Progressive Era, 1900-1917
Movement
Scientific
Management
Government
Reform
Cause
Increase American
Society’s
Efficiency
(Maximize Resources
to Raise Productivity)
Decrease Corruption
Expand Electorate
Power
Year
1911
1903
Leaders
Frederick
Winslow
Taylor
Book: the
Principles of
Scientific
Management
Effect
Apply scientific principles to make
tasks simpler
Robert
La Follett
Governor and
Senator from
WI
Direct Primary: Voters not political
machines select political candidates
i.e.: Henry Ford 1913 used Time
and Motion Studies to determine
optimum speed of assembly lines
Secret Ballot: (Australian Ballot)
Initiative: Bill initiated by the people
not lawmakers
Referendum: a public vote to accept
or reject initiative
Recall: voters able to remove elected
officials by requiring them to face
another election prior to the end of
their term
Suffragists
Women’s Right to
Vote
1913
17th Amendment
Popular (Direct) election of Senators
1848-1890s
Susan B.
Anthony and
Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
1920
Carrie
Chapman Catt
(NAWSA)
Brought attention of women’s
suffrage issue:
1) Abolition and Temperance
Movements gave women credible
reform voices
2) 1875 Supreme Court ruled-women
were citizens but citizenship did not
automatically confer suffrage
3) WY, UT, CO and ID gave women
right to vote end 1890s
Lucy Burns
and Alice Paul
(National
Women’s
Party)
19th Amendment: Women’s suffrage
(1920)
*Effect of women’s role in WWI and
success in passage of 18th
Amendment (Prohibition)
Social Gospel
Social Welfare
Late 19th
Century
Young Men’s
Christian
Association
(YMCA) and
Salvation Army
Jane Addams
(Hull House)
Women’s
Christian
Temperance
Union (WCTU)
Moral Reform
1870s-1920
Carry Nation
Soften harsh realities of urban life:
swimming pools, libraries and
classes
Ease conversion of foreign
immigrants to middle class values:
hard work and temperance
18th Amendment (1919): Prohibited
manufacture, sale and transportation
of alcohol
Expanded public role of women.
Public platform for suffragist
movement
Muckrakers
Economic/Industry
Reform
Upton Sinclair:
Book The
JungleMuckrakers
Voiced Concerns for
corrupt business
practices
Graft, corruption and injustice reform
via sensational expose
Gave birth to
Investigative reporting
T. Roosevelt
Ida Tarbell:
Monthly
Column in
McClure’s
Magazine (early
1890sCompiled into:
“History of the
Standard Oil
Company”
(1904)
Expose social ills for
purpose of selling
literature, raise public
awareness and effect
social refform
Federal
Government
“Regulation”
(Government
action to ensure
fair business
practices,
protect
consumers and
protect
environment)
Railroad Monopoly
1903 Elkins
Act
Theodore
Roosevelt
1906 Hepburn
Act
Monopolistic Practices
Educated public as to unsanitary
conditions in Meat Packing Industry.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin of “wage
slavery”
1914
Clayton
Antitrust Act
Woodrow
Wilson
Influenced passage of 1906 Health
Practice Reforms
1) Meat Inspection Act
2) Pure Food and Drug Act
(Truth in labeling)
Educated public as to corrupt
business tactics of John D.
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Co.
Influenced passage of 1890 Sherman
Antitrust Act
(1904 dissolution of Northern
Securities Co. and 1911 dissolution
of Standard Oil)
Railroad Regulation:
1) Elkins Act – Prohibited
rebates and required public
notice of rate changes
2) 2) Hepburn Act – limited
free railroad passes and
empowered Interstate
Commerce Commission
(ICC) to set railroad rates
Strengthened Sherman Antitrust Act:
1) declared certain business
practices illegal
*See Notes*
Tariff Reform
1914 Federal
Trade Act
1912 16th
Amendment
Established FTC: Business Practices
Watchdog
Woodrow
Wilson
Legalized income tax on corporate
profits and earnings
Established graduated income tax
1913 Underwood Tariff: Reduced
rates levied on imports by 10%.
Focused on goods able to be
produced more cheaply in U.S. than
abroad. First law to reduce tariff
since CW. Accompanied 16th
Amend to off-set lost federal
revenues due to reduced tariff rates.
Financial Reform
1) Make credit more
easily available outside
NY and Boston
financial centers
1913 Federal
Reserve Act
Woodrow
Wilson
Forest
Reserves Act
(1891)
Early
Progressives
2) Keep credit
availability and money
supply on pace with
economy
Conservation
Movement
(Prior: U.S.
Forest Bureau
established
1887 and 45
million acres
withdrawn
from public
sale to create
national forest
reserve)
Decentralized private banking system
under federal control
Divided nation into 12 banking
districts. Federal Reserve Banks:
1) print new paper currency in
emergency
2) national banks belonged to
each federal reserve bank in
district
3) state banks in district could
join
4) could use new currency to
make loans
5) federal reserve banks could
transfer money to member
banks in district
6) by 1923 70% nations
banking resources in Federal
Reserve System
7) Still operational today!!!
Forest service maintains and protects
forests for public recreational use
Federal government reserves land
from development:
President Harrison 13 million acres
President Cleveland 25 million acres
President McKinley 7 million acres
Put Federal Government in business
of conservation
Yellowstone Nat’l Park 1872
Yosemite Nat’l Park 1890
National
Reclamation
Act 1902
(AKA:
Newlands
Relcamation
Act)
Theodore
Roosevelt
John Muir
(conservation
advocate)
Gifford Pinchot
(Head of U.S.
Forest Service)
Reclaimed unusable land that is used
today via reservoir and irrigation
systems
Western land sales used to fund
large-scale irrigation projects (i.e.
Roosevelt Dam in AZ and Shoshone
Dam WY)
Established precedent for fed gov’t to
manage water resources in west
Muir’s goal of preservation in the
natural state not completely achieved
as fed gov’t assisting the
development and settlement of
previously unusable lands
National
Monuments
Act 1906
Increased natural areas preserved:
5 new parks established
50 game refuges
4 game preserves
Progressivism:
1. Introduction:
1860-1900 Republican party
dominated federal government
financial backing from conservative business leaders
Hamiltonian-like
created wealth concentration and agrarian economic catastrophe
shifted economic activity from agrarian to industrial production
Legislation to regulate business practices RARELY appeared or were Ineffective
1870 Sherman Antitrust Act (used against Labor Unions mostly)
1887 Interstate Commerce Commission (Railroad companies bribed/appointed members)
1881 Pendleton Act (Merit system established for Fed Admin)
But . . . “Cooperation” between government and business expected
J.P. Morgan to TR, who, in 1902, threatened trust-busting action against
Northern Securities Co.
“If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they
can fix it up.”
Cultural effects of Industrialization
Immigration triggered Nativism
Urbanization triggered overcrowding, personal safety and health concerns
Rise of big business triggered wealth concentration and discontent with business interests
Created
cultural tension as society transformed to modern industrial state from agrarian
demand for a new approach
Late 20th Century reform movement to make (1900-1917)
government more democratic
women’s suffrage
eliminate political corruption
empower the voter
business more competitive
apply scientific method
tariff management
prevent monopolies
financial stability and flexibility
railroad rate management
society more moral and just
alcohol prohibition
citizen responsibility
immigration restriction
Natural landscape conservation
Urban safety, health, community support
2. What problem(s) were they trying to solve?
Immigration
Urbanization
Industrial workplace safety
Social Immorality
Political corruption
Capitalist System economic instability and inequality
Land Over-development
Business profit maximization
3. What were their “goals”?
Improve social morals
Restore economic individualism
Restore political democracy
Breakdown the “Tripple Wall of Privilege”: Banks, trusts and tariffs
Ease the transition of immigrants into urban society
Ease the transition of workers into the industrialized system
Abolish existing capitalist system
Preserve natural landscape
Increase business efficiency via scientific analysis and methodology
4. Broad Based Reform Actions (See Chart)
Muckrakers
Journalist
Exposed
Thomas Nast
political corruption
Ida Tarbell
labor exploitation
Upton Sinclair
adulteration of food/drug
Example
Tamany Hall (Boss Tweed)
Standard Oil (Hst of Standard Oil)
Meat packing (Food and Drug Act)
Socialists
Exposed class divisions in industrial U.S.
Proposed socialist solutions to capitalist system inequalities
Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward)
Henry George (Poverty and Progress)
Socialist Party organized 1901
Eugene V. Debbs received 6% of the presidential electoral college votes 1912
Government had to respond
Social Gospel and Advocates for Impoverished
Exposed poverty
Social Gospel movement
Salvation Army
Jacob Riis
Lincoln Stiffens
Feminists
Exposed unfair treatment for women/children and families
Examples: YMCA/Child Labor Laws/19th Amendment
Moralists
Boy Scouts 1910
5. National Progressive Appeal
National Impact: While a series of sub-movements it had a national impact
Populism to Progressivism
Moderation
National Progressive Leaders
TR’s Square Deal
Selective with busting trusts that endangered economy and consumers
Fought to tame Big Business
i.e. Northern Securities Co and standard Oil Co divested
Protected consumers against dangerous products
i.e. Food and Drug Act and Truth in Labeling act
TR’s New Nationalism (Progressive Party, 1912)
Believed concentration in industry inevitable
Federal control needed to protect laboring man
National interest requires that property be regulated
Advocated for social justice
Minimum wage law for women
Federal Child Labor Law
Use Federal government to solve labor problems
WW’s New Freedom (1912-1920)
Concentration in industry not inevitable
Laboring man must be free from all control—federal or corporate
Free competition will destroy monopoly
Advocated social justice
Federal gov’t regulation will destroy free competition/enterprise
Federal gov’t not a father to the laboring man
Yet implemented gov’t regulation in some areas
Federal Trade Act
Federal Income Tax (16th Amendment)
Underwood Tariff (first tariff reduction since CW)
Clayton Anti-trust Act (1914)—clarified definition of illegal business practices
Federal Reserve Act
Federal Farm Loan Act
Maintained gov’t restraint in other areas
Refused to support women’s suffrage (19th Amendment)
Refused to support National Child Labor Law
Refused to restrict immigration (1924 Immigration Act)
Separated blacks and whites in federal offices
*Was New Freedom a “warmed over” New Nationalism?
6. How effective was the resulting reform?
Some view Progressive Era as
Fulfillment of the Populist agenda
Forerunner of New Deal reform
Others question the impact
Historical Interpretations
Traditionalist
Reformers in the tradition of Jefferson-Jackson-Populists
Accused the rich of corrupting public and private life as nation transitioned to
modernity
Economically oppressed and downtrodden common folk
Demanded their due
Revisionist
Richard Hofstadter (1955) Age of Reform
Progressive reformers not from society’s poor and marginalized
Middle-class people threatened
Above by new corporate elites
Below by restless working class
Status Anxiety, not economic deprivation sparked reform efforts
Psychological motivation divided movements and rendered them ineffective
Reactionary in nature: restore economic individualism and political democracy
Values buried under giant corporations, burgeoning unions and corrupt political bosses
New Left
Gabriel Kolko
Established business leaders directed “reform” to their own conservative ends
Government regulation in the Progressive Era
Accomplished what private efforts could not
Slowed cut-throat competition
Stabilized markets
Made America safe for monopoly capitalism
Organizational School
Robert Wiebe and Samuel hays
Progressives not
economically disadvantaged
psychologically disadvantaged
old capitalist elites
Members of emerging social class
Possessing Scientific Management know-how
Technological Expertise
Progressive Movement
NOT a struggle of “People” against the “Interests” by statusthreatened reformers
NOT a conservative coup d’etat
WAS effort to rationalize and modernize social institutions
Via government regulation
*Organizational School: ineffective account of political struggles of the times that divided
Progressives i.e.: New Nationalism (TR) and New Freedom (WW). Other evidence resides in
fact that many Progressive reformers regarded the New Deal as TOO BUREAUCRATIC and
TOO REGULATORY. See Otis Graham An Encore for Reform
Social Feminists
Emphasize role women played.
Building American Welfare State was a GENDERED ACTIVITY
Inspired by female social workers and social feminists
Jane Addams
Contrasts European experience
Labor movements sought welfare state to benefit working class
American female reformers promoted welfare programs
To protect women and children
7. Who were they?
Characteristics:
a. Urban
b. Strong Protestant backgrounds
c. Fought for social and political reform
d. Fear of immigration
e. Mostly upper-middle class
f. Feared power of big business
g. Sought to restore old values (political equality and economic individualism)
h. Favored government activism to promote/ensure social justice
i. Political questions are moral questions
j. Social salvation prerequisite to personal salvation
k. Create efficiency in government
l. Waste and corruption must be exposed
m. Importance of public awareness as first step toward reform
n. Position and influence of middle-class needed to be strengthened
o. Seek strong presidential leadership
8. Were they trying to reform weaknesses in established systems or establish a new social system?
Debatable
Perspective
9. Did they create a liberal or conservative triumph?
Debatable
Perspective
See L 40 and Discussion Questions