The Progressive EraChapter 8 – An Era of Reform, 1895 – 1920

Precursors to the Progressive EraThe decades prior to the Progressive Era were a period of rapid economic growth fueled by the changes brought about by industrialization. As more and more Americans moved into urban areas to work in factories and other jobs created by this economic boom, new social problems were created, such as slums, the spread of disease and labor disputes, among dozens of others. The Progressive movement developed as a variety of different social movements responding to these changes.

List 5 social problems in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Muckraking Journalism and Exposing Problems in the United States Writers such as Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), Ida Tarbell (McClure’s Magazine) and Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives) brought social problems to the public's attention by writing what were called "muckraking" articles that exposed the corruption and unjust practices that many industrial leaders had established. These writers helped to spark reform movements in areas such as labor practices and public health that became the backbone of the Progressive Era.

Read the two excerpts below. Discuss.

Significant Figures in the Progressive Movement Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson supported many of the Progressive Era reforms and helped establish federal laws to bring about change. Public figures such as Susan B. Anthony, a women's suffrage supporter, and Jane Addams, a social worker in Chicago, brought national attention to their causes, helping to change public policy. Robert La Follette, a former governor of Wisconsin, used his state as a “laboratory of democracy” to bring reforms to the American democratic system.

Significant Policy ChangesThe Progressive Era ushered in some reforms that significantly changed the way Americans lived their lives. A national income tax was established with the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. Citizens won the right to directly elect their senators with the 17th Amendment. Women won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was passed in 1919. The 18th Amendment brought about the Prohibition of alcohol in 1919, but this reform proved unpopular during the Depression and was repealed in 1933.

Look at the timeline below. Find 5 solutions that were offered to fix social problems in the United States.

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The end of the Progressive EraWorld War I and the Depression both caused reformist feelings to dissipate, with most people's attention diverted to other topics. However, the groundwork laid in this era led to much of the New Deal reform that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would enact in order to help Americans affected by the Depression.

The Progressive EraChapter 8 – Timeline of Important Events

1894: National Municipal League created to reform cities.

1895: Anti-Saloon League founded in Oberlin, Ohio. It quickly rose to become the most powerful prohibition lobby in the United States.

1900: International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) founded; Socialist Party founded.

1901: William McKinley assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president of the U.S.

1902: Roosevelt sues Northern Securities Company (Teddy the “trust-buster”). Newlands Act gets strong support from Teddy – sets aside land sales money for irrigation projects (Teddy the Conservationist).

1903: *** Muckrakers begin to arouse public opinion on social ills. ***

1904: National Child Labor Committee formed

1905: Industrial Workers of the World founded – urged social revolution, overthrow of capitalism.

1906: Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act passed. Manufacture, sale, transportation of adulterated, misbranded or harmful foods is illegal.

1906: Hepburn Act gives Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) broader jurisdiction, effective control over rates.

1908: Muller v. Oregon upholds law limiting work hours for women.

1909: Payne-Aldrich tariff lowers rates to about 38%. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded.

1910: Mann-Elkins Act places telephone, telegraph and the radio under ICC control. Mann Act prohibits transporting females across state lines for immoral purposes.

1911: Supreme Court orders dissolution of Standard Oil Company. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire kills 146 women workers in New York City and leads to more job safety legislation.

1912: Republican Party divides; Teddy runs as a Progressive “Bull Moose.” Election demonstrates great popular endorsement of Progressivism: 75% vote for Teddy, Woodrow Wilson or Eugene V. Debs. Woodrow Wilson elected president.

1913: 16th Amendment adopted: graduated income tax redistributes wealth; 17th Amendment provides for direct election of Senators. Underwood Tariff reduces rates in accord with Progressives' desires; first significant tariff reduction since Civil War.Federal Reserve Act creates 12 members banks, controls interest rates. Henry Ford creates the moving assembly line.

1914: Federal Trade Commission Act guards against "unfair trade practices." Clayton Antitrust Act strengthens Sherman Act.

1916: Adamson Act mandates 8-hour day, time and a half for overtime for RR workers under I.C.C.

1919: 18th Amendment outlaws sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Volstead Act carries out intent through legislation. Prohibition begins.

1920: 19th Amendment ratified; women have the right to vote.

1921: Sheppard-Towner Act assists pregnant women, infants with health care.

1924: Robert La Follette gains 4.8 million votes as Progressive candidate for president.

Excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle There were the men in the pickle rooms, for instance, where old Antanas had gotten his death; scarce a one of these that had not some spot of horror on his person. Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one. Of

the butchers and floorsmen, the beef-boners and trimmers, and all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb; time and time again the base of it had been slashed, till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed the knife to hold it. The hands of these men would be criss- crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them. They would have no nails, – they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan. There were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of steam and sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour. There were the beef-luggers, who carried two-hundred-pound quarters into the refrigerator-cars; a fearful kind of work, that began at four o'clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in a few years. There were those who worked in the chilling rooms, and whose special disease was rheumatism; the time limit that a man could work in the chilling rooms was said to be five years. There were the wool-pluckers, whose hands went to pieces even sooner than the hands of the pickle men; for the pelts of the sheep had to be painted with acid to loosen the wool, and then the pluckers had to pull out this wool with their bare hands, till the acid had eaten their fingers off. There were

those who made the tins for the canned meat; and their hands, too, were a maze of cuts, and each cut represented a chance for blood poisoning. Some worked at the stamping machines, and it was very seldom that one could work long there at the pace that was set, and not give out and forget himself and have a part of his hand chopped off. There were the "hoisters," as they were called, whose task it was to press the lever which lifted the dead cattle off the floor. They ran along upon a rafter, peering down through the damp and the steam; and as old Durham's architects had not built the killing room for the convenience of the hoisters, at every few feet they would have to stoop under a beam, say four feet above the one they ran on; which got them into the habit of stooping, so that in a few years they would be walking like chimpanzees. Worst of any, however, were the fertilizer men, and those who served in the cooking rooms. These people could not be shown to the visitor, – for the odor of a fertilizer man would scare any ordinary visitor at a hundred yards, and as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting, – sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard!

Excerpt from Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company With Congress in such a temper the oil men felt that there might be some hope of securing the regulation of interstate

commerce they had asked for in 1872. The agitation resulted in the presentation in the House of Representatives of the first Interstate Commerce Bill which promised to be effective. The bill was presented by James H. Hopkins of Pittsburgh. In aid of his bill a House investigation was asked. It was soon evident that the Standard was an enemy of this investigation. Now what Mr. Hopkins wanted was to compel the railroads to present their contracts with the Standard Oil Company. The Committee summoned the proper railroad officers and the treasurer of the Standard Oil Company. Of the railroad men, only one appeared, and he refused to answer the questions asked or to furnish the documents demanded. The Standard treasurer refused also to furnish the committee with information. The two principal witnesses of the oil men were E. G. Patterson of Titusville and Frank Rockefeller of Cleveland, a brother of John D. Rockefeller. Mr. Patterson sketched the history of the oil business since the South Improvement Company identified the Standard Oil Company with that organization, and framed the specific complaint of the oil men, as follows: “The railroad companies have combined with an organization of individuals known as the Standard Ring; they give to that party the sole and entire control of all the petroleum refining interest and petroleum shipping interest in the United States, and consequently place the whole producing interest entirely at their mercy. If they succeed they place the price of refined oil as high as they please. It is simply optional with them how much to give us for what we produce.”

Frank Rockefeller gave a pretty complete story of the trials of an independent refiner. He declared that at the moment, his

concern, the Pioneer Oil Company, was unable to get the same rates as the Standard; the freight agent frankly told him that unless he could give the road the same amount of oil to transport that the Standard did, he could not give the rate the Standard enjoyed. Mr. Rockefeller said that in his belief there was a pooling arrangement between the railroads and the Standard and that the rebate given was “divided up between the Standard Oil Company and the railroad officials.” He repeatedly declared to the committee that he did not know this to be a positive fact, that he had no proof, but that he believed such was the truth…

I. Sources of Progressive Reform

A. Industrialization, with all its increase in productivity and the number of consumer goods, created…

1. Unemployment and labor unrest 2. Wasteful use of natural resources 3. Abuses of corporate power

B. Urbanization, growing cities magnified problems of poverty, disease, crime, and corruptionC. Influx of immigrants and rise of new managerial class upset traditional class alignments

II. Who Were the Progressives?

A. New middle class composed of young professionals

1. Apply principles of professions (medicine, law, business, teaching) to problems of society

2. Strong faith in progress and the ability of educated people to overcome problems

3. Rise in volunteer organizations organized to address issues

4. Mainly urban in residence and orientation

III. Muckraking journalists attacked corruption and scandal with a sense of moral outrage

A. Lincoln Steffens exposed city machines in The Shame of the Cities (1904)B. Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil Trust abuses C. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) attacked the meat-packing industry D. Political reformers (many opposed to traditional party politics)E. Socialists – frustrated workers who promised to destroy capitalism.

1. Led by Eugene Debs2. Socialists were rejected by most Progressives as too extreme in their goals and methods

IV. Teddy Roosevelt & the Square Deal

A. Using the power of the presidency (a "bully pulpit") as no president since Lincoln, T.R. loved to lead and to fight those he felt were not acting in America's best interests.

1. Coal Strike – When coal mine owners refused to deal with the union in a 1902 strike, T.R. summonsed them and the head of the mine workers to the White House and threatened to use army troops to keep the mines open. Owners backed down and T.R. was credited with ending the strike 2. Northern Securities Case – T.R. used the Sherman Antitrust Act to attack a railroad monopoly. Supreme Court ordered the company to dissolve.3. Added Departments of Labor and Commerce to the Cabinet 4. Pushed through the Hepburn Act (1906), strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission 5. Urged Congressional approval of the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), which forbade impure foods and required labelling of ingredients of foods and drugs.

B. Conservation reform added massive areas to the national forests (total of 190 million acres)

1. Transferred forests to the U.S. Forest Service headed by Gifford Pinchot, who insisted that trees be planted as well as harvested2. Withdrew millions of acres of public land from sale to protect resources 3. Used public land sale revenues to build dams and canal systems

V. City and State Government Reform

A. City government system changed to prevent boss or "machine" rule

1. City commissions replaced mayors and city councils in some areas 2. City managers (nonpolitical professional managers) were hired to run small cities

B. State level reform efforts championed by Robert La Follette of Wisconsin…

1. Direct primary to give voters control over candidates2. Competitive civil service and restrictions on lobbying 3. Many states passed workmen's compensation laws

C. Election reforms to bring direct democracy to voters

1. Initiative – allowed 5% of voters to "initiate" laws in state legislatures 2. Referendum – in some states voters could then pass initiatives into laws 3. Recall – by petition voters could force an official to stand for re-election at any time

VI. Major Progressivism Programs

A. Education

1. Progressive education – John Dewey lead movement that focused on personal growth, not mastery of body of knowledge and learning through experience.2. Charles Eliot of Harvard pioneered elective courses and new teaching techniques (such as seminars) to make university learning more meaningful3. Women began attending colleges in large numbers (by 1920, 47% of total enrollment was female).4. Believing that more education would help bring an enlightened population, Progressives pushed enrollments to record levels (86% of children in schools by 1920) without seriously assessing how schools were doing.

B. Law – judges opinions needed to be based on factual information, not just oral arguments and precedents

1. Muller v. Oregon (1908) – limited women's working hours2. Not all Progressive legal principles prevailed. In Lochner v. New York (1905), the Supreme Court overturned a New York law limiting bakers' working hours.

C. Settlement houses – Jane Addams and others established group homes in city slums to aid poor urban residents.

1. Promoted public health reform in cities, chlorinating water and tightening sanitary regulations2. Developed education and craft programs for residents 3. Created neighborhood health clinics and dispensaries

D. Racial anti-discrimination efforts

1. Booker T. Washington

a) Atlanta Compromise – argued for self-help and accommodation on the part of blacks to white society

2. W.E.B. DuBois

a) Niagara Movement, 1905 – urged blacks to assert themselves and agitate for political and economic rights. b) Formed NAACP to use legal means to end racial discrimination

E. Women's rights

1. While the number of employed women stayed constant from 1900-1920 (20%), the type of work switched from domestic labor (servants, cooks, laundresses) to clerical work (clerks, typists, bookkeepers), factory work, and professionals.

a) Most women still held the lowest paying and least opportune jobs b) Significant Progressive feminists called for greater reform

(1) Charlotte Perkins Gilman attacked the male monopoly on opportunity and declared that domesticity was an obsolete value for American women (2) Margaret Sanger led the movement to provide birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies among poor women

2. Suffragists urged that women be given the franchise, which came on the national level with the 19 th Amendment (1919).

F. Child labor laws – most states passed minimum working age laws and prohibited children from working more than 10 hours per day, but enforcement was difficult to achieve.G. Temperance – Anti-Saloon League and Women's Christian Temperance Union fought alcoholism on the state level through blue laws and on the national level with the 18th Amendment which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor.

VII. Presidential Election of 1912

A. Republican successor Taft proved to be less progressive than T.R. in the areas of tariff reform and conservation.

1. Payne-Aldrich Tariff (heralded by Taft as "the best tariff passed by the Republican Party") protected industries and kept consumer prices high2. A public land sale scandal in Alaska pitted Pinchot against Secretary of Interior Ballinger. Taft fired Pinchot

B. T.R. organized the National Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party after Progressive Republicans bolted the Taft-controlled Republican convention.

1. Party platform included long list of Progressive demands

C. Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, the scholarly governor of New Jersey who called for moral revival and reform, including low tariffs, the breaking up of all monopolies, and for the government to be an umpire in disputes between labor and business.D. Socialists nominated Eugene V. Debs, who called for public ownership of all natural resources and major industries.E. Wilson won 40/48 states as Republicans split between Taft and TR. Height of Progressivism as Wilson, TR, and Debs totaled 11 million votes to 3.5 million for Taft.

VIII. Wilson's New Freedom and Progressivism

A. Tariff reform – Underwood Tariff (1913) gave first significant tariff reduction since 1860s as Wilson personally delivered his goals to Congress.B. Currency and banking reform-- Creation of Federal Reserve System

1. Acted as bankers' banks and prevent "runs" on bank assets

2. Federal Reserve notes issued a flexible new currency to the banking system

C. Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) to restrict monopolies and set up a Federal Trade Commission to stop unfair practices which may arise

IX. Evaluation of Progressivism

A. Weaknesses of Progressive reform

1. Material progress of Americans weakened zeal of reformers2. Myriad of Progressive goals were often confusing and contradictory 3. Opposition to Progressivism apparent as initiatives failed and courts struck down Progressive legislation 4. Government remained mainly under the influence of business and industry5. Outbreak of World War I dampened enthusiasm of attempts to use governments to create just societies on earth

B. Progressive accomplishments

1. Trust-busting forced industrialists to notice public opinion 2. Legislation gave federal and state governments the tools to protect consumers.3. Income tax helped build government revenues and redistribute wealth 4. Progressives successfully challenged traditional institutions and approaches to domestic problems.