Early American Progressives: Goals, Rhetoric, and Reform

Introduction: Three Voices of Progressivism

The early American Progressives, whose ideology is represented by three key documents — the 1908 Methodist Social Creed, John Spargo's "The Bitter Cry of Children," and Jane Addams' "Hull House, Chicago: An Effort Toward Social Democracy" — sought to achieve better working and living conditions for the working poor. The writers of the 1908 Methodist Social Creed declared they stood for "equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life," along with a number of social justice initiatives in the labor market, including the abolition of child labor, regulation of conditions of labor for women, one day off per week, and a living wage.

Social Problems Identified by Progressive Writers

The writers in these documents identified a number of serious social problems of their day. John Spargo, in "The Bitter Cry of Children," wrote an extremely sympathetic account of the plight of child laborers at coal mines in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Their work was grueling, and they did not attend school. Very young children — Spargo writes about children as young as nine — worked in conditions that are unthinkable today, which is perhaps a testament to some of the efficacy of the Progressive Movement. In his essay, Spargo placed himself in the position of those children, having written, "I could not do that work and live." This device helps the reader connect the life of an adult with the lives of these children in the mines.

Jane Addams and the Hull House Model

Jane Addams, in her discussion of how Hull House was able to help people, offered a revealing picture of the problems of the era. Hull House worked closely with women's labor unions. Addams wrote about the formation of these unions, as well as worker strikes and negotiations between labor unions and bosses. She also wrote about finding common ground among union members of different ethnicities who shared common economic interests.

Addams also introduced the idea that there should be a social dialogue — the issues of the day needed to be discussed. They were debated at the Working People's Social Science Club. She wrote that if people with different ideas would listen to each other, their points of view would be changed, "and at least learn tolerance and the futility of endeavoring to convince all the world of the truth of one position." This reveals the Progressives' wider-ranging stance beyond simply a movement for workers' rights. It was also a movement concerned with the transformation of ideas.

Addams was careful to distinguish the work of Hull House from simple charity. As she wrote regarding the organization's mission, "to call that effort philanthropy is to use the word unfairly and to underestimate the duties of good citizenship." In other words, she believed that the work of Hull House was not merely an act of pity or generosity, but rather a basic responsibility of democratic citizenship. Her distinction between the "working class" and "the inefficient, the idle, and distressed" is telling: according to Addams, working-class people did not want charity. They wanted only what middle- and upper-class people could understand — the tools to help themselves.

Addams described Hull House as playing the role of a "big brother on the playground." The simple existence of an organization that worked for the working class, funded and served by members of other classes, served as a deterrent against interests that would harm workers. This ideology differs sharply from that of the working class rising up to create its own independent organization representing its own interests.

Rhetoric, Religion, and Persuasion

The rhetoric employed by these writers is sympathetic and democratic. They attempt to make the reader feel as though he or she is among those who suffered. Their arguments appeal to universal morals — the idea that by improving the lives of workers, everyone's lives would be improved.

Their rhetoric is also tinged with religiosity. The Methodist Creed is, of course, explicitly religious, being a statement of mission and faith from a church organization. But Spargo also employs religious rhetoric to appeal to his readers' emotions. His visit to the mine reminded him of an anecdote involving the British social reformer Owen Jones: "Visiting an English coal mine one day, Owen asked a twelve-year-old if he knew God. The boy stared vacantly at his questioner: 'God?' he said, 'God? No, I don't. He must work in some other mine.' It was hard to realize amid the danger and din and blackness of that Pennsylvania breaker that such a thing as belief in a great All-good God existed." This anecdote, deliberately introduced as a rhetorical device, could appeal to religious readers and — crucially — motivate those with evangelical sympathies to act. If a reader felt moved to help bring others to Christianity, the idea that improving workers' conditions might foster religious conversion could be framed as a religious imperative, not simply an act of kindness, but a pragmatic act to gain converts.

At the time these documents were written, this kind of religious sentiment was far more universal than it is today. To modern readers, some of these appeals may carry a paternalistic tone — the assumption that society should be organized hierarchically and that the better-off, acting as "fathers" of society, bear responsibility for and authority over the less fortunate. For example, the Methodist Creed mentions regulating women's labor conditions in order to "safeguard the physical and moral health of the community," placing women in the position of needing protection and representing the community's moral integrity.