The Progressive Era

The Gilded Age

• Gilded age lasted from 1870s-1890s• Two concerns shaped politics during the

Gilded Age– Americans feared that industrialists were

enriching themselves at the expense of the public– Belief that the government was corrupt and

dishonest

Reforming the Gilded Age

• Key source of corruption was the spoils system– The practice of rewarding political supporters with

jobs

Reforming the Gilded Age

• 1883 President Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Act in order to end the spoils system– Created the civil service

Reforming the Gilded Age

• Big business exerted strong influence over politics

• Americans wanted to limit the power of big business

Reforming the Gilded Age

• Interstates Commerce Act-1887• Sherman Antitrust Act-1890– Stopped businesses from trying to limit or destroy

competition (end monopolies)

Corruption in the Cities

• Politicians would accept money to award city jobs to friends (building roads, collecting garbage, expanding sewers)

Corruption in the Cities

• Boss Tweed carried corruption to new extremes in the 1860s and 1870s– Cheated NYC out of more than $100 million

• Journalists exposed Tweed’s crimes through political cartoons

Progressives

• Progressives were a diverse group of reformers united by a belief in the public interest, or the good of all people

Progressives

• States instituted many reforms to put more power in the hands of voters– Recall– Initiative

Progressives

• Two Constitutional Amendments– 16th-Congress has the power to pass income tax

laws– 17th direct election of senators

Progressives

• Muckrakers– Targeted big business in order to force changes• Jacob Riis-How the Other Half Lives• Upton Sinclair-The Jungle

Progressive Era

• 1906 Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act– Allowed closer inspection of meatpacking houses– Stopped drug companies from making false claims

about medicines and adding harmful chemicals to canned foods

– Required food and drug makers to list all ingredients to packages

First Progressive President

• Theodore Roosevelt– Gained reputation as a trustbuster– Started lawsuits to break up trust and monopolies

like Northern Securities, American Tobacco Company, and Standard Oil

First Progressive President

• 1902-Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for better pay and shorter work hours

• Roosevelt threatened to send in troops to run the mines, which forced the mine owners to negotiate with the union

• First President ever to side with strikers

First Progressive President

• Roosevelt passed legislation dealing with conservation– U.S. Forest Service was formed in 1905– Created national parks• Yosemite National Park• Yellow Stone Park

Progressive Era

• William Taft won election of 1908– Passed a lot of Progressive Legislation• New safety rules for mines• Government workers started an 8 hour work day• Created new child labor laws

Election of 1912

Wilson and the New Freedom

• Wilson created the Federal Trade Commission to stop unfair business practices

• Passed Clayton Antitrust Act

Women Win the Vote

• Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 started an organized women’s rights movement in the United States– Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.

Anthony

Women Win the Vote

• In the early 1900s support for women’s suffrage grew– Women were in the workforce and demanded a

say in making laws

Women Win the Vote

• Strategies– Carrie Chapman Catt wanted to win suffrage state

by state.– Alice Paul took a more forceful approach and

wanted a national amendment passed

Women Win the Vote

• 1919 Congress passed the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote

New Opportunities for Women

• Women had more opportunity to achieve a higher education (by 1900 the nation had 1,000 women lawyers and 7,000 women doctors)

• Started new clubs and entered new fields of work (social work)

Crusade Against Alcohol

Crusade Against Alcohol

• Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed in 1874 and led by Frances Willard– Group wanted to ban the sale of liquor and close

all saloons

Crusade Against Alcohol

• In 1919 temperance leaders succeeded in getting Congress to pass the 18th Amendment– The amendment enforced prohibition

Struggles for Justice

• African Americans– Faced discrimination in the North as well as in the

South• Landlords refused to rent homes in white areas, they

were restricted to the worst housing, and received the poorest jobs

Struggles for Justice

• Booker T. Washington– Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama• School offered training in industrial and agricultural

skills

– Believed African Americans needed to learn trades and gradually move up in society

Struggles for Justices

• W.E.B. Du Bois– Urged African Americans to fight discrimination

rather than submit to it– Created the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)• Tried to achieve equal rights for African Americans

Struggles for Justices

• Lynching

Struggles for Justices

• Successes– George Washington Carver discovered new uses

for crops in the south to help feed families (peanuts, soy beans, sweet potatoes)

– Sarah Walker became the first American woman to earn more than $1 million

Struggles for Justices

• Mexican Americans– Also faced legal segregation• Paid less than white workers and were forced to live in

separate areas and attended different schools

Struggles for Justice

• Asian Americans– Face discrimination in the United States– U.S. wanted to stop immigrants from coming in

from Asia• 1906-San Francisco forced all Asian students to attend

separate schools.– Japan took this as an insult and the issue threatened to cause

in international crisis

Struggles for Justice

• Gentlemen’s Agreement– Roosevelt and Japan agreed that Japan would stop

workers from going to the U.S. and the U.S. would allow Japanese women to join their husbands in the U.S.

Struggles for Justice

• Religious Minorities– Catholics, Jews and other religions faced prejudice

• Anti-Semitism– Leo Frank• A Jewish man that was falsely accused of murdering a

young girl. His conviction was overturned and he was the lynched