Chapter 28
Progressivism and the
Republican Roosevelt
1901-1912
Progressivism
• Roots in with Greenbacks and Populists
• Wanted social, economic and political
reform
• Sick of the corruption and divide between
rich and poor
• Jacob A. Riis 1890: How the Other Half
Lives
• Middle class women
The Muckrakers
• 1902 popular magazines in circulation wars=
exposes
• TR: “muckrakers” because they just focus on
the worst in society’
• Lincoln Steffens 1902: “The Shame of the
Cities”
• Ida Tarbell 1902: “Mother of Trusts”
• David G. Phillips 1906: “The Treason of the
Senate”
• John Spargo 1906: “The Bitter Cry of
Children”
Political Progressivism
• Progressives= improve living/working conditions
not party or regional allegiances
• 1. direct primary elections
• 2. initiatives
• 3. referendums
• 4. recall
• 5. campaign finance reform
• 6. Australian ballot
• 7. Direct election of US Senators
Progressives and Women
• Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 NYC
• Public outrage= state legislature forced to
do something
• Change over time from laissez faire to
some responsibility to employers
• Militant temperance= Women’s Christian
Temperance Union (Frances E. Willard)
• Wanted “dry laws” 18th amendment
Square Deal
• TR’s Square Deal= domestic policy (3 C’s)
• 1902 anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania
(United Mine Workers Association)
• Owners refused negotiation until TR
stepped in to force a compromise
• 1903 Department of Commerce and Labor
Trust Busting
• Need for stronger laws with real teeth
• Elkins Act 1903 and Hepburn Act 1906
• TR focused on the “bad trusts” to sue under the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• 1st= Northern Securities Company (JP Morgan,
James J. Hill)
• Case appealed to SC and upheld had to dissolve
• 44 other suits for TR= Trust Buster
• Real trust buster= William Howard Taft with 90
during 1 term
Meat Packing
• Upton Sinclair- The Jungle 1906
• TR= investigators to substantiate
Sinclair’s claims almost all true!
• Meat Inspection Act of 1906
• The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
Conservation
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Conservation began late 19th century
Desert Land Act 1877
Carey Act 1894
Newlands Reclamation Act 1902
– TR and Gifford Pinchot
• Boy Scouts of America and Sierra Club
– Hetch-Hetchy Valley- John Muir
• Multiple use resource management
Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy
• Dollar Diplomacy- focus on Latin America
and Eastern Asia
– Extension of the Roosevelt Corollary
– Panama Canal 1909, Nicaragua 1912, Haiti,
Honduras
– Manchuria- Japan and Russian railroads
threat to Open Door?
– Secretary of State Philander C. Knox 1909
Trust Busting
• 90 anti-trust suits during 1 term
• Standard Oil Company of NY vs. United
States
• “Rule of reason”
• 1911 went after US Steel
unsuccessfully schism between Taft
and TR
Split of Republican
Party
• Taft campaign promise= lower tariff
• Conservatives in Senate added
amendments to tariff reduction
• Taft signed Payne-Aldrich Bill (angered
progressives)
• Ballinger Pinchot controversy 1910=
growing rift between progressives and
Old Guard conservatives
• TR’s New Nationalism
Taft vs. Roosevelt
• The National Progressive Republican
League with Senator La Follette 1911
• TR decided to try for Republican
nomination for 1912
– Angry at Taft for dropping “his policies”
– Came into primaries too late
– 1912 Convention in Chicago= Taft the
Republican nominee