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