Progressives (Age of
Reform)
Objective: To define progressivism and identify how
it manifested itself on the local & state level by
looking at the goals & actions of progressives
The Progressive movement
defined

Progressivism was the reform movement that ran
from the late 19th century through the first
decades of the 20th century, during which
leading intellectuals and social reformers in the
United States sought to address the economic,
political, and cultural questions that had arisen in
the context of the rapid changes brought with the
Industrial Revolution and the growth of modern
capitalism in America. The Progressives believed
that these changes marked the end of the old
order and required the creation of a new order
appropriate for the new industrial age.
POLITICAL
•
•
•
Expanded Suffrage
Decline of Political
Machines
Increased Party
Influence
SOCIAL
•
•
•
Expanded Workers’
Rights
Assimilation of
Immigrants
Civil Rights
Movement
ECONOMIC
•
•
•
•
Conservation
Business Regulation
Consumer Protection
Reformed Banking
System
ROOTS AND GOALS OF
PROGRESSIVISM
CONTINUATION OF POST
CIVIL WAR RESPONSE TO
INDUSTRIALIZATION

“THE SEARCH FOR ORDER”
“STATUS REVOLUTION”
“TO USE GOVERNMENT AS
AN AGENCY OF HUMAN
WELFARE”






CONTROL CORPORATIONS
CLEANSE GOVERNMENT
CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

IMPROVE SOCIETY
ELIMINATE INFLUENCE OF
SPECIAL INTERESTS

Turn and Talk
 Why
did the Progressive movement
happen in the 1890s?
 Early
reform attempts had
failed…Populists were dominated by a
single monetary issue bimetalism. State
government railroad reforms were shot
down by the Supreme Court (Munn &
Wabah cases)
THE PROGRESSIVE MIND












*DIVERSE MOVEMENT
*SENSE OF NEW SOCIAL POSSIBILITIES
*PARTICIPATE IN IMPROVING
SOCIETY WITHOUT BEING RADICAL
*AGE OF ORGANIZATION
*T. VEBLEN “THEORY OF THE LEISURE
CLASS” 1899
*J.W. TAYLOR & SCIENTIFIC
MANAGEMENT
*W. JAMES
*JOHN DEWEY – SCHOOLS ENGINES
OF SOCIAL CHANGE
*O.W. HOLMES–“THE COMMON LAW”
1881
*ASHCAN ARTISTS
*LAISSEZ FAIRE OBSOLETE
*FOCUS ON MANY & VARIED AREAS
The Muckrakers


The Yellow-Press & Investigative
Journalism
Origins


Henry Lloyd’s Wealth Against
Commonwealth (1894)
Magazines & Books


McClure’s, Collier’s, Cosmopolitan
Writers:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives,
1890)
Frank Norris (The Octopus, 1901)
Ida Tarbell (History of Standard Oil,
1902)
Lincoln Steffens (Shame of the Cities,
1904)
David Phillips (Treason of the Senate,
1906)
Upton Sinclair (The Jungle, 1906)
Political Reforms (Municipal &
State)

Voter Participation

Secret Ballot

Direct Primaries

Direct Election of Senators

30 States by 1912
o


17th Amendment (1913)
Initiative, Referendum,
and Recall
Municipal Reform

Controlling Public Utilities

Commissions and City
Managers
Social Reform (State)

Temperance and Prohibition


Social Welfare




By 1915: 2/3 of states prohibited sale
Educational reform
Penal & juvenile detention reform
Improved conditions in tenements and
factories
Labor



National Child Labor Committee
Compulsory School Attendance Laws
Workday



Lochner v. New York (1905) – 10-hour
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Working Conditions & Safety

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)
Lochner v. New York (1905)
Muller vs. Oregon (1908)
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Roosevelt’s
“Square Deal”
National Reform

Labor



Trust-Busting




Anthracite Coal Strike &
Arbitration (1902)
Department of Commerce
and Labor (1903)
Northern Securities (1904)
Standard Oil
“Good” vs. “Bad” Trusts
Railroad Regulation

ICC Expansion
Elkins Act (1903)
 Hepburn Act (1906)

National Reform

Consumer Protection

Impact of The Jungle
Pure Food and Drug Act
(1906)
 Meat Inspection Act (1906)


Conservation



Increased Scope of Forest
Reserve Act
Newlands Reclamation Act
(1902)
National Conservation
Commission

Gifford Pinchot (U.S. Forest
Service)
Taft’s Presidency
 Trust-Busting

Over 90 suits brought
under Sherman Anti-trust
Act
 Including
 ICC

U.S. Steel
Expansion
Mann-Elkins Act (1910)
 Economic
Changes

Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909)

16th Amendment (1913)
A Republican
Rift

The Tariff


Ballinger-Pinchot
Controversy


Sec. Interior sells land in
Alaska and Taft fires
Pinchot
Congress vs. Presidency


Upset Progressives
Taft supports Joe Cannon
(R-Speaker)
Midterms (1910)

Conservatives vs.
Progressives
The Election of
1912

Candidates:





Campaign



Taft (Republican)
Roosevelt (Progressive “Bull
Moose”)
Wilson (Democrat)
Debs (Socialist)
Roosevelt’s “New
Nationalism”
Wilson’s “New Freedom”
Results:

Wilson wins w/only 42%
TR vs. Wilson
“New Nationalism”
 An
Active
Government that
stressed “Managed
Consolidation”
 A Larger
Commitment to
“Social Welfare”
“New Freedom”
 “Regulated
Competition” and
Strict Corporate
Oversight
 Less Government
“Welfare”
•

Background:
• “Schoolmaster” of
Politics
• Stubborn,
inflexible
• Second Democrat
since war and first
southerner.
Tariff Reduction

Underwood Tariff (1913)


Federal Reserve Act (1914)
Business Regulation (1914)



Graduated income tax
Banking Reform


Wilsonian Progressivism
Clayton Anti-trust Act – “Magna Carta
of Labor”
Federal Trade Commission
Other Reforms


Federal Farm Loan Act (1916)
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act (1916)


Ruled unconstitutional (Hammer v.
Dagenhart, 1918)
Workingmen’s Compensation Act
(1916)
African Americans in the Progressive Era

Washington vs. DuBois

Economic Gains Toward Equality


Civil Rights: Social, Economic, and
Political Equality


Talented Tenth, The Souls of Black
Folk
The “Great Migration”



Atlanta Exposition, Tuskegee, Up
From Slavery
Push factors: Jim Crow, crop
destruction
Pull Factors: Industrial jobs, World
War I
Civil Rights Organizations



Niagara Movement – DuBois (1905)
NAACP – 1908
National Urban League (1911)
Women and the Progressive Movement

The Campaign for Suffrage

NAWSA (1900)


Militant Suffragists




Carrie Chapman Catt
Alice Paul
Pickets, Parades, Hunger
Strikes
Passage of the 19th
Amendment (1920)
Other Issues

Birth-control


American Birth Control
League (Margaret Sanger,
1921)
Reforming marriage, divorce,
and property laws
Regressive Progressives

Eugenics





Darwinism
Charles Davenport
“Some people are born to be a
burden on the rest”
 Forced sterilization
“Fitter Family” Contests
Nativism


Gentlemen’s Agreement
(1908)
Literacy Test for Immigrants
(1917)
 passed over Wilson’s veto
Impact of the Progressive Era

Local & State Reform

Increase in Democratic Process

Era of Consumer Protection &
Workers’ Rights

Fear & Nativism Remain

Social and Socio-economic
problems remain

Limited to no change in the
educational system



new areas were added: trade
and fitness
new types of schools: Montessori
core curriculum largely
remained