PROGRESSIVE ERA 1890s-1920

1. If you could help people or fix things in society (local or national) what or who would you target?

2. PROGRESSIVEERA1890s-1920 A21w 9.2.13

3. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS • Who were the Progressives? • What reforms did they seek? • How successful were Progressive Era reforms in the period 1890-1920? Consider: political change, social change (industrial conditions, urban life, women, prohibition)

4. ORIGINS OF PROGRESSIVE REFORM

5. Progressivism WHO?“Progressives” • urban middle-class:managers & professionals; women WHY?Address the problems arising from: • industrialization (big business, labor strife) • urbanization (slums, political machines, corruption) • immigration (ethnic diversity) • inequality & social injustice (women & racism) WHEN? “Progressive Reform Era” 1890s 1901 1917 1920s

6. Progressivism WHAT are their goals? • Democracy – government accountable to the people • Regulation of corporations & monopolies • Social justice – workers, poor, minorities • Environmental protection • Moral development HOW? • Government (laws, regulations, programs) HOW MUCH????? • Efficiency • value experts, use of scientific study to determine the best solution

7. Fostering Efficiency Many Progressive leaders put their faith in scientific principles to make society better. In industry, Frederick Taylor began using time and motion studies to improve factory efficiency. “Taylorism” became an industry fad as factories sought to complete each job quickly by breaking tasks down into small parts & using standardized tools.

8. Reform Darwinism (opposite of Social Darwinism) • Lester Frank Ward – Said human beings were different than animals because we could think and plan ahead • People succeeded because of their ability to cooperate, not compete • Government could regulate economy, help poor, and promote education better than competition • Those who agreed with this idea became the reformers of the early 1900’s

9. Literature: Naturalism & Realism • Realism focused on stresses and conflicts; explored social class issues and human psychology • Naturalism themes: People failed in life because of things they couldn’t control; Leaving society and economy unregulated didn’t always lead to the best result • Authors included: Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and the “muckrakers”

10. “Muckrakers”-journalists and writers who exposed corruption in politics and business (term first used by T. Roosevelt,1906) Jacob Riis – How the Other Half Lives (1890) Ida Tarbell – TheHistory of the Standard Oil Co(1902) Lincoln Steffens – The Shame of the Cities (1904) Upton Sinclair – The Jungle (1906) Origins of Progressivism Ida Tarbell Lincoln Steffens

11. MUNICIPAL & STATE REFORMS

12. MUNICIPAL REFORM • Utilities - water, gas, electricity, sanitation • Transportation – trolleys • Council-manager plan (Dayton, 1913) Shoe line - Bowery men with gifts from ward boss Tim Sullivan, February, 1910

13. MUNICIPAL REFORM council-manager plan (Dayton, 1913) strong mayor system MAYOR COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER CITY SERVICES COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER CITY MANAGER CITY SERVICES

14. STATE POLITICAL REFORM • secret ballot • direct primary • Robert M. LaFollette (regulation of big business and the Wisconsin Idea – a partnership between government and experts at University of Wisconsin) • Initiative • Referendum • Recall • Seventeenth Amendment (1913) Robert M. LaFollette, Wisconsin Governor 1900-06

15. Direct Election Of Senators • Before 1913, each state’s legislature had chosen 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 in 1913.

16. STATE SOCIAL REFORMS • professional social workers • Health codes • Zoning laws • Building codes • settlement houses- education, culture, day care • child labor laws • Enable education & advancement for working class children

17. STATE SOCIAL REFORMS • workplace & labor reforms • eight-hour work day • workers compensation laws • minimum wage laws • child labor laws • unionization • improved safety & health conditions in factories Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 1911

18. http://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/legacy/index.html • http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=triangle+shirtwaist+factory+story+of+us&FORM=VIRE2&adlt=strict#view=detail&mid=7ABC164FF736F2728A077ABC164FF736F2728A07 After watching the video clip and researching the website above, answer the following questions. • If you were prosecuting a case against the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, what evidence would you use to show that the owners were culpable in this tragedy? (Provide 4 examples) • If you were a state legislator, what new laws/regulations would you support to protect people from similar disasters? (Provide at least 3 examples)

19. State Social Reform: Child Labor “Breaker Boys” Pennsylvania, 1911 Child Laborers in Indiana Glass Works, Midnight, Indiana. 1908 Shrimp pickers in Peerless Oyster Co. Bay St. Louis, Miss., March 3, 1911 Child Laborer, Newberry, S.C. 1908

20. Public Education • Education for the workplace • With more and more jobs available that required an education, public school systems saw a significant rise in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. • Expanding Higher Education • Many new colleges built • Traditionally, women’s educational opportunities lagged behind men’s, but this began to change. • Public Libraries

21. Helping the Urban Poor In early 1900’s, some public effort was made to try to help the poor • Salvation Army • YMCA • Women’s clubs • Social Gospel • Revivalism • Settlement houses

22. Settlement Houses • Hull-House – Jane Addams Jane Addams (1905) Hull-House Complex in 1906

23. Promoting Moral Development • Some reformers felt that the answer to society’s problems was personal behavior. They proposed such reforms as prohibition.

24. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT Groups wishing to ban alcohol: • Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • Anti-Saloon League Frances Willard (1838-98), leader of the WCTU Anti-Saloon League Campaign, Dayton

25. TEMPERANCE & PROHIBITION • Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition on the Eve of the 18th Amendment, 1919

26. SOCIALISM ALTERNATIVES

27. Economic Reform • Panic of 1893 prompted some Americans to question the capitalist economic system. • As a result, some workers embraced socialism. Eugene V. Debs organized the American Socialist Party in1901 and ran for Presidency 5 times, the last from a jail cell. Debs encouraged workers to reject American capitalism

28. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”): Radical labor union founded in 1905 with ties to both socialist and anarchist labor movements. Wanted workplace democracy/self-management. SOCIALISM Socialists parade, May Day, 1910 Eugene V. Debs, founder

29. NATIONAL REFORM Roosevelt, Taft & Wilson as Progressive presidents

30. ESSENTIAL QUESTION How effective were Progressive Era reformers and the federal government in bringing about reform at the national level in the period 1900-1920?

31. Assassination of President McKinley,Sept6, 1901

32. Theodore Roosevelt:the “accidental President”Republican (1901-1909) (The New-York Historical Society)

33. Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” • Formed upon 3 basic ideas: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. It aimed to help middle class citizens, and involved attacking plutocracy and bad trusts while protecting business from the most extreme demands of organized labor. Anthracite miners at Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1900

34. Trust-Busting • 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 Anti-Trust Act

35. Roosevelt the “trust-buster” • Northern Securities Company (1904) • Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act (1906) strengthened Interstate Commerce Commission “ONE SEES HIS FINISH UNLESS GOOD GOVERNMENT RETAKES THE SHIP”

36. Consumer Protection • Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle • Meat Inspection Act (1906) • Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) Chicago Meatpacking Workers, 1905 "A nauseating job, but it must be done"

37. Pure Food and Drug Act • In response to unsubstantiated claims and unwholesome products, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. The Act halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling.

38. Roosevelt & Conservation • Used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 • U.S. Forest Service (1906) • Gifford Pinchot • White House conference on conservation (1908) • John Muir Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, 1907 Theodore Roosevelt & John Muir at Yosemite1906

39. CONSERVATION:National Parks and Forests

40. William Howard TaftPresident 1909-13Republican Postcard with Taft cartoon

41. trust-busting forest and oil reserves Sixteenth Amendment BUT: Caused split in Republican Party Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) Pinchot-BallingerControversy Taft’s Progressive Accomplishments (Taft has) “…completely twisted around the policies I advocated and acted upon.” -Theodore Roosevelt

42. Election of 1912 • Woodrow Wilson • Progressive Party (Roosevelt’s “Bull Moose Party”) • “New Nationalism”Roosevelt’s political philosophy: only a powerful federal government could regulate the economy and guarantee social justice, and the executive power should be the steward of the public welfare. Woodrow Wilson Theodore Roosevelt cartoon, March 1912

43. 1912 Presidential Election

44. Wilson Reforms (1913-1916) • “New Freedom” platformattacked the ‘Triple Wall of Privilege’ — tariffs, banks, and trusts. • Underwood Simmons Tariff lowered tariff rates, helping farmers • Federal Reserve Act established the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the U.S.A. • Federal Trade Commission Act • Clayton Anti-Trust Act • Keating-Owen Act banned items made by child labor from being sold in interstate commerce. (Struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court 2 yrs later.) Wilson at the peak of his power.

45. Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914) • Strengthened the Sherman Act with an anti-trust provision that prevented companies from acquiring stock from another company. • Supported workers’ unions by declaring strikes, boycotts, and peaceful picketing perfectly legal.

46. Federal Reserve Act (1913) • The Federal Reserve Act intended to establish economic stability through the introduction of a Central Bank, which would be in charge of monetary policy in the U.S. The Federal Reserve Act made currency more flexible. • The Federal Reserve Act gave the 12 Federal Reserve banks the ability to manage the money supply in order to ensure economic stability. • The Fed also has the power to adjust the discount rate (impacting interest rates) and to buy & sell U.S. treasuries.

47. Federal Reserve System • Federal Reserve Act

48. WOMEN & SUFFRAGE

49. ESSENTIALQUESTION To what extent did economic and political developments as well as the assumptions about the nature of women affect the position of American women during the period 1890-1925?

50. Women Lead Reform • Many of the leading Progressive reformers were women. Middle and upper class women entered the public sphere after graduating from the new women’s colleges. Colleges like Vassar and Smith allowed women to excel