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U.S. History – A Chapter 9

The

Progressive

Era

304 C

HAPTER 9

McKinley is

assassinated;

Theodore Roosevelt

becomes president.

1901

William McKinley

is elected

president.

1896

William McKinley

is reelected.

1900

Theodore

Roosevelt is

elected

president.

1904

Marie

Curie discovers

radium.

1898

Commonwealth of

Australia is created.

1901

A 1916 suffrage parade.

USA

WORLD

1900

1890

Eiffel Tower

opens for visitors.

1889

Boer War

in South Africa

begins.

1899

304-305-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:05 PM Page 304

Page 1 of 2

The Progressive Era 305

INTERACT

WITH HISTORY

It is the dawn of the 20th century, and

the reform movement is growing.

Moral reformers are trying to ban alco-

holic beverages. Political reformers

work toward fair government and

business practices. Women fight for

equal wages and the right to vote.

Throughout society, social and eco-

nomic issues take center stage.

What kinds of

actions can bring

about social

change?

Examine the Issues

• What types of actions might pres-

sure big business to change?

• How can individuals bring about

change in their government?

• How might reformers recruit others?

William H.

Taft is

elected

president.

1908

Woodrow

Wilson is

elected

president.

1912

Nineteenth

Amendment

grants women

the right to vote.

1920

Mexican

revolution

begins.

1910

China’s

Qin dynasty

topples.

1912

World War I

begins in Europe.

1914

Mohandas

Gandhi becomes

leader of the

independence

movement in

India.

1919

Woodrow

Wilson is

reelected.

1916

Eighteenth

Amendment

outlaws alcoholic

beverages.

1919

W. E. B.

Du Bois helps

found the

National

Association for

the Advancement

of Colored

People (NAACP).

1909

1920

1910

Visit the Chapter 9 links for more information

about The Progressive Era.

RESEARCH LINKS CLASSZONE.COM

304-305-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:05 PM Page 305

Page 2 of 2

306 C

HAPTER 9

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

•progressive

movement

•Florence Kelley

•prohibition

•muckraker

•scientiﬁc

management

•Robert M.

La Follette

•initiative

•referendum

•recall

•Seventeenth

Amendment

Political, economic, and

social change in late 19th

century America led to broad

progressive reforms.

Progressive reforms in areas

such as labor and voting rights

reinforced democratic principles

that continue to

exist today.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Camella Teoli was just 12 years old when she began working in a

Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile mill to help support her family. Soon

after she started, a machine used for twisting cotton into thread tore off

part of her scalp. The young Italian immigrant spent seven months in

the hospital and was scarred for life.

Three years later, when 20,000 Lawrence mill workers went on strike

for higher wages, Camella was selected to testify before a congression-

al committee investigating labor conditions such as workplace safety

and underage workers. When asked why she had gone on strike, Camella

answered simply, “Because I didn’t get enough to eat at home.” She

explained how she had gone to work before reaching the legal age of 14.

A PERSONAL VOICE CAMELLA TEOLI

“ I used to go to school, and then a man came up to my house and asked my

father why I didn’t go to work, so my father says I don’t know whether she is 13 or

14 years old. So, the man say You give me $4 and I will make the papers come

from the old country [Italy] saying [that] you are 14. So, my father gave him

the $4, and in one month came the papers that I was 14. I went to

work, and about two weeks [later] got hurt in my head.

”

—at congressional hearings, March 1912

After nine weeks of striking, the mill workers won the sympathy

of the nation as well as ﬁve to ten percent pay raises. Stories like

Camella’s set off a national investigation of labor conditions, and reform-

ers across the country organized to address the problems of industrialization.

Four Goals of Progressivism

At the dawn of the new century, middle-class reformers addressed many of the

problems that had contributed to the social upheavals of the 1890s. Journalists and

writers exposed the unsafe conditions often faced by factory workers, including

The Origins of

Progressivism

Mill workers on

strike in 1912

in Lawrence,

Massachusetts

A CHILD ON

STRIKE

The Testimony of

Camella Teoli,

Mill Girl

▼

306-312-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 306

Page 1 of 7

307

women and children. Intellectuals questioned the dominant

role of large corporations in American society. Political

reformers struggled to make government more responsive

to the people. Together, these reform efforts formed the

progressive movement, which aimed to return control of

the government to the people, restore economic opportuni-

ties, and correct injustices in American life.

Even though reformers never completely agreed on the

problems or the solutions, each of their progressive efforts

shared at least one of the following goals:

• protecting social welfare

• promoting moral improvement

• creating economic reform

• fostering efﬁciency

PROTECTING SOCIAL WELFARE

Many social welfare

reformers worked to soften some of the harsh conditions of

industrialization. The Social Gospel and settlement house

movements of the late 1800s, which aimed to help the poor

through community centers, churches, and social services,

continued during the Progressive Era and inspired even more

reform activities.

The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), for

example, opened libraries, sponsored classes, and built

swimming pools and handball courts. The Salvation Army

fed poor people in soup kitchens, cared for children in nurs-

eries, and sent “slum brigades” to instruct poor immigrants

in middle-class values of hard work and temperance.

In addition, many women were inspired by the settle-

ment houses to take action. Florence Kelley became an

advocate for improving the lives of women and children. She

was appointed chief inspector of factories for Illinois after she

had helped to win passage of the Illinois Factory Act in 1893.

The act, which prohibited child labor and limited women’s

working hours, soon became a model for other states.

PROMOTING MORAL IMPROVEMENT

Other reformers felt that morality, not

the workplace, held the key to improving the lives of poor people. These reform-

ers wanted immigrants and poor city dwellers to uplift themselves by improving

their personal behavior. Prohibition, the banning of alcoholic beverages, was

one such program.

Prohibitionist groups feared that alcohol was undermining American morals.

Founded in Cleveland in 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

(WCTU) spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members

advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, pray-

ing, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alco-

hol. As momentum grew, the Union was trans-

formed by Frances Willard from a small midwest-

ern religious group in 1879 to a national organi-

zation. Boasting 245,000 members by 1911, the

WCTU became the largest women’s group in

the nation’s history.

WCTU members followed Willard’s “do

everything” slogan and began opening

kindergartens for immigrants, visiting

FLORENCE KELLEY

1859–1932

The daughter of an antislavery

Republican congressman from

Pennsylvania, Florence Kelley

became a social reformer whose

sympathies lay with the power-

less, especially working women

and children. During a long career,

Kelley pushed the government to

solve America’s social problems.

In 1899, Kelley became general

secretary of the National

Consumers’ League, where she

lobbied to improve factory condi-

tions. “Why,” Kelley pointedly

asked while campaigning for a

federal child-labor law, “are seals,

bears, reindeer, ﬁsh, wild game in

the national parks, buffalo, [and]

migratory birds all found suitable

for federal protection, but not

children?”

In the 1890s, Carry Nation

worked for prohibition by

walking into saloons,

scolding the customers,

and using her hatchet

to destroy bottles

of liquor.

▼

A. Possible

Answer Many

women believed

this was an area

in which they

could make a

difference in

society.

Vocabulary

temperance:

refraining from

alcohol

consumption

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Motives

Why did the

prohibition

movement appeal

to so many

women?

306-312-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 307

Page 2 of 7

inmates in prisons and asylums, and working for suffrage.

The WCTU reform activities, like those of the settlement-

house movement, provided women with expanded public

roles, which they used to justify giving women voting rights.

Sometimes efforts at prohibition led to trouble with

immigrant groups. Such was the case with the Anti-Saloon

League, founded in 1895. As members sought to close

saloons to cure society’s problems, tension arose between

them and many immigrants, whose customs often includ-

ed the consumption of alcohol. Additionally, saloons ﬁlled

a number of roles within the immigrant community such as

cashing paychecks and serving meals.

CREATING ECONOMIC REFORM

As moral reformers

sought to change individual behavior, a severe economic

panic in 1893 prompted some Americans to question the

capitalist economic system. As a result, some Americans,

especially workers, embraced socialism. Labor leader

Eugene V. Debs, who helped organize the American

Socialist Party in 1901, commented on the uneven balance

among big business, government, and ordinary people

under the free-market system of capitalism.

A PERSONAL VOICE EUGENE V. DEBS

“ Competition was natural enough at one time, but do you

think you are competing today? Many of you think you are

competing. Against whom? Against [oil magnate John D.]

Rockefeller? About as I would if I had a wheelbarrow and com-

peted with the Santa Fe [railroad] from here to Kansas City.

”

—Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches

Though most progressives distanced themselves from socialism, they saw the

truth of many of Debs’s criticisms. Big business often received favorable treatment

from government ofﬁcials and politicians and could use its economic power to

limit competition.

Journalists who wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life in mass

circulation magazines during the early 20th century became known as muckrakers

(

mOkPrAkQr). (The term refers to John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” in which a

character is so busy using a rake to clean up the muck of this world that he does not

raise his eyes to heaven.) In her “History of the Standard Oil Company,” a month-

ly serial in McClure’s Magazine, the writer Ida M. Tarbell described the company’s

cutthroat methods of eliminating competition. “Mr. Rockefeller has systematically

played with loaded dice,” Tarbell charged, “and it is doubtful if there has been a

time since 1872 when he has run a race with a competitor and started fair.”

FOSTERING EFFICIENCY

Many progressive leaders put their faith in experts

and scientiﬁc principles to make society and the workplace more efﬁcient. In

defending an Oregon law that limited women factory and laundry workers to a

ten-hour day, lawyer Louis D. Brandeis paid little attention to legal argument.

Instead, he focused on data produced by social scientists documenting the high

costs of long working hours for both the individual and society. This type of argu-

ment—the “Brandeis brief”—would become a model for later reform litigation.

Within industry, Frederick Winslow Taylor began using time and motion stud-

ies to improve efﬁciency by breaking manufacturing tasks into simpler parts.

“Taylorism” became a management fad, as industry reformers applied these scien-

tiﬁc management studies to see just how quickly each task could be performed.

308 C

HAPTER 9

HISTORICAL

ANTI–SALOON LEAGUE

Quietly founded by progressive

women in 1895, the Anti-Saloon

League called itself “the Church

in action against the saloon.”

Whereas early temperance

efforts had asked individuals to

change their ways, the Anti-

Saloon League worked to pass

laws to force people to change

and to punish those who drank.

The Anti-Saloon League

endorsed politicians who opposed

“Demon Rum,” no matter which

party they belonged to or where

they stood on other issues. It also

organized statewide referendums

to ban alcohol. Between 1900

and 1917, voters in nearly half of

the states—mostly in the South

and the West—prohibited the

sale, production, and use of alco-

hol. Individual towns, city wards,

and rural areas also voted them-

selves “dry.”

Background

See capitalism

and socialism

on pages R38

and R44 in the

Economics

Handbook.

B. Answer

Muckrakers

exposed the

dangers and

corruption of

industrial life to

the public.

MAIN IDEA

Evaluating

What

contribution did

muckrakers make

to the reform

movement?

306-312-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 308

Page 3 of 7

However, not all workers could work at the same rate, and although the intro-

duction of the assembly lines did speed up production, the system required peo-

ple to work like machines. This caused a high worker turnover, often due to

injuries suffered by fatigued workers. To keep automobile workers

happy and to prevent strikes, Henry Ford reduced the workday to

eight hours and paid workers ﬁve dollars a day. This incentive attract-

ed thousands of workers, but they exhausted themselves. As one

homemaker complained in a letter to Henry Ford in 1914, “That $5

is a blessing—a bigger one than you know but oh they earn it.”

Such efforts at improving efﬁciency, an important part of pro-

gressivism, targeted not only industry, but government as well.

Cleaning Up Local Government

Cities faced some of the most obvious social problems of the new industrial age.

In many large cities, political bosses rewarded their supporters with jobs and kick-

backs and openly bought votes with favors and bribes. Efforts to reform city pol-

itics stemmed in part from the desire to make government more efﬁcient and

more responsive to its constituents. But those efforts also grew from distrust of

immigrants’ participation in politics.

REFORMING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Natural disasters sometimes played an

important role in prompting reform of city governments. In 1900, a hurricane

and tidal wave almost demolished Galveston, Texas. The politicians on the city

council botched the huge relief and rebuilding job so badly that the Texas legis-

lature appointed a ﬁve-member commission of experts to take over. Each expert

took charge of a different city department, and soon Galveston was rebuilt. This

success prompted the city to adopt the commission idea as a form of government,

and by 1917, 500 cities had followed Galveston's example.

Another natural disaster—a ﬂood in Dayton, Ohio, in 1913—led to the wide-

spread adoption of the council-manager form of government. Staunton, Virginia,

had already pioneered this system, in which people elected a city council to make

laws. The council in turn appointed a manager, typically a person with training

and experience in public administration, to run the city’s departments. By 1925,

managers were administering nearly 250 cities.

The Progressive Era 309

“ Everybody will

be able to afford

[a car], and about

everyone will have

one.”

HENRY FORD, 1909

Workers at the

Ford ﬂywheel

factory cope with

the demanding

pace of the

assembly line to

earn ﬁve dollars a

day—a good

wage in 1914.

▼

C. Answer

Scientiﬁc

management

reformers

worked to

improve efﬁ-

ciency and

productivity,

while other

reformers aimed

at improving

behavior or

addressing

economic

inequality.

MAIN IDEA

Contrasting

Contrast the

goals of scientiﬁc

management with

other progressive

reforms.

306-312-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 309

Page 4 of 7

REFORM MAYORS

In some cities, mayors such as Hazen Pingree of Detroit,

Michigan (1890–1897), and Tom Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio (1901–1909), intro-

duced progressive reforms without changing how government was organized.

Concentrating on economics, Pingree instituted a fairer tax structure, low-

ered fares for public transportation, rooted out corruption, and set up a system of

work relief for the unemployed. Detroit city workers built schools, parks, and a

municipal lighting plant.

Johnson was only one of 19 socialist mayors who worked to institute pro-

gressive reforms in America’s cities. In general, these mayors focused on dismiss-

ing corrupt and greedy private owners of utilities—such as gasworks, waterworks,

and transit lines—and converting the utilities to publicly owned enterprises.

Johnson believed that citizens should play a more active role in city government.

He held meetings in a large circus tent and invited them to question ofﬁcials

about how the city was managed.

Reform at the State Level

Local reforms coincided with progressive efforts at the state level. Spurred by pro-

gressive governors, many states passed laws to regulate railroads, mines, mills,

telephone companies, and other large businesses.

REFORM GOVERNORS

Under the progressive Republican

leadership of Robert M. La Follette, Wisconsin led the

way in regulating big business. “Fighting Bob” La Follette

served three terms as governor before he entered the U.S.

Senate in 1906. He explained that, as governor, he did not

mean to “smash corporations, but merely to drive them out

of politics, and then to treat them exactly the same as other

people are treated.”

La Follette’s major target was the railroad industry. He

taxed railroad property at the same rate as other business prop-

erty, set up a commission to regulate rates, and forbade rail-

roads to issue free passes to state ofﬁcials. Other reform gover-

nors who attacked big business interests included Charles B.

Aycock of North Carolina and James S. Hogg of Texas.

PROTECTING WORKING CHILDREN

As the number of

child workers rose dramatically, reformers worked to protect

workers and to end child labor. Businesses hired children

because they performed unskilled jobs for lower wages and

because children’s small hands made them more adept at

handling small parts and tools. Immigrants and rural

migrants often sent their children to work because they

viewed their children as part of the family economy. Often

wages were so low for adults that every family member need-

ed to work to pull the family out of poverty.

In industrial settings, however, children were more

prone to accidents caused by fatigue. Many developed seri-

ous health problems and suffered from stunted growth.

Formed in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee

sent investigators to gather evidence of children working in

harsh conditions. They then organized exhibitions with pho-

tographs and statistics to dramatize the children’s plight. They

were joined by labor union members who argued that child

labor lowered wages for all workers. These groups pressured

310 C

HAPTER 9

JAMES S. HOGG, TEXAS GOV-

ERNOR (1891–1895)

Among the most colorful of the

reform governors was James S.

Hogg of Texas. Hogg helped to

drive illegal insurance companies

from the state and championed

antitrust legislation. His chief inter-

est, however, was in regulating the

railroads. He pointed out abuses

in rates—noting, for example, that

it cost more to ship lumber from

East Texas to Dallas than to ship it

all the way to Nebraska. A railroad

commission, established largely as

a result of his efforts, helped

increase milling and manufacturing

in Texas by lowering freight rates.

HISTORICAL

D. Answer The

commission

system and

council-manag-

er system were

introduced;

some reform

mayors made

citizens more

active in manag-

ing cities.

E. Answer

Businesses

exploited chil-

dren, paying

them low wages

and forcing

them to work

long hours in

dangerous con-

ditions.

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

How did city

government

change during the

Progressive Era?

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Causes

Why did

reformers seek to

end child labor?

306-312-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 310

Page 5 of 7

national politicians to pass the Keating-Owen Act in 1916. The act prohibited the

transportation across state lines of goods produced with child labor.

Two years later the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional due to

interference with states’ rights to regulate labor. Reformers did, however, succeed

in nearly every state by effecting legislation that banned child labor and set max-

imum hours.

EFFORTS TO LIMIT WORKING HOURS

The Supreme Court sometimes took a

more sympathetic view of the plight of workers. In the 1908 case of Muller v.

Oregon, Louis D. Brandeis—assisted by Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark—

persuasively argued that poor working women were much more economically

insecure than large corporations. Asserting that women required the state’s pro-

tection against powerful employers, Brandeis convinced the Court to uphold an

Oregon law limiting women to a ten-hour workday. Other states responded by

enacting or strengthening laws to reduce women’s hours of work. A similar

Brandeis brief in Bunting v. Oregon in 1917 persuaded the Court to uphold a ten-

hour workday for men.

Progressives also succeeded in winning workers’ compensation to aid the

families of workers who were hurt or killed on the job. Beginning with Maryland

in 1902, one state after another passed legislation requiring employers to pay ben-

eﬁts in death cases.

The Progressive Era 311

History Through

IMAGES OF CHILD LABOR

In 1908, Lewis Hine quit his teaching job to docu-

ment child labor practices. Hine’s photographs and

descriptions of young laborers—some only three

years old—were widely distributed and displayed

in exhibits. His compelling images of exploitation

helped to convince the public of the need for child

labor regulations.

Hine devised a host of clever tactics to gain

access to his subjects, such as learning shop

managers’ schedules and arriving during their

lunch breaks. While talking casually with the chil-

dren, he secretly scribbled notes on paper hidden

in his pocket.

Because of their small size, spindle boys and girls (top) were

forced to climb atop moving machinery to replace parts. For four-

year-old Mary (left), shucking two pots of oysters was a typical

day’s work.

SKILLBUILDER

Interpreting Visual Sources

Lewis Hine believed in the power of photography to move

people to action. What elements of these photographs do

you ﬁnd most striking?

Why do you think Hine was a successful photographer?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.

306-312-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 311

Page 6 of 7

312 C

HAPTER 9

REFORMING ELECTIONS

In some cases, ordinary citizens won state reforms.

William S. U’Ren prompted his state of Oregon to adopt the secret ballot (also

called the Australian ballot), the initiative, the referendum, and the recall. The ini-

tiative and referendum gave citizens the power to create laws. Citizens could peti-

tion to place an initiative—a bill originated by the people rather than lawmak-

ers—on the ballot. Then voters, instead of the legislature, accepted or rejected the

initiative by referendum, a vote on the initiative. The recall enabled voters to

remove public ofﬁcials from elected positions by forcing them to face another elec-

tion before the end of their term if enough voters asked for it. By 1920, 20 states

had adopted at least one of these procedures.

In 1899, Minnesota passed the ﬁrst mandatory statewide primary system. This

enabled voters, instead of political machines, to choose candidates for public ofﬁce

through a special popular election. About two-thirds of the states had adopted

some form of direct primary by 1915.

DIRECT ELECTION OF SENATORS

It was the success of the direct primary that

paved the way for the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. Before

1913, each state’s legislature had chosen its own United States senators, which put

even more power in the hands of party bosses and wealthy corporation heads. To

force senators to be more responsive to the public, progressives pushed for the

popular election of senators. At ﬁrst, the Senate refused to go along with the idea,

but gradually more and more states began allowing voters to nominate senatori-

al candidates in direct primaries. As a result, Congress approved the Seventeenth

Amendment in 1912. Its ratiﬁcation in 1913 made direct election of senators the

law of the land.

Government reform—including efforts to give Americans more of a voice in

electing their legislators and creating laws—drew increased numbers of women

into public life. It also focused renewed attention on the issue of woman suffrage.

Economic Moral

Progressive

Reforms

Political

Social

Welfare

F. An sw e r

Members of the

Senate were no

longer appoint-

ed by state leg-

islatures, over

whom special

interests had

inﬂuence.

Instead sena-

tors were elect-

ed by popular

vote.

•progressive movement

•Florence Kelley

•prohibition

•muckraker

•scientiﬁc management

•Robert M. La Follette

•initiative

•referendum

•recall

•Seventeenth Amendment

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Copy the web below on your

paper. Fill it in with examples of

organizations that worked for

reform in the areas named.

Which group was most

successful and why?

CRITICAL THINKING

3. FORMING GENERALIZATIONS

In what ways might Illinois,

Wisconsin, and Oregon all be

considered trailblazers in

progressive reform? Support

your answers. Think About:

• legislative and electoral

reforms at the state level

• the leadership of William

U’Ren and Robert La

Follette

• Florence Kelley’s appoint-

ment as chief inspector of

factories for Illinois

4. INTERPRETING VISUAL SOURCES

This cartoon shows Carry Nation inside a

saloon that she has attacked. Do you think

the cartoonist had a favorable or unfavorable

opinion of this prohibitionist? Explain.

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

Summarize

the impact of the

direct election of

senators.

306-312-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 312

Page 7 of 7

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

•NACW

•suffrage

•Susan B. Anthony

•NAWSA

As a result of social and

economic change, many

women entered public life as

workers and reformers.

Women won new opportunities

in labor and education that are

enjoyed today.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

The Progressive Era 313

In 1879, Susette La Flesche, a young Omaha woman, traveled east

to translate into English the sad words of Chief Standing Bear,

whose Ponca people had been forcibly removed from their home-

land in Nebraska. Later, she was invited with Chief Standing Bear

to go on a lecture tour to draw attention to the Ponca’s situation.

A PERSONAL

VOICE SUSETTE LA FLESCHE

“ We are thinking men and women. . . . We have a right to be heard

in whatever concerns us. Your government has driven us hither and

thither like cattle. . . . Your government has no right to say to us, Go

here, or Go there, and if we show any reluctance, to force us to do its will

at the point of the bayonet. . . . Do you wonder that the Indian feels out-

raged by such treatment and retaliates, although it will end in death to himself?

”

—quoted in Bright Eyes

La Flesche testiﬁed before congressional committees and helped win passage

of the Dawes Act of 1887, which allowed individual Native Americans to claim

reservation land and citizenship rights. Her activism was an example of a new role

for American women, who were expanding their participation in public life.

Women in the Work Force

Before the Civil War, married middle-class women were generally expected to

devote their time to the care of their homes and families. By the late 19th centu-

ry, however, only middle-class and upper-class women could afford to do so.

Poorer women usually had no choice but to work for wages outside the home.

FARM WOMEN

On farms in the South and the Midwest, women’s roles had not

changed substantially since the previous century. In addition to household tasks

such as cooking, making clothes, and laundering, farm women handled a host of

other chores such as raising livestock. Often the women had to help plow and

plant the ﬁelds and harvest the crops.

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

As better-paying opportunities became available in

towns, and especially cities, women had new options for ﬁnding jobs, even though

men’s labor unions excluded them from membership. At the turn of the century,

One American's Story

Susette La Flesche

▼

Women in Public Life

313-316-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 313

Page 1 of 4

one out of ﬁve American women held jobs; 25 percent of

them worked in manufacturing.

The garment trade claimed about half of all women

industrial workers. They typically held the least skilled posi-

tions, however, and received only about half as much

money as their male counterparts or less. Many of these

women were single and were assumed to be supporting

only themselves, while men were assumed to be supporting

families.

Women also began to ﬁll new jobs in ofﬁces, stores, and

classrooms. These jobs required a high school education,

and by 1890, women high school graduates outnumbered

men. Moreover, new business schools were preparing book-

keepers and stenographers, as well as training female typists

to operate the new machines.

DOMESTIC WORKERS

Many women without formal

education or industrial skills contributed to the economic

survival of their families by doing domestic work, such as

cleaning for other families. After almost 2 million African-

American women were freed from slavery, poverty quickly

drove nearly half of them into the work force. They worked

on farms and as domestic workers, and migrated by the

thousands to big cities for jobs as cooks, laundresses, scrub-

women, and maids. Altogether, roughly 70 percent of

women employed in 1870 were servants.

Unmarried immigrant women also did domestic labor, especially when they

ﬁrst arrived in the United States. Many married immigrant women contributed to

the family income by taking in piecework or caring for boarders at home.

Women Lead Reform

Dangerous conditions, low wages, and long hours led many female industrial

workers to push for reforms. Their ranks grew after 146 workers, mostly young

women, died in a 1911 ﬁre in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City.

Middle- and upper-class women also entered the public sphere. By 1910, women’s

clubs, at which these women discussed art or literature, were nearly half a million

strong. These clubs sometimes grew into reform groups that addressed issues such

as temperance or child labor.

WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Many of the women who became active in

public life in the late 19th century had attended the new women’s colleges. Vassar

314 C

HAPTER 9

Telephone

operators

manually connect

phone calls

in 1915.

TELEPHONE OPERATORS

Today, when Americ a ns u s e the

telephone, an automated voice

often greets them with instruc-

tions about which buttons to

press. In the 19th century, every

telephone call had to be handled

by a telephone operator, a person

who connected wires through a

switchboard.

Young men, th e ﬁrst teleph o ne

operators, proved unsatisfactory.

Patrons complained that the male

operators used profane language

and talked back to callers.

Women soon largely replaced

men as telephone operators, and

were willing to accept the ten-dol-

lar weekly wage.

Department stores advertised

shopping by telephone as a con-

venience. One ad in the Chicago

telephone book of 1904 declared,

“Every [telephone] order, inquiry,

or request will be quickly and

intelligently cared for.” The ad pic-

tured a line of female telephone

operators.

▼

A. Answer

White-collar

positions as

stenographers,

typists, and

teachers.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Causes

What kinds of

job opportunities

prompted more

women to

complete high

school?

313-316-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 314

Page 2 of 4

College—with a faculty of 8 men and 22 women—accepted its ﬁrst students in

1865. Smith and Wellesley Colleges followed in 1875. Though Columbia, Brown,

and Harvard Colleges refused to admit women, each university established a sep-

arate college for women.

Although women were still expected to fulﬁll traditional domestic roles,

women’s colleges sought to grant women an excellent education. In her will,

Smith College’s founder, Sophia Smith, made her goals clear.

A PERSONAL VOICE SOPHIA SMITH

“ [It is my desire] to furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education

equal to those which are afforded now in our College to young men. . . . It is not

my design to render my sex any the less feminine, but to develop as fully as may

be the powers of womanhood & furnish women with means of usefulness, happi-

ness, & honor now withheld from them.

”

—quoted in Alma Mater

By the late 19th century, marriage was no longer a woman’s only alternative.

Many women entered the work force or sought higher education. In fact, almost

half of college-educated women in the late 19th century never married, retaining

their own independence. Many of these educated women began to apply their

skills to needed social reforms.

WOMEN AND REFORM

Uneducated laborers started efforts to reform workplace

health and safety. The participation of educated women often strengthened exist-

ing reform groups and provided leadership for new ones. Because women were

not allowed to vote or run for ofﬁce, women reformers strove to improve condi-

tions at work and home. Their “social housekeeping” targeted workplace reform,

housing reform, educational improvement, and food and drug laws.

In 1896, African-American women founded the National Association of

Colored Women, or NACW, by merging two earlier organizations. Josephine Rufﬁn

identiﬁed the mission of the African-American women’s club movement as “the

moral education of the race with which we are identiﬁed.” The NACW managed

nurseries, reading rooms, and kindergartens.

After the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, women split over the Fourteenth

and Fifteenth Amendments, which granted equal rights including the right to

vote to African American men, but excluded women. Susan B. Anthony, a lead-

ing proponent of woman suffrage, the right to vote, said “[I] would sooner cut

off my right hand than ask the ballot for the black man and not for women.” In

1869 Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had founded the National Women

Suffrage Association (NWSA), which united with another group in 1890 to

Suffragists recruit

supporters for a

march.

▼

B. Answer

Women who

attended col-

lege no longer

relied on mar-

riage as their

only option;

some pursued

professional

careers, while

others did vol-

unteer reform

work.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

What social

and economic

effects did higher

education have on

women?

313-316-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 315

Page 3 of 4

become the National American Woman Suffrage Association,

or NAWSA. Other prominent leaders included Lucy Stone

and Julia Ward Howe, the author of “The Battle Hymn of the

Republic.”

Woman suffrage faced constant opposition. The liquor

industry feared that women would vote in support of prohi-

bition, while the textile industry worried that women would

vote for restrictions on child labor. Many men simply feared

the changing role of women in society.

A THREE–PART STRATEGY FOR SUFFRAGE

Suffragist

leaders tried three approaches to achieve their objective.

First, they tried to convince state legislatures to grant women

the right to vote. They achieved a victory in the territory of

Wyoming in 1869, and by the 1890s Utah, Colorado, and

Idaho had also granted voting rights to women. After 1896,

efforts in other states failed.

Second, women pursued court cases to test the

Fourteenth Amendment, which declared that states denying

their male citizens the right to vote would lose congression-

al representation. Weren’t women citizens, too? In 1871 and

1872, Susan B. Anthony and other women tested that ques-

tion by attempting to vote at least 150 times in ten states and

the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court ruled in 1875

that women were indeed citizens—but then denied that citi-

zenship automatically conferred the right to vote.

Third, women pushed for a national constitutional

amendment to grant women the vote. Stanton succeeded in

having the amendment introduced in California, but it was

killed later. For the next 41 years, women lobbied to have it

reintroduced, only to see it continually voted down.

Before the turn of the century, the campaign for suffrage

achieved only modest success. Later, however, women’s

reform efforts paid off in improvements in the treatment of workers and in safer

food and drug products—all of which President Theodore Roosevelt supported,

along with his own plans for reforming business, labor, and the environment.

316 C

HAPTER 9

SUSAN B. ANTHONY

1820–1906

Born to a strict Quaker family,

Susan B. Anthony was not allowed

to enjoy typical childhood entertain-

ment such as music, games, and

toys. Her father insisted on self-

discipline, education, and a strong

belief system for all of his eight

children. At an early age, Anthony

developed a positive view of wom-

anhood from a teacher named

Mary Perkins who educated the

children in their home.

After voting illegally in the presi-

dential election of 1872, Anthony

was ﬁned $100 at her trial. "Not

a penny shall go to this unjust

claim,” she deﬁantly declared.

She never paid the ﬁne.

•NACW •suffrage •Susan B. Anthony •NAWSA

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

In a chart like the one below, ﬁll in

details about working women in the

late 1800s.

What generalizations can you make

about women workers at this time?

CRITICAL THINKING

3. SYNTHESIZING

What women and movements during

the Progressive Era helped dispel

the stereotype that women were

submissive and nonpolitical?

4. MAKING INFERENCES

Why do you think some colleges

refused to accept women in the late

19th century?

5. ANALYZING ISSUES

Imagine you are a woman during

the Progressive Era. Explain how

you might recruit other women to

support the following causes:

improving education, housing

reform, food and drug laws, the

right to vote. Think About:

• the problems that each move-

ment was trying to remedy

• how women beneﬁted from each

cause

Factory

Workers

Domestic

Workers

Women Workers:

Late 1800s

Farm

Women

White-

Collar

Workers

C. Answer The

leaders hoped

that by pursuing

several strate-

gies they were

more likely to

achieve their

goal.

MAIN IDEA

Making

Inferences

Why did

suffragist leaders

employ a three-

part strategy for

gaining the right to

vote?

313-316-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:06 PM Page 316

Page 4 of 4

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

•Upton Sinclair

•The Jungle

•Theodore

Roosevelt

•Square Deal

•Meat Inspection

Act

•Pure Food

and Drug Act

•conservation

•NAACP

As president, Theodore

Roosevelt worked to give

citizens a Square Deal

through progressive reforms.

As part of his Square Deal,

Roosevelt’s conservation

efforts made a permanent

impact on environmental

resources.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

The Progressive Era 317

When muckraking journalist Upton Sinclair began research for

a novel in 1904, his focus was the human condition in the stock-

yards of Chicago. Sinclair intended his novel to reveal “the

breaking of human hearts by a system [that] exploits the labor of

men and women for proﬁts.” What most shocked readers in

Sinclair’s book The Jungle (1906), however, was the sickening

conditions of the meatpacking industry.

A PERSONAL

VOICE UPTON SINCLAIR

“ There would be meat that had tumbled out on the ﬂoor, in the

dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit

uncounted billions of consumption [tuberculosis] germs. There

would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; . . . and thousands

of rats would race about on it. . . . A man could run his hand over

these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of

rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poi-

soned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread,

and meat would go into the hoppers together.

”

—The Jungle

President Theodore Roosevelt, like many other readers, was nauseated by

Sinclair’s account. The president invited the author to visit him at the White

House, where Roosevelt promised that “the speciﬁc evils you point out shall, if

their existence be proved, and if I have the power, be eradicated.”

A Rough-Riding President

Theodore Roosevelt was not supposed to be president. In 1900, the young gover-

nor from New York was urged to run as McKinley’s vice-president by the state’s

political bosses, who found Roosevelt impossible to control. The plot to nominate

Roosevelt worked, taking him out of state ofﬁce. However, as vice-president,

One American's Story

Teddy Roosevelt’s

Square Deal

Upton Sinclair

poses with his

son at the time

of the writing of

The Jungle.

▼

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 317

Page 1 of 9

When the

president spared

a bear cub on a

hunting expedition,

a toymaker

marketed a

popular new

product, the

teddy bear.

Teddy Roosevelt

enjoyed an active

lifestyle, as this

1902 photo

reveals.

Roosevelt stood a heartbeat away from becoming president. Indeed,

President McKinley had served barely six months of his second term before

he was assassinated, making Roosevelt the most powerful person in the

government.

ROOSEVELT’S RISE

Theodore Roosevelt was born into a wealthy New

York family in 1858. An asthma sufferer during his childhood, young Teddy

drove himself to accomplish demanding physical feats. As a teenager,

he mastered marksmanship and horseback riding. At Harvard College,

Roosevelt boxed and wrestled.

At an early age, the ambitious Roosevelt became a leader in New

York politics. After serving three terms in the New York State Assembly,

he became New York City’s police commissioner and then assistant secre-

tary of the U.S. Navy. The aspiring politician grabbed national attention,

advocating war against Spain in 1898. His volunteer cavalry brigade, the Rough

Riders, won public acclaim for its role in the battle at San Juan Hill in Cuba.

Roosevelt returned a hero and was soon elected governor of New York and then

later won the vice-presidency.

THE MODERN PRESIDENCY

When Roosevelt was thrust into the presidency in

1901, he became the youngest president ever at 42 years old. Unlike previous

presidents, Roosevelt soon dominated the news with his many exploits. While in

ofﬁce, Roosevelt enjoyed boxing, although one of his opponents blinded him in

the left eye. On another day, he galloped 100 miles on horseback, merely to prove

the feat possible.

In politics, as in sports, Roosevelt acted boldly, using his personality and pop-

ularity to advance his programs. His leadership and publicity campaigns helped

create the modern presidency, making him a model by which all future presidents

would be measured. Citing federal responsibility for the national welfare,

Roosevelt thought the government should assume control whenever states proved

incapable of dealing with problems. He explained, “It is the duty of the president

to act upon the theory that he is the steward of the people, and . . . to assume that

he has the legal right to do whatever the needs of the people demand, unless the

Constitution or the laws explicitly forbid him to do it.”

▼

318

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 318

Page 2 of 9

Roosevelt saw the presidency as a “bully pulpit,” from which he could inﬂu-

ence the news media and shape legislation. If big business victimized workers,

then President Roosevelt would see to it that the common people received what

he called a Square Deal. This term was used to describe the various progressive

reforms sponsored by the Roosevelt administration.

Using Federal Power

Roosevelt’s study of history—he published the ﬁrst of his 44 books at the age of

24—convinced him that modern America required a powerful federal govern-

ment. “A simple and poor society can exist as a democracy on the basis of sheer

individualism,” Roosevelt declared, “but a rich and complex industrial society

cannot so exist . . . .” The young president soon met several challenges to his

assertion of federal power.

TRUSTBUSTING

By 1900, trusts—legal bodies created to hold stock in many

companies—controlled about four-ﬁfths of the industries in the United States.

Some trusts, like Standard Oil, had earned poor reputations with the public by the

use of unfair business practices. Many trusts lowered their prices to drive com-

petitors out of the market and then took advantage of the lack of competition to

jack prices up even higher. Although Congress had passed the Sherman Antitrust

Act in 1890, the act’s vague language made enforcement difﬁcult. As a result,

nearly all the suits ﬁled against the trusts under the Sherman Act were ineffective.

President Roosevelt did not believe that all trusts were harmful, but he sought

to curb the actions of those that hurt the public interest. The president concen-

trated his efforts on ﬁling suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1902,

Roosevelt made newspaper headlines as a trustbuster when he ordered the Justice

Department to sue the Northern Securities Company, which had established a

monopoly over northwestern railroads. In 1904, the Supreme Court dissolved the

company. Although the Roosevelt administration ﬁled 44 antitrust suits, winning

a number of them and breaking up some of the trusts, it was unable to slow the

merger movement in business.

The Progressive Era 319

Background

See trust on

page R47 in the

Economics

Handbook.

Analyzing

A. Answer

Roosevelt was

an active, force-

ful, and ener-

getic executive;

he used his

position to

shape legisla-

tion and inﬂu-

ence the media.

“THE LION-TAMER”

As part of his Square Deal, President Roosevelt aggressively

used the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to attack big businesses

engaging in unfair practices. His victory over his ﬁrst target, the

Northern Securities Company, earned him a reputation as a

hard-hitting trustbuster committed to protecting the public interest.

This cartoon shows Roosevelt trying to tame the wild lions that

symbolize the great and powerful companies of 1904.

SKILLBUILDER

Analyzing Political Cartoons

What do the lions stand for?

Why are all the lions coming out of a door labeled “Wall St.”?

What do you think the cartoonist thinks about trustbusting? Cite

details from the cartoon that support your interpretation.

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

MAIN IDEA

Synthesizing

What actions

and characteristics

of Teddy Roosevelt

contributed to his

reputation as the

ﬁrst modern

president?

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 319

Page 3 of 9

1902 COAL STRIKE

When 140,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike

and demanded a 20 percent raise, a nine-hour workday, and the right to organize

a union, the mine operators refused to bargain. Five months into the strike, coal

reserves ran low. Roosevelt, seeing the need to intervene, called both sides to the

White House to talk, and eventually settled the strike. Irked by the “extraordinary

stupidity and bad temper” of the mine operators, he later confessed that only the

dignity of the presidency had kept him from taking one owner “by the seat of the

breeches” and tossing him out of the window.

Faced with Roosevelt’s threat to take over the mines, the opposing sides ﬁnal-

ly agreed to submit their differences to an arbitration commission—a third party

that would work with both sides to mediate the dispute. In 1903, the commission

issued its compromise settlement. The miners won a 10 percent pay hike and a

shorter, nine-hour workday. With this, however, they had to give up their

demand for a closed shop—in which all workers must belong to the union—and

their right to strike during the next three years.

President Roosevelt’s actions had demonstrated a new principle.

From then on, when a strike threatened the public welfare, the fed-

eral government was expected to intervene. In addition, Roosevelt’s

actions reﬂected the progressive belief that disputes could be settled

in an orderly way with the help of experts, such as those on the

arbitration commission.

RAILROAD REGULATION

Roosevelt’s real goal was federal regulation. In 1887,

Congress had passed the Interstate Commerce Act, which prohibited wealthy rail-

road owners from colluding to ﬁx high prices by dividing the business in a given

area. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was set up to enforce the new

law but had little power. With Roosevelt’s urging, Congress passed the Elkins Act

in 1903, which made it illegal for railroad ofﬁcials to give, and shippers to receive,

rebates for using particular railroads. The act also speciﬁed

that railroads could not change set rates without notifying

the public.

The Hepburn Act of 1906 strictly limited the distribu-

tion of free railroad passes, a common form of bribery. It

also gave the ICC power to set maximum railroad rates.

Although Roosevelt had to compromise with conservative

senators who opposed the act, its passage boosted the gov-

ernment’s power to regulate the railroads.

Health and the Environment

President Roosevelt’s enthusiasm and his considerable skill

at compromise led to laws and policies that beneﬁted both

public health and the environment. He wrote, “We recog-

nize and are bound to war against the evils of today. The

remedies are partly economic and partly spiritual, partly to

be obtained by laws, and in greater part to be obtained by

individual and associated effort.”

REGULATING FOODS AND DRUGS

After reading The Jungle

by Upton Sinclair, Roosevelt responded to the public’s clam-

or for action. He appointed a commission of experts to inves-

tigate the meatpacking industry. The commission issued a

scathing report backing up Sinclair’s account of the disgust-

ing conditions in the industry. True to his word, in 1906

Roosevelt pushed for passage of the Meat Inspection Act,

320 C

HAPTER 9

“ In life, as in a

football game, the

principle . . . is:

Hit the line hard.”

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

MEAT INSPECTION

During the Progressive Era, peo-

ple worried about the kinds of

things that might fall—or walk—

into a batch of meat being

processed. Today, Americans

worry more about contamination

by unseen dangers, such as

E. coli bacteria, mad cow dis-

ease, and antibiotics or other

chemicals that may pose long-

range health risks to people.

In July 1996, Congress passed

the most extensive changes in

standards for meat inspection

since the Meat Inspection Act of

1906. The costs of the new,

more scientiﬁc inspections

amount to about a tenth of a

penny per pound of meat. The

FDA has also adopted restrictions

on importation of feed and live-

stock from other countries to pre-

vent the spread of disease.

Vocabulary

collude: to act

together secretly

to achieve an

illegal or deceitful

purpose

B. Answer From

that point on,

the federal gov-

ernment was

expected to play

a more active

role in settling

labor disputes.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

What was

signiﬁcant about

the way the 1902

coal strike was

settled?

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 320

Page 4 of 9

The Progressive Era 321

Coal Mining in the Early 1900s

Most underground mines had

two shafts—an elevator shaft

(shown here) for transporting

workers and coal, and an air

shaft for ventilation.

The miners’ main

tool was the pick.

Many also used

drilling machines.

Donkeys or mules pulled the

coal cars to the elevators,

which transported the coal

to the surface.

Coal played a key role in America’s industrial boom around the turn of the century,

providing the United States with about 90 percent of its energy. Miners often had

to dig for coal hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface. The work in these mines

was among the hardest and most dangerous in the world. Progressive Era reforms

helped improve conditions for miners, as many won wage increases and shorter

work hours.

The coal mines employed

thousands of children, like this

boy pictured in 1909. In 1916,

progressives helped secure

passage of a child labor law that

forbade interstate commerce of

goods produced by children

under the age of 14.

Like these men

working in 1908,

miners typically

spent their days

in dark, cramped

spaces underground.

▼

Most mines used a room-and-pillar method for extracting

coal. This entailed digging out “rooms” of coal off a series

of tunnels, leaving enough coal behind to form a pillar that

prevented the room from collapsing.

pillars

room

elevator

shaft

room

air shaft

▼

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 321

Page 5 of 9

which dictated strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers and created the pro-

gram of federal meat inspection that was in use until it was replaced by more

sophisticated techniques in the 1990s.

The compromise that won the act’s passage, however, left the government

paying for the inspections and did not require companies to label their canned

goods with date-of-processing information. The compromise also granted meat-

packers the right to appeal negative decisions in court.

PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT

Before any federal regulations were established

for advertising food and drugs, manufacturers had claimed that their products

accomplished everything from curing cancer to growing hair. In addition, popu-

lar children’s medicines often contained opium, cocaine, or alcohol. In a series of

lectures across the country, Dr. Harvey Washington

Wiley, chief chemist at the Department of Agriculture,

criticized manufacturers for adding harmful preserva-

tives to food and brought needed attention to this issue.

In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and

Drug Act, which halted the sale of contaminated

foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling.

Although this act did not ban harmful products out-

right, its requirement of truthful labels reﬂected the

progressive belief that given accurate information, peo-

ple would act wisely.

CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Before Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government

had paid very little attention to the nation’s natural

resources. Despite the establishment of the U.S. Forest

Bureau in 1887 and the subsequent withdrawal from

public sale of 45 million acres of timberlands for a

national forest reserve, the government stood by while

private interests gobbled up the shrinking wilderness.

322 C

HAPTER 9

Government

workers inspect

meat as it moves

through the

packinghouse.

A typical late-

19th-century

product

advertisement.

▼

C. Answer Both

acts created

regulations that

protected con-

sumers’ health.

MAIN IDEA

Comparing

What

similarities did the

Meat Inspection

Act and Pure Food

and Drug Act

share?

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 322

Page 6 of 9

In the late 19th century Americans had shortsightedly exploited their natur-

al environment. Pioneer farmers leveled the forests and plowed up the prairies.

Ranchers allowed their cattle to overgraze the Great Plains. Coal companies clut-

tered the land with refuse from mines. Lumber companies ignored the effect of

their logging operations on ﬂood control and neglected to plant trees to replace

those they had cut down. Cities dumped untreated sewage and industrial wastes

into rivers, poisoning the streams and creating health hazards.

CONSERVATION MEASURES

Roosevelt condemned the view that America’s

resources were endless and made conservation a primary concern. John Muir, a

naturalist and writer with whom Roosevelt camped in California’s Yosemite

National Park in 1903, persuaded the president to set aside 148 million acres of

forest reserves. Roosevelt also set aside 1.5 million acres of water-power sites and

another 80 million acres of land that experts from the U.S. Geological Survey

would explore for mineral and water resources. Roosevelt also established more

than 50 wildlife sanctuaries and several national parks.

True to the Progressive belief in using experts, in 1905 the president named

Gifford Pinchot as head of the U.S. Forest Service. A professional conservationist,

Pinchot had administrative skill as well as the latest scientiﬁc and technical infor-

mation. He advised Roosevelt to conserve forest and grazing lands by keeping

large tracts of federal land exempt from private sale.

Conservationists like Roosevelt and Pinchot, however, did not share the

views of Muir, who advocated complete preservation of the wilderness. Instead,

conservation to them meant that some wilderness areas would be preserved

while others would be developed for the common good. Indeed, Roosevelt’s fed-

eral water projects transformed some dry wilderness areas to make agriculture

possible. Under the National Reclamation Act of 1902, known as the Newlands

40°N

30°N

20°N

130°W

110°W

90°W 80°W 70°W

150°W160°W 140°W

Created 1909–1996

Created 1901–1908

Created 1872–1900

Federal Conservation Lands

0 200 400 kilometers

0 200 400 miles

The Progressive Era 323

Federal Conservation Lands, 1872–1996

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER

Region Prior to 1901, which regions had the

greatest amount of conservation lands?

Human Enviroment Interaction Describe

the effects of Roosevelt’s conservation efforts

and the impact he had on the environment?

Skillbuilder

Answers

1. The West.

2. Roosevelt

helped establish

a strong conser-

vative move-

ment in the

United States.

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 323

Page 7 of 9

Act, money from the sale of public lands in the West funded

large-scale irrigation projects, such as the Roosevelt Dam in

Arizona and the Shoshone Dam in Wyoming. The Newlands

Act established the precedent that the federal government

would manage the precious water resources of the West.

Roosevelt and Civil Rights

Roosevelt’s concern for the land and its inhabitants was not

matched in the area of civil rights. Though Roosevelt's father

had supported the North, his mother, Martha, may well

have been the model for the Southern belle Scarlet O’Hara in

Margaret Mitchell's famous novel, Gone with the Wind. In

almost two terms as president, Roosevelt—like most other

progressives—failed to support civil rights for African

Americans. He did, however, support a few individual African

Americans.

Despite opposition from whites, Roosevelt appointed an

African American as head of the Charleston, South Carolina,

customhouse. In another instance, when some whites in

Mississippi refused to accept the black postmistress he had

appointed, he chose to close the station rather than give in.

In 1906, however, Roosevelt angered many African Americans

when he dismissed without question an entire regiment of

African-American soldiers accused of conspiracy in protect-

ing others charged with murder in Brownsville, Texas.

As a symbolic gesture, Roosevelt invited Booker T.

Washington to dinner at the White House. Washington—

head of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, an all-

black training school—was then the African-American leader most respected by

powerful whites. Washington faced opposition, however, from other African

324 C

HAPTER 9

Civil rights leaders

gather at the 1905

Niagara Falls

conference.

HISTORICAL

▼

D. Answer

Roosevelt

worked for con-

servation, pre-

serving some

resources but

allowing some

to be used, too.

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

Summarize

Roosevelt’s

approach to

environmental

problems.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

The naturalist John Muir visited

the Yosemite region of central

California in 1868 and made it

his home base for a period of six

years while he traveled through-

out the West.

Muir was the ﬁrst to suggest

that Yosemite’s spectacular land

formations had been shaped by

glaciers. Today the park’s impres-

sive cliffs, waterfalls, lakes, and

meadows draw sports enthusi-

asts and tourists in all seasons.

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 324

Page 8 of 9

Americans, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, for his accommodation

of segregationists and for blaming black poverty on blacks

and urging them to accept discrimination.

Persistent in his criticism of Washington’s ideas, Du Bois

renewed his demands for immediate social and economic

equality for African Americans. In his 1903 book The Souls of

Black Folk, Du Bois wrote of his opposition to Washington’s

position.

A PERSONAL VOICE W. E. B. DU BOIS

“ So far as Mr. Washington preaches Thrift, Patience, and

Industrial Training for the masses, we must hold up his hands

and strive with him. . . . But so far as Mr. Washington apolo-

gizes for injustice, North or South, does not rightly value the

privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating

effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training

and ambition of our brighter minds,—so far as he, the South,

or the Nation, does this,—we must unceasingly and ﬁrmly

oppose them.

”

—The Souls of Black Folk

Du Bois and other advocates of equality for African

Americans were deeply upset by the apparent progressive

indifference to racial injustice. In 1905 they held a civil rights

conference in Niagara Falls, and in 1909 a number of African

Americans joined with prominent white reformers in New

York to found the NAACP—the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP, which had

over 6,000 members by 1914, aimed for nothing less than full

equality among the races. That goal, however, found little sup-

port in the Progressive Movement, which focused on the needs

of middle-class whites. The two presidents who followed

Roosevelt also did little to advance the goal of racial equality.

The Progressive Era 325

•Upton Sinclair

•The Jungle

•Theodore Roosevelt

•Square Deal

•Meat Inspection Act

•Pure Food and Drug Act

•conservation

•NAACP

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Create ﬁve problem-solution diagrams

like the one below to show how the

following problems were addressed

during Roosevelt’s presidency:

(a) 1902 coal strike, (b) Northern

Securities Company monopoly,

(d) exploitation of the environment,

and (e) racial injustice.

Write headlines announcing the

solutions.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. FORMING GENERALIZATIONS

In what ways do you think the

progressive belief in using experts

played a role in shaping Roosevelt’s

reforms? Refer to details from the

text. Think About:

• Roosevelt’s use of experts to

help him tackle political, eco-

nomic, and environmental prob-

lems

• how experts’ ﬁndings affected

legislative actions

4. EVALUATING

Research the coal strike of

1902. Do you think Roosevelt’s

intervention was in favor of the

strikers or of the mine operators?

Why?

5. ANALYZING ISSUES

Why did W. E. B. Du Bois oppose

Booker T. Washington’s views on

racial discrimination?

Problems Solutions

Vocabulary

accommodation:

adapting or

making

adjustments in

order to satisfy

someone else

Background

The Niagara

Movement was

comprised of 29

black intellectuals.

They met secretly

in 1905 to

compose a civil

rights manifesto.

W. E. B. DU BOIS

1868–1963

In 1909, W. E. B. Du Bois helped

to establish the NAACP and

entered into the forefront of the

early U.S. civil rights movement.

However, in the 1920s, he faced a

power struggle with the NAACP’s

executive secretary, Walter White.

Ironically, Du Bois had retreated

to a position others saw as dan-

gerously close to that of Booker

T. Wa s h i n g t o n . A r g u i n g f o r a s e p a -

rate economy for African

Americans, Du Bois made a dis-

tinction, which White rejected,

between enforced and voluntary

segregation. By mid-century, Du

Bois was outside the mainstream

of the civil rights movement. His

work remained largely ignored

until after his death in 1963.

317-325-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:07 PM Page 325

Page 9 of 9

328 C

HAPTER 9

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

Progressivism

Under Taft

•Gifford Pinchot

•William Howard

Taft

•Payne-Aldrich

Tariff

•Bull Moose Party

•Woodrow Wilson

Taft’s ambivalent approach to

progressive reform led to a

split in the Republican Party

and the loss of the presidency

to the Democrats.

Third-party candidates continue

to wrestle with how to become

viable candidates.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Early in the 20th century, Americans’ interest in the preservation of

the country’s wilderness areas intensiﬁed. Writers proclaimed the

beauty of the landscape, and new groups like the Girl Scouts gave

city children the chance to experience a different environment. The

desire for preservation clashed with business interests that favored

unrestricted development. Gifford Pinchot (

pGnPshIQ), head of the

U.S. Forest Service under President Roosevelt, took a middle ground.

He believed that wilderness areas could be scientiﬁcally managed to

yield public enjoyment while allowing private development.

A PERSONAL VOICE GIFFORD PINCHOT

“ The American people have evidently made up their minds that our

natural resources must be conserved. That is good. But it settles

only half the question. For whose beneﬁt shall they be conserved—

for the beneﬁt of the many, or for the use and proﬁt of the few? . . .

There is no other question before us that begins to be so important, or that will be

so difﬁcult to straddle, as the great question between special interest and equal

opportunity, between the privileges of the few and the rights of the many, between

government by men for human welfare and government by money for proﬁt.

”

—The Fight for Conservation

President Roosevelt, a fellow conservationist, favored Pinchot’s multi-use land

program. However, when he left ofﬁce in 1909, this approach came under increasing

pressure from business people who favored unrestricted commercial development.

Taft Becomes President

After winning the election in 1904, Roosevelt pledged not to run for reelection in

1908. He handpicked his secretary of war, William Howard Taft, to run against

William Jennings Bryan, who had been nominated by the Democrats for the third

time. Under the slogan “Vote for Taft this time, You can vote for Bryan any time,”

Taft and the Republicans won an easy victory.

Gifford Pinchot

▼

328-331-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 328

Page 1 of 4

TAFT STUMBLES

As president, Taft pursued a cautiously

progressive agenda, seeking to consolidate rather than to

expand Roosevelt’s reforms. He received little credit for his

accomplishments, however. His legal victories, such as bust-

ing 90 trusts in a four-year term, did not bolster his popu-

larity. Indeed, the new president confessed in a letter to

Roosevelt that he never felt like the president. “When I am

addressed as ‘Mr. President,’” Taft wrote, “I turn to see

whether you are not at my elbow.”

The cautious Taft hesitated to use the presidential bully

pulpit to arouse public opinion. Nor could he subdue trou-

blesome members of his own party. Tariffs and conserva-

tion posed his ﬁrst problems.

THE PAYNE–ALDRICH TARIFF

Taft had campaigned on a

platform of lowering tariffs, a staple of the progressive agen-

da. When the House passed the Payne Bill, which lowered

rates on imported manufactured goods, the Senate pro-

posed an alternative bill, the Aldrich Bill, which made fewer

cuts and increased many rates. Amid cries of betrayal from

the progressive wing of his party, Taft signed the Payne-

Aldrich Tariff, a compromise that only moderated the

high rates of the Aldrich Bill. This angered progressives who

believed Taft had abandoned progressivism.

The president

made his difﬁculties worse by clumsily attempting to

defend the tariff, calling it “the best [tariff] bill the

Republican party ever passed.”

DISPUTING PUBLIC LANDS

Next, Taft angered conserva-

tionists by appointing as his secretary of the interior Richard A. Ballinger, a

wealthy lawyer from Seattle. Ballinger, who disapproved of conservationist con-

trols on western lands, removed 1 million acres of forest and mining lands from

the reserved list and returned it to the public domain.

When a Department of the Interior ofﬁcial was ﬁred for protesting Ballinger’s

actions, the ﬁred worker published a muckraking article against Ballinger in

Collier’s Weekly magazine. Pinchot added his voice. In congressional testimony he

accused Ballinger of letting commercial interests exploit the natural resources that

rightfully belonged to the public. President Taft sided with Ballinger and ﬁred

Pinchot from the U.S. Forest Service.

The Republican Party Splits

Taft’s cautious nature made it impossible for him to hold together the two

wings of the Republican Party: progressives who sought change and conserva-

tives who did not. The Republican Party began to fragment.

PROBLEMS WITHIN THE PARTY

Republican conservatives and progressives

split over Taft’s support of the political boss Joseph Cannon, House Speaker

from Illinois. A rough-talking, tobacco-chewing politician, “Uncle Joe” often

disregarded seniority in ﬁlling committee slots. As chairman of the House Rules

Committee, which decides what bills Congress considers, Cannon often weak-

ened or ignored progressive bills.

Reform-minded Republicans decided that their only alternative was to strip

Cannon of his power. With the help of Democrats, they succeeded in March 1910

with a resolution that called for the entire House to elect the Committee on

Rules and excluded the Speaker from membership in the committee.

William Howard Taft

Background

See tariff on

page R46 in the

Economics

Handbook.

DIFFICULT

CONTROLLING RESOURCES

Historically, conservationists such

as Gifford Pinchot have stood for

the balanced use of natural

resources, preserving some and

using others for private industry.

Free-market advocates like Richard

Ballinger pressed for the private

development of wilderness areas.

Preservationists such as John

Muir advocated preserving all

remaining wilderness.

1. Examine the pros and cons of

each position. With which do

you agree? What factors do you

think should inﬂuence deci-

sions about America’s wilder-

ness areas?

2. If you’d been asked in 1902

to decide whether to develop or

preserve America’s wilderness

areas, what would you have

decided? Why?

A. Answer

Ballinger didn’t

approve of con-

serving western

lands; he per-

mitted the sale

of reserved

lands to busi-

ness interests.

The Progressive Era 329

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Issues

How did Taft’s

appointee Richard

Ballinger anger

conservationists?

328-331-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 329

Page 2 of 4

By the midterm elections of 1910, however, the

Republican Party was in shambles, with the progressives on

one side and the “old guard” on the other. Voters voiced

concern over the rising cost of living, which they blamed

on the Payne-Aldrich Tariff. They also believed Taft to be

against conservation. When the Republicans lost the elec-

tion, the Democrats gained control of the House of

Representatives for the ﬁrst time in 18 years.

THE BULL MOOSE PARTY

After leaving office, Roosevelt

headed to Africa to shoot big game. He returned in 1910

to a hero’s welcome, and responded with a rousing

speech proposing a “New Nationalism,” under which the

federal government would exert its power for “the welfare

of the people.”

By 1912, Roosevelt had decided to run for a third

term as president. The primary elections showed that

Republicans wanted Roosevelt, but Taft had the advantage

of being the incumbent—that is, the holder of the ofﬁce.

At the Republican convention in June 1912, Taft support-

ers maneuvered to replace Roosevelt delegates with Taft

delegates in a number of delegations. Republican progres-

sives refused to vote and formed a new third party, the

Progressive Party. They nominated Roosevelt for president.

The Progressive Party became known as the Bull Moose

Party, after Roosevelt’s boast that he was “as strong as a bull

moose.” The party’s platform called for the direct election

of senators and the adoption in all states of the initiative,

referendum, and recall. It also advocated woman suffrage,

workmen’s compensation, an eight-hour workday, a mini-

mum wage for women, a federal law against child labor,

and a federal trade commission to regulate business.

The split in the Republican ranks handed the

Democrats their ﬁrst real chance at the White House since

the election of Grover Cleveland in 1892. In the 1912 pres-

idential election, they put forward as their candidate a

reform governor of New Jersey named Woodrow Wilson.

Democrats Win in 1912

Under Governor Woodrow Wilson’s leadership, the previously conservative New

Jersey legislature had passed a host of reform measures. Now, as the Democratic

presidential nominee, Wilson endorsed a progressive platform called the New

Freedom. It demanded even stronger antitrust legislation, banking reform, and

reduced tariffs.

The split between Taft and Roosevelt, former Republican allies, turned nasty

during the fall campaign. Taft labeled Roosevelt a “dangerous egotist,” while

Roosevelt branded Taft a “fathead” with the brain of a “guinea pig.” Wilson dis-

tanced himself, quietly gloating, “Don’t interfere when your enemy is destroying

himself.”

The election offered voters several choices: Wilson’s New Freedom, Taft’s con-

servatism, Roosevelt’s progressivism, or the Socialist Party policies of Eugene V.

Debs. Both Roosevelt and Wilson supported a stronger government role in eco-

nomic affairs but differed over strategies. Roosevelt supported government action

to supervise big business but did not oppose all business monopolies, while Debs

330 C

HAPTER 9

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

1857–1930

William Howard Taft never wanted

to be president. After serving one

term, Taft left the White House,

which he called “the lonesomest

place in the world,” and taught

constitutional law at Yale for eight

years.

In 1921, President Harding

named Taft chief justice of the

Supreme Court. The man whose

family had nicknamed him “Big

Lub” called this appointment the

highest honor he had ever

received. As chief justice, Taft

wrote that “in my present life I

don’t remember that I ever was

President.”

However, Americans remember

Taft f or, am o ng m a ny othe r thing s ,

initiating in 1910 the popular pres-

idential custom of throwing out

the ﬁrst ball of the major league

baseball season.

Vocabulary

“old guard”:

conservative

members of a

group

B. Answer

Roosevelt’s

campaign plat-

form was much

more progres-

sive. He advo-

cated for

change using

the govern-

ment’s power.

MAIN IDEA

Contrasting

What were

the differences

between Taft’s

and Roosevelt’s

campaign

platforms?

328-331-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 330

Page 3 of 4

•Gifford Pinchot

•William Howard Taft

•Payne-Aldrich Tariff

•Bull Moose Party

•Woodrow Wilson

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Re-create the chart below on your

paper. Then ﬁll in the causes Taft

supported that made people

question his leadership.

Which causes do you think would

upset most people today? Explain.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. HYPOTHESIZING

What if Roosevelt had won another

term in ofﬁce in 1912? Speculate

on how this might have affected

the future of progressive reforms.

Support your answer. Think About:

• Roosevelt’s policies that Taft did

not support

• the power struggles within the

Republican Party

• Roosevelt’s perception of what is

required of a president

4. EVALUATING

Both Roosevelt and Taft resorted

to mudslinging during the 1912

presidential campaign. Do you

approve or disapprove of negative

campaign tactics? Support your

opinion.

The Progressive Era 331

called for an end to capitalism. Wilson

supported small business and free-mar-

ket competition and characterized all

business monopolies as evil. In a speech,

Wilson explained why he felt that all

business monopolies were a threat.

A PERSONAL VOICE

WOODROW WILSON

“ If the government is to tell big busi-

ness men how to run their business,

then don’t you see that big business

men have to get closer to the govern-

ment even than they are now? Don’t

you see that they must capture the

government, in order not to be

restrained too much by it? . . . I don’t

care how benevolent the master is

going to be, I will not live under a mas-

ter. That is not what America was cre-

ated for. America was created in order

that every man should have the same

chance as every other man to exercise

mastery over his own fortunes.

”

—quoted in The New Freedom

Although Wilson captured only 42 percent of the popular vote, he won an

overwhelming electoral victory and a Democratic majority in Congress. As a

third-party candidate, Roosevelt defeated Taft in both popular and electoral votes.

But reform claimed the real victory, with more than 75 percent of the vote going

to the reform candidates—Wilson, Roosevelt, and Debs. In victory, Wilson could

claim a mandate to break up trusts and to expand the government’s role in social

reform.

CauseCauseCauseCause

Result: Taft’s Difﬁculties

in Ofﬁce

Election of 1912

Party Candidate Electoral votes Popular vote

Democratic Woodrow Wilson 435 6,296,547

Progressive Theodore Roosevelt 88 4,118,571

Republican William H. Taft 8 3,486,720

Socialist Eugene V. Debs 0 900,672

Roosevelt, 11

Wilson, 2

C. Answer

Wilson might

concentrate on

the relationship

between busi-

ness and gov-

ernment.

MAIN IDEA

Predicting

Effects

What might be

one of Wilson’s

ﬁrst issues to

address as

president?

328-331-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 331

Page 4 of 4

332 C

HAPTER 9

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

Wilson’s New

Freedom

•Carrie Chapman

Catt

•Clayton Antitrust

Act

•Federal Trade

Commission (FTC)

•Federal Reserve

System

•Nineteenth

Amendment

Woodrow Wilson established

a strong reform agenda as a

progressive leader.

The passage of the Nineteenth

Amendment during Wilson’s

administration granted women

the right to vote.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

On March 3, 1913, the day of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, 5,000

woman suffragists marched through hostile crowds in Washington, D.C.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, the parade’s organizers, were members of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). As police failed

to restrain the rowdy gathering and congressmen demanded an investi-

gation, Paul and Burns could see the momentum building for suffrage.

By the time Wilson began his campaign for a second term in 1916, the

NAWSA’s president, Carrie Chapman Catt, saw victory on the horizon.

Catt expressed her optimism in a letter to her friend Maud Wood Park.

A PERSONAL VOICE CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT

“ I do feel keenly that the turn of the road has come. . . . I really believe

that we might pull off a campaign which would mean the vote within the

next six years if we could secure a Board of ofﬁcers who would have sufﬁcient

momentum, conﬁdence and working power in them. . . . Come! My dear

Mrs. Park, gird on your armor once more.

”

— letter to Maud Wood Park

Catt called an emergency suffrage convention in September 1916, and invit-

ed President Wilson, who cautiously supported suffrage. He told the convention,

“There has been a force behind you that will . . . be triumphant and for which you

can afford. . . . to wait.” They did have to wait, but within four years, the passage

of the suffrage amendment became the capstone of the progressive movement.

Wilson Wins Financial Reforms

Like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson claimed progressive ideals, but he had

a different idea for the federal government. He believed in attacking large con-

centrations of power to give greater freedom to average citizens. The prejudices of

his Southern background, however, prevented him from using federal power to

ﬁght off attacks directed at the civil rights of African Americans.

One American's Story

Carrie Chapman Catt

▼

332-337-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 332

Page 1 of 6

WILSON’S BACKGROUND

Wilson spent his youth in the South during the Civil

War and Reconstruction. The son, grandson, and nephew of Presbyterian minis-

ters, he received a strict upbringing. Before entering the political arena, Wilson

spent time as a lawyer and president of Princeton University. In 1910, Wilson

became the governor of New Jersey. As governor, he supported progressive legis-

lation programs such as a direct primary, worker’s compensation, and the regula-

tion of public utilities and railroads.

As America’s newly elected president, Wilson moved to enact his program,

the “New Freedom,” and planned his attack on what he called the triple wall of

privilege: the trusts, tariffs, and high ﬁnance.

TWO KEY ANTITRUST MEASURES

“Without the watchful . . . resolute inter-

ference of the government,” Wilson said, “there can be no fair play between indi-

viduals and such powerful institutions as the trusts. Freedom today is something

more than being let alone.” During Wilson’s administration, Congress enacted

two key antitrust measures. The ﬁrst, the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914,

sought to strengthen the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Clayton Act pro-

hibited corporations from acquiring the stock of another if doing so would create

a monopoly; if a company violated the law, its ofﬁcers could be prosecuted.

The Clayton Act also speciﬁed that labor unions and farm organizations not

only had a right to exist but also would no longer be subject to antitrust laws.

Therefore, strikes, peaceful picketing, boycotts, and the collection of strike bene-

ﬁts became legal. In addition, injunctions against strikers were prohibited unless

the strikers threatened damage that could not be remedied. Samuel Gompers,

president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), saw great value to workers

in the Clayton Act. He called it a Magna Carta for labor, referring to the English

document, signed in 1215, in which the English king recognized that he was

bound by the law and that the law granted rights to

his subjects.

The second major antitrust measure, the Federal Trade

Commission Act of 1914, set up the Federal Trade

Commission (FTC). This “watchdog” agency was given

the power to investigate possible violations of regulatory

statutes, to require periodic reports from corporations, and

to put an end to a number of unfair business practices.

Under Wilson, the FTC administered almost 400 cease-and-

desist orders to companies engaged in illegal activity.

A NEW TAX SYSTEM

In an effort to curb the power of big

business, Wilson worked to lower tariff rates, knowing that

supporters of big business hadn’t allowed such a reduction

under Taft.

Wilson lobbied hard in 1913 for the Underwood Act,

which would substantially reduce tariff rates for the ﬁrst

time since the Civil War. He summoned Congress to a spe-

cial session to plead his case, and established a precedent of

delivering the State of the Union message in person.

Businesses lobbied too, looking to block tariff reductions.

When manufacturing lobbyists—people hired by manufac-

turers to present their case to government officials—

descended on the capital to urge senators to vote no, pas-

sage seemed unlikely. Wilson denounced the lobbyists and

urged voters to monitor their senators’ votes. Because of the

new president’s use of the bully pulpit, the Senate voted to

cut tariff rates even more deeply than the House had done.

The Progressive Era 333

DEREGULATION

In recent years the railroad, air-

line, and telecommunications

industries have all been deregu-

lated, or permitted to compete

without government control. It is

hoped that this will improve their

efﬁciency and lower prices.

During the Progressive Era,

reformers viewed regulation as a

necessary role of government to

ensure safety and fairness for

consumers as well as industrial

competitors. Opponents of regu-

lation, however, believed that gov-

ernment regulation caused inefﬁ-

ciency and high prices.

Modern critics of deregulation

argue that deregulated businesses

may skimp on safety. They may

also neglect hard-to-serve popula-

tions, such as elderly, poor, or

disabled people, while competing

for more proﬁtable customers.

A. Answer

Wilson placed

greater govern-

ment regula-

tions on busi-

nesses.

Vocabulary

injunction: a court

order prohibiting a

party from a

speciﬁc course of

action

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

What was the

impact of the two

antitrust

measures?

332-337-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 333

Page 2 of 6

FEDERAL INCOME TAX

With lower

tariff rates, the federal government had

to replace the revenue that tariffs had

previously supplied. Ratiﬁed in 1913,

the Sixteenth Amendment legalized a

graduated federal income tax, which

provided revenue by taxing individual

earnings and corporate proﬁts.

Under this graduated tax, larger

incomes were taxed at higher rates than

smaller incomes. The tax began with a

modest tax on family incomes over

$4,000, and ranged from 1 percent to a

maximum of 6 percent on incomes over

$500,000. Initially, few congressmen

realized the potential of the income tax,

but by 1917, the government was receiv-

ing more money on the income tax than

it had ever gained from tariffs. Today,

income taxes on corporations and indi-

viduals represent the federal govern-

ment’s main source of revenue.

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

Next, Wilson turned his attention to ﬁnancial

reform. The nation needed a way to strengthen the ways in which banks were

run, as well as a way to quickly adjust the amount of money in circulation. Both

credit availability and money supply had to keep pace with the economy.

Wilson’s solution was to establish a decentralized private banking system

under federal control. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 divided the nation into 12

districts and established a regional central bank in each district. These “banker’s

banks” then served the other banks within the district.

The federal reserve banks could issue new paper currency in emergency situ-

ations, and member banks could use the new currency to make loans to their cus-

tomers. Federal reserve banks could transfer funds to member banks in trouble,

saving the banks from closing and protecting customers’ savings. By 1923, rough-

ly 70 percent of the nation’s banking resources were part of the Federal Reserve

System. One of Wilson’s most enduring achievements, this system still serves as

the basis of the nation’s banking system.

Women Win Suffrage

While Wilson pushed hard for reform of trusts, tariffs, and banking, determined

women intensiﬁed their push for the vote. The educated, native-born, middle-

class women who had been active in progressive movements had grown increas-

ingly impatient about not being allowed to vote. As of 1910, women had federal

voting rights only in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Washington, and Idaho.

Determined suffragists pushed on, however. They ﬁnally saw success come

within reach as a result of three developments: the increased activism of local

groups, the use of bold new strategies to build enthusiasm for the movement, and

the rebirth of the national movement under Carrie Chapman Catt.

LOCAL SUFFRAGE BATTLES

The suffrage movement was given new strength

by growing numbers of college-educated women. Two Massachusetts organiza-

tions, the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government and the

College Equal Suffrage League, used door-to-door campaigns to reach potential

334 C

HAPTER 9

Background

See taxation on

page R46 in the

Economics

Handbook.

Revenue from Individual Federal Income Tax,

1915–1995

Total

Sources: Historical Statistics of the United States; Statistical Abstract of the United States,

1987, 1995, 1999

Dollars (in billions)

600

500

400

300

200

100

1915 1935 1955 1975 1995

SKILLBUILDER

Interpreting Graphs

About what year did income tax revenues ﬁrst begin to

rise sharply?

About how much revenue did the income tax bring in

1995?

B. Answer

Wilson’s tariff

reform cut tar-

iffs and reduced

the power of

monopolies. The

Federal Reserve

System made

the money sup-

ply responsive

to the state of

the economy.

Skillbuilder

Answers

1. About 1955.

2. Just under

$600 billion.

MAIN IDEA

Evaluating

Why were

tariff reform and

the Federal

Reserve System

important?

332-337-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 334

Page 3 of 6

supporters. Founded by Radcliffe graduate Maud Wood Park,

the Boston group spread the message of suffrage to poor

and working-class women. Members also took trolley tours

where, at each stop, crowds would gather to watch the

unusual sight of a woman speaking in public.

Many wealthy young women who visited Europe as

part of their education became involved in the suffrage

movement in Britain. Led by Emmeline Pankhurst, British

suffragists used increasingly bold tactics, such as heckling

government ofﬁcials, to advance their cause. Inspired by

their activism, American women returned to the United

States armed with similar approaches in their own cam-

paigns for suffrage.

CATT AND THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT

Susan B.

Anthony’s successor as president of NAWSA was Carrie

Chapman Catt, who served from 1900 to 1904 and resumed

the presidency in 1915. When Catt returned to NAWSA

after organizing New York’s Women Suffrage Party, she con-

centrated on ﬁve tactics: (1) painstaking organization;

(2) close ties between local, state, and national workers;

(3) establishing a wide base of support; (4) cautious lobby-

ing; and (5) gracious, ladylike behavior.

Although suffragists saw victories, the greater number

of failures led some suffragists to try more radical tactics.

Lucy Burns and Alice Paul formed their own more radical

organization, the Congressional Union, and its successor,

the National Woman’s Party. They pressured the federal

government to pass a suffrage amendment, and by 1917

Paul had organized her followers to mount a round-the-

clock picket line around the White House. Some of the pick-

eters were arrested, jailed, and even force-fed when they

attempted a hunger strike.

These efforts, and America’s involvement in World War I,

finally made suffrage inevitable. Patriotic American women

who headed committees, knitted socks for soldiers, and sold

liberty bonds now claimed their overdue reward for support-

ing the war effort. In 1919, Congress passed the Nineteenth

Amendment, granting women the right to vote. The

amendment won ﬁnal ratiﬁcation in August 1920—72 years after women had ﬁrst

convened and demanded the vote at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848.

The Limits of Progressivism

Despite Wilson’s economic and political reforms, he disappointed Progressives

who favored social reform. In particular, on racial matters Wilson appeased con-

servative Southern Democratic voters but disappointed his Northern white and

black supporters. He placed segregationists in charge of federal agencies, thereby

expanding racial segregation in the federal government, the military, and

Washington, D.C.

WILSON AND CIVIL RIGHTS

Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson retreated on civil

rights once in ofﬁce. During the presidential campaign of 1912, he won the sup-

port of the NAACP’s black intellectuals and white liberals by promising to treat

blacks equally and to speak out against lynching.

The Progressive Era 335

Vocabulary

appease: pacify

by granting

concessions

C. Possible

Answer A com-

bination of fac-

tors, including

women’s grow-

ing experience

in the public

realm, their

economic and

social power,

and their impor-

tance in the war

effort.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Events

Why do you

think women won

the right to vote in

1920, after earlier

efforts had failed?

EMMELINE PANKHURST

American women struggling for

suffrage received valuable tutor-

ing from their English counter-

parts, whose bold maneuvers

had captured media coverage.

The noted British suffragist

Emmeline Pankhurst, who helped

found the National Women’s

Social and Political Union, often

engaged in radical tactics.

Pankhurst and other suffragists

staged parades, organized

protest meetings, endured hunger

strikes, heckled candidates for

Parliament, and spat on police-

men who tried to quiet them.

They were often imprisoned for

their activities, before Parliament

granted them the right to vote in

1928.

332-337-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 335

Page 4 of 6

History Through

336 C

HAPTER 9

SKILLBUILDER

Interpreting Visual Sources

What are the most striking differences between the two

houses? Cite examples that contrast the two buildings.

How does Wright’s style reﬂect the progressive spirit?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.

▼

Wright's "prairie style" design features a low, horizontal,

and well-deﬁned structure made predominantly of wood,

concrete, brick, and other simple materials. Shown here

is the Robie House (1909), one of Wright's most famous

prairie-style structures, which incorporates these

architectural qualities.

▼

Architecture of the Gilded Age featured

ornate decoration and detail, as seen here in

this Victorian-style house built between 1884

and 1886. Wright rejected these showy and

decorative styles in favor of more simplistic

designs.

FROM SPLENDOR TO SIMPLICITY

The progressive movement, which inﬂuenced numerous aspects of

society, also impacted the world of American architecture. One of the

most prominent architects of the time was Frank Lloyd Wright, who

studied under the renowned designer Louis Sullivan. In the spirit of

progressivism, Wright sought to design buildings that were orderly,

efﬁcient, and in harmony with the world around them.

As president, however, Wilson opposed federal antilynching legislation, argu-

ing that these crimes fell under state jurisdiction. In addition, the Capitol and the

federal ofﬁces in Washington, D.C., which had been desegregated during Recon-

struction, resumed the practice of segregation shortly after Wilson's election.

Wilson appointed to his cabinet fellow white Southerners who extended seg-

regation. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, for example, proposed at a cab-

inet meeting to do away with common drinking fountains and towels in his

department. According to an entry in Daniel’s diary, President Wilson agreed

because he had “made no promises in particular to negroes, except to do them

justice.” Segregated facilities, in the president’s mind, were just.

African Americans and their liberal white supporters in the NAACP felt

betrayed. Oswald Garrison Villard, a grandson of the abolitionist William Lloyd

Garrison, wrote to Wilson in dismay, “The colored men who voted and worked for

you in the belief that their status as American citizens was safe in your hands are

deeply cast down.” Wilson’s response—that he had acted “in the interest of the

negroes” and “with the approval of some of the most inﬂuential negroes I know”—

only widened the rift between the president and some of his former supporters.

332-337-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 336

Page 5 of 6

On November 12, 1914, the president’s reception of an African-American del-

egation brought the confrontation to a bitter climax. William Monroe Trotter,

editor-in-chief of the Guardian, an African-American Boston newspaper, led the

delegation. Trotter complained that African Americans from 38 states had asked

the president to reverse the segregation of government employees, but that seg-

regation had since increased. Trotter then commented on Wilson’s inaction.

A PERSONAL VOICE WILLIAM MONROE TROTTER

“ Only two years ago you were heralded as perhaps the second Lincoln, and now

the Afro-American leaders who supported you are hounded as false leaders and

traitors to their race. . . . As equal citizens and by virtue of your public promises

we are entitled at your hands to freedom from discrimination, restriction, imputa-

tion, and insult in government employ. Have you a ‘new freedom’ for white

Americans and a new slavery for your ‘Afro-American fellow citizens’? God forbid!

”

—address to President Wilson, November 12, 1914

Wilson found Trotter's tone infuriating. After an angry Trotter shook his ﬁn-

ger at the president to emphasize a point, the furious Wilson demanded that the

delegation leave. Wilson’s refusal to extend civil rights to African Americans

pointed to the limits of progressivism under his administration. America’s involve-

ment in the war raging in Europe would soon reveal other weaknesses.

THE TWILIGHT OF PROGRESSIVISM

After taking ofﬁce in 1913, Wilson had

said, “There’s no chance of progress and reform in an administration in which war

plays the principal part.” Yet he found that the outbreak of World War I in Europe

in 1914 demanded America’s involvement. Meanwhile, distracted Americans and

their legislators allowed reform efforts to stall. As the paciﬁst and reformer Jane

Addams mournfully reﬂected, “The spirit of ﬁghting burns away all those impuls-

es . . . which foster the will to justice.”

International conﬂict was destined to be part of Wilson’s presidency. During

the early years of his administration, Wilson had dealt with issues of imperialism

that had roots in the late 19th century. However, World War I dominated most of

his second term as president. The Progressive Era had come to an end.

The Progressive Era 337

•Carrie Chapman Catt

•Clayton Antitrust Act

•Federal Trade Commission

(FTC)

•Federal Reserve System

•Nineteenth Amendment

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Create a time line of key events

relating to Progressivism during

Wilson’s ﬁrst term. Use the dates

already plotted on the time line below

as a guide.

Write a paragraph explaining which

event you think best demonstrates

progressive reform.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES

Wilson said, “Without the watchful . . .

resolute interference of the govern-

ment, there can be no fair play

between individuals and . . . the

trusts.” How does this statement

reﬂect Wilson’s approach to reform?

Support your answer. Think About:

• the government’s responsibility to

the public

• the passage of two key antitrust

measures

4. ANALYZING MOTIVES

Why do you think Wilson failed to

push for equality for African

Americans, despite his progressive

reforms? Think About:

• progressive presidents before

Wilson

• Wilson’s background

• the primary group of people

progressive reforms targeted

1913 1914 1915 1916

D. Answer

Wilson opposed

antilynching leg-

islation, did not

continue deseg-

regation of the

federal govern-

ment, and

appointed to his

cabinet white

Southerners

who supported

segregation.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

What actions

of Wilson

disappointed civil

rights advocates?

332-337-Chapter 9 10/21/02 5:08 PM Page 337

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