Chapter 7: The Progressive Era
1900-1920
You could be in any party and still be a Progressive. They wanted to fix:
• Unregulated industrialization
• Unplanned urbanization• Unrelenting
immigration• Social instability• Economic injustice• Political corruption
The Muckrakers
• Muckrakers were named by TR because they could only look down at the problems of society
• The muckrakers saw their primary objective as exposing social problems to the public.
Features of Progressivism:• Democracy – the direct
primary, initiative, referendum, recall, & the 17th amendment
• Efficiency – scientific government, commission system, city-manager plan
• Regulation – restore the competition of small firms
• Social Justice – private charities like Settlement Houses, labor legislation for children, and women
• Prohibition – amendment sent to the states in 1917 Robert M. La Follette
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Disaster
in 1911
Teddy Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”
• He called for enforcement of exiting anti-trust laws
• During the 1902 Coal Strike TR won support for his use of the “big stick” against business
• By taking these actions TR expanded Federal power
Teddy Roosevelt’s Own Term
The Hepburn Act – authorized the ICC to set maximum rates for railroads
Upton Sinclair author of the Jungle
TR signed The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act (b/c of the novel the Jungle)
Teddy Roosevelt and Conservation
Environmental Conservation with his friend George Bird Grinnell who the Audubon Society
TR was an ardent conservationist and sportsman
The 1908 Presidential Race
The Democrats once again nominate
William Jennings Bryan
Vs.TR’s hand picked successor was
Republican William Howard Taft
Taft as President
• Domestic Policies i.e. the Tariff and Department of Interior
• Conservation• Anti-Trust suit against
United States Steel• 16th and 17th
Amendments
The Presidential Election of 1912
Eugene V. Debs Socialist
Socialism- advocates
State ownershipof business
Anti-Capitalism 900,000 votes
William Howard Taft Nominated
by the Republicans
2,500,000 votes8 Electoral Votes
Theodore Roosevelt Split the Republican Party and started a Progressive Party “The Bull Moose
Party”4,100,000 votes
88 Electoral Votes
Woodrow Wilson Democrat
6,300,000 votes435 Electoral
Votes
Wilson’s 1st Term as President
• The Tariff• Wilson appointed
William Jennings Bryan as secretary of state
• The Federal Reserve Act• The Federal Highways
Act• No Woman’s Suffrage• Allowed Racism in Gov.• No support for Anti-
Child Labor laws• No Support for Farmers
The Federal Reserve
The Federal Highway Act
• Passed in 1916• This also marked a
sharp turn from Jacksonian opposition to internal improvements at federal expense
• This would help the farmers with their new automobiles
Limits of Progressivism• At the same time of
progressivism blacks were losing their rights
• Progressivism was mainly for the middle-class not the poor
• Voter turn out would see a steady decline
• When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917 the Progressive Era would end