CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 21
The Progressive Era, 1895 1920

CHAPTER SUMMARY
In Chapter 21, we focus on the Progressive era and progressivism: a series of movements that brought together reform-minded individuals and groups with differing solutions to the nation’s problems in the years 1895 to 1920. The progressives were members of nationwide organizations that attempted to affect government policy. They were people interested in urban issues and urban political and social reform. Although progressives came from all levels of society, new middle-class professionals formed the vanguard of the movement and found expression for their ideas in muckraking journalism.
Revolted by corruption and injustice, the new urban middle class called for political reform to make government more efficient, less corrupt, and more accountable. Such government, they believed, could be a force for good in American society. Some business executives argued for a society organized along the lines of the corporate model; women of the elite classes formed the YWCA and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Working-class reformers pressed for government legislation to aid labor and improve social welfare. Although some reformers turned to the Socialist Party, they were a decided minority and cannot be considered progressives. Progressives generally had far too great a stake in the capitalist system to advocate its destruction and, as a result, were political moderates rather than radicals.
The many facets of progressivism can be seen in the section “Governmental and Legislative Reform.” Progressives generally agreed that government power should be used to check the abuses associated with the industrial age, but they did not always agree on the nature of the problem. At the city and state levels, progressives were initially interested in attacking the party system and in effecting political reform designed to make government more honest, more professional, and more responsive to the people. These aims can be seen through the accomplishments of Robert M. La Follette, one of the most effective progressive governors, and in the Seventeenth Amendment, one of the major political reforms achieved by progressives at the national level. Some progressives also worked for social reform at the state level, to protect the well-being of citizens from exploitative corporate power. Still other progressives believed in using the power of government to purify society by effecting moral reform. Such efforts were behind the Eighteenth Amendment and the Mann Act (White Slave Traffic Act).
The Progressive era also witnessed an assault on traditional ideas in education, law, and religion. In the section “New Ideas in Education, Law, and Religion” we examine the new ideas, resistance to them, and the changes they brought, and we evaluate those changes. This section also outlines progressive reforms in public health and the religious foundations of much Progressive reform. The following section, “Challenges to Racial and Sexual Discrimination,” describes the dilemma faced by African Americans, American Indians, and women seeking equality in American society. After contrasting the approaches of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois toward white racism, we look at attempts by American Indians to advance their interests through the formation of the Society of American Indians. We then turn to the various aspects of “the woman movement,” contrasting the aims and goals of women involved in the women’s club movement with those involved in the feminist movement and discussing the contrasting viewpoints of elite women and feminists involved in the suffrage movement.
The Progressive era reached the national level of government when Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901. We examine Roosevelt’s political, economic, and social frame of reference and evaluate the progressive legislation passed during his administration. The contrast between the Taft administration that followed and the Roosevelt years spurred progressives to found the Progressive Party under Roosevelt’s leadership. We also discuss the similarities and differences between Roosevelt’s New Nationalism and Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom, and we examine the reasons for Wilson’s election in 1912.
In “Woodrow Wilson and the Extension of Reform,” we analyze Wilson’s frame of reference and evaluate the legislation passed during his two administrations. The chapter ends with a summary and evaluation of the Progressive era.



Learning Objectives
1. Explain the emergence of progressivism and discuss the movement’s basic themes.
2. Discuss the similarities and differences among the ideologies, goals, and tactics of the various groups that constituted the Progressive movement, and analyze the successes and failures of these groups in achieving political, social, and moral reform.
3. Explain the emergence of the Socialist movement, and indicate how it differed from progressivism in ideology, goals, and tactics.
4. Discuss and evaluate the impact of progressive ideas in education, law, and religion.
5. Explain and evaluate the approaches of African Americans, American Indians, and women to the problems they faced during the Progressive era, and discuss the extent to which they were successful in achieving their goals.
6. Explain the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt’s political, social, and economic beliefs and his approach toward the major issues of the day.
7. Indicate the reasons for the break between William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, and explain the impact of this break on the 1912 election.
8. Examine the similarities and differences between Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
9. Explain and evaluate the reform legislation of the Wilson presidency.
10. Assess the political, social, and economic impact of the Progressive era on American society.



Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
The crises of the 1890s generated a broad, complex reform movement known as Progressivism that hoped to apply scientific principles and efficient management to economic, social, and political institutions. Many looked to government as the agent of change.


II. The Varied Progressive Impulse
A. Foreign Influences
Organizations began to influence government policy in the 1890s, fragmenting politics and making them more issue oriented. Furthermore, ideas from Europe had an impact on Progressive reformers in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
B. Urban Middle-Class Reformers and Muckrakers
The new middle class formed the vanguard of the Progressive movement. Journalists, called “muckrakers,” raised interest in reform, particularly among urban Americans. Many people, opposed to political parties and bosses, advocated initiative, referendum, and recall.
C. Upper Class Reformers
Some businessmen supported limited political and economic reform to protect themselves from radical changes. Elite women encouraged social reform.
D. Working Class Reformers
The working class pushed for labor and safety reform, and inner city voters elected Progressive legislators.
E. Socialists
Some workers who wanted substantive changes in society turned to socialism.
F. Opponents of Progressivism
Many politicians and capitalists opposed Progressivism as too much government interference in the free market.

III. Governmental and Legislative Reform
A. Restructuring Government
Most Progressives believed that government should be the guardians of the people. Although reformers first tried to eliminate corruption from government at the city level, they began to shift their attention to the state level.
B. Robert M. LaFollette
Several charismatic governors used their powers to enact reform. The most forceful Progressive governor was Wisconsin’s Robert M. LaFollette.
C. Southern Progressivism
Although the South led the way in Progressive political reform, racism tainted southern Progressive politics.
D. Labor Reform
State laws promoting social welfare, such as limited working hours for women and age limits for children, often had greater influence than did political reforms.
E. Moral Reform
Some reformers sought to create a better moral climate through movements such as an anti liquor crusade and an attack on prostitution.
F. The War on Alcohol
Reformers successfully gained a nationwide ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.
G. Prostitution and White Slavery
Reformers next attacked prostitution, and effectively criminalized it by 1915.

IV. New Ideas in Education, Law, and Religion
A. John Dewey and Progressive Education
Progressive educators believed that learning should focus on real life problems and that children should learn to use their intelligence to control their environment.
B. Growth of Colleges and Universities
College enrollment expanded during this era. Much of the growth stemmed from the creation of new institutions, from the increased numbers of women attending colleges, and, in the South, from the emergence of black schools.
C. Progressive Legal Thought
Progressive lawyers argued that the law should be flexible enough to reflect the needs of society. Judges imbued with laissez faire theories opposed this view.
D. Public Health
Organizations like the National Consumers League successfully brought about far-reaching reforms in the area of public health.
E. The Social Gospel
Social Gospelers believed they could counter the brutality of competitive capitalism by applying Christian principles to worldly matters.



V. Challenges to Racial and Sexual Discrimination
A. Disadvantages of African Americans
Southern African Americans suffered under repressive Jim Crow laws. African Americans in the North face job discrimination, inferior schools, and segregated housing.
B. Booker T. Washington and Self Help
Booker T. Washington encouraged African Americans to accommodate themselves to whites, at least temporarily. He believed that blacks should first acquire property and thus prove themselves worthy of other rights.
C. W. E .B. DuBois and the Niagara Movement
W. E. B. DuBois opposed Washington. Believing that blacks should agitate for their rights, DuBois organized the Niagara Movement in 1905 and helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.
D. Society of American Indians
Native Americans formed their own reform association, the Society of American Indians. The society could not resolve conflicts between tribal loyalties and pressure for assimilation, and it folded early in the 1920s.
E. “The Woman Movement”
Before 1910, those who wanted women to move out of the home and into social activities, higher education, and paid labor called themselves the “woman movement.”
F. Women’s Clubs
Excluded from holding political office, women joined clubs that showed more interest in improving society than in reforming government.
G. Feminism
Around 1910, many women began using a new term, “feminism,” to describe their reform efforts that stressed social justice, economic equality, and sexual freedom.
H. Margaret Sanger’s Crusade
Feminists like Margaret Sanger pushed for widespread use of contraception.
I. Woman Suffrage
Early advocates of women’s rights thought that only educated women should vote, but Progressive reformers wanted all women to have that right. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the vote in national elections.



VI. Theodore Roosevelt and the Revival of the Presidency
A. Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt believed that the government should direct national affairs. In economic affairs he believed that government should act as an umpire by deciding when big business was good and when it was bad.
B. Regulation of Trusts
Roosevelt first turned his attentions to big business. He triumphed in 1904 when the Supreme Court dissolved the Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt also successfully pushed for regulatory legislation.
C. Pure Food and Drug Laws
With the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in 1906, Roosevelt supported the Meat Inspection Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act addressed abuses in the patent-medicine industry.
D. Conservation
Roosevelt used colorful action, quiet promotion, executive orders, and presidential pressure to support conservation.
E. Taft Administration
William Howard Taft had to face problems with the tariff that Roosevelt had ignored. Under Taft, the progressive and conservative wings of the Republican Party drifted apart.
F. The Bull Moose Party
When it became apparent that Taft’s supporters controlled the 1912 Republican convention, Roosevelt’s supporters walked out of the convention and formed the Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party. The Progressive Party nominated Roosevelt for the presidency.

VII. Woodrow Wilson and the Extension of Reform
A. New Nationalism and New Freedom
Roosevelt’s New Nationalism sought national unity with government coordinating and regulating, not destroying, big business. Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom warned that concentrated economic power threatened liberty and insisted that monopolies should be broken up.
B. Wilson’s Policy on Business Regulation
Finding it necessary to blend his New Freedom ideas with Roosevelt’s New Nationalism ideas, Wilson expanded national power over business through the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Reserve Act.
C. Tariff and Tax Reform
The Underwood Tariff lowered the tariff, but it created a graduated income tax. Wilson supported more reforms in 1916, especially in light of the war in Europe and the upcoming presidential election.
D. Election of 1916
Republican Charles Evans Hughes ran unsuccessfully against Wilson in 1916. America’s entry into World War I shifted focus from reform because the war required cooperation between the public and private sectors.