Politics and Reform I (1870s-1900)

 Reform as the New Science

1. 1. original reforms in agriculture with the Grange, Farmer’s Alliance, and Populist Party (sought economic reforms, government aid/subsidy, national transportation standards)
   2. urban protests and formation of unions–federal troops used then national guards formed to prevent violent strikes, large unions formed to create bigger strikes and form labor parties which won seats by the late 1880s where working class laborers outnumbered other classes
   3. Social Reform—focused on reform of civil evils to deal with the “rot of progress and industry”
      1. women were primary activists in agrarian and labor protests, continued those efforts in social welfare ideas
      2. Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)–led by Frances Willard
         1. goal to abolish alcohol production and limit consumption, temperance workers supported woman suffrage also
      3. “Social Gospel Movement” 1870s & 1880s: led by Protestant ministers such as Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch;
         1. called for churches to fight social injustice wherever it existed
         2. emergence of Charles M. Sheldon’s “What would Jesus Do?” (WWJD)—an idea/trend which has reemerged amongst modern evangelicals
         3. movement toward approval of government involvement in social reform, “social workers” and welfare system
         4. settlement house movement as counterpart: moved away from religious welfare to secular help, dedicated to social order and class harmony
            1. though preferred or required that its members live in immigrant or poor neighborhoods where they worked (a first for reform groups), middle class ideals and codes of behavior prevailed
            2. imposition of middle class values onto immigrants and poor, little understanding of cultural differences or economic hardships (common for recent college graduate social worker to work for 1 or 2 years in settlement before marrying and devoting time to charities)
            3. some made career out of it: Jane Addams and Hull House in Chicago, provided a model for other settlement houses
            4. side benefit: opens new job opportunities for women (especially professional/college educated women) which was acceptable socially and morally
      4. Social Darwinism: misapplication of Charles Darwin’s On the Originof Species, featured theory of natural selection of species in nature to favor certain traits, he did not coin the phrase “survival of the fittest” (emerged during 1890s) though that is how his theories were used
         1. see text for discussion on social Darwinists vs reform Darwinists
         2. Charles Loring Brace, wrote “The Life of the Street Rats” (Children’s Aid Society founder). He presented the ideas that
            1. American life has accustomed children to worst poverty and vice, unrestrained and unapologetic behavior (he said these were largely American-born children but of Irish and German parents)
            2. Capitalism is a tyrant which pays nothing to them, work has little reward and find theft an easier method as “street rats”; regardless of how they earn money, spend it frivolously
            3. If law let up or efforts to civilize them did, an uprising would occur in that the lower class

 Woman Suffrage in the 1890s

1. 1. resurgence of interest in North and West states, South lagged far behind especially Florida (some movement in Tampa and Tallahassee)
   2. reunification of suffrage movement in 1890 as National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) with the two leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, as heads, philosophical differences between older and younger leadership
      1. older women wanted push for women’s rights and suffrage (original goal of movement and Seneca Falls convention in 1848) while younger women split on reaching the vote (single issue) by national amendment or state approval
      2. caused rift in movement in late 1890s and strong push for woman suffrage wavers until 1910s
   3. Most common method to pursue suffrage was the emergence and diligence of the lobby–on state and national levels. Wrote letters, held discussion sessions, attended controversial votes–in fact, FL debated woman suffrage 5 times in 10 years to no avail during this period.
   4. Suffragists platform/reasons to have suffrage in 1890s:
      1. protective legislation: women needed vote to help with safety issues in industry for women and children, create a protected worker class, secondary idea (primarily in South) was to protect against rape
      2. Jane Addams’ concept of “urban housekeeping”: notion that women were guardians of morality in society and best defense vs corruption (found mostly in cities & politics), 19th C role of women dictated their moral superiority over men and the innate feminine instincts to preserve the greater good
      3. Nativism: if women had the vote, they could disfranchise or counterbalance influence of poor male immigrants (Catholic or Jewish, uneducated, immigrants, machine politics corruption)
   5. Antisuffragist (called antis) element: antis were against women’s enfranchisement but used attacks on feminism as their scapegoat.
      1. Feared that suffrage would upset the gender balance–causing sex war because disharmony if wife/husband vote differently and that women would turn into men or display masculine traits/behaviors,
      2. Suffrage would give votes to women of lower classes–too much power to less worthy, would allow uneducated, immigrant, and black female voters to outvote upper class, educated, white, native-born women
      3. Erode feminine power in the home (own sphere had power and dominated by women)–perverted Darwin’s theory about specialization of gender roles equaled civilization, saying that suffrage would destroy these roles and therefore retreat from civilization, spend less time being good republican mothers
      4. Overall, said that suffrage would destroy society and cause anarchy (in many ways, they were correct—these massive changes did occur and caused social upheaval but which changes were good or bad depended on one’s point of view and gender, though they were both men and women who supported suffrage)
   6. The earliest female suffrage found on the state level: political access in WY (1869)–only one to give full political equality before 1890, UT (1870), CO (1893), ID (1896), WA (1910), CA (1911), AZ and OR (1912), MT and NE (1914)—distinctiveness of western politics needed female voters and many reasons for granting suffrage