The Progressive Movement

1. The Progressive Movement

2. Progressivism and Muckrakers • America at the turn of the century was at best a rough place • Technology and Industry grew at such a great rate that the government and most citizens were unprepared to deal with its effects • Philosophies like laissez-faire and Social Darwinism combined to create an America that cared little for the everyday man

3. 1. Progressivism and Muckrakers • Eventually citizens, average people, arose to complain about these conditions and demandchange. • The demand for change, or progress, was known as the Progressive Movement • Muckraker: journalists and photographers who brought reform issues to the public’s attention. (The term is a negative one) It’s based on a literary character, which was so busy cleaning and raking up the muck and dirt that he didn’t see the good things that were around him.

5. 2. Reason for Reform • Powerful monopolies • Political corruption • Labor unrest • Abuse of natural resources • Immigration problems • Urban living conditions • African American rights • Women’s rights • Many people and groups looked now for the national government to fix the country’s problems

7. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Clean Up Government • The objective of the local and state governments was to control the Bosses, who controlled local political power • Local government took over the control of public utilities and broke up monopolies like water and garbage • Robert LaFollette, a Senator and Governor who pushed for reforms in: civil service, shift tax burden to the wealthy and corporations, workers compensation and factory inspections and regulation of railroads.

10. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Clean Up Government • Secret Ballots: to prevent the Bosses from knowing for whom or what they voted • Initiative: voters petition legislatures to consider proposed laws • Referendum: voters consider if a law should be passed • Recall: petitions to force elected officials out of office • 17th Amendment: direct elections of Senators (used to be done by state legislatures, which were influenced by political machines)

11. Boss Tweed and Political Machines reading

12. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Protecting Consumer and Employee Safety • Upton Sinclair: wrote the book, The Jungle which was about the corruption of the American meatpacking industry. • Meat Inspection Act: government inspects meat for interstate trade • Pure Food and Drug Act: an act to regulate dishonest labeling of ingredients and strict sanitary conditions

14. Read the excerpt from The Jungle and create the book cover (front and back)

15. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Protecting Consumer and Employee Safety • Child labor: they received between 33-67 cents per week, while an adult worker in Rhode Island earns between $2- $3 a week • Nearly a million kids working by 1900

17. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Protecting Consumer and Employee Safety • Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York • Caused the death of 148 garment workers who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths

19. Show video of Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire from Safari Montage

20. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Women Make Progress • Women’s right movement has been closely associated with other movements such as Abolition, Prohibition & Civil Rights • Women were expected to be domestic housewives • Women were not able to hold public office or vote • Majority didn’t get a college education or have equal wages • Could not serve on juries and could not control their own money if married – a man could punish his wife as well

22. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Women Make Progress • The 1800’s “Seneca Falls Convention” gave birth to the Women’s rights movement, which was held in Seneca Falls, New York • Suffrage = means the right to vote • The Women’s Suffrage movement was led by Elizabeth Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott • 1872: Susan B. Anthony led a group of women to the polls and was arrested for trying to vote

23. Woman arrested for trying to vote

24. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Women Make Progress • Alice Paul • She was part of the National Women’s Party • She caused dissension with her militant style • Tried to get an Equal Rights Amendment • 19th Amendment • The Anti-Suffrage movement argued that voting would make women masculine and they already have enough power • World War I brought support to the women’s movement • Women’s Suffrage Amendment was first introduced to Congress in 1878, the bill finally got passed in 1919 (40 years later) • 19th Amendment – gave all citizens the right to vote and one cannot be denied on the account of sex.

25. 3. Goals of the Progressives • Promoting Moral Improvements • Temperance Movement • Composed of groups (women and religious) who opposed to the making and consuming of alcohol • Supported 18th Amendment (1919) prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages