The Progressive Era
Chapter 8 – An Era of Reform, 1895 – 1920
Precursors to the Progressive Era
The decades prior to the Progressive Era were a period of rapid economic growth fueled by the changes brought about by
industrialization. As more and more Americans moved into urban areas to work in factories and other jobs created by this
economic boom, new social problems were created, such as slums, the spread of disease and labor disputes, among dozens of
others. The Progressive movement developed as a variety of different social movements responding to these changes.
List 5 social problems in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Muckraking Journalism and Exposing Problems in the United States
Writers such as Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), Ida Tarbell (McClure’s Magazine) and
Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives) brought social problems to the public's attention by writing what were called
"muckraking" articles that exposed the corruption and unjust practices that many industrial leaders had established. These
writers helped to spark reform movements in areas such as labor practices and public health that became the backbone of the
Progressive Era.
Read the two excerpts below. Discuss.
Significant Figures in the Progressive Movement
Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson supported many of the Progressive Era reforms and helped establish
federal laws to bring about change. Public figures such as Susan B. Anthony, a women's suffrage supporter, and Jane Addams,
a social worker in Chicago, brought national attention to their causes, helping to change public policy. Robert La Follette, a
former governor of Wisconsin, used his state as a “laboratory of democracy” to bring reforms to the American democratic
system.
Significant Policy Changes
The Progressive Era ushered in some reforms that significantly changed the way Americans lived their lives. A national income
tax was established with the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. Citizens won the right to directly elect their senators with
the 17th Amendment. Women won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was passed in 1919. The 18th Amendment
brought about the Prohibition of alcohol in 1919, but this reform proved unpopular during the Depression and was repealed in
1933.
Look at the timeline below. Find 5 solutions that were offered to fix social problems in the United States.
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The end of the Progressive Era
World War I and the Depression both caused reformist feelings to dissipate, with most people's attention diverted to other
topics. However, the groundwork laid in this era led to much of the New Deal reform that President Franklin D. Roosevelt
would enact in order to help Americans affected by the Depression.
The Progressive Era
Chapter 8 – Timeline of Important Events
1894: National Municipal League created to reform cities.
1895: Anti-Saloon League founded in Oberlin, Ohio. It quickly rose to become the most powerful prohibition lobby in the
United States.
1900: International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) founded; Socialist Party founded.
1901: William McKinley assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president of the U.S.
1902: Roosevelt sues Northern Securities Company (Teddy the “trust-buster”). Newlands Act gets strong support from Teddy
– sets aside land sales money for irrigation projects (Teddy the Conservationist).
1903: *** Muckrakers begin to arouse public opinion on social ills. ***
1904: National Child Labor Committee formed
1905: Industrial Workers of the World founded – urged social revolution, overthrow of capitalism.
1906: Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act passed. Manufacture, sale, transportation of adulterated, misbranded
or harmful foods is illegal.
1906: Hepburn Act gives Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) broader jurisdiction, effective control over rates.
1908: Muller v. Oregon upholds law limiting work hours for women.
1909: Payne-Aldrich tariff lowers rates to about 38%. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded.
1910: Mann-Elkins Act places telephone, telegraph and the radio under ICC control. Mann Act prohibits transporting females
across state lines for immoral purposes.
1911: Supreme Court orders dissolution of Standard Oil Company. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire kills 146 women workers in New
York City and leads to more job safety legislation.
1912: Republican Party divides; Teddy runs as a Progressive “Bull Moose.” Election demonstrates great popular endorsement
of Progressivism: 75% vote for Teddy, Woodrow Wilson or Eugene V. Debs. Woodrow Wilson elected president.
1913: 16th Amendment adopted: graduated income tax redistributes wealth; 17th Amendment provides for direct election of
Senators. Underwood Tariff reduces rates in accord with Progressives' desires; first significant tariff reduction since Civil War.
Federal Reserve Act creates 12 members banks, controls interest rates. Henry Ford creates the moving assembly line.
1914: Federal Trade Commission Act guards against "unfair trade practices." Clayton Antitrust Act strengthens Sherman Act.
1916: Adamson Act mandates 8-hour day, time and a half for overtime for RR workers under I.C.C.
1919: 18th Amendment outlaws sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Volstead Act carries out intent through
legislation. Prohibition begins.
1920: 19th Amendment ratified; women have the right to vote.
1921: Sheppard-Towner Act assists pregnant women, infants with health care.
1924: Robert La Follette gains 4.8 million votes as Progressive candidate for president.
Excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
There were the men in the pickle rooms, for instance, where old Antanas had gotten his death; scarce a one of these that had
not some spot of horror on his person. Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he
might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one. Of
the butchers and floorsmen, the beef-boners and trimmers, and all
those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the
use of his thumb; time and time again the base of it had been slashed,
till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed the knife
to hold it. The hands of these men would be criss- crossed with cuts,
until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them. They
would have no nails, – they had worn them off pulling hides; their
knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan. There
were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of steam and
sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of
tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every
hour. There were the beef-luggers, who carried two-hundred-pound
quarters into the refrigerator-cars; a fearful kind of work, that began at
four o'clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men
in a few years. There were those who worked in the chilling rooms, and
whose special disease was rheumatism; the time limit that a man could
work in the chilling rooms was said to be five years. There were the
wool-pluckers, whose hands went to pieces even sooner than the hands
of the pickle men; for the pelts of the sheep had to be painted with acid
to loosen the wool, and then the pluckers had to pull out this wool with
their bare hands, till the acid had eaten their fingers off. There were
those who made the tins for the canned meat; and their hands, too, were a maze of cuts, and each cut represented a chance
for blood poisoning. Some worked at the stamping machines, and it was very seldom that one could work long there at the
pace that was set, and not give out and forget himself and have
a part of his hand chopped off. There were the "hoisters," as
they were called, whose task it was to press the lever which
lifted the dead cattle off the floor. They ran along upon a
rafter, peering down through the damp and the steam; and as
old Durham's architects had not built the killing room for the
convenience of the hoisters, at every few feet they would have
to stoop under a beam, say four feet above the one they ran
on; which got them into the habit of stooping, so that in a few
years they would be walking like chimpanzees. Worst of any,
however, were the fertilizer men, and those who served in the
cooking rooms. These people could not be shown to the visitor,
– for the odor of a fertilizer man would scare any ordinary
visitor at a hundred yards, and as for the other men, who
worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there
were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar
trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were
fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth
exhibiting, – sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till
all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as
Durham's Pure Leaf Lard!
Excerpt from Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company
With Congress in such a temper the oil men felt that there might be some hope of securing the regulation of interstate
commerce they had asked for in 1872. The agitation resulted in
the presentation in the House of Representatives of the first
Interstate Commerce Bill which promised to be effective. The bill
was presented by James H. Hopkins of Pittsburgh. In aid of his bill
a House investigation was asked. It was soon evident that the
Standard was an enemy of this investigation. Now what Mr.
Hopkins wanted was to compel the railroads to present their
contracts with the Standard Oil Company. The Committee
summoned the proper railroad officers and the treasurer of the
Standard Oil Company. Of the railroad men, only one appeared,
and he refused to answer the questions asked or to furnish the
documents demanded. The Standard treasurer refused also to
furnish the committee with information. The two principal
witnesses of the oil men were E. G. Patterson of Titusville and
Frank Rockefeller of Cleveland, a brother of John D. Rockefeller.
Mr. Patterson sketched the history of the oil business since the
South Improvement Company identified the Standard Oil
Company with that organization, and framed the specific
complaint of the oil men, as follows: “The railroad companies
have combined with an organization of individuals known as the
Standard Ring; they give to that party the sole and entire control
of all the petroleum refining interest and petroleum shipping
interest in the United States, and consequently place the whole
producing interest entirely at their mercy. If they succeed they
place the price of refined oil as high as they please. It is simply
optional with them how much to give us for what we produce.”
Frank Rockefeller gave a pretty complete story of the trials of an
independent refiner. He declared that at the moment, his concern, the Pioneer Oil Company, was unable to get the same rates
as the Standard; the freight agent frankly told him that unless he could give the road the same amount of oil to transport that
the Standard did, he could not give the rate the Standard enjoyed. Mr. Rockefeller said that in his belief there was a pooling
arrangement between the railroads and the Standard and that the rebate given was “divided up between the Standard Oil
Company and the railroad officials.” He repeatedly declared to the committee that he did not know this to be a positive fact,
that he had no proof, but that he believed such was the truth…
I.
Sources of Progressive Reform
A.
II.
IV.
1.
Unemployment and labor unrest
2.
Wasteful use of natural resources
3.
Abuses of corporate power
B.
Urbanization, growing cities magnified problems of poverty, disease, crime, and corruption
C.
Influx of immigrants and rise of new managerial class upset traditional class alignments
Who Were the Progressives?
A.
III.
Industrialization, with all its increase in productivity and the number of consumer goods, created…
New middle class composed of young professionals
1.
Apply principles of professions (medicine, law, business, teaching) to problems of society
2.
Strong faith in progress and the ability of educated people to overcome problems
3.
Rise in volunteer organizations organized to address issues
4.
Mainly urban in residence and orientation
Muckraking journalists attacked corruption and scandal with a sense of moral outrage
A.
Lincoln Steffens exposed city machines in The Shame of the Cities (1904)
B.
Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil Trust abuses
C.
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) attacked the meat-packing industry
D.
Political reformers (many opposed to traditional party politics)
E.
Socialists – frustrated workers who promised to destroy capitalism.
1.
Led by Eugene Debs
2.
Socialists were rejected by most Progressives as too extreme in their goals and methods
Teddy Roosevelt & the Square Deal
A.
Using the power of the presidency (a "bully pulpit") as no president since Lincoln, T.R. loved to lead and to
fight those he felt were not acting in America's best interests.
1.
Coal Strike – When coal mine owners refused to deal with the union in a 1902 strike, T.R. summonsed them and
the head of the mine workers to the White House and threatened to use army troops to keep the mines open. Owners
backed down and T.R. was credited with ending the strike
2.
Northern Securities Case – T.R. used the Sherman Antitrust Act to attack a railroad monopoly. Supreme Court
ordered the company to dissolve.
3.
Added Departments of Labor and Commerce to the Cabinet
4.
Pushed through the Hepburn Act (1906), strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission
5.
Urged Congressional approval of the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), which forbade impure foods and required
labelling of ingredients of foods and drugs.
B.
Conservation reform added massive areas to the national forests (total of 190 million acres)
1.
Transferred forests to the U.S. Forest Service headed by Gifford Pinchot, who insisted that trees be planted as
well as harvested
V.
Withdrew millions of acres of public land from sale to protect resources
3.
Used public land sale revenues to build dams and canal systems
City and State Government Reform
A.
B.
C.
VI.
2.
City government system changed to prevent boss or "machine" rule
1.
City commissions replaced mayors and city councils in some areas
2.
City managers (nonpolitical professional managers) were hired to run small cities
State level reform efforts championed by Robert La Follette of Wisconsin…
1.
Direct primary to give voters control over candidates
2.
Competitive civil service and restrictions on lobbying
3.
Many states passed workmen's compensation laws
Election reforms to bring direct democracy to voters
1.
Initiative – allowed 5% of voters to "initiate" laws in state legislatures
2.
Referendum – in some states voters could then pass initiatives into laws
3.
Recall – by petition voters could force an official to stand for re-election at any time
Major Progressivism Programs
A.
Education
1.
Progressive education – John Dewey lead movement that focused on personal growth, not mastery of body of
knowledge and learning through experience.
2.
Charles Eliot of Harvard pioneered elective courses and new teaching techniques (such as seminars) to make
university learning more meaningful
3.
Women began attending colleges in large numbers (by 1920, 47% of total enrollment was female).
4.
Believing that more education would help bring an enlightened population, Progressives pushed enrollments to
record levels (86% of children in schools by 1920) without seriously assessing how schools were doing.
B.
Law – judges opinions needed to be based on factual information, not just oral arguments and precedents
1.
Muller v. Oregon (1908) – limited women's working hours
2.
Not all Progressive legal principles prevailed. In Lochner v. New York (1905), the Supreme Court overturned a
New York law limiting bakers' working hours.
C.
Settlement houses – Jane Addams and others established group homes in city slums to aid poor urban
residents.
1.
Promoted public health reform in cities, chlorinating water and tightening sanitary regulations
2.
Developed education and craft programs for residents
3.
Created neighborhood health clinics and dispensaries
D.
Racial anti-discrimination efforts
1.
Booker T. Washington
a)
2.
Atlanta Compromise – argued for self-help and accommodation on the part of blacks to white society
W.E.B. DuBois
a)
Niagara Movement, 1905 – urged blacks to assert themselves and agitate for political and economic
rights.
b)
E.
Formed NAACP to use legal means to end racial discrimination
Women's rights
1.
While the number of employed women stayed constant from 1900-1920 (20%), the type of work switched from
domestic labor (servants, cooks, laundresses) to clerical work (clerks, typists, bookkeepers), factory work, and
professionals.
a)
Most women still held the lowest paying and least opportune jobs
b)
Significant Progressive feminists called for greater reform
(1)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman attacked the male monopoly on opportunity and declared that
domesticity was an obsolete value for American women
(2)
Margaret Sanger led the movement to provide birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies
among poor women
2.
Suffragists urged that women be given the franchise, which came on the national level with the 19th Amendment
(1919).
F.
Child labor laws – most states passed minimum working age laws and prohibited children from working more
than 10 hours per day, but enforcement was difficult to achieve.
G.
Temperance – Anti-Saloon League and Women's Christian Temperance Union fought alcoholism on the state
level through blue laws and on the national level with the 18th Amendment which prohibited the manufacture, sale,
and transportation of liquor.
VII.
Presidential Election of 1912
A.
Republican successor Taft proved to be less progressive than T.R. in the areas of tariff reform and
conservation.
1.
Payne-Aldrich Tariff (heralded by Taft as "the best tariff passed by the Republican Party") protected industries
and kept consumer prices high
2.
B.
A public land sale scandal in Alaska pitted Pinchot against Secretary of Interior Ballinger. Taft fired Pinchot
T.R. organized the National Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party after Progressive Republicans bolted the Taft-
controlled Republican convention.
1.
C.
Party platform included long list of Progressive demands
Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, the scholarly governor of New Jersey who called for moral revival
and reform, including low tariffs, the breaking up of all monopolies, and for the government to be an umpire in
disputes between labor and business.
D.
Socialists nominated Eugene V. Debs, who called for public ownership of all natural resources and major
industries.
E.
Wilson won 40/48 states as Republicans split between Taft and TR. Height of Progressivism as Wilson, TR, and
Debs totaled 11 million votes to 3.5 million for Taft.
VIII.
Wilson's New Freedom and Progressivism
A.
Tariff reform – Underwood Tariff (1913) gave first significant tariff reduction since 1860s as Wilson personally
delivered his goals to Congress.
B.
C.
Currency and banking reform-- Creation of Federal Reserve System
1.
Acted as bankers' banks and prevent "runs" on bank assets
2.
Federal Reserve notes issued a flexible new currency to the banking system
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) to restrict monopolies and set up a Federal Trade Commission to stop unfair
practices which may arise
IX.
Evaluation of Progressivism
A.
B.
Weaknesses of Progressive reform
1.
Material progress of Americans weakened zeal of reformers
2.
Myriad of Progressive goals were often confusing and contradictory
3.
Opposition to Progressivism apparent as initiatives failed and courts struck down Progressive legislation
4.
Government remained mainly under the influence of business and industry
5.
Outbreak of World War I dampened enthusiasm of attempts to use governments to create just societies on earth
Progressive accomplishments
1.
Trust-busting forced industrialists to notice public opinion
2.
Legislation gave federal and state governments the tools to protect consumers.
3.
Income tax helped build government revenues and redistribute wealth
4.
Progressives successfully challenged traditional institutions and approaches to domestic problems.