Progressives:
A Reaction to Excesses
of Industrialization
1900-1920
Progressive Era
What to know
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Origins of Progressivism
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Municipal, state, and national
reforms
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Progressive attitudes and motives
Muckrakers
Social Gospel
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Political: suffrage
Social and economic: regulation
Socialism: alternatives
Black America
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Washington, Du Bois, and Garvey
Urban migration
Civil rights organizations
Women's role: family, work,
education, unionization, and
suffrage
Roosevelt's Square Deal
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Taft
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Managing the trusts
Conservation
Pinchot-Ballinger controversy
Payne-Aldrich Tariff
Wilson's New Freedom
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Tariffs
Banking reform
Antitrust Act of 1914
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Key Terms to Memorize
Progressive
WCTU
Carrie Nation
Muckrakers
McClure’s Magazine
Ida Tarbell
Lincoln Seffens
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
Supreme Court and workers
after 1900
Political Reforms
Initiative
Referendum
Recall
Women’s Issues
Suffragette
Susan B. Anthony
Alice Paul
Carrie Chapman Catt
NAWASA
William McKinley
Assassination
Theodore Roosevelt
Admin
Square Deal
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(RR) Interstate
Commerce Act 1887
(RR) Hepburn Act
1906
(RR) Elkins Act 1903
Meat Inspection Act
1906
Pure Food and Drug
Act
Food and Drug
Administration
Conservation
William Howard Taft
1908-1912
Bull Moose Party
Election of 1912
Black America
Plessey v. Ferguson
Booker T.
Washington
Tuskegee Institute
W.E.B. DuBois
Niagara Movement
NAACP
Souls of Black Folks
Marcus Garvey
Woodrow Wilson Admin
16th Amendment (Income
Tax)
17th Amendment
(Senators, Direct Election
of)
18th Amendment
(Prohibition)
19th Amendment
(Women’s Suffrage)
New Freedom
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Federal Trade
Commission
Federal Reserve System
Federal Income Tax
Essays
Compare and contrast the attitudes of THREE of the
following toward the wealth that was created in the United
States during the late nineteenth century.
1.
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Andrew Carnegie
Eugene V. Debs
Horatio Alger
Booker T. Washington
Ida M. Tarbell
2.
“In understanding the nature of a reform movement it is as
important to know what it seeks to preserve as to know what
it seeks to change.” Compare the Populist and Progressive
reform movements in light of this statement.
3.
The response to the negative consequences of the rise of
industrialism led to a series of reform movements, culminating
in the Progressive Movement. Discuss the goals of
progressivism and how these goals were or were not realized.
Progressives Were Diverse Group
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Different reform movements (not United)
Moral and Social
Reforms
Women’s Rights
Political
End Corruption
Increase
Democracy
Curtail Power of
Big Business
Economic
Stabilize the
Banking and
Economy
Labor
Recognition
Progressives=Reform Movement
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Progressive movement a reaction to the excesses of
industrialization.
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(negative effects of Industrialization)
Poverty
Corruption- Municipal, State and Federal
Working conditions
Organizing the Economy
Immigrant living conditions
Immigrant “social issues associated with immigrants,
pejorative- dirty, non-English speakers, Alcohol abuse…
WASP movement- concerned with changes- a movement to
regain control…
Progressives Rise Because
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Rapid industrialization (Laissez Faire economics) and
urbanization (Social Darwinism) causes intolerable
problems
Middle class WASPs were driving force behind
movement
Need for reform
Need for order
Need to remedy industrial problems
Psychological view= “Tension Frustration Thesis”
desire to regain power lost due to changes in society,
corporations, immigrants, urbanization”
Progressive Constitutional
Amendments
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16th Amendment= Income Taxes
17th Amendment= Direct Election of Senators
18th Amendment= Prohibition of Alcohol
19th Amendment= Women’s Vote
Gov Steps in to Attack business:
Laws Passed
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Interstate Commerce Commission: Gov Agency to oversee =
regulate on RR. (TR)
Elkins Act- regulate RR – no specials to friends (TR)
Hepburn Act- regulate RR- no free passes- Bribery (TR)
Meat Inspection ActPure Food and Drug Act- Gov regulate food industry, and
drugs- The Jungle- Upton SinclairClayton Anti-Trust Act- attacks Big Business (Wilson)
Federal Trade CommissionFederal Reserve System- Organizes the Banking system, regulate
the money supply
Federal Income Tax
Central (Main) Ideas
Bi-Partisan- Both parties had members
 Progress – things are getting better
 Society was capable of improvement
 Government Intervention was needed
to limit big Business
 To end political corruption
 Solve social problems of alcohol abuse
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Issues:
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Social Reforms- Prohibition, support for
immigration reform
Women’s Suffrage
Anti-Corruption- Federal, State, City Reform
Trust Busting- limiting big business
Muckrakers= Someone who exposes
problems in society
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McClure's= magazine that exposed problems
corruption, bad working conditions, child labor,
pollution…
Lincoln Steffen's- writer who exposed
corruption in city government
Ida Tarbell- writer who exposed abuse of power
by Standard Oil – Rockefeller
Jacob Riis- exposed problems of the poor in
NYC- How the other half lives
African American Muckraker
Ida B Wells
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Journalist
Exposed lynching of
African Americans in the
south
Tried to work for Federal
Law
Not much support
Link to her book
Political Reforms
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City, State and Federal
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City Managers- an appointed manger to prevent
corruption in the cities.
Commission- appointed community members to
Government bodies- to reduce corruption (outside
party politics)
Goal to expand Democracy and counter Corruption
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Initiative- citizens can bring
Referendum- vote of the citizens on an issue
Recall- voters can remove an elected official from office-
Women’s Issues
Poverty, Alcoholism, Child Labor, Prostitution, Public
Health, Birth Control, Prohibition
 Middle class women, more educated, different vocations,
nurses, teaching, medicine, social work…
 Leaders
 Susan B. Anthony (Early Suffragette)
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Early Suffragette)
 Jane Addams- Hull House (Social Reformer)
 Ida B. Wells (protested lynching)
 Margaret Sanger (Birth Control advocate)
 Alice Paul
 Mary Chapman Catt
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Women’s Suffrage
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National American Women’s Suffrage Association
(NAWSA)
Long movement
Begins as a state movement- Southern opposition and
Northern cities
Changes to Federal Constitutional Amendment 19th
Amendment
Wilson (Democrat) will back the amendment 1917
Becomes part of Constitution 1920
Prohibition
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WCTU- Women’s Christian Temperance Union
long time advocate of anti-alcohol movement
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18th Amendment Passed during WWI
Social Gospel
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Christian movement-
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contrast to Gospel of Wealth
Task of Christianity is to
rescue the poor”
Create the kingdom of god
on Earth
Salvation Army- example
“Salvation ws not merely an
individual matter but also a
question of Constituting a
just Society.”
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Gospel of Wealth
View of Wealthy
God rewards with wealth
Individual should work hard
to get ahead
Philanthropy-wealthy return
wealth to up lift societyUniversities…
“It’s your duty to get rich”
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
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1906
Highlighted the problems associated with the Meat
Packing Industry in Chicago
Exploitation of immigrants
Poor working conditions
Spurred Changes:
Pure Food and Drug Act- regulated food industries
Food and Drug Administration -Test and Certify
Drugs
Meat Inspection Act- Inspection and labeling of Meat
Theodore Roosevelt
President 1901-1908
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War Hero- Cuba- Rough Riders- San Juan Hill
Governor of New YorkSecretary of Navy
McKinley’s-Vice President 1900.
Assassination of McKinley 1901- by Anarchist- TR
becomes youngest president
Activist Conservative-wants to reform but not too
much-not radical change
TR
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Believed Government can help
Believed in Gospel of Wealth
Feared Social Revolution
“Bully Pulpit” platform from which to
persuasively advocate an agenda.
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Roosevelt often used the word "bully" as an adjective
meaning superb/wonderful.
TR Believed
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“It is the duty of the
president to act upon the
theory that he is the
steward of the people,
and …to assume that he
has the legal right to do
whatever the needs of the
people demand, unless the
Constitution or the laws
explicitly forbid him to do
it.”
“Square Deal”
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Roosevelt’s agenda for the country
“a Square Deal for all” involved progressive
legislation:
Fair treatment of Labor and Business
Steps in to help mediate a Coal Miners strike
Instead of just helping business he calls for
fair treatment of labor (unions)
He calls for Arbitration
TR Supported
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Regulating Business
Regulating Food
Regulating Rail Roads
Helping Unions
Conserving Natural Resources
Trust Busting
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TR wanted to limit the trusts
Used Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Supported the Department of Commerce- to
regulate railroads
Bureau of Corporations- to regulate corporations
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
Conservation
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TR was a proponent of saving the wilderness
New lands Reclamation Act (set aside National
Forests and reserves)
Gifford Pinchot – forest conservationist
 Created the Forrest Rangers
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Taft
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Hand picked successor to
Roosevelt
Conservative Republican-Probusiness (Less Progressive)
Taft angered TR over the
Conservation issueScandal firing of a TR
conservation appointmentBallinger-Pinchot Affair
TR and the Election of 1912
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TR comes out of retirement
“New Nationalism” = more radical reform agenda than
before The Progressive (Bull Moose Party (mod
Republicans)
Social Justice can only occur through government
intervention
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More regulation of business
Tariff reduction
Regulate Women and child labor
Raise taxes- Inheritance and income taxes
Election of 1912
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TR was mad a
TAFT
Taft was too
conservative
He decided to
run again in 1912
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Taft
GOP candidate
TR
Took votes from Taft
Election 1912
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TR and Taft
Split the GOP
Vote
All the Democrats
vote for Wilson
Wilson wins
Wilson
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PHD-Professor then President of Princeton- Political
Science
Governor of New Jersey
Agenda= “New Freedom”
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Wanted to end corruption
Economic policy- regulate trusts = Big Business
Destroy Monopoly
Lower tariff = tax on imported goods
Federal Reserve Act 1913 = reorganize banking to protect
American finances
Federal Trade Commission- regulate business – prosecute
unfair trade
Supported Clayton Anti Trust Act – new law to regulate Big
Business
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16
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Amendment= Income Taxes
AMENDMENT XVI Passed by Congress July 2,
1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.
Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution
was modified by amendment 16.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect
taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived,
without apportionment among the several
States, and without regard to any census or
enumeration.
17th Amendment= Direct Election of
Senators
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AMENDMENT XVII Passed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8,
1913.
Note: Article I, section 3, of the Constitution was modified by the 17th
amendment.
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from
each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator
shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications
requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State
legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate,
the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill
such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower
the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people
fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or
term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the
Constitution.
18th Amendment= Prohibition of
Alcohol
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AMENDMENT XVIII Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January
16, 1919. Repealed by amendment 21.
Section 1.
After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or
transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or
the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the
jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section 2.
The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as
provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the
submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
19th Amendment= Women’s Suffrage
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AMENDMENT XIX Passed by Congress June 4,
1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.
The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
African Americans Since 1877-1916
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Plessy v. Fergeuson
African American lived
predominantly in the
South
Whites controlled
Southern Government
and Voting
SegregationPoll Tax
Literacy Tests
Grandfather Laws
Lynching
African American Leaders
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Different Approaches
Booker T. Washington- early moderate 1880’s
W.E.B. Dubois- progressive period- more
activism
 Marcus Garvey:
Booker T and WEB
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Booker T. Washington- Early
African American leader, former
slave
Up Form Slavery
“Agitation of questions of Racial
equality is extremist folly”
Moderate
1881 Founded Tuskegee InstituteVocational school for blacks
Worked for African American
progress, economic priority
Wanted economic growth- learn
skills, work hard, Acquire property
The Atlanta Compromise- famous
speech
Whites liked his ideas
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W. E. B. Dubois- NAACP
PHD Harvard
Militant leader
Advocated political and social
change for blacks
Wanted to end discrimination for
blacks
Niagara Movement leads to the
NAACP
(NAACP) National Association for
the Advancement of Colored
People
The Souls of Black Folks
NAACP Used Federal Courts to
pressure changes in rights
Believed in creating the “Talented
Tenth” to fight for AA rights
Who would most likely say this?
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“Is it possible and
probable that nine
millions of men can
make effective progress
in economic lines if they
are deprived of political
rights, made a servile
caste, and allowed only
the most meager chance
of developing their
exceptional men.”
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Agitation on the social
equality question is
“the merest folly… in
purely social matters we
can be separate as the
fingers, yet one as the
hand in all things
essential to Mutual
Progress.”