Progressives

Progressives/Progressivism

Changes in America around 1900-

Progressives seek to control these changes.
Changes causing: uncertainty; poverty;
crime; immigration; race issues; urban
problems; changes in values
Some important issues:
• Industrialization/Monopolies/Trusts
• Corruption in government
• Urbanization
• Rich/Poor gap
• Technology/Rise of Science
• Immigration increased
 Optimism of the
Progressives
• Progressives were very concerned about all of the problems
described above, but they were very optimistic about the
possibility of solving them. They believed in the potential of the
people, the government, and the scientific method. By applying
the scientific method to social problems (thus the origins of the
"social sciences") problems could be solved.
• Shared values
– Concern about effects of industrialization
– Optimistic about human nature and potential for progress
– Willing to intervene in others lives, either private charity or
government
– Sense of evangelical Protestant duty and faith in the benefits of
science
– Commitment to improve all aspects of American life
 Friction

All of these issues are sources of FRICTION. Especially

socio-economic class problems. Classes have very
different experiences in America.
• Upper class: Life of leisure. Opulence.
• Lower class: Struggle
• Middle class: Caught in the middle
 Upper Classes

• Typical great mansion required: Staff of about 24 servants and

cost $200-300K /year ($6.7M 2004) to maintain.
• JP Morgan- great library- exact value unknown. Likely
considered priceless when he died and now. (His made it a
public institution after the death of his father.)
– 1884, paid $24,750 for a 1459 Mainz Psalter (most ever paid
for a book at the time and for years). ($500,000 dollars in 2004
dollars)
– 1899, paid $200,000 for a collection of manuscripts, books
from the early days of printing, works related to Shakespeare.
($4.5M in 2004 dollars)
• JD Rockefeller: Total worth- $2 Billion (approx. $50 today). [Bill
Gates worth about $27 Billion.]
 Lower Classes

On the edge of survival: Low wages, lay offs, accidents, early death-
constant threats
• Avoided changing jobs because even a loss of a day’s pay could
hurt the family.
• Incomes:
– Wage workers: $435/yr ($9000/yr, 2004)
– Coal workers: $340/yr ($7,600/yr 2004)
– Domestics: $240/yr ($5,368/yr 2004)
– Agricultural laborers: $178/yr. + room and board. ($4000
2004)
– Middle class clericals: $1,011 (for comparison) ($22,000 2004)
– Cost of Living: In Buffalo, NY, cost approx $700 to support
family of 5, but laborers income was only approx. $300-
$600/yr
 Lower Classes

• People who went “rags to riches” less

role models than freaks of nature to
lower classes.
• Working class children:
– Grew up fast- entered work world early
– Grew up slow- did not have enough $ to
develop autonomy. Tended to live w/
parents longer than middle and upper class.
• Farmers- felt loss of status in society.
Economic pinch as well.
 Middle Class
• Becomes the radical center- sought to halt
friction in society.
• White collar jobs
– Lived in comfort w/ limits
• Women key to middle class progressivism
– The task of running a home became less
demanding (w/ new inventions, electricity,
etc.) and less fulfilling.
– By 1900, 85,000 women in higher education.
 Middle Class
• Face up to what rich wanted to deny-
existence of potentially dangerous class
conflict.
– Rich and poor were alien to each other, but
middle class, in the middle, saw each, and
had concerns
• Self-Indulgence
– Rich: mansions and extravagance
– Poor: saloons, crime
 Middle Class

• Tension between old concept of

individualism and the new
realities:
–“individualism is the characteristic of
simple barbarism, not republican
civilization.”
–“individualism means tyranny.”
–“the community has become too
often the prey of individuals.”
 Who are the Progressives?

• Answer usually centers on the middle class.

• Broad based movement- virtually everyone
fighting for the ‘progressive’ label eventually.
– The way a whole generation of Americans
responded to the problems of America
• Diverse movement- many groups w/
competing objectives and who had little to do
w/ each other.
– women, blacks, protestant ministers, middle
class professionals.
 Ideals of the Progressives

Application of natural sciences to society

• Social Sciences created in this time
– Ethical concerns high on the agenda of
early social sciences- this a sign of
influence of progressives
• Scientific method to study, analyze
and solve problems
 Ideals of the Progressives
Social sciences- role of environment
• People are creatures of their environment
–Change environment, change the person
–Study and cause change in environment
and people will be improved
• This is a challenge to conventional
wisdom of individualism.
 Ideals of the Progressives

New definition of Individualism

• “In modern America the individual could not hope
to compete. Slowly realized that they were no
longer free.”
– Did not accept common notion of liberty that had
been held up to that point, which equated liberty
w/ contract. Free to make contract ≠ free to
Progressives- individuals could not freely contract
w/ big business.
– “Wage Slavery” a term which began to be used.
 Ideals of the Progressives

New definition of Individualism

• Individual liberty needed to include
social and moral considerations, not
just supply and demand. Issue of fair
living wage came to dominate
Progressive thinking
– “An American Standard of Living”
• Can workers afford the products they
make at work?
 Ideals of the Progressives

New definition of Individualism

• Find an alternative vision-
– ideal is not accumulation of wealth
and property
– more communitarian-
COMMUNITY IS KEY
 Ideals of the Progressives

Faith in progress
• Optimism
• Faith that people’s abilities, through purposeful
action, can improve conditions of life and society.
• Can reform capitalism to make it more human
– don’t have to get rid of capitalism
• not socialist or communist
• Intervene in economic and social affairs to control
forces (i.e. supply and demand) and impose a
measure of control on those forces.
 Ideals of the Progressives
Restrain big business
• Scale: so large that big businesses were
threats to competition and efficiency. End
monopoly power.
• Compel business to care for employees.
• Compel business to consider safety of work
environment and products.
• Recognize that big business here to stay, so
need to regulate since individual cannot
compete w/ it.
 Ideals of the Progressives
Use govt. as a tool for improving society
• Nation/State becomes a moral agent which
should set rules of conduct for a just
society
– Not anti-govt. (that govt. which governs best
governs least)
– Laissez faire anathema to liberty and
progressivism- just a means of oppression of
the many by the few.
• Government a necessity to set the social
conditions for freedom.
 Ideals of the Progressives

Use govt. as a tool for improving society

• Nation-state a moral actor (contd.)
– Big government is a counterbalance to big
business
• Who else can control Standard Oil? J.P. Morgan?
– More faith in executive power than
legislative
• legislatures a long history of corruption
• executive commissions and agencies w/ experts
 Ideals of the Progressives

Humanize Capitalism
• more egalitarian
• more power to ordinary people in
citizenry
• civic harmony to replace friction
• reject concepts of Social Darwinism
 Ideals of the Progressives

Efficiency
• Apply Taylorism to society in
general
– Eliminate waste in govt.
– Study to see what works
• Don’t waste human resources
 Ideals of the Progressives
Social Gospel
• Concern about the impact of
urbanization and industrialization on
morality
– Destruction of family life in cities and
w/ children working, for example
– “The conditions of life [in the city] are
not favorable to purity” according to
one RC Bishop. Red light districts, etc.
 Ideals of the Progressives
Social Gospel
• Humanitarianism
– seek salvation by reaching out to
others in industrial America- in
the community
• Contrast w/ indifference of
employers to their employees
 Ideals of the Progressives

Social Gospel
• Washington Gladden, Applied
Christianity: Moral Aspects of Social
Questions: set a new style of
Christianity- take on social ills.
– Get involved in politics- don’t leave it to
the corrupt.
 Ideals of the Progressives
Social Gospel
• Charles M. Sheldon, In His Steps (novel),
encouraged Christians to ask repeatedly
“What would Jesus do?”
–Not enough to preach at the poor- need
to help them
–Religious folk must confront the
problems of society
 Ideals of the Progressives
Social Gospel
Walter Rauschenbush (Baptist Minister)
• Advocate for working people and unions
– Embrace the “social aims of Jesus” and create the
“Kingdom of God on Earth.”
– “Economic justice is the proper work of all Christians.”
– “Jesus asked, “Is not a man more than a sheep?” Our
industry says, ‘No.’ It is careful of its live stock and
machinery, and careless of its human working force. “
– “Why should we demand of one of the lowest classes…
an unselfish devotion to all society which the upper
classes have never shown?”
– “It is the function of religion to teach the individual to
value… his moral integrity more than his income.”
– “To teach society to value human life more than property,
and to value property only insofar as it forms the
material basis for higher development of human life.”
 Ideals of the Progressives
Social Gospel
• Evangelical Protestantism
• Help purge America from it sins
– Temperance
– Not just moral suasion- compel if necessary.
• Use govt.
• Many churches/church organizations
began to see themselves as supply
depots to those in need
– Knights of Columbus, YMCA
 Ideals of the Progressives
“The idea that social and moral
considerations, not simply the law
of supply and demand, should
determine the level of wages,
became a staple of Progressive
thought.”

Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, p. 144

 Progressive Agenda
• Sought a wide host of reforms- a
bold effort to reawaken Americans
to create a new people living by a
new code of conduct.
• Political, Social, Economic Reforms
• Muckrakers key in all areas: expose
injustice where it exists to create
public pressure for reform
 Jacob Riis
Ida Tarbell
Upton Sinclair

MUCKRAKERS
 Progressive Agenda: Political
Reform
• Progressives wanted government to
follow the public will
• Reform government
– Reorganize for efficiency, effectiveness
– New agencies address particular social
ills
– Posts staffed with experts
Interest Groups and the Decline
of Popular Politics
 Interest Groups and the Decline
of Popular Politics
• Decline in voter participation
– 77% from 1876–1900
– 65% from 1900–1916
– 52% in the 1920s
– remained near 52% through 20th century
• Interest groups got favorable legislation
through lobbying
• Progressives hope to change the trend and
increase democracy.
 Progressive Agenda: Political
Reform
• Australian (Secret) ballot
• Direct primaries
• Direct election of senators
• Initiative, referendum, recall
– more direct democracy
• City managers/commissions
– heads of city departments elected by the
people
– Manager- an expert hired by the commission
to direct the work of various departments
 Progressive Agenda:
Political Reform
• Professionalism civil service (as opposed
to spoils system)
• Regulatory agencies (Interstate
Commerce Commission, for example)
• Govt. control of public utilities
• Anti-corruption legislation
• Restrictions on lobbyists
• Women’s suffrage
Women’s Suffrage
Before 1920
 Progressive Agenda: Social
Reform
• Prohibition
• Settlement Houses- Jane Addams
– part of changing environment=changing person
• School reforms- Dewey
– Methodologies- more authentic
– Education should stress personal growth, free inquiry,
creativity
– Get kids out of factory and into school- laws eliminating
child labor part of education reforms
• had to fight resistance of both families and employers on
this
– This a key method of changing the environment
 Progressive Agenda: Social
Reform
• Juvenile courts • Aid to economic
• Liberalized divorce downtrodden
laws • Civil rights
• Safety regulations – anti-lynching
– housing and – political rights
factories – equality??
• Reforming • Promotion of
criminals morality
– not just punishing – stop prostitution
– limit hours of bars
 Progressive Agenda:
Economic Reform
Main goal: control excesses of the rich and of
big businesses; govt. restrains big
business to prevent it from doing just
anything it wishes
– Anti-Trust legislation
– Progressive income tax
• Excessive wealth causing bad behavior among
rich- so give some to the poor.
– Environmental protection
– Regulate industries to protect public
• Food safety
• Drug safety
 The Republican Roosevelt

• Often defied convention

• Brought an exuberance to the
presidency
• Surrounded himself with able
associates
 Busting the Trusts
• 1902: Wave of trust-busting led by
suit against Northern Securities
Company
• 1904: Northern Securities dissolved
• Roosevelt reputed a "trust-buster"
• Comparatively few antitrust cases
under Roosevelt, Taft did almost
twice as many in half the time
 "Square Deal" in the
Coalfields
• 1902: United Mine Workers strike in
Pennsylvania threatened U.S.
economy
• U.M.W., companies to White House
• Roosevelt won company concessions
by threatening military seizure of
mines
• Roosevelt acted as broker of interests
 Roosevelt Progressivism
at Its Height
• 1904—A four-way election
– Republican—Theodore Roosevelt
– Democrat—Alton B. Parker
– Socialist—Eugene V. Debs
– Prohibition—Silas C. Swallow
• Roosevelt won 57% of popular vote,
336 electoral votes
The Election of 1904
 Regulating the Railroads
• 1903: Elkins Act prohibited railroad rebates,
strengthened Interstate Commerce Commission
• Widespread popular demand for further railroad
regulation after Roosevelt’s reelection
• 1906: Hepburn Act further strengthened Interstate
Commerce Commission
– Membership from five to seven
– May fix reasonable maximum rates
– Jurisdiction broadened to include oil pipeline,
express, sleeping car companies
 Cleaning Up Food and
Drugs
• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) prompted
federal investigation of meatpacking industry
• 1906: Meat Inspection Act
– Sets rules for sanitary meatpacking
– Requires government inspection of meat products
• Samuel Hopkins Adams exposed dangers of
patent medicines
• 1906: Pure Food and Drug Act
– Required manufacturers to list certain ingredients
– Banned manufacture and sale of adulterated drugs
 Conserving the Land
• First comprehensive national conservation
policy
– Roosevelt worked with Gifford Pinchot, chief
of Forest Service
– Policy defined “conservation” as wise use of
natural resources
• Quadrupled acreage under federal
protection
National Parks and
Forests
 Conserving the Land

• Roosevelt’s challenge
– Attacked “malefactors of great wealth”
– Criticized conservatism of federal courts
– Agitated for pro-labor legislation
• Popular response
– Business leaders blamed for financial
panic
– Overwhelming majority support
 The Ordeal of
William Howard Taft

• Taft: Able administrator, poor

president
• Conservative Republicans resurgent
• Taft lost support of Progressives
The Election of 1908
 Party Insurgency
•Tariff split Republicans
– Progressives: high tariff favored
trusts
– Conservatives: high tariff protected
business
•1909 Payne-Aldrich Act provoked
Progressives to break with Taft
 The Ballinger-Pinchot
Affair
• Gifford Pinchot leading
conservationist, Roosevelt
appointee
• Pinchot accused Interior Secretary
Richard Ballinger of selling public
lands to friends
• Taft fired Pinchot
• Progressives antagonized
 Taft Alienates the
Progressives
• 1910: Taft successfully pushed Mann-
Elkins Act to strengthen ICC
– Empowers ICC to fix railroad rates
– Progressive Republicans attacked Taft’s
plan of a Commerce Court to hear ICC
appeals
– Progressives obstructed Taft’s
negotiations
• 1910: Taft attacked Progressive
Republicans, Democrats gained Congress
 Taft Alienates the
Progressives
• Legislation protecting laborers
• Sixteenth Amendment created income
tax
• Taft a greater trustbuster than
Roosevelt
• Taft, Roosevelt attackd one another
publicly
• 1912: Taft renominated by Republicans,
little chance for victory
 Differing Philosophies in the
Election of 1912
• Roosevelt: Progressive ("Bull Moose")
– “New Nationalism”
– Federal regulation of economy
– Wasteful competition replaced by efficiency
• Woodrow Wilson: Democrat
– "New Freedom" for individual
– Restrain big business, government
• Democrats won White House, Congress
 Woodrow Wilson's
New Freedom
• Woodrow Wilson: Former president
of Princeton, governor of New Jersey
• Progressive, intellectual, inspiring
orator
• One of America's most effective
presidents
 The New Freedom in
Action
• 1913: Underwood Tariff cut duties
• 1913: Federal Reserve Act reformed
banks, established stable currency
• 1914: Clayton Antitrust Act outlawed
unfair trade practices, protected unions
• 1914: Federal Trade Commission
 New Freedom in Action:
Retreating from Reform
• November, 1914: Wilson announces "New
Freedom" has been achieved
• It was “a time of healing because a time of
just dealing”
• Statement stunned many progressives
 Wilson Moves Toward the
New Nationalism
• Reasons for the move
– Distracted by the outbreak of war in
Europe
– Needed conservative Southern support
– Republicans seemed to gain by
attacking his programs
• 1916: Presidential election
 Wilson Moves Toward the
New Nationalism
• Wilson renewed reform in reelection bid
– Federal Farm Loan Act
– Intervened in strikes on behalf of workers
– Attempted to ban child labor
– Increased income taxes on the rich
– Supported women’s suffrage
• Program won Wilson a close election