WV Chapter 19 | Coconote

hello today we're gonna talk about the Progressive Era and particularly the Republican rule in West Virginia and before we get started the guys show you my shirt I showed this to you or not but was really cute it says if I'm talking you should be taking notes my butt was cute and I usually wear this like a chance the first day of class of the semester and I guess I should shave this now even though it's a little bit later in the semester but this is true and not just in my class when you're going to a lecture and I've seen this many times people often just sit there and they kind of stare at the outline and just kind of listen it's a good idea to take notes because often the outline is just that it's the outline so whatever the professor's saying is actually what you should be writing the outline is just the topic and then you should be taking notes with the outline I don't think people do that so much anymore there used to be classes on note-taking I think that's something it's gone passe but that's a good idea if you haven't done that yet it's a very good idea to do not just in this class but in others as well what I thought was a cute shirt I want to show it to you anyway so the Progressive Era if you are unfamiliar with it the Progressive Era usually runs end of the 19th century to about might change why and the easiest way to remember it is progressive means before so the idea is we've had this big industrial revolution period in the United States and we've had problems because of it we've had a lot of urban growth and the cities grew very quickly with that there are a lot of social problems we had with urban growth we have things like overcrowding and with that comes annotation problems and you have crime that comes with that people start blaming alcohol they start saying that that's partially the crime problem that's partially the reason you have people with domestic violence issues the reason you have out crowdedness is that people get drunk and then they're having relations they have too many kids or people want prostitutes and that's happening or they're forcing themselves on people and they're having more children people are getting their family members to come over from overseas and putting them in these tenement structures apartment buildings that really aren't made to have so many people living in them they don't have that many bathrooms of course there's that sanitation problem leading to many diseases you get not only the communicable ones that you would get maybe from the STDs but obviously just things like chicken pox and measles and smallpox and all these types of things when you're close to each other lice so you're having all these issues then you're going to get people that are political bosses and sitting up excuse me city bosses and political machines that are trying to save you change those issues but they also want your vote and they're taking over in many ways you've political issues with that do all kinds of issues and problems that are coming about by the industrial revolution in society so on the flip side of this now as you come into the 20th century you have a bunch of people who want to change that they want to reform this new industrial age they want to fix the problems so these are what the progressives are they'll call themselves the progressives and this really outlines what societies like during that first part of the 20th century now since we're gonna be talking about the Republican rule in government here in West Virginia it's also national the Republicans at this time are the party of reform now I know that's not true today but at that time they're the party of the people they're the ones who want to use social change they're the ones who are looking to reform society to help in any way possible they're looking for that so how this affects us here in West Virginia a lot of this again reflection of what's happening around the United States but let's talk about how it affects us in West Virginia now if you are looking at the rice and brown book it says chapter 19 and like the other political chapters he usually it does focus on the governor's more than anything else but there are a few other people who are influential Republicans that we should mention as well so what we're gonna see if you remember once we get into the reconstruction and then that Redemption period where the Republican rule gets overthrown by the Democrats during that Redemption period we are gonna see that Democrats remember are going to be in charge until we see what we're talking about today these Republicans are gonna come back in power okay so you really don't see Republicans coming back in power until the end much of the very end of the 19th century and then staying in power until about 1920 and that's fairly common around the nation as well fairly common some things just kind of refresh your memory remember that the Democrats come out after that Reconstruction period federally once the Republicans will end up getting or leaving the Radical Republican reconstruction once they end up leaving the south that's part of that deal that's made where the Republicans will nationally get the presidency for Hayes and the Democrats feel they've redeemed the south they get the power back in the south and West Virginia will kind of ride that coattail so the Democrats will be in power so one of the things that we're gonna see is one of the reasons in our state that you can't have the Republicans coming back and power for so long is that race is a big issue the idea that remember the Republicans were kind of looked at as the party of the freedmen of the blacks and because they're the party that frees the slaves and when reconstruction was going on right after the Civil War the Republicans were pushing for black congressmen black mayors definitely pushing for these freedmen to have political positions which the Democrats did not want so we're gonna see that being an issue is one of the reasons why you don't see a lot of high ranking Republicans particularly gubernatorial ones here in West Virginia so there's going to be a switch here near the end of the 19th century the man who's going to fix this for the Republicans so they start winning elections is a man named Nathan Goff right now he's from the Clarksburg area and if you're from the Clarksburg area or you've been through there you'll see there's lots of things that are dedicated to him because some of his homes and his I think where he practice law is there before he's born and then we actually lived is there he runs for governor two times I think he never wins but he is in the house I think even the Senate as well but how he affects West Virginia politics and how he affects the Republican Party is he gets away from the race issue he says that's the problem Republicans were having this is why we can't win anything is that we keep pushing or at least people keep seeing us because of this race issue so he is going to look at more local things that are going on so one he appeals to local wealthy people when he's wealthy himself too but different beneficiaries for patronage that idea that people will give you money if you assist them in their endeavors or campaigns and he also tries to help out his constituents you know if they help him out they have he helps them out cause he looks to try to help his constituents get things like pensions that they may not have gotten before in the 1880s particularly the Ohio River kept flooding I think the 1888 floods were the worst you could find images of those online so he tried to help get flood aid for those victims which was something that really didn't see before at least a big push for that so he's looking at local issues he's really trying to do that so there's the big 1888 election actually kind of controversial it's one of those ties that kind of gets burned with a house and everything he doesn't win a B Fleming actually is the one who wins but a lot of people will credit Goff really with making the Republican Party competitive with the Democrats in West Virginia and really he uses his wealth in a lot of ways you know to make avenues for the Republican Party and towards the local people not only with the wealthier people but also trying to appease constituents that weren't wealthy trying to get them to work with the Republican Party as well so he's kind of easing the Republicans back into power in different ways so we're gonna see here that now we have you know different people that are coming in that are more into that Republican role kind of moving away from the democratic rule we're starting to see that more and more we're also going to see some of these wealthy people that are coming in like Evie Fleming right we're starting to see some of these wealthy coal barons or big tycoons better can I come in and be very influential whether or not they become governor or not they're gonna be very influential on the governor's and on politics in general in West Virginia and some but within the nation themselves so the people like golf like AP Fleming they'll try to make bids to get into the federal government sometimes they do sometimes they try to get a little higher up than you into the state or US Senate phone vice president or resident even it doesn't quite make it in some cases sometimes they do but you are gonna see this Republican idea is going to be coming forward more and more in West Virginia at this beginning of the 20th century so remove it away for a while from the Democrats and we're seeing the Republicans are coming to be in the forefront of politics for a while in West Virginia at the beginning of the 20th century so I'm a good point to stop we're gonna come back and we're going to talk about some of those wealthy people and their influence with the Republican rule Part two of Republican rule in West Virginia. So we left off with Mr. Goff, who did end up becoming a senator, and Mr. Fleming, who became governor, since Goff lost the tied election, I guess you could say. But he didn't become a senator, although he tried. Mr. Fleming did try. But again, these are people who have a lot of money, and they're using their influence and their money to use their influence and their money to make West Virginia more influenced by Republicans in general. All right, so the person I really wanted to talk about is Senator Elkins here. He's the one that really defines West Virginia politics at the beginning of the 20th century and that whole Republican idea. Now, he is actually the son-in-law to Henry Gassaway Davis, and, well, it's arguable. A lot of folks will say Henry Gassaway Davis is actually more influential. He's a generation above Stephen B. Elkins. He's his father-in-law. Actually, the two of them ended up going into business together. And a lot of folks would say, well, you know, without Henry Gassaway Davis, Elkins would have not been what he became. Henry Gassaway Davis really made him what he is. So, yeah, Elkins kind of gets all the national praise. But without Davis, there would have been no Elkins. I guess if you think of the college, right, Davis and Elkins, I guess that would be it. Well, Henry Gassaway Davis does a lot for local politics and also influenced national politics as well. But he does quite a bit in forming, again, this kind of ideals of what the state should be. He's a huge businessman in railroads, logging and lumbering. He's kind of one of these big industrialists who kind of gets his hands in very different things. He's one of the ones that's very famous of kind of trying to connect different things with blogging and lumbering in the railroad industry. Famous statue you've probably seen as you come into Elkins of him on the horse. It's a very famous statue. Many people have probably seen, especially since a few, not a few now, a while ago now, they redid or reconserved that particular statue. There's an identical one in Charleston as well. It's kind of a well-known state. official, and of course, a tycoon. So regardless, though, he has a son-in-law named Stephen B. Elkins, who, if you remember from before, we kind of talked about as these different groups of people who came in who were influential as politicians. And we talked about that group of the Elkins governors. I think we mentioned before early on some of these different groups that came up. And as you can imagine, these people are influenced by Stephen B. Elkins. So In general, Stephen B. Elkins becomes a U.S. Senator, and this is where he really gains power. And he makes influential decisions for the United States, but in doing that also, he becomes a big influence on the state of West Virginia. So, some of the big things he does as a U.S. Senator. I should mention, sorry about that, the Reform Acts that I have there on your outline. He's rather conservative for a Republican at the time, but his big thing is he's serving on a major committee. He's actually chairman of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, which is huge at the time. Think about the railroad time and you're starting to see this idea of cars are coming about, automobiles are starting to come about. So it's a pretty big thing. One of the things he does is sponsor something called the Elkins Act, which is named after him. The Elkins Act of 1903, and that set penalties for railroad rebates. That was a big deal at the time. If you think about the time period, 1903, this is the time where trust busters, like Teddy Roosevelt, who was president then, trust busters were coming out and they were trying to eliminate the ideas of monopolies and trust. And within those monopolies and trust were these concepts of kickbacks and rebates. and discounts that were given to specialized people or to specialized companies. Favoritism was out there. So the idea of getting rid of rebates was pretty major. You were trying to make everything equitable, that people or businesses would all pay the same price for tickets or for shipping. And that might not sound big to any of you because that's what we're used to. That's the normal way. You know, everybody pays the same price. But that wasn't the case. in 1903. You didn't really have to post what you were asking people to pay. You could ask, you know, customer A to pay a quarter a mile and you could ask customer B to pay 50 cents a mile. Nobody knew. Or if you did post your rates and say everybody pays 50 cents, you could go tell customer B, who's your buddy, let's say, kind of under the table, no, I'll give you a rebate. You don't really have to pay that. So now it became illegal to do those types of things. And it's pretty impressive that Elkins does this because Elkins is from that high class world. He's an industrialist himself. So really the people he's slapping on the wrist with this rebate taken away are the people he knows, people he does business with. So this is a pretty big reform effort that he's signing off on, that he's leading the charge with. Another one that's also a big deal for him to be involved with is the 1910 Mann-Elkins Act. The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910. So Mann, M-A-N-N. is the leading senator who puts this act forward, and Elkins is also working with him. And what it does, it extends the jurisdiction and raises the power of the ICC, the Interstate Commerce Commission. What that means, by extending the jurisdiction and raising the power, is that with this Interstate Commerce Commission, the main idea behind it is you could not transport minors, people underage, not coal miners. I'm I-N-O-R-S, minors, people under age. You could not transport minors across state lines unless you were their guardian. And this is the reason why it extends jurisdiction. It really is saying that the ICC has control from every state all around the nation. It truly does. And so it's raising the power of the ICC, extending its jurisdiction. The reason for this actually has to do with West Virginia. What happened? was that there were two cases, I believe, that stemmed out of Wheeling, and they dealt with Wheeling and Pittsburgh. Two girls, separate cases, had claimed that they had been taken from Pittsburgh and forced to work in brothels in Wheeling. One girl claimed that a man had told her that he was in love with her, and they were going to run off and get married. And so they got on a train in Pittsburgh and came to Wheeling, and he forced her to go to this. Red Light District and work in this brothel. And the other girl said she was walking home from work or walking home from somewhere and was kidnapped and put on this train, brought to Wheeling and forced to work in a brothel. Both girls managed to escape because they were locked in this brothel, right? They managed to escape, they found a policeman, they ended up getting back to Pittsburgh to their respective families and the families were suing. And I think they sued at first the railroad companies, and then they ended up suing the state. And it became this big thing between the states. Do you sue Pennsylvania? Do you sue West Virginia? You know, where does this all come from? So it became this big federal matter because you have different states that are involved. So this is how the ICC gets involved. And if you think this is a strange thing, this is weird. You know, how does this all come about? During the Progressive Era, during this point in time, Wheeling was very well known for... prostitution. If you're familiar with ASL, American Sign Language, the sign for wheeling to this day is still prostitute or hooker. It's still that sign. It was so common because wheeling was a transportation hub still by the 20th century. So it was a good place for ladies to put out their wares, so to speak. It's very well known as a prostitution place at that point in time. My joke is always that's where they get the slogan. Get that wheeling feeling. Ah, get it, get it. That wheeling feeling. I think it's funny. All right. But anyway, just so you know, that was not an unusual thing to hear about brothels or this idea of girls or women being abducted. It was also a big thing with the progressives, the reformers. They were really concerned about prostitution. They called it white slavery, and they seemed to think that women everywhere were being abducted and forced into brothels. And I'm sure it was happening to some extent, but it seemed to be a big deal. It seemed like it was a really thing that people were looking for all the time. Well, regardless, Elkins is involved with this, and some people said partially it's because his state had to do with it. But it was a major victory for the ICC that they got so much power from this. So a lot of people are patting Elkins on the back. So he served in the U.S. Senate from 1896 till 1911. He actually passed away at that point. And he does have four different governors that are under his influence. He has Atkinson, White, Dawson, and Glasscock. So they're usually called the Elkins governors because he is so powerful as a U.S. senator at that time. He does influence quite a bit what the West Virginia governors at that time would do. Right. So let's take a break and we'll talk about the different Elkins governors here in part three. the Elkins governors here for part three, the Elkins governors, the ones who are influenced by Stephen D. Elkins. So the first one, really right there at the end of the 19th century, is going to be George Atkinson. And if you notice the name Atkinson, you might say, hmm, I've heard that name before when we talked about agriculture. You have. It is spelled differently. Some people say there are different. Not some people say. There are a lot of Atkinsons that are from the Charleston area and further south. There are a lot. Even today, there are a lot of Atkinsons. And the name is spelled differently from one family to another. Most people say that they're all extended in some way. They're all kind of related in one way or the other. And that actually this Governor Atkinson was related to the agricultural Atkinson that we talked about before. They just spelled their name differently. So I've seen that a few times, and I've heard other people say that's not true, but you can research it yourself. You can decide yourself. I've heard it both ways. So it kind of makes sense that they both were, since they were both politically kind of involved with the state, but their names are spelled different. So however you want to take it. Now, since he's the first moving away from those old Democrats, those old bourbon Democrats, he doesn't do a whole lot of big changes because you don't want to do too much too fast. People panic. Can't change everything right away. But he did try some reforms. A lot of them failed. But he tried to make the workday shorter. Tried to make an eight-hour workday. Did try to eliminate child labor if you were under 14 years of age, which I know sounds unusual. But remember, at this time, kids are working that are 11, younger than that. I mean, the coal mines, 11 years old was considered a decent age to be working, especially if you were a picker. Like at the picking table, you were separating the coal from the shale and excess rock and things. You could do that. Try to get better working conditions for women and more safety regulations, particularly in the coal mines. And he thought company stores are ridiculous. He wanted that script. He wanted to get rid of that. Didn't get a whole lot done, but at least he tried to bring up these reform efforts. He tried. And then by the 1900 election, we had A.B. White coming in. He did really push for reform tax laws. trying to help the people, trying to get the wealthier people to have to pay more tax. The legislation didn't really like it. The legislation didn't really like it. He also thought elections were kind of rigged. Maybe they needed to be fixed somehow. And he also thought the coal mines were polluting the water and some of the railroads needed regulated better. Again, didn't get a whole lot done, but at least the ideas were put out there and ideas were changing. People were starting to see these reform efforts maybe had some background, had some validity to them, maybe something needed to be done. When Dawson comes in in the 1904 election, he does work more with that tax reform proposal. So it's coming through, starting to come through. So it's becoming more and more accepted, more and more. The legislature is still not sure about that, but it is coming more and more through. A lot of other ideas, not so much. And then by the 1908 one, when Governor Glasscock comes in, the last of the Elkins governors because Elkins will pass away. He does have also reform ideas, but a lot of them, again, not real popular. But he does manage to get a prohibition amendment out to the 1912 voters. That was a big thing. A prohibition was that idea that you don't want alcohol out and about. We'll see a national prohibition comes through by 1920, but this was one of the big reform efforts, was to stop. The making of alcohol, the selling of alcohol, the drinking of alcohol. People thought, particularly in these cities, that one of the problems that was leading to bad city life was if you drank alcohol, especially if you drank to excess, you were going to have domestic violence. You would be in poverty because if you drank too much, you drank away your paycheck. And how are you going to pay your rent? Your family is going to be out on the street. And that probably leads to domestic violence or you're going to turn to a life of crime because you can't pay for food for your family. So you're going to be stealing or you're going to end up working for a crime boss. Right. Or you're going to end up working for a political machine or a city boss, which a lot of folks felt was like working for a crime syndicate in many ways, because you needed money all the time because you were drinking away your regular paycheck and you probably got fired. if you drank away your regular paycheck over time because you probably started drinking on the job. Your family might leave you, right? Then you're alone. You're probably drinking more. You know, all these different things, all these horrible things will come about from drinking. And so a lot of people who were prohibitionists who wanted to get rid of drinking would say, if we just got rid of alcohol, it'll solve all the problems. That was their idea. So they try it nationally in 1920. They try it for about 10 years, 1920 to 1933. And as we know, it doesn't work, but they try it. But you'll see state by state, a lot of places are looking to do that too. So we'll see that it's pushed through here in West Virginia. We tried to push it through earlier. And Glasscock's going to be the one who tries to push it through here by 1912. He tries to push through this amendment. The other big thing that he does manage to get working for him for reform is he is looking for longer school terms. He does manage for that to happen. And the reason why this is an important reform is that it's going to help get rid of child labor. or lessen child labor. The idea is if you can get kids to stay in school longer, longer during the school year, longer during a school day, they won't be able to work in the mines or the mills or the factories as much. So if you have to go to school longer in the day or you have to go more months out of the year or more days in the week, they're probably not going to be as hireable. to these different industries. They're not going to be as lucrative for the employers to want to bring them in and hire them. So that's how you're saving them. That's how you're kind of eliminating, or lessening at least, child labor. The mines don't want them. They can only hire them for a couple months out of the year, or they can only work on Saturday or Sunday. They're not going to want them. It's not worth their time. They'll just hire a new immigrant that comes in. They'll hire a man that can work seven days a week. six days a week. They don't want to hire a kid that can only work, you know, five hours at night or so, or, you know, one 12-hour shift on a Saturday. They don't want to mess with that. It's not worth it. So that's why you see a big push during this early part of the 20th century for compulsory school as well, making it mandatory that you have to go to school. So I know kids think it's a punishment today. Oh, we have to go to school. Why do we have to go to school? Well, that's so you don't have to work in the coal mine. Basically, that's what it is. So you're not forced to work in a textile mill and lose your fingers. Really, that's really what it was. It was a way to keep you safe. If you had to go to school, if the government made you go to school, that kept you out of the coal mine. That kept you out of the steel mill. That's really what it was for. I mean, it's a nice benefit if you get an education. But if they couldn't keep you in some way out of working in these terrible conditions, if they sent you to school, that's really what it was for. They told you it was for education, but in essence, that's what they were trying to do, was keep you out of child labor. So those are kind of the Elkins governors that we know about, that were really influenced there by Stephen B. Elkins. Now, my favorite of all these governors here, of these Republican governors, is Governor Hatfield. So that's in the 1912 election he's going to come in. And the reason he's my favorite is he's Devil Lance's nephew. which is kind of neat. And I think because he really is the one that changes that image that people have nationally of the Hatfields. Because as we talked about before, the Hatfields have this national image of being these barefoot hillbillies that are dumb and poor and everybody makes fun of them. And this shows, well, that's not true. Governor Hatfield was a medical doctor. He obviously had gone to college several years. He elected governor. So obviously he's educated and well-spoken, and he's a decent human being, right? People want to elect him to be a leader. And also it showed, because part of it was his family money that sponsored his campaign, shows that they weren't ignorant, poor, backwoods kind of people. Obviously there was something there or he wouldn't have become governor or a medical doctor. And what I liked about him is he was also very involved in reform. He did offer up and established some mining hospitals, you know, because he's from that area, you know, from Logan. So he sees a lot of mining problems and accidents. He saw in that area a lot of immunization efforts and problems with the Baldwin-Felts detectives and the union organizers for the West Virginia miners, workers, and then the UMWA coming in. So a lot of problems with that. He also tried to put more child labor laws in. He worked with that workman's comp because, again, he saw a lot of mining problems over the time. Tried to fix the idea of political machines and break away from city bosses. We had a political machine problem, not as much of a city boss problem as you saw in Ohio, let's say, or Illinois. But we did have a little bit of that problem. Mainly we had the machines, the statehouse machine problem. try to get away from that. And since he was a medical doctor, he did establish the State Department of Health. But my favorite story, I think, of his was when Mother Jones came into West Virginia. She was a big labor organizer, and we'll talk more about her later. But she got very ill. I think she got pneumonia or almost got pneumonia, and he actually will tend to her while he's governor. And some people will say, well, he did that because he didn't want her to die on his watch as governor, because she was nationally, maybe even internationally known at the time. It'd look really bad if she came here to help the miners and then died here. But others would say he was just a good guy, and he did have a lot of sympathy for the miners, especially from that area and kind of knowing a lot of those people. I mean, he had money, but he knew a lot of common people. So maybe he was just a good guy. That's what I like to think. Maybe he was just a good guy because he does do a lot of other reform things. But that's my favorite story about him. But politically, you know, as I mentioned, he did quite a few things. Probably the biggest thing he really pushes through politically in our state is he really pushes through the idea of the direct election for U.S. senators. And that's huge. That's a major national idea. The direct election of U.S. senators that happens during the progressive era. One major thing that goes on during the Progressive Era is political reform. One of the big things that will happen is the end of city bosses and political machines. And Hatfield will be one that does try to get rid of that here in West Virginia, as I mentioned. We don't have a whole lot of city bosses, but we've got that statehouse machine, which even now still is kind of around. It's really hard to crack that in a rural state. But this direct election of U.S. senators was huge during the Progressive Era. And the idea was you wanted the common man in this reform effort. You wanted the common man to be able to have more of a say politically. So that was the reform push. Before this, you had representatives who would vote for U.S. senators. It was kind of the old idea, like back in England, where there was a House of Lords was the upper house. So it was a hereditary kind of the aristocrats were the ones who had that. And they still do have the House of Lords over in England. And that's originally how our Senate was set up with the Constitution. Now we're changing that. That's the idea in the progressive era, a more mass democracy instead of that representative democracy. So it was change. So it was a big thing that Hatfield manages to work with that here in West Virginia. It's a very big thing that he manages to do that. So that's huge. Very much, very much huge. And then the other thing I wanted to mention, another person particularly. There's some others that are just kind of in your book. They kind of talk about the Democrats coming back. Oh, there's one person I just thought I'd mention. I hate a Democrat, actually, but I just thought it was interesting. John Davis. He's going to be a Democrat, but he's the only person I know that tries to run in 1924 in the national election. He's the only one I know from West Virginia, at least, who tries to run on a major party ticket in the 1924 election. So it's interesting. And as you can guess, though, it's a Republican that wins. So it doesn't really work out for him. You'll have a little period of time where when the war comes about, basically when Wilson comes in as a Democrat, we'll see kind of some changes nationally. The Democrats are in for a while, but the Republicans will come back in. You see the same kind of thing in West Virginia, mainly kind of a Republican rule through that period of time. But I thought it was interesting to mention the Democrat that runs for a national. Or on a national party ticket. Because I really don't know of anybody else who's done that since. No, nobody I can think of. So I thought that was an interesting bit for you to have. So that's the Republican rule there during the progressive era. And there's just a little bit, I know, in your outline. And as usual, I've talked more than I thought I would. But when we come back, we'll do the other side of industrialization. We'll do the organized labor side. We'll do unionization.

Part two of Republican rule in West Virginia. So we left off with Mr. Goff, who did end up becoming a senator, and Mr. Fleming, who became governor, since Goff lost the tied election, I guess you could say. But he didn't become a senator, although he tried.

Mr. Fleming did try. But again, these are people who have a lot of money, and they're using their influence and their money to use their influence and their money to make West Virginia more influenced by Republicans in general. All right, so the person I really wanted to talk about is Senator Elkins here. He's the one that really defines West Virginia politics at the beginning of the 20th century and that whole Republican idea.

Now, he is actually the son-in-law to Henry Gassaway Davis, and, well, it's arguable. A lot of folks will say Henry Gassaway Davis is actually more influential. He's a generation above Stephen B. Elkins. He's his father-in-law.

Actually, the two of them ended up going into business together. And a lot of folks would say, well, you know, without Henry Gassaway Davis, Elkins would have not been what he became. Henry Gassaway Davis really made him what he is.

So, yeah, Elkins kind of gets all the national praise. But without Davis, there would have been no Elkins. I guess if you think of the college, right, Davis and Elkins, I guess that would be it.

Well, Henry Gassaway Davis does a lot for local politics and also influenced national politics as well. But he does quite a bit in forming, again, this kind of ideals of what the state should be. He's a huge businessman in railroads, logging and lumbering. He's kind of one of these big industrialists who kind of gets his hands in very different things. He's one of the ones that's very famous of kind of trying to connect different things with blogging and lumbering in the railroad industry.

Famous statue you've probably seen as you come into Elkins of him on the horse. It's a very famous statue. Many people have probably seen, especially since a few, not a few now, a while ago now, they redid or reconserved that particular statue.

There's an identical one in Charleston as well. It's kind of a well-known state. official, and of course, a tycoon. So regardless, though, he has a son-in-law named Stephen B. Elkins, who, if you remember from before, we kind of talked about as these different groups of people who came in who were influential as politicians.

And we talked about that group of the Elkins governors. I think we mentioned before early on some of these different groups that came up. And as you can imagine, these people are influenced by Stephen B. Elkins.

So In general, Stephen B. Elkins becomes a U.S. Senator, and this is where he really gains power. And he makes influential decisions for the United States, but in doing that also, he becomes a big influence on the state of West Virginia. So, some of the big things he does as a U.S.

Senator. I should mention, sorry about that, the Reform Acts that I have there on your outline. He's rather conservative for a Republican at the time, but his big thing is he's serving on a major committee.

He's actually chairman of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, which is huge at the time. Think about the railroad time and you're starting to see this idea of cars are coming about, automobiles are starting to come about. So it's a pretty big thing.

One of the things he does is sponsor something called the Elkins Act, which is named after him. The Elkins Act of 1903, and that set penalties for railroad rebates. That was a big deal at the time. If you think about the time period, 1903, this is the time where trust busters, like Teddy Roosevelt, who was president then, trust busters were coming out and they were trying to eliminate the ideas of monopolies and trust. And within those monopolies and trust were these concepts of kickbacks and rebates.

and discounts that were given to specialized people or to specialized companies. Favoritism was out there. So the idea of getting rid of rebates was pretty major.

You were trying to make everything equitable, that people or businesses would all pay the same price for tickets or for shipping. And that might not sound big to any of you because that's what we're used to. That's the normal way. You know, everybody pays the same price.

But that wasn't the case. in 1903. You didn't really have to post what you were asking people to pay. You could ask, you know, customer A to pay a quarter a mile and you could ask customer B to pay 50 cents a mile. Nobody knew.

Or if you did post your rates and say everybody pays 50 cents, you could go tell customer B, who's your buddy, let's say, kind of under the table, no, I'll give you a rebate. You don't really have to pay that. So now it became illegal to do those types of things.

And it's pretty impressive that Elkins does this because Elkins is from that high class world. He's an industrialist himself. So really the people he's slapping on the wrist with this rebate taken away are the people he knows, people he does business with.

So this is a pretty big reform effort that he's signing off on, that he's leading the charge with. Another one that's also a big deal for him to be involved with is the 1910 Mann-Elkins Act. The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910. So Mann, M-A-N-N.

is the leading senator who puts this act forward, and Elkins is also working with him. And what it does, it extends the jurisdiction and raises the power of the ICC, the Interstate Commerce Commission. What that means, by extending the jurisdiction and raising the power, is that with this Interstate Commerce Commission, the main idea behind it is you could not transport minors, people underage, not coal miners.

I'm I-N-O-R-S, minors, people under age. You could not transport minors across state lines unless you were their guardian. And this is the reason why it extends jurisdiction.

It really is saying that the ICC has control from every state all around the nation. It truly does. And so it's raising the power of the ICC, extending its jurisdiction. The reason for this actually has to do with West Virginia.

What happened? was that there were two cases, I believe, that stemmed out of Wheeling, and they dealt with Wheeling and Pittsburgh. Two girls, separate cases, had claimed that they had been taken from Pittsburgh and forced to work in brothels in Wheeling.

One girl claimed that a man had told her that he was in love with her, and they were going to run off and get married. And so they got on a train in Pittsburgh and came to Wheeling, and he forced her to go to this. Red Light District and work in this brothel. And the other girl said she was walking home from work or walking home from somewhere and was kidnapped and put on this train, brought to Wheeling and forced to work in a brothel.

Both girls managed to escape because they were locked in this brothel, right? They managed to escape, they found a policeman, they ended up getting back to Pittsburgh to their respective families and the families were suing. And I think they sued at first the railroad companies, and then they ended up suing the state. And it became this big thing between the states.

Do you sue Pennsylvania? Do you sue West Virginia? You know, where does this all come from?

So it became this big federal matter because you have different states that are involved. So this is how the ICC gets involved. And if you think this is a strange thing, this is weird. You know, how does this all come about? During the Progressive Era, during this point in time, Wheeling was very well known for...

prostitution. If you're familiar with ASL, American Sign Language, the sign for wheeling to this day is still prostitute or hooker. It's still that sign.

It was so common because wheeling was a transportation hub still by the 20th century. So it was a good place for ladies to put out their wares, so to speak. It's very well known as a prostitution place at that point in time. My joke is always that's where they get the slogan.

Get that wheeling feeling. Ah, get it, get it. That wheeling feeling. I think it's funny. All right.

But anyway, just so you know, that was not an unusual thing to hear about brothels or this idea of girls or women being abducted. It was also a big thing with the progressives, the reformers. They were really concerned about prostitution. They called it white slavery, and they seemed to think that women everywhere were being abducted and forced into brothels.

And I'm sure it was happening to some extent, but it seemed to be a big deal. It seemed like it was a really thing that people were looking for all the time. Well, regardless, Elkins is involved with this, and some people said partially it's because his state had to do with it.

But it was a major victory for the ICC that they got so much power from this. So a lot of people are patting Elkins on the back. So he served in the U.S. Senate from 1896 till 1911. He actually passed away at that point.

And he does have four different governors that are under his influence. He has Atkinson, White, Dawson, and Glasscock. So they're usually called the Elkins governors because he is so powerful as a U.S. senator at that time.

He does influence quite a bit what the West Virginia governors at that time would do. Right. So let's take a break and we'll talk about the different Elkins governors here in part three.

the Elkins governors here for part three, the Elkins governors, the ones who are influenced by Stephen D. Elkins. So the first one, really right there at the end of the 19th century, is going to be George Atkinson. And if you notice the name Atkinson, you might say, hmm, I've heard that name before when we talked about agriculture. You have. It is spelled differently.

Some people say there are different. Not some people say. There are a lot of Atkinsons that are from the Charleston area and further south.

There are a lot. Even today, there are a lot of Atkinsons. And the name is spelled differently from one family to another.

Most people say that they're all extended in some way. They're all kind of related in one way or the other. And that actually this Governor Atkinson was related to the agricultural Atkinson that we talked about before.

They just spelled their name differently. So I've seen that a few times, and I've heard other people say that's not true, but you can research it yourself. You can decide yourself. I've heard it both ways. So it kind of makes sense that they both were, since they were both politically kind of involved with the state, but their names are spelled different.

So however you want to take it. Now, since he's the first moving away from those old Democrats, those old bourbon Democrats, he doesn't do a whole lot of big changes because you don't want to do too much too fast. People panic. Can't change everything right away. But he did try some reforms.

A lot of them failed. But he tried to make the workday shorter. Tried to make an eight-hour workday. Did try to eliminate child labor if you were under 14 years of age, which I know sounds unusual.

But remember, at this time, kids are working that are 11, younger than that. I mean, the coal mines, 11 years old was considered a decent age to be working, especially if you were a picker. Like at the picking table, you were separating the coal from the shale and excess rock and things. You could do that.

Try to get better working conditions for women and more safety regulations, particularly in the coal mines. And he thought company stores are ridiculous. He wanted that script. He wanted to get rid of that.

Didn't get a whole lot done, but at least he tried to bring up these reform efforts. He tried. And then by the 1900 election, we had A.B. White coming in. He did really push for reform tax laws.

trying to help the people, trying to get the wealthier people to have to pay more tax. The legislation didn't really like it. The legislation didn't really like it. He also thought elections were kind of rigged. Maybe they needed to be fixed somehow.

And he also thought the coal mines were polluting the water and some of the railroads needed regulated better. Again, didn't get a whole lot done, but at least the ideas were put out there and ideas were changing. People were starting to see these reform efforts maybe had some background, had some validity to them, maybe something needed to be done. When Dawson comes in in the 1904 election, he does work more with that tax reform proposal. So it's coming through, starting to come through.

So it's becoming more and more accepted, more and more. The legislature is still not sure about that, but it is coming more and more through. A lot of other ideas, not so much. And then by the 1908 one, when Governor Glasscock comes in, the last of the Elkins governors because Elkins will pass away.

He does have also reform ideas, but a lot of them, again, not real popular. But he does manage to get a prohibition amendment out to the 1912 voters. That was a big thing. A prohibition was that idea that you don't want alcohol out and about. We'll see a national prohibition comes through by 1920, but this was one of the big reform efforts, was to stop.

The making of alcohol, the selling of alcohol, the drinking of alcohol. People thought, particularly in these cities, that one of the problems that was leading to bad city life was if you drank alcohol, especially if you drank to excess, you were going to have domestic violence. You would be in poverty because if you drank too much, you drank away your paycheck.

And how are you going to pay your rent? Your family is going to be out on the street. And that probably leads to domestic violence or you're going to turn to a life of crime because you can't pay for food for your family.

So you're going to be stealing or you're going to end up working for a crime boss. Right. Or you're going to end up working for a political machine or a city boss, which a lot of folks felt was like working for a crime syndicate in many ways, because you needed money all the time because you were drinking away your regular paycheck and you probably got fired. if you drank away your regular paycheck over time because you probably started drinking on the job.

Your family might leave you, right? Then you're alone. You're probably drinking more.

You know, all these different things, all these horrible things will come about from drinking. And so a lot of people who were prohibitionists who wanted to get rid of drinking would say, if we just got rid of alcohol, it'll solve all the problems. That was their idea. So they try it nationally in 1920. They try it for about 10 years, 1920 to 1933. And as we know, it doesn't work, but they try it. But you'll see state by state, a lot of places are looking to do that too.

So we'll see that it's pushed through here in West Virginia. We tried to push it through earlier. And Glasscock's going to be the one who tries to push it through here by 1912. He tries to push through this amendment.

The other big thing that he does manage to get working for him for reform is he is looking for longer school terms. He does manage for that to happen. And the reason why this is an important reform is that it's going to help get rid of child labor. or lessen child labor.

The idea is if you can get kids to stay in school longer, longer during the school year, longer during a school day, they won't be able to work in the mines or the mills or the factories as much. So if you have to go to school longer in the day or you have to go more months out of the year or more days in the week, they're probably not going to be as hireable. to these different industries. They're not going to be as lucrative for the employers to want to bring them in and hire them.

So that's how you're saving them. That's how you're kind of eliminating, or lessening at least, child labor. The mines don't want them. They can only hire them for a couple months out of the year, or they can only work on Saturday or Sunday. They're not going to want them.

It's not worth their time. They'll just hire a new immigrant that comes in. They'll hire a man that can work seven days a week.

six days a week. They don't want to hire a kid that can only work, you know, five hours at night or so, or, you know, one 12-hour shift on a Saturday. They don't want to mess with that.

It's not worth it. So that's why you see a big push during this early part of the 20th century for compulsory school as well, making it mandatory that you have to go to school. So I know kids think it's a punishment today. Oh, we have to go to school.

Why do we have to go to school? Well, that's so you don't have to work in the coal mine. Basically, that's what it is.

So you're not forced to work in a textile mill and lose your fingers. Really, that's really what it was. It was a way to keep you safe. If you had to go to school, if the government made you go to school, that kept you out of the coal mine. That kept you out of the steel mill.

That's really what it was for. I mean, it's a nice benefit if you get an education. But if they couldn't keep you in some way out of working in these terrible conditions, if they sent you to school, that's really what it was for.

They told you it was for education, but in essence, that's what they were trying to do, was keep you out of child labor. So those are kind of the Elkins governors that we know about, that were really influenced there by Stephen B. Elkins. Now, my favorite of all these governors here, of these Republican governors, is Governor Hatfield.

So that's in the 1912 election he's going to come in. And the reason he's my favorite is he's Devil Lance's nephew. which is kind of neat. And I think because he really is the one that changes that image that people have nationally of the Hatfields. Because as we talked about before, the Hatfields have this national image of being these barefoot hillbillies that are dumb and poor and everybody makes fun of them.

And this shows, well, that's not true. Governor Hatfield was a medical doctor. He obviously had gone to college several years.

He elected governor. So obviously he's educated and well-spoken, and he's a decent human being, right? People want to elect him to be a leader.

And also it showed, because part of it was his family money that sponsored his campaign, shows that they weren't ignorant, poor, backwoods kind of people. Obviously there was something there or he wouldn't have become governor or a medical doctor. And what I liked about him is he was also very involved in reform. He did offer up and established some mining hospitals, you know, because he's from that area, you know, from Logan.

So he sees a lot of mining problems and accidents. He saw in that area a lot of immunization efforts and problems with the Baldwin-Felts detectives and the union organizers for the West Virginia miners, workers, and then the UMWA coming in. So a lot of problems with that. He also tried to put more child labor laws in.

He worked with that workman's comp because, again, he saw a lot of mining problems over the time. Tried to fix the idea of political machines and break away from city bosses. We had a political machine problem, not as much of a city boss problem as you saw in Ohio, let's say, or Illinois. But we did have a little bit of that problem. Mainly we had the machines, the statehouse machine problem.

try to get away from that. And since he was a medical doctor, he did establish the State Department of Health. But my favorite story, I think, of his was when Mother Jones came into West Virginia. She was a big labor organizer, and we'll talk more about her later. But she got very ill.

I think she got pneumonia or almost got pneumonia, and he actually will tend to her while he's governor. And some people will say, well, he did that because he didn't want her to die on his watch as governor, because she was nationally, maybe even internationally known at the time. It'd look really bad if she came here to help the miners and then died here.

But others would say he was just a good guy, and he did have a lot of sympathy for the miners, especially from that area and kind of knowing a lot of those people. I mean, he had money, but he knew a lot of common people. So maybe he was just a good guy.

That's what I like to think. Maybe he was just a good guy because he does do a lot of other reform things. But that's my favorite story about him.

But politically, you know, as I mentioned, he did quite a few things. Probably the biggest thing he really pushes through politically in our state is he really pushes through the idea of the direct election for U.S. senators. And that's huge.

That's a major national idea. The direct election of U.S. senators that happens during the progressive era. One major thing that goes on during the Progressive Era is political reform. One of the big things that will happen is the end of city bosses and political machines.

And Hatfield will be one that does try to get rid of that here in West Virginia, as I mentioned. We don't have a whole lot of city bosses, but we've got that statehouse machine, which even now still is kind of around. It's really hard to crack that in a rural state. But this direct election of U.S. senators was huge during the Progressive Era. And the idea was you wanted the common man in this reform effort.

You wanted the common man to be able to have more of a say politically. So that was the reform push. Before this, you had representatives who would vote for U.S. senators.

It was kind of the old idea, like back in England, where there was a House of Lords was the upper house. So it was a hereditary kind of the aristocrats were the ones who had that. And they still do have the House of Lords over in England. And that's originally how our Senate was set up with the Constitution.

Now we're changing that. That's the idea in the progressive era, a more mass democracy instead of that representative democracy. So it was change. So it was a big thing that Hatfield manages to work with that here in West Virginia. It's a very big thing that he manages to do that.

So that's huge. Very much, very much huge. And then the other thing I wanted to mention, another person particularly.

There's some others that are just kind of in your book. They kind of talk about the Democrats coming back. Oh, there's one person I just thought I'd mention.

I hate a Democrat, actually, but I just thought it was interesting. John Davis. He's going to be a Democrat, but he's the only person I know that tries to run in 1924 in the national election. He's the only one I know from West Virginia, at least, who tries to run on a major party ticket in the 1924 election.

So it's interesting. And as you can guess, though, it's a Republican that wins. So it doesn't really work out for him.

You'll have a little period of time where when the war comes about, basically when Wilson comes in as a Democrat, we'll see kind of some changes nationally. The Democrats are in for a while, but the Republicans will come back in. You see the same kind of thing in West Virginia, mainly kind of a Republican rule through that period of time.

But I thought it was interesting to mention the Democrat that runs for a national. Or on a national party ticket. Because I really don't know of anybody else who's done that since. No, nobody I can think of.

So I thought that was an interesting bit for you to have. So that's the Republican rule there during the progressive era. And there's just a little bit, I know, in your outline. And as usual, I've talked more than I thought I would. But when we come back, we'll do the other side of industrialization.

We'll do the organized labor side. We'll do unionization.

Transcript for:WV Chapter 19

Transcript for:
WV Chapter 19