Chapter Twenty-One

The Progressive Era

1901-1918
 A Quick Note
• This chapter is mainly about the principles of
the Progressive Era. I’ve trimmed it down a
lot. If you feel like you’re missing something,
it’s chapter twenty-one, page 424 in the
AMSCO book. 
Origins of Progressivism
 Attitudes and Motives
• Who were the progressives?
– Middle class citizens
– White collar office workers
– Bankers
– Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, William Jennings Bryan,
Woodrow Wilson
• Philosophy
– Pragmatism
• Romantic transcendentalism
• Practical approaches
• Scientific Management
– Frederick Taylor
• Used a stopwatch to time the output of factory workers
 Muckrakers
• Origins
– Henry Demarest Lloyd
• Wrote articles attacking the Oil and Railroad
monopolies
• Wealth Against Commonwealth (Title of collection)
• Magazines
– McClure’s, Collier’s, The Cosmopolitan
– Dug up dirt on corruption
Political Reform in Cities and States
 Voter Participation
• The Secret (Australian) Ballot, Direct Primaries,
and Direct election of senators was adopted
• Progressives forced politicians to obey the people
through
– Initiative
• Voters make the legislature consider a bill
– Referendum
• Vote on laws on their ballots
– Recall
• Removing corrupt politicians from office
 State Reform
• Temperance and prohibition abounded
 Political Reform in the Nation
• The Square Deal
• Trust Busting
• Railroad regulation
– Elkins Act
– Hepburn Act
• Consumer Protection
– The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
– Pure Food and Drug Act
– Meat Inspection Act
 Taft’s Presidency
• More trust-busting
• Progressives in the Republican party were angry with
Taft
– Payne-Aldrich Tariff
• Raised the tariffs, instead of lowering them
– Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy
• Taft fired Pinchot, a Forest Service person, when he criticized a
member of Taft’s cabinet
– House Speaker Joe Cannon
• Taft did not reduce the overbearing powers of the HS
– Midterm Elections
• Progressive Republicans rose up and defeated anyone endorsed by
Taft
 The Socialist Party
• Eugene V. Debs was the leader
• Formed from unionistic ideals
 Election of 1912
• Republicans
– Taft
• Progressives (Bull Moose Party)
– Roosevelt
• Democrats
– Woodrow Wilson
• Socialists
– Eugene V. Debs
• Woodrow Wilson was victorious
 Woodrow Wilson’s Progressive
Program
• Reduced tariffs
• Reformed banks
• New Freedom Program:
– Clayton Antitrust Act
• More powerful in breaking up trusts
– Federal Trade Commission
• Investigated unfair trade
– Federal Farm Loan Act
• Farmers got loans with less interest
– Child Labor Act
• Found to be unconstitutional in Hammer vs. Dagenhart
African Americans in the Progressive
Era
 African Americans
• Booker T. Washington put stress on economics
and W.E.B. Du Bois put stress on civil rights
• Many blacks migrated to the north because of
racism, loss of cotton crops, and job
opportunities
• NAACP formed in 1908 at the Niagara
Movement
 Women’s Suffrage
• Carrie Chapman Catt
– President of National American Woman Suffrage
Association
• Alice Paul
– Militant approach to suffrage
• Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
– Women received the right to vote in all elections