Progressive Era Political Movement

By Brian Baglan, Mike Allo & Matt Hawley

Political Reforms

• Many cities were controlled by corrupted businesses. • Business controlled government.

• Tom Johnson, Sammuel Jones and Robert M. La Folette wanted voters to have power.

Law Passed

• Recalls-voters can remove a person from office before their term ended

• Home rule-a city is allowed to govern them self

• Initiative laws- voters can pass laws with out need of legislative

17th Amendment

• Prior to this amendment only house of representatives were elected by the people• The belief that senators should be elected by the people gained

widespread acceptance• Corrupt politicians elected senators that they could by support

from

• African Americans gained the right to vote• But whites usually prohibited their voting rights• They threatened lives• required literacy tests• Since the authorities couldn’t refuse their rights they

found ways around

Direct Primary

• Party members looking to run for office file petitions to have their names place on the ballot, thus allowing voters to directly vote for the candidate of their choice

2 types:• Closed Primary – limited to those who

have registered as members of a party in whose primary they are voting

• Open Primary – allows individuals to vote across party lines as in the regular election process

• 1st presidential primary passed in Florida, 1901• Oregon 1st to adopt preferential primary in 1910

Bibliography

Adomanis, James F. "Primary, Direct." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 6. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 463. U.S. History in Context. Web. 3 Oct. 2014.

Buenker, John D. "Progressive Era." World Book Student. World Book, 2014. Web. 3 Oct. 2014.

"Seventeenth Amendment." UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History. Sonia Benson, Daniel E. Brannen, Jr., and Rebecca Valentine. Vol. 7. Detroit: UXL, 2009. 1399. Web. 3 Oct. 2014.