Progressive Era 1

Progressive Era Notes

Muckrakers

Journalists + Novelists who investigated + exposed corruption + other illegal

activities.

Upton Sinclair

Wrote The Jungle Described the miseries of workers in the stockyard, +

rotten meat packed for sale.
Meat Inspection Act & Pure Food & Drug Act were passed in 1906
Pure Food legislation was passed because of his writings.

Consumer Protection
Meat Inspection Act, 1906

Federal officials could inspect all meats shipped in interstate commerce.

Checked to see if meat came from healthy animals & was packed under
sanitary conditions.
Upton Sinclairs The Jungle helped pass this act.

Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906

The manufacture & sale of impure food, drugs, & liquors was forbidden.
Labels on patent medicines had to list the contents.

Ida Tarbell

Published attacks on the Standard Oil Company

Writings appeared in a popular magazine

Lincoln Steffens

A pioneer investigating reporter

Wrote articles on the misgovernment of cities
A new force media power had entered politics

Political & Social Reform

Amendments:

Progressive Era 2
16th Amendment Made the Federal income tax legal
17th Amendment Allowed for the direct election of senators by votes
In the past, senators had been elected by state legislatures
Voting Changes Direct Primary Enabled voters to nominate their partys
candidate for the general election
Initiative Voters can propose a law by petition + have it voted on by the people
Referendum The initiative is put on the ballot for voters to pass or defeat
Recall By petition, voters could force an official to stand for

Womens Suffrage
Progressives were fighting for a womans right to vote suffrage
First state: Wyoming
The West led the way with womens suffrage

Political Reform
Roosevelt favored more reforms: income + inheritance taxes, federal rules for the
stock market + more effective control of business.
The trend was for government to become more involved.

Municipal Reform
-City Manager A trained manager hired to run the city
-The manager was not a politician. Could be fired.
- Replaced a mayor; worked well with smaller cities.

State Reform

Robert Battling Bob Lafollette elected gov. Of Wisconsin 1900

Enacted Progressive measures: Direct primary, Railroad commission, Civil
Service, restrictions on lobbying
Roosevelt called Wisconsin a laboratory for democracy.

Roosevelts Domestic Program: Square Deal

Anthracite Coal Strike, 1902:

Progressive Era 3

Workers did not receive a pay raise in 20 yrs.

Roosevelt brought the striking workers and the owners together
Roosevelt showed how the federal govt. could help
Govt. action was considered to be fair to both labor and management.

Coal miners 9hr day & 10% raise

Trust Busting
Northern Securities Case

A holding company that dominated the railroads of the Northwest

Roosevelt sued under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
The Supreme Court ordered the company dissolved
This is the beginning of the Trust Busting era

Roosevelts (Trust Busting) Philosophy

Moved against other unpopular trusts: beef, oil, tobacco

Felt the govt. should break up large corporations only when they hurt the
public
Distinguishing between good & bad

Conservation

Roosevelt increased national forests by almost 150 million acres

Created US Forest Service; headed by Gifford Pinchot
Pinchot planned reforesting: The planting of trees along with the cutting of
trees

Taft Administration at Home

Election of 1908:

William Howard Taft, the secretary of War, was Roosevelts hand-picked

successor
Taft easily defeated William J. Bryan

Taft as a Progressive

Most thought Taft would follow Roosevelt in fighting for reform

Many progressives felt he did not fight for reform and were disappointed

Progressive Era 4

Taft and Trust Busting

Did not make the distinction between good + bad trusts like Roosevelt
Taft Indict (bring criminal charges against) all trusts, + allow courts to
decide which trusts were good or bad

Payne-Aldrich Tariff

High tariffs were becoming a problem

Consumer prices were rising; Taft promised to lower tariffs
The Payne-Aldrich tariff actually raised the tariff on many items
This upset progressives

Election of 1912
The Primaries:

The Republican party was badly split

The issue of conservation of natural resources caused a split between
Roosevelt and Taft
Democratic Nominee: Woodrow Wilson Gov. of New Jersey
Republican Nominee: William Howard Taft
Progressive Republicans were very upset Taft won the nomination.
Progressive Republicans persuaded Roosevelt to run on a third party ticket
Bull Moose party

The Results:

Wilson won fairly easily

Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican vote, giving Wilson the victory

Wilsons Domestic Program: New Freedom

Underwood Tariff:
The Underwood-Simmons Tariff reduced the taxes about 11% from the PayneAldrich tariff
The public supported the cut in tariffs

Federal Reserve Act

12 Districts

Progressive Era 5

Created a more flexible currency Federal Reserve Note

Also helped prevent a run on the banks

Federal Reserve System

All national banks had to become a member of the Federal Reserve System.
Federal Reserve Banks Held member banks reserves + lent money to
member banks when needed.
Each was supervised by a Federal Reserve Board appointed by the
president
Divided the country into 12 districts, each with a Federal Reserve Bank.

Clayton Anti-Trust Act

Gave unions the right to exist.

Manufacturers could not charge different customers different prices

Federal Trade Commission

Created to monitor business

Could issue cease + desist orders against companies engaged in unfair
trade practices