Progressive Era

Jane ADams- worked with Woodrow Wilson as a reformer and soCial activist. Was one of the most prominent reformers of the Progressive Era. Helped America see issues of the needs of Children, local public health, And worlD peace. Thought that women should have the right to vote. Became a role model for the middle-Class women who volunteered to uplift their communities. Robert M. Lafollette- “Fighting Bob”, was A proponent of progressivism and A vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War 1, and the League of Nations. He serveD as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was the Governor of Wisconsin, and was a U.S. Senator. Also ran for President as the nominee of his own progressive party. Zimmerman Note- was a secret telegram sent on Jan. 16,1917 by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassaDDDor to the U.S. He said that in the event of war with the U.S., Mexico should be asked to join the war as a German ally. “Olivette Reporting”- Most famous of the Anti-Spanish yellow journalism. Feb. 12,1987 the journal reported that as the American steamship Olivette was leaving Havana Harbor for the U.S., was boarded by Spanish officers who searched three young Cuban women, one was suspected of carrying messages from the rebels. The journal ran the story with the headline, “Does Our Flag Protect Women?” Enrique Dupuy de Lomé- Spanish ambassador to the U.S. through the De Lomé Letter, defamed U.S. Pres. Willian McKinley, attacked McKinley’s policies, and regarded him as an overall weak Pres. Lead to the start of Spanish-American War in 1898. Emilio Aguinaldo- known rebel leader, he achieved independence of the Philippines from Spain and was elected the first President (1899-1901) of the New Republic under the Malolos Congress. He also led the Philippine-American War against the U.S. resistance to Philippine independence.  John Hay- Appointed to secretary of state in 1898 under William McKinley and continued under Roosevelt until he died. He was responsible for all of the treaties that the dealt with the Panama Canal. He negotiated the treaty with England in 1901 (Hay Bonsafoot Treaty) saying that England gave the US permission to build the canal but in times of peace had to let all country’s use it. He then dealt with the Hay-Herran Treaty which allowed the US to buy a 6-mile-wide canal zone for $10 mil plus $250k a year. Roosevelt Corollary- It was added to the Monroe Doctrine by TR in 1904 because TR grew concerned that a crisis between Venezuela and its creditors could spark an invasion of that nation by European powers. The Roosevelt Corollary of December 1904 stated that the United States would intervene as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors, and did not violate the rights of the United States or invite “foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations.” As the corollary worked out in practice, the United States increasingly used military force to restore internal stability to nations in the region. Roosevelt declared that the United States might “exercise international police power in ‘flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence.’” Over the long term the corollary had little to do with relations between the Western Hemisphere and Europe, but it did serve as justification for U.S. intervention in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Muckrakers: groundbreaking investigative journalists who wrote a series of exposes for McClure’s, Collier’s, and the Ladys Home Journal.  The muckrakers were the most important single element within the movement giving it direction and focus.  Their articles exposed waste and corruption across all aspects of industry and government.  The leader of the Muckrakers was Lincoln Steffens a New York reporter and writer of many articles and books on political corruption including Tweed Days in St. Louis released in 1902 and The Shame of the Cities released in 1904.  Other influential muckrakers include: Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Jacob Riis. Harvey Wiley: chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture.  He had suspected adulteration of common foods and had started his own internal testing before President Roosevelt contacted him to form the Poison Squad.  Roosevelt, remembering the high number of deaths from eating ‘embalmed beef’ in the Spanish American War, also suspected that the food industry had some dark secrets and asked Wiley to form a test group of 12 males in 1902 to discover and study the effect of additives on the human body.  For the next five years Wiley and his courageous group of college student guinea pigs ate enormous quantities of foods with preservatives and additives which included:1. embalming fluid (formaldehyde) in milk and other products 2. borax in butter, meat and dairy products 3. sulfuric acid in many canned goods 4. saltpeter another common preservative 5. copper-sulfate to keep color in canned goods (a pesticide today)! Wiley’s ‘Squad’ also tested over the counter drugs which were full of: 1. Morphine 2. Opium 3. Alcohol. Northern Securities Company: In 1902 TR ordered Attorney General Philander Knox to sue Northern Securities Company which was a huge railroad combination controlling the west and northwest which was formed in 1901and which was controlled by John P. Morgan.  The combination controlled five lines and was using monopolistic practices that were clearly in restraint of trade. Expedition Act 1903 = Created after TR used his executive powers to sue Northern Securities Company under the Sherman Antitrust Act only to see Morgan’s lawyers delay the case.  TR pushed the Expedition Act to cut the red tape and push the case through the federal court system. Alfred T. Mahan- A Naval Captain and Prolific Writer who published The Influence of Sea Power Upon History in 1890. Mahan also taught at the Naval War College and pointed out our naval weakness and our inability to protect both of our coasts. Mahan stated that our Navy was unacceptable for a country our size. He also set forth a series of 5 principles which he stated was necessary for the U.S. to take its Josiah Strong- Led a group of protestant military societies and released Our Country: Its Possible Future Frederick Jackson Turner- An American historian and essayist who helped Americans look outward at a famous essay titled “The Significance of the American Frontier in American History” which was first delivered at the Columbian Expansion in 1893. Turner’s research indicated that the frontier had been one of the major democratizing agents throughout our early history and his paper hinted that with n frontier to keep our society on the right path, we could decline as a nation.