 Today we're going to focus on the populist and the progressive reform movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries We're going to look at how and why these movements come about in the United States Their influences the membership of these movements and ultimately their impact on American politics and the American economy during the late 1800s and early 1900s reform movements in the United States really begin to Become important and influential in the second half of the 19th century particularly in the decades after The Civil War there have been reform movements prior to the Civil War that have focused on issues like slavery women's rights and other particular issues like that And they have gradually sort of faded away with the exceptions of the women's rights movement after the Civil War But beginning in the decades following the Civil War we see a renewed emphasis on social economic and political reform movements And in many ways these are reactionary movements. They're reacting against changing conditions in the United States Reacting against the growth of powerful corporations here We have the standard oil company depicted as the octopus grabbing up innocent Americans in its tentacles Reacting against control of politics by the wealthy again John D. Rockefeller Who owned the standard oil seen as being a corruptor who had politicians under his his great influence a concern about growing industrialization particularly the impact on women and children that the growth of factories was having in the United States also growing concerns about American cities American cities becoming Crowded becoming filled with immigrants Becoming dirtier and more dangerous. And so all these are particular areas that reformers in the United States in the 19th and early 20th century are reacting to Reform movements particularly the populace and the progressive reform movements appealed to different segments of the American population And they took very different approaches to addressing the social political and economic problems caused by industrialization caused by Changes in American political life and of course to cause by changes in American cities And so we'll begin by focusing on the populace movement and how populism came about in the 19th century and Those who were interested in the populace movement and ultimately the impact of the populace movement on American society Populism was largely a backwards-looking movement In other words It appealed to people who were interested in the United States going back to sort of the way things had been Prior to the Civil War prior to all the industrial and social and economic and political changes that had happened in the United States After the 1860s and they really wanted to restore power to the hands of the people and return the nation politically and socially to sort of pre-civil war values Primarily populism drew support from farmers In the United States, especially in the Midwest and South and to a limited extent industrial workers But mostly it was a farming or a rural movement in the South and in the Midwest Populists had Over the course of the second half of the 19th century and growing concerns about How the average American was losing power in society the average American had less influence and less control of his or her fate Then in any previous time period and as a result of this populists grow very concerned about Defending the rights of the average person giving the average person The right to you know control over the voting process this preventing large corporations from dominating American economy preventing politicians from being bought out by corrupt Corporations and these are all factors that influence the development of populism in the United States during this time period Well economically America's farmers were facing a difficult situation following this war And we're having a hard time adjusting to many of the changes that were going on in the United States Particularly to industrialization as farming was becoming more mechanized farmers are becoming more reliant on banks for loans They were becoming more reliant on Railroads to transport their goods to market and they were becoming part of much broader world economy a world economy That desk definitely didn't necessarily Considered the individual considered the collective and as a result farmers get caught up in the economic cycles that are part of the 19th century these boom and bust cycles that really dominate the economy of the 19th century and as a result of this many farmers will lose everything during this period or become greatly indebted and are going increasingly frustrated with The situation that they're under the control of the economy by these powerful corporations like railroads and banks the loss of control by the individual over kind of his or her fate and farmers began really looking for a Solution to these problems looking for a way to organize and a way to express their frustration with the corruption and and the Economic loss of control that they experienced during the second half of the 19th century And they look for a way for the common man to re-establish himself as an important figure In American politics as he had prior to the Civil War We see a number of movements originate after the Civil War that gradually grow into a political movement That becomes known as the People's Party and we'll talk more about the People's Party here in just a minute But I want to say a few things about the predecessor movements that eventually lead to the formation of the People's Party in the 1890s First of these were the Granger movement. It was a movement that was organized After the Civil War by Oliver Kelly you're pictured on the left and Kelly was a worker for the Department of Agriculture He was concerned about the situation that rural farmers based in the United States after the war He spent time studying rural culture and farming and he began to organize Granger clips or granges as they are known and granges were a way for farmers to get together to discuss political and economic affairs It's a lobby for regulation of industries like railroads or banks To promote areas such as rural free delivery of mail Which is the source of concern and other topics that were important to farmers during this time period So the granges are sort of the first way for farmers in the United States to organize themselves Organize themselves in a way that they can have an impact on local state and ultimately national politics The Granger movement by 1874 it becomes really quite large and almost 1.5 million members belong to the Grange by the mid-1870s and a significant significant number But the Granger itself begins a decline in the 1880s It was a result of a number of factors including financial mismanagement Disorganization because of the rapid growth in the 1860s and 70s It remains relevant and still exists to this day But the Granger loses a lot of its political influence as a result of this decline in membership in the 1870s And we see the emergence of a new political organization That has an influence on farmers, especially in the Midwest and South and this is a group called the Farmers' Alliances Here we have a flag from the Farmers' Alliances And the Farmers' Alliances were much more of a political and economic association far more than just the Grange We really see kind of two branches There's a southern branch, especially in Texas in the south and a Midwestern branch centered in Chicago and extending into the Midwest It was very elaborate some of social and economic programs that farmers who were members of the Farmers' Alliance advocated They wanted the federal government to create a system of warehouses that would allow Farmers to actually store grain in these warehouses and then get loans against the value of their grain They call this the sub-treasure plan It was an idea that would allow farmers to not have to depend on large corporations To store their grain for them to then market and sell their grain It would allow farmers to have more economic control over the process of farming and be able to hopefully make more money in the process Farmers' Alliances organized banks. They organized newspapers to advocate for members They actually participated in state, local and politics, especially in the Midwest and in the South And so as a result of the Farmers' Alliance, farmers, rural people, people who were involved in growing the nation's food Become much more active in the politics of the time period Beginning in the 1890s, the Farmers' Alliance began to sort of evolve into a new political party known as the People's Party And the first convention of the People's Party is First National Convention is in 1892 When they nominate a new candidate for president, they nominate a man by the name of James Weaver And Weaver doesn't do so great in the first election. Here we have a electoral map here on the left that shows The states where Weaver won and they were mostly Western states where Weaver appealed to the mostly mining and kind of agricultural interests And also a few Midwestern states where he appealed to farmers But the most part Weaver has a very limited success as a presidential candidate But the farmers who organized the People's Party had a very very clear mission in mind Their objective was to focus on bringing about economic social and political reforms in the United States Benefit farmers and they focused on areas such as nationalizing Railroads bringing about U.S. government control over railroads In the United States they focused on nationalizing the telegraph system nationalizing the early telephone system They also argued that the federal government should restrict immigrant access to land in order to give American born farmers more control over land They also advocated an eight-hour work day for industrial workers They also focused on an issue that becomes very important throughout the history of the People's Party Which is they wanted the government to be more involved in Coining silver and the reason for this is because they the gold was the official currency in the united states But gold was hard to get your hands on it was hard for farmers to get gold currency And they argued that silver should be coined for a number of reasons number one to give work to Miners in the west who were silver miners to benefit them in a way Silver would also if there was more silver in circulation that would lead to inflation of In the american economy, which meant that while prices would get larger there would be more money in circulation So farmers would be able to pay their bills much easier And so they had a rather sophisticated argument why silver should be coined and included in the official currency of the united states But part of this again was all about trying to benefit farmers trying to give farmers power over The large corporations and organized Politics of this period to give farmers more power over their fate Well, again, I said weaver is not successful in 1892 and in 1894 is not a presidential election But the populace gained a lot of votes in the midwest by 1894 Well in 1896 once again the populace organized to run for National office to run a presidential candidate and this time around they selected William Jennings Bryant And they actually joined forces with the democratic party to nominate Bryant here pictured on the left Bryant runs as the presidential candidate for both the populace party and also for the democratic party and Then the populace nominated a separate vice president and the democrats nominated a separate vice president Once again, they focus on all the concerns that they had in 1892 including this issue Of coinage and Bryant delivers a very famous Speech called the cross of gold speech where he talks about how the united states Was basically crucified on across a gold at gold What the obsession with gold as currency was destroying the united states and that americans needed to Implement silver coinage and that silver coinage was going to be a way to save the average person from the the evil influences of Of these corporations and these financial speculators who used gold as a weapon against the common man Well, once again the election is in this case much closer than the 1892 election and we can see the map and brian Is extremely successful wins really the entire Swathe of the west wins most of the south, but his opponent uh, mcginley Is very successful on the west coast and he's very successful as a republican He's very successful in the industrial north and as a result of this because there are more voters There's a more population in this region. They can we wins the election The republicans also benefit from this time period because of a huge amount of spending they Far outspend the democrats and the populists and as a result of this It's really the first election where we see spending as a as a really powerful tactic used in the election After the election of 1896 populists begin to sort of collapse as a party And they remain important in the local and the state level But they lose a lot of their national support and the democratic party Really sort of co-ops the populist to a certain extent they really gain a lot of populist voters And we sort of see the collapse of the populist party as an independent national party as a result of Kind of the failures of the election of 1896 Well, I'm going to change gears for just a second and focus on the other major reform movement on this time period Which is the progressive movement progressivism as it's largely called and progressivism was a campaign to reform american society Through a combination of government as well as volunteer voluntary actions of the local state and national level and progressives were very influenced by Reform in europe and they were very influenced by the growing role that governments were playing In politics and in the economy in society in european nations such as germany great britain and france and american Pop american progressives were very interested in seeing reforms of the government in order to both give The people influence give the average person influence in the government But also to fix all these problems that they saw That were wrong with american society including industrialization problems caused by industrialization problems caused by immigration Problems caused by political corruption And all of these factors they felt were destroying the united states Society and they felt that indeed that there should be reforms made Just like the the populist the progressives had a very clear vision of how they wanted to see society Change in the united states, but unlike the populist progressives were forward-looking In other words, they didn't want to go back to the past They didn't want to go back to the way things were before the civil war Instead they wanted to look to the future. They wanted to look to the important changes that New technologies that new types of government regulation of the economy could bring about for americans Now it's important when we talk about the progressive movement to mention that it's definitely riddled with contradictions The progressives promoted democracy Yet many of their methods were actually very undemocratic They were focused on lifting up the lower classes, especially poor immigrants But they also sought to restrict the freedoms of the lower classes They in many ways were all about reducing individual liberty in order to help collective society And as a result of this these sort of contradictions in many ways they were about Reforming government and really increasing the power of government Because they somehow they basically felt that increasing the power and the influence of government would ultimately benefit The common man So in a way you could say that they're the sort of the first people to start saying We're from the government and we're here to help you You know, we are going to fix the government so that the government can take care of the american people Unlike the populists who were primarily farmers from the midwest and south Many progressives tended to be urban Middle-class and tended to be very well educated and many of them were People some of the first americans to have advanced degrees in areas such as phd's and master's degrees So they were very interested in using their education using their ability to conduct research as a way of bringing about reforms And the progressives are well known for using What we would kind of think about as modern research techniques to Organize reform movements. They loved conducting surveys enumerating and analyzing social phenomena in order to come up with Solutions and using sociological models as a way of sort of explaining Situations in the united states Well, the progressives focus on a number of areas to very briefly It focused on the urban underclass especially poor immigrants and poor migrants that focus on employer and employee relationships Dealing with for instance, uh labor unions encouraging labor unions to have more rights within american society Focusing on pay issues workplace safety worker hours, etc. Etc Uh producer and consumer relationships including things like product safety food safety Conditions and factories all these things that were very important to them because they influenced How people the things that people purchased and also of course focusing on the urban environment dealing with City services political corruption improving architecture Improving sanitation all these areas that they thought were very important to making america's cities Modern clean healthy much more productive places than they have been in previous times on the volunteer level We see efforts by progressives to promote Help for immigration here. We have an example of hall house, which is a progressive named jane adams It was her effort to use this settlement house to help immigrants Settle in the united states help immigrants become more adjusted To american values and once again progressives all about promoting american values and trying to convince Immigrants to become more american to give up their older traditional culture and become more modern Well, as i mentioned in the beginning progressives are influenced by europeans and they look at the european reforms in the 1860s and 70s And they adopt these reforms at the local level and then the state national level beginning in the 1880s And continuing through the 1890s in the beginning of the 19th century The national level really where we see kind of progressive is the biggest impact begins with franklin I'm excuse me with um, theater roosevelt roosevelt Becomes president when william mckinley is assassinated, but then he's he runs and successfully runs reelection A few years later and under roosevelt's administration. This is really where we see progressivism becoming national movement roosevelt and his successors William howard taft and then Woodrow wilson who's a democrat roosevelt's republican They all push through progressive legislation to address things such as workers rights deal with corporate Monopolies address other economic issues focus on the rights of women and children Both as individuals and as workers and all these particular areas where they wanted to see reforms take place in american society and so as a result we see a whole series of reforms take place under roosevelt taft and wilson Focusing on trying to break up large corporations corporations that were just too big and too powerful focusing on consumer safety roosevelt and Taft are interested in bringing about legislation to improve the The quality of food the quality of materials that were marketed as drugs in the united states and also creating The federal trade commission to focus on consumer Safety focus on consumer relationships with producers as well as conserving nature for creating the national park service Contrating the forest service to focus on preserving america's wild resources And so we see in many different ways Progressives at this time period trying to bring about change in american society Using their kind of modern techniques using their their scientific methods to promote Change probably one of the most famous of these of these progressives Is an individual who focuses on change in the workplace? Which who is named frederick w taylor here pictured and taylor was focused on a phrase that becomes synonymous in which is scientific management and scientific management is all about trying to figure How to make workers more effective how to work more effectively and so taylor spends years studying workers and eventually comes up with an entire Course of study that promotes ways of making workers more efficient efficiency of course being one of these buzzwords of many progressives and as a result of The populist movement and then of course later the progressive movement We see some very significant changes in american society, especially within the first couple decades of The 20th century american society becomes less individualized and becomes much more organized along the lines of bureaucratic institutions both government Private institutions. We also begin to see that becomes much harder for people to survive Kind of as an individual without interacting in some way with these bureaucratic organizations Both government and also private and so from in many ways The progressives bring about the modern society that that we know today in the united states a society that's shaped by organizations that's shaped by Um Efforts to study problems to try to come up with solutions to these problems and then Figure out ways to implement them so in many ways kind of modern politics and modern political process as well as Social change is really the result of the reforms that the progressives put in place During the first couple decades of the 20th century and it really does lead to in a sense the modern world The modern world that americans would sort of recognize In the beginning of the 21st century