Unit 7: The Progressive Era and Reform Movements and Reforms

The Progressive movement sought to reform social, political, and economic abuses resulting from late $19^{th}$ century industrialization through significant government intervention.

While Gilded Age elites viewed government intervention as the root of problems, Progressives believed it was the solution to all social and economic ills.

Conceptually, the Gilded Age was defined by seeking freedom FROM government, whereas the Progressive Era was defined by seeking freedom THROUGH government.

Progressives are considered the heirs to the Populist movement of the $1890s$. Many failed agrarian reforms of the Populists were successfully implemented by Progressives.

Comparison between Populists and Progressives:

• Populists were primarily concerned with rural reform and represented the lower working class;
• Progressives focused on urban reform in industrialized cities and tended to belong to the middle and upper classes.

The movement comprised diverse groups with shared methods but differing goals, including Protestant church leaders, feminists, labor union leaders, and African Americans.

Racial segregation was a primary target of reform, though Progressives held three distinct attitudes: supporting it, ignoring it, or working to dismantle it.

• Booker T. Washington (Black Reformer):
• Focused on self-improvement and discouraged active fighting against segregation.
• Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to teach practical industrial skills and virtuous habits (thrift and abstinence).
• Believed economic vitality would eventually make segregation disappear as white Americans would find it too costly to marginalize vital neighbors.
• Ida B. Wells (Journalist):
• Rejected Washington's practicality, vociferously speaking out against lynchings in the South through journalism.
• After white supremacists destroyed her press, she relocated to Chicago to continue dismantling white supremacy.
• W. E. B. Du Bois:
• Occupied a middle position, agreeing on self-improvement but insisting that true equality required equal voting rights and the removal of all segregated public facilities.
• The Niagara Movement and NAACP:
• Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement for voting rights.
• Later, it joined white reformers like Florence Kelley and Jane Addams to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which successfully challenged segregation and lynching in courts.

Progressives aimed to transfer political power from elites to ordinary people through four major changes:

• The Secret Ballot (Australian Ballot):
• Previously, political parties printed their own ballots and watched voters, leading to corruption by urban political machines.
• Massachusetts adopted the secret ballot in $1888$, and all states followed within $20$ years.
• The Direct Primary:
• Introduced by Wisconsin Governor Robert LaFollette, this allowed citizens to choose party candidates directly, siphoning power from corrupt machines.
• Direct Election of Senators ($17^{th}$ Amendment):
• Under the Constitution, state legislatures elected senators, often leading to corporate bribery.
• In $1913$, the $17^{th}$ Amendment was ratified, giving election power to the people.
• Voter Power Mechanisms:
• The Initiative (allowing voters to require legislators to vote on a bill),
• The Referendum (allowing voters to directly vote on proposed bills),
• The Recall (allowing voters to remove an elected official before their term ends).

Progressives applied Taylorism (Scientific Management), an idea by Frederick Taylor aimed at factory efficiency, to the government.

To combat the inefficiency of political machines that filled service gaps, cities adopted the Commission form of government (departments run like businesses) and the City Manager position (acting as a CEO for the city).

This shift viewed citizens less as constituents and more as shareholders, managing government with business-like efficiency.

Large-scale immigration from Europe and Asia sparked varied Progressive responses:

• Margaret Sanger:
• A leading advocate for birth control among urban immigrants, though her views were informed by eugenics; she believed reducing children for non-white women would improve the "quality" of the white race.
• Jane Addams:
• Established settlement houses providing healthcare, education, and childcare.
• Her work was also noted to have roots in popular eugenics theories.
• Labor Union Leaders:
• Advocated for restricting immigration because foreign workers competed for jobs and lowered wages.
• They achieved victories with the Immigration Act of $1917$ and the Immigration Act of $1921$, which significantly restricted European immigration and nearly cut off Asian immigration.

After the closing of the frontier in $1890$, Progressive efficiency was applied to natural resources:

• Conservationists (e.g., Gifford Pinchot):
• Believed resources (forests, coal, oil) should be used and extracted but balanced with maintaining landscape beauty.
• Preservationists (e.g., John Muir):
• Aimed to protect natural beauty by preventing all resource extraction.
• Federal Action:
• President Theodore Roosevelt used executive orders to protect wildlife and oversaw the creation of $3$ protected national parks.

Muckrakers were investigative journalists who exposed corruption to energize middle-class reformers:

• Ida Tarbell:
• Targeted John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, exposing illegal activities used to eliminate market competition.
• Ying Poon Chu (Chinese American):
• Wrote about the injustices and suffering caused by the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• Upton Sinclair:
• Authored "The Jungle," detailing horrific and unsanitary meatpacking practices.
• This led to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, establishing government oversight for food safety.

Roosevelt rejected the Gilded Age practice of siding only with big business, proposing a "Square Deal" for both labor and capital:

• 1902 Pennsylvania Coal Strike:
• When mine owners refused to negotiate with striking miners, Roosevelt threatened to send federal troops to operate the mines.
• Owners yielded, granting better pay and shorter hours, though they did not recognize the union.
• "Trust Buster":
• Roosevelt rigorously enforced the Sherman Antitrust Act of $1890$, breaking up more than $40$ trusts that used predatory pricing or eliminated competition.

Wilson targeted the "Triple Wall of Privilege": Tariffs, Banking, and Trusts:

• Underwood Tariff Act ($1913$):
• Reduced tariffs on manufactured goods.
• $16^{th}$ Amendment:
• Created a national income tax, a previously failed Populist reform.
• The Federal Reserve:
• Created to solve banking problems and gold standard hardships.
• The "Fed" regulates money supply and sets interest rates to foster economic flourishing.

$16^{th}$ Amendment: Established the federal income tax.

$17^{th}$ Amendment: Direct election of U.S. Senators by the people.

$18^{th}$ Amendment ($1919$): National Prohibition of alcohol.

• Promoted by women reformers who tied alcohol to moral decay.
• The ban was supported during WWI by arguing grain should go to the war effort; it was repealed in $1933$.

$19^{th}$ Amendment ($1920$): Recognized women's right to vote.

• Building on the movement started at the Seneca Falls Convention in $1848$, the U.S. followed