There was a certain political tendency in the United States around 1900. Historians call it the Progressive movement. I think it interesting how Kipling depicts "progressive" as almost a slang term in a novel he wrote around then:
"'Allus can, till we begin to dress daown. Efter thet, the heads and offals 'u'd scare the fish to Fundy. Boat fishin' ain't reckoned progressive, though, unless ye know as much as dad knows.'" -- Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous, 1897
"'I tell you, Harve, there ain't money in Gloucester 'u'd hire me to ship on a reg'lar trawler. It may be progressive, but, battin' that, it's the putterin'est, slimjammest business top of earth.'" -- ibid.
"'Dad's sot agin 'em on account o' their pitchin' an' joltin', but there's heaps o' money in em. Dad can find fish, but he ain't no ways progressive - he don't go with the march o' the times. They're chock-full o' labour-savin' jigs an' sech all.'" -- ibid.
"'We know it ain't, but there's no goin' in the teeth o' superstition. That's one o' the advantages o' livin' in a progressive country.'" -- ibid.
"'Why didn't that Eastport man bid, then? He bought his boots. Ain't Maine progressive?'" -- ibid.
"'Huh! I guess I'm as enlightened and progressive as the next man, but when it comes to a dead St. Malo deck-hand scarin' a couple o' pore boys stiff fer the sake of a thirty-cent knife...'" -- ibid.
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