1. Progressive Era 1900-1916 urbanization social disorder (labor)
Expose the ills of society brought on by the Industrial Revolution and Big Government
urbanization
social disorder (labor)
political corruption
Write new laws to correct social problems
Ideas based on Populism and goals of labor movement
Government can be an instrument of social change

2. Muckrakers** Journalistic “Voice” of Progressives
Investigative journalists –
Expose corruption and other problems that needed to be addressed (no solutions)
Profitable for magazines:
McClure’s, Cosmopolitan, Collier’s
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
Lincoln Stephen’s The Shame of the Cities
Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Co.
** coined by T. Roosevelt

3. Goals of Progressives ex: Sherman Antitrust Act
End laissez-faire
End abuses of monopolistic power with antitrust legislation
ex: Sherman Antitrust Act
Make government more responsive
Government the vehicle to improved society
Limit power of party bosses
end government abuse of power

4. Progressive Methods Rely on Scientific Data Value of Expert Opinion
Use Collective Action
Inform using Publications--muckrakers
Pressure on legislatures to pass laws

5. Origins of Progressivism
Could You?
Explain the four goals of progressivism.
Summarize progressive efforts to clean up government.
Identify progressive efforts to reform state government, protect workers, and reform elections.

6. Progressive Political Reforms
Political parties corrupt and Undemocratic
Power must be diminished
People must be given more power
Australian (secret) ballot 1890
Direct primary (nominate candidates)1902
Initiative (propose laws)
Referendum (vote yes or no on laws)
Recall (call for re-election)
Direct election of Senators (17th)
Women’s suffrage (19th)

7. Progressive Social Reforms
Temperance movement
WCTU
Anti-Saloon League
18th amendment (1919)
Volstead Act enforced prohibition
Mann Act (1910) (White Slave Traffic) Illegal to bring women into U.S. or across state lines for immoral purposes
Many states passed laws against prostitution

8. Social Gospel Movement
Social responsibility for others’ well being
“my brother’s keeper”
Church people doing humanitarian work -- YMCA
PADS program - food pantry

9. Progressive Economic Reform
Hepburn Act of 1906 : Regulate Rail Roads
Mann-Elkins Act of 1910:
ICC - Communications
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) 1906
Prohibited mislabeling
Sanitary Codes
Tariff Reform - Lowered Tariffs on foreign goods (permitted competition)

10. Federal Reserve Act
Weakness of existing system: No plan for times of financial crisis.
Solution: Create 12 Federal Reserve Districts: “A” - “L”
Purpose: Control the Nation’s Supply of Money

11. Robert M. LaFollette US Rep and US Senator
Progressive Wisconsin governor
Wisconsin a model for progressive reform
“laboratory of progressivism”
“Wisconsin idea”

12. Efforts to Clean Up City Government
Toledo Reform - Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones
Lower utility rates
Minimum wage & More Parks.
Reform!!!
Commission System
Galveston, Tx
Take politics out of the process
Specialized professional ran departments.
The City Manager System
Elected Boards of Commissioners
City manager elected by commissioners

13. 1904 Election Results

14. National Political Reformers
Teddy Roosevelt
Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Progressive Era Presidents

15. Teddy Roosevelt “Square Deal”
McKinley Assassination
VP, Age 42, young, active, reform minded president
1902 anthracite coal miner strike
Demands: 20%/8hr/union
Reality: 10%/9hr/no union
Conservation
Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)
Dams for irrigating 16 states
150 million acres reserved for public
National Conservation Commission
established under Gifford Pinchot
Northern Securities case (RR monopoly)
“trustbuster” Teddy

16. “Jack and the Giant Killer”
Trustbusting

17. Conservation John Muir

18. Teddy Roosevelt Consumer Protection
Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
forbade the manufacture, sale and transportion of adulterated or mislabeled foods and drugs.
(No harmful chemicals and preservatives-labels required )
Meat Inspection Act (1906)
Federal inspection and regulation of minimum standards of sanitation.

19. “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit them in the stomach.”
Upton Sinclair
A socialist trying to raise an outcry over working conditions under capitalism
He wanted people to demand socialism from their government (do away with capitalism)
Belief workers should control both the government and the means of production

20. Excerpt from The Jungle
“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerine and dumped into the hoppers and made over again for home consumption There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from the leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it These rats were a nuisance, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.”

21. 1908 Election Results
Bryan

22. Taft as the Big Guy Poor leader – not charismatic like TR
Lost progressive support over tariff
Not low enough!!
Yet, more antitrust suits than TR
Yet, more conservation than TR
And…groundwork for 16th amendment

23. Rise of the Socialist Party
Rise of the Socialist Party 3rd Party--developed in 1901 dedicated to working class.
Platform: more radical reforms than Progressives
public ownership or RR, utilities, oil, steel
18 socialists elected city mayors in 1911
presidential candidate Eugene Debs
Peak in ,000 votes (6% of total) for president
Most Americans feared socialism
American workers satisfied with
pay and union progress
Rise of the Socialist Party

24. 1912 Election Results

25. TR-to-Wilson
Election of 1904
Election of 1908
Election of 1912

26. Woody as President “New Freedom”
Economic Reforms attack on the “the triple wall of privilege”
Federal Reserve System (1913)
Regulate money supply
Underwood Tariff (1913)
LOWERED TARIFFS ON 100+ ITEMS
GRADUATED INCOME TAX
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)
Strengthened Sherman Antitrust Act

27. Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)
“cease and desist” orders for unfair business practices
Adamson Act (1916)
8-hour work day for RR (new standard)
Keating-Owens Act (1916)
no interstate trade if co. employs <14 yr olds
Re-elected in 1916
“He kept us out of war”

28. Progressive amendments
direct election of Senators 16 17 18 19 no
progressive
income tax X

29. Results of 1916 Election

30. African-Americans Ignored by main progressive movement
Booker T. Washington
Take a lower status temporarily
Vocational training (Tuskegee Institute)
W.E.B. DuBois
Did not agree with BTW (“leading the way backward”)
“Talented Tenth” AIM HIGHER!!!!
Founded NAACP (1905) - fought racism

31. Women’s Efforts
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote Women and Economics (1898)
Child care centers; common dining area
Margaret Sanger  Planned Parenthood
Florence Kelley (social worker)
10-hour day for women
Carrie Chapman Catt
National American Woman Suffrage Association
Worked for passage of 19th amendment

32. Woman Suffrage Before 1920

33. Evaluating the Progressive Era
Successes ??
Failures ??