The Progressive Era
1890-1920
Essential Question
• Were progressives successful in
improving American society and
making government more responsive
to the will of the people?
Origins of Reform
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Industrialization Problems
Urbanization Problems
Corruption among Government Officials
Abuses of Big Businesses
Who are the Progressives?
• Emerging Middle Class
• Believed in the idea of Progress—growth and advancement of
the U.S.
• Wanted Reforms that included:
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Better working conditions
Better Pay
Less Corruption
More government involvement to end abuses
Problems that were Tackled
• Political Reform
• Party bosses
• Political machines
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Women’s Suffrage
Living Conditions
Working Conditions
Breaking Up Big Trusts
Muckrakers
• Definition
• Teddy Roosevelt
• Famous Journalists:
• Lincoln Steffens
• Jacob Riis
• Ida Tarbell
Famous Novelists
• Upton Sinclair—The Jungle
• Frank Norris—The Octopus
Societal Reforms
• Social Gospel
• Settlement Houses
• Jane Adams—Hull House
• Child Labor
• Florence Kelley
• 1938
Progressive Legislation
• Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
• Laws were later passed
• Shorter hours
• Worker’s compensation laws
• GO TO THE VIDEO TAPE!
Progressive Legislation
• City managers curbed the power of party bosses
• Election Rules
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Direct primary—citizens elect the nominees
Referendum—public votes on a law
Recall—public can reject laws
Initiative – public can put laws on a ballot
17th Amendment—direct election of senators
An Expanded Role for
Government
• Progressives sought more social welfare
programs to help ensure a minimum standard
of living
• accident & health insurance
• unemployment benefits
• social security
• Many of the early reforms were made at the
municipal, or city, level.
• opposed the influence of political bosses
City Reformers
• Reformers
• made efforts to take over city utilities
• water, gas, and electricity.
• Some reform mayors led movements for city-supported
welfare services
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public baths
Parks
work-relief programs
Playgrounds
Kindergartens
lodging houses for the homeless.
• Temperance, and eventually prohibition (18th
amendment) was also a major progressive goal.
Progressive Political Reforms
Chapter 18, Section 2
Progressive Era Legislation
Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890
National Reclamation Act,
1902
United States Forest Service,
1905
Outlawed monopolies and practices that restrained trade, such as price fixing.
Created to plan and develop irrigation projects.
Created to manage the nation’s water and timber resources.
Hepburn Act, 1906
Authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroad rates.
Pure Food and Drug Act,
1906
Banned interstate shipping of impure food and deliberate mislabeling of food and drugs.
Meat Inspection Act, 1906
Required federal inspection of meat processing to ensure sanitary conditions.
Department of Labor, 1913
Cabinet department created to promote the welfare and employment of working people.
16th Amendment, 1913
Gave Congress the power to levy an income tax.
17th Amendment, 1913
Provided for the direct election of senators.
Federal Reserve Act, 1913
Created Federal Reserve System of government banks to supervise private banks and
provide a flexible money supply.
National Park Service, 1916
Created to administer the nation’s parks.
18th Amendment, 1919
Prohibited the manufacture and sale of liquor. (Repealed in 1933)
19th Amendment, 1920
Granted women full suffrage.
Women’s Bureau, 1920
Created within the Department of Labor to improve the status of working women.
Theodore Roosevelt:
1901-1908
o Youngest pres. ever (42)
o committed progressive who increased the power of the
president
o Believed U.S. needed reform to compete with other
countries
o “Square Deal”
o Three C’s
o Trustbuster???
o used the courts and Sherman Antitrust Act to take on big business
o Department of Labor (1903) –
o “Bureau of Corporations”
o investigate corporations and issue reports on them
• Meat Inspection Act & Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
• consumer protection
TR and Conservation
• His greatest contributions - Conservation
• TR urged conservation of resources and cautioned against
exploitation of land
• Used federal funds for irrigation and land development in the
West
• Appointed Gifford Pinchot to head U.S. Forest Service
• regulated timber industry
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Added over 100 million acres to protected forests
5 new national parks
4 game preserves
150 National Forests
18 National Monuments
51 federal wildlife preserves
Taft’s Presidency
• William Howard Taft
• endorsed by Roosevelt
• pledged to carry on the progressive program.
• However, he did not even appoint any Progressives to his Cabinet.
• He campaigned on a platform to lower tariffs, but ended up
signing a bill that added some highly protective tariff increases.
• Payne-Aldrich Bill
• Taft did actively pursue antitrust lawsuits (90 total)
• Taft also angered conservationists on the issue of public land
management.
• he sided with business interests who sought unrestricted
development of public lands.
• Taft also fired Gifford Pinchot, head of the U.S. Forest Service
• Pinchot-Ballinger affair
Turmoil in the Republican
Party
• Roosevelt criticized Taft
• Begins to campaign
• called for business regulation, welfare laws, workplace
protection for women and children, income and inheritance
taxes and voting reform.
• He called this plan the New Nationalism.
• Roosevelt lost the Republican presidential nomination to Taft in
1912
• he and other Progressive Republicans left the Republican Party and
formed the Progressive Party, nicknamed the Bull Moose Party.
• The Bull Moose platform included:
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tariff reduction
woman’s suffrage
more regulation of business,
child labor ban
eight-hour workday
direct election of senators.
The Election of 1912
A Four-Way Election
William Howard Taft
Fought to keep the Presidency for the Republican Party
Theodore Roosevelt
Represented the Progressive Bull Moose Party
Eugene V. Debs
Made his third of five presidential runs for the Socialist
Party
Woodrow Wilson
Headed the Democratic ticket; advocated a plan called
“New Freedom” which included eliminating trusts and
promoting free enterprise; with the Republican Party split
between Taft and Roosevelt, Wilson won the election,
despite only receiving 42% of the popular vote.
Wilson’s Presidency: 19121920
• Wilson’s first major victory was tariff reduction
• Underwood Tariff Bill
• Wilson and Congress created the Federal Trade
Commission
• monitor U.S. businesses and regulate unfair practices that
harm competition
• 1913 Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act and
created the Federal Reserve System
• overhaul the American banking system, set interest rates,
and control the money supply
• 1913- direct income tax (16th amendment)
• 1916 – Wilson signs first Child Labor law (Keating-Owen)
• 1916 - Wilson won a second term.