Sample Response

Following the depression of the 1890s and the remarkable success of the Populist Movement in reforming certain aspects of transportation and politics, the Progressives sought to end the abuse of power, reform social institution, and promote bureaucratic and scientific efficiency. Led mainly by the urban, middle-class, the Progressive Era flourished during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Characterized by a combination of different movements, the Progressive Era aimed to renovate American values, morals, and institutions and to combat "a foolish and ill judged mock-radicalism" according to Theodore Roosevelt.

Progressivism grew out of the new association and organizations at the turn of the century. Having escaped a devastating depression, the Progressives attempted to enrich the American society with a more polished set of values and morals. The rise of organizations like the American Bar Association, the National Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Municipal League rallied new citizens, who were not satisfied with the policies of the major political parties, to support the Progressive cause.

The Progressives, for the most part, were members of the educated middle class. The obvious corruption that they saw in politics and business hurt their sense of decency. The deplorable conditions of the urban poor simply provided yet another impetus for the Progressive Movement. Supported by a group of reform-minded journalists, Progressives exposed the true face of American corruption. As Lincoln Steffens in The Shame of the Cities notes, "The honest citizens of Philadelphia have no more rights at the polls than the negroes down South." He then goes on to express his disgust for the political machine that "controls the whole process of voting" and "pads the list with names of dead dogs." Having blindly lost the ideals of justice and democracy, the Progressives persuaded many states to adopt reforms such as the initiative, referendum, and recall in an effort to restore and renovate their society. Another example, well publicized in the papers, was the corruption in the meat-packing industry. As Upton Sinclair reported in his novel, The Jungle, that led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, the meat-packing industry had used "old and crippled and diseased cattle to be canned"; such instances were not rare. In fact, Sinclair claims that "every time you met a person, . . . you heard of new swindles and new crimes." Bringing public attention to the societal corruption and flaws, the Progressive sought to re-raise the moral standards in business and politics.

The success achieved by the Progressive Movement was in part because it was an urban, middle class movement. The Progressive movement, centered around the Northern middle class, did not inflame regional and class differences that the Populist movement had. The "universal" participation of the movement partly explains their success. The women undoubtedly played an integral part during these decades. Finding new roles and opportunities to expand the "women's sphere," many women of the Progressive Era swept the country with ideals of education and women's rights. Jane Addams, the founder of the Hull House and a firm advocate of women's right to vote, says, "Infant mortality, prostitution and drunkenness are the enemies which the moden cities must face. . . . Logically, its electorate should be made up of those who can bear a valiant part in this arduous contest." Such ideas were not well received to say the least; many of the men, unwilling to give up their current position in society, found these ideas "radical." But women found support and a moral "calling" to pursue their rights. As one poster claimed, "Vote YES on the amendment enabling woman to vote. Give your children equal rights!" These women campaigned for public enlightenment on the predicaments of the orphans, prostitutes, and the mentally infirm. By using morality and logic, Progressives achieved their greatest success with the passage of the nineteenth amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote. Such successes exemplify how the new patterns of thought during the period were truly "progressive."

Another wave of movement occurred in the political realm. Theodore Roosevelt, the most prominent Progressive leader at the time, stressed the importance of the government and the need to eliminate corruption in businesses and in politics. He firmly believed that the "muck-rakers" (journalists who revealed social, economic, and political abuses) had made "reform respectable in a commercialized world." As the popular poster illustrates, Roosevelt was even nicknamed "The Trustbuster" in honor of his policies against big-business monopolies; he, in fact, was the first president to use the Sherman Anti-Trust Act against the monopolies. In 1904 for example, the Supreme Court, influenced by his policies, dissolved the Northern Securities Company, a railroad trust formed by J. P. Morgan. Woodrow Wilson continued Roosevelt's policy towards regulating businesses. Wilson went one step farther than Roosevelt by "condemn[ing] monopoly" and to "get the grip of monopoly away from our lives" rather than "accept[ing] it as the inevitable consequence of the modern organization of industry." At the same time, some ideals and policies of Progressivism were only good on paper and were not practical nor applicable. As Roosevelt confesses in his autobiography, "I pushing forward and [the opponents] handling back. Gradually, however, I was forced to abandon the efforts to persuade them to come my way." Roosevelt, in other words, had to compromise his idealism; Senate and the House often disagreed with Roosevelt's "progressive" ideas.

The Progressive Era lasted until the end of World War I, when the country had to back away from the moral crusade to "set the public welfare in the first place" (Document F). The wide-ranging variety of movements within the Progressive Era split the Progressive coalition by dividing the lefts from the moderates. It can be argued that the Progressivism was brought to a halt, due to its own success; it was simply unable to accommodate all the interest groups. The most important progress made during the era, undeniably, was the establishment and the revision of the old ways of thinking. The Progressive Era provided an outlet for the middle class to express and act on their moral compulsion to re-establish stability in politics, rights of minorities, and businesses.