Social Darwinism, Social Gospel, Social Welfare
I. Social Darwinism- “The millionaires are product of natural selection.” Self
justification by the wealthy inevitably involved contempt for the poor. Many of the rich,
especially the newly rich, had pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps; hence they
concluded that those who stayed poor must be lazy and lacking in enterprise.
A. Plutocracy, like the earlier slaveocracy, took its stand firmly on the
Constitution. The clause that gave Congress sole jurisdiction over interstate
commerce was a godsend to the monopolists; their high priced lawyers used it
time and again to thwart controls by the state legislatures. Giant trusts likewise
sought refuge behind the 14th Amendment, which had originally been designed to
protect the rights of the ex slaves as persons.
B. The New plutocrats took the language of democracy and reshaped it to fit their
purposes. For example Laissez-Faire was typically associated with Jeffersonian
and Jacksonian principles.
1. The new doctrine was conservative, however, in the sense that it was
bent on defending the status quo. The laissez-faire conservatives naturally
found comfort in classical economics, and those who had heard of them
found special fascination in the biological theories of Charles Darwin and
the sociological theory of Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, who
believed in the superiority of the Anglo Saxon Race.
2. The Gospel of Wealth (Andrew Carnegie) and its corollaries of Social
Darwinism included many proposition widely accepted. Among them
were the following:
a. the American economy was controlled for the benefit of all by a
natural aristocracy and that these leaders were brought to the top
by a competitive struggle that weeded out the weak, the
incompetent, and the unfit and selected the strong, the able, and the
wise.
b. that politicians were not subject to rigorous natural selection and
therefore could not be trusted to the same degree as businessmen
c. the state should confine itself to police activities of protecting
property and maintaining order and that if it interfered with
economic affairs it would upset the beneficent effect of natural
selection.
d. slums and poverty were the unfortunate but inevitable negative
results of the competition struggle and that state intervention to
eliminate them was misguided
e. stewardship of wealth obliged the rich to try and ameliorate
social injustice.
C. Critics of Social Darwinism.
1. Lester Frank Ward- There is a difference between human and animal
economics. Bears have claws, but men have intellect. Evolution and
competition in the animal world were extremely wasteful. Social planning
was able to eradicate that waste. Government regulation was necessary for
competition to survive. Fundamentally opposed Herbert Spencer. He
proposed “social liberalism” in response to the “classical liberalism” of the
upper class.
2. Henry George- Wealth is produced by applying labor to land, and
capital is the surplus above the cost of labor. Labor therefore creates all
capital. Capitalists had an unfair control over the land that was used to
create capital. The Gov’t needed to tax the land to prevent the capitalists
from using the “unearned increment.” George Believed in nationalization
of the actual railways, not the actual rails.
3. Edward Bellamy- the author of “Looking Backward”. Novel about the
utopian future where all industry was collectivized into one gigantic trust
that had eliminated the destructive practice of competition.
II. Social Gospel- believers in the Social Gospel insisted that the churches tackle the
burning social issues of the day. The Sermon on the Mount, they declared, was the
science of society, and many social gospelers predicted that socialism would be the
logical outcome of Christianity. These “Christian socialists” did much to prick calloused
middle-class consciousness, thus preparing the path for the progressive reform movement
after the turn of the century.
A. Example of Jane Addams and Hull House (1889). It was located in a poor
immigrant neighborhood of Greeks, Italians, Russians, and Germans. Hull House
offered instruction in English, counseling to help newcomers cope with American
big-city life, childcare services for working mothers, and cultural activities for
neighborhood residents.
1. Following Jane Addams lead. Women founded settlement houses in
other major cities as well.
B. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was led by Frances Willard who
joined the Knights of Labor
C. John Dewey and William James established a philosophical organization for
reform.
C. Suffrage- National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
Three main arguments for women’s suffrage:
1. women can vote for their own self protection
2. Women’s morals and nature was needed to reform society
3. White female votes could counteract the immigrant tide.
III. Urban Reform-
A. Boss System within the cities. Contracts for city developments, police
protection, tips to real estate developers, all of this dispensation was consolidated in the
Political Machine.
B. Reformist mayors such as Hazen Pingree and Samuel Golden Rule Jones of
Toledo.