1. Progressive Era
Early twentieth-century reform movement that pushed the government to resolve social problems created by urban industrialism. Problems like:
poverty
child labor
vice
exploitation of labor
destruction of natural resources

2. Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism: that human progress came from competition and natural selection--the “survival of the fittest.” Its advocates believed that reform movements were a waste of time.

3. Reform Darwinism
Reform Darwinism was a social theory that directly challenged Social Darwinism;
Proponents believed that if humans changed the social environment, they could improve the lot of humans faster and advance evolution.

4. How did Progressivism get started?
At the grassroots level, by everyday people in the cities, in reaction to excesses of the Gilded Age.

6. Settlement Houses
College-educated women, like Jane Addams wanted to “civilize the city”

7. Characteristics of Progressive Movement
A belief that environment, not heredity alone, determines human potential
A sense of optimism that conditions can be corrected without radically changing economy or institutions
A profound trust in “experts” and scientific data
A willingness to take action

8. The Jungle
The book was instrumental in exposing the meat packing industry
“muckraking” (The Jungle is an example)
Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act 1906
“I aimed at the public’s heart, but I hit them in the stomach.”

9. Alliances between middle and lower class women
A strike held against New York’s garment industry in 1909 was supported by women workers and middle class women
20,000 workers went on strike
They won some concessions
Labels sewn into garments made by union workers

10. Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire
146 died, many jumping nine stories to their deaths.
proved that the factories were not safe for workers.

11. Triangle fire

12. Progressivism Finds a President

13. Theodore Roosevelt: Domestic Policy
“Trust Buster”
He filed suit to enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 which was being ignored. He won.
Labor negotiator
United Mine Workers and the “square deal”

14. President Roosevelt A newspaper editor wrote,
“Wall Street is paralyzed at the thought that a President of the United States would sink so low as to try to enforce the law.”

16. Conservationist
When Roosevelt took office, government land reserves totaled 45 million acres. When he left office, the government had 150 million acres.

17. Controversy over Hetch Hetchy

18. Roosevelt: Foreign Policy
“Speak softly but carry a big stick”
Roosevelt believed that “civilized nations” should police the world and hold “backward” countries in line he relied on military strength and diplomacy

20. Monroe Doctrine
Roosevelt Corollary
A declaration by President James Monroe in 1823 that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any further colonization or interference by European powers. In exchange, Monroe declared that the US would not get involved in European conflicts.
A declaration in 1904 that the US would not intervene in Latin America as long as nations there conducted their affairs with “decency.” It made the US the policeman of the Western Hemisphere and allowed it to enforce repayment of European debts.
Monroe and Roosevelt

22. Panama Canal
US offered Columbia $10 million and an annual rent of $250,000
Columbia refused
At the prompting of some investors in New York, Panamanians staged an uprising, 1903
Within 24 hours, Roosevelt’s government recognized the new Panama, and the new country accepted the $10 million and the canal was begun.

23. US Foreign Policy and the World Stage
Enforcement of Monroe Doctrine
Formulating the Roosevelt Corollary
Endorsing the uprising in Panama

24. Taft Presidency Taft sided more often with big business
“Dollar Diplomacy”

25. Progressive Party 1912 Nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party”
Nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt
Platform:
Presidential primaries
Conservation of natural resources
An end to child labor
Minimum wages for women
Workers’ compensation
Social security
Federal income tax

26. Woodrow Wilson Democrat Wilson wins election of 1912
He turns out to be “progressive”
Federal Reserve Act, 1913
Federal Trade Commission

27. Radical Progressives

28. W.E.B. DuBois Authored “Souls of Black Folk” 1903
Founded the Niagara Movement, precursor to the NAACP
Lifelong radical, later investigated by the FBI

29. Margaret Sanger

31. Eugene Debs Social Democratic Party (Socialist)
advocated cooperation over competition and urged people to shake free from private ownership

32. Some successes of the Progressive Era
Hull House and other settlement houses
Muller v. Oregon, 1908, limited workday for women to 10 hours
Upton Sinclair’s novel of 1906, The Jungle
Conservation of 150 million acres of natural landscape

33. Some Failures of the Progressive Movement
Jim Crow laws
Nativism
Prohibition