Fourth Party System facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Fourth Party System

1896–1932

Fifth →

United States presidential election results between 1896 and 1928. Blue shaded states usually voted for the Democratic Party, while red shaded states usually voted for the Republican Party.

The Fourth Party System was a time in United States history, from about 1896 to 1932, when the Republican Party was mostly in charge. The only exception was a period around 1912 when the Democrats won the White House for eight years.

This period is often called the Progressive Era in American history books. It started after a tough economic time called the severe depression of 1893 and a very important election in 1896. It included the Progressive Era, World War I, and the beginning of the Great Depression.

The Great Depression caused a big shift in politics, leading to the Fifth Party System. In this new system, the Democratic New Deal Coalition became very powerful until the 1970s. The Fourth Party System began because some smaller political groups, like the Greenback Party and the Populist Party, started to support the Republican Party. This helped the Republicans win the presidency for the next 36 years.

During this time, important issues included how the government should control big businesses and railroads. People also debated about money (should it be based on gold or silver?), taxes on imported goods, and the role of worker unions. Other key topics were child labor, creating a new banking system, and fighting corruption in politics. New ideas like primary elections, federal income tax, and direct election of senators also came about. People also discussed racial segregation, making government more efficient, women's suffrage (women's right to vote), and controlling immigration.

In foreign policy, major events included the Spanish–American War in 1898, the Mexican Revolution, World War I, and the idea of creating a League of Nations. Important leaders were presidents William McKinley (Republican), Theodore Roosevelt (Republican), and Woodrow Wilson (Democrat). Other key figures were William Jennings Bryan (a Democrat who ran for president three times) and Robert M. La Follette Sr., a progressive Republican from Wisconsin.

How the System Began
Tariffs and Trade
Progressive Changes
Women's Right to Vote
Prohibition
International Relations
See also

How the System Began

The Fourth Party System started with a big change in how people voted between 1894 and 1896. The 1896 presidential election is seen as a "realigning election." This means it changed the way people voted for a long time. In this election, William McKinley's idea of a stronger central government, which would help American industries with protective tariffs and a gold-backed dollar, won.

This victory ended the close political battles that had been common since the Civil War. The Republicans would be the main party in charge of the country until 1932. That year, another realigning election brought Franklin Roosevelt to power. When Republicans won again in 1900 by an even larger margin, businesses felt more confident. This led to a long period of economic growth. Most of the old political issues and leaders from the Third Party System faded away.

While many voting groups stayed the same, some shifts happened. Republicans became very strong in the industrial Northeast and gained new support in states near the old Civil War border. This cleared the way for the Progressive Movement. This movement brought new ways of thinking and new goals for politics. During this time, a new generation of leaders took over from the Civil War veterans. These younger leaders were more interested in social fairness and controlling the problems caused by industrial capitalism.

The Democratic Party, which had been less powerful nationally after the Civil War, grew stronger. This was thanks to new groups of immigrant voters. The presidency of Woodrow Wilson was a turning point for Democrats. It brought in a new generation of leaders who were not tied to the issues of slavery and secession. Meanwhile, the Republican Party, after a brief period of supporting progressive ideas under Theodore Roosevelt, quickly returned to being the party of big business and limited government control over the economy.

Tariffs and Trade

A "protective tariff" was a key idea that kept the Republican Party together. This was a tax on goods imported from other countries. Republicans believed high tariffs would lead to more sales for businesses, higher wages for factory workers, and better demand for farmers' crops.

However, some progressive politicians argued that tariffs helped big companies create monopolies. Democrats said tariffs were just a tax on ordinary people. Tariffs had the most support in the Northeast and the most opposition in the South and West. The Midwest was where the debate was strongest. A major fight over the high Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 caused a big split among Republicans. This split helped the Democrats gain power.

Progressive Changes

People became worried about how political campaigns were funded. Progressive journalists, called "muckrakers," investigated and exposed corrupt connections between political bosses and businesses. New laws and changes to the Constitution weakened the power of party bosses. This was done by introducing primary elections and allowing people to directly elect senators.

Theodore Roosevelt also shared concerns about how much influence businesses had on the government. When William Howard Taft seemed too friendly with pro-business conservatives on issues like tariffs and protecting natural resources, Roosevelt broke away from his old friend and his old party. He ran for president in 1912 as the leader of the "Bull Moose" Progressive party, though it did not succeed. This split helped Woodrow Wilson win the election in 1912. It also left pro-business conservatives as the main force in the Republican Party. Later, the Republican Party elected Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. In 1928, Herbert Hoover became the last president of the Fourth Party System.

Many Progressives, especially in the Democratic Party, supported labor unions. Unions became very important to the Democratic Party during the Fifth Party System.

The Great Depression, which started in 1929, ended the nation's hopeful mood and ruined the Republican Party's chances. In the long run, Al Smith's presidential campaign in 1928 started a shift in voters. This new group included people from different ethnic backgrounds and big cities. This change marked the end of the Fourth Party System's politics and helped bring in the Fifth Party System with Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won by a landslide, leading to the New Deal coalition that dominated the Fifth Party System.

Women's Right to Vote

From 1880 to 1920, women actively worked to define their role in political parties. Women who supported a specific party often formed groups that helped the Republican and Democratic parties. When Roosevelt's Progressive Party was formed in 1912, it offered women a chance for more equality. A leader of the Progressive Party, Jane Addams, openly supported women's involvement in politics.

The Democrats, led by Woodrow Wilson, avoided the demands for women's right to vote by saying that states should decide the matter. They knew that the Southern states strongly opposed women's suffrage. After New York Democrats supported suffrage, Wilson changed his mind and backed a national constitutional amendment. This amendment finally passed in 1920 with support from Tennessee. Women's strong support for the war effort during World War I energized those who supported women's suffrage and weakened those who opposed it.

After the Progressive Party lost in 1912, women who were involved in politics continued to form support groups within the major parties. After 1920, being included and having power in political parties remained important issues for women. Former suffragists, who joined the League of Women Voters, focused on making politics cleaner, supporting world peace, and helping local schools and public health. In the early 1920s, both major parties recognized women's interests and appointed a few women to visible government positions. Congress passed a major welfare program that women had sought, called the Sheppard–Towner Act of 1921. By 1928, male politicians realized that women were less strongly tied to one party than men, but their opinions on political issues were similar, except for peace and prohibition. Over the long term, from 1870 to 1940, women gaining the right to vote at the state and federal levels was linked to increases in state government spending and more liberal voting patterns for federal representatives.

Prohibition

In many parts of the country, prohibition was a very important part of progressive politics before World War I. This issue had strong religious and ethnic connections. Most Protestant groups, like Methodists, Baptists, and Lutherans, were "dries." They supported prohibition (making alcohol illegal) as a way to solve social problems. On the "wet" side, groups like Episcopalians, Irish Catholics, and German Lutherans and Catholics opposed prohibition. They saw it as a threat to their social customs and personal freedom.

Prohibition supporters favored direct democracy, which allowed voters to make laws without the state legislature. In the North, the Republican Party supported the prohibitionists, while the Democratic Party represented the interests of ethnic groups. In the South, Baptist and Methodist churches played a big role in making the Democratic party support prohibition. After 1914, the issue shifted to German opposition to Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy. However, in the 1920s, the sudden rise of crime in big cities due to illegal alcohol sales (bootlegging) reduced support for prohibition. The Democrats then took up the cause for repealing prohibition, finally succeeding in 1932.

International Relations

The Spanish–American War in 1898 led to the end of the Spanish Empire in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The Treaty of Paris in 1898 gave the U.S. control over former Spanish colonies. Whether the U.S. should permanently own the Philippines was a major issue in the 1900 presidential election. William Jennings Bryan, though he supported the war against Spain, spoke out against keeping the Philippines. Republicans, especially Vice-Presidential nominee Theodore Roosevelt, strongly defended the idea of keeping them.

President Roosevelt proudly spoke in 1904 about his success in gaining control of the Panama Canal in 1903. Democrats criticized this move, but their attempt to apologize to Colombia failed. The United States also became a major player on the world stage in the last years of World War I. President Woodrow Wilson tried to help negotiate peace in Europe. But when Germany started using submarines to attack American ships without warning in early 1917, he asked Congress to declare war.

Wilson focused on diplomacy and money matters during the war. At home, he started the first effective draft in 1917, raised billions of dollars through Liberty loans, and put an income tax on wealthy people. He also set up the War Industries Board, encouraged labor unions to grow, oversaw farming and food production, and took control of the railroads. He also stopped anti-war movements on the left. Like European countries, the United States tried out a "war economy."

In 1918, Wilson proposed several international reforms in his Fourteen Points. These included open diplomacy, freedom for ships to travel anywhere, equal trade conditions, fair handling of all colonial claims, and the creation of a Polish state. Most importantly, he suggested creating an association of nations, which would become the League of Nations. The League became very controversial for Wilson, and Republicans refused to compromise. Voters in 1920 showed little support for the League, and the U.S. never joined it.

Peace was a big political topic in the 1920s, especially since women could now vote. Under the Harding administration, the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 led to a significant reduction in naval weapons for ten years. The 1920s, known as the Roaring Twenties, also saw international discussions about Germany's economic payments to France and Great Britain after World War I. The U.S. helped mediate these conflicts with the Dawes Plan in 1924 and the Young Plan in 1929.