The Progressive Era: Crash Course US History #27 — Transcript

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1. 0:00Episode 27: Progressive Era
2. 0:01Hi, I’m John Green, this is CrashCourse U.S. history, and today we’re gonna talk
3. 0:04about Progressives.
4. 0:05No Stan Progressives.
5. 0:06Yes.
6. 0:07You know, like these guys who used to want to bomb the means of production, but also
7. 0:10less radical Progressives.
8. 0:11Mr. Green, Mr. Green.
9. 0:12Are we talking about, like, tumblr progressive where it’s half discussions of misogyny
10. 0:16and half high-contrast images of pizza?
11. 0:19Because if so, I can get behind that.
12. 0:20Me from the past, your anachronism is showing.
13. 0:23Your Internet was green letters on a black screen.
14. 0:25But no, The Progressive Era was not like tumblr, however I will argue that it did indirectly
15. 0:29make tumblr and therefore JLaw gifsets possible, so that’s something.
16. 0:34So some of the solutions that progressives came up with to deal with issues of inequality
17. 0:37and injustice don’t seem terribly progressive today, and also it kinda overlapped with the
18. 0:43gilded age, and progressive implies, like, progress, presumably progress toward freedom
19. 0:47and justice, which is hard to argue about an era that involved one of the great restrictions
20. 0:51on freedom in American history, prohibition.
21. 0:54So maybe we shouldn’t call it the Progressive Era at all.
22. 0:56I g--Stan, whatever, roll the intro.
23. 0:59Intro So, if the Gilded Age was the period when
24. 1:08American industrial capitalism came into its own, and people like Mark Twain began to criticize
25. 1:12its associated problems, then the Progressive era was the age in which people actually tried
26. 1:17to solve those problems through individual and group action.
27. 1:20As the economy changed, Progressives also had to respond to a rapidly changing political
28. 1:24system.
29. 1:25The population of the U.S. was growing and its economic power was becoming ever more
30. 1:28concentrated.
31. 1:29And sometimes, Progressives responded to this by opening up political participation and
32. 1:33sometimes by trying to restrict the vote.
33. 1:36The thing is, broad participatory democracy doesn’t always result in effective government--he
34. 1:41said, sounding like the Chinese national Communist Party.
35. 1:43And that tension between wanting to have government for, of, and by the people and wanting to
36. 1:47have government that’s, like, good at governing kind of defined the Progressive era.
37. 1:51And also our era.
38. 1:52But progressives were most concerned with the social problems that revolved around industrial
39. 1:56capitalist society.
40. 1:57And most of these problems weren’t new by 1900, but some of the responses were.
41. 2:01Companies and, later, corporations had a problem that had been around at least since the 1880s:
42. 2:05they needed to keep costs down and profits high in a competitive market.
43. 2:10And one of the best ways to do this was to keep wages low, hours long, and conditions
44. 2:14appalling: your basic house-elf situation.
45. 2:16Just kidding, house elves didn’t get wages.
46. 2:18Also, by the end of the 19th century, people started to feel like these large, monopolistic
47. 2:23industrial combinations, the so-called trusts, were exerting too much power over people’s
48. 2:28lives.
49. 2:29The 1890s saw federal attempts to deal with these trusts, such as the Sherman Anti-Trust
50. 2:32Act, but overall, the Federal Government wasn’t where most progressive changes were made.
51. 2:36For instance, there was muckraking, a form of journalism in which reporters would find
52. 2:40some muck and rake it.
53. 2:42Mass circulation magazines realized they could make money by publishing exposés of industrial
54. 2:46and political abuse, so they did.
55. 2:48Oh, it’s time for the Mystery Document?
56. 2:49I bet it involves muck.
57. 2:54The rules here are simple.
58. 2:55I guess the author of the Mystery Document.
59. 2:56I’m either correct or I get shocked.
60. 2:58“Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and all
61. 3:03the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one.
62. 3:08Of the butchers and floormen, the beef-boners and trimmers, and all those who used knives,
63. 3:13you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb; time and time again the
64. 3:18base of it had been slashed, till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed
65. 3:24the knife to hold it.
66. 3:25... They would have no nails – they had worn them off pulling hides.”
67. 3:29Wow.
68. 3:30Well now I am hyper-aware of and grateful for my thumbs.
69. 3:34They are just in excellent shape.
70. 3:36I am so glad, Stan, that I am not a beef-boner at one of the meat-packing factories written
71. 3:43about in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
72. 3:45No shock for me!
73. 3:47Oh Stan, I can only imagine how long and hard you’ve worked to get the phrase “beef-boner”
74. 3:51into this show.
75. 3:52And you finally did it.
76. 3:53Congratulations.
77. 3:54By the way, just a little bit of trivia: The Jungle was the first book I ever read that
78. 3:58made me vomit.
79. 4:00So that’s a review.
80. 4:01I don’t know if it’s positive, but there you go.
81. 4:03Anyway, at the time, readers of The Jungle were more outraged by descriptions of rotten
82. 4:07meat than by the treatment of meatpacking workers: The Jungle led to the Pure Food and
83. 4:11Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
84. 4:15That’s pretty cool for Upton Sinclair, although my books have also led to some federal legislation,
85. 4:18such as the HAOPT, which officially declared Hazel and Augustus the nation’s OTP.
86. 4:22So, to be fair, writers had been describing the harshness of industrial capitalism for
87. 4:27decades, so muckraking wasn’t really that new, but the use of photography for documentation
88. 4:32was.
89. 4:33Lewis Hine, for instance, photographed child laborers in factories and mines, bringing
90. 4:36Americans face to face with the more than 2 million children under the age of 15 working
91. 4:41for wages.
92. 4:42And Hine’s photos helped bring about laws that limited child labor.
93. 4:45But even more important than the writing and photographs and magazines when it came to
94. 4:48improving conditions for workers was Twitter … what’s that?
95. 4:51There was no twitter?
96. 4:52Still?
97. 4:53What is this 1812?
98. 4:54Alright, so apparently still without Twitter, workers had to organize into unions to get
99. 4:59corporations to reduce hours and raise their pay.
100. 5:02Also some employers started to realize on their own that one way to mitigate some of
101. 5:05the problems of industrialization was to pay workers better, like in 1914, Henry Ford paid
102. 5:10his workers an average of $5 per day, unheard of at the time.
103. 5:14. Whereas today I pay Stan and Danica 3x that
104. 5:16and still they whine.
105. 5:18Ford’s reasoning was that better-paid workers would be better able to afford the Model Ts
106. 5:22that they were making.
107. 5:23And indeed, Ford’s annual output rose from 34,000 cars to 730,000 between 1910 and 1916,
108. 5:30and the price of a Model T dropped from $700 to $316.
109. 5:34Still, Henry Ford definitely forgot to be awesome sometimes; he was anti-Semitic, he
110. 5:38used spies in his factories, and he named his child Edsel.
111. 5:42Also like most employers at the turn of the century, he was virulently anti-union.
112. 5:45So, while the AFL was organizing the most privileged industrial workers, another union
113. 5:50grew up to advocate for rights for a larger swath of the workforce, especially the immigrants
114. 5:55who dominated unskilled labor: The International Workers of the World.
115. 5:59They were also known as the Wobblies, and they were founded in 1905 to advocate for
116. 6:03“every wage-worker, no matter what his religion, fatherland or trade,” and not, as the name
117. 6:09Wobblies suggests, just those fans of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey.
118. 6:12The Wobblies were radical socialists; ultimately they wanted to see capitalism and the state
119. 6:16disappear in revolution.
120. 6:17Now, most progressives didn’t go that far, but some, following the ideas of Henry George,
121. 6:22worried that economic progress could produce a dangerous unequal distribution of wealth
122. 6:26that could only be cured by … taxes.
123. 6:29But, more Progressives were influenced by Simon W. Patten who prophesied that industrialization
124. 6:34would bring about a new civilization where everyone would benefit from the abundance
125. 6:38and all the leisure time that all these new labor-saving devices could bring.
126. 6:41This optimism was partly spurred by the birth of a mass consumption society.
127. 6:45I mean, Americans by 1915 could purchase all kinds of new-fangled devices, like washing
128. 6:49machines, or vacuum cleaners, automobiles, record players.
129. 6:53It’s worth underscoring that all this happened in a couple generations: I mean, in 1850,
130. 6:57almost everyone listened to music and washed their clothes in nearly the same way that
131. 7:02people did 10,000 years ago.
132. 7:04And then BOOM.
133. 7:06And for many progressives, this consumer culture, to quote our old friend Eric Foner, “became
134. 7:10the foundation for a new understanding of freedom as access to the cornucopia of goods
135. 7:15made available by modern capitalism.”
136. 7:17And this idea was encouraged by new advertising that connected goods with freedom, using “liberty”
137. 7:23as a brand name or affixing the Statue of Liberty to a product.
138. 7:26By the way, Crash Course is made exclusively in the United States of America, the greatest
139. 7:31nation on earth ever.
140. 7:32(Libertage.)
141. 7:33That’s a lie, of course, but you’re allowed to lie in advertising.
142. 7:39But in spite of this optimism, most progressives were concerned that industrial capitalism,
143. 7:43with its exploitation of labor and concentration of wealth, was limiting, rather than increasing
144. 7:48freedom, but depending on how you defined “freedom,” of course.
145. 7:52Industrialization created what they referred to as “the labor problem” as mechanization
146. 7:56diminished opportunities for skilled workers and the supervised routine of the factory
147. 8:00floor destroyed autonomy.
148. 8:02The scientific workplace management advocated by efficiency expert Frederick W. Taylor required
149. 8:07rigid rules and supervision in order to heighten worker productivity.
150. 8:11So if you’ve ever had a job with a defined number of bathroom breaks, that’s why.
151. 8:15Also “Taylorism” found its way into classrooms; and anyone who’s had to sit in rows for
152. 8:2045 minute periods punctuated by factory-style bells knows that this atmosphere is not particularly
153. 8:26conducive to a sense of freedom.
154. 8:28Now this is a little bit confusing because while responding to worker exploitation was
155. 8:31part of the Progressive movement, so was Taylorism itself because it was an application of research,
156. 8:36observation, and expertise in response to the vexing problem of how to increase productivity.
157. 8:40And this use of scientific experts is another hallmark of the Progressive era, one that
158. 8:44usually found its expression in politics.
159. 8:46American Progressives, like their counterparts in the Green Sections of Not-America, sought
160. 8:50government solutions to social problems.
161. 8:52Germany, which is somewhere over here, pioneered “social legislation” with its minimum
162. 8:57wage, unemployment insurance and old age pension laws, but the idea that government action
163. 9:01could address the problems and insecurities that characterized the modern industrial world,
164. 9:06also became prominent in the United States.
165. 9:08And the notion that an activist government could enhance rather than threaten people’s
166. 9:12freedom was something new in America.
167. 9:14Now, Progressives pushing for social legislation tended to have more success at the state and
168. 9:17local level, especially in cities, which established public control over gas and water and raised
169. 9:23taxes to pay for transportation and public schools.
170. 9:26Whereas federally the biggest success was, like, Prohibition, which, you know, not that
171. 9:29successful.
172. 9:30But anyway, if all that local collectivist investment sounds like Socialism, it kind
173. 9:34of is.
174. 9:35I mean, by 1912 the Socialist Party had 150,000 members and had elected scores of local officials
175. 9:40like Milwaukee mayor Emil Seidel.
176. 9:43Some urban progressives even pushed to get rid of traditional democratic forms altogether.
177. 9:47A number of cities were run by commissions of experts or city managers, who would be
178. 9:51chosen on the basis of some demonstrated expertise or credential rather than their ability to
179. 9:56hand out turkeys at Christmas or find jobs for your nephew’s sister’s cousin.
180. 10:01Progressive editor Walter Lippman argued for applying modern scientific expertise to solve
181. 10:05social problems in his 1914 book Drift and Mastery, writing that scientifically trained
182. 10:10experts “could be trusted more fully than ordinary citizens to solve America’s deep
183. 10:15social problems.”
184. 10:16This tension between government by experts and increased popular democratic participation
185. 10:21is one of the major contradictions of the Progressive era.
186. 10:23The 17th amendment allowed for senators to be elected directly by the people rather than
187. 10:28by state legislatures, and many states adopted primaries to nominate candidates, again taking
188. 10:33power away from political parties and putting it in the hands of voters.
189. 10:36And some states, particularly western ones like California adopted aspects of even more
190. 10:41direct democracy, the initiative, which allowed voters to put issues on the ballot, and the
191. 10:46referendum, which allows them to vote on laws directly.
192. 10:49And lest you think that more democracy is always good, I present you with California.
193. 10:53But many Progressives wanted actual policy made by experts who knew what was best for
194. 10:57the people, not the people themselves.
195. 10:59And despite primaries in direct elections of senators it’s hard to argue that the
196. 11:03Progressive Era was a good moment for democratic participation, since many Progressives were
197. 11:07only in favor of voting insofar as it was done by white, middle class, Protestant voters.
198. 11:12Alright.
199. 11:13Let’s Go to the Thought Bubble.
200. 11:15Progressives limited immigrants’ participation in the political process through literacy
201. 11:18tests and laws requiring people to register to vote.
202. 11:21Voter registration was supposedly intended to limit fraud and the power of political
203. 11:25machines.
204. 11:26Stop me if any of this sounds familiar, but it actually just suppressed voting generally.
205. 11:30Voting gradually declined from 80% of male Americans voting in the 1890s to the point
206. 11:35where today only about 50% of eligible Americans vote in presidential elections.
207. 11:39But an even bigger blow to democracy during the Progressive era came with the Jim Crow
208. 11:43laws passed by legislatures in southern states, which legally segregated the South.
209. 11:47First, there was the deliberate disenfranchisement of African Americans.
210. 11:51The 15th amendment made it illegal to deny the right to vote based on race, color or
211. 11:55previous condition of servitude but said nothing about the ability to read, so many Southern
212. 12:00states instituted literacy requirements.
213. 12:02Other states added poll taxes, requiring people to pay to vote, which effectively disenfranchised
214. 12:07large numbers of African American people, who were disproportionately poor.
215. 12:11The Supreme Court didn’t help: In 1896, it made one of its most famous bad decisions,
216. 12:16Plessy v. Ferguson, ruling that segregation in public accommodations, in Homer Plessy’s
217. 12:20case a railroad car, did not violate the 14th amendment’s Equal Protection clause.
218. 12:25As long as black railroad cars were equal to white ones, it was A-OK to have duplicate
219. 12:30sets of everything.
220. 12:31Now, creating two sets of equal quality of everything would get really expensive, so
221. 12:35Southern states didn’t actually do it.
222. 12:37Black schools, public restrooms, public transportation opportunities--the list goes on and on--would
223. 12:42definitely be separate, and definitely not equal.
224. 12:45Thanks, ThoughtBubble.
225. 12:46Now, of course, as we’ve seen Progressive ideas inspired a variety of responses, both
226. 12:50for Taylorism and against it, both for government by experts and for direct democracy.
227. 12:55Similarly, in the Progressive era, just as the Jim Crow laws were being passed, there
228. 12:58were many attempts to improve the lives of African Americans.
229. 13:01The towering figure in this movement to “uplift” black southerners was Booker T. Washington,
230. 13:05a former slave who became the head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a center for
231. 13:09vocational education.
232. 13:10And Washington urged southern black people to emphasize skills that could make them successful
233. 13:15in the contemporary economy.
234. 13:16The idea was that they would earn the respect of white people by demonstrating their usefulness
235. 13:20and everyone would come to respect each other through the recognition of mutual dependence
236. 13:25while continuing to live in separate social spheres.
237. 13:27But Washington’s accommodationist stance was not shared by all African Americans.
238. 13:32WEB DuBois advocated for full civil and political rights for black people and helped to found
239. 13:36the NAACP, which urged African Americans to fight for
240. 13:39their rights through “persistent, manly agitation.”
241. 13:43So I wanted to talk about the Progressive Era today not only because it shows up on
242. 13:46a lot of tests, but because Progressives tried to tackle many of the issues that we face
243. 13:50today, particularly concerning immigration and economic justice, and they used some of
244. 13:55the same methods that we use today: organization, journalistic exposure, and political activism.
245. 14:00Now, we may use tumblr or tea party forums, but the same concerns motivate us to work
246. 14:05together.
247. 14:06And just as today, many of their efforts were not successful because of the inherent difficulty
248. 14:11in trying to mobilize very different interests in a pluralistic nation.
249. 14:15In some ways their platforms would have been better suited to an America that was less
250. 14:19diverse and complex.
251. 14:20But it was that very diversity and complexity that gave rise and still gives rise to the
252. 14:25urge toward progress in the first place.
253. 14:28Thanks for watching.
254. 14:29I’ll see you next week.
255. 14:30Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller.
256. 14:32Our script supervisor is Meredith Danko.
257. 14:34The associate producer is Danica Johnson.
258. 14:35The show is written by my high school history teacher, Raoul Meyer, Rosianna Rojas, and
259. 14:39myself.
260. 14:40And our graphics team is Thought Café.
261. 14:41Every week there’s a new caption for the libertage.
262. 14:43You can suggest captions in comments where you can also ask questions about today’s
263. 14:46video that will be answered by our team of historians.
264. 14:48Thanks for watching Crash Course.
265. 14:49If you like it, and if you’re watching the credits you probably do, make sure you’re
266. 14:52subscribed.
267. 14:53And as we say in my hometown don’t forget to be awesome...That was more dramatic than
268. 15:00it sounded.
269. 15:01Progressive Era -