prepaid

Progressive movement in 1896-7920 plays more successful and social-promoted role compared with the populists’ achievements. Progressives who came from the Upper Classes and the new urban middle classes shared the same understanding of society and the Gospel of Wealth. They believe that businesses should be free as long as they played fairly. While populists wanted to destroy the entire industrialization, Progressives wanted to reform the worst abuses of industrialization in order to gain a win-win situation. This is the advanced opinion of the time as we can see today.

Firstly, progressive movements have more valuable goals of the time. They aim at three aspects: 1. Progressives object corruption in any form. They shared the muckrakers’ interest in supervising monopolies like Standard Oil to regulate private power.2.They want to kill political corruption. They attacked political machines and tried to streamline the political process for a better efficiency. 3. Progressives hoped to capture the successes of America’s largest corporations by applying the scientific management techniques to organize private reform movements and government.

In education, Progressives relied on the expertise of business leaders like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, H. J. Heinz (of tomato sauce and ketchup fame), attorney Samuel T. C. Dodd and the man who invented the Standard Oil trust in 1887. They reorganized the school board of Chicago and successfully applied their business techniques to make the Chicago Schools better institutions.

Also, Theodore Roosevelt’s "New Nationalism" brought change and hope to this country. President Roosevelt maintained a high-water level of the early progressive movement. His administration fundamentally changed the way government operated. Rather than accepting the laissez-faire or pro-business path set by the Gospel of Wealth, Roosevelt believed that government must become more responsive to the demands from common people. This switch from favoring corporations to favoring popular sentiments became the defining spirit of the "New Nationalism". Moreover, government help had crushed the 1877 railroad strike and the 1892 Homestead strike. The "Square Deal" ended the anti-union alliance of business and government.

Progressivism reformed the worst abuses of industrialization. Populism may have highlighted the need for urban and industrial reform, but the Populists never accomplished any of their goals. It took Progressives like Teddy Roosevelt to successfully regulate the railroads under new legislation like the Hepburn Act and aggressive prosecutions like the Northern Securities case.

Populism failed because it tried to solve people’s complaints at the local level. Change in industrializing America had occurred at the national level. Carrie Nation’s axe wielding Anti-Saloon League accomplished nothing through neighborhood violence. When Progressives tackled temperance, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union successfully banned the use of alcohol throughout the country.

Populism failed to stop political corruption. Grangers feared a railroad led conspiracy against the small farm, but they did not change the way government operated. Farmers complained about the bribes that covered the Credit Mobilier scandal, but they never changed the culture of corruption. Progressive business leaders like Rockefeller and Dodd routed corruption from the halls of the Chicago School system. They applied the principles of scientific management to make government efficient.

ID hints

Jacob Riis was a muckraking photographer who took pictures of immigrant living conditions in New York City around 1890. He tried to expose the poor living conditions in the hope of generating reform. His book "How the Other Half Lived" shocked Americans with the first look at life inside tenements.

Munn v. Illinois, was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with corporate rates and agriculture. This case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads, and is commonly regarded as a milestone in the growth of federal government regulation.

Samuel Gompers was American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles.

Crédit Mobilier, an American railroad construction company setup by the Union Pacific Railroad to build the First Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. Crédit Mobilier of America scandal of 1872, the exposed deception by the Union Pacific of over charging construction costs to taxpayers and manipulating the share prices of Crédit Mobilier of America.

Lester F. Ward was an American sociologist who served as the first president of the American Sociological Association. Ward is most often remembered for his relentless attack on the theories of laissez-faire and survival of the fittest that totally dominated socio/economic thought in the United States after the Civil War. He was also a strong advocate for equal rights for women and even theorized that women were naturally superior to men, much to the scorn of mainstream sociologists.

Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex educator. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood. Sanger's efforts contributed to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case which legalized contraception in the United States. Sanger is a frequent target of criticism by opponents of birth control and has also been criticized for supporting eugenics, but remains an iconic figure in the American reproductive rights movement.

bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent both to a certain quantity of gold and to a certain quantity of silver; Inflation and debt issues were tied to the adoption of the gold standard in 1873 and 1893. When Alexander Hamilton established the parameters for the American money supply, he fixed the exchange rate between silver and gold at 16 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold. This ratio reflected the actual ratio of silver to gold in the United States.

The Knights of Labor was one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman, rejected Socialism and radicalism, demanded the eight-hour day, and promoted the producers ethic of republicanism. In some cases it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers, but it was never well organized, and after a rapid expansion in the mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and became a small operation again.

The Open Door Policy is a concept in foreign affairs, which usually refers to the policy in 1899 allowing multiple Imperial powers access to China, with none of them in control of that country. The Open Door policy allowed the U.S. to benefit commercially from an empire without enduring the unwanted White Man’s Burden. The Open Door Policy is the birth of Liberal-Capitalism.

Yellow journalism, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion.

The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by American journalist, muckraker, and politician Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel with the intent to portray the lives of immigrants in the United States. However, readers were more concerned with the large portion of the book pertaining to the bad practices and corruption of the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, and the book is now often interpreted and taught as a journalist's account of the poor working conditions in the industry.

Scientific management, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management. Its development began with Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s within the manufacturing industries.

The Gospel of Wealth, developed to defend the successes of early industrialists and to limit the scope of reform. The ideology rested on Social Darwinism’s belief in survival of the fittest and the Laissez-Faire belief in a perfectly free market. This two ideas meant that businessmen should be able to create and dispose of their wealth however they saw fit.

Social Darwinism is an ideology of society that seeks to apply biological concepts of Darwinism or of evolutionary theory to sociology and politics, often with the assumption that conflict between groups in society leads to social progress as superior groups outcompete inferior ones.

The Corporate Consolidation Movement Industrialists took advantage of the emerging national marketplace by building larger and larger corporations.  Growth often came at the expense of defeated competitors whose ruined businesses were folded into emerging national enterprises like Standard Oil.  As corporations grew, traditional management methods proved ineffective.  Corporations became too large for their owners to oversee every aspect of the business, especially when parts of that company were scattered across the United States.  With the rapid cycles of booms and busts between 1880 and 1900, businessmen sought new and more effective ways to control and predict the unstable economy.  This movement occurred in several different phases.

2. As it evolved, American imperialism developed along the lines of Liberal-Capitalism. This ideology pushes the U.S. political economy outward to the rest of the world. Liberalism reflected the American understanding of democracy. Capitalism meant the creation of a free trade world economy. Free trade meant that U.S. goods should be permitted to trade on at least an equal footing with all other countries. Sometimes, free trade meant that American interests should be accorded special treatment. Consequently, Americans sought to build a world order based on democratic governments that supported free trade. Liberal-Capitalism became the backbone of U.S. foreign policy throughout the 20th Century.

At the end of the U.S. Civil War, America was an isolationist nation. American’s wanted little to do with the rest of the world. The United States revealed its geographic separation from the rest of the world created by the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. This physical distance from the rest of the world supported a moral separation from the world. This country was to be a beacon of democracy, righteousness and justice for the rest of the world. This divine mission meant avoiding the evils of European imperialism like colonies and the White Man’s burden. This divine mission kept the U.S. from acquiring an empire during the 1870s and 1880s.

By the end of the 19th Century, America’s "splendid isolation" was challenged by industrialization. Business leaders increasingly saw foreign trade a necessary element for American economic prosperity. Urban reformers began to see imperialism and global expansion as a solution to the crowded filthy cities.

A. Intellectual

Social Darwinism.

Social Darwinism expanded the limits of Manifest Destiny. O’Sullivan’s expression applied only to the land mass of North America. Social Darwinism expanded the ranks of the so-called "savage" peoples.

In the new Industrial era, Americas excuse rested on the new scientific justification for racism...Social Darwinism. If the Indians were excluded from America’s divine destiny, then other Europeans like Spaniards and Italians as well as non-Europeans such as Asians, Pacific Islanders and Africans were excluded from America’s industrial destiny

 "The White Man’s Burden"

In support of British conquest of India and Africa. American’s quickly made this sentiment their own. American imperialism was rationally discussed as a divinely ordained fate to over spread the blessings of liberty and democracy to all of the "savage" races of the world in order to fulfill the "White Man’s Burden".

B. Psychological/Emotional

1. The Frontier Thesis

In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner published his famous study of American Democracy. Turner argued that liberty depended upon the ability of Americans to move out into the frontier. The Frontier Thesis provided a bleak outlook for America. The Columbian Exposition of the same year heralded the triumph of industrial society over America’s traditional agrarian past. It symbolically announced the closing of the frontier. Consequently, Turner’s thesis was meant as a warning against the collapse of American democracy.

C. Economic

1. Panics

As the U.S. economy industrialized, it experienced more frequent and severe depressions. These panics were caused by overproduction. Businesses produced far more goods than the economy could absorb. Increased competition caused businesses to lower the cost of their goods. This caused spiraling price cuts that drove companies out of business. New markets could have developed if it had not been for a shortage of money. America’s reliance on fixed gold supplies prevented inflation and crushed economic growth. As a result, the U.S. economy entered a rapid cycle of booms from 1893 to 1897. Expansion and contraction followed each other in 9 month periods. Business leaders looked to foreign trade as an outlet for surpluses and a solution the boom and bust cycle.

2. Trade

Business interest in overseas trade coincided with growth of exports. In 1870, overseas trade earned only $390 million. Foreign trade earned $1.4 billion by 1900. Although it accounted for less than 10% of America’s Gross National Product, trade eliminated a critical surplus. Growing trade profits and rapid panics attracted political support for overseas trade.

3. Albert Beveridge

Indiana Senator Beveridge championed overseas trade. He was among the first to draw the connection between surplus production and economic panics. Beveridge argued that U.S. industry was so popular that its future health depended upon having access to the entire world marketplace.

D. Military

1. Alfred Mahan The Influence of Sea Power

Admiral Mahan’s study of British imperialism shaped the course of overseas expansion. He noted that Britain’s rise to world dominance was made possible by a powerful navy. British maritime policy maintained a navy that was twice the combined size of the next two largest navies in the world. The military side of this navy kept sea lanes open for Britain immense merchant fleet. This observation led Mahan to conclude that military power and commercial prowess were inseparable.

2. Mahan’s Program

Mahan recommended an ambitious program of territorial acquisition to fulfill America’s dream of becoming a world power. His most ambitious plan foresaw the construction of a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. A canal somewhere in central America promised to cut travel time from New York to California by as much as 2 months. Mahan thought the canal might provide enough maritime mobility to avoid the costly construction of a two ocean navy. In the context of the day, the canal was a necessary element to balance America’s political