Progressive Era 1900-1920
Teddy Roosevelt and Mine Workers, 1902
Progressivism
WILSON THE
PROGRESSIVE
"Sometimes people
call me an idealist.
Well, that is the
way I know I am an
American. America,
my fellow citizens—
I do not say it in
disparagement of
any other great
people—America is
the only idealistic
nation in the
world."
Chapter Introduction
This chapter will focus on how reformers sought to
solve the problems caused by industrialization,
urbanization and immigration in the early 1900s.
• Section 1: The Drive for Reform
• Section 2: Women Make Progress
• Section 3: The Struggle Against Discrimination
• Section 4: Roosevelt’s Square Deal
• Section 5: Wilson’s New Freedom
Progressive Reform
Objectives
•
Identify the causes of Progressivism.
•
Analyze the role that journalists played in the
Progressive Movement.
•
Evaluate some of the social reforms that
Progressives tackled.
•
Explain what Progressives hoped to achieve
through political reforms.
Terms and People
• Progressivism – movement that responded to the
pressures of industrialization and urbanization by
promoting reforms
•
muckraker – writer who uncovers and exposes
misconduct in politics or business
•
Lincoln Steffens – muckraking author of Shame
of the Cities; exposed corruption in urban
government
•
Jacob Riis – muckraking photographer and author
of How The Other Half Lives; exposed the condition
of the urban poor
Terms and People (continued)
•
Jane Addams – leader in the settlement house
movement
•
settlement house – community center that
provided services for the urban poor
•
Social Gospel – belief that following Christian
principles could bring about social justice
•
direct primary – allowed voters to select
candidates rather than having them selected by
party leaders
Terms and People (continued)
•
initiative – process in which citizens put a
proposed new law directly on the ballot
•
referendum – process that allows citizens to
reject or accept laws passed by their legislature
•
recall – process by which voters can remove
elected officials from office before their terms end
What areas did Progressives think were in
need of the greatest reform?
Progressivism was a reform movement that
responded to the social challenges caused by
industrialization, urbanization, and immigration in
the 1890s and 1900s.
Progressives believed that honest and efficient
government could bring about social justice.
The Gilded Age
• 1870s and 1880s
• U.S. as world’s
main industrial
power
• Industrialists and
financiers formed
trusts
• “Robber barons”
• Criticism of unfair
practices and poor
worker treatment
A cartoon criticizing “robber barons”
such as Gould and Vanderbilt for their
treatment of workers
Progressivism: a response to
the excesses of the modern
industrial coming of age in
America was largely driven
by a demand for social
justice to smooth out some
of the rough spots in the
areas of social, political and
economic life in America.
Today’s economically divided America
Dow 1600: Stock
market hits all-time
high
46.5 Americans still living
in poverty
CNN Money Nov. 2013
Today’s economically divided America
Painting fetches
record $142.4 million
in auction
47.5 million need food
stamps to buy groceries
CNN Money Nov. 2013
Today’s economically divided America
Twitter IPO created 3
billionaires
On the same day, 5 WalMart workers arrested while
striking for higher pay
Today’s economically divided America
NYC apartment list for
$125 million
A record 1.2 million K-12
students are homeless
CNN Money Nov. 2013
Today’s economically divided America
Lamborghini Veneno
goes on sale for $4.5
million
Public transportation fare
hikes across the U.S.
CNN Money Nov. 2013
Standard Oil and Trusts
• Founded by John D.
Rockefeller in 1867
• Controlled 90 percent of U.S.
oil-refining and soon almost
the entire petroleum industry
• Other industries followed
his model
• Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
had little impact for a decade
after its passage
John D. Rockefeller
The Panic of 1893
• Over speculation during
the 1880s
• Banks, railroads, and
other companies failed
• Unemployment,
homelessness, and
financial ruin
• Reform-minded
Americans began to
organize
The New York Stock Exchange during
the Panic of 1893
Progressivism: An Overview
• “Making progress”
• A variety of organizations
and interests
• Not a cohesive movement
• Three broad categories:
social, economic, and
political reform
ORIGINS OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
MOVEMENTS
THAT LED TO
PROGRESSIVISM
NEW INTEREST
IN
THE POOR
CHARITY
WOMEN’S
SUFFRAGE
SOCIAL GOSPEL
SETTLEMENT
HOUSES
GOOD
GOVERNMENT
Progressives
were
reformers
who
• believed
industrialization and
urbanization had
created social and
political problems.
• were mainly from the
emerging middle
class.
• wanted to reform by
using logic and
reason.
Progressives believed honest and
efficient government could bring
about social justice.
• They wanted to end corruption.
• They tried to make government
more responsive to people’s needs.
• They believed that educated
leaders should use modern ideas
and scientific techniques to improve
society.
Populists had shaved off
their beards, moved into the
cities and gained an
education.
Now they had
become
“progressives”…
note the evolution
of their
movement.
Immigration
restrictions
Political
reform
Prohibition
End to white
slavery,
prostitution,
and sweat
shops
End of
child
labor
PROGRESSIVISM
Americanization
of
immigrants
End of
urban
political
machines
Anti-trust
legislation
Women’s
suffrage
Rate
regulation
of private
utilities
Progressives targeted a variety
of issues and problems.
• corrupt political machines
• trusts and monopolies
• inequities
• safety
• city services
• women’s suffrage
Muckrakers used investigative reporting
to uncover and dramatize societal ills.
Lincoln Steffens
The Shame of the Cities
John Spargo
The Bitter Cry of the Children
Ida Tarbell
The History of Standard Oil
Corporate greed was blamed for the emergence
of harsh working conditions for children
JOHN SPARGO-CHILD LABOR
John Spargo was a British reformer who moved to the
United States in 1901. He became an influential
Muckraker with the publishing of his book The Bitter Cry
of the Children in 1906. The book detailed the plight of
working children.
“Work in the coal breakers is exceedingly hard and dangerous.
Crouched over the chutes, the boys sit hour after hour, picking out
the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes past
to the washers. From the cramped position they have to assume,
most of them become more or less deformed and bent-backed like
old men…
The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken,
or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes there
is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is
mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to
be picked out later smothered and dead. Clouds of dust fill the
breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundations for
asthma and miners’ consumption.”
• The conditions of the time are satirized: "Children
suffered no discriminatory treatment. They were
valued everywhere they were employed. They did
not complain as adults tended to do. Employers
liked to think of them as happy elves. If there
was a problem about employing children it had to
do only with their endurance. They were more
agile than adults but they tended in the latter
hours of the day to lose a degree of efficiency. In
the canneries and mills these were the hours
they were most likely to lose their fingers or have
their hands mangled or their legs crushed; they
had to be counseled to stay alert."
“Happy Little Elves”
Impoverished worker and his family beg for a
few crumbs from the millionaires feast.
Jacob Riis exposed the deplorable conditions
poor people were forced to live under through
his photography and in How the Other Half Lives.
Jacob Riis
• Photographed and
wrote about conditions
in tenements and
factories, and on the
streets
• How the Other Half
Lives (1890)
• Set the stage for
Progressive urban
reforms
Riis: From How the Other
Half Lives
Long ago it was said that “one half of the world
does not know how the other half lives.” That was
true then. It did not know because it did not care.
The half that was on top cared little for the
struggles, and less for the fate of those who were
underneath, so long as it was able to hold them
there and keep its own seat. There came a time
when the discomfort and crowding below were so
great, and the consequent upheavals so violent,
that it was no longer an easy thing to do, and then
the upper half fell to inquiring what was the matter.
Information on the subject has been accumulating
rapidly since, and the whole world has had its hands
full answering for his old ignorance.
Riis: Photographs
“Dens of Death”
“Five Cents Lodging,
Bayard Street”
The naturalist novel portrayed the
struggle of common people.
Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle provided
a shocking look at meatpacking in
Chicago’s stockyards.
Progressive
novelists
covered a
wide range
of topics.
• Theodore Dreiser’s
Sister Carrie discussed
factory conditions for
working women.
• Frances Ellen Watkins’s
Iola Leroy focused on
racial issues.
• Frank Norris’s The
Octopus centered on
the tensions between
farmers and the
railroads.
HULL-HOUSE: CHICAGO
Hull-House sought to assimilate individual
newcomers into the American way of life.
Progressive reformers worked to
change society.
Jane Addams led the settlement house
movement. Her urban community centers provided
social services for immigrants and the poor.
Christian reformers’
Social Gospel
demanded a shorter
work day and the
end of child labor.
Relief Programs and Charities
• Private relief programs
• Charity organizations
• Paid caseworkers replaced
volunteers
• Tensions between charities and
settlement houses
• Began to work toward common
goals around 1900
Progressives succeeded in reducing child labor
and improving school enrollment.
The United States Children’s Bureau was
created in 1912.
In the 1900s, the U.S. had the
world’s highest rate of industrial
accidents.
In 1911, 146 workers died in
the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
Many young women jumped
to their deaths or burned.
Worker safety was an important
issue for Progressives.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The interior of the factory after the
fire
• Locked doors, highly
flammable materials,
no extinguishers, few
exits
• March 25, 1911
• 146 people died,
mainly young
immigrant women
• Led to public outcry,
increased legislation
for safety measures
To reform
society,
Progressives
realized they
must also
reform
government.
• Government could
not be controlled by
political bosses and
business interests.
• Government needed
to be more efficient
and more accountable
to the people.
The Good-Government Movement
• Political machines
• Patronage and the spoils
system
• Progressives aimed to
increase transparency
and honesty in city
government
• National Municipal
League (1894)
• Reduced influence of
immigrants and working
class in city politics
“A Looming Tragedy of the Political
Deep,” a 1906 cartoon which depicts
Republican and Democratic machines
as sinking submarines
Direct Primaries
• Allow voters—not
party leaders or
bosses—to
directly choose
candidates
• Robert La Follette
of Wisconsin
• WI adopted first
direct primary
law in 1903
Lincoln Steffens
• Muckraker who
exposed
government
corruption
• Articles in McClure’s
• The Shame of the
Cities (1904)
• Uncovered direct
evidence of graft
• Increased public
outrage
Steffens: From The Shame
of the Cities
When I set out to describe the corrupt
systems of certain typical cities, I meant to
show simply how the people were deceived
and betrayed. But in the very first study—St.
Louis—the startling truth lay bare that
corruption was not merely political; it was
financial, commercial, social; the ramifications
of boodle were so complex, various, and farreaching, that one mind could hardly grasp
them, and not even Joseph W. Folk, the
tireless prosecutor, could follow them all.
Initiative and Referendum
• Initiative: citizens vote
on a proposed state law
• Referendum: citizens
vote on an existing law
• Progressives saw state
legislatures as corrupt
and beholden to
wealthy business
interests
• South Dakota became
the first to enact both
in 1898
Articles of
incorporation for
the California
Good
Government
League, which
promised in the
document to
“work for the
purification” of
the L.A. city
government
through
initiative,
referendum, and
recall
MAYORS
AND CITY
COUNCILS
WERE FOR
SALE
STREETS
WERE
UNPAVED
AND FILLED
WITH TRASH.
SCHOOLS
WERE IN
BAD REPAIR
MUNICIPAL
(Cities)
CORRUPTION
POLICE AND
CIVIL SERVANTS
WERE
CORRUPT AND
OFTEN
TOOK BRIBES
AND PAYOFFS
CITY SERVICES
SUCH AS WATER,
AND
GAS WERE SOLD
TO THE
POLITICIAN’S
FRIENDS who
CHARGED HIGH
PRICES
Cities and states experimented
with new methods of governing.
In Wisconsin, Governor Robert M. La Follette
and other Progressives reformed state
government to restore political control to the
people.
• direct primaries
• initiatives
• referendums
• recalls
Progressivism: State and Local
• Many changes could be more
easily attained
• Local: high schools,
playgrounds, less corruption,
better sewage, beautification,
settlement houses
• State: reduced overcrowding,
safety measures in factories,
workers’ compensation,
restricted child labor, minimum
wage
• Wisconsin and La Follette
Robert La Follette
Progressive governors achieved state-level
reforms of the railroads and taxes.
Two Progressive Governors, Theodore Roosevelt of
New York and Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey,
would become Progressive presidents.
On the national level, in 1913, Progressives
helped pass the 17th Amendment, providing for
the direct election of United States Senators.
Women's Rights 1890-1920
Objectives
•
Analyze the impact of changes in women’s
education on women’s roles in society.
•
Explain what women did to win workers’
rights and to improve family life.
•
Evaluate the tactics women used to win
passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Terms and People
•
Florence Kelley – founded the National
Consumer’s League (NCL)
•
National Consumer’s League (NCL) – group
that labeled and publicized “goods produced under
fair, safe, and healthy working conditions”
•
temperance movement – aimed at stopping
alcohol abuse and the problems created by it
•
Margaret Sanger – nurse who opened the first
birth control clinic
•
Ida B. Wells – helped to found the National
Association of Colored Women (NACW)
Terms and People
(continued)
•
suffrage – the right to vote
•
Carrie Chapman Catt – president of the NAWSA,
campaigned to pass women’s suffrage at both the
state and national levels
•
National American Woman Suffrage
Association – group that worked on the state and
national levels to earn women the right to vote
•
Alice Paul – social activist, led women to picket
at the White House to get the right to vote
•
Nineteenth Amendment – 1919, constitutional
amendment that granted women the right to vote
How did women of the Progressive
Era make progress and win the right
to vote?
In the early 1900s, many women were no
longer content to play a limited role in society.
Activists helped bring about Progressive
reforms including women’s suffrage.
Women would continue the struggle to expand
their roles and rights in the future.
Women and Progressive Reforms
• Women became much
more involved in social
and political causes
• Mainly middle- and
upper-class women
• Aimed to increase “moral
behavior” of lower classes
• Organizations such as
YWCA and National
Consumers League
A YWCA poster
Women’s Suffrage
• Included in movement
toward more
democratic government
• NAWSA formed in 1890
• More women served as
progressive leaders
• Anthony, Catt, and Paul
• 19th Amendment
passed in 1919
Suffragists celebrate the ratification
of the 19th Amendment
The Temperance Movement
• Some felt that alcohol
undermined society’s
“moral fabric”
• Supported curtailing or
banning alcohol
• WCTU and Anti-Saloon
League
• Targeted immigrants
and corrupt politicians
• State and local
successes
• 18th Amendment
(1919)
By the early 1900s, a growing number of
middle-class women wanted to do more
than stay at home as wives and mothers.
Colleges like Pennsylvania’s
Bryn Mawr and New York’s
School of Social Work armed
middle-class women with
education and modern ideas.
However, most poor women
continued to labor long hours,
often under dangerous or
dirty conditions.
Progressive
reforms
addressed
working
women’s
conditions:
• They worked long hours in
factories and sweatshops,
or as maids, laundresses
or servants.
• They were paid less and
often didn’t get to keep
their wages.
• They were intimidated
and bullied by employers.
Reformers saw limiting the length of a
woman’s work day as an important goal
and succeeded in several states.
In Muller v. Oregon, the
Supreme Court ruled that states
could legally limit a women’s
work day.
This ruling recognized the
unique role of women as
mothers.
In 1899, Florence Kelley helped found the
National Consumers League which aimed to
make workplaces safer and urged women to buy
products made in safe conditions.
Florence Kelley also founded the Women’s Trade
Union League which worked for a federal minimum
wage and a national eight-hour workday.
The WTUL also helped support families who
refused to work in unsafe or unfair conditions.
Progressives supported the temperance
movement.
They felt that alcohol often led
men to spend their earnings on
liquor, neglect their families, and
abuse their wives.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union grew
steadily until the passage of the 18th Amendment
which banned the sale and production of alcohol
in 1919.
In 1916,
Margaret
Sanger opened
the first birth
control clinic.
She believed
that having
fewer children
would lead to
healthier
women.
She was jailed.
The courts
eventually ruled
that doctors
could give out
family planning
information.
In 1921,
Sanger
founded the
American Birth
Control League
to make
information
available to
women.
African Americans also worked
for women’s rights.
• Ida B. Wells founded the National Association of
Colored Women or NACW in 1896.
• The NACW supported day care centers for the
children of working parents.
• Wells also worked for suffrage, to end lynchings,
and to stop segregation in the Chicago schools.
Ultimately suffrage was seen as the only way
to ensure that government protected children,
fostered education, and supported family life.
Since the 1860s, Susan B. Anthony
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
worked relentlessly for
women’s suffrage - their right to vote.
Still, by the 1890s, only Wyoming
and Colorado allowed women to vote.
In the 1890s Carrie Chapman Catt, President
of the National American Suffrage
Association, promoted a two-part strategy to
gain the vote for women.
1
2
NAWSA lobbied Congress for a
constitutional amendment.
Supporters, called suffragettes,
used the referendum process to
pass state laws.
In 1917, social activists led by Alice Paul formed
the National Woman’s Party. Their radical actions
made the suffrage movement’s goals seem less
dramatic by comparison.
The NWP picketed
the White House.
Hundreds of
suffragettes were
arrested and jailed.
Not all
women
supported
suffrage.
The National Association
Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage
feared voting would distract
women from their family roles.
Many men and women were
offended by Paul’s protests in
front of the White House. A mob
shredded her signs and pickets.
States
gradually
granted
suffrage to
women,
starting in
the western
states.
In June 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment was
passed by Congress. The amendment stated
that the vote “shall not be denied or abridged
on account of sex.”
Due to the efforts
of the suffragists,
women nationwide
voted in a
presidential election
for the first time on
November 2, 1920.
Civil Rights 1871–1914
Objectives
•
Analyze Progressives’ attitudes toward
minority rights.
•
Explain why African Americans organized.
•
Examine the strategies used by members of
other minority groups to defend their rights.
Terms and People
•
Americanization – belief that assimilating
immigrants into American society would make
them more loyal citizens
•
Booker T. Washington – favored a gradualist
approach for blacks to earn rights through
economic progress and employment in the
skilled trades
•
W.E.B. Du Bois – demanded immediate and full
rights for blacks as guaranteed by the Constitution
Terms and People
(continued)
•
Niagara Movement – group of African American
thinkers founded in 1905 that pushed for
immediate racial reforms
•
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) – interracial
organization founded in 1909 to abolish
segregation and discrimination and achieve
political rights for African Americans
•
Urban League – organization to assist
working class African Americans with relief, jobs,
clothing, and schools
Terms and People
(continued)
•
Anti-Defamation League – organization whose
goal is to defend Jews and others from false
statements and verbal or physical attacks
•
mutualistas – Mexican American groups that
provided loans, legal assistance, and disability
insurance for members
What steps did minorities take to combat
social problems and discrimination?
Prejudice and discrimination continued
even during the Progressive Era.
Minorities, including African Americans,
Latinos, Catholics, Jews, and Native
Americans, worked to help themselves.
Their efforts paved the way for the era of
civil rights several decades later.
Most Progressives were white,
middle-class Protestants who
held the racial and ethnic
prejudices common in that era.
They envisioned a
model America based
on Protestant ethics
and a white middleclass lifestyle.
As a result, they
were often hostile
to minority or
immigrant
cultures.
Progressives believed assimilation
would turn immigrants into loyal
and moral citizens.
• The results were well-intentioned, but were often
insensitive efforts to change the immigrants.
• While teaching English to immigrants, the
Progressives also advised them to replace their
customs with middle-class practices and
Protestant values.
• Settlement houses and other civic groups played
a prominent role in Americanization efforts.
Progressives saw many immigrant
customs as moral failures.
Immigrants’ use
of alcohol, such as
serving wine with
meals, alarmed
some people.
This prejudice
against immigrant
customs and
culture gave
strength to the
temperance
movement.
Racial theories were also used to justify
laws that kept blacks from voting. Many
Progressives supported racial prejudices.
• The Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision furthered
discrimination in the North as well as in the South.
• By 1910, segregation was the norm nationwide.
• After 1914, even federal offices were segregated
because of policies approved by President Woodrow
Wilson, a Progressive.
African Americans were split over
how to end racial discrimination.
Booker T.
Washington
urged a patient,
gradual effort
based on earning
equality through
training and work
in the skilled
trades.
W.E.B. Du Bois
demanded that
African Americans
receive all
constitutional
rights
immediately.
In 1905, Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter
were concerned that all across the South,
black men could not vote.
• Their Niagara Movement rejected the
gradualist approach, stating that trade skills
“can create workers, but cannot make men.”
• They also believed African Americans should
learn how to think for themselves through the
study of history, literature, and philosophy.
NAACP protested against
lynching laws.
After a 1908 riot
against African
Americans in
Springfield, Illinois, a
number of white
Progressives joined
together with the
Niagara Movement to
form the National
Association for the
Advancement of
Colored People
(NAACP).
The NAACP was
founded to demand
voting and civil
rights for African
Americans.
The NAACP aimed to
help African Americans
become “physically free
from peonage, mentally
free from ignorance,
politically free from
disfranchisement, and
socially free from
insult.”
The NAACP attracted prominent
Progressives to their cause.
Supporters:
Jane Addams
Ray Stannard Baker
Florence Kelley
Ida B. Wells
Their tactics:
• used newspapers to publicize
the horrors of race riots
and lynching
• used the courts to challenge
unfair housing laws
• promoted professional careers
for African Americans
In 1911, the Urban League was formed
to create a network of local clubs and
churches to assist African Americans
migrating to northern cities.
While the NAACP focused on
political justice, the Urban
League helped the poor find
jobs, housing, clothing, and
schools for their children.
Many ethnic groups formed self-help
organizations to combat prejudice
and protect their rights.
African Americans
NAACP
Jews
B’nai B’rith
Mexican Americans
mutualistas
Native Americans
Society of American
Indians
1843
Jewish families formed
the B’nai B’rith to
provide religious
education and
support.
1913
The Anti-Defamation
League was formed to
defend Jews and others
against physical and
verbal attacks, false
statements, and to
“secure justice
and fair treatment to
all citizens alike.”
Mexican Americans formed mutualistas,
groups that provided legal assistance
and insurance.
The Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) in
Arizona served Mexican Americans in
the same way the Urban League
helped African Americans.
Many Latinos were subject to unfair
labor contracts, which the mutualistas
helped to defeat.
Despite organized protests, Native Americans
and Japanese lost their ownership of land.
In 1911, Carlos
Montezuma helped form
the Society of American
Indians to protest
federal policy.
Nevertheless, by 1932,
two thirds of all tribal
lands had been sold off.
In 1913, California
restricted land
ownership to American
citizens only, which
excluded the Japanese,
who were not allowed
to become citizens.
In a 1922 decision, the
Supreme Court allowed
the limitation.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Administration
Objectives
• Discuss Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas on the role of
government.
• Analyze how Roosevelt changed the government’s
role in the economy.
• Explain the impact of Roosevelt’s actions on
natural resources.
• Compare and contrast Taft’s policies with
Roosevelt’s.
Terms and People
•
Theodore Roosevelt – President who passed
Progressive reforms and expanded the powers of
the presidency.
•
Square Deal – Roosevelt’s program to keep the
wealthy and powerful from taking advantage of
small business owners and the poor
•
Hepburn Act – gave the Interstate Commerce
Committee power to limit railroad company prices
•
Meat Inspection Act – gave federal agents
power to inspect and monitor the meatpacking
industry
Terms and People (continued)
•
Pure Food and Drug Act – gave the federal
government responsibility for insuring food and
medicine are safe
•
John Muir – California naturalist who advocated
for the creation of Yosemite National Park
•
Gifford Pinchot – forestry official who proposed
managing the forests for later public use
Terms and People (continued)
•
National Reclamation Act – gave the federal
government power to decide where and how water
would be distributed in arid western states
•
New Nationalism – Roosevelt’s 1912 plan to
restore the government’s trust-busting power
•
Progressive Party – political party that emerged
from the Taft-Roosevelt battle that split the
Republican Party in 1912
What did Roosevelt think government
should do for citizens?
After a number of weak and ineffective
Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt was a
charismatic figure who ushered in a new era.
Roosevelt passed Progressive reforms,
expanded the powers of the presidency, and
changed how Americans viewed the roles of
the President and the government.
Leon F. Czolgosz, born in Detroit
in 1873 to Polish immigrants, had
a reputation as a quiet loner with
a violent temper. While working
as a blacksmith in a Cleveland
wire mill in the 1890s, he began
attending meetings of local
socialists and anarchists. In 1898,
Czolgosz quit his job at the mill
and never again worked regularly.
Czolgosz's family and friends,
including fellow anarchists, later
reported that they regarded him
as mentally unbalanced. On
September 6, 1901, Czolgosz
fatally shot President William
McKinley in a reception line at the
Pan American Exposition in
Buffalo, New York. Convicted of
murder, he died in the electric
chair at the prison at Auburn,
New York, on October 29, 1901.
Anarchism appeared in Europe in the 1860s as a reaction to the perceived brutalities of
unregulated capitalism. Seeing private property as the root cause of inequality, anarchists sought
to eliminate private ownership. Arguing that government officials cooperated Drawing depicting
the assassination of President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901. APWIDE
WORLD PHOTOS with property owners to exploit the workers, anarchists sought the elimination of
the state. They believed that the abolition of the state would allow individuals to live full and free
lives. To this end, some anarchists advocated revolutionary violence.
Political opponents had threatened President William McKinley with death, but the threats were not
considered serious. On the hot afternoon of September 6, 1901, McKinley shook hands with people
in a long line at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Thousands had waited for hours
in the hope of shaking hands with the popular president. Exposition officials had deployed extra
guards, but their position in the receiving area of the Temple of Music made it harder for the
McKinley's three Secret Service men to scrutinize every outstretched hand.
Czolgosz waited in the long line. The handkerchief carried by Czolgosz, a short, slender man in a
black suit, concealed a short-barreled .32 revolver. As McKinley reached forward to shake
Czolgosz's empty left hand, the anarchist fired two bullets through the handkerchief in his right
hand. The first hit a button on McKinley's jacket and the second lodged in the President's
pancreas. Czolgosz was knocked to the ground and the crowd seemed ready to maul him. "Let no
one hurt him," said the wounded President. Moments later he turned to his secretary: "My wife, be
careful how you tell her—oh, be careful."
McKinley's doctors thought that he would survive, but the medical technology of the era was poor.
The doctors could not find the bullet, and gangrene set in. The President died at 2:15 A.M. on
September 14, 1901.
McKinley's murder fit into a pattern of anarchist attacks in the 1890s. Anarchists
assassinated a number of European political leaders and monarchs, including French
President François Sadi-Carnot in 1894, Prime Minister Antonio Canovas del Castillo
of Spain in 1897, the Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary in 1898, and King
Umberto I of Italy in 1900. Most anarchists did not assume that such killings would
necessarily lead to revolution, but saw them as the inevitable result of government
oppression.
McKinley's death led to more government persecution of anarchists and did nothing
to help the anarchist cause in the United States. In the aftermath of the McKinley
attack, anarchism came under heavy assault from the government, the press, and
the public. All anarchists, whether peaceful or violent, were demonized as scoundrels
and deviants. Across the country, crowds vented their anger on any anarchists that
they could find. The pressure forced anarchists to begin to shift away from individual
acts of violence toward labor union activism on behalf of oppressed workers.
Perhaps more importantly, McKinley's death propelled Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt into the White House. A much more dynamic leader than
McKinley, Roosevelt was the first Progressive president. Along with other
Progressives, he held that government had an obligation to protect the
public by establishing laws in a range of areas that had been free of
government control in the past. Roosevelt, focused on business activities,
promoted a "Square Deal" to place workers and business owners on a level
playing field. Roosevelt's reforms, ones that McKinley did not endorse,
ended many of the abusive practices of industry and helped change public
perception of government into an institution known for protecting the
general public.
Czolgosz, Leon F. "Story of an Eyewitness." Terrorism: Essential
Primary Sources. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 13-15. Biography in Context. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
In 1901, 43-year-old Theodore Roosevelt
became the youngest president of the United
States, rising quickly as a Progressive idealist.
• Shortly after graduation from Harvard in 1880,
Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University.
After a few months he was elected to the New
York State Assembly.
• Three years later, following the deaths of his wife
and mother, he retired to a ranch in the West.
There he developed a love of the wilderness.
• Roosevelt had a reputation for being smart,
opinionated, and extremely energetic.
In 1889 he returned, earning a reputation for
fighting corruption on New York City’s Board of
Police Commissioners.
• Chosen by President McKinley
to be Assistant Secretary of
the Navy, he resigned to
organize the Rough Riders at
the start of the SpanishAmerican War.
• He returned a war hero
and was elected Governor
of New York in 1898.
As Governor, his
Progressive reforms
upset Republican
leaders. To get him
out of New York,
President McKinley
agreed to make
Roosevelt his
running mate in
1900. They won
easily.
But, in 1901,
William McKinley
was assassinated.
As President,
Roosevelt dominated
Washington. He was
so popular that even
a toy, the teddy bear,
was named
for him.
Roosevelt greatly expanded the
power of the presidency by pushing
through reforms.
• His Square Deal
program promised
fairness and
honesty from
government.
• He used the power
of the federal
government on
behalf of workers
and the people.
Roosevelt: The Square Deal
• A package of laws and regulations
that he felt to be fair to all,
particularly workers:
– Increased regulation of business
– Workers’ right to organize
– Eight-hour work days
– Pure food and drug laws
– Income and inheritance taxes on
the wealthy
In 1902, Roosevelt threatened a federal
takeover of coal mines when owners
refused to compromise on hours.
This was the first time the federal
government had stepped into a labor
dispute on the side of workers.
The Department of Commerce and
Labor was established to prevent
capitalists from abusing their power.
Elkins Act (1903)
Roosevelt also
took on the
railroads after the
Supreme Court
stripped the
Interstate
Commerce
Commission’s
authority to
oversee rail rates.
Allowed the government
to fine railroads that gave
special rates to favored
shippers, a practice that
hurt farmers
Hepburn Act (1906)
Empowered the ICC to
enforce limits on the
prices charged by railroad
companies for shipping,
tolls, ferries, and pipelines
Roosevelt was known
as a trustbuster.
He used the Sherman
Antitrust Act to
file suits against
what he saw as
“bad” trusts, those
that bullied small
businesses or
cheated consumers.
Roosevelt using “anti-trust
soap” to clean an eagle.
Progressivism
and the Age of Reform
This political cartoon
shows President Theodore
Roosevelt as a hunter
who’s captured two bears:
the “good trusts” bear he’s
put on a leash labeled
“restraint,” and the “bad
trusts” bear he’s
apparently killed.
Roosevelt backed
Progressive goals
of protecting
consumers by
making the federal
government
responsible for
food safety.
• The Meat Inspection
Act provided for federal
inspections and
monitoring of meat
plants.
• The Pure Food and
Drug Act banned the
interstate shipments of
impure or mislabeled
food or medicine.
Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tests
and monitors the safety of food and medicine.
Roosevelt had a deep reverence for nature,
which shaped his policies.
As a Progressive,
Roosevelt supported
Gifford Pinchot’s
philosophy on the
preservation of
resources.
Pinchot felt that resources
should be managed and
preserved for public use.
Roosevelt also admired
John Muir, who helped
establish Yosemite National
Park, and who advised him
to set aside millions of
acres of forestland.
Roosevelt
closed off
more than
100 million
acres of
forestland.
Another
example of the
government’s
expanded
authority was
the National
Reclamation
Act of 1902.
This Act gave the
federal government
power to distribute
water in the arid
west, effectively
giving government
the power to decide
where and how
water would be
dispensed.
The Panic of 1907
J.P. Morgan
• A severe economic crisis
• Recession began in 1906
• NYSE plunged by 50
percent
• Runs on banks
• Knickerbocker Trust
Company collapsed
• Unemployment,
bankruptcies rose;
production, imports fell
• J.P. Morgan, others
personally contributed
money
The Federal Reserve Act
• Response to Panic of
1907
• National Monetary
Commission
• Federal Reserve Act
(1913)
• Federal Reserve System
• Gave government
control over monetary
and banking systems, in
accordance with
Progressive Era trends
A painting depicting President
Wilson signing the Federal
Reserve Act
In 1908, Roosevelt retired. But he soon disagreed with
his successor William Howard Taft on several issues.
1909
Taft approved the Aldrich Act which did not
lower tariffs as much as Roosevelt wanted.
1910
Taft signed the Mann-Elkins Act, providing
for federal control over telephone and
telegraph rates.
1911
Taft relaxed the hard line set by the
Sherman Antitrust Act.
Taft did not share Roosevelt’s views on
trusts, but this was not the only area in
which they disagreed.
Taft believed that a monopoly was acceptable as
long as it didn’t unreasonably squeeze out smaller
companies.
When Taft fired Gifford Pinchot and overturned an
earlier antitrust decision, Roosevelt angrily decided
to oppose Taft and ran for president again.
Roosevelt promised to restore government trustbusting in a program he called New Nationalism.
Roosevelt’s candidacy split the Republican Party,
which nominated Taft.
Roosevelt then accepted the nomination of the
Progressive Party setting up a three-way
race for the presidency in 1912.
Woodrow Wilson Administration
Objectives
• Evaluate what Wilson hoped to do with his
“New Freedom” program.
• Describe Wilson’s efforts to regulate the
economy.
• Assess the legacy of the Progressive Era.
Terms and People
•
Woodrow Wilson – Progressive Democrat elected
President in 1912
•
New Freedom – Wilson’s program to place strict
government controls on corporations
•
Sixteenth Amendment – 1913 constitutional
amendment that gave Congress the power to
impose an income tax
•
Federal Reserve Act – 1913 law that placed the
national banks under the control of a Federal
Reserve Board
Terms and People (continued)
•
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – government
agency established in 1914 to identify monopolistic
business practices, false advertising, and dishonest
labeling
•
Clayton Anti-trust Act – strengthened anti-trust
laws by spelling out specific practices in which
businesses could not engage
What steps did Wilson take to increase
the government’s role in the economy?
Woodrow Wilson used the expanded power
of the presidency to promote a far-reaching
reform agenda.
Some of Wilson’s economic and antitrust
measures are still important in American
life today.
The Progressive Party and the
Election of 1912
• Taft won in 1908
• Rift in Republican Party
between Progressives
and conservatives
• Progressive (“Bull
Moose”) Party split
from Republican Party;
nominated Roosevelt
• Democrat Wilson won
in 1912, with Roosevelt
second
Progressive Party convention, 1912
In 1912, the Republican Party was split between
Progressives who backed Theodore Roosevelt and
those loyal to incumbent William Howard Taft.
The split allowed
Woodrow Wilson,
the Democrat, to win
easily in the Electoral
College, though he
did not receive a
majority of the
popular votes.
Woodrow Wilson
• served as a college professor and
President of Princeton University
• served as Governor of New Jersey
with a reforming agenda
• was the first man born in the
South to be elected President in
almost sixty years
Wilson felt that laws should not allow the strong to
crush the weak. His New Freedom plan was similar
to Roosevelt’s New Nationalism. It called for strict
government controls over corporations.
Wilson promised to bring
down the “triple wall of
privilege,” tariffs, banks,
and trusts.
In 1913, the
Underwood Tariff
Act cut tariffs,
leading to lower
consumer prices.
The Underwood Tariff Act also provided for
the creation of a graduated income tax,
first permitted in 1913, under the newly
ratified Sixteenth Amendment.
Progressives like Wilson felt it was only fair that
the wealthy should pay a higher percentage of
their income in taxes than the poor.
Revenues from the income tax more than offset
the loss of funds from the lowered tariff.
Wilson pushed Congress to pass the Federal
Reserve Act of 1913. It established a system
of regional banks to hold reserve funds for
the nation’s commercial banks.
Still in place today, the Federal Reserve
protects the American economy from having
too much money end up in the hands of one
person, bank, or region.
Previously, a few wealthy bankers could
manipulate interest rates for their own profit.
Wilson strengthened antitrust laws. Like Roosevelt,
he focused on trusts that used unfair practices.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
was created in 1914 to monitor businesses
to prevent monopolies, false advertising,
and dishonest labeling.
Still in effect today, the FTC also prosecutes
dishonest stock traders and regulates
Internet sales.
In 1914, the
Clayton Antitrust
Act defined
specific activities
in which
businesses could
not engage.
The Clayton Act also
protected unions from
being defined as
trusts, allowing them
more freedom to
organize.
Wilson
passed
several
Progressive
laws that
supported
workers.
• In 1916, the Workingman’s
Compensation Act provided
wages for temporarily
disabled civil service
employees.
• In 1916, the Adamson Act
provided an eight-hour day
for railway workers.
Wilson did not always support workers,
as the tragic Ludlow Massacre showed.
• In 1913, coal miners went on strike in
Ludlow, Colorado.
• The company refused their demands and
evicted workers from company housing.
• Workers set up tents outside the company.
• The Colorado National Guard was called.
• The Guardsmen fired on the tents and killed
twenty-six people.
• Wilson sent federal troops to restore order
and break up the strike.
The Progressive Era had a lasting effect on
government, the economy, and society.
Political reforms
included
The federal government
• initiative
• offered more protection to
Americans’ private lives
• referendum
• recall
• 19th Amendment
• while at the same time,
gained more control over
people’s lives
Progressive Era Legislation and Amendments
Sherman Antitrust Act
(1890)
Outlawed monopolies and practices that
restrained trade
National Reclamation
Act (1902)
Provided for federal irrigation projects in
arid Western states
Elkins Act
Imposed fines on railroads that gave special
rates to favored shippers
Hepburn Act
Allowed the government to regulate and
sets maximum rates for railroads
Meat Inspection Act
Provided federal inspection of packing plants
and meat sold across state lines
Pure Food and Drug Act
Provided federal inspection of foods,
medicines for purity
Sixteenth Amendment
Gave Congress the power to collect an
income tax
(1903)
(1906)
(1906)
(1906)
(1913)
Progressive Era Legislation and Amendments (continued)
Seventeenth
Amendment (1913)
Provided for the direct election of Senators
by the voters of each state
Underwood Tariff Act
(1913)
Lowered tariffs on imported goods,
established a graduated income tax
Federal Reserve Act
(1913)
Created the Federal Reserve Board to
oversee banks and reserve funds
Federal Trade
Commission Act (1914)
Established the Federal Trade Commission to
monitor business
Clayton Antitrust Act
Spelled out specific activities that businesses
can not engage in
Eighteenth Amendment
(1919)
Banned the making, selling, or transporting
of alcoholic beverages
Nineteenth Amendment
Gave women the right to vote in all elections
(1914)
(1920)
Progressive management of
natural resources has
affected our environment
including national parks,
dams, and forests.
Progressive legislation has
profoundly affected our
economy including antitrust
laws, the Federal Reserve
System, and consumer
protection.
President Roosevelt and
conservationist John Muir
at Yosemite National Park.
Water distribution remains a
hotly debated issue.
The Progressive Era: Legacy
• Wilson established FTC, progressive
income tax; also passed Clayton
Antitrust Act
• Many reforms remain in place today
• Did not radically change the
structure of society
• Set precedent for governmental
protections against unchecked
capitalism
Many issues remain today involving dishonest
sellers, unfair employment practices, and
problems in schools, cities, the environment,
and public health.
Progressives succeeded in establishing the
idea that government can take action in
these areas.
Chapter Summary
Section 1: The Drive for Reform
• Reformers called Progressives believed that the use of logic
and reasoning could create a more efficient society and thus
cure the problems caused by urbanization, industrialization,
and immigration.
Section 2: Women Make Progress
• Middle-class women grew tired of working in the background.
They organized campaigns for temperance, birth control,
working women, education, and especially the vote.
Chapter Summary
(Continued)
Section 3: The Struggle Against Discrimination
• During the Progressive Era, minorities and immigrants
organized themselves into groups like the NAACP, Urban
League, and Anti-Defamation League to work against
discrimination.
Section 4: Roosevelt’s Square Deal
• Theodore Roosevelt was an energetic president who used
the power of his office to help the common person by trustbusting, supporting workers, managing natural resources,
and passing consumer protection laws.
Chapter Summary
(Continued)
Section 5: Wilson’s New Freedom
• President Woodrow Wilson reformed the national banking
system, passed anti-trust laws, and lowered tariffs. His
New Freedom reforms put strict controls on big business
while assisting small businesses and workers.