1. PRESIDENTIAL Progressivism
PRESIDENTIAL Progressivism

2. Popular Progressivism
Progressives promoted federal legislation to
Regulate big business
Protect & conserve the environment

3. Theodore Roosevelt
Assumed the presidency following McKinley’s assassination in Sept., 1901
Youngest president in history (42)

4. The Square Deal Mediated the 1902 anthracite coal miners strike
Busted more than 40 “bad” trusts
Strengthened the ICC with the Elkins and Hepburn Acts

5. Consumer Protection A new responsibility of the federal government
The Pure Food and Drug Act
The Meat Inspection Act
Inspired by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle

6. Excerpt of The Jungle
“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.”

7. Conservation
Used the Forest Reserve Act to set aside 150 million acres of reserve that could not be sold publically
Newlands Reclamation Act subsidized irrigation projects in the west
Created the National Conservation Commission
Appointed Gifford Pinchot director of the new U.S. Forest Service

10. W. H. Taft 1909-1913 Increased trustbusting Continued conservation
Mann-Elkins Act further strengthened the ICC
16th Amendment = graduated income tax
"Big Bill" was the heaviest president at 332 pounds and 6'2". Needing a big bathtub, he had a 7' long 41" wide tub installed that could accommodate 4 normal-sized men
TR honors the two-term tradition and handpicks his successor to the Republican nominee
trust-busting and conservation
Trustbusting and Conservation
prosecutes almost 2x as many trust cases, even busts a U.S. Steel merger that had been previously approved by Roosevelt
Bureau of Mines adds tracts of Appalachians to forest reserves
Mann-Elkins Act – oversee railroad rates and control telephone/telegraph
- Sixteenth Amendment – income tax on the very wealthy
Split in the Republican Party
Some progressives believed he’s abandoned the cause
Payne Aldrich – Taft had promised a lower tariff but did not follow through
P-B Controversy – Pinchot criticized Richard Ballinger for opening up lands in Alaska for private development
House Speaker Joe Cannon – Republicans are trying to reduce the power of the leading Conservative
After Midterm elections the party is widely split between a conservative faction and a Progressive faction

11. Split in the Republican Party
Some progressives believed Taft had abandoned the cause
Payne Aldrich – Taft had promised a lower tariff but did not follow through
P-B Controversy – Pinchot criticized Richard Ballinger for opening up lands in Alaska for private development
After Midterm elections the party is widely split between a conservative faction and a Progressive faction

13. The Election of 1912 Debs (Soc.) 6% Taft (Rep.) 23%
Roosevelt (Prog./Bull Moose) 27%
Wilson (Dem.) 41%
Roosevelt’s New Nationalism platform of strong government regulation had a lasting impact on Wilson, FDR, & LBJ

14. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) Democrat From Virginia Idealist
Called for a “New Freedom” from the triple wall of privilege

15. Example: Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Attacked trusts (before WWI)
Strengthened the provisions of Sherman
Included a clause exempting unions from being prosecuted

16. Example: The Underwood Tariff
Announced in the first ever in-person State of the Union address
In 1913 Congress substantially lowered tariffs for the first time in over 50 years
Offset by increased income taxes

17. Example: The Federal Reserve Act, 1914
Reformed banking
Created12 district banks supervised by a Federal Reserve Board
Federal Reserve Notes used as paper money
Woodrow Wilson address congress directly, instead of writing a letter as most presidents has done
Americans started using federal reserve notes, which were a standard form of currency (still backed by gold)
This allows the government more regulation over the supply of money, they can create inflationary or deflationary policies by opening or restricting the circulation of money (generally through interest rates – the lower the interest rate the more people will spend, and the more businesses can charge)

18. Failed Attempt to Regulate Child Labor
The Child Labor Act prohibited interstate commerce by laborers under 14
The Supreme Court struck it down in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)

20. WWI Looms… Wilson won a close re-election in 1916
The progressive movement lost momentum as the nation’s attention turned to the war in Europe