A Brief History
On April 15, 2017, we get a 2-day reprieve from the filing limit date for filing our Federal Income Tax Returns, since the day falls on Saturday. By Monday, April 17, 2017, you better either have your tax return in the mail or have applied for an extension. Americans did not always have an income tax, although it may seem like it to you.
Digging Deeper
Back in the 1890’s through the 1920’s the United States of America underwent a period called the Progressive Era, a period in which activists sought to improve the quality of life for Americans through solving problems of modern society, including government corruption, industrialization, urbanization, and throngs of immigrants to the US. During this period, Democrats and Republicans alike were on the Progressive band wagon, including the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Al Smith, Woodrow Wilson, and William Jennings Bryan.

Part of this movement was the adoption of the 16th Amendment in 1913, the creation of a graduated income tax, a tax that was “progressive” in that the more money one made, the higher the rate of taxation. Unlike a “flat tax,” or a sales related tax, this method ensured poorer people would not suffer unduly. At the time, such a graduated tax was as easy as a tax could be on persons of modest means, and the filthy rich robber barons would finally be paying their fair share. (Unfortunately, over the century since the establishment of a national income tax, perversions in the tax code have allowed the manipulation of deductions to sometimes result in rich people paying little or no tax.)
Other movements and causes characterizing the Progressive Era included Prohibition (outlawing the drinking of alcoholic beverages, 18th Amendment), Women’s Suffrage (19th Amendment), and the elimination of monopolies in business and banking (anti-trust legislation). Teddy Roosevelt was sometimes called “Teddy the Trust-Buster,” but his protégé William Howard Taft deserves more credit for the breaking up of these monopolies.

Political corruption was another target, especially at the local “Boss” level. Unfortunately, we seem to have plenty of political corruption still today, so any gains in this area may have been temporary! The direct election of senators gave more power to the public voters and less to the state legislatures (17th Amendment). The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 to prevent various potential banking disasters.
The ideas proposed by the Progressives were based on “scientific” analysis of the problems rather than relying on traditional or emotional approaches. This scientific approach was applied to finances, education, government, medicine and social issues, including family matters. Primary elections were instituted to lessen the power of local “Bosses” and measures were taken to protect women and children in the workplace. Public works such as improved roads were meant to help rural Americans gain mobility and rural schools, often a one room school house, were upgraded. Standards were set for medical school and other professions, and the rise of labor unions was welcomed by Progressives (but not everyone else!).
The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was one measure along with efforts to produce cleaner water for drinking to improve National health, and parks were created to enhance the quality of life. Progressives also sought to improve conditions for African-Americans by improving schools and access to medical care, enfranchising voters and increasing the amount of tax dollars spent on the Black community. (These efforts largely failed, as the Jim Crow Era with segregation and discrimination was rampant.)
An area where less than unanimous agreement was reached was eugenics and birth control. The idea was that with birth control parents could focus their efforts raising fewer children but doing a better job of it., resulting in better “quality” children. Some progressives pushed a “scientific” agenda for improving the genetic stock of Americans by limiting reproduction of “defective” people, while others, especially Catholics, opposed birth control almost entirely. Margaret Sanger, a key proponent of birth control, was forced to flee the United States in 1914 to avoid prosecution. (She later returned and founded Planned Parenthood.)

Backlash against Progressive ideas started as early as the start of US involvement in World War I and continued through the 1920’s and 1930’s with a renewed effort by business to fight labor unions and other reforms. For the most part, the Progressive Era was seen as over by 1932 as the United States wallowed in the Great Depression, with former Progressives actually opposing Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Today, what we call “progressives” are generally Democrats and are often called “liberals” interchangeably with “progressives.” The goals of the modern progressives include racial, gender, and sexual equality, lowering the income gap between rich and poor, expanded access to voting, immigration policies that make it easy to immigrate to and remain in the US, preventing others’ religious views from infringing on the rights of others (such as regarding abortion, birth control, homosexuality, separation of church and state, etc.), and reform of the judicial system. A controversial subject for progressives is so called “gun control” and another is the legalization of drugs, as well as reducing the time and impact of prison sentences. Access to abortion and birth control also conflict progressives on religious grounds. These issues fracture the progressive movement of today and prevent this modern era from becoming another “Progressive Era.”
Question for students (and subscribers): What do you think of the Progressive Era? Were the reforms worthwhile? Do we need another Progressive Era? Please share your ideas in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
McGerr, Michael. A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920. Oxford University Press, 2005.