The Progressive Movement
Attacks against the rich.
• Henry Demarest Lloyd - Wealth against
Commonwealth. Standard Oil. Bloated
Trusts.
• Thorstein Veblen - The Theory of the
Leisure Class. “predatory wealth” &
“conspicuous consumption.”
• Jacob A. Riis - How the other half lives.
New York slums.
Muckrakers
• Journalism.
• McClures, Cosmopolitan, Collier’s,
Everbody’s.
• Exposure of public wrongs.
• More democracy would cure the ills.
Democracy in action
• Initiative: A procedure whereby ordinary
citizens could propose laws for
consideration by their state legislatures.
• Referendum: A procedure whereby
citizens could vote directly on whether to
approve public laws.
• Recall: A public official could be removed
from office by a direct vote of the citizens.
More Demo
• Secret Ballot: Public voting and voter
records were kept until this time.
• Direct primary: Party candidates chosen by
rank-and-file party members instead of
party bosses.
• Direct election of US Senators:
Seventeenth Amendment. (1913)
• Women’s Suffrage: Nineteenth
Amendment. (1920)
Efficiency
• City manager system. Paid professional
administrators ran the day-day affairs of the
city.
• Centralization of decision-making
process. Streamline government.
• Movements to eliminate government
corruption.
Regulation of Large Corporations
and Monopolies
• Laissez-Faire: Let the market decide.
• Trust-busting: Suppression of
competition.
• Regulation: Some large corporations or
monopolies are inevitable and maybe even
desirable, but they need supervision.
• Socialism: Government should acquire
ownership of large corporations and run
them for the public good.
Social Justice
• Development of professional social
workers. Welfare and charity work should
be done by professionals.
• The building of Settlement Houses. Raise
the standard of living by providing schools,
day care centers and cultural enrichment
programs.
• Child Labor Laws: School vice work.
Social Justice con’t
• Support for the goals of organized labor.
Eight hour work day, improved health and
safety conditions, workman’s compensation,
minimum wage, Unionization.
• Prohibition laws. Eighteenth Amendment
(1919)
Odds and ends
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TR’s square deal.
Panic of 1907.
Conservation.
Election of 1908.
Taft as president.
Dollar diplomacy.