Municipal Reform (jan 1, 1900 – apr 1, 1920)

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A key part of the Progressive platform was municipal reform. This was spearheaded by figures like Toledo Mayor Samuel M. “Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo, whose program of establishing free kindergartens, night schools, and public playgrounds was immensely popular, and the mayor of Cleveland (Tom L. Johnson), who took a different, but still popular, approach of focusing on tax reforms, low trolley fares, and trying (though unsuccessfully) to achieve public ownership and operation of the city’s utilities and services. Later municipal reform leaders also made it a priority to achieve public ownership of utilities, such that by 1915, a significant majority of American cities owned their own water systems. New forms of municipal government also emerged during the Progressive Era, including the commission plan (whereby citizens could vote directly for the heads of city departments) and the more practical manager-council plan (in which an elected city council hires an expert manager to oversee the various city departments).

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