PROGRESSIVE ERA 1900-1920 -- INTRODUCTION

I. Progressive Movement
A. Introduction

1. Conservatism usually connotes a resistance to change , a tendency to maintain the status quo and a disposition of hostility to innovations in the political, social and economic order
2. Progressivism implies a philosophy which welcomes innovations and reforms in the political, economic and social order, usually to alleviate the ills of society, to assure people a broader control of their governments and to afford greater economic, political and social justice to the people.
   a. Goals of Progressives
   (1) To decrease the role of special interest groups in government
   (2) To make the government more honest and responsive to citizen needs
   (3) To increase popular participation in the American system.
   (4) To create a more active, stronger role for the Federal government to protect the public interest.
   (5) To get the government responsible for the social welfare of its citizens (i.e., a rejection of social Darwinism).
   b. Progressives or liberals were essentially conservative as far as basic property rights and the fundamental capitalistic structure was concerned.
3. Unfortunately, progressives could not agree what were the causes of the ills of society and therefore they did not share many common goals.
B. Roots of the Progressive Movement
1. The rapid growth of Big Business by the end of the 19th century coupled with the social problems associated with too fast growth in the cities led many Americans to attempt to reform the American system in the face of rising tensions within society as a result of industrialization
   a. They wanted to make it more equitable and more humanitarian
   b. They did not want to radically alter it the system but expand participation in it.
2. Population in 1900
   a. US population was 76 million with 1 out of 7 being foreign born
   b. In the next fifteen years, another 13 million immigrants arrived
3. Past Reform Efforts
   a. Abolitionism --The 1830s - 50s witnessed a crusade to abolish slavery, which was legally abolished by the 13th amendment.
   b. Women's rights
   (1) Women at the forefront of abolitionism soon realized the parallel between the struggle for black civil rights and a similar struggle for the same rights for women.
   (2) Women organized at Seneca Falls and after the Civil War worked for women's suffrage (American Women's Suffrage Association ) as well as other issues (National Women's Suffrage Association ).
   c. Temperance
   (1) The fight against alcohol, especially in the West, was led by women, the most promient being Carrie Nation
   (2) Women's Christian Temperance Union (1874) was the first truly national women's organization, led by Frances Willard
   d. Indians
   (1) The plight of the various Indian nations still in the US received some sympathy after Helen Hunt's Century of Dishonor
   (2) Although ill-conceived, the US sought to reform the Indian's condition with the Dawes Severalty Act 1887.
   e. Farm Movement - some goals were espoused by the agrarian revolt, regarding the political system and in the desire for a greater Federal role in the lives of individual citizens.
   f. Big Business - several men wrote treatises against the ruthless practices
   (1) Henry Demurest Lloyd (1847-1903) Wealth Against Commonwealth (1894) was aimed at Standard Oil of Ohio, and against Social Darwinism
   (2) Thorstein Veblen Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) attacked the new rich class in America and the concept of laissez faire .
C . Characteristics of the Movement
1. Progressives were out to refine the American system, not concerned with foreign policy.
2. They were a domestic political movement, not a political party, and included members from both major political parties. 3. Most leaders were white middle-class male Protestants, self-employed, some college education
3. Its strength was primarily in the North and Northeast regions, although a Southern progressive movement existed, centered primarily in urban centers.
   a. While many historians tend to ignore the South as unprogressive during this era, a subtle shift within radical agrarianism from the rural-economic to the urban-political occurred.
   (1) Prosperity from 1897-1920 reduced demands for extreme economic reforms.
   (2) Adequate regulation of railroad rates and services was gradually done by federal and state action.
   b. Southern progressives ceased to be entirely agrarian in outlook, with the leadership passing to progressive editors, politicians and other urban groups
   c. Their chief issues became political.
4. As the middle class expanded, so did adherents of the progressive movement.
   a. The old traditional middle class (doctors, lawyers, teachers) added a new element from rising industry.
   b. As technicians, clerks, managers, and engineers became part of the middle class, they became Progressives.
D. Individual Reformers
1. Influential muckrakers in the movement
   a. Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) - The Jungle (1906) - an expose of the meatpacking industry, although it was written as a socialist view of contemporary history.
   b. Ida Tarbell - History of the Standard Oil Company
   c. Samuel Hopkins Adams in a series of articles in Collier's Magazine titled "Great American Fraud," exposed the patent medicine industry.
   d. Others
   (1) Frank Morris - The Octopus and The Pit (1902)
   (2) Lincoln Steffens - Shame of the Cities (1904)
   (3) Jack London - The Iron Heel (1902)
2. Progressive Governors
   a. The leading progressive, Governor Robert La Follette (1855-1925), made Wisconsin the model state, passing much reform legislation which paved the way for other states.
   b. Hiram Johnson , California
   c. Charles Evans Hughes , New York.
3. Social Justice Reformers
   a. The idea that social evils could be legislated away grew popular but was carried to its extreme with the passage of the 18th amendment, which prohibited the sale, distribution or manufacture of intoxicating liquors in the US.
   b. Jane Addams (1860-1935) and the Settlement House Movement
   (1) In Chicago in 1889, Addams established a settlement house which was voluntarily run by middle-class white women in the midst of a slum to provide direct relief to the poor.
   (2) The "Hull House" project was the model for other such projects in several cities.
   (3) Among the services: soup kitchens, clubs for boys and girls, baths for children, reading classes, day nursery, classes on personal hygiene, a gymnasium and a little theater.
E. Successes of the Progressive Movement
1. Political Reform
   a. Initiative and referendum, adopted first in Oregon and in several other states by 1900
   b. Recall which allowed public officials to stand reelection before their original term ended.
   c. A Secret Ballot first, adopted in Wisconsin as well as direct primary elections (1903)
   d. 17th Amendment - Direct Election of Senators 1913.
2. Railroad Regulation
   a. Significant steps were taken before 1900, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission , but these did little to halt the growth of railroad mergers until 1904, when six major railroads controlled all but 37,000 track miles.
   b. Elkins Act 1903
   (1) Strengthened the ICC by not allowing railroads to deviate from published rates.
   (2) Outlawed all rebates on published freight rates.
   (3) Allowed both those giving rebates and those receiving them to be prosecuted.
   (4) But it did not extend to the regulation of the rates.
   c. Hepburn Act 1906
   (1) Increased the ICC from five to seven members.
   (2) Allowed the ICC to regulate rates charged by railroads, terminals and pipelines, subject to court review.
   (3) Expanded ICC jurisdiction over most interstate transportation, including regulation of terminals and pipelines, sleeping car companies, owners of oil pipelines, and any firm engaged in interstate transportation.
   (4) Shifted the burden of proof from the ICC to transportation owners.
   d. Railroad Commissions - many state legislatures, especially in the South, created regulatory agencies, with sufficient authority to set rates and regulate rail operations.
3. Food and Drug Legislation
   a. Meat Inspection Act 1906 provided for inspection of meat packing plants
   b. Pure Food and Drug Act 1906 - same day
   (1) Unproven claims about a product could not he made.
   (2) A list of ingredients had to be made available.
   (3) Prohibited adulterated or mislabeled foods and drugs from interstate commerce but did not regulate intrastate food and drugs.
4. Regulating Industry
   a. 1904 - 318 Corporations controlled $7 billion (40%) of US manufacturing investment capital.
   b. Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890 ineffectively curbed the growth of industry and business mergers into trusts (184 of the 318 were formed after 1898).
   c. Supreme Court Assistance and Hindrance
   (1) E.C.Knight Case 1894 limited the definition of manufacturing by placing food production beyond the jurisdiction of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
   (2) Northern Securities Company 1901
   (a) Roosevelt's first major Anti-Trust suit, brought in 1902 by Attorney General Philander Knox, the Justice Department sued to break-up the railroad monopoly as an illegal restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
   (b) 1904 - the Supreme Court in Northern Securities vs US by a 5-4 vote upheld the suit and the Northern Securities Company was dissolved
   (3) Employers Liability Act (1906) was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1908.
   (4) Lochner vs NY (1905) the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a New York law which limited the hours for bakers to ten on the basis that it deprived bakers of the liberty to work as long as they wished.
   (5) The Supreme Court consistently struck down legislative attempts to restrict child labor.
   (a) Hammer vs Dagenhart 1918 by a vote of 5-4 struck down the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act which sought to bar goods made by children from interstate commerce.
   (b) The court again made a distinction between manufacture and commerce.
   Congress can control the means by which commerce is carried on, but did not have authority over manufacturing which was within the jurisdiction of states.
   d. Presidential Anti-Trust Actions
   (1) 1903 - Illustrating the federal government's commitment, Department of Commerce and Labor was added, the ninth Cabinet position with George B. Corteloyou as the first Secretary
   (2) Theodore Roosevelt's Justice Department brought 44 cases against several trusts.
   (a) The American Tobacco Company was broken up into 17 companies
   (b) Informal agreements with US Steel (1905) and International Harvester (1907) resulted in a promise to correct malpractices if no suit were filed.
   (3) William Howard Taft was actually a greater trustbuster with 90 suits against companies accused of illegal restraints of trade.
5. Women's Rights
   a. The two branches of the women's suffrage movement united as NAWSA to push for the woman's right to vote.
   b. The first woman elected to Congress Jeannette Rankin introduced the bill which became the l9th Amendment -- Susan B. Anthony Amendment
   c. An attempted equal rights amendment to the constitution was deemed too radical.
F. Progressive Failures -- Race Relations and Civil Rights
1. No significant steps were taken at this time to challenge the South's Jim Crow system, solidly in place by 1900, which kept Blacks in a 2d class citizen status until the 1960s.
   a. No books like Helen Hunt's Century of Dishonor challenged the American conscience toward the plight of Southern Black citizens.
   (1) 90% of American Blacks lived in the rural South during the Progressive Era.
   (2) One out of seven farmers in the US in 1900 was Black.
   b. Although Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House for dinner, Southern anger, reacting with violent acts against Southern Blacks, caused Roosevelt to back away from further commitments after he lost Southern support.
   c. The Southern-born Wilson had no enthusiastic support for Black rights.
2. Black Response
   a. Niagara Movement - the first collective attempt by African-Americans to demand full citizen rights in the 20th century (without even indirect white support)
   (1) Led by W.E.B. Du Bois, their Call to action had been signed by 59 men of dis-tinction in DC and sixteen states from Rhode Island to South Carolina to Kansas.
   (2) Purpose: "organized determination and aggressive action on the part of men who believe in Negro freedom and growth" and opposition to "present methods of strangling honest criticism."
   (3) 30 blacks met in Buffalo NY, before shifting to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls at Ft Erie.
   (4) In a Declaration of Principles , they espoused black rights including the unrestricted right to vote, the end of all segregation in public places, equal economic opportunity, equal justice in the courts, the right to a higher education for all citizens and an end to discrimination in trade unions.
   (5) A press blackout, partially imposed by the influence of Booker T. Washington, caused the meeting to go almost unnoticed.
   (6) Meeting in the North, the movement did not attract many Blacks, most of whom lived in the South, and could not afford the trip, although a second meeting was held at Stoner College in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
   b. NAACP - 1909
   (1) Following a race riot which devastated Springfield IL 14 August 1908, in response to the Atlanta riot 1906, a biracial organization was founded in New York
   (2) It included Oswald Garrison Villard and Charles Edward Russell as engines of the association and millionaire Socialist William English Walling and Mary Ovington as its sparks
   (3) But membership included W.E.B. Du Bois, whose classes kept his participation at a minimum in the early months, John Dewey, William Oscar Howells and Jane Addams
   (4) Although at first seen as primarily a white organization dedicated to African-American uplift through well-financed suasion, it was also an interracial phalanx that challenged the mainstream public to accept ever-greater civil and social rights for America's historic minority.
   (5) Its primary purpose became to challenge racial discrimination and segregation in public places through the legal system.
   (6) Its publication Crisis was edited for 24 years by W.E.B Du Bois, whose participation in the organization was indispensable.
   (7) Its first successes
   (a) Challenged laws which permitted the use of the mails to send publications fostering racial prejudice.
   (b) Organized boycotts to gain rights sometimes used violence in the face of violence.
   (8) Its first Black secretary 1920 - James Weldon Johnson , novelist and poet
   (9) It increased Black awareness significantly so that men like Marcus Garvey could unify Blacks in the next decade.
   c. Carter G. Woodson
   Formed in 1915 the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History
   Founded and edited in 1916 The Journal of Negro History
G. Conclusion
1. The power of the Presidency increased at the expense of the Legislative Branch.
2. Much success was achieved because the movement was national, broad based and diverse, although not a united front.