The Progressive Era
1890-1920
“It
is hard to fail, but it is worse
never to have tried.”
Progressivism in Alabama
• Progressives in Alabama like progressives in other
states, focused on issues such as political reform,
education, banning alcohol, and child labor.
• A major progressive reform issue was women's
suffrage.
• One area where progress was made in Alabama was
education.
• As Alabama’s “education governor” Braxton Bragg
Comer led the state from 1907 to 1911.
• Braxton Bragg Comer implemented laws in Alabama
requiring that every county have a high school.
Economic Opportunity
• The progressive movement responded to
a growing public demand for government
to become involved in curbing abuse of
workers, especially children.
• Reformers also wanted changes in
business practices that harmed the public.
States 'Rights
• Theodore Roosevelt changed the role of
the White House as a bully pulpit to
influence public policy and expanding
responsibilities of the office.
• His actions shaped what would become
the modern presidency.
The Origins of Progressivism
• Political, economic and social change in late 19th century
American led to broad progressive reforms.
• Progressive reforms in areas such as labor and voting
rights reinforced democratic principles that continue to
exist today.
• At the dawn of the new century middle class reformers
addressed many of the problems that had contributed to
the social upheavals of the 1890s.
• Progressive movement which aimed to restore economic
opportunities and correct injustices in American life.
Protecting Social Welfare
• Many social welfare reformers worked to soften some of the
harsh conditions of industrialization.
• The Social Gospel and settlement house movements in the late
1800s which aimed to help the poor through community
centers, churches, and social services continued during the
Progressive Era and inspired even more reform activities.
• The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) for example
opened libraries, sponsored classes, and built swimming pools
and handball courts.
• Florence Kelley became an advocate for improving the lives of
women and children.
Promoting Moral Improvement
• Other reformers felt that morality not the
workplace held the key to improving the
lives of poor people.
• These reformers wanted immigrants and
poor city dwellers to uplift themselves by
improving their personal behavior.
• Prohibition the banning of alcohol
beverages was one such program.
• Prohibitionist feared that alcohol was
undermining American morals.
• Founded in Cleveland in 1874 the
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
(WCTU) spearheaded the crusade for
prohibition.
• In 1890s Carry Nation worked for
prohibition by walking into saloons
scolding the customers and using her
hatchet to destroy bottles of liquor.
• By 1911 the WCTU had over 245,000
members it became the largest women’s
group in the nation’s history.
• The prohibition movement appealed to
women in which many believed they could
make a difference in society.
• Founded by progressive women in 1895 the
Anti-Saloon League called itself “the
Church in action against the saloon.”
• Whereas early temperance efforts had asked
individuals to change their ways, the AntiSaloon League worked to pass laws to
enforce people to change and to punish those
who drank.
• Between 1900 and 1917 voters nearly half of
the states- mostly in the South and West –
prohibited the sale, production, and use of
alcohol.
Creating Economic Reform
• As moral reformers sought to
change individual behavior, a serve
economic panic in 1893 prompted
some Americans to question the
capitalist economic system.
• Some Americans embraced the idea
of socialism.
• Labor leader Eugene V. Debs who helped
organize the American Socialist Party in
1901.
• Debs ran for President five times. In 1920
campaign from prison he received nearly
one million votes.
• Serving a sentence for having criticized the
U.S. government’s prosecution of persons
charged with violation of the 1917
Espionage Act. He was released from prison
by presidential order in 1921; however, his
U.S. citizenship, which he lost when he was
convicted of sedition in 1918, was restored
only posthumously in 1976.
• Journalists who wrote about
corrupt side of business and
public life in mass circulation
magazines during the early
20th century became known as
muckrakers.
• In her “History of the Standard
Oil Company,” a monthly
serial in McClure’s Magazine
the writer Ida M. Tarbell
described the company’s
cutthroat methods of
eliminating competition.
• Muckrakers contributed significantly to the
reform movement they exposed the dangers and
corruption of industrial life to the public.
• Many progressives put their faith in experts and
scientific principles to make society and the
workplace more efficient.
• Frederick Winslow Taylor began using time and
motion studies to improve efficiency by
breaking down manufacturing task into simpler
parts.
• Taylorism became a management fad as
industry reformers applied scientific
management studies to see how quickly a task
could be preformed.
• Scientific Management reformers worked to
improve efficiency and productivity.
• Henry Ford reduced the workday to eight
hours a day and paid the workers five dollars
a day.
• Henry Ford pioneered the large-scale use of
the assembly line.
• He reduced the number of hours required for
production of the Model T from
approximately 12 hours in 1910 to
approximately 2 hours in 1913.
• “Everybody will be able to afford (a car) and
about everyone will have one” 1909
Reforming Local Government
• Natural disasters sometimes played an important role in
prompting reform of city governments.
• In 1900 a hurricane and tidal wave almost demolished
Galveston, Texas.
• This disaster caused the city to look at changing to a
commission type government with different
departments who had the expertise in various areas to
rebuild the city.
• Government changes during the Progressive Era were
made by changing to the commission system and
council- manager system were introduced as well as
reform mayors which allowed citizens to become more
active in managing cities.
• Local reform coincided with progressive efforts at the
state level.
• Spurred by progressive governors, many states passed
laws to regulate railroads, mines, mills, telephone
companies, and other large business.
• Under the progressive Republican leadership of
Robert M. La Follette, Wisconsin led way in regulating
big business.
Protecting Working Children
• As the number of child workers rose
dramatically, reformers worked to protect
child workers and to end child labor.
• Businesses hired children because they
performed unskilled jobs for lower wages
and their hands were small and more adept a
handling small parts and tools.
• Formed in 1904 , the National Child Labor
Committee sent investigators to gather
evidence of children working in harsh
conditions.
• Reformers sought to end child labor by
exploiting businesses; children being paid
lower wages, forcing them to long hours and in
dangerous conditions.
• Politicians were pressured to pass the KeatingOwen Act in 1916.
• This act prohibited the transportation of goods
across state lines of goods produced by
children.
• Two years later the Supreme Court declared
the act unconstitutional due with the
interference of states rights to regulate labor.
• However reformers succeeded in getting state
legislations in pass child labor laws.
Efforts to Limit Working Hours
• The Supreme Court sometimes took more
sympathetic view on the plight of workers over
children.
• Progressives also sought laws to help women
as well in the workforce in limiting them to
10-hour workday.
• Reformers also succeeded in winning workers’
compensation to aid the families of workers
who were hurt or killed on the job.
Direct Election of Senators
• It was the success of the direct primary that paved
the way for the 17th Amendment to the
Constitution.
• Before 1913 each legislature had chosen its own
U.S. Senator which put more power in the hands
of the wealthy corporation heads and party
bosses.
• The 17th Amendment was approved by Congress
in 1912 and ratified in 1913.
• Members of Senate could not longer be
appointed by state legislatures over whom special
interest could no longer have influences. Senators
would now be elected by the people.
Women in Public Life
• As a result of social and economic change many
women entered public life as workers and reformers.
• At the turn of the century one out five women held
jobs; 25% of them worked in factors.
• Women were encouraged to attend high school so
they could get white collar jobs as stenographers,
typists, and teachers.
• Many women without formal education or industrial
skills contributed to the economic survival of their
families by doing domestic work, such as cleaning
for other families.
• Roughly 70% of the women in 1870 were servants.
• Unmarried immigrant women also did domestic labor
especially when they first arrived in the U.S.
• Dangerous conditions low wages and long hours led many
female industrial workers to push for reforms.
• Many women who became active in public life in the late
19th century had attended the new women’s college.
• Although women were still expected to fulfill traditional
domestic roles, women’s college sought to grant women an
excellent education.
• Women who attended college no longer relied
on marriage as an option some pursued
professional careers while others did volunteer
reform work.
• In 1896 African-American women founded the
National Association of Colored Women by
merging two earlier organizations.
• Josephine Ruffin identified the mission as “the
moral education of the race with which we
identified.”
• The NACW managed nurseries reading rooms
and kindergartens.
• After the Seneca Falls convention of 1848,
women split over the 14th and 15th
Amendments which granted equal rights
including the right for African American
men to vote but excluded women.
• Susan B. Anthony a leading proponent of
woman suffrage.
• Anthony along with Elizabeth Cady
Stanton founded the National Women
Suffrage Association which united with
another group in 1890 to become the
National American Woman Suffrage
Association.
• Suffrage leaders employed a 3 part
strategy for gaining women the right to
vote.
• They hoped that by pursing several
strategies they were more than likely to
achieve their goals.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal
• As president, Theodore Roosevelt
worked to give citizens a Square
Deal through progressive reforms.
• When muckraker journalist Upton
Sinclair began research for a novel in
1904 his focus was the human
conditions in the stockyards of
Chicago.
• What shock readers in Sinclair’s
book The Jungle was the sickening
conditions of the meat packing
industry.
A Rough-Riding President
• Theodore Roosevelt would become the youngest
president at the age of 42.
• Roosevelt was born into a wealthy family in
1858.
• He suffered from asthma. Roosevelt was very
physical fit. Excellent marksman, horseman,
boxed and wrestled in college.
• Loved boxing one of his opponents blinded him
in his left eye.
• Roosevelt was an outdoorsman-rode a 100 miles
on horseback just to prove he could do it
• Where did Roosevelt get his fame?
• Spanish-American War
• In politics like sports Roosevelt used
his personality and popularity to
advance his programs.
• Citing federal responsibility for the
national welfare Roosevelt thought the
government should assume control
whenever states proved incapable of
dealing with problems.
• Roosevelt saw the presidency as a
“bully pulpit” from which he could
influence the news media and shape
legislation.
• Roosevelt was a forceful and energetic
executive who used it to shape legislation
and influence the media.
• If big business victimized workers
Roosevelt made sure the common people
received a Square Deal.
• This term was used to describe the various
progressive reforms which his presidency
supported.
• Roosevelt study of history prompt him to
publish the first of 44 books at the age of 24convinced him that modern America
required a powerful federal government.
TRUSTBUSTING
• By 1900 trust- legal bodies created to hold stock in many
companies-controlled about four-fifths of the industries in
the U.S.
• Some like the Standard Oil had earned a bad reputation
with the public due to the usage of unfair practices.
• Many of the trust lowered their prices to drive the
competition out of business then what would they do?
• Congress had passed the Sherman Antitrust Act but found it
difficult to enforce.
• In 1902 President Roosevelt made
newspaper headlines as a
trustbuster when he ordered the
Justice Department to sue the
Northern Securities Company
which had established a monopoly
over northwestern railroads.
• In 1904 the company would be
dissolved.
• The Roosevelt administration
would file some 44 suits against
various trust.
• The significance of the progressive era
is not just reforms that came into being
but the precedent for an activist
presidency.
• Roosevelt took office and unlike past
presidents set the national agenda.
• There was little intervention into
domestic affairs.
• Roosevelt expanded the role of the
president.
1902 Coal Strike
• When 140,000 coal miners in
Pennsylvania went on strike
demanding a 20% raise and a nine
hour work day and the right to
organize a union, the mine
operators refused to bargain.
• Five months went on and the coal
supply was running low in the U.S.
• President Roosevelt call both sides
into the White House to talk and
settle the strike.
• Faced with Roosevelt’s threat to take over the mines
the opposing sides finally submitted the differences to
an arbitration commission a third party that would
work with both sides to mediate the dispute.
• The miners won a 10% raise and a shorter work day.
• They had to give up their demand for a close shop
(workers must belong to a union) and right to strike
over the next three years.
• The significance of this 1902 strike- The federal
government was expected to play a more active role
in settling labor disputes.
Health and Environment
• Roosevelt’s enthusiasm and his considerable skill at
compromise led to laws and policies that benefited
both public health and environment.
• After reading The Jungle Roosevelt responded to
public’s demand for action in the meat packing
industry.
• In 1906 Roosevelt pushed for the passage of the
Meat Inspection Act which dictated strict
cleanliness requirements for meatpackers and
created a program of federal meat inspection.
• In 1906 Congress also passed the Pure Food and
Drug Act which halted the sale of contaminated
foods an medicines and called for the truth in
labeling.
Conservation
• Roosevelt condemned the view that
American’s resources were endless
and made conservation a primary
concern.
• Roosevelt helped to establish a
strong conservation movement in
the United States.
• Under the National Reclamation Act
of 1902 money from the sale of
public lands in West funded largescale irrigation projects such as the
Roosevelt Dam.
Roosevelt and Civil Rights
• Roosevelt like most other progressives
failed to support the civil right of the
African-Americans.
• Despite opposition of whites Roosevelt
appoint an African American as head of
the Charleston, S.C. customhouse.
• When Mississippi refused to accept the
black postmistress he had appointed he
closed the postal station.
• In 1909 W.E.B. Du Bois helped
to establish the (National
Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People) NAACP and enter the
forefront of the early U.S. civil
rights movement.
• The Niagara Movement was
compromised of 29 black
intellectuals who met secretly
in 1905 to compose a civil
rights manifesto.
Progressivism Under Taft
• William Howard Taft’s ambivalent
approach to progressive reform led to a
split in the Republican Party and loss of
the presidency to Democrats.
• In 1904 Roosevelt pledged not to run for
reelection in 1908.
• He handpicked his Secretary of War
William Howard Taft.
• His slogan “Vote for Taft this time, You
can vote for Bryan any time,” Taft and
the Republicans won an easy victory.
Taft Stumbles
• As president Taft pursued a cautiously progressive agenda
seek to consolidate rather than to expand Roosevelt’s
reforms.
• Taft had campaigned on a platform of lowering tariffs a
staple of the progressive agenda.
• The House passed the Payne Bill which lowered rates on
imported manufactured goods the Senate then proposed an
alternate bill the Aldrich Bill which made fewer cuts and
increased many rates.
• This led to cries of betrayal so as a compromise Taft signed
the Payne-Aldrich Tariff that only moderated the high rates
of the Aldrich Bill.
• Taft would next anger the
conservationist by appointing
Richard Ballinger as the
Secretary of Interior.
• Reason for the conservationists
being so angry over his
appointment was that he didn’t
approve of conserving the
western lands, he permitted the
sale of reserved lands to business
interests.
The Republican Party Splits
• By the mid-term election of 1910 the
Republican Party was in shambles with
the progressives on one side and the
“old guard” on the other.
• Voters voiced concern over the rising
coast of living.
• They also blamed Taft for being against
conservation.
• The Republicans lost control of the
House the first time in 18 years.
Bull Moose Party
• By 1912 Roosevelt had decided to run for a third
term as president.
• The primary election showed the Republicans
wanted Roosevelt but Taft had the advantage of
being the incumbent.
• Taft would win the Republican nomination.
• The Progressives refused to vote and formed a third
party- they nominated Roosevelt the party would be
known as the Bull Moose Party.
Democrats Win in 1912
• The Democrats had their first chance
to win the presidency since 1892
when Grover Cleveland won the
presidency.
• The candidate was a reform governor
of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson.
• With the Republican Party being
split it allowed Woodrow Wilson to
win the election of 1912.
Wilson’s New Freedom
• Wilson established a strong reform
agenda as a progressive leader.
• Passage of the 19th Amendment during
Wilson’s administration granted women
the right to vote.
• The Clayton Antitrust Act benefited labor
union by recognizing the legality of the
unions, strikes, peaceful picketing,
boycotts, and strike benefits.
• During Wilson’s administration
Congress enacted on two key
antitrust measures.
1. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.
2. Prohibited corporation from
acquiring the stocks of another
creating a monopoly.
• Ratified in 1913 the 16th Amendment
legalized a federal income tax which
provided revenue by taxing individual
earnings and corporate profits.
• A combination of factors helped in
women getting the right to vote.
1.Women’s growing experience in the
public realm.
2.Their economic and social power.
3.Their importance in the war effort.
• Wilson like Roosevelt and Taft pushed
aggressively for economic and political
reforms but retreated on civil rights
issues.
• Swayed by Southern upbringing and the
support of northern whites Wilson
refused to expand the civil rights of
African Americans.