The Progressive Era

History M25 - Krister Swanson - Moorpark College

Progressive Movement

• origins: populists, social gospel, muckrakers
• work to solve problems of late 1800s, early 1900s (wide variety of people & groups)
• Guided by thinking that gov’t is agent of social change, belief that things will continue to progress
• Led by middle class: pressured from above & below, wants solutions to these problems
• Teddy Roosevelt & Wilson are most progressive presidents

Problems they addressed:

• Monopolies/Trusts
• Disease/Crime
• Racism(economic, social, political)
• Women’s Rights (voting, working)
• Working/Labor Relations
• Political Corruption (local, state, national)

Monopolies/Trusts

• Roosevelt’s "Trust Busting"
• Hepburn Act helps with regulating Railroad Rates
• Federal Trade Commission
• Clayton Anti-Trust extends powers of Sherman antitrust act
• Underwood-Simmons refines tariffs and reinstates income tax

Health & Conservation

• Pure Food & Drug Act
• Meat Inspection Act
• Forest Service - 194 million acres set aside & beginnings of National Park System

Racism

• Ida B. Wells attacks lynching as a form of racial oppression
• W.E.B. DuBois forms NAACP to push for social & political equality
• B.T. Washington builds programs for equality through economic advancement (Tuskegee)

Women’s Rights & Social Reform

• Addams’ push for better housing
• Push for Suffrage- (Catt’s NAWSA) 19th Amend in 1920
• Nat’l Birth Control League & Dennett’s Planned Parenthood
• Women’s Christian Temperance Union
• Kelley pushes for max hrs. & min. wage

Working/Labor Relations

• Sinclair’s The Jungle
• Roosevelt’s arbitration of the Coal Strike
• WW’s workmen’s compensation
• Kelley’s Work Inspection Law
• Jones minimum wage
• More radical: IWW & the socialists

Political Corruption

• LaFollette’s direct primary lets voters choose candidates
• Recall laws for corrupt politicians
• commission system for governing cities
• initiative & referendum laws
• 17th Amen. (direct election of Senators)

Roosevelt and Taft

• The Square Deal (trust busting, arbitrates coal strike) shows willingness to assert authority of presidency
• Roosevelt and Conservation
• Roosevelt’s Diplomacy: Big Stick - assert power of U.S. around the world (Panama Canal, Roosevelt Corollary)
• Taft too conservative - TR challenges with Bull Moose Party in 1912 - Wilson wins