The Progressive Era Unit Reading

The Progressive Ear developed from the Gilded

Age and the American Industrial Revolution.

This era would be defined by great change to all

aspects of society. Changes would revolutionize

business, society, the environment, and politics.

The Progressive Era gets its name from the

progress and reforms made during this time.

American society sought to reform (change) the

faults or downfalls of the United States.

Progressives believed that industrialization and

urbanization had caused significant problems in

U.S. society.

Three Goals of Progressives:

Easing the suffering of the urban poor.

Improving unfair and dangerous working conditions.

Reforming government at the national, state, and local levels.

Progressive Beliefs:

Progressives rejected the idea of laissez-faire, which stated government should remain outside

of direct economic and social action.

Progressives believed that government should take an active role in U.S. society.

The Progressive Era (Digital History)

Progressivism is an umbrella label for a wide range of economic, political, social, and moral reforms.

These included efforts to outlaw the sale of alcohol; regulate child labor and sweatshops; scientifically

manage natural resources; insure pure and wholesome water and milk; Americanize immigrants or

restrict immigration altogether; and bust or regulate trusts.

Drawing support from the urban, college-educated middle class, Progressive reformers sought to

eliminate corruption in government, regulate business practices, address health hazards, and improve

working conditions. They also fought to give the public more direct control over government through

direct primaries to nominate candidates for public office, direct election of senators, the initiative,

referendum, and recall, and women's suffrage.

By the beginning of the 20th century,

muckraking journalists were calling attention to

the exploitation of child labor, corruption in city

governments, the horror of lynching, and the

ruthless business practices employed by

businessmen, like John D. Rockefeller. At the

local level, many Progressives sought to

suppress red-light districts, expand high

schools, construct playgrounds, and replace

corrupt urban political machines with more

efficient systems of municipal government. At

the state level, Progressives enacted minimum

wage laws for women workers, instituted

industrial accident insurance, restricted child

labor, and improved factory regulation.

At the national level, Congress passed laws establishing federal regulation of the meat-packing, drug,

and railroad industries, and strengthened anti-trust laws. It also lowered the tariff, established federal

control over the banking system, and enacted legislation to improve working conditions. Four

constitutional amendments were adopted during the Progressive era including: authorizing an income

tax; providing for the direct election of senators; extending the vote to women; and prohibiting the

manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

Rise of Realism (Discovery Education)

The spirit of the Progressive Era inspired the works of other writers and artists. A greater emphasis on

showing life as it really was, known as realism, appeared throughout the arts. Jacob Riis, for example,

sought to tell stories about the struggles of everyday life in urban ethnic neighborhoods through his

photographs. Novelist Theodore Dreiser drew on the real-life experiences of people he knew to write

novels such as Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, which attacked greed and other societal

consequences of industrialization. In An American Tragedy, the real tragedy is not that a character

murders his girlfriend. The tragedy is that U.S. society created a man who could do such a thing.

In visual arts, architect Frank Lloyd Wright turned away from the highly decorated, historically

influenced building styles of the late 1800s. Wright designed structures that he believed were in

harmony with their inhabitants and the surrounding natural environment. Wright’s buildings were not

designed merely to be seen by the outside world. They were also designed to inspire and promote

efficiency among the people who would live and work in them

Educational philosopher John Dewey drew on the ideas of realism to argue that the best democratic

society rested on the involvement of a well-informed public. He believed schools could best embody

democratic ideals by teaching children to reason critically and to actively participate in society. Dewey

believed that knowledgeable, thinking citizens would be most likely to choose the best politicians and to

then hold them responsible for their actions. This connected to Progressives’ efforts to increase direct

political involvement and reduce corruption from political machines and party bosses.

The Struggle for Women's Suffrage (Digital History)

Women’s Suffrage Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQLbisRfs20

Among the most radical of all struggles in American history is the on-going struggle of women for full

equality. The ideals of the American Revolution raised women's expectations, inspired some of the first

explicit demands for equality, and witnessed the establishment of female academies to improve

women's education. By the early 19th century, American women had the highest female literacy rate in

the world.

As American states widened suffrage to include virtually all white males, however, they began denying

the vote to free blacks and, in New Jersey, to women, who had briefly won this privilege following the

Revolution. In the 1820s and for decades to come, married women could not own property, make

contracts, bring suits, or sit on juries. They could be legally beaten by their husbands and were required

to submit to their husbands' sexual demands.

During the early 19th century, however, a growing number of women became convinced that they had a

special mission and a responsibility to purify and reform American society. Women were at the forefront

of efforts to establish public schools, abolish slavery, and curb drinking. But faced with discrimination

within the anti-slavery movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others organized the first Women's

Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.

The quest for full equality involved not only the struggle for the vote, but for divorce, access to higher

education, the professions, and other occupations, as well as birth control and abortion. Women have

had to overcome laws and customs that discriminated on the basis of sex in order to overcome the

oldest form of exploitation and subordination.

Muckrakers (US History.org)

The Jungle

Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1905 to expose labor abuses in the meat packing industry. But it

was food, not labor, that most concerned the public. Sinclair's horrific descriptions of the industry led to

the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, not to labor legislation.

The pen is sometimes mightier than the sword.

It may be a cliché, but it was all too true for

journalists at the turn of the century. The print

revolution enabled publications to increase

their subscriptions dramatically. What appeared

in print was now more powerful than ever.

Writing to Congress in hopes of correcting

abuses was slow and often produced zero

results. Publishing a series of articles had a

much more immediate impact. Collectively

called MUCKRAKERS, a brave cadre of reporters

exposed injustices so grave they made the

blood of the average American run cold.

Steffens Takes on Corruption

The first to strike was Lincoln Steffens. In 1902, he published an article in McClure’s magazine called

"TWEED DAYS IN ST. LOUIS." Steffens exposed how city officials worked in league with big business to

maintain power while corrupting the public treasury.

More and more articles followed, and soon Steffens published the collection as a book entitled THE

SHAME OF THE CITIES. Soon public outcry demanded reform of city government and gave strength to

the progressive ideas of a city commission or city manager system.

Tarbell vs. Standard Oil

Ida Tarbell struck next. One month after Lincoln

Steffens launched his assault on urban politics,

Tarbell began her McClure's series entitled

"HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY."

She outlined and documented the cutthroat

business practices behind John Rockefeller's

meteoric rise. Tarbell's motives may also have

been personal: her own father had been driven

out of business by Rockefeller.

Child Laborers

John Spargo's 1906 The Bitter Cry of the Children exposed hardships suffered by child laborers, such as

these coal miners. "From the cramped position [the boys] have to assume," wrote Spargo, "most of

them become more or less deformed and bent-backed like old men ... "

Once other publications saw how profitable these exposés had been, they courted muckrakers of their

own. In 1905, THOMAS LAWSON brought the inner workings of the stock market to light in FRENZIED

FINANCE. JOHN SPARGO unearthed the horrors of child labor in THE BITTER CRY OF THE CHILDREN in

1906. That same year, DAVID PHILLIPS linked 75 senators to big business interests in THE TREASON OF

THE SENATE. In 1907, WILLIAM HARD went public with industrial accidents in the steel industry in the

blistering MAKING STEEL AND KILLING MEN. RAY STANNARD BAKER revealed the oppression of

Southern blacks in FOLLOWING THE COLOR LINE in 1908.

The Meatpacking Jungle

Perhaps no muckraker caused as great a stir as

UPTON SINCLAIR. An avowed Socialist, Sinclair

hoped to illustrate the horrible effects of

capitalism on workers in the Chicago

meatpacking industry. His bone-chilling

account, THE JUNGLE, detailed workers

sacrificing their fingers and nails by working

with acid, losing limbs, catching diseases, and

toiling long hours in cold, cramped conditions.

He hoped the public outcry would be so fierce

that reforms would soon follow.

To the right is a photo

of Upton Sinclair,

Author The Jungle

The clamor that rang throughout America was not, however, a response to the workers' plight. Sinclair

also uncovered the contents of the products being sold to the general public. Spoiled meat was covered

with chemicals to hide the smell. Skin, hair, stomach, ears, and nose were ground up and packaged as

head cheese. Rats climbed over warehouse meat, leaving piles of excrement behind.

Sinclair said that he aimed for America's heart and instead hit its stomach. Even President Roosevelt,

who coined the derisive term "muckraker," was propelled to act. Within months, Congress passed the

PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT and the MEAT INSPECTION ACT to curb these sickening abuses.

Social Reform

The Progressive Era brought many reforms to

society. Progressives saw considerable room for

improvement in the country’s social and

economic systems. Many of these reforms were

brought about by women.

The Temperance Movement was the straw that

stirred the drink in the banning of making,

selling, or distribution of alcoholic beverages. It

was a Christian conservative movement that

sought to eliminate it because they felt that it

cause many of society’s problems. This social

movement would eventually led to the passage

of the 18th Amendment which bans the of

making, selling, or distribution of alcoholic

beverages.

Women’s Suffrage

The fight for having the right to vote (suffrage) was one that women had been fighting for since before

the Civil War. This dates back to the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) which began as a larger drive for

women’s rights in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. Intellectual leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and

Susan B. Anthony provided the driving leadership of the movement. Women, paid taxes, were educated,

and law obeying citizens. They believed that their right to vote should be included as part of the 14th

Amendment. Alcohol brewers and distillers, political machines, men who ran big businesses and many

Southerners opposed extending the right to vote because they expected women voters to oppose their

interests. By the early 1910s, the suffrage movement had become a national topic which forced

politicians to make it a part of their political agendas. In the end, it was the highly visible activity of

women during World War I that finally brought them the public support they needed. Due to their

wartime contributions in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote.

November 2, 1920 –Many women voted for the 1st time.

American Socialism

As the gap between the rich and poor grew in America, new political parties emerged to represent the

common people. One of these was American Socialism. Socialism is an economic and political theory

that all factors of production should be controlled by the community. The Father of American Socialism

was Eugene Debs who founded the Socialist Party of America. He devoted his efforts in labor strikes and

ran for president on multiple occasions. He proposed radical reforms which brought the attention of

many. His ideas included that the government should own all industries and divide the profits among

skilled and unskilled workers alike. This would decrease the profits of the wealthy business owners. He

argued that it would ultimately help the United States as a whole. By applying these ideas to America,

Debs argued that controlling industry and elevating the wealth of the workers, the national government

could enhance the country’s industrial growth. The American Socialist Movement ended in the wake of

the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

Progressivism & African Americans

African American leader of the Progressive era was W. E. B. Du Bois who formed the Niagara Movement

to campaign for civil rights. This morphed into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored

People (NAACP). The NAACP became the leading African American civil rights organization in the

country. Among its early goals were the passage of an anti-lynching law and the expansion of voting

rights for African Americans.

Progressivism & Prejudice

The Anti-Defamation League was formed by Sigmund Livingston, a Jewish man in Chicago, in 1913. The

ADL fought anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jews, which was common in America.

Progressivism & Immigration

During the Progressive Era, Progressives sought to improve the lives of the urban poor, including

immigrants. Some believed that immigrants must change or rethink their cultural traditions. Many

Progressive reformers viewed themselves as more “American” than the immigrants and pushed

immigrants to adopt American cultural traditions and behaviors. Growing opposition to the waves of

“new” immigrants who came to America from regions—such as Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and

Asia—that had not traditionally provided settlers to the United States. Federal laws limited immigration

from Asia, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924. Immigrants who

benefited from the Democratic political machines of the cities disliked Progressive election reforms.

Progressive-era shifts of voting day from Saturday to Tuesday, for example, made it hard for immigrant

laborers to get to their polling places.

Reforming Cities & The Workplace

The rapid rise during industrialization led to the rapid growth and over population of cities. The growing

cities couldn’t provide people necessary services like garbage collection, safe housing, and police and

fire protection. The reformers of the Progressive Era saw this as an opportunity to expand public health

services.

The Tenement Act of 1901 was passed to improve the living conditions in the cities. This included:

Lighting in public hallways

Providing at least one toilet per two families

Banning of outhouses

As a result, the living environment in cities was healthier and as a result, the death rate and rate of

disease dropped dramatically..

Reforming the Workplace

By 1900, labor unions fought for adult male workers but didn’t help women and children. Businesses

fought labor laws in the Supreme Court, which ruled on several cases in the early 1900s concerning

workday length. The Progressives saw a new area that needed reform in American life.

Child Labor

By 1912, nearly 40 states passed child-labor laws, but states didn’t strictly enforce the laws. Children

were seen as effective and cheap labor that could work for long hours. Many children worked in

factories to help support their families. This resulted in many children forgoing their education. In 1900,

18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16 (History.com). The Progressive Era would

bring about the beginnings of changing child labor laws.

Women in the Workplace

Progressives mounted state campaigns to limit workdays for women. The idea of reforming the

workplace for women aligned with the ideas of the era. Movements for reform were successful in a few

states.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (osha.gov)

On March 25, 1911, fire spread through the cramped Triangle Waist Company garment factory on the

8th, 9th and 10th floors of the Asch Building in lower Manhattan. Workers in the factory, many of whom

were young women recently arrived from Europe, had little time or opportunity to escape. The rapidly

spreading fire killed 146 workers.

The building had only one fire escape, which

collapsed during the rescue effort. Long tables

and bulky machines trapped many of the

victims. Panicked workers were crushed as they

struggled with doors that were locked by

managers to prevent theft, or doors that

opened the wrong way. Only a few buckets of

water were on hand to douse the flames.

Outside, firefighters' ladders were too short to

reach the top floors and ineffective safety nets

ripped like paper.

The catastrophe sent shockwaves through the city, beginning in the communities of immigrant workers

on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where families struggled to identify their lost in makeshift morgues.

Family grief turned to citizen anger as the causes of the fire – including the abhorrent working

conditions at the time – were exposed.

The public outcry over what was clearly a preventable tragedy brought a renewed sense of urgency to

the labor movement and to other groups working to improve women's and immigrants' rights in the

workplace.

Frances Perkins, who became the Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, witnessed

the horror from Washington Park, recalling later that what she saw convinced her that "…something

must be done. We've got to turn this into some kind of victory, some kind of constructive action."

Perkins and other leaders with direct experience of the Triangle fire, like New York Governor Al Smith,

soon helped marshal new workplace safety standards into law in the State of New York, setting an

example for the rest of the country.

The Triangle factory fire remained the deadliest workplace tragedy in New York City's history until the

terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center 90 years later.

Political Reforms of the Progressive Era

Progressive reformers believed that individual citizens had the right and the duty to take part in

government. They found existing governments and political systems to be inefficient and corrupt.

Progressives believed their ideas could also reshape government for the better. Progressives adopted

the city commission system in other cities around the United States. The system has a board of

commissioners and a town manager who works for them. City commissions were often less corrupt and

more efficient than more traditional forms of government with a single elected leader.

Election Reforms

Progressives wanted fairer elections and to make politicians more accountable to voters. Many

Progressives were troubled by the power that the political machines had developed and sought to

change the system in terms of elections. Progressives pushed multiple campaign finance laws which

required Congressional candidates to publicly reveal information about their campaign finances.

Notable Progressive Reforms:

17th Amendment direct election of US Senators.

Direct Primaries Allowed voters, rather than party leaders, to choose candidates for office.

Direct primaries spread quickly across the nation.

Secret BallotProgressives also sought to expand democracy by adopting the secret ballot in

elections and increasing time periods for voter registration.

Initiative Gave voters the right to propose a new law and put it up for vote by collecting

citizens’ signatures in support of the proposition.

ReferendumAllows voters to approve or reject a law proposed by their state’s legislature.

RecallAllows voters to remove a poorly performing political leader from office.

Teddy Roosevelt

“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” –Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Presidency Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBpfih7w4B8

Theodore Roosevelt was one of the most

outspoken presidents in United States history.

He used the power of the presidency to push

for progressive reforms in business and in

environmental policy. His rise to political office

came from defeating the political machine of

New York to become the state governor. To get

rid of the progressive Roosevelt, party bosses

got him elected as vice president, a position

with little power at that time. President William

McKinley was shot and killed in 1901, leaving

the office to Roosevelt.

Roosevelt saw the presidency as a bully pulpit,

or a platform to publicize important issues and

seek support for his policies on reform.

The Coal Strike of 1902

In the winter of 1902, 150,000 Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for higher wages, shorter hours,

and recognition of their union. This was a major national crisis because eastern cities depended upon

Pennsylvania coal for heating. The coal mine owners refused to negotiate with the workers. As winter

approached, Roosevelt threatened to take over the mines if the owners didn’t negotiate. This was the

first time the federal government had intervened in a strike to protect the interests of the public. After a

three-month investigation, negotiators decided to give the workers a shorter workday and higher pay.

The Square Deal

When running for President in 1904, Teddy Roosevelt ran on the on his political agenda the “Square

Deal.” The Square Deal became Roosevelt’s 1904 campaign slogan and the framework for his entire

presidency. He promised to “see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and

should receive no less.” Roosevelt’s square deal called for limiting the power of trusts, promoting public

health and safety, and improving working conditions.

Regulating Big Business

Roosevelt believed big business was essential to the nation’s growth but also believed companies should

behave responsibly. He spent a great deal of attention on regulating corporations, determined that they

should serve the public interest.

Trust Busting

In 1901, 3 tycoons joined their railroad companies together to eliminate competition. Roosevelt directed

the U.S. attorney general to sue the company for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Court ruled

that the monopoly violated the act and must be dissolved. As a result of this, Roosevelt launched a trust-

busting campaign. Roosevelt was strongly against monopolies and went after bad trusts that sold

inferior products, competed unfairly, or corrupted public officials.

The Meat Packing Industry

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle outraged Teddy Roosevelt and led him to put pressure on Congress to pass

legislation to regulate the food and drug industries. In 1906 Congress enacted two consumer protection

laws.

The Meat Inspection Act required federal government inspection of meat shipped across state

lines.

The Pure Food and Drug Act outlawed food and drugs containing harmful ingredients, and

required that containers carry ingredient labels.

Environmental Conservation

An avid outdoorsman, Teddy Roosevelt was well known for his love of nature. Roosevelt recognized that

natural resources were limited and that government should regulate resources. He wanted to manage

public land for varied uses: some for preservation, some to make money. His pressure led Congress to

pass the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902. This allowed the federal government to create irrigation

projects to make dry lands productive. During Roosevelt’s presidency, 24 reclamation projects were

launched. Roosevelt’s efforts greatly furthered the conservation efforts.

Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation (nps.gov)

"We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his

part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune." - Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt is often considered the "conservationist president." Here in the North Dakota

Badlands, where many of his personal concerns first gave rise to his later environmental efforts,

Roosevelt is remembered with a national park that bears his name and honors the memory of this great

conservationist.

Theodore Roosevelt first came to the Badlands in September 1883. A sportsman-hunter all his life,

Roosevelt sought a chance to hunt the big game of North America before they disappeared. Although

his writings depict numerous hunting trips and successful kills, they are laced with lament for the loss of

species and habitat.

The decimation of bison, and the eradication of elk, bighorn sheep, deer and other game species was a

loss which Roosevelt felt indicative of society's perception of our natural resources. He saw the effects

of overgrazing, and suffered the loss of his ranches because of it. While many still considered natural

resources inexhaustible, Roosevelt would write:

We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire

seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are

exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the

rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation.

Conservation increasingly became one of Roosevelt's main concerns. After becoming president in 1901,

Roosevelt used his authority to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest

Service (USFS) and establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves,

5 national parks, and 18 national monuments by enabling the 1906 American Antiquities Act. During his

presidency,Theodore Roosevelt protected approximately 230 million acres of public land.

Today, the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt is found across the country. There are six national park sites

dedicated, in part or whole, to our conservationist president. You can find more information about these

places under Theodore Roosevelt related websites.

Public Lands Established by Theodore Roosevelt

The conservation legacy of Theodore Roosevelt is found in the 230 million acres of public lands he

helped establish during his presidency. Much of that land - 150 millions acres - was set aside as national

forests. Roosevelt created the present-day USFS in 1905, an organization within the Department of

Agriculture. The idea was to conserve forests for continued use. An adamant proponent of utilizing the

country's resources, Roosevelt wanted to insure the sustainability of those resources.

Roosevelt was also the first president to create a Federal Bird Reserve, and he would establish 51 of

these during his administration. These reserves would later become today's national wildlife refuges,

managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Today there is a national wildlife

refuge in every state, and North Dakota boasts the most refuges of any state in the country.

During Roosevelt's administration, the National Park System grew substantially. When the National Park

Service was created in 1916 - seven years after Roosevelt left office - there were 35 sites to be managed

by the new organization. Roosevelt helped created 23 of those. See below for a list of the sites created

during his administration which are connected with the National Park Service.

National Parks

National parks are created by an act of Congress. Before 1916, they were managed by the Secretary of

the Interior. Roosevelt worked with his legislative branch to establish these sites:

Crater Lake National Park (OR) - 1902

Wind Cave National Park (SD) - 1903

Sullys Hill (ND) - 1904 (now managed by USFWS)

Platt National Park (OK) - 1906 (now part of Chickasaw National Recreation Area)

Mesa Verde National Park (CO) - 1906

Added land to Yosemite National Park (CA)

National Monuments

Roosevelt signed the Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities - also known as the Antiquities Act

or the National Monuments Act - on June 8, 1906. The law gave the president discretion to "declare by

public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic

and scientific interest... to be National Monuments."

Since he did not need congressional approval, Roosevelt could establish national monuments much

easier than national parks. He dedicated these sites as national monuments:

Devil's Tower (WY) - 1906

El Morro (NM) - 1906

Montezuma Castle (AZ) - 1906

Petrified Forest (AZ) - 1906 (now a national park)

Chaco Canyon (NM) - 1907

Lassen Peak (CA) - 1907 (now Lassen Volcanic National Park)

Cinder Cone (CA) - 1907 (now part of Lassen Volcanic National Park)

Gila Cliff Dwellings (NM) - 1907

Tonto (AZ) - 1907

Muir Woods (CA) - 1908

Grand Canyon (AZ) - 1908 (now a national park)

Pinnacles (CA) - 1908 (now a national park)

Jewel Cave (SD) - 1908

Natural Bridges (UT) - 1908

Lewis & Clark Caverns (MT) - 1908 (now a Montana State Park)

Tumacacori (AZ) - 1908

Wheeler (CO) - 1908 (now Wheeler Geologic Area, part of Rio Grande National Forest)

Mount Olympus (WA) - 1909 (now Olympic National Park)

Post Roosevelt Presidency

After the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, progressive reforms continued during the Taft and Wilson

presidencies, focusing on business, banking, and women’s suffrage.

William Howard Taft Presidency Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ePxP6LPun4

William Howard Taft

The handpicked successor to Theodore

Roosevelt, William Howard Taft would work to

secure the reforms which Roosevelt has worked

to establish during his presidency. Taft was a

man who had a great love for law, but not

politics. His goal in life was to be the Chief

Justice of the Supreme Court rather than be

President of the United States. Taft spent much

of his early professional career working as

Secretary of War, a US Ambassador, A Superior

Court Judge, and then was William McKinley’s

head government official in charge of creating a

government under US control in the Philippines.

Taft would create a constitution, improve the

economy, and help build roads and schools in

the Philippines. After Roosevelt became

President, Taft was offered a Supreme Court

position twice, but declined so he could stay in

the Philippines. Taft would also see over the

construction of the Panama Canal. When Teddy

Roosevelt announced that he would not seek a

third term as president, Taft agreed to run and

was elected in 1908.

The Taft Presidency (History.com)

Taft was unable to fill the shoes of Teddy Roosevelt in large part due to their differences in personality.

Roosevelt was charismatic and outgoing, where Taft was much more reserved. Though he was initially

active in “trust-busting,” initiating some 80 antitrust suits against large industrial combinations–twice as

many as Roosevelt–he later backed away from these efforts, and in general aligned himself with the

more conservative members of the Republican Party. In 1909, Taft’s convention of a special session of

Congress to debate tariff reform legislation spurred the Republican protectionist majority to action and

led to passage of the Payne-Aldrich Act, which did little to lower tariffs. Though more progressive

Republicans (such as Roosevelt) expected Taft to veto the bill, he signed it into law and publicly

defended it as “the best tariff bill that the Republican Party ever passed.”

In another key misstep where progressives were concerned, Taft upheld the policies of Secretary of the

Interior Richard Ballinger, and dismissed Ballinger’s leading critic, Gifford Pinchot, a conservationist and

close friend of Roosevelt who served as head of the Bureau of Forestry. Pinchot’s firing split the

Republican Party further and estranged Taft from Roosevelt for good. Often overlooked in the record of

Taft’s presidency were his achievements, including his trust-busting efforts, his empowering of the

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to set railroad rates, and his support of constitutional

amendments mandating a federal income tax and the direct election of senators by the people (as

opposed to appointment by state legislatures).

Post Presidency & The Supreme Court

By 1912, Roosevelt was so incensed with Taft and the conservative Republicans that he chose to break

from the party and form his own Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party). In the general

election that year, the divide among Republicans handed the White House to the progressive Democrat

Woodrow Wilson, who received 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt’s 88. Taft received only eight electoral

votes, reflecting the repudiation of his administration’s policies in the wave of progressive spirit that was

then sweeping the nation.

Undoubtedly relieved to be leaving the White House, Taft took a position teaching constitutional law at

Yale University Law School. In 1921, President Warren Harding fulfilled Taft’s lifelong dream by

appointing him chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. In that post, Taft improved the

organization and efficiency of the nation’s highest court and helped secure passage of the Judge’s Act of

1925, which gave the court greater discretion in choosing its cases. He wrote some 250 decisions, most

reflecting his conservative ideology. Taft’s most prominent opinion came in Myers v. United States

(1926), which invalidated tenure of office acts limiting the president’s authority to remove federal

officials; President Andrew Johnson’s violation of a similar act had led to his impeachment by the House

of Representatives in 1868. Taft remained chief justice until shortly before his death, on March 8, 1930,

from complications of heart disease.

16th Amendment

Taft’s administration is also credited with the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment, created the income

tax to pay for government programs.

The Bull Moose Party & The 1912 Presidential Election

William Howard Taft’s lack of further pushing

the progressive agenda that Roosevelt had

established led to a division within the

Republican Party. The part split into the

Republicans and the Progressives. When Taft

was selected as the party’s nominee in 1912,

the Bull Moose Party (Progressive Party) was

formed. The Bull Moose Party selected

Theodore Roosevelt as their candidate with

hopes that he would win the election and

further push the progressive agenda. The

nickname of Bull Moose was established

because of the characteristics of Teddy

Roosevelt.

The 1912 Election (270towin.com)

The United States presidential election of 1912 was fought among three major candidates. Incumbent

President William Howard Taft was renominated by the Republican Party with the support of the

conservative wing of the party. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to receive the

Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created the Progressive Party (nicknamed the

"Bull Moose Party"). It nominated Roosevelt and ran candidates for other offices in major states.

Democrat Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the 46th ballot of a contentious convention, thanks to

the support of William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate who still had a

large and loyal following in 1912.

Wilson defeated both Taft and Roosevelt in the general election, winning a huge majority in the

Electoral College, and won 42% of the popular vote while his nearest rival won 27%. Wilson became the

only elected President of the Democratic Party between 1892 and 1932. Wilson was the second of only

two Democrats to be elected President between 1860 and 1932. This was also the last election in which

a candidate who was not a Republican or Democrat came second in either the popular vote or the

Electoral College and the first election where the 48 states of the continental United States participated.

Woodrow Wilson (History.com)

Woodrow Wilson Presidency Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOhByiwdfE

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), the 28th U.S. president, served in office from 1913 to 1921 and led

America through World War I (1914-1918). An advocate for democracy and world peace, Wilson is often

ranked by historians as one of the nation’s greatest presidents. Wilson was a college professor,

university president and Democratic governor of New Jersey before winning the White House in 1912.

Once in office, he pursued an ambitious agenda of progressive reform that included the establishment

of the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission. Wilson tried to keep the United States neutral

during World War I but ultimately called on Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917. After the war,

he helped negotiate a peace treaty that included a plan for the League of Nations. Although the Senate

rejected U.S. membership in the League, Wilson received the Nobel Prize for his peacemaking efforts.

Woodrow Wilson Early Years

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on

December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia.

(Because his mother said he arrived around

midnight, some sources list Wilson’s birthday as

December 29.) His father, Joseph Ruggles

Wilson (1822-1903), was a Presbyterian

minister, and his mother, Janet Woodrow

Wilson (1826-1888), was a minister’s daughter

and originally from England. Tommy Wilson, as

he was called growing up, spent his childhood

and teen years in Augusta, Georgia, and

Columbia, South Carolina. During the American

Civil War (1861-1865), Wilson’s father served as

a chaplain in the Confederate army and used his

church as a hospital for injured Confederate

troops.

DID YOU KNOW?

Woodrow Wilson, who had an esteemed career as an academic and university president before entering

politics, did not learn to read until he was 10, likely due to dyslexia.

Wilson graduated from Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) in 1879 and went on

to attend law school at the University of Virginia. After briefly practicing law in Atlanta, Georgia, he

received a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. (Wilson remains the only U.S.

president to earn a doctorate degree.) He taught at Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan College before

being hired by Princeton in 1890 as a professor of jurisprudence and politics. From 1902 to 1910, Wilson

was president of Princeton, where he developed a national reputation for his educational reform

policies.

In 1885, Wilson married Ellen Axson (1860-1914), a minister’s daughter and Georgia native. The couple

had three daughters before Ellen died of kidney disease in 1914, during her husband’s first presidential

term. The following year, Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt (1872-1961), a widow whose husband had

owned a Washington, D.C., jewelry business.

WOODROW WILSON’S RISE IN POLITICS

In 1910, Woodrow Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey, where he fought machine politics and

garnered national attention as a progressive reformer. In 1912, the Democrats nominated Wilson for

president, selecting Thomas Marshall (1854-1925), the governor of Indiana, as his vice presidential

running mate. The Republican Party split over their choice for a presidential candidate: Conservative

Republicans re-nominated President William Taft (1857-1930), while the progressive wing broke off to

form the Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party and nominated Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), who had

served as president from 1901 to 1909.

With the Republicans divided, Wilson, who campaigned on a platform of liberal reform, won 435

electoral votes, compared to 88 for Roosevelt and eight for Taft. He garnered nearly 42 percent of the

popular vote; Roosevelt came in second place with more than 27 percent of the popular vote.

WOODROW WILSON’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION

At the age of 56, Woodrow Wilson was sworn into office in March 1913. He was the last American

president to travel to his inauguration ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage. Once in the White House,

Wilson achieved significant progressive reform. Congress passed the Underwood-Simmons Act, which

reduced the tariff on imports and imposed a new federal income tax. It also passed legislation

establishing the Federal Reserve (which provides a system for regulating the nation’s banks, credit and

money supply) and the Federal Trade Commission (which investigates and prohibits unfair business

practices). Other accomplishments included child labor laws, an eight-hour day for railroad workers and

government loans to farmers. Additionally, Wilson nominated the first Jewish person to the U.S.

Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), who was confirmed by the Senate in 1916.

When World War I broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914, Wilson was determined to keep the

United States out of the conflict. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the British

ocean liner Lusitania, killing more than 1,100 people (including 128 Americans). Wilson continued to

maintain U.S. neutrality but warned Germany that any future sinkings would be viewed by America as

“deliberately unfriendly.”

In 1916, Wilson and Vice President Marshall were re-nominated by the Democrats. The Republicans

chose Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) as their presidential candidate and

Charles Fairbanks (1852-1918), the U.S. vice president under Theodore Roosevelt, as his running mate.

Wilson, who campaigned on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” won with a narrow electoral margin of

277-254 and a little more than 49 percent of the popular vote.

WOODROW WILSON’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION: WORLD WAR I

Woodrow Wilson’s second term in office was dominated by World War I. Although the president had

advocated for peace during the initial years of the war, in early 1917 German submarines launched

unrestricted submarine attacks against U.S. merchant ships. Around the same time, the United States

learned about the Zimmerman Telegram, in which Germany tried to persuade Mexico to enter into an

alliance against America. On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, stating,

“The world must be made safe for democracy.”

America’s participation helped bring about victory for the Allies, and on November 11, 1918, an

armistice was signed by the Germans. At the Paris Peace Conference, which opened in January 1919 and

included the heads of the British, French and Italian governments, Wilson helped negotiate the Treaty of

Versailles. The agreement included the charter for the League of Nations, an organization intended to

arbitrate international disputes and prevent future wars. Wilson had initially advanced the idea for the

League in a January 1918 speech to the U.S. Congress in which he outlined his “Fourteen Points” for a

postwar peace settlement.

When Wilson returned from Europe in the summer of 1919, he encountered opposition to the Versailles

treaty from isolationist Republicans in Congress who feared the League could limit America’s autonomy

and draw the country into another war. In September of that year, the president embarked on a cross-

country speaking tour to promote his ideas for the League directly to the American people. On the night

of September 25, on a train bound for Wichita, Kansas, Wilson collapsed from mental and physical

stress, and the rest of his tour was cancelled. On October 2, he suffered a stroke that left him partially

paralyzed. Wilson’s condition was kept largely hidden from the public, and his wife worked behind the

scenes to fulfill a number of his administrative duties.

The Senate voted on the Treaty of Versailles first in November 1919 and again in March 1920. Both

times it failed to gain the two-thirds vote required for ratification. The treaty’s defeat was partly blamed

on Wilson’s refusal to compromise with the Republicans. The League of Nations held its first meeting in

January 1920; the United States never joined the organization. However, in December 1920, Wilson

received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to include the Covenant of the League of Nations in

the Treaty of Versailles.

WOODROW WILSON’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION: DOMESTIC ISSUES

Woodrow Wilson’s second administration saw the passage of two significant constitutional

amendments. The era of Prohibition was ushered in on January 17, 1920, when the 18th Amendment,

banning the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol, went into effect following its ratification

one year earlier. In 1919, Wilson vetoed the National Prohibition Act (or Volstead Act), designed to

enforce the 18th Amendment; however, his veto was overridden by Congress. Prohibition lasted until

1933, when it was repealed by the 21st Amendment.

Also in 1920, American women gained the right to vote when the 19th Amendment became law that

August; Wilson had pushed Congress to pass the amendment. That year’s presidential election–the first

in which women from every state were allowed to vote–resulted in a victory for Republican Warren

Harding (1865-1923), a congressman from Ohio who opposed the League of Nations and campaigned for

a “return to normalcy” after Wilson’s tenure in the White House.

WOODROW WILSON’S FINAL YEARS

After leaving office in March 1921, Woodrow Wilson resided in Washington, D.C. He and a partner

established a law firm, but poor health prevented the president from ever doing any serious work.

Wilson died at his home on February 3, 1924, at age 67. He was buried in the Washington National

Cathedral, the only president to be interred in the nation’s capital.

Wilson’s Presidency Key Points

Domestic Issues:

18th Amendment: Prohibition

19th Amendment: Votes for Women

Federal Reserve System

Federal Farm Loan Act

Some support for Labor Unions

Wilson’s New Freedom

During his presidential campaign, Wilson proposed a plan of reform called the New Freedom, which

called for:

Tariff reductions

Banking reform

Stronger antitrust legislation

Tariff Reduction & High Taxes

In October 1913, Congress passed the Underwood Tariff Act, which lowered taxes to their lowest level in

50 years. The reduction in tariffs left the federal government with less money so the graduated income

tax was introduced. The income tax taxed people according to their income, and wealthy people paid

more than poor or middle-class people.

Federal Reserve

One of Woodrow Wilson’s key targets was the banking system. The American public had little faith in

the banking system because of the common bank failures. In many cases, banks collapsed when people

started withdrawing their money. Wilson believed that people needed access to their money without

the fear of the banks failing. In 1913, the Federal Reserve Act was passed which established the Federal

Reserve. It created a central fund from which banks could borrow to prevent collapse during a financial

panic. The Federal Reserve Act put the nation’s banks under the supervision of the federal government

for the first time.

The Federal Reserve (federalreserve.gov)

he Federal Reserve System, often referred to as the Federal Reserve or simply "the Fed," is the central

bank of the United States. It was created by the Congress to provide the nation with a safer, more

flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve was created on December

23, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. Today, the Federal

Reserve's responsibilities fall into four general areas.

Conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the

economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices.

Supervising and regulating banks and other important financial institutions to ensure the safety

and soundness of the nation's banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of

consumers.

Maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in

financial markets.

Providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, U.S. financial institutions, and

foreign official institutions, and playing a major role in operating and overseeing the nation's

payments systems.

Anti-Trust Laws

Even though Congress had passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 to limit the power of monopolies,

unfair business practices continued to go on. Wilson had two solutions to these problems. The first was

the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) which prohibited companies from buying stock in competing companies

in order to form a monopoly. It also supported workers by making strikes, boycotts, and peaceful

picketing legal for the first time. The other solution was the Federal Trade Commission which enforced

antitrust laws and was tough on companies that used deceptive advertising.

Progressive Era Amendments

16th Direct Income Tax issues by the government.

17th Direct election of US Senators

18th Bans the selling and production of alcohol

19th Women’s Suffrage