The Progressive Era, 1900-1917

Introduction

An Introduction to The Progressive Era

Americans looking for a stronger government to social and economic ills.

The Progressive Era: A period of reform in the late 19th, early 20th

centuries.Progressives

Could be found in all portions of society. Were not unified. Shared a fundamental belief that America needed a

new social consciousness in order to cope with the problems brought on by the enormous rush of economic and social change in the post-Civil War era.

An Introduction to The Progressive Era

Three basic attitudes underlay the different progressive movements:1. Anger over the excesses of industrial capitalism and urban

growth. 2. An emphasis on social unity and common bonds as a way of

understanding how modern society and economics worked.3. Believed that citizens needed to intervene in order to improve

social conditions. Therefore they called for an expansion of the legislative and

regulatory powers of the state.

Many drew inspiration from Protestantism and the social gospel.

They looked to “natural” and “social” sciences to develop “rational” measures for improving the human condition.

An Introduction to The Progressive Era

Progressives believed that experts in statistics, engineering, and in the sciences could make government and industry more efficient and set new standards for personal behavior.

Muckraking: A New Type of Journalism

Journalists played an important role in preparing the nation for the reform the progressives wanted.

Magazine publishers learned they could increase circulation by exposing scandal and political corruption.

Muckrakers: Progressive Era journalists who

wrote articles exposing corruption.

Muckraking: A New Type of Journalism

John Bunyan’s, “Pilgrim’s Progress” – “the man with the Muck-rake”.

McClure’s Magazine – leader in muckraking. Exposed corruption in city

governments.Others exposed fraud in the

insurance industry, the horrors of child labor, etc.

Muckraking: A New Type of Journalism

Muckraking extended to books.“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair.

Exposed the meatpacking industry.Sinclair hoped his book would cause

people to realize that the horrors he described were the result of capitalism.

President Roosevelt appointed a commission to investigate the issue. The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) made

it illegal to sale impure & wrongly labeled foods or drugs.

Meat Inspection Act required federal inspection of meatpacking plants.

Reform and Social Darwinism

During the early 20th century intellectuals began to challenge several core ideas in American intellectual life. New theories in education, law, economics, and society provided

reformers with effective tools.Social sciences were on the rise (Sociology,

Psychology).Reformers used these new fields of study in the project

of improving the material conditions of America.Engaged in dialogues with European intellectuals.Progressive reformers from around the world searched

for new ways to reinforce social bonds in the modern era.

Reform and Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism: The application of Charles Darwin’s

theory of biological evolution to society. The fittest and wealthiest survive. The weak and the poor perish. Government action is unable to alter

this “natural” process.Challenged by intellectuals such

as Lester Frank Ward. Believed biological evolution had been

wrongly applied. Differences in nature (unplanned, etc)

and society (built on human invention).

Reform and Social Darwinism

Philosopher John Dewey: Believed education needed reforming. Advocated, “Creative Intelligence”. Believed schools should be miniature societies where

student’s put their “creative intelligence” to work reforming society.

Inspired generations of educators.Progressive legal scholars challenged the

conservative view of constitutional law. Since 1870s: The Supreme Court applied the 14th

Amendment to corporations. Provided protection for big business and became an enemy

of social welfare methods.

Reform and Social Darwinism

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Believed the law needed to:

Take into consideration the changing social conditions.

Avoid invalidating democratically supported social legislation.

Influenced a generation of lawyers who started practicing, “sociological jurisprudence”.

1908: The Supreme Court upheld maximum working hours for women.

Women Reformers

Organizations formed by or controlled by women emerged during the Progressive Era.

By 1900s, a new ideal for women had formed: Self-Determination rather than unthinking acceptance

of social roles. Feminism accelerated the push for equality and

individualism.Women formed organizations to advance

certain causes: Organizations tried to improve the lives and conditions of

working women. National Consumers’ League. Women’s Trade Union League.

Women Reformers

1911: The Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s Factory Fire. 146 workers killed. The majority of them were women. Trapped by locked exits and a lack of fire escapes.

Women Reformers

The fire resulted in a state investigation and new laws on factory safety.

Jane Addams – Hull House (Settlement House) Chicago – 1889. Bring middle-class and immigrant working class

together. Provided women with home economic courses

teaching budgeting, nutrition, and preparation of American food.

Some women worked for suffrage.Though prominent in reform politics, women

could not vote or hold office.

Women Reformers

By 1896: Four Western states extended suffrage to women:

Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. No other states gave women suffrage until 1910:

Washington State approved female suffrage.

1916 – Jeannette Ranking (Montana) became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA): Believed a constitutional amendment was needed for women’s

suffrage. Carrie Chapman and Anna Howard Shaw Developed a national organization to lobby for suffrage in D.C.

Women Reformers

Women’s suffrage movement leaders: White. Middle-Class.

The cause of women’s suffrage ignited a mass movement during the 1910s. Women from all backgrounds

and ages were mobilized.

Carrie Chapman

Jane Addams

Progressives and Urban Reform

Progressive reformers focused much of their attention on local political battles.

In cities and states across the nation, progressive politicians became a powerful force.

Democratic Party “Machines” controlled the political life of most large American cities. Key to a strong machine: A well disciplined organization

that could deliver essential services to immigrant communities and business elites.

Machine politicians offered their voters a variety of services in exchange for votes.

Businessmen routinely bribed machine politicians and contributed liberally to their campaign funds in order to get valuable franchises and city contracts.

Progressives and Urban Reform

Political progressivism originated in the cities.The “good government” movement, led by the

National Municipal League, fought to make city management a nonpartisan, nonpolitical process. By bringing the business administration techniques into

government.Reformers:

Revised city charters in favor of strong mayoral power. Expanded the use of appointed administrators and career civil

servants.Business and professional elites became the biggest

supporters of structural reform in urban government.

Progressives and Urban Reform

On the state level: Progressives focused on two major reform themes:

Western progressives focused on institutional political reform. Targeted railroads, mining and timber companies, and

public utilities for reform. Direct primaries (allowed voters to cross party lines). Recall (gave voters the right to remove elected officials by

popular vote). Southern progressives moved to regulate railroads by

mandating lower passenger and freight rates. Targeted child labor and educational reform. For whites only. Believed the disenfranchisement of black

voters and the creation of legally segregated public sphere were necessary for reform.

Stripped African-Americans of any political power.

The Prohibition Movement

Many progressives believed they had a mission to create laws and regulations for the “benefit” of: Immigrants. Industrial workers. African-Americans.

The moralistic and nativist side of progressivism.

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU): Women who were angered by men

who drank alcohol and then abuse their wives and children.

The Prohibition Movement

The WCTU directed it’s work towards ending the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol.

Other WCTU missions: Improving schools. Prison reform. Child labor. Women’s suffrage.

Anti-Saloon League: Warned of the connection between liquor dealers, brewers,

and big city machine politics.Also tried to end prostitution.

President Teddy Roosevelt: Presidential Activism

Theodore Roosevelt: Becomes President in 1901. Viewed the Presidency as the “bully

pulpit”. A platform from which he could promote

change in American society. Believed in “the strenuous life”. Thought that educated and wealthy

people had a responsibility to serve, guide, and inspire the less fortunate.

Believed the federal government should play a more active role in curbing the power of the wealthy and big business.

President Teddy Roosevelt: Presidential Activism

Theodore Roosevelt: Pushed for efficient government as the solution for many of

society’s problems. Believed that administrative agencies run by experts could

find “rational solutions” that everyone would find acceptable.One of the first issues was public concern with the

rapid business consolidations taking place in the American economy.

1902: Directed the Justice Department to launch prosecutions under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Passed in 1890: Sought to promote economic competition by

prohibiting business combinations in restraint of trade or commerce.

President Teddy Roosevelt: Presidential Activism

Theodore Roosevelt – The “Trust Buster”.Northern Securities Company (railroads).

Supreme Court ruled that the merged that had created the company was illegal.

Under Roosevelt, the Supreme Court filed 43 prosecutions to restrain or dissolve business monopolies.

Roosevelt believed these were needed to publicize the issue and assert the federal government’s authority over “big business”.

President Teddy Roosevelt: Presidential Activism

Theodore Roosevelt: Re-elected in 1904. Kept his promise to retire in

1908. Two-term limit – 1951 (22nd

Amendment). Selected William Howard Taft

as his successor. Taft defeated William Jennings

Bryan (D) in 1908.

By 1910, Taft’s policies had angered Roosevelt.

The Election of 1912 – Woodrow Wilson

Roosevelt re-entered politics and challenged President Taft for the Republican nomination in the 1912 election.

The Republican re-nominated President Taft.Roosevelt’s supporters walked out.The Progressive Party (The Bull Moose Party)

nominated Roosevelt in 1912. Woman’s suffrage. 8 hour workday. Prohibition of child labor. Minimum-wage for working women. Tighter regulation of large corporations.

The Election of 1912 – Woodrow Wilson

The Democrats selected New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson. Claimed the Democrats were the “true

progressives”. New Freedom Campaign:

Limited government intervention in the economy to restore competition by curtailing the restrictive influences of trusts and protective tariffs.

Gave opportunities for individual achievement.

Won the 1912 Presidential Election.

The Election of 1912 – Woodrow Wilson

President Wilson followed Roosevelt in expanding the activist dimensions of the Presidency. Became a supporter of a greater federal role in regulating

business and the economy.President Wilson:

Underwood-Simmons Act (1913): Lowered tariff rates and levied the first regular federal income tax.

Federal Reserve Act: Revised banking and currency by extending limited government regulation through the creation of the Federal Reserve System.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Sought to give the federal government regulatory control over corporations.

As President, Wilson issued an executive order that instituted legal segregation in federal employment.