Progressivism

1. Progressivism • Progressivism was a collection of ideas and activities on how to fix the problems people believed existed in America. • Progressives generally believed that industrialism and urbanization had created many social problems. • Help should come from the government • Progressivism was partly a reaction against laissez-faire economics and its emphasis on an unregulated market. • Poverty • Filth • Crime • The previous problems could be fixed because they had a strong belief in science and technology.

2. The Muckrakers • They were the first people to articulate about the Progressive ideas. • These people were crusading journalists who investigated social conditions and political corruption. • They became known as muckrakers. • Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Jacob Riis, and Upton Sinclair were the best known muckrakers.

3. Improving the Government • One group of the progressive movement focused on making government more efficient. • They believed that many of societies problems would be solved if government worked properly. • Progressives wanted to apply the principles of scientific management. This method included the following: • Managing time • Breaking tasks down into small parts • Using standardized tools • Efficiency progressives said that experts should be used in managing cities, not politicians. • These progressives wanted either a commission plan or a council-manager system.

4. Democracy and Progressivism • Not all progressives agreed with the efficiency progressives and they wanted those elected officials to be more responsive to voters. • Political reform first came to the state level when Wisconsin voters elected Republican Robert La Follete to be governor. • La Follete pressured the state legislature to require each party to hold a direct primary, in which all party members could vote for a candidate to run in the general election.

5. Democracy and Progressivism • The initiative allowed a group of citizens to introduce legislation and required the legislation to vote on it. • The referendum allowed proposed legislation to be submitted to the voters for approval. • The recall allowed voters to demand a special election to remove an elected official from office before his or her term had expired.

6. The Suffrage Movement • In July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. • Stanton argued that getting women the right to vote should be their first priority. • Suffrage is the right to vote. • In 1890 the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed. • The 19th Amendment was passed in Congress and on August 26, 1920, after three-fourths of the states had voted to ratify it, the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote went into effect.

7. Social Welfare Progressivism • Progressives not only focused on reforming the political system, others focused on social problems, such as crime, illiteracy, alcohol abuse, child labor, and the health and safety of Americans. • Campaign against child labor • This was the most emotional • Children had always worked on family farms • Factory work for children was monotonous and the conditions were unhealthy • In 1900 over 1.7 million children worked in factories • Muckraker John Spargo’s book The Bitter Cry of Children presented detailed evidence on child labor conditions.

9. Health and Safety Codes • Many adult workers labored in dangerous conditions as well. • Factories, coal mines, and railroads were particularly dangerous. • In 1911 a fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. • Nearly 150 women workers died • They were trapped by doors locked from the outside • During the 1900s thousands of people died or were injured on the job, but they and their families received little or no compensation.

10. Prohibition • Many progressives believed alcohol was responsible for many problems in American life. • Employers believed drinking hurt workers’ efficiency. • The temperance movement, which advocated the moderation or elimination of alcohol, emerged from these concerns.