THE POLITICS OF PROGRESSIVISM ★^715captured as a child by members of a neighboring tribe and sold to a traveling pho-
tographer, who brought him to Chicago. There Montezuma attended school and
eventually obtained a medical degree.
In 1916, Montezuma established a newsletter, Wa ssa j a (meaning “signal-
ing”), that condemned federal paternalism toward the Indians and called for the
abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Convinced that outsiders exerted too
much power over life on the reservations, he insisted that self- determination
was the only way for Indians to escape poverty and marginalization: “We must
free ourselves.... We must be independent.” But he also demanded that Indi-
ans be granted full citizenship and all the constitutional rights of other Amer-
icans. Montezuma’s writings had little influence at the time on government
policy, but Indian activists would later rediscover him as a forerunner of Indian
radicalism.
THE POLITICS OF PROGRESSIVISM
Effective Freedom
Progressivism was an international movement. In the early twentieth century,
cities throughout the world experienced similar social strains arising from
rapid industrialization and urban growth. In 1850, London and Paris were the
only cities whose population exceeded 1 million. By 1900, there were twelve—
New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia in the United States, and others in Europe,
Latin America, and Asia. Facing similar social problems, reformers across the
globe exchanged ideas and envisioned new social policies. Sun Yat- Sen, the
Chinese leader, was influenced by the writings of Henry George and Edward
Bellamy.
As governments in Britain, France, and Germany instituted old age pensions,
minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, and the regulation of work-
place safety, American reformers came to believe they had much to learn from
the Old World. The term “social legislation,” meaning governmental action to
address urban problems and the insecurities of working- class life, originated in
Germany but soon entered the political vocabulary of the United States.
Progressives believed that the modern era required a fundamental rethink-
ing of the functions of political authority, whether the aim was to combat the
power of the giant corporations, protect consumers, civilize the marketplace,
or guarantee industrial freedom at the workplace. Drawing on the reform pro-
grams of the Gilded Age and the example of European legislation, Progressives
sought to reinvigorate the idea of an activist, socially conscious government.
Even in South Carolina, with its strong tradition of belief in local autonomy,
Governor Richard I. Manning urged his constituents to modify their view of
In what ways did Progressivism include both democratic and anti- democratic impulses?