The Progressive Era (1900 – 1920)
I. The Industrial Age (1890 – 1914) *The Progressive Era
Issue Reform method Result of reform
1. Monopolies, Trusts, Anti-Trust Laws Sherman Anti Trust Act (1890)
& Holding Co.’s
2. Poor conditions in slums Activism/Muckraking -building codes for tenements
(Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine) -settlement houses
(Jane Addams,Lillian Wald).
· 1879 NYS law requires all rooms to have outside windows, thus the dumbbell tenement
(which was soon outlawed).
· -Each floor consisted of 4 small apt’s all w/ windows 6 - 7 stories.
-Gloomy airshaft was not a balcony, the tenement dweller looked across the closed space
to a brick wall & a neighbor’s window only a few feet away.
-Rotting garbage collected at the bottom of the shaft, little sunlight or fresh air reached
apt’s this way.
-Scientist’s linked diseases like Cholera & Typhoid to contaminated drinking water,
which residents drew from a common pipe or pump in the yard.
3. Business v. Labor Unions Strikes/Protests
-Underpaid, unsafe -Knights of Labor(Powderly) State labor laws
work conditions, long hrs. -AFL (Samuel Gompers and
collective bargaining.
4. Corruption Progressive Movement Political Reform
City Bosses & political -Muckraking (investigative -Primary, initiative, referendum,
Machines. Reporting). Recall, and secret ballot.
Wm. “Boss” Tweed, NYC -Exposure in newspapers -Civil Service Reform
Plunkit “Honest Graph and -Cartoonist-Thomas Nast
Dishonest Graph” -journalists-(Lincoln Steffens,
Ida Tarbell,Upton Sinclair)
II Contributors to the Progressive Era
1. The Middle Class (Kept informed by newspapers, magazines, and books).
a. Men voted regularly b. Women joined reform movements
2. Newspapers & Magazines (1870’s goal; increase readership in order to increase
advertising pages).
a. Penny Newspapers
1. Joseph Pulitzer “New York World” and William Randolph Hearst “New York Journal”
2. “Yellow Journalism”-sensationalizing events of scandal, crime, and shocking episodes
to attract more readers.
b. Magazines
1. McClures- carried articles of corruption and Ladies Home Journal
3. Muckrakers (Writers who exposed dirty politics or “muck” –coined by Teddy
Roosevelt).
a. Lincoln Steffens “The Shame of the Cities” (1904)-revealed corrupt city politicians
b. Ida Tarbell “History of Standard Oil Co”(1904)-Inv. Of Carnegies monopolistic
methods.
c. Henry Demarest Lloyd “Wealth Against Commonwealth”(1894) Industrial Elitists
d. Upton Sinclair “The Jungle”(1906) Exposed the dreadful conditions of the Chicago
meat packing plants (-led directly to the Meat Inspection Act of 1906).
III. Two Views of Govt. and Business
Conservative View Progressive View
a. Laissez Faire a. Government Regulations
(Businesses should be free to compete) (Create laws to (1)stop unfair competition
(2) consumer protection
Lochner V. NY (1905) –victories- Muller v. Oregon (1908)
-NYS law prohibited bakers from working -Oregon Law prohibited women from being
10 hrs days and 60 hrs weeks. Forced to work more than 10 hr days.
-US Supreme Court –NYS law unconst. –Oregon Law upheld. (Louis Brandeis used
b/c 14th Amend-“No State can deprive any scientific study to show negative effects on
person of the use of property w/o due process women..
of the law”. The owners rights were violated. -Brandeis becomes the 1st Jewish person on
US S.C.
IV. Three Progressive Presidents
1. Theodore Roosevelt (1901 – 1909)
-NYS Legislature, Rancher in “Dakota Badlands”, NYC Police Commissioner, Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, Commander of the Rough Riders in the Spanish- American War,
Vice President under McKinley. (Became President after the assassination of McKinley).
A. “Square Deal” (Fairness) Roosevelt’s promise to all groups in America. “Mediator of
the Public Good”. Ex. Settled the Anthracite Coal Strike (1902) by inviting the United
Mine Workers union leaders and Companies owner to the White House to negotiate. (The
owners were forced to accept because Roosevelt threatens Federal Troops to take over
and operate the mine if they did not. Roosevelt feared an endangered coal supply for the
coming winter). An agreement was made to give the workers a 10% raise and a 9 hr work
day.
B. Regulator
1. Strengthened Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 which est. the ICC.
a. (The Elkins Act (1903) strengthened the ICC in order to punish RR’s that provided
rebates (refunds) to wealthy industrialists.)
b. (The Hepburn Act (1906) empowered the ICC to fix RR rates)
Regulation: Govt. can regulate an industry by deciding what services the co’s can offer
and how much they may charge customers.
Historical Context: Congress passed the IIC to regulate the Railroad(RR). In later years
the Federal govt. also regulated air travel and trucking industry.
Concept Today: Under President’s Carter and Reagan the Federal Govt. stepped back and
ended some regulations on air travel, trucking, and RRs. This is known as Deregulation.
In 1995 Congress passed a bill to abolish the ICC in 1996.
2. Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) which banned the manufacturing & sale of impure
foods, drugs, & liquors. (Packages had to be truthfully labeled).
3. Meat Inspection Act(1906) inspection of meat for interstate commerce. Inspired by
Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle(1906) Roosevelt conducted an official govt investigations
and pushed for passage of the act, which ultimately helped eliminate many diseases once
transmitted in impure meat.
C. “Trust Buster” (Roosevelt filed for more than 40 anti trust suits. He was not anti trust
or consolidation but distinguished between :Good Trusts” (acted responsible) and “Bad
Trusts” (ignored public interest). He wanted regulation not destruction) To eliminate
corporate abuse he created
1. Enforced the Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890 by going after
a. Northern Securities Co. a holding co. that controlled several RR’s. ( $400 million
enterprise pieced together by JP Morgan, E.H. Harriman, & James J. Hill). JP Morgan,”
If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they can fix it up”. So
Roosevelt went to the Supreme Court to dissolve the co.)
b. Standard Oil Co. inspired by Ida Tarbell, sent Fed Investigators to corroborate her
allegations.
2. The Department of Commerce and Labor (1903) in order to investigate the
activities of corporations and publicize the results.
D. Conservationist (Roosevelt an ardent sportsman and naturalist he championed the
wise management and careful use of natural resources. He pushed for several acts for
preservation or to restrict private development of millions of acres of undeveloped govt.
land- most of it in the West).
1. Hired Gifford Pinchot, as the first director of the National Forest Service.
2. Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 (after Nebraska congressman Francis Newlands)
which provided money from the sale of desert land in the West, to be used to finance
irrigation projects. Westerners were frustrated by the lack of capital generated by private
enterprise and States for irrigation and welcomed the new Act.
3. Inland Waterways Act (1907) provided for a commission to study the use of the
nations major rivers.
Results of Roosevelt’s efforts:
a. Est. 149 National Forests (190 million acres)
b. Provided funds for construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals
(which later provides cheap electrical power).
***The Panic of 1907, a recession which began because of irresponsible peculation and
rampant financial mismanagement dampened years of prosperity. Despite the many
reforms instituted during the Roosevelt years, the Federal government had relatively little
control over the industrial economy. The Panic of 1907 combined with Roosevelt’s
“radicalism” of reforms alienated the conservatives in the Republican Party which caused
him to lose the presidential nomination to William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
Roosevelt, upset with Taft’s alienation of TR’s progressive supporters decided to run in
the 1912 election Roosevelt promotes his new set of principles called, “New
Nationalism”, which included Social Justice. The President should be the ,”steward of
public welfare”. He supported property rights, a graduated income and inheritance tax,
workers’ compensation for industrial accidents, regulation of the labor of women and
children, tariff revision, and firmer regulation of corporations. The return of Roosevelt
caused a schism in the Republican Party and the conservatives were reluctant to nominate
Roosevelt. Roosevelt took his progressive supporter and started a new Progressive Party
“the Bull Moose” party because he felt fit as a bull moose going into the election. As a
result of the Schism the Republican/Progressive vote was split and Woodrow Wilson of
the Democrats won the election.
2. William Howard Taft (1909 – 1913)
a. “Trust Buster” (Taft prosecuted 90 businesses for anti-trust violations
b. Failure as a “Reformer”
1. Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) which failed to lower tariffs and in some cases actually
raised the price of imports. (This angered the progressives in the Republican Party).
2. Firing of Gifford Pinchot (Taft replaces Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Interior with a
conservative corporate lawyer, Richard Ballinger. Progressives were suspicious of
Ballinger’s attempt to invalidate Roosevelt’s earlier removal of millions of acres of land
for preservation. Louis Glavis, a Department of Interior investigator uncovered a plot by
Ballinger to turn over public coal lands to a private co for personal profit. Pinchot took
the charges to the President who fired whistleblower, Glavis and later Pinchot who leaked
the information to the press after learning of Glavis’s dismissal. Progressives were
completely alienated from the Republican Party.
Election of 1912
Woodrow Wilson (Democrat)----------------- 435 41.9%
Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive)------------- 88 27.4%
William H. Taft (Republican)------------------ 8 23.2%
Eugene v. Debs (Socialist)---------------------- 0 6 %
3. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
-Born in Virginia, raised in Confederate Georgia and Reconstruction South Carolina.
1879 graduated from Princeton University, Law School, earned a doctorate at Johns
Hopkins University in political science. 1902 President of Princeton, 1910 Governor of
New Jersey.
a. New Freedom (economic reform) He proposed to lower tariffs, regulate big business,
and reform the banking system. He did not distinguish between “good”and “bad” trusts
but sought to destroy them.
1. Lowered tariffs – Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act (1913)-intended to lower prices
of consumer goods & remove special protection of big business to allow fair competition
and bust trusts.(To make up for the lost revenue of the reduced tariff, Congress approved
the graduated income tax in the 16th Amendment. 1% tax on earnings of $4,000 an up to
6% on earnings of over $500,000).
2. Regulating Big Business –
A.Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 –strengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.
a. listed illegal business practices
b. no holding co.’s
c. no multiple position of board of directors (“no interlocking directorships”).
d. No price fixing
e. Protected labor unions from prosecution under the Sherman
B. Federal Trade Commission –(would help businesses determine in advance whether
their actions would be acceptable to the govt.
a. Investigates shady business practices
b. Orders co.’s to “cease & desist” illegal practices
3. Federal Reserve Act (1913) –Govt national control, banks local control. Est. 12
regional banks each owned and controlled by the individual banks of its district. The
regional Federal Reserve banks would hold a certain % of the assets of its member banks
in reserve; they would use those reserves to support loans to private banks at an interest
(or “discount”) rate that the Federal Reserve System would set. They would issue a new
type of paper currency—the Federal Reserve Note-which would become the nations basic
medium of trade and would be backed by the government. Most important the ”Fed”
would serve as a institution able to shift funds quickly to troubled areas-to meet increase
demands for credit or to protect imperiled banks. Supervising and regulating the entire
system was a national Federal Reserve Board, whose members were appointed the
President. All “national” banks were required to join the system; smaller banks were
encouraged to do so. Nearly half the nation’s banking resources were represented in the
system within a year, and 80% by the late 1920’s.
Brinkley, Alan. American History 611).
Issue Solution
1. No paper $ 1. Paper currency printed (Federal Reserve notes)
2. No way to expand the $ supply 2. Increase or decrease the $ supply according to
changes in business needs.
3. Banks kept little reserves 3. Banks put reserves in the Fed.
(a rush on the bank resulted in bankruptcy)