HIST 212
Assessment Unit 4: “Political and Social Reform Movements”
Guide to Responding
1. Progressives and Populists were both troubled by the concentration of wealth in
the hands of large corporations and with the plight of the American working class,
but the Populists represented primarily the interests of American farmers in the
West and South whereas the Progressives originated from the American urban
middle class. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson as presidents both
brought antitrust lawsuits against large corporations that enjoyed monopolies in
various industries. Both presidents supported increased government regulation
of big business to protect American consumers, such as the passage of the Meat
Inspection Act (1906) or the creation of the Federal Trade Commission (1914).
Both presidents were also supporters of organized labor and supported calls for
improving working conditions for the labor force. While neither president
advocated silver coinage, as did Bryan and the Populists, the Federal Reserve
Act of 1913, proposed by President Wilson, allowed the federal government to
regulate the currency, which Bryan in principle did demand as a candidate in
1896. Progressives also supported Populist democratic reforms such as the
initiative and recall in state elections and the direct election of Senators, which
was implemented with the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution (1912).
Progressives and Populists were very different in their membership. Populists
drew support mostly from small family farmers in the South and West who were
interested in improving their conditions through raising farm prices, securing
loans, and cutting transportation and storage costs, and they sought legislation
that would achieve these goals, such as expanding the money supply.
Progressives, however, tended to be highly educated middle class professionals
often from the upper Midwest and Northeast. Progressives, thus, also wanted
government legislation to address the issues facing cities, such as government
corruption, poverty, and crime.
2. One could argue that the Progressives were advocating primarily a political
movement in that this era witnessed a vast expansion of the power of
government with new regulatory authority such as the creation of the Federal
Reserve banks (1913) to regulate the nation’s currency or the Federal Trade
Commission (1914) to prevent the establishment of trusts and to protect
consumers. Progressive reformers also pushed to make the political system
more democratic with the implementation of the initiative and the recall in state
elections and passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, which
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established the direct election of U.S. Senators. Also, Progressives worked to
make city governments more efficient and eliminate corrupt political machines.
In Wisconsin, Governor Robert La Follette set a precedent for other states with
his efforts to eliminate waste and inefficiency in state government. However, one
could also argue that Progressives were leading a social movement in that they
made the country aware of the social problems facing the nation and stirred up
widespread popular support for the government to take appropriate action. Jane
Addams, with the founding of Hull House in Chicago, worked to provide
education and economic aid to poor immigrants who were flooding the country at
that time. Muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair, through novels and articles,
exposed to the public corrupt business practices and the living conditions of the
working poor.
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