Progressivism & the
Republican Roosevelt
1901-1912
When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean…to
give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to
any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the
power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that
there shall be no crookedness in the dealing.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1905
The Progressives: Who were they?
The Changing United States
1900-1914- 13 million more immigrants came to the US (1 in 7
foreign born)
1914 Population= 89 MILLION
1900-1920 Progressives will produce the change that the
Populists could not produce.
Who Were the Progressives:
Mostly
middle-class & educated; all states & parties
(“all class war”)
Waged war on modern evils: monopolies, corruption,
inefficiency, and social injustice.
They
were not radicals who wanted to overthrow the
Government…they wanted to“Strengthen the State”- “use
government as an agency of human welfare”.
Why?-- Felt squeezed between the robber barons & socialists
Roots of the Progressive
Movement







New Reformist Movement dates back to 1870’s Greenback Labor
Party & Populist of 1890’s.
Unrest due to the power of industrialists & concentrated power
BEFORE 1900 (before the Progressive Movement)- politicians &
writers began to target the “trusts” & corruption.
1894 Henry Lloyd Demarest- wrote about Standard Oil (Wealth Against
Commonwealth) -- exposed Standard Oil even before Ida Tarbell. He
inspired future investigative reporters.
1899- Thorstein Veblen –assailed the rich in The Theory of the Leisure
Class
* Leisure class engages in wasteful business (making money—just to
make money) rather than making products that meet real needs.
* Critical of “conspicuous consumption” –wasteful and exposes gap
between rich & poor in society.
Pre-1900 Progressive Writers &
Activists
*Jacob Riis (1890) How the Other Half Lives- wrote &
photographed city slum life.
 * influenced future NY Police Commissioner Theodore
Roosevelt who tried to “clean up” the city.
 Ida B. Wells – wrote about lynching
Critics of Social Injustice
 Socialists- many immigrants were socialists; began to
vote in bigger numbers.
 Social Gospel-used Christian teachings to promote better
housing & conditions for the poor.
 Feminists- demanding suffrage
 Lillian Wald (NY) & Jane Addams (Chicago)

Pictures taken by Jacob Riis
The Muckrakers Emerge






1902- American publishers start making big money
exposing societal evils.
Attacked politics, patent medicines, city life etc.
Purpose- not overthrow capitalism-to cleanse it
Popularity of 5 & 10 cent magazines (McClure's,
Cosmopolitan, Collier’s and Everybody’s)
Encouraged tough, investigative writing
1906- TR called these journalists “muckrakers”
Notable Muckrakers






1902- Lincoln Steffens- “Shame of the Cities”;
uncovered the connection between big business &
municipal governments.
1904-Ida Tarbell- “mother of trusts” wrote articles about
the unsavory business practices of Standard Oil.
David G. Phillips- series of articles in Cosmopolitan “The
Treason of the Senate” (1906)
75 of 90 Senators were “owned” by the RR & trusts
John Spargo (1906) The Bitter Cry of the Children
Magazines went to great expense to check facts of a story
& research (this is NOT YELLOW JOURNALISM)
Attack on Patent “Medicine”
Patent medicines were dangerous; no laws regulating:
Addictive—high volume of alcohol
Heavily advertised as healing remedies
**Dr. Harvey Wiley (chemist for Department of
Agriculture)- formed the “poison squad”(graduates of
the civil service exam; allowed themselves to be fed
food additives to see the effects on their bodies. Wiley
even experimented with these so called medicines on
himself.
** showed the limits of progressives---complaints but
few remedies—many called for more democracy.
Political Progressivism
Goals
1.
Use state power to curb the trusts (monopolies)
2.
Improve common person’s life (cities & labor)
3.
Also- take back gov’t from the interests and put it back
into the hands of the people.
Objectives
1.
Direct Primary Elections- aimed at power of political
machines.
2.
Initiative- citizens may propose legislation
3.
Referendum- place items on ballot for voters to
approve.
4.
Recall Elections- enable voters to remove an elected
official
Progressives Attack Corruption
Graft- or corruption became a target of Progressives.
Effect
Corrupt Practices Laws: many states passed corrupt practices acts
which limited the amount of money candidates could spend for their
elections & restricted contributions from corporations.
 The Australian Ballot (Secret Ballot): states began to use the secret
ballot to counteract Political machines.
 17th Amendment (1913)- allows for direct election of state senators by
the citizens of the state.
* By 1900—so many US Senators were rich= “Millionaire’s Club” elected by
Monopoly dominated state legislatures.

City & State Governments became
Progressive
Problem: Inefficiency & corruption
 Galveston Idea- city appointed expert staffed commissions to manage
urban affairs (The Commission Plan)
 City- Manager Plan : used by other cities, in which an elected City
Council hired a professional city manager to run city departments; the
council could fire him too.
Progressivism Bubbled up to the State Level

The Wisconsin Idea- 1901 Wis. Gov. Robert La Follette
(Progressive); fought & regulated public utility trusts.
 Hiram Johnson- Republican Gov. of Oregon; prosecuted grafters &
Southern Pacific RR (consulted with Professors at University of
Madison)
 Charles Evan Hughes- Republican Gov. NY; investigator of
malpractices by gas, insurance co.
Woman Suffrage


Voting rights had been the goal of feminists for decades.
Political Reformers wanted to elevate the political tone &
temperance leaders hoped females who could vote would help
them.
Woman Suffrage Gets a Boost
 Women began to demand “Equal Suffrage for men & women” &
“Votes for Women”.
 Demanded no more “taxation without representation”.
 Result: Many states in the WEST began to grant suffrage
(Wyoming was the first).
Women and the Progressive
Movement
Women were an indispensible part of the Progressive Movement.
Crucial Focus: The Settlement House Movement (Jane Addams-Hull House in
Chicago & Lillian Wald – Henry Street House in NY).
** Settlement Houses exposed women to problems in cities, problems of
immigrants, political corruption, poor living condition of people.
** Gave women skills & confidence to attack such evils.
Women’s Literary Clubs: educated, middle class women met to improve
themselves in poetry & prose for decades now became centers to discuss & plan to
attack social problems.
The Woman’s Place:
19th Century notion of “spheres of influence” said that a woman’s place was in the
home– most female progressives defended their progressive actions as an
EXTENSION OF THE HOME SPHERE.
•They challenged moral & maternal issues: child labor, sweat shops, immigrants
with children.
•Women’s Trade Union League
•National Consumer's League
•Federal Agencies: The Children’s Bureau (1912), Women’s Bureau (1920) under
the Department of Labor.
Women Addressed The Worker
Unsafe and unsanitary “sweatshops” became a focus for women.
Florence Kelly (former resident of Hull House)- became Ill. First state
inspector of factories.
1899 Kelly took control of the Consumer League- used the power of
women as consumers to pressure for laws protecting women & children
workers.
*Muller v. Oregon (1908)- Louis Brandeis; got the court to recognize laws
protecting women in the workplace (odd- based argument on the weakness
of women).
Brandeis- future Supreme Court Justice (1st Jewish person on SC)
**Unintended Effect: led to closing of many jobs to women
Lochner v. New York (1905)- cancelled a NY law est. a 10 hour workday
for workers. ( a temporary setback for workers in NY)
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Laws protecting workers were nothing if not enforced:
 1911- fire killed 146 workers; owner locked door from inside
(violated fire codes).
 Result- NY passed tougher laws tougher laws restricting work
hours & conditions.

1917- 30 states had worker compensation laws (insurance for
workers involved in industrial accidents).
Results of the Fire

Tragedy of the fire
Progressives & Booze











Progressives turned ire against saloons
Alcohol connected with Prostitution & other social ills
“Booze” interests dominated cities
1900- NY & San Francisco-A saloon for every 200 people
Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)-Francis
Willard- ’praying prohibitionist”
Largest org. of women in the world-1 million
Anti-Saloon League
States & counties passed “dry” laws
Big cities remained “wet”
1914-1/2 of pop. Lived “dry”; ¾ of area outlawed saloons
1918= 18TH Amendment = “bootlegging” & organized crime
Theodore Roosevelt & Labor
TR- felt that the public interest was being submerged by
Indifference- “Everybody’s interests was nobody’s interest.”


“Square Deal”-name given TR’s domestic programs;
fair play for capital, labor, & the public

The Three C’s: control corporations, consumer
protection, conservation of natural resources.
Example of the Square Deal Philosophy: The 1902 Anthracite Coal
Strike- 140,000 Penn. MINERS WALKED OFF THE JOB; they
wanted a 20 % pay increase & reduced workday from ten to nine
hours.
 Mine owners refused to negotiate with striking miners.
 TR threatened to use troops & take over the mines (How is this a
different response from the government from previous
examples?)
 Miner got 10% pay boost & nine hour day- but, no recognition of
labor union!
Department of Commerce &
Labor
TR was aware that labor (workers) & capital (investors) were
growing antagonistic.
TR urged Congress to create the Department of Commerce
& Labor
Bureau of Corporations: (under the Dept. of Commerce &
Labor)
Power
to investigate businesses engaged in
interstate commerce
Useful-to break monopolies- “trust busting”
TR controls Corporations
The Railroads needed to be restrained:
Railroad owners could appeal decisions of Interstate
Commerce Commission (1887) which took up to 10 years.
Congress was pushed by TR to do something:
Elkins
Act (1903)- RR & shippers pay fines for rebates.
Act (1906)- “free passes” (too much like bribery)
on RR were restricted
Both acts strengthened the ICC’s power to regulate RR’s
ICC was expanded- could nullify RR rates & set max. rates
Other industries regulated: express companies, sleeping car
companies, & pipelines affected too.
Hepburn
TR & “Good Trusts” /“Bad Trusts”
The Progressives took aim at trusts.
 TR believed there were good (with public consciences) & bad
trusts(greedy & powerful).
 TR was determined NOT to destroy all large businesses.
Theodore Roosevelt Takes on the Trust





1902- *Northern Securities Case (RR holding company) owned
by JP Morgan & James J. Hill that tried to monopolize Northwest RR
companies.
TR filed an Anti-Trust Lawsuit against Northern Securities and the
railway owners appealed to the Supreme Court
1904-Supreme Court upheld Roosevelt’s antitrust suit AND ordered
Northern Securities busted up
TR enhanced his Progressive status
TR the Trust-Buster





TR initiated 44 lawsuits against monopolies
1905- Supreme Court declared beef trust
illegal & sugar , fertilizer, harvester trusts
limited.
TR mentality- “Big is not necessarily bad’
Did not think trust-busting sound policy…
always
TR Wanted to prove that government-not
big business ran the country
Theodore Roosevelt “TrustBuster”
TR developed a name as “Trust
Buster”
Reality: he never fully used trustBusting laws to their fullest extent.
•Many corporations were healthier
After TR’s presidency but, more
tame.
•1907-TR approved J.P. Morgan’s
Plan for US Steel to merge with
Tennessee Coal & Iron without worry
Of any antitrust action by the gov’t.
•When Pres. Taft filed a suit..TR was
angry!!
TR & Consumer Protection
Roosevelt supported a measure in 1906 that benefitted corporations AND
consumers.
1.Foreign Governments were blocking American meat-packing companies
from European markets (US meat=tainted).
2.American consumers wanted safer canned products.
3.*Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”- had a big influence on the American
demand for safer food.
4.Sinclair--A socialist who wanted to focus US attention on the condition of
workers in the meatpacking industry, actually sickened Americans with
tales of unsanitary conditions.
Reaction by TR & Congress
1.*Meat Inspection Act (1906)- meat shipped across state lines= may be
inspected from corral to cannery by the federal government.
2.*Pure Food & Drug Act (1906)- prevent mislabeling & adulteration.
(patent meds)
US Inspectors Examine meat at
The Swift & Co. packinghouse
TR & Conservation
By 1900, 25% of original timber lands
remained
 *TR’s most lasting tangible legacy- 125
million acres preserved (3 times his
predecessors)
Conservation Before Theodore Roosevelt:
1. Desert Land Act (1877)- arid land sold if
purchaser would irrigate it.

TR & Conservation
2. Forest Reserve Act (1891)- allowed Pres. To set
aside public lands as national parks
• 46 million acres rescued in 1890’s
3. The Carey Act (1894)- distributed federal land to
the states if they irrigated it & settled it.
TR and Conservation
3. Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)- collect $ from
sale of public lands to fund dam & irrigation.
**The Roosevelt Dam on Arizona’s Salt River (1911)
The Environmentalists
During the 2nd Industrial Revolution, man’s dominion of
the natural world caused many people to champion the
earth.
Nature’s American Defenders:
Well-off townspeople or city dwellers-Henry David
Thoreau & Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Gilded Age- Americans romanticized pioneer
ancestors = rediscovered hunting, fishing.
*Preservationist’s (John Muir)- nature should be left
untouched by humanity.
* Preservationists lost a battle to preserve Hetch Hetchy Vallley in
Yosemite to a dam for San Francisco (1913).
Conservation v. Preservation
The Conservation Movement:
TR and conservationists believed nature must neither be uncritically
worshipped nor wastefully exploited but, used efficiently.
Resource Management
use” or multiple-use resource.
Nature
(TR & Gifford Pinchot)- “rational
should not be wasted nor preserved.
US
Policy until the 1950’s
Americans as Conservationists:
Best
selling book Jack London’s “Call of the Wild”(1903)
Boy Scouts became nation’s largest youth organization.
Audubon Society-founded by donations from women’s clubs to save wild native
birds.
Sierra Club (1892) Dedicated to preserving wild western landscapes.
Election of 1904
Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected.
HE
Enjoyed huge popularity (Teddy Bear Toyinspired by one of TR’s hunting trips).
Conservative Republicans considered TR
dangerous because he regulated corporations,
taxing incomes, protecting workers.
* TR had announced he would not serve a 3rd
term.
Roosevelt Panic of 1907
1907- Wall St. Panic= mini depression= “runs
on banks”, suicides, criminal charges against
stock speculators.
Bankers/Big Business blamed TR’s trustbusting had started the crisis.
Aldridge-Vreeland Act (1908)- allowed
national banks to issue emergency currency
(sets foundation for future “Federal Reserve
Bank”)
Currency = elastic supply needed
Election of 1908

TR & Republicans handpicked friend William H. Taft (Sec. of War
& mild Progressive) to carry out Roosevelt’s Policies.

Republicans nominated William H. Taft prodded and guided
by Theodore Roosevelt.




Democrat Candidate= William J. Bryan
Socialist= Eugene V. Debs
Taft won (Bryan will loose for a 3rd time)
TR goes lion hunting
The Election of 1908
Legacy of Theodore Roosevelt





Began to tame capitalism
Most lasting achievement- conservation of natural resources
for future generations.
Enlarged power & prestige of the Presidential Office (used
publicity as political ploy).
Helped shape the progressive movement and the liberal
reform that came later (Square Deal is grandfather of the
New Deal)
TR more than any president before him opened American’s
eyes to the fact that they shared the world with other
nations.
Taft as President
Jovial and personally popular with the people.
 Second in his class at Yale; lawyer, judge
 Lacked TR’s ability to use personality to lead conflicting
forces in Republican party.
Taft Foreign Policy
Taft wanted to use American investments to boost US interest
overseas in Far East. Critics called it… “Dollar Diplomacy”.
 *“Dollar Diplomacy”- encourage investment abroad to
boost US interests (Globalization).
 By beating foreign investors, US could strengthen US
defenses & foreign policy.

Dollar Diplomacy at Work?
China’s Manchuria
Japan & Russia (recent enemies) controlled railroads in
Manchuria.
Taft worried the monopolies would strangle Chinese
economic interests & close China to US merchants.
1909-Sec. of State Philander Knox proposed a group
of American & foreign investors buy the Manchurian
Railroads & turn them over to China.
Japan & Russia said no—Taft was ridiculed.
Dollar Diplomacy in the
Caribbean
Taft administration urged Wall Street investors
to pump investments in Honduras & Haiti.
 Under the Monroe Doctrine-US would not
allow foreign nations to intervene.
 Disorders in Cuba, Honduras, and
Dominican Republican brought US troops to
restore order & protect investments.
 1912- 2,500 US Marines were sent to
Nicaragua to halt a revolt there.
President Taft as Trustbuster
Busted 90 trusts (more than TR) 1911- US Supreme Court dissolved Standard Oil for
violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act 1890.
“Rule of Reason” ruling in Supreme Court—
combinations that “unreasonably restrained” trade
are illegal.==made it harder for the US government
to win antitrust lawsuits.


1911- Taft brought a lawsuit against US Steel Corp.=
angered T. Roosevelt!
Taft Splits the Republican Party
Progressive members of the Republican Party
wanted to lower the US tariffs. Taft had promised in
his reelection to lower the tariff.
Payne-Aldrich Bill
1909- Taft called Congress into special session &
they passed moderate tariff bill.
 Senators tacked on hundreds of provisions that
added tariffs on specific products.
 Only hides, sea moss, and canary seed was left off
the tariff hike list.
Taft Splits the Party on
Conservation
Taft was a conservationist.
Created Bureau of Mines –to control mineral resources.
1910-
Ballinger-Pinchot Quarrel
Secretary of Interior Richard Ballinger opened public lands in
Wyoming, Montana, & Alaska to corporate development.
Gifford Pinchot (Chief Forestry Division)- criticized the move.
Taft dismissed Pinchot for insubordination
Protest from conservationists and friends of TR
**TR ANGRY TOO!!
TR Returns
1910- Theodore Roosevelt returned to NY
Osawatomie, Kansas- Roosevelt gave a speech and
shocked the “old guard” Republicans.
“New Nationalism”-TR urged the US government to
increase its power to cure economic & social abuses.
In the Congressional Elections of 1910, the split
Republican Party lost badly.
Democrats earned 228 seats to the Republican’s 61
seats in the House.
Socialist Victor Berger elected as representative of
Milwaukee.
Republicans held the Senate 51 to 41.
Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
1911- National Progressive Republican League formed with
Robert La Follette as its leading candidate for presidential
nomination.
 1912- T. Roosevelt wrote seven state governors saying he
would accept the Republican nomination= La Follette was
pushed aside.
The 1912 Republican Convention (Chicago)
 Roosevelt supporters were 100 delegates short of winning the
nomination challenged the right of 250 Taft delegates to be
seated.
 Most of the challenges lost in favor of Taft
 Roosevelt supporters cried “Foul” & refused to vote= Taft is
nominated as the Republican Candidate.

Republicans Split