"Ch. 9: The Progressive Era"

Theodore Roosevelt was not supposed to be president. In 1900, the young governor from New York was urged to run as McKinley's vice-president by the state's political bosses, who founded Roosevelt impossible to control.

Theodore Roosevelt became president in September 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley. Although he had been vice president under McKinley, Roosevelt did not share McKinley’s conservative, pro-business policies. Instead, as president, Roosevelt advanced aggressive political reforms, including the heavy regulation of business. Known as the “trust-buster,” Roosevelt was the first president to successfully invoke the Sherman Antitrust Act against monopolies and continued to restrict businesses throughout his presidency. His reforms greatly influenced economic, environmental, and international affairs as well. Roosevelt’s platform became known as the “Square Deal” because he vowed not to favor any group of Americans but to be fair to all.

Roosevelt summed up his approach to foreign policy in a single sentence: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Having become president shortly after the American victory in the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt was confident in America’s status as a major international power. His goal to maintain that status through aggressive tactics was dubbed “big stick” diplomacy.

Roosevelt also involved himself in the affairs of Asia after the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904. Concerned about maintaining the balance of power between nations, Roosevelt invited delegates from Russia and Japan to the U.S. for a peace conference in 1905 that resulted in the signing of a treaty. Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions. In an effort to discourage further trouble in Asia, Roosevelt sent sixteen new, gleaming white battleships, dubbed “the Great White Fleet,” to Asian ports and elsewhere around the world.

The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century. The frontier had been tamed, great cities and businesses developed, and an overseas empire established, but not all citizens shared in the new wealth, prestige, and optimism.

The progressives came from a long tradition of middle-class elites possessing a strong sense of social duty to the poor. The social hierarchy wherein blue-blooded, native stock was at the top and the poor along with the “darker-skinned” were at the bottom, was accepted by the elite. But inherent in their role as privileged members of society was a certain degree of responsibility for the less fortunate. Growing up in this social class, Eleanor Roosevelt

Centralized decision-making by trained experts and reduced power for local wards made government less corrupt but more distant and isolated from the people it served. Progressives who emphasized the need for efficiency typically argued that trained independent experts could make better decisions than the local politicians. Thus Walter Lippmann in his influential Drift and Mastery (1914), stressing the "scientific spirit" the "discipline of democracy," called for a strong central government guided by experts rather than public opinion.[17]

Many progressives such as Louis Brandeis hoped to make American governments better able to serve the people's needs by making governmental operations and services more efficient and rational. Rather than making legal arguments against ten hour workdays for women, he used "scientific principles" and data produced by social scientists documenting the high costs of long working hours for both individuals and society.[16] The progressives' quest for efficiency was sometimes at odds with the progressives' quest for democracy. Taking power out of the hands of elected officials and placing that power in the hands of professional administrators reduced the voice of the politicians and in turn reduced the voice of the people.

Before The Civil War, married middle-class women were generally expected to devote their time to th care of their homes and families. By the late 19th century, however, only middle-class and upper-class women could afford to do so. Poorer women usually had no choice but to work for wages outside the home.