Wisconsin College of the Air; American history, 1876-present; 12; The Progressive Movement

The subject of today's discourse is the progressive movement. At the national level. And the progressivism in the federal government that is in national politics to be more exactly dated than it can in the local level where it began even during the 1890s. In some regions and in some states and the national government however you can pretty well date its beginning to the accession of nineteen one and to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. And similarly you can pretty well dated to your mind to American intrigue into World War 1 16 years later. Roosevelt you recall had served in minor political positions in both New York State and in the McKinley administration. But it was the

Spanish-American War that vaulted him to national fame. His exploits in Cuba as head of the Roughriders stirred the imagination of the people and made him a national hero. Then in 1899 after the war was over. Roosevelt took a leaf out of George Washington's notebook and wore his military uniform to the Republican convention. You remember that Washington had worn his to the Continental Congress and they promptly made him General Roosevelt wore his to the Republican State Convention in New York in 1909 and they promptly nominated him governor. And he became a and he got elected. As governor of New York he almost immediately ran afoul of the New York state political boss Tom Platt who was a disciple of ole Roscoe Conkling and now ran New York by way of the

Republican Party in much the way that Roscoe Conkling had a generation earlier. And Plante took a dim view of Roosevelt if only because Roosevelt wouldn't take orders. And so largely to get him out of his hair plant engineer into Roosevelt's nomination as vice president. In 1900 when McKinley was renominated for another term by the Republicans. Platt hoped that the vice presidency was a sufficiently obscure office and it would bury Even Roosevelt. The trouble is that that got him into the hair of the new Republican National Party boss Mark Hanna. We didn't want him either and indeed on one occasion Hannah blurted to a newspaper man quote Do you realize that only one man stands between that damn cowboy in the presidency. In one thousand one that man McKinley was assassinated and that damn cowboy

was suddenly president. It's very difficult to call Theodore Roosevelt a progressive you remember the difficulties for instance that in your reading this week Richard Hofstetter has in defining his politics starter finally ends up calling him what the conservative as progressive which is one and of the title and negates the other. The difficulty with Roosevelt is that you can't really point to anything that he ever did there. His actions are very limited. The legislative results of his administration are for eight years in office pretty thin. Indeed about the main thing that Roosevelt did for the progressive movement was to. Popularize it by talking about it. The one thing you can really credit Theodore Roosevelt is that he had a big mouth.

And he did a lot of talking in his career and he did talk about the need for reform and merely by virtue of talking about it he helped popularize it and make it respectable In short the progressives were able to overcome the problem that the had faced the populace and that is the problem that they were regarded in the public mind as wild eyed fanatics. The progressives by contrast were much more respectable as a class. And had a great deal more public sympathy. And part of this you can attribute to Theodore Roosevelt. And moreover in talking about the need for reform. Again though you very diddler did very little you've got a reputation for instances the great trust buster but he actually busted fewer trusts than either of his successors Taft or Wilson. But he

did in the course of his talk. In a sense to revitalize the presidency. Merely by being a well-known figure a household word. He tended to restore the office the executive office to a prominence that it had not really had since the death of Lincoln. He brought an end to that dreary collection of non entities that characterized the presidency in the Gilded Age. Moreover by in addition to revitalizing the presidency you and thereby beginning a 20th century trend which continues today. He also. In a sense marked the introduction into America of a a kind of leadership that was already common in Europe and which would again be a major theme of the 20th century. And that is the the combination of a strong government in both domestic and

foreign fields. In that sense Roosevelt is kind of an American version of a Disraeli in England are a Bismarck in Germany both of these men a generation before really had pioneered this concept of positive government with a social conscience that is government that felt some social obligation. In terms of hours labor and so forth and combining that with strong government that felt an imperial mission that is a building of empire in the world abroad. Again like Disraeli in England and Bismarck in Germany theater Roosevelt combined those two in the United States and it again has been a major theme of the 20th century. Roosevelt was reelected in nineteen four. Over a complete democratic non entity the Democrats avoided

Briain in 1940 but it didn't do any good. In 1008 Roosevelt retired and named as his successor William Howard Taft who in Taft in the election of 1988 defeated Brian who was running now for the third time. Ryan ran for president more times than any other man except Henry Clay in the late Norman Thomas. A. Taft. Had a background in the progressive wing of the Republican Party he had as a progressive very good credentials. He had written for you recall a governor of the Philippines and had not only had pacified the islands but had had a fairly liberal administration. So Roosevelt had every reason to suppose that Taft would carry on in the good progressive tradition I least of talking about reform if in if he didn't do anything. Taft

however proved to be a very poor politician. Totally unable to dramatize what little prick what progressivism he did have. And so while Roosevelt who was fundamentally a conservative man came across to the public as a great reformer. Taft who was at least as much of a reformer as Roosevelt came across as an arch reactionary. The only thing good that most people could think of Taft was that he was a baseball fan who started the presidential tradition of attending the opening game of the inept Washington Senators. Moreover Taft proved politically unable besides suffering from an image problem. He proved politically unable to hold together his party and by 1988 the Republican party was divided internally by the issues posed by the progressive demands. That is it was divided between its

progressive and its conservative wings and the split Shattered the Party in Congress. In Congress. The leaders. Of the conservative Republicans in the Senate was a senator from. Rhode Island named Nelson Aldridge. Nelson W. Aldrich from tiny Rhode Island. It was more a spokesman of business interests than he was of Rhode Island as a state he represented banking and commercial interests in the Senate. In the house is conservative counterpart. Was the speaker of the house because the Republicans controlled Congress tone 19 I'm the speaker of the House Joe Cannon Uncle Joe he was calm. From Illinois in fact the hayseed from Illinois it was a common appellation of an extremely

crude man. With a marvelous command of profanity and an extreme amount of power the speaker of the House of Representatives in this period had almost dictatorial power because he had the power to appoint only House committees and as you know everything done by Congress is done of importance is done in the committees and by having only committee assignments at his command. He completely dominated the Congress the House he could practically determine what was passed and what was not. And to Joe nothing should be passed. Indeed he complained continually about as he called it quote all this babble for reform. It was said of Joe that he was so conservative that if he were president the creation he would have voted for chaos. The progressive wing of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives was led by a young fledgling congressman from Nebraska named

George Norris. Who is just beginning a long political career. It would last all in Congress right up to the 1930s is the father of the TVA for instance finally died I think along about 1944. And in the Senate by a former governor from Wisconsin Robert La Follette to after several terms as governor and moved on to become senator from Wisconsin and he lasted in the Senate till his death in one thousand twenty four. These two factions were badly split and the core of their differences was the attempt to reform the rules of the House of Representatives to reduce the power of the speaker and permit a little more democracy that came to a head in 1910 when the Republican progressive is with the support of Democrats achieved a modest reform.

Taft however was never really able Roosevelt the split developed under Roosevelt's administration but Roosevelt was able at least to kind of put a fin veneer of party unity over this. Although when the crunch came Roosevelt usually sided with the conservatives for instance in the in the Republican Convention of 19 former. When Roosevelt was renominated the regular party regulars refused to seat a bunch of Wisconsin progressives who represented the fall out. So when the crunch came Roosevelt often sided with the Conservatives to be sure but at least the split did not crop into the open as it did under Taft. Who almost invariably when the two got into a fight sided with the conservatives and therefore alienated the progressives and alienation that culminated in the total disruption of the party in

1912 and the formation of a third party the Progressive Party which was primarily made up of Republican progressives. Now I run through these two administrations very quickly just to introduce you to some of the chief figures because what I really want to do today. Is cover the basic political issues that arose in this progressive era. I think under Roosevelt and Taft down to 19 12 and cover them topically rather than have a blow by blow description of these two administrations. So let's begin with the. A. Time was political issue that had been agitating American politics already for nearly a century. The tear off. The tear off when Roosevelt entered office was extremely high rates the McKinley tariff of 1890. You remember that the McKinley tariff of 1890 had set the rates so

high that they not only were designed to protect American business from. Price competition abroad but from any competition abroad the McKinley tariff of 1890 was designed virtually to exclude foreign goods. There were some variations in the 1890s I don't want to burden you with all these tariffs names but. The last one being the Dingley tariff of 97 but the main point is that when Roosevelt took office the tariff was sky high. There was no particular reduction in the course of the decade. At the same time however there is a rising public opposition to the tariff in the 1880s and 90s the tariff is a political issue but it's pretty much confined to Congress the people if they have and some thought about it don't normally express it. But beginning with the right turn of prosperity in 1897 as I point out last time you have a rising business cycle and that brought rising

prices and as prices rose and hurt the middle class consumer who is the core of the progressive movement. Attention. A new kind of attention focused on the tariff rates. And they came under new criticism from those who blame the tariff for rising prices. The thought was that if you permitted some foreign competition you might help keep down domestic prices. Indeed that still even today the primary argument against tariffs and particularly the idea became popular that you at least ought to permit free trade in those goods that are produced by trusts or monopolies. Despite this rising public demand Roosevelt did nothing about the tariff. Primarily because he did not want to alienate the conservatives but especially old Nelson Aldrich who became absolutely apoplectic every time you mention the

tear off Roosevelt in short had bigger fish to fry. Notably railroad regulation and he didn't want to get involved in a squabble with the conservatives over the tariffs. So through Roosevelt's term nothing was done about the tariff. But because of the rising demand it was a primary issue in the presidential election of 19 8. In which brilliance sought to capitalize on the public demand and committed the Democrats in favor of a tariff reduction. Again you see it in a sense that the legacy of Grover Cleveland. Taft who was a progressive favored a reduction in the tariff and so in the presidential election of 1988 both parties tried to outdo the other in promises of how far they would reduce the tariff that they got into power. So when Taft was elected everybody waited with bated breath to see what he would do about the terror. And he acted with it. Probably the only time in his

life that he acted with great speed. He no sooner was inaugurated then he summoned a special session of Congress. In the summer of 1990 when normally congressmen are junketing around the world. Taft summoned them into Washington with a specific purpose of dealing with the tariff. And out of the. Session emerged a bill from the House of Representatives that did significantly reduce the tariff on a number of goods. That not only reduce the general level of rates but most equally important it extended the free list. That is the number of products that would come in without any duty at all. And normally U.S. agricultural products would be the obvious ones since we sell them import them. But then this is called the bean bill. It went into the Senate. Where Nelson Aldrich head of the Senate Finance Committee got a hold of it and he proceeded to

rewrite it completely. Into a high tariff bill all of that restored the rates right back to where they had been before in the 1890s. The pain Aldrich tariff. Passed by both houses of Congress because a lobbyist descended back on the House of Representatives and it gave in and. Signed into law by President Taft on the grounds that it was better than nothing it did extend the free list a bit and the filing was the best he could get. It didn't extend the free list a heck of a lot though the humorist of the day. Peter Finley Dunn Mr. Dooley described the pain Aldridge paraffin this way and Dooley had a Fick Irish brogue which I can't imitate him don't try to anyway. Peter Finley Peter Dunne described it this way quote The Republican Party has been true to its promises. Look at the free list practically everything necessary

to existence comes in free hurling stones C-minus newspapers Nux Vomica canary bird See Davey Davey spawn Cod bristles marshmallows silk eggs still skeletons and leeches. The new tariff bill puts these familiar commodities within the reach of all. Result then you see is that what Taft does is hand the Democrats a poll of popular political issue on a silver platter though committed to a low tariff himself he signs into law a high tariff bill and as far as the public's concerned it's a. Double Cross. The Democrats pick up the cry in 1910 in the off year congressional elections. They campaigned in the name of the American housewife and her food bill. And the cost of living and the Democrats swept into control of Congress in 1910 ending the Republican control that had begun.

In 1894 and paving the way for Woodrow Wilson's victory in 1912. Though the Democrats were committed to a low tariff the nation had to await the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson before any action was finally taken. In a sense the flip side of the tariff issue is the income tax