The Progressive Era

“Leave it as it is!

“Keep it for your children, your children’s children and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights that every American should see.”

—President Theodore Roosevelt, urging his audience in 1903 to protect the Grand Canyon as a national park and reject the attempts to mine it for precious metals

The Progressive Era in the United States, which lasted from about 1890 until 1920, was what the name suggests: a period of social activism, political reform, and bold initiatives.

There was excitement in the air: a feeling that big business magnates, arrogant political bosses, and crooks who exploited the country’s poor workers and rich resources had had their day and now it was time to take care of John Q. Citizen’s needs. It was a time when the federal government took vigorous steps to dissolve illegal trusts to restore competition in the market place; when Congress enacted laws to protect consumers from bogus and harmful products; and when activists accomplished major organizational feats in the civil rights arena.

Some of these pioneering efforts succeeded, some did not. But collectively, the Progressive Era moved history forward and left behind a heritage that has made ours a better country, and that will continue to improve the quality of life in America for generations to come.

The men and women who achieved this progress—and who often fought bitter battles against their opponents—were among the finest American political and civic leaders and professionals.

Here is a short list of the most prominent of these pioneers, and the accomplishments for which they deserve our nation’s special thanks:

Teddy Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was the paramount trailblazer who gave the Progressive Era its name.

Famous for his strenuous lifestyle, swashbuckling and exuberant personality, our 26th president was a statesman honored by the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War; an author of 18 books (including a four volume history entitled The Winning of the West), a warrior who in the Spanish-American War led the legendary charge of the Rough Riders up the San Juan hill in Cuba; and a learned naturalist who explored remote regions of South America and Africa.

But Roosevelt’s biggest claim to lasting fame was his bold leadership as the youngest President of the United States.

Deeply socially-conscious and furious at the greed and deceitful practices of big business leaders, Roosevelt fired his first barrage at what were then called “the robber barons” shortly after his inauguration in 1901. He delivered a 20,000-word speech to Congress calling for laws to curb the power of large corporations. 

He pressed forward with his populist crusade by supporting organized labor, promoting federal regulations to protect consumers, and launching 40 antitrust suits to break up major railroad companies and Standard Oil.

And while promoting the rule of law, social justice, and public health, Roosevelt worked passionately to preserve America’s most beautiful sites and areas for posterity. He was instrumental in conserving and placing under federal protection some 230 million acres of land that includes five stunning national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 National Forests.

The 100 years old agency that maintains and safeguards this great national bounty, the National Park Service, has been and continues to be a uniquely popular part of the federal government.

Upton Sinclair 

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr., was instrumental to improving public health all over the world.

A prodigious journalist and writer, Sinclair authored more than 100 books. He even won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943. But what made him famous was a decision, which he made as a 27 year-old “muckraker,” to investigate rumors about abysmal working conditions at the Chicago stockyards. 

He got a job at one of the meat processing firms and spent seven months stuffing sausages, carving meat, and collecting data on the stockyards’ filthiest food-producing operations.

The book he wrote about this experience, The Jungle, depicted  the workers’ poverty and their harsh and unhealthy living and working conditions. But when it was published in 1905, what mostly turned America’s stomach was the bestseller’s vivid description of the lack of the most basic hygiene at the stockyards. 

The readers responded by cutting down U.S. meat consumption by one third. Their anger and the economic fallout pushed Congress into action. It passed the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, the first federal measure prohibiting the production, transportation, and sale of unsafe food and medicines. 

In time, the law became one of the most effective measures protecting the health of Americans and people throughout the world. Enlarged and made more specific by more than 200 amendments, the act created the Food and Drug Administration, a billion-dollar scientific agency with enormous responsibilities. They include guaranteeing the safety of almost all food and cosmetics; and ensuring the safety, quality, and effectiveness of 13,000 prescription and non-prescription drugs and vaccines, all medical devices, and all tissues for transplantation.

In the last 50 years, FDA’s rigid requirements for production and marketing of these life- and health-saving products have been increasingly recognized and copied throughout the world as the “gold standard.” In the last two decades, the FDA has become a global agency, teaching and helping to enforce its rules to protect and promote the health of millions of people on every continent.

Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony led American women to their supreme but long-denied goal as U.S. citizens: the ballot box.

A social reformer, feminist, and prodigious activist, Anthony plunged into public work at the age of 17 by collecting petitions protesting slavery. At the age of 32, she played a pivotal role in founding the New York Women’s State Temperance Society; and a year later, she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another prominent suffragist, founded the Women’s Loyal National League. The fledgling organization collected nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. At that time, it was the largest petition drive in the nation’s history.

In 1866, Anthony and Stanton launched the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans. In 1868, they began publishing a women’s rights newspaper called The Revolution.

In 1869, Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and in 1878, she authored a proposal giving women the right to vote. Popularly known as the Anthony Amendment and introduced in Congress by a California Senator Aaron A. Sargent, it became the focus of Anthony’s unrelenting drive for its ratification.

The American suffragists won their crusade on August 18, 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. Anthony’s award was to be depicted on the 1979 dollar coin. Our gain has been a more perfect democracy and the possibility of achieving another suffragist triumph: the election of a female president.

W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois rallied African Americans to the cause of full equality.

An intellectual par excellence, W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. After completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. 

His lasting achievement, however, was the co-founding in 1909 of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization he led to defeat the idea that black Americans should agree to become second-class citizens.

The idea was embodied in the so-called “Atlanta compromise” proposed by another prominent African-American leader, Booker T. Washington. Essentially, it said that Southern African-Americans should not agitate for such rights as voting and equal treatment under the law as long as they were given better economic opportunities.

Du Bois rejected such a concession and instead promoted the NAACP’s mission “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.” 

Rather than giving up rights, he argued, black Americans should work for increased political representation—a goal, he insisted, that should be pursued by well-educated members of their community.

Du Bois’ optimistic message prevailed and set African Americans on a course that’s been embraced by their leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, and that led up to our country’s historic election—and re-election—of President Barack Obama.

The Reforms that Failed

Not all of the ideas and leaders of the Progressive Era won the following of the American public.

One of them was “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Sr., who had a sterling political career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, governor of Wisconsin, and U.S. Senator. He was called “arguably the most important and recognized leader of the opposition to the growing dominance of corporations over the government” and in 1957, he was selected one of the five best senators in the history of the U.S. Senate. 

Yet when in 1924 he ran for the White House as the nominee of his own Progressive Party, La Follette won only 17 percent of the national vote.

Another prominent leftist of the Progressive Era was Eugene Victor “Gene” Debs. An able union leader, he was one of the founding members of the radical Industrial Workers of the World, and five times the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America. His greatest electoral success was in the 1912 race, when he won 800,000 votes.

Even the super-active and highly talented Susan B. Anthony failed to permanently achieve one of her primary goals, which was to wean Americans from alcohol. As a leader of the temperance movement, she helped bring about the ratification in 1918 of the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol.

It turned out to be a huge political and economic blunder that was repealed in December 1933 by the 21st Amendment. But even that legacy of the Progressive Era has served our country well; it showed that there are some progressive ideas that most Americans won’t tolerate.