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Progressive America. Unit 2: Notes #6 Mr. Welch 10/26/12. Reforming the Workplace. Progressives took up the cause of working women & children In 1893 Florence Kelley helped persuade Illinois to prohibit child labor and to limit the number of hours women were forced to work
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Progressive America Unit 2: Notes #6 Mr. Welch 10/26/12
Reforming the Workplace • Progressives took up the cause of working women & children • In 1893 Florence Kelley helped persuade Illinois to prohibit child labor and to limit the number of hours women were forced to work • Yet many employers continued hiring children, and states did not enforce child labor laws
Muller v. Oregon (1908) • Louis Brandeis along with Florence Kelley argued that working women needed the protection of the state against powerful employers • Brandeis was able to convince the court to uphold an Oregon law that limiting the workday for women to 10 hours • Other states responded by enacting similar laws • Progressive were also successful in winning workers’ compensation to aid the families of workers who were hurt or killed on the job
Dangerous Conditions • In 1911 a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City • The fire spread quickly throughout the oil-soaked machines and piles of cloth • Locked doors kept the workers trapped inside • The factory had no sprinkler system, and the fire escape collapsed immediately • 146 women died • The state of New York started an investigation to study factory working conditions
Reforming the Government • Progressives wanted to eliminate corruption and make the gov’t more efficient • They also wanted to reform elections to make them fairer and make politicians more accountable to voters • Progressives pushed for a direct primary • An election in which voters choose candidates to run in a general election • The 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave voters rather than the state legislature the power to directly elect senators
Election Reforms • A secret ballot was introduced • Progressives urged states to adopt three additional election reform measures: • Initiative allowed citizens to propose new laws • Referendum allowed citizens to vote on proposed or existing law • Recall allowed voters to remove an elected official from office
Reforming Big Business • In 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which made it illegal to form trusts that interfered with free trade • The gov’t prosecuted so few companies • Companies found loopholes which made this act ineffective • Two presidents are remembered for their efforts to regulate big business: Theodore Roosevelt & William Howard Taft
Women’s Suffrage • The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed in 1869 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony • Their goal: pass a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote • The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was also formed in 1869 • Their goal was to win the right to vote on a state-by-state basis • Anti-suffragists believed that voting would interfere with a woman’s duties at home or would destroy families
Women & Temperance • Some Progressive reform minded women believed that alcohol was often responsible for crime, poverty, and violence toward women & children • The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union led an organized movement against alcohol • The anti-alcohol message was spread in Protestant churches
