Progressive Era Notes

1. Progressive Era Notes Miss Springborn Team 6 Social Studies December 2012

2. Progressive era • As the Civil War ended, increased immigrants caused American cities to grow. As cities grew new problems arose. Reformers swung into action in areas such as city government, politics, public schools, and the workplace. African Americans, American Indians, immigrants, and women also called for reforms.

3. Fill in Notes on Left sideRight Side: Pictures of main ideas

4. The Gilded Age: • Many people refer to the time period at the end of the 1800’s to the early 1900’s as the Gilded Age. This nickname came from Mark Twain, a famous author, who said from a distance American societylooked golden but when you looked up close it was actually “gilded” (coated with cheap gold paint).

5. Corruption in Politics: • Powerful organization called political machines influenced city and county politics • They used both legal and illegalways to get candidates elected to office • They would bribe voters, election officials, get only one candidate listed on the ballot, paid for votes, and even hire the people who counted the votes to make sure it turned out the way they wanted • Political machines where run by powerful bosses • Bosses traded favors for votes

6. Corruption in Politics: • Most bosses got support from new immigrants who needed more help to get by • One of the most famous political bosses: William Marcy Tweed of New York City reportedly stole as much as $200 million from the City Treasury during his time in power • Even the federal government was corrupt: especially the administration of Ulysses S. Grant. Many of his officials were arrested in plots to avoid paying taxes and went to jail

7. How do we solve Political Corruption? • The nation passes Civil Service Reform • Civil Service is the term used to describe government jobs… for example: police, fireman, state troopers, IRS workers, and all other government jobs are considered to be Civil Service Jobs • This was supposed to help put the most qualified candidates in the job • You had to take a test about your test and show certain skills • People were then ranked(highest to lowest) based on their test scores and would get picked for job openings that way

8. How do we solve Political Corruption? • This was to prevent unqualified and corruptofficials from getting government jobs • The law passed in 1883 was called the Pendleton Civil Service Actand set up a merit system controlled by the Civil Service Commission. Today it covers almost 90% of all government jobs.

9. The Progressive Movement: • Reformers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were knows as Progressives • They worked to solve problemssuch as crime, disease, and poverty • Many areas were targeted for reform such as health and education, poor living conditions, unsafe working conditions, social unjust, government corruption, child labor, racial discrimination, corrupt monopolies, tenements and more! • Reformers received help from Muckrakers, journalists that helped “dig up dirt” on the problems in society

10. Some of the Solutions to these problems: • Solving Corruption in Politics: • Goal was to Expand Democracy: to help stop the political corruption we start to expand the right to vote and the power of the people • We create more of a direct primary systemwhere the people vote on who will be the candidates for political office

11. Solving Corruption in Politics: • The 17th Amendmentis passed in 1913 and allows for the first time Americans the right to vote directly for their Senators in Congress (remember there are 2 senators from every state) • Voters also were given the right to call for action on many political issues:

12. recall • Recall: Voters can now sign a petitionasking for a special vote on an elected official. This allows them to remove elected officials if they are not happy with them • Ex: The governor of Wisconsin recently had a recall vote on his term because many were unhappy with some of his more recent decisions, he won his recall vote and is still in power today

13. Initiative: • Initiative: this allows voters to propose a new law by getting signatures on a petition • Ex: Many states recently voted on issues in the last election under initiative vote, such as the legalization of medical marijuana and in California many citizens wanted change what information was on food labels to include anything genetically altered

14. Referendum: • Referendum: allows voters to sign a petition to vote on a lawalready in place • Ex: Puerto Rico ( a US Territory) recently voted in a referendum to change their relationship with the United States and instead of remaining just a territory to try and work towards becoming our 51st state

15. Reforming City and State Governments: • Create a new system of government that runs more like a business model • Had a city council that was elected by the people and they choose a manager to help run the city • Robert LaFollette developed the Wisconsin Idea and pushes for changes such as tax reform, direct primaries, and more power to the people to elect their officials

16. Fixing the problems in the city: • There were many causes of the problems in the urban (city) society • City problems were caused by things like urbanization, growth of the middle class, bad working conditions in factories, scandals about political corruption, rise of powerful corporations (monopolies), and increase in immigration • New jobs/profession emerge to help the cities: jobs like city planners and civil engineers • These new planners will pass zoning laws, building-safety codes, create public parks, create proper waste disposal system (sewers), create safe water system, and created street paving and proper bridge building projects

17. Education Reform: • Many states start to pass laws requiring children to attend school • Push towards opening of High Schoolsfor upper education • Courses in citizenship, health, and job training were developed • Kindergartens are opened for the first time specifically to help the children of the poor and working class learn basic skills

18. Education Reform: • John Dewey, an important reformingin education, created new models for teaching children that are still used today • Helped to create the American Medical Association (AMA) to help regulate the education of doctors and nursesand to spread the new scientific knowledge that was being learned about diseases and treatments

19. Reforming the Workplace: • Child Labor Reform • Because of extremely low wages in the workplace many families sent their childrento work to help the family get by • About 1.75 million children under age 15worked in mines, mills, and factories in 1900 • Reformers helped create the National Child Labor Committee to investigate child laborand eventually pass laws • Federal government will pass laws in 1916 and 1919 but had some trouble keeping those laws intact from court challenges

20. Safety in the Workplace: • Many pushed for higher wages and fewer working hours • Many states will pass minimumwage laws and maximum working hours • Tragic Accidents bring attention to workplace safety • In 1900 alone, 35,000 people were killed by industrial accidents. Another 500,000were injured on the job

21. Safety in the Workplace: • In 1911, the tragic and shocking fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Companyin New York City caused anger and outrage • A fire broke out when over 500 mostly immigrant women and children were preparing to leave for the day • The exit doors on the 10th floorof the building were locked and over 146 workersdied from the fire, some jumping to their deaths to escape the smoke and heat • Because of this shocking case and others like it, reformers called for more workplace safety and greater laws regulating working conditions

22. Safety in the Workplace: • TRUE STORY: MODERN DAY TRAGEDY!! Sadly, cases like this still happened in developing countries today around the world. On November 24th, 2012, 118 workers died at a garment factory in Bangladesh when a fire broke out and workers could not get through the narrow escape exits stairwells fast enough. These workers were also on a higher floor and many jumped to their death as well. Many poorer countries in this region have experience fires and other industrial accidents in recent years just like this. Many countries are years behind the United States in fixing this problem. Cases like this is why all building have fire codes in buildings, well lit and labeled emergency exits, why we practice fire drills, and have emergency systems such as 911 in place today.

23. Links on Modern day tragedy • http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2012/11/26/massive_fire_kills_at_least_112 • http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fire-kills-112-workers-making-clothes-us-brands/story?id=17807229 • http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/26/world/asia/bangladesh-fire-mourning/ • http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/24/15420144-fire-sweeps-clothing-factory-in-bangladesh-more-than-100-killed?lite

24. The Courts and the Workplace: • Many businesses sued in court over these new regulations saying it was not fair and that the government shouldn’t be interfering in their business • Some laws were gotten rid of by the courts: For example in New York State there was law limiting bakers to a 10 hour work day but the Supreme Court ruled that the state could notlimit businesses to only a 10 hour work day and workers could sign an agreementto work a longer day if they wanted • Other laws were kept by the courts: For example in the case of Muller vs. Oregon in 1908, the Court ruled that you could limit women’s working hoursfor health and safety reasons • Many of these issues were decided state by state

25. Rise of Labor Organizations: • Unions fought for better working conditions • Workers began to unite together to demand shorter working hours, higher wages, and safety on the job • In 1903, the Women’s Trade Union Leaguebecame the first all women’s union to demand better working conditions for females • One of the most powerful unions was the American Federation of Labor(AFL) whose leader Samuel Gompers argued for safer working conditions, higher pay, and right of the worker to organize

26. The Rights of Women and Minorities: • Women started to attend more colleges in the late 1800’s • Some argued that women could not handle the “mental strain” of too muchthinking • Even with higher education many jobs were still closedto women because of their gender

27. Temperance Movement: • Women played a vital role in this reform • This movement blamed alcohol for many of society’s problems • Leading reformer in this movement was a woman named Carry Nationwho literally stormed into saloons with ax’s chopping up the bar and smashing the liquor bottles • Reformers joined the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • This movement will lead to the passage of the 18th Amendmentto the Constitution in 1919. This amendment outlaws the production and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States • Total ban of alcohol

28. Women’s Suffrage Movement: • Many women wanted more rights including the right to vote • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony found the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890 to help get the right to vote for women • Carrie Chapman Catt fought for women’s suffrage in many western statesincluding Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah

29. Women’s Suffrage Movement: • Catt becomes president of NAWSA in 1900 and helps mobilize about 1 million volunteersto work for women’s right to vote • A rival group called the National Women’s Party (NWP) was founded by Alice Paulin 1913 and aimed to make the women’s suffrage movement more public with protests, parades, and public demonstrations including hunger strikes • Both groups efforts will pay off when the 19th amendment is passed in 1920 and granted all women in the United States the right to vote

30. African Americans fight for change: • After slavery ended there was still a lot of problems for African Americans including discrimination • Booker T. Washington tried to help improve conditions through education. He was a founder of the Tuskegee Institutein Alabama • Ida B. Wells was more outspoken and wrote many articles drawing attention to the violent killingsin the south of black men

31. African Americans fight for change: • W.E.B. Dubois took a more hands approach to fighting discrimination and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) • NAACP worked to end discrimination and bring down the oppressive Jim Crow Lawsand end segregationin the South

32. The Progressive Presidents:

33. Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy)-took office after William McKinley was shot and killed in 1901.

34. Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy)- • Believed in being an active president. • He pushed for the Square Deal, where everyone’s (businessmen, workers, and consumers) rights should be balanced for the public good. • Got involved in several progressive issues including cleaning up the meat-packing industry thanks to Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle. Because of this he pushes the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This regulates the manufacture, sale, and transportation of all food and drugs distributed in the United States.

35. Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy)- • Also passed was the Meat Inspection actspecifically addressing Sinclair’s book. • Roosevelt also gets Congress to regulate railroad shipping costs, this helping the small farmers. • He also becomes a big supporter of the conservation movement that worked to protect our natural resources and sets up many sites as protect federal lands. This today is known as our National Parks System, for example the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Niagara Falls, Badlands in South Dakota, Florida Everglades, etc… In total 150 million acres of public land set aside and protected

36. William Howard Taft-Taft was a bit more cautious than Roosevelt and moved a little slower.

37. William Howard Taft- • He continued Roosevelt’s path and sued many big businesses for unfair treatment of workers and for being monopolies. • Taft also continued to add more landsto the National Parks System for protection. • Taft will losehis re-election bid to Woodrow Wilson and the Bull Moose Party in 1912 in a very dirty three way race between Taft, Wilson, and T. Roosevelt.

38. Woodrow Wilson- Wilson promised to improve the horrible social conditions many American’s were living in.

39. Woodrow Wilson- • He lowered tariffs with the Underwood Tariff Actof 1913. • He also reformed the tax code by pushing for the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913that allowed the federal government to tax our personal income. This provided a new source of income for the federal government. • He also worked to get the Federal Reserve Actpassed to reform the banking industry. Created a National banking system and a federal reserve. • Wilson also pushed to reform businesses; He helped get the Clayton Antitrust Actpassed in 1914 and strengthened federal laws against monopolies. • He also created the Federal Trade Commissionthat had the power to stop unfair trade practices.