The Progressive Era and the Power of the People
Exactly when the
Gilded Age ended and the
Progressive Era began is, as always, a bit of a historical debate. As I discussed in the
last post of this series, progressivism grew in response to the excesses of wealth, so some of its advances had already begun such as the
Pendleton Act,
American Federation of Labor, and
Sherman Anti-Trust Act However, I like to see it as beginning with a gunshot.
Governor
Theodore Roosevelt had proven a thorn in the New York republican party leadership with his progressive ideas of reform. Then,
Vice President Garret Hobart died, leaving
President McKinley in need of a new vice president for his re-election. The party bosses now had a tried and true way to get an unwelcome politician out of the way. They convince Roosevelt to be McKinley's new vice president.. With Roosevelt, McKinley won in a landslide only to be assassinated in his first year. Suddenly, for the first time, against his own party’s efforts, a progressive was the most powerful politician in America.
You might not call President Roosevelt a progressive by the standards of today, but he certainly made steps towards a more progressive government. He argued along, what he would all later the
Square Deal, that government had a role in protecting workers and consumers from "predatory wealth”. These sentiments live on within the democratic party, demonstrated when President Obama invoked Roosevelt's famous
New Nationalism speech, echoes the words, and made them his own:
"But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can. ...And today, they still can’t.
"... this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules ..."
From President Obama’s economic speech in Osawatomie, Kansas.
Starting with the
Coal Strike of 1902, President Roosevelt did something not done before, the government took the side of a union. Before when the government got involved, it was to break up a strike taking the stance that the property of the business owner needed to be protected. Instead, President Roosevelt forced both sides to negotiate for the good of the Nation. The precedent was set.
After that, mostly under pressure from the public, activists, and muckrakers, more restrictions on business pass such as the
Expediting Act,
Elkins Act,
Pure Food and Drug Act, and
Meat Inspection Act. These were small actions, but they were the beginning of the “regulatory state”.
For the most part, progressive reforms were bipartisan. Each party wanted to do something progressive, they just differentiated on the details, how progressive to be, and who should get credit. That’s where the votes were. Much of the country were those that had been abused by the Gilded Age now, not the ones who prospered. America had been reshaped by immigration, economic turmoil, and technology, but what became of a common thread is this. Most American wanted the government to help them with their problems.
To go over the list of progressive acts and reforms passed would consume more than one post, but up until now, they were limited regulations on business, reforms of government corruption, and the building of public works. This was also the time when 4 significant amendments were passed, the 16th through 19th.
The
16th Amendment made it legal for the Federal Government to collect income tax. You really can’t underestimate the political significant. No one wants to pay taxes, so politics is always about them. However, with such taxes as tariffs, the opposing sides did not depend on wealth but how the wealth was made. Wealthy businessmen wanting fewer imports would use their influence to promote more taxes. However, income tax means the wealthy are always incentivized to use their wealth for lower taxes that can only be countered by populace arguments motivating the masses. Maybe over simplified, but that can sum up most of the political arguments for the last century.
The
17th Amendment made senators elected by democratic vote. This made the lower income voter more significant especially in low population states. Given what we learned in
post 1 that seems more significant than it is. However, the number of senators per state did not change, which is what creates the biggest discrepancy. Also, lower income voters had a say before in who their senators were in that they elected the people that voted appointed them. This just made their power more direct. In other words, now senators had to campaign.
The
19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. Obviously, this is the most significant in that it doubled the electorate. But, I’m going to tread lightly here and not say much. I can be stupid, but not stupid enough to claim women vote differently than men without a lot of thought and facts to back me up.
The Progressive Era did have its darker roots, though. Because progressivism includes the idea that science should be used to govern, many
progressives advocated eugenics.
[1] You will notice that progressives of this era made no opposition to
Jim Crow laws. Partly it was political expediency, but it was also because many progressives embraced white supremacy and, even if well meaning, believed social problems required “racial” solutions. For example,
President Woodrow Wilson segregated the Federal Government and the
Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed. Fortunately, these attitudes only form intent and did not successfully lead to much legislation or permanent effects (which is why you hear so little of it). What it did mean is that while advancement was made for women and the poor, nothing was done for different races.
When progressivism dealt with democratic expansion, civil rights, government corruption, and business greed, it proved successful (at least politically so). It’s when it attempted social engineering problems started. The most visible example is the Temperance Movement and the
18th Amendment. We discussed the Temperance Movement when
covering the Jacksonian Era. The movement was apolitical, but more closely aligned with republicans. Besides the fact that much of these movements had, historically, associated themselves with republican abolitionists, the Republican Party chose as a political strategy to
promote temperance as an attack against democrats. Most Irish and Germans being democrats, republicans used stereotypes of them to paint the democrats as lacking character.
Progressives embraced temperance based on sociological reasoning. The temperance movement did not just want to ban alcohol because of morality, but a belief that it was the
cause of many social ills including familial abuse, unemployment, crime, and so on.
[2] (This is also why the Temperance Movement and Suffrage movement became linked. It's not an accident that both amendments were passed next to each other.) Now, we know alcohol can contribute to these problems or be a symptom of a mutual cause, but outlawing alcohol does not cure these problems. It can even make them worse. Prohibition proved a failure to be undone by the
21st Amendment.
Although, the end of the Progressive Era had begun before the beginning of Prohibition. What began the end is what ends most eras, war. Up until now, politicians, for the most part, agreed on what American foreign policy should be. There should be as little as possible.
Staying out of other conflicts, especially European, was the consensus, what we would call isolationism today. The
Spanish-American War was America's first attempt at imperialism
[3], and Americans found they did not like it.
[4] But, progressives often viewed foreign affairs as the opportunity, even a responsibility, to make the world better, not just America.
Like it or not, the world had changed, and America, like everyone else, was drawn into WW1. President Wilson delayed America's entrance until the war was almost over, but there are two beliefs about WW1 everyone, even today, agrees with. It should not have happened and it should not happen again. For President Wilson, the second provided the opportunity to apply
his theories to prevent war, in particular, the
League of Nation.
America wanted no part of it, and the League of Nations failed. Combined with its failure, a post-war economic decline, the death of Theodore Roosevelt
[5], and Prohibition, the progressive movement had been mortally wounded. It may not have ended yet, but it did enter a decline.
And then there were the communists. You will remember that during WW1 is when Russia became the first communist state. Fear of communists, bolsheviks, and anarchists had begun when these ideas were first heard of, but the hyper-nationalism brought by WW1, the shock of the Russian Revolution, and terrorist acts done by these leftist groups created what would come to be known as the
1st Red Scare. Hysteria rose beyond the threat, causing deportation and persecution. Within a year, when the predicted Bolshevik revolution did not happen, the panic had faded, but the damage had been done.
Slandering progressivism as communism-lite is not hard. Certainly, if you believe in the most limited government possible, you would inevitably see it that way. However, most of us don’t. But, the communists, Bolsheviks, and anarchists of 1919 made that association all the easier even for those of us not prone to see it. You will still see many conservatives and other groups claim the progressive movement had been “invaded by communists”, and they will point to the 1st Red Scare to justify it.
Ironically, as a progressive, you would not promote a reaction like the 1st Red Scare, realizing you would be its first victim. However, what makes such hysteria more threatening is when it happens with an overpowerful intrusive government, which progressives tend to promote. Then, you see the beginnings of a police state. Fortunately, American has never come anywhere near to being a police state, compared to actual police states, but you can understand the fear.
There is a natural tension in democracies between the needs of the majority versus the rights of individuals. Too much power to the majority and we risk becoming a police state. Too little power, then individuals through wealth and influence become robber barons. The Progressive Era had happened in response to the latter. But, behind that, there was always a fear that the majority would go too far. Perhaps, Prohibitions and the 1st Red Scare were examples of too far. Perhaps not. But, if you know just a little of the history to follow, you know in about twenty years it's going to get a lot scarier.
