Question…What did the Progressives really accomplish from 1901 to the Treaty of Versailles?

Origins of Progressivism  State reform movements of the 1890s  Omaha Platform of the Alliance movement in 1892  Direct election of U.S. Senators  Initiative and referendum  Unlimited coinage of silver  Graduated income tax  Telegraph and telephone networks owned by govt.  Federal loans and warehouses for farmers  Eight hour work day for industrial workers

America in 1900  Current Literature published that the average American male:  British by ancestry - 5’ 9” tall  Three living children – one deceased in infancy  Protestant and Republican  Newspaper subscriber  Lived in a two-story, seven room home  Estate valued at $5,000  Consumed 7 gallons of liquor and 75 gallons of beer  Smoked 20 pounds of tobacco  City males = $750 annuallyFarmers = $550 annually  Paid 3% in taxes

President McKinley  Defeats William Jennings Bryan again  Theodore Roosevelt is placed on the ticket  In September 1901, President McKinley takes a trip:  Despite receiving threatening letters  Despite increasing Buffalo security  President McKinley is assassinated by Leon Czolgosz  Hearst had said…”assassination can be a good thing.”  Czolgosz fails as an anarchist…

“Teddy”

“Teddy’s” Early Career  New York City Police Commissioner  Walked the slums  Friends with Jacob Riis and Lincoln Steffens  Heavily influenced by Upton Sinclair  TR came to believe in an active government, in order to alleviate social ills  He, as well as many of the “Progressives” came from privileged upbringings  Governor of New York  Taxed corporations

President Theodore Roosevelt  By the time he entered the presidency in 1901 TR had:  Conquered childhood illness  Succeeded as Police Commissioner  Worked with the Civil Service Commission  Reformed New York as governor  Published books on the American West and The War of 1812  Spent time out west as a cowboy He had never worked met payroll nor managed a business.

President Theodore Roosevelt  McKinley had turned over prosecution of the Northern Securities Trust to Vice President Roosevelt:  E.C. Knight decision (1895)  Northern Securities’ used trains for commerce  Northern Securities was valued at $400 million  TR instructed Attorney General to file a Sherman Suit  Prices had not risen for consumers  The court sided with the government, earning TR the nickname “Trustbuster”

President Theodore Roosevelt  Started assault on Standard Oil Company as President  President Taft would finish them off  By the end of his term, TR would invoke the Sherman Anti-Trust law twenty-five times  Congressional Progressivism:  Elkins Act of 1903  Expedition Act of 1903  Creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor – Bureau of Corporations  The Mann Act of 1910 under President Taft

President Theodore Roosevelt  Pennsylvania Coalminer’s Strike  TR invites UMW leaders, coalminers, and owner to the White House  “I wanted to grab Baer by the seat of the breeches and chuck him out a window.”  The President issues a threat – 10,000 troops  “To Hell with the Constitution when the people want coal!”  A “Square Deal” is finally reached  TR spent the months leading up to the election mending fences

President Taft  Pushed into the presidency – not what he really wanted  Defeats Bryan in the general election of 1908  Three things to consider:  Tariff  Payne-Aldrich Bill passed into law  A mess in the House of Representatives  Trust-busting  Standard Oil Corporation  Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy