The Progressive Era: Reform for a Better Society

1. Chapter 9: The Progressive Era

2. Journal 11/20/13 • How would you feel if your husband spent his entire paycheck at the saloon (bar)? • How would you feel if you had to work 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a noisy, dangerous factory instead of going to school?

3. Section 1: The Origins of Progressivism • Progressivism = making progress or reforming imbalances created during the period of industrial growth after the Civil War • Four Goals • Protect social welfare • Promote moral improvement • Create economic reform • Foster efficiency

4. Protecting Social Welfare • Settlement houses • Florence Kelley -> Illinois Factory Act (1893) -> prohibits child labor and limits women’s working hours • YMCA – Young Men’s Christian Association • Salvation Army -> soup kitchens

5. Promoting Moral Improvement • Prohibition – banning alcohol • Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • founded in Cleveland 1864 • 245,000 members (1911) • opened kindergartens • visited inmates • Anti-saloon league help pass laws banning alcohol • Problems with certain immigrant groups Carry Nation

6. Creating Economic Reform • Capitalism = Big business -> use economic power to limit competition • Socialism founder of the American Socialist Party (1901) • Muckrakers = journalists who exposed the dangers and corruptions of business

7. Fostering Efficiency • Brandeis – research about high cost of working long hours • “Taylorism” – scientific management -> how quickly a task could be performed -> leads to assembly lines -> people worked like machines • Henry Ford reduces work day to 8 hours • Decent pay • Many injuries

8. Assignment • Explain the four goals of Progressivism and explain which one you think was the most important in helping society.

9. “BOOM” • Discovery of oil -> oil becomes cheap -> gasoline is made -> used in cars -> Henry Ford’s Model T cars -> more jobs -> more factories -> more immigrants -> rise of cities -> racial tension -> urbanization -> big businesses -> monopolies -> imbalances -> Progressivism = settlement houses + YMCA (SOCIAL REFORM) -> Christian Temperance Union (MORAL IMPROVEMENT) -> leads to rise of organized crime -> socialism vs. capitalism (ECONOMIC REFORM) -> assembly lines (FOSTER EFFICIENCY)

10. Savitz’ Soap Box Factory • Early 1900s -> immigrants, sharecroppers, African Americans moved to the cities to find jobs • Children as young as three years old worked in factories • Progressivist leaders wanted to make the workplace more sufficient -> break tasks into simpler parts -> assembly line speeds up production but people work like machines

11. Discussion Questions • 1. What type of work took place in the factory? • 2. Would you have enjoyed working in the factory? • 3. Why were workers replaced? • 4. Who replaced them? • 5. What would you have done if you were fired? • 6. Would you have supported legislation to limit working hours?

12. Journal 1/2 • Workers at the Ford flywheel factory made $5 a day - a good wage in 1914. Was it worth it? Why or why not?

13. Cleaning Up Local Government • Natural disasters • lead to council-manager (city council) form of govt. • Reform mayors in Detroit and Chicago • Organize work relief • Dismiss greedy/private owners of utilities (gas, water)

14. Reform at State Level • Reform Governors • Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin taxes railroad property • commission to regulate rates • no free passes to state officials • Reforming Elections • Secret ballot • Initiative – a bill organized by people rather than lawmakers placed on ballot • Referendum – a vote on the initiative • Recall – voters could remove public officials by vote before the end of their term • Primary system – vote for candidates of public office instead of selection by political machines • Direct Election of Senators • 17th Amendment (1913) – instead of selection by state legislature (party bosses)

15. Protecting Working Children • Small hands needed • Low pay for adults -> everyone in the family works • 1904 National Child Labor Committee -> gathered evidence -> laws passed to ban child labor

16. Lewis Hine - Photojournalism

17. Efforts to Limit Working Hours • Louis Brandeis argues in Supreme Court for workers • Ten-hour workday for women + men = state law Progressives • Workers’ compensation • Death benefits

18. Assignment 12/2 • You are a muckraker – journalist in early 1900s who wrote about the corrupt side of politics, business, public life • Write one paragraph about a specific abuse (poor management of relief efforts, high rates for public transportation, greedy private owners of utilities, high railroad rates, child labor, long hours for women, lack of workers’ compensation, reforming elections) • One paragraph about the reforms that you hope will take place as a result of your writing • One paragraph about why these reforms are important

19. Muckrakers • Before World War I, the term "muckraker" was used to refer in a general sense to a writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports to bring about reforms. • http://history.journalism.ku.edu/1900/multimedia/video/pltzrCrusades.mov • http://history.journalism.ku.edu/1900/multimedia/video/muckrakers.mov

20. Section 2: Women in Public Life • Journal 12/3 • Do boys and girls have the same opportunities? • Do men and women have equal rights in public? • Would you vote for a female president?

21. Women in the Work Force • Active on farms • Mainly servants in mid 1800s • Poor and middle class in cities had job opportunities -> work for less pay than men-> 1900 -> 1 of 5 had jobs • Garment industry • Telephone operators • High school education -> teachers, bookkeepers, typists, stenographers • Domestic work -> cooks and maids -> blacks and immigrants

23. In the mid 1800s most women worked as _____________, but as they moved into the cities they found jobs such as _____________________.

24. Women Lead Reform • Poor women -> low wages + long hours • Middle + upper class women discuss reforms in women’s clubs • Vassar College (1865) = first women’s college • Women become more independent

25. Women Lead Reform • No political power • 1869 - Susan B. Anthony + Elizabeth Cathy Stanton found National Women Suffrage (voting) Association (NWSA)

26. Who would not want women to have voting power? What did women want to limit?

27. A 3-Part System for Suffrage • 1. Women convinced some state legislatures to allow women to vote • 2. Women attempted to vote -> tested the 14th Amendment • 3. Pushed for national constitutional amendment to grant women voting power • Not much success

29. Assignment • Task: Creating placards or signs that demonstrators in favor of woman suffrage might carry • Purpose: To understand the history and goals of the woman suffrage movement • Directions: • 1. Make a list of slogans with your group • 2. Make 2 signs/posters that could have been displayed at a rally for woman suffrage

30. A phrase expressing the aims or nature of an enterprise, organization, or candidate; a motto.

31. Sections 1-2 Quiz • 1. Name 2 of the 4 goals of progressivism. • 2. What were women concerned with reforming? • 3. What reforms took place concerning the workplace? • 4. How were elections reformed? • 5. What are muckrakers? • 6. What opportunities did women have in the workplace in the early 1900s? • 7. What was the suffrage movement?

32. Answers 1. protect social welfare, promote moral improvement, create economic reform, foster efficiency 2. temperance movement, opening kindergartens, visiting inmates, helping immigrants, suffrage, working conditions 3. Taylorism, Scientific management -> shorter work day, banning of child labor, 10 hour work day, workers’ compensation 4. Secret ballot, Initiative – a bill organized by people rather than lawmakers placed on ballot • Referendum – a vote on the initiative • Recall – voters could remove public officials by vote before the end of their term • Primary system – vote for candidates of public office instead of selection by political machines

33. 5. Journalists during the beginning of the 190os who investigated and wrote about abuses (corruption, child labor, etc.) to bring about reform. 6. Garment industry, telephone operators, high school educated (teachers, bookkeepers), most were servants (cooks and maids) 7. Pursuit of voting rights for women

34. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair • Book written in 1906 • Sinclair wrote the novel to portray life of immigrants in the U.S. • Most readers were concerned with section on meatpacking • Poverty, lack of social programs, unpleasant living and working conditions • Hopelessness of working class vs. corruption of people in power • Sinclair was a muckraker – journalist who exposed corruption in government and business

35. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair • Sinclair spent 7 weeks working undercover in the meatpacking plants of Chicago • Plot Summary • Main character is Jurgis Rudkus – a poor Lithuanian immigrant in Chicago • Lives with his wife in Packingtown district • Works at a slaughterhouse • Thought the U.S. would offer more freedom but working conditions are harsh

36. Section 3: Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal (Progressive Reforms) • 1900 – Pres. McKinley is assassinated -> T. Roosevelt becomes Pres. • New Yorker • Hunter + boxer + writer • Fought against Spanish in Cuba • Rough Riders – cavalry unit • Modern Pres. = active, forceful, energetic, executive, uses his position to shape legislation and influence the media, believed in a powerful central govt.

37. Using Federal Power • Trusts – legal groups created to hold stock in many companies – controlled 4/5 of industries • T. Roosevelt filed 44 suits under Sherman Antitrust Act Northern Securities Company is broken up (railroad monopoly) • Arbitration commission settles coal strike 1902 • Both sides called to white house • Pres. threatens to take over the mines • Hepburn Act (1906) – limits distribution of free railroad passes + ICC sets rates

41. Health and the Environment • 1906 – Roosevelt appoints commission to study meatpacking industry -> urges Congress to pass Meat Inspection Act –> cleanliness requirements + federal meat inspection • 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act • Truthful labels

43. Health and the Environment • Conservation – preserve some land and develop others • 148 million acres of forest reserves, national parks • National Reclamation Act - large-scale irrigation projects – Roosevelt Dam

44. Federal Government Takes Control of Yosemite Valley

45. Roosevelt and Civil Rights • Indifferent • Booker T. Washington invited to dinner • 1909 – W.E.B. Dubois found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

46. Section 4: Progressivism Under Taft • William Howard Taft = Pres. 1908 • Cautious progressive • Busted 90 trusts • Angered progressives by signing Payne-Aldrich Tariff (higher tariffs) • Angered conservationists -> removed 1 million acres of forest from the reserved list

47. The Republican Party Splits • Two groups – Progressives and conservatives • 1912 -> T. Roosevelt decides to run fro Pres. and is nominated by new Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party) • Women’s suffrage, initiative, 8-hour work day, minimum wage for women

48. Democrats Win in 1912 • Taft – conservative • Roosevelt – progressive but did not oppose all big business • Eugene V. Debs – socialist – end of capitalism • Wilson – democrat - wins • Woodrow Wilson -> progressive reform -> New Freedom -> strong anti-trust legislation -> against political corruption

49. Donkey = Democrats • Bull Moose = Progressive Party • Republican Party = Elephant/G.O.P.

50. http://hti.osu.edu/opper/lesson-plans/the-election-of-1912