-
The Roots ofProgressivism
*: An American Story *
ln l9l7 suffragist Rose Winslow and several other women,
including Alice Paul, founder ofthe National Woman's Party, were
arrested for obstructing traffic and blocking sidewalks. The
women had been picketing the White House to draw attention to
the fact that women did not
yet have the right to vote in federal elections. After being
sentenced to seven months in lail,
Paul, Winslow, and other women prisoners went on a hunger
strike. Prison authorities forced
the prisoners to eat. Winslow smuggled details of their plight
out to the public:
55We have been in solitary for five weeks. . . . I have felt
quite feeble the last few days-faint, so that I could hardly get my
hair brushed, my arms ached so. But today I am well
again. . . . [Alice Paul] dreaded forcible feeding frightfully,
and I hate to think how she must
be feeling. . . . I am really all right. lf this continues very
long I perhaps won't be. All the offi-
cers here know we are making this hunger strike [so] that women
fighting for liberty may be
considered political prisoners. . . . [W]e donl want women ever
to have to do this overagain.99
-quoted in loiled for Freedom
tI
t
iitj,tl5T-i,*
i"i
*,
Irili.iiiii i:'." ' -'
A police fficer arrestinghoo suffidgists inlVashington, D.C.
ft-ti
in.'*6
The Rise of ProgressivismThe struggle for the right of women to
vote was only one of a series of reform efforts
that transformed American society in the early 1900s. Historians
refer to this era inAmerican history-from about 1890 to 7920-as the
Progressive Era.
418 CHAPTER 13 The Progressive Movement
t
\
Main IdeaProgressivism was a diverse response tothe problems
posed by industrialism and
modern life.
Key Terms and Namesprogressivism, muckraker, Jacob Riis,
commission plan, Robert La Follette,
direct primary initiative, referendum,recall, suffrage, Alice
Paul, temperance,prohibition, socialism
Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about thebeginnings of
progressivism, complete
a graphic organizer similar to the one
below by filling in the beliefs ofprogressives.
Reading Obiectives. Discuss the rise of the Progressive
movement.. Evaluate the impact of initiative, refer-
endum, and recall, and of the
Seventeenth Amend ment.
Section ThemeGovernment and DemocracyProgressive reformers
focused on political
reforms to try to keep the nation true toits democratic
ideals.
Pr*riew ofEvents
t890Jacob Riis's How the Other
Holf Lives publishedSeventeenth Amendment provides
for direct election of senatorsNineteenth Amendmentgives women
the vote
-
Who Were the progressives? progressivism wasnot a tightly
organized political movement with aspecific set of reforms.
Instead, it was a coilection ofdifferent ideas and activities.
progressives had manydifferent views about how to fix'the problems
theybelieved existed in American society.
Progressives generally believed ihat industrialismand
urbanization had created many social problems.Most agreed that the
government should take amore active role in solving society,s
problems.Progressives belonged to both major political partiesand
usually were urban, eaucated middle_classAmericans. Many leaders of
the progressive move_ment worked as journalists, social workers,
educa_tors, politicians, and members of the ctergy.
Beginnings of progressivism progressivism waspartly a reaction
against raissez-faire eclonomics and itsemphasis on an unregulated
market. After seeing thepoverty of the working class and the filth
and crime ofurban society, these reformers began to doubt the
freemarket's ability to address those problems. At the sametime,
they doubted that government in its present formcould,fix those
problems. They concludedihat govern_ment had to be fixed first
before it could be used to fixother problems.
. One reason progressives believed people couldimprove society
was because they had a strong faithin science and technology. The
application of scien_tific knowledge had produced the ltghtbulb,
the tele_phone, the automobile, and the airplne. It had
builtskyscrapers and railroads. Science and technologyhad benefited
people; thus progressives believedusing-scientific principles could
ilso produce solu_tions for society.
The Muckrakers A,rorlg the first people to articulateProgressive
ideas was afuroup of crusaiing journalistswho. inl,estigated
sociai
"orrditior-r, and p"olitical cor_
ruptionj These writers became known as Luckrakersafter a speech
by president Theodore Roosevelt:
55Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinchfrom seeing
what is vile and debasing. There is filthon the floor and it must
be scraped up with themuck-rake; and there are times and places
where thisservice is the most needed of all the services that
canbeperformed....99
-Washington, D.C., April 14, 1906
By the early 1900s, American publishers were com_peting to see
who could expose the most corruptionand scandal. A group of
aggressive 10C and 15C
Company. In Ea eryb o dy,s Ma g azin e, Charles EdwardRussell
attacked the beef indlstry.
Other muckrakers targeted gtr,"r.,-"r,t. DavidGraham Philips
described ho*
^lor"y influenced the
Senate, while Lincoln Steffens, unoth". McClure,sreporteq,
reported on vote stealing and other corruptpractices of urban
political -u"hir-r"r. These werelater collected into a book, The
Shome of the Cities.
Still other muckrakers concentrated on socialproblems. In his
influential book How the Other HalfLiaes, published in 1g90, Jacob
Riis described thepoverty, disease, and crime that afflicted
manyimmigrant neighborhoods in New york Citv. ih'"-tuItluckralsers
McClure,s publisheci lda Tarbell,s expos6 on Standard Oil.What
issues particularly concerned the muckrakers?
magazines grew in popular_ity at this time, includingMcClure's,
Collier,s, andMunsey's.
Muckrakers uncoveredcorruption in many areas.Some concentrated
onexposing what they consid-ered to be the unfair prac_tices of
large Americancorporations. In McClure,s,for example, Ida
Tarbellpublished a series of articlescritical of the Standard
Oil
Hrwuh#ffi.Student WebActivity visit theAmericon RepublicSince
t877Web site atta rvol2.glencoe.com
and click on StudentWeb Activities-Chopter tlfor anactivity on
theProgressive movement.
iIjItIt
J
rIrItI
*ryL:*?,113;3nris
n TheTtory ofr(ockefeller
rifrffi$*.:Br:l
..Ida fuI, Tarbell
'I*ffig*J'. Other p"ur*r-..-
1r lcLunr co; NEv roRK AND LoNDoN
-
muckrakers' articles led to a general public debate onsocial and
economic problems and put pressure onpoliticians to introduce
reforms.
Describing How did the muckrakershelp spark the Progressive
movement?
Making Government EffieientThere were many different types of
progressivism.
Different causes led to different approaches, and pro-gressives
even took opposing positions on how tosolve some problems.
One group of progressives focused on makinggovernment more
efficient. They believed that manyproblems in society could be
solved if governmentworked properly. Efficiency progressives took
theirideas from business. These progressives beiievedbusiness had
become more efficient by applying theprinciples of scientific
management.
The ideas of scientific management had beendeveloped in the late
1800s and were popularizedbyFrederick W Taylor in his book The
Principles ofScientific Managemenf, published in 1911. Taylor
described how a company could become more effi-cient by managing
time, breaking tasks down intosma1l parts, and using standardized
tools.
Efficiency progressives argued that managing amodern city
required experts, not politicians. Theydid not want more democracy
in government, forthey believed that the democratic process led to
com-promise and corruption. In most American cities, themayor or
city council chose the heads of city depart-ments. Tiaditionally,
these jobs went to political sup-porters and friends, who often
knew little about cityservices.
Efficiency progressives wanted either a commissionplan or a
council-manager system. Under thecommission plan, a city's
government would bedivided into several departments, which would
eachbe placed under the control of an expert commis-sioner. These
progressives argued that a board of com-missioners or a city
manager with expertise in cityservices should hire the specialists
to run city depart-ments. Galveston, Texas, adopted the commission
sys-tem in 1901. Other cities soon followed.
Explaining Why dtd progresstveswant t0 reorganize city
government?
On September 8,,!900i a massive hurricane devas-tated the city
of Galveston, Texas. About 6,000 people
died. When, ttre. polltieal.machine that controlled the
citygovernmentproved:incapable of responding to the disas,ter,
local business leaders convinced the state to let themtake control.
ln April 1901, Galveston introduced thecommission system of
government. Under this system,Galvesto.hdos:i:five cO rnisioners to
replace the ,, ,lmayor and city council." ''Four'cornmiS5ioners
were local business leaders.
When thetli& cuickly receivered, reformers in other
citieswere impressed. Calveston's experience seemed toprove
the.henelits of -.running a'eify.like a :business by diViding its
r:government into
';
departmenE,a,nd plac- .:ing eachuder dn : :exp-ert esfi
miiiioner.,r..,,,Many gthCr.,gities soon .,'
,fslloWeiladopting ,,,eithei,theeorTrmission .plan'br
the'council-
manager system.
"G*€E$ffiffi.. l*aJrerys@*€;' I
M"5..s".*
..-=*di,@=,.
420 CHAPTER 13 The Progressive Movemenr
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Demosacy and ProgressivismNot all progressives agreed with the
efficiency
progressives. Many believed that society neededmore democracy,
not less. They wanted to makeelected officials more responsive to
l,oters.
"Laboratory of Demo ctacy" political reform firstcame to the
state level when Wisconsin voters electedRepublican Robert La
Follette to be governor. LaFollette used his office to attack the
way political par-ties ran their conventions. Because party bosses
con-trolled the selection of convention delegates, theyalso
controlled which candidates were chosen to runfor office. La
Follette pressured the state legislature torequire each party to
hold a direct primary, in whichall party members could vote for a
candidate to runin the general election.
La Follette's great reform success gave Wisconsina reputation as
the "laboratory of democracy.,, La
Follette claimed, "Democracy is based upon knowl-edge. . . . The
only way to beat the boss . . . is to keepthe people thoroughly
informed."
Inspired by La Follette, progressives in other statespushed for
similar electoral changes. To force state leg-islators to respond
to voters, three new reforms wereintroduced in many states. The
initiative allowed agroup of citizens to introduce legislation and
requiredthe legislature to vote on it. The referendum
allowedproposed legislation to be submitted to the voters
forapproval. The recall allowed voters to demand a spe-cial
election to remove an elected official from officebefore his or her
term had expired.
GOVERNMENT
Direct Election of Senators Another reform theprogressives
favored affected the federal govern-ment-the direct election of
senators. As originallywritten, the United States Constitution
directed eachstate legislature to elect two senators from that
state.Political machines or large trusts often influenced
theelection of senators, who then repaid their supporterswith
federal contracts and jobs. By the early 1900s,muckraker Chdrles
Edward Russell charged that theSenate had become "only a chamber of
butlers forindustrialists and financiers. "
To counter Senate corruption, progressives calledfor the direct
election of senators by all state voters.In 7912 Congress passed a
direct-election amend-ment. Although the direct election of
senators wasintended to end corruption, it also removed one ofthe
state legislatures' checks on federal power. In1913 the amendment
was ratified, becoming theSeventeenth Amendment to the
Constitution.
Evaluating What was the impact ofthe Seventeenth Amendment? What
problem was it intended t0solve?
The Suffrage MovementIn July 7848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia
Mott organized the first women's rights conventionin Seneca
Falls, New York. Stanton proposed to thedelegates that their first
priority should be gettingwomen the right to vote. The movement for
women,svoting rights became known as the suffragemovement. Suffrage
is the right to vote.
Woman suffrage was an important issue for pro-gressives.
Although the suffrage movement began wellbefore progressivism
emerged, many progressivesjoined the movement in the tate 1800s and
earlv 1900s.
i actions approved byappoints
IHeads of CitvOepartmenii
*m*E t'r carry out policySource: The World Book
Encyclopedio.
Voters f police Commissioner
elect F-- fire CommissionertlBoaid of _f- Parks Commissioner
Commissioners I--"-"";---"-'' l- Finance CommissionerttI u
Public Works Commissioner
pass ordinances; Icontrol funds carry out poliry
Source: Ihe World Book Encyclopedio.
# City Manager| (ChiefAdministrator)hires t
J uppiint,I
Heads of City Departments
icarry out policy
VotersI
electI
City Council(makes policy)
telects
ll
Mayor
Source: Ihe World Book Encyclopedio.
CHAPTER 13 The Progressive Movemenr 421