Download THE PROGRESSIVE ERA (1895-1920)

Part 2
THE PROGRESSIVE ERA (1895-1920)
September 6 United States proposes "Open Door" policy
toward China.
CHRONOLOGY
r895
1900
JuIy United States intervenes in boundary dispute between
Great Britain and Venezuela.
February.24 Rebellion against Spanish rule breals out in
Cuba.
Seprcmber 18 Booker T. \Øashington speals at the Atlanta
Exposition.
r896
January
4tJtah
becomes the 45th state.
April 23 Demonstration of Thomas Edison's motion
picture invention occuts.
May 18 Supreme Court in
Plessy
a,
Ferguson legalizes
segregation.
November 3
Villiam McKinley
elected president'
Ma¡ch 6 Social Democratic (later SocialisÐ Patty founded
by Eugene Debs.
September 18 First direct primary elecdon in nation held
in Hennepin Counry, Minnesota.
6 McKinley reelected president; Theodore
Roosevelt elected vice president; noted Progressive Robert
'Wisconsin.
M. La Follette elected governor of
November
r90t
January 10 First great oil strike in Texas occurs.
February 25 U.S. Steel Corporation founded, which later
grows into nation's first billion-dollar corpgration.
Ma¡ch 2 Congress
passes
Platt Amendment making Cuba
a quasi-protectorate of the United States'
1897
September 14 McKinley dies eight days after assassination
attempt; Roosevelt takes office.
J"rrorty Gold rush starts in Klondike, Alaska.
1898
9 No¡thern Securities Company, a railroad
holding company controlled byJ'P' Morgan, is incorporated.
November
February 15 The U.S. battleship Maine sunk in Havana
Harbor in Cuba after mysterious explosion.
1
U.S. victory and acqu
the Philippines; Cuba
April 2l-December
results in
Rico, and
SPain.
July 28 Hawaii annexed by the United States.
1902
February McCIure! magazine begins to publish articles by
Lincoln Sceffens, Ida M. Tarbell, and other "muckackers."
1899
March 10 Roosevelt sues Northern Securities Company in
first "trust-busdng" suit.
February 4 Filipino rebels under Emilio Aguinaldo attack
Mray
American troops
three years.
in Manila, starting rebellion that lasts
L2 United Mine
\)7'orkers strike idles 140,000
*oik .r; President Roosevelt intervenes in October; strike¡s
end walkout on October 21.
27
Pat't
2:
The Progressíae
Era (1895-1920)
1903
1909
June 16 Ford Motor Company formed.
June
February
I
The Soub of Black Folh by \ø.E.8.
Du
Bois
I National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) founded.
published.
I9r0
May 23'SØisconsin is first state to adopt direct primary for
parry elections.
Ma¡ch 26 United States forbids immigration of criminals,
paupers, and ana¡chists.
October Baseball holds first \Øorld Series.
August 31 Theodore Roosevelt gives his "New Nationalism"
November United States secures rights to Panama Canal
route after Panama, with assistance f¡om rhe U.S. Navy,
secedes f¡om Colombia.
December 17'$Tilbur a¡d Orville \Tright achieve world's
ûrst successful airplane flight.
speech.
191
I
Ma¡ch 25 Triangle Shirrwaist factory fire kills
workers in New York City.
trapped
May 15 Supreme Court orders dissolution of Standard Oil
1904
Company.
Ma¡ch 14 Supreme Court orders dissolution of Northern
1912
Securities Company for violating anti-trust laws.
l4l
June
4
Massachusetts becomes
first state to
December 6 Pronouncement of the "Roosevelt Corollary"
minimum wage legislation for women and children.
to the Monroe Doctrine occurs.
J"tru"ty 6 New Mexico becomes the 47th
1905
February 14 Arizona admitted as 48th state.
Jrno"¡y 4 U.S.
takes ove¡ customs and international debt
August U.S. Marines land in Nicaragua.
June Industrial \Øorkers of the rùØorld (I\ØWl founded.
August 24 Naska receives territorial status.
November 5
February Upton Sinclair's The Jungle published.
April 18-19 Great San
Francisco Earthquake devastates
state.
April 15 SS Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage.
of the Dominican Republic.
r906
adopt
'S7oodrow
\Øilson elected president.
1913
September 3 Congress passes Hetch Hetchy dam bill.
the city.
February 25 Sixteenth Amendment added to Constitution.
June 30 Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act
May 31 Swenteenth Amendment added to Constitution.
passed by Congress.
December 13 Federal Reserve System established.
April 17 ln Lochner
u.
Neta larÉ Supreme Court finds state
law limiting maximum working hours unconstitutional.
1914
September 29 U.S. troops occupy Cuba.
January 5 Henry Ford perfects assembly line; announces
adoption of five-dollar minimum daily wage for his workers.
1907
August \Øorld \Øar I begins in Europe: President \Øilson
proclaims U.S. neuuality and offers ro mediare the conflict.
January-December Peak year of immigration brings
1,285,349 immigrants to the United States.
October Panc of 1907 rweals
pitlls
of U.S. monera-ry q6rem.
August 15 Panama Canal opens.
September 26 Federal Trade Commission established.
Novembe¡ 16 Oklahoma enters the Union.
19r5
r908
January 25 First transconrinental telephone call is made.
February 24 Supreme Court in Muller o. Oregon upholds
Oregon's law mandating ten-hour maximum workday for
iMay 7 British passenger liner L*çitania sunk by a German
submarine; 114 Americans drowned.
women.
December 4 Ku Klux Klan revived
October 1 Henry Ford's Model T automobile goes on rhe
1916
market.
November 3 \Øilliam Howard Taft elected president.
28
in
Georgia,
Ma¡ch Clashes occur between U.S. troops and Mexican
guerrilla leader "Pancho" Villa.
OPPOSING VIE\íPOINTS
IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Chronolog
May 4 Germany pledges to resrict its submarine wa¡fa¡e
and not to aftack merchant ships without warning.
October 16 Margaret Sanger opens nation's first birth
1918
January 8 \Øilson's "Fourteen Points" speech to Congress
outlines U.S. war aims.
control clinic.
May 16 Sedition Act
November 7'\üToodrow'Wilson reeleced president.
the war effort.
November 11 lVorld'Wa¡
r917
3 United
States severs diplomatic relations
with Germany after it resumes submarine attacks on U.S.
February
passed outlawing speech critical
ships.
Ma¡ch 2 Pue¡to Rico made a U.S. territory.
April 2 W'ilson
asks Congress
for
de_cla¡ation
of
war
afainst Germany; Jeannette Rankin of Montana, Congiess's first woman, is one of the 50 rePresentâtives to
vote no.
October First U.S. detachments arrive at military front
lines in France.
November Bolshevist revolution in Russia occurs; United
States refuses
to recognize new regime'
VOL.2: FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE
I
of
ends.
1919
J"rro.ty 29 Eighteenth Amendment added to Constitution;
its prohibition of alcohol is to take effect January 16, 1920.
June 28 Treaty of Versailles signed and includes
proposal for a League of Nations.
'W'ilson's
1920
Ma¡ch 19 A final attempt to ratifr the Treaty of Versailles
fails in the Senate.
August 26 Nineteenth ,{mendment, guaranteeing women
the right to vote, added to Constitution.
November 2 \Warren G. Harding elected president.
PRESENT
29
appeal among the educated middle class and therefore
attracted the support of more writers, academics, and
intellectuals than did the Populist movemenr. The progressives also opted to work within the two major political parties ¡ather than try ro repeat the Populist arrempr
PREFACE
Berween 1895 and 1920 the United States witnessed
significant developments in both domestic and foreign
affairs. In the domestic sphere the country debated and
enacted numerous social, economic, and political reforms
that have become known collectively as progressivism.
In foreign affairs the United States participated in two
wars that signified the counrry's emergence as a world
power. By 1920, however, the American people were
reacting against both domestic reform and foreign
entalglements.
to create a new third party.
Those who called themselves progressives varied
widely in occupation and in their beliefs. They included
politicians, preachers, social welfare workers, academics,
business owners, journalists, and others. They often disagreed on particular issues or on which cause or reform
\¡/as most important. Some progressives believed that
the main problem to be addressed was the dominance
of business monopolies; others believed it to be the unequal status of women. Some focused on the conservation
of natural resources, while others focused on corruption
in city government or the influx of
immigrants. In
many respects, progressivism can be considered an aggregate of causes rather than one cohesive movement.
PROGRESSIVE REFORMS
THE PROGRESSIVE MOYEMENT
AND REFORMERS
The progressive movement was a response to trends in
the country's social and economic conditions since the
Civil \Øar-trends many Americans found disturbing.
These changes included the rise of big business and the
formation of monopolies; corruption in local, state, and
federal goyernmenrs; the widening of class divisions;
and the growing numbers of poor people in the nation's
cities. Progressives believed that all of these developments
In its infancy, the progressive movemenr was most active
at the state and local levels. Mayors such as Hazen Pingree
threatened American ideals of fairness and equal opportu-
nity. To counter this threat they sponsored numerous
¡eform efforts (although most progressives rejected radical
changes such as those prescribed by socialism). !7hile not
all Americans agreed with progressives on the need for
change, the reforms that were proposed, debated, and
in many cases enacted during this time had a lasting impact on American society.
Progressivism had much in common with the agrarian-based Populist movement that peaked in the early and
mid-1890s. Populists, like progressives, decried the unequal distribution of wealth and power in the nation.
(At the turn of the century, 2 percent of the nation's
population controlled 60 percent of its wealth.) Both
movements condemned the power of large business corporations and trusts that controlled whole industries,
and they called for greater government regulation of the
economy. Both movements also advocated reformed
and stronger governments ro protect the public interest.
Some former Populists played major roles in the progressive movement itself. Important differences between tlre
tu/o movements existed, however. Progressivism differed
from Populism in that it had an urban rather than a
rural base of support. Progressivism also had grearer
30
of Detroit and Tom Johnson of Cleveland forcefully
attacked urban poverry and municipal corruption. Governors such as Robert La Follette of \Øisconsin and Hiram
Johnson of California capitalized on reformist sentimenr
to break the control of business over rheir respective
state governments, La Follette and other governors then
helped create neìM laws regulating railroads and utilities,
setting minimum wages and maximum hours for workers,
abolishing child labor, and ensuring more democratic
participation in the nomination and election of public
officials.
Notable progressives worked outside of politics as
well. Jane Addams founded Hull House in Chicago in
1889 and began a lifelong career ofhelping poor residents
of urban slums. Journalist "mucLcakers" such as Upton
Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Lincoln Steffens exposed
shady business pracrices and political scandals in widely
read bools and magazine articles. Scholars such as John
Dewey and Charles A. Beard applied progressive ideas
to the study of philosoph¡ history, and economics.
Three of the leading figures of the Progressive Era
were U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Villiam H.
Taft , and'W'oodrow'\í'ilson. Roosevelt bec¿me president
in i901 following the assassination of Villiam McKinley.
The former New York governor immediately began to use
his office (which he called his "bully pulpit") to give progressivism a place on rhe national agenda. Roosevelt was
particularly concerned about environmental issues, but he
also lent his support to strengrhening antitrust laws and
regulating business, including the railroad, meatpacking,
Preface
and oil industries. Taft, president from 1909 to 1913,
carried forward many of Roosevelt's policies (although
by the end of his term many Progressives were clamoring
for a new presidenc). \Øilson, president from 1913 to
l92l and leader of the progressive wing of the Demogovernment
reforms, including the creation of the Federal Reserve
System to manage the nation's currency and the Federal
Trade Commission, a government agency with broad
cretic Party, accomplished numerous
powers to regulate business Practices.
The Progressive Era produced four constitutional
amendments, each of which addressed a major progressive
concern. The Sixteenth Amendment authorized a federal
Japan
la¡rd.
tions
Eur
tbe
Grant wrote
northern
noncitizens
to lease
d immigration restricof foreigners not of a
his 1916 book The
Passing of
Progressive Madison
n restrictions, racial
of "worthless race
forced
sterilization
and
segregetion,
blacks, Jews, and
(which
to
include
defined
he
,yþ"rn
Europeans).
eastern
southern and
THE I.INITED STATES BECOMES
A \ü'ORLD PO\øER
income tax, which was intended in part to ensure a
greater rneasure of economic equality among.American
established popu(who
had previously been
lar elections for U.S. senators
selected by state legislators), advancing the progressive
goal of incr
of their repr
consumptio
Amendmen
transpottation of intoxicating liquors," ushered in the
era ol Prohibition. Finally, the Nineteenth Amendment
.irir..r.. The Seventeenth Amendment
extended the right to vote to women, a victory for the
women's suffrage movement' which was the leading feminist cause of the Progressive Era.
world beyond America's shores. However, by the
1890s
several trends came together to draw Americans' attention
to international issues. One development was the growing
importance of trade and investment in America's economy. Another was the increasing international comPetition for colonies. \Øith Great Britain, France, German¡
and other European nations jockeying for colonies in
Asia and Africa, iome Americans worried that the United
out on a potendal source of wealth and
international stature. They believed that in order to be
States was missing
BLACKS AND OTHER MINORITIES
Blacks fared poorly during che Progressive Era' In the
southern states, where most blacls lived, white-dominated
state and local governments enforced the segregation of
the races in schools, public buildings, and virtually all
'\(i'hite politicians devised numerous
other areas of life.
mechanisms, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, designed
s killed hunted to north-
;äï::iffl
were plentiful (especially after the United States entered
Vorlã \Øar I), but gains in employment were offset by
continued racial discrimination and poor living conditions in urban slums' The black community was divided
over how best to respond to the continued denial ofequal
rights in American socierY.
Although a few progressives supported equal rights
for blacks, many did not' President'Woodrow
for example, formally segr
\W'ilson,
eurployees. Other minorities
by some of the policies advo
ers, many of whom believed
life was threatened as much by unfamiliar immigrants as
by corrupt politicians. Progressives in California suppo.t.d tÎre passage of laws restricting the ability of
VOL.2: FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE
nial statement, the Declaration of Independence'
America's first signifìcant venture into colonialism
'W'ar' The war
followed the 1898 Spanish-American
ended with the United States taking the Philippines,
Guam, and Puerto Rico from the defeated Spanish'
three-year war to put down a Filipino rebellion for independence. Under Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft,
and \Øilson, the United States undertook several ventures
to expand and protect what were deemed to be America's
strategic a-nd economic interests abroad, especially in the
\Øestern Hemisphere' Between 1900 and 1914 American
troops intewened repeatedly in Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua,
the bominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico' Americans
took over the customs houses and supervised elections
of a number of these countries. One of the most celebrated-and criticized-foreign policy undertakings
of the United States was its support of Panama's revolution from Colombia in 1903 in order to gâin cont¡ol of
a site to build the Panama Canal, which was completed
in
1914.
PRESENT
3r
Part 2: Tlte Progressioe Era (1595-192O)
The progressive movement assumed no single posi-
tion on foreign affairs or on American imperialism.
Some progressives argued that imperialism betrayed
American ideals of equality and selÊgovernmenr. Others
held that America was in a good position to improve
life in other countries by remaking their economies and
governments in the image of the United States. "I will
teach those Latin American countries to elect good
men," said progressive president \Øoodrow'!7'ilson near
the start of his administration.
]üØORLD ]ùøAR
I
Progressives were equally divided on the merits and draw'$Var
backs of entering '\ùØorld
L \I(/'hen war began in
Europe in 1914, few Americans, progressive or orherwise,
favored taking sides in the conflict. However, in May
1915, when a German submarine sa¡k the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing 128 Americans and hundreds
of other people, ex-president Theodore Roosevelt and
others argued that the United States should enter rhe
war against Germany, or at leasr undergo a massive military "preparedness" program. But other notable progres-
sives, including social reformer Jane Addams and
Visconsin leader Robert La Follette (by then a U.S. senator), argued that America should remain neutral in the
war. They worried that domestic reforms would be
32
sacrificed if the United States plunged into war. President
\Øilson himself struggled to maintain "peace with honor"
for three years before finally asking Congress for a declaration of rvar against Germany on April 2, 1917, citing
German submarine attacls on U.S. ships as the primary
reason for his decision. America would subsequently
send 2 million soldiers to fight in Europe, of which
112,000 would perish.
Both during and after the war, Wilson tried to preserve his progressive ideals by arguing that the United
States, through its military and diplomatic interventions in Europe, sought to establish a world "safe for democracy" and to end the era of colonialism and power
politics. The League of Nations, an international orga-
nization of member nations created by 'S?'oodrow
during the l9l9 peace talks in Europe, was to
be the centerpiece of his vision of a progressive new
world. However, the mood of the nation was changing.
After long and acrimonious debate the Senate rejected
U.S. membership in the League of Nations. Running
for president in 7920, Republican 'S?'arren G. Harding
promised a return to "normalcy," a word that to
many Americans signified the rejection both of drastic
domestic reforms and involvemenr in world affairs.
Harding's 1920 election victory marked the end of
'$Tilson
the Progressive Era.
OPPOSING VIE\øPOINTS
IN AMERICAN HISTORY