The Progressive Era

In the early twentieth century, reformers worked to improve American society and counteract
the effect of industrialization.

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Overview

The period of US history from the 1890s to the 1920s is usually referred to as the Progressive
Era, an era of intense social and political reform aimed at making progress toward a better
society.

Progressive Era reformers sought to harness the power of the federal government to eliminate
unethical and unfair business practices, reduce corruption, and counteract the negative social
effects of industrialization.

During the Progressive Era, protections for workers and consumers were strengthened, and
women finally achieved the right to vote.

The problems of industrialization

Though industrialization in the United States raised standards of living for many, it had a dark
side. Corporate bosses, sometimes referred to as “robber barons,” pursued unethical and unfair
business practices aimed at eliminating competition and increasing profits. Factory workers,
many of them recent immigrants, were frequently subjected to brutal and perilous working and
living conditions. Political corruption enriched politicians at the expense of the lower and
working classes, who struggled to make ends meet. The gap between the “haves” and the “have-
nots” was widening.^1

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The Progressive movement arose as a response to these negative effects of industrialization.

Progressive reformers sought to regulate private industry, strengthen protections for workers
and consumers, expose corruption in both government and big business, and generally improve
society.^2

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Political cartoon depicting fat businessmen sitting on bags of money while working people
struggle under the burdens of their trades, such as clothing, iron, and lumber.
Political cartoon depicting fat businessmen sitting on bags of money while working people
struggle under the burdens of their trades, such as clothing, iron, and lumber.

Political cartoon criticizing the "robber barons" of industry for profiting off of workers who were
poorly paid and subjected to harsh conditions. Puck magazine, February 1883. Image courtesy
Wikimedia Commons.

The ideology and politics of progressivism

The worldview of Progressive reformers was based on certain key assumptions. The first was
that human nature could be improved through the enlightened application of regulations,
incentives, and punishments. The second key assumption was that the power of the federal
government could be harnessed to improve the individual and transform society. These two
assumptions were not shared by political conservatives, who tended to believe that human
nature was unchanging, and that the federal government should remain limited in size and
scope.^3

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Photograph of Ida Tarbell.

Photograph of Ida Tarbell.

Ida Tarbell, pioneer of investigative journalism who published an exposé of Standard Oil's
business practices. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Some of the most famous Progressive reformers were Jane Addams, who founded Hull House in
Chicago to help immigrants adapt to life in the United States; Ida Tarbell, a “muckraker” who
exposed the corrupt business practices of Standard Oil and became an early pioneer of
investigative journalism; and Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, who both
expanded the power of the federal government to impose regulations on private industry and
implement protections for workers, consumers, and the natural environment.

Progressive reformers successfully influenced the passage of much substantive legislation,

including several amendments to the US Constitution. The Sixteenth Amendment established a
federal income tax, the Seventeenth Amendment allowed for the direct election of Senators, the
Eighteenth Amendment prohibited sales of alcohol, and the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed
women the right to vote.

Legislation aimed at strengthening protections for workers and consumers included the Pure
Food and Drug Act of 1906, which created the Food and Drug Administration to guarantee the
safety and purity of all food products and pharmaceuticals, and the Clayton Antitrust Act of
1914, which sought to curb business practices aimed at stifling competition.^4
4

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The dark side of progressivism

Though Progressive reformers achieved many noteworthy goals during this period, they also
promoted discriminatory policies and espoused intolerant ideas. The Wilson administration, for
instance, despite its embrace of modernity and progress, pursued a racial agenda that
culminated in the segregation of the federal government. The years of Wilson’s presidency
(1913-1921) witnessed a revival of the Ku Klux Klan and a viciously racist backlash against the
economic and political gains of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction period.^5

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Labor unions, which were very active in Progressive politics, supported restrictions on
immigration and spewed xenophobic rhetoric that blamed immigrants for low wages and harsh
working conditions in factories across the nation. Federal immigration policies in the Progressive
Era, including the Immigration Act of 1917 and the National Quota Law of 1921, severely limited
immigration based on nationality, and excluded virtually all Asian immigrants.^6

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In line with their view of human nature as capable of being engineered and manipulated, many
Progressive reformers advocated selective breeding, or eugenics. Eugenics was considered “the
science of better breeding” and aimed to improve the genetic quality of the human population
through policies that would encourage the more “desirable” elements of society to have more
children while preventing “undesirables” from reproducing. Eugenics was based on a racial and
class hierarchy that placed white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants at the top. Lower classes, ethnic
minorities, recent immigrants, the mentally ill, and the developmentally disabled all occupied
lower rungs on this hierarchy. In 1907, the United States became the first country to pass a
compulsory sterilization law.

The genocidal policies of Nazi Germany ultimately discredited the “science” of eugenics, but not
before over 60,000 American men and women were forcibly sterilized to prevent them from
having children.^7