Progressive Party

Progressive party is the name of a number of political parties in the United States and in several countries around the world. Progressive parties are or have been “left of center” parties. They are usually statists, because they advocate actively using the power of government in all manner of public policy areas including ecology. Theodore Roosevelt, who is generally viewed as a Progressive though he initially entered the White House as a Republican, became the president of the United States on September 14, 1901, following the assassination of President William McKinley (1843–1901). He was elected to his own term as president in 1904. In 1912, Roosevelt made another bid for the presidency and created the “Bull Moose Party,” or the United States Progressive Party. The nickname “Bull Moose Party” came from Roosevelt's answer to questions about his health and his stamina for creating a new political party—he replied that he was as healthy as a “bull moose.”

Important environmental planks in the platform of the United States Progressive Party of 1912 were promotion of country life and conservation. The promotion of country life was a pledge to promote prosperity in rural areas and improvements in rural life. The conservation plank of the platform proposed a policy of conservation that applied to forests, oil, and other natural resources. Conservation would govern development and use of natural resources in a manner that was not destructive.

Homesteading would still be encouraged, but most natural resources still in government hands, either state or federal, were to remain in public hands so that they could be wisely conserved and used for the general welfare. Moreover, it would be a policy in which the government would gain mining fees or lumber profits for the benefit of the people, and not for the benefit of commercial enterprises. The nation's water supply would be effectively nationalized with regular payments to be made to the government for the exercise of water rights by private companies. A similar arrangement was to be made for leases of public lands for grazing rights. Finally, the platform includes the statement that those natural resources necessary for the national welfare should be owned or controlled by the nation. The [Page 1439]presidential election of 1912 was a disappointment for the Progressives. They vastly out-polled the Republican Party in popular votes and Electoral College votes; however, they lost the election to the Democratic Party's candidate Woodrow Wilson. By the election of 1916, the Progressive Party had disappeared, but it reemerged in subsequent elections.

In 1924 Robert Marion La Follette, Sr. (1855–1925) organized the Progressive Party so that he could run for president. The party's platform called for public ownership of water power, public control and conservation of all natural resources including coal, mineral ores, oil, and timber lands so that these could be responsibly used for the common good. It carried Wisconsin and disappeared after the election. Henry Wallace was the presidential candidate in 1948 on the Progressive Party ticket. Its platform was in the main written by extreme leftists. Beyond asserting that all natural resources belonged to the people, it had little to say about conservation or the environment. The Progressive Party of Canada was based in Manitoba. It flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, but soon lost public support. It was linked with the United Farmers Parties in several other Canadian provinces.

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