Chapter 21The Progressive Era1900-1917

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• 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

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

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

The Many Faces of Progressivism• 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

• There was never one 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• Progressives generally attempted to be “scientific” in their

approach• Backed their demands for change with scholarly studies of

deplorable conditions to be remedied

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)

Intellectuals Offer New Social Views

• 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”

Dewey and Holmes

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

Novelists, Journalists, and Artists Spotlight Social Problems

• Lincoln Steffens• Wrote about urban

political machines and bosses

• Ida Tarbell• Cutthroat competitive

practices of Standard Oil Company

Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight Social Problems • Magazines such as McClure’s and Collier’s 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• “Ashcan School” artists and photographers such as Lewis

Hine depicted the harsh world of the immigrants, factory workers and child laborers

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• Other municipal reformers experimented with

commission and city-manager forms of govt.

Reforming the Political Process • 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

Regulating Business, Protecting Workers• After 1900, the growth of huge business corporation sped 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• 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

• 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 expert

Regulating Business, Protecting Workers • Under Progressive

influence, state govt’s. started to impose regulation on railroads, mines, and other business corporation• The pioneer was WI

under Governor Robert LaFollette

Regulating Business, Protecting Workers • 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”

Regulating Business, Protecting Workers • Other states passed important labor laws as

well:• Maximum # of hours per workday for female

employees• Oregon’s 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

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

• 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

Making Cities More Livable • 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

• 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

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

Battling Alcohol and Drugs

• Prohibition became the biggest moral crusade of the Progressive Era• Anti-Saloon League, Women’s Christian

Temperance Union, various church groups• Many localities enacted bans on liquor sales• The national prohibition movement grew

stronger

Battling Alcohol and Drugs

• 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

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• Immigration Restriction League• 1894• Founded by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other prominent

Bostonians

Immigration Restriction and Eugenics • 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)

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• 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

Racism and Progressivism

• 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

Racism and Progressivism• 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• Some white progressives decried racial injustice and

helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)• Lillian Wald and Mary White

African-Americans, Women, and Workers Organize

• African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism• Booker T. Washington• America’s best-know black

leader between 1890-1915• Advised blacks to concentrate

on economic advancement through vocational education• Accept the South’s Jim Crow and

disenfranchisement laws

African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism • 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

African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism • 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. Washington’s accommodations

advice• Began the long fight for racial justice

Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement

• A new group of feminists emerged to revitalize the women’s movement• Carrie Chapman Catt• Became president of the National

American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900

• Catt led her members in lobbying, distributing literature, and demonstrating

• They convinced several states to grant women the vote

Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement• Alice Paul• National Woman’s Party• Bring direct pressure on

the federal govt. for passage of a constitutional amendment enfranchising women

Enlarging “Woman’s 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

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

Workers Organize: Socialism Advances • 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)• 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

Workers Organize: Socialism Advances• 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

National Progressivism--Phase I: Roosevelt and Taft, 1901-1913• Roosevelt’s Path to the White

House• Became President in 1901 after

McKinley was assassinated• Became the first Progressive

president• 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

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

Labor Disputes, Trustbusting, and Railroad Regulation • 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

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

Consumer Protection• Responding to public concern generated by

Upton Sinclair’s 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

Environmentalism Progressive Style

• Roosevelt made his most enduring reforms in conservation• Years of exploitation for private gain had

damaged and depleted America’s natural environment• By the 1890’s, land use had become a political

issue• Putting business interests, preservationists, and

conservationists against each other

Environmentalism Progressive Style

• 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 (Roosevelt’s Forest Service chief)

Environmentalism Progressive Style • 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

Environmentalism Progressive Style

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

Taft in the White House, 1909-1913• William Howard Taft was

Roosevelt’s secretary of war• Won 1908 election over William

Jennings Bryan• Pledged to continue Roosevelt’s

Square Deal• Taft prosecuted more trusts than

Roosevelt had• Taft, though, lacked Roosevelt’s

activism, flair for publicity, and political skills

Taft in the White House, 1909-1913

• 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

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

The Four-Way Election of 1912

• In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican nomination• The convention chose Taft• Roosevelt’s backers walked out and founded the

rival Progressive Party and nominated Roosevelt• The Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson• Socialists nominated Eugene Debs

The Four-Way Election of 1912 • “New Nationalism”• Roosevelt’s platform• Accept big business as inevitable • But build a powerful activist federal govt. to regulate

the corporate giants• New Freedom• Wilson’s platform• Rejected big govt. in Washington• Called for a return to an economy composed of small,

competing enterprise• Wilson won the White House• Democrats also won Congress

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

Introduction

• Despite Wilson’s 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.”

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 nation’s credit and money supply• Could issue Federal Reserve notes• Under the supervision of the Federal Reserve Board• Appointed by the president

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

Regulating Business; Aiding Workers and Farmers • Clayton Anti-Trust Act• 1914• Supplemented the vague and general

Sherman Anti-Trust Act• Defined and listed specific illegal practices•Wilson endorsed the clause in the

Clayton Act exempting union strikes, boycotts, and picketing from prosecution under the antitrust laws

Regulating Business; Aiding Workers and Farmers • 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

• Workmen’s Compensation Act• For federal employees

• Legislation to help farmers obtain loans at lower interest rates

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

Progressivism and the Constitution

• 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

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