The Progressive Era

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The Progressive Era

• Reform shifts from the farm to the city and
  climbs the ladder of government from the local to
  the state and then to the national level.

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I. The Problems of the 1890s

• Huge Gap between rich and poor
• Tremendous economic and political power of the
  rich
• Wealthy were insensitively flaunting their wealth
  before a poorer public

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I. Problems of the 1890s (cont.)

• Industrial workers hideously poor, living in
  squalor and working in dangerous conditions
• Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives (1890)
• Little concern for Black America

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Origins of Progressivism

• Antimonopoly appealed to lower and middle class
  alike
• Belief in social cohesion
• Increasing faith in knowledge

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II. Progressive Reformers
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A. Streams of Reform

• The Social Gospel movement salvation through
  reform
• --Walter Rauschenbusch Christianity and the
  Social Crisis (1907) (Protestant)
• Settlement House Workers
• --Jane Addams, Hull House in Chicago (1889)
• Americans of Old Wealth (Nurture)

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A. Streams of Reform (cont.)

• Young, socially-conscious lawyers
• Investigative Journalists
• -- Muckrakers
• --Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Upton
  Sinclair
• Small businessmen

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B. Features of Progressive Reform

• Desire to remedy problems through government
  initiative
• Reliance on experts
• -- Robert Lafollettes Wisconsin Idea
• Wanted reform not revolution
• Stressed the importance of efficiency in reform
• --Frederick W. Taylor

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B. Features of Progressive Reform (cont.)

• Want to bring order out of chaos
• --Creation of NCAA in 1910
• --Federal Budget (1921)
• Desire to make politics more democratic
• Desire to make businessmen more responsible for
  problems

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B. Features of Progressive Reform (cont.)

• Desire to make society more moral and more just
• Desire to distribute income more equitably
• Desire to broaden opportunities for individual
  advancement
• Women were active in progressivism
• --Suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony

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B. Features of Progressive Reform (cont.)

• Infiltrated both political parties
• -- Republican insurgents
• Middle-class reform movement
• Operated on all three levels of government

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III. Sample Progressive Reforms
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African Americans and Reform

• Booker T. Washington Work on self improvement
• W.E.B. Dubois Demand more, mainly for talented
  African Americans (The Souls of Black Folk)
• Marcus Garvey Advocated a global African pride
  movement. Eventually inspired Rastafarianism,
  Nation of Islam

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African American Migration 1910-1930

• To escape the Jim Crow South
• Boll weevil infestation ruined crops
• Northern industrial war economy jobs
• WWI and Immigration Act of 1924 halted flow of
  new, immigrant labor
• About 1.6 million African-Americans moved to
  north to industrial, urban areas

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Civil Rights Organizations

• NAACP formed in 1905 Dubois led it
• Used the courts to advance civil rights, attack
  segregation laws, and to overturn voting
  restrictions
• Used the talented 10th to gain positions of
  full equality for accomplished blacks

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A. Political Reforms

• Tried to put more power into the hands of the
  people
• Innovative changes in city government
• --city managers and commission model
• The Direct Primary
• Initiative, Referendum and Recall
• The Secret Ballot
• Direct Election of Senators and the Vote for Women

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B. Social Reforms

• Child labor laws
• Ten-hour work days
• --The Brandeis brief
• --Muller v. Oregon (1908)
• --Bunting v. Oregon (1917)
• Prohibition initiatives
• Moral Purity campaigns
• --Mann Act (1910)

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B. Social Reforms (cont.)

• Minimum safety standards on the job
• Minimum standards for housing codes
• City Beautification movement
• Immigration Restriction
• Eugenics
• --Buck v. Bell (1927)
• Little Help for Blacks
• --NAACP (1909)
• -- Birth of a Nation

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The Dream of Socialism

• Anti-corporate forces challenged capitalism
• Some sought to own utilities, regulate RRs and
  even own some major corporations
• 1912, Eugene Debs received 1 million votes
• Socialists won 1,000 state and local offices
• Varied widely in approach on how radical
• IWW (Wobblies) were radicalstrikes

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Centralia Massacre
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IV. Progressive Amendments to the Constitution

• Progressive reliance on the law
• 16th Amendment (1913)federal income tax
• 17th Amendment (1913)direct election of senators
• 18th Amendment (1919)prohibition
• 19th Amendment (1920)vote for women

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V. Presidential Progressivism Theodore Roosevelt

• Great drive, energy and exciting personality
• TRs interests and early years
• NYC police commissioner
• Spanish-American War experience
• -- Rough Riders
• Political Rise from NY Governor to Vice-President

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A. First Term as President (1901-1904)

• McKinleys assassination
• Offered energetic national leadership
• Cast every issue in moral and patriotic terms
• --The Bully Pulpit
• Master Politician
• Modest goals for his accidental presidency

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B. Trust-Buster?

• TRs attitude toward Big Business
• Wants to regulate in order to get businesses to
  act right
• The Square Deal (1902)
• Making an example of the Northern Securities Co.
• The Elkins Act (1903) and the Bureau of
  Corporations

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C. Second Term as President (1905-1909)

• More vigorous progressivism
• Hepburn Act (1906)
• Federal Meat Inspection Act (1906)
• Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
• Conservation Policy
• --Preservation vs. Conservation

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VI. A Tough Act to Follow The Presidency of
William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

• The Election of 1908
• Tafts political experience
• Tafts weight
• Not a dynamic politician
• Never completely comfortable as President

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VI. Presidency of Taft (cont.)

• Controversy over the Tariff
• More conservative than TR, but also more trust
  suits
• The Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
• Growing tension with Teddy Roosevelt

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VII. The Election of 1912

• Growing split within the Republican Party
• Creation of the Bull Moose Party
• Progressive Party Platform New Nationalism
• Democrats drafted Woodrow Wilson
• Results of the Election

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VIII. Democratic Progressivism The Presidency
of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

• Wilsons early life and political career
• True progressive and dynamic speaker
• Sympathetic to small businessmen
• Could be a stubborn, moral crusader and ideologue

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A. New Freedom

• Wilsons brand of progressivism
• Wants to recreate the golden age of small
  American businesses
• Wilson wants to open channels for free and fair
  competition
• Historic Jeffersonian approach to federal power

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B. Key Wilsonian Legislation

• Underwood Tariff Act (1913)
• Federal Reserve Act (1913)
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)
• Federal Trade Commission (1914)

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C. Congressional Progressivism After 1914

• Wilson was not a strong progressive when it came
  to social reform
• Congress takes over the progressive agenda
• Appointment of Brandeis to Supreme Court
• Examples of congressional progressive legislation
  after 1914
• --Federal Highways Act (1916)

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IX. The Waning of the Progressive Movement

• Progressive movement peaks by 1917
• Success of the movement led to its decline
• Advent of World War I also hurt progressive
  activism
• Progressives themselves began to weary of their
  reform zealas did the nation as a whole
• Ironically, voter participation has steadily
  declined since the election of 1912