Chapter 28:
Progressivism and the
Republican Roosevelt
Chapter 29:
Wilsonian
Progressivism at
Home and Abroad
The Progressive Era
• A new group of reformers appears to
battle the injustices that had come
about as a result of industrialization
and urbanization
• What were some of the most
important problems facing American
society in the late 19th Century?
• What are the most important
problems facing us in the early 21st
Century?
• Any comparisons with the antebellum
reformers studied earlier?
Roots of Progressivism
• During the Gilded Age and the Industrial Revolution…
social change + political change + economic change 
an improved society
– The Grange = tried to help farmers
– Unions = tried to help laborers
• $10 - $12 / week for a 60 – 80 hour work week
– women? children?
• The real problem was rooted in the disparity between the
rich and poor
– relief was local, unsystematic, dependent on private
charity
• Another problem was the industrial domination of political
America
– Reforms cost politicians contributions
• Socialism as reform (Debs) vs. socialism as revolution
(DeLeon and I.W.W.)
• The social gospel promoted reform based on Christian
teachings
What does it mean to be “progressive”?
• “progressivism” was not a political party
• “progressivism” didn’t just happen in one
part of the country
• “progressives” were not the victims
• “progressives” did not share one occupation
• “progressives” studied specific problems in
specific areas
• “progressives” were united in a common
desire to improve society by curbing the
monopoly power of big business and
improving the common person’s condition
• Thorstein Veblen
wrote about
“conspicuous
consumption”
and predatory
wealth
• Theodore Dreiser
battered
profiteers in his
novels
The “Muckrakers”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities)
Ida Tarbell
David Phillips
Ray Stannard Baker
John Spargo
Jacob Riis
Upton Sinclair
Consumer Rights
• The Jungle was written
to focus attention on the
plight of the workers,
not the food
• President Roosevelt
will read that book
• Meat Inspection Act of
1906 will be followed
by the Pure Food and
Drug Act (Food Defect Action Levels)
• Caveat Emptor (“let the buyer beware”) was
no longer the way to conduct business
• The muckrakers were not activists
– They identified problems for others to reform
• Progressives in education stressed
pragmatism
– Test facts, not the rote memorization of facts
– Formulate questions and research
• Progressives among the religious practiced
the social gospel
– The 1st Great Awakening had focused largely on
redeeming the souls of individual sinners
– The 2nd Great Awakening had focused on both
the souls of individuals and on social problems
such as drinking, prostitution, and slavery
– The Social Gospel focused on the sins of
society, such as poverty and inequality, and
asked people to seek salvation through building
“the Kingdom of God on this earth.”
Ever wonder
why, despite all
we’ve discussed
about the plight
of the industrial
class in the U.S.,
that Socialism
never took hold
here?
Where was “the
final conflict”
Karl Marx
predicted?
There may be a couple reasons…
1. Workers either refused or were unable to consider
themselves a class apart from the “upper classes”
(no entrenched class consciousness)
2. The safety valve of the western frontier allowed
workers to walk away and strike out on their own
3. Workers enjoyed a remarkably high standard of
living despite conditions we’ve described
4. Timing: Americans had achieved political rights and
saw no reason to overturn the structure (In other
areas, political AND economic rights/opportunities
were fought for together )
Political
Progressivism
• Political power to the
people that would
undercut the grip of
corrupt politicians
– Initiative, referendum,
recall, secret ballot
• Limits on campaign
contributions and
“gifts” from
corporations
• 17th Amendment
Progressivism in the
Cities and the States
• In Galveston, an expert
staffed commission is elected
to run the city (finance, public
safety, public works)
• In Staunton, Virginia a city-manager
is “hired” by an elected council
• Cities took charge of slums,
water supplies, power grids, public
transportation
• Gov. “Fighting Bob” LaFollette makes
Wisconsin the “Laboratory of Democracy”
Women in the Progressive Movement
• Remember the record of previous women
reformers
– Jane Addams and settlement houses (Hull House)
– Carrie Nation and temperance
• Florence Kelley took control of the National
Consumers’ League
– Muller v. Oregon protected women workers
(would be viewed differently now)
• However, Lochner v. New York invalidated a
10-hour workday law (would itself later be
overturned)
– Progressives didn’t always get their way
Women in the Progressive
Movement
• Hours were regulated
• Conditions in shops were more closely
monitored
• Workers’ compensation laws appeared
• The W.C.T.U. fought for “dry laws”
– Not popular in big cities with immigrants
– Eventually the 18th amendment will pass in 1919
• When 146 workers die at the Triangle
Shirtwaist Company in NYC (mostly women),
sweatshop regulations were tightened
T.R.’s Square Deal for
Labor
• Tested in the anthracite coal
mines of Pennsylvania
– Striking workers caused shortages
across the U.S. in 1902
– TR threatened to call out
federal troops to seize the
mines from the capitalists
NOT to force labor back to
work
• 1903 the Department of
Labor & Commerce is created
Roosevelt the
Trust Buster
Roosevelt the
Environmentalist &
Other Reforms
• 1891: Forest Reserve Act sets
aside 46 million forest acres (start)
• 1902: Newlands Reclamation Act
to irrigate the desert southwest
• Believed in “multiple-use
conservation”
• TR will set aside 125 million acres
for federal reserves
• Sierra Club is formed in 1892
• 1907: Boy Scouts formed
The Panic of 1907
• Many blamed “Theodore the Meddler”
• TR blamed the “malefactors of great wealth”
• Regardless, new economic reforms were
begun
– The Aldrich-Vreeland Act authorized national
banks to issue emergency currency
– This will pave the way for the Federal Reserve
Act later
• Chooses not to run in 1908 and his “handpicked” successor, W.H. Taft, defeats
William Jennings Bryan
• TR is only 51 when he leaves office
Theodore Roosevelt’s Legacy
• Ushers in an age of reform
• Wildly popular and energetic and not afraid to
be a “lightning rod” for government action
• Steered the government on a middle road
between laissez-faire individualism and
paternalistic collectivism
• Increased the power and prestige of the office
• Used a “big stick” for political gains, too
• His “Square Deal” could be considered the
grandfather of the “New Deal”
• America takes its place on the world stage
William Howard Taft
• A “mild” progressive content with
the status quo
• Expand and strengthen an American
presence abroad using the almighty
dollar to supplant the big stick
(sometimes referred to as “dollar
diplomacy”)
• The U.S. (thanks to the Monroe
Doctrine) had to put its money (and military) where
its mouth was in Honduras, Haiti, the Dom. Rep.
and Nicaragua (remember the Roosevelt
Corollary?) to protect investments and keep foreign
nations from intervening
Taft the Trust Buster
• 90 suits against trusts in 4 years vs. only 44
for TR in 7 ½ years
• 1911: the Standard Oil Trust is dissolved
• Taft tried to go after the U.S. Steel Corp. as
well (TR was involved in U.S. Steel)
• Taft supported conservationism (created the
Bureau of Mines) but also opened up public
land to corporate interests (upsetting TR)
• Republicans lose badly in the Congressional
elections of 1910 with a presidential election
on its way
CHAPTER 29:
WILSONIAN PROGRESSIVISM AT
HOME AND ABROAD
A good time to ponder…write your
introductory paragraph for this FRQ:
Evaluate the effectiveness of Progressive
Era reformers and the federal government
in bringing about reform at the national
level. In your answer be sure to analyze
the successes and limitations of these
efforts in the period 1900 – 1920.
The Election of 1912
• Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democrats
—New Freedom (stronger anti-trust
legislation, banking reform,
tariff reductions)
• Theodore Roosevelt ran as
a Bull Moose (Progressive Party)
– New Nationalism (regulatory agencies, women’s
suffrage, minimum wage laws)
– A kind of activist welfare state
(FDR? New Deal?)
• William Howard Taft (G.O.P.)
The Election of 1912
The Election of 1912
Woodrow Wilson: A Minority
(Idealist) President
• He only won 41% of the
popular vote
• Democrats win a majority in
Congress
• Son of a minister, shared
Jefferson’s faith in the masses
• President of Princeton, Governor of New Jersey
• Believed the executive had a dynamic role to
play over Congress
• Moral righteousness ≠ Compromise
Wilson’s Legislative Agenda
• Underwood Tariff (substantial reduction)
• 16th Amendment = graduated income tax
• Federal Reserve Act (The “Fed”)
– Created a nationwide system of
12 banks to be overseen by the
Federal Reserve Board
– “Bankers’ banks” to monitor
currency
• Federal Trade Commission to root out
unfair trade practices, unlawful competition
and false advertising
Wilson’s Legislative Agenda
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act
– Further strengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
– Exempts labor from “restraint of trade”
prosecution
– Hailed by Gompers as the Magna Carta of labor
• Workingmen’s Compensation for aid during
periods of disability
• Railroad workers get an 8 hour workday
thanks to the Adamson Act
• Louis Brandeis will be the first Jewish
member of the Supreme Court
The Foreign Policy of Wilson
• Wilson hated imperialism and was suspicious of Wall
Street
• Had to dispatch marines to Haiti
• Sent marines to the Dominican Republic
• Purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark
• Sent weapons to Mexico to unseat the hated Huerta
– “I am going to teach the South American republics to elect
good men!”
– Landed the Navy at Veracruz to protect our interests
• Sends Black Jack Pershing to capture Pancho Villa
• If we remember TR for “Big Stick Diplomacy” we
remember WW for “Moral Diplomacy”
But in 1914, World
War I begins and the
attention of the
United States moves
across the Atlantic