Chapter 21. The Progressive Era, 1901-1918
-3. recall—enabled voters to remove a corrupt politician from office by
majority vote
 social welfare – unban life improved by settlement house workers and
civic-minded volunteers  meeting the needs of immigrants, better
schools, juvenile courts, divorce laws, factory safety regulations;
believed criminals could become effective citizens
Progressive movement-reforms of middle-class city residents
pragmatism-practical, the way people thought and reasoned was challenged,
and the philosophy of romantic transcendentalism in America gave way to a
balanced pragmatism
William James and John Dewey – leading advocates of this new
philosophy, defining "truth" for Progressives: people should take a pragmatic municipal reform – city reform
approach to morals, ideals, and knowledge, experimenting and testing ideas
 Samuel "Golden Rule" M. Jones – introduced municipal reform, selffor better
made millionaire, mayor in Toledo, Ohio, free kindergartens, schools,
Frederick W. Taylor – used a stopwatch to time output of factory workers
playgrounds
(pragmatic) to discover the most efficient manner to organize people—the
 Tom L. Johnson –mayor in Cleveland, Ohio, tax reform and 3-cent
scientific management system.
trolley fares. Fought for public ownership of public utilities and
services, failed
muckrakers – writers who wrote investigative stories about underhanded
schemes in politics, exposing political and economic corruption
State reform
 Henry Demarest Lloyd –earliest muckraker, attacked monopoly
 Charles Evans Hughes – battled fraudulent insurance companies in
Standard Oil Company in the Atlantic Monthly and in the book Wealth
NY
Against Commonwealth
 Hiram Johnson – successfully fought against economic and political
 Lincoln Steffans – Tweed Days in St. Louis – muckraking article series
power of the Southern Pacific railroad
in McClure's Magazine. Book The Shame of the Cities
 Ida Tarbell – The History of the Standard Oil Company muckraking in National reform
the same magazine
 Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal – reform-minded young president
 Jacob Riis – book How the Other Half Lives
– did not take sides. Tried to mediate the anthracite coal miners'
 Theodore Dreiser – novel The Financier and The Titan
strike (1902) between union leader and coal mine owners  10% wage
increase, 9hour workday  people ♥ Roosevelt, won landslide election
Political Reforms Progressive ideology – given a chance, majority of voters
in 1904
would elect honest officials (not corrupt)
 trust-busting – Roosevelt informed the Sherman Antitrust Act and
 Australian ballot – secret ballot, behind a curtained booth
broke up bad monopoly trusts, such as the Northern Securities
Company
 direct primary – nominating party candidates by majority vote,
introduced by Republican Robert La Folette, governor of Wisconsin,
 railroad regulation
who also introduced "Wisconsin Idea"—a series of Progressive
- *Elkins Act (1903) –ICC authority stop railroads from grating rebates
measures, e.g. direct primary law, tax reform, regulation of railroad rates
to favored customers
 direct election of senators; Seventeenth Amendment – first in Nevada, - *Hepburn Act (1906) – ICC could fix "just and reasonable" rates for
overturned the system of majority vote of the state legislatures ≈ political
railroads.
bosses and machines
 Consumer protection. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle muckraking book
described Chicago stockyards and meatpacking industry's horrible
 initiative; referendum; recall – methods …
-1. initiative—voters could compel the legislature to consider a bill.
conditions  Congress regulatory laws
-2. referendum—allowed citizens to vote on proposed laws printed on their
- *Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) – forbade manufacture, sale, and
ballots.
transportation of adulterated or mislabeled foods and drugs
- *Meat Inspection Act (1906) – federal inspectors visit meatpacking
plants to ensure meeting standards of sanitation
 Conservation – In addition to *Forest Reserve Act,
- *Newlands Reclamation Act (1902) – providing money from the sale of
public land for irrigation projects in western states
- Gifford Pinchot – established the National Conservation Commission,
first director of US Forest Service
-*Federal Farm Loan Act (1916) – 12 regional federal farm loan banks
were established to provide farm loans at low interest rates
Socialist Party of America – 3rd party dedicated to welfare of the working
class ~ radical Progressive, founded by Eugene V. Debs – former railway
union leader jailed for Pullman strike, criticized business. Ran president 5
times
Bull Moose party – nickname for the new Progressive Party by Roosevelt
New Nationalism – Roosevelt – more gov't regulation of business and
unions, women's suffrage, and more social welfare programs
New Freedom– Woodrow Wilson Democrat – limiting both big business
and government, reform by ending corruption, revive competition by
supporting small business  won election of 1912 – attacked "the triple wall
of privilege" tariffs, banking, trusts
-*Underwood Tariff (1913) – Wilson spoke to Congress – lower tariffs (but
gradual increase of income tax rate)
-*Federal Reserve Act (1914) - $ national banking system w/ 12 districts
supervised by a Federal Reserve Board, issuing the Federal Reserve Notes
-*Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) – strengthened Sherman Antitrust Act,
exempted unions from being prosecuted as trusts
-*Federal Trade Commission – investigate + take action against any
"unfair trade practice" in every industry except banking and transportation
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)'s president
was Carrie Chapman Catt - vote
- Alice Paul formed the National Woman's party, militant and violent,
focused on adding amendment for ♀ suffrage
-*Nineteenth Amendment – dedicated ♀ in WWI persuaded Congress and
Pd Wilson – granted right to vote in all elections. Carrie Chapman Catt
organized League of Women Voters – civic organization to keep voters
informed
urban migration – leave South because 1. deteriorating race relations. 2.
destruction of teir cotton crops by the boll weevil. 3. job opportunities in
northern factories when whites fought WWI
Booker T. Washington – head of the Tuskegee institute, Atlanta
Exposition speech argued blacks' needs for education and economic
William Howard Taft – successor of Roosevelt, defeated William Jennings progress, economic base > =
W. E. B. Du Bois – black northerner with college education, The Souls of
Bryan
Black Folk, criticized Booker T. Washington's approach, and demanded =
- *Mann-Elkins Act (1910) – gave the ICC the power to suspend new
rights > economic independence
railroad rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies
-Niagara Movement – W.E.B. Du Bois and black intellectuals in Niagara
- federal income tax; *Sixteenth Amendment – authorized US gov't to
falls, Canada, discuss protest and action aimed at securing = rights 
collect an income tax, at first it applied only to the very wealthy
organized 
 Split in the Repub party  conservative faction of Taft, a Progressive
-National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
faction for Roosevelt
(NAACP) – abolish all segregation, ++education for black children 
1. Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) – raised tariff, instead of lowering tariff,
largest civil rights organization
angered Progressives
3. Joseph Cannon house speaker – Taft failed to support the effort to reduce -National Urban League – help migration from South to north. Motto
"Not Alms but Opportunity"
the dictatorial powers of Cannon