Chapter 28&29

America on the World Stage

Progressivism & Republican Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency
 Roosevelt became president after William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.
o 42 and youngest ever to assume the presidency
 Roosevelt very admired public figure and was considered an idol
 Roosevelt very conservative
o Saw federal government as mediator (someone who stands in between) of
public good with president at its center
o Urged regulation of trade not destruction
o Government to investigate activities of corporations
 Department of Commerce and Labor
 1902 ordered Justice Department to enforce Sherman
Antitrust Act against a new Rail Road monopoly

Square Deal
 Series of reform movements that include:
 Railroad Reform
o Asked for legislation to increase government’s power to oversee railroad
rates
 Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act
 No more two different fares, no more being charged more
if you’re shipping farm goods, and no more discrimination
 Still have it, and businesses have to follow standard policy
—it’s just expanded
 Pressured Congress for Pure Food & Drug Act
 Restrict sale of dangerous or ineffective medicines
 Because of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Roosevelt asked for the Meat Inspection
Act
o He was so nauseated from reading it, that there was no way he couldn’t
make the act
 Miscellaneous:
o 8 hour work day
o Broader compensation for victims of industrial accidents
o Inheritance and income taxes
o Regulation of stock market
o National Reclamation Act
 Newlands Act
 Parks, reservations, etc
 Square refers to treating everyone equally—as equal as possible
 The Panic of 1907
 Government still had little control over economy
o Industrial production outran capacity of domestic and foreign markets
o Banking system and stock market inadequate
 Not equipped to handle too many supplies
 Conservatives blamed Roosevelt
 J.P. Morgan constructed a pool of assets from several banks
o Said key was to purchase by U.S. Steel of shares of the Tennessee Coal
and Iron Company
 Morgan asked and got assurances purchase would not prompt antitrust action
 The panic subsided and Roosevelt congratulated

Progressivism
 Solving problems of industrialization
 Focused on: political reform and consumer protection
o Regulation of businesses to stop concentration of power
o Social justice for poor and workers
o Social control of morals – drinking, prostitution, movies, etc...
 Willing to use government to meet their ends
o Free government from control of corrupt big business
 Wanted to make government more accessible to ordinary people

Muckrakers
 Teddy Roosevelt accused them of raking up muck through their writings
 They go and investigate and talk about all of the bad
o Point out where all of the weaknesses are
 Among first to articulate new spirit of reform
 Directed public attention toward social, economic, and political injustices
o Caused public outrage at corruption and incompetence in city politics

The Settlement House

 Response to problems of crowded immigrant neighborhoods
 Hull House – Jane Adams of Chicago
o Sought to help immigrant families adapt to the language and customs of
their new country
 Profession of social work spawned from the Settlement House
o “Women’s Work”
 Women Suffrage
 Suffrage not mean challenge but rather allow women to bring ‘virtue’ to society
o War would become a thing of the past
 1920 – 19th Amendment gave political rights to women
 Not all women satisfied with the 19th Amendment
o Alice Paul – head of the National Women’s Party
 Equal Rights Amendment: constitutional amendment to provide
clear legal protection
 Jane Adams and other denounced the Equal Right’s Amendment
 The suffrage movement only about right to vote

The Assault on the Parties

 Need to reform government
 City-manager plan – elected officials hired an outside expert to take charge of the
government
 Introduced:
o Initiative – allows new legislation to be submitted directly to the voters in
a general election
o Referendum – allowed the voters to approve or disprove of actions taken
by the legislation
o Direct Primary – allowed the selection of candidates to be given to
people rather than bosses
o Recall – gives voters the right to remove a public official from office with
a special election after a sufficient number of citizens sign a petition
o You now have a voice!
 Robert La Follett (Wisconsin) most celebrated

Sources of Progressive Reform

African American and Reform
 Booker T. Washington – focused on working on immediate self improvement
rather than long-rage social change
 Not everyone was content with that approach
 W.E.B. Du Boise
o Born in Massachusetts and educated at Fisk University and Harvard
 Wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
o Attacked the philosophy of Washington
o Accused him of encouraging white to impose segregation
o Claimed that Washington was limiting the aspiration of his race
 Advocated: Full universal education, aspire to professions, and fight for
restoration of civil rights
 In 1905, DuBois and his supporters met at the Niagra movement in Canada
 o National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
 Led drive for equal rights using lawsuits as weapons
 Guun Vs. United States – Ruled grandfather clause in
Oklahoma was unconstitutional
 Buchanan Vs. Worley – struck down law requiring
residential segregation
 NAACP never radical
o Never stressed using anything outside of the law
o Stressed opportunity for exceptional African Americans to gain positions
of full equality
o Theory was by creating a trained elite, African Americans would create a
leadership group capable of fighting for the rights of the race as a whole

Crusades and Reform

The Temperance Crusade
 Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) – became single largest
women’s organization of the time
o Publicized evils of alcohol and connection between drunkenness and
family violence, unemployment, poverty, and disease
 By 1916, 19 states had passed prohibition laws
 January of 1920, the 18th amendment was passed, officially outlawing alcohol
o Prohibition
 Cops are never the one’s to follow prohibition
 Speak Easy’s – find all of the alcohol there, underground

Industrial Workers of the World

 A.K.A. “Wobblies”
 Leader – William “Big Bill” Haywood
o Better hours, better pay, and better conditions
 Advocated single union for all workers and abolition of slave wage system
 Rejected political action in favor of strikes
 Eventually government shut them down
 More moderated come to power to make real changes
 Injunction – a petition to stop from doing something
 Were able to bring attention to the problem, but not save it

The Big Stick America and the World

Roosevelt and “Civilization”
 “Speak softly, but carry a big stick”
 Civilized nations: predominantly white and Anglo-Saxon (from the Eastern
European sides), well-developed industrial
 Uncivilized nations: Nonwhite, Latin, or Slavic, not industrialized
 Japan only exception
o Producers of industrial goods
 Believed in an economic relationship between two groups of nations
o Civilized society had right and duty to intervene in the affairs of
“backward” nations

Protecting the Open Door in Asia

 1904, Japanese attacked Russian fleet
 Roosevelt agreed to mediate
o Russia recognized Japan’s territorial gains
o Japan stopped fighting
o Roosevelt negotiated secret agreement to ensure US continued trade in
area, behind closed doors
 US stays in the biggest place—they have more things of it
 Roosevelt won Nobel Peace Prize
 Not a single peep is made, about this secret agreement to keep the
US on top
 Soon US and Japan relations deteriorated
 “Yellow Peril”
o Anti-Asian reports in newspapers
 Japanese
o Riots broke out
 California
o “Oriental School”
o “Great White Fleet”
 Roosevelt hinted at war
 Japan finally limited immigration to ease tension

The Iron-Fisted Neighbor

 1902 Venezuela began reneging on debts
o Britain, Italy, and Germany blockaded the Venezuelan coast
o German ships then bombarded the port
 Roosevelt used threat of American naval power to pressure Germany to withdraw
o Used Monroe Doctrine against Germany
 “Roosevelt Corollary” – added to Monroe Doctrine
o Gave US right to oppose European intervention in Western Hemisphere
 US has the right to go to war if it is ever breeched
 Don’t have to ask congress, or anything
o Allowed US to intervene in domestic affairs of its neighbors if they proved
unable to maintain order on their own
 US goes down as the “Iron-Fisted Neighbor” to protect

The Panama Canal

 Most celebrated accomplishment of Roosevelt’s presidency was the Canal
 Step One: Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
o Between America and Britain
 o Canceled 1850 pact to build any canal together
o US now free to act alone
 Step Two: Choose a site
 Panama Canal opened in 1914
 Roosevelt concludes his terms on a positive note-doesn’t challenge the two terms
The Troubled Succession
William Howard Taft Becomes President in 1908
Roosevelt
 Most dynamic public figure
 Sportsman and athlete
 Expansive view of powers of the office

Taft
 Lacks dynamic personality
 Well respected, but little more
 Sedentary & obese
o 350 lbs
o Special tub
 Slow and cautious about rules

Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy
 Taft replaced Roosevelt’s Sec. of Interior
o Appointed Richard A. Ballinger
 Ballinger tried to remove nearly a million acres of forests and mineral reserves
from public lands
o This is not illegal—he’s doing it in order to pump money back into the
government
o Make them available for private development
 Louise Glavis, investigator for Interior Dept charged Ballinger with conniving to
turn over valuable public lands for personal profit
o Insider trading
 Taft ordered attorney general to investigate
o Ruled charges were groundless
 Pinchot not satisfied
o He leaked story to the press and asked Congress to investigate the scandal
 He hinted that Taft may be a lot like Grant
 Taft discharged Pinchot for insubordination and Congress exonerated Ballinger
o Exonerate – making free and clear
 Progressives = Ballinger
 Roosevelt supporters now feel alienated from Taft
 Started out as a simple scandal that escalates
 *Represents clash in economic development
o Pinchot: carefully supervised economic growth
 o Ballinger: (westerns) saw regulations as impediment to their own
economic ambitions

“New Nationalism”
 Roosevelt’s return to politics
o Broke away from Taft and Republicans
 Roosevelt supported:
o Graduated income tax and inheritance tax
o Worker’s compensation for industrial accidents
o Child and Women labor reform
o Tariff revision
o Firmer regulation of corporations

Spreading Insurgency
 Congressional elections of 1910
 Republicans suffered defeat
 Almost all progressive incumbents reelected
 Democrats won control of House and gained strength in the Senate
 Roosevelt claimed he had no interest in presidency anymore, but he will change
his mind because of two things that happened
 (1) October 27, 1911, Taft announced a lawsuit against U.S. Steel charging the
1907 acquisition of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company had been illegal
 Roosevelt was enraged by the implication that he acted improperly while
president
 (2) Robert La Follett was to run for the Republican nomination, but suffered a
breakdown after his daughter’ illness. He decided not to run and lost his
supporters
 On February 22, 1912, Roosevelt announced his candidacy for president

The Republican Division

 Roosevelt, champion of the progressives
 Taft, candidate of the conservatives
 Up for grabs: 254 contested delegate votes
 Roosevelt needed fewer than half to win, but will receive only 19
 The next day, Roosevelt led his supporters out of the convention and out of the
party
 Roosevelt launched new progressive party
o Bull Moose Party
 His cause was pretty much lost
 (1) A lot of former supporters refused to leave the Republican Party
 (2) The man the Democrats will nominate offers a much better alternative to Taft
than Roosevelt will

Woodrow Wilson and the New Freedom

The Election
 Taft delivered a few speeches then lapsed into virtual silence
 Roosevelt campaigned energetically, but failed to draw any significant numbers
 He had been wounded by would-be assassin
 Roosevelt and Taft split the Republican vote while Wilson held on to most of the
democrats
 Wilson wins and becomes next president

Wilson’s New Freedom

 Wilson was a bold and forceful president
o Goes after the big businesses
 Believed big business was unjust and inefficient
o Destroy rather than regulate
 Underwood-Simmons Tariff
o Established cuts in order to introduce real competition into American
markets to break up the power of trusts
 Used 16th amendment to offset lost money
 Wilson next tackled the issues of reforming the banking system

Federal Reserve Act

 December 23, 1913 – Most important piece of domestic legislation
 Act created 12 Regional Banks, each owned and controlled by individual banks in
district
 The regional Federal Reserve banks would hold certain percentage of assets of
member banks in reserves
 Federal Reserve Notes – new type of paper currency that would become nations’
medium of trade
 National Federal Reserve Board – supervise and regulate entire system…
presidential appointments

The Problem of Trusts

 In 1914, Wilson proposed 2 measures to deal with monopolies and trusts
 (1) Create a federal agency through which the government would help business
police itself
o Federal Trade Commission
 Investigate and prosecute for “unfair trade practices”
 Did not define what “unfair” meant
 (2) Strengthen the government’s power to prosecute and dismantle trusts
 Clayton Antitrust Act
 Government supervision rather than destruction
 Foreign Policy
“Pancho” Villa
 Cross between bandit and Robin Hood
o “Restore Mexico back to its glory”
 Hated Huerta and wanted to revolt
 Took 16 Americans off train and killed them
o He makes America believe that it was the Mexican government
o Hoped to cause war between Mexico and US
 General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing ordered to stop raid
o Mexican government helps with it
o Threatened but not able to capture Villa
 Villa finally got tired
o Formally gives up, takes responsibility for the 16 dead, and it allows
Wilson to restore the relationship with Mexico

Thunder Across the Sea

 Austria-Hungary’s Arch Duke Ferdinand killed by Serb patriot
o Serbia and Russia together so Russia mounted forces
 Germany attacked France
 Great Britain sucked in as help for France
 Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria
 Allies: France, Britain, Russia, Japan, and Italy

Uneasy Neutrality
 Both sides to persuade US to give up neutrality
 British and French war needs produced boom for US
 Germany mad and made submarines war area around British waters
 May 7, 1915, Lusitanian blown up
o 128 American died
o Torpedoed
 August 1915, Arabic sunk
o 2 Americans died
 March 1916, Sussex sunk
 Wilson threatened war and Germany gave in

Election of 1916
 Progressives wanted Teddy to run again
o Refused on grounds of hating Wilson so much
 Republicans also wanted Teddy, but settles on Charles Hughes
o Former Supreme Court justice and governor
 Campaign close
 Hughes won the east easily
 o Newspapers reported victory
 California ultimately decided election and Wilson won
 Most Americans thought Wilson = no war… but were they wrong!