1. The Progressive Movement 1895-1920
A Response to Modernity

2. What was the Progressive Movement?
Urban crusaders “who waged war on many evils…monopoly, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice”
Regulate the trusts
Rid cities and states of political corruption
Attack social ills: poverty, housing, health
Expand democracy
Improve moral behavior
Restrict immigration
Improve factory conditions
“use government as an agent of human welfare”
“Fighting” Bob LaFollette

3. Who Were the Progressives?
It was an impulse, not an organized movement!
Urban
College educated
Middle class
Mostly women
Democrats or Republicans
Politicians
Social reformers

4. Progressives
Feared that trusts and corrupt government formed an unholy alliance to limit democratic institutions
Feared that urban problems, immigrants, and labor violence would overwhelm society and that socialism would replace capitalism

5. Progressive Action
Federal level: legislation, executive orders, Supreme Court cases
State and local levels: legislation and re- structuring
Private sector:
Investigative journalism
Social activism
Protests and demonstrations

6. Why at the beginning of 20th Century?
Populist movement had just died out in 1896, but ideas lived on
The Social Gospel movement had earlier attempted to address some social ills
A new optimism in 1900
Economic recovery
Spanish-American War
Investigative Reporting: Muckrakers
Impact of TR

7. Progressive Presidents
Wilson
Roosevelt
Taft

8. Roosevelt’s Square Deal
He favored neither business nor labor
Coal miner strikes
Sought to mediate the crisis
Threatened to take federal troops into the mines
Agreement reached: 10% wage increase and a 9 hour workday

9. Roosevelt and Trusts Trust-busting
Enforce Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
Prevent monopolies, cartels, trusts from anti- competitive practices
Broke up the Northern Securities Company (R.R.)
Antitrust action against Standard Oil
Bad Trusts: harmed public and competition
Good Trusts: Efficiency and low prices

10. Roosevelt and Consumer Protection
Pure Food and Drug Act: forbade the manufacture, sale, and transportation of adulterated or mislabeled food and drugs
Meat Inspection Act: provided that federal inspectors visit meatpacking plants to ensure that they met minimum standards of sanitation

11. Roosevelt and Conservation
Forest Reserve Act of 1891: set aside 150 million acres of federal land as a national reserve that could not be sold to private interests
Newlands Reclamation Act: provided money from the sale of public land for irrigation projects in western states
National Conservation Commission: coordinate conservation planning by federal and state governments

12. President Taft Continued Roosevelt’s progressive policies
Mann-Elkins Act of 1910: Interstate Commerce Commission power to suspend new railroad rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies
16th Amendment: Income Tax
Split in Republican Party
Payne-Aldrich Tariff: raised tariff on most imports
Openly supported conservative candidates for Congress during mid-term elections
Conservative Faction/Progressive Faction

13. Election of 1912 Progressive Party: Bull Moose party with Roosevelt
Democrat Party: Wilson
Socialist Party: Eugene Debs
Roosevelt v. Wilson
Roosevelt: New Nationalism with more government regulation of business and unions, women’s suffrage, and more social welfare programs
Wilson: New Freedom which limited both big business and big government, sought to end corruption through reform, and revive competition by supporting smaller businesses

14. President Wilson
Attacked the “triple wall of privilege, tariffs, banking, and trusts”
Underwood Tariff of 1913: significantly reduced tariffs for first time in 50 years
Federal Reserve Act: purchase goods and services using the Federal Reserve Notes (dollar bills) issued by the federally regulated banking system
Clayton Antitrust Act: break up monopolies
Federal Trade Commission: monitor “unfair trade practice”
Federal Farm Loan Act: provide farm loans at low interest rates
Child Labor Act: prohibited shipment of goods manufactured by children under 14 years old

15. Essential Question
"The Progressive movement from 1895 to 1917 was a triumph of conservatism rather than a victory for liberalism."
Do you agree or disagree and why?

16. The Progressives o/