The Progressives
Out to save the world!
The Progressive Era marks the end of the
Gilded Age with its graft and corruption.
Usually considered to be from roughly
1890 to World War I
The Progressive Era
 The desire to use the government as
an agency of human welfare—the
concept of the federal welfare state
 Antecedents of Progressivism:
 (1) Movement owed a great deal to
Populism
 (2) Social Critics and Writers—
The Muckrakers
were the
investigative
journalists of their
day. Exposing evil
became a
flourishing business.
Important Muckrakers wrote for
magazines that were newly popular.
Some of these
articles were later
made into books,
such as Lincoln
Steffens’ Shame of
the Cities
Jacob Riis
published a book
of his
photographs
called How the
Other Half Lives
in which he
depicted lives of
poverty.
photos by Jacob Riis
The Progressive Era
 Four features of Progressivism:
 Democratic
 Direct primaries
 Initiative, referendum, and recall
 Income Taxes (XVI Amendment
1913)
The Progressive Era
 Direct election of US Senators
(XVII Amendment 1913)
 Government efficiency
 City Manager
 Staunton, Virginia (1908)
 National Association of City
Managers
The Progressive Era
 Regulation
 Increased tendency to direct some
business activities through federal
regulations
 Social Justice
 Settlement House movement
The Progressive Era
 The National Child Labor Committee
(1904)
 By 1914, 35 state legislatures had
passed laws prohibiting children
under age fourteen from working
The Progressive Era
 Liquor Prohibition—”manufacture,
sale, or transportation of intoxicating
liquors . . . prohibited.” (XVIII
Amendment 1919)
The Progressive Era
 Theodore
Roosevelt (R)
 Became
President after
William
McKinley
assassinated
(1901)
The Progressive Era
 Roosevelt wished to avoid socialism
and a return to laissez faire
 Used the “carrot and the stick”
approach
The Progressive Era
 Northern Securities Company v.
United States (1904)
 Bureau of Corporations within
the Department of Commerce
and Labor to collect statistics
and investigate the activities of
corporations.
The Progressive Era
 John Mitchell
(1870-1913)
 United Mine
Workers’
Union
The Progressive Era
 Meat Inspection Act (1906)
 Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
 In 1905, by the authority of the Forest
Reserve Act (1891), 172 million acres
placed under Federal protection
The Progressive Era
 20% wage increase
 Eight-hour workday
 Union recognition
 Mine operators led by George F. Baer
 General John M. Schofield
 binding arbitration
The Progressive Era
 Everybody got something:
 10% pay increase
 Nine-hour workday
 Operators not required to recognize
the United Mine Workers’ Union
 Roosevelt the“Trust Buster”
 Northern Securities Company
The Progressive Era
 Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act
(1906)
 As Roosevelt’s Administration
progressed, he favored:
 Income tax
 Inheritance tax
 Greater regulation of Business
 Industrial Safety Regulations
Upton Sinclair was
a socialist, who
wanted to improve
the plight of the
working class in
America.
In 1906 Sinclair’s novel The Jungle drew outrage against
the Chicago meatpacking industry for its arrogant
disregard of basic health standards. This led to
government regulation of food and drugs.
The Progressive Era
 The
Presidential
Election of
1908
 William
Jennings
Bryan (D)
(1860-1924)
The Progressive Era
 William
Howard Taft
(R) (1857-1930)
The Progressive Era
 Taft called Congress into session
to lower tariff rates.
 Payne-Aldrich Tariff-raised some
tariffs instead of lowering them.
Taft makes the progressives
MAD!
The Progressive Era
 The Election of
1912
 Theodore
Roosevelt
 New
Nationalism
The Progressive Era
 Woodrow
Wilson (D)
(1856-1924)
 New Freedom
What about now,
however??? Surely
the food is better
now, because we
have made a law!!!!!!
Like the chocolate –
how about
the chocolate?
Chocolate may
contain no more than
60 insect fragments
per 100 grams
(about a pound).
Peanut butter! Surely
not the peanut
butter!!!!!
Peanut butter can have 50 insect
fragments per 100 grams (as
much as 620 in the 40-ounce jar
of super chunk) or one rodent
hair per 100 grams.
Tomato juice is good,
or, I could have had
a V-8, I like that.
100 grams (about 16
ounces) of tomato
juice can contain two
Drosophila maggots,
five eggs and one
maggot, OR, ten
eggs and no maggot
at all.
Well, then, we can just
drink orange juice!
250 milliliters (about a
cup) of orange juice is
allowed to contain ten
fruit fly eggs, but only
two maggots.