Progressivism in Politics
US History
Urban Issues Drive Local Reform
• Rapid urbanization created a lack of basic
services.
• Reformers wanted:
– Govt ownership of public
utilities
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Electricity
Gas
Telegraph
Telephone
– Why? To make them affordable to everyone?
• Only the rich could afford them.
Local and State Reforms
• Progressive anticorruption campaign:
– Civil Service Reform
– End to Political Bosses
– Creation of City
commissions and city
managers.
Who is he?
• Ex. Police
Commissioner
State Reform Issues
• Governors were key here.
• Issues differed depending
on the region:
– North: political corruption
& labor conditions.
– South: anti-big business
– West: railroad deregulation
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State Reform
• Case Study: Wisconsin
– Robert LaFollette (1855-1925)
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•
•
•
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•
•
“Fighting Bob”
Governor from 1900-1905
Became US Senator for WI (1905-1925)
Direct primary
Fair tax system
Railroad regulation
Commissioners put in place who reported
directly to governor.
• Scientific approach to reform: do survey,
gather data, base report on data collected.
State Reform
• Case Study: New York
–Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
• Governor of New York
• Focused on social legislation:
–Improving conditions in urban
tenements
–Taxing public corporations
State Reform
• States started to regulate
health and safety:
– Factory inspections
– Insurance to cover job
accidents
– Minimum employment age
– Maximum hours for child
labor (8-10 per day)
– Limit on hours for women
– Old-age pensions.
State Reforms
• Political Reforms in States
– Initiative: voters suggest
new laws and amendments
in state constitutions
– Referendum: voters vote
on legislation directly.
– Recall: voters remove
officials from govt jobs
before term ends.
– Secret Ballot: voters vote
in private.
National
Reform
• Theodore Roosevelt, again.
– Vice-President in 1900 election.
• President when McKinley was shot.
– 1904 he proposed “Square Deal” platform:
• Give consumers a break!
– Created an economic role for the presidency…
Square Deal
• TR’s economic role known as “New
Nationalism”:
– Trusts are necessary evil.
– Controls needed to rein in monopolies.
– The President is “steward of the people”
• He controlled power in the best interest of the people.
– Main goal for a president: the public good.
TR’s Progressive Legislation
• Commerce Department
(1903)
– Set up to collect information
needed to enforce anti-trust
legislation already on the books.
• Elkins act (1903), Hepburn
Act (1906)
– Expanded the Interstate
Commerce Commission
– Gave the ICC regulation powers.
TR: “Trust Buster”
• Roosevelt went after JP
Morgan’s railroad monopolies
in the Pacific Northwest.
– 1904 Supreme Court ordered the
breakup of Northern Securities.
(Northern Securities v. US).
• “Rule of Reason”: trusts can’t
automatically be broken up; you
have to look at how it affects trade.
Square Deal and Labor
• Under TR, govt played a
bigger role in mediation
between workers and
management.
– 1902 coal miners strike.
• Strikers wanted higher pay,
shorter work hours, and a union.
– When winter approached, TR
brought union and mine owners
together.
– Discussions broke down.
• TR threatened to use troops to
get the mines moving.
• Mine owners agreed to
arbitration.
– Union got some demands; mines
got working again.
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Square Deal and Environment
• Added 150 million acres to
national forests and
preserves.
• Created a plan for resource
management.
• Created national forest
service
• Grand Canyon and Niagara
Falls placed under protection
• Controlled and improved
river systems.
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