Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The Progressive Era1900-1917

Introduction

• This chapter covers:– Economic and social changes– Problems caused by industrialization and

urbanization– How the Progressive reform movement emerged

to wrestle with these problems/changes

Introduction (cont.)

• An example:– The unsafe and unsanitary conditions in which

millions of workers labored produced tragedies• Such as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire in which 141

sweatshop employees died– After the Fire, aroused Progressives convinced

New York State to enact many labor protective laws


• 1.) How did intellectuals and writers prepare the way for Progressive reform?

• 2.) What conditions in the cities and states bothered Progressives, and what did they hope to do about them?

• 3.) How did Progressive reform reach national politics, and which leaders and issues were involved?


• 4.) What impact did Progressive reform have on the lives of women, immigrants, the urban poor, and African-Americans?

• 5.) Did progressivism alter people’s views on the proper role of govt. in America’s society and economy?

Progressives and Their Ideas

• The Many Faces of Progressivism– Progressive reformers included much of the new urban

middle class• Mostly white, native-born Protestants

– Middle-class women (often college educated)• Working through settlement houses and private organizations

(National Consumers’ League)

– Urban, immigrant political machines and workers began to demand improved labor conditions

The Many Faces of Progressivism (cont.)

• The Progressives were strongest in the cities• Attracted support from middle-class

professionals and intellectuals• Most Progressives accepted the capitalist

system– They merely wanted to reform the worst

abuses that had developed under it


• There was never 1 unified movement, but many different groups of reformers– Some preached regulation of big businesses– Others concentrated on passing laws to protect

workers– Others thought the way to cure social ills was to

curtail immigration


• Progressives generally attempted to be “scientific” in their approach– Backed their demands for change with scholarly

studies of deplorable conditions to be remedied

Intellectuals Offer New Social Views

• Many intellectuals criticized unrestrained, brutal capitalist competition

• They called for an activist govt. that would regulate business practices and protect the economically vulnerable– Thorstein Veblen (economist)– Herbert Croly (journalist)– William James (pragmatic philosopher)– Jane Addams (settlement-house leader)

Intellectuals Offer New Social Views (cont.)

• New educational and legal ideas paved the way for the Progressive movement– John Dewey

• Preached that schools must foster in students respect for the values of democracy and cooperation

– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.• Supreme Court Justice• Attacked conservative judges for being guided entirely by legal

precedent• He insisted that the “law must evolve as society changes”

Dewey and Holmes

Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight Social Problems

• Muckraking journalists and novelists played an important role in stimulating the Progressive movement by exposing to middle-class Americans political corruption and corporate wrongdoing


(cont.)• Lincoln Steffens– Wrote about urban

political machines and bosses

• Ida Tarbell– Cutthroat competitive

practices of Standard Oil Company


(cont.)• Magazines such as McClure’s and Collier’s

specialized in muckraking articles• Novelists Frank Norris in The Octopus and

Theodore Dreiser in The Financier also told tales of business abuses and political corruption


(cont.)• “Ashcan School” artists and photographers

such as Lewis Hine depicted the harsh world of the immigrants, factory workers and child laborers

State and Local Progressivism

• Reforming the Political Process– The earliest signs of the Progressive movement appeared

in cities where municipal reformers battled corrupt political machines• These cities elected activist mayors dedicated to change

– Hazen Pingree of Detroit– Samuel Jones of Toledo

– Reform mayors generally:• brought honesty to municipal govt.• Provided city dwellers with improved municipal services and

facilities• Forced transportation and utility companies to lower rates and

pay their fair share of taxes

Reforming the Political Process (cont.)

• Other municipal reformers experimented with commission and city-manager forms of govt.

Reforming the Political Process (cont.)

• The reform efforts soon moved up to state govt. • Progressives attempted to democratize politics by

establishing:– secret balloting – direct primary– initiative– referendum– recall

• In practice these measures fell short of producing the democratic results that the Progressives had hoped

Regulating Business, Protecting Workers

• After 1900, the growth of huge business corporation speeded up– Example: in 1901 J.P. Morgan consolidated

hundreds of independent steel makers to form the U.S. Steel Company which controlled 80% of production in the nation

• This trend alarmed many Americans

Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.)

• The real wages of industrial laborers rose after 1900– They were still so inadequate that in many

families the mothers and children had to work to make ends meet• In 1910 at least 1.6 million youngsters between 10-16

years old worked full-time


• Industrial laborers spent on average 9 1/2 hours a day in mills and shops– Often in hazardous conditions (both in health and

safety)

• Employers tried to get even more work out of their employees– Frederick W. Taylor and other efficiency experts


• Under Progressive influence, state govts. started to impose regulation on railroads, mines, and other business corporation

• The pioneer was WI under Governor Robert LaFollette


• Between 1901 and 1906 LaFollette convinced the legislature to:– create a state railroad commission– increase corporate taxes– limit business contributions to political campaigns

• He and the legislature also introduced political reforms such as the direct primary

• “Wisconsin Idea”


• Other states passed important labor laws as well:– Maximum # of hours per workday for female employees

• Oregon’s 10-hour law– Factory safety codes

• Such as the one enacted in NY after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire– Workers’ compensation acts– Bans on child labor

Making Cities More Livable

• Cities grew rapidly between 1900 and 1920 as rural Americans and millions of immigrants moved into them

• Overwhelmed and often corrupt municipal govts. failed to provide the newcomers with adequate services and public facilities

Making Cities More Livable (cont.)

• Progressive reformers began to beautify cities with:– more parks and playgrounds– Broad boulevards– Impressive municipal buildings

• State legislatures passed housing coded to upgrade living conditions in tenements and slum neighborhoods


• Cities and states improved:– Garbage collection– Street cleaning– Water and sewer systems

• And required higher standards:– of cleanliness – Of quality form sellers of food and milk

• These Progressive reforms significantly decreased infant mortality and tuberculosis deaths


• There were also attempts to reduce air pollution– Business fought these vigorously– The continued reliance on coal as the chief energy

source left cities smoky and sooty

Progressivism and Social Control

• Moral Control in the Cities– Some reformers tried to guard morality by

inducing cities to censor movies and outlaw prostitution

– A wave of hysteria over prostitution led to the passage of the federal Mann Act (1910) and the close of red-light districts

Battling Alcohol and Drugs

• Prohibition became the biggest moral crusade of the Progressive Era

• Anti-Saloon League, Women’s Christian Temperance Union, various church groups

• Many localities enacted bans on liquor sales• The national prohibition movement grew stronger

Battling Alcohol and Drugs (cont.)

• Progressives also campaigned against the then-widespread use of such addictive drugs as morphine, heroin, and cocaine

• Their efforts led to the passage of the federal Narcotics Act in 1914– Outlawed the distribution of heroin, morphine, and

cocaine except by doctors’ prescriptions

Immigration Restriction and Eugenics

• Between 1900-1917, 17 million immigrants entered the U.S.A.– Mostly from southern and eastern Europe

• Many native-born Americans became fearful– They often believed that immigrants caused

poverty and immorality

Immigration Restriction and Eugenics (cont.)

• Immigration Restriction League– 1894– Founded by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other

prominent Bostonians

• In 1971 Congress excluded illiterate immigrants– Over President Wilson’s veto

Immigration Restriction and Eugenics (cont.)

• Eugenicists claimed that humans and society could be improved by controlled breeding

• Some states passed laws allowing forced sterilization of criminals, mentally deficient persons, and sex offenders

• Pseudo-scientific racism was spewed by some so-called progressive writers– Madison Grant--The Passing of the Great Race (1916)

African-Americans After Reconstruction

• After Reconstruction, white Democrats in the South increasingly deprived black southerners of the right to vote

• At first the whites used intimidation and terror• After 1890 they used more effective means:– Poll taxes– Literacy tests– Grandfather clauses

African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.)

• Southern blacks also were victimized by: – segregation laws– the convict-lease system– Lynching

• Some southern Populists attempted to combat prejudice– Encouraged white and black farmers to unite against their

exploiters• The Southern Democratic elite purposely inflamed

racial antagonism to keep poor farmers divided


• The federal govt. did nothing to protect black rights

• The Supreme Court gave it stamp of approval to segregated but equal facilities in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)– Plessy summary

• It also upheld poll taxes and literacy tests in 1898

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/plessy/plessy.html


• Blacks responded to these abuses in several ways• Some fled the South only to find de facto segregation

in the North• Booker T. Washington advised fellow blacks to

accept their second-class status for a time and concentrate on getting ahead economically and educationally

• Accept the South’s Jim Crow and disenfranchisement laws


• Abolitionist Frederick Douglass still called on blacks to demand full equality

• The South became a one-party region always controlled by the Democrats– With the disenfranchisement of blacks– The defeat of southern populism


• The South became a one-party region always controlled by the Democrats– With the disenfranchisement of blacks– The defeat of southern populism

Racism and Progressivism

• In 1900 the majority of the 10 million African-Americans were still in the rural South– Most as sharecroppers

• Many began to migrate to cities and to the North– Escape poverty, disenfranchisement, Jim Crow

laws, and violence

Racism and Progressivism (cont.)

• In the North they encountered de factor segregation and discrimination– Under these difficult circumstances, African-Americans

developed their own communities and culture

• Racism in American society reached a peak during the Progressive Era

• Many progressives either ignored racial discrimination or were themselves racists


• Southern Progressives combined advocacy of economic and political reform with vicious attacks on African-Americans– James K. Vardaman and Ben Tillman

• The 2 Progressive-reformer presidents of the era compiled sorry records on racial justice– Theodore Roosevelt– Woodrow Wilson


• Roosevelt ordered the unwarranted dishonorable discharge of an entire regiment of African-American soldiers in the Brownsville, Texas, incident

• Wilson praised the racist movie Birth of a Nation and condoned the introduction of racial segregation in all federal govt. agencies and departments


• Some white progressives decried racial injustice and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)– Lillian Wald and Mary White

African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism (cont.)

• Northern African-Americans intellectuals and professionals urged African-Americans to fight for economic, political, and educational equality– William Monroe Trotter– Ida Wells-Barnett– W.E.B. DuBois

Trotter, Wells, DuBois

African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism (cont.)

• Niagara Movement– 1905– DuBois and other African-American critics of Washington

formed• In 1909, DuBois and other members of the Niagara

Movement joined with white Progressives in organizing the NAACP– Rejected Booker T. Washington’s accommodations advice– Began the long fight for racial justice

Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement

• A new group of feminists emerged to revitalize the women’s movement

• Carrie Chapman Catt– Became president of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900

Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement (cont.)

• Catt led her members in lobbying, distributing literature, and demonstrating

• They convinced several states to grant women the vote

Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement (cont.)

• Alice Paul– National Woman’s

Party– Bring direct pressure

on the federal govt. for passage of a constitutional amendment enfranchising women

Enlarging “Woman’s Sphere”

• Feminists challenged the assumption that the only proper roles for women were those of wife, mother, and homemaker– Florence Kelley, Alice Hamilton, Margaret Sanger

• Led the Progressives drives to:– abolish child labor– Protect the health of workers and consumers– Establish birth-control clinics

Workers Organize: Socialism Advances

• To improve their working environment, workers kept trying to unionize

• Their right to strike was frequently curtailed by conservative court decisions– Employers often hired recent immigrants as scabs

when employees went on strike

Workers Organize: Socialism Advances (cont.)

• American Federal of Labor (AFL) grew primarily in the skilled trades

• Most factory workers were unorganized early on• 2 unions attempted to help semiskilled and unskilled

workers:– International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union

• Led successful strikes in the needle trades– Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)


• The IWW singed up western miners, lumberjacks, and migratory farm workers

• IWW won a major strike in 1912 in the textile mills of MA

• Govt. repression of the IWW during WWI caused the decline of the organization


• The Socialist Party of America was gaining followers– Hoped to end

capitalism through the ballot box rather than revolution

– Eugene Debs• Ran for president in

1912 and received 900,000 votes

National Progressivism--Phase I: Roosevelt and Taft, 1901-1913

• Roosevelt’s Path to the White House– Became President in

1901 after McKinley was assassinated

– Became the first Progressive president

Roosevelt’s Path to the White House (cont.)

• A believer in strong executive leadership, Roosevelt enlarged the powers of the presidency

• Turned the office into both an effective forum and the center of legislative initiative

Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, and Railroad Regulation

• Unlike earlier presidents who used troops to break strikes, Roosevelt like to use arbitration– Example: coal miners’ strike of 1902• Management and the United Mine Workers used

arbitration by a commission Roosevelt appointed• The commission granted the miners increased pay and

reduced hours

Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, and Railroad Regulation (cont.)

• Roosevelt did not want to attack big business• He preached that corporate giants must obey the

law and serve the public interest• He prosecuted firms that he believed violated the

Sherman Anti-Trust Act– Northern Securities Company

• Despite his trustbusting, he stayed on good terms with big business

Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, and Railroad Regulation (cont.)

• 1904 election, Roosevelt easily won over conservative Democratic opponent, Alton B. Parker

• Hepburn Act– 1906– Strengthened corporate regulation – Gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the

power to set maximum railroad rates and examine railroads’ financial records

Consumer Protection

• Responding to public concern generated by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) and the Meat Inspection Act (1906) – Pure Food and Drug Act– Meat Inspection Act

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h917.html

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h918.html

Environmentalism Progressive Style

• Roosevelt made his most enduring reforms in conservation

• Years of exploitation for private gain had damaged and depleted America’s natural environment

• By the 1890’s, land use had become a political issue– Putting business interests, preservationists, and

conservationists against each other

Environmentalism Progressive Style (cont.)

• Entrepreneurs wanted to continue unrestricted development for private enrichment

• Preservationists wished to save large wilderness tracts for their beauty and spiritual worth– John Muir and the Sierra Club

• Conservation movement sought govt. scientific management to make the public domain best serve the resource needs of the nation now and in the future– Gifford Pinchot (Roosevelt’s Forest Service chief)


• At times, the preservationists and the conservationists engaged in bitter combat– Example: the 1913 fight over the building of a

dam in a beautiful part of Yosemite National Park to provide water and hydroelectric power for San Francisco


• Roosevelt used the presidency to popularize both conservation and preservation

• Newlands Act of 1902– Important in the economic development of the West

• Set aside about 200 million acres of forest and mineral-rich lands for government-managed use rather than sale to business

• Antiquities Act (1906)– National historical landmarks

• Established national parks


• In 1916, during Wilson’s administration, Congress established the National Park Service to protect and run the national historic sites, monuments, and parks

Taft in the White House, 1909-1913

• William Howard Taft was Roosevelt’s secretary of war

• Won 1908 election over William Jennings Bryan

• Pledged to continue Roosevelt’s Square Deal

Taft in the White House, 1909-1913 (cont.)

• Taft prosecuted more trusts than Roosevelt had

• Taft, though, lacked Roosevelt’s activism, flair for publicity, and political skills


• In the fight shaping up between the progressive and conservative wings of the Republican party, Taft sided with the conservatives

• Taft alienated progressive Republicans by:– Signing the Payne-Aldrich bill

• Raised tariffs

– Fired conservationist Gifford Pinchot


• Progressive Republicans joined with Roosevelt in denouncing the conservatives and campaigned for revived Progressive reform

The Four-Way Election of 1912

• In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican nomination

• The convention chose Taft• Roosevelt’s backers walked out and founded the rival

Progressive Party and nominated Roosevelt• The Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson• Socialists nominated Eugene Debs

The Four-Way Election of 1912 (cont.)

• “New Nationalism”– Roosevelt’s platform– Accept big business as inevitable – But build a powerful activist federal govt. to regulate the

corporate giants• New Freedom– Wilson’s platform– Rejected big govt. in Washington– Called for a return to an economy composed of small,

competing enterprise

The Four-Way Election of 1912 (cont.)

• Wilson won the White House

• Democrats also won Congress

National Progressivism--Phase II: Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1917

• Introduction– Woodrow Wilson had been

a political science professor and president of Princeton University

– Then he became Governor of NJ

– Skilled and flexible politician

– But sometimes was intolerant and self-righteous


• Despite Wilson’s stated preference for small business and limited govt. in the 1912 election, as president he led the effort to “use govt. to address the problems of the new corporate order.”

Tariff and Banking Reform

• Wilson convinced Congress to pass the 1913 Underwood-Simmons Tariff– Reduced import duties by roughly 15%

• Federal Reserve Act– 1913– Kept banking a private enterprise but imposed public

regulation over it– 12 regional Federal Reserve banks

• Empowered to expand the nation’s credit and money supply• Could issue Federal Reserve notes• Under the supervision of the Federal Reserve Board

– Appointed by the president

Regulating Business; Aiding Workers and Farmers

• Federal Trade Commission– 1914– Federal regulatory agency – Power to uncover unfair

methods of business competition

– Then issue cease and desist orders against perpetrators

Regulating Business; Aiding Workers and Farmers (cont.)

• Clayton Act– 1914– Supplemented the vague and general Sherman

Anti-Trust Act– Defined and listed specific illegal practices


• Wilson endorsed the clause in the Clayton Act exempting union strikes, boycotts, and picketing from prosecution under the antitrust laws


• He also signed the following into law:– Keating-Owen Act

• 1916• Child labor law with interstate commerce• Later declared unconstitutional

– Adamson Act• 1916• 8-hour day for railroad workers

– Workmen’s Compensation Act• For federal employees

– Legislation to help farmers obtain loans at lower interest rates

Progressivism and the Constitution

• Wilson nominated to the Supreme Court Progressive Jewish attorney Louis Brandeis

• Conservatives and anti-Semites objected

• Wilson persuaded the Senate to confirm Brandeis

Progressivism and the Constitution (cont.)

• The Progressive Era saw 4 amendments added to the U.S. Constitution:– 16th (1913)

• Authorized a federal income tax– 17th (1913)

• Popular or direct election of senators– 18th (1919)

• Prohibition– 19th (1920)

• Women suffrage

1916: Wilson Edges Out Hughes

• Democrats renominated Wilson• Republicans ran Charles Evans Hughes• Wilson won in a close race

Conclusion

• Some Progressive reforms did less good than their backers had hoped

• Progressivism had some repressive and intolerant elements

• The movement as a whole left a legacy of govt. intervention to:– regulate destructive corporate practices– protect the economically vulnerable– improved social problems arising from industrialization

• It was a precedent on which the New Deal would later build

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Chapter 21

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