The Progressive Movement

Who were the progressives?

• The progressives were not a defined political party or group, progressivism was a collective term for small group movements and individuals.

• Democrats and Republicans could both be progressives at this time.

• Progressivism was a trend in history, not necessarily an organization.

Progressive Philosophy

• Pragmatism argued that ideas are only as good as their results.

• Positivism focused on the empirical - the concept that you must be able to defend your positions with facts.

How the Progressives Worked

• Were not opposed to the system, as in they were not communist or strongly socialist

• Used technology such as the camera, academia & statistics.

• Moral suasion

• The Expose (Mucraking)

The Muckrakers

• Muckrakers were a group of journalists and writers who uncovered social inequality and urged the public to take action.

• They exposed problems in American society, such as corrupt machine politics, poor working conditions, and the living conditions of the working class.4

• Notable muckrakers include Jacob Riis, a photographer who documented the dismal living conditions in New York City tenements, (How the Other Half Lives 1890), and Ida Tarbell, who investigated the excesses of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly (The History of the Standard Oil Company 1905).

• The work of the muckrakers not only revealed serious problems but also agitated for change, leading to legislation addressing issues like child labor, anti-trust, and health and safety.

The Features of Progressivism

• Progressives sought to perfect democracy by expanding suffrage and restricting political participation for those deemed "unfit" based on health, education, or race.

• They believed in balancing democracy with an emphasis on efficiency, a reliance on science and technology, and deference to the expertise of professionals.

• Progressives repudiated party politics but looked to government to regulate the modern market economy, seeing themselves as agents of social justice and reform.

• However, Progressives' convictions and faith in their own expertise sometimes led them to dismiss the voices of the people they sought to help.

• Progressivism developed at the grassroots level before the federal government engaged in reforms under President Theodore Roosevelt.

• What united Progressives was the belief that the country was moving in a dangerous direction and required the efforts of everyday Americans to put it back on track.

Expanding Democracy

• Progressives pushed for direct democracy through the introduction of direct primaries, initiatives, referendums, and recalls at the state level.

• The Seventeenth Amendment mandated the direct election of U.S. senators, replacing the previous system of state legislatures choosing senators.

Expertise and Efficiency

• Progressives sought to rid politics of inefficiency, waste, and corruption, leading to the adoption of the commission system and city manager form of government in various cities.

• Robert La Follette and the "Wisconsin Idea" advocated for the use of experts to research and advise on legislation, resulting in progressive reforms in the state.6

• The principles of scientific management, or Taylorism, emphasized efficiency and the use of experts, though they were not widely popular among workers.

Social Justice

• Progressives worked to address the needs of various groups, including African Americans, immigrants, the working poor, and women, through initiatives like the settlement house movement and efforts to ban child labor.

• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire tragedy provided the moral argument to push for workplace safety laws and codes.

• The prohibition movement, led by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League, aimed to eliminate the sale of alcohol, which was seen as a moral vice and practical concern for the working class.

Radical Progressives

• The Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) emerged as more radical movements that advocated for fundamental changes to the political and economic system, rather than gradual reform.

• The government viewed the IWW as a significant threat and responded with arrests, violence, and other measures to suppress the radical movement.

Women’s Beliefs in the Progressive Movement

• Some progressives believed that women's politics complemented their traditional roles as wives, mothers, and caregivers.

• Many women believed that women should have the right to vote, and the Progressive Era was instrumental in achieving this goal.

• Some religious progressives believed that women were spiritually purer than men, and therefore better equipped to vote.

The Women’s Rights Movement

• The women's rights movement gained momentum in the late 19th century, with leaders like Jane Addams and Florence Kelley playing key roles in the early Progressive settlement house movement.

• Jane Addams’ Hull House of 1889 where she invited people in the neighborhood to teach them how to run a household. Taught hygiene and basic principles on how to live. Addams also argued for Chicago to pay people for trash pick up in order to stop disease.

• She advocated for black people, though her Hull Houses were segregated.

• Muller vs. Oregon - dropped the work day to 10 hours for women.

• The movement's primary goal was securing the right to vote, which had first been demanded in the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.

• Activists like Mary Ann Shadd Cary and Florence Woodhull argued that the 14th Amendment guaranteed women's suffrage, but their efforts were initially rejected by the House Judiciary Committee.

• The National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA), led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, organized state and local chapters to advocate for a federal suffrage amendment.

• Under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt, NAWSA adopted new strategies, including celebrity endorsements and public parades, to build momentum for the suffrage cause.

• The suffrage movement faced significant opposition, with anti-suffragist groups portraying female voters as immoral, irresponsible, and a threat to traditional gender roles.

• Despite the backlash, the 19th Amendment, prohibiting voter discrimination based on sex, was passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified by the required 36 states in 1920.

Social Gospel

• emphasized how Jesus' ethical teachings could remedy the problems caused by “Gilded Age” capitalism

• Argued that you should take christian values and apply them to social problems

• Fix society and then Jesus will come back, (second coming of Christ).

• Charles Sheldon, In His Steps 1897 (“What would Jesus do?”)

• National Child Labor committee fought against child labor

Children and Progressivism

• Some families depended on child labor, after series of laws made child labor illegal, a lot of families were impacted.

• Child Labor Laws were passed in 2/3 states in 1905 through 1907.

• Compulsory education laws were a key part of the solution to child labor in the United States, and they continue to be an effective way to reduce child labor today.

Children’s Education

• Children primarily learned by rote learning

• Schools tended to be very authoritarian, teachers were seen as authoritarians

• John Dewey argues for flexibility in the classroom, moving desks, interacting with other students. He wanted to break down this authoritarian system.

• Dewey also emphasized the importance of human experience in the classroom, especially that of teachers’.

• Encouraged students’ critical thinking.

• Argued a scientific approach to teaching (try something, look at results, adjust appropriately. Do what works for students.)

Municipal Reform

The African American Civil Rights Movement

• African Americans faced widespread discrimination, segregation, and racial violence, particularly in the South, during the Progressive Era.

• Booker T. Washington, a prominent African American leader, advocated for a strategy of self-improvement and economic advancement within the existing segregated system, known as the "Atlanta Compromise".

• W.E.B. Du Bois and other civil rights leaders, through the Niagara Movement, called for immediate political, economic, and social equality for African Americans, drawing on the skills of the "talented tenth" of the Black, educated elite.

• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909, with leaders like Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. Du Bois, to investigate lynchings and advocate for federal legislation to protect the rights of African Americans.

• The divergent strategies of Washington and Du Bois represented the diverse approaches within the African American community to achieve equality and civil rights.

Theodore Roosevelt's "Square Deal"

• Roosevelt took over the presidency after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901.

• As president, Roosevelt focused on eliminating business trusts, creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, and using the Sherman Antitrust Act to prosecute major corporations like the Northern Securities Trust, American Tobacco Company, and Standard Oil Company.

• Roosevelt also intervened in the 1902 anthracite coal strike, symbolizing the federal government's role as a steward of the public interest.

• Roosevelt's "Square Deal" agenda included the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act to protect public health, as well as the conservation of millions of acres of public land.

William Howard Taft's Progressive Agenda

• Taft, Roosevelt's hand-picked successor, had a distinguished background but lacked the political skills and focus on the public good of his predecessor.

• Taft initiated more antitrust suits than Roosevelt, but he struggled to maintain the support of Progressives in his own party, particularly on the issue of tariffs and his firing of Gifford Pinchot, the chief of the U.S. Forestry Service.

• The rift between Taft and the Progressive Republicans led to the formation of the Progressive (or "Bull Moose") Party, with Roosevelt running as its candidate in the 1912 election.

Woodrow Wilson's "New Freedom"

• Wilson, the Democratic candidate in the 1912 election, campaigned on a more moderate "New Freedom" platform, which called for a smaller federal government to protect public interests from big businesses and banks.

• As president, Wilson implemented his New Freedom agenda, including the Revenue Act of 1913 (Underwood Tariff Act) to lower tariff rates, the Federal Reserve Act to regulate the banking industry, and the Clayton Antitrust Act to expand the power of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

• Wilson also signed into law several other progressive reforms, such as the Federal Farm Act, the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act, and the Adamson Act, during his second term to secure his re-election in 1916.