The Progressive Era

1. The Progressive Era Progressivism

2. Muckrakers • Term coined by TR was a negative one • Ida Tarbell, wrote about the Standard Oil Company • Described the firm’s cutthroat methods of eliminating competition • Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle” • Detailed the lives of stockyard workers and the meat packing industry.

3. Muckrakers cont. • Jacob Riis, “How the Other Half Lives” • Book of photographs about the poor living conditions in the cities and slums. • Lincoln Steffens, “The Shame of Cities” • Link between big business and crooked politicians • Vote stealing and other corrupt practices of urban political machines

4. Religious Groups • Preaching the “Social Gospel” • Churches work to improve conditions for workers and poor • Religious organizations like the YMCA, YWCA, concentrated efforts on helping newcomers adjust to life in the big cities. • Provided food and clothing and set up settlement houses.

5. Radical Groups • Socialist Party, organized by labor leaders including Eugene V. Debs in 1901 • Advocated govt. takeover of big business • Some, Communists, advocated govt. takeover of all businesses.

6. Progressive Political Reformers • Robert La Follette: Wisconsin governor & senator: instituted the Direct Primary • Initiative: The idea that a citizen could introduce legislation • Recall: The ability of citizens to recall an elected official • Referendum: Legislation submitted to voters for approval. • Led to direct election of Senators in 17th Amendment

7. Changes in City Government • Commission form of government – experts appointed to head commission’s • Council/Manager form of government – elected council that sets laws. Appointed manager to run city departments. • Secret ballot: Political machines did not know how people voted so they could not reward or threaten them

8. The Suffrage Movement • The movement for women’s voting rights • Suffrage is the right to vote • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s right convention in 1848 • Many progressives joined the suffrage movement in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s • The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments protected the voting rights of African Americans.

9. The Suffrage Movement • The woman suffrage movement had wanted these amendments to apply to women as well • In 1918 the House of Representatives passed a woman suffrage amendment, but the amendment failed by 2 votes • On August 26, 1920 the states ratified the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

10. Social Welfare Progressivism • Social welfare progressives created charities to help the poor and disadvantaged • pushed for laws to fix social problems • Temperance movement called for the moderation or elimination of alcohol • It pushed for prohibition – laws banning the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol

11. Progressives Versus Big Business • Some progressives wanted to break up big companies to restore competition • Some wanted the government to regulate big companies • Socialism – the idea that the government should own and operate industry for the community as a whole • Eugene Debs – led the American Socialist Party • Most progressives and most Americans believed in the American system of free enterprise

12. Roosevelt • Roosevelt’s reform program was known as the Square Deal • Bureau of Corporations – had the authority to investigate corporations • Meat Inspection Act – required federal inspection of meat sold and set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants. • Pure Food and Drug Act – prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure or falsely labeled food and drugs

13. Roosevelt • Conservation – Newlands Reclamation Act, authorized the use of federal funds to pay for irrigation and land development projects • Roosevelt’s actions during his presidency caused Americans to increasingly look to the federal government to solve the nation’s economic and social problems. • The executive branch increased in power

14. Election of 1912 • Taft was the Republican nominee • Wilson was the Democratic nominee • Theodore Roosevelt was the Progressive nominee • Eugene Debs was the Socialist nominee • Woodrow Wilson won with Roosevelt coming in second

15. Election of 1912 • Roosevelt’s New Nationalism – reforms that favored legislation to protect women and children in the workforce and compensation for those injured on the job. • He wanted a federal trade commission to regulate industry • Wilson’s plan, the New Freedom – supported free enterprise

16. Wilson as President • Wilson issued reforms that affected tariffs, the banking system, the trusts, and workers’ rights • Underwood Tariff – provision for levying an income tax, or direct tax on the earnings of individuals and corporations. • Wilson supported Federal Reserve system where the banks would have to keep some of their deposits in a reserve to protect customers’ money

17. Wilson as President • What made the Federal Reserve Act so significant? • The system could fight inflation by raising interest rates and stimulate the economy during a recession by lowering interest rates • In 1916 Wilson signed the Keating-Owens Child Labor Act, which prohibited children under the age of 14 from working in factories.