Course Project

Progressive Era Thought: Lecture 2

Read the Following Chapter 8 Selections: Brandeis, Du Bois, Addams, Debs, Goldman

Progressive Era - Segregation, or racial apartheid, was the hallmark of the time

- Jim Crow laws fully in place, supported by the Plessy v Ferguson (1896) ruling - Rise of the KKK and its influence after World War I - Racial conflict, riots, lynching - Formation of NAACP in 1909

- Women’s suffrage movements gained traction - National American Woman Suffrage Association formed in 1890 - Women’s suffrage won state-level victories before being passed by constitutional amendment at

the federal level - National Woman’s Party, a more aggressive group, formed in 1916 and aimed their focus at an

amendment for women’s suffrage - This was accomplished with ratification of Nineteenth Amendment in 1920

Progressive Era

- Push back against laissez-faire economics of Gilded Age - Populists influenced Democratic Party - Socialists mounted influential campaigns and asked for public ownership of industries - Progressives had large majority in the Republican Party, asking for federal income tax to be

passed and for regulation of corporations - During World War I, the federal government directly controlled the economy in key industries

and instituted extensive price and wage controls

W.E.B. DuBois

(1868-1963)

W.E.B. DuBOIS - As the book notes, DuBois “was the most prominent African-American activist in the early

twentieth century. Raised by his mother in a small Massachusetts town, he graduated from an integrated high school in 1884 and already had an established record of newspaper publications. He completed a Ph.D. in history at Harvard University in 1895” (456)

- Focused on solving issues of race in American society - Social organizer trying to expand African-American rights - The work we are reading is in part a critique of Booker T. Washington’s conciliatory approach to

Jim Crow laws - Early member of the NAACP - In the 1930s, embraced the Marxist approach to economic issues - Spent the final years of his life in Ghana

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903) - Points out what he believes to be the real question, the unsaid one, that

people approach him with: How does it feel to be a problem? - “They approach me in a half- hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and

then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word” (456)

- Explores the position of African-Americans in American society - “a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second- sight in this American

world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (456)

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903) - They must be divided, a double self, both Black and American

- “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (456)

- The struggle as he sees it - African-American history is “the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious

manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self” (456) - He claims that he wishes to embrace both selves, forgetting neither, but able

to exist as both “without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face” (457)

- African-American powers, talents, and contributions have been wasted and forgotten

- “Through history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness” (457)

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903) - Their struggle in America has been frustrated by dual aims - Gaining freedom and obtaining suffrage has not brought the liberty they sought, and this goal was

replaced by another once met - “Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power,—a

powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day. It was the ideal of “book-learning”; the curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to know. Here at last seemed to have been discovered the mountain path to Canaan; longer than the highway of Emancipation and law, steep and rugged, but straight, leading to heights high enough to overlook life” (457)

- They haven’t had time to focus on their social issues after being held back for so long - “A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought

to its own social problems” (457) - Instead, they have been subject to judgment and prejudice

- “the all-pervading desire to inculcate disdain for everything black, from Toussaint to the devil,—before this there rises a sickening despair that would disarm and discourage any nation save that black host to whom ‘discouragement’ is an unwritten word. But the facing of so vast a prejudice could not but bring the inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repression and breed in an atmosphere of contempt and hate” (458)

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903) - This self-questioning is reinforced by the people trying to suppress them

- “Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what need of education, since we must always cook and serve? And the Nation echoed and enforced this self-criticism, saying: Be content to be servants, and nothing more; what need of higher culture for half-men? Away with the black man’s ballot, by force or fraud,—and behold the suicide of a race!” (458)

- All of these problems need addressing, not just the problem of education - “To be really true, all these ideals must be melted and welded into one. The training of the schools

we need today more than ever,—the training of deft hands, quick eyes and ears, and above all the broader, deeper, higher culture of gifted minds and pure hearts. The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defense,—else what shall save us from a second slavery? Freedom, too, the long-sought, we still seek,—the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love and aspire. Work, culture, liberty,—all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal...not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic, in order that someday on American soil two world-races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack” (458)

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903)

- Notes the contributions of African-Americans to American culture: - they helped create a truly unique American music (the “wild, sweet melodies”

of those who were enslaved), and “the American fairy tales and folklore are Indian and African; and, all in all, we black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness. Will America be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined...humility? or her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor? or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs?” (458)

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903) - Turns to Booker T. Washington, who “was concentrating its energies on

Dollars” (458) - Says Washington’s plan startled the nation and won its applause, both in the

North and the South - Washington’s acceptance of segregation was the hallmark of his career

- “To gain the sympathy and cooperation of the various elements comprising the white South was Mr. Washington’s first task; and this, at the time Tuskegee was founded, seemed, for a black man, well-nigh impossible. And yet ten years later it was done in the word spoken at Atlanta: ‘In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.’ This ‘Atlanta Compromise’ is by all odds the most notable thing in Mr. Washington’s career. . . .” (459)

- The time has come for criticism, though, he argues, as he represents the “old attitude of adjustment and submission” (459) and tends to accept as given the alleged inferiority of African-Americans

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903) - Characterizes Washington’s plan as:

- “Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things,— First, political power, Second, insistence on civil rights, Third, higher education...and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South” (459)

- The result has been disenfranchisement, a legal separation of the races, and a withdrawal of aid from Black colleges

- He does not claim Washington is solely responsible for this but that his actions have accelerated these results

- “The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic NO.” (460)

- He claims that Washington’s own goals rely on Black colleges to train instructors, suffrage, and the securing of rights

DuBOIS: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903)

- His greatest criticism of Washington is that his stance neglected to see the other half of society that must be involved in raising up the African-American community

- This stance has shifted the responsibility away from the white population to place the burden of social improvement on the African-American population, allowing whites to “stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact the burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs” (461)

Eugene V. Debs

(1855-1926)

EUGENE V. DEBS

- Associated with railroad labor movement - Organized American Railway Union in 1893 - Helped organize the Pullman railway strike in 1894 and became famous

from this association - Became a Socialist by the turn of the century

- “By the 1910s, he was criticizing the revolutionary strategy of the Industrial Workers of the World for achieving worker control of the means of production and in- stead endorsed democratic efforts to advance socialism” (466)

- Socialist Party candidate for President five times and even had a substantial showing in the 1912 election

DEBS: UNIONISM AND SOCIALISM (1904)

- The industrial change in the economy has made the perennial labor question more important

- Thinks the exploitative nature of labor is an enduring truth about humanity - “There has always been a labor question since man first exploited man in the struggle for

existence, but not until its true meaning was revealed in the development of modern industry did it command serious thought or intelligent consideration, and only then came any adequate conception of its importance to the race. Man has always sought the mastery of his fellow- man. To enslave his fellow in some form and to live out of his labor has been the mainspring of human action” (466)

- Thinks government is constituted to support and sustain this exploitation - “The chief end of government has been and is to keep the victims of oppression and

injustice in subjection”

DEBS: UNIONISM AND SOCIALISM (1904) - Describes the change in labor relations

- Artisanal labor relations more closely connect the laborer to the product of their labor - “A century ago a boy served his apprenticeship and became the master of his trade. The few simple

tools with which work was then done were generally owned by the man who used them; he could provide himself with the small quantity of raw material he required, and freely follow his chosen pursuit and enjoy the fruit of his labor. But as everything had to be produced by the work of his hands, production was a slow process, meagre of results, and the worker found it necessary to devote from twelve to fifteen hours to his daily task to earn a sufficient amount to support himself and family” (466)

- He claims the vast income inequality that we see now did not yet exist - Industrialization and using machinery in production vastly and rapidly changed

societies - Change in status of worker from independent producer to dependent wage worker

- “The economic dependence of the working class became more and more rigidly fixed—and at the same time a new era dawned for the human race” (467)

DEBS: UNIONISM AND SOCIALISM (1904) - Growth in trade unions, met by great resistance from companies

- “The more or less isolated individual artisans were converted into groups of associated workers and marshalled for the impending social revolution” (467)

- “The private armies the corporations used some years ago, such as Pinkerton mercenaries, coal and iron police, deputy marshals, etc., have been relegated to second place as out of date, or they are wholly out of commission. It has been found after repeated experiments that the courts are far more deadly to trades-unions, and that they operate noiselessly and with unerring precision” (467)

- The courts have been the more effective tool for enemies of labor - Claims labor is waking up to the power of their vote

- “labor, at last, is waking up to the fact that it has not been using its political arm in the struggle at all; that the ballot which it can wield is strong enough not only to disarm the enemy, but to drive that enemy entirely from the field” (467)

- Must organize labor’s political power

DEBS: UNIONISM AND SOCIALISM (1904) - Doesn’t think labor unions should be subdivided by trade too much, as this

dilutes their political power - “To have these workers parceled out to a hundred unions is to divide and not to organize

them, to give them over to factions and petty leadership and leave them an easy prey to the machinations of the enemy. The dominant craft should control the plant or, rather, the union, and it should embrace the entire working force” (467)

- Efforts in organization should aim for more than a wage increase - “that while it engages to do all that possibly can be done to better the working conditions of

its members, its higher object is to overthrow the capitalist system of private ownership of the tools of labor, abolish wage-slavery and achieve the freedom of the whole working class and, in fact, of all mankind” (467)

- “The trades-union expresses the economic power and the Socialist party expresses the political power of the Labor movement” (467)

- “This struggle is a class struggle” (467) between capital and labor

DEBS: UNIONISM AND SOCIALISM (1904) - Workers have more political power than they realize

- “The workers . . . are poor as a rule, and ignorant as a class, but they are in an overwhelming majority. In a word, they have the power, but are not conscious of it. This then is the supreme demand; to make them conscious of the power of their class, or class-conscious workingmen” (467)

- Workers are essential to society - “The working class alone—and by the working class I mean all useful workers, all who by the

labor of their hands or the effort of their brains, or both in alliance, as they ought universally to be, increase the knowledge and add to the wealth of society—the working class alone is essential to society and therefore the only class that can survive in the world-wide struggle for freedom” (468)

Emma Goldman

(1869-1940)

EMMA GOLDMAN - Came to America from Lithuania in her teens - Involved in radical politics from a young age and was jailed for inciting a riot - The man who assassinated President McKinley in 1901 credited Goldman

for inspiring him - As she developed her thought, she renounced violence - Deported to USSR in 1919, spending the rest of her life moving between

nations - Critic of communist movement - Proponent of socialist anarchism

GOLDMAN: ANARCHISM (1907) - New ideas always claim to bring about a new era for humanity, and the old

traditions always resist them - “The history of human growth and development is at the same time the history of the terrible

struggle of every new idea heralding the approach of a brighter dawn. In its tenacious hold on tradition, the Old has never hesitated to make use of the foulest and cruelest means to stay the advent of the New, in whatever form or period the latter may have asserted itself” (470)

- Anarchism, too, has met the resistance of the world it wishes to improve - She lists the main criticisms of anarchism

- “First, Anarchism is impractical, though a beautiful ideal. Second, Anarchism stands for violence and destruction, hence it must be repudiated as vile and dangerous” (470)

GOLDMAN: ANARCHISM (1907) - Regarding its impracticality

- “A practical scheme, says Oscar Wilde, is either one already in existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under the existing conditions; but it is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is wrong and foolish. The true criterion of the practical, therefore, is not whether the latter can keep intact the wrong or foolish; rather is it whether the scheme has vitality enough to leave the stagnant waters of the old, and build, as well as sustain, new life. In the light of this conception, Anarchism is indeed practical. More than any other idea, it is helping to do away with the wrong and foolish; more than any other idea, it is building and sustaining new life” (470)

GOLDMAN: ANARCHISM (1907) - Her definition of anarchism

- “ANARCHISM: The philosophy of a new social order based on liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong and harmful, as well as unnecessary” (470)

- The vitality of the individual soul, the active soul, is what animates society

- She claims anarchism battles the things that resist unifying the individual and society

- “Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man’s enslavement and all the horrors it entails” (471)

GOLDMAN: ANARCHISM (1907) - Claims that the exploitative nature of labor detracts from human existence

- “Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that help to create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to live in. But if man is doomed to wind cotton around a spool, or dig coal, or build roads for thirty years of his life, there can be no talk of wealth. What he gives to the world is only gray and hideous things, reflecting a dull and hideous existence,—too weak to live, too cowardly to die. Strange to say, there are people who extol this deadening method of centralized production as the proudest achievement of our age. They fail utterly to realize that if we are to continue in machine subserviency, our slavery is more complete than was our bondage to the King. They do not want to know that centralization is not only the death-knell of liberty, but also of health and beauty, of art and science, all these being impossible in a clock-like, mechanical atmosphere” (471)

- Anarchism seeks to transform labor - “A perfect personality, then, is only possible in a state of society where man is free to choose the mode of work,

the conditions of work, and the freedom to work. One to whom the making of a table, the building of a house, or the tilling of the soil, is what the painting is to the artist and the discovery to the scientist,—the result of inspiration, of intense longing, and deep interest in work as a creative force. That being the ideal of Anarchism, its economic arrangements must consist of voluntary productive and distributive associations, gradually developing into free communism, as the best means of producing with the least waste of human energy. Anarchism, however, also recognizes the right of the individual, or numbers of individuals, to arrange at all times for other forms of work, in harmony with their tastes and desires” (472)

GOLDMAN: ANARCHISM (1907)

- Turns to the foe of humanity: the State - “‘All government in essence,’ says Emerson, ‘is tyranny.’ It matters not whether it is

government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual” (472)

- “In fact, there is hardly a modern thinker who does not agree that government, organized authority, or the State, is necessary only to maintain or protect property and monopoly. It has proven efficient in that function only” (472)

- “Order derived through submission and maintained by terror is not much of a safe guaranty; yet that is the only ‘order’ that governments have ever maintained. True social harmony grows naturally out of solidarity of interests. In a society where those who always work never have anything, while those who never work enjoy everything, solidarity of interests is non-existent; hence social harmony is but a myth” (472)

GOLDMAN: ANARCHISM (1907)

- Methods will vary by time and place - “It is a living force in the affairs of our life, constantly creating new conditions. The methods

of Anarchism therefore do not comprise an iron-clad program to be carried out under all circumstances. Methods must grow out of the economic needs of each place and clime, and of the intellectual and temperamental requirements of the individual” (473)

- “Direct action against the authority in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism” (473)

- A revolution will be necessary - “Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social change has ever come about

without a revolution. People are either not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that revolution is but thought carried into action” (473)

Jane Addams

(1860-1935)

JANE ADDAMS

- From a wealthy Republican family - Founder of Hull House in Chicago, a settlement house that provided social

services and helped in the education and establishment of newly arrived immigrants

- Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in pacifism

ADDAMS: IF MEN WERE SEEKING THE FRANCHISE (1913)

- Posits the hypothetical: what if society were matriarchal? - “if the development of the State had closely followed that of the Family until the chief care of

the former, as that of the latter, had come to be the nurture and education of children and the protection of the weak, sick and aged. In short let us imagine a hypothetical society organized upon the belief that ‘there is no wealth but life’” (462)

- In this scenario, women had the vote only as they had always been in control - Additionally, men are appealing to women, seeking suffrage for themselves - She takes some of the explanations that are given to women in the real

world to highlight the inadequacies of these justifications, shifting them to fit this scenario (women speaking to men who are asking for the right to vote)

ADDAMS: IF MEN WERE SEEKING THE FRANCHISE (1913)

- Some of these justifications are as follows (not comprehensive): - Appealing to differing natures of men and women

- “‘Our most valid objection to extending the franchise to you is that you are so fond of fighting—you always have been since you were little boys. You’d very likely forget that the real object of the State is to nurture and protect life, and out of sheer vainglory you would be voting away huge sums of money for battleships. . . .’” (462)

- Would not attend to factory safety or admonitions against child labor - “These wise women, governing the State with the same care they had always put into the

management of their families, would further place against these men seeking the franchise the charge that men do not really know how tender and delicate children are, and might therefore put them to work in factories, as indeed they have done in man-made States during the entire period of factory production. . . .” (463)

- The irresponsibility would cause responsible people to deny the vote - “Would not these responsible woman voters gravely shake their heads and say that as long as men

exalt business profit above human life it would be sheer folly to give them the franchise” (463)

ADDAMS: IF MEN WERE SEEKING THE FRANCHISE (1913)

- Much is spent on prisons in the spirit of revenge, accomplishing little, while little attention is paid to reform

- “Then, too, you men exhibit such curious survivals of the mere savage instinct of punishment and revenge. The United States alone spends every year five hundred million dollars more on its policemen, courts and prisons than upon all its works of religion, charity and education. The price of one trial expended on a criminal early in life might save the State thousands of dollars and the man untold horrors. And yet with all this vast expenditure little is done to reduce crime” (463)

ADDAMS: IF MEN WERE SEEKING THE FRANCHISE (1913)

- She claims that these are at least justifications, which is often more than women receive. What if they were told what women are actually told?

- “But what would be the temper of the masculine mind if the voting women representing the existing State should present to them only the following half-dozen objections, which are unhappily so familiar to many of us: If the women should say, first, that men would find politics corrupting; second, that they would doubtless vote as their wives and mothers did; third, that men’s suffrage would only double the vote without changing results; fourth, that men’s suffrage would diminish the respect for men; fifth, that most men do not want to vote; sixth, that the best men would not vote?” (463)

- She argues that women in her hypothetical scenario would only use this second set of reasons if they truly thought the other sex was inferior, as men in this world do

Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)

LOUIS D. BRANDEIS - Member of the U.S. Supreme Court, serving as a progressive member on a

conservative Court - A child of Jewish European immigrants - Graduated from Harvard Law School - Tried to practice law that would benefit social causes and became a

prominent labor lawyer - Brandeis University was named to honor him

BRANDEIS: TRUE AMERICANISM (1915) - Immigration has contributed to the country’s greatness

- “The founders were convinced, as we are, that a strong nation could be built through federation. They were also convinced, as we are, that in America, under a free government, many peoples would make one nation. Throughout all these years we have admitted to our country and to citizenship immigrants from the diverse lands of Europe. We had faith that thereby we could best serve ourselves and mankind. This faith has been justified. The United States has grown great. The immigrants and their immediate descendants have proved themselves as loyal as any citizens of the country. Liberty has knit us closely together as Americans. . . .” (448)

- He notes that the Independence Day celebration this year has been termed “Americanization Day,” and he asks what this means

- “What is Americanization? It manifests itself, in a superficial way, when the immigrant adopts the clothes, the manners and the customs generally prevailing here. Far more important is the manifestation presented when he substitutes for his mother tongue, the English language as the common medium of speech. But the adoption of our language, manners and customs is only a small part of the process. To become Americanized, the change wrought must be fundamental….the immigrant is not Americanized unless his interests and affections have become deeply rooted here.” (448)

BRANDEIS: TRUE AMERICANISM (1915) - He claims that many immigrants are already American in this last sense

- “has long shared our ideals and who, oppressed and persecuted abroad, has yearned for our land of liberty and for the opportunity of abiding in the realization of its aims” (449)

- States these ideals: - “They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good;—the

development of the individual through liberty and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice” (449)

- The State must instantiate these ideals and provide the foundation for their possibility by providing public goods

- “Under universal suffrage (soon to be extended to women) every voter is a partner of the State. Unless the rulers have, in the main, education and character and are free men, our great experiment in democracy must fail. It devolves upon the State, therefore, to fit its rulers for their task. It must provide not only facilities for development, but the opportunity of using them. It must not only provide opportunity; it must stimulate the desire to avail of it.” (449)

BRANDEIS: TRUE AMERICANISM (1915)

- He claims that America is not the most free, the most democratic, etc. - “Many nations seek to develop the individual man for himself and for the common good.

Some are as liberty-loving as we. Some pride themselves upon institutions more democratic than our own. Still others, less conspicuous for liberty or democracy, claim to be more successful in attaining social justice. And we are not the only nation, which combines love of liberty, with the practice of democracy and a longing for social justice” (449)

- The thing that is peculiarly American is its inclusivity - “But there is one feature in our ideals and practices which is peculiarly American. It is

inclusive brotherhood.” (449)