Important Muckrakers

Upton Sinclair

Ida B. Wells

Ida Tarbell

The Progressives

AP US History

Muckrakers“…the man who could look no way but downward …. [who]

continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor” - Theodore Roosevelt

Political

Reform

at the Local Level

The Old SystemMayor who directly administers the city

The New SystemMayor hires a city manager who

administers the city

Social & Economic Reforms• “Gas and water socialism”• Minimum wage• Improving living conditions of the poor• Building codes – result of Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Political Reform at the State Level

Political Reform at the State Level

Political Reform at the National Level

Political Reform at the National Level

17th Amendment - Direct election of US senators

Social Reform at the National Level18th Amendment (1917)

“….the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited….”

Repealed by the 21st Amendment (1933)

Labor law

• Keating-Owens Child Labor Act– Overturned in

Hammer v. Dagenhart• Issue: Did social

legislation violate the right to contract?– Lochner v. New York

(1905): yes– Muller v. Oregon

(1908): no

Progressivism & Civil Rights• African-Americans

– Woodrow Wilson: unsympathetic– Feminists: often used racist arguments– Booker T. Washington: accomodationist– W. E. B. Du Bois: calls for racial equality

Progressive Presidents

1900 1901 1904 1908 1912 1920

McKinleyRe-elected

McKinleyAssassinated by Leon Czolgosz

Rooseveltelected

Taft elected

McKinley Roosevelt Taft Wilson

Wilsonelected

Roosevelt in Office

1902 United Mine Workers Strike

Roosevelt favors “arbitration” → “Square Deal”

1904 Roosevelt runs for President

Promises “Square Deal” for the American people

1. End trusts2. Public health & Improve working

conditions3. Environmental Conservation

The Taft Presidency (1908-1912)

Problems

Mann-Elkin Act – ICC control of communications 8 hr day for gov’t workers

90 anti-trust suits

TR returns - tries to win Rep. nomination in 1912 – fails to beat Taft and then forms his own Progressive Party to challenge Taft in 1912

Taft broke up US Steel (TR considered this a “good trust”)

Ballinger – Pinchot affair

Payne-Aldrich Tariff

The Presidential Election of 1912

Ben BernankeAlan Greenspan