The Progressive Era

Who Drove the Movement?

• Progressive reformers sought change in all policies and at all levels of society, the economy and government. Initially the movement was successful at the local level, and then it progressed to the state and gradually nationwide. The reformers (and their opponents) were predominantly members of the middle class. Most were well educated white Protestants who lived in the cities.

Goals of Progressivism

1.) Protecting social welfare

2.) Promoting moral improvement

3.) Creating economic reform

4.) Fostering efficiency

5.) Ending corruption and reforming government

Protecting Social Welfare• Social welfare reformers worked to soften the

harsh conditions of industrialization– Settlement House Movement• Community centers that provided educational, cultural

and social services to the urban poor. • Jane Addams founded the Hull House in Chicago

– Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) • Opened libraries, built swimming pools, sponsored

classes– Salvation Army• Fed poor people in soup kitchens, cared for children in

nurseries, educated the urban poor about the values of hard work and temperance.

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JANE ADDAMS AND ELLEN GATES STARR WERE THE CO-FOUNDERS OF HULL- HOUSE WHICH WAS THE CUTTING EDGE OF REFORM FOR THE NATIONS IMMIGRANTS AND POOR.

ELLEN GATES STARR JANE ADDAMS

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HULL-HOUSE: CHICAGO

Hull-House sought to assimilate individual newcomers into the American way of life.

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INSIDE HULL HOUSE

Promoting Moral Improvement• Focused on helping the poor improve their lives

through morality.• Prohibition: the banning of alcoholic beverages– The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

was formed in 1874 and fought to stop the sale of alcohol.

– By 1911 the WCTU became the largest women’s group in the nation’s history with 245,000 members)

– WCTU members took on the “do everything” slogan and opened kindergartens for immigrant children, visited prisons and asylums, and promoted suffrage.

Prohibitionist Carrie Nation the “lady with the hatchet”

Creating Economic Reform• Economic crisis of 1893 prompted some

Americans to question the capitalist economic system.

• Many Americans, especially workers, turned to socialism (an economic system in which goods and services are shared equally among the people) because they disagreed with the uneven balance among big business, government and ordinary people.

• Journalists, known as muckrakers wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life and worked to expose the ills of big business.

The work of popular “muckrakers” was often published in McClure’s

magazine.

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1914 POSTER FOR A MOVIE ON THE JUNGLE

COVER OF THE NOVEL

UPTON SINCLAIR

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“…old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together… the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one – there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.”

EXCERPT FROM THE JUNGLE

Fostering Efficiency

• Many worked to make society and the workplace more efficient:

• Frederick Winslow Taylor developed ways to improve efficiency by breaking manufacturing tasks into simpler parts:– This was known as “Taylorism”– Assembly lines were used to speed up production.

Frederick Winslow Taylor

Reforming Local Government• Reformers wanted to make gov. more

efficient and more responsive to its constituents (voters).

• Cities created commissions or departments to deal specifically with one issue and hired an expert in that area to manage it.

• Local mayors instituted progressive reforms by lowering fares for public transportation and providing relief for the unemployed.

Reform at the State Level• Reformers worked to end child labor and limit

working hours:– In 1904 the National Child Labor Committee sent

investigators to gather evidence of children working in factories.

– The NCLC and many labor unions finally pressured politicians to pass the Keating-Owen Act of 1916 - that prohibited the transportation across state lines of goods produced with child labor. (This act was declared unconstitutional because of its interference with states’ rights to regulate labor but it led to the successful passage of legislation that banned child labor altogether.)

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LEWIS HINE

In 1907, the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) gave Lewis Hine his first assigned project. Hine was to photograph New York tenement homes. In 1908, the NCLC provided Hine with a monthly salary and assigned him to photograph child labor practices. For the next several years, Hine traveled extensively, photographing children in mines, factories, canneries, textile mills, street trades and assorted agricultural industries. Hine’s photographs alerted the public to the fact that child labor deprived children of childhood, health, education and a chance of a future. His work on this project was the driving force behind changing the public’s attitude and was instrumental in the fight for stricter child labor laws. By the early 1900’s, 28 states had laws regulating child labor.

s.

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Reform at the State Level• Reformers fought to limit working hours:– Muller vs. Oregon in 1908 • Oregon Supreme Court case that limited women to a

ten-hour work day (other states soon followed)• Reformers argued that women required state’s

protection against powerful employers.

– Bunting vs. Oregon in 1917• Established a ten-hour work day for men

• Progressives also succeeded in winning worker’s compensation in 1902.

Reform at the State Level – cont. • Reforming Elections:– Some states changed the ballot by adding;• Initiative = a bill originated by the people rather than

lawmakers • Referendum = voters right to vote on the initiative• Recall = enables voters to remove public officials from

elected office by forcing them to face another election before the end of their term.

– Some states adopted the primary system in which voters, not political machines, choose candidates for public office through a popular vote.

– 1913 – the 17th Amendment was passed calling for the popular election of senators.

Expanding Education• Most American children received no formal

schooling before the Civil War.– The majority went to school for four years and few

went to high school. • Between 1865 and 1895, states passed laws

requiring 12 – 16 weeks annually of school attendance by students between the age of 8 and 14.

• Early schools were criticized for their uneven quality of teachers and strict rules and punishments for students.

“They hit ye if yer don’t learn, and they hits ye if ye whisper, and they hits ye if ye have string in yer pocket, and they hits ye if yer seat squeaks, and they hits ye if ye don’t stan’ up in time, and they hits ye if yer late, and they hits ye if ye forget the page.”

- anonymous schoolboy quoted in The One Best System

Expanding Education

• Children began attending school at a younger age.– # of kindergartens increased from 200 in 1880 to

3,000 in 1900. – Soon kindergartens were added to public school

systems.

Expanding Education

• Opportunities for education differed for whites and blacks. – 1880 – 62% of white children and only 34% of

African American students attended elementary school.

There was an overall pattern of growth in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges and universities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Women in the Progressive Era

• Dangerous conditions, low wages, and long hours led female industrial workers to push for reform.

• Women’s clubs where women typically discussed art and literature grew into reform groups.

• The women’s progressive movement gained in momentum after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911- the doors to the factory were locked from the outside

and when the fire broke out the women could not escape. Many jumped to their death trying to escape

the fire.

Women in the Progressive Era – cont.• Many female activists attended new women’s

colleges like Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith.– Women were still expected to fulfill their

traditional female roles. – Many of these educated women applied their

knowledge to needed social reforms.

Women in the Progressive Era – cont.• Women and Reform:– Because women were not allowed to run for

office or even vote, women reformers worked to improve conditions at work and at home.

– This “social housekeeping” targeted housing reform, educational improvement, and food and drug laws.

Women in the Progressive Era – cont.• Women and Suffrage:– 1869 – Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady

Stanton founded the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA)

– 1890 – the NWSA merged with another group to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

– 3 Part Strategy for suffrage:• Convince state legislatures to support suffrage• Use the 14th Amendment to justify women’s suffrage• Push for a constitutional amendment to grant women

the vote.

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PROGRESSIVISM ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL: THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS

THEODORE

ROOSEVELT

REPUBLICAN

Twenty-Sixth President1901-1909

WILLIAM

HOWARD TAFT

REPUBLICAN

Twenty-Seventh President1909-1913

WOODROW WILSON

DEMOCRAT

Twenty-Eighth President1913-1921

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement

• Theodore Roosevelt took over the presidency in 1901 after President McKinley was assassinated.

• Roosevelt was a bold leader and believed that the government should assume control whenever states proved incapable of dealing with problems.

Teddy once said, “It is the duty of the president to act upon the theory that he is the steward of the people, and … to assume

that he has the legal right to do whatever the needs of the people demand, unless the Constitution or the laws explicitly

forbid him to do it.”

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement

• Roosevelt believed that if big business victimized workers then he would see to it that the common people received a “Square Deal” – this term came to represent the many progressive reforms instituted by TR.

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TR’S PROGRESSIVE AGENDA THE “SQUARE DEAL”

"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense.... We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less. The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us."--New York State Fair, Syracuse September 7, 1903

"When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean . . . to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing."

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement

• Roosevelt was known as a “trustbuster” for his dedication to regulating trusts- legal bodies created to hold stock in many companies

• In 1902 Roosevelt gained created a new cabinet department, The Department of Commerce and Labor. – Gathered information about companies to

determine if they were acting in the best interest of the public. They could inspect the books of companies engaged in interstate commerce.

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ANTI-TRUST POLITICAL CARTOONS

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WHAT DID TR DO TO BREAK UP THE TRUSTS?

TR DID NOT EQUATE “BIGNESS” WITH “BADNESS”. HE BELIEVED THERE WERE “BAD TRUSTS” WHICH NEEDED TO BE BROKEN UP. HOWEVER, THERE WERE “GOOD TRUSTS” WHICH ACTUALLY BENEFITED THE CONSUMER AND SHOULD BE LEFT ALONE.

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement

• Background: Antitrust legislation– Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 made it illegal to

form a trust that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries.

• Roosevelt succeeded in winning many suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement

• Roosevelt intervened in disputes between workers and business owners (believing that disputes could be settled through peaceful negotiations instead of strikes).

• Roosevelt pushed for railroad regulation and pressured Congress to pass the Elkins Act of 1903, which made it illegal for RRs to issue rebates or to change set rates without notifying the public. (This act was in response to the powerlessness of the Interstate Commerce Act)

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era

• Regulating Foods and Drugs:– TR read The Jungle by the famous muckraker, Upton

Sinclair, that exposed the unsanitary and unsafe conditions in the Chicago meat packing industry.

– In response, TR appointed a commission to investigate the meatpacking industry. The commission confirmed Sinclair’s findings.

– In 1906 the Meat Inspection Act was passed requiring strict rules of cleanliness for meatpackers.

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MEAT INSPECTION ACT 1906

Upton Sinclair

• Gained fame for his 1906 Novel The Jungle

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“…old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together… the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one – there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.”

EXCERPT FROM THE JUNGLE

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era

• Regulating Foods and Drugs – cont.– 1906 Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug

Act which halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling.

– (Before this act, manufacturers claimed that their products accomplished everything from curing cancer to growing hair. Also, popular children’s medicines contained opium, cocaine, and alcohol.)

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EXAMPLES OF DECEPTIVE ADS

Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era

• Conservation and Natural Resources – Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern:– Set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves– 1.5 million acres of water-power sites – 80 million acres of land for geological research

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PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND CONSERVATION

TR AND JOHN MUIR, FOUNDER OF THE SIERRA CLUB

TR, AS AN OUTDOORSMAN HIMSELF, SAW HOW PEOPLE COULD DESTROY THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. HE MADE IT A PRIORITY OF HIS PRESIDENCY TO ADVANCE THE CAUSE OF PRESERVING THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE NATION FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

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OTHER TR CONSERVATION ACCOMPLISHMENTS

150 National Forests 51 Federal Bird Reservations 4 National Game Preserves 5 National Parks 18 National Monuments 24 Reclamation Projects

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THANK YOU PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT!

William Taft and the Progressive Era

• Taft became President in 1908 with an easy victory for the Republican party.

• (After Teddy Roosevelt won the election in 1904 he vowed not to run for a third term. So, in 1908 he handpicked his secretary of war, William Howard Taft to run against William Jennings Bryan)

William Howard Taft

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WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT (1857-1930) TWENTY-SEVENTH PRESIDENT

1909-1913: REPUBLICAN

"Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race."

"The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn to grow, he cannot make business good; although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way."

William Taft and the Progressive Era• Tariffs: Taft campaigned on the platform of

lowering tariffs (an important progressive issue)– BUT, Taft then supported the Payne-Aldrich Tariff

that only proposed small rate cuts– Progressives believed that Taft had abandoned

progressivism. – (Taft made things worse when he defended that

tariff, calling it “the best tariff bill the Republican party ever passed.” Taft also disappointed citizens and other politicians with his selection of officials, ex. Richard A. Ballinger as secretary of the Interior.)

The Bull Moose Party• (During Taft’s presidency the Republican party

grew divided, those who supported progressive reforms and those who did not.)

• In 1912 Teddy Roosevelt decided to run for office again but under a new third party, the Progressive Party, aka the “Bull Moose Party”

• (Roosevelt once said that he was “strong as a bull moose.”)

• The split in the republican votes allowed the Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the presidency in 1912

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson’s “New Freedom”• Wilson’s attack on the “triple wall of privilege”

1. Trusts- Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 –made monopolies illegal

and protected labor unions. - Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – “watchdog” agency to

investigate any unfair practices by businesses.

2. Tariffs- Tariff rates were successfully cut - Underwood Act- Federal Income Tax system was initiated that taxed

individual earnings and corporate profits. (16th Amend.)

3. Finance- Federal Reserve System established – federally controlled banking system designed to protect customers by providing support to the private banks. (still in place today)

Women Win Suffrage• During Wilson’s presidency the suffrage

movement gained new strength:– Suffragists gained in # – Employed new bold techniques to gain attention– Women’s role in WWI made suffrage inevitable.

• In 1919, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote. – Ratified 1920 (72 years after they started

demanding the vote)

Limits of Progressivism

• Wilson did not take a stand for civil rights:– Opposed antilynching legislation, claiming this was

a state issue.– Resumed segregation in the white house after it

had been desegregated during reconstruction.– (Wilson disappointed African Americans who

believed that he would fight for their rights. Many African American activists and members of the NAACP spoke out against Wilson’s betrayal.)

• “Only two years ago you were heralded as perhaps the second Lincoln, and now the Afro-American leaders who supported you are hounded as false leaders and traitors to their races… As equal citizens and by virtue of your public promises we are entitled at your hands to freedom from discrimination, restriction, imputation, and insult in government employ. Have you a “new freedom” for white Americans and a new slavery for your ‘Afro-American fellow citizens?”

William Monroe Trotter

Limits of Progressivism – cont.

• The outbreak of WWI stalled the progressive movement . Politicians and reformers became distracted and the Progressive Era came to an end!!!!

THE END