PROGRESSive Era TARGETS

October 20, 2014

1. Political Reform• South are mostly ____________________ democrat• North are mostly ____________________ Republican

– Except IRISH• Politicians NOT paid much in 1800s

– So many politicians figured out how to get $$$ through bribes• Politicians use bribery & gov’t jobs to influence voters & win elections• Progressives WANT: End corruption in gov’t

– Especially POLITCAL MACHINES2. Progressive Women WANT SUFFRAGE• Suffrage: right to VOTE3. Fix effects of HIGH POPULATION• Cities filled with tenements, crime, and disease

– Children paid 1 cent for rats caught• Cities WORST FEAR: FIRE• Progressives WANT: building codes, parks, police/ fire departments, sewage

improvements, safe drinking water…

4. Get rid of BIG BUSINESS• HELP smaller business owners• Progressives WANT: “Bust the Trusts” – Get rid of corporations• Vertical vs. Horizontal Monopolies• Vertical: OWN every aspect of creating product to control PROFIT • Example: Carnegie (Steel)• Horizontal: BUY out all COMPETITORS (control market)• Example: JP Morgan/ Rockefeller5. Reduce gap between wealthy & poor• Root of all evil is WEALTHY AMERICANS

– RICH are stealing from the POOR• PROGRESSIVES WANT: Middle Class • RESULT: Set minimum wage/ no child labor/ safe working conditionsHow do Americans hear about injustices???• Muckrakers: writers who wrote about the “ugly” truth

– Tool used to clean manure and hay out of animals’ stables

Lincoln Steffens – writer “The Shame of the Cities”• Reports explain government corruption, BIG

BUSINESS POWER, etc.Jacob Riis – photographer “How the Other Half

Lives”• Show pictures of tenements, poor Americans,

etc.Upton Sinclair – novel writer “The Jungle”• Unsanitary conditions in meat packing industries• Result: FDA (Food & Drug Admin.)