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The Progressive Era. Chapter 21. The Progressive Era. Era in the United States between 1900-1917 in which important movements challenged traditional relationships and attitudes Goal was to change things for the better
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The Progressive Era Chapter 21
The Progressive Era • Era in the United States between 1900-1917 in which important movements challenged traditional relationships and attitudes • Goal was to change things for the better • Used new techniques such as lobbying and demonstrations…Wanted people to notice!
Main goal of the Progressives • #1 priority was gaining the vote for women
Brought Groups Together • “Progressives” came from all areas of life and society • Crossed all lines of class, education, occupation, geography, gender, and at times race and ethnicity
Big Business • Businesses and Corporations were continuing to grow • This took opportunities away from small firms and workers • This caused social tensions to rise…People were upset
Employer Safety Still an Issue • Wages remained small • Southern cotton mills employed children as young as 7
Triangle Shirtwaist Company • 1911: Located in New York City • Fire killed 146 workers, mostly women • Were trapped due to locked exits and narrow walkways • Found burnt skeletons huddled over sewing machines
Immigration • Immigration was still rising • Immigrants and their children comprised more than 70% of the population of New York, Chicago, and Buffalo in 1910
Quote • “The immigrant newcomers of recent years are men of the lowest class from the South of Italy, and men of the meaner sort out of Hungary and Poland, men out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor energy, nor any initiative or quick intelligence” • Guess who said this?
Old Woodrow • Future President Woodrow Wilson • Was President of Princeton University when comment was made
Social Gospel Movement • Protestant ministers • Wanted to introduce religious ethics into industrial relations • Appealed to churches to meet their social responsibilities
Washington Gladden • Was upset that powerful members of his congregation were able to stop a strike • Began ministry of helping working class people and neighborhoods • Supported unions and called for profit sharing
Muckrakers • Samuel McClure sent his reporters to uncover political and corporate corruption
Muckrakers • Term came from Teddy Roosevelt • This caught on and more people started to take this approach to journalism
Labor’s Demand for Rights • Wanted laws to compensate workers injured on the job, curb child labor, and regulate the employment of women • Members of the IWW were known as Wobblies used sit down strikes, sit-ins, civil rights movement of the 1960s would adopt these same tactics
Skewed Perception • “Respectable people” viewed them as violent revolutionaries, despite the fact that most of the violence was directed towards the Wobblies
Expanding the Woman’s Sphere • By early 20th century more women than ever before were working outside the home • Women were becoming “Social housekeepers” • Would focus on crime and disease, and supported kindergartens, foster home programs, juvenile courts, and compulsory school attendance
Transatlantic Influence • America was becoming more and more influenced by what was happening in European nations • European reformers were working to solve many of the same problems that existed in the United States, and they were succeeding • Americans wanted to follow the lead of Europe
Socialism • Many who fought for these reforms in the United States also considered themselves to be Socialists • American socialists condemned social and economic inequities, criticized limited government, and demanded public ownership of railroads, utilities, and communications • Upton Sinclair was a Socialist
Socialism Scared Many • Eugene Debs helped organize the Socialist Party of America • Won many elections in Wisconsin and New York • Most progressives considered Socialism to be too drastic and extreme
Opponents of Reform • Not all Americans supported progressive reforms, and many people regarded as progressives on some issues opposed change in other areas • For instance, many Social Gospelers opposed women’s rights
Protestant Fundamentalists • Protestant Fundamentalists disagreed with those in the Social Gospel Movement • Stressed personal salvation rather than social reform • Believed in the literal accuracy and divine inspiration of the Bible
Protestant Quote • “To attempt reform in the black depths of the great city would be as useless as trying to purify the ocean by pouring into it a few gallons of spring water”
Billy Sunday • Most famous Protestant Fundamentalists • against all reforms but prohibition and denounced labor unions, women’s rights, and business regulation interfering with traditional values
Reforming Society • Settlement workers eventually concluded that only government power could achieve social justice and demanded that state and federal governments protect the weak and disadvantaged • Efforts to secure a child labor law were first and foremost • Protective legislation for women was also a goal for reformers
Minimum Wage • The first minimum wage laws were passed, but they were below the poverty line • All these laws did was assure not economic independence but rather continued dependence on husbands and fathers • Proposals for health insurance and old age pensions went nowhere, and the US continued to lag behind Western Europe
Reshaping Public Education • Attendance laws, kindergartens, age-graded elementary schools, professional training for teachers, PTA associations, and school nurses became standard • Jacob Riis: “The kindergartner would “rediscover the natural feelings that the tenement had smothered”
Stronger Education in North • The South lagged behind in education • The Southern education system remained segregated and wasted resources • Spent 12x as much per white student as opposed to black students in South Carolina
Margaret Sanger • Radically changed social ideas of women • Was concerned about poor women who were worn out from repeated pregnancies • Also concerned about how easily it was to injure or kill yourself with a self induced (Knitting needle abortions) abortion
Birth Control • Despite federal laws preventing it, Sanger promoted birth control
“Enforced Motherhood” • “A woman’s body belongs to herself alone. It does not belong to the United States of America or any other government on the face of the earth” • “Women cannot be on an equal footing with men until they have full and complete control over their reproductive function
Very Controversial • Would be indicted for distributing information about contraception and would flee to Europe
Unpopular Progressive Reforms • There were Progressive movements that were not so positive, one was the restriction of immigration • Japanese and Mexicans were restricted in California • Others demanded the “Americanization” of immigrants already in the country
Prohibition • Prohibition was closely linked to worries about immigrants • Wanted to destroy immigrants’ old country ties and impose an American culture • Saw liquor as a cause of crime, poverty, and family violence
Prohibition and Immigrants • Immigrants viewed liquor and the neighborhood saloon as vital parts of daily life • Prohibition became an example of Americanization pressures • Narcotics and prostitution was also a focus, but not as much as alcohol
Other New Laws • Harrison Act 1914, prohibited the distribution and use of narcotics except for medical purposes • Mann Act of 1910 banned the interstate transport of women for “immoral purposes”
Racism in Progressive Era • Very Common • Lynching was defended on the floor of the U.S. Senate by a Southern Progressive • Anti-black race riots were becoming more and more common in the north, New York in 1900, and in Springfield, Illinois in 1908
Getting Active • Black women created progressive organizations and established settlement houses, kindergartens, and day care centers in Atlanta
Niagara Movement • Founded by W.E.B. DuBois • organized in 1905 to promote racial integration, civil and political rights, and equal access to economic opportunity • Organized the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Voting Rights • Rather than insisting on the justice of women suffrage or emphasizing equal rights, they spoke of the special moral and maternal instincts women could bring to politics if allowed to vote • Made it seem less radical • Washington became the first state to approve women suffrage
