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Who Drove the Movement? • Progressive reformers sought change in all policies and at all levels of society, the economy and government. Initially the movement was successful at the local level, and then it progressed to the state and gradually nationwide. The reformers (and their opponents) were predominantly members of the middle class. Most were well educated white Protestants who lived in the cities.
Goals of Progressivism 1.) Protecting social welfare 2.) Promoting moral improvement 3.) Creating economic reform 4.) Fostering efficiency 5.) Ending corruption and reforming government
Protecting Social Welfare • Social welfare reformers worked to soften the harsh conditions of industrialization • Settlement House Movement • Community centers that provided educational, cultural and social services to the urban poor. • Jane Addams founded the Hull House in Chicago • Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) • Opened libraries, built swimming pools, sponsored classes • Salvation Army • Fed poor people in soup kitchens, cared for children in nurseries, educated the urban poor about the values of hard work and temperance.
JANE ADDAMS AND ELLEN GATES STARR WERE THE CO-FOUNDERS OF HULL- HOUSE WHICH WAS THE CUTTING EDGE OF REFORM FOR THE NATIONS IMMIGRANTS AND POOR. ELLEN GATES STARR JANE ADDAMS
HULL-HOUSE: CHICAGO Hull-House sought to assimilate individual newcomers into the American way of life.
Promoting Moral Improvement • Focused on helping the poor improve their lives through morality. • Prohibition: the banning of alcoholic beverages • The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed in 1874 and fought to stop the sale of alcohol. • By 1911 the WCTU became the largest women’s group in the nation’s history with 245,000 members) • WCTU members took on the “do everything” slogan and opened kindergartens for immigrant children, visited prisons and asylums, and promoted suffrage.
Creating Economic Reform • Economic crisis of 1893 prompted some Americans to question the capitalist economic system. • Many Americans, especially workers, turned to socialism (an economic system in which goods and services are shared equally among the people) because they disagreed with the uneven balance among big business, government and ordinary people. • Journalists, known as muckrakers wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life and worked to expose the ills of big business.
The work of popular “muckrakers” was often published in McClure’s magazine.
COVER OF THE NOVEL UPTON SINCLAIR 1914 POSTER FOR A MOVIE ON THE JUNGLE
EXCERPT FROM THE JUNGLE “…old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together… the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one – there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.”
Fostering Efficiency • Many worked to make society and the workplace more efficient: • Frederick Winslow Taylor developed ways to improve efficiency by breaking manufacturing tasks into simpler parts: • This was known as “Taylorism” • Assembly lines were used to speed up production.
Reforming Local Government • Reformers wanted to make gov. more efficient and more responsive to its constituents (voters). • Cities created commissions or departments to deal specifically with one issue and hired an expert in that area to manage it. • Local mayors instituted progressive reforms by lowering fares for public transportation and providing relief for the unemployed.
Reform at the State Level • Reformers worked to end child labor and limit working hours: • In 1904 the National Child Labor Committee sent investigators to gather evidence of children working in factories. • The NCLC and many labor unions finally pressured politicians to pass the Keating-Owen Act of 1916 - that prohibited the transportation across state lines of goods produced with child labor. (This act was declared unconstitutional because of its interference with states’ rights to regulate labor but it led to the successful passage of legislation that banned child labor altogether.)
LEWIS HINE In 1907, the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) gave Lewis Hine his first assigned project. Hine was to photograph New York tenement homes. In 1908, the NCLC provided Hine with a monthly salary and assigned him to photograph child labor practices. For the next several years, Hine traveled extensively, photographing children in mines, factories, canneries, textile mills, street trades and assorted agricultural industries. Hine’s photographs alerted the public to the fact that child labor deprived children of childhood, health, education and a chance of a future. His work on this project was the driving force behind changing the public’s attitude and was instrumental in the fight for stricter child labor laws. By the early 1900’s, 28 states had laws regulating child labor.
Reform at the State Level • Reformers fought to limit working hours: • Muller vs. Oregon in 1908 • Oregon Supreme Court case that limited women to a ten-hour work day (other states soon followed) • Reformers argued that women required state’s protection against powerful employers. • Bunting vs. Oregon in 1917 • Established a ten-hour work day for men • Progressives also succeeded in winning worker’s compensation in 1902.
Reform at the State Level – cont. • Reforming Elections: • Some states changed the ballot by adding; • Initiative = a bill originated by the people rather than lawmakers • Referendum = voters right to vote on the initiative • Recall = enables voters to remove public officials from elected office by forcing them to face another election before the end of their term. • Some states adopted the primary system in which voters, not political machines, choose candidates for public office through a popular vote. • 1913 – the 17th Amendment was passed calling for the popular election of senators.
Expanding Education • Most American children received no formal schooling before the Civil War. • The majority went to school for four years and few went to high school. • Between 1865 and 1895, states passed laws requiring 12 – 16 weeks annually of school attendance by students between the age of 8 and 14. • Early schools were criticized for their uneven quality of teachers and strict rules and punishments for students.
“They hit ye if yer don’t learn, and they hits ye if ye whisper, and they hits ye if ye have string in yer pocket, and they hits ye if yer seat squeaks, and they hits ye if ye don’t stan’ up in time, and they hits ye if yer late, and they hits ye if ye forget the page.” - anonymous schoolboy quoted in The One Best System
Expanding Education • Children began attending school at a younger age. • # of kindergartens increased from 200 in 1880 to 3,000 in 1900. • Soon kindergartens were added to public school systems.
Expanding Education • Opportunities for education differed for whites and blacks. • 1880 – 62% of white children and only 34% of African American students attended elementary school. There was an overall pattern of growth in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges and universities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Women in the Progressive Era • Dangerous conditions, low wages, and long hours led female industrial workers to push for reform. • Women’s clubs where women typically discussed art and literature grew into reform groups. • The women’s progressive movement gained in momentum after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911- the doors to the factory were locked from the outside and when the fire broke out the women could not escape. Many jumped to their death trying to escape the fire.
Women in the Progressive Era – cont. • Many female activists attended new women’s colleges like Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. • Women were still expected to fulfill their traditional female roles. • Many of these educated women applied their knowledge to needed social reforms.
Women in the Progressive Era – cont. • Women and Reform: • Because women were not allowed to run for office or even vote, women reformers worked to improve conditions at work and at home. • This “social housekeeping” targeted housing reform, educational improvement, and food and drug laws.
Women in the Progressive Era – cont. • Women and Suffrage: • 1869 – Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) • 1890 – the NWSA merged with another group to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). • 3 Part Strategy for suffrage: • Convince state legislatures to support suffrage • Use the 14th Amendment to justify women’s suffrage • Push for a constitutional amendment to grant women the vote.
REFORM AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL
THEODORE ROOSEVELT REPUBLICAN Twenty-Sixth President1901-1909 PROGRESSIVISM ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL: THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT REPUBLICAN Twenty-Seventh President1909-1913 WOODROW WILSON DEMOCRAT Twenty-Eighth President1913-1921
Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement • Theodore Roosevelt took over the presidency in 1901 after President McKinley was assassinated. • Roosevelt was a bold leader and believed that the government should assume control whenever states proved incapable of dealing with problems.
Teddy once said, “It is the duty of the president to act upon the theory that he is the steward of the people, and … to assume that he has the legal right to do whatever the needs of the people demand, unless the Constitution or the laws explicitly forbid him to do it.”
Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement • Roosevelt believed that if big business victimized workers then he would see to it that the common people received a “Square Deal” – this term came to represent the many progressive reforms instituted by TR.
TR’S PROGRESSIVE AGENDA THE “SQUARE DEAL” "When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean . . . to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing." "Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense.... We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less. The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us." --New York State Fair, Syracuse September 7, 1903
Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement • Roosevelt was known as a “trustbuster” for his dedication to regulating trusts- legal bodies created to hold stock in many companies • In 1902 Roosevelt gained created a new cabinet department, The Department of Commerce and Labor. • Gathered information about companies to determine if they were acting in the best interest of the public. They could inspect the books of companies engaged in interstate commerce.
WHAT DID TR DO TO BREAK UP THE TRUSTS? TR DID NOT EQUATE “BIGNESS” WITH “BADNESS”. HE BELIEVED THERE WERE “BAD TRUSTS” WHICH NEEDED TO BE BROKEN UP. HOWEVER, THERE WERE “GOOD TRUSTS” WHICH ACTUALLY BENEFITED THE CONSUMER AND SHOULD BE LEFT ALONE.
Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement • Background: Antitrust legislation • Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries. • Roosevelt succeeded in winning many suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
