The Progressive Era
1901-1918
Chapter 21
Don’t Forget About the Notes
in Outline Format
• “The value of government actions should be
measured by the good they do.”
John Dewey
• “Ignorance is not an excuse. It is the real
enemy.”
Ray Stannard Baker
Progressivism: A Preview
7:20
Muckrakers
• Where did the name originate?
– Pilgrims Progress (John Bunyan)
• Who gave the journalists this nickname?
– Theodore Roosevelt
– Because journalist were always looking
downward and were raking filth.
• Most muckrakers were not activists.
• They merely identified problems and
argued for reform, but counted on others
to accomplish it.
Previously Discussed
• How The Other Half Lives
– Jacob Riis
• Poverty and Progress
– Edward Bellamy
The Exposés
• Mostly done in magazines such as:
– McClure’s
– Cosmopolitan
– Collier’s
Lincoln Steffens
• Series of articles for McClure’s
• Described shocking graft and corruption in city
governments across the nation.
• Turned it into the book, The Shame of the Cities.
• Impact on History: Encouraged creation of
independent, professional city commissioners
and un-elected city managers to handle city
affairs and finances
Henry Demarest Lloyd
• Chicago reporter
• Series of articles for
Atlantic Monthly, "Story of a
Great Monopoly,"
• An exposé of the railroads
and Standard Oil.
• 1894 – The Wealth Against
Commonwealth.
Ida Tarbell
• Exposé of Standard Oil in McClure’s.
Impact on History:
• Encouraged the "trust-busting" case
against Standard Oil (United States v.
Standard Oil Co. of NJ)
• Standard Oil broken into 23 smaller
companies in 1911
• Increased antitrust legislation passed in
the Clayton Antitrust Act (1911)
David Phillips
• Series in Cosmopolitan.
• Exposed the corruption between big
business and 75 Senators.
John Spargo
• Bitter Cry of the Children
• Revealed the abuses of
child labor.
• Impact on history: Passage
of several child labor laws,
limiting hours worked and
types of work done
Ray Stannard Baker
• Following the Color Line.
• Revealed the long pattern of discrimination
against African-Americans in both the
North and South.
Frank Norris
• Criticism of the railroad monopolies in the
West.
• Novels – fictional.
• Impact on History:
– Encouraged the strengthening of the ICC
(Interstate Commerce Commission) via the
Hepburn Act of 1906, further regulating RR
– Increased support for regulation or break-up
of monopolies
Theodore Dreiser
• Sister Carrie
• The Financier
• The Titan
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
2:00
• Exposed unsanitary conditions in meat packing
plants
• Exposed poor working conditions of many recent
immigrants
• Impact on History:
– Passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act, requiring
government inspection of food processing facilities
– Passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act,
requiring labeling of food products and limiting some
ingredients
The Jungle: Impact on History
2:50
Muckraking Declines
• Began in 1910.
• Reasons:
– Stories became harder to top.
– Publishers were pressured by banks and
businesses to “tone down” attacks.
– Businesses were becoming more conscious
of their public image.
• Hence – the start of PR firms.
The Job…The Hope
• Muckrakers highlighted the problems and
the voters brought the hope.
• Faith in Democracy.
Voter Participation
• Previous elections were done by voters
who received a party “ticket”.
• Led to much corruption.
• Reform…
Australian Ballot
• Done in secrecy
• Came from Australia
• 1888 Massachusetts
first to adopt
• 1910 All states had
adopted.
Direct Primaries
• Before 1903, candidates were
nominated by conventions (handpicking).
• Robert LaFollette (WI)
– A proponent of Progressivism and a
vocal opponent of railroad trusts,
bossism, World War I, and the League
of Nations.
– Majority vote by the people.
• Continued to have voting problems
however.
Getting Rid of the Millionaires Club
• Senate chosen by
state legislatures.
• Nevada was first
state to change the
election process
(1899).
Making sure the “Will of the
People” is Obeyed
• Methods:
• Initiative
– a procedure by which a specified number of voters may propose
a statute, constitutional amendment, or ordinance, and compel a
popular vote on its adoption.
• Referendum
– the principle or practice of referring measures proposed or
passed by a legislative body to the vote of the electorate for
approval or rejection.
• Recall
– the removal or the right of removal of a public official from office
by a vote of the people taken upon petition of a specified number
of the qualified electors.
Progressivism: Legislative
Impacts
Urban Reforms
Many ran in opposition to
political machines.
Some machines began to
work with the reformers.
Cities took over privately
owned utilities (water, gas,
power).
Cities provided welfare
services.
- Public bath and parks
- Work-relief programs
- Playgrounds
- Free kindergartens
Reforms at the State Level
Reforms at the National Level
Reforms to make government
more efficient and responsive
to voters.
Appeared in areas of:
- Business and commerce
- Environmental preservation
- Social legislation
Championed state labor and
factory legislation.
Labor departments were
established to provide
information and disputeresolution to both sides.
Developed workers accident
and compensation system.
Tried to control working
conditions
- Lochner v. New York
Successful
- Woman labor laws.
- Muller v. Oregon
- Child labor laws
Temperance and Prohibition
Roosevelt’s Square Deal
- UMW Strike
Antitrust Activism
- Sherman Antitrust Act
Environmental Regulation
- Established national parks
- National Reclamation Act
Social Legislation
- Women’s and Children’s
Bureaus
Lochner v. New York (1905)
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
The Brandeis Brief
• 1907
– Hired by Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark (sister-in-law)
to represent the state of Oregon in Muller v. Oregon (208 US
412)
– Case before the US Supreme Court that involved the
constitutionality of limiting hours for female laundry workers.
• To support his argument that overwork was inimical to
the workers' health, he compiled a number of statistics
from medical and sociological journals and listed
citations to the articles in his brief.
• He won the case.
• He “fathered” a legal landmark in its own right.
• Briefs that cited non-legal data quickly became
commonplace and became known as "Brandeis briefs."
Louis D. Brandeis
Supreme Court Justice 1916-1939
Square Deal
2:14
Triangle Shirtwaist
5:38
Quotation
by
George Washington Plunkett
• “A reformer can’t last in politics. He can make a show for
a while, but he always comes down like a rocket.
Politics is as much a regular business as the grocery or
dry goods or the drug business. You’ve got to be trained
up to it or you’re sure to fail.”
Quoted in Riordan, William L. Plunkett of Tammany Hall. Dutton, 1963, pg. 19).
• Do you agree or disagree with Plunkett? Do you
think a newcomer to politics, an outsider, can
make a difference? Explain both your answers.
Taft: A Round Peg in a Square
Hole
“Everybody Loves a Fat Man”
• Roosevelt’s hand-picked choice.
• Taft was very jovial and personally
popular.
• Taft had many lethal political handicaps.
– Adopted a passivity toward Congress.
– Poor judge of public opinion.
• “foot-in-mouth” disease.
• A mild progressive, wedded to the status
quo rather than change.
The Dollar Goes Abroad
as a Diplomat
• Spheres of Influence.
– China – Manchuria specifically
• “Dollar diplomacy”
• Preempting investors from rival powers
(Germany) by investing and bringing home
to America prosperity.
• Also strengthened American defenses and
foreign policy.
The Yankee Lake
Haiti
Honduras
Nicaragua
Dominican Republic,
Taft the Trustbuster
• Taft – 90 suits (4 years)
– Roosevelt – 44 (7½ years)
• Most famous: Standard Oil Company
BUT…
• “Rule of Reason”
– Decision made by Supreme Court
– 1911
• Ruling stated: That only combinations that
“unreasonably” restrained trade were
illegal.
• Ripped a huge hole in the government’s
antitrust net.
A Relationship Ruined Completely…
• 1911 Taft decided to press Anti-trust suit
against U.S. Steel Corporation.
• Infuriated Roosevelt
Taft Splits the Republican Party
• Agreed to lower tariffs, but something
happened…
– Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (R-RI) tacked on items that
raised the tariffs.
– Taft signed Payne-Aldrich Bill
• Conservation
–
–
–
–
Contributions actually surpassed Roosevelt
Est. Bureau of Mines
Rescued millions of acres from exploitation (coal).
Protected water-power sites from private ownership.
Ballinger-Pinchot Quarrel
• Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger
• Gifford Pinchot, chief of the Agriculture
Department’s Division of Forestry.
• Pinchot (friend of Roosevelt) criticized
Ballinger and was dismissed by Taft.
• Republican’s who supported Pinchot
loudly protested.
Roosevelt Returns
• On safari in Africa.
• Osawatomie, Kansas stump speech.
• “New Nationalism”
– Government intervention to increase to
remedy economic and social abuses.
Stage Set for a Bruising
Confrontation
The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
• 1911 – Getting ready for another election…
• National Progressive Republican League
formed.
– Senator Robert LaFollette (WI) as Republican
presidential candidate.
• Roosevelt grows increasingly furious at Taft.
• Decides to change views about third term.
– “My hat is in the ring!”
The Playbill…
• Taft – Republican
• LaFollette – Progressive Republican
• Roosevelt – Bull Moose Republican
– “I’m as strong as a bull moose.”
• Wilson - Democrat
The “Bull Moose”
Campaign of 1912
• Wilson
– National Convention in Baltimore (June/July)
– “New Freedom”
• Stronger antitrust legislation, banking reform, and tariff
reductions, small enterprise, and entrepreneurship.
• Roosevelt
– Convention in Chicago (August)
– Jane Addams provided nomination.
• Taft
– Convention in Chicago (June)
The only president to have earned a doctorate (Ph.D.)