alternatehistory.com
The Progressive Era
Weaver's Presidency, for all its failings, is generally considered the beginning of the Progressive Era. During this period the country experienced a wave of social reform and social upheaval as a generation of activists pushed new policies to deal with the inequities that had emerged at the close of the industrial revolution. Both the Republicans and the Populists had progressive wings, and leadership over the movement seesawed between the two parties from election to the next.
In the South, progressive politics met resistance from a new generation of black business owners and leaders who had finally come to enjoy a degree of economic parity with their white neighbors. Southern progressives tended to gravitate more towards social reforms espoused more by the Republicans rather than the more radical economic reforms pushed by many Populist politicians. One of the harshest critics of the Populist party of this era was Tuskegee University Founder Booker T. Washington, who by his death in 1915 had seen his university flourish with the endowments from its first generation of graduates. Harvard professor W.E.B. Dubious had a more nuanced attitude to Populist party "Penny Progressives" as they were often known, arguing the merits of many of the Party's proposed economic reforms (particularly government ownership of railroads and public banking), but criticizing the party's often dismissal or even contempt for issues facing black voters.
Washington and Dubois concerns were only addressed by one Populist candidate in this period, then Illinois Senator Clarence Darrow. Darrow had been a longtime progressive activist, first as a lawyer and then after his entry into politics in the 1890s. His campaign in 1904 sought to bring in African American support through an aggressive campaign to include more African Americans in the People's Party, a tall order especially after the Republican controlled Senate voted to confirm Blanche Bruce as the country's first black Vice President in 1901. Darrow had the good fortune however, for more conservative Republicans staging a political coup at the convention in Chicago, and nominating Ohio Governor William Howard Taft, who was believed by many to be a closeted white supremacist. This rumor would haunt Taft as he worked to bridge the gap between his party's conservative and progressive wings. At one point Taft's overtures to the progressives led to House Majority Whip Joseph Gurney Cannon summoning the candidate to speak to a group of conservative members of the House to assure them of his support for them in his cabinet. At this meeting Taft was reported by a congressional page that Taft promised to not hire any black Republicans to fill federal vacancies. The meeting came to be known as the "Cannon Ball" and is widely attributed to Taft and Cannon's defeats in the 1904 elections.
Republicans would spend the next four years working to repair the damage done by the Taft campaign, with Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks leading the charge to purge the party of some of its more bigoted members of the conservative faction. Meanwhile the Darrow administration worked to breakup the massive Trusts that had come to dominate the American economy. Darrow however, would meet the same fate as Weaver, and in early 1908 the country would enter another economic crisis that would cost him re-election. In his last days in office, Darrow worked tirelessly to save the economy from ruin and managed to just barely push through the National Rail Act that created the country's first National Railroad Company.
Darrow would be succeeded by the last, and possibly greatest President of the Progressive era: Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had come within a hair's breadth of the Presidency a decade before, just barely losing the Vice Presidency under McKinley to John D. Long. Having run on a campaign of New Nationalism, Roosevelt pushed through some of the most consequential reforms of the progressive era, establishing the 8-hour workday, national-minimum wage laws, the aiding the passage of the Universal Suffrage Amendment, and farm relief. These reforms are often historical footnotes for the Roosevelt administration as the First World War (1912-1915) came to dominate his administration's second term. As the war came to bookend the Progressive era, Roosevelt's final reforms would be the passage of the Income Tax amendment, and completing the desegregation of the US military via executive order.
In the South, progressive politics met resistance from a new generation of black business owners and leaders who had finally come to enjoy a degree of economic parity with their white neighbors. Southern progressives tended to gravitate more towards social reforms espoused more by the Republicans rather than the more radical economic reforms pushed by many Populist politicians. One of the harshest critics of the Populist party of this era was Tuskegee University Founder Booker T. Washington, who by his death in 1915 had seen his university flourish with the endowments from its first generation of graduates. Harvard professor W.E.B. Dubious had a more nuanced attitude to Populist party "Penny Progressives" as they were often known, arguing the merits of many of the Party's proposed economic reforms (particularly government ownership of railroads and public banking), but criticizing the party's often dismissal or even contempt for issues facing black voters.
Washington and Dubois concerns were only addressed by one Populist candidate in this period, then Illinois Senator Clarence Darrow. Darrow had been a longtime progressive activist, first as a lawyer and then after his entry into politics in the 1890s. His campaign in 1904 sought to bring in African American support through an aggressive campaign to include more African Americans in the People's Party, a tall order especially after the Republican controlled Senate voted to confirm Blanche Bruce as the country's first black Vice President in 1901. Darrow had the good fortune however, for more conservative Republicans staging a political coup at the convention in Chicago, and nominating Ohio Governor William Howard Taft, who was believed by many to be a closeted white supremacist. This rumor would haunt Taft as he worked to bridge the gap between his party's conservative and progressive wings. At one point Taft's overtures to the progressives led to House Majority Whip Joseph Gurney Cannon summoning the candidate to speak to a group of conservative members of the House to assure them of his support for them in his cabinet. At this meeting Taft was reported by a congressional page that Taft promised to not hire any black Republicans to fill federal vacancies. The meeting came to be known as the "Cannon Ball" and is widely attributed to Taft and Cannon's defeats in the 1904 elections.
Republicans would spend the next four years working to repair the damage done by the Taft campaign, with Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks leading the charge to purge the party of some of its more bigoted members of the conservative faction. Meanwhile the Darrow administration worked to breakup the massive Trusts that had come to dominate the American economy. Darrow however, would meet the same fate as Weaver, and in early 1908 the country would enter another economic crisis that would cost him re-election. In his last days in office, Darrow worked tirelessly to save the economy from ruin and managed to just barely push through the National Rail Act that created the country's first National Railroad Company.
Darrow would be succeeded by the last, and possibly greatest President of the Progressive era: Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had come within a hair's breadth of the Presidency a decade before, just barely losing the Vice Presidency under McKinley to John D. Long. Having run on a campaign of New Nationalism, Roosevelt pushed through some of the most consequential reforms of the progressive era, establishing the 8-hour workday, national-minimum wage laws, the aiding the passage of the Universal Suffrage Amendment, and farm relief. These reforms are often historical footnotes for the Roosevelt administration as the First World War (1912-1915) came to dominate his administration's second term. As the war came to bookend the Progressive era, Roosevelt's final reforms would be the passage of the Income Tax amendment, and completing the desegregation of the US military via executive order.
- Sean McKnight
- Word Count: 720