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Progressive Era1900-1916

Expose the ills of society brought on by the Industrial Revolution and Big Government

–urbanization–social disorder (labor)–political corruption

• Write new laws to correct social problems• Ideas based on Populism and goals of labor

movement• Government can be an instrument of social

change

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Muckrakers**• Journalistic “Voice” of Progressives• Investigative journalists – • Expose corruption and other problems

that needed to be addressed (no solutions)

• Profitable for magazines:McClure’s, Cosmopolitan, Collier’s

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle Lincoln Stephen’s The Shame of the CitiesIda Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Co.** coined by T. Roosevelt

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Goals of Progressives1) End laissez-faire2) End abuses of monopolistic power with

antitrust legislation

• ex: Sherman Antitrust Act3) Make government more responsive

• Government the vehicle to improved society

4) Limit power of party bosses

• end government abuse of power

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Progressive Methods• Rely on Scientific Data • Value of Expert Opinion• Use Collective Action• Inform using Publications--

muckrakers• Pressure on legislatures to pass

laws

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Could You?• Explain the four goals of progressivism. • Summarize progressive efforts to clean up

government. • Identify progressive efforts to reform state

government, protect workers, and reform elections.

Origins of Progressivism

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Progressive Political Reforms

• Political parties corrupt and Undemocratic

– Power must be diminished– People must be given more power

»Australian (secret) ballot 1890»Direct primary (nominate

candidates)1902» Initiative (propose laws)»Referendum (vote yes or no on laws)»Recall (call for re-election)»Direct election of Senators (17th)»Women’s suffrage (19th)

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Progressive Social Reforms

• Temperance movement– WCTU – Anti-Saloon League

• 18th amendment (1919)– Volstead Act enforced prohibition

• Mann Act (1910) (White Slave Traffic) Illegal to bring women into U.S. or across state lines for immoral purposes– Many states passed laws against

prostitution

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Social Gospel Movement

Social responsibility for others’ well being

“my brother’s keeper”Church people doing humanitarian work -- YMCA

PADS program - food pantry

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Progressive Economic Reform

• Hepburn Act of 1906 : Regulate Rail Roads• Mann-Elkins Act of 1910:

– ICC - Communications• The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) 1906

– Prohibited mislabeling– Sanitary Codes

• Tariff Reform - Lowered Tariffs on foreign goods (permitted competition)

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Federal Reserve Act

• Weakness of existing system: No plan for times of financial crisis.

• Solution: Create 12 Federal Reserve Districts: “A” - “L”

• Purpose: Control the Nation’s Supply of Money

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Robert M. LaFollette

• US Rep and US Senator• Progressive Wisconsin governor• Wisconsin a model for progressive reform

“laboratory of progressivism”

“Wisconsin idea”

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Efforts to Clean Up City Government

• Toledo Reform - Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones

– Lower utility rates– Minimum wage & More Parks.

• Commission System

– Galveston, Tx– Take politics out of the process– Specialized professional ran

departments.

• The City Manager System

– Elected Boards of Commissioners

– City manager elected by commissioners

Reform!!!

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1904 Election Results

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National Political Reformers

Teddy Roosevelt

Howard Taft Woodrow WilsonProgressive Era Presidents 1901-

1921

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• McKinley Assassination• VP, Age 42, young, active, reform minded

president• 1902 anthracite coal miner strike

– Demands: 20%/8hr/union– Reality: 10%/9hr/no union

• Conservation– Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)

• Dams for irrigating 16 states– 150 million acres reserved for public– National Conservation Commission

• established under Gifford Pinchot• Northern Securities case (RR monopoly)

– “trustbuster” Teddy

Teddy Roosevelt“Square Deal”

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“Jack and the Giant Killer”

Trustbusting

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ConservationJohn Muir

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Teddy RooseveltConsumer Protection

• Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)– forbade the

manufacture, sale and transportion of adulterated or mislabeled foods and drugs.

(No harmful chemicals and preservatives-labels required )

• Meat Inspection Act (1906)– Federal inspection and

regulation of minimum standards of sanitation.

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Upton Sinclair

• A socialist trying to raise an outcry over working conditions under capitalism

• He wanted people to demand socialism from their government (do away with capitalism)

• Belief workers should control both the government and the means of production

“I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit them in

the stomach.”

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Excerpt from The Jungle

“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerine and dumped into the hoppers and made over again for home consumption . . . There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from the leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it . . . These rats were a nuisance, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.”

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1908 Election Results

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Taft as the Big Guy

• Poor leader – not charismatic like TR• Lost progressive support over tariff

– Not low enough!!• Yet, more antitrust suits than TR• Yet, more conservation than TR• And…groundwork for 16th amendment

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Rise of the Socialist Party3rd Party--developed in

1901 dedicated to working class.

Platform: more radical reforms than Progressives

•public ownership or RR, utilities, oil, steel

18 socialists elected city mayors in 1911presidential candidate Eugene DebsPeak in 1912 --900,000 votes (6% of total) for

presidentMost Americans feared socialismAmerican workers satisfied with

pay and union progress

Rise of the Socialist Party

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1912 Election Results

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Election of 1904

Election of 1908

Election of 1912

TR-to-Wilson

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Woody as President“New Freedom”

Economic Reforms attack on the “the triple wall of privilege”

• Federal Reserve System (1913)– Regulate money supply

• Underwood Tariff (1913)– LOWERED TARIFFS ON 100+ ITEMS– GRADUATED INCOME TAX

• Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)– Strengthened Sherman Antitrust

Act

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•Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)

“cease and desist” orders for unfair business practices

•Adamson Act (1916)

–8-hour work day for RR (new standard)

•Keating-Owens Act (1916)

–no interstate trade if co. employs <14 yr olds

•Re-elected in 1916

“He kept us out of war”

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Progressive amendments

• 16

• 17

• 18

• 19

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Results of 1916 Election

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African-Americans

Ignored by main progressive movement

Booker T. WashingtonTake a lower status temporarilyVocational training (Tuskegee Institute)

W.E.B. DuBoisDid not agree with BTW (“leading the way

backward”)“Talented Tenth” AIM HIGHER!!!!

Founded NAACP (1905) - fought racism

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Women’s Efforts• Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote Women and

Economics (1898)– Child care centers; common dining area

• Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood• Florence Kelley (social worker)

– 10-hour day for women• Carrie Chapman Catt

– National American Woman Suffrage Association

– Worked for passage of 19th amendment

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Woman Suffrage Before 1920

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Evaluating the Progressive Era

Successes

??Failures

??