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PROGESSIVISM, NEW DEAL & GREAT SOCIETY.   Term Paper ID:25764 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Describes & compares social reforms of Progessive Era (1900-1917), and of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt in 1930s & Lyndon Johnson in 1960s in civil rights & economics.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 8 sources, 16 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Describes & compares social reforms of Progessive Era (1900-1917), and of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt in 1930s & Lyndon Johnson in 1960s in civil rights & economics. Paper Introduction: PROGRESSIVE NEW DEAL AND GREAT SOCIETY ERA REFORMS This research paper compares and contrasts the approaches taken by reformers to civil rights and social welfare or income maintenance programs during the eras of the Progressives, the New Deal and the Great Society. The idea of using the power of government to benefit broader segments of society originated in the Progressive era; however, Progressivism was largely a middle class movement which did little to advance the interests of nonwhite groups or the poor. It did espouse the political equality of women. New Deal reformers established for the first time a social safety net of minimum subsistence standards. They viewed their role more as one of extending temporary relief than of permanently addressing the needs of the poor. The civil rights record of the New Deal was poor; but blacks and other minorities Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Joseph Cayer (Eds.). . First, was SocialSecurity which was actually passed in 1935, a vast involuntary system offorced savings for retirement which would be administered by the federalgovernment but which would be financed entirely by contributions fromgovernment and most employers. As for FDR,Lash acknowledges that "prodded by Eleanor he listened to the issues withwhich they were concerned and gave them just enough recognition to keepthem with him but not so much as to scare off his antifeminist cohorts"(374). R. According to Lash,Franklin Roosevelt's original team of inner advisors, the Brains Trust,"when it came to women in government patronized them" (372). New York: Harper & Row, 1963.----------------------- 9 .regarded racial issues as 'political dynamite' (418)." FDR rejected theplea of A. American Public Policy. Onefruit of her efforts was the granting of a license to singer MarianAnderson to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after theDaughters of the American Revolution had denied her permission to sing atConstitution Hall. gave aid to the aged poor and to dependent children;mothers' assistance laws, intended to help divorced, widowed, or desertedmothers" and workmen's compensation laws to assist victims of industrialaccidents (Hofstadter 11). Civil Rights The Progressive Movement took place largely between 19 and theperiod leading up to American intervention in World War I. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.Kearns, Doris. The women's rightsmovement gathered significant momentum in the 196 s. However,Roosevelt himself and the more conservative elements of his administrationand in Congress were uncomfortable with the whole idea of relief or thegovernment competing with private industry except in narrowly circumscribedareas. Second, a public housing bill was passed in 1937 (Wagner-Steagall) but it merely provided for $5 million in government loans forthe construction of public housing. Wilson asPresident "introduced segregation into the federal government"(Leuchtenburg 332). Thiswas a lofty objective, but how it was accomplished was not well thoughtout, then or later. The platform of the 1912 ProgressiveParty called for the adoption of a minimum wage for women, maximum hourlaws and "a system of social insurance" (Hofstadter 131). The Progressive Movement 19 To 1915. According to Dallek, LBJ wanted to be the first President to appointa woman to the Supreme Court but never did so (438). Johnson himself was a bit of a male chauvinist, often requiring thathis attractive female secretaries indulge his sexual whims (Dallek 186-187). Martin's P, 1996.Dallek, Robert. Crossroads of Liberalism: Croly, Weyl, Lippmann and the Progressive Era, 19 -1925. Arare example of an article condemning Southern lynchings is a series by RayBaker which appeared in McClure's in 19 5 (Hofstadter 45-48). The 1965 bill put teeth into constitutional bars on racialdiscrimination in voting and effectively ended literacy testdisqualifications. Part-time employees, domestics and farmlaborers were excluded from coverage. Less planned progress was made in the field of women's rights.The attempt of reformers in the late 196 s to address the fundamentalcauses of poverty through various income maintenance and other socialwelfare programs became bogged down in the conflicting priorities of theVietnam War and confusion as to the goals and implementation of the war onpoverty. One of the top priorities of New Dealers was providing reliefto the army of the unemployed which had just about exhausted availablestate assistance. There was a strong nativist, anti-immigration strain in theProgressive movement. This did notconstitute much of a safety net. Great Society reformers extended various other subsidies to lowincome groups, such as rent subsidies, grants for mass transit, aid toeducation, mental health, etc. New York: Oxford U P, 1988.Cochran, Clarke E., Lawrence C. Dealers and Dreamers: A New Look at the New Deal. Accordingto Forcey, "the progressive crusade was staunchly middle class" (xvii). Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal 1932-194 . proved tobe a disappointing method for solving racial tensions" (624). It was aided by thepassage of the gender provision of Title VII of the 1964 Act which was,according to Chafe, the result of the efforts of a few northern liberals inCongress, such as Rep. Minor assistance to farmers was available in theform of credits under the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916. New York: Oxford U P, 1961.Hofstadter, Richard (Ed.). Women made some progress during the New Deal. New York: St. Blacks shared in the jobs and other benefits of the incomemaintenance and other welfare and relief programs of the New Deal. . Great Society reformersmade much more significant advances in the field of civil rights forminorities. Eleanor Roosevelt consistently championed the cause of blacks. However, the leadership ofthe Progressives was primarily white anglo-saxon Protestant although itincluded some Jews and other minorities. Progressives supported woman suffrage and other women's causes suchas laws to shorten the hours women could work and to outlaw child labor.Jane Addams, a leading suffragist and social worker, seconded TR'snomination in 1912. In thepresidential election of 1912, it garnered 7 percent of the vote (BullMoose candidate Theodore Roosevelt plus Democrat Woodrow Wilson). Considerablegains were achieved in representation in certain executive agencies:Eleanor Roosevelt, as First Lady, Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor,Molly Dewson, Vice Chairperson of the Democratic Committee, and others,especially in agencies like the National Labor Relations Board. According to Dallek, "civil rights and voting rights corrected long-standing wrongs and opened the way to the rising of a large and moreaffluent black middle class. Progressive politicians, suchas TR, occasionally decried the lynching of blacks by Southern whites (aslater did Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge) but did nothing about them. Philip Randolph head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Portersin 194 that the armed services be racially integrated. before its finances ran dry. (33 ). However, apart from being treated equally (a realaccomplishment) under certain federal programs administered by HaroldIckes, Harry Hopkins and a few others, blacks received little anti-discrimination assistance from the leadership of the New Deal. Works CitedChafe, William H. New York: Doubleday, 1988.Leuchtenburg, William E. Theydeserted the Republicans and flocked to the Democrats in droves, startingwith the 1936 elections. . Progressives placedtheir faith in democratic reforms, such as the direct election of senators,the ballot initiative, recall and referendum. . Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times 1961-1973. That element believed that unrestricted immigrationhad contributed to the corrupt urban machine politics of the Boss Tweedvariety which muckraking journalists exposed. It did espouse the political equality ofwomen. Dallek says thatannual appropriations never exceeded $2 billion in any year and eventuallyhad to be cut back because of the competing priorities of the Vietnam War(243). . The civil rights record of the New Deal was poor; but blacks andother minorities benefitted from the greater opportunities its socialwelfare programs opened for disadvantaged groups. When New Deal reformers took power, 14 million people wereunemployed. . . In 1934 FDRexplained that he could not oppose the poll tax because he needed thesupport of Southern committee chairmen on programs which had higherpriority than civil rights. Title VIbarred discrimination on such grounds by any entity receiving federalfunds. The 1935 Rural Electrification Actbrought the benefits of electrification to rural areas. It was supplementedby farm price supports under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 andits successors and by the liberal extension of government credit to farmersby the Farm Security Administration. Leuchtenburg says that "by pre-depression standards,Roosevelt's works programs mounted a bold departure" (129). His EconomicOpportunity Acts suffered from grandiose goals, the elimination of poverty,confusion of objectives and very limited accomplishments. Conclusion Progressives, New Dealers and Great Society reformers each sought tomeet the challenges of their times with different approaches in the areasof civil rights and social welfare. Their goal wasambitious, not merely to alleviate poverty and eradicate discrimination,but also as LBJ explained in his Ann Arbor address of May 22, 1964 "to use[our] wealth to enrich our national life, and to advance the quality of ourAmerican civilization . The welfare program, aid to families with dependent children orAFDC, quadrupled in cost 1964-197 and launched a cycle of long termdependency by the poor on the government (Dallek 334). "the Federal Government must and shall quit thisbusiness of relief" (Leuchtenburg 124). Martha Griffith of Michigan and not from the effortsof any of Johnson's strategists. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of Nisei, Americans ofJapanese descent were herded into relocation centers during World War II.Cochran et al say "the internment was a gross, racially motivated denial ofdue process of law" (342). Themiddle class felt squeezed between the abuses of industrial capitalism andlower class anarchism, socialism and labor violence. Affirmative action, however, . The 1964 bill madediscrimination in employment or public accommodations on the basis of raceor other proscribed criteria (creed, sex, national origin, etc.) a federalcrime and gave the federal government enhanced enforcement powers. Carr, and N. New Deal reformers established for the first time a social safetynet of minimum subsistence standards. Lash says that "Roosevelt and his staff . FDR said in 1935: the dole, was "a narcotic, a subtle destroyer ofthe human spirit" . The final major New Deal bill was theFair Labor Standards Act of 1938 which set the minimum wage at $.25 an hourand provided for later annual increments, established the 44 hour (later 4 hour regular work week) and abolished child labor in interstate commerce.By these and other measures, Leuchtenburg says "the New Deal assumed theresponsibility for guaranteeing every American a maximum standard ofsubsistence" (332). Mayer, T. During the first three years of the New Deal (1932-1935)this took two forms: direct handouts, partially financed by the federalgovernment, under the Federal Emergency Relief Assistance Acts of 1933 andthe Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935 and the establishment ofvarious real and 'make-work' programs under the Civilian ConservationCorps, the Public Works Administration and the Works ProgressAdministration. upward to the Great Society" (Dallek 82). In his message to Congress in support of his first anti-poverty billin March 1964, LBJ declared unconditional war on poverty. The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II. They viewed their role more as one ofextending temporary relief than of permanently addressing the needs of thepoor. The 1968 law guaranteed open housing to all Americans.LBJ appointed the first black, Thurgood Marshall, to the Supreme Court.Kearns says that "Johnson took the most advanced positions on racial issuesof any President in American history" (232). . Almost all the reforms which wereenacted at the federal level were regulatory in nature, such as theantitrust laws, the Pure Food and Drug Act, the adoption of the income taxand the regulation of railroad rates. However, only onestate, Oregon, adopted a minimum wage law before the 193 s (which survivedcourt challenges) and the Progressive Party lost the election of 1912. . Suchsocial welfare legislation as was passed by progressives occurred at thestate level and consisted, in addition to laws outlawing child labor andregulating the labor of women, to those which "provided for accidentinsurance . In his second inaugural address, FDR referred to a nation 1/3 ill-housed, ill-fed and ill-housed; however, his Second New Deal's welfaremeasures were confined to several of great importance. Lyndon Johnson & The American Dream. PROGRESSIVE NEW DEAL AND GREAT SOCIETY ERA REFORMS This research paper compares and contrasts the approaches taken byreformers to civil rights and social welfare or income maintenance programsduring the eras of the Progressives, the New Deal and the Great Society.The idea of using the power of government to benefit broader segments ofsociety originated in the Progressive era; however, Progressivism waslargely a middle class movement which did little to advance the interestsof nonwhite groups or the poor. The administration of Lyndon Johnson secured the passage throughCongress of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 andthe lesser Civil Rights Acts of 1966 and 1968. This was a conservative programcompared with the free old age program proposed by Francis Townsend inCalifornia. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.Lash, Joseph P. New York: Oxford U P, 1998.Forcey, Charles. Social Welfare/ Income Maintenance Measures The Progressives sought to use government to remedy the abuses ofcapitalism and forestall radical reforms. The most enduringGreat Society welfare program has been the Medicare/Medicaid subsidizationof medical and hospital care for the elderly, the costs of which have alsoskyrocketed since the 196 s. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.