The Progressive Era: A History From Beginning to End, by Hourly History.

................................................................................................

The Progressive Era: A History

From Beginning to End,

by Hourly History.

................................................................................................

Author defines the term and describes the era well in the introduction, and while author ends it with saying that it ended suddenly with WWI, explaining why, one realises that that amounted to, not progress ending, but people as a whole losing faith in it and enthusiasm for it, although much wrong did come about over the decades in name of progress, chiefly because it was easier to let it be rather than insist on right and values.

A prime example is situation of education in US.

................................................................................................

"The first trait that was shared by all progressives was anger. The people who were involved with progressive causes were stirred to anger over the excesses of industrial capitalism and urban growth. They were, however, optimistic about the future. With their righteous anger as fuel, progressives believed true American ideals would win the day and society would improve. They were not revolutionaries. They held deep convictions about the exceptionalism of the American Republic. Even though they saw great problems in need of fixing, the United States was still a beacon to the rest of the world. Reform was the watchword, not revolution."

So far, it seems a tenable hypothesis, even if not quite obvious. But next author says something not necessarily a must for social reform.

"Second, progressives rejected individualism, both as expressed by the “great man” idea and the notion that one had to pull oneself up by the bootstraps. Instead, they believed in social cohesion and community—the idea that what drew Americans, from its oldest citizens to its newest arrivals, together was in greater supply than what drove people apart. By understanding the commonality of Americanism, society could reform and improve."

It's not necessary that a social reform concept must begin with rejection of individualistic efforts and progress. Obviously individuals would find it difficult to survive if left in middle of a forest at birth, and equally obviously, all help by an excellent social structure is of little use if someone is determined to do nothing. Individuals and society have to function together, while being neither coercive nor its extreme opposite.

................................................................................................

Next bit is just as surprising.

"Third, because of this belief in social cohesion and that commonality formed the bonds that created a better, more just society, any threat to such bonds was seen as a threat to society as a whole. For many of the middle-class Protestant progressives, this meant many of the institutions that were part of the immigrant’s experience were detrimental to a peaceful society. Machine politics, inner-city slums, labor unions, saloons, and Catholicism struck many progressives as anti-American."

One can see some of it, such as progressive thinkers would look at church of Rome askance, latter having opposed freedom of thought and fought it with inquisition for centuries - with burning dissenters at stake.

Similarly slums and saloons are obviously not conducive to good social structure.

But labour unions?

"Fourth, progressives believed in action. It wasn’t enough to be an observer or remote social critic. Activism was needed to combat society’s problems. Furthermore, in a radical shift, progressives believed in a stronger government to deal with economic and social problems. Previously, the ideal of laissez-faire (letting people do as they please) was almost sacrosanct to Americans. While a socialist or communist solution was not close to being on the table, government involvement was desired."

Most would think that progressives were inspired by benefits of left-wing thought, but apprehensive of restrictions on freedom such a society brings, and seeking to find the golden path along a ridge line that might avoid both excesses, of right and left, by taking one reform at a time.

Die-hard proponents of old-fashioned laissez-faire did, and do, indeed, lump progressives with leftists, not discriminating between shades of red.

................................................................................................

"Finally, many progressives had great faith in technology and the human ability to find solutions. Especially in the Progressive Age, expertise was not only strived for but also respected and revered. Gathering of data and studying a problem and then executing a well-thought plan of action was the standard approach to combating just about any issue the progressives wanted to face and defeat. This was one of the attitudes that underpinned so much of what the progressives believed—a faith that natural and social science would make the world a more efficient, orderly place."

Surely some problems were more obvious than needing a gathering of data, to be considered worthy of solutions to be found, or if obvious, implemented - such as evils of alcohol addiction?

................................................................................................

"However, the trust in the power of science, the righteous anger, and the belief in the importance of community needed a moral compass and inspiration, which came in the form of Evangelical Protestantism. Christians were seen as the most capable to purge the world of poverty, inequality, and greed. Sometimes referred to as being part of the Third Great Awakening, evangelicals in the period between 1880 and 1920 were dedicated to social reform through the guiding philosophy of the Social Gospel. It wasn’t enough to push for moral reform, but to push for reform morally."

This wasn't due, obviously, to a well-thought choice between various belief systems, but due yo two considerations that were close and opposite.

One, Protestant creeds were born in a struggle against church of Rome, seeking freedom of thought, in the first place.

And two, more importantly, this is about a society that had been systematically deprived of every possible alternative creed, faith, belief, and possibilities of seeking for one, by church enforced indoctrination about alternatives leading to eternal hell. So reform couldn't go far enough beyond the extremely narrow line drawn by church, to circumvent it and find freedom of thought - except in matters considered beyond pale of creed, particularly science.

................................................................................................

"Not every middle-class, college-educated woman could work in a settlement house. It was a distinct calling for a select, dedicated few. Many of these women, however, started other organizations to accomplish many of the same goals as the settlement house. The Chicago Women’s Club was one such group. The CWC helped to start the Legal Aid Society of Chicago and the Women’s and Children Protection Agency. On a national level, Josephine Lowell along with Jane Addams founded the National Consumers League which publicized labor abuses and worked toward the eight-hour work day and minimum wages.

"Women were engaged in this work not only because they cared about the issues present, but because it was one of the few political and social outlets they had available to them. Tending to children, the sick, and the poor was seen as somehow innately motherly. In order to effect real change, however, many of the women engaged in settlements or similar work were convinced they needed a stronger public voice. They needed the right to vote."

................................................................................................

"Like the earlier suffrage movement, it was dominated by white, middle-class, northern women. Though there was enthusiasm from African-American women in both the north and south, Susan B. Anthony decided not to seat African-American delegates at their conventions as a means to reach out to southern whites. White northern and southern leaders of the suffrage movement promoted white women’s suffrage as a means to maintain white supremacy in the south—the assumption being that white women would vote to keep Jim Crow laws like white men already did.

"An even more egregious example of the inherent racism in the women’s movement was that, especially after 1900, many within the movement used the theory of Social Darwinism to make their argument for their brand of equal representation—which makes the career of Ida B. Wells even more impressive. Wells was born into slavery and from an early age worked on various civil rights issues, especially anti-lynching measures. She was also dedicated to full suffrage for women. To many, however, she was considered too radical because of her dedication to racial as well as gender equality. During a women’s march in 1913, when told African-American women needed to march in the back of the procession, Wells refused. She also had harsh words for Frances Willard, the president of the WCTU, for promoting segregation in the south and promoting stereotypes of black men as the reason temperance initiatives failed in the south."

Notice the distinct misogyny of the phrase "inherent racism in the women’s movement", as if racism was invented by women's movement, or unique to them!

That women demanding rights were part of the same society that, more in Confederate South than in Northern states in US, not only took racism for granted but couldn’t stand the idea of abolishing it, was a fact the women had to not only live with but navigate in their fight for equality.

Far more relevant would be to ask which evangelicals abhorred nazi atrocities, and who were determined that war criminals be judges as criminals, instead of being spirited away by CIA to safe haven across Atlantic, with or without help of Vatican.

................................................................................................

"The cause of temperance, the abstention from alcohol, was the greatest social concern of the progressive movement. Considering that much of the reform centered on the cleaning up of the city and the locus of the machine was the saloon, the idea of curbing alcohol use went hand in glove with the overall mission of improving society. It was also a movement dominated by women, especially the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union founded in 1873."

Perhaps the reason that they failed in US has more to do with social structure and breeding, and the key understanding that a saloon by any name isn't where those of good households go to drink, but only a place for local socialisation.

If understood, this would have promoted moderate alcohol at home shared by adults after or during dinner, as in Europe, while leaving saloon by any names - pib, bar - free for a moderate hour or so of an occasional evening for socialisation, chiefly of adult males.

................................................................................................

"Willard and other WCTU activists argued that women and children suffered at the hands of drunken men, both physically and economically. Not only was the home made unsafe because of violence, but because of the propensity of drinking men to spend all of their wages on drinking and treating their friends, the families suffered as well. In a shift away from personal responsibility, that of men pledging not to drink, the WCTU wanted the government at the local, state, and national level to ban alcohol entirely. If the great scourge of the working class could be tamed then all of society would benefit."

It was a correct move even if it failed, because at the very least it generated an awareness of the evils of alcohol, even before addiction was understood medically.

................................................................................................

"During Frances Willard’s tenure as president of the WCTU, the group took up other causes, most notably women’s suffrage. They argued that men were too much under the sway of alcohol and the machine-dominated saloons that women’s voices were needed in politics to save the republic. Willard also took up the cause of workers’ rights and promoted socialism through many of her writings and speeches. Most controversially, Willard tried to appeal to southern women by reaching out to Varina Davis, the widow of Jefferson Davis (the former president of the Confederate states). She also allowed southern meetings to remain segregated. Worst of all, creating a rift between her and Ida B. Wells, was equating white women with purity and the need to curb alcohol especially from black men in order to protect white women."

The last-mentioned seems racist, but kept uneducated and involved at only menial tasks as they were, the danger was real, even if fault was all the slavers' and not entirely or very little of victims of slavery.

In any institution where a set of people have dominated another, treating the latter to abominable conditions, the inherent fear of reprisals is centered mist often on males of the victim society exacting revenge against females of the enslaving section, as seen most predominantly in German accounts of fall of Berlin, or of their fear of US military raping German women.

Latter makes no sense, since Germans speaking of it mention only US forces - and instinctively one feels its a safe bet that such a fear was ridiculous.

It takes time to realise that this fear was partly of reprisals against German atrocities - against Europe, from France to Russia. And the ones who suffered most, Russians, did go on a spree in Berlin.

But why did the German women talking about this fear - in conversations of a new millennium - mention US, not other forces? That has explicitly to do with racism and nazis.

................................................................................................

"The WCTU held equally prejudicial views on other ethnic minorities, especially the Irish who they saw as corrupt and using alcohol as a means to control city government. They were also very distressed by the new ethnic groups moving to the United States that seemed prone to drink as well. Protestant, middle-class women could not understand the carnival attitude of the new European immigrants on Sundays. One of the first major steps to abolishing alcohol was the elimination of alcohol sales on Sundays. After Frances Willard died in 1898, the WTCU moved away from many of the more radical ideas that Willard had favored. It retreated to an almost exclusive temperance movement, though still supported woman suffrage."

This gap of understanding was of geography and effects thereof - immigrants fresh from dark Northern latitudes of Europe weren't used to much more light of US, and would take a while; settled society of US had forgotten the dark Northern latitudes of Europe, and effects thereof against the psyche.

................................................................................................

"“False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science.”

"—Charles Darwin, 1871"

Shouldn't he have said "falsification of facts", instead? Aren't facts factual by very definition of the word?

................................................................................................

"In 1859, Charles Darwin published the first of his three most seminal works, On the Origin of Species. In it, Darwin described his theory of natural selection: All organisms reproduce, and within each species each organism differs slightly. All organisms compete for survival. As the environment changes, the organisms that best adapt to that change survive while those that didn’t die. In time, an entirely new species might evolve. This was a radical notion to say the least. It posited that the planet and its inhabitants were changed by natural forces and the environment. It was not a divine plan, which was the prevailing theory for centuries."

Here the author, as the then society, erred in the conclusion derived from theory- chiefly due to the flawed church indoctrination not allowing any freedom of thought.

For if Divine is all-powerful, all-encompassing, how can natural forces be outside the purview thereof?

This flaw helped divide science from church!

................................................................................................

"Darwin did not mention human beings very much in the first book, but The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, published in 1871, brought up that issue head-on. He applied the evolutionary ideas he had first outlined in Origin of Species to human development. He demonstrated the connections between animal and human behaviors and physical transformation. Darwin’s final book, The Expression of the Emotions of Man and Animals, continued this discussion by investigating the continuity of emotional expression between humans and animals.

"These ideas caused a great deal of controversy almost from the time they were published. The discussion that humans were in any way descended from animals went against millennia of theology that humans were created by the divine. It is a debate that still occurs across the United States."

Again, this debate is chiefly due to thinking that creation must be an instant, one move process!

Why isn't everything, from evolution to black holes seen as creation, except due to ego of men thst make up the institution of church?

................................................................................................

"Darwin’s theories, however, weren’t just used and debated on theological and scientific grounds. The idea of natural selection was most notably applied to society by English philosopher Herbert Spencer. The theory of Social Darwinism could more aptly be named Social Spencerism. In essence the theory is the idea that the society, like nature, is bent toward survival of the fittest. Spencer believed that the state and other public institutions shouldn’t interfere with the harsh processes of life. Events should unfold as they are intended, and the strongest will survive. As Spencer would surmise, “to aid the bad in multiplying is in effect the same as maliciously providing for our descendants a multitude of enemies.” In other words, let the weak fall away so our descendants won’t have to take care of them or provide for them. Spencer actually espoused these ideas before Darwin published his books, but Darwin gave Spencer a framework to apply to his theories."

No wonder his protégé George Eliot was not only racist enough to support racist colonialism, but even to suggest that Britain should get more colonies to support a bad financial state. (Looting India to starvation deaths in millions wasn't enough!)

................................................................................................

"It does beg the question, was Darwin a Social Darwinist? It seems that the answer is a qualified yes. Darwin did believe that the idea of survival of the fittest applied to the social hierarchies of his contemporary world—namely that Western civilization, especially that of Great Britain, was the highest class of the modern world. ... "

Then he was neither well educated nor good at thinking.

After all brute force and fraud had a great deal to do with acquiring colonies, or migrants of Europe pushing all natives of Americas out into a corner, if not into slavery in all but name.

And it takes only a moment to realise that every beast of prey, or even virus, has the same power, against every great scientist and thinker - of inflicting physical damage, even death.

But a misogyny, as abrahmic societies are, wouldn't see that.

................................................................................................

" ... He also believed that inherited wealth allowed the descendants of the upper class to focus on art and culture, which would in turn inspire the lower class. ... "

This is reverse thinking, making a European caste system seem inevitable.

India on the other hand places intellectual endeavours at top, not brute force or property, but separates the three; so top caste, while learned and intellectual, is largely poor. That does not stop it from being learned, erudite and thinkers.

................................................................................................

" ... However, Darwin also noted that the human capacity for sympathy and empathy were part of the evolutionary development. If human beings lost that capacity, if humans were cold-hearted to the downtrodden and poor, then they would have lost what was best of human nature. So, many who espoused Social Darwinist ideas didn’t rely very much, or at all, on Darwin’s actual ideas."

So colonial atrocities and loot was accompanied by a bout of charity by the bountiful to tenants!

................................................................................................

"Social Darwinism was ultimately a defense of the status quo of the social hierarchy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It made the claim that since Western Europe was the dominant power in the world, it was because of evolution, not other factors. For those that believed in Social Darwinism, the ethnicities of the world were divided by a strict hierarchy, with white Aryans and Anglo-Saxons at the very top and those of African descent at the bottom. The rest of the races—Gallic, Southern Europeans, Slavs, Native Americans, Semitic peoples, and Asians—were all placed within the structure with little regard for their advancement and no doubt as to their inferiority."

Which in fact exposes the lack of depth, of thought, deep rooted in Europeans and descendants of migrants.

................................................................................................

"These notions were widely accepted by social scientists and social reformers. For example, sociologist Frank Giddings, in his Principles of Sociology, published in 1896, wrote that the lower races weren’t lower because of lack of opportunity, but because their character was not capable of achieving the same results as the white race. Therefore, according to Giddings, there was little evidence that applying education or culture to other races would help them survive. Some groups, like Africans, were lucky as long as they were controlled by whites. Others, like Native Americans, who showed a propensity for rebellion and lack of assimilation, would eventually face extermination. These ideas were so prevalent that even William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, an African-American writer and activist, believed that most Africans were “primarily destined to be artists with a sense of beauty and color.”

"Many social scientists tried to combine the ideas of Social Darwinism with Lamarckism, the theory of organisms passing down acquired characteristics through generations. The most common example of this theory was the evolution of the giraffe: as each generation stretched its neck to reach for food, the subsequent generation would have a longer neck to achieve this task for survival. In humans, the theory posited that as a blacksmith developed stronger arms, his offspring would have slightly stronger arms, making him an even better candidate to be a blacksmith."

And why, then, castigate India for a caste system - which, after all, is far superiorto to any caste system not of India, especially that of Europe?

................................................................................................

"During the Progressive Era, some argued that education and access to culture could gradually improve the racial character of people. For example, a great philanthropist like Andrew Carnegie could maintain his belief that his rise to the top was a function of survival of the fittest, but he could be an agent of change by providing libraries to the public. This type of combination gave rise to Civilization Theory, in which races were subject to evolution: first came savagery, next barbarism, finally civilization. In the current world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the races were supposedly at different stages of this chain of development, with only the white race achieving civilization. ... "

There's that racist assumption, based on nothing but ignorance.

................................................................................................

"Even within a race, there were different levels of civilization. For many supporters of this theory, men were more advanced than women. Women had only developed the capacity for reproduction but were otherwise useless. ... "

Did they examine level of evolution of royals by having them do menial work?

Or, alternatively, did they find a proof that reproduction was of no consequence - by looking at their own male selves, the supposedly better result of reproduction, before deciding repriduction is worth very little?

................................................................................................

" ... For many this was the crux of the argument against women receiving the right to vote. In turn, many suffragettes argued that white women should receive the vote because men were on the brink of devolving—largely through drink—back to a state of barbarity."

Did they think that those of the males who were assaulting women and children, even regularly so - but not drinking, ever - were quite all right?

................................................................................................

"The idea of inherited or passed-on traits also took hold on a more individual level. Psychologists, a new field emerging in the nineteenth century, argued that the criminal behavior of parents was passed down to the children of criminals. In essence they were arguing that it was a natural state of lower society. To this end, psychologists began to develop intelligence tests to see who was predisposed to criminality and deviant behavior."

Any research regarding deviant behaviors in royals?

................................................................................................

"In 1916, Herbert Goddard published his results of tests he did on American criminals. It showed that most juvenile delinquents and criminals were what he termed feeble-minded. A third of the adult criminals tested was called a newly coined term for people with the intelligence of an eight to twelve-year-old: moron. Below morons were imbeciles and idiots. These findings caused a fear around the United States, especially among the middle and upper classes: the fear of the feeble-minded. Social scientists warned that feeble-mindedness was as inheritable as brown eyes or blonde hair.

"The fear of those with lesser intelligence taking over, not just the United States but all of Western civilization, led to the development of eugenics. Developed by British statistician Francis Galton, eugenics was the idea of speeding up the inheritable traits of the human race instead of waiting for nature to take its course. It was fundamentally different from Darwinism in one fundamental way. While Social Darwinism was meant to preserve social hierarchies, eugenics sought to improve humanity. Yet it was still racist and elitist because it meant to preserve and pass on what was to be believed the best traits of human civilization, namely Western civilization."

And so they killed millions of their own, seeking to kill the best, as - what? An expedited crucifixion of millions?

................................................................................................

"“Cast down your bucket where you are—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.”

"—Booker T. Washington, 1895"

And this perhaps identifies the person who so speaks - a racist certainly wouldn't mention other races!

................................................................................................

"The period after the Civil War, Reconstruction, was a time of rights and freedoms being granted to the newly freed slaves of the United States. Opportunities that had never been afforded to African Americans were finally available to them. With the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, which granted suffrage to African-American men, many took the opportunity to run for office and won seats in state and federal chambers of legislation. It was a time when African Americans took great strides in developing education, property ownership, and mobility. Much of this was made possible by the presence of the Federal Army in the south, protecting polling places and African-American communities. White southerners were resentful of the new status being granted to African Americans and were not about to concede these rights. The rights of white landowners were the main focus of state legislative efforts to curtail African-American gains.

"Starting in 1866, the southern states passed Black Codes, which were laws that severely limited African Americans in a variety of ways. For example in South Carolina an African American needed a license from a judge attesting to a skill if the person wanted to work outside of agriculture or domestic work. Between 1870 and 1884, all eleven states of the former Confederacy had passed laws forbidding miscegenation, or interracial marriages. These laws often explicitly defined racism, maintaining that whites were superior to blacks and must remain pure. School segregation was also enacted in the southern states. By 1885, all of the former Confederacy states made school segregation the law of their respective jurisdictions."

Nazis merely copied them.

................................................................................................

"In the case of voting, state governments were not able to restrict African Americans as much as they would have liked to because of federal interference. The other alternative was to use violence to intimidate the population. The first branch of the Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee. Other branches soon formed throughout the south. Most members were former Confederate soldiers, and the first grand wizard was Nathan Bedford Forrest, a highly decorated and famous Confederate general.

"The main goal of the KKK was to stop African-American voting. Between 1868 and 1870, the KKK killed and tortured African Americans and sympathetic whites across the south. Their tactics proved decisive in maintaining white power is North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Black businesses were attacked as well as black schools. Attempts by African Americans to unionize were dealt with in a similarly harsh manner. Finally, in 1871, Congress passed the KKK Act, which gave localities the right to suspend the right of habeas corpus where disturbances occurred. It was ineffective, however, because the KKK had largely achieved their goals."

Again, nazis weren't different.

................................................................................................

"The end of Reconstruction is traditionally dated as 1877 with the Compromise of that year, settling the election of 1876. Essentially, the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, was given the presidency with the understanding that federal occupation of the south would end. The southern representatives also promised that the rights of African Americans would remain protected.

"It is hard to imagine many northern representatives truly believing the southern promise, or really understanding what that truly meant. In addition, popular opinion of Reconstruction was decidedly low. Many voters had tired of the issue and wished it would go away. Further, almost since their inception, governmental offices and bureaus founded as a part of Reconstruction were perceived as corrupt. Putting the Reconstruction agenda behind the nation seemed like the best way to foster true reconciliation between the former warring parties.

................................................................................................

"It may have been what was best for white Americans, but not for the former slaves. Legal challenges to the Reconstruction Era began in earnest in the 1880s, with the repeal of the 1875 Civil Rights Act being the most significant goal. This was achieved in 1883. Chief Justice Joseph Bradley wrote the majority opinion for the Civil Rights Cases (a collection of five cases ruled upon and impacting the 1875 law) stating that the Fourteenth Amendment did not protect African Americans from discrimination by private businesses and individuals but only from discrimination from the states. Bradley further stated that it was time for “blacks to assume the rank of mere citizens” and stop being the “special favorite of the laws.”

"With the 1883 decision, the southern states enacted sweeping segregation and voting laws. These segregation laws were challenged by the 1890 case of Homer Plessy, an African American who attempted to ride a train in a car designated whites only. After the case was dismissed by district judge John Ferguson, it carried his name to the Supreme Court in 1896. The court ruled 8-1 that Plessy’s rights had not been denied because separate but equal accommodations were provided. Separate accommodations did not stamp “the colored race with a badge of inferiority.”

................................................................................................

"Also, after the repeal of the 1875 Civil Rights Act, laws were passed severely restricting African Americans access to the ballot. Many of these new laws included literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses allowing poor whites to vote. These clauses gained their name because they used language that stated that all males that were entitled to vote before 1867 and their sons and grandsons were exempt from taxes or literacy or any other tests for voting. Since no African American was eligible to vote in 1867, this exemption based on one’s grandfather only included whites.

"While this may seem to violate the Fifteenth Amendment, according to the legal thinking of the time it did not. The amendment only stated that the federal government was responsible for protecting a person’s right to vote. The states were still vested with the power to determine who was qualified to vote. By the turn of the century, every state of the former Confederacy had revised their state constitutions to incorporate these types of laws.

................................................................................................

"This time period after Reconstruction and before 1920, coinciding with the Progressive Era, is often called the nadir of civil rights in the United States. Slavery may not have been reinstituted, but life for many African Americans closely resembled such a condition. Many of those that supported abolition had moved on to other issues, were less concerned with civil rights than emancipation, or simply died. This is not to say that there were not initiatives to continue pressing for equal rights for African Americans. As mentioned, African Americans were taking their collective cases to court, but unfortunately the cases were being decided against them. There were also prominent leaders in the African-American community who continued to fight for African Americans and their rights.

"Frederick Douglass was the most recognized and influential African-American leader between 1843 and his death in 1895. He worked tirelessly for the abolition of slavery, for a regiment of African Americans to fight in the Civil War, and then for the right to vote for all African Americans. As a former slave, he carried a gravitas that no white abolitionist could muster. As the work of Reconstruction started to unravel, Douglass continued to fight. He was appointed to various governmental positions and was sought after as a speaker for many African-American groups. As the national situation became direr, Douglass was not blind to the situation. As he said, “I cannot shut my eyes to the ugly facts before me.”

................................................................................................

"When Douglass died in 1895, there was a giant void in the African-American community. Douglass had been a leader for so long that it was impossible to see someone as his heir. Instead, two men emerged as leaders. Both espoused philosophies that had strong Progressive influences, but in very different ways. They had followers and detractors and did not particularly like one another. Booker T. Washington and William Edward Burghardt Du Bois were vocal leaders on civil rights issues and shaped civil rights for the next century.

"Booker T. Washington, like Frederick Douglass, was born into slavery. Washington did not need to escape slavery but was emancipated through the Civil War. As a young man, a child really, he started to work in the mines of West Virginia in order to afford tuition at the Hampton Institute, one of the first colleges in the United States established to teach African Americans. It was after his success at Hampton that the head of the college recommended that Washington take the lead on a new educational venture in Alabama, the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. The entire campus was constructed by the teachers and students of the school, using bricks made on the campus as well. The food for the campus was grown on lands owned and farmed by the college. Everything about Tuskegee was self-made. It was a living embodiment of the self-help philosophy that Washington espoused as the only way African Americans were going to be able to gain acceptance in the wider U.S. society.

"Washington’s most famous speech on the subject was during the Cotton States and International Exposition held in Atlanta. His address, delivered to a predominantly white audience, outlined the idea that, if given the chance, African Americans, through their own institutions and working in white institutions, would prove they were worthy to be part of the larger society. It was largely an economic argument. If African Americans demonstrated their collective ability to earn money and maintain businesses, then it would only be logical that other rights would then follow. The immediate laws of segregation were not the focus of the Atlanta Compromise, as the speech was later called. As Washington said, “The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house.” This philosophy was particularly appealing to white business leaders. It was not confrontational, but more accommodating. It made Washington quite popular among Republicans, who espoused a similar idea of the self-made man. In 1901, he was invited to the White House, the first African American to gain such an invitation. Washington used his celebrity to court wealthy donors to Tuskegee and other African-American institutions around the United States.

................................................................................................

"Washington’s compromise and his “go slow” philosophy did not sit well with many African Americans, especially those that lived in the north and were often educated in the liberal arts as opposed to the more industrial trades that dominated many black colleges. The most vocal of these leaders was W.E.B. Du Bois. Born in 1868, in Massachusetts, Du Bois was not born into slavery like Washington and Douglass. Du Bois earned his bachelor’s degree from Fisk University and eventually his Ph.D. from Harvard University, the first African American to do so.

"Du Bois was critical of Washington’s Atlanta Compromise and later Washington’s autobiography, Up from Slavery. Du Bois believed that African Americans should fight immediately for equal access to institutions and for the ability to vote in all areas of the country. He was especially vocal on the topic of racial violence. The most detailed refutation of the Atlanta Compromise came from a meeting held by African Americans in Niagara Falls. In the Declaration of Principles from that conference, Du Bois listed all of the areas where African Americans needed to fight for equal opportunity, including the courts, education, health, suffrage, and economic opportunity.

................................................................................................

"The Niagara Conference eventually gave rise to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In a bit of foreshadowing to his later political beliefs, Du Bois was the person who suggested “colored” instead of “negro” because it was according to Du Bois more inclusive of different skin tones among people of African descent. Du Bois became the main spokesperson for the organization, and in 1910, he founded and edited the organization’s magazine, The Crisis. The monthly journal became a cornerstone for the expression and spread of black thought and opinion throughout the twentieth century.

"It is important to conclude that though Washington and Du Bois had their differences, they were not enemies. Washington donated large amounts of money to desegregation efforts and worked behind the scenes to further advance the cause of African-American suffrage. Meanwhile, Du Bois, especially as his political thought progressed across the century, understood the value of technical training. He also expressed his admiration toward Washington for continuing his work in the south where the majority of African Americans lived. Both were worthy successors to Douglass, just with different methods."

................................................................................................

"“The government is us; we are the government, you and I.”

"—Theodore Roosevelt, 1902"

................................................................................................

"“That damned cowboy” was Theodore Roosevelt. At 42, the youngest man to ever hold the presidency, he believed in a “square deal” for all Americans. An admirer of honest businessmen, he also supported the rights of workers, something no Republican had said in a generation. Though he came from a wealthy background, Roosevelt was no ally to large corporations or large banks. He gained fame as the “trust buster,” breaking up holding companies and monopolies through the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. He negotiated a compromise in the 1902 coal strike, and unlike his predecessors, Roosevelt did not call in the military to suppress the workers.

"Roosevelt had a great impact on western United States. First, he signed the National Reclamation Act in 1902 that set aside funds to help irrigate many of the lands surrounding western river systems. Perhaps Roosevelt’s most enduring legacy was his establishment of many of the United States national parks and protection of over 230 million acres of public land. The 1904 election saw Roosevelt carry every state outside of the “solid south,” which remained staunchly Democratic. In his second term, Roosevelt felt even further emboldened to act on a progressive agenda. After reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Roosevelt helped to pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which led to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration. He also supported the Hepburn Act that let the federal government set railroad rates across the country."

Did relationship between Lanny Budd and FDR reflect one between Upton Sinclair and the earlier, Republican president Roosevelt?

................................................................................................

"By the time Roosevelt returned from his retirement abroad, he was angry at his former friend who he also felt had tarnished his legacy and rolled back his achievements. The former president announced that he would run for the presidency once more, under the banner of a new party, the Progressive Party. However, when asked how he felt physically Roosevelt responded that he “was as fit as a bull moose!” The Bull Moose Party was unofficially founded.

"The Republicans were split but ultimately nominated the sitting president, Taft. Filling out the election was the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson. The election of 1912 is a high point of the Progressive Era. All three candidates identified themselves as progressives, even trying to out-progressive one another during the campaign. It was a close election, with Roosevelt and Taft splitting the former strongholds of the Republican Party. Wilson was able to establish a strong electoral win with only 42% of the popular vote. For the first time in 16 years, a Democrat was in in the Oval Office.

................................................................................................

"The first term of Wilson’s presidency saw some of the most prominent goals of the progressive movement come to pass. The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed during Wilson’s presidency, and shortly before he took office the Sixteenth Amendment went into effect. The Sixteenth established a national income tax, seen by many as a brake on the wealthy. The Seventeenth established the direct election of U.S. senators instead of being appointed by the state legislatures.

"Wilson was the first president since John Adams to call a special joint session of Congress in order to demonstrate his support for the Revenue Act of 1913. The act put into practice the Federal Income Tax and reduced tariffs to their lowest levels in decades. Wilson also signed into law the Federal Reserve Act which was the first real overseer of the national banking system. In 1914, Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act which for the first time recognized unions and outlawed price fixing.

................................................................................................

"The year of 1914 is, however, not remembered for the progressive victories of Woodrow Wilson. Instead it is remembered for the beginning of the First World War. The great powers of Europe were pulled into the largest war—the war to end all wars—that the world had ever seen. Even as a non-participant, the United States, like everyone, was transfixed by the carnage that erupted in the summer of 1914. The amount of casualties that were reported to the world horrified everyone.

"The 1916 election was extremely close. Wilson campaigned on the slogan, “He kept us out of the war.” It proved to be enough, making him the first Democratic president to win reelection since 1832. But the promise of staying out of the war was short-lived. By 1917, the aggression of Germany toward the United States reached a critical point, and the United States declared war on the German Empire in April of 1917, less than a month after Wilson’s second inauguration. Though it wasn’t an official announcement, the Progressive Era was all but over."

................................................................................................

"The passage of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments were the fruition of decades-long campaigns that defined the Progressive Era more than any other issues. The prohibition of alcohol (Eighteenth) and the right to vote for women (Nineteenth) were two causes that dominated politics and society during the period from 1890 until 1920. However, instead of triumphs, leading to even greater victories of the progressive agenda, the final progressive amendments are seen more as a coda to the movement. The prohibition of alcohol was seen almost from the time it was passed as a relic from a bygone age. Throughout the next decade, people who would have never dreamed of breaking a law, let alone a federal one, did so with impunity. The stalwart middle class all but turned on the prohibition movement, preferring speakeasies to church meetings.

"After World War I and the amount of women who went to work for the war effort, it seemed ridiculous that women would be barred from the vote. Furthermore, many states had already passed legislation allowing women to vote, so the passage of the national law was more of a fait accompli by 1920.

................................................................................................

"But what really ended the Progressive Era was the war itself. Starting in 1914 and continuing through November of 1918, World War I brought devastation to the world unlike anything anyone had ever seen. If Western Europe was the pinnacle of civilization, it was a sorry state of affairs indeed. The faith in science and technology to better the world was instead instrumental in the staggering loss of life. The machine gun, chemical weapons, long-range artillery, and other innovations of war made science much more sinister than it was once imagined. After the war, the entire ethos of the Progressive Era was brought into question and found wanting. The next decade would be a strong reaction to its core ideas.

"The Progressive Era came to a sudden end because of the inability of the world to live up to the ideals that the movement had embraced for the better part of thirty years. Its legacy, however, remains through the constitutional amendments it put in place and legislation that changed how the United States did business. Even as some of those ideas have come under criticism, the Progressive Era is best remembered as a time of optimism and hope."

................................................................................................

"One generation after the Civil War, the United States was unrecognizable to Americans born in the 1860s. The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw great changes in the way people lived; more people lived in cities and worked outside of their home than ever before, and there was an influx of immigration. After the Civil War, the march of industrialization picked up pace, and mechanization and factories defined reality like never before.

"The idea of progress defined the period between 1890 and 1920. There were overall optimism and faith that civilization was moving toward a greater place than it had been before. In areas where that progress was leaving people behind, reformers were ready, armed with the latest ideas, theories, and tools to help their less fortunate fellows. As the twentieth century approached, a new age was dawning for humanity. The Progressive Era earned its name from that overarching idea, the idea of going forward as a society. Reform was largely conducted in the urban centers of the United States by the middle class who believed cities were in the greatest need of improvement, though rural areas were not entirely neglected. The movement started out on a grassroots level and matured into a nationwide movement, when all of the presidential candidates, regardless of party, tried to seem more progressive than their competitors.

................................................................................................

"Progressives weren’t interested in reform simply for reform’s sake; the idea was to improve society in areas that were largely neglected in years prior. The progressives were especially concerned with corruption, both in politics and business. They were also focused on protecting people from the dangers of the new society, spearheading concern for children workers, the safety of the workplace for all workers, and what industry was doing to the world.

"Many progressives were also concerned with societal issues. They were dedicated to protecting women, and some advocated for the women’s right to vote. Many progressives also saw the need to curb the nation’s worst habits. Drinking was the primary target, and the temperance movement was one of the largest of the era. In addition, progressives saw the need to bring order and civility to many of the amusements in which people participated. Making sports less violent and more structured was an important cause for progressives, along with the elimination of other vices such as gambling and prostitution.

"The Progressive Era emerged slowly and spread over decades in the United States. Its end, however, came suddenly. The use of science and technology to make war horribly efficient in murdering millions made the ethos of progress seem like a cruel joke. By the time the First World War ended, the progressive movement had as well."

................................................................................................

"“The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth.”

"—Andrew Carnegie, 1889"

................................................................................................

"The period after Reconstruction in the United States saw a fundamental shift in the socio-economic structure of the country. What had begun before the Civil War emerged at a rapid pace. The industrialization of the 1870s bore little resemblance to the ending of shop culture and piecework of the 1840s and 1850s. Though the textile mills of Lowell and Worcester, Massachusetts were massive undertakings, before the Civil War they were more the exception than the rule. The production of steel also emerged before the war, but the steel plants that would give Pittsburgh its moniker “the Steel City” were established toward the end of the nineteenth century.

"The person most responsible for the rise of steel was Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who moved to the United States with his family in 1848. He worked in a variety of industries including railroads and iron working before investing in steel rolling mills, and with his iron working holdings he supplied many of the raw materials that were used to build the nation’s first railroads. It was with steel however that Carnegie made his greatest fortune. This was due to two significant measures. He was the first steel producer to perfect the Bessemer process, which was a cheap method of removing the impurities from iron at a much faster rate than had been done previously. The second factor was his use of an economic concept called vertical integration. In this model one company, in this case Carnegie’s steel, owns all components of supply and production. So from the raw materials to the finished product, one company controls all of the steps in bringing the product to market.

................................................................................................

"By 1901, Carnegie was ready to retire and devote as much of his fortune to philanthropic causes as he could. For this reason, he was looking for someone to buy him out of the steel business. That buyer came in the person of one John Pierpont Morgan, the famed New York financier. His success was in finance and banking but also in taking over and consolidating various companies in the United States. His buyout of Carnegie was the largest corporate buyout in American history up to that point. In addition to buying out Carnegie, Morgan acquired other steel producers and renamed the new company U.S. Steel. Morgan also had a hand in establishing General Electric and AT and T. If it was a major corporation in the United States, J.P. Morgan was involved.

"But one industry that Morgan did not have as much control over was oil. John D. Rockefeller was the driving force behind kerosene and oil refinement. By the end of the nineteenth century it was estimated that he controlled 90% of all the oil in the United States. Rockefeller didn’t have quite the vertical integration on the front end of his production, but unlike his competitors, who dumped close to 40% of their waste after refining the oil, Rockefeller used the offal product to make other products, including gasoline, lubricating oil, and tar. Very little went to waste in Rockefeller’s hands—and his hands were never idle. As part of his dominance, Rockefeller undersold all of his competition to the point of either driving them out of business or selling to him. As his oil empire reached beyond Ohio, where he was based, to stretch across the country, he developed the Standard Oil Trust, basically a corporation of corporations to oversee them all. By 1882, Rockefeller had no competition in the world of oil refinement and production.

................................................................................................

"Industrialists like Rockefeller and Carnegie were innovators in how they produced their products and how they organized their businesses. In addition, the most successful industrialists of the late nineteenth century were ruthless when it came to competition. If a competitor wouldn’t sell, then he was driven out of business by large corporations like Standard Oil and U.S. Steel.

"Along with needing vast amounts of energy, mostly coal at the start of the industrialization and oil later, the industries of the nineteenth century required one more key component: workers. Work in the new industrial age was not for the faint of heart. On average employees worked ten to twelve hours a day, at least six days a week sometimes seven. Wages were low, about two to three dollars a day. Child labor was common across most industries, with the average age of children in the workplace being 14 years old. In some industries, like coal mining, the children were as young as eight years old in extreme cases. In the workplace, speed of production was more important than safety. In 1913 for example, over 25,000 people died in industrial accidents and another million were injured. The most dangerous work was in the coal mines where explosions and collapses were commonplace.

................................................................................................

"Living conditions for workers were also extreme. Those working in the factories lived in cramped tenements with no hot water, nor central heating. Families lived in close quarters, sometimes multiple families in one unit. Things weren’t any better for those living in coal mining towns; most of the shanties in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia didn’t have indoor plumbing and were poorly constructed making them very susceptible to the elements. Especially in the cities, those that were working and living under these conditions had only recently arrived in the United States. Starting in 1880, a new wave of immigration started. Unlike previous waves, the majority of which came from the British Isles and German states, the immigrants came largely from southern and eastern Europe. Southern Italians, Russian Jews, Greeks, and various Balkan peoples steadily streamed into the United States. In 1882, close to 800,000 immigrants came to the United States. In 1907, a peak was reached at 1.3 million, which would not be matched until almost a century later in the 1990s.

"The new arrivals spoke very little English and brought customs very foreign to not only the Yankee stock of the first settlers in the U.S. but also to the Irish and Germans already living in the cities. The cultural differences, the competition for living space, and the rivalry for work made conflict between the various groups inevitable. Neighborhood disputes often turned violent with little interference from the authorities. The police force was in place more to protect the middle and upper-class neighborhoods, not keep the peace between immigrant groups.

................................................................................................

"It was this mix of different peoples, all looking for new opportunities, that provided the labor for the industrial machine that was the United States. The differences between the groups were often exploited by employers, stoking the competition for jobs and floor management positions in the factories. The lack of understanding English and American customs was also exploited—the less employees knew about their rights, the better. The division of labor into small tasks also meant replacing workers was relatively easy.

"But workers started to have other ideas. The Knights of Labor (KOL), an organized labor group that began in 1869, actively recruited new immigrants. By the 1880s, their membership swelled to 700,000. They helped to organize successful strikes in the railroad industry and for the time were one of the most inclusive groups in the United States, accepting both women and African Americans to their membership.

"The Knights, however, were not seen favorably among the skilled trade unions, who thought the general membership diminished their collective power and the unique trades they represented. Tired of seeing their members being courted by the Knights, a number of union presidents came together to create the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The federation siphoned off membership from the Knights because they recognized the autonomy of the different unions and had a stricter policy of membership, including discriminatory practices against women and African Americans.

................................................................................................

"These various unions were at the heart of the labor conflicts that punctuated the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the largest general strike ever in the United States. And after strikes and demonstrations on May Day, 1886, the situation turned violent on May 4 during the demonstrations at Haymarket Square in Chicago. Finally, the Pullman Strike of 1894 caused major disruptions around the nation. In all of these cases, the United States Army was called to restore order, resulting in violent clashes between workers and the military. Things got so bad around Chicago that the construction of Fort Sheridan was designed with the suppression of urban riots in mind.

"Immigrants weren’t just an important cog in the wheel of industry. In urban politics, the votes that they represented were crucial to the political organizations that, for all intents and purposes, ran the urban centers of the United States. The saloon was the epicenter of the political machine. Often formed in specific neighborhoods with a specific ethnic clientele, these barrooms acted as social places where men could gather, find employment leads, hear neighborhood gossip, and keep current on local politics. The dominant political party in these arenas was the Democratic Party, with the upper echelons of the machine dominated by the Irish, who were two or more generations removed from the old country.

"The machine used the saloon culture to offer support to recent immigrants who had problems with unemployment, health costs, heating costs, and nativist discrimination. In return, all the machine wanted was votes. In a very organized fashion, the structure of the machine was a pyramid. At the top was the mayor (who was usually the head of the local party as well), the alderman or city councilman, the ward captain, the precinct captain, and sometimes down to the block captain. The most visible of all of these was the ward captain, or ward heeler. If the ward heeler brought the votes, his ward benefited; those benefits ranged from city jobs to clothing to coal. For many immigrants the local ward heeler was the most positive experience they had ever had with a government official.

................................................................................................

"Many business organizations, from the legal to the illicit, worked to gain the favor of local politicians. This was done mainly through bribery and campaign contributions. Construction companies, road builders along with brothels and gambling operations all paid the local government—sometimes for a contract, or to turn a blind eye to a violation or illegal activity.

"It was between these two poles that many middle-class Americans found themselves. On one end was the extreme wealth of a concentrated few, on the other was a mass of radicalized workers, made up of foreign peoples, living and supporting corrupt political machines. The America that they remembered or perhaps imagined did not look anything like the present situation. Monopolies were dominating business, hurting the small businesses that were favored a generation ago. Labor unions were bringing in radical concepts of socialism, communism, and anarchism. In addition, a great many people were suffering under the new industrial regime. Something needed to change."

................................................................................................

"“A good example is far better than a good precept.”

"—Dwight Moody, 1896"

................................................................................................

"Between the end of the nineteenth century and the end of World War I, millions of middle-class Americans were swept up in a movement dedicated to social and political reform. They were alarmed by the chaos they perceived stemming from the rapid industrialization, urbanization, and immigration going on in the United States. Those that identified themselves as progressives were, in the words of historian Robert Wiebe, searching for order.

"Especially in the beginning of the movement, there really wasn’t a progressive organization, much less a political party. It was much more decentralized than that, emerging at different times in different places across the country. Often there were reform groups set on one location dedicated to one issue, and after that particular cause was resolved, many people called it a day. Some, as we shall see, went from cause to cause, often overlapping, like the temperance and women’s movement for example. Still there were some distinct traits that were shared by all those that identified themselves as progressives.

................................................................................................

So far, it seems a tenable hypothesis, even if not quite obvious. But next author says something not necessarily a must for social reform.

................................................................................................

Next bit is just as surprising.

Similarly slums and saloons are obviously not conducive to good social structure.

But labour unions?

Die-hard proponents of old-fashioned laissez-faire did, and do, indeed, lump progressives with leftists, not discriminating between shades of red.

................................................................................................

Surely some problems were more obvious than needing a gathering of data, to be considered worthy of solutions to be found, or if obvious, implemented - such as evils of alcohol addiction?

................................................................................................

This wasn't due, obviously, to a well-thought choice between various belief systems, but due yo two considerations that were close and opposite.

One, Protestant creeds were born in a struggle against church of Rome, seeking freedom of thought, in the first place.

................................................................................................

"Like other approaches to social problems, progressives made much of their religious activities orderly and scientific. An import from England, the Salvation Army, was organized just as that, an army dedicated to providing salvation for the masses. William Booth was their first general. As one preacher commented, “If evil was created by mankind, it only should follow that evil can be eradicated by mankind as well.” Dwight Moody created an institute to study the Bible. In one case, a new church founded in 1879—the Church of Christ, Scientist—insisted that there was a lost healing (scientific) component to faith in Christ. Founded by Mary Baker Eddy, the new church may have seen prayer as the only means to true healing, but the group was still dedicated to education, publishing books and newspapers as well as spreading reading rooms around the nation.

"It was from these core beliefs and principles that the progressive movement derived their purpose and direction. With strong faith and scientific methods, no problem seemed too great to solve. Though there was opposition to many of their reforms, progressives held their ground and often inspired more followers as they pushed for a better society."

................................................................................................

"“A renaissance of the early Christian humanitarianism is going on in America . . . with a bent to express in social service and in terms of action the spirit of Christ. Certainly it is that spiritual force [which] is found in the Settlement movement. . . . The Settlement, then, is an experimental effort to aid in the solution of the social and industrial problems which are engendered by the modern conditions of life.”

"—Jane Addams, 1910"

................................................................................................

"In many cities across the United States, the upper-class citizens had all but abandoned city government. The machine politics dominated by immigrant groups had all but rendered their input moot. While the wealthy still controlled the economic institutions, they were rather ambivalent toward the workings of city government; if their living space was cared for and protected and they were able to go about their business, both private and industrial, the relationship worked.

"For many middle-class Americans, this was not an ideal situation. Trying to break the hold on machine government within the city structure proved to be an almost impossible task. Those that were in most need of help—the poor immigrants living in terrible conditions—were not necessarily controlled by the machine, but they were loyal. Many immigrant communities viewed those that wanted to reform city government and structures with a great deal of suspicion.

"So, instead, a different route was often taken. Those that wanted to change local politics found allies at the state level. Many statehouses across the United States were controlled by the more rural and small-town voices of any given state who viewed cities with contempt. Also, the urge to reform government often went in cycles. A candidate would rise promising much-needed reform and win the election only to be voted out either because they didn’t come through on their promise or the voters decided things were better the way they were before or the machine got re-energized and fought its way back to the seat of power. It was often a combination of all three.

................................................................................................

"Those that led many of the reforms saw the hyper-localism of the machines as the true culprit of corruption. So the drive was to expand the power of the mayors of cities and also of the civil servants. Many of the reform movements campaigned with the philosophy that government needed to be more business-like and efficient. Though the real elites, like the Morgans in New York or the Fields in Chicago, didn’t run for offices, they would throw their support behind the candidate who promised to make the city run better for the people, especially white, middle-class people.

"Some of the machines protected themselves by passing legislation that benefitted the working class and immigrant neighborhoods, replacing the services provided by the party organization with the government. Such things as building codes, sanitation laws, and worker safety regulations were all used to appeal to the main constituents of the machine, yet appease those trying to bring about reform. The Tammany machine in New York is an excellent example of this. In the period after 1880, the organization saw a revitalization after the fall of their most famous boss, William “Boss” Tweed. Tammany Hall was able to reestablish its status in the city through patronage, bribery, and the selective legislative concession to reform.

................................................................................................

"A key component to urban reform, almost completely divorced from politics was the settlement house movement. These houses were part of a new kind of reform community. Instead of coming in and aiding the poor for the day, only to return to respectable neighborhoods, the women of the settlement house movement lived among those they helped. The women who worked in the houses were predominately college-educated, single, and from middle-class backgrounds. They were civic minded and interested in political, humanitarian, and cultural issues. For many of these women, the living arrangements would have been very familiar. The workers lived in dormitory-like settings, comparable to those at Vassar or Smith College. The movement began in England but quickly spread to the United States. In 1891, there were six settlement houses in the United States; by 1910, there were over four hundred.

"A typical example of a settlement house worker was Lillian Ward, who was from upstate New York. Against her parents’ wishes, she moved to New York City to become a nurse. Ward became disillusioned with nursing after being exposed to the horrible treatment nurses received from doctors. Instead she and some colleagues founded the Henry Street Settlement on New York’s Lower East Side. The Henry Street House helped establish a visiting nurse service and pressured the New York City Board of Health to have a nurse visit every public school in the city. Ward and her associates also got involved in the anti-child labor movement as well as preventing the spread of tuberculosis.

................................................................................................

"Perhaps the most famous settlement house was founded in Chicago on the city’s near west side. Hull House was established by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889. They were directly influenced by a settlement house they had visited in East London in 1884. Hull House took a particular interest in children, offering day care for working mothers, clean playgrounds for neighborhood children, a gymnasium, and a bathhouse. Like other settlement houses, Hull House was also concerned with public health. Addams and Starr worked to get medical professionals to come to the house to help with care but also to offer advice to the area residents. The staff from Hull House and Addams worked tirelessly for better education, sanitation, and workers’ rights. But it was in cultural benefits that Hull House took great pride. There was an art gallery at the house as well as art classes. In addition to teaching English reading for immigrants, Hull House hosted book discussions and also had a music school.

"Although Addams fought against the city and the machine, she wasn’t against working with them if it benefited her constituents. One particular alderman, John Powers, was a target and yet an ally of Addams. She campaigned against him and his corruption, but also supported his efforts when he supplied turkeys and chickens for holiday meals. In addition, Powers made Addams the trash inspector for his ward, which included a salary. It was the only position that Addams held that actually paid.

................................................................................................

"In addition to offering concrete services to the urban poor, settlement house workers provided a voice for these communities as well. They were pivotal in building a greater feeling of sympathy for the poor than had been the case in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. They helped to bridge an understanding of cultural differences between the various groups and with the established American culture. Perhaps most importantly, the workers in settlement houses started the shift in thinking about the poor. Instead of it being a moral failing, settlement houses made the case for being poor as a result of environmental circumstances. It wasn’t the individual’s fault they were poor—it happened because of real social and economic challenges.

................................................................................................

"“Women are in bondage.”

"—Lucy Stone, 1854"

................................................................................................

"The Progressive Era saw a resurgence in the women’s suffrage issue. The cause of women’s suffrage, and women’s rights more generally, is considered to have started in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention. The prewar focus on abolition and the Civil War itself curtailed interest in the women’s movement, not that it was ever completely moribund.

"Women’s right to vote came to the fore again as Congress debated the fifteenth amendment, granting suffrage to black men. Some of the most prominent women in the fight for women’s suffrage split over this debate in 1869. Lucy Stone supported the passage of the amendment, standing with her abolitionist background and allies. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were opposed to the amendment because it didn’t make provisions for women receiving the vote as well. Stone and her groups formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) while Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The AWSA also focused on a more piecemeal approach to suffrage, focusing on local and state laws that provided the vote to women. The NWSA, meanwhile, focused their efforts on pushing for a national amendment for all women.

"The NWSA was not able to find allies for its cause among the prominent political parties nor among organized labor, so in 1890, the two major women’s groups merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). As more and more western states had or were in the process of granting women the right to vote, the merged organization focused on campaigning for the national amendment. It was also crucial to the group to stay away from any other issue and to maintain a singular focus in order to avoid controversy or difficult alliances. The one exception to this rule was that of the temperance movement. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a staunch ally to the women’s movement, especially under the leadership of Frances Willard.

................................................................................................

Notice the distinct misogyny of the phrase "inherent racism in the women’s movement", as if racism was invented by women's movement, or unique to them!

................................................................................................

"“Temperance is moderation in the things that are good and total abstinence from the things that are foul.”

"—Frances E. Willard, 1898"

................................................................................................

It was a correct move even if it failed, because at the very least it generated an awareness of the evils of alcohol, even before addiction was understood medically.

................................................................................................

"The earlier temperance movements of the 1820s to 1850s centered on the individual taking a pledge not to drink. The WCTU wanted the government to ban alcohol entirely because the immorality that accompanied drinking made men incapable of controlling themselves. The WCTU published a great deal of propaganda regarding the dangers of drink, that one night of debauchery could, and most likely did, lead to a broken life. Much of their material focused squarely on this notion of downward mobility, the middle-class protestant man unable to control his drinking becoming destitute.

"In addition to the WCTU tracts on the subject, no material was as famous as the melodramatic novel Ten Nights in a Barroom by Timothy Shay Arthur. In it, the narrator covers ten years and describes the decline of a town which housed the barroom, the patrons of the barroom, and the owner of the bar. All three meet terrible ends to varying degrees, the overall message being the destructive force of alcohol not just on the individual. The novel was made into a popular play and eventually a film in 1931.

................................................................................................

Latter makes no sense, since Germans speaking of it mention only US forces - and instinctively one feels its a safe bet that such a fear was ridiculous.

But why did the German women talking about this fear - in conversations of a new millennium - mention US, not other forces? That has explicitly to do with racism and nazis.

................................................................................................

"Another group, founded in 1893, became an even more powerful single-issue lobbyist, the Anti-Saloon League. The ASL wanted to appear less a moral crusade, though it did have such tendencies, and more of a scientific one. It was sure to highlight the amount of clergy that were members, but it also spent a great deal of time disseminating the most recent studies about the hazards of alcohol. Part of this approach was to appear more masculine. The temperance movement was overwhelmingly associated with women, largely through the WTCU, and the ASL couched much of their public materials to appeal to men, such as comparing the prohibition movement as an army or highlighting the strength in remaining somber.

"What truly set the ASL apart though, not just from the WTCU but many other pressure groups in Washington, was that the ASL was focused on one issue. Some have posited that the ASL was the first such group. Whether or not that is the case, the ASL was one of the most successful. Part of their very effective strategy was to focus on local governments, in hopes to pressure larger governments into recognizing the popularity of the prohibition cause. In their annual reports, the ASL shared how many counties had gone dry since their last report, illustrating the wave of prohibition sweeping the nation. It was very effective, and by the twentieth century, the ban on alcohol was a national debate all the way up to the presidential election level."

................................................................................................

"“False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science.”