Progressivism and the Gilded Age: Tackling Economic, Political, Social, and Racial Issues

1. ENTRY # 20 • A) Look/think back (you may use your notes) to the period after the Civil War, and specifically to the period known as the Gilded Age (1877-1900)…Make a list of 10 economic, political, social, racial, issues facing American Society. • B) Then Read pages 416-17 in your textbook. What is Progressivism? • C) Then, circle the issues on your list that will be issue tackled by Progressives.

2. Progressivism • Social & Governmental Reforms in the Early 20th Century • Belief that honest government and just laws were the proper methods for correcting social and economic ills. • Mostly a white, middle-class, Protestant movement • Started with the ascendancy of Teddy Roosevelt to the Presidency in 1901 and ended with US entrance into WWI

3. The Problems Progessives will Tackle: • Urbanization’s huge problems. • Poverty, crime and overcrowding • Health and sanitation Issues • Corruption in Government • Monopolies and Trusts • Working conditions for factory workers • Women’s Rights

4. The Social Gospel: ( Walter Rauschenbush) By following the Bible’s teachings good people can “make society into the kingdom of God”…Protestant Churches preached against vice and taught a code of social responsibility…caring for the poor and insisting on integrity in public life.

5. Muckrakers Exposed the Issues • Muckrakers: Journalists (writers, photographers, cartoonists in newspapers, magazines, and books) who exposed corruption and poor working and living conditions, especially in the cities. • Muckraking combined in-depth, investigative journalism with sensationalism…muckrakers tried to outdo each other with shocking exposes of political and economic corruption.

6. Muckraker: Ida Tarbell (Writer) • Book: The History of Standard Oil Company • First Serialized in McClure’s Magazine, she reported on the ruthless tactics that John Rockefeller used to defeat competitors… • “If it has taught us anything, it is that our present law-makers, as a body, are ignorant, corrupt and unprincipled; that the majority of them are, directly or indirectly, under the control of the very monopolies against whose acts we have been seeking relief.. ”  • Her father was at one point one of his competitors.

7. Muckraker: John Spargo (Writer) • His Book: The Bitter Cry of Children • One of the leading public intellectuals affiliated with the Socialist Party of America during the Progressive Era of the early 20th Century.

8. Muckraker: Upton Sinclair (Writer) • Wrote The Jungle about the meat packing Industry. • At one point made a significant number of people in the US Vegetarian • “I aimed for America’s heart and I hit it in the stomach.

9. Muckraker: Jacob Riis (Photographer) Traveling Picture Show: How the Other Half Lives… (Go to Jacob Riis Gallery Walk)

10. Muckraker: Thomas Nast (Cartoonist) • His political Cartoons helped to bring down Boss Tweed and his ring. • Political/editorial cartoon is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events or personalities. • They typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and biting humor in order to question authority and draw attention to corruption and other social ills. • Also created the Modern Santa Claus

11. Nast’s political Cartoons helped to bring down Boss Tweed and his ring

12. Tammany Hall/The Tweed Ring kept William Tweed in power in New York. • Gave $50,000 to the poor and $2 million for schools orphanages and hospitals BUT • Ran the city’s debt up to 70 million with its graft and illegal practices and kickbacks to keep Tweed in Power

15. ENTRY # 23 • Draw a political Cartoon and then explain it. You may use either a current issue or an issue from the time period that we have been studying. • In your explanation include the issue and how you represented the issue in pictures.

16. Events Further motivated Progressives • Triangle Shirt Waist Fire: March, 1911 • On the upper story of a New York City Building. • 146 people dead • Mostly young Jewish women • Doors were locked and many women jumped out of the windows in desperation • Led to calls for workplace reform

17. Important Progressives in Government • Many were Governors- • Robert La Follette (“Fighting Bob”) of Wisconsin improved education, limited the power of the railroads, and made factories safer in his state…He also introduced the idea of direct primaries in elections, quickly adopted in most other states. • Other Progressive governors: Hiram Johnson (CA); Teddy Roosevelt (NY); Woodrow Wilson (NJ)

18. Helping the Poor • Settlement Houses: a community center that provided social, educational, and cultural services to the urban poor. • Leader in the Settlement House Movement: Jane Addams. • AMERICANIZATION • Hull House Settlement, founded in 1889…by 1911, over 400 settlement Houses in the US.

19. Industrial Workers • Each year 30,000+ workers died (plus ½ million were injured) on the job, due to hazardous machinery and fumes, long hours, poor ventilation… • After the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Progressives called for (and earned to some degree of) workplace reforms such as 10 hour-days; workplace safety; workers’ compensation laws

20. Child Labor • Led by the efforts of Progressive reformer, Florence Kelley, the federal government formed the US Children’s Bureau in 1912 to examine the health and Welfare of children • Keating-Owens Act passed (1916) banned child labor. It (like many workplace safety laws) was later ruled unconstitutional. (1938 child labor banned for good) • Public Education for young children continued to expand during this time period. Educators debated what the students should be taught. Florence Kelley also worked in the Settlement House Movement, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and was a founding member of the NAACP

21. Government Reforms Enacted • Direct Primary: the people, rather than party leaders choose the candidates • Initiative: People suggest (through petitions) laws that then get put on the ballot in the next election. • Referendum: the people vote to approve or reject the laws passed by a legislature • Recall: Public Servants could be removed from power before the end of the term. • Direct election of senators by voters, rather than by state legislators (see 1913 17th Amendment)

22. Temperance Movement • Primarily a women’s effort, the Temperance Movement promoted the practice of never drinking alcohol. • These Progressives believed that alcohol led to social problems (domestic abuse and neglect) and that it was their moral duty to force men to stop drinking. • Led to the 1920 18th Amendment, outlawing the production and sale of alcohol. (repealed in 1933 by 21st Amendment)

23. Carrie Nation • Well known member of the Temperance Movement. • 6 feet tall • 175 pounds • Would walk into bars and pray while smashing them up with a hatchet.

24. Women’s rights • During this time period women did not have the right to vote and were expected to stay in the home or hand over their wages to their husbands, fathers, brothers. • However women were very active in the many social causes throughout the time period…NAACP, Temperance, Settlement House, Child Labor and Education…soon women saw the need to promote their own rights, in the home, in the workplace, and...in politics…

25. Suffragettes argued that only through the right to vote would women be able to make sure that the government passed laws protecting children, fostering education and promoting family life. • Through the leadership of women like Susan B. Anthony, & Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the 1860’s, and Carrie Chapman Catt, Florence Kelley, & Alice Paul in the 1890’s and early 1900’s, suffragettes were able to get the 19th Amendment passed in 1919 , giving all US women the right to vote. (some states already had it).

26. Progressive Era Amendments • 16th : Income Tax • 17th: Direct Election of Senators • 18th: Temperance • 19th :Women’s Suffrage