But year by year as the twentieth century dawned, a new breed of
thinkers and activists who labeled themselves "Progressives" --
journalists, academics, enlightened businessmen and financiers,
officeholders in state capitals and city halls -- along with anonymous
and rebellious workers and farmers who pushed from below -- chipped away
at the golden walls. They pushed through three amendments in the
Constitution -- a deliberately long and hard process -- between 1909 and
1920: a progressive income tax, the direct election of Senators, and
votes for women.
Campaign by campaign, local, state and national, navigating through
the endless grind of assemblies and petitions and public events
sometimes supported by striking workers who risked their jobs, their
physical safety valve and even their lives for equal justice, they gained
other protections and guarantees. Workers compensation, occupational
safety, guarantees of pure food and drugs, conservation of natural
resources, restriction of child labor, regulations of railroads, trusts,
and insurance companies, strengthened defenses against financial panics
ignited by reckless speculation. Protections for all, especially that
vital middle class on whose shoulders democracy rested. Achieved through
a political process made accessible to all by machine-fighting reforms
like the secret ballot and the open primary.

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