Progressivism Notes

The progressive era

  • The period from 1890 to 1920 when many believed a solution to social problems in the nation lay in a more active role by the government

  • Believes by applying scientific principles to solving social problems, the result would be new inventions and innovations that would improve the lives of everyone


Key characteristics

  • Government should play an active role in solving society’s problems

  • Government needed to be more efficient

  • New inventions and new cures can help society

  • The people should have more say in their government

  • Women should have the right to vote


Muckrakers

  • Journalists who practiced what today is called “investigative journalism” in order to spotlight corruption in society

    • Jacob Riis

      • Journalist whose book “how the other half lives” led to calls for government assistance to help the urban poor

      • His books gave a vivid look at the life of ethnic groups of New York City living in the slums

    • Upton Sinclair

      • In 1906 he wrote “the jungle” to describe the conditions in the meatpacking industry in chicago

        • Led to the meat inspection act and the pure food and drug act

      • Wanted to highlight the plight of the working class

      • The book raised fears of what was in the meat that people were eating

    • Ida Tarbell

      • One of the leading muckrakers of her day

      • Wrote many notable magazine series and biographies

      • Best known for her book “the history of the standard oil companies”

    • Lincoln Steffens


Efficient governments

  • During the progressive era, reformers wanted to rid city governments of political influence and make local government more efficient

  • To do so, many cities hired an outside expert to manage the city

    • Became city manager who is basically a CEO


A more democratic union

  • During the progressive era, many reformers felt that people needed to have more control of the government 

    • Led to active citizenship

  • Robert Lafollette wanted to get power out of the hands of party leaders and into the hands of the people

    • “Fighting Bob”


The direct primary

  • The direct primary gave voters power to choose the candidate in an election

    • Led to Wisconsin becoming the “lab of democracy”

  • Other voting changes brought on by progressives included the initiative, referendum, and recall

  • Another reform called for direct election of senators

    • Led to 17th amendment


Initiative and referendum

  • Initiative allows a group of citizens to introduce a law in their state government and require the legislature to vote on it

  • Referendum allows proposed law to be voted on directly by the people instead of state legislature


Women's suffrage

  • The fight for women’s suffrage began in the mid-1800s at the seneca falls convention

  • By the 1900s, the leader of the suffrage movement, susan b anthony, had left


19th amendment

  • In 1919, the senate passed the 19th amendment to the constitution granting women the right to vote

  • It was ratified by the states in 1920


Election of 1900

  • In the presidential election of 1900, McKinley chose as his vice president candidate someone who was a war hero from the Spanish-American War, someone who had strong ties to the northeast and someone who was a progressive—Theodore Roosevelt


Roosevelt takes over

  • Mckinney was assassinated in 1901

  • Teddy Roosevelt became the youngest president at 42


Roosevelt’s Square deal

  • Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive president

  • Roosevelt pushed laws to

    • Break up big monopolies (trusts)

    • Protect the environment and public health

    • Improve working conditions for factory workers


Coal strike of 1902

  • Roosevelt felt that one of his jobs was to stop job conflicts between different groups in the nation

  • When the united mine workers went on strike in 1902, Roosevelt intervened in the strike and got the union and the owners to agree to arbitration


Roosevelt the trust buster

  • Roosevelt saw the need for government to regulate large corporations

  • While he believed that large corporations were an important part of the nation's prosperity, he also believed that these corporations were hurting workers


Northern securities vs. the US

  • Roosevelt and the government sued Northern securities, a trust made up of two large railroads

  • The supreme court rules that Northern securities was a monopoly and in violation of the sherman antitrust act

  • Importance:

    • Established roosevelt as a “trust-buster”

    • Increased the power of presidency

    • Showed executive branch was even more powerful than the nation’s most powerful business

  • The case set the precedent for declaring a trust unconstitutional and against the law


Roosevelt and Conservation

  • Roosevelt put his stamp on the presidency most clearly in the area of environmental conservation

  • Roosevelt declared millions of acres of land as protect national forests and urged american to conserve resources

  • Roosevelt authorized

    • 150 national forests

    • 51 federal bird reserves

    • 4 national game reserves

    • 5 national parks

    • 18 national monuments

    • 24 reclamation projects


National parks system

  • Roosevelt also worked to preserve the nation’s forests

  • Declared millions of acres of land as protected national forests and started the national parks system to watch the land


Newlands reclamation act

  • Roosevelt secures passage of the newlands reclamation act

    • An unprecedented law authorizing federal construction of dams and reservoirs in the west funded by public land sales

  • Bureau of reclamation

    • Constructed dams, power plants, and canals

    • Provides irrigation

    • Selles water


Hepburn act of 1906

  • Roosevelt wanted the government to be able to regulate railroad rates to insure fairness

  • Hepburn act gave the interstate commerce commission the power to set railroad rates to make sure that companies did not compete unfairly with each other


Taft takes over

  • Roosevelt did not run for president in 1908, instead he picked his successor


Problems with taft

  • Although he was picked by roosevelt, taft was not popular with progressives

    • Taft was not the politician that roosevelt was and lacked the energy and personal magnetism of his mentor

    • Taft fired the popular gifford pinchot as chief of the united states forest service

    • Signed the payne-aldrich tariff into law


Payne-aldrich tariff

  • The law that called for lower tariffs

  • Supposed to provide american industrialists with cheap raw materials

  • Because of compromises in congress, it did not provide materials

  • Upset both proponents and opponents tariffs

  • Angered progressives

  • Because it increased the duty, the publishing industry viciously criticized Taft, farther tarnishing his image


Roosevelt challenges taft

  • Because taft had not followed through with many progressive reforms, in 1912 roosevelt challenged taft for the republican nomination

    • Caused a split in the republican party


Impact of third parties

  • Third party candidates can greatly impact an election


Roosevelt and the bull moose party

  • Upset with the direction taft had taken the country, roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term as president

  • When it became clear that the republican party was not going to nominate him, he left the convention and formed the progressive or bull moose party


Lafollette and progressives

  • Lafollette made his first run for president in 1912, running as a progressive, he would run again in 1924

  • Lafollette lost the nomination in roosevelt in 1912 and ran in 1924 as the labor party


Eugene debs and socialists

  • Debs believed the role of the government was to protect the workers from greedy business owners, to do this the government needed to take control of the big business

  • Debs ran for president 4 times, received over 1 million votes in 1912


Underwood tariff

  • Established income tax

  • First major reduction in tariffs

  • Average tariff was decreased from 41% to 27%

  • To replace the lost income, graduated income tax was imposed


16th amendment

  • Created a national income tax

  • Gave federal government the power to directly tax its citizens


Federal reserve act

  • During those times, many people lost their savings when small banks collapsed and closed, taking peoples money along with them

  • To restore people's confidence in banks, wilson created the federal reserve system

    • Banks would sleep a portion of their deposits in a regional reserve banks as a cushion in case of crisis


Federal trade commission

  • Wilson also wanted to restore competition in the economy. He wanted to break up monopolies, he realized it would be unrealistic to break up large companies

  • Wilson asked congress to create the federal trade commission (FTC) to regulate american business, the commission did not have the power to order companies to stop unfair trades


Clayton antitrust act

  • To strengthen the federal government's ability to break up trusts, the clayton antitrust act was passed

  • The law gave unions significantly more power because it legalized unions, strikes boycotts, and pickets


Birth of the NAACP

  • The progressive movement did not address the issue of equal rights for blacks

  • WEB Dubois helped for form the NAACP


Temperance movement

  • Some progressives believe that a lot of the nations problems were tied in with the consumption and sale of alcohol

  • The movement to rid the nation of alcohol was called the temperance movement

  • Three groups led the call for temperance

    • Women’s groups

      • Alcoholism lead to abusive men and loss of jobs

      • Led by carrie nation

    • Business owners

    • Christians


18th amendment passed

  • The sale or consumption of alcohol is illegal