THE AGE OF THE PROGRESSIVES

1900-1920William Howard

TaftRepublican 1909-

1913

Theodore RooseveltRepublican 1901-

1909

Woodrow WilsonDemocrat 1913-

1921

Alice PaulNational Woman’s Party NWP

Journalists uncover corruption in politics

and big business.

TR forms an independent 3rd party called the

Bull-Moose Progressive Party

WHAT DO PROGRESSIVES BELIEVE?

Progressivism:

Progressive were middle-class Americans that saw problems of rapid industrialization, urbanization and immigration. They believed that new ideas (in medicine, law, business and teaching) and honest, efficient government can bring about social justice.

THE DRIVE FOR REFORM—ORIGINS OF

PROGRESSIVISM

1. Religious Organizations

2. Muckrakers and Journalists (wrote about scandals in society and industry3. Radical Political Groups (labor unions, socialists, communists)

WHAT DID THE PROGRESSIVES ACCOMPLISH?

The Progressive passed FOUR Constitutional Amendments:

1. The 16th Amendment (1913): “The More you make the More the government takes…” Income Tax

2. The 17th Amendment (1913): “Direct election of senators…”

3. The 18th Amendment (1919): “A dry nation…” Prohibition

4. The 19th Amendment (1920): “Women can vote in National elections…”

People PowerThe Initiative—the people can initiate legislation by petition to compel state legislatures…The Referendum—people can pass or reject measures by state legislatures… The Recall—plea for the removal of elected officials from office…

MUCKRAKERS

Muckrakers: Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis, and Lincoln Steffens Helped Expose Scandal, Inspire Reform, and Invent

Investigative Journalism

“...the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward…There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack…”

Theodore Roosevelt (1906)literary allusion to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire: Perhaps the most shocking industrial disaster of the Progressive Era, it occurred in 1911

in New York City’s garment district. When the ten-story building went up in flames, 146 people, mostly women piece-

workers,

perished because fire exits had been chained and locked. The fire caused cities to enact stricter building codes and more

regular inspections of workplaces.

FLORENCE KELLY’S FIGHT TO END CHILD LABOR

Child Labor Laws: In the early 1900s, about 1.5 million workers in the U.S. were under the age of 16. This affected not only the children, but also older workers because young workers kept wages down for all workers.

Florence Kelly, in 1902, forms the National Child Labor Committee. She lobbies congress to form the U. S. Children’s Bureau in 1912.

In 1916, congress passes the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act, prohibiting interstate commerce of any item made by laborers under 14 years old (it is ruled unconstitutional in 1917 in the case of Hammer v. Dagenhart where a Charlotte, NC, father sued to have his two sons work with him in a mill).

It is not until 1938 that child labor would be ended for good. 

WOMEN TAKE THE RIGHT TO VOTE SUFFRAGETTES

Alice Paul, 1915 Leader of Protests and

Hunger Strikes

Women's Suffrage ParadeNew York City, May 6, 1912

Women’s Suffrage Movement: • began with the Seneca

Falls Convention in 1848

• upset over the 14th and 15th Amendments

• Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s National Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

• 1869, Wyoming did become first state to grant women vote

• Carrie Chapman Catt became leader of the NAWSA

• formed the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916

• The 19th Amendment (1920) granted women the vote

The Black Voices:ACCOMODATIONALIST VS.

CONFRONTATIONALIST

Booker T. Washington W. E. B Dubois

Early Black Militancy:• wrote Souls of Black Folk• highly educated the first Black Ph.D. from Harvard• "Beauty is Black"• pull oneself up by their “boots straps”• blacks should build their own business, newspapers,

colleges • participated in the Niagara Movement attacking

limitations on voting, economic opportunity and segregation

• founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• editor of "The Crisis" the NAACP's publication

Black Independence and Self-Reliance:• wrote Up From slavery educator,reformer • preached a philosophy of self-help, racial

solidarity believed in accommodation and urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being argued for them to concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity believed in education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills

• practice virtues of patience, enterprise a to win the respect of whites and equality

Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, Sept. 6, 1901.

THE ELECTION OF 1912: THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TAKES THE WHITE

HOUSE

…and the winner was…

Woodrow Wilson - 42%Teddy Roosevelt – 27%William H. Taft - 23%Eugene V. Debs - 6%Other (fringies) - 2%

“NEW FREEDOM” PRESIDENT WOODROW

WILSON

Wilson’s reform agenda “New Freedom”

• focused on economy • regulated business and industry• breaking up trusts and monopolies

• tear down the “Triple Wall of Privilege”

• he was a Progressive reformer• President of Princeton University• Governor of New Jersey• pushed through Underwood Tariff

Act (1913)• lowered tariffs

• Passed Federal Income Tax, 16th Amendment

• signed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)

• Legalized labor unions• the Federal Reserve System

• central banking system • Federal Trade Commission

• continued to stop monopolies• he did hold racist ideas—from the

South• racial segregation in D.C. government

offices