The Progressive Era Part II

By Neil HammondMillbrook High School

The Progressive Era (1890-1919) – Part II

• TR was a reform-minded, Progressive Republican

• He was New York’s police commissioner in 1895. When McKinley won he 1896 election, he made TR Secretary of the Navy (although McKinley wasn’t that keen on TR – he thought he was a loose canon)

• TR became governor of New York in 1898 although he frustrated some Republicans with some of his reform ideas.

The Progressive Era (1890-1919) – Part II

• In order to “get rid of TR,” New York Republicans lobbied for him to be William McKinley’s vice Presidential candidate

• TR agreed, and he and McKinley easily defeated the Democrats in 1900

• After McKinley was shot and killed, TR became president…much to the dismay of some Republicans

The Progressive Era (1890-1919) – Part II

• Roosevelt offered Americans a “Square Deal”

• The 1902 coal miners strike was settled by arbitration…think back to the Homestead Strike and the Pullman Strike. How was this different?

Progressive legislation under Roosevelt

• 1904 TR filed a suit against the Northern Securities Company (a newly created railroad monopoly). The Supreme Court sided with government, and for the first time broke up a company based on the Sherman Anti-Trust Law

• In 1905 the Supreme Court declared the Beef Trust illegal. But TR was not against ALL trusts. He thought there were good and bad trusts. He just wanted government to regulate the bad ones

Progressive legislation under Roosevelt

• In 1906 Upton Sinclair published The Jungle. His book was a tale of immigrant workers in Chicago’s meatpacking factories

• Its descriptions of working conditions there shocked Americans

Progressive Legislation under Teddy Roosevelt

• 1906 The Jungle caused the so-called “Meat Scandal.”

• Congress passed the:– Meat Inspection Act– Pure Food and Drug Act

• The Meat Inspection Act:– Congress prohibited the sale of tainted meat AND– The Department of Agriculture could inspect Meat packing

factories

• The Pure Food and Drug Act:– This regulated additives to food. It also focused on

appropriate labeling of pharmaceutical drugs

Progressive Legislation under Teddy Roosevelt

• By 1908, an election year, Roosevelt and Progressives had accomplished much

• Continuing the tradition of stepping down after two terms, TR did not run for election in 1908

• His chosen successor was William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft 1908-1912• Taft angered TR though by

“abandoning” TR’s policies

• One of the biggest differences between them was trust busting:– TR = 44 suits in 7.5 years– Taft = 90 suits in 4 years

• When Taft broke up a company that TR had helped to form, TR became angry and decided to run for president in 1912

• In the cartoon, TR is handing off his policies (the baby) to Taft, who is clearly not thought of highly.

1912 Election• By the time of the 1912

election, Roosevelt was mad enough to challenge Taft for the Republican nomination. When he lost, he refused to give up, standing as the “Progressive Party” candidate (also known as the Bull Moose Party – it was called that because TR announced that he felt as strong as a Bull Moose).

1912 Election: The Candidates

• Taft = Republican

• Teddy Roosevelt = Progressive / Bull Moose

• Woodrow Wilson = Democratic Party

1912 Election: Two Philosophies

• Roosevelt’s New Nationalism

1) Big businesses could be good America, but Government needed to regulate big business.

2) Government should also protect laboring men, women and children

• The election came down to two competing versions of progressivism

• Wilson’s New Freedom

1) Regulate trusts2) Protect workers’ right to unionize3) Encourage small business growth

The Election of 1912 – The Third Party Factor

• Note the popular vote

• Note the “other” parties – Socialists gained almost 1 million votes in this campaign

The Progressive Era (1890-1919) – Part III

• Thanks to the Republican split in the 1912 election, Wilson was easily elected

• With Democrats in control of Congress, Wilson quickly moved to implement his version of Progressivism

The Underwood Tariff (1913)

• Five weeks after taking office, Wilson appeared before Congress to present his bill to reduce tariffs.

• In 1913, Congress passed the Underwood Tariff, and Wilson signed it into law.

• This law reduced the average tariff on imported goods to about 30 percent of the value of the goods and provided for levying an income tax.

• To restore public confidence in the banking system, Wilson supported the establishment of a federal reserve system.

• The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created 12 regional banks to be supervised by a Board of Governors, appointed by the president.

Wilson’s Reforms (cont.)

• In the summer of 1914, at Wilson’s request, Congress created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to monitor American business.

Wilson’s Reforms (cont.)

− The FTC had the power to investigate companies and issue “cease and desist” orders against companies engaging in unfair trade practices.

• Wilson wanted the FTC to work toward limiting business activities that unfairly limited competition, as opposed to breaking up big business.

• Unsatisfied by Wilson’s approach, progressives in Congress responded by passing the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914.

•1) Strengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Law

•2) Exempted unions from anti-trust laws

•3) Barred courts from issuing injunctions limiting the right to strike

Wilson’s Reforms (cont.)

Other Wilsonian Progressive Legislation

• ALL 1916

• Keating-Owen Act – This outlawed child labor in the manufacture of goods sold in interstate commerce

• Adamson Act – Established an 8 hour workday on the nation’s railroads

• Warehouse Act – Reminiscent of the Populists’ subtreasury plan, this extended credit to farmers when they stored their grain in federal warehouses

• Limits of progressivism– Race riot 1908– NAACP– ADL – lynching of leo Frank