Theodore Roosevelt

The Progressive Era The United States, 1900-1920

The Progressive Era: The Great Age of Reform

H.W. Brands, a widely respected historian, formerly at Texas A&M University and now at the University of Texas, wrote The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s in 1995. He suggested that the decade in of the 1890s was very much like the 1990s in certain ways, but the most interesting thing was that he described the decade of the 1990s as filled with tensions and problems that cried out for resolution. In the last section we discussed the exploitation of people and resources and suggested that if actions were not taken to alleviate the more glaring injustices in American society, the nation might be headed for a rebellion. Indeed, the conflict we described as “the war between capital and labor” was filled with bloody violence and extensive property damage. The Progressive Era was the national response to the challenges brought about by the industrial age.

By 1900 America was a tinderbox. Cities were crowded with millions of poor laborers, working conditions were appalling, and corruption darkened politics from the local level to the highest institutions in the land. Something had to be done. Although the progressive reformers did not fix everything, little escaped their attention. Since the political powers were unwilling or unable to address the rapid economic and social changes brought about by the industrial revolution in America, the Progressive movement grew outside government and eventually forced government to take stands and deal with the growing problems.

The year 1896 marks the approximate beginning of the Progressive Era, and since the intensity of progressive reform peaked during the period before America’s entry into World War I in 1917, designating that span as the Progressive Era is appropriate. But in a larger sense, the reform impulse in America was present even in colonial times, and it continued into the modern era. Few Americans would claim that this country has solved all its problems, provided a level playing field for all citizens and workers, or that our political system is free from corruption of one sort or another. Thus the progressive beat goes on.

During the “reckless decade” of the 1890s the impulse for reform was driven by the Populist Party, which was made up of farmers, small businessmen and reform-minded leaders who were willing to confront the growing problems in the country. The situation was summarized dramatically in the Populist Party platform, issued at its convention in Omaha in 1892, which read in part:

The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation: we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling-places to prevent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrated; our homes covered with mortgages; labor impoverished; and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages; a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes-tramps and millionaires.

Even allowing for political hyperbole, the Populist claim was essentially true. The Populist Party, like many American institutions at that time, was divided internally over issues of race, geography, economic orientation, and general political loyalty. Although the Populists elected state and local officials, and affected legislation in local areas, their national impact was restricted by the usual limitations on third parties. But in that platform of 1892 they laid out a program of reform designed to help the small farmer, the small businessman and all who saw themselves as victims of capitalist power. The party disappeared following the election of 1896, when they endorsed Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, who had addressed Populist concerns in his famous “Cross of Gold” speech. By tying themselves to a major party, the Populists lost their identity and went out of existence.

Nevertheless, by 1917 most of the concerns which the Populists had raised in 1892 had been addressed by the federal government. So the roots of progressivism can be found in the widespread discontent in the nation upon which the Populist Party was founded. Progressive leaders like Robert LaFollette, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and others, while perhaps not specifically attuned to the voice of the Populist Party itself, were nevertheless acutely aware of the conditions that demanded reform. We should also keep in mind that the career of Franklin Roosevelt started during the Progressive Era, and the progressive ideas pursued by his cousin Theodore and President Wilson, under whom FDR served, formed much of the basis of the New Deal programs which Franklin Roosevelt inaugurated upon becoming president in 1933.

Bryan lost the election of 1896 to William McKinley, former governor of Ohio. His first term included passage of the highest tariff in American history, the Dingley Tariff, which set rates as high as 57%. The nation had faced a serious recession from 1893-1896, and recovery did not really begin until 1897. The Spanish-American War of 1898 was the focal point of McKinley’s first term, and we will discuss that later in the section.

By 1900 and Republicans had been in power in Congress since 1894 and in the White House since McKinley's election.  Republicans campaigned on the issue of the success of the war with Spain, which had added new territory to the United States. The economy had begun to recover, and the Open Door policy with respect to China promised new markets and enhanced trading opportunities.  Thus McKinley's reelection seemed a sure thing, and the major issue at the Republican convention was to select a person to replace Vice-President Garret A. Hobart, who had died the previous year.

The man selected for the job was Theodore Roosevelt, one of the most remarkable characters in American history.

Theodore Roosevelt: The Republican Progressive

Only the United States could have produced a national leader like Theodore Roosevelt. From his birth in 1858 to his death in 1919, he lived life as fully and vigorously as almost any other human being. He was a man of enormous talents, widespread interests and huge appetites. Physically and intellectually vigorous, he participated in athletic and sporting adventures for most of his days, wrote books and articles throughout his life and claimed to have read a book every day. He dominated political life in New York, the nation and the world, social events both formal and informal, and his family. He was admired, feared, hated and loved, sometimes by the same people at different times. He bored people to tears but also kept them rollicking with laughter. He was kind and gentle but also ferocious and, as some claimed, “completely mad.” He became president by accident, was reelected overwhelmingly, and as a third party candidate in yet another presidential election, he got the highest percentage vote of any third-party candidate in history, outpolling the incumbent President of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt was born to a wealthy family in New York City and raised in a warm and loving family. Although he adored his father—“the best man I ever knew”—,  he later wrote that his father was the only man whom he ever really feared, but he explained that it was a good kind of fear based upon respect.  As a sickly and myopic youth, Theodore required frequent medical attention and was schooled at home by tutors.  But his father suggested a vigorous program of physical activity, exercises and fresh air as a cure for the child’s asthma.  Eyeglasses corrected his vision problem, and for the rest of his life, TR, as he was commonly known, was physically robust and fond of exercise.

Roosevelt was educated at Harvard, where he gained a reputation as a diligent scholar with a bold and outgoing personality that for some often bordered on the obnoxious. A vigorous debater and athlete, he was popular with his classmates.  During his junior year his father died, leaving him bereft and the head of the family. He adored his mother and did everything in his power to ease her grief.  Also while a Harvard he met a young woman named Alice Hathaway Lee, with whom he fell instantly in love.  She became his first wife, the second woman in his life whom he adored.

Roosevelt had plans to become a naturalist, as he was always interested in the great outdoors with its teeming plant and animal life, but he sought a vocation that would be more lively and stimulating.  Although it was not fashionable for wealthy young men, Roosevelt drifted into politics and was soon elected to the New York State legislature.  Always a believer in honesty and integrity in both public and private life, Roosevelt soon made a name for himself as a vigorous reformer.

Tragedy struck during his time in Albany, however, and he was summoned home by his brother Elliot (who, incidentally, would eventually become the father of Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt's fifth cousin and wife.) Theodore arrived home just in time to witness the death of both his mother and his wife within the same 24-hour period. (The Speaker of the New York House suspended activity for a day, calling it the saddest day in the history of that chamber.)  Alice died in childbirth, but Theodore, overcome with grief, turned the baby, also named Alice, over to his sister for raising and headed west.

In North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt became a cowboy, and not of the urban variety.  Always able to mix with men of modest means and working-class attitudes, Roosevelt proved himself capable of weathering the life of a rancher.  Despite his patrician origins and fancy dress, he earned the grudging respect of his fellow cow punchers. When a blizzard wiped out most of his cattle, Roosevelt headed back east to reassess his future.  There he encountered a childhood friend, Edith Kermit Carow, and the two soon married.

Although there is no way to know Theodore Roosevelt's innermost thoughts, one suspects that he may well have made a deathbed promise to his first love, Alice, never to marry again.  But Roosevelt was a passionate and vigorous man, and the thought of a life without female companionship was no doubt a painful state to contemplate.  And for a man of Roosevelt's personal morality, intimate relationships outside marriage would have been unthinkable. Probably arriving at some sort of compromise with himself, he married Edith in England with little fanfare.  In the end, Edith was a loving and supportive wife who bore Theodore five children. As Theodore's cousin Franklin once said, Edith was the only person on earth who could control her rambunctious husband. Theodore’s first daughter, Alice, soon rejoined her father in the new family.

Roosevelt’s progressive impulses were strengthened by his term on the United States Civil Service Commission and as police commissioner of New York City, where he fought against corruption among New York’s finest. As a popular Republican he was invited to join McKinley’s administration in 1897 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He resigned his office to fight with the famous Rough Rider regiment in the Spanish-American War (which he helped to orchestrate) and returned home a hero and was elected governor of New York.

In the Republican convention of 1900 Roosevelt found himself in a peculiar position. As governor he had rattled the cages of the machine politicians both in Albany and New York City, and they were anxious to get him out of the way.  Confidant that he might be buried in the office of Vice President, they planned to plant him there.  Senator Mark Hanna, President McKinley's campaign manager, was appalled at the thought of Theodore Roosevelt, whom he considered almost a mad man, one step from the White House. But Roosevelt's general popularity carried the day, and he joined McKinley on the ballot. Far from being buried, however, TR ascended to the presidency within a year when McKinley was killed by an assassin. (Mark Hanna’s response to the news of McKinley’s death: “Oh, my God, that damned cowboy’s in the White House!”)

Theodore Roosevelt’s major contribution to American history was surely his vigorous performance as a Progressive leader. When he became president the U.S. was at the dawn of the Progressive Era. Capitalism had grown out of control throughout the last half of the nineteenth century, and reform was necessary. Workers were treated badly, slums in cities were horrific, and politics was rife with corruption. Roosevelt stepped in and helped to clean up the mess that had been created during the Gilded Age. As a Progressive, one of his major areas of interest was conservation, and he did much to further the cause of protecting America’s natural resources.

TR is equally well known for having made America a major player on the world stage. Pushing the U.S. to get involved in the Cuban revolt from his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he followed an aggressive foreign policy, placing his own imprint on the Monroe Doctrine. Yet he won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping end the Russo-Japanese War.

As a devoted husband and father, TR enjoyed life immensely, but he was never so happy as when he was at the center of great events. He was a great if flawed man, earned his place on Mount Rushmore, and began the transformation of the office of President of the United States into its modern, powerful form.

The Progressive Mood

We can get a sense of the atmosphere of the Progressive Era by referring to a famous poem written by Edwin Markham in 1899, The Man with a Hoe. The poem was widely published throughout the United States and struck a sympathetic chord with many Americans. Markham’s poem was inspired by a painting,  “L’homme à la houe,” by the French artist, Jean-François Millet, (1814-1875.)

The opening lines define the mood:

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back, the burden of the world.

In the closing stanza the threat to the stability of the nation is vividly expressed:

How will the future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings—
With those who shaped him to the thing he is—
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world,
After the silence of the centuries?

Another work which help to clarify the mood in 1900 was a book by  Henry George, Progress and Poverty. In his introduction George observed:

"It had become evident that progress has no tendency to reduce poverty. The great fact is, poverty, with all its ills, appears whenever progress reaches a certain stage. Poverty is, in some way, produced by progress itself. ... Progress simply widens the gulf between rich and poor. It makes the struggle for existence more intense.”

The nation Theodore Roosevelt inherited, despite all its problems, was nevertheless a vigorous and powerful entity. Apart from the harsh conditions for workers, living standards had risen dramatically for the emerging Middle Class since the end of the Civil War. The nation was spanned by railroads from coast to coast; American industry had outstripped virtually every other nation on the planet; agricultural production was stunning (even as farmers found it difficult to prosper); the country was well on its way to mass free public education, except in the most rural areas; and the freedoms of press and religion were understood and accepted by all. People had more leisure time for reading, and by 1900 the press—magazines and newspapers—had become a significant force in shaping American life. The wide circulation of written materials made possible through advertising and cheap, mass methods of production spread word of the need for reform far and wide.

The Progressives were stimulated by a new breed of journalists, the “muckrakers”—journalists such as Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens and others—who wrote books and articles exposing the flaws of America's capitalist society in magazines such as McClure's and Collier's. Under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and many other political and business leaders, the nation began to clean up its act. By 1916 hundreds of national, state and local laws had begun to make the cities cleaner and healthier, the workplace safer, and businessmen more honest and considerate of their workers and customers. Progressive reform touched private institutions such as universities, hospitals, and even charitable or religious groups. Although politics remained a rough-and-tumble sport, steps were taken to clean up the political process, especially at the state and local level, and four constitutional amendments advanced progressive causes.

The writings of the muckrakers were not confined to magazine pieces. Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, uncovered unhealthy conditions in the Chicago meat packing industry and led to passage of the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act. Theodore Dreiser’s novels, The Financier and The Titan, exposed the machinations of big capital. Lincoln Steffens' The Shame of the Cities and Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives revealed the depths to which urban life had sunk and spurred people to action.

Ironically the great material progress that had come with industrial advance (and added to poverty) made possible the Progressive Movement. Much progressive reform was built on the basis of what has been called “enlightened self-interest.”  Businessmen, for example, discovered that cleaner, healthier workplaces using practices that alleviated tedium and boredom led to more contented workers and ultimately higher productivity, even though the actual hours of work may have been reduced. For some businessmen that meant doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, but whatever the motives of the reformers, progress was made, and not a moment too soon. The Progressive Era did not see the end of all social and other problems by any means, nor were labor troubles put to rest, but it was a start.

What was the Progressive Movement?

The Progressive Movement was a massive assault on the problems that plagued American life at the turn of the century. (The specific goals of the progressives are listed in the summary outline below.) The Progressive Movement succeeded because it had support from both political parties, from both labor and management and from the American Middle Class.

The motives of the working classes were obvious. Workers themselves, sweating in the factories, on construction projects and doing other forms of hard, tedious labor, were in no position to begin a movement on their own behalf. They had in most cases neither the time nor the vision to be able to see their problems in larger perspective. Reformers such as Henry George, however, and labor leaders like Eugene Debs, Samuel Gompers and others understood the problems of the working class and moved for reform. To the extent that laborers and workers joined unions, and to the extent that the working classes were able to perceive what was going on in the workplace, they naturally supported the Progressive Movement. The violence that did erupt from time to time, such as in the great railroad strike of 1877, the Homestead strike, and other disruptions, provided an impetus for those at higher levels to work to reform the capitalist system on which everybody depended.

The Middle Class supported the Progressive Movement for reasons that were also fairly obvious. The Middle Class were prospering; they enjoyed comfortable incomes, lived in reasonably comfortable homes, enjoyed a certain amount of leisure time, and became aware of American working conditions through newspaper and magazine articles written by those muckraking journalists, who were busy exposing the root causes of problems in American society.

Although not always sympathetic to the plight of the working class, from which many Middle Class people had only recently escaped, they nevertheless realized that the system from which they benefited was threatened by the rumbles from below. Thus for some middle-class Americans, the motivation for reform was anxiety, if not outright fear of rebellion. Many others in the Middle Class, however, had more altruistic motives. They were often moved by stories of the plight of the working poor, and realized that moral imperatives required reform, not only to protect the system but for the sake of humanity. Although their “better” motives were often genuinely felt, some have referred to the Progressives as “middle-class moralists,” prone to meddling in affairs which were none of their business. On the other hand, the moralistic goals of the Progressives included such targets as alcoholism and prostitution, both of which were socially damaging as well as threatening to the stability of middle-class life.

Big, Bad Business

For the wealthy classes, the businessmen, entrepreneurs and those generally referred to as “capitalists” or “robber barons,” the motivation to support progressive reform can be subsumed under the heading of “enlightened self interest.” They recognized the need for reform partly because of the attention to social and working conditions paid by sociologists and others who might be called human engineers, people who recognized that pushing workers relentlessly was not the path to greater efficiency.

It is a well-known fact of business practice today that providing workers with benefits, rest periods, more comfortable working conditions and other amenities, even though they may be costly in the short run, leads to greater productivity and thus greater profits in the long term. While those motives may be seen as selfish, they were also enlightened to the extent that they made the lives of the working classes more tolerable. Additionally, the proprietary or ownership class of businessmen also recognized, as did the Middle Class, that if reforms were not instituted from the top, they would certainly begin at the bottom, as had been demonstrated during the labor unrest of the late 19th century. Thus businessmen, who wanted most of all to preserve the capitalist system, welcomed progressive reform.

(One of the best examples of a businessman reformer was Henry Ford, a millionaire capitalist responsible for the assembly line and other major advances in automobile production. As the first entrepreneur to pay his workers five dollars a day, he led the movement for better conditions for workers. Rather than running the Ford Motor Company from an aloof position, he often wandered through production areas, asking workers how they were doing. Ford was no saint, but he was a leader in improving conditions for the working class.)

Similar kinds of motives were at work in the political arena. Those in positions of power at all levels saw their power threatened if the people became discontented. With information available through newspapers, magazines and books written by the muckraking journalists of the era, politicians recognized that American democracy was far from fully democratic. Thus steps forward such as the direct election of senators and women's suffrage were products of the Progressive Era at the national level. At the state and local levels many kinds of reforms of the political system were instituted to give the people a greater voice in the democratic process.

Although the muckrakers themselves were sometimes guilty of the things they complained about, muckraking, which we now call “investigative journalism,” became a highly respected vocation. Writers like Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell wrote long, detailed articles and entire books exposing fraud, waste, corruption and other evils in government and business, and they exposed poor social conditions, such as the slums of the cities. They took on bossism, profiteering, child labor, public health and safety, prostitution, alcohol, political corruption and almost every aspect of public and even private life. They achieved some spectacular successes at virtually every level, from child labor laws across the country to four constitutional amendments: direct election of Senators, women's suffrage, prohibition of alcohol and the income tax.

In the political arena Progressives wanted good government at all levels, and among their more notable achievements were the aforementioned direct election of Senators and women's suffrage. But good government meant more than expanded democracy, or honesty in public officials. Progressives wanted aggressive, proactive government that foresaw problems and acted to prevent calamities before they occurred, rather than reacting to damage already done. Thus they demanded safety legislation, closer regulation of public health issues and better management of things like public utilities. They also sought to make government more efficient, so that the taxpayer got what he was paying for. If Americans did not have good government, said the Progressives, then they had only themselves to blame. The Progressives were activists, generally impatient, often misguided, but rarely satisfied until they had achieved a good portion of their goals.

Summary Outline: Objectives of the Progressives. With the exception of civil rights of minorities, including Native Americans, Progressives attacked a broad range of issues, and many hundreds of local laws and ordinances were passed, changing the social and political landscape of America. A number of examples of reform areas are listed below, as well as significant milestones of the Progressive Era. Unlike liberals of the Jeffersonian Era, who saw government as a threat to liberty, Progressives believed that broadening the role of government would advance the welfare of its citizens by protecting them from business abuses. Government, instead of being the problem, was part of the solution.

Political Reform: Greater Democracy at all Levels—from the bottom up.

• Cities came first. Progressives attacked “invisible government”—political hacks were replaced by professional civil service workers who made the system run, and who were hired on the basis of professional qualifications rather than for political reward.
• Progressives maintained that governments at different levels had to learn to cooperate. They addressed the problems of state versus county and city sovereignty—overlapping areas of jurisdiction: Who is responsible?

• Elected local officials built coalitions, using university professors and other experts as advisors, and they often reached out to businessmen to cooperate in reform for the public good. The Wisconsin plan of Robert LaFollette is an example.

• Initiative, referendum and recall were introduced.

• Initiative allowed citizens to introduce legislative proposals at the state or local level through petitions which required political bodies to address areas of concern, or place issues directly on the ballot.

• Referendum was the process of allowing voters to pass judgment on proposed legislation, such as on the issuance of bonds to raise capital for public improvements. (Referenda are common today for such issues as approval for bond issues, amendments to state constitutions, etc.)

• Recall allowed voters to demand special elections to recall or “un-elect” an official not doing his or her job. (In recent years at least one state governor has been recalled.)

• Progressives called for Direct Primaries—allowing the people to vote in primary elections rather than leaving nominations up to political operatives.

• Constitutional amendments: The Progressives succeeding in getting

• Direct election of Senators: the Seventeenth Amendment
• Women's suffrage—the Nineteenth Amendment.
• The Income Tax, the Sixteenth Amendment
• Prohibition, the Eighteenth Amendment

Good Government

• Local governments were encouraged to adopt scientific management techniques—the Gospel of Efficiency was applied to city hall in the form of formal budgeting and accounting practices.

• Taxation was made fairer. Progressives attacked Machine Politics and faulty institutions.

• Instead of elected officials running everything, boards of commissioners and professional city and county managers were employed to provide stability and expertise as governing became ever more complicated.

• Progressives pushed for greater involvement by government in public affairs to  increase services, build schools, facilitate loans, build roads, beef up conservation, and advance such causes as public health, welfare, care of handicapped, farm aid, child labor, mandatory school attendance, and transportation safety.

Regulation of Business

• The Abuses of Capitalism: The Sherman Act is insufficient, and additional laws are passed.

• Fair trade practices—equal pricing, no kickbacks or other under-the-table deals.

• The Moral Imperatives of Wealth: Enlightened Self Interest. (See above.)

• As stronger control measures are instituted, the burden of proof of wrongdoing begins to shift from government to business. In cases of injury, for example, factory owners must prove that the workplace is safe, rather than workers having to prove that the injury was not their own fault.

• Political bodies sought a balance between laissez faire capitalism and Socialism—trust busting versus regulation.

• Better wages and job protection for workers were important goals.

Social Justice: Welfare legislation—aid to the urban poor

• Cleaning up the Workplace: Workmen's Compensation Laws; mandatory accident insurance provided by employers

• Fixing accident responsibility; building codes; worker safety; Labor Laws to protect women and children

• Prohibition: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union gets muscle; the Anti-Saloon League plays hardball.

• Private charity was inadequate to meet needs; settlement houses in slums and inner-city churches cannot do it all.

Public Service

• Social and Economic Reforms: “Gas and Water Socialism”: ensuring that utilities were available to all at reasonable prices, equally administered, and available to all.

• Consumer issues: food and drugs must be safe and sanitary. (See “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair.)

Roosevelt the Progressive: Round One

Although officially saddened by McKinley’s death, Theodore Roosevelt could scarcely contain his glee at being elevated to the highest office in the land. Within days of being sworn in he waded into the business of his office with the firm conviction that many of America's problems could be solved only on the national level. Along with Progressive leaders such as Wisconsin Senator and later Governor Robert LaFollette, Roosevelt pursued reformist goals with passion and vigor. Roosevelt promised the people a “Square Deal,” and set about to provide it. Roosevelt’s approach to the office of the President was a broad departure from past practice.  When he decided to set aside land for a nature preserve and was told that he might not have the authority, he simply asked if there was anything in the Constitution that prevented him from taking steps. Told there was not, he forged ahead. Though there was nothing official on the record, TR adopted a policy that said, in effect, “If the Constitution doesn't prohibit it, I can do it.”

Never known for a tempered approach to much of anything, Roosevelt was too impatient to wait for the halls of Congress to move with new legislation. In the area of trusts, for example, he was not the least deterred by Supreme Court’s prior interpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. He set his attorney general to the task of creating ways to use existing legislation more forcefully.  Although he never went after large business combinations, or trusts, for the sake of breaking them up, he did vow to make them behave; nevertheless, he was soon known as the “trust buster.”  Roosevelt's Justice Department initiated dozens of cases to bring business into line.

Where authority of the government was not well defined, however, Roosevelt was happy to propose and sign legislation broadening the scope of government power. Bills to regulate the food industry, strengthen the Interstate Commerce Act, and set aside public lands for preservation arrived on his desk and were quickly signed. Not necessarily interested in antagonizing business, Roosevelt oversaw creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor with its Bureau of Corporations, designed to assist business to clean up its own act.

Although a Republican, Roosevelt was not a strict party man.  If he judged a political figure decent and honest, it was of little concern to him whether the man was a Republican or Democrat.  Since the Progressive Movement crossed party lines in any case, Roosevelt was comfortable working with anybody whose view of the world coincided with his in a general way.  In his own autobiography, published in 1913, he is quick to point out that some of his most recalcitrant political foes were conservative Republicans, men of his own party.  Some  business leaders, feeling that Roosevelt in the end would be loyal to people of his own class, approached him via the back door. J.P. Morgan is said to have told the president, “Let me send my man down to see your man and we’ll straighten this all out,” hoping to avoid a legal action. But Morgan and others soon discovered that TR would not abandon his principles for anyone.

Because of his ebullient personality and behavior that often bordered on the eccentric, the press adored TR—he was always the source of a good story.  His family added to the fun, and formal White House meetings were often interrupted by the intrusion of the Roosevelt boys, who had “just discovered a bear in the attic!” Whereupon TR would rush out of the room to dispatch the imaginary beast and return minutes later wearing his famous broad grin and rubbing his hands together. “Well, where were we?” he would say. Not all his colleagues were amused; a few truly thought he was indeed mad.

(Roosevelt's eldest daughter, Alice, although back in the family fold, was something of a rebel herself.  Such antics as smoking cigarettes on the roof of the White House or driving cars, which proper young ladies did not do, gave Alice a press following of her own. She even had a dress made in a color named for her: ‘Alice Blue.’ When called to answer for one of Alice's indiscretions, her father fumed: “Look! I can run the government of the United States, or I can take care of Alice, but I can't do both at the same time!” She later married House speaker Nicholas Longworth, and became the famous Washington hostess, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a feature player in Washington society in her own right.)

Roosevelt's progressive program and his personal appeal made his reelection in 1904 a sure thing. With 56% of the popular vote and 336 electoral votes, Roosevelt won by a landslide. Although he announced, too early perhaps, that he did not intend to run for another term in 1908, Roosevelt was anything but a lame duck. Charged up by his victory, Roosevelt drifted further to the left politically as he continued to perceive conservatives as his chief political foes. In 1906 Congress passed the Hepburn Act, which strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Pure Food and Drug Act. TR’s Justice Department fined the Standard Oil Company of Indiana $29 million and required the American Sugar Refining Company to refund $4 million in illegal payments and convicted some of its company officials.

Roosevelt also continued to expand conservation programs, increasing timberlands set aside for preservation and parks by millions of acres.  He sought to put an end to what he considered wasteful exploitation of natural resources, and he set the government about reclaiming large tracts of neglected land for public use.  He also applied systematic efforts to control the outbreak of forest fires and to plant new trees in areas that had been stripped of their timber by loggers.

Roosevelt's hand-picked successor was William Howard Taft, who had served admirably as American governor of the Philippines. Taft, a far less vigorous man than TR, did his best to  continue Roosevelt’s progressive agenda. He continued to prosecute trusts, oversaw creation of a postal savings bank, expanded the civil service and supported two constitutional amendments: the 16th Amendment, which authorized a federal income tax; and the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, which called for the direct election of senators by the people. But Roosevelt, who had been on safari in Africa during much of his successor’s first two years in office, returned to discover to his dismay that Taft had accepted higher tariffs and grown closer to the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

By 1910 the Republicans were divided, and in the off year election the Democrats regained control of Congress. In a speech at Ossowatomie, Kansas, on August 31, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt laid out a revised program for reform, which he called “The New Nationalism.” It sounded the keynote of what would become his campaign theme in 1912. He said:

“In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows. That is what you fought for in the Civil War, and that is what we strive for now.

“… [T]his conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. In our day it appears as the struggle of free men to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will.”

Some have said that the Kansas speech marked Roosevelt’s entry into a campaign to gain the Republican nomination for president in 1912. That was not to be, but it did not mean that TR was out of the race.

Endorsement of Progressivism: The Election of 1912

The election of 1912 has been seen as a strong endorsement of the Progressive Movement by American voters. Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate for president, was nominated by the Democratic Party even though he had served only two years in public office as governor of New Jersey. Nevertheless, in that short time he had established his progressive credentials, and had also left a record of progressive reforms at the elite Princeton University, of which he had been president. Since the Democratic Party had evolved as the party that tended to support the working classes, a vote for Wilson was seen as a vote for progressivism.

On the Republican side, Theodore Roosevelt’s break with Taft was complete, and in 1912 he challenged the incumbent president for the Republican nomination. Taft, however, had sufficient control of the Republican Party machinery that he was able to secure the nomination. Frustrated, Roosevelt and his supporters bolted and formed the Progressive Party, with Roosevelt their candidate. When asked how he was feeling during the election campaign, Roosevelt replied, “I feel as fit as a bull moose!” Thus his party became known as the Bull Moose Party. In the election Roosevelt outpolled the incumbent president of his own party by about one million votes.

(During the campaign, Roosevelt was shot by a would-be assassin on his way to deliver a campaign address, but the bullet was slowed by the thick speech manuscript in his jacket pocket. Although the bullet did pierce his body, causing bleeding, he nevertheless delivered his speech. At the end, he displayed the blood-stained manuscript. “You see,” cried the colonel, holding up the manuscript so that the audience could see the bullet hole through the sheets of paper, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” —From the Detroit Free Press.)
Labor leader Eugene Debs ran as a Socialist in 1912, and although the nation was not ready to elect a Socialist president, the fact that he got close to one million votes also suggested that people were concerned about the excesses of capitalism. Thus in the election overall, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Debs won approximately 75% of the popular vote. Because the Republican vote was split between Roosevelt and Taft, Woodrow Wilson was elected in the Electoral College, even though Taft and Roosevelt combined garnered about one million more votes than Wilson.

1912 Election Results:

Woodrow Wilson as Progressive

Although Woodrow Wilson benefited from the Republican split, he nevertheless ran a spirited campaign and assumed office fully prepared to continue to advance the Progressive cause. Although there was no love lost between Roosevelt and Wilson, to say the least, the two Progressives were not far apart in terms of political positions. Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” speech of 1910, in which he reasserted his call for a square deal, sounds much like Wilson’s “New Freedom,” which he articulated in his first inaugural address. (See Appendix)

One of Wilson’s first accomplishments was his signing of Underwood Tariff on October 3, 1913, which provided the first substantial reductions of rates on imported goods and was a move intended to reduce the cost of living. It still included protectionist measures, but took into account the needs of consumers as well.

Ever since Andrew Jackson had “killed” the National Bank with his 1832 veto, the country had been without a comprehensive national banking system.  Believing the control of banking and currency should ultimately rest in government hands, Wilson sponsored the Federal Reserve Act of December, 1913.  The act divided the country into 12 districts, each with its own Federal Reserve Bank, all of which would be controlled by the Federal Reserve Board (known today as “the Fed.”) Once again the nation had a central banking system.

The mission of the Federal Reserve Board states:The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. It was founded by Congress in 1913 to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Over the years, its role in banking and the economy has expanded.

What the Fed actually does is control the value of money by adjusting interest rates which member banks pay to the Federal Reserve System for funds they use to conduct business. Interest rates are adjusted up or down to control inflation or to stimulate business growth. Everything from mortgage loan rates to credit card interest is affected to some extent by the interest rate charged by the Fed. The stock market often reacts sharply to interest rate changes announced by the Fed. The system was designed to prevent abuses that occurred when banks overreached their gold and silver reserves and issued more paper than they could back, which sometimes led to financial panic or bank failures.

Under Wilson’s leadership to Congress also created the Federal Trade Commission, whose purpose was to prevent “unfair methods of competition” by businesses conducting interstate commerce. The Clayton Antitrust Act expanded the scope of the Sherman Antitrust Act to cover such things as interlocking directorates, price discrimination among buyers, use of court injunctions in labor disputes and multiple ownership by one corporation of stocks in similar enterprises.

Additional Wilsonian programs included the Seamen’s Act of 1915 and the Federal Workingman’s Compensation Act in 1916, which provided allowances for civil service workers for disabilities suffered on the job. The Adamson Act of 1916 called for an eight-hour day for railroad workers. Wilson’s progressive programs contributed to his election victory in 1916 and strengthened his support within his own party.  But the First World War, which began in 1914, soon demanded Wilson’s full attention and began to divert him from his progressive agenda.

The Socialist Alternative

Historian of early America Carl Degler has commented that “the capitalists arrived on the first ships.” It is quite true that the Jamestown colony was begun as an investment venture; the Virginia Company was owned by stockholders who hoped to for a return on their capital investment, much as modern Americans who invest in public companies hope to do. It is more than a coincidence that Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, a primer of modern capitalism, was published in 1776. Early in the 19th century the shape of modern American capitalism began to emerge, aided by the Supreme Court decisions of John Marshall, who helped to define the legal essence of contracts, corporations, interstate commerce, and other matters as he “made the nation safe for capitalism.”

As modern capitalism grew stronger, often wielding tremendous influence over governments and populations, reactions began to emerge, at the heart of which was publication of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto in 1848 and his huge work, Das Kapital, written with Friedrich Engels. Thus by the turn of the century capitalism, aided by conservative political forces, was marching ahead on the right, while anti-capitalist forces, supported by political liberals and defined by both socialism and communism, advanced on the left. Caught in between were those who, while not quite ready to condemn capitalism, certainly were sympathetic to the plight of the working class. President Theodore Roosevelt to a great extent personified that divide. (TR’s political foes accused him of being a Socialist.)

The United States attracted great attention from the international political left, especially as it grew into an economic and industrial giant. Karl Marx became interested in American capitalism even before the Civil War, and he followed that conflict with interest. For him, American slavery as it existed on Southern plantations was nothing more than a logical extension of capitalist exploitation of workers. When the headquarters of the Communist International in Paris was shut down during the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, its headquarters moved to New York City.

Among the millions of immigrants who flooded to the United States between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the First World War were many working-class people and their sympathizers who were strongly influenced by communist and socialist trends in Europe. Since the revolutions of 1848, socialist parties had grown up throughout the continent, and the dividing line between socialism and communism was in many cases barely distinguishable.

The American labor movement, discussed elsewhere in these pages as “the war between capital and labor,” was strongly influenced by the international Socialist movement. One of the most conspicuous labor groups in the United States, the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, known as the “Wobblies,” was led by many who openly embraced communism. And as the political left at its extreme edge was associated with anarchism and political violence, the entire leftist spectrum was tainted by incidents such as the Haymarket riots in Chicago.

The Progressive Movement, which gained substantial strength after 1900, can be defined in part as a protective reaction against the growing threat of communism or socialism in American economic and political life. The Progressives were behind many reforms aimed at cleaning up capitalism and protecting workers’ rights. But because the Progressive Movement did not move fast enough for some, the Socialist Party in United States gained a bit of traction. In 1912 the Socialist party under Eugene Debs won almost a million votes. The Populist Party in 1892 had had similar success, and though the Populists were not explicitly communists or socialists, their interests certainly lay in the same direction.

Although the Progressive Movement is considered to have ended with the outbreak of the First World War, the Progressive Party continued to thrive, and many liberal politicians were—and still are—comfortable being identified as Progressives. Wisconsin’s Robert LaFollette garnered almost 5 million votes as the Progressive Party candidate for president in the election of 1924. When the Great Depression hit and American capitalism seemed to be crumbling, those who had embraced communism and socialism seemed vindicated. Intellectuals flocked to the Socialist camp, led by men such as Lincoln Steffens who, having visited Soviet Russia, said, “I have seen the future and it works.”

The Communist and Socialist Parties was quite visible during the election of 1936. The Communists held their convention in Madison Square Garden to rally behind their presidential candidate, Earl Browder. (He got 80,000 votes.) In 1948 Henry Wallace ran as a Socialists against Thomas Dewey, Harry Truman, and J. Strom Thurmond, the nominee of the States’ Right Democrats or “Dixiecrat” Party. Wallace came in third.

With the Cold War tensions on the rise, and with the rise of McCarthyism in the early 1950s, the Socialist movement began to die out. Being labeled a communist or socialist ceased to be respectable except to the fringe on the very far left of America’s political spectrum. That fringe emerged once again in the 1960s as part of the protest movement against the Vietnam War and the excesses of American capitalism—a few old Socialists became darlings of the “New Left.” But with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 and the end of the Cold War, the Socialist alternative in America can be considered dead and buried.

See also Important Dates of the Progressive Era

History 122 Part 1