1. From Roosevelt to Wilson in the Age of Progressivism23
From Roosevelt to Wilson in the Age of Progressivism

2. The Spirit of Progressivism
Progressivism not a coherent movement
Shared values
Concern about effects of industrialization and conditions of industrial life
Optimistic about human nature and potential for progress
Willing to intervene in peoples’ lives
Turned more and more to the authority of the state and government at all levels in order to put into effect the reforms they wanted.
Protestantism – duty to put end to sins like prostitution and drunkenness; change the environment to change the individual
Touched the whole nation

3. The Rise of the Professions
Professions of Progressivism:
Law
Medicine
Business
Education
Social work
Young, educated men and women – dramatic increase in number of people working in administrative & professional jobs.
Formed part of a new middle class- moved up through education and personal accomplishments
Professionalism strengthened through entrance exams, national associations
American Medical Association
US Chamber of Commerce
National Farm Bureau Federation

4. The Social-Justice Movement
Reformers forsook individualized reform to address larger structural problems
Need for tenement house laws, strict child labor laws, better working conditions for women, better parks, daycares, schools, community organizations/services
Turned increasingly to government aid
Applied scientific methods to social reform
Social work became a profession

5. The Purity Crusade
Crusade against vices – desire for purification of society.
1910 – Mann Act – prohibited interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes
1911: Membership in Women’s Christian Temperance Union hit 250,000; joined the Anti-Saloon League
1916: 19 states prohibit alcohol
1920: Eighteenth Amendment prohibits alcohol

6. Woman Suffrage, Woman’s Rights
Women filled Progressive ranks- push for higher wages and better working conditions.
National Conference of Social Work
General Federation of Women’s Clubs
5000 women a year were graduating college
Took on professional careers
1890: National American Woman Suffrage Association formed
1920: Nineteenth Amendment passed
Suffrage seen as empowering women to benefit the disadvantaged
African Americans excluded from most of these organizations
National Association for Colored Women – (14 years before NAACP)

7. Woman Suffrage, Woman’s Rights
Politically active women push reforms of social justice movement
Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul – campaigned for suffrage helping passing of 19th amendment
Maximum number of working hours for women in 39 states by 1913
Keating-Owen Act of 1916 limited child labor, but was declared unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart

8. A Ferment of Ideas: Challenging the Status Quo
Dramatic shift in ideas behind progressive reform
Pragmatism – William James – truth should work for the individual and through action. People shaped by environment yet also shape their own environment
Tough minded individuals who could live in a world with no easy answers were praised. Ideas that worked were truth.
Reject social Darwinism
John Dewey: applied pragmatism to Education – it should stress personal growth, free inquiry, creativity; education directly related to experience.
Judge Lindsey, Louis Brandeis and “Sociological Jurisprudence” – making decisions in court based on legal precedent and social reform

9. A Ferment of Ideas: Challenging the Status Quo
1901: Socialist party forms, followers of Karl Marx, uniting intellectuals, factory workers, tenant farmers, miners, lumberjacks – overthrow capitalism
Very little support publicly
By 1911, 32 cities have Socialist mayors
Promise of Progressive reform rather than overthrow of capitalism
1912: Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs polls over 900,000 votes

10. Reform in the Cities and States
Progressives wanted government to follow the public will
Reform government
Reorganize for efficiency, effectiveness
Direct primaries, direct election of U.S. Senators – 17th amendment
Initiatives – compel legislature to consider a bill
Referendum – allowed citizens to vote on proposed laws printed on their ballots.
Recall – remove corrupt politicians from office by majority vote before end of term.
New agencies address particular social ills
Utilities out of the hands of private companies
Posts staffed with experts – Civil Service Act – pass civil service exam to hold government office or position.
Government power extended at all levels

11. Interest Groups and the Decline of Popular Politics
Decline in voter participation
77% from 1876–1900
65% from 1900–1916
52% in the 1920s
Remained near 52% through 20th century
Interest groups got favorable legislation through lobbying

12. Reform in the Cities
Urban reform leagues formed professional, nonpolitical civil service
Appointed commissioners replaced elected officials in many cities
City manager idea spread
Reform mayors
Tom Johnson of Cleveland
Corrupt turned right
Cut off special privilege, updated taxes, cut down on corruption
Public ownership of gas, electric, water, transportation to keep costs down
“Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo
Took clubs away from police, free kindergarten, playgrounds, night school, improved wages for city workers

13. Action in the States: Reform Governors
Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
“Wisconsin Idea” tapped experts in higher education for help in sweeping reforms
Industrial commission – regulate factory safety & sanitation
Improved education, workers compensation, public utility control, resource conservation, lowered railroad rates, raised railroad taxes, first state to adopt income tax, direct primary for all elections.
Other Progressive governors
Joseph Folk of Missouri
Hiram Johnson of California
Charles Evans Hughes of New York
Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey

14. The Republican Roosevelt
McKinley – 1901 – assassinated
Theodore Roosevelt as President
Often defied convention – Booker T. Washington to dinner at the white house
Brought an exuberance to the presidency
Surrounded himself with able associates

15. Busting the Trusts
1902: Wave of trust-busting led by suit against Northern Securities Company – combo of railroads
1904: Northern Securities dissolved
Roosevelt reputed a “trust-buster” – broke up bad trusts – harmed the public and stifled competition – regulated good trusts – efficiency and lower prices
Comparatively few antitrust cases under Roosevelt; Taft did almost twice as many in half the time

16. “Square Deal” in the Coalfields
1902: United Mine Workers strike in Pennsylvania threatened U.S. economy
Without coal people fear freezing to death
U.M.W., companies to White House
Roosevelt won company concessions by threatening military seizure of mines
Roosevelt acted as broker of interests
Outcome – 10% increase in wages; 9 hour workday

17. Roosevelt Progressivism at Its Height
1904—A four-way election:
Republican—Theodore Roosevelt
Democrat—Alton B. Parker
Socialist—Eugene V. Debs
Prohibition—Silas C. Swallow
Roosevelt won 57% of popular vote, 336 electoral votes

18. The Election of 1904

19. Regulating the Railroads
1903: Elkins Act prohibited railroad rebates, strengthened Interstate Commerce Commission
ICC now had greater authority to stop railroads from granting rebates to favored customers
1906 – Hepburn Act – ICC set just and reasonable rates for railroads.
Widespread popular demand for further railroad regulation after Roosevelt’s reelection

20. Cleaning Up Food and Drugs
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) prompted federal investigation of meatpacking industry – described in horrifying detail the conditions of the Chicago stockyards and meatpacking industry.
1906: Meat Inspection Act
Sets rules for sanitary meatpacking
Requires government inspection of meat products

21. Cleaning Up Food and Drugs
Samuel Hopkins Adams exposed dangers of patent medicines
1906: Pure Food and Drug Act
Required manufacturers to list certain ingredients
Banned manufacture and sale of adulterated or mislabeled drugs

22. Conserving the Land First comprehensive national conservation policy
Roosevelt worked with Gifford Pinchot, chief of Forest Service
Forest Reserve Act of 1891 – 150 million acres of forestland not to be sold to private interests
1902 – Newlands Reclamation Act – money from sale of public land for irrigation projects in western states.
1908 – National Conservation Commission created
Policy defined “conservation” as wise use of natural resources
Quadrupled acreage under federal protection

23. National Parks and Forests

24. The Ordeal of William Howard Taft
Taft: Able administrator, poor president
Conservative Republicans resurged
Taft lost support of Progressives

25. Party Insurgency
Tariff split Republicans – Taft promised to lower the tariff during his campaign
Progressives: High tariff favored trusts
Conservatives: High tariff protected business
1909 Payne-Aldrich Act provoked Progressives to break with Taft – raised tariff on most imports
Taft signed it and made public statement in its defense.

26. The Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
Gifford Pinchot, leading conservationist, Roosevelt appointee – well respected
Pinchot accused Interior Secretary Richard Ballinger of selling public lands to friends
Taft fired Pinchot for insubordination
Progressives protested while Conservatives were happy.

27. Taft Alienates the Progressives
1910: Taft successfully pushed Mann-Elkins Act to strengthen ICC
Empowers ICC to fix railroad rates
Progressive Republicans attacked Taft’s plan of a Commerce Court to hear ICC appeals
Progressives obstructed Taft’s negotiations
1910: Taft attacked Progressive Republicans and supported conservative candidates; Democrats gained Congress; split the Republican party.

28. Taft Alienates the Progressives
Legislation protecting laborers
Sixteenth Amendment created income tax
Taft a greater trustbuster than Roosevelt
Taft, Roosevelt attacked one another publicly
1912: Taft nominated again by Republicans, little chance for victory

29. Differing Philosophies in the Election of 1912
Roosevelt: Progressive (“Bull Moose”)
“New Nationalism”- more government regulation of business and unions, women’s suffrage, social welfare programs
Wasteful competition replaced by efficiency
Woodrow Wilson: Democrat
“New Freedom” for individual
Restrain big business, government
Democrats won White House, Congress

30. Woodrow Wilson’s “New Freedom”
Woodrow Wilson: Former president of Princeton, governor of New Jersey
Progressive, intellectual, inspiring orator
One of America’s most effective presidents

31. The New Freedom in Action
1913: Underwood Tariff cut taxes for first time in 50 years.
1913: Federal Reserve Act reformed banks, established stable currency
1914: Clayton Antitrust Act outlawed unfair trade practices, protected unions
1914: Federal Trade Commission – investigate and take action against any unfair trade practice in every industry except banking and transportation

32. New Freedom in Action: Retreating from Reform
November, 1914: Wilson announces “New Freedom” has been achieved
It was “a time of healing because a time of just dealing”
Statement stunned many progressives

33. Wilson Moves Toward the New Nationalism
Reasons for the move
Distracted by the outbreak of war in Europe
Needed conservative Southern support
Republicans seemed to gain by attacking his programs
1916: Presidential election

34. Wilson Moves Toward the New Nationalism
Wilson renewed reform in reelection bid
Federal Farm Loan Act – farm loans low interest rates. Intervened in strikes on behalf of workers
Attempted to ban child labor
Increased income taxes on the rich
Supported women’s suffrage
Program won Wilson a close election