Early Twentieth Century Progressivism
The litany of populist grievances is familiar: Wealthy classes are in control of Congress; Wall Street financiers are acting recklessly; giant corporations are engaging in monopolistic practices; workers and consumers face stagnant wages and rising prices. In comes a man born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, professing empathy for the suffering masses, and aspiring to the presidency of the United States. That man was Theodore Roosevelt, who became president upon the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 and was elected to a full term in 1904. Might what followed inform today’s challenges?
Five months after taking office, Roosevelt brought suit against the railroad company controlled by J. Pierpont Morgan, the first of many applications of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The welfare of common citizens, especially when threatened by the wealthy classes, guided his administration. In his autobiography, he wrote, “governmental agencies must find their justification largely in the way in which they are used for the practical betterment of living and working conditions among the mass of the people. I felt that the fight was really for the abolition of privilege; and one of the first stages in the battle was necessarily to fight for the rights of the workingman.”
Roosevelt believed that corporations were indispensable in the business world, and that government’s job was to “subordinate the big corporation to the public welfare.” This precedent led to destroying price-fixing in the beef industry; passage of the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection Acts; amendment of the Interstate Commerce Act and authorization of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first true regulatory agency; intervention in a Pennsylvania coal strike that threatened the supply of coal for the coming winter; and brought a total of 44 antitrust suits. He created the national park system and led ecological preservation. He campaigned for a Federal graduated income tax, but it wasn’t until the 1913 ratification of the 16th amendment to the Constitution that his goal was achieved. He succeeded in getting the Tillman Act passed in 1907 banning some corporate giving for federal election campaigns, a ban that was mostly ignored. He approved restrictions on child labor. Aspiring “to make the national government itself a model employer of labor,” he enacted the eight-hour workday for government employees; and he made employers liable for injuries to their employees in interstate commerce and in U.S. territories. In international affairs, he strengthened the U.S. Navy, established U.S. protective authority in the Western Hemisphere, and earned the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating peace between Japan and Russia.
Progressive reforms continued through the presidency of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the central banking system. That same year the 17th amendment to the Constitution was ratified mandating direct election of U.S. senators, rather than election by state legislatures. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 outlawed price discrimination and gave the president more power to block corporate mergers. The 19th amendment was ratified in 1920 granting women the right to vote.
Roosevelt’s fight to abolish privilege parallels today’s focus on eradicating inequality. Many who today consider themselves among the “left-behinds” are turning to populist demagoguery, while those committed to liberal democracy have little to propose. Authors Erich Fromm and Yascha Mounk, reviewed in a previous blog post, advocated aggressive boldness, prescribing active involvement in addressing the expressed concerns of ordinary people, “focusing on a positive message rather than obsessively recounting the failings of the populists,” and above all, acknowledging the shortcomings of the status quo, wrote Mounk. And Fromm wrote that, “no one shall be allowed to starve, that society is responsible for all its members, that no one shall be frightened into submission and lose his human pride through fear of unemployment or starvation.”