Origins
of
Progressivism
• State reforms from the 1890’s
• Catapulted by Teddy Roosevelt
• Continued through Taft and eventually
ends with the advent of World War I
during Wilson’s presidency
Attitudes and Motives
• Middle class alarmed at the rising
power of big business, the gap
between rich and poor, the violent
conflict between labor and
management, and the dominance of
machine politics
• Jim Crows laws in the South
• Women’s suffrage
Who were the
Progressives?
• Urban middle class
• White collar workers
• Roosevelt, LaFollette
• Bryan, Wilson
What was their
philosophy?
• People should take a practical approach to morals,
ideals, and knowledge
• Rugged individualism did not seem to apply
• Scientific management as described by F.W. Taylor could
be used by the government to help people
One historian, Paul Johnson, labeled
the Progressive Movement as Unamerican.
Assess the validity of the statement?
What data would you use to support
• Origins
The
Muckrakers
– Henry Demarest Lloyd Wealth Against
Commonwealth exposed corruption and greed of oil
monopolies
• Magazines
– McClures Magazine
• Lincoln Steffens Tweed Days in St. Louis
• Ida Tarbell The History of Standard Oil Company
– Collier’s & Cosmopolitan
– All competed for the most shocking exposes of
political and economic corruption
Muckraker Books
• Jacob Riis How the
Other Half Lives
(1890)
• Lincoln Steffens
Shame of the
Cities (1904)
Fictional Accounts:
• Theodore Dreiser’s
The Titan & The
Financier
Political Reforms
• Australian Ballot
• Direct Primary
• Direct Election of Senators
• Initiative; referendum, recall
(Most of these reforms first happen West
of the Mississippi River)
Municipal Reforms
• Controlling public utilities
• Commissions and city managers
State Reforms
• Wisconsin idea
• Direct primary
• Tax reform
• Regulation of railroad rates
Theodore Roosevelt
• Square Deal
– Anthracite Coal mine strike of 1902
• First time President enters negotiations to settle
dispute
Theodore Roosevelt
• Trust busting
– Northern Securities
– Standard Oil
– good v. bad trusts
• Railroad Regulation
– Elkins Act (1903): regulated
rebates
– Hepburn Act (1906): fix
rates for railroads
Theodore Roosevelt
• Consumer protection
– Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
– Meat Inspection Act (1906)
• Conservation
Theodore
Roosevelt
– Often used Forest
Reserve Act of 1891 to
set aside 150 million
acres
– Newlands Reclamation
– National Conservation
Commission under
Gilford Pinchot
William Howard Taft
• More trust-busting than Roosevelt
– Mann Elkins Act gave ICC the power
to suspend new railroad rates and
oversee telephone, telegraph, and
cable companies
• Income tax (16th amendment)
1913
• Split the Republican party in 1912
– Roosevelt Progressives v. Taft
conservatives
– Over Payne-Aldrich Tariff and
Pinchot-Ballinger controversy
• Democratic Woodrow Wilson wins
election of 1912
Woodrow
Wilson
• Roosevelt’s (Bull Moose Party) New Nationalism v.
Wilson’s New Freedom
• Tariff reduction
• Bank reform
– Federal Reserve Act of 1914
• Business Regulation
– Clayton Anti-trust Act
– Federal Trade Commission
• Federal Farm Loan Act
• Child Labor Act (Keating Owen Act
– struck down with Hammer v.
Dagenhart
African Americans in Progressive Era
• Largely ignored by progressives because they
shared in general prejudice
• Other reforms considered more important
because they reached more people
• Washington and DuBois shape the debate for
equal rights.
• Urban migration will begin in 1910 with the
better job opportunities in the North because
of poor cotton crops. Also Jim Crow era raised
race tensions
Civil Rights Organizations
• Niagra Movement 1905
which led to
• NAACP
– Included African Americans and
whites
– Mission was to abolish all
forms of segregation and
increase educational
opportunities. By 1920, the
largest civil rights organization
• National Urban League
– Stressed “Not alms but
opportunity” reflecting an
emphasis on self-reliance
Women and Suffrage
• National Women’s Suffrage
Association NAWSA led by
Carrie Chapman Catt switched
from a state to federal focus for
suffrage in 1900
• Alice Paul split the association
and formed the National
Women’s Party in 1916
• Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
guaranteed women’s right to
vote in all elections at all levels.