably also heard because this is a old saw in u. S. History class is that he wasnt all that antitrust. There are plenty of corporations and corporate parents that he liked. But he supported that sherman at the trust act as a way to attack bad trusts. So roosevelt had this idea of good trust and bad trust and use this tool and this is indicative of sort of the power and danger of these new executive power tools if you will. Use the appetite Sherman Trust act to create a Regulatory Commission to pursue corporations that he thought were using bad or unfair methods. In his inaugural address, roosevelt made a powerful plea for the right of the federal government to intervene in unfair practices and curb capitalist abuses. Classic example of reform not revolution. In practice, Anti Trust Laws could definitely backfire, at least from the standpoint of people who had first championed them, because just as the 14th amendment could protect corporations as persons, Anti Trust Laws could be used against things like farmers coop a so you can use the sherman antitrust act to go after one of these farmers cooperatives that populist minded farmers credit so they can negotiate better rates, and better prices for their commodities, will that was a trust sometimes in the eyes of the law. Similarly, if a Labor Union Organized a boycott, the target of their boycott could go to the and argue that this was a violation of the sherman antitrust act. Again this theme, this is reform not revolution. Roosevelt wants to make the market safer individuals, not dismantle it. So those are some examples of economic reform, which with respect to this question of monopoly, were also seen as political reforms. These were deeply connected to peoples minds. Making the world safer for individuals in industrial capitalism was analogous to the ways that progressives want to the individual to retain their power in increasingly abstract and strong democracy. So we turn to some political reforms. Bunch of reforms that are aimed at creating direct democracy. What does that mean . It means bringing political decisions straight to the people, rather than to intermediaries like political machines and state legislatures. Heres an example, with political reform that we see the very direct influence of the populists on the progressive era. The populists who believe that farmers who are the salt of the earth and bedrock of the nation had lost political power. They want to see power return to the individuals. So progressive reformers really hated political machines. Someone take a stab what a political machine. As im sure many of you stayed with the says. Its a collective of powerful people and they choose who they want to run the city and they get people elected and they use intimidation tactics. So those are the busses, and the machine, note the analogy with the machine. They are literally called machines. Im telling people were really into portions of early 19th century. Absolutely. Its the group of powerful rain makers who offer a kind of quid pro quo for voters who then became the calls in the machine. I will make sure that you get it free turkey on thanksgiving if you vote for my candidate. I will build a big big hurt house that goes 100 times over budget but i will make sure that you and your cousin get jobs on it. Must political machines were democratic. The most famous was tammy halle new york city. There were absolutely some republican political machines on the municipal level it depended on the city and situation. Were former saw pushed as hopelessly corrupt, this idea of a direct quid pro quo in reached. Them defenders set actually, so this was one of the defenses of semi hall, she said actually we take all these immigrants 19th century, all these irish immigrants theyve had, never had democracy. We show them what it means to be a american citizen. We show them how the voting process works. We get them involved. We get them jobs. We get them to the ballots. We are teaching them about the american political system. The reformers say thats shenanigans. Its not the cool of politics to have this direct quid pro quo. Crispest of Good Government. Its supposed to be about these abstract ideals, so you start to see these attacks that are increasingly effective on the political machines. And this is often eight regional activity. On the federal level it comes in the version of the pending to an act of 1983. This creates Civil Service reform, says instead of us just filling the federal bra greasy, which by the way in 1883 is quite small. Instead of filling it with a bunch of political hacks to machine politics where you do a favor for them the give you many and you get a. Trump they have to pass a Civil Service exam to show that they are objectively qualified for the job. Well you can imagine that those exam could be very discriminatory in the same way that you hear but sats and racial in class discrimination. These might ask for a kind of book learning that wasnt really necessary for being a railway clerk, or pass a Civil Service exam to have some kind of job that doesnt really require that kind of knowledge. So many immigrants and working classes resented this process. Thats the federal version, which in fairness is a reaction to the assassination of president james gore, field by a deranged office seeker. You guys seeking the job who is mentally ill and who shoots him. This is one of the political responses. And the municipal and state level of there are other efforts as. Well the secret ballot, this is meant to curb political machine influence because then if you vote secretly, if no one knows what your vote is you dont really of the political boss anything. In the era when you voted in the local slanted there was one box for the democrats and one box for the republicans, if your boss saw you put your belt in the wrong box you were out a turkey in thanksgiving. But more seriously a job. Elections, eliminating word the machine was based on a coalition of powerful neighborhood or work boxes. Many campaign for at large elections, so in washington d. C. We have eight words. Each of them have members of the city council. At large elections, eliminated those different awards to eliminate that kind of small political favor. What is one of the consequences though of eliminating word elections in a diverse city . Yes. inaudible so you dont have a smaller constituency that you address. What are some demographic realities of that as well . Whos from okay. inaudible fewer people will probably dominate. Who else . Lets say you have a city thats majority white, but three words are predominantly immigrant. If you eliminate wards inaudible thats exactly right. So the idea was, for example, all you chicago as an example in the 19th century, a high of machine politics. Chicago is renowned for its corruption in City Government, in this time period especially. I will say this. Chicago city council had African American alderman at the tenth turn of the century because it had war politics and the south side election. That would not have been the case with war politics, so that was the two sides to that story. At large, elections vastly reduced immigrant participation. This became a huge issue in the civil rights movement, and many cities that had at large elections switched back to or established ward elections for the first time. Another example of taking power from the people to make democracy more efficient was City Government by experts, so lot of this happens on the municipal level. So this is City Governments that have a city manager or a Commission Style government. These are much more common in the midwest, south, and west, for this reason. Their City Governments are new are. Many of these places were established, incorporated during the progressive. Era we talk about people being born digital, now they were born progressive. The quintessential example, heres our trust guy. You knew i was going to do this out of order. The quintessential example as galveston tax 1900, devastating hurricane be killed between 60 and 12,000 people. Literally wiped out the city council. Reformer said well this is sad but its also a great opportunity because we can try out this newfangled idea that reformers have of Commission Government where we actually just have this commission, a board of appointed commissioners that ask a city manager and runs the city. They eliminated African Americans by political changing its political system they appointed experts around the commission, and so in 1900, galveston creates the first Commission Government with hundreds of towns in the south and the west following. Almost half of american towns and cities today have a conditioner or city manager government. A city manager government is a model in which you may have an elected mayor but they are called a weak mayor, not to their face, but weak mayor system and they have limited powers in the daytoday functioning of the City Government is done by an appointed hate city manager. The west, as i mentioned, was a laboratory for these reforms because the west is literally building its towns in states during this period, right . New mexico in oklahoma and our territories at the beginning of the progressive era. And the west uses at large elections parttime mayor commission and city manager models, my home tempe, arizona has the same manager, it was incorporated during the progressive era, i will give you an example of how this works, allow this example because its a great civics lesson. My High School Government teacher taught at my high school for 35 years, he was an alum, he was also the mayor. He taught the zero to fifth hour and skipped his prep because he had a halftime job as mayor, because the city manager around the city, his fulltime job was teaching High School Government and then in the afternoons he went to city hall and he was the mayor. And he could do that because it was a city manager system. It also was nonpartisan elections. This was another progressive reform, you can see how that also can potentially eliminate the power of politics. It cant organize around Party Elections in choosing primary nominees. The idea is that Good Government is Good Government, it shouldnt matter what party, many of these towns had nonpartisan elections. He went on to become a member of congress, its a very mr. Smith goes to washington story. One of the most popular and controversial breast of political reforms with a set of methods to bring voting to the people. And that was a set of efforts again which part dominated in the west and still do. The initiative, referendum and recall. Im sure we have people from california here and i think maybe someone from colorado. Anyone want to take a stab with the initiative recurrent met from undermine recall is . Yes. Recalling inaudible inaudible inaudible youve got it, we are colorado High School Government teachers would be so pleased. It is exactly right and im glad youre from colorado which is an exemplar of this model the good ballot signatures from ex many voters the public vote for it, up or down. This is a classic direct democracy you dont see the authority of passing a new law to the legislature, you literally let the voters decides referendum is Legislature Passes a law it is unpopular or theyre nervous about it, they pitch it back to the people to yay or nay. Same thing, pretty direct democracy. We call election only son states have this, it is the ability to recall an election an elected official in rare cases, i give the example of arizona you could recall judges it almost never happens. Im not sure its ever happened. In any case, the recall is the way that the people have a way to discipline indirect moxie. If someone is not representing the peoples interests, they can recall them so the intention was that these things would bring politics closer to the people. The evidence over century was that probably, in some cases, the opposite has happened. These kinds of elections are especially vulnerable to special interests and large campaigns that can sway the outcome. Did not turn out exactly as the reformers had finished had wished. I want to present to you, as i promised that i would, the south. That jim crow, as progressivism can fit into this model, although it might seem strange to say so. You might see the way in which those state constitutions started with the mississippi plan of 1890 in the late 19th century. Represented the triumph, we can call them what they were, White Supremacists who valued Efficient Government over democratic government. Remember how they sought reconstruction, they saw it as corruption, fueled unprepared new voters, formerly enslaved people. Rather than saying, lets make better citizens of our citizenry, they said lets remove those citizens from the voting population. In this sense, like i said, jim crow is in some ways the ultimate instruction of Good Government inefficiency. If you, this is southern leaders talking, not me. If we make sure that people are illiterate, that theyve paid their pull texas so theyre responsible in upstanding, if they come from a tradition of upright, Good Government and their grandfathers can vote, notice how race is lurking but not vocalist. Then we will have a more Efficient Government and more efficient system. You couldnt get a more naked example of efficiency winning over democracy. In my class, i know we talk briefly about how many poor white voters were disenfranchised disenfranchised in the state of louisiana after jim crow into effect. This was untrue and every Southern State but in the louisiana, which was profoundly dominated by a small elite, they did not view that as an accident. That was fine, to illuminate poor white voters along with black voters, in the jim crow era. To them, that was better efficiency and democracy. We have made it almost to the end. Im going to finish on time. I know, its hard to believe. Its a good thing its recorded for posterity. Talking about the south is a good place to mention the quintessential progressive reform prohibition. Prohibition was the national, really, interNational Movement to eliminates alcohol as a part of peoples regular lives. Why, you might ask did anyone want prohibition, much less get it ratified as an amendment to the constitution . Why did people want prohibition in who wanted it . Yes. A lot of women with husbands who would go off to the saloon and then they would spend all of their money on alcohol, it was causing women a lot of problems. They would go out and hatch it up salutes. Well show you a clip of that, thats true. It sounds like an exaggeration, and sounds like a spoof it sounds like a parity and in fact there are some wonderful early 20th century Motion Pictures that are needs boost of this. They are very sexist. Theyre also little funny of women tearing up balloons and men having to take care of babies because women have become political organizers. Men sneaking drinks whether babysitting their children. Ha, very funny. But it was rooted in a very real social problem. People drank far more even than they do today, alcoholism was a serious problem. People miss work because of it. They lost jobs, they spent their incomes on it, Domestic Violence was rampant, often fueled by alcohol abuse. It was in a very real way, a kind of antecedent to meet two movements, this was in one sense, one portion of the popularity of pope prohibition it was the idea that it was best for women and childrens lives. Francis willard, who was the famous president , famous leader of the womens christian temperance union, one woman, singular, but as a white middle class women. Of the w. Sea to you adopted advocacy for womens suffrage after getting involved in the Prohibition Movement because she saw it as a tool for social reform. We will talk about this more but there are two camps in them womens suffrage campaign. The camp that dated all the way to 1848 and the declaration of sentiments and elizabeth and Susan B Anthonys early version, where they said we should have the right to vote because we are equal, we are citizens and its our natural right. And we talked about this, there were some women who practice civil disobedience in the 14 amendment. It covers me, and is going to go do it. That begins to evolve by the late 19 twenties to women are special and more righteous and more morally pure. Im in which fits in perfectly, this is a genius tactic, fits in perfectly with progressive era reforms, saying we will cleanup governments, we will make it more efficient, because we are not corrupt. And its folks who are advocating that, they say some nasty things that we will talk about thursday. But like Francis Willard is saying, its not so much that i think that i should have the votes because women and men are equal, though i think francis ruler probably wouldve said that. We needed to make these necessary changes in society. And she saw prohibition as just one of all kinds of reforms to cure social ills in the 20th century and that is why her motto was do everything. For her and for millions of other women who come to support the vote, and men to, theres a reason why Theodore Roosevelt endorses womens suffrage. They see womens vote as an instrument for change as much as a change in itself. They assume, by the way, that women will vote differently than men will, which they turn out to be mostly wrong about in the early period. Im not talking with a 24 century. Weve talked about one major motivation for provision, whats another . Anti immigrant. The native born protestants, many of them dont allow drinking in the religions. Most of them dont drink or dont drink publicly. But they associate political corruption, debauchery, poverty, urbanization with catholic, mostly catholic, eastern orthodox, immigrants and heavy drinking. So loom culture. So many people rightfully see this is a campaign against immigrants as well. Ive chosen to end with prohibition for two reasons, you already guessed what they were. The first is that it was often targeted against immigrants, the second was that it was a movement that was not female only, but whose success and size was unimaginable without womens participation and leadership. In the sense, i think, as i mentioned at the beginning of class, its indicative of the progressive there in general. And while i always say that women belong in history, they are essential to understanding the progress of her. So on thursday, we will turn to more details about immigration and womens lives in the early 20th century. Thanks. Weeknights, we are featuring programs as a preview of whats available on cspan three. On thursday, law furred college professor, mark burns, expressed public opinion, the rise of radio and the debate over entering world war ii. He outlines the arguments and uses radio quota clips to demonstrate the role they played in shaping american views and foreign policy. Watch thursday night, beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv, this week and every weekend on cspan three