182-494: Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary The Icarians / ɪ ˈ k ɛ r i ə n z / were a French-based utopian socialist movement, established by the followers of politician, journalist, and author Étienne Cabet . In an attempt to put his economic and social theories into practice, Cabet led his followers to the United States of America in 1848, where
364-501: A "New Nationalism" with active supervision of corporations, higher taxes, and unemployment and old-age insurance. He supported voting rights for women but was silent on civil rights for blacks, who remained in the regular Republican fold. He lost and his new party collapsed, as conservatism dominated the GOP for decades to come. Biographer William Harbaugh argues: Woodrow Wilson gained a national reputation as governor of New Jersey by defeating
546-622: A "New View of Society". He outlined his position in a report to the committee of the House of Commons on the country's Poor Laws . As misery and trade stagnation after the Napoleonic Wars drew national attention, the government called on Owen for advice on how to alleviate the industrial concerns. Although he ascribed the immediate misery to the wars, he saw it as the underlying cause of competition of human labour with machinery and recommended setting up self-sufficient communities. Owen appealed to
728-653: A better person'. He gained wealth in the early 1800s from a textile mill at New Lanark , Scotland. Having trained as a draper in Stamford, Lincolnshire he worked in London before relocating aged 18 to Manchester and textile manufacturing. In 1824, he moved to America and put most of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana , as a preliminary for his utopian society. It lasted about two years. Other Owenite communities also failed, and in 1828 Owen returned to London, where he continued to champion
910-541: A blistering indictment of corruption in the US Senate. Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained they were not being helpful by raking up too much muck. The progressives were avid modernizers, with a belief in science and technology as the grand solution to society's flaws. They looked to education as the key to bridging the gap between their present wasteful society and technologically enlightened future society. Characteristics of progressivism included
1092-483: A book to expound his economic and social ideas. Following the example of Thomas More in using the form of an allegorical novel allowed not only the exposition of his ideal form of administration but an opportunity for cloaked criticism of the existing regime. The result of Cabet's writing was Voyage et aventures de Lord William Carisdall en Icarie (Voyage and Adventures of Lord William Carisdall in Icaria), published in
1274-822: A committee member of the Manchester Board of Health, instigated principally by Thomas Percival to press for improvements in the health and working conditions of factory workers. In July 1799 Owen and his partners bought the New Lanark mill from David Dale, and Owen became its manager in January 1800. Encouraged by his management success in Manchester, Owen hoped to conduct the New Lanark mill on higher principles than purely commercial ones. It had been established in 1785 by David Dale and Richard Arkwright . Its water power provided by
1456-530: A constitution which provided for an elected president and board of directors, which would supplant the absolute, personal authority of the unitary leader. This system functioned effectively for a time. In 1852, a lawsuit was filed in Paris against Cabet by a number of dissident former Icarians, who claimed their property was obtained by him by means of fraud. Cabet returned to France for 18 months to fight these charges. When he returned to America, he began to push through
1638-467: A democratic political tradition. In May 1847, Cabet's organ Le Populaire carried a lengthy article entitled "Allons en Icarie" (Let Us Go to Icaria), detailing the proposal to establish an American colony based upon the Icarian political and economic ideals and calling for those committed to building an artisanal and agrarian community to volunteer. The wheels were thus set in motion for the formation of what
1820-433: A favorable attitude toward urban–industrial society, belief in mankind's ability to improve the environment and conditions of life, belief in an obligation to intervene in economic and social affairs, a belief in the ability of experts and in the efficiency of government intervention. Scientific management, as promulgated by Frederick Winslow Taylor , became a watchword for industrial efficiency and elimination of waste, with
2002-463: A four-sided block each displaying a different colour representing the behaviour of the employee. The colour for poor performance was black and he believed it aligned with the Scottish term 'black-affronted' meaning to be embarrassed, while the opposite is white to symbolize meritorious conduct. His strategy was successful as employees at the time cared about maintaining a good relationship with Owen to leave
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#17328518533212184-524: A four-volume history of the French Revolution . He also remained active in politics and was elected as a deputy to the lower chamber of the National Assembly in 1834. Cabet emerged as a fierce opponent of the new conservative regime and a potential revolutionary leader, drawing the attention of the regime and its repressive mechanism. In an effort to eliminate the dangerous democratic agitator, Cabet
2366-466: A four-year term. This president, under Cabet's new scheme, would have the ability to control all aspects of the community's government. This position by Cabet was anathema to a majority of the Icarian cooperators, who were deeply inspired and influenced by the history and traditions of the Great French Revolution and its democratic ideals. Cabet's position was deeply held by him as essential to
2548-591: A good education and better living condition to live righteously. He valued social and educational reforms for the middle class and rejected the capitalist power which elevated the powerful figures at the expense of others. Regardless of his adversaries' attacks, he remained persuasive of his goals. Owen funded kids' schools and advocated for free education, equal rights and freedom. He participated in legislation to improve labourers' wages and working conditions. Owen believed compassion, kindness and solidarity corrected bad habits, encouraged self- discipline and enhanced
2730-440: A good impression on him since he took a different approach to employee regulation. This idea supports his overall thought that human nature is moulded for better or worse by the environment. Owen had a significant impact on British socialism as well as on unionism which helped him set an example for others. Owen adopted new principles to raise the standard of goods his workers produced. A cube with faces painted in different colours
2912-471: A government functionary in Corsica, Cabet moved into criticism of the new Orléanist regime for its conservatism and half-measures with respect to constitutional rule and the democratic rights of the people. This brought about Cabet's prompt removal from office by the new regime in Paris, at whose pleasure Cabet served. Following his dismissal as Corsican Attorney-General, Cabet turned his hand to writing, authoring
3094-525: A happy and fulfilled community. Announcement of the plan was met with enthusiasm, and offers of participation along with gifts of money, seeds, farm implements, clothing, books, and other valuable and useful items began to flow in. Cabet gave himself the task of choosing a precise location for colonization. Cabet turned to his friend Robert Owen for advice, traveling to London in September 1847 to consult with his British co-thinker. Owen recommended colonization in
3276-407: A history of Icaria. It appears that the social order of the country had been similar to that prevailing in the rest of the world, until 1782, when the great national hero, Icar, after a successful revolution, established the system of communism. This recital gives Cabet the opportunity for a scathing criticism of the faults of the present social structure, and also to outline his favorite measures for
3458-413: A hotel. Every family used the same amount of space (two rooms in an apartment building), and were allowed the same amount of furniture. After the age of four, children lived apart from their parents at a boarding school, and visited families only on Sundays. This was intended to foster a love for the community "without developing special affection for parents" from a young age, theoretically instrumental to
3640-468: A hundred difficult miles from their goal. Only 27 intrepid French settlers were able to make the final leg of the trip from the farm designated as a resting place to their new Texan utopia, a site located in today's Denton County in Texas (northwest of Dallas ). The small group arrived June 2, 1848, and immediately began a frenzied effort to construct dwellings in order to stake their land claims, attempting at
3822-489: A journal in which our traveler records his remarkable experiences and discoveries in the strange country. The first part of the book contains a glowing account of the blessings of the cooperative system of industry of the Icarians, their varied occupations and accomplishments, comfortable mode of life, admirable system of education, high morality, political freedom, equality of sexes, and general happiness. The second part contains
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#17328518533214004-450: A key element of the progressive outlook, as expressed in his Fourteen Points and the League of Nations —an ideal called Wilsonianism . New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes is known for exposing the insurance industry. During his time in office he promoted a range of reforms. As presidential candidate in 1916 he lost after alienating progressive California voters. As Associate Justice of
4186-467: A log cabin and occupy their allotment by the deadline date of July 1, 1848. With only 69 hands available for the construction, there was little hope for construction of more than about 30 cabins by the deadline. The promised 1 million acres was thereby transformed into perhaps 10,000. By 1849, only 281 Icarians stayed loyal to Cabet and remained to rebuild, whereas the rest went back to France. The party could only proceed by boat to Shreveport . A wagon
4368-408: A monthly magazine, Le Populaire, as well as an annual Icarian Almanac to help propagandize and organize the new political movement's supporters. So-called "Icarianism" attracted numerous supporters in such French cities as Reims , Leon , Nantes , Toulouse , and Toulon , with Cabet claiming the existence of 50,000 adherents of his ideas by the end of 1843. These supporters began to see Cabet as
4550-424: A national audience, and Governor Walter R. Stubbs . According to Gene Clanton's study of Kansas, populism and progressivism have a few similarities but different bases of support. Both opposed corruption and trusts. Populism emerged earlier and came out of the farm community. It was radically egalitarian in favor of the disadvantaged classes. It was weak in the towns and cities except in labor unions. Progressivism, on
4732-573: A network of local organizers loyal to him, and fought for control of the state Republican Party, with mixed success. The Democrats were a minor factor in the state, but he did form coalitions with the active Socialist Party in Milwaukee. He failed to win the nomination for governor in 1896 and 1898 before winning the 1900 gubernatorial election . As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette compiled a progressive record, implementing primary elections and tax reform. La Follette won re-election in 1902 and 1904. In 1905
4914-585: A new area and new locals was difficult, but the Icarians adopted a constitution, a replica of the Nauvoo one, worked in the city, and enrolled their children into the local public schools. The colony quickly fell into various arguments. During the Civil War, many young men joined the Union cause. By 1864, only about twenty residents remained on the property. For the rest of the people, epidemics of dysentery and cholera occurred in
5096-547: A new colony in that vicinity. Shattered by the loss of about 40% of its members and no longer able to raise financial support in France, the Nauvoo colony of the majority faction ultimately encountered insurmountable financial difficulties and was forced to disband in 1860. Many of the participants of the defunct Nauvoo colony would join the parallel Icarian colony in Iowa. One legacy still continues in Nauvoo. Emile and Annette Baxter joined
5278-546: A new life in Texas, leaving aboard the sailing ship Rome. These were to proceed to the port of New Orleans and to make their way from there to the designated area in Texas, which was represented as being in close proximity to the Red River . The advance guard arrived in America on March 27, 1848. They were quick to discover that they had been deceived and that the actual lands designated for colonization were fully 25 miles away from
5460-505: A participant at New Harmony, asserted that it was doomed to failure for lack of individual sovereignty and personal property. In describing the community, Warren explained: "We had a world in miniature – we had enacted the French revolution over again with despairing hearts instead of corpses as a result ... It appeared that it was nature's inherent law of diversity that had conquered us ... our 'united interests' were directly at war with
5642-470: A person's attitude. Force oppressed people and affected their mental health . In his view, unless people were educated in a proper environment, obtained equal opportunities for jobs and maintained social norms, differences between labour classes, conflicts, and inequalities would persist just as in the British colonies. Without making any changes in the national institutions, he believed that even reorganizing
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5824-408: A political messiah and sought to implement the leader's ideas in a practical setting. It was gradually decided in this period that France did not present a favorable economic, political, or social environment for the implementation of the Icarian ideas; instead, the United States of America was chosen as a more fitting site for colonization – a nation with vast expanses of relatively inexpensive land and
6006-498: A public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act . In 1919, he published The Brass Check , a muck-raking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the "free press" in the United States. Four years after publication of The Brass Check , the first code of ethics for journalists
6188-451: A series of restrictive rules, including the prohibition of talking in workshops, banning the use of tobacco and alcohol, and other regulations which were unpopular with some members of the community. He also moved to reestablish his own personal decision-making authority over the entire community, proposing in December 1855 to revise the constitution to provide for a powerful president elected to
6370-533: A special edition for friends in 1839, and a general public edition in 1840. A new edition in 1842 shortened the title to Voyage en Icarie . Cabet serialized a rough English translation in Icarian periodicals of the 1850s. Academic specialist Robert P. Sutton, professor of history at Western Illinois University, made a translation into English that has been deposited with the Library of Congress, although it remains unpublished. In 2003, Syracuse University Press published
6552-418: A strong federal government. He promoted a strong army and navy and attacked pacifists who thought democracy at home and peace abroad was best served by keeping America weak. Croly was one of the founders of modern liberalism in the United States , especially through his books, essays and a highly influential magazine founded in 1914, The New Republic . In his 1914 book Progressive Democracy , Croly rejected
6734-598: A third party in the state. The third party fell apart in the 1930s, and totally collapsed by 1946. The Wisconsin Idea was the commitment of the University of Wisconsin under President Charles R. Van Hise , with LaFollette support, to use the university's powerful intellectual resources to develop practical progressive reforms for the state and indeed for the nation. Between 1901 and 1911, Progressive Republicans in Wisconsin created
6916-725: A thousand residents by the end of its first year. The socialistic society was dissolved in 1827, but many of its scientists, educators, artists and other inhabitants, including Owen's four sons, Robert Dale, William, David Dale, and Richard Dale Owen, and his daughter Jane Dale Owen Fauntleroy, remained at New Harmony after the experiment ended. Other experiments in the United States included communal settlements at Blue Spring, near Bloomington , Indiana, at Yellow Springs , Ohio, and at Forestville Commonwealth at Earlton , New York, as well as other projects in New York , Pennsylvania , and Tennessee . Nearly all of these had ended before New Harmony
7098-509: A translation by Leslie J. Roberts [ d ] , Travels in Icaria . A basic plot outline was published by Morris Hillquit in 1903: Lord Carisdall, a young English nobleman, has by chance learned of the existence of a remote and isolated country known as Icaria. The unusual mode of life, habits, and form of government of the Icarians excite his lordship's curiosity, and he decides to visit their country. Voyage en Icarie purports to be
7280-564: A utopian experiment at Orbiston , near Glasgow, but this failed after about two years. In the 1830s, additional experiments in socialistic co-operatives were made in Ireland and Britain, the most important being at Ralahine , established in 1831 in County Clare , Ireland, and at Tytherley , begun in 1839 in Hampshire , England. The former proved a remarkable success for three-and-a-half years until
7462-531: A weekly newspaper to gain support for his ideas. In 1832 Owen opened the National Equitable Labour Exchange system, a time-based currency in which the exchange of goods was effected using labour notes; this system superseded the usual means of exchange and middlemen. The London exchange continued until 1833, with a Birmingham branch operating for just a few months until July 1833. Owen also became involved in trade unionism, briefly leading
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7644-538: A year before his death. Although he had spent most of his life in England and Scotland, Owen returned to his native town of Newtown at the end of his life. He died there on 17 November 1858 and was buried there on 21 November. He died penniless apart from an annual income drawn from a trust established by his sons in 1844. Owen tested his social and economic ideas at New Lanark, where he won his workers' confidence and continued to have success through improved efficiency at
7826-523: Is often quoted in a comment by Allen at the time, "All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer". Having invested most of his fortune in the failed New Harmony communal experiment, Owen was no longer a wealthy capitalist. However, he remained the head of a vigorous propaganda effort to promote industrial equality, free education for children and adequate living conditions in factory towns, while delivering lectures in Europe and publishing
8008-426: Is the most anti-social , impolitic, and irrational that can be devised; that under its influence all the superior and valuable qualities of the human race are repressed from infancy, and that the most unnatural means are used to bring out the most injurious propensities ... Owen had originally been a follower of the classical liberal, utilitarian Jeremy Bentham, who believed that free markets , in particular
8190-619: The Grand National Consolidated Trade Union (GNCTU) before its collapse in 1834. Socialism first became current in British terminology in discussions of the Association of all Classes of all Nations , which Owen formed in 1835 and served as its initial leader. Owen's secular views also gained enough influence among the working classes to cause the Westminster Review to comment in 1839 that his principles were
8372-561: The Nineteenth Amendment until 1971, Progressive reformers like Gertrude Weil and Dr. Elizabeth Delia Dixon Carroll lobbied for woman suffrage . Following the Wilmington massacre , North Carolina imposed strict legal segregation and rewrote its constitution in order to disfranchise Black men through poll taxes and literacy tests. In the Black community, Charlotte Hawkins Brown built
8554-666: The Palmer Memorial Institute to provide a liberal arts education to Black children and promote excellence and leadership. Brown worked with Booker T. Washington (in his role with the National Negro Business League ), who provided ideas and access to Northern philanthropy. Apart from Wisconsin, the Midwestern states were about average in supporting Progressive reforms. Ohio took the lead in municipal reform. The negative effects of industrialization triggered
8736-662: The Panama Canal . He expanded the army and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. He avoided controversial tariff and money issues. He was elected to a full term in 1904 and continued to promote progressive policies, some of which were passed in Congress. By 1906 he
8918-483: The Pure Food and Drug Act . The journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like Ray Stannard Baker , George Creel , and Brand Whitlock . Others such as Lincoln Steffens exposed political corruption in many large cities; Ida Tarbell is famed for her criticisms of John D. Rockefeller 's Standard Oil Company . In 1906, David Graham Phillips unleashed
9100-609: The United States in October 1824 to establish an experimental community in Indiana . In January 1825 Owen used a portion of his funds to purchase an existing town of 180 buildings and several thousand acres of land along the Wabash River in Indiana . George Rapp 's Harmony Society , the religious group that owned the property and had founded the communal village of Harmony (or Harmonie) on
9282-534: The working class , lead in developing co-operatives and the trade union movement , and support child labour legislation and free co-educational schools. Robert Owen was born in Newtown , a small market town in Montgomeryshire , Wales, on 14 May 1771, to Anne (Williams) and Robert Owen. His father was a saddler , ironmonger and local postmaster; his mother was the daughter of a Newtown farming family. Young Robert
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#17328518533219464-524: The "community chest" movement. The American Red Cross was reorganized and professionalized. Several major foundations aided the blacks in the South and were typically advised by Booker T. Washington . By contrast, Europe and Asia had few foundations. This allowed both Carnegie and Rockefeller to operate internationally with a powerful effect. A hallmark group of the Progressive Era, the middle class became
9646-588: The 1830s. While in Manchester, Owen borrowed £100 from his brother William, to enter into a partnership to make spinning mules , a new invention for spinning cotton threads, but exchanged his business shares within a few months for six spinning mules that he worked in rented factory space. In 1792, when Owen was about 21 years old, mill-owner Peter Drinkwater made him manager of the Piccadilly Mill at Manchester. However, after two years with Drinkwater, Owen voluntarily gave up his contract of partnership and left
9828-544: The 1895 case of United States v. E. C. Knight Co. As Chief Justice of the Supreme Court he took a moderate middle position and upheld key New Deal laws. Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until 1910 and was the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania , serving from 1923 to 1927, and again from 1931 to 1935. He
10010-538: The American colony. The Nauvoo cultural life thrived. The Icarians held regular band concerts and theatre productions. Their library consisted of an extensive collection, ranging from reference works to applied science to popular novels, all in English and French, and totaling over 4,000 volumes. By 1855 there would be more than 500 participants in the Icarian project. Political disagreements and personal animosities would lead to
10192-546: The Formation of Character at New Lanark in 1818. This and other programmes at New Lanark provided free education from infancy to adulthood. In addition, he zealously supported factory legislation that culminated in the Cotton Mills and Factories Act of 1819. Owen also had interviews and communications with leading members of the British government, including its premier, Robert Banks Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool . He also met many of
10374-472: The Icarian community in 1855, staying with it through the 1857 breakup. They remained in Nauvoo and founded Baxter's Vineyards and Winery. It has been operated by several generations of the family and is Illinois' oldest winery. The Icarians who had left Nauvoo owing to their support of personal leadership of Cabet and his restrictive behavioral agenda arrived in St. Louis on November 6, 1856. In an ironic twist of fate,
10556-542: The Icarian experiment finally began in earnest. Nauvoo was founded in 1839 for the gathering of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints . Even though Joseph Smith , the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement , was killed in 1844, by 1845 Nauvoo had grown to a community of about 15,000 people – dwarfing the city of Chicago, which had only about 8,000 inhabitants at that time. Under threat of continuing violence from
10738-586: The Icarians established a series of egalitarian communes in the states of Texas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and California. The movement split several times due to factional disagreements. The last community of Icarians, located a few miles outside Corning, Iowa , disbanded voluntarily in 1898. The 46 years of tenure at this location made the Corning Icarian Colony one of the longest-lived non-religious communal living experiments in US history . Étienne Cabet
10920-585: The Mind and Practice of the Human Race (1849), he went on to say that character is formed by a combination of Nature or God and the circumstances of the individual's experience. Citing beneficial results at New Lanark, Scotland, during 30 years of work there, Owen concluded that a person's "character is not made by , but for the individual," and that nature and society are responsible for each person's character and conduct. Owen's agitation for social change, along with
11102-642: The New Harmony community into a centre for educational reform, scientific research and artistic expression. Although Owen sought to build a "Village of Unity and Mutual Cooperation" south of the town, his grand plan was never fully realised and he returned to Britain to continue his work. During his long absences from New Harmony, Owen left the experiment under the day-to-day management of his sons, Robert Dale Owen and William Owen, and his business partner, Maclure. However, New Harmony proved to be an economic failure, lasting about two years, although it had attracted over
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#173285185332111284-872: The People's Power League. The group led efforts in Oregon to establish an initiative and referendum system, allowing direct legislation by the state's citizens. In 1902, the Oregon Legislative Assembly approved such a system, which was known at the time as the " Oregon System ". The group's further efforts led to successful ballot initiatives implementing a direct primary system in 1904, and allowing citizens to directly recall public officials in 1908. Democrats who promoted progressive policies included George Earle Chamberlain (governor 1903–1909 and senator 1909–1921); Oswald West (governor 1911–1915); and Harry Lane (senator 1913–1917). The most important Republican
11466-459: The Red River; moreover, colony lands were not contiguous, but rather were separated into a checkerboard fashion, alternating state and private lands, making integrated communal life not possible. Moreover, instead of the promised 1 million acres, actual contractual terms of the land distribution provided for the distribution of 320 acres of land to 3,125 individuals or families who each had to construct
11648-589: The Republican Party and if frustrated trying third-party activity especially in 1924 and the 1930s. Secondly the Wisconsin idea , of intellectuals and planners based at the University of Wisconsin shaping government policy. LaFollette started as a traditional Republican in the 1890s, where he fought against populism and other radical movements. He broke decisively with the state Republican leadership, and took control of
11830-520: The Supreme Court, he often sided with Oliver Wendell Holmes in upholding popular reforms such as the minimum wage, workmen's compensation, and maximum work hours for women and children. He also wrote several opinions upholding the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce under the Commerce Clause . His majority opinion in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad v. Interstate Commerce Commission upheld
12012-513: The Texas pioneers were met by several hundred colonization enthusiasts from France, who had been slowly congregating in that city. Their mood was grim. News of the Texas catastrophe reached Cabet in France and on December 13, 1848, he set out from Liverpool for America in an attempt to shore up the project. After landing in New York, he shipped out again for New Orleans, disembarking there on January 19, 1849. Cabet found his supporters in disarray, "in
12194-473: The United States. In 1817, Owen publicly claimed that all religions were false. In 1854, aged 83, Owen converted to spiritualism after a series of sittings with Maria B. Hayden , an American medium credited with introducing spiritualism to England. He made a public profession of his new faith in his publication The Rational Quarterly Review and in a pamphlet titled The Future of the Human Race; or great glorious and future revolution to be effected through
12376-566: The United States. Owenism , among the first socialist ideologies active in the United States, can be seen as an instigator of the later socialist movement. Owen convinced William Maclure , a wealthy Scottish scientist and philanthropist living in Philadelphia to join him at New Harmony and become his financial partner. Maclure's involvement went on to attract scientists, educators and artists such as Thomas Say , Charles-Alexandre Lesueur , and Madame Marie Duclos Fretageot . These helped to turn
12558-475: The United States. The Manea Colony site has been excavated by the Cambridge Archaeology Unit (CAU) based at the University of Cambridge . Although Owen made further brief visits to the United States, London became his permanent home and the centre of his work in 1828. After extended friction with William Allen and some other business partners, Owen relinquished all connections with New Lanark. He
12740-576: The Utopian community at New Harmony, and his socialist beliefs. The audience for his ideas included three former U.S. presidents – John Adams , Thomas Jefferson , and James Madison – the outgoing US President James Monroe , and the President-elect, John Quincy Adams . His meetings were perhaps the first discussions of socialism in the Americas; they were certainly a big step towards discussion of it in
12922-463: The West. He called for government ownership of railroads and electric utilities, cheap credit for farmers, stronger laws to help labor unions, and protections for civil liberties. La Follette won 17% of the popular vote and carried only his home state in the face of a Republican landslide. After his death in 1925 his sons, Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Philip La Follette , succeeded him as progressive leaders in Wisconsin. President Theodore Roosevelt
13104-460: The agency of departed spirits of good and superior men and women . Owen claimed to have had medium contact with the spirits of Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson and others. He explained that the purpose of these was to change "the present, false, disunited and miserable state of human existence, for a true, united and happy state... to prepare the world for universal peace, and to infuse into all
13286-422: The assumption individuals would remarry soon. With the basic need of shelter immediately settled, a short period of energetic growth and relative prosperity followed. Farmland was rented, a saw mill and flour mill opened, workshops established, and schools and a theater founded. A periodical press was launched, publishing in French, English, and German, and an office was established in Paris to recruit adherents for
13468-907: The beginning of the age of mass media, the rapid expansion of national advertising led the cover price of popular magazines to fall sharply to about 10 cents, lessening the financial barrier to consume them. Another factor contributing to the dramatic upswing in magazine circulation was the prominent coverage of corruption in politics, local government, and big business, particularly by journalists and writers who became known as muckrakers . They wrote for popular magazines to expose social and political sins and shortcomings. Relying on their own investigative journalism , muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption . Muckraking magazines, notably McClure's , took on corporate monopolies and political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like child labor . Most of
13650-503: The best way to reorganise society in general, and called his vision the "New Moral World". Owen's utopian model changed little in his lifetime. His developed model envisaged an association of 500–3,000 people as the optimum for a working community. While mainly agricultural, it would possess the best machinery, offer varied employment, and as far as possible be self-contained. Owen went on to explain that as such communities proliferated, "unions of them federatively united shall be formed in
13832-441: The bosses and pushing through a progressive agenda. As president he introduced a comprehensive program of domestic legislation. He had four major domestic priorities: the conservation of natural resources, banking reform, tariff reduction , and opening access to raw materials by breaking up Western mining trusts. Though foreign affairs would unexpectedly dominate his presidency, Wilson's first two years in office largely focused on
14014-525: The campaign for inclusion of the initiative and referendum in the state's constitution. The League sent questionnaires to prospective candidates to the state legislature to obtain their stance on direct legislation and to make those positions public. It then flooded the state with letters seeking new members, money, and endorsements from organizations like the State Federation of Labor. As membership grew it worked with other private organizations to petition
14196-400: The cause of prohibition, leading North Carolina to become the first southern state to implement statewide prohibition . Progressives worked to limit child labor in textile mills and supported public health campaigns to eradicate hookworm and other debilitating diseases. While the majority of North Carolininans continued to support traditional gender roles, and state legislators did not ratify
14378-485: The charter and structure described in Cabet's Voyage en Icarie . The structure included an annually elected president and one officer each to administer finance, farming, industry, and education. New members were admitted by a majority approval vote by the adult males, after living in the commune for four months, forfeiting all personal property, and pledging $ 80. Nonetheless, visitors were welcome to stay as long as they wished in
14560-559: The circle of tens, hundreds and thousands", linked by a common interest. Owen grew to be known as a utopian socialist and his works are considered to reflect this attitude. Although he could be considered a member of the bourgeoisie his relationship with this class was often complicated. He fought to pass legislation that benefitted workers. He was an advocate for the Cotton Mills and Factories Act 1819 . He supported socialist ideas so his views did not have an immediate impact in Britain or
14742-490: The citizens who are most vulnerable and deprived. In the south, prohibition was high on the agenda but controversial. Jim Crow and disenfranchisement of Black voters was even higher on the agenda. In the Western states, woman suffrage was a success story, but racist anti-Asian sentiment also prevailed. The Oregon Direct Legislation League was an organization of political activists founded by William S. U'Ren in 1898. Oregon
14924-462: The company broke down into a state of insanity and deserted his fellows. Back home in France, the Revolution of 1848 had long been in full swing and King Louis Philippe overthrown. The necessity of emigration to achieve democratic reforms seemed less compelling and the volunteers for Icarian colonization in America melted away. Some 1500 settlers were planned for the next wave of settlers; only 19 made
15106-668: The company, and went into partnership with other entrepreneurs to establish and later manage the Chorlton Twist Mills in Chorlton-on-Medlock . By the early 1790s, Owen's entrepreneurial spirit and management skills and progressive moral views were emerging. In 1793, he was elected as a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society , where the ideas of the Enlightenment were discussed. He also became
15288-482: The conservation of forests high on America's priority list. Herbert Croly was an intellectual leader of the movement as an editor, political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine The New Republic . His political philosophy influenced many leading progressives including Theodore Roosevelt, Adolph Berle , as well as his close friends Judge Learned Hand and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter . Croly's 1909 book The Promise of American Life looked to
15470-523: The conservatives (called "Stalwarts") to elect Emanuel Philipp as governor in 1914. The Stalwart counterattack said the Progressives were too haughty, too beholden to experts, too eager to regulate, and too expensive. Economy and budget cutting was their formula. The progressive Wisconsin Idea promoted the use of the University of Wisconsin faculty as intellectual resources for state government, and as guides for local government. It promoted expansion of
15652-427: The constitutional liberalism as espoused by Alexander Hamilton , combined with the radical democracy of Thomas Jefferson . The book influenced contemporaneous progressive thought, shaping the ideas of many intellectuals and political leaders, including then ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. Calling themselves "The New Nationalists", Croly and Walter Weyl sought to remedy the relatively weak national institutions with
15834-551: The correct formation of people's characters called for placing them under proper environmental influences – physical, moral and social – from their earliest years. These notions of inherent irresponsibility in humans and the effect of early influences on an individual's character formed the basis of Owen's system of education and social reform . Relying on his observations, experiences and thoughts, Owen saw his view of human nature as original and "the most basic and necessary constituent in an evolving science of society". His philosophy
16016-490: The creed of many of them. However, by 1846, the only lasting result of Owen's agitation for social change, carried on through public meetings, pamphlets, periodicals, and occasional treatises, remained the Co-operative movement, and for a time even that seemed to have collapsed. As Owen grew older and more radical in his views, his influence began to decline. Owen published his memoirs, The Life of Robert Owen , in 1857,
16198-427: The decision — although with all the costs absorbed in the previous year such a move would have meant financial disaster for all. A small majority of 280 decided to continue with the colonization project if a more suitable locale was found; 200 sought to return. A formal split of the Icarians along these lines immediately followed, the first of three great factional rifts which would split the movement. An amount of money
16380-428: The deplorable spirit of a defeated army," to borrow words from an official history by the group. A portion of the prospective colonists sought to abandon the project and to return to France; others sought to continue the colonization project in a more suitable locale. On January 21 the colonists held a general meeting to decide their fate. Cabet declared that if a majority sought to return home to France, he would support
16562-524: The driving force behind much of the thought and reform that took place in this time. With an increasing disdain for the upper class and aristocracy of the time, the middle class is characterized by their rejection of the individualistic philosophy of the Upper Ten . They had a rapidly growing interest in the communication and role between classes, those of which are generally referred to as the upper class, working class, farmers, and themselves. Along these lines,
16744-413: The early 20th century, American philanthropy matured, with the development of very large, highly visible private foundations created by Rockefeller and Carnegie. The largest foundations fostered modern, efficient, business-oriented operations (as opposed to "charity") designed to better society rather than merely enhance the status of the giver. Close ties were built with the local business community, as in
16926-629: The exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political, and economic ills by advancing good democracy, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and improving working and living conditions of the urban poor. Corrupt and undemocratic political machines and their bosses were a major target of progressive reformers. To revitalize democracy, progressives established direct primary elections , direct election of senators (rather than by state legislatures), initiatives and referenda , and women's suffrage which
17108-542: The falls of the River Clyde turned its cotton-spinning operation into one of Britain's largest. About 2,000 individuals were involved, 500 of them children brought to the mill at the age of five or six from the poorhouses and charities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Dale, known for his benevolence, treated the children well, but the general condition of New Lanark residents was unsatisfactory, despite efforts by Dale and his son-in-law Owen to improve their workers' lives. Many of
17290-596: The first of whom died in infancy. Their seven survivors were four sons and three daughters: Robert Dale (1801–1877), William (1802–1842), Ann (or Anne) Caroline (1805–1831), Jane Dale (1805–1861), David Dale (1807–1860), Richard Dale (1809–1890) and Mary (1810–1832). Owen's four sons, Robert Dale, William, David Dale and Richard, and his daughter Jane Dale, followed their father to the United States, becoming US citizens and permanent residents in New Harmony, Indiana. Owen's wife Caroline and two of their daughters, Anne Caroline and Mary, remained in Britain, where they died in
17472-406: The founder of Hull-House , Jane Addams , coined the term "association" as a counter to Individualism , with association referring to the search for a relationship between the classes. Additionally, the middle class (most notably women) began to move away from prior Victorian era domestic values. Divorce rates increased as women preferred to seek education and freedom from the home. Victorianism
17654-564: The founder of the social work profession in the United States. Maurice Hamington considered her a radical pragmatist and the first woman "public philosopher" in the United States. In the 1930s, she was the best-known female public figure in the United States. According to James Wright, the typical progressive agenda at the state level included: A reduction of corporate influence, open processes of government and politics, equity entrance in taxation, efficiency in government mental operation, and an expanded, albeit limited, state responsibility to
17836-500: The fundamental change of the conservative regime which had gained power in the Bourbon Restoration following the fall of Napoleon. This Revolution of 1830 in a matter of a few frenzied days forced the abdication of the conservative monarch Charles X and returned constitutional government to France. Cabet played a leading role in the revolution as a leading member of the so-called "Insurrection Committee," activity for which he
18018-439: The highest selling books of the late 1800s. It helped spark the Progressive Era and a worldwide social reform movement around an ideology now known as Georgism . Jacob Riis , for example, explicitly marks the beginning of the Progressive Era awakening as 1879 because of the date of this publication. Magazines experienced a boost in popularity in 1900, with some attaining circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. In
18200-454: The history of all ages and countries, he at length arrived at the conclusion that mere political reforms are powerless to give to society the ... welfare which it obstinately seeks. ... He found at all epochs the same phenomena: society sundered in twain; on one side a minority, cruel, idle, arrogant, usurping exclusive enjoyment of the products of a majority, passive, toiling, ignorant, who remained wholly destitute. ... To change all this, to find
18382-454: The implementation of his New Freedom domestic agenda. Wilson presided over the passage of his progressive New Freedom domestic agenda. His first major priority was the passage of the Revenue Act of 1913 , which lowered tariffs and implemented a federal income tax . Later tax acts implemented a federal estate tax and raised the top income tax rate to 77 percent. Wilson also presided over
18564-500: The individualities of persons and circumstances and the instinct of self-preservation". Warren's observations on the reasons for the community's failure led to the development of American individualist anarchism , of which he was its original theorist. Some historians have traced the demise of New Harmony to serial disagreements among its members. Social experiments also began in Scotland in 1825, when Abram Combe , an Owenite, attempted
18746-458: The initiative would give political power to the working class and reduce the need for strikes. Sullivan's book was first widely read on the left, as by labor activists, socialists and populists. William U'Ren was an early convert who used it to build the Oregon reform crusade. By 1900, middle-class "progressive" reformers everywhere were studying it. Progress and Poverty , Henry George 's first book, sold several million copies, becoming one of
18928-557: The key role. The Stalwarts counterattacked by arguing if the university became embedded in the state, then its internal affairs became fair game, especially the faculty preference for advanced research over undergraduate teaching. The Stalwarts controlled the Regents, and their interference in academic freedom outraged the faculty. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner , the most famous professor, quit and went to Harvard. State leaders in reform included editor William Allen White , who reached
19110-532: The large German and Scandinavian elements which demanded neutrality in the World War I. He finally ran an independent campaign for president in 1924 that appealed to the German Americans, labor unions, socialists, and more radical reformers. He won 1/6 of the national vote, but carried only his home state. After his death in 1925 his two sons took over the party. They serve terms as governor and senator and set up
19292-571: The leader for whom they had executed the split of Icaria in Nauvoo, Étienne Cabet, died just two days later. The new leader became a thirty-two-year-old lawyer named Benjamin Mercadier . On February 15, 1858, a group of 151 Icarians took possession of a few hundred acres in Cheltenham, St. Louis , Missouri. These Cabetists used Cabet's money and put down $ 500 on a $ 25,000 mortgage for thirty-nine acres and three buildings southwest of this city. Adjusting to
19474-527: The legislature elected him to the United States Senate, where he emerged as a national progressive leader, often clashing with conservatives like Senator Nelson Aldrich . He initially supported President Taft, but broke with Taft after the latter failed to push a reduction in tariff rates. He challenged Taft for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1912 presidential election , but his candidacy
19656-489: The means of preventing one portion of humanity from being eternally the prey of the other — such was his desire, the goal of all his efforts. Cabet turned to the idea of reorganization of society on a communal basis — known as "Communism" in the terminology of the day. His ideas for the modification of society closely paralleled those of a man he met in English exile, Robert Owen . In 1839, his five years' exile in England complete, Cabet returned to France. He soon began writing
19838-429: The mill owner's "truck shop", which charged high prices for shoddy goods. Unlike others, Owen's truck store offered goods at prices only slightly above their wholesale cost, passing on the savings from bulk purchases to his customers and placing alcohol sales under strict supervision. These principles became the basis for Britain's co-operative shops, some of which continue trading in altered forms to this day. To test
20020-474: The mill. The community also earned an international reputation. Social reformers, statesmen and royalty, including the future Tsar Nicholas I of Russia , visited New Lanark to study its methods. The opinions of many such visitors were favourable. Some of Owen's schemes displeased his partners, forcing him to arrange for other investors to buy his share of the business in 1813, for the equivalent of US$ 800,000. The new investors, who included Jeremy Bentham and
20202-601: The most famous leader of Midwestern progressivism, began his career by winning election against his state's Republican party in 1900. The machine was temporarily defeated, allowing reformers to launch the " Wisconsin idea " of expanded democracy. This idea included major reforms such as direct primaries, campaign finance, civil service, anti-lobbying laws, state income and inheritance taxes, child labor restrictions, pure food, and workmen's compensation laws. La Follette promoted government regulation of railroads, public utilities, factories, and banks. Although La Follette lost influence in
20384-406: The movement operated chiefly at the local level, but later it expanded to the state and national levels. Progressive leaders were often from the educated middle class, and various progressive reform efforts drew support from lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, business people, and the working class. Certain key groups of thinkers, writers, and activists played key roles in creating or building
20566-582: The movements and ideas that came to define the shape of the Progressive Era. Inspiration for the initiative movement was based on the Swiss experience. New Jersey labor activist James W. Sullivan visited Switzerland in 1888 and wrote a detailed book that became a template for reformers pushing the idea: Direct Legislation by the Citizenship Through the Initiative and Referendum (1893). He suggested that using
20748-475: The muckrakers wrote nonfiction, but fictional exposés often had a major impact as well, such as those by Upton Sinclair . In his 1906 novel The Jungle , Sinclair exposed the unsanitary and inhumane practices of the meatpacking industry, as he made clear in the Jungle itself. He quipped, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach," as readers demanded and got the Meat Inspection Act and
20930-405: The nation's first comprehensive statewide primary election system, the first effective workplace injury compensation law, and the first state income tax , making taxation proportional to actual earnings. The key leaders were Robert M. La Follette and (in 1910) Governor Francis E. McGovern . However, in 1912 McGovern supported Roosevelt for president and LaFollette was outraged. He made sure
21112-490: The national party in 1912, the Wisconsin reforms became a model for national progressivism. Wisconsin from 1900 to the late 1930s was a regional and national model for innovation and organization in the progressive movement. The direct primary made it possible to mobilize voters against the previously dominant political machines. The first factors involved the La Follette family going back and forth between trying to control of
21294-422: The new American state of Texas, a location reckoned to possess vast tracts of unoccupied land which would be as inexpensive as it was plentiful. Cabet made contact with a Texas land agent, The Peters Company, which agreed to present to Owen title for 1 million acres of land so long as it was colonized by July 1, 1848. On February 3, 1848 a so-called "advance guard" of 69 Icarians departed from Le Havre , France for
21476-511: The next legislature defeated the governor's programs, and that McGovern was defeated in his bid for the Senate in 1914. The Progressive movement split into hostile factions. Some was based on personalities—especially La Follette's style of violent personal attacks against other Progressives, and some was based on who should pay, with the division between farmers (who paid property taxes) and the urban element (which paid income taxes). This disarray enabled
21658-622: The next twelve years of his life, employed initially at Satterfield's Drapery in Saint Ann's Square. On a visit to Scotland, Owen met and fell in love with Ann (or Anne) Caroline Dale, daughter of David Dale , a Glasgow philanthropist and the proprietor of the large New Lanark Mills. After their marriage on 30 September 1799, the Owens set up a home in New Lanark , but later moved to Braxfield House in Lanark . Robert and Caroline Owen had eight children,
21840-522: The other hand, was a later movement. It emerged after the 1890s from the urban business and professional communities. Most of its activists had opposed populism. It was elitist, and emphasized education and expertise. Its goals were to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and enlarge the opportunities for upward social mobility. However, some former Populists changed their emphasis after 1900 and supported progressive reforms. Robert Owen Robert Owen ( / ˈ oʊ ɪ n / ; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858)
22022-624: The party by 1900, all the time quarreling endlessly with ex-allies. The Democrats were a minor conservative factor in Wisconsin. The Socialists, with a strong German and union base in Milwaukee, joined the progressives in statewide politics. Senator Robert M. La Follette tried to use his national reputation to challenge President Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912. However, as soon as Roosevelt declared his candidacy, most of La Follette's supporters switched away. La Follette supported many of his Wilson's domestic programs in Congress. However he strongly opposed Wilson's foreign policy, and mobilized
22204-671: The passage of the Federal Reserve Act , which created a central banking system in the form of the Federal Reserve System . Two major laws, the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act , were passed to regulate business and prevent monopolies. Wilson did not support civil rights and did not object to accelerating segregate of federal employees. In World War I, he made internationalism
22386-585: The policy at New Lanark . By 1817 he had formulated the goal of an eight-hour working day with the slogan "eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest". In 1813 Owen authored and published A New View of Society, or Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human Character , the first of four essays he wrote to explain the principles behind his philosophy of socialistic reform. In this he writes: ... the present arrangement of society
22568-767: The political movement of progressivism, which aimed to address its negative consequences through social reform and government regulation. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr pioneered the settlement house outreach to newly arrived immigrants by establishing Hull House in Chicago in 1889. Settlement houses provided social services and played an active role in civic life, helping immigrants prepare for naturalization and campaigning for regulation and services from city government. Midwestern mayors—especially Hazen S. Pingree and Tom L. Johnson , led early reforms against boss-dominated municipal politics, while Samuel M. Jones advocated public ownership of local utilities. Robert M. La Follette ,
22750-569: The preservation of the community's moral fiber, however, and in his position he was staunchly supported by "a strong minority." The factional battle continued for a year between the Dissidents (led by Alexis Armel Marchand and Jean Baptist Gerard ) and the Cabetists, finally resolving itself in a formal split. The Cabetists were expelled, and Cabet led about 170 of his followers out of Nauvoo in October 1856, heading downriver to St. Louis to establish
22932-449: The proprietor, having ruined himself by gambling, had to sell his interest. Tytherley, known as Harmony Hall or Queenwood College , was designed by the architect Joseph Hansom. This also failed. Another social experiment, Manea Colony in the Isle of Ely , Cambridgeshire, launched in the late 1830s by William Hodson, likewise an Owenite, but it failed in a couple of years and Hodson emigrated to
23114-579: The right of the federal government to regulate the hours of railroad workers. His majority opinion in the 1914 Shreveport Rate Case upheld a decision by the Interstate Commerce Commission to void discriminatory railroad rates imposed by the Railroad Commission of Texas . The decision established that the federal government could regulate intrastate commerce when it affected interstate commerce, though Hughes avoided directly overruling
23296-403: The right of workers to move and choose their employers, would release workers from the excessive power of capitalists. However, Owen developed his own, pro- socialist outlook. In addition, Owen as a deist , criticised organised religion, including the Church of England , and developed a belief system of his own. Owen embraced socialism in 1817, a turning point in his life, in which he pursued
23478-451: The rulers and leading statesmen of Europe. Owen's biggest success was in support of youth education and early child care. As a pioneer in Britain, notably Scotland, Owen provided an alternative to the "normal authoritarian approach to child education". Supporters of the methods argued that the manners of children brought up under his system were more graceful, genial and unconstrained; health, plenty and contentment prevailed; drunkenness
23660-406: The same time to plow and farm the prairie. Virtually no time remained to meet the terms of the land concession. The hot summer sun began to bake the ground. Poorly fed, poorly housed, overworked and exhausted, the Icarian colonists next fell victim to an outbreaks of cholera and malaria , illnesses which killed four and sickened the rest. Making a bad situation still worse, the one medical doctor in
23842-419: The second major split of the Icarians in America. Étienne Cabet began in America in 1849 with the authority of the sect's unquestioned leader, status which was freely granted to him by those inspired to action by the man's writings. This individual status as supreme decision-maker stood in marked contradiction to the democratic ideals of the community, however. Cabet himself realized as much and in 1850 he proposed
24024-401: The self-interest of capitalists, pointing out that just as machines need proper care and treatment to guarantee they work smoothly and efficiently, so do humans. Owen proposed that communities of some 1,200 people should settle on land from 1,000 to 1,500 acres (405 to 607 ha), all living in one building with a public kitchen and dining halls. (The proposed size may have been influenced by
24206-486: The site in 1814, decided in 1824 to relocate to Pennsylvania . Owen renamed it New Harmony and made the village his preliminary model for a Utopian community. Owen sought support for his socialist vision among American thinkers, reformers, intellectuals and public statesmen. On 25 February and 7 March 1825, Owen gave addresses in the House of Representatives to Congress and others in the US government, outlining his vision for
24388-613: The size of the village of New Lanark.) Owen also proposed that each family have its private apartment and the responsibility for the care of its children up to the age of three. Thereafter children would be raised by the community, but their parents would have access to them at mealtimes and on other occasions. Owen further suggested that such communities be established by individuals, parishes, counties , or other governmental units. In each case, there would be effective supervision by qualified persons. Work and enjoyment of its results should be experienced communally. Owen believed his idea would be
24570-401: The smooth working of a Utopian society. Sundays were not what would be a typical religious Sunday. The Icarians practiced no religion, but there were days people voluntarily gathered in a fellowship called "Cours icarien" to discuss Cabet's writings and Christian morals and ethics. Because long-term celibacy was viewed askance by the community, marriage was the norm. Divorce was acceptable under
24752-431: The spirit of charity, forbearance and love." Spiritualists claimed after Owen's death that his spirit had dictated to the medium Emma Hardinge Britten in 1871 the " Seven Principles of Spiritualism ", used by their National Union as "the basis of its religious philosophy". Owen was a reformer, philanthropist, community builder, and spiritualist who spent his life seeking to improve the lives of others. An advocate of
24934-586: The state legislature, which was not responsive. In 1902 the League won a state constitutional amendment establishing direct democracy at the local level, and in 1904, it successfully engineered the recall of the first public official. Progressivism was strongest in the cities, but the South was rural with few large cities. Nevertheless, statewide progressive movements were organized by Democrats in every Southern state. Furthermore, Southern Democrats in Congress gave strong support to President Wilson's reforms. The South
25116-514: The state university system and improvements in transportation, which earned it the nickname "The Good Roads State." State leaders included Governor Charles B. Aycock , who led both the educational and the white supremacy crusades; diplomat Walter Hines Page ; and educator Charles Duncan McIver . Women were especially active through the WCTU , the Baptist church, overseas missions, local public schools, and in
25298-470: The stopwatch as its symbol. The number of rich families climbed exponentially, from 100 or so millionaires in the 1870s to 4,000 in 1892 and 16,000 in 1916. Many subscribed to Andrew Carnegie 's credo outlined in The Gospel of Wealth that said they owed a duty to society that called for philanthropic giving to colleges, hospitals, medical research, libraries, museums, religion, and social betterment. In
25480-539: The struggle against conservative theocratic monarchism , participating in political groups which espoused a constitutional and republican form of government under monarchical leadership. In 1820 Cabet moved to Paris, the political center of the French nation. There he continued to participate in secret revolutionary societies, at considerable personal risk. It ultimately took a decade for this underground political effort to bear fruit when in July 1830 revolution erupted seeking
25662-511: The surrounding communities and following a succession crisis , most of the Latter-day Saints , under Brigham Young left in 1846 for Salt Lake City , Utah, the current headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . The Latter-day Saints later sold their land to the Icarians in 1849. Nauvoo would become the first permanent Icarian Community, the Icarians immediately adopting
25844-409: The term conservation ethic as applied to natural resources. Pinchot's main contribution was his leadership in promoting scientific forestry and emphasizing the controlled, profitable use of forests and other natural resources so they would be of maximum benefit to mankind. He was the first to demonstrate the practicality and profitability of managing forests for continuous cropping. His leadership put
26026-658: The thesis that the liberal tradition in the United States was inhospitable to anti-capitalist alternatives. He drew from the American past a history of resistance to capitalist wage relations that was fundamentally liberal, and he reclaimed an idea that progressives had allowed to lapse—that working for wages was a lesser form of liberty. Increasingly skeptical of the capacity of social welfare legislation to remedy social ills, Croly argued that America's liberal promise could be redeemed only by syndicalist reforms involving workplace democracy . His liberal goals were part of his commitment to American republicanism . Upton Sinclair
26208-468: The transition from that system to the new regime. ... The last part of the book is devoted to the history of development of the idea of communism, and contains a summary of the views of almost all known writers on the subject, from Plato down to the famous utopians of the early part of the 19th Century. Although regarded today as a "plodding melodrama" in which the reader was inundated with "tedious details of incidental aspects of Icarian life," Cabet's book
26390-495: The trip, of whom barely more than half ever made it to Texas to join the beleaguered "advance guard" in their Sisyphean task. The grim reality of their situation now clear, the Texas colonization venture was written off as a total loss by the participants and the survivors divided into small groups to make their way back to Shreveport and from there to New Orleans. Four more died en route. Finally arriving in New Orleans late in 1848,
26572-551: The university through the UW-Extension system to reach all the state's farming communities. University economics professors John R. Commons and Harold Groves enabled Wisconsin to create the first unemployment compensation program in the United States in 1932. Other Wisconsin Idea scholars at the university generated the plan that became the New Deal's Social Security Act of 1935, with Wisconsin expert Arthur J. Altmeyer playing
26754-535: The viability of his ideas for self-sufficient working communities, Owen began experimenting with communal living in the United States in 1825. Among the most famous efforts was the one set up at New Harmony , Indiana. Of the 130 identifiable communitarian experiments in the United States before the American Civil War , at least 16 were Owenite or Owenite-influenced. New Harmony was Owen's earliest and most ambitious of these. Owen and his son William sailed to
26936-514: The warmer months. Because the Icarians could not meet the mortgage payments, in March 1864, Arsène Sauva returned the keys to the property to St. Louis banker Thomas Allen (from whom the property had been purchased in 1858), leaving a large debt. That same year, most members left the community, and the Cheltenham Icaria was no longer extant. Progressive Era The Progressive Era (1901–1929)
27118-515: The well-known Quaker William Allen , were content to accept a £5,000 return on their capital. The ownership change also provided Owen with a chance to broaden his philanthropy , advocating improvements in workers' rights and child labour laws, and free education for children. Owen felt that human character is formed by conditions over which individuals have no control. Thus individuals could not be praised or blamed for their behaviour or situation in life. This principle led Owen to conclude that
27300-475: The workers were from the lowest social levels: theft, drunkenness and other vices were common and education and sanitation neglected. Most families lived in one room. More respectable people rejected the long hours and demoralising drudgery of the mills. Until a series of Truck Acts (1831–1887) required employers to pay their employees in common currency, many operated a truck system , paying workers wholly or in part with tokens that had no monetary value outside
27482-454: The working class, he improved working conditions for factory workers, which he demonstrated at New Lanark, Scotland, became a leader in trade unionism, promoted social equality through his experimental Utopian communities, and supported the passage of child labour laws and free education for children. In these reforms he was ahead of his time. He envisioned a communal society that others could consider and apply as they wished. In Revolution in
27664-436: The working classes would bring great benefits. So he opposed the views of radicals seeking to change in the public mentality by expanding voting rights. Owen's work at New Lanark continued to have significance in Britain and continental Europe. He was a "pioneer in factory reform, the father of distributive co-operation, and the founder of nursery schools". His schemes for educating his workers included opening an Institute for
27846-523: Was Jonathan Bourne Jr. (senator 1907–1913 and national leader of progressive causes 1911–1912). California built the most successful grass roots progressive movement in the country by mobilizing independent organizations and largely ignoring the conservative state parties. The system continues strong into the 21st century. Following the Oregon model, John Randolph Haynes organized the Direct Legislation League of California in 1902 to launch
28028-460: Was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer , and a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement . He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted experimental socialistic communities, sought a more collective approach to child-rearing, and 'believed in lifelong education, establishing an Institute for the Formation of Character and School for Children that focused less on job skills than on becoming
28210-503: Was a leader of the Progressive movement, and he championed his " Square Deal " domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs. He made conservation a top priority and established many new national parks , forests , and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America where he began construction of
28392-565: Was a main target of Northern philanthropy designed to fight poverty and disease, and help the black community. Booker T. Washington of the National Negro Business League mobilized small black-owned business and secured access to Northern philanthropy. Across the South the General Education Board (funded by the Rockefeller family ) provided large-scale subsidies for black schools, which otherwise continued to be underfunded. The South
28574-540: Was a member of the Republican Party for most of his life, though he also joined the Progressive Party for a brief period. Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal. He called it "the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man." Pinchot coined
28756-532: Was a notable figure in the history of social work and women's suffrage in the United States and an advocate of world peace . She co-founded Chicago's Hull House , one of America's most famous settlement houses. In 1920, she was a co-founder for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In 1931, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , and is recognized as
28938-420: Was a period in the United States during the early 20th century of widespread social activism and political reform across the country. Progressives sought to address the problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption as well as the enormous concentration of industrial ownership in monopolies. Progressive reformers were alarmed by the spread of slums, poverty, and
29120-434: Was almost unknown and illegitimacy extremely rare. Owen's relations with his workers remained excellent and operations at the mill proceeded in a smooth, regular and commercially successful way. Perhaps one of Robert Owen's most memorable ideas was his silent monitor method. Owen was opposed to common corporal punishment; therefore, to have some form of discipline he developed the "silent monitor". In his mills, he would hang
29302-458: Was an American writer who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943. In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle , which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry , causing
29484-591: Was another investigative journalist and one of the leading muckrakers . He launched a series of articles in McClure's , called Tweed Days in St. Louis , that would later be published together in a book titled The Shame of the Cities . He is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and leftist values. Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist , public administrator and author. She
29666-446: Was born in Dijon , France in 1788 to a middle-class family of artisans. Cabet attended a Roman Catholic secondary school and continued his education, ultimately earning a Doctorate of Law degree in 1812. Cabet was not inclined towards jurisprudence, however, preferring the rough and tumble of politics and journalism. Following the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, Cabet became active in
29848-407: Was bringing to bear scientific, medical, and engineering solutions to reform government and education and foster improvements in various fields including medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, and churches. They aimed to professionalize the social sciences, especially history, economics, and political science and improve efficiency with scientific management or Taylorism. Initially,
30030-528: Was created. Ida Tarbell , a writer and lecturer, was one of the leading muckrakers and pioneered investigative journalism . Tarbell is best known for her 1904 book, The History of the Standard Oil Company . The book was published as a series of articles in McClure's Magazine from 1902 to 1904. The work helped turn elite public opinion against the Standard Oil monopoly. Lincoln Steffens
30212-502: Was dissolved in April 1827. Owen's Utopian communities attracted a mix of people, many with the highest aims. They included vagrants, adventurers and other reform-minded enthusiasts. In the words of Owen's son David Dale Owen, they attracted "a heterogeneous collection of Radicals", "enthusiastic devotees to principle", and "honest latitudinarians , and lazy theorists", with "a sprinkling of unprincipled sharpers thrown in". Josiah Warren ,
30394-463: Was given the choice of two years' imprisonment or five years in foreign exile. He decided upon the latter punishment and immediately went into exile in England. During his five years of English exile, Cabet dedicated himself to philosophical and economic study, carefully considering the relationship between political structures and economic welfare throughout history. Cabet's findings were later summarized thus by one of his acolytes: Studying, pondering
30576-445: Was influenced by Sir Isaac Newton 's views on natural law, and his views resembled those of Plato , Denis Diderot , Claude Adrien Helvétius , William Godwin , John Locke , James Mill , and Jeremy Bentham , among others. Owen did not have the direct influence of Enlightenment philosophers. Owen hoped for a better and more harmonious environment that promoted mutual respect, love and moral values. He believed everyone would have
30758-422: Was installed above each machinist's workplace. The colour of the face showed to all who saw it the quality and quantity of goods the worker completed. The intention was to encourage workers to do their best. Although it was no great incentive in itself, conditions at New Lanark for workers and their families were idyllic for the time. Owen raised the demand for an eight-hour day in 1810 and set about instituting
30940-402: Was intended to be a prosperous and enviable collective entity. Cabet believed that at least 10,000 or 20,000 working men would immediately enlist in the American colonization scheme, with the number soon swelling to a million skilled workers and artisans. Towns and huge cities bursting with industry would shortly follow, with accompanying schools and cultural facilities assuring the good life for
31122-474: Was moving to the left, advocating some social welfare programs, and criticizing various business practices such as trusts. The leadership of the GOP in Congress moved to the right, as did his protégé President William Howard Taft. Roosevelt broke bitterly with Taft in 1910, and also with Wisconsin's progressive leader Robert M. La Follette . Taft defeated Roosevelt for the 1912 Republican nomination and Roosevelt set up an entirely new Progressive Party. It called for
31304-525: Was obtained and loaded it with provisions for a difficult overland trek via the Bonham Trail to a resting place halfway to the final destination. The first group of 25 men departed on April 8, followed in a second wagon by 14 others shortly thereafter. Both wagons broke down en route and the 39 Icarians were forced to proceed in small groups, packing what they could on their backs. It was not until April 21 that they arrived at their resting place, still more than
31486-573: Was one of the few states where former Populists like U'Ren became progressive leaders. U'Ren had been inspired by reading the influential 1893 book Direct Legislation Through the Initiative and Referendum , and the group's founding followed in the wake of the 1896 founding of the National Direct Legislation League, which itself had its roots in the Direct Legislation League of New Jersey and its short-lived predecessor,
31668-594: Was overshadowed by Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette's refusal to support Roosevelt, and especially his suicidal ranting speech before media leaders in February 1912, alienated many progressives. La Follette forfeited his stature as a national leader of progressive Republicans, while remaining a power in Wisconsin. La Follette supported some of President Wilson's policies, but he broke with the president over foreign policy, thereby gaining support from Wisconsin's large German and Scandinavian elements. During World War I, La Follette
31850-533: Was pared from the treasury to send the 200 disaffected Icarians home to Le Havre . Once back in France, many of the former Icarian colonists initiated legal proceedings against Cabet for fraud – charges which he was ultimately forced home to answer. The majority, consisting of about 280 people, joined Cabet in setting out for the Mississippi River town of Nauvoo , located in Hancock County, Illinois , where
32032-532: Was promoted to advance democracy and bring the presumed moral influence of women into politics. For many progressives, prohibition of alcoholic beverages was key to eliminating corruption in politics as well as improving social conditions. Another target were monopolies , which progressives worked to regulate through trustbusting and antitrust laws with the goal of promoting fair competition. Progressives also advocated new government agencies focused on regulation of industry. An additional goal of progressives
32214-408: Was pushed aside by the rise of progressivism. Robert M. La Follette and his family were the dominant forces of progressivism in Wisconsin from the late 1890s to the early 1940s. He tried for a national leadership role in 1912 but blundered badly in a highly embarrassing speech to leading journalists. Starting as a loyal organizational Republican, he broke with the bosses in the late 1890s, built up
32396-447: Was recognized with appointment as Attorney-General for Corsica following the coronation of Louis Philippe as king. Historian Morris Hillquit has argued that the posting of Cabet to Corsica was a calculated "shrewd move on the part of the government" to remove a prominent radical critic from the political hothouse of Paris "under the guise of a reward for his services during the revolution." Be that as it may, despite his employment as
32578-483: Was targeted in the 1920s and 1930s by the Julius Rosenwald Fund , which contributed matching funds to local communities for the construction of thousands of schools for African Americans in rural areas throughout the South. Black parents donated land and labor to build improved schools for their children. North Carolina took a leadership role in modernizing the south, notably in expansion of public education and
32760-479: Was the most outspoken opponent of the administration's domestic and international policies. With the major parties each nominating conservative candidates in the 1924 presidential election , left-wing groups coalesced behind La Follette's third-party candidacy. With the support of the Socialist Party , farmer's groups, labor unions, and others, La Follette was strong in Wisconsin, and to a much lesser extent in
32942-446: Was the sixth of the family's seven children, two of whom died at a young age. His surviving siblings were William, Anne, John and Richard. Owen received little formal education, but he was an avid reader. He left school at the age of ten to be an apprentice draper in Stamford, Lincolnshire , for four years. He also worked in London drapery shops in his teenage years. At about the age of 18, Owen moved to Manchester , where he spent
33124-426: Was well received by readers of his day, with the principles it outlined viewed by many as a blueprint for advancement from a disappointing present to a glorious future. Multiple editions of the book followed in quick succession and with public interest awakened Cabet quickly made the transition from author to builder of a practical movement to advance the communal ideas which he had expounded. In March 1841 Cabet launched
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