CHAPTER 17 THE PROGRESSIVE ERA AMERICA SEEKS REFORMS IN THE EARLY 20 TH CENTURY

CHAPTER 17 THE PROGRESSIVE

ERA

AMERICA SEEKS REFORMS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Objectives1. The learner will explain how the progressive movement managed to increase the power of government to regulate business and to protect society from the injustices fostered by big business.2. The learner will explain the four goals of progressivism.3. The learner will summarize progressive efforts to clean up government.4. The learner will identify progressive efforts to reform state government, protect workers, and reform election.

State Standards

7.3 Recognize the progress of political and social reform in America during this era (i.e., Women's Suffrage, Regulation of food and drug, Initiative, Referendum, and Recall, protection of workers' rights, Antitrust Supreme Court decisions, Muckrakers,).

ORIGINS OF PROGRESSIVISM• As America entered into the 20th

century, middle class reformers addressed many social problems

• Work conditions, rights for women and children, economic reform, environmental issues and social welfare were a few of these issues

• The reform movement that sought to return control of the government to the people was Progressivism

• The Progressive Movement included a series of reform efforts that aimed to correct injustices in American life.

Progressive Movement- an early-20th-century reform movement seeking to return control of the government to the people, to restore economic opportunities, and to correct injustices in American life.

Section 1

The Origins of Progressivism

FOUR GOALS OF REFORMERS

• 1) Protect Social Welfare

• 2) Promote Moral Improvement

• 3) Create Economic Reform

• 4) Foster Efficiency

• The progressive movement regard as worthy goals protecting social welfare, creating economic reform, fostering efficiency in the workplace.

1.PROTECT SOCIAL WELFARE• Industrialization in the late 19th

century was largely unregulated• Employers felt little responsibility

toward their workers• Florence Kelley advocated for

improving the lives of women and children.

• Florence Kelley championed the rights of women and children by moving into a settlement house, working as the Chief Inspector of Factories for Illinois, and helping to win passage of the Illinois Factory Act.

• As a result Settlement homes and churches served the community

• Also the YMCA and Salvation Army took on service roles

2. PROMOTE MORAL DEVELOPMENT• Some reformers felt that the answer

to societies problems was personal behavior

• They proposed such reforms as prohibition

• Groups wishing to ban alcohol included the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

• Members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union who fought for prohibition would enter saloons, singing, praying, and asking saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol.

• The primary goal of prohibitionists was to eliminate the use of alcohol in society.


Prohibition- the banning of the manufacture, sale, and possession of alcoholic beverages.

Section 1


3. CREATE ECONOMIC REFORM

• The Panic of 1893 prompted some Americans to question the capitalist economic system

• As a result some workers embraced socialism

• Eugene Debs organized the American Socialist Party in 1901 Debs encouraged workers to reject

American Capitalism

MUCKRAKERS CRITICIZE BIG BUSINESS

• Though most progressives did not embrace socialism, many writers saw the truth in Debs’ criticism

• Journalists known as “Muckrakers” exposed corruption in business

• Muckrakers was used to describe a journalist who exposed government abuses and big business corruption to the readers of mass circulation magazines and newspapers.

• Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil Company’s cut-throat methods of eliminating competition

Ida Tarbell

Some view Michael Moore as a modern muckraker



Muckraker- one of the magazine journalists who exposed the corrupt side of business and public life in the early 1900s.

Section 1


4. FOSTERING EFFICIENCY• Many Progressive leaders put

their faith in scientific principles to make society better

• In Industry, Frederick Taylor began using time & motion studies to improve factory efficiency

• Taylorism became an Industry fad as factories sought to complete each task quickly

• Scientific management was one of the inspirations for the creation of assembly lines at the Ford Motor Company.

• Some results of the introduction of the assembly line were higher worker turnover, reduced hours of the workday, higher wages.




Scientific Management- the application of scientific principles to increase efficiency in the workplace.

Section 1


CLEANING UP LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Efforts at reforming local government stemmed from the desire to make government more efficient and responsive to citizens

• Some believe it also was meant to limit immigrants influence in local governments

REGULATING BIG BUSINESS• Under the progressive

Republican leadership of Robert La Follette, Wisconsin led the way in regulating big business

• Robert M. LaFollette was a reform governor and U.S. senator from Wisconsin made the railroad industry a major target. Robert La Follette

PROTECTING WORKING CHILDREN• Early progressive attempts

to enact federal bans on child labor were unsuccessful because the Supreme Court ruled such bans unconstitutional.

• As the number of child workers rose, reformers worked to end child labor

• Children were more prone to accidents caused by fatigue

• Nearly every state limited or banned child labor by 1918

EFFORTS TO LIMIT HOURS

• The Supreme Court and the states enacted or strengthened laws reducing women’s hours of work

• Progressives also succeeded in winning worker’s compensation to aid families of injured workers

ELECTION REFORM• Citizens fought for, and won, such

measures as secret ballots, referendum votes, and the recall

• Citizens could petition and get initiatives on the ballot – The name for a bill initiated, or

launched, by citizens is an initiative.

• A vote on an initiative is a referendum.• A recall enabled voters to remove

public officials from elected positions by forcing them to face an election before the end of their term if enough voters requested it.

• In 1899, Minnesota passed the first statewide primary system





Initiative- a procedure by which a legislative measure can be originated by the people rather than by lawmakers.

Referendum- a procedure by which a proposed legislative measure can be submitted to a vote of the people.

Recall- a procedure for removing a public official from office by a vote of the people.

Section 1


DIRECT ELECTION OF SENATORS• Before 1913, each state’s

legislature had chosen its own U.S. senators

• To force senators to be more responsive to the public, progressives pushed for the popular election of senators

• As a result, Congress passed the 17th Amendment (1913)

• The Seventeenth Amendment allowed for the popular, or direct, election of U.S. senators.

• Ordinary citizens gained the most from the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment.








Seventeenth Amendment- an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1913, that provides for the election of U.S. senators by the people rather than by state legislatures.

Section 1









Seventeenth Amendment- an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1913, that provides for the election of U.S. senators by the people rather than by state legislatures.

Section 1


Objectives1. The learner will explain how the progressive movement managed to increase the power of government to regulate business and to protect society from the injustices fostered by big business.2. The learner will describe the growing presence of women in the workforce at the turn of the 20th century.3. The learner will identify leaders of the woman suffrage movement.4. The learner will explain how woman suffrage was achieved.

State Standards


7.6 Recognize the role of Tennessee in the women's suffrage movement. (i.e., "the perfect 36", Anne Dallas Dudley, Harry Burn, Governor Albert Roberts).

SECTION 2: WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE

• A PERSONAL VOICE SUSETTE LA FLESCHE– “ We are thinking men and women. .

. . We have a right to be heard in whatever concerns us. Your government has driven us hither and thither like cattle. . . . Your government has no right to say to us, Go here, or Go there, and if we show any reluctance, to force us to do its will at the point of the bayonet. . . . Do you wonder that the Indian feels outraged by such treatment and retaliates, although it will end in death to himself?”

• quoted in Bright Eyes

• Susette LaFlesche was a Native American woman who spoke out for the Ponca people.

WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE

• Before the Civil War, American women were expected to devote their time to home and family

• By the late 19th and early 20th century, women were visible in the workforce

DOMESTIC WORKERS• Before the turn-of-the-

century women without formal education contributed to the economic welfare of their families by doing domestic work

• Altogether, 70% of women employed in 1870 were servants

• In the mid-1800s, the majority of women who held jobs worked as servants.

WOMEN IN THE WORK FORCE

• Opportunities for women increased especially in the cities

• By 1900, one out of five women worked

• The garment trade was popular as was office work, department stores and classrooms

WOMEN LEAD REFORM

• Many of the leading progressive reformers were women

• Middle and upper class women also entered the public sphere as reformers

• Many of these women had graduated from new women’s colleges

Colleges like Vassar and Smith allowed women to excel

WOMEN AND REFORM

• Women reformers strove to improve conditions at work and home

• In 1896, black women formed the National Association of Colored Women (NACW)

• Suffrage was another important issue for women

• Suffrage is the right to vote.

NACW - the National Association of Colored Women—a social service organization founded in 1896.

suffrage - the right to vote.

Section 2

Women in Public Life

THREE-PART STRATEGY FOR WINNING SUFFRAGE

• Susan B. Anthony was a leader of the women suffrage movement.

• The NAWSA was the National American Woman Suffrage Association

• Suffragists tried three approaches to winning the vote

– 1) Convince state legislatures to adopt vote (Succeeded in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Colorado)

– 2) Pursue court cases to test 14th Amendment

– 3) Push for national constitutional Amendment


suffrage - the right to vote.NAWSA - the National American

Woman Suffrage Association—an organization founded in 1890 to gain voting rights for women.

Section 2



suffrage - the right to vote.NAWSA - the National American

Woman Suffrage Association—an organization founded in 1890 to gain voting rights for women.

Section 2


Objectives1. The learner will explain how the progressive movement managed to increase the power of government to regulate business and to protect society from the injustices fostered by big business.2. The learner will describe the events of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.3. The learner will explain how Roosevelt used the power of the presidency to regulate business.4. The learner will identify laws passed to protect public health and the environment.5. The learner will summarize Roosevelt’s stand on civil rights.

State Standards


7.9 Compare and contrast the philosophies of DuBois, Washington and Garvey.

Section 3 - “THE JUNGLE”• A muckraking journalist, Upton

Sinclair shocked readers with his nauseating account of the meatpacking industry’s conditions.

• In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposed unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry.

• Roosevelt responded to The Jungle by appointing a commission to investigate the meatpacking industry.

The Jungle- a novel by Upton Sinclair, published in 1906, that portrays the dangerous and unhealthy conditions prevalent in the meatpacking industry at that time.

Section 3

Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal

TEDDY ROOSEVELT BECOMES PRESIDENT

• When President William McKinley was assassinated 6 months into his second term, Theodore Roosevelt became the nations 26th president

• At 42 years old, Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest president ever elected.

McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist in Buffalo in September

of 1901

ROOSEVELT AND THE ROUGH RIDERS

• Roosevelt grabbed national attention by advocating war with Spain in 1898

• His volunteer cavalry brigade, the Rough Riders, won public acclaim for its role in the battle at San Juan Hill in Cuba

• Roosevelt returned a hero and was soon elected governor of NY and later McKinley’s vice-president

Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders

THE MODERN PRESIDENT• When Roosevelt was thrust

into the presidency in 1901, he became the youngest president ever at age 42

• He quickly established himself as a modern president who could influence the media and shape legislation

• The first person to use the presidency as a “bully pulpit” was Theodore Roosevelt.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S SQUARE DEAL

• A Square Deal is what Roosevelt promised that the common people would receive.

• The Square Deal was used to describe the progressive reforms of President Theodore Roosevelt.


Square Deal- President Theodore Roosevelt’s program of progressive reforms designed to protect the common people against big business.

Section 3


TRUSTBUSTING• By 1900, Trusts – legal bodies

created to hold stock in many companies – controlled 80% of U.S. industries

• Roosevelt filed 44 antitrust suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

• A statement that best characterizes Roosevelt’s position on trusts is that some trusts were harmful to the public interest.

1902 COAL STRIKE • In 1902 140,000 coal miners in

Pennsylvania went on strike for increased wages, a 9-hour work day, and the right to unionize

• Mine owners refused to bargain• Roosevelt called in both sides

and settled the dispute• Thereafter, when a strike

threatened public welfare, the federal government was expected to step in and help

• The 1902 coal miners’ strike was settled when Roosevelt got involved in the negotiations.

“THE JUNGLE” LEADS TO FOOD REGULATION

• After reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Roosevelt pushed for passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906

• The Meat Inspection Act put forth strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers and created the program of federal meat inspection still used today.

• The Act mandated cleaner conditions for meatpacking plants



Meat Inspection Act- a law, enacted in 1906, that established strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers and created a federal meat-inspection program.

Section 3


PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT• In response to

unregulated claims and unhealthy products, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906

• The Pure Food and Drug Act halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling.

The Pure Food and Drug Act took medicines with cocaine and other

harmful ingredients off the market




Pure Food and Drug Act- a law enacted in 1906 to halt the sale of contaminated foods and drugs and to ensure truth in labeling.

Section 3


ROOSEVELT AND THE ENVIRONMENT

• Before Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government paid very little attention to the nation’s natural resources

• Conservation was the name of the movement to protect America’s natural resources.

• Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern of his administration

Roosevelt, left, was an avid outdoorsman – here he is with author

John Muir at Yosemite Park





Conservation- the planned management of natural resources, involving the protection of some wilderness areas and the development of others for the common good.

Section 3


ROOSEVELT’S ENVIROMENTAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves

• He also set aside 1.5 million acres of water-power sites and he established 50 wildlife sanctuaries and several national parks

• Conservation was the principle that guided Roosevelt’s efforts to organize water projects to transform dry wilderness areas into agricultural areas.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

ROOSEVELT AND CIVIL RIGHTS

• Roosevelt failed to support Civil Rights for African Americans

• He did, however, support a few individuals such as Booker T. Washington

NAACP FORMED TO PROMOTE RIGHTS

• In 1909 a number of African Americans and prominent white reformers formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

• The NAACP had 6,000 members by 1914

• The NAACP was started by prominent African American and white reformers.

• The primary goal of the NAACP was full equality among the races.

• The means to achieve this was the court system1964 Application






NAACP- the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—an organization founded in 1909 to promote full racial equality.

Section 3







NAACP- the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—an organization founded in 1909 to promote full racial equality.

Section 3


Objectives1. The learner will explain how the progressive movement managed to increase the power of government to regulate business and to protect society from the injustices fostered by big business.2. The learner will summarize the events of the Taft presidency.3. The learner will explain the division in the Republican Party.4. The learner will describe the election of 1912.

State Standards


SECTION 4: PROGRESSIVISM UNDER PRESIDENT TAFT

• Gifford Pinchot, head of the U.S. Forest Service under President Roosevelt, favored a balanced approach concerning the private development and conservation of wilderness lands.

• A multi-use land program was possible characterized the position of Gifford Pinchot toward land conservation.

1908 Presidential Election• Incumbent William Howard

Taft sought reelection in the 1912 presidential race.

• Republican William Howard Taft easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan to win the 1908 presidential election

• Among his accomplishments, Taft “busted” 90 trusts during his 4 years in office

Taft, right, was Roosevelt’s War Secretary

Payne-Aldrich Tariff• Taft signs Payne-Aldrich Tariff—

compromise bill, moderate tariffs• After campaigning on a platform of

lowering tariffs, President Taft angered progressive supporters by signing the Payne-Aldrich Tariff.

• Progressives angry, think he abandoned low tariffs, progressivism

• President William Howard Taft actions split the Republican Party after he angered both progressives and conservationists.

Payne-Aldrich Tariff- a set of tax regulations, enacted by Congress in 1909, that failed to significantly reduce tariffs on manufactured goods.

Section 4

Progressivism Under Taft

TAFT LOSES POWER• Taft was not popular with

the American public nor reform minded Republicans

• Under President Taft, the progressive and conservative wings of the Republican Party began to fragment.

• By 1910, Democrats had regained control of the House of RepresentativesTaft called the Presidency, “The

lonesomest job in the world”

1912 ELECTION • Republicans split in

1912 between Taft and Teddy Roosevelt (who returned after a long trip to Africa)

• Convention delegates nominated Taft

• The Republican Party nominated William Howard Taft in the 1912 presidential election.

Republicans split in 1912

Bull Moose Party• In the election of 1912, the

candidate considered least pleasing to reformers was William H. Taft.

• Some Republicans formed a third party – The Bull Moose Party and nominated Roosevelt.

• The Progressive Party, which became known as the Bull Moose Party, advocated a number of reforms including women’s suffrage, an eight-hour workday, and a federal law against child labor.

• The Progressive Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election.

• The Democrats put forward a reform - minded New Jersey Governor, Woodrow Wilson


Bull Moose Party- a name given to the Progressive Party, formed to support Theodore Roosevelt’s candidacy for the presidency in 1912.

Section 4


Democrats Nominate Wilson• The Democrats put

forward a reform - minded New Jersey Governor, Woodrow Wilson

• Democratic presidential nominee Woodrow Wilson supported antitrust legislation, banking reform, and reduced tariffs, under a progressive platform known as the New Freedom.

Final Results of 1912 Election• His failure to unify the

Republican Party led to the defeat of Taft in 1912.

• President Woodrow Wilson was a former president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey.

• Calling for an end to capitalism, Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs failed to capture any electoral votes in the 1912 presidential election.


Bull Moose Party- a name given to the Progressive Party, formed to support Theodore Roosevelt’s candidacy for the presidency in 1912.

Section 4


Objectives1. The learner will explain how the progressive movement managed to increase the power of government to regulate business and to protect society from the injustices fostered by big business.2. The learner will describe Woodrow Wilson’s background and the progressive reforms of his presidency.3. The learner will list the steps leading to woman suffrage.4. The learner will explain the limits of Wilson’s progressivism.

State Standards


7.6 Recognize the role of Tennessee in the women's suffrage movement. (i.e., "the perfect 36", Anne Dallas Dudley, Harry Burn, Governor Albert Roberts).

SECTION 5: WILSON’S NEW FREEDOM• Carrie Chapman Catt was the president

of NAWSA.• ONE AMERICAN STORY

– A PERSONAL VOICE CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT• “ I do feel keenly that the turn of

the road has come. . . . I really believe that we might pull off a campaign which would mean the vote within the next six years if we could secure a Board of officers who would have sufficient momentum, confidence and working power in them. . . . Come! My dear Mrs. Park, gird on your armor once more.”

– letter to Maud Wood ParkCarrie Chapman Catt

WILSON’S NEW FREEDOM• As America’s newly

elected president, Wilson moved to enact his program, the “New Freedom”

• He planned his attack on what he called the triple wall of privilege: trusts, tariffs, and high finance

W. Wilson U.S. President 1912-1920

CLAYTON ANTITRUST ACT• In 1914 Congress enacted the

Clayton Antitrust Act which strengthened the Sherman Act

• The Clayton Act prevented companies from acquiring stock from another company (Anti-monopoly)

• The Clayton Antitrust Act specified that labor unions and farm organizations not only had a right to exist, but would also no longer be subject to antitrust laws.

• The Act also supported workers unions

Clayton Antitrust Act- a law, enacted in 1914, that made certain monopolistic business practices illegal and protected the rights of labor unions and farm organizations.

Section 5

Wilson’s New Freedom

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION FORMED

• The Federal Trade Commission was formed in 1914 to serve as a “watchdog” agency to end unfair business practices

• The FTC protects consumers from business fraud

• The Federal Trade Commission was given the power to investigate unfair business practices and to issue orders to “cease and desist.”

Today the FTC has been working on protecting consumers from ID theft


Federal Trade Commission- a federal agency established in 1914 to investigate and stop unfair business practices.

Section 5


UNDERWOOD TARIFF• Wilson worked hard to lower

tariffs, however that lost revenue had to be made up

• A New Tax System– Wilson pushes for Underwood

Act to substantially reduce tariffs

– Sets precedent of giving State of the Union message in person

– His use of bully pulpit leads to passage

• Underwood Tariff substantially reduced import taxes for the first time since the Civil War.

FEDERAL INCOME TAX ARRIVES

• Federal Income Tax– Ratified in 1916, the 16th

Amendment legalized a graduated federal income tax

• The primary motivation for passage of the Sixteenth Amendment was to replace revenue lost by enacting lower tariffs.

• The Income tax was intended to provide revenue lost by the lowering of tariffs.

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM• Federal Reserve Act

established the Federal Reserve System.

• Federal Reserve System—private banking system under federal control

• Nation divided into 12 districts; central bank in each district

• A plan that reformed how American banks were organized was the Federal Reserve System

• The Federal Reserve System is a decentralized private banking system under government control.



Federal Reserve System- a national banking system, established in 1913, that controls the U.S. money supply and the availability of credit in the country.

Section 5


WOMEN WIN SUFFRAGE• Native-born, educated, middle-class

women grew more and more impatient• The Women’s Suffrage movement was

given new strength by a growing number of college-educated women.

• Through local, state and national organization, vigorous protests and World War I, women finally realized their dream in 1920

• The effect that World War I had on the suffragist movement was that it hastened the passage and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

• The Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote.

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt were all actively involved in securing the right to vote for women.The 19th Amendment gave women

the right to vote in 1920




Nineteenth Amendment- an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1920, that gives women the right to vote.

Section 5


LIMITS OF PROGRESSIVISM• While the Progressive era

was responsible for many important reforms, it failed to make gains for African Americans

• Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson retreated on Civil Rights once in office

• Woodrow Wilson appeared to support Civil rights during his campaign, but during his presidency, he did more to support those who opposed it. The KKK reached a membership of 4.5

million in the 1920s




Nineteenth Amendment- an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1920, that gives women the right to vote.

Section 5


Documents

CHAPTER 17 THE PROGRESSIVE ERA AMERICA SEEKS REFORMS IN THE EARLY 20 TH CENTURY