The Progressive Movement: The Spirit of Reform

• Political machines were powerful organizations that got their candidates elected AT ANY COST. – Bribes, fake ballots, intimidation– Trade jobs for votes

• This corruption leads to calls for many reforms!

What is progressivism?• “progress”• Political reform

movement to improve society

• Industrialization & urbanization create social problems

• Gov’t more involved in daily life

Muckrakers

- journalists investigating social conditions & political corruption- Oil industry, vote stealing,

child labor, racism, poverty, immigration

Robert La Follete• Wisconsin governor

pushed for reforms• Direct primary: party

members vote for candidate to run in election

• 1913: Americans could now vote directly for senators– A survey of historians in

1982 voted him “the greatest senator in American history”

Three new reforms!• Initiative: citizens collect

signatures to propose new law; vote on it next election (OR Congress votes)

• Referendum: voters approve or reject law proposed by gov’t

• Recall: voters can remove an elected official from office

• Child labor: in 1900, over 1.7 million American children under 15 worked instead of school

• Back-breaking work: 40 to 60 cents per 10-hour day

• Progressive laws passed making education mandatory

Health and Safety• Adults worked in

dangerous situations• Fire hazards, unsafe

machinery and working conditions

• Minimal compensation for injuries or death

• Laws passed to regulate this

Women’s Suffrage• Suffrage: right to vote• Women’s education

improves• Women suffrage activists

were called: “unfeminine and immoral”

• Marched and delivered speeches

• 19th amendment: women given right to vote in 1920

Susan B. Anthony• Led suffrage

movement• Teacher - fired for

protesting her pay being 1/5th of male co-workers

• Voted illegally in 1872 election and was arrested

• Died in 1906

“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.”- Susan B. Anthony

Bellringer

• What are some key differences between Democrats and Republicans?– Democrats: liberal, “progressive,” more

government involvement in daily lives, environmentalism, support same-sex marriage, pro-choice, high taxes for the wealthy

– Republicans: conservative, less government involvement in daily lives, pro-life, favor lower taxes, less $ on social programs (welfare, social security, healthcare, etc.)

• Few progressives made race relations a priority

• 10 million African Americans in US, 2/3 in the south

• NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded by W.E.B. Du Bois – abolish segregation, promote civil and political rights

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

– NYC police commissioner (1895): reformed corrupt police force

– Rough Riders (1898): volunteer soldiers led by Lt. Col. Teddy against the Spanish in Cuba

– Governor of NY (1898) – Republican

• Pres. William McKinley assassinated (1901)

• Age 42 - Teddy is youngest president

• He becomes the leader of the Progressive movement

“Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. … The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.”

• Square Deal: Teddy’s progressive reforms

Mmm… mmm… good.• “potions” sold to cure

illnesses - sugar & colored water

• Meat sold spoiled and unsafe

• Meat Inspection Act: fed. inspection of meat, standards of cleanliness

• Pure Food and Drug Act: prohibited sale of falsely labeled food and drugs

Cambridge Springs

• The Riverside Inn Spring House

Taking care of business…

• Big businesses that formed monopolies were often called trusts. Teddy broke up these trusts and he became known as the “trustbuster.”

• United Mine Workers: coal miners went on strike– Wanted pay increase

and work hour reduction

– 150,000 walkouts– Arbitration:

settlement imposed by outside party

Environmental Conservation• Teddy’s passion• Gifford Pinchot: head of US Forest Service.

“Forests must benefit many, not profit for a few.”– Added 100 million acres to national forests– 5 new national parks– 50 federal wildlife reservations

James K. Vardaman“The Great White Chief”

• Served as U.S. Senator and Governor of Mississippi

• White supremacist• Outraged when President

Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House

• BUT – he did vote to end child labor and give women right to vote

William Howard Taft

One life goal:

To be a U.S. Supreme Court chief justice

• Teddy vows not to run again. Convinces his friend Taft, who is elected President in 1908.

• Teddy’s former Secretary of War

• Broke up 2x as many monopolies as Teddy

• Created more gov’t reserves than Teddy

• Unpopular with progressives

• Fired Teddy’s friend Pinchot for disobedience

• Teddy disapproves: breaks with Taft & announces he’ll enter presidential campaign in 1912

Where’d this Wilson guy come

from?

William Howard Taft

Teddy Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson• Democrat• Pres. of Princeton• Gov. of NJ (1910)– Very progressive

• Beat out Teddy and Taft – a 3 way race (1912)

“If America is not to have free enterprise, she can have freedom of no sort whatever.” – Woodrow Wilson

• New Freedom: monopolies must be destroyed, not regulated!– Regulation = too much

gov’t power

- To Wilson, race was not an important issue

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC):– “consumer protection”– Banned retailers buying

one product having to stop selling competitor’s product

– Banned price discrimination

– http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020202968.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Wilson’s Reforms• Federal Reserve: central

bank of US– set interest rates,

control inflation• Reduced tariffs (taxes on

foreign goods)by 30%• 16th Amendment– Income tax: direct tax

on people’s earnings