The Progressive Era

1
Chapter 21

• The Progressive Era
• 1900-1917

2
Introduction

• This chapter covers
• Economic and social changes
• Problems caused by industrialization and
  urbanization
• How the Progressive reform movement emerged to
  wrestle with these problems/changes

3
Introduction (cont.)

• An example
• The unsafe and unsanitary conditions in which
  millions of workers labored produced tragedies
• Such as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire in
  which 141 sweatshop employees died
• After the Fire, aroused Progressives convinced
  New York State to enact many labor protective laws

4
Introduction (cont.)

• 1.) How did intellectuals and writers prepare the
  way for Progressive reform?
• 2.) What conditions in the cities and states
  bothered Progressives, and what did they hope to
  do about them?
• 3.) How did Progressive reform reach national
  politics, and which leaders and issues were
  involved?

5
Introduction (cont.)

• 4.) What impact did Progressive reform have on
  the lives of women, immigrants, the urban poor,
  and African-Americans?
• 5.) Did progressivism alter peoples views on the
  proper role of govt. in Americas society and
  economy?

6
Progressives and Their Ideas

• The Many Faces of Progressivism
• Progressive reformers included much of the new
  urban middle class
• Mostly white, native-born Protestants
• Middle-class women (often college educated)
• Working through settlement houses and private
  organizations (National Consumers League)
• Urban, immigrant political machines and workers
  began to demand improved labor conditions

7
The Many Faces of Progressivism (cont.)

• The Progressives were strongest in the cities
• Attracted support from middle-class professionals
  and intellectuals
• Most Progressives accepted the capitalist system
• They merely wanted to reform the worst abuses
  that had developed under it

8
The Many Faces of Progressivism (cont.)

• There was never 1 unified movement, but many
  different groups of reformers
• Some preached regulation of big businesses
• Others concentrated on passing laws to protect
  workers
• Others thought the way to cure social ills was to
  curtail immigration

9
The Many Faces of Progressivism (cont.)

• Progressives generally attempted to be
  scientific in their approach
• Backed their demands for change with scholarly
  studies of deplorable conditions to be remedied

10
Intellectuals Offer New Social Views

• Many intellectuals criticized unrestrained,
  brutal capitalist competition
• They called for an activist govt. that would
  regulate business practices and protect the
  economically vulnerable
• Thorstein Veblen (economist)
• Herbert Croly (journalist)
• William James (pragmatic philosopher)
• Jane Addams (settlement-house leader)

11
Intellectuals Offer New Social Views (cont.)

• New educational and legal ideas paved the way for
  the Progressive movement
• John Dewey
• Preached that schools must foster in students
  respect for the values of democracy and
  cooperation
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• Supreme Court Justice
• Attacked conservative judges for being guided
  entirely by legal precedent
• He insisted that the law must evolve as society
  changes

12
Dewey and Holmes
13
Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight
Social Problems

• Muckraking journalists and novelists played an
  important role in stimulating the Progressive
  movement by exposing to middle-class Americans
  political corruption and corporate wrongdoing

14
Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight
Social Problems (cont.)

• Lincoln Steffens
• Wrote about urban political machines and bosses
• Ida Tarbell
• Cutthroat competitive practices of Standard Oil
  Company

15
Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight
Social Problems (cont.)

• Magazines such as McClures and Colliers
  specialized in muckraking articles
• Novelists Frank Norris in The Octopus and
  Theodore Dreiser in The Financier also told tales
  of business abuses and political corruption

16
Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight
Social Problems (cont.)

• Ashcan School artists and photographers such as
  Lewis Hine depicted the harsh world of the
  immigrants, factory workers and child laborers

17
State and Local Progressivism

• Reforming the Political Process
• The earliest signs of the Progressive movement
  appeared in cities where municipal reformers
  battled corrupt political machines
• These cities elected activist mayors dedicated to
  change
• Hazen Pingree of Detroit
• Samuel Jones of Toledo
• Reform mayors generally
• brought honesty to municipal govt.
• Provided city dwellers with improved municipal
  services and facilities
• Forced transportation and utility companies to
  lower rates and pay their fair share of taxes

18
Reforming the Political Process (cont.)

• Other municipal reformers experimented with
  commission and city-manager forms of govt.

19
Reforming the Political Process (cont.)

• The reform efforts soon moved up to state govt.
• Progressives attempted to democratize politics by
  establishing
• secret balloting
• direct primary
• initiative
• referendum
• recall
• In practice these measures fell short of
  producing the democratic results that the
  Progressives had hoped

20
Regulating Business, Protecting Workers

• After 1900, the growth of huge business
  corporation speeded up
• Example in 1901 J.P. Morgan consolidated
  hundreds of independent steel makers to form the
  U.S. Steel Company which controlled 80 of
  production in the nation
• This trend alarmed many Americans

21
Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.)

• The real wages of industrial laborers rose after
  1900
• They were still so inadequate that in many
  families the mothers and children had to work to
  make ends meet
• In 1910 at least 1.6 million youngsters between
  10-16 years old worked full-time

22
Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.)

• Industrial laborers spent on average 9 1/2 hours
  a day in mills and shops
• Often in hazardous conditions (both in health and
  safety)
• Employers tried to get even more work out of
  their employees
• Frederick W. Taylor and other efficiency experts

23
Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.)

• Under Progressive influence, state govts. started
  to impose regulation on railroads, mines, and
  other business corporation
• The pioneer was WI under Governor Robert
  LaFollette

24
Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.)

• Between 1901 and 1906 LaFollette convinced the
  legislature to
• create a state railroad commission
• increase corporate taxes
• limit business contributions to political
  campaigns
• He and the legislature also introduced political
  reforms such as the direct primary
• Wisconsin Idea

25
Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.)

• Other states passed important labor laws as well
• Maximum of hours per workday for female
  employees
• Oregons 10-hour law
• Factory safety codes
• Such as the one enacted in NY after the Triangle
  Shirtwaist fire
• Workers compensation acts
• Bans on child labor

26
Making Cities More Livable

• Cities grew rapidly between 1900 and 1920 as
  rural Americans and millions of immigrants moved
  into them
• Overwhelmed and often corrupt municipal govts.
  failed to provide the newcomers with adequate
  services and public facilities

27
Making Cities More Livable (cont.)

• Progressive reformers began to beautify cities
  with
• more parks and playgrounds
• Broad boulevards
• Impressive municipal buildings
• State legislatures passed housing coded to
  upgrade living conditions in tenements and slum
  neighborhoods

28
Making Cities More Livable (cont.)

• Cities and states improved
• Garbage collection
• Street cleaning
• Water and sewer systems
• And required higher standards
• of cleanliness
• Of quality form sellers of food and milk
• These Progressive reforms significantly decreased
  infant mortality and tuberculosis deaths

29
Making Cities More Livable (cont.)

• There were also attempts to reduce air pollution
• Business fought these vigorously
• The continued reliance on coal as the chief
  energy source left cities smoky and sooty

30
Progressivism and Social Control

• Moral Control in the Cities
• Some reformers tried to guard morality by
  inducing cities to censor movies and outlaw
  prostitution
• A wave of hysteria over prostitution led to the
  passage of the federal Mann Act (1910) and the
  close of red-light districts

31
Battling Alcohol and Drugs

• Prohibition became the biggest moral crusade of
  the Progressive Era
• Anti-Saloon League, Womens Christian Temperance
  Union, various church groups
• Many localities enacted bans on liquor sales
• The national prohibition movement grew stronger

32
Battling Alcohol and Drugs (cont.)

• Progressives also campaigned against the
  then-widespread use of such addictive drugs as
  morphine, heroin, and cocaine
• Their efforts led to the passage of the federal
  Narcotics Act in 1914
• Outlawed the distribution of heroin, morphine,
  and cocaine except by doctors prescriptions

33
Immigration Restriction and Eugenics

• Between 1900-1917, 17 million immigrants entered
  the U.S.A.
• Mostly from southern and eastern Europe
• Many native-born Americans became fearful
• They often believed that immigrants caused
  poverty and immorality

34
Immigration Restriction and Eugenics (cont.)

• Immigration Restriction League
• 1894
• Founded by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other
  prominent Bostonians
• In 1971 Congress excluded illiterate immigrants
• Over President Wilsons veto

35
Immigration Restriction and Eugenics (cont.)

• Eugenicists claimed that humans and society could
  be improved by controlled breeding
• Some states passed laws allowing forced
  sterilization of criminals, mentally deficient
  persons, and sex offenders
• Pseudo-scientific racism was spewed by some
  so-called progressive writers
• Madison Grant--The Passing of the Great Race
  (1916)

36
Racism and Progressivism

• In 1900 the majority of the 10 million
  African-Americans were still in the rural South
• Most as sharecroppers
• Many began to migrate to cities and to the North
• Escape poverty, disenfranchisement, Jim Crow
  laws, and violence

37
Racism and Progressivism (cont.)

• In the North they encountered de factor
  segregation and discrimination
• Under these difficult circumstances,
  African-Americans developed their own communities
  and culture
• Racism in American society reached a peak during
  the Progressive Era
• Many progressives either ignored racial
  discrimination or were themselves racists

38
Racism and Progressivism (cont.)

• Southern Progressives combined advocacy of
  economic and political reform with vicious
  attacks on African-Americans
• James K. Vardaman and Ben Tillman
• The 2 Progressive-reformer presidents of the era
  compiled sorry records on racial justice
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Woodrow Wilson

39
Racism and Progressivism (cont.)

• Roosevelt ordered the unwarranted dishonorable
  discharge of an entire regiment of
  African-American soldiers in the Brownsville,
  Texas, incident
• Wilson praised the racist movie Birth of a Nation
  and condoned the introduction of racial
  segregation in all federal govt. agencies and
  departments

40
Racism and Progressivism (cont.)

• Some white progressives decried racial injustice
  and helped found the National Association for the
  Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• Lillian Wald and Mary White

41
African-Americans, Women, and Workers Organize

• African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism
• Booker T. Washington
• Americas best-know black leader between
  1890-1915
• Advised blacks to concentrate on economic
  advancement through vocational education
• Accept the Souths Jim Crow and
  disenfranchisement laws

42
African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism
(cont.)

• Northern African-Americans intellectuals and
  professionals urged African-Americans to fight
  for economic, political, and educational equality
• William Monroe Trotter
• Ida Wells-Barnett
• W.E.B. DuBois

43
Trotter, Wells, DuBois
44
African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism
(cont.)

• Niagara Movement
• 1905
• DuBois and other African-American critics of
  Washington formed
• In 1909, DuBois and other members of the Niagara
  Movement joined with white Progressives in
  organizing the NAACP
• Rejected Booker T. Washingtons accommodations
  advice
• Began the long fight for racial justice

45
Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement

• A new group of feminists emerged to revitalize
  the womens movement
• Carrie Chapman Catt
• Became president of the National American Woman
  Suffrage Association in 1900

46
Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement (cont.)

• Catt led her members in lobbying, distributing
  literature, and demonstrating
• They convinced several states to grant women the
  vote

47
Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement (cont.)

• Alice Paul
• National Womans Party
• Bring direct pressure on the federal govt. for
  passage of a constitutional amendment
  enfranchising women

48
Enlarging Womans Sphere

• Feminists challenged the assumption that the only
  proper roles for women were those of wife,
  mother, and homemaker
• Florence Kelley, Alice Hamilton, Margaret Sanger
• Led the Progressives drives to
• abolish child labor
• Protect the health of workers and consumers
• Establish birth-control clinics

49
Workers Organize Socialism Advances

• To improve their working environment, workers
  kept trying to unionize
• Their right to strike was frequently curtailed by
  conservative court decisions
• Employers often hired recent immigrants as scabs
  when employees went on strike

50
Workers Organize Socialism Advances (cont.)

• American Federal of Labor (AFL) grew primarily in
  the skilled trades
• Most factory workers were unorganized early on
• 2 unions attempted to help semiskilled and
  unskilled workers
• International Ladies Garment Workers Union
• Led successful strikes in the needle trades
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

51
Workers Organize Socialism Advances (cont.)

• The IWW singed up western miners, lumberjacks,
  and migratory farm workers
• IWW won a major strike in 1912 in the textile
  mills of MA
• Govt. repression of the IWW during WWI caused the
  decline of the organization

52
Workers Organize Socialism Advances (cont.)

• The Socialist Party of America was gaining
  followers
• Hoped to end capitalism through the ballot box
  rather than revolution
• Eugene Debs
• Ran for president in 1912 and received 900,000
  votes

53
National Progressivism--Phase I Roosevelt and
Taft, 1901-1913

• Roosevelts Path to the White House
• Became President in 1901 after McKinley was
  assassinated
• Became the first Progressive president

54
Roosevelts Path to the White House (cont.)

• A believer in strong executive leadership,
  Roosevelt enlarged the powers of the presidency
• Turned the office into both an effective forum
  and the center of legislative initiative

55
Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, and Railroad
Regulation

• Unlike earlier presidents who used troops to
  break strikes, Roosevelt like to use arbitration
• Example coal miners strike of 1902
• Management and the United Mine Workers used
  arbitration by a commission Roosevelt appointed
• The commission granted the miners increased pay
  and reduced hours

56
Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, and Railroad
Regulation (cont.)

• Roosevelt did not want to attack big business
• He preached that corporate giants must obey the
  law and serve the public interest
• He prosecuted firms that he believed violated the
  Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Northern Securities Company
• Despite his trustbusting, he stayed on good terms
  with big business

57
Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, and Railroad
Regulation (cont.)

• 1904 election, Roosevelt easily won over
  conservative Democratic opponent, Alton B. Parker
• Hepburn Act
• 1906
• Strengthened corporate regulation
• Gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the
  power to set maximum railroad rates and examine
  railroads financial records

58
Consumer Protection

• Responding to public concern generated by Upton
  Sinclairs The Jungle, Roosevelt persuaded
  Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act
  (1906) and the Meat Inspection Act (1906)
• Pure Food and Drug Act
• Meat Inspection Act

59
Environmentalism Progressive Style

• Roosevelt made his most enduring reforms in
  conservation
• Years of exploitation for private gain had
  damaged and depleted Americas natural
  environment
• By the 1890s, land use had become a political
  issue
• Putting business interests, preservationists, and
  conservationists against each other

60
Environmentalism Progressive Style (cont.)

• Entrepreneurs wanted to continue unrestricted
  development for private enrichment
• Preservationists wished to save large wilderness
  tracts for their beauty and spiritual worth
• John Muir and the Sierra Club
• Conservation movement sought govt. scientific
  management to make the public domain best serve
  the resource needs of the nation now and in the
  future
• Gifford Pinchot (Roosevelts Forest Service chief)

61
Environmentalism Progressive Style (cont.)

• At times, the preservationists and the
  conservationists engaged in bitter combat
• Example the 1913 fight over the building of a
  dam in a beautiful part of Yosemite National Park
  to provide water and hydroelectric power for San
  Francisco

62
Environmentalism Progressive Style (cont.)

• Roosevelt used the presidency to popularize both
  conservation and preservation
• Newlands Act of 1902
• Important in the economic development of the West
• Set aside about 200 million acres of forest and
  mineral-rich lands for government-managed use
  rather than sale to business
• Antiquities Act (1906)
• National historical landmarks
• Established national parks

63
Environmentalism Progressive Style (cont.)

• In 1916, during Wilsons administration, Congress
  established the National Park Service to protect
  and run the national historic sites, monuments,
  and parks

64
Taft in the White House, 1909-1913

• William Howard Taft was Roosevelts secretary of
  war
• Won 1908 election over William Jennings Bryan
• Pledged to continue Roosevelts Square Deal

65
Taft in the White House, 1909-1913 (cont.)

• Taft prosecuted more trusts than Roosevelt had
• Taft, though, lacked Roosevelts activism, flair
  for publicity, and political skills

66
Taft in the White House, 1909-1913 (cont.)

• In the fight shaping up between the progressive
  and conservative wings of the Republican party,
  Taft sided with the conservatives
• Taft alienated progressive Republicans by
• Signing the Payne-Aldrich bill
• Raised tariffs
• Fired conservationist Gifford Pinchot

67
Taft in the White House, 1909-1913 (cont.)

• Progressive Republicans joined with Roosevelt in
  denouncing the conservatives and campaigned for
  revived Progressive reform

68
The Four-Way Election of 1912

• In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt challenged Taft for
  the Republican nomination
• The convention chose Taft
• Roosevelts backers walked out and founded the
  rival Progressive Party and nominated Roosevelt
• The Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson
• Socialists nominated Eugene Debs

69
The Four-Way Election of 1912 (cont.)

• New Nationalism
• Roosevelts platform
• Accept big business as inevitable
• But build a powerful activist federal govt. to
  regulate the corporate giants
• New Freedom
• Wilsons platform
• Rejected big govt. in Washington
• Called for a return to an economy composed of
  small, competing enterprise

70
The Four-Way Election of 1912 (cont.)

• Wilson won the White House
• Democrats also won Congress

71
National Progressivism--Phase II Woodrow
Wilson, 1913-1917

• Introduction
• Woodrow Wilson had been a political science
  professor and president of Princeton University
• Then he became Governor of NJ
• Skilled and flexible politician
• But sometimes was intolerant and self-righteous

72
Introduction (cont.)

• Despite Wilsons stated preference for small
  business and limited govt. in the 1912 election,
  as president he led the effort to use govt. to
  address the problems of the new corporate order.

73
Tariff and Banking Reform

• Wilson convinced Congress to pass the 1913
  Underwood-Simmons Tariff
• Reduced import duties by roughly 15
• Federal Reserve Act
• 1913
• Kept banking a private enterprise but imposed
  public regulation over it
• 12 regional Federal Reserve banks
• Empowered to expand the nations credit and money
  supply
• Could issue Federal Reserve notes
• Under the supervision of the Federal Reserve
  Board
• Appointed by the president

74
Regulating Business Aiding Workers and Farmers

• Federal Trade Commission
• 1914
• Federal regulatory agency
• Power to uncover unfair methods of business
  competition
• Then issue cease and desist orders against
  perpetrators

75
Regulating Business Aiding Workers and Farmers
(cont.)

• Clayton Act
• 1914
• Supplemented the vague and general Sherman
  Anti-Trust Act
• Defined and listed specific illegal practices

76
Regulating Business Aiding Workers and Farmers
(cont.)

• Wilson endorsed the clause in the Clayton Act
  exempting union strikes, boycotts, and picketing
  from prosecution under the antitrust laws

77
Regulating Business Aiding Workers and Farmers
(cont.)

• He also signed the following into law
• Keating-Owen Act
• 1916
• Child labor law with interstate commerce
• Later declared unconstitutional
• Adamson Act
• 1916
• 8-hour day for railroad workers
• Workmens Compensation Act
• For federal employees
• Legislation to help farmers obtain loans at lower
  interest rates

78
Progressivism and the Constitution

• Wilson nominated to the Supreme Court Progressive
  Jewish attorney Louis Brandeis
• Conservatives and anti-Semites objected
• Wilson persuaded the Senate to confirm Brandeis

79
Progressivism and the Constitution (cont.)

• The Progressive Era saw 4 amendments added to the
  U.S. Constitution
• 16th (1913)
• Authorized a federal income tax
• 17th (1913)
• Popular or direct election of senators
• 18th (1919)
• Prohibition
• 19th (1920)
• Women suffrage

80
1916 Wilson Edges Out Hughes

• Democrats renominated Wilson
• Republicans ran Charles Evans Hughes
• Wilson won in a close race

81
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82
Conclusion

• Some Progressive reforms did less good than their
  backers had hoped
• Progressivism had some repressive and intolerant
  elements
• The movement as a whole left a legacy of govt.
  intervention to
• regulate destructive corporate practices
• protect the economically vulnerable
• improved social problems arising from
  industrialization
• It was a precedent on which the New Deal would
  later build