America: A Narrative History (Ninth Edition)
Tindall/Shi
Chapter 23 - "Making the World Over": The Progressive Era
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I. Elements of reform
o A. Diverse goals of progressivism
 1. An element of conservatism in progressivism
 2. Urban industrial ills required government responses
o B. The varied sources of progressivism
 1. Populism
 2. The Mugwumps
 3. Socialism
o C. The muckrakers
II. The main features of progressivism
o A. Greater democracy
 1. Direct primaries
 2. The initiative, referendum, and recall
 3. Popular election of senators
o B. The “gospel of efficiency“
 1. Frederick W. Taylor and The Principles of Scientific Management
 2. Shorter ballots
 3. New ideas for municipal government—commission system and the city-manager plan
 4. Robert La Follette and the “Wisconsin idea“
o C. Corporate regulation
 1. Alternative solutions to the problems of big business
 2. The trend toward regulation
o D. Social justice
 1. Labor laws
 a. Child labor
 b. The Supreme Court and state labor laws
 2. Prohibition
o E. Public service functions of government
o F. Progressivism and religion
III. Roosevelt’s progressivism—first term
o A. Trusts
 1. Roosevelt thought effective regulation better than attempts to restore competition
 2. Decision in United States v. E. C. Knight and Company (1895) held manufacturing to be intrastate activity
 3. Supreme Court ordered the Northern Securities Company dissolved
o B. Coal strike of 1902
 1. Workers struck for more pay and fewer hours
 2. Mine owners closed mines
 3. Roosevelt threatened to take over the mines
o C. More trust cases
 1. Overall, brought about 25 anti-trust suits
 2. Swift and Company v. United States (1905)
o D. Anti-trust and regulatory legislation of 1903
 1. Creation of the Bureau of Corporations
 2. The Elkins Act
IV. Roosevelt’s progressivism—second term
o A. The election of 1904
o B. The Hepburn Act of 1906
o C. Food and drug regulations
 1. Campaign against patent medicines
 2. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and meat packers
 3. The Meat Inspection Act (1906)
 4. The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
o D. Conservation
 1. Origins tied to the sportsman-naturalist
 a. Roosevelt a model
 2. Effect of state conservation laws
 3. Gifford Pinchot
 4. Reclamation Act
o E. The election of 1908
 1. Roosevelt handpicked Taft
 2. Taft’s victory over Bryan
America: A Narrative History (Ninth Edition)
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Tindall/Shi
V. Taft’s progressivism
o A. Taft’s early career
o B. Tariff reform
 1. Taft wanted lower tariff
 2. Tariff raised many rates
 3. Fearful of party split, Taft backed new tariff
o C. Ballinger-Pinchot controversy
 1. Chief of Forestry Pinchot went public with accusations against Secretary of the Interior Ballinger
 2. Pinchot fired by Taft for insubordination
 3. Taft’s image as progressive tarnished
o D. The Taft-Roosevelt break
 1. United States Steel suit
 2. Review of accomplishments of Taft’s administration
 3. In Republican primary for 1912, Taft controlled party machinery
 4. Roosevelt and the Progressive party
VI. The election of 1912
o A. The rise of Woodrow Wilson
o B. Campaign
 1. Roosevelt shot
 2. Taft had no chance
 3. Roosevelt’s New Nationalism
 a. Influence of Herbert Croly
 b. Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends
 4. Wilson’s New Freedom
 a. Influence of Louis Brandeis
 b. Restoration of an economy of small-scale competitive units
o C. Election figures—victory for Wilson
o D. Significance of the election of 1912
 1. A high-water mark for progressivism
 2. Brought Democrats back into effective national power
 3. Brought southerners back into national and international affairs
 4. Altered the character of the Republican party
VII. Wilsonian reform
o A. Relied more on party politics than popular support to pass reforms
o B. Underwood-Simmons Tariff (1913)
 1. Lowered average duty by about one-fifth
 2. To replace lost revenue, began income tax
o C. The Federal Reserve Act (1913)
 1. Allowed reserves to be pooled
 2. Made currency and bank credit more elastic
 3. Lessened concentration of reserves in New York
o D. Wilson and trusts
 1. The Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914
 a. Outlawed price discrimination, “tying“ agreements, interlocking directorates in large corporations
 b. Prevented corporations from buying up stock of competitors to gain control of the market
 c. Exempted farm labor organizations
 2. Federal Trade Commission
o E. Wilson and social justice
 1. Little legislation before 1916
o F. Progressivism for whites only
 1. Wilson’s racial attitudes
 2. Spread of uncompromising racists in Wilson’s government
o G. A resurgence of progressivism
 1. Wilson added to his progressive record to form broad base of support for 1916 election
 2. Farm reforms (credit and education)
 3. Federal Highways Act (1916) subsidized state highway departments
 4. Labor reform
 a. Keating-Owen Act (1916) excluded from interstate commerce goods manufactured by children under fourteen
 b. Adamson Act (1916) provided for eight-hour day for railroad workers
o H. Under Wilson, progressivism became a movement for positive government
VIII. The limits of progressivism
o A. Disenfranchisement of blacks
o B. Decisions made more by faceless policy makers
o C. Decline in voter participation