Chapter 21: Progressive Era, 1900–1920

TIMELINE

1900	Hurricane in Galveston leads to calls for better municipal government
1901	Theodore Roosevelt assumes presidency
1906	Pure Food and Drug Act passed
1908	Muller v. Oregon decided
1910	NAACP founded
1911	Triangle Factory fire spurs workplace reforms
1912	Progressive (Bull Moose) Party formed  •  Woodrow Wilson elected president
1913	16th Amendment ratified  •  17th Amendment ratified  •  Underwood Tariff passed  •  Federal Reserve Act passed
1914	Federal Trade Commission created  •  Clayton Antitrust Act passed
1920	19th Amendment ratified, giving women the right to vote

IMPORTANT PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS, AND CONCEPTS

16th Amendment

Clayton Antitrust Act

Federal Reserve Act

Muller v. Oregon

Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”

Underwood Tariff

17th Amendment

conservation

Federal Trade Commission

Frank Norris

Upton Sinclair

Booker T. Washington

19th Amendment

John Dewey

Florence Kelly

Pure Food and Drug Act

Triangle Factory fire

Bull Moose Party

W. E. B. DuBois

Robert LaFollette

recall

“trustbuster”

“There are—in the body politic, economic, and social—many and grave evils, and there is an urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man, whether politician or businessman; every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life….”

—From a speech by President Theodore Roosevelt, 1906

INTRODUCTION

The United States experienced intense industrialization, rapid urbanization, and the growth of big business during the late 19th century. The labor movement and the populist movement each attempted, with mixed results, to address some of the dislocations and problems caused by these changes. In addition, an assortment of middle-class men and women put forth a series of proposals for incremental reforms to improve various aspects of American society. Many reformers approached social ills with the zeal of crusaders, as exhibited in the above quote from Roosevelt. Though not affiliated with a single group, or even united by ideology, these reformers and their campaigns together embodied the Progressive movement.

BACKGROUND AND INFLUENCES

The Progressive movement can trace its origins to a number of sources. Many Progressive activists were influenced by the philosophical movement associated with John Dewey and William James known as pragmatism. Dewey, the most important 20th-century American philosopher and education theorist, argued that government actions should be judged by the good they do for society. The Progressive movement also was influenced by the more general trend, especially in the business world, toward greater efficiency. Just as efficiency experts streamlined business operations, they could also propose solutions to some of society’s problems. Many Progressives were religious leaders who believed in a “social gospel”—that religious institutions should be improving society, as well as attending to spiritual matters. Finally, the movement drew inspiration from the Populist movement (see chapter 19) and the Socialist Party (see chapter 17), heeding the call to address social ills but rejecting the sweeping changes proposed by these movements.

PROGRESSIVE REFORMERS

Progressive reformers tended to be middle-class city dwellers. Many were professional people: doctors, social workers, scientists, and managers.

Muckrakers

Muckrakers were journalists who exposed a variety of problems to the public. Their exposés appeared in magazines such as Collier’s and McClure’s, as well as in books and novels. Their work often led to reforms. Writers Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell fall into this category. Upton Sinclair’s fact-based novel, The Jungle (1906), graphically described the unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. The novel led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act (both in 1906). Frank Norris’s The Octopus (1901) described the power of the railroads over the farmers of the West.

Women

Women were active in the Progressive movement for two main reasons. First, many women were discontented with laws and practices that discriminated against them. Second, women were rising in status as educational opportunities opened for them, yet they were denied the right to participate in the electoral system. The Progressive movement was an avenue for women to participate in public issues. Florence Kelly, who had lived in Hull House, was instrumental in pushing for improved factory conditions in Illinois.

PROGRESSIVE ISSUES

Better Government

Progressives worked on making government on all levels more efficient and more democratic.

City government: The origins of the push for municipal government reform can be traced to the aftermath of a hurricane in Galveston, Texas, in 1900. After the local political machine proved incapable of dealing with the disaster, there were calls for a more efficient and professional form of city government. First in Galveston and then elsewhere, political machines were replaced with nonpartisan commissioners, who were selected to run the various city departments (such as sanitation, fire, water, and parks). Also, many cities replaced their mayor with a city manager hired by the city council.

State government: The campaign to reform state government started in Wisconsin, where it was initiated by Robert LaFollette, a Progressive who was elected governor on the Republican ticket in 1900. The reforms he initiated were imitated in many states. They were intended to take power away from entrenched political machines and put it into the hands of the citizenry. The direct primary allowed people, instead of parties, to decide who the candidates would be for general elections. The initiative allowed citizens to introduce legislation by gaining a certain number of signatures. The referendum allowed citizens to enact pieces of legislation directly through voting on ballot questions. Finally, the recall allowed citizens to cut short a politician’s term by calling for a special election.

National government: The Progressives helped to push through the 17th Amendment (ratified in 1913), which took the election of senators out of the hands of state legislatures and put it into the hands of the people.

Women’s suffrage: Progressives joined the women’s suffrage movement, which had been agitating for extending voting privileges to women since at least the Seneca Falls Conference (1848). The first successes were in western states. By 1914, 11 states had given women the right to vote. The 19th Amendment, which gave all women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920.

Consumer Protection

The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were just two of the numerous measures designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous or dangerous business practices. America moved away from the adage, caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”). New laws, some state and some federal, called for truthful labeling of food and drugs, regulation of the insurance industry, and stricter building codes.

Protecting Workers

The publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle highlighted the unsafe conditions in many factories. Progressives pressed many states to pass workers’ compensation laws, which provided money to workers injured in industrial accidents. States also passed laws limiting work hours, calling for factory inspections, and creating more sanitary conditions.

The worst industrial accident in American history occurred in 1911 when 146 garment workers died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. The owners had locked most of the doors to keep the workers in and union organizers out. The event galvanized the labor movement, leading to public protests and an investigation by New York State that led to stricter fire codes, a shorter work week for women and minors, and the abolition of labor for those under the age of 14.

Progressive reformers paid special attention to addressing workplace issues relating to women and children, two groups seen as especially vulnerable to exploitation. An Oregon law limiting women to a 10-hour workday was challenged in the courts by employers. The Supreme Court upheld the law in Muller v. Oregon, thus setting a precedent of the Supreme Court using its power for social reform. John Spago’s book, The Bitter Cry of Children, drew attention to the issue of child labor. By 1914, most states had enacted minimum age laws for the workplace.

PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS

Presidents Theodore Roosevelt (Republican, 1901–1909) and Woodrow Wilson (Democrat, 1913–1921) both enacted reforms that many Progressives had been pushing for. To a lesser degree, William H. Taft (Republican, 1909–1913) also was influenced by the Progressive movement.

The Roosevelt Administration

Theodore Roosevelt called his agenda the “Square Deal”—a belief in equal opportunity and adherence to the spirit of the law.

Roosevelt is known as the “trustbuster” for the enthusiasm with which he went after conglomerates using the Sherman Antitrust Act. He targeted “bad” (corrupt or unethical) trusts, such as Northern Securities Company, a railroad company. He also successfully pushed for passage of the Hepburn Act (1906), which strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission of 1887.

Roosevelt’s other main area of activity was conservation: protecting the environment. An outdoorsman, Roosevelt tripled the amount of land set aside for national forests, created the National Conservation Committee, and publicized the conservationist cause.

The Taft Administration

Though Taft was selected by Roosevelt to be his successor (Taft had been his secretary of war), he was more conservative than his predecessor. Taft’s conservatism was evident in the controversy over tariffs. Progressives had been pushing for lower tariffs to benefit consumers, while conservatives generally supported higher tariffs to protect American industry from competition. The Payne-Aldrich Tariff was a compromise measure, barely lowering tariffs, yet Taft signed it. The 16th Amendment, ratified during Taft’s administration, allowed for the federal income tax.

The Election of 1912

Tensions within the Republican Party became evident during the election of 1912. Roosevelt and fellow Progressive Republicans were dissatisfied with Taft’s conservatism. When Roosevelt was defeated by Taft for the Republican nomination, he and his allies formed the Progressive Party, also known as the Bull Moose Party. The Bull Moose Party embraced much of the Progressive agenda but was unable to run a successful campaign. As a result of the division in the Republican Party, the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson won the election.

The Wilson Administration

Only the second Democrat to be elected president since the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson, while perhaps best known for his role in the peace following World War I, was also instrumental in several important Progressive-era reforms. Wilson’s drive to lower the tariff succeeded with the Underwood Tariff (1913). He argued that lower tariffs would increase trade and force businesses to be more efficient and competitive. Probably Wilson’s most significant domestic initiative, the Federal Reserve Act (1913), was meant to address four weaknesses in the American banking system: the lack of a flexible currency, the lack of stability in times of crisis (periodic “panics”), the lack of central control over banking practices, and the concentration of financial power in New York City. TheFederal Reserve Bank, created by the Act, was able to regulate the money supply through a series of financial mechanisms. As a result of this act, 12 districts were created, each with a branch of the “Fed,” throughout the country. The Federal Trade Commission(1914) was created to investigate dishonest and unscrupulous business practices. It has the power to order companies to halt such practices. The Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) attempted to provide the government with a tool to challenge monopolistic practices and was stronger than the Sherman Antitrust Act. The act was welcomed by organized labor because it specifically stated that it shall not be used “to forbid the existence and operation of labor … organizations,” as the Sherman Act did.

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

Progressives largely did not address one of the most serious areas of injustice in America at the time—discrimination against African Americans. With the support of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896), most Southern states had Jim Crow segregation laws. An early significant feature film, D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915), was a racist depiction of Reconstruction that glorified the Ku Klux Klan. President Wilson especially disappointed African American leaders when he segregated government offices. Two leading African American activists proposed divergent solutions to these problems. W. E. B. DuBois helped found the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1910. He argued that African Americans should press for an immediate end to segregation and for economic and political justice. He urged that African American intellectuals, the “talented tenth,” to take the lead in the struggle. Booker T. Washington was seen as more of an accommodationist. He argued that rather than challenge the status quo, African Americans should seek to improve their individual lot through hard work and job training.

SUMMARY

The Progressive era established a more activist government, ending the more hands-off approach that typified 19th-century policies. The agenda of the Progressive movement was not hostile to business; in fact, many felt that eliminating the abusive practices of business would restore people’s faith in the free market system. The movement helped make the political process more open and democratic. Some aspects of the Progressive agenda became part of the New Deal in the 1930s.

•  Direct primary: Early 20th-century election reform that allowed citizens, rather than political machines, to choose candidates for public office

•  Initiative: Progressive political reform in the early 1900s that enabled voters to introduce legislation

•  Muckrakers: Journalists of the Progressive era who exposed urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, political corruption, and other social ills

•  Pragmatism: Philosophical movement, with deep roots in the United States, which holds that truth emerges from experimentation and experience rather than from abstract theory; associated with William James and John Dewey

•  Progressive movement: Middle-class reform movement of the first decades of the 20th century, which sought to widen political participation, eradicate corruption, and apply scientific and technological expertise to social ills

•  Referendum: Progressive-era reform that created a mechanism for voters to approve or reject legislation placed on the ballot; designed to weaken the power of entrenched political machines

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1.   The devastation caused by a hurricane and flood in Galveston, Texas, in 1900 led to calls for

(A)   the replacement of political machines with more efficient and professional forms of municipal government.

(B)    federal projects to divert rivers and build levees.

(C)    people to abandon seaside cities and move to higher elevations.

(D)    a federal income tax.

(E)    a religious reawakening to allay fears of divine punishment.

2.   The Progressive movement could most accurately be described as a

(A)    working-class response to low wages and long hours.

(B)    conservative reaction to immigration.

(C)    middle-class response to urbanization and industrialization.

(D)    rural response to falling farm prices and powerful banks.

(E)    Southern response to the power of Northern politicians.

3.   Theodore Roosevelt used his position as president to

(A)    push for measures to protect the environment.

(B)    advance a socialist agenda.

(C)    reform the banking system.

(D)    convince Americans to join World War I.

(E)    argue for a strict interpretation of the Constitution.

4.   The passage of the Federal Reserve Act was important because it

(A)    made up for revenue lost by the Underwood Tariff.

(B)    centralized financial power in one city—New York.

(C)    allowed the president to set interest rates.

(D)    created a mechanism to regulate the money supply.

(E)    nationalized banks in the United States.

ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS

1.    A

The political machine in Galveston was unable to deal with the crisis at hand, and many reformers saw this as evidence that these machines had outlived their usefulness. Calls for federal projects are associated with the New Deal. Abandoning seaside communities never occurred in any significant way. A federal income tax was instituted in 1913 with the passage of the 16th Amendment after protectionist tariffs were reduced. A religious awakening did not occur as a result of the hurricane.

2.    C

The movement was inspired and guided by middle-class teachers, doctors, social workers, and other professionals. Choice (A) could describe the labor movement or the Communist or Socialist parties. The most extreme reactions to immigration were by the Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s and the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Choice (D) describes the Populist movement.

3.    A

Theodore Roosevelt is known for championing environmental conservation. He helped bring thousands of acres under federal jurisdiction. No president advanced a socialist agenda, although President Franklin Roosevelt was accused by conservatives of doing so. President Wilson, not Theodore Roosevelt, reformed the banking system with the Federal Reserve Act and argued for U.S. intervention in World War I. A strict interpretation of the Constitution is most closely associated with President Jefferson.

4.    D

The main purpose of the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) is to regulate the money supply, primarily by raising or lowering its interest rate for loaning money. The federal income tax made up for revenue lost by tariffs. The Federal Reserve Act was also designed to decentralize financial power. The president appoints the head of the Fed but cannot set interest rates or manipulate the bank. And banks have never been nationalized in the United States.