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September 26, 2008What were the four goals of Progressivism?Return TestsCamella TeoliFour goals
Homework: Finish Sect. 1 Notes
The Origins of ProgressivismHow would you feel if you had
to work 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a noisy, dangerous factory instead of going to school?
Camella Teoli (Italian Immigrant) 12 - working in textile mill machine tore off part of her scalp seven months in hospital & scarred Testified before congressional
committee investigating labor conditions
Strikers won 10% pay raises after nine weeks striking
As a Result:Reformers across country
organized to address problems of industrialization
What is Progressivism? Effort to redress imbalances, or
curb excesses, that had risen in the period of industrial growth and national expansion.
A key to the success of progressive reform was the growth of a national media.
Who Wants Change? Journalists exposed unsafe working
conditions of factories, including women and children
Intellectuals questioned the dominant role of large corporations
Reformers want to make government more responsive to people
The Four Goals:The Four Goals:Protecting Social WelfarePromoting Moral ImprovementCreating Economic ReformFostering Efficiency
Protecting Social WelfareWorking to soften harsh
conditions of industrializationSocial Gospel & Settlement
House Movements continued
Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)
opened libraries
sponsored classes
built swimming pools
handball courts
Salvation Army fed the poor in soup kitchens, cared for children in nurseries, and sent “slum brigades” to instruct poor immigrants in middle-class values of hard work and temperance
Women inspired by settlement houses and taking action
Florence Kelly Advocate of improving lives of
women and children Chief inspector of factories for
Illinois after she helped to win passage of the Illinois Factory Act of 1893
The act prohibited child labor & limited women’s working hours, became a model for other states
Florence Kelly
Promoting Moral Improvement Morality held key to improving lives
of the poor Immigrants and poor city dwellers
should uplift themselves by improving personal behavior
Prohibition was key Feared alcohol undermining morals
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
founded in 1874 and spearheaded the crusade for prohibition
entered saloons, singing, praying, and urging the stop of selling alcohol
Transformed by Frances Willard became largest women’s group in
the nation’s history opened kindergartens, visited
prisoners, asylums, & worked for suffrage
women in public roles (they used to justify giving women voting rights)
Anti-Saloon League & The Immigrants
Some customs included liquor and saloons
Creating Economic ReformEconomic panic of 1893
prompted Americans to question the capitalist system
Americans beginning to embrace socialism
Eugene V. Debs helped organize the American
Socialist Party in 1901 told of uneven balance among big
business, government, and ordinary people under capitalism
progressives weren’t socialists but saw truth in Deb’s criticisms
Eugene V. Debs
Big businesses received favorable treatment from government officials and politicians and could use its economic power to limit competition
Journalists wrote of corrupt businesses and public life
Fostering EfficiencyMany progressive leaders put
faith in experts and scientific principles to make society and the workplace more efficient
Louis D. Brandeis
focused on data documenting the high costs of long working hours for both individual and society (BRANDEIS BRIEF), this would become model for later reform litigation
Winslow Taylor used time &
motion studies to improve efficiency by breaking manufacturing tasks into simpler parts
“Taylorism” Became
management fad, as scientific management studies were used to speed each task
The Assembly Line sped up production, the system
required people to work like machines
caused high worker turnover, often due to injuries suffered by fatigued workers
To prevent strikes, Henry Ford reduced workday to eight hours and paid workers five dollars a day
This attracted thousands of workers, but they exhausted themselves
Cleaning Up Local Government Reforming Local Government
Natural disasters played role in prompted local reforms
Led to adoption of city council members with a manager who ran city’s departments
Reform Mayors (Pingree and Johnson)
Pingree – instituted fairer tax structure, lowered fares for public transportation, rooted out corruption, and set up a system for work relief for the unemployed.
The city workers build schools, parks and a municipal lighting plant
Johnson – believed citizens should pay more active role in city government
focused on dismissing corrupt and greedy private utilities and converting them to publicly owned enterprises.
Reform at the State Level Reform Governors
“Fighting Bob” Robert M. La Follette – progressive
Republican who led the way in regulating big business.
taxed railroad property at same rate as other businesses
set up commission to regulate rates forbade railroads to issue free passes to
state officials
Protecting Working Children Reformers worked to end child labor Businesses hired them for unskilled
jobs for lower wages and because their small hands made them more adept at handling small parts and tools
Children viewed as part of family economy
Children more prone to accidents Developed more serious illnesses Suffered from stunted growth
National Child Labor Committee (1904) sent investigators to gather evidence of children working in harsh conditions.
With pictures and proof, many joined arguing that child labor lowered wages for all.
Keating-Owen Act (1916) – prohibited the transportation across state lines of goods produced by child labor.
Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional due to interference with states’ right to regulate labor
Efforts to Limit Working Hours
Louis B. Brandeis argued that poor working women were much more economically insecure than large corporations
He convinced the court to uphold an Oregon law limiting women to ten-hour work day.
A similar brief by Brandeis persuaded the court to limit men’s working hours as well
Progressive also succeeded in winning workers’ compensation to aid the families of workers who were hurt or killed on the job
William S. U’Ren prompted Oregon to adopt new
voting regulations
Initiative – bill originated by the people rather than lawmakers (on the ballot)
Referendum – vote on the initiative Recall – voters remove officials from
office by forcing another election before the end of their term if enough voters asked for it.
1899, Minnesota passed first mandatory primary system in which voters (not political machines) chose candidates for public office
Direct Election of Senators Success of primary paved way for
17th amendment Seventeenth Amendment – ratified in
1913, made direct election of Senators the law of the land
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