Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement
David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Community College
In the early twentieth century a powerful and pervasive shift from laissez-faire to government activism, called the Progressive Movement, swept across the nation. Progressives wanted to rid politics of corruption and inefficiency, curtail the power of the business trusts, and protect the general welfare of the public. They saw government not as only a protector of private property and individual freedom, but as an agent for social justice. Most of the leading progressives were white, middle-class urban professionals who felt alienated and frustrated by the unbridled growth of big business and the widening division between the rich and poor in American society.
Many progressives, like Theodore Roosevelt, possessed a fundamental conservatism, fearing that the consolidation of power and wealth in the hands of private interests threatened the morality and stability of the nation. Roosevelt's aim was not to restructure American capitalism but to protect it from its own excesses through prudent government intervention. In enforcing federal antitrust laws, Roosevelt drew a distinction between good trusts and bad trusts. [Trusts were large corporations that controlled a substantial share of the market. The term originated back in the 1880s with the investment strategy initiated by Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan, in which stockholders from related companies pooled their shares into a single "holding company" in return for so-called "trust" certificates.] In 1901 Roosevelt proclaimed that "extreme care must be taken not to interfere with [business] in a spirit of rashness . . . . Combination and concentration should be, not prohibited, but supervised and within reasonable limits controlled." To this, Mr. Dooley quipped, "Th' trists, says [Teddy], are heejoous monsthers build up be the enlightened interprise iv the men that have done so much to advance progress in our beloved counthry, he says. On wan hand I wud stamp thim undher fut; on th' other hand not so fast." In his first and most celebrated antitrust case, in 1902 Roosevelt's Attorney General, Philander Knox, took on J. P. Morgan's Northern Securities Company for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. "Send your man to my man and they can fix it up," Morgan suggested, but Roosevelt would not back down and Knox vigorously prosecuted the case. After a two-year battle through the federal court system, the giant railroad trust was busted in U.S. v. Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt's administration initiated antitrust proceedings against over 40 more corporations (including the Swift & Company beef trust, Standard Oil, and the American Tobacco Company).
In an even more startling display of presidential initiative, Roosevelt intervened in the 1902 anthracite coal strike. As winter approached and 140,000 miners stayed off the job, the coal industry was paralyzed and the nation grew desperate. The mine owners refused to recognize the miners' union, let alone negotiate a settlement. Roosevelt summoned both sides to his office for an informal meeting. The managers rudely refused to even consider arbitration with the president of the United Mine Workers, John A. Mitchell, and chastised Roosevelt for meddling. Furious, Roosevelt leaked word that he might declare a national emergency and call out the Army to run the mines if the owners did not give in. A settlement was reached that granted the miners' demands for a higher wage and shorter work day. Never before had a president acted so boldly to settle a strike, nor respected the interests of labor rather than allying with business.
As the coal strike illustrates, Roosevelt saw himself as a mediator and a custodian of the national interest. He vigorously fought for tougher regulation of railroad practices (the Elkins Act of 1903 and the Hepburn Railway Act of 1906), consumer products (Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906), and conservation of natural resources. Roosevelt viewed the presidency as a "bully pulpit" and he actively campaigned not only for votes and legislation, but also to educate the public. He gave more speeches [and wrote more articles and books for publication] than any American president prior to his cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1932-45). For his time, TR had a remarkably farsighted appreciation of natural resources. A lifelong outdoorsman (rancher, hunter, bird-watcher, explorer), Roosevelt used executive orders to by-pass Congress and saved over 170 million acres of timberland ("I hate a man who would skin the land," he declared). He created fifty wildlife refuges, approved five new national parks, and began the designation of natural national monuments such as the Grand Canyon. Some historians cite conservation as his most important achievement in domestic affairs. [Refer to TR: Lion in the White House, for more information.]
The challenge for Progressive politicians like Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson was the difficulty of walking a political tightrope, balancing the radical elements of socialism and populism on the left (what TR called "the lunatic fringe") and the conservatives who controlled both the Republican and Democratic parties on the right. Though enormously popular, Roosevelt so alienated the Republican "Old Guard" with his trust-busting, conservation, and various other "radical" actions that he was denied the nomination in 1912 (despite having beaten Taft in most of the primaries). He bolted the convention and ran as the Progressive "Bull Moose" party's candidate for president. In an interesting footnote to history, on the way to a Progressive rally, TR was shot in the chest by a would-be assassin. He went on to deliver his speech before being rushed to a hospital. By dividing the Republican vote, he enabled the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, to win the presidency without a majority of the votes. [TR recovered from the bullet wound, and from the election defeat, and later explored an uncharted river in Brazil. He barely survived the arduous journey and never fully regained his health. Some historians speculate that he might have run again in 1920 (and won) but his heart finally gave out after a strenuous life and he died in his sleep on January 6, 1919.]
The Progressive Movement succeeded in transforming the federal government into a powerful agent for economic stability and equality, fair labor practices, management of natural resources, consumer protection, and "good government" [more honest, efficient, and democratic]. None of these objectives were perfectly achieved, of course. Women played an important role in the progressive movement, focusing on social issues like child labor, education, nutrition, health care, and alcoholism; finally in 1920 they won the right to vote in federal elections. (To his credit, Roosevelt was an outspoken proponent of women's suffrage and equal treatment in the workplace, though he did believe the traditional role of housewife/mother should come first.) However, blacks and other minorities were largely excluded from the table of progressivism. (Roosevelt created a stir by inviting Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, and his last public appearance was with W.E.B. DuBois. He believed in the superiority of White Anglo-Saxon Protestantism but was not a racist in the common sense of the times; he advocated fair treatment of all citizens. Late in life he became excessively intolerant of aliens radicals, largely as a result of his obsession with "100 percent Americanism" during the First World War.) Aside from railroad regulation, not much of the progressives' agenda addressed the frustrations of farmers. Some of the historical roots of the Progressive Movement have been traced back to nineteenth century Populism, but like Roosevelt, most progressives were urban community leaders with little appreciation of agrarian issues.
So, women, blacks, and farmers at best were on the margins of the Progressive Movement. Moreover, labor reform was minimal, and the political and socioeconomic status quo remained largely intact. But before judging the progressives too harshly, we should remember how bad social conditions were at the time, and the odds against which the reformers fought in their vigorous efforts to mitigate the harshness of industrial-urban life in the early twentieth century. Though far from perfect, America became a better place because of the progressivesDCH 1999
