Name: Class:

The Progressive Era

By Mike Kubic
2016

Mike Kubic is a former correspondent for Newsweek magazine. In this informational text, he discusses the
period known as the Progressive Era, a time in American history during which a number of new legislation,
reforms, and incidents of political activism helped to create big changes in American society—changes with
legacies that live on today. As you read this text, identify what it meant to be “progressive” during the
Progressive Era.

[1] “Leave it as it is!

“Keep it for your children, your children’s children

and for all who come after you, as one of the
great sights that every American should see.”

—President Theodore Roosevelt, urging his audience

in 1903 to protect the Grand Canyon as a national
park and reject the attempts to mine it for precious
metals

The Progressive Era in the United States, which

lasted from about 1890 until 1920, was what the
name suggests: a period of social activism,
political reform, and bold initiatives.

There was excitement in the air: a feeling that big

1 2
business magnates, arrogant political bosses,
and crooks who exploited the country’s poor
workers and rich resources had had their day and
3
now it was time to take care of John Q. Citizen’s
needs. It was a time when the federal
4
government took vigorous steps to dissolve
5 "President Theodore Roosevelt, 1904" by The Pach Brothers is in
illegal trusts to restore competition in the
the public domain.
market place; when Congress enacted laws to
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protect consumers from bogus and harmful products; and when activists accomplished major
organizational feats in the civil rights arena.

1. A magnate is someone who has earned a lot of money from their business.
2. Arrogant (adjective): rudely prideful; believing one’s self more important than others
3. A phrased used to represent the average American citizen
4. Vigorous (adjective): using a lot of energy
5. A trust is a group of people or businesses who control a large portion of an industry. Along with monopolies (which is
the control over an entire industry, usually by one corporation), trusts can hurt the economy when they prevent
competition. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed in 1890 so the government could stop the wealthy elite from
profiting without helping the economy and allowing competition. More competition in the free market helps
everyone because if a company wants to succeed it must try to offer consumers the best quality for the lowest price.

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[5] Some of these pioneering efforts succeeded, some did not. But collectively, the Progressive Era moved
history forward and left behind a heritage that has made ours a better country, and that will continue
to improve the quality of life in America for generations to come.

The men and women who achieved this progress—and who often fought bitter battles against their
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opponents—were among the finest American political and civic leaders and professionals.

Here is a short list of the most prominent of these pioneers, and the accomplishments for which they
deserve our nation’s special thanks:

Teddy Roosevelt
8
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was the paramount trailblazer who gave the Progressive Era its name.

9 10
Famous for his strenuous lifestyle, swashbuckling and exuberant personality, our 26th president
was a statesman honored by the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a treaty that ended the Russo-
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Japanese War; an author of 18 books (including a four volume history entitled The Winning of the
12 13
West), a warrior who in the Spanish-American War led the legendary charge of the Rough Riders up
14
the San Juan hill in Cuba; and a learned naturalist who explored remote regions of South America
and Africa.

[10] But Roosevelt’s biggest claim to lasting fame was his bold leadership as the youngest President of the
United States.

Deeply socially-conscious and furious at the greed and deceitful practices of big business leaders,
15
Roosevelt fired his first barrage at what were then called “the robber barons” shortly after his
16
inauguration in 1901. He delivered a 20,000-word speech to Congress calling for laws to curb the
power of large corporations.

17
He pressed forward with his populist crusade by supporting organized labor, promoting federal
18
regulations to protect consumers, and launching 40 antitrust suits to break up major railroad
companies and Standard Oil.

6. Fake
7. "Civic leaders" refers to community or town officials.
8. Paramount (adjective): the most important
9. Strenuous (adjective): involving a lot of energy and effort; not easy
10. Exuberant (adjective): full of energy and enthusiasm
11. A war fought between Japan and the Russian Empire from 1904 to 1905 over land in Manchuria (located in northeast
Asia).
12. The war between the United States and Spain began in 1898 when the U.S.S. Maine was sunk in Cuban waters. It
resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Empire and the continuation of U.S. imperialism.
13. The Rough Riders were a U.S. Calvary unit that fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
14. A “naturalist” is someone who studies plants, animals, and other natural things.
15. The term "robber baron" was used to describe extremely rich people, suggesting that they stole their wealth or got it
in unfair ways at the expense of everyone else.
16. Curb (verb): to limit
17. "Populist" describes political movements or parties that are carried by the voices and concerns of the everyday
citizens.
18. Like the Sherman Anti-Trust Act mentioned earlier (see footnote #5), these antitrust suits were cases against
companies that controlled too many resources and prevented healthy economic competition.

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 And while promoting the rule of law, social justice, and public health, Roosevelt worked passionately to
19 20
preserve America’s most beautiful sites and areas for posterity. He was instrumental in conserving
and placing under federal protection some 230 million acres of land that includes five stunning
national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 National Forests.

The 100 years old agency that maintains and safeguards this great national bounty, the National Park
Service, has been and continues to be a uniquely popular part of the federal government.

Upton Sinclair
[15] Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr., was instrumental to improving public health all over the world.

21
A prodigious journalist and writer, Sinclair authored more than 100 books. He even won the Pulitzer
Prize in 1943. But what made him famous was a decision, which he made as a 27 year-old
22 23
“muckraker,” to investigate rumors about abysmal working conditions at the Chicago stockyards.

He got a job at one of the meat processing firms and spent seven months stuffing sausages, carving
meat, and collecting data on the stockyards’ filthiest food-producing operations.

The book he wrote about this experience, The Jungle, depicted the workers’ poverty and their harsh and
unhealthy living and working conditions. But when it was published in 1905, what mostly turned
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America’s stomach was the bestseller’s vivid description of the lack of the most basic hygiene at the
stockyards.

The readers responded by cutting down U.S. meat consumption by one third. Their anger and the
economic fallout pushed Congress into action. It passed the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, the first
federal measure prohibiting the production, transportation, and sale of unsafe food and medicines.

[20] In time, the law became one of the most effective measures protecting the health of Americans and
people throughout the world. Enlarged and made more specific by more than 200 amendments, the
act created the Food and Drug Administration, a billion-dollar scientific agency with enormous
responsibilities. They include guaranteeing the safety of almost all food and cosmetics; and ensuring
the safety, quality, and effectiveness of 13,000 prescription and non-prescription drugs and vaccines,
all medical devices, and all tissues for transplantation.

In the last 50 years, FDA’s rigid requirements for production and marketing of these life- and health-
saving products have been increasingly recognized and copied throughout the world as the “gold
standard.” In the last two decades, the FDA has become a global agency, teaching and helping to
enforce its rules to protect and promote the health of millions of people on every continent.

19. Posterity (noun): future generations

20. Instrumental (adjective): of key importance
21. Prodigious (adjective): impressive; describing someone who does something in large amounts
22. “Muckracker” was the negative nickname given to journalists in the Progressive Era who, like Upton Sinclair,
investigated things like working conditions or business practices, and raked up all the muck, or exposed all the
negative aspects, in writing.
23. A stockyard is a place where farm animals are kept.
24. Vivid (adjective): in life-like, graphic detail

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 Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony led American women to their supreme but long-denied goal as U.S. citizens: the
ballot box.

A social reformer, feminist, and prodigious activist, Anthony plunged into public work at the age of 17
by collecting petitions protesting slavery. At the age of 32, she played a pivotal role in founding the
25
New York Women’s State Temperance Society; and a year later, she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
26 27
another prominent suffragist, founded the Women’s Loyal National League. The fledgling
organization collected nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. At that time, it
was the largest petition drive in the nation’s history.

In 1866, Anthony and Stanton launched the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for
equal rights for both women and African Americans. In 1868, they began publishing a women’s rights
newspaper called The Revolution.

[25] In 1869, Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and in 1878, she authored a
proposal giving women the right to vote. Popularly known as the Anthony Amendment and introduced
in Congress by a California Senator Aaron A. Sargent, it became the focus of Anthony’s unrelenting
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drive for its ratification.

The American suffragists won their crusade on August 18, 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution prohibited any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of
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sex. Anthony’s award was to be depicted on the 1979 dollar coin. Our gain has been a more perfect
democracy and the possibility of achieving another suffragist triumph: the election of a female
president.

W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois rallied African Americans to the cause of full equality.

30
An intellectual par excellence, W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights
31
activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. After completing graduate work at the University of Berlin
and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of
history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University.

25. Another important social issue of the time was temperance, which was a movement against the consumption of
alcohol in order to improve the moral character of the nation. Even though the 1920s was the Progressive Era,
restrictive movements like temperance or Prohibition complicated this picture of liberal progress.
26. Suffrage means the right to vote. A suffragist, therefore, meant someone who advocated for the right to vote,
especially for women in the early twentieth century.
27. Fledgling (adjective): new and inexperienced
28. Ratification is the process by which a law or decree is officially approved by Congress.
29. Unfortunately, in practice this amendment only extended the right to vote to white women. This right for women of
color would follow in the later decades of the 20th century as old prejudices in the system were overcome.
30. Of the highest degree
31. Pan-Africanism is a social movement that believes in the unity of African Americans and Africans.

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 His lasting achievement, however, was the co-founding in 1909 of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization he led to defeat the idea that black
Americans should agree to become second-class citizens.

[30] The idea was embodied in the so-called “Atlanta compromise” proposed by another prominent African-
American leader, Booker T. Washington. Essentially, it said that Southern African-Americans should not
32
agitate for such rights as voting and equal treatment under the law as long as they were given better
economic opportunities.

33
Du Bois rejected such a concession and instead promoted the NAACP’s mission “to ensure the
political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial
hatred and racial discrimination.”

Rather than giving up rights, he argued, black Americans should work for increased political
representation—a goal, he insisted, that should be pursued by well-educated members of their
community.

Du Bois’ optimistic message prevailed and set African Americans on a course that’s been embraced by
their leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, and that led up to our country’s historic election—and
re-election—of President Barack Obama.

The Reforms that Failed

Not all of the ideas and leaders of the Progressive Era won the following of the American public.

34
[35] One of them was “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Sr., who had a sterling political career as a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives, governor of Wisconsin, and U.S. Senator. He was called “arguably the
most important and recognized leader of the opposition to the growing dominance of corporations
over the government” and in 1957, he was selected one of the five best senators in the history of the
U.S. Senate.

Yet when in 1924 he ran for the White House as the nominee of his own Progressive Party, La Follette
won only 17 percent of the national vote.

Another prominent leftist of the Progressive Era was Eugene Victor “Gene” Debs. An able union leader,
he was one of the founding members of the radical Industrial Workers of the World, and five times the
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presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America. His greatest electoral success was in the 1912
race, when he won 800,000 votes.

Even the super-active and highly talented Susan B. Anthony failed to permanently achieve one of her
primary goals, which was to wean Americans from alcohol. As a leader of the temperance movement,
she helped bring about the ratification in 1918 of the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture,
transportation, and sale of alcohol.

32. Agitate (verb): to make an issue of; to fight for

33. A "concession" is something that is given up, especially in the process of negotiation.
34. Sterling (adjective): excellent or valuable (quality of work or character)
35. Socialism is a social, economic, and political system in which every citizen has equal opportunity to benefit from a
country’s wealth.

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It turned out to be a huge political and economic blunder that was repealed in December 1933 by the
21st Amendment. But even that legacy of the Progressive Era has served our country well; it showed
that there are some progressive ideas that most Americans won’t tolerate.

© 2016. The Progressive Era by CommonLit is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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 Text-Dependent Questions
Directions: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. PART A: Which TWO of the following statements best identify the central ideas of this text?
A. The Progressive Era was a time when all changes in society provided more
freedom and rights for the American people.
B. The Progressive Era was a time when many changes were made to address
concerns of the average American and the country’s future.
C. The Progressive Era was led by women and minorities in America and did not
look out for the interests of the average American.
D. The Progressive Era was led by the business magnates who had enough
economic influence to create legal change.
E. The Progressive Era was a time when people were fighting for equal rights for
black Americans and women.
F. The Progressive Era was a moment of liberalism that has finally achieved all of
its goals of equality and justice today.

2. PART B: Which TWO phrases from the text best support the answers to Part A?
A. “The Progressive Era in the United States, which lasted from about 1890 until
1920, was what the name suggests: a period of social activism, political reform,
and bold initiatives.” (Paragraph 3)
B. “Famous for his strenuous lifestyle, swashbuckling, and exuberant personality,
our 26th president was a statesman honored by the Nobel Peace Prize for
negotiating a treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War...” (Paragraph 9)
C. “The readers responded by cutting down U.S. meat consumption by one third.”
(Paragraph 19)
D. “...the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for
both women and African Americans.” (Paragraph 24)
E. “Yet when in 1924 he ran for the White House as the nominee of his own
Progressive Party, La Follette won only 17 percent of the national vote.”
(Paragraph 36)
F. “As a leader of the temperance movement, she helped bring about the
ratification in 1918 of the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture,
transportation, and sale of alcohol.” (Paragraph 38)

3. PART A: What does the word “abysmal” most closely mean as it is used in Paragraph 16?
A. Unregulated
B. Relatively unknown
C. Everyday or ordinary
D. Extremely bad

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4. PART B: Which phrase from the text best supports the answer to Part A?
A. “Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr., was instrumental to improving the public health all over
the world.” (Paragraph 15)
B. “He got a job at one of the meat processing firms and spent seven months
stuffing sausages, carving meat, and collecting data...” (Paragraph 17)
C. "The book he wrote about this experience, 'The Jungle,' depicted the workers’
poverty and their harsh and unhealthy living and working conditions."
(Paragraph 18)
D. “But when it was published in 1905, what mostly turned America’s stomach was
the best seller’s vivid description...” (Paragraph 18)

5. What is the author’s point of view on American progress? Cite evidence from the text in
your response.

6. How does the temperance movement compare to the other movements of the Progressive
Era? Cite evidence from the text in your response.