The Progressive Era | Wilson's War on Tariffs | 5
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Imagine it's just after four o'clock in the morning on March 4th, 1917 in Washington, D.C. You're a congressional aide and you're pacing outside the Senate chambers. Congress is set to adjourn in just a few short hours. And since yesterday, your father, Republican Senator Robert La Follette, and his fellow progressive supporters have been filibustering a bill they believe will draw the nation into war with Europe. They're hoping to run out the clock before the Senate can pass it.

The heavy oak doors open and your father bursts from the chambers. His face is flushed and his gray hair is unrulier than usual. You've never seen him so flustered. They're trying to silence me. What do you mean, father? They took me off the speaker's list. They mean to jam this bill through without letting me make a closing statement. It's an outrage.

You glance over his shoulder at a pair of clerks who nervously eye your father as they shuffle past. Father, I think you need to calm down a bit. How can I be calm when our entire movement is at stake? The United States must remain neutral. I thought Wilson understood that. Yet here we are, talking about arming civilian ships against the Germans. If that's not a step toward war, I don't know what is.

You pat your father on the shoulder reassuringly. I believe it might be okay. The bill will likely fail in any case. There are only a few hours remaining, not enough time for a proper debate and vote. We can't take any risks on something this important. This bill will make war inevitable. And once we go to war, it will benefit no one but the greedy industrialists. J.P. Morgan and his friends are trying to send our boys into the trenches to line their own pockets.

You rub your eyes, exhausted from the round-the-clock filibuster. Okay, well, let's go to your office and have a cup of coffee and make a plan. Maybe we can come back and try to persuade the presiding officer to let you speak, but I'm worried this is getting too tense. I've heard several Democrats threatening anyone who tries to drag this out further. I will not calm down, and I will not be threatened. I'm going back in there, and I will be heard. You sigh as your father storms back through the doors of the Senate chamber.

He's always been a fighter, but you've never seen him so agitated. You know he's right about the importance of staying out of the war in Europe. Not only would thousands of American lives be lost, but he would be a death knell to many of the progressive causes your father's championed all these years. But you worry just how far he'll go to prevent that from happening.

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In March 1917, in the final hours before Congress was set to adjourn, progressive Republican Senator Robert La Follette spearheaded a filibuster against a bill to arm U.S. merchant ships against German submarines. He was convinced that this legislation would bring the nation closer to war, which he believed would only benefit rich and powerful business leaders and harm progressive causes. In the Senate chamber, rumors of violence spread as pro-war senators conspired to keep La Follette from speaking. An

And although he was denied the opportunity to make an official address, La Follette refused to be silenced. The bill ultimately died on the Senate floor as La Follette had hoped, but much to his dismay, the United States would continue to inch toward war.

Nearly five years had passed since Woodrow Wilson won the presidency promising Americans a new freedom. This was a vision of domestic reform that aimed to wrest power away from special interests and expand economic opportunities for all. Over the next two years, Wilson fought for a series of progressive laws to help build a more just economy, but he would also face criticism from the left for his reluctance to support social justice causes.

Then, in 1914, the outbreak of war in Europe threatened to derail his agenda altogether. Despite his early insistence on U.S. neutrality and efforts to stay focused on domestic issues, Wilson would eventually be compelled to prepare the U.S. to enter the fight. And as America moved toward the precipice of global conflict, progressives wondered whether war would re-energize their movement or destroy it once and for all. This is Episode 5, Wilson's War on Tariffs.

As President Woodrow Wilson made his way to his inauguration on March 4, 1913, progressives throughout Washington, D.C. were celebrating. In the months since his election victory, they had finally won several hard-fought reforms that had been decades in the making. Prohibitionists were ecstatic over the recent passage of a law regulating the interstate liquor trade. Next, they planned to push for a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol altogether.

And two progressive proposals dating back to the 1890s had just become federal law. A month before the inauguration, in February 1913, the 16th Amendment had been ratified, granting Congress the power to levy a federal income tax. Progressives saw this tax as an important alternative to tariffs, which they believed harmed the working class and an important source of government revenue to fund social welfare programs.

Progressives were also rejoicing over the soon-to-be-ratified 17th Amendment, which would establish the direct election of U.S. senators. The framers of the Constitution had put the power to elect senators in the hands of state legislatures, but now the American voters themselves would decide. This amendment was a landmark victory in the Progressive's struggle to combat corruption and restore power to the American people.

Wilson himself supported direct democracy reforms like this. As a young man, he had declared, the ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people, and as he proceeded toward the Capitol for his inaugural address, he prepared to lay out his vision of a government that would create equal opportunity for all.

But on the morning of his inauguration, he was startled by 5,000 suffragists protesting his arrival with a march down Pennsylvania Avenue. They demanded a constitutional amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote. Wilson looked on as tens of thousands of male spectators heckled and assaulted the marchers while police looked the other way. More than 100 women were hospitalized in the violence. But as Wilson took the inaugural stage that morning, he made no mention of suffrage.

Instead, with the analytical skill of a professor and the soaring oratory of a preacher, he focused on economic progress, calling for an assault on what he termed the triple wall of privilege, the tariffs, the banks, and the trusts. He closed with a stirring appeal, declaring, Men's hearts wait upon us, men's lives hang in the balance, men's hopes call upon us to say what we will do.

And in the days that followed, Wilson said he would tackle tariffs first. At the time, tariffs made up the bulk of federal revenue. Progressives had long wanted a reduction in tariff rates, accompanied by an income tax to offset any revenue losses. So Wilson called Congress into special session to begin work on tariff reform. But rather than send a message to Congress in writing, as every president since Thomas Jefferson had done, he broke with precedent by appearing in person to deliver his appeal.

He said that he wanted to show that the president was not a mere department of the government hailing Congress from some isolated island of jealous power, but a human being trying to cooperate with other human beings in a common service.

But in his in-person address, Wilson showed that he was ready to take command of his legislative agenda, and he was prepared to be just as aggressive as Theodore Roosevelt had been. On the ride back to the White House, following the speech to Congress, First Lady Ellen Wilson said, That's the sort of thing Roosevelt would have loved to do if he had thought of it. And laughing, Wilson replied, Yes, I think I put one over on Teddy.

The progressive majority in the House shared Wilson's view that high tariffs strengthened industry at the expense of average Americans, so they passed a bill providing for a major reduction in taxes on imported goods. But when lobbyists quickly descended on the Senate to try to torpedo the bill, Wilson was livid. He told reporters that Washington was so full of lobbyists that a brick couldn't be thrown without hitting one of them.

So Wilson again decided to take matters into his own hands, issuing a direct message to the American people, denouncing corporate lobbyists and urging them to hold their representatives to account. He warned the country, Washington has seldom seen so numerous, so industrious, or so insidious a lobby. And it's of serious interest to the country that the people at large should be voiceless in these matters, while great bodies of astute men seek to overcome the interest of the public for their private profit.

Wilson's public appeal worked. The Senate launched an investigation into lobbying, requiring members to disclose their finances and potential conflicts of interest. The opposition to tariff reform soon crumbled, and the Senate passed the Underwood Tariff, enacting the largest reduction in tariffs since the Civil War. To make up for lost revenue, it was accompanied by a reform made possible by the recently ratified 16th Amendment, a graduated income tax on corporations and wealthy Americans.

Following these successful tariff and lobbying reforms, in June 1913, Wilson returned to Congress for the second item on his agenda, comprehensive reform of the banking and currency system. The instability of the nation's financial system had been made clear six years earlier during the Panic of 1907, when financier J.P. Morgan had to personally step in and save Wall Street from disaster. By 1913, both Republicans and Democrats agreed on the need for a central bank.

As a result, at the end of 1913, Wilson would sign the Federal Reserve Act into law. This act created a government-appointed Federal Reserve Board to regulate the amount of money circulating in the economy and prevent economic depressions. It would become the most consequential piece of legislation passed during Wilson's presidency and the most important economic law passed between the Civil War and the New Deal.

Finally, in yet another appearance before Congress, Wilson went after a third pillar of his triple wall of privilege, the trusts. This time, legislators responded with the Federal Trade Commission Act, aiming to prevent unfair trade practices. And they also passed the Clayton Antitrust Act, which strengthened the government's power to break up trusts.

This Clayton Act also protected labor, a major achievement for the progressive movement. For years, conservative courts had prosecuted labor unions under antitrust laws, interpreting unions as illegal associations that restricted trade. To counter that, the Clayton Act exempted unions from prosecution and explicitly legalized strikes and peaceful picketing. One progressive leader hailed the law as labor's Magna Carta.

With his three-pronged approach to economic reform, Wilson hoped to expand opportunities to all citizens, fulfilling his campaign promise of a new freedom. But it would soon become clear that his vision of reform did not apply to all Americans. Imagine it's November 6th, 1913 at the White House. You're a newspaper editor and the spokesman for a group of Black activists who have traveled here today to meet with President Woodrow Wilson.

When you enter it, you discover that the Oval Office is smaller than you expected, more intimate. You and your fellow activists stand at the center of the room, and you hold a petition in hand, feeling as though you're carrying the weight of thousands of Americans' hopes and expectations. Mr. President, you came here today with this petition, signed by 20,000 men and women from 36 states, asking you to reverse the segregation policies within your administration.

Wilson peers at you over his glasses with a look of mild surprise. I'm not sure what you're talking about.

You're stunned he could be so obtuse. But you stifle your frustration, careful to keep your tone measure. Well, Mr. President, the facts are indisputable. Since you took office, black civil service workers have come under attack. The Treasury, the Post Office, they've all forced black clerks into separate washrooms and lunchrooms. They've erected screens to keep black workers out of sight. Men and women who have loyally served the federal government for years are being demoted or even dismissed.

Wilson gives you a guarded look. Well, I can't claim to know everything that goes on in this administration, but the situation has surely been overblown. I'm certain any changes to the federal workforce have been made in the interest of improving efficiency and easing racial tensions. Easing racial tensions by introducing segregation where there was none before. Mr. President, segregation is an indignity, an insult. It suggests that black Americans are inferior. I'm not sure that was the intention.

Sir, you ran for president promising fair and equal treatment for all Americans, and we believed you. Many of us voted for you based on that promise. And I thank you for your support. We share the same goals. There just may be some different ways of going about it. And if any mistakes have been made, they will be corrected. Does that mean you will end your government's policy of segregation? I appreciate your concern, and I assure you I will investigate the matter thoroughly.

You feel as though he's dodged your question, but before you can inquire any further, a White House aide steps forward, signaling the meeting's end. You gaze at the other activists. The president's words ring hollow to you, but you're baffled to see that they seem satisfied. The president stands and extends a hand. You shake it, searching Wilson's face for some sign of sincerity, but his expression is unreadable, and you fear he's made you an empty promise.

Although progressives applauded Wilson's economic reforms, they urged him to do more in the realm of social justice. But as a Southern Democrat and an advocate of small government, he believed that social issues should be decided by individual states, and he continued to withhold support for such causes as organized labor, child labor laws, and women's suffrage.

And nowhere was Wilson's reticence more apparent than in the realm of racial justice. His administration was dominated by Southern Democratic policymakers who reversed a long-standing policy of integration within the federal government. Instead, they instituted unprecedented segregation in federal offices and restricted Black employment in the civil service.

This segregation of the federal government sparked outcry among Black Americans, and in the fall of 1913, Black newspaper editor William Monroe Trotter led a group of activists to the White House to confront the president. During their meeting, Wilson made vague assurances that he would investigate the matter. But when nothing changed, Trotter returned a year later to confront the president once again, asking Wilson, Have you a new freedom for white Americans and a new slavery for your Afro-American fellow citizens?

At this, Wilson lost his temper, telling Trotter, "'If this organization wishes to approach me again, it must choose another spokesman. You have spoiled the whole cause for which you came.'" In the end, Wilson defended his segregation policy, declaring, "'I honestly believe segregation to be in the best interest of the colored people, as exempting them from friction and criticism.'"

So, ignoring the call of fellow progressives to further social justice, at the end of 1914, Wilson declared his reform agenda complete. Bucking tradition, he had kept Congress in continuous session for nearly 18 months, requiring legislators to work through Washington's sweltering summers. So, by the time the 63rd Congress finally adjourned in the fall of 1914, it was the longest-serving Congress in history, and also one of the most productive.

In less than two years, Wilson had secured a series of transformative laws that would impact the country for decades to come. But global events soon proved a distraction from domestic reform. In August 1914, war broke out in Europe. Wilson vowed to keep America out of the conflict. But with each passing month, the struggle loomed ever closer to America's shores, and progressives sensed that the future of their movement was at stake.

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By the winter of 1914, President Woodrow Wilson had made the decision to stay out of the war in Europe, which most Americans supported. But Theodore Roosevelt and the imperialist wing of the Republican Party branded his neutrality as treason. The former Roughrider was an ardent proponent of the U.S. entering the war and demanded intervention, insisting that Wilson was worse than the Germans for weakening American morale.

Roosevelt's criticism grew louder in May of 1915 after a German submarine sank the British passenger liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing 128 Americans. But the peace-loving Wilson continued to stand his ground, declaring, "...there is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight." He feared that war would divide the nation, and he was determined to stay focused on his domestic agenda.

And with his re-election campaign on the horizon, Wilson decided he needed to turn his attention to cultivating support with progressives. He believed his best option was to build a coalition of progressive Democrats and former members of Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party. And seeing the political necessity of expanding his base, he reversed his previous opposition to social justice reform, turning his focus to passing new laws that he believed would be popular with workers, farmers, and reformers.

To that end, in the spring of 1916, Wilson signed a law mandating an eight-hour day for railroad workers, a measure that impacted nearly two million Americans. He also approved a law for workman's compensation, guaranteeing benefits to federal workers injured on the job. He also signaled his support for child labor protections by signing a law that banned the interstate trade of goods manufactured by children.

In addition, he signed a law to make it easier for farmers to secure loans, and he approved an income tax heavily weighted against corporations and the wealthy. That same year, in 1916, he continued delighting progressives by nominating Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court. Brandeis was dubbed the People's Lawyer for defending workers and challenging banks, railroads, and insurance companies. He also had the distinction of being the first Jewish justice in American history.

And after strengthening his legislative record to appeal to the more progressive voter base, Wilson ran for re-election in 1916 on a platform of peace, prosperity, and reform, campaigning under the slogan, He Kept Us Out of War. As he'd hoped, among his supporters were large numbers of socialists and former Bull Moose progressives,

Wilson's Republican challenger, Charles Evans Hughes, was a Supreme Court justice and former New York governor, but Wilson had worked hard to appeal to independent progressive voters, and it paid off. On Election Day, he managed to defeat Hughes, though only by a narrow margin.

Wilson had won a second term, but as the new year dawned, he faced the reality that the war in Europe was growing ever closer. On January 22, 1917, Wilson reaffirmed America's commitment to neutrality, but just nine days later, Germany announced that it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, preparing to attack all ships, including American civilian vessels.

Progressives were divided over the possibility of intervention. Some feared the war would distract the country from sorely needed domestic reforms. Settlement House pioneer Jane Addams predicted, this will set back progress for a generation. And progressives like Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette also argued that the war would line the pockets of the rich at the expense of ordinary Americans.

But other progressives were more optimistic, predicting that the fight against tyranny abroad would ignite interest in combating social problems at home. Writer Walter Lippmann declared, We shall turn with fresh interest to our own tyrannies, to our Colorado mines, our autocratic steel industries, our sweatshops, and our slums. Others argued that the war would cause the government to expand its power and reach to the benefit of the American people.

And on March 3, 1917, progressives' concerns about intervention in the war would come to a head when the Senate took up a bill proposing to arm U.S. merchant ships against German submarine attacks. Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette feared the law would bring the country one step closer to war, so with just 26 hours left before the 64th Congress adjourned, he and a dozen like-minded senators launched a filibuster.

But by the early morning of March 4th, rumors of violence had spread through the Senate. La Follette worried that these threats were part of a conspiracy to silence him, and his fears were soon proven true. When it was finally La Follette's turn to give concluding remarks, the presiding officer refused to recognize him. La Follette was furious. He screamed out for recognition, and the Senate fell into chaos. A Kentucky Democrat charged La Follette with a pistol under his coat.

An ally of La Follette grabbed a steel file to protect his friend, later telling La Follette he planned to plunge it into the Democrat's neck if he drew his weapon. Ultimately, no firearms or files were brandished. But in his fury, La Follette tried to hurl a brass spittoon at the presiding officer. He dared his colleagues to carry him off the floor while his son begged him to calm down. The disruption continued for hours until finally the bill died at noon as the 64th Congress was forced to adjourn their session.

The United States remained out of the war for the moment.

But calls for intervention arose again in late March, when German submarines sank another four American merchant vessels. These attacks finally forced Wilson to change his stance on the war. He knew Americans would no longer stand by while their fellow citizens were killed in the crossfire of Europe's conflict. So on April 2nd, Wilson stood before Congress and asked for a declaration of war to make the world safe for democracy. Robert La Follette was just one of six senators to vote against the declaration.

Because of his refusal to support entry into the war, he was branded a traitor and a coward, burned in effigy, and threatened with expulsion from the Senate. But despite the fears of many progressives like La Follette, America's entry into the war would ultimately become the catalyst for some of the progressive movement's biggest achievements.

Proponents of Prohibition had won an early victory with the passage of a law regulating the interstate liquor trade in 1913, and now the war helped Prohibitionists achieve their ultimate goal, a nationwide ban on alcohol. Because as anti-German sentiment spread through society, propagandists exploited the hysteria to connect German immigrant communities to breweries, leading many Americans to boycott German beer.

And the Anti-Saloon League pushed the idea that grain used for distilling alcohol should instead be reserved for feeding soldiers and starving Europeans. As a result of these and other efforts, in December 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment, banning the sale, production, and distribution of alcohol. Prohibition would become the law of the land in 1920.

The war also marked a turning point for the suffrage movement. Suffragists picketed the White House with banners painting Wilson as a hypocrite for promoting democracy abroad while denying women voting rights at home. At the same time, women were lauded for their patriotic efforts powering the nation's assembly lines while men went to war, bolstering their argument that they contributed equally to society and deserved equal participation in the democratic process.

And by 1917, women had already been fully enfranchised in 12 states and partially enfranchised in another six. Wilson also knew that he would need the support of women to keep control of Congress in the midterms. So once again choosing political expediency, he changed course on suffrage. In January 1918, he summoned a group of House Democrats to the White House and asked them to vote for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

In a speech before the Senate later that year, he framed passage of the suffrage amendment as critical to the success of the war effort. And to manage the war effort, William would rely on experienced progressive reformers to oversee unprecedented regulation of the nation's economy. Imagine it's September 1918 in Washington, D.C. You're the chair of the War Labor Policies Board, and you're in your tiny office in Slidell House, across from the White House.

Albert Gehry, the chairman of U.S. Steel, lowers himself into the chair across from your desk. For months, you've been pressuring Gehry to give his steelworkers an eight-hour workday. He's finally agreed to meet with you in person after you threatened to make your correspondence public, exposing his selfish refusal to help his workers in the middle of a war. Mr. Gehry, I'm glad you found the time to come to Washington.

Gary nods stiffly, glancing down at the gold watch chain hanging from his finely tailored vest. You know, he's far more accustomed to having the government do his bidding than the other way around. Seems I have no other choice, so let's make this quick. My train back to New York leaves in an hour. Well, I'll be brief.

The War Labor Board has ruled that all industries engaged in the war effort must adopt an eight-hour workday for worker safety and to ensure the success of the war effort. But U.S. Steel has refused to comply. I'm aware of the ruling. Yet you continue to disregard it. Am I correct in my understanding that your steel workers labor for 10 hours a day at 42 cents an hour? That's right. Well, that stops now. U.S. Steel must institute an eight-hour day plus time and a half for any overtime.

Gary folds his hands over his stomach, his jaw tightening. Sounds to me like a wage increase under false pretenses. Henry Ford has adopted an eight-hour day into his auto plants. I don't give a damn what Henry Ford does. Perhaps you should. You may discover an increase in productivity and morale. I don't run an automobile plant. I don't take orders from a Harvard professor half my age.

You maintain a neutral expression, refusing to let him provoke you. My background makes no difference here. The president has entrusted me with ensuring that all war industries treat their workers fairly, and U.S. Steel is no exception. I'll tell you something. I work more than eight hours a day, and I imagine you do too. Why shouldn't my men? Because you and I sit behind desks all day, while those men exhaust themselves in sweltering steel mills, risking life and limb to power the war effort.

Gary fixes you with a hard, unyielding gaze. The silence stretches, but you don't dare blink. Suddenly, Gary rises to his feet. I will speak to my board about this. He turns and strides out of your office, and you breathe a long sigh of relief. You know it's not exactly a concession, but it is a start. You're closer than you've ever been to protecting workers at the largest employer in the country.

To keep production rolling during the war, Woodrow Wilson's administration knew it had to be friendly to organized labor. The newly created War Labor Board forced some of the nation's biggest employers to accept long-fought-for union demands, including an eight-hour workday, union recognition, collective bargaining, and a living wage. These new policies spurred a surge in union membership, and nearly three million Americans were unionized by the end of the war.

Wilson also created a War Industries Board, a Food Administration Board, and a Fuel Administration Board. He waged a fierce propaganda campaign to persuade the American people to support government control of the economy and these wartime policies. Progressive groups and labor unions were elated by the new regulations and urged Wilson to preserve these reforms after the war.

But despite this groundswell of progressive support, not all Americans were happy with wartime reforms. And this became evident in the midterm elections in November 1918, when popular backlash against the progressive war effort and Wilson's plans for a post-war League of Nations put a reunited Republican Party back in control of both houses of Congress. Once a staunch advocate of small government, during the war, Wilson had overseen an unprecedented expansion of government programs.

But after years of increasing government intervention, voters now made it clear that they wanted lower taxes, a return to smaller government, and fewer regulations. Theodore Roosevelt declared, Mr. Wilson has no authority whatsoever to speak to the American people at this time. His leadership has just been emphatically repudiated by them.

And then, less than a week after the 1918 midterm elections, the political landscape for Wilson changed once again. Germany and the Allied powers signed an armistice agreement. After four years of gruesome trench warfare and the death of millions, World War I officially came to an end.

The United States and its allies had won the war abroad. But in the aftermath of the war, inflation, strikes, and race riots threatened to tear the country apart and dampen the spirit of progressive reform.

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After the Democrats suffered major losses in the 1918 midterms, President Woodrow Wilson shifted away from progressive politics, quickly dismantling wartime agencies and boards, dashing progressive hopes for a post-war program of reconstruction. Going forward, Wilson would pour all of his energy into winning support for his plans for the League of Nations, an international organization dedicated to preserving world peace. But this peace plan faced stiff opposition in the now Republican-controlled Senate.

So, with Wilson occupied by his foreign policy plans, the progressive movement was left rudderless. In January 1919, Theodore Roosevelt died in his sleep at the age of 60. In the Senate, Robert La Follette, or Fighting Bob as he came to be known, continued to face intense backlash over his earlier opposition to the war. And later in 1919, President Wilson was debilitated by a crippling stroke.

Progressives found themselves politically adrift, just as America descended into a period of explosive violence and unrest. After the war, an exodus of black Southerners to northern cities fueled competition between black and white workers for limited housing and jobs. White mobs terrorized and killed black people in more than two dozen cities in the summer of 1919. Over the course of the year, 76 black Americans were lynched, including 10 veterans of the recent war still in uniform.

With 3 million workers unionized by the end of the war, labor leaders had high hopes of winning new reforms. But the end of government support for labor and rising inflation set off a wave of strikes that paralyzed cities. One out of every five workers walked off the job in 1919.

In Seattle, more than 100 unions shut down the city for five days, and the mayor accused striking workers of trying to duplicate the anarchy of Russia. His statement reflected the paranoia gripping America in the aftermath of the 1917 socialist revolution in Russia and wartime civil liberties restrictions. During the war, Wilson signed a harsh sedition law that made it a federal crime to criticize the government and the war effort.

It was used to silence dissent and target immigrants, labor leaders, and left-wing activists. The atmosphere of suspicion continued after the war, as labor unrest sparked fears that the nation was on the verge of its own socialist revolution. The federal government conducted mass raids and deportations, targeting thousands of suspected radicals.

But this so-called Red Scare did not only target socialists and labor radicals. Even mainstream progressives who had previously enjoyed widespread public support fell victim to the hysteria. Imagine it's February 1919, and you're standing center stage in an auditorium in Chicago's Central Music Hall. You run a speaker's program, and you've just finished setting up a microphone for tonight's lecture on medieval art.

You step back from the podium to inspect the lighting when you spot Jane Addams walking up the darkened aisle with a stack of papers underneath her arm. You rake a hand through your hair nervously. Miss Addams, what brings you here? I was hoping that we could go over my lecture for next week. I've come upon some fascinating new statistics on child labor in Illinois. Oh, I should have given you more warning because the truth is I've decided to cancel the lecture.

Her smile falters. I don't understand it. I've been lecturing here for more than 20 years. Well, people complained. They don't want to hear any talk about labor. I see. This wouldn't have anything to do with my name being on that so-called traders list put out by the War Department.

You fiddle with the microphone, avoiding her gaze. "I'm sorry, Ms. Adams, but the United States government has labeled you a dangerous radical. And the truth is, several of our regulars have asked for refunds on their tickets. I've been fielding calls all week. People want to learn, not listen to propaganda." "Oh, you've surprised me. I thought you knew better than to believe that nonsense. We've known each other for years. Do you really honestly think I'm a dangerous radical?" "What I think is I can't risk angering our donors."

She steps closer, adjusting her hat so she can peer up at you. You know there are still children working 10-hour days in factories and sweatshops, girls choking on cotton dust in mills, boys losing their fingers in machines they're too young to operate. I am not the problem and you know it. Yeah, you may be right, but Principal alone won't keep the lights on here. There's nothing I can do.

She stares at you for a moment, the corners of her mouth trembling as if she's holding back from saying something she might regret. Then, with a shake of her head, she turns around and walks back up the aisle. You feel a pang of guilt, but you force yourself to shake it off, because if someone as beloved as Jane Addams can turn into a public pariah, you know that you're better off playing it safe.

In 1919, public opinion turned against the revered progressive reformer Jane Addams. During the war, she gave speeches on behalf of government programs such as Liberty Bonds and the Food Administration. But because of her early opposition to the war, ultra-patriotic groups branded her the most dangerous woman in America.

Adams lost writing and lecturing income, and her fall from grace silenced other progressives. A progressive lawyer later reflected on the dramatic change in attitudes, writing, To doubt, to question the wisdom of the powers that be, to advance new and disturbing ideas, had ceased to be an act of virtue. Progressivism was losing its supreme asset, respectability.

Then, in August 1920, in what was to be one of the final victories of the Progressive Era, suffragists celebrated the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the culmination of a seven-decade fight for women's voting rights.

Less than three months later, the 1920 presidential election signaled the progressive movement's demise. Voters elected conservative Republican Warren G. Harding, who blamed progressive governance for post-war chaos and promised a return to normalcy. Progressive ideals lingered on, but the progressive era had come to an end.

Jane Addams would describe the 1920s as a period of political and social sag. Republican administrations undid many progressive economic reforms in favor of smaller government. And in the ensuing economic boom of the Roaring Twenties, reformers were also dismayed to see Americans prioritize personal freedom in the pursuit of pleasure over moral duty. Addams complained that youth lacked reforming energy.

The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed devastated American families, but it also ushered in a new era of reform. In response to this crisis, many former progressives would find home in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal administration.

and the spirit of reform that would come to animate the New Deal. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and the government interventions that followed were unthinkable at the close of the 19th century. But from the 1890s until World War I, progressives proved that democracy could survive the wrenching changes of the industrial era. They exposed corruption and protected workers. They enfranchised women and conserved America's natural resources. They reined in the worst abuses of industry and held elected officials to account.

But segregation, racial violence, and rising nativism revealed the glaring limits of progressive reforms. Yet for all our contradictions, the progressives showed that government could be harnessed to address economic inequality and social injustice. They were ambitious in their vision for America and fearless in their challenges to the moneyed and powerful. In the end, their most enduring legacy was reimagining the responsibility of government to its citizens and empowering citizens to demand more from their governments.

From Wondery, this is episode five of our five-part series, The Progressive Era from American History Tellers. On the next episode, I'll speak with Edward O'Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. We'll discuss Roosevelt's force of personality and the evolution of his views as a progressive throughout his life. ♪

If you like American History Tellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Christian Paraga. Sound design by Molly Bach. Supervising sound designer Matthew Filler. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rozanski. Managing producer Desi Blaylock. Senior managing producer Callum Plews. Senior producer Andy Herman. And executive producers...

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