PROGRESSIVE
REFORM AND THE TRUSTS
Interpreting
Primary Sources
The dull,
purblind folly of the very rich men; their greed and arrogance...and the
corruption in business and politics, have tended to produce a very unhealthy
condition of excitement and irritation in the popular mind, which shows itself
in the great increase in the socialistic propaganda.
--Theodore
Roosevelt, 1906
I think we
are in a position, after the experience of the last 20 years, to state two
things: in the first place, that a corporation may well be too large to be the
most efficient instrument of production and distribution, and, in the second
place, whether it has exceeded the point of greatest economic efficiency or
not, it may be too large to be tolerated among the people who desire to be
free.
--Louis
Brandeis, 1911
1898 was the
beginning of great industrial organization....Within a period of three years
following, 149 such reorganizations were effected with total stock and bond
capitalization of $3,784,000,000....The success of these [re-]organization led
quickly on to a consolidation of combined industries, until a mere handful of
men controlled the industrial production of the country....
No student
of the economic changes in recent years can escape the conclusion that the
railroads, telegraphs, shipping, cable, telephone, traction, express, mining, iron,
steel, coal, oil, gas, electric light, cotton, copper, sugar, tobacco,
agricultural implements and the food products are completely controlled and
mainly owned by these hundred men....With this enormous concentration of
business it is possible to create, artificially, periods of prosperity and
periods of panic. Prices can be lowered
or advanced at the will of the "System."
--Robert
LaFollette, 1908
If the
anti-trust people really grasped the full meaning of what they said, and if
they really had the power or the courage to do what they propose, they would be
engaged in one of the most destructive agitations that America has known. They would be breaking up the beginning of
collective organization, thwarting the possibility of cooperation, and
insisting upon submitting industry to the wasteful, the planless scramble of
little profiteers.
--Walter
Lippman, 1914
The effort
to restore competition as it was sixty years ago, and to trust for justice
solely to this proposed restoration of competition, is just as foolish as if we
should go back to the flintlocks of Washington's continentals as a substitute
for modern weapons of precision....Our purpose should be, not to strangle
business as an incident of strangling combinations, but to regulate big
corporations in a thoroughgoing and effective fashion, so as to help legitimate
business as an incident to thoroughly and completely safeguarding the interests
of the people as a whole.
--Theodore
Roosevelt
Attempt to
sweep the country back into the old era of ruthless competition, which would be
the direct consequence of a vigorous enforcement of the Sherman [Anti-Trust]
law, and there will return the evils of deceit and fraud in business, violent
fluctuations in prices, the deliberate driving to the wall of weak concerns,
and the eventual creation of monopolies by survivors.
--George W.
Perkins
The
Democratic party insists that competition can and should be maintained in every
branch of private industry; that competition can be and should be restored in
those branches of industry in which it has been suppressed by the trusts; and
that, if at any future time monopoly should appear to be desirable in any
branch of industry, the monopoly should be a public one--a monopoly owned by
the people and not by the capitalists.
--Louis D.
Brandeis
In
particular, the party declares for direct primaries for the nomination of State
and National offices, for nation wide preferential primaries for candidates for
the presidency; for the direct election of United States Senators by the
people; and we urge on the states...the
initiative, referendum, and recall....
The
Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a true
democracy which denies equal political rights on account of sex, pledges itself
to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike.
We pledge
our party to legislation that will compel strict limitation of all campaign
contributions and expenditures, and detailed publicity of both before as well
as after primaries and election....
The
Progressive party demands such restriction of the power of the courts all leave
to the people the ultimate authority to determine fundamental questions of
social welfare and public policy....We believe that the issuance of injunctions
in cases arising out of labor disputes should be prohibited when such
injunctions would not apply when no labor disputes existed....
We pledge
ourselves to work...for:
Effective
legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational
diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurious effects
incident to modern industry;
The
fixing of minimum safety and health standards....
The
prohibition of child labor;
Minimum
wage standards for working women, to provide a "living wage" in all
industrial occupations;
The general prohibition of night work for women and the
establishment of eight hour day for women and young persons;
One
day's rest in seven for all wage workers;
The
eight hour day in continuous twenty-four-hour industries;
The
abolition of the convict contract-labor system....
Standards
of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease
which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people
to the industry, and thus to the community....
Establishing...schools
for industrial education under public control and encouraging agricultural
education and demonstration in rural schools;
The establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the
methods and discoveries of science at the service of American producers;
We
favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as means protecting their
interests and of promoting their progress....
We believe
that the remaining forests, coal and oil lands, water powers and other natural
resources still in State or National control (exception agricultural lands) are
more likely to be wisely conserved and utilized for the general welfare if held
in the public hands.
--Progressive
Party Platform, 1912
We have
itemized with some degree of particularity the things that ought to be
altered: A tariff which cuts us off
from our proper part in the commerce of the world, violates the just principles
of taxation, and makes the government a facile instrument in the hands of
private interests; a banking and
currency system based upon the necessity of the government to sell its bonds
fifty years ago and perfectly adapted to concentrating cash and restricting
credits; an industrial system which, take it on all its sides, financial as
well as administrative, holds capital in leading strings, restricts the
liberties and limits the opportunities of labor, and exploits without renewing
or conserving the natural resources of the country....
--President
Wilson's first inaugural address, 1913
Questions
to think about:
1. Why were Progressives concerned about
industrial concentration?
2. What should government do about concentrated
economic power? Should it create regulate competition or should it break up big
business?
3. Compare and contrast the platforms of the
Progressive and Democratic parties.
STUDY
AID: PROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION
1901 New
York State Tenement Requires fire escapes, lights in dark
hallways, a window in
House
Law each room
1902 Maryland
Workmen's Provide benefits for workers injured on the job
Compensation
Law
Wisconsin
Direct Primary Allows voters to select candidates
Law
Oregon
Initiative and Gives voters power to initiate
legislation and vote on
Referendum
laws important issues
Newlands
Act Funds irrigation projects in West
1903 Oregon
women's labor Limits work for women in industry law to 10 hours a day
Elkins
Act Strengthens Interstate Commerce
Act
1906 Hepburn Act Authorizes
Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum
railroad
rates
Pure
Food and Drug Act Prohibits sale of adulterated or
fraudulently labeled foods and
drugs
Meat
Inspection Act Enforces sanitary conditions in
meatpacking plants
1910
Mann Act Prohibits interstate transportation of women for
immoral
purposes
1913 16th
Amendment Authorizes federal income tax
1915 Seaman's
Act Regulates conditions of maritime workers
1916 Federal
Farm Loan Act Provide farmers with low interest loans
Federal Child Labor Law Barred
products produced by children from interstate commerce (declared
unconstitutional in 1918)
1919 18th
Amendment Prohibited sale and production of
intoxicating liquors
1920 19th
Amendment Gave
women the right to vote