The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early twentieth century United States and Canada. The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as excessive wealth, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war. Theologically, the Social Gospellers sought to operationalize the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:10): "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Social Gospellers typically were post-millennialist; that is, they believed that the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort. Social Gospel leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the Progressive movement, and most were theologically liberal, although they were typically conservative when it came to their views on social issues. Important Social Gospel leaders include Richard T. Ely, Josiah Strong, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch. Show Religious ProgressivismIn the United States prior to World War I, the Social Gospel was the religious wing of the Progressive movement, which had the aim of combating injustice, suffering, and poverty in society. Denver, Colorado, was a center of Social Gospel activism. Thomas Uzzell led the Methodist People's Tabernacle from 1885 to 1910. He established a free dispensary for medical emergencies, an employment bureau for job seekers, a summer camp for children, night schools for extended learning, and English language classes. From 1884 to 1894, Myron Reed of the First Congregational Church served as a spokesman for labor unions on issues such as worker's compensation. His middle-class congregation encouraged Reed to move on when he became a Socialist, and he organized a nondenominational church. The Baptist minister Jim Goodhart set up an employment bureau, and provided food and lodging for tramps and hobos at the mission he ran. He became city chaplain and director of public welfare of Denver in 1918. Besides these Protestants, Reform Jews and Catholics helped build Denver's social welfare system in the early twentieth century. The Reverend Mark A. Matthews (1867–1940) of Seattle's First Presbyterian Church was a leading city reformer who investigated red-light districts and crime scenes, and denounced corrupt politicians, businessmen, and saloon keepers. With 10,000 members, his church was the largest Presbyterian Church in the country, and he was selected the national moderator in 1912. He build a model church, with night schools, unemployment bureaus, a kindergarten, an anti-tuberculosis clinic, and the nation's first church-owned radio station. Matthews was the most influential clergymen in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the most active Social Gospellers in America. The South had its own version of the Social Gospel that focused especially on prohibition. Other reforms included outlawing public swearing, boxing, dogfights, and similar affronts to their moral sensibilities. By 1900, says historian Edward Ayers, the white Baptists, although they were the most conservative of all of the denominations in the South, became steadily more concerned with social issues, taking stands on, "temperance, gambling, illegal corruption, public morality, orphans, and the elderly." The Social Gospel affected much of Protestant America. The Presbyterians described its goals in 1910 by proclaiming the following: "The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world." New ChurchesIn 1879, Mary Baker Eddy introduced Christian Science, which gained a national following. In 1880, the Salvation Army denomination arrived in America. Although its theology was based on ideals expressed during the Second Great Awakening, it also focused on poverty and social improvement. The Society for Ethical Culture, established in New York in 1876 by Felix Adler, attracted Reform Jewish followers. Charles Taze Russell founded the Bible Students movement, which later split into the "Jehovah's Witnesses" of today.
Portrait of Social Gospeller Washington Gladden, who was an important leader of the movement. Page 2The 1890s and early 1900s witnessed a profound social and political reaction to the excesses and corruption of the Gilded Age. Journalists and other writers began bringing social issues to the attention of the American public. MuckrakersThe term "muckraker" was used during the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded American journalists who largely wrote for popular magazines. The modern characterization of this type of journalism is "investigative," and investigative journalists today are often informally called "muckrakers." During the Progressive Era, these journalists relied on their own reporting and often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption. Muckraking magazines—notably McClure's—took on corporate monopolies and crooked political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues such as child labor. The term "muckrakers" is a reference to a character in John Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress, "the Man with the Muck-rake," who rejected salvation to focus on filth. The term became popular after President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the character in a 1906 speech; Roosevelt acknowledged that, "the men with the muck rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck..." The muckrakers themselves proudly adopted the label.
McClure's Magazine (January 1901) published many early muckraker articles. The muckrakers appeared at a moment when journalism was undergoing changes in style and practice. In response to the exaggerated facts and sensationalism of yellow journalism, objective journalism, as exemplified by The New York Times under Adolph Ochs after 1896, reported facts with the intention of being impartial and a newspaper of record. The growth of wire services also had contributed to the spread of the objective reporting style. Muckraking publishers, such as Samuel S. McClure, emphasized factual reporting but also aimed for a mixture of, "reliability and sparkle" to interest a mass audience. In contrast with objective reporting, muckrakers saw themselves primarily as reformers and were politically engaged. Journalists of the previous eras were not linked to a single political, populist movement, whereas the muckrakers were associated with Progressive reforms. Muckrakers continued some of the investigative exposures and sensational traditions of yellow journalism, but instead wrote to change society. Julius ChambersJulius Chambers of the New York Tribune is considered by many to be the original muckraker. Chambers undertook a journalistic investigation of Bloomingdale Asylum in 1872, having himself committed with the help of some of his friends and his newspaper's city editor. His intent was to obtain information about the alleged abuse of inmates. The publication of articles and accounts of the experience in the Tribune led to the release of 12 patients who were not mentally ill, to a reorganization of the staff and administration of the institution, and eventually, to a change in the lunacy laws. This later led to the publication of Chambers's book A Mad World and Its Inhabitants (1876). From this point onward, Chambers was frequently invited to speak about the rights of the mentally ill and the need for proper facilities for their accommodation, care, and treatment. Jacob RiisJournalists began to respond to the excesses of the Gilded Age toward the end of the period. One of the most notable was Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849–May 26, 1914). Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, muckraker, and social documentary photographer. He is well known for using his photographic and journalistic passion to bring attention and aid to New York City's impoverished citizens; they would became the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. His most famous work, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890) documented squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. It served as a basis for future muckraking journalism by exposing New York City’s upper and middle classes to the slums. This work inspired many reforms of working-class housing immediately after publication, and it has continued to have a lasting impact in today's society. With the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller, Riis endorsed the implementation of "model tenements" in New York. While living there, Riis's personal experience with poverty led him to become a police reporter, writing about the quality of life in the slums.
Jacob Riis documented the hard life encountered by many immigrants and the poor in the city. Ida B. WellsIda Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862–March 25, 1931) was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, and (along with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett) an early leader in the civil-rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, exposing it as a means of controlling and/or punishing blacks who dared compete with whites. She was active in the women's rights and women's suffrage movements, establishing several notable women's organizations. Wells was a skilled, persuasive rhetorician who traveled internationally on lecture tours. The pamphlets Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases and A Red Record documented her research on a lynching. Having examined many accounts of lynching based on the alleged, "rape of white women," Wells concluded that Southerners concocted rape as an excuse to hide their real motivation for lynchings: black economic progress, which threatened not only white Southerners' pocketbooks, but also their ideas about black inferiority. She wrote an article that suggested that despite the myth that white women were sexually at risk for attacks by black men, most liaisons between black men and white women were consensual. Page 3The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City and resulted in the fourth-highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged 16 to 23; of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was Providenza Panno at 43, and the youngest were Kate Leone and "Sara" Rosaria Maltese at 14. Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits—a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks—many of the workers who could not escape the burning building jumped to the streets below from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
The industrial disaster was the deadliest in the history of New York City. Impact and Legacy of the FireThe company's owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire by fleeing to the building's roof when the fire began, were indicted on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter in mid-April; the pair's trial began on December 4, 1911. The jury acquitted the two men of first- and second-degree manslaughter, but they were found liable of wrongful death during a subsequent 1913 civil suit in which plaintiffs were awarded compensation in the amount of $75 per deceased victim. The insurance company paid Blanck and Harris about $60,000 more than the reported losses, or about $400 per casualty. In New York City, a Committee on Public Safety was formed, headed by noted social worker Frances Perkins, to identify specific problems and lobby for new legislation, such as the bill to grant workers shorter hours in a work week, known as the "54-Hour Bill." The New York State Legislature then created the Factory Investigating Commission to, "investigate factory conditions in this and other cities and to report remedial measures of legislation to prevent hazard or loss of life among employees through fire, unsanitary conditions, and occupational diseases." Their findings led to 38 new laws regulating labor in New York State, and gave the commission members a reputation as leading progressive reformers working on behalf of the working class. International Ladies' Garment Workers' UnionThe International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s. The ILGWU experienced a sudden upsurge in membership as the result of two successful mass strikes in New York City. The first, in 1909, was known as the "Uprising of the 20,000” and lasted 14 weeks. It was largely spontaneous, sparked by a short walkout of workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, involving only about 20 percent of the workforce. That, however, only prompted the rest of the workers to seek help from the union. The firm locked out its employees when it learned what was happening. The news of the strike spread quickly to all of the New York garment workers. At a series of mass meetings, after the leading figures of the American labor movement spoke in general terms about the need for solidarity and preparedness, Clara Lemlich rose to speak about the conditions she and other women worked under. She demanded an end to talk and called for a strike of the entire industry. Approximately 20,000 out of the 32,000 workers in the shirtwaist trade walked out during the next two days. The union also became more involved in electoral politics, in part as a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The fire had various effects on the community. It further radicalized some; at the memorial meeting held in the Metropolitan Opera House on April 2, 1911, Rose Schneiderman addressed an audience largely made up of the well-heeled members of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) and said the following: I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting. The old Inquisition had its rack and its thumbscrews and its instruments of torture with iron teeth. We know what these things are today; the iron teeth are our necessities, the thumbscrews are the high-powered and swift machinery close to which we must work, and the rack is here in the firetrap structures that will destroy us the minute they catch on fire... I can't talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement. Page 4The Settlement House movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in England and the United States. Its objective was to get the rich and poor in society to live more closely together in an interdependent community. It established "settlement houses" in poor urban areas, where volunteer middle-class "settlement workers" would live in hopes of sharing knowledge and culture with, and alleviating the poverty, of their low-income neighbors. By 1913, there were 413 settlements in 32 states. The movement started in London in the mid-nineteenth century. Settlement houses often offered food, shelter, and basic and higher education that was provided by virtue of charity on the part of wealthy donors, the residents of the city, and (for education) scholars who volunteered their time. Victorian England, increasingly concerned with poverty, gave rise to the movement whereby those connected to universities settled students in slum areas to live and work alongside local people. Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, founded in 1894; Henry Street Settlement, founded in 1893; and University Settlement House, founded in 1886 (and the oldest in the United States) were important sites for social reform. United Neighborhood Houses of New York was the federation of 35 settlement houses in New York City. These and other settlement houses inspired the establishment of settlement schools to serve isolated rural communities in Appalachia. The settlement-house concept was continued by Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker hospitality houses in the 1930s. Hull HouseThe most famous settlement house in the United States is Chicago's Hull House, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr after they had visited Toynbee Hall in 1888. Located in the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, Hull House opened its doors to recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had grown to 13 buildings. In 1912, the Hull House complex was completed with the addition of a summer camp, the Bowen Country Club. With its innovative social, educational, and artistic programs, Hull House became the standard bearer for the movement that had grown, by 1920, to nearly 500 settlement houses nationally. The Hull mansion and several subsequent acquisitions were continuously renovated to accommodate the changing demands of the association. The original building and one additional building, which has been moved 200 yards, survives today. Addams followed the example of Toynbee Hall, which was founded in 1885 in the East End of London as a center for social reform. She described Toynbee Hall as, "a community of university men who, while living there, held their recreational clubs and social gatherings at the settlement house... among the poor people and in the same style they would in their own circle." Hull House became, at its inception in 1889, "a community of university women" whose main purpose was to provide social and educational opportunities for working-class people, many of whom were recent European immigrants living in the surrounding neighborhood. The "residents," as volunteers at Hull were called, held classes in literature, history, art, domestic activities (such as sewing), and many other subjects. Hull House also held concerts that were free to everyone, offered free lectures on current issues, and operated clubs for both children and adults. Hull House conducted careful studies of the community of Near West Side, Chicago, which became known as "The Hull House Neighborhood." These studies enabled the Hull House residents to confront the establishment, and to eventually partner with them in the design and implementation of programs intended to improve opportunities for the large immigrant population.
Children in line on a retaining wall at Hull House, 1908. Jane AddamsA founder of Hull House, Jane Addams (September 6, 1860–May 21, 1935), along with being a pioneer American settlement activist/reformer, was also a social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women's suffrage and world peace. In the Progressive Era, when presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers. She helped America address and focus on issues that were of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, local public health, and world peace. She said that if women were to be responsible for cleaning up their communities and making them better places to live, they needed to be able to vote to do so effectively. Addams became a role model for middle-class women who volunteered to uplift their communities. She is increasingly being recognized as a member of the American Pragmatist school of philosophy. Page 5Colonial legislatures and later state governments adopted legislation patterned after the English "poor" laws. Aid to veterans, free grants of land, and pensions for widows and handicapped veterans, have been offered in all U.S. wars. Following World War I, provisions were made for a full-scale system of hospital and medical-care benefits for veterans. By 1929, workers' compensation laws were in effect in all but four states. These state laws made industry and businesses responsible for compensating workers or their survivors when workers were injured or killed in connection with their jobs. Retirement programs for mainly state and local governments date back to the nineteenth century and paid teachers, police officers, and firefighters. All of these social programs were far from universal and varied considerably from one state to another. Prior to the Great Depression, the United States had social programs that mostly centered around individual efforts, family efforts, church charities, business workers compensation, life insurance, and sick leave programs, as well as on some state tax supported social programs. The misery and poverty of the Great Depression threatened to overwhelm all of these programs. The severe depression of the 1930s made federal action almost a necessity, as neither the states, local communities, and businesses and industries, nor private charities had the financial resources to cope with the growing need among the American people. Beginning in 1932, the federal government first made loans, then grants, to states to pay for direct relief and work relief. After that, special federal emergency relief such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and other public-works programs were started. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration proposed to Congress federal social-relief programs and a federally sponsored retirement program. Congress followed with the passage of the 37 page Social Security Act, signed into law August 14, 1935, and "effective" by 1939—just as World War II began. This program was expanded several times over the years. Maternalist ReformsOne unique trend in the history of welfare in the United States were maternalist reforms. Beginning in the Progressive Era, experiments in public policy took the form of laws providing for state assistance for mothers with young children who did not have the financial support of a male member of the household. These laws provided financial reimbursements and set limits on the maximum working hours for women. These reforms arose from the belief that government has an obligation and interest in protecting and improving the living standards of women and children. "Maternalism" is defined by some experts as a variety of ideologies that, "exalted women's capacities to mothers and extended to society as a whole the values of care, nurturance, and morality," and was intended to improve the quality of life of women and children. To improve the conditions of women and children, these policies attempted to reconcile the conflicting roles placed on women during this time period. As single mothers were responsible for both supporting their families and raising children, government assistance would reduce the probability that they could be charged with neglecting their "home duties." The Children's Bureau was established by President William Howard Taft in 1912. It was the first national government office in the world that focused solely on the well-being of children and their mothers. The legislation creating the agency was signed into law on April 9, 1912. Taft appointed Julia Lathrop as the first head of the bureau. Lathrop, a noted maternalist reformer, was the first woman ever to head a government agency in the United States. In 1921, Lathrop stepped down as director, and the noted child-labor reformer Grace Abbott was appointed to succeed her. The Children's Bureau played a major role in the passage and administration of the Sheppard-Towner Act, the first federal grants-in-aid act for state-level children's health programs. The Sherwood Act of May 11, 1912, was the first important U.S. pension law in the twentieth century. It awarded pensions to all veterans. Veterans of the Mexican-American War and Union veterans of the Civil War could receive pensions automatically at age 62, regardless of disability.
Portrait of Julia Lathrop, Director of the Children's Bureau, 1912–1922. Page 6Progressives sought to enable the citizenry to rule more directly and circumvent political bosses. Thanks to the efforts of Oregon Populist Party State Representative William S. U'Ren and his Direct Legislation League, voters in Oregon overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum processes for citizens to directly introduce or approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution, making Oregon the first state to adopt such a system. An initiative (also known as a "popular" or "citizens'" initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote (plebiscite). The initiative may take the form of a direct initiative or an indirect initiative. In a direct initiative, a measure is put directly to a vote after being submitted by a petition. In an indirect initiative, a measure is first referred to the legislature, and then put to a popular vote only if not enacted by the legislature. A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to vote on a particular proposal, which is the result of a successful initiative. This may result in the adoption of a new law. The vote may be on a proposed statute, constitutional amendment, charter amendment, or local ordinance, or to simply oblige the executive or legislature to consider the subject by submitting it to the order of the day. It is a form of direct democracy. U'Ren also helped in the passage of an amendment in 1908 that gave voters power to recall elected officials. A recall election (also called a "recall referendum" or "representative recall") is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended. Recalls are initiated when sufficient voters sign a petition. U'Ren would also go on to establish, at the state level, popular election of U.S. senators and the first presidential primary in the United States. In 1911, California governor Hiram Johnson established the Oregon system of "Initiative, Referendum, and Recall" in his state, viewing them as good influences for citizen participation against the historic influence of large corporations on state lawmakers. These Progressive reforms were soon replicated in other states, including in Idaho, Washington, and Wisconsin, and today, roughly half of the states have initiative, referendum, and recall provisions in their state constitutions. Direct Election of SenatorsAbout 16 states began using primary elections to reduce the power of bosses and machines. The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, requiring that all senators be elected by the people (instead of by state legislatures). The main motivation was to reduce the power of political bosses who controlled the Senate seats by virtue of their control of state legislatures. The result, according to political scientist Henry Ford Jones, was that the U.S. Senate had become a, "Diet of party lords, wielding their power without scruple or restraint, in behalf of those particular interests" that put them in office. Reformers worked toward a constitutional amendment, which was strongly supported in the House of Representatives but initially opposed by the Senate. Bybee notes that the state legislatures, which would lose power if the reforms went through, were supportive of the campaign. By 1910, 31 state legislatures had passed resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment allowing direct election, and in the same year, 10 Republican senators who were opposed to reform were forced out of their seats, acting as a, "wake-up call to the Senate." Reformers included William Jennings Bryan. Bryan and the reformers argued for popular election by highlighting perceived flaws with the existing system, specifically corruption and electoral deadlocks, and by arousing populist sentiment. Most important was the Populist argument: that there was a need to, "Awaken, in the senators... a more acute sense of responsibility to the people." Election through state legislatures was seen as an anachronism that was out of step with the wishes of the American people, and one that had led to the Senate becoming, "a sort of aristocratic body—too far removed from the people, beyond their reach, and with no special interest in their welfare." The settlement of the West and continuing absorption of hundreds of thousands of immigrants expanded the sense of "the people." Robert M. La Follette Sr.Robert M. La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855–June 18, 1925) was an American Republican (and later a Progressive) politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was the governor of Wisconsin, and was a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1906 to 1925. He ran for president of the United States as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in 1924, carrying Wisconsin and winning 17 percent of the national popular vote. La Follette has been called, "arguably the most important and recognized leader of the opposition to the growing dominance of corporations over the Government," and is one of the key figures pointed to in Wisconsin's long history of political liberalism. He is best remembered as a proponent of Progressivism and a vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations. As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette championed numerous Progressive reforms, including the first workers' compensation system, railroad rate reform, direct legislation, municipal home rule, open government, the minimum wage, non-partisan elections, the open primary system, direct election of U.S. Senators, women's suffrage, and Progressive taxation. He created an atmosphere of close cooperation between the state government and the University of Wisconsin in the development of Progressive policy, which became known as the "Wisconsin Idea." The goals of his policy included establishing the recall, referendum, direct primary, and initiative. All of these were aimed at giving citizens a more direct role in government. The Wisconsin Idea promoted the idea of grounding legislation in thorough research and expert involvement. To implement this program, La Follette began working with University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty. This made Wisconsin a, "laboratory for democracy" and, "the most important state for the development of Progressive legislation." As governor, La Follette signed legislation that created the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library (now Bureau) to ensure that a research agency would be available for the development of legislation.
Robert M. La Follette Sr. served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was the governor of Wisconsin, and was a U.S. senator from Wisconsin from 1906 to 1925. He was a leader in the Progressive movement in American politics. Portrait of Robert M. La Follette Sr. Page 7Many Progressives such as Louis Brandeis hoped to make American governments better able to serve the people's needs by making governmental operations and services more efficient and rational. Rather than making legal arguments against 10-hour workdays for women, he used "scientific principles" and data produced by social scientists documenting the high costs of long working hours for both individuals and society. The Progressives' quest for efficiency was sometimes at odds with their quest for democracy. Taking power out of the hands of elected officials, and placing it in the hands of professional administrators reduced the voice of the politicians, and in turn reduced the voice of the people. Centralized decision-making by trained experts and reduced power for local wards made government less corrupt but more distant and isolated from the people it served. Progressives who emphasized the need for efficiency typically argued that trained independent experts could make better decisions than local politicians. Thus, Walter Lippmann in his influential Drift and Mastery (1914), which stressed the "scientific spirit" the "discipline of democracy," called for a strong central government guided by experts rather than by public opinion. ExamplesOne example of Progressive reform was the rise of the city-manager system, in which paid, professional engineers ran the day-to-day affairs of city governments under guidelines established by elected city councils. Many cities created municipal "reference bureaus," which did expert surveys of government departments looking for waste and inefficiency. After in-depth surveys, local and even state governments were reorganized to reduce the number of officials and to eliminate overlapping areas of authority among departments. City governments were reorganized to reduce the power of local ward bosses, and to increase the powers of the city council. Governments at every level began developing budgets to help them plan their expenditures (rather than spending money haphazardly as needs arose and revenue became available). Governor Frank Lowden of Illinois showed a, "passion for efficiency" as he streamlined state government. This system is part of the council-manager style of government. Under the council–manager form of government for municipalities, the elected governing body (commonly called a "city council," "city commission," "board of aldermen," or "board of selectmen") is responsible for the legislative function of the municipality such as establishing policy, passing local ordinances, determining voting appropriations, and developing an overall vision. County and other types of local government follow the same pattern, with governing body members receiving a title that matches the title of the body. The legislative body, which is voted into office by public elections, appoints a professional manager to oversee the administrative operations, implement its policies, and advise it. The position of “mayor” present in this type of legislative body is a largely ceremonial title, and may be selected by the council from among its members or elected as an at-large council member with no executive functions. Corruption also represented a source of waste and inefficiency in government. William U'Ren in Oregon and Robert M. La Follette in Wisconsin, as well as others, worked to clean up state and local governments by passing laws to weaken the power of machine politicians and political bosses. The Oregon System, which included a "Corrupt Practices Act," a public referendum, and a state-funded voter's pamphlet among other reforms, was exported to other states in the Northwest and Midwest. Its high point was in 1912, after which they detoured into a disastrous third party status. InfluencesA major influence on this efficient style of governing was the "Scientific Management" movement. The focus of this movement was to run organizations in an objective, scientific fashion to maximize efficiency, among other things. Scientific management, also called "Taylorism," was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management. Its development began with Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s within the manufacturing industries. Its peak of influence occurred in the 1910s; by the 1920s, it was still influential but had begun an era of competition and syncretism with opposing or complementary ideas. Another system of efficiency during the Progressive Era was Fordism, "the eponymous manufacturing system designed to spew out standardized, low-cost goods and afford its workers decent enough wages to buy them." It has also been described as, "a model of economic expansion and technological progress based on mass production: the manufacture of standardized products in huge volumes using special purpose machinery and unskilled labor." Although Fordism was a method used to improve productivity in the automotive industry, the principle could be applied to any kind of manufacturing process. Henry Ford and his senior managers did not use the word "Fordism" themselves to describe their motivations or worldview; however, many contemporaries framed their worldview as an "ism" and applied that name to it. Fordism's major success stemmed from the following three principles:
These principles, coupled with a technological revolution during Henry Ford's time, allowed for this form of labor to flourish. It is true that his assembly line was revolutionary, but it was in no way original. His most original contribution to the modern world was breaking down complex tasks into simpler ones with the help of specialized tools. Simpler tasks created interchangeable parts that could be used the same way every time. This allowed for flexibility and created a very adaptable assembly line that could change its constituent components to meet the needs of the product being assembled.
A Ford assembly line in 1913. Page 8By the turn of the century, a middle class had developed that was leery of both the business elite and the radical political movements of farmers and laborers in the Midwest and West. The Progressives argued for the need for government regulation of business practices to ensure competition and free enterprise. Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act). These laws were not rigorously enforced, however, until the years between 1900 and 1920, when Republican President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909), Democratic President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921), and others sympathetic to the views of the Progressives came to power. Many of today's U.S. regulatory agencies, including the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, were created during these years Many Progressives hoped that by regulating large corporations, they could liberate human energies from the restrictions imposed by industrial capitalism. Pro-labor Progressives, such as Samuel Gompers, argued that industrial monopolies were unnatural economic institutions that suppressed the competition that was necessary for progress and improvement. United States antitrust law is the body of laws that prohibits anticompetitive behavior (monopolies) and unfair business practices. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft supported trust-busting. Progressives, such as Benjamin Parke De Witt, argued that in a modern economy, large corporations, and even monopolies, were both inevitable and desirable. With their massive resources and economies of scale, large corporations offered the United States advantages that smaller companies could not offer. Yet, these large corporations might abuse their great power. The federal government should allow these companies to exist but should regulate them for the public interest. President Theodore Roosevelt generally supported this idea. Sherman ActThe Sherman Antitrust Act is a landmark federal statute in the history of U.S. antitrust law passed by Congress in 1890. Passed under the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, the act prohibits certain business activities that federal government regulators deem to be anticompetitive, and requires the federal government to investigate and pursue trusts. In the general sense, a trust is a centuries-old form of a contract in which one party entrusts its property to a second party. These are commonly used to hold inheritances for the benefit of children, for example. "Trust" in relation to the Sherman Act refers to a type of contract that combines several large businesses for monopolistic purposes (to exert complete control over a market), though the act addresses monopolistic practices even if they have nothing to do with this specific legal arrangement. The law attempts to prevent the artificial raising of prices by restriction of trade or supply. "Innocent monopoly," or monopoly achieved solely by merit, is perfectly legal, but acts by a monopolist to artificially preserve that status, or nefarious dealings to create a monopoly, are not. The purpose of the Sherman Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses. Trust-bustingPublic officials during the Progressive Era put passing and enforcing strong antitrust policies high on their agenda. President Theodore Roosevelt sued 45 companies under the Sherman Act, and William Howard Taft sued 75. In 1902, Roosevelt stopped the formation of the Northern Securities Company, which threatened to monopolize transportation in the Northwest (see Northern Securities Co. v. United States). One of the most well-known trusts was the Standard Oil Company; John D. Rockefeller in the 1870s and 1880s had used economic threats against competitors and secret rebate deals with railroads to build a monopoly in the oil business, though some minor competitors remained in business. In 1911, the Supreme Court agreed that in recent years (1900–1904) Standard had violated the Sherman Act. It broke the monopoly into three dozen separate competing companies, including Standard Oil of New Jersey (later known as Exxon and now ExxonMobil), Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco), Standard Oil Company of New York (Mobil, which later merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil), and so on. In approving the breakup, the Supreme Court added the "rule of reason." Not all big companies, and not all monopolies, are evil; and the courts (not the executive branch) are to make that decision. To be harmful, a trust had to somehow damage the economic environment of its competitors.
Photograph of a Standard Oil refinery. Standard Oil was a major company broken up under U.S. antitrust laws. Labor ReformProgressives also enacted laws that regulated businesses to protect workers. Child-labor laws were designed to prevent the overworking of children in the newly emerging industries. The goal of these laws was to give working-class children the opportunity to go to school and to mature more naturally, thereby liberating the potential and encouraging the advancement of humanity. After 1907, the American Federation of Labor, under Samuel Gompers, moved to demand legal reforms that would support labor unions. Most of the support came from Democrats, but Theodore Roosevelt and his third party, the Bull Moose Party, also supported such goals as the eight-hour work day, improved safety and health conditions in factories, workers' compensation laws, and minimum-wage laws for women. In the years between 1889 and 1920, railroad use in the United States expanded sixfold. With this expansion, the dangers to the railroad worker increased. Congress passed the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) in response to the high number of railroad deaths in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Under FELA, railroad workers who are not covered by regular workers' compensation laws are able to sue companies over their injury claims. FELA allows monetary payouts for pain and suffering, decided by juries based on comparative negligence rather than pursuant to a predetermined benefits schedule under workers' compensation. The United States Employees' Compensation Act is a federal law enacted on September 7, 1916. Sponsored by Senator John W. Kern (D) of Indiana and Representative Daniel J. McGillicuddy (D) of Maine, the act established the distribution of compensation to federal civil-service employees for wages lost due to job-related injuries. This act became the precedent for disability insurance across the country and the precursor to broad-coverage health insurance. Page 9Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, or sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by the "dry" crusaders, a movement led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that, "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." The purpose of the WCTU was to further the temperance movement and to create a, "sober and pure world" through abstinence, purity, and evangelical Christianity. Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard, who became the national president of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1879, and remained president for 19 years, was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Her influence was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Volstead Act set the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law; however, in many areas, local laws were stricter, with some states banning possession outright. Although alcohol consumption did decline as a whole, there was a rise in alcohol consumption in many cities along with significant increases in organized crime related to its production and distribution. The sale of alcohol was illegal, but alcoholic drinks were still widely available. People also kept private bars to serve their guests. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada overland, by sea along both ocean coasts, and via the Great Lakes. The government cracked down on alcohol consumption on land within the United States. It was a different story on the water, where vessels outside of the three-mile limit were exempt. Legal and illegal home brewing was popular during Prohibition. "Malt and hop" stores popped up across the country and some former breweries turned to selling malt extract syrup, ostensibly for baking and "beverage" purposes.
Disposal of liquor during Prohibition. RepealEconomic urgency played no small part in accelerating the advocacy for repeal. The number of conservatives who pushed for prohibition in the beginning decreased. Many farmers who fought for prohibition now fought for repeal because of the negative effects it had on the agriculture business. Prior to the 1920 implementation of the Volstead Act, approximately 14 percent of federal, state, and local tax revenues were derived from alcohol commerce. When the Great Depression hit and tax revenues plunged, the governments needed this revenue stream. Millions could be made by taxing beer. There was controversy about whether the repeal should be a state or nationwide decision. On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Volstead Act, known as the "Cullen-Harrison Act," allowing the manufacture and sale of 3.2 percent beer and light wines. The Volstead Act previously defined an intoxicating beverage as one with greater than 0.5 percent alcohol. Upon signing the Cullen-Harrison Act, Roosevelt made his famous remark: "I think this would be a good time for a beer." The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933, with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. LegacyProhibition marked one of the last stages of the Progressive Era. During the nineteenth century, alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling addiction, and a variety of other social ills and abuses led to activism targeted at curing the perceived problems in society. Among other things, this led many communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to introduce alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called "drys," presented the ban as a victory for public morals and health. Anti-prohibitionists, known as "wets," criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant, and Catholic life. Although popular opinion is that Prohibition failed, it succeeded in cutting overall alcohol consumption in half during the 1920s, and consumption remained below pre-Prohibition levels until the 1940s, suggesting that Prohibition did socialize a significant proportion of the population in temperate habits, at least temporarily. Some researchers contend that its political failure is attributable more to a changing historical context than to characteristics of the law itself. A persistent criticism is that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as the growth of urban crime organizations and a century of Prohibition-influenced legislation. As an experiment, it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in 1929. |
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