Chapter 8: The Progressive Era 1890-1920

Section 1: The Drive for Reform

• Progressivism – Political belief that new ideas and honest, efficient government could bring about social justice.

I. Origins of Progressivism

• Who were the Progressives? People from all walks of life; growing middle class, industrial workers, immigrant minorities. All social classes, political parties, ethnic groups, and religions.

A. Progressives Share Common Beliefs

1. Industrialization and urbanization had created troubling social and political problems.

2. Wanted government to step in and pass laws to solve the issues.

3. Social justice was of great concern.

4. Get rid of corrupt government and corrupt officials.

5. Focus was on increased education and the use of modern ideas to solve problems.

B. Progressives Target a Variety of Problems

1. What to do first?

a. Political corruption

i. Political machines

ii. Wanted safe water, paved streets, decent

housing, and a safe life.

b. Women wanted suffrage

c. Argued that the rights of women voting should be at the top of the list.

c. Honest government

i. Did not want officials to control city services

d. Big Business

i. “bust the trusts”

ii. create more opportunities for small

businesses

e. reduce the gap between the “have and have nots”

better working conditions, pay, and living conditions.

II. Muckrakers Reveal the Need for Reform

• Muckrakers – Journalists who wrote sensationalistic investigative news stories about the ills of society.

• People across the nation were appalled at the conditions that their fellow Americans were living and working in.

A. Journalists Uncover Injustices

1. Lincoln Steffens – Writer for McClure’s magazine.

a. wrote a collection of stories about Philadelphia’s government allowing utility companies charge their customers excessively high rates

b. exposed politicians who bribed and threatened voters.

2. Jacob Riis – Photographer for the New York Evening Sun.

* Took photographs of city life in New York.

a. “How the other half lives” was a photographic expose’ of how many people in America live their lives.

• 3. Ida Tarbell – Another journalist who exposed the ruthless tactics of the era’s industrialists (John Rockefeller).

B. Novelists Defend the Downtrodden

1. The naturalist novel – fiction writing that honestly portrayed the misery and struggles of the common people in America.

2. Upton Sinclair – “The Jungle” which exposed the horrors of the US meat packing industry. Pg 220

Upton Sinclair – “The Jungle” (2:56)

III. Progressives Reform Society

A. The Social Gospel Guides Reform Efforts

1. Many thought Christianity should be the basis for social reform.

2. Social Gospel – By following the teachings of the bible people could make society the “kingdom of heaven”.

B. Settlement House Workers Aid the Urban Poor

1. Settlement House – A community center that provided services to the poor.a. Childcare classes

for mothersb. English education

for immigrantsc. Ran nursery schools

and kindergarten.

2. Jane Addams – Became a leading figure in the settlement house movement.a. Opened Hull House in

Chicago that was so successful that she opened up 13 other sites.

C. Protecting Children and Improving Education

1. Florence Kelley – Illinois lawyer who convinced Illinois to ban child labor.

a. National Child Labor Committee – petitioned the federal government to intercede on the issue of child labor.

b. U.S. Children’s Bureau – 1912 – Still exists today to protect American children.

2. Keating-Owens Act – Made child labor illegal, was ruled unconstitutional 2 yrs later.

3. Progressives also worked to improve education, but there was much debate over what should be taught and to whom?

D. Progressives Help Industrial Workers

1. 1900 U.S. had the highest rate of work related accidents in the world.

2. 30k per year died on the job.

3. Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911 – 146 workers died in the fire, in part, due to the doors being locked shut so workers could not leave early.

a. Many states passed laws making workplaces safer.

b. Many states set up funds for workers who were injured on the job.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (4:48)

IV. Reforming Government

A. Reforms Improve City Government1. 1900 a hurricane destroyed Galveston, Tx.

a. Corruption and incompetent city officials led to the city struggling to rebuild

b. Fired the mayor and city aldermen and replaced them with a 5 man city commission.

c. By 1918 nearly 500 cities had adopted the “Galveston Plan”.

B. Progressives Reform Election Rules

1. Robert LaFollete – “Fighting Bob” was the governor of Wisconsin.

a. Created a direct primary where voters chose who would run for office.

2. Initiative – Gave people the power to directly place an issue on the ballot.

3. Referndum – Allowed citizens to approve or reject a piece of legislation passed by government.

4. Recall – Allowed citizens to remove elected officials from office if they did not do as promised or do enough.

5. 17th Amendment – Direct election of Senators.

C. Progressive Governors Take Charge

1. Fighting Bob LaFollete - Wisconsin

a. Passed many reform laws

b. Forced RR to pay higher taxes and reduce rates.

c. Improved education & made factories safer

2. Hiram Johnson – California

a. Shattered the control that the Southern Pacific RR had over state government.

3. Theodore Roosevelt (NY) and Woodrow Wilson (NJ) were also prominent reform minded Governors of the era.

Section 2: Women Make Progress

• Progressive Women Expand Reforms

• Women wanted to do more with their lives than be mothers and homemakers

• Education often allowed women to expand their role in their community.

A. Working Women Face Hardships.

1. Difficult jobs, long hours, dangerous conditions with less $$

2. Handed their wages over to their husbands, fathers, or brothers

3. Were often cheated by their employers

B. Reformers Champion Working Women’s Rights

1. Mueller V Oregon – backed up an Oregon law limiting the # of hours per day women could be required to work.

2. Florence Kelley – Said women were being cheated by high prices of consumer goods

a. National Consumer League – Gave special labels to goods produced under safe, fair, and healthy working conditions.

b. Urged women to avoid products not carrying their labels.

c. Women’s Trade Union League – Tried to improve working conditions for women.

C. Women Work for Changes in Family Life

1. One main priority for Progressives was to change the lives of American families (whether they wanted to or not)

2. Temperance Movement – Promoted the practice of never drinking alcohol.

a. Their work on this issue led to the passage of the 18th Amendment.

1. Margaret Sanger – Opened the nations 1st birth control center because she believed that families would be better off with less children.

a. Federal law prohibited any form of birth control meds, and the discussion of the names of STD’s.

b. She did time in Queen Anne’s Prison before winning on appeal…thus changing the laws

II. Women Fight for the Right to Vote

A. Catt Takes Charge of the Movement

1. Carrie Chapman Catt – Re-energized the American women’s suffrage movement.

a. National American Women’s Suffrage Association – Women’s group dedicated to gaining women’s suffrage.

b. Recruited wealthy, prominent socialites to her cause, spoke before state legislatures, and pressured Congress to pass an Amendment granting women’s suffrage.

2. Believe it or not there were actually women who WERE OPPOSSED to women voting…

a. National Association Opposed to Women’s Suffrage

b. Believed that women’s place was taking care of her family and voting/politics was a distraction

B. Activists Carry on the Struggle

1. Alice Paul - Very well educated Quaker who actively recruited very important people in the suffrage movement.

a. National Women’s Party – Organized the 1st women’s protest march at the White House.

b. Hundreds arrested & thousands on hunger strikes and other sorts of radical tactics.

C. The 19th Amendment becomes Law.

1. Carrie Catt and Florence Kelley led suffrage groups in support of the U.S. war effort in WWI.

2. Their actions convinced Congress to look at suffrage again.

3. 19th Amendment – The right to vote shall not be abridged on account of sex. (Women get to vote)

4. November 2, 1920 – Women in the U.S. voted for the 1st time.

Section 3: The Struggle Against Discrimination

I. Progressivism Presents Contradictions

• Most Progressives were White Anglo Saxon Protestants and only really cared about fixing society for white non-immigrants

A. Social Reform or Social Control

1. Americanization – The philosophy of helping immigrants become more American.

a. Wanted them to forgo their culture and ethnicity to become more American.

b. The thought was they would become more loyal Americans

c. The alcohol use of immigrants was of great concern to many. Became a part of the prejudice against immigrants.

B. Racism Limits the Goals of Progressivism

1. Many believed that certain races were more fit to lead than others.

2. Popular “scientific” theories suggested that dark skinned people were naturally less intelligent than whites.

3. These beliefs became part of the way that people justified their treatment of African-Americans, Mexicans, and Native Americans throughout our history.

4. By 1910, segregation became the norm that was supported by the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy V Ferguson.

II. African Americans Demand Reform

• W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington became prominent African Americans who spoke out against segregation and worked to change the future for other African-Americans.

A. African Americans Form the Niagara Movement

1. DuBois and William Trotter met with other African American leaders at Niagara Falls (Canadian side)

2. Called the Niagara Movement – Denounced the idea of gradual progress.

a. Not willing to compromise the rights of African-Americans.

b. Argued that the current educational system only created workers

c. Believed African American men should be taught history, literature, and philosophy so they could think for themselves.

d. Movement never amounted to anything significant due to the size of their membership.

B. Riots lead to the Formation of the NAACP

1. Riot in Springfield, Ill. after a failed attempt to lynch 2 African-American prisoners in the city jail.

2. Rioters turned on black residents of the city, killing 2 and burning 40 homes.

3. Members of the Niagara Movement formed the NAACP.

4. NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

a. Aimed to help African Americans be “physically free from peonage, mentally free from ignorance, politically free from disfranchisement, and socially free from insult.”

5. The group, made up of both blacks and whites, sought to use the courts to challenge unfair laws.

C. African Americans for the Urban League

1. Urban League – Groups in cities that banned together to fight for the rights of poor African American workers.

a. Helped families buy clothes and books and send children to school.

III. Reducing Prejudice and Protecting Rights

A. The Anti-Defamation League Aids Jews

1. The goal was, and still is, to defend Jews and others against physical and verbal attacks, false statements, and “to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike”.

B. Mexican Americans Organize

1. Partido Liberal Mexicano – Similar in function to the Urban League

2. Mutualista – Groups who made loans and provided legal assistance to Mexicans

Section 4: Roosevelt’s Square Deal

I. Rough-Riding President

A. Roosevelt’s Rise

1. Feeble, sick, & weak as a youngster he drove himself to accomplish physical feats.

2. Boxed, wrestled, horseback riding, while at Harvard Univ.

3. Joined the Army and became cavalry brigade commander

• Roosevelt was chosen as McKinley’s running mate literally to get him out of the hair of Republican leaders

• Won fame for his role in the battle of San Juan Hill in Spanish American War. Became President when McKinley was assassinated

B. The Modern Presidency

1. At age 42, he became the youngest President ever.

2. Bold and brash…his policies were always right. Boxed pros, rode horseback 100 mile, hunted wild game, “Teddy Bear” named after him. He was bigger than life.

3. Believed the government was there to serve & provide for the people.

4. Square Deal- The various Progressive reforms that Roosevelt sponsored. Supported his idea of government responsibility

II. Using Federal Power

A. 1902 Coal Strike1. 140,000 coal miners in Pa. went on strike wanting 20%

pay raise, 9 hour work day and organized labor right.

2. As winter approached Roosevelt called both sides to the White House to discuss the situation. “Only the dignity of the Presidency” kept him from taking the owner “by the seat of the breeches and tossing him out the window.

B. Federal Arbitration- Roosevelt threatened to take over the mines

1. Federal arbitration committee – works with both sides to work out their differences.

2. Compromise was reached – 10% pay raise, 9 hour day, no strikes for 3 years.

• This set a precedent for government intervention in labor/owner conflict.

C. Trust-busting

1. Roosevelt vowed to rid the U.S. of all “bad trusts” that sought to get rich while harming the public.

a. Trusts controlled 80% of U.S. industry

2. Believed that all trusts were not bad

3. Roosevelt’s administration attacked and defeated 44 trusts using the Sherman anti-trust act. (oil, tobacco, RR & beef among them)

a. Northern Securities Company – Had a complete monopoly over RR in NW U.S.

D. Railroad Regulation

1. Interstate Commerce Act – Prohibited “pools” in which RR owners divided business in a given territory and shared the profits.

2. Elkins Act – Made it illegal for RR to give and shippers to receive rebates or discounts. RR could not change rates without notifying the public.

3. Hepburn Act – Severely limited the distribution of free RR passes…a common form of bribery.

III. Protecting Citizens and the Environment

A. Protecting Health1. Upton Sinclair – “Muckracker” Journalist who exposed

the meatpacking industry for it’s filth, unsafe, and unsanitary conditions.

2. “The Jungle” (1906) – Sinclair’s book that graphically outline the safe and unsanitary conditions inside the U.S.’s meat packing industry.

• “The Jungle” was a best seller and people were disgusted with it’s findings.

• “Potted Ham” – Hash with disgusting ingredients such as rope, pigskin etc..

3. Meat Inspection Act – Dictated strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers and created a system of federal inspection.

4. Created the inspection system we had until the 1990’s

5. Increased government regulation that cost taxpayer money

B. Pure Food and Drug Act

1. Pure Food and Drug Act – Halted the sale of contaminated food and medicines. It called for “truth in labeling”.

2. The government reported that harmful additives and preservatives were being added to food and drugs to make them last longer.

3. All foods/drugs had to have labels that told what exactly was in the food/medicine.

4. Did not outlaw the harmful things being put in, but made sure the public had knowledge of what they were ingesting.

C. Conservation and Natural Resources- Roosevelt the outdoorsman steps up.

1. Roosevelt deemed water and forest problems a vital concern for Americans.

2. Roosevelt set aside well over 230 million acres for national forests, water power, and resource research.

3. Actually banned all Christmas trees in the White House until 1902. Camped in Yosemite National Park in 1903.

D. Gifford Pinochet- Professional conservationist that

became head of the U.S. Forest Service

1. Worked on plans to conserve the wild lands and natural resources of the U.S.

2. Conservation- some areas would be preserved while others would be developed for commercial purposes.

3. Money gathered from commercial sales/profits would be used to fund large scale irrigation projects.

• What is the difference between Conservation and Preservation?

IV. Roosevelt and Civil Rights

• Was not a supporter of the civil rights movement, but did support a few individual African Americans. Why ? Fear?

• Had Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House and supported his Tuskegee Institute. Why Him? He supported segregation by not bitterly fighting it.

• Appointed an African American as head of Charleston, SC customhouse

V. Roosevelt and Taft Differ

• Roosevelt left office after 1 term..to hunt big game in Africa among other things.

• Thought he left things in reliable hands – William H. Taft

I. Taft Takes his Own Course

A. Taft had his own agenda.1. Payne Aldrich Tariff – Did not lower tariffs as much as

Roosevelt wanted.

2. Encouraged government to pass an income tax3. pushed for legislation to take control of phone and telegraph

rates.

4. Fired Gifford Pinochet.

5. Seemed to go against much of what Roosevelt had done in his administration.

6. Roosevelt was furious.

B. Roosevelt Strikes Back

1. Came back from Africa with his eyes on re-taking the White House

2. New Nationalism – Roosevelt’s new program to restore the governments trust busting powers.

3. Roosevelt failed to win the Republican nomination

4. Formed his own party – Progressive Party – Often called the “Bull Moose Party”.

• Roosevelt and Taft traveled the country bad mouthing each other and their leadership.

• Spent so much time worrying about each other that Woodrow Wilson literally “snuck” past them both and won the 1912 election.

Section 5: Wilson’s New Freedom – Wilson’s political platform.

I. Progressive Reform Under Wilson

• Went after the “Triple Wall of Privilege” = trusts, tariffs, high finance

A. Wilson’s Background

1. Came from a family of ministers

2. He became a lawyer then a professor at Princeton for being named President of Princeton University

3. New Jersey Governor in 1910

4. Elected President in 1912

B. Clayton Anti-trust Act

1. He believed trusts should not be regulated, but taken apart.

2. Clayton Anti-Trust Act declared certain business practices to be illegal.

• Ex – a corporation could not acquire stock in another company if it would be creating a monopoly by doing so.

3. If a company violated these law then it’s officers could be prosecuted.

4. Labor unions were no longer subjected to anti-trust laws and were therefore legal. Strikes and boycotts became legal.

C. Federal Trade Commission

• Had the power to investigate violations of regulatory statutes

• Had the ability to order companies to halt illegal activities

D. A new Tax System

1. Wilson believed high tariffs helped create monopolies

2. Argues before Congress to reduce tariffs and encouraged voters to monitor their politicians votes on the issue

E. Federal Income Tax

1. Revenue lost from tariffs needed to be replaced

2. 16th Amendment – Created a tax on individual earnings.

a. a graduated tax that taxed higher incomes more

F. Federal Reserve System – A decentralized banking system under Federal control

1. Country divided into zones, each with it’s own federal reserve bank that controlled the flow of currency.

II. Limits of Progressivism

• D. Wilson and Civil Rights 1. While running for election, he won NAACP support for his

anti-lynching stance.

2. Once in office, he failed to support legislation that would make lynching a federal crime.

3. Wilson stated often that he viewed segregation as a just policy.

4. Federal offices, which had been desegregated after the Civil War became segregated again after Wilson’s election.

5. Wilson told African American leaders that he would fight for them, but he did not and refused to acknowledge that he owed them any political support.

• E. The Twilight of Progressivism

1. No chance of reform while at war.

2. The progressive ideals took a backseat to the problems of WWI.