The Progressive Era

1. The Progressive Era

2. Progressivism • A movement to improve American life by expanding democracy and achieving economic and social justice. • This was not an organized set of reforms, but rather a collection of ideas and activities. • After seeing the poverty of the working class and the filth and crime of urban society, these reformers began to doubt the free market’s ability to address these problems. • Science and technology had benefited people thus the progressives believed using scientific principles could also produce solutions for society.

3. Muckrakers- a group of crusading journalists who investigated social conditions and political corruption. They became known as muckrakers from a speech made by President Theodore Roosevelt. • “Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor and it must be scraped up with the muck-rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed….” • By the early 1900s, American publishers were competing to see who could expose the most corruption and scandal. • Some muckrakers exposed unfair practices of large American corporations. Standard Oil, the beef industry. Others targeted the government. And some concentrated on the social problems

4. Muckrakers • Lincoln Steffens – articles about corrupt practices of political machines that were combined and published as a book titled The Shame of the Cities • Ida Tarbell – wrote articles about the unfair practices of huge monopolies and wrote The History of the Standard Oil Company • John Spargo – wrote about the grim life of thousands of children and wrote the book The Bitter Cry of the Children • Upton Sinclair - wrote The Jungle, an exposure of the terrible conditions of the Chicago meatpacking plants. • Jacob Riis – wrote about the immigrant slum areas. • Muckrakers offered readers few solutions, but they did sound an alarm. In response, many Americans joined the crusade for reform.

5. Government Reform • Efficiency progressives argued that managing a modern city required experts, not politicians. • They wanted either a commission plan or a council-manager system. Under the commission plan a city’s government would be divided into several departments, which would each be placed under the control of an expert commissioner. • Others believed that society needed more democracy, not less. They wanted to make elected officials more responsive to voters. • When reformer Robert La Follette was elected governor of Wisconsin, he pressured the state legislature to require each party to hold a direct primary, in which all party members could vote for a candidate to run in the general election. • LaFollette’s reform was known as the Wisconsin Idea. He recruited experts known as the “brain trust,” to solve state problems and write laws and serve on govt. commissions. This successful Idea was called a “laboratory for democracy.”

6. Government Reform • Because of this reform, they called Wisconsin the “laboratory of democracy.” • Progressives in other states introduced three new reforms: initiative – allowed a group of citizens to introduce legislation and required the legislature to vote on it. Referendum – allowed proposed legislation to be submitted to the voters for approval. Recall – allowed voters to demand a special election to remove an elected official from office before his or her term expired.

7. To counter Senate corruption, Charles Russell complained that the Senate had become a “chamber of butlers for industrialists and financiers,” progressives called for the direct election of senators by all state voters. Prior to this amendment, senators were elected by state legislature. In 1912 Congress passed a direct-election amendment (17th Amendment)

8. The Suffrage Movement • July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Stanton proposed to the delegates that their first priority should be getting women the right to vote. The movement for women’s voting rights became known as the suffrage movement. Suffrage is the right to vote. • Before the Civil War some women preferred to work towards the abolition of slavery.

10. The Suffrage Movement • After the Civil War the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed to protect the voting rights of African Americans. The women hoped that these amendments would be worded so they would include women as well. • The debate over these two amendments split the women’s movement in two: National Woman Suffrage Assoc. led by Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; the National American Woman Suffrage Assoc. led by Lucy Stone, Carrie Chapman Catt and Julia Ward Hower. • Stanton’s group wanted to focus on passing a constitutional amendment allowing women suffrage. The Catt’s group believed that the best strategy was to convince state governments to give women the right to vote before trying to amend the Constitution.

11. The Suffrage Movement • In 1890 Alice Paul brought the two groups together to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Still the hardest part was to get women to become politically active. When the Progressive movement began, however, many middle-class women concluded that they needed the vote to promote social reforms they favored. • By end of 1912, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Kansas had granted women full voting rights. • Alice Paul organized a march on Washington DC the day before Pres. Wilson’s inauguration. • 1918 House of Representatives passed a woman suffrage amendment. Pres. Wilson addressed the Senate to encourage them to pass this but it failed by two votes. • Finally by 1919 Senate passed the 19th Amendment by just more than the 2/3 vote needed. • 19th Amendment went into effect Aug. 26, 1920.

12. Social Welfare Progressivism • Campaign against child labor – in 1900 over 1.7 million children under the age of 16 worked outside the home. • 1904 Nat’l. Child Labor Comm. To work to abolish child labor. • At same time many states began passing compulsory education laws, requiring young children to be in school instead of at work. • By the early 1900s the number of child laborers had begun to decline. • Many adult workers still labored in difficult conditions. Factories, coal mines, and railroads were particularly dangerous. • Progressives joined union leaders to pressure states for workers’ compensation laws which was insurance for employees who got hurt on the job. • These laws established insurance funds financed by employers. Workers injured in industrial accidents received payments from the funds. • Minimum wage laws for women were passed in 12 states. As well as laws barring children from working at night.

13. Social Welfare Progressivism • Building codes set minimum standards for light, air, room size, and sanitation, and required buildings to have fire escapes. • Health codes required restaurants and other facilities to maintain clean environments for their patrons. • Zoning laws divided towns or cities into areas for commercial, residential, or other development. • Many progressives believed that alcohol was responsible for many problems in American life. The temperance movement, which advocated the moderation or elimination of alcohol, emerged from these concerns. • 1873 – Women’s Christian Temperance Union had 250,000 members by 1893

14. Social Welfare Progressivism • Anti-Saloon league – pressed for Prohibition - laws banning the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol. • A fourth group of progressives focused on regulating big business. Some believed that government should break up big companies to restore competition. Sherman Anti-trust Act. • Others argued for the creation of government agencies to regulate big companies and prevent them from abusing their power. ICC • Some even advocated socialism where government actually owns and operates industry for the community as a whole. Socialism had some national supporters; Eugene Debs, the former American Railway Union leader, won nearly a million votes as the American Socialist Party candidate for president in 1912.

15. Roosevelt Revives the Presidency • Eugene Debs - a candidate for President of the US as a member of the Socialist Party of America in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920.Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs would eventually become one of the best-known Socialists in the United States. • President Theodore Roosevelt took over the presidency when William McKinley was assassinated. He was 42, the youngest president yet. He was a member of the Rough Riders during the Spanish American War. He was a very dynamic person who loved the spotlight. • Roosevelt was a Social Darwinist. He believed the US was in competition with the other nations of the world and that only the fittest would survive. • Domestically Roosevelt was a committed progressive who firmly believed that the government should ‘actively balance the needs of competing groups in American society. • He said, “I shall see to it, that every man has a square deal, no less and no more.” During his second term, his reform program became known as the Square Deal.

16. Roosevelt believed that trusts and other large business organizations were very efficient and part of the reason for America’s prosperity. Yet remained concerned that in the pursuit of their private interests, some trusts were hurting the public interest. • During his first term three railroad companies joined to form one – Northern Securities. • Alarmed at this union, Roosevelt decided that this company was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered his attorney to file a lawsuit against Northern Securities. • The Supreme Court ruled that they were in violation and Roosevelt became known as a “trustbuster” and his popularity soared!

17. Coal Strike of 1902 – Nearly 150,000 workers walked out of eastern Pennsylvania’s anthracite mines, demanding a pay increase, a reduction in work hours, and recognition for their union, (United Mine Workers – UMW) • If the strike drug on too long, the country would face a coal shortage that could shut down factories and leave many people’s homes cold with winter fast approaching. Roosevelt said this was an example of groups pursuing their private interests at the expense of the nation. • President Roosevelt urged that the company and the union accept arbitration – a settlement imposed by an outside party. The union agreed, the mine owners did not. • Roosevelt threatened to have the Army run the mines so the mine owners finally accepted arbitration. • By intervening in the dispute, Roosevelt had taken the first step toward establishing the federal government as an honest broker between powerful groups in society.

18. Bureau of Corporations – Roosevelt still believed that most trusts benefited the economy and that breaking them up would do more harm than good. • So Roosevelt proposed the creation of a new federal agency to investigate corporations and publicize the results. • 1903 Roosevelt convinced Congress to create the Department of Commerce and Labor. Within this department would be a division called the Bureau of Corporations with the authority to investigate corporations and issue reports on their activities. • Congress also passed the Expedition Act which gave federal antitrust suits precedence on the dockets of circuits. • 1906 Roosevelt pushed the Hepburn Act through Congress which was intended to strengthen the ICC by giving it power to set railroad rates. After years of fighting it, the ICC became a supporter of the railroads interests and by 1920 began setting rates at levels intended to ensure the industry’s profits.

19. Roosevelt’s Square Deal • Meat inspection Act – required federal inspection of meat sold through interstate commerce and required the Agriculture Department to set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants. • Pure Food and Drug Act – prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure or falsely labeled food and drugs.

20. Conservation • Roosevelt cautioned against unregulated exploitation of public lands and believed in conservation to manage the nation’s resources. • Land development in the West – Newlands Reclamation Act, a large-scale transformation of the West’s landscape and economy authorizing the use of federal funds from public land sales to pay for irrigation and land development projects. * Gifford Pinchot – headed the US Forest Service. Roosevelt argued that the government must distinguish “between the man who skins the land and the man who develops the country. I am going to work with the man who develops the country.” Pinchot’s department drew up regulations controlling lumbering on federal lands.

21. President Roosevelt • Changed the role of the federal government and the nature of the presidency. Increasingly Americans began to look to the federal government to solve the nation’s economic and social problems. • Under Roosevelt the executive branch of government had dramatically increased its power. • The ICC could set rates, the Agriculture Department could inspect food, the Bureau of Corporations could monitor business, and the attorney general could rapidly bring antitrust lawsuits under the Expedition Act.

22. Passing the Reins • Financial Panic of 1907 – hindered Roosevelt’s effectiveness at end of term. Business was further alarmed when Roosevelt proposed new reform measures such as inheritance and income taxes, more regulation of interstate commerce, federal investigations of labor disputes, 8 hour workdays, worker’s comp, and federal regulation of the stock markets. • Roosevelt handpicked his successor, William Howard Taft, another progressive.

23. William Taft – President 1908 • Although committed to many progressive ideas, Taft’s personality and approach to politics quickly brought him into conflict with progressives. • Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act – Progressives felt betrayed by Taft’s decision to accept this new tariff. • Taft disliked political maneuvering and preferred to avoid conflict with others.

24. William Taft – President 1908 • Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy – Taft replaced his Secretary of Treasury with Richard a. Ballinger, a more conservative corporate lawyer. Ballinger tried to make nearly a million acres of public forests and mineral reserves available for private development. • Pinchot charged the new secretary with having once plotted to turn over valuable public lands in Alaska to a private syndicate or business group for personal profit. Pinchot leaked the story to the press but Taft fired Pinchot for insubordination. • By signing the Payne-Aldrich Tariff and supporting Ballinger Taft gave the impression that he had “sold the Square Deal down the river.”

25. Taft’s Progressive Reforms • Despite all of his political problems, Taft also had several successes. • Taft established the Children’s Bureau, a federal agency similar to Roosevelt’s Bureau of Corporations. It investigated and publicized problems with child labor • Taft also supported the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 which increased the regulatory powers of the ICC. • Taft set up the Bureau of Mines to monitor the activities of mining companies, expanded the national forests, and protected waterpower sites from private development.

26. New President Woodrow Wilson 1912 • Theodore Roosevelt broke his friendship with Taft by publicly criticizing Taft for his dealings with trusts. Roosevelt announced that he would enter the presidential campaign of 1912 and attempt to replace Taft as the Republican nominee for President, he ran under the Bull Moose Party • Conservatives rallied behind Taft and Progressives lined up for Roosevelt. This did nothing but divide the Republican party. • Woodrow Wilson entered politics as a firm progressive. As governor of New Jersey, he pushed one Progressive reform after another through the statehouse.

27. Roosevelt called his program “New Nationalism” which supported outlined a complete program of reforms. • Wilson countered with what he called the “New Freedom.” He criticized Roosevelt’s program as one that supported “regulated monopoly.” Wilson argued that Roosevelt’s approach gave the federal government too much power in the economy and did nothing to restore competition. Wilson wanted to lower tariffs because he felt it would prevent monopolies • Wilson wins the election with less than 42% of the popular vote as the Republican vote was split between Roosevelt and Taft.

28. Regulating the Economy • During his eight years as president, Wilson demonstrated his power as he crafted reforms affecting tariffs, the banking system, trusts, and workers’ rights. • Reforming tariffs – Wilson declared that high tariffs had “built up a set of privileges and exemptions from competition behind which it was easy…. to organize monopoly until…nothing is obliged to stand the tests of efficiency and economy.”

29. 1913 Democrat-controlled Congress passed the Underwood Tariff and Wilson signed it into law. This Tariff reduced the average tariff on imported goods to about 30% of the value of the goods, or about half the tariff rate of the 1890s. • An important section of the Underwood Tax was the provision for levying an income tax, or a direct tax on the earnings of individuals and corporations. The Constitution originally prohibited direct taxes unless they were apportioned among the states on the basis of population. • The 16th Amendment in 1913 made it legal for the federal government to tax the income of individuals directly.

30. The US had not had a central bank since the 1830s. • Hundreds of small banks collapsed during economical depressions that hit the country periodically. • 1907 was one of those depressed times. • To restore public confidence in the banking system Wilson supported the establishment of aFederal Reserve system. Banks would have to keep a portion of their deposits in a regional reserve bank, which would provide a financial cushion against unanticipated losses. • The Board of Governors would set the interest rates the reserve banks charged other banks, thereby indirectly controlling the interest rates of the entire nation and the amount of money in circulation. • Congress approved the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 and it became one of the most significant pieces of legislation in American History.

31. During his campaign, Wilson had promised to restore competition to the economy by breaking up big business monopolies. Roosevelt argued that Wilson’s ideas were unrealistic because big business was more efficient and unlikely to be replaced by smaller, more competitive firms. Once in office, Wilson’s opinion shifted, and he came to agree with Roosevelt – but progressives in Congress continued to demand action against big business.

32. 1914 Congress created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to monitor American business. FTC had the power to investigate companies and issue “cease and desist” orders against companies engaging in unfair trade practices, or those which hurt competition. The FTC could be taken to court if a business disagreed with its rulings. • Wilson deliberately appointed conservative business leaders to serve as the FTC’s first commissioners so that they would work with business to limit activities that unfairly limited competition instead of just breaking up big business.

33. Wilson passed the Adamson Act which supported an 8 hour work day for railroad workers. • Wilson’s approach did not satisfy progressives in Congress who responded by passing the Clayton Antitrust Act. This act declared that unions were not unlawful combinations in restraint of trade. This came to be called the “Magna Carta” for the workers because it gave unions the right to exist.

34. Federal Aid and Social Welfare • 1916 Wilson signed the first federal law regulating child labor. The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act prohibited the employment of children under the age of 14 in factories producing goods for interstate commerce. The Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional on the grounds that child labor was not interstate commerce and therefore only states could regulate it. • Adamson Act – 8 hour workday for RR workers • Federal Farm Loan Act – created 12 Federal Land Banks to provide farmers with long-term loans at low interest rates.

35. Legacy of Progressivism • Progressivism made important changes in the political life of the US. Before this era, most Americans did not expect the government to pass laws protecting workers or regulating big business. In fact many courts had previously ruled that it was unconstitutional for the government to do so. By the end of this era, people now expected the government to play a more active role in regulating the economy and solving social problems.

36. Limits of Progressivism • The most conspicuous limit to progressivism was its failure to address African American reform issues. • 1909 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). W.E.B. DuBois and other founders believed that the vote was essential to bring about an end to lynching and racial discrimination. • Although Progressives excluded many groups from their efforts, they did expand democracy and improve the quality of life for millions of men, women, and children.

37. Constitutional Amendments • The 16th Amendment in 1913 made it legal for the federal government to tax the income of individuals directly. • In 1912 Congress passed a direct-election amendment (17th Amendment) 1918 House of Representatives passed a woman suffrage amendment. Pres. Wilson addressed the Senate to encourage them to pass this but it failed by two votes. Finally by 1919 Senate passed the 19th Amendment by just more than the 2/3 vote needed.