Political and Social Reform
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was much unrest because of falling crop prices in the global market and increased prices for machines to farm the crops, as well as unfair work hours, dangerous working conditions, child labor, and monopolies. Agricultural troubles led to the creation of the Populist party, one of the first reform parties. However, there were reformists in other parties as well.
Reformists during the Progressive Era aimed to use the power of the government to address these negative aspects of industrialization, although none of the reform parties managed to secure the presidency. However, some of the most important reformists during this era were presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, who were part of the Republican Party. They got rid of child labor and many monopolies, and passed laws changing work hours to a maximum of eight per day and laws attempting to better the working conditions.
Populist Reform
Declining crop prices, high tariffs, and overproduction were some of the factors that led to the formation of the Populist Party (1892 - 1909), which sought to address farmers' grievances through political action. The Populists advocated for policies like the unlimited coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, and government ownership of railroads to help farmers and laborers compete with big business and industry. However, the Populist party was not very successful because of its similarity to the European Communist and Socialist movements and also because it did not appeal to industrial workers, who were the largest population of voters at that time.
One of the most significant changes the Populists envisioned was the switch from a gold-backed currency to a silver-backed currency. Paper currency was originally invented as a system where a person would, on depositing an amount of gold into a bank or goldsmith's shop, receive a note that would guarantee the same amount of gold that the person deposited back to them. In more recent times, this translated to a sum of money being equivalent to an amount of gold, which you could buy from the government at a fixed price. In the United States, until 1970, a dollar would be equivalent to 1/35 of an ounce of gold. By changing the dollar from gold-backed to silver-backed, it would become cheaper, since silver is more common than gold, driving inflation and making farmers' debts cheaper as well.
One of the biggest proponents of removing the gold standard was William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925), the Democratic Party candidate in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections, and never winning. He wrote the famous Cross of Gold speech, advocating a bi-metal standard to devalue the dollar, making it easier for farmers to repay the debts. Bryan did not win any of the elections because his policies did not appeal to more populated industrialized Republican states.
Another issue that demanded reform was that of corruption in government and the lack of governmental involvement in business laws, which often led to abuses and scams. Some of the biggest issues in the government were that of nepotism and patronage, or granting high-paying government jobs to family or those who are in your political party rather than based on merit. This was a big issue, and President James Garfield was actually assassinated by the lawyer Charles J. Guiteau on account of not giving him a government job. Garfield's successor, Chester A. Arthur, implemented the Civil Service Commission, which was intended to ensure that government employees got jobs based on merit, not political alignment. The Civil Service Commission was dissolved in 1979, replaced by the Office of Personnel Management and Merit Systems Protection Board.
Another issue in America during this time was segregation and the negative impacts it had on the country in general, as contributions to society by African-Americans would often be overlooked just because they were African-American. The largest group against ending segregation were the Southern Democrats, from which many of the KKK came.
Progressive Reform
On the other side of the reform spectrum was the progressive reform party. Where the Populists can be compared to the modern-day Republicans, the Progressives can be compared to the modern-day Democrats. They campaigned to regulate big businesses, improve working conditions, introduce women's suffrage, reform education, and combat corruption in government, especially in political machines. Radical Progressives took many ideas from European thinkers, especially Sigmund Freud, in their social reform plans.
Political machines were another large problem during this time. A political machine was an institution provided care for immigrants, giving them food, jobs, and a place to stay, to influence these immigrants to vote for their candidates in elections. These "political machines" were able to greatly influence elections for their party. However, they were fraught with corruption. Progressive reformists called for government provision of the social services that these political machines offered to immigrants to reduce the corruption in major cities.
One of the most infamous political machines during this time was Tammany Hall, in New York City, run by William Magear "Boss" Tweed. Tweed and his associates, known as the Tweed Ring, controlled the city's politics through corruption, vote-buying, and embezzlement. They manipulated city contracts and siphoned off large sums of money for their own benefit, leading to widespread government corruption. This "political machine" ended up getting Tweed and his associates more than $200 million in New York City funds. However, Tweed was caught after trying to escape to Spain and later died in prison.
Progressive presidents included Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson. These presidents, from both the Republican and Democratic parties, did a lot of good for the United States, attempting to rid the government from the influence of big business, breaking trusts, advancing the rights of working men in big business, and setting aside millions of acres of land as natural reserves. One of the most popular Progressive presidents, and one of the most popular presidents of all time, was Theodore Roosevelt, a hero of the Spanish-American war who is best known for creating the United States Forest Service and 150 national forests, breaking up trusts, and getting the teddy bear named after him.
One of the most well-known things that Roosevelt did during his term as president was creating the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which was the first of a series of consumer protection laws and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. Roosevelt had the idea to create this act when he read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, a "muckraking" report on extremely unhygienic conditions in meat packing plants in Detroit, Michigan. Meat would sometimes be dressed with borax and glycerine, it would fall on the floor, and was stored in large quantities in rooms where rats would be present and defecate on it.
From 1895-1901, the United States was heavily involved in China. After China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese war from 1894-1895, many Western countries moved in to stake their claims in the plentiful Chinese resources. McKinley's administration, desiring the profits of carving up China with the rest of the Western countries and Japan, requested an Open-Door Policy that would "respect Chinese rights" and enable the United States to cash in on those delicious resources. Later, the Chinese Boxer Rebellion broke out, and the United States was one of the eight countries who sent troops in to quell it. After the Boxer rebellion was over, China was issued a fine of $300 million, which the United States remitted $18 million of to the Chinese as an act of friendship.
The Spanish-American war of 1898 began when the U.S. warship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. Previously, Spain had been quelling a Cuban rebellion of independence, which the United States was sympathetic towards. The explosion of the Maine was probably an accident, but many Americans believed it was an attack by the Spanish and the country went to war against Spain. The main battlefields of the Spanish-American war were Cuba and the Philippines. By the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States had control over many, formerly Spanish, islands in the Pacific and Caribbean Sea.
American imperialism was justified by the idea that America brought democracy to the people it was colonizing, enabling them to rule themselves. However, many times, the United States was merely colonizing like every other European country it condemned for doing the same thing. In fact, the United States proposed the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution, giving the US
"the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty"
among other things.
American imperialism flourished under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, who was a major proponent of imperialism, serving in the army during the Spanish-American war and encouraging the adoption of the Open Door Policy. American imperialism in the Philippines was more akin to a massacre than "colonizing the natives" and giving them "means to govern themselves". After the United States acquired the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish-American War, it was clear that the Americans would not actually grant the islands independence, and war broke out between the Americans and the Filipinos, which ended in the deaths of over 200,000 Filipinos, most of whom were non-combatants, and the deployment of around 126,000 American soldiers.
After the Spanish-American War, it became obvious that to protect their new colonies overseas, American ships had to be able to get there quickly. The United States offered a large sum of money to Columbia to give them a six-mile strip of land in Panama to build a canal that would link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but the Columbians refused. One very convenient revolution later, the newly created state of Panama sold the land to the United States. This, and other American military and political actions in South America caused many Latin American countries to be suspicious of American "goodwill".
Two important policies that drove imperialism during this time were the Roosevelt Corollary and Taft's dollar diplomacy. The Roosevelt Corollary was an extension of the earlier Monroe Doctrine, stating that the US would function as "the policeman of the Caribbean", ensuring that only the United States would be able to influence South American countries, not the European powers. Taft's "dollar diplomacy" took a less forceful angle to the idea of increasing America's empire. This policy encouraged American investors to invest their money in foreign markets to increase American influence in those areas.
The next president to be elected after Taft was Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic Party candidate. He strongly disagreed with the policies of imperialism that Roosevelt and Taft had applied during their presidencies, realizing that they were making America look very bad in front of the rest of the world. Wilson worked to dismantle these policies during his presidency, with mixed results. In fact, he intervened more in Latin American affairs than any other president, despite his desire to limit US involvement in the region.
