“Making the World

Over”: The

Progressive Era

Chapter 23 Lecture Outline

© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Progressives

Elements of Reform

• The Varied Sources

of Progressivism – business owners were

more interested in

securing changes to

avoid the problems they

had experienced

beforehand.

– The Progressive Era was

marked by a growth in

the middle and upper-

middle classes.

• Populism was one of

the catalysts of this

era.

The Social Gospel

• Christian Crusaders for Reform – Social Gospel – Christian values should govern workplace

with employer and employee uniting in serving each other

– Through the social gospel, Christians and Jews provided the

crucial source of energy for progressive reformers.

(minimum wage/shorter work day)

The Social Gospel

• Religious Reformers – Washington Gladden, a Congregationalist minister in

Springfield, Massachusetts.

– argued that the greatest thing Christianity should emphasize

is the teaching to love thy neighbor as thyself.

– His publications made him a leader of the reform movement.

Early Efforts at Urban

Reform

• The Settlement House

Movement

– To combat the slums and

tenement houses, workers

such as Jane Addams (Hull

House) would create

residential community

centers known as

settlement houses.

– staffed by middle-class,

college-educated women.

– worked to improve the lives

of their dwellers such as by

arranging for nurseries for

working women,

kindergartens, and

neighborhood programs for

children.

Early Efforts at Urban Reform

• Women’s Employment and Activism – By 1910, 7.8 million women worked outside the home.

– In 1869 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

would found the National Woman Suffrage Association to

secure nationally the right of females to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton In this 1870s engraving, Stanton speaks at a meeting of the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Early Efforts at Urban Reform

• Muckrakers

– Investigative journalists would find a career reporting on the

working conditions that many an American was subjected to as

price of their employment. Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

Features of Progressivism

• Democracy

– candidates were held at a national convention of party

members.

– this system would be supplanted by the direct primary

system – every member was allowed to vote for a candidate.

– Also during this time the initiative and referendum were

introduced and in some states were allowed to directly pass

laws or force the legislature to consider legislation

CP Grey Primary Election Explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_95I_1rZiIs

Features of Progressivism

• Efficiency

– In 1911, the concept of “Taylorism” was introduced,

which that promoted efficiency in the workplace to

allow workers to accomplish more during less time.

Charlie Chaplin and Taylorism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfGs2Y5WJ14

Features of Progressivism

• Anti-Trust Regulation

– Sherman Anti-Trust Act of

1890 to control big

business had proved more

symbolic than effective

– Attempts to reestablish

small firms in areas in

which a trust had a

monopoly failed

• Social Justice

– Efforts to regulate child

labor and the consumption

of alcohol and the creation

of more hygienic cities

were major issues.

Features of Progressivism

• Progressivism and Religion

– Christians and Jews would find much in common linking

progressivism and religion.

• Prohibition

– Reformers hoped that closing saloons and making alcohol

illegal would deprive political bosses of a valuable tool for

recruiting people to their cause.

Roosevelt’s Progressivism

• Executive Action – In 1902, Roosevelt embraced a “Square Deal” for Americans, in

which the regulating of existing anti-trust legislation would be

upheld and more powerful enforcement powers would be

established. Roosevelt would often support the regulation of trusts

over their dissolution, as he viewed this to be more efficient.

Roosevelt’s Progressivism

• The 1902 Coal Strike – coal workers in Pennsylvania

and West Virginia went on

strike until a 20 percent pay

increase was granted,

– Roosevelt did not send in

troops to restore the mines.

– Roosevelt attempted to

broke a resolution between

the two sides until the

owners refused to

accommodate.

Theodore Roosevelt as an “apostle of prosperity”

Theodore Roosevelt as a Roman tyrant

Features of Progressivism

• Expanding Federal Power – Altogether, Roosevelt’s administration initiated nearly twenty-five

anti-trust suits. Through these cases, the Interstate Commerce

Commission created by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was further

strengthened and made more relevant.

Roosevelt’s Second Term

• Legislative Leadership – In 1904, the Republicans nominated Roosevelt for his first term as

president. He would defeat the Democrat Judge Alton B. Parker

by an extremely lopsided victory.

– Roosevelt would use his mandate as a reason to further pursue

his progressive policies. He would attempt to regulate railroads,

meat packers, food processors, and drugs and patent medicines.

Roosevelt’s Second Term

• Environmental

Conservation – Perhaps Roosevelt’s greatest

legacy came in the form of

conservation of public lands.

– Under his administration,

Yellowstone National Park

was created and the Division

of Forestry was established to

control the national parks.

– Special programs to provide

for the distribution of water to

the arid West were also

approved.

Nathaniel Pitt Langford The first superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, on Jupiter Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, ca. 1875.

Gifford Pinchot Pinchot is seen here with two children at the edge of a larch grove.

From Roosevelt to Taft

• Tariff Reform

– Roosevelt would step down

after his first full term and

support William Howard Taft as

the Republican candidate in

the 1908 election.

– Taft easily defeated William

Jennings Bryan., Taft departed

from Roosevelt and the

Republicans on tariff reform

and supported lowering it.

– Taft ended up alienating the

Republican party and signed a

tariff bill that made things

worse.

From Roosevelt to Taft

• Richard Ballinger and Gifford Pinchot

– Taft’s secretary of the interior, Richard Ballinger, was opposed to

Roosevelt’s establishment of national parks.

– He would open up land for the construction of waterpower sites &

opened up land for coal mining companies, who sold some of the

land to other developers.

– Pinchot reported this to Taft, who chose to do nothing. He then

went to the press. Taft fired him for insubordination.

From Roosevelt to Taft

• Taft and Roosevelt

– After Taft wins,

Roosevelt goes on 2

year African

safari…feels betrayed

once he returned

– In 1912, Roosevelt was

chosen by a group of

progressive

Republicans to be their

choice for president

while Rep party officially

renominates Taft

– Party divided = opposite

party win: Woodrow

Wilson (dem)

Political giants A cartoon showing Roosevelt charging through the air at Taft, who is seated on a mountain top.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• Wilson’s Rise

– Wilson had served as

president of Princeton

University and a governor of

New Jersey before winning

the presidency.

• The Election of 1912

– In the 1912 campaign,

Roosevelt was shot in the

chest by a mentally disturbed

man before a speech.

Although injured, he gave his

speech anyway, and

commented that it took more

than a bullet to kill a bull

moose.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• Wilsonian Reform

– Roosevelt had been a strong president because of his

personality, Wilson was strong because of his conviction. He

would personally court members of Congress to his side to

adopt his programs.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism • The Tariff

– Underwood-Simmons Tariff in 1913. It reduced duties on most

goods and lowered the average duty from about 37 to 29 percent.

– Also at this time the newly ratified Sixteenth Amendment was

placed into effect and a 1 percent tax on income over $3,000 was

in place.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• The Federal Reserve Act

– the Federal Reserve Act created

a new system of national banks

and a central board of directors.

– This new system spread out the

flow of currency and fixed most of

the problems in banking.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• Anti-Trust Laws

– Wilson’s presidential plan

was known as the New

Freedom. The chief aspect of

this plan was trust-busting. In

1914, the Federal Trade

Commission was created with

strong powers to regulate

trusts

“Reading the Death Warrant” Woodrow Wilson’s plan for banking and currency reform spells the death of the “money trust,” according to this cartoon.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• Social Justice

– Wilson was not a strong believer of social justice, as he believed if

business could be regulated and controlled, society would adjust

on its own.

• Progressivism for Whites Only

– Wilson showed little concern for the plight of African Americans.

He did denounce the Ku Klux Klan for their reign of terror.

The privileged elite President Wilson and the First Lady ride in a carriage.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• The Women’s Movement

– Women gained the right to vote in federal elections with the

passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

– Following World War I and the contribution made by women in the

workforce, Wilson renounced his reservations about the

amendment and publicly supported it.

– Although the number of women in the workforce would climb after

the war, they were still principally working in traditional

occupations, as secretaries, dressmakers, and clerks.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• Margaret Sanger and Birth Control

– Margaret Sanger was a nurse who pushed for the distribution of

birth control information to women in the United States to prevent

unwanted pregnancies.

– She would alienate supporters when she began to lobby for the

forced sterilization of mentally incompetent people and those with

certain hereditary conditions.

Alice Paul’s strategies of civil disobedience became increasingly militant. Here she sews a suffrage flag, which she often brandished at strikes and protests.

Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism

• Progressive Resurgence

– After World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, Wilson, who

desired another term, would return his attention to reform. He

promoted labor and farm reforms to shore up these areas

• Labor Legislation

– During this time the eight-hour workday for railroad workers was

upheld by the Supreme Court and child labor was restricted for

those under fourteen. During Wilson’s first administration,

progressivism reached its high point.

Limits of Progressivism

• Displays of paradox and irony

– The first twenty years of the twentieth century were

a time of landmark reform, although also marked by

a new wave of anti-immigrant nativism.

– Progressivism was largely a middle-class

movement in which the poor or those who chose

not to organize had no say.