Progressive Reform

Progressive Reform From populists to progressives

What is the Progressive Era • The Progressive Era is the time period from about 1890 until 1920 in which Americans sought change in their lives through government intervention

The Progressive Era • Progressives were reformers who attempted to solve problems caused by industry, growth of cities and laissez faire • White Protestants • Middle class and native born • College Educated Professionals • Social workers • Scholars • Politicians • Preachers • Teachers • Writers

Farmers organize during the 1870’s • The first forms of progressive groups occur around the 1870’s • At the local or city level the Grange was formed • At the state level the Farmers Alliance was formed • Finally, at the national level the Populist Party and Peoples Party are formed

Populists Ideas • Move away from laissez faire so government can regulate industry • Make US government responsive to the people’s desire by changing the who, what, when, and how of voting • Limit power of the political bosses • Improve worker’s rights and conditions for poor or immigrants • Clean up the cities • End segregation and Jim Crow

Difference between Populists and Progressives • The Populists worked in rural areas • The Progressives worked in the cities • The Populists were poor and uneducated • The Progressives were middle-class and educated • The Populists were too radical • The Progressives stayed politically mainstream • The Populists failed • The Progressives succeeded

Social Gospel Movement • Another early movement that the progressives took ideas from is the Social Gospel Movement • Based upon Protestant Christian Ideas • Applied Christian ethics to social problems especially social justice • Economic inequality • Poverty • Alcoholism • Crime • Racial tensions • Slums • Bad hygiene • Child labor • Inadequate labor unions • Poor schools • The danger of war

Social Gospel Movement • Many reformers inspired by the movement opened settlement houses, most notably Hull House in Chicago operated by Jane Addams

Hull House • The Settlement House Founded by Jane Addams was ran by college educated women • It provide educational, cultural, and social services • They would send visiting nurses to the sick • They would help with personal, job, and financial problems

Settlement Houses • Helped the poor and immigrants improve their lives • Settlement houses offered services such as daycare, education, and health care to needy people in slum neighborhoods • The YMCA was created originally to help rural youth adjust to the city without losing their religion, but by the 1890s became a powerful instrument of the Social Gospel

Settlement Houses • In 1889, the settlement house movement spread rapidly • By 1900 more than 400 houses had been established in major cities across the country

Planned Parenthood as a root of Progressivism • In the early 1900’s Margaret Sanger began educating the urban poor about the benefits of family planning through birth control • She founded the organization that became Planned Parenthood • Sanger felt that in order for women to have a more equal footing in society and to lead healthier lives, they needed to be able to determine when to bear children • She also wanted to prevent unsafe abortions, so-called back-alley abortions, which were common at the time because abortions were usually illegal

Additional Roots if Progressivism • The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) • The IWW promoted the concept that all workers should be united as a social class and that capitalism and wage labor should be abolished (Socialisim) • Charity Organization Movement- Help the needy • Nativism- restricting immigration • Temperance Movement- Organized campaign to eliminate alcohol consumption • Prohibition Party, Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and Anti-Saloon League • Alcohol was leading to the corruption of society • Prohibition was a ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages

Progressive Goals • Essentially the progressives had 4 main goals for the government: • Government should be more accountable for it’s citizens • Government should curb the power and influence of wealthy interests (regulate wealth) • Government should be given expanded powers so that it could become more active in improving the lives of its citizens • Government should become more efficient and less corrupt so that they could competently handle an expanded role

The Progressive Era • The majority of Americans were unaware of the corruption occurring in their daily lives • Some people set out to alert the publics attention to these issues in an effort to bring about change • We generally refer to these people as…

Muckrakers and Movers • Muckrakers were journalists and photographers who exposed the abuses of wealth and power • They felt it was their job to write and expose corruption in industry, cities and government • Progressives exposed corruption but offered no solutions • They believed that if the public could only see or read for itself that there would be an outcry and people would want to help make conditions better or they would be a demand for the government to make reforms • Famous Muckrakers include…

Muckrakers and Movers • Florence Kelley who was a Member of Jane Adam’s Hull House in Chicago • Leader of the National Consumers League • Worked to eliminate child labor, limit women’s working hours, and eliminate sweatshops • Mother Jones who helped form unions for coal miners • Helped fund the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)

Muckrakers and Movers • Henry George who wrote “Progress and Poverty” about land speculation and the forms of taxing land • Edward Bellamy who wrote “Looking Backward” about socialism and government takeover of private enterprise

Muckrakers and Movers • Thomas Nast who drew Political Cartoons depicting Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall ring • John Spargo who wrote “The Bitter Cry of Children” discussing child labor in factories and education • Jacob Riis who photographed immigrants lives in New York city and worte “How the Other Half Lives” focusing on the plight of immigrants and the urban poor

Muckrakers and Movers • Lincoln Steffens who wrote “The shame of the Cities” about political corruption • Ida Tarbell who wrote “The History of the Standard Oil Company” about the Standard Oil trust and their ruthless practices to drive away competition • But the most fmous Muckraker would be…

Upton Sinclair • Upton Sinclairs, The Jungle, exposed the filthy, unsanitary working conditions and corruption in a meatpacking company in Chicago

Upton Sinclair • After reading “The Jungle”, President Teddy Roosevelt brought about reform in proposing and signing into law the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 • All meat sold must inspected • Must be marked by Federal inspectors and graded. • Meat industry cleaned up. • Fish is regulated

Upton Sinclair • Additionally, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed • Federal inspection to all packaged foods and drugs • Labels with medicine as well as food. • Contents of food and drug packages must be listed • All additives/chemicals must be listed on labels. • FDA today or Food and Drug Administration • Now lets take a look at some excerpts for “The Jungle”

Progressive Reform