The Progressive EraCHAPTER 9

9.1 The Origins of ProgressivismPP. 306-312

The Four Goals of Progressivism

1. Protecting Social Welfare

2. Promoting Moral Improvement

3. Creating Economic Reform

4. Fostering Efficiency

Protecting Social Welfare

Help improve working conditions.

Social Gospel and Settlement Houses.

YMCA and Salvation Army help feed the homeless and urban poor.

Florence Kelley helps improve working conditions for women and children.

Promoting Moral Improvement

Help fix the moral problems of society by supporting Prohibition, or the banning of alcohol. Woman’s Christian Temperance Movement would use the Bible to

support banning alcohol.

Anti-Saloon League urged saloons to close.

Problems with immigrants who reject Prohibition and the Temperance movement.

Ineffective Propaganda, or, How to Turn Men into Alcoholics

Creating Economic Reform

Journalists known as muckrakers exposed unethical business practices. Ida Tarbell wrote The History of the Standard Oil Company which

exposed John D. Rockefeller’s business practices.

Lincoln Steffens exposed corruption in businesses and governments, and is considered to be the most impactful muckraker, writing The Shame of the Cities and The Struggle for Self-Government.

Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, which is arguably the most important novel of the Progressive Era. Though fictional, it exposed the horrific working conditions of the meatpacking industry.

Text pp. 326-327

Fostering Efficiency

How does a business increase productivity in the workplace?

The Brandeis Brief, written by Louis D. Brandeis, used scientific data and statistics to determine that long hours hurt productivity of both businesses and society.

Frederick Winslow Taylor’s philosophy of Taylorism sought to break manufacturing processes into smaller, separate, simpler tasks and became the basis of scientific management. Eventually this leads to the business field known as Operations

Management.

Henry Ford is the first to make the 8 hour work day.

Cleaning Up Local Government

Local mayors, 19 of them Socialist throughout the country, introduced progressive tax reform, lowered mass transit fares, and ended corruption.

Reform at the State Level

Robert La Follette was the governor of Wisconsin before serving as a Senator for the state. La Follette begins the regulation of big businesses to get them out of

politics.

Goes after the railroads, regulating various rates.

The Keating-Owen Act of 1916 bans the sale of goods produced by child labor across state lines. Though the act was declared unconstitutional in 1918, child labor

was effectively ended, and maximum work hours were set.

The Supreme Court overheard the case of Muller vs. Oregon which set a max 10 hour workday for women. Bunting vs. Oregon upholds a max 10 hour workday for men.

Reforming Elections and the 17th Amendment

States begin to reform the way elections are held. The initiative allowed for citizens to place a bill on a ballot rather

than politicians.

The referendum was the proceeding vote that took place on the bill in a state election.

The recall allowed for special elections to take place that could remove a public official from office before the end of their term.

The 17th Amendment was passed by Congress and allowed for the direct election of Senators by the citizens of a state. Before the 17th Amendment, Senators were chosen by elected

officials in the state legislatures.

Women in Public LifePP. 313-316

Women in the Work Force

Women begin getting jobs in areas such as garment trade, telephone operators, and other clerical jobs.

In 1901, 20% of women held jobs, 25% of which were in manufacturing.

Unskilled women worked as maids and in other service industries.

Women Lead Reform

The National Association of Colored Women (NACW) is formed by Josephine Ruffin.

Women were split over the 14th and 15th Amendments, with some wondering why black men were receiving more rights than them.

In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention is held to address the issues of women’s rights, highlighted by Susan B. Anthony’s demand for women’s suffrage, or the right to vote. The National Women’s Suffrage Association is founded in 1869 by

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This group merged in 1890 with another group to become NAWSA, or the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The 18th Amendment is passed in 1918 and grants women suffrage.

Teddy Roosevelt’s Square DealPP. 317-325

Using Federal Power

Theodore Roosevelt saw the presidency as a “bully pulpit” in which he could influence the news media and shape legislation in ways previous presidents did not do.

Roosevelt was known as the “trustbuster,” attempting to break up large corporations and businesses under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

A 1902 Coal Strike resulted for the first time in American history a strike in which the federal government intervened.

Roosevelt brought both the union and the corporate leaders to the White House and suggested they head to arbitration: a process in which a neutral, third party judge known as an arbitrator decides the case.

This set the following important precedent: when a strike threatened the general welfare and well being of the public, the federal government was expected to intervene.

Roosevelt urges Congress to pass the Elkins Act in 1903, which made it illegal for railroad officials to give rebates to suppliers who used their railroads for their businesses.

A rebate is a form of refund where a partial amount of money is given back to a customer. A rebate can also take the form of a discount off the price of a good or service.

The Hepburn Act of 1906 banned the sale of free railroad tickets which were often used as a means of bribery.

Health and Environment

Roosevelt appointed a commission of experts to inspect the meatpacking industry following his reading of Sinclair’s The Jungle.

The commission found the claims in Sinclair’s book to be true, and in turn Roosevelt pushed for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act, which regulated strict cleanliness requirements. The problem, however, was that the government was forced to pay for the

inspections, and that businesses were still not required to label their products with expiration dates.

The Pure Food and Drug Act, therefore, required for the truthful labeling of products. Before this several products, including those for children, included harmful

substances such as opium, cocaine, and alcohol.

Roosevelt was a huge supporter of conservation, or the preservation of wilderness. Roosevelt’s love for the outdoors resulted in the creation of the National Park System.

Roosevelt and Civil Rights

Civil rights was the only area the Roosevelt Presidency was truly weak in, as he ignored Jim Crow legislation in the South in favor of trustbusting, conservation, and public health.

Roosevelt still supported some individual African-Americans, including Booker T. Washington, who became the first African-American ever invited to the White House by a president.

Progressivism Under TaftPP. 328-331

Taft Becomes President

Theodore Roosevelt did not seek reelection in 1908, and handpicked his successor, William Howard Taft, his secretary of war.

Taft wins the election but is very cautious, not using the bully pulpit like Roosevelt once did.

Taft begins to anger his progressive base. The Payne-Aldridge Tariff is seen as a compromise on what was

supposed to be a significantly lowered tariff and instead raised some rates.

Upsets conservationists by hiring a secretary of the interior that gave 1 million acres of forest land back to the public domain.

The Republican Party Splits

The Republican party is split between the progressive wing and that of high tariffs and big business.

Theodore Roosevelt, meanwhile, returned from a hunting trip to Africa to see his party split. As a result, Roosevelt attempted to run for a third term in 1912.

Taft blocks the move at the convention, and the progressives form a new party known as the Bull Moose Party with Theodore Roosevelt as their leader.

The Bull Moose platform includes direct election of senators, an eight hour work day, and women’s suffrage.

Democrats Win in 1912

The Democrats nominate Woodrow Wilson, a reform governor from New Jersey.

Taft and Roosevelt are at odds, as Taft calls Roosevelt an “egotist.” Roosevelt responds by calling Taft a “fathead with the brain of a guinea pig.”

Roosevelt is shot in a failed assassination attempt but still manages to speak for 90 minutes with the bullet lodged in his chest.

The split of the Republican party also meant a split in the Republican base’s vote, and Wilson easily wins the election.

Wilson’s New FreedomPP. 332-337

The Philosophy of Woodrow Wilson

Wilson’s philosophy on progressivism was to attack large concentrations of power such as corporations and give more liberty to individuals.

However, his racism resulted in him not extending more civil rights to African-Americans. He re-segregated the civil service and showed a screening of the Ku Klux Klan silent film The Birth of a Nation at the White House, as the director of the film was a close friend of Wilson.

Wilson Wins Financial Reforms

Wilson enacts two antitrust measures.

1. The Clayton Antitrust Act

1. Strengthens the Sherman Antitrust Act with stronger, more specific language to define what makes up a corporation, a monopoly, and a trust, providing for easier prosecution.

2. Legalizes the labor union’s right to strike and boycott.

2. Creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

1. A “watchdog” agency that enforces regulations, requires reports on corporations, and brings an end to unfair business practices.

Passes the Sixteenth Amendment which legalized federal income tax.

The Federal Reserve System is created as a decentralized, private banking system under federal control The Federal Reserve controls monetary policy, or the printing of paper

money.

Women Win Suffrage

Carrie Chapman Catt is the NAWSA President and led the fight for suffrage.

Several radical suffrage movements are formed as offshoots but later fade.

Suffrage is finally given to women with the Nineteenth Amendment. Passed in 1919 after women help on the home front during World War

I, and are “rewarded” for their actions.

The Limits of Progressivism

Wilson does not fight Jim Crow and broke several campaign promises to do so.

Wilson promotes several white southerners in his cabinet who put segregated facilities in the navy, for example.