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THE PROGRESSIVE ERAPart I
WHO WERE THE PROGRESSIVES?
• People who believed that new ideas and honest, efficient government could bring about social justice
• Progressives shared common belief that industrialization and urbanization had created troubling social and political problems
• Progressives targeted a variety of problems
Muckrakers
• Journalists who crusaded against the filth of big business– Lincoln Steffens– Jacob Riis– Ida Tarbell– Upton Sinclair
Lincoln Steffens
• Published The Shame of the Cities
• Exposed political corruption in Philadelphia
• Criticized utility companies for charging too much
• Targeted corrupt politicians
Jacob Riis
• Photographer
• Photographed the urban poor of New York
• Published How the Other Half Lives
Factory workers
• Triangle
Ida Tarbell• Teacher, Writer and Journalist
• She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of her day
• She is best-known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company
vsTARBELL
ROCKEFELLER
Upton Sinclair• Wrote The Jungle
• The book dealt with conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that partly contributed to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906.
Societal Reform• Jane Addams
– Hull House- A settlement house in Chicago
• Settlement houses were community centers that provided social services to the urban poor
– Child care classes for mothers
– English classes for immigrants
– Nursery school and kindergarten
– Theater, art and dance programs for adults
Protecting Children
• Florence Kelley– Lawyer who helped convince Illinois to ban
child labor– Helped form the National Child Labor
Committee– Lobbied federal government to form the US
Children’s Bureau
• Others lobbied for compulsory education
Reforming Government• Reformers pushed for election reform• Initiative – allows voters to propose a new
law by gaining signatures on a petition• Referendum – allows voters to approve or
disapprove a law that has already been proposed or passed by state or local governments
• Recall – public official can be removed from office by voters
• Direct Primary – the people vote directly for their parties candidates
The Galveston Plan• Following a deadly hurricane, Galveston,
Texas replaced its mayor and city council with a five-person commission
• Thus started the commission form of government
• Many cities followed suit
Robert La Follette
• Elected Governor of Wisconsin in 1900
• Forced RR’s to charge lower rates and pay higher taxes
• Improved education
• Made factories safer
• Adopted the direct primary
• Other progressive governors made similar changes
Women Make Progress
• Florence Kelley helped improve conditions for women in the workplace
• Women’s Christian Temperance Union helped the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919– This Amendment banned alcohol in the US
• Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic in 1921
• Ida Wells helped form the National Association of Colored Women
The Suffrage Movement
• Without the right to vote, women had limited influence in society
• Carrie Chapman Catt urged women to join the National American Woman Suffrage Movement
• Many women became “suffragettes”
• Suffrage Groups supported the US war effort during World War I
• Their actions convinced a growing number of legislators to support the 19th Amendment
• The 19th Amendment passed in 1920
The Struggle Against Discrimination
• Social reform or social control?– Many Progressives pushed for the
Americanization of immigrants and racial minorities
• Racism limits the goals of Progressives– After the Supreme Court issued its Plessy v.
Ferguson decision, many states passed segregation laws
African Americans Demand Reform
• Booker T. Washington– Urged African Americans to move
slowly towards racial progress
• W.E.B. Du Bois– Rejected this idea, urged African
Americans to demand immediately all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution
• The NAACP was formed in 1909– Focused on middle-class African Americans
and their struggle for political and social justice
• The Urban League formed in 1911– Focused on poorer workers and families in
urban areas
Organizations Form to Help End Discrimination
• The Anti-Defamation League– Formed to defend Jews
• Partido Liberal Mexicano– Formed to defend
Mexican Americans
• Society of American Indians– Formed to defend Native
Americans
THE PROGRESSIVE ERA Part II
Teddy Roosevelt
• Trustbuster• Conservationist
• Elected Vice President in 1900
• President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz
• Roosevelt was 42 years old and had a record of challenging government corruption
• He was also for regulating big business.
United Mine Workers Strike
• 1902- Anthracite miners in eastern Pennsylvania went on strike for shorter hours and union recognition
• Owners refused to negotiate
• Roosevelt threatened to close mines unless both sided agreed to arbitration
• Resulted in a shorter work day but owners did not have to recognize unions
The Square Deal
• Roosevelt’s 1904 campaign slogan
• Looked to balance interests of business, labor and consumers
• Limit the power of trusts• Promote public health and
safety• Improve working conditions
• Ordered Northern Securities, a railroad shipping monopoly, to dissolve.
• With this victory, he filed 44 more anti-trust suits against companies
TRUSTBUSTING
TRUSTBUSTING LEGISLATION
• Elkins Act- forbade shipping companies from accepting rebates for business
• Hepburn Act- authorized the ICC to set railroad rates and to regulate other companies engaged in interstate commerce
Meat Inspection Act – inspected meat shipped across state lines.
Pure Food and Drug Act
• Forbade the manufacture, sale or transportation of food and patent medicine containing harmful ingredients
• Required that containers of food and medicine carry ingredient labels
• Conservation - withdrew sale of millions of acres of public land and set up 150 million acres of forest reserves. Created programs to make damaged lands usable again.
William H. Taft
Early Legislation
• Mann-Elkins Act– Extended the regulatory
powers of the ICC to telephone and telegraph companies
• 16th Amendment– Permitted Congress to
levy a personal income tax
Payne-Aldrich Tariff
• House of Representatives passed a tariff bill calling for reduced tariffs.
• However, the United States Senate speedily substituted a bill written by Nelson W. Aldrich calling for fewer reductions and more increases in tariffs.
• Taft signed it into law, frustrating both proponents and opponents of reducing tariffs.
• The debate over the tariff split the Republican Party into Progressives and Old Guards and led the party to lose the 1910 congressional election.
Ballinger Pinchot Affair
• Richard Ballinger approved the sale of some of the land Roosevelt had set aside for conservation.
• Gifford Pinchot, head of U.S. Forrest Service criticized this move and was fired by Taft
• This further weakened his support by Progressives
1912 Election
• Teddy Roosevelt ran against Taft for the Republican nomination
• Roosevelt actually won the majority of the Republican primaries but was not given the nomination by the party
• Roosevelt and his supporters split from the party and created the Progressive Party
• The part was also know as the Bull Moose Party, because TR said he was “fit as a bull moose” to run for the Presidency
• Wilson and the Democrats swept the election to become the 28th President
Woodrow Wilson
• Repealed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff• Clayton Antitrust Act – closed the
loopholes provided by the Sherman Antitrust Act and clearly defined what a monopoly is.
• Federal Reserve Act– Set up a 3 tier banking system– 12 Federal Reserve Banks (Bankers
Bank)– Member Banks– Federal Reserve Chairman (Ben
Bernanke)
Federal Reserve Banks
• Banking – Federal Reserve Act – Set up a 3 tier banking system
– Federal Reserve Board – At the top, this board runs the system through setting interest rates and controlling inflation.
• To decrease inflation – set high interest rates to bring money supply back in.
• To get more money in the economy – lower interest rates to allow people to save and spend more.
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act – Clarified and extended stipulations set by the Sherman Anti-Trust act. An overall improvement.
• Federal Trade Commission – investigated corporations for failed claims and unfair
practices. Still around today.
Progressive Amendments
• 16th Amendment – implements federal income tax
• 17th Amendment – called for direct election of US Senators
• 18th Amendment – prohibition outlawed the manufacturing, transportation, and sale of alcohol
• Volstead Act – outlawed the consumption of alcohol
• 19th Amendment – granted women’s suffrage
