The Progressive Era: 1900 - 1920

1. The Progressive Era: 1900 - 1920 Unit 8: The Progressive Era RUSH Mrs. Baker

2. What does it mean to progress? Why do you think this idea of progress was introduced after the Gilded Age?

3. The Origins of Progressivism

4. What is the Progressive Movement? 1. Aimed to restore economic opportunities and correct injustices in American life. 2. Responses to the challenges brought about by Industrialization and Urbanization

5. Pressured for Progressive Reform • The Progressive Movement was a reaction to: • Powerful monopolies restricting competition and controlling prices. • Labor unrest and violence. • Unhealthy and unsafe living standards of the rich and the poor. • Urban poverty, crime, congestion, and poor sanitation. • Political corruption and lack of government responsiveness • Abuse of nation’s natural resources.

6. Goals of Progressivism • Protecting social welfare • Promoting moral improvement • Creating economic reform • Fostering efficiency

7. Protecting Social Welfare • Soften the effects of industrialization • Relieve urban problems • YMCA • Salvation Army • Settlement House Movement • Hull House – Jane Addams

8. Promoting Moral Reform • Improving personal behavior • Prohibition • Banning of alcoholic beverages • Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • Anti-Saloon League • Attack on immigrants behaviors

9. Creating Economic Reform • Decrease the power of big business • Federal government support the workers and not industry

10. Fostering Efficiency • New concepts to help make society more efficient • Time studies • Scientific management

11. Who Were the Progressives? • Young urban middle-class • Educated professionals • Doctors, lawyers, social workers, clergy & teachers

12. Who was behind the movement • Journalists and writers - exposed the unsafe conditions in factories • Muckrakers • Intellectuals - questioned the role of large corporations • Political reformers – wanted the government to be more responsive to the people

13. Muckrakers • Journalists, writers, artists & photographers • Investigated and exposed corruption and injustice through: • Mass-circulated magazine articles • Novels

14. Who were the Muckrakers?

15. Progressivism and Government Action

16. Reform of City Government • Why did city and local governments need change? • Two new types of government: • City commissioner plan: • The city is run by a group commissioners, rather than by a mayor and city council • City Manager plan: • The city council hires a professional city manager to run the various municipal departments

17. Reform State Government • Increasing citizen participation in government • Secret Ballot • Lessens the chance of intimidation • Prevent political bosses from knowing who people were voting for • Initiative, Referendum, & Recall • Initiative: system that allows voters to petition the legislature to consider a proposed law • Referendum: voters decide whether a given bill or constitutional amendment should be passed • Recall: method used to force elected officials from office. • 17th Amendment • Direct election of Senators • Direct primary allows voters, rather than party leaders, to select candidates who will run for office.

18. The Presidents of the Progressive Era

19. Theodore Roosevelt • Elected Vice President in 1900 under William McKinley. • Goal was to get Roosevelt out of NYS where he was working against corrupt political bosses. • In 1901, McKinley was assassinated and TR became president • First Modern President • Believed in a strong federal government • Provide a “Square Deal” towards industry and workers. • New Nationalism

20. Regulating Business • Hepburn Act (1906) • Strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) • Regulate shipping rates • Trust-busting • Defined “good trusts” vs. “bad trusts” • “Good trusts” = regulated • “Bad trusts” = shut down • Northern Securities Co. v. United States (1904)

23. Labor Conflicts • “Square Deal” • 1902 Coal Strike • TR chose to mediate the negotiations between workers and owners • Owners refused to negotiate • TR threatened to send in federal troops to take over the mine. • Result: lowered work hours and higher wages. How was this approach different then previous presidential involvement?

24. Consumer Protection • In response to The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: • Meat Inspection Act: • Required federal inspection of meat processing to ensure sanitary conditions • Pure Food and Drug Act: • Outlawed interstate transportation of impure or diluted foods and the deliberate mislabeling of foods and drugs

25. Conservation • Protecting the nation’s environment and its wilderness lands. • Forest Reserve Act (1891) • 150 million acres of public lands were placed under federal protection. • National forests • National parks • Wildlife refuges • National monuments • Newlands Reclamation Act (1902) • Set aside money from sale of public lands to build dams and irrigation systems • National Conservation Congress • Gifford Pinchot • John Muir

27. William Howard Taft • Busted 2x as many trusts as Roosevelt • In half the time. • Unpopular • Passed a tariff against promises • Could not control party • Supported Sec. of the Interior • Opposed land reserves. • Publicly criticized by TR

29. Election of 1912 • Republican Party split • Republican candidate = Taft • Bull Moose Party = TR • Democrats = Woodrow Wilson • Wilson wins with 41% popular vote & 435 electoral votes

32. Woodrow Wilson • New Freedom • Wilson attacked the “Triple Wall of Privilege” • Tariffs • Trusts • High Finance

33. Wilson’s New Freedom • Antitrust Legislation • Clayton Antitrust Act • Declared certain business practices illegal • Helped unions by making certain labor practices legal • Strikes, boycotts, peaceful picketing • Strengthen Sherman Anti-trust Act • Federal Trade Commission (FTC) • Watched the practices of business • “Watchdog agency”

34. Wilson’s New Freedom • Pushed through a reduction tariff • 16th Amendment • Graduated income tax • Federal Reserve System • Created a national banking system • Credit available • Protected banks from failure

35. Progressive reforms for citizens

36. Life For African Americans in Post Civil War America

37. Voting Restrictions • All Southern states imposed new voting restrictions and denied legal equality to African Americas. • Ways of restriction: • Literacy tests: voting limited to the people who could read. • Voting officials had to administer reading exams. • Questions for black voters were usually much harder then for white voters. • Poll tax: an annual tax that had to be paid before qualify to vote. • Blacks and white sharecroppers often to poor to pay the tax. • Grandfather clause: stated that even if you failed literacy test and could not afford the poll tax… • He was still eligible to vote if he, his father, or grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1, 1867.

38. Jim Crow Laws • Segregation becomes law! • Segregation: laws which separate white and black people in public and private facilities. • Laws become known as Jim Crow Laws. • Effected schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems.

39. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • What are the origins of the case? • What was the decision of the court? • How did they explain their decision? • Why is the case important? • What is the historical impact?

40. Rights of African Americans • Former slave • Founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama • All-black vocational school. • Work hard and become economically independent • Respect in white society • Harvard educated professor • Demanded equal rights • Criticized Washington • Founded the Niagara Movement • To work for equal rights • Founded NAACP • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Booker T. Washington W.E.B. DuBois

41. Women’s Suffrage • 19th Amendment (1920) • Equal rights of voting for women in all local, state and national elections.