The Progressive Era saw widespread reforms from the 1890s to the 1920s to address issues arising from rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption. Progressives advocated solutions through government action and regulation to curb the excesses of big business, protect workers and consumers, and bring democratic reforms. Notable achievements included strengthening antitrust laws, creating food and drug safety agencies, establishing women's suffrage, and advancing workers' rights.

1. THE PROGRESSIVE
ERA

2. Progressive Movement
 What were the guiding principles of Populism
 After Populism, citizens saw the possibilities of
reform through government
 Populist success in local and national
elections encouraged others to seek change
through political action
 Building on Populism’s achievements and
adopting some of its goals, Progressives
dominated the first two decades of 1900’s.

3.  First, the Progressive Era in
pictures & charts…

4. Rise of the City
Year Urban Population (%) Number of Cities w/
100K+Population
1880 20% 12
1890 28 15
1900 38 18
1910 50 21
1920 68 26

5. Percentage of Women in the Labor
Force
Year All Women Married Women Women as % of
Labor Force
1900 20.4% 5.6% 18%
1910 25.2 10.7 24
1920 23.3 9.0 24
1930 24.3 11.7 25

6. Sales of Automobiles
Year Number of Cars (in Thousands)
1900 4.1
1905 24.2
1910 181.0
1915 895.9
1920 1,905.5
1925 3,735.1

7. One Day of Model T Output

8. Mothers wait in front of Margaret
Sanger’s birth clinic in Brooklyn

9. Margaret Sanger gets arrested

10. The Hull House in Chicago, est.
1889

11. Woman suffrage parade in NYC, 1912

12. “Putting the Screws on Him,”
1904
 President Roosevelt
squeezing ill-gotten
gains out of the
trusts

13. President Roosevelt w/ John Muir
in Yosemite Valley, 1906

14. Roots of Progressivism
 National Woman’s Suffrage Association
 American Bar Association
 National Municipal League
 These are examples of some of the groups that
rallied citizens around a cause or profession
 Gave legitimacy to professions
 Most of these groups’ members were educated
and middle class

15. Muckrakers
 Journalists who wrote exposes of corporate
greed and misconduct
 TR came up with this term
 Lincoln Steffens: The Shame of the Cities
 Ida Tarbell: History of Standard Oil
 Upton Sinclair: The Jungle
 Ida B. Wells: Anti-lynching

16. Lewis Hine

17. Compare to 1830’s?
 This reform was considered very similar to the
reform movement of the 1830’s, in that those
people campaigned for public enlightenment
on the plight of orphans, prostitutes, and those
held in mental institutions

18. Reformers
 W.E.B. DuBois
 Headed the NAACP
 Quest for racial justice
 It was an uphill battle that was so strenuous that, after
a lifelong struggle, DuBois abandoned the US and
moved to Africa

19. Reformers
 Margaret Sanger
 Feminist Movement
 Faced great opposition for promoting the use of
contraceptives
 They had been considered illegal in most places
 Eventually, suffrage was granted to women in 1920
with the passing of the 19th Amendment

20. Reformers
 Robert LaFollette
 Wisconsin Governor, “Fightin’ Bob”
 The “Wisconsin Idea”:
 Direct primary
 Progressive taxation
 Initiative: voters can propose new laws
 Referendum: public can vote on new laws
 Recall: elections that gave voters power to remove officials
from office before their terms expired

21. Robert La Follette
 Governor of
Wisconsin, 1901-
1906
 U.S. Senate, 1906-
1925

22. Other Progressive Gains
 State level reform:
 Limit work day hours
 Minimum wage requirements
 Child labor laws
 Urban housing codes
 Progressive income taxes helped redistribute the
nation’s wealth

23. Teddy Roosevelt
 Expected to be conservative due to being
McKinley’s VP, but was not!
 Most prominent Progressive leader
 First to use the Sherman Antitrust Act
successfully against monopolies
 Aka the “Trustbuster”
Also tightened food and drug regulations, created
national parks, among other things

24. Theodore Roosevelt

25. Taft
 Not known as much as TR, but did a lot for
Progressivism
 During his time as President, he pushed two
amendments through:
 One instituting a national income tax
 Another allowing for direct election of senators
Taft pursued monopolies even more aggressively
than TR!

26. Wilson
 The last of the Progressive Presidents
 Created the Federal Trade Commission
 Lobbied for and enforced the Clayton Antitrust
Act of 1914
 Created the Federal Reserve
 This gave the gov’t greater control over the
nation’s finances
 The 19th Amendment was passed during his term

27. Woodrow Wilson

28. End of Progressivism
 Lasted through WWI
 War made reformers and rest of nation tired of
fighting
 The Red Scare split the Progressives by
dividing those on the “left” from those in the
center

29. Summary
 Progressive movement achieved many of its
goals
 Over time, it lost support of the interest groups
whose ends it had met
 Many historians argue that the Progressive
movement was brought to an end by its own
success!
 There were no more crusades left to fight for!