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The Age of Reform
Introduction
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Following hard on the heels of the Gilded Age was the Progressive era. Progressives were never a single group and never shared a single objective; the movement can best be seen as a search for order in an increasingly complex society. Among the more famous progressives were the muckraking journalists. The order that Progressives sought was very particular: the movement was paternalistic, often oversimplified issues, and regarded its own (predominantly middle-class) values as absolute; it also seldom challenged the fundamental principles of capitalism or basic social structure. Some who did formed the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Progressives reform often began with corrupt city machines, replacing them with such systems as "home rule," nonpartisan bureaus, city commissioners, and city managers. They also pursued urban renewal, municipalization of public utilities and public transportation systems, and penal-institution reform. Municipal reforms, however, would fail without support at the state level, so progressive reformers also turned their attention there. Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin is exemplary as a progressive at the state level; he introduced direct primaries, corrupt practices acts, and campaign spending legislation, as well as the Wisconsin Idea, which was basically to consult scholars and outside experts on particular reforms. Other states adopted the initiative and referendum to make their governments more responsive to the people. Progressive legislation by states also included laws regulating workplace conditions, restricting child and women’s labor, and regulating transportation, banking, utilities, and insurance. Nationally, one of progressivism's aims was women's suffrage, which was achieved in 1920 with the Nineteenth Amendment. In the White House, Theodore Roosevelt earned a progressive, "trust-busting" reputation, although he much preferred regulating and reaching "gentlemanly agreements" with large corporations to busting them. He was fair to both labor and business, as illustrated in his handling of the anthracite coal strike. But as time passed, Roosevelt did become more progressive and liberal. He backed the Hepburn Act (1906), giving the ICC the right to fix maximum railroad rates, and the Pure Food and Drug Act (1907), supported conservation, and advocated income and inheritance taxes. His move left and the panic of 1907 helped to split the Republican party . His successor, William Howard Taft, aroused Roosevelt’s ire such that Roosevelt broke with the Republicans in 1912. Woodrow Wilson won the election and continued progressive reforms, though tempered to a degree. Wilson was also an exemplary progressive in that he was a reactionary on race matters: progressives’ search for order often included marginalizing blacks. In reaction to this, a new wave of black militancy, led by W. E. B. Du Bois, broke with Booker T. Washington, and began the Niagara Movement and later the NAACP.
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