Partisans and progressives

by Thomas R. Pegram

At the turn of the twentieth century, Illinois was an expanding industrial giant and its urban center, Chicago, was peopled with competing ethnic and economic groups. Drawn to the city by the promise of factory jobs and social mobility, newcomers found instead the universal conditions of the working poor: cramped tenement flats, unclean food, unsafe streets and schools, and sweatshops. Enter the progressives, including Jane Addams, John Dewey, Graham Taylor, and Charles Merriam. Dedicated to a new concept, "the public interest," they tried to implement a policy of justice and efficiency. Instead, the progressives fell prey to complex social divisions that were widened farther by such incendiary issues as the centralization of public schools, Chicago home rule, and the regulation of industry and saloons. The progressives' good intentions and concerted efforts failed to reform; in fact, their pursuit of governmental efficiency perpetuated injustice by solidifying the dominance of party m