The Progressive Era
Reform shifts from the farm to the
city and climbs the ladder of
government from the local to the state
and then to the national level.
Def.: reform mov’t seeking to
return control of the gov’t to the
people, restore economic
opportunities, and to correct
injustices in American life.
I. The Problems of the 1890’s
• Huge Gap between
rich and poor
• Tremendous economic
and political power of
the rich
• Wealthy were
insensitively flaunting
their wealth before a
poorer public
I. Problems of the 1890’s (cont.)
• Industrial workers
hideously poor, living
in squalor and
working in dangerous
conditions
• Jacob Riis’ How the
Other Half Lives
(1890)
• Little concern for
Black America
II. Progressive Reformers
A. Streams of Reform
• Origins: Greenbacks,
Populist Party
• The “Social Gospel”
movement
--Walter Rauschenbusch:
Christianity and the Social
Crisis (1907)
• Settlement House Workers
--Jane Addams, Hull
House in Chicago (1889)
A. Streams of Reform (cont.)
• Young, sociallyconscious lawyers
• Investigative
Journalists
-- “Muckrakers”
--Lincoln Steffens, Ida
Tarbell, and Upton
Sinclair
• Small businessmen
B. Features of Progressive
Reform
• Desire to remedy
problems through
government initiative
• Reliance on “experts”
-- Robert Lafollette’s
“Wisconsin Idea”
• Wanted reform not
revolution
B. Features of Progressive
Reform (cont.)
• Desire to make society
more moral and more just
• Desire to distribute
income more equitably
• Desire to broaden
opportunities for
individual advancement
• Women were active in
progressivism
--Suffragettes like Susan
B. Anthony
B. Features of Progressive
Reform (cont.)
• Middle-class reform
movement
• Operated on all three
levels of government
III. Sample Progressive Reforms
Progressive Goals
1. Protect social welfare
2. Promote moral improvement
3. Create Economic reform
4. Foster efficiency at work
A. Political Reforms
• Tried to put more power into the hands of the
people
• Innovative changes in city government
--city managers and commission model
• The Direct Primary
• Initiative, Referendum and Recall
• The Secret Ballot
• Direct Election of Senators and the Vote for
Women
B. Social Reforms
• Child labor laws
• Ten-hour work days
--The “Brandeis brief”
--Muller v. Oregon
(1908)-(Lochner vs. N.Y.)
--Bunting v. Oregon
(1917)
• Prohibition initiatives
• Moral Purity campaigns
--Mann Act (1910)
*Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
B. Social Reforms (cont.)
• Minimum safety standards
on the job
• Minimum standards for
housing codes
• “City Beautification”
movement
• Immigration Restriction
• Eugenics
--Buck v. Bell (1927)
• Little Help for Blacks
--NAACP (1909)
-- “Birth of a Nation”
IV. Progressive Amendments to
the Constitution
• 16th Amendment (1913)—
federal income tax
• 17th Amendment (1913)—
direct election of senators
• 18th Amendment (1919)—
prohibition
• 19th Amendment (1920)—
vote for women
V. Presidential Progressivism:
Theodore Roosevelt
• Great drive, energy and
exciting personality
• TR’s interests and early
years
• NYC police commissioner
• Spanish-American War
experience
-- “Rough Riders”
• Political Rise from NY
Governor to VicePresident
A. First Term as President
(1901-1904)
• McKinley’s assassination
• Cast every issue in moral
and patriotic terms
--The “Bully Pulpit”
• Square Deal: control
corporations, consumer
protection, conservation,
reform railroads
• Coal Miner Strikethreatened seizure of mine
B. “Trust-Buster”?
• Wants to regulate in order
to get businesses to act
right
• Making an example of the
Northern Securities Co.
• The Elkins Act (1903) and
the Hepburn Actregulation of the RR
C. Second Term as President
(1905-1909)
• More vigorous
progressivism
• Federal Meat
Inspection Act (1906)
• Pure Food and Drug
Act (1906)
• Conservation Policy
--Preservation vs.
Conservation
VI. “A Tough Act to Follow”: The
Presidency of William Howard Taft
(1909-1913)
• The Election of 1908
• Dollar Diplomacy-use
foreign policy to
protect Wall Street
Dollars
• Mann-Elkins Act
(1910)- increased
power of ICC; control
of telegraph and
telephone
VI. Presidency of Taft (cont.)
• Controversy over the
Tariff
• More conservative
than TR, but also more
trust suits
• The “BallingerPinchot” Affair
• Growing tension with
Teddy Roosevelt
VII. The Election of 1912
• Growing split within
the Republican Party
• Creation of the “Bull
Moose” Party
• Progressive Party
Platform: “New
Nationalism”
• Democrats drafted
Woodrow Wilson
VIII. Democratic Progressivism: The
Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (19131921)
• True progressive and
dynamic speaker
• Sympathetic to small
businessmen
A. “New Freedom”
• Wilson’s brand of
progressivism
• Wants to recreate the
“golden age” of small
American businesses
• Wilson wants to open
channels for free and
fair competition
B. Key Wilsonian Legislation
• Underwood Tariff Act
(1913)
• Federal Reserve Act
(1913)
• Clayton Anti-Trust
Act (1914)
• Federal Trade
Commission (1914)
Other Wilson Laws
• Federal Farm Loan Act
• Child Labor Act
• Minimum Wage
C. Congressional Progressivism
After 1914
• Wilson was not a strong
progressive when it came
to social reform
• Congress takes over the
progressive agenda
• Examples of congressional
progressive legislation
after 1914
--Federal Highways Act
(1916)
Prohibition, Suffrage,
Civil Rights
IX. The Waning of the
Progressive Movement
• Progressive movement peaks by 1917
• Success of the movement led to its decline
• Advent of World War I also hurt progressive
activism
• Progressives themselves began to weary of their
reform zeal—as did the nation as a whole
• Ironically, voter participation has steadily declined
since the election of 1912
• Schenck v U.S. (1919)- clear and present danger
Wilson’s Foreign Policy
• Anti-imperialistic
• Jones Acts (1916,17)- independence for the
Philippines and citizenship for Puerto Rico
• Sent troops to Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican
Republic
• Mexican Revolution let to U.S. involvement
in Mexico; Pancho Villa and Gen. John
Pershing
Areas of the Progressive Era
• Expansion of democracy
• Efficiency- Frederick W. Taylor(Scientific
Management), Robert M. La Follette
• Regulation- trusts
• Social Justice- settlement house mov't, labor
legislation
• Prohibition