The Progressive Era1900-1916

Roosevelt Taft Wilson America Seeks

Reforms in the Early 20th Century

“The Gilded Age” 1870-1900 America became an Industrial Empire

Beautiful on the surface…..

…but cheap and tarnished underneath.I. Child Labor

IV. Impure Food and DrugsIII. Unregulated Corporations

II. Dangerous Working Conditions in Sweatshops

V. Terrible Conditions in Slums and TenementsVI. Limited Women’s Rights

VII. Racism: Poverty and DiscriminationVIII. Unprotected Natural Resources

Middle class reformers wanted a more active government to address

these problems.were Investigative Journalists who pioneered exposé articles and novels.

I. Child Labor

“Breaker boys"—boys employed by mines to pick impurities out of newly broken coal as it rolled past on conveyor belts -- crouch over the chutes, sit hour after hour, picking out the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes past to the washers.” John Spargo“The boys might cut fingers and hands, or contract lung diseases

from working in the hazardous, dusty conditions. Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered and dead. “ John Spargo

“Three boys from a Hull House club were injured at one machine for lack of a guard which would have cost but a few dollars. When the injury of one of these boys resulted in his death, we felt sure the factory would share our horror and prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. To our surprise they did nothing whatever, and I made my acquaintance then with those pathetic documents signed by the parents of working children, that they will make no claim for damages resulting from “carelessness.” Jane Addams

"Tonight while we sleep,

several thousand little girls

will be working in textile

mills, all the night through,

in the deafening noise of the

spindles and the loomsspinning and weaving

cottonand wool, silks and

ribbonsfor us to buy.”

Florence Kelley

II. Dangerous Working Conditions in Sweatshops

THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIREThe New York Times March 26,

1911“141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire; Trapped

High up in Building; Street Strewn with Bodies; Piles of Dead Inside”

“The victims who are now lying at the Morgue waiting for some one to identify them by a tooth or the remains of a burned shoe were mostly girls from 18 to 23 years of age.” NY Times

“The building was fireproof. The walls are as good as ever, so are the floors; nothing is the worse for the fire except the furniture and the 141 of the 600 men and girls that were employed on the upper three stories.” NY Times

III. Unregulated Corporations

‘ You see, this scheme is bound to work. It means absolute control by us of the oil business. You are to turn over your refinery to my appraisers, and I will give you Standard Oil company stock or cash, as you prefer, for the value we put upon it.’ John D. Rockefeller

“Some refiners objected. They did not want to sell. Mr. Rockefeller was regretful, but firm. It was useless to resist, he told the hesitating; they would certainly be crushed if they did not accept his offer.” Ida M. Tarbell

Ida M. Tarbell

Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough RidersPresident McKinley’s Assassination

The “accidental” President became a “trustbuster” bringing 44 anti-trust law suitsagainst corporations. He also settled labor strikes with a “Square Deal” or fair treatment for both labor and Management.

Theodore Roosevelt

President 1901-1909

Republican

IV. Impure Food and Drugs“Mary had a little lamb and when she saw it sicken,

she shipped it off to Packingtown, and now it’s labeled chicken.”

“The workers in Packingtown each had their own peculiar diseases. The worker bore the evidence of them about on his own person—generally he had only to hold out his hand.” Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair’s Muckraking novelcontributed to the Meat Inspection Act which enforced sanitary codes in Industry, and the Pure Food andDrug Act which banned impure and mislabeled food and drugs .

V. Terrible Conditions in Slums and Tenements

“Life in the tenements in July andAugust spells death to an army oflittle ones whom the doctor’s skillis powerless to save.” Jacob Riis

“The children of the poor grow up in joyless homes to lives of wearisome toil that claims them at an age when the play of their happier fellows has but just begun.” Jacob Riis

“Yet, as I knew, that dismal alley with its bare brick walls, between which no sun ever rose or set, was the world of those children. It filled their young lives. Probably not one of them had ever been out of the sight of it.” Jacob Riis

“Tenement-houses have no aesthetic resources..… the air-shaft that seems always so busy letting out foul stenches from below that it has no time to earn its name by bringing down fresh air, the squeaking pumps that hold no water, and the rent that is never less than one week’s wages out of the four, quite as often half of the family earnings.” Jacob Riis

Settlement HousesJane Addams’ Hull House, Chicago

“The streets are inexpressibly dirty, the number of schools inadequate, sanitary legislation unenforced, the street lighting bad, the paving miserable and altogether lacking in the alleys and smaller streets, and the stables foul beyond description. Hundreds of houses are unconnected with the street sewer.” Jane Addams

VI. Limited Women’s Rights

“No man is good enough togovern any woman withouther consent.” Susan B. Anthony

“The prolonged slavery of women is thedarkest page in human history. Come,come, my conservative friend, wipe thedew off your spectacles, and see that theworld is moving.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women’s Suffrage Before 1920

Native-born, educated, middle-class women grew more and more impatient. Through local, state, and national organizations, as well as vigorous protests, women finally realized their dream in 1920.

“No woman can call herself free who does notown and control her body. No woman can callherself free until she can choose consciouslywhether she will or will not be a mother.”

Margaret Sanger

Forced Silence in Boston“She goes through the vale of death alone, each timea babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it.” Margaret Sanger

VII. Racism: Poverty and Discrimination

“The nineteenth century lynching mob cutsoff ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body assouvenirs among the crowd.” Ida B. Wells

“Somebody must show that the Afro-Americanrace is more sinned against than sinning, andit seems to have fallen upon me to do so.”

Ida B. Wells

“There is in this world no such forces as the force of aperson determined to rise.The human soul cannot be permanently chained.” W.E.B. Du Bois

“Ignorance is a cure for nothing.” W.E.B. Du Bois

“Nothing ever comes to one,that is worth having, exceptas a result of hard work.” Booker T. Washington

“There is no power on earththat can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.” Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington

Black Population 1920

While the Progressive era was responsible for many important reforms, it failed to make gains for African Americans. Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson retreated on Civil Rights when he entered office.

Between 1885-1900, 2,500 Blacks were lynched.Between 1900-1914, 1,100 Blacks were murdered by white mobs.

“Wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.” Theodore Roosevelt

VIII. Unprotected Natural ResourcesBefore Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government paid very little attention to the nation’s natural resources. Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern of his administration.

Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves, 1.5 million acres of water-power sites, 50 wildlife sanctuaries, and several national parks.

“ A people without childrenwould face a hopeless future;a country without trees is almost as helpless.” Theodore Roosevelt

William Howard TaftPresident 1909-

1913Republican

Taft was not popular with the American public. He called the Presidency, the “lonesomest” job in the world.”

Reformer President•Regulated telephone and telegraph trusts•Limited the workday to 8 hours•Investigated Child Labor abuses•Brought 90 more Anti-Trust suits, including one against U.S. Steel

Taft had beenRoosevelt’s WarSecretary

Woodrow WilsonPresident 1913-1921

Democrat

Reformer President

With a strong mandate from the American people, Wilson moved to enact his program, the “New Freedom.” He planned his attack on what he called the triple wall of privilege: trusts, tariffs, and high finance.

In 1914 Congress enacted the Clayton Anti-Trust Act that strengthened the Sherman Act.

The Federal Trade Commission was formed in 1914 to serve as a “watchdog” agency to end unfair business practices. The FTC protects consumers from business fraud.

Wilson worked hard to lower tariffs, however, the lost revenue had to be made up and was when the 16th Amendment instituted a graduated federal income tax.

The Progressive EraTHE END