Chapter 21 the Progressive Era: 1900-1917 Reform gained momentum as activists tried to make government more democratic and

eradicate dangerous conditions in cities and factories and curb corporate power. Progressivism was not a single movement but a widespread yearning for reform and a sense of new social possibilities. The Many Faces of Progressivism A growing middle class transformed U.S. cities who were the foot soldiers and leaders of the progressive movement. 1900-1920 the white collar work force went from 5.1-10.5 million. The white collar work force includes secretaries, civil engineers, advertisers, corporate technicians, and desk workers. The age of organization had dawned, bringing new professional allegiances, an emphasis on certification and licensing, and a more standardized society. Middle class people who got into a national professional society had a sense of identity, that earlier came from neighborhood, church, or political party affiliation; middle class were eager to make their influence felt. For middle class women, the city offered both opportunities and frustrations with opportunities as schoolteachers, secretaries, typists, clerks, and telephone operators. However for middle class married women that cared for homes and children, city life meant isolation and frustration with the increase of divorce rate. The initial reform momentum came from womens clubs, settlement houses, and private groups like the national child labor committee which drew strength from organized interest groups and the native born middle class. Urban immigrant political machines and workers themselves were critical and took initiative. Progressivism is a series of political and cultural responses to industrialization and its by products: immigration, urban growth, the rise of corporate power, and widening class divisions with progressivisms drew strength from the cities. Most progressives were reformers. Stricter regulation for business, protecting workers and urban poor, reform the structure of government, immigration, urban immorality and social disorder contributed to the mosaic of progressive reform. Human emotion drove progressivism. Intellectuals offer new social views Charles Darwins theory of evolution justified brutal unrestrained economic competition. Sociologist Lester Ward attacked Charless theory of Social Darwinism. Thorstein Veblen satirized the lifestyle of rich captains of industry. William James argued that truth emerges not from theorizing but from the experience of coping with lifes realities. Herbert Croly called for an activist government that promoted the welfare of the citizens and founded New Republic magazine. Novelists, Journalists, and Artists Spotlight Social Problems Chronicled corporate wrongdoing, municipal corruption, slum conditions, and industrial abuses. Frank Norris (the Octopus novel) portrayed the epic struggle between California railroad owners and the states wheat growers. The authors of McClures and Colliers magazines were called muckrakers who awakened middle class readers to conditions in industrial America. Reforming the Political Process Political reform movement moved to throwing out the roots of urban misgovernment, and corrupted political figures such as San Francisco citys corrupt bosses Abe Reuf, and New Yorks Tammany hall. Reformers passed laws regulating the rates that utilities could charge, advocated substituting professional managers and administrators for chosen in citywide elections. Electoral reform movement soon expanded to the state level with initiative, referendum and recall reforms. Initiative voters can instruct the legislature to consider a specific bill. Referendum they can actually enact a law or express their views on a proposed measure. A recall petition, voters can remove a public official from office if they muster enough signatures. These reforms aimed to democratize voting; however party leaders and interest groups learned to manipulate it. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers Americans were troubled by the social implications of industrialization, the expansion of corporate power and the hazards of the workplace stirred urgent concern which drove progressivism. Many states passed laws regulating railroads, mines, and other businesses like Governor Robert who set up railroad regulatory commission, increased corporate taxes, and limited campaign spending. By 1907 30 states outlawed child labor. There were many campaigns to improve industrial safety and better conditions for the workers. After 1911 Triangle Fire by 1914 25 states passed laws making employers liable for job related injuries or deaths. Florence Kelley was a leader in the drive to remedy industrial abuses. People pointed out the hazards of their jobs such as fine dust that caused silicosis. Making Cities more livable Overwhelmed by influx of immigrants and newcomers, many cities became dreary, sprawling human warehouse and lacked adequate parks, municipal services, public health resources, recreational facilities and other basic civic amenities. The New York legislature passed laws imposing strict health and safety regulations on tenements in 1911. Progressive reformers called for improved water and sewer systems, regulation of milk suppliers and food handlers, school medical examinations and vaccination programs, and informational campaigns to spread public health information to urban masses. Moral control in the Cities The Mann Act of 1910 made it illegal to transport a woman across a state line for immoral purposes. This happened as prostitution came to symbolize the larger moral dangers of cites. Battling Alcohol and Drugs The Anti-Saloon League shifted the emphasis to legislating a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages. This was a heavy drinking era and alcohol abuse contributed to domestic abuse. The Narcotics Act of 1914 (Harrison Act) banned the distribution of heroin, morphine, cocaine, and other addictive drugs except licensed physicians gave drugs. Immigration Restriction and Eugenics The way middle class Americans felt about the appalling conditions in the urban slums stimulated support for protective legislation and immigration restriction. Eugenics is the control of reproduction to alter a plant or animal species to be its best. Racism and Progressivism Local Jim Crow laws segregated streetcars, schools, parks and even cemeteries for blacks and were usually inferior. Still Lynched. African American Leaders organize against Racism Booker T. Washingtons had go-slow policies for black rights. Web Du Bois criticized Washington and reject his call for patience and his exclusive emphasis on manual skills. Instead Du Bois demanded full racial equality and called on blacks to resist all forms of racism. Revival of the Woman- Suffrage Movement Progressive Reform started a vigorous suffrage movement with a great movement in Great Britain that fired up movements in America. At both state and federal level, the momentum of the organized woman suffrage movement had become well nigh irresistible. Workers Organize Socialism Advances

Labor unions continued to expand such as the American Federation of Labor. The Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) leader was William Haywood led mass strikes. Birth control reformer, Margaret Sanger, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn publicized the cause by sending strikers children to sympathizers in New York City. All socialists advocated an end to capitalism and backed public ownership of factories, utilities, railroads, and communications system National Progressivism Phase 1: Roosevelt and Taft, 1901-1913 Progressivism first national leader was Theodore Roosevelt who was bombastic, self righteous and jingoistic, became president in 1901 and made the White House a cauldron of activism. He pursued goals in labor mediation, consumer protection, conservation, business virtue, and engagement abroad while embracing and publicizing progressives ideas and objectives. Roosevelts Path to the White House After President William McKinley, TR became president. Labor Disputes, Trust-busting, Railroad Regulation When the United Mie Workers Union called a strike to gain higher wages and shorter hours TR acted and made the commission grant the miners a 10 percent wage increase and reduced their working day from 10 to 9 hours. TR sided with the strikers which differed from that of his predecessors. He defended workers rights to organize. TR didnt fear or like business tycoons because he embraced the progressive conviction that business behavior must be regulated. When United States Steel Company formed TR broke up the business monopoly, trust-busting. The Roosevelt administration filed 43 other antitrust lawsuits. After winning the election of 1904 TR turned to railroad regulation with the Hepburn Act of 1906 which empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum railroad rates and to examine railroads financial records. Consumer Protection and Racial Issues Roosevelt supported the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act that were passed in 1906 which outlawed the sale of adulterated foods or drugs and required accurate ingredient labels and the other imposed strict sanitary rules on meatpackers and set up a federal meat inspection system. Environmentalism Progressive Style Environmental concerns ranked high on the national agenda. President TR appointed U.S. forest service Pinchot to regulate the use of forest lands for public and commercial purpose. TR supported the National Reclamation Act of 1902 that designated the money from public land sales for water management in arid western regions, and set up the Reclamation service to plan and construct dams and irrigation projects. TR also created fifty three wildlife reserves, sixteen national monuments, and five new national parks. Congress created the National Park Service in 1916 to manage parks. Taft in the White house TR nominated Secretary of War William Howard Taft for president but chose a conservative vice presidential nominee. Republican conservatives were unhappy with Roosevelts policies. Taft supported the Mann Elkins Act of 1910 that beefed up the Interstate Commerce Commissions rate setting powers and extended its regulatory authority to telephone and telegraph companies. Taft administration prosecuted more antitrust cases than Roosevelt but without much publicity. Ballinger-Pinchot affair was when approved the sale of several million acres of public lands in Alaska containing coal deposits to a group of Seattle businessmen in 1909 and then fired Gifford Pinchot. The Four Way Election of 1912 In 1912 Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination opposing Taft. Roosevelt and followers formed the Progressive partyBull Moose Party. Taft led the conservative Republican Party. Woodrow Wilson led the Democratic Party, and Eugene Debs led the Socialist party. TR preached his New Nationalism where big business must be strictly regulated in the public interest where the welfare of workers and consumers should be safeguarded and the environment protected. Wilson preached his New Freedom where he warned that the new corporate order was choking off opportunity for ordinary Americans and there should be small government, small businesses, and free competition. The 1912 election linked the Democrats firmly with reform. National Progressivism Phase II: Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1917 Wilson played a key leadership role as Congress enacted an array of reform measures. The national progressive movement gained powerful momentum under Wilson. Tariff and Banking Reform The Senate slashed tariff rates even more than the House had done after there was a senate investigation of lobbyists and of senators who profited from high tariffs. The Underwood-Simmons Tariff reduced rates and average of 15%. The Federal Reserve Act was a result of trying to fix the decentralized banking system in 1913. The Federal Reserve Act created twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks under mixed public and private control where each regional bank could issue U.S. dollars to the banks in the district to make loans to corporations and individual borrowers. The federal Reserve Act stands as Wilsons greatest legislative achievement. Regulating Business and Aiding Workers and Farmers In 1914 Wilson and Congress turned to business regulation and made two key laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act. The Federal Trade Commission Act created a watchdog agency the Federal Trade Commission with the power to investigate suspected violations of federal regulations require regular reports from corporations and issue cease-and desist orders when it found unfair methods of competition. The Clayton Antitrust Act listed specific corporate activities that could lead to federal lawsuits, spelling gout a series of illegal practices, such as selling at a loss to undercut competitors. The Keating Owen Act barred from interstate commerce products manufactured by child labor. The Adamson Act established an eight hour day for interstate railway workers. The Workmens compensation Act provided Accident and injury protection to federal workers. The federal Farm loan Act and the Federal Warehouse Act enabled farmers using land or crops as security to get low-interest federal loans. The federal Highway Act, providing matching funds for state highway programs, benefited not only the new automobile industry but also farmers plagued by bad roads. Progressivism and the constitution Muller v. Oregon in 1908 upheld an Oregon ten hour law for women laundry workers. Muller v. Oregon marked a breakthrough in making the legal system more responsive to new social realities. The 16th amendment granted Congress the authority to tax income, ending a long legal battle and imposed a graduated federal income tax with a maximum rate of 7% on incomes in excess of five hundred thousand dollars. The 17th amendment mandated the direct election of U.S. senators by the voters rather than their selection by state legislatures as provided by Article 1 of the constitution. The 17th amendment brought a reform first advocated by the populists as a way of taking the Senate less

subject to corporate influence and more responsive to the popular will. The 18 th amendment established a nationwide prohibition of the manufacture, sale, or importation of intoxicating liquors. The 19 th amendment granted women the right to vote. Wilson Edges out Hughes: 1916 Wilson barely won the election with California tally seesawed back and forth.