PROGRESSIVE ERA 1890s-1920

1. PROGRESSIVEERA1890s-1920 A21w 9.2.13

2. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS • Who were the Progressives? • What reforms did they seek? • How successful were Progressive Era reforms in the period 1890-1920? Consider: political change, social change (industrial conditions, urban life, women, prohibition)

3. ORIGINS OF PROGRESSIVE REFORM

4. Progressivism WHO?“Progressives” • urban middle-class:managers & professionals; women WHY?Address the problems arising from: • industrialization (big business, labor strife) • urbanization (slums, political machines, corruption) • immigration (ethnic diversity) • inequality & social injustice (women & racism) WHEN? “Progressive Reform Era” 1890s 1901 1917 1920s

5. Progressivism WHAT are their goals? • Democracy – government accountable to the people • Regulation of corporations & monopolies • Social justice – workers, poor, minorities • Environmental protection • Moral development HOW? • Government (laws, regulations, programs) • Efficiency • value experts, use of scientific study to determine the best solution • Pragmatism – William James, John Dewey ( Darwinism) • (Cf. scientific management/Taylor) HOW MUCH?????

6. Fostering Efficiency Many Progressive leaders put their faith in scientific principles to make society better. In industry, Frederick Taylor began using time and motion studies to improve factory efficiency. Taylorism became an industry fad as factories sought to complete each task quickly.

7. “Muckrakers” Jacob Riis – How the Other Half Lives (1890) Ida Tarbell – “TheHistory of the Standard Oil Co.” (1902) Lincoln Steffens – The Shame of the Cities (1904) Origins of Progressivism Ida Tarbell Lincoln Steffens

8. MUNICIPAL & STATE REFORMS

9. MUNICIPAL REFORM • municipal reform • utilities - water, gas, electricity, trolleys • council-manager plan (Dayton, 1913) Shoe line - Bowery men with gifts from ward boss Tim Sullivan, February, 1910

10. MUNICIPAL REFORM council-manager plan (Dayton, 1913) strong mayor system MAYOR COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER CITY SERVICES COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER COUNCIL MEMBER CITY MANAGER CITY SERVICES

11. STATE POLITICAL REFORM • secret ballots • direct primary • Robert M. LaFollette (regulation of big business and the Wisconsin Idea – a partnership between government and experts at University of Wisconsin) • Initiative • Referendum • Recall • Seventeenth Amendment (1913) Robert M. LaFollette, Wisconsin Governor 1900-06

12. Direct Election Of Senators • Before 1913, each state’s legislature had chosen U.S. senators. To force senators to be more responsive to the public, Progressives pushed for the popular election of senators. • As a result, Congress passed the 17th Amendment in 1913.

13. STATE SOCIAL REFORMS • professional social workers • settlement houses- education, culture, day care • child labor laws • Enable education & advancement for working class children

14. STATE SOCIAL REFORMS • workplace & labor reforms • eight-hour work day • improved safety & health conditions in factories • workers compensation laws • minimum wage laws • unionization • child labor laws Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 1913

15. State Social Reform: Child Labor “Breaker Boys” Pennsylvania, 1911 Child Laborers in Indiana Glass Works, Midnight, Indiana. 1908 Shrimp pickers in Peerless Oyster Co. Bay St. Louis, Miss., March 3, 1911 Child Laborer, Newberry, S.C. 1908

16. Settlement Houses • Settlement Houses • Hull-House – Jane Addams Jane Addams (1905) Hull-House Complex in 1906

17. Promote Moral Development • Some reformers felt that the answer to society’s problems was personal behavior. They proposed such reforms as prohibition.

18. TEMPERANCE Groups wishing to ban alcohol: • Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • Anti-Saloon League Frances Willard (1838-98), leader of the WCTU Anti-Saloon League Campaign, Dayton

19. TEMPERANCE & PROHIBITION • Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition on the Eve of the 18th Amendment, 1919

20. SOCIALISM ALTERNATIVES

21. Economic Reform • The Panic of 1893 prompted some Americans to question the capitalist economic system. • As a result, some workers embraced socialism. Eugene Debs organized the American Socialist Party in 1901. Debs encouraged workers to reject American capitalism

22. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”) SOCIALISM Socialists parade, May Day, 1910 Eugene V. Debs

23. NATIONAL REFORM Roosevelt, Taft & Wilson as Progressive presidents

24. ESSENTIAL QUESTION How effective were Progressive Era reformers and the federal government in bringing about reform at the national level in the period 1900-1920?

25. Assassination of President McKinley,Sept6, 1901

26. Theodore Roosevelt:the “accidental President”Republican (1901-1909) (The New-York Historical Society)

27. Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” • Formed upon 3 basic ideas: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. It aimed to help middle class citizens, and involved attacking plutocracy and bad trusts while protecting business from the most extreme demands of organized labor. Anthracite miners at Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1900

28. Trust-Busting • By 1900, trusts– legal bodies created to hold stock in many companies – controlled 80% of U.S. industries. • Roosevelt filed 44 antitrust suits under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

29. Roosevelt the “trust-buster” • Northern Securities Company (1904) • Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act (1906) “ONE SEES HIS FINISH UNLESS GOOD GOVERNMENT RETAKES THE SHIP”

30. Clayton Anti-Trust Act • In 1914 Congress enacted the Clayton Anti-Trust Act that strengthened the Sherman Act. • It had an anti-trust provision that prevented companies from acquiring stock from another company and supported workers’ unions.

31. Consumer Protection • Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle • Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) • Meat Inspection Act (1906) Chicago Meatpacking Workers, 1905 "A nauseating job, but it must be done"

32. Pure Food and Drug Act • In response to unsubstantiated claims and unwholesome products, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. The Act halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling.

33. Roosevelt & Conservation • Used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 • U.S. Forest Service (1906) • Gifford Pinchot • White House conference on conservation (1908) • John Muir Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, 1907 Theodore Roosevelt & John Muir at Yosemite1906

34. CONSERVATION:National Parks and Forests

35. William Howard TaftPresident 1909-13Republican Postcard with Taft cartoon

36. trust-busting forest and oil reserves Sixteenth Amendment BUT: Caused split in Republican Party Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) Pinchot-BallingerControversy Taft’s Progressive Accomplishments (Taft has) “…completely twisted around the policies I advocated and acted upon.” -Theodore Roosevelt

37. Election of 1912 • Woodrow Wilson • Progressive Party (“Bull Moose party”) • “New Nationalism” • significance Woodrow Wilson Theodore Roosevelt cartoon, March 1912

38. 1912 Presidential Election

39. Wilson • Woodrow Wilson • “New Freedom” • Underwood Simmons Tariff (1913) • Sixteenth Amendment (1913) • Federal Reserve Act (1913) • Federal Trade Commission Act (1914) • Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914) • Keating-Owen Act (1916) Wilson at the peak of his power

40. Federal Reserve System • Federal Reserve Act

41. WOMEN & SUFFRAGE

42. ESSENTIALQUESTION To what extent did economic and political developments as well as the assumptions about the nature of women affect the position of American women during the period 1890-1925?

43. Women Lead Reform • Many of the leading Progressive reformers were women. Middle and upper class women entered the public sphere after graduating from the new women’s colleges. Colleges like Vassar and Smith allowed women to excel

44. WOMEN • “women’s professions” • “new woman” • clubwomen A local club for nurses was formed in New York City in 1894. Here the club members are pictured in their clubhouse reception area. (Photo courtesy of the Women's History and Resource Center, General Federation of Women's Clubs.) The Women's Club of Madison, Wisconsin conducted classes in food,nutrition, and sewing for recent immigrants. (Photo courtesy of the Women's History and Resource Center, General Federation of Women's Clubs.)

45. Three-Part Strategy for Winning Suffrage • Suffragettes tried three approaches to winning the vote: • Convincing state legislatures to adopt the vote. • Pursuing court cases to test 14th Amendment. • Pushing for national Constitutional amendment.

46. Women’s Suffrage • National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) • Carrie Chapman Catt Ohio Woman Suffrage Headquarters, Cleveland, 1912

47. Woman suffrage before 1920

48. Women’s Suffrage • Alice Paul • National Woman’s Party • Nineteenth Amendment • Equal Rights Amendment Suffragette Banner 1918 19th Amendment National Woman’s Party members picketing in front of the White House, 1917 (All: Library of Congress)

49. RACE RELATIONS

50. Limits of Progressivism • While the Progressive era was responsible for many important reforms, it failed to make gains for African Americans. Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson retreated on Civil Rights when he entered office. The KKK reached a membership of 4.5 million in the 1920s