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The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era. What is a Progressive?. Someone who works to reform or change parts of society. Problems of the Progressive Era : political corruption, poor working and living conditions. ***Government intervention and programs were needed!!! Late 1800s-1920.

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The Progressive Era

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  1. The Progressive Era

  2. What is a Progressive? • Someone who works to reform or change parts of society. • Problems of the Progressive Era: political corruption, poor working and living conditions. ***Government intervention and programs were needed!!! Late 1800s-1920

  3. By the late 1800s • Laissez-faire-> Government had little concern for workers and no involvement/regulations. • This led to the rise of big business. • Many industrial workers made less than $500 per year. • At the same time-Rich were very rich -Who can we think of?

  4. City Problems • Overcrowding in Tenements • Crime • Dirt/Disease from garbage

  5. Tenements • A place where people of the same ethnicity, race, or religion live. • Families living in close proximity to one another.

  6. Tenement Homes

  7. Workplace Problems • Low Wages • Poor Work Conditions • Child Labor • Long Hours • Unsafe Example: • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

  8. Food and Drug Administration • FDA • Created in 1906, after The Jungle, Upton Sinclair. • What it does: • Allows the government to regulate/inspect food and medicines: • Vaccines • Food Safety • Labels • Medicine • Tobacco

  9. Legal Impacts • Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890: restricts business practices that lead to monopolies; 1st federal law to limit monopolies • Pure Food & Drug Act 1906: 1st federal law regulating food & drugs; dangerous ingredients had to be listed on the label

  10. Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) • Regulates workers such as… • Minimum Wage: History of Minimum Wage • Currently $7.25 an hour • Maximum weekly hours with time and a half for OT • 8 hour days 40 hour weeks • Prohibits Child Labor • Children under 12 cannot be hired • 12-16 can only work very limited hours • 16-18 can work unlimited but in non-hazardous jobs

  11. Minimum Wage Started at $.25 in 1938 2013: $7.25

  12. Child Labor Reform • Started at the state level • Massachusetts first state to create child labor law. • States began to limit work day hours (10) and minimum age laws. • 1904- National Child Labor Committee forms- national campaign for federal child labor laws.

  13. Labor Unions Grow What do unions do?

  14. PROTECTWorkers!!! • Worked 12 to 16 hr days • 6 days a week • Cheap pay • Unhealthy conditions • Dark • Dirty • No compensation for workplace injuries • No sick leave • No paid vacation

  15. Knights of Labor • Accepted unskilled workers, women, African Americans. • Reach a high of 800,00 members in 1886.

  16. American Federation of Labor • Started in 1886- primarily for skilled workers and mostly white men. • Wanted Increased Pay & Decrease in Hours • End Child Labor • Merged with CIO in 1955 to form the most powerful union in the USA.

  17. International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) • Organized 2 major strikes in NYC: • 1910: The Uprising of the 20,000 • 1911: The Great Revolt (involved 60,000 workers)

  18. Standard Oil v. New Jersey (1911) • By 1904, Standard Oil controlled 94% of all oil production in the USA • Ida Tarbell’s work brought attention to their dominance/monopoly • The Supreme Court used the Sherman Anti-trust Act to break up the company into 34 independent companies (largest 2 became Exxon & Mobil) John D. Rockefeller

  19. Effects of Progressivism… • Although progressives reformed and expanded democracy (living and working conditions) they did not address civil rights for African Americans. • Progressivism officially ended in 1920 with the national right for women to vote.

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