Essays Berkin Chapter 19
1.
Hoping for better government and an improved political system, many reformers during the
Progressive era called for changes to the institutions of government. Did American government and
political practices change as a result of their efforts?
DEVELOPING YOUR ANSWER: It is easy to argue that they did. For the institutions and structure
of American government, you can cite new kinds of city government, the city-planning movement,
the direct primary, the initiative, the referendum, the recall, and the direct election of senators under
the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Under the pressure of reform, American political practices also changed. As evidence of this, you
should cite and discuss the diminishing power of political parties; the resulting reduction in the
number of people who voted; the growing impact and importance of organized interest groups,
replacing the political parties as the engine’s driving policy; and the growing importance of
advertising in political campaigns.
2.
Controlling the growth and power of big business was one of the great issues of the Progressive era.
Compare and contrast the policies and initiatives of the period’s three presidents concerning the
country’s great corporations.
DEVELOPING YOUR ANSWER: Theodore Roosevelt was prepared to accept the growth of big
business. He saw it as a natural development, but he believed that the government should regulate
companies that acted contrary to the general public good. Beginning with the Northern Securities
Company, he started more than 40 suits against monopoly companies that he thought did not
“behave” in that manner. Similarly, he faced down big business in the coal strike of 1902 and
supported the United Mine Workers’ union. During his second term, he worked for legislation to
regulate the railroads. On the other hand, Roosevelt was prepared to accept big business when he
thought that it acted in the public’s interest.
Taft did even more than Roosevelt against monopoly. He initiated more than twice as many lawsuits
against large companies, in approximately half the time.
Woodrow Wilson was even more opposed to big business than Roosevelt; you should emphasize
their contrasting views in your discussion. If Roosevelt accepted the existence of huge corporations
(as long as they acted in the public interest), Wilson thought that all large companies were
undesirable. They must all be broken up, he argued, in order to restore competition.
Once he became president, Wilson acted differently. Under the Federal Reserve Act, he appointed
friends of the banking industry. Going further, he changed his mind about big business; he adopted
Roosevelt’s views. In the Clayton Antitrust Act, he accepted a bill against monopoly—but it was
one without much power to it.
3.
The years of the Progressive era were ones filled with the spirit of reform. What can account for this
surge of interest in reforming and improving American society?
DEVELOPING YOUR ANSWER: Because progressivism was such a diverse movement, it is
possible to offer many reasons. They include the following:
Many reform movements were not new; they can be seen instead as continuing efforts to take care
of “unfinished business.” The women’s suffrage movement is an example, as is the prohibition
movement.
There were, without doubt, many severe problems in American society in the early twentieth
century that required solution. Big business often did not pay heed to many of its own shortcomings.
The meat-packing industry is a good example; the Meat Inspection Act (along with the Pure Food
and Drug Act) at last provided a check on it, as well as on other businesses that marketed unhealthy
merchandise. The railroads engaged in unfair practices, which the Elkins and Hepburn acts sought
to curtail.
Much could be improved in the name of efficiency and expertise, an important aspect of progressive
reformers’ thinking. City planning, the administration of cities by experts, and wiser planning for
the use of natural resources (the conservation movement) are all examples of reform that fall under
this heading.
The United States had changed dramatically since the Civil War: the new immigration, rapid
industrialization, the growth of the cities, and the growth of big business had all made the nation
quite different from what it once had been. New institutions and laws were accordingly necessary to
address changing circumstances. A public health movement, for example, was a reform that made
great sense in meeting the needs of rapidly expanding cities that had many poverty-stricken
inhabitants.