Chapter 21

1. Chapter 21 The Progressive Era 1900-1917

2. Introduction • This chapter covers: • Economic and social changes • Problems caused by industrialization and urbanization • How the Progressive reform movement emerged to wrestle with these problems/changes

3. Introduction (cont.) • An example: • The unsafe and unsanitary conditions in which millions of workers labored produced tragedies • Such as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire in which 141 sweatshop employees died • After the Fire, aroused Progressives convinced New York State to enact many labor protective laws

4. Introduction (cont.) • 1.) How did intellectuals and writers prepare the way for Progressive reform? • 2.) What conditions in the cities and states bothered Progressives, and what did they hope to do about them? • 3.) How did Progressive reform reach national politics, and which leaders and issues were involved?

5. Introduction (cont.) • 4.) What impact did Progressive reform have on the lives of women, immigrants, the urban poor, and African-Americans? • 5.) Did progressivism alter people’s views on the proper role of govt. in America’s society and economy?

6. Progressives and Their Ideas • The Many Faces of Progressivism • Progressive reformers included much of the new urban middle class • Mostly white, native-born Protestants • Middle-class women (often college educated) • Working through settlement houses and private organizations (National Consumers’ League) • Urban, immigrant political machines and workers began to demand improved labor conditions

7. The Many Faces of Progressivism (cont.) • The Progressives were strongest in the cities • Attracted support from middle-class professionals and intellectuals • Most Progressives accepted the capitalist system • They merely wanted to reform the worst abuses that had developed under it

8. The Many Faces of Progressivism (cont.) • There was never 1 unified movement, but many different groups of reformers • Some preached regulation of big businesses • Others concentrated on passing laws to protect workers • Others thought the way to cure social ills was to curtail immigration

9. The Many Faces of Progressivism (cont.) • Progressives generally attempted to be “scientific” in their approach • Backed their demands for change with scholarly studies of deplorable conditions to be remedied

10. Intellectuals Offer New Social Views • Many intellectuals criticized unrestrained, brutal capitalist competition • They called for an activist govt. that would regulate business practices and protect the economically vulnerable • Thorstein Veblen (economist) • Herbert Croly (journalist) • William James (pragmatic philosopher) • Jane Addams (settlement-house leader)

11. Intellectuals Offer New Social Views (cont.) • New educational and legal ideas paved the way for the Progressive movement • John Dewey • Preached that schools must foster in students respect for the values of democracy and cooperation • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. • Supreme Court Justice • Attacked conservative judges for being guided entirely by legal precedent • He insisted that the “law must evolve as society changes”

12. Dewey and Holmes

13. Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight Social Problems • Muckraking journalists and novelists played an important role in stimulating the Progressive movement by exposing to middle-class Americans political corruption and corporate wrongdoing

14. Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight Social Problems (cont.) • Lincoln Steffens • Wrote about urban political machines and bosses • Ida Tarbell • Cutthroat competitive practices of Standard Oil Company

15. Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight Social Problems (cont.) • Magazines such as McClure’s and Collier’s specialized in muckraking articles • Novelists Frank Norris in The Octopus and Theodore Dreiser in The Financier also told tales of business abuses and political corruption

16. Novelists, Journalists,and Artists Spotlight Social Problems (cont.) • “Ashcan School” artists and photographers such as Lewis Hine depicted the harsh world of the immigrants, factory workers and child laborers

17. State and Local Progressivism • Reforming the Political Process • The earliest signs of the Progressive movement appeared in cities where municipal reformers battled corrupt political machines • These cities elected activist mayors dedicated to change • Hazen Pingree of Detroit • Samuel Jones of Toledo • Reform mayors generally: • brought honesty to municipal govt. • Provided city dwellers with improved municipal services and facilities • Forced transportation and utility companies to lower rates and pay their fair share of taxes

18. Reforming the Political Process (cont.) • Other municipal reformers experimented with commission and city-manager forms of govt.

19. Reforming the Political Process (cont.) • The reform efforts soon moved up to state govt. • Progressives attempted to democratize politics by establishing: • secret balloting • direct primary • initiative • referendum • recall • In practice these measures fell short of producing the democratic results that the Progressives had hoped

20. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers • After 1900, the growth of huge business corporation speeded up • Example: in 1901 J.P. Morgan consolidated hundreds of independent steel makers to form the U.S. Steel Company which controlled 80% of production in the nation • This trend alarmed many Americans

21. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.) • The real wages of industrial laborers rose after 1900 • They were still so inadequate that in many families the mothers and children had to work to make ends meet • In 1910 at least 1.6 million youngsters between 10-16 years old worked full-time

22. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.) • Industrial laborers spent on average 9 1/2 hours a day in mills and shops • Often in hazardous conditions (both in health and safety) • Employers tried to get even more work out of their employees • Frederick W. Taylor and other efficiency experts

23. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.) • Under Progressive influence, state govts. started to impose regulation on railroads, mines, and other business corporation • The pioneer was WI under Governor Robert LaFollette

24. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.) • Between 1901 and 1906 LaFollette convinced the legislature to: • create a state railroad commission • increase corporate taxes • limit business contributions to political campaigns • He and the legislature also introduced political reforms such as the direct primary • “Wisconsin Idea”

25. Regulating Business, Protecting Workers (cont.) • Other states passed important labor laws as well: • Maximum # of hours per workday for female employees • Oregon’s 10-hour law • Factory safety codes • Such as the one enacted in NY after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire • Workers’ compensation acts • Bans on child labor

26. Making Cities More Livable • Cities grew rapidly between 1900 and 1920 as rural Americans and millions of immigrants moved into them • Overwhelmed and often corrupt municipal govts. failed to provide the newcomers with adequate services and public facilities

27. Making Cities More Livable (cont.) • Progressive reformers began to beautify cities with: • more parks and playgrounds • Broad boulevards • Impressive municipal buildings • State legislatures passed housing coded to upgrade living conditions in tenements and slum neighborhoods

28. Making Cities More Livable (cont.) • Cities and states improved: • Garbage collection • Street cleaning • Water and sewer systems • And required higher standards: • of cleanliness • Of quality form sellers of food and milk • These Progressive reforms significantly decreased infant mortality and tuberculosis deaths

29. Making Cities More Livable (cont.) • There were also attempts to reduce air pollution • Business fought these vigorously • The continued reliance on coal as the chief energy source left cities smoky and sooty

30. Progressivism and Social Control • Moral Control in the Cities • Some reformers tried to guard morality by inducing cities to censor movies and outlaw prostitution • A wave of hysteria over prostitution led to the passage of the federal Mann Act (1910) and the close of red-light districts

31. Battling Alcohol and Drugs • Prohibition became the biggest moral crusade of the Progressive Era • Anti-Saloon League, Women’s Christian Temperance Union, various church groups • Many localities enacted bans on liquor sales • The national prohibition movement grew stronger

32. Battling Alcohol and Drugs (cont.) • Progressives also campaigned against the then-widespread use of such addictive drugs as morphine, heroin, and cocaine • Their efforts led to the passage of the federal Narcotics Act in 1914 • Outlawed the distribution of heroin, morphine, and cocaine except by doctors’ prescriptions

33. Immigration Restriction and Eugenics • Between 1900-1917, 17 million immigrants entered the U.S.A. • Mostly from southern and eastern Europe • Many native-born Americans became fearful • They often believed that immigrants caused poverty and immorality

34. Immigration Restriction and Eugenics (cont.) • Immigration Restriction League • 1894 • Founded by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other prominent Bostonians • In 1971 Congress excluded illiterate immigrants • Over President Wilson’s veto

35. Immigration Restriction and Eugenics (cont.) • Eugenicists claimed that humans and society could be improved by controlled breeding • Some states passed laws allowing forced sterilization of criminals, mentally deficient persons, and sex offenders • Pseudo-scientific racism was spewed by some so-called progressive writers • Madison Grant--The Passing of the Great Race (1916)

36. African-Americans After Reconstruction • After Reconstruction, white Democrats in the South increasingly deprived black southerners of the right to vote • At first the whites used intimidation and terror • After 1890 they used more effective means: • Poll taxes • Literacy tests • Grandfather clauses

37. African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.) • Southern blacks also were victimized by: • segregation laws • the convict-lease system • Lynching • Some southern Populists attempted to combat prejudice • Encouraged white and black farmers to unite against their exploiters • The Southern Democratic elite purposely inflamed racial antagonism to keep poor farmers divided

38. African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.) • The federal govt. did nothing to protect black rights • The Supreme Court gave it stamp of approval to segregated but equal facilities in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • Plessy summary • It also upheld poll taxes and literacy tests in 1898

39. African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.) • Blacks responded to these abuses in several ways • Some fled the South only to find de facto segregation in the North • Booker T. Washington advised fellow blacks to accept their second-class status for a time and concentrate on getting ahead economically and educationally • Accept the South’s Jim Crow and disenfranchisement laws

40. African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.) • Abolitionist Frederick Douglass still called on blacks to demand full equality • The South became a one-party region always controlled by the Democrats • With the disenfranchisement of blacks • The defeat of southern populism

41. African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.) • The South became a one-party region always controlled by the Democrats • With the disenfranchisement of blacks • The defeat of southern populism

42. Racism and Progressivism • In 1900 the majority of the 10 million African-Americans were still in the rural South • Most as sharecroppers • Many began to migrate to cities and to the North • Escape poverty, disenfranchisement, Jim Crow laws, and violence

43. Racism and Progressivism (cont.) • In the North they encountered de factor segregation and discrimination • Under these difficult circumstances, African-Americans developed their own communities and culture • Racism in American society reached a peak during the Progressive Era • Many progressives either ignored racial discrimination or were themselves racists

44. Racism and Progressivism (cont.) • Southern Progressives combined advocacy of economic and political reform with vicious attacks on African-Americans • James K. Vardaman and Ben Tillman • The 2 Progressive-reformer presidents of the era compiled sorry records on racial justice • Theodore Roosevelt • Woodrow Wilson

45. Racism and Progressivism (cont.) • Roosevelt ordered the unwarranted dishonorable discharge of an entire regiment of African-American soldiers in the Brownsville, Texas, incident • Wilson praised the racist movie Birth of a Nation and condoned the introduction of racial segregation in all federal govt. agencies and departments

46. Racism and Progressivism (cont.) • Some white progressives decried racial injustice and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) • Lillian Wald and Mary White

47. African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism (cont.) • Northern African-Americans intellectuals and professionals urged African-Americans to fight for economic, political, and educational equality • William Monroe Trotter • Ida Wells-Barnett • W.E.B. DuBois

48. Trotter, Wells, DuBois

49. African-American Leaders Organize Against Racism (cont.) • Niagara Movement • 1905 • DuBois and other African-American critics of Washington formed • In 1909, DuBois and other members of the Niagara Movement joined with white Progressives in organizing the NAACP • Rejected Booker T. Washington’s accommodations advice • Began the long fight for racial justice

50. Revival of the Woman-Suffrage Movement • A new group of feminists emerged to revitalize the women’s movement • Carrie Chapman Catt • Became president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900