Chapter 29 – Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt

1. Progressive Roots
a. Social and economic problems were now too complex for the laissez-faire policy.
b. Bryan, Altgeld, and the Populists branded trusts as the wrongdoers. Henry Demarest Lloyd wrote against the
Standard Oil Company with Wealth Against Commonwealth. Thorstein Veblen condemned the idle rich with The
Theory of the Leisure Class.
c. Jacob A. Riis, a reporter, published How the Other Half Lives about the New York Slums. This influenced Theodore
Roosevelt. Theodore Dreiser condemned profiteers in The Financier and The Titan.
d. Socialists influenced by Europe began to gain voting power. Social gospel evangelists promoted progressivism
based on Christianity. Females added to the social justice cause.
2. Raking Muck with the Muckrakers
a. Beginning in 1902, exposing corporate evil became a profitable business for magazines such as McClure’s,
Cosmopolitan, Collier’s, and Everybody’s. President Roosevelt condemned the writers they employed as
“muckrakers.”
b. In 1902, Lincoln Steffens published a series of articles in McClure’s called “The Shame of the Cities” that exposed
the alliance between the municipal government and the business. In the same magazine, Ida Tarbell published an
expose of the Standard Oil Company. The magazines paid large sums to validate their fact to avoid legal reprisals.
c. Muckrakers attacked life insurance companies, tariff lobbyists, the beef trust, the money trust, and the railroad
barons. Thomas W. Lawson exposed the practices of his colleagues in “Frenzied Finance” in Everybody’s and
because he attacked his friend, he died a poor man.
d. David G. Phillips wrote “The Treason of the Senate” in Cosmopolitan, charging the Senate with serving the
railroads and trusts rather than the people. He continued to write novels and was shot in 1911 by a young man who
believed his family had been maligned.
e. Muckrakers attacked social evils as well. Trafficking women, slums, and industrial accidents made the list. Ray
Stannard Baker’s Following the Color Line attacked the status of blacks. Child labor was attacked with John
Spargo’s The Bitter Cry of Children.
f. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture, form the “Poison Squad” to back up the
claim that patent medicine companies distributed highly addictive drugs while “doping” the press.
3. Political Progressivism
a. Progressives had two main goals: use state power to curb trust and stem socialist threat by improving the common
person’s life.
b. In order to do the first, they demanded:
i. direct primary elections to curb party bosses’ power
ii. the “initiative” so the common voters could propose legislative and circumvent the boss-bought state
legislatures
iii. the “referendum” that would put the final approval for laws in the voters hands and stop bills that had been
railroaded through legislatures
iv. the “recall” that would remove faithless elected official bribed by lobbyists or bosses.
c. State legislatures passed corrupt-practices acts limiting the amount of money a politician could spend on his
election. They restricted huge gifts from corporations. They employed the secret Australian ballot and bribery was
less widely used when bribers weren’t sure that they were getting their money’s worth.
d. The direct election of Senators became a goal after the trust-dominated legislatures elected many rich men to the
Senate. The Constitutional amendment faced opposition in the Congress, but states established primary election in
which the people expressed their choices for the Senate and the state legislatures found it beneficial to heed the
people. In 1913, the 17th amendment to the constitution was passed, establishing the direct election of senators.
e. Feminist suffragists found new support from political reformers that believed women’s votes could elevate the
political tone and pro-temperance believed they could find support with women. Suffragists made gains in the
western states, but were still largely disenfranchised in 1910.
4. Progressivism in the Cities and States
a. Frustrated by inefficiency and corruption, many cities established expert-staffed commissions to manage urban
affairs. Other cities established the city-manager system to get the politics out of the cities administration.
b. Urban reformers attacked “slumlords,” juvenile delinquency, wide-open prostitution, and the corrupt sale of
franchises for public utilities.
c. Progressivism led up to the state level, particularly Wisconsin. Governor Robert M. (“Fighting Bob”) La Follette
fought against the established monopoly to get elected and wrested control from the corporations to put it in the
hands of the people. He perfected the scheme for regulating public utilities.
d. California made huge strides with Hiram W. Johnson in 1910. He broke the grip of the Southern Pacific Railroad
and set up another political machine. Charles Evans Hughes, governor of New York, achieved national fame as the
investigator of malpractices by gas and insurance companies and by the coal trust.
5. Progressive Women
 a. Settlement houses became the center of feminine reform. They exposed middle-class women to the evils of the cities
including poverty, political corruption, and intolerable working and living conditions. Literary clubs of the time
dropped the old focus on literature for social events.
b. Female progressives defended their activities as an extension of their traditional roles. Female activists formed the
Women’s Trade Union League and the National Consumers League. They found a national stage for social
investigation in the Children’s Bureau and the Women’s Bureau as part of the Department of Labor.
c. Florence Kelley became Illinois’s first chief factory inspector and one of the nation’s leading advocates for
improved factory conditions. In 1899, Kelley took control of the National Consumers League that pressured for laws
protecting women and children in the workplace. In Muller v. Oregon, Louis D. Brandeis forced the Supreme Court
to accept the constitutionality of laws protecting women in the workplace by showing the harmful effects of the
work on their bodies. Contemporaries hailed this as an achievement against the doctrine that the company had
complete control over working conditions.
d. In Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court invalidated a New York Law that established a ten hour day for bakers.
However, in 1917, the Court upheld a ten-hour law for factory workers.
e. In 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City, a fire erupted and safety code violations turned the
building into a death trap. Public outcry, and a strike by women in the needle trades, forced the New York
legislature to pass stricter laws regulating the hours and conditions of sweatshops.
f. Saloons drew the ire of progressives. Drunkeness was associated with prostitution, which was associated with
crooked city official and the “boss” who faked the voting.
g. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) formed by Frances E. Willard mobilized the most women of
any organization and allied with the Anti-Saloon League, a well-financed cousin.
h. Some states passed “dry” laws that controlled, restricted, or abolished alcohol. The big cities were generally “wet”
because they contained immigrants used to alcohol. The 18th amendment abolished alcohol.
6. TR’s Square Deal for Labor
a. TR feared that the “public interest” was being forgotten. He declared a program of the three C’s: control of
corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources.
b. In 1902, a strike broke out in the mines of Pennsylvania and workers demanded a 20% pay increase and the
reduction of the workday from 10 to 9 hours. Mine owners believed the public would react against the miners.
c. As coal supplies dwindled, factories, schools, etc. were forced to shut down and Roosevelt summoned
representatives of both sides to the White House. He was angry at the hard-headed owners of the mines.
d. Roosevelt finally threatened to seize the mines and operate them with federal troops. Faced with the first time the
government favored labor over capital, the owners grudgingly consented to arbitration. The decision was a 10% pay
increase and a 9 hour day.
e. Roosevelt encouraged Congress to create the Department of Commerce and Labor. An important part was the
Bureau of Corporations which could investigate businesses that conducted interstate commerce and the bureau
mostly devoted itself to trust-busting.
7. TR Corals the Corporations
a. Spurred by Roosevelt, Congress passed effective railroad legislation with the Elkins Act of 1903. This act targeted
rebates by fining the railroads that gave rebates and the shippers that accepted them.
b. The Hepburn Act of 1906 restricted free passes. It also expanded the ICC by giving it the power to regulate express
companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipelines as well as nullify existing rates and stipulate maximum rates.
c. Roosevelt believed that there were “good” trusts and “bad” trusts. He believed trusts, with their efficient means of
production, were here to stay.
d. In 1902, Roosevelt attacked the Northern Securities Company run by J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill who sought to
monopolize the railroads in the northwest. Railway promoters appealed to the Supreme Court, but in 1904, it upheld
Roosevelt’s antitrust suit and ordered the Northern Securities Company to be dissolved. This decision angered big
business but it enhanced Roosevelt’s reputation as a trust-buster.
e. Roosevelt cracked down on other monopolies including beef, sugar, fertilizer, harvesters, and others in over 40 legal
proceedings. In 1905, the Supreme Court declared the beef trust illegal.
f. Roosevelt sought to prove that government ran the country, not big business. He meant to regulate rather than
destroy the businesses. The threat of destruction made the companies more amenable to federal regulation.
g. Roosevelt didn’t really bust that many trusts. Taft busted more. In 1907, Roosevelt gave J.P. Morgan his blessing in
absorbing the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company into the US Steel Company. In 1911, Taft launched a suit against
US Steel, angering Roosevelt.
8. Caring for the Consumer
a. The American meatpackers were about to be thrown out of foreign markets because the meat had been found to be
tainted.
b. Around this time, American consumers also wanted good meat. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair in 1906, he aimed to
describe the horrible conditions of meat laborers, but appalled the public with his descriptions of unsanitary food
productions. Roosevelt was so moved by this description that he appointed a special investigating commission.
 c. Roosevelt induced Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which stated that the preparation of meat to be
shipped over state lines could be regulated by the federal government. Packers generally accepted it as a way to
force small competitors out of business and get the government’s seal of approval. The Pure Food and Drug Act of
1906 was designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals.
9. Earth Control
a. Western ranchers and timbermen were eager for product and contributed to the destruction. Leaders soon saw that
American resources needed to be conserved or they would end.
b. The Desert Land Act of 1877 – the US government sold arid land under the promise that the settlers would irrigate it
within 3 years.
c. Forest Reserve Act of 1891 – authorized the president to set aside public forests for national parks
d. Carey Act of 1894 – distributed federal land to the states under the condition that it would be irrigated and settled.
e. Gifford Pinchot of the federal Division of Forestry was a previous conservationist. Roosevelt was appalled by the
waste of resources and convinced Congress to pass the Newlands Act of 1902. Washington used money from the
sale of western lands to fund irrigation there. The settlers would repay the cost of irrigating their land and then the
money would be used for more projects.
f. The Roosevelt Dam in Arizona’s Salt River was dedicated to Roosevelt in 1911.
g. By 1900, only ¼ of the woodlands remained. Loggers had already destroyed the northeast and were focusing on the
Pacific coast. Roosevelt saved 125 million acres of forest and millions of acres of coal and water resources.
h. He was supported by the public who believed the frontier was the source of American individualism and democracy.
City-dwellers worried that too much civilization was bad. Jack London’s Call of the Wild and other books about
outdoor adventures made the Boy Scouts popular. The Sierra Club formed in 1892 dedicated itself to preserving the
wilderness.
i. In 1913, the federal government allowed San Francisco to build a dam for its city water in Hetch Hectchy Valley in
Yosemite National Park. To the preservationists, the national parks should be immune from the influences of
civilization. Conservationists like Roosevelt and Pinchot believed that civilization should use the products of the
environment wisely.
j. Under Roosevelt, professional foresters and engineers sought to combine all uses of the land on one expanse.
k. Large ranches and timber companies began to learn how to take advantage of the Forest Service and the Bureau of
Reclamation. Single-person enterprises were shoved aside in the name of efficiency.
10. The “Roosevelt Panic” of 1907
a. Roosevelt won the election of 1904 with enormous popularity. Republican bosses considered him dangerous, but
grew restive in his second term. Roosevelt declared in 1904 that he would not be a candidate for a third term,
decreasing his political power.
b. In 1907, a short panic struck Wall Street. The financial world blamed Roosevelt for “rocking the boat.” Roosevelt
accused the wealthy of orchestrating the panic in order to force the government to relax its holds on trusts.
c. The Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908 authorized national banks to issue emergency currency backed by various
collateral. This paved the way for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
11. The Rough Rider Thunders Out
a. Still popular in 1908, Roosevelt could have won the next election, but he felt bound by his promise in 1904.
b. Roosevelt forced the Republican Party to nominate William Howard Taft, his Sec. of War, as his successor. The
Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan once again.
c. Both Taft and Bryan tried to take the Roosevelt mantle. Taft read pre-prepared speeches and Bryan said that
Roosevelt took his policies from Bryan. Taft won over Bryan, but the Populist Eugene V. Debs polled quite a few
popular votes.
d. Roosevelt was branded as a radical, but the most enlightened business lords knew he was their friend. The number
of laws he passed was minimal in comparison to the amount of noise he made. Roosevelt often strode the road
between unbridled individualism and paternalistic collectivism.
e. He enlarged power of the presidency by using publicity as a political tool. He shaped the progressive movement and
the liberal reform campaigns later. He opened Americans eyes to the fact that there were other nations in the world.
12. Taft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole
a. He was popular, though hostile to labor unions. He had a reputation as a troubleshooter. Taft couldn’t lead the two
opposing factions of the Republican Party. He generally adopted a passive attitude towards Congress.
b. He was a mild progressive, but he was devoted to keeping the status quo. His cabinet didn’t contain any
representatives from the party’s “insurgent” wing.
13. The Dollar Goes Abroad as a Diplomat
a. Washington encouraged Wall Street bankers to invest surplus into strategic areas like the Far East and South
America to preempt investments from rival European powers.
b. Russia and Japan controlled the railroads in China’s Manchuria. Taft saw this as possibility threatening the Open
Door policy. In 1909, the Sec. of State Philander C. Knox proposed that US and foreign bankers buy the railroads
and turn them over to China under a self-liquidating arrangement. Japan and Russia bluntly refused.
 c. Taft urged Wall Street to pump dollars into the revolution-riddled Caribbean to head off conflict with Europe.
d. Disorders in Cuba, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic forced American troops to intervene in order to protect
American investments. A revolution in Nicaragua resulted in the landing of 25 hundred marines.
14. Taft the Trustbuster
a. Taft gained some fame as a trust-breaker, though he broke more that Roosevelt.
b. In 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company. They judged it to be in
“unreasonable” restraint of trade according to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. The “rule of reason” stated that
the trust must be in “unreasonable” restraint of trade.
c. In 1911, Taft pressed an anti-trust suit against the US Steel Corporation Roosevelt had approved. Roosevelt was
angered and the stage was set for a showdown.
15. Taft Splits the Republican Party
a. In 1909, Taft called Congress in for a special session that reduced the protective tariffs slightly, but Senator Nelson
W. Aldrich tacked tariff revisions on hundreds of products.
b. Taft passed the Payne-Aldrich Bill, betraying his campaign promises and the progressive wing of his party.
c. Taft established the Bureau of Mines that rescued millions of acres of western coal lands from exploitation and
nearly surpassed Roosevelt in handling conservation.
d. The Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel in 1910 began with the Sec. of the Interior Richard Ballinger opening more western
lands to corporate development. He was critiqued by Gifford Pinchot, chief of the Agriculture Department’s
Division of Forestry. Taft dismissed Pinchot for insubordination, widening the gap between the president and the
former president.
e. The reformist wing of the party was offended and Taft was pushed towards to the Old Guard. In spring 1910,
Roosevelt returned to New York and preached the “New Nationalism,” urging the national government to interfere
in economic and social problems.
f. Republicans lost badly in the congressional elections of 1910. Even a socialist representative Australian-born Victor
L. Berger was elected. The Republicans held the Senate by holdovers but there were insurgents that made this
precarious.
16. The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
a. Early in 1911, the National Progressive Republican League formed with Senator La Follette as its leading candidate.
They assumed that Roosevelt, an anti-third termer, wouldn’t agree to run again.
b. However, Roosevelt was appalled at what Taft did to his policies. In early 1912, he wrote to seven state governors
that he was willing to accept the Republican nomination. He reasoned that the third-term tradition only applied to
consecutive terms.
c. Roosevelt grabbed the Progressive banner, shoved La Follette aside and denounced feeble Taft as falling under the
thumb of the bosses.
d. At the 1912 Republican convention, the Rooseveltites were 100 delegates short of the nomination. They challenged
the right of 250 Taft delegates to be seated and called fraud. They refused to vote and Taft triumphed. Roosevelt
when on to lead a third-party crusade.