HIST 2620 1st Edition Lecture 4 Outline of Last Lecture I Imperial America II The Frontier Thesis III Intro to Imperial America Indian Wars 1860 1890 Grants Peace Policy 1868 1882 Turner and The Frontier Thesis 1893 Frontier thesis and the census of 1890 Fears of Losing the Frontier Theodore Roosevelt s take on the Frontier Markets and New Imperialism New Imperialism Open Door Policy 1899 The Boxer Rebellion 1900 Naval Power The Spanish American War 1890 Philippine War 1890 1913 The Anti Imperialistic League The Reign of Roosevelt 1901 1908 Outline of Current Lecture I The Progressive Era II The Rule of Experts III Goals and Realizations Global Impact of Progressivism Patronage Politics The Wisconsin Idea The Final Products of Progressivism The Rule of Experts Gospel of Efficiency Taylorization The Presidency and Federal Executive Power Progressive Presidents Hetch Hetchy Dam Conservation v Preservation Meat Inspection Act Pure Food and Drug Act Anti Monopoly Trust Enforcement These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Current Lecture I The Progressive Era II Goals and Realizations The progressive Era was a period of social and political reforms with the goals to soften the impact of industrial capitalism put an end to patronage politics However the best way to carry out these goals was highly contested The progressive era was guided by two popular realizations 1 Barriers to freedom are not just political but also economic reconstruction And 2 Plutocracy is a barrier to national self governance Gilded Age US imperialism Global Impact of Progressivism Progressivism was not characteristic of the US it in fact had widespread global roots primarily in Europe and Latin America Debates of its reforms were often framed in the context of imperialism Patronage Politics Patronage politics were ways in which to maintain plutocracy wealth rule this began during the 1870s in the Gilded Age and continued until the 1900s The end of these patronage politics came about in many ways mainly of which was direct election of senators The Wisconsin Idea The Wisconsin Idea marked the ending of patronage politics in which it proposed the implementation of direct elections That by this time many states had already passed a law similar focus on voter education and utilization of state goals to regulate national corporations Finally the overall goal of this idea was to serve the people rather than narrow business interests The Final Products of Progressivism Americans wanted protections for farmers and workers as well as regulation or even nationalization of second nature industries First Nature Seeming unpolitisized geographical determinants rivers proximity to local markets rainfall Second Nature Politisizable natural technological hybrid networks railroads irrigation refrigeration national and global markets THINGS THAT CAN BE OWNED By the early 1900s the natural systems that Americans used to create and distribute the products of their labor became dominated by big business railroads coal grain and elevators 17th Amendment The 17th amendment stated that senators were elected through a direct election rather than appointment By 1912 29 states already had passed their own laws establishing direct election The 17th amendment did not go into effect until 1914 The Income tax as opposed to a tariff 16th Amendment The 16th amendment granted the federal government the authority to levy an income tax without direct apportionment to the statesmaking our current income tax legal Meaning before this amendment the United States would have to take taxes and return them to the states in equivalent amounts to population not necessarily fair The Rule of Experts III The Rule of Experts the rule of experts was a contrasting version of progressivism or top down progressivism Reforms were to be coordinated by the bureaucratic elite rather than through broad social decision making Paternalistic approach toward American masses Metropolitan powerbase New York Chicago D C Advocated associationalism as a regulatory form put the best minds in government and business to work together in the best interest of all Generally pro imperialistic and similar in government structure british and French empires during the period Gospel of Efficiency The gospel of efficiency was mainly a broad ideal during the time period in which most companies as well as the federal government pushed a strong emphasis in the efficiency of production and the government Taylorization Frederick Winslow Taylor wrote the principles of scientific management in which he brought to attention Industrial origins observation leads to knowledge assembly lines time and motion studies and that management success relied on increasing efficiency Taylorization went along with gospel of efficiency in which most of his observations as well as studies were experiments to see what exactly proved the increase of product The Presidency and Federal Executive The Progressive Presidents The progressive presidents Roosevelt Taft and Wilson expanded their use of the executive cabinets to regulate and enforce certain reforms In some cases they organized entirely new agencies such as the US Forest Service or the Food and Drug Administration Roosevelt Roosevelt s New Nationalism pushed for a strong federal government to regulate business in the public interest as well as establishing trust between the federal government and corporation leaders Taft Taft was criticized somewhat unfairly by Roosevelt used progressives as a tool for big business He actually out did Roosevelt as a progressive president in establishing national parks busting trusts and creating new federal agencies Wilson Wilson s New Freedom sound familiar stated that state and local governments were empowered to make reforms in the public interest Also allowed progressive reforms at a state and local level Wilson had a fear that collaboration between the federal government and corporations would lead to plutocracy Hetch Hetchy Dam Controversy This was a seven year long dispute from 1906 1913 that was debating whether or not to flood a valley for the means of providing San Francisco with electricity The controversy was a matter of conservation versus preservation On one side there was nothing being taken away from flooding the valley and on the other hand they believed that the valley in itself was to be treasured