The Progressive Era
1896-1919
The Election of 1896
• The Republicans selected William McKinley who
ran on a platform of the gold-standard
The Democrats, and supporters of silver,
nominated William Jennings Bryan who had
campaigned strongly against Cleveland's
inactivity during the depression
• Bryan, from Nebraska and a staunch free-silver
advocate, won the nomination with his “cross of
gold” speech at the Democratic convention
• In nominating Bryan the Democratic party
fractured
• The pro-Cleveland Democrats nominated their
own candidate – Senator John Palmer – who then
said he would not be disappointed if the
Republicans won!
• The Populists could nominate their own
candidate or support Bryan – they chose Bryan
but selected their own vice-president (Bryan
disagreed)
• McKinley conducted a “front porch campaign”
talking only to certain groups with pre-arranged
answers. They also portrayed Bryan as a radical
who sympathized with communists
William Jennings Bryan
• In the end Bryan lost to a better organized and
financed Republican party
• He was successful in the South and West, but
very unsuccessful in the North and East
• His defeat signaled the end of the Populist party,
but most of their agenda was actually
implemented by others during the Progressive
era
• The Democratic party became a party more
dedicated to reform and against big business
William McKinley
• The election of 1896 proved that big business
really controlled politics
• One of McKinley fist acts was to pass the Dingley
Tariff of 1897 which raised tariffs to a new high
• In 1900 the government passed the Gold
Standard Act, which ended any threat from the
silverites
• But it was not internal problems that were going
to beset McKinley – it was foreign events and
even though the Populist movement had died
away there was still a different way of looking at
old problems
The Election of 1900
• The Democrats once again nominated William
Jennings Bryan who wanted to make imperialism
the main issue of the election
• The Democrats condemned American action in
the Philippines
• The Republicans supported imperialism and renominated McKinley and named Theodore
Roosevelt as his running mate
• After Cuba, Roosevelt was a national hero
• The Republicans won (292-155)
The Progressive Era
• Much of Roosevelt’s tenure became known as the
Progressive Era
• It was a time of social, political, and economic
change when people believed the government
should be an agent for human welfare
• The reform movement had actually started after
the Civil War with the Greenback labor party,
but it had gained the most with the Populists
• In 1894 Henry Demarest Lloyd attacked
Standard Oil with his book, Wealth Against
Commonwealth
Social Gospel
• People were getting tired of unrestrained big
business and the richer getting richer
• Jacob Riis showed people how Americans really
lived in his book How the Other Half Lives
published in 1890. The book was focused on the
dirt and squalor of the New York slums
• Thorstein Veblen wrote The Theory of the Leisure
Class in 1899 and attacked the conspicuous
wealth of the robber barons
• This social gospel caused people to demand better
housing and care for the poor
The Square Deal
• Roosevelt’s agenda for the country – “a Square
Deal for all” involved progressive legislation:
control corporations
consumer protection
conservation of natural resources
• In 1902 Roosevelt ordered the break up of the
massive Northern Securities Company and in
1904 he was supported by the Supreme Court
which ordered the company dissolved
• When coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike
in 1902 Roosevelt called both sides to a
conference at the White House
• Roosevelt was not going to let the coal shortage
affect the country
• The mine owners refused to talk to the unions – a
move which only angered the president
• Nothing was decided at the meeting so Roosevelt
threatened to take over the mines and run them
with the army
• It is questionable if Roosevelt had the authority
to use the army, but the threat was more than
enough to break the impasse
• The strike ended later that year
Muckrakers
• Exposing social problems became a common
practice after the turn of the century especially in
magazines like Collier’s and Cosmopolitan
• These writers were dubbed muckrakers
• Despite criticism from the White House the sale
of books and magazines that exposed filth, crime,
and corruption boomed
• In 1902 a reporter, Lincoln Steffens wrote in
McClure’s about the seedy connections between
big business and local government in “The
Shame of the Cities”
• The majority of Progressive were middle-class
people who felt stuck between the rich and the
poor
• They represented all political affiliations and all
regions of the country
• One of their first moves was to take the political
power away from the party bosses
• They demanded voter referendums so legislation
could be passed without input from the oftencorrupt legislatures
• The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) established
direct elections for the Senate to eliminate the
influence of big business
Robert La Follette
• A leading figure in the Progressive movement
was Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
• As governor La Follette had made the state a
‘laboratory of reform”
• He took on the lumber and railroad companies
and created the “Wisconsin Idea”
• His main aim was to create a government of
experts who would then run the state based on
progressive principles
Regulating Industry
• The Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)
had proved inadequate to regulate the railroads
• Equally the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) did
little to stop the power of the major industries
• Roosevelt created the Department of Commerce
in 1903, which was authorized to investigate
businesses which involved interstate commerce
• In 1903 the Elkins Act imposed fines on railroads
that gave and offered rebates and special deals
• The Hepburn Act of 1906 removed the free
passes
Conservation
• In 1881 Congress created the Division of Forestry
as part of the Department of agriculture
• Roosevelt appointed Gifford Pinchot as forestry
chief
• To help protect the environment and maintain
the forests Roosevelt added fifty wildlife refuges
and five national parks
• Roosevelt vehemently opposed industrialists who
wanted to strip the country of natural resources
Upton Sinclair
• In 1906 Upton Sinclair published The Jungle
which exposed the atrocious problems faced by
the workers and the unsanitary conditions in the
plants
• When Roosevelt read the book he was sickened
and appointed a special commission to investigate
the meatpacking plants
• In 1906 he passed the Meat Inspection Act, which
required meat that was shipped over state line to
be inspected before shipping
• The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was to
prevent mislabeling of foods and drugs
Panic of 1907
• As Roosevelt called for more legislation against
big business so he became less desirable as a
presidential candidate for the Republicans
• In 1907 an economic crisis hit Wall Street as
banks closed and people defaulted on their loans
• The crisis was blamed on Roosevelt who had
interfered with the workings of Wall Street
• In return Roosevelt blamed wealthy individuals
who, he said, had manipulated the situation
• Thankfully the crisis was short but it did allow
some fiscal reform
• The crisis made everyone aware that money
needed to be available to prevent future panics
• In 1908 Congress passed the Aldrich-Vreeland
Act, which gave the national banks the power to
issue emergency currency
The Election of 1908
• Roosevelt probably would have won in 1908 if he
had chosen to run, but he had promised in 1904
to step aside
• Roosevelt selected William Howard Taft as his
successor, confident in the fact that Taft would
simply continue his agenda
• The Democrats nominated the twice-beaten
William Jennings Bryan
• Both men tried to persuade the public that they
were progressives
• The Socialist picked Eugene V. Debs who came
third but gained nearly half a million votes
Progressive Legislation
• Social justice was a main thrust of the
Progressive movement
• Social justice including helping children and
women workers, establishing settlement houses,
and fighting the evils of liquor
• In the Muller v. Oregon (1908) case the Supreme
Court upheld a ten-hour day for women
• In Bunting v. Oregon (1917) the Courts accepted
a ten-hour day for men and women
• In 1911 the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company
fire in New York, in which 146 people died led to
the enforcement of stricter building codes
William Howard Taft
• Taft was Roosevelt’s handpicked successor
• Once out of office and still young – only 50 –
Roosevelt went big game hunting in Africa
• A big problem was that Taft did not like politics.
Most of his advice came from his energetic wife,
but she suffered a stroke after the election and
couldn’t help her husband
• Taft’s policies split the Republican party
especially over the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy
• Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger
wanted to allow industrialists access to resources
in the northwest
• Roosevelt had placed the millions of acres of
water off-limits by making them part of ranger
stations
• Ballinger and Taft both agreed that Roosevelt
had gone too far
• Ballinger gave federal coal reserves in Alaska to
a Seattle business group who were then going to
resell the land
• When Chief of Forestry Pinchot reported the
dealings to Taft he was ignored. In 1910 when he
went public he was fired
• A congressional committee found Ballinger not
guilty of collusion, but he resigned soon after
• In 1910 Roosevelt returned to the United States
to hear reports of what Taft had, or had not done
• Roosevelt felt betrayed
• Roosevelt started addressing the public and
advocating his policy of New Nationalism
demanding more regulatory reform, social
welfare, and direct democracy
• Many Republicans were willing to back
Roosevelt if he entered the race in 1912, but
others supported La Follette
The Election of 1912
• Roosevelt won most of the presidential primaries,
even in Taft’s own state of Ohio
• But the Republican nominating committee
selected Taft, who was after all still president
• Roosevelt was outraged and turned to the
Progressive party (Bull Moose party) and pushed
La Follette aside
• The Democrats nominated governor of New
Jersey and former president of Princeton
University, Woodrow Wilson
• The Socialists nominated Eugene Debs
• During the campaign Roosevelt was shot by a
fanatic, but continued to campaign
• The issue was Roosevelt’s New Nationalism or
Wilson’s New Freedom
• Wilson won the election, Roosevelt came second,
and Taft came third
• Wilson won the election with slightly more than 6
million votes. Taft and Roosevelt together had
7.5 million votes
• The electoral college vote was a landslide 435-888
• Taft left politics to teach law at Yale before being
selected chief justice of the Supreme Court in
1921
Woodrow Wilson
• After the election of 1912 – in which all the
candidates had expressed some progressive
sentiment - the idea of progressivism started to
decline
• It was also the first time the Democrats had held
the White House and Congress since the
Cleveland administration
• Wilson was not the political force of Roosevelt,
but he was knew how to be a politician and how
to talk to the people and Congress
• He rewarded his friends with appointments
• His first big issue was the tariff
• He called Congress to a special session and
addressed them himself and asked for tariff
reduction
• In 1913 the Underwood-Simmons Tariff became
law and reduced import tariffs from 37% to
29%, the tariff did not include some 300 products
– mostly natural resources
• Congress also approved the Sixteenth
Amendment (1913) which implemented the first
income tax
• The Glass-Owen Federal Reserve Act created a
new national banking system with Federal
Reserve Banks
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)
• Breaking the trust was a major part of the New
Freedom plan, which had continued to grow
despite the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Wilson made the Federal Trade Commission the
watchdog over trusts and empowered the
Commission to act
• The Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) prohibited
price discrimination, interlocking directorates of
large companies, and companies from purchasing
stock in competing industries
Foreign Policy
• Wilson lacked international experience, yet
ironically his tenure would be dominated by
foreign affairs
• Wilson did believe that the United States had a
moral obligation to protect and spread
democracy
• Prior to 1914 Secretary of State Bryan was busy
negotiating with countries to avoid conflict
• In 1914 two conflicts exploded that changed
everything
World War One
• In August 1914 World War One erupted in
Europe with the assassination of the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian Empire by a Serb patriot in
Sarajevo
• The Austrians with the support of their German
allies declared war on Serbia
• Within weeks most of Europe was at war
• Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and
Bulgaria faced Britain, France, Russia and later
Italy
• But this war involved other counties not just
Europeans
• Russia joined Britain as did Japan
• Wilson called on Americans to be neutral in
thought and deed
• Britain expected the United States to become an
ally because of their shared tradition
• Germany expected the United States to become
an ally based on the number of immigrants from
Eastern and Southern Europe
• Most Americans favored the British
• In 1914 the United States was in a recession so
war orders from Britain and France helped
relieve some of the problems
• The Germans protested the trade between the
two countries as violating the neutrality
• Since the British controlled the Atlantic Ocean
any trade between Germany and America would
have been very risky
• In 1915 Germany announced it would use
submarines to sink ships that violated the laws of
neutrality, they promised to try and not sink
American ships
• Wilson continued to claim neutrality while
hoping American ships would not be sunk
• The German U-boats proved deadly
Lusitania
• At the start of 1915 almost 100 ships were sunk
• On May 7, they sank the British passenger liner
Lusitania with the loss of over a thousand lives –
128 Americans
• The ship did have some ammunition on board
which the Germans used as justification
• The American people demanded war and
revenge but Wilson stood firm and remained
neutral
• After another passenger ship was sunk the
Germans promised not to sink passenger ships
without warning
Sussex Pledge
• In 1916 the Germans sank the French passenger
ship Sussex
• Wilson was furious and said that if the Germans
did not stop sinking merchant ships immediately,
he would break off diplomatic relations – the first
step on the road to war
• The Germans agreed not to sink merchant ships
without warning, but America would have to
persuade Britain to change its naval blockade
• Wilson accepted the pledge but without the
strings attached
The Election of 1916
• The Progressives re-nominated Teddy Roosevelt,
but he did not want to split the Republican vote
again and give the election to the man he hated –
Wilson
• The Republicans nominated Charles Evans
Hughes, the liberal Supreme Court justice from
New York
• Hughes was anti-German in anti-German regions
of the country, but in other regions he portrayed
himself as an isolationist
• Wilson was re-nominated on the slogan “He Kept
us Out of War”
• After the election it looked like Hughes would
win – he was even proclaimed the winner by
some New York newspapers
• In the West and Mid-west Wilson gained ground
– the final result depended upon California
• Wilson barely won (277-254)
• In January 1917 Germany announced
unrestricted submarine warfare – all ships in the
war zone would be targets
• Now the man who kept America from war would
have no choice but war
• Wilson called for the arming of merchant ships to
try an keep America neutral
• But in March 1917 a telegram from Germany to
Mexico was discovered
• The Zimmermann note was from German
foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann and
included vague promises of returning Texas and
Arizona back to Mexico if there could be a
German-Mexican alliance
• With the overthrow of the Tsar in Russia the
American government could now claim to be
fighting for democracy
• In 1917 Wilson asked Congress for a declaration
of war
American Expeditionary Force
• In 1917 the Bolshevik Revolution succeeded and
Russia dropped out the war
• Now the Germans and their allies were free to
focus all their power against the tired Allies in on
the Western front
• Early in 1918 the Germans launched a series of
offensives
• But by May there were over 1 million American
“doughboys” in Europe led by General Pershing
• By July the Germans were exhausted
• The end of the war was in sight
War Legislation
• Selective Service Act (1917) - Required all males
between 21 and 30 to register for military service
• Committee on Public Information (1917) Created by Congress under the control of
George Creel to mobilize public support for the
war effort
• War Industries Board (1917) - Created to the
economic effort. Developed new industries and
controlled prices. Companies that cooperated
were exempt from antitrust legislation
• Espionage Act (1917) - A $10,000 fine or 20 years
imprisonment for those interfering with the draft
or encouraging disloyalty
• Sedition Act (1918) – increased the penalties for
people who tried to stop or said anything
negative about the sale of Liberty Bonds and for
saying, writing, or printing anything disloyal
about the government, the Constitution, or the
armed forces
• Schenck v. United States (1919) – The Supreme
Court upheld the conviction of a man charged
anti-draft leaflets to members of the armed
services. The man had claimed free speech.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stated that free
speech does not protect a man from falsely
shouting “fire!” in a theatre – the act applied
when there was a “clear and present danger”
• In Abrams vs. United States (1919) the Court
confirmed the conviction of a man for passing out
leaflets opposing American intervention in the
Bolshevik Revolution