The Progressive Era

As the United States entered the twentieth century, the nation found itself in strife with domestic issues, the cause of which were planted decades before. For decades Americans had been focused on building an industrial economy. As an economic recession and workplace issues boiled into strikes, Americans began to add up the costs: a frightening concentration of corporate power, a rebellious working-class, growing misery in cities, and the corruption of the process of politics. Reform became the new American focus around 1900 and set reform activity going as a significant, self-supporting phenomenon. From 1900 to World War I, this period is known as the Progressive Era. Keep on reading to learn more about the characteristics, women, and more.

Origins of Progressivism

Progressivism is often described as a movement, but there was no agreed-upon agenda and no central unifying organization. Both the Republicans and Democratic parties had progressive wings. And different social groups became active at different times and places. The term “progressivism” describes a widespread, many-sided effort to build a better society. However, many interconnected movements have one thing in common: the growing urban middle class.

Progressivism is born from the realization that the industrial economy of the United States had no substantial socioeconomic middle class. Urbanization and industrialization created a wealthy elite, poorly skilled workers, and very few. This generational crisis gave credence to the progressive reform. Change the social, political, and economic systems to support and grow an urban middle class.

Social Gospel Movement

The generational crisis was also a crisis of faith. Progressives characteristically grew up in homes embroiled in Christian ideals but found themselves falling away from the faith of their parents. Protestant clergy adapted to this crisis in faith, translating a long-felt concern for the poor into a theological doctrine: The Social Gospel Movement. In churches around the country and most major cities, preachers stated that their congregations should embrace the social aims of Jesus, meaning that to get to heaven, you should not focus on your salvation but work for the cause of humanity and social justice.

Characteristics of the Progressive Era

Finding solutions to the issues brought to light by muckrakers was easier said than done. Finding answers depended first on the emergence of an intellectual style that would characterize ‘progressives”: scientific investigation and pragmatism.

If the facts were known, then tangible change was possible. That was the starting point for progressive thinking. Progressivism saw a burst of enthusiasm for scientific investigation: statistical studies, foundations for privately funded research, municipal commissions looking into prostitution, gambling, and other moral issues of urban society. In addition, progressives relied heavily on the expertise of academics who were experts in their focused areas of reform, and the many regions of reform inspired progressive movements.

Urban Reforms

Progressive reformers targeted the plight of the poor urban working class. Progressive movements in the early 1900s focused on:

• Equitable taxation policies focused on big business, corporate property, and the railroads.

• Reform of tenement housing practices

• Better schools and systems of education

• Expanding social services in cities for the poor.

Workplace Reform

Progressives also moved to change the workplace environment for poor urban workers. With targeted movements to address:

• Workplace efficiency

• Workplace Safety

• Curtailing child labor

• Improving Union efficiency and effectiveness

• Better workman’s compensation and establishing minimum wages.

• Improving working hours for women in the workforce.

Women in the Progressive Era

Women traditionally held the role of shouldering the burden of humanitarian work in American cities. They were the core of charity organizations, visiting needy families and working in relief agencies. After decades of similar labor, many women’s organizations took up the progressive movement’s mantel and concluded that assisting the poor was insufficient. Soon, several prominent women's organizations arose, targeting not only the plight of women but other working-class people.

American Suffrage Movement

Women reformers like Florence Kelly breathed new life into the women's suffrage movement. By 1910, suffrage activity began to quicken. In Britain, suffragists began to protest parliament. Inspired by their example, women's organizations brought similar tactics of demonstrations and hunger strikes to the U.S. One of the women leaders inspired to action was Alice Paul. In 1916 she organized the National Woman’s Party that advocated for an amendment to expand suffrage to women. By 1919, the 19th Amendment granting women's suffrage is ratified.

Fig. 1- A picture from 1912 showing the Woman Suffrage Headquarters of Ohio

Progressivism in Politics

Progressivism began at the state and local levels, where problems were immediate and easily seen. But reformers soon realized that many social issues, such as child labor and industrial safety, were best handled by the federal government. Because these issues were usually the concern of big business, there was no place else to turn. Seasoned reformers turned their attention to Washington and lobbied for a progressive bloc of legislators in Congress.

Progressivism burst onto the stage not through Congress, however, but by way of the presidency. This was partly because the president could become an influential spokesperson for progressive policies. The early twentieth century saw several presidential administrations from the Republican and Democratic parties have progressive tenancies, such as Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

Progressive era politics saw policy changes and constitutional changes:

• The creation of direct primaries allows all voters to voice their opinion on their party's nominations.

• The process of creating initiatives for a public-backed proposition or law to be voted on.

• The referendum process allows voters to enact policy.

• The ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913: established the direct election of senators.

• The 18th Amendment in 1917 prohibited the manufacture or sale of alcohol.

• The 19th Amendment in 1919 granted women suffrage.

Failures of the Progressive Era

Even with all the political and social successes of the progressive era, there is one area of society in which the progressive movement failed: race relations and racial reform.

Fig. 5- W.E.B. Du Bois, an African American progressive who was one of the founding members of the NAACP

Several African American social and political groups adopted the characteristics of the progressive movement, looking to enact similar change for African Americans oppressed by Jim Crow laws, unfair political policies, and social stratification. African American progressive leaders such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells took on movements to combat sexism, racism, and discrimination. During the progressive era, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded, along with other groups that targeted segregation as the main issue.

However, black progressives came up against an unexpected adversary: white progressives. With segregation as the central issue, white progressives worked against their black counterparts. For many white progressives, the plight of African Americans was caused by the integration of black and white society after the Civil War. For them, segregation was the progressive answer, not enacting policies to improve integration.

This blight on the progressive movement would remain until a rejuvenated social movement emerged following World War II, laying the foundation for the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s that would adopt many of the political and social organization lessons learned during the progressive era.