Lecture # 3
The Progressive Movement--Responses to the Challenges Brought About by Industrialization,
Urbanization, and Immigration: Reform in America
BIGGEST PICTURE:
Between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, the US became a more industrialized
and urbanize nation. These changes brought many benefits to society, but they created problems as well.
In this unit of study, we will review how Americans responded to change, both at home and overseas, in
the years from 1900 to 1920. This period is called the Progressive Era. The term comes from the word
“progress” and indicates that Americans were reacting to problems by working for reform (instead of the
accepting the status quo or letting ignorance, apathy/tradition, or Social Darwinism guide America.
KEY QUESTIONS:
1) What were the pressures for reform that led to the Progressive movement?
2) Who were the Progressives?
3) How successful were the Progressives in meeting their goals? Did these reforms last?
THE BIG IDEA:
The Progressive Era was a period of great reform movements, including: 1) political reforms at the city,
state, and federal levels 2) social welfare reforms 3) economic reforms and 4) scientific/rational
administration practices to cut down tradition/waste/corruption in business/government. Reforms
affected some groups differently and had varying degrees of success.
OVERVIEW:
The process of industrialization and urbanization in the US had both positive and negative effects. From
the 1890s to 1920, a reform movement swept the nation as many people began focusing their energies on
correcting those negative effects. These reformers were known as Progressives, and their movement was
so strong that this period has become known as the Progressive Era. Progressive reformers had a variety
of motivations, used different methods, and had different degrees of success in achieving reforms (see:
umbrella graphic organizer; BTW: when their goal was achieved, many dropped out of the larger
movement of Progressivism “I got mine!”). Progressives supported the use of government power (as
opposed to charities, churches, civic groups, or individuals) to bring about reform. Two strong
Progressive Presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—implemented bold domestic
programs to take Progressive reform to the national level.
THEMES AND CONCEPTS:
1) Reform Movements: What conditions stirred Progressive reforms to action?
2) Diversity: How did women and African Americans work for their own rights during the
Progressive era, and how successful were they?
3) Environment: How did Progressive reforms result in certain environmental protections?
4) Government: What role did the government play in Progressive reform?
KEY TERMS:
Upton Sinclair, Jane Addams, Jeannette Rankin, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, Margaret Sanger,
Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Robert M. La Follette,
Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson
KEY SCOTUS CASES:
Lochner v. New York (1905); Muller v. Oregon (1908); Northern Securities Co. v. US (1904)
I.
PRESSURES FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM
-By 1900, the US was a rich and powerful nation. Industrialization, urbanization, and
immigration had transformed the US into a major world economy. The changes in American
life, however, also brought problems. The negative effects of these changes led many
Americans to call for reforms.
A. Effects of Business Practices
-In technology-driven fields such as RR, steel production, and electric utilities, powerful
monopolies restricted competition, often by using unfair methods. Without competition,
monopolies could raise prices as much as they wished. Abuse of the nation’s natural
resources was accepted practice. The corporate world grew increasingly wealthy and
more powerful. Industrial leaders justified their actions by using the philosophy of Social
Darwinism—the concept that in society as in nature, the strong would survive and the
weak would not. Those who succeeded earned their position and those who failed
deserved their failure. Social Darwinists believe that the government should not intervene
in this process (except when it helped them acquire, retain, and grow wealth: e.g., tax
breaks, patents, etc)
B. Conditions for Industrial Workers
-Working conditions for factory workers continued to be harsh. Many laborers worked 60
hour weeks on machinery, often in unsafe, unhealthy conditions. Getting hurt on the job
often resulted in the worker being fired. Workers earned low wages, and women and
children were paid even less than men. Workers had little job security, because their
employers could fire them at any time for any reason. Soon, workers grew less tolerant of
these terrible working conditions. Some tried to organize labor union, but employers
often fired those who did. Strikes were met with armed attacks from factory security
guards and even US troops.
C. Life for the Urban Poor
-The gap between living standards of the rich and the poor increased widely during this
period. This gap was most apparent in the cities. As the rich grew richer, building lavish
townhouses in relatively safe and clean neighborhoods, the poor grew even poorer. They
lived in urban slums characterized by poverty, crime, congestion, and poor sanitation.
Housing in the cities was segregated by social and economic status and ethnicity/race.
D. Mixed Responses of Gov’t at All Levels
-Government at all levels remained relatively unresponsive to the impact of the
industrialization and urbanization. Industries were unrestrained by federal and many
state governments (theory/policy of free hand of capitalism); the courts often failed to
support fair standards of business. The laissez-faire philosophy prevailed, and so did the
political corruption at all levels of government. The public received little help from its
elected representatives. The SCOTUS provided mixed rulings on Progressivism,
specifically the working conditions of laborers: 1) In Lochner v. New York (1905) the
SCOTUS ruled that a NY law limiting bakers’ hours was unconstitutional because it
interfered with the contract between the employer and employee 2) In Muller v. Oregon
(1908), the SCOTUS let stand an Oregon law limiting women to a ten-hour work day,
ruling that he law was justified because it protected women’s health. The effect of the
laws like this, however, was to keep women out of better paying jobs. ALWAYS
consider ulterior motives and later impact!
II.
WHO WERE THE PROGRESSIVES?
-The Progressives set out to tackle the problems of their era. They did not form one single
group. The Progressive movement was made up of many different movements, and the
Progressives were many different kinds of Americans. Their commitment and their
success varied from person to person and issue to issue. They had some commonalities.
A. Characteristics
-The Progressives were influenced by the Populists but differed from them. While the
Populists lived in the country or in small towns, the Progressives were largely city
dwellers. Most of the Populists were farmers, who focused on farm problems. The
Progressives tended to be educated professionals—doctors, lawyers, social workers,
clergy, and teachers—with a wide range of concerns. The Progressive movement
demonstrated the rising power and influence of America’s middle class.
B. Beliefs and Goals
-Like all reformers, the Progressives were optimists. They believe that abuses of power
by government and business could be ended. They believed that new developments in
technology and science could be used to improve the basic institutions of American
society—business, government, education, and family life. Progressives believed in
capitalism and were concerned about the growth of socialism as a more radical reaction
to the negative effects of industrialization. Progressives wanted t bypass party politics,
which they saw as corrupt, but they had faith that a strong government could and should
correct abuses and protect rights.
-Not all Americans were Progressives or agreed with Progressive goals. Many business
and political leaders opposed regulations. They accepted the Social Darwinists’ view that
the vast differences in wealth and power in American society were the result of
scientific/biological/inherent forces that could not be changed. Many workers and
farmers did not benefit from Progressive reform, nor did most African Americans, Asian
immigrants, and Native Americans.
C. Factors Aiding the Movement
-Many Progressives worked with national voluntary organizations, which grew rapidly in
the 1890s. The movement was centered in cities at a time when more of the population
was living in cities. The helped communication among Progressives, as did the expanding
telephone and telegraph systems. The availability of inexpensive mass-circulation
magazines and newspapers also helped spread Progressive ideas. Finally, the
Progressives were aided by an improved economy. The first decade of the 20th century
brought prosperity. Industrial profits, wages, and employment all rose; famers thrived.
The result was an optimistic climate and the financial resources to support them.
III. PROGRESS TOWARD SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
-A wide variety of reform movements developed from the 1890s to the 1920s.
A. The Muckrakers
-Muckrakers helped bring reform issues to the attention of the public. They were
originators of the investigative journalism of today. They exposed issues of crime,
corruption, poverty, etc. Most were journalists and writers, but others were artists and
photographers. Muckrakers investigated and exposed corruption and injustice through
articles in mass-circulation magazines. They also wrote novels dramatizing situation that
demanded reform. In 1906, the work of the muckrakers resulted in the passage of the
Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act—the first two acts of consumer
protection legislation. The federal government passed these laws after it became clear
that the unsanitary conditions exposed by Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle were based
on common facts. As time passed, the muckraker’s influence declined, partly because
readers tired of their sensationalism. Nevertheless, their tradition has continued to this
day.
B. Other Areas of Concern
-Other people and groups also worked to bring Progressive reforms to American society.
1. Problems of Poverty
2. Social Settlement Movement
3. The Peace Movement
4. Temperance and Prohibition
C. Women’s Rights
-Women were involved in all aspects of social reform, but suffrage for women continued
to be the main goal of the women’s rights movement in the Progressive Era. Women who
had experienced success in other reform activities wanted to be able to vote. Furthermore,
many suffragists thought that the women’s vote would serve to correct various social
problems.
1. Women’s Suffrage Movement
2. Education for Women
3. The Fight For Birth Control
D. African Americans’ Rights
-The decades after the Civil War were a difficult time for African Americans. Laws
prevented them from exercising their right to vote. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the
SCOTUS upheld the Jim Crow laws, which required segregated—“separate but equal”—
public facilities for African Americans and whites. Lynchings by white mobs took the
lives of hundreds of African Americans. Key African Americans leaders who worked to
secure their people’s rights are:
1. Booker T. Washington
2. W.E.B. DuBois
3. Marcus Garvey
4. Ida B. Wells-Barnett
E. Jewish Americans’ Rights
-In 1913, a group of American Jews established the Anti-Defamation League, an agency
of Jewish service organizations B’nai B’rith (“Sons of the Covenant”) which had been
founded in 1843. The Anti-Defamation League worked mainly to combat defamation, or
libel and slander, directed against Jews. Later its program was broadened to aim at
securing the civil liberties of all Americans.
IV. PROGRESSIVISM AND GOVERNMENT ACTION
-During the Progressive Era, political reform took place at all levels of government—city, state,
and national
A. Reform of City Government
- Given the Progressives’ urban, middle-class roots, it is not surprising that they first
concentrated their efforts on the governments of the cities in which they lived and in
which they were influential citizens. In the 1890s, Americans interested in good
government worked to elect reformist mayors. Success in doing so, however, did not
always insure permanent improvements. Progressives had to change not only the leader,
but also the way city government worked. Two new types of city government are
associated with the Progressive movement. They were popular in small and mediumsized cities. In the city commissioner plan, the city is run by a group of commissioners,
rather than by a mayor and city council. In the city manager plan, the city council hires a
professional city manager to run the various municipal departments. (Williamsport)
B. Cities Respond to Urban Problems
-Some Progressives concentrated not only on making city governments more efficient
and less corrupt, but on improving city services. They worked to regulate service such as
transportation systems, water, sanitation, and other utilities. They also tried to improve
the appearance of cities by constructing large, elaborate libraries, museums, and other
public buildings
C. Reform of State Government
-Progressives also acted to limit the power of boss-controlled political machines and
powerful business interests at the state level. Progressives recognized that states exercised
control over many of their cities. Extension of reform o to the state, even the national
level, was necessary to protect and gains made at the municipal level. Progressive
reforms often proved difficult to enforce, meeting opposition from business interest and
courts. Thus, change in the way state governments worked were also part of the
Progressive program. These changes, aimed at increasing citizen participation in
government, including:
1. Secret ballot
2. Initiative
3. Referendum
4. Recall
5. Direct Primary
6. Direct election of US Senators (instead of by state legislatures):17th Amendment
Remember that the secret ballot, initiative, referendum, and direct election of US
Senators were all parts of the Populists party program. This party influenced the other
two and America in these ways.
D. State Social, Economic, and Environmental Reforms
-Wisconsin, under Governor Robert M. La Follette, was the model for Progressive
reform. The state passed laws to regulate RR, lobbying, and banking. It also started civil
service reforms, shifted more of the tax burden to the wealthy and to corporations,
required employers to compensate workers injured on the job, and provided for factory
inspections.
-Several other states passed laws like those of Wisconsin. Leading Progressive governors
included Hiram Johnson of California, who reformed the RR industry, and Theodore
Roosevelt of NY. As governor of NY (1899-1900), TR, a friend of Jacob Riis and other
Progressives, was concerned about social and economic reform. He supported the
creation of the NY State Tenement Commission to investigate NYC tenements. He also
worked to eliminate sweatshop factory conditions which forced women and children to
work long hours for very low pay in dangerous conditions.
V. THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE SQUARE DEAL
-The first three Presidents of this century—TR, WHT, and WW—are known as the Progressive
Presidents. TR, elected VP in 1900, became President when President William McKinley was
assassinated in 1901. He was elected in his own right in 1904. TR saw his job as one of
stewardship—leading the nation in the public interest, like a manger or supervisor. He believed
that the President had any powers not specifically denied to the executive in the Constitution.
TR’s administration is often known as the Square Deal because of the many reforms during his
presidency.
A. Consumer Protection
-Although basically conservative, TR did not hesitate to use the power of the presidency
to deal directly with social and economic problems. On the national level, he recognized
the need for consumer protection, influencing passage in 1906 of the Pure Food and Drug
Act and Meat Inspection Act
B. Regulating Business
-TR’s reforms in business focused on strengthening regulations and breaking up trusts.
1. Strengthening Regulations
2. Trust-Busting
3. Northern Securities Case
4. The “Beef” Trust
C. Labor Conditions
-TR also achieved important reforms in working conditions.
1. The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
2. Employers’ Liability Act of 1906
3. Working Hours—conflicted by SCOTUS rulings.
D. Conservation
-As a naturalist, TR was interested in protecting the nation’s environment and its
wilderness lands. His policies were influenced by the conservationist Gifford Pinchot and
John Muir. Before TR, the government’s land policy put land in the private hands of
homesteaders, RRs, and colleges. TR shifted this policy and kept some land under federal
government protection. This was the philosophy of John Muir, a founder of the Sierra
Club, who was also instrumental in the creation of Yosemite National Park.
1. Forest Reserve Act of 1891: (150 M to 450 M acres)
2. National (Newlands) Reclamation Act of 1902: Dams and irrigation systems
3. Conservation Congress of 1908: Naturalists and Governors
VI. PROGRESSIVISM UNDER TAFT
-After TR declined to run for a third term, William Howard Taft succeeded him in 1909. Taft
began his presidency with the support of TR and the Progressive wing of the GOP.
A. Reforms Under Taft
-Under Taft, the Justice Department brought twice as many suits against big business as it
had under TR. One of the most important cases involved the Standard Oil Company. The
SCOTUS’s ruling in Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. US (1911) held that the
monopoly should be dissolved. But it also applied the so-called “rule of reason” to the
Sherman Antitrust Act. There was a difference, said the high Court, between
“reasonable” and “unreasonable” business combinations. Size alone did not mean that a
company was “unreasonable.” The Taft era witnessed other reforms, too. The MannElkins Act of 1910 gave the ICC the power to regulate communication by telephone and
telegraph. In 1913, the 16th Amendment was ratified, authorizing Congress to impose an
income tax (to pay for reforms/services).
B. Problems for Taft
-Taft, who not as politically able as TR, soon ran into problems that split the GOP, into a
Taft faction and a Progressive faction. Like other Progressives, Taft wanted to lower
tariffs, but he was unable to stand up to the GOP Congress that raised them with the
Payne-Aldrich Act of 1909. Taft angered Progressives by calling the law “the best bill
that the Republican Party ever passed.” Taft ran into more trouble the following year
when he dismissed Forest Service head Gifford Pinchot—a favorite of Progressive
conservationists. Taft’s secretary of the interior, Richard A. Ballinger, had allowed a
group of businesspeople to obtain several million acres of Alaskan public lands. Pinchot
protested the action, and Taft fired him. Ballinger was indentified with mining,
lumbering, and ranching interests who wanted to develop the land for personal profit.
They were supported by many senators from western states (why??)
VII. WOODROW WILSON AND THE ‘NEW FREEDOM’
-In 1912, TR challenged Taft for the GOP presidential nomination. When the nomination went to
Taft, TR ran as the candidate of a third party, the Progressive Party. Woodrow Wilson was the
Democratic candidate, and Eugene Debs ran on the Socialist ticket. TR offered what he called the
New Nationalism, while WW called his program the New Freedom. Both were Progressive
philosophies. TR, however, accepted social legislation and business regulation. The more
traditional Wilson aimed for a return to competition in the marketplace with enforcement of
antitrust laws. Wilson won the election of 1912 by a landslide of electoral votes, although he
received only 41% of the popular vote. In 1916, he was reelected into office in an even closer
race.
A. Financial Reform
-Wilson accomplished two major financial reforms while in office. In 1913, he pressured
Congress to pass the Underwood Tariff Act, which lowered the tariffs for the first time
since the Civil War. The law also provided for a graduated income tax—one that taxed
larger incomes at a higher rate (6%) than it did lower ones (1%). This kind of tax, which
takes a bigger share of higher incomes, is known as a progressive tax (as opposed to the
regressive tax).
B. Business Regulation
-Wilson also achieved two important business regulations. The Federal Trade
Commission Act of 1914 aimed to prevent unfair competition. It created a commission to
investigate such practices as false advertising and mislabeling. The Clayton Antitrust Act
of 1914 strengthened the government’s power to control business practices that
threatened competition (price discrimination; exclusive contracts; interlocking
directorates). Among other things, the act prohibited companies from price fixing and
from buying stocks in competing firms. The Clayton Act tried to end the practice of using
antitrust laws against unions, but later SCOTUS decisions undercut this provision.
C. Other Reforms Under Wilson
1. The Adamson Act of 1916 set an 8 hour day for RR and interstate commerce workers
2. The Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 made low-interest loans available to farmers
3. The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 tried to outlaw child labor, but the
SCOTUS ruled the law unconstitutional in the case of Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
4. Ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, gave women voting rights.