The Progressive Era: Social Reforms, Muckraking, and Immigration

1. AP Chapter 21 The Progressive Era

2. The Progressive Movement • Many were angry over the problems of Industrialization • They wanted to improve American society for all people • Felt intervention from the govt. was important for a better society

3. Social Reformers • Jacob Riis- wrote “How the Other Half Lives” • Looks at how poor immigrants lived their lives • Riis photographs exposed all of the problems that most people were unaware of • Settlement House- place where poor immigrants went for help

5. Jane Addams • Hull House- settlement house in Chicago for poor immigrants • Offered classes in English, art, and basic living skills • Addams and other women played a key role

8. Jane Addams

9. Urban Machine • Many cities were run by “Political Machines” that stole millions from taxpayers • Business men routinely bribed officials for favors • George Washington Plunkett of Tammany Hall called it “Honest Graft” • Early welfare aid gained votes

11. Progressivism and Reforms • Wisconsin Robert La Follette (R) pushed many progressive reforms in his state and later the federal govt. • Direct Primary- people vote in a primary election for a candidate to represent a party • Initiative- petitions circulated so law makers may consider a law

13. Referendum- proposed law where the people vote on election day • Recall- people can call for a special election to remove a politician from office • Secret ballot became popular • Southerners failed to following in many of these reforms

14. Muckraking • New forms of journalism exposed the corruption in American society • McClure’s magazine spread many of the muckrakers writings • Lincoln Steffens- Shame of the Cities exposed the graft in the cities • Ida Tarbell- History of the Standard Oil attacked Rockefeller’s unfair business practices

16. Upton Sinclair • Most famous muckraker who wrote The Jungle • His book looked at the horrible conditions in the meat processing factories • Eventually led to the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

18. Temperance/Prohibition • Many felt crime, poverty and murder were a result of alcohol and urged its ban • WCTU- was the leading organization and temperance showed deep divides within the country • Gradually alcohol was banned throughout the states and eventually nationally with the Volstead Act

19. Prohibitions Enforcement

22. Redemption of Leisure • Some forms of entertainment were censored • Education was expanded and most cities/towns funded public education • Children were required to attend school at a younger age

23. Legal Challenges • Progressives began to challenge many conservative laws • Lochner v. NY 1905- struck down a law limiting bakers to 10 hr. workdays • Muller v. Oregon (1908) court upheld a law that limited the hours a women could work • Louis Brandis used statistics, sociological and economic data for the case “Brandeis Brief” changed legal arguments

24. Immigration • Immigration drastically rose after the Civil War and peaked before WWI • Most came for economic reasons and settled in urban centers • Life was difficult for immigrants as they tried to assimilate into American society

26. Immigration Old Immigrants New Immigrants After 1880 and came from SE Europe Italian, Poles, Greeks, Asians, and Russians Most were Catholics Lived in cities and faced the worst nativists attitudes • Before 1880 and came from NW Europe • English, Irish, German, Swedes etc. • Most were protestants • Lived in cities then migrated westward

27. Life of Immigrants • Immigrants lived in ethnic ghettos and gradually assimilated into American society • Cultural Pluralism or Melting Pot Theory varied based on who you asked • Nativists resented the immigrants b/c they were taking their jobs or lowering wages

29. Melting Pot vs. Cultural Pluralism

30. International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) • Formed to raise wages for the thousands of female garment workers in NYC • Went on strike in 1909 but were unable to gain complete recognition • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911- 146 people (mostly women) were killed in the fire • Florence Kelly and Francis Perkins pushed for hearings which led to improvements in safety

33. Company Towns • Many companies created company towns for there workers to live in • Company owned everything and paid with company currency • Immigrants often settled their and were left broke at the end of every week

35. United Miners Strike • Sept. 1913 went on strike in Colorado and called for improved working conditions • Strike nearly bankrupted the state and strike breakers were sent in • Shots rang out around a tent city in Ludlow and fighting erupted • Pres. Wilson sent in troops and stopped the Ludlow Massacre

37. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) • Big Bill Haywood was an outspoken leader of the IWW • IWW was more radical than the AFL • Wobblies- named given to the IWW • Goal was to help miners, lumberjacks, sailors and other causal workers

39. Women’s Movement • Women were entering the workforce in large numbers • Margaret Sanger pushed for birth control in 1913 • She was charged with obscenity and fled the country • She later defied the law and returned and opened up a birth control clinic in NYC

41. Suffrage Movement • Suffrage Movement wanted to give women the right to vote • Led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Western states 1st to give women the right to vote • Many felt the women’s place was in the home not D.C. • 1920- 19th Amend. women get the right to vote

45. Reform for African Americans • NAACP pushed for more rights for African Americans • Racism was still a major issue in the country • Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois emerged as the leading activist for blacks

46. Washington vs. Du Bois • Former slave who founded the Tuskegee Inst. • Lived in the South • Pushed for vocational training as the main method towards equality • Harvard graduate and lived in the North • Pushed for voting rights and equality • Founded the Niagara Movement that opposed segregation

47. Washington vs. DuBois

48. Theodore Roosevelt • Became president in 1901 after the assassination of Pres. McKinley • Preached the virtues of a “strenuous life” • Changed the role of the presidency and was very vocal

50. T. Roosevelt- felt that as president he needed to protect both industry and the common laborers • Roosevelt was known as the “Trust Buster” b/c he was the first president to attack big businesses • He enforced the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by attacking the Northern Securities Co. • Hepburn Act- strengthened the ICC and set maximum rates on the RRs