NAME: ______DATE: ______PERIOD: ______
The Progressive Era
Learning Goals: The student will be able to:
- Discuss the origins, leadership, and goals of progressivism.
- Describe how the progressive movement developed at the local and state level and spread to become a national movement.
- Describe the major role that women played in social reform and how this era meshed with many goals of the women’s movement.
- Tell how President Roosevelt began applying progressive principles to the national economy, including his attention to conservation and protecting consumers.
- Explain why President Taft’s policies offended most progressives, including former President Roosevelt.
- Describe how Roosevelt led a progressive revolt against Taft that openly divided the Republican Party.
Before you get started taking notes, please watch Crash Course: Progressive Era!
Overview:
•By the turn of the century, a reform movement had developed that included a wide range of groups and individuals with a common desire to ______in the industrial age.
–Their ideas and work became known as progressivism, because they wanted to build on the ______society to make moderate political and social changes through government action.
–Most progressives were not revolutionaries but shared the goals of:
•______
•______
•______
–Achieving these goals often included a more ______role for the ______gov’t.
Origins:
•State reforms in the 1890s.
•National momentum with Teddy Roosevelt’s first presidency.
•The Progressive Era lasted through the Republican presidencies of:
–______(1901-1909)
–______(1909-1913)
–______(1913-1917)
Question: What caused the progressive movement to decline? ______
Attitudes and Motives:
•The relatively homogeneous, rural society of independent farmers was transforming into an industrialized nation of mixed ethnicity centered in the growing cities.
•Middle-class Americans had been alarmed by:
–The ______power of ______business
–The ______of the business ______
–The increasing ______between the ______and ______
–The violent conflict between ______and ______
–The dominance of ______political machines in the cities.
Who Were the Progressives?:
•Urban middle class:
–This class steadily grew in the last two decades of the 19th century.
•White-collar ______and middle managers in banks, manufacturing, etc.
•Business and Professional middle class:
–Took civic responsibility seriously.
–Usually belonged to national business and professional associations that provided platforms to address corrupt business and government practices as well as urban social and economic problems.
•Protestant churches preached against vices and taught a code of social responsibility.
–______(Walter Rauschenbusch)
–Native born and older, often from families and older elites who felt their central role in society had been replaced by wealthy industrials and urban political machines.
Question: Most active progressives were middle-class Americans. Why was progressive reform more attractive to
them than to either the working classes or to the wealthier segments of society?
______
Progressive Leadership:
•Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Robert La Follete (______)
•William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson (______)
Progressive Philosophy:
•Many historians see this movement as just one more phase in a reform tradition going back to Jeffersonians in the early 1800s, the Jacksonians in the 1830s, and the ______in the 1890s.
•They were committed to democratic values and shared in the belief that ______government and just laws could improve the human condition.
Pragmatism:
•William James defined “truth” in a way that many Progressives found appealing.
–People should take a pragmatic, or ______approach to morals, ideals, and knowledge.
–They should experiment with ideas and laws and test them in action until they found something that would produce a well-functioning democratic society.
•Progressives adopted this philosophy because it enabled them to ______
______that stood in the way of reform.
–They ______- ______economics as impractical.
–The old standard of rugged individualism no longer seemed viable in a modern society dominated by impersonal corporations.
Scientific Management:
•Practical studies of Frederick Taylor.
–By using a stopwatch to time the output of factory workers, Taylor discovered ways of organizing people in the most ______manner.
–Progressives believed that government too could be made more efficient if placed in the hands of experts and scientific managers.
–They objected to the corruption of political bosses partly because it was anti-democratic and partly because it was an inefficient way to run things.
Muckrakers:
•You cannot act upon what you do not know.
–The public could only act upon the realitiesof life if they were well-informed.
•Newspapers and magazine publishers found that their middle-class readers ______about underhanded schemes in politics.
–Many publications featured ______- ______, investigative stories.
–Writers specializing in such stories were referred to as “muckrakers” by Roosevelt.
•Origins:
–One of the earliest muckrakers was Chicago reporter Henry D. Lloyd, who wrote a series of articles for the Atlantic Monthly attacking the practices of the Standard Oil Company and the railroads.
Muckrakers continued:
•Magazines:
–Samuel McClure founded McClure’s Magazine in 1893, which became a major success by running a series of articles by Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell.
–They combined careful ______, which set the standard for muckrakers to follow.
–Cosmopolitan competed with others to shock the public with politics and economic exposes.
•Books:
–Jacob ______-tenement life, How the Other Half Lives
–Lincoln ______, The Shame of the Cities (corrupt dealings in Minneapolis and Philadelphia)
–Theodore Dreiser, The Financier and The Titan (ruthless industrialists)
–Frank Norris, The Octopus (tyrannical power of railroads)
Question: Why and how did muckrakers play such a large role in the progressive movement?
______
Decline of Muckraking:
•Decline after 1910:
–Writers found it more and more difficult to top the sensationalism of their last story.
–Publishers were expanding and faced economic pressures from banks and advertisers to tone down their treatment of business.
–Corporations were becoming more ______of their public image and developing a new specialty: public relations.
Political Reforms:
•The cornerstone of Progressive ideology was ______.
•Progressives believed that, given the chance, the majority of voters would elect honest officials instead of corrupt ones backed by boss-dominated political machines.
•Voter participation: progressives advocated a number of reforms for increasing the participation of the average citizen in political decision-making.
Political Reforms continued:
•Australian, or Secret Ballot:
–In 1888, MA was the first state to adopt a system successfully tried in Australia of issuing ballots ______by the ______and requiring voters to mark their choices secretly within a ______booth.
–By 1910, all states had adopted the secret ballot.
•Direct Primaries:
–Reps. and Dems. commonly nominated candidates for state and federal offices in state conventions dominated by party bosses.
–By 1903, the Progressive governor of WI, ______, introduced a new system for bypassing politicians and placing the nominating process directly in the hands of the voters.
–By 1915, some form of the direct primary was used in every state.
Political Reforms continued:
•Direct election of U.S. Senators:
–U.S. Senators had been chosen by the state legislators rather than by direct vote of the people.
–Progressives believed this was a reason that the Senate had become a “millionaire’s club” dominated by big business.
–By 1912, 30 states had adopted direct votes.
–The ______Amendment to the Constitution made it official.
Political Reforms continued:
•Amendments to state constitutions offered voters something new:
•Initiative:
–A method by which voters could compel the legislature to ______a bill.
•Referendum:
–A method that allowed citizens to vote on ______laws printed on their ballots.
•Recall:
–Enabled voters to ______a corrupt or unsatisfactory politician from office by majority vote before that official’s term had expired.
Arizona and the Progressive Era
Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
The Arizona constitution mirrors the time that it was written in. During the 1920’s reform movements dominated American politics. The age of reform became known as the Progressive Era. In the progressive era people hoped to return the control of government back over to the people, restore economic opportunities to all, and correct injustices in American life. There was never a concrete set of ideas that reformers agreed on that needed to be changed. All ideas fell into one of four categories. They must protect the social welfare of citizens, promote moral improvement, create economic reform, and foster efficiency. Many Arizonians at the time agreed with the progressive movement and therefore wrote laws in their constitution that reflected the era.
After several attempts to have a statehood bill approved, over a thirty-year period, the people of the Arizona Territory were authorized to draft a constitution in 1910. The voters of the Arizona Territory ratified the draft of the Arizona Constitution and sent it back to Washington, D.C. for the approval by Congress and the President. This approval took the form of legislation to accept the territory as a state and required the approval of both houses of Congress and the President.
President William Howard Taft initially refused to sign the bill that accepted the Arizona Constitution, until the citizens of the territory removed a clause permitting recall of judges. Taft did not want a constitution that reflected the progressive era. He felt that it was important for the judicial system to remain independent from the people in order for the law not to reflect public opinion but justices. He did approve the Constitution after that portion was removed and Arizona became the forty-eighth state on February 14, 1912. Elections were held to elect officials for the new state at the time that the constitution was changed to satisfy President Taft. When the announcement that President Taft had signed the Arizona Statehood Act was telegraphed to the people of Phoenix, the new Governor George W.P. Hunt was inaugurated and called the new legislature into its first session. One of the first acts of the 1st Arizona State Legislature was to place a constitutional amendment before the voters to add the recall of judges to the state constitution, changing it back to its original form. Voters of the new State of Arizona approved the provision for recall of judges and another amendment that provided women the right to vote in local, state, and national elections.
Arizonans wanted to be able to recall judges because when the state was a territory the federal government would appoint judges and other officials to the region. Many of these officials were not happy to be in Arizona and were only doing it to further their careers into politics. When in Arizona the officials made policies that did not reflect the ideas of the people in the territory. Once Arizona became a state they wanted to make sure that corrupted and incompetent judges would not be able to practice if the people were not happy with the decisions that they were making. For this reason recall exists in the constitution.
Referendum was written into the Arizona constitution so the people could remove legislation from the law that they do not agree with. Every election year people try to remove laws that are on the book. Legislators are the people who make laws for the state. Sometimes they want a law to pass that the citizens do not agree with. In order to remove a law a petition must be passed around to collect signatures. The signatures must be equivalent to five percent of the amount of people who voted for the governor in the last election. In order to repeal the law it must be repealed in the same year that it was put into law. After the election people have 90 days to repeal the law. Certain measures that are past are not subject to referendum. The state budget is not subject to referendum. Emergency legislation is also not subject to it.
Initiative allows voters to put measures on the ballot to be voted into law. Every election in Arizona history has had an initiative measure on it. This is usually done when voters are upset with legislation. In the past people believed that the legislator was under too much control of special interest groups; groups that push a certain agenda. In order to get an Initiative on the ballot 10 percent of the total amount of people that voted last time need to sign the petition. To be approved by the voters more people must vote for it than vote against it. Little under 50 percent of the initiatives that appear on the ballot are approved to become law. Legislators believe it is a way for people to get legislation that they do not approve of.
1.Why did Arizona want judges to be able to be recalled?
______
2. Why did President Taft NOT want Arizona citizens to be able to recall judges?
______
3.Is it in the state constitution that judges can be recalled? How did Arizona do that?
______, ______
Municipal Reforms:
•Mayor Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo, Ohio
–Free kindergarten
–Night school
–Public playgrounds
•Controlling public utilities:
–Goal was to take utilities out of the hands of ______companies.
–By 1915, fully 2/3s of the nation’s ______their own water systems.
–This led to ownership of gas, electric, and transportation by the cities.
•Galveston, TX
–Voters elect heads of city departments (fire, police, sanitation), not just the mayor.
State Reforms:
•Temperance and Prohibition
–Goal was to shut down bars, saloons, etc., since they were seen as the headquarters of political machines.
•Attempted more by cities.
•______areas attempted ______prohibition.
•By 1915, Progressives had persuaded the legislatures of 2/3s of the states to prohibit the sale of alcohol.
State Reforms continued:
•Social Welfare:
•Jane Addams, Florence Kelley found that they need political support in the state legislatures for meeting the needs of immigrants and working class.
•They lobbied for:
–better ______
–______courts
–liberalized divorce laws
–______regulations for tenements and factories
–______
–separate prisons for juveniles
–limits on the death penalty
State Reforms continued:
•Child and Women Labor:
–The National Child Labor Committee proposed child labor laws that were passed by a majority of the states by 1907.
–State ______school attendance laws proved most effective in keeping children out of the mines and factories.
•Muller v. Oregon(1908)
•Lochner v. New York (1905)
•Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (1911)
Question: What was a positive result from the tragic fire? ______.
Summarize: The court case of Muller v. Oregon
______
National Political Reform:
•While Progressive governors and mayors were battling conservative forces in the state houses and city halls, three presidents-Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson-sought ______reforms and regulations at the ______level.
TR’s Square Deal:
•Roosevelt thought it was the president’s job to set the legislative agenda for Congress.
•Previous presidents had consistently taken the side of owners in labor conflicts.
–Cleveland in the Pullman Strike of 1894.
–Hayes in the Railroad Strike of 1877.
•Roosevelt showed he ______business or labor but insisted on a Square Deal for both.
–Anthracite coal miners strike in 1902.
•No coal = people freeze to death.
–Roosevelt mediating between the two parties and eventually threatened to take over the coal mines using troops.
–Outcome= 10% wage increase for workers, 9-hour workday.
Question: What positive outcomes stemmed from the anthracite coal miners’ strike?
______
Trust Busting:
•Enforced the Sherman Anti-trust Actof 1890 through ______.
–He went after the Northern Securities Company, which was a combo of ______.
–He succeeded in breaking up the monopoly and was backed by the Supreme Court.
•Roosevelt tasked his Attorney General with taking down the ______Company and an additional 40 other companies.
–Roosevelt made ______between good trusts and bad trusts.
•Bad= harming the public and stifling competition.
•Good= dominated a market through low prices and efficiency.
Railroad Regulation:
•Strengthening the ICC:
–Elkins Act (1903):
•______
–______Act (1906)
•ICC could fix “just and reasonable” rates for railroads.
Customer Protection:
•______, a muckraking book by Upton Sinclair, described in horrifying detail the conditions in the Chicago stockyards and ______industry. The public outcry following the publication caused Congress to pass two laws in 1906.
•Pure Food and Drug Act:
–Forbid the manufacture, sale, and transportation of adulterated or ______foods and drugs.
•The Meat Inspection Act:
–Provided that ______inspectors visit meatpacking plants to ensure that they met minimum ______of sanitation.
Conservation Reform:
•As a lover of the wilderness, Roosevelt enthusiastically championed the cause of conservation. In fact, Roosevelt’s most original and ______contribution in ______policy may have been his efforts to protect the nations’ natural resources.
- Roosevelt made repeated use of the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to set aside ______acres of federal land as a national reserve that could not be sold to private investors.
- In 1902, Roosevelt won passage of the Newlands Reclamation Act, a law providing money from the sale of the public land for irrigation projects in western states.
- National Conservation Commission was established under Gifford Pinchot, whom Roosevelt had earlier appointed to be the first director of the U.S. Forest Service.
Taft’s Presidency:
•Roosevelt did not run for a third term. He chose his Secretary of War to be his successor, believing he would carry on his ideas and work.
•Election of 1908:
–Bryan (Democrat)
–Taft (Republican)
Taft’s Trust Busting:
•He ordered prosecution of almost ______the number of antitrust cases as Roosevelt.
–A case against U.S. Steel, which included a merger approved by Roosevelt.
–Roosevelt viewed this as a ______attack on his integrity.
•Taft established Bureau of Mines and added large tracts in the Appalachians to the national forest reserves, and set aside federal oil lands.
•Mann-Elkins Act gave the ICC the power to suspend new railroad rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies.