Course Project

Progressive Era Thought: Lecture 1

Read Chapter 8 Introduction and the Following Chapter Selections: Wilson (Both), T. Roosevelt

(Both), Dewey

Progressive Era 1901-1932 - An age of reform

- An attention to correcting social ills arising from political corruption and industrial economics

- Progressivism was widespread - Formation of Progressive Party; also progressives in both major political parties

- Rise of objective and investigative journalism - Muckrakers exposed corruption and social problems

- Rapid change in population distribution - “In 1900, over sixty percent of the population lived in rural areas. In 1930, nearly

sixty percent lived in urban areas” (427)

Progressive Era 1901-1932

- Technological and industrial change - Mass production - Inventions: airplane, automobile, radio, air conditioner, penicillin, zipper

- Jazz Age - Explosion of arts and culture - Move towards more independence for women (e.g. Flappers, push for and

securing of suffrage) - Rise of ideas like Pragmatism

- Practical application and the instrumental value of ideas

Progressive Era 1901-1932 - Innovations in politics: - Battling corruption: Party primaries, secret ballot - Changes in voting: “Suffrage reform like the widespread adoption of literacy

tests and poll taxes for voters, voter registration, and female suffrage were intended to improve the quality of the electorate and reduce electoral fraud (while also having the effect of significantly reducing voter turnout)” (426)

- Institutional changes: initiative and referendum measures, regulatory measures, city managers, improvements in civil service

- Policy reform: “expansion of public schooling, economic regulation, immigration restrictions, eugenics, and alcohol prohibition were advanced as solutions to social ills” (426)

- Constitutional changes: income tax, direct election of Senators

1912 Presidential Race - Taft was the Republican incumbent

- “William Howard Taft was the incumbent Republican president, the hand-picked successor to Theodore Roosevelt. Taft had earned a reputation (working in both the executive and judicial branches) as an efficient administrator and creative problem-solver, but Roosevelt soon decided that Taft was not bold enough in his thinking—and besides occupied the Oval Office that was Roosevelt’s natural home” (425)

- Challenged by Democrat Woodrow Wilson - Theodore Roosevelt had already served as President but decided to run again

with the Progressive Party with a more radical policy stance - Eugene V. Debs challenged from the Socialist Party (garnered 6% of vote) - Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican vote, allowing Wilson to win - As the book notes, progressivism was pervasive:

- “None of the candidates articulated the stand-pat views or small-government philosophy that was typical of the Gilded Age. The debate was not over whether to reform, but what to reform and by how much” (425)

Progressive Era 1901-1932

- World War I (1914-1918) - Foreign policy torn between isolationism and more aggressive approach - Roosevelt support more aggressive enforcement of national interests - Wilson took a more idealist approach to foreign policy and faith in building

international institutions (e.g. League of Nations) - After World War I, the horrors of the war led to a desire for more isolationist

policies

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

THEODORE ROOSEVELT - 26th President of the United States - Became President after McKinley was assassinated - Political reformer

- New Nationalism; wanted to limit corporate power - Aggressive stance on foreign policy

- Critical of Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy (saw it as too timid) - Organized the Rough Riders, a cavalry unit in the Spanish-American War - Aided a revolution in Panama, leading to the Panama Canal

- On the legacy of T.R.: - https://millercenter.org/president/roosevelt/impact-and-legacy

ROOSEVELT: THE NEW NATIONALISM (1910) - Endorses expansion of democracy and equality of opportunity - Progress is tied to expanding equality of opportunity

- “One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows” (432)

- Class conflict and the role of special interests - “At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between the men who possess more

than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. In our day it appears as the struggle of freemen to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will. At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth. . .” (432)

ROOSEVELT: THE NEW NATIONALISM (1910) - Results of equality of opportunity?

- “First, every man will have a fair chance to make of himself all that in him lies; to reach the highest point to which his capacities, unassisted by special privilege of his own and unhampered by the special privilege of others, can carry him, and to get for himself and his family substantially what he has earned. Second, equality of opportunity means that the commonwealth will get from every citizen the highest service of which he is capable. No man who carries the burden of the special privileges of another can give to the commonwealth that service to which it is fairly entitled” (433)

- Square deal (fair treatment) - “But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play

under the present rules of the games, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service” (433)

ROOSEVELT: THE NEW NATIONALISM (1910) - Need to break free from influence of special interests in politics

- “Now, this means that our government, national and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit.” (433)

- Corporations and special interests do not have the same rights as citizens - “For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress,

to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protections to property, and we must make that promise good But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation” (433)

- “There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done.” (433)

ROOSEVELT: THE NEW NATIONALISM (1910) - How to reform? - Corporate transparency and publicity in their affairs - Restriction of corporate money in politics - Increased enforcement of laws - Increased government supervision (oversight and regulation) over interstate businesses and

essential industries (meat, oil, coal) - Controlling conglomerations in the public interest - Regulating labor practices - Regulation of wealth

- “We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity, when exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows. . . . We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary” (434)

ROOSEVELT: THE NEW NATIONALISM (1910) - How to regulate wealth?

- Graduated income tax and graduated inheritance tax - A new understanding of the relationship of the individual (and the foundation

of their rights) to the community is necessary - “We are face to face with new conceptions of the relations of property to human welfare,

chiefly because certain advocates of the rights of property as against the rights of men have been pushing their claims too far. The man who wrongly holds that every human right is secondary to his profit must now give way to the advocate of human welfare, who rightly maintains that every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it” (434)

- Human rights, not just individual rights

ROOSEVELT: THE NEW NATIONALISM (1910) - Laying the foundation for individual success and good citizenship

- “The fundamental thing to do for every man is to give him a chance to reach a place in which he will make the greatest possible contribution to the public welfare. Understand what I say there. Give him a chance, not push him up if he will not be pushed. Help any man who stumbles; if he lies down, it is a poor job to try to carry him; but if he is a worthy man, try your best to see that he gets a chance to show the worth that is in him. No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living, and hours of labor short enough so that after his day’s work is done he will have time and energy to bear his share in the management of the community, to help in carrying the general load. We keep countless men from being good citizens by the conditions of life with which we surround them. . . .” (434)

ROOSEVELT: SOCIAL VALUES AND NATIONAL EXISTENCE (1915)

- Speech given at a conference on militarism and the values it instills - He argues that warlike nations must be held in check by other nations - Pacifism leads a nation to be conquered and cease to exist - Shrinking from such hard obligations is pernicious to society - Our values won’t be of consequence if we are conquered

- “The really essential things for men to remember, therefore, in connection with war are, first, that neither war nor peace is immoral in itself, and secondly, that in order to preserve ‘social values’ . . . it is absolutely essential to prevent the dominance in our country of the one form of militarism which is surely and completely fatal, that is, the military dominion of an alien enemy” (486)

- We must be willing to use might for right - “At present, in this world, and for the immediate future, it is certain that the only way

successfully to oppose the might which is the servant of wrong is by means of the might which is the servant of right” (486)

Woodrow Wilson

(1856-1924)

WOODROW WILSON - 28th President of the United States - PhD in Political Science - Princeton professor - Regarding foreign policy, thought balance of power would not secure peace

- Supported nation-building, with American intervention to help lay the foundations in a nation for self-government

- Urged neutrality at the beginning of World War I (1914) - Asked Congress to declare war after German attack on Americans (1917) - Architect of the failed League of Nations (not approved by the Senate)

- Reforms - A Democrat in a largely Republican era, he took advantage of the Democratic majorities in Congress

for a time - Wanted antitrust enforcement and limited government - “he launched an ambitious legislative agenda that included the creation of the Federal Reserve, tariff

reform, agricultural policy reform, antitrust reform, and labor legislation, winning plaudits from the progressive wing of the Republican Party as well” (435)

WILSON: THE NEW FREEDOM (1913) - Notes that it is a time of massive social reorganization

- “We are in the presence of a new organization of society. Our life has broken away from the past. The life of America is not the life that it was twenty years ago; it is not the life that it was ten years ago. We have changed our economic conditions, absolutely, from top to bottom; and, with our economic society, the organization of our life” (436)

- Like Carnegie, notes the distance now present between employers and employees due to the industrial revolution

- “Why is it that we have a labor question at all? It is for the simple and very sufficient reason that the laboring man and the employer are not intimate associates now as they used to be in time past. Most of our laws were formed in the age when employer and employees knew each other, knew each other’s characters, were associates with each other, dealt with each other as man with man. That is no longer the case. You not only do not come into personal contact with the men who have the supreme command in those corporations, but it would be out of the question for you to do it. Our modern corporations employ thousands, and in some instances hundreds of thousands, of men” (437)

- “The truth is, we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless. The modern corporation is not engaged in business as an individual” (437)

WILSON: THE NEW FREEDOM (1913) - The huge structure of the corporate world has implications for small

business and free enterprise in the United States - “American industry is not free, as once it was free; American enterprise is not free; the man

with only a little capital is finding it harder to get into the field, more and more impossible to compete with the big fellow. Why? Because the laws of this country do not prevent the strong from crushing the weak. That is the reason, and because the strong have crushed the weak the strong dominate the industry and the economic life of this country. . . .” (437)

- Corporate access to politics helps perpetuate this problem - “There has come over the land that un-American set of conditions which enables a small

number of men who control the government to get favors from the government; by those favors to exclude their fellows from equal business opportunity; by those favors to extend a network of control that will presently dominate every industry in the country” (437)

WILSON: THE NEW FREEDOM (1913) - The ideal of small government doesn’t work in the complexity of the modern era

- “We used to say that the ideal of government was for every man to be left alone and not interfered with, except when he interfered with somebody else; and that the best government was the government that did as little governing as possible. That was the idea that obtained in Jefferson’s time. But we are coming now to realize that life is so complicated that we are not dealing with the old conditions, and that the law has to step in and create new conditions under which we may live, the conditions which will make it tolerable for us to live” (437-438)

- Businesses are no longer private relationships but public matters - “Whenever bodies of men employ bodies of men, it ceases to be a private relationship. . . . This dealing of great

bodies of men with other bodies of men is a matter of public scrutiny, and should be a matter of public regulation. Similarly, it was no business of the law in the time of Jefferson to come into my house and see how I kept house. But when my house, when my so-called private property, became a great mine, and men went along dark corridors amidst every kind of danger in order to dig out of the bowels of the earth things necessary for the industries of a whole nation, and when it came about that no individual owned these mines, that they were owned by great stock companies, then all the old analogies absolutely collapsed and it became the right of the government to go down into these mines to see whether human beings were properly treated in them or not; to see whether accidents were properly safeguarded against; to see whether modern economical methods of using these inestimable riches of the earth were followed or were not followed. . . .” (438)

WILSON: THE NEW FREEDOM (1913) - Notes two competing lines of thinking in American political thought (Hamilton v

the majority will) - Hamilton’s thesis is un-American, he claims

- “One of them is the theory which in America is associated with the name of a very great man, Alexander Hamilton. A great man, but, in my judgment, not a great American. He did not think in terms of American life. Hamilton believed that the only people who could understand government, and therefore the only people who were qualified to conduct it, were the men who had the biggest financial stake in the commercial and industrial enterprises of the country. That theory, though few have now the hardihood to profess it openly, has been the working theory upon which our government has lately been conducted. . . . For indeed, if you stop to think about it, nothing could be a greater departure from original Americanism, from faith in the ability of a confident, resourceful, and independent people, than the discouraging doctrine that somebody has got to provide prosperity for the rest of us. And yet that is exactly the doctrine on which the government of the United States has been conducted lately. . . . The gentlemen whose ideas have been sought are the big manufacturers, the bankers, and the heads of the great railroad combinations. The masters of the government of the United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States.” (438)

WILSON: THE NEW FREEDOM (1913) - Wilson on the will of the majority

- “No group of men less than the majority has a right to tell me how I have got to live in America. I will submit to the majority, because I have been trained to do it,—though I may sometimes have my private opinion even of the majority. I do not care how wise, how patriotic, the trustees may be, I have never heard of any group of men in whose hands I am willing to lodge the liberties of America in trust. . . If I thought that the American people were reckless, were ignorant, were vindictive, I might shrink from putting the government into their hands. But the beauty of democracy is that when you are reckless you destroy your own established conditions of life; when you are vindictive, you wreak vengeance upon yourself; the whole stability of a democratic polity rests upon the fact that every interest is every man’s interest” (438)

WILSON: THE NEW FREEDOM (1913) - Argues that Jefferson now would think as we do

- “But I feel confident that if Jefferson were living in our day he would see what we see: that the individual is caught in a great confused nexus of all sorts of complicated circumstances, and that to let him alone is to leave him helpless as against the obstacles with which he has to contend; and that, therefore, law in our day must come to the assistance of the individual” (439)

- Government must ensure fair play - “It must come to his assistance to see that he gets fair play; that is all, but that is much.

Without the watchful interference, the resolute interference, of the government, there can be no fair play between individuals and such powerful institutions as the trusts. Freedom today is something more than being let alone. The program of a government of freedom must in these days be positive, not negative merely” (439)

- Monopolies will not restrain themselves

WILSON: ADDRESS TO THE SENATE ON THE TERMS OF PEACE (1917)

- Thinks the U.S. should have a prominent role in helping to establish peace between nations

- Nations need to combine their force and authority to create a league for peace - Need to seek a long-term peace, not one that merely serves short-term interests

- “The question upon which the whole future peace and policy of the world depends is this: Is the present war a struggle for a just and secure peace, or only for a new balance of power? If it be only a struggle for a new balance of power, who will guarantee, who can guarantee the stable equilibrium of the new arrangement? Only a tranquil Europe can be a stable Europe. There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized common peace” (488)

- Argues the only type of peace the nation can join is one that supports American principles (e.g. consent of the governed, freedom of the seas, moderation in armaments)

- Force must be a guarantor of this agreement - The buildup of arms is no way to move towards peace - There must be an equality of rights between the nations involved

- “The equality of nations upon which peace must be founded if it is to last must be an equality of rights; the guarantees exchanged must neither recognize nor imply a difference between big nations and small, between those that are powerful and those that are weak. Right must be based upon the common strength, not upon the individual strength, of the nations upon whose concert peace will depend” (488)

WILSON: ADDRESS TO THE SENATE ON THE TERMS OF PEACE (1917)

- Advises reinterpreting the Monroe Doctrine- self-determination is necessary for nations

- Advises avoiding foreign entanglements that drag nations into war - Thinks that international community is not an entanglement that leads to war - “I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid entangling alliances which would

draw them into competitions of power; catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and disturb their own affairs with influences intruded from without. There is no entangling alliance in a concert of power. When all unite to act in the same sense and with the same purpose all act in the common interest and are free to live their own lives under a common protection” (490)

John Dewey (1859-1952)

JOHN DEWEY

- Philosopher at Columbia University - Progressive thinker and public advocate of issues - Foundational thinker in Pragmatism movement

- “his view was that the truth was identified not through logical argumentation but through its practical success” (440)

- Supporter of democratic social experimentation for imaginative but practical solutions to problems

DEWEY: THE PUBLIC AND ITS PROBLEMS (1927)

- Differentiates between the idea of democracy and political democracy as a system of actual government

- Focuses on political democracy - A guiding principle is that “that government exists to serve its community,

and that this purpose cannot be achieved unless the community itself shares in selecting its governors and determining the policies” (441)

- The problem: “The prime difficulty, as we have seen, is that of discovering the means by which a scattered, mobile and manifold public may so recognize itself as to define and express its interests” (441)

- Understanding our relationship to the many different groups that we are part of is important, as well as understanding the relationship of individual liberty to those groups

DEWEY: THE PUBLIC AND ITS PROBLEMS (1927)

- Looks at two democratic assumptions: - “Two essential constituents in that older theory, as will be recalled, were the notions that

each individual is of himself equipped with the intelligence needed, under the operation of self-interest, to engage in political affairs; and that general suffrage, frequent elections of officials and majority rule are sufficient to ensure the responsibility of elected rulers to the desires and interests of the public. As we shall see, the second conception is logically bound up with the first and stands or falls with it” (442)

- Are humans inherently capable? Habit is necessary to inculcate these skills - “But in fact, knowledge is a function of association and communication; it depends upon

tradition, upon tools and methods socially transmitted, developed and sanctioned. Faculties of effectual observation, reflection and desire are habits acquired under the influence of the culture and institutions of society, not ready-made inherent powers” (443)

- And it is our groups that form these habits

DEWEY: THE PUBLIC AND ITS PROBLEMS (1927)

- Publicity of social concerns is necessary - “There can be no public without full publicity in respect to all consequences which concern

it. Whatever obstructs and restricts publicity, limits and distorts public opinion and checks and distorts thinking on social affairs” (443)

- Regarding public opinion: if a person is left alone, that is not enough to ensure that they will cultivate their minds

- “No man and no mind was ever emancipated by being left alone. Removal of formal limitations is but a negative condition; positive freedom is not a state but an act which involves methods and instrumentalities for control of conditions. . . .” (443)

- Moneyed interests will always try to control public opinion as long as a watchful public has not been formed

DEWEY: THE PUBLIC AND ITS PROBLEMS (1927)

- Tools and remedies to social problems are practical questions. They will vary by time, place, and problem, so it is a matter of testing them

- “A solution, or distributive adjustment, needed at one time is totally unfitted to another situation” (444) - On majority rule:

- “Majority rule, just as majority rule, is as foolish as its critics charge it with being. But it never is merely majority rule. . . . No government by experts in which the masses do not have the chance to inform the experts as to their needs can be anything but an oligarchy managed in the interests of the few. And the enlightenment must proceed in ways which force the administrative specialists to take account of the needs” (444)

- The need to improve public discourse - “The essential need, in other words, is the improvement of the methods and conditions of debate, discussion

and persuasion. That is the problem of the public” (445) - The correct relationship between experts and the public is necessary

- “But their expertness is not shown in framing and executing policies, but in discovering and making known the facts upon which the former depend. They are technical experts in the sense that scientific investigators and artists manifest expertise. It is not necessary that the many should have the knowledge and skill to carry on the needed investigations; what is required is that they have the ability to judge of the bearing of the knowledge supplied by others upon common concerns” (445)