The Progressive The Progressive EraEra

Chapter 9

Chapter Overview: The Chapter Overview: The Progressive EraProgressive EraIn the first two decades of the 1900’s, Americansembrace the progressive movement and many of itsreforms.

pro⋅gres⋅sive –adjective 1. favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, esp. in political matters

CHANGE

Section 1: The Origins of Section 1: The Origins of ProgressivismProgressivism

Four Goals of Progressivism◦Protecting social welfare◦Promoting moral improvement◦Creating economic reform◦Fostering efficiency

Protecting Social WelfareProtecting Social WelfareSoften conditions of industrialization◦Like what?

Social Gospel MovementSettlement House MovementYoung Men’s Christian Association

(YMCA)Salvation Army

Protecting Social WelfareProtecting Social Welfare

Florence Kelley◦Advocate for improving lives of women &

children

◦Illinois Factory Act (1893)—prohibited child labor & limited women’s working hours

Promoting Moral ImprovementPromoting Moral Improvement

Morality was the key to improving the lives of the poor

Prohibition—banning of alcoholic beverages◦Alcohol was undermining American morals

◦Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) Led the crusade against alcohol

Economic ReformEconomic ReformBig business gained too much power, hurting the free market

Muckrakers—journalists who wrote about the corrupt side of business and public lifeIda M. Tarbell: Rockefeller’s unfair

competitionUpton Sinclair: Gross conditions in

meatpacking

Efficiency in the WorkplaceEfficiency in the WorkplaceLong working hours=less efficientScientific Management

◦Frederick Winslow Taylor—breaking tasks down into smaller parts

Assembly line◦Henry Ford paid $5 per day for 8 hour

days◦What’s the outcome?

Reform in State GovernmentReform in State GovernmentStates used power to regulate

railroads and other businesses1904, National Child Labor Committee

◦Keating-Owen Act (1916)—prohibited transportation across state lines of goods produced with child labor

◦Ruled unconstitutionalWorker’s compensation, limited hours,

banned child labor

Reform in State GovernmentReform in State GovernmentReforming election

Secret ballot Initiative—bill originated by the people, not lawmakers

Referendum—voters accepted/rejected bills

Recall—voters can remove public officials by demanding another election

17th Amendment—Direct election of senators (elected by popular vote instead of appointed by state)

Think about it…

Look back at your warm-up, or the cards on

the board… What was the Progressive

solution, or the proposed solution, to

the problem you listed?

(If we haven’t talked about it yet, pick aproblem & solution we have talkedabout)

Section two: Women in Public Section two: Women in Public LifeLifeWomen in the workforce -1 in 5 held jobs◦Farm Women

What kind of work did they do?

◦Women in Industry 25% of working women held manufacturing jobs

Least skilled position, paid half as much as men…Why?

Also held jobs in offices, classrooms, stores

Section two: Women in Public Section two: Women in Public LifeLife

◦Domestic Women Work for other families Many former slaves or unmarried immigrants

In the mid-1800’s the majority of women who worked held jobs as domestic servants

Section two: Women in Public Section two: Women in Public LifeLifeWomen lead reform

◦Unsafe conditions & low wages led to reform

◦Growth in Women’s colleges Most schools would not admit women;

often opened women’s colleges

◦Marriage was no longer the only option

Section two: Women in Public Section two: Women in Public LifeLifeNational Association of Colored Women

◦Mission: “The moral education of the race with which we are identified”

National American Women Suffrage Association◦Originally founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

Fought for women’s right to vote19th Amendment, 1919

Section two: Women in Public Section two: Women in Public LifeLife3 part strategy:

◦1) Convince state legislatures to grant women the right to vote

◦2) pursued court cases to test the 14th Amendment—Aren’t women citizens too? Supreme court said that women are citizens but being a citizen does not grant the right to vote

◦3) Pushed for national constitution amendment

SuffrageSuffrage

Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Square DealSquare Deal

Upton Sinclair—began a novel about human condition in the stockyards in Chicago

“System that exploits the labor of men & women for profits”

The JungleReal story was the sickening

conditions of the meatpacking industry

Section three: Teddy Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Roosevelt’s

Square DealSquare DealWilliam McKinley's VPNY Governor; Political boss tried to get

him out of cityYoungest President ever=42SQUARE DEAL—progressive reforms

sponsored by RooseveltTrustbusting—worked to get rid of

illegal trusts (bodies created to hold stock in many companies…Standard Oil Company)

Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Square DealSquare Deal

Revised the Interstate Commerce Act◦Elkins Act (1903)—Illegal to give/receive rebates for using a particular railroad & couldn’t change rates without notifying the public

◦Hepburn Act—limited the distribution of free railroad passes (bribery)

Section three: Teddy Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Roosevelt’s

Square DealSquare DealMeat Inspection Act◦dictated cleanliness requirements for

meatpackers◦Created program for federal meat

inspectionPure Food & Drug Act

◦Truth in labeling◦Given accurate info, people can choose

wisely

Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Section three: Teddy Roosevelt’s Square DealSquare Deal

Conservationists—protect America’s natural resources

Roosevelt said that some areas would be preserved while others would be developed for common good

National Reclamation Act of 1902◦$ from sale of public lands in the west

funded large scale irrigation projects◦Roosevelt’s Dam (AZ), Shoshone Dam

(WY)

Section four: Section four: Progressivism Under Progressivism Under

TaftTaftWilliam Howard Taft—hand picked by T.R.Wins election of 1908Rather than expanding T.R.’s reforms, he

consolidates them

“When I am addressed as ‘Mr. President’ I turn to see whether you are not at my elbow”

Section four: Progressivism Section four: Progressivism Under TaftUnder Taft

Angered Progressives…Payne-Aldrich Tariff

◦Compromise of the Payne Bill (House) and the Aldrich Bill (Senate); only moderated the high rates of Aldrich Bill

Angered Conservationists…- Appointed Richard A. Ballinger Secretary of Interior; removed 1 million acres of forest & mining land from reserve into public domain

Section four: Progressivism Section four: Progressivism

Under TaftUnder TaftSplit the Republican Party for the election of 1912

*Conservatives *ProgressivesProgressive Party nominates RooseveltRepublicans nominate TaftWoodrow Wilson runs as Democrat

Wilson wins easily, because of split in party

Section five: Wilson’s Section five: Wilson’s New FreedomNew Freedom

Wilson’s Resume:◦Progressive◦Lawyer, President of Princeton

University, & Governor of New Jersey◦Attacks Trusts, Tariffs, & high Finance

— “New Freedom”

Section five: Wilson’s Section five: Wilson’s New FreedomNew Freedom

Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)◦Strengthen Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)◦Prohibited corporations from acquiring stock of another company to create a monopoly

◦Labor unions & farm organizations were legal

Federal Trade Commission (1914)◦Watchdog agency given the power to stop

unfair business practices

Section five: Wilson’s Section five: Wilson’s New FreedomNew Freedom

16th Amendment(1913)—legalized graduated federal income tax◦Because tariffs were cut (Underwood Act), the

government had to replace lost revenue◦Government had more money than it did with

tariffsFederal Reserve Act (1913)

◦Reformed how American banks were organized◦Divided nation into 12 districts, established a

regional central bank (“banker’s bank”) in each district

◦Creating security and accountability in banking19th Amendment (1919)