• Identify the causes of Progressivism.

• Analyze the role that journalists played in the Progressive Movement.

• Evaluate some of the social reforms that Progressives tackled.

• Explain what Progressives hoped to achieve through political reforms.

Objectives

• initiative – process in which citizens put a proposed new law directly on the ballot

• referendum – process that allows citizens to reject or accept laws passed by their legislature

• recall – process by which voters can remove elected officials from office before their terms end

• Progressivism – movement that responded to the pressures of industrialization and urbanization by promoting reforms

• muckraker – writer who uncovers and exposes misconduct in politics or business

• Lincoln Steffens – muckraking author of Shame of the Cities; exposed corruption in urban government

• Jacob Riis – muckraking photographer and author of How The Other Half Lives; exposed the condition of the urban poorJane Addams – leader in the settlement house movement

• settlement house – community center that provided services for the urban poor

• Social Gospel – belief that following Christian principles could bring about social justice

• direct primary – allowed voters to select candidates rather than having them selected by party leaders

10.1 Progressive Reform10.1 Progressive Reform

What areas did Progressives want to reform most?

-Progressives believed that honest & efficient govt could bring about social justice.-Progressives were mainly from the emerging middle class.

• Progressivism: responded to the pressures of industrialization & urbanization by promoting reforms in 1890-1900.

Progressives issues:

• corrupt political machines

• trusts and monopolies

• inequities

• safety

• city services

• women’s suffrage

Muckrakers used investigative reporting to uncover &dramatize societal ills:

muckraker – writer who exposed misconduct in govt/business, thus showing the need to reform

Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle provided a shocking look at Chicago meatpacking.

Lincoln Steffens The Shame of the Cities

John SpargoThe Bitter Cry of the Children

Ida TarbellThe History of Standard Oil

Jacob Riis exposed the deplorable conditions poor people were forced to live under through his photography and in How the Other Half Lives.

Christian reformers’ Social Gospel demanded a shorter work day & the end of child labor.

Progressive reformers worked to change society.

Jane Addams led the settlement house movement. Her urban community centers provided social services for immigrants & the poor.

Progressives succeeded in reducing child labor and improving school enrollment.

The United States Children’s Bureau was created in 1912.

In 1911, 146 workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Many young women jumped to their deaths or burned.

In the 1900s, the U.S. had the world’s highest rate of industrial accidents.

Worker safety was an important issue for Progressives.

To reform society, Progressives realized they must also reform government.

• Government couldnot be controlled by political bosses and business interests.

• Government needed to be more efficient and more accountable to the people.

Cities and states experimented with new methods of governing.

In Wisconsin, Governor Robert M. La Follette and other Progressives reformed state government to restore political control to the people.

• direct primaries• initiatives• referendums• recalls

Progressive governors achieved state-level reforms of the railroads and taxes.

On the national level, in 1913, Progressiveshelped pass the 17th Amendment, providing for the direct election of United States Senators.

2 Progressive Governors, Theodore Roosevelt of NY & Woodrow Wilson of NJ, would become Progressive presidents.

Amanda Theodosia Jones (1835–1914),poet/inventor.invented the vacuum process for canning food in 1872. She founded a canning company in 1890. Jones believed canning was the preserve of women (pun very much intended), & insisted it be run by women only.It turns out that she was a better inventor than business woman; the company was short-lived.